When I woke up the following morning, it took me about 5 minutes to remember my delirious episode. I almost chuckled thinking about it. Maybe I should've stopped watching Marvel movies for a while, I didn't want to dream about Tony Stark getting in my living room next... actually, I wouldn't have minded that.

I checked the hour on my phone and sighed. I hated mornings, almost as much as I hated afternoons. I noticed a message from Girl asking me to meet her at a local cafe to get some coffee before class and I accepted gladly.

Maybe I should've stopped drinking caffeine also, a green tea could do the trick for once.

I got dressed quickly and walked out of my room, ready to brush my teeth and do my makeup before leaving. But before that, I wanted to go check on my television and see if it was alright or if I had actually broken it. I wouldn't have allowed myself to admit that I wanted to see if my favorite superhero was actually sleeping on my couch or not.

So I got into my living room and stopped to inspect the scene. My couch was empty, there was no one on the floor or walking around which could mean two things. Peter had decided to take off, that would be pretty stupid of him but at the same understandable. Or, and this one was the most believable, the previous night I had a mental breakdown because of all the stress I had been under and nothing had happened.

I took a deep breath. No more junk food before bed.

"Good morning!" Peter's figure appeared from the kitchen and I jumped startled. I instinctively screamed, again I think it's a normal reaction when you see Peter Parker out of nowhere, but before I could receive another complaint from my neighbor, I placed my hand on my mouth to shut myself up. "I guess you're not completely over it... are you?"

The real question was: could someone get over something like that? I mean, we're talking about the real world, not a movie or a book where everything can happen. But how could I explain this to him? He was used to living in a world where magic and powers were considered almost normal.

So I just shook my head slowly. "If you want to help me get over it... try not scaring me?" I sighed and joined him in my kitchen. "So I guess you're real... or maybe I should get an appointment with a psychiatrist." I muttered getting some water, maybe my insurance did cover the cost of a good psychiatrist nearby.

"I bet it's something hard to digest." The boy tried to calm me down as I drank my water hoping that it would've helped me come to my senses. After all, dehydration could cause hallucinations. "But I'm real and I'm here with you, see?" He touched my shoulder and I almost spit my water at him. Instead, I started coughing violently. "Sorry, too soon?"

"You think?" I tried to steady my breathing before facing him. "Ok, I'll give in to my delusions for a moment." I didn't lose anything by believing in his presence. "Is there a way for you to leave and, I don't know, get back to your universe or find another one?" I asked and Peter stopped to think about it.

It was actually pretty amazing to see him like that. He looked so real and he was identical to the Peter I had always seen on screen. It made me feel so nervous for some reason, maybe because I had always had a thing for Spider-Man, his character was so relatable and adorable. I really wanted to help him in a way, but at the same thing how could I? It was just crazy. I was crazy.

Peter pointed at my television, which was still on and showing Ned's empty living room. "I've been thinking. Maybe your television is the portal that brought me here, what if it can also bring me back?" He asked and I pouted a little.

Where the hell did my parents get that thing? I was worried it was going to break at that point, I didn't have enough money to buy another one. "I don't know man, magic doesn't really exist here." I replied. "In a fantasy world maybe your reasoning could make sense, but here it doesn't."

"Then how can you explain me being here?"

"I can't." I brushed my hair back using my hand. "I simply can't, that's why I'm going insane. Something like this has never happened before and I don't even know how to help you because in my head you're not real. But I'm trying at the best of my mental state." I sighed. "Alright, you want to try and get inside my television?"

He nodded. "Well, more like go through it."

"You're welcome to do so then." I walked towards my television and he followed me. I placed my hand on the screen and slightly pushed against it to see if something happened, if my hand could actually penetrate the particles that composed the object but nothing happened. "Mhm, no luck here. You try." I stepped back and watched as Peter positioned himself in front of the television. "Don't get your hopes too high though."

The boy glared at me for a second and I shrugged, I was only telling him the truth. He cleared his throat, he looked very nervous and I could guess why. It took him a moment to place his hand on the screen and start pushing against it, but before I could tell him to just let it go, his hand suddenly went through the screen. "Oh my god." Peter smiled. "Are you seeing what I'm seeing?"

I nodded. "Still convinced it's a hallucination, but yeah." I grabbed my phone. "Great, you can go back and I can go to college without a worry." I just wanted to forget that manic episode and go on with my life.

