Chapter Text
Peter sure had to say, being in his own universe was great. Even if he did miss that kid Miles, just a little. He didn't miss all his atoms screaming at him for existing in the wrong universe- not like he could go back even if he wanted to, which he didn’t. He didn’t care about Miles that much. He’d only spent like two days with him. He didn’t miss having an unofficial son he could be proud of. Not at all, and it wasn’t even like he had could be a dad to Miles- the kid had one! Though that dad couldn’t do spider activities and be proud of him for his accomplishments in crime fighting and lifesaving… not like that mattered, even if Peter was a little sore over it, it wasn’t a big deal.
Plus, things with MJ had gone great, he was no longer a disaster, he’d gotten over that in his little dimension trip, and he totally didn’t end up chickening out and bolting halfway through his and MJ's conversation. He wasn’t a coward, he was Spider-Man! And not a sad hobo (he really wished people would stop assuming he was homeless and trying to give him their pennies). Anyway, ever since his little dimensional trip he’d been thinking about it- hard not to with it being such an experience, it wasn’t because he wanted to think about it. It was just haunting him. Like an unwanted ghost, poltergeist?
Which was why he was currently on a roof top, slowly munching on a burger that tasted like hot garbage, staring blankly into space, thoughts swirling through his head like what if there was a world where uncle Ben never died? Or he somehow ended up evil Spider-Man? (Evil-Man? No that was stupid) or even how Miles was doing- Oh dammit stupid brain, shut up. He didn’t care about Miles or if he was okay after fighting Kingpin without Peter there to help him, he knew the kid would be fine, so he didn’t need to put a second thought into it. No-sir-e. Everything was fine (it was not fine).
Groaning he stuffed the burgers wrapping in one of his pockets because he was still decent enough not to litter, and his jacket had basically become a garbage bag (just like his burger).
“This is all so stupid.” He huffed, though he knew only himself and some lonely pigeons would hear, and none of said pigeons could judge him to harshly, why not just rant? He’d come to lower points then talking to dumb birds.
“I mean… why do I even care about all this? None of it matters!” Silence. “Why am I so stuck up over that stupid dimensional trip!? I’ve been through weirder, why can’t I just forget and get on with my life? Miles said I could so why don- why does something that kid said even matter to me? I didn’t care before! I didn’t even want kids!” A pigeon blinked.
Peter groaned “Its just- I keep wondering if I could travel to other dimensions, without my body trying to fritz into nothingness, or into a rotting corpse, both aren’t the preferred option. But- but I only keep wondering about it for scientific purposes of course! I love science, it’s natural to think about it a lot, right? I’m so right.” Some of the birds cooed and flapped their wings, it seemed judgy, Peter felt betrayed.
“Hey! You said you wouldn’t do that!” God he was going crazy, wasn’t he? “Fine. You know what? I’ll stop thinking about the multiverse, because that’s a choice! It is! And I don’t care. At all. I’ll get back to being full time Spider-Man! Who was not at all thicker than usual, you know, it’s just people’s eyes don’t work right.” The pigeons flew away.
Peter let out a groaned once more and let himself sink to the roofs floor, because what point was he at if he was venting to birds? Though, he really would stop thinking about the multiverse, he had too.
The problem was, all those thoughts seemed to have other plans, and no regard for his strict verbal ban of them.
It was ignorable at first, just a brief second of thought before he moved on with his life, but the more he pushed the thoughts away, the worse it got.
However soon it was to the point he ended up so distracted trying to figure out the lyrics to one of the stupid songs Miles had been singing he failed to notice the truck(s) being hurled at him. His day came to a closing with three broken ribs, and so, he told himself once more that he had to stop thinking about all that multiple universe bullshit, and dumb kids, and because he didn’t care.
Six more broken bones later, he was still telling himself the exact same thing. Finally- one day in which he was working out, doing push-ups, crunches, pull ups, sit ups and all that hard stuff. Not curled up on the floor eating pizza and looking at adoption sites (which were hypothetically coming up blank because he googled spider/sea horse children). He decided he had to find a way to travel dimensions, and not die, and not have it be as big and stupid as Kingpins machine. For scientific exploring purposes. And because look at him! He was a fit mess! he needed all those stupid thoughts to leave him alone and stop before he got hurt anymore. He knew he wouldn’t open any stupid black holes in Brooklyn, he just wanted to pop into one or two other dimensions and see what they were like. Maybe in one people wouldn’t treat him like he looked like a drug addict who crawled off the streets, not like that wasn’t the look most people in New York had.
