One Week Later
August 2nd, 2002

It didn't take way too long for Christina to fully recover mentally from what had occurred at the World Unity Festival, but she did end up suffering from a nightmare or two following the incident. In them, it would always be two scenarios: either actually seeing the board members of Oscorp vaporizing into thin air and only their bones being left behind, or Mary Jane being unable to catch her when she fell and she plummeted to the ground; but she would always wake up before she hit the bottom.

Every time she woke up, she would be in a cold sweat and her eyes would be as wide as saucers as her panicked breathing would quicken. But she reminded herself that it was all a dream and what really happened was over.

After Spider-Man had swung away on one of his webs, Christina caught a taxi that brought her back to her house in Queens, where her frantic mother was waiting for her. Margaret had been a worried mess as she explained to her daughter about how she had seen the travesty unfold on news stations and how she thought that her little girl had died. After the blonde assured Margaret that she was fine and that she was only slightly injured, the older woman was very relieved that she was home and that she was alive.

"I could have lost you, Chris," is what Margaret had said to her while her eyes were full of unshed tears.

Christina ended up comforting her mother until she was completely calmed down from her stress and panic before she had gone to bed that night.

Afterwards, she immediately contacted Mary Jane to see if the redhead was alright, and she was met with a still shaky voice on the other end of the phone. So Spider-Man had been right, since the woman was obviously still a little rattled from almost dying. So Christina had consoled her on the phone while she ranted about what they had both experienced, and that was before Mary Jane began to slightly gush over the hero that had saved them both in a way.

"Spider-Man... I didn't even know about him until now," she had said. "But he's... he's incredible! He's amazing!"

Eh, he's not that bad, Christina thought to herself, trying to deny that she even had a soft spot for the superhero as well.

The blonde then called Harry and found out that he had obtained a mild concussion from the rubble that had hit him on the skull, but it was as close to moderate as it could get so he had to take it easy for the next week. Other than that, he seemed to be his normal, sarcastic self, which immensely relieved Christina because she had felt guilty for not even doing anything when Harry had been knocked out earlier that day.

"Chris, I'm fine," Harry had assured her in a calm voice over the phone. "You don't have to worry."

Later that evening, Christina had gotten a surprise visit from a seemingly frantic Peter, who had instantly enveloped her in a tight hug as he explained that he had been at the festival and witnessed everything going down. He then began looking over her to make sure there weren't any other wounds than what she had described to him, but the blonde eventually had to put her foot down and demand that she was alright, despite feeling a little sore from everything she had been through.

"I'm okay, Pete," she had told him in a firm voice. "I didn't have to go to the hospital, and I'll be perfectly fine soon."

"I know, but you could've gotten killed," Peter had said in a defeated voice. "God knows what would've happened if Spider-Man hadn't shown up."

Christina had agreed with Peter, still being very grateful that the masked hero had saved both hers and Mary Jane's lives that day. Although initially curious as to who the man behind the mask had been immediately after the incident, she had ultimately decided to let the whole question go for the time being, since getting over what had happened was more important than figuring out the identity of a (somewhat) complete stranger.

Over the course of the next week, the young woman had focused almost all of her attention on packing her belongings for the moving day since she would be settling into her new apartment by the 14th of August. She couldn't believe that the time was already almost there and it had passed much quicker than she had anticipated, but she decided to bear with it and not let it bother her as much as it clearly was on the inside. This was because she had finally accepted that she would no longer be living with her mother, but she was comforted by the thought that she would still get to visit Margaret from time to time and that made her happier than she once was about the situation.

Packing all of her things proved to be difficult once it got to the process of getting everything to fit in her small car, especially when it came to large suitcases that she had packed full of books and vinyl records. Luckily, Margaret had offered to let her daughter put some of her stuff in her car for when she moved so they could get all of it there in one trip instead of two or three, which Christina accepted.

On the night of August 2nd, Christina had run out of things to pack that weren't clothes or toiletries and that had left her with absolutely nothing to do. She tried to find something that could occupy her time, such as reading a book or watching a movie on her small television in the corner of her bedroom. So, after a few hours of her interest in each activity decreasing by the second, she eventually sighed out of frustration before going over to her nightstand and picking up her telephone and pressing the buttons of a familiar number she had been given recently.

