Peter Parker... Stark?

The Rules

The days began to bleed together. Morgan only ever got one plate of food every day, and it was always delivered when she was asleep. At first, she'd made the mistake of eating everything on it, but quickly learned to eat little bits throughout the day, as it was all she would get.

She also knew that if she kept getting such small portions, she would not stay very healthy for very long.

But worse than the limited food, or the fact that she was forced to sleep on the cold metal floor, was that every day she could see Peter. And every day, the electric man came in and tortured him, always ending by carving those three words into Peter's chest with his little knife.

It started to get to the point where Morgan couldn't even look at Peter anymore; it was either that or risk succumbing to an anxiety attack. Besides, it wasn't like he could see her anyway.

She was in the middle of eating her second portion of her plate of food when the door slammed open. Morgan squeaked in fright, but her panic quickly turned into snark as she watched the man approach her.

"Oh no, what happened to your face?" she cooed sarcastically. The man growled and lunged at her, and suddenly she was being pinned by the throat to the wall.

"It's not so funny anymore, is it little girl?" he sneered as she weakly kicked out and flailed, clawing at his hands. Her eyes began to bulge, and finally he let her drop to the floor. Morgan wheezed for air, kneeling on all fours in front of the man, trying to hide the involuntary tears streaming down her face.

"That's better," he said, tilting her chin up. She jerked out of his grip and glared, angrily smearing away her tears, but when the man grabbed her arm and dragged her out of the room, she couldn't do anything to stop him.

They entered a pitch black hallway, and the only thing Morgan could make out was the grip the man had on her forearm, the scuffling sound that their movements caused, and her own frantic gasping for breath. She heard a door open, and when she saw the dangling light she realized where she was.

"Hello, Peter," the man said, squeezing Morgan's wrist uncomfortably tight, "I brought you something." He threw Morgan into the light and she landed face first on the ground. She looked up and realized that there wasn't a table in the room anymore. Peter was instead sitting on the ground, loosely chained to the wall by his ankle.

His eyes widened when he saw her. "Morgan!"

"Remember the rules," the man said in a mocking tone. Then the door was shut and locked, and they were left alone.

"Peter!" Morgan cried, fresh tears already rolling down her cheeks. She scrambled over to him and threw herself into his arms, hugging him tightly. He hugged her back as she sobbed into his shoulder.

"Peter, I'm so sorry," she whispered.

"Morgan, you don't have to be sorry for anything. I promise."

"No, you don't understand! They torture you because of me!" she wailed. He began rubbing soft circles on her back.

"No, they torture me because they're sick and soulless. They will do it whether or not you provoke them."

They sat together for a long time while Morgan calmed herself down. Finally, she sat up and looked at Peter.

"Do you... do you think dad is even coming for us?"

Peter's expression soured. "Morgan, I know he's looking for us. But they know about our chips, and they prepared for that." He looked at the ground with a crestfallen expression. "Dad's not going to be able to track us."

Morgan nodded, and with tears still in her eyes, rested her head on Peter's chest. Eventually, she fell asleep in his arms.

~~~