Re: Marvel hospital: Gwen & Peter
He raised his eyebrows, teasing. "Are you saying she likes you better than me?" It was true, though, that Aunt May was a fan of Gwen. Definitely. Once he'd gotten over his whole 'I should stay away because I made a promise to your dad' thing she'd been over a lot, and he was pretty sure his aunt liked having her around. He missed that. Not the rough patch after her dad died, but her being there. Her presence. Things, obviously, had changed since then.
Some people would just let it go. Some people wouldn't push. But Gwen wasn't some people, or even most people; she'd never let him blame himself even if he should. Peter sighed. "I can so absolve you if I want to. And how do you know I'm blaming myself?" He tried to feign innocence for, like, a second, but once glance in her direction and he knew it wouldn't fool her. "Okay," he relented. "Maybe I'm blaming myself a little. I just-- I feel like I should've been there. I can't not think it." He shrugged, a little helplessly. Getting rid of guilt wasn't easy; it faded, with time, but never actually went away.
The fact that he'd used the same wording Jason had probably didn't work in his favor. Thanks, Jason. Though, Peter thought there was kind of a big difference between sex and making out. He'd stopped it, didn't that count for something? He looked up, sharp and too-sudden, when she said Jason had pushed her down and shoved his hand up her skirt, a frown creasing his features-- but he managed to bite his tongue. "Oh." Which was a little too stilted, but now wasn't the time to pass judgment on other guys. As for MJ going after him without the wish thing, he doubted that. "I know it sounds lame," he admitted, of it 'just happening'. "Like an excuse. But... I don't know how else to describe it. One minute we were just hanging out, and the next..." He gestured absently. "We didn't, like, plan it out."
And, okay, so maybe hanging out in bathrobes in a room full of steam was asking for trouble, but Peter hadn't seen it that way. Gwen was right-- with or without the wish, he wouldn't have made the first move.
She didn't ask for specifics, and he was super glad she didn't. But her sad smile made his insides twist up with guilt, and he wondered again if it'd meant something, more than he thought; did he want it to? That was the question. But, honestly, Peter couldn't imagine choosing MJ when Gwen was right there. Even if nothing ever happened and they just stayed friends, he couldn't get over her in a day. He reached for the bag of chips when she said she knew him, a way to distract himself. "She's my best friend," he said. "It's not like she's a stranger or somebody I don't know that well. But it doesn't mean... it doesn't mean I want to date her. Which sounds bad, I know. But I stopped it. I stopped it because anything more wouldn't have been... right." He was staring very, very hard at the chips in his lap, trying not to blush.
Her shrug didn't fool him. Not even a little. "Gwen." He looked at her. "Just because it happened doesn't mean it was fate. There are a bunch of reasons why Flash ended up in Silent Hill, and it just-- it could've happened to anyone. It doesn't mean every thing that happens in the comics is going to happen here."