Peter put his whole arm through my television and took a deep breath. "Thank you, really. I'll go look for Doctor Strange and save my universe before it collapses on itself." He explained and I waved my hand happily. "I'll wave at you now that I know you're watching my world." He said so casually that I almost melted at how cute he was.

There wasn't much I could say, so I simply smiled. "I hope you save everybody, as always." I believed in him, he was a superhero after all. And the good guys always won in Marvel movies so I wasn't too worried about it. "Stay safe Peter."

He nodded and took a deep breath, it was nerve-racking. With a smooth move, he jumped inside my television and disappeared through my screen. I let out a sigh of relief and leaned against a wall, it was done. I could go back to my ordinary sad boring life without a worry.

"That's great news." I muttered as I dialed my only friend's phone number. "Hey Girl!" I said happily, I really wanted to go get some coffee and forget about all this craziness, "I was thinking for breakfast-" as I was about to tell her that I had another place in mind that had some great beagles, but I got interrupted by Peter's body getting flung against the wall of my living room and then falling on my couch. "- I think we should reschedule, I have to work today." I tried to sound as normal as possible, but the truth was that I was panicking.

"Aww, aren't you coming to class?"

"Nope, my boss just called me and asked me to cover a shift for one of my colleagues. I'll see you around, bye, love, bye again." I closed the call and rushed to Peter's side while he was trying to come to his senses. "What just happened?"

The boy shook his head confused. He was all dirty and when I looked up I noticed that my wall was cracking and there was a big hole the exact shape of Peter's body. "Sorry about that." He muttered touching his head. "I don't think I can leave this place." He informed me then.

"What? Why?!" I grabbed the collar of his suit and brought his face right in front of mine. "Why the hell can't you leave?!"

Peter had his brown eyes wide open, as if he were in shock, but what about me? Not only did he destroy my wall but he also couldn't pay for it. I was totally fucked, how was I going to explain to my landlord that a boy got yeeted in my living room? "Can you..." he placed his hands over mine and slowly pushed them away until he was free. "I'm not sure why but I think Doctor Strange did something."

I raised an eyebrow. "How do you know?"

"While I was traveling through time and space, or at least I think I did, I saw all those weird orange things he can do with his hands, you know?" He tried to explain while gesturing with his hands the same way Doctor Strange did. "I think he's in this universe."

I could feel my eye ticking at that point. Great, now I had two superheroes lost in the real world. "That's great news, on one hand, at least he'll be safe since there aren't villains in this universe. On the other hand, he's gonna spread panic if he tells someone that he's a superhero." I commented getting up and walking around the living room. "We need to find him as soon as possible, you two need to go back or your universe will be destroyed and who knows how many universes will follow the same fate."

Peter frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Well, that spell Doctor Strange did made it so that everyone who knew Spider-Man's real identity could reach your universe, that means that those universes are in danger as well unless you send those villains back where they come from." I tried to explain and he looked at me in awe. "What? Didn't you reach that part of the movie yet? Probably not." I sighed. "Look, no pressure or anything, I just know what happens in the movies."

"Does it have a good ending?" He asked and I pressed my lips together. Was it a good ending? yes for his world but not for Peter. After all, he was left alone with no one remembering him. "Why are you making that face? Do we lose?"

It was hard, who was I to tell him about his future? I wasn't even sure things were going to proceed like the movie. "I don't think I'm supposed to tell you." I decided to evade the question. Even if I tried to think about it, the only way everything could be resolved was by using Strange's initial spell and I didn't want Peter to stress out because of that. Not now at least. "We should focus on finding Doctor Strange first."

"You're right, let's come up with a plan."

**

"You guys have Oreos too." Peter kept pointing at the many snacks on the shelf next to me as I tried to clean the floor. "And you also got Cheetos!" He sounded like a little kid in an amusement park, which was cute, don't get me wrong. But we were inside the store I worked at, so I wasn't as excited as him to be there, mostly because I had to work.

"Yes Peter, I told you our universes are alike, mine just doesn't have all that magical superhero stuff." I felt like a babysitter for some reason, a scared one for sure. "Let's recap what happened yesterday alright? When you landed in my living room, did you notice someone else? Maybe Doctor Strange escaped or something." I asked once I was done with the mop. I put the bucket full of dirty water away and sat at the register as Peter followed me.

"I didn't see anyone else." He answered after thinking about it for some time. "Did something strange happen when I appeared?"

