It was only when Harry was out of town that Peter felt safe to even talk to Gwen.

They never did anything friends wouldn't do, of course. It was usually just lunch or a movie or something platonic like that. After all, Harry and Gwen were the power couple of the decade; why break that up?

But Peter still hated seeing them together. Sometimes he just wanted to grab her arms and yell, "Leave him already!"

And now he had to stomach the sight of that expensive ring on her finger. Engaged. The word made Peter want to gag. Harry had made a big show of proposing to Gwen, on a big Jumbotron of some sort during a ball game. Peter saw through it, of course. Just another way of trapping Gwen—she was such a sweet girl; how could she possibly say no in front of all those cooing crowds?

Peter just about flipped a table when he found out about it. Harry himself had called and asked Peter to be his best man. And again, how could Peter refuse? Harry was finally warming up to him again, and to say no would just destroy any chance of Peter getting his best friend back.

But Harry wasn't the same, of course. The sweet, timid guy from before was replaced by this bold, manipulative, and vengeful man that Norman would probably have very much approved. Vengeful, because Harry was still out for Spider-Man's blood.

Evading Harry hadn't been easy. He'd sent out a good many villains to try and unmask Spider-Man. He didn't have the same careful sense that Norman had, though. Norman had wanted to control New York as a crime lord, while Harry just wanted to get rid of the guy whom he thought to have killed his dad. But he was getting more and more persistent. He used villains his dad had already created (Peter liked to think that Harry didn't have the heart to ruin any more lives with such dangerous experiments). Well, the ones who weren't in prison. That number tended to vary. And they still came. Over and over—constantly trying to unmask him, and failing. Clumsier effort than Norman, but much more direct.

Peter had to shake himself out of these thoughts. Harry was out of town. The unmasking attempts were quieter right now. And he was going to spend a lovely day with his good friend Gwen and nothing would happen.

He had to bite his tongue when he met her at the restaurant. Of course she looked great. She always looked great. "You look great," he flubbed.

Gwen smiled. "Thanks," she said. "So do you."

They sat down at a table. Peter fidgeted. He wanted to catch up, but he didn't want to seem too forward. This was the first time in a while since they had been able to really speak to each other, and he didn't know how to start. His eyes flickered to her ring.

"So you guys are—"

Gwen cut him off by placing her head in her hands. "Oh, what am I going to do?" she groaned.

Peter stopped. "What?"

"I don't want to spend the rest of my life with him! Not with this...this sociopath!"

"Gwen, calm down..."

"I can't! Soon I'm going to be 'Mrs. Harry Osborn!' I'm going to have the Green Goblin's grandkids!"

Peter made a face. "Well, when you put it like that—"

"But if I say no, I'll be hunted down by the media, or by him! I wouldn't put it past him, the way he is now! What am I going to do?" she repeated.

Luckily, the place was very nearly empty, and nobody seemed to be paying attention to her spiel. "Listen, Gwen...if marrying him makes you sick to your stomach—no matter who he is or how rich and powerful he is—then that's a big red flag."

"But Harry will blame me for it," she said. "I know he will. That's who he is now."

"Gwen, listen. This isn't just some easy decision where nobody gets hurt. If you don't marry him, yeah, all right, he gets hurt. I can't sugarcoat that. But if you do, then you get hurt. You're just looking out for yourself."

"He won't see it that way."

Peter pounded a fist on the table. "Then make him see! I hate seeing you like this, Gwen! And I'm sure everyone else does, too!"

"They don't know," she mumbled.

"That's not true."

Gwen shook her head. "I never told anyone we were having problems," she said, "except you."

Peter felt a bit touched that she trusted him like this, but he pushed that feeling out of the way. "And why is that?"

"They'd...probably tell me to leave him..."

Peter made a "see?!" gesture.

"But it's not that simple, Pete. What if...what if he goes back to the Green because of me? Because I dumped him?" she finished in a whisper.

Of course. That was it. That was the big thing driving her to go through with this. He knew that, but for this thing to control her even years since Harry had said it..."Gwen," said Peter. "You are one of the sweetest and most thoughtful girls I have ever met. And despite how much he's changed, I still care a lot about Harry, too." He took a deep breath. He'd been wanting to say this for years. "But it is not worth sacrificing your own life just because he is holding this thing above you. Like it'd be 'your fault' that he started back on the Green. That is a cruel and manipulative thing that he's doing to you, and you're falling right into his trap if you go through with it and marry him."

