A/N: LOOK!! LOOK AT THAT GIF!! ISNT HE ADORABLE ASDFHHKL
OKAY SO IVE SEEN THE TRAILER FOR TDATT LIKE 75 TIMES NOW AND IT JUST KEEPS GETTING BETTER LIKE HOW TF DID THOMAS STANLEY HOLLAND MAKE A COUNTRY ACCENT SOUND SO FUCKING HOT WHEN IVE BEEN LITERALLY LIVING IN THE DEEP SOUTH OF AMERICA FOR MY ENTIRE LIFE AND HAVE LOATHED THE COUNTRY ACCENT.
so, in conclusion, tom is talented. obviously.
also i did something cray today. i woke up at 6 am (yes you read that right) and...worked out. i know. it's like- who even am i anymore? it felt good until now because my muscles are all sore and stuff but maybe ill keep it up, idk
anyway, the last chapter was happy and fluffy and as promised, so is this one and the one after this and the one after this and the one...you get it. it's all happy times from here on out, we've officially made it through the storm :)
this chapter is for the those of you who were waiting for a peter x adie moment ;)
————————————————————
"If you make a mistake, no matter how big,
the right thing to do is to own up to it.
And then you can start to move on."
————————————————————
"As it turns out, Mr. Parker," Doctor Green said after closing the door to Peter's room behind himself.
He entered the room with a green file in hand and took a seat in an arm chair beside Peter's hospital bed. Doctor Green offered him a matter-of-factly smile.
"You have a fracture," he told the teenager, holding up the X-ray. Peter studied the image.
There was a definite crack in the leg bone. No wonder. It had hurt like a bitch to walk ever since the Vulture had smashed him on Coney Island like a doll. Just thinking about it made his leg throb again. On the bright side, however, he did have super healing. He hadn't broken a bone since the bite so it would be interesting to see how quickly a fracture would heal. Definitely would be faster than normal human time.
"We're going to have to get you in a cast," Dr. Green said, sliding the X-ray back into the file. He stood up. "You won't need a wheel chair, but you will need crutches."
"It'll be a while before we can get a nurse to come in here and start the process," he continued. Peter offered him a half-smile.
"Busy night?" he asked.
"We've had worse," Dr. Green shrugged as he walked to the door.
He stopped with his hand on the door handle and gave Peter a smile before opening the door. Just outside the room, Happy had been standing there. The doctor nodded at him before walking past him. Once he was gone, Happy closed the door behind himself. He looked at Peter and then at his leg. Peter noticed his face looked red and blotchy as if he had just cried. Happy didn't think the kid looked too good either. He had an ugly bruise on his jaw and another one just under his right eye. His lower lip was busted and he had a couple stitches on his chin. He looked like he had been hit by a train. Or a Vulture, for that matter.
"Is she okay?" Peter asked quietly. Happy nodded.
"She's sleeping. The doctors say it will take her some time to fully recover," he answered. Peter swallowed.
"I'm too big of a coward to even go see her," he mumbled as happy crossed the room, "I know I'm just going to feel too guilty to talk to her."
Happy sat down in the chair beside his bed and looked directly at him.
"If you make a mistake, no matter how big, the right thing to do is to own up to it," he said, "And then you can start to move on."
"But she probably doesn't even want to see me," Peter swallowed. "I really messed up this time, Happy."
"Now that, I can believe," the man replied with a hint of a smile. Peter gave him a look. "But she asked for you."
Peter immediately turned his head to look at the man with wide eyes and parted lips.
"She did?" Peter breathed quietly. Happy nodded.
"She wants to see you," he said.
Peter threw his head back onto his pillow, staring up at the ceiling. He didn't know if that should make him excited or nervous. Why would she want to see him? Especially after all the things that he had said to her. He didn't want to see himself. Now he was even more confused than before. What if she still thought he hated her? What if she only wanted to see him so she could tell him that it was over between them forever?
"I don't know how to fix this," Peter sighed, running his hands down his face. He winced when he accidentally touched his busted lip. Happy gave him a look.
"You know what you need to do," he said quietly.
And Peter knew he was right.
He hated it when Happy was right.
