A/N: i've been waiting to use this gif for so long, it's so soft 🥺✨

ALSO I CAN FINALLY SAY THIS NOW THAT I'VE TURNED 19 TODAY: HI IM JARED, IM 19 AND I NEVER FUCKING LEARNED HOW TO READ

i'm so mature 😌

also i can't believe that next year i'm turning 20??? this is my last year as a teenager?????????? i can't even. mentally, i'm still 14 bruh. any 20 y/o here who can give me so advice on how to cope lmao. i feel like i'm getting so old and that i'm already so behind in my life oop

okay depressing thoughts over, let's talk about this chappie

as promised, it's moree fluff! it's kinda short but i guess it's important to the story or whatever

————————————————————
"Here's the thing kiddo, you can never

force someone to stay in your life.
————————————————————

As Adelaide was lying on the living room sofa later that night, pretending to watch tv, all she could think about was what Peter had said to her.

I'm here to stay, Ada. I promise.

We have all the time you need, okay?

And when you're ready...I promise I'll still be here.

I will always be here for you, Ada.

However you need me.

She still couldn't even wrap her head around the fact that Peter liked her, let alone the fact that he liked her so much that he was willing to wait for her. It felt like she was dreaming. She thought her feelings for him had been completely one-sided this whole time. As it turned out, he felt the same about her, which was crazy.

Peter Parker liked her.

Not only that, but he was willing to wait for her.

She felt like the luckiest girl in the world to have him in her life. And that was how it had always been with Peter. When no one else understood her, he read her mind. It was never hard to be around him. Even fighting with him wasn't that strange. It was like she'd known him even before she'd met him.

Their friendship had been so weathered over the years that they just...never noticed when it had set into place for a relationship to exist between them. Things had always been more different with Peter. He was just...Pete. He had never been just her best friend, he had always been a little more. Adelaide had just never realized it this whole time.

Sure, they had had plenty of disagreements in the past, but they always stemmed from a place of worry and care. Like when Peter had gone MIA one night and she had gotten worried sick. Sure, she had been furious with him, but only because she couldn't imagine Peter being injured or even dead. And the night Ben had died, she knew Peter wouldn't have been able to live with himself if he had killed a man. Peter had almost not forgiven her for that, but when she realized she had been right, he did so so easily.

They had always worked in sync with each other.

But this time, it was different.

Adelaide couldn't ask him to do that. She was too broken for him to fix. She wanted to be his, she did. But not at the cost of his health. If they had decided to be in a relationship, she knew it would only end up hurting him more than her. Two people who really cared about each other were supposed to be two halves of a whole, but Adelaide wasn't even a half. She was barely whole herself. She had so many pieces, she could never be the other half for Peter.

You can't ask someone to love you until you love yourself first.

And Adelaide definitely didn't love herself. She couldn't stand herself. And there was always this voice in her head telling her she was worthless and a danger to those around her. In fact, knowing how strongly Peter felt about her, scared her. Until she learned to love herself, she couldn't do that to Peter. He was too innocent to taint with whatever it was going on in her mind. It would be like spilling a glass of blood red wine over a white dress.

Above all else, being in a relationship terrified her. Being in a relationship meant letting someone in so close that the both of you would become almost one. She couldn't let Peter in that close. She wasn't ready. Knowing that he cared this much about her, scared her. What if she let him down? There were still so many demons she needed to fight on her own first. What if she was never ready and she left Peter waiting? Wasn't there someone better out there for him? Someone who wouldn't make him wait, a girl who wasn't broken into too many pieces to count, let alone put back together. What if she never got over her fear of her past and could never allow herself to be with Peter?

"It's not good for your eyes to watch tv in the dark," the billionaire said, announcing his presence in the room.

Adelaide blinked, wondering how long he'd been standing there. He took a seat on the sofa beside her, near her head. Adelaide sat up from her sleeping position, curling her legs under her so she was sitting upright beside him.

"You're one to talk," she said and he smiled.

