Requested by Amholmgren: Peter and Y/N are childhood best friends, and are virtually attached at the hip. But one day, Y/N gets kidnapped on the way home, and is never found by police, leading Peter to wonder what happened to her. Years later, Peter is now Spider-Man and always looks for clues or hints about Y/N's disappearance whilst he's on patrol. He never finds anything. One day, the Avengers find out that Y/N was Peter's best friend, and so decide to help him find her.

"Stop it, you know that I can't reach it when you hold it up like that!" I squealed, making my best friend and crush, Peter, laugh and smirk at me as he held my keys playfully above his head, and out of my reach.

"That is the point, you know, Y/N." He chuckled and shook his head, my feet jumping off of the ground in a desperate attempt to grab the keys as the pair of us walked home.

"If you won't give me back my keys, I'll just have to go to yours instead." I threatened.

"Again, that's the point, you're not getting any of this, are you?" He teased again. I smirked and playfully rolled my eyes, making him return the expression as he finally gave me my keys back, and we continued to walk. I had been best friends with Peter Parker for ten years now, since he had moved in with his aunt and uncle at age four, and had therefore joined my preschool. We had been virtually joined at the hip ever since. Wherever I went, Peter went, and wherever Peter went, I went, and we had always loved it like that. We had managed to get my parents and his uncle and aunt to send us to the same elementary school before both of us had also gotten into Midtown High school, meaning that the pair of us had literally never been apart, and hopefully never would be. Though, there was a slight catch to having spent so much time with the boy. And that was that inevitably, I had developed a crush on him over the last decade. I had started to re-evaluate my feelings for him a year ago, when we had both been thirteen, and had just seen him in a different light ever since. Though I had no idea if he felt the same, and so I wouldn't pursue anything that would risk ruining our otherwise perfect friendship. No. Not until I knew for sure.

"I'll see you tomorrow, usual time and place?" he asked hopefully as we got to the alleyway where we always parted ways.

"See you then, Pete. I'll text you when I'm home." I smiled before raising my closed fist. He chuckled and shook his head as he also raised his fist and we fist-bumped, making me bite my lip as I turned to start heading down the alleyway as Peter continued along the sidewalk back towards his apartment. I walked down the space in between the two brick walls, this part of my walk home always the most nerve-wracking as I tried to get through the dark space. Suddenly, my keys slipped from my grip and clattered to the broken concrete ground.

"Fucks' sake." I mumbled as I bent down and picked them up before straightening back up. Then, everything stopped. My eyes widened, my heart violently leaping in my chest as, as soon as I straightened back up, a black gloved hand covered my mouth. I screamed loudly, though the sound was muffled and quiet as the stranger's arm also curled around my waist to pick me up.

"Shut the fuck up, and I won't hurt you." He spat, making me choke and continue to scream as he picked me up. I kicked and flailed out, every single inch of my body going numb as tears streamed down my face. I fought the assailant as much as I could, but given that this asshole was at least six foot tall and I was only five foot six, AND was being held by him, I was losing badly. He carried me to the end of the alleyway and shoved me into the back of a white van, screams still leaving my lips as I was shrouded in darkness, and the vehicle started to move.

Peter's P.O.V

Peter's eyes fluttered open, his lips parting into a yawn as he blinked in the harsh morning sunlight. He stretched his limbs out, his eyes squeezing shut before fluttering open as he looked to his bedside table. He grabbed his phone and clicked on the home button. His eyebrows furrowed as he still had had no texts from Y/N since they'd said goodbye on the way home from school, and that was weird for his best friend and crush. Peter had always been wary of her route home from school, and so the beautiful and kind girl had quickly learned to text Peter when she got home, just to ease his worry. So, it was immediately concerning that it had now been over twelve hours, and she still hadn't texted him. Peter sat up and desperately swallowed the lump that was forming in his throat, his mind trying to push away the feelings of anxiety as he ran a hand through his bed-head-inflicted curls.

"Peter, honey, are you up? Can you come out here, please?" He heard May's voice call through his shut bedroom door.

"Yeah, coming, May!" He called out before standing up. He opened his door and walked out into his apartment, his hand scratching at the back of his hair. But as soon as he walked into the living room...his heart fucking stopped. Peter's feet stopped moving, his heart harshly dropping in his chest as the two police officers who were sitting with his Aunt May looked at him. His eyes widened.

