ok so i've never written for anything to do with marvel before so please be gentle :) i hope this isn't too out of character but it's hard and everyone's got to start somewhere right
Peter swings through Queens, high up and mask off. He doesn't like wearing his mask anymore, not when he doesn't have to. The feeling of his chest constricting and his lungs burning just before he became the inside of a hoover (he's got to be sarcastic to cope; sue him) returns to him when he has that tight fabric pressed up against his mouth. The feeling of his suit on his body isn't much better, but just knowing he's in his suit and he's Spider-Maneases the constant feeling of dread inside of him.
As he flies over a busy street, passing only momentarily, jealousy rushes through him much like the wind does with his hair. Jealousy because all the people below him have found normality and relief after everything that happened. After half of the fricking world's population turned to dust. Of course, whoever was left from the Avengers managed to defeat Thanos and restore the dusted (and Vision, though according to Mr Stark he's now just like he was when he was first 'created') who simply re-appeared where they originally disappeared.
Which meant, for Peter and a few others, they were restored on Titan.
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The first thing he's aware of is his whole body tingling. Buzzing like a thousand flies, gathered around a yet-to-be-emptied rubbish bin. He's almost scared to open his eyes, scared to see Mr Stark's face in front of him, worried and pained because that meant he was going to die and there was nothing to be done. But as he feels the ground beneath him, kind of dirty and dusty (and he can smell the destruction around him) he knows he can't be dying. He feels all too real and not at all in any pain. So, he braves it, and his eyes open to a sky that definitely wasn't Earth's. He twists his head to the side, feeling kind of weak but not overly so, and the lack of Mr Stark startles him out of his daze and he jumps up (his head spins with the sudden movement but he doesn't have time to care about that) and frantically turns around, looking for him.
His eyes only pass the other people with him, the ones - he realises sickeningly - that he witnessed turned to literal dust, carried off by the wind. A shudder runs up his spine.
"What the hell just happened?" Quill exclaims, and Peter turns to face in his direction. He's looking around, confused and shaking slightly. They are all shaking slightly. Peter watches as Quill's eyes land on his two friends (he was a little preoccupied with defeating Thanos to remember everyone's names). "Oh my God," he breathes out. "You're alive."
"Of course we're alive, Quill," the guy said.
"I watched you turn to dust, Drax." (Oh, Drax. Come on, Peter. Remember that.) "God. You okay? Both of you?"
"It was like sleeping," the bug lady says, gravitating towards Drax.
"Essentially, yes."
Peter turns to Dr Strange, watching the man rise calmly.
"After Thanos snapped his fingers, half the universe would have faded away, their souls stored in the Soul Stone, sleeping, waiting to be awakened."
"And are we? 'Awakened', I mean," Quill says.
Dr Strange rolls his eyes. "Of course, dumbass. You're here, aren't you?"
"So is Thanos gone?"
Dr Strange nods. "Must be."
Peter looks at the man strangely (haha, strangely, good job, Peter), opening his mouth to ask and wondering how the hell he knows because he watched the man dissolve. Oh yeah, there was that time not that long ago (but really, how long has it been?) where he looked like a possessed monkey surrounded in green. He promptly shut his mouth (probably looking like a fish) and luckily nobody seemed to have noticed.
"Er, guys," Peter says when an uneasy silence settles around them. "How exactly are we going to get home?"
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They ended up in the Guardian's (of the Galaxy, apparently, which - so cool) spaceship, Dr Strange staying largely silent (which Peter had no problem with, he doesn't have anything against the guy but, like, he was a contributing factor to him getting dusted so) and the rest of them idly chattering. It didn't take long for Quill to remember Gamora, remember what the blue person said and remember what Thanos said, and Peter recognised the signs of someone in the depths of pain and yet trying to stay above water (May tried to be subtle after Uncle Ben but Peter's perceptive). And that left Peter sitting there, the recent events replaying in his mind and his thoughts running away from himself.
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"Cool ship, man," Peter says, trying to distract himself from the phantom ache he actually experienced before he was erased.
Quill turns back and smiles at him briefly, before glaring at Drax. "See, man. I'm a man. With a cool ship." He turns back to Peter. "I like you, I'm keeping you, Spider-Boy."
Peter rolls his eyes. "Spider-Man," he mutters under his breath.
"You are not a man, Quill, you are a dude," Drax says. "And if he is a dude you are definitely not a man. You are a boy."
Quill snorts, "going to have to agree on that, kid."
He hears Dr Strange chuckle behind him. It's like being with Tony Stark all over again, and he can't say he doesn't' like it.
Peter sighs anyway. "I take it back, dude. Also, this ship sucks."
"He does not mean that," Mantis (see, he can learn people's names) says. Quill laughs and Peter just sighs again- but he can't say he has any objections to it, it brings back some kind of normality within an otherwise out-of-this-world experience (and he's literally out-of-this-world).
Sometime later, Peter jolts awake. He can't remember what he dreamt about but he knows it wasn't pleasant. He doesn't even remember falling asleep (which, honestly, is an improvement - last time he totally knew he was ((dying)) falling asleep and that hurt like hell and scared him just as much, so, improvement).
"God, it's been a long time since I was here," Quill says, mostly to himself. "Let's see if I can land right."
And sure enough, Peter looks out the front window to see his home planet (his completely spherical home planet). He briefly wonders how long it took to get back, how long he was asleep for, but then puts it out of his mind. The way his body is feeling is far too prevalent for him to think of and focus on much else.
