The Spider and The Flame (Peter Parker)

Part 19- Devastation

Ash's POV
Just after the fire...

Clint wraps his arms around me as Steve and I enter the jet. I flinch, not knowing if my skin is still hot enough to burn him.

"How are you, Ash?" Clint asks, disconnecting from the hug.

"I, uhh" I mumble. Thinking about everything that's happened, I'm really not in a good place. I nearly killed Peter, and I don't know if he's going to be okay. I'm such a terrible person for everything I've done to him, and the worst part is that he thinks I don't care. Soon enough he'll see the video and hear the things that Nat made me say, and hate me forever.

Only I know how I really feel, and it's a secret I'll have to take with me to the grave. This is what's best for both of us, Peter deserves the world and I can only give him the smallest piece of it. What hurts the most is knowing that he truly did love me and yet I was still able to walk away.

The love that we cannot have is the one that lasts the longest, hurts the deepest, and feels the strongest. It's the sad truth and we're bound to live by it.

"I'm fine." I answer, walking off to find a seat. Steve sits down beside me and Clint returns to fly the jet.

"Where's everyone else? Wanda? Bucky?" I look around the jet, finding it very much empty. I don't really care that no one came to rescue me, I'm really just trying to make conversation to distract myself from the wreck I've just caused.

"Waiting for us." Steve simply replies. We take off into the sky, leaving the Avengers facility and everyone behind.

-

A jolt startles me to wake, and I finally realize that I fell asleep. I lift my head from Steve's shoulder and yawn.

"Hey, sleepyhead." He chuckles. "Feeling any better?"

"Better?" I ask.

"After everything that happened. I know it was hard for you."

"I'm fine, Steve. Please don't ask about it." I sigh. I rub my eyes with my fists.

"Well, we're here. I guess this conversation is cut short anyways." Steve unbuckles his seatbelt and stands. He holds a hand out for me and I take it.

"Where are we anyway? Is this where we're staying?" I blink my eyes as the door opens, trying to adjust to the light.

"Yeah, we're staying here." Steve chuckles. He steps out the door and I follow him. "Welcome to Brooklyn." He exclaims, holding his hands up in the air.

-

The small apartment rooms that we all share are cold and unfinished. I know that we're all fugitives, on the run from the government, but with all of the lavish things I got from Stark I'm just stunned by the sudden change. I was living in a fairytale, but now I've been aggressively shoved back into reality.

Wanda has been very welcoming, but she knows that something is up with me. I'm not exactly good at hiding how distressed I am. I've been sitting in the room Wanda and I share for two days, and I've hardly moved or spoken.

"Ash?" Clint opens the door and raises his eyebrows at me. I'm sat on the floor in the corner of the room, under the only window in the apartment. The window is covered with blinds for our "safety", and it really has me missing the floor to ceiling windows in Stark's place.