Chapter Text
“I got an A!” Peter exclaimed, waving a piece of paper around as he ran into the apartment.
“Serious?! You said the Spanish test went awful! Not that I ever doubted you of course.” His aunt said, pulling him into a hug.
“Thanks May.”
She smiled, eyes lighting up as they always did when she got an idea. “We should celebrate-“
“-yes!-“
“- I’ll make my famous date loaf!”
“No.” Peter moaned, dropping back onto the sofa.
“No? It’s your favourite.” May said, half teasingly.
“What about takeout? You larb takeouts.”
May smiled, moving to the notice board in the kitchen that had their favourite Thai restaurants number on. “Fine, only because I larb you the most.”
As always the food was incredible, Peter going for his favourite Pad Thai that May always ordered double of due to her nephews crazy metabolism, whilst she ordered the weird smelling curry that always seemed to assault his enhanced senses. Not that he ever told her that.
By the end of it the Parker duo were completely stuffed, both now in their pyjamas to let their bloated stomachs sit comfortably as they watched Star Wars for the umpteenth time curled up on the couch.
“No updates on MJ?” May asked as the movie rolled on.
Peter frowned, turning his head towards his aunt. “What kind of updates?”
“Don’t play dumb, Pete, you know what I’m talking about.”
“Nope. Definitely don’t.” He quickly denied, folding his arms.
“Have you asked her out yet?”
“Woah, when did I say I was ever gonna do that?”
“You’re eyes say it every time you talk about her.”
Peter sighed. “It’s not that simple.”
“Let me get this straight, you can go out fighting crime every day, but asking the girl you like on a date is too hard?”
“Yes! No. I don’t know. She probably doesn’t even like me like that.”
“She does.” May confirmed like it was a state known fact.
“You’ve met her once at a decathlon competition.”
“And I saw what I needed to see.”
“Oh and what was-“
Peter cut himself off when his spidey senses started to flare up, hair on his arms standing on edge. Frowning, he pulled his arm closer to himself, looking hesitantly towards the door. “May, somethings coming.” He whispered, eyes fixed on the door.
“What? What are you talking about?”
“I don’t know. I-“
Before Peter could finish the door of the flat crashed inwards, completely taken off its hinges as ten armed men stormed the flat, lining the perimeter around Peter and his aunt.
The teen instantly moved in front of May in an attempt to protect her, eyes darting between the men, clad head to toe in black.
“W-who are you?” Peter demanded, but his voice betrayed him.
“By the power vested in me, in association with the Sokovian Accords, I hereby arrest Peter Parker, charged with illegal vigilantism.” A voice came from the now destroyed entrance.
Snapping his head towards the owner, Peter could only gasp.
Senator Ross himself, stood in the doorway with a look that couldn’t only be described as malicious. Evil .
Peter didn’t even have time to question him before hands were grabbing him, tearing him away from his aunt who started screaming and clawing for him back.
“May! No, you can’t do this! Get off me!”
He was silenced with a fist to the face, hearing the tell tale crunch of a broken nose. The teen quickly regained his footing, dodging the next blow by the skin of his teeth.
“Stop!” He tried, breaking a hand free and reaching out to May.
She instantly tried to return, lunging for her nephew. “Peter!”
“May!” But he was inches too short from her grasp, watching her get pulled back by two of the men, restraining her by the arms. “No! Get away from her!” He screamed, finding the energy to fight against the men holding him back.
He kicked the first in the crotch, who instantly fell to their knees. The one to his left got a swift right hook, freeing him to run forwards before a shot rang out, followed by a horrifying scream.
“Peter!” May cried out as if it was her that had been shot.
He knew as soon as he heard the gun it had hit home, lodged in his shoulder with painful agony.
Clenching his teeth, he suppressed the groan as he fell to his knees.
Instinctively his hand flung to his shoulder, putting pressure on the wound before finding May's eyes. “I’m okay.” He insisted, more so for her than himself.
“Peter.” she whispered brokenly, watching the men advance on the boy she’d swarm to protect, now a helpless onlooker.
“Neutralise the threat.” Ross’ stern voice came again, but Peter could only look at May's terrified eyes, both unblinking as they held a silent gaze.
“I love you.” He whispered, accepting his fate.
May shook her head reverently. “No. Stop! Please don’t do this! He’s done nothing wrong!” She cried, pulling against the men holding her with a vice like grip.
Out of nowhere one of the masked men struck Peter in the neck with a taser, making the teen collapse, convulsing on the floor as an inhumanly high current coursed through his body.
He could faintly hear his aunt screaming his name, but it was as if he was in a different room to her, far and distant as electric jolted through his muscles.
“Stop! You’re killing him!” He heard from somewhere. There was a metallic taste in his mouth, but he didn’t have the strength to figure out why. It was the last thing he knew before everything went silent.
