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~
The first time Peter wanted to kiss you, it had also been the first time he realized his feelings for you.
It was old news that Peter was the smartest kid in Midtown, so it made sense that you would go to him, your close friend, for extra help in pre-calculus.
“Pete, I’m gonna just choke myself and die. I’m so bad at this,” you groaned dropping your pencil onto the table. It was lunch, and you were sat in the cafeteria trying to do some last minute cramming before your test next period.
“No, you’re not. It’s just one complicated question that you’re over thinking. You’re going to pass the test, don’t stress yourself.”
“Mr. Thomson is a terrible teacher though, and I’m already practically failing his class. I literally am so dumb, I don’t even know how I got accepted here,” you whined. You slammed the textbook that was laying in front of you, shut, and slumped your head onto the table.
“(Y/N), don’t you think you’re being a bit too dramatic? You have an 83 in that class. Even if you do badly on this test, it’s just one out of the many others you have to do. You can still bring your mark up back to an A,” Ned reasoned. You lifted your head up and glared at him, your arms crossed across the table.
“Shut up, Ned. You and Pete both are like crazy geniuses. The next Tony Starks. Me, I will probably be the personal assistant of your personal assistants.”
“(Y/N)…” Peter reprimanded.
“It’s okay, Pete. I’ve accepted that I’m just going to fail and be homeless on the streets. What do you think my cardboard sign should say? I think it should say ‘God’s failure. Please help’. And maybe I should have a dog for the sympathy factor-”
“(Y/N), come on,” Peter said cutting you off. “You’re being ridiculous. You are just as smart as we are if not smarter. Sure you maybe suck with functions but you’re a genius when it comes to statistics. Who even needs to know about parabolas and graphs anyway. We have technology and computers that do all that work for us. You’re fine. You will do fine.”
You jutted your lips and made a face. Peter’s eyes immediately landed on your lips. He couldn’t help but notice how soft and inviting they looked.
You know those moments when your unconscious mind takes over and makes you say or think something and immediately you have instant regret and start hating yourself for saying or thinking that thing? That’s what happened to Peter.
God, she looks so kissable right now, his mind thought. Immediately regret filled his mind. Peter could feel his face turning red and it was at that moment that his mind registered that you had said something to him. He blinked his eyes wildly.
“I need to pee,” he blurted before getting up quickly from his seat. He slammed his leg onto the bottom of the table and hissed as he stumbled. His face felt hot.
“Peter, are you okay?” Ned asked concerned. Peter’s eyes found their way to you and he couldn’t help but notice how attractive you looked with a confused look on your face, and you biting on your lip in concern.
“Fine,” he squeaked before rushing away to the bathroom. He locked himself in a stall and stood back trying to breathe and calm down. Okay, so he did think you were pretty. It wasn’t something he thought about a lot because Ned also thought you were pretty and Ned wasn’t crushing on you. But the thought that his mind wanted to kiss you made Peter go wild. It was at that moment Peter was hit with the realization that he had a crush on his friend.
“Fuck,” he cursed quietly. He was so screwed.
~
The second time Peter Parker wanted to kiss you was also the last time he chose to be alone in a room with you.
You were over at his apartment studying for the upcoming physics test you both had. Well, more like you were on your phone scrolling through memes on Instagram while Peter was watching you like a creep. He wanted to slap himself for staring but his eyes just kept finding their way to you.
“Hey, look at this,” you chuckled showing Peter your phone. The two of you were seated on his bed and you leaned closer to him to show your screen.
It was a video someone had taken of him, Spider-man, swinging into the streets and quickly grabbing a wallet that someone had pickpocketed. The wallet was returned to the original owner and the thief’s hands were webbed to a nearby bicycle stand. Not a meme, but the video was enough to catch Peter’s attention.
“Who do you think he is?” you asked. Peter looked at you and could feel his face heating up at how close you were. You weren’t looking at him but it didn’t matter because just looking at you was enough to make his mind go to mush and have his face turn red.
“Huh?” he asked. He heard you loud and clear but his mouth didn’t know what else to say.
“Spider-man. Who do you think he is?” you repeated.
“I dunno,” Peter replied.
You turned your head to glance at him for a second and then looked back at your phone. You scrolled down and there were more videos and pictures of Spider-man.
“He seems super cool and friendly, I’d totally give him a hug. But also if I ever met Spider-man I’d probably just freak out and make a fool of myself,” you admitted.