The other end kept on ringing for about fifteen seconds, and Christina suddenly began to lose hope that whoever she was calling was even there to begin with.

But, half a second before she was tempted to place the receiver back, she heard a clicking sound on the other end of the line.

"Hello?" a familiar and slightly confused voice spoke up, making Christina smile.

"Hey, Pete!" she replied in her usual cheery voice. "How're you doing today?"

"Hi, Chris!" Peter's voice replied and he seemed to be way happier to hear that it was Christina, which surprised him since he always called her and not the opposite. But he could have cared less, especially today. "I'm doing pretty good, actually. How about you? You doing okay?"

Christina couldn't help but smile at the question, since she was aware of how much Peter cared for her and that seemed to have increased tenfold after the events of the festival. He would call her every day to make sure she was okay and safe and sound which, to be honest, actually warmed her heart in a way. It was sweet to have someone look out for her like that.

If only she knew how much Peter Parker truly cared, but her naive mind wouldn't allow her to....

"I'm also doing well, just bored," Christina replied after a second or two, shrugging her shoulders lightly. "And I'll happily let you know that my wounds have fully healed! So, you can stop worrying about me so much." After saying this, she let out a hearty giggle and she could even hear Peter chuckling on the other end at what she had said.

"Chris, you're my best friend and I care for you," Peter spoke up after they had finished their laughing fit. "I'm not gonna stop worrying about you."

This was something that Peter commonly said to Christina whenever he comforted her (which was rare, since he almost never had to console her) if she was frustrated or upset over something. He would ask her if she was really okay after he cheered her up and she would always reply with something along the lines of, "Peter, I'm fine! You don't need to worry about me, you know?" And he would respond by saying the exact thing he had just spoken five seconds ago.

Normally, this helped Christina cheer up more and she would even laugh as she playfully hit Peter's arm, since she always thought he was just joking.

But, right at this very moment, Christina finally detected the (surprisingly) serious tone laced in Peter's voice. Had he been telling the truth all of those other times? Did he actually worry about her constantly? Why hadn't she noticed that? And why hadn't she been grateful for that? And why did her heart suddenly skip a beat at hearing her best friend say that touching statement? And why the fuck was her face a slight shade of red?

What the hell were these thoughts that had suddenly entered her head?!

"Well, that's nice of you, Pete," Christina mumbled in a shy manner, trying to hide the obvious tremble in her voice now. "Oh, I forgot to ask! Are you doing anything tonight?"

"Uh, no, I don't think so," Peter replied in a puzzled tone. "Why do you ask?"

"Um, I was wondering if you were free to go see a movie with me like you mentioned last month," Christina pressed onward in a semi-nervous voice. "I'm off work tomorrow and Sunday so I can actually stay up late. So, are you free to go with me to the theater?"

There was a few seconds of slightly awkward silence, during which Christina waited for a reply but she finally got one when she thought she wouldn't.

"Yeah, I would love to go with you!" Peter responded in a much more cheerful voice than normal, but only because he was happy to get to spend more time with his crush.

Christina grinned out of instinct as she felt a little happier than she was earlier. "Great!" she replied in a slightly ecstatic tone, and she wasn't quite sure why. Why was she suddenly more excited to hang out with Peter?! She had never felt this way towards him before!

Wait a second... she thought to herself as her eyes widened.

"Uh, Chris, are you there?" Peter spoke up in a confused tone.

Christina snapped out of her troubling thoughts as she shook her head to herself very lightly. "Yeah, I'm here," she mumbled timidly as her hands began to lightly shake. "Um... how about I meet you at your place tonight. Say, 6:30?"

"Yeah, that's fine with me," Peter said, his bewildered voice vanishing and returning to an excited one. "Whatever you want, Chris."

Christina smiled once again as she nodded her head before remembering that Peter couldn't see her. "Okay, sounds great! I'll see you then." She was suddenly more eager to hang up the phone than ever so she could have just a little bit of time to think.

