Tony Stark sighed, and settled onto the couch with his coffee. Decaf, because he had a daughter to take care of, and he couldn't afford to stay up half the night when she'd be up before 7. Speaking of Morgan, she was getting harder and harder to get to bed some nights. She had more questions, about anything and everything, than any five 8-year-olds. Pepper was out of town for the weekend on SI business, so Tony had borne the brunt of it the last few days. Well, and FRIDAY. Thank heavens for his AI! She was endlessly patient with his curious and precocious child. It had gotten cold outside lately, too, so they'd been in more than he liked to be. Morgan was a little easier to deal with when she got lots of sunshine and exercise. He loved her dearly, but occasionally his brain needed to breathe.

That's what it was doing right now. Except sometimes when he was alone with his thoughts, his mind went places he'd rather avoid. There was another pair of big brown eyes that still haunted his dreams. A boy he missed. One whose bright shining star of a life was cut short far too soon, and he still felt it was his fault. And sometimes his chest still ached from being without that funny, brilliant, snarky, sweet teenager. Tony just wished he'd realized… wished he'd told him how essential he was, how much he loved him, before it was too late.

He flipped on the TV, hoping to find something to help him stop following those thoughts. His therapist reminded him it was okay to feel those things, but wallowing in them didn't help anyone, least of all him. He ended up on a baking show that wasn't too chaotic, and was soon drowsing on the couch. He really shouldn't sleep here, though. He should move to his bed. His back was too old for couch sleeping.

"Boss?"

Tony jolted out of his half-asleep state. "What's up, FRI?"

"There is a visitor here to see you." Tony jumped up. Anyone he knew would usually call or text first, so he was immediately on alert.

"Who is it, FRI?"

"I need you to have an open mind, and know that I do not believe this person is any threat." Oh, yeah, that made him feel better.

"Excuse me? How about you let me decide that, Watson?" He started walking towards the door, activating his watch gauntlet.

"Wait, Boss." He was annoyed, but he trusted his AI enough to stop and listen. "I also need you to know that I have performed biometric scanning, and this person is who they appear to be. However, they insist they're not from our universe, and that is the part I don't understand."

Tony's eyes were wide now. "Would you recommend I go talk to them outside, or, in your wise opinion, is this unknown person safe to let into the house with my sleeping daughter?" he asked dryly, looking for a readily accessible coat.

"I do believe it's safe," FRIDAY responded with an odd tone in her voice, which surprised Tony enough that he said, "okay, then, let's do it."

"He's at the door, Boss." Tony stepped forward and opened the door to find a shivery form that he'd know anywhere, even though it had been almost 9 years since he'd seen him.

"Peter?" Tony whispered as he lurched back and almost fell in his shock, his hand grasping for support but finding none. It looked like the kid. His kid, but not… quite. This person seemed taller, and leaner, and instead of projecting optimism and enthusiasm, his face was tense and unsure. The person jumped forward with unnatural speed to help break Tony's fall, and lowered him gently to the floor.

Whoever it was turned to close the door, where the early stages of a snowfall were filtering in, then turned back to Tony, kneeling on the ground in front of him. His eyes were nervous, hopeful, and shiny with some emotion.

"Mr. Stark?" he said almost reverently.

"Pete? How… is it really? What is happening ? You're dead!"

"I am, here. You're right," this Peter-esque person agreed with him. And it was the kid's voice, with a little more confidence, a touch deeper, with more weight to it.

"If you're really Peter, you know my heart can't handle stuff like this," Tony choked out.

Peter's brow wrinkled in concern. "FRIDAY?" He asked with the authority of one who expected to be answered.

"Boss's heart rate is elevated, and blood pressure is higher than normal, but he is not in any danger."

The kid visibly relaxed. "Do you think we could move this conversation somewhere more comfortable?" he asked, gesturing to the living room. How could he know where that was? Peter had died before they'd built the cabin. The boy shivered again, just a touch. He was only dressed in jeans and a sweater, definitely not cold weather gear.

"Um, okay. You'd better have a dang good explanation, though. You too, FRIDAY."

Peter reached out a hand, and Tony took it, the familiar feel and rightness of the grip going a long way to calming Tony's nerves.

As they stood face to face, but not moving towards the living room, Tony cataloged the changes. This Peter was taller. Taller than Tony even, though just slightly. His face was leaner, but his chest and shoulders had filled out. He stood lightly on the balls of his feet, more wary than Tony had usually seen him. His eyes were still hopeful, but also a bit hooded, like someone who is used to things not turning out the way he hopes.

Tony hadn't released the kid's hand. He looked carefully into his warm brown eyes. "Pete? Is it really you?"

"Yeah, more or less. There's a whole long explanation, if you want it, but the short one is that I'm Peter Parker, but not your Peter Parker," he said, his eyes looking anywhere but into Tony's."

