Infelicity [P. Parker x Reader]

t h i r t y - s i x

I would like to take a second and congratulate FZeroTrash on getting 20K reads on her amazing book: Proof Among the Paintings. She's worked really hard on it and it's very well done. 

Also total side note, I would like to note that Stark's death and Marco Bodt's death are very similar in looks and reactions. I would like someone to prove me wrong, because I'm still mourning the lose of my baby Freckles. Red Swan was on loop while I was writing this, so that totally helped hahaha

The streets seemed alive again, since most families were brought back together. It felt good to be back with my dad, but it felt wrong to be happy when many of my friends and family were mourning the loss of the man who brought our team together in the beginning.

Getting out of the classic Volkswagen Beetle, I stood outside the apartment building I had considered my home for many years.

I heard my dad slam his door before commenting, "It's stayed the same, you know. We're lucky that we didn't lose it."

I nodded in response, taking in the pale brown building. One thing seemed to be missing though. The heavy smell of Italian spices wasn't present.

I turned quickly to face Dad, eyes flashing with worry. "Is. . . is Ms. Farina okay?"

He hesitated for a moment, before saying, "I think you should see for yourself."

It took no time at all for me to race inside to the front of an all familiar dark brown door. Not caring about politeness, I opened the door, lucky to find it unlocked.

My footsteps were slow to enter, a bit scared of what I might find.

It looks the same for the most part. The only true difference was that the kitchen wasn't alive, with food spread across the counters and something amazing in the oven.

"(Y/N)?" I heard a voice shakily call out.

I looked down the hall towards the bedroom and saw a door slightly ajar. Running what little distance I had left, I broke through to the other side.

The woman I've come to love and adore stood slowly from the plush chair she had by the window. Her frame was smaller than I remembered it being, but it looks like she was still going strong.

"How are you back? Did you all fix it?" she asked.

"Magic," I said, pointing a finger in one direction to answer the first question, "and a hell of an amount of luck."

We both burst out laughing at this, breaking the space between us for a hug.

Lately the days dragged on in a monotonous way and I couldn't seem to get out of it. With Peter feeling down almost every day, the entire group's mood dropped.

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely loved seeing everyone. It seems most everyone we were close to dusted as well, so there weren't many missing when we came back to school a few days later. There were also some new faces I saw popping up in our classes, which was a bit weird.

Nobody talked about what happened and I'm not sure we ever will. Conversations were short and brief to start. Everyone was in shock at what had happened. Everything seemed to be warming back up again, though, to something closer to normal.

But it couldn't be. Not with Peter out of it most days.

I remembered walking into school that first day, Peter at my side. He'd become very quiet, and I was trying to give him some space like he did to me when Daniel died. You could tell he was tired from many sleepless nights with dark circles under the duller brown eyes.