Chapter Text
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“Hey, so you know how it’s my birthday in a couple weeks?”
“Yeh of course, I was planning on pretending to forget so you’d get mad and make that hilarious face.” Spidey grins back at him, his mask still halfway up his face after they finished the hot dogs they’d bought earlier (Correction, Johnny bought earlier).
“What face?!” Johnny exclaims “I don’t have any hilarious faces” he looks appalled at the thought.
“Oh, c’mon torchy, it’s almost like the one you’re doing right now!” Spidey laughs at him.
Johnny tries desperately to return his face to neutral one and Spidey continues to laugh at him. He’s always trying to get a rise out of him.
“Anyway” johnny continues, trying to ignore him. “I’m having a little party at the baxter… sorry at avengers tower, nothing crazy, more like a dinner party if anything.” He’s rambling a bit.
Spidey looks intrigued now, he’s tilting his head to the side, listening intently. Johnny glances back and him and then out at the view, God why is he so nervous right now.
“And I was wondering if you wanted to come. ... in costume of course.” He tags on at the end.
Spidey smiles slightly, if johnny had to guess he would say he’s looking at him endearingly, but that can’t be right. Sometimes it’s hard to tell without being able to see his eyes.
“Of course, I’d love to come”
Johnny lets out a small sigh of relief.
“I’ll wear the least smelly suit I have.” Johnny glares at him, but then laughs slightly, Spidey is so stupid.
“Great, it’ll just be us and my family, and maybe we could have a movie night after?” Johnny says.
“Sounds perfect,” Spidey smiles again. “Now I have to figure out what to get you, you’re so impossible to buy for.”
Johnny huffs at him. “You weren’t going to get me anything if I didn’t invite you to a party?”
Spidey laughs, “You’re doing that face again.”
Johnny groans and falls back against the metal of the stature of liberty. “I hate you.” He mumbles out as Spidey continues to giggle. He stuffs his hand into his pocket and pulls out the invitation reed dosed in unstable molecules. He tosses it in Spidey’s direction. “Here.”
Spidey picks up the invitation, “wow, so official” he says as he looks it over. Johnny had put some effort into making the invitation for him. It was a nice card stock with gold flame embellishments around the edges that shone in the moonlight.
Spidey quiets and nudges Johnny with his elbow, getting him to look up. “Thank you for inviting me, I haven’t been to a party in ages.” He smiles sincerely at him. These moments were rare with Spidey; he got so on johnny nerves at times and then would hit him with a small moment of realness that confused johnny to no end.
He wondered often what Spidey’s life was like out of the suit, if he was always cracking as many jokes as he does when he’s spiderman or maybe he’s like he’s being right now, sincere. It makes Johnny’s heart jump a bit at the thought. He’s sure there’s a perfect balance if you knew him well enough.
“You’re welcome” he smiles back at him. Something passes between them, well johnny thinks something does. It’s weird when it happens, Spidey always looks away first and they don’t talk for a minute, and they he’ll make a stupid joke and it’s back to normal.
Johnny, wish he knew what he was thinking. But as people say, eyes are the window to the soul and johnny knew he would never be able to truly understand Spidey without being about to see his.
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Peter scrambled back into the window of his shoebox apartment and let himself fall to the floor; he pulled out the invitation johnny had given him and ran his fingers across the gold embossed flames.
He and Johnny had been friends for some time now. The four had shown up on earth about a year ago after they accidentally travelled through dimensions and ended back on the wrong earth. Some multi-dimensional alien or something had messed with their ship and they were still trying to find it to get back home.
Luckily for them, the avengers gave up a floor of their tower for them to use until they could figure it out. Sam honestly seemed eager for them to stay. Reed’s genius was something to behold and the avengers could certainly use more brains after Tony died. He smiles sadly at the thought of him before pushing it away, as he normally does.
Anyway.
Peter had been intrigued by johnny from the beginning, they were similar in age, but also johnny had just lost his whole world, just like peter. He still had his family of course but peter imagined he was feeling similar to how he felt when everyone forgot him. Alone.
