Peter was expecting this to be more difficult.

Actually no, he was expecting to be told no, flat out. But after dinner when the conversations and joking around the table moved into the spacious entertainment room adjacent to the grand dining room, his conversation with Tony was short, spirited, and ... was that a trace of optimism in Tony's voice?

"Tony, I promise I'm getting better. Stronger, too! I can feel it."

"I can see it, kid. I know you are."

"So, uh... what do you think about me maybe sleeping in my own bedroom on your floor tonight?" Though Tony tried, he couldn't quite hide his quick intake of breath from the superhero with super hearing who sat beside him on the couch.

Tony broke eye contact with Peter to glance at Bruce, who was listening in on their conversation from the chair beside Peter. Peter too turned to appeal to Bruce with a pleading look he had become infamous for among the Avengers.

"You're asking me?" was Bruce's reply.

Tony chuckled, not sure if he ought to be trying to hide his nerves at Peter's request. "How'd ya know, Doc?"

Dr. Banner looked at Peter, then shifted his gaze back to Tony. "Seeing as you can monitor his vitals anywhere on Stark property through F.R.I.D.A.Y., I don't think there should be a problem." Peter looked shocked that Bruce signed off on his ask. Tony looked shocked, too, but also considerably more pale.

"You're sure?"

"Yeah, actually I think it might be good for him. Sleep is clearly Peter's biggest need right now and being in his own bed should help with that. It will also help if he doesn't have med staff checking on him throughout the night."

You're kidding.

"Thanks, Dr. Banner!" Peter couldn't help but steal a look across the room at Steve Rogers, who was also quietly listening in on the conversation, despite being surrounded by other Avengers. Steve responded with a subtle nod.

If Tony - or anyone else, for that matter - knew Peter was up and out of his room at the Medbay at 6:00 in the morning, he knew his training session would be stopped abruptly. If Tony found out about it, Peter was pretty sure he would not have access to the training room for at least another month lest he try to train with Steve again. Sleeping in his own room will allow him to slip out undetected the following morning, with Tony none the wiser.

"Well if you need sleep so bad, this -" Tony motioned to the Avengers sitting on furniture and on the floor. "- needs to be shut down early so that you can hit the hay. Early bedtime for sleepy Spider Babies." That earned a chuckle from Sam and Bucky.

"Tony, I'm literally not even tired, though! Plus isn't Morgan still up?"

"She is, but 9:00 is her bedtime, too. Up we go, kid." Tony stood up from the couch and held his arms out to Peter to help him up.

Peter yawned. Terrible timing, he thought. "'M not a baby," he grumbled as Tony pulled him up out of the couch.

"Of course you're not, kid." Tony winked.

"Good night, Peter," called out Natasha, which earned Peter a chorus of "goodnight, kid!", some laughter, and some teasing. "Goodnight? It's like, 9:00! The sun hasn't fully set yet?" Peter was pretty sure he heard a "Poor kid" in there, too.

Tony caught Peter's arm as he turned to walk to the elevator to retire to bed. "Need anything?" Tony asked quietly, raising his eyebrows quizitively.

"I'm good." All of this checking in was getting old.

"Okay, well you're good to take another dose of pain medication at 3:00 this morning. Do you want me to set an alarm and come get you some? I'm happy to do that."

"That's okay, I'm good. Thanks, though."

"You're sure?" Tony may not have noticed he was pulling Peter's arm a little closer to him, but Peter sure did. He looked down at his wrist in the billionaire's calloused hand. Tony too looked down at their hands before quickly dropping Peter's.

Peter's eyes again met Tony's. "Yeah, I'll be okay." I sound like a broken record right now. He started again for the elevator.

"Wake me up if you need anything," Tony called after Peter as he left. God, I sound desperate. Tony felt his heart rate pick up. The chatter lulled around him as he lowered himself slowly into the spot on the couch vacated by Peter.

"He's going to be fine, Tony. And you'll know immediately if he's not." Bruce put a hand on Tony's shoulder as he stood to take the seat next to him on the couch. "And I'll know, too. We have his vitals. He'll be fine"

Break

Peter was almost giddy as he set his alarm for 5:45 a.m. This would leave enough time to change into workout clothes and meet Steve in the training room by 5:55. He was careful to use his cell phone alarm instead of F.R.I.D.A.Y., in case Tony had set some protocol to be alerted when Peter set his alarm to wake him (of course, such a protocol did exist and was used).

