Snapshot (фотография)

IV

"What on earth is going on?" Natasha asked as Phil basically dragged her into a small security room. "You're not trying to kidnap me again, are you?"

"Please- with all these cameras and plenty of witnesses? Do you really think so little of me?" Phil replied distractedly, pressing keys on the computer.

"Yes." She said, sitting down in a lukewarm chair and placing her feet up on the desk next to a cold mug of coffee. To the untrained eye, the stunning, auburn-haired woman would have seemed nonchalant, but to Phil Coulson, he could tell that she was tense.

As soon as they had entered the dark conference room that he and Happy had been using to examine the camera footage, she was looking around- at the windows, doors, all possible methods of escape. Phil sighed, and pressed play.

"Wait.." She paused it as Paul Stone entered the building. "He looks familiar."

She narrowed her eyes and used the mouse to zoom into the pixelated footage. The boy was looking straight into the camera, and they could see an almost devilish look on his face. He had a heart shaped face, with a sharp chin and wide blue eyes- almost unnaturally blue, the colour of ice.

"Contacts and a wig." Natasha determined after a minute, but the feeling of deja vu was still there, ringing in her ears. How did she know this person? They had an innocent looking face, but she knew the spark of a murderer in their eyes when she saw it. After all, she used to have the same glint once.

---

Peyta had been walking around for an hour or so, before he finally decided to duck into Penn Station and buy himself a ticket to somewhere in Jersey. Charming the teller, he bought a ticket on the dover lines, where it would take him through different towns. While doing this, he filled the time with inane chatter about going to visit his uncle, sure that the underpaid worker would loosen her mouth to the Avengers and whoever came later with a little bit of cash, just to lay down a fake trail.

However, he entered the bathroom in a crowd of other teenagers, chatting and smiling with strangers to blend in, and quickly took off his disguise in the toilet, leaving with the same group. After doing this, he exited the station and grabbed the subway to Queens, leaving several trails that would hopefully take them a few days to unravel.

With his luck, Peyta could get a different hotel room under another fake name and keep the tin soldiers off of his back until he was able to get back to Russia. But Peyta had never had the best luck, so of course, he ran into a police officer when leaving the subway station.

"Woah there, buddy!" The man cried, steadying Peyta by his shoulders. Peyta surveyed him as a possible threat, tensing and trying not to reach for his weapon. Thankfully, he had made sure to appear non-threatening by wearing a large sweatshirt and grey sweatpants that swamped his form.

"I'm Officer Benjamin Parker. Are you okay, son?" His smile was kind, and Peyta received a shock of remorse at the name. Shaking it off, he shook his head and shot a smile to Ben.

"Y-yeah." He stuttered slightly. "I'm good. Thanks." Peyta patted his shoulder, walking away, making sure to put a skip in his step. Ben watched the boy jog away, his eyebrows furrowed. He looked almost identical to Richard when he was a teen, but his eyes were like Mary's. But that boy couldn't have been Peter. Peter was gone, and he had been for more than a decade.

---

Ben Parker entered the small apartment in Queens, smiling at his wife, May, who was unpacking styrofoam containers of Thai from their favourite restaurant. Dropping his coat on the coach, he nearly collapsed, groaning.

"Long day?" May called jokingly.

"The longest in a while." He responded, looking at the photos on the wall. A specific one caught his eye. It was a photo of May and Peter, outside of the Stark Expo. Why they kept it, he didn't know.

"May?" He asked tentatively, knowing she didn't like to talk about this topic.

"Yes?"

"When was the last time you thought about Peter?" May pursed her lips, tensing on the knife in her hand.

"Each time I see a boy around his age." She said. Ben sighed, running his hand over his face. May resumed plating their dinner, placing them on the dinner table. He got up, groaning at his sore back and began eating. "Why do you ask?"

This was a dangerous question. Ben knew that. May had been devastated by Peter's disappearance, blaming Tony Stark for years. He was there one moment, chattering away about science and beaming in only the way that Peter could. The next, well, it was a blur now. All Ben could remember was a whirling chaotic crowd as the expo was attacked, and Peter's scream as May lost his hand.

It had been almost eleven years. Peter was six then, almost seven, still chubby cheeked and gap toothed with little freckles dotting his nose where those square rimmed little-kid glasses were perched. He'd have been nearly 18. Ben smiled sadly at the realisation. They missed the golden years, missed seeing Peter grow up. For all they know, he could be dead somewhere, the body of a missing kid reclaimed by the earth years before.

"I... Just saw a kid today who reminded me of him." It was true. The kid from the subway with the big brown eyes and curly brown hair, with the innocent face who looked like his dead brother.

"What?" The skin around May's knuckles whitened as she gripped the fork tightly. May had been hit worst by Peter's disappearance. She had been devastated, missing work for the entire month and joining manhunts with Ben to help find him. May still blamed Tony Stark, even all those years later, while Ben only blamed himself. The cameras had been blown out, so there was no footage. There was no surveillance, no evidence, no contacts, and no trace of Peter.

May stared at her husband, her muscles tense. He gave her an odd look, and she immediately smiled and straightened up. But Ben could tell something was wrong.

"Funny you mention that." She continued, sipping from her glass of water. "Delmar called me yesterday and mentioned that he saw a kid that looked like Peter too. Probably just a coincidence."

Ben smiled weakly, and they continued eating in silence. May couldn't help but look wistfully at the photo frame of her, Ben and Peter, and all the good memories that came with it.