“Really?” Peter asked. He was painfully aware of the fact that your shoulders were touching. He hoped you didn’t hear his heart beating as fast as it was.
“Yeah. I mean not to sound like a stalker or anything because I’m not. I just saw a couple of videos where he was talking and he sounds like a kid. It’s not every day that you see a child superhero. I’d hug him just because the things he’s seen are probably pretty bad. Things that kids don’t need to see at their age. Also because he’s a good person, helping everyone out and whatnot.” You scrolled down your phone to a close-up picture of Spider-man’s face. “Man, don’t take this the wrong way but I bet Spidey has a cute face. Or at least I hope he does. Good people deserve to have nice faces. I bet in school Spidey is like really popular with the girls. Or maybe he’s the mysterious hot guy that all the girls pine over.”
Peter only nodded and hummed at what you were saying. His eyes were on your lips and god he wanted to kiss you because you were basically praising the superhero side of him and nothing was more amazing than the fact that you, his crush, liked him as Spider-man.
“Sorry, this is probably awkward for you because you’re a guy.” Your face flushed in embarrassment and you kept your gaze low. You cleared your throat and turned off your phone. You scooted away from Peter, off the bed, and threw your phone where you were previously sitting. “I’m going to the bathroom. I’ll be back.”
And as you walked out of the room, Peter flopped back on his bed and rubbed his face vigorously trying to get rid of the blush on his face. Any minute longer and he probably would have actually tried kissing you and instead of leaving to go to the bathroom, you would have left the apartment altogether.
He buried his face in his hands and let out a groan. He couldn’t trust himself to be left alone in a room with you anymore. This would definitely be the last time Peter willingly chose to be in a room alone with you.
~
The third time Peter Parker wanted to kiss you, Ned also found out about his crush.
Sure Peter had initially decided that he wouldn’t be spending time alone with you anywhere, but now he was considering whether he should change his plans and stop spending time with you altogether.
It was Friday night and you all were having a movie night at Peter’s. It could have been a sleepover but Peter knew you had strict parents who wouldn’t let you stay the night alone in a boy’s house, even if they knew him. They were hesitant enough letting you go as it was even though you had mentioned MJ, a friend that was a girl, would be there. Peter didn’t want you to push the limits with your parents so he declared it simply as a movie night. Well more like movie evening since it was only 6 pm and you had to leave at 8.
“Guys,” you declared. “We need to toast to me passing Mr. Thomson’s test with a 94%.”
“(Y/N), we’ve been saying you’ll pass since the beginning,” Ned said.
“Shh,” you hushed him. “I brought cherry Kool-Aid. We need to celebrate my passing of the devil’s test with cherry Kool-Aid.”
You pulled out 4 juice pouches of Kool-Aid and passed them around to everyone.
“Ahem. In honour of me passing Mr. Devil’s-sorry, Thomson’s- dumb math test, we drink this punch. Also Mr. Kool-Aid man, please don’t kill me in my sleep. I know you really hated me when I was little because I didn’t like cherry flavour, and I still don’t, but that’s beside the point. I’m drinking it right now so please leave me alone.”
MJ snickered and Peter and Ned also cracked a smile. You were the first person to stab the straw into the hole and take a sip. The three of them followed your lead.
“Last one to finish their juice has to make the popcorn!” Ned exclaimed.
When you announce something like that to a room full of lazy teenagers, you know some kind of mess is bound to happen. Everyone suddenly began gulping their Kool-Aid, Peter being the first to down his entire pouch.
Ned and MJ quickly finished theirs while you started coughing. The juice in your hands and mouth spilled all over your clothes and on the floor of the living room.
Everyone stood frozen as you coughed. Peter was the first to react and began patting your back hoping that you weren’t choking too much on the juice.
“I think the Kool-Aid man still hates you,” MJ stated once you had calmed down.
“I hate cherry Kool-Aid so damn much,” you breathed out.
“Well that was a bust,” Ned said. “We’ll clean up the mess, you should change into some of Peter’s clothes.” Ned pointed out your shirt and Peter then noticed that the once white colour was now like his face; splotched with red and pink.
“Curse you, Kool-Aid man,” you grumpily said.
“Come,” Peter said quietly to you. He led the way to his room and grabbed a clean shirt and an old pair of pajama pants that he had outgrown. “You can change here. I’ll just leave,” Peter said. His face was blushy and hot and he wanted to slap himself. However, the idea of you in his clothes was making him hot and bothered. He hoped he wasn’t being too obvious about his crush on you.
