Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Peter had been drinking more coffee lately than he cared to admit.

He wasn’t sure why.

He wasn’t moving more than he was used to.

Well, no more than he’s used to in his day to day Spider-Man life, along with his life at the spider society.

So, he’s ignored it.

The last few days though, the reason for why he’s been drinking more coffee has become more clear.

When he’s downing his third cup of coffee for the day at only 11am, things become clearer than ever, even if it was due to the caffeine.

The energy spike he feels after he drinks a cup makes him think it’s not just the caffeine.

~

Peter sighs as he pours himself some coffee.

It was his first cup of the day.

He had woken up later than he usually did, and admittedly, woke up with a bit of an attitude.

He could imagine himself clearly as his old self, the Peter who lived in a dingy apartment, eating pizza everyday.

He wanted to get rid of that part of as quickly as he possibly could. Or, most of it, anyways.

He’s been thinking of certain people he met during that time in his life a lot more lately too.

He sighed to himself.

He wished Miles was in the spider society alongside him and Gwen.

Peter pulls himself out of his thoughts as he enters the common room with his cup, ignoring the spider person standing near him as he starts to down the coffee.

He almost drops the cup in response as the scalding liquid touches his lips.

“Ow, Shit!” He exclaims, wiping his mouth frantically in an attempt to soothe the instant pain.

“You really gotta go easy on the coffee.” A voice comments.

Peter turns his gaze to see the person that was standing near him earlier.

Gwen.

“A bit of sympathy would be nice, you know…” He grumbles.

Gwen laughs.

“You should know by now that you should wait a minute before you drink it, idiot.”

Peter doesn’t respond, instead bringing the cup up to his lips again, this time, he blows on it a few times before drinking.

“Hey, so, Miguel wants to see you, uh, when you get the chance. Now would be preferable though…”

“Huh? Okay. Why didn’t he just page me?”

Gwen shrugged.

“I was in the area. Plus, he said he didn’t want to talk with you any more than he had to. His words, not mine!” She says the last part while throwing up her hands in defense.

Peter takes a few more gulps from his coffee.

“Alright, alright.” He mumbles.

He looks back at Gwen for a moment.

“Come with me, if you have the time. Please. I need you there incase he’s in one of his moods.”

Gwen smirks.

“You scared, huh?”

Peter turns his head back around, starting his small trek to Miguel’s office.

“I’m not. He can be scary, sure, but…” He trails off and, thankfully, Gwen doesn’t push further.

It take only a few minutes to reach the automatic doors leading to Miguel’s office. Peter doesn’t bother to knock before walking in, Gwen waiting by the door in waiting.

It’s dimmed in the room, the only light coming from the array of computers. Miguel notices his arrival as the door shuts behind him.

“Peter. Come in.”

Peter steps forwards.

“Miguel?”

Miguel turns from his fixed gaze on his computer finally, stepping down to meet Peter on the ground level of the room.

“Listen…” Miguel stops for a moment, rubbing his thumb and pointer on the bridge of his nose.

Without straying from that position, he motions to the coffee cup in his hand.


“Have you noticed any changes in your coffee, lately?”

Peter can’t help but make a noise of confusion.

He wasn’t expecting such an odd question.

Then again, he never knows how Miguel will respond.

“Uhh…my…coffee?”

Miguel let out a sigh of annoyance.

“Yes, your coffee. Have you had any mood changes? Anything?”

Is…that why I feel so energetic lately?

“Yeah, actually. Why, did someone change the blend or something? It’s been pretty strong…I think.”

“Strong?”

Peter nods slowly, still unsure where this conversation was going.

“Yeah? Uh, what’s going on? I’m not in trouble, right?”

Miguel slow blinks.

“No. It’s not your fault you got in this mess.”

Peter chuckles, confused.

“Mess? Uh…it’s just coffee…?”

“Alright…” Miguel says in a sigh.

“Peter. Listen. I’ll just tell you as straightforward as I can.”

Miguel presses a button on his wrist, which brings up a rotating hologram of a vial, filled with a green liquid.

“This…is what I take in order to use my abilities.”

“Right…you did mention this…W—“

Miguel puts up a hand to cut him off.

“Let me finish.”

He touches the hologram, which brings up the specific proponents of the liquid.

“Now. What effects you receive relies heavily on how you ingest it. I take this by a needle. You…unfortunately…have been taking it in it’s pure form.”

Miguel motions to peters coffee cup as he said the last part, to which Peter almost drops the cup in response.

