Natasha's job is to rescue Peter. That's hers. And Clint's is to rescue Tony. Simple enough. The rest of the avengers are to fight their way through.

But when they arrive at the big, old, townhouse, it's quiet and they're almost worried that it's not the right location.

Until a loud scream echoes through the air.

"Peter," Steve breathes, racing towards the house in almost desperation.

Nat finds Peter and almost wants to collapse. He's strapped to a chair, bolts of electricity flooding through his screaming and shuddering body.

Nat's quick to shut off the torture device and Peter's sobbing miserably into his own shoulder.

"Please don't hurt me. Please. Please just leave me alone. I-I can't- I cant do this again. I cant. Please," he whimpers, struggling away from Natasha.

"Hey, hey, hey. It's okay, Kid. It's me, Nat? Auntie Nat? You're going to be okay," she says, suddenly terrified. Does he not remember?

"I want Mister Stark! Please! P-Please. Please just let me go. I can't. I can't do this. Please. Please just- let me go," he sobs.

The woman with the bright red hair is making his heart race. Who is she? Is she one of the avengers to save them or is she another person that wants to hurt him?

She fumbles with his shackles, but gets them undone making his breathing falter.

All he wants is to find Mister Stark. Find Stark and hug him.

The tears are never ending and he's choking on the sobs. The world spins as he drags himself to wobbly legs, feeling blood staining his pants and he can't even remember why. He stumbles his way to the door and he can feel the redhead's eyes on his back, but his Spidey Senses aren't freaking out yet.

A soft hand touches his back and he flinches away, hitting his head on the doorframe.

"Don't hurt me please. Please. Just let me go. Please. I can't- I can't- I cant," He mumbles desperately. It's the redhead.

"No. Peter, little spider, I'm here to help, not to hurt. I swear," she says, eyes big and confused.

The boy continues to pull away from the woman he can't remember.

"Please. I just want Mister Stark," he sobs, hiding his head in his arms for a few moments.

The hand leaves his back and the woman takes a couple steps away from him allowing him to continue his way, stumbling, tripping, and sobbing.

And finally there he is.

Tony is racing outside the door to his own room, eyes big and scared and worried until they land upon his kid.

His kid who's running at him the best he can all the while shaking and crying out his name.

And they both get the one thing they'd been wishing for since the got into this place over one million six hundred thousand seconds ago.

Peter's arms wrap tightly around Tony's neck as he sobs into his shoulder, unable to believe that he's alive and he gets to hug his hero.

Tony holds onto his kids back, the other hand running through his curls, as they both collapse to the floor. Tony can't help the tears that have started falling down his cheeks because his kid is okay. His kid is okay. His kid is okay. Alive. Right here. In his arms.

The sounds of fighting around them cease, but they don't care. They only care about the other person hanging onto them like a lifeline.

"Let's go," a man says from behind him.

Peter flinches into Tony wanting to get away, but unable to move.

"Kid, kid, it's okay. That's Steve. Captain America, Steve, remember?" Tony murmurs, rubbing the kids back.

He nods quickly and looks up at the big man in fear trying to convince himself that he'll be safe with Tony's arms around him.

The man's face falls when he sees Peter's fear and confusion looking up at him.

"He doesn't remember?" Steve asks, desperately wishing Tony would disagree, say that Peter's okay, even though it's pretty obvious that he's not. Not even close.

"They hurt him real bad, Steve... I couldn't stop it... and they hurt him so so bad," Tony replies, shaking his head as he impossibly draws his kid even closer to him.

"Oh god... We gotta go, though, Tony. We've really gotta get back to the plane. Now. Before reinforcement shows up," the hero says, motioning towards the exit.

The billionaire goes to stand, but Peter refuses to let go of his mentor.

"Please don't go. Don't leave me. Don't go, please," he whimpers, burying his face farther into Tony's sweat stained, now off-white, t-shirt.

"I'm not going to leave you, okay? I promise. I've got you, kid. I swear. I promised we'd be rescued and we are getting rescued. We have to go, kiddo," Tony murmurs, continuing his soft movements through the kid's hair.

