Gwen took her coffee order and was almost back at her table in the library when, to her surprise, she found Peter standing there, seemingly looking around. To be fair, she'd been expecting him, but his sudden appearance still caught her off guard, pleasant though it was to see him.

"Hey," she greeted him cheerfully. Peter's head then spun around, concern or anxiousness suddenly written on his face.

"Oh, hey," he said.

"You okay?" she questioned. "You look worried about something?"

"Who, me, worried?" Peter replied dismissively. "Never; I just, you know, came to tell you that, uh, May needs me at home, so I gotta run. See you later!"

"Oh, um, okay," Gwen stammered out, unable to get any more out before Peter darted off. What had gotten into him? Nevertheless, she shook her head as she set her coffee down, trying to clear her mind. She'd hoped her boyfriend would have been able to join her, but perhaps some undistracted time to work on at least one of her major projects due near the fast-coming end of the semester would be handy. Still, it was hard not to wonder what had gotten into him...

... that is, until she remembered what had been left up on her computer screen: an article on the top 10 wedding venues in the city.

"Oh NO."

"Dad!"

"In here, sweetheart!"

Following the sound of her father's voice, Gwen speed walked until she ended up in the kitchen, speaking up the minute she set foot in the room.

"I think I might have just freaked Peter out."

"Why is that?" the man asked, turning to look at her while putting away the last couple of dishes.

"We were supposed to hang out earlier, and I got to the library early," she explained. "I was going to just start working on one of our projects, but I'd just been thinking a lot about mine and Peter's future recently, and next thing I know I was looking up possible wedding venues! I got up to get some coffee, and when I got back, he was there, but he looked all freaked out and made some excuse about his aunt and left, and I think it's because he saw that I'd been looking up wedding stuff, and... I messed up, dad."

"Gwen, sit down," her father said, the two of them taking seats across from one another at their kitchen table. "First off, have you or Peter ever brought up marriage to each other?"

"No," Gwen said. "I don't think so, at least."

"But things have been going well between you two though, right?" her father asked.

"Yeah, really well," Gwen assured him. "Tomorrow is actually our six-month anniversary."

"Well, if you guys have been getting closer, than it sounds like you should just talk to him about what you were doing and just kind of clear the air on what you two expect about the future of your relationship. You don't have to settle anything, but at least let him know what you're thinking on your end."

"I'm sure you're right," Gwen replied, trying to take in her father's advice. "It's just... I'm so embarrassed; I know I didn't exactly do anything wrong, but still. Peter's always just kind of been a 'one day at a time' kind of guy too, so I've been nervous to bring up my thoughts on maybe getting married as soon as we graduate, because I don't want to freak him out."

"Wow, you really have been thinking ahead," her dad observed, his tone almost teasing her.

"I mean, it worked for you and mom, right?" she said. "I guess I just always assumed I'd get married young too."

"That's something for the two of you to decide together," her father replied. "It's perfectly fair for you to share with him what you want, but if you really want a life with that boy one day, part of that will mean that you two will need to come together and hash stuff like this out."

"You're right," Gwen acknowledged. "I'll reach out to him later, once my embarrassment wears off."

"Knowing you, that could take a while," her father teased, prompting Gwen to give him a playful wack to the arm before getting up and heading to her room. She then got out her computer to do some actual work on her project this time, hoping it would be a good distraction.

"It's alright, Gwen," she told herself as she fired up her laptop. "You're freaking out about nothing; you didn't blow it with Peter... hopefully."

"I know who you really are. You can't hide anymore."

From the moment he'd seen those words in a text on his phone, Peter's heart hadn't stopped picking up speed. Finally getting to a high enough point in the city, he pulled out his phone and went to work on tracing the anonymous number he'd received the ominous message from to its source. He knew he could very well be heading into a trap, but he wasn't sure he had much other choice. If whoever this was did in fact know his secret identity, it wasn't only his life in danger, but May's, Gwen's and everyone else's that he cared about as well. If he could get to the bottom of this quickly, maybe he could put out the fire before one even really started.

After a few minutes of going through various satellite connections, Peter was finally able to trace the source of the phone that had sent the message back to an apartment across the city. Wasting no time, Peter hurried on over, swinging faster than he'd ever swung before. Cutting out any of his usual acrobatics, he saved himself some time and, soon enough, ended up at the building across from the source of the signal. Locating the specific apartment it was coming from, he could see two people inside. Leaping across the way, he landed just to the side of the window, crawling over until he was just outside of view. As badly as he just wanted to burst through and confront whoever this was, gathering information was likely the wiser approach.

However, the first words he heard weren't what he expected.

"I am NOT cheating on you!"

"Don't lie; Bill SAW you go into that house with that guy! Why would he lie?"

"Okay," Peter thought to himself. Had he made a mistake in following the signal?

"You just saw my text earlier, and now you're trying to figure out how you can get out of this, but I know the truth!" the man accused.

