Chapter Text
To say things went back to normal after Miles’ trip to Earth-42, was the biggest lie of Miles’s entire life.
After all, he met his counterpart for that world, whose father was dead and had become the Prowler, with his uncle teaching him. He had been hunted down by a near feral Miguel O’Hara and the entirety of the Spider Society.
Except Gwen and Hobie.
And Pavitr.
A small part of Miles blamed all of them, even Gwen, after he had been “rescued” from Earth-42 (more like threated by the Miles Morales of that world before Peter, Jess and a quiet Miguel had found him, and brough him back to his universe). Miles was originally terrified of Miguel being in the same city as his father, when he knew he had less than a day to save his father.
However, Miguel had dropped Miles off at home, with Peter and Jess, who were tasked with helping Miles explain his Spiderman Identity to two horrified parents and left. Miles didn’t see Miguel again after that. Even after all the tears and hugs from his dad and mama. Even after the countless hours of explaining everything to his parents, with Jess and Peter as comforting help by his side. Even after all was said and done, and his father had hugged him with tears in his eyes while telling Miles how proud of him his was, and his mama had finished reprimanding him for skipping school.
Miles didn’t see or hear Miguel.
And after a day had passed, with Miles watching his father’s every step.
Nothing happened.
Miles had been ready to rub it in Miguel’s face, so quick to try and call Peter on a new Gizmo device he had left (although this one didn’t allow his to transcend across multiple universes, just hologram call).
That is until Miles’s dad announced his retirement.
And a day later the newest Police chief had been killed during a fight, saving a child who had been in the line of fire.
Miles very nearly collapsed that day, until he asked his dad, why he suddenly retired.
“A man came to our station the night you came back with Mr. Parker and Mrs. Drew.” Miles’s dad admitted quietly. “He was another Spiderman too. Big one.” Miles could feel his heart sinking when he realized it was Miguel that his dad was talking about.
“He told me I needed to consider what I was going to do with my time now that I knew you were Spiderman.” His dad said softly. Miles was surprised to notice there wasn’t any anger or disgust in his dad’s voice when talking about Miguel. “That I should consider not promoting to Police Chief, otherwise I might miss out on you growing up. He said he regrets not getting to see his daughter grow up.”
Miles’s throat constricted. Of course, he knew Miguel had a daughter. The man had shown him, but he hadn’t really given much thought to what had happened to her.
“He didn’t tell me to quit but I think, it was what he was asking me to do. He said I had a choice between my job or my son. And you know, after he left it was pretty easy to pick a choice.” His dad smiled at him, and Miles could feel tears beginning to pool in his eyes. He sniffled pathetically when his dad wrapped a warm arm around him. “I know I’m hard on you son, but just know I will always pick you.”
The two were silent while Miles sat with the new information.
“Besides,” Miles’s dad shrugged. “Maybe it was fate.” He chuckled at Miles’ confused look.
“If he hadn’t talked to me, I never would have retired and perhaps I would have died like Officer Damon.” His dad got a sad look in his eyes and Miles shivered. A pool of guilt was settling in his stomach, at the mention of the chief who had died only a day ago. “Sometimes I hate myself for stepping down, maybe he wouldn’t have died then.”
Miles couldn’t speak.
“But then I think about what that Spiderman said, and I can’t help but be selfish. I want to see you grow up and live your live Miles.” His dad was staring directly at him, and Miles choked back on a sob. “As Spiderman and just as Miles Morales. Besides the job was getting too stressful. Two near death-experiences in only a couple years? I’m not that young anymore.”
Miles couldn’t help but chuckle wetly. “You’re such an old man.”
And that was that.
Miles’s dad didn’t stay out of work for long and instead became a consultant for the NYPD, able to help out on hundreds of cases while staying out of the main line of fire. After a few months, he had grown to love his new job and Miles noticed his mother was a lot more relaxed and happier than when his dad was a cop.
She must have always been worried about him.
