I kept eating my popcorn as I looked at the flat screen of my television, a kind gift from my parents as soon as I got my first apartment. I personally would've stayed home with them, it was way cheaper, but since I had decided to enroll at a university on the other end of the country I kind of had to move out.

Studying wasn't that bad, I was an ok student but the problem was the money. You never have enough of that bitch, capitalism am I right? So there I was, using the only evening I got off my part-time job to watch a movie while filling myself with snacks instead of having dinner like a proper person would.

To defend myself, it had been a long time since last I could enjoy some me time. Working at a local grocery shop was no joke, mostly because it was open 24/7 and I mostly worked the nights, as scary as that sounded.

"Jeez, I feel disgusting." I murmured opening another bag of chips. I couldn't even remember my last proper meal, I mostly ate whatever at work and frozen food at home. I never really had time to cook anyway. Thinking about it, I could've gone out with some friends.

Well, not that I had made that many in the few months I had attended classes. Because of my job, I could never hang out or party like the rest of the kids in my class which sucked. I had a friend though, she was a very gentle and funny girl, can't really recall her name but she was the coolest girl I had met.

It had been two months or so since we started to hang out at school. She introduced herself to me once and I never caught the name, I felt awkward asking her again so I just waited and hoped for someone to say her name or to hear it from her... it never happened. So, to me, she's just Girl.

I refer to her as Girl most of the time and she thinks it's a nice nickname I gave her, and I hope she'll keep thinking so.

But not even a night out seemed that fun compared to the movie I was watching with such a hard passion. After all, Spider-Man had always been my favorite superhero and I had decided to rewatch his movies once again.

There was something so comforting about Peter Parker, he never failed to entertain me. I was in the middle of his last movie when suddenly my tv started glitching making me worry a bit. "Oh don't do this to me, you're new!" I complained as I got closer to the screen and started tapping on it hoping it would magically resolve the situation. "You're the only friend I have here, you can't abandon me like this." I begged the object with all my might.

But the little shit clearly had a problem with me because it turned off immediately. "Oh fuck off." But as I finished that sentence, every light in my apartment turned off which could mean only one thing... had I paid my taxes? Of course, I had! I was no savage. It was probably a blackout or something. "I don't even know what to do, how do you restore power?"

I had never lived alone before, wasn't there a tutorial about it on the internet?

I used my phone to get some light and looked around confused. All my home appliances were turned off only confirming my suspicions. But again, what was I supposed to do?

As I was about to get out of the apartment to ask someone for help, my neighbors were pretty friendly when they wanted to, the lights turned on again. I sighed in relief and sat back on my couch.

It was just a momentary thing, thank god. My neighbors were actually pretty weird and they could barely speak English, they spoke Spanish and referred to me as "gorda", I don't know what that means but I'm sure it's something about my hair.

The TV finally decided to turn on and I leaned against my couch, I just wanted to finish my movie and then get to sleep. I had to wake up early in the morning and the idea of not being able to keep my eyes open during class wasn't that tempting.

As I started the movie from where I had left off, I decided to text my friend, Girl, to ask her whether she wanted to get to class together the following day. I wasn't a loner, just overly busy.

"I don't understand, where's Doctor Strange?" I heard Peter's voice ask in the background and I frowned as I kept typing on my phone. I thought I knew the movie by heart, but I was surprised to realize that I had missed that dialogue. "He entered the multiverse portal and disappeared."

My head snapped towards the TV and I widened my eyes. What was going on? That wasn't part of the movie, I knew every scene, every shot and every dialogue, line after line.

Doctor Strange never disappeared, he planned with Peter a way to bring all the villains back to their universes. Was that a deleted scene? Had I accidentally found a hidden version of the movie? But even then... how?

"What do we do now? We can't do anything without his magic." MJ looked around anxiously. "You guys come from different universes, do you know how it works?"

Peter 2 shrugged. "I don't, I'm just as confused as you guys."

Peter 3 sighed. "We got here by accident, we don't know how to get back."

"What the fuck." I murmured tilting my head. I grabbed my remote and tried to pause the movie only the thing seemed to be broken because it didn't do anything even if I kept pressing the button. "Oh c'mon, you too?" I hit the remote on the couch hoping it would change something but in vain.

So I couldn't pause the movie or get out to check if I was actually watching the real thing or some weird documentary/deleted scenes. What was more confusing was the fact that the characters on my screen were simply standing there, no one was talking.

"Guys, I think I have an idea." Peter 1, played by Tom Holland, stopped in front of a weird wiggly purple light. "I think Doctor Strange got sucked in the portal and sent somewhere else, if I find him and bring him back maybe we can solve everything." He said touching the magical circle with his finger. "He needs our help."

"No, that's too dangerous." MJ protested immediately. "He's a wizard, or whatever, he'll find his way back."

"And what if he doesn't?" There was an awkward silence, no one dared to speak up. "What if he's hurt or in danger? Someone needs to go help him."

Peter 3 nodded. "You're right. I'll go." He volunteered.

