super super. peter parker

FIFTY FOUR

CHAPTER FIFTY THREE
we won, mr stark

The act of teleportation had become easy for Eddy. Almost as easy as breathing- second nature. His body could just do it without thinking about it, to the point that he could feel when it became wrong. Like when his body protested against running and he could no longer breathe but instead had to wheeze, Eddy could feel the wrongness of his movement, as if his very insides were jumping to make him stop.

With Peter clinging to his side, his heart rate beating a million times a minute, Eddy tried to feel for the other side of the darkness, for the target that they reached. Mr Stark, Mr Stark, Peter had murmured, and Eddy had used his voice as his mark and focus. For a moment, he almost thought they may be stuck in that middle realm that they travelled through. Wrong. It felt so wrong. Mr Stark. Mr Stark. Tony...

His mark on the man was slipping. Slipping so steadily that Eddy had to close his eyes and concentrate as the neon streaks swirled around him. He pictured his face: the dark hair and streaks of silver; the dashing smile that flashed with a smirk; and the suit unfurled up to his chin, the rest wrapping as a brilliant, gleaming red around his body. The image of Tony Stark seemed to fade away just as quickly as Eddy's grip on his surroundings did.

They dropped down against the earth with rough feet. It took Eddy a moment to work out where they landed but Peter moved forward before he'd even gained his balance. His stance grew lower and lower until he was crouching on his knees, leaning forward against the standing stone.

"Mr Stark?" Peter called out. Eddy did not move, did not want to. The pain in Peter's voice told him all he needed to know. "Mr Stark. Can you hear me?"

Wrong. It felt so wrong. Mr Stark. Mr Stark. Tony...

"It's us," Peter said, voice breaking. "We won, Mr Stark. We won, Mr Stark! You did it, sir you did it."

Eddy squeezed his eyes shut and suddenly his pain felt too raw, too familiar. The gaping loneliness that had linged from his time in that dark, expansive world quickly resided until all he could feel was a tingling numbness. But that senseless feeling was quickly replaced by a searing ache as his eyes opened and fell on Tony's figure, lying slumped against the rock, his suit smashed and broken, his face motionless and eerily still.

"I'm sorry."

But it wasn't fair. They'd won. Thanos had faded out like the rest of his army, becoming nothing but specks of dust in the darkening, purple sky. They'd won, but it didn't feel like a victory.

As Pepper took his place, Peter stumbled backwards, hand covering his lips to muffle the sob. Eddy could not move not matter how much he wanted to. Tony is dead, dead, dead... the thoughts screamed in his brain, cutting into his mind. The mental pain almost seemed hard enough to make him bleed.

Peter looked at him, eyes red and blinking rapidly, before he fell forward, engulfing him with his arms. Eddy clung to him and slowly, unable to hold themself up together any longer, they fell to the floor, heads pressed together.

Tony Stark is dead. Dead. DEAD. He was putting every ounce of energy into stopping his thoughts from spiralling, to prevent the anger and rage from crashing in. That dark power he'd learned to call upon seemed to sing from within, beginning to be released, to make things right, but Eddy could not bare it. This was not like last time, when Peggy had died. This time he had Peter, and he clung to the boy, willing the darkness away. 

He couldn't remember how they got out of that position, how they'd been dragged from Tony's body or how they'd gotten from the battlefield back to the Avenger's compound. Eddy wanted to forget it all: the still, haunting look on Tony's face as he fell into his unending state of rest, the fact that he looked more at peace than he ever had before, and the way Pepper fell upon him as if she had no more strength without him.

The only thing he could remember, was the constancy of Peter's touch and the tender gentleness of someone else's, fixing his wounds even though he couldn't feel the pain of the gashes and cuts anymore. The numbness of his body was loud.

What is grief if not love persevering? He'd told Peter the words that Wanda had once told him, and Vision her. Eddy had loved the man- had loved him more than he ever could have realised. His heart ached from the loss, fatigued by the familiarity of the feeling. Tony Stark had been as good as a father to him, and now he'd lost him too. The thought made him cling on even tighter to Peter, and he never wanted to let go.

.
a very, very short one:(