Chapter Text
Miles would never admit to Mirabel’s face, but sitting down at the dinner table beside her as she talked about cooking technique was one of the most horrifying and amusing things to listen to. On the one hand, he was seeing one of her friends, someone he had convinced himself he would never see again, and she was sitting with his mother, talking over arepa recipes. On the other, how the hell did Mirabel get here? Was there another rift issue, were the others here?
Was Gwen here? Peter B or Peter Porker?
“Miles, so, how do you know Mirabel?” his father’s voice cut across the conversation, Miles glanced over at her, and watched her look at him,meeting his eyes and mouthing ‘school’.
“Er, my old school, you know the high school?”
His mother nodded.
“She mentioned she was here to help with the history project you’re struggling on?”
Miles was grateful that he actually talked to his parents about that, because he nodded eagerly.
“The one about Columbia and the gang wars that happened in the beginning of the 20th century. “
He saw Mirabel light up and she nodded with a wide smile. The conversation went into a null, and he saw Mirabel look genuinely happy to see him. The conversation started back up as his friend spoke up.
“Soooo, Miles it’s been a hot minute, how’s school going?” Mirabel voice drawled out the question, she seemed much more at ease, so maybe she found a way to his world, he shrugged as all the eyes at the table turned to him.
“Good,” he said with a smile. “I’m having a blast at school, made some friends, finally met my roommate.” his voice had a tease in it. MIrabel chuffed in a good natured way and chuckled as she ate a forkful of tamale, Miles felt some of the tension leave his shoulders, and he laughed slightly. “I, um, I’m studying physics and the arts.”
“Physics?” Mirabel asked, her head tilted to the side as she looked at him with surprise. “Why?”
“Well, there might be whole other worlds out there, full of possibilities,” Miles met her eyes. “Who knows what’s possible?”
Mirabel’s eyes softened when she got the message.
‘Because I missed you guys. ‘
“That’s certainly a possibility. What with the strange incident last year. “
That got a few mutters of agreement. The rest of dinner passed relatively peacefully, jokes were exchanged and laughed at. Miles ended up loosing the tension in his shoulders, his disbelief faded into a sense of safety, he had most of the important people to him in one room.
Dinner wrapped up far too quickly for his liking, but Mirabel laughed and helped with the pick up. Aiding in washing the dishes, and putting away the sauces that they had pulled out.
They ended up in Miles’s room. The art that littered the walls pulled Mirabel’s attention as Miles leaned back, and smiled slightly at the girl.
“These are…” Mirabel spoke softly as she gently touched a picture that was one of her and Peni laughing at something.
“Creepy?” Miles supplied in a nervous tone, Mirabel huffed, smiling as she looked back.
“Amazing. “ Mirabel spoke with such surety that Miles was almost taken aback. “Got time for a swing?”
Miles let out a smile that was all his inner child.
“When do I not?”
_________________
The sights of this world’s New York was always odd to Mirabel, the colors were always sharply contrasting, neon lights were always somewhere, and as Miles tapped her shoulder and flew past with a whoop, she let a grin under the fabric of her mask and began the chase, some New Yorkers glanced up, but shrugged, ever since the incident, they weren’t surprised to see more than one spider person.
“Hey Spider-Man! Thread the Needle!”
Miles let out a delighted yell as they both performed the trick with practiced ease, Mirabel tapping his arm as she shot past him. Landing on a room with a grin.
“So how’s the life?”
“The life?”
“You know,” she said while making a gesture with her hand. “Spider-life?”
“Oh, good I guess, I mean my dad’s going to be promoted to captain soon. “
Mirabel stiffened slightly, going unnoticed by Miles as she did so.
“Oh really?”
“Yeah, I’m pretty proud of him.”
“How is the behind the mask relationship with him going? “
“I mean, it was rough in the beginning, but we’re chill now.”
“That’s good. “
Mirabel found the loyalty of the city to Miles endearing; she had seen many spider-men whose New York was against them, who hated the man because of a misunderstanding. She was glad that at least here Miles was safe.
“Psst. Mini M!”
The world seemed to come to a screeching halt as she glanced down at her watch, taking a brief detour that would take her out of Miles’s line of sight, she glanced down at LYRA.
“What?”
“Hey, Miguel wants you back in an hour at latest.”
Mirabel groaned slightly.
“Why, he promised not to call me back unless-“
“Another one of your friends that was dragged to Earth-1610 just came in. And this spider is looking moppy “
“Noir?”
“No Gwen Stacy. Ghost-Spider. “
Mirabel blinked, Miguel hadn’t wanted to bring Gwen in until she had passed her second canon event.
“What happened?” She demanded in a low tone.
“Her dad, whose her police captain, found out her identity. “
“Why’s that bad?”
