Chapter 4
A Culmination of Dreams

Author's Notes: So the story comes full circle back to You Can Always Stay At My Place. This is technically the end of the 'Tying Up Loose Ends' storyline. Anything further in this series is simply my speculation on where the next game could be going (though with more adult-y material than Sony and Marvel would ever allow) (2021! I need to write!) I have a destination in mind. But I'm not sure if everyone will want to join me on this ride. Yes, I posted and deleted the chapter. Something happened with the formatting and I want to make this as close to perfect as I can.

Peter claimed their usual table at Stan's. He settled his bag in the booth next to him and dug out his laptop to mess around while he waited for Mary Jane. He'd thought he saw a few replies from a few places he'd put an application before he'd gotten off the subway. Then he'd been distracted by Mary Jane's excitement and hadn't been able to dig into the emails, which did wonders for his nerves. Mary Jane's excitement helped with that as well, with the anticipation she'd shared before Robbie had called her into his office, and then she'd gone silent. Peter flinched at the number of 'not interested' emails he had in his received, or places that offered a pittance of a salary. He stopped before he choked on his disappointment, and flipped over to work on improvements to the suit. The waitress dropped off the fries he'd ordered, and he snagged one absently as he searched for a more flexible answer to the white spider. Something that didn't irritate his skin quite so much.

The door jangled open and drew Peter's attention. A smile lit his face as he saw Mary Jane's excitement in her every move. He slid out of the booth and stood up to meet her at the edge of the tables. He tried to measure the result of her meeting in her face, but she kept her expression spectacularly neutral. "So…?" he pretty much demanded.

She smiled then, and extended her hand. "Hi. Mary Jane Watson, associate editor."

Peter's mouth fell open and he seized her hand to shake it. "Congrats! I knew you could do it." He wanted to pull her into a hug, but that seemed a tad too forward and boyfriend-y for the current state of their relationship.

She grinned back and thanked him before she took the booth across from him. "What about you? Find a job yet?" She munched on the fry she'd stolen from his basket.

"Oh, no, but, uh..." Peter paused, taking the opportunity to close his laptop while the waitress spoke to Mary Jane. He could feel the smile melting off his face as he remembered all the rejections sitting in his inbox. He snorted a defeated laugh, "I was actually considering a career change."

Mary Jane frowned a bit. "Hm?"

So he tried to turn it into a joke. "Yeah. I think I might want to become a chef." There might actually be a future there. A spider-themed restaurant waiting for his innovation!

Mary Jane coughed and laughed. "I'm sorry. No, it's… you're a scientist. A good one."

Peter's face tightened at the word scientist, and he laughed again. "The last project I worked on, I created a monster octopus that almost destroyed the city. So..."

She frowned down at his hands. "Yeah…." Then her gaze swept up to his eyes and she smiled again. "I mean, you do make a hell of a chicken curry."

Peter chuckled, remembering her scolding him for the clothes he'd left on her floor and her later crooning over the curry he'd made her. "I do." He smirked still rolling the memory of her sitting on her couch torn between laughter and frustration. "Still working my dumplings, though."

Mary Jane laughed at that. Her eyes turned to the backpack next to him. "Going camping?"

"Oh..." he sat back and tried to wave her concern away. "My new place isn't going to be ready for about a week, so I'm going to be crashing with Miles for the next few nights."

"Oh." She squinted at the bag and then at him. She took a deep breath and her eyes dropped to the table. "You know, you can always stay at my place..."

Peter couldn't even blink, his eyes widened and his heart thrummed and he couldn't move because he didn't want to find out this was a dream.

"I mean," Her hand traced an idle line along the grain of the table, and she couldn't seem to meet his eyes. "Only if you want to."

'Want to?' Peter sat forward, hands gesticulating just above the table. "No. I mean, yes! I mean, no I don't not want to, meaning I do want to… but only if you do." In what universe would he not want to stay with MJ.

Her smile brightened his day as she leaned toward him, voice dropping into a husky whisper as she told him, "I never stopped wanting to."

Peter met her eyes, unable to look away, resisting the urge to pinch himself. Convinced it would all come crashing down around him. "Me neither," he breathed. Hadn't he been trying to get back with her this whole time?

Her hands pressed against the table and she was leaning toward him.

