A/N: Okay, I am getting to a kind of slow, as I need to push this out while catching up my other fics (*wink* *wink* You'll soon see why that is importan), but I couldn't wait to update my favorite fic (shh! Don't tell the others!). So, here we go! Let's get on with the story!
Disclaimer (Hey! I remembered again!): I don't own anybody, I have only created the plot in which they are used.
Spider-Man's eyes fluttered open, but quickly shut at the bright light. As he listens to a quiet beeping in the background, the web-head willed his mind to recall what had happened to him.
'I pushed Tony off the building... Why? An explosion.' Ah right, the explosion that was delayed just long enough for him to react to save Tony, but not himself. The explosion which caused him to hurt a f**k ton. That leads him to his next question, 'Where the hell am I?'
Spider-Man opened his eyes again, ignoring the light which encouraged him to shut them back. Immediately, he recognized the Avenger's medical bay. All of his worry immediately lifted off of him. He was not captured by any of the Oscorp loonies, and he knew that despite Stark's apparent attitude, he would respect and keep the web-head's identity secret.
However, he quickly realized that the familiar mesh that made up his lenses did not come between his eyes and their view of the room. Spider-Man quickly moved his hand up to his face, feeling the rough surface of the webbed glove against his unmasked face.
'Shit.' His eyes filled with panic, 'Tony- did he? No, he wouldn't? Maybe it was the explosion? Or maybe... Maybe he was upset about the fact that I turned him down, and to spite me, took off my mask. Aw, shit! He knows, and what kinds of things that could have crossed his mind, I can't bring myself to imagine. And, oh my gosh, Steve. There is no way Tony would keep this from him. What could Steve possibly be thinking? I am in so much trouble!'
Peter heard the door click open to see Bruce walk in. When the man looked at Peter, Pet could have sworn he saw a look of disappointment and a kinder form of, well, disgust. Maybe disgust was not the right word, but Peter felt like he deserved it.
Bruce poked his head out the door, "He's awake, Tony." and immediately Peter heard footsteps coming down the hallway rapidly. Bruce poked a needle through Peter, putting something in. Peter made a face, as he hadn't had very good experiences with needles lately, but he was more focused on the footsteps than his newly developed needle phobia.
Once Tony bursted in the room, well he actually didn't burst in as Peter had expected, he actually came in relatively calmly. Or at least pretty damn calm, considering the situation. He didn't really look angry, but he wasn't exactly excited to see the web-head either.
"Well, I am going to get out of your guys' way." Bruce said calmly, as he threw out the needle and headed for the door, "Let me know if you need anything."
Tony and Peter just stared at eachother. Tony, standing by the door and Peter still laying in the medical bed. Eventually, Tony pulled a chair over and flopped down in it, with his arms crossed.
After some more time, Tony sighed, "I wish I could tell you that if you were to tell me right now that you were just messing around in Spider-Man's suit for fun, I would believe you. Trust me, I would try really hard to, but once I saw you without the mask, everything clicked into place." Peter continued to just stare, and Tony shut his eyes and whispered, "So stupid." more to himself than Peter, "I guess I can see that you were technically not cheating on either of us because of us because of timing and all that crap. And I can see now that you cut things off with me for Steve, but something about is still just wrong. Like you were toying with our hearts. I know that that was not your intentions, and that we put you in a tough position, but you still hurt us. Steve went up into his room once you were stabilized and hasn't come out, but I could hear him pacing, and actually crying a little." Peter bit his lip and fought back tears, "Now, I am trying to suck it up." Peter noticed slight tears in Tony's eyes as well, "But not even I can take a beating like this to the heart as well as I try. I just-" Tony sighed and snuffled, "I don't know. The worst part about it is I can't find a reason to blame you. I don't know if it's because it logically makes sense that you acted the way you did, or if it's because despite everything, I still lo- care for you. It's just frustratingly complicated."
Tony sighed and got up, "I just wanted to know. Gosh, I have so many questions, I can't just pick one. But, I guess I wanted to know if you at least at one point truly felt something for me. Or if you planned on telling us this stuff anytime soon."
Peter's voice came out in a squeak, "I did have feelings for you, and I don't know if I really still have some now, but Steve..."
Tony but his lip and nodded in a sad understanding, "And the second question?" Peter bit his lip, he didn't even know the answer to the question. Tony must of took his action as an answer because he nodded and turned towards the door, "That's what I thought." and he walked out.
Peter layer in the bed, tears now openly pouring out of his eyes. He had partially lied about the first question. He knew that did still have feelings for Tony, but he couldn't admit it. Not when he had set himself on Steve. He hated the fact that he had to hurt Tony the way he did, but he couldn't string him along with hope.
After what seemed like forever, the door opened again, revealing the blonde that Peter dreaded seeing at this moment. Steve silently walked over to stand by the chair, which Tony had sat on, but didn't sit in it himself and instead stood behind it, clutching the back of it with one hand. The man's face was red and slightly puffy, and Peter's chest felt like all the oxygen had just been sucked out of it. Steve shut his eyes and sniffled. Peter felt the tears threatening to come out again, he hated seeing Steve this way.
