The Amazing Spider-Man 3

Chapter 4

Peter strolled up his usual path through the cemetery, his legs operating almost entirely on muscle memory. It was a short trek he had made so often over these last ten years that he could do it in his sleep, and he was pretty sure that there were some instances where he had done almost exactly that. Despite the minefield of headstones in the area, he eventually made his way to the one he had come to see.

Gwen Stacy: Beloved Daughter And Sister.

Peter came to a stop about fifteen feet from the headstone, taking a seat on the soft grass. He had so much to say but struggled to decide where to begin.

"Hey, Gwen," he finally said, "I'm sorry I haven't been around the last few days. Things have been weird for me recently; like, even more so than normal. Apparently, the whole theory of the multiverse is true after all, so there's that. I guess I actually win that round."

Peter had had many discussions/debates with Gwen about whether the theory of the multiverse was actually feasible or not. She had always been the skeptic, citing all the different ways that physics and quantum theory couldn't allow for such a possibility. On the other hand, he had consistently pointed out the small holes in these theories that could potentially point to it being true, which she had always said was a "slight possibility" at best.

"Anyway," Peter continued, "I also met two other versions of myself. It was strange, because none of us looked alike, yet we all had so much in common: we were all just kids when we got our powers, we all lost family, we all ended up making a career of taking down bad guys, and we'd all lost a lot along the way."

Even after all this time, Peter still had to fight from getting a little choked up at the mention of all the people he'd lost at some point in his life.

"May's still doing well," he said, changing the subject. "It's still crazy to me how fast she worked her way up to head nurse at the hospital, but if anyone could do it, she could. Naturally, she still worries about me, just like she did even before she put together that I was.......you know."

Peter could recall like it was yesterday when he found out that May knew he was Spider-Man. In a way, it had been a wakeup call to how much more careful he needed to be with his secret identity sometimes. To be fair, May did live with him during his first few years as the web slinger, so she had a distinct advantage over the rest of the world, but still.

"As for me," Peter spoke up, "I'm doing okay, I guess; same as ever really. Still trying to find a job where I, you know, actually USE the degrees I took way too long to get. The Bugle's still good though; Robbie's been great, and it's just a much better place to work than when Jameson ran things. Plus, it just meshes well with my 'other job'.

Peter glanced out in the direction of the sky, observing that the sun had almost completely disappeared.

"Well, I guess I better get to it," he said. "It seems like I've got a lot of catching up to do. I never could leave this city alone for a day or two without something happening. I'll be back soon though, I promise."

Walking up to the site, Peter transferred a kiss from his lips to the stone via his hand, leaving it there for a moment.

"I love you," he said.

----

Peter released his web, casually doing a backflip in the air before grabbing onto a pole at the top of a building. He'd been on patrol for about an hour, but there wasn't much criminal activity to speak of so far. The only illegal scenarios he'd stumbled across so far were a man running away with a woman's purse and a drug deal, the handling of which took less than three minutes combined. Twelve years had taught him a lot about how to handle these things efficiently, and all while getting in some hilarious quips, of course.