"What's wrong?" he asked, noticing the worry on her face. She was only ever this quiet when she was in deep thought about something. Adelaide sighed.

"Tony...have you ever...have you ever worried that you won't ever get over your fear of letting someone in close to you?" she asked quietly. There was a beat.

"All the time," he admitted.

"How do you get over it?" she asked. Tony inhaled deeply. That was a big question. One he had spent many, many years of his life trying to answer.

"Here's the thing kiddo, you can never force someone to stay in your life. They're there by choice and if they love you enough, they'll stay," he said as he was thinking of the woman who had decided to stay in his life, despite everything that came with the Stark package, "The fear never goes away but it...fades into the background, you know? You realize that your love for this person is stronger than your fear of them walking away. And because at some point, that person begins to need you in their life as much as you need them in yours and that's when you know...they're stuck. It's too late for either one of you to walk away."

"What if...what if they do leave?" she asked. Tony looked over at his teenager. Then he wrapped his arm around her shoulders and she rested her head against his chest, closing her eyes.

"Honey, if they leave, that's their loss," he said quietly, gently kissing the top of her head.

Was it really their loss if they walked away from someone like her? After all, she had been nothing but a killer for most of her life. And the unspeakable things that she had done in her past were still a part of her and they always would be. How would she ever get over that? How could anyone ever love someone like her?

"I just...I don't know why someone would stay for me. I'm not really worth the wait," she said quietly, "I've done awful things. Even to you."

"And I'm still here, aren't I?" he smiled.

"I don't know why," she chuckled humorlessly into his shirt. Tony rubbed her arm, nuzzling his face into her hair.

"Because believe it or not, I love you," he mumbled, "And other people do too, whether you want them to or not. Adie, you can't go around thinking you're not worth being loved. You might have made mistakes in your past, but you're a different person now and you're just as human as the rest of us. You're kind, caring, resilient...and you're definitely more mature than I was at your age." Adelaide smiled a little. "When people decide to stay in your life, that's their choice, not yours. I love you because it's my choice. I know everything that comes with you, the past and the regrets and everything. But I chose to put it all aside because I love you for who you are now — not some version of who you used to be."

He paused for a moment, collecting his thoughts.

"Honey...It's hard now, but I know you," he said, squeezing her shoulder gently, "You've gotten through hell before, I know you can get through it again. This pain won't last forever, I promise."

Adelaide knew there was some truth to what Tony was saying. But she also knew this change couldn't happen overnight. She would need time.

And when you're ready...I promise I'll still be here.

As Adelaide fell asleep in the billionaire's arms that night, she finally had a sliver of hope for the first time in years.

Maybe, just maybe, there was a happy ending, even for her.

—————

Peter couldn't sleep. So he opted for watching tv until he could.

He was watching some random baking show that he was hardly even paying attention to. He just needed the background noise there.

Even though Ada had left hours ago, his mind was still on her, trying to process their conversation and his decision. Peter sighed, running a hand through his hair which was already a mess. He was sitting on the couch, both arms spread out on the backrests.

Ada was his best friend. And, sure, Ned was his best friend too. In fact, Ned had been his friend for much longer than Ada had. But there was just something about his friendship with Ada that was different. He remembered when he saw her for the very first time at school.

"Look! It's her!"

The three of them all turned their heads to watch the brown-haired girl walk into the cafeteria. She didn't look intimidating at all. In fact, she looked lost. All the tables were full and she didn't have any place to sit.

He'd caught sight of her impossibly blue eyes and he couldn't seem to look away. She was obviously lost, yet she didn't look helpless – she had control of the situation. She scanned the room, momentarily glancing at Peter. In that moment, he couldn't help but feel his heartbeat speed up. He had the sudden urge to go up to her, but then she turned away.

He blinked. He had been staring at her for a whole minute now.

Maybe Peter hadn't known it then, but that girl with the impossibly blue eyes would come to mean more to him than he could ever imagine. But he had had no idea just how much pain was hidden behind those eyes, until today.

