Like You'd Know How It Works

Chapter 8

The trip wasn't what one would necessarily describe as comfortable. It was nothing like the exhilaration that swinging through New York's street canyons brought him. Currents of time and space were roughly tugging on the suit, but there was no rush of wind in his ears. Instead, there was absolute, eerie silence around him, only broken by his own shallow breaths. With nothing for his senses to pick up, it was as if someone had hit pause on his abilities. Thankfully, the trip only lasted seconds. Short enough, he could have held his breath for it. Solid surface back under his feet, he exhaled with relief as his senses started to pick up earthly stimuli. His relief was short-lived though and evaporated completely when the sounds that reached his ears registered not just as the rustling leaves of the forest around them. Curses and harsh voices. Deep sobs. Right... The Avengers. And May. This wasn't over yet. Well... Peter's heart gave a painful squeeze and he whipped his head to his left.

He was there. Thank you, Universe. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Mr. Stark stood right next to him. And Strange was just behind him. Peter's heart contracted in an almost painful flutter in his chest. They'd done it. Mr. Stark had made it to 2023. He was safe. No matter how pissed off the Avengers would be. No matter how long May would ground his ass for. He'd done it. What were they gonna do about it? They couldn't very well send him back... right?

He wasn't the only one who remembered that their mission wasn't quite over yet. Peter hadn't seen the orange shield go up. Maybe it had been there the whole time they had been gone from their own timeline? No. It came down right in front of them now, at the very edge of the platform. Rogers and Banner stood by a lot closer than they did before.

Mr. Stark didn't seem to notice any of that. His eyes were squarely on Strange. "Did... did you do it? Did it work?"

Strange gave a small nod. "I turned everything back to how it was before."

"So... it'll be okay? Everything will happen as it... as it should? We'll... we'll figure things out?"

"We have no reason to think otherwise," Strange confirmed.

Mr. Stark exhaled deeply and nodded to himself. His shoulders sank a little and a good amount of tension seemed to fall off of him. He reached out for Peter. As his mentor's hand came down on his shoulder, Peter leaned into the tight squeeze. He couldn't help but smile at the relief that was painted across Mr. Stark's face. Then the voices around them broke through their little bubble, loud and clear.

"What... what did you do? How... how could you?!" Banner's eyes were wide, shifting between Strange and Peter.

"Strange! What the hell!" Rogers stood right at the edge of the dome once again. "What..." Hands tangled in his hair, he exhaled deeply.

Mr. Stark gaze went over to them, first Banner then Rogers, before he turned to Peter. "Pete... Care to explain?"

Peter's hand shot up and scratched his head. "Yeah, about that..." His nose wrinkled at the memory of their departure from 2023 about an hour ago or 10 seconds... depending on who you were to ask. "They... they weren't all that into the plan. We needed the Stone and there wasn't all that much time to explain, so... you know... we decided to just explain after. Not sure how they found out we were here though."

Strange cleared his throat. "Your aunt told them you were missing. They made an educated guess."

Peter cast down his eyes. Of course, that's why May was with them. He hadn't been home all night. She must have freaked. In fact, he knew she had. She'd called Pepper to contact him through FRIDAY after all. This... he should have probably have thought of this.

"Right." Mr. Stark's attention shifted back to the Avengers.

"Tony... I don't know what they told you. But you must realize how wrong this is. How..." Rogers groaned and rubbed a hand over his face. "I can't believe you did this. I know you've always been reckless and taking selfish risks that—"