“I’ve been DRINKING this stuff?? I mean, I swear I haven’t been doing on purpose, I didn’t even know—“

“I know. I didn’t know at first either.”

Miguel looks to the door, seeing Gwen, and now Hobie, peaking into the room, who quickly turn away when they see Miguel noticed them.

“Hobie…“ He trails off for a second, making sure they were gone.

“…got his hands on a vial, seemed to have slipped some in your coffee as some sort of prank. I already talked to him about this, once I did figure it out.”

He brings up a diagram now, showing the different effects the drug can have.

“Tell me about how you’ve felt lately. Really think about it.”

Peter stutters, still processing what he had just been told.

“Uhh…well…I guess I’ve felt this…energy? I mean, I usually don’t even drink coffee as much as I have been.”

He stops to thinks for a moment.

“I assumed the brand or strength of the coffee was changed. I felt almost addicted to it.”

He frowns.

“Which…I figure means that drug is working as intended.”

“Correct. You’ve become reliant on it, no matter how much you deny it.”

Peter rolls his eyes.

“I wasn’t denying anything!”

“No, not yet you’re not.” Miguel muttered.

He turns his gaze to Peter.

“Look. This ‘energy’ you’re describing isn’t just energy.”

He highlights one of the side effects in red.

“…It’s bloodlust.”

“Bloodlust?” Peter echoes.

He shakes his head no.

“That…doesn’t make sense. I…don’t feel like going out and murdering someone.”

“That’s not exactly what bloodlust means in this context. You might not feel the urge to kill, but the urge for blood on the other hand…”

Peter can’t help but smile at the absurdity of the situation.

“Like…drinking blood?”

Miguel nods.

Peter laughs in response.

“What am I, a vampire?”

Miguel’s expression changes slightly.

“That’s the best way to explain this to you, yes.”

Peters smile fades.

“Stop messing with me. This isn’t funny, Miguel.”

“Does it look like I’m laughing?”

Miguel swipes away the hologram, then pulls out a vial from his pocket, tossing it over to Peter.

“Listen, just like with any drug, it’s best to slowly wean off of it. However, even with this method, your bloodlust will continue to grow stronger the longer you suppress it.“

“Do I…have to? Drink blood, I mean.”

“If you want to more or less get out of this situation safely, then yes. Like I said, the bloodlust grows stronger the longer you ignore it. At a certain point, there’s no turning back. Then…you might feel you have no choice but to hurt someone.”

Peter sighs out shakily.

“How far away am I from that point?”

“I’m not sure. At the rate you’re going, I suspect you’re close. We need to solve this matter quickly.”

Peter rubs a hand down his face.

“Ok, ok, yeah. So…how exactly am I supposed to get blood from? Don’t tell me it’s yours…”

“Oh, no, no, It can’t be mine. It would just cause more damage. I have the serum in my system already.”

“Alright…so…you have somebody else’s blood or what?”

“No. Peter, think about your urges. Have you been…missing anybody a lot more lately? A lot more than you ever have? Th—“

“—Miles.” Peter cuts him off.

“Miles?…that…oh. The one from earth 1610. Right.”

”Right.”

Miguel points a finger at Peter, like a dad scolding his child.

”I’m STILL not letting him join, by the way, no matter what you and Gwen and the…other ones…say. Not until his—“

”Canon event, I know, I know.” 

Miguel huffs.

”Don’t tell him about any of this. Even in this situation, the only reason you’re visiting is purely business. Got it?”

“Uh. Yeah…”

Peter wasn’t listening. He was caught up on the fact that he said Miles name. He didn’t know why he had blurted out his name so quickly, much less at all.

He almost feels like his mind forced him to say it. As if his mind subconsciously wants Miles specifically, even if he doesn’t realize it.

As some sort of sick reassurance, images of Miles’s face flash in his mind, causing a tinge of what seems like pain to build in his chest, at how good it feels just from imagining his face.

Miguel sighs.

Without another word, he opens a portal, which was labeled ‘Earth 1610, Brooklyn, New York.

“You have no choice now, Peter.”

“What? Miguel, you don’t expect me to just show up out of nowhere, do you?”

“Just go. We’re wasting time the longer we stand by.”

He hands Peter several vials of the serum.

“This is enough to last you two weeks. If you’re not back within 2 weeks…I’ll assume you couldn’t control yourself.”

Peters head begins to spin, trying to get a grasp of the rapidly moving events.

