(3rd Person POV)

July 8th

Both Eliza and Peter had called Doctor Strange daily for about a month until he just stopped responding. He told them that he would call when he had any other news. He was working on it every day, trying every time and space equation he could think of, but it was hard when a bunch of teenagers were calling him all the time.

Eliza ended up staying at Mr. Stark's new lake house for a while, just to get away from the city and avoid thinking about Peter.

Her and Tony were working on updating EDITH a lot, adding all the essentials that a six hundred and eleven million dollar device would need. She just hoped that Peter would like it.

It was about five pm when a loud crash next to her head made Eliza sit up abruptly, waking up from a nap. She unstuck her tongue from the roof of her mouth, and scowled at the taste.

"Hey kid," Tony said.

"Hi Mr. Stark," she yawned.

He squinted at her and bended down a little, then unstuck something from her forehead. It was a key from the keyboard she fell asleep on.

"Wow, impressive. You know you drool in your sleep," he said.

"Mhm, okay. I'm gonna go brush my teeth." she said, ignoring him. She rolled back in the chair, and walked to the bathroom. She glanced at her reflection in the mirror, but quickly looked back down, because it wasn't a pretty sight to see. The bags under her eyes were a light purple shade, her lips were chapped, and there was a 'J' imprint on her forehead.

After brushing her teeth, she brushed her hair and put it up in a bun, just to get it out of the way.

When she got back out, Tony and Morgan were sitting on the couch, just starting a movie. Eliza had seen the movie once before, in theaters when it first came out. It was called 'Home.'

She sat down with the pair on the couch to watch it. Halfway through, Tony said that he needed to do the dishes and left Morgan in a jumper next to her.

When the movie was over, Eliza was full on sobbing, the tears running down her face like a waterfall.

Morgan just looked up at her with her big brown eyes, her small fingers in her mouth and a trail of spit falling on her chin. Her chin started to wobble watching her cry.

"Oh no, baby it's okay. It's just a sad movie." she said, then picked Morgan up and cradled her in her arms warmly, swaying back and forth. "You're okay, I'm okay," she whispered. It was quiet for a while, just the two of them. Eliza started to cry again, "I just miss your Uncle Peter. I miss his smile... I miss his voice... I miss his hugs." 

She closed her eyes and kept rocking Morgan back and forth, another tear escaping and rolling down her cheek.

Tony was in the kitchen washing the dishes when the faucet just decided on its own to go crazy and spray water everywhere. He sighed and grabbed a towel, drying off the cups and counter. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a photo of him, Eliza, and Peter together. All of them were secretly putting bunny ears behind their heads.

He smiled and wiped off the water droplets from the glass frame. He heard sniffles from the living room and looked up from the picture, and towards the room. He walked over and saw Eliza silently crying and holding Morgan.

'Jesus, if she's doing this bad, I wonder how Peter's doing,' Tony thought.

----------------------------------------

Back in Queens, Aunt May went into Peter's room. All the lights were shut off, making it completely dark, the only light coming from his laptop on his desk. She heard a few sniffles and turned the lights on.

On his bed, Peter laid under twelve blankets, with a sweatshirt and sweatpants on. The only part of his face you could see was covered with hot tears, his cheeks flushed from crying.

May scrambled over to him and sat on the edge of his bed, not before taking at least six blankets off first. She took his hood off and wiped a few tears from his eyes.

"Peter, you've gotta tell me what's going on with you," she said quietly.

"Oh I was just looking at pictures of fluffy cows." he pointed at the laptop, his voice was a little scratchy.

She squinted him, "I don't believe you for a second. Tell me what's up."

There was a minute of silence before he whispered, "I miss her so much. I just want to hug her." A sob escaped his mouth, and more tears started to flood out and onto his blankets.

May rubbed his back, trying to comfort him in any way possible. Eliza and Peter were different in a few ways, and this was one of them. Over the years May had observed the two and how they dealt with problems in their lives. Eliza would distract herself, push too hard and then eventually break down, whereas with Peter, the problem would just follow him everywhere, crushing him by always being in the front of his mind.