Johnny was the one of the four that was out in the city the most. It seemed reed, sue and ben were doing most of the research, leaving johnny to his own devices. It was only a matter of time before he and Spidey ran into each other. They become fast friends.
Johnny didn’t act like he was alone, he talked about his family a lot and didn’t mention many friends back home, or anyone really. Peter wondered if he had any sometimes, but johnny was so handsome and charming he refused to believe he didn’t. peter had kept the information he told johnny to a minimum, he didn’t need to burden him with his hurt.
Peter had been alone now for 2 years, he had a couple of study buddies but they only really saw each other at college and Theo at his favourite sandwich place knew his name, but that was about it.
He’d stopped going to michelle’s coffee shop after a few weeks, she had left for college with ned and as much as it pained him, he knew he had to move on. Let them live their lives in peace, away from his cursed aura or whatever caused everything and everyone’s lives around him go to shit.
Peter thinks it’s why his relationship with johnny has been so easy, he’s got these amazing powers to protect himself and he knows that sometime soon johnny will get to go home, away from peter and his destruction.
He holds the invitation up to the warm glow of his lamp and lets the light dance along the gold.
But now he has a new issue, he thinks he likes him. Like, romantically. Peter had had to wrap his head around it as first, but he always knew somewhere in him that he was bi. It just hadn’t manifested itself so viscerally yet, just little attractions here and there. But johnny was something else.
He was so funny, charming and handsome and sometimes endearingly sheepish and shy, not that Johnny would ever admit it.
Peter had felt the feelings coming along for months, hoping if he pushed them down enough they would eventually go away but alas. Johnny was intoxicating. He’d even tried avoiding him, but johnny would then seek him out.
He was pretty sure johnny felt it too, the occasional lingering looks and softs touches. Nothing scandalous but enough to know. There was something there.
Now he had this invitation to his party, scratch that, intimate dinner. In his house with his family. It was almost like his was inviting him to meet his parents. To get their approval on his new ‘friend’.
He sighs, sits and then stands, walking over to his kitchenette, invitation in hand.
Maybe if he and johnny have a fling, it will help him move away from his old life. He knows it can’t last so would give him an opportunity to try to move on without any real commitment. Plus, these feelings his having can’t be that real, he’s probably just latching onto johnny because he’s the only person who’s shown any interest in him as a person for years.
He puts the invitation down gently on the cheap linoleum countertop.
Yes, this is a good idea. See if he can give it a go with him and you know have a normal relationship at least for a little while. What’s the worst that could happen?
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After Peter’s revelation, things with Johnny flow easily; he stops looking away when they have their moments and leans into the little touches. Johnny doesn’t seem to mind, even if he seems a bit surprised at first.
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Johnny glances at Spidey, they’re sitting on top of the Empire State Building, a little change of scenery from their usual place. Johnny bought pizza. They’re leaning against a ledge with the pizza between them. Spidey’s scoffing it down with his same amount of disgusting eagerness as he usually does. He always acts like he’s completely starved, Johnny wonders if maybe Spidey struggles to afford food; it never occurred to him before.
Johnny hopes he doesn’t eat like this at dinner. He wants his family to think Spidey’s at least partially normal.
The rest of the four didn’t seem overly keen on his newfound friendship with Spider-Man. They had warned him when they first realised they were going to be stuck here for a while, to not seek out any new friends, that they would have to leave this world behind and everyone on it. They didn’t belong here.
Of course, that just made it all the more enticing for him. Although he didn’t actually think he would find someone he likes so quickly. At least with spidey, he doesn’t know much about him. He’s a mysterious stranger who makes stupid jokes that make johnny laugh and maybe makes johnny really happy but it’s just a fleeting thing, nothing real.
He’s pretty sure of it.
Although recently he’d noticed a change in spidey. They had always been a bit flirty in the banter kind of way and Johnny would tease him with little nudges here and there but Spidey would always brush it off. Now, it seemed like he was embracing it and sometimes even reciprocating it.
