*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧
( FOREVER )
THREE━━ Un(ex)pected visitor
ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ 恋人┊͙✧˖*°࿐(🚙🚦🏘)

( PRESENT DAY ━ OCTOBER 18th, 2023 )

     WHEN IT CAME TO Briar Langford, it was like Michelle Jones would turn into the puppy dog eyes emoji. Ever since middle school, a soft spot in her cold heart was occupied by her best friend. Forget her little knowledge on how to comfort someone, or her lack of enthusiasm towards—well.. everything, whenever she noticed that Briar was upset, Michelle would immediately spring into action.

Sort of ironically, the first time Michelle had been there for Briar was when she met Peter. Michelle's whole rough, reserved exterior would crumble and her soft, sympathetic, comforting side would shine. Although she secretly found relationships—and simply love in general—to be tragic and messy, Michelle was the one who'd motivated Briar to ask Peter out after decathlon practice towards the end of their freshman year. She was honestly just tired of hearing them both mope and whine about how the other didn't feel the same way.

She only let a few people see this side of her, and Briar was more than honored to be one of them. However, Michelle enjoyed having people fear her, she liked being mysterious, so she forced Briar to promise that she'd never tell anyone about her "soft side".

After five and a half solid years of friendship and through a lengthy process of trial and error, Briar helped Michelle get the hang of being more emotionally available. At least towards her and their small circle of friends. Today, Michelle's mission was to convince Briar to confront Peter. She figured it wouldn't be too hard, considering how desperate Briar seemed to get some answers from Peter yesterday, but boy was she wrong.

Michelle couldn't blame her best friend for feeling discouraged. Peter was an adult now, he had a whole other life without her. Michelle, being the level minded realist that she is, knew that Briar was just setting herself up for heartbreak. Part of her felt like she shouldn't be encouraging Briar to reunite with him, but deep down she knew that Briar couldn't just avoid the elephant in the room and carry on with her life—as if Peter Parker never existed.

The girls awoke at approximately twelve in the afternoon to the harsh roaring of the vehicles outside. The people driving the cars honked their horns frustratedly at the large moving truck that was still occupying a good amount of the street.

The sound of a cereal box shaking from a few feet away in the connected kitchen also caught Briar's attention, tempting her to get up from the couch and approach her father while Michelle tried to fall back asleep. Briar threw herself towards James once she had entered the kitchen, wrapping her long arms around him for a hug. James had been standing against the stove while wearing his extremely cheesy R2-D2 cooking apron—that was obviously given to him by Peter for his fortieth birthday. It was a strange surprise that after nearly six years, he still owned it and wore it, even when he wasn't cooking.

"MJ! Sleep well?" James' voice rang loudly across the empty apartment, making the girls to hiss at the harsh echoes he had caused. Michelle groaned as she gave up on her hope of getting any extra sleep and hummed a disapproving response. "How're you holding up?" he inquired curiously, stepping away from the stove and moving towards some boxes to grab bowls for everyone to eat off of.

"Well, let's see." Michelle began sarcastically, the side of her face still resting against the couch pillows. "Aliens invaded earth and a giant grape-looking dude basically killed me, my family, and half the universe, and it feels like this all happened a couple hours ago—when really," Michelle let out a breathy, bitter laugh, "It's been five years. So, I guess you could say I'm doing just fine. Just a little tired." She smiled sinfully while James nearly choked on his coffee.

The kitchen fell into an awkward silence. It wasn't Michelle's brutally honest nature that caused the tension between the three, but the important, truthful words she had spoken. The topic was still fresh on everyone's mind and neither of them knew how to carry on. "Well," Briar sighed, "I'm not super hungry, we just woke up after all. Em and I are gonna go find the boxes with my clothes, we're going somewhere this afternoon." James rolled his eyes in response and pushed his reading glasses farther up his nose.

"You were gone all afternoon and spent the evening with your friends, where could you possibly need to go?" he asked Briar as Michelle made her way over to the kitchen and held back a small chuckle. Briar tossed her head back and groaned annoyedly. Her short, natural curls shook gently with her body as Briar exaggerated her movements.

