"So, you coming to the surprise party?"

Peter looked up from his maths homework. "Of course. I brought cookies."

His girlfriend quirked an eyebrow. "You cook now?"

"Bake, but yes, I do cook. And Bucky taught me."

"Right." MJ finished off an equation and pulled his book over. "What did you get for three?"

"81x squared -30xy +36y squared."

The girl blinked at his book then went back to hers. "I got 81x squared -15xy +36y squared."

He looked over at her book and immediately found the mistake. "It's a perfect square, so what did you forget to do?"

She paused, her brown eyes tracing her work as her pen tapped against her cheek. "I forgot to double the middle one."

"Correct!"

The bell rang, ending the long day of classes and work. The two filed through the sea of students, squeezing their way to the back of the school.

"Sh! She's coming!"

The decathlon team quietened down as the two girls came closer, only one oblivious to the situation.

"SURPRISE!"

Liz jumped back with a small squeal as Cindy doubled over laughing. "Welcome back!" She squeezed between tears.

"You guys! Thank you!" They all crowded around her, enveloping her in a massive hug. This was not what Liz was expecting when she arrived back in Queens.

The team seated themselves around the massive picnic blanket and began to eat. An assortment of flavoured cupcakes vanished almost instantly, and the warm, triple chocolate chip cookies melted in everyone's mouths. The peanut butter sandwiches were a classic and were sided with a cup of lemonade or creaming soda.

"So Liz, how is life back at Midtown?"

"It's weird. Everything's so different after the whole blip thing."

People nodded in agreement and Peter tensed up slightly, comforted by the feel of MJ's hand on his leg.

"That was so crazy though! One minute everything just went black, and then we wake up barely seconds later and the entire world's changed!" Cindy ducked to avoid being smacked in the face as Abe emphasized with his long arms.

"At least it was painless."

"Mm."

MJ felt Peter's head swivel at her, confusion clearly evident.

No way.

She pulled him off the ground and dragged him away out of earshot from the party. "Did you...?

He nodded.

"Oh my gosh." She was nearly numb with shock as she pulled him into a hug, only slightly understand the amount of pain that most have been.

"How... why?"

"Super strength, a spidey sense and a quick healing factor."

She could feel his hands squeezing hers gently, almost as though to make sure they weren't fading off into dust again. She could only image having to feel every cell in her body turning into dust, trying to fix itself but only saying the inevitable.

"Come on. Let's sit back down." Her hand never let go of his, even when they were seated on the mat.

"Hey, where did you two go?"

"Oh just talking about life," MJ said, dismissing the topic with a wave of her hand.

They continued to talk for a little while longer when Peter's watch buzzed. He shielded the hologram pop up of the message with his hand.

Hey Pete, sorry cause I know you're at a party, but I need some help cooking dinner or looking after Morgan. Everyone except Steve is out and I need an assistant in the kitchen. Love you.
T.S.

"I gotta go." Peter stood up and brushed the crumbs off his jeans.

"What? Why?" Liz asked.

"I gotta help with dinner... or babysit. One of the two. But I'll catch you guys tomorrow." He waved a goodbye and jogged out of the park and began to head home.

"So he's still pulling a vanishing act?" Liz sighed.

"Yeah, he disappeared so many times. Prague-"

"MoMa-"

"Also in Prague-"

"Venice-"

"Then he appeared in London."

Liz blinked, annoyed. She had hoped he'd changed, that he had stopped vanishing and actually cared about being at school rather than running off to do whatever he did.

"I saw him in a room with a chick on our way to Prague," Brad whispered.

MJ paled. She knew exactly what Peter had been doing; trying on a new suit.

"Brad, you're also the person who takes photos of the bathroom," she countered.

His face reddened. "At least I don't hook up with some random chick."

"He wasn't doing that! He had a legitimate reason, Brad!"

"Which is?"

MJ bit her tounge. "It's not my place to say, But He does have a valid reason, which, fun fact, links into the reason on why he keeps on leaving sometimes." She stood up, suppressing her rage. "Now if you excuse me, but I refuse to take part in a discussion with negative comments  about my boyfriend." With that, she left.

Liz resembled a goldfish, her mouth open wide and eyes popping out. Fisrt of all, since when did the Michelle Jones stand up for someone? And since when were they dating? An odd feeling boiled up inside her, but she wasn't sure what it was yet.

Ned and Betty stood up, saying a goodbye before leaving as well.

"Wow."

Liz turned to Flash. "Since when were Peter and MJ dating?"

"It happened at some point on the trip. Somewhere before he left for Berlin and after he arrived in London." Liz was startled by the amount of venom in Brad's voice.

"He went to Berlin?"

"For a 'family gathering'," Misha said, fingers making quotation marks.

"What family?" Flash snorted. "All he has is his stupid aunt."

"I bet that he never made it to Berlin. He probably went off somewhere to do whatever."

"Wait a minute." Liz stopped, thinking. "He vanished at Venice with water monster, right? Then at Prague with the fire one, wasn't at London till after the big one vanished, wasn't with us at DC and disappeared before Spider-Man found my dad at homecoming." She tilted her head, thinking. "What happened at MoMa?"

"The blip."

"So with every catastrophic event, Peter has vanished before it happens and doesn't come back till after..."

"Could he be..."

The question stopped, Cindy suddenly very worried, her mind in the same loop of questions as her classmates. Could they have been studying, practicing, working, learning along side...

"A villian?"