—————
"You said you wanted to see me?" Tony said, knocking on Dr. Patel's office. The doctor looked up from his desk and his mouth stretched into a smile at the sight of the billionaire.
"Yes, yes, please come in," he said.
Tony closed the door behind himself and took a seat in the chair across from the doctor's. The doctor pulled out a folder from underneath his desk and opened it. Inside, there were several MRI and CAT scans of Adie's brain. Tony frowned at them. He might have been a genius, but these were slightly out of his understanding. Only because he was exhausted. He could read them if he wanted to. But this time, he'd let the doctor do the talking.
"Do you want the good news or the bad news first?" Dr. Patel asked. Tony swallowed, lifting his gaze from the file to meet the doctor's eyes.
"Bad news," he said a beat later. The doctor nodded.
"Now, I'm not quite sure what the situation was and— it might have something to do with your responsibility as Iron Man, but the scans indicate possible...electric current that may have been fired through Adelaide's neurons. more than once, actually. In fact, there are some very small scars as you can see here and here," he pointed them out on the MRI scans. As Tony could see, there were slightly darker parts on the brain tissues. They were very small, but still noticeable. "This type of current has been fired through her neurons before a couple times when Adelaide was younger and a couple times in the recent past. however, we can't be certain about that from the brain scans alone."
"The repetitive surge of current in her still-developing brain is the reason her mind shut down when it did. She is still very young and her body is still developing into an adult form. In fact, teenagers' brains still have much more work to do before they settle down. The plasticity of her brain is what saved her tonight."
"Alright, hit me with your bad news. No, wait—" Tony shifted in his seat, leaning back and taking a deep breath, "Now go before I get too sensitive to hear it."
The doctor nodded, closing the file, "Due to the scarred tissue in her brain, Adelaide is not out of the woods just yet, meaning she is still at risk. Even after we discharge her from the hospital, there is still a chance that she could lose her memories. The only way we know to lessen the chances of that occurring is to not put pressure on her brain. She needs absolute intensive care right now. And most importantly, Tony— please do not put pressure on her brain to think about the past. If you force her too much to remember something she doesn't know, there is a chance that she could lose her memories altogether. So, it is crucial to her health that you do not force her to recall anything she doesn't remember. The worst case scenario of that would be that Adelaide goes into a coma indefinitely."
Tony didn't really know what to say. He stared at the file underneath the doctor's hands. He reminded himself to blink. He reminded himself to breathe.
"When you said bad, you weren't kidding," Tony finally said. He swallowed.
"Unfortunately not."
"Okay, I could really use some dessert right now."
"Well, the good news is that Adelaide is in the clear," the doctor smiled. "The chances of Adelaide losing her memories is very small. As long as you follow what I said, she should be running around doing normal teenager things in no time."
Tony smiled to himself. As if Adie had ever done 'normal teenager things' to begin with. She never went to high school parties, or on dates, or school games. Instead, she fought alongside the Avengers and lived the Stark Tower. Tony decided to call that 'normal superhero teenager things'.
"Also, here's a list of the medications she's going to need for the next month or so. Once she's discharged, someone will have to responsibly give her her medicines on time," Dr. Patel said. Tony took the list and folded it up carefully. He stood up, pushing his chair back from the desk.
"Thank you, Doc," Tony said earnestly, "You saved her life."
The doctor nodded modestly. "Of course. That's my job. And Adelaide was the one who did all of the hard work. You've got a fighter."
That, he definitely did.
"I've never seen you two together in pictures or media before, but you both seem very close," the doctor smiled, "If you don't mind me asking, what is your relationship with her?"
Tony paused for a moment and then smiled proudly.
"She's my daughter."
—————
When Adelaide woke up again, she was alone in the room.
She turned her head to where Tony had been sitting earlier. In the place of the billionaire, there was a note on the bedside table. The awful handwriting couldn't have been anyone else's. There were very few people in the world who could decipher his chicken scratch. Adelaide was happily one of them.
