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Sometimes people Miles and Peter save like to give gifts, but they have a rule of not accepting anything (maybe just a hug), because, man, they’re not doing it for that.
It’s the first time since Peter is back and Miles… well he’s just happy.
Right now he’s looking at Pete, as he tries to argue with the food truck owner they helped that no, they absolutely do not need a free lunch, and Miles drinks in the sight he missed so sorely. Peter’s lenses narrowing, his arms moving animatedly as he talks. Hearing the smile in his voice… man, those little things make Miles’s heart soar.
“No-no, you have to accept my thanks,” says the girl adamantly, with a thick European accent. She’s shoving two foil-wrapped pastries in Pete’s direction. “At least some dessert, please.”
In the end, Peter can’t do anything but accept the gift with a soft sigh.
“Köszönöm,” Pete says awkwardly, unsure, stumbling a bit on the vowels. “You are very… kedves… Is it? I don’t have the biggest vocabulary.”
The girl’s face lits up. “You know Symkarian! Oh my, Spider-Man knows Symkarian! I gotta tell it to my best friend. She’s your biggest fan.”
“Oh, I… actually visited Symkaria once,” Pete says. “And I really love these, thanks. I think when I was there I ate like dozens a week. Urgh. And, those things, the cheese things coated in chocolate. Those are so delicious. Man, Symkaria does desserts so well.”
“Yes! Túró rudi! You have good taste in snacks.” Then the girl beams at Peter. “És a férfiak terén is,” she adds with a wink, looking at Miles.
Miles doesn’t understand what she’s saying, but Peter’s reaction is notable.
“Wh-what?” he stammers, lenses widening, whole body flinching.
“Te meg ő, tudod,” she continues in Symkarian, waving at Miles. “Olyan jó látni, hogy ilyen nyíltan felvállaljátok, hogy együtt vagytok. Hogy szeretitek egymást.” Her mouth pinches. “Different in my home country.”
“We…” Peter stammers, shifting to glance at Miles, then back at the girl.
What the hell is happening? They’re clearly talking about Miles, and it makes worry pool in the pit of his stomach, and cold prickling his skin. Because what if this is about something that makes Peter leave again?
Oh, come on, get a grip, Miles.
“Nem vagyunk együtt. Nem úgy.” Peter stumbles on the words.
The girl’s eyes widen. “Sorry, I didn’t… I thought…” She casts a weirdly apologetic glance at Miles. Then she turns back to Pete. “Amikor látlak titeket, mindig olyan boldogoknak látszotok. Olyan jól dolgoztok együtt. Ismeritek egymás minden mozdulatát. Úgy keringesz körülötte, mintha a nap lenne.” She laughs softly, then shrugs. “I don’t know maybe it was wishful thinking on my part. Mindenesetre szerencsés vagy, hogy van neked.”
“That I’m definitely, yeah,” Pete mumbles, then gets ready to thwip off. “Thanks once again.” He nods toward the pastry, and then they’re off.
They’re sitting on a rooftop, their usual place for a post-mission snack, and Miles’s heart starts to hurt. He feels as if he could lose Peter any time, and he knows he shouldn’t want Pete for all to himself, but…
“Man, you’re full of surprises,” he says instead and grabs one of the pastries from Peter. “Didn’t know you picked up that much Symkarian.”
Pete shrugs. “MJ was always talking in Symkarian when she was writing her book and I needed to help her learn it. It’s easier to understand than to pronounce it well.”
Miles picks at the wrapping and the smell of cinnamon hits him, making his mouth water.
“Damn, smells nice,” he notes.
Peter laughs. “I wasn’t kidding when I said I was living on these in Symkaria.”
“What’s it called?” Miles asks, as he looks at the hollow cake, which looks like a strip of dough was twisted around something and then baked like that.
“Don’t make me pronounce it, okay? One of the hardest Symkarian words. But it translates to something like ‘chimney cake.’”
Pete picks on the pastry, unraveling a few lines from it, but he just keeps playing with it, not eating. Worry grips Miles so hard, it leaves him breathless.
“Pete, what’s up?”
Peter hums, but doesn’t answer, gaze fixed on the cake.
As mouthwatering as the smell of sugar and spices is, Miles can’t even think about eating, he gets suddenly so nauseous.
“What did she say?” Miles asks, because it bugs him, he didn't understand the conversation, but it was clearly something that left Peter in a mood.
“Hmm?”
“That girl. What did she say about me?” He tries to make it sound nonchalant, but even he can hear how higher-pitched his voice is.
Peter smiles softly. “Nothing bad. Exactly the opposite.”
“Really?” Miles raises an eyebrow. “Because, dude, you look like shit right now.”
