"Huh? Oh, um...sorry. I got distracted for a moment." Peter's fingers tightened around his cup, and he faked the best smile he could muster. "Sorry, that was rude. Congrats on your engagement. I'm really happy for you."

He wasn't, not really. Well, he did want to see his friend—"friend"—happy, of course. But the thought that it would be without him was killing him. It was his fault, of course. He'd taken that deal with Mephisto, their love in exchange for his aunt's life. It had been with his former partner's blessing, but that did nothing to assuage his guilt.

Peter didn't remember their love and marriage at first, not really. The deal had essentially rewritten history so that they'd never gotten married in the first place. But then the memories began to return to him. Fragments at first, ephemeral like a dream, there one moment and gone the next. And then they grew stronger, more frequent. He'd gone to mv's corporation about it, and learned that these memories were indeed abnormal.

But he had them. He had them, and he remembered the impossible choice he'd had to make. He remembered the moment their love had been ripped out of his chest. And...he remembered what the love felt like. The more he remembered, the more he felt it.

Now it felt as though he were watching his spouse, the love of his life, marry someone else. But this wasn't his spouse. Never had been. Not in this timeline. He wanted to say something, wanted to so badly, but how could he possibly explain this? And even if he did, it wasn't him that his old flame loved, not anymore. He'd just be ruining their current friendship.

"You, uh, you guys picked a date yet? For the wedding?"