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Chapter Text

"Dad! We're gonna be late!" Nette yells and Peter rushes around the room, frantically looking for his tie.

"Gimme a minute, honey!" He yells back, turning up the pillows on his bed.

"Whatya doing loser?" Morgan huffs

"Morgan, my most favourite human being in the world, would you please help me find my tie?" Peter pleads, giving her a puppy dog look as he resumes his hunt.

"If it wasn't for Lina, I'm pretty sure you'd lose your head and sanity, " Morgan rolls her eyes, getting on her knees as she searches below the bed. "You're a twenty eight year old husband and dad of a three-year-old, not to mention the fact that you're one of the two CEOs of multimillion-dollar company with degrees in stuff I can't be bothered to remember and how you're literally a superhero. Tell me, how is it possible that you're also the most clumsy and absent-minded person I've met?"

"Lee is away for the week and there was an emergency at Stark Industries. Harley and I are still learning how to manage the company and Lee and Pepper are the only reason I'm still sane, "

"Sane might be pushing it a bit Pete, " Morgan says, letting out a triumphant huff as she holds up the tie.

"Thank you! You need a ride to your university?"

"Sure. I'll get my stuff, "

Peter Parker watches fondly as his sister walks away, getting up and helping his stubborn daughter into her shoes.

"Are we late for school daddy?" Antoinette Parker asks Peter, who struggles to figure of the exact mechanism of his toddler's shoes.

"No sweetie. No such thing as late when you're in preschool. I'm about 48% sure about that, "

"Then why does mommy wake me up in the morning every day?"

"Cause your mommy is much better at being a functioning human being than your daddy is. Not by much, let me tell you, "

"Can we see Uncle Harley and Gran today?"

"Sure, " Peter smiles, pressing a kiss to her head as he picks her up, slinging her tiny bag over his shoulder as he gets out his house and unlocks his car. Safely buckling her into the seat, he gets into the driver's seat, soothing down his messed up hair the best he can.

One thing Peter Parker knew as a fact was that Kalina Torres was the love of his life and meeting her was one of the best things to ever happen to him. If anyone asked him what his greatest achievement was, he would without hesitation say that it was getting her to marry him to which she would just laugh and tell him that he was an idiot even though both of them would be smiling like loons.

The second thing he knew that his life without Kalina, even for the shortest time period like say a week, is nothing but a disaster. A huge whooping disaster being held together by the phone calls he makes to his wife every five minutes or so. Catastrophe of a person that he was, he knew that if Lee doesn't get back in a few days, he would most probably end up setting everything on fire.

"Let's go, " Morgan says, a piece of toast in her mouth and a heavy bag in her arms.

"You made toast?" Peter asks incredulously, his stomach reminding him of the fact that he hadn't eaten anything this morning because of his cooking disaster. Nette had happily eaten the sugary cereal he had poured into her bowl, the packet kept specially for emergencies only given how hyperactive his daughter could be most times.

"Kinda yeah. Lina left this in the fridge for you, you look like your starving. You're lucky your wife knows you so well, "

"That I am, " Peter mutters, pulling into the driveway of his daughter's preschool compound. "Now, you got everything you need?"

"I packed my bag the night before and mommy made me a checklist so I wouldn't forget anything, " Nette nods solemnly and he laughs as he presses a kiss to her forehead.

"Now, give your favourite parent a kiss, "

"Mommy's not here, "

Morgan giggles are infectious and Peter lets out a long suffering sigh, "You're definitely your mother's kid. Fine, give a kiss to your poor father before he gets roasted by his toddler please."

Nette giggles and kisses him on the cheek, giving Morgan a hug before she happily hops to the building.

"How is it my nerd brother has the coolest kid in the world?"

"First of all, remember you're a nerd too. Second, Kalina's insults and humour seems to be genetic. God help her teachers when she grows up, "

Morgan laughs and bumps him playfully on the shoulder, "You should be more concerned about how you're gonna handle her now, "

"Give it a few more years and she'll be roasting you too. Besides, I've been on Lee's bad side when she was pregnant more than once. There is nothing more terrifying than a hormone-induced Kalina, believe me, "

"And the fact that Lina is learning the mystic arts from Dr Strange has nothing to do with it?"

Peter shudders as he recalls when they'd just moved in together, Kalina just learning how to open portals. The sofa they'd bought together had been dropped to God knows where and with someone just starting to learn spells and all, it had been a weird couple of years.

"We both know that Lee could easily level both of us without breaking a sweat even with my powers. Now, scram. " Peter applies the brakes and gives Morgan an affectionate shove.

"Bye Pete!"

"No blowing up anything!" Peter yells after her as she races into her campus.

"No promises!"

He smiles at her retreating figure, the girl's behaviour a perfect mix of Tony's and Pepper's. Morgan stayed with Peter and Kalina most of the time after she got into University, letting Pepper have more time to go travelling with Aunt May and Happy.

Sometimes it hurt to look at her, how similar she was to the man who had once been the closest thing Peter had to a father.

He quickly parks his car as he enters Stark Industries, rushing directly to the lab.

He's met with a bunch of frantic scientists panicking and rushing about, a device in the middle of the room looking quite close to blowing up.

"Can anyone please explain why the lab looks like a Die Hard scene in the making?"

"Mr Parker!" Several of the scientists rush to him, thrusting a tablet in his face that he takes, scanning the data in front of him and working it out in his head.

"It's channelling the remnant energy of the Blip?!" Peter eyes every single cowering face frantically.

"There was a minor miscalculation..." One scientist starts meekly.

"Buddy, if this is minor, I'd really hate to see what you mean by major. This project was to harness nuclear energy!"

Peter rushes to the device, the contraption sucking energy at an alarming rate. He looks over the data once, seeing no way to diffuse the situation in the extremely small time window that he has.

"Everyone out! Right now!" He yells. "Karen?"

"Yes, Peter?" The AIs voice tears in through the frantic footsteps.

"There's gonna be an explosive here. Anyway to stop it from going beyond this room?"

"Lockdown protocol has been initiated. You are the only one left on this floor. Your suit should protect you from the blast, "

Peter presses his chest lightly, the nanotech quickly engulfing him as his spiderman suit forms over his body.

The last thing he remembers is the loud boom and blinding green light before he promptly loses consciousness.

Chapter Text

Peter gasps awake in his bed, shirt soaked with sweat.

"Peter! You're gonna be late for school!"

Peter looks around him in confusion, his childhood room meeting his eyes, the mess familiar and so foreign at the same time. He clutches the blanket, distinctly knowing that he gave it away to goodwill when he moved out. His room is littered with high school books and papers and he sits up in his bunk bed, looking at the beeping alarm beside him. He presses the snooze button, still glaring at it in confusion.

The door bursts open and May emerges, swatting away smoke with a cloth as she laughs at herself.