Eventually Miles was let back into the Spider Society, with a personal invitation by Peter B. Parker. He reconnected with a tearful Gwen and apologetic Hobie, before falling back in line in the Spider-Verse. He was soon allowed on supervised missions and helped in any way that he could. He still wasn’t allowed a Goober device of his own, but Miles wasn’t going to say anything right now. Not when he had his friends again, his work as Spiderman helping people, and he was finally balancing his school life.
It felt like everything was finally looking up.
But there was still one thing.
Since the day that he had been returned to his parents from Earth-42, Miles had neither seen nor heard anything from Miguel.
Nothing.
Peter and Jess both still insinuated that Miguel was still the leader of Spider Society, but Miles had immediately noticed a lack of organization and structure of the society when he returned. Missions felt more chaotic, the entire building and structure felt out of whack with all kinds of Spidermen and women all over the place doing their own things. There was no order.
It was Peter who reluctantly admitted that even though he was still officially leader, Miguel had stepped away from leadership. More so, because dozens and dozens of Spiderpeople no longer trusted the man after his stunt with Miles. Miles was surprised to hear the bitter hurt in Peter’s voice when he claimed people thought of Miguel now as a monster or villain.
“I’m not saying what he did to you was right Miles,” Peter said softly with a guilty expression. Mayday was babbling happily in his arms while Miles watched. “It was wrong, but he has his reasons. He’s not a monster, like everyone thinks. Just driven by grief.”
Miles hadn’t said anything to Peter after that, and Peter had continued as if the conversation never happened. He never brought up Miguel after that.
Still missions came and went, and Miles noticed how chaotic everything was over time. He almost missed the small liver of peace he had seen before the entire Incident went down.
He might even admit he almost missed Miguel’s presence.
That is until he and Miles were paired on a mission together.
Not alone. It had actually been a mission that Hobie, Peter and Miles were on. However, Miles had gotten separated from the group after a group of mutated citizens thanks to this world’s Oscorp, had divided up the group. Hobie and Peter had been forced to retreat away from the city to keep the mutated humanoid lizards from harming other people and infecting them. Meanwhile, Miles had thrown himself into the line of fire, to create a distraction for his teammates and taking on a majority of the mutants.
Just as Miles was fighting off three mutants, trying to scale the walls to reach, where he had crawled to, Miles watched as a portal opened and red webbing shot through. The webs immediately latched on the closest mutant about to dig their claws into Miles’ suit and yanked the creature off Miles.
Then Miguel O’Hara came flying through the portal, in his iconic blue and red futuristic suit. He came in almost too fast for Miles’s enhanced eyes to track, as in less than a second Miguel had the creature subdued and wrapped in thick red webbing.
Before Miles could react to the Miguel being here (the same Miguel that had tried to kill him. Or had he? He never said he was going to kill Miles), he was pulled out of his thoughts by two lizard humanoids grabbing his leg and pulling him off the wall.
Miles felt the air rush out of him when his back hit the floor, and he scrambled to shoot webs at the two humanoids towering over him. With their faces covered, Miles pulled himself off the ground and swung around to kick them away.
When he looked over his shoulder, his jaw almost dropped at the site of Miguel easily fending off at least ten humanoids. He was almost a blur zipping from one mutant to another, slashing and swinging. Miles could see Miguel’s talons were out and every so often he would slash at a mutant, electing a pain shriek from them. His suit glinted against the sliver of light coming through the buildings.
“Miles, focus!” Miguel snarled harshly, shooting a red web right past Miles’s ear. He flinched on instinct, remembering the feeling of being trapped in those webs, with Miguel’s giant figure pouncing on him.
Slamming him into the train.
Talons inches from his face.
Yet the web went straight past Miles and he turned to see it slamming into the face of mutant who had been advancing on Miles’s turned back. Jumping, Miles avoided the mutant’s claws and swung around to trip the mutant into his web. He shot out another piece of web string at a second mutant close behind and yanked it into the ground.
Miles’s heart was still racing.
He was helping me?
