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Fighting in Gwen’s universe is wholly different from his own. Maybe it’s just the general vibe of her New York. It’s a little sharper than his. A little more vibrant. A little more graceful.
Or maybe that’s just Gwen, and the perception is mixing with New York.
Even so, as he jumps over her, firing webs at the two car-jackers, and she follows the webs’ path to land a smooth kick to their shoulders that spins them around, and his webs wrap around them neatly, Miles can’t help but enjoy fighting in her New York.
It’s like a dance.
They land and fist bump while the would-be criminals moan about how unfair it is to have two Spider people in New York. He looks over at her and grins. He can see her smile through her mask. Not literally. He just knows her smile so well at this point, he can see it perfectly. And he knows her well enough to know she’s smiling at him.
So, yeah, maybe it’s not fighting in her New York that’s different. Maybe it’s just her. He’s sure it feels like this when she’s in his dimension, too.
It’s just her , he admits to himself.
They launch into the air and swing their way up to the nearest tallest building. After landing, she pulls her mask up. It's the highlight of his night.
“Thanks for the help tonight, Miles.”
“Not that you need it,” he says, pulling his own mask up.
“No, not for the small stuff. But it’s still nice.”
Her voice is softer now-a-days. Much softer than when he accidentally pulled her hair out and spun them around the common area of Visions Academy while trying to unstick. Softer, even, than their goodbye that he’d been sure would be the last time he’d see her. But it’s been a couple years now, and the last few months of being able to hop worlds and see her had done wonders for their friendship, and the guard she’d been letting down around him.
“It is nice,” he confirms. He stands closer to her than necessary. But she lets him, and like a sucker, he’ll take whatever she’ll give him. Even if he knows it’s impossible. They’re from different universes . And that’s nothing compared to the baggage she carries, the size of her universe’s Peter Parker.
“I’ll come to yours next weekend?”
“Can’t wait,” he says, and it’s depressing how true it almost is.
He activates his Dimension Portal, attached to his web shooter, and jumps backwards through the portal with what he hopes is a cool wave goodbye. The smile and roll of her eyes as the portal closes tell him he either nailed it, or he was way off.
Miles falls. He always likes opening the portals hundreds of feet above his New York. The free fall gives him the time and the swooping sensation to replace the ever-present swoop that sits in him when he spends a night with Gwen.
When they’d first started visiting regularly a couple months ago, Miles would transport right back into his bedroom. Not only would the odd gravity surges mess up his room, but Miles would proceed to lie on his bed and just ruminate on Gwen for the next two hours.
Was I too obvious?
Why does that matter? She already knows how I feel, and she still doesn’t mind hanging out.
But you shouldn’t make her uncomfortable.
She likes it. You’ve seen her smile.
Have I ever.
Yes. Much better to reach terminal velocity and fling through the city, maybe punch a few of his own bad guys, before heading home. By then, he’s worked out enough of the high to settle in quickly. Maybe just think about her for twenty minutes or so.
So that’s what he does. Unfortunately, it’s still not enough to wipe the stupid smile off his face by the time he’s gotten into his bedroom, changed out of his suit, and walked into the living room.
His parents spot it immediately.
“There’s that smile again,” Jeff says.
“Aye,” Rio says, slapping her husband’s arm with a sly smile. They sat watching the news, but it was on low. They’d likely been talking about him. “Let him enjoy his little secret.”
Miles freezes. “Um…se—secret?”
Jeff coughs, and looks like he’s not sure if he’s glad he brought this up or not. Miles is not glad. They couldn’t know, could they?
“Come on, Miles. You haven’t been subtle all these times you sneak out.” He stands to go over to the kitchen.
Shit .
Miles had a good working relationship with his dad, trying to keep the city safe. But he hadn’t realized his dad had known he’d been Spider-Man.
“How long?” Miles asks sullenly. He slinks over to the armchair near his mom and sinks into it.
“Shouldn’t we be asking that, papá?”
“No, how long have you known ?" Obviously they’d know when the new Spider-Man had popped up. He can’t believe that had been over two years ago.
“Oh a few weeks,” Jeff says, pulling a leftover piece of pie from the fridge. He pops his head back over the door. Miles is impressed with himself. Staying at Visions had helped him keep the secret, he supposes. Being back home for most of December meant they kept a closer eye on him.
