Forest Hills, Queens, New York City, 6:30 PM
May Parker snored softly in her armchair, her head lolling against the backrest of the chair as her nephew draped a thick blanket over her, carefully as to not disturb her sleep. It had been a quiet but wonderful Christmas for the both of them, but May was getting old, no matter how much she tried to hide it from him, and she got tired earlier and earlier in the day now. Making sure his aunt was warm and comfortable, Peter stood for a moment in the stillness of the living room, the lights from the christmas tree by the window casting a soft glow over everything, the light reflecting off the glittering ornaments on the branches. Out in the kitchen, the leftovers from their christmas dinner had been packed away in the fridge, the smell of turkey still lingering in the house. The radio played softly, christmas music drifting from the speakers. He'd kept it tuned to this station all day, not wanting to ruin May's holiday with any grim news, but even then, in the back of his head, he'd had that tiny nagging voice that kept pecking at him, worrying him.
About the other Avengers. About what was happening in Santo Marco.
He'd ignored it the best he could, determined to not let it spoil their first non-miserable Christmas since Uncle Ben had passed, and there had been nothing he could do to help anyway, since the team had left him behind, in case of an emergency, according to Mr. Sunshine, but Peter wasn't stupid, he knew they just hadn't wanted to drag him away from his aunt on Christmas Day.
He clamped down on the tiny, stupid flash of guilt that shot through him at the thought. He wasn't responsible for the whole world, the team didn't need him to be around every second, they were adults for god sake, they had CAPTAIN AMERICA leading them, they'd all be fine, he knew all of that.
Didn't make it suck any less to be left behind.
Times like this Peter always wished he had someone to talk to, someone who knew what it was like to live this way. Like he had two different lives he had to keep separate, which sometimes felt like he was failing to live up to the expectations of either one. Maybe...
Taking a deep breath, he made a decision. He took one last look at May, before he began heading upstairs...
Ten minutes later, Spider-Man emerged from the second-story window of the Parker house, looking out over the empty, snow-covered streets of Forest Hills, the dark, december evening illuminated by the street lamps and the christmas decorations across the neighborhood. Closing the window, Spider-Man swung away into the snow still flurrying down from the darkening sky...
...
It was a sad, sad day when Tony Stark, playboy millionaire genius extraordinaire, spent Christmas Day cooped up brooding in his mansion like an extremely handsome Charles Foster Kane, drowning his sorrows in expensive liquor. Okay, so that last part was more or less the same as usual, but really, this was just pathetic.
Alone in his lab on Christmas, nursing a glass of some obscenely expensive whisky vintage while half-heartedly going over the plans for an armor upgrade, he'd even bailed on the Christmas party at Stark Industries this year, not to mention any of the other shindigs one of his rich asshole partners were throwing. It just hadn't seemed right to be partying when his actual friends were off in a war zone without him, fighting some Rent-A-Hitler and his mutant goons. And he'd been left here, because he'd be less than useless against them.
Tony's grip on the glass tightened at the thought, as he tried to push down the feeling of anger and uselessness. He felt guilty for even thinking that way, but he couldn't help it. The Iron Man was his greatest creation, his life's work, all the weapons, all the stupid little gadgets he'd built his fortune on, it all paled in comparison to the armor. It had given him the chance to do something for the world other than just give people more ways to kill eachother. To be a hero.
Except, when it didn't, apparently.
Logically, he knew there was no way to cover all eventualities, there'd always be some flaw, some weakness that an enemy could exploit, and how was he supposed to know there was some asshole running around with the power to manipulate magnetic fields? Hell, if anything, this should give him the motivation to come up with some kind of non-magnetic backup armor he could use if this situation came up again, which it probably would, because supervillains were like cockroaches with bad fashion sense, and tended to pop up again at the worst times.
He sighed and drained the rest of his glass.
If he was in the business of being honest with himself, he'd admit that he was mostly just angry at himself because he couldn't be there to back up the team. And maybe, just maybe, some pathetic, selfish part of himself was worried that they'd be totally fine without him, and realize they didn't need him at all, other than to provide a fancy clubhouse.
Luckily, he was rich so he didn't have to be honest with himself!
He was reaching for the bottle for a refill, when the sound of someone clearing their throat came from the door, and he turned around to find Jarvis standing there.
"Ah, Master Stark, I'm sorry to interrupt, but there's a visitor here to see you!"