Miles glanced over at Miguel once more, only once he had wrapped the two mutants into a ball of webbing and they were subdued on the wall. Miguel was easily fighting three mutants at once, while wrapping a fourth on the floor. The man didn’t even look like he was breaking a sweat.
Miles was almost in awe.
He had never seen Miguel fighting before. He had only been on the receiving end of a chase. Gwen bitterly admitted to him, Hobie and Pavitr that Miguel was good. She mentioned he had taken out an entire swarm by himself before calling for backup and having Gwen help with The Vulture.
Gwen was right.
Miles watched as a few explosions went off directly towards several mutants advancing on him before Miguel leapt into the air. There was a shrilling noise as Miguel’s claws dug into the walls of the building and Miles realized that the other man couldn’t stick to the walls the same way he could. He was using his talons to hold him up.
From the corner of his eye, Miles noticed a mutant scaling the wall and sneaking up behind Miguel, and the man slammed two separate other mutants into the building wall with one hand.
“Look out!” Miles shouted before he even realized what he was doing. Miguel’s head snapped up, mask securely on, just in time to see a string of white webbing latch onto the noise of a lizard mutant that had been inches from his back. The webbing clamped its jaw shut and then the mutant was yanked harshly to the ground, away from Miguel.
Still gripping the two mutants in his hand, Miguel glanced over to see Miles tossing the mutant into his webs with the others. He blinked under the mask.
When Miles looked back over at Miguel, he swore he saw the tiniest of nods from the older man thrown in his direction. But then he was all too distracted by another batch of mutants bursting in their direction.
“Oh, for fucks sake.” Miguel cursed and Miles did feel his jaw drop.
“Did you just saw fuck?”
Miguel snarled and tossed the two mutants in hand into his own pile of webbing and put both hands out to catch another mutant jumping onto him. The mutant hissed and clawed at Miguel’s masked face, but the older Spiderman was able to push back against the strength of the mutant.
“Now isn’t the time for that Morales.” Miguel grunted. Miles quickly jumped onto the ground beside Miguel when Miguel had to let go of the wall to fend off the mutant. He round-house kicked another mutant headed their way and grabbed the tail of another, knocking the two into each other.
Miguel swiped wildly at the mutant in front of him before swiping his talons at a mutant headed for Miles’s neck. He grabbed onto the mutant, sinking his talons into the neck of the mutant, with enough force to draw blood right as Miles turned around.
“Well, all I ever hear you say is shocking!” Miles said after only a second of momentary panic upon seeing Miguel’s talons up close. Wrapped around a neck.
“They mean the same thing!” Miguel argued hotly and slammed the mutant in hand to the ground. Miles frowned under neath his mask and easily shot his webbing at an oncoming mutant, trapping it to the floor.
“Seriously?” Miles asked when he could finally catch his breath. Miguel grunted loudly as he threw the last of the mutants into their piles. He turned to look at Miles, already analyzing the kid for any injuries.
When he couldn’t sense or detect any, he had Lyla scanning in the background. Only once she came back with a quiet negative, did he breathe a sigh of relief. Miles, meanwhile, was still waiting on an answer. He slowly pushed his mask up to his hair and stared at the looming figure of Miguel O’Hara in front of him. The same person who had nearly killed Miles and had been avoiding him for the last several months.
The same person who convinced your dad to retire instead of becoming Police Chief.
“Yes.” Miguel sighed tiredly. He was hesitant to remove his mask. After all, he hadn’t exactly been in the same room as the Morales kid, in nearly six months. And the last time they were together, Miguel had left bruises on the kid’s back and neck. Miguel swallowed thickly, subconsciously taking a step back at the reminder of the pain he had inflicted on a kid.
“So, you’re telling me people get less creative in the future and claim shocking is more a curse word than fuck?” Miles snorted before clamping a hand over his mouth at the sudden sass towards a lethal person. His eyes widened with fear, and he stared up at Miguel, as if waiting for the man to get angry and grab him again.