“So what ended up giving me away?” he asks, distracted by a text he gets at that exact moment. It’s from Gwen, telling him the guy they’d saved earlier owns a pizza place, and they’ve got free pizza for life. He smiles at the stupid cheer emoji she sends him.
“You’ve been happy,” his mom says, looking at him with a knowing look. Which is weird, because how could she possibly know he’d just gotten a text about Spider-related things. Joke’s on her, though. As great as the free pizza is, Miles is smiling because of Gwen , not Spider-Man. “Always smiling, and lost in your own world.”
“It was the voices from your room and the bruise on your neck that gave you away for me,” Jeff says with a smirk as he walks back into the room, shoveling a bite of pie into his mouth.
They’d heard Gwen in his room ! Of course they had. They talk often, and often about cross-dimensional villains. And he remembered quite the hit from a crowbar on his neck that left that bruise. He thought it had shrunk more than enough before his dad ever saw that, though.
“We talked a lot about letting you keep the secret a while longer,” Rio explains, nodding over to Jeff. “Let you tell us in your own time. But…well, we’re your parents, and we needed to make sure you are being safe.”
Miles snorts. “I mean…how safe can you expect me to be, really?"
Jeff’s next bite of pie stops halfway to his mouth. He looks stunned at Miles’ admission. Which he shouldn’t . He of all people knows how dangerous it can get out there. He was even there when the supercollider had exploded.
“Dios mío. Excuse me, Miles?” Rio says, and the shift in her tone is jarring to say the least. So jarring, that Miles has to wonder if something about this conversation is wrong. His parents couldn’t be this ignorant.
“Wait, what are you talking about?” Miles asks, sitting up tall in his armchair.
“About being safe with your girlfriend, Miles!” Jeff’s voice is stern. Cop Stern. But Miles isn’t so concerned about the tone as he is the words.
“My…my girlfriend.” He carefully changes his own tone from questioning to re-stating mid-word. Because wow had he come close to confessing to his parents that he was Spider-Man unnecessarily.
But that means he’s got another lie he’s now got to propagate. His secret was apparently a girlfriend .
“Right. Yes. And of course we’re safe. We haven’t even. You know. Done anything. So completely safe. The safest.”
His parents’ eyes narrow in suspicion. And he doesn’t blame them.
Smooth, Miles.
“So what’s her name?”
“Gwen.”
She’s the only person ever on his mind, so it makes sense he says her name, even if he immediately regrets doing so.
“Well, I’d love to finally meet her. You shouldn’t be embarrassed of us, you know.”
“I know, MamÍ. I’m not. I just…I like that it’s just us right now, you know?”
But Jeff doesn’t seem sold anymore. His eyes are still laser-focused on Miles. It would seem his backpedal on how safe he’s being had pushed Jeff into Detective mode.
“But I can talk to her,” Miles says, regretting every word out of his mouth. “Maybe she’s ready to finally meet you guys. I talk about you enough, she probably feels like she already has.”
Laying it on a little thick there, Miles. Come on!
In fact, his attempt at flattery only increases Jeff’s skepticism, and by the time he can retreat from his parents’ gaze, he’s convinced he needs to make this ruse work.
He closes his bedroom door behind him, and calls up Gwen. The tech they’d installed into their phones really did spare his room a whole lot of gravitational vortexes.
“Miss me already?” she asks with a smirk when she answers. She’s sitting on her bed, no longer in her Spider attire. He can only see her top, but she looks really cute in the vibrant pink sleep shirt. The collar is big, and slips near the end of her left shoulder. It's a lot of skin for Miles to ignore. Like he has to ignore the way her Spidey suit hugs her body perfectly for the hours he spends with her like that. He’s gotten good at it, all things considered.
He shakes his head, unimpressed with how distracted he can become. How distracted she makes him.
“I…messed up.”
She must be able to tell from the tone of his voice that this is serious, but not ‘universe is gonna end’ serious. She quirks her eyebrow and gives him that unimpressed look that does things to his stomach.
“What did you do this time?”
He clears his throat and hops onto his bed, shuffling until he's comfortable. He keeps his voice low, now that he knows his parents know when he’s talking to Gwen, even if they can’t hear the exact words. “In order to keep my Spidey secret from my parents…I may have led them to believe I had a secret girlfriend.”
She blinks twice. He sees the smallest of smirks at her beautiful lips. “And you need me to pretend to be your secret girlfriend to keep up the ruse.”
He cringes. “It’s humiliating, but I’m so glad you can keep up with my shenanigans.”
