Sad Ending

The first thing Peter Parker did after he returned to his universe was swing back to his apartment. He needed the confirmation despite his heart already giving indications of the truth. Ignoring the injuries that he was sporting after the multiversal battle, Peter checked his soul mark. A shaky chuckle echoed as he saw the mark identical to Y/N's.

His tattoo indeed changed after meeting her. They were red - a color Peter never thought his tattoo would ever be in again. Peter shook his head as his brain started racking up ideas on how to see her again. While changing out of his Spider-man suit, an item fell out and onto the ground. They were the photos he took with Y/N from the photo booth.

Peter quickly threw on a hoodie before picking the photo up. His hands ever so lightly held the item, as if afraid he would ruin it. But as of that moment, it was the only thing left of her that he had - excluding the tattoo, of course. He settled down onto his bed, eyes never leaving the item. He traced every inch of her face, clinging to every detail the little paper would convey. He finally had time to breathe, instead of getting tangled into the rush of saving the day. It was only now that he got to memorize every inch of her face, something he, unfortunately, could not do before leaving the second chance he got at a soulmate.

Suddenly, the sound of his front door unlocking caused Peter's senses to perk up. The hero immediately listened for more signs of danger. He set the photos on his desk before inching towards the bedroom door. His hands gripped the knob as he heard the sound of a sigh, some things being dropped before footsteps sounded. With determination, Peter stormed out of his room and prepared to attack the stranger.

"Oh my gosh, Peter, you scared me," the voice yelled right after yelping. The person started soothing their heart by rubbing their hand above where their heart would be.

Meanwhile, Peter froze in disbelief.

"...Gwen?" his voice broke while calling out to his first love.

"Yeah...who else?" she jested, giving him that familiar grin that he once wished to cherish more often than before. But now, he had the chance to see it again. "Oh my gosh, what happened to you?" she asked upon noticing the dried blood on him, inching closer and putting both her hands on his face.

"I-I'm not sure," the boy muttered, lost in the thought of her and what was happening.

"Must be quite a bad guy, huh? For them to be able to do this? I do trust that you kept your promise to be careful though," Gwen caressed his face, lightly tracing it as if scared that she would hurt him.

"H-how did you get in?" Peter asked, finally realizing that he always locked his front every time he got home.

"...What do you mean?" she asked, looking at him as if he had lost his mind. All that came back at her was a genuinely confused face. "Peter...I have a key?" It was a statement that came out as a question. "I...I live here with you? We're married?" Again, Gwen was met with no replies. "Babe, this is our home," she continued.

Home? Why does home sound so wrong? He could not help but wonder as the words spilled out of her mouth.

"Did they hit you that hard? The bad guys? Are you...do you have an amnesia?" Gwen touched his forehead at this.

"No, I-" he stopped himself, staring at his supposed wife in disbelief.

How did this happen?

"Don't worry about me," Peter finally settled on saying.

"Yeah, well, it's included in the vows so I can't really opt out on that. 'Through sickness and in health', remember?" Gwen smiled, finally removing her scarf and discarding it on their sofa. "Well, how about I make dinner tonight, you'd like that?" she asked, even though her mind had already settled on the idea. Gwen proceeded to wrap her arms around her husband's neck, grinning up at him like a kid on Christmas day.

"Yeah, I-I'd like that."

"Good, now, go shower. You stink," she confessed, offering him another one of those gorgeous smiles before walking into the kitchen.

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He saw his ring on the sink when he walked into the bathroom.

Marriage was definitely something Peter had wanted his whole life. However, he could not help but be scared at the thought of knowing he was in one right that second. He was already unsettled from the fact that Gwen's stuff was already in the bedroom when he returned but he was so engulfed in post-battle and thoughts of Y/N that he did not notice.

Y/N.

Peter looked down at his tattoo. It was still identical to the one on the wrist of the girl he had met a day ago. The color was still bright red. Peter could not tell how he should feel about Gwen no longer being his soulmate. Seeing her again right after finally healing that one wound he never thought would stop hurting made it worse. Either way, he has to face this.

Exiting the bedroom, Peter found Gwen swaying to the music playing on their speaker.

"I bumped into one of my old classmates from Oxford and had a quick catch-up. I just can't believe how long ago it has be-" Gwen immediately let out a chuckle as she heard the next song come on. "It's our wedding song. Dance with me, Peter, please?" she asked, tugging at his hand.

"Won't the food burn?"

"It'll be quick," she pulled Peter out of the kitchen and into their living room, where her hands found themselves around his neck as the two started swaying to the song that apparently signified so much to them. However, to him, it was the first time Peter heard that song. It hurt him so much to know that he somehow unintentionally missed out the last few years of their relationship. He knew that it was somewhat selfish cause he should feel grateful to have her back, but half of his thoughts were purely about Y/N.

