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Miles G Morales is a kind soul. A quiet kid that keeps to himself and guards his secrets with murmured excuses and quick sidesteps. He grows up with the constant buzz of talks about soulmates and how everyone would receive a mark at sixteen telling them who they were destined to be with. Who they were the other half to. Or the other part of. Double, triple, quadruple soulmarks are not uncommon and, as he would find out much later, he is no exception.
He holds onto the feeling, that hope and happiness, for as long as he can. As he watches his parents and his uncle fight with hushed whispers and the slamming of doors. As he watches his Uncle and Dad grow apart, an icy coldness between them that was never there before. As his dad makes sure he is never alone with his uncle and only sparingly so.
Soulmates become nothing to Miles after he watches his father die trying to save a child. The night that changed everything about his life and the life of his city, the Sinister Six taking the lack of a response by a superhero as permission to take over. They mean nothing as his Mami screams into her pillow during the night, bags under her eyes deepening as she does her best to support the two of them by herself. They especially become nothing when he eventually does get his soulmarks, not an hour after the sixteenth anniversary of his birth. He only has two: both with a sunflower and the Prowler's emblem. One has spiderwebs underneath the mark of the Prowler, in full color with red blue and purple, and the other a captain's hat, faded grey and black.
His dad's cap and the sign of his Uncle. His dad is dead and his uncle-
He says nothing to Tío, not wanting to disturb the fragile peace between them as they work together to save what they can, who they can, of their city. It's a learning curve for him; he always kept himself active and got into the occasional fight but it's entirely different when the people he's fighting are out to kill him or other people. He cries in his uncle's arm when he kills his first person, entirely by accident. Mami had always reminded him of the sanctity of life and how everyone is important and valuable. He doesn't feel important in that moment, a turning point in his life. When he starts to deck himself out in gear. When he closes himself off from his emotions, covers going over his soulmarks, a reminder of the life he would never get to live. When the mantle of the Prowler passes from Uncle to Nephew.
He puts the marks on his arms out of his mind, not wanting to think through the mess of emotions he gets when he thinks about them. How his Uncle still has not mentioned the link between them, even as he approaches his twentieth birthday. How his dad knew they were destined to be and rejected him before he even got a say. How the question of the Spider's webs still comes to him from time to time. Just who was his other soulmate, the one he hasn't been rejected from? Who were they? What were they like?
Would they like him? Would they hold him as he cries, kissing his forehead and saying it would be alright? Would they allow him to hold them, pulling them close and never letting go?
Would he ever get to experience it? Or would he die never knowing the gentle touch of another person?
"Hey."
Miles shakes his head, setting down his gauntlet. "Hey. What's up?"
"I should be asking you that," Tío says, smirking. "I can feel your sadness."
"Feel my sadness?" he echoes, snorting. "You high, tio?"
"Please," Tío says, walking over, tapping his wrist. "I know you're not stupid."
"In case you're unaware, you've rejected me," Miles says coolly, unwilling to let his uncle back him into a corner. He was too sober for this conversation. "My soulmark is grey."
"The one we share with my brother or the one you share with me and the Spider?"
Miles doesn't respond. He doesn't want to respond. He doesn't want to confront this. But Tío doesn't let him, muscular arms wrapped around his torso, digging into the flesh of his stomach. Tío's breath is hot against his ears, voice a raspy whisper. "You assume too much. It's on you, Miles, where this goes. I know you like to act aloof to protect yourself but you don't need to protect yourself from me. We got each other's back, remember?"
"Tío," he squirms, ducking his head away.
"I'm the older one here, Miles. And your uncle. I can't initiate. It has to be you," Tío says, kissing the side of his neck.
He bites his lip hard enough to draw blood, arms limply falling at his side. "... How do I know you're not just going to leave me?"
Leave me like dad did , goes unspoken.
"Leave you Miles? Never," Tío says. "You're family, whether you stay my nephew or become something more."
The silence grows deafening between them before he gives in, leaning back into Tío's embrace, placing a shy kiss on his lips. Neither of them get much work done that night, too busy exploring each other's bodies to focus on anything that requires fine motor skills. Tío seems hell bent on making up for lost time, hands, mouth, and body never leaving his own for weeks afterward. His Mami sends disapproving looks when she notices the hickeys and marks over his skin but is ultimately supportive, saying that while she didn't want to come home to them making out on the couch or in his room, they didn't need to hide anything from her. He cries again that night, grateful that his mother is so loving and understanding.
