I don't think I know you.

His bed was warm. His bed was warm, and so comforting, but he couldn’t stay in it. He wasn’t going to sleep well-he had too much nervous energy for that. He’d rather do anything but lie there and think, and right then his head was refusing to let him do anything else. Even his bones-which he was pretty sure the spider took-were tired, and sore, and close to giving out. 

“Go to sleep already Peter. You’re gonna crash if you go out.” He was going to crash-again, hopefully not into a building this time-and that meant his stupid human brain needed to turn off, and stop torturing him with things he knew weren’t an option. 

It’s always terrible when he argues with himself.

One side arguing for all the innocents, and all the helpless people who needed his help-and the other arguing for college, and an actual life-whether he deserved it or not-that wasn’t what was important. 

He knew who he had to choose. He already knew-and, even if it made him selfish, he wasn’t going to make the ‘choice’ yet. He wanted to believe Tony-he did. But he also knew that Parker luck would never let him rest. Even if he wanted to take time off, something horrible was going to pop up, and then he wouldn’t be there, and his face-his masked face, would be everywhere, and everyone would be wondering why he abandoned them when he shouldn’t have. 

If he kept going the way he was going, there to stop every little thing, everyone would trust him, no one would even think about his supposed murder, and he’d be loved the way IronMan was-just without a face to the mask. People would depend on him, and know he’d always be there-and that he was trustable, worthy of their support, and then when the bad things happen, he’d be there regardless to save them. 

They wouldn’t trust them if he only showed up when it was convenient for him. Therefore-even considering quitting-whether he wanted it or not-or slowing down was asinine. It was ridiculous to even consider.

Like everyone else didn’t see how tired he was. Just the other day a lady bought him something to eat, and asked him to eat with her because she ‘didn’t feel safe’. They were in a park, in broad daylight, surrounded by children. There was no reason not to feel safe. 

Maybe someone was following her-or she had a fear of children, and happened to be a masochist. Who knew? It wasn’t his business if someone wanted to be nice to him. 

It was his business when every person who was nice to him happened to have that same look on their face. It was because he was up, day, and night, and ever-working, and they’d noticed already. 

They noticed, and it worried them-they probably saw him slowing down too. Like passing out is going to make them sure he’ll save them.

That’s not nice. 

He wasn’t thinking about this right now-he’s decided not to, and now it was time for his spider-brain to shut its mouth.

Pressing a pillow across his eyes did nothing. Nothing at all. In fact it made his spider-senses buzz in the worst way, because he was apparently scared of suffocation as well. 

Okay-so maybe he shouldn’t have drank some more of that not-so-hot chocolate-and maybe he shouldn’t have slipped into his suit.

He had little to no chance of sleeping. 

It’s not like he had anything else to do.

Besides? Who else could it hurt? He had no decision made. He’d done it before-he’d be fine. 

He was not fine. 

By the end of the night he felt a moment away from falling into unconsciousness, and that was not in fact fun. 

Maybe he should go to bed.

Maybe he should. His shoulders burnt, and his ever-hungry stomach was particularly upset-with the current substandard of food. He could lie in his bed, and ignore his mind for awhile. 

Maybe.

The climb up to the window was a struggle, his powers were deciding that they were exhausted too-and his hands, despite still being properly prickly, refused to securely cling to anything he wanted them to. They could cling to his leg-sure, but not the damned icey wall. 

He ended up just using the fire escape. 

He felt worse when he woke up. Absolutely worse. Everything still throbbed, and apparently he had gone to bed with some kind of broken hand-thing, and now it was purple. He was not having a good time. 

The worst part was that his room was warm, and comfortable. His room was warm, and comfortable, and it was tempting him to go back to bed, despite the fact that there was someone he knew outside the building. 

He should just lock the door, and go back to bed until he feels better.

He couldn’t do that. Mister Stark would knock-and then he’d be just plain rude.

========================================================================

He brought Happy with him, just in case. Not in case Peter hit him again-even though that was a likely possibility, but just in case there was any chance talking to someone about what happened that was there might help. 

He was right-Happy didn’t know who Peter was. He knew Spider-Man, and he remembered driving him around-and conversing with him-as Spider-Man. There was no Peter-sized hole in his heart, just a ‘May’ one, and Tony was slightly upset at this.

Alright, maybe more than slightly. 

It was that Wizard’s doing after all. It was his fault everyone remembered Spider-Man, and not Peter, and now Peter was….where he was. There’s nothing wrong with struggling-but the way Peter was forcing himself into it further wasn’t alright.

It made his old-non-existent heart hurt, and damn it, he was going to make that wizard fix this shit. If he refused, Tony might just beat him senseless, magic or not. He was probably going to do that anyway.