“What? Dude, What the hell am I supposed to say? What do I do? He’ll have so many questions-“

“Lyla will tell you everything you need. Relax. Take the serum you need and take it as Lyla directs. Now go.”

Peter hesitates for a moment.

Despite the circumstances…he really did want to see Miles.

He stares into the portal, gazing into the familiar, yet foreign, city.

“Don’t worry. Maybe you have more self control than I think.”  

“Thanks.” Peter says sarcastically, ignoring the ‘encouragement’.

“No problem. And Peter…be careful about how you collect blood. This kid is…exactly that. You have to take extra precautions. You don’t want to hurt him.”

Peter is almost insulted, shaking his hand off of his shoulder.

“…I can control myself, if that’s what you’re insinuating.”

“Yeah…I told myself that too.”

“Wh…? Of course I’m going to be able to…why wouldn’t you…”

Peter groans in annoyance.

“Whatever. I’ve got this, man.”

“I hope you do, Peter. Don’t get involved in that universe.”

“You know me.” Peter says.

“Not enough to completely trust you. Sorry. Good luck.”

With that, Peter puts on his mask, and jumps into the portal.

See you soon, kid…

Chapter Text

Peter not so gracefully lands onto the rooftop with a grunt, quickly hopping back up on his feet as if nothing had happened.

He looks around him, breathing out a heavy sigh reflexively.

“Seems like Brooklyn…” he thinks aloud.

He taps his wrist.

“Lyla, what exactly am I supposed to do here? Miguel said you’d tell me everything I need to know, so…Christ, I don’t know what to ask first.”

Lyla pops up beside him.

“Yeah, he’s like that!” She laughs, proceeding to pull up a chart with various medical images.

“Soo, I’ll explain it to you simple. I’ll skip over what Miguel already explained.”

“Which wasn’t much…” Peter mumbles.

Lyla ignores the remark, instead pointing to a highlighted image, which was of a set of teeth.

“About the bloodlust…the more you crave blood, the worse your side effects become. With those side effects come abilities, similar to a vampire, more so than a spider, which vary depending on the ingesting method, as Miguel said already.”

She highlights a set of fangs on the image.

“Fangs are a side effect that is shared across all possible cases. You know, you have some.”

Peter instantly puts a hand up to his mouth, attempting to feel for the fangs.

“Fangs!? Have they been visible this whole time? I haven’t noticed them…seems hard to miss…”

Lyla blows out a sigh.

“You have them, yes, but, if you let me finish…”

She points to a rising meter labeled bloodlust.

“The fangs will become noticeable when you’re around your target. Your mind will assume it’s time to…feed.”

Peters lips curl in disgust.

“Please don’t say it like that…Miles isn’t my…TARGET.”

“Just a word. Don’t take offense to it.”

She swipes the chart away.

“Since you’re in Miles’s dimension, much less his city, you’re gonna start experiencing these side effects rather quickly, so…”

Peter nods.

“I should…hurry up, then, is what you’re saying.” Peter responds.

Lyla gives him a thumbs up.

“You read my mind! I’ll come back when it’s time. Good luck, dude.”

With that, Lyla waves a goodbye, and disappears from view.

Peter faces the concrete jungle before him.

He didn’t know this Brooklyn like his own, but even in his handful times of going to Miles dorm room, he knew how to get there no problem.

Why he remembered after 2 years, he didn’t know.

But at the moment, he was grateful, wasting no time as he begins to swing his way through the city, stopping to fix his ever constant craving of a certain burger place, and getting a meal for Miles as well.

He remembered to not add pickles too.

He remembers a lot about him.

Again, he ignores why he remembers specifics, as he sees the familiar dorm hall quickly come into view.

He scales the side of the building, looking into each window as he does so.

Of course the one thing he couldn’t seem to remember was Miles’s dorm number.

He sighs in relief, after 6 or so tries, as he sees the back of Miles’s frame come into view.

He was sitting at his desk, headphones on, and tilting back in his chair.

He had a larger build than before.

A noticeably bigger back, which seemed to be from more than just the average spidey muscles.

He was taller too. Maybe taller than him.

He swings closer, landing on the metal staircase outside his window.

He knows Miles’s will notice him almost immediately, or hopes he does, so he waits.

What takes moments feels like eternity. The more time that passes, the more he hears the sound of his heartbeat become almost impossible to ignore.

To seemingly purposely make matters worse, Lyla pops up.

”Your blood is rushing. What you’re hearing is HIS heartbeat. You probably shouldn’t stall like this.”

