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#when tony leaves a meeting in a rush because midtown called:

spooderboyandtincan · 3 years

Text

You’re Gonna Miss Me

(When I’m Gone)

Read on Ao3

/ST*RKERS DNI/

~~~~~

Tony doesn’t know why he’s so nervous.

That’s a lie. Utter bullshit. He’s lying to himself. Tony knows exactly why his heart is fluttering in his chest like he’d run a marathon, why his chest struggled to rise like there was twenty pound weight rested on it.

Though to be fair, when he made an anonymous donation of a meager 50,000 dollars to Midtown Science and Technology, he hadn’t expected Peter’s decathlon team to put in a request to the school board to travel abroad, and he definitely hadn’t expected the school to immediately approve it. He thought they’d use it to replace the sudsy water in the bathrooms they called soap with the real stuff or some shit, not whisk his kid away to Vienna for a whole week where Tony couldn’t even hug him, couldn’t protect him.

Peter is thrilled, though. Ecstatic. When he’d broken the news to Tony and May, he’d been over the moon with excitement, his round cheeks flushed pink and his eyes gleaming. Even two weeks ago, Tony had felt a deep sense of apprehension kindling in his chest, but with the date seemingly so far away, he’d pushed it to the back of his mind.

He wishes now that he’d done something. He should have told Peter he couldn’t bear to be without him like he was an actor in a cheesy soap opera (it was true, he couldn’t); tell Peter he needed him on a “mission” that would mysteriously be canceled. Though they’d probably end up taking a plane or a suit to Vienna anyways (despite what he liked to say to Rhodey, he was not at all immune to Peter’s puppy eyes); hell, he should have purposely tripped on the stairs and broken his leg so Peter, sweet, kind, empathetic Peter, would immediately decide to stay by his side where Tony could keep him safe.

He missed Peter when he was at his apartment in fucking Queens, thirty minutes from Stark Tower. He didn’t know how he’d handle having him 4,222 miles away. He didn’t know if he could.

“Damn,” he hisses, pushing himself from his bed with a grunt and making a beeline towards Peter’s room. He dashes in. The sight of his sleeping son (read: lump of blankets) is enough to take his breath away.

Tony had missed him. It had been four hours since he’d tucked him in and kissed him goodnight, and Tony had missed him. Peter was fifteen feet away.

This trip is going to be the death of him. He’s going to drop dead of a goddamn heart attack before Peter even gets on the plane.

Tony sinks carefully onto the mattress and rests his hand on the boy’s neck, some deep, parental instinct in him immediately soothed by the slow, steady beat of his pulse. Peter is curled under the thick blue blanket, only his chestnut curls visible which are tinged blue from the Iron Man nightlight on the wall, his breath puffing out in those little snuffling snores that Tony absolutely adores.

He leans down to kiss his temple, inhales the familiar scent of his favorite strawberry shampoo and is overwhelmed by the wave of infinite love that washes over him. He loves this kid so much it sometimes hurts.

Leaning back, he smooths his thumb over Peter’s cheekbone. He doesn’t want to leave the boy’s side. He doesn’t know if he physically can. Maybe asleep Peter has somehow sensed this, because there’s a small mewl from the bundle of blankets, and two bleary doe eyes flutter open.

“T’ny?”

“Hey,” Tony whispers, running a hand through his curls. “Hey, jellybean. Sorry I woke you up.” Peter rolls over with heavy limbs and rubs his eyes with a fist in a childlike motion, yawning in a way that resembles all those yawning kitten videos he’s made Tony watch.

God, he’s adorable, Tony thinks. His heart is melting. He’s so small, so young. Tony feels an instinctual, almost uncontrollable urge to protect this kid, to wrap him in his arms and keep him from harm for the rest of time.

Peter is oblivious. “‘S… s’okay,” he mumbles. His hand sneaks out of the blankets and tugs on his arm lethargically, which the genius knows is sleepy Peter language for “cuddle with me.” Tony chuckles fondly and slides under the covers.

He props himself up on an elbow and gazes down at his beloved boy, stroking a finger down his cheek. Peter smiles sleepily up at him from his assortment of pillows. “Hi.”

His face splits into a wide grin. “Hi, Pete.”

Peter frowns at him then, a sudden change from his drowsy, half-asleep state. “You… you ‘kay? Wha’ time’s it?” He tries to sit up, but Tony hushes him gently with a “Everything’s okay, bud, just a typical 2am visit from your friendly neighborhood Iron Man.”

He smiles, so Tony counts the joke as a win. It’s not one of his best, but hey, forgive him if he’s a little anxious about his kid going to another fucking continent.

(He refuses to acknowledge that it’s not just being away from Peter that’s stressing him out, it’s the fact that anything could happen to him while they’re apart.)

Tony looks back to Peter, opening his mouth to talk, only to find that he’s completely conked out. He balls up the sleeve of his sweatshirt and wipes the line of drool tracing down the boy’s chin away, finding that a soft smile has formed on his face, the one that only makes its appearance around Peter.

Peter snuggles into him the second he lies down, resting his curly head just over his heart. Tony wraps a protective arm around his back and rubs small circles on his soft blanket hoodie. “G’night,” he whispers, bending to kiss the top of his head. “Sweet dreams, baby. I love you.”

He can feel Peter’s heartbeat thumping steadily against his chest- can hear his soft kitten snores. The warm weight of his body is so comforting that for a moment he thinks that maybe, just maybe, this trip isn’t going to be the end of him. That everything’s going to be okay.

