If I was a sculptor, but then again, no
Or a man who makes potions in a travelling show
I know it's not much, but it's the best I can do
My gift is my song, and this one's for you

And you can tell everybody this is your song
It may be quite simple, but now that it's done
I hope you don't mind, I hope you don't mind that I put down in words
How wonderful life is while you're in the world

I sat on the roof and kicked off the moss
Well, a few of the verses, well, they've got me quite cross
But the sun's been quite kind while I wrote this song
It's for people like you that keep it turned on

Your Song, by Elton John, from the album Elton John, released in 1970


A few days had passed since then. Tony was dealing with the Vienna Accords meeting and was out of the Tower on business. Sparrow had mostly recovered but had been staying in her room, out of everybody's contact. Everybody had tried- that being Happy, Pepper, Tony and Peter, but she had nothing. Tony had tried ordering her, as a last resort, but she had simply ignored it. Stating that it was safer for her to stay away, so she couldn't hurt anyone else.

The only thing that was a solace was the fact that she was eating the meals dropped off- so she wasn't starving herself or anything like that. Peter just wasn't sure what else could be done. Her Therapist was doing phone-call sessions with her and was relaying her findings back to the Tower occupants. Sparrow was isolating herself to try and protect them, and she would come out once she felt like she was under control.

Something that wasn't linked to the Avengers fuck up, and something that wasn't related with his MIT stuff. So he picked up an electric guitar, sat down in the chair, and quickly tuned it. If there was one positive to super hearing other than being able to eavesdrop on conversations, it was the fact that he was incredibly in tune to frequencies. And sound in general. Which made tuning instruments natural to him.

He plucked a few chords experimentally, wincing when he accidentally messed up a bar chord resulting in some sort of garbled noise. Quickly doing a couple of arpeggios and scales, he got satisfied with the tune, and quickly placed a capo on the first fret.

In just a few moments, he strummed out the lead guitar part, humming appreciably as his fingers nimbly remembered their muscle memory, dancing along the frets with ease. Once he'd finished that, and FRIDAY had recorded it, he put the guitar down and picked up the bass.

When he was younger, Peter had desired to learn how to play an instrument, but with no money to speak of and no instrument to practise with, his dream of doing that had stopped fairly abruptly. Tony, however, had quickly given him full range of the music room- the man being surprisingly musical himself- and Peter had sat himself down to learn, aided by Tony.

Of course, he had been offered lessons, but since he was too stubborn to let Tony spend the money- and he enjoyed the bonding time with Tony- the man helped him play all sorts of instruments. He'd even played a didgeridoo once, although he hadn't been keen on it. He had a very specific song in mind although he was going to add a little improv into it- just to challenge him a little. The song in question was Zombie, written by The Cranberries. Most people, however, knew the Bad Wolves Version.

While the chords were quite simple, it gave him a lot of chances to improvise, especially since he was limited to the original track. He did the original base chords, before repeating them, both up an octave and down an octave, staggering them slightly as if there was an echo. It seemed more dramatic that way, and Peter, while not liking the drama or attention that was commonly associated with Tony, did like to sometimes be a little bit overdramatic.

Tony, however, said he was enthusiastic. Placing the red bass down with as gentle a touch as he could manage- it turned out that stringed instruments were incredibly easy to snap, so he'd gotten a lot of practice at restringing them- he then turned to the grand piano, Stirling white. Out of all the instruments, piano was definitely his best, even if he couldn't quite manage incredibly fast pieces.

The idea was to make a slow version of the song without compromising the intensity of it, so his idea could either go really well or really badly. Struggling with how exactly it should go, Peter abandoned the piano and instead focused on the drums. He decided to start the beginning lyrics with just the soft roll of the high hat, before becoming increasingly louder while the song built up, evolving into a 'song and dance around the drum kit'. As with many things, you couldn't always get it first try, and his first attempt at playing along was awful and clashed with the music.

It took him a bit of fiddling and shuffling and replanting, but by the end, he managed to get a good enough sounding drum beat. Now for the fun part- the vocals. Standing by the microphone- although it wasn't exactly necessary- he took a deep breath in and began to sing the best he could. He didn't really have a talent in it, but the voice was more of a placeholder until he could get either Tony- who could actually sing despite his protests- or somebody else to cover it.

"Anotherr head.. hangs lowwww-lyyy, child is.. slow-ly takennnnn."


As was his habit, he had become incredibly absorbed in his music, not even noticing Sparrow's silent form watching from the doorway. It took him sitting down to record some piano pieces before he caught her face in the sleek reflection of the piano's surface. He didn't dwell upon it, instead focusing on his fingers gliding over the keys.