Resulting in not seeing his best friend, also girlfriend, he hadn't been interested in doing anything except watching sad movies all day. He was really lonely without Eliza and Tony to hang out with, although sometimes Ned came over to watch Star Wars. His senses were really off so he didn't go out into the city as Spiderman much, only once a week.

"Hey the trip is next week, you need to pack," May reminded him.

"shdidonsdwanndsagosdafnymroeroa," he grumbled into his pillow.

"Huh?"

He lifted his head up, "I don't wanna go anymore."

May sighed and decided to give him some tough love. "Peter Benjamin Parker if you don't take a break and go on vacation with your friends next week I am going to kick your ass out of this apartment."

Peter blinked at her, "Fine."

She smiled at her victory and got up off his bed, walking out. She peeped her head back in to say, "Hey you know that homeless shelter that Happy and I have been working on starting up?"

Peter squinted his eyes and nodded.

"Maybe Spiderman could make an appearance later tonight," she winked.

He rolled his eyes a little at her passive aggressiveness, "What time."

She checked her watch, "Eight?"

"Okay..." She fist bumped the air and he chuckled.

A few hours later, Peter was at the homeless shelter on stage with his aunt, in the Iron Spider suit. He stood there awkwardly with his hands on his hips, not really knowing what to do while May was talking.

"Thank you all for coming out to support those in our neighborhood who are going through a rough time, you're doing amazing work. And of course thanks to our very own, Spiderman!" May said into the microphone.

Peter waved while people clapped for him, and May gestured for him to say a couple words. He slowly shuffled over to the mic and said, "Thank you Miss. Parker for having me, and thank you you guys for having me." He gave an awkward thumbs up and stepped back.

Everyone clapped and May stepped back in, "And thank you Spiderman! He'll be right out to take photos, and videos, thank you!"

Peter waved and the two walked off stage and into the back room. He looked around to make sure no one was there, and made his mask disappear.

"That was amazing," he high fived her.

"That was great!" she exclaimed.

"Oh, I was so nervous-"

"I'm sorry I was a little stiff, I felt like I wasn't in the pocket-"

"No, I thought you did great!"

"Yeah well, I actually did think you were a little stiff." she said, pointing a finger at him

He crossed his arms and tilted his head to the side, "Yea- I felt that too, I felt that too."

"It's fine It's fine It's fine, how do you feel about the trip now?" she asked.

"Um- yeah I wanna go. It'll be good to have a vacation-" he nodded.

The back door opened and in came Happy, with a giant cardboard check in his hands. "Hey, sorry I'm late. Oh, you look lovely," he said to May.

"Thanks, you too," she smiled.

"Thanks." They stared at each other before he said, "Anyways the reason I was so late was because this was misplaced at the office, can you believe it? Because it's enormous, I mean not the amount, the size. Well the amounts nice." he said, handing the check to May.

"Thank you. I think I'm gonna go change the sterno under the vegan lasagne." she said, walking out, "Spiderman, go shake hands."

"Will do," he saluted her. Once she left, Peter turned to Happy. "What just happened?"

Happy ignored him, "Heads up, Nick Fury's calling you."

"Nick Fury like Mace Windu Nick Fury? He's gonna call me? Why?"

"Why, because he probably has some hero stuff for you to do. You're a superhero, he calls superheroes."

"Well I mean if it was really that important he'd probably call someone else, n-not me," he said. His phone began to buzz.

"Apparently not." Happy smirked, pointing at the phone, "See, no caller ID, that's him."

Peter furrowed his eyebrows, "I don't really want to talk to Nick Fury-"

"Answer the phone."

"Why-"

"Because if you don't talk to him then I have to talk to him and I don't want to talk to him."

"Well why don't you want to talk to him?" Peter questioned.

"becauseimscared, just answer the phone."

He held the phone up and pressed the hang up button. Happy's eyes widened.