She snorts. “Practice makes perfect, Miles. When are you thinking?” she asks, somehow already on board.
“Dinner next weekend? My mom said she’d make tostones, so it will so be worth the trouble.”
“A chance to meet your mom and dad and get all the embarrassing stories about you will be more than worth it.”
Miles groans. “What have I done?”
“Given me an early birthday present.” She’s loving this far too much. And that kind of makes him love it, too. Even if all of this joy is at his expense.
He sighs. “Thanks. This won’t be…weird for you? You know, with…” He’s glad she cuts him off.
Were you really about to admit to your feelings?
“It’s only weird if you make it weird, Miles,” she says hurriedly, and for the first time in this excruciating call, she looks away from her phone.
And if that line doesn’t perfectly sum up the tension they’ve lived with for the past few months.
“Great, I’ll do everything in my limited power to not make it weird then.”
She snorts again, and he’s happy to see the smile back on her face. “Next weekend, then. Can’t wait.”
She hangs up the call, and Miles only lets himself wish her ‘can’t wait’ meant as much as his for twenty minutes.
-
“Okay, just…my parents are kinda cool, but not super cool, you know?”
“Classic, good parents, got it.”
“And, please don’t ask about embarrassing things.”
“I’m not passing up this opportunity.”
“Ugh, fine. Then at least help me not accidentally tell them I’m Spider-Man and ruin the whole point of this.”
Her laugh is melodious as Miles opens the door to his building and holds it open for her. “You’ve gone two years without telling them. Why would you mess up now?”
He shrugs. “I don’t know. You’re so tied to me being Spider-Man, I’m worried it might slip out. I haven’t exactly spent time with you outside of the suit.”
That causes a frown to tug at her lips. The idea makes Miles frown too, but for likely much different reasons. Miles would love to take her to a movie, or out to dinner. The most casual they’ve been together since meeting at Visions was when they briefly went undercover at a store serving to launder money for a drug operation. That had ended in one of the bigger busts the city had seen in years. But Miles still thought about what it had been like to pretend to be shopping with Gwen.
“Yeah, well, I’m sure we can fake a normal teenage romance just fine,” she says. “Just act like you’ve been here before.”
“I have,” he says with a chuckle as he hits the elevator button. “And when I brought Gloria to dinner, the relationship ended four days later.”
Gwen head snaps to him at the admission. Miles raises an eyebrow at her. “I didn’t know you were dating someone.”
“It hasn’t come up. And it was a couple months before you came back anyway.” He’s not sure why it would come up. They don’t talk about stuff like that.
They talk about everything else. But to keep things as cool as possible, Miles has never brought up relationships or crushes or the fact that he’s fallen in love with her so what is there even to talk about anyway?
The elevator opens, and Miles steps in with her. He’s starting to sweat. Maybe they should have prepared more.
“Okay, so just act like you did with Gloria.”
“Nervous and sweaty and way out of my depth?”
She laughs again, and it does wonders to dispel his anxiety. They share a brief smile before the elevator doors open back up. Taking a deep breath and steeling himself, Miles directs her to his home, and opens the door.
Rio is the best mom Miles could ask for, honestly. She’s insightful and kind and loving.
And she can be a lot.
Before Miles can even get Gwen’s coat off to hang up, Rio is hugging Gwen and welcoming her into their home. She’s peppering Gwen with questions she doesn’t actually expect to be answered, and leading her right into the living room and plopping her down on the couch.
Gwen catches Miles’ eye, and he can’t help but laugh at her. It’s nice to see Gwen be the fish out of water for once in their history.
But like a pro, she catches on fast, and the evening is off and running.
Miles joins her on the couch, and hopes he’s not taking too much advantage of the situation by snuggling right up next to her and catching her hand in his. That’s what he’d done with Gloria after all, and he’s been given specific instruction to repeat that tonight.
Right down to the sweaty palms. Nice, Miles.
Gwen doesn’t comment on it, though, and squeezes his hand gently. He can’t help but smile, and does his best to ignore Rio’s casual smirk at him, and zeroes in on Gwen talking about her family.
“...living in Queens for most of my life,” she says, “with my parents and two younger brothers.”
“Oh I grew up with brothers too,” Rio says with an exasperated sigh. “The best and worst thing a young lady can ask for. Jeff and I considered having more kids many times, but we never wanted to subject a sweet little girl to this guy .” She nods at Miles, who narrows his eyes at her.
