JACKPOT.

“Oh, no no no– this stuff isn’t for me. It’s stuff I gotta drop off at F.E.A.S.T. later.”

“I would greatly appreciate a tutorial.”

“Sorry,” Daisy chuckled softly, hoping she hadn’t offended the other girl too much. “I feel like I meet like three different versions of people every day these days. But you and the MJ of our universe are very different. For starters her name isn’t even Mary Jane.”

“Doesn’t make it any easier,” Daisy pointed out, shrugging her shoulders at the other woman. She didn’t want MJ to feel like she needed to justify it. It wasn’t like you can pick who you fall in love with most of the time, and Peter really was a catch. But having a superhero boyfriend had to be rough. She’d never dealt with dating a civilian during her time as Quake. After Lincoln she’d steered clear of dating for the most part. And Daniel was fun but she hardly counted him. “I’m sure he doesn’t think it makes things harder for him. He’s always gonna worry about you and you’ll always worry about him, that’s totally normal.”

“You know what, yeah. I will take some spaghetti.” Cindy smiled, thankful for the offer. Most of her food as of recent consisted of ramen at home or granola bars shoved into the pocket of her suit, so an actual meal with a friend would be nice.

“you know, hanging out with me means you’ll probably see your own face plastered all over tomorrow’s tabloids. kinda just an occupational hazard at this point.”

Cindy graciously took the popcorn bucket and took a large handful as she listened to Mary Jane, frowning along as she nodded her head and waited until her friend was finished. “I’m sure it’s really hard to have to sit on the sidelines and just hope that everyone comes home okay.” She sighed, her frown tugging lower on her lips at the mention of Gwen. She definitely knew of Gwen and knew how much she meant to Peter and MJ, but it was nearly impossible to feel the pain her friends felt at the mention of the blonde. “You are there for Peter just by being you, MJ. You mean the world to him. Maybe you should talk to him? Tell him how you feel? I know sometimes it’s easy to get tunnel vision when you have so much on your plate like him.”

“I just really, really wanted to help my dad. Losing him to the quantum realm for most of my childhood and watching the world fall apart was enough motivation.” Cassie insisted, smiling at the mention of the spidey suit. “Did you do anything in it? Stop a bank from being robbed? Help an old lady across the street?” She joked.

“No, we can’t. That’s why I’m telling you that you should step back and let the superheros and Gods handle things.”

“You can’t just bring something like that up and then not say it, you know.”

Felicia hesitated for a moment, pausing to rub the back of her neck before ultimately sighing and pointing to the candy section. “I wanted that Twix bar. Thanks..” She trailed off, tilting her head at the redhead. “Things have been going well for you recently, then? I haven’t seen you in awhile. I was kind of busy with the whole being kidnapped by S.H.I.E.L.D. thing.”

“Mm, makes sense. I’m sure wouldn’t want to bring me up too often, probably doesn’t want to make you jealous or anything.” Felicia smirked softly as she shrugged at the question, knowing that realistically Peter wasn’t going to cheat on MJ with her. But it was still fun to pretend, right? 

“My name’s Felicia. Felicia Hardy.” She smiled, not bothering to hold her hand out as she moved to the side and let MJ walk in. Closing the door behind her, Felicia turned around to face the redhead as she nonchalantly crossed her arms. Felicia’s relationship with Peter was complicated, but she’d always have a soft spot for him. Part of her was always going to wonder what could have happened had she not gone to Europe, but she’d never know. 

When Felicia returned and heard from Venom that Peter had moved on, she was furious. She’d tried to just tell herself to move on, but how could she? She’d fallen in love with Peter, only to come back and find out he had a new girlfriend. Mary Jane Watson. 

Felicia had done her homework, getting to know Peter’s new fling, but this was the first time she’d spoken to the girl face to face. “He had to head to the Bugle for something. Must have forgotten about plans he made with you. Again.” Felicia pouted as she took a seat on the arm of the couch and shrugged. “I stayed the night. Spider-Man and I were out pretty late last night.”

“hm. maybe.” her voice was high pitched, tone clearly insincere. she didn’t want to play that way but felicia was clearly goading her. god, mj. way to be a better person than you were in high school, her inner critic berated her. peter liked her. maybe he loved her. he hadn’t said so yet but he had that look in his eyes that they all did before they told her. she was just going to be sincere. it would make it worth the wait.

“nice to meet you, felicia. i’m mary jane watson. my friends call me mj.” keyword: friends. she moved into the kitchen to grab a glass of water from the tab. the red head sucked it down almost in one gulp, bright red lipstick leaving a ring on the rim of the glass. the entire situation was killing her but mj was working for her oscar here.

taking out her phone, she quickly shot peter a text. hey, tiger. where are u? thnx for the heads up on ur friend.

not expecting an answer, she quickly shoved it in her purse and left it on the table. “the bugle’s a good gig. it’s not biggie. i’ve had to blow him off for auditions before.” not that she’d booked any gig of significance yet.

talking about her feelings was -- technically -- something mary jane was good at. she had always been a bit of a bleeding heart, a bit too dramatic when it came down to things. mj felt things deeply and was someone who wanted to talk about them.

why, then, was it so difficult sometimes?

she still had her tower on. damp ( dyed ) red hair was negating its work and keeping her shoulders wet. with her focus on the closet and trying to figure out what she was going to wear to her audition, it took a moment for her to realize she wasn’t alone and she jumped in surprise.

“--jesus. i’m going to have a heart attack; which is super not ideal because I’m too pretty to die young.”

c’mon, mj. don’t be a coward. tell him how you feel instead of bitching to other people.

“And what did Peter say about me, exactly?”

“Oh god, like from The Fly? That would be kinda gnarly. There was a chance I could have completely messed up my physical state of matter, but lucky I’m all good. No phasing.”

“Nope, stop right there. Before you say anything— this is just as confusing for me as it is for you. Scratch that— this is way more confusing for me. So just- don’t say anything stupid, alright?”