Chapter 29: when the world is too overwhelming, I need to breathe
Notes:
1) Most of this is fluff because let's be honest, we all like a bit of fluff.
2) I'll try and spend this weekend writing as much as I can because I might not have the chance to update next weekend and things are finally picking up.
3) Enjoy the chapter and leave a kudos and comment!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Snow gently settled on the ground as the flurries from the morning had passed, leaving a thick layer of white on the ground. Numbness settled in his fingertips as he swung down 5th Avenue, the remainder of Christmas lights illuminating the area.
Christmas had passed in a happy haze of warmth and cheer – Tony had let him keep the BB-8 model they had been working on and Michelle had drawn him a massive poster of Finn wielding a lightsaber.
Ned had given him a massive Lego set which he'd had his eyes on for a while and May had bought him a slew of nerdy t-shirts and sweaters because she knew he was growing out of his old ones.
"Yo, Spidey!" Someone yelled, causing him to quickly turn around and stick to the side of a building so he could see who had called out his name. "Down here!"
Looking to the left, he realised Aaron had called out to him, the scarf-clad man waving to catch his attention. Miles was beside him, his earmuffs around his neck like how someone would wear headphones and his red trainers sticking out like a beacon against the layer of snow.
"Ooh, hey man!" He replied, dropping down to where they were as passer-by's moved around them. "How's everything been?"
Aaron smiled, ruffling Miles's hair. "It's been good. Finished all my business with the uh, the other guys and I work in a museum now." Ah, Aaron had finally cleared himself and gotten away from the weapons dealing.
"Woah, nice going. They're not coming back for you, right?"
"Nah, we ended on good terms. I'll let you know if anything happens though." Nice, so he still had Aaron as an intel source if he needed him and Aaron was going to keep himself safe. "We're just looking around for any good Christmas sales."
"Oh yeah, how was your Christmas?"
"It was nice. Had the family 'round and everything. Miles had a great time, didn't you?"
Miles perked up at that, having been staring at Peter's moving eyes in awe.
"O-oh, yeah! We went to an Avengers-themed Comic-Con and they even had stuff for you there!"
His eyes widened. "No way?" He exclaimed.
"I was really surprised when I saw they had some stuff but it was selling fast so I bought this-" he opened his jacket to show the Spider-Man sweater he was wearing, "-and a couple of other things." He admired Miles's sweater, noting how he was wearing a Christmas hat and was swinging from a building.
"Do you know who the person who made this was? I wanna commission them!"
After Aaron had given him the artist's details they chatted for a bit longer before Karen notified him of a car chase happening a few blocks away, so he said goodbye before swinging away, grinning under his mask.
He couldn't believe someone had managed to start selling merchandise of him at an Avengers Comic-Con! He hadn't even become an official Avenger yet!
Sighing as he slipped through the fire escape, he entered his room and almost slammed the window shut so he could preserve all of the warmth in his room.
His fingers tingled as he took off his gloves and boots, going to the bathroom and leaving them in the bath so the snow and ice could melt. The last thing he needed was to go out in cold boots, or even worse, the ice clung to the soles and he slipped and looked like an idiot.
The car chase had gone on for a bit longer than he had wanted it to. At first it had been a normal car chase with the police in tow as he had jumped onto the car roof. That's when things had gone pear-shaped.
Driving at high speeds plus snow and ice equalled a disaster waiting to happen.
The car had skidded a few seconds after the person in the passenger seat had decided to shoot at him, completely shocking the driver as they had entered the part of Queens that was known for becoming icy every year.
The car had flipped -bearing in mind he was still on the roof- and it was by pure luck he hadn't managed to get a concussion. Instead, he had been thrown into a snow bank a few metres away as the criminals were trapped under the car.
He had arrested the man with the gun before the slightly injured man in the driver's seat begged for forgiveness, claiming he had been kidnapped by the other man at a convenience store a few streets away and had been forced into the role of the getaway driver.
Fortunately enough the police knew about all of this and had only arrested the man with the gun, one of the police officers wishing him a merry Christmas before he swung away. As eventful as the afternoon was, he was happy to have a rest after Karen had advised him to. He had patrolled for most of the morning and police officers were covering every crime in the area for now.
His muscles relaxed as he turned on the shower and hot water rinsed away any leftover stress from the cold. He never did well in winter and struggled to retain heat unless he was with someone who was the definition of a human radiator. Hm…May was still out so he would need to find all the blankets he could and make himself into a blanket burrito.
It wouldn't be that hard then. There were at least three blankets in his room if he counted his throw, two in the living room and another was in storage. He could create a blanket fort if he wanted to.
He glanced at the mirror after he had finished showering, realising it had steamed up and he couldn't see the state of his hair – not that it mattered. No one else would be home for a few hours.
After changing into the warmest clothes he could find -a pair of jogging bottoms and a hoodie- he wandered back into his room to find some fluffy socks, his toes too cold for his liking.
