Chapter Text
‘Tired’, is the word that keeps replaying in Miles’ mind during his walk home. Purple and pink hues filled the sky as he listens to his curated playlist made specifically for times like these. After nearly missing the deadlines for most of his assignments plus all that studying for his finals really made him appreciate all of this more, a moment of pure solitude and peace.
Once he stepped foot inside his house, Rio and Jeff immediately surrounded him and shouted praises like “well done!” and “I’m proud of you!” to him. They had heard from Miles’ roommate, Ganke, that it was a hell week for him and decided to take a break by visiting them. So, like the good parents they were, they decided to surprise him with a big dinner party with all his favorite food.
“Just what I needed.” he thought to himself.
Miles used the opportunity to catch up with his parents, he talked about anything really, from crazy things teachers have said to the demanding tasks he had to do in one day (minus the spider stuff of course), all the while Miles was engulfing all the food that his mom made. Afterwards, he helped clean up and then headed upstairs to have some time to himself. He had a lot of free time now that everything was finished.
Miles felt so free at that moment, free of all responsibilities. With headphones around his head once again, he laid on his childhood bed that was way too small for him now. A wave of content filled his body.
But man, the song that was playing was too loud for his taste.
He turned to grab his phone to change it, but something caught his eye. A sketchbook on his desk, plastered with various stickers and graffiti designs with worn-out edges that made it look like he had had it for years despite it being fairly new.
He paused and took off his headphones.
Suddenly, fond memories of his spider-friends fighting alongside him rushed to his mind, how they helped him get over his fear of being unworthy as a superhero, how his mentor Peter B. continuously supported him all the way even with hesitation, how he was beside Gwen. They left so quickly after all. He remembered how he coped with it all by drawing them whenever he could.
That wave of content earlier was being washed away by the second as Miles remembered every single moment with them, little by little, he sat up and grabbed the sketchbook and flipped through its pages. He saw old drawings of them in different poses and situations accompanied by graffiti.
He felt so,
So,
Alone.
He now wishes that he could have spent the day with them. He wished that he got to talk about life with them. Experienced his teenage years along with them. How he would give everything, even dedicate his entire future to finding them, for another shot at being together once more.
He took a marker into his hands and wrote on each one of these pages,
“I miss you.”
Miles went back to bed and tried to focus on the music, but it didn’t work. He changed it to something more upbeat and happy, but that feeling of longing and loneliness never faded away.
A voice rang through Miles’ head saying,
“They never forgot you, right?”
He tried to suppress his thoughts by throwing his headphones aside, closing his eyes and deciding to get some sleep.
“I’m just tired, is all,” he tried to convince himself.
But it seems that doing so made it way more challenging to ignore.
Instantly, he saw vivid images of his past, one by one flashbacks to his time with all of them was running through his head like a projector but at the same time he felt like he was reliving them again.
All the pain, anger, grief, courage, and danger Miles faced, all of them felt like it only occurred yesterday, at least in those memories.
Oh right, he was supposed to be sleeping.
While combating his own mind, Miles was suddenly shocked by a bright multi-colored light that pierced his sight. He opened his eyes again to see what was in front of him. An array of orange, violet, and blue colors twirled around into a hexagon-like shape, it formed a portal is what Miles deduced. It looked digital almost, he noticed that it was…glitching?
It looked so out of place that he immediately snapped back to reality, and he thought he had already seen weird shit when he was crimefighting.
Although he wanted to study it for longer, he was stopped in his imaginary tracks when a familiar face popped out. A face that he wanted to see for so long.
“You got a minute?”