Peter caught his thigh against the edge of the table, too close for comfort to sensitive parts, but that was unimportant when his lips met hers. Warm. Soft. Tasting like the raspberry lip balm he remembered. His eyes slid close, and he slid a hand over the table to ground himself with his fingers on her skin. Sweet. She tasted so sweet to him as she pressed harder against his mouth, stealing his breath before she broke away to smile into his eyes.

He didn't let go of her hand when they slid back into their seats. "I should call Miles," he realized aloud, "and let him know about the change of plans."

Her quiet smile made him feel like an idiot for voicing that thought aloud, but her thumb stroking the sensitive stretch of skin along the inside of his knuckle chased any further thought away. He told himself to calm down, and that she might not mean that.

He wouldn't remember what they ordered, or even what little they talked about. His mind kept returning to the fact that she'd invited him to her house for the night. More than one night? Would this be a regular thing? Oh god, he hoped it would. But that would be expecting too much. Peter, you're getting ahead of yourself. She could just as easily have been offering her couch as a place on her bed.

Her flirting did nothing to ease his nervous anticipation and it made his jokes fall flat to his ears though it only made her smile wider at him. He wanted to kiss those lips again, to bury his face into her neck and smell her. He let himself admire the sweep of her lashes as they brushed her skin, the arch of her eyebrow, the fall of her coat over her shoulders and chest.

The wail of sirens drew his attention away, and she sighed and declared her lunchbreak over anyways.

He stood and grabbed his backpack, digging cash out of his pockets to leave on the table for the waiter. He paused by her when she wouldn't let go of his hand. She tugged him down and pecked his lips, sliding her mouth over his in a way that made him regret having to leave so soon. Regret the call of his responsibility.

"See you tonight?" she murmured against his lips.

Peter gulped, but a smile crossed his lips and her eyes softened. "Definitely." He wouldn't miss it for the world. Maybe the end of the world, but not just the world.

Another police car flew by and so Peter knew he had to leave as well. He ducked into an alley and scaled the wall. He stripped his shirt and pants off and stuffed them into his backpack, pulling his mask and gloves out of the front pocket of his pack.

Mary Jane had invited him over!

He tossed the backpack onto a wall, throwing out a blob of webbing stick it to the wall.

And she'd kissed him! Him!

Peter took a running leap to the next roof, following the echo of sirens in the streets. He couldn't help the whoop that burst out of his throat.

He shouldn't get too excited though, right? Invited to her apartment could mean sleeping on her couch. But she'd kissed him! That was a good thing right? Especially after that New Years kiss (and Christmas, but she'd run away after...) He should be prepared either way. She didn't have to know unless, you know… They….

Nope. Pete. Don't get yourself excited for no reason.

But MJ didn't kiss friends like that.

He was going to be stressing this the rest of the day, wasn't he?

That's a yup.

The walls of the labs hung suspended over a lake of poison drowning Manhattan. Spider-man leapt from the barely visible tops of the building, heading for F.E.A.S.T. Octavius beat him there, his tentacles writing and snapping their claws. Electricity crackled across his Vulture Wings and the Scorpion tail coiled over the Rhino's horn. All of them came out of Otto's screaming face. He had Peter in his tentacles, one of the claws impaling him.

Peter couldn't get loose, he was drowning in the poison dripping from Octavius' open, screaming mouth.

"PEEEEETEEEEEEERRRRR!"

His super strength couldn't free him, he couldn't get a grip on Octavius' lips and he plunged into the burning sea of poison.

Peter woke up disoriented.

He hung upside down from the ceiling for some weird reason. Cold sweat drenched his naked skin. He shuddered against the ceilng, trying to catch his breath as though he'd just swung the entire length of the city fifty times non-stop.

His neck crawled with the feeling of eyes on him. He glanced down and found Mary Jane pressed against the doorjamb of her bedroom, her eyes wary.

"Peter, you with me up there?"

Peter shook his head, not an answer, instead a gesture to shake the cobwebs out of his ears and head. He shook, and his arms and legs cramped from his hold on the ceiling. So he let his feet go and swung down to the floor, bending his knees with the impact. His legs didn't want to hold him, but he got to the bed rather than land in an embarrassing mess on the floor.

"Pete?" Mary Jane hadn't moved from her spot by the door. Good girl.

