𝕚𝕟𝕗𝕚𝕟𝕚𝕥𝕪 | p.p. x reader | book two.

𝔽𝕠𝕦𝕣𝕥𝕖𝕖𝕟

My hands toyed with the tools that lay in my hands, twirling the screw driver through each finger. I stuck my tongue between my teeth, a focus habit I'd picked up from Peter. I tightened more screws before stepping away.

"Whatcha working on kid?" My head turned to Tony, who was standing in the doorway of the small room I'd been staying in for the past few days.
"Oh, it's nothing. Just something I never got to finish before everything went to shit."
He walked forward, looking at the thing lying on the table.
"I didn't know you knew how to play guitar."
"I taught myself in 8th grade. I thought it'd be cool to play electric guitar in a band one day."
"How come you never finished building it?"
"Things just...got in the way. Plus, it has memories attached to it I was trying to avoid."
"Ah, avoidance. Oldest trick in the book."
"I don't appreciate your antagonizing."
"I'm not antagonizing. I'm saying you remind me of me."
I looked down, sighing.
"What is it you were trying to avoid?"
"I tried to teach Peter how to play once. It didn't go well."

"Look, all you have to do is reach around and strum the strings."
"But my fingers hurt."
"You're Spider-Man and you're gonna tap out because of a guitar?"
"Yes."
"Gimme the guitar. I'll show you."

I took the guitar out of his hands, setting it on my leg as I sat cross legged on the floor. One hand wrapped around the neck of the guitar to finger the strings, the other around the body to strum the strings. I made sure the amp wasn't up too loud since I wasn't interested in waking the whole neighborhood because I was playing too loud.
My fingers strummed the chords, starting off slow at first. I started to speed up, switching from chord to chord as the song played. Without realizing it I had started humming, playing the song through to completion. The last note hung in the air, my eyes looking up.

Peter's eyes were glued to my form, looking away quickly as he blushed. I handed him the guitar.
"Now you try."
He took the guitar, holding it the same way as I had. he tried to strum a chord but it came out as a jumbled mess. He kept trying, eventually huffing out in frustration.
"I can do it."
"Yes you can." I laughed at his pouty face. "Here, let me help you."

I sat behind him, moving his right hand so his wrist was resting on the body of the guitar right by the strings. I wrapped my fingers around his other hand, my chest touching his back.
"You need to press down harder. you aren't applying enough pressure so the chords are coming out weird."
I held his fingers down on the strings, his body tensing up in front of me. he strummed all the strings, the notes finally coming out as a coherent piece.
"There you go, now try this chord." I moved his fingers with mine, putting them in the right position. once he got the hang of it I took my hand away, letting my head unconsciously rest on his shoulder.

We had both missed this. The late nights, things that blurred the lines between friends and lovers. But neither of us were in the right place for this, and that was evident from the last time we tried. It was better to stay apart for now than try again and break things worse than they already are.

"I fell asleep like that, my head on his shoulder. I don't know when he left but when I woke up I was back in my bed and the guitar was on its stand next to the amp."
"Sounds like the two of you are huge idiots to me." Tony picked up a peanut that sat in the bowl on his side of the table.
"What?"
"You both think that distancing yourselves from each other is causing more good than harm. i can say from experience that that is not the case."
"We already tried being in a relationship and it didn't work. I was willing to give up fighting and he wasn't."
"That doesn't mean you never would have worked. it just means you have to work harder."

I just sat there. had I really messed up one of the best things I'd ever had in my life because of something so stupid?

"Come on kid, we gotta go get ready."
"What if it doesn't work?" I blurted it out before I knew I was saying it. "What if...what if it doesn't work and we can't get him back?"
"Then we keep trying until it does work."

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"Do you think you could have make the suits a little less chafey?"
"Are you seriously complaining about the suits right now?"
"Yes. It is extremely uncomfortable."
"You have electricity under your skin and your complaining about a suit being uncomfortable?"
"Yes."
Steve just let out a chuckle.
"Everyone knows where they're going, right?"
We all nodded, looking at each other.
"This is our one shot, so we have to take it. We can do this, even if we think we can't."
I took a deep breath.

This was it. This was the chance to make everything right, to fix what we couldn't do before. To bring them back.

"Let's do this."

The feeling of shrinking still throws me off every time. It's so unexpected and comes out of nowhere every time, and when you see things on a molecular level it is highly disorienting. Once we were all back where we were supposed to be, it felt crazy.

I coughed and sputtered as my knees hit the ground, trying to get used to the feeling.
"Oh god, I'm never gonna get used to that."
When I looked up, what I was met with was even worse.

Aliens. So many aliens, everywhere, in the sky, on the ground. younger versions of the avengers weren't too far away from us, only a few blocks down. We all took a moment to recuperate, myself catching my breath and hopping back and forth on the balls of my feet. The new suit felt far more comfortable than my old one, much more breathable and much less draining. Tony finally stood up straight, looking at me, Steve, and Scott.

"Alright, let's go get the stones."

i'm sorry this chapter is so late, i have been absolutely swamped with school and sports and drama club it's insane.