A Beautiful Mask (Patreon)

After their first coupling as man and wife, when they were breathing almost normally again, Mary Jane said, “I’ve always wanted to be seduced, just not by a seducer.”

“You’ll have to run that by me again,” Peter said. He’d seen so many new sides of Mary Jane over the years… and yet he was always eager to examine more.

A scientist’s curiosity, perhaps. Although he doubted there was any fully understanding Mary Jane. He might know her, but he would never stop being surprised by her.

Maybe that should’ve bothered him; his Uncle Ben and Aunt May could always finish each other’s sentences. But he knew Mary Jane enough to love her. Peter couldn’t seem to care much beyond that.

“I want… wanted… a man who would give me everything I could ask for in a lover—but not pretending, faking. He really is all those things.”

“So handsome, smart, caring, patient… extremely funny…”

Mary Jane managed enough strength to lift her pillow and crash it down on Peter’s midsection. “But those are things someone is. I want someone to do those things. For me.”

“But without pretending,” Peter recalled. “With… being.”

“Right.”

“Seems like a tall order. Zen, even. Getting a man who tries to fulfill your fantasy while he also doesn’t have to try…”

“Oh, it was a tall order. I had to get my claws into you.”

“I’m not a seducer?” Peter asked, mock-hurt.

“No, you are, when you aren’t trying to be. You never made it through my defenses.”

“I didn’t?”

“No. You got me to drop them. Let you in.” Mary Jane shifted until she was cuddled up against him. “And it was leading by example. I would never have thought someone had the courage to stop being alone if I didn’t see you do it. We were so good at being alone…”

“We’re better at being together.”

MJ blushed. “If your hand keeps doing that, I’m going to lose my train of thought.”

“How important can it be if you can’t think about it when I’m doing this?”

“Ohhh!” Mary Jane slammed her fist down, but only on the pillow in his lap. “One minute, tiger! You’ve got me for the rest of your life.”

“Is that supposed to make me less turned on?”

Mary Jane ignored him, hard as it was. Squeezing her thighs together to trap his hand. He respectfully settled down to only a light stroking to keep her aware that he was there, ready to further ravish her. “Trying to fulfill my fantasy but not having to try either—wait, was it the other way around?”

“I think it was something of a metaphor to begin with. They’re never very exact.”

“I know. That’s the beauty of them.”

“And the frustrating part.”

“Every rose has its thorns.”

“Some have a lot.”

“Makes you appreciate them more,” Mary Jane said. “I married Peter Parker, not Spider-Man. But you are Spider-Man. Fearless and strong and powerful. Invincible. Completely trustworthy. And it’s an act, but it’s not an act. It’s who you want to be—”

“And sometimes who I am,” Peter agreed. “It’s even hard for me to get that sometimes. I’m not surprised that only you do.”

“What’s that word? Binary. Other people think it’s a binary. The truth and the lie. That I’m ‘really’ a lost little girl and when I’m dancing the night away, all smiles, that’s somehow fake. It’s not. It’s just one piece of me. The part that’s easy to love.”

“I almost managed to screw it up,” Peter recalled self-effacingly, though it scared him still—he’d almost lost Mary Jane so many times, not even because of one of his enemies, but through his own stupidity and other less-than-sterling qualities.

“Part of you is afraid of getting hurt,” Mary Jane said, the light in her words zigging away from the darkness on Peter’s face. “Old wounds that don’t want to be reopened. That’s part of me too. But not all of me.”

“And Spider-Man?” Peter asked.

Mary Jane thought about it. “A beautiful mask. Someone like Captain America or Thor, maybe that’s all they are. The armor. But you, you have to put it on. I prefer that. It’s better that you want to be Spider-Man than that you are Spider-Man.”

“But I am Spider-Man,” Peter reminded her.

“And Peter Parker. I like that guy too.”

“And I like you. Whether you need to dance the night away or be a lost little girl. I love every part of you.”

Mary Jane grinned at him. “Pick a part and show me.”