Chapter 7
Choices make up everyone's life. A choice leads people to a different kind of destiny; and now, Miles looked at the two options before him caught in an unprecedented situation.
Should the memory be preserved? If yes, who will keep it and who is responsible for forgetting it? If no ......
If no was the choice, what was the point of everything they had done all this time to survive, to stay alive?
...... And how was he supposed to deal with the extra stuff on him, if he lost the memories of these past ten days? Miles didn't want to forget it all, and he certainly didn't want Hobie to lose it too - but he couldn't. It wouldn't be fair to Hobie.
"Time's Up. Please make your decision."
Finally, Miles made his decision.
"Yeah . . keep my memories. a-And erase, erase--"
Miles' voice trembled a little as he took a deep breath to steady himself: "Erase his."
It wasn't until the words hit the ground that the words in the room flickered twice and began to fade, the light became blinding and turned weak, a door appeared where the words had just floated, and it was then that Miles suddenly realized what he had done. Perhaps one always had to make a choice before it became clear what consequences one was going to have to bear.
Just moments ago, he had snuffed out his own soul with his own hands. And maybe Hobie's.
"I'm sorry..."
He regretted it. Miles had done a lot of things he regretted; some he found ways to make up for, others stayed in his memory as regrets.
"I'm so sorry."
Miles kept apologizing, but that wasn't what he wanted to say; a word clogged his throat making him almost choke, Miles looked up and clutched Hobie's hand tightly, tiptoeing down to Hobie's ear, what he really wanted to say was-
"I love, love--I love you."
Why do people always like to wait until they've lost something before they start to cherish it?
As the door slowly opened, Hobie opened his eyes.
First thing pops into his sight was Miles.
The boy looked at him and pulled an easy smile, "There you are. C'mon, let's go back to our life."
Hobie stepped forward and grabbed Miles' hand in an extremely natural way, feeling the skin of his palm quiver a little the moment he touched it, and he didn't care.
In a blaze of white light, they walked towards the open door, leaving everything behind for the moment and striding forward.
Frozen time began to flow and the scent of flowers wafted through the air; the room disappeared without a trace as they took their steps.
Everything would return to normal.
.............................. .............................. ......
"That took you two a while."
Peter raised an eyebrow as he watched the two men walking out through the passage, Miles and Hobie had been hanging out...a lot in recent times. It wasn't that he objected to anything, he wasn't Miles' dad who was going to ground the boy if he came home past ten or spent too much time with the boy; HOWEVER, if this was an option, Peter would choose without hesitation.
But soon he realized something was wrong; this time they weren't hooking up. No intimate physical contact, no cuddling; hell, the punk's hand wasn't even on Miles' shoulder.
Is this Christmas??
Just kidding.
After all, Peter didn’t wanna see ‘em fight anyway. He just didn’t wanna see them hanging around like a pair of lovebirds either.
“Hey kid,”
Peter grabbed Miles and pulled him to the side during breaks.
“Everything alright? You seem a bit down today.”
“I’m okay,”
Miles gave a feeble smile, he'd been locked in a closed room for ten days, it was a miracle he'd managed to maintain his sanity without breaking down by the time he came out, much less manage to be alive and kicking.
A man passed them, it was Hobie.
"You okay? Are you sure?"
Peter took Miles' shoulders and squeezed, knowing something was wrong, but if Miles wasn't going to talk about it, he wasn't going to force it any further. After all, Miles wasn't a kid anymore.
"C'mon, let's go grab a bite."
.............................. ..............................
Miles sat in the cafeteria looking at the coke that had been pushed in front of him, Hobie was across from him, having just gone to the machine to retrieve their lunch for them.
"Thanks."
Miles said vaguely as he bit into his straw, the ice in the paper cup melting slower in the air-conditioned room, the outside of the cup quickly stained with tiny droplets of water.
"Don't bother."
Hobie lifted the sandwich in her hand and gestured to Miles. Everything looked normal, just as it had before.
"Yeah, haha-we're friends, right? Don't bother..." faked a smile as Miles took a sip of his Coke, and he cautiously looked up at Hobie, the other man still unchanged. He leaned back in his chair a little deflated, after everything that had happened Miles had learned not to regret it, it was useless; he began to look for remedies, he thought a lot about it on the way back to HQ, he could start wooing Hobie, maybe try that trick Uncle Aaron had taught him, they spent a lot of time together, maybe like in those romantic movies mom and dad used to watch, and They could fall in love over time?