He made his way to the living room to help MJ and Ned clean up the mess. Get a hold of yourself, Peter, he scolded himself mentally.
As Peter entered the room he was grabbed by the collar by Ned.
“Dude!” Ned whisper-shouted. “Do you like (Y/N)?”
Peter didn’t know if it was possible for his face to turn redder.
“What? No, I don’t,” he denied. “(Y/N) is just my friend. Nothing else.”
“You so like them.” Ned wiggled his eyebrows. “Don’t worry. I won’t tell anyone about your crush.”
“I don’t like anyone. Shut up, Ned,” Peter said exasperatedly.
“Oh my god, Peter has a crush?” You exclaimed entering the living room. “Who is she?”
“No one!” Peter and Ned exclaimed at the same time. You narrowed your eyes at the two boys but shrugged it off. Peter, on the other hand, was suddenly mesmerized by how you looked in his clothes. His mind ran over a scenario where he just grabbed you and kissed you because you looked so cute in his clothes. Seconds later he was ready to punch himself in the throat for even thinking like that.
“Okay. I’m gonna just wash my clothes and then make the popcorn so y’all can set up in Pete’s room,” you said, shaking Peter out of his thoughts.
“I’ll help you,” MJ offered. She threw the last of the tissues that she used to wipe up the floor, and then followed you into the kitchen.
That left Ned and Peter to go to his room and set up. The two boys went and Ned closed the door.
“Dude, they can’t hear us here. Just admit that you like (Y/N),” Ned said.
“I already said I don’t, Ned,” Peter replied slightly annoyed.
“Lies. You were just staring at them in your clothes, and you’ve been blushing since they arrived. It doesn’t take a genius to know that you have a crush.”
“Okay, fine,” Peter sighed. “I do like (Y/N). But they cannot know. You cannot tell them, Ned.”
“I won’t bro. But for the record, you should probably stop staring at their lips, that’s hella creepy.”
“Ned!” Peter exclaimed blushing harder. He grabbed a pillow from his bed and smacked Ned with it.
“Hey!” Ned complained. He also grabbed a pillow and hit Peter with it. And though they may have been having a pillow fight, Peter’s mind was elsewhere, thinking of (Y/N).
God, if Ned had figured out that Peter had a crush on you, it wouldn’t be long before you did too. He was definitely fucked.
~
The fourth time Peter Parker wanted to kiss you, Flash saved him from the embarrassment he would have faced if he hadn’t been interrupted.
It was the end of the day and Peter was having such a hard time controlling himself. He was ready to just leave school and try scoping the city for crimes in order to get his mind off of you.
“Peter!” Your familiar, sweet voice called out to him and though his heart fluttered, Peter was ready to smash his head into his locker door. You were the last person he wanted to see at the moment, especially after he embarrassed himself in physics class by blatantly staring at you and then getting called out by Mrs. Warren.
“Hey, Pete. I’ve been wanting to talk to you all day,” you admitted as you caught up to Peter’s side.
His heart warmed and began beating rapidly at the comment but his mind went uh oh. Did you find out? Were you going to hate on him for even feeling that way towards you? Were you going to announce the end of your friendship? Peter was anxious.
“Are you feeling okay? You’ve been off the last couple of days and then today in physics you literally zoned out and got the answer wrong to Mrs. Warren’s question. That has never happened before because you know your stuff, Pete.” You lifted your hand to feel Peter’s forehead and his face turned blushy and red like it always did when you were around.
“I’m fine,” he mumbled. “Just tired. I’ll be fine once the week is over and I catch up on some sleep.”
“Okay,” you said sounding uncertain. You frowned and Peter grabbed your hand from his forehead because he didn’t want you to feel how hot and bothered you made him. He was about to let go, but you gripped onto his hand and squeezed it. “Promise you’ll go home and take a nap before you start homework?”
“Um, I-, uh,” Peter stuttered. His palms were sweaty and he hoped that you didn’t notice. “I, uh, have the Stark internship after school.” Your eyes widened as if something had just dawned upon you.
“Oh my god, is it the Stark internship that’s tiring you out? Peter, I told you this when you first got it. You should just take the grant money and go. Rich people like Tony Stark don’t know what it’s like being poor. They just exploit their workers. And as far as I know, this is an unpaid internship. You’re doing all of Stark’s crap for what, nothing? I will fight Tony Stark if I have to, but Peter you really need to get some sleep.”
