#believing the group will solve anything w the power of friendship is the lie i tell myself after each episode ends so i can sleep at night

[jout--jout]

oh what have we here? is it that day of the week where my brain gets shaken like a maraca by these 3 emotions for 4 hours straight?

yes. yes it is.

[thorongil82]

Finding Treasure

Can also be read on AO3 here

Fandom/s: Spider-Man: Homecoming, Marvel Cinematic Universe

Words: 4,575

Tag-list: @forasecondtherewedwon @you-guys--are-losers @spideychelleforever @tvfanatic97-2 @peterxchelle Just thought you guys might like this.

Summary: Michelle is bitterly disappointed and frustrated after Ned and Peter waste their time searching for treasure. Maybe she was just looking in the wrong place …

There were times when Michelle Jones really questioned her decision on going on a road trip. She never did like the idea of going on one at any stage of her life. Period. She had always believed that the only reason people bothered even considering the notion was because they held some weird belief that in the short time they would disappear from home they would have some adventure or spectacular event that would change their life for the better. It was different from tourists; they at least usually had a good reason for travelling, and it would probably be the only time they’d get to experience that journey. Road trips were traditionally poorly conceived ideas that would almost certainly end up with cars breaking down, items being lost or stolen, someone getting sick at the most inconvenient of moments, and general jerks trying to take advantage of strangers to the area. In today’s world, if people wanted adventure they only needed to wait for someone with a grudge on an Avenger to become crazy enough to act on it. Or wait for another alien invasion. Both were as likely to happen as the other, at this stage.

Apparently having a best friend that one obsessively crushes on with a superhero alter-ego can dampen the fear of invasion or super-villains quite severely (so long as one is not directly involved).

So, Michelle really had very little interest in going on a road trip. Especially one that was both initiated and planned by her two closest friends. She had so very many plans for the holidays; so many new books to read, protests to help organise and attend, ousting certain male public figures with power and money for the misogynists and/or racists that they are, articles to write on her blog that no one knew was hers, sketching her crush strangers in crisis, and a lot of lying around her apartment daydreaming about one Peter Parker without a care or worry in the world. She had spent so long listening to them planning out their trip during their get togethers that when they asked her if she wanted to accompany them she had every intention of saying no. Even if it meant that she had to lie and come up with some lame excuse, it’s not like they could complain about that considering how poorly they tried to hide Peter being Spider-Man. When she had opened her mouth to answer, the “no” that sat on the tip of her tongue would’ve been so emphatic that such a road trip turn down would never have been seen or heard again. And yet, something froze her vehement refusal. That something being the wide, hopeful, pleading irresistible puppy eyes wielded against her by Peter - eyes that, in her not-so humble opinion, should be declared an international security risk in their own right. Such was the power of his imploring gaze - helped along by the sudden realisation that she could spend a lot of time with him in a confined space - that the “no” stuck in her mouth was swallowed back down and swiftly replaced with a deadpan, “Eh, why not?”

And now here she was, stuck in a small town - the name of which she really couldn’t care to even check as they drove in - that they were meant to stop at just to grab a bite and drink, because the two losers became enamoured by the ‘town legend’ of a fearsome outlaw who stashed away his treasures somewhere nearby. Clearly ignoring her protests that the whole thing was just a tourist trap designed to keep them in town longer and spend more money that they didn’t need to - the fact that the waitress, a dainty redhead teenager with freckles, was flirting with future-Michelle’s Peter, had nothing to do with her protests, though he was thankfully oblivious to her attempts - the pair of dorks set off to try and find the hidden treasures, with Michelle reluctantly tagging along. The trio, having solved a series of riddles and clues, are being led through a network of caverns by Ned, who was navigating from the map they conveniently found at the location of the supposed last clue - the grave of the outlaw’s son, how very cliché - with Peter bringing up the rear and leaving a trail of webs behind them so they would not lose their way, causing Michelle to be stuck in the middle of their nerd sandwich.

