chapter sixty-eight
his gift, his curse

THEIR PLACE. A rooftop away from the school bell, away from the hustle and bustle of excited students, away from the cameras and the questions and the accusations ... and now, a place for Peter Parker to hide from the horrible mistakes he has made. Nina felt her heart twist in the most painful way she'd ever experienced the moment she saw the dim porch lights of Midtown High in the distance. A stretch of roof between the Biology and Engineering rooms amongst the exhausting wheeze of the lab ventilation systems that had become the safe space for both Peter and Nina so far this year. Their spot.

When they were dropped off onto the biology roof beside them, Nina could tell that Peter knew they were there. She hovered by the small ladder that went down to where he was, watching his hunched figure▬stiff with pain and rigid with a desperate attempt to keep his tears at bay. His honey-brown curls had turned dark, drenched to his forehead from the rain earlier. She saw scathes to his suit like claws and glass had punctured his back and shoulders. Even in the darkness of the late night, Nina's breath hitched at the blood on his face, the gash above his brows and the bruises on his jaw. He looked beaten and torn▬ripped apart and stamped underfoot. She had never seen Peter ... seen Spider-Man so ... she had never seen him in a moment where he had fallen down and was yet to get back up. And the sight sent a jolt of fear to her chest.

Nina had thought about it▬of course, she had thought about it: the idea that maybe, one day, what Peter did would get him killed. But the excitement of it all▬of defeating bad guys, figuring out secrets and helping a superhero who was also her boyfriend▬had disguised the danger. It had made her forget the fear and the dread▬the moments when she was patching Peter up on her bedroom floor, praying that her parents wouldn't come in or see the blood on her shirt before she cleaned it. But now, she was seeing all of that shock and horror right in front of her▬the danger that they all put themselves in daily. But more importantly, the danger Peter threw himself into. Tonight, Aunt May had died. Tonight, Spider-Man had lost.

She held her breath as she slowly climbed her way down onto the roof below. Ned, MJ and Felicia followed her▬all of them quiet and unsure.

Nina's footsteps were soft and delicate, but she bit back a painful lump in her throat as she got closer. She saw Peter tense up▬he refused to look at them, or maybe just her. He didn't want Nina to see him like this▬to see Spider-Man so defeated.

She set down Dr. Strange's artefact and stopped right beside Peter. Gentle and soft, she knelt down. Nina watched his brows knit together and his jaw clench, furiously trying to keep himself from breaking down, but when her fingers delicately brushed to his cheek▬and he turned to glance at her, her heart broke with him. Nina didn't say a word and just leaned in, pressing a kiss to his temple and Peter Parker shattered in her arms.

Nina held him tight to her shoulder as he wept, her eyes clenching shut. She nuzzled her head into his shoulder as well, feeling his hands claw at her jumper sleeves and waist, holding onto her in a trembling grip that did not want to let go. Peter Parker's sobs were broken and cracked▬fractured like someone had thrown a hammer at a wall of glass, and the cracks splintered right from the centre all up to the corners ... right at the centre, to Peter Parker's heart.

On his other side, Ned crouched down and wrapped his arms around Peter, too. He held him just as tightly. MJ's hug squeezed from behind and Felicia shuffled in next▬soon, they all embraced Peter as he cried for his Aunt May, huddling close and tight, finding comfort within each other, and allowing Peter a shield to break without the world watching.

Nina shed a few tears herself, silent and mourning▬filled with grief not just for May, but also for Peter who had lost so much. She let Peter pull her closer, one hand gripping the crook of her knee and the other clutching Ned's hand on his shoulder. Her arms around his shoulders squeezed as she shuffled in as close as she could.

When Nina felt Peter stiffen once more, she knew he had felt the presence of those who had joined them. She hesitated, feeling him lift his head as his cries hitched to perplexed silence▬as if he could tell exactly who was with them, but didn't want to believe it. Nina took a shaky breath, sniffing back her own tears. "Um, Peter," she began, her voice in a soft mumble as she pulled away slightly. "There's ..." he met her gaze, an alert look in his eye. She was a little startled by it. "There's some people here..."

He continued to frown at her as they all slowly began to stand up. Nina stayed with Peter, though, taking his hand and squeezing it as he asked her, his voice heavy with tears. "W▬what?"

"It's okay," she reassured him, watching his eyes dart to the left and his breath quicken. "They're on our side."

