"He wanted you to have this," she said and pressed something small into his hands.
"Thanks," Peter's voice cracked as he wrapped his finger around the small metallic object. She smiled and walked away to greet her other guests. Peter opened his hand. Curled between his fingers was a small metal spider that resembled the one on his suit. He slipped it into his pocket where it remained forgotten until long after the funeral.
"Oh, I found this in your jeans while I was washing them," Aunt May holds up a small metal spider and dumps it into Peter's hand on the drive home from the airport. "You gotta be more careful with that stuff. I'm surprised it survived our machine." She laughs.
"Yeah, okay," Peter says and stuffs it back into his pocket.
That night, as Peter changes into his pjs, the spider falls out of his pocket. Peter grabs it and climbs onto the bed. He turns it over and over in his hands. It seems immobile and pretty useless overall until his fingers happen upon a button he hadn't realized was there. A 3D screen flickers to life across from him, filling his room with a projection of another empty room. Somebody pulls a chair in front of the projection and sits down. Peter's eyes fill with tears.
"Hey kid," Tony smiles. "I already made one of these for my family. Thought I'd make one for you too." He shrugs. "If this works…God, I hope it works…probably not all of us are gonna make it. So I guess what I'm trying to say is…" He hesitates for a minute and looks around as if the right words might come crawling out from under the workstation behind him. Then he clears his throat. "What I'm trying to say is…you have nothing to be sorry for, kid." He shakes his head and laughs. "No that's stupid. I usually have a teleprompter for this sort of shit." He laughs at his own joke before growing solemn and thoughtful. "You're a good kid, Parker. And, you know if I had to give you some advice- which you should always live by- it would be to just keep doin' what you're doin'. Keep up the whole Friendly Neighborhood Spiderman schtick. Because those little people, they need you, kid. And maybe someday you'll have a midlife crisis and that neighborhood will expand and you'll end up saving the world multiple times but I mean I didn't go through that til I was, God, about 40 or something."
"So getting kidnapped by terrorists is a midlife crisis now?" Says a voice from behind Tony. Tony smiles and glances behind him. Pepper steps forward and leans down to kiss him. As she straightens up, Tony gazes up at her with soft brown eyes. He seems to have forgotten the camera sitting in front of them. "What are you doing?" she asks.
"Oh," he shrugs. "Just recording a little something. I'll be right up." She nods and kisses him again before she leaves. Tony stares at the camera for a minute before remembering what he was doing. "So, there you have it; advice from Tony Stark. Remember it well, grasshopper. These are rare and hidden gems to come by." He smirks. "Alright, this is getting way too long. I better wrap it up here." He claps his hands and rubs them together. "You get the gist. Don't be sorry, be who you are. Damn, I'm terrible at last words. Oh and one last thing, I'm proud of you, kid." He starts to get up.
"Daddy," a voice interrupts him. He sits back down and hauls a young girl onto his lap. She looks up at him with adoring brown eyes then looks at the camera. "Who you talkin' to?" He smiles at her.
"That's Peter Parker," Tony says, "You're gonna meet him someday." He glances at the camera. Peter gasps as Tony's gaze meets his. "That's Spiderman."