They dragged him away. Her beautiful, caring nephew. They took him like a piece of meat, leaving her with nothing.
They didn’t even pick him up. She had to watch as two men dragged him by his feet, arms dragging along limply behind, leaving a trail of blood in his wake.
“Peter!” She sobbed.
“You follow us and the next bullet goes in his head.” The last man spat, hand on his gun.
The last of the men filed out of the room, leaving her in the half destroyed flat.
Falling to her knees, May cried, face in her hands. She sobbed and wailed for her boy, mind playing the last few minutes on repeat.
She thought of the day her and Ben picked him up from the hospital after receiving the awful news of his parents. She thought of the day they lost Ben, how they clung to each other like a lifeline for hours. She swore she’d never let anything bad happen to him again, but there she’d stood, watching as her nephew was torn away from her.
She knew she was hyperventilating, she was a nurse for Christ’s sake, but air was too hard to come by all of a sudden.
She wondered if Peter was breathing, wherever he was being taken. They could have killed him for all she knew. The bullet could have hit something vital, he could have bled out already and all May was doing was crying on the floor.
No, she had to do better. Peter deserved - no, needed- her to be better.
Shakily, she pulled herself to her feet, running for her cell phone.
There was only one person who could help, and she could only be grateful the man had insisted she had his personal number incase of an emergency.
She held the phone close to her ear as she listened to the ringing, choking out another sob as her thoughts drifted back to Peter, spasming on the floor.
“May, to what do I owe the pleasure?” Tony Stark's voice came, but there was a hint of concern in his voice.
She went to speak but all that would come out were cries as she sobbed down the phone, falling to her knees again.
“May? May, talk to me. What’s happened? Where’s Peter?” Tony asked strongly.
“P-Peter!” She cried, stumbling on her choked tears.
“May, I know it’s hard, but you have to pull yourself together. You need to tell me what happened. I’m on my way to your location right now, okay? I’m four minutes out.”
May nodded, wiping at her cheeks but the tears kept falling.
“Is Peter with you?” Tony continued questioning.
“N-no.”
“Do you know where he is?”
“T-they took him!” She stuttered out with a sob.
“Who? May, who took him?”
“I-I don’t… It was the man, the one in charge of the accords.”
“Ross?” Tony demanded, hearing the anger in his voice.
“Yes. God, Tony they took him! They- they just came in and-“
“May I’m one minute out, we’re gonna fix this okay? We’re getting him back.”
The woman could only silently nod, looking at the photo of Peter at homecoming, beaming at the camera with Ned and Michelle either side of him.
When Tony was alerted of an incoming call from May Parker at 9pm on a Tuesday evening, he knew it couldn’t be good news.
Even though the billionaire had given Peter’s aunt his number with a ‘feel free to call me any time’ they both knew that wasn’t the reason behind it.
May had never called him before, it was always the other way around, usually Tony informing her Peter was staying the night in medbay, or on a more positive note, they got too carried away on lab nights and the boy had fallen asleep glued to his side on the couch.
It was never May calling him.
His fears were only confirmed when he couldn’t get a word out of May, hearing her cry uncontrollably down the phone.
He’d already called his suit before he accepted the call. He always knew when it came to Peter.
Tony only wished he knew what he was flying towards, but his overactive imagination made up for that. Visions of his kid bleeding out on the kitchen floor, perhaps a limb severed, flew through his mind, making him feel sick.
The phrase that would haunt his nightmares, though, was ‘they took him.’
He was afraid this day would come. Not that he anticipated it, but he knew Ross was getting more desperate to get at Tony and the Avengers, and what was more effective than this? Taking his kid from right under his nose.
Ross was a dead man walking.
When Tony arrived at the apartment it looked like something from a crime show. Furniture was overturned, door off its hinges, blood lining the floor.
Peter’s blood, his mind unhelpfully corrected.
May rushed forward when he came out of the suit, falling into the man's arms.
“Tony.” She cried, sobbing into him.
“May, what happened?”
“We…we were just watching a movie. We were celebrating him getting an A in Spanish-“
Tony smiled sadly, thinking to his bright kid whilst keeping up the facade he was okay.
“He got a tingle, you know? His Peter tingle and suddenly a group of men stormed in and they t-took him.”
“How do you know it was Ross?”
“He was here, he charged him with illegal vigilantism.” She explained between hiccuped sobs.
Tony swallowed, trying his hardest to keep it together.
“They shot him… Tony, they- they shot him when he was trying to get to me!”
“Hey, it’s okay. He’s made of strong stuff, remember?” He said gently, all the while his heart breaking imagining Peter helplessly reaching out for his aunt.
May closed her eyes, nodding.
“We’re going to get him back. I promise.”
“How? Do you know where they’ve taken him?” May asked with a flicker of hope in her eyes.
“I think I do.” Tony said solemnly, tapping his glasses. “Friday, get me all the latest security information on The Raft.”