Normally Johnny would’ve been much more forward, but with the constant impending doom of their friendship, he tried to distant himself enough that his eventual departure wouldn’t destroy him. But with Spidey now seeming actually interested in Johnny it was making things incredibly difficult to do so.
He realises he’s been staring at Spidey for an uncomfortably long amount of time now and quickly glances away.
“Hey! Why’d you look away, you couldn’t have gotten sick of my beautiful face that quickly.” Spidey quips at him, grinning devilishly.
Johnny’s ears and cheeks burn and hopes Spidey doesn’t notice in the darkness. “Sorry got a bit lost there for a minute.”
Spidey’s smile turns sweet, God it was doing things to him. “Just to clarify, I was lost in thought” Johnny rambles on.
“Oh, of course, yes, lost in thought..” Spidey’s smile continues.
“You’ve been weird lately” Johnny continues. “Please be normal for my party tomorrow”
“Of course I will be flame brain, I gotta leave a good impression on your family. What if they don’t like me and lock you away in the tower?!” he puts his hand to his forehead dramatically as if about to faint. “How would I survive without my supplier of pizza and hotdogs?”
Johnny laughs at him, he picks up the now empty pizza box between them and lets it light up in his hands, burning quickly to a crisp. The flash of fire lights up Spidey’s face, showing off his defined jaw and light freckles. It was rare Johnny got to see light on him. The glow looks good on him.
“I’m sure you’d be fine” Johnny says as closes the gap between them on the ledge, nudging his shoulder against Spidey’s.
Spidey looks at him and smiles, there’s something in the way he tilts his head to the side a bit, surveying Johnny. He looks nervous.
“You know I trust you, right?” Spidey says carefully. Not breaking eye contact.
Johnny squints at him quizzically, there was no way he was about to reveal his identity surely. “I guess, I do now.” He replies.
Spidey hums under his breath, “good”. He moves to stand up, Johnny’s gaze moves with him.
“I should get home,” he says quickly. “But I’ll see you tomorrow night, at 7 for dinner.” It almost sounded like he was confirming a date for a second before johnny remembers it is in fact his birthday tomorrow.
“Yes, on the dot, if you’re late they might lock me away.” Johnny responds
Spidey gives him one last daring smile before pulling his mask back down. “I wouldn’t dare”
He gives Johnny a salute as he steps off the building, free falling for a terrifying few seconds before catching himself and swinging away, letting out a loud whoop as he goes.
Johnny sighs, tomorrow could really only go poorly, why did he do this to himself.
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“You know I’m just worried about you” Sue exclaims softly, she’s sitting with him in his room.
“We both remember what happened after Shalla Bal, you got attached. I know you said you were fine after she sacrificed herself, but we could all tell you were hurting Johnny.” She sighs lowly and looks at him.
“You all could tell? That’s great,” Johnny says trying to lighten the mood a bit. It doesn’t work.
“This Spider-Man character, I know you say he’s just being friendly but there’s a reason we told you to stay in the tower. Reed could figure out how to get home any day now and you’ll have to say goodbye to him forever.” She’s looking at him with an intense amount of worry in her eyes. He loathes it to an extent but knows it comes from a good place.
“I know Sue, and I will be fine, I’m just doing research on this world by learning about the people, just like with Shalla Bal. Spidey is helping me, that’s all” he offers her a small smile. It doesn’t change the look on her face.
“I guess he’ll tell us all about this world tonight, right?”
Johnny nods, “yes exactly, that’s why I invited him.”
Sue doesn’t look convinced in the slightest. “Okay johnny… just please be careful”
“I am, he’s just a friend… a casual friend who I could say goodbye to forever and not care at all” Johnny surprises himself by blurting out the words. God, Sue looked so worried.
“I’m going to check on ben; he’ll nearly be ready with dinner.” She stands and leaves his room quickly. Damnit, that didn’t quell his worry about the night at all.
