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“Uh Peter? Are you sure this is a good idea?”
Miles raises his brow at the older spider— who at the moment was darting around his Queens house in a vain attempt to locate his car keys. There’s a small crash followed by a series of muffled curses before his self-acclaimed ‘mentor’ rushes back into the room, a wild grin on his face.
“Of course I’m sure!”
Miles sighs at the positively elated expression on Peter’s face and follows him down the stairs to the front entryway. “And you’re sure MJ’s okay with this?”
While he has yet to see Michelle Parker-Jones truly angry, he knows his own mother well enough to do anything in his power to avoid incurring the wrath of an overprotective Mother.
“Yep!” A single arm snakes back around the corner to give him a wiggly thumbs up.
“ Ok… ”
Peter rounds the corner again, this time, his arms laden with a box of formula, a slightly crumpled piece of paper and his tie. He hands the box and paper to Miles, freeing up his hands to affix the tie to his collar. It’s strange seeing the man who had once tried sticking a bill on a fourteen-year-old looking so dressed up. While their re-introduction had not been the smoothest, he’s happy to report their strange mentor-mentee relationship is most restored to its rightful weirdness.
“Okay!” He puffs his chest up in the mirror, “I think I’m ready!”
A honk comes from outside.
“Me too.”
“Coming, honey!” He shouts at the door. Before he rushes out the door he turns back to Miles, “Call us if there’s an emergency— no spidering!” He hollers the last part from the front steps before darting the full way down the drive to his wife’s waiting car.
Miles watches as they pull away from the house, he chuckles when MJ slaps Peter on the forehead. He’s still in the doorway when a warm something wraps around his leg.
“Ack!” He only just manages to avoid kicking Mayday off. The little girl is curled around his leg, her tiny little teeth already halfway into his pant leg. “You scared me!” He says mostly to himself, scooping her off the ground.
She wriggles in his arms. “Stay still,” he grumbles and she gurgles happily up at him. Her big, blue eyes peer up at him curiously, then dart quickly to the side where her Spider-Man beanie and web-shooters are resting on a table.
“Ugh,” Miles relents, finally giving in, “Fine. But inside only.”
One hour and far too many webs in the face and they are once again back where they started, in the entryway with Mayday tugging relentlessly at his pant leg.
“Remind me not to wear my nice pants next time,” He stares mournfully at the fraying ends and Mayday grins through a mouthful of fabric.
“Gwennnnn.” He whines, “please come… I don’t know what I’m doing.” Miles winces at the joyous and screeching laugh that escapes the little girl glued to his back.
“ Fine. But you owe me dinner.” He rolls his eyes. There’s a whoosh sound from the other end as the call drops. Not two seconds later a bright vortex of swirling color opens up in the center of the room. Gwen Stacy of Earth-65 strolls out. Looking as gorgeous as ever in a pair of blue jeans and her signature cardigan. “Close your mouth, Miles, or you’ll catch a fly.” She smirks at the ever deepening blush on his face.
Get it together, Miles. It’s rather incredible, the effect this girl had on him and she wasn’t even trying . He coughs lightly, trying desperately to cover the red creeping up his neck.
“So. How’s school?”
Stupid question, Miles. Seriously, “how’s school” who asks that!
“It’s been good.” Her eyes light up a bit, “really good actually. I’ve made some new friends. There’s this one girl in my Bio class who also plays the drums, she has her own band and I was thinking, after everything with the Mary Janes, I—“ she stops herself abruptly, looking down at her hands, “sorry I’m rambling. You probably don’t wanna hear—“
“No! It's fine!” He says hurriedly, before she can spiral further into self-deprecation. In the past few months since the Spot Incident , as they’ve started calling it, he’s noticed this self conscious pattern of hers— like she’s always braced for some kind of rejection. “I—“ He flushes, if possible even further, “I like hearing about things that make you happy.”
This time it’s her turn to go red. A sincere smile blooms on her face and Miles’ heart just about falls out of his chest. He’s pretty sure no matter what universe they’re in, that smile will be the death of him.