As Peter laid into his soft, familiar bed, his excitement for the morning turned into a bit of nervousness. What if Tony was right, and he wasn't ready? Peter recalled Steve's assurance that they'd take it slow in the beginning, and that was enough to calm Peter's mind enough to get some sleep.

Of course, Peter's sleep wasn't restful.

In his dream he was Spiderman, free from the physical limitations he was experiencing in reality. He swung around happily and freely, and it felt so good to be strong again, even if it was just in his dream.

Suddenly, his entire vision turned red as more and more alerts flooded his vision. "What's going on?" He asked his A.I.

In response, the red alerts in his vision were replaced by a live news feed. The reporter sounded scared as she relayed the breaking news report.

"Crime in Queens is at an all time high. Despite having joined the Avengers in taking down Thanos and bringing everyone back from the blip, Spiderman has been nowhere to be seen."

Peter's heart sank to the bottom of his stomach. He hadn't even thought about how his little leave of absence might be impacting his neighborhood.

"Along with the sharp increase in non-violent crime, there has been a remarkable upward trend in violent crime as well. Crime resulting in at least one casualty is up 200% and crime resulting in at least one death is up 100% in the last three weeks."

Suddenly there was a ringing in Peter's ears and his legs gave out from under him. People are dying because of me.

His dream shifted, and suddenly he was walking home from the movies with Ned and May. They had just seen the newest installment in the Star Wars saga and it was epic. Peter and Ned excitedly buzzed about it while May walked beside them with a smile on her face and a bucket of popcorn in her hand.

Peter's spider-sense went off well before anything happened, and truthfully that made it worse. Filled with urgency that he was physically unable to act on, he suddenly stopped walking and talking and a man dressed in black ran across the street and grabbed Ned in a chokehold, digging a gun into his forehead. Under normal circumstances, real Peter would have been able to knock the gun out of this man's hand and free Ned in one swift movement, but suddenly dream Peter's body was as weak as real Peter's. It felt like he was moving through Jell-O.

As Peter lunged forward, he grabbed the gun that was pointed at Ned and pulled as hard as he could. The gun didn't budge. With Peter's hands still around it, the man fired the gun and Ned collapsed to the floor.

Dream Peter was out of breath. He watched his best friend crumble lifelessly to the ground.

"No," he said weakly.

The gunman then turned to May. He pointed the gun at her and said, "if you move, I will shoot!" Peter looked around desperately for help, for anyone, but suddenly the streets were empty.

He felt for his phone in his pocket, because if he could just call Tony, everything would be fine. Peter always had his phone on him, so when his phone was gone from his pockets, he fell to his knees in dread, panic, and guilt.

"You're no Spiderman," the gunman spat at Peter. "You're weak, Peter Parker. You're weak and you are helpless. I'm going to kill your aunt and you can't even do anything about it."

Peter didn't even open his mouth to protest because he knew the man was right. He closed his eyes, squeezing out tears. He heard the gun go off.

When he looked at May, she too was lifeless on the ground. Peter willed his body to move to her, to stop the bleeding, but he was too heavy. His muscles gave out and he found himself on the ground too between his aunt and his best friend who he could not save. The gunman crouched down so his face was inches from Peter's.

"This is your fault, you know. Spiderman could have stopped this, but clearly Peter Parker could not."

With great power comes great responsibility.

In his dream's eye, Peter saw the lifeless forms of May, Ned, MJ and his other friends, and thousands of strangers as they lay on the ground. All lives that in his heart Peter knew he was responsible for because he hadn't been saving anyone since Thanos.

Dream Peter found the strength to stand and walk the streets that he had just walked with his friend and aunt. As he walked, he looked at the bodies that littered the ground. His foot caught something and he stumbled to find his balance. He looked down to find what he tripped over and the fingers of a familiar, calloused hand were grazing his ankle. Those fingers too were lifeless and cold, and they belonged to none other than his mentor Tony Stark. His eyes found the face that would normally bring a sense of safety and comfort.

Tony's eyes were still open and a bullet wound left streaks of blood across his forehead. Peter shivered as he felt his vision go dark and his heart begin to race.

"Please, don't make me live with this," he pleaded. The gunman sneered and pointed the gun at Peter. He heard a loud bang but it was not accompanied with pain; only a bright light.

"Peter? Peter it's me, are you okay?"

