╭-°—✞—˚✧ ψ ✧˚—✞—°-╮
MONSTER!
𝖊𝖕𝖎𝖑𝖔𝖌𝖚𝖊
╰-°—✞—˚✧ ψ ✧˚—✞—°-╯
────── 〔ψ〕──────
AS PETER WALKED through the crowded hall of joyful students, happy to be reunited, he knew what was missing. Who was missing. Although he saw her for himself, he still searched for her blonde head in the crowd. She was never going to turn the corner and run into his arms. The last person he saw before he died, the one who he always counted on to be there, was never going to be there again.
He was being pulled away from Tony's body, Pepper had wanted to say goodbye. His sobs wracked his body as Tony laid against the rock, near dead. James Rhodes, a man Peter briefly met, was holding him close to his side, supporting Peter.
The arc reactor faded, Pepper began to shake in her own tattered suit from her own sobs. Tony Stark was dead. Nobody moved for a long time. They all stood there in each other's grief because all around Tony were the many lives he affected.
"Sal?" Steve called out, Peter's ears perked at her name, he wiped under his eyes, blinking away his tears. He needed to see her.
He searched for the black suit with grey and purple stripes, but she wasn't in the crowd. He looked for her black horns but they weren't to be seen. A loud, broken cry snatched Peter's attention away from his search. Steve was hunched over a body. His body was violently shaking with his sobs. Peter's heart began to race as his senses lifted the hairs off his body.
Denial was running through his mind as he and a couple of others joined him as they limped their way to Steve. A woman splayed out on the ground with a chitauri spear ran through her body. She looked young, she looked tired. Peter had seen her before. He was going to help her, but the glove had fallen into his hands and he was on a mission, he had planned on going back to her but the hellfire rained down and Carol had came in and Peter could never seem to find a time to get back to her.
"Salene," Steve's voice cracked, brushing the hair out of her face.
Peter's world came crashing down. His heart sank to the floor and his knees came down with it. He crawled to her body, shaking his head.
"No, no, no, no! NO!" He screamed out, he lifted her upper body, rocking it back and forth, "wake up, you're not dead god please WAKE UP!"
The one girl he ever confessed his love to was dead in his arms. And he'll never get her back.
Peter found himself in front of what used to be the school's trophy case. What he stood before now was an array of different photos of Salene, from news articles about her to her graduation photo. Paired with that were fresh flowers of all kinds, all her paintings, and cards and letters addressed to her from fans, students, classmates, any and every person who knew her. Who knew Lightbringer.
Ned sniffled as he stood beside him, Peter could sense it. Peter pulled a tissue out of the pack that he clutched in his hand, he was glad May forced him to take it with him. Peter pulled his eyes away from her photo once more to get a good look at Ned.
"One minute, you two are flying off the bus, disappearing into space, the next, I come back after five years to see that she's gone," Ned mumbled. Peter couldn't find himself to speak, he had no words, so he nodded.
The bell had rung, the hallways cleared, but no one dared to tell the boys to leave. They all knew to not mess with Salenes grieving friends.
"Hey," a voice pulled peter out of his thoughts, he and Ned looked over to see Kyril Kalimeris, eyes red-rimmed and teary, he seemed to actively be avoiding looking at the photos that burned in their peripherals, "it seems she still has something to say to you." The older boy held out a video camera, Peter had seen it in Salene's room a couple of times before, she had told him she wanted to try and direct a film when she was in middle school but found her passion in painting instead.
Peter gently took this camera, his eyebrows furrowed. He opened his mouth to ask a question but Kyril held his hand up.
"You can keep it, those videos were only meant for you," Kyril continued, Peter still wanted to protest but the boy shook his head, "she left us things behind as well, and I think there's a box of your stuff at our house, we won't touch it, but when you're ready, shoot me a text, we'll all go through her room and unpack her boxes."
• • •
THE CAMERA WAS burning a hole in Peter's mind. He couldn't do it. It was hard enough trying to face the fact that he was the last one to see her alive and he did nothing. He remembered Steve hunched over her still body. He remembered the way that her arms splayed out as if she was waiting for someone to fill her embrace.
