Once the Stark building came into view, the quiet conversation fell into soft silence. Peter realised that his day wasn’t over yet, he still had a lot to explain, and more to repeat in front of Pepper and Rhodey.
“Why are you huffing ?” Tony asked, it scared Peter how much he sounded like a parent then.
“Nothing, I’m just tired.” Peter responded quickly, not wanting to sound petulant.
Tony sent him a ‘no ? really ?’ look that May used on him when he was a child.
“Stark mansion.” Happy announced as he was driving the way down the private parking garage.
“Thanks Happy, you’re the best !” Peter exclaimed before getting out of the car as soon as it parked.
“Don’t go around causing more trouble kid, Boss is enough trouble by himself already.”
“I can’t promise I won’t do anything but I can promise that it will all be against my will if it happens.” Peter retorted smartly, making the driver laugh and Tony chuckle softly.
“Let’s go. Let the man get his beauty sleep, he needs it.” Tony snarked at his bodyguard.
“Watch it, I won’t hold back next time we’re on the boxing rink.”
“Empty words.” Tony said before making his way out of the garage, throwing a quick goodnight toward the exasperated Happy. “Peps and Honeybear are waiting, get moving.”
Peter was out of the room before Tony could finish his phrase. Making his way to the open elevator that would get him directly to the kitchen floor.
“Hey guys.” Peter didn’t wait for Tony to catch up on him so he was the first one to arrive. Tony had to take the second elevator, which was a bit slower. Rich people problems, Peter couldn’t believe it sometimes.
“Peter, sweetheart ! Oh my god, are you okay ? I was worried sick and Tony wouldn’t tell me anything, he said you would explain everything tonight. What happened ? Are you hurt ?” Pepper was more expressive May ever was, she was also more used to the danger surrounding them so her worry wasn’t a quiet fury but something much brighter and comforting.
She was holding Peter’s face, inspecting to see if he had been hurt. Physically and emotionally.
“I’m good, I was just summoned by a friend. He just didn't get the right timing for it. How is it looking PR wise ?” Peter bite his lip with worry, he wasn’t ready to hear about the fiasco this could cause.
“It’s a success, you were the most talked about person of the day.” Pepper smiled warmly, not worried at all by the fact that he had made a fool of himself in front of the entire world. “The whole blinding light fried all the cameras filming so no one can really prove that it happened. And I’m sure the Golden Girls will have your back to keep any leaked footage from the World Wide Web. For now the world thinks that we had a technical issue.”
“Gaslighting large groups of people is my favourite past time, I’m in.” Tony said, finally arriving.
“Tones, the priority is to keep Peter out of the sticky hands of the government, we don’t need them to know anything about what happened at the Expo.” Rhodey retorted against the heavy sarcasm of his best friend.
“Oh SHIELD was definitely there when it happened, so really there’s no need to try and tell them otherwise. Fury is probably already making plans to get two steps ahead and trap us in a deal we won’t be able to refuse.” Peter added tiredly, he yawned in his hand before saying. “Also, Thor got un-god by Daddy Y’all and he is on Earth making friendly contact with Dr. Foster and SHIELD’s greatest.”
“What ?” The three other people standing in the kitchen looked at Peter puzzled.
“Kid, I understand you’re tired—we all are. But could you please make more sense. What’s that language you used ? Simlish ?”
“What Peter meant to say,” FRIDAY interrupted to explain in better details what Peter had been babbling about. “Odin, the Allfather, King of Asgard has stripped Thor, the Norse God of Thunder of all his royal inheritance. In part, his godly immortality and his rightful place on the throne. He had been sent to Earth to understand the reprehensible actions his choice as caused and to understand the complexities of mortality.”
“This is insane. Just so you know you don’t make anymore sense than him.” Tony said at the AI.
“It makes perfect sense to me.” Peter whispered to himself, he was sat on one of the dinning chair with his head resting on his arms, his eyes half closed.
