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"Miguel!"
The man didn't even bother turning around. You were already swinging up to his platform. "Back already?"
You landed right next to him, already uploading the information you collected from your portal watch to his. "Yup."
He raised a brow at the influx of info on his screens. "You didn't cheat?"
Even with the mask on, he knew your face fell at that remark. "How do you even cheat in fixing anomalies?
"You always find a way."
"And you always find a mistake." You crossed your arms towards him, ready to go toe-to-toe with the man despite the height difference.
Miguel turned his body towards you, a flat expression on his face. "So, there is?"
You knew deep down he didn't mean it, but still, you pulled your mask off and blew a raspberry to his face. "Pfft. You suck."
Miguel chuckled. "Mature."
"Sure am. And you said if I come back around noon, you'll buy me lunch."
"I knew it. You rushed it."
You scoffed, feigning offense, despite your curled lips giving you away. "I did not! It went perfectly smooth no matter how much you bare your fangs at me."
Miguel's brows furrowed at that last part, consciously pursing his lips to hide his teeth, arms on his waist as he towered over you as you just stared back at him, feigning anger.
It wasn't until a few more seconds and a quiet 'you two are corny' from Lyla before Miguel finally broke, a small smile finally making its way to his lips.
"Alright, alright, dulzura. I'll get you your food."
In just a few words, you automatically brightened, basically perking from the mention of free food like nothing else matters.
"I don't know what that means but you had me at food."
Miguel smiled as he nodded... He really wished you never would.
And Jess, who was also there the entire time as someone who came with you and had something they also wanted to report to Miguel, just wished you both could see what everyone else clearly does, because this has gone far enough.
"Hey, hey."
"Lyla?" You and Miguel were both shocked to see the AI appear right just as you both sat at the cafeteria.
"The team led by Gwen came back," the AI answered, obviously highly amused. "You two might want to see it."
Lyla glanced at Miguel. "You more thought probably."
Without saying another thing, she disappeared, leaving everyone in the table in suspense, and right on character.
Miles basically jumped up from his seat. "Wait, what? What happened to Gwen? Is she okay?"
Miguel sighed, standing up from his spot on the table. "There's no distress call. I'm sure she's fine."
You stood right up, concerned. "I'll go with you."
"I'm coming too!"
Miguel just shook his head, lightly pushing down on your shoulder to make you sit back down. "No, you finish your food. I know you haven't eaten all day."
"And you," he glanced at Miles. "I don't care."
The boy nodded, already getting out of his seat, obviously now too stimulated by panic to get offended.
You let yourself be sat back down, your own worry still etched to your face as you look back up at the man. "I'll catch up."
Miguel nodded wordlessly, mind already occupied with whatever he would be faced with before he slid his tray over to yours.
"You eat this too."
With that, he left the table with a jumpy Miles bombarding him with questions and concerns that were all left basically ignored.
Back to the table though, Pav couldn't stop himself. "Aw, he even gave you his food! Romance still lives!"
Your concern immediately turned to embarrassment, blush climbing up your neck to your cheeks as you try to not think about what Pav was giggling about. "We're just friends."
"And I believe the government has our interest at heart.” Hobie leaned forward, waving his hand at you. “You ‘ear how that sounds?”
You only gave him a look as he chuckled, hand slowly reaching for the extra tray. "So when are you getting hitched?"
You quickly slapped his hand away from your food. "Shut up, Hobie."
"So where is it? I don't see a scene. Are you sure it's a multiversal threat?"
"Worse," Lyla sang, almost laughing, which just made Miguel more suspicious.
"Is it? Then why didn't Jess notify me personally? Didn't you notify her too?"
"And is Gwen okay?!" Miles interrupted, peeking from behind the massive shoulders of the man.
It only took a harsh glare from the side to get him to back off, although barely.
"Isn't it obvious? Because we want to surprise you."
Oh, he can already feel a headache coming in. "Seriously, Lyla. I'm not joking around-"
A small projection appeared in front of him of a familiar character.
"It's a Black Cat anomaly, tada~!!"
The man hummed as the one next to him just stared in utter confusion. Not the standard villain they get but not that rare. "Black Cat? Okay. What powers does she have?"
"Oh, just the normal Black Cat ones."
"Okay," he paused, unsure what he's missing. "So what did she do in the other dimension? Did she stop a canon event?"
"And is Gwen okay?!-"
"Por Dios, Miles!" Miguel snapped, already sick of the one hovering over his shoulder. "Let me do my job. Hm?"
Miles, basically unmoved, still on his toes just looking back at Miguel, ready to shamelessly as another question before his eyes finally found a familiar face behind the man.
"If you call snatching an arc reactor from Tony Stark's armory in Earth-7663 a canon event, then yes."
"Gwen!" Miles basically ran to the spider-woman and gave her a hug, making her laugh.
"Okay, so she didn't stop a canon event," Miguel pieced together, still trying to get to the bottom of the story. "Did you mess it up?"
Gwen snorted, waving him off. "Nope, she was collected and everything ended well."
"Okay? So, why call me?"
