I have no editor and I'm writing this at 1 AM so I apologize for any grammar mistakes.

~ ~ ~

Peter's eyes locked on Mr. Stark's, chest heaving, and he immediately thought back to the last time he'd seen the man.

I don't wanna go, I don't wanna go, Mr. Stark, please-

Mr. Stark looked confused, eyes raking over Peter's form, clad in the Iron Spider suit (and probably covered in blood and dust).

"Peter?" the man asked, taking a step towards the boy, and that was all he needed to bolt into Tony's arms, shaking as his own words circled endlessly in his head.

Peter was once again reminded of their impromptu hug. He hadn't realized until now that it was actually their first hug.

And your last. His mind prompted.

No, no, not going there. I'm alive, I'm here, I don't know how, but I'm here. he insisted.

He was holding onto Mr. Stark as tight as he could, mind on default as it tried to hold itself together, not realizing that the threat had passed. The man in question staggered back in surprise at the weight, but he held him up nonetheless.

It took him a couple of moments to realize that Mr. Stark, despite holding him up, was completely rigid, and Peter felt horror wash over him as he realized, once again, exactly where he was, and more importantly, what time. 

He was in Leipzig, meaning that he- or the past version of him- had only met Tony Stark a week ago. They hadn't gone through any bonding moments, he hadn't had his suit taken away or fought the Vulture- he hadn't worked with Mr. Stark in his lab yet (that would be in a couple more months), and he hadn't taken the picture with him holding his internship certificate, which was the moment where they really cemented their- dare he say- 'father-son relationship.' (Neither of them had ever wanted to admit it, for fear of their pasts coming back to bite them- Mr. Stark with his father's crappy parenting and Peter with his 'every-one-of-my-father-figures-died').

With these thoughts racing through his mind, he stepped back from the man, tears streaking his face, yet he held himself as rigid as the person across from him.

"Underoos, what-" Mr. Stark said, cutting himself off as he took in the sight of Peter again. Peter's mind was supplying him with all the things that were different between this Mr. Stark and his Mr. Stark. This one was wearing his old armor, clunky and slower compared to his sleeker nanotech suit. This one held himself stiffer, jaw clenched- though Peter supposed that was because he'd been dropped right in the middle of a battle- and was sporting the nasty bruise on his right eye that Peter remembered he'd tried to wink with when they first met. Though most importantly, this one had the harsh undertone when speaking to Peter, the two not yet acquainted more than members of the same team in battle, and it contrasted sharply to the fonder, softer tone Mr. Stark usually had while speaking to him.

Peter's brain could take substantial amounts of stress, especially given the situation, but it couldn't take these changes on top of everything else. Through most the changes in the past two years of his life, Mr. Stark had been a constant- his rock- there to support him through all else. And these differences between this Tony and his Tony were harsh, grating on his senses, and he broke down, tears streaming down his face now.

In any other situation, he'd be embarrassed to be crying so openly in front of every single Avenger (bar Bruce Banner and Thor). But he'd just died, and everything else paled in comparison.

"Mr. Stark." he choked out, crumpling to the ground, hyperventilating. He knew this was a panic attack, and he was waiting for Mr. Stark to be there, to coax him to breathe. But as he looked up, the man was standing there, hesitating, unsure of his place because what was going on, what was he wearing, where is the normal Spider-Man suit, and what the fuck is going on.

"Peter, what's going on, I don't understand," Tony said, taking an unsure step towards him. When Peter was unresponsive, he took another step. "Underoos, please, you've got to explain. What's going on? That's not the suit I gave you."

He felt the Avengers glance sharply at him at the mention of giving this kid a suit, but he ignored them. He paused, scrutinizing the kid's face.

"You look older."

"Older?" Rhodey hissed. "Tones, he's fifteen."

"Sixteen." Peter gasped, garnering unamused looks from the gathered Avengers, though that didn't seem so important now. It just served him to think of the... dusting.

Dead at sixteen.

Not something to put on your resume.

He barked a laugh, throat hoarse, though it turned to a sob halfway through.

"Is that blood?" Mr. Stark's voice cut through his thoughts, voice horrified.

Was it? He'd been pretty beaten up by Thanos, but he didn't remember being stabbed or anything.

Mr. Stark was, though.

His brain shut that thought out before he could ponder on it. He was already gasping for breath, no need to add to the panic.

"Tony, he's terrified." a female voice cut in. The Black Widow? "You know how to deal with panic attacks, and recognize them as well." Peter saw Mr. Stark shoot Black Widow a half glare for mentioning his panic attacks.

"Yeah, I may know how to deal with panic attacks, but I don't know how to deal with" he gestured at Peter's hunched form. "kids."

