When Peter comes back, he’s different.
It had been three school days of silence when he returns, clinging onto Ami like his life depended on it. They were normally cuddly anyways, but now Peter refused to not be touching her at every second of the day. The boa was the same, hissing at anyone coming to close to her, anyone looking like they might even accidentally brush against her.
No one but the Avengers knows what happened, and it hurts more, when Peter thinks about it, that everyone knows there’s a trauma, but he can’t speak of it to anyone... Ned gets to know, but... it was frightening to think about, in all honestly. He didn’t want to talk, and yet, he knew he had to... had to tell someone... and Ned wanted to comfort him....
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When Peter woke, it was dark, and Ami was curled up around his legs in her snake form. He was alone someone, scared and grabbed onto her, frightened with everything he had, and clung. Comfort.
It was hours before someone came in, and he wished he had stayed in the dark when they did. Emotionless, they grabbed onto Ami and Peter screamed. It was wrong and broken and someone was hurting Ami, hurting him and he couldn’t breathe and he tried to hang onto her but she was wrenched away from him into unforgiving hands and Peter writhed and screamed as they took her away, farther than she ever should have been, and Peter kept screaming until his voice cut out and he couldn’t talk.
He didn’t seem Ami again for the other two days, until Tony showed up to wreak havoc and hell and get him back, and he screamed and writhed in pain for most of it, refusing to eat food or drink water, or exist as anything but pain and fear as he felt unfamiliar hands on Ami, unfamiliar people touching his soul and hurting her, and he screamed anew as Tony flew through the rooms to find her, find his Ami again, because Peter didn’t know where she was, and it scared him. He was alone, it was wrong, and he couldn’t find Ami, and then he was in Tony’s arms and he could feel Ami again-
He cried, silent soft tears as his torn throat aches, as he clings onto the snake that sobbed as he did, rocking himself and refusing to let go of that boa again, snarling when Tony moved close, relaxing as he simply lifted him up into his arms, careful not to brush a hand against the boa, as she curled up on Peter’s chest and their bond began to heal
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It was scary, almost being severed like that, and Peter never wanted to feel it again. Ami clung to him as he clung to her, and they both hissed when someone was dangerously close. Slowly, they began to relax around people, daemons, they trusted, but everyone knew he wouldn’t be the same. He needed his Daemon, and she needed him.
They would heal, but they would never be the same.