The smug smile Gwen had on just gave him more questions. The man just continued walking deeper towards the area where the anomalies are kept, towards the one who was convenient placed on the middle and on their own.
The prisoner's outline could be seen from afar and, even from the back, she was obviously a Black Cat variant, no doubt. Miguel didn't have spider-sense, but he knew something was wrong.
He asked again. "Why?" His feet just pushed him closer towards it as Gwen simply smiled and crossed her arms beside him.
"Because she looks like that."
And with that, the anomaly turned around, their eyes connecting as goosebumps appeared under his suit at the familiar face staring right back at him. Even if he had a mask on, Gwen doesn't think he could’ve hid the absolute shock plastered on his face right now.
And obviously, the anomaly herself was taken back, but for a completely different reason.
"Woah," the woman whistled, craning her head upwards with her hands placed on her hips, confidently staring back at the man. "Now, that's a big boy."
"[Y/N]."
Her eyes widened at the sudden mention of her name before a small smirk appeared on her lips. Miguel probably didn't even notice he said it.
The woman stepped forward, almost to the edge of her makeshift cage, smiled wide and tilted her head up at him, almost exactly as you just did before, giving Miguel strong deja vu. It almost made him step back, looking at her warily, but that just seemed to encourage her more.
"You're the one that runs this whole shittshow, huh?"
The tone you- she used made his face harden. But she already considered him as prey.
"You mind answering a few questions for lil 'ol me, Spidey?"
"I don't see the reason why you needed me for this. Just process her like every other anomaly. She's not special."
"Woah there, handsome. I'm right here. Better watch it." He's gonna ignore yo- her.
"Oh come on, Miguel." Gwen shook her head, wanting him to see it as fun as she does.
"You have your own counterparts in countless other universes. You already know how this works."
"I don't, would love to hear it."
"Yeah! But we haven't seen another one of Y/N yet!" Gwen insisted as she focused on Miguel but still obviously psyched. "You gotta admit it's pretty cool to see her like that."
"There's another me?"
Miguel turned his neck towards the one in the cage. "No. Stop interrupting." He looked back at the teen. "She's not [Y/N]."
"We didn't say she is," Gwen started as just Miles shrugged next to her. "Well, if you really think about it. She actually is [Y/N]. Just not your [Y/N], y'know."
His spider-senses acted up which made him automatically hide behind Gwen. "I mean our, our [Y/N]. Sorry, tío."
Miguel just clenched his jaw before taking a deep breath, trying to calm himself down. "Just process her return to her own dimension now."
"There's a line, y'know."
"Just do it."
With that, Miguel was already making his way back to the cafeteria, already deciding the situation out of his hands, pushing this stupid occurrence out of his mind because this was obviously going nowhere. Plus, if he's lucky and gets back fast enough, he'd probably still be able meet you on the way. You'd probably insist on sitting next to him for lunch until he's done even though you already finished your food like you've always had-
"I can't."
The man stopped right in his tracks. "Why not?"
Gwen sucked in her lips. "Because the machine says there's still two different dimensions in her person but I don't know what it is?"
And here was today's headache coming in. "Are you kidding me?"
"No! Jess hasn't trained me for stuff like that!... And you don't exactly tell me stuff."
You know what? You were right, this job really was taking years off of his life. It's almost funny how he could feel it happen. "It just means she probably has something from another dimension. Just take it from her."
Before he could even continue walking-
"We've tried that... She scratches."
With brows furrowed even deeper than before, Miguel followed Gwen's gaze back to the anomaly, who then tauntingly waved her own clawed gloves at the two. But the man was undeterred, instead looking exponentially more disappointed by the second.
"And the reason why you haven't done your job is because you're scared of a little scratch?" Miguel cleared, wanting the teenager to hear exactly what she just said to him.
"Don't you have web shooters? Are they just for decoration or what?"
"Wow, does he do that all the time?" The [Y/N] anomaly whistled, watching the entertaining scene unfold.
Miles snorted, also having a front row seat. "Be a prick? Yeah.."
"God, lucky you."
Miles just sent her a very confused glance.
On the other hand, instead of replying, Gwen simply motioned for Miguel to try himself.
With a small sigh, Miguel started making his way back to y- no, her platform.
"Oh, are we done pretending I wasn't here the entire time?"
Miguel was already mentally opting out of this situation. "Just give it. Whatever it is. We'll find it anyway."
The woman looked up, grinning like the cat that ate the canary. "Only if you shout at me next."
His face was emotionless, sporting his signature resting bitch face, but his mind was going at it. She's not you. She's someone else. She just has the same face. Hold it the fuck together, pendejo. "You're not funny."
"Oh, I wasn't hoping on making you laugh, big boy."
He pursed his lips, she was quick at replying, just like y- She's not you. She's not you. She's not you. "Don't make this harder than it has to be."
"But that's where I'm good at?" She moaned. He flinched.
As hard as he tried, there was one thing a Black Cat was good at, and that was provoking Spider-Man. Plus, it was obvious she had an effect on him and the worst part was that she could see that. This man never stood a chance.
