Imagine If You Assembled The Avengers: Volume 2

The Tangled Webs We Weave (Peter Parker x reader)

You leaned your head onto Peter's shoulder as you both stood silently, your arm linked through his, standing so close to each other that your black attire blended together to make you look as if you were one. A few raindrops began to gently fall and settle in your hair, signaling that it was time for you to go; you gave a gentle tug against his arm and heard him sniffle quietly, his voice failing him completely. He only gave you a small nod and turned, releasing your arm and sliding his hand down into yours, intertwining your fingers so tightly that you began to lose sensation in them.

"I can stay a while if you need me to," you whispered, walking back to the car under the building rainfall and clouds that muted the light around you, making the mood feel heavier than it already was.

"I need you to."

~~~

Several hours and numerous boxes of Kleenex later, your eyes popped open and a brief wave of disorientation hit you, waking with a startle from your unplanned nap. You looked down to see Peter's head still resting in your lap, your fingers of one hand gently woven into his hair, the other holding his hand as he continued to sleep. You tiredly leaned your head back against the couch again with a yawn, but his frantic jerk awake scared you into full alertness.

"Gwen!" he screamed in a full panic, sitting up with his eyes still closed and reaching out to nothing.

"Pete! Wake up!" you begged with a shake, trying to get him to look at you. "You're okay, honey. Just wake up."

"I...I couldn't catch...I couldn't reach..." he panted, finally opening his eyes. The pain in them stabbed at your chest and renewed a fresh wave of tears in your eyes for your best friend. "(Y/N)? You're here," he sighed, grabbing you into a crushing hug. "Don't leave me. Please, (Y/N), don't ever leave me."

"I'm right here, Pete." After the recent events and the loss that you were both feeling so acutely, you knew that you couldn't promise him that you would always be there, and he couldn't promise it to you either. All you could do was reassure him that you were with him now and that you would stay for as long as he needed you to. "I'm here."

~~~

The next time your eyes opened, it was 6am. You were still on the couch with your neck now so sore from the awkward sleeping position that you weren't sure if you would be able to move. You could feel that Peter was still strewn over you, and you could hear his soft snores of a finally content slumber. Gently sliding him from atop you, you were able to slowly move yourself from the couch and quietly into the kitchen, searching the drawers desperately for something to take the aching pain away. A few acetaminophen and a good stretch later, you decided to make breakfast for the two of you, remembering that you hadn't eaten since early the day before.

"Yeah, this is gonna be interesting," you mumbled to yourself as you scoured the almost empty refrigerator and cupboards for anything that resembled breakfast food. You were able to scrounge up a few slices of bacon, one tiny egg, some random vegetables and two left over tortilla wraps to make as close to a breakfast burrito as you were going to get.

"Woah, (Y/N), you're making breakfast?"

"Yes, (Y/N) can cook," you chuckled softly, turning to greet him with a hug and a kiss to his cheek. "You slept, I see?"

"A little, yeah." He hopped up onto the countertop next to you, watching eagerly as you cooked. "I didn't think you'd stay all night."

"You had me pinned down."

"Sorry," Peter yawned, swinging his feet thoughtlessly, his heels tapping against the drawers below him. "You could've pushed me off, ya know. Never stopped you before."

You leaned over and nudged him with your shoulder, grabbing the spatula from behind him and slapping it gently against his leg, "you looked so peaceful, I just couldn't do it. I wasn't sure if you'd sleep at all."

He sat silently for several minutes, watching you scramble the one sorry little egg, adding the bacon and vegetables before pointing at the cabinets on the other side of the room. With a few flicks of his wrists, he opened the cabinet doors and pulled out two plates and two glasses, setting them next to you with a wide smile. "Anything else?"

"Yeah, you have any salsa? Hot sauce? Anything? I'm working with really limited resources here, Pete."

"Give a kid a break, would ya? I've been a little busy, in case you hadn't noticed. Hitting the market wasn't really a priority." Another few wrist movements and the refrigerator door opened so he could grab a few packets of random taco sauce, flinging them onto the table. "Taco Bell or bust, baby. Best I can do."

~~~

In the several months since Gwen's death, things had begun to return to some semblance of normalcy, with Peter needing you a little less with each passing week. You had all but moved in to be close to him for the first month, gradually separating yourself so that he could find his own ways to cope. He threw himself into his work so much that you had barely seen him in the past few days and you were beginning to worry that he was using it too much as a distraction rather than facing his pain.

"Hey, hot stuff," he laughed, slinging a web around your waist to pull you up from the sidewalk below and next to him on the roof of your house as you arrived. "Thought maybe I'd pick you up for dinner?"

"Someone sounds awful chipper today," you smiled, holding your arms up so that he could remove the webbing from your clothes. "Something happen?"

"I had an epiphany, but not so fast! First, we eat." He took a few steps up the angle of the roof and reached over the peak, pulling a large picnic basket to your side. "Hungry?"

"So when you said pick me up for dinner you meant 'up' literally," you laughed, reaching out to help him secure the blanket to the rooftop and lay out the food that he had brought. "So what do we have here, Mr. Parker?"

"Um, well, it's not exactly anything fancy..."

You pulled out a bag, almost timidly opening the top to peek inside, "Burger King?"

"It was that or Taco Bell! I had that yesterday."

"I can see that maybe I should stop by and cook more often," you mumbled under your breath, removing the rest of the food and laying it out on the blanket in front of you.

"I would like that," he said quietly with a small clearing of his throat. "I mean...it would be nice of you to do that. Not that I only want to see you so you can cook for me, that's not it at all. I love to watch you cook. I mean...I want you to come over more often so I can see you. Not that you have to just because I miss you. Um...I don't miss you, per se, I just...oh, come on..." he groaned, his body looking defeated and his expression now one of complete embarrassment.

"Pete, what's going on?"

"I like you, (Y/N)."

"I like you too."

"No, I like you. I didn't think that I would be able to get to this place again after...after Gwen, ya know?" he explained, appearing more energized and shifting to sit closer to you. "But the more time we spent together, the more I began to feel things and the more ways that I saw you differently. I've been trying to stay away for a few days to see if those feelings changed, but they only got stronger. I just really, really...like you."

"I was wondering why you bought the big french fries," you smirked skeptically, doing your best to break his tension by holding the box up for him as he began to laugh out loud, grabbing his stomach and rolling onto his back.

"Oh, God, (Y/N), you're too much! You know all of my methods! I'm doomed-" he stopped, his words cut off when you leaned over him and pressed your lips to his. When you pulled back, his eyes were alight with excitement and a giddiness that you hadn't seen from him in far too long. It made you happy that you could bring this to him again and make him feel like there was hope of something more. "Maybe doomed is a poor choice of words," he sighed, tossing the fries aside and spilling them down the angle of the roof.

"Hey, you just spilled your only selling point, Parker."

"Aaand just like that," he groaned, "we're back to doomed."