Peter sat at his small desk, staring at the camera in his hands. He couldn't even bring himself to open up the screen panel. A knock on his door made him set it down. He got up from his chair and opened the door to see Kyril again, this time, with the rest of his family, Ian included. Peter's eyes widened, glancing to the suit that was perfectly behind his open door.
"Come on, we want to show you something," Kyril had a weak smile, pulling Peter out of his room by his shoulder, "did you watch her videos yet?"
Peter shook his head, looking down at his empty heads.
"It's understandable, you loved her," Kyril spoke up, Peter didn't know how he felt about talking to her family like this, he never really hung out with Salenes brothers without Salene.
Seeing them now, it felt like Salene should be coming around the corner with a tray of food from the diner.
The group went to the small living room, taking their seats on whatever they could. Peter sat in front of all of them, they all looked at each other and all moved a piece of their clothing. Alessandro and Adrian lifted their left sleeve, Dina took off one of her many rings, and Kyril lowered the collar of his shirt. They all had tattoos. All were different, all looked fresh.
Peter furrowed his eyebrows and tilted his head.
"Salene had gotten five tattoos, they all had personal meaning, they all are different, just like how we all saw different sides of her," Adrian gave a pointed glare at Kyril, "some of us saw our little sister while some of us saw Lightbringer in some cases."
"Adrian, do you want to get into this now? She explained why she didn't tell you guys!" Kyril snapped, making Dina and Alessandro purse their lips and look at each other.
"We saw an artist," Alessandro pointed out, making Ian chuckle as he held Adrian's hand watching the siblings' feud.
"Anyways," Ian finally spoke up, "the Kalimeris Clan here wanted to know if you wanted to match the tattoo Salene got for you!" Peter's mind was still wrapping around it all.
It was at that moment that May had finally appeared from around the corner, a sad smile on her face.
"I don't mind you lying about your blip status for it," she spoke, Peter could see her bank card in her hand.
"Can- can," Peter looked back to the family in front of him, "can I see it?"
It was like Dina knew he was going to ask, she had pulled her phone out of her pocket and tapped her screen two times before flipping it around and showing him.
She had the yang of the yin-yang. And Peter could infer from the fact that since Alessandro had his safety pin on his right wrist, she had the yang on her left wrist.
"You can get it on either wrist, we matched her spots because we had no creativity, but yeah," Alessandro spoke up.
"Yeah," Peter nodded, "yeah, I'll do it."
He watched as their faces collectively broke into smiles.
"Okay Spider-Man," Ian chirped, "let's go."
Peter's heart stopped, he locked eyes with Kyril who also had wide eyes.
"Ian!" Dina hissed, "they weren't supposed to know that we know!"
Ian snickered as he got up, "whoops" he half-heartedly shrugged.
Adrian couldn't help but snicker with his boyfriend as they all got up. Kyril rolled his eyes before looking at Peter, "Can I talk to you?"
Peter nodded and the two went back to Peter's room. Kyril has known about Peter being Spider-Man for as long as he knew about Salene being Lightbringer, Peter trusted him with that knowledge, the older boy never let him down before.
Peter sat at his desk as Kyril sat down on the bed next to it. Kyril looked like he was struggling with something.
"I shouldn't be asking right now, I know this is just as hard for you as it is for us, but when Captain America came by, he couldn't give us much information, it was hard for him too," Kyril shook his head, "I'm rambling-" he sighed, "-what happened? I died in my car, I come back to find out I was gone for five years and my little sister was dead."
Peter nodded, looking out his window, the view being different still threw him off.
"We were on the Manhattan bridge when the spaceship came down in Manhattan, a few blocks away from Washington Square Park," Peter explained, he went on to explain what happened on Titan and what happened when he came back. He couldn't bring himself to tell Kyril about the fact that he saw the spear go in one side of Salene and exit the other.
Peter couldn't get past Tony's death, he couldn't get to when Steve found her body.
