Peter and Mary Jane, at the end of the day

The sun was setting over Murray Hill in Manhattan, and a red haired woman in a tee shirt and jeans was looking out Peter Parker's bedroom window. "The view from my place is better," she said, finally.

"No shock," Peter said. "I saw Tony off."

"Any words of sage advice?"

"It's Tony. He split the difference between ruffling my hair, calling me a good kid and giving me a quarter and recommending vitamin shots for sexual stamina." Peter grinned. "Where're the others?"

"Cindy took Gwen out to get a milkshake or malted or chocolate egg cream or whatever the kids get today. Ollie went with them." Mary Jane looked back over her shoulder. "Believe it or not, we are actually alone for a few minutes, Tiger."

"Yeah, well. Don't believe it. Ollie may be with them but that doesn't mean she's also here. She can do that. Heck, that's one of her more understandable powers." Peter chuckled. "MJ... when you... when you have direct experience with her wishes you'll see... she's... comprehensive."

"Direct experience meaning sex?" Mary Jane smiled, a little ironically.

"Probably." He paused. "We have had sex. I mean, Ollie and I. A couple of times. It's..."

"Peter? Swear to God? I do not need to hear the end of that sentence." Mary Jane looked back out the window. "And of course you've had sex with her. And with Gwen. And you're going to have sex with Cindy. And with me. And probably all kinds of combinations."

"MJ... if... if this is too much--"

Mary Jane laughed, weakly. "That's my line, isn't it? 'It's all too much, Peter?' God. You weren't here, listening to Tony talk about..."

"About?"

"About the day he was almost you, but ended up Tony instead."

Peter chuckled. "Sounds like he made the smart choice."

"No." Mary Jane turned back around. "No, he didn't. Peter... we've had massive ups and massive downs with Tony, and he is a hero. But he's no Peter Parker. And... he knows that, and he's not too happy about it."

"Are you kidding me? Tony Stark is the textbook definition of success in effectively everything I ever tried to do." Peter paused. "Except photography. I don't think he's as good a photographer."

"I wouldn't know. Peter--"

"No, wait -- he created holographic image capture. He's better than me at photography. He hits for the cycle."

"Tiger, shut up and listen."

Peter blinked, shut up, and listened.

"Tony is successful in all kinds of stuff, because when he was confronted with the worst demons in the world, he flinched and closed himself off. And it didn't help that when he was at his lowest, his friends and loved ones weren't there for him. All except Jim Rhodes, and Tony talks about Rhodey differently than everyone else in his life." Mary Jane wrapped her arms around herself. "He told us about... well, a lot of things. A real low point. But he said something in passing. About a woman -- Virginia Potts. Pepper. Do you know her?"

"In very extremely passing. She's got a suit. Rescue, she goes by."

"That's the one. I met her when we were reabsorbing Tony's old companies into Stark Unlimited. She was still running Stark Reliant. She still is, actually. Out west. Vivacious, beautiful redhead. And after Tony fell into a bottle so hard he almost died... after his company was destroyed again, and trauma surrounding a couple of people he won't even call his friends who he clearly wanted to be friends with... apparently Pepper Potts told him she loved him dearly and please for the love of God leave her and her then-husband alone because Tony Stark brought nothing but trouble." Mary Jane closed her eyes. "He asked me if that sounded familiar."

"Hey -- MJ... no. No it's not like--"

"Yes. It is, Tiger." She opened her eyes. "I walked away from you because I couldn't handle your life as Spider-Man, or the danger you put me in, or... God, I don't know all the justifications I used, again and again. Just like Gwen walked away from you because she couldn't handle your 'unreliability,' back in the day. I said I couldn't handle the super fights or the threats or all the rest. But you know what? We broke up and a superfight still trashed MJ's downtown. I moved to Chicago and opened Jackpot and a superfight trashed that. You were nowhere to be seen, Peter. And then I went to work for Tony Stark, and I got thrown in the middle of a ton of that. I even wore the Iron Spider armor at one point!"

"Seriously?"

"Seriously. Peter, my life didn't get safer or less interesting because you weren't in it. It just got lonelier because you weren't in it. And I remembered the day we broke up that last time... when Carlie walked out right alongside me. Leaving you alone. Alone in your once-again-wrecked life, until you showed up to crash on my couch because you'd lost everything, and even then I kicked you out as soon as I could."

Peter shrugged. "It's not... it's not the same thing, MJ. There's a difference between being caught in a superfight or working for Tony Stark and being so closely connected to a super hero. It's like being a cop's spouse times a hundred. My life is crazy high pressure... I can barely handle it most days. And when we were together, you got to have all the same high pressure but none of the ability to do anything about it. That's not... MJ, I didn't blame you for leaving."

