young avengers → infinity war & endgame [p. parker]

THE SOUL WORLD: ONE

"Tragedies don't define us. It's how we pick ourselves up from them that does."

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THE SOUL WORLD

QUEENS, NEW YORK

"Pete, honey? Are you ready yet?" May Parker had tried to figure out how to approach her nephew about this situation. She didn't find it fair that they always found themselves in these situations, especially not fair for a sixteen year old boy. If for some people one funeral is hard enough, imagine having to have gone through three in such a short timeframe.

Slightly opening Peter's bedroom door, May noticed her nephew fiddling around with the tie in his hands. "I-um, I still don't know how to put on a tie." May gently took the tie from his hands, her heart breaking a bit as she heard the crack in Peter's voice. Wrapping the tie around the collar of his shirt, May's mind went back to not so long ago when she was helping Peter practice how to do this just before junior prom came around. That is what Peter should have been getting dressed up for: not for the funeral of all the fallen heroes. "Peter, you know you don't--"

"No, Aunt May, I do have to go. I promised Mr. Stark and Mr. Casillas that I would be there. What kind of person would I be if... I didn't go to her funeral?" It had been a couple of weeks since Thanos seemingly wiped half of the universe out, yet it felt like it had been years. Peter guessed it was because that's how it felt to have someone you considered to be your other half ripped away from you. He still remembers everything so vividly, from feeling her hand fall apart in his own to Nebula piloting him and Tony back to Earth in complete silence. There wasn't a single person who didn't lose someone that day. But they all still had yet to figure out what to do, there had to be something they could do.

"I know you did, just like I know you want to honor Valeria. I'm just... worried." May had withheld her true feelings about what her nephew's superhero persona, mostly because he had accepted her conditions for the most part, but it was times like this where she wished she had just burned his suit and moved from Queens. "You've had to go to two funerals of people you once loved and you're about to go to another one, Peter! And you're just almost going to be 17 years old. That isn't fair for you, I don't know what I'm doing wrong but--"

With that, Peter rose from where he sat and brought his hands to rest on his aunt's shoulders, giving them a light squeeze. "No, Aunt May, you aren't doing anything wrong. You didn't even have to do anything in the first place, yet you and Uncle Ben took me in and raised me. Then what happened to Uncle Ben... if anything May, this all isn't fair to you. Having to deal with the loss of Ben and with me doing what I do-- I'm s-s-so sorry." May immediately closed the gap between them right as Peter's voice began to break, fighting back her own tears as she felt his own fall on her shoulders.