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The only warning for that day was the giant spaceship entering the atmosphere above New York. It happened often enough that the residents weren’t too worried; after all, the local heroes and vigilantes had always managed to save the day before.
But then people started disappearing. Suddenly, every one in five people began turning to dust. There was no way to avoid it or tell if someone would be a victim; it was random and spared no victim once caught.
The entire Earth was in shambles, with governments issuing states of emergency. Families were broken, children were left without their parents, and parents without their children. Spouses were left alone, and entire families were gone in the blink of an eye. Cars crashed into buildings with no driver left to steer. School buses flipped with half the children still inside. Lights were left on in an empty room that was just full a minute ago.
The world was in chaos from an unknown threat they could never hope to defeat.
All of New York called for the Avengers. They called for Iron Man, the Hulk, Black Widow, or Captain America—someone to help.
But none of them came.
When an unknown spaceship crash landed in the middle of New York, a month after what people started referring to the vanishing, people were on their toes. They didn’t know if it was the hostile entity, so the new mayor had the city police force aim at the vessel.
When the door opened, with the police aiming their pistols while the news crew aimed their cameras, the whole of New York got to witness a figure shamble out on weak legs.
It was Spider-Man, clutching the edge of the door and holding one arm around his waist.
“Spider-Man!” One reporter hailed with a broad smile to offset the deep bags under her eyes that had become commonplace worldwide. “He’s back!”
Lifting his head, Spider-Man gazed across the rebuilding city. He looked out across the dozens of officers, news crew, and civilians who came to watch as they were uncaring of the dangers.
He looked across the city, his city, with his wide lenses obscuring his face.
Spider-Man: the last hero.
~~~
“Okay you need to listen to me right this fucking instant. I don’t have time to be standing around listening to you babble on and on like a fucking idiot as if you know what you’re talking about when you really don’t. So maybe you can use the small amount of brain cells you have left, and let me, the professional, deal with this.”
Peter had to physically hold himself back from crushing the phone in his hand. He didn’t want to have to listen to Harry bitch about another wasted phone just because he couldn’t control his temper.
Speaking of Harry, Peter turned from pacing in their living room to peek his head into the kitchen. Harry stood at the stove, a bubbling pot full of pasta for their lunch.
“Yes, yes, I know I’m an asshole, Doug, you should have thought of that before you hired me. Now, I’ve got to go. I’ll finish working on the thing before Tuesday, so don’t get your panties in a twist.”
Harry looked up from watching the pot to smirk at Peter, who had pulled his phone away from his ear so Harry could just hear, “Don’t call it a ‘thing,’ Peter, it’s going to cure cancer!” before he hung up.
“What did Doug want this time?” Harry looked amused as Peter came around to hug him from behind. Despite Harry being almost an inch taller, Peter’s muscular build more than made up for it, in his opinion.
Peter just sighed and shook his hair out of his eyes, watching the pasta soften. “I don’t know. He’s always on my ass recently, even though I told him I needed time to work on my thesis.”
“Aw, poor baby having a hard time with his thesis?” Harry condescendingly patted his head, chuckling when Peter lightly bit his finger.
“Hardly. It just takes way too long to compile all my research into one paper. I’m already on page 83 and I’m not even halfway done.”
“Hm. Well, that’s what you get for skipping through so many grades. You’re stuck writing your master's thesis at 22 instead of 24 or 25 like the normies.”
“Don’t refer to people as normies. It sounds like you’re talking about your dad.”
Harry waved the wooden spoon in front of Peter’s crooked nose, made that way from all the times he’d broken it over the years.
“Low blow, Parker. Low blow.”
Peter just laughed, planted a kiss on Harry’s neck, and walked back to the living room to flip through the channels. He kept the volume low to avoid pissing off their neighbor again, and Peter’s super hearing could pick it up just fine.
“Reporting now, it seems as if people are reappearing where they were five years ago!”
“Uh, Harry, I think you might want to come in here.”
He heard Harry turn off the stove and increased the volume for Harry’s regular hearing. They watched in stunned silence as the shaky footage captured people suddenly appearing out of thin air. The camera focused on the newly reconstructed woman who fell to her knees and looked around in a panic.
“This is happening all over the world, not just Massachusetts. Whatever happened when Thanos did the snap–as witnessed by the retired hero Spider-Man–has seemingly reversed.”
Peter felt his heart in his throat as he watched the Boston news, feeling his eyes sting when they mentioned his counterpart. It’d been years since he’d touched the suit, let alone done any web-slinging.
The world didn’t need him anymore, and he couldn’t hold onto Spider-Man if he wanted to continue moving forward.
“Peter,” Harry whispered, clutching onto his sleeve. His usual snarky, confident lover looked shaken as they watched the live feed of people returning to life. “Peter.”
“I know, Har,” Peter breathed, clutching an indent into their couch, almost ripping the leather. They watched the news silently until Peter felt his sixth sense buzz in the back of his neck.
Just as he felt it, a tall man looking about their age rematerialized in front of the TV, scaring Harry into falling off the couch.
“Holy shit!” Harry yelled, startling the man and causing him to look around wildly.
“Who are you? Where am I? Am I home?”
Peter stood with his hands out as if facing a wild animal, taking a calm tone.
“I’m Peter, this is Harry. You’re in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the year 2025.”
That caused the man to gasp loudly, clutching his chest and falling back.
“2024?! But it’s supposed to be 2019!”
“I know,” Peter pacified, moving closer to the man who was now hyperventilating. “What’s the last thing you remember?”
“I was–uhm–I was at home, studying for my engineering final. That’s my major,” the man seemed to be calming down if his nervous smile was any indication. “Then suddenly, I felt this sharp pain all over my body. Then it went black, and I was here.”
“Okay. What’s your name?”
“Steven. Steven Lee. Fourth year MIT student.”
“I’m an MIT student too,” Peter put on his most charming smile.
“Okay, Steven. Well, this was probably your apartment. But we’ve been living here for almost a year now, so what do you want us to do?” Harry finally sounded like himself again, blunt and full of audacity.
