Too Little Too Late

Happy Hogan

At first, the walk had been an angry one. When he was going from his brand-new gym to May's work, he had to go by Stark Tower. Looking at the building reminded him of everything. The good and the bad. And invariably he would think: "What the hell is wrong with you people?". It was still hard to understand more than two years after the civil war. Happy was a simple man with maybe too much of a simple mind to understand a world of superheroes and spies. Those guys had no loyalty if not for themselves. Few people had. Happy wasn't sure that he had been that loyal himself when it mattered the most. During the last months, he was more the bodyguard of Pepper than of Tony. And she had not been that dedicated either.

To think that even the S.I. employees went against Tony was still disturbing to him. They didn't even hide it, talking openly on the corporate chat. Funny enough, the worst of them were all ex-Shield. Tony had not been responsible for the data dumb. He didn't even know about it before it was too late. His boss had worked himself thin in the armour to save the ones in dire situation. Some of those guys were undercover without any escape routes. Without Iron Man they would have been dead. Did it not count anymore? Apparently not. Shield had let them down and still those people were still flocking back to the shadow agency. The ex-agents were all rooting for Captain America. Steve had worked for them, with them. Mainly against them. Shield had not been all Hydra after all. Maybe the captain was easier to manipulate. Tony Stark didn't like the agency. Even or perhaps because it had been partly founded by his father. They had been manipulated by Fury enough times. When the world was in danger, Iron Man had been standing with them.

Why the hell did they all think that Tony had such a big ego? They didn't know the man behind the masks. The real Tony. Not even his friends evidently. The avengers had laughed at Happy when he had said that he was Stark's bodyguard. He had left with the little dignity he had. Tony asked him to watch for Pepper after that. But the sting stayed. He should have known that Captain America and his team were not good. If he had told his boss what he thought back then, would things be the same now?

Now when Happy had to pass by the tower, he was just sad. The world was not a better place without Iron Man and Spiderman. Certainly not safer. Peter had changed a lot during the past eighteen months. Long gone was the cheerful and enthusiastic teenager. The guy who was calling everyday telling him about every little things that would happen in his life. Everybody had a breaking point. Peter had reach his. The young man had been through too much already. Much more than most. His parents died when he was barely six years old. Peter had apparently very few memories of them but that didn't mean it didn't affect him a lot. May and Ben had done a wonderful job raising him. Peter was a very bright and quiet boy. He loved his aunt and uncle with all his heart. During high school, after being bitten by a spider, he had developed some superpowers. Happy knew the boy thought he was responsible for Ben's death. And now he felt responsible somehow for Tony's disappearance.

Happy stayed around to help the kid. Tony had asked him to do it. That was the least he could do. The ex-bodyguard was probably the last person who had seen the billionaire alive. Not that he thought his friend was dead. He actually refused to believe that. When the world is against you, why bother sticking around? If Happy knew anything about his boss, he was probably really depressed and maybe in some kind of depression, spiraling down, but not beat down. Tony was stronger than anybody he knew save from Peter of course. Even the strongest person needed a shoulder to cry on. Problem was that Tony had nobody. His friends were gone and he would never put that much on the kid's shoulders.

After the event of the civil war, the police started to see vigilantes like Spiderman as outlaws. Even if Peter never really used force, choosing instead of roping the bad guys in webbings. For a while Spiderman continued to be the friendly neighbourhood hero. And then, the NYPD shot him, trying to arrest him. Sure, they didn't know that Spiderman was so young but maybe they should have asked questions first and shoot later. Nobody came to his help either. The message had been understood very well. Peter was not wanted anymore. He was never the kind of guy to force himself on anybody.