After exchanging their goodbyes, she frantically placed the receiver back where it belonged and she plopped herself down onto her bed and stared up at the ceiling. Her mind was randomly scrambling itself around as she tried her hardest to think about the out-of-nowhere emotions she had just felt while talking on the phone with Peter. These feelings had come out of the blue for her and she knew that she wasn't supposed to be experiencing this around her best friend of all people!

She was aware that her heart had leapt a little at the touching words Peter had spoken to her and that she had been blushing from it, but she wasn't supposed to feel that! Feelings towards someone you knew was one thing, but having that for your best friend of fourteen years?! Now that was a nightmare on its own.

Was it just something she felt in the moment? Were these feelings just a one-time thing? Or was it something more... something more... powerful?

No, it's not! Christina thought as she laughed to herself. It's not possible! It can't be! Right?

Yes, that was right. She couldn't allow this to happen, so she just tried to shut it out of her mind entirely, praying to God that it would work. Christina Lily Johnson did not have a crush on Peter Benjamin Parker and she was one hundred percent fucking sure of it.

Or did she...?

_____

There was one thing Christina didn't know for sure, however.

Peter had been in love with her for fourteen years.

And it was so bloody obvious that it would have to take a blind person to not be able to see how much he truly cared about her.

But Christina couldn't see it... somehow.

Well, she had some sort of an idea of how much Peter cared, but her dumbass always thought it was just platonic. But it definitely wasn't.

When Christina and Peter met up outside his apartment building at 6:30 on the dot, the latter kept his incredibly evident feelings for his best friend on the sideline as he mostly focused on the movie they were going to see. He felt kind of stupid for still not deciding on the film since he hadn't really been paying attention to the new releases coming out in the cinema lately.

It probably had something to do with the second life he had been struggling to uphold during the past few months....

He briefly noticed that Christina was dressed more casually than normal tonight; it was just a white sweater (since it was chilly outside), blue jeans with a few holes in them, and a pair of black Converse sneakers. Regardless, he still thought she looked really pretty and he didn't hesitate to compliment her for it.

"You look really nice tonight," he mumbled over to Christina in a shy tone as they walked to the theater, fighting the blush creeping up onto his face.

The blonde glanced over at him with a sheepish expression in her eyes but she tried to hide it and she was very good at it. Instead, she tried to seem both flattered but also thankful for the compliment. "Thanks, Pete," she replied in a friendly tone of voice, although it was quivering just a little bit but, luckily, Peter didn't seem to notice. But, in return for his kind comment, she decided to smoothly reply with one of her own: "You look handsome, just so you know."

Peter swerved his head in Christina's direction, a little surprised at the unusual compliment that had been thrown his way. His face turned even more red at those words, since he had never heard them coming from the blonde woman and he could have sworn that his heart was doing somersaults in his chest. "Well, thank you, Chris," he replied bashfully as he grinned at her.

Christina had to remove her attention from Peter after seeing him grinning at her so she wouldn't be so embarrassed. Why, oh why was she feeling this way for him?! Why now and not before this night?! Why did it have to be this way? And why did she have to be an idiot for not realizing sooner?!

Nope, I don't have feelings for him! she screamed in her head, closing her eyes for a moment. That's weird! I can't do that! What if he doesn't feel the same way?

A part of Christina was aware that she was blatantly lying to herself right there, but she chose to ignore it.

After about fifteen minutes of them going back to regular conversation, the two of them arrived at the local theater just down the street from where Peter lived and they were both staring at the many posters that aligned the outside wall, from Men in Black II to Halloween: Resurrection or even films like Attack of the Clones, which was still playing almost two months since its release.

"That movie was awful," Christina mumbled as she pointed at the latter of the posters, which featured an adult Anakin Skywalker, his love interest (Padme), and Obi-Wan Kenobi front and center.

"What do you mean?!" Peter exclaimed with wide eyes as he stared over at Christina. "That film was amazing! Easily top three behind A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back!"

"You're entitled to your wrong opinion, that's fine!" Christina replied playfully as she smirked at Peter, which resulted in him gently shoving her and them both laughing hysterically.