“Harry,” Peter harshly whispered, shooting his boyfriend a glare. But Steven just shook his head and sat on the couch, clutching his shoulders.
“Uhm, when I can’t very well make you leave. But where am I supposed to go? Am I even still a student if it’s been five years?”
Peter started contemplating what to do, whether to let Steven sleep on their couch and risk Harry’s ire or not, when he heard a new voice on the TV.
“We’ve just received word from Mayor Kelsie Sherman that every returned individual will be sent to their nearest hotel, who have all graciously offered its services for all of the displaced individuals.”
The news anchor repeated the message until Harry had enough and turned it off, leaving the room in a charged silence.
“Well, I guess you know where you’re staying, Steven,” Harry stood and motioned for Steven to stand as well.
“Harry, you’re being rude,” Peter mumbled, gently grabbing Harry’s arm to stop him.
“No, no, it’s okay,” Steven replied, reaching the door. “He’s right. I better get going. I don’t want to stay here too long. It’s weird being in my apartment while knowing it’s also not mine anymore.”
Harry seemed to soften at that just a bit as he breathed a tired sigh. “We’re sorry, by the way. For what happened.”
Steven gave them a final nod to accept their apologies and unspoken well-wishes before he shut the door behind him.
“That was,” Peter rolled his neck, feeling like he’d just pushed another building off his back.
“Yeah.”
They stood quietly, letting the situation soak in before Harry grabbed Peter’s hand to intertwine their fingers.
“We have to go back to New York.”
Peter’s eyes widened as he gave Harry a skeptical look.
“What? Why?”
“Because,” Harry stated as if Peter was an idiot, “everyone will be there. We have to go back.”
“But what about your classes? What about my classes? Or our jobs?”
“Harvard would understand. As long as I keep giving them my Dad’s money, they don’t care what I do. Also, you know everything that’s being taught. Dude, the professors ask you questions about the material. You don’t need to be there.”
“Hmmm,” Peter hummed, closing his eyes to think. It’d be a good way to fuck with Doug.
“Fine. We’ll go back to New York.”
~~~
Tony Stark was a smart man—the smartest man, he’d like to call himself (despite knowing the truth in the back of his mind). And as the self-proclaimed smartest man, he knew that they lost. He had been on Titan when he felt the prickling pain in his body. When he used his last breath to smile at his panicking nuisance, the spider kid looked devastated as Tony turned into dust.
But now he was alive again. He was on Earth, somehow, alive and well in his suit despite just dying on an alien planet.
He checked his surroundings. He was in a forested area next to a lake-side cabin. A place he’d never seen before but had always dreamed of retiring to. Around him were his teammates, or former teammates, considering the whole “civil war” they had. He saw Steve, Natasha, Bruce, Clint, the Sam guy he’d only met during their fight, and the Wanda girl passed out on the ground.
“Where are we?” Bruce asked, looking down at his hands as if he’d never seen them.
“What happened?” Natasha looked sharp, one hand posed with a blade.
“We lost,” Steve breathed, scratching the beard he’d grown while on the run. “Thanos won.”
“But how are we here?” Tony could hear birds chirping in the distance. He had no clue where they were, and FRIDAY wasn’t working to tell him.
“Who’s there?”
They all startled at the small voice. Looking around, they noticed a little girl hiding behind the cabin's screen door.
“Uhm,” Steve cleared his throat and gave the girl a friendly smile. “Hello. What’s your name?”
The girl blinked at them and looked confused.
“Morgan.”
Tony felt something in his chest squeeze as the name sounded familiar. It was the name Pepper always dreamed about when she imagined having children. Henry for a boy and Morgan for a girl. His throat tightened as he remembered his last interaction with Pepper and wondered if she was okay.
“Hi, Morgan. I’m Steve. Are your parents around?”
The girl, Morgan, blinked again before entering the daylight. She looked familiar, like Tony had seen her eyes or nose before. The girl looked between them before settling on Tony with a massive smile.
“Daddy!”
Morgan skipped down the steps, almost tripping, and ran to hug Tony’s leg. They were all surprised as she nuzzled into his suit leg, uncaring of the cold metal.
“Uhm,” he didn’t know what to do, so he just disabled his gloves and laid a hand on her head.
“Tony?” Natasha raised a brow, and the rest were speechless. “Do you know her?”
“I…” he looked down into her wide, brown eyes and saw something familiar.
“Oh my god,” they heard another voice, this time a grown woman, and Tony gasped as he recognized it.
“Pep?”
In all her glory, Pepper Potts threw open the cabin door with tears in her eyes. Tony couldn’t help but chuckle, which sounded more like a sob, as he caught her in his arms.
“Oh, Tony,” she cried, hugging him tightly.
“It’s okay, Pep, I’m here.”
She cried harder, hiding her face, until Morgan spoke up, asking, “Mommy?”
Tony lost his breath as he looked between the two, connecting the dots.
“Pepper? Is she…” Tony watched as Pepper smiled fondly at the little girl, picking her up to rest her on her hip.
“Tony, this is Morgan. Your daughter.”
Tony heard someone gasp, but he couldn’t tell if it was him or someone else.
“My,” his voice broke, “my daughter? I have a little girl?”
Tony cradled Morgan’s cheek with his palm, relishing how her baby-fat cheeks felt in his hand.
He wasn’t much of a crier, but he couldn’t help the tears that escaped him.
“My daughter,” he breathed, hugging her and Pepper close.
“So much has changed, Tony,” Pepper whispered, “It’s been so long.”
“How long have we been gone?” Steve asked, voice hesitant to break up the moment.
Pepper let go but held Tony’s hand as a comfort.
“It’s been five years.”
“Five…” Clint whispered, “my kids…”
Natasha placed her hand on his back, a sympathetic look on her face.
“Thanos used the infinity stones to erase half of the entire universe. We think the reason you all were erased with it was because he subconsciously desired for there to be no more heroes to stop him, so you all were gone.”
Tony couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He was too captivated by imprinting Morgan’s face to memory, seeing how her eyes looked just like his mother’s, to really listen. But he could get the gist.
Every hero had disappeared.
“Wait, every hero?”
