𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐔𝐍𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐄; peter parker

ᴇɪɢʜᴛ

"YOU'RE TAKING ME WHERE?" PETER asked as Maelyn walked through the bedroom door, her nighttime pyjamas being replaced by a colourful sweater and jeans.

"To Happy's other apartment." She shrugged nonchalantly. 

"You're joking, right?" He jogged after her with a sigh as she brushed past him, bouncing down the metal stairs to the bottom floor of the apartment. "That is not what I considered fun."

"I never said it would be fun." Maelyn denied with a frown whilst she slipped on her converses. She stood up and firmly placed her hands on her hips, staring across at Peter with furrowed brows.

"But I did!" He exasperated by throwing his hands out. Her expression relaxed as she took in his dishevelled appearance, her arms dropping back down to her sides like they were beforehand before she spun on her heel and made her way towards the front door.

"We just need to understand how this multiverse thing works, okay? You can't stay here forever." She spoke without really thinking it through. Once the last few words had slipped out of her mouth, she had wanted nothing more than to suck them back up. The whole mood in the room flipped on its head as both people stopped in their steps, falling into a long line of silence. The topic was something that neither of them wanted to discuss, but they knew they couldn't avoid it forever.

"What if we don't find out? What if I just stay here?" The boy suggested hopefully. He jogged in front of Maelyn and held onto her shoulders, looking down at her creased eyes with his desperate ones. He didn't want to go home - he was already home. Home was where the heart was, and his heart was there.

"This isn't your universe, Peter, you have people waiting for you back at home." She reasoned with a subtle pout, shifting her eyes from staring deeply into his to the floor. She scuffed the bottoms of her sneakers against the wooden flooring, trying to find a distraction against the topic at hand and the boy in front of her.

"But what if I don't?" At those few words, Maelyn stopped squirming under his intense gaze to finally meet his eye. "My parents disappeared. My uncle got shot. My best friend died in my very own arms. And my aunt lost her battle to cancer."

"Oh, Peter." The girl whispered with teary eyes. She gently lifted her arm up to wipe the single tear that slowly trickled down his cheek, frowning at his crumbling exterior. She didn't know much about what the boy's life was like in his universe, but she definitely didn't expect it to be like that.

"I have no one, Maelyn, at least here I have you." He told her as her fingers pulled away from his tinted skin.

"We've known each other for a day." She rationalised sadly.

"But what we have, I know you can feel it too. It's special, I know that much, and I'm not gonna let that go." He spoke with passion and emotion, something Maelyn hadn't seen him do before. She knew exactly what he was talking about, but she still tried to push it away.