Tony blinked "A visitor? I didn't hear anyone at the door."
"Ah, well, he didn't come through the door." Jarvis glanced upwards and Stark followed his gaze. Above him, clinging to the ceiling, was a familiar figure dressed in red and blue spandex, his mask and chest still wet from the snow.
"Heh, sorry to drop by unannounced, Mr. Stark. Er, Merry Christmas?"
Jarvis sighed "Master Stark, this may not be my place, but could you perhaps ask your associates to not use the second-story windows as an entrance in the future?"
.....
"So, Spidey, can I offer you a drink? My personal choice is bourbon, neat, but I do a wicked martini if that's more your thing?" Tony said, glancing back as his hand drifted over the glass bottles behind the bar.
"Still 16, Mr. Stark."
"Right, right..." He slipped the top off a decanter of scotch, pouring a bit into his glass, before putting the bottle back and turning back around, leaning on the bar counter "So, Spider-Pup, normally I'd ask you what brings you over this late on Christmas, but... well, I think I can guess..."
"Yeah..." Spider-Man crossed his arms over his chest, leaning against the back wall of the living room. "I don't know, I've never been on a team before, not even as a reserve member, and it feels... I don't know, weird. Not being on the team, I mean this whole, not being with them when they're out there. Like I'm letting them down because I'm not there. I know they don't actually NEED me around every second, but.." He trailed off, looking out the window into the darkening Christmas evening.
"Yeah, I don't exactly have a lot of experience with teams either, kiddo." Tony said with a shrug, whirling the glass slowly and watching the amber liquid inside slosh around "Unless you count Stark Industries, and I didn't exactly treat my employees like we were teammates, more like they were these vague background figures I could either ignore or foist my boring paperwork on if I wanted to work on my inventions or blow off work to go party. Frankly, I'm surprised they didn't throw a damn party when I went missing..." He sighed "So yeah, it's a new experience for me too. both being part of a team, and feeling like shit when I'm stuck on the sidelines while they risk their lives fighting some lunatic in a cape. But hey, atleast we got eachother to be miserable with, right?" He gave the kid a cheer with the glass before taking a sip.
Spider-Man remainded silent, staring out the window at the snow coming down outside. Tony was beginning to tense at the awkward silence, when he suddenly spoke again "When I first started out... you know, with all this. The Spider-Man thing. Something bad happened. And someone got hurt And it was my fault. Because I could have stopped it, and I didn't..."
Tony blinked, staring in surprise. The kid had NEVER mentioned anything about himself in all the time Tony had known him, which admittedly wasn't that long, but as far as he knew, Spidey had never confided anything to anyone on the team, except maybe Mr. Sunshine, who already knew most of it, thanks to his freaky deaky future vision or whatever was going on with him. Though considering Spider-Man didn't even let anyone see his FACE, it wasn't a surprise he was tight-lipped about his private life. Except now, apparently.
"And I know it's stupid" the kid continued "But I can't help but feel a little like that now too. Like I should be there, and if something happens... if one of them gets hurt, it'll be my fault again. Because I could have stopped it, and I didn't. Again..." He fell silent.
"Kid..." Tony sighed, shaking his head "Yeah, I think I know how you're feeling. and I wouldn't call it stupid exactly, just... pointless. I mean, you're not ignoring them, you were explicitly asked to stay behind, both of us were, so maybe the two of us banging our heads against the wall out of some misplaced sense of guilt isn't the best way to deal with this. Besides, they got Cap with them, and if he can't get them out safe, I doubt us being there would have helped one bit."
Spider-Man stared at him blankly "Mr Stark, I appreciate the effort, but that's not as comforting as you might think."
"Yeah, yeah, I don't know if you've noticed, but comforting people isn't really my field of expertize."
Spider-Man gave a helpless chuckle "I can't belive I'm saying this, but I almost wish there was like an actual bad guy I could fight instead, it's so much easier when the problem is the kind you can fix by punching it..."
"It's a surprisingly versatile tactic, but it probably won't help in this case." Tony looked down at the glass in his hand, but instead of finishing his drink, he put it back on the bar and walked over to the kid, putting his hand on Spideys shoulder "Come on, let's get our minds off this. How'd you like a tour of my personal lab?"
"Are you serious? Of course, yes, please!"
"Great! I've been meaning to get a closer look at those web shooters of yours anyway