The question was, how would he do that? He was poor and currently unemployed, unlike Iron Man he didn’t have an endless bank to spend on new gadgets and turn of the century technology, he’d have to do his own research and use scrap parts and grocery store available items. Joy.
With a soft whine he rolled over and started- no wait resumed, totally resumed- doing his push-ups and crunches, he figured he should try to work out extra before all that dimension traveling, he would hopefully succeed in and survive. Not like he wanted to impress anyone or make them proud of him. Nope. An image of Miles flashed through his mind and he ground his teeth.
Two hours later he was curled up on his mattress panting and knew full well he would be extremely sore come morning. Working out sucked, of course his working out was more intense than a normal human, but it was still things that should have been a breeze in the past.
“Kill me now,” He groaned into his pillow, because he knew this stupid decision would take up his life for who knows how long, and he didn’t want to deal with it, but he made a commitment, and he couldn’t let Miles’s belief in him down again, and with those unfiltered thoughts he feel asleep.
*********
Today was a boring day for Wade, he didn’t have any mercenary jobs to attend to, so he decided to go to New York for the first time in forever, but after all the shit he went through in his day to day life the excitement of the city barely even phased him, so he spent a few weeks playing video games and watching Golden Girls, before even those got tiring, curse his growing short attention span!
[Go fight some crime, kill someone.] White chimed in.
{No! We need more chimichangas!} Yellow complained.
Wade let out a tired grunt in response before getting up and pulling on his civics, kicking aside paper bags and wrappings for all his previous meals.
{Chimichangas then? Yes!!}
Rolling his eyes, he shook his head, “shopping.”
Both the boxes groaned.
[No one enjoys shopping, so like… lets no.]
{I don’t wannnnnnnnaaaaaaaa!}
“Deal with it the both of you, maybe I’ll find a spicy outfit for us! Plus, it needs to be done, let’s just get on with it.” Wade grumbled with just the right amount of fake cheer.
{Just kill yourself! Then when you come back, you’ll have full health.}
“That’s not how it works, I’m not like a video game or anything- not this time anyway, if I was, I would have gotten to shoot someone already.”
Both the box’s made soft upset noise of agreement as Wade pulled on his baseball cap and left the house, looking down at his feet as he walked, so hopefully no one would get the displeasure of seeing his face.
After a disappointingly uneventful walk to the supermarket, he got a basket, helped an old lady, chatted up a pretty girl, grabbed a lot of unneeded Japanese items, he was about to leave when he heard soft sniffling. {maybe it’s a child in need! We could save them like a super hero!} [we can never be a hero]
“I agree with white, now hush.”
Curious and grudgingly worried he slowly edged his way around the aisle to peek his head around the corner, hoping not to come face to face with some creepy horror story child.
[Your face would scare anything off though]
Shut up.
Luckily instead of some dripping wet little girl or whatever might be considered spooky now, there was a middle-aged man in a trench coat, his face was nice, though it looked like his nose had been broken many times, and he had a five o’clock shadow. Strong cheek bones and striking brown eyes, mismatched shoes, and the previously mentioned trench coat, which looked extremely beat up, plus a plain white t-shirt that showed he was surprisingly fit, and he was also in sweats. Nothing screamed sad lonely dead-end dude more.
In the man’s hands was a packaged labeled Uncle Ben's Ready Rice which seemed to be the cause of his extreme distress.
[What the hell]
{He’s surprisingly cute for a homeless man}
[And looks around our age, because pedophilia isn’t cool.]
“Shut up, both of you.” Wade hissed under his breath, but it seemed just enough for the man to hear because his head whipped around to look at Wade, a panicked look then an embarrassed flush started taking over his face, before morphing into a look of extreme dismay, which was far cuter to Wade then it should have been.
“Hey uh… you okay?” Wade asked after an awkward pause, the probably homeless man nodded slowly and wiped at his eyes, sniffing softly.
“Y-“ his breath caught for a second as he took in a few gulping hiccupy breaths, “yes, sorry- just stupid- stupid rice.” Wades lips made a silent ‘oh’ and the man looked even more humiliated “sorry, bye.” Homeless cutie turned away, and for some reason felt a small amount of panic spike in Wade.
“No wait!” He said before his brain caught up with his mouth, what was he doing!? The boxes echoed that same question, just more rudely and aggressively. They had no manners, such a bad influence.
The guy slowly turned around, eyes darting everywhere but Wades obscured face, fidgeting with his hands.
“I uh… need any pennies?”
Things went to shit from there.