"Don't worry, kiddo. If you fall, I'll always catch you."

And it was times like these in which Peter was glad for the times random Tony quotes popped into his head.

"And if I don't catch you... Well, you can always rely on the floor, right?"

Peter had laughed. Now, he realised all he had to catch him was the floor.

"And if the floor fails... Wait. Where do I go from here? And to think I was making a really meaningful thing here."

Those times were far behind Peter now.

(And to think, that had only been a couple of months ago.)

The best part, though, was when Tony accepted him. Accepted that he was Peter and Spider-Man, and nothing could get rid of the spider part of him.

Well, except for a few painful science experiments, but Peter was certain that Tony wouldn't even think about doing that to him.

At least, he hoped he wouldn't.

"Well, I guess if the floor fails, then I can just swoop right in, catch you, then yell at the floor for not doing its job."

The grey walls around him seemed to loom in on him. Mocking him.

Why? He didn't have a clue.

He suddenly wondered why the walls were grey. Surely the walls had been white at one point?

Maybe something had happened to the other people in this place to... change it.

Maybe the other people had changed it.

Maybe there weren't even any other people here at all and Peter was thinking too hard and he just needed to stop.

He wanted to go home.

"Food."

That was the first word that had been spoken to him for a while. How long had it been? He didn't know.

"Thanks, you know, I was just starting to get peckish," Peter said, giving the guard a grin. It wasn't Esther this time. This guy was new. "Being starved kinda does that to you. I didn't know either!"

And yes, Peter was immensely proud of the evident sarcasm in that comment.

"Quiet, brat," the man hissed, clearly not in the mood for Peter's (clever, in his mind) comments.

"Okay, okay, sheesh, people really have no manners," Peter said, rolling his eyes and he grabbed the food and sat with his back against the (grey, grey, grey) wall.

Stale bread. He wondered if it had gone stale a couple of weeks ago or a couple of months.

It wouldn't make a difference anyway.

"Just one last question, if you don't mind? I mean, I'm gonna answer it anyway, I just thought I'd ask to be nice," Peter added, the man groaning at the thought.

"Get it out quick, boy, unless you want another punishment. Say... well, we'll have to leave it to the master for that, shouldn't we?"

In the dim light, Peter could see yellow teeth trying their best to give him a grim smile.

"I'm good. Anyway, I was just wondering, you know, it's been a while, how long have I actually been here for? It's not like I have a watch or anything, and I'd like to know. Please?"

Peter added puppy eyes for good measure, which seemed to make the man decide to tell him (and yes, Peter had tried to use the puppy eyes to get out. It didn't work).

"Three weeks and four days," he grunted out, resuming his position of leaning back on his chair, smoking a cigarette. "August 27th."

"Ah, been a while then, huh?" Peter said as an attempt at small talk. "You mind smoking somewhere else? I don't want to die when I get out of here, and I don't think you want to die either. Bad habit."

He tried not to think about how it had been three days since he was fifteen.

(He'd thought that when he was fifteen, he would have a small gathering with Ned, Harry, Michelle, and maybe that girl that Harry had mentioned. And he and Tony could spend time together...

That was all ruined now.)

"Shut up, brat."

This time, Peter took the words to heart.

After all, if he'd been told to shut up this many times, despite them being villains, that had to mean there was something wrong with him, right?

Yeah. There had to be.

"I'll catch you, Pete. I swear on... every single piece of technology I own. Since I care more about you than me and my tech is also more important, so I'll swear on that instead."

Tony would've found him by now. He was a billionaire, he had the tools, didn't he? He was one of the smartest minds of the world - and he had Bruce Banner with him.

Tony had to have found him.

Or maybe he'd stopped. Told everyone that since it had been so long, he had to be dead.

That made the most sense.

With a small sigh (and the guard immediately telling him to shut up a moment later), Peter leaned his head against the wall.

The grey, grey, grey wall.

~~~

"He's not dead," Tony insisted. "He's - he's not fifteen yet. We haven't celebrated his birthday yet, so he's not dead."

Tony said this with such certainty, as though he firmly believed that Peter couldn't die without having a fifteenth birthday party.

"Tony..." Pepper whispered, patting his back gently. "It was Peter's birthday three days ago. Remember? You had all the presents and piled them up in his room for when he gets back..."

Pepper neglected to mention the if.

If he gets back.

"Yeah, but he hasn't spent it with us yet, and he hasn't opened his presents, so he's not fifteen yet," Tony said, nodding his head. "He can't be fifteen if he hasn't blown out the candles on his cake, either. And he's not dead if he hasn't had his cake, so I'm right."

It was almost ridiculous, the amount Tony would say to make sure his son wasn't dead.

Pepper knew that if Peter died, Tony would self-destruct. He'd given up drinking when Peter moved in - didn't want to scare the kid.

After that, it just grew into him loving to see the ecstatic expression on Peter's face when Tony told him he hadn't drunk for three years.

Pepper could see the bottles. Only one was opened so far.

Barely a sip had been taken out of it.

Peter had no idea that Tony desperately needed him.

Tony had no idea how much Peter helped him.

Pepper knew that they needed Peter back.

Desperately.

~~~

"We need another smart person to help us with this," Ned groaned, staring at the tracker with dead eyes.