Peter barely nods, unable to convince himself to speak again, knowing he might just sob instead.

"Yeah? Okay, kid. Come on," he says, bringing himself to his feet slowly.

Peter keeps his hold around Tony's neck, but his toes barely touch the ground.

"I can't... I don't think I can walk. Please.. I'm sorry," Peter says, voice barely above a whisper.

"That's okay, kiddo. Cap can carry you, okay? You gotta trust him. Trust me, I trust him. He'll carry you to the plane," Tony says, so soft that if Peter didn't have super hearing, he probably wouldn't have heard the words.

He nods. He does trust Tony, with more than his life. So he trusts Steve.

Everything kind of flies by in a blur without Tony's hands stabilizing him. He can't remember Steve's strong arms pulling him up into the air. He can't remember the hallways leaving him behind. He can't remember being joined by the redhead from before who ended up falling behind and tackling another buff man.

He remembers it being too bright and the world spinning around him, colours draining into one. He remembers briefly hearing a jet that's too loud and makes him squeeze his eyes shut and throw his hands over his ears.

And then he's in the air again, feeling safer once Tony's arms are wrapping around his back and his nose buried in Peter's soft curls.

"Mis-Mister Stark?" Peter chokes out, desperate for anything as the tears never stop falling down his pale cheeks.

"Yeah? I'm right here, kiddo. Do you need me to count for you? Or talk?" Tony responds, muffled by Peter's hair.

"Please," the teen whispers, not sure he can even raise his voice any higher.

The Avengers are all watching the two heroes, not speaking a word. They had been missing for almost 3 weeks, and after Natasha had seen Peter go through, all of them realized that comfort wouldn't help them. Especially Peter, who couldn't even remember who they were.

And so Tony started counting very slowly so Peter could match his heavy breathing until his tears ran dry and Tony's throat was aching.

And even when Peter started looking exhausted, Tony kept counting very softly to the small boy.

Finally, finally, the kid passes out in the older hero's grip, head against his collarbone and wet eyelashes against his pale skin, cheeks tear-stained, but lips finally slack with peace.

Tony keeps counting slowly, hoping to keep the dark clouds of nightmares away from his kid, even though he knows better than most that it's inevitable.

After a few more moments, Natasha speaks up, keeping her voice low. "What the hell happened to you guys? How did Peter end up hacking your database? How are you guys even alive?"

Tony knows he can't move, not wanting to startle his kid, so he speaks so quiet that the avengers around the room lean in close to hear what he's saying.

"I think the guy knew me or something... He said that he wanted to hurt me by hurting Peter. Which worked. It worked so well. He made us shoot each other for food. He made me listen to his screams... It was awful. He doesn't remember anything from before getting to that place. When he got back from that torture place, I asked him if he had lost his memories like Bucky had and he didn't even remember who Bucky was... It's awful, but I swore I would help him get them back somehow," Tony explains, wincing at the awful memories of listening to his kid's screams.

How dare they hurt his kid like that?

How dare they think that they could do something like this with no consequences?

"I'm so sorry... I know how much Bucky struggled with all of this, even now... And Peter's just a kid...." Steve says, sighing at how unfair this situation is.

"Does his Aunt know? Or does she think he's just staying at the tower?"

"For the first couple days, maybe even the first whole week, she didn't really think much of it. She got more worried when the kid's friend, Ned, showed up asking about Peter. Ned came to the tower because Peter hadn't been answering his phone for a few days and was worried. Pepper had been getting a little worried too, but then Ned showed up and everything was sort of propelled into panic. Nat and Bruce barely left the computer for a long, long time until they got notified that someone was trying to hack into it," Rhodey speaks up from his spot.

"Yeah. That was all Peter. He came up with the whole idea of hacking the database for them and I don't know what exactly he did, but it worked. Unfortunately, they realized that he hadn't done the best job ever and started torturing him all over again."

It was almost hard to believe that the small boy curled up peacefully in Tony's arms was the same boy that had been screaming bloody murder just an hour ago.

