Hi, first fanfiction of any kind I've written in years, hopefuy it's good. I pretty much only wrote this after a little "what if Tony did this" discussion I had with a friend and then larger parts kept popping into my head so I thought I'd turn it into a full one shot. I've to keep it as accurate as possible, but for the story's sake I made it so the dust from Thanos' snap didn't float away in the wind, and I'm not entirely sure if I've written them in character, but fingers crossed. Hope you enjoy it!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything, I've written this just for entertainment.

The world was different now. It had changed before, back when the Avengers had first appeared during the Battle of New York and aliens had been revealed to the world, and again following Lagos and Sokovia, when the threat posed by enhanced beings forced the United Nations to create the Sokovia Accords, but never as much as it had now.

May Parker sat on the couch in her living room, legs curled up on the couch underneath her. A cup of tea was clutched in her hands, long since gone cold as she stared out the window, lost in thought.

It had been three weeks since the Event.

Three weeks since the ring ship had appeared over New York City, three weeks since reports of Iron Man and Spider-Man heading after the ship had surfaced, three weeks since half the world's population had turned to dust in the wind. There was grieving across the planet, everyone awash with emotions; mourning for those they'd lost, feeling too guilty for surviving to celebrate still being alive, struggling to understand how it could have happened.

A broadcast aired from Wakanda the day after the Event, with Steve Rogers informing the world of how an alien had caused it, how with a snap of his fingers half the life in the universe had been erased from existence and how the world, now more than ever, had to come together in their grief to mourn, to rebuild, to try and live for those they'd lost. May had watched the broadcast on it's third day of repeats, having finally been able to bring herself to turn on the tv, too wrapped up in her own sorrow over the loss of her nephew to bare letting in the toll that day had taken on the world.

At first she blamed herself. After all, it was her that took Peter to the 2010 Stark Expo where he'd be rescued by Iron Man himself and decide he wanted to grow up to be a hero, and she could've done far more to stop him from acting as Spider-Man after she discovered his secret. She should've taken his suit away, banned him from doing it, anything to keep him safe. Instead she'd listened to Tony Stark when he'd swooped in at Peter's request, explaining to May how safe the suit was, how there were built-in protections to keep him from harm. Going on and on about how good Peter was at being Spider-Man and how he was just keeping to being a friendly neighbourhood hero, leaving the big stuff to the Avengers.

After a week of blaming herself for allowing Peter's heroics to continue, May found a new focus for her blame. The broadcasts coming out of Wakanda had started to cover the efforts being made to heal the world, covering what the Avengers and other enhanced beings like the Inhumans were doing. When one broadcast had Steve Rogers questioned about Iron Man and Spider-Man heading to the ring ship, May realised it was all on Tony. He had given Peter the enhanced suit, he had encouraged Peter to be a hero, he had convinced May it would be fine. In the end, though, blaming did nothing. She was still furious toward him, but anger did nothing to bring the boy she'd raised back and besides, what use was holding all that anger when he wasn't around to take it? So instead she was just left to grieve.

She heard a knock on her door and with a small sigh she stood up from the couch, placing her cold tea mug on the coffee table and walked to the door, expecting it to be Ned. Aside from a police officer doing rounds to check on those left behind and a neighbour wondering if she was alright, her nephew's best friend was the only visitor she'd had since the Event. He'd been around a few times since, first to see if she'd survived, and then a couple times following to check in on her and bring her the occasional leftover meal, his father not yet used to cooking for two less people. Having lost his mother and sister, he could share in her pain, and his visits helped her remember Peter as he was, sharing stories of him helping keep him alive a little bit more for her. She took a deep breath to prepare herself for a visit and opened the door to find herself face to face with Tony Stark.

"He did it." Nebula said, shocked.

Other than Tony, everyone that had been on Titan had disintegrated. Next to Tony sat a pile of dust that had once been Peter Parker, while Tony himself rested his chin in his hand, utterly defeated. After an hour or two of them both sitting in silence, a single word broke the quiet that had settled around them.

"May."