“Well,” Pepper frowned, “every super who either called themselves a hero or was seen as a hero. The vigilantes that ran around weren’t targeted, but they weren’t fully spared either. Half of the population was just gone.”
Tony wanted to kiss away the sadness in Pepper’s eyes, but he held back.
“What we need to find out is why we’ve returned. If we’ve returned, then that means that everyone else has too,” Steve pointed out.
A sudden influx of billions of people.
“Fuck.”
~~~
Cameras flashed as three people walked onto the stage. They took their seats quietly, letting the cameras capture their visage before the lone woman held up her hand to induce silence.
“We’re gathered here today to answer some of the most pressing questions,” the woman, Black Widow, publicly known as Natasha Romanov, spoke calmly. Her voice rang clear into the microphone as the flashing picked up again. “Five years ago, we, the Avengers, and our associates fought against Thanos, the Mad Titan. He sought to use the Infinity Stones to “bring balance” to the universe by killing half of it. Currently, we don’t know his location nor the reason people have returned.”
The room filled with more flashes as the reporters yelled out.
“Spider-Man told us of this five years ago when he returned!”
“Is there anything Spider-Man missed?”
Iron Man, though without his suit, he was just Tony Stark, had a reaction to the name.
“Spider-Man was spared?” He asked, face perfectly neutral from his years of experience dealing with the press.
Many people shouted until the third person, Captain America, or Steve Rogers, pointed to one man in the front row. Everyone quieted until the man stood up.
“James Ketterman from The Wall Street Journal. The vigilante that is known as Spider-Man returned to earth on an alien ship five years ago. However, he has not been seen in four years. Many suspect that he has either died or is in hiding. Do you have anything to comment about Spider-Man’s whereabouts?”
Rogers and Romanov both looked over at Stark, who just gave a quick flash of his teeth.
“No comment. Next question.”
Pandemonium until Romanov pointed toward a young woman in the back.
“Louise Jenkins, New York Times. Do you have any plans in the near future to go after the mad titan?”
Rogers cleared his throat before answering.
“We will need to reassemble the full team before attempting to track down Thanos. However, we do plan on going after him once we’re back to full strength. He will not get away with what has happened.”
The room was a cacophony as reporters almost clambered over each other to have their questions answered; however, only a lucky few were chosen.
“Thank you for your time. We, as a team, have decided to remain in New York at least until we find Thanos.”
As the three heroes stood up, Natasha spotted someone who seemed out of place. In the room of well-dressed reporters, a young man stood in the far back, clad in a red pullover and blue jeans, with a baseball hat pulled over to hide his face. However, Natasha could tell from his posture and casual attire that he wasn’t one of the journalists.
“Unknown in the back of the room. Keep your guard up,” she whispered to Steve and Tony, making sure to stay between them lest they get into another catfight.
They stiffened but unnoticeable enough that none of the reporters called them out on it. She could tell that the unknown man somehow did, though, as he flicked his cap up just enough for her to see narrowed brown eyes.
They made it all the way to the hallway, where Sam and Clint were in the conference room. Bruce stayed behind to research The Snap, and Wanda vanished when she woke up before Natasha realized they’d been followed.
“Who are you?” She asked, her hand gliding over her knife at her side. The unknown man held his hands up in a placating gesture, but the smirk on his face irritated her.
“Relax. I just figured I’d drop by, you know, see what the team’s doing.”
She knew she recognized that voice but couldn’t tell from where. Usually, she could place any voice, but this somehow escaped her mind. As if it wasn’t what it was when she’d first heard it.
Steve seemed to be having trouble identifying him, but one look at Tony made her realize he knew the man.
“Peter?” Tony was uncharacteristically hesitant, stepping forward with a wrinkled brow.
“Hello, Tony,” the man, Peter, greeted casually, deepening Tony’s wrinkles. “Glad you recognize me.”
“What happened to you, spider kid?”
Natasha kept any reaction at bay, but Steve sucked in a shocked breath as they realized who they were meeting.
Spider-Man: the Enigma. Spider-Man: gone.
Spider-Man: younger than she thought.
Spider-Man’s face fell from its slightly amused look, immediately becoming a scowl.
“Don’t call me that.”
Natasha could remember how his voice sounded when they first met at the airport hangar in Germany. He was awkward, made pop culture references, and seemed childish. That should have been her first clue that he wasn’t as old as the media thought–mid to late 20s–but she didn’t have the time to think about it properly.
Now, his voice was deeper and more mature. He stood not hunched over and insecure but instead sure of himself. He was the adult she thought he was five years ago.
“Don’t be like that, kid,” Tony glided with an easy smile, shaking off the worry as he tried to clap the man on his shoulder.
“I’m not a kid anymore, Stark. I’m not that same teenager who clung to your leg like a puppy up to space.”
Tony’s mouth opened and closed like a fish, but Spider-Man ignored his attempts at a comeback to greet the two other heroes in the hall.
“We only met briefly in Germany before you guys got dusted, but I’m Peter Parker.”
Steve hesitated to reach Peter’s outstretched hand, but Natasha had no qualms of grasping it tightly. She gave one firm squeeze, testing the waters, and had to hold back a wince as Peter gave one back twice as hard.
She nodded at him, having earned her respect.
“What are you doing here, Peter?” Tony finally realized that Peter wouldn’t be as friendly as expected and spoke to him in a serious tone.
“Nothing specific,” Peter shrugged and started walking. They followed him once they realized he was leading them to the room with the other Avengers. How he knew where they were, Natasha could only guess on super senses.
“I’m just back in New York for a bit and I thought I might as well see what you do and don’t know.”
“About you?” Steve asked, brows furrowed in contemplation.
“About Thanos, the Snap, the state of the world,” Peter scoffed, “I don’t care what you have on me because I know you don’t have anything.”
“How are you so sure?” Natasha was intrigued by his attitude. He went from friendly to cold to cocky in seconds. Nothing like the kind, clumsy boy she’d seen in the news during her time away.
Peter just gave a shark-like grin, and she knew that she’d grow to like the man as time went on. They made it to the meeting room, where Peter just opened the door without warning. Sam and Clint were startled from their bickering match–they fought like cats and dogs no matter Steve’s interference–and stared at the unfamiliar face in confusion.