He goes over to his mirror to double check his outfit. He looks good, his hair had grown since they’ve come and he’s swept into a casual but nice style that frames his face well. He’s wearing a dark blue sweater that hugs all the rights part of his chest and brown pants. He wonders if Spidey will notice the effort he put in to look nice. He hopes he does.
He ponders if Spidey will put a blazer over his suit or something and laughs to himself lightly. His confusing feelings for him had only gotten worse. Sue was right, he seemed to have a pattern of wanting things that were unattainable to him.
But it’s fine, it’s his birthday. He’s going to have a nice dinner with his anonymous friend from this new weird dingy version of earth that he has totally normally feelings for and then they will leave forever and Johnny will be fine. He’ll be totally fine... leaving Spidey forever. Yeh… he’ll be fine.?
He pushes the thought away, smiles to himself in the mirror and walks out the door.
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Peter is standing at the bottom of Avengers tower. Not Spider-Man, just plain old Peter Parker.
Nobody knows who spider-man is. No one on this earth. He hasn’t told anybody since the spell; he hasn’t wanted to. But now standing at the bottom of Avenger’s tower, more than anything in the world, he wants to tell Johnny Storm.
His feelings for johnny had grown tenfold. After pushing them away for so long, embracing them has made peter giddy. He feels like a teenager again, about to ask his crush out to prom.
But no, he’s 19, about to reveal his incredibly secret identity to a team of superheroes from another dimension. He guesses that if he was going to tell anybody, it makes sense to tell the people who are eventually leave forever. The sudden thought dims peters excitement for a moment, before he remembers that this is the reason he wants to be with Johnny. So he can have a sweet fling with a handsome boy he likes and then he’ll leave and Peter will be content with having a connection with someone for a little while and he hopes Johnny will too.
This is all contingent on Johnny liking Peter as Peter as well, not just as Spider-Man.
He looks at himself in the reflection of the windows of the tower. He looks decent, he thinks. He showered, combed his rat nest of hair in a semi okay style. He wore his nicest shirt, it’s a bit too small now that’s he’s grown, clinging to his arms a little bit too tight, but he hasn’t needed a nice shirt for years, so he never bought a new one. Then black pants and his messenger tote which holds his very modest present for johnny. He’s a poor student; he couldn’t get him anything that nice as much as he wants too.
“Are you comin in or what?” I gruff voice meets his ears. He startles a bit, where’s his Spidey-sense when he needs it.
A security guard stands at the door of the tower. Holding it open for him.
“Oh yes, sorry,” he hurries inside. “Thank you,” he says as he passes the guard and walks up to the receptionist.
“I have an invitation to see the Fantastic Four.” He holds up Johnny’s invitation. The receptionist looks at him confused and takes the invitation to look at it, then something must click for them.
“Oh yes, they told me I might see you,” he grins at Peter. “They said you might just swing through the window though” Peter's eyes widen; he didn’t think this through at all. So, the first person to learn his identity is in fact a random receptionist of Avengers tower.
“Don’t worry, your secrets safe with me” then he whispers “Spider-Man”
Peter splutters, knowing there’s no point denying it. “Thank you” he says quietly. He guesses that the Avengers receptionist are probably privy to most of the secret identities within the new team.
“You can take that elevator there” he points at one, “Floor 84”. Peter nods and walks cautiously over, carefully looking around to see if anyone was listening to the conversation but the lobby is almost empty of any people.
He enters the elevator. He thought he was in full panic mode but honestly the receptionist figuring it out kind of helped. Sure, this was a big secret, but no one was coming to hurt that random receptionist to get to him and it would be the same with the Fantastic Four, they can all protect themselves. Peter didn’t even have any arch enemies anymore. They all left when every trace of him disappeared.
He fixes his posture, standing up straight as the elevator rises.
Floor 25.
He takes a deep breath and rehearses what he will say when he gets out.
Floor 50
“Hey, I’m Peter”
Floor 75, this elevator was fast
“I’m here for the party.” God, this is so stupid.
Floor 84.
The elevator stops; the door starts to open.
Peter is greeted by bright blue eyes and he smiles.
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