Nebula looked over at the sole other inhabitant of the planet. He'd barely moved since the boy had disappeared, and now he was turning around frantically hitting his glowing chest piece until what remained of his broken suit started to come out. It travelled down his arm, forming a flat surface where it met his hand. He started to scoop the dust until it was all resting on what was left of his suit before the nanites began to reform around it, separating itself fully from his body and ending as an urn that rested on the ground in front of him.

"There's nothing you can do to bring him back," Nebula said to Tony from her seat on the debris covered battlefield. "The Infinity Gauntlet's actions can only be undone by itself."

"I- I'm not - I know that," Tony said, his eyes locked on the container that held what was left of the boy he'd meant to protect. "I just… I can't just leave him here, not when he shouldn't have even come in the first place. I -" Tony choked back a sob. "I've got to get him home." He pointed at the one ship left intact near them. "Can you fly that?"

Nebula looked over to where he was pointing to see the Guardian's ship resting reasonably unscathed from the meteor shower the moon's destruction had caused.

"Of course I can," she said, "but what makes you think I'll use it to get you and that jar home?"

Tony looked at her, his face battered and bruised, dried blood smeared across his face, with eyes full of more emotion than the Luphomoid was used to seeing. Rage, sorrow, and guilt flashed through his eyes as he locked them with hers.

"I. Need. To. Take. Him. Home!" Tony's voice cracked on the final word, and without waiting he picked up the urn and took off towards the ship, stumbling over debris from the battle. By the time Nebula caught up to him, he was at the control panel of the ship, trying to work it and getting increasingly frustrated by the alien language on the screens. "Why won't you work?!" He punched the display in front of him in anger, not caring as it cracked his skin. What was a little more blood loss after today? He collapsed into the pilot seat, cradling the urn and fighting back tears. "Why won't you work?" He asked again, softer and defeated.

Nebula leaned against one of the walls. "Why is it so important you get him home?" She asked. "And are all of the people from your planet like this?"

Tony ignored the last question and let out a shuddering sigh. "I need to get him back to his aunt," He said, hardly above a whisper. "I promised her he'd be safe and I failed. The least I can do is give her some peace and let him get the burial he deserves."

With a sigh, Nebula walked over to the pilot seat.

"Okay, I'll do it. What planet are you from?"

Tony stood in the hallway outside of May's apartment. Behind him stood either an alien or someone in a very elaborate blue and purple coloured alien costume. Since not many people were fans of extraterrestrial beings anymore, the former seemed far more likely. May's hand clenched around the door handle, her eyes narrowing as she realised it really was Tony Stark standing before her.

"You have some nerve showing your face here," she snarled, not even waiting for him to say anything. "You told me that he would just be dealing with neighbourhood crime. You promised me he would be safe!"

Tony flinched at her words, jumping back a little with her last sentence, his arms squeezing closer around an object held to his chest. His reaction gave May pause, and she stopped to actually take in the billionaire's appearance.

Gone was the cocky and self-sure person he used to be. All his charm and arrogance, his "I can fix everything" attitude, every bit of the trademark personality that he presented to the world was gone, and in his place stood a broken man, a shell of the person he used to be. May could see pain in his eyes, she could recognise the blame and self-hatred that she'd seen in her own eyes when she looked in the mirror following the Event, and knew without asking that Tony was putting himself through hell for what had happened. His skin was paler than she was used to seeing from his tv appearances, his eyes sunken with dark bags under them, the normally trimmed goatee was gone, an unkempt beard in its place, hiding at first glance that he was also much thinner than he used to be.

Her eyes scanned down to the object by his chest and saw a red metallic urn, held tightly in his arms, cradled to his body as though it was the most important thing in the universe. She felt her knees weaken as she realised what it was and was thankful she was already holding the door so tightly. She used it to steady herself and step to the side, indicating to Tony and the alien that they could come in. Tony walked in with his head down, keeping his eyes from looking at anything that might remind him of the boy he lost, with the alien following him in.

"Please, sit down," May said to them, all her fury towards Tony gone now she'd seen the state he was in. He shuffled over to the couch and sat down, the urn still held close to him. May hesitated by the door, looking between her two unexpected guests, unsure what to do. "Do… Do you want a drink?"

