Drowning In Oxygen [2] {Sequel}

~ Nine ~

It was midnight, he realised as he looked at the clock.

It wasn't late enough yet. Or would it soon be too early?

Either way... Not yet. Not yet.

"I miss her..." he whispered to himself, staring at his pillow with a forlorn expression.

He never said his thoughts out loud anymore. He didn't want people to know he wasn't okay.

"I want her back."

It was a simple statement, true, but one that was deep in his heart.

Whenever he felt like that, he would normally just look at their photos for a while (they were placed at the front of his table) or spend some quiet time with Tony.

Except now it was midnight, and he couldn't do either of those things.

Spider-Man, maybe?

He thought about it for a second, before nodding, slowly rising out of bed.

It would be good for New York to see their hero, anyway.

(Their menace?)

Besides, he doesn't sleep much.

Not anymore.

~~~

Spider-Man was swinging through New York.

Not Peter. Just Spider-Man.

When the mask was on, he could act like he had no cares in the world. He could act happy, childish, even, and he didn't have to be upset.

Spider-Man didn't see Wanda as his sister, he saw her as a teammate. Yes, he was protective over her as was she.  He didn't have her anymore, but it was okay.

He had loads of teammates, right? Yeah. He was fine. Perfectly fine.

Not really. He wasn't going to be okay, not anymore.

It struck him when he realised that's all his enemies had to do to get him to break - kill a loved one.

No. He would protect them, they couldn't go, not yet. Not so soon.

He'd give his own life it meant keeping them safe. He swore on it.

Swinging his legs as he sat on the edge of a building, he pondered on everything that had happened so far.

Or rather, what hadn't happened.

He hadn't met Gwen yet. He didn't know if that was good or not - he knew that Harry was really excited for him to meet her (and he wanted to meet her as well) but he didn't know if he was ready.

Scrap that, he knew that he wasn't ready. But when was he ever going to be ready?

Never. Not really.

But he couldn't do much about that though. He wished he could.

Distantly, he could hear somebody crying. He cocked his head slightly, trying to figure out where it was coming from, if it was important.

It was... below him?

A fire escape. Somebody must be hiding out there.

He wasn't sure if they wanted company or not, but it was in his nature to check up on people, so he did.

"Hello?" he called out softly, not wanting to scare whoever it was. "Are - are you okay?"

He slowly climbed down the wall, shooting a web at the roof before carefully going down.