After a little while of trying to choose what they wanted to watch, they both settled on M. Night Shyamalan's newest film called Signs. The poster had intrigued Christina, while it somewhat creeped the hell out of Peter but he allowed her to choose it. The young woman then paid for their tickets (despite Peter's protests) and they decided to get one bucket of popcorn to share while they watched the film.

After about two hours of sitting through, honestly, a pretty chilling horror movie that shocked both young adults immensely, they exited the theater while excitedly discussing the surprising plot twist the third act had. While Peter seemed to enjoy said twist, Christina wasn't much of a fan of it, saying that it was kind of stupid. They hung out on one of the benches just outside of the building while having a pretty authentic and long conversation about the movie as a whole.

"I thought it was pretty great until the ending. It kind of ruined the whole movie, to be honest," Christina mumbled after their ten minute discussion.

"Look, hate the execution of the twist all you want, but you have to admit that it was a pretty cool idea," Peter respectfully argued as he shrugged his shoulders with a smile on his face.

Christina took a few seconds to pretend to think about it as she tilted her head thoughtfully before smirking at her best friend. "Yeah, you're right," she finally said as she giggled, which made Peter laugh in return.

A few seconds of chuckling passed between the two before both of them calmed down and they shared a brief look filled with peace and comfort. The night had been full of tranquility and nothing was going to ruin that for them, which was great.

"Do you want to go somewhere else?" Peter asked Christina as he stood up and offered her his hand, which she politely took as she also stood to her feet. "We can go to any fast food place, or we can just walk around. Your choice."

Christina actually thought about it as she quickly glanced at her watch and saw that the time said 9:15 P.M. Seeing this made her sigh in a sad manner before lightly shaking her head and looking back up at Peter. "I can't, I'm sorry," she said to him in a disappointed tone. "I need to get home so I can continue packing for moving day. But I appreciate the offer, really."

Peter nodded his head since he understood that she would be busy, and he didn't want to get in the way of her objectives. "No worries, it's okay," he told her with a compassionate smile. "Are you taking the train back to Queens?"

"Yeah, I figured that'd be the quickest way back," Christina answered him with a slight nod of her own head.

"Do you want me to walk you to the train station?" Peter asked her kindly as his eyebrows scrunched together, not feeling the best about letting her walk down the pitch black streets of Manhattan at night. "That way you'll be safe."

Christina just smiled at that question and her head lowered for a moment so she could hide the faint blush on her face. After a few seconds of recovering from her shyness, she shook her head back and forth again as she glanced at her best friend. "No, I'll be alright," she assured him as she placed a hand on Peter's arm, which she seemed to do all the time lately and it never failed to leave him in a breathless state. "Besides, it's not a far walk, maybe half a mile or so."

"Are you sure?" Peter pressed on, his only hope being that Christina wouldn't get hurt if she were walking by herself to the station.

"Peter..." Christina mumbled as she looked at him with an expression of persuasion in her bright blue eyes. "I'll be fine. You don't need to worry. And I know what you're gonna say, you don't need to. But I'll be okay, I promise."

Peter had been about to say the same words he had said to Christina over the phone: "I won't stop worrying about you." But she had already gotten there first, so he just gave in and nodded, trying his best to ignore the fact that her gentle hand was still gripping his arm.

"How about I call you after I get home so you'll know I'm okay?" Christina offered with a soft smile on her face.

Peter's face lit up with comfort as he smiled back at the beautiful woman in front of him. "Yeah, that would be great," he replied as he chuckled.

Christina's shy smile turned into a grin knowing that Peter was convinced that she would be okay, so she finally pulled her hand back from his arm. "Then I promise to call you when I get home," she assured him. "It'll probably be an hour but I'll call you."

Peter nodded once again before a bright flash of lightning lit up their surroundings for a brief moment, making both him and Christina flinch a little. They could then feel a few droplets of rain start to cascade down on them, which made them smile awkwardly.