Peter still worked on breathing, his elbows on his knees, and his forehead in his hands. He didn't trust himself yet to invite her over. His hands clenched into fists against his head, and he had to remind himself that it was a bad dream. A nightmare.

Mary Jane's apartment. He was in Mary Jane's apartment. He sat on her bed. Naked.

Okay. That helped. It reminded Peter of what he'd been doing before he'd fallen asleep. No screaming octo-scorpions in that. Just soft skin, warmth, pleasure. And Mary Jane. "Pete?" Mary Jane asked again, her voice soft, as though she were afraid to disturb him. Peter lifted his head to run a critical eye over the bare skin her sexy nightgown left visible. "Did I hurt you?" She'd been standing there… had he scared her?

"No, I know better than to mess with you when you're like that. You okay?"

Knew better because he had hurt her once, wrapped in a night terror. Left a bruise on her cheek, and her ribs. She'd had to yell at him to stop following her around like a lost puppy afterwards.

She stepped closer then, hand raised, but she didn't cross the whole distance. Still wary. "Shh. Don't think about it Pete. It didn't happen."

God, she knew his mind too well.

"I'm awake, I'm awake." Because he wanted the touch she offered.

She slid into his space as though his words had pulled her like a magnet. Mary Jane stroked his hair and pulled his head against her belly.

Peter closed his eyes and took a deep breath of her salty skin. He could still smell the remnants of their earlier activities tucked away in the curls that lay hidden under the silky fabric his cheek rested against. His arms circled her waist almost of their own accord and he rubbed his cheek into the soft flesh of her belly. "Sorry if I woke you."

Her hands wandered over his head, down to his shoulders and up his arms. "You were still in the bed when I got up for the bathroom." Back down his arms to his shoulders and through his hair, her hands firm, soothing.

The touch of her hands drew a groan from his throat. Made him want to snuggle her closer. Kiss her belly through the night gown, her hip, her thigh. He rested his cheek against her again, tilting his head to look up at her face.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

He shook his head, turning his head to rest the other side of his face against her. "Nothing new."

Her hands drew lazy circles on his shoulders, then slid up his arms again. "All right." She shifted in his arms, curled over him and pressed her lips to the top of his head.

Peter bent his neck, so that he could catch her lips with his.

She chuckled into his lips, her hands cupping his face.

When she didn't pull away, and instead kissed him back, Peter tugged her into his lap so she didn't have to bend so awkwardly for him. He curled a hand around her neck, and stroked his thumb over her jaw. Her hair tickled his fingers and face. Her lithe body writhed against him and excited his pulse.

She broke the kiss, her fingers still on his face. "You know, I was going to go back to sleep."

He grinned, her fingers smooshing his cheeks together. "I'm not actually stopping you."

She snorted, and kissed him again, hungrily sucking at his tongue and lip.

Peter let his hands wander over her silken gown, grounding himself with the curve of her breasts in his palms, the slide of her thighs in his lap, her soft hips pressed against his aching member. He reveled in her gasp into his mouth, when he slid his fingers between her legs and into her folds of tender flesh. He stroked the delicate point of her clitoris, and then went deeper, tucking his first two fingers into her moist flesh. He carefully dragged his fingers in and out, using just the lightest drag of his sticky fingers to pull at her inner flesh.

Mary Jane gasped and melted against him, her hands clinging to his neck and shoulders, her breathing quickened with her excitement. Her mouth moved from his lips to his cheeks, his neck, his shoulders, until she pressed her forehead against the round of his shoulder and whimpered, spreading her legs to his hand.

He tugged at her gown with his free hand, careful not to pull too hard, waiting for her to shift her hips out of the way so he could lift it over her head.

A groan squeezed out of his throat as he ran his eyes over her naked body, the way her back curved toward him, the jiggle of her breasts and their pert nipples. Peter bent his neck to run his tongue between her breasts; to nibble down to and suck on the point of her nipple, massaging her other breast with his free hand.

Her nails scraped over his back, and her chest heaved beneath his mouth.

He wanted to lay her down and make love to her; push his need in and in and let her warmth wrap around him. He ached, his penis pulsing to life where it sat pressed to her hips.

Mary Jane suddenly slid out of his lap, and he almost whimpered until he saw her kneel on the floor between his legs. She tilted a smile up at him, eyes full of mischief. Then she took his shaft in hand and closed her mouth over his erection like a freakin' lollipop.