“Uhh, what’s this guy doing here?”
Said guy just let out an amused puff of air as he sat down in one of the chairs, casually laying one leg on the other.
“‘This guy’ is the hero known as Spider-Man,” Tony said, reaching for the coffee maker.
“I’m no hero,” Peter rebuffed, rolling his eyes. “I’m just regular Peter Parker, a college student.”
“What happened to wanting to be there for the little guy? You’re the one who said you liked to help old ladies cross the street and get cats out of trees.”
Peter glared at Tony, neutrality falling away to annoyance.
“I grew up, that’s what fucking happened.” Tony froze at the curse, “I was stuck in space, dying on a broken ship for a month with barely any food and depleting oxygen. I crashed down onto earth, where everyone I knew died. Half of the global population, trillions, were dead. All of the Avengers save a few were gone, and I had to live on the streets for a year at 17 because I had no home, no job, no family, no nothing. I was only saved from starving in a back alley somewhere because I finally turned 18 and could escape to college. So yeah, I grew up.”
The rant filled the atmosphere with a heavy silence. The people in this room were no strangers to sad backstories, but it was hard to hear straight from the person’s mouth. Especially from someone so young.
“Where did you go? Why give up Spider-Man at all?” Clint asked, not out of shame but out of pure curiosity. From his short time with them, he knew his kids absolutely loved Spider-Man.
“I wasn’t needed,” Peter shrugged, “After the Snap, crime ratings dropped drastically. Everyone was scrambling, and there wasn’t time for a lot of crime. No superheroes meant no supervillains, and the decreased crime rates meant that the cops could handle everything. I tried, though, in the beginning. But no matter where I went, Manhattan, Queens, even the Bronx, I was always too late to do anything before an officer was there.”
It was unlikely that crime would decrease to such a degree, but reading Peter’s body language, she figured it was more likely that he felt unwanted rather than it actually being true.
“Besides, it wasn’t like I was the only crazy asshole left to protect people. Just because you heroes were totally gone didn’t mean there weren’t metas left. The defenders were left mostly unaffected, and the X-Men had a lot of students left at their school to pick up the slack once they were of age. I needed to continue my life eventually.”
Peter seemed to be justifying it to himself more than to them, but none of them would call him out on it.
“So I went to college, MIT like I planned before I became Spider-Man and had to stay in New York. I had nothing left keeping me back here.”
“Why are you back, then?” Steve questioned, “you said you wanted to see what we had on Thanos. Does that mean you have more information?”
Peter sighed as he rubbed a hand down his face, looking tired.
“I do. I found out a lot by looking at Fury’s files–”
“What?!” Tony looked ready to jump out of his seat, “I didn’t teach you to do that!”
“Yeah, I fucking learned myself,” Peter rolled his eyes again, annoyance dripping from his tone. It was funny to watch, at least for Natasha. “Anyway, I went through Fury’s files to delete anything about myself just so his replacement wouldn’t bother me in Massachusetts. That’s when I found out Shield knew a lot more about Thanos than they were telling us.”
Peter sighed and made his way to the computer in the corner. He pulled out a plain flash drive and did something so that it was projected onto the screen on the wall. It showed dozens of labeled documents. A few notable ones included a folder named “Thanos” and another called “Infinity Stones.”
“On the way here, I stopped by Shield’s New York headquarters and collected everything they got on the Infinity Stones. Turns out, they’re actually sentient. The stones had to follow Thanos’s wish, but they bent it to their will. Thanos did the Snap, but the stones sucked all of the life out of him to complete it. He died instantly, and Shield burned his body.”
They all sat in varying degrees of shock, and Sam felt faint. He had just followed Captain America, his childhood hero, to help him out, and then he had been forced on the run around the world until he was turned to dust; now he’s finding out that the things used to kill him were actually conscious and killed the mastermind, too. He never should have agreed to help Cap out. She should have just stayed home where it was safe.
“But why are we all back? Why now?” Tony spoke quietly as if he was too stunned to play up his persona.
“Shield sacrificed one of their agents to try on the gauntlet, and that’s when they found out about the stone’s sentience. The agent was able to tell Shield about how the stones' effects would stop after five years, when the energy they got from Thanos wore off, before the agent died.”
He let them sit with that information for a moment before he turned off the projector. An upbeat ringtone broke the tense stillness. It was a song none of them had heard before, so it was no surprise when Peter answered it without hesitation.
“Hey…Yeah, I’m almost done…I’ll meet you outside…No, you don’t need to come in…Yes, I know… I know , I won’t avoid it…Yeah, yeah, I love you too.”
He hung up, so Tony smiled weakly and tried to start some banter, his go to in serious situations. “Was that the girl you were telling me about? What was her name, MJ?”
Tony expected Peter to smile and nod, talk about the girl he would once ask Tony for advice for, but Peter just shook his head and replied, “My boyfriend,” and nothing else.
“And…?”
“And nothing. I just came here to talk about what I discovered. Nothing else. Do with the information what you will.”
“Wait, that’s it?” Tony asked, finally giving in to the urge to slam his hands on the table. “You have nothing else to say?”
Peter looked at Tony with cold, piercing eyes.
“I don’t have anything to say to you, Stark. Nor the rest of your team.”
“Alright, what’s your deal, kid? You used to be all ‘Mr. Stark! Mr. Stark!’ and have, like, sparkles in your eyes. And now here you are, acting like we shot your dog. I get you grew up, but what did I do for you to treat me like this?”
Peter let out a cold chuckle, sending a shiver down Tony’s spine. “What did you do? Really?”
Natasha’s eyes narrowed as Peter took a calm step forward, pushing a finger into Tony’s chest.
“You stalked me, invaded my house, and then blackmailed me to join your petty fight, all while I was 15. I was a young, naive kid who looked up to you, and you used your power and authority to whisk me away to a different country, all while convincing me to lie to my Aunt about where I was going and what I was doing. You convinced me that I had to rely on you just to save people and made me think that I couldn’t do anything without the suit technology when really I was already helping people long before you showed up. You thought that you were helping me when, really, it was just your savior complex making you think I wasn’t charity, when that was really all I was to you. So fuck you, Stark. I’m fucking pissed at what you did to me.”
