Shadowplay | Tony Stark

THIRTY NINE - IRREPLACEABLE

"Peter? What are you doing awake?"

Time had passed. Summer had come and gone for New York City and now as early Fall began to creep across the metropolis, trees were turning amber and gold while the sun disappeared beyond the horizon a little earlier each day.

And while the days got darker physically, they had become darker mentally, too.

Tony, Mila, Tristan and Peter had been blessed with six weeks of uninterrupted happiness. They spent the hot summer days in Central Park together, the boys playing soccer together while Mila snapped photographs and found peace in a long novel. The nights were long and they barbecued on the terrace of the Stark Tower at least once a week, feeling like a family as they sat down to eat dinner together while the air was still hot and the smiles still wide.

Life was perfect, until it wasn't anymore. While that time the universe seemed to spare Mila and Tristan, it showed no mercy to seventeen year old Peter Parker, snatching his only surviving family member from his grasp in the blink of an eye, leaving him soulless.

Things slowed down after the passing of Peter's aunt. Mila had to explain to Tristan why his best friend wasn't so happy all the time and why he didn't want to come out of his room, why he didn't eat dinner with them anymore and why he didn't have the energy to play.

Life seemed a little different after that, all four of them feeling the weight and strain of the situation in different ways. Mila knew that Tony had to step up and be there for Peter, but it upset her equally to watch him exhaust himself with work physically and exhaust himself with care emotionally, wishing there was something she could do to help.

The thing was, Mila was still struggling to come to terms with her life herself. Things had seemed to change and then change again, and they still hadn't stopped. Life moved fast and although they'd found a gentle rhythm in New York, it wasn't her home.

She was eternally grateful to Tony for everything and loved him more each time he looked her in the eye, but the city wasn't where she felt comfortable. It was bright and lively and full of opportunity, but it wasn't where she'd planned to raise her child. Mila hadn't gotten used to scanning her face to get access to an elevator or passing men in lab coats in hallways if she accidentally got out on the wrong floor of the tower. There was no garden for Tristan to play in the sun and all the beds were too high for him to sleep on his own safely. It was beautiful, but it was a world designed for people like Tony, not people like Mila and Tristan.

Though of course, she kept that to herself. Everything Mila felt inside, the restless nights sleep and the constant flood of tears in the shower alone was never shared with anybody, not wanting to give Tony any more cause for concern.

It was just shy of four o'clock in the morning when Mila jumped out of her skin at the sight of Peter sitting on the kitchen counter, an empty glass in his hand. The sky outside was black with a hint of the dawn peeking scarcely on the horizon, but it was darkness that stayed dominant.

"Sorry," Peter mumbled, "Couldn't sleep, came to get some water."

The only light was from the small glow beneath the kitchen cabinets, though even from that Mila could see the puffiness of Peter's face, the redness of his dark eyes.

She grabbed herself a glass and filled it up with water before gently taking Peter's from his hands and refilling it, handing it back to him as she pushed herself up onto the counter and sat beside him.

"I couldn't sleep either," she said, "Wanna talk about it?"

Peter stayed quiet for a moment, an occasional sniffle breaking the silence as he wiped his face with the sleeve of his shirt, staring blankly at the wall opposite them.