He couldn't take his eyes off her, devouring the sight of her kneeling in front of him, the curve of both hips and shoulders, her hair spilling over her back, the bob of her head. He groaned, unable to think of anything but the sweet warmth wrapped around his cock, the press of her tongue against his head, the careful scrape of teeth as she slid her mouth down his length and pulled back up. Peter dropped his elbows onto his thighs, pressing hard against the urge to thrust into her mouth. He touched her head, stroking her tangle of hair, and the skin of her neck and shoulders.

Her hand slid down and she fingered his testicles.

He jumped at that touch, hissing at her gagged cough. She didn't stop, though. Her lips building the pressure of need in his waist, his breath sharp against his pounding heart. He wanted to kiss her. He wanted to pull her astride his hips and lock them together with his desire. He recalled (in some distant part of his brain that could still actually think) her complaint that he was too silent earlier that night. So he opened his mouth and let the pressure in his chest moan out of his throat. Let the sweep of her tongue elicit a whimper from his lips.

She paused and glanced up at him, a smile dancing in her eye. God she was so beautiful.

She brought him to the edge, and then she stopped.

"No," he pleaded. He was so close.

She stood and urged him further back on the bed. Oh, this was okay, then. He could do this.

She climbed on top of him, straddling him between her knees, hips swaying as she pushed his back to the mattress. Yes. Yes. Yes. This would be good too, he thought hazily, his hands sliding over her soft thighs instead of pulling her closer. He liked this position too.

"Pete," she breathed into his ear, "you have a choice."

Choice?

Maybe he heard her wrong, with his excited pulse pounding in his ear, distracted by her body pressed to him as she was.

"So," she said, while her hand traced idle lines on his chest, and she squeezed his hips between her knees, "we can go to sleep." Oh god, not yet please. "Or we can have a conversation."

Peter felt something fizzle in his brain. Conversation? Now?! "Conversation?" he said when he managed to override his hindbrain that only wanted one thing.

"Oh, nothing much. Just something that mildly irritated me today."

Peter blinked and shook his head, suddenly having to rack his brain over her words. "Ir-Irritated? You?" he said, voice squeaking with his confusion. His heart raced again, but this time with panic as he tried to find anything that suggested she was unhappy while he had Mary Jane pressed against the wall, or when she had given him that first delightful blowjob, and he had returned the favor before making love to her on the bed. Was she mad he'd fallen asleep? She had first, though.

"Mildly, irritated," she corrected him, leaning over him so that she could meet his gaze and drop a kiss his cheek.

He gestured at his face. "I hope you can see my confusion here?"

Mary Jane smiled, way too easily for someone who was supposed to be angry with him. Good grief, he didn't understand women. "Consider everything before this as laying the groundwork for our conversation."

Peter felt stupid as he only seemed to when talking to Mary Jane. "I don't understand."

She watched her fingers walk over his chest, her voice dropping to a sexy husk. "Are you worried about me kicking you out right now?"

There was that panic again, because no, he hadn't even thought of that. He couldn't quite speak, so he shook his head.

"See, groundwork." She glanced at his face before dropping a lingering kiss on his lips. Her legs shifted against him, and she her hips brushed against his aching member. A teasing slide of moist flesh against his straining cock. She sat up and back, her hands on his chest and stomach, where she liked to trace the lines of muscles he had there. Her breasts dipped and swelled with the press of her arms and his hands ached to touch the soft mounds. She lifted one of her pert little brows. "Of course, if you don't want to talk, we both know you can just take what you want."

The suggestion sent a hot blaze across his nerves. How could she even think he'd do something like that? When had he ever… He noticed the smile on her face, and realized she was trying – and succeeding – in getting a rise out of him. "That would be cheating, I take it," he said, trying to wrangle the flash of anger back into control.

She settled her weight on his thighs, the fingers of one hand playing in the thin carpet of hairs nestled beneath his standing erection. "It absolutely would."

"So… conversation?" Which would be difficult enough with her naked on top of him, much less with the drag of her fingers over the head of his cock or down his shaft and over his balls. He did want to just roll her over and…

"Three months."

When she didn't say anything else, and her hands stopped and sat on her thighs, he realized that she was waiting on a response from him.

"Otto?"