They get the answer to the spiderwebs when someone steals his clothes from his room, crawling in through the window and talking to his Mami. Miles is, so, so angry but he waits. Because he knows Tío is about to come home and his Tío would know immediately that it's not him; he hasn't had that haircut in years. It's laughably easy to knock the stranger out, hitting him across the back of a head without so much as a glance. The emblem upon his chest is achingly familiar but he doesn't have time to digest what that means. He waits in the rafters, eyes cool and focused, until the moment he finally wakes.
"I'm Miles Morales. You're....?"
A doppelganger. A clone. An experiment. Of course that's what he has to deal with. "What did you just say?"
"Uhh. My name."
"That's funny," Miles says, mask parting away from his face. "I'm also Miles Morales. But you can call me the Prowler."
"I need to save my dad," the person who wears his face says. " Please . He's the only one I have left."
"Now why would I do that?" Miles asks, placing his gauntlet beside his face.
His doppelganger swallows the lump in his throat. "Watch the hands..."
"Huh?"
"... Not the face," is all the warning he gets before electricity rips through his body, paralyzing him in place. Other Miles breaks out of the chains, punching bag falling limply to the ground. Miles recovers quickly, trading jabs with his alternate self. He's quick and speedy, totally unlike how Miles fights. A piece of shrapnel gets dislodged in their tussle, embedding itself into the boy's wrist. Something breaks, then, in the boy for he freezes in place, allowing Miles to pin him by the chest against the wall.
The look in his eyes... It's all too similar to how he looked, once upon a time. When he first lost his father. His grip must have lightened for the boy dislodges his hand and slips outside, glitching all the while. Miles and Tío follow from a distance as the boy jumps from rooftop to rooftop, having no webbing to speak of. Overhead, the sky growls and thrashes, a thunderstorm threatening to pour down on them. Other Miles doesn't care, even as the sky grows darker and darker.
"This is a sign, right?" The other Miles says when he finds a building to stop on, ripping off his mask, head tilted up to welcome the oncoming rain. "I can't even fucking have this, can I?"
Miles doesn't understand what he means. His other self has evidently been through quite a lot, the gash across his shoulder indicative of a fight that had to have been harrowing, not to mention the ensuing brawl he had with himself. He looks... small. Young. Like he's on the precipice of witnessing something that could change the trajectory of his entire life. Miles' eyes trails down his arm until his breath stutters.
In their fight earlier, he had torn some of the suit himself. On his wrist, right over the tendons, was a soulmark. A double soulmark.
The soulmark he shared with Tío.
The other Miles either fails to notice his observation or chooses not to discuss it, murmuring other things under his breath about getting to Alchemax and back home. It may be the soulmark. It may be the hope, however fragile, that he sees in Other Miles' eyes. It may be him just going soft but they agree to help the other Miles, fighting their way to Alchemax. They blend together seamlessly when they work together, like they had been working together for years. Before they can get there, more spider people appear, a whole group that immediately starts doting over his soulmate like he was theirs. Other Miles looks uncomfortable, too, pushing them away and pulling back when they got too close to his arms.
"Thanks, man," the Other Miles says as a greenish blue portal opens, a green watch securely on his wrist, over their soulmark. "I know we didn't get off on the right foot but... thanks."
He doesn't know what to say to that so he nods, watching as they disappear one by one. The one with Spikes stays behind for a moment, eyes squinting at him, like he was contemplating something.
"You gotta a problem or..." he asks.
"... Not at all," the spiked one replies. "Take care, mate."
"British?" Tío murmurs as the portal closes behind the spiked one. "Strange fellow, that one."
"Agreed..." Miles says quietly, swallowing the lump in his throat. "Did you see that?"
"See what?" Tío asks.
"The soulmark on his wrist," Miles says. "It's the same as ours."
Tío's eyes widen. "No. Are you sure?"
"Yeah." Miles says, looking at his own, tracing over the spiderwebs underneath the sunflower petals. "He's ours."
Tío shakes his head, chuckling. "Leave it to me to have two of my nephews, eh?"
