I just saw Infinity War last week. I am still hurt by what happened but fanfics have been keeping me afloat. I haven't written any fics in a couple years so it felt nice to write one again even if it is fairly short.

Disclaimer: I do not own any rights to Marvel nor its characters.

Peter knew heroes couldn't always win. From his first set of criminals he tried to stop, to Captain America's group in Germany, to those thieves at the bank…he knew it was true. But when he saw a small body lying on the ground after he knocked out the guys that attacked the woman with the kid, it dug a deep hole in his chest.

He was too late.

"Karen…. are they…." His voice faded out as he tried to speak to his suit's A.I. "Any heartbeats?"

The A.I. was silent for a minute, sensing the body nearby. A small helpless figure lying on the ground motionless. The child did take a lot of hits from the older men. How could anyone do that to any kid? Humans, that's who. People are unpredictable and can hurt anyone in their path no matter who they are drunk, sober, or anything.

"No heartbeat detected," Karen said finally. Her voice wasn't as robotic as it usually is during fights, but softer. Peter closed his eyes. Far behind him he could hear sirens heading his way. Crouching down, he itched to take off his mask in hope it wasn't real. Not only did he see a kid laying still on the concrete but he also saw his Uncle Ben. Except no one was there for the little kid, cradling him, crying out for help. Beside him laid what Peter assumed to be the kid's mother. They're both gone.

All Peter could do was open his eyes and stare numbly at the bodies, waiting for some form of movement as he wasted in a state of denial. Should he tell Happy this during his nightly patrol updates? Tell Mr. Stark?

His breath froze. He was back on top of the building facing Mr. Stark after the ferry incident back in the beginning of the school year. Tony said if anyone died it would be on Peter. It was his fault because he wasn't doing the right thing, making sure the kid and the woman was okay, taking them somewhere else for safety before knocking out the others. He didn't say anything to the kid especially even when they were thrown to the ground, head smacking on the pavement.

He was too caught up in the adrenaline of kicking ass. Too excited to tell Happy he fought off three guys that night that were 2x his size and saved two people. God, he was so reckless.

Taking a deep breath, Peter stood back up and walked toward the child. Barely six years old the boy laid on the ground, his green eyes staring up at Peter. Empty. Lifeless. Kneeling down, Peter closed the boy's eyes. He looked at the woman again, glad that her eyes were closed. But his heart was withering away as he noticed her hand was stretched out toward the boy.

"I'm so sorry."

Only twenty minutes beforehand did he hear the boy screaming from the roof of a building nearby. The mother was already on the ground as the three men advanced toward the kid. Peter jumped down onto the first one, knocking him out before shooting webs at the others, making them swing into each other.

Just as the police arrived, Peter shot a web up to a nearby pole and disappeared. He swung around the city until he found his apartment building up on the roof. He rolled onto it as his legs gave out and laid there, looking up at the sky. He wanted to take his mask off, but he left it on. He could feel a few tears stream down his cheeks within the mask. He couldn't tell Mr. Stark about this. Not yet anyway. How would he even bring it up? How would Mr. Stark even react? All Peter could imagine was the disappointment in his mentor's eyes.

Another failure for the books in the tales of the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. He hated it how the failures always weighed on him more than the successes. His wins seemed to fade away after a couple of days but his losses sunk into him, never shaking from his head.

Karen's voice cut through his thoughts. "Incoming call from Tony Stark."

Peter's eyes widened as he sniffled. "Wait no -!"

"Hey, Peter," Tony's voice piped up as the screen in his mask revealed his face, sitting somewhere in the compound Peter assumed. "How ya holding up?"

Of all the times Tony could call and check up on Peter, it was always the worse possible scenarios where Peter did not want to talk to him. "Um, I'm doing alright. I – I had just stopped a couple of criminals criminaling, you know." He flinched at how is voice cracked at the end.

This sparked Tony's interest. "You okay, kid? Was it a tough one?"

"Yeah it was."

"You'll make it through. No matter what happened you did your best."

"Thanks, Mr. Stark," Peter said with a small smile although knowing it didn't help his guilt. "I'm feeling better now. Just small things had happened that uh…messed with me."

Tony sighed. " Just don't let it stick with you for too long. We can't always win some fights. Like I said, you did your best."

But did he? Did he try his best?

Oh god. That did it. Peter kept back a sob as he saw the kid and his mother appear in his head again. We can't always win some fights. This wasn't just a normal fight with knocking some guys out and webbing their arms together and call it a night. This was a night that in the back of his mind he hoped wouldn't happen during his patrols.

"Peter?"

Peter swallowed. "Uh I have to do homework now, Mr. Stark. I have been kind of pushing it off for a while. I'll – I'll give you updates tomorrow."

Tony's brows furrowed. "Wait, Pete-"

Peter ended the call before Tony could finish. That was something Peter had been trying to work on not doing since it had happened so often. He tried to push this stab of guilt off his shoulder and went down to his window. Crawling through his window, he closed it and dropped on the bed. He peeled his mask off and let the tears flow. Tomorrow will be a better day.