Pepper made her way to sit close to him, she was followed by Rhodey who looked like he had whole existential crisis going on in his head.
Tony choose to stay up in the middle of the kitchen his body resting on the marble counter of the centre island. A glass of bourbon in his hand, no one felt the need to chastise him for his alcohol intake. After all that happened today, the man could drink a glass if he wanted.
“So, Peter.” Pepper started softly, she had questions, a lot of questions but she knew that forcing them out of a barely lucid teenager wasn’t going to work. “Before we get to the subject of Norse Gods and Royal Rejects, could you tell us what happened once the white tunnel took you ?”
“Well, I’ll have to talk about Norse Gods to talk about Heimdall.”
“Is Heimdall the white tunnel ?” Rhodey asked clueless.
“Nope, the tunnel —and if we could stop calling it that please— is called The Bifrost, or most commonly referred to as the Rainbow Bridge. Heimdall on the other hand, is the guy that controls it.” Tony responded instead of Peter, not very patient with his friends way of questioning.
“Oh okay, so you know Heimdall ?” Pepper asked Peter, ignoring Tony’s impatience.
“I knew of him, I’ve heard stories before I ever met him. From people who knew him, so I wasn’t completely lost when I arrived there. And I knew where I was, but honestly I wasn’t sure if I could trust him.” Peter confessed without thinking, sleep deprivation was the best truth serum. “But we just talked it out, and he helped me with something I didn't know I needed to fix. That’s where Kvasir comes in, he did some very cool magic on me to hide my force signature from people in the universe that might want to kill me. Look.”
Peter took off his sweater to roll up the sleeves of his white shirt and show the soft marking the shielding spell had left on him.
“What the hell !” Tony shouted, almost ran to were Peter sat to take a hold of the teenager’s arms and have a closer look. “What is that ? Did he hurt you ? Kid you gotta be truthful with me here.”
“That’s insane.” Rhodey whispered, taking in the runes written on Peter’s arms. “It looks like a tattoo, or a birthmark. It doesn’t look raw or like a scar. Does it hurt ?”
Pepper didn't say a word, but her hand clutching his and her eyes worryingly roaming over the runes weren’t very reassuring. She was waiting for Peter to answer Tony’s and Rhodey’s questions before she could fully let herself drown in the worry that was bound to catch her.
“I’m fine, really. I swear on my ma’s grave. I’m just very tired.” Peter swore with his right hand up. “This protects me, and it was a heavy spell from what Kvasir and Heimdall told me. On the moment I didn't feel it but I’ve never been so exhausted before, so I guess the effects of it are finally settling.”
“You said it was to shield you from dangerous people in the universe that might want you dead…but how ? Why would they want to kill you Peter ?” Pepper asked, she was trying very hard to understand what was going on and Peter was forever grateful for her tactfulness.
Tony looked ready to collapse on the table, his eyes still fixed on Peter arms blankly. Peter rolled down his sleeve to hide the marks so that Tony could catch a break from the reality that had hit him.
“I have something they want, but I can’t give it away.” Peter decided to reveal. “The object I have, it’s very important and very powerful but it has attached itself to me when I found it and now I can’t really get rid of it…”
“Is it why everyone is dead ?” Tony asked hollow, turning his eyes to look at Peter’s face.
This hit Peter in a way he hadn’t expected. Was it ? Did the stone orchestrate everything so he fell perfectly back in line ? Could he have avoided all the pain ? All the suffering ? if he hadn’t been a nexus in all universes never bound to die for a cause greater than himself, could he have died without seeing all he had loved die before him ?
Ned and MJ; they still lived through. They still went on with their lives together and he had been too much of a coward, too scared to go and remind them of what they had. Of the love, the friendship, the nights spent laughing at stupid YouTube videos, at the afternoon lounging in Central Park studying for exams they would nail without trying.
They weren’t dead, Peter gave up on them.