Tony was left spluttering, a mix of anger and shame turning his cheeks red as he stared at Peter.
“That’s not true. You weren’t just charity to me, I–”
“Yeah,” Peter snorted, “I was just a weapon for you to use against Cap over there during your lover’s quarrel. Which, by the way, you never told me what you two were fighting about. I had to learn about it myself and I read the accords. News flash: you were both wrong. But you still should have told me what the fuck I was fighting for!”
Sam looked down at his callous-covered palms and wondered if he was the same. He followed after Cap, but now he realized he should have done more research before entering the battle.
“I’m done with this, and I’m done talking to you. I have a perfectly good life to be getting back to now, and I have no reason to talk to you again. So leave me alone, Stark. Same goes to the rest of you heroes. I’m not Spider-Man anymore, so leave me alone.”
Peter slammed the conference room door open, stomping into the hallway and leaving the Avengers in silence.
“Did you really do that, Tony?” Steve asked, anger painting his features.
Tony just knew the rest of the day would be much more tiring than any fight against Thanos.
~~~
“I can’t fucking believe him,” Peter grumbled, taking an aggressive bite of his hot dog. “I mean, who does he think he is?”
“He thinks he’s Tony fucking Stark, dude,” Harry chuckled, holding up a napkin for Peter to wipe his face. “To him that means he can do whatever he wants.”
“Those rich assholes are all the same,” Peter groaned, “always thinking they can do whatever they want because they have the money to do anything.”
“I’m a rich asshole,” Harry nudged Peter to keep walking. They were on their way to Harry’s New York condo, which he kept in case he was needed in the New York branch of Osborn Industries. It was left to him by Norman after the man passed away due to a heart attack. After Harry described what he was like, Peter felt no sympathy for the man. “Does that mean I can do whatever I want?”
“You already do whatever you want,” Peter snorted, this time in fondness.
“Yeah, but can I do whatever I want to you?” Harry smirked and wiggled his eyebrows, causing Peter to laugh hysterically.
“Well, let’s get back to the condo so–”
“Peter?”
The two stopped, causing a woman in a pencil skirt to click her tongue and walk around them as they turned to see where the voice came from. Peter’s breath left him as he saw the deeply familiar face.
Ned.
“Oh my god, Peter!” Ned smiled brightly, flapping his hands as he maneuvered around the crowd to enter Peter’s space. “Dude, oh my god! I haven’t seen you around any of the hotels and I thought I kept missing you but then I asked around and no one has heard of you so I was–”
“Ned,” Peter interrupted, voice cracking as he felt stinging prickle his eyes. He felt Harry take his hand, squeezing it to comfort him.
“Peter…” Ned trailed off as he took in Peter’s taller form, how he’d grown more muscles, or his added maturity. He wasn’t the chubby-cheeked kid he was on the bus the last time they’d seen each other. Now, Peter looked like the adult he was.
“You–you weren’t snapped?” Ned looked distressed, frantically looking over Peter as the crowd split around them.
“We should move out of the way,” Harry murmured, knowing Peter would hear him even if Ned didn’t. “Let’s go.”
“Ned,” Peter trailed off, the name feeling foreign on his tongue.
Ned seemed to understand Peter’s sentiment; he’d always been good at interpreting his feelings, even without words.
“Come on, I’ll show you where I’ve been staying since…since I got back.”
All Peter could do was nod, Harry’s hand remaining as an anchor, as they followed Ned through the streets to a Hilton Hotel. Once inside, they sat on the only couch that wasn’t filled.
“Oh, I didn’t realize this guy was with you,” Ned awkwardly rubbed his arm. He was still 17 like he was five years ago.
“I’m Harry, Peter’s…” He trailed off, silently asking Peter what he’d like to say.
“My boyfriend,” Peter replied, having pulled himself together enough to give a shaky smile.
“Boyfriend!” Ned exclaimed, “But what about–oh…”
“Yeah,” Peter closed his eyes briefly, letting the familiar feeling of grief wash over him. He struggled to move on when he realized his closest people were gone. Tony (before he realized how much of a dick he was), Ned, MJ…May. But he was used to grieving. His parents, Ben, his future.
It was hard, so fucking hard. But he made it through it.
“Well, I know where she is if you’d like to see her.”
Peter looked at Ned and felt fondness bubbling up inside him. He let go of Harry’s hand to pull Ned into a tight (but not too tight due to his strength) hug. Peter shuddered and didn’t feel embarrassed because he felt Ned shudder, too.
“I’ve missed you, Ned,” Peter whispered, feeling Ned nod once before he let go. “And yeah, I’d like to see her too.”
Ned smiled and pulled out a phone.
“Dude, we got these new phones when we came back and they’re so cool! The camera quality is ten times better than my old one and–”
Peter just let Ned ramble, smiling to himself as Harry laid his head on Peter’s shoulder to whisper in his ear.
“I can see what you mean now about him rambling.”
Peter chuckled as Ned finished his call.
“Yeah. I really missed it.”
The two of them sat and listened to Ned talk about what he’s been doing since he got back.
“So I tried going back to my house but my Nona apparently moved and she’s never had a phone before so I don’t know how to find her or call her! So I was worried about where I should go until I found MJ and–oh, MJ! Over here!”
Peter stiffened and felt the hair on the back of his neck prickle as he saw her. She looked the same as when he’d left her on the bus, her curly brown hair in a half ponytail. Her skin was just as flawless, and her clothes were dark and thrifted.
But he didn’t feel those same nervous butterflies in his stomach when he looked at her now. Only an age-old grief and a relief at seeing her.
“MJ,” he breathed, standing up and realizing he was now taller than her. That revelation caused a pang in his chest, but he ignored it to pull her into a hug.
“Peter,” she hugged back, ignoring how out of character it was for her. When he pulled back, he saw how she took in his appearance, and she realized he wasn’t snapped like her and Ned. She was always faster at observations.
