"You really do care about her a lot. You've only been here a few days, and yet you're already this attentive. How come you've never been this sharp with me?"
Peter and Spider-Gwen walked side by side, taking in the scenery along the way, while Spider-Gwen muttered under her breath in annoyance.
She never once turned her face toward him the whole time. If Peter had looked, he would have seen an adorably puffed-up little sulk.
"All right, don't be mad, Gwen. We've been childhood friends for so many years. Don't you know what kind of person I am by now?"
"I do. A blockhead."
Peter was speechless.
Fine. He really did not have the moral high ground here.
Probably better to keep his mouth shut.
Truthfully, every universe's scenery looked about the same. Too little greenery, too many skyscrapers, too many car fumes. There was not much worth looking at.
When you spent every day swinging through the city, weaving between high-rises, you stopped finding this kind of view impressive a long time ago.
"Peter, when you first got your spider powers, what was the thing you wanted to do most?"
Spider-Gwen's sudden question caught him off guard.
That really was a good question.
But what he had wanted to do most was hard to admit. More than anything, he had wanted to beat an enemy and then break into that ridiculous Bully Maguire dance right in front of them to mock them. But later, he realized that would look way too stupid. Besides, most of the criminals he fought either ended up dead or crippled, so who exactly would he even be dancing for?
"You don't have to say it. I already know. You wanted to do that ridiculous dance of yours in front of your enemies, didn't you?"
All right, Spider-Gwen really did know him too well.
"When I got my powers, the first thing I wanted wasn't protecting the city. I wanted to beat the hell out of you, you blockhead."
"You were always finding excuses to take advantage of me, then refusing to admit it. Back then, I thought once I got powers, I was definitely going to make you pay for it. And later, after I became Spider-Gwen and started fighting beside you, you still took advantage of me. At the time, I didn't know who you were, so I only slapped you. If I had known, I would've drop-kicked you."
Peter stared at her in disbelief. They had been childhood friends for years. Was she really this ruthless toward him?
"You jerk, Peter. If you did it, why won't you admit it?"
"It's not that I won't admit it. I just never knew how to express those feelings to you. You know I'm hopeless when it comes to this stuff."
"And I'm somehow an expert?"
"Okay, fair. You're not any better."
As they talked, Gwen did most of the venting while Peter mostly listened.
Without realizing it, they had already arrived at this universe's Gwen's apartment.
When Peter stopped at the door and pulled out a key, Spider-Gwen looked at him like she could not believe what she was seeing.
"You even have a key?!"
"Come on, you're really going to compete over this too?"
"If I had a key to your place, your dad would probably shoot me the second I walked in. Everyone knows he's crazy protective of you. He treasures you more than anything."
Peter spoke while unlocking the door.
Inside the bedroom, a graceful figure lay on the bed.
Even in sleep, her brows were slightly furrowed, as if something was weighing on her mind.
It was Gwen.
Ever since taking the serum, her whole body had felt strange. She had called in sick and spent the day at home. The repeated tearing and repairing of her cells had exhausted her to the point that she had fallen asleep. Even so, she was hugging a pillow tightly, as if she were dreaming about something and holding on harder and harder.
The sound of the front door opening jolted her from sleep. She rushed out immediately.
Was it him?
Or her mom?
He probably wouldn't come back, would he?
But the moment she saw that familiar face, all disbelief vanished. Her entire expression lit up. She rushed forward and threw herself into Peter's arms, hugging him tightly.
"I thought you'd already gone back."
"Even if you said you didn't want a goodbye, I still wanted to see you before I left. And I brought someone for you to meet."
Gwen lifted her head and followed Peter's gaze, only then realizing there was another person standing beside him.
She really must have still been half-asleep if she had failed to notice that.
But the moment she got a clear look at the pretty girl beside Peter, she froze.
And the other girl stared back at her in the same daze.
Both of them suddenly felt a strange resonance. It was subtle, but unmistakable.
Their faces looked nothing alike, yet Gwen instantly knew the girl who had come with Peter was the version of herself from his universe.
She had come here too.
Spider-Gwen, meanwhile, looked at this Gwen's curvier figure, then instinctively glanced down at herself and frowned.
Did Peter really like this type?
But I haven't even finished developing yet...
"You're Gwen too, right?"
Adjusting her sleepwear, this Gwen finally noticed one shoulder had slipped down while she slept. She did not seem embarrassed at all. Instead, she gave a composed, mature smile.
"And you aren't?"
"Yeah. Strictly speaking, we really are the same person."
She looked at the younger version of herself and found the whole thing incredibly strange, like there was an endless amount they could talk about. She practically ignored Peter at the door, pulled Spider-Gwen over to the couch, and the two of them started chatting.
"Did Peter confess to you yet?"
"No. He's a blockhead."
"Tell me about it. He may be a chatterbox, but when it comes to feelings, he doesn't understand a thing."
This Gwen studied the shorter-haired version of herself, whose overall vibe felt very different from what she remembered of her own teenage years, then nodded with a smile.
She definitely did not remember wearing her hair that short in high school. It had always been long. Still, this shorter style looked cool in a clean, sharp kind of way.
"Do you like him?"
Spider-Gwen asked the question directly.
A girl's instincts were sharp. She could tell there was something off here. Even if this was another version of herself, the more she thought about it, the stranger it felt.
"Don't worry. I'm not going to steal your man. You two are from the same world, after all."
This Gwen gently patted Spider-Gwen's head like an older sister.
She wanted to say that she liked Peter too, but what would that make the other Gwen feel?
At the end of the day, Peter and Spider-Gwen belonged to the same world.
Her own encounter with him had just been an accident.
Their conversation left Peter standing awkwardly by the door with nothing to do. They had really just tossed him aside and gone straight into girl talk.
You two really think this is okay?
(End of Chapter)
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