"I can't say I'm surprised. I'm terrible at this. Can't even manage toast. I've left cereal for you. I've got a shift at the hospital,"

Peter stares open-mouthed at his aunt, who looks almost a decade younger since the last time he saw her.

It can't be...

May thankfully doesn't notice her floundering nephew, quickly going to her own room.

Peter notices the phone on his bedstand and grabs it, pressing the power button and almost choking on air when he sees the date.

29 July 2017.

Almost fifteen years back in time.

What the hell?!

His head races with all the possibilities as to what exactly could have occurred. It wasn't time travel, his body was still fifteen years old but his mind remember everything up until he was twenty-eight.

He grabs his phone, ready to call Kalina when he remembers that she probably won't even know who the hell he is. But he did know where she used to live though there's a chance that she would probably knee him in the balls if he just showed up.

That's when another thought hits him.

Tony Stark was still alive.

His heart races and he grabs his head, hoping to just wish this away. He would have done just about anything to see Tony again and now he had the chance but working years alongside Dr Strange and all the years of helping his wife train had taught him that time wasn't something to be messed with. Any small thing could completely change the course of history and compromise the very fabric of reality.

The universe did have a terrible way of granting wishes.

"Peter!" He looks up to see May in the doorway. "I don't want any spidey business on the way to school at least, okay? I'll drop you off to school, "

"Yeah okay, " his voice comes out squeaky but it's all he can do to hold it together.

"You okay, sweetie?" May tilts her head to the side, worriedly gazing at her nephew. "Is it the meatloaf I made you yesterday? Does your stomach feel weird?"

He can't help the laugh that escapes him at that, the incident with his cooking scenes eerily similar to the ones he had lived through as a kid.

"There's just so much right now, " he says finally.

May smiles at him and walks across the room, hugging him and dropping a kiss on his forehead, "I get that the superhero thing can be a bit too much but take it easy. You're still a teenager, "

"Right now, I really don't feel that way," he gets out softly, returning the hug, holding back tears.

"Now get dressed. I'll drop you off, you and Ned can meet up in school, "

May closes the door behind her and Peter pushes himself up, taking a deep breath and trying to think about what Lee would tell him if she was here.

'Figure out exactly when you are, idiot. You need to know exactly how far back you've been displaced, '

Peter cracks a smile at the echo of the fond exasperated voice.

He quickly grabs the first thing that doesn't reek and changes. Toomes had already been arrested clearly, given the fact that May knew he was spiderman. That's all he needed to know for now, Ned could help him figure out the rest.

He's quiet on the entire ride, paying more attention to the rewinded city than to May's rambling. It felt weird, wrong. Like he was watching a grainy cassette tape.

"Peter!"

He whips his head to look at his aunt.

"Hmm?"

"We've reached, " she points outside and Peter's hit with a wave of memories as he gazes at his old high school.

Well, present high school now.

He quickly gets out, waving at May as she pulls away and then rushes to find Ned.

He grabs Ned when he sees him, ignoring his protests and drags him to the first empty classroom he's able to locate.

"Dude, what's going on?"

Peter looks around once, making sure no one else is looking. "I'm going to tell you something and it's gonna sound batshit crazy but just hear me out, okay? I really need you to help me out."

Ned nods solemnly and Peter quickly tells him the situation the best he can without revealing too much about the future.

"Wait, you're from the future?!" Ned whisper shouts and Peter tries to shush. "You're telling me that you're twenty-eight-year-old brain is stuck in your fifteen-year-old body! That is so freaking cool! Wait, are we still friends in the future?"

Peter cracks a smile, "You're my daughter's godfather and you're her cool uncle, "

"You have a daughter?! Are you married? Do your wife and I get along? Do I..."

"Lee loves you and you love her on every day that isn't family game night which is when she kicks your ass at Mario Kart," Peter interjects quickly, chuckling at memories of his best friend's whining.

"She sounds awesome. Her name's Lee?"

"Kalina Torres. I call her Lee, "

Ned watches his best friend with wide eyes. "Are you still a superhero?"

"One of the members of the Avengers now. Or Avengers 2.0 as we call it. Most of the members are different."

"The future sounds awesome dude. I know I can't ask you too much about the future obviously. Doctor who has taught us that as a bare minimum."

"I need to get back Ned, "

"We'll figure it out after school, okay?" Ned reassuringly pats his shoulder.

Peter lets out a groan, "This part I didn't miss at all, "

Ned laughs and hugs Peter, happy to see that his friend hadn't changed all that much even after apparently fifteen years.

The room gets flooded with students and they break apart, Ned pulling Peter to their shared first-period class when he forgets the way. In his defence, it had been an extremely long time since he'd been in school.

The classes go by in a blur, Peter barely paying any attention as he fiddles with his phone. He could call Kalina, he knew which school she used to attend and with her extensive knowledge on sci-fi, convincing her that he was actually from the future wouldn't be too much trouble. Convincing her to trust him on the other hand, would be a really long and tedious process given that he knows exactly how sceptical she could be.

He loves his wife with every fibre of his being and he knows she loves him enough to follow him to the ends of the entire multiverse. That being said, he also does not doubt that if he approaches a younger version of his wife who hasn't met him yet, she would most probably kick his ass and call him crazy.

Still, would be a better way of meeting her for the first time than what actually happened.

"Peter!"

He snaps out of his thoughts as Ned yells in his ear.

"What?"

"School's out dude."

Peter regards the dismissed students walking out the room in hazy confusion, "That was way quicker than I remember, "

"You haven't actually listened to a word anyone said today. What are we doing now? Also, don't I know too much about the future already?"

"Nick Fury and SHIELD came up with a drug around this time that cause short term memory loss. You'll lose today's memories but there'll be no long term effects, " Peter runs a hand through his hair. "Before that, we need to get to the New York sanctum, "

Ned grabs his hand in excitement, "Is that like a secret lair or something?"

Peter chuckles, "Close enough. There are these wizards on Earth who deal with this kind of stuff. Lee is training under the Sorceror Supreme in my time, "

"We have wizards?! Your wife is a wizard too?!" Ned gasps dramatically and Peter laughs at his enthusiasm. In the future, Ned, Lee and Peter had this weird little game about how long she could do spells with both of them constantly trying to make her lose her concentration.

His reply gets cut off when he feels the hair on his arms rise, his skin crawling as he recognises the feeling after years of having part arachnid DNA.

His arms come up, swift and with a snap, coaching the tranq darts inches away from both their necks.

Ned stumbles when he sees Peter's actions and looks wide-eyed around the room.

"I know it's not the right time but that was so cool!" Ned whispers and Peter manages to give him a disapproving look despite his urge to smile.

Parenting gave you the weirdest skills.

Peter drops the darts, crushing them under his feet. He taps his chest, cursing under his breath when he remembers that he didn't have his suit.