He left their memories to die with him.
“No, it’s not. They all dies because I couldn’t bear the thought of being strong anymore. I was—I am selfish, not worth being called a hero. I wanted them to be happy, I wanted everyone to be safe. I wanted to be normal. I couldn’t look at my ma’s eyes without seeing the shadows of my life reflected into hers. I couldn’t look at my best friend—my brother without seeing all I took from him by standing strong beside me. I couldn't look at MJ without seeing the burden I put on her, to love me was a curse and I never had the gut to say it back to her.”
Peter’s emotions were all over the places, his eyes were swallowed by unshed tears, he tried to keep his breath slow and steady but his exhausted sobs overpowered the last bit of control he had on himself.
“Everyone I loved—they died with me. Only I remember them the way they wanted to be remembered. The way they lived and the way they loved and—they could come, those guys in the universe— they can come, they can try and they will think they have known what true grief is. He can try, to find me, to kill me but what he wants has a price only I will always be able to pay.”
“What ? What price ? Peter you’re starting to freak me out. Try and make some sense out of all that. Please.”
“It’s nothing you want to know old man…” Peter smiled bitterly. “I was just a kid— and you know Icarus ? He was a kid too. He flew so close to the sun, gods thought he could’ve touched it. I flew too, but I didn't want to grasp at the sun, I just wanted time to be merciful. I didn't fall into the sea like Icarus but still I fell, deadlier than the raging sea is the peaceful rocky ground of a cliff, it didn't embrace me in its cold arms but the sun still shone on my face as a last farewell.”
“I think— I think, we should all go to bed and put the rest of that conversation for tomorrow.” Pepper ended up saying, cutting the silence that had fallen after Peter’s revelations.
“Yeah, yep. Kiddo, up you go.” Tony accepted that he wouldn’t have all his answers tonight.
Peter didn’t wait to be told twice and left the kitchen with a soft “g’night” directed at the trio who didn’t move an inch from their spot.
A few minutes after Peter had left, the silence between the adults in the kitchen was getting heavier and heavier. But no one dared to move, they wanted to talk about what happened, about what was said but they couldn’t find the words.
“We should all go to bed—“ Tony started but was interrupted by Pepper’s dulled out voice.
“No. Tony, you have to tell us what you know—“
“That’s the problem Pepper ! I don’t know anything about him !”
“Tony, you’ve been living with him for weeks now, and you’re telling me you haven’t managed to get a single personal information on him that might explain why he is so broken ?!” Pepper wasn’t angry, but she was frustrated at the back and forth game everyone was playing.
“Tony, you basically adopted him— look I can see that you care for him but he is dangerous, he has the shadiest past and he doesn’t tell us anything that could make it logical.” Rhodey added calmly, being the voice of reason in the trio.
“Yes he is dangerous, but I’ve never seen him use his skills and strength when he wasn’t in danger, or if innocent people weren’t in danger. I trust him, I don’t know why but I do. He is good Rhodey, genuinely good. I can’t unsee it, his face—have you seen his face when he talked about his loved ones ? The ones who died ?”
“There’s layers to his grief and I don’t think we will ever get to know the really pain he carries inside.” Pepper realised, her voice hollow. “He has been through a lot, much more than we could’ve anticipated. Aliens wants him dead…”
“Compared to that, SHIELD looks like a spect of dust in the field of problem we’ll have to face.” Rhodey tried to joke but the reality of the situation hit them hard.
“You don’t have to be involved in this, I choose to stay by Peter’s side because I feel like I have responsibility to him—he saved my life after all.” Tony tried to argue, he didn't want his friend to be pulled into a situation that could quickly turn sour.
“I’m not giving up on Peter because you’re scared Tony.” Pepper didn’t swallow her words, her face fierce. “I don’t have a suit of armour or superpowers but I’ll be here, through and through if he needs me then I’ll be here, I’ll catch him like I’ve caught you.”
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