"What's going on?" The boy asked quietly, though the bottomless pit forming in his stomach was enough to tell him that he already knew the answer.

"Peter...I think that you should sit down." May gulped with a nod. Peter returned the gulp, his body already feeling like it was shutting down as he slowly but surely moved to sit next to his aunt. She put her hand on his knee in support, but he knew that nothing that the loving woman could say or do would help him if he was about to be told what he thought that he would be.

"Hey, Peter, we just have a couple of questions to ask you. Firstly, do you know fourteen-year-old Y/N Y/L/N?" One of the officers asked. Peter's eyes wavered, his world already feeling like it was crumbling around him as his suspicions were slowly but surely being confirmed.

"Y-yeah, she's my best friend." He nodded.

"And has she been in contact with you since you last saw her?" The other officer asked.

"N-no. She usually texts me when she gets home, but she didn't last night. I assumed that she was busy o-or something." Peter stuttered, though he couldn't deny that deep down, he had known that something had been wrong from the second that she had failed to text him. The officers sighed and looked at each other, May also squeezing Peter's knee as she clearly tried to hold back tears. The boy knew what was about to be said, he just really didn't want to hear it.

"I'm afraid that Y/N never made it home last night. Her parents reported her missing this morning, when she didn't come home, and then your aunt confirmed that she wasn't here either." The first officer stated.

"I'm so sorry, honey." May choked and shook her head. Peter gulped and looked between her and the officers.

"Why are you sorry? S-surely, you have a lead, o-or a witness, or something that tells you where she went missing." He gulped and desperately shook his head too as tears also started to prick his eyes.

"I can assure you, son, that we're doing everything that we can to look for her, we're working around the clock to find anything that will suggest her whereabouts. But we don't even know where she went missing yet, so I'm sure that you can understand the challenges-."

"No, no, I don't understand! You have to find her, you have to." Peter cried as tears started to stream down his skin.

"Peter, please-."

"NO!" The boy screamed as he shot up to his feet. He stared at the police officers with wet and puffy eyes, the feeling of his aunt's hand on his wrist so fucking distant as he stared at the uniformed people.

"No. You're going to find her, and she's going to be okay. She's not gone. She's not." He choked and shook his head before ripping his wrist out of May's grip and rushing back to his bedroom.

"Peter!" He slammed the door, the sound ringing out as he collapsed against it and sunk to the floor. He raised his hands to his curls and continued to sob, his heart feeling like it had been ripped violently out of his chest as his mind refused to believe that Y/N had gone missing. That likely, she had been kidnapped. And what was worse, it had already been over twelve hours, and the cops knew nothing. Everyone...knew...nothing. He shook his head and continued to sob, his whole world crumbling around him as he hoped to any god out there that yesterday wouldn't prove to be the last time that he ever saw his best friend and love of his life. It couldn't be. It couldn't be.

~Four years later~

Peter kicked his red and blue foot into the thug's chest, making the criminal groan and fall to the concrete ground of the alleyway.

"Now, I'm only going to ask one more time before calling the cops on your sorry ass." Peter nodded before crouching over the guy and harshly grabbing his collar. The thug yelped as Peter pulled on the material and used it to bring their faces close together.

"Where is she?" He spat.

"I swear to god, I have no idea! I never ran in those types of circles! I may be a criminal, but I do have some morals!" the guy insisted with a quivering voice as he held his hands up to protect his face for any blows that Peter may send to it. The boy sighed and dropped him before standing up straight again.

"Karen, call the cops. We're done here." He mumbled as he fired a web at the thug's wrist to keep him restrained to the ground before he turned and started to walk away. As always, the empty feeling crept back into the boy's chest, his heart feeling numb as yet another Queens criminal claimed to know nothing about his best friend's disappearance. It had been four years since Y/N, the love of Peter's life, had gone missing, and she had yet to be found. It had been widely assumed only days after her going missing that she was probably dead, but Peter had always refused to believe that his best friend had met that fate. He had helped the cops out in their investigation as much as was possible, the boy having told them everything about Y/N and her route home. But none of it had helped. After only a couple of weeks, the case had gone completely cold, with it being officially closed only two months after her kidnapping. And it had never been reopened since. Peter had been fucking heartbroken by the news that the police had stopped looking for Y/N, and so when he had become Spider-Man three years ago, he had started to look for her himself. Since having become the famous superhero, he had learnt that most criminals, thugs, and crime syndicates in the city knew each other and each other's business for the most part. And so, since his very first patrol at age fifteen, Peter had interrogated every single thug and petty criminal that he had stopped, before turning them into the police. But every single one of them had claimed to not know who had taken Y/N or where she was being kept, and so Peter's desperate attempts had always proven futile. Though, he would never give up. The next step was to use the technology that he had access to as an Avenger to try and track her down, but he wasn't ready for that yet. After all, whilst the Avengers knew that Y/N had been his best friend, he rarely talked about her or the situation given how hurt it made him, and so the rest of the team knew nothing beyond the basics. And Peter couldn't help but want to keep it that way. He sighed and shook his head in a weak attempt to get the depressive thoughts out of his head before raising his arm and firing a web to launch himself out of the alleyway.

