Aunt May, one helluva Borrower
Now he was rushing to the place where the building had been and now was a pile of rubble. His heart was in his throat as he felt the suit crawl over his body and raced through the skies to his where the other part of his heart was.
Tony rushed from the cabin as soon as he heard the news, shock and horror on his face. Why hadn't he brought the kid to live with him? He should have forced Peter to come with him, both him and his aunt, but no. He had to have a bleeding heart moment and allow them to live in the walls of the apartment in Queens.
"Peter!" Ned called, his tiny legs trying to climb over the rubble to find his best friend. The crowd was gathering from the catastrophe but he couldn't care less. He had to find the family that lived down the hall from him and his Lola. "Peter where are you!?"
A voice made him stop and he turned to see MJ coming out from a tunnel under the rubble, her face blackened by the soot. "MJ!" He ran to her, embracing the girl, feeling her strong arms wrap around him. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm okay. Are you okay?" MJ pulled back to look at Ned's face, seeing a few cuts and bruises but nothing big.
"Yeah, yeah. I can't find Peter and the fire department will be here soon and we have to go!"
"I know! Peter! Answer me!" She called out, her voice giving away how scared she was. It had started out as a normal day but that soon changed as the walls of MJ's tiny home shook and trembled. Before she could leave the house, the walls started coming down around her.
Doing what she was taught, MJ had run to her room and grabbed her mattress, throwing it into their tiny plastic bathtub and getting under it. It had saved her life, but she didn't know about her father.
"Peter!? Where are you, man!" Ned's voice started to break with his worry for his best friend. "Peter come on, answer me!"
The boy grunted as he shoved a piece of wall out of their path and stopped. Before them was Peter kneeling on the ground, holding something that he couldn't quite make out. "Peter!" Ned rushed forward when MJ grabbed his shoulder, her tan face now pale as she stared at Peter with wide eyes. "What is it?"
She couldn't say anything, only point. Ned turned and saw a pair of feet lying next to Peter and it hit him. "No..."
Tony landed in the middle of the rubble after scanning for lifeforms. Friday couldn't find anything, which scared him to death. "Peter!?" he called, his helmet melting away to reveal his face. He turned in a circle, looking down at his feet. "Friday, scan again. Look for anything the size of a mouse."
He couldn't get his heart to stop skipping beats and Tony breathed through his mouth. "Peter!?" He was afraid that the smart, adorable boy was gone from his life forever when he heard voices and looked around. "Mr. Stark!"
Finally he looked down to see two kids running up to him. Kneeling down he still towered over them and tried not to look too threatening to them.
"Mr. Stark Peter-he's...."
Ted? No, Ned! Ned was his name. He was Peter's best friend and he was pointing to a spot. Tony heard the sirens coming and shook the fear from his face. "It's okay, kids. Come here." He put his hand down and watched them climb up. "Sit tight, I'll go get him."
Without another word he slipped the two teens into a pocket that formed and stood up, walking in the direction Ned was pointing. "Pete?" He called, stopping when he saw the kid kneeling. "Pete, we have to go. Come on." He knelt down again about to nudge the boy when he saw what the boy was holding and his heart stopped.
May lay motionless in Peter's arms and the kid's shoulders shook with his sobs as he cradled her head in his arms.
"May...May please....get up, please get up."
Tony slowly put his hand out and his finger touched Peter's frail back. The boy didn't even look up, he kept calling out May's name. "Kiddo...." tony started pulling him away but Peter shook his finger off.
"No! I'm not leaving without her!" He turned grief-filled eyes up to Tony, tears making trails down his dirty cheeks. "She's gonna wake up! I know she'll wake up! May always wakes up!" He turned and shook the woman's lifeless body. "May! Please...stop whatever you're doing and get up...I need you."
Tony couldn't handle it and slipped his cupped hands under the two and lifted them. Peter didn't make a fuss, his eyes on May. "It's okay, Underoos. It'll be okay." Bringing his hands to cover the two, he flew into the air slowly.
"Cap, I'm gonna need you to get to Ingram Street and collect a few families."
"What are their names?" Came Steve's voice over the comms.
"Leeds and Jones. Friday, stall the firefighters. Hurry, Cap. They're tiny so it's dangerous for them." Without another word he flew off towards the tower.
