Aquarium Days

The New York Aquarium was crowded. Which was of no surprise to Gwen. When she'd woken up and looked out her bedroom window to see that it was gray and windy out, she knew that it would be. She glanced to Peni next to her and saw that the other girl was stuffing a fistful of candy in her mouth as she took in the sights around them. At least she didn't appear to mind how packed it was. Maybe this didn't even feel terribly busy to her, Peni had mentioned once or twice that New York's population was even larger than it was now in Gwen's time and 'verse. As Gwen reached for the map in the back pocket of her jeans, she tried to recall what it was that Peni most wanted to see at the aquarium.

She'd talked about wanting to see a lot of different things in her, Miles, and Peter's realities once they were able to start traveling between them more or less safely. Gwen had been surprised when Peni asked last week if she'd be alright with her coming to her universe to go to the aquarium and doubly so when Peni invited her along. Gwen had agreed in the end, partly because she worried how well Peni would be able to navigate around New York when it was so different from her future-universe one, and partly because she just wanted to hang around with another Spider. It'd been a while since that lunch with Peter at the diner. Map unfolded between her hands, she gently elbowed Peni and asked her, "Remind me again why you wanted to come here?"

Peni grinned and looked down at the map only to point at the little picture of a turtle. "To see the sea turtles!" she exclaimed. "We don't have those anymore in my universe."

Gwen blinked. It felt hard to fathom such a thing when she saw them often enough on the television and once or twice in person while visiting the aquarium with her parents as a kid. Miffed, she said, "Really? Not even in aquariums somewhere?"

Peni shook her head. "No, the last one died about twenty years before I was born."

"Whoah," Gwen replied, eyebrows jumping high on her forehead in the process.

The other girl nodded sympathetically."I know you're not as science-minded as some of the Peters were and are so you're probably never going to invent something or discover a way to save them and all of the other animals humanity killed before we got our stuff together, but if you make a lot of money somehow, think about donating it to people who could, okay?" She put a hand on Gwen's wrist and said, "Trust me, it's a real shame and issue even now for us in my future-universe."

"I'll keep that in mind."

Peni smiled at Gwen then and let her hand fall away. Turning her attention back to the aquarium around her, she gasped and pointed at a big sign hanging over the manta ray exhibit. "Ooh! Sting Rays! Come on, let's go look at those!" she enthused before snagging Gwen's wrist once more and pulling them over.

Her arms crossed, Gwen stood just behind Peni who'd wormed her way up to the tank and had pressed her hands to it as she awed over the ray swimming in the tank. She chuckled to herself as the other girl made a series of funny remarks around the manta rays and other fish swimming in the tank. She was about to say something back to Peni when her Spidey-Sense began to go off. She braced herself just in the nick of time for two small bodies to collide with her.

A pair of arms snaked around her waist as a little, familiar voice yelled, "Gwen!"

"Oof!" Gwen muttered as the other little kid with Miles stepped on her toes. The kid, a little African-American girl with her hair done up in a multitude of braids, had the sense to look apologetic and step back. She smiled at the girl as she gently tugged Miles around from behind to stand next to her. "Hey, kiddos," she greeted.

Peni, whose own Spidey-sense must have gone off when the kids ran at Gwen, was now turned around and gaping at the three of them. "Oh my God is this Miles?" she exclaimed.

Embarrassed, she looked away and said, "Um."

Miles flashed Peni a smile before grabbing onto Gwen's hand and telling her, "Gwen, this is my friend Aaliyah! Who's yours?"

Gwen took a deep breath. Everything was fine. She could explain this all to Peni later. Right now, she had to be calm for the kids. Gesturing for Miles and Aaliyah to come to either side of her, she put hands on their shoulders and made the introductions."Hi, Aaliyah. Miles, Aaliyah, this is Peni. Peni, say hi."

Peni continued to stare at Miles, shocked. It took Gwen clearing her throat and waving a hand in her face for the other girl to finally look at Gwen. Making big, insistent eyes at the girl, she tilted her head at the kids and tried to make her understand she needed to say hello."Oh!" Peni yelped a few seconds later after she realized what Gwen was trying to tell her. Giggling nervously, she offered her hand to both kids for quick handshakes. "Hi! It's very nice to meet you two!"

The children beamed in response. Gwen began to look around. Who were the kids here with? There was no way Rio and Jefferson would have let Miles get so far away from them after all that had happened the past few months. She also wasn't seeing any adults close by, watching them all. Internally, Gwen sighed. Miles and Aaliyah had run off from their adult, hadn't they? This was just great.

Gently getting the kids' attention, she asked Miles, "Hey, Miles? Who are you kiddos here with?"

Aaliyah answered before Miles could. "My Granma an' big brother!"

She smiled at the little girl. "Yeah? That's really cool. Are they close by?"

She opened her mouth, only to close it upon looking around the nearby crowds. "Uh-oh…"

Gwen brought the little girl against her side and reassured her, "It's okay, don't worry. I bet they can't be far, right? It's just been a couple of minutes since you two ran up. They probably haven't even noticed you slipped away and are behind some of the crowds looking at the fish in the tank across the room."

Aaliyah nodded, but still looked a little fearful. As for Miles, he went around Gwen and took his friend's hand. "We'll find them again, Aaliyah!" he said to her.