Tony sighs, "Thank you for the rescue. If you hadn't showed up when you did... I'm not sure he'd even be alive."

They all see the loving look the billionaire sends towards the curled up kid, but none of them question it. They also don't question it when Tony starts speaking again.

"Shh. You're okay, kid. You're okay. I've got you. You're going to be okay," he whispers, running his fingers softly through his curls when the kid flinches in his sleep.

The rest of the trip is silent, Peter the only one sleeping, and Tony the only one who speaks, occasionally murmuring soft words to keep the kid's sleep as peaceful as he can.

Peter let Banner check him over and patch up some of his worse wounds, only request that Tony doesn't leave his side.

Tony remembers after the fight on the beach with his plane, he had convinced Peter to go to the hospital with him to make sure he was alright.

Peter had been scared and been having really bad panic attacks after the incident and when they got to the hospital, Peter was reminded a lot of his parents and his uncle. He had been so terrified that he was going to die if Tony didn't make sure that he was okay.

So Tony stayed by Peter's side the whole time and even held Peter's hand when they dressed some of his wounds because Peter was so scared of dying.

And that's what he did again. Holding onto Peter's shaking hand and counting his breaths to make sure he breathes and telling him stories of himself and of Peter to make sure he stays calm.

Peter doesn't want to be a bother. He doesn't want to feel so small, so he goes to bed by himself, pretending he knows what he's doing when really he doesn't even know himself too well.

He crawls into bed, stripping out of his stained t-shirt and sweatpants he had gotten from that hellhole and unsure what to put on, settled for an old hoodie with MIT logo and a pair of soft iron man pajama pants.

But he knows he won't be able to sleep in the unfamiliar room. Not without Tony. But he also knows that Tony needs his sleep in his own space without constantly worrying about the kid.

So he stays awake for longer than he probably should and around 1 or 2 in the morning, he drags himself out of bed for some water.

Bucky hears the soft footsteps padding into the room and turns from his spot drinking tea to see the poor kid. His curly hair is ruffled and messy, deep bags under his eyes from yet another sleepless night, skin too pale and too delicate. He's tucked inside an oversized hoodie that used to be Tony's and Iron Man themed pj bottoms. His doe eyes are wide and have an innocent fear to them.

"Hey, kid. I'm Bucky. You probably don't remember me, so hi," he says, almost awkwardly, but wanting to make it comfortable for the kid.

"Are you friends with Mister Stark?" He asks softly.

"Yeah. Me and him are friends, and me and Steve are pretty close too," the old-souled hero replies.

The kid lights up at that, too tired to really think about him being able to lie and bounces over.

"Is this metal? That's so cool! Is it magnetic? I'm Peter. You already knew that, but hiya! Are you like my uncle? The redhead said she was Auntie Nat, so you could be Uncle Bucky, but that's okay if you're not. Have you ever thought of putting fridge magnets on your arm? You could spell out your name with them!" Peter rambles excitedly, gaining back some of his old confidence.

Bucky smiles and even though they're all the same questions Peter had asked over a year ago, answers them all.

"I have put some fridge magnets on before, Steve likes to tease me like that. It is metal. It used to be really heavy and used to be a killing machine, but you and Tony made a new one for me that's a lot better. You've never called me Uncle Bucky before, the only one who's gotten names is Nat who practically named herself and Thor who also named himself your uncle. But I think me and the rest of the team would certainly be happy to be your uncles and aunts," he says, giving Peter a soft smile.

Peter suddenly looks a little nervous and embarrassed.

"Sorry. I probably shouldn't bug you. I just came for water. You should get some sleep," he mumbles.

"No it's okay. You're no bother."

Peter doesn't respond, shuffling awkwardly in his place for a few moments, before he finally speaks up, voice barely above a whisper and so so timid like a switch was flipped inside him.

"Um... Can I... Where are the glasses?"

Bucky sighs softly, but smiles again encouragingly. "Here, I'll get you one."

Once Peter is settled at the table with his water, Bucky starts talking again, more serious.