"No." Peter 1 disagreed. "No hate, but Doctor Strange barely likes me... no, I would say he probably doesn't like me anymore but he knows me and I kinda, sort of, know him. If there's someone who should go that's me, I was the one messing his spell, I was the one bringing all those people here and I'm the reason my aunt... so yeah, I'll go." He spoke so bravely, I almost sobbed a little.

But again, what was going on? It wasn't an episode of "What If?". Could it be that... they were actually...

No, surely not.

As I looked at Peter hugging his friends to say goodbye, I started to panic. Was that a joke? Was Marvel launching a pranking show? Was I the unlucky first victim? But there were no cameras, right?

I looked around anxiously and started typing on Google if there was a new version of the movie I hadn't seen yet. One where Doctor Strange is lost and Peter needs to find him, but the only thing I could find were some eye-catching fanfiction and some articles that had nothing to do with my question.

I tried to take a deep breath. It was nothing, I just had to sit and see how the movie went. It was actually interesting, I was curious to know how they could've solved the situation since I had no idea of what was going on.

"I'll see you guys as soon as I get Strange. Please, be safe." Peter finished saying his goodbyes and placed his mask on his head. MJ and Ned nodded and so he walked towards the portal before jumping right through it.

I frowned... nothing happened. Ned and MJ simply asked the remaining two Peters to go with them and left the scene. But for some reason the scene didn't change, I didn't know what was happening to Peter, all I could see was that boring empty living room.

I walked up to my television once again and leaned towards it. "Listen to me you little shit." I started as I kept tapping my fingers on its screen, again. "My parents paid good money for you, you better do your damn job."

As I tapped one last time against the smooth big screen, I felt a sudden wave of energy that shocked me enough to fall down on my butt. I opened my eyes, I wasn't even aware I had previously closed them, and stared frightened at the figure before me.

A man. A tall man standing right in front of me, he was wearing a Spider-Man suit and kept looking around. Once he lowered his head, he noticed me and raised his hand. "Hi."

Impulsively, I started screaming in horror. I mean, I guess everyone could have different reactions, but I think it's pretty natural for someone to be scared to see a random weird man appearing in your apartment. "A thief!" I screamed trying to back away on the floor until I touched my couch with my back. "Please don't hurt me! I don't have much you can take, I'm a broke college student!" I started to cry disparately.

"What?! No-" he got closer to me making me only scream louder. "Hey, hey! Shhhh! Shhhh! I'm not going to hurt you!" He started yelling as well.

At that point, I took it as a challenge to see who could be louder, it was a way to show my dominance, hoping that it would put him under submission and make him leave. "Get away! How did you get inside my house?! You can have my TV! It's new!"

"Please! Calm down!" His voice sounded almost panicked as he suddenly placed his covered hand on my mouth. I tried to beg for mercy but my voice was completely muffled by his hand. "I don't want to hurt you, you can rest assured. I'm here to look for someone, maybe you can help? He's very tall and handsome, wears a cloak and can do magic." He kept talking, which confused me even more.

I blinked a few times, maybe it was the shock I got that made me go insane or something, but I was awake and self-aware. I grabbed his hand and pushed it away. "Wait. Who are you?"

The man kneeled down in front of me so he could be at my same height. "I'm Spider-Man, I don't know if I'm popular in this universe, but in mine I'm very well known." He bragged and chuckled a little. "But really, I'm looking for Doctor Strange, can you help me find him?"

"Wait a second." I turned so I could face my couch and then hit my head as hard as I could against it.

"Hey! Why'd you do that?!" He jumped towards me and helped me raise my head. "That must've hurt."

"What is going on." I murmured under my breath. I thought that maybe I was hallucinating and a big blow could've helped, but now I only had a headache. That and a man dressed up as Spider-Man in my living room. "This can't be real." I suddenly got up and grabbed his mask before pulling it away and revealing his face. "... Tom Holland?"

He looked at me with widened eyes, a shocked expression paralyzing that cute face of his. "Who is that? I'm Peter." He said then trying to get his mask back.

I placed it inside my pockets and frowned. "Peter Parker?" I asked and he nodded. "That's it. I've gone insane. I'm probably schizophrenic too. What else? Is this room real? Is my job real? Is Girl real? Am I real?!" I looked at my own hands and shook my head. "What is going on?!" I screamed at the top of my lungs.

Peter remained in silence and kept looking at me, probably wondering if I was actually insane. No, scratch that, I was the one insane for worrying about my hallucination thinking that I'm insane. Or whatever was going on.

That weird silence was quickly interrupted by a loud knock at my door and, when I opened it, I found my dear neighbor right behind it. She was a middle-aged woman, I knew she had like 4 kids and a husband even though I had only seen him twice in two months. "Hey, what can I do for you?" I tried to sound as normal as possible.

The woman crossed her arms on her chest. "You very loud. Make kids wake up. You shut up." She said with her heavy accent, it made it sound even more threatening for some reason.

