A knock on Glory's door woke her.

"What is it mom?" she mumbled, aware that her mom wouldn't be able to hear it.

She knocked again.

Glory forced herself up and opened her door.

"Can... can I hug you?" Gwen, not her mom, was standing there. She was giving her puppy eyes so she didn't really have a choice on the matter. She spread her arms and let the shorter girl step into the hug.

Closing the door behind her friend she gently pulled Gwen to her bed so they could sit down.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"No." Gwen hugged her tighter, pushed into her harder. Too hard. Without intending to Gwen had pushed her down and was squeezing hard enough for it to hurt.

She tapped her friends back. "Super-strength, Gwen." She let up. "Thanks." Glory gently stroked Gwen's back. "Do you want me to help get your mind off of it?"

Gwen nodded.

Because Glory didn't know what had upset her friend she wasn't sure which topics to avoid, but it probably wasn't because of anything their friends had done so she talked a bit about the Mary Janes, about the music MJ was writing, about her and MJ's relationship...

She stopped. Had Gwen's crush done something? Because if so then maybe talking about romance hadn't been a good idea.

"Why did you stop talking?" Gwen asked.

She seemed fine and, as far as Glory could tell, hadn't reacted poorly to the topic so she kept going.

"Am I the mom of our friend group?" Glory asked. They had been talking for half an hour but they still didn't need to head to school. Gwen must have gotten up really early, or maybe she hadn't slept yet?

"Hm?"

"It seems like all of you come to me for advice and emotional support. If it was just MJ then that would obviously be a crush slash girlfriend thing but both you and Betty come to me as well."

"I think technically you're the step-mom, because MJ founded the group and you're dating her."

"Fine, step-mom then." It wasn't a good joke, not even by Gwen's standards, but if it helped cheer her up Glory wouldn't fault her for it.

"You're a good friend-step-mom." Gwen hugged her for what felt like the fiftieth time that morning before letting go and rolling to her back. "Bet you'll be a good mom too if you ever decide to get kids."

Neither of them spoke for a while, it felt like Gwen would, but she didn't. For almost two minutes they just sat silently on her bed.

"Gwenom is missing."

When Joe woke up he was hungry, which wasn't unusual but he felt extra hungry that morning. He also had an urge to go to the 'Dollar Dog', wherever that was, or to a particular street he hadn't ever seen before.

He woke up Clair. She was a younger girl, too young to live on the streets in his opinion, who had come into the city recently. She hadn't known much about how to get by in New York, where to go for free food, where it was safe to sleep for their kind... the usual things really.

"What's up Joe?"

"I'm going to get breakfast. If you're hungry I'd recommend you come along."

He waited about a minute for her to get up and sorted. They didn't have a lot but when you can't lock your things away you'd have to either take your things with you or hide them, because otherwise someone else might claim it for themselves, so he waited while she stuffed her stuff in a ratty backpack.

"So what's your plan for today?" he asked.

"Same as yesterday: follow you around, learn some tricks."

"That's not a good idea today. I'll be walking a lot, trying to find a place, won't be teachin' you much."

He lumbered towards a restaurant he knew always threw out their old produce in the mornin'. The owner didn't complain about dumpster diving unless you made a ruckus or a mess so it was a good place to get some greens if you needed them.

One boy there actually put the nicer ones in a bag by the door and would hand them out to anyone who came a knocking.

"But you'll still eat, right? And you'll find a safe place to sleep."

"Sure." He should be able to scrounge up food just about anywhere, even in new places.

"Then do you want some company?" Clair said with a bright smile. She really was too innocent for the streets.

After breakfast Joe and Clair went around asking people about the Dollar Dog. They didn't get any clear directions, but he remembered some things about the general neighborhood which helped a lot, gave him a direction to walk in.

"So why are we going to this place?"

"Because-" He had a reason, he knew it was important, but why? "Because I need to find my other half." The words came out of his mouth. He knew it was the truth, and that he had meant to say it, but there was a strange disconnect there.

"So you're married?"

"No." There had been a few people in his life he'd considered asking, but nothing ever came of it.

"In love?"

"Yes, but not with her." Who was he talking about? He didn't know, but again: he knew it was true.

"Well regardless, I know we can find you other half."

"We're making progress." But he wasn't sure they'd make it before nightfall, especially since he still wasn't sure if they were going the right way.

Daisy had pulled an all-nighter again, which wasn't unusual in her line of work so she was used to it, but she still hadn't gotten a hint of where Gwenom was. Daisy would have to sleep eventually, and she wouldn't sleep any less if she stayed up longer, but she wouldn't really need the sleep before noon, so she kept searching.

At first she and her team had searched the area carefully, moving slowly and deliberately, but they soon realized that Gwenom hadn't been as slow so they focused their search in the direction she had most likely been going, towards Gwen's house and their base. By the time Kamala, being the only one of them with a curfew, had to go home they had made it to their base without running into her.

"Have you found anything?" Patriot asked over the comms. As the only other full time hero he was still searching, but no one else was. Two people weren't enough for a decent search pattern and without one they were more or less just running around the city hoping that Gwenom would spot them.

"No. I'm guessing you haven't either?"

"No," he answered.

"A.M.I. hasn't found anything either so she probably isn't moving around as Bite-size.

"That'd be too easy wouldn't it?"

"If she went after Exile's team she might not want to be that obvious when signaling us." That was one of the leading theories for why they hadn't found her yet, because if she had gone after them she probably wouldn't be anywhere near the path between the warehouse and their base or Gwen's house.

"Sure but if Gwen is rig-"

" Gwendolyn ," she corrected him.

"If Gwendolyn is right Gwenom should have been in a hurry to meet back up with her so they could bond again."

