I Don't Have to Leave?

*a few weeks later*

Peter managed to finish out the school year pretty uneventfully, which was a miracle in itself.

He’d recovered from his injuries and had been given the all-clear from Helen. His nightmares had almost completely gone, and now when he had them they were mostly to do with his accidents as Spider-Man, and not the accident with May.

Apparently the end of the school year also meant another meeting with Peter’s social worker.

To say Arthur had been displeased when he found out about the two occasions Peter had ended up in the Med-Bay was a little bit of an understatement. Still, he didn’t declare Tony unfit to be a parent, for which the both of them were relieved. Of course, everything was severely stripped back. Tony wasn’t dumb enough to tell the social worker in charge of Peter’s case that he’d gone out to do his patrol as a superhero/vigilante and accidentally been knifed by two goons in an alley.

He asked the usual questions and then Tony left Peter with him for a little while.

It was the last question that caught him a little off-guard.

“Have you thought about Mr Stark adopting you?”

Peter froze. That was a new one. “W-What?”

Arthur jotted something down on his notepad. “Has he mentioned anything about adoption to you recently?” Peter shook his head and he made another note. “Okay, is that something that you’re ready for at the minute?”

Peter thought about it for a while. He thought about the warm feeling he got whenever anyone called him Tony’s son, or like last night when Tony had called him his son. He hadn’t been that happy in a hell of a long time. He did love Tony, he always looked forward to going back to the tower after school to see him and the tower was home now too. But then Peter thought about May and it filled him with guilt. She hadn’t been gone that long. Surely it wasn’t long enough? Was there a certain amount of time that had to pass before it was acceptable to be adopted? Should he feel guilty? Was he replacing May with Tony? Ben and May had never adopted him when his parents had died, why would Mr Stark adopt him? Did Tony even want to adopt him? Sure, he seemed okay with being his legal guardian, but being a dad was another level, right? But the Avengers called him his dad all the time and he never blinked an eye.

This was so confusing.

“I—I don’t know,” he said honestly and Arthur nodded.

“That’s okay, you don’t need to make a decision. Just try and keep it in mind, yeah? It’s always a possibility.”

So yeah, that had thrown Peter for a loop. And Tony knew it.

“What’s getting at you, kiddo?”

“Something’s been bothering you ever since the meeting. What is it?” He asked, pulling the car over to stop.

“It was—Arthur, he—he asked me something today and it kinda… it kinda threw me.” Peter admitted and Tony nodded.

“Okay, what did he ask you?”

Peter risked a look at Mr Stark. He wasn’t entirely sure how the man would take this. It was a bit of a sensitive subject.

“He uh—he asked me what I thought about you adopting me.” Tony sucked in a breath and nodded slowly.

“Okay… and what did you say?”

“I—I said I wasn’t sure a-at the minute.” Peter’s gaze dropped to his legs and Tony nodded slowly again.

“And that’s fine, kiddo. I don’t want you to feel pressured into anything. I know May hasn’t been gone that long and I know that they never adopted you so I can see how that could kind of shock you. I’ll leave it to you to tell me when you’re ready to talk about it, okay?” Tony said and Peter nodded.

“I—yeah, okay.”

Tony pulled Peter in for a hug then, and it was a little awkward since they had to reach over the console, but they made it work. Peter sighed contentedly, noting to himself that this was where he felt safest.

After that, they drove back to the tower chatting about the upcoming Nationals competition.

“When is it again?” Tony asked.

“It’s some time during the summer break I think, mid-July? Something like that?” Peter made a mental note to ask MJ for the real date so that Tony could know.

“Okay, cool. You let me know when you find out and we’ll see what we can do, alright? I’ll try and talk my way out of a few days of work for it. It’s in DC, right?”

Peter nodded. “Yeah but I mean you don’t have to come.” He picked at his jeans again. That was becoming an annoying little habit.

Tony glanced at him from behind the wheel. “You don’t want me to come?”

“No, no, no, it’s not that, I just—I mean I’d love you for you to come but I get it if you can’t.” Peter clarified what he meant and Tony shook his head.

“Kid, nothing’s gonna stop me, okay? I’m so insanely proud of you I might just have my merch guy make t-shirts with your face on and make the whole team wear them. We’ll make up a song and everything, some choreography. It’s gonna be amazing.” Tony teased him and Peter went sheet white at the thought.

“Oh god, please don’t. I—I love you guys but I might literally die of embarrassment if you do that and then I actually won’t be able to take part in the competition.” Tony laughed at Peter’s response and ruffled his hair.