Gwen laughs, and even if their relationship is fake, Miles is sure this interaction is genuine. She seems charmed by Rio as they continue to chat, and he doesn’t realize how important that was for him until he witnesses it. Gwen has so few people she lets in. He’s happy his family might be able to provide a little more love for her.
After a few minutes, a ding from the kitchen has Rio rushing off to the kitchen to pull something out of the oven. Miles considers letting go of Gwen’s hand, but decides he’ll let go when she indicates she wants it. And she gives no indication.
“Oh my god,” Gwen whispers. “I spent so much time telling you to be cool, I didn’t even prepare myself to be cool.”
Miles chuckles. “Shut up, you’re the coolest person in the world. Worlds. Whatever. You’re great, and my mom already loves you.”
She tries to hide her soft smile, but she can’t. “That’s good…” she trails off for a second. “For the ruse, I mean.”
“Yeah, sure,” he winks at her. She rolls her eyes.
Miles’ dad chooses that moment to walk in the door.
“Smells amazing, Amor,” his voice booms out. Miles and Gwen both turn to the intrusion. Jeff is decked out in his police gear. Gwen had warned Miles that if asked about her family, she wouldn’t admit to being the daughter of a Police Chief. The cop world was too small, and if Jeff went looking for Captain Stacey, he’d find a retired old man who may or may not be a clone. It was really hard to tell with some of the people who had crossed paths with Peter before he’d died. In any case, there was no Gwen in this universe, which is probably for the better: Peter had lived in this universe, and if they’ve learned anything in their multiversal travels, it’s that Peter living meant a Gwen probably wouldn’t.
That, and Miles would be very confused about what to do about a Gwen Stacey that lived in his world.
Rio calls them all to dinner as Gwen meets Jeff. Miles is proud of his dad for turning off cop mode. He’s sure it’ll sneak in here and there if their lies start contradicting each other, but for the moment Jeff is completely under control.
“So where did you two meet?” he asks as he adds some rice to his plate. “Miles has told us almost nothing.”
Gwen bumps him with her shoulder. “What?” he asks with a flush. “You can’t honestly tell me you’re talking your family’s ears off about me.”
She smirks. “Can’t stop talking about you, obviously.”
She’s lying. Obviously she’s lying.
But what if she’s not?
“Whatever,” he says with a shake of his head.
Gwen turns back to Jeff and answers the question. "We met at Visions. I was sitting in physics, and Miles was late, as usual.”
“Hey!”
“Mhm, that sounds like Miles.”
“Mamí, a little help here?”
“Maybe if you showed up on time more often, you wouldn’t need me to come to your rescue.”
Miles wants to feel betrayed, but all of his favorite people are smiling. So, he just grins along with them.
“He came in,” Gwen continues, and her smile tells him she’s just going to keep laying it on. “And made the worst joke about relativity to justify being late. It was so bad.”
“You laughed,” Miles says with a good-natured scowl.
“I did,” she says, and those light blue eyes look at him with a fondness that makes his heart stop.
Not real .
Miles is used to feeling things he can’t act on around Gwen. He’s used to the butterflies and the cheeks hurting from smiling. He was not prepared for the appearance of requited feelings. It’s almost too much to have Gwen look at him like this. Almost too much to know that tomorrow, this look will be gone, and he’ll be left with that dull ache in his chest that always comes when she says something so brilliant that he just wants to kiss her.
But it’s almost too much. Because Miles is a glutton for this kind of punishment. Bring it on.
“How long ago was this?” Rio asks. She takes a big bite of her dinner, but her eyes are shining as she looks at Gwen. It’s already going so much better than with Gloria.
“A couple years?” Gwen says, turning to Miles to check.
He hummed. “Yeah, early part of the school year.”
“But you weren’t together back then?” Jeff asked with his fork bouncing between the two of them.
Gwen sighed dramatically. “We hung out for a little while, but this guy took his sweet time finally asking me out.”
“Excuse me?” Miles interjects, and the words are out of his mouth before he realizes how dangerously close to the truth they are. “You knew I was crazy about you. I think it was on you to let me know you felt the same.”
Gwen’s eyes flutter, and she looks away. In a softer voice, she concedes. “Yeah…that one was on me. Even if I thought the signs I started to give were pretty obvious.”
