Miguel was on his platform monitoring a recent anomaly mission that had Web-Slinger, Spider Noir, and Peter B Parker along with Mayday (Who shouldn't be there in Miguel's opinion) fighting a Green Goblin and Rino variant. He watched closely as Peter kicked Green Goblin with a flip while Mayday shot webs into Rino's face when Peter jumped over him before watching Goblin fall off his glider and land in front of Web Slinger's Horse, Giddy, who then kicked the villain right in the ass sending him flying. He would have continued watching until he heard laughter below him and the sound of someone narrating. A quiet huff left Miguel as he looked down from his platform, seeing Miles, Gwen, Pavitr, and Hobie sitting in a makeshift hammock the size of a trampoline that was made out of webbing.
Miles was sitting crisscross in the middle while Gwen leaned on his shoulder resting the back of her head on the side of his while he looked down at his phone, smiling and narrating a story that Miguel hadn't listened to, tuning it out as he watched his screens. Pavitr was on his stomach to the left of Miles, leaning on one arm while Hobie was next to Gwen, on his back, his arms above his head using his hands to support his head as he listened to Miles as well.
"So am I the Asshole for not inviting my wife's parents to our wedding?" Miles finished reading as he looked at the others. "Yeah, no he's an asshole."
"Huge asshole," Gwen agreed, turning toward Miles' phone and beginning to read the comments quietly.
"What a par," Hobie whispered letting out a sigh as he began to stretch reaching for his guitar and resting it on his chest as he stared at the dark ceiling, strumming the strings lightly feeling the vibration of the strings moving on his sternum.
"I agree," Pavitr added as he sat up looking at the phone and reading the comments as well. "Why wouldn't you want to invite your inlaws?! Wouldn't you want to get to know and bond with your fiance's family before marrying them?"
"What are you kids doing down there?" Miguel asked, looking down at the teens below him. He knew that it was their day off from missions and usually hung out with each other during those times. But he didn't expect them to loiter in his office reading stories to each other. "And stop swearing in front of me like that."
"Oh, we're reading stories from the Am I The Asshole subreddit," Miles grinned showing him his phone causing Miguel to look at his phone, able to read it from a few feet up on his platform since he had enhanced vision before glaring at Miles for cursing, causing him to hold up his hands. "Hey! that's the title!"
"It's where people submit their stories asking whether they are assholes or not depending on the situation," Gwen added now leaning off of Miles and leaning back on her arms, ignoring Miguel's glare at her for cursing.
"Yeah, but most of these wankers are real dickheads," Hobie hummed, lightly slapping his hand on his guitar strings to stop the strumming sound, grinning when he heard Miguel sigh in frustration upon hearing them all continuing to swear. "Though some of these stories seem a bit fake. Bet you half of them are made up."
"Why would anyone post on a website their situations and ask if they are an asshole or not?" Miguel questioned arching an eyebrow, swiping a screen away as he spoke. "Especially when it's obvious that you're the asshole? That seems redundant."
"Well, in some stories there are people that are not the asshole but others in their life are making them out to be the asshole so they might need a second opinion from someone who they don't know that won't be biased about it," Gwen answered with a shrug getting Miguel's attention who gave her a slight glare for the use of the word asshole once more but she continued to ignore it. "It's good to get a person's they don't know perspective."
"And then there are some stories where people are real as-jerks!" Pavitr quickly corrected looking up at Miguel with wide eyes but when the Spiderman didn't glare at him like the others he continued. "... Jerks that are delusional and believe that they aren't."
"And then there are some wild bizarre stories that are hard to believe are true," Hobie whispered closing his eyes as he leaned back on the webbing he was laying on.
"And you're all spending your day off reading them out loud to each other?" He questioned receiving a nod from the four causing him to shake his head in confusion. "But why?"
"It's fun!" Pavitr beamed, the others nodding their head in agreement.
Miguel only scoffed shaking his head as he turned back to his screens. "Sounds like a ridiculous pass time." He whispered looking at the screen to see Peter chasing Mayday down who kept swinging around from his reach before she landed right in front of his servanlance camera. All he could see was her smiling and babbling at the camera which caused Miguel to almost grin upon seeing.
"Hey, maybe you should post on this subreddit," Miles grinned looking up at Miguel before pretending to type on his phone, as he spoke. "Am I the asshole for chasing a 15-year-old all across the city almost on all fours?"
Miguel let out a sigh, closing his eyes as the teens began to laugh, a small grin forming on his face as he backed out a few screens and pulled up new ones. He's never gonna live that down. "You don't have to post that. I already know the answer to that."
"Asshole," Gwen answered with a grin.
"Huge asshole." Miles also answered while Pavitr and Hobie nodded in agreement.
Miguel lightly chuckled, looking down at the teens. "Major shocking asshole."
Miles grinned before he patted onto the hammock watching as Miguel looked at him in confusion. "You want to join us?"
"What, and listen to assholes tell their stories about being assholes?" Miguel scoffed shaking his head.
"It's better than staring at screens all day," Gwen quipped as she began to lean on Miles once more, feeling him lean into her as well with a smile. "You got to be bored staring at those."
"I'd rather stare at these screens than listen to ridiculous stories I know the answers to," Miguel said before turning back to his screens as the teen looked at him with a bored expression.