“It should be just past this corner,” Ned informs them, glancing up and down between the tunnel and the map.

Ned rounds the corner first, leading the trio into a small cave with a small room at the end walled off with metal bars. Inside the cage, the door already thrown wide open, is tossed empty sacks, a tattered wooden table, empty open chests, and a few small gold pieces scattered along the ground.

”O-Oh … well, this isn’t good,” Ned says.

"Really?! This is it?! This is all there is?!” Michelle shouts, her irritation boiling over.

“Guess someone must have beaten us to it,” Peter offers as he walks in behind them, his voice trailing off slightly as he spots the daggers that Michelle is glaring at him.

“Or there wasn’t any treasure to begin with,” she growls.

"It could be worse …”

"I cannot believe you idiots made us waste all that time for this!” she snaps, turning round and gesturing to the near-empty cell, during which Ned shoots Peter a look that almost pleads, ‘you can handle this’.

"Y-You know, MJ,” Peter starts, getting her attention while Ned sneaks past to access the barred door, “the real treasure could be the way our friendship has grown throughout this journey.”

Michelle stares blankly at him before bluntly replying, “No. You both promised me gold. I want my fucking gold.”

“Look on the bright side,” Ned proposes as he searches the cell, having already opened the apparently unlocked cell door, “at least there is still some stuff here.”

"It’s worthless,” she scoffs as Peter walks around her to begin his search.

"Come on, MJ. If you don’t look, you’ll definitely be getting nothing,” Peter points out as he starts collecting the leftover gold pieces laying on the ground, causing her to huff and grumble as she plods into the cage with them.

”Like you wouldn’t share it with me anyway, loser,” she mutters to herself.

Peering into one of the chests, Michelle finds herself staring at a golden necklace, the chains thin and spindly, designed almost like a spider’s thread, with an obsidian pendant with a ruby indent dangling from it. Michelle reaches out and touches it. As soon as she lays a finger upon it, a vision flashes before her eyes. Michelle sees herself lying on top of Peter in bed, hungrily kissing his swollen lips before trailing down his neck, as his hands run over her body, dancing across her skin. She quickly comes to and can feel her face burning, before quickly grabbing the necklace and stuffing it inside her clothing, out of the way.

"MJ? Did you find something?” Peter inquires

"N-No!” she squeaks before clearing her throat. “Just thought I saw a rat. I-It was nothing.”

“Well, we’re going to head back,” Ned speaks up, the two boys having already collected up anything in the cage that could possibly be worth something - at least, that would be believable for teenagers to carry out. It would be hard for people to accept Peter carrying a large thick chest if they saw him. “You coming?”

"Y-Yeah.”

Michelle waits a couple of seconds to try and bring herself under control before turning and following after the two boys, attempting to coax her face back into its usually bored and stoic expression while desperately hoping neither one would notice the slight pink tinge to her cheeks and the tips of her ears. The pure, innocent, happy smile that her crush shoots back at her does nothing to settle her nerves, only causing the warmth to flare even fiercer.

Later that night, after brushing off Peter and Ned’s apologies for wasting her day on a fruitless search, when they finally return to their individual rooms in the hotel they had to book into for the evening, Michelle pulls out the necklace and stares at it before her. No matter how hard she tries, she cannot think of any reason why she would suddenly see something at her first touch of the item, nor why it would happen to be a vision of one of her fantasies involving Peter - as if any of her others don’t. Chalking it up to the heat and a case of dehydration, Michelle instead stares at the design.

"Isn’t it ironic that a group with Spider-Man would find a spider necklace?” Michelle asks out loud to herself. “Maybe I should give it to Peter …”

Michelle just stares at it for a while before standing up with a huff and walking over to the nearby mirror. She looks at her own reflection as she places the chain around her neck, clicking it together behind her face. The spider sits pretty much perfectly in the cut of her shirt, while the golden webs glisten against her skin. A hand flies to the spider pendant and carefully caresses it.