"Oh I'm sorry, that was very rude of me, I apologize." I couldn't try and explain to her that I was having a hallucination about my favorite superhero, she barely spoke my language and for some reason I had the feeling that she didn't really like me. "I'll be sure to keep it down."

She nodded. "You better, gorda." She snorted and murmured something in Spanish that I couldn't understand at all.

I looked at her, was she waiting for me to answer? Because I had no idea what to say. "No hablo Español?" I tried to say.

Suddenly, Peter appeared right next to me and said something in her language, he spoke so quickly that I wasn't even sure if he was talking in Spanish or something. But the woman seemed very pleased by his answer, she nodded and offered a small smile.

"Good night." She said and got back into her apartment, closing the door behind her.

I did the same and turned to look at Peter. "What did you tell her?"

"I apologized for the noise and told her that we were watching a horror movie. I apologized again and told her goodnight." He explained proudly. "You see, I know Spanish because-"

"Yeah, yeah, you studied it in high school. I know." I interrupted him and went to sit back on my couch. My head was pounding, so many things were happening and I didn't know what to do. "She saw you... she even talked to you. That means you're real, I'm not crazy.

"How did you know?" Peter asked ignoring my last comment. "Do we know each other in this universe?"

I looked at him almost disgusted by his question. Was he for real? Was he really the Peter Parker from the MCU? How could that be possible? We were in the real life, there was no such thing as magic or superheroes. "Kind of? I mean, I know you." I tried to answer him to the best of my abilities. "Are you sure you're not Tom Holland? If this is a prank you can tell me now, it was funny ok? You'll get your views, and bonus points because I didn't even notice one camera." I giggled.

The boy avoided my eyes and sighed. "I don't know what you're talking about. I'm sorry. I don't know who this Tom Holland is and I know this is very confusing to you. But I need help, can you tell me how to contact the Avengers? Or maybe Peter Parker from this universe." He grabbed my hand and squeezed it. "Please, the destiny of my universe depends on this."

I pressed my lips together. That was touching and all, but how was I supposed to tell him that there was nothing like that? That it was all fantasy? "Peter." I decided to get straight to the point. "I'm sorry but in this universe, there is no such thing as Avengers."

He frowned. "Any other superhero that could help?"

"No." I shook my head. "There are no superheroes, they don't exist." I explained and he looked at me in shock. "There is no magic or superpower, here everyone is normal."

"But... you said you know me! You must know Peter Parker from here, is he not Spider-Man?"

"No. There is no Spider-Man and no Peter Parker. I know you because you're a fantasy character, from comics and movies. Here we have Tom Holland who's the actor that plays your role in the movies, he's identical to you but he's not super." I felt terrible, mostly because he looked like he was going to cry and it made my heart break. After all, he was my favorite superhero. "I don't know how this is possible, you're not supposed to be real here."

Peter placed his hands on his head and lowered it to look at the floor. "This is terrible. How can I find Doctor Strange if no one here is a superhero?"

"I really don't know." I patted his shoulder. "I'm sorry, really. Mostly because I really love your movies and character, if I could help you guys I would, really." I still wasn't totally sure of what was going on. In my head, I was waiting for someone to jump out of nowhere and tell me that I had been pranked or something, but nothing was happening. "If you want, you can spend the night here and tomorrow we'll think about something."

He looked at the clock on my wall and nodded. "Yeah, it's late, I'm sorry for scaring you earlier." He offered a gentle smile. "I'm just in an awful situation."

"I know, I saw." I shrugged. "Trust me, I know everything about you and your stories, well also those of the others. I'm sure you'll find a way out, you're Spider-Man after all." I raised my thumbs and got up. "But yeah you scared the crap out of me so I need some sleep to come to terms with the fact that you're real and in my house."

"Of course." He nodded.

"You can sleep here on the couch." I pointed at it. "Tomorrow I have classes early so I'll wake up at about 7 o'clock, I'll wake you up." I tried to turn off my television so he could rest in peace, but I was unable to do so. Actually, I pulled the plug but somehow the thing kept on working.

Peter didn't seem too surprised. "That's Ned's living room."

"Yeah, I was watching you earlier, as I told you before, in here you're a character of a movie. I don't know it's stuck here and it won't turn off." I complained.

"Then it must mean something. Leave it be, we'll think about it tomorrow."

"Alright." I reached the hallway that brought me to my room. "For anything, you can wake me up. Have a good night."

"Thank you... what's your name? I didn't ask."

"Y/n." I smiled, but inside I was actually screaming. My favorite character knew my name.

"Well, good night Y/n."

I closed myself in my room and got under my blanket. It was probably a dream, I was aware of it, but I had to admit that it was one hell of a dream.

A/N:
Hey guys, this is a small fanfiction I've been thinking about a lot since Spider-Man: No Way Home came out. I hope you'll like it, I've written many fanfictions about Peter Parker in Italian, this will be my first time publishing something about Marvel in English so please excuse any grammar error and I'll do my best to correct everything.
Let me know what you think in the comments and enjoy :)