"Lyla! Do a full body scan."
"Can't."
Miguel turned to her. "Why?"
The AI just shrugged. "Something's jamming our scanners."
He can't even believe what he's hearing. "What?"
"The [Y/N]'s right there. I'm sure she won't mind answering your question."
"No, can you just figure out-" "Have fun~" and she was gone. That AI was having too much fun with this. He's really ought to do some reprogramming.
The man sighed, utterly defeated by this whole thing. This Black Cat was increasingly becoming the most troublesome anomaly he's had in weeks.
"Did you engineer something?"
The woman in question only kept twirling her hair around her finger. "No. But I know where a good one lives. Nice guy. Always keeps his windows open."
Yeah, that would explain it. He sighed. Alright, it's better to just do his job and get this over with.
Without any warning, he pressed a button on his watch, and multiple webs reached towards her limbs, effectively rendering her unable to move.
"Hey!"
"Aren't you a gentleman?" The [Y/N] anomaly spat out, but it fell to deaf ears as the digital red walls of the cage went down. Miguel stepped up and manually started a tracker, basically just waving a techy metal detector that can detect different universe codes around the villain.
He was being thorough, but it was obvious how much he was avoiding something. His hands never even touched y- her. God, he has to really mind that difference.
In his thoughts, he unwittingly pressed the button to spin her, letting the web be the one to turn her when it caught her hair.
"Ow! That hurt!"
Miguel immediately stopped on instinct, some of the webs retracting as the familiarity of that voice got to him first.
The woman in front of him huffed, side-eying the man. "Gentle, spidey..."
The man blinked. "...Sorry."
She suppressed her smirk. Now, that's the Spider-Man she knows, apologizing to a thief for going too hard. She knew what to do.
"So, you have your own [Y/N], huh? What she like?"
"Nothing like you," he muttered, going back with his tracker, but noticeably gentler this time.
"Oh? So this is pretty exciting for you then, huh?"
He didn't answer.
"Well, it is for me. I had a little spider in my world too. He's much nicer than you though."
He kept quiet, now slowly fully turning her around from him to inspect the back of her belt.
"But that's okay."
Her claws suddenly elongated, somehow easily slashing Miguel's remaining digital webs as she whipped herself around, grabbing him close and facing the massive man in front of her by the shoulders.
"Who doesn't like a nice change of pace?"
His eyes widened as the kneejerk reaction he was accustomed to didn't kick in fast enough that Black Cat even had time to raise her brow. But he couldn't help it, this was the closest he’s ever gotten to yo-NO
He practically jumped back down from the platform in a second- and oh, look at his face. Aw, he's blushing.
[Y/N], in her absolute delight, couldn't stop the grin on her face. "You're fun."
Miguel didn't even blink before he just turned around, barely even facing Gwen and Miles. "There's nothing on her. Get her out of here."
The anomaly was left there, high and dry. "That's it? Don't I get a say in this?"
"No!" Miguel snapped as he turned back at her. But it was another mistake.
"Woah, are those fangs?"
He quickly covered his mouth, but she already saw. "Oh my, do you use those for fighting? Please tell me not exclusively," she purred, fully enjoying the reaction she's pulling out of the man.
"What's wrong with you?" Miles whispered at the side.
"If you force her back like this, she might get sent back in the dimension we just took her from," Gwen pointed out but Miguel had already began to walk away.
"Just do as I say!"
And with that, he left, leaving the three on their own with not much instructions to go off of.
"Woah. He shouts loud," [Y/N] whispered, staring at the man's back as he go.
Miles nodded, being the receiving end of many of those shouts. "Oh, yeah. He's intense 24/7."
"Really? Fuck, I'll pay to see that again."
Gwen snorted while Miles just squinted his eyes at her. "Seriously. What is wrong with you?"
"Nope. She's still in there."
Miguel hissed, "they didn't do as I say, figures."
He could only shake his head as he continued walking away, no matter how much he tried, he couldn't stop thinking about it. Of course, he had to be the one to fix everything after all.
"They need to get her back before [Y/N] sees."
"Before I see who?"
Miguel flinched as you appeared right in front of him with no warning, right next to an amused Jess, no doubt just waiting to ridicule him later for being able to sneak up on him again.
"You're done eating..." Miguel tried to calm himself down as he lowered his voice. "Did you-the new, uh- was it good?"
Jess almost wanted to applaud how pathetically fast the man tried to distract you and how awful it went. But then again, this was you they were talking about.
"Yeah, it was great... and then I met Jess on the way because we heard there was a commotion in the- are you good? You look pale."
You reached out your hand towards the man's arm in concern. If anyone could see himself right now, they would think he was normal, as serious as he was all the time, but you knew better.
"What's wrong?"
Even Jess crossed her arms. "You got to tell us, we can't help if you don't talk."
He's basically cornered. "It's nothing, not a big deal."
"Yeah, it's not a big deal," Jess agreed before taking her phone out and snapping a pic, chuckling to herself. "But it sure is something."
