The Wind Feels Nice

"Where's Peter?"

Peter was never very sure about how anything happened. The whole day was a sort of haze. He can't ever seem to piece everything together. Or maybe he just refuses to.

Peter knows nothing was his fault, he also knows how incredibly lucky he was to be a part of that half of the population to survive. Despite this, he can't help but think the opposite.

For five years he blamed himself for Thanos getting away. He blamed himself for not being able to pull the gauntlet away fast enough. Blamed himself for not being strong enough to pull the gauntlet out of Thanos' grasp. He never viewed himself as being lucky to survive. How could he? How could he be the lucky one when all his life, he's been the opposite? This just seems to add to that list.

Nothing went according to plan. He was supposed to go to college with MJ and Ned. He was supposed to go to MIT with them. He was going to come back and visit Aunt May during breaks. He was supposed to get a good job to support her. So she'd never had to struggle for money as she did after his uncle's passing. He had a plan. He was going to ask MJ out. Hopefully, she'd say yes, and they'd date for the rest of High School and then go to MIT together.

But none of that happened. Instead, he stayed alive. He got to finish high school and got into MIT as planned. Only he was alone. There weren't any tearful goodbyes from his Aunt May as he left for college. He didn't get to room with Ned at MIT. He didn't get to ask MJ out. Because he survived. He got lucky, and they didn't.

Peter wasn't completely alone though. He, of course, had Mr. Stark, and the rest of the Avengers. At least the ones that lived.

It was hard. And it took a long time for him to recover. He doubts he's even fully recovered, or that he ever will. May was his last living relative. And MJ and Ned were his best friends. How could he possibly live without them?

He did. Barely. But not on his own. The Avengers were somehow able to lessen that ache in his heart. There were two Avengers, aside from Stark, that helped him the most. Those two are none other than Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton. Both lost those in their own family. Clint lost his kids and wife while Natasha lost her sister Yelena (and Clint's family by extension). They only had each other and had no problem adding Peter to their little duo, making them a trio.

All three lost what was left of their families outside of the Avengers.

Peter did finish school at Midtown High and later went on to attend MIT as he had originally planned. And along every step of the way, Natasha, Clint, and Tony were there. And vice versa.

Peter was there when Pepper gave birth to Morgan. He was there when Tony would panic about being a father. He was there whenever Clint reached an all-time low and unknowingly helped prevent him from ever becoming the Ronin. Peter was there whenever Natasha needed reassurance after a particularly bad nightmare about the Red Room.

The three became close. They trusted one another. Clint and Natasha would do anything for the kid. Just like he would do anything for them.

Which leads to the current issue.

Peter at 21 soon to be 22 has a Bachelor's degree in Bioengineering and is on his way to getting a Master's.

He chooses to spend that summer break at Tony's lake house when Scott (or Ant-Man which was super cool in Peter's mind) and the other remaining Avengers approached Tony with the idea of time travel.

Tony thought it was crazy, but Peter disagreed. The young adult kept pushing for the older to reconsider. And after a lot of guilt-tripping he did. Tony successfully invented time travel. Now all that was left was to divide everyone into teams to retrieve the Infinity stones.