"You sent Nick Fury to voice mail?!? You don't send Nick Fury to voice mail."

Peter heard the faint sounds of the crowd cheering, "Did you hear that? They're calling me, I gotta go. I promise you I'm gonna call him-" he slowly backed up.

Happy yelled, "You do not ghost Nick Fury!"

"I promise you, I'll call him. After my trip..." he muttered the last part and turned to the crowd with his mask back on. "Hey!" A bunch of people with cameras and notepads yelled at him, trying to ask him questions.

He randomly pointed to a person who asked, "Now that Iron Man has retired, are you the head Avenger now?"

"Um- no I'm not..." he pointed to someone else.

"Where is Spiderwoman? Did she retire too? Or is she dead?" they asked.

"Does anyone have any neighborhood questions?" he said, ignoring the previous one.

A man asked, "What is it like to take over for Tony Stark? And without help from Spiderwoman, what are you going to do?"

All the sounds of the press yelling at him drained out, and a ringing replaced it. "Um, I-I'm gonna go, thank you everyone so much for coming!"

He jumped up to the ceiling and opened the skylight, escaping the building into the night. The stars were out, which made him think of Eliza's eyes, so he looked back down at his feet, sighing.

That one question really got to him, "Without Spiderwoman, what are you going to do?"

He really didn't know the answer to that one. He also didn't know if she was dead or not, there would be no way of knowing. What if she was-

'No, don't think like that.' he thought.

He knew she was alive, because of the invisible string that tied them together. It was still glowing inside of him, assuring him that she was still there. (a/n- i'm aware this is cheesy)

----------------------------------------

July 15th

Peter and Ned were sitting on the plane at the airport next to each other, while Peter looked out the window sadly.

"C'mon Peter, it's just a few days," Ned said.

"Yo Parker!" Flash's annoying voice called from across the plane, "This is called an airplane. It's like the busses you're used to, except it flies over the poor neighborhoods instead of going through them."

MJ, Katie, Ned, Teddy, and even Betty all flipped him off at the same time. Peter smiled at them in thanks.

"Alright, ignore him and on to more important things: it's a nine hour flight which means we can play Beastslayer the whole time," Ned giggled and opened his laptop.

"I don't really want to do anything," Peter mumbled.

"Come on man, you've got to cheer up. We're gonna be American bachelors in Europe!" he exclaimed.

Peter just sighed and got up to go to the bathroom. When he was done doing his business and went back out to the cabin, Mr. Harrington was moving students around so Ned and Betty were sitting next to one another, and MJ and Katie were together.

"Ah! There you are Peter! You get to sit next to me, MJ had a perfume allergy so we had to move her next to Katie, so you'll be next to me," he said.

MJ mouthed a 'sorry' to him and he just looked around, confused at how the seating arrangement involved him at all. Mr. Harrington sat him down in the middle seat and said, "I have a small bladder so I took the aisle."

Peter clenched his jaw. The captain said over the intercom, "Good afternoon everyone, this is your captain speaking. Our flight time today will be eight hours and forty nine minutes to Venice, Italy."

About four hours later of watching Ned from a distance play Beastslayer, hearing MJ and Katie laughing together, and listening to Mr. Harrington's depressing stories, Peter gave up on trying to ignore everyone and looked at the entertainment options that the airline offered.

The options were, 'Finding Wakanda', 'Hunting Hydra', and 'Heart of Iron: The Tony Stark Story'.

He sighed and turned off the screen, trying to find something else to do. He pulled out his phone and went to his text messages with Eliza. Tony had disabled their phones so they wouldn't be able to talk to each other, but he still attempted to text her.

my love (eli)

man of spiders
hey i know i saw
you yesterday but i
miss you
(not delivered)

man of spiders
did you know that
adam scott could
have been jim halpert
(not delivered)

man of spiders
happy birthday!
now you're seventeen. oof.
you know i always
have liked older women 😏
(not delivered)

man of spiders
currently watching
the last episode of
the office again. did you
know that the people who
made the show kept steve
carell's cameo from the rest
of the cast? that makes my
heart go *woosh*
(not delivered)

man of spiders
theory i have,
vampire weekend is
actually harry styles
(not delivered)

man of spiders
don't you think it's
kind of weird that the
dryer is always smaller
than the washer?
anyways still don't like
the dryer for stealing
all my socks.
(not delivered)

man of spiders
i love you
(not delivered)

man of spiders
so much
(not delivered)

He exited the messages app and went into the gallery instead, finding a bunch of pictures of Eliza and scrolling through them. There was one particular that he liked, because she had edited it herself. 