She shook her head, her hair sliding around her neck and shoulders, but she stroked him again, just the gentle glide of her finger tips. That stopped after a moment.

Oh god, this was the game. "D-Devil's Breath?"

"No," she murmured, and she touched him again, wrapping her hand around his shaft and squeezing.

Peter moaned, shifting his hips to push into her grip.

She stopped. "Stay still, Pete. We're still talking."

"God." Three months ago? "Fisk?" "Not even close," she told him, but she shifted against his thighs, and he couldn't help but be aware of the slide of her moist crevice over his thighs.

Would she let him touch her? Peter curled his fingers over her knees. What else? "The auction house?"

She didn't push his hands away, but she took her hands off him. "Spider-man is not the problem, Pete."

Oh. His throat closed on his next guess. "May?" he choked, unable to help the tears that stung her eyes.

She hissed, and leaned over him, her lips brushing his cheek. "Close. She knew, right?"

Peter curled his arm over her shoulder. "She knew that I'm Spider-man."

Mary Jane hummed, and poked his side, and pressed a kiss to his mouth. "Didn't I just say that Spider-man is not the problem? You were staying at F.E.A.S.T. three months ago? May knew?"

Peter slid his other hand over her waist, lifting his head to catch her lips again. Sating his hunger with the plunge of his tongue into her mouth.

Mary Jane pulled away instead, waiting.

"Yes," he choked. May knew everything about Peter, knew his horrible finances, and how he missed MJ. Knew he spent his free time swinging around the city, even.

She ran her fingers over his belly, almost tickling him, if he wasn't so focused on the soft flesh pressed against his thighs. "What happened to your apartment, Pete?"

Wait, he might have figured this out. "Are you mad because I didn't tell you I'd lost the apartment?"

"Irritated," she said again. "Not mad. Mad would be us having this conversation on the couch. But yeah. You were homeless, Pete. For three months. And I didn't know. I thought we were friends!" Her fists rested on her hips, and her frown sent a slight chill through him.

Peter froze, trying to scramble for something that would not end with him on the couch, or worse kicked out. He'd even take the blue balls if Mary Jane just wanted to sleep instead of… "I had Aunt May's house. I wasn't..."

She pressed her finger to his lips. Were those tears? "You shouldn't have had to stay at your Aunt's house because you didn't have anywhere else to go." She leaned forward again, replacing her finger with her lips. "I should have dragged you back to Manhattan, screw whatever you wanted. It was not good for you to stay there."

"I-"

She kissed him silent again. "Or made you stay at Aunt Anna's. Since you didn't want to be in Manhattan."

"That wasn't-"

She rubbed against him, brushing against his still straining cock. "Maybe I should have stayed at May's place with you instead."

"You did enough. I wasn't trying to be a burden."

She kissed him again, her tongue probing his mouth, her hands in his hair, on his chest, her thighs clenching over his waist. "I'd tell you if you're a bother. Don't think I wouldn't," she growled. She kissed his throat, his jaw. "Why didn't you say anything? Not when it first happened, and then not even after three months."

Peter stroked Mary Jane's thighs, his pulse pounding again. "We'd just reconnected, and you'd been working late that first night. You were still working, after I'd found out about the eviction. I thought..." He wallowed in his embarrassment all over again. "I almost called you, MJ. But it was just too soon after we'd started talking again."

"And?" She sat back again, her hand wrapped around his shaft. Oh. Oh, yes. She hovered over him, poised to let him in.

He whimpered when she didn't press down.

"And?" she prompted again.

Peter couldn't help the scrabble of his hands against her hips, but he didn't force her down. Cheating. No cheating. "The bomb. Everything fell apart. Oh god, yes."

Mary Jane had pushed him in as he talked and she flexed around him, the most intimate hug and kiss combined. She blinked down at him, her furrowed brows and teary eyes not the face he wanted her to be making while she shifted her hips above him.

"MJ, please," he pleaded, not sure if he was begging her to drop the subject or to start moving, or not to cry. Maybe all of it.

She didn't object when he moved, or when he lifted her up and then down his shaft.

"Don't do it again, Pete," she told him, pressing her hands into his stomach, lifting her hips. "If you get evicted, you tell me. Even if I can't take you in, right then. You don't have to face it alone. You are not alone."