"And for me to have my own reflection," Miles murmurs. "And now... We have no way to get him back again."
"Really? You're giving up that easily?" Tío raises an eyebrow. "Who are you and what have you done with my nephew?"
"He didn't even acknowledge it," He feels betrayed. Angry. Why would the other Miles just leave like that when they clearly have the same soulmark? Without saying anything? Did he not know? Did he not notice? Was he unwanted?
"Maybe he doesn't want to be in a relationship with me," Tío muses. "The rules in his world might be different from ours. Maybe he doesn't even realize he has two. Even then, it's still incest. Sort of. Since you're both the same person."
"But you're you, tio. You're not just anyone," Miles murmurs. But Tío is right; not everyone is comfortable with soulmarks that cross the lines of blood. And it was a peculiar situation even for him to consider.
"But... We can still try," Aaron says. Miles groans, resting his face in his hands. "Oh don't give me that. We already know it's possible."
"But it will take years. And how do we even start?"
Tío points to a building. He follows the line, eyes landing on the Alchemax building in front of him, "There is a great start."
Three years. It takes three years for them to give themselves the ability to travel across the dimensional barrier. Tío has gained more than his fair share of white hairs and he can't deny the toll it's taken on his own body.
But they manage it. A watch sits upon his own wrist and a temporary pass on Tío's, a stop gap until they can find enough materials to build another watch. A stop gap that had, in fact, had been provided by the Spiked Spiderman from before.
"He'll never reach out. He's been through too much," the spider man said, smiling grimly, tossing the wristband to Tío. "Won't say a damn word to any of us so don't be put off if he rejects ya initially."
"Been through too much?" Tío raises an eyebrow.
"Not my story," the spiked spiderman says. "And be nice to him, ya hear? Or you'll have to deal with me."
"Noted," Miles responds, noticing the blood staining his guitar.
"1610 is the number," the spiked spiderman says. "and if you need me, I'm 138."
"Thank you...?"
"Hobie. Hobie Brown,"
"Hobie," Miles repeats. "I'll remember that."
"See you around, Miles," Hobie says, winking, before disappearing into his own portal. He types in 1610 to his watch, a portal opening in the middle of his room.
"You ready for this, kid?"
"Yes,'' Miles says, entering the portal. It's a very uncomfortable experience to travel from universe to universe but he endures it, wanting to see his soulmate for the first time in three years. Hobie had warned them that the location is rarely precise but he's not necessarily aiming to land square on Miles 1610's chest, knocking the breath out of him. Miles 1610 yelps and rolls off the bed, backing up into a corner, eyes fixating on his wrist, right where their matching soulmarks are before drifting to where Tío is standing.
Miles 1610 looks confused and wary, arms instinctively pulled to his side. Miles takes note of this, approaching cautiously, grabbing his wrist to place a chaste kiss against their mark. A show of interest in his own world.
"... What?" Miles 1610 asks quietly. Miles 1610 grows even more confused when Tío approaches, placing a kiss over their soulmark as well.
"What?" Miles 1610 repeats. "How. Why."
"You don't know what soulmates are?" Tío asks, mirth filling his voice.
Miles 1610 frowns. "Considering I've been rejected by six of the eight I have...."
"Eight?" Miles echoes. "You have eight soulmates?"
"Used to," Miles 1610 says bitterly, looking away. "One is dead, and the other five have... other people."
"Eight?" Tío echoes, surprised.
"I don't understand it either. So if you're just going to reject me, stop playing around and leave. I can't... deal with it. It's bad enough that I got rejected in around a year's time by the rest of them."
"What makes you think we're here to reject you?" Miles challenges, anger building up in his chest. How dare Miles 1610 act like he traveled all the way here just to reject him?
"Why wouldn't you be?" Miles 1610 says, eyes gaining a glossy look.
Tío sighs, walking forward to stand beside him. "We don't have the tech you have. We traveled here ourselves after you had left. Your spider society didn't help us at all ."
"You.... got here by yourselves?"
"Aye. Finally got to put my engineering experience to use for something other than my nephew," Tío smirks, placing a hand on Miles 1610's shoulder. Miles 1610 stares at the hand, like he's confused as to why someone would want to touch him. Like he isn't used to the feeling.