As the pregnant woman continued to take pictures and whisper about how her husband was going to love this. You were left to stare in awe from afar as you watched that particular anomaly inside the meticulous digital cage. She really was just like you. "I've never seen one of... me before."
"Is there a reason why she's still here?"
Now, that was an abrupt question you had no business suddenly thinking of, it caught the man with nothing to say. "It's, uh, complicated."
Miles poked his head from Gwen's side with no prior thinking. "That's because Miguel couldn't-"
A scarlet web blocked the teenager's mouth as Miguel just clenched his jaw, whispering under his teeth, "chico estúpido."
But you already heard it. "You couldn't what?"
The man merely straightened his back, practically pretending nothing happened as he kept his neutral face on. "Nothing. The kid just hasn't eaten anything, he's delusional."
"The Black Cat anomaly just has something from another universe and she wouldn't give it up."
You nodded, finally understanding. There have been some cases just like that, some anomalies wanted to be stubborn to the very end, but it was normally fixed right away. You couldn't help but wonder what was the problem this time.
"Should I?" You asked, offering to help.
You can see that Miguel wanted to say something else, perhaps thinking of a reason to say no, but there's wasn't any. Add to the fact that he could feel the gaze of every other spider-person in the vicinity.
"Might as well," he sighed. "On my signal."
With that, you followed Miguel towards that your variant.
"This would be good," Jess whispered next to Miles and Gwen who both knew that they would be watching something good.
"Ready for round two, big boy?"
You cringed as you stopped a few steps behind Miguel, feeling your spider-senses reach to overdrive just from how eerie it was hearing your own voice come from another person’s mouth.
"Are you really gonna be this stubborn? This is for your own good, you know."
"Oh, you bet."
Miguel frowned deeper as the variant giggled, amused. Just from his reaction, it was obvious that this one might actually be the most troublesome version of Black Cat they've ever had, the fact that she shared your face was becoming a separate thing.
"Careful," the woman sang.
"The last time someone looked at me like that, I accidentally had my suit on backwards after," she purred.
Miguel's jaw hardened as yours practically fell from its hinges. In your eyes, the variant was basically asking for death at this point. On the other hand, Miguel was already done with it. "You're really enjoying this, huh?"
"Could you blame me?"
From this distance, you could see how mad Miguel was starting to get. You didn't want him to be stressed out even more than he already is, especially when the person responsible for it shared the same face as you.
Unbeknownst to you, everyone who had the privilege of watching this entire exchange all had the same thoughts, that if it was anyone else, absolutely anyone else's own anomaly, they'd never even be allowed to get this far, but no one was going to tell you that. Instead, they let you walk up to Miguel yourself.
"Miguel, I'll take it from here."
Once you finally got close enough, the anomaly finally had a good look at the new character and found the same face staring back at her. She couldn't even hide her surprise behind that eye mask she was wearing.
"Woah, now I get why your guy was wriggling so much. We look practically identical."
The serious frown on Miguel’s face fell the moment he was caught off guard. "What? No, I wasn't."
"Oh yes, you were."
You turned over to him. "You were?"
He clenched his jaw at the other version of you, uncharacteristically stiff, more or less avoiding your gaze. "No. I'm calm, virtually unaffected by you."
"Sure, baby."
"I'm not. I've handled hundreds of you."
The other [Y/N] merely tilted her head forward. "Then I'll make sure our time will be memorable."
You thought you had seen everything, but seeing the blush slowly creep up the man's face turned something in your stomach. You've never personally pulled such a reaction from Miguel before, as far as you know at least. Before you knew it, you had already stepped forward.
"I'll handle this. Go."
From your light touch, Miguel wordlessly stepped back, hearing the somewhat serious tone laced in your words. But he kept relatively close, just incase you'd need help.
With that, you were finally alone with your variant. The longer you look at each other, the more the differences started to show. Before it was a mirror, now you were just two different people facing each other.
You started off with a smile.
"Hi. We probably got off on the wrong foot. I know this is confusing but we just want to get you back home. If you don't give up the item you took from another dimension, you might be forced back there again. So why don't we just help each other out?"
You basically offered up a helping hand, but instead, all you received was a judgmental stare down as the anomaly basically sized you up, thoroughly unimpressed.
"Did someone assign you those colors or did you pick them?"
"No? I picked them...? I made it myself?" Now you were just confused, staring down at your red suit that had bright blue colored web designs all over. You knew it was much simpler than a lot of other spider-people’s attire out there, but you really liked how it looked for you. And what did it have to do with anything?
"Seriously? Just red and blue?"
You nodded. "Yeah!... why?"
Now she just looked... disgusted. "Did nobody here love you enough to tell you that's not our color?"
The smile you had on fell from your face. "N-No, I had it before I came here... I liked it, so I just kept it."
"Hmm.." She took a step back inside already cramp platform she was in to let her eyes linger at you for a second more, still analyzing your suit before they inevitably fell to someone behind you with a similar color palette. Oh, now it made sense.
She smirked. "I'm sure you did."