She moved then. Really moved. Leaning over him, with her weight pressed into his stomach so she could bounce her hips and flex her thighs. Her vibrant green eyes slid close and she gasped when his hands squeezed her breasts, her thighs.

He thrust upwards, dropping his hands as the pressure built within him again. He clenched his stomach against her weight, no problem for his enhanced strength. Peter wanted to kiss her, but he wouldn't object to the wonderful view of her face tense in concentration, her lips pressed together, brows pressed together, eyes closed, mouth agape with her panting breath. He would make do, which in truth was an understatement. He couldn't tear his eyes away, honestly. He wanted to see the moonlight on her skin, the gentle sweep of her breasts as they bounced with her motions. See the slide of her hips over his erection, his skin moist from her excitement.

"Yes," he hissed, risking a stroke of his palm over her thighs, daring to let his fingers curl over her soft leg.

She moaned at him. Leaned down and kissed his lips again.

His vision exploded with white, and he slammed his hips against her, his hand cramping where he left it on her thigh as he refused to let it close. He gasped and groaned as the pressure released into her, his cock pulsing and aching with the release.

She bore down on him. "Oh," she gasped.

Peter dropped his hand, worried he'd been hurting her.

But her eyes focused on nothing, and sweat broke out on her skin. "Oh, I can feel that."

Then Peter had the distinct pleasure of watching Mary Jane shatter on top of him. Her sweet flesh clenched around him, her hips grinding on him as she gasped with her head tilted back and her hair sweeping over her shoulders.

He hadn't even realized she'd leaned down, her hands still pressed into his stomach. "Good," she said, inexplicably.

Until he realized she was taking the word she'd drawn out of him as a response to their conversation. "That..." he huffed as he tried to catch his breath. "Cheating."

She chuckled and lifted her hips so that his penis flopped wetly out of her. She grabbed the towel from where he'd dropped it on the floor and wiped at him, before reaching down and dabbing at herself.

God she looked so hot like that.

She smirked at him, as though reading his mind. Then she dropped the towel back on the floor and groaned as she slid back under the covers. Though she pulled them over him as well.

When his brain started working again, Peter pulled MJ and all her soft curves against him, one arm sliding under her neck. He stroked her cheek with his other hand, admiring the way the moonlight that filtered through the curtains played over her skin, flushed from their lovemaking. Her soft breasts squished up against him, and he could see the pink nub of a nipple almost flush where it lay against his skin. Looking down at her made him twitch and swell with desire again.

He met her green eyes as she arched a red brow at him, and her delicious lips curved upward. "I need to get some more sleep, Pete."

He took a deep breath, but that part of his body had a mind of its own. "I know," he told her. He smoothed a tangled lock of hair he'd noticed sticking up from her head. "So, would it be too forward to hope that this isn't going to be a one night thing?"

Even though she was the one who said she needed to go back to sleep, her eyes didn't droop at all. She tilted her head against his shoulder as she regarded him with serious eyes at odds with the smile. "Maybe. Would you like it to be a more than one night thing?"

Peter pulled her hip closer flush against him so that her leg slid over his waist. "Y-Yes. Yes. I'd like that very much," he said, his desperate need stuttering his words. Mary Jane was all Peter had left now. Even before he'd lost May, he would have said yes without a blink of hesitation. He'd taken her for granted, he'd realized. "MJ, I want this to be an every night thing. Or as many nights as we can, you know, considering our jobs. I mean," he stammered again as her smile slid off her face, "if that's what would make you happy. Cause it really would make me happy, just to make you happy. You know I'm still crazy about y-"

Her finger on his lips brought his rambling to a halt. Her fingers slid from his lips, along his cheek, catching in his hair. She pulled his head close and pressed her lips against his in a chaste kiss that quickly morphed into something more exciting.

Peter could do nothing less than respond to the growing passion in her kiss. She needed to sleep though – she had work in the morning – so he resisted the urge to pull her astride him again or roll MJ onto her back so he could make love to her again.

The kiss cooled back into the press of lips (Peter couldn't consider it chaste with the heat that kiss had kindled in his loins) before she drew away.

Mary Jane smoothed his hair back and cuddled her cheek into his shoulder. "I guess we're at a bit of an impasse then."