Ten minutes later he was striding into the penthouse, his suit still on to protect his passengers. Sitting down he tried to be as gentle as possible. "Okay tiny toons, you can come out now. Steve is going to get your families, along with anyone else that's there."
The pocket moved from his chest to his free hand which hovered over the table. "Go and explore if you'd like. Peter." He sighed and looked both sad and tired. "Peter needs time."
Both the kids nodded but they didn't leave that spot, their eyes on Peter and his aunt, tears tracking down both their faces. "It...it'll be okay," Tony said, feeling braver than he felt. With that he stood and walked away from the tiny teens to his room, shutting the door. "Peter.."
The kid didn't move at his name, just stared at the pale woman in his arms. She wasn't waking up. What kind of game was she playing? Whatever it was, he didn't like it.
"Peter, you have to let her go."
"I don't have to do anything," Peter snapped, holding May to him tighter. "She will wake up....just like always..." When she woke up she would smile at him like she always did. He would hug her and she would wrap her arms around him, wrapping him in safety as always.
"Pete....she's not waking up, buddy....I'm so sorry." Tony wanted to see what had killed the woman who had protected Peter so feircely when they had first met. He couldn't believe that she was....that she was gone. "Come on Pete....it's okay." He didn't know how to handle this.
When he'd lost his parents he was alone. Well, he had Obadiah but look what happened to him. Tony had turned to drinking and self depriciation. He didn't want to see Peter go down that road. "Come one, Pete. Look at me." He hooked a single finger under Peter's chin, forcing the boy's head up. The look in his eyes broke Tony's heart into a million pieces. "Oh Pete...."
That look made tears come to his own eyes but he blinked them away. Slowly he lifted a hand and put two finger between the kid and his aunt, prying his arms off the woman and lifting him. Carefully he placed May on the nightstand and grabbed a tissue, covering her body so that Peter wouldn't need to keep seeing her.
"No...no May! Uncover her! Mr. Stark please, she can't breathe!" Peter flailed and tried to get to the woman, almost falling off the man's hand, but Mr. Stark stopped him just before he fell, his fingers wrapping around him.
Usually he'd be scared, but tonight he needed to be held. Feeling those rough, calloused hands engulfing him was the straw that broke him. He felt the tears hot and steady falling down his cheeks as he stared at the tissue that covered his aunt's unmoving body and he broke. With a wailing sob he collapsed into Mr. Stark's palm.
The teenager cried into the man's fingers as he clutched them to him. "Bring her back...please...someone bring her back!!" He couldn't take life without her. Suddenly the fingers moved and he was staring into two brown eyes that were wet with tears of their own.
"Pete....I know it's hard. And you have every right to cry. So you cry. You cry for as long as you need it." Tony blinked and a tear slipped from his eye down his cheek. "Come here."
Peter was suddenly surrounded by the scent of coffee and motor oil, a scent he was getting to know as Mr. Stark's and it made him feel..safe. He felt the man's shirt beneath him and he grabbed onto it
Numb. That's what Peter felt as he stared at the small mound of disturbed dirt. He couldn't believe it. He was alone in the world now. Aunt May was gone, and now he had no one. "Why did you leave me alone, May?" He whispered to the ground.
"Who said you're alone?" Peter jumped at the booming voice and turned to see Mr. Stark kneeling over him, his sad eyes staring down at him. "It's time to come in, Pete. It's getting cold out here." The man put his hand down, but the boy couldn't step onto it.
"What if...what if she gets cold?" He turned back to the grave, his eyes watering. "I'll stay out here with her just in case she gets lonely." He was old enough to have stopped believing in that kind of talk, but he couldn't help it. He loved his aunt and now she was....He couldn't even think of it.
"That's fine, bud." Mr. Stark groaned as he got down, the ground rumbling beneath the boy's feet as he sat. "It's gonna get cold out here for you tonight." Whipping a piece of cloth out he threw it over Peter's head, making the boy cry out as he was covered.
"Mr. Stark, you shouldn't be out here. You're not fully healed yet." Peter's head popped out of the cloth that was blissfully warm. "Besides, you have Morgan. You shouldn't be worrying about me. I'll be fine." In time it would all be okay, right? He thought to himself.