I snorted. "A part from finding a fictional character right in front of me? I don't think so." And I hadn't noticed anyone else getting inside my apartment or traveling through my television. "I am so lost right now and I can't believe I also have to work." I complained bitterly. I didn't particularly hate my job, it was calm most of the time since the convenience store was somehow hidden and just a few people came by every day, the main problem was the fact that it stayed open 24/7 which meant I had longer shifts.

"Are you always alone here?" The boy asked curiously.

"Yeah, it's small so there's only one person per shift. Plus my boss is always in his office, he can barely speak English so he's not much of help."

"Is he Spanish as well?"

"No, I think he's Indian." I shrugged. "He's actually pretty nice, he lets me get whatever for free if I'm hungry." Or at least that's what the other workers had told me, but the boss didn't look too happy every time he caught me eating something. "If you were Doctor Strange, a responsible adult with powers, where would you go?"

Peter, who was sitting next to me at the register, started to spin on the chair. "That's a good question. I think I'd try to find someone familiar, like the Avengers or something."

"Yeah, but we don't have anyone familiar here." I debated tiredly. "There is no association ready to help lost superheroes and surely there isn't any SHIELD."

"You know about SHIELD too?"

"Duh." I smirked feeling somehow powerful, for once in my life my knowledge about Marvel was coming in handy."I know everything! Every past movie, future movie and I have a small knowledge about comics." I bragged happily. "Every small detail or curiosity, there's nothing I personally don't know."

Peter hummed. "Then why can't we go ask the creators? I'm sure they'll know what to do."

Yeah right, not only I didn't have enough money to go to Hollywood, but surely everyone would've thought that Peter was Tom Holland and we would've gotten in big trouble. "Doesn't really work like that, the creators didn't create the multiverse, you know? Besides, the creator died a few years back, I don't think the company is much of help." If anything they would've thought that it was all a big prank and refused to see us.

"And there isn't an Avengers Tower, right?" I shook my head deep in thought and he sighed. "I would've gone there."

"That's just because you're part of the Avengers- wait." I sat up and turned to face Peter who was still spinning around. "Doctor Strange wouldn't go to the Tower because he's not an Avenger, he doesn't even like them." I said and he widened his eyes understanding what I meant. "There is a place where he would go, where he feels protected and could actually help him."

"The Sactum Sancturum." We said at the same time.

"Where is it?" The boy asked with such excitement that it was hard not to get influenced by it.

But my sudden joy got swept away pretty quickly as I realized that we come to terms with nothing. "It doesn't exist." I sighed placing my forehead on the cash register. "It doesn't exist because we don't fucking have magic and masters of the mystical arts in my world."

I could hear Peter stopping his movements, I really felt useless at that moment. What was I supposed to do to help him? He had proposed to go look around the city using his suit, but I couldn't possibly let him do that, god knows the chaos that could create. "Hey..." he touched my shoulder but I didn't respond, I was too deep in my thoughts.

It just didn't make sense, if Strange was there in my city, he should've been teleported through my screen just like Peter. Unless my television wasn't the real conductor and just happened to create some kind of weird connection. But how?

My brain was hurting, I had never used so many brain cells before, my maths professor would've slapped me since my last test result was shit. I wasn't that smart, to be fair I was studying just to get a piece of paper and find a good job.

So what could've caused my television to connect to Peter's world? "Y/n, are you ok? You don't need to stress yourself like this." He tried to console me again but it was useless. "I'm sure we'll find our answer, Doctor Strange is very smart so chances are that he's going to find us before we can find him."

I raised my head and looked at him, how could he be so positive and sweet? He had just lost his aunt, found out that his entire universe was in great danger and yet he was consoling me when my only worry was my apartment's wall. "I guess you're right." I snorted.

By the time I came back to my senses, a customer had stopped in front of the register and placed his products before me. "Just this." The old man said while reading the local newspaper, it was something I personally hated. I couldn't stand people who didn't even bother to say hello and look at me in the eyes, I wanted to tell him to fuck off.

I started to scan the few products nonchalantly. "Do you want a bag?" I asked trying to force a small smile and a nice tone of voice, after all, they didn't pay me to be an asshole.

"Mhm?" The man didn't even bother to listen to me as he turned the paper's page, eyes glued to the words on that journal.

"I asked you if you want a bag?" I repeated, this time annoyed. Peter looked at me from the corner of his eyes, I already knew that look, it was when people were trying to tell me to calm down and be nice. He grunted a little but didn't answer. "Hey." I snatched his newspaper from his old hands, placed it next to me and glared at him. "I said, do you want a bag, yes or no?"