Just as opens his mouth to say something that will be perfectly idiotic, Mayday decides to make herself known once again. “ Yowch !” He hisses loudly in pain as the tiny teeth in her mouth dig into his skin. “Mayday that hurts .”
She giggles and Gwen laughs, “Looks like biting runs in her blood.”
The toddler blinks up at Gwen as if she’d only just noticed she was here. Suddenly a brilliant smile lights up her face, “Gen!” She exclaims happily, thrusting her chubby arms out in the multiversal symbol for “up”. Gwen obliges, scooping the little girl into arms and twirling in a circle.
Mayday laughs and while Miles would rather hug Miguel before admitting this to Peter: it’s adorable.
“Hey!” Gwen says, stopping suddenly, “you know Hobie’s actually really good with kids!”
“Really?”
“Yeah! We call him.” She shifts Mayday onto the other hip so she can access her phone. “Hey! Hobie, whatcha doing?”
“So why are you here again, Pav?”
Spider-man India only shrugs, dangling his diabolo bangle in front of Mayday’s face. He had shown up approximately 23 seconds after Hobie, loudly proclaiming he definitely didn’t need to be studying right now, then flopped onto the couch tossing a book bag filled entirely with biscuits onto the coffee table.
“Hob, said you were babysitting!” He hands Mayday another broken-up cookie which she stuffs gleefully into her mouth. “ ‘sides what else was I gonna do today”
“Fair enough.” He can understand that. He himself had been passed out in his desk chair making a half hearted attempt at finishing his English homework.
“You certain she should be eatin’ that, mate?” Looking somewhat concerned as Pavitr practically hands her the entire packet.
Pav looks up, his own cookie halfway in his mouth and freezes, “I dunno” he mumbles around a mouthful of crumbs, “she seems alright.”
“I guess, she’s probably getting hungry right around now though,” Gwen says, frowning at the girl in her lap, “I know! Miles said Peter left a note, right? Maybe he left some instructions.”
“Oh right!” He grabs the crumpled paper from the entryway table.
MILES,
It reads, in Peter’s messy scrawl.
BE BACK BY 10:00, NO SUPERHEROING— IF SOMETHING HAPPENS CALL JESS OR MIGUEL. SERIOUSLY. MJ ALMOST KILLED ME LAST TIME. ANYWAY, I’M GOING TO BE LATE. CALL IF YOU NEED ANYTHING
PETER B.
So very Peter, no actual instructions on what to do— just what not to do.
“Guys, he didn’t say anything about feeding her.”
“What now then?”
“Jess has a baby! She should know.”
“I am not calling Jess to ask.”
“ Fine. Then who else?”
“ Why are you calling me ?” Is the first thing out of her mouth after he calls, “ I’m the same age as you. ”
“We didn’t know who else to call.”
Margo rolls her eyes. “ Yahoo it then .”
Yahoo, seriously? Even after months of dimension hopping the slight variations always baffle him.
“We already tried that.”
They haven’t.
“ Uh-huh. Well, ” she sighs, “ you already woke me up.” There is a faint clicking of keys in the background, “okay! It says… three-fourth to a cup at each meal time. It’s that what you were looking for?”
He looks over to Hobbie who flashes him a thumbs up, already pouring out a bowl of applesauce from the fridge. “Yep! We’re all good. Thank you.”
“Good Night, Morales.” She says dryly, sounding equally exhausted and fond as she hangs up the phone. He fidgets with the device, momentarily worried that she might actually be mad at him. Then shrugs it off, the day Spider-byte got truly angry will be a true sign the multiverse is actually falling apart.
He slides his phone back into his pocket, joining the others in the kitchen.
“See guys, everything is under control.”
Just as he says that, everything goes black.
“Oh shit.”
“Hey!” Gwen hisses in the dark. “There's a baby present.”
“I’m pretty sure Peter has said much worse” Miles shoots back.
“It’s the principal.”