She hesitated for a moment and James could see something in his daughter's eyes before she looked back at him. "Peter's house, dad. I still haven't seen him yet."

James gaped and nodded understandingly, perching himself on the edge of the counter. "Oh, that's fine. Say hi to him for me, I haven't spoken to him in a few years, when you vanished. He came searching for you, y'know."

"That sounds like him." Briar let out a breathy chuckle, disliking the upsetting tension in the air that swarmed around them—almost overwhelming to the point that it could suffocate them, "Well, I should start getting dressed. Where are my—"

"Your boxes should be by the door, if not check the master bedroom." James raised his hand and pointed in the direction of the entrance. Briar sent him a grateful, tight smile and strung Michelle along out of the room. Before Briar yanked off her arm, Michelle managed to wave awkwardly at James and say goodbye. "And don't forget to shower, you smell like teenage misery!"

As the girls began ripping open the cardboard boxes filled with Briar's clothing, a new wave of discouragement ran through her body. Michelle took notice in the way her forehead wrinkled while she stared hard at her clothes and began to pace around her room, but decided not to speak on it and continued looking for a pair of jeans for Briar to wear.

The more Briar continued to rummage through the boxes of her clothing, the more her stress visibly increased. Michelle attempted to remain quiet and let Briar have her moment of peace because in all honesty, they both knew what was going to happen with Briar's visit to Peter's house; she was going to get her heart broken and sent home to mope.

"Why am I even trying to dress up for him?" Briar sighed exasperatedly, "He's engaged!"

Michelle let out a deep breath and nodded boringly. "And.. he's a whole ass adult now." she agreed, combing back her uncooperative strands of hair, "Plus, you should never try to dress up for anyone, especially a man. Never conform to a man's standards." Briar's eyebrows raised at Michelle's small outburst but hummed approvingly nonetheless, this time searching through her items calmly and thoroughly.

"That being said," Michelle spoke up again after a minute of silence, "Engaged or not—you gotta look hot as fuck so you can remind that dork of what he's missing out on."

After trial and error, putting together different outfits and different styles and comparing pairs of shoes, the girls finally chose an ensemble; a simple outfit that should've taken them at most five minutes to choose. Since they hadn't gotten far enough with the unpacking yesterday to start hanging up Briar's mirror, the girls moved to the bathroom, where they continued getting ready.

Michelle sat atop the bathroom counter wearing a pair of borrowed sweats and a long sleeve from Briar's wardrobe—to replace her summer clothing that practically caused her to freeze from the fall air when she blipped back—while Briar cleaned herself in the shower, her body covered by the shower curtains as she rambled imploringly. She was no longer complaining about Peter, instead, she started to grumble about her mother's absence and her grand move to New Jersey.

Michelle joined in on the conversation too, sharing with Briar that her mother had also blipped. She had even brought up her father, who wasn't spoken about often because he was absent for most of Michelle's life.

The man had made their home life difficult growing up, but her and her mom worked hard to make it work. Despite their resentment, Michelle reluctantly admitted that she was curious to know if he had survived the snap. Michelle had to confess, it felt nice and refreshing to talk about the chaos swarming through her head every once in a while. Especially when talking about it to her best friend, who was always understanding and never took pity on her or scolded her for wondering about the man who had put her family through so many struggles.

One shower and two deep conversations later, Briar and Michelle were finally ready to head out of the apartment. It had only been twenty minutes since they'd chosen Briar's outfit, but to them, it felt like five. Briar was staring at herself in the mirror, putting the finishing touches on her appearance by adjusting her dried and combed hair and moving to clasp on her favorite necklace.

Michelle leaned back on her arms as she sat against a box and stared at Briar's necklace questioningly. "Are you sure you're gonna wear that?"

━━
( SIX YEARS AGO ━ JUNE 7th, 2017 )

One of the many perks of being Spider-Man was that as Peter swung from the tops of buildings searching for crime, he was constantly discovering tiny nooks and corners of the city that not many people ever noticed or bothered to search for.