“I’m only teasing you, Pete. But isn’t it sort of my job to embarrass you?”

“Yeah, you. Not the entire team of Avengers, Mr Stark.”

That was something Tony had found interesting. Even though Peter had called Tony ‘dad’ in the Med-Bay when he was nearly dying, he’d stopped when he’d recovered. Tony wondered if Peter even remembered saying it. He doubted it, but it was nice to hear while it had lasted. He was still working on getting the kid to call him Tony. He just wanted to retire ‘Mr Stark’, it was making him feel ancient. And the extra grey hairs that had made themselves known thanks to Peter’s extra-curricular activities weren’t helping that.

“Okay, okay, I’ll let them down easy. Bucky’s gonna be real disappointed, though. He was gonna get a fake tattoo sleeve of your face to put on his metal arm.”

That night, Peter excused himself to bed a little earlier than usual, saying that he was tired and needed to do a little more homework before school the next day. Tony had frowned but nodded, giving Pete a hug goodnight before he walked off.

He thought a lot about his conversation with Arthur and adoption and what he wanted from this whole situation.

He did want the security that adoption would bring, the reassurance that he wouldn’t have to go anywhere. He could stop having meetings with the social worker then, at least. He was a little nervous each time they went, as though he’d accidentally say something and the government would take him away from Tony. Adoption would stop that worry.

But Ben and May had never adopted him after his parents had died. It had never even been a discussion. Pete just lived with them and that was that. So why was this situation any different? Why did it feel different? It’s not like he called Mr Stark ‘Uncle Tony’ or anything, that would be weird. There had been the time that Pete had called him ‘Dad’ in the Med-Bay but he was so loopy and high on drugs he hoped he’d just imagined it. He didn’t think Tony would remember it anyway, he’d barely slept for like a week. He also didn’t want to seem like a bother, and Peter knew that adoption could be a long-winded process, and he didn’t want Tony to feel like Peter was his responsibility if he didn’t want him to be. Tony didn’t exactly sign up for this. If May was still alive, Peter would still be living with her, not with Mr Stark. He also didn’t want to be a bother for Miss Potts. Pepper had gone from having a fiancé to suddenly having a kid in the tower that was sort of her fiancé’s kid but also sort of not. Peter didn’t want Pepper to feel uncomfortable or responsible for him. Pepper probably wanted her own kids one day with Mr Stark, not a ready-made teenager with problems.

But Peter had been doing better on the nightmare front. He really had. That night, he had the worst one yet.

He’d lost count of how many times he had had the same recurring nightmare of May dying in the car crash. It was horrific and he could probably act it out scene by scene if he had to. This one started off just the same, but there was something terrifyingly different about it.

This time, Peter didn’t get into the car with May, he got into the car with Tony. Peter didn’t know why Happy wasn’t driving in the front seat. He didn’t know why they were in this particular part of town. Tony Stark didn’t come to Queens that often.

Tyres screeching. Metal against metal. Bang. Screaming. Sirens.

And this time, Tony’s eyes were looking up at him, lifeless.

Peter screamed. He actually screamed. He couldn’t breathe properly, he immediately thought that he was dying. He could hear FRIDAY saying something to him but the clang of metal was still ringing in his ears and he couldn’t hear anything else. There was another banging sound and Peter jumped on his bed, his sheets tangling tighter and tighter around his legs to the point where he couldn’t feel them. He couldn’t feel anything. Just pain.

So much pain.

And then there was a hand on his shoulder and his eyes snapped open. He jerked away from it instinctively but then he heard the voice.

“Hey, buddy, it’s okay. It’s okay, I’m here.”

Tony’s voice.

Tony was okay. Tony was here. Tony was fine. Tony was alive.

“Tony,” Peter breathed, panting a little.

“Yeah, kiddo. It’s me.”

Peter’s eyes adjusted to the dark and Tony’s figure came into view. Peter launched himself at Tony, wrapping his arms around him and clinging on as though he was the last thing on earth. He sobbed against him, soaking his black tank top and ripping it slightly.

Tony sat there with him on his bed, rocking him back and forth and whispering comforting things in his ear. Suddenly the switch flicked and the room was filled with blinding light. Peter shifted his head to see Pepper in the doorway. Great. He’d woken her up too. This was exactly what he was afraid of doing. He knew he was a pain in the ass for Tony, but Pepper didn’t sign up for this either.

“You okay, Peter?” Her voice was filled with concerns and Peter found nothing in her eyes but worry and love. Peter was filled with guilt.