"I'm sorry," Kyril stopped him, "I shouldn't be asking you to relive that, whenever you're ready if you're ever ready."
Peter watched Kyrils eyes trail to the iron suit that was halfway into Peter's closet, "Cool." Peter only chuckled, nodding.
"Yeah."
────── 〔ψ〕──────
THE SHOEBOX APARTMENT was different from what Peter was used to. May had been snapped from existence as well, so no one was there to maintain residence, leaving Peter's landlord to have to move a new family in there. Salene had looked out for them though, she was able to get a storage unit and got all of their stuff in there, so Peter and May weren't starting from the very bottom anymore. A lot of it still had to be sold to afford to move in and because some of it wasn't going to fit but it still left May in tears when she and Peter first went to the unit.
Peter was now laying in his twin-sized bed, staring at the camera in his hands, occasionally opening up the screen panel, but never actually turning it on. He couldn't remember what she sounded like. Peter wasn't sure if he wanted to remember. Her voice in his thoughts 24:7? That's a new level of pain.
Peter reluctantly turned on the camera, the logo of the company that made the camera lit up the screen. After that, videos loaded. There were more than fifty from what the screen showed in the corner. The most recent video was the day before he came back. The day before he died. Peters breath hitched at that date and clicked on it.
The video started with Salene adjusting the camera, she was flickering her eyes between the lens and Peter assumed the screen next to it.
"Okay," her voice cut into his ears, "alright the fact that it's recording is awesome-" she sighed, leaning back into her desk chair, "-as you can see I'm back into my old room above the diner, you may be wondering why but uh, I'm moving back, it's a long story so I hope you're comfortable."
She chuckled, making Peter's mouth twitch a smile. Her blonde hair seemed almost white, but there were no lights on in her room, it always looked like that when she relied on natural light.
"Do you remember back in twenty sixteen when we fought half the avengers in Germany? And Bucky was there? And that guy that knocked you on your ass was there? Well, his name is Scott Lang, we all thought he was dead but apparently, he wasn't, I've come to find out that five, grueling years here is roughly five hours in a place called the quantum realm, now, before you nerd out-" Peter's brain slowed down, he was coming up with about twenty theories about the quantum realm the second she mentioned it, "-remember, this is is only a video and if you're watching it, I'm not around to delete it and just talk to you about it myself."
She sighed once more and Peter's heart twisted in its ache.
"Anyways, the machine that Scott was using that took him to the quantum realm, Tony used its based mechanics or something and made a time machine, holy shit I know, fucking time travel, now, Bruce, or Hulk, or Professor Hulk, whoever the fuck I'm supposed to call him now, he explained to me that it's nothing like back to the future which is ass, because Rhodey and I were fully prepared to just kill Thanos after he was born but apparently I don't get what I want-"
Peter had to pause the video, there were ten minutes left, his vision was blurring and his nose started to burn and get stuffy.
He pressed on, continuing to listen to her story, explaining her day and what was going on with the status of it all.
"So now that leads me to this, I just wrote letters to my family and to Ian, I explained to them what happened with Thanos, I explained my powers to them, but the fact that you're watching this, Peter," she looked down at her fidgeting fingers on the desk, "I love you, I love you too, I wish I had the chance to say it sooner, I wish you were here with me now, there has been so much that I've experienced that I wish I experienced with you."
Peter wiped his eyes, he couldn't stop crying at this point.
"If you're seeing this, I'm dead, I don't know how I am obviously, but also, if you're seeing this, then I'm hoping, I'm praying, that it's because we won, we did it right," Salene slowly smiled again, she was crying too, "I never stopped loving you, I never stopped missing you, and sometimes I wish I did, but I'm glad I didn't because I'm not sure I would have had enough motivation if you weren't in my life."
Peter sat up in the bed, reaching for something to blow his nose into.
"But Peter Parker, I want you to know that no matter what, I'm gonna love you until my heart stops beating."
╭-°—✞—˚✧ ψ ✧˚—✞—°-╮
FIN!
𝖋𝖎𝖓
╰-°—✞—˚✧ ψ ✧˚—✞—°-╯