The battlefield around him was only growing more and more intense. The fight seemed like it would never end, as every time Peter managed to knock out one of the slimy alien things from Thanos' army, another would be jumping on him before he knew it.

Peter wasn't even quite sure what was going on.

One second they had been fighting Thanos, followed by Peter starting to disappear in his mentor's arms, and the next he was being woken up and told that it had been five years and they were going to go fight the stupid space raisin that they had just lost to.

All in a day's work, right?

When Dr. Stange had started to do that yellow sparkly thing, Peter had taken one last swing around the horrid planet before jumping through the portal.

It was opened to what looked to be the remnants of an explosion, a big one, too, with all of the Avengers standing together at the front lines. In the distance Peter could see the titan that had started this all, standing in front of hundreds of those nasty alien things.

Over the roar of everyone shouting, Peter couldn't quite tell what to do or where to go, so he looked for the one person that always did.

Peter found him pretty easily, spotting the Iron Man suit standing out amongst all of the other muted colors around it. He wanted to go the man and ask what the heck was going on because it hadn't really been five years, had it?

But then all of a sudden, the screaming and shouted intensified by a tenfold and everyone started running forward, so Peter did the one thing he knew to do. He swung.

It was easy enough to distinguish the bad guys from the good, because the majority of the people on their side actually looked like they were supposed to be alive.

Although it was against everything Peter stood for, he put as much of his strength into his punches and kicks as he could, managing to knock the enemy to the ground in one hit.

It had already felt like ages on the battlefield.

After skipping his field trip to take a quick joyride to space, once again crashing some high-tech flying thingy, seeing Mr. Stark get stabbed through the stomach and then waking up to find out they weren't even done yet, the boy was tired.

Peter had hoped he would never think this to himself, but god did he want to take off his suits and sleep for a week.

Because battling a bunch of aliens from space was a big step up from helping old ladies cross the street.

Even though he desperately wanted this nightmare to be over, Peter was sure everyone one else on the battlefield did too. So, he kept swinging, kept kicking and punching and running and had no plan on stopping anytime soon.

When Peter's Spidey-Sense flared, he looked behind him to see some scaley, twice-the-hulk-sized-alien knocking something to the ground.

As it swung its not-so-much-an-arm-but-rather-a-blade backwards to wind up, Peter shot a web and pulled it backwards, successfully halting it until Ant-Man crushed is with his heel.

After watching the creature disappear under a large foot, Peter looked up to see who he had just saved, and it turned out to be the one and only Iron Man.

"Mr. Stark!" he shouted as he basically limped forward. The man's head shot up at the sound of his voice, and Peter was quick to help the man up off the ground.

"Oh my god, holy cow, you will not believe what's been going on. Do you remember when we were in space? And then I, like, vanished... what's all that grey stuff in your hair?" Peter asked as he took in the sight of his mentor.

Tony just stared at him with wide eyes, motioning to his head as he couldn't take his eyes off of Peter. "It's just, grey hair."

"Oh, that's okay, I'm sorry. Anyway, Dr. Strange was there when I got back, right? And he was like, "C'mon, it's been five years, they need us!". And then he started doing that yellow sparkly thing that he does all the time..." the boy's rambling trailed off as his mentor stepped forward and fiercely pulled him into an embrace.

"What're you doing?" Peter whispered as he cautiously wrapped his arms around the man.

Peter didn't get a response, but in its place, he felt a kiss planted on his cheek as the man sighed in... relief?

After a few moments of silence, Tony pulled away and grabbed his mentee by the shoulders, shaking them slightly and looking directly into the kid's eyes. "We'll catch up later, alright Pete? They need us right now. Stick close to the ground and don't get too close to anyone."

Peter stared at the man in silence. Mr. Starks eyes were filled with a desperate longing, and despite never having hugged the man before, Peter could tell it was the hardest thing for his mentor to do to let Peter go. "Okay, Mr. Stark."

"Promise me, kid. Be careful, okay?" Peter couldn't tell if he was imagining it or if tears were actually starting to pool in his mentor's eyes.

"I promise."

Tony just stared at the boy for a few more moments, and for a second Peter thought he would be benched once again.

Tony blew out a shaky breath as he took one last look at Peter. "Knock 'em dead, kid."

After Peter had given up the gauntlet to the glowing lady, he slowly started to fight his way back to the direction he left his mentor in.

For some reason he could tell the woman was powerful, and trusted that the fight would be over soon.

After knocking out a large herd of aliens, Peter looked up to see the gauntlet laying mere feet away from Thanos.