“You,” she started before stopping when she saw Harry sitting on the couch. “Harry Osborn?”
“Oh!” Ned jolted, “I thought you looked familiar!”
Harry chuckled a little sadly as he ran a hand through his hair.
“Guilty.”
Peter shook his head in amusement, and he could tell that MJ noticed his fond look. She seemed disappointed for a moment before pushing it away.
Peter had liked that about her before—how smart and capable she was. But that was in the past, and it can never be reclaimed. People just had to move forward.
“How have you been? Is it okay in the hotel?” Peter asked, sitting back down to be close to Harry. It was natural to invade his personal space, to squash against him without any care for how people saw them, even Harry’s investors.
“Well, we have to share rooms considering how many people have been displaced,” MJ spoke neutrally, “and considering a new family was living in my house when I went there, I think we’ll be here for a while.”
Peter’s lips curled down in sympathy.
“I’d offer to let you guys stay with us, but we’re all the way in Massachusetts and I’m sure you guys want to stay in New York to at least finish high school.”
MJ raised an eyebrow as Ned bounced in his seat.
“Massachusetts?! Oh my god, are you going to school there?”
Peter boasted, “MIT class of 2022. And I’ll be getting my master’s at the end of this semester.”
“Oh my god! You made it to MIT! And you graduated two years early?!”
“Wow, that’s impressive, web for brains.”
Peter smiled at the old nickname.
“I haven’t heard that one in a while,” Peter smiled bittersweetly. “It’s nostalgic.”
“So I’ve heard. Spider-Man retired?” She looked on with curiosity. “What happened?”
“I just,” he sighed, leaning closer to Harry. “I felt like I wasn’t needed. And I had to keep moving forward with my life. I knew that if I kept going down that path then I wouldn’t have survived. And I had to live so everyone else's memory could live on with me.”
His two friends nodded and accepted his reasoning, even if he felt they weren’t good enough. He always felt guilty for abandoning Spider-Man. It was his duty and obligation to help others with his powers. It’s what he vowed to do after he got Ben killed, and here he was, forgoing it just to be a normal person.
He didn’t get to be a normal person, but he wanted to pretend, at least.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t stop Thanos before he snapped,” Peter hung his head, clenching his jeans at his thighs. “I tried to stop him.”
“Peter.”
He lifted his head to the smiling faces of his best friends.
“It’s okay. You did everything you could.”
“Yeah! And we’re here now, aren’t we?”
For once, Peter let the tears fall from his eyes as he smiled back.
“Yeah.”
~~~
“Are you sure you’re ready? We can always try again.”
Peter knew why Harry was worried but knew he needed to do this. He needed to see her.
“Yeah, I’m ready.”
Peter took another deep breath before knocking on the apartment door. Ned had told him yesterday before they left that he’d gone over to Peter’s old apartment to see if he was there, but he wasn’t there. Only someone else.
The door opened to reveal a beautifully familiar face.
“Peter?”
He cried as he saw her.
“Aunt May.”
She looked as perfect as she always did. Her long, straight brown hair had only a few gray strands from when she learned about Spider-Man. Her reading glasses perched on her nose, and tears clouded her brown eyes, always filled with kindness and warmth. She dropped the book in her hand to cover her mouth, a heaving wail leaving her chest as she tackled him into a hug.
“Oh, Peter, Peter, my Peter.”
“May,” Peter hid his face in her hair. He was now almost an entire foot taller than her, standing at 6'1. He had to lean down to hide his tears and felt Harry’s hand on his hunched back.
“Oh, I was so scared I lost you forever,” she cried, “I was so worried about you. When I started to disappear, you were my last thought.”
Peter couldn’t hold back his blubbering as he rocked them back and forth.
“I missed you so, so much,” he sniffled. “It was so hard.”
She pulled back to cradle his face in her hands with water eyes but a strong smile. “I’m here now, baby. It’s okay. I’m here.”
They stayed like that for another few minutes until May pulled back to rub her eyes. That’s when she finally saw Harry standing back in the hallway.
“Oh! I’m so sorry, I’m such a mess. Come in, both of you.”
May shuffled them over to the couch, where she immediately dropped next to Peter to hold onto him.
“Oh, you’ve gotten so big,” her eyes started tearing up again before she blinked it away. “First, introduce me to this young man you’ve brought.”
“Aunt May, this is Harry. My boyfriend.”
Peter may have hidden a lot of things from May–Spider-Man, Stark, the bullying at school–but he’d never been afraid to talk to her about his sexuality. He grew up hearing stories of her girlfriends in college before she met Ben and settled down. They’d always talk about their dream girl or dream guy. It was never awkward, just a fun bonding experience.
“Oh, he’s so handsome,” she teased, getting a laugh from both of them. “I can’t believe I’ve missed five years,” she whispered, sobering up. “Tell me about your life.”
He went on to explain how he’d gotten home to Earth, how he’d been homeless until graduating high school, how he couldn’t keep being Spider-Man anymore, when he went to MIT and met Harry on a night out, how he’d absolutely hated him for his enormous ego until they eventually became friends during Peter’s second and last year of undergrad.
“And then I realized how pretty his eyes were,” Peter said, giving Harry a shy smile with a flush to his cheeks. “I looked into his blue eyes and thought, “ They look like the ocean ,” and that I could stare into them all day. I felt butterflies in my stomach and completely panicked!”
May looked joyful as she patted Peter’s knee.
“And now you two are joined at the hip?”
“Yeah. How’d you know?”
“That was the same with me and Ben,” her gaze was unfocused as she recalled fond memories. “I thought he was a know-it-all at first. He seemed like the “I know more than you, and I’ll hold it over you” type. But then I realized that he was actually quite sweet, charming, and overwhelmingly kind. He just hid it under all of his wisdom.”
Peter looked into Harry’s eyes and thought, ‘Yeah. I could see us growing old together.’ But that was too sentimental, so he just shook it away, giving Harry a quick peck on the lips.
“Well, I guess all my brains helped me out because I graduated undergrad in two years Summa cum laude, and now I’m almost done with my master's double majoring in biochemistry and bioengineering.”
