Love is a complicated thing, and as for the subject of the general Them - he's not exactly the most unbiased Peter on the block. Loving Gwen has been carved into his ribs, woven into the warp and weft of his being. Even if, one day down the line, there's someone else - it could never be a replacement. That's not how love works, and Peter knows this more than most. She will always be there, as Gwen's Peter will always be with her.
But it's easier said than done, carrying that kind of love around with nowhere for it to go. That's what grief is. All the love you never got a chance to express. That guilt compounds it? Perhaps that's just part of what makes a spider a spider.
"I don't think there's any good way for that to happen." Aside from the one where he bites it as Spiderman, and she gets to live a normal life, but he wisely skirts around it, thinking of Harry. Not dead, but decidedly gone. Unreachable in his madness. Another person he had failed, but what else was new? His hand starts a slow circle as Gwen relaxes, a soothing kind of comfort.
"Talking about emotions isn't really what I...do." Gwen knows this, of course, but it feels like it bears repeating when she blames herself for not seeing what her Peter was likely going to great lengths to hide. "You couldn't have helped him, not if he didn't open up."
Peter's sure his counterpart was embarrassed, prideful. Unable to deal with his own emotions - yeah, sounds like a Peter Parker. That it ended in tragedy and disaster, well - he need only look at his own initial trial by fire to know it could have been within his capabilities - one universe out of infinite possibilities.
"Gwen...I'm so sorry." More unexpected news. Their divergences were more different than he could have guessed, and he tamps down thoughts of Captain Stacy's blood on his hands, welling between useless fingers. Peter inclines his head in acknowledgement, meeting Gwen's gaze steadily, for once. "Yfh shysh chym ysh tkvvh...where there's life, there's hope."
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But it's easier said than done, carrying that kind of love around with nowhere for it to go. That's what grief is. All the love you never got a chance to express. That guilt compounds it? Perhaps that's just part of what makes a spider a spider.
"I don't think there's any good way for that to happen." Aside from the one where he bites it as Spiderman, and she gets to live a normal life, but he wisely skirts around it, thinking of Harry. Not dead, but decidedly gone. Unreachable in his madness. Another person he had failed, but what else was new? His hand starts a slow circle as Gwen relaxes, a soothing kind of comfort.
"Talking about emotions isn't really what I...do." Gwen knows this, of course, but it feels like it bears repeating when she blames herself for not seeing what her Peter was likely going to great lengths to hide. "You couldn't have helped him, not if he didn't open up."
Peter's sure his counterpart was embarrassed, prideful. Unable to deal with his own emotions - yeah, sounds like a Peter Parker. That it ended in tragedy and disaster, well - he need only look at his own initial trial by fire to know it could have been within his capabilities - one universe out of infinite possibilities.
"Gwen...I'm so sorry." More unexpected news. Their divergences were more different than he could have guessed, and he tamps down thoughts of Captain Stacy's blood on his hands, welling between useless fingers. Peter inclines his head in acknowledgement, meeting Gwen's gaze steadily, for once. "Yfh shysh chym ysh tkvvh...where there's life, there's hope."