Talking with the doctor, be back as fast as I can. Don't do something stupid while I'm gone, but if you do, just blame it on Happy ;)
Adelaide smiled to herself, taking a deep, relaxing breath, and closing her eyes. So it hadn't all been a dream, then. It was real. Tony was here. With her. Who knew it would take waking up in a hospital bed for her to see Tony again?
Her entire body still felt a little sore and unusually heavy. Her head was still throbbing behind her eyes as if it had grown a pulse. The headache hadn't lessened since when she had first opened her eyes, but maybe she had gotten accustomed to it.
There was a quiet knock on the door—so quiet that Adelaide thought she must have been hearing things—before it slowly opened. At first, she couldn't see who it was as they were obscured by the door. She heard a soft ow and then saw a white cast poking out from behind the door. She frowned in confusion.
And then, Peter poked his head through the door.
When he looked up from his crutches and met her blue eyes, he froze. For a moment, neither one of them said a word. Adelaide really didn't know what to say to him so she settled for just studying his face. And the speech Peter had been preparing on his way here from his room suddenly evaded him as he got lost in her brilliant blue gaze. He figured the least he could do after being such an asshole to her was break the ice. So he said the first thing that came to mind.
"The uh...hospital ceilings are uh, too low for me to swing through them so...I have to use these," he said, gesturing to the crutches.
He paused, running the sentence he had just said aloud over in his head.
Idiot, he cursed at himself, All the possible combinations of words you could have said and you choose those?
"How'd you do that?" Adelaide asked quietly, talking about his cast. He looked down at it and then sighed.
"Long story," he mumbled, properly hobbling into the room. He closed the door behind himself. "Can I...uh, sit?"
Adelaide hesitated, which hurt Peter more than he thought it would have. But he supposed he deserved it. Fortunately for him, she eventually nodded. Relieved she hadn't kicked him out straight away (he wouldn't have blamed her), he hobbled over to the chair beside her bed and carefully sat down in it. He rested his crutches against the bedside table.
His eyes landed on the small piece of paper sitting atop the table with scribbles on it and he scrunched his eyes in confusion slightly, wondering whose child had come to visit Ada and left a note. He didn't know that she knew any little kids. Then again, there was a lot he still didn't know about her.
He took a deep breath before facing her. She had been studying his face silently with an unreadable expression on her face that made Peter more nervous than he already was.
If you make a mistake, no matter how big, the right thing to do is to own up to it.
Well, here went nothing.
"I'm—"
"Did Tony tell you everything?"
Peter stopped, giving her a confused, blank look. He swallowed the rest of his sentence down.
"Um— what?" he sputtered.
"Do you know?" she asked, "About me and Tony?"
"Uh, n-no, not-not really," Peter stuttered, "...We didn't exactly have time to...discuss it considering you were..."
"Oh," she said quietly.
"I just know that you two are close," he continued, desperately trying to fill the awkward silence, "He was uh, really worried about you when you were passed out."
And so was I, Peter thought, but didn't say it aloud.
"Yeah?" she whispered, smiling slightly.
"Yeah," Peter said, "H-He cares a lot about you."
Adelaide smiled to herself a moment longer before the expression flickered off her face and she turned her eyes to him once again, now looking suspicious.
"Why aren't you more surprised?" she asked.
Peter tried to hold it back. He really did. But he couldn't help it.
He grinned.
"Because I knew," he shrugged.
There was a beat.
"Um...what?" Adelaide finally said after every other word in the English dictionary failed her.
"I know you're the Blue Phantom, Ada," he smiled, "I've known for a while now."
The girl blankly stared at him for a long time.
She thought this was some kind of joke. Maybe she had heard him incorrectly. So she repeated his words in her mind once again. And again. And then she rearranged them. And then she made sure that he had been indeed speaking in English.
But no matter how much she manipulated the words, they held the same meaning regardless: Peter knew.
"Define a while," she ordered. Peter took a deep breath, shifting in his seat and leaning back comfortably. He got ready to spill all that he had been holding back for months now.
"DC, you get detention for leaving the hotel the same night I did. The hoverboard, your neighbor Adelaide gave it to you? And the spider gps I gave to the Blue Phantom? That's how Mr. Stark found you," he said, "I've actually known it was you for...about a month now. And then I remembered Mr. Stark brought the Blue Phantom at the airport with him in Germany so I put two and two together and...but underestimated how close you two were. I thought you were both just...you know, like mentor-mentee."