"You can come out now. I know you're from SHIELD, " Peter says, his voice low. He didn't remember any of this which meant that this was a result of temporal changes.

He had to make sure he fixed up this mess before it became irreversible.

SHIELD was the only organisation he would actually trust right now and he hoped to God that this was Nick's way of getting in contact.

Two agents reluctantly come out of their hiding places, tranq guns still pointed at them.

"Let me guess, Fury needs us to meet us and kidnapping is his way of giving an invitation? We'll come willingly. Blindfold us if you need to but I'll be able to tell where we are either way. "

The agents hesitate for a bit, speaking quietly into their earpieces though Peter can hear every word.

Peter sighs when he hears the words. He turns to his wide-eyed best friend.

"They need to tranq us. You okay with that? You can turn back now you know. I'll come with the drug later if you wanna get out now, "

He knew that Ned wouldn't back out. He loved his friend and knew the extent of his loyalty but he still had to give him a chance.

As predicted, Ned solemnly shakes his and refuses.

He turns to the agents before sighing, "Do what you need to do. You're gonna need a higher dosage for me, "

As the black spots overtake his senses, he thinks about how this thing is becoming a bit of a habit.

Chapter Text

"Underoos?"

Peter slowly blinks as he feels someone shaking his shoulder, trying to shake off the sleep.

He tries to remember what day it is, how late he was gonna be to the lab and wonders since when his wife tried to wake him up without starting a pillow fight.

That he always won, obviously.

Well, he did when she didn't cheat with magic.

Which was always.

His slowly squeezes his eyes open, making out the hazy outline of a man and he squint, trying to place where he is.

That when it hits.

Someone called him Underoos.

The memories come crashing down on him and he jerks awake, almost hitting whoever is currently trying to wake him up. His woozy movements are easily defended and his offending arms are securely held.

"It's me. It's me!"

It can't be.

Peter stares open-mouthed at the figure in front of him, half convinced that all of this is a dream.

"Mr Stark?" He croaks out, blatantly staring at the person he he had once considered a father figure.

The same person he had to watch die right in front of his eyes.

Tony smiles and Peter holds back the tears threatening to run down his cheeks.

This was already too hard to handle.

"How many fingers am I holding up?" Tony jokes, holding up a peace sign.

Peter doesn't say a word, staring at his face till he memorises every single detail. Photos and memories never did any justice to lost loved ones and no one knew that better than Peter.

The universe had a really twisted sense of humour.

He hears an echo of May whispering something about Peter Luck and takes in a deep breath.

"Peter?" Tony asks worriedly.

Right, he had been asked a question.

"Uh...two." He manages out, his voice strained. Never in all his years had he experienced this kind of hopelessness. Sure, he'd been in so many hopeless situations but this...this was just another level of pain.

"Can we please address the fact that you recruited a twelve-year-old?"

Peter snaps his head to gape at Steve Rogers, glaring at Tony.

He finally looks around the darkroom, noting the set of original avengers and a few of the then newer additions.

Bucky and Steve stood with Wanda, Vision, Sam, Natasha and Scot Lang. Peter vaguely recalls that this was almost right after the rift between the Avengers, after the Accords. The rest of the Avengers were standing on the other side, glaring at Steve.

They looked just like they did when Thanos had attacked and Peter feels his heart sink when he looks at each of them, knowing that most of them wouldn't survive the coming war.

"Right after we talk about the stunt you pulled with Barnes. What the hell we're you thinking?! He killed my mother!" Tony yells, betrayal turning into anger.

Tony tries to get up but Peter refuses to let go of his hand and Tony diverts his attention to him, concerned when her sees the tears running down his face.

'Last chance, sweetheart.' He hears Lee's voice and it echoes through his head, breaking down his last barriers. He drags Tony closer and wraps his arms around him, squeezing as much as he can without breaking his bones.

Tony returns the hug, albeit a bit confused, "You okay, kid?"

Peter lets out a wet laugh, "That is a loaded question, "

"Dude, "

Peter whips his head to look at his friend slowly coming up. He opens his mouth to say something, though he's not sure that his brain is capable of functioning right now when someone else interjects.

"I threw cars at a twelve-year-old?!" Wanda yells, looking slightly horrified at her actions.

"Well, actually he's fifteen," Ned interjects unhelpfully.

"Ladies! Please settle down," Fury enters the room, his hand holding a file and drive, followed closely my Maria Hill. Peter can't help but smile at how Fury looks exactly the same even with a lapse of fifteen years.

"Why the hell did you get them here?" Tony spits out and Steve lowers his head. "And speaking of which, where the hell were you when we needed you?!"

Fury sighs and runs a hand through his face like he's dealing with little children, "We'll come to that a little later. We have bigger problems to worry about right now. Urgent problems, "

Tony bites his tongue and reluctantly nods, helping Peter up to his feet.

"What did you call us here for, Nick?" He grits out, taking a seat at the long conference table in the middle of the room and many of the others do the same.

Peter remains on his feet, looking at Ned for a second to check on him. He hides his smile when he sees Ned watching the whole room wide-eyed in awe, moments away from openly fangirling.

Fury inserts his drive into the computer and it lights up. Maria moves to the back of the room, standing behind Nat's chair.

"SHIELD may have gone underground but that doesn't mean we stopped monitoring." Fury gives a pointed look around the room. His one eye conveys the disappointment and many of them around the room look down, ashamed at their actions. "That is a discussion we need to have later. A good, nice long discussion,"

"Today morning, a spike of temporal energy was caught. Now, that is disastrous and we need to find out its root cause and fix it because I have been informed that if not fixed, this could lead to the Earth, among other things, going kaboom. Now, I don't know about you but I like the Earth."

"What do you need us to do?" Steve asks up.

Nick rubs a hand over his face, "We need to determine the cause of this. It could cause irreversible damage if not fixed properly, "

"Wait, temporal energy? Like time travel?" Rhodey asks, incredulous.

"It's more like Temporal Displacement than Time Travel but its close enough, I guess, "

The entire room turns to look at Peter, who just shrugs. Nick regards him, looking him up and down.

"Spiderman. You read papers on this or something?"

Peter lets out a dry chuckle, "Or something. The cause of the spike is not something you can fix from here, "

The entire room regards him with wide eyes and Peter pointedly stares at the screen only.

"And how exactly would you know that?" Maria asks.

Peter sighs, "Because I was at Point Zero when it happened and it was an honest accident. Project gone wrong. No nefarious intentions, just a bunch of miscalculations, "

"Underoos? "

Peter avoids Tony's searching eyes and feels the hollow feeling in his chest grow more and more.

He had never missed Lee more than he did now.

"You're telling me you're from the future? Like, an older version of you in your younger body?" Sam interjects.