Gwen looked stunned. "But...I..."

"Look, I can't make the decision for you. If you think you're 'strong enough' to keep suffering like this, then you go ahead and do it. I can't stop you. But if you open your eyes to how strong you really are, then maybe you can do the right thing and break out of this relationship." Peter slumped back in his seat, but he still fixed a gaze full of emotion on Gwen.

Gwen's eyes were large and her face pale. She stared at her hands. She tried to speak, but her voice didn't seem to be working. She looked up at Peter. After a few seconds of being caught in her friend's intense stare, she stood up abruptly and walked out.

Peter stood as well and went after her, barging past their confused waiter who had come to take their drink orders.

"Gwen, wait!"

Gwen didn't seem to hear him, or at least pretended not to. She kept walking.

"Please! Gwen!" Peter ran. He caught up to her quickly and grabbed her shoulders. "Look, Gwen, I'm sorry, but it needed—"

She turned around in his grip, looking misty-eyed. "Pete..."

Peter broke off. Oh, no. He'd made her cry. Oh, crap. "Oh, Gwen, I didn't mean to—I just wanted—I was only trying to—"

"It's okay," she cut him off. "You're right. About all of it."

"I...I am?" Well, of course he thought he was right, but he figured it'd take a lot more convincing on her part.

"Dad said pretty much the same thing," she admitted.

Peter frowned. "I thought you said—"

"I didn't tell him. He guessed. Like you said, he was able to figure it out."

Peter believed it. He was certain that the police chief had figured out that he was Spider-Man. To see through Gwen's assurances of "being okay" was probably easy for Officer Stacy. "And he said that you ought to leave Harry, too?"

Gwen nodded. "A part of me thought he was just being an overprotective dad...but then you said the same thing as he did."

"Did he guess about the Green?"

"Well...no. That part I did tell him, when he asked me why I really wanted to stay with Harry. And after I told him about its effects and about Harry's potential relapse, he pulled out a lot of statistics about drug users and toxic relationships and..." Gwen sighed. "Basically, it really freaked him out that I got caught in something like this."

"It's only because you're this sweet and amazing person," said Peter. "And you don't want to hurt anyone. That's something to be admired. It's just...people like Harry—like this Harry—" (he still wanted so badly for Harry to go back to being the nice guy he used to be) "—will take advantage of that nature."

Gwen sniffled. "Thanks, Pete. You're the best guy I know."

"I know," Peter gently teased as he wiped a tear off her cheek. "Come on. Let's go get some Chinese food and watch some bad movies at my place. My treat."

Gwen smiled and nodded. "Yeah. That sounds great. Thanks, Pete. I lo—" She was broken off by the sound of a phone going off. She pulled it out and grimaced. "Speak of the devil."

Peter frowned. "Ugh, ignore it."

Gwen stared at the phone for a few moments. "He...gets really upset when I don't answer them," she said.

"Don't," warned Peter. "Don't talk yourself into going back to him."

Gwen gritted her teeth. She let out a deep sigh and clicked "Ignore."

Peter smiled and patted her back. "You're doing the right thing. How does it feel?"

"Feels...pretty okay," sighed Gwen. She turned her phone off. "Let's go get that Chinese, huh?"

Peter nodded. He smiled.


They were sitting on Peter's couch, just starting The Room when Peter's phone went off.

Peter frowned and paused the movie. He checked his Caller ID. "Harry? What does he want with me?"

"Go ahead and see what he wants," said Gwen, articulating with her chopsticks. "I'm not here, remember?" She stuffed some noodles in her mouth.

Peter frowned and nodded. He stood and walked into another room. "Hello?"

"Pete?"

"What's up, Harry?"

"Pete, I'm in Paris and—and—you'll never believe—Dad's alive."

Peter nearly dropped the phone. "WHAT?!"

From the other room, Gwen looked in Peter's direction with raised eyebrows.

"It's true! He—he was the Goblin again and everything and these superheroes came in and—"

"Harry, Harry, you're losing me here. Slow down. Look, I'm happy for you—I really am—but how in the heck did he survive all the bombs?"

"I guess the costume must have protected him from them. Maybe he had a great doctor. I'm not sure; he hasn't told me."

"And you're telling me the guy just shows up in Paris? As the Green Goblin? Again?"

Gwen nearly choked on her food.

"I can hardly believe it, myself! I had to tell someone! And since my fiancée didn't want to talk, I figured I could confide in my best man..."