Adelaide blinked at him. And blinked. And blinked. And blinked. And then finally, letters floating in her brain strung together to make two words.
"Um...wow," she said, her mouth suddenly dry.
"Yeah," he said quietly, "Sorry if you didn't want me to know."
"I don't know what to say...I guess it was kind of obvious after the hoverboard, huh?" she shrugged. Peter smiled at her, relieved she hadn't gotten angry.
"Yeah, I guess it kinda was," he said quietly.
"Why didn't you say anything?" she asked.
"I...I didn't think you wanted me to know so...I pretended that I didn't."
"Only you," Adelaide said, shaking her head. she looked over at him and met his chocolate brown eyes with hers. He slowly lost the smile on his face as they were both suddenly very aware of the elephant in the room once again.
Nothing about you is real!
You know what actually was my biggest mistake? You!
I never should have trusted you!
Adelaide couldn't and wouldn't ignore the words that had been said. No matter how big of a crush she had on Peter, she couldn't just overlook the fact that he had quite literally broken her. And although to choice to run away had been hers, he had been the last straw. She swallowed, looking away from him. Even though he was sitting directly beside her, it oddly felt like there was a distance between them. Things couldn't just go back to the way they were before. This was different. This had been nearly four months of back and forth where neither one of them had accepted they were in the wrong.
Peter had hurt her.
He had really hurt her this time. And it hurt more because she, for some unexplainable reason, liked him. The saying the heart wants what it wants was true, apparently, even for Adelaide. Even though Peter had hurt her a multitude of times in the past few months, he had still been her best friend for over two years now. And the affection and admiration that she had unknowingly built towards him in that time was undeniable. She just wanted the old Peter back. And then maybe, over time, things would gradually change. Maybe, gradually, they could rebuild their relationship.
Peter swallowed. He didn't want to avoid this discussion any longer. It was now or never.
"Ada...you were right," he finally said, making her look up at him once again.
"This whole time, you were right and I was wrong. And...I should have listened to you. I...I thought I was doing the right thing but I was just so angry, you know? When I realized it was Sandman who had killed Ben, I wanted to kill him. But after fighting with the Vulture, I was too exhausted. I gave him the chance. He could have easily just shot me and walked away. But he told me the truth instead. That night last year, it had all been an accident. He didn't mean to...to kill Uncle Ben, he just just needed the money for his sick daughter. He really never meant to hurt Ben. So when he apologized...I forgave him. And then I realized that if the man who murdered my uncle could apologize to my face...I owed you a big apology too."
Slowly, he lifted his heavy gaze to look at her. She was watching him as he told the story and maybe Peter was seeing things through his tearful vision, but there were tears in her blue eyes too. He swallowed.
"I'm sorry, Ada," he said quietly, "I am so so so incredibly sorry for everything. I was blinded by the thought of revenge. You didn't deserve anything I did or said to you. You were just trying to help me and I-I see it now. I finally understand. I was just too big of a jackass to do so before. When I realized that you were the Blue Phantom, I didn't know how many more secrets you were keeping from me and I just got so angry and...I said those horrible words to you. I'm sorry. I am really, really sorry."
A few tears broke the dam in his eyes and then all the teardrops were quickly rolling down his face. Ada was crying too, although he couldn't tell if it was because she was very mad or very happy. She sniffled and slowly wiped the tears off her cheeks with the back of her hand.
"I know I'm all drugged up right now, but I know this is real because you tried to fight the Vulture and Sandman together, on your own like a complete idiot," she laughed through her tears and he found himself doing the same.
"Yeah, it was a pretty stupid idea," he chuckled, "Got me this." he gestured to the cast on his leg. When the light laughter turned into a soft smile, Adelaide looked at him.
"Thank you," she said quietly, "That's all I wanted to hear."
"I don't deserve you," Peter said, shaking his head. He sniffled, wiping his tears away too. "You tried to help me even when I was pushing you away. You...You're incredible. And I couldn't have gotten through those months after Ben died without your help. So...I'm sorry that I hurt you so much that you...you had to run away. I didn't...I didn't realize."