"What do you mean?"

"The whole theory of the multiverse, and multiple timelines all happening at once?"
"Yeah?"

"Very true and real." Tony's eyes widened, and he dropped Peter's hand so he could hold onto his head, adding physical support to the equations and theories running wild.

"In my universe, you invented time travel, and got everyone back, about five years after the snap. Well, most everyone, including me. But we ended up having to fight Thanos again right away, and… and you're the one who used the infinity stones and snapped him and his armies away."

Peter finally raised his gaze to Tony's again, sniffing, and his eyes were red-rimmed and haunted this time. "You didn't survive. So for me, you've been gone for four years."

The kid reached up and rubbed at the back of his head, looking around the room and at the floor, seeming to try to shake himself out of whatever emotion he was struggling with. "Aaaaand a lot of other awful stuff went down. But things are better now, mostly. Most of the time. Some of the time."

"Kid?" Peter's eyes snapped back to his. Tony, this one softened by grief and fathernood, held his arms open towards Peter. He wasn't his kid, maybe, but he was still Peter, and he had obviously been through some crap.

Peter's eyes immediately glinted with unshed tears, and he hesitantly stepped forward into Tony's arms.

Tony pulled him in close, one arm wrapped firmly around his back, the other threading through his hair (longer than he'd seen or felt it) at the nape of his neck, as Peter sniffed into his shoulder, seeming to melt a little bit in his arms. If Tony had to guess, if this Peter was similar to his, he'd say he was trying to avoid totally breaking down.

Tony held on, stroking his hair and rubbing his back until the kid finally relaxed his grip and started to step back. Peter smiled weakly at him. "Sorry about that."

"No sorries, kid. What do you say we go sit, and you can tell me about it? I have to admit my curiosity is off the charts."

Tony's curiosity was fueled instead of satisfied, as Peter explained how he had come to be here, in Tony's universe. They had both gotten comfortable on the sectional, sitting so they weren't too far apart, but could see each other's faces well. Peter had kicked off his shoes (good, that meant he was staying awhile) and pulled his feet up under him.

"Do you remember Dr. Strange?"

"Yeah, of course, kid. He dusted too, on… on Titan."

"Yeah, well, he also discovered that the whole multiverse thing was real too, when a kid who can jump between multiverses kinda landed in his lap. And a whole lot of crazy happened, and now she trains with him, and pretty much has her powers under control." He paused, staring at nothing for a moment. Tony wisely kept his mouth shut, waiting to see what else the kid was going to tell him.

"Anyway, he felt like he owed me, so he, or they, offered to let me come see you, here, in a universe where you're okay, but everyone didn't come back."

So many things to unpack in all that, but Tony zeroed in on one. "Why did he feel like he owed you?" he asked, guessing he wasn't going to like the answer.

"Oh," Peter said with a strained smile and feigned nonchalance, "we kinda made a mess of things, which was totally my fault, because everyone knew that I was Spiderman, and it wasn't working out, and then we didn't get into MIT, and I asked him to fix it, but messed up his spell, and the multiverses were trying to collapse in on each other, and the only way to fix it was for him to do a spell to make everyone forget who I am. So, yeah…"

"He what? " Tony really hoped he'd misheard. He was out of practice keeping up with the rapidfire babbling Peter could pull off. He couldn't even begin to address the rest of that stuff, or even make sense of it, but it sounded bad.

"Yeah. It was pretty much the worst. But it had to be done."

"But, Pepper? May? Happy? Your friends? They didn't know you?"

Peter's eyes flicked to the side as he visibly suppressed more emotions. "May's dead," he stated quietly. "And yeah, none of them really remember me."

Tony sat up straight. "May's dead?" He asked incredulously. Then, "Wait, as in currently? They still don't remember you?"

"Not really. But it's okay now! I, uh, tried to make it work on my own, studying for the GED and just being Spiderman. I mean, I found a couple jobs, kind of, which wasn't easy without any proof of who I was, and no high school diploma, but-"

Now Tony had jumped to his feet and was pacing the floor angrily. "Peter, what the he-"

Peter stood up as well, hands up in a defensive posture. "Hey, it's okay. Calm down. Your heart, Mr. Stark," he said, an eyebrow cocked in teasing reproval.

"I will not calm down, because-"

"Tony." The older man stopped pacing, waiting to hear what Peter had to say. His Peter had only called him by his first name infrequently, though he'd pressed him to more often. The kid had said he liked calling him Mr. Stark, and that it was familiar, not overly respectful for him. He'd believed that part. The little punk was constantly ragging him. Their good-natured banter was part of what had made working together so enjoyable.

"They don't remember me from before, but they do know me now." Tony gestured for the kid to continue as he sat back down on the edge of the couch.