"Or nephews, as it is. Wasn't expecting the spiderwebs to be another version of Miles but I'm not complaining at all," Tío muses, flashing the matching mark he shares with Miles 1610. With himself.
Their soulmark -
Miles circles behind Miles 1610, muscular arms snaking around his front, pulling their bodies flush against each other. His voice is muffled and soft as he buries his face in the back of Miles 1610's shoulder, gripping the boy like Tío had gripped him before they finally got together.
"I felt betrayed when you didn't visit us," Miles admits quietly.
"I'm sorry," Miles 1610 says quietly, leaning into the embrace, setting an arm over his own.
"But... I understand now why you wouldn't," Miles says. Eight soulmates... Out of eight, they are the only two to not reject him. The only two to pursue him. He can't imagine how that would feel. Losing his dad, both as his father and his soulmate had been crushing enough. To lose that many people? And still be happy and loving and outgoing?
Miles 1610 is far stronger than he ever would be.
"How the hell is this going to work?" Miles 1610 asks, voice soft and high pitched. Like a small child who has nearly lost everything and is trying to reckon with the idea that he still has something to hold onto.
"We'll figure it out," Tío says, kissing Miles 1610's forehead, pulling him into an embrace. It doesn't take long for Miles 1610's body racked with sobs, arms tightening around Aaron, tears flowing down his face. His own embrace gets stronger, wanting to protect Miles 1610 from all the heartbreak he's likely endured for the past two years or longer. To help him heal the gaping wounds in his chest. They hold him and hold him, letting him cry and whimper and let out all the emotions he's been pushing down for the past few years.
Miles starts crying too, for reasons he can't identify. Miles 1610 squeezes his hand in reassurance, leading them over to his bed. Tío ends up in the middle, Miles on his left and Miles 1610 on his right, hands linked together over their uncle's torso. It feels so right, like the missing piece of his heart that's been gone for years finally clicking into place.
He falls asleep, heart soaring and content, all the noise in the background fading away as he is surrounded by love and safety.
In the following days, Miles 1610 tells them that his mother had found them asleep together and that they would be having dinner with his mother and his father that Friday. Miles 1610 also spends a fair amount of time with them, going between 42, the number of his own universe, and Earth 1610. They show each other their version of New York, making a running list of similarities and differences. Miles 1610 also meets Miles' Mami, properly, both as his own person and as his other soulmate. Mami is amused and fond of her other son, just like Miles knew she would be, teasing him about his suit and his inability to tell a lie. Not that Miles blames him for he can't lie to Mami, either.
They also get to know Miles 1610's body very well. It turns out having superpowers also meant he had a lot of stamina. Miles' wrists, jaw, cock, and ass hurts and he knows Tío is the same way, a flush on his face that he hasn't seen in a long time.
"This doesn't bother you?" Miles asks, kissing and nibbling the skin of Miles 1610's neck, leaving more marks. He's a little disappointed that they will be gone by the morning but it is for the best in the current moment and Miles 1610 had promised he knew a way to make them stay if Miles and Tío so wished.
"Hmm?"
"Being with Unc,"
"Ah. No," Miles 1610 says, splaying his limbs out like a cat, before relaxing. "I've always suspected the mark looked like the Prowler. Thought it was my own Uncle at first."
"I mean, technically, I am still your uncle," Tío says.
"Tomato, to-mah-to," Miles 1610 parrots, yawning. "But I've had time to process. There are worse things that could have happened. Like me being with the person who body slammed me into a train."
"I hope I get to meet him one day," Miles says. "Just to have a chat."
"I would love to see it happen. I bet it would be priceless,"
"Oh, so the goody two shoes wants to see the big bad get beaten up?"
"It would be a race to see which Miles got to him first,"
"Oh?"
"I don't remember if I told you this but I did punch him in the face after I saved Dad. Best thing I've done in years," Miles 1610 says. "Speaking of... are you sure you both are okay with tomorrow? Mom will understand if... you know."
"Yes," Miles says, grip tightening on his arms. He knows he's going to cry and he knows it's going to be messy. There's nothing he can do about that. "Just..."
"Be there to support you?"
"Yeah," Miles murmurs.
"Y tú, tío?"
"Yeah. I'll be good," Tío says, voice strained. Miles 1610 stares at them, a sad look in his eyes.
"... You were soulmates, weren't you?"