Then Miles remembered what Hobie had said to him, You're no friend to me, not even from the start.
What did that mean? Hobie had never thought of him as a friend, and nothing had made him harder than that.
"Your food's gettin' cold."
Hobie gestured with another nudge of the fries in Miles' direction while interrupting Miles' thoughts; Miles stared at the ketchup that was unevenly smeared on the fries, he now had some physiological revulsion for the red, sticky stuff, and it reminded him so much of those first days trapped in the room, when he'd been forced to hurt Hobie, but now -
Miles stared at Hobie's palms, which were polished and smooth, with not even the lightest of scars left behind: their powers had returned with them when they left the room, including an extraordinary rate of healing that meant that right now, there was nothing on Hobie.
Nothing remained, neither scars nor memories. The ten days trapped in the room had never existed for Hobie. With that thought in mind Miles sneaked his head down and lifted his shorts up a little, Hobie's name was still on his inner thigh, tattoos weren't wounds, his body wouldn't try to fix that. Just as Miles tried to quietly pull back his jumper to view the design on the small of his back his wrist caught on something: Hobie's leather boot pressed his hand against his thigh, the vamp sliding slowly along the most sensitive of insides.
"Dropped anything?"
Hobie tapped on the tabletop to get Miles to focus on him, and he didn't look like he cared if the metal studs on his boots scratched Miles.
"Umm--nothing."
The lunch break was over. They were ready to go back to their respective areas to maintain the peace of the multiverse before returning to their own worlds-this was normal life.
The Spider-Men around them began to rise one by one. Miles stared anxiously at the men across the room as they prepared to leave; he couldn't wait any longer, given that he'd already done something stupid that he regretted -
"Hey--I was just thinking,"
Miles bravely looked up to meet Hobie's eyes, "You free tonight? I mean, it's been a while since we hang out-just, thought you might wanna go see a movie-or anything?"
"Not tonight. I've got works."
Hobie raised an eyebrow at the obviously lost boy: "Plus “ I thought we just went to the park yesterday.”
“Um—right! I um, forgot it. Been a long day, right?”
They had indeed just been to the park ten days ago, and Miles had forgotten that time was now back in flow, and that he was the only one who still had any lingering memories of the past ten days. That day Hobie was organizing an illegal protest march in some central park in the 138 universe, and Miles was in charge of watching how to fight against government rule.
His dad, Jefferson Davis, would have "loved" this scene.
"Saturday's fine. What do you say, we meet at your place, and we go to a movie? t mind."
At these words Miles looked up quickly and smiled with bright eyes, "Sure! That'll be great-so see you Saturday!"
If Miles had grown a puppy-like fluffy tail and ears, he'd be jumping around excitedly like a golden retriever right now, whipping his tail out of his vanity.
.............................. ..............................
Not all the dates went according to plan. Miles didn't realize this until Saturday.
He'd arrived half an hour early for the appointment, then Hobie had told him there was a problem with the transmitter and he'd gone to Staten Island instead of Queens; and when Hobie had crossed the channel, some building in Brooklyn had burst into flames again, and the traffic was such that it would take at least half an hour for the firefighters to arrive.
So on a windy Saturday morning, the streets of Queens were filled with the sight of Spider-Man in his black-and-red uniform swinging from skyscraper to skyscraper, with two movie tickets in his mouth for those with good eyesight; and Spider-Man from the 1610 Universe parked next to the burning building in Brooklyn, tugging at the soon-to-be-crashed building with a spider's web to evacuate the crowds as he anxiously explained the situation to his watch.
In response, Spider-Man from the 138 universe on the other end of the comm just shrugs and runs in the same direction with his guitar on his back and his arms flung wide: "Need a hand?"
With the combined efforts of the two Spider-Men hundreds of people are finally rescued before the burning building collapses and falls; like one of those classic movie scenarios, the crowd spontaneously forms a circle revealing the space in the center and waits for the heroes to hit the ground, applauding and applauding the Spider-Men the moment they jump down and encircle them.