She pulled Peter to stand up with her▬and that was when he reacted. Like he had been shot with a bolt of electricity, Spider-Man leapt to his feet and pulled Nina behind him, his gaze shooting upwards to the top of Midtown High where in the shadows, two figures crouched on the dark brick, looking down upon them in the moonlight.

Peter took a few deep breaths. He was limping, but he clenched his hands and set his jaw, as if ready to fight once again. There was a blaze in his eyes as he glared upwards at the dark silhouettes▬he knew who they were, deep down.

The two Spider-Men leapt down the old tower at Midtown High, and Peter Parker jumped. "Hey! Wait, wait, whoa▬!" he let out, holding up a hand▬a warning for them not to come any closer as they landed on the base of the tower, right above them.

They froze, coming to a hesitant standstill as Peter glanced at both of them. The angry fire in his eyes simmered as he started to realise▬the feeling he had twisting in the pit of his stomach and sending his hair stiff and rigid began to make sense. His eyes widened at the suit one of them wore▬a suit so much like his own, and yet so different. Spider-Man glanced back at Nina as if to double-check whether he was right. At her little nod, he took a shaky breath, turning back to the two variants of himself with a dizzy feeling. "What...?"

"Sorry," the older Peter Parker was still crouched at the base of the tower. He held up his hand to show Nina's Peter that he meant no harm. He took a gentle breath, "... about May."

Her Peter's rigid stance slowly seemed to settle as the realisation overtook him. He glanced at the other Spider-Man standing above them, tall and lean. But in the shadows, he looked gaunt and not exactly alive▬like he was a ghost.

"Yeah, sorry," he murmured. He took a hesitant step forward, watching the youngest version of himself▬a Peter Parker who still was just starting his journey, and there was no way he could tell him it would only get more and more painful ... that the tragedy of their lives would never stop. "I ..." he clenched and unclenched his hands. Nina couldn't ignore the way he glanced at her. "I got some understanding of what it is you're▬"

"No, no▬No." Her Peter clenched his jaw and shook his head. The anger in his eyes was something she was unable to describe. He took a step backwards, burning with fury. "Please don't tell me that you know what I'm going through."

Nina watched this Spider-Man swallow back what else he wanted to say. He nodded and took a step back, his head low▬his soft breath sounded stale from his lips; stale with a constant broken memory. "Okay," he murmured.

"She's gone," said her Peter through gritted teeth. His voice shook nonetheless. He glowered at his variants. "She's gone..." Nina's throat ached to see the way his face fell and his red-rimmed eyes turn dull with exhaustion and pain. "And ... and it's all my fault."

He clenched his jaw and looked down, defeated. "She died for nothing." He swallowed bile in his throat. "So I'll do what I should have done in the first place."

Her Peter reached to grab the artefact behind him, but Nina held it away.

"Peter▬" tried the older Spider-Man but her Peter shook his head again.

"Please, don't," he scowled at the two of them. "You don't belong here. Either of you. So I'm sending you home. Those other guys are from your worlds, right? So, you deal with it. If they die, if you kill them ... if people you care about die because of them ..." Nina swallowed hard and looked down, knowing he meant her. "That's on you. It's not my problem. I don't care anymore. I'm done." Peter took a sharp breath through his nose, fighting back tears again. "I'm really sorry that I dragged you into this. But you have to go home now. Good luck."

He turned to Nina and tried to grab the artefact again, but she shook her head. She held it away from him once more, locked in his gaze with a sure stubbornness.

It surprised her. Because just earlier today, she would have gone for the chance to send the monsters in her nightmares away▬far, far away. But now, she realised why Aunt May and Peter had been so determined to give them a second chance. Not just to save her▬this wasn't about her, and it shouldn't be. This was about doing the right thing. Before they were villains and monsters, they were people. Nina had known them. She had known Harry's father, Mr. Osborn. She had known Max Dillon, who just wanted someone to remember his name. She remembered Dr. Connors, who had done all he could to improve medicine, but also to let him feel his own arm again. She knew Doc Ock, who had just been a keen, brilliant scientist with an ambition to change the world for the better. And she was sure that the Sandman was the same. He had a life before his got turned upside down. If they got a chance to be better▬to not be killed the moment they returned back home ... And if there was a way they could give them that, they deserved that chance.

But it was more than that. If there was one thing Peter Parker has taught Nina Hart since he's been Spider-Man, is that they had a responsibility to do the right thing with all they knew. These villains had come to their world from the decisions they had made▬they were their responsibility. They were Spider-Man's responsibility.