That rubbed you off the wrong way, the excitement of seeing your face on another had already disappeared. You were already over dealing with mean girls back in high school.
"Can't say I didn't try being good cop."
You shot webs towards her hands, tying them together, effectively rendering her claws pointless. You then turned her around before starting a standard pat-down. From the angry hiss you heard, you knew your guest didn't appreciate that.
"Get your hands off of me while I'm playing nice, not even your boss there tried to touch me."
This was your turn to chuckle. "Go ahead, I have a lot of self-hatred I won't mind satisfying right now."
She barked out a laugh. "Ooh. Shall we pick a safeword? Mine will be 'I'll tear your fucking head off'."
You didn't reply, and just continued what you were doing. Somehow, that might've been the correct choice because you heard a quiet huff shortly after. "Fine. Help yourself. I really don't have anything, your scanners are just shit."
You hummed, accepting that response as a makeshift agreement. But the cold shoulder might have worked too well because your anomaly had put her attention to someone else.
"I'm sure this is doing something for you."
You didn't even have to check who she was talking so cheekily to. You knew who seemed like the easiest one to tease.
"This must be answering a lot of fantasies of yours, huh? Two for one special?"
Miguel started coughing as your eyes widened at the remark. You could even heard Lyla laughing in the background.
Hobie joined the laughter, completely ignoring the vibe of the room. "A real professional piss taker, this one."
Miguel turned around, taken back by the sudden crowd that had already formed behind him. "When did you all get here?!"
Hobie just shrugged. "Followed the path of chaos and it brought me 'ere."
Meanwhile, Pav supplied by his side, "Lyla called us."
It was almost impressive how defeated Miguel felt by every passing second. "Of course she did."
"Can you stop that?" You snapped, but it barely did anything to her as all of this just brought the variant's attention back at you.
"So you're the [Y/N] I've been hearing all about, huh? And you're also the spidey from your world?"
After a short while of silence, she hummed. "Not talking? I thought Spider-Man was supposed to be talkative."
"I'm not into fan service."
Oh now, if you were anything the same, even if you were from different universes, she knew that part couldn't be further from the truth. "Oh, really? Not even to that tall glass of water over there?"
Again, you didn't have to check who.
"God, just his existence is pure fan service. Like seriously, is that suit painted on?"
Even you couldn't deny that. "I think that too sometimes."
The woman chuckled, no doubt, her eyes glossing all over the man as if he wasn't standing right there. "So what's the deal between the two of you?"
Your hands flinched from patting down her shoes. "What? Nothing. There's no deal."
"Nothing?" She snorted, even looking down at you for the moment just to raise her brow. "Honey, I've been here ten minutes, nothing is not what's here."
You just shook the thought off, standing up in front of her as you started to pat her sleeves down. "We're just friends. Coworkers, that's all."
Just from the expression she gave you, you knew what it was in her head. The woman can already see through this whole bullshit.
"[Y/N], Look," she emphasize, trying to catch your eyes, sounding the most genuine than she's ever been this entire time.
"I'm sure being sweet is good. But a little spice wouldn't hurt."
You stopped. "What are you talking about?"
"C'mon, you obviously have something for him-" "No, I don't."
The [Y/N] anomaly huffed again, jutting her hips out as you felt like her eyes basically judged your entire life.
"That nice and friendly coworker approach you're doing's not going to get you anywhere," she said almost like it was painfully obvious, like she already knew that that was what you were doing the entire time. You felt seen in what might be the most horrible way.
You were genuine to Miguel. Everything you've shown him was real and not just some approach to get in his good graces, at least that's what you've worked towards. And you thought the kindness he's shown you was a result of that friendship you've formed. Whatever you felt bloom within yourself was a separate thing. You didn't want to ruin what you already had. But obviously, your variant had other plans. “[Y/N].”
"Seriously, the stick exists to poke the bear. Use it."
You snorted out a laugh as her words brought you out of your thoughts, shaking your head. "God, you should talk to Hobie."
Then it hit you. "Wait, no no no. I'm supposed to be taking something from you!" You almost shouted at her who still had an unimpressed look on her face.
You paid her no mind as you began to panic, looking all over at her, completely lost at where else she could've hid whatever she had. "Where the hell did you hide it?!"
Instead of moving away from your panicking hands, all while still webbed up, she squeezed your shoulders, making you look directly at her.
"Be confident it," she spat, serious. "Don't run from it."
You leaned away, somewhat bit offended. "I'm not running."
"Then don't just smile at him." She widened her eyes, the pat-down situation somehow turning into a makeshift intervention on your part. "Look at him like you mean it."
"Mean what?"
She looks like she's ready to skin you. "Do I have to spell it out for you?!"
You opened your mouth, and maybe you two actually do kind of know each other, because she automatically groaned and shook you by the shoulders. Why couldn't you see she was doing you a favor here? How clueless could you be? You really were Spider-Man here.
"For fuck’s sake, make a damn move. Watch the signs. You can’t be that dumb, you'll get it. Just look him in the eyes, okay?" She sighed as you listened to her, her head tilting to look at the man behind you.