"It would be just my luck if this would be the only thing that gets him to notice me …” she complains to her reflection. “It would be just like him too, noticing another spider.”

Her hands falls limply to her side as she sighs.

"This was a stupid idea …”

A knock sounds out against her hotel room.

"MJ? Are you in there?” Peter’s voice questions from the other side of the door. 

Michelle swallows down her nerves and slowly walks over to the door, opening it to see Peter’s bright, happy, adorable, cute face beaming up at her.

"What is it, Peter?”

Peter holds up some of the gold pieces he had picked up earlier.

"W-Well, I know you didn’t find anything and - despite you saying that it was worthless - I thought you should at least get some of our treasure. It was kinda our fault you were there.”

Michelle’s gaze drops to the floor as she twists the ball of her foot on the ground, trying to keep down the big grin that this lovable loser makes her want to show.

"Pete, you don’t have to give me anything,” she mumbles.

”I know,” he grins. “But I want to.”

Michelle looks back up at his beaming face and gives him a tight lipped smile in return. She fidgets with her hands, unsure if she should take it, if so, and how - hold out her hand and let him place them in hers, or take them from his hand and risk brushing her fingers against his -  when she notices his eyes flicker down from her face and fixate somewhere on her chest.

"What’s that?”

Michelle automatically reaches up quickly to grab the pendant, covering it with her hand.

"Oh, it’s … I just found it in one of the chests …” she explains.

"Really?”

'I knew it …’ Michelle laments internally, ‘That’s all he noticed …’

Michelle turns her head away and almost feels a shiver running along her skin around the golden web chain just as his eyes carefully flit across the jewellery, almost as if his eyes were softly caressing her skin like she wished his hands would. Eventually she drops her hand away reluctantly, letting Peter look at the pendant.

"It kinda looks like a black widow. That’s so cool!” Peter excitedly exclaims as he finishes his analysis.

Michelle lets out a half-hearted, almost pained laugh as she pulls her hands behind her back, trying to hide her nervous fidgets from the subject of her huge crush.

"Why’s that, Spidey? You get another arachnid to talk to? I’m pretty sure it’s not real.”

"No, I just think it suits you.”

Michelle feels her brow furrow as she turns her gaze back on Peter, who’s still staring at the pendant.

"It really highlights your skin and you look really beautiful with it.”

Peter’s eyes widen as if he’s suddenly realised what he just confessed, whilst the large burst of shock thunders through Michelle’s body at his words. Peter’s panic-stricken gaze lifts up to look into her eyes.

'He thinks I’m beautiful?’

"W-What?” is all the stunned Michelle can manage to voice in a whisper.

"N-Not- That’s … th- I- I mean, not th-that you need it to look beautiful,” Peter stutters, rambling through the belief that he said something wrong. “Y-You don’t. Y-You always look beautiful.”

Peter’s face turns a fierce bright red as he stammers, his free hand snaking around to rub the back of his neck.

’He thinks I’m beautiful?!’ Michelle internally in disbelief as Peter continues his stuttered clarification.

"I-I just mean th-that it looks r-really good on you - who a-already looks beautiful - a-and …”

Michelle just stares at her crush as he nervously stammers out his explanation, eyes flickering between the floor and her eyes, while occasionally lingering on her lips. Her own face lights up in a blaze as the warming blush spreads over her now rosy cheeks, lighting up the tips of her ears hidden underneath the bush of curls her hair has become, and crawling down along her neck and along her chest, pooling with the tingles and heat burning underneath the widow pendant. That mixing concoction stirring within her heart churns and turns into a pulsing urge. Not just her usual one every time she lays eyes on him, let alone thinks about him, to press her lips against his. To kiss that adorable hero and to finally let him know just how she sees him. Let him know just how much he means to her. This urge to kiss him is now joined by a fierce hunger. A passion. A burning lust bursting forth and engulfing her entire mind and body. And, just like earlier, the vision flashes before her eyes of a passionate fantasy; of her lying atop Peter at her mercy, eagerly tagging his soft lips and skin with her mouth as she devours her heart’s desire. Shaking herself out once more from her reverie, Michelle finds Peter still in the midst of his rambling apologetic justifications, as the swell of her own love and happiness - that her feelings for the dork stammering in front of her may not be so platonic after all, swirl together with the newfound lust and desire to act upon her deeper fantasies, bubbling and boiling from within the cauldron in her chest, and spilling out throughout her body.

