(Peter Parker x reader) Romeo and Juliet

64: 5 Year's Time

(5 years later) 

Peter's twenty first birthday came and went. I celebrated it the way I did every year, putting his Hello Kitty pj bottoms on and watching the old videos from my old suit.

The compound was completely empty now. No one lived here. Just me and Tasha. We did our own thing, often having conferences with Carol and a Rocket. Rhodes phoned in occasionally, and Steve visited here some times. Rocket liked to show up randomly and surprise me, and we'd go down to Tony's old garage and talk. Plan his next mission. Whatever we wanted to do.

Tony moved out four years ago, after he and Pepper got married. They moved to a lovely cabin home quite a ways from the Compound, and had a daughter. Morgan.

I would drive out to see her. Me and Tasha both would. Mostly me; Tasha was too busy sometimes. Me and Morgan often played in the backyard, where she had a tent. I told her stories about when her daddy was becoming IronMan, and when he and I fought side-by-side on Titan. Of course, I didn't tell her everything. She was only five.

I told her about Peter once. She had asked me about him because she found a picture Tony put up in the kitchen, of him and Peter. I couldn't look at that photo for a few years. Now I made a point to see it every time I visited.

When Morgan and I weren't playing in the backyard, I was in the garage with Tony. We reminisced and got drunk and whatnot. It was simple. Life was oddly simple.

I'd go home for Peter's birthday every year. Tony spent it in his garage, drinking and sad. I spent it in my room, in his goofy pj bottoms and sad.

The videos made me cry every year.

"How many times do you plan to do this?" Tasha whispered from the doorway.

I looked up from the video, wiping the stray tear off my cheek. "Every year, that's uh..that's my plan."

Tasha folded her arms, giving me a sad smile. Her hair had grown out, the blonde fading back to red. She had it braided. "Want to come sit with me? We'll make a cupcake for him."

I returned her sad smile. "Sure. I'd love to." I stood up, walking past Tasha out the door. As I passed her she wrapped her arms around my middle, resting her chin on my shoulder. "I'm sorry Angel." 

I'd begun, very slowly, to let people call me Angel as a name, instead of a nickname. I couldn't sometimes because I couldn't connect it to the Red Room, I could only hear Peter's voice calling me that sweetly.

We walked like this down the hall to the kitchen. In the kitchen, Tasha and I made cupcakes. I frosted one carefully while she made herself a PB&J sandwich. Then we headed for her office.

I sat where I always sat; on the plushy pouf next to the desk. Tasha had put it there for me when I decided to hang out with her in her office.

Rocket, Carol, and Rhodes all called in for the conference call. So Tasha didn't just want me to sit with her for no reason, she apparently wanted me to see people.

"Yeah we boarded that highly suspected warship Danvers pinioned. It was an infectious garbage scowl."

I gave Tasha a discrete raised eyebrow look behind my cupcake as the alien dude talked.

"So thanks for the hot tip."

"Yeah, well you were closer," Tasha said with a shrug.

"Yeah. And now we smell like garbage."

"You get a reading on those tremors?" Tasha said, folding her arms.

"It was a mild subduction under the African plate," Rhodes answered.