"What text?" the woman questioned. "I never got a text from you today!"

"Yes, you did!"

Peter then dared to glance inside just a little, observing as the man pulled out his phone, scrolling through his phone.

"Ah ha!" he said. "See; 'I know who you really are. You can't hide anymore.' You knew I caught you, and now you're trying to deny it!"

"That's not even my number!"

Peter then leaned back against the wall. Could he really be this lucky? All that worry about one of his supervillains or someone else from the underworld learning his identity... and this had all been because he got a new number and phone yesterday that someone had mistakenly texted?

Pulling out his phone again, Peter double checked to make sure and, sure enough, this was indeed where the signal had led him to. He then let out a breath before firing a web and swinging off, not wanting to hear any more of the unpleasant conversation just inside. He couldn't believe his good fortune for a change, that something that seemed like it was some really, really bad thing turned out to be something he could only laugh about now. Man, to think, he'd ducked out on hanging with Gwen for thi...

"Oh man, Gwen!"

Peter had completely forgotten how weird he must have seemed to be around her before he'd left to investigate this.

He needed to clarify things with her, and soon.

Spotting his girlfriend, Peter practically ran up to the table she was at, Gwen immediately standing up as he came near her.

"Hey, thanks for coming," he said. "I know it's late, but I just really wanted to clear something up about earlier."

"Me too, actually," Gwen said.

"Oh, really?" Peter questioned, suddenly confused. What did she have on her mind?

"Yeah," Gwen said. "I mean, you saw my computer, right?"

"No," Peter said, tilting his head as confusion filled his mind. "Look, the truth was that I got a text from some number I'd never seen before that kind of shook me up earlier. I thought that maybe it was someone who was trying to get to Spider-Man through me, since I take pictures of him for the Bugle, but it ended up being your classic wrong number scenario. Anyway, I'm sorry that I wasn't honest with you before, but I didn't want to freak you out, yet I ended up doing it anyway."

"Oh no, you're fine, totally," Gwen assured him, giving him a hug.

"Okay, good," Peter said, just relieved Gwen had taken to what he'd said so well. It was at least enough of the truth that he didn't feel overwhelmed in guilt when explaining one of his disappearing acts to her this time. Still, he had some questions of his own.

"Anyway," he spoke up again as they separated, "why were you concerned about me seeing your computer?"

"Oh, um..." Gwen stammered, the woman seemingly wanting to shrink into a hole somewhere. Nevertheless, she continued: "I was actually looking at... possible wedding venues."

Peter could feel his eyes seemingly double in length.

"Really?"

"Mhm," Gwen muttered in a closed-mouth reply. "You know, our six-month anniversary is tomorrow, and I guess I just got swept up in the romance of it all, and, you know, my parents married pretty young, so I guess I was thinking along the same lines, and one thing led to another, and I'm sorry if I'm totally scaring you off right now, but..."

"Gwen," Peter said, putting his hands gently on her arms. "It's okay."

"It is?" his girlfriend questioned, her body already relaxing.

"Yes," he assured her, almost having to refrain from laughing.

"Okay, good," she said. "I'm sorry, it's just... I can't help but be excited when I think of our future together. Does that make sense, or am I getting too ahead of things?"

"No, not at all," Peter assured her. "I've actually thought about a lot of what things might look like for us in the future too."

"Really?" she asked, perking up a little more. "Like what?"

"Well, let's see," Peter began, trying to recount the many times he'd daydreamed about the subject. "I figure we'll get married somewhere nice in the city, hopefully the day after graduation if we can. We'll probably start off in an apartment somewhere in the city before eventually moving into a house in the suburbs in Queens somewhere when we start to think about a family."

"A family?" Gwen asked, her growing smile only encouraging Peter.

"Of course!" he said. "I figure we'll have two kids, a boy and a girl, and we'll have a yard for them to play in. I figure we'll both be working in science somehow obviously, and you'll probably win a Nobel Prize or two for your cancer research, and we'll all be a big happy family that changes the world together. Does that sound good?"

Gwen stepped closer to him, throwing her arms over his shoulders.

"It sounds perfect."

She then leaned in, the two of them sharing a kiss before holding one another tightly. Peter could practically feel his smile trying to break past the limits of his face. He'd often wondered if he and Gwen were on the same page on this subject, but had always been nervous to bring it up for one reason or another... mainly because of Spider-Man.

As his head turned to his red and blue alter ego, he thought back to his panic earlier. He'd been lucky this time, but what if next time he wasn't? What if the next time was real, and someone came after Gwen? What if something happened to him? What would happen to their future then?

Did he even deserve to bring her into his future?

Shutting his eyes, Peter tightened his grip on her, holding her closer, trying desperately to block out all his fears.

They were here, and they were together, and right now, that was all that mattered.

Hope you're enjoying it!

Continuing to pray for you all; stay safe and healthy!

"If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?" Matthew 6:30