”-so maybe i-it just helps e-enhance your natural beauty-” Peter continues, his hand dropping back down from his neck and gingerly rubbing over the back of his other hand.

'He thinks I’m beautiful!’ her thoughts scream in ecstasy.

"Th-That’s … you know … That’s a-all that I meant. You kno-?”

Michelle lunges forwards, acting on her heightened craving, and presses her lips up against Peter’s, silencing the teenage boy’s lengthy babbling with nothing more than a surprised squeak escaping his lips. She wraps her arms around his neck to pull his head to hers as she smashes their lips together, passionately kissing him and breaking only for a small gasp of air before planting another. And another. And another, before finally he presses back and joins in the more-than-friendly frolicking of their joined lips. Sloppily and hungrily their mouths collide in a drunken dance, both filled with the vigour of teenage hormones and lust. Michelle drags Peter back into her room, her long legs kicking the door shut behind them, lips barely straying from each other’s save to resurface for air before diving again into the pool of their desires. That is, until Michelle grabs Peter by the waist and throws him down onto her bed, the gold pieces in his hand flying out and clattering across the room.. He bounces with the sudden surprising force, but before he can recover, Michelle climbs on top of the bed and crawls over him, straddling his waist with her long light bronze legs while leaning forwards and pining his arms down beside his head.

"M-Michelle …?” Peter manages to make out with a gulp.

Bowing her head down, Michelle whispers in his ear, “I’ve wanted this for so long.”

She huffs a warm puff of air just under Peter’s ear before brushing her mouth down his neck, her teeth grazing along his skin and drawing a groan from his mouth.

”Michelle …”

At the sound of Peter desperately groaning her name, Michelle’s grip tightens around his wrists, her nails almost digging into his skin. Her head nestles in his shoulder as her mouth hangs open, before dragging it up and resting her forehead against his. Both stare deep into each others eyes, at their passionate fires within. Whereas Peter’s flickers with a loving and caring warmth, a gentleness craving to indulge and savour MJ’s beauty while also straining to control his enhanced strength so as not to harm her, Michelle’s blaze roars with a bestial passion and hunger, pure animalistic desire. With both faces pink, rosy, and radiating a heat that goes unnoticed, Michelle presses forward once more and hungrily locks their quickly swelling lips together, Peter barely hesitating before eagerly pushing up back into her. A devilish smile forces its way across her occupied lips as a thought invades her mind and she slowly pulls back, held back only by the small rise of Peter’s bottom lip that she’s gently bitten down on. His brow furrows slightly at the sight of her wide grin, only for her to release the bite and the hold on his wrists.

Leaning back, her hands come together to fiddle with the buttons of his shirt, nearly tearing them from the stitching as she pulls apart the front of his shirt. Sticking out from the opening are all his lean-yet-chiselled abs and pecs in all their glory; strong, powerful, and at her mercy. Despite seeing them before from glimpses under a slightly raised gym-shirt, or from the way his skin-tight Spider-Man suit clings to his body, or even bare but blemished by bruises and stab wounds that she’d secretly treat for him in her bedroom after a night’s patrol, her sudden bravado caused by her lust-driven haze almost short-circuits at the sight of his impressive physique. Noting her dumbstruck expression, beautiful lips parted and speechless, Peter showcases a smirk that’s unusually cocky for him and starts to lean himself upright ever so slightly, leaning back on his elbows.

