Ever since MJ had gotten back to America, Peter had spent an excessive amount of time with his friends, even mentioning that because of her arrival, 'the band was back together'. Of course, Y/N wasn't in a relationship with Peter, nor were they exclusive, but it still stung her a bit seeing the way he spoke about the 'glory days' and 'this really cool time with MJ'.
Y/N tried her best to act the same, but Peter was slightly more distant whenever MJ was around. He wouldn't flirt with her openly, or kiss her casually - he was just different. Back at the Stark house, Aunt Mays apartment, or in public like when they were at a restaurant together, he was normal. He'd be the low key cheeky version of Peter and run his hand up her thigh under tables, or be the adorably cute version of Peter she was used to. MJ however, struggled to read Y/N properly, and from first impressions labelled her the stereotypical 'Stark' rich kid. She knew about Peter being Spider-Man, but didn't know if Y/N knew as well.
"So uh Y/N, what do you do for work? Or college?" MJ asked, covering her mouth as she finished her mouthful of food.
"I work at Stark, I'm a suit designer.. for the Avengers and stuff" she responded, an answer that usually triggered gasps and 'oh my god's - but MJ couldn't care less.
"Yeah I thought you'd probably work there" she said, looking back down at her food and taking another bite. Ned piped up and talked about his work at Stark, which MJ suddenly had a huge interest for, asking questions about his mundane day-to-day tasks and what the 'incredible' building was like. Peter asked MJ about her gap year, and she laughed.
"Peter there is so much to talk about we'd need a whole seperate dinner to do it" she said, smiling at him and brushing her hair behind her ear. This infuriated Y/N, the way she was obviously flirting but nobody at the table picked up on it. Maybe she was looking into it too deeply, maybe she was jealous but she knew that MJ was a threat; a threat with history.
There were multiple events that played quite similarly, Peter being fascinated by every story MJ told, even ordinary ones about a train ticket not coming out of the machine. Y/N started to decline more of these outings, making excuses that she was working late, out with her own friends or sick. Peter would send a quick apologetic text with the classic 'we will miss you!' but never fully cottoned on to the fact it was only whenever MJ was attending.
Y/N did in fact go out with her own friends in Upper Manhattan for lunch, to a small bar that was frequented by socialites and rich businessmen. She had originally invited Peter, since the other girls invited their boyfriends - but he cancelled last minute because MJ had asked their group to hang out. Y/N uploaded an Instagram story of her sipping a beautifully garnished cocktail, and only seconds later got a thirsty response from Peter.
PETER
fuckkk 🥵
Y/N
Shut up you're so lame x
Go enjoy your day with your
friends stop messaging me haha
She set her phone down, carried on with talking to her friends that she hadn't seen forever. They talked about their latest philanthropist bouts, their volunteer work in Africa where they took photos the whole time or the financial health of their trust funds - it made Y/N miss Peter's friends more. She liked her own friends but their lives were just so stereotypical that it got boring quite quickly, she'd definitely drifted from them since hanging out with Peter's group of friends. They were her friends too.
She was flustered and overwhelmed by the end of the lunch, stressing about the possibility that MJ and Peter could easily get back together any second or even just share one kiss. She needed to escape, so rather than calling Happy to pick her up like planned, she decided to walk the several blocks to Stark Tower. It was lightly showering with rain; not enough for umbrellas, but enough to feel refreshed in the walk. Her mind was flooding with 'what if's and she was cracking her knuckles nervously. Thunder was rolling in over the skyline and the clouds got exceedingly darker as she got closer home, the rain not getting any heavier but people started coming out onto the streets to see how it had gotten so dark so quickly.
Looking up, dark clouds covered the top of Stark Tower and Y/N looked around the city sky. There were grey clouds with rain, but none as dark or as ominous as the clouds above where she lived. Y/N assumed it was Thor, usually when he visited there would be a dark cloud and excessive lightning cast across the tower. She went to take her phone out and take a photo before a crack of lightning struck the tower. The bolts quickened, causing power outages throughout New York, and was only seconds before Y/N collapsed, the electric chip in her brain short circuiting from the overload of electricity caused by the storm.
Y/N spent three days unconscious after the outage of her chip alerted Happy to locate her and bring her to safety. Tony, having built multiple chips in the case of emergency, replaced it and sentenced her to bed rest, mindful of the concussion she had endured as well as the stitches in her head from the fall. She watched television in her room pretty much the entire time, and hadn't yet told Peter about the incident - she didn't want to worry him or pull her away from his precious Michelle.
It was boring, lonely and extremely quiet at home when Tony and Pepper were at work, and it sparked an idea in Y/N to properly investigate her chip, now that she knew Tony had created multiple. It was a gruelling process, testing artificial chips technologically, figuring out what it could and couldn't do. Every day when Tony and Pepper weren't around, she'd be downstairs in the labs, tinkering and playing with the mechanisms that powered her brain - it was fascinating. The chip basically acted like a power generator, similar to Tony's arc reactor but much smaller, just sending transmitters to specific receptors of her brain.
Eventually she created a logic that in theory, could expand the basics capabilities of her brain, as the human brain only used the smallest percentage anyway she thought. If this worked, she'd be able able to remember more information faster, perhaps use a new language or three. She used FRIDAY to control a mechanical arm to perform the procedure, trading out the chips and calling Tony if she didn't shut off a thirty second countdown that started after the switch, in case all went horribly wrong. Her heart was racing, looking around at dozens of glass panels with algorithms and diagrams, the possibility that she could quite literally program herself. She laid facedown on her workbench, crossing her fingers and taking a deep breath.
"FRIDAY, initiate neurological chip replacement sequence" she said, closing her eyes.
YOU ARE READING
𝐖𝐞𝐛 𝐨𝐟 𝐋𝐢𝐞𝐬
Fanfiction"But that's ruins all the fun now, doesn't it sweetheart?" || Determined. Sarcastic. Genius. All words to describe both of the Starks. Peter Parker has Spider-Man as his biggest secret in life, but trying to live two lives at once since graduating h...