~~~~~

Peter’s starting to regret eating all those waffles for breakfast. He feels shaky all over, like he could collapse or throw up any second. He’d told Tony he was going to pop in the bathroom, but he’s been in there for at least ten minutes, settled back on his heels on the cold, grimy floor of an airport bathroom, trying to breathe properly.

Speaking of Tony, he can hear the man just outside the door, typing on his phone and sipping from a cheap cup of coffee. Peter immediately experiences a hot flash of guilt, realizing that he must have grown worried while he was gone.

Sure enough, the door swings open and there’s a soft knock. “Pete? Everything okay, bud?”

Peter stands up and unlocks the stall. “Tony,” he sniffles, taking an unsteady step forward. Tony rushes forward and gathers him in his arms

“Whoa, hey, hey, you’re okay,” he says gently, rubbing a hand up and down his back. “You’re okay, Pete. Breathe, just breathe, bud. It’s okay.”

“I don’t-” Peter whispers. “I don’t know, Tony, I-I wanna go, but I can’t, I don’t know w-what to do.”

“Breathe, honey. It’s okay, I’m here, we’ll figure this out, okay? You just gotta take a breath, alright?”

Peter tries- fails. Tries again, and manages to gasp a breath in. “Sorry,” he croaks, when he can properly breathe again. “Tony, I-I don’t-”

“It’s okay,” Tony murmurs, squeezing him tight. “Nothing to be sorry for, Pete.” After snatching a paper towel and soaking it in the sink, he runs the scratchy cloth over Peter’s face and kisses his forehead when he’s done. “Okay, bubba. You wanna go back out or stay in here?”

“Out,” he replies without hesitation. The flickering white lights above are starting to give him a headache, not to mention the leaky faucet and the freezing tile floors and the faulty air conditioning. Tony leads him out with an arm around his shoulder and guides him to a little nook, where they both plop down on a neon green beanbag.

“My parents died in a plane crash,” Peter whispers.

Tony squeezes his shoulder. “I know buddy. I’m sorry.” Unlike a lot of the “sorries” Peter has heard, this one is sincere. Sometimes he forgets that Tony is an orphan too.

“I- I mean, logically, I know the plane won’t crash,” he continues, “But I guess it’s still hard for me to believe that. Like a- a gut feeling?”

The man nods in understanding. “I know how you feel, kiddo. I was terrified of cars after my parents died- I took the subway everywhere despite the paparazzi bloodhounds.” Tony doesn’t broach the subject of his parent’s deaths often, especially not in a crowded public airport, so Peter makes sure to pay attention.

