Imma let my live unfold
Peter B. Parker was still worrying.
He knew Gwen was very smart, maybe brighter than himself at her age. She’d come up with the dimensional communicators with the limited help of Miguel and Peni. She’d gotten top grades in her entire school, despite her being younger than everyone else, having skipped 1st grade.
Oh, yeah, she’d skipped 1st grade too.
But he couldn’t shake off the feeling of anxiety that had filled the empty hole in his stomach.
What if she couldn’t figure it out?
Miles could be out there, hurting, in pain, and he couldn’t do a damn thing. That hurt more than anything.
He’d never wanted kids. He’d always assumed they’d be brats he’d hate, and he was never good with them anyways. But then along came a spider- I mean, Miles.
Working with the kid had been the most fun Peter had had in a long time. His perspective on life was fresh and new, and even though he wasn’t at all like the kid (if you ignore the radioactive spider powers) he connected to him. He realized it was fun working with kids.
And even though he’d never admit this out loud, he considered Miles his kid.
Swinging was his go-to method of clearing his head, so he pulled on the suit and mask and jumped out the window.
It had rained the night before, and the air still carried that damp smell that Peter loved so much. It smelled like new beginnings, a world clean and ready to start over. Just like him.
He stopped on a tall building and surveyed his city.
He was New York born and bred, and the city ran through his veins, almost more than blood he’d used to joke. New York could be a mess sometimes, what with supervillains going crazy and the strange number of muggings/murders/robberies, but the people were good people, and the city supported him and was really nice to him. J Jonah Jameson need not interact.
It was a good day to be Spider-Man.
It was at that point when things started to go really wrong.
------------------
Ganke Lee totally did not sign up for this.
His mother was shipping him off to some fancy boarding school in Brooklyn? Okay, he can accept that.
His roommate and friend was the new Spider-Man? Cool, he can deal with that too.
His friend and roommate who was Spider-Man was in trouble and he needed to call some girl from an alternate dimension? Awesome, how many kids can say they did that?
But comforting a lady who sounded like she was having an existential crisis? He barely knew how to do that for himself.
“Ay caramba, what is going on?” Mrs Morales was practically wearing a path in the carpet, she was pacing so much. “Spider-Man, I could accept. It’s dangerous, but I can’t stop him. But multiple dimensions? How many are there? Why does Miles know people from alternate realities? Ay, María, give me strength.”
“Uh, Mrs Morales?” Ganke cut in hesitantly. “Shouldn’t we, like, discuss this together?”
She looked at him. “Oh, of course.”
She slumped down next to Miles’s bed, supporting herself with the bed-frame.
“What do you know?” She asked him.
“I first found out Miles was Spider-Man on accident,” Ganke explained. He told her the story as he remembered, throwing in what that pig Spider-Man had said, which managed to draw a smile out of her.
Once he was done, Mrs. Morales (“Please, call me Rio,”) told him some of her favorite stories of Miles. She even acted out some of the parts, and used voices for different people. Ganke loved that.
“Have you been friends for long?” Rio asked, her voice sounding smaller then Ganke was expecting.
“We only really started talking because I found out about Spider-Man,” Ganke said, glancing over at the still firm of Miles on the bed. “Before, I kind of ignored him. I feel bad about that now.”
Rio smiles softly. “I’m glad you too worked it out.” She was silent for a second, then, “He never wanted to go to Visions.”
“What? But it’s the best school in Brooklyn!”
She nodded. “He was happy at his old school. He had so many friends, and he’d been going there since first grade. It was a big change.”
Ganke nodded.
“Jeff pushed him to do his best, because this was such a big opportunity. But I don’t think Miles likes to be pushed at anything.”
She sniffed, rubbing her eye with one hand. “He and Jeff...grew apart. He always had a better relationship with his uncle, Aaron. Then Aaron passed away.”
“I’m so sorry,” Ganke said.
“It’s not your fault,” Rio smiled.
A small noise from behind them made them turn around.
“Miles?” Ganke said, quickly getting up and hurrying over, closely followed by Rio.
The boy on the bed was tossing as if in a nightmare. His forehead was covered in a thin layer of sweat, and he was warm to the touch- way too warm.
“He has a fever,” Rio diagnosed. “Ganke, can you go soak a washcloth in cold water? They’re underneath the sink in the bathroom.”
Ganke nodded and rushed out.
He came back bearing the wash clothes to find Rio rubbing some cream on Miles’s chest. “To help his breathing,” she explained when he shot her a questioning look.
Two things happened then.
One- the phone in the kitchen rang, startling both of them and two- Miles shot up with a scream.