She couldn't let Peter do something he would regret. She couldn't let the Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man lose himself and all he fought for. She couldn't let him fall down and refuse to stand back up again. She didn't want him to ever stop caring. She always wanted him to fight and stand up for the little guy. And Nina would see herself die in a million dreams from a million different universes if that was what it took to make sure Spider-Man, Peter Parker, stayed true to the symbol he had become to everyone▬to her.

"My Uncle Ben was killed," the older Peter Parker spoke up in the cold silence. "It was my fault."

Her Peter's gaze spun back to him, his breath hitching at the mention of his uncle. A vulnerable glint glossed over in his eyes, remembering Uncle Ben with a guilty tear in his heart.

To his left, the third Spider-Man swallowed back a lump in his throat. He glanced down at the large symbol on his chest and took a long, deep breath before speaking up. "I lost ..." His hand gestured▬until he thought better of it and it fell down. Nina knew. She knew he had gestured to her. She looked up at him and remembered it all▬the fall, those lenses ... the last thought that crossed her variant's mind: the colour of Peter Parker's eyes.

He gritted his teeth. Tears already welled up in his eyes. He didn't look away from Nina Hart standing below. "I lost Nina▬" his voice broke off, and a sad breath scoffed from his lips as he corrected himself: "My ... My Nina ..." The way he said it made her want to cry. A sad understanding knitted in her Peter Parker's brows▬a dreadful pain to hear what happened to a girl every version of himself cared about dearly. Loved.

The older Peter Parker's gaze dropped, too. A sombre silence settled over him.

"I couldn't save her," he continued, his eyes locked onto the Nina Hart standing in front of him. "And▬and I'm never gonna be able to forgive myself for that. But I carried on, tried to ... um," he blinked back his tears. Nina felt her heart pound at a painful pace as she continued to watch him. "Tried to keep going, tried to keep being the, uh ..." a sad smile breathed its way onto his face, "... the friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man, because I know that's what she would have wanted, but..."

He looked away from Nina, ashamed. A tear fell down her cheek as she listened. "But at some point, I just ... I stopped pulling my punches. I got rageful. I got bitter. I just don't want you to ..." he took a shaky breath, "... to end up like▬like me."

"The night Ben died ... I hunted down the man who I thought did it," said the older Spider-Man. He looked as though he had aged many years, now. Nina's Peter set his jaw, and she knew he was remembering those first months after his Uncle Ben died. "I wanted him dead. I got what I wanted. It didn't make it better." He sighed. "It ... it took me a long time ... to learn to get through that darkness."

Nina watched her Peter carefully as he glanced away, his mind racing after what his variants had told him. She saw the clench of his jaw and the stiff set of his brow. That anger returned, and it was burning a white-hot fire in his chest brighter than before. "I wanna kill him," he seethed. Her eyes widened. A chill went down her spine. Peter Parker nodded to himself. His words sounded more like a promise rather than a wish. "I wanna tear him apart."

His face contorted as he desperately tried not to cry. Nina automatically stepped closer to him but didn't touch him▬giving him the space she knew he needed right now. "I can still hear her voice in my head. Even after she was hurt, she said to me that we did the right thing. She reminded me of something my Uncle Ben used to say to me..." he paused. "She told me that with great power▬"

"Comes great responsibility," finished the older Peter Parker, his eyes widening.

Her Peter glanced up at him, taken aback. Their eyes brushed over to the other Spider-Man who was still trying to bite back his tears. He nodded, recognising those words, too. Nina's Peter frowned. "Wait, what? H▬How do you know that?"

"Uncle Ben said it," said Spider-Man sadly.

The older Peter Parker nodded. He seemed to be holding back his own tears now, too. "The day he died." Nina's Peter choked back a sob. His bottom lip quivered and he looked down. "Maybe she didn't die for nothing, Peter."

Nina watched her Peter freeze. His broken stare hardened onto the pavement at his feet. His jaw set and his shoulders straightened. No, his Aunt May would not die for nothing▬he will make sure of it.

Spider-Man looked up and clenched his hands. "Then we've got work to do."

*ೃ༄

FELICIA got them into the high school labs. Well, in reality, she broke in and dragged them all with her. All the Peter Parkers webbed the security cameras where they would be going, MJ and Ned worked together to get the timed generator up and running so they could work, and Nina made sure to place her Spider Plush on the lab counter as moral support▬a new bandaid on his head from where he would have hit the ground after MJ threw him. Nina found a rolly chair from the computer labs and pushed it into their chemistry classroom, setting it right in front of Ned's laptop with a smirk. He grinned. They grabbed their lab coats and slapped gear onto their faces. Nina rolled up the sleeves of her own and pulled her hair off her face.