She was really good with computers and stuff, especially when it came to photography. She could probably do it professionally if she wanted to. He stared at the picture for ten minutes, admiring her beauty. He missed her a lot, and all he really wanted to do was wrap his arms around her waist and keep her warm.

After the flight, Peter met up with Ned at baggage claim. Betty walked over and said to Ned, "Hey babe, can you  hold this for me please?" She handed him her jacket.

"Yeah, of course," he smiled. She kissed him on the cheek and he booped her on the nose. She smiled and walked away. 

Peter's brows knitted together, "What was that?"

"Oh! We actually got to talking on the plane and it turns out we have a lot in common!" he beamed, " So we're boyfriend and girlfriend now."

"Whatever happened to being an American bachelor in Europe?" Peter asked.

"Peter, those were the words of a boy. And that boy, met a woman. A very strong and powerful woman, and now, that boy is a man," he said.

"Babe?" Betty called.

"Coming babe!"

When they were walking to the exits, a service trained canine sniffed his bag, which made the police officers suspicious and asked for a bag check. Peter agreed, because he was sure he didn't have any bombs in his suitcase.

"There's nothing in there, I swear," he told the lady.

She ignored him and zipped open the suitcase, inside was his web shooters, two bottles of web fluid, a banana, and his Spiderman suit with a post it note on it that said 'You forgot this!! May'. His heart rate picked up as he stared at the note with wide eyes, he looked around to make sure none of his classmates were looking, then back to the lady.

She picked up the banana and said plainly, "This no."

"Peter? Where's Peter?" Mr. Harrington yelled, looking for his lost student. Peter weaved through the crowd and joined his class once again, although nobody really cared or noticed that he was gone.

The class left the airport and got into a gondola to travel across the canal and towards their hotel. It was a sunny day, which made Peter happy to be outside. It was absolutely gorgeous, and he took a lot of photos to show Eliza when he got back. He used his camera that she had bought him, because it was special. Ned even took a few of Betty.

The hotel they were staying at was under construction when they got there, and looked really crappy. But he didn't voice his opinion, and decided to stay quiet about it. Flash on the other hand yelled, "This place is sinking!" Which was not totally a lie.

"I think you mean charming!" Mr. Harrington corrected.

"Ok everybody, drop your bags off, we're going to meet at the Da Vinci Museum at three, let's go!" Mr. Dell announced.

"Vámonos!"

"It's andiamo," MJ corrected.

"Oh so you actually did learn something from Eliza," Katie smirked. MJ elbowed her and she laughed.

After checking into their rooms and dropping off their bags, the group migrated towards St. Marks Square. Everyone was taking pictures together, Flash was making videos for his instagram followers, Ned and Betty were getting drawn by a caricature artist, and Peter was looking around the shops.

He found a glass necklace shop, and looked around a bit. There was a black dahlia necklace that looked insanely beautiful.

"Vuoi comprarlo?" the man who ran the shop asked.

"Ci stavo pensando..." Peter said.

"Hai una ragazza speciale?" he grinned.

Peter blushed and nodded.

"I'm sure she would love it," he said.

"Sí, she probably would. Also she loves Italy, and Italy's famous for making stuff out of glass, so this is perfect. Lo prendo, grazie," Peter said, smiling at the thought of her face when she received the gift.

After he paid for the necklace and exited the shop, he ran into Katie and MJ, who were jumping up and down, talking really fast.

