Agent Spider

5. I've never been happier

Tony had given up. It's been a week since he had called in the mission to search for Peter Parker, but all of the Avengers had also landed on a dead track. He simply refused to admit that Peter just disappeared upon them, and he had been subconsciously being writing the boy's disappearance off as a kidnapping. Perhaps an evil organisation had caught eyes on the fact that he had being growing closer towards the boy. Tony also threw off the fact that neither the boy or his aunt officially existed. He knew that that had to be something suspicious, yet he didn't want to admit it.

Because admitting that they both weren't real meant that something darker lured behind it, and Tony feared for something like that to be real. Of course, the more his thoughts lingered on Peter the more and more his fears became real foes. The billionaire had found himself more and more often to be experiencing troubles while attempting to sleep. Like he'd lay wide awake at night, his eyes shut with the soft and regular breathing of his wife next to him. Everything gave off a peaceful feeling, except his thoughts.

And the few rare moments he managed to actually fall asleep, he was soon awakes by the nightly terrors that haunted his dreams. As you can guess, most of those nightmares included Peter. Sometimes, when the man was wandering around in the tower at one of those ungodly hours, he could swear he heard that light and optimistic voice say 'Mr. Stark! Mr. Stark!'. But as soon as they appeared, they also disappeared.

A few, even rarer times, he had caught a few fragments of Peter in the reflections of anything that included glass. The haunting thoughts about the boy suddenly reappearing out of thin air, just like he arrived, brightened him just as much as it scared him. Those thoughts made him happy, because it meant that Peter was safe and alive. But they also scared him, because he didn't know the truth about the boy that had grown like a son to him.

Pepper Potts worriedly walked into his lab, the first thing she noticed was that there wasn't any loud music playing. There hadn't been since Peter was gone. The second thing she noticed was the slump posture of her husband, like he hadn't slept in days and it was showing. "Tony." She muttered concerned, softly walking over to him. Her arms wrapped around him, comforting her with her warmth and affection as she softly kissed his head.

"Hey Pep." Hé replied quietly, kissing one of her arms. He had a laptop right in front of him and was searching for any security footage that might show Peter. But as he expected, it was as if the boy knew exactly where every camera was and he avoided them all perfectly. Pepper's eyes darted towards the screen, and right at that moment Tony received a new e-mail.

He absentmindedly clicked on it, expecting it to be another ridiculous offer from another company, but instead he was met with complete confusion. He frowned at the name of the sender, it was from Peter. "Pep." He said, his voice sounded hopeful and Pepper hugged him a bit harder to encourage him to continue reading.

From: peterparker@ outlook.com
To: tonystark@ gmail.com

Mr. Stark

Don't have much time to explain how or why but there's gonna be an attack at the tower. Don't know how many people but they're out for weapons. Between today and next week Friday it'll happen. Sorry.

Peter

Tony could've cried tears of happiness right there and then. He finally heard something from Peter, even though it was vague and out of the blue but still. It meant that he was at least alive, which was all that mattered to him. He didn't care how Peter had picked up that information, but he was glad he did. "Oh my god, Tony." Pepper said equally delighted as Tony felt.

"I know Pep!" He said, all of his spirits finally lifted again. "He's alive." He smiled, Pepper smiled back. For a moment, both adults didn't care about the bad news the teenager had brought. Because for the first time in days, they both felt relieved and overjoyed.