Peter blinked, processing her words and coming up with the tingle in his lips and the burning need to slide into her. "Impasse? What-"

"Mmhmm." Her eyes slid closed, and her shoulders relaxed. "I just want to make you happy, too. So it looks like you're stuck with me."

A grin flashed across his face at her words. He couldn't help it. He rested his hand on her waist, stroking the soft flesh under his thumb. "I think I can live with that," he said to the top of her head. Peter closed his eyes, and took another measured breath against the burning heat that still pulsed in his waist.

"Oh!" Mary Jane jolted her head up. "I need to break up with Spider-man."

Peter frowned, his brows furrowing. He tried to puzzle what she meant. "What?" he opted for when he couldn't make sense of her words.

She nodded and scrunched her face. "So, apparently Miles has gotten it into his head that since I have Spidey's number then we absolutely must be dating!"

Peter covered his mouth, but the snicker exploded between his fingers anyways.

She scowled prettily up at him. "Oh, sure, yuk it up why don't you? You just thwip thwip and away and leave me making excuses." Her eyes narrowed, but Peter didn't miss the smile that played at her lips. "Did you know that he thinks I broke up with you so that I can go out with you and now by flirting with you, I must be cheating with you."

Peter closed his eyes, trying to mash the laughter down for her sake. "That is ridiculous when you put it like that."

"Tell me about it!" she exclaimed. "I've been trying to twist my head around it since November."

Peter managed to get his chuckling under control, but a grin still spread across his face. "So how are we doing this? Do you need Spidey to call you during the move and leave you in tears? Or is it a peaceful break up, due to irreconcilable differences."

"Leave me in tears?" She grinned up at him, her eyes twinkling. "Messy break up obviously, but Spidey's the one driven to tears because I caught him messing around with Black Cat behind my back."

"Agh," Peter scoffed. "Spidey wouldn't cheat on anyone. You can't go around ruining my rep like that."

She squirmed against him, her leg sliding up his waist and sending his heart into his throat as she pressed against him in ways that sent the blood coursing through his veins again. "I've seen that picture the Bugle published of Black Cat with her hands all over Spidey." Her fingers traced his muscles in imitation of that infamous picture.

He took her wrist and pulled her hand away from his skin. "If you keep that up, it'll take even longer before you go to sleep."

She struggled against his grip, and he let go rather than fight her. Her grin took a wicked tilt and she trailed her nails over his chest again, circling his nipple with her pinkie. Then she squirmed against him again.

He pinned her beneath him before he realized what he was doing, her errant hand above her head. "MJ," he said through the tight need in his throat. "I thought you were tired."

She shifted her hips beneath him rather than answer, and leaned up to kiss him.

Peter kissed her back, he couldn't help himself. He would take any chance for a kiss from Mary Jane. Especially with her pliant body so willingly beneath his, and her looking so helpless and willing. Vulnerable as she never was with her clothes on. Beautiful even with her thickest coat hiding her curves. "MJ..." he moaned at her.

"Shh." Mary Jane stroked his hair back, as she always seemed to when she thought he needed comforting. She slid a little more under him, settling her legs on either side of his waist. "Shhhh."

Peter couldn't resist her invitation, then. Just as he would take any chance for a kiss. He pressed her into the mattress as he slid inside her. The feel of her wrapped around him, warm and moist and oh so good had him shivering with the threads of his controls clenched in his quaking muscles.

Her teeth on his ear sent another shock through him and his control slipped through his fingers for a moment.

The bed creaked threateningly under them, and recalled Peter to himself.

She gasped when he sucked on her throat. "Pete!" she squeaked, pushing his face away. "Not there."

He licked the hickey he'd left in retribution for the nip on his ear, and went to work leaving another on her breast. He thought he'd accomplished two more when she she shifted beneath him again, and all he could think about was the connection between there bodies and the feel of her beneath him. His control slipped again as the tension in his body reached its peak.

He grabbed a fistful of sheets rather than any part of Mary Jane. He buried his face in the pillow next to her head, all too aware of the bite of her nails in his back and shoulders, and the hard press of her thighs around his waist. Her panting in his ears sent all new desperation into his rocking against her. A few strokes more and he tumbled over the edge, his vision exploded with stars, his muscles locked into endless spasms and she tightened around his cock as if she intended to draw his orgasm out as long as she could.

He loved it.

He loved her.

