Open Up The Ocean

Chapter Two

The girl sighed and tied her hair up into a bun on her head. Peter's eyes flickered up and down her curves, noticing she'd put on sweat pants. His sweatpants. "Did you make me food, loser?"

"Nope. Why are you wearing my pants?"

Michelle looked down at her pants before shrugging, Gwen smiled. Michelle lifted her leg up to wave her foot in his direction. It was incredibly noticeable that the leg ended on MJ's shin where it would normally meet Peter's ankle. "I just wanted to know what dressing up as Napoleon felt like,"

He sighed and closed his eyes, biting into his fist. His nose scrunched and his toes curled. It was too early in the morning for-- MJ.

His lips pursed and he watched MJ get herself a couple of pancakes and sit in between Peter and Gwen. Their small talk sounded like white noise to Peter and he hardly noticed when Ned joined them.

It'd been hardly a day and he missed May with all of him. He missed waking up to the smell of burnt food, burnt coffee and burnt hair. (May wasn't too great with a straightener.) He also missed waking up in an actual bed with an actual mattress, ironic considering he enjoyed sleeping on the ceiling at times.

"-Peter!"

He whipped his head up so quickly he was surprised he didn't snap his neck in half. Everyone was looking at him with furrowed brows except MJ, who looked bored yet amused at his expense at the same time.

"Can you and Michelle wash the dishes, please?" Gwen continued now that Peter was actually paying attention.

"I can do them alone it's fine," Peter went to stand up from his seat but was stopped halfway.

"No, there are dishes from dinner and breakfast, it'll just be faster if one of you washes and one of you dries," Ned pointed out, gesturing towards the full bucket of dishes. Peter could only blame himself for making extra, considering he spilt mince everywhere the night before. Michelle also made extra because she refused to have meat anywhere near her or her food.

"Alright," Peter sighed and grabbed the bucket. "You coming?"

MJ hummed and stood up, grabbing a tea towel and whipping Peter on the back of his legs with it. He jumped forward with a yelp and scowled at the smiling girl. Snatching the towel off her, he turned and walked to the campground kitchen.

"Can I dry?" Michelle asked, taking the towel back, gently this time.

"Do I have a choice?" Peter placed the bucket of dishes next to a spare sink.

"Nope,"

Unphased, he turned the hot water on and put the plug in. MJ squirted far too much soap into the water, which Peter almost commented on but bit his tongue instead. If he did that, May would've had a fit.

The running water echoed through the empty kitchen and Peter drummed his fingers on the edge of the sink, staring in to and straight through the rising bubbles. Beside him, Michelle was swinging the tea towel around in circles, her head tilted to one side as if she was too lazy to even hold it up.

When the water reached a level that Peter found satisfactory, he shut it off, standing up properly. Riffling through the bucket, he pulled out all the cutlery first, dumping them into the sink.

Michelle knitted her brows together, her narrowed eyes tracking his hands as he spent far too long ignoring all the other dishes and only pulling out cutlery. Her mouth opened but she decided against saying anything, instead just watching him wash, waiting for something to be handed to her.

They worked in silence, Peter washing them incredibly thoroughly before handing them to her one by one. Michelle placed them in the drying rack beside her, bopping up and down to the song she was singing in her head.