Suddenly the lights were on. Peter, startled, rose quickly to a sitting position, unable to hide the physical pain caused by his movement and the emotional pain caused by his nightmare. Tears spilled down his face as he looked up at the disheveled, bed-headed Tony at the front of his bedroom.

"Oh, kid, it's okay, you're safe." Tony came and sat at the edge of Peter's bed next to him and wrapped an arm around him.

Feeling stupid, Tony realized Peter's dream wasn't about Peter dying. No, this was too big of a reaction for that. "I'm okay," he knowingly reassured.

The two stayed like that for a few minutes while Peter listened to the heartbeat of his mentor. Tony brought a hand to wipe tears from Peter's face then let it trail to his head as he started playing with the boy's messy curls. At the touch, Peter felt his muscles relax as he came down from his panic.

Having attained full consciousness, Peter realized how bad his body ached from head to toe. Mustering the strength, he pried his head from Tony's shoulder to look at the clock. 3:15.

Noticing Peter's rigid movements and seeing him glance at the clock, Tony sighed. "I'm getting your medication, kid. Stay awake, I'll be back in a minute." Resigning to Tony's will, Peter let his head rest on his headboard while Tony stood up from Peter's bed and left the room.

Peter grabbed his phone and unlocked it. He opened the clock app which showed his 5:45 alarm. His thumb hovered over the cancel button. He couldn't train in this pain, it was too intense.

Then he remembered his dream. How many people could he afford to let die while he did what? Sleep? Hang out with the Avengers and build LEGO sets?

Tony walked into Peter's room with a glass of water and a white pill. Peter quickly turned his phone off and took the pill and the water from Tony who stood at his bedside with a concerned look on his face while he took the medicine.

"Kid?"

"Yeah?"

"Wanna talk about it?"

"No."

Tony sat next to Peter again. "Let me rephrase. Let's talk about it."

Normally this would have earned an eyeroll and, if Tony was lucky, a sarcastic comment. But this time, Peter allowed his head to lower into his chest and Tony watched while a tear silently fell into Peter's lap.

"Kid," Tony said more forcefully this time, his voice dripping with worry. His hand again found its way into Peter's hair. "Talk to me, please." Tony was even more concerned when Peter's eyes refused to meet his own.

"I..." Peter's voice trailed off. "I just..." Tony waited patiently.

After a few seconds of silence, Peter softly whispered, "I'm sorry."

"Peter," Tony readjusted himself so he was looking directly at Peter. Tony gently took Peter's face in his hands. Peter noticed how warm they were. Warm. "Why are you sorry? I told you I'm here for you, whenever you need me. And even when you think you don't." A smile tugged at the corner of Peter's lips and his eyes finally lifted to meet Tony's.

"I'm trying to be strong."

Tony couldn't stop the confused look from spreading over his face. "Kid, you survived snapping the gauntlet with all the infinity stones. What else the hell do you think you need to do to be strong?"

"I just..." Again, Peter's voice trailed off.

"Look," Tony said, pulling Peter closer into his side. Peter didn't resist the movement. "You are the strongest kid I've ever met. And the smartest. And the kindest. I just wish you could see what I see in you." Tony felt emotion pulling at his heart. He wasn't good at this. Neither was Howard.

"Your strength will come back, okay? I promise. Just be patient with yourself. You're doing everything you can."

Well, that's not entirely true, Peter thought. At least not until about 2 hours and 30 minutes from now.

"Thanks, Tony. And thanks for bringing the meds."

"Of course, kid. Now get some rest," Tony said, now standing next to Peter's bed. He patted Peter's leg over the blanket. "Unless you'd like me to stay, of course."

"No, I think I'm okay now." Peter knew he couldn't slip out of his room without waking Tony if Tony were sleeping in the same room as him.

"Alright, bud. I'm a call away if you need me, okay? Don't hesitate."

"I won't, I promise."

"Goodnight, kid."

"Goodnight."

As Tony left Peter's room, Peter laid on his back, staring at the dark ceiling above him. I have to get back out there so no one else dies because of me.

Peter slipped back into sleep, but was up 5 minutes before the buzzing of his alarm. Quickly, he brushed his teeth and his hair, then changed into workout clothes, stopping to look at his thinning frame in the mirror.

He had to do this.

He walked into the elevator which took him down to Steve's training room. When Peter entered, Steve was already there, setting up equipment for the morning's workout.

Smiling, Steve called out to Peter as the door closed, "Are you ready, Spiderman?"