God, he loved Mary Jane so damn much that he didn't think he could last another six months without her smile brightening his day. Without her voice on the other end of the phone while he swung through the city. Without her encouragement to get out of the house and put on the costume. Without her telling him that everything would be okay and sometimes there could be no right answer to a hard decision.

He didn't relax, even though he lay limp over her. Peter slid his arms around her and held her to him, letting her pillow case catch the tears he hadn't meant to loose.

Her lips brushed his cheek, and he could hear the slide of her tongue as she tasted the tear she'd caught. Her arms tightened around him, and she pressed a hard kiss just under his eye. "I'm here for you Pete. I'll always be right here for you."

"I know." Peter squeezed his arms a little tighter around her, trying to be so careful not to go too far, and let himself hide his tears in her neck and shoulder. "I-I'm happy."

Mary Jane's cheek rested against his hair, smoothing his hair back with one hand while she clung to him with her other arm around his shoulders and even her legs around his waist. "Happy?" she said in a tight voice, and he realized his hair felt damp where her cheek rested."

"I love you, MJ," he said into her throat, voice choked with his tears. "You make me so happy." Peter lifted his head and kissed her, trying to pour all his gratitude and love into her through his mouth against her.

"I love you, too, Pete," she told him when he finally pulled away, She blinked tears away from her green eyes. "I always have, even when we didn't see each other. That hasn't changed, and it won't. I told you, right? You aren't alone anymore." Mary Jane's fingers brushed the remnants of his tears away. "Though I have to say, it's kinda a blow to my sense of self-esteem when my boyfriend starts crying after we have sex."

Peter snorted, though his mind latched onto the word 'boyfriend' and clung to it with all his considerable strength. "Sorry. It's not you."

"Better not be, Tiger." Her arms slid around his neck, and her fingers slid through his hair. "Even when it is me, it's still you."

Peter managed a laugh at that. "That's true." He slid off her, suddenly aware of the weight of his body on his arms and worried about how heavy he was on her.

Mary Jane sighed and curled against him. "I am going to sleep now, if you don't mind."

Peter tucked his hand behind his head. "Sleep well MJ." He closed his eyes, but they didn't stay that way. He found himself staring at the ceiling, until the echo of sirens reached his ears.

He thought MJ had fallen asleep, but she moaned and sniffed. Pat his chest and turned away from him. "Go save people, Spider-man."

Peter blinked at her, remembering when she used to grumble at him for leaving her alone in the bed. Pete leaned over Mary Jane ostensibly to kiss her cheek, but he also took the opportunity to check her expression.

Her cheeks lifted at his glance. She rolled back over to level a speaking look. "Go. I'll actually be able to sleep when you go." She kissed his cheek and soothed the sting from her words. "Go. Ward off your nightmares."

Peter smiled at her, and hopped off the bed. "I don't deserve you."

"You sure don't," she quipped back at him. "You're still here and I can't sleep."

"I'm working on it," Peter said, already. He didn't miss the hints of green through her hair and lashes that followed him as he put on his suit. His mask dangled from his hand as he paused by the bed and bent over to kiss her cheek again. "I'll see you later?"

"Mmhmm. I'll call you." Her beautiful green eyes finally slid close and her breath evened out.

Peter couldn't resist one more caress before he opened the bedroom window and leapt out into the night.

Author's End Notes:

I'm still amazed that this took so long from start to finish to complete these four chapters, and that's not mentioning getting this one chapter uploaded. I wanted to give it a review with a fresh pair of eyes before it went out.

The below notes were written while I was writing the whole fic, so apologies if I'm repeating myself in here.

So when MJ is meeting Peter at the restaurant at the end of the game, it kinda felt like it'd been a regular thing between them. So, I made it to become a little bit of a check up, with her making sure he was doing okay, as well as a good reminder that he wasn't alone, because Pete doesn't really have much besides casual acquaintances. Which would have been a natural progression of their relationship to lead up to that kiss at the end there.

I feel I should note that nearly anything after these 4 chapters. will be marked Alternative Universe, because I'm going to start speculating about the rest of this universe and eventually into sequel territory. I sooooo badly wanted to start my speculation in here. The desire was strong, but I resisted. However I will be retconning things that are not explicitly mentioned here, but also not not mentioned? As far as my brain is concerned this is the end of TULE part 1, but I'm not creating another series for the rest.