He shook his head slightly and burrowed further into Tony’s chest. Tony tightened his arms around him and pressed a kiss to the side of his face.

“You wanna talk about it, bud?” Tony asked and Peter shook his head hard. He couldn’t tell Tony about the nightmare. It was far too childish and embarrassing. But also Peter thought that speaking about it would make it come true, and he couldn’t take a risk like that. Not after everything he'd been through. He couldn't lose another.

“Okay, okay,” Tony sent Pepper a look. He was definitely concerned. Peter hadn’t had a nightmare like this for a long time.

“We need a vacation,” Pepper said after a few moments and Peter felt Tony nod.

“Definitely.” Tony nuzzled his head. “What do you think, Pete? Wanna get away for a while?”

Peter slumped, finally exhausted from crying. He nodded slowly. Maybe a vacation would be good. It would be a chance to get his mind cleared of a few things, to chill out and relax and not have to worry about anything.

Theoretically.

Peter had been on a grand total of three planes. And that was all during the same couple of days. He’d first flown when he went to Germany with Happy to help Mr stark out with the Rogues. He’d then flown to Siberia and back to New York after rescuing Tony from the caves. All of those flights had been pretty hectic and he hadn’t really taken a minute to understand what was happening. To understand that he was trapped in a metal tube 30,000 feet in the air and he would be for hours and there was no way out but to die.

This time, thanks to the ‘relaxing vacation’ or whatever Pepper had said, Peter had plenty of time to stress about everything.

Plenty.

“I didn’t realise you were this skittish about flying, Pete,” Tony said, settling down in the seat next to him.

Peter clutched the arm rests tight in his hands. “I—uh, I mean—I guess it’s—” Peter let out a little chuckle. “—y’know, all the trauma and everything.” Peter rolled his eyes and laughed at himself.

Tony was confused. “What?”

“Y’know, the whole thing about my parents dying in a plane crash?” He chuckled again to try and hide the awkwardness. It didn’t really work.

“Oh shit, kid, I—I’m so sorry, I completely forgot, I—”

“It’s okay, it’s okay, I’ll be fine once we get in the air it’s just everything up until then that kinda freaks me out.” Peter squeezed his eyes shut as as the engines roared to life.

“Are you sure, kiddo? Anything I can do?”

Peter shook his head. “No, no, I’ll be fine. Just gotta get through it.”

Tony spent the rest of the flight making sure that Peter was okay and seeing if he needed anything, despite Peter’s reassurances that he was completely fine.

They were taking him to Malibu for a couple of weeks to show him their house out there. Peter had offered to stay at home so that Tony and Pepper could have a couple of weeks together just them but they’d been offended by that for some reason and told him to stop being silly. So here he was, in one of Tony’s insanely expensive cars with the top and windows down, the warm California wind brushing through his hair as they drove to their new Malibu mansion.

Peter was sad to say that he was now, unfortunately, used to luxury.

It was something he’d never thought about before, but apparently after living between the Compound and the Tower, he was used to it.

But there was still something so spectacular about the Malibu mansion. It was obviously a different one than before, but it was still amazing. Tony had bought out a strip of the beach so it was completely private and the back doors slid open onto the sand. Peter had never been to the ocean before. And now it was literally on his doorstep.

It surprised Peter to know that he also had a room here. Like, he expected there to be a free guest room that he could use, but there was literally a room already set up for him with his name on the door and Iron Man bedsheets and everything. The tally marks on the list of rooms Peter had in insanely expensive homes now reached three. He never thought it would even reach one.

“Hey, Miss Potts?” Peter walked into the kitchen on their second morning there and found Pepper sitting at the kitchen island having a cup of coffee. She smiled at him warmly.

“Peter, honey. Please call me Pepper.”

“Right, sorry. I—I was wondering if I could ask you something about Tony?” He slid into the seat next to her, checking that the man himself was nowhere to be seen.

Pepper watched him. “It’s okay, he’s in his lab. said to tell you to join him when you woke up but we can talk first. What’s on your mind?”

Peter fiddled with his hands. “I—I was wondering how you think Mr Stark would feel if I got him a card.”

Pepper seemed confused. “But honey, Tony’s birthday was just a few weeks ago. We had a little party at the tower, do you remember? It was a week or so after you got better.”

Peter shook his head. “No, I—I remember. It’s just that—well—it’s Father’s Day next week and I—I know that Mr Stark isn’t my dad but I mean he’s—he’s all I’ve got and he’s been so great over the past five months and I—”

He looked up to see Pepper smiling at him. She cupped his jaw with her hand and pressed a kiss to his forehead. It was so domestic it felt… nice.

