Peter amused himself watching Gwen as she went through her own personal little tea ceremony. In the bright lights of the kitchen he could see that they both looked totally drained but he felt more peaceful having said all that he'd said. Gwen took out a tray and arranged a mismatched pair of cups and saucers alongside her teapot, strainer, milk jug and plate of cookies and carried it through to place it on a little table in front of the fire. She motioned Peter over to take a seat on the enormous lounge.

"I'll be right back," she said. "I just really need to splash some water on my face."

While she was away, Peter availed himself of the kitchen sink for the same purpose and found himself feeling markedly better.

While Gwen poured the tea, Peter asked, "So where's your family?"

"Oh, Mom and the boys went to stay with my aunt until Sunday night."

"How come you didn't go?"

Gwen handed Peter a cup and saucer with a few cookies nestled under the warm cup. She lifted her tea cup from her saucer and settled back into the lounge, cradling the cup in the nest of her hands. "Oscorp is trying to rebuild and establish what of Dr Connors projects can be salvaged. They've asked me to come in over the weekend to try and help with inventories and notes."

She looked over at him with a sly smile. "Want me to swing you a job? You've got a clearance pass from your work with Connors, right? You probably knew more about his work than any of us." Gwen went silent for a moment.

Peter sipped his tea, lost for a moment in the idea of progressing his father's work and salvaging the good from the crazy ideas of Dr Connors. He looked over to see Gwen smiling at him.

"You really do love Science, don't you?" she joked and they both laughed. "I'll check it out in the morning but I'm sure it's a done deal. Be ready to come in early."

He grinned. "Do you think you'll be able to get me my very own shiny white lab coat?"

"Might be slightly less figure-hugging than your current outfit," Gwen giggled.

Peter looked down and realised that he was still in his bright red and blue suit. He laughed and caught Gwen's twinkling eyes. He reached over and gently took the teacup out of Gwen's hands, placing it next to his own on the table. He leaned back against the arm rest of the lounge pulling Gwen towards him until she lay next to him, cradled in his arms.

"So the whole day has gone by and I haven't tried to kiss you yet," Peter pointed out. "Aren't you impressed by my self-control?"

"Oh," Gwen said, "That was self-control, was it? I just thought maybe you were chicken."

"This little scenario I've manoeuvred us into here, does this look like I'm chicken?"

"Mmm," Gwen nestled a little deeper into his arms. "I guess it would seem I misjudged you. Though, on the other hand, it's also true that you haven't shut up and kissed me yet."

Peter grinned broadly, then looking into her eyes, grew serious. He gently cupped her face with his hands, running his thumb along her jawline as he had done all those weeks before. Gwen felt so tiny but so safe wrapped in his strong arms. He wound his hand over the back of her neck and up into her hair bringing her face close enough to his for their mouths to meet. The sensation of his lips on hers felt simultaneously like coming home and rocketing into space. He held her to him with such strength and tenderness and when, at last, they broke apart, she could see that his eyes were glistening with emotion. He closed his eyes and turned his face away from hers. He faltered. "Is this…?"

"Is this what, Peter?" she whispered.

"Is this ok?" He looked back but his expression grew more harrowed. "I made that promise to your dad. Are you going to be able to trust me if I'm just not going to keep it?.

Gwen smiled sadly. "Fathers always think they know best for their daughters. I guess Daddy just didn't have time to realise…" She broke off and nuzzled into his neck.

Peter was puzzled. "Gwen?"

She took a deep breath and pulled back to look into his eyes. "Daddy just didn't have time to realise that it was too late. I'd already fallen in love with you."

Peter threw his head back as far as it would go and slowly shook his head in what she was beginning to realise was a bit of a signature move. But she couldn't see his face and he wasn't saying anything. Suddenly cold fear washed over her. It hadn't even occurred to her that telling Peter she loved him would freak him out. It seemed that, in everything they'd been through, they'd surely be past that teenage angst of working out how many days to leave between calls and how much caution to use to make sure you weren't too full-on. She felt she had to try to say something, not to change or lessen what she'd said, it was the truth, but to somehow get it back in its box for a while. She wanted to speak but no words came so she found herself repeating, "Oh no, oh no, oh no!"