“Mr. Stark isn’t the problem, (Y/N),” he said. “I’ve just been going through some stuff, but I’m fine. Now if you have nothing else to say, I kind of have to go.” Peter slammed his locker shut and was already spinning around to try and get away from you but you grabbed onto his arm.
“Pete, wait,” you said anxiously. Peter squeezed his eyes tight and then forced himself to turn to you.
“Yeah?” he asked. He eyed your hand on his arm and you noticed, letting go of him.
“Um, I just- I was wondering if you hate me or something. You’ve been avoiding me the past month or so. I don’t know what I did, or if I did something to make you mad or upset, but I’m sorry. It’s okay if you don’t talk to me about certain things, that’s what Ned is for. But can you at least tell me what I did? I’ve been feeling pretty crappy the past week trying to figure out what I did wrong, and MJ has been up my ass telling me to talk to you.”
The nervous look in your eye and the way you were biting your lip anxiously was driving Peter up the wall. First you’re ready to go fight Mr. Stark for him, and now he’s made you feel bad about yourself. Peter never felt such self-loathing for himself in his life.
“You didn’t do anything wrong, (Y/N),” he sighed. “Like I said, I’ve just been going through some stuff. I’ll get over it soon.”
“Are you sure?” you asked. “You can tell me if I’ve done something to offend you. I won’t take it personally.”
“It’s nothing you can control,” Peter replied. You still looked unsure and nervous and so Peter sighed. He put a hand on your shoulder and hoped you couldn’t feel his fingers trembling. “I don’t hate you (Y/N). You’re still my friend and you’ve done absolutely nothing wrong. I just need to deal with this thing for myself, okay?”
“Okay,” you said in a quiet voice.
From behind, a student bumped into you, sending you forward, closer to Peter who held you to make sure you didn’t fall.
“Sorry,” you muttered, but you didn’t make any attempt to move away. Peter noticed your close proximity and his body heated up. His eyes landed on your lips and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t tear his eyes away. His face moved closer to yours, and in a soft, almost angelic voice you spoke.
“Pete?” God, he could listen to you speak for years, and lord he had fallen so hard for you. Peter’s eyes fluttered shut and you stood frozen as he slowly leaned his face down.
“Yo, Penis Parker!” a loud voice suddenly boomed in the hallway. Peter jerked away from you. His face was hot and he was sure that he was as red as a tomato.
“Sorry, I, uh-” Peter stuttered in embarrassment. “I need to- I have to go.” He clutched onto his backpack straps and sped away from you as fast as he could, leaving you standing there dumbfounded.
~
The first time Peter Parker actually kissed you, was really the first time you kissed Peter Parker.
Peter wasn’t a very good liar, which also meant that he was also pretty terrible at keeping secrets. It wasn’t that he intentionally blurted things out. It was just that Peter’s mouth worked faster than his brain, which for a kid genius was quite ironic.
That also meant that you already knew he had a crush on you before he actually admitted it to you. If anything, you’d overheard conversations he’d had with Ned about how much he liked you.
At first you were flattered. The first and only person that you knew had a crush on you was Jamie from grade 6. He’d shyly come up to you during recess and called you pretty. He also asked you for a kiss and a date which you replied to with a slap in the face. Maybe that’s why no one had ever bothered asking you out after that, but you didn’t mind. The fewer distractions you had, the better.
But after hearing his confession you started looking at Peter differently. At first you didn’t know if you genuinely liked him more than a friend or if it was just your mind overthinking everything. Then he nearly kissed you. That’s when you knew for sure you were probably falling for him too.
Sadly, that was the last time he’d ever talked to you. Ever since then, Peter avoided you like the plague. You were too shy and embarrassed to actually try and talk to him but after a week you had had enough. You tried to confront Peter but he would always, always, find a way to get away from you before you even had the chance to open your mouth.
So here you were, at the baby shower of one of your older cousins who you didn’t talk to much. It was absolutely stupid. Your parents refused to stay close to your relatives, only talking to them all during family events like these. It had its toll on you because you were always the odd one out, not knowing who you could talk to. You learned a long time ago that your cousins wouldn’t ever bother trying to make nice with you.
Sighing, you took a sip from the water bottle you held in your hands. You were seated in the kitchen, watching your mom chat and laugh with the other women of the house. The gossiping along with the sound from all over the house was making your head hurt.