“I think he’d love it.” Peter let out a sigh in relief. “I think it’s a surefire way to make him cry.” She let out a little chuckle. “But seriously, I think he’d be really touched. It’s a great idea."

“O-Okay, great.”

“We’ll be back in New York by Father’s Day. How about we have a little get together with the team for it? Make it a special day? You don’t have to tell Tony about anything, we can just keep it between us and have it as a little surprise for him. Sound good?”

Peter grinned and nodded. “That sounds great, Pepper.”

She pulled him in for a hug and pressed another kiss to his head. “It’s a plan. I’ll get started on preparations when we get back. All you have to do is get a card, alright?”

“Got it.”

“Go on, you’d better go join him in the lab before he comes looking for you.” Pepper sent him off with a little shove and Peter wore a grin on his face the entire way down to the basement. He pressed his palm up against the glass of the lab doors and it turned green, sliding open to reveal Tony on the phone in the middle of a heated argument.

Well he wasn’t even on the phone, he was on a conference video call with the rest of the Avengers and Nick Fury. Peter tried not to listen, but there wasn’t really anything else for him to focus on. He wasn’t sure that Fury was supposed to know about him just yet. And he definitely knew that he didn’t know Peter was Spider-Man.

And then it turned out Spider-Man was the very person they were all talking about.

“Look, clearly he was useful. He helped a lot of people, he’s a good fighter. We need more like him. I want you to bring him in so we can train him up properly and make him a part of the team.” Fury laid out what he wanted and Peter was a little startled by everything, banging into the corner of one of the tables and sending a wrench clattering to the floor. “Stark? What’s going on over there?”

Tony’s eyes shot to Peter.

“FRIDAY, mute me and turn my video off.” He swivelled around in his chair to face Peter properly. “You okay, kiddo?”

“T-They—he wants me to join?” Peter asked nervously and Tony nodded.

He sighed, running a hand through his hair. “I’m sorry, I know this is supposed to be a vacation and we’re supposed to be having fun and everything but Fury called this meeting and clearly, y’know, it’s very important so I—I had to.”

Peter shook his head. “No, I—I totally get it, it’s fine. I—what are the others going to say?”

Tony sucked in a breath. “I told them to go along with anything I said. They agreed to do that.”

Peter nodded, pressing his lips together tight. “A-And what are you going to say?”

“Well what do you want me to say? Do you think you’re ready?”

Peter immediately shook his head. “I think that after everything that’s happened, I still have a lot to learn. I’m strong and I’m useful but I’m not on the Avengers’ level yet. Not by a long shot.”

Tony let out a sigh in relief. “Thank god, I was hoping you said that. I’m not ready for you to be going out on the big missions yet, kid. I can just about cope with patrol, I think if you went on proper missions I’d die of worry. Literally.”

Peter smiled a little. “Can I stay for the meeting?”

“Sure, kid. But you gotta stay out of shot and keep quiet, alright? Fury doesn’t know about you and I’d prefer to keep it that way for now, yeah?”

Peter scuttled off to the other side of the lab to sit at the furthest table.

“Hey, where are you going?” Tony said, reaching his arm out. “I haven’t had my morning hug yet, bud.”

Morning hugs were a new development since their little incident. Tony wanted to reassure Peter that he was loved and that he wasn’t going anywhere, so the hugs had been doled out constantly over the past few weeks. They’d gotten into a routine now where it was the first thing they did in the morning and the last thing they did at night. Tony never sent Peter off to bed without one and by this point, it was strange not to have that exchange.

“Oh, right, yeah. Good morning.” Peter sank into Tony’s arms. He could hear the Avengers still talking with Fury in the background; Fury was asking Tony to turn his camera and mic back on so that they could have their meeting, but he ignored them.

Another thing that had changed over the past few weeks was Peter calling Tony Mr Stark. Sometimes it still slipped out out of habit, but Peter was trying his best to call him Tony.

Peter hugged him a little tighter. The nightmare that he’d had was still pretty fresh in his mind, and it was a nice reassurance that Tony was right here with him. That he wasn’t in the middle of some car wreck. He was breathing.

Eventually, Tony appeased Fury and Peter took a seat out of view.

“Sorry, eye-patch. Carry on.”

“As I was saying. I think it could be useful to have this Spider-Man and I’m told you’re the only one who knows who he is. So, we’ll need his name and details and we’ll take care of the rest.”