Tony did what Pepper called a ‘Tony sized mistake’ by inviting Happy at five in the morning. Happy of course-had already been on his way-he did work there after all-but calling Happy all the way out to the cabin? Not exactly regulatory-and their conversation beforehand reflected that. 

He really really needed Happy on his side for this one-maybe not as terribly as he felt he did, but at five in the morning, after a short amount of sleep, it felt kind of dire to have him there with him. 

He wanted to actually get a clear image of what happened-he needed to know who needed to find themselves in an accidental incident-and Happy was there. Even if the kid could tell him everything without getting so…upset, as last night-it would still be better if Peter had someone who was there. Tony wasn’t there-if he was, he was sure his kid wouldn’t be where he was right now-

Not that he could really stop him.

It didn’t matter if he ‘could have’ stopped him from ending up where he is. What happened is what happened. Having someone there who was there-saw it too, and at least actually knew what happened would be good for him. 

It would have been good for Tony too-but that wasn’t what he was going to think over right now. 

It would have been nice-for once, for Tony Stark to somehow be wrong-but the universe chose to make him a know-it-all, and his assumption that Happy didn’t know Peter was correct. Tony did what he thought he should-which in this case, was when Pepper told him to keep his Tony sized mishaps to a minimum. 

He just wanted Happy to remember-and it took a frustratingly long hour for anything at all to swoop back into place-much less for it to ‘hit him’ like it did with Tony-and wasn’t that absolutely frustrating. It was the same material-exact same things that had just made everything in Tony’s head click-but here Happy was, unable to remember a thing. 

At least when he did feel everything click into place, he got a sight of not-so-grumpy Happy. Sadly, not-so-grumpy Happy was not a Happy Happy Hogan, It was a bit awkward, like watching someone apparently go through different stages of everything at once should be. 

He was oddly quiet-even for Mister ‘I don’t smile Hogan’-he agreed to come-barely-he actually nearly jumped at the idea of seeing the kid-he just so happened to…also be slightly silent the rest of the time. 

It was awkward in the car. 

Tony pretended that none of this made it awkward-and that his phone had all of his attention captured, rather than his friend’s tight grip on the steering wheel. If he was smart he would’ve just kept staring lamely into that phone, and not opened to ask why he was so desperate. Tony had been desperate to see his kid when he realized that he hadn’t seen him for that long. 

The gps said something about turning left, and Happy did it, without hesitation.

“Is he alright? I mean-is he doing alright for himself?” Happy didn’t really look over at him when he spoke, and it led Tony to consider his words before he spat them out. 

“He’s got a roof over his head.” Happy relaxed-not really-he stopped working his jaw. That was good enough.

“He was at May’s funeral, you know? In the back? I didn’t even recognize him. He didn’t walk up to the casket-none of that.” Happy shook his head, like he could shake the recently retrieved memory back. “I didn’t recognize him. Didn’t even think I knew him-he got up and left in the middle of it-and I thought he was just some random kid.” Happy seemed even less happy than usual. “I-I just don’t get it, I-I couldn’t just forget Peter-not like that-who would do that?!”

“A wizard, that’s going to get his shit wrecked.” Happy sent Tony a custom look.

“No-No, did Peter tell you Doctor Strange did it? Or are you assuming?” Tony wet his lips.”Tony, you can’t just beat up a wizard without just cause-”

“He implied it-heavily!” He said it outright-kind of. That was just cause enough. “Peter said something about him making everyone forget-that’s just cause Happy, that’s how it works.” Happy seemed to ponder it. It didn’t take long for Happy-used-to-box-Hogan to choose violence as well.

“I’ll run him over. I’ll do it.” Happy’s grip on the wheel got tight again. “I’ll-we’ll figure out what exactly happened-and if Doctor Strange-whatever his real name is, if he did just up and do this-I’m going to kill him-I mean-why!? Peter’s-he’s annoying-but he’s a nice kid Tony. He’s nice-he doesn’t deserve to be alone.”

“I don’t know-I eman Peter said something about the multiverse, and him breaking it, but he was…really being rough on himself-I don’t know how true that is.” Happy grimaced. 

“He’s alright-isn’t he?” 

“Somewhat.”

“Tony.”

“He’s….doing. Alright? He’s not-the best he could be.” He’s not dead either. That’s a plus-the whole death certificate thing had terrified him a little. Alright, a lot. It was terrifying. He saw May’s-and thought he’d find Peter’s right next to them. But he didn’t-and now it was time for…this. “Don’t worry Hap-I’m sure it’s going to be fine.”