Such as this small, open garden hidden behind an abandoned greenhouse in Forest Hills. He had spotted it during one of his quieter patrols and decided to explore it. The minute he'd stepped inside and spotted the beautiful yet overgrown greenery, he knew he'd have to bring Briar to witness it for herself.

And what better day to show her than on their one year anniversary?

Briar loved the garden, just as Peter had predicted. It wasn't often that someone would see a gem like this—especially in the city, where everything was either crowded, fake, or simply nonexistent.

Peter spent the entire morning buying Briar's favorite foods and creating a picnic that he knew she would enjoy. Of course it was cliché of him, but he also knew how much Briar loved those sort of things.

Her appreciation and awe of his surprise was evident in the way her eyes watered slightly at the sight of Peter's picnic setup and the round flower crown he had managed to make earlier and gently place on Briar's head as they walked into the garden hand in hand. Her appreciation was also shown in the immense amount of kisses Briar gave him as they shared a pint of strawberry ice cream.

Small giggles that sounded like the prettiest noises in the world to Peter fell from Briar's lips as his puffy, pink lips collided with hers, over and over again. His hands dug into her hips, grounding himself by gripping the sides of her mint green sundress.

Golden beams from the summer sunshine shone through the tops of the trees that grew all over the garden. The warm rays danced across their skin leaving a fuzzy feeling throughout their bodies.

His kisses were gentle and soft and filled with love. Peter thrived off of physical touch and he absolutely loved having Briar's full attention. One of her hands clutched tightly to his shirt and the other rested gently in his curly brown locks, desperately tugging at the strands while Peter ran his tongue over her bottom lip and continued his quest to deliver soft and breathy kisses to Briar's lips.

They pulled away moments later when they'd ran out of air, Briar chuckling when she opened her eyes to meet Peter's, which were wide and loving and shone like honey in the gleam of the sun. They flickered repeatedly from her eyes and back down before he leaned in again and pressed one last lingering kiss to her lips.

"So," Peter started with a shy chuckle, "I'm guessing I did good?" he shifted his body off of Briar and rested his weight against his forearm. His eyes fell on the forgotten pint of ice cream and grabbed it along with the spoon. He quickly scooped up some onto the spoon and lifted it up to Briar's lips, being careful to not spill any of the sweet dessert on her dress.

Briar nodded thankfully as she accepted the spoonful from him. "Peter, this is more than good. It's perfect." Peter smiled absentmindedly, more or less focusing in on her lips, which were more plump than usual due to his kisses. His lips curled into a bright smile as he dipped the spoon back into the pint and scooped some up for himself.

"Well I'm glad. You deserve only the best." Peter spoke cheekily and Briar hummed disapprovingly at his overwhelming cheesiness, leaning back against the blanket with her elbows propped up. "Happy anniversary." they simultaneously leaned in and Briar shut her eyes, expecting Peter to land another kiss on her, but instead she was met with a frigid sensation against her nose. It only lasted for a second, but that was long enough to startle Briar.

Her eyes snapped open suddenly and she stared at Peter in shock. He cocked his head towards the spoon that he was holding, compelling Briar to squint harshly as she realized that Peter had pressed ice cream against her nose. Noticing her stunned and unamused expression, Peter was quick to start defending himself jokingly.

Just as Peter was getting to whatever he considered to be the main point of his argument, his words were cut off when Briar let out a muffled noise that resembled a squeak or a small yelp. His eyes immediately darted towards her, quickly assuming she was hurt. His eyes examined her body all the way up to her face, where she silently stared back at him with wide, panicked eyes that screamed 'help me!'.

His eyes finally landed on what caused the abrupt noise from Briar, a blue—almost white—butterfly resting gently against her nose. A smirk slowly began to make it's way to Peter's face as she slowly reached out to him. She frantically attempted to make the butterfly get off by blowing air from her lips upwards, but the delicate insect seemed to be unbothered by Briar and continued to consume the residue of strawberry ice cream off of her nose.

"Peter—I swear—it's eating my nose off, help me." Briar demanded with a clenched jaw as she spotted him holding back a chuckle.

