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Miles always knew his personal life was going to take a hit with his Spider-Man duties. But he didn’t really know it would lead to this. Expecting infinite patience when he tried to make it up… that wasn’t the best move, but crimefighting waits for nobody, so he just went with it.
"Baby, please-“
"Please what? We’re both out of excuses, and I can’t do it anymore! I love you, Miles, but this can’t work like you seem to think it can."
That was the last time you two had spoken. He didn’t remember who said that the relationship was over, but it didn’t matter. He was never getting you back.
As he swung through the city, he listened to music like always. Post Malone, Vince Staples, Blackway, all these artists were people he heard before you. But you left your mark on his playlist too. He was neutral at best about Bruno Mars before, it just wasn’t something he cared about enough to actively seek out. But you loved Bruno Mars, and now he can only think of you when he’s on the radio. And his Topsify seems to know this, and the next song that plays is "When I Was Your Man."
"Same bed but it feels just a little bit bigger now
Our song on the radio but it don’t sound the same
When our friends talk about you
All it does is just tear me down
‘Cause my heart breaks a little
When I hear your name"
Well if that wasn’t fitting. You two ran in the same circles, and it’s visibly painful for both of you whenever the other is around. He wants so badly to run into your arms again, but he can’t. You’d never forgive him after what happened.
"It all just sounds like ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh
Mmm, too young, too dumb to realize
That I should’ve bought you flowers
And held your hand
Should’ve gave you all my hours
When I had the chance
Take you to every party
‘Cause all you wanted to do was dance
Now my baby’s dancing
But she’s dancing with another man"
How many of your events had he missed? Competitions, performances, awards… He couldn’t balance Spider-Man and being Miles as well as he thought he could, and now his chickens have come home to roost. "This is pathetic," he thinks to himself, and he swings towards that skyscraper with the lion heads, where he always goes to think.
As he swings, the song continues.
"My pride, my ego, my needs, and my selfish ways
Caused a good strong woman like you
To walk out my life
Now I never, never get to clean up the mess I made
And it haunts me every time I close my eyes”
At the top of the skyscraper, he takes off his mask and just… breathes. God, could he sink any lower? Yeah, yeah he could, and his sketchbook proves it. Everything is all mixed up, gadget ideas next to grocery reminders and pictures of your smile. It was a really nice smile, one that he didn’t get to see much when he’s too busy saving Brooklyn. It’s a small miracle your face isn’t on a wall somewhere, that smile forever painted on some subway wall or something, honestly.
”It all just sounds like ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh
Mmm, too young, too dumb to realize
That I should’ve bought you flowers
And held your hand
Should’ve gave you all my hours
When I had the chance”
Would telling you that he was Spider-Man have saved the relationship? Or would you still feel blown off and unappreciated? Young and dumb, that sounds about right. Dumb enough to think anything would be easy, especially after that bite. Ever since, it’s day in, day out, the city is in danger while his schooling suffers and his loved ones feel abandoned. He wanted to be an astrophysicist, and now college feels like a pipe dream. How can he expect to do labs in Jersey if he’s always running back home because Doc Ock is weaponizing her higher education again?
”Take you to every party
‘Cause all you wanted to do was dance
Now my baby’s dancing
But she’s dancing with another man"
Dancing. Fuck, out of all the things he missed, the recitals hit the worst. You spend nine months working your ass off to show the worlds above and below how good you are at what you love and he misses it? The recordings aren’t the same.
It’s beautiful, but… next year would be your senior showcase, and he knows he almost certainly wouldn’t be there at the stage door to hold you as your friends said goodbye to the studio that had been a second home since they were toddlers. That would’ve been the final nail in the coffin. If the relationship even lasted another year, which from how hurt you were after he flaked on Visitor’s Week five days in a row because even organized crime seems to have a holiday rush and Kingpin being behind bars just means it’s a race to the bottom for everyone else, it had been dead for a while and he hadn’t had the time to notice it.