It doesn't take long after that for Dr Strange to bid them a short farewell and disappear, muttering something about needing to sort a lot of things out. The Guardians stay on the ship, missing two of their teammates apparently (a racoon and a tree, according to Quill) and that leaves Peter feeling just the tiniest bit lost (okay so maybe tiniest is an understatement).
As he gets off the ship and looks around, taking in the dark sky and the crescent-shaped moon and the quiet around him, he lets himself breathe for the first time since he was restored on Titan. He's never been more happy to be on Earth, to be in New York, to be home. (Not that's he's been anywhere other than Earth, or indeed America before he went to Germany, but it's nice all the same.)
"Right, kid," Quill says from behind him, stepping from the ship as well. "See you around, yeah?"
"You're going?"
"Well, we live very busy lives, Guardians of the Galaxy and all that."
Peter can't help it, of course he's a little disappointed they're going already. He doesn't quite know why, and logically them going is the best thing because they have to get their teammates back, but still. He wants them to stay for a bit. (It may be his crippling loneliness right now, but Peter decides not to think about that.)
The familiar sound of thrusters firing behind him, though, quickly pulls him from his thoughts and makes him spin so fast around he experiences a second of dizziness. "Mr Stark!" he exclaims.
"God, Pete, thank God." He steps towards Peter, before halting his movements and looking unsure of himself. Honestly, Peter wants to just run to him and hold him, get comfort from the person he admires and trusts, but he knows he can't.
"How'd you know I'm here?"
"Your suit. I set it to alert me when you got back after we… reversed everything."
Peter's suddenly thankful that he never had the chance to tinker with the new suit and take out any sort of tracker (not that he won't later, mind).
"Hey, dude," Quill says from behind him.
Mr Stark rolls his eyes and looks over Peter's shoulder, prompting Peter to half-turn around so he can see the both of them. "Don't call me dude."
Quill mock salutes, "yessir. Well, you're welcome for bringing back your - what is he, your kid? Anyway, you're welcome."
Mr Stark shakes his head exasperatedly, and he looks at Peter with a mix of sadness and concern. "You okay, Spider-Man?"
"Just fine, Mr Stark", he says, even though he's anything but fine. His body is still tingling, everything has started to kind of hurt and he can't get the thought of knowing he was going to turn to dust just like he'd seen four people do it seconds before out of his head. He can't forget the feeling of imminent danger, scared out of his mind and clinging onto his mentor if he could, in any way, stop what he knew was about to happen. He can't help remember that small part of him thankful that he knew no-one else seemed to have felt it, but he can't help the envious part that they didn't feel it and for some reason (probably Spider-Sense, he reminds himself) he felt it all, and he can't forget the overwhelming guilt that filled him up as he lay on the ground, looking up at Mr Stark underneath Titan's sky, saying sorry because 'if you die, that's on me'. He's anything but fine.
"Good," Mr Stark replies after a few moments. He looks at Quill again. "By the way, Quill, we have some lost property back at our headquarters, think they belong to you."
Quill's face lights up instantly, and it takes a moment (more than a moment but he won't admit that) for Peter to catch on that he's talking about the rest of the Guardians. "Well, tell us where to go and I'll fly this baby there."
In the end, Peter decides to take the longer route back to the Avengers Headquarters (he wanted to go home, really, wanted to see May, but Mr Stark wanted to check him over) while Mr Stark flies back and Quill takes the ship. Peter ends up getting there later than the other two but he doesn't mind, the feeling of flying through the air and the adrenaline it creates helping him process what just happened in the last few hours - from literally being in space to being dusted to returning like nothing ever happened (though according to Mr Stark it had actually been almost six months since whatever happened on Titan, happened).
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In the end, Peter met a lot of the Avengers. Apparently, they were regrouping back at the headquarters, which meant they were all there. People who he'd fought in Germany were there, greeting him with nothing malicious but smiles and claps on the shoulder (and by God, there were a lot of comments on his age, he knows he's young, okay, you don't need to remind him every 10 seconds). And he also met the rest of the Guardians, Groot - a talking tree - and Rocket, the raccoon (though don't ever call him that). He also met Thor - yes, the Thor (at which point his brain reminds him of the impression he did that Karen recorded and played back to him).
The rest of the evening was spent with those who had survived Thanos' Snap explaining to everyone who was stuck on Titan what happened, and everyone who was on Earth when it happened listening to the story once again (those lucky idiots were restored on Earth). Mr Stark practically forced Peter to crash there for the night ("I just want to keep my eye on you, kid, what happened was dangerous") and Peter had a very long phone call with May that night before he finally fell asleep. The next day, Peter went home to his Aunt (who survived the Snap, and while Peter didn't want her to die, knowing she spent practically 6 months without him after only recently losing Uncle Ben made his heart hurt). It was safe to say the next week was spent mostly in her company.
It seems, though, that after everything that happened, those who essentially died didn't behave any differently apart from a moment's confusion, and those who survived were just so relieved at having everything back to normal that the world just kept on going. Everything returned to normal - school resumed, along with homework and tests and friends and Flash (urgh), shops properly reopened, the streets were cleaned up, most of the Avengers actually retired, going off the map for a bit, his Aunt continued making that awful meatloaf that Peter didn't complain about eating and everything just… returned.
But for Peter, feeling his own death and then coming back again has side-effects. Side-effects that have stuck with him in the months following being restored, so much so that even four months on and he's still not back to normal.
urgh this chapter is bad, setting a story up is not something i'm at all good at and this chapter was basically that so i apologise, not much happens in this chapter but i had to set the rest of the story up but i promise it gets more gritty in the following chapters :D
also posted on a03 under the username FiveLeafClover