"Those angry, angry eyes on that face, on those shoulders- ooh, those shoulders and, ugh, care to tell me what those fangs feel like?"
You pulled away. "Okay. You're done."
What she has been saying before might have had some credit, but she got distracted. To be fair, that was on character for you both.
"Woah, honey. I thought you'd be funny since you're a spider-man here. Did I hit a nerve?"
You gave her an empty stare. "Fine. Leave your number and I'll text you the next time I get to be his blood bag."
Her eyes widened. "He does that?!"
"No!"
By your shout, you instantly felt a large presence behind you. By the automatic smirk on your variant's face, he must've heard your sudden change of tone.
"What? What's wrong?" Miguel asked, looking over it you, forehead furrowed deeply as he checked you for injuries despite the perpetrator still restrained by your webs.
Before you could reply, she beat you to it, leaning over towards the man.
"Nothing. [Y/N] and [Y/N] here were just having a sweet little chat among ourselves, vampy-"
You shot a web towards her mask, harshly removing it from her face that it almost caused her to fall over. "Ass! How dare you!"
Before Miguel could ask why you did that, you turned over the leather eye mask to reveal a lot of wires and technical stuff hidden behind it, and at the corner, there was a small trinket attached.
"It's in her mask."
You took the item from the mask before discarding it to the floor, looking over the trinket that had a different style and you automatically knew finally found it.
"That's a nanobot. From Earth-7663," Miguel muttered in awe before glancing at the infuriated Black Cat. The woman only shrugged. "How'd that get in there?"
Miguel chuckled, pinching the item from your hand. "How'd you know it was behind her mask?"
You smiled as you shrugged as if you didn't want to reveal your secret ways. But if you were being honest, it was either that or an undercarriage check left. So technically, the both of you was lucky.
"I'm sure that billionaire wouldn't have missed the one."
"He won't, but you would." Cause if Miguel was correct, the universe that this [Y/N] came from didn't have this type of technology yet. So if she was able to bring this home to her universe and introduce it herself, that would've been a game changer.
You nodded at Miguel's comment as you inwardly enjoyed the irritated expression on your cheeky variant's face as she was escorted off the container platform by other spideys. "Guess it's not your lucky day, Black Cat."
She scoffed. "I've heard better from my own Spider-Man."
You shrugged, still feeling accomplished. Everyone was a critic.
"Great, now get her out of here," Miguel told as the others nodded, bringing her towards the middle of the travel area for the Go Home Machine.
Pavitr took the eye mask that was discarded earlier and approached the variant with it in hand. "Oh, here's your mask back."
"How sweet. Thanks, spidey," she took the object gratefully with her hands as she smiled at the polite spider-man, lightly touching his chin with a single finger. "You're a real cute thing, aren't you?"
The boy was practically paralyzed. "Uh.... I have a girlfriend!"
"That's enough from you," Miguel called out before realizing what was wrong.
"Hold on a second." He pointed as both of your eyes widened at the scene. "When did you get the webs removed?"
It was a marvel how no one's spider-senses tingled once the villain was out of their restraints. But that was maybe because she wasn't going to attack anyone, but Miguel's instincts said otherwise. But by then, she was already putting back her mask on and activating it.
"No no no! Don't let her do anything!"
"Oh my god, you're naked under there?" She piped out, masked eyes trained directly at Miguel as a wide grin appeared on her face. "You go full on commando under that suit seriously? Not even underwear?"
The silence that followed was deafening, there was no sound other than that giggling of a villain that shared the same voice as yours. Even you were speechless.
"No shame," she teased, holding on to her engineered mask, seeing through what the man was hiding. He shouldn't have trusted holograms so much. "So do I sometimes under this catsuit."
"But try silk next time. Feels the same but with the small comfort of not accidentally flashing your friends." She winked as Miguel tried everything in him not to react. He could feel you staring holes by his side.
"Man, you really full naked under there?" Hobie asked, half amused and half disgusted.
"I'm gonna be sick," Gwen gulped, face turning sour while Miles just confusedly squinted his eyes. "Cats have x-ray vision??"
Miguel pinched the bridge of his nose. "[Y/N], get her out of here please."
You side-eyed the man, but he kept his eyes from you. You even tried to sneak a glance at his lower body and he flinched, now angrily looking at you.
You put that in the back of your head. You'd ask more of that later.
"Come on," you offered as you held the variant's arm as she blew a kiss to Miguel. Okay now, it was starting to be funny.
You held her close to you before you swung towards the Go Home Machine's transport platform. "This will put you back in your world. Just sit still and you'd be back before you know it."
Before you could swing out, the variant grabbed your arm, surprisingly bypassing your senses.
"Hey! What are you-"
"Last piece of advice before I go, girly."
You could’ve easily freed yourself from her grip, but you remained. There was something in her eyes that was different, a look you haven't seen in the entire time she was here. She was serious. "Guys like that are only good for the night. The one night he goes home, at least."
"Because everything and everyone matters more than you to him. That mask will always be more important."