“Eh, mates? Where’s the baby?”
“You mean you don’t have her?”
“I thought you did!”
“Does anyone have her?”
There’s a shuffling as everyone in the room sweeps their hands out trying to find the child.
Miles panics, “Guys what are we going to do?!” His voice cracks at the end as he frantically stands up, “What are we gonna tell Peter, that we lost his kid?”
He gulps down the swelling fear in his throat, he just got his friends back. He’s not gonna lose them a second time.
“We didn’t lose her per-se.”
“Didn’t lose her, Gwen? What do you call not finding her?”
“Oi, bruv, calm down.” Hobie’s deep rumble interrupts them, “we’ll find ‘er.”
“How? It’s not like we can see anything!”
“I think I can help” Pav says brightly. There’s a faint rustling then a click and—
Light.
A soft glow floods the room, emanating from a single flashlight, pointing at the ceiling. Pav, Hobie, and Gwen all come into view, huddled around a now-empty high chair.
“Ugh Pav? Why do you have a flashlight?”
“The true question, my friend, why don’t you have one.”
Well, he can’t refute that now, can he?
A loud giggle interrupts his next sentence.
“Mayday!” Miles says hopefully, spinning toward the sound, “where are you?”
There’s silence.
“Mayday!” Gwen calls this time in a high sing-song voice. “Come’ere… want another cookie.”
She turns back, gesturing wildly to Pav, “quick, hand me one.”
He does, pulling a small chocolate-chip one out of the sleeve. He hands it to her slowly and she takes it. Gwen holds the cookie out waving in it the dim light.
“Come here Mayday!”
Suddenly there’s a flurry of movement in the corner and a black shadow darts across the room. A high cackle accompanies the blob as it swings across the room.
“Hey!” Gwen shouts, as the figure snatches the cookie, “Get back here!”
Mayday laughs again, crunching loudly on the cookie.
“Oh it is on,” Gwen hisses, snatching the flashlight and biscuit packet, handing them each one, “we’re gonna get this little menace.”
By the time Peter arrives home, he is drenched in sweat, panting, and 80% sure he ripped something in his new suit. He stumbles into the door, only then remembering that MJ has the house keys. He briefly considers just kicking the door in— but decides against it, picturing the wrath on MJ’s face if she comes home to find their front door broken.
So he sighs, making his way to the back of the house, away from the street to Mayday’s window. He keeps it unlocked for occasions when they— him and Mayday— need to sneak back into the house without disturbing his wife. He quietly slides it open, with practiced ease and lowers himself in.
The house, like the rest of the city, is completely dark and he uses the tiny flashlight he bought at the bodega to make his way through the house. It’s so quiet. The only noise is the creak in the stair as he moves to the first floor.
A yellowy light flows out of the living room into the hallway and he instinctively pauses. When no response comes from his spider-sense he steps out.
The scene before him is the cutest thing he’s seen since Mayday was born.
Mayday, Miles, Gwen, Pavitr and Hobie are all curled on the couch, fast asleep. There is a small ring of candles and some flashlight contraption sitting on the table. Mayday is in Gwen’s arms, with her beanie clutched into her chest, snoring softly. Around them both is Miles, arms looped around Gwen, his face buried in her shoulder. Hobie’s at the other end of the couch, snoring, with his mouth wide open. And Pavitr has placed himself across all their laps, dead asleep.
“Hey.” MJ says softly. “Let’s go to bed.”
“But—“
“They’re fine.”
“The city—“
“Will handle this without you.” She wraps her arms around his shoulders, “we do have emergency services for a reason, you know.”
He doesn’t answer. His eyes flicker from her face, to the front door, to the pile of sleeping children on his couch, and back to her face again. “Okay, you’re right.”
She laughs, the same beautiful laugh he fell in love with years ago. “Of course I’m right.”
He lets her take his hand, pulling him away. But not before—
“What one… sec.”
Click then FLASH.
At once they all jerk awake.
“PETER!”
He laughs, then makes a run for it.