I'm finally writing a chapter after two months away from my keyboard. I'm sorry for the long pause in chapters but I'm back and somewhat motivated so let's do this...
Peter knew that no one he knew from before would ever have expected him to change so much. He'd left late that night when the rest of the tower was in a state of silence and sleep. Almost all employees had already left for the night and half of the Avengers were on a mission somewhere in northern Europe. Those who remained had been asleep for hours after a brutal training session with Clint. This was one of the only chances he'd had since he'd come back from the battle with Thanos to put his plan into action.
So as he grabbed the packed bag he'd left in his closet for months while he gathered courage he looked sorrowfully around the room he'd come to call his own. He knew that Tony would be hurt and confused, Wanda would feel as if she'd been left all over again, and Steve would try to hide his pain to console Tony and those who Peter was going to leave behind. The thought of his family almost changed his mind until he remembered their faces as they tried to comfort him from the nightmares and outbreaks Hydra and Thanos had imprinted in his brain. They had given all of their time and efforts to deal with all of his problems and he was tearing them apart.
He shook himself out of his deep thought as he remembered Wanda would be coming to check on him in fifteen minutes to ensure he was sleeping nightmare-free, as per usual. He pulled the door open with only a soft click and rushed down the stairwell doing his best to not make noise until he was at least fifteen floors down where no supersoldier hearing could pick up on his footsteps and heavy breathing.
He hesitated when he finally made it to the side door where he would be exiting the building for the last time. He was leaving his home and everything he'd ever had, but he kept walking forward and out of this life and into his next. He wasn't around to see Tony's face fall in time with his heart when FRIDAY informed him that Peter was no longer in the tower or when Wanda's powers went berserk when she realized that she'd lost the person who'd stood in as her brother after Pietro's death. He wasn't there.
Several years went by before Peter came back on the radar again. He'd changed everything about himself in an attempt to hide from his past and the pain that came with it, but all it had done was tear him apart. He'd tattooed over his battle scars, left his curls and lovable smile at the hair salon, and did everything he could to leave anything else he had left in the tattoo parlor.
He'd found himself behind the scenes of a PI's office where he filed papers and answered phone calls for a man who believed in hard justice and looking out for the little guy. It was the closest thing he could find to keeping his work as a vigilante going, but found that everything he had there was too similar to the past he'd left.
So he ran once again. He stayed in a hospital as a cleaner for a few months, then worked as a photographer for a modeling agency, in a mechanic's workshop fixing cars, and even spent time working as an EMT. Every time he ran away he took a new persona and identity. He finally came back to the radar after receiving a fatal gunshot wound in the middle of Seattle when transporting someone in the back of the ambulance. Doctors hadn't been able to find anything official about his identity on any federal database as if he'd never existed at all, but Tony took one look at his face and even riddled with new tattoos knew it was him.
So Peter woke up and for the first time in years, he found himself holding someone's hand. He felt the stiffness of the stitches in his abdomen and could see the sun beaming in through the windows across from him, but he could also feel the warmth of a hand in his. He took one look at the person in the chair next to his bed and his body began to shake with sobs.
"I missed you," he murmured through the tears.
"Then why'd you leave," Tony's voice cracked.
"I'm not sure I even know anymore." Peter shuffled to sit up as he wrapped his father in a hug like he'd wanted to do for so long. "I've been so lost. I just wish I had noticed a little sooner." Tony pulled back to take a long look at his son.
"I like the new ink but I think you could have gone without the eyebrow piercing if we're being honest." Tony broke the silence with one of his usual quips.
All Peter could do was continue to cry.
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