Imagine If You Assembled The Avengers: Volume 2

Close Your Eyes (Peter Parker)

If you remember this series, you know what happens.  Angst warning.

"Hey, kid, you alright?"

"Mr. Stark..." Peter tried to answer, but his breath wasn't strong enough to carry the sound, his lungs fighting just to stay open. "I'm...sorry. I...I screwed up." He dropped his head back onto the hard ground beneath him when he couldn't hold it anymore, feeling the wash of nothingness begin to spread from his toes and up into his legs, pressing a dull weight onto his abdomen, and into his chest, where it would finally take the last taste of air that he would ever have. Before his eyes closed, he had one last glimpse of Iron Man hurrying towards him, but that wasn't who he had yearned for in his final moment.

Tony approached Peter's frighteningly still form slowly at first, but when FRIDAY urged him to move faster, he broke free of his suit and out into a stumbling run only to fall to his knees at the young man's side. He gave a few apprehensive shakes to his arm, more frantic with each attempt, but still received nothing in response. "Kid? Pete?"

You had been on the farthest side of the battle from where Tony had found Peter, making a last-ditch effort to stop Steve and Bucky from taking the quinjet along with Nat. You knew that once Tony caught wind of the fact that the two of you actually helped rather than stopping them, you would never hear the end of it, and you would have to be ready to go on the run. Peter wouldn't be likely to go along with it, being so sickeningly attached to Stark as his new mentor, in addition to the fact that he was still living under May's roof and a sudden disappearance wouldn't go unnoticed.

"So where do you think you'll run to?" you asked Natasha with a sigh, the two of you looking out over the disaster laden tarmac together. "I'm thinking anywhere that's the farthest point from Stark. He's gonna be so pissed, Nat."

"You want me to cover for you? It was my idea. I can tell him that I coerced you."

"Except that T'Challa is probably calling Ross as we speak, and he's not likely to forget that I zapped him any time soon. I was the one with that unfortunate shot, remember?"

"Right," she cringed, "I'm surprised that he was walking straight. Even I felt that one, and I don't have a-"

"Hey, what's going on over there?" you interrupted, seeing a group gathering beneath one of the destroyed planes, with Tony crouched over someone. A bright red foot peeked out just past him, and it wasn't moving; your heart hit your stomach when your mind caught up and began to piece it all together. You broke into a sprint in their direction, with Nat following close behind. The closer that you got to the group, the more of Peter you saw lying on the ground, and your fear had almost robbed you of the control of your body. When you reached his side and dropped to the ground, you had practically collapsed in exhaustion and terror.

"Pete?"

"(Y/N)," Tony interrupted softly, his own voice splintered and weak. "(Y/N), we need to move so the emergency crew can get in to work."

You gave Peter a firm shake of his arm first, still saying his name with each attempt, until you were practically screaming in his face, only to be met with his gray, expressionless and unmoving response. All you wanted was a blink, or a murmur of his voice, but it began to become a reality to you that you would never have either.

"Come on, (Y/N)," Tony tried again, making the mistake of reaching out to you. You slapped his hand away ferociously with a crack of a hit against his skin that made Nat wince for him. "(Y/N)-"

"Stop saying my name," you growled.

"It was an accident."

"You said that you would protect him," you continued, your tone growing colder, "and that he wouldn't have to fight like this."

"I didn't mean for this to happen."

"He wasn't ready. He had no business here, and I told him not to come, but for some stupid goddamn reason he needed to impress you. What are you going to tell May? What do you think that you can say to make her understand this?" Your anger began to boil and your vision was clouded with a haze of red in everything that you looked at, but nothing more than Tony's face. You stood and pushed against his chest with a slam of your fists, knocking him back a step. It felt so good to do that you gave him another, and another, and he willingly allowed it until Natasha finally stepped in to grab your arms and hold you from him.

"(Y/N), calm down," she urged, "you don't want this kind of attention."

"I don't care!"

"Yes, you do," she answered suggestively, trying to remind you of where you were and what you had just done. "Let's just step out of the way and talk about this, okay?"

"No, let's not," you spat, yanking your arms from her grip. "You know what, Tony? I let Steve and Bucky go. I shot at T'Challa to hold him back until they could get into the jet and get away and I would do it again without a second thought, because if this is what it means to be on Team Tony, then I want nothing to do with it."

"Fine! I don't want you on it anyway," he retorted, now that you had fueled the anger that pushed from beneath his grief. It was his comfort zone, and he welcomed the chance to use it because he had no idea what to do with this kind of pain. He pushed himself closer to you, eyes filled with his rage and his fists clenched at his sides ready to strike; he wouldn't take the first swing, but he was more than ready to take the second. He was more than ready until the hit you took was the only one he couldn't reciprocate.

"You killed him," you spoke quietly, "and you could have stopped this whole thing, but you didn't. Because you can't stand to lose. But tell me what you've won, Tony." You shocked him by reaching out and grabbing his chin, turning his head with a jolt to make him look at his lifeless teammate as the emergency team covered him to take him away. "Tell me what you've won that's worth this. What could be worth everything that you've lost, Tony?"

He didn't even try to pull away from your grip that pinched at his skin, his bravado stripped away from him at your touch. Peter was just a kid who wanted to impress his new mentor, and Tony didn't once stop to think about what that really meant. In this whole mess that was swirling around them all, he never stopped to think. He just never stopped.

Tony finally took your hand and pulled it away, but he didn't release you; instead, he held it tighter and waited for you to look at him, to see the redness building around the rims of his eyes and the first hint of tears wetting his lashes. He wanted you to be the first to see it, because Pete had been the first to make him realize that he knew the answer to your question the whole time.

"Nothing, (Y/N)."