who peter & gwen! what meeting up by chance where around the friendly neighborhood when after he's let out from quarantine warnings very PG/mentions of his gwen's fate
It felt like Peter had been standing for hours outside the quarantine facility. His face was a blank slate. Uncertain hands gripped his backpack and hoodie, feet unwilling to move. Moving meant accepting he was dimensions away from his aunt and now living in a world where Gwen Stacy had never died. Ben’s words echoed in his head: breathe in, breathe out. Apparently, he’d forgotten to do so efficiently again.
Shouldering his backpack, Peter rifled his now free hand through his mess of hair and set out for the ride provided him into the town. His face pressed against the window, he watched the lackluster scenery race by until town lights overwhelmed the night sky. Dropped off at his designated housing, he mumbled a thanks before heading upstairs as slowly as possible.
Met with the sight of his own room upon arrival, Peter immediately scowled. Where did the universe get the nerve? Instinctively tossing his bag and hoodie to the ground, he turned an about face and made a dash down the stairs and to the outside. The nearest rooftop he could find took his weight. Shrouded in the shadows, he pressed his back against the coarse shingles and clamped a palm over his eyes in the hopes it would help center him from the ensuing panic.
“Wake up, Peter, wake up,” he urged himself, but when he revealed the canopy of missing stars to his tired eyes, he was met only with disappointment.
Gwen walked down the street with her hands shoved into her jacket. It wasn’t rocket science, exactly, to conclude that today would most likely be the time that Newcomer Peter would be coming out of quarantine. He wasn’t the first Pete, here but the one that usually showed up didn’t have a Gwen in his world at all. That was always safe. Somehow, the world decided to switch him with one who clearly knew her. Thanks, world.
Every once in awhile, she subtly glanced up at the top of the buildings. She knew she had told him that he could be swinging around there and she wouldn’t even know but that only meant she definitely expected him to be there and that was making her pretty self-conscious. Was she walking funny? Was he watching her now? Was she acting casual enough? Should she whistle to appear more casual? She’ll whistle. And so she started to whistle the Game of Thrones theme.
When the sound of the Game of Thrones theme being whistled filtered to his ears, Peter abruptly snapped upright. That sounded like someone he wanted to befriend. A new person meant a glorious distraction from the darkness swirling around his head. It had been a struggle all year long just to cope with the grief of losing Gwen, now he had to deal with the fact that an entirely different (not to mention superhuman) version of her existed here.
Shifting on the roof to get a better look at the person as they passed him by on the street below, Peter’s breath caught in his throat. That headband. Unconsciously his hands dug into the shingles with the strength to split them in two. The sound of them cracking under pressure restarted his breathing and brought him back to the present. He’d wanted to see her as much as he didn’t want to even admit she was a possibility of existence.
Just once, he mentally reminded himself.
Hopping along rooftop to rooftop, Peter gained distance on her enough to land between the houses well ahead of Gwen. Dropping down between them, Peter psyched himself up to try and speak to her. Instead of making a graceful appearance, he managed to trip over an exposed tree root, catch himself on the trunk with webbing, then found his foot jammed into a tonka truck left out in the yard.
With a relatively defeated look, Peter regarded his shoe with mild disdain, but also a look that suggested he’d been in similar predicaments. “Figures,” he mumbled. So much for trying to be remotely smooth.
Gwen heard him before she could see him, but at least her spidey sense didn’t go off. It meant no danger. At least not the physical kind that baddies usually bring. It was more or less a quieter neighborhood so it wasn’t hard to hear someone tripping over their own feet in the dark between two buildings, but Gwen wondered if she should spare him the embarrassment and keep walking as though she never heard. She settled for walking up to where she heard the sound and peering into the darkness. “Um.. are you okay?”
Hoo boy. That wasn’t the first in-person impression he wanted to make on Gwen. It wasn’t the first impression he wanted to make on anyone, but least of all any version of Gwen Stacy. On the other hand… “How ‘bout that icebreaker?” He practically croaked, wincing all the while. Clumsily removing his foot from the tonka truck, he straightened up and tried to salvage the tattered remnants of his pride.