Rummaging through his sock drawer, his Spidey-sense hummed dully as a crackling sound that resembled what he normally heard whenever Stephen or Ned opened a portal.
His eyebrows furrowed and he swivelled around to find a small parcel on his bed with a letter on top of it. The letter itself was on a piece of A5 paper and the parcel was wrapped in the brown paper that people would see in movies. Considering it had been delivered by a portal, he could assume Stephen had delivered it to him.
Shrugging off the slightly weird but pretty cool delivery of his Christmas present, he picked up the letter and read through it.
Hey Peter,
Sorry for the late gift. My presence was demanded elsewhere and I didn't have the time to deliver your present until today.
This amethyst orb, while it looks plain, has been influenced by the mystic arts to allow the user to recall any memory they wish to.
Simply, this orb can project memories.
Many of these memories will be spurred by emotions, thus leading one to be chosen at random if the user is unfocused. However, with focus, you can observe any memory you desire.
Placing the orb on a flat surface will suffice. Either think of an emotion -preferably a strong one- or think of a memory and it should be projected.
Merry Christmas, from Stephen.
Stephen had definitely given him an…interesting gift.
From what was written in the letter, he could guess that the amethyst orb would project a memory based on his emotions, or, if he was focused enough, would project a memory of his choice.
It couldn't be too hard, right?
After unwrapping the gift and discarding the rubbish in the bin, he realised why Stephen had said it looked plain. Any person who saw the orb would think it was a normal crystal, not a magical item. Oh well, he may as well see if it works.
Sitting on his bed, he wrapped himself up with a blanket before placing the crystal in front of him and closing his eyes as he thought of a memory. He needed something that had a strong emotional connection and that was happy.
He thought of anything to do with the emotion, smiling when he remembered his and Ned's first lightsaber fight in the snow. They had gone to the park with every intention of a snowball fight before they had quickly realised it would be funny if they could add a bit more drama to their idea.
His breath hitched as light burst around the room, prompting him to open his eyes to see the purple orb glowing in front of him. Intricate gold patterns weaved themselves over the orb as it hovered in the air, waves of colour emanating from it until it covered his room.
A scene formed in front of him; the early sunset made his and Ned's short shadows loom over the untouched snow, the heavy snowfall from earlier covering all of the footprints from earlier. A shoddily-made snowman with a lopsided smile and mismatched buttons for a pretend coat stood in the background.
He and Ned stood on opposite sides of the path, Ned with a double-bladed red lightsaber in his hand and himself with the plastic blue lightsaber Ben had bought him for his birthday in his left hand.
His glasses were slightly crooked and he pushed them against the bridge of his nose like he was proving how serious he was about the duel he was about to have.
Chuckling at how nerdy he looked with his Iron Man sweater and glasses, he listened to the declarations he and Ned made.
"You have allowed this dark lord to twist your mind…until now you have become the very thing you swore to destroy!" He exclaimed, pointing his lightsaber at Ned who had his hood up to mimic being a Sith.
"Don't lecture me, Peter. I see through the lies of the Jedi. I do not fear the dark side as you do. I have brought peace…freedom, justice and security to my new empire."
He looked at Ned incredulously. "Your new empire?"
"Don't make me kill you."
"Ned, my allegiance is to the Republic, to democracy!"
"If you're not with me…then you're my enemy." Ned raised his lightsaber as a declaration of war.
"Only a Sith deals in absolutes."
"I will do what I must."
"You will try." He raised his lightsaber in defiance before he and Ned sprinted towards each other, their lightsabers clashing as they re-enacted the Anakin versus Obi-Wan fight.
For 12 year olds with next to no experience of an actual lightsaber fight they were doing pretty well. He laughed at the memory, thinking of ways he and Ned could redo it now that they were older and he didn't have asthma. He would ask if they could do it after New Year's.
He raised his eyebrows questioningly as Ned strolled into his home with a packet of sparklers, the slightly nervous smile on his face a slight giveaway that he had done something slightly illegal.
"Okay, what did you do?" He asked as Ned took off his shoes.
"Listen, it technically wasn't illegal."
"'Technically' doesn't make it any better. How did you get those?" He asked as they walked to his bedroom before Ned decided to flop onto his bed.
"Some guys were handing boxes of these out a block away and this was the last box. They said, 'the generosity of Christmas and New Year's' made them want to buy a lot and give them out for free."
"Did you check the expiry date?"
Ned was halfway through a nod before he froze. "Wait, actually, no. Shit, when do these expire?"
"I bet if they're being handed out for free then they did expire," he remarked, leaning against the doorframe until Ned found the expiry date.
"They expired last week. They can't be too bad, right?"
He shrugged. "I guess we'll have to wait and see." The doorbell rang. "Oh, that's MJ. If we're going to use those then we're doing it on the fire escape."
Jogging over to the door to open it for Michelle, he smiled when she gave him a bag of M&M's before hugging him.
"So, how was your Christmas?" He asked as she left her shoes by the radiator. She had spent Christmas with her relatives in Toronto and had only gotten back yesterday because of how bad the weather had been over the past few days.