She eased her hold on you, but the harshness in her gaze remained. "You'll get tired of just being an option."
"He'll always choose to save the world than be with you. He's great, but don't take it to heart." With that, she finally let go of your hand, a whisper of sadness flashing across her features for a second as she looked directly at you, as if wanting to warn a fellow sister of the dangers ahead.
You were about to reply when a wide smirk reached her lips again.
"So, just hit it and quit it, okay?"
The sudden change of emotion on her face hit you like a whiplash as the woman continued to grin at you. "Have fun and make good choices!!"
Before you can even process that interaction, she already looked beyond your shoulder. "You can beam me back to my world now, handsome! My job here is done!"
Still feeling like something's wrong, the woman sharing your face just winked. Even without asking, you knew you wouldn't get anymore from her.
You landed back behind the controls besides spider-byte, watching as the giant mechanical spider do its work, doing your best not to look at anyone as you did.
Your variant wouldn't have known that, even with a low voice, the entire gang of spider-people could've heard her.
Or maybe she did know and did it on purpose. That seemed like the type of thing she'd do. They could only wonder what her own Spider-Man did to her to warrant such a reaction.
You felt the presence of another come closer behind you. Miguel didn't say a word which just confirmed your thoughts. He heard.
"Bye, spideys~~"
The woman waved with a confident smile as the Go Home mechanical spider webbed her portal together, but the sight of a certain familiar item that was now around her wrist alarmed a certain spider. "Wait..." Pavitr squinted his eyes.
"Are those my bangles!?"
"She's a real riot, that one." Hobie nodded in respect.
"Yeah, she's pretty cool," Miles agreed.
"Won't mind visiting her again," Gwen added.
"She's got my web bangles!!!"
"Heh, wicked."
"I respect her hustle."
"I really like her."
The poor boy was already panicking, jumping up and down at the place as he could only hopelessly watch as his gold bangles get transported. "Not me! Those are from my auntie! Jess! Miguel! Something! Do something!"
With a quick bright light, the woman disappeared from the platform, back in the safety of her own world. Now that the show was over, everyone started to go back to their own stations, and so were the two of you.
"Well, that's the end of that."
Miguel glanced right back at you, trying to make small talk, but instead he saw how occupied you were. He understood.
"I know it's weird to meet another version of yourself," he started, earning your attention. "But I promise you you'll get used to it-
"So do you really have nothing on?"
The man felt a full body cringe. "What?! No! Dios, no! [Y/N]!"
His neck snapped back towards you, fangs in full display, face hardening when he saw how entertained you look. He took in a deep breath.
"I have something. F-For that part, of course, why would you even- fuck. I'm never going to forget this, am I? I have underwear on, okay?" He stated, but you only laughed, a happy smile on your face as if nothing happened. "Oh, okay."
"Seriously."
"I trust you." You nodded again, simply smiling at his irritation as he huffed, knowing full well you'd probably store this in your head to use someday to tease h-
"Do you think I should change my suit?"
His attention snapped back towards you, seeing you face him with a smaller smile on your face as you explained, pinching your suit between your fingers. "My variant said red and blue wasn't my color."
Miguel blinked, eyes slightly widened, a bit confused. "What? No no no. It's great. You look great. You're..."
You both stopped walking, eyes connected as Miguel's brain continued to tune out from the conversation. "You’re just... perfect."
The man blinked as he continued to stare back at you, brain seemingly empty of any thoughts, like he wanted to say more but couldn't come up with anything. His eyes seemed softer than they have ever been before but the thing was that they have always been like that. He had always looked at you like tha- oh.
Your own expression slowly dulled as the realization set in your head. Oh my God, this really is happening. He likes you too.
Before you could erupt to a full-blown freakout, the man cleared his throat. "No need to change. Plus we have the same colors. If you change, I'll probably have to...too."
"Since you know- we have the same- uh. No- just-"
"I get it." You nodded, trying not to show how warm your face was starting to feel. The idea of him actually liking you back was like butterflies in your tummy. You could only bite the inside of your cheek to stop yourself from grinning too much.
"Thank you, Miguel."
If that small freakout of his wasn't clear and heart attack-inducing enough for you, he quieted down, causing you to follow, still looking up at the man in confusion. But it didn't last long.
"What she said wasn't true, [Y/N]. You matter to me, more than you know. Please believe that."
You wished you had your mask on, because you knew that your thoughts were leaking out to your face. But even that wasn't enough to bother you anymore.
A hopeful smile made its way to your lips and the thought thoroughly settled in you. Oh wow, he really does like you too. "I know. Me too."
He smiled back softly, relieved to have finally told you, before he fixed his face, pursing his lips as he nodded. "Great- just wanted to clear that out. We should probably go back to work now-
His stomach growled, particularly loud. You bit the inside of your cheek not to laugh. "Hungry?"
He faced you. "Do you wanna go eat?" His face dropped. "Oh, right you just-and I gave you my-"
"I could eat."
He turned back to you, surprised, but so were you of the words that just jumped out your mouth.
"Really?"
