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The portal was whirring gently behind them as they laughed and joked at each other, enjoying Miles’ company before he had to go back to his own dimension. His own earth. They didn’t notice the time going by so fast, and with all the excitement and fun he had been experiencing, Miles seemed to have forgotten something so important to him and someone else, until Gwen had said something that jogged his memory.
“You know, I really think that the stars in your earth are by far the prettiest I’ve ever seen.” She had said so calmly, looking at him with a calm demeanor. It was only natural for her laidback attitude and cool vibe that she had.
“Yeah…the stars are…” Miles trailed off, knitting his brows in thought as he was slowly remembering something that had something to do with stars. Stars…moon…planets..planetarium..observatory…
Oh crap.
Miles abruptly stood up, surprising everyone beside him. “Hey, woah. What’s going on kid?” Peter B. asked, his brown hair whipping to the side as his head turned towards the boy. “Oh no.. Oh my god… I’m so dead. Guys, I forgot I had to meet up with (Name)!” he yelled, clambering into the portal with the others following behind him. Noir closed the portal as fast as he could and caught up with them, Peni holding on to him as he shot his web strings on the buildings.
“Oh, (Name)? She your girl?” Porker asked, swinging beside him as he waggled his brows. Miles’ face heated up from embarrassment and shock. Was she? Nah…
“No…” he lamely replied, almost missing a building and the rhythm as Peter taught him. “No…I mean…I like her a lot, but..I don’t even know if she sees me as a guy…B-but there’s something…!”
That reassurance was lamer than his answer and the other guys laughed about it light heartedly.
“So, where to, Mr. Hotshot?” Noir quipped, Peni giggling behind him.
“Wait, what?” he pulled himself upwards and over a rooftop, barely missing the ledge and hitting his knee. “You guys aren’t coming! No!”
“Boo!” They drawled, poking fun at him. Miles only sighed and spotted their special place. The place she and him always went to when she smuggled him with her while she snuck out of Vision. The old abandoned observatory that she had converted into her very own art studio. And for him, too.
It was where they established their friendship, where they felt a connection with each other. It was where they could be who they wanted to be. For the past two months, she had been working on a secret art project / mural on the inside of the observatory and she had planned that today was the day that she would show him.
It was special to her, and he was already feeling the guilt that was catching up to him as he landed on the deck.
Pulling off his mask, he saw her sitting by herself on the flat surface of the dome. Where they had stargazed so many weeks ago, staring up at the sky.
He sighed once again, turning towards the others to shoo them away before he climbed upwards to the platform. She was sitting there, holding something he couldn’t see. From her posture alone, it was obvious that she was tired, and probably sleepy.
“(Name)-”
“Five hours.”
She interrupted, not bothering to even look at him. “What..?” he murmured, loud enough for her to hear. She visibly tensed up, taking a sharp breath as she repeated herself to him.
“Five hours, Miles. I waited here for five hours.”
The lack of the nickname she had given him made Miles instinctively look down to his untied shoes, knitting his brows in fault as he took a cautious step forward to the girl. “(Name), I…something came up, I-”
“There’s a time when I want to hear your fucking stupid excuses, and there’s a time that I don’t. Right now, is not that time, Miles.”
(Name) stood up, dusting her shorts and facing him. In the dim light provided by the moon and the soft glow of the city lights, it was so painfully obvious that she had been crying. Her eyes were red and puffy, her face still had damp tear streaks down her cheeks.
And that was because of him.
“You promised, Miles. You promised me that you would go sneak out with me to get to our place and to see the final product which you knew to be the most important thing for me. But no,” she pointed somewhere behind her, “You had to go with Gwen, and..and.. and Peter for the nth time and forget about me!”
“How did you-”
“When will I be the one that takes up your mind? Am I really not enough for you, Miles? Do I have a fault here? Do I have to be from another dimension to be someone you actually prioritized?”
“No! No…that’s not it! I do care about you and I do prioritize you (Name)…you’re important to me, too.”
His respsonse only left her with more tears to shed as she walked up to him, gripping a letter in her shaky hands.
“Well, it doesn’t seem like it.”
With that, she shoved the letter to his chest, leaving him to stumble back and watch her as she left him on the platform, crying and sobbing while she headed back to her room in Visions.
“Ouch, that was so harsh, man.” Porker said, a hand over his heart for sympathy for the boy. “Miles, I’m so sorry about forcing you to come with us.” Gwen softly spoke, placing a hand on his shoulder. Miles wordlessly shrugged it off and went down the ladder, to at least see what she had done.
Maybe if he acknowledged her hard work, she would partially forget about it…? He didn’t even know what he was saying as he pried open the makeshift doors that they had made. The smell of paint still lingered as he and the others entered, following behind him.
Miles felt for the light switch on the wall and flicked it on, hoping to see the project that (Name) had poured her heart on.
And there, on the far wall in front of him was a mural. It was a boy with dark skin, and captivating amber eyes that seemed to glow, surrounded by sunflowers. With a little more time to figure out who it was, he realized that the big project that (Name) was so proud to have made, was a mural of himself.
It was simple, but so fine that the brush strokes could still be seen and indicated its recent making. The colors of the petals of the sunflowers complimented the warm tones of his skin and especially his eyes. He noticed that most of the detailing went to the eyes. He also noticed that the artist name that she used to tag the creation as hers, was the nickname she had given him way back.
“Woah, that’s…actually really nice..” Noir craned his head upwards, inspecting the colorful painting before him. The others followed, too, marvelling at the mural that (Name) had made. Gwen even went to take a picture of the mural with her phone.
“She’s still learning, though…” he meekly spoke, rubbing his nape. “I always told her that she could do something even better than she could do now, when she had more experience.”
“Kid, I think this is a sign that (Name) likes you. A lot.” Peter pointed towards the artwork and to the letter in his hands. Something that he had also momentarily forgotten.
He quickly ripped open the envelope and fished out the folded paper and a picture of the two of them together, happy and smiling. He indulged himself in the nostalgia of their first picture before diving into the wrinkled letter that she had written for him.
Hey Bugaboo.
I’m expecting that you’re in your dorm room reading this so, here I go.
I know, it’s not really like me to make a handwritten letter, after making a mural dedicated to you, but here I am. This is just to say two three things to you. One, sorry about the crappy quality of the mural even though I spent a lot of time on it, and we couldn’t spend time together that much lately. I’m not tryna be corny and shit, but I just don’t have the skills to properly replicate a masterpiece.
And two, the reason I covered you with your favorite flowers especially your mouth. Haha…
The truth is, your words aren’t the ones that reeled me into asking you to be my friend and asking you to sneak out with me that day. It was your eyes. Your eyes hold the kindness and the intelligence to see everything in a good light. Everywhere you look it seems to be lit up with your belief that everything is beautiful and with it you make everything better and seem different than it really is. And I hope that when you look at me, you see me as a girl and not just a friend.
And three,
I love-love you, Bugaboo. Very much. I just wish that this confession won’t ruin our perfect friendship. But I’m willing to take risks.
I hope you feel the same,
(Name), your sunflower.
“I messed up..” Miles slumped onto a wall, hitting his forehead with the heel of his palm repeatedly. “I…I gotta go..” he stuttered, tugging his mask down and waving goodbye to his friends. “I..I’ll see you soon, guys! Have a safe trip!”
He flung himself through Brooklyn, swinging over rooftops and travelling through the city as fast as he could to get to Vision, and to salvage what he had left with (Name). He wasn’t going to lose this chance. No, not if he still had something that he could do.
Landing on the wall right next to her window, he knocked on the glass softly, seeing her back turned towards him. She slowy, turned to look at him. With a little hesitance, (Name) stood up from her seat and opened the window, and letting him sit on the window frame as she had done the first time she had asked him to break the rules with her.
Miles pulled off his mask once again, staring at her with sorrow filled eyes. “(Name), I’m really sorry.. I.. I didn’t know you felt that way..”
She stayed silent, hugging herself as she avoided eye contact with him. Miles sighed for the nth time that day, mildly frustrated that he wasn’t going anywhere with his spontaneous plan.
“Did you really mean what you said..? About you caring for me?”
His head perked up at her soft spoken voice, her eyes slightly trained at him as she still turned away from him.
“Of course I do. You mean a lot to me. And I was wrong to put you second. I’m so, so sorry, (Name).”
Miles took her arm and gently faced her to him, then engulfed her in a hug. It took some time before wrapping her arms around him as well. Between them, silence wafted in the air as they stayed like that. Together and close.
He shouldn’t have neglected her, even though she had something to do. She was always forgiving of him when he had to save the city, so why shouldn’t he have been patient as she was?
Miles pulled away and cupped a hand on her cheek, rubbing a thumb on her soft skin as he smiled lovingly at her. Then he captured her lips in a chaste kiss, snaking a hand on her waist as she melted into the kiss, wrapping her arms on his shoulders and pulling him closer and closer to her.
And slowly, they pulled away once again, sharing a look of pure joy.
“I love you, Miles.”
“I love you, too, (Name).”