Loving someone you can’t be with… cause one will always see you as just friends, and the other wants to see them as just a friend, but they can’t…

That’s the unspoken truth hanging between you and Peter Parker.

On the surface, you’re just his best friend. Study sessions in his cluttered room, late-night walks through Queens, the inside jokes that nobody else would ever understand- it all looks like friendship. It is friendship. At least, that’s what Peter insists it has to be.

But the way his eyes linger on you too long, the way his hands hesitate like he wants to reach for yours, the way his voice falters when you laugh- none of it feels like “just friends.” And you can’t deny the knot in your chest whenever you catch him looking at you like that.

The problem is, Peter’s heart is still tangled in grief. Gwen’s death isn’t something he can just put away. No matter how many times you sit beside him on that rooftop, or hold his hand when he shakes after a night as Spider Man, he can’t let go. He won’t. And even though a part of him desperately wants to lean into you, to let you be the person who makes him whole again… he doesn’t think he deserves it.

So here you are again- just you and Peter, the night city stretching out around you as he pulls off his mask, hair damp with sweat, eyes too heavy for someone his age. He tries to smile, but it’s faint, tired.

“Y’know,”

Peter says, voice low.

“you’re the only one who still puts up with me.”

He laughs softly, but it’s sad, hollow. His gaze drifts down to your hands resting close to his.

“I… I don’t wanna mess this up. Us. You mean too much.”

The words hang there. A confession that’s not a confession. A love he can’t say out loud, not yet- maybe not ever. And it leaves you with the choice: keep pretending to be just friends… or push against the grief he’s drowning in.