"I know. I blame me, Peter." She shook her head. "Everything with the Goblin, with Harry, with Ben Reilly. With Jonah and Robbie. With Otto -- God with Otto. Morlun and the inheritors and all the rest... all of it... and you couldn't walk away from any of it. You lost Parker Industries and you couldn't walk away from that. You just had to put up with it. You got shafted over your doctorate, and you couldn't even explain yourself. The same as when Jonah fired you over that photo. You've had to live with all of that and juggle it and do your best and oh, by the way? Save the entire city a few dozen times in the process. You got to have the worst parts of being an Avenger and none of the perks. You got... God Peter, there's too much to recount and I tapped out of it. You can't. You can't ever tap out. But me? The love of your fucking life? 'Oh, hey -- thanks for saving me all those times, but nope! I'm out!'"

"MJ... you didn't... you don't need an excuse and you get to dump me. My life is that crazy."

"Sure. Of course I do. I get to look you in the eye and say 'Peter, I love you but I hate our life together. Goodbye.' I get to really, honestly dump you. But that's not what I did. What I did was leave you, but make it your fault because bad things kept happening to you and around you. I got to claim that I loved you totally and gosh if only you did things better I'd stay but you didn't so it's all your fault. And that was bullshit." She turned away. "It was bullshit when I did it. It was bullshit when Gwen did it. It was bullshit when Pepper did it to Tony. You know -- she ended up divorced anyway, even though Tony wasn't there to make her life magical Hell. Because it wasn't Tony's fault. She just slammed the door on him when he needed her. Just like I keep doing to you."

Peter closed his eyes. "MJ... I have never... not for one second doubted that you loved me."

"I know." She snorted. "And here we are, Peter. I'm back in your life. And guess what, so's Gwen. And not only is Cindy here? I fucking called her and told her to fuck you. Felicia's our next call. And who knows who else. All to surround you and fuck you and love and support you and maybe, just maybe, use your connection to Ollie to make the world a better place. And all that doesn't even count Ollie." She looked down. "I'm back in your life, but not for the reasons I should be."

Peter looked at Mary Jane. He walked over to her, and hugged her close. "It doesn't matter why you're here," he murmured. "I needed you, MJ. I needed you and you came. And you're remaking your whole life over it."

"As it turns out? I'm going to get paid pretty well to do that," she murmured back.

"Yeah, well. MJ? I'm confused as Hell right now. I spent the whole night making love to Gwen last night. Just... reconnecting. Letting myself believe she was real. Today, you were here and Cindy's here -- and Cindy walking into the room makes my brain do weird things. Literally. My spider sense--"

"I know. Psionic love connection."

"And on top of all that, I have a sex djinn. And... she's... needy, MJ."

Mary Jane shifted, to look at Peter while still holding him. "Needy?"

"She needs to be... used. To serve. To grant wishes and desires. I get the feeling she gets... squirrelly if she doesn't. I can't free her without destroying her. But... using her that way..." he laughed. "I had sex with her on the subway, MJ."

Mary Jane blinked. "I had to entice you to fuck me on a Fire Escape, and she got you to fuck her on the train? Empty car?"

"Packed. Some kind of fantasy fetish thing out of Japan."

"Chikan. It's not just Japan. The zipless fuck packed like sardines, the girl helpless but overwhelmed with desire, the stranger fucking her. Jesus, do you just not use the internet?"

"So not my point. I don't know what -- who I'm supposed to be. Am I your... boyfriend? Am I Gwen's? Am I just a player?"

"You're not just anything, Peter." She looked to the side. "There's something we don't know."

"What?"

"Something... Gwen told me. Something I can't tell you, because of a very good reason that has nothing to do with this. Something that explains... why there's this ache between us, that we feel as a sharp pain when we're together and a longing hole when we're not. Something that... maybe Ollie can help with and maybe she can't. But it's there and it's real and because of it there's no right answer to who you're supposed to be. There's just who you are, and who I am, and who Gwen and Cindy and Ollie are." She looked back. "Despite Cindy's best efforts to name this thing 'Fuck Club,' we're the Spider-Harem. And a Harem aren't the bits on the side. They're the wives and concubines. Plural. We're in a whole new thing, Tiger, and we're all confused. But you know what else we are? At least... what else I am?"

"What?"

"Horny as fuck." Mary Jane smiled, almost fiercely. "Tiger, we've literally been talking sex all day, and I'm finally alone with you, and we're wearing all our clothes! How does that work?"

Peter stared, then grinned, letting Mary Jane go and stepping back. He peeled off his shirt, showing the Spider suit on underneath. "Not as well as this does," he said, undoing his pants.

"That, I agree with." Mary Jane peeled her t-shirt up and off her body, revealing a black lace bra full to overflowing. She turned, slightly, slooowly unzipping her fly. "This may be a harem, Tiger... but I know damn well who's first, here."