Tony shook his head. “Nope, absolutely not.”

“Stark, I—”

“No, Fury. You’re not calling the shots with this one. You’re not the first person to suggest Spider-Man join the team. I’ve talked it over with him before, and he decided that he isn’t ready. He doesn’t want to join the team. And I won’t give you his identity, it’s the only thing keeping him safe and helping him have a normal life. I will not let you take that away from him. I will not let SHIELD take that away from him. That’s non-negotiable.” Tony was relentless, for which Peter was grateful. He had enough going on at the minute. He didn’t need Fury breathing down his neck on top of it all.

All the Avengers echoed Tony’s words and Fury was overpowered. With a grumble he said he’d organise a meeting with them all when Tony was back in New York. They went over a few other things and then the video call was over.

Tony sighed and then clapped his hands together. “Right! Let’s get onto something fun, huh? Actually enjoy this vacation before we have to go back home.”

Tyres screeching. Metal against metal. Bang. Screaming. Sirens.

Tony’s eyes.

Peter awoke with another scream, his chest pounding. And then someone was there just like before. He seemed to come around faster this time, but it didn’t make the nightmare any less terrifying.

“It’s okay, kiddo. I’m here, everything’s okay.” Tony’s mumbled voice against the side of his had was comforting, and Peter leaned into the man’s chest, tears streaming down his face. Peter wondered briefly if talking to Tony about it would make him feel better at all, or if it would just embarrass him. He wasn’t a baby, this was pathetic. “Come on, buddy. Shift up.”

Tony nudged him a little and Peter shifted on the bed so there was a big enough space for Tony to sit properly and swing his legs up. He yawned and Peter immediately felt immensely guilty. He’d woken him up again. This was getting out of hand. The man needed to sleep. Everybody needed to sleep.

“I’m so sorry,” Peter muttered, burying his head into Tony’s chest, hiding his face.

“There’s no need for you to apologise, Pete. I just wish I could make everything better, make these nightmares stop.”

The nightmares were nothing new, of course. They’d been pretty steady since the accident with—

Oh god.

May.

Peter had the horrible realisation that he didn’t associate that nightmare with May anymore. It was Tony. He was forgetting May. He didn’t think about her anymore, he didn’t really get upset about it all anymore. He was a horrible nephew. How dare he?

“Hey, hey, come on. I can see your brain working a mile a minute, here. Just relax a minute.” Tony held him tight to ground him and Peter nodded slowly. “You wanna talk to me about it? I thought you were getting somewhere with these nightmares, what happened?”

Peter swallowed hard. “I—It’s different now.” He spoke quietly and Tony leant back into the pillows, tugging Peter’s body with him and tucking him into his side. Peter rested his head on Tony’s chest, hearing the steady beat of his heart.

“Okay. It’s different how?” Tony ran his fingers through Peter’s hair, pressing a kiss to his head.

“It’s not May anymore.” Tears started to fall down his cheeks and he got himself worked up again. “The—the nightmare. The accident. I—It’s not her that dies.”

“Pete, I told you this before. May would’ve sacrificed herself for you without a question. You did not deserve to die any more than she did. Please stop wishing it was you.”

Peter shook his head. “No, I—it wasn’t me either,” he spoke in a soft voice, and Tony’s brows furrowed together.

“So who was it? Your driver? The other car’s driver?”

Peter would’ve rolled his eyes if he had control over his emotions at the moment. Did he really need to spell it out for Tony? Wasn’t this guy supposed to be one of the smartest men on the planet?

Apparently he was dense as fuck.

“You. It was—it was you.” Peter stuttered out and he felt Tony’s heartbeat speed up. He panicked for a moment but then Tony’s arms tightened around him, pulling him more securely into his chest.

“Oh, buddy, I—” Tony’s voice broke and Peter realised he must be close to crying too.

“You were just—you were dead but your eyes were open and you were staring up and me and I couldn’t do anything and I—”

“Shh, it’s okay, it’s okay. I’m here, I’m alive.” Tony thought about the words, the reassurances he was having to give to Peter, and it broke his heart. “I’m not going anywhere, do you hear me? I’m right here, and I’m not leaving you, I promise.”

Peter shook his head. “You can’t promise things like that. People always break that promise.”

Tony let out a breath through his nose. “Okay, I can’t promise that. But I do promise that I’ll do everything I can to stay with you, alright? I—jeez, kid, you’re the only reason I’m alive, you’re the—do you know how important you are to me?”