"Looks like a rainy night's headed our way," Christina said in an amused voice, which made them both chuckle. After a few seconds, she pulled her purse further up onto her shoulder before looking up at Peter. "I'd better get home. I'll see you later."

After exchanging farewells, Christina made a bold move by leaning over and pecking Peter on the cheek before turning around and speed walking away in order to hide her blush from him. A particularly cold breeze hit her body and it made her shiver, and the rain being mixed with that made it worse and she hugged her arms to her chest to try to keep herself warm. God, she really regretted not bringing her raincoat or an umbrella; well, she hadn't watched the forecast earlier that evening so she wasn't aware of the minor thunderstorm that would be taking place throughout the night.

Something she wasn't aware of was that Peter had kept his gaze on her as she walked away, but only to assure himself that she would make it around the street corner safe and sound.

Boy, was he glad that he hadn't looked away from her.

He couldn't hear them saying anything but he sure noticed two grown men looking in Christina's direction for longer than they should have. Peter didn't have to examine them for too long to know that their intentions weren't any good, especially when they nodded and discreetly followed the blonde woman.

Peter's blood began to boil and he internally scolded himself for not being persistent in walking Christina to the train station. But, instead of panicking, he began to quickly follow the two men with fury in his eyes.

Meanwhile, Christina had been completely aware of the presence of the two men behind her, since Margaret had taught her to always pay attention to her surroundings, especially in a place like an alleyway in downtown Manhattan. She already had her pepper spray at the ready, just in case one of them were to grab her or do anything else indescribable to her and she sneakily glanced behind her a couple times to make sure they weren't closer.

She was able to spot the sign of one of the Manhattan train stations she was making her way towards and she began to walk even faster, but she tried to make it seem as though she hadn't noticed the men.

Almost there, she thought to herself. You're almost there, Chris. You can make it!

But, just as she was fifty feet away from the station, she could feel the tip of a cold metal object pressing against her spine.

"Don't you fucking move," came a low and dangerous voice from behind her.

The blonde froze in place as she secretly gripped the pepper spray in her right hand, ready to spin around and press the trigger of it. The rain that was now pouring down on her had her completely soaked at this point and her sweater was clinging to her skin for dear life.

"What do you want?" she asked whoever was behind her, her voice trembling ever so lightly but it was just enough to notice.

"I just want your wallet," the man spoke up just as Christina saw the other one come into her line of sight with a ten-inch hunting knife aimed towards her. "And whatever other shit you have in your purse. You hand me that and we won't hurt you."

"Haven't you got anything better to do?!" Christina tried firing back in a sarcastic voice but that only resulted in the object (undoubtedly a knife) pressing further against her back.

"Hand over whatever you have and you can go on your merry way," the man growled at her and she could feel his breath landing on her neck, which made her visibly cringe at the feeling.

"Okay, okay!" Christina shouted in a semi-annoyed, semi-petrified tone of voice. "Hold your horses, asshole..."

But what these men didn't know was that the blonde was already forming a simultaneous plan in her head based on what her mother had taught her when she was younger.

Christina slowly reached down towards her purse with her free left hand as she took several deep breaths, but she made sure to drag it out as slowly as possible so it could (hopefully) distract the two motherfuckers that literally had nothing better to do that night. She was definitely shaking from head to toe and her confidence had one hundred percent vanished at this point; she was just relying on desperation.

"Come on, bitch, we don't got all day!" the man aiming the other knife at her shouted at her in an irritated tone.

That was Christina's moment of hope.

She raised her right leg and used it to drive the heel of her foot in between the legs of the man behind her, and she knew she succeeded when she could hear him groaning out in pain and hitting the ground. That was when she spun towards the other man and pressed the trigger of the pepper spray right into his eyes, and he screamed in utter agony as he wildly started to swing his knife at her. It cut through the fabric of her left sleeve of the sweater but, luckily, it didn't slice through her arm.

"You fucking bitch!" both men screamed after her as she recovered her composure and began running for the hills.

Christina's sneakers slammed against the black pavement of the alley as she tried her best not to slip in the several puddles that had already begun to form from the downpour of rain. She could see the sign of the train station growing closer and she knew that she couldn't dare look back because she knew that, if these men had planned on ambushing her, there were probably more. And she didn't want to have to go through another encounter.