"It's okay," Adelaide said quietly, "Now that you get it, it's okay."
"But it's not," Peter argued, "You're here because of me. If I hadn't said what I said, you would have been safe. All of this...it's my fault."
"Peter, I'm fine. Just a little banged up. In fact, I'm here because of you. If you hadn't given me your spider tracker, Tony never would have found me," she said, smiling a little.
Peter, however, did not feel like smiling.
"I take back what I said to you, Ada. All of it. You're not my mistake. If anything, I'm your mistake. You trusted me and I hurt you. And...And I guess I understand if you don't want to be friends anymore," he said quietly, lowering his gaze. Adelaide frowned.
"No, you drama queen, that's not what I want," she said, rolling her eyes, "You made a mistake. Everyone does. I said some pretty nasty things too."
Peter looked up at her with wide brown eyes.
"So...you still want to be friends?" he asked quietly, hope so obviously laced within his voice.
Adelaide hesitated.
I want to be more.
"Of course," she said instead, forcing a smile, "I just want things to go back to the way they were, okay? I'm tired of fighting with you. I...I miss you."
Peter smiled slowly until it spread into a boyish grin.
"So we're okay?" he asked, his voice filled with hope. Adelaide nodded.
"Yes, we're okay," she said, "We just...we'll take baby steps, okay?"
After not being friends for months now, Adelaide didn't want to rush into things. Especially now that she knew she had feelings for Peter, she still had to sort out how that was going to work. She didn't want it to ruin their delicate friendship before it even had a chance to restart. And even though she wasn't mad at him anymore, there was still a part of her that had been deeply hurt by his words. It was going to be a while before she could fully trust him again. Although she wanted nothing more than things to immediately snap back to the way they used to be, she knew it was going to take patience and work to rebuild their relationship.
Peter was, of course, crestfallen that Ada wasn't willing to go back to their old relationship straight away, but he also understood where she was coming from. This was on him. Now, he was going to have to show her that he wasn't going to hurt her again. He had to respect her feelings. And so he decided that he wasn't going to force their friendship back into the cookie cutter that it was before. Instead, he would let Ada draw the lines and call the shots. He was lucky enough to be given a second chance, he didn't want blow that too.
"Okay," he agreed with a smile, "Baby steps."
"Thank you," she nodded.
"I'm just really glad you're okay," Peter said, "When Mr. Stark found you unconscious, we were all really worried. And then when you...in the ER...I was so scared."
Adelaide paused.
She remembered Tony had said a similar sentence earlier. But he never told her what had happened to her in the ER. Why was everyone making such a big deal about it? What had happened to her?
"Wait, what happened in the ER?" she asked. Peter's brown eyes widened. He suddenly realized that he probably shouldn't have said that to her. He tried to backtrack.
"Un...I...r-really don't think it's a good idea," he stuttered. Adelaide's frown deepened as her worry escalated.
"What is it? What happened to me?" she pressed.
"Ada, we don't have to—"
"Peter," she snapped, suddenly angry and scared, "Just say it."
Peter swallowed.
"Ada...in the ER...you...you died for one minute."
Died.
Died.
...Died.
Adelaide ran over the word in her mind so many times that it lost its meaning completely. It started to look and sound weird. The word seemed to vacuum all of the air from her throat.
How could she have...?
It didn't make sense. She had...died?
Just like that?
For one minute, she had left this planet? That was absurd. It couldn't be true. But peter wouldn't lie about that. So it was, then. She had died. For one whole minute, her heart had actually stopped beating.
She had been dead.
Suddenly, it seemed insane that she was breathing. Such a simple gesture that many took for granted, Adelaide was suddenly so grateful for. And her heart. It was still beating. even though it had given up for one minute, it was still here, keeping her alive and tethered to this planet and her life. And just like that, the word life suddenly held a much heavier meaning.
"I...really died?" she breathed. Peter nodded solemnly.
"The doctors brought you back to life," he said very quietly.
