Chapter 1

When Peter fell asleep four months after the blip, it was to the sound of May arguing with the landlady again. These days it seemed like that was all that everyone did, argue. Whether it was about ownership of apartments and security deposits, which May was currently arguing about, or something as simple as which seat belonged to whom in school.

As for Peter, Peter didn't bother to argue with anyone. So what if he had to be assigned a new locker and had to sit with a new class, these days he could barely bring himself to bother about such things. There were greater things that plagued his nights and haunted his dreams. Thoughts and nightmares, things that could've been done, things that could change the outcome of what had happened.

Wishes and tears.

That's what Peter fell asleep to. Confusion and shock are what he woke up to. His head snapped up as someone cleared their throat, he could hear suppressed laughter all around.

" , is my lecture interrupting your nap time?" , Miss Warren raised an eyebrow, her hands were on her hips. An unimpressed look was directed towards him.

Peter quickly sat up with mumbled apologies from where he was sleeping on his desk. Miss Warren took a deep breath then turned back towards the board continuing her explanation about one thing or another. Peter gave a stray thought to how weird it was to be on the other end of Miss Warren's disappointed look, it was usually Flash who received it.

Then he remembered that Miss Warren left school five years ago after her family was snapped away and didn't return after the blip and the class he was sitting in was no longer his. Familiar faces surrounded him, faces that had aged five years the last time he had looked into them.

Ned was looking at him with a worried look, Flash was smirking, MJ looked thoroughly uninterested. Peter felt the breath stuck in his throat.

This was his class before everything. Before the snap, before the blip, before everything, before died. !

Peter stood up with a thud bringing everyone's attention to himself.

"M-Miss Warren, I don't feel very good. May I go to the nurse?"

His face must have shown something that confirmed his statement maybe his panic or painful hope cause Miss Warren just nodded. Peter refused to think over what his being here might mean or how this could've happened, the only thing in his mind was the urgency to get out of school, to go...somewhere, leave, see, understand. The time for panicking was later, he could determine if he was dreaming later he just needed to leave now.

Peter ran out of the room faster than was probably normal and he was sure to be the topic of discussion but it didn't matter. He climbed out of the nearest exit not even bothering to pretend to go to the nurse.

One breath. Two. He swung away.

Peter didn't stop until he was standing before the Avengers compound. The walls stood upright, there was a hustle. People walking by, working. It was still a place of hope, of the future, not a graveyard of bad memories and loss.

He walked in as if in a trance, looking around with an unseeing gaze, trying to make himself believe this was real. He could almost see the scene of the battle superimposed on that of this relatively normal building. A few people bumped into him, some saying a 'hello' when they recognized him. It didn't take long before he was crossing over to the private portion, standing near the elevator that leads down to the lab.

He couldn't bring himself to walk into the elevator. Because if he wasn't there if he wasn't down there working away on something, humming along to some old song that Peter also loved but teased him about, if he wasn't there it would break this dream, this dream or fantasy or whatever this is would be for nothing.

Peter closed his eyes, took a deep breath, gathered whatever remained of his courage and stepped in.

FRIDAY greeted him, the doors closed.

Tony was on a binge, he had been working on Rhodey's braces for over 6 hours when FRIDAY announced Peter's arrival and even though he had no real sense of time down in the lab, he did know that the kid wasn't supposed to be there for at least a few more hours.

Peter had checked in with him before school and according to his calculations, he should've been done with the modifications on the braces when the kid came which meant the kid was early.

Tony wiped his hands off with the towel that was laying by and signaled FRIDAY to save the modifications. He was almost done with the modification to the joints which would allow for better support of Rhodey's spine, he could finish it after the kid was gone. He had promised Peter that they would work on his suit today, He wouldn't admit it but he enjoyed having the kid around more, especially with his high energy and enthusiasm about anything they did together.

Tony heard the kid come in and stop. Tony rolled his eyes making a point to remind Peter that he didn't need permission to come to the lab, at least not this one. He never did anything dangerous in this part of the lab anyways.

He turned around with a smile, stilling when he saw the kid. Peter looked...shocked, scared, in disbelief. Tony didn't know how to describe it.

"Kid, You okay?"

Peter looked pale under the lab lighting, his eyes wide and arms wrapped around his middle. Before Tony could say anything, the kid rushed forward slamming against Tony making them both stumbled. Tony grabbed onto the kid and steadied both of them.

"Pete?"

There was no answer, Tony wrapped his arms around the kid who had barrelled into his chest with a broken whisper of ' '. He almost made a joke about the kid's obsession with trying to hug him but stopped when he realized something that sent a chill down his spine.

The kid was crying.

His shoulders shook under Tony's hands as he took shuddering breaths, a wet spot formed on Tony's T-Shirt. The kid was mumbling something between suppressed sobs and

"I'm so sorry, . I-I-Sorry-Sorry-"

Tony tightened his hold, worry gripping his heart. What could have happened to the kid in the last few hours to do this?

I have no idea what to say. This scene refused to leave me alone. Its been plaguing me since last night so I wrote it out and well...posted it. I literally finished writing it about five minutes ago and decided to post it on a whim. Let me know if you'd like to see more of this story? I have a vague plot in my head, I might just end up writing it just to get it out of my mind. Did you get where the title's from? As always, Thanks for /

-Marey