“Then, the fear just kinda… vanished.” He wiggles his fingers dramatically. “I started driving without even thinking, didn’t realize I was in a car ‘til I got on the highway. I had to pull over when I did, but since then, I’m perfectly fine with cruisin’ at 80 mph. But,” he says seriously, meeting Peter’s eyes. “I think you should listen to what your gut’s tellin’ you, buddy. It’s important to listen to yourself- what inner you is saying.” He pokes Peter’s belly a couple times for good measure, which makes his face scrunch up adorably.

Peter nods, and really tries to listen to his gut. The pair both go silent in concentration, and then- his stomach grumbles. They both burst into laughter, born more from nerves than hilarity.

“Inner you wants to eat,” Tony snorts. “I think I saw a place with the biggest blueberry muffins of my life by the escalators, wanna stop there?”

Despite eating a huge stack of waffles just hours earlier, Peter wolfs down two of the gigantic blueberry poppyseed muffins, much to the amusement of Tony.

They made their way to the gate, where Peter’s teacher, Mr. Harrington was lounging, dressed in an ugly red sweater, his long legs stretched in front of him.

“Peter!” he cried as he spotted them, scrambling to his feet. “Thank god, I was beginning to think I had the wrong date! We’re leaving today, right?”

“Oh, yeah Mr. Harrington, we’re going today!” Peter laughs. He’s used to dealing with his scatter-brained teacher. “I’m actually here early, the plane’s supposed to leave at 1:00.” He gestures vaguely to the big digital clock over his head reading 11:54 AM, EDT.

Mr. Harrington frowns. “I thought it left at 8 am! You mean I’ve been here for hours in this awful chair when I could have been sipping a piña colada in my jacuzzi?!” He collapses back in his chair and pulls a sleeping mask over his eyes with a sigh.

“Sorry, Mr. Harrington,” Peter chuckles, then pulls Tony to a row of uncomfortable seats in the corner of the waiting area.

They sit in comfortable silence for a bit, just watching the various travellers rush past. A little girl, around two or three, comes up and shyly asks for Tony’s autograph, but no one else recognizes the genius. (Thanks to his foolproof disguise of a baseball cap and scarf covering up his iconic beard, the genius claims.)

“So, what are we thinking?” Tony asks after about half an hour. “Do you wanna go?” He secretly hopes Peter will say no, hopes that they can go home and binge watch all of the Star Trek episodes and fill their bodies with junk.

Peter nods hesitantly. “I think so. I-is that okay? I might change my mind, but- yes. Yeah, I think I want to go.”

Tony squeezes his hand. “Of course it’s okay baby, that’s perfectly fine. If you change your mind, you know what? That’s great too. Whatever you want, that’s what’s important.” He kisses Peter’s forehead and lets his hand linger for a moment where it rests on the boy’s cheek. “If you change your mind at any point, I’ll come pick you up, okay?”

“Thanks, Tony,” Peter breathes, slumping heavily against his side.

“Of course, bud. Anything for my Peter.”

They stop for lunch at a cozy little coffee shop, which is thankfully devoid of fans and paparazzi. Peter orders (or rather, makes Tony order) a small hot chocolate (with extra marshmallows and whipped cream) even though drinking a lot before a non-stop ten hour flight is probably not the best idea. (He can’t help it. He’s nervous.)

When the pair gets back to their gate, they find Ned and his family. The boy’s greet each other enthusiastically, performing their signature handshake, while Tony simply throws up a peace sign to Ned’s rather stunned parents.

The friends pull out their phones -probably playing one of those ghastly animated games that Peter is always quoting. Tony pretends to look busy on his phone, but really, he’s just trying to distract himself from the terrifying fact that he’s not going to see Peter for a week.

Too soon, the speaker crackles, a crisp voice announcing, “Attention. We are now boarding flight 367 nonstop to Vienna, Austria. Now boarding flight 367 nonstop to Vienna, Austria.”

Tony’s heart stops. Peter freezes.

No, they think at the same time. Not yet.