Even if it seemed like Gwendolyn hadn't been sure that Gwenom would want to bond with her again, judging by how much Gwendolyn wanted it, it seemed likely that Gwenom would want it too.

"I know, but... I can't explain why she isn't trying to get our attention either; I just hope she's okay."

"Me too, Daisy, but searching like this doesn't seem to be working. Maybe we should go back, get some sleep and figure out a better way to find her after that." He was making sense, they were getting to the point where their decision making wouldn't be half as good as normally.

"Sure. That's a good idea."

"Why do I think that you'll just keep searching without me?"

"Because apparently you know me very well," she said with a smile.

He sighed. "Then I guess I'll keep going for a little longer."

Betty had a lot of things going on in her life, she liked to keep busy (not that her parents saw it that way). When she wasn't practicing with the band or hanging out with her friends she maintained a healthy social life by attending parties, kept up to date on the latest news in the worlds of politics, punk-rock, and music in general, and she still found time to listen to lots of music, constantly meet new people, and grow her social media following.

Even so, she didn't do much that morning other than talking with her friends. Not because she couldn't also do other things but because Gwen had another breakdown. Don't misunderstand, she did care about her friend and she tried to help but Gwen hadn't had her shit together for more than three weeks in a row for as long as he could remember so it was getting old.

Admittedly this might have been a bigger problem than whenever she got overworked or had to miss band practice because of villain attacks, so she was doing her best to cut Gwen some slack.

"Hey..." MJ said. "Cheer up Gwendolyn. She's probably looking for you right now."

"And what if she isn't..."

"What's the worst that could happen? What are you afraid of?" Betty asked.

"Gwenom decides to bond with one of Exiles people and she becomes a villain instead."

"Do you really not trust her more than that? I thought she was your 'other half'," Betty said.

"No. But Symbiotes aren't meant to function on their own for long, so she has bonded with someone by now... What if she likes whoever she bonded to? If it's someone nice with their shit together I don't think it's that farfetched to say that she might stay with them."

Joe and Clair had kept searching after lunch. He still didn't know if he was going the right way, if he was getting closer or further from his goal but all he could do was keep going. Keep trying to find it.

They were walking through an alleyway, hoping it was a shortcut when he heard a strange sound behind him and turned to see the prettiest, coolest girl in the world driving by in a flying car.

He ran after her. "Daisy!" He knew it was her name, somehow he knew.

He kept running when the flying car slowed down, then landed not five meters in front of him, on the side of the road. Daisy was young, with a nice shade of purple in her beautiful black hair, and she loved her. The problem was that he didn't know her, and that no matter how he looked at it she was too young for him.

When he reached Daisy he heard Clair stop about two meters behind him. He wanted to reach out to her, to touch Daisy even just a little, to hold her hand maybe. He didn't.

"Do I know you?" Daisy asked.

"No, and I don't know you either, but somehow the answer is also yes? We're friends."

Daisy relaxed imperceptibly, but stayed in the car. "Is that so?"

"I think so. You've been avoiding me ever since Monday but that doesn't mean we've stopped being friends right?"

"I suppose it doesn't."

The urge to touch her became stronger with each passing moment, like a building tide, never ceasing until the dam breaks.

"I love you," he said, somehow thinking that would explain anything. "I love you but I've no idea why and I want to be your girlfriend despite being a guy. I loved you since before I knew you existed, just like I knew your name without being told and how I know that I'm looking for my other half without knowing who she is.

"I... I'm so confused."

"I think I understand." Daisy assured him.

"Really?" Clair said from behind him.

"Yes." Daisy looked at her. "Who are you?"

"I'm Clair, Joe's friend. He's never mentioned you before."

"It would be strange if he had." She hopped out of her car. "So you bonded to Joe then."

"Yeah." He had no idea what she was talking about.

"Want me to take you to your other half?" Daisy held out her hand to him.

He didn't know why but he didn't take it at first. And when he did he expected fireworks, expected something but when he took her hand he didn't feel anything; not even the love he'd felt for her a second earlier.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"Well... In the most simple terms: My friend somehow lost half of her soul, and half a soul can't do much so she possessed you hoping that you would help her out. Now she's possessing me, so I'll take her to her body."

"That's- What?" Clair said.

"Don't worry about it. Point is: I've got it from here, alright?" Daisy turned back to him.

"Yeah."

She didn't stick around for a second after his answer. She just hopped into her car and flew away. As he watched her leave he felt relief. He was happy that the girl who had possessed him would be fine, and with the desperate urge to find 'his' other half gone, he was content going back to what he'd done before.

He had some motivation to try finding a job, to do more than just getting by, but he was old, too old for anyone to hire him, so instead he vowed to put that energy towards helping young kids like Clair get by.

When daisy reached out her hand Gwenom froze for a second. Undoing a bond wasn't something she'd done on purpose before and in her experience it was a painful process. They reached out to Daisy.

She moved down along Joe's arm as fast as possible, camouflaged to be his skin color, and the second they touched she let go of her bond with Joe. It actually wasn't painful, maybe because it wasn't done forcefully? So that was good.

What was less good was the heartache she felt leaving Joe behind, he was a good man and she had nothing but respect for him, but he wasn't her other half so even if they never met again she knew it was for the best.

She bonded to Daisy and, just like when she bonded to Joe, something was off. The bond was strong, and she felt their feelings as if they were hers, but it wasn't like her bond with Gwendolyn, she could tell it wasn't her own feelings.

When she had bonded with Gwendolyn it had been different. With her their bond was, if not stronger, more seamless. Their feelings and thoughts had been indistinguishable, and there had been no secrets between them. With Joe, on the other hand, she had even been able to keep most things secret, had made it so he hadn't known anything about Gwendolyn.

Gwenom felt an increasing anticipation as they moved closer to Gwendolyn, closer to reuniting her.