“My baby’s so smart,” she patted his cheek, which made Peter’s face warm in embarrassment.
“Aunt May!”
“Oh, lighten up, Peter. Let me spoil you before you go back to Massachusetts.”
Peter froze as he stared at his Aunt.
“You know?”
“Do you think I was born yesterday? I can tell that New York isn’t the place you want to be. At least for now. Just make sure you call me, okay? I can’t lose you again.”
“That’s what I should be saying,” Peter huffed, hugging his aunt close.
“Harry, you better take care of my nephew.” She turned a stern eye toward Harry, who had been interspacing Peter’s ramblings with comments. But now, he twitched into a straightened position with wide eyes.
“Yes ma’am.”
Peter and May laughed, holding each other close as Peter had wished for the past five years. As if no time had passed at all.
~~~
The only sound in the room came from the TV set at a low volume while Peter lay on the couch, laptop sitting on his lap, and opened to his thesis paper. On the coffee table were many, many pages full of research. Harry was in class, so Peter had the apartment to himself for the rest of the afternoon.
He wasn’t expecting anyone, so he was surprised when the doorbell rang. Focusing on his hearing, his brow twitched in annoyance when he recognized the familiar irregular heartbeat and breathing pattern.
“What are you doing here, Stark?” He asked the unwelcome guest. He had no doubts about how the man found his apartment, considering this wouldn’t be the first time.
“Relax, Parker. I’m just here to talk,” Tony held up his hands in surrender with an easy smile.
Peter debated slamming the door in his face but ultimately decided to be polite and hear the man out.
“I’m not getting you any coffee or tea, so just say what you have to say so you can leave.” Peter stood against the kitchen wall with his arms crossed.
“Wow, harsh,” Tony chuckled, standing before the couch. He was about to sit when he spotted the research documents.
“Is this what you’ve been doing?” Tony seemed genuinely curious as he picked up a paper and read it. “This is…this is genius! How come I’ve never thought of this?”
Peter’s strict stance relaxed as he chuckled, shaking his head in amazement.
“You never change, Tony,” Peter muttered, a nostalgic look in his eyes.
Tony hesitated before letting out a deep sigh and putting the paper down.
“And you do. Look, Peter. I don’t say this often, but I’m sorry.”
Peter’s brows raised in shock as Tony continued.
“I realize now, looking back, that what I did to you was extremely manipulative and terrible. I was just looking for someone to back me up against Cap and I couldn’t look past that fact to see that you were just a kid.”
“That’s the thing. You could never just treat me as one or the other. You bring me along to this cheap fight as if I were an adult but then leave me alone in a hotel room and treat me like a kid. You left me alone afterward and gave me independence but then took away the suit after one mistake–which I solved, by the way–and then you keep treating me as if I were a naive kid but give me adult responsibilities. It’s a dick move, Stark.”
“I know,” Tony sighed and took off his glasses, giving Peter a sincere look. “I saw something in you. You were this spunky, naive kid with a too-big heart. You wanted to help everyone no matter what, and it inspired me. I became interested in the good in you and became scared when I saw the kid in you. I ruin everything I touch, ki– Peter , and I didn’t want that to happen to you.”
Peter nodded once, decisively, before lowering his arms.
“Would you like some tea?”
Tony gave him an earnest smile.
“Coffee, black.”
Shaking his head, Peter took out a mug and turned on the coffee maker.
“What are you guys doing now? Thanos isn’t a problem anymore; Ross is gone. The world’s lived without the Avengers for five years now and seem to be doing fine. What now?”
Tony sighed and sat down at the bar.
“Well, it’s officially time for the Avengers to retire. For good this time. There’s no more reasons for us to stick together, and I know there’s still some tension between all of us. I think a little time away from each other will be good. And I think it’s finally time for me to settle down.”
Peter hummed as he pulled out another mug to make some tea for himself.
“Starting a family? I know you and Pepper were engaged.”
“Yeah, that was because of you, actually,” Tony chuckled, nodding when Peter handed him his steaming mug.
“Oh yeah, how so?”
“Well, I had offered you to join the Avengers, but you maturely turned me down to continue helping the little guy. But I had already set up a press meeting in the other room, so as I was walking to the table with Ms. Potts on my arm, that’s when I asked her to marry me, and I turned the conference into our engagement announcement.”
Peter stared at him with wide eyes, holding his mug with both hands and trying not to break it.
“Huh…I thought it was a test of character or something.”
“Yeah,” Tony chuckled, “It wasn’t.”
They sat in a comfortable silence before Tony sighed.
“I have a little girl now, Peter. She’s four and a half years old…I missed the first five years of her life…”
Peter stared into his mug and, for the first time, felt sympathetic towards him. He hadn’t forgiven Tony for all he’d done to Peter, not by a long shot. But he could feel empathy towards someone who’d done him wrong. Peter hadn’t given that up when he put the suit away.
“What’s her name?”
“Morgan,” Tony spoke her name fondly, an adoring grin on his face. “She calls me Dad even though I haven’t been there. Pepper has my photos all over just so Morgan could recognize my face. We’re living in a cabin upstate next to a lake. No city, only a small town down the road.”
“Sounds nice,” Peter admitted. During late patrols, he’d always wondered what it’d be like not to worry about dirty streets and crime-filled alleys. What it’d be like not to be kept awake at night to the terrified screams of a girl getting mugged.
Tony sighed and set his coffee down.
“What I’m trying to get at is that I understand your need to retire. I want to be there for her, watch her grow up. I can’t do that if I’m Iron Man, or even if I’m Tony Stark. I didn’t get how you could hang up the suit entirely before, but now I do.”
Peter just nodded before closing his eyes.
“What if I’m making a mistake by giving up Spider-Man entirely. It’s been years, but I can still feel the adrenaline rush, the pride of knowing I was doing good. God, I was really doing amazing shit. I was helping those who no one else would help. I’d answer their calls when no one else would. I’ll dream that I’m flying through New York again, swinging between buildings and waving to everyone who’d call to me. Can I really be a normal person after all that?”
