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Miles froze, stuck under the claws of a Prowler from another universe on the top of a highrise under construction. He was getting sick of them, but he had taken the assignment thinking that maybe it was him, 42 him.
It was not. It was another Prowler, who had no qualms pinning Miles to the wall and holding him down. This Prowler’s claws grazed the side of Miles’ face, and Miles tried to lean away from them without betraying how scared he was. He was already injured from the fight, and he was trying to figure out how to get out of the situation.
Invisibility didn’t do much when pinned down, and his hands were too far from this Prowler to give him even a small shock.
“Come on, Spider-Man. I thought you were a better fighter than this,” the Prowler purred, “and instead I’m winning. I could kill you right here, you know.”
“I’d rather not,” Miles said, mouth working faster than his self preservation, “I get it, but like… no? Please?”
“I’m not gonna– no, man, I was just gonna knock you out. Jesus.”
“Oh, alright, then. I’d rather you didn’t–”
“No, I need to knock you out. That way I can rob this bank and get away with the money instead of having you show up at the last minute to web me and leave me to the cops.”
“Aw man.”
The Prowler pulled back his hand, curling it into a fist, and leaning into a fighting stance to gain leverage. “Night-night, Spider- fuck.”
Miles was suddenly unhanded as a person slammed into the Prowler feet first. He yelped slightly, but that gave him the chance to throw himself back into the fight.
“Hey!” Gwen said, blocking a punch from the Prowler near effortlessly. “Needed help?”
“I was fine,” Miles lied, albeit jokingly, “I had it all under control.”
“Sure. Help me tie him up, and we’ll send him back to his universe.” Gwen kicked the Prowler in the head, sending him spinning back. She shot a web at him, keeping his arms stuck to his body as Miles started to wrap him in the webs.
“Thanks,” Miles said, unwilling to pretend that Gwen hadn’t helped him, even as a joke, “I guess you saved me, huh?”
“Yeah, from like a concussion. You’d be fine, you just couldn’t draw for a bit.”
Miles chuckled, putting the final touch on webbing up the Prowler. “Sorry, man. Don’t hold it against me?”
“You know,” Gwen said, writing down a quick note for when Jess came along to pick up the Prowler, who was now glitching, “Hobie and I went to a universe where he was the Prowler.”
“Huh. I bet there’s one where it’s you.”
Gwen seemed to consider it, eyes of her spider suit narrowing. “Probably. If there’s you, and Hobie, and whoever this is.”
“Imagine if it’s Margo,” Miles said, skipping backwards so he could keep an eye on Gwen, “Or Pavitr.”
Miles didn’t feel like he needed to pay attention to where he was going. He had his spider sense, after all, and the building wasn’t that high up. Sure, it was under construction, but he trusted that the scaffolding was sturdy.
“Who would be the worst Spider-Person for it to be?” Gwen asked, Miles opened his mouth before she cut in with, “not Miguel.”
Miles thought on it, full of restless energy. He twirled around on one foot. “I can’t imagine Prowler Jess. She’d be too competent. We wouldn’t stand a chance. Or a Prowler Ham. How do you think that would work?”
Below them, the Hudson river rushed, right along the street where the highrise was. The sound was comforting, and Miles felt safe with it and the sound of laughing Gwen. Gwen’s laugh was loud, and not at all gentle. Miles thought it was the best laugh he’d ever heard.
Miles grinned, taking another step back.
A small tingle worked its way along his nerves, making his entire body light up. “Gwen, check on the–” he started, only to cut himself off with a scream.
The scaffolding had ended suddenly, and he tipped backwards, falling down, down, down. The wind rushed around him, turning his scream to just wisps in the air.
“Miles!” Gwen screamed, running to the edge, “Miles!”
“Gwen!”
Gwen leaned down, shooting a web at Miles. She jumped, sticking a long strand to the side of the highrise to support herself as she tried to reach Miles before he got hurt. She pointed her feet, focusing on being aerodynamic as she fell.
Luckily, Miles being on his back helped, and she reached him. Wrapping her arms around him, she held him close as she caught them on the building, working to decrease their velocity with webs. “Miles, shoot webs to form a net.”
“Alright,” he said, voice catching nervously in his throat.
“Don’t worry,” Gwen said, sending out her own webs, determined not to let either of them get hurt, “it’s going to be alright.” She wasn’t sure, but she was sure she would save Miles no matter what. She wasn’t going to let him die.
She clenched her eyes shut, hoping the webs would hold them, and that, if they didn’t, the ones she was hanging from wouldn’t snap their spines.
She felt them hit the webs. She felt the webs give, and for a second she was convinced that Jess was going to have to do a very good job explaining her and Miles’ deaths to their parents. And then the give stopped.
“Oh thank God,” Gwen said, throwing her head back and catching her breath, “oh thank God.” Now the only trouble was getting free safely.
She didn’t realize how much her voice was shaking until Miles murmured, “are you alright?”
“I should be asking you that,” she responded, shooting a web onto the building to hold them as she tried to gauge the physics of swinging to the wall.
“Gwen. Are you alright?”
The thing was, they hadn’t talked about it. After they had fixed everything, they hadn’t discussed the elephant in the room. The fact that they were in love. And no mistake could be made: they were in love.
Gwen had been scared that he would reject her, that she had hurt him too badly for him to consider loving her. Hobie had told her that was bullshit, but she was still too scared to tell him.
But Miles had almost died. He had almost done what other versions of her had done in universe after universe.
So Gwen tugged up the bottom half of her mask, and then his, and kissed him, pulling them off the net and towards the building.
Miles froze, for a split second, and then kissed back. It wasn’t perfect. It wasn’t even the ideal first kiss. But it was them, and that was enough.
Gwen pulled back as their feet landed on the side of the building, and they quickly crawled into one of the floors under construction.
“Gwen–” Miles started, but Gwen rushed in and kissed him again.
Miles hugged her close, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her in. They only pulled back when they needed air, and only barely. Their faces stayed close together. “I love you,” Gwen said, “I love you, and neither of us are going to die because of it.”
Miles rested his forehead against Gwen’s forehead. “I love you too.”