All of the tiny little things that she used to fret so much about suddenly seemed inconsequential. Her life used to seem so strong, but who knew that it wasn't? She was a just a few heartbeats away from dying at any given moment. It could happen again.
Tomorrow was never promised.
"But Ada, please don't think about that anymore. It's in the past. You're okay now, see? You're safe."
"I-I know...I'm just...," she whispered, "It seems so impossible until it happens, you know?"
"Yeah, I know," Peter said, "It's crazy. But we're all just glad you're okay."
"Yeah," Adelaide breathed, stuck in a daze, "Yeah, me too."
—————
"Last one," Tony said, handing her a little pink pill.
Adelaide took it with a frown.
"I promise it's the last one," Tony said and she sighed, popping it into her mouth. She swallowed it down with a gulp of water, cringing at the bitter taste it left on her tongue.
"How was it?" Tony asked and she gave him an incredulous look.
"So good," she said sarcastically, "Wish I could eat it every day."
"Wish granted," Tony grinned, "Doctor's orders, you have to have one every day for the next two weeks."
Adelaide rolled her eyes. Inside, however, she was leaping with joy. She had really missed their banters. It was always the little things. She had missed every little thing about him. Form the way his eyes sparkled when he smiled at her to the way he ruffled her hair. Even after being so sure that he was here and he was real, he still felt like a walking dream. an illusion.
"Tony, stop teasing her already," Pepper scolded. She was walking around the room, adjusting various blankets and pillows. They were both going to spend the nights with her even though there was only one couch in the room. It was still their first night here and Pepper had taken it upon herself to make sleeping arrangements for herself and Tony.
Happy was camping in Peter's room and Tony made Happy promise to call him immediately if anything at all happed or even if Peter just simply wanted some water. He had promised Happy he'd be there immediately. The billionaire hadn't actually directly talked with Peter quite yet. He told Happy that he was just waiting for the right time considering how he had...lashed out on him last night.
"I'm not teasing her," he defended.
"I feel teased," Adelaide said. He threw her a look.
"Alright, Tony, you get the floor," Pepper said, throwing him a pillow. Adelaide bit back a grin. He playfully narrowed his eyes at her.
"Technically, the floor is the biggest bed here so I win," he said and Adelaide and Pepper both rolled their eyes, "They don't call me genius for nothing."
"You reflection does not count as they," Pepper said and Adelaide chuckled, sharing a small high five with the woman.
"You wound me," he said. He tried to fight back a smile, but it was hard to do so when Adie's face was lit up with a sort of laughter that he hadn't seen in months. Especially not in his own reflection. He eventually gave in and smiled.
"Adelaide, do you need anything? An extra pillow?" Pepper asked as she set the sofa up for herself. Adelaide looked around her bed and then shook her head.
"No, I..." her eyes flitted to the billionaire who was laying down a sheet on the floor to sleep on, with his back turned to her. Her heart seemed to buzz in her chest. She softly smiled to herself.
"I have everything I need."
—————
Later that night, when Adelaide's eyes fluttered open for no reason, she saw Tony on the floor, distractedly drumming his fingers on his chest as he was lying down on his back. Pepper was fast asleep on the sofa. Adelaide squinted in the dark, taking a deep, sleepy breath.
"Tony?" she whispered.
There was a pause.
"Hm?" he hummed in reply.
"What are you thinking?" she asked. She could tell something was bothering him. And she didn't need three guesses to correctly guess what it was.
"Can't sleep," he mumbled.
"Tony," she said.
"It's nothing," he answered and then a beat later, "Really."
"I can tell when something's bothering you," she whispered, "Just tell me."
She waited, holding her breath to hear his reply. When there was none, she added,
"Please."
Tony sighed and then pushed himself off the floor. He stood up and then sat himself down in the arm chair beside her bed. He looked exhausted. She could clearly see the dark circles under his eyes, even now, in the absence of light. She frowned worriedly. She hated it when he was worrying. She always felt partially guilty for it even if it had nothing to do with her. But this time, she knew it had everything to do with her.
"How long has it been since you've slept?" she asked softly. He gave her a tired smile.
"Too long," he chuckled, running a hand down his face. Adelaide's frown deepened.