Peter merely waves her away.

After a few more agonizing moments, he hears the sound of a window sliding open cut through the deafening silence, followed by a curious Miles’s popping his head out, mask halfway on.

“Who’s there?” He asks, noticeably attempting to make his voice deeper.

Despite his situation, Peter can’t help but let out a laugh at that, rather loudly, too.

Miles’s reacts immediately, jolting up, and hitting his head on the window sill in the process.

“Ow.” He groans.

Peter hears his heart speed up, as he seemingly processes what just happened. Or rather, who he just heard.

“Wait. That voice…is that—“

Miles completely exits his room now, almost slamming face to face to Peter, who was still laughing just around the corner.

“—PETER? Is that you?? My Peter, I mean. I mean…”

Peter stops laughing, stopping Miles’s  rambling by lifting up his own mask.

Once Miles’s sees it’s him, he smiled brightly, almost not knowing what to do with his hands as he moves with excitement.

Peter smiles in return, raising the somewhat still warm paper bag up.

“Got you a burger. Mind if I come in for a bit, kid?”

Miles’s all but trips back into his room, Peter following close behind.

Before the window is even closed behind him, he feels Miles quickly bring him in for a tight hug.

“Peter! W-what? How? When…”
He can’t decide what to ask first.

Peter chuckles.

“I’ll explain. Eat your burger first.” He motions to the bag, which Miles almost immediately tears open.

“Thanks, man. Now tell me everything!” He muffles around a mouthful of a burger.

Peter sighs as he leans back on a desk.

“I don’t even know how to start, to be honest…”

“Well, how the heck did you get here, start with that.” Miles tried to help.

Peter nods.

“Right…well uh. I…got here through a portal. Like last time, but…I came here on purpose this time.”

“Oh. How did you manage that?”

“I…happened to meet someone. Another spider, actually. He kinda has all the inter dimensional travel thing figured out. He has his own little team for bigger enemies. Kind of like a multiverse special forces.”

“What!? That’s so cool! Is that why you’re here?”

Peter rubs the back of his head.

“Yeah, well…not really.”

Miles ignores the fact that he doesn’t explain further, instead looking down to his wrist.

“Did you join?”

Peter laughs.

“Come on, you think he’d let ME join? When I say he’s selective, I mean he’s selective.”

Miles hums.

“That’s too bad. Do you…can you tell me if Gwen joined? Not that it matters, or rather not that you’d know…just…I’m curious.”

“I couldn’t tell ya. Sorry.”

Miles shoulders sank a bit in response.

“Oh. Well, anyways—“ he motions to his wrist.

“What’s that thing?”

Peter curses to himself for making such a careless mistake.

So much for keeping it a secret…not that I was doing a great job at it.

“Well…this is how I got here. The guy I mentioned gave me one, said it was because he trusted me to own one. He gives one to a lot of spiders, so I’m not exactly special.”

He rolls his eyes.

“As if I even wanted to join him anyways. I already have my own dimension to deal with.”

Miles wipes his hands, moving onto the drink.

“Hm. Well, I guess it’s good you can travel between dimensions now without glitching and stuff.”

“Not that I really have anyone else to visit, but yeah.”

“Do you think the guy would let me have one of those?” Miles more or less wonders aloud.

“Uh…I don’t know…” he tries to stall, or avoid the question completely, if he could.

Miles wouldn’t budge.

“How can I contact him? I want to ask myself. Maybe I can—?”

“I’ll ask him if I cross his path again, okay?”

Miles frowns.

Peter knows he doesn’t exactly believe him, but for the moment, he thankfully leaves it be.

“So really, why are you here?” Miles asks.

Peter shrugged.

“Wanted to check in on you, since I had a chance. See if you’re handling spidey life ok.”

He’s quiet for a moment.

“Plus, I just missed you, of course.”

Miles chuckles, cheeks turning a light red in response.

“Of course?” He echos.

“I missed you too, man.” He adds.

It’s silent for a moment.

How am I supposed to bring this up?? Oh hey, by the way, I’m pretty much a vampire now and I need your blood?

In some sort of an answer to his problem, Miles breaks the silence.

“Are those…fangs…?”

Great. 

“What? Uh. I don’t know what you’re talking about…i mean, how did you…” He stutters, not knowing what exactly to say.

Of course he would notice!

Miles blows out a laugh, then inches closer to Peter, raising a hand to his face.

Peter reflexively grabs his wrist before he touches it. 