"See something you like, MJ?” he asks smugly as he lifts up his forearms and pulls at the open flaps of his shirt, slowly dragging them over his rippling muscles and past his shoulders. 

With each teasing movement, he leans further up and causes Michelle to slightly shuffle back, the ever growing cheeky smirk quickly morphs into a groan as Michelle eventually presses back into the bulge that had bloomed in his shorts. She peers down over her shoulder before glancing back at Peter, the energy shifting once again as her shock gives way to a knowing, devious smirk, while his bold cheekiness disappears and returns to a wide-eyed nervousness.

"Shouldn’t I be asking you that?” Michelle purrs, swivelling her hips, grinding on his stiffness to emphasise her point and drawing out another groan from him.

"Em …”

A tentative smile blossoms on her face as she presses her hands on his firm shoulders, gently pushing him back down on the bed while she checks out his torso. Her eyes trace each line and protrusion with extreme scrutiny, taking her time to burn the enticing image directly into her brain.

"You look so delectable, Peter,” Michelle notes, her voice dropping to a sultry tone she’d never used before.

She looks up to find him glancing at the spot between them. Following his gaze, she looks down at the necklace she acquired, the spider pendant hanging down from the golden web with the forelegs ever so gently brushing and scraping against his pecs. Michelle looks back up at him, the hunger and desire flourishing once again.

"Has Spidey been caught in my web?” she innocently asks, cocking her head slightly.

Peter gulps and nods nervously. Michelle pulls one hand away from his shoulders and lightly traces a nail seductively down his chest, making Peter unable to avoid letting the hiss escape his swollen lips.

"You said it looked like a black widow, right?”

Peter nods again, though he then begins to squirm and shiver as Michelle presses her mouth to his abdomen and licks up his torso, trailing her tongue over his muscles till she reaches the base of his neck. With a sexy guttural giggle, Michelle brings her head above his and plants a soft kiss along his jawline, followed by a brushing of her lips against his for just the briefest of moments, before leaving another kiss on his cheek, until finally she draws level with Peter’s eyes, letting them stare at each other once again. Weirdly, with the exception of the deep flushes burning across their skins and their current positions, if someone looked at them both they could almost be excused as being normal, what with Peter’s wide puppy eyes and Michelle’s well-trained stoic expression.

“You know what female widows do to their partners, right?” she purrs, her lips skirting the air above his.

"U-Uh … y-yeah?” he answers with a tiny nod, the rise in his voice making it sound more unsure than he was.

Peter reaches up with his left hand and gently brushes a loose strand of curly hair back behind her ear. As his fingers softly brush against her skin, Michelle’s eyes close as she exhales and leans into his faint touch before dropping down and pressing a kiss on his left cheek.

"And with a meal as sweet and deliciously cute as you …”

Michelle’s lips dart again along his cheek, followed by another, and then a long deep kiss on his lips, both pressing in and moaning at the contact before reluctantly breaking apart as she whispers;

”I don’t think I’ll be able to stop myself.”

Michelle lies on her bed with a soft smile on her face, her head buried into the crook of Peter’s neck while one of his arms is wrapped around her waist. At the start of the day she never would have thought that her dreams could have come true; both finding out how Peter’s lips tasted and felt when pressed against her own and that the feelings she held deep inside the walls within her heart weren’t so one-sided. Though, admittedly, she would have thought that finding out either of those would have been in a moment that was both awkward and sweet -  that they’d stammer and nervously declare their feelings for one another and share a soft and delicate first kiss. Not with a steamy, passionate make-out session that ended where they are now; with her cradled against a topless Peter, his discarded shirt now draped over her own shoulders. Peering up out of the bushy mess that is her hair, she spies Peter tentatively touching his lips with his fingers.

"What are you doing?”

"Feels kinda weird,” he answers with another soft touch to his lips, “Like, it’s a good weird. But still weird.”