Peter turns to Tony, panicked. “Hey,” the man says, pushing away every anxiety, every worry away so he can focus on his kid. He sees Ned approach them, but stop when his father places a hand on his shoulder. “Hey, it’s okay. Breathe, baby, it’s okay.”

“Tony.” Peter wraps his skinny arms around his waist.

“I know, baby, I know.” Tony kisses the top of his head and hugs him close. “Follow my breathing. You’re okay. We’re good.”

Around them, the members of the decathlon team are rising, but Tony and Peter sit in those unforgettable chairs, clutching each other tightly, not yet ready to let go.

“I’m gonna miss you,” Peter whimpers.

“I know kiddo, me too. I’m gonna miss you so much, but I’m always gonna be here, okay? If you need me, just call, or text, use morse code, doesn’t matter. I’m always here for you.”

“I’m here for you too,” Peter says. “I- I’ll call you every day.” Peter’s bottom lip is trembling, just barely, but enough for Tony to hug him a little tighter and kiss his forehead. “I love you, Tony,” he sniffs.

“I love you too, Pete. I love you so much.” Tony’s not crying. He’s not. The restaurant a few stores down is just cooking onions, that’s why his eyes are watering.

Peter pulls away and grabs his duffel bag, taking a step toward the loading dock. Tony tries not to burst into sobs. Stay, his mind whispers. Please stay.

Then Peter turns around, eyes full of tears, and slams straight into Tony’s chest, hugging him so tight he can barely breathe. Tony rocks them back and forth, cherishing everything about his sweet boy. When they finally break apart, Peter says, “I’ll be back before you know it,” echoing what Tony has said to him so many times before he leaves for a business trip.

Then he smiles a watery smile and runs to catch up with his best friend. Just before he disappears into the loading dock, he turns around and waves wildly at Tony.

Tony waves back, grinning. “I love you,” he mouths.

“I love you too!” Peter mouths back, and steps into the dock.

