(Peter Parker x reader) Romeo and Juliet

60: You Weren't There

Tony sat in a wheelchair, tubes hooked up to him, and his shirt open to show his arc reactor. His fingers shook where they rested, on the arm of the wheelchair and the clear tube attached to his arm.

I sat at the table, doing nothing, just resting.

Steve and Tony and Tasha were discussing Thanos. We knew we had to find him, wherever he was. We have to get the stones, they kept saying. Fix this.

I was busy watching Thor. He sat by himself in the next room over.

"What's wrong with him?" Tony asked, gesturing to him.

"He's pissed." Looking at the floor, I saw that raccoon. He wasn't a hallucination, he was real. Both Tony and I were looking at him in a mix of awe and horror. "He thinks he failed. Which of course he did, but there's a lot of that goin' around, ain't there?" The raccoon said.

I felt my eyes going wide. I couldn't fight a smile; he was cute.

"Honestly, at this exact second, I thought you were a Build-A-Bear." Tony pointed to the raccoon.

The raccoon shrugged easily. "Maybe I am."

"We've been hunting Thanos for three weeks now," Rhodey said, "deep space scans, and satellites, we've got nothing."

"Tony, you fought him-" Steve began. I wish I could've warned him not to say anything about it.

"Who told you that?" Tony cut him off. I could see, everyone could see, that he was agitated. "Didn't fight him. No. He wiped my face with a planet while a Bleecker Street magician gave away the stone," Tony continued in an edgy tone. "That's what happened. There was no fight."

"Okay, did he give you any clues? Any coordinates, anything?"

"Pfft! I saw this coming a few years back. I had a vision. I didn't want to believe it. I thought I was dreaming," Tony went on. He was pissed, I could see.

"Tony, I'm gonna need you to focus." Steve tried to get his attention.

Tasha and I shared worried looks.

"And I needed you," Tony snapped. "As in past tense. That trumps what you need. It's too late, buddy. Sorry. You know what I need? I need a shave."

I covered my eyes with my hands. I didn't want to sit here and listen to this.

The raccoon was beginning to look concerned.

"And I remember telling you, that what we otherwise needed, was a suit of armor around the world," Tony waved his hands around his head slowly, drawing a circle in the air. "Remember that? Whether it impacted our precious freedoms, or not. That's what we needed."

"Well that didn't work, did it?"

"I said we'd lose. You said 'we'll do that together, too.' Well guess what, Cap? We lost," Tony said, his lip curled. "You weren't there."

Steve was looking hurt. Very hurt. His eyebrows, previously furrowed, relaxed, but in a pained expression as he listened to Tony. Hearing Tony say this to Steve was making me feel better. I felt that Steve honestly needed to hear this. Even if I had agreed with Steve in the beginning...about the Sokovia Accords....Tony didn't deserve any of what happened to him after. Steve didn't either. No one did, and yet, here we were. 

"But that's what we do, right? Our best work after the fact? We're the Avengers. We're the Avengers? Not the Prevengers?" Tony wheeled the chair closer to Steve with a maniacal look. He struggled to stand.

"Okay, you've made your point, just sit down, okay?" Steve tried to get Tony back into his wheelchair, which he'd risen from rather shakily.

"No, no. Here's my-" he pointed to Space Lady. "She's great, by the way."

"Tony, sit, sit down!"

Tony didn't. "We needed you. You're new blood. Bunch of tired old mills....I've got nothing for you, Cap. I've got no coordinates, no clues, no strategies, no options. Zero, zip, nada. No trust." Tony clawed at his arc reactor, tearing it free from his chest in his shaky hands. He trapped Steve's wrist in his fingers, forcing his hand open and shoving the arc reactor into his palm. "Here, take this, you find him, and you put it on. You hide." And he fell to the floor.

"Tony!" Steve reached down for him. I jumped up out of my seat, rushing over to where Tony lay on the floor.

"I'm fine, I-" and Tony passed out.

"Bruce gave him a sedative," Space Lady said. "He's gonna probably be out for the rest of the day. You guys take care of him."

I closed the door to Tony's room just as Space Lady started walking away.

"Where are you going?" Steve and I both asked.

She didn't even turn around. "To kill Thanos."

I immediately followed after her, my arm on Steve's to keep him back. "Hey," I said. "We usually work as a team, here."

"And between you and I, we're also a little fragile." Tasha folded her arms. 

"We realize up there is more your territory, but this is our fight. You even know where he is?" Steve asked.

"I know people who might," Space Lady answered.

"Don't bother," Nebula cut in.

We all looked at her.

"I can tell you where Thanos is." As usual, she looked like she was pouting, and she didn't make any eye contact. "Thanos spent a long time trying to perfect me. And when he worked, he talked about his great plan." She said the last words exaggeratedly. "Even dissembled, I wanted to please him. I'd ask, where would we go once his great plan was complete? His answer was always the same," Nebula said softly. "To The Garden."

"That's cute," Rhodey muttered. "Thanos has a retirement plan."

"So where is he, then?" Steve asked.

Nebula looked up at him. The look she gave him gave me goosebumps, and I knew, the answer wasn't pretty.