"Long story short yeah. I woke up today morning in my fifteen-year-old body, " Peter mumbles.

"If you're really from the future, prove it, "

"Did you bring Retcon? Or whatever you're calling it right now," Peter asks Fury, needing to know that before said anything else.

"How do you know about that?!" Fury demands.

"From the future, " Peter says, pointing to himself. "I need to know if you have the drug before I actually say anything because otherwise I'll probably end up risking the very fabric of reality and I've heard too many lectures to actually disregard the warnings. Now, do you have the drug or not?"

"We brought a suitcase of it, " Maria says quietly.

"What's Retcon?" Steve asks.

"It's a drug that wipes out your short term memory. You can't know anything about the future without jeopardising it." Fury explains, "Now, if I'm gonna believe the word of a teenager, I'm gonna need a bit of proof."

Peter shrugs and then turns to Natasha, "You've got a sister named Yelena. Well, adopted anyway. That's her vest you're wearing, "

Natasha regards him with sudden alarm, "If you hurt her..."

Peter laughs at this, " That girl keeps stealing all my gummy bears. If I wanted to hurt her, it would be over that. And coming to you..."

Peter turns to Nick and smiles mischievously, "I can tell you exactly how you lost your eye, "

Peter can see Ned's eyes widen at that and Nick scoffs, "Even if you were from the future, there is no way I would've told you that story. Not the real version anyway, "

Peter's grin widens even more at this, "Oh you didn't. Aunt Carol did, "

"Aunt Carol? You know Carol Danvers?" Nick chokes.

"Yup. She was mad when you didn't call her with the device when Gay marriage was legalised."

"That sounds like her, " Nick mutters.

"Can you tell us exactly what happened? Everything from when you woke up, " Maria says.

Peter runs a hand through his face, "It was a normal day, I suppose. Lee had gone for a conference and there was an emergency at the lab so I dropped off Nette and Morgan and by the time I got to the lab, one of the projects went haywire. I was able to evacuate just about everyone except me and I had Karen initiate lockdown. My suit was supposed to protect me from the damage, but apparently not, "

"Peter look at me, " Tony snaps finally and Peter can feel the tears running down his cheeks. He wipes them away with his sleeve, looking anywhere but at the approaching hero.

His gaze stays fixed on his shoes even when Tony is right in front of him. He can't let himself break down, not right now.

"Peter Benjamin Parker, "

He slowly raises his eyes, Tony's brown orbs filled with concern and love and it's all Peter can take.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, " he chokes out, the sob escaping his throat and Tony looks horrified as Peter starts crying, the closest thing he had to a child breaking down in front of his eyes.

Tony hugs him without another thought and pats his back reassuringly. Peter's body shakes with the effort of controlling his sobs and Tony gently rocks him, muttering the same words over and over again.

It's okay.

Even when Peter knows it's anything but.

It takes him a while to calm down and he slowly and reluctantly relinquishes his hold on Tony.

Every single person in the room has their eyes cast downward, each drawing their conclusions about the future.

A future that happens without Tony Stark.

Peter looks up when he feels Tony's eyes cupping his right cheek. Tony was a genius, no one would even try to oppose that fact and he'd always known that despite his wishes to die a normal peaceful death, he'd die on the battlefield. If Peter really was from the future, then he already knew that his assumptions had been right.

"We'll fix this, okay?"

Peter nods, wiping the tears from his face and looks to Nick. Nick meets his eyes, his posture conveying his sorrow more than his words ever could.

"We need a way to contact people from my time. My guess is that the problem can be fixed only from that side, " Peter clears his throat. "Mr Stark doesn't invent time travel for another couple years but we'll be fine, "

"Tony invented time travel?" Steve asks finally.

"Yeah but that's for later." Peter waves it off. "There is someone who's an expert in this kind of thing but he might not be an expert in it yet so I'm not sure."

"Gimme a name, " Fury says and Peter walks towards the computer.

"I'm gonna need to borrow this, " He turns the computer towards himself and fires up the browser. He types in Stephan Strange, opening the first article that appears.

"Oh thank God, " he breathes out as he sees the news article about the accident that lost Dr Strange control over his own body.

Though in retrospect, that was not an appropriate response to a career wrecking accident.

"Kid, did you just thank God for a life-threatening accident?" Tony asks in bewilderment.

Peter winces, "Not a good response, I get it. But this is a good thing because it means that he can help us." He turns to Fury, "We'll need his help and I'll explain when we get there. Can you get everyone there without drawing attention? The lesser the damage to the timeline, the better, "

"Right after we escort your friend home. This could be dangerous if this wasn't accidental and I'm not putting a civilian in harm's way, "

Peter looks at Ned who meekly nods.

"Fine. Now, who's driving?"

Chapter Text

Peter rolls his shoulders back and turns to the group of superheroes awkwardly standing on the sidewalk, all dressed in hoodies and baseball caps even after he repeatedly told them that hoodies didn't work as a disguise.

Really, it was a wonder people hadn't spotted them yet.

"Please try to keep your freakouts as internal as possible, please?" He begs and all of them simultaneously frown.

"Why would we freak out?" Wanda asks, her Russian accent prominent.

Peter sighs and turns back to the door, Tony right beside him, "You'll see, "

Peter raps his knuckles against the door loudly and out of pure experience, he readies himself, directing more of his weight to the back of the feet. The rest of the team, however, do not have the same privilege.

Steve, Sam and Bucky all fall in a heap with a yelp and Peter's hand steadies Tony before he shares the same fate. Nat and Clint barely catch themselves before they fall on each other and Vision straightens a befuddled Wanda.

Peter hides a smile as he sees the sorcerer across them, looking at each one with a bored and unimpressed expression hiding the underlying intrigue, genuine confusion and the displeasure of actually being confused.

Years of watching his wife and the doctor weave together a close father-daughter relationship and having the guy visit every week had deepened the trust and friendship between the two of them. Sure, their prank wars never ended well for anyone and usually ended up with Lee yelling and smacking both of them atop their heads but Nette had also taken to call him Grandpa, which melted everyone's heart.

"Imagine my surprise when The Avengers, who are apparently no longer broken up, turn up at my doorstep the same day the Sanctum is under attack."

The trio on the floor all crane their necks in a attempt to glare at the person talking but with them currently being a very elaborate tangle of flesh and metal limbs, their collective actions just result in a series of grunts and groans that has Tony pointing and laughing shamelessly as he makes no move whatsoever to help them.

Wanda smiles as she uses her magic to help them up and despite being super spies, Peter can see the smiles that Nat and Clint are trying desperately to hide.

It's like, for a glorious two seconds, the Accords never happened and Peter tries his best not to tear up as this moment in grains itself into his mind.

"We kinda need your help, " Peter puts in softly like he doesn't want to disturb anything.

Stephan frowns at him, "And who exactly are you?"