He wasn’t excepting him to be this close so soon.

“Miles.” He struggles to get out.

Miles rolls his eyes.

“What, is it a secret? Come on, Peter. Let me see!”

Peter grumbles, but hesitantly complies, letting go of Miles hand.

Miles smiles, and begins to gently push Peters upper lip up to better see the fangs.

Peter freezes.

He didn’t expect him to be so…forward.

It was almost exciting to see Miles being bold like this.

“They are, aren’t they…? I saw them peaking out… Are they real?”

“Mhm.”

Peter dares not speak much, in fear of drawing blood from Miles’s curious hands.

“Jeez, man, these are kind of cool.”

Peter looks away.

The overwhelming scent of Miles has been tormenting him even before he entered his dorm.  Now with the taste of him suddenly washing over his pallet, he didn’t exactly trust himself to control his urges.

I understand why Miguel was worried, now…this is hard.

He sighs, maybe a bit dramatically, as Miles finally pulls his hand away.

“ Hm. So, is that, like, a recent spidey thing?” Miles asks.

“Well, kind of…eh, never mind not really…uh. Look, I better just explain it.”

Peter reaches into his bag, pulling out one of the serum bottles.

He tosses it over to Miles, who catches it.

“What is it?” Miles asks, examining the vial.

Peter runs his hands down his face, cursing out Miguel in his mind for not letting him think of how to tell Miles.

Lyla didn’t exactly help as much as he had hoped, either. 

He just wanted to get through the situation he just had to get himself into.

“Ok. I’m going to make a sorta long story short. Like, with one sentence, so listen.”

Miles nods attentively.

“Right. So, Miguel, he takes that serum—“

He motions to the serum in Miles’s hand.

“—to gain his powers. I kind of…accidentally took some, without knowing, and…I guess the way I ingested it left me with different powers. Hence the fangs, and speed.”

Miles nods slowly, then lays back, processing what he had just said.

”You…sure know a lot about this guy, Peter.” He mumbles.

”Miles—“

“—Sorry, sorry. I mean…how’d you even accidentally drink this stuff?”

He side eyes him.

”Unless you’re understating how often you ‘cross paths’ with him…”

Peter stutters, almost in shock of how confrontational he’s being.

”I…may have met him more than once, sure…I was told some other spider pulled a prank on me.”

”A prank? I mean, you must’ve stuck around long enough to have some coffee, right?”

”I suppose? Look, Miles, the point is, I just need to…get through this. Please.”

Peter can see Miles doesn’t believe him for a second, but for someone reason, that he’s thankful for in the moment, he doesn’t try to pry any further.

“Ok, ok…so…you’re like a vampire now or something?” Miles jokes.

Peter keeps a straight face, almost cringing at the fact that Miles’s had no idea he was right. Now he knew how Miguel must’ve felt.

He rubs the back of his head.

“Well. Pretty much, yeah. I’ve been taking the drug for a while without noticing, until today. Miguel explained I had to slowly wean myself off of it…but…in order to lessen the severity of my withdrawals, I have to…well, I think you know where I’m going with this…”

Peter looks up to Miles, who he has been avoiding looking at throughout his speech.

He can’t imagine what he must be feeling.

“Blood. Got it. Okay…okay. So, that’s why you’re here? For blood?”

Peter hesitates before he nods, guilty for admitting it.

“Why mine? Won’t anyone be fine?”

“It’s…a bit weird…but, as Miguel explained it, it has to be you. I’ve been missing you a lot more lately. I thought it was just loneliness, but after a while it got more intense than I care to admit. It’s kind of like…my bloodthirst chose you…? I don’t now really know. No matter how much I didn’t want that, it had to be you.”

Miles stands up almost immediately, putting on his best brave face.

“I…don’t know what to even say, Peter. I still don’t fully understand, but…”

He walks over to Peter, holding out a hand.

“…as long as it’s gonna help you, I’ll do everything I can.”

Peter almost becomes tearful.

It pains him in a way, at how quickly and easily Miles just agreed to help him.

Sometimes he thinks Miles is still so naive.

“You…really trust me like that? I mean, what if I accidentally hurt you? What if—?”

”I trust you with anything. I know you wouldn’t hurt me on purpose, Peter.”

Peter sighs in some sense of relief, before taking ahold of Miles’s still outstretched hand.

“Miles. Thank you…thank you.”

For a moment they stay in silence, before Peter taps his wrist.

”So…I suppose we should get this over with, then…”

END CHAPTER 2