Miguel’s heart panged at the sight of Miles’s fear, but he couldn’t blame the kid. He was supposed to be this hero of good, and instead he had traumatized this kid. Miles couldn’t see Miguel’s turmoil with his mask still up and it only made the man even more intimidating.
“I guess.” Miguel finally said with a shrug, much to Miles’s surprise. “We can find a cure for most illnesses but when it comes to profanity, it’s shocking limited.”
Was that a joke? Did Miguel O’Hara, Spiderman 2099, the most ruthless of us, just make a joke?
Miles blinked owlishly.
Miguel nervously cocked his head. “Morales?”
“Oh um, sorry.” Miles shook his head before slipping the mask back down once he realized that Miguel wasn’t taking his off. “Actually, why are you here? You weren’t on this mission. Where’s Peter and Hobie? Are they okay?! Did they get hurt?!”
Miguel froze at the kid’s sudden panic and was taken aback. He knew that Peter had mentored the kid when he was stick in Miles’s universe, and that Gwen had called Miles her friend. But he hadn’t realized how much they had all cared for one another.
It was...sweet.
“They’re fine, last I checked in.” Miguel said, already typing on his Goober watch and swiping away some screens. “Parker called me, saying he was...worried about you. You had run off on your own as a distraction –”
“So, what, he doesn’t trust me?!” Miles interrupted, too heated to care that he had interrupted the leader of the Spider Society, again. Miguel paused and stared at Miles under his mask with a look of annoyance.
Brat.
“No.” Miguel said tensely. “If you’d let me finish,” Miles swallowed thickly and shrunk back. “Park was worried because you had gone off on your own as bait with nearly 20 mutate civilians following you. That would have been cause for concern if any Spiderperson had done that on your own.”
“Not you.” Miles muttered under his breath.
“I’m different.” Miguel simply said. “Park and Spider-Punk were worried about you. They...they care about it, that’s why they called me for backup. It had nothing to do with trust.” Miles sighed heavily, touched that his friends had cared so much. He wasn’t used to people fussing and worrying over him, other than his parents. He was still new to this and was quick to get angry due to feeling like he had the most to prove.
“Why you, though?” Miles said suddenly. He saw Miguel flinch at the question. “Full offense but you hate me.”
“I don’t want you to die on a mission Morales.” Miguel said tersely. Miles snorted under his breath and crossed his arms over his chest. For a moment, Miguel had lost all intimidation and if Miles looked closely, it almost looked like the larger man was nervous.
As if he had anything to be worried about.
“Could have fooled me.” Another flinch. Good.
“Morales –”
Miles and Miguel both stumbled at the roar of more mutants coming from behind them. By the sounds of it, it sounded like more were headed their way – a lot more. Miles looked over at Miguel, noticing the man fiddling with his watch again and cursing.
“There are dozens more coming, we need to get out of here. There’s going to be too many.” Miguel barked loudly and a hologram of Peter and Hobie showed up on his watch.
“Miguel, buddy! You found our boy.” Peter said happily. Hobie looked less enthused to see Miguel but relaxed once he saw Miles.
“Parker, Spider-Punk you need to turn off Osborn’s machine, or else civilians are gonna keep turning into mutants and Morales and I will be outnumbered.” Miguel snapped in a rush. For once, Miles didn’t mind Miguel’s temper as the sound of more mutants came charging at them. “Get to the machine and turn it off. NOW! Morales and I will hold them off until them.”
“You got it boss-man! Aw, look at my favorite people bonding on a mission together. You know, Miguel, this means you should go on more missions.” Peter began speaking only for Miguel to growl – actually growl – and slam a finger on his watch. The hologram of Peter and Hobie went away.
“Let’s go, we should get to higher ground.” Miguel instructed darkly. Miles caught a glimpse of the mutants coming their way. He looked around, noticing the entrance to a subway within a couple feet and his eyes widened.
“We should go down there! We can hide in the tunnels and lure them away from the city so no one else gets infected.” Miles said quickly. Miguel spun around, noticing where Miles was point and clenched his fists.
“And risk getting trapped underground? No!” Miguel snarled.