"Briar, I didn't know you were afraid of butterflies," Peter smiled softly as she glared daggers into his soul, "how come you've never told me before?"

"Because," Briar hissed with a small roll of her eyes, "the topic never came up. Can you get this thing off of me now, please?" Briar pleaded, letting out a tiny shriek as the insect began to flap it's small wings against her skin.

"Sweetheart, a butterfly can't hurt you." Peter teased, but scooted closer to place his hand near Briar's face. The butterfly successfully moved from Briar's nose to Peter's finger, remaining latched onto him until he carefully set it onto the grass beside the picnic blanket.

"You say that now," Briar grumbled as she rummaged the picnic basket, her free arm pushing out to smack Peter's chest lightly, "did you bring hand sanitizer?" Peter heard her question somewhat clearly, but he seemed a little too busy examining the butterfly's uniquely colored wings to respond. Briar huffed and continued her search, completely unaware of Peter reaching into his pocket and pulling out a small metal container.

Briar rambled on about how terrifying butterflies were while she aggressively rubbed the antibacterial wipe she found on the bridge of her nose, desperately trying to get rid of whatever kind of bacteria the butterfly must've been carrying on it's legs.

"So now that I know that you're horrified of butterflies," Peter trailed off as Briar's eyes glanced up at her boyfriend's nervous expression and then to the small item in his hands. "I'm afraid that you might not like this."

Briar sat up straighter and sent Peter an incredulous look. "Pete, we said no presents!" Briar whined, jutting out her bottom lip as Peter shrugged sheepishly. "You've done more than enough for me, and that vintage Lobot action figure I got you certainly doesn't compare to all of this." she argued, referencing the small gift Briar was planning on giving Peter later that day.

Peter's eyes widened instantly and his grip on the metal box loosened for a split second. "You got me a Lobot action figure? No way, that's like—the only vintage figure I've been missing!" Peter ranted happily, more than eager to get his hands on it, "That's so cool—"

Briar truly couldn't help herself. Her heart instantaneously melted at his excited rambling. She was convinced that he certainly couldn't be aware of how utterly adorable he was being. Her hands reached out to tug on his collar and pull Peter in, his lips attaching to hers like it was second nature. He froze for a moment before melting into the kiss, lifting his hands to cup her face.

Briar pulled away moments later with a small pout on her face, tempting Peter to softly kiss it away. Instead, he clutched the circular gift box in one hand as Briar's expression remained patient and somewhat amused.

"But with this, well—this I didn't pay for." he quickly shuffled to sit up like Briar and opened the box carefully with his shaky hands. He carefully pulled out a small, dainty necklace. He let it rest in his hands as he showed it off to Briar, allowing her to inspect it closely.

Attached to the chain was a locket, a circular one that had a small pattern engraved on it with the indents intricately painted in a lavender shade, contrasting nicely against the silver. Resting gently on top of the locket was a silver, three-dimensional butterfly. The butterfly also had engravings to add detail to it's wings. Briar moved one of her hands gently up to her mouth in awe, tears once again blurring her vision as she gently reached out to brush her fingertips over the details.

"You don't like it." Peter stated disappointedly, his mood visibly decreasing as he saw her teary eyes. Briar, however, was quick to place her hand on his knee and reassure him that these were happy tears.

Briar gave him a little gesture to tell her more about it, so he did just that. "So, uh, I wanted to gift this necklace to you because it's really important to me and I wanted you to have it." Peter stuttered as his thumb brushed over hers that rested by the locket, "As a way to remember me when I'm on missions or just to give you a little reminder of how loved you are." He silently spun the locket on the other side and allowed Briar to read the simple engraving on the back.

"Forever." Briar read aloud in a questioning tone. Her eyes flickered up to Peter's and his cheeks went red under her curious stare.

"Well, yeah. Forever." Peter turned the locket back to its front and delicately unclasped the locket to open it. He cocked his head making Briar lean in closer so she could view inside. She could smell his soft cologne and the residue from the ice cream off his lips, but she refused to let him distract her.

