I apologize for when I take a few days or like a week to update. My brain is little fried and sometimes I need a little time to figure out what I'm going to write next. I don't want to rush and give y'all crappy content. Thank you for reading 🤍
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I was able to watch one episode before Pepper came back and am currently on the second one. I'm guessing Midtown and Morgan's school aren't very close to each other. She hangs up her keys before slowly approaching me. I keep my eyes on the tv, scared to look at her. "What are you watching?" Pepper casually asks as she stands behind the couch.
"Cobra Kai," I simply answer.
"Oh, I've heard of it. It's based on The Karate Kid, right?"
I nod my head and reply, "yeah, it's the original characters but in today's world... and there are new younger characters too. I came here for Daniel and Johnny but I actually really love the younger characters too."
Pepper slightly giggles at this. "Yeah, I know how much you love Ralph Macchio," she notes. I only smile and nod my head. I find it kind of weird how casual she's being. She's trying to pretend everything is normal when I know what she's really thinking. I know she wants me to stay home because she's afraid I'll disappear again. "Do you want some breakfast? I could make you something," she suggests, making her way to the kitchen.
"Oh, no, it's fine. I'll eat something later," I respond. She nods and continues walking and I quickly pause the tv. I turn my body on the couch so I'm facing Pepper's direction. "Um, Pep?" I call out. She whirls around and looks at me, waiting for me to continue speaking. "I know you're worried about me, and you think that I'm gonna run away and take over another town or something..." I commence. She makes a face as if what I'm saying is completely untrue.
"Which is why you want to keep me in here, but you don't have to worry about that. Trust me, I'm not going to repeat that mistake, especially after knowing how I affected all those people... and I'd like to go back to school. Maybe tomorrow or the day after that but I just want to return to normal."
Pepper has a hesitant look on her face and she walks back over to me. She sits next to me on the couch, placing a gentle hand on my shoulder. "Sweetie, it's not that I don't trust you. I know you wouldn't do that again. I guess I'm just scared to lose you again, it was terrifying the first time. Losing a child is a mother's greatest fear, and when it happened with you... I felt like I failed you and him," she explains. My eyes dart to her when she utters that last sentence. I know exactly who she means. "It's my first time being without him and now I have to raise you and Morgan on my own... and I lost you within the first three weeks. What would he say about that?" she says, starting to get emotional. My heart sinks at this.
"He'd say that it wasn't your fault. I mean, how do you control a daughter with powers like these?" I ask, holding my hands up. "There is no way you could've known what would happen. Hell, I didn't even plan it and neither did Wanda. What we did is on us, we were grieving and weren't thinking clearly. None of it is your fault and Tony knows that," I rant. Pepper gives me a questioning look.
"What do you mean, he knows that?"
My face falls in shock. I walked right into that one. I guess the time has come for me to tell her the truth. I take a deep breath before I start talking. "Okay, um, so you know that Wanda and I accidentally created our own reality," I begin, to which she nods. "How much do you know about that?"
"Uh, not much. No one would tell me anything. I just know that it was a sitcom and Peter was stuck in there for a while, and that Vision was there and the SWORD director wanted him... but he's gone now," she replies with a shrug. I slightly nod. As I suspected, no one told her about Tony.
"Right. Well, uh, Wanda sort of brought Vision back with the Mind Stone... but he's not the only person who came back."
"Right, I heard something about a fake Jonathan," Pepper chimes in. Oh, God, how am I supposed to tell her this?
"Yeah, there was a fake Jonathan but I'm not talking about him," I clarify, making her knit her eyebrows together in confusion. I glance at my hands, not being able to look at her. "When Wanda was creating Vision, I was doing the same thing. I also brought someone back..." I finally decide to gaze at Pepper, who's staring at me with an unreadable expression. "Someone we both knew and loved," I conclude. She suddenly gasps, realizing who I mean. It's dead silent, the only noise I hear is my own heartbeat. She looks at her lap in disbelief and a tear escapes her eye.
"You- you mean..." she stammers, not being able to finish her sentence. I nod in confirmation, and she chokes out a sob. "Oh, my God," she murmurs as she cries. "What happened to him?" she asks.
I take a moment before eventually answering, "he's gone now... he could only exist inside that world." Her face looks even more pained, which I didn't think was possible. "I'm sorry, Pep," I cry. "I... I was thinking about how much I wanted him back and it all happened so fast. He didn't remember much about his life but he would get random flashbacks, and he remembered you one time!" Pepper slowly lifts her head to gaze at me when I say this.
"He finally got his memory back and we had to go into battle, which I'll tell you about later, and after everything happened, we all went home to say goodbye since Wanda and I had to take everything down. We said our goodbyes to Wanda's boys and Vision before going into the kitchen to say goodbye to each other. He asked about you and Morgan, he wanted to know if you guys were okay. Then he asked me what he was since he couldn't live outside the false reality. I told him that he was a piece of the Energy Stone that's inside me, a soul that I made physical," I explain. Pepper just listens intently and I feel myself becoming choked up.
"I finally got to thank him for everything he's done for me and tell him that I love him. He said he loves me too and that he was glad we got some extra time. He gave me some of his Tony Stark wisdom," I say, slightly chuckling at the end, making Pepper chuckle too. "He told me to tell Morgan that her dad loves her 3000... I'll tell her soon, I just need to figure out how to... and he also said to tell you that he loves you."
