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⋆ twenty-seven ⋆
in another universe...
For as long as he can remember, Peter Parker has had two lives in his head.
There are days where he questions his sanity, tossing and turning at night with dreams plagued by memories of people that can't exist, memories he can't have. It's a world turned upside-down, with Norman Osborn dying, Oscorp being destroyed, a girl with long hair and sparkling eyes.
But Norman Osborn is alive. Oscorp is thriving.
Perhaps the only signifier that any of it was real is the jolt that Peter got in his chest when he was thirty, the very first time Liliana Osborn returned from her time in the army, chest adorned in badges. He'd caught a glimpse of her and suddenly he felt like a teenager again, seeing her in the school halls, remembering Harry's stories, reading her name in the news.
Lily Osborn was a ghost. He was so sure he'd met her when they were kids, and they saw each other a few times growing up before she went away for over ten years.
So why does Peter have a whole world in his head, with things that never happened?
Because, of course, they happened.
It all seems to dawn on him one morning, all the memories clamouring for attention at once. But there's one singular one at the forefront of his mind: travelling to a different universe. Meeting other versions of him, fighting villains long gone in his world, and being with his wife. His wife.
That's when he realises that it all worked. It was real. He went to that universe, and they cured those meant to die. Norman Osborn. Otto Octavius. Flint Marko.
But in the end, Lily was right. She was worried of the consequences it would have on their universe, on the world they'd created for themselves. Norman Osborn surviving started a ripple effect, changing the fabric of their entire reality.
Leaving Peter Parker in a world where Lily Osborn barely even knows him.
For a while, he mourns. He mourns the loss of his old life. He mourns losing Lily, Mayday no longer existing, no Miles wagging his tail in the mornings. He mourns the loss of the Growth Foundation and Parker Industries and all the things that made the world a better place.
But eventually, he has to move on. The world moved on, and so does he. Spending days crying in his same old apartment from his college years doesn't do anything to change it, and eventually he has to drag himself out of bed all over again and go to work.
At least one good thing came of all this, he tells himself as he manages a slight smile.
Harry Osborn heads over to Peter's desk at Oscorp, tapping the divider with a cheeky grin. "Hey. Wanna go for lunch?"