Peter holds out his arm that Stephan takes, shaking it and trying not to laugh at how different this meeting is in comparison to how they actually met.

"I'm Peter Parker, technically spiderman, "

"Kid, " Tony hisses beside him and Peter gives him a reassuring smile.

"It's fine. He'll meet me without my mask in a few months anyway."

"Dr Stephan Strange. As much as I would like to question why the hell a teenager is acting like a vigilante, I think we have more urgent matters to discuss at hand."

The room around them whooshes again and Peter steadies Tony with a roll of his eyes and the rest of them find themselves repeating their previous positions.

"Dammit birdshit! Get off me!" Bucky growls as Tony laughs again.

"It's not my fault! Blame the bloody wizard!" Sam snaps back.

"He's a sorcerer!"

"What's the friggin difference?!"

"Does it look like he's wearing a pointy hat?"

Peter rolls his eyes, the conversation a repeat of one he and Ned had had one too many times. Stephan gives the two of them an unimpressed look.

"He's the Sorcerer Supreme. Let's just drop it at that, " Peter interrupts, knowing the speech that comes after this argument.

Stephan looks at him with suspicion, "How do you know that?"

"The sanctum isn't under attack. The temporal disturbance was a one-off. We need your help to rectify it."

"We have magicians now, " Clint mutters incredulously to himself and Peter's superhearing picks it up. "Earth has freaking wizards! Like my life wasn't weird enough already, "

Strange regards him, "If what you're saying is true and assuming someone being temporally displaced is just an accident, then I can do nothing until I get the person affected, "

Steve steps up, "That part is taken care off."

Strange frowns before he sees the captain nodding at Peter and then realisation dawns on his face, "Ah, "

"That would be right. Now, do you have idea as to how to send my kid back to the future?" Tony asks, patting Peter's shoulder.

Peter, for all his grown ass maturity, wipes away the stray tear that slips as his brain soars at being called Tony's kid. Pepper always told him that Tony loved him, that he considered him his own but he found it hard to believe anything other than how he should've saved him. Lee had helped him in that regard, smacking him when he wallowed in his guilt a little too much and with his family's help, he'd accepted that there was nothing he could do.

Except now he could. And yet he couldn't.

"You have a child?!"

"Oh, that explains so much!"

"You had a kid and you didn't tell us?!"

The Avengers all explode at once and Tony blushes dark red. He stutters for a few seconds, trying to defend himself but for all his genius, all his responses are incoherent.

Peter engulfs him in a hug and lets out a wet laugh. Tony returns the hug, more out of muscle memory than anything else, still stuttering.

"It's fine if you see me as your kid, you know. You're the closest thing I've had to a father in a very long time, " Peter whispers quietly against Tony's shoulder and Tony answers back with a affectionate smile.

Dr Strange hesitantly clears his throat, trying to gain their attention, "As heart moving as this moment is, we have bigger problems. We'll need to contact someone who knows the mystic arts in the future and for that we'll need something that belongs to them or contains some kind of residue of them. Do you have anything like that on you?"

Peter shakes his head, "I woke up as 15-year-old self. The only thing that seems to be displaced is my mind."

Stephan regards him, "I could try to displace your body from the same moment you were displaced. Come with me, Mr Parker. The rest of you..." Stephan looks torn for a moment before he makes up his mind, "...you can bombard Wong with any questions you have."

Stephan drags Peter put the room just as they hear Wong yelling at the Sorcerer Supreme in a way that reminded Peter a little too much of Happy.

Chapter Text

"That feels way better, " Peter breaths outs as he fiddles with his wedding ring, a nervous trait shared by both him and his wife. He removes the tie he wore that morning and follows as Stephan walks back to the others, the spell in restoring Peter's body successful.

He was taller now, a little taller than Mr Stark and he had always been lean but his muscles were slightly more prominent than when he was 15. He had lost his baby fat and he had never felt the need to grow a beard or goatee so at least that was the same. Would maybe help in softening the blow when the others suddenly saw his older body.

"Mr Parker, we don't have all day!" Dr Strange adds in impatiently as Peter hesitates to enter the room.

Peter makes mental note to put hot sauce in the sorcerer's toothpaste and he gingerly walks into the room, his head bent down and he stuffs his hand in his pockets as he hears whistles fill the air.

"You got tall, " Tony stutters out and Peter laughs at that.

"More than tall. He's freaking hot, " Bucky puts in and Peter laughs again. Steve looks at Bucky with a disapproving look and Nat chuckles lightly at his words.

"He's not wrong. Kid's freaking ripped, " Sam interjects and Clint punches him in the arm.

"Ouch! How come I get a smack and he gets away with it?"

Stephan lets out a long-suffering sigh and Peter goes back to Tony's side, ignoring the gawking heroes.

"Can we please get down to business? Peter, is there anything we can use to contact someone from the future with you? It would be better if it's someone who can contact people in the Sanctum."

"Yeah, I probably have something." Peter searches his pockets for a minute before taking out a hairpin.

Functions were somewhat for a necessary evil for Peter and his family, as much as they all detested it. Every function, for the very same reason, ended up with Harvey and Morgan somehow managing to set something alight followed by Peter and Lee offering their seemingly sincere apologies followed by ice cream and movie night. Lee also had a habit of removing her hairpins from her hair, calling them the devil's creation to which Peter would just laugh and stuff them in his pockets before kissing her and getting grossed out exclamations from Harvey and his sister.

Thank God for those instances now.

"Will this be fine?"

"Kid, why do you have a hairpin in your pocket?" Tony asks, confused.

Peter's left hand stays in his pocket and he nervously avoids the question. Lee and Tony, if they had been given the chance, would have gotten along like a house on fire. Both Pepper and Peter hated the fact that the love of his life didn't get to meet someone he had come to call his father. Even with the temptation, he knew that it would take way too much time to answer the questions he knew were inevitable.

Time that no one had right now.

"He's not really a kid anymore Tony, " Vision points in unhelpfully.

"Can we just get on with this?" Peter quickly interjects.

"Of course." Stephan says, flipping through a book and landing on the right page.

"So to summarize, an actual wizard is going to cast an honest to God spell to help someone who accidentally travelled through time by connecting someone from the future?" Clint puts in, looking confused at his own words.

Sam and Steve look perplexed at the wording, probably wondering what the hell their life has come to while Natasha nods solemnly.

"That's about it. Yup, "

"If you all would just shut up for two minutes, " Stephan interjects and then goes on to cast the spell, fingers and hands flowing with ease, leaving wakes of yellow energy lines in their wake and Peter hides a smile at the remarks of the Avengers, including a scientific debate about how magic doesn't exist that incites between Tony and Vision despite Dr Strange casting a spell right in front of them.

The lines transform into runes and project themselves onto the nearest wall, a rectangle resembling a screen taking form, much like one formed due to a screen projector.

