(Back to your regularly scheduled everyone-knows-and-adores-Peter stuff. Just one more thing.
Brace yourself.)

Tony smiled at Peter as the boy swung another terrorist away. Fighting by the Spider's side and seeing how far he'd come blossomed something in Tony's chest that he hadn't felt many times before. Only when he listened to all the voicemails the kid left him. Watching as he made upgrades on his own suit that Tony had never even thought of. Swinging around New York while listening to him chat about how disappointing an A- was to him. Tony liked that feeling. Pride.

"Almost done here," Rhodey announced through the team's coms firmly.

"Good," Hawkeye said nearby as he let loose the last of his arrows. "These guys were really starting to annoy me."

"Agreed," Nat grunted from somewhere on the dark, smokey battlefield.

Steve rolled past a fire and whacked a terrorist in the face with a metallic pang as his shield made contact. He glanced up at Tony tiredly. "What were these guys here for again?"

Tony shrugged. "I dunno. Do I look like Wikipedia to you?"

"Do you really think–" Tiny-Scott kicked a guy in the face, knocking him over. "–that Wikipedia would know something like that?"

"They know everything," Tony commented as he blasted the last of the bad guys in the back.

"Well, Wiki-How is better," Peter dropped down next to Tony in his Spiderman suit. "They have pictures."

"Huh?" Tony raised his face plate to eye the boy in confusion.

"Nothing," Peter chuckled. "Inside joke."

The team converged on Tony's position, stomping out fires in the road and throwing burning trucks over the cliff to keep them away from the forest on the other side of the pavement. Sam and Bucky tied all the terrorists together quickly before joining their teammates.

They were all sighing in relief, assuming it was over. Those high tech weapons had really done a number on them.

Vision opened his mouth to say something - probably point out that Thor had been absent again - but sudden machine gun fire cut him off abruptly.

Wanda swiped the bullets out of the air as Cap threw his shield forcefully at the nearly-hidden attacker. It bounced off the guy's head and he collapsed to the ground with a thud. Natasha rolled her eyes at the weak attempt to take down one of the Avengers.

Tony glanced back at Peter grinning, knowing the kid enjoyed seeing both Wanda's magic and Steve's shield skills. Instead the Spider was staring at the ground quietly. He must have missed it, Tony thought, slightly disappointed.

Then he noticed the kid clutching his side waveringly.

"Mr. Stark?" He gasped and stumbled forward. Tony caught him, surprised by the boy's sudden exhaustion.

"Oh god," Hope stepped up to him and helped Tony lower him to the ground. It took Tony a second to see what was wrong.

"Shit. Oh mother of shit, no."

Steve didn't even have the heart to language him. 

"Pete, what did you do?" Tony whispered to the teen and pressed a hand to the wound in his stomach, blood flowing in between his fingers rebelliously.

"Sor'y," he mumbled quietly.

Then it hit the billionaire hard in the chest. That last guy. He had been the one to shoot at them. Peter had been fine before. How come Tony hadn't been able to protect him? He had been standing right there! Yet he did nothing!

Tony's eyes moistened as the kid's breathing turned raspy. Wanda choked behind them, tears dreaming from her eyes. She could feel him dying. Feel Tony's grief. She knew what it was like to be in the man's position.

Scott patted the pocket in his belt to assure himself that Cassie's picture was still there. Clint wrapped an arm around Wanda's shoulder.

"Peter?" Tony whispered as the teen's eyes fluttered tiredly. "I need you to stay with me okay?"

He nodded slightly, lips parting to say something, but he coughed painfully instead. Natasha turned away and called for shield to send someone, anyone.

Tony held Peter's head as the boy's eyelids drooped.

"No," Tony commanded. "I gave you one job kid. Stay awake, alright."

Peter let the slightest of smiles slip onto his face. "Sorry, Mr. Star..."

"No, no, kid," Tony slapped the side of his face, softly at first, but continued more demanding. "No! Wake up! Kid, please!"

Hope dropped beside them and started to apply CPR with tears blurring her vision. Tony held onto the boy, shaking his shoulders, yelling for him to wake up. Steve and Bucky looked on with wet faces along with most of the team as they watched the two try to save him.

"Peter, please wake up!" Tony cried, blinded by salty tears as he held the Spider in his arms.

Hope had given up and sat sobbing a few feet away with Scott trying to comfort her through his own grief. Tony sobbed and yelled and cried.

Peter lay still in his arms, heart no longer beating. Lungs no longer breathing. Brain no longer working. His face was almost peaceful and the rest of the team looked on, wondering how he could have been cracking jokes a few minutes before. He could almost be asleep.

Tony cried into Peter's hair. His Peter. The one person Tony would go to the ends of the earth to protect.

Gone.

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Tony shot up in bed, face still matted in tears, breathing quickly and gasping as he slowed his sobs. Then he immediately picked up his phone from his nightstand - ignoring the fact that it was three o'clock in the morning - and called Pepper.

"Tony?" She answered a few rings later groggily. "What is it?"

"I..." he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Why did he call her again? He knew she was getting worried at this point. "Nothing, just butt dialed you."

She sounded doubtful. "In your sleep?"

"...yes?"

She sighed. "You had another nightmare."

It obviously wasn't a question.

"Y-Yeah. It's fine, though...I'm used to it Peps."

"That's not a good thing, Tony. You've been having the same sort of nightmares for the past two weeks Maybe you should see someone."

"No," he said immediately. He didn't want the public thinking he was finally cracking from the stress of his life. "I can handle it."

Pepper said something else, but Tony didn't hear seeing as he took the phone away from his ear to listen to FRIDAY when she said the key word.

"Sir, Peter seems to have woken up."

At three in the morning?

"Why?"

"I have no idea, sir."

Tony put the phone back up to his mouth for a split second. "Gotta go, Pep."

"Tony Stark, do not hang up on–"

Tony clicked end call and jumped out of bed, hastily getting dressed in sweats to find out what was wrong with his protégé.

——————————

First of all, I'm going to continue the good and evil thing in another book, just the teens adjusting to normal life and becoming the heroes they were meant to be and such.

Anyways, this one will be fluff and more fluff with a little bit of crying, but then mostly fluff. Lol, okay, bye.

- Wanda