“Aaaannnd then he pulled his gun on her. And ever since arriving, she hasn’t eaten, nor slept ”
Mirabel groaned slightly.
“I’ll tell him that something came up.”
LYRA hummed softly at her sullen tone, and vanished again, Mirabel let out a huff and swung after Miles. Tapping him on his head after she caught up.
“Tag!” She yelled, swinging up towards a bank building, landing on the room with Miles in a pile, Miles lying belly down on top of her back.
“Hey you changed your suit!” Miles observed, and Mirabel let out a surprised hum, it was a subtle change, a golden highlight to the webbing on the ruana.
“Yeah, you’re the first to notice. “
“It suits you!”
LYRA let a beep ring out on her watch, opening a portal to her right. Mirabel was going to smack the AI if she ever got a somewhat solid form.
“That you?” Miles asked in a sad tone, pulling his mask off. Mirabel huffed and shut of the beeping, but kept the portal open, pretending to read a message.
“Yeah, it was nice seeing you Miles. “
“Yeah. You too. “
Mirabel walked towards the portal, before pausing. She reached into her bag, pulling out a neatly wrapped parcel, tossing it at Miles, who caught it with ease.
“By the way, sorry for not coming sooner!”
“Nah, you’ve been busy. I understand!”
“And Miles?”
“Yeah?” He called looking up from the package in his hands.
“Don’t be afraid. To tell your parents I mean.”
Miles looked at her shocked.
“But-“
“Miles your parents love you and support you more than anything, you’re going places hermano, but you only close doors by pushing them away. “
He nodded shakily, and raised his hand in a goodbye.
“Adios hermano!”
Miles paused, before smiling slightly.
“Adios Hermana. “
_________________
Mirabel walked through the halls, making her way through the mazes of people, waving at Peter B and Mayday as she speed walked past, making her way to the training rooms.
“Why is it every time a new spider comes in, they put them in a training room?” She hissed under her breath. “Give them a recovery room or something. “
Rounding the finally corner, she stopped in front of the room, a slight frown pulling at her lips as she knocked hesitantly before opening the door.
Gwen was sitting with her back facing the door, and barely twitched as the door opened with a dramatic swish. Only slowly looking behind her as Mirabel began to walk toward her. Freezing when she saw the teal clad spider stop at the edge of the mat that would have been perfect for acrobatics if she had been in the mood.
“Mirabel?” She rasped after a moment.
“Hey Gwen.” Mirabel whispered in a soft voice, crouching down in front of her with a hand out, “want a tour, I know the first few days here I was overwhelmed. “
Gwen stared at her before taking the hand and allowing herself to be pulled to her feet. Smiling shakily at the older girl. The tour was pretty basic, Mirabel showed Gwen the cafeteria, the dorms, the med-bay, the doctors office, the anomaly containment center and the Go-Home Machine, and even a more in depth explanation to the training rooms and how to navigate them.
They ended the tour in the control room.
“And this is where most of the magic happens. And between you and me, Miguel’s platform takes forever, but it’s his ‘thing’ so no one says anything.“
“Wow, this is like, super cool. When was all of this founded?”
“Well it’s been going for 4 or so years but it became official after that incident that we were involved it two or so years back, you know with Miles and-“
The rest of Mirabel’s ramblings were lost to Gwen, who was steadily spiraling in her thoughts because-
‘This is all my fault, if we had just stayed out of it this wouldn’t be happening , we broke the multiverse, I broke the-‘
“Knock that off. “
Gwen’s gaze snapped to Mirabel steady one, something that grounded her in the middle of her raging storm.
“What?”
“Why does everyone- look Gwen, what happened in the multiverse was not your fault nor was it mine if we must play the blame game, blame the Doc Ock of that earth okay. This isn’t on you, or me, or Miles, we all did our best in a situation that no one else had experienced, at least on that scale. You did your best in that situation. Got it? No one’s out to punish you, if anything we just want to make sure that you’re alright with everything that happened in the past two days, capish?”
Gwen stared up at Mirabel, and if she said it with that much surety then it had to be true right? And what she did next, would forever horrify her and make her feel embarrassed.
She began to cry.
It started with a small sniff, followed by a few tears. Gwen tried, she really did, but in the end, one of Mirabel’s hands settled between her shoulder blades and gently pulled her into a hug that was unfairly warm and safe. She broke down slowly at first, but it wasn’t long before it felt like she was falling apart at the seams, only held together by Mirabel's soft hands and gentle words.
And it wasn’t fair.
How could Mirabel be so soft and warm after what added up to what was at least three years of hero work. Even as the worlds fell apart around her and her washed out converse.
She heard something, possibly Mirabel muttering something, followed by a soft jostling, and the feeling of her being carried somewhere.
But Gwen couldn’t care less, because for the first time since Peter Parker or her world died, she felt safe.
And that’s all that mattered.