Miles isn’t entirely sure what’s real or what’s fake anymore. He’s fairly confident nothing about their “relationship” talk is real. But Gwen not being ready for friendship or a relationship definitely struck too close to home. So Miles reaches out and covers her hand in his. Blue eyes find his, and he can’t read them to save his life. He gives her an encouraging smile.
“So, yeah, I got my act together a couple months ago, and…we kind of just started dating. Without even really realizing it.”
Gwen looks at him shyly. He really hopes she doesn’t think he’s implying they’re dating. But no, of course not. He shouldn’t have to keep reminding himself that everything about this night is fake.
It’s just hard when the hand he’s holding is real. When he can feel her skin against his. When she’s sneaking glances throughout dinner and meeting his parents and they’re all laughing and smiling and…
Dinner is a blur of confusion and happiness that Miles decides he won’t try to unpack until later tonight after Gwen is gone. So he just lets himself enjoy the moment. Dessert is as good as promised, Gwen helps him do the dishes even when Rio insists she sit down, and for some reason Jeff chooses Parcheesi for them to play after they’ve eaten and cleaned up. Gwen wins, and doesn’t believe him when he tells her he helped.
(He actually had helped. He can’t help himself.)
“It was so nice to finally meet you,” Rio says as she hugs Gwen at the doorway. “It’s been so fun to see the smile on Miles’ face these last few weeks.”
“Mom,” Miles groans with genuine embarrassment.
Gwen only chuckles. “And it’s so nice to meet you, too. You’ve raised a really, really great kid.”
Rio wears the proud face only a mother can wear, and nods.
“You’re welcome anytime,” Jeff tells her. Miles agrees.
“Thank you. And for the wonderful dinner, too.”
Taking her hand in his, Miles pulls her from his home. Door finally closed behind him, he lets out a long exhale. “That was…”
He was going to say terrible. But it wasn’t.
“Great,” Gwen says instead. “You’ve got a cool family, Miles.”
He smiles at her. “They are pretty great aren’t they?”
They get into the elevator, and Miles knows he should release her hand. He doesn’t. “Thanks again,” he says. “For doing this.”
She shrugs. But she doesn’t say ‘what are friends for’ like he’d been bracing himself for. Instead, she’s nervous when she responds. “If you ever need me to…you know…”
“Do it again?” he asks hopefully.
“Yeah.”
“Thanks. I thought I’d tell them after a few weeks that we broke up, but…”
“Then you wouldn’t have an excuse for where you go all the time,” Gwen jumps in. Faster than he thinks she needed to.
“Exactly,” he says, and he feels warm all of a sudden. It’s a good thing it’s a cold Winter night.
The elevator dings, and he walks her out. They stand for a moment, and Gwen turns to face him. Her breath puffs out in front of her, and she’s lit prettily by a warm yellow street light. She’s so beautiful, it almost hurts to look at her, because he knows he shouldn’t . Or…should he?
Her hand is still in his, and he really doesn’t want to let go. She looks up, presumably to his floor of the building. “They might be watching still.”
Miles doubts it. It’s not his parents' style to sit at the window and watch how he says goodbye to his girlfriend. Especially after exposing the ‘secret’, they wouldn’t want to infringe any more than they thought their parental duties demanded.
“Maybe.”
She bites her bottom lip, and Miles leans in to kiss her cheek goodbye. She turns her head slightly at the last second. Not away from him, but towards him. His lips catch the corner of hers, and they pull away blushing.
Miles lets out a huff like a laugh, but he’s not about to apologize. She’s as much at fault for that as he is. And she doesn’t look like she’s expecting one. “Still want to do some old-fashioned crime-fighting tomorrow?” he asks her.
Tucking her hair behind her ear with her free hand, Gwen nods. “Can’t wait.”
He finally releases her hand, and she backs away. She turns around, and he watches as she goes, a smile on his face. For some reason, he actually believes her this time.
She turns back to find him staring after her, and rolls her eyes. But she’s smiling. Miles offers a little wave before she disappears down the next alley, presumably to dimension hop back to her home.
Miles either takes the elevator or cloud nine back to his floor. When he walks back inside, his parents are trying to be casual in the way they’re clearly waiting for him.
“You guys are dorks,” he tells them, and heads back to his room.
“She’s a keeper, Miles,” Rio calls after him.
“Good head on that one,” Jeff adds.
“Yeah,” Miles sighs. And for the first time since he touched her shoulder and said ‘hey’, he lets himself hope there’s a future where it’s real. Where this night is how it feels every night. “She’s definitely worth waiting for.”