Peter immediately realised the doubt his silence had caused Gwen and quickly brought his face level with hers. "No, no, no! Gwen, can you just give me a minute to explain how much you misinterpreted my reaction just now?"

She nodded, nervously biting her lip.

"I'm terrible at speeches but I've got a speech here, ok?" He took a deep breath. "This morning I woke up to a pretty crap world, same as I have every day for the last few months. Your dad is dead, my parents are dead, my uncle is dead, my aunt is shattered by grief. I promised your dad I wouldn't see you again, so all I had to live for was Spiderman. That's not nothing, I know, but it left a pretty bleak existence for me.

Since I arrived in English this morning and finally accepted the fact that I could never keep a promise to keep away from you, I feel back in the world as Peter. Add to that the fact that I spent this afternoon finding out what an awesome skater you are, which, I have to admit, I was never even creative enough to imagine in a dream-girl, and now, it turns out that the real-life dream-girl that I've been in love with since Freshman Biology has fallen in love with me! I'm so totally ready for that and, if it's really even possible that it's true that someone like me could be loved by someone like you, then I want, no, Gwen, I need you to tell me as often as you want to say it!"

He paused. "How was that for a speech?"

Gwen was beaming. "I love you, Peter."

Peter's face broke into his huge smile. "I love you, Gwen."

As their lips met again, Gwen suddenly felt an odd sensation against her ankle. "Umm, Peter? What's that buzzing?"

Peter was already fishing about inside his boot. "Wo, way to ruin the moment." He eventually found his phone and turned off the alarm. He looked her matter-of-factly in the face. "I cannot believe I'm about to do this, especially seeing as we have this place to ourselves and everything, but I have to go. The alarm helps me get home on time to have a cup of tea with Aunt Mae before she goes to bed. If I manage to do that, then she gets to sleep and I can get out at night if I need to without having to worry that she's awake worrying about me."

Gwen smiled. "You're sweet to your aunt, Peter."

Peter shook his head emphatically. "No, I've been a jerk and I'm trying to make amends." He paused to think. "Hey, Gwen..."

"Mmm?"

He grinned. "Seeing as I love you, and seeing as you love me and we've said it out loud to one another so that it's all official…"

Gwen giggled. "Mmm?"

"Wanna come over and meet Aunt Mae tomorrow night?"

"Do you think she'll be stressed or relieved to think that all this time you've not been at home, you've been with me?"

Peter pulled back as if to look her up and down appraisingly. "You're pretty presentable, you know. I think she'll probably think you've taken pity on me and are sorting me out. Elocution lessons, table manners, that kind of thing."

Gwen punched him playfully on the arm. He yelped dramatically and play-fell off the lounge.

"You're gonna call me early about work tomorrow, right?"

She rolled to the edge of the lounge to look down at him reclining casually on his back on the floor, arms folded behind his head. "Right."

"Not sure I've got much in the way of enthusiasm for the work, but I'm all enthusiasm for you, so hopefully that'll count."

Gwen fixed him with a look. "Peter, I know you, remember? You're going to be the nerdiest guy in the building tomorrow."

Peter smirked. "Well, it was your brain that attracted me in Freshman Bio."

Gwen giggled. "Get out!"

Peter raised himself onto his knees next to her, stroked her hair away from her face and tenderly kissed her goodnight. "Gwen, I love you."

"I love you, Peter."

"That is never going to get old," Peter said emphatically over his shoulder as he padded back to her bedroom.

Silence fell and when Gwen finally almost floated to her room she noticed a post-it from over on her desk stuck to her pillow. In Peter's unmistakeable scrawl it declared:

Peter loves Gwen.

Ok, so this is where it ends. It's true that there's probably room for a plot here and all kinds of things could happen once they actually start working together at Oscorp. There was that hint about people working out who he was from the videos on the internet, really, anything could happen, but sadly, it's not gonna get written by me. Sorry about that! If I've left you totally unsatisfied, let me recommend this Peter/Gwen story by someone else - I'm following this one and it's got a real plot and everything!

s/8285113/1/Lying_Heart

If you're into Harry Potter and want to read more fanfic by me, check out my profile for some links to some stuff I've published on other sites.

Would love to hear what you think so jump on and review!