Inside the locket there was a small, grainy photo of two people in front of the Statue of Liberty, staring into the camera with wide smiles. The man was holding onto the woman's waist lovingly as she had her left hand placed on his chest, looking adoringly into his eyes. It took Briar a little while to recognize the faces in the photo, but when she did, the tears slipped from her eyes.

Peter's parents, Mary and Richard Parker.

Peter didn't talk about his parents much. Briar never pressured him into telling her anything, knowing his parents' death was a rough subject for him. He could barely even remember his parents as well, which made Peter very closed off and stoic whenever his parents were brought up. So the fact that Peter was giving Briar something that was connected to his parents made her overwhelmingly filled with love.

"It's something my dad would tell my mom, and then I guess I also picked up on it when I was a baby. It was sort of a reassurance thing, really. It started when he gave her this necklace on their anniversary in college, and since then whenever he told her he loved her she would ask him "forever?" and he would always respond the same." Peter thought aloud, his eyes squinting and his eyebrows crinkling together like they did whenever he was thinking hard about something.

Briar quickly composed herself and wiped at her eyes. "How would he respond?"

"I was really young, so I may be getting the specifics wrong, but from what I remember he would just kiss the tip of her nose and finish her sentence by saying "and ever". It was a dumb, simple exchange, but I guess they thrived off of it." Peter shrugged, downplaying the significance of the beautiful heirloom he was gifting her.

On the other side of the locket was a simple, clearer photo taken on Peter's birthday the year before, a day they both remembered vividly. Briar, May, and Ned had brought Peter all the way down to Coney Island for the afternoon and spent most of the day at the carnival, where Briar and Peter competed against each other for hours trying to win each other wacky prizes. This picture was taken by the pier using Peter's phone. Briar was wearing googly eyed glasses while Peter had a pirate's hat resting on his head, both of them smiling into the camera widely as they flaunted their ring pops they had won for each other playing at the ring toss booth.

"Peter, this is—you are," Briar gushed, laughing as Peter lifted his index finger to brush off her tear, "absolutely, utterly amazing. Are you sure you want to give this to me? Don't get me wrong, I love it, but this must be so special to you, your family—"

Peter audibly shushed her and sat up on his knees. He quickly shuffled behind Briar and unclasped the chain and dangled it in front of her neck. Once he had attached the clasp again and let it rest around her neck, he sat back where he was and grabbed both of her hands.

"Of course I want to give this to you. May and I were looking through my mom and dad's stuff the other day, and she actually gave me the idea. I wouldn't be giving you this if I didn't think we were gonna last." Peter admitted and brushed his thumbs over the back of her hands, "You're my forever, Briar. And I mean it."

( BACK TO PRESENT )

Briar dropped the locket to rest back against her chest and peered back at Michelle's reflection through the mirror. Her expression was stiff and hadn't changed, it was clear how she was feeling towards Peter. "Yeah, I am." Briar spoke firmly, "I'm not taking this shit off, not until the day I die." Michelle's raised her eyebrows and lifted her hands in an innocent manner.

"Fine, forget I said anything." Michelle huffed stubbornly and crossed her arms. Briar sighed and plopped herself onto the space of the box beside Michelle, humming out a short, sincere apology. In response, Michelle shrugged and slung an arm around her best friend protectively. "Don't say you're sorry, you do that too much. I'm just worried about you."

Briar chuckled and rested her head against Michelle's shoulder. "Well, don't. You do that too much."

The car ride over to Peter's place was longer than any of them expected. James insisted he'd come along and drive the car this time, clearly still on edge because of the stunt Briar pulled. First they stopped to drop Michelle off at her mom's house. Then, they set off on their journey upstate. Briar couldn't recall a time where she'd driven this far into the Upper West Side to visit someone before now. She wasn't even sure if James had ever travelled here alone before.

The brand new, repurposed Stark Tower stood prominently amongst all the other skyscrapers and offices in the district, the middle of Midtown Manhattan. According to the address May listed for her, Peter's house was just a little further away, on the edge of the Upper West Side and hidden in the residential streets.