She stilled for a brief moment, before walking in. Her face was gaunt, eyes looking shadowed with a foreign emotion, but she didn't look too bad all things entirely. Minor wounds had healed, she was walking with her usual grace, and that confused look in her face had all but vanished. She strode over to him, before tugging at his shoulder.

"There's something you need to see. FRIDAY has been trying to tell you, but she is sidetracked trying to contact Tony."

Unsure with what she wanted to say, but taking any contact over the silence they had before, he turned to face her, and her face was stiff, eyes hardened. She didn't say much more, before leaving the room, with Peter following closely behind her. They ended up in the common room, with the TV switching on by silent command, showing the live news recording of the Vienna meeting. It looked perfectly normal, and he turned to face her, as she looked at him with an unreadable look on her face.

Then again, she has many unreadable faces, this one should be no different. But there was something different about it, and Peter was beginning to feel the telltale churn of anxiety in his stomach. Throwing a sideways glance at Sparrow, she looked tired and weighted. She definitely wasn't happy about something, and there was a firm downturn to her lip. There was a small tremor in her hands, tensed ever so slightly with an aggravated twitch.

"It's just the Vienna Summit. Most of the Avengers are there."

He shrugged, feigning nonchalant confidence that he didn't have. Perhaps my confidence will calm her down a little? Then again- Her lips pursed, reminding Peter somewhat of Natasha's analytic non-commital look. Peter swallowed a lump as Sparrow gestured forwards, towards the giant television.

"This is a paused recording. FRIDAY, play."

By her command, the footage trickled forwards slowly, and in the footage, Peter could make out several people that he could recognise. King T'Chaka. Prince T'Challa. He was pretty sure he could make out Natasha in the corner- and the camera swivelled to focus on Tony.

Every man in the room was wearing either a suit or a military uniform and the women were wearing either a formal skirt and jacket or dress. The news anchor's commentary started up again from a momentary pause, and it somehow sounded as monotonous as the meeting undoubtedly was.

"At a special United Nations conference, 117 countries have come together to ratify the Sokovia Accords."

The small comment cut out, instead focusing on King T'Chaka, who took the stand to begin the opening statement that would lead to the ratification of the Accords. They were important, for both his secret identity and for the protection of innocents everywhere. He didn't want anyone to have their own version of a May or Ben incident.

"When stolen Wakandan vibranium was used to make a terrible weapon, we in Wakanda were forced to question our legacy. Those men and women killed in Nigeria were part of a goodwill mission from a country too long in the shadows. We will not, however, let misfortune drive us back. We will fight to improve the world we wish to join. I am grateful to the Avengers for supporting this initiative. Wakanda is proud to extend its hand in peace."

Sparrow paused it remotely this time, before moving over to the screen and pointing at the slightly blurred image of T'Challa. It wasn't particularly noticeable until Sparrow pointed it out. The Prince had turned to look at the bordering window, a narrowed glare on his face. Looking towards Sparrow, she played it with a click of a button, her eyes fixed to the screen.

The footage moved forwards at a snail's pace as Peter quickly realised there was a reason why Sparrow was showing him this. He kept his eyes fixed on the screen instead of turning to ask why frozen in silent horror at the expectation of what was going to happen. Over the audio, T'Challa's distinctive voice could be heard as he screamed out a phrase that made Peter's lunch almost return to the world.

"EVERYBODY GET DOWN!"

The footage abruptly shook, cutting off and returning to a shocked news reporter who quickly tried to hide her distressed look. That was all Peter saw as FRIDAY turned off the TV, with Sparrow turning to face Peter, her arm slowly snaking to his shoulder. His breathing picked up as his legs trembled beneath him, threatening to bow underneath his own body weight.

Breathing was a laborious task, each breath stubbornly refusing to come, seemingly being prevented from entering his throat. Cold hands gently became noticeable to him as he opened his eyes, focusing on Sparrow's emerald eyes as she looked at him with evident concern.

"Peter, listen to me. Tony is fine. FRIDAY, pull up Tony's vitals."

On the TV screen, there was a heart rate monitor, and while it was elevated, it was better than no heartrate at all. Peter just couldn't accept that he was okay though- Tony was nowhere near him and could be dead for all he knew. Surely he'd lost enough people! He couldn't lose Tony aswell! Sparrow again nudged his shoulder, concern settling on her face as plain as day.

The expression she'd had earlier was subdued, and Sparrow seemed more concerned with Peter in the present moment, as he slumped to the ground, with Sparrow gently lowering him there with her strength.

"Listen, Tony's been talking with Pepper- she's on her way now. Tony is alive and well- only a few scratches. I realise you might not want to trust me but trust Tony. He promised you he'd be okay, and you know he would never break that promise."

