Chapter Text
MJ doesn’t notice for a while. Her razor sharp observational skills have always had a slight blind spot when it comes to herself. Her period’s never been regular and New York is still basically a recovering rubble heap so, yeah, there are more important things to worry about.
She rationalizes that no matter what happens in the movies no one really gets pregnant the first time. And they were dumb, for a minute, desperate to be close, right after Peter got back from a battle in outer space that MJ still can't quite believe actually happened. She still can't quite believe that they actually happened-all clumsy hands and pure adrenaline-how in that moment she wanted Peter and he wanted her, needed her, too.
But she got Plan B and so they should be fine. Peter even paid for half of it.
Peter worries about it on and off for weeks but then figures if Michelle’s not freaking out he shouldn’t and he goes all the way to Brooklyn to buy condoms for next time, if there ever is a next time. The next couple of times he's around MJ he doesn't know how she can be so calm while he's over here trying to remember what normal people do with their hands. Sometimes when she's especially close his brain just sort of short circuits and his face heats up when he remembers he knows what it feels like inside her.
But they start hanging out more, with and without Ned. Peter's able to get a handle on his total creep-ness for MJ, so he's killin' it, he thinks.
Life starts to fall into a normal routine. Movie nights where MJ gets to call Ned and Peter losers but never forgets to bring cheap pizza or boxes of shitty tacos. The boys will stop by and keep her company in detention and draw awful stick figures they claim represent people, desks, and office supplies ‘in crisis’.
The whole Decathlon Team goes to Homecoming as a giant date-conglomerate. MJ drops off Betty and Hakeem on the way home and pulls the car over on a quiet side street.
“My place is just a couple blocks more west, if you take a right at the Wendy’s--”
“You don’t have a curfew, right?”
“Not really, not anymore.”
“Then, do you want to?” she raises her eyebrows.
“Yes. Yeah. Yes. Absolutely.” he says and bangs his head crawling into the backseat. He's been thinking about this ever since the first time. She snorts and rolls her eyes and walks out of the driver’s side to join him.
He pushes her tuxedo jacket back off of her shoulders as she kisses him silly and unbuttons his pants. She fumbles with her heels and her pants and he fumbles and drops the condom twice. He finally rolls it on and as MJ eases down onto him she thinks she finally really understands what all the fuss is about with sex.
Peter comes home with some of MJ’s lipstick still smeared on his cheek and Aunt May teases him about it for days.
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Peter spends way too much time at school selecting the cutest pictures of baby animals to text her during the day, and he’s delighted in a way that baffles Ned when she sends back pictures of Things Full of Beans That Should Not Be Full of Beans and poems she’s written based on Craigslist missed connections.
Sometimes MJ decides she wants to play along with Spider-Man when Peter’s out patrolling. Peter privately thinks she’s a better Man-in-Chair than Ned is. She’s more strategic and less concerned with Peter looking badass in action, though Ned is definitely more dedicated to the job.
Peter takes MJ to the diner on 21st St. that Aunt May loves in a sort-of date. He introduces her to cannoli cheesecake, which she declares an insult to cheesecake and eats two pieces of anyway. Peter slips his hand into MJ’s on the walk home.
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The day after Halloween they’re lounging on MJ’s bed in her parent’s newly restored 3-bedroom apartment. Peter’s resting his head in her lap and eating bag after bag of fun-size M&Ms and MJ keeps noticing him twitch like he’s listening for something.
“Parker, c’mon, what is it?” she says around a mouthful of Laffy Taffy “Are the petty criminals of Queens finally calling out for justice?”
“No,” he says “But can you hear that?”
“Hear what?” she unwraps a Tootsie Pop.
“I keep hearing this little thump-y sound. I could swear you have an alternate pulse or second heartbeat or something, it’s super weird. But it’s probably just farts. You’ve got weird sounding farts.” he says with a giggle and stretches over her legs to grab a left Twix.
“Shut up.” she says. She’s stuck on the phrase ‘second heartbeat’ and she counts back days and weeks in her head and curses Peter’s spidey-whatever and curses herself.
“You need to go. I’ve been meaning to, um, devise a protest theatre piece that represents the absence of human connection in the age of social media. And I’ve just...been inspired.” which is an excuse she’s sure isn’t good enough considering how much time she and Peter have spent discussing the social neutrality of technological interfaces, but he goes anyway and makes her promise to perform it for him at lunch on Friday.
As soon as she’s sure Peter’s out of the building, MJ starts to google. She looks up failure rates on Plan B. She looks up when fetal heartbeats are developed and swears out loud. She thinks it’s just not possible, he can’t possibly have heard, that’s insane. But Peter can crawl up walls, and stop buses with his bare hands, and that’s also insane. Shit. Fuck. She tries to think if she feels nauseous or bloated or maybe had a period she can’t remember. She looks up information about abortions, just in case. She has time to decide. If. She’s too young. Peter’s too young.
She’s just not the kind of girl who has a baby at 17. She might not be the kind of girl who has a baby ever. But yet. Here she is. She erases her search history and runs through what she would tell Peter and prays this is just a case of moderate to severe paranoia.
She should take a test, first she thinks. To be sure. She heads to the Duane Reed on the corner and as she’s cashing out in comes Flash.
“Michelle! Hey girl. Fancy running into you here.” Flash says as he swaggers up to lean on the display of gum and women’s magazines by the counter.
He sees what she’s buying and almost knocks the display over.“Oh my god, Michelle, is that a pregnancy test?” Flash whispers.
“Is it?” she says as she hands over a ten and walks out with waiting for change.