Although she was absolutely exhausted from sprinting away from the scene of the crime, Christina didn't attempt to stop and she wanted to wait until she was in a crowd of people before even thinking of slowing down. The building was now thirty feet away and a hopeful grin formed on her face and she even began to laugh at the idea of getting to safety.

Twenty-five feet.

Twenty feet.

Fifteen...

Ten...

Christina slipped in a particularly deep puddle of water and she toppled to the ground.

"Ah, fuck..." she moaned from the soreness that hit both her arms and knees as she struggled to get up. Fortunately, the adrenaline overpowered the pain and the inevitable scrapes and bruises that would form from the fall, and she got up rather quickly.

But, just as she did, she could feel two arms roughly encircling her waist and she was dragged over to a brick wall on the right side of the alley.

"Come here, you little shit!" a new, older man shouted just as Christina was able to see an additional four people gathering around her, including the two men that she had encountered minutes ago. She could barely see them, however, as only silhouettes were visible.

"GET OFF ME!" she bellowed at the man and she began violently thrashing her legs about, but the man was too strong. "LET GO OF ME, YOU MOTHERFUCKER!"

In response, she was thrown towards the wall and she just barely prevented her skull from slamming into the bricks and causing a concussion. She quickly spun around to face the five people glaring at her with grins of victory on their faces, and she instinctively held her pepper spray at eye level of all of them. "GET THE FUCK BACK!" she screamed at all of them, her eyes wide with fear.

"We like a girl that fights back!" one of the men shouted in response as he looked her up and down, which made Christina's blood boil to the point that she was about to snap.

"You don't want to do this!" Christina cried out, holding the pepper spray closer to the men, which resulted in all of them laughing at her.

"Oh, but we do, miss!" another man replied with a sadistic chuckle. "You've got nowhere to go, so how about you hand us whatever you have?!"

"Hey, assholes!"

All five men simultaneously swerved their heads around and Christina looked up in slight surprise; it was practically pitch black and the rain didn't help with trying to see whoever had called out in the dark. But she noted that the voice sounded familiar.

"I believe she told you to get away from her!" a younger man shouted before several strands of webbing came flying towards the criminals at rapid speed. They all attached to the men's backs and they were all dragged away from the vulnerable and scared blonde woman that was staring at all of it with a look of utter relief written all over her face.

Ever so slowly, Christina stepped a little closer to the chaos that was happening with an expression of curiosity laced in her relaxed eyes. She completely ignored how freaking freezing she was at this point as the rain drops stuck to her clothes and blonde hair.

Under one of the outside lights illuminating a certain part of the alley, Spider-Man was beating the living shit out of the men that had tried to hurt Christina. Normally, when it was five against one, the latter would definitely not be winning that fight, but when it was against the masked webhead of New York, it was incredibly unmatched... especially when he was extremely fucking pissed.

Christina watched as Spider-Man took out each of the men one by one, and he was making sure that they were only knocked out so they would be taught a lesson: never try to ruin the night of someone just trying to walk home in Manhattan. A crash of thunder surrounded them just as a flash of lightning lit up the alley, and the blonde could barely notice that the hero's face was on full reveal; he didn't have his mask on. But she wasn't able to see what his face looked like since her vision was obscured by nearly pure blackness once more.

But the light above all of them helped her see that he only had one more bastard to take care of and she smiled since she was impressed with how quickly the webhead could take out a group of people. She couldn't see him punching and kicking the consciousness out of them but, after he dramatically lifted one of them above his head, she got the indication that he was finished with his duty.

Spider-Man tossed the last person's limp body to the pavement, completely out of breath now as he looked around to see if there was anyone left to take care of. But, after assuring himself that there wasn't another criminal in sight, he brought himself to look up at the woman he had just saved for the second time in the past two weeks and he noticed her timidly stepping closer to him. In his mind, the blonde probably wanted to thank him for the kind gesture and he was about to say something to her, but he then realized something.