"Listen, I know it's tough, trust me, I know. I lost all my memories when I was kidnapped and they turned me into a monster. An awful monster called the Winter Soldier. I killed a lot of people... But Steve rescued me. Just like how they rescued you. Everything will feel awful for now, but all of us are here for you. So never be afraid to ask for help or let us know what's going on with you," Bucky explains.

The kid looks up over his glass, looking smaller than he ever has with his big glassy eyes.

"What if I never get my memories back? I can't remember a time before the torture..." he whispers, frowning and biting his lip.

"I'm sure you will. I have whole-hearted faith that you'll get them back, but even if you don't... Even if you don't, you're still the same Peter you always were. And we're going to help you build better memories to replace all the bad ones," Bucky replies, smiling when he sees the little glimmer of hope in the kid.

"Thank you. I should probably get to bed," he murmurs.

"Okay. If you need me, I'll be right down this hall, second door to the left," the older hero says, giving the kid another easy smile.

He's just about to fall asleep when there's a timid knock on his door.

"It's open," he calls out gently.

The door pushes open and there stands the broken Peter.

He's crying silently, looking frightened and worried and overwhelmed. Bucky's up in an instant, hurrying over to the kid, but scared of touching him.

"I can't sleep... I had a nightmare... I'm sorry. I didn't want to wake up Mister Stark... he needs his sleep too... and I didn't know what else to do," he rambles.

Bucky's thankful the kid isn't having a panic attack, he's not sure what he would've done.

"I'm here if you want to talk about it. If not, I'm here if you need someone to sleep next to," he offers, very carefully touching his shoulder with his good arm.

As soon as his hand touches the kid, Peter's diving into Bucky's arms, desperate for comfort.

"Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you," he mumbles, hugging onto the guy who felt like a stranger but knew was much more than that.

"It's okay. You're okay. You're never ever going to go through anything like that again. I swear," Bucky replies, taking the words from all the times Steve said them to him.

Peter stays quiet, hanging onto the older like a lifeline.

"Do you want to sleep in here? I promise I don't snore or roll around too much," he suggests, with a soft smile for the kid.

He nods quickly, almost desperately not wanting to be alone.

The two of them curl up in the bed, a light night giving them just enough light to not panic in the darkness. And finally they both drift off to sleep, both broken, in different stages of healing, but making their way to recovery.

It's been a couple days and Peter hasn't gotten much better. He doesn't sleep very much, and can never sleep alone. Sometimes curling up between Tony and Pepper, sometimes with Bucky and even once with Natasha. Trying his best to make it work, but nightmares still plague him whenever he shuts his eyes.

He's been having panic attacks whenever he's left alone for too long, all the avengers have to be very careful to make sure that he's not left alone. Someone even sits outside the bathroom whenever Peter needs to shower.

They never show it, but they're so scared that maybe Peter won't get better.

"Sir, May Parker is here," FRIDAY announces.

"Let her up, I guess. There's no way we can hide Peter forever," Tony responds, wiping the grease off his hands. He's been spending all of his time focusing on his kid, trying to heal him. While healing his kid, he's sort of been helping himself by doing that because if Peter's Okay, so is he.

He races up the stairs to see May running towards her kid who looks scared and confused. May collects him in a hug and Tony knows how wrong that is.

Peter doesn't know who she is.

Tony hurries to push May off of Peter gently who's already started crying.

"May... May come on. You can't... Take a couple steps back," Tony says, ignoring the hurt on her face. He turns to Peter who looks terribly frightened and obviously on the verge of a panic attack. "Pete, kid, go in there. Nat's in there along with Bucky and Steve and Clint. Go ahead. It's alright."

The older gives the kid a quick hug and kiss his temple gently before giving him a little push towards the living room.

"What the hell, Tony?!" May exclaims. He's quick to shush her and lead her off to another room.

"He doesn't remember. We have to be very calm and very easy going with him because of the hell he's been through. You can't just hug him like that. Don't touch him if he doesn't initiate it. You have to be so so careful around him, May. You can't do that to him," Tony explains softly, knowing how much this must be hurting the kid's aunt.

