One Shots feat. PJO, Irondad, and More!

Delirium (Spider-Man)

After Endgame. Spoilers!

She was going to kill him, she decided.

She was going to hug him, tell him she loved him, and then kill him.

It was a fool-proof plan, a simple three-step process May could follow and repeat and chant as a fucking mantra as she watched call after call go unanswered, as she sat in the silence of her apartment listening to ring ring ring before the voicemail that would forever be ingrained in her memory.

"Hi, you've reached Peter Parker, please leave a message after-"

- 'Underoos, come on, you have to give it more pizazz than that. Have I taught you nothing?'

"Mr. Stark!" the boy whined, his next complaint cut off by the robotic, brain numbing BEEP.

She remembered him excitedly telling her the story of how that voicemail had come about. About how his mentor had demanded he change from the default in the event a future employer called (not that he had any plans for Peter to work anywhere other than Stark Industries), or a recruiter from MIT (any other college could "wasn't worth Peter's time, and could suck it," as the billionaire had put it so eloquently). She didn't see how the recorded message was any better than the robotic instructions he had previous in terms of professionalism, but she didn't want to crush the kid's joy.

And now said kid was missing. Was missing, and had been for the past thirteen hours.

She hadn't thought about it when he didn't come home from school. It was Friday, which meant he was supposed to be at Ned's. It was system they- May and Ned's mom- had set up in order to distract Peter from the fact that the last school bell of the week no longer released him to the Stark Internship at the tower or compound. So when she texted him to check in, at four twenty-six pm, she didn't necessarily fret about not getting a response. Hopefully that meant he was busy building a new Lego set. Busy was good for him, especially now. Busy kept the darkness out of his eyes for a while.

Her anxiety levels only rose slightly when her phone buzzed with a text from Ned four hours later.

Ned Leeds: Hey May, I don't wanna freak you out or anything but Peter never came over and im kinda worried I thought he was doing his after school activity (spidermanning) but usually he comes back by now and he won't text me back he's fine though right?

The poor kid was long winded even over the phone. May pushed down a swelling wave of worry when four more texts flooded in.

Ned Leeds: he's also going to get mad at me for saying this please don't told him I told you but he ditched at lunch like just left in the middle of it

Ned Leeds: he didn't even eat his nachos

Ned Leeds: or like anything, but he always eats his nachos!!!

Ned Leeds: but yeah can you just tell me if you see him thanks? Don't tell him the thing about ditching im just worried!!

She tried not to panic. Of course, she still did, but as unfortunate as it was she wasn't necessarily shocked by the turn of events. It wouldn't be the first time Peter had ditched a Friday night to go patrolling without telling anyone, not showing back up until the early hours of the morning when he would crawl through his bedroom window after being god knows where.

He'd been pushing limits a lot recently.

She knew it was because he was grieving. She hadn't realized just how close Peter had grown to the billionaire that had sacrificed his life for him nearly two months previous, but if their relationship wasn't clear to her before, it was obvious now that Stark had passed.