"I still don't understand what I'm doing here."

Peter was standing in the middle of the living room, taking his hands out of his pockets to grab the glass of water Tony was handing to him.

"I already told you. We're redecorating and Pepper wants your input."

"But I don't know anything about interior design?" He replied skeptically, taking a sip of the water before putting it down on the glass coffee table nearby. Tony sighed, grabbing a coaster and moving Peter's glass on top of it.

"Really because I totally had you pegged for the chenille chaise lounge type."

"I don't even know what that is." Peter shrugged, not finding Tony's sarcasm as humorous as he used to. He had no idea why Tony had called him to the tower so suddenly but he was fairly certain that Tony had no interest in any of Peter's thoughts on a living room makeover. He glanced around the room for any sign of what Tony might be up to but came up empty, growing more and more anxious on the spot. Being here in the tower reminded him too much of someone he was currently doing everything in his power to forget.

"Can I go now? I've got homework."

Just as Tony was about to respond the elevator to the left buzzed loudly, the light above blinking as the doors swung open. Peter's eyes widened in shock as he saw Steve exit the elevator, the girl he had been failing to push from his mind following closely behind.

"(Y/n)?"

She stared back in equal shock making it abundantly clear to him that she had no idea he was going to be there either.

"Surprise!" Tony said cheerfully, smiling back and forth between the two. Peter realized now that Tony must have known she was coming home today and that he had planned this as some attempt at repairing the damage that had already been done.

"Hi Peter." (Y/n) said quietly. Peter stilled at the sound of her voice, taking in her appearance. None of this felt real. He could have sworn she was a figment of his imagination, some desperate grasp at holding onto something he had already lost weeks ago.

He took a step forward before stopping in his tracks as his mind raced to catch up with his feelings. Steve stood next to her, holding a suitcase in one and a duffel bag in the other. She was moving back in? Just like that?

They looked relaxed, standing close together and far too at ease for all of the issues between them to be anything but afterthoughts. It was almost as if nothing had changed. Everything but her. She looked different, older somehow, more collected and sure of herself, and not to mention very, very pregnant.

An awkward silence ran through the group as the four of them stood there. The tension was eventually broken by Steve who carefully took the bag (Y/n) had been carrying, kissing her on the cheek then heading in Tony's direction.

"Why don't we give them a moment to catch up." He said, pushing the duffel bag into Tony's arms.

"But I thought..." Tony trailed off, looked back and forth expectantly between the two best friends, the bag hanging limply in his arms. Peter had guessed he was waiting for some sort of grand epic reunion. Two old friends running to greet each other in excitement after years of separation. Only that wasn't what this was. Peter and (Y/n) weren't old friends and the large piles of unsettled issues and problems sitting in-between where they stood stopped him from meeting her in the middle. Only that wasn't right either because his issues weren't unsettled. He had already made up his mind and he wasn't going to let her unexpected return waiver his resolve.

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Steve began to push Tony down the hallway towards his room to drop off your bags leaving you alone with Peter in the large living room. You kept your eyes on the floor, listening as Tony whisper-yelled questions followed by Steve's aggressive shushing until you heard the sound of the door close and all went quiet. Peaking hesitantly, you peered up at him. He wasn't looking at you, but staring off blankly down the hallway where the two men had just vanished. A glare from the windows behind Peter hit your eye sharply as the sun began to set and you flinched retroactively.

You knew you would have to talk things through with Peter eventually but having him sprung on you like this had set you back a few steps, making you feel awkward and uncomfortable. You weren't sure what to say, how to make things right. Given the silence from his end you figured he was probably experiencing the same levels of shock you were until out of nowhere Peter's head whipped back to look at you.

"So you're back?" He asked, his voice cool but relaxed.

"Yea I uh, just got here thirty minutes ago." You replied nervously, shuffling your feet a little.

"Why?"

Slightly confused by the question, you faltered for a moment before responding.

"Well Steve found me in Boston and we worked things out... figured we should come home."

"Ha. Home. Good one (Y/n)."

You stiffened slightly, squinting at the boy across from you as you appraised him anew. His normally bright eyes were dull, looking almost bored and uninterested as he picked up a glass from the coffee table and took a slow drink before putting it back on the table, a little ways away from the coaster it had been previously been on. You felt a slight pinching on your heart, a twinge of cautious concern for the boy as Steve's words from the other day ran through your mind. He's having a hard time, sweetheart.

"Peter, I-"

"So it was great seeing you." He cut you off bluntly. "Maybe I'll run into you again in a month or two, we can make it a regular thing."

He started walking briskly for the elevator you had just come out of but you moved in front of his path, grabbing onto one of his arms to hold him in place.

"Wait- wait, you can't go yet. We need to talk, I haven't even gotten to apologize yet."

"For what?" He asked, pulling his arm out of your grasp and backing away. You let your arm fall to the side loosely, feeling a weird rush of deja vu from back when it was you trying to leave the tower and him begging you to stay. Leaving the way that you had was shitty. You were ready to own that and apologize for it but Peter had made mistakes too. You couldn't figure out what was going on in his head and rather than try you figured you'd be the one to say sorry, mea culpa, mea culpa, and then he could follow and you both could move on from this whole horrible mess.