“We won’t get trapped, these tunnels are like a big maze, we can take them to the next stops!” Miles continued to argue.
“We need high ground. We’ll be sitting ducks in there.” Miguel hissed. He could see the mutants were getting closer and closer to them, already closing in on their location. They wouldn’t have that much time to make any sort of a mistake. They needed to get out right now.
Get out. Now.
DANGER. DANGER.
Keep safe.
Miguel turned towards the kid, only to curse loudly when he saw the kid was already sprinting towards the subway entrance. No, no, no.
“Morales! Morales!” He shouted over the roars of the mutants. “MILES!” However, Miles simply disappeared down the stairs under the tunnel and Miguel growled, gripping his head with his clawed hands. He slammed his fist into the building beside him, leaving a nasty hole in the wall.
He looked back at the horde of mutants and cursed. He still had time to get out. He could get to high ground and lure them away.
Close to his version of panicking, Miguel took one last look at the subway tunnel and another towards the mutants closing in. Then he let out a heavy breath and threw himself down the stairs of the subway entrance.
“Miles!” He shouted in the dark. Most of the lights inside the subway tunnel were off due to the destruction of the city, but Miguel’s night vision could easily allow him to see through the darkened station. He saw Miles standing near the tracks, looking around the tunnel, eyes not seeing as well as Miguel.
Stalking towards the boy, he let out a snarl, feeling his fangs rub against his cheek in anger.
“Miguel, you found me! Can you see in the dark? How are you following me so good?” Miles turned in surprise and pleasure when he finally noticed Miguel’s form stalking towards him. However, Miguel didn’t answer and instead he continued heading towards Miles, ignoring the boy’s tremble.
“¿Eres estúpido?” Miguel snarled menacingly. He reached out with both clawed hands and grabbed Miles by the shoulder easily, ignoring the kid’s struggles to get free. All he could think about what how foolish the kid was, leading them down into what could be their death.
No puedo creer que no hayas hecho que te maten todavía. What. Were. You. Thinking?!”
Miguel’s face was inches from Miles’s own masked face. Sometime during his rant his mask had come off and Miles was looking directly into red irises again.
He’s going to kill me this time.
He’s actually going to kill me.
In a dark subway tunnel with no witnesses.
“Huh?!” Miguel snarled; face even closer. Miles felt his breath studder and his panic increasing. He felt frozen as if immobilized by fear. He wasn’t even trying to break out of Miguel’s grasp anymore.
Like a switch Miguel stopped though.
Before Miles could even take another breath, he landed heavily on the floor and Miguel’s mask had reconnected to his suit over his face. He was about ten feet away from Miles when Miles finally sat up, breath still wheezy and pupils blown wide.
One of Miguel’s hands went up when Miles crawled a step back, and it was then that Miles realized it was trembling.
Just as Miguel opened his mouth, he stumbled as the walls shook. The two Spidermen could hear the sounds of bodies slamming against something above and rocking against the stairwell.
Without a second thought, Miguel had grabbed Miles into a protective hold when more shaking and bangs were heard. This time parts of the tunnel shook and, upon looking up Miguel could see pieces of the ceiling beginning to fall.
“They’re going to bring down the whole shocking tunnel!” He snarled and ducked as a piece of the ceiling collapsed beside them.
“Fuck!” Miles shouted and jumped away from Miguel as another piece of the ceiling fell between the two. He turned towards the stairwell of the subway tunnel, already deciding that Miguel had been right. We should have never come down here.
“We need to leave!” Miles shouted and pointed at the stairwell, only to watch in horror as dozens of mutants swarmed the stairs. The tunnel groaned as several more bangs and shaking happened.
They were trapped in.
Just like Miguel predicted.
The ceiling began caving downwards and Miles only had a split second to look up before he saw a giant piece of rock caving in down towards him.
“MIGUEL!”
Miles came back slowly, and with a headache.
He hadn’t even realized he had blacked out until he felt himself waking up.
“...ales....es...wak...up...”
