Fluff, angst & everything in between | Spider-man One-shots

Missing you comes in waves, and tonight I'm drowning {3}

The first thing Tony thinks is that he's finally gone insane.

The second is that he finally drank enough that he's getting hallucinations.

The third is -HOLY CHEESE AND SPRINKLES!!??!!?

He stares at empty air, his mind not comprehending what his ears heard.

He reaches out, and nearly jumps out of his skin when he feels soft curls underneath his hand. 

"Hey Mr. Stark," the empty air with the soft curly hair goes.

"Peter, how, wha- Is it really you!?!" Mr Stark keeps his hand on the curls, running his fingers through what looks like empty air. 

"Yeah, it's me Mr.Stark." He sounds sad and empty and Tony thinks he's in shock. 

"Bu-but you were- you are, you're- you're dead." He finally chokes out.

"Yeah, I guess I am, but at the same time... I'm not..I'm just... here," He hums, and it's just so Peter that the dam finally breaks and Tony chokes on a sob, tears trailing down his face.

"Mr.Stark, please don't cry, I'm- you see this is a good thing, you can't, I can't get you killed now, I'm a curse and now that I'm dead, you're safe!!" Tony can feel Peter's arms go around him as his knees buckle and he clings to his kid with all he is, and buries his face in his hair. 

The hair he can't see. 

Because his kid is dead.

And yet he's here.

And is as self-sacrificing and as big a guilt complex as ever.

Through his sobs, Tony leans back and cups where Peter face should be, trying to stare into his eyes, trying to not think about the empty air that is all he sees where his baby's big brown doe-eyes should be. 

"Don't you ever say that, you Peter Parker are not a curse, you are the best thing that has ever happened to me. Your family's deaths were not your fault. You wouldn't have gotten me killed." 

It was your death that killed me anyways...

Tony can feel tears of Peter's own trailing down and soaking into the bandages on his hands, and he leans forward and kisses where Peter's forehead should be. He hugs his kid close, determined to help Peter however he can. Wether if there's some way he can bring him back, to his body.... or to help give him peace and let him move on...

Tony doesn't want to think about that.

-----

Tony wakes up in his bed with a jolt, sweat making his shirt stick to his skin. He runs a hand through his hair and looks around. Pepper is sound asleep beside him. After he could have sworn he heard Peter's voice yesterday, he had asked Friday to scan the room but no one was there but him. Pepper had arrived soon after to the lab to pull him out for dinner, and he didn't mention the voice to her. It was just the alcohol. 

It was just the alcohol. That's all it was.

After dinner he had avoided going to his lab like it was the plague and gone to bed early. 

Today he had dived into paperwork and meetings and Pepper knew something was up with him, especially since he willing went to the meetings and he HATED those, but sensed he wasn't ready to talk about it yet. Instead he settled in for a cozy movie night evening with Pepper. 

They settled down to watch a movie, but Tony couldn't have told you what it was about. The dream was always on the edge of his thoughts, pricking at his mind. It wouldn't leave him alone. 

Pepper was curled up next to him, and he had an arm wrapped around her shoulders. He laid his head on hers, and breathed in her scent, instantly calming him. But then it made him think of the first time Peter hugged Pepper, and he had in a moment of surprise asked her why she smelled so good. He had immediately blushed and gone red int he face and Tony couldn't stop laughing. There were down sides to enhanced senses. Pepper had been flustered but then amused, and they had never let Peter live it down. 

Tonys mood darkened when he remembered he would never get to tease him about it again.

Never get to have a new happy memory of Peter to look back upon.

When the movie ended, and Pepper went upstairs to bed, Tony stayed there on the couch for a while longer. The tv screen was off and he sat in darkness, the absence of light somehow comforting. 

He was quiet as he let his brain meander and mindlessly run through several ideas and projects he wanted to start or were working on, and almost on autopilot he headed down to his lab. 

It was only when Friday's voice greeted him that he realized where he was.

Blinking against the sharp light, he took a step forward into the lab. Then another. He made his way to his desk and sat down, resting his palms on the cool surface. 

You're fine. You're okay. It was just a dream.

He looked over on habit at Peters desk and sighed. Then went to work on one of his projects, trying to drown out the thoughts in his brain. Something was niggling there, at the back of his brain, like something was off, but he couldn't put his finger on it. After several hours, honestly he couldn't tell you how much time had passed, his head snapped up as his mind had finally put the pieces together.

In one swift motion he was up and over to Peter's desk and his heart was racing, because it couldn't possibly be, no way-

But there it was. 

Peter had been working on a new version of his web shooters when he died. They hadn't been completed yet, with the parts he needed spread around his desk half-hazardly, and the shooters themselves open to the mechanisms inside them. But here they were. Finished. Whole. 

He rested his hand against the desk and slowly, carefully picked up the web shooter, disbelief still fresh in his mind. He test shot it. Fully functional. 

It wasn't possible. 

It was impossible!?!

No one expect Tony had known he was working on them. Much less anyone else could have completed them besides himself. He set them down like it had burned him. 

It didn't make sense. 

He could feel his chest getting tight, and it was becoming harder to breathe, he knew a panic attack was coming. He stumbled backwards away from the desk, his feet tripping on themselves, and he fell to the floor. 

His head in his hands, his mind spinning, it's not possible. 

And then Peters web shooters land right in front of him. His head jerks up in surprise but there's nobody else in the lab. He watches in numb shock as the shooters are picked up again and a string of web shoots across the room. 

He watches, not moving, as more web gets shot around the room, that eventually spell out a sentence. 

HI TONY!! IM A GHOST!! AND ITS NOT AS FUN AS I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE!?!!?!??!

Exclamation and question marks included. 

(1,181 words)

I have no idea what's happening anymore. That last part is inspired by my siblings. I had no idea where to go on with this and then my sibs just turned on the lightbulb for me. xp