This is New York. No one cares about yet another Spider-Man dressed as a punk coming out of nowhere, they just need to be grateful in the moment of their rescue.
"So...... the crowd receded Miles pulled his mask halfway up to reveal the bottom half of his face, he lowered his head a little nervously, SHOOT, the movie had ended its run half an hour ago and the sun in the sky signaled that the day was coming to an end as well.
......Here goes their date.
“You hungry?”
Hobie didn't really care about it; things like this had happened a lot when they'd hung out as friends before, and it was clear that he hadn't realized just how much this time meant to Miles.
"....I'll go for some pizzas." sighed Miles pulling off his mask and forcing a smile before leaving : "And thanks for the help. Really couldn't do it without you."
Hobie gave him a lazy wave of his finger, "Anytime. we're friends, dear."
"...Pepperoni?"
.............................. ........................
Miles stood swaying in boredom in the checkout line that was nearly at the door, all he wanted was two pizzas - and when he absently looked up at the television screen hanging above him, Miles only had time to catch Breaking News and the Brooklyn Bridge.
Apparently, another emergency had occurred at the Brooklyn Bridge. A car accident, a bomb, a bridge collapse, an alien invasion-whatever it was, it was all the same to Miles right now.
"Oh C'mon! not even just one day?"
Miles grumbled in a small voice as he set the pizza box down, these were definitely going to be cold by the time he got back.
"I just wanna have ONE normal date for Jesus--okay okay I'm coming!"
He pulled off his mask and shot cobwebs towards the tall buildings that lined the city of New York, swinging all the way to Brooklyn.
.............................. .............................. ...
Miles stood at the end of the bridge frowning in confusion. He had no idea what had happened.
The bridge looked fine, no burning flames, shrill honking sirens or panicked crowds.Everything is going as they are supposed to be. just another ordinary day in New York.
Just another ordinary day in New York. Except for the people standing under the bridge taking pictures. What happened?
Miles couldn't suppress his curiosity. He had to see.
It wasn't until Miles rounded the side that he saw the amazing sight, and no wonder it was on the front page of the news: I Love You had been written on the side of the bridge in spiderwebs, hanging from every steel bar that held the bridge together.
...... It was definitely hard to clean up.
At the moment Miles was thinking this, the person who caused all this appeared beside him : "There you are! My boy Miles!"
The exaggerated tone of voice almost immediately brought back memories for Miles of that time he saved the little girl and Detective Singer. It was also on the bridge. He was even beginning to wonder if the Bridge was one of his Canon Events.
...... As well, Hobie.
Of course it was Hobie. In the immediate 1610 universe there was only one Spider-Man present besides Miles.
"Hobie? You did all this? But why--wait I'm confused--what's happening?"
"You want the full story or...?"
Hobie's hands landed on his shoulders, and as they touched Punk Spider-Man's body changed colors, gray, fuchsia, the classic red-blue, orange ...... Eventually he rested on pink, just as he had the first time he touched Miles.
"In a word, someone chose to erase one of my memories. shame it didn't work out. turned out, you couldn't pick for me. our fate lies in our own hands."
Miles began to feel a wave of vertigo, the immense joy preventing him from thinking properly; and the countless cobwebs overhead, reflecting light in the falling daylight. Against the silvery sunlight, Hobie came towards him eventually standing in front of him. His hands pressed against Miles to stop the other man from escaping, even if the boy had no intention of doing so. Nothing was going to make him run away from the scene in front of him.
"I think even if I forget, forget everything that happened a thousand times, I'd still fall in love with you one thousand and one time more."
Hobie's hand rested on Miles' mask, and each of their hands landed on the other's mask, gently unveiling half of it.
"Now you say it back."
Miles flashed a smile before their lips were exposed to the air and collided with each other's.
"I love you."
.............................. ..............................
As they stood under the Brooklyn Bridge kissing, two things happened.
First, two pepperoni flavored pizzas went cold at a pizza place a few miles away. The cheese on them began to solidify and became impossible to pull out the delicious shreds.
Second, in the little box at Spider-Man HQ that stores every Canon event in the multiverse, something quietly changed. The webs of the two Spider-Men began to intertwine until they could not be separated.
And the only place to witness this is the Brooklyn Bridge, which spans the East River in New York.
———————END———————