Twenty minutes later, Miguel was sitting in between the four teens listening to Miles as he read Am I The Asshole stories. Not that because they were right and he was bored! But because Peter, Web Slinger, and Nior had captured the anomaly and there were no known anomalies at the moment so he had nothing to do so this seemed like the better alternative.
"Okay here's the next one," Miles began, getting all of their attention, Miguel's eyebrow raising as he waited for the young Spiderman to begin reading. "Am I the Asshole for not wanting to spend any time with my daughte-?"
"Asshole. Next one." Miguel interrupted with a growl crossing his arms with a glare as the teens just grinned at him.
"We got to finish it, Tío." Miles grinned looking from his phone to Miguel whose glare didn't waver.
"What's more to read? He's an asshole for not wanting to spend time with his daughter!" He huffed, uncrossing one hand to motion at the phone as he spoke. "You should want to spend time with your kids!"
"Yeah, he does sound like a huge jerk from the title alone," Pavitr agreed with a frown. "Who wouldn't want to spend time with their kids?"
"Exactly!"
"I'll tell ya who mate," Hobie began as he sat up. "A piss poor excuse of a parent thats who."
The others nod their heads, while Miguel just glared at the ground, his arms crossed once more as he shook his head. "You're kids should mean everything to you! ¡Él solo tengo una hija!" He began as he pointed to the phone, getting the teens' attention as he spoke. "You should want to spend time with her! Most parents would stop everything if their kids asked them to hang out with them. He should spend time with his daughter because he might not get a chance to. She might not want to in the future or something could happen to her! I would give anything to spend more time with Mi Hija-!"
The teens' smiles fell when Miguel froze, his angered glare softening as he began to stare off. His arms uncrossed and fell to his sides as his shoulders slumped, a frown beginning to form on his features as memories began to swim through his head. Miles looked from Miguel to his platform with a frown, able to see a picture of him and his daughter, Gabriella, at soccer practice bright smiles on their face as they look at the camera. The others frowned as they looked at the picture as well, before turning to Miguel who was still silent, his eyes cast down. Pavitr instantly pulled Miguel into a hug causing him to go stiff in shock, looking down at him for a second before a sad smile formed on his face hugging Pavitr back and patting his head as he did so.
Miles looked from Miguel to Gwen and Hobie, who looked at him. Gwen only frowned while Hobie looked from Miles to Miguel, then back to Miles before giving him a small grin, motioning over to Miguel. Miles gave Hobie a small grin back before looking back at Miguel who was reassuring Pavitr that he was alright. He then placed a hand on Miguel's shoulder getting his attention.
"Eres un buen padre," Miles said with a grin, watching as Miguel's eyes grew wide at his words.
Miguel shook his head, looking from Miles to the other teens who were smiling at him. "I'm... I'm not-,"
"I mean technically you're still a dad Miguel." Lyla began as she appeared right above Miguel causing him to let out a sigh.
"Lyla, please."
"No, she's right, you still are like a dad!" Gwen agreed causing the others to nod in agreement, smiling at Miguel whose features softened.
"Yeah! And we're like your kids!" Pavitr exclaimed with a smile as Miguel looked at him. "You share family meals with us at the food court and even cook us delicious dishes yourself! And you give the best hugs!"
"You come to watch me and my band play during concerts," Gwen added second.
"You scold us when we do something stupid or get on us for cursing," Miles added third. "Oh, and you hang up my grades and drawings I do because you're proud of them!"
"You make sure we are all safe during missions when they get a bit dodgy," Hobie added lastly sitting up next to Gwen and looking at Miguel with a grin.
Miguel looked from the spiderlings to the ground thinking their words over, a warm feeling beginning to form in his chest at their words. A feeling that had been happening a lot recently, a feeling he long since missed after losing Gabriella.
"Hmm sounds like a father to me." Lyla hummed, tapping her chin as she looked up, before looking down at Miguel with a grin.
Miguel only chuckled at her words, before looking at the four spiderlings. "My kids huh?" He grinned before pulling them all into a hug, smiling as Pavitr hugged him back tightly feeling as Miles rested his head on his shoulder. He then pat Gwen and Hobie's heads, chuckling as Hobie rolled his eyes before hugging him back. They all laughed with him, causing Lyla to smile glad they were enjoying this moment together. Miguel let out a sigh as they all let go of him, looking at each of them with a small smile, lowing his head as he cast his eyes down. "Thank you, kids." He whispered, feeling a lot better. "Sorry for... you know."
"You don't have to apologize, Padre," Miles said nudging him on the shoulder and receiving a grin from him. "We get it," He then looked down at his phone backing out of the one story. "We can find another story, we know the answer to that one."
"Huge major shocking asshole," Miguel grinned causing the kids to laugh. "Alright, what's the next one?"
"Hmm, I thought listening to these was ridiculous," Hobie said, grinning when Miguel rolled his eyes, crossing his arms once more.
"They are I... I just have some free time and rather do this than have nothing to do," He stated watching as Hobie still grinned, nodding his head with a hum. "Now get on with it next one!"
Miles chuckled before scrolling through the subreddit before finding one. "Okay, okay I got one," He said getting all their attention as he read it out loud.
When the teens weren't looking, Miguel began to smile feeling as Pavitr leaned on his arm causing him to pat his head, his eyes still on Miles as he read out loud. He wasn't wrong about this being ridiculous (Even if it's slightly entertaining) but if it meant spending more time with his kids, then he'd stop what he was doing if it meant more time with them.