my favorite niche trope in fics has to be the ones where it's presented as a Buzzfeed Unsolved case

spider-man: back in the mcu

[everyone liked that]

broke: spidey sense

woke: peter tingle

the wasted youth (oneshot)

Miles Morales is just a kid. Miles Morales is also Spider-man. Slowly, one is bound to eat up the other.

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Miles tried to swallow the lump in his throat as he collapsed in an alleyway. Through the haze of pain he tried to remember that he is strong. He is Miles Morales and he's gotten himself out of stickier situations. (No pun intended.) But he didn't think it would be this painful.

He wasn't stupid. Miles knew that this was going to happen sooner or later. Injuries and life-threatening situations always accompany hero-work. He just...wasn't prepared, is all.

"Ow, owowow..." Miles looked at the blood on his thigh that seeped through his costume and tried not to feel queasy. He tried not to remember the last time he saw that much blood on a person and how, in consequence, it signified death.

Think happy thoughts! Happy thoughts...no, I can't ever be happy in this situation. Think distracting thoughts! Distracting thoughts! Come on man!

He has hurt himself many times, Miles thought to himself. Not ever purposely of course; just due to his clumsiness and inability to pay attention. He remembered the various accidents he went through everytime he had to rush fixing his things for school when he lost himself in his illustrations with his parents to pull him back to reality. There was the one time he stubbed his toe, one time he slipped on a paper, and one time when he knocked over a pot of hot curry that his mother was reheating.

There had been words exchanged that morning and Miles suffered through it all.

There are more times he's been hurt after becoming one of the Spider-people. There had been the odd more aggressive robbers and dangerous chases but the most reoccurring incident is him smacking into a building, or a tree, or a lamp post--you name it-- whenever he swung on his webs. Miles tells himself, what's a little embarrassment for the greater good?

A zap of pain traveled through his whole body, effectively pulling him from his thoughts and pulling him back to reality where it's bleak and bleeding in an alleyway, all alone...

Alone, huh.

Miles didn't want to be alone. He wanted to be home, home in his mother's warm embrace, under his father's consistent affection, in his family's love. He wanted to be with his friends whom he fought with to save the universes. But funny thing is that what they saved kept them apart. He wanted to be back in his uncle's apartment where they would practice boxing and then his uncle would toss him a can of spray paint and then he, Miles would know that it was going to be a great night.

Miles would think more, that maybe he wouldn't have been in this situation--shot, lost his uncle, witnessed a beloved superhero die in front of him-- if he didn't become Spider-man. He was just a kid. He was barely prepared to face the basics of being a superhero, and he was decidedly unprepared for the after effect. He was just a kid. Anyone else could be better. Afterall, anyone can put on the mask.

Miles didn't want to be alone. He wanted to be home, home in his mother's warm embrace, under his father's consistent affection, in his family's love. He wanted to be with his friends whom he fought with to save the multiverse. But funny thing is that what they saved kept them apart. He wanted to be back in his uncle's apartment where they would practice boxing and then his uncle would toss him a can of spray paint and then he, Miles would know that it was going to be a great night.

All of this, Miles acknowledged. He didn't shove it to the back of his mind where he knew it would fester and spread. He knew that there were many could have-beens. There are many multiverses where he's just a normal-ish kid, hasn't been bitten by a spider, and hasn't had the chance to be friends and family with those that he has. But in this universe, he is Spider-man. And Miles thinks, he wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.

But for now he is hurt and alone, the cold seeping into his bones, and Miles allows himself to cry.

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