You blinked, sucking your lips in as you stepped forward, unsure exactly where this spurt of confidence was coming from, but you were already at this point, might as well commit. Plus, like she said, just a little spice.
"There's this restaurant Peter said he and MJ goes to every month. Apparently it's really, really good. Said the food there is half the reason their relationship got so good."
You took another step forward, craning your head to look up at the man, willing yourself not to break his gaze as you held your breath. Look at him like you mean it.
"I'm sure it wouldn't be a big problem if we just spent an hour or two there, right?"
Another version of you might have the an idea of how this would go but you have a different everything than hers. She didn't know Miguel and you did. And you'll make your own choices, starting with this one.
"Right? Miguel?"
The frown once imbedded deep in his forehead was now long gone as he looked at you in pure surprise. He thought about this many times before. How to ask you, where to ask you, and even went as far to ask why. He had wondered for days end what you were gonna say back when he finally asks, but he had never readied himself for what to say if you're the one to do it.
He took his time to the point that you could almost see the gears turning in his head, eyes glossing over. You almost wondered if he was monologuing in his head.
You just lifted your brows, wordlessly asking one more time before you start freaking out and taking it back when-
"...I'm sure the multiverse can handle one night."
A wide smile reached your lips as your remaining brain cells did everything to stop your inner voice from going 'SUCCESS HOLY SHIT'. It actually fucking happened.
You nodded, immensely satisfied. "So change then meet back here in 20? That good?"
Miguel could only stare, lightly nodding. "Yeah, that's great. 20 secon- minutes. Yeah, perfect."
"Great! See you, Miguel!"
And with one last smile, you gave the man one last happy wave before you touched the multiverse watch on your wrist for your own universe and backflipped to the portal behind you, ready to raid your closet for anything of substance for your first date.
"I think I just witnessed a miracle," Gwen gasped, still watching in disbelief.
"Pretty sure that was a canon event right there," Hobie chuckled.
"Wait, they weren't already dating?" Miles wondered.
"MY BANGLE WEB-SLINGERS!"
"Hey!" Jess shouted, basically waking Miguel out of his trance as she basically appeared right in front of him.
But even with that, he still seemed to be in a state of disbelief. The magnitude of the situation haven't really set in his head yet. "Did that... really just happen?"
Jess let out a small laugh. "It did. Now are you just gonna stand there like a dead fish?"
Miguel blinked, looking at her like a lost child when she just tsked. "You only got 20 minutes, idiot. Go change!"
Lyla suddenly appeared on top of Jess's shoulder, grinning like the devil before showing a small clock in front of his face.
"Actually, he's got 18 and half left."
He wasn't particularly proud of dead sprint he did to get to his room in record time, but you didn't need to know that. He didn't even have any proper clothes to use, he'd probably have to swing by the nearest shop to find anything passable. But the one thing he is sure of is that he can't wait to meet you again. Time couldn’t go any faster.
"Peter, relax. It's our night."
"I know, I know, MJ, and I'm sorry I'm really trying-"
"It might not even be them. If it were, they'd probably come up here and tell you why they're here."
Peter almost pounced at her. "Right! That's what they'll do! Especially Miguel since he's a stickler for these things. But they haven't! So that means it probably isn't them- BUT I KNOW IT'S THEM CAUSE WHO ELSE CAN IT BE. I JUST WANT TO KNOW WHY THEY'RE HERE."
He bit his fist, knee bouncing in anxiety. "I mean, is it an anomaly? Is there something that's gonna happen here? But why isn't my senses working??... Unless is it me personally? Oh my god, you're probably in danger- MJ, you should go-"
"Sigh. Peter."
Meanwhile on another table...
"When you said Peter comes to this restaurant... I didn't think you meant right now."
"I didn't know he'd be here!"
Miguel raised a brow, fixing the sleeve of his brand new dress shirt up to his forearm. "Why'd you think he wasn't in the headquarters?"
"Mayday? Mission? Absolutely anything? I don't know?" You shrugged, thinking you had just ruined everything. You knew you shouldn't have jumped it.
"Do you regret going with me?"
His brow furrowed as he took a sip from his glass. He looked a bit offended you'd even ask that before, well, you could swear you saw his eyes glinting with mischief.
"Are you kidding? Cariño, you got us free entertainment. Watch."
He lifted his glass above his shoulder and tapped it slowly twice on the rim before placing it back on the table.
Before you could ask what that was for, he raised a finger to wait and-
"WHAT," a loud voice boomed in the restaurant. Out of the corner of your eye, you could see him. "I know it's you Miguel! I can see [Y/N] right here! What are you two doing here?! AND WHAT DID THAT MEAN?!"
"Oh my god." you covered your mouth, eyes wide at Miguel who just had an amused smug smirk on his face. "Yeah."
"-SERIOUSLY! WHY! JUST TELL ME WHAT'S HAPPENING! GOD, I'M GOING CRAZY HERE!"
"Peter! Sit down! He was just asking for water!"
The realization finally hit as the giggles started to erupt from deep within you with Miguel following your laughs shortly after. Oh, this would be best date ever.