No one deserved to be in that much pain. Especially not his Ada.

He understood why she needed some time even though he still didn't know what had caused her that much pain. He respected her need for space. But he wanted to show her that things were going to be okay and she wasn't alone in this. He needed her to see that even if people had left her before, he wouldn't do that to her. At least not again.

But Peter had no idea how he would do any of that. How do you put broken pieces of a person back together?

"Something on your mind?" May asked. Peter had been so lost in his thoughts that he hadn't even noticed May walking into the room. She sat down beside him on the couch, glancing at the tv. "I didn't know you were that into cupcakes."

Peter chuckled, "I'm not. It was just playing."

"Your father used to do the same," she said. There was a small smile in her eyes, "Whenever he was worried about something, he would use the tv as background noise."

"Yeah?" Peter asked softly. May smiled.

"You don't have to tell me what's bothering you, but if you want to talk, I can listen," she said, putting a gentle hand on his knee. Peter sighed.

"It's just...I told Ada that I like her," he started, "A-And she told me that she likes me back too. But...she told me needs some time."

"Time?" May asked. Peter nodded.

"She's going through some stuff and I want to be there for her, but I just don't know how," he said, "I don't know how to help her."

"Peter...sometimes we have to fight our own battles," May said gently, "Adelaide might feel better knowing you're by her side, but you can't fight this fight for her."

"There's nothing I can do and I feel like a terrible friend," he said, "I really like her, May."

The woman smiled.

"Did you know that when I met Ben, he was on the verge of being homeless?" she asked him. Peter nodded.

"He told me that once before."

"Even though he was about to lose everything to his name, he refused to let me lend him some money. He was stubborn like that. So I would stick some money in his couch sometimes where he could find it later or add a few bucks to his wallet whenever he wasn't looking. He never found out, and eventually, he found a stable job to pay for things himself." She was smiling to herself and Peter could see in her eyes that she was back there in her memory, with Uncle Ben again. "The point is, some people don't know how to ask for help even when they really need. Adelaide asked you for help in her own way and maybe you don't know how to help her yet, but if you care enough, you'll eventually find a way to."

"You think so?" Peter asked, absentmindedly staring at the tv screen.

"You're the kindest person I know, Peter," May said, squeezing his shoulder, "Adelaide is lucky to have a friend like you. Just watch, she'll be feeling better in no time."

"I hope you're right, May," Peter sighed.

—————

A/N: this is straight up just fluff city up in here y'all

i hope y'all aren't getting too bored with all this fluff tho cause i don't want to introduce the angst back juuust yet. i mean, it'll be back soon obviously (if you've been reading for this long, you shouldn't be surprised about that haha) but i still wanna get some relationships into place before i call angst back into the show ;)

also! big news!

i'm preg— JK LOL. i always feel like someone's preggo when they say big news 😂 but i'm like a 110% virgin (extra virgin like olive oil) so we're gucci

okay but the real big news is that i've come to learn that wattpad limits books to be 200 chapters maximum and i'm not gonna be able to wrap this all up in 200 chapters cause i mean, we still gotta get through infinity war and endgame and ffh and sm3 sooo yeah.

basically, what i'm trying to say is there's going to be an into the light 2!

it's still under construction and a longgg ways away, but just wanted to give y'all a heads up so you would know that's going on in the future. OH! i was thinking of changing the name of this book to From the Dark so that book 2 could be titled Into the Light but i'm not too sure about that yet because i feel like it will confuse a lot of people. do y'all have any thoughts on that?

also, not one of my guy friends calling me love and me freaking out and overthinking about it bc i thought we were just fRiEnDs but who knows now and this is why i don't leave my house or talk to anyone oop-

anyway, so imma go enjoy the rest of my bday by binging netflix in my bed in my jammies and stress about being a whole ass 19 y/o in the background :)

question: do you love peter even more after this? 🥺

see y'all wednesday!