"What?" she said when Felicia arched a brow at her. "I love chemistry."

"Oh, no, I love it that my second wife is a nerd," replied Cia.

Nina grinned and linked arms with her. "You know it."

Soon, the chemistry lab was set up for what they needed. As the night continued, none of them felt the need to sleep. The adrenaline that coursed through them over what they were about to do made them more alert than they had ever been. Nina felt like she had just drunk ten coffees and five hot chocolates all at once.

She hovered on the opposite side of the bench as Peter poured out the antidotes he had made for each villain from the canvas bag. Felicia and MJ stood on one side of her, and Ned on the other, facing the three Spider-Men with determined frowns.

"Okay, so," began her Peter, pointing out each antidote and sorting them accordingly, "Connors, Marko, Dillon and ..." he hesitated on the final one. He glared at the serum for the Green Goblin and slammed it down last without another glance. "Uh, look, I think that I can repair the devices for Dillon and Marko, but the others..."

"Oh, I got Connors," said the Peter Parker standing to Nina's right across the table. He picked the injector up and tossed it before catching it again. "I've already cured him once, so no big deal." The other two Spider-Men stared at him, taken aback. He frowned, shrugging. "What? It's no big deal."

"Great," said the older Peter Parker after a moment's pause.

"Yeah," muttered Nina's Peter, a little bit in awe of his variant's intelligence. "That's great."

Spider-Man eyed them, curious one last time before moving onwards. Then he realised the beakers were behind him and spun on his heel before hurrying towards them.

As he did, the older Peter Parker turned the Green Goblin's empty antidote container around in his fingers. "I think I can make an antiserum for Dr. Osborn," he murmured. "Been thinking about it a long time." At her Peter's silence, he glanced up. He noticed the rigid stare he fixed on the container. "Gotta cure all of them. Right?"

Nina's Peter hesitated. Then, he nodded. "Yeah. Right."

The older variant nodded. "That's what we do."

He moved on and her Peter pursed his lips, off in thought. He noticed Nina still standing there, watching them all with a breathless look about her▬even after their friends had all split up to try and help wherever they could. He tilted his head at her. "What?" he asked.

Nina grew sheepish. She shrugged and breathed a small chuckle. "It's just..." she gestured at all of them, and couldn't help but notice the similarity between each Peter Parker with a tug on her heart. She could understand why every single Nina Hart variant fell for the Peter Parker in her universe▬because all that was the same about them, were all the little things Nina really liked about her own Peter. "You know ... Three yous."

She managed to get a slight smile out of her Peter, and her heart warmed to see it. As she passed him, she leaned in and gently kissed his cheek. "You got this, Tiger."

Before she went, her Peter took her hand and softly pulled her back towards him. She hummed, meeting his gaze when she realised he wanted to talk. "Um..." he whispered. "I just ..." he took a deep breath and her brows softened when she saw his own knit together. He squeezed her hand tighter. She let him. "After what ... what Peter said about his ..."

Nina nodded. "Yeah," she whispered back, shuffling closer.

"You ... you saw that," her Peter murmured, and she saw the broken glassy look in his eyes. "When you told me about what happens in the other universes, in your dreams ... the one you described to me, that was his universe?"

She nodded again. "Yeah," she said in an even softer voice.

He took a shaky breath. Her Peter brought her hand up and gently rested it on his chest, where his heart was. "I can't lose you, too," he whispered to her, his voice breaking. "I can't. And if Osborn even touches you I swear I will rip him apart▬"

Her eyes widened at his words. "P▬Peter▬"

"I'll do it," he told her, sure and leaving no room for anything else. "Nina, I won't lose you, too, okay?"

She pursed her lips and decided it was best not to say anything. She nodded and reassured him with a soft: "Okay."

He sighed and sat down on the stool, glancing at the antidotes he had to make. Nina pursed her lips and pulled a stool over to sit down with him. She took his hands again and held them against their knees gently brushed together. "Hey," she murmured. She went to ask him whether he was okay, but she stopped herself. Peter wasn't okay. He was far from being okay.

Her Peter glanced up again. She watched his gaze flicker over the broken pendant hanging down from her neck. She knew what he was thinking. He wished he could go back to the bridge where it seemed as though all of their problems were finally sorted.