“I love you,” Tony whispers, hastily wiping the dampness from his eyes. “I love you, Peter.”

~~~~~

/ST*RKERS DNI/

Taglist: @aj-that-person @tonystark-deserves-better @nathaly-ab @skeeter-110 @peter-and-tony-vlogs @teammightypen @joyful-soul-collector @loveliestdisappointment @depuella @scwene-qween @honeythepooh @pixiethefirecat7 @spider-man-lover @jami161 @bringitonvoldie @queen-of-sarcasm-25 @roxy3457 @memilon @iron-loyalty @gralaca @bitchingpretty @pillowspace @thatminecraftgal @clockworkteacup @hatakehikari @wtfischeese @keep-a-bucket-full-of-stars @skydiving-without-a-parachute @yansi1923 @slytherin-hamilton-life-12 @dead-inside-pt2 @name-me-regret @zanderljones @spidy8664 @hold-our-destiny @tinystark-blog @bittersweetbeneath

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#chapter 1/2 #peter parker #tony stark #ned leeds #anxious thoughts #panic attacks #peter parker needs a hug #peter parker gets a hug #tony stark needs a hug #tony stark has a heart #tony stark acting as peter parkers parental figure #other tags to be added #no st*rker #st*rkers dni #my writing

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moonlit-imagines · 4 years

Text

Headcanons for being Tony Stark’s stepkid

Tony Stark x Potts!child!reader

warnings: alcohol mention

a/n: i rushed these so bad i just wanted to post dhhshsnsna

prompt: y/n is pepper’s kiddo!

it was just you and your mom for a long time

pepper and y/n potts

she couldn’t keep up with you sometimes, too busy dealing with the manchild that was mister anthony edward stark

speaking of—

“uh, who’s this?” -tony, pointing at you

“mr. stark, i am so sorry, the school closed because some kid set fire to the science lab and i didn’t have time to find a sitter—”

“no, it’s fine, no need to apologize. hey, kid, you wanna sit in the boss’s chair? i’ll let you run the company for the day!” *cue you nodding* “sweet, would you mind that, ms. potts?”

“oh? no, not at all” *mouthing* “thank you”

“so, uh, what’s your name? no, don’t tell me: ketchup.”

*giggling* “y/n”

“no way! that was my second guess!”

tony wasn’t used to being around kids

he had no idea that he was actually kind of good around them

despite a few minor hiccups

“you sit in my chair and im gonna spin you around, sound like fun?”

he spun you around WAY too fast and you were diiiiizzy, also you fell off the chair

“don’t tell your mom that we did that. she may be my assistant, but she scares the shit out of me. also, don’t say ‘shit’”

dude he just thought you were a cool kid!!!

“hey, you know, ms. potts, you dont really need to hire a babysitter anymore. y/n’s doing just fine hanging out here”

“how am i not surprised you befriended an actual child?”

she still took him up on his offer, you seemed pretty happy

when your mom worked late, you passed out in tonys office

tony and you had your own little secrets (like falling off the spinning chair), tony showed you around stark tower, and you practically lived there

“i got you a happy meal from mcdonalds!” -tony every day after your school

in all honesty, you weren’t the “popular” kid at school...not even close

but tony made up for it

“y/n! i found this old racecar toy in a box of old stuff, you wanna hold onto it for me?”

you kind of grew up in stark tower tbh? it was pretty cool

and as you grew up, you started to notice more

“mr. tony, do you have a crush on my mom?”

“do i what? no, no, i do—who the hell am i kidding? you caught me”

“called it!”

after that you did everything to try and get them together

when your mom was talking to tony, you would stand behind her and wiggle your eyebrows and just taunt tony endlessly

no! tony cannot remember your mom’s birthday for the life of him! you are his calendar now

“dude, why dont you just ask JARVIS to remind you?”

“i may be a genius, but that doesn’t mean i have common sense”

“wise words, sir” -JARVIS

when tony disappeared for 3 months you were so sad???? like you were not okay at all

and when he came back, he literally exited the plane saying “WHERE’S ‘T-POTT??’”

(your wonderful nickname. ‘t’ for ‘tony jr.’ and ‘pott’ for ‘potts’)

“my mom missed you”

“oh, i bet she did”

“you turned my child into you, tony. i will never forgive you for this”

“well, at least y/n was here to fill in for me, huh?”

tony wanted to show you the arc reactor but he was actually afraid of scarring you lmfaoooo

but he did let you in on the iron man secret (he knew you wouldn’t snitch)

and just to make sure:

“if you dont tell anyone, i’ll buy you a car when you turn 16”

“man, that’s like, forever away”

“good, maybe you’ll forget by then”

ur mom kinda maybe sorta found out abt iron man :/ she told you that tony was a bad influence

“mom! no, tony’s cool! he’s like a superhero”

“no, sweetie, he’s a rich guy with issues. we’re leaving”

that didn’t last long

not long at all

and soon they FINALLY got together

“jeez, i thought you two would never stop pining after each other”

“couldnt have done it without my wingman” -tony *fistbump*

“as thanks can i have my own iron man suit?”

“yes.” *pepper glaring at him* “no.”

sooner or later your mom and you moved into tony’s house and you got a really big room!!!!

it was completely decked out