He had forgotten to conceal his face with his mask before jumping in to rescue her!

Out of worry of his identity accidentally being discovered, he turned away from Christina and seemingly vanished around the corner.

"Hey, wait!" Christina shouted after him as she jogged in the direction he had run in. But, when she rounded the corner of one of the buildings that led to another alley, she could hardly see it but the hero was nowhere in sight.

"Thanks... I guess..." she mumbled to herself sarcastically as she chuckled lightly, finally shivering again from the ice cold rain hitting her body. She didn't even bother adjusting herself as she slipped the pepper spray back into her situated purse and she glanced over at the train station sign, which was ten feet away from her now.

"Are you alright, ma'am?"

Christina jumped at the sudden sound of the voice coming from right behind her and she spun around to face whoever it was, sighing with relief once again.

Spider-Man was facing her with an expression of concern on the face that lay behind the red mask, and he was hanging upside-down on a web that was attached to the top of one of the buildings.

"Oh, now you ask," Christina mumbled jokingly as she giggled a little bit. "Well, other than almost dying, I guess I'm okay.

"Very funny," Spider-Man replied sarcastically, despite chuckling a bit himself.

"I know," Christina replied with a smug grin. "I'm hilarious." After saying this, however, she dropped the playful act and her smile was genuine again as she blinked the raindrops out of her eyes. "But, seriously, thanks for saving me. I really appreciate it."

"It's no problem," he said as he delivered the slightest nod of his head. "I was in the neighborhood, figured it'd be a good thing to stop those guys..."

Christina's smile faltered ever so slightly as she took a single step closer, brushing a strand of her rain-covered hair out of her face. "You know, I've heard a bunch of slander being said about you," she informed the masked man with a look of assurance in her eyes. "But I think those people are wrong. You're really not as bad as they say. You're actually pretty cool...."

She could hear a smile in Spider-Man's voice as he replied with, "That's really kind of you. It's nice to have a fan..."

Christina smirked as she prevented another giggle from slipping past her lips and she was unaware that the hero could feel his heart skipping multiple beats in his chest at the sight of her smile. "Yeah, I guess it is..." she replied, shaking her head ever so lightly before glancing at him again. "But you're a very good person... You don't deserve all those hateful comments."

That was when the blonde came up with a sudden idea; she figured that it wouldn't be the best plan but she needed to find a way to really explain to Spider-Man how truly grateful she was that he had saved her. And, although she was kind of nervous, she decided to mask that with a sense of courage as her smile grew into a shy one.

"In fact..." she began as she took another step closer to him. "...I want to find a proper way to say 'thank you.' I don't think just saying it is enough."

Then, feeling a little more timid than usual as she slowly raised her shivering hands towards the man's mask, and she could feel her heart pounding against her ribcage as her breath came in and out really quickly.

"Wait a second," Spider-Man spoke up, making the blonde freeze in place as a bit of fear hit her, and she grew worried that he would absolutely object to what she was about to do and, although she would respect that, she would feel incredibly stupid.

But, much to her comfort, the hero slowly lowered his head further down so he could allow her to do what she was about to do. Feeling consoled, she moved her trembling hands to the edge of his mask that was just below his neck and she gently grabbed the fabric before carefully pulling it down his face. As much as she wanted to, Christina didn't dare to remove the mask all the way, wanting to respect Spider-Man's privacy as much as she could. She also didn't want to admit it, but she was blushing furiously at what she was doing, but she tried to keep herself composed.

She finally decided to stop pulling his mask down once she saw that his lips were visible; she noticed that he seemed younger than she initially thought, which relieved her. At least she wouldn't be doing this with someone who was twice her age!

"Um... are you comfortable with me kissing you...?" she shyly asked him, wanting his permission before she did what she was describing.

There were a few seconds of terrifying silence that followed this question and Christina kept thinking two likely scenarios in her head; if he said yes, then she would do what she wanted but, if he said no, she would immediately step back and leave since his wishes mattered to her. She didn't want to push his boundaries even further than they already were, so she was going to respect him no matter what.

"Yes..."

