Saving Grace || Peter Parker

Part 28

She was shaking. Sick bubbling in the base of her throat, nerves and the fear of their rejection hot in her veins. Her friends- her best friends- they were back. They were alive. A surreal moment, one she wasn't sure was even remotely real. Perhaps this was all apart of her fragmented imagination, past memories building up to create a new one to taunt her.

But even if this somehow wasn't real, she couldn't find it in herself to care. Because she could see their faces as real as she could see the moon and stars. Mj's unruly, untameable but still beautiful curls, her chocolate brown eyes, Ned's mop of hair, his famous checked flannel thrown about on a stray chair. They were so real she could hardly breathe. The people she had grieved and mourned for. Screamed and cried for. Fought for. They were before her, stuck in their 17 year old bodies. The same as how they left her.

She couldn't find it in herself to speak, as if her voice would shatter this moment into a thousands glass shards, each one finding a way to make her bleed. But Mj, she spoke. Her soft voice airy and welcoming, her bottom lip wobbling slightly.

"Nadia!" She whispered, eyes squinting as she recognised her friend "is that you?"

A sob broke in her mouth, slipping of her tongue and into the atmosphere "yes"

Ned was shaking his head "they said you were dead"

Her eyebrows scrunched "who?"

"Sword, they pronounced you as dead, we all had a funeral when we found out- when we got 'back'"

Her face scrunched in confusion "what the hell is sword?"

But MJ didn't answer her question, instead she grabbed a bread roll, arm held high as she looked at the spider man next to her friend. There were bigger issues than her dead but not so dead but grown up best friend at hand.

Peter began shaking his head, his hands held up "no no no, it okay! I'm a nice guy"

But despite Peter's protest, MJ didn't yield. Lifting his hands towards his face, he rips of his mask. However, this didn't help his case, neither Ned nor Mj had a clue who he was.

"Who the hell are you?" MJ questions him.

"I'm Peter Parker" he responds, Nadia refraining from face planting.

"That's not possible"

Getting between them, Nadia places her hands up. She gives a subtle smile to Peter, in reassurance before turning towards her old friends.

"It- it is possible. He's Spider-Man...in his world. But then just now- we came back here and-"

But Peter had wandered into a corner near the fridge, counting on his fingers, Nadia giving him a 'what the hell?' Kinda look. Of course, he knew that the multiverse was real, Nadia was his living proof. But seeing it for himself? Whole new level of what the fuck.

"String theory... Multidimensional reality... And matter displacement. All real?" He questioned, a pointed look at Nadia to answer but Ned did instead.

"Yeah" Ned nodded.

"I knew it!" He grinned.

"We've already been over this, мальчик-жук (bug boy)" Nadia sighed.

"This has to be because of the spell" Ned's horrible attempt at whispering to MJ.

"Magic spell?"

"Doctor Strange is involved?" Nadia asked.

"There's no spell!" MJ denied.

"No spell. No"

Nadia wouldn't admit it, but she was a little hurt that they were keeping whatever was going on from her. Of course, it all looked odd, her turning up through a portal with a variant of their friend after being pronounced dead, but it still hurt.

"Magic's real here too?" Peter question, Nadia sighing as if she didn't already tell him all of this.

"I mean.."

"Shut up, Ned. No, it's not real. Shut up."

"I mean... There's magicians and stuff, but there's no like..."

"It's real" Nadia sighed, walking over to stand by her spider man.

"Stop it. Stop. Prove it." She finally said.

"Prove what?" He asked.

"That you're Peter Parker."

Nadia realised this was going to be a long night.

"I don't carry an ID with me, it kinda defeats the whole "I'm a superhero" thing." Which earned him an elbow to the ribs, him rubbing the side spot as he nudged her shoulder. MJ was analysing their dynamic very closely.

But with enough distraction, she was getting sick of it, MJ throwing the piece of bread at Peter, quickly adopting a stealthy ninja pose afterwards.

"Why'd you do that" Peter simply asked, Nadia covering her mouth to stop laughing.

"I was trying to see if you had the tingle" she defended.

"I have the tingle, just not for bread"

But more pieces were thrown at him, Nadia shaking her head with a small smile. She seriously couldn't believe she was in the same room as her best friends again. And they were throwing bread at a variant of their other best friend. Life was weird like that.

"Can you not throw the... the bread again? You're a deeply mistrusting person... and I respect it."

Waisting no more time, he slightly leaped into the air, his arm above him as he stuck to the ceiling.

Mj points her finger at him, fidgeting slightly before shrugging "crawl around"

"Crawl around?"

"Yes!"

"No"

"Yes, crawl around"

"Why do I need to crawl around?"

"Because it's not enough"

"This is plenty."

"No it's not"

"Yes it is"

"Nuh-uh"

"How do I stick to the ceiling?" He asked, eyebrows raised.

As another bread roll was thrown at him, Peter sighed and obeyed her commands as he started to crawl.

"Ned? Sabihin mo dyan sa mama yan na alisin yung agiw sa sulok, ha?" Ned's grandmother had come into the room, Nadia smiling at the older woman who didn't even bat an eye at her. Fairs.

"Lola is asking if you can just get the cobweb, there." Ned pointed, looking at the man climbing around his ceiling.

Peter looks towards it and sighs in exasperation, Nadia finally releasing a giggle, Peter shooting her a 'shut it' look before obeying once more.

"Since you're, like, up there?"

"Yeah!" He sighed.

Peter placed his mask in his mouth and crawls towards the cobweb before dusting it off the ceiling.

"Thank you." His grandmother replied in gratitude.

Peter drops to the ground, dusting himself off, looking towards to the two teens.

"We good?"

"For now."

A/N:
A lot of dialogue ik. Soz. Had to get it out the way.