The vigilante started sprinting forward, but at the distance between him and Thanos, he knew he wouldn't make it in time.

Peter watched as the titan picked up the gauntlet and put in on, head immediately falling backwards as the power started to take over his body. Peter ran and ran, trying to move as fast as he possibly could, but the titan's hand was closing and Peter knew it wouldn't be long before he disappeared once again.

A familiar red suit landed in front of Peter's view, and all he could do was keep running and watch as his mentor, no, father figure grabbed a hold of the gauntlet, and barely lasted five seconds before he was thrown backwards.

"NO!" Peter screamed, but the sound was lost to bullets and explosions.

Peter put all of his energy into his legs, attempting to shoot a web, but it hit the ground before reaching the titan's hand.

Thanos looked up in triumph, a sickening smile on his face as he started to snap his fingers.

"I am... inevitable."

Peter screamed as the large fingers of the golden gauntlet snapped together. Expecting to start vanishing once again, Peter stopped running and stared in shock.

Except nothing had changed.

The titan seemed just as confused as him, quickly turning his hand over to see that there was no longer a single infinity stone in his grasp.

Both then looked to where Iron Man had been hit down, and upon seeing Mr. Stark on his knees with the energy of each infinity stone coursing through his suit, tears filled Peter's eyes and he started sprinting towards the man instead.

"And I," Tony started at a whisper, which Peter wouldn't have even been able to hear without his enhanced hearing.

"No!" Peter screamed once again. He was closer, he was getting so close, if Mr. Stark would just wait one more second!

"Am." Peter could hear the dread filling his hero's voice. Tony's eyes were filled with pain and sorrow, the thoughts of giving up his life this way unimaginable to Peter. He was not going to let it happen.

"No, stop!" Peter screamed. Just a little bit closer, just a little bit more and Mr. Stark could be saved.

"Iron Man."

Peter jumped and attached himself to the man's suit, just as his body went up in flames and everything fell silent.

The world blinked awake.

Peter wasn't quite aware of his surroundings. He thought he may have been underwater, because one second everything had been muffled, and the next he could sort out different voices swimming around his ears.

"Tony, he saved your life."

"But he shouldn't have. I didn't save his."

The first voice sighed, sounding a mix between sad and patient. "You did save his. If it weren't for you, Peter wouldn't be here right now, and you would be off at home with only one kid."

"He's hurt, and it's my fault. There's no arguing that."

"And who's to say he'd still be at the top bar if this hadn't happened. Waking up to find it had been five years and your aunt and third father figure were gone would be a lot to manage."

"You'd figure it out."

"I doubt it. He needs you, honey."

Peter's face pinched as he tried to open his eyes. Feeling frustrated that he couldn't manage to get them to work, the boy sighed and turned his head towards the deeper voice.

"Pete, you up buddy?"

"I'll go get a doctor."

Peter whined in response, still not being able to figure out how his eyes or mouth worked.

"He, it's okay, baby." Peter was pulled further against the warmth he realized he had been shifting closer to ever since he woke up. "It's your Mr. Stark, kiddo. Can you open those bambi's up for me?"

Mr. Stark. He would do anything for Mr. Stark.

Peter slowly pulled his eyelids open, blinking lazily as the lights hit his eyes.

"Heyyy, there's my boy," Mr. Stark said softly.

A hand started slowly carding through Peter's hair, and he looked towards the source to see Mr. Stark sitting up next to him on the bed.

Peter's eyes roamed over his father figure to find the man was wearing a soft hospital gown. His right arm was bandaged and in a sling, and if Peter looked closely enough, he could see the faint tinge of grey peeking out from his collar.

"'S going on?" the boy slurred.

Tony sighed while seeming to take in every little detail of Peter's face. "You don't gotta worry about that right now, baby. Just relax for me, okay?"

Peter sighed happily as he nuzzled into Mr. Starks side.

"You feelin' good, Petey?"

Peter hummed as he opened his eyes again. Mr. Stark was still staring down at him like he was some sort of treasure, and Peter had never felt more love from the man than he did in that moment.

"Feelin' good, Mis'r Stark?" Peter asked as he moved his hand to toy with the man's gown.

"I'm feeling great, kiddo. Feeling great."

A/N- Ahaha I'm kinda a sucker for Tony calling Peter baby in fluffy scenarios. Anyway, yes, I really did put the deleted scene of Tony kissing Peter's cheek into this cuz dang them deleting that scene almost hurts as much as their deaths. Well, hope you likey. Lemme know what you think. :)