"It wasn't working. I couldn't take care of myself without legally existing, without any resources. I couldn't be Spiderman and help people if I couldn't even pay rent and feed myself." The kid looked guilty, as if it was somehow his fault that he had failed in that, and it tore Tony's heart out. No kid of his should ever have been in that situation.

"I finally went back to Dr. Strange, and told him what had happened, proved it to him by knowing lots of stuff I shouldn't, and he started helping me. Then he convinced me to talk to my friends, to prove it to them, too. And even Pepper and Happy, finally. I thought they'd be safer, better off, without me. But I wasn't strong enough to stay away."

Tony's head was pulsing slightly, and not just from the late hour. He brought a hand up to rub around his closed eyes. "How long before you went to Strange, Pete?"

"Um, about six months."

Tony didn't have anything to say to that. He took a few deliberate deep breaths.

"So there's no one there that actually remembers you, they've just gotten to know you again ?" Tony wanted to make sure he understood.

"Yeah. It's not the same, but it's good. And it's getting better. Pepper's helped me with legal documents so I exist again. I don't know how legal that was, actually," he mused. Probably completely illegal, bless her.

"They got me an apartment in Happy's building, and she helped me get into school, and is even paying for that," he said ruefully, as if he regretted the need. As if Tony wouldn't have paid for all that anyway, had he been there.

"No MIT?" Tony knew the answer before Peter could voice it.

Peter's face was gentle as he shook his head slowly. "I didn't really even exist there, Mr. Stark. I didn't have any academic history. I'm at NYU though, studying electrical engineering."

"How old are you now, Pete? You definitely look older since I saw you. You said it had been four years, since…"

Peter smiled sadly. "Yeah, a little bit. I just turned 21, actually."

"Sheesh, kid." He wasn't even a kid. "And people knew you were Spiderman, but they don't now?"

"Yeah, that was a whole dumpster fire, let me tell you. But it's okay now. And I have access to your labs, for my suit and stuff. FRIDAY got Karen and my suit to recognize me again. Dr. Strange helps me sometimes, and I have some kind of loose working relationship with SHIELD, if I need Spiderman stuff. And I get to see MJ and Ned pretty often."

Tony sighed and tried to relax his shoulders. At least the kid was okay now. Even if his personal relationships had been wiped out. Rebooted? At least he had a place to live, and was eating (though he still looked a little slim to Tony), and was in school. He tried to tell himself that that was enough, but his heart rebelled.

"And… Pepper and Morgan? Morgan's there, right?"

"Oh, sorry, yeah. They miss you. A lot. But Pepper is strong, and they're okay, too. I'm just kinda getting to know Morgan better, but she's a firecracker. And she reminds me of her dad. Which is wonderful, but hard, too." The last part was quiet, and his smile had disappeared.

Tony straightened up, then scooted back to relax and lean against the couch. "How long can you stay? I assume you have to go back?"

"Yeah. I don't know. Probably a few hours? I'll know it's time to go when the portal shows up, I guess." Peter didn't look very excited about going back, and was still leaning forward, towards Tony, with his elbows on his knees.

"Well, how about you come over and sit next to me, and you can tell me how it happened that everyone found out you were Spiderman."

The kid didn't wait for a second invitation, but was next to him on the couch in a flash. Not quite touching, though, still holding back. Tony hooked his arm around Peter's shoulder, and pulled him the last few inches into his side. It was a familiar position, born of many movie nights at the Tower and at the Compound. He leaned his head against the young man's. He wasn't a teenager anymore, something Tony was still trying to fit his head around. "This okay? I've missed you, kid. Every version of you."

"Yeah. I've missed you too," Peter said quietly, turning his face in towards the older man and taking a long, shaky breath. "You have no idea how much."

"Oh, pretty sure I have an idea," Tony said, bringing a hand up to move gently through Peter's hair. He sighed, and rubbed his cheek against the soft curls, relishing the sensation he'd nearly forgotten. It was all so surreal, but also wonderful and healing at the same time.

"Tony?"

"Yeah, Pete?"

"If it works out on my end, do you think… would you mind… if I maybe visited again sometime?"

"Absolutely any time, Pete. In fact, I'm going to be counting on it now. You tell Strange he owes both of us, big time, and he'd better find a way to make it happen."

The kid let out a long, slow breath, and let his full weight rest into Tony's side.

"So, about that story?"

"Um, maybe another time, Mr. Stark. It wouldn't be good for your heart. How about I tell you about how I met two other versions of me, and how insanely cool it was?"

"Wow. Okay, then. Sure, kid, lay it on me."

In the future, I might add chapters with additional visits, because I love the idea of these two being able to have a continuing relationship, even though they technically both lost each other. What do you think?