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⋆ twenty-six ⋆
A loud roaring sound from the sky turns all their attention to it, remembering the purple cracks all of a sudden. Peter swings up to the top, meeting Strange and leaving the others down below.
"I guess that means we're finally going home," Peter 2 finally says.
Lily just relaxes her shoulders in relief. "Thank God. I need a donut. And cake. And a movie night. And I need to give Miles and Mayday huge hugs."
"It's interesting how you said Miles before Mayday."
"Of course I'll hug Mayday. But I need to bury my fingers in Miles' fur and relax. I am exhausted."
"I'm telling her you said that," he teases.
It's only at the prospect of finally going back that Peter 3's smile slowly shrinks, then disappears completely. His brain is whirring at a hundred miles an hour, and it's when he glances over at the smiling Maddy that it dawns on him exactly what this means.
"Hang on... Does that mean..." Maddy turns to him, only to see the pain flicker across his face. "You're going to die? We didn't make you a cure..."
Peter 2 and Lily glance at each other, then move away to give them space. Maddy notices, but she then gives a grim smile. "Ah. Right. I knew we forgot something."
He's already forcing his head to shake, something glistening in his eyes at the thought of his life. The life he'd forgotten all about while being here. He'd allowed himself in the last day to forget all the pain and loneliness and regret of the last eight months. But now he's being sent back to it.
"We're not going back."
"We have to."
"You'll die."
"Saving you."
"But you don't need to save me anymore," he insists, sounding like a broken record, or a young child. "Max's powers are gone."
"But mine aren't, Peter," comes her gentle response, her fingers gently coming to brush against his cheeks. "And that's okay. I was loved, and I was loved by you. And I'm sorry that it means you lose me too, but you're not alone. You never will be."
But the tears finally start to spill, and he refuses to listen to any of it. "No... No, I don't wanna say be, I don't want–"
"Peter–"
"No, we can't say goodbye, I just got you back again–"
"Pete–"
"Don't make me do that again. Please don't make me do that again, Maddy, I can't–"
And before he can even process it, her lips are against his. Soft, and familiar, and he knows she's doing it to silence him but he can't help but lose himself in it. The sensation he'd longed for for so long. The feeling of homesickness settling in the pit of his stomach, knowing it'll only hurt more when they finally pull away.