Peter's feet landed against the Avengers' Tower helipad, his hand raising to pull his mask off of his face as he wandered into the building. He walked into the controls' room, making the team all look up at him as he walked in.

"Hey, kid. How was your patrol?" Tony asked. Peter nodded and shrugged nonchalantly.

"Yeah. Was fine." He lied.

"Uh huh. I think that it's time that we tell you that we know what you do, Pete. We know that you ask around for Y/N." Steve admitted. The boy's eyebrows furrowed, his mouth forming into an 'O' as he walked further into the room.

"Sorry, what?" He scoffed.

"We know what you've been doing, kid, no matter how much you try to keep it under wraps. But, we have good news. We think that we found the guy responsible for Y/N's disappearance." Tony nodded before clicking a button on the computer keyboard. Peter's eyes widened, both at his mentor's words and at the sight on the several screens on the wall flooding with the mugshot and secretly taken photos of whoever this guy was. Peter gulped and clenched his jaw, a mixture of hope and anger starting to bubble up inside of him. Hope at the idea that maybe, just maybe, he was about to get the love of his life back after four years of looking. But also anger at the prospect of finally coming face to face with the asshole who took her away from him.

"What's his name?" He asked.

"Alexei Stratton. He's the head of a crime syndicate in Queens. He operates around the area that Y/N went missing in, and his MO was kidnapping girls around the age of fourteen. Y/N fitted his type to a T when she went missing, and she went missing on his turf. It makes perfect sense." Natasha nodded.

"And do we know where he resides? Where his headquarters is?" Peter asked, his eyes glued to the face of the man who he would beat the shit out of once he finally rescued Y/N.

"Yeah, we've tracked him down. And we're going now. We assume that you're in?" Steve checked. The boy gulped again, him seeing nothing but red at the idea of finally coming face to face with this asshole. The asshole who robbed Y/N of four years of her life, and robbed him of that time with her. But also...relief. Relief at the fact that they had seemingly found her, after all of these years. Relief at the fact that this time tomorrow, she'd be back in the safety of his arms, her body being gently cradled on his lap. And he didn't want to waste another second getting to that point. He nodded and looked around the room.

"Let's do this." He spoke, making the team return the nod as they started to get ready, to go and get Y/N back.

Y/N's P.O.V

I sat against the same concrete wall that I'd sat against for the last four years, my eyes flicking over the cracks of the opposite wall that I had stared at thousands of times since I'd been taken by Alexei. My life down here had been an extremely empty and dismal one since he had kidnapped me, every day consisting purely of these four walls, minimal food, and sleeping. I had never gotten to the bottom of exactly why he had taken me, given that he'd never abused me in any sense of the word, beyond actually having kidnapped me. I could only assume that he liked the power of kidnapping girls like me and keeping them for as long as he wanted, given that I knew that I was far from the only girl down here. But that didn't make it any easier. My mind started to fill with thoughts of the love of my life, Peter, a small smile curling onto my lips as I went to my happy place. My happy place being him. I had thought about the insanely cute and kind boy that had been my best friend since the day that I had been taken. The first few weeks had been filled purely with terrified and depressive thoughts at the idea that I'd never see him again, I'd never get to hug him again. I'd never get to tell him that I had always loved him. But then as time went on, as weeks turned into months and months turned into years, and I found myself still alive, he had simply become my happy place. I'd think about him at all times of the day, I'd think about him when I had to see Alexei, when he gave me not enough food to even last through the day. Constantly occupying my brain with my best friend was all that had kept me going, and would continue to be the only thing keeping me going for as long as I would be stuck here. And that end...didn't seem to be in sight. I snapped out of my thoughts as I started to hear yelling, making me look to the door. My eyebrows furrowed and I stood up, my heart starting to race in fear and anxiety as I heard gunfire and bangs. I gulped and started to move towards the back wall of my cell as I became more unsure by the second about what was happening outside. As if on cue, the door was blown off of the hinges. I screamed and crouched down in fear, my shaking hands raising to protect my head and face from the flying debris as dust and smoke filled my cell. I gulped and looked up as the silhouette of someone started to walk into the space. My heart leapt at the sight of what appeared to be a man dressed in red and blue spandex, his head covered in a mask as a metal spider sat on his chest. My eyebrows furrowed and I slowly rose to my feet, the figure's white eyes wavering as they landed on me.

