A Slice Of Life, Death And Everything In-Between

Two Stars In A Field Of Black (Together)

Prompt by @losingmymindtonight: I dare you to kill Peter AND Tony. Bonus points if Pete dies first so Tony dies knowing he lived in a world with his kid dead, if only briefly!!!

Disclaimer: I do not own Spider-Man or any related materials.

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The thing about nightmares is that, not matter how scary they seem or how long they last, you can always wake up from them.

For Tony, though, there is no waking up from this.

Peter—his son, his baby—lays limp against the ground, his head still bleeding from where Thanos had smashed him with a rock, had thrown him into the ground again and again and again. . .

Tony feels bile bubble up his throat, spill from his bleeding lips onto his chin and drip down his neck but he doesn't care, can't even make himself think about anything but getting to his kid.

He crawls slowly—too slowly, the red and dusty world spinning around him—toward the still boy, the pleads exploding from his mouth without thought as the Titan laughs in the background.

"Need some help there, Stark?" Thanos asks, reaching down and picking up the superhero like a baby. "Wouldn't want the little itsy spider to feel cold, would we?"

Tony doesn't even respond, doesn't take his burning eyes off of his kiddo as the Titan throws him down beside the boy. The genius feels something crack in his chest, a pain so sharp sliding down his leg that it makes his world go gray, but that is nothing—absolutely nothing—compared to the pure agony that flares through his body at the feeling of his little boy's cold body against his own.

And as Thanos looms above him, as the billionaire leans down to place a trembling kiss against Peter's blood stained and matted hair, curling his body around the still and ice cold one in his arms, Tony knows that he doesn't want to wake up from this, doesn't want to face any more of the cruel world without his son's bright smile and laugh to fill up the ever pressing darkness.

He had already felt that for far too long as it was, he knows he cannot bare even a mere second more. It would eat him away, rot his insides into a shell of death and melted happiness.

When Thanos raises one purple fist, the meaty hand blocking out the muted sunlight, Tony doesn't even flinch out of the way. He takes each blow with a grin that grows wider with each passing second, with each hit that continues to shatter his bones and tear through muscles.

Because, as the darkness that clouds his vision grows and grows, Tony knows that he is going to see his son again.

Only one second more.

A strike. Stars explode across the sky, colliding and shaping two new points of light that streak across the atmosphere.

Finally.