Peter felt like he'd been stabbed in the heart with that statement, the tears flowing ever more freely.

How was this the same man who'd held him in those last moments as he'd slipped away, shedding a tear of his own?

The familiarity was all gone. Peter had never in his life once thought to use the words cold and unfeeling to describe Mr. Stark in any way, but at the moment, those were the two most accurate words to use.

Yet even as he was thinking these thoughts, he felt a familiar pressure on his shoulders. It grounded him, and his gasping for air was calmed a bit. His vision cleared and he was met with Mr. Stark's face.

"Breathe, kid," he said softly- well, soft for this version of him. It wasn't- it wasn't the same, but it was a hell of a lot closer than before. As Peter's gasping slowed to a more normal rhythm, Mr. Stark made a move to take his hands away, but Peter moved instinctively, gripping the hands that were grounding him and pleading to Mr. Stark in his head.

Please don't leave me, please don't leave Tony.

He looked surprised, but he stayed, eyes searching Peter's face. After a moment of silence that felt suffocating yet also necessary, Mr. Stark spoke again.

"Can you tell us what's going on, Peter? You just- you were over by the trucks in your red and blue suit and then two seconds later, you- the other you- disappeared and you popped in, wearing this iron suit and bleeding and hyperventilating and covered in dirt," he said, trying to keep the same soft tone of voice. He was trying, Peter could tell that much. "You startled us, kiddo."

Peter swallowed and spoke, voice wobbling and tears threatening to fall- but he can't cry, not now, not while he's telling them this.

"Thanos." he croaked, and welp, there goes the no crying plan.

Mr. Stark looked a bit alarmed at the tears restarting, but he didn't move an inch. 

"Who's Thanos?" Captain America spoke this time, and Peter realized they'd all moved closer.

Any other moment and he'd be asking about Cap's shield because that thing did not obey the laws of physics. But they were kind of in a crisis, so he waited to fanboy until later. He'd pretty much ruined his image with all the crying and panicking anyways so it could wait.

"Thanos," Peter said again, eyes wild with an immeasurable amount of pain- pain that no adult should feel, much less a kid. The Avengers thought they had heavy hearts then, but what Peter said next chilled them to the bone. "He- he's going to kill half of all life in the universe with a snap of his fingers. You have to stop him. We failed. You have to stop him."

~ ~ ~

Peter sat hunched with a blanket wrapped around his shoulders as he watched Mr. Stark pace.

The rest of the Avengers were crowded in the room as well. They'd forgone the battle and pushed the Accords to the side, opting to deal with Ross and the backlash later. From what they'd heard from Peter, they figured they had more important things to deal with.

At first, they were skeptical, whispering in the background as Peter sat with glazed eyes, staring into the distance. They had to believe him. They had to.

"What if he's making this up, Tony?"

Mr. Stark had gestured furiously in Peter's direction. "Does it sound like he's making things up? How would one teenager come up with that big and complicated of a story? Plus he looks traumatized." he paused there, lowering his voice. "And that suit... the Iron Spider suit. I only even thought of it yesterday. How would he get the plans for that exact suit from my head and build that, huh?"

They'd agreed to that afterwards while Peter blankly stared at a wall, a wave of relief crashing over him as Mr. Stark defended him. God knows he was too traumatized to explain it himself.

"Hello, Peter." Karen crackled in his ear. 

Peter nearly jumped out of his skin. "Karen?" he asked, voice breaking. The Avengers turned towards him, Mr. Stark stepping forward.

"Who are you talking to, Pete?" he asked, voice cautious, not wanting the teen to shut down. Peter hated it.

"My AI.," he said shortly. Tony's eyes lit up after that and he practically dashed forward. Peter and the Avengers reeled back in surprise.

"That's brilliant!" Mr. Stark cleared his throat when he felt all their eyes on him. "Ahem- that is really, really good because she would have recorded everything. Everything we need to know."

"Yeah, the Baby Monitor Protocol." Peter grumped, and this time Mr. Stark reeled back.

"How'd you know that?" he asked cautiously as a couple of the Avengers snickered in the background at the choice of words.

"I hacked into the first suit you gave me and disabled it," Peter said, sighing. "You made this one so I couldn't do that."

He could've sworn he saw Mr. Stark's lips twitch upwards in the corners.

"Knew you were a bright one," he muttered. "Do you know what information it has on it?"

Peter thought back to when Mr. Stark had given him the suit. While they were waiting on Titan, Peter had talked to Karen to find out more about the suit so he'd be ready for the upcoming battle. He'd been informed that everything from his previous suit had been uploaded onto this one. Mostly because of his hilarious Avengers impressions that Mr. Stark had gotten a good laugh out of (Peter had been mortified).