"W-who...who are you-." Before I could finish speaking, the man raised his gloved hand to his head and pulled the mask off. And that was when the broken pieces of my world immediately jumped back together again. My eyes wavered, tears pricking them and my mouth falling open as I came face to face with Peter. The boy returned the look, his eyes also becoming glossy with tears as he slowly walked towards me. I flicked my eyes over him, my heart racing in fear that this was some kind of sick, twisted dream. But it couldn't be, surely. The chocolate of his eyes was too familiar, the curls that hadn't changed a bit were too unruly and vibrant to be a figment of my imagination. It had to be him. It had to be.

"P-Peter? Is that...is that really you?" I whispered, my fingers finally leaving the wall as I also slowly but surely started to move towards him.

"Yeah. It's me, Y/N. I came for you. I found you." He nodded. I choked, making him return it as we finally rushed towards each other. Our arms flew around each other, tears starting to flow from our eyes as we desperately hugged. We held onto each other as if it would be the last time, likely because the last time really had been the last time. Well, until now. I continued to sob into his shoulder, Peter also crying as he bent down and swiped my legs from underneath me. He picked me up bridal-style, my face buried into his shoulder as he carried me out of the cell.

I lay in the bed in the bedroom that Tony had given me in the Tower, my body clad in beautifully fresh sheets and pyjamas for the first time in four years as I came to terms with what had happened. The fact that I was finally safe. And just like I'd known that he would, it had been Peter who had brought me back. I had always known that it would be him. I looked at the door as I heard a gentle knock from the other side.

"Come in." I spoke softly. The door opened to reveal Peter, the boy giving me a small smile as he slipped into my room before shutting it behind him.

"Hey." I chuckled as I sat up in the bed, and Peter sat down next to me.

"Hey. I just wanted to see how you were holding up. You know, with seeing the outside world for the first time in four years, and finding out that I'm now one of the Avengers." He returned my chuckle nervously.

"I won't lie, it's been a lot. After four years of doing fuck all every day, being saved by you and then finding out that you're a superhero is the weirdest thing that happened today." I teased, making him laugh and shake his head as he took my hand in his. I bit my lip, my heart jumping at the kind gesture as I looked at him. He returned the glance, his gaze flicking over my eyes and lips as he seemingly just studied my face.

"I can't tell you how much I missed you, Y/N. I thought about you every fucking second of every day, I never stopped looking for you, even when everyone else did. I never stopped believing that you were out there, alive. And I cannot tell you how happy I am that I found you." He choked and shook his head. I kept my lip in between my teeth, tears starting to leave my eyes at his words.

"I missed you so much too, Pete. You're what I thought about to keep going, to not give up. The thought of one day seeing you again was all that kept me doing. You are the reason that I am alive. And I will never be able to thank you enough for that." I whispered. He gave me a small smile, tears also running down his face as he leant forward and gently pressed our foreheads together. My eyes fluttered shut at the feeling, his hands raising to my face and his thumbs soothingly moving against my cheeks as he just held me. And then, just like the soulmates that we were, we did it. Peter leant forward at the same time as I did, our lips pressing together in a single second as we kissed. I sunk into it quickly, my entire body feeling safer and more loved by the moment as Peter just held me, and his lips softly caressed mine. I had waited too long for this, and I had no doubt that it would have happened sooner had I not been taken by Alexei. But that was okay. All that mattered was that it was finally happening now, and it was helping my heart put itself back together more by the second. We broke the kiss and touched our foreheads again, our hands holding each other's faces as we just cherished being back in each other's arms.

"I love you, Y/N." Peter mumbled softly.

"I love you too." I whispered, my heart and mind finally at ease again now that I was back with the boy. Now that I was safe. And I knew that as long as I was with Peter, as long as we were together, I always would be.