Miles winced at his throbbing head when he heard what sounded like a muffled voice in his ears. Everything sounded like he was under water and he groaned in pain. Miles blinked several times, only seeing black each time. It took him a moment to realize that his mask was still on but there was a gaping hole in one of the eyes.
So why was it still dark?
“...orales...mil...miles...”
Miles frowned at the voice. They were trying to say something except he couldn’t place what, nor who the voice belonged to. He blinked several more times, until his eyes finally focused and the ringing in his ears lessened. The pain in his head slowly spread to an ache throughout his body.
“Miles? Miles! Dammit kid, are you okay?! Miles!” Miles blinked in surprise when he realized that voice was Miguel’s. Suddenly, Miles’s eyes widened as he remembered the events that just happened. The subway tunnels. The mutants. Arguing with Miguel. The cave in.
Miles shot up faster than when he was late for school. Blearily, he looked around and realized why it was so dark. He was surrounded by rubble. Rock, concrete, and bits of the subway tunnel had all fallen around him, but yet when he looked down nothing had collapsed on top of him.
What the –
That’s when Miles finally looked over and noticed Miguel.
Who was standing slightly over Miles and to the left, while holding up a piece of the ceiling on his back.
“Oh fuck, fuck! Shit! Fuck! Ow.” Miles tried scrabbling to his feet, as Miguel strained against the concrete on his back, only to fall forward and clutch at his sore ribs. He blinked spots out of his vision and turned towards Miguel, who by now, had repositioned his feet so he was angling the piece of ceiling better. Miles then realized that Miguel was keeping this pile from falling on top of them, and he was the only reason why the two of them weren’t buried completely under rubble.
Miguel whipped his head towards Miles at his groan, and Miles was shocked to see his mask completely gone. He had several cuts running alone his dust covered face and sweat dripping down his head from the strain of holding the rubble up. For a split second, Miles swore he saw a look of relief on Miguel’s face, before it morphed into pained concentration.
“Good, you’re up.” Miguel wheezed. His legs had a slight tremble to them, and Miles were more astounded that the man was still standing from the weight of all that rubble. It must be thousands of pounds of concrete, and here he was just holding it from collapsing in on him. “Are you hurt?”
Miles blinked, dazed at the question.
“What?”
“Mierda.” Miguel swore. “Do you have a concussion?” Miles blinked again. No, he was not imagining it. Miguel was actually concerned about his well-being.
Did I go to another alternate dimension?
“Um no. Well, I don’t think so. Maybe. My head hurts.” Miles rambled nervously before shaking his head and wincing at the new headache. “But um, I think it’s just from getting hit. Not a, um, concussion.”
“Good.” There is was again. Miguel looked relieved.
“Are – are you okay?” Miles asked tentatively, trying to stand up. He had to squat because there was barely enough room for him stand hunched over. Slowly, he made his way towards Miguel, noticing more rips and tears all along Miguel’s suit. “Shit, how are you fucking holding that thing?”
“Spite?” Miguel huffed tiredly and Miles blinked. Then suddenly he burst into nervous giggles. The entire scenario was just ridiculous. Here he was, stuck underground with the man who, months ago had called him an anomaly and chased him across dimensions, waiting for the collapse of the entire subway, and making jokes.
“You sure – sure you don’t have a concussion?” Miguel winced and his knees dipped a bit when the weight of the rubble became heavier. Scrambling to do something, Miles hovered awkwardly around him.
“Do you want me to grab that?! Let me help? I can hold it a bit!” Miles said nervously. He saw Miguel roll his eyes and snort through his nose.
“No offense kid, but I don’t think you can hold this up.” He said and as if to prove his point, Miles looked directly at Miguel’s bulging leg muscles which were probably the size of both of his legs combined.
“Oh. Yeah.” Miles agreed and he was pleased to watch shock cross Miguel’s face. “But um, I have to do something. You look like you’re gonna give out any second.”
“Nah,” Miguel whispered tensely. “I won’t.”
“Still,” Miles said with uncertainty.