"Steve-" Peter decided to be the first one to speak this time, he couldn't bear unhappy silence around Steve.
However, Steve cut him off, holding up his hand, "Don't. Just let me think about what I want to say." Tears were clearly developing in his eyes. Steve let out a hefty sigh and looked down at Peter for a second, but quickly looked up to the wall behind Peter, as if looking at his face pained him, "Tony explained his understanding of why you did what you did, which I got at first, but I can't bring myself, unlike him, to write that off as an excuse." Steve's grip on the chair tightened and tears were now freely flowing from his eyes, forcing Peter's to do the same, "I mean, you lied to me. Made me worry about one thing, while I should have worried about another. Now, maybe at first you didn't want to spill your secret because, while we are the Avengers, you only really knew Tony, who really can't keep a secret. But, when we got together-" Steve pinched his nose and closed his eyes for a second before continuing, "People in relationships-" another sigh, "You should have trusted me. Told me the truth. Truth is one of the biggest things that I try to uphold, so when I found out the truth, and not from you, and that you have been lying to me... I felt betrayed. Broken. I just don't know how..." Steve looked at Peter again finally, "I just don't know how I could be with you after all this. I want to, but I don't know how to."
"Steve-" Peter began again, voice broken and tears streaming down his eyes, like a waterfall, but once again, Steve cut him off, looking back at the wall.
"I just need time to think." Steve said, almost in a whisper, then turned to leave the room.
Only once had Peter felt this kind of heartbreak. It too was over a blonde, he guessed he had a thing for blondes. Though, he guessed it was for the best, as the last blonde who learned of his secret and he came to love ended up dead.
'It is for the best.' He told himself, thinking about Gwen, and then what Fiers had told him, 'You have a soft spot for people. Especially the one two floors above us.' That reminder immediately told Peter what he needed to do.
He jumped out of bed, ignoring the pain that shot through his body, and yanked out the IVs from his body. The IVs let out a long, continuous beep that set Peter's slightly advanced hearing on edge. He needed to move fast, knowing that either JARVIS or the annoyingly loud IV would alert the others that something was going on.
He limped towards the door, as the group had smartly put him in a room without windows, and grabbed his mask from a table he passed. He then immediately ran out into the hallway, going in a random direction in hopes of finding a way out, preferably a window just in case so the others couldn't follow him right out.
Finally, he found a window, far down the hall, just in time to hear yelling voices.
"He's not in here!" Peter heard a voice that sounded like Steve's.
"You think that I can't see that?" It was Tony's voice, "Shit. JARVIS?"
As soon as Peter heard the question pointed to the AI, he thrusted the window open and jumped out. He could not give them time to let JARVIS help them catch him. 'I'm sorry, Steve, Tony.'
-Line break-
(2 minutes ago)
Steve stood in the elivator, thinking what he had discovered about Peter over and over again. The questions 'How could he lie?' And 'How could he not lie?' Battled eachother inside of his head. He couldn't quite wrap his head around how exactly he felt about the situation.
"Sir, there appears to be some sort of disturbance going on in Mr. Parker's current room." JARVIS informed him. Immediately all of his internal arguments shut down and he filled with worry.
"Bring me back down to his floor, now!" He ordered, and the elivator instantly changed directions.
He arrived at the room just before Tony, and looked in the door, which was cracked open, to see that Peter's body was no longer in the med bed.
When Tony appeared just behind him, Steve exclaimed, "He's not here!"
"You think I can't see that?" Tony snapped, "Shit. JARVIS?"
"Sir, it appears that-" JARVIS' words turned to static, then nothing.
"What the hell?" Tony exclaimed.
"You think someone took Peter and then messed with JARVIS to make a clean escape?" Steve asked, worriedly.
Tony shrugged, "I don't know." He then looked down the hallway, "But this trail of blood may lead us to out answer."
Steve made a face at all the blood, but he followed it down the hall, quickly. Once they reached the end, they saw the open window, which had blood smeared around it.
"Well, I don't think we have to worry about him being taken." Tony commented, "I don't know very many othe people who like to leave through windows than the web-head."
"But we still need to worry about him. He clearly tore up the stitches, based on the amount of blood everywhere." Steve noted, earning a nod in agreement from Tony.
"I'll suit up and get Bruce. You can go ahead and start looking for him." Tony turned on his heels and headed down the hallway, "I suggest you look on roofs. He has a thing for those, especially the one we met him, well, Spider-Man on last time!... Though, I guess that was just blown up. Whatever,must look on rooftops!" He called back to his fellow Avenger. Steve nodded, despite the fact he knew Tony couldn't see, and headed out.
A/N: Does this qualify as a cliffhanger? I don't know, honestly. NerdyIceSk8er is to cliffhangers as Spidey is to rooftops. And ooh! This is definitely one of my longer chapters! Yay! Damn, it's one in the morning! Where did the time go? Of course I come back later (now 1:15 ish), as I was about to finally sleep when I realized that I had had Tony tell Steve to look at Spidey's usual spot, only to realize I blew that up last chapter. Whoops! Anyways, please continue to follow, favorite, and review and I will hopefully update soon!