But Peter didn't exactly want the Avengers looking through his video monitor. Partially because of the embarrassing videos on it, but also because he really didn't want the Avengers watching his last, painful moments with Mr. Stark. He frankly didn't want Mr. Stark to see that either. It seemed like an invasion of his and - well, his Mr. Stark's privacy. That had been their moment.

But he also knew that they needed this information. That was what he'd been sent here for, right? To stop Thanos. And he'd seen a lot of it. Thanos' fighting technique, what they'd done wrong, what they'd done right. He knew it was necessary. 

So he nodded, and in a cracked, small, voice, said: "Y- yeah, it's got everything on it." he said quietly. So when Mr. Stark held out a case- a case Peter recognized as the holding case for the suit so that Mr. Stark could extract the needed information- he allowed the nanites to slide off him. He was left in his original Stark suit, the one he'd been clinging to the side of the spaceship in.

Mr. Stark gave a small smile. "Wondered where that went." he then turned to the rest of the Avengers, holding the case, and plugged it into some contraption. Said contraption made a holographic screen pop up, and with a short discussion between Mr. Stark, Karen, and FRIDAY, footage from the very first battle started playing.

As Peter started to relive- from his own eyes- himself pulling on his Spider-Man mask and swinging out of the school bus, he realized he couldn't do this a second time. He turned and bolted from the room just as the alien donut ship came into his view on the screen.

He heard Mr. Stark give a small protest from behind him, but he was quickly quieted by Black Widow, and he was allowed to leave in peace. Well, as peacefully as he could while running. His feet instinctively took him to the room he'd ended up staying in when he came over to the lab sometimes. It was- or in the future would become- his room. Currently, however, it was completely bare. Though that may have something to do with the fact that he hadn't been offered the room yet, and that nothing had been moved from Avengers Tower yet. The Compound had been built but wasn't really used until the Avengers' fallout over the Accords. 

Thinking about all this, however, just served to make Peter think about the plane and the Vulture, so he shut that train of thought off as well, opting to flop on the bed that was so familiar yet so foreign. And as memories flew past behind his eyes- memories of Mr. Stark carrying him up to this very bed when he was half asleep- he allowed the tears to break free again.

He knew he'd have to get up eventually.

He knew he'd have to fight Thanos again, no matter how difficult it may be.

He'd been given a second chance. He didn't know why it was him and not someone else, but he'd been given too many chances in his life and blown them off. He can't do that this time. Last time Uncle Ben died.

This time, it could be half the universe.

Peter Parker broke down that night, gave in to the darkness for just that night. He allowed himself to cry, because you cry when you're afraid or sad, and god, he was both right now. He was so afraid he was virtually paralyzed. And who wouldn't be sad if they were ripped from somewhere they knew, with people they knew better than themselves, and dumped back in time, where everything and nothing were the same? 

Time traveling is not all it's cracked up to be.

Spider-Man may have broken down that night, may have let himself be down for those few hours. But the Avengers needed him tomorrow. The world needed him, because he was the one who had the most knowledge of the threat, and like hell if he was passing that chance up. So he'd be there tomorrow.

Because heroes may break down, but they always get back up.

~ ~ ~

So, obviously, this was longer than the other chapters, and I hope you liked it!!

I plan for the next chapter to be like, the Avengers watching a couple of scenes from Infinity War, namely where Peter pops in and has that discussion with Mr. Stark before being beamed up into space (I really want to get that scene where Peter's clinging to the side of the spaceship and Tony calls him Pete and the Avengers start questioning what Peter was to Tony and such). And then I'll skip over most of the spaceship and overall battle scene with only some abbreviated reactions to it because otherwise it'll take too long, and then I'm definitely going to do the dusting scene.

But then I'm going to make chapter 4 where Tony, like the Avengers, is questioning who Peter was to him- because he called him 'Pete' and then the dusting scene and all that... and then that chapter is going to be mostly me making up some scenes of them growing closer and closer, Tony watching Peter's life through his eyes and seeing all the little lab moments and things Karen recorded of the two... and yeah. Basically that. And then I've got some plans for future chapters but I don't want to tell you all yet because that would spoil it, but I'm really excited to be delving back into this story.

So... yeah. I hope you enjoyed it! I found the concept of Peter going back to Civil War really interesting because Tony and Peter haven't gotten close yet... Poor Tony, he has no clue what's going on and he's just trying his best...

Chapter 4 is going to be p a i n f u l for Tony and Peter after Tony watches everything and they're gonna have their discussion that I know you all w a n t-

I NEED TO GO BEFORE I GIVE THE WHOLE PLOT AWAY BYE-