king sized bed, flatscreen tv, mini-fridge, microwave, computer, your own bathroom with a smaller tv, a poster of tony??? (you vandalized it and put it in his workshop), and more!!!

okay you were spoiled

“do you like it here? are you sure i made the right choice?” -pepper

“are you kidding, mom? this is awesome! plus, you’re happy, i’m happy, tony’s happy, i think JARVIS is even happy!”

“i am, mx. potts. simply ecstatic” -JARVIS

pepper was really happy!! it was a pretty cool family

you started giving your school tony’s number if you ever got in trouble, you knew he’d cover for you

“mr. potts, is it?”

“sure”

“your child, y/n, punched another student in the face today. we’re very disappointed in their behavior”

“why’d they punch the kid?”

“well, the other student punched y/n first”

“HAH! thank you for wasting my time. send y/n back to class and call me back if something important comes up”

he literally gave you a high five when you got home

“i gave him a black eye!”

“i couldn’t be more proud. i mean, i dont condone violence, but self defense is a whole other story”

a little help in the workshop, tony asks you to hold the flashlight

“why don’t you get one of your robots to hold this for you?”

“are you kidding me, you’re complaining? we’re having stepdad/stepkid bonding time! and dum-e can’t do anything right, i dont trust him”

youve had a few theme park trips as a family ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

also tony has 100% told you to wait in the car and then left you alone for 2+ hours

“i’m not like a regular dad, im a step-dad. want some beer? you can have a little sip. i’d rather you do it in the house”

your mother actually does love how he actually cares about you!

“y/n is 12% my responsibility” -tony

“tony, you are impossible” -pepper

no avengering for you! pepper said no!!!!!!

disappointed but not surprised

iron man 3: y/n potts is put through the wringer

Text Message to Mr. Tony: bro you better come get your girl, me and happy are watching this other guy flirting with her. he’s showing her pics of his ‘big brain’

Mr. Tony: HE WHAT

Text Message to Mr. Tony: Tony he looks creepy i don’t want him to be my new stepdad do something!!!

anyways ur house kinda blew up and ur mom and you kinda got kidnapped and u were right abt that guy being creepy and thankfully no experiments were done on you but like your mom kinda almost died and her and tony were fine!!! all good in the end

you met mr. col. james rhodes that day

“aw, you’re the kid ive heard so much about” -rhodey

“you mean the coolest kid in the world?check.”

“you cant tell me you aren’t tony’s biological child, good god”

you got to meet the avengers later on too! (you’d already met natasha tho, only briefly)

“i know it can be a little overwhelming, right? meeting all these heros, legends even—” -rhodey

“oh, my god, is that thor? thor!!” -you, leaving rhodey in the dust

literally why does pepper trust you around tony something always goes wrong there were literally robots attacking, you were only at avengers tower bc your mom was busy with the company and she thought you’d be safe with the avengers. the AVENGERS.

“please dont tell your mom that i created a bad robot that tried to kill us. the robot will be the least of our problems” -tony

he made happy pick you up and you had to miss out on FUN and it sucked a lot

“it’s okay, y/n! i’m fun, too!” -happy

then your mom and tony took a break and your life got mega-boring for a while, but they weren’t separated for that long. you try not to think about it. it was brutal

Mr. Tony: Does she miss me?

New Message to Mr. Tony: I think so. Either that or she’s crying and drinking wine in the dark for no reason.

Mr. Tony: Damn it, now I feel bad. I miss her a lot. Oh, also, the Avengers say ‘hi,’ I’m in Germany with some bad news, I’ll explain later if you don’t see it on TV first, and I found you the perfect friend! His name is Peter and I think you’d like the school he goes to, it’s in Midtown. Smart kid school.

New Message to Mr. Tony: I’ll look into it, thanks. Also, I don’t like how those all connect. Please update me asap

watching the news to see several avengers arrested, cap on the run, and more!

“maybe it was good i didn’t fall in with the avengers”

tony and pepper finally got back together and you actually transferred to midtown high! peter and his friend group accepted you quickly, it was great. you and flash unfortunately had the most in common

you’d literally text happy right next to peter and he’d immediately reply to you. it hurt peter’s feelings

Momma: Sweetie! I’m working in the office late, leftovers are in the fridge, hope you have a wonderful day at school! 💕

👉👈the vulture tried to kill you for being tony’s stepkid, tony made peter promise to protect you

“y/n, you gotta stay out of harm’s way. mr. stark gave me an actual mission and it’s terrifying, i have to make sure you stay safe”

legit why the fuck was this old man tryna kill you bro grow up

anyyyywayssss your mom and tony got engaged!!

“wow, i thought the day would never come!!” -you

ppl told you tony isnt your stepdad bc ur mom and him werent married but who tf asked

why is the earth always in fucking danger

you and peter were just vibing on the field trip bus and all the sudden: space donut

“go! i’ll cover for you...FRIDAY, call tony”

“...hi there, little one”

“what the fuