Chapter Text
~**Author's note**~
Hi!! This is the grand FINALE of the series! Enjoy my lovelies ^^
~~~
Friday came all too early.
Aiden had... fun? For once in his life? He wasn't sure how to handle all these new feelings.
Friends? Inside jokes? Laughing at a dumb meme? These were all new experiences. Something he may never be able to experience again.
Weirdly enough, he learned more about Peter in his absence. How he was incredibly smart and talented at basically every subject in school. How close he was to Ned and MJ. His loyalty to Stark and the Avengers (well, he only learned this from Ned, of course). How he had an unmatched desire to help other people. Why would he loose precious hours of sleep to help someone find their lost bike? Or save an elderly man from slipping on ice? Or---?
He was rambling. He had to stop thinking and just... needed to live in the moment. Just forget about the sadness. Numb it with doing stuff all the time.
"Hey Aiden can you hand me my bag, please?" Ned asked him while they were packing up to head to their next destination--- Paris.
"Yeah, of course," Aiden said without thinking. Then he stopped in his tracks. I would have never done this before, he thought to himself.
"Thanks, man. Ya know you were kind of a jerk when I first met you?" Ned casually observed, unaware that it was the very thought Aiden was stuck on.
"Yeah I was..." Aiden looked down at Peter's ratty Converse and sighed, "Ned... look, I'm sorry, mate, about how I treated ya." Aiden looked at Ned with a pleading look, as if to say, I freaking screwed up a lot. More than you might ever know.
Ned patted him on the shoulder and gave him a soft smile. "It's all good, man," he replied.
Aiden felt an all-too-familiar prick in his eyes.
-----
Peter, sitting contently in the back seat with his earbuds, was escorted by Mr. Lewis to the airport. Aiden's concert would be tomorrow in Paris, and he had to switch back with him. Just one more day of this, Peter thought. How weird this whole plan had been...
"Ah, yes, mate, we 'ave arrived! Don't forget ya bags---here, lemme help you with that," Mr. Lewis shoved Peter aside to grab his luggage.
"Wait, Mr. Lewis, won't you come on the plane also?" Peter was caught off guard.
"Sorry, mate, but your going on a private plane. I'll be taking the business class,"
"W-wa-wait. You can't do that! Mr. Lewis, you're coming with me!" He tugged insistently on his sleeve.
"Aiden, since when have you become so social? What happened? Did you take some kind of magic potion back in Rome?" Mr. Lewis' eyebrows knitted in confusion. "You've been so strange these past couple a days. It's like you're not---" his eyes noticed the web shooters exposed on Peter's wrists.
SHOOT I should've left them with Aiden, Peter thought, mentally face-palming.
"Y-you're not Aiden..." Mr. Lewis said quietly, "Who are ya lad? What have you done with Aiden!" Peter couldn't tell if the tone in his voice was more shocked or angry.
"Sir, I'm so sorry!!" Peter threw his hands up in the air. "M-my name is Parker Peter--- I-I mean Peter Parker. I'm just a kid from New York. I came here with my school on a Europe trip. I'm so sorry. Aiden and I met in a small store in Rome, and we just looked so much like, and so we agreed to switch places, and---" Peter spilled.
"Mate, mate, you gotta slow down. Wait, you switched places with Aiden?!" Mr. Lewis' anger was drained away.
"Yeah, we did. It was---well, we both decided to," Peter admitted. His eyes drifted down to his---Aiden's--- crisp white Adidas.
"Why on earth would he do this??"
"He wanted to know what it's like to be a teenager? Like an American teenager,"
"Poor lad. We must've pushed him to the edge,"
Peter put a hand on his shoulder. "No, sir, don't be guilty. He told me a bit about this, and... I think it's more to do with his dad than you. You have been nothing but kind on this whole... switch," he laughed awkwardly.
"And what about you, lad?"
"What about what," Peter was geniunely confused.
"The switch. Why'd you do it?"
"Uh I guess I just wanted to help out. He seemed really dead set on this plan, and plus, he's really convincing. Also, it was cool to meet his fans. Wish I could do that with---" Peter clamped a hand over his mouth. FUDGE THIS, he thought.
"W-wait what? Are you some kind of those Youtube stars??" Mr. Lewis questioned.
"Y-yeah. Sort of," Peter blushed and laughed awkwardly once again. Well, Spiderman does have a lot of views, he thought.
"Alright, Pete. You know where your school group is heading?"
"Paris,"
"Perfect!" Mr. Lewis clasped his hands together. "Let's go find Aiden!"
------
f r i d a y
p a r i s, f r a n c e
The crowd packed into the mediumly spaced venue. Only real fans endured the mosh pit, and his most loyal stans have been in line for a day. Quentin Bek jumped onto the stage with his signature black guitar.
"Alright," Quentin said as tested the mic.
Fans SCREAMED.
"Alright. Who's ready for this show tonight?" He started strumming a riff that paralleled the 1975's sound. A beat picked up with the song.
The crowd went wild. "I LOVE YOU QUENTIN!!!!" a fan from the back screamed.
We were kissing in the bathroom
Club was on fire
I smell cigarrettes
My burning desire
You are a
Are a
Toxic kinda liar
It wasn't long before the crowd was singing along and dancing wildly to Quentin's most popular hit.
But, suddenly, a familiar masked hero swung from the balcony.
"STOP THE CONCERT QUENTIN! OR SHOULD I SAY MYSTERIO!" Peter shouted from his grand entrance.
Quentin was about to pull a rather mediocre guitar solo before Peter yeeted him off the stage. He got up from his feet (though now he had an artsy rip in his jeans), and yanked the cap off of his smoke potion.
"STOP, YOU STUPID SPIDER!" Quentin emerged from the smoke in his Mysterio costume.
"YOU BETTER NOT HURT YOUR FANS! THEY LOVE YOU, AND ALSO STOP THIS DUMB RIVALRY WITH AIDEN!!" Peter webbed Quentin's arm behind his back.
"Oh you think you can stop me with one arm?" Quentin lightning blasted the webs off of his previously stifled arm.
Peter covered fans behind him with his free arm. "I'M TELLING YA. YOU BETTER NOT HURT THESE FANS OR ELSE!!" He shouted and waved his hand for the crowd to exit the venue. Quentin walked menecingly towards Peter.
"HELP!! SOMEONE!" A girl about his age with medium length black hair and glasses fell down while the crowd hastily dispersed.
Peter quickly rushed over and helped her up. "Are you okay???" He asked the girl.
"Y-yeah. I'm okay. Thank you so much," She looked earnestly into his mask.
"Hey can you guys help her get out?? Please and thank you so much" He gently transferred her hand over to a group of Quentin's fans. He quickly turned back to scene of action, but was struck down by a lightning blast. The group gasped and screamed. The girl Peter helped held her hand over her mouth.
"You think you can escape me, Spidey?" Peter struggled to get up from the ground. Thankfully, he had Shuri upgrade his suit a couple months before, so his suit absorbed the kinetic energy he received from Quentin's blast.
"Can you escape me?" Peter quipped back. "KAREN, ACTIVATE WEB BOMBS!" Peter shouted to his Siri-like assistant.
"Activating Web-bombs," KAREN replied in a calm, robotic voice.
Qüentin toppled back as he was struck hard by a stronger force. He was covered in webs and couldn't reach for the last of his smoke potions. The chestnut haired pop star lied on the floor, waiting for his fate.
"Qüentin, I can help you shut down the lab. Please. You don't have to make your chemicals for a bad purpose," Peter pleases gently but kept a cautious distance. Just then, his phone rang, playing a melodramatic acoustic song. He declined the call because dang it he was in the middle of a fight with some hipster indie star with unexplainable powers.
"You know... I wanted to make music like that," Qüentin said quietly.
"W-what?" Peter asked and coughed because of the smoke and debris.
"I made music like that. My art. All before this. But I was told that no one would listen to it," Qüentin stopped struggling against the webs he was trapped under. Peter's heart hurt for the struggling artist underneath the Twitter thirst magnet.
Peter nervously scratched the back of his head, forgetting that he still had his mask on. "How bout you play some? S-some of your songs?" He asked shyly.
"Well I would but I'm sorta trapped under here so..." Qüentin replied sarcastically.
"OH shoot yeah sorry sir. My bad," Peter helped remove the webs enclosing his body. After most of the webs were removed, Qüentin pulled out his phone and played one of his lofi acoustic songs. It sounded haunting but ethereal like a mix between Fleet Foxes and Frank ocean, lasting a good 7 minutes with a poetry break in the middle. To be honest, Peter couldn't get into it, but he nodded along politely.
"Hey, Mr. Bek. I'm not really—-I can't really, well, I don't think I get it but I'm sure there's a lot of people who would. Honestly, just put it on YouTube. I find so many things I never thought I'd like on there," Peter patted his shoulder reassuringly.
"You really think so?" Qüentin's hazel orbs glimmered with hope.
"Oh I know so," he grinned.
——
f r i d a y ( l a t e r t h a t n i g h t )
p a r i s, f r a n c e
Aiden tapped the microphone standing in front of him. "'Ello?" He asked his crowd of adoring stans. The crowd roared and he waited for it to die down before speaking.
"Thank you so much for coming tonight. I'm so so grateful for all of you for supporting me through the years, but I have to announce that... this will be my last concert," The crowd roared again and Aiden honestly couldn't tell what kind of reaction it was.
"But... let's not make this a sad night! I had an incredible week, and it's thanks to my new friends that I met in Rome. Also, I'd like you to please welcome my new friend, not rival, QÜENTIN BEK TO THE STAGE!!" Aiden gave a WOO and clapped as Qüentin rushed out from the curtain. His swoopy hair was artfully distraught and he wore his signature black leather jacket along with a transparent neon white guitar.
"Hello Paris!!" Qüentin shouted in his microphone. The crowd was even more wild. Qüentin caught the eye of Peter, Ned, and MJ in the top middle balcony and gave a quick nod. Peter waved, holding hands with MJ in his free hand.
"Well, first, I'd like to play some actual 1975 songs since some have, well, rightfully said that my songs are similar" Qüentin began strumming his guitar to the chords of Chocolate by the 1975.
"And then... I'd like to play some of my originals for the first time in front of a live audience!! How does that sound?" The group collectively roared in response.
"Ya know I'll just take that as a yes, then" Qüentin flipped his luscious metallic brown hair.
Hey now, call it a split, cause you know that you will
Oh you bite your friend like chocolate..."
The band kicked in with the rest of the instruments and the audience started clapping along in rhythm.
Aiden joined in at the chorus and bridge, looking genuinely happy to perform for the first time in his career. He waved to Peter in the balcony, and his American metallic brown haired twin waved back to him.
~~~
Author's note:
Thank you so much for reading!!! I started writing this in January 2019, and it's finally done. It was so much fun coming up with the characters with my sister and creating Aiden Earle. It was also fun to speculate what Mysterio would be like based on the first teaser trailer of Far From Home, but if he was an edgy pop star rival. Thank you again for reading this Wattpad parody that shall be my legacy for all of eternity.