The street was drastically less jammed compared to the business district only fifteen minutes away. There was barely any traffic and as James drove further into the neighborhood, Briar was given a small glimpse into Peter's new life.

The houses were definitely wealthier than the part of the borough Peter and Briar grew up in. The streets were cleaner and quiet, they appeared peaceful, like a place where you could grow old and raise a couple of kids. The house's exteriors looked just like the dream house Peter would describe when he was younger—just a bit more modern and expensive looking.

There was at least one tree growing in front of each house and beautifully trimmed grass growing on each lawn, beside the stone trails that led up to the doors. As they approached Peter's street, Briar gaped at the beautiful house. "You know, your mom's house is only a two hour drive from here."

"That's cool." Briar nodded absentmindedly as she stared out the window, observing an elderly couple walking on the sidewalk.

"I talked to her, and we've planned for you to go and visit her this weekend." James added, repeating his attempt at small talk. The entire car ride had been fairly silent, but every now and then James would speak up again and aim to relieve his daughter's stress.

"24, 25, 26, ah, here we are. Damn, I gotta give that boy credit, this is one fine looking townhouse." James whistled and parked on the curb. Briar paused as she stared at the house's exterior, paying no attention to her father expressing his impressions towards his small glance into Peter's adult life. Yeah, and his fiancée is probably even finer, Briar thought.

It was all so intimidating now.

"Well, I should get going before my mind catches up with my actions and I back out." Briar groaned and covered her flushed face with her hands. James exhaled slowly and placed a hand on Briar's shoulder.

"Hey, take a deep breath and look at me," he soothed, gently coercing her to remove her hands and turn her head towards him, "I know that this must be so difficult, but if it helps, Peter's having just as much of a rough time as you. Just try to act normal—he's still Peter, after all."

Briar rubbed her temples and thanked him flatly, moving closer to give her dad a quick hug before stepping out of the car. Huffing at the crisp autumn air, Briar didn't spare a second and began treading across the small lawn and up the steps of Peter's townhouse. She sucked in a large breath and quickly exhaled as she was faced with his front door.

The anticipation was killing Briar slowly and there was nothing left for her to do except press her finger against the doorbell. After doing just that, Briar let out the last of her irritating jitters and faced the ground nervously, reading the words on the door mat as she waited for Peter to answer. It was a Star Wars themed door mat with Yoda's face on it, with bold letters that read "Welcome, you are."

Yeah, this was definitely Peter's house.

After a few more seconds of waiting, Briar heard footsteps approaching from indoors. At the sound of the door creaking open, Briar snapped her head up, expecting to meet Peter's eyes, bright and familiar with a childish glint that she knew oh so well. But instead, her blood ran cold and her heart fell to her feet. Maybe if Briar hadn't been staring at the ground mindlessly she would've seen it coming, she could've been more prepared. But of course, it seemed like fate was never on her side, was it?

"Briar? Briar Langford? Is that you?"

Promptly, Briar stumbled back, only a few inches away from tripping over her feet and down the steep steps that led to the door. Her jaw fell open and she let out a shocked gasp, deep enough for her lungs to begin closing in on her. "Oh my god—Peter, baby, get down here!"

Smooth and thin blonde hair, piercing blue eyes, pale skin, and even that damned black headband that she'd always have on wherever she went—Briar knew her from anywhere.

It was like her brain stopped functioning. Blood rang in her ears and despite every one of her thoughts telling her to get out of there—to leave and run as far as her long legs could take her—it was as if she was paralyzed by the sight of her and that rock on her finger. Briar found herself frozen in the moment, stuck witnessing her biggest fear become real.

Peter Parker was getting married to Gwen Stacy.

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧
( RORY RAMBLES )

okay forget what i said ab deja vu being their song HAPPIER is the anthem now (thank you to the 3 people who pointed it out to me in my pms), i listened to that song on repeat while writing this chapter

some pictures peter parker took of briar during their dates and adventures around new york part two:

this chapter was originally over 11k words and had many more scenes but i figured that was too much (considering that a few people stopped reading halfway through on the last 6k word chapter👀) so ig you could consider this a filler chap with a surprise ending