"God... He looks so broken and tired, Tony. What the hell happened to him?"

So the hero explains some of what happened in that awful place, not even remembering some of the gorier details.

"God... my poor baby. I promised his parents and Ben that I'd take good care of him and now this happens..."

"I know. But he's improving... He should be back on his feet soon enough," Tony lies straight through his teeth. Peter hasn't been getting too much better lately, some days are worse than day 1 was.

Natasha hugs the kid close to her, as he cries and shakes.

"I'm sorry," he whimpers.

"I know, kid, I know. It's not your fault."

He doesn't say anything more, allowing himself to calm down steadily to the sound of Natasha's breathing.

He manages to do so just as Tony walks into the room, rubbing a hand over his face in obvious exhaustion.

"I'm sorry. I just... I don't know," Peter sighs, wishing he had something valid to apologize for.

"It's not your fault, kid. May agreed to let you stay here for the next few weeks so you can continue getting adjusted to the outside world again, but she's decided that she's just going to stay out of the way until you're starting to feel better," Tony explains, resting his hand on the kid's shoulder.

"Who was she?"

"She's your aunt. Aunt May. She's who you normally live with when you aren't staying here. She doesn't think she's strong enough to hang around here with you in this sort of state."

"I'm sorry. I wish I could try harder... Wish I could do something more, but my memories just aren't there... I'm really sorry," the teen replies quietly.

A big flash of green light stops the other's from denying Peter's apology.

"I heard about what happened," Loki drawls, walking towards the kid.

For once, there's no fear in the pit of Peter's stomach looking at the stranger.

"Hello. I'm Peter," he says, smiling through his bloodshot eyes.

"I'm Loki. And yes, we've already met, but that's alright, spider child. I'm here to offer up my magic and see what I can do to help out," Loki says, smiling at the small kid.

"Hi, Mister Uncle Loki... You have magic?"

Tony sighs. He's never really loved Peter's relationship with Loki, but there was never much he could do, and the older has never once hurt his kid.

"I do have magic. Would you like to see while I discuss some logistics with your family?" A bubble of happiness floating in his chest at being called his uncle.

"Yes! Yes! Yes! Please!" Peter squeals, hopping to his feet and racing over to the tall man.

Loki puts on a little light show of magic while he turns to the Avengers.

"Listen, I know you don't trust me, but I feel like I might be able to help. The kid needs some help. I can see if I can tear down the barrier inside his mind that's trying to protect him from the pain."

"Do it," Tony says, he's waited too long for his bouncy, happy kid to come back. And even though bits and pieces of it comes up occasionally, it's not the same. He just wants his kid back.

"Are you sure, Tony? What if something goes wrong and it damages Peter even more?" Natasha argues.

Tony rolls his eyes. "Not much more can go wrong. Plus, Peter has always trusted Loki and his magic, might as well believe him for once.... I just want my kid back, Nat."

The assassin is surprised by the glassy look in his eyes as he says it, and at first she doesn't even realize that Tony has called Peter his son.

Natasha sighs. "I know, Tony. We all do, but how much are we willing to risk to get him back?"

"Everything."

The dream comes in flashes.

Aunt May wrapping her arms around his waist. He's maybe 8 years old. He's crying. Aunt May is shushing him quietly while Uncle Ben puts a little bandaid on his knee that he just scraped.

He's suddenly 12 and he's laughing at something Ned said in class. The teacher scolds them for not paying attention, but they don't mind.

He's 15 and he's swinging through the alleyways as spiderman, sitting on tall skyscrapers, eating churros, helping old ladies cross the street and saving kittens from trees. Friendly neighborhood spiderman.

He's at SI and Tony is telling him something about his suit upgrades, but he can't focus. He has an Academic Decathlon tournament tomorrow and he's worried he won't do well. Tony slings his arm over his shoulder and leads him towards the door.

"You'll do just fine, kid. You're the smartest person I know besides me. Go home and get some sleep. No more patrol tonight."

