Into the Light | Peter Parker x OC

Chapter Forty

A/N: helloo

still feeling under the weather mentally unfortunately :// a lot more lately than usual but this too shall pass ig. why is taking care of mental health so damn hard ugh

anyway, this chapter is fluffy, sexy, funny, and suspenseful so i'd say it's a pretty decent concoction. enjoy!

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"Was that Happy in a nightcap?"

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"Not hungry?" the man asked as he sat down in front of the boy after noticing that his meal was untouched. The boy, despite looking too thin and starved, shook his head. The man almost smiled.

They were sitting on the trunk of what used to be a very large and tall tree whose branches seemed to reach for the sky. But now, it was merely an insignificantly large, blackened stump among a forest of many other burnt stumps just like it.

"Starving yourself will not solve your problems," he said gently, and he slowly pushed the food towards him, "Eat."

The boy looked at him from under the hoods of his sunken eyes before looking away at the dry dirt beneath his feet again. The man carefully studied him for a moment.

"Who do you miss?" he asked.

"No one. I had no one," the boy said quietly as he continued to stare at the dirt. It was much easier to talk to as it didn't have eyes that would look at him in pity as most would. Yet, he dared to lift his gaze from the ground to meet the eyes of the stranger sitting across from him. To his surprise, there wasn't pity in his eyes. He saw...respect?

No one had ever looked at him with respect.

"We all have no one," the man said, "But we always have ourselves."

The boy studied his face for a moment before the man pushed the food forward once again.

"Eat," he said again.

This time, the boy dug into the meat without hesitation. When the savory taste touched his mouth, his body warmed. The food quickly filled his stomach until he wasn't famished anymore. It had been a long time since he had had a hot meal like this. An unproportioned meal seemed to taste so much sweeter and his stomach wasn't left with a longing for more for the first time in ages.

"You know what the best way to begin a new life is, my child?" the man asked with a small smile. The boy looked up at him to meet his eyes and then slowly shook his head. "A name defines a man in many ways. Changing a name is equivalent to changing a life."

"But...I..." the boy scrambled for words, not sure how to tell the man that he didn't know how to change his name.

The man stood up.

Only then, did the boy remember just how tall he was. He stood firmly like an old tree that had declared its place in the woods. And there seemed to be something about his gaze that made it impossible to look away. The man was a monument when he was standing and he silently demanded attention.

"As of this moment henceforth, your name is Griffin. And, someday, you will rise up to its meaning," the man said.

And that was when Griffin knew, this man was going to help him start his new life.

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After the wedding, Tony and Pepper had left for their honeymoon in the Maldives for two weeks, leaving her alone at the Tower.