Peter just cried. He cried against Tony, proper sobs that echoed in his bedroom. He clutched Tony’s shirt until it ripped, needing to cling to him, to feel him close.

“Oh, kiddo.” Tony buried his head in Peter’s hair, holding him impossibly tight. He thought of all the things that Peter had gone through in his life despite not even hitting sixteen yet. Losing two sets of parents, being in a car crash, being stabbed and wounded multiple times out on patrol or on missions, being Spider-Man and feeling responsible for an entire neighbourhood. And yet Tony had never seen him like this before, this desperate, this distraught.

“Don’t leave m-me,” Peter mumbled quietly and Tony’s chest jerked as he tried to hold in a sob.

“I’m not leaving y-you, and you’re not g-going anywhere.”

Peter whimpered and that’s all Tony could take before breaking down too. He held Peter close as the both of them cried, kissing his temple and his forehead and inhaling the scent of his shampoo. He would do anything in the world to protect Peter, and it was killing him that he couldn’t fix this, that he couldn’t go down to his lab and make something that would fix all of this.

They fell asleep like that together and woke up the following morning to Pepper bringing them breakfast in bed, dried tear tracks on their cheeks and blocked noses. Peter confessed to Tony how guilty he’d felt recently once he’d realised that he didn’t think of May much anymore. Tony had held him and reassured him that he was the best nephew that she could have asked for, and that she’d understand.

Still, the guilt didn’t leave him. And Tony noticed that too, the way Peter was down for the rest of their vacation. He decided to give him an early birthday present.

That day, when Peter met him down in the lab, Tony showed him something he’d been working on ever since Peter had come to live with him.

“Hey, come over here a sec.” Tony jerked his head and Peter took the seat next to him. Tony slung his arm around him and tugged him into his side. “I know you’ve been worried about forgetting May, and that you feel guilty about it. And I—I read that that’s normal for teens going through grief.”

Peter leaned away from him a little and gave him a weird look. “I’m sorry, you read that?”

Tony flushed bright red with embarrassment. “Yeah, I—when you came to live with me I had FRIDAY order books on helping grieving kids. And I also talked to my therapist about it.”

Peter balked. “You have a therapist?!”

“Yeah, I talk to her like three days a week. We have phone appointments though cause I’ve got a busy schedule.” Peter was quiet for a minute. “There’s nothing shameful about having a therapist. Most people have them, it’s totally normal.”

Peter shook his head. “Oh, no, no, I—yeah, I—good for you. It’s just I didn’t know that you had one, that’s all.”

Tony chuckled. “Pete, the ways I’ve coped with things throughout my life, I need a therapist.” He sniffed. “Anyway, this was a common suggestion between the books and my therapist and I was gonna actually create a physical one for you for your birthday but I figured you could do with a little cheering up.”

He waved to the air and a hologram screen flickered to life in front of them. Tony flicked through a few files on the server, going into one labelled Underoos, and selecting a photo file.

And then there were photos filling the lab. Huge holograms that were projecting images of May and Ben with Peter.

Peter watched as Tony flicked from picture to picture, showing ones of them at the Stark Expo, on a day trip to Coney Island, having Thanksgiving Dinner, Peter opening presents with May on Christmas morning. He felt himself getting teary eyed, but furiously blinked. He wanted to see everything clearly. He wanted to remember.

There was a photo of all three of them together in Central Park that he loved, but he hadn’t seen it for years. They’d taken a day trip to the park at Christmas when Peter was eight years old and someone had offered to take a photo of the the three of them. They were all bundled up in their winter coats and scarves and gloves. All three of them had matching hats that May had made. Peter was balanced on Ben’s shoulders, leaning down to wrap his arms around his Uncle’s head. May had her arm looped through Ben’s and they were all wearing cheesy grins.

Peter didn’t realise he’d been crying until Tony wiped a tear away from his cheek.

Each photo triggered an old memory, and Peter smiled at each one, soaking them in. Before ehe knew it, they’d been sat there almost an hour.

“You’ll never forget them, Pete. Neither of them. And eventually, all these will be in an album so that you can look at them any time. I need you to stop feeling guilty whenever you have a few days when you don’t think about them, Pete. It’ll destroy you. You were their kid, and they loved you more than anything in this world. You were their kid, and you’ll never stop being their kid. But now you’re my kid too, and I don’t want you to be upset like this all the time, cause it’s destroying me.” Tony grabbed ahold of Peter’s hand and squeezed it tight.

“Thank you, Tony,” Peter whispered, tears still in his eyes. “I really appreciate this.”