Before he knew it, the song was over. Gwen lifted her head from his chest and looked into his eyes. She inched on her toes and gave him a quick peck on the lips.

"I love you," she said after breaking away from the kiss.

"I love you too," why was it so damn easy for those words to slip out of him.

Maybe this is a sign from the universe. It gave her back to him.

Next thing he knew, Peter was bending over as he groaned. His left hand immediately clung around his wrist, where his tattoo would be. It felt almost numbing, yet the burning sensation made Peter want to collapse on his knees. Without even looking at Gwen, Peter stormed into the bedroom and locked the door.

"Peter? Are you okay?" he heard her from inside the bedroom, but dismissed it as he rolled his sleeves up to look at the source of his pain.

There it was. His skin was swelling and morphing into something new as the previous red mark blistered and scarred. Peter gasped for air as the pain seemed to amplify while his heart rate tripled. He looked away from the tattoo as he hid his face in the pillow, letting out a muffled scream over the agony.

Then just like that, the pain abruptly stopped and all Peter was left with was a hazing feeling. He weakly lifted his head up in disbelief over the experience. Almost immediately, his eyes landed on the wrist and almost dry chuckled at the situation.

There it was, a red soul mark. Except this one matched with Gwen instead of Y/N. However, he could briefly see a scar underneath that resembled what was his second chance.

Sitting up, Peter blinked wildly as he tried to comprehend what was happening. He approached the desk and saw the photo booth photo again. The boy picked it up and stared at the item in confusion before hearing Gwen call out again.

"Peter, please let me in. I'm worried about you."

He turned towards the bedroom door before his eyes took in the sight of what used to be his bedroom. It was now his and Gwen's bedroom. There were photos of them hung everywhere. His stuff was intertwined with hers. Every little thing here resembled a life that he somehow missed. Everything in this room was what he had always dreamed of. His happy ending was right here, but why does it feel so wrong to have it?

"No..." Peter muttered as he tried to have an internal conversation with himself. A part of him tried to convince his mind that perhaps he deserved this and the hesitation would go away once he settled into this life. After all, this was what he had wished for for so long.

Maybe it was time to just take things for granted. Perhaps this was life giving him a true second chance. What is to say that he will ever see Y/N again anyway? His heart ached at that, but Peter ignored it as he tried to sway the thoughts away. He looked back at the photo in his hand.

Maybe...the 'this feels wrong' feeling will disappear...if he lets the memories go.

With that, he dropped the photo out of the window, letting the wind take his what-ifs away.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Come back in two hours, yeah?" though his voice made the question come out as more of a command than anything. But the girl knew it was all with good intentions, so she nodded and watched as the man closed the magic portal.

Y/N was here on a mission: find Peter Parker - the one that belonged to her, and...possibly stay here and run from Doctor Strange if he tries to take her back to her universe. Though now that she is in his world, she felt almost foolish to come here without a plan to actually find her Peter. So here she was, standing in an alleyway, clueless and lost. Neither does she know how to find him either.

"Life, please give me a sign on where to find him..." she groaned as she muttered to herself. The girl covered her face as she brainstormed on ways to find Peter. That was when something light hit her head, which made her uncover her eyes and look at the object. Her mouth fell agape as she recognized what had landed on her a second ago. Y/N picked up what was metaphorically "a sign" for her, It was the photo she took with Peter in the photo booth. However, the girl scrunched her eyes as she realized this was not her copy, but Peter's.

Y/N looked up into the sky before averting to the building next to the alleyway. She then saw the light turning on in one of the rooms. In a slight cliche way, a lightbulb almost went off in her head as she deduced the situation. Perhaps Peter lived in this building and left his window open, and somehow the photo fell out and reached her. Even though Y/N knew it was technically illegal, the girl decided to try it anyway. She climbed through the fence and reached the fire escape with slight difficulty. Once there, Y/N made her way up to each window on each floor, peering in slightly to check and hoped that it was Peter's apartment.

She almost gave up when she reached the fourth window. However, that was when Y/N halted as she peered in. There he was, just like how she remembered him. Except now he was in ordinary clothing that fitted him, instead of his spider-suit or clothes of a Peter Parker from another universe. Blood was no longer on his face, but there were marks indicating that the battle did happen and that he had saved her New York City.

But what struck Y/N was the blonde that was with him. Y/N desperately wanted to believe she was only a friend, but with her hand on his face and the ring on both their left hands' fourth fingers. Y/N bit her lip as she glanced around his bedroom and saw the photos that hung on the wall. They almost all had the blonde in them. He also looked so happy in all of them.

He looked in love.

