💕Better Off As Lovers💕 (peter parker x reader)

part 8

A/N: this is the last chapter of the series! thank you so much for sticking it out till the end. I hope you enjoyed this story :) Anyway, on to the last chapter!

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My body was on autopilot. I had somehow managed the courage to call Tony, who nearly cried with relief at my communication. He didn't ask any questions, just told me he was on his way.

The tears had dried upon my cheeks like little icicles. I couldn't move any part of me. There was a sinking feeling in my chest that expanded by the minute, strangling my breaths. The night had carried on around me, though all its movements seemed to be tinged with desolation. The crickets buzzed a tragic tune as the wind sighed mournfully through the trees. The moon seemed to have lost its cheerful glow. The usual ripples in the lake had ceased, leaving the water almost as still as Peter's body.

I couldn't look at him. I couldn't cry for him. I wanted to, with all my heart, but no tears came. Trying to resuscitate him had drained all any emotions from me, as I saw my best friend slowly slip out of my reach, out of my world forever. There was nothing to say now, not even sorry. What good would a sorry do, anyway? He couldn't hear me. He would never be able to hear my voice again. And I his.

Tony came soon enough. I didn't look at him, my eyes transfixed on the pregnant moon floating freely in the sky. I heard his footsteps crunch the brittle grass around me. I heard him gasp.

"Please," I tried to say, but it just came out like a strangled croak. "Please, just take him away."

I couldn't see his face, but I imagined he was crying. That slow, silent cry that he does when he's really upset. He placed a warm hand on my shoulder, but I subconsciously flinched away from his touch. Human contact seemed foreign to me now.

Tony hoisted Peter in his arms, grunting softly. I heard him take a breath as if he were about to say something to me, but perhaps he thought better of it. I heard the blasters of his suit go off, sending a glow on the surface of the lake.

And then they were both gone.

I was one with the night now. I was a part of that chilling breeze that laced through the lake and swayed the trees gently. I was a part of the decaying blades of grass surrounding me, sharp and cold to the touch. I was part of the darkness here. It was something of a peaceful feeling, to be completely in the arms of the darkness. But there was an indefinite sadness, a melancholia that pulsed with my jagged breaths.

It was hard for me to process that nearly an hour ago I had climbed out of those icy waters carrying a half-dead Peter in my arms. That there was a time not even two hours ago when Peter had swung in like a messiah to the masses to save me from HYDRA. That just a few minutes ago, his life slipped through my fingers like a summer breeze.

I wondered where he was now. In the stars, maybe? He used to ramble all the time to me about the stars, the beautiful constellations and all the myths behind them. He was such a nerd, but that was exactly what made me like him so much. He was so real and honest, and funny and brave and caring, and all the things that I wasn't, all rolled up into one. I gazed up at the inky abyss that I knew as the sky, searching miserably for a sign of Peter. Perhaps he was in Orion, the brave hunter whom Artemis had pitied and whose spirit she had sent to live eternally in the heavens. Maybe he was somewhere else like heaven, drifting peacefully. Maybe he was looking down on me.

I hardly thought that mattered now, though. Wherever Peter was, I hoped he was happy. That was all I could wish for him at this point.

I just wished he could've known how much he meant to me.

I laid my back against the grass and closed my eyes, hoping for a smile of contentedness, but finding nothing. I was not content. How could I be? I thought of all the things I could have done to save him. I could have called Tony. I could have shifted into a bird or something and carried him back to the Avengers tower. I could have tried harder. I could have done more.