"That. Is. Freaking. Awesome!" Bucky says.

The screen takes the view of Peter's house, his bedroom to be exact and a pixie like face suddenly takes up the frame, an adorable rumple of brown hair and puppy dog eyes right smack dab in the centre of the screen.

The Avengers startle at the sight of the little girl.

The little girl on the other hand, looks curiously at the screen and squeals when she eyes Peter.

"Daddy!"

Peter smiles and tries to get in front, the yelps and stammering of the others quite evident in the room.

"How's my spiderling doing?"

Nette pouts on the screen, "Mommy and Aunt Morgan quickly got me from school when they saw that you went kaboom on tv."

"Is mommy there right now?" Peter asks, finally getting his left hand out his pocket as he fiddles with his ring.

"She's talking to Grandpa Stephan and Aunt Morgan. Aunt Kate and Aunt Yelena came over too! Are we having movie night again daddy? Pretty please? I promise I'll get up on time tomorrow! Uncle Sam and Uncle Bucky are on their way too! Please?"

Peter laughs at his daughter's rambling and pleas, "I'll ask mommy, okay?"

"And uncle Harley's hiding under the bed with KAOS. "

Peter bursts out laughing at that, "Can you call uncle Harley from under your bed? Daddy has something important to tell him, "

Nette looks solemnly and leans in dramatically, whispering like she's telling a secret, "Spiderman important?"

Peter playfully imitates her and nods, "Spiderman important."

"Okay!" Nette exclaims and bounces off.

"My kid...has a kid." Tony mutters to himself and Peter grins.

"A very cute kid." Steve adds in.

"What's your wife's name?" Wanda asks nicely.

"Did your daughter just call me Grandpa Stephan?" Dr Strange puts in.

"And he's married!" Tony continues his muttering, looking at Peter up and down, face scrunched up with a confused expression.

"Your kid called us uncle Sam and uncle Bucky" Sam adds in.

Bucky nods along, confused as to why any sane parent would let their kid within ten feet of him.

"Can we just stop with the questions!" Nat exclaims, shutting up everyone. Well, everyone except Tony, who goes on muttering as to how Peter was 12 years old two minutes ago.

"Well, can we at least get the name of the cute munchkin who just stole our hearts?"

"Antoinette. Her name's Antoinette Mary Parker." Peter says.

Tony startles again, "You named your kid after me?"

Peter chuckles, "Yup. But we call her Nette for short."

"That sounds so adorable!" Wanda squeals.

Mouths open to bombard him with questions again when Harley's face comes in the screen, a smiling Nette sitting happily on his shoulders, giving Tony another mini heart attack as he recognises another kid all grown up looking like he just stepped off a bloody runway.

Harley does a double take when he sees Peter, jaw-dropping in surprise, "Ace?!"

Peter opens his mouth to try and quickly explain the situation calmly but Harley doesn't even give him the time to blink before rattling off.

"Where the hell have you been?! One minute I'm in a board meeting, ready to tear out my ears and the next, Karen informs me of a blast in the lab all the way back in New York! Do you have any idea how fucking worried we've been?! We thought you were dead!"

Nette smacks her uncle on the head, furrowing her eyebrows adorably, "Bad bad word. No saying bad bad word, "

Harley gives her an exaggerated wince, "Bucky swears all the time!"

"But Uncle Bucky lets me swing on his arm!"

Harley tweaks her nose affectionately, "Traitor! Go get your mother before she kills someone."

Nette giggles and go out of the room yelling for her mother.

Harley turns back to the screen, "Lee's been with Strange the entire time trying to track you. Where the hell are you anyway?"

Peter rubs a hand over his face, "You wouldn't believe me if I told you, "

Harley snorts, "I've met green worm aliens from space and a talking racoon sends me emails. What could be worse than that?"

Peter moves out of the frame, letting the others into view, gesturing dramatically with his arms.

Harley looks even more shocked, jaw slackening at the old avengers.

He freezes when he eyes Tony, "Tony?"

Tony clears his throat, "This isn't confusing at all, "

"Oh my God! You freaking time travelled?! I thought he destroyed all of the notes!" Harley yells.

"He did. The explosion tapped into the radiation that the snaps released!"

"How the hell did you manage that?!" Harley hisses.

"You were supervising it too, idiot!"

Harley groans, "We forgot to check the materials used again!"

Peter scowls, "It was your turn to approve the materials this month! There's a reason they ask for approval Harley!"

Harley thinks back for a moment, "I actually checked it this time! Pepper was with me! Do you really think she wouldn't have whacked me if I did it half-heartedly?"

"A bit of context would be appreciated, " Wanda interjects when Peter opens his mouth to retort.

Harley tugs his curls nervously, "I don't think we should make this any worse and I actually value my life so I'm gonna do the same thing Peter and I do every time we screw up, "

Peter nods along to his words and Steve speaks up.

"Which is what exactly?"

"Wait for Lee to smack us upside our head and tell us how to fix it, " Both of them answer simultaneously.

"And who exactly is Lee?" Natasha asks, curious.

"My wife, " Peter says as Harley puts in at the same time, "The coolest person in the world, "

"Can we meet her?" Tony asks, smiling but Peter can see the vulnerability in his eyes and even after all this time, it breaks his heart.

Peter smiles, his pearly whites on view, eyes shining with genuine happiness at the thought of them finally meeting, "You're gonna love her, believe me, "

Tony grins in response.

Suddenly, someone appears beside Harley, almost displacing him in haste and Peter feels his breath catch when he eyes the dishevelled brunette.

Her hair's an adorable mess and angry tears stain her pretty brown skin, her eyes puffy and red and it breaks his heart when he eyes her tears. She looks beside herself and the way the tension leaves her body when she sees Peter is undeniable.

Peter feels a little lighter as he smiles at his wife, eyes watery.

"Hey Lee."

Chapter Text

"Hey Lee, "

"Peaches, you have two freaking minutes to come up with a plausible explanation for this before I actually kill you for the bloody stress you put me through, " Kalina chokes out, trying to sound angry but her relief is clear in her staggering voice.

Peter laughs, his eyes glued to the love of his life, "For the first time in all of history, it wasn't my fault. Tiny inconvenience is all. I'll probably be home in time to burn dinner, "

Lee snorts, "You ain't allowed twelve feet within the kitchen ever again. I saw the mess you made, Webhead. You burnt the toast and there's still burnt oatmeal on the pan."

"In my defence, you left me unsupervised, " Peter shrugs.

"Never letting you out of my sight again, " Kalina jokes but it comes out flat when her sobs choke her.

Peter resists the urge to hug her. It's overwhelming really, resisting the habit to console her but with his hands metaphorically tied, he can't.

Harley picks up on his desire and wraps his arms around Kalina, rubbing her shoulders soothingly as she collects herself again.