"Morgan is fine, kid." Mr. Stark sighed and pulled a blade of grass from beside Peter, studying it. "Besides, she has Pepper right now, while you...." He didn't want to say it but Peter knew it. He was alone.
"I'm fine, Mr. Stark." The boy tried to smile up at the man, but Mr. Stark simply shook his head.
"No you're not, Pete. You're not allowing yourself to grieve. I know it's a shock but...you have to let yourself feel something other than numbness."
He put a hand down and wrapped his fingers around Peter's shoulders, his fingers hanging down his chest. "I...how did you...?"
"I lost my parents too, kid. I know she was like your mom and...I liked her." He remembered the first day he met her. She was stuck in a trap in the then abandoned building holding onto an even smaller Peter as she tried to free herself of the glue.
When she saw Tony walking up she tried not to draw attention to them but of course the man knew they were there thanks to Friday telling him. She had threatened to haunt him if he even so much as looked at Peter wrong, but all Tony did was free her of the glue and bid her goodbye.
That was when he bought the building and made it his duty to go and talk to May every month to see if they were okay, which they always were. "Your aunt...she was amazing, kid. She had such spirit in her that I admired. Reminded me of my own mother, especially with that look she would give when you said something she didn't like." Tony gave a shudder and heard Peter chuckle.
"She is...was....amazing, Mr. Stark." Peter's dash-sized fingers wrapped around Mr. Stark's pinky as he stared at the grave. "I can't believe she's gone.." A single tear fell and that was the start of Peter's downfall. Sniffles could be heard from the boy as the feelings poured out of him. His shoulders jerked as he tried to hide his tears, but finally the dam broke.
The boy cried out his anger, all of his hurt, all of his sadness. And Mr. Stark just sat by his side, letting him cry. The hand went from Peter's shoulders to under him, lifting him as he felt a cold wind wash over his skin. Soon the wind became a warm embrace.
The scent of coffee and motor oil filled his nose and he felt a sense of safety. "Mr. Stark...what am I gonna do? I'm all alone.... I have no home to go to...not without May...I can't be alone..." He didn't know how to be on his own.
"What are you talking about, kid?" Mr. Stark looked at him quizically. "You have a home. Right here." He pointed to the cabin behind them. "You'll always have a place with us, Peter."
Peter stared at the man for a moment before collapsing into his shirt and grabbing the material. "Thank you, Mr. Stark.." He whispered, sniffling into the material. "I..I miss her so much..." He looked down at the grave, his bottom lip trembling as he tried to hold back more tears.
"I know, kid. And that pain will never leave. It'll get easier to deal with, but there will always be an empty space where she used to be, and nothing will be able to fill that. But, there will be other things that will make the pain lessen. Like family, and your friend, what's his name? Ked? Ped?"
Peter burst out with a wet laugh. "It's Ned."
"Yeah, Ted." Mr. Stark smirked down at the boy who smiled up at him. "We'll help you through this, Pete. One day at a time. Let your family help you." The man put a finger under Peter's chin. "I love you, Underoos. I hope you know that."
"I....I love you too....dad...." Peter felt the fingers close around him and already he could feel the sadness being lifted away by this man who was once his mentor now turned parental figure. He looked back at the grave and shook off the fabric.
"I think May should have this....just in case, you know?"
"I think that's a good idea, Pete." Mr. Stark took the handkerchief and laid it over the disturbed dirt, making sure it wouldn't blow away with a few small rocks on the edges. "Come on. It's getting cold and you can always come out and visit her." The man groaned as he stood, looking at Peter who was staring at the grave.
"Goodbye Aunt May..." Peter called out. "I'm safe....I'm with my other family now...so you don't have to worry about me." He blew the grave a kiss and turned away, leaning into Mr. Stark's chest as he felt a sob tear out of him. A finger rubbed his back.
"She knows, Underoos. I'm sure she wouldn't like it, but she knows that I'll always be there for you. And I always will be, no matter what." He didn't even let death itself tear him away from the boy, and he would make sure Peter grew up knowing he was loved. Together the two went inside, leaving the grave topped with a simple stone that read:
'May Parker, Beloved Wife, Aunt and one hell of a borrower.
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