He's with Loki, sitting in the kitchen while Steve and Bucky make pancakes for breakfast.

"Mister Bucky, sir, have you ever tried to put magnets on your metal arm? Like fridge magnets? You could spell out your own name so you don't forget. I've forgotten my own name before when MJ asked for it at school. I would've liked a metal arm with fridge magnets then. Hey, Mister Loki? Would you be able to do anything with your magic? Could you become Spiderman if you wanted to? But don't do that. I like being Spiderman. We don't need two. Mr Captain America, Mister Rogers, Mister Steve, sir. How much can you lift? Can you lift a building? Can you lift Mister Bucky?" He's rambling to the men in excitement.

"Magnets? On my arm? I would only do that If I got a lighter arm to use. Maybe that can go on your project list with Stark."

"I could become Spider Man, but I could never be as good of a spiderman as you are."

"I can lift 2,000 pounds. So yes I could lift a building and I could lift Bucky."

"Kid, are you annoying the avengers again?" Tony asks, wandering into the room with a coffee and a grease stained t-shirt.

"No, he'd never annoy us. He's got quite the interesting mind."

"Kid. Time for school. Let's go," Happy says, rolling his eyes at the kid.

Tony ruffles Peter's hair, gives him a quick kiss on the forehead and ushers him out the door.

He's trapped. He's trapped underneath the building, weight on his back breaking his ribs. He can't breathe. He doesn't have Karen. He doesn't have Mister Stark. He doesn't have anybody. He's going to die alone.

"Help please. Help. I'm stuck! Help me!" he calls, whimpering as the rocks shift and more pain screams through his back. There's tears in his eyes as his face is pushed closer to the ground. He's going to die.

Peter wakes with a start, scaring Tony into waking up as well.

"Hey, kid. I'm right here. You're okay. You're safe. You're with me in the tower. You're okay," Tony rambles, shaking the sleep from his head.

"I-I was trapped. I was trapped underneath the building.... I couldn't breathe. I couldn't move-" he cuts himself off.

"What is it, kid? Are you okay?"

"I remember," he whispers.

"What?"

"I remember!" he shouts. "I remember you and spiderman and Loki and Steve and Bucky and Nat and Aunt May and Ned and school and Homecoming and Uncle Ben and the spider bite and Germany. I remember everything."

Tony thanks Loki under his breath before pulling his kid into a tight hug.

Everything's okay.

Not quite, but okay enough that the things that aren't okay and manageable.

It's still going to be a long time before Peter and Tony are alright. What they went through in that place is something that will give them nightmares for a very, very long time.

Peter still can't sleep by himself even after a few months of being safe. Whenever he's back home with Aunt May, he crawls into bed with her just like he did when he was really young. When he stays at the tower, he gets to pick between a lot of different beds. Sometimes they'll decide to watch a movie and all the avengers will fall asleep in the same room, making Peter feel more safe than he ever does.

He slowly starts going on patrol again, a lot of the time accompanied by another man in a red and black suit with an infatuation with Mexican food.

He contacted Ned a few days after he got his memories back and Ned was absolutely thrilled. He didn't know how to help Peter with all the psychological problems, so he did the only thing he could do, bring over a new star wars lego set for them to build together.

MJ pretended she hadn't been worried, but was so over the moon when she found out that Peter was okay and she came over for a long movie marathon with her friend.

Things were finally starting to fall back into place for Peter.

And all that really matters is that he's okay now.

One million seven hundred thousand seconds.

But he has so many more seconds of his life that it's better for him to just move on and stop letting it affect his life.

And even after he's sure the nightmares are gone, after months and months of waking up in cold sweats and tears, even after he starts sleeping by himself in his apartment, he still finds himself curled up between his dad and Pepper.

____

The end : )

Thanks for reading!

If you want me to write more, you can leave suggestions for me in the comments

I might start a oneshot book but idk

EDIT: I DID START A ONESHOT BOOK SO CHECK THAT OUT IF YOU FEEL LIKE IT IM SO NERVOUS WTF

kay this was real fun

see you in the future

Lyss

*awkward finger guns*