"Peter I- I'm sorry. I was upset. You knew I was nervous to trust people again and when I found out you were both lying to me about multiple things I panicked." Your words rushed out of you hastily, fumbling for the right combination.

"I see."

"I was devastated. I needed time, space to think things through, to process everything."

"Good to know." He replied shortly. "I've actually been doing some good processing too while you've been gone."

His voice sounded wrong. It was cold and harsh and so very unlike the boy you had grown to know as goofy and compassionate. He took a step towards you, closing a little of the prior distance between. The action felt calculated and menacing, sucking the air out of the room.

"What do you mean?" You asked cautiously as your soft eyes met his bitter ones.

"You know I looked for you everywhere?" He scoffed, taking a few more steps which made you stumble back instinctively. "I barely slept, I couldn't think straight. I spent every spare minute I had searching for you, texting you, oh right thanks for all the responses to those by the way, and then I realized. Why the hell am I trying so hard to find this girl?"

"Peter-"

"She obviously doesn't want to talk to me and why would I want to talk to her?"

You shrunk back from him, wishing you could go back down the elevator, out the doors of the lobby and return to wherever the hell you'd come from before. You couldn't even remember where that was anymore. All you could think about was putting as much distance and as many barriers as humanly possible between your ears and the words that came out of his mouth next. Only nothing could block them from pouring into you, reaching your core and settling there painfully.

"The only reason we started talking in the first place was because Tony asked me too. If you actually took Steve back after the shit he pulled then you're obviously too obsessed with him to ever tell the world that I'm Spider-Man so my secret is safe. Like you said, I'm off the hook, right? No need to pretend that I give a shit anymore."

Sometimes people forget the impact words can have on other people. They were nothing but a mesh of sounds and syllables leaving his mouth and yet they left you completely battered. It felt as if his words had physically slapped you across the face, beating you to a pulp until your lungs were crushed and you couldn't breathe. How silly to think that something as intangible as words could cause physical pain and yet you could have sworn that if you stood in front of a mirror now, you would be able to see the black and blue bruises peppering your skin.

"This is the part where you take it back."

His eyes scanned your face, taking in your reaction as he lazily fixed his hair.

"Why would I? What's in it for me?"

One more chance. You'd give him one more opportunity to erase those words before you could no longer give him the benefit of the doubt and they became set in stone.

"Take it back, Peter. You're upset with me and I get it, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry I left the way I did but that's too far. Tell me you didn't mean it."

This time he stood there quietly. There was no more thought, no contemplation on his face, just firm and unaffected silence. The weight of it hung heavily on your chest. It was as if the spider he wore so proudly across his own had crawled off his suit and onto you, biting you quickly and painlessly until the venom started to seep into your bloodstream. It flowed through you relentlessly invading your heart, poisoning whatever pieces of love and respect for him remained there until everything was coated in black.

"This is ridiculous. I thought you were different, I thought you had a fucking heart, I... oh my god, I was going to ask you to be Godfather."

"Well let me know when you pick my replacement so I can send them a condolence card."

You didn't bother to try to hide the hurt in your eyes as you stepped away from him. All you could feel is numb. You could feel the water brimming in your eyes, pools of unshed tears ready to mourn the death of yet another friendship. Lovers come and go. Nobody expects most boyfriends and girlfriends to be around forever because that's statistically improbable but what about best friends? Was friendship not meant to be forever? To you it was, or at least it should have been. That's when it hit you. This wasn't the loss of a best friend, this was the realization that he had never truly been one in the first place. This was the moment where you needed to be able to rewrite the chapters of your book without Peter. Better yet you could replace all the old words used in his sentences, attachment, fondness, and reliability with more accurate descriptions of who he was... selfish, liar, fraud. But you couldn't do it.

When you looked at him you wanted to hate him. You wished there was someway to make him regret what he'd done, to make him understand how deeply his words had affected you but all you could see was the boy who had felt like family. You couldn't hurt that boy. All you could do is stand there and watch helplessly as he ripped your piggy bank heart out, smashing it to pieces, taking anything he deemed as valuable and leaving the rest in shattered fragments on the floor.

Peter turned his head to the side, exhaling slightly as he puffed out his cheeks and scrunched his nose. He trained his gaze away from you, glaring at the wall to the left. Apparently he was brave enough to say the things he knew would break you but too much of a coward to witness the aftermath.

You left him then, pushing past his frame to head down the long hallway that led to your old room. He would probably laugh. (Y/n) always runs when shit gets tough, right? Only it didn't feel like you were running away. It was more like Peter had pushed you head first in the opposite direction. With each step you could feel his hands on your back, shoving you further and further apart until there was nowhere left to go.

Walking into your room, you closed the door behind you, resting your back against it. Eyes closed, you slid down the wooden frame until you reached the floor. A loud bang, a pain-filled grunt, and the sound of glass smashing to the floor from the end of the tower you had just left rang muffled through your bedroom door but you couldn't bring yourself to care or be curious. You just wanted to scream, to sob, to find some way to release every ounce of anger and betrayal you felt in that moment. You'd do anything to expel every negative emotion that seemed zip-tied to your soul but all that would leave is a single tear that rolled down your cheek and was absorbed into the carpet below.