Receiving no answer, May headed to the kitchen and began to busy herself making a pot of tea. A small noise behind her caught her attention and she turned to find the alien standing behind her, looking very out of place.

"So I take it you're May?"

"I… Yes, I am." May stumbled over her words, a little shocked the alien spoke English. "And you are?"

"Nebula." She paused. "Were you the boy's guardian?"

May's hand trembled slightly at the use of past tense. "Yes, I'm his aunt." Taking a breath, she decided to change the subject. "How did you come across Stark?"

The blue alien looked behind her at the man sitting motionless on the couch. "We fought together against Thanos. The boy-"

"Peter." May interrupted, pausing from pouring tea into mugs. "His name is - was... His name was Peter."

"Yes, Peter. He fought valiantly against Thanos as well. You should be proud. He saved my life."

"Of course he did," May turned around, holding a cup out to the alien, her eyes shining as tears began to well up in them, though a small smile rested on her face. "I swear he was born with too much courage and not enough fear. Do you take sugar or milk in your tea? … Do you drink tea?"

Nebula frowned. "I don't know what tea is."

"Oh, yes, of course you don't." May poured some milk into the mug and stirred it before passing it over. "Try it like that, if you want."

Nebula took the cup and raised it to her mouth to try. She grimaced and placed the mug down on the bench then leaned against it. Recognising the same grief in the women before her as she'd seen in Tony during their trip to earth she decided to speak on that.

"Your boy meant a lot to him. He's barely spoken since we left Titan - the planet the fight took place on. He was adamant we get Peter home to you after Thanos… After we lost him to the Snap. It was all he could focus on afterwards. The container he's holding… It hasn't left his sight in weeks, barely even left his arms. This is the first place we've been since we left"

May gave a small sad nod in understanding and picked up the two untouched cups of tea. She headed past Nebula to sit down next to Tony and placed the two cups on the coffee table in front of them then reached out a hand to place on his leg.

"Thank you for bringing him home to me, Tony."

A single tear fell from Tony's eye, the first he let fall since it happened, and the rest he'd been holding back finally broke their floodgates.

"I coul- I couldn't save him, May. It's all my fault. I'm so sorry!" His breath started coming in ragged gasps, three weeks of grief beginning to pour out of him. "It's all my fault he's gone." He began to rock back and forth softly, hugging the urn and repeating "It's all my fault" over and over.

"Tony, you can't blame yourself." May squeezed his leg gently, aware of the irony of saying that to the man she herself had been blaming for the last two weeks. "What's done is done, we can't undo that."

Realising he wasn't listening, May stood up, remembering something that could possibly help Tony. After telling him she'd be right back, she headed through the kitchen to Peter's room. At the doorway she took a deep breath. She'd been in there once since he'd disappeared, finding it too painful to see so much of him without him being there. Heading straight for the bookcase Peter used as a makeshift display case for all the important things in his life, she grabbed the largest item from his superhero encounter shelf and left the the room quickly with it, still not prepared to spend too long a time there. Back in the living room she sat next to the Avenger and held out plastic Iron Man mask to him.

"Did Peter ever tell you he was at the 2010 Stark Expo?" She asked. Tony said nothing, but upon seeing the mask he stopped mumbling self-blame, so May knew she had his attention. "Even before you revealed yourself as Iron Man he was obsessed with you, the technology you could create amazed him since he was a child, and when Iron Man appeared he would spend hours playing superheroes, running around pretending to be you. When the Stark Expo was revived it was all he could talk about for weeks. I had to give him the tickets two months before his birthday so he would stop asking me if we could go."

May paused to take a deep breath. "We were there when the drones attacked. In the chaos he managed to get away from me and by the time I found him he was standing in front of one of the drones, Iron Man mask and glove on, holding his hand up as though he could blast it away just like you do. I thought for sure I was about to lose him when you dropped down behind him and destroyed the drone. I should've lost Peter that day, but I didn't, because you saved him. You gave me eight more amazing years with him, and because of you he turned into an even more amazing man than I thought possible. Don't blame yourself for what happened up there, Tony. You brought him home to me. That's all that matters now."

Thanks for reading!