Gwen smiled down at the two before sharing a quick glance with Peni, who was grinning too. "Do you guys want a piece of candy?" Peni asked the kids as she opened her purse for them.

Eagerly, the kids agreed and reached in and took a piece each. As the cracked and sucked on their candy, the four of them slowly started to make their way across the room searching for any older women and boys who were together. It took maybe five minutes before they came across an older white woman with short, permed brown-gray hair and a little Hispanic boy of maybe eight who were holding hands as they anxiously swiveled their heads side to side, clearly searching for something, or, rather, a couple of someones.

"Granma!" yelled Aaliyah before she detached herself from Gwen's side to run over to the old woman.

In response, the old woman wrapped her arms around the little girl. "Aaliyah! Miles! There you are. Goodness, you two nearly gave me a heart attack!"

Walking up to her, Gwen apologized, "Sorry, Ma'am. Miles and I know each other quite well and I think he forgot he's supposed to stay close by his adults in public when he saw me across the room…"

The old woman only smiled as she took Miles hand and pulled him next to her grandson. "Thank you for helping them find me," she said. "I was worried for a minute someone took my grandbaby and Miles."

"It's no problem," Gwen told her. Crouching down then, she got Miles attention by taking his hand and said, "Hey, Miles, before I let you and your friend get back to your fun I just want to say to remember to be a little more careful, okay? We've been through a lot already this year and I'm sure our families would prefer nothing else happens to us."

Miles pouted briefly, but relented to her advice. "Yeah, okay," he agreed.

Gwen smiled at him and ran a hand over his head as she stood back up. "Thanks, kiddo." She bit her lip once standing; Miles still looked a little put-out from her telling him to be better behaved. She lifted her arms slightly and offered, "Do you… Want a goodbye-hug?"

Miles face lit right up and he all but tackled her. "Yeah! Bye, Gwen!"

She patted his back before letting him go."See you soon."

Miles then darted off to join Aaliyah and her brother in looking in a tank a couple of feet away while Gwen exchanged one last smile with Aaliyah's grandmother before she too went to join the children in looking at the tank. Turning to face Peni, she gestured for them to start walking down the hall toward where she knew the sea turtles' tank would be. "Come on," she said, "let's go."

A couple of minutes later, the silence was finally broken between the two of them when Peni said, "Gwen?"

She sighed. "Yeah?"

Peni's face was scrunched with thought as she murmured, "That… That was Miles, wasn't it?"

Gwen looked away and sucked her lower lip between her teeth as she considered the best answer to give Peni. "Yes, but no. I mean—" She stopped and took a breath. "Well, he's Miles, but not our Miles."

Peni side-eyed her as she took a handful of candy from her purse and began to toss the pieces one-by-one into her mouth. Finally, she remarked, "You seem to know him pretty well for him not being ours."

Gwen groaned and rubbed a hand across her face. God, she didn't want to get into it all right now. Especially not here with so many people. Finally, she told the other girl, "There's a whole story behind it that I really don't feel like getting into right now, but I babysit him sometimes and we're… friends, I guess you could say."

Peni was frowning as she asked, "Does our Miles know you hang out with a kid-version of him from your reality?"

Gwen's eyes flew open wide as she snapped her head around to gape at Peni. "No!" As soon as the shout left her mouth, she cringed and turned her gaze to her feet as she mumbled, "Sorry, I didn't mean to yell. I just haven't worked up the courage for that yet. Just Peter knows. And you too now."

Gwen was made to look up when she felt Peni's hand on her arm. The other girl's face was soft as she told Gwen, "Miles will be okay with this."

She exhaled and began to twist a strand of her longer hair between her fingers. "I know. It's just… It's kinda awkward just for me, I can only imagine how much worse it'll be when Miles knows I've been babysitting an alternate universe little kid version of him." She met Peni's gaze and told her, slightly panicked, "I've seen kid-Miles stick crayons in his nose to pretend to be a narwhal and stomp his feet about bedtime, it might make our Miles feel weird. And… I don't want that. I like the friendship we have now."

Peni put a hand to her cheek and nodded sympathetically."I can see what you mean…"

"I swear I do plan to tell him," Gwen said to the other girl.

Peni offered a smile in return for her promise. Then, a bit of hesitation started around her mouth before she began in a slow, careful tone, "I probably shouldn't put my nose in your business too much, but I do think you should say something soon if this has been going on for a while. Miles might get upset more than freaked out if he finds out after too long."

Gwen knew she had a point. That was going to upset Miles. It was one thing babysitting a little alternate him, it was another to keep it so totally from him. He'd think she didn't trust him or something. She let her shoulders fall as she replied, "Fair."

She looked at Peni when the other girl put her hand on Gwen's shoulder. She was smiling. "It's going to be okay!" she told Gwen. "Miles really likes you, I'm sure this won't affect your friendship too long."

Gwen quirked her lips upward and nodded. "Yeah, you're right," she agreed. Gwen looked to her left when she saw a sign with a turtle on it out of the corner of her eye. "Hey, there's the sea turtles. Wanna go check them out?"

Peni gasped in delight as she clasped her hands together. "Oh! Oh! Yes please, let's go!"

Before she knew it, the conversation about Miles was over and the two of them were all but running across the room to search the exhibit for the sea turtles they'd come to the aquarium to see.

I thought it was about time we had a story revolving around these two. There are not enough fics of them interacting with each other, I feel.

Thank you all a million for reading!