She wipes her eyes and sits up straighter, rolling her shoulders back, her business mode as Peter and Harley had dubbed it.

The one posture that never failed to either terrify him or turn him on. Or both.

She gazes past him and he can pin point the exact moment she eyes Tony as her eyes go wide and she mouths holy shit.

"Peter Benjamin Parker..." Her voice takes on there stern note and Peter winces and subtly diverts his mind from its current position in the gutter and tries his best to focus on the terrified part of himself rather than the aroused.

"Like I said, for the first time in my life, it wasn't my fault. In fact, it was Harley's!"

"Hey! It wasn't my fault! I checked all the materials twice that day! Pepper was mentoring me the entire time! Ow!" Harley exclaims when Lee pinches him, pinning him with a glare.

Peter laughs at that and then silences himself with great restraint when Lee turns her glare to him.

"Before spider kid digs his grave any deeper..." Tony starts and smiles his megawatt photogenic smile, the one that was always plastered across some magazine or newspaper, "...I'm Tony. And any woman who can put up with this hyperactive ball of mush has my utmost respect, "

Lee diverts her gaze to Tony, narrowing her eyes at him slightly before smiling slightly, "Kalina. And I can definitely see where Morgan gets it from"

Tony opens his mouth to respond before his face contorts in confusion. He turns to Peter and mouths, "Who's Morgan?"

"Can we keep the pleasantries and the domestics aside till the threat of doom and gloom is neutered?" Stephan rudely interrupts, his voice containing an air of arrogance and Lee snaps her gaze to him, lifting one unimpressed eyebrow.

"I realise that this is a difficult situation for you, Mrs Parker, but it is extremely important you get the sorcerer supreme of your time to fix the problem. This kind of thing isn't to be taken lightly and..."

Dr Strange stops short when Harley and Peter burst out laughing and Lee looks even more irritated at his words though the slight ghost of a smile around her lips is evident.

"I'm sorry, did I say something funny? Impending doom a joke in your time?" Stephan snarks and it causes the laughing fit to double up, the rest of the avengers in the room looking either too confused or like they're about to catch the contiguous laughter.

"Mrs Parker. Did someone get that on video. Please tell me someone did." Harley chokes out in between heaving breathes, wiping his eyes.

"You're looking at her by the way, " Peter says finally.

Stephan's brows furrow in confusion, "At who?"

"The sorcerer supreme. Or she will be in a couple years anyway, "

"You married a magician?" Tony blurts beside him and Peter laughs again.

"First of all, it's sorcerer and I wasn't a sorcerer when I met him. That was...a later development, " Lee smiles.

"Where the bloody hell is my phone! That face is pure blackmail material!" Harley groans, looking frantically.

"Can we get to this later? Space-time coordinates, Peaches. We'll get there and fix it, "

Peter rubs the back of his head sheepishly, "It's the 29 of July 2017."

Lee smiles and Peter feels his heart melt at the familiar sight, one that never failed to make his spirits soar, "We'll be there in two hours, "

The screen shuts off and Peter turns to the Avengers and sheepishly rubs the back of his head, "So...any questions?"

There's pin-drop silence for a few seconds before Bucky interjects.

"Are there flying cars yet?"

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

Tony watches as Peter converses with Bucky and Steve, his entire face lighting up as he talks about his life in the future.

The future. Still weird to think about the fifteen-year-old kid he had seen just two days ago all grown up with the whole baggage of being grown up too.

And the kid had a wife and kid and Tony can't help but think back to the teasing conversation they had just couple days ago about his crush on that scary girl in his decath team.

He idly wonders if Peter had ever actually confessed to it.

"He's a good kid, " Nat says beside him and Tony glances at her out of the corner of his eye. He hasn't seen her after the whole fiasco with Capsicle and it's a bit unnerving how she can sneak up on him.

Then again, super-spy so he shouldn't really be surprised.

"Yes, he is. Though kid might be the wrong word now, "

"I saw the way you looked at him. A child is always a child to his parents, "

Tony turns to her at this, raising his eyebrows, "About that...you have a sister?"

Nat's gaze softens a bit and a smile graces her otherwise impassive face, "Yeah. She's not a particularly big fan of yours but I'm sure you both would get along if you met each other, "

Tony hums, "Yelena?"

Nat nods, "We were brought up together for a short time. A red room mission. She didn't know that it wasn't real, too young and I knew but I loved it. Gave me the chance to be normal kid for a while. Then we got called back after the mission completed and we were separated." Nat chuckles humorlessly, "Didn't see her for years after that, "

"Where's she now?"

"Tying up a few loose ends. We contact each other every week to keep track but apart from that, we can't risk meeting up till everything blows over, "

"Well, the kid, I mean the kid's kid..." Tony stammers, "...Antoinette mentioned her so I think we can assume she makes it out just fine."

Nat grins at him, the teasing grin that always had him groaning, "Hows it feel to have a kid named after you? Or better yet, you realize you're a grandfather right?"

Tony scrunches his face as Nat laughs, that particular fact just hitting him in the face.

Grandfather and Tony Stark in the same sentence.

Yikes.

"You're a bit free with your information today. I literally learnt more about you today than in the past five years. Change of heart?"

Nat scoffs, "I asked your kid...the drug that causes memory loss? That's gonna wipe out our entire day which means you're not gonna remember a single thing I ever said, "

Tony laughs at that, "So it's a fool proof way of sharing secrets without a security risk?"

"Damn straight, "

Sam suddenly bursts into the room, panting and stumbling, "They're here!"

Tony tilts his head at the pale man who looks like he's just had the scare of his life and opens his mouth to question it but Bucky beats him to it.

"What the hell happened to you bird brain?"

"Oh, he just jumped ten feet in the air when the portal opened." A new voice says from the doorway and everyone turns to towards the voice and their jaws hit the floor when they eye the newest member.

Well, not new per se.

Bucky, well a future version of him, stands grinning in the doorway with his hands in his pockets, his black leather jacket concealing his vibranium arm and with his shortened hair distinguishing him from his past self and Peter grins at him, walking over to give him a hug.

"I'm guessing you got whatever happened on camera?" Peter laughs as he steps away.

"Of course. What am I, an amateur?" Future Bucky scoffs.

"I'm not dreaming, am I?" Steve asks incredulously. "Everyone else sees this too?"

"Like one of him wasn't enough, " Sam groans and under normal circumstances, Bucky, the past version, would have snapped right back but he was too busy trying to make sense of what just happened.

What he noticed first was his hair, wondering if it felt easier without having to untangle the mane every morning. But the second thing he noticed had him staggering.

He looked happy.

Really properly happy in a way he hadn't been since he got enlisted.

His eyes were lit up and he looked like someone content, someone at peace with themselves.