(He needed Peter back.)

"I never turned any of the other ones off, as well as the fact that who ever took Peter probably checked him for stuff like this. We can turn them back on from here, but... Peter sorted that bit out."

Harry gave him a deadpan look.

"You're telling me," he started, giving Ned an eye roll, "that Peter worked out how to turn the trackers back on manually here, but never told you. And the tracker is on him, so it's useless that he knows this."

"In my defence, we were watching Star Wars," Ned said, holding his hands up.

Harry gave him a sad look.

"You know, it was Peter's birthday three days ago," he said quietly, looking down. "He's been missing for three weeks and four days. Can you believe it? Three weeks and four days that we've been without our best friend."

"And seven hours, forty seven minutes and twenty one seconds. Twenty two - twenty three," Ned put in, pretending to be humorous (when really Harry knew Ned had actually been counting).

The bags under Ned's eyes were deep. He had been up every night trying to find Peter.

(It was those rare times Harry was allowed to sleep over so that he could force Ned to get some rest.)

(It was in those moments that Harry stayed up the entire night instead, staring at the tracker, hoping that some magical portal would open up and Peter would jump through.)

(He wished it could be that simple again.)

"You said you need extra brainpower?" Harry said suddenly, eyes brightening. "Because there's this girl I know who's really smart, especially with these types of things -"

"I don't know..." Ned said with an unsure tone. "The only thing we can tell her is that Peter's been kidnapped - we can't say why, because of Spidey, or how, because we don't know, or any other information.

"How do you even know that she'll help, Harry? I've never met her, so Peter probably hasn't either. Why would she try find a guy she's never met?"

"For one, her dad's in the police force, it's kinda in her blood," Harry smirked, trying to add some light into the situation. "And besides, she's a really nice person, I'm sure she'll be happy to help."

"Whatever you say, Har," Ned mumbled, his eyelids drooping as he gave the tracking device an intense glare.

"I'll message her in a moment," Harry said, frowning at the other boy. "You look like you're about to keel over. Surely you're not that old? You're not even standing!"

"I may or may not be surviving on three hours of sleep for the last five or six days," he murmured.

"Yeah, you're going to bed," Harry decided. "It's fine, I can stay, my dad won't notice I'm gone. He hasn't noticed for the past week."

Despite Harry's joking tone, Ned could see that the fact hurt him. He gave the other boy a clumsy hug (and by that, he means he gave Harry and a pillow a hug. More the pillow).

Harry appreciated the gesture.

"We'll take it in turns. I'll watch the tracker, I'm on seven hours of sleep for the last four days, I'm doing better."

Ned didn't answer, having fallen asleep before his head even reached the pillow. Harrg gave a fond, quiet laugh.

He'd missed Ned.

"I'll wake you up later," Harry whispered, half knowing that his friend couldn't hear him, the other half not liking the silence.

He took the moment to message the girl.

SpideySupporter
Hi? [03:53]

ThatKidFromBoardingScho
Hey Har [03:57]
What's up with that name? [03:57]

SpideySupporter
It's one of those 'you had to be there' things [03:57]
I have a favor to ask of you [03:58]

ThatKidFromBoardingScho
Oh yeah? [03:58]
Tell me [03:58]

SpideySupporter
Could you swing by Oscorp tomorrow, say... ten? [04:00]
I need your help with something [04:00]
We're just meeting up there, no going in [04:01]
Please don't go all science nerdy on me [04:02]

ThatKidFromBoardingScho
I wasn't going to go all science nerdy on you. [04:02]

SpideySupporter
*deadpan* [04:05]

ThatKidFromBoardingScho
Okay, maybe I was going to go all science nerdy on you [04:05]
What do you need me there for? [04:05]

SpideySupporter
I'll tell you tomorrow [04:06]
Too risky over text [04:06]
Oh I'm bringing a friend [04:06]
You'll like him [04:06]

ThatKidFromBoardingScho
I hope so [04:07]
I'm going back to sleep now [04:08]
See you tomorrow [04:08]
Or rather today [04:09]

SpideySupporter
Sorry for waking you [04:10]

Harry gave a small, relieved sigh.

Surely she'd help them. They'd get Peter back in no time.

No time at all.

I wasn't going to at that last sentence, but it was not 1899 words and it was annoying

This is gonna be quick, since its 01:51 AM and I'm being dragged to get my hair cut at half nine and I'm seeing my best friend tomorrow as well :)

I hope you enjoyed! I had a great time spending an hour and a half on this (sarcasm intended) because I had no clue where to go

I now know where to go

(And Cemmy, I'm looking forward to when you're back so you can read this :D)

Dedicated to I_am_Gwen_Stacy because I wouldnt know where to go with this if it wasn't for them XD

by the way, I thought I'd just tell you in case you were wondering, I go by he/him :) I know some people don't want to offend people, so I figured I'd add this

Anyway, you've got more to the story, Peter will probably be out soon:) gotta have more torture before that though!

Anyways, love you all, have a great time doing whatever <33

I'll see you next next Thursday, my young Wattpadians!

(I still get excited when writing that Cemmy)

- WriteCrazyForLife

🕷🕸Until next next Thursday🕸🕷