And Miles can’t say out loud that he dreads Peter leaving him forever. Sure, he gets and knows Peter needs time to heal and deal with everything life threw at him. But Miles just wants to reach out and put his arms around Peter and have him in a way he knows he can’t.
It was during those torturous days when Peter started to ditch him for Harry when Miles realized why it hurt so much. Or more precisely he always knew he had a hero-worshipping kind of crush on Spider-Man, but it took those days to figure out how much Peter means to him. And exactly why he was jealous of Harry.
Peter hums. “She just said good things about you.”
Turning to Miles, Peter beams at him, but still, the picture of Pete without his trademark red and blue suit makes Miles’s heart ache. Partly this is why Miles changed his own suit, if he’s being honest. He needs that red and blue back in his life. He needs to carry Peter around on his suit as much as he carries him in his heart.
“Then why did you act so scared?” Miles can’t leave this alone, not after he missed how much Pete was still hurting because of May. He doesn’t want anything like that to ever happen.
Peter laughs. “You just won’t let this go, are you?”
“Nope.”
“She just said things I already know but…” He trails off and looks everywhere but at Miles. “Listen, after this whole ordeal, I’m a mess… I was a mess before, I think you already know that.” He bumps his shoulder to Miles, and that old, familiar gesture sends warmth through him. “You were in my head after all.”
Miles’s stomach plummets thinking about all the pain he saw in Pete’s mind. Something must have shown on his face, because Pete abandons the task of tearing his pastry apart, and lays one hand on Miles’s arm, squeezing it gently.
“Hey, sorry for that,” Peter says softly. “No one should have to deal with whatever is in my head.”
Miles has to swallow twice to find his voice. “No, dude, that’s the whole point, remember? You lean on me, I lean on you.”
Peter’s laugh sounds suspiciously bitter. “I really don’t deserve you, kid.”
There’s a beat of silence, and something crosses Pete’s face that Miles can’t quite pin down. Miles feels some kind of tension as if a live wire is being pulled taut between them. His heart starts to race because he knows Peter wants to say something meaningful. Something big and heavy. Like when he was announcing he’d stop being Spider-Man for a while. Now Miles is sure Peter will leave him forever, and at that thought bile rises in the back of his throat.
Peter sighs deeply and rakes his hand through his hair.
“Look, it’s not gonna be easy to say, okay?” Peter’s voice hitches, but he balls his fist, steadying his trembling fingers, and goes on. “I behaved terribly–”
“Oh, no, Pete, we’re over that,” Miles cuts in fast. “I forgive you.”
Peter’s lips twitch into a half-smile. “And you say that so easily. I envy you.” Another long exhale, then Peter seems to steel himself. “I talked with MJ… about things… everything.”
Miles doesn’t understand anything at all. What does MJ have to do with something about Miles?
“And… and…” Peter tries to find the words that don’t seem to come.
“Look, it’s okay.” Miles has to force out the sentence through gritted teeth, even though each syllable cuts like a knife to the heart. “I knew that this might happen.”
“You did?” Peter’s looking at him with wide eyes. “What? How? Am I that obvious, really?”
Miles hates how his heart is shattering to pieces at the thought of Peter not being there next to him. A little break he could take, but this? Being the only Spider-Man? Forever and ever? It’ll be so hard.
“Sure,” Miles says. “When you said you need a break from being Spider-Man, I thought you might not come back…” He winces at how he sounds like a rejected child and tries to force a smile. “I got this though. Really. If you wanna focus more on MJ and your new job.”
Peter blanches. “Miles, that is definitely not where I was going with this.”
Instantly, warmth spreads through Miles and he can feel the vise loosen on his chest, and he can breathe again. But then what does it all mean?
“Just promise me you won’t freak out, okay?” Pete says, his voice trembling.
“Sure,” Miles replies automatically, but dread creeps back in, almost choking him.
“I had some time to think after everything, and… Miles, there was a reason why I almost killed Kraven.”
“Yeah, the symbiote was twisting your mind.” Miles puts down his own untouched pastry and reaches out a hand to steady Pete. “It tried to do the same with me, I know how it works.”
Yeah, but what Miles doesn’t say is that the symbiote was tempting him with Peter. Whispered promises of how they can be together, all of them. That Peter wouldn't need to switch him off for Harry.
“No, yes, but no.” Peter looks pained, but then he puts his hand on Miles’s, gently squeezing his fingers. “Miles, Kraven hurt you. He could have taken you away from me.” There’s a beat of silence before Peter continues and Miles doesn’t even dare to breathe. “Kraven studies every one of his victims, he knows their pressure points.” Peter looks pleadingly at Miles, those hazel eyes so damn intense. “And you are mine.”