Peter scowled. "Um...are you going anywhere with this, Harry?"

"No. Are you?"

"Not at all. You said something about superheroes?"

"Oh, yeah. Apparently they're these French heroes that save Paris all the time. Ladybug and Chat Noir."

"There's literally a French version of Black Cat?"

"What? I don't know. Anyway, he and Ladybug apparently removed this...uh...akuma thing...that made him a supervillain again...it's, uh..."

"I can Google it."

"Yeah. Google "akuma." A-K-U-M-A. That's what affected my dad." Several voices sounded in the background. "I think they want to question me now. I gotta go. See you, Pete." He hung up.

Peter let out a long, slow breath. He walked back into the room where Gwen was. She stared.

"Harry's dad...is alive?"

"You caught that? Yep. He is. Oh, man," sighed Peter. He sank to the couch with his head in his hands.

"Are you all right?"

Peter looked up. Right. Gwen didn't know the full extent of this. This meant life was going to get a lot more complicated as Spider-Man. Sometimes he wondered why he even bothered pretending to be normal. "Yeah. I'm okay. I'm just shocked."

"Me, too, Peter. Me, too."

They ate the rest of their food without resuming the movie. They tried to make small talk, but they ended up just going back to the topic of Norman Osborn and how insane it was that he was alive and well.

"I mean, we buried him," said Gwen. "At least, we had a grave."

"I wonder if Harry still has a grudge on Spider-Man after this," said Peter.

Gwen chewed her sesame chicken thoughtfully. "I mean, on one hand, he's relieved his dad is okay, so he might give Spider-Man a pass."

"That's not so bad." Peter looked relieved.

"But," said Gwen, pointing her chopsticks at Peter, "he might also feel a sense of deranged victory that Spidey 'failed,' and go after him with renewed strength."

Peter cringed. "You think?"

"I've been engaged to this guy for over a month. I'm pretty sure he'd do that."

"Great..."

"Oh, you know Spider-Man. He'll probably quip his way out of it."

Peter grinned nervously. "Yeah, maybe."

Gwen shrugged. "But it's not really our business, anyway. Maybe this whole Norman event will at least help Harry though our breakup."

Peter's unhappy spirits suddenly soared. "You're really going to do it?"

"Oh, yes."

Peter gave Gwen a bear hug. "I am so proud of you!"

Gwen simply laughed. "Thanks. Didn't you tell Harry you were going to Google something?"

Peter released her. "Right, yeah. This 'akuma' thing that affected Norman." He pulled up Safari on his phone and Googled "akuma." Several results popped up with articles about supervillains in Paris.

They looked through the articles with interest. In doing so, they learned that most of these bad guys were just ordinary civilians who had been turned into villains. That was unlike a lot of Peter's experiences as Spider-Man, but it seemed to be easier to do than to fight a hardened criminal. The only real villain seemed to be a mysterious man called Hawkmoth.

"Hawkmoth? Ladybug? Those sound like total bug names. They're ripping off Spider-Man," laughed Gwen.

Peter shrugged. "Not really. I mean, Spider-Man has the power of a spider. This Ladybug girl seems to just be ladybug-themed. And Hawkmoth doesn't seem to be stealing anything from him."

"Oh, I was only teasing."

"But Chat Noir? That's too much like Black Cat."

"Black Cat is a thief, while Chat Noir seems to be another superhero. And he actually has powers."

"But their suits!" said Peter.

"...Are nothing alike!"

The conversation turned into playful bickering about the superheroes of Paris. After that finally died down, Gwen decided to go home and figure out how to break it off with Harry. Peter assured her he would be right by her side if she needed him. They exchanged a hug and Gwen left.

Peter was putting away the movie when he saw a breaking news report appear on his phone. It was about the newly rediscovered Norman Osborn. Peter skimmed over it. He found that several comments were wondering what Spider-Man wanted to say on the matter. Peter checked his watch. 3:37 PM. He and looked out the window. It was a bit early for a patrol as Spider-Man, but he wasn't doing anything else today.


Hi, all! I decided to do another chapter, with the encouragement of Sunny Lighter. Thanks, Sunny!

I'll see if I can't flip back to this story from time to time, adding another chapter or so. There's no real game plan at the moment, and school is pretty busy at the time. We'll see.

Also, disclaimer: I do not think Miraculous is in any way stealing from Spider-Man. I really don't. I just figured it would be funny if the characters thought so.

Anyway, you all have a good week. God bless. :)