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Ned had left the small apartment to go to his favourite convenience store, MJ had told him to go out since he had been moping around his room for the whole day. Though Ned suspected she just wanted him to leave because her boyfriend was coming and they wanted ‘alone’ time.
Which personally Ned felt was quite rude but whatever.
Besides he needed to get out his brain had felt so webbed and sticky lately, maybe he was coming down with some weird sickness.
That was a possibility but realistically Ned was just giving himself a reason because really he didn't know what was wrong with him, if he was actually being honest with himself then he would say that he knew it definitely had nothing to do with illness but how he felt mentally. Which was down, ever since last week when he had realized that his closest suspects for who Spider-Man might be were completely wrong. He had to rewatch star wars movies 4-6 to make himself feel better but he had fallen asleep before he could start the prequels.
Wondering what he dreamed of? It was obviously Spider-Man.
It was someone named Peter, supposedly. That name felt so right and disturbingly truthful liek a core part of who Ned was supposed to be, Ned had wondered if in another lifetime they had been friends, classmates or something like that.
Recently Ned had been getting into the idea of Alternate universes the multiverse if you will, sometimes he would have dreams that he was Spider-Man and no one knew who his real Identity was.
Honestly it kind of sounded lonely.
Ned did not like being lonely despite him feeling such for the most of his life, even weirder was that Ned didn’t feel right being around his current friends. They felt too crowded, or maybe it was just that they had felt off lately, somehow just not right, they just seemed different, or unusual.
Though it was probably just because It had been an interesting week, with all the new villains being released and them running off and then that one lady freezing thousands of people, saving Spider-man and then disappearing completely. Authorities were currently speculating what to do, should they hunt her down? (Though Ned doubted they could) But even stranger than that was the fact that Spider-man had come over Ned and MJ’s apartment and ‘hanged’ out, surely he had better things to do?
I mean the guy was so cool, he was probably really popular, so why was he laughing and talking to Ned? A guy was really not that popular in high school, he had a total of one friend in his very last years.
Although Ned tried his best to not think about highschool, it was always in the shadows behind him, leering over his shoulders ready to bring the memories of Flash harassing him once again. He had been completely alone until he met MJ, he really wished he had someone before, a Best friend who had been there.
Maybe in an Alternate Universe…
That was okay though, he had MJ, who was amazing, but she had a new boyfriend and Ned did not like the guy that much.
He was realistically only trying to be nice to Ned because he wanted MJ to like him, Ned knew she was having some speculations about him though, so maybe there was hope for her to date someone decent for once.
Ned was waiting at the lights, it was for some reason not going green no matter how many times Ned tapped the button.
The streets were empty despite its benign peak lunch hour, everyone was probably at that thank you spider man parade across town, Ned had planned to go but he was feeling way too tired.
What he needed right now was 2 burritos, fries and a good glass of cold beer. Uneventful evening of ‘going out’ sure but ned had nothing else to do, and he certainly was not going to do anything addictive or bad for himself…
No ned had promised himself and MJ that he would at least try to slow it down, it may have been getting bad, so he was going to try and stop.
Though as Ned entered the store and began ordering two burritos for himself with his favourite cream soda he thought that maybe this wasn’t much better for him.
Eh, it was fine Ned would start going to the gym and work it off (No he would not[He said this every month])
When his food was ready he sat down at his usual seat and began eating and scrolling on Instagram. He was enjoying a really good Starwars edit about Anakin when he saw from the corner of his eyes a weird dude holding flowers and staring at him with what looked like longing. Ned decided to just ignore him, what was the worst that could happen, he was in public and if Ned were to die he would want to do it with a pulled pork burrito in his hand thinking of how Anakin's life was.
So give him your best shot, weird dude with the peonies. Despite that, it didn’t mean Ned wanted to die, so when the weird dude slowly started approaching him he looked up, though he was about Ned's age, maybe they had known each other, Ned needed to get better at names.
“Uh” the guy says,
“Uhm” oh shit this was that guy from the party, Ned completely forgot his name. “Hey, flower guy from the party right?” No one wanted to be called ‘flower guy from the party’ what Ned was thinking.
For some reason the dude smiles slightly, maybe this dude was a maniac after all, Ned was half-tempted to check his spidey tracker to see if he had a chance of being saved but Spider-Man was definitely across town celebrating with his friends and family.
The guy extends his hand towards Ned in a gesture for a handshake. “Peter” Ned could have sworn that that was not his name, but for some reason he didn’t question it before reaching for Peter's hand.
Their hands stay like that, it's eerie, Peter's hand feels so weirdly familiar, and he has this urge, this movement of muscle memory feeling the need to kick into his system. Then Peter moves his hand upwards in a more casual position for a handshake, and Ned's mind takes control of him.
They slide hands against each other then go back upwards to make the wings of a bird back again before they lean towards each other and bump bombs ending in matching pointing guns at one another.
Then Ned remembers everything.
He remembers every thing he missed, every event Peter should have been at, the late Nate sleepovers when they probably should have been studying for Spanish, Ned almsot dying but Peter saving him, building Star Wars lego and late night chats with MJ about their future, about how they all should have gone to LIT.
Ned had forgotten everything, he had lost his Ride-or-Die and had not even realized but there he was after years of not seeing each other, of being strangers. Ned jumps up from his seat and he cries, a grown man cries because the person who he trusted most in this world had been alone all these years and Ned had never been alone, he had been happy without his Platonic soulmate.
Everything all these years had been wrong, Ned clings tighter to Peter, it should have been different. He cries into his closest friend's shoulder, and he is sure his friend is doing the same since he can feel his shirt becoming damp.
Ned pulls back from their hug and he manages to croak out “Why didn’t you tell me” Peter smiles.
“I needed to protect you” peter smiles, ned is not happy with that response, Ned had been there since day one, before Peter Parker was Spider-Man, but somehow Peter had thought that it was safer for Ned without the risk, Ned had been miserable, alone, he had thought that he was bullied, harassed and made fun of constantly completely alien, Peter had been his Ride-or-Die since middle school until there was a real chance that Ned could have died.
He had been fine with that though if it meant keeping Peter in his life, this however was not okay.
So years of supposed loneliness, missing a part of himself and his best friend lying to him bubble up to the surface of Ned's face and he slaps Peter, he knows with his Spidey senses he could have stopped Ned, but he does not.
“I would rather die your friend than live thinking you never existed” Ned says determinedly.
Peter tries to wipe the tears from his face, but he does not argue because he knows that above all things, Ned would never lie to him.