Miles licks his chapped lips because he doesn’t know what to say. He knows he’s important to Peter - even if he ditched Miles for Harry for a while - but not in the way Miles would want Pete to care about him.
“Kraven specifically chose you, and not MJ,” Peter adds, and that’s when Miles’s brain checks out. “Just to make it clear what I mean.”
Miles swears he stops breathing because Peter can’t mean what Miles thinks he means. Can he?
“Look,” Peter says quickly, still not pulling away his hand from Miles’s. “I know it’s weird, but somewhere along the way I fell for you. And yeah, I know, it’s fucking funny to figure this all out when poor MJ moved in with me. Guess that’s the famous Parker luck.”
Pete looks at their hands, still entwined, and then glances back at Miles, peering to see his reaction, but Miles can’t do anything. Can’t form a reply.
Is he dreaming? Is he stuck in one of the Mysteriums or what?
“You’re awfully quiet,” Peter says softly.
“I don’t understand,” Miles croaks out.
“You’re amazing, you know that. You’re easy to fall in love with.” And there it goes. Miles can’t misinterpret this. Right?! Peter shoots him a rueful smile. “I meant when I said, the city doesn’t need me if it has you.” Peter laughs. “I don’t know how you manage everything, but you’re fucking perfect, you’re like the sunshine in my life, and it took me too long to realize this.” A shrug. “That’s what the girl said, when she looked at us, she saw how I am around you. How I look at you. It scared me how fucking obvious is to everyone how I feel about you. Even MJ noticed it before me.” Peter grimaces at that. “And you don’t need to answer or say anything. I’m just laying out everything because I don’t want… anything to strain our friendship ever again. I don’t want to lose you. And… I know it must be weird that your way older friend is in love with you, but I promise I won’t make it weird… weirder? I don’t expect–”
But Miles can’t take any more of Peter’s fumbling, so he acts on instinct. He rushes forward, and does what he wanted to do so many times in the last few weeks: and presses his lips to Peter’s. He cups Peter’s face with one hand, and he feels Peter tense under his touch for a fraction of a second and then they’re kissing. For real.
Fuck, Miles still can’t believe any of this is happening.
Peter enthusiastically kisses back, and it sets fire to every fiber of his being. Feeling Peter’s soft lips against his, tasting him is everything he dreamed about, and the soft moan in the back of Peter’s throat sends heat to his core. Miles feels something wrapping around his waist, and it takes a few seconds to figure out it’s Peter’s tentacles. Like, yeah, that’s gonna take a while to get used to, but also, Miles definitely doesn’t mind and wants to continue this whole thing somewhere more private.
Then Miles’s phone buzzes with the FNSM app alarm, and they have to part. He touches his forehead to Pete’s until he catches his breath.
“Sorry,” Peter mumbles, as he withdraws his tendrils. “They’re… very responsive. I still have to get them in order.”
Miles’s laugh is shaky. “No complaints.”
Peter raises an eyebrow. “I’m not complaining either, but what was this?” He waves a hand between them. “Aren’t you… dating Hailey?”
Miles draws back, and looks at Pete, making it so Pete sees his expression, and sees how serious he is about this.
“No, we broke up.” Before Pete can interject something, Miles raises a hand to stop him. “Pete, if you haven’t noticed I was pretty much in love with you the whole time.”
Pete’s eyes widen in wonder, and then he breaks out in a grin.
“I’m really dumb, aren’t I?”
Miles scoffs. “Well, it took an alien invasion for us to figure this out. I think we’re both dumb.”
He stands up, checking out the request. “It’s a drug deal going down in Harlem. Can I count on my dance partner?” Miles wiggles his eyebrows, referencing one of Pete’s lines he loved to use when they randomly met at a site of a street crime.
Pete manages to blush a brilliant shade of red while standing up, and stepping next to Miles. “Okay, now that line is just… Sorry,” he mumbles.
Miles’s grin is so wide it almost hurts. “I’m just amazed neither of us realized sooner whatever is between us.”
A look crosses Peter’s face, and his expression changes into something more guarded.
“You know,” Peter starts slowly. “You’re… barely out of high school, and I’m…”
But Miles puts a finger on his lips, stopping him. “Shush, none of that, okay? I’m out of high school is what matters. We were both bitten by a radioactive spider, I can turn invisible, you have alien tentacles.” Peter makes a face at that. “I don’t think rules apply to us.”
Miles leans forward, and presses a quick and chaste kiss on Pete’s lips, and puts on his mask.
“We’ll figure it out,” Miles says, as he’s jumping off the roof. “You know. Together.”
“Together,” Pete echoes and follows Miles.