"We all were," Miles says quietly. Miles 1610 doesn't say anything, only placing a small kiss on Miles' forehead and one on Tío's too. He trades positions with Tío, putting himself in the middle of Miles 1610 and Tío. They hold him tightly as they fall asleep, the next day's event unknown and uncertain.
Miles had a lot of things that he thought he would say if he ever saw his dad again. Why did you reject me? Why did you keep me from my uncle for so long? Why did you die? Why couldn't you be there for me?
None of those words tumble out of his mouth when he sees his Apá again, alive and well and without red staining his uniform. It takes only a few seconds for him to throw himself in Apá's arms, grip so tight he's certain it would leave bruises on the older man. Tears start to stain Apá's shirt, all the defenses he threw up before walking in the front door immediately crumbling.
"Miles?" Apá asks gently.
"That's my name," he says, adjusting his grip. "I missed you."
"Missed me?"
"Your Miles lost his uncle. I lost my father," he explains. He's grateful when Tío sits down and rubs his shoulders, a comforting touch in an unfamiliar environment. "I'm... the Prowler, in my universe."
"The Prowler?" Apá questions.
"Dad," Miles 1610 warns, a protectiveness in his voice that makes his knees weak. "He's the one I stole powers from. They don't have a spiderman to protect them. The entire police force has been bought up by cartels or the Sinister Six."
"Except you," Apá says. "And Aaron?"
"I'm too old to be out in the field anymore," Tío huffs. "But I help out where I can."
"And... You're soulmates? with Miles?"
"Both of them." Tío says, unafraid. Miles can feel the tension in the air and he knows Miles 1610 can too. He whimpers, not wanting this to turn out badly. To have his dad reject him and his uncle again, even though they're not soulmates this time.
"How old are you, Miles?"
"Eighteen," Miles 1610 replies.
"Twenty three," he replies.
"Just shy of forty five," Tío says. "Before you ask."
"How are you older than mijo?" Tía Rio asks.
"Miles' spider friends say that time passing isn't consistent from universe to universe," Tío says. "But for us, the timelines don't start in the same place."
"I never knew you were older," Miles 1610 states.
"Mhmm," Miles murmurs. "We don't get our soulmarks until sixteen."
"We're born with them," Miles 1610 says. "That's so weird. Why didn't you say anything?"
"Didn't realize it until now," he says.
"And what about your other soulmates?"
Miles 1610 takes a deep breath, the sound of fabric shifting following. "They're dead or gone. All except Uncle and Gonzalo."
"Gonzalo..." Miles snorts. "Well, that's one way to get around the same name problem."
"And yours, Miles?" Apá asks. It's interesting that he knows exactly who his father is talking to depending on the tone of his voice.
"I have one other soulmark aside from Miles' and Tío's. It's a double with Tío..." he steals a breath, pulling back to look his father in the eyes. "And my father."
"Me?"
"Yes," Miles says. "Nothing ever happened because he died saving a child's life while I watched, helpless."
"Oh..." Tia Rio says.
"I was not forced into anything. I did not force anything on anyone," Miles continues. "Soulmarks are only romantic in my universe. Not everyone pursues them but we chose to. You can judge us for it-"
"Now where did I say I was judging you for anything?" Apá asks, raising an eyebrow. "You're my son, alright. Only Miles can jump to conclusions like that."
The wind is knocked out of Miles' lung. "Your son...?"
"Yeah, my son," Apá says, hugging him. "Welcome home."
He sinks into his father's arms then, warm and happy and excited in a way he hasn't felt in a long time. Vaguely, he hears Miles 1610 and his Mami chatter in the background. He snorts when Miles 1610 sputters at her comment about using condoms and to be careful with double penetration (if only she knew who the bottom of the relationship actually was; Tío didn't look it but he is a massive pillow princess. Not that he's much better, in retrospect).
When the physical contact gets to be too much, Miles disappears into the kitchen, set on helping out with dinner. Tía Rio joins him after giving her son a quick hug, Tío and Apá talking and trading stories about their lives. It's not the life he imagined when he saw his soulmarks for the first time but it's a life he would fight tooth and nail to protect.
Nor is it a fight he had to do alone, a certain spiderman and former Prowler more than willing to stand by his side as they defend New York, 42 and 1610, from those who seek to harm.