“Miles.” Miguel stressed. “If I let go, I am going to collapse.”
Miles’s mouth dropped in a small ‘o’ shape. “Oh.”
Tiredly, Miguel nodded.
“Oh.”
Silence etched on and it was so incredibly awkward.
Miles started looking around, seeing how he could help. His eyes lit up and he looked to the web shooter on his wrist.
“Oh! I could make pillars to help you hold them!” He said excitedly, already beginning to spin a small mound of web from the floor towards the rubble that Miguel was straining to hold up. He was already calculating how many structures to weave and where to place all of them, all the while unaware of the timid and fond smile on Miguel’s face. “I probably need to make five of these to evenly distribute the weight, if you can just hold on to those until I finish them. Then you can’t let go completely, but at least it’s not crushing you.”
Miguel stayed quiet while Miles worked, just watching the kid eagerly build his pillars. A sick sense of fondness ran through his chest, and he immediately cringed.
No. No way I am getting fond over this brat.
Absolutely not. O’Hara you cannot let another kid in.
“So um, sorry I ruined this mission again.” Miles said quietly after he was building his third structure. Miguel almost didn’t hear him, as the strain of the rubble was starting to take a toll on his muscles. He probably wouldn’t have heard him if it wasn’t for their enhanced hearing.
“What?” Miguel wheezed.
“I failed another mission. It’s my fault we are stuck in here.” Miles said even softer, and damn, Miguel could hear the shame in his voice. It almost made his frozen heart thaw.
“Miles,”
“No, no. I know it’s my fault!” Miles said hotly and was horrified to feel tears threatening to spill down his cheeks. Oh god, I’m going to cry in front of Miguel. How fucking embarrassing. “You said going down here would lead to us trapped. You told us now to go down and I ignored you! I got us stuck, and now you’re trying to keep the entire New York Subway tunnel from collapsing down on us, and it’s all my fault!”
Miguel was silent, shocked by the young teen’s outburst. With his enhanced vision he could see the tears trailing down Miles’s face, and suddenly he felt wildly out of his comfort zone.
“Look kid, it’s kinda your fault.” Miguel started and only winced when Miles deflated. “Mierda. Sorry, I’m awful at this.”
“Talking?” Miles sniffled as he moved on to the fourth pillar.
Miguel sighed and looked up at the rubble above him.
“Comforting someone.” Miles looked sharply at Miguel in surprise. “You should have listened to me, but I also should have listened to you. I should have come up with a plan instead of arguing with you. I’m the older one, with more experience, I shouldn’t be arguing with some sixteen-year-old brat.”
“Fifteen.” Miles corrected with a wobbly smirk.
“Oh my fucking god,” Miguel felt even worse now. Miles was even younger than he thought. “Right, still, as leader it’s my job to...to keep my team safe and I failed. Again.”
Miles frowned when he finished the fourth structure, before looking at Miguel. Suddenly the man looked even more tired than he did now, holding up the rubble. Miles could see the exhaustion in the other man’s eyes, how he had lost some weight since the last time Miles saw him, and the guilt pooling in his face.
Before Miles could speak, Miguel dropped to one knee under the strain of the rubble. Quickly, Miles went to work on the fifth pillar.
“I never did apologize.” Miguel said tiredly. Miles froze momentarily, hands shaking over the webbed pillar. His eyes widened but he didn’t turn around.
“For what I did to you and said about all the anomaly stuff. No debería haber hecho eso.” Miguel continued during Miles’s silence. He didn’t blame the kid for not saying anything. What could he say?
“What do you mean?” Miles’s voice shook as he focused on spinning his webs.
Miguel was quiet for another minute before taking a breath. “I should have never chased you like I did or gotten as angry as I did. You didn’t deserve any of that. I was wrong.” Miguel finally dropped to both knees when Miles finished the final pillar and immediately most of the weight of the rubble had been lifted off his back and arms. He finally felt like he could breathe a sigh of relief, that is until Miles came up and touched the back of his arms.
