Drowning In Oxygen [2] {Sequel}

~ Eight ~

The last words he'd ever said to her still played back in his mind.

"I'll get everyone out of here and when I come back, you'd better be alive."

His last words to her had been a lie.

Had he known they were going to be a lie?

Yeah. Deep down, he knew that he wasn't going to be coming back, that he was too weak and he had suffered too many horrors there.

Was he going to go back anyway?

Probably. Tony wouldn't have let him though. Tony would've gone himself. Tony...

Tony should've gotten Wanda out of there instead of him.

"It should have been me," he whispered, staring at a picture of him and Wanda with a forlorn expression. "It should have always been me."

Wanda had her arms wrapped around him, but she was looking at the camera, smiling a massive grin. Peter, though, hadn't noticed the camera was there, and was hugging Wanda back, laughing, his nose scrunched up in the way it always did when he laughed.

He placed it down on his desk next to all the other ones that he had gotten Tony to process for him.

There was one with all of the Avengers together, excluding a few, such as Vision.

Wanda was sitting on the couch along with Natasha and Clint, while Peter sat on the floor in front of her. On the couch arm was Tony, folding his arms and smiling, and next to Peter was Thor and Steve.

There were several photos taken in that position, but Peter had chosen ones that he liked the best.

Wanda had reached her arm down, patting him on the shoulder, and his arm had reached up, so they were holding hands.

His hands shook as he picked up the photo and he could feel the tears pouring down his face again.

What he would give for just one more moment with her.

He could hear a knock on his door and he quickly wiped his face with his sleeve, carefully put the picture down - he couldn't risk breaking it - and walked over to the door, opening it.

"Hello?" he croaked, wincing at how bad his voice sounded, clearing his throat. "Hi?" he tried again, his voice sounding much better than the first time.

It was Tony.

"Hey, Pete," he said softly, walking into the room and gently shutting the door behind him. "You okay?"

Peter had quickly fixed a bright smile onto his face. "Yep! I'm - I'm all good. I have school starting soon, right? And I get to see Ned again, which will be great, and I get to meet Harry's friend Gwen, and - and -"

Peter seemed to run out of conversation topics. He looked around the room hurriedly, trying to find something else to talk about, before his eyes landed on Tony.

And Tony?

He was crying. Silently, of course. There were only a few tears dripping down, but still... Peter felt obliged to do something.

"Hey, Dad, it'll be okay," he muttered, giving his dad a hug. "You just need to get your mind off it for a while - that's why I want to go back to school. I need to distract myself."

"I don't want to," Tony murmured. "I don't want to act like it didn't happen, Pete, and you need to stop acting like it didn't happen either. We're all suffering, Pete, but you're withering away.