Black as Night | P. Parker

Chapter Fifteen

Peter was tired, he was feeling drained and unhappy. And it was only six o'clock. His boss was mean to him unnecessarily and criticized his other life (as Spider-Man) at every available turn. Not that J. Jonah Jameson knew that Peter was Spider-Man, but it still hurt every time the man threw an insult at the superhero.

Coming up to his home, he expected to have to microwave some food and then he could just fall into bed and sleep. At least for a little while.

He didn't expect the smell of pizza to drift towards his nose when he first opened the door. He didn't expect to see Onyx sitting on the couch, fiddling with the controls of his X-box, a meat lover's pizza (his favourite) open on the coffee table in front of her, a bottle of his favourite pop and two glasses next to it.

"Uh, I'm home?" Peter said, confused as he closed the door behind him.

Onyx flipped around, wide-eyed when she heard him. "Hi," she said.

"What, uh, what are you doing?" Peter asked.

"Well," she started, setting the controller down on the coffee table, "you were having a hard day so I thought some pizza and a video game might cheer you up." From the floor at her feet, she produced the case to a video game.

But it wasn't just any video game. It was the next game in his favourite game series! The one that he hadn't been able to buy yet even though it had been out for a while because it was too expensive and he couldn't afford it.

"How did you afford that? You don't have a job!" Peter said.

"I have my ways," Onyx said, and she smiled. Peter's heart leapt in his chest. He wasn't sure if he'd ever seen her truly smile.

"Did you think of this all by yourself?" he asked, truly touched by the gesture.

"I may have had a little help from MJ," the dark haired girl admitted with a shrug of her shoulders.

That was the second biggest blow of them all. MJ. She had called her MJ. Seven weeks of knowing Mary-Jane and Onyx had not once called her by her name. Redhead, Ginger, Carrot-Top. Any sort of name alluding to her hair, anything that wasn't her actual name. And now, here she was, smiling and calling Mary-Jane not just Mary-Jane, but MJ.

"And you did all of this for me?" Peter asked.

"You were having a hard day. And from what you were saying, I could tell that you were upset, and that meant that you weren't smiling," she explained.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Peter asked, genuinely curious.

"I think you should always be smiling," Onyx admitted, straight-faced and confident but looking Peter dead in the eyes.

A smile spread across Peter's face and his cheeks warmed. "Do you mind if I-?" he asked, gesturing to the couch next to Onyx.

"Well you can't very well play from all the way over there," she told him, holding out the controller for him to take.

For three hours, Peter and Onyx sat on the couch together, taking turns playing the video game, eating pizza and drinking pop. They smiled and laughed (yes, even Onyx). Throughout the whole night that they were playing and laughing and smiling, Peter couldn't help but wonder what had happened to Onyx.

The girl sitting next to him now, smiling and trying to play the game with her tongue between her teeth in concentration, was not the same girl that he had met seven weeks ago when she first arrived at his house.

That girl that had arrived at his house seven weeks ago was cold, calm, and emotionless. She had no tone to her voice, it was flat. She didn't like other people, didn't talk to them.

But the girl sitting next to him now... She was smiling, laughing, and having a good time. There was emotion in her voice, and even in her eyes. And to Peter, it certainly seemed like she was beginning to like people.

But the boy didn't know what all of this meant. He couldn't even begin to understand the workings of Onyx's mind. But he was hoping that he would begin to.

At ten o'clock, May came into the living room, intending to tell the two teenagers to go to bed, but what she saw when she entered, changed her mind.

Onyx and Peter were sitting next to each other on the couch, closer than they had ever been since the girl arrived at their home. Both of them were smiling, and even laughing, watching the video game on the tv screen in front of them. The controller was in Peter's hands, and Onyx munched on a slice of pizza and sipped some pop, looking like she was completely at ease.

There was something in Peter's eyes that May could see quite plainly when he looked over at Onyx and it made a smile grow on her face. There was something that she hadn't seen in his eyes in a very long time.

It was the very beginnings of something special. Something was just starting to grow inside of her nephew and it was going to be amazing.

In the end, May decided to leave the two teenagers be and hopefully, that something would keep growing in Peter's eyes.