Sparrow picked Peter up gently with a surprising show of strength, and carefully placed the still panicking Peter on the sofa. He tried to speak, bring up the words he didn't want to realise, but he just couldn't, the ability being unreachable. Sparrow took her hands off his shoulders- she must have put them there again after she'd set him down- and carefully wrung her wrists out, as they glowed with some sort of power, revealing an orb that pulsed brightly.

She passed it to him, and it felt warm to the touch, pulsing with some sort of power as he gently rolled it around in his palm. FRIDAY was playing some random music in the background, as the bots rolled into the elevator several floors below, guided by FRIDAY to come up. The only reason he knew that was because he had managed to focus a little on the sounds of squealing wheels and beeping that was associated with the bots.

"When I shielded your mind from the wi- from Wanda, we became connected in a way that is intangible. This glass orb is a reflection of Tony's life. For as long as he is alive, that orb will be warm to the touch, pulsing. If that orb were to smash, there would be no effect on Tony."

His hand clenched around the orb as the elevator dinged, revealing Dum-E, Butterfingers and You, rolling towards them with an odd sort of silence.

As they began to beep, Sparrow disappeared for a second, returning in her wolf form. It was not a form Peter himself saw often, as it wasn't an ability she used, but she jumped up on the sofa next to him, curling up and nudging his side with a wet nose.

Her grey fur was thick, soft, and he ran his hands through it, providing a nice distraction from the panic that was slowly ebbing away like the tiredness after a patrol. With the orb safely pocketed, its warm still thrumming through his jeans, he watched as the three bots fooled around, his grasp on Sparrow's fur never lessening.


Pepper arrived roughly ten minutes later, finding them in the exact same position. Sparrow turned her head, her ears twitching ever so slightly, and her eyes narrowing, only to fix them upon Pepper. She turned away without so much as a dwindling stare, instead focusing on Peter.

Reaching for a glass, she filled it with water, before taking a glass, swallowing it down whole as she tried to ignore the jitters and tremors in her hand. Everything was the same... whether Tony was inside the suit or outside the suit, she would always worry for him.

The current disaster in Vienna was no different. Once upon a time, she'd thought that she would never be able to cope with it, but other time she'd come to terms that she would have to- that she and Tony were like two magnets, perpetually attracted to one another.

Placing the glass down, she moved to sit on the sofa, looking at the lightly dozing Peter. Her phone rang, Black Sabbath's Iron Man ringing out- meaning it was Tony, because who else would it be- and she placed it to her ear, Sparrow's emerald eyes watching her with hidden curiosity.

"Hey Pep. No doubt you saw what was on the news- either that or Pete told you. I'm okay, only a few minor scratches, But ah... I'm going to have to stay here for a few days Pep."

"Are you sure you're alright? I know your penchant for getting hurt and not telling anyone."

She sighed, tensing her forehead as she looked towards Sparrow, who was still watching her with her hardened green eyes. There was a momentary lapse of silence over the phone, before a sigh and Tony's slightly tinny voice spoke again.

"I am fine. It's just all hands on deck. Listen, Rogers has done something exceptionally stupid, even for him. So that's why I'm staying longer. Could you pass me to Pete?"

Pepper got up to stir Peter and pass the phone, but Sparrow beat her to the punch, nudging him with her furred head. Peter's bambi-eyes opened blearily as Pepper passed him the phone, mouthing 'Tony' under her breath. Any signs of exhaustion cleared as Sparrow moved aside to give him space.

The conversation that took place was over five minutes long, with few words being exchanged and more agreements on Peter's behalf. Still, he shortly passed it back over, a small smile on his face which rapidly changed to a downturned one once he looked at Sparrow. Placing the phone back to her ear, Tony didn't waste any time in speaking as Peter yawned, watching her in conjunction with Sparrow's slightly dimmed eyes.

"Look after the kids for me, please Pep? I'll be home sooner then you know it."

"I know you will. And you never have to ask. Is that all Mr Stark?"

There was a pause, a hesitance and hitch of breath, before Tony spoke again with a weighted and heavy voice, sounding tired, and for once, old.

"That will be all, Miss Potts."

She didn't even get time to ask for any more, as the phone shut off with a click. Leaving her wondering what exactly he had to deal with, but also concerned for the man's almost-son, who still looked ashen and tired. Just what- other than the explosion- had happened?


Author's Note

Keeping this short because I'm so tired to the extent of falling asleep sitting up.

QOTW: What is one thing you would change throughout the entire MCU?

I think I'd change, as a very quick answer, Iron Man Two. It's.. uh.. it could do with better writing in my humble opinion. My answer might change when I'm feeling better though.

See you next week!

~Cair