Pepper's eyes soften and she lightly gasps. More tears cascade down her face and I immediately hug her, causing her to hold onto me tightly as she cries into my shoulder. I cry as well, I hate that I'm the cause of her tears. We remain like this for a while until I eventually break the silence. "I'm sorry, I didn't want to hurt you," I whisper.
Pepper pulls away from me and wipes a few tears away as she gazes at me. "No, you didn't hurt me. I just... it's a mixture of emotions. You know, I'm upset that I missed him and he's completely gone again but... I'm happy to know that you got to say goodbye properly to him this time," she explains, wiping a tear off my face. "It's nice to know that he was thinking of me and said that he loves me," she concludes. I study her face, she looks distraught yet somehow more at peace now.
"So you're not mad at me?" I ask, to which she shakes her head.
"Mad at you? Oh, sweetie, no!" she claims, pulling me into her side. "It's the opposite. I'm thankful that you told me. I like the thought of him spending his last moments in a happy way... he was happy, right?"
"Yeah... he was. We were," I confirm. Pepper slightly giggles, satisfied by my response.
"Thank you for telling me. I really needed this," she cries. I nod my head and hug her tightly again. I'm glad I got that out of the way. I really thought there was a possibility of losing Pepper in the process but that thankfully didn't happen. Peter was right about this.
Suddenly, Pepper pulls away from the hug with a concerned expression. "What's wrong?" I question. She sighs and glances at me with that same worried look.
"That reminds me, I got a call from Agent Woo... sweetie, there's something else we need to talk about."
"Is it bad?" I question. By the look on her face, I'm guessing it's pretty bad.
•~•~•~•
There's a knock at the door and I rush over to open it, revealing Peter on the other side. "Hey," he greets as he walks into the house. I return the greeting and shut the door. "I came as soon as the last bell rang. What's wrong? Are you okay?" he yaks anxiously.
I lead him to my room as we chat. "Yeah, I'm fine, I'm just..." We enter my room and I close the door before finishing my sentence. "Probably in legal trouble." Peter stares at me with a look of confusion and shock.
"What? Are you getting arrested or something?"
I sigh and slowly step closer to him. "No... or I don't know. You remember that FBI agent, Jimmy Woo?" I ask, to which he nods. "He called Pepper and let's just say that certain government branches are not happy about what Wanda and I did... I have to stand trial."
Peter's jaw drops and he frustratedly runs his hand through his hair. "So the government knows your secret identity?"
I lightly shake my head. "Just a few people, like Jimmy Woo from the FBI, probably the judge who will be trying me, my lawyer... a few witnesses... SWORD. It will be pretty private, there's no press or anyone not involved in the case allowed in the courtroom," I answer. Damn, way too many people know. The only government employees I trust are Monica and Jimmy. Maybe I should've run away with Wanda.
"So they're going to protect your identity?" Peter questions.
"I hope so. Monica said that she'd handle it in Westview but we're talking about the government now so..." I trail off. Oh, gosh, I'm screwed. Peter heavily sighs, disappointed by the news.
"When do you have to go to court?"
"The arraignment is on Friday."
Peter's eyes widen. "That's in two days," he points out, making me cringe and nod my head. "Okay, everything will be fine. You're still considered a minor so maybe they'll go easy on you," he tries to reassure me.
"Who knows," I respond, shrugging. I don't know about that but I know the prosecutor won't drop the charges during the arraignment. "Anyway, um, my lawyer will or probably already did contact May about having you testify as a witness."
Peter gives me a surprised look. "Testify?"
"Yeah... She thinks it could help my case," I confirm.
"Oh, I mean, yeah. I would love to help in any way I can. I think May would be fine with it," Peter responds. He suddenly forms his realization face. "Wait, wouldn't she find out that you're an Avenger in court?"
I casually shrug. "Yeah but she already knows you're Spider-Man so I don't see a point in hiding who I am. Plus, you, her nephew, did go missing in my sitcom so she should know about that..."
"Yeah, but are you sure this is the way you want her to find out?" Peter inquires, the concern clear in his eyes.
"I just- I don't know, maybe I can talk to her after court or before, and just hope that she doesn't hate me," I reply. I probably should talk to her before then, because there is no doubt that the prosecutor will try to villainize me. "Pepper kind of has me on house arrest though. I can only go to school then come back home. She doesn't want me going out too much before the arraignment," I inform him.
"Why don't I talk to her then? I'll tell it how it is, it's not like you did all that on purpose. She loves you, I know she'll understand," Peter suggests. I grin at his sweetness and place a hand on his cheek, leaning in to press a kiss on his other cheek.
"Thank you... but even if you do, I still need to talk to her myself," I tell him. He nods and shoots me a small smile, setting his hand over the one I have on his face. "I just want all this to be over. I want to pretend that I'm a normal teenager for once," I suddenly whisper. Peter nods in understanding, I know he feels the same way.
"Me too. Look, everything will be fine and soon we'll be able to put all this behind us and just pretend like we're stupid teenagers, okay?" Peter softly replies. I giggle lightly at this and nod.
"Okay," I reply, making him smile warmly at me. He wraps his arms around my waist, pulling me into him. I wrap my arms around his shoulders and bury my head in the crook of his neck, replaying his last words in my head:
Like we're stupid teenagers.
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Did y'all catch that Mama Steve reference? 👀