Tony mulled it over before chugging the rest of his coffee and standing up.
“I can’t tell you what to do anymore than I can tell Steve what to do. You’re an adult, so you have to make your own decisions. But consider every angle. How would you feel if you picked up the suit, how would your loved ones? Can you envision a future in which you don’t put it back on? If you do?”
Tony put back his glasses as he made his way out. But before he left, he said one last thing.
“The President is giving the Avengers an award in New York. They’ve invited Spider-Man, and they’ve asked us to let him know that he can come if he wants to. But they know how important peace is to somebody, and you’re under no obligation to attend. It’s at Citi Field at the end of next month.”
The door closed behind him with a click, and Peter stood alone in his kitchen, a lukewarm cup of tea in his clenched hands.
~~~
The clear night sky above the stadium beamed with headlights, and there was a person in every seat as the field was flooded with cameras, security guards, police, and the Secret Service. In the middle of the field stood a tall stage with a podium. Music blasted through the speakers, barely heard above all the chatter and acclamations.
Hidden inside, Steve Rogers stood along with the other Avengers who could make it—all dressed to the nines: him, Natasha, Tony, Clint, Sam, Bruce, who was dragged out of his lab for this, and Carol Danvers, who came to represent every other Avenger who wasn’t here due to either being in space, Wakanda, or somewhere else entirely.
“You said you invited Spider-Man, right?” Steve asked again, ignoring Tony’s annoyed huff and Natasha’s glare.
“Yes, Rogers. I told him about this. I doubt he’ll show up, though. He was really pressed about staying out of this.”
“And this Spider-Man, he is now an ordinary civilian?” Carol asked. The last time Steve had seen her, her hair was down to her shoulders. But it was now cut tightly around her ears. It looked good on her in comparison to his grown-out hair.
“Yeah. He said he wanted to finish graduate school like everyone else.”
“Hm,” she hummed, and that was it.
At least, it was until they were about to walk onto the field, the president standing at the podium with a fixed smile. Steve stood next to Tony in the back while the rest were lined up, ready to go. It was still a little awkward in the short times they'd seen each other, but Steve was determined to make it work.
“Do you want Spider-Man to come?”
Tony didn’t look as conflicted as Steve had expected him to. Instead, he looked content. As if whatever answer he gave was simple.
“I want Peter to live the life he wants, just as I want to live the life I want.”
Steve felt pride in his chest as he took in Tony’s answer, and he felt as though the two of them could call each other friends again—one day.
“Please welcome: The Avengers!”
They walked out in an orderly fashion, waving to the crowd as they went wild. Carol flew into the air, spurring even louder applause as she met them on the stage. There were chairs for each of them, and one empty left open for Spider-Man.
“Thank you all for being here today. These past five years have been tough for everybody. It was a time of chaos and uncertainty. But we all made it through together, and after five whole years, we’re all back together again. And while they may not have been here in person, the Avengers’ presence was felt by all. So not only as the leader of a nation, but as a person, I’d like to thank you for all you have done.”
The approbations started up again, and Tony stood as they’d planned.
“Thank you, Mr. President. There have been times when we’ve failed, no doubt. We’ve never been the perfect team, and we’ve never been able to save everyone. But we try to save all those we can. We continue on in the memory of those we’ve failed to save in order to save those who might not have been saved if we hadn’t been there. We failed when Thanos snapped, but you all stepped up to become the heroes you needed. We’re here to take a step back so we can leave the world in your hands. Be the hero you need; be the heroes the world needs.”
As Tony stepped back, and the cheers became deafening, a loud ‘THWIP’ was overheard.
“It’s Spider-Man!”
The standing ovation turned to screams as the red and blue hero swung around the stadium using the large Citi Field sign as an anchoring point. Tony’s laugh was incredulous as Spider-Man flipped in the air, swinging around the entire stadium once before letting himself fall onto the stage, landing in a crouch.
“Spider-Man,” he breathed, carried away unheard in the wind.
Even the President looked surprised as Spider-Man stepped up to the podium. All the commendations tapered off into silence so the world could hear from the long-gone hero.
“Hello, New York. And hello to the world,” he started, his voice deeper than it was last heard four years ago. “I’d like to start off by doing something I’ve been too scared to do.”
The entire world watched in rapt silence as Spider-Man slowly reached up and pulled off his mask.
“Hello. My name is Peter Parker, and I’m Spider-Man.”
He stood with solid shoulders and a proud smile as the world exploded. People were euphoric as they finally had a name and face for the man who’d saved them. People raised their fists in celebration. People hugged. People cried. The whole world came together for the occasion.
“I started being Spider-Man when I was 14. I got these superpowers from this radioactive spider that bit me during a school field trip,” he laughed, “crazy, I know. But despite these powers, I let them go to waste. Even though I could now hear people crying out for help from 10, 20 blocks away, I thought it wasn’t my responsibility. I tried to continue my normal life, I really did. But that got my uncle killed, and as he lay dying at my feet because of me, he left me with one last grain of knowledge.”
Tony mouthed the words as Peter spoke.
“With great power, comes great responsibility.”
“It was my responsibility to be the good I wanted to see in the world. It was my honor bound duty to help these people when no one else can, or would. So, I became the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. No matter how many times I went down, I’d always get back up just so I could save one more person. Just so one more person could go back home to their families. After the snap, I felt that I wasn’t needed anymore. The whole world had come together to be better for each other.”
Peter didn’t look discouraged as he talked about his disheartened feelings. No, he smiled in awe.
“But I had forgotten something important. Something that made me the man I am today. I didn’t become Spider-Man just to feel important. I became Spider-Man to help others, to inspire others to be better. I thought I was done with Spider-Man, but I had forgotten that Spider-Man isn’t a cape to take off and put away. Spider-Man is hope, Spider-Man is kindness, Spider-Man is a symbol of perseverance and humanity. I have these powers so I can help others, but people help others every day without powers. FIrefighters, nurses and doctors, garbage collectors. You don’t need superpowers to be a good person.”
Peter Parker stood tall and proud with his mask in hand, hope shining brightly in his eyes.
“You too can be Spider-Man.”