Y/N hands gripped slightly harder on the photo booth's photos, scrunching it slightly. She held back the tears, but all her self-control broke when she saw his wrist.

His soulmate mark did not match hers.

A sob left her lips as she felt pain jolt through her wrist. Y/N slapped a hand over her mouth as she ducked down from the window, afraid of getting caught.

Peter heard the noise and turned towards the window.

"Probably our neighbor again, she's always drunk on Friday nights," Gwen commented, dismissing the noise. Peter kept his glance out the window for a second, his spidey senses signaling something to him but he could not decipher it. Also dismissing the noise, Peter turned back to Gwen and smiled at her.

Meanwhile, Y/N was sitting on the fire escape, her head under the window as she bit into her arm to keep herself from screaming. She leaned against the wall near the window, hiding in the shadow. Tears were free-falling from her eyes as she looked down at her tattoo. The radiating color it once held was slowly slipping away. Another sob almost escaped as she realized that instead of reverting back to black, her soulmate tattoo now had a faded gray color.

The pain slowly subsided, but the numbness remained. Y/N looked at the photo again.

She wondered if he had thought of her at all ever since he came back. She wondered why he never mentioned having a wife and why he would ever cheat on his partner like that. She wondered if he had felt it all like she did, or was it all one-sided and this was once again another false hope situation. Out of bitterness, Y/N ripped the photo in half and discarded it on the metal ground she was sitting on.

He made his choice, so she walked away. Her legs dragged her numb self down the stairs before sliding down a wall in the alleyway to wait for Doctor Strange.

"Hey, kid," Doctor Strange called out, scrunching his eyebrows softly as he saw her tear-stained face. Y/N, on the other hand, realized that she was too occupied by her mind to notice that time had passed and the man who had already portaled there.

"...Come on, let's go home," he spoke quietly, his voice soft and the most empathetic he could. Doctor Strange knew asking if she was okay would be stupid, and offering sentimental support was not his forte either. In fact, the doctor believed that with his lack of skill in displaying empathy, he might make things worse by accidentally saying something sarcastic and mocking. But either way, he decided to try: "There's some ice cream at the sanctum..." he muttered, glancing away from the crying girl.

"Thank you, but...just take me home, sir," Y/N replied, knowing that even though he offered it, the sorcerer was uncomfortable with this kind of situation. Stephen Strange nodded, conjuring a portal with the hand motion that Y/N had seen many times. He stepped through it with ease, but Y/N's foot felt heavy as she dragged herself closer to the sparkling circle. The girl looked back up at that brightly lit window.

"You coming?" he said softly from the other side of the portal.

Despite her anger at that moment, she knew that if he decided to run after her in the future, she'd still open her arms to him. So if, by chance, it doesn't work out with Gwen, he'll always have a chance with Y/N and her world. With that last thought, Y/N stepped through the portal and into her world, saying goodbye to the man that had stolen her heart in less than twenty-four hours.

Granted, her wish came true. She fell in love with no indication from her mark or the concept. And it did prove to her that the concept was genuine. However, it also proved that sometimes soulmates aren't meant to be, because hers never belonged to her since the beginning.

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BONUS:

In the middle of New York, a girl entered her favorite sandwich shop. "Hi, can I get a meatball sandwich without pickles and extra cheese, please? Thanks, Richard" the girl ordered.

"No problem, Y/N. How was the shift?"

"Super busy...and depressing. I had to slip away to get my mind off today's surgeries. Everything just seems to fall apart today," Doctor Y/N L/N answered. Surgery after surgery, the girl has worked for over 50 hours without sleeping. Not only that, but the bus accident has left many in critical conditions.

"I'm sorry to hear that. Here, a brownie on the house,"

"Thank you, Richard, I'll see you soon."

The girl picked up her sandwich and brownie before heading towards the door. Before she could reach it, her knee gave away. She collapsed on the ground, groaning loudly as she felt an excruciating pain on her wrist, where her soul mark was.

"What's happening?" she looked down to see her tattoo of a spider with two shorter legs slowly vanishing.

"Y/N?" the owner called out, coming up from behind her, trying to figure out what was wrong. The doctor, however, only had her eyes on what was happening to her wrist. There it was, a pink scar in the spot where her soulmate tattoo used to be. Without answering the man behind her, Y/N took out her phone and dialed it.

"This is the Palmer-Strange clinic for soulmate care. How may we help you?" a voice answered through the device.

"Get Doctor Christine Palmer on the phone, please."

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If you've made it to the end...thank you so much for reading this book. I'm sorry if the timing seems weird and stretched out, but Andrew's Spiderman was only probably in MCU-199999 for like 5 hours max, and that is not enough time to develop a bond between 2 people so I had to sort of stretched it out.