He sighed again and shook his head slightly. He looked down at their hands. "You don't deserve this," he muttered. "Any of it. Dr. Strange told me that ... that the reason every version of you has died is because of me. Or▬or a version of me," her brows lifted. "I did this to you. I've ruined your life. I ruined it▬"

"Hey, hey, no, no▬" Nina let go of their hands and reached up to cup his cheeks. "No. Look at me, okay? Look at me." His tearful stare met hers and Nina's heart twisted once more. "I'm here," she promised him. "I'm not going anywhere, okay?"

Her thumbs gently brushed across his cheeks, and it seemed to soothe the pain from his cuts▬just for a moment. Peter Parker pursed his lips and said to her softly: "If you never met me, if we never knew each other ... You would have been safe. All I've ever done is put you in danger. You, just knowing me, risks your life."

She sighed, too, but her fingers lifted up to move some of his wet curls away from his face▬so she could see his sweet eyes. "Peter, listen to me," she cupped his cheeks again, "you know what I think? I think that no matter what the universe says, what I know ... what I'm sure about ... is that I will always follow you. I don't care if you're tall, or you're short, or if you have brown hair or if you're blonde. I don't care if you have powers or are still the skinny kid with glasses too big for his face. Whatever version of you is out there, I will always follow you. That's not the multiverse deciding anything, that's me, no matter what world I'm in. I will never not know you, and I don't want to. You're Peter Parker, and where you go, I go."

Her Peter Parker grew tearful once again. He stared at her, touched with an emotion he had no words to say that would ever mean everything he felt. Nina took a deep breath and nodded, determined. "We'll get through this, okay? And we'll get through it together. You're not losing me, I promise."

This whole time, it had been him reassuring and promising Nina that he would catch her▬that he would never let her fall. Now, it was her promising him. And when she promised it, it was the first time she truly believed it. She and Peter Parker were meant to be together, and in this universe, it will be the first time they will have their happy ending. She knew it. She will see it happen.

Peter leaned in and rested his forehead against hers. She closed her eyes with him, and they shared a soft breath together. "Where you go, I go," echoed Peter in a quiet murmur. Then, after a moment, he whispered: "Thank you."

At this moment, Nina realised something▬or perhaps something she always knew. She loved Peter Parker. She loved him with every flutter of her heart and every breath she took. She's loved him for quite a while.

As the two of them shared a sweet moment of silence, together and sharing each other's comfort, none of them realised a pair of eyes watching them as he fixed the Midtown High blue water bottle against a ring stand. He secured the clamp absent-mindedly, feeling a heartbreaking twist in his chest▬something that was suffocating him with memories of a girl who looked exactly the same. The same eyes, the same smile, the same hair▬His Nina Hart looked exactly the same at that age. It reminded him of when they were eighteen, and the times she'd smile and rest her head against his, whispering words to him ... and yet, still, even with this version of her right in front of him, Peter Parker, the Amazing Spider-Man, couldn't remember exactly how she spoke to him. And now seeing this version of her, another Nina Hart who was still alive, and not yet realising what this life she had put herself into would do to her ... that guilt he had lived with for two years now was swallowing him whole.

He glanced down at his phone on the table. He didn't even think it would work in another universe, but Peter Parker reached for it and turned it on. He stared at her face as she lied there, fast asleep with her head hidden in his shoulder ... They were eighteen in that photo.

Peter Parker went into his messages▬he didn't know why, but somehow he ended up on Avery's contact, and he stared at the last message she sent him before he had been pulled away from his universe. She no longer cared about the photos she needed or what happened, instead, she had sent a little message that said: Are you okay?

He didn't realise his older variant, a Peter Parker with decades of experience, was watching him until he spoke up. "You have someone?"

The Amazing Spider-Man glanced over at him and quickly made a face, shaking his head. He turned off his phone and focused back on the antidote for Dr. Connors. "No," he said and hated how his throat was closing up. He took a deep breath to help get rid of the feeling. "I got no time for Peter Parker stuff, you know?" a thought occurred to him and he glanced at the older Spider-Man. He watched him for a moment, too, and then noticed something on his left finger. A wedding ring. He couldn't help but think that if there was a Nina Hart in this universe with this teenage Peter Parker, did this older version of themselves know her, too ... did he have a happy ending? Is that wedding ring a tease from the universe of what he could have had, one day? "Do ... do you?"

The older Peter Parker chuckled as he tinkered with Osborn's cure for a moment. "That's ... a little complicated."

The Amazing Spider-Man glanced at the wedding ring again before looking away. He swallowed a bitter envy. "Yeah, no, I understand..." he thought his gaze would lift back up to Nina, but instead, he frowned down at his phone. Are you okay? Peter couldn't even begin to explain to Avery all that he was going through. There was a long-winded answer to that question, and he didn't even know where to start. "I guess ... I guess it's just not in the cards for guys like us."