He needed to say this.
Now.
“I was wrong about you not being Spiderman. You’re still an anomaly.” Miguel said quickly and he could feel Miles roll his eyes. “But I realize that your destiny was to always be Spiderman. And you controlled that. You were meant to be Spiderman and I’m sorry I doubted that.”
Miles couldn’t speak. He couldn’t even move.
“I was so angry at you because everything that had happened to you wasn’t supposed to happen. Not like that. And in my experience, things that don’t go as planned always end badly. I didn’t – I didn’t want you to have to carry the burden of your entire world collapsing when you’re fifteen. Being Spiderman comes with so much sacrifice and pain, but you’re just a kid. You don’t understand what that would have been like, and yeah I handled it like an ass.”
“A super asshole.”
“Thank you.” Miguel said pointedly and risked glancing at Miles. Instead of the anger or fear that Miguel was expecting, he was met with a soft look of consideration and a teasing smile. “You have what it takes to be Spiderman, you’ve proven that time and time again, even after you risked everything to save your father.”
Miles winced. “Yeah um, sorry about risking the entire multiverse.”
“I get it.” Miguel whispered quietly. “But you’re a kid, so relax. I’m gonna yell at you for continuing to mess up missions, only because I know you’re capable of so much. But...we all mess up missions.”
Miles’s eyes widened. “Even you?”
“Moscoso.” Miguel hissed, but Miles could see the tiniest hint of a smile on his face. “So, maybe you wanna, call Peter and Spider-Punk? Get us out of here.”
“Shit.” Miles swore and he would swear again that he heard Miguel chuckle, but it could have just been a breeze. “Good idea. Um, should I use yours?”
“Yours makes calls, does it not?” Miguel strained. Miles blinked and slapped his forehead.
“Right. Um, yeah, sorry.” He quickly started typing on his Gizmo and then turned to Miguel just before Peter picked up.
“Miguel?”
Miguel wearily looked up and saw Miles looked at him with a calm sense of peace.
“I don’t forgive you yet.” Miles said softly. “But I think I could. Someday.”
Miguel turned before Miles could see the tears collect in his eyes, just as Peter picked up.
“The fuck is he doing walking around.” Gwen hissed darkly from her spot perched on a bean with Miles and Pavitr beside her. The other two turned to see who Gwen was pointing at and only Pavitr froze upon seeing Miguel walking through the halls of the 21st floor, mask and suit all the way on. He was walking beside Jess, tenser than Miles had ever seen, but he seemed to be listening to whatever the woman was telling him.
“Leading?” Miles shrugged, no longer feeling the old fear he felt whenever he saw Miguel. “He is our leader.”
“He shouldn’t be.” Gwen said bitterly. Miles sighed, understanding why she was angry.
“He’s the best we’ve got. This place was falling apart without him around.” Miles argued instead. Beside him, Pavitr half-heartedly agreed much to Gwen’s frustration.
“Have you forgotten what he did to you?” Gwen whispered. Miles frowned and shook his head.
“No, and I haven’t forgiven him completely.” Miles said, pulling out a container from behind him. Gwen and Pavitr stared at him in confusion.
“Oi! Tío.” Miles shouted, startling Gwen and Pavitr. Immediately, Miguel turned around with a sniggering Jess turning also. When the two saw Miles, Gwen and Pavitr, Jess immediately waved but Miguel stayed frozen. That is until Miles tossed an empanada directly at Miguel, who caught it with ease. Miguel stared down at the container, while Gwen and Pavitr prepared for the man to start yelling or to throw it out.
To their surprise, he did neither. Instead, his mask disappeared, and he opened the container. With a wrinkle of his nose, he sighed and bit the end of the empanada and turned around without another word.
“Graciás Miles, would have sufficed.” Miles shouted with a teasing smile.
“Brat.” Miguel simply said as he walked away with a still laughing Jess. Miles chuckled and turned to a wide-eyed Gwen and Pavitr.
“I haven’t forgiven him fully,” Miles said softly. “But I trust him.”