Spiderman Oneshots

Ghost Peter (5)

Peter woke blinded by sunlight. He raised an arm to shield his eyes, and looked around. He was by a lake. There was a pretty cottage behind him. He recognised this place.

He looked at his arm. It was covered in a red material, torn and smeared with blood. His head hurt.

His head hurt.
He put his hands up to touch it, to touch his face. He felt himself blink, felt the brisk wind on his skin.

He felt... alive.

There was a gasp and a smash, then the sound of running footsteps and the door of the cottage smacked open. A woman stood there. Her name was Pepper, Peter remembered. What was she looking at?

He turned around. There was nothing behind him except for the expanse of the lake. When he turned back, she was already running towards him, yelling for Tony to come on, come and see.
Pepper crashed into him, and he felt her solid mass as she hugged him, then held him at arms length, tears sparkling in her eyes. Morgan came running from the garden to see what the commotion was about, and let out a shriek of joy when she saw Peter, as if she could recognise the feel of his soul. She barrelled at his legs, almost knocking him over. The sensations were overwhelmingly real and grounded. The world was so clear, so bright...

A man appeared in the doorway.

Their eyes locked.

Peter finally smiled.

At the next team meeting, there were many surprised greetings. Peter had settled in with the Stark family very quickly. Morgan already treated him like the older brother she'd never had, and Pepper acted like a fussy mother all the time. Tony pretended he wasn't that bothered by his return, but Peter had spent enough time by his side to know how the billionaire really felt. Despite his careless facade, when Mr Stark offered to take him into Queens, Peter could see the fear in his eyes that only increased the closer they came to May's new apartment.
May had screamed when she'd seen him, then hugged the life out of him. She'd invited them all in for a takeaway dinner, and carefully watched how Peter interacted with them. When it was finally time for the Starks to leave him, a resigned look upon all of their faces, May had just shaken her head and made Peter promise to visit her often.

They'd also stopped at Peter's school, and Ned had done a great fish impression whilst MJ actually shed a tear. Peter told them he'd be starting at school again soon, and he'd explain everything then.

Nobody really knew how Peter had come back, and he avoided talking about that time in between as much as he could. Even at the Avengers team meeting, he dodged the many questions fired his way until the spotlight moved off him.

He pretended he didn't remember much, but he did send a sad smile at the area above Clint's shoulder, and when the meeting seemed to be coming to an end, he pulled a ouija board from his bag.

"Because everyone deserves a second chance."