The older Spider-Man took a breath and tilted his head. "Well ... I wouldn't give up." He sighed and glanced down at what he was working on. "When I lost ... when I lost her▬my Nina ... I thought I lost everything."

Peter's hands stopped fiddling with the water bottle. He froze, but couldn't help but glance at the older version of himself out of the corner of his eye. He saw a sad slouch to his shoulders. "And for a while," he continued, "I had. I was going to marry her," murmured the older Peter Parker. "I had Aunt May's ring ready for her ... I was going to spend the rest of my life with her. She was ..." he chuckled and shook his head. "I don't think I have to explain what Nina was like."

"No," murmured the Amazing Spider-Man. He managed a sad smile.

"Things happened," said the older Peter Parker. "I ... I made a lot of mistakes. I lost myself and ... and Nina paid the price. I couldn't save her. I couldn't do anything▬and I watched all of my mistakes and everything I loved get taken away from me right before my eyes. And ... and I gave up. I wanted to throw that mask away and never see it again. You know why I didn't? Because after everything, I realised something. Nina would never have wanted to see me give up. She would have wanted me to keep going, to keep fighting, to one day, be happy again. That's all she ever wanted for us, Peter ... to be happy."

Realising what he meant, the Amazing Spider-Man pursed his lips and looked down. That lump in his throat returned and he forced back oncoming tears.

"It took a while," went on his older variant. "It took a long time, but ..." a small smile donned his lips, "we made it work."

He glanced up again to meet his gaze. "Yeah?"

"Yeah," nodded the older Peter Parker. That small smile stayed on his face. He glanced down at his wedding ring. "Me and ... Grace."

"Avery?" the Amazing Spider-Man's brows shot up high to his hairline. He made a face and scoffed, looking away. "Seriously?"

His older variant chuckled. "You know her?"

"Sort of," he couldn't help but chuckle himself. "Well▬I mean, Avery in my universe, of course, I▬" he rolled his eyes and tried to focus on securing the clamp around the water bottle. He chuckled again, unable to believe it. "She's ... a bit of a pain."

"Oh, she's not that bad," the older version of himself chuckled. "She's▬she's stubborn, but ... I mean, I definitely needed someone stubborn enough to deal with me."

"I mean, she's not bad," Peter backtracked. "She's▬I just▬she's just complicated. I mean, the whole Spider-Man thing is complicated. Or she's▬she's nice. I didn't say she isn't nice. She's really nice▬and incredibly stubborn and ambitious but she's, you know, she's ... she's thoughtful. She's a friend at work. I mean, nothing special. Just friends."

The older Spider-Man hummed, not convinced. But he didn't say anything else. He turned back to the antiserum he was working on for Dr. Osborn, and his younger variant working beside him pursed his lips and looked away. His brows furrowed, a strange feeling resting in his chest▬he was torn, and the guilt that ate away at him only made the constricting pain he felt even worse.

His eyes flickered upwards back to where this universe's Nina smiled at her Peter Parker, whispering something to him with the same love in her eyes this Peter knew all too well. It made him smile, too▬even if it was small, but that small smile brought so much delight to his Nina Hart ... so much delight to see him even hold a breath of happiness after all that happened.

She just wanted him to be happy.

*ೃ༄

a/n: fuk i am crying.

i made myself cry.

i split the school lab scene in two and switched scenes around because ... well, why not?

i love avery with all my heart so leave her alone *protective stance* i will square up.

peter deserves closure and he deserves to be happy after nina <3

we're getting closer to the end of this book FUK. i'm actually upset like ... like ... ?

i'm saying this now, the fantastic 4 are in andrew's universe and andrew's peter is definitely off being a menace with johnny as he should. i'm making it canon. they're such besties and i wish we had that in the mcu. i don't know what they're gonna do with the mcu fantastic 4. i think i read somewhere it's gonna be based in the 60s? which is sad because i really want spideytorch brotp.

i just ... they just better do reed richards better than the MoM writers did to him. he's way smarter than he was written in that movie. he would have never fallen for wanda's tricks like that. also, the fact that they introduced the inhumans, captain carter and the fantastic 4 only to use them as a way to show off wanda's power like-- GAH! they deserved better.

i'm still angry.

anyway marvel's spider-man 2 is coming out so so so so soon!! and peter and miles both look amazinG!

(limited editing).