Christina glanced back up at the masked man and her face sort of lit up at his positive answer to her question of consent, mostly because she was relieved that he hadn't yelled at her or shoved him away. She could kind of tell that Spider-Man somewhat sounded eager to have someone kiss him but she didn't know that he was eager because she was going to kiss him.

So, after taking a deep breath, the blonde closed her eyes and placed her hands on either side of Spider-Man's face; she then leaned in and delicately placed her lips on his.

Christina Johnson was Peter Parker's first kiss....

It started off as more so the young woman testing the waters with him, as it had been quite a few years since she had kissed anyone, her last being a random boy in her Freshman year that she was forced to perform a dare with. While that felt rushed and awkward, this felt more real and genuine and, as her lips moved against his, she slowly stepped even closer and she began to stop shivering. The rain splashing down onto them made the moment feel more magical than it should have, but neither of them could have possibly cared.

Christina suddenly made the brave move of gently deepening the kiss, just praying that Spider-Man was okay with this. It seemed as though he was, since he lowered his left hand to gently grip her arm in order to reassure her that she was safe and that he would never hurt her or make her uncomfortable. His soothing touch caused a gasp to leave the blonde but it wasn't one of panic, but more like approval; this resulted in her lips being parted for a moment, which led to their tongues accidentally touching.

They both froze for a brief second before resuming the kiss as though that hadn't happened, neither of them wanting to go too far.

Christina sighed softly against Spider-Man's lips as she added more passion to their moment and she even moved her left hand to faintly hold his that was on her arm mere seconds before, and she could feel him tentatively interlocking their fingers in return. That was the moment she truly felt a bunch of butterflies erupting in her stomach, since she was able to tell that whoever was behind the mask seemed to really care about her well-being and that he was making sure she was okay for as long as their kiss kept going, which she thought was extremely sweet of him.

For someone who seemed to be superhuman and tougher than any normal man, his lips were way softer than Christina would have thought – not that she ever imagined what they felt like. She wanted to stay in this moment for longer, while Spider-Man wanted to move from where he was hanging to where he was standing on his feet, that way he could hold her while he kissed her.

But, just like every amazing thing, their moment slowly drew to an end, mostly because Christina was getting way too cold to stand there all night. So, she pulled away from Spider-Man, although her touch lingered for a few seconds longer and she was able to hear him let out a shaky breath when she left another sweet peck on his lips, and that made her grin before pulling his mask back to where it was covering his neck again.

"You need to get home..." Spider-Man whispered in a soft voice as he reluctantly let go of the blonde's hand and he resisted the urge to caress her left cheek.

"Okay..." Christina murmured as she nodded, finally opening her eyes again and timidly taking a step back. "Thank you..."

After nodding his head, Spider-Man shot another web into the air to pull himself away from the alley and from Christina, and she was left looking up in his direction as he disappeared into the dark night sky. While she was smiling out of comfort due to not being yelled at by the hero and having gained his permission to kiss him, a part of her started to grow a little suspicious. His voice sounded way more familiar than normal this time, but she still couldn't put two and two together, which she wasn't a fan of.

But she knew that she would eventually figure it out; she had to, or she was certain she would lose it.

A/N: above this is my fucking terrible scene edit for this chapter! pretend that isn't mary jane in the top picture, shhhhh! 🤫

so, i was going to have this chapter delivered tomorrow in honor of valentine's day but i figured i'd post it a day early because i wanted you guys to read it!

surprisingly, i'm actually kind of happy with how this chapter turned out, and it ended up being longer than originally intended! i think it's a solid chapter, especially when one of the most crucial moments of christina and peter's relationship take place!

don't get too excited just yet! we still have a LONG way to go before any true romance starts! slow burn, everyone! mwahahahahahaha!😁

ANYWAY, what did you guys think of this chapter?! was it a good one? let me know!

also, we got the upside-down kiss between christina and spider-man! i hope it wasn't too much like how the film did it! thoughts on that scene?

we've officially reached the second half of part one so prepare yourself for shit to go down soon! i will not be giving anything away lol

anyways, be looking forward to the next chapter!

-denbroughswife