“So, you decided on Paris, huh!” Emma said as she looked at the Eiffel Tower.

“I had thought that you would choose Venice instead. It is too popular after all.”

“I thought that Venice would be better for a second or third date. What would be a better place for our first date than the City of Romance?” I replied with a smile.

With portals, we could visit every corner of the Earth. As such I had researched quite extensively on where I wanted our first date to be.

“So, where are we going? A club?” Emma asked since I was the one who had done all the planning.

“Who comes to Paris to go to a club? Come, I have booked for a seat in a nearby restaurant.” I answered.

“You have really planned for everything, Peter. It won't have been easy for you to book a place here.” Emma said as she looked at the restaurant which was obviously an expensive one and especially designed for couples on top of that.

“Well, it was not that hard since I had already booked the seat a week in advance.” I answered.

Gwen's disappearance had put quite a big hurdle in our plans but it had also given me more than enough time to plan everything.

“You didn't have to take me to such a fancy restaurant though.” Emma said once we took our seats. After all, it was actually a private room I had booked.

“I just wanted our first date to be something truly special. Something we will always remember. Besides, it is not like we don't have the money.” I replied.

After the Battle of New York, SHIELD had given us a really big paycheck for saving the city. Apart from the X-Men as a whole, all of us also got individual paychecks of our own. Mine was exceptionally large since I was the one who had single handedly destroyed the Chitauri army in the end.

Of course, Professor Xavier knew that we were not ready to have this large amount of money so he had asked SHIELD to seal most of the money for now, leaving only around 5% of the total amount for us to use.

However, Professor seemed to think that I could be somewhat trusted with the money since he had actually unsealed 10% of my money. As such, there was no need for any of us to worry about money in the near future.

Once our orders arrived, I casted a sound barrier so that we could talk freely. After all, we knew a lot of confidential information and there was no guarantee that an eavesdropper won't hear our conversation.

“So, a Nobel, huh!” Emma asked.

“These are just mere rumours, you know. Besides, most of the research had already been completed by Dr. Connors. I just built upon it.” I replied.

“You don't have to be so overly humble, Peter. You know clearly how much of the resulting product was because of your own research. As such, there is no need to diminish your efforts. Dr. Connors wouldn't have been praising you everywhere and naming you as one of the creators if your part in the research was as small as you say it to be.” Emma said, admonishing me for being overly humble.

“Alright! I will try not to do so from now on.” I said, giving in to her demands since I knew that it was my fault.

“Besides, I think that even if you do not get Nobel Prize for the ParCon, you will definitely get one in a few years. After all, you are already working with the Earth's greatest scientists.” Emma said, believing in my intelligence.

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I merely smiled upon hearing Emma's words. She clearly had a lot of confidence in me.

“What about you, Emma? What have you thought about your future?” I asked Emma.

“You know that I am already majoring in Business Studies. I want to create a company in the future. Although I will always be a part of the X-Men. The paycheck from SHIELD would more than suffice for the initial funds. You would support me in this endeavour, right Peter?” Emma asked nervously.

“Of course, I would. You didn't even need to ask.” I answered immediately.

“Actually, I also want to be a teacher in the future if possible. When I was in school, I used to be bullied often. My homeroom teacher helped me a lot back then. I even had a little crush on him because of it.” Emma said, revealing a bit of her past.

I knew that Emma almost never revealed her past to anyone. It was quite a breakthrough in our relationship that she was willing to reveal her past to me.

“You want to be a teacher. This is quite surprising. However, I can't believe that you of all people used to be bullied, Emma.” I said, expressing my disbelief.

“I was not always like this. Before my powers manifested, I was not this intelligent. One could even say that I was a rather meek girl.” Emma said, revealing even more of her past.

“My father was always a very demanding person. He often saw us more as assets rather than his children. My mother turned to drugs instead of helping us. I never received any support from my siblings.

The situation worsened when my powers manifested. I could understand with my telepathy that I had no love there. That is why, I ran away even when my father wanted to make me his heir.”

“But you are here with us now. The X-Men are no less than a family.” I said as I clasped Emma's hand to show her my support.

“I know. But I still had not joined the X-Men voluntarily. Something I will always regret.” Emma said, remembering the time when Professor Xavier had offered her a place in his school.

“I wanted to be independent so much at that time that I would rather be homeless than go with someone who kindly offered me a place in his home. It also didn't help that Professor was also a telepath.

I had been so used to relying on my telepathy that the inability to access Professor’s mind made me wary. I would always with thankful to Spider Supreme that he sent me to the X-Men. Who knows what I would be doing now if I had not joined the X-Men?”

“That's true. You have really changed a lot from how you used to be. You are no longer an ice queen, at least among us. You now respect us and listen to us instead of suddenly intruding in our mind.” I said, remembering our first meeting.

“You are always going to hold that over me, huh!” Emma said with a pout.

“Of course, I would!” I confirmed with a smile.

“Still, I can't believe that Spider Supreme is actually a Peter Parker from a different dimension. Both of you are just too different.” Emma said, mentioning Spider Supreme's true identity.

After Spider Supreme's visit through the drone, the fact that he was Peter Parker was no secret. As such, nearly everyone who knew about Spider Supreme now had the knowledge of this fact.

“Well, there is one thing similar in both of you. You both have the same taste in women.” Emma said jokingly, reminding me of Spider Supreme's wife, Morgan Le Fae.

“That's true.” I replied with a laugh.

“Still, I really thankful that Spider Supreme interferred in our world. Without him, we would have never met.” Emma said, thanking Spider Supreme for everything he did.

“Yeah! If he had never given me my powers, I shudder to think what would have happened in the battle of New York. That massive Chitauri army, what kind of havoc they would have spread in the city. On top of that, the Senate was ready to launch a fucking nuclear missile at New York to eradicate them!”

“Alright, enough talk about the past and the what ifs. We need to focus on the future now.” Emma replied, telling me not to dwell too much on the past.

She filled two glasses with champagne and gave one to me.

“To a better future!” She said as we clinked our glasses.

“To a better future!” I also said in return.

“So, what else have you planned for our—”

Suddenly, I felt spatial fluctuations which shocked me. Before I could react, a portal suddenly opened and sucked us towards itself.

“Ahh!!”

I was able to hold on because of my enhanced body and warning from my Dragon Sense but Emma was sucked into the portal because of the surprise factor.

“Damn it!” I cursed as I also jumped into the portal to follow Emma.

There was no way I was going to let her suffer alone! With my immense powers, I refused to believe that I couldn't deal with any opponent I would face at the end of this portal.