Steve Rogers stood with his back against the light blue wall, reading a news article about Peter Parker's death (which apparently was fake) on one of those oddly thin and oddly intelligent televisions (which was apparently also a phone, because that makes sense).

As he read the article, a pang of guilt erupted within him. Sure, the kid wasn't actually dead, but he sure as heck had been through a lot.

Just then, Tony walked through the door and sighed. Without looking up, Steve gently said, "Hey Tony."

"Hey Cap," Tony responded stiffly as he quietly closed the white door behind him.

"Look," Steve began, looking up from his screen. He took a deep breath. "I don't want stuff like this to happen," he said, vaguely gesturing at the door Tony had just walked out of, behind which Peter sat. "Not to you, not to anyone here. And we need to have each other's backs. Because if we're not working together, how are we ever going to team up? How could we prevent something like this from happening again if we're..." He swallowed. "What i mean to say is.. if we want to be a functional team—"

"Then we need to stop being petty bitches and actually work together, sort of an 'agree to disagree' situation," Tony finished.

"Exactly." Steve nodded. "'A house divided against itself will not stand.'"

"Well aren't you being patriotic, Mr. Star-Spangled Freedom, quoting Abraham Lincoln and everything!"

"Actually, it was in the Bible first. Matthew 12:25. Look it up."

Tony laughed and shook his head. "Well, you learn something new every day."

"So you're finally admitting you don't know everything?"

"Agree to disagree?" Tony put out his hand.

Steve laughed. He shook Tony's hand, then pulled him in for a long-overdue hug.

Tony tried to ignore the fact that he was happy about it, that he needed that hug.

He also tried to ignore the fact that Cap was at least several inches taller than him. But for once he decided not to be petty.

Maybe for once, they could be friends.

Peter woke up feeling like he had slept an eternity. He felt so much better. His hands looked fine, and the scars all over his body were barely visible. He was still wearing the dark red shirt with a black Spider-Man symbol on it with
blue shorts. He had bandages on his side still, but there were fewer now than there had been last time. He pressed on it. It still hurt, but not very much. Definitely not as much as he would expect from a stab wound.

Aunt May was sleeping in a chair next to his bed. She had her arms folded and rested against a table and was using them as a pillow.

Peter swung his legs around the bed and stood up. Unlike the last few times he had woken up, this time he could stand without much difficulty. A wave of dizziness hit him, but it passed just as quickly as it came.

He gently tapped on May's shoulder and whispered her name.

She opened her eyes groggily, but within 0.2 seconds she had jumped up out of her chair and enveloped him in a hug, squeezing the air out of him (but he didn't mind). Peter wrapped his arms around her and buried his head in her shoulder as she gently stroked her fingers through his wavy brown hair, sobbing softly and whispering his name again and again. He was alive. Her kid was alive. Peter might have cried, too. He was just glad to be home.

—

Peter opened the white door softly. He could hear whispers coming from the hallway, and whispered laughter. His heart flooded with happiness when he saw Michelle and Ned, his two closest friends, sitting on the carpeted floor of the hallway, laughing at memes. He closed the door behind him and started to walk over to them. "Hey, guys," he said.

"Holy shit!" Ned said, a little louder than he meant to, as he jumped up. "You're not dead!" He gave Peter a tight hug, lifting him off the ground. "Hey man," Peter said, being semi-strangled by the hug. MJ stood up behind them and joined the hug. "I'm glad you're not dead," she said as she nestled in with her boys, and for once there was not a trace of satire in her voice.

After a minute or two, they broke apart.

"Dude," Ned said, "I might have accidentally broken my LEGO Death Star... so we might need to rebuild it."

Peter laughed.

"'Accidentally'," MJ sneered mockingly, knowing that he had actually knocked it over when he found out that Peter had "died."

"Shut up," Ned said, playfully shoving her arm. He turned back to Peter, and dropped his voice to a whisper. "But that's ok, because Tony Stark cried at your funeral."

"No way, seriously?" Peter whispered.

MJ nodded. "So did all the other Avengers."

"So did Flash," Ned added.

"So did you," MJ teased.

"Hey," Ned whispered, "so did you."

"Shut up," MJ shoved him back.

Peter just smiled and looked between the two of them, realizing how lucky he was to have such amazing best friends.