“I’m good,” Peter assured. “Good. Good… hi. Hi. Peter. Not you, me. I’m Peter. I wasn’t following you, I swear.” Because that sounded convincing even though it genuinely was the truth.
Gwen pressed her lips together, trying very hard not to look too amused. She wasn’t sure how it was making her face look, but hopefully, she had the supportive look going on. Then again, it was also dark and she wasn’t standing too close for him, so maybe he couldn’t even see her face, who knows? “Hi,” she started. “I figured as much.” She gestured with her head at the remnants of webbing left on the tree. Surprise, Peter, yet another Gwen that knows your secret. Except this one knew from all the universe-hopping and meeting the fifty million different kinds of Spider-Men-And-Women from other worlds.
That one was going to be a hard one to explain to him.
“Congrats on getting out of quarantine!”
With a wince and sheepish laugh, Peter conceded defeat--to himself. He was doomed to make terrible first impressions for the rest of his life. Going through social interactions was so much easier when he had a mask on. Maybe he should have worn the suit to wander the town in a gloomy disposition.
“Hey, that was already there,” he joked clunkily, then managed a grin. “You got the wrong guy.”
This was weird. Heart pounding in his chest, Peter tried desperately to look anywhere but at her dimly illuminated features. Happening on her by chance was just as well, but now that he’d glimpsed this other version of Gwen, how was he going to force himself to actually stay away? It hadn’t exactly been his forte.
Thoroughly free of his haphazardly entrance, he tucked his hands into his pockets and hunched his shoulders in truly awkward Peter Parker fashion.
“So, yeah. Freedom. Cool stuff. What do most people do to celebrate when they’re out?”
“Oh, of course!” Or maybe he wasn’t ready to know that she knew about his powers. Which would mean he would definitely not be ready to know that she had powers. And that the Peter of her world was the Lizard and he died. Yeah, not the best icebreaker conversation ever.
At his question, Gwen could only blink and then shrug her shoulders. “Well… I just got out and hung out with Ben and we caught up on Game of Thrones when I left quarantine, but maybe--” she paused and waved a hand toward the more urban side of the town. “Something there could be appealing? Bars or restaurants closer to the college? I don’t know… my last memory of this place, the town was a lot smaller, and suddenly, it’s like tourism just shot up overnight.”
“Yeah, that whole thing is still weird to think about,” Peter conceded, head shaking. Not as weird as facing a doppelganger of his dead girlfriend that didn’t actually look like her, but hey. Weird had become a relative term to Peter Parker.
“Food is good,” he finally decided, feeling pitifully lame at his caveman-like words. His senses were all over the place. Was he staring at her like an idiot? Nonchalantly checking his mouth, he made sure it wasn’t agape and that his eyes weren’t lingering in an uncomfortable fashion. His instincts carried on telling him to run, but curiosity ultimately left him standing in place.
“I mean - uh - we could go eat, if you’re hungry. Or not. This is still weird. Right? Me. Not you. Definitely not you,” not in a bad way.
Gwen nodded in agreement, because, yes. Doppelganger of dead person who happens to be your significant other is most definitely weird. But, Gwen had already gone through that when the multiverse before she landed here. She met Ben, Kaine, and Peter Prime. She met a pig version and even a monkey version of Spider-Man. She met Jessica Drew, a female clone of another universe of Peter Parker, and a bunch of other different people who were their own world’s Spider-Man who weren’t Peter Parker. She was used to all of that. Him? Probably not.
“Well, I guess it’s been awhile since I ate. Not weird at all. Or we can see if it eventually becomes not weird.”
Uncertain of whether that was a genuine possibility, Peter couldn’t help but to want to believe Gwen. She looked different, sure, but that spark he recognized in the Gwen he lost lingered in this one somehow. Maybe he was just kidding himself, he didn’t altogether care. He had spent a whole year clinging to the memory of her loss, using it as an excuse not to don the mask and go out and help stop the bad guys from taking down the city.
Peter wouldn’t look at this as some kind of magical second chance with the woman he loved, but rather as another chance to start over. Inexplicably, his posture relaxed and a smile faintly warmed his features.
“Yeah - yeah, that’d be cool. I’d like that. Lead the way… Gwen.”