He looked at me in shock, he probably didn't expect me to react that badly, but I was already nervous before he treated me that way, he simply worsened the situation. "Yes." His voice was so deep, he sounded like a smoker.

"Great." I smiled and placed his stuff inside a small bag before handing it to him, he paid silently before looking at his paper again, as he was about to open his mouth to ask for it I quickly stopped him. "Thank you for shopping here, I hope you have a great evening."

"But-"

"I said, good day to you, sir." I snapped and he nodded before leaving the store in a big hurry. "Tsk, I hate rude people." I commented grabbing the newspaper and starting scamming through it.

Peter cleared his throat uncomfortably. "Shouldn't you give it back?"

"He should've been nicer to me." I shrugged and turned the page. One picture caught my attention, it was my building, it was a very small photo placed in a corner. "Huh, this is new." I placed the newspaper on the counter before Peter and pointed at it with my index finger. "Look at this."

The boy blinked confused and read the title out loud. "Strange blackout, involved only one building." He turned to look at me and I gestured him to keep reading. "Yesterday night a few families noticed a big blackout in their building but the cause was never determined as most buildings in that block all have one main electrical center and nothing could've explained just one building's electrical problem." He stopped, his eyebrows frowned as he stared at the few lines written about the case. "That's it." He whispered.

I nodded. "That's it."

"The blackout must've happened because of Doctor Strange and that's why your television became connected to my world."

"Yeah, I don't know how that works but I trust you, I'm sure you know better about this magical stuff than me." I said leaning against my chair. "The blackout happened and then my television started doing some weird shit, then you were in my living room."

Peter nodded. "You know what that means?"

"Doctor Strange has to pay for my television and my wall?"

"No, he was in your building."

I widened my eyes. "Shit. Someone must've seen or talked to him." But the real question was: who? Most of my neighbors were old people who didn't even know what superheroes were, they wouldn't have enjoyed having a stranger get in their house, just like I did... but maybe worse. "I need to talk to all my neighbors and investigate."

"You have a good relationship with them?"

I sighed. "I don't know most of them but a girl gotta do what a girl gotta do." I had been living there for just a few months, it was impossible for me to get to know everyone in the building, I barely knew my next-door neighbors and they didn't even like me that much. Suddenly, a kid ran inside the store and I got up. "Hey! No running!" I almost yelled.

Peter looked at me as if I were going crazy. "You... tend to lose your temper very quickly, don't you?"

He had a point, I was never the quiet type although I craved some tranquility in my life. "It's just the store's policy." I tried to justify my ways. "Besides, children these days need to be reminded of who's the boss."

"I guess." He muttered. "Can I use your phone?" He asked then and I stopped to think about it for a few seconds. He was in a different world, maybe he wanted to get to know it better and he surely missed using his phone, I would've probably gone mad if I couldn't use my smartphone for more than a few hours.

"Sure, just don't do any weird stuff." I unblocked my phone and handed it to him, I remained quiet as he started to type on it. I checked curiously and saw him looking up MJ's name on Instagram, the only thing he found were many fanpages but I decided to let him do his things since I didn't want him to feel bad or uncomfortable talking about his girlfriend. I noticed the kid walking around mindlessly through the shelves and scoffed. "Do you need help with something?" I asked, the problem with children was that they could cause a mess out of nothing, it was easier to give them exactly what they wanted and send them on their way.

He turned to look at me. "Milk."

I tilted my head. "Hey, I know you." I got up and walked up to him. "You're the kid who lives next to me." He was part of the Spanish family I could never understand, his mother kind of scared me. "I'll get your milk." I pointed at the register and he nodded running towards it. I went to grab the bottle of milk and scanned it. "Here you go." I offered a big smile. "Hey, before you go, have you seen anything weird? Someone you don't know? Around our building?" I asked as he paid and he simply stared at me.

Ugh, I hated kids.

He then looked at Peter, who was still scrolling through my phone, he didn't even know what was going on. I snapped my fingers at him. "What's your name again?"

"Alejandro." He replied with an innocent face.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Y/n, your neighbor." I tried to sound sweet. "So have you seen something? Or maybe heard your mother talking about a man?" He shook his head slowly and I snorted. "Thank you, you can go." I waved my hand bored.

The child offered a small smile and waved his hand. "Bye Spider-Man." And with that, he ran out of the store before I could stop him.

Peter snapped his head up from his phone. "Did that kid just recognize me?"

I took a deep breath. "I think I know which neighbor I should question first."