"It was fine. I spent most of the time reading that book you recommended. The one with the weird metaphors?"
"Ooh, did you finish it?" She nodded. "What did you think?"
She hummed. "The protagonist was definitely morally grey, not the villain every claims she was. Can't believe she died though."
"Who died?" Ned called out as they entered the room.
"The morally grey protagonist from the book with weird metaphors."
"Oh, right. Anyways, are we gonna light these up now or later?" He gestured to the sparklers.
They ended up playing with the sparklers a few hours later after May had come home, deeming it the safer option in case something went wrong and they had no way to explain why they had expired sparklers in the first place.
May had dug around for a lighter after realising they had no matches and there was no way she was allowing them to light up sparklers with the stove. She couldn't afford to replace it after Ben had broken it last time by doing the exact same thing.
They climbed onto the fire escape, May following with a pot full of old soil and a jug of water as safety precautions. The sun had set a while ago and there weren't many people milling around in the street so hopefully messing around with sparklers wouldn't draw too much attention to them.
He held his breath as May lit the first sparkler, hoping it wouldn't do something crazy like explode and sighing with relief when it started fizzing and looked pretty.
Eventually they all had sparklers and May let them fool around. Michelle jokingly swirled the sparkler around like it was a weapon as he and Ned contended against her, the golden sparks making pretty patterns in the darkness until he had an idea.
"Wait, dude. I can pretend I have magic!" He said as he twirled his sparklers like they were the shields that Stephen and Ned conjured with magic.
Ned burst out laughing as he continued to make 'shields', calling out for Michelle to film them doing it until Ned's sparkler fizzled out and he swapped with her so she could pretend to make a shield.
Laughter rang out until they had used up all of the sparklers and the cold became too biting to stay outside, so they climbed through Peter's window and went inside to eat some more snacks.
"Can you send me the video?" He asked as he aimed at Ned, determined to throw an M&M into his mouth after several failed attempts.
"Sure," he replied, moving to the left to catch the chocolate in his mouth and failing. "Are you gonna send it to him?"
He snorted. "Of course. It'll be hilarious!"
Me
*video attachment*
Happy New Year's!
Magic Man
…
Lol
(Somewhere around Kamar-Taj, Stephen chuckled at the ridiculous video before putting his phone away before Wong could accuse him of trying to get away from the party before all the booze came out.)
New Year's had passed in a blur of sweets and fireworks across the whole of New York. They hadn't gone to Times Square since it would have been a sensory overload for him - no one made it an explicit fact but he knew that was why they had watched it on TV instead.
Fidgeting with his pencil as his English lesson continued so slowly it was monotonous, he wondered what Stephen was getting up to. Had he checked on the Power stone to make sure no one had stolen it?
'Wait, don't you think you're micromanaging things that are way out of your reach?' He questioned himself. 'He knows what he's doing.'
The petulant side of him answered. 'But he's still keeping me away from things I could help with!'
Great, he had started an internal debate with himself.
It wasn't as though Stephen wasn't listening to him like Tony hadn't been for the most part of the Vulture incident. He had taken on many ideas including the insane Loki one! The thing he was worried about was the fact Thanos was 3 months away from coming to Earth and trying to destroy the universe. He didn't want to lose against the Mad Titan.
Well, no one did. Besides, Tony had been warned and, from what he had heard whenever he was in the Compound, had been working on precautions since July. Wakanda was also prepared and was the only place secure enough to keep Thanos at bay.
Speaking of which, he needed to ask Tony about the Iron Spider suit. He hadn't seen it since when Tony had offered him a place on the Avengers and wanted to upload an update that would install Karen's upgrades to it.
He also needed to leave messages for people in case things did go wrong and he…well…he died again. Messages about solutions to time travel for Tony, who he could find if he needed help with magic (Wong), assurances about the future and whatever else he could think of.
Those were contingency plans though. He wasn't going to allow Thanos to win. He was going to do everything he could to stop half the universe from dying again.
Except…what if the Snap didn't kill the same half of the universe from the other timeline? What if it killed the other half?
His blood chilled at the thought.
What if he, May and all of his friends survived but Tony and everyone else died? Would he be unable to work out time travel quickly and get all of the Infinity Stones before 5 years had passed? What if all of them died and no one was able to bring them back?
Nausea churned in his stomach at the possibilities and he turned back to his work before he could continue to spiral.
He wanted to do everything he could to increase their chances of winning even if it meant bending a couple of rules. It wasn't as if he was going to kill anyone to get what he wanted, no way. (Okay, maybe he was slightly doubtful of himself considering he had almost killed Goblin in the previous timeline.)
Bending the rules included something a bit different…
("The Collector refused to move the Reality Stone somewhere safer than wherever he's displaying it and currently it's not morally sound for me to steal it.")
'Currently it's not morally sound for me to steal it.'
Notes:
If Peter were to interact with some of the Avengers whilst in battle, who would you like to see and what would they do?