"oksotheymadepizzapastawinepianosnewspapersradios-" Katie said.

"dontforgetesPRESSOOOO" MJ yelled.

'Oh so they've been drinking espresso...' Peter thought. He looked down at the stone ground and noticed all the water going back into the drain, all the crabs crawling away and... a giant water monster came out of the canal, shooting up into the air.

----------------------------------------

While Peter was roaming around Venice, Eliza and her dad's were in Wakanda visiting Shuri. She had spent about two weeks at Tony's cabin helping with Morgan, making EDITH, and not sleeping, until Shuri invited her to come to Wakanda.

She gladly accepted, excited to see her new friend in person for the first time. She flew in a jet to get there, and it did this weird thing where when she flew through a bundle of trees, they disappeared into the beautiful city that was Wakanda.

Eliza and Shuri engulfed each other in an enormous hug when they first saw the other. Shuri was anxious to show Eliza her lab and she was excited to see it in person, and not on face time.

They were in there most of their days, but they also explored the city a lot as a way for Eliza to also be on vacation, just not in Italy. But Wakanda was so amazing, that she didn't really care at all. She still missed Peter, a lot. 

Shuri noticed this when Eliza was showing her pictures of him and got really sad all of a sudden. Then she started to scroll through her undelivered text messages.

man of spiders

eli
hey i found your t-shirt.
and i'm keeping it cause
it smells like you
(not delivered)

eli
peter peter peter
guess what
i found a cat

also, you would think
that the busted lip
is from a badass
superhero story
but really i just
ran into a pole
(not delivered)

eli
morgan says hi!
i think...
she's a baby and
she doesn't talk much
so i don't know what
she really meant.
but she smiled when
i talked about
you though!
(not delivered)

eli
we stan mike schur
for creating:
the good place
the office
parks and rec
and b99 😌💅
(not delivered)

eli
theory i have,
john mulaney did
actually kill
princess diana
(not delivered)

eli
i love you
(not delivered)

eli
so much
(not delivered) 

When Eliza explained that her and Peter had their own A.I.'s Shuri had the idea to connect them somehow. The distance was hard to figure out, but hacking Stark technology was by far the easiest part. She said that quote, 'his three month old daughter could hack this.'

"Hey Andy," Eliza said when she put her mask on. She had brought her suit along with her to show Shuri, because she wanted to see what American technology was like.

"Good Afternoon Eliza," Andy said.

"Hi. I was wondering if you could connect to Peter Parker's... web shooters," she said.

"Why his web shooters?" Shuri asked.

"Well he's on vacation so he probably didn't want to bring his suit, but he always wears the web shooters for some reason. Even around the house," she said.

"Sounds like he had a real deep emotional connection to a wrist device," she said, "he needs a therapist."

Eliza snorted and focused back on the connection. "Connection completed. Peter Parker's location is Venice, Italy Campo Santa Formosa."

She thought for a moment, then said, "What's he doing?"

"He just knocked his forehead into a giant bell twice and got a concussion. He also got the wind knocked out of him on the Rialto Bridge and is drenched in water."

"Oh my god, is he okay?" she asked.

"No, he just got a concussion dumbass," Shuri said. 

Eliza flipped her off and said, "Andy please call Mr. Stark."

"Right away."

"Kid, what's up? I'm changing a diaper," Mr. Stark's voice filled her ear.

"Ok, gross. Why would you answer the phone while you're doing that? Anyways, could you maybe possibly figure out a way to get EDITH to Peter as fast as possible? You don't have to if you're busy, but I think he might need some help-" she said.

"Yeah I can do that. Just give me five minutes," he said.

"Really? Thank you so much Mr. Stark, thank you."

"Yeah yeah. Whatever." She could hear his smile through the speaker, but didn't say anything. "Bye kid."

"Bye!"

"Goodness, you are such a pushover," Shuri shook her head.

"No I'm not." Eliza said, looking at her out of the corner of her eye.

"I could pour soup on your lap and you would apologize to me."