"Two of him in the same room? More like a nightmare, " a heavily (and adorably) Russian accented voice puts in and a cute, blonde white leather-clad woman walks in beside his future self and pats him on the shoulder with an exaggerated self-suffering sigh.

"You love me and you know it, " Future him grins mischievously at the girl and Bucky is hit again by how different and lighter future him looks.

"It is extremely rude to remind people of their mental breakdowns, "

Maybe there was hope for him after all.

Natasha makes a choked sound across the room, "Yelena?"

The blonde's head snaps up and within the blink of an eye, the two women have crossed the room, meeting each other halfway, a tangle of limbs and whispering to each other in Russian.

Peter looks at them with fondness and a bit of bitterness mixed in. Another family torn apart because of Thanos and nothing he could do to help them.

Again with the feeling of powerlessness.

"Peaches!"

Peter turns towards the voice, legs moving towards the love of his life and he wraps his hands around her waist, holding onto her like a lifeline.

He kisses her, not giving a damn about the smirks or aw's or gawks, and she responds right back, the feeling of desperation and happiness melting into their kiss, the salty taste of tears on their tongues.

And when they finally come up for air, he rests his forehead against hers and she closes her eyes.

"I missed you, " he whispers.

"Yeah, you better have. And I swear to God Peaches if you put me through anything like that ever again, I'll freaking kill you and don't think for one second Harley will stop me."

Peter laughs and clings onto her tighter, "He'll probably help you hide the body, "

"Yes he would, "

Chapter Text

Peter watches with a smile on his face as Tony and Lee animatedly chat, Nette happily settled in Tony's lap and Morgan with an arm around her father, a feeling of content taking over his being.

"I don't think it was a good idea to introduce those two, " Harley whispers beside him but Peter can see the tears in his eyes as he views the pair.

Kalina may be more responsible compared to the two of them but she was her own brand of trouble, a brand Pepper had one too many times compared to Tony's. Antoinette had taken an immediate liking to Tony and had flat out refused to leave him, even when Morgan, after a tear-jerking reunion, had wrapped her hands around her father, Nette had stubbornly stayed in Tony's arms. Her parents had tried to pry her off but had given up when she used the arachnid DNA she inherited from her father to stick to his mentor.

In the end, she'd ended up getting squished between the two of them.

Needless to say, Tony was more than pleased with the girl and had appointed himself as her favourite person in the world, to which a giggling Nette had conceded.

"At least Maguna gets to see him one last time, even if your daughter is hogging him, "
Peter chuckles, "He doesn't seem to mind it at all. In fact, I think he just met his three favourite new people, "

"Replaced the two of us, you think?"

"We don't stand a chance against the three of them, " Peter snorts.

"And we wouldn't have it any other way. Think it's time to get Yelena and Nat out the room yet? They've been holed in there for a long time, "

Peter eyes the closed door behind which Yelena and Natasha had disappeared a few hours ago and shakes his head, "Let them have this."

"How much longer can we stay?" Harley asks, eyes sad as he runs a hand through his hair.

Peter looks at the clock on the wall, "Two hours, maybe three. After that, the timeline probably branches, "

"Would that be such a bad thing?" Harley says.

"Maybe not but only Lee and Dr Strange can make the changes without the reality collapsing and since Strange saw over six million possibilities wherein we won only won..."

"But technically, he saw possibilities from only that point in time forward, right? So if we change stuff appropriately in the past, the future could possibly remain intact without consequences, right? Theoretically?"

Peter eyes Harley, "Think Stephan can use the stone to look into the possibilities from now?"

Harley grins, "Worth a try."

Kalina looks up as she sees Peter and Harley approaching, a suspicious mischievous glint in both their eyes and she stops mid-sentence to eye them with suspicion as they near Tony and her.

"So we have an idea..."

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

Peter nervously taps his feet against the wooden floor, the constant rhythmic sound ticking off everyone with every beat.

"Peter, you know I love you but if you do that one more time, I will cut off your feet, " Yelena says from across him, her hands securely around her sleepy sister.

"I'll help her daddy," a tiny, very annoyed voice piques in and Peter smiles amusedly at his daughter who looks just as ticked off as her aunt.

"I think we can hold the murder plans till you're at least a teenager, spiderling, " Peter coos, scoping the sleepy girl into her lap.

"Mommy and grandpa Strange will be fine, daddy. Mommy always defeats the bad guys, remember?"

Peter lets out a breath, "She does, doesn't she?"

It had been a day since the sorcerers of the Sanctum, both present and future, had taken off in portals to Thanos' current location. With the current timeline, Thanos wasn't in possession of any infinity stones and the time stone was used by the two sorcerer supreme's (one in training albeit), to build an interdimensional prison capable of indefinitely holding Thanos and his army.

The prison was something Kalina had built in their time as a failsafe in case of a repeat of the infinity war. Guess it was going to be used to prevent it now.

They did the math. The only people who would remember any differently were the ones in the room, with them being at the eye of the storm.

Peter looks at Tony and tightens the arm he has around him.

Maybe....just maybe, he'll not have to live with his greatest regret.

If this goes right.

Peter's heart constricts as he remembers the last conversation he had with Lee just before she went. Well, argument.

It had been too risky. It still was, even with Strange assuring him that all would be fine. But he couldn't stomach it. He couldn't lose another person. Not the love of his life.

He refused to.

Peter wipes his watering eyes. God, what if that's the last conversation he's gonna have with her?

If Kalina died today, it'd be on him. It had been his bloody idea and now, he was gonna lose one more person he loved.

He really was a curse to everyone he loved, wasn't he?

He knew logically that Lee was capable of handling herself. Hell, she could handle herself better than all of them combined. But that didn't stop the panicking and the yelling and the need to lash out in his attempt to keep her here.

His depressing and self-deprecating trial of thought trails off as his daughter leaps off his lap, rushing down the hall.

"Mommy!"

Kalina scoops up her daughter, laughing as she places a kiss on her head, "How's my spiderling doing?"

Peter leaps off, following his daughter's lead. He can see the superficial cuts and the slight graze on her head. Her dress looks more like it's made of dirt than cloth and her face has smudges of mud smattered all over and her hair's a mess.

He thinks she's never looked more beautiful.

He knows he's crying. Can feel the hot tears rolling down his face and he sees the same on hers.

"Please don't ever do that to me again, " he begs, his voice small and sounding infinity lost.

"Never say never, " She jokes lightly and they break apart in a breathy chuckle.

"Time to go home?" Harley asks as he takes his turn to hug Lee.

"A slightly different home but yeah..." Lee smiles, kissing Peter on the head, "...we're going home, "

"Will Natasha be alive too?" Yelena asks, and the hopeful glint in her eyes is almost heartbreaking.

"Yep, " Lee laughs, tears of joy down her cheeks. "Home with just a tiny bit more family, "