Right, yeah, ok that's fair — [ undo it, he says and peter is more and more aware that he doesn't quite remember where everything goes, hasn't quite gotten the hang of tracing back the mental steps taken to get this far into some unending fibonacci spirals (it's like doing the inverse of what was done, sin and cos and subtraction maybe) but then doctor strange is reaching out and helping anyway and it makes it easier.

still, when they finally stand in a much more tame version of the grand foyer than what its owner arrived into, things feel close enough but not quite right and peter offers stephen what he hopes to be an apologetic half-shrug, a muttered thanks. are skylights supposed to face that direction?

but now, now there's no books to dodge (only questions) and peter's pulse is back in his ears as the first one sharply puts things into perspective, wide eyed apprehension. he sought this out, he tries to remind himself. because, for all the nerves and anxieties and desire to avoid this for as long as possible, it was the right thing to do. and sometimes, the right things to do weren't the easy ones. a fact of intimate familiarity. ] Well there was one time — [ something about multiverse-breaking spells comes to mind, and trains and grand canyons. he rushes to brush past that, an emphatic shake of his head. ] — never mind. What was the last thing going on before you came here? I think — I think you might be before me. [ this is why he came here, right? to check that? to be on the same page? he isn't sure now, if he's here because

to make sure? still, while stephen might not have called him by his name he distinctly knows him, and it shouldn't cause such conflict in peter but it does. hell of a thing, isn't it? to be remembered?

it kind of hurts though, that it's the past, an assumption made. ] So - so we can all be on the same page, you know?