"What's bothering you?" she asked again, even though she knew he wasn't going to say. He sighed and shook his head.
"It's nothing, I'm just—"
"What did you do when I died?" she asked with a shaky voice and he suddenly looked up, his eyes snapping to hers. Something in his eyes shifted at the question.
"Who told you?" he whispered.
"Just answer the question," she pressed. She saw tears filling and glistening in the billionaire's eyes. He tried to hold them back instead of letting them fall. He swallowed.
And then he leaned forward and pressed a long kiss to her forehead. She felt a tear escaping his eye and falling onto her cheek.
When he leaned back, he gently wrapped his hand around hers and squeezed it. Many moments passed this way in complete silence. If adelaide closed her eyes, she could almost pretend that they were back at the Tower again. Just when she was sure he wasn't going to speak, he smiled sadly.
"When you died...I realized how much I love you," he whispered.
At the sound of those three little words, her eyes filled up with tears. His face became blurry in her vision until the tears fell out of her eyes. She felt them leaving hot trails down the sides of her cold face.
"How much?" she whispered.
The billionaire smiled and then chuckled softly. he wrapped both his hands around hers and held her gaze once again.
"Tons," he answered.
Adelaide managed to laugh, despite the heavy trail of tears falling down her face.
"That's a lot," she laughed quietly.
Tony smiled, "And, yet, it's still not enough."
Adelaide closed her eyes. And for the first time in her life, she was at peace with her existence. This moment felt serene. She, for the first time, didn't care about her past or her future. Suddenly, it was okay to just exist in the present. And this present of hers, where Tony was holding her hand, was the best gift from the universe. A long time passed this way and Adelaide wished she could stay in this present moment for the rest of her life.
What Adelaide didn't quite know, was that one day, she would have all the peace in the world.
"I love you, too," she whispered.
Tony studied her face for a moment, running his eyes over the trails her tears had left. He ran his tongue over his teeth and then nodded slowly.
"I know, honey," he whispered, "I know. And I promise I'll never forget it again."
He noticed that her breaths were coming more slowly now and he saw the heavy sleep in her eyes. He smiled softly, kissing her hand.
"Goodnight," he whispered.
And that was the last thing Adelaide heard before she fell asleep.
—————
A/N: whaiwisj so cuteeeee i really missed writing tony and adie and pepper together, especially tony and adie. i love love lovee their relationship and im happy for adie like you would be for a real person :,)
so adie forgave peter but all is not quite good in padie land just yet. it felt so weird writing them having a normal conversation together considering that all they've done is yell at each other for the past month now. and i don't think anyone saw it coming that peter had known adie's secret this whole time hehe. if you go back to the chapters, you'll see peter acting weird around her, especially when TADASHI snitched that she was staring at him when he was shirtless because he knew it was ada lol.
anyway, be prepared for some sexual tension coming up soon ;)
also today was my first day of school at my new university. if it weren't for covid, i would have moved into my dorm with my roommates and would be going to class irl but instead im...just here. with my parents. at home. where ive been for the past 6 months. oh, well :/ can you believe there's only 4 more months of 2020 left? and somehow it's already been 8 months of this bullshit??
i just want it to be november already so i can go VOTE THIS ORANGE CHEETO OUT OF OFFICE
anyway so my physics class has like 650 students in it? i was so shocked when my professor told us that. but im feeling really good about this semester because even though it's all online, the bright side is that ill get to do it all from home! my uni already has almost a hundred cases and classes only started today so yikes. and it's a pretty big campus. there's like 28,000 students. so im pretty sure everyone is going to get sent home really soon anyway lol
question: does anyone else here use notion? i recently found it and ive become sooo addicted to it. my ocd ass is finally satisfied adgichk
okay so i wanna start something. im gonna start putting like previews to the next chapter at the end of each chapter since i already have like the next 8 chapters written. so here it is:
There was a knock on the door.
When it opened, Pepper poked her head inside and smiled.
"You've got company," she said softly and fully opened the door, stepping aside herself. Adelaide spotted Ned and Vivian standing there, holding flowers. She grinned brightly at the sight of them.
see y'all next wednesday!!