"That’s what happens when you make out with someone for so long,” Michelle quips, fighting the urge to roll her eyes.

"H-Have you done this before?” Peter asks, shuffling slightly so he can look at Michelle who shakes her head.

"It’s just something I’ve heard.”

"Oh. How do yours feel?”

"Really?” she questions with a slight glare.

"Just curious …” he mumbles with a pout.

Michelle rolls her eyes and presses a hand to her lips, letting her touch linger for a second, before shuffling over to bring her head up to his.

”It’s a good weird feeling,” she whispers.

They smile as they press their lips together for the umpteenth time that day, though far softer and more intimate than the previous session. While before was a burning wildfire tearing through their bodies, this feels gentle and tender, like snowflakes drifting down and landing on an outstretched tongue. Michelle pulls away with a satisfied sigh and nestles back in against Peter’s shoulder, bringing his slightly dishevelled shirt back over her own. For a moment there is a peaceful silence through the room, with only the occasional rev of a car passing outside the hotel taking away from their comfort, and soon Michelle begins to quietly hum as she closes her eyes.

"Does that mean that you don’t need a share of my treasure?” Peter questions, referring to the necklace.

"You mean our treasure. You came to share it,” she points out.

"Only because you said you didn’t find anything.”

Michelle opens up an eye and peers up at him. "You really wouldn’t have shared anything if I had shown you the necklace?”

"No,” Peter curtly answers, raising his head slightly to look down at her.

Michelle’s open eye narrows at his obvious lie. Peter tries to battle her stare but in the end lays his head back down onto the pillow. Michelle closes her eye and curls into him with a satisfied hum.

"Aww, how sweet. Peter, you shouldn’t have,” Michelle remarks far too sweetly for it to be anything other than sarcastic.

"Shut up.”

"Was that you?”

"Sorry.” Peter squeaks, causing Michelle to breath out a soft laugh.

”I’m messing with you, loser.”

The pair lie quietly once again, until Peter opens his mouth.

"You weren’t really going to devour me, right?” he inquires.

"Peter-”

"Because that’s just wrong,” he continues. “Also, you’re a vegetarian.”

Michelle, unable to bite back her laughter, lets it all tumble out and tries to quieten it by muffling it into his shoulder. Peter stares at her with a furrowed brow and waits until she can finally look back at him, her outright laughter diminished to a fit of giggles muffled behind a barely contained tight-lipped smile.

"What?”

"You’re such a massive dork,” Michelle manages to say through her giggles. “You know that, right?”

"Nat said that chicks like dorks,” Peter recalls as he runs a hand through his curls.

"Mhmm …” she hums in response.

"Do you?” he asks innocently after a moment.

"Do you think I’d still be here if I didn’t?”

"Probably not,” Peter sighs in relief.

Once more a comfortable silence softly blankets the room, only to be broken once more by Peter.

”Does this mean I’m your dork-?”

“Yes,” Michelle answers a little too quickly, trying and failing to stop her smile from opening up to include her beaming white teeth, before it fades a little as a flash of worry crosses her face. “I-If you want to?”

"Do you think I’d still be here if I didn’t?” Peter echoes.

They both grin at each other and seal their beginning with another soft kiss, Michelle’s hand reaching up to cradle Peter’s cheek, before returning to their cuddle. Michelle leaves her head lying in the crook of his neck while tangling her leg with his, leaving her hand to softly trace along his lean muscles.

"My dork. I like the sound of that,” Michelle whispers, letting out a sigh as Peter turns his head and plants a kiss on her forehead.

’This is my real treasure.’

A/N: So, full disclosure, that was my first time writing what could probably be described as smut. It’s not explicit, but I wouldn’t exactly call that middle part fluff. Weirdly, I was going to write an angst fic before I saw a prompt, which was going to be an ‘incorrect quotes’ post, which then became this. If you want, feel let me know what you think.