“Hey, Mum,” you said quietly standing up. “I’m gonna go outside for a bit and get some fresh air.” Your mom barely glanced at you before nodding and going back to talking with one of your aunts.
You sighed and walked out the back door, into the backyard. You looked through the screen door and the sight of everyone talking and enjoying themselves brought a feeling of emptiness inside of you. God, you so wished Peter was here with you.
You slipped out your phone from your pocket to see if he had read your texts at all. He had but he didn’t reply. It was as if you didn’t exist anymore for him.
Peter can you please tell me why you’re avoiding me? I can’t live like this any longer, you typed out on your phone. Your hand hovered over the send button. You had sent multiple texts before asking what you did wrong and saying you were sorry for whatever you had done.
Fuck it, you thought and hit send. He probably would ignore it like the other texts but whatever. Once you got back to school you would try to confront him.
Immediately you saw the read receipt. You frowned and began to close the messaging app but then you saw the speech bubble appear. Your heart hammered and then you saw Peter’s response. Ok.
Okay? OKAY??? You began to seethe. What the fuck kind of reply was okay? You shut your phone off angrily and shoved it in the back pocket of your jeans. You walked around the side of the house and to the front, deciding to go for a walk to let off some steam.
The sky was dark and the coolness of the fall air made you shiver, but you didn’t want to go back inside. You would probably break something and then get yelled at and you really did not want to deal with any family drama at the moment. Peter was screwing with your life and now your head.
You mumbled curses under your breath and didn’t notice someone was following you until you heard a voice speak.
“You shouldn’t be out here in the dark and alone without a jacket.” You jumped because you thought you were alone.
“What the fuck?” you cursed turning around. You had walked to the end of the block, maybe more, you didn’t know. The sight of red and blue in front of you, however, surprised you even more. “Who- what- oh my god, you’re Spider-man!”
“Shh!” he hissed quickly throwing a gloved hand over your mouth. He glanced around the street to make sure no one was out and about to see him.
“We need to go somewhere. Don’t scream,” Spider-man said. Okay, so he was a boy. A teenage boy that probably hadn’t hit puberty yet.
“What do you mea- AH!” You were suddenly flying in the air and you screamed because not only did you not expect to be flying but also because you were absolutely terrified.
A few moments later you felt yourself stop moving. You had landed in a dimly lit alleyway beside a garbage bin.
“Oh my god, what the fuck, please don’t do that ever again!” you exclaimed pushing away from Spider-man. You wrapped your arms around yourself terrified. God, why did you think it was a good idea to go outside at night?
“Sorry, I just-” Spider-man let out an exaggerated sigh. “Okay, look.” He looked around to make sure no one was in the alleyway with you guys, and then he pulled off his mask.
You gasped loudly. “Pet-” Peter slapped a hand across your mouth to prevent you from saying his name out loud.
“Shh! I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I just didn’t want you or anyone else to get hurt, because I have enemies and if they knew who I was, (Y/N), they’d come after you. Also, before you say anything else, I have something to say to you. I’m sorry. I’m so damn sorry. I shouldn’t have ignored you or avoided you like I did. I just couldn’t help myself because every time I saw you I wanted to kiss you and I know you don’t like me. It was pretty dumb of me to fall in love with you. You don’t have to feel the same way. I’m the idiot. I just couldn’t stand watching you look sad and hurt because of me anymore. And I totally understand if you-”
You ripped his hand away from your mouth and glared at him.
“Oh my god, Peter. Just shut up.” And with that, you pressed your lips against his. Peter did shut up. He was absolutely shocked. After months of imagining how it would feel like to kiss you, it was finally happening.
He eyes were wide in shock and a high-pitched squeak came out from the back of his throat, and then he closed his eyes and kissed you back harder, pressing you against the wall on one side of the alley.
You pulled away first, out of breath and lips swollen. Peter’s eyes were on your lips and he wanted to kiss you again, but then you slapped him.
“You absolute idiot!” you exclaimed. “I thought I did something wrong! You had me worried all this time for no damn reason! Oh my god, and you’re Spider-man? I cannot believe you!” You pounded him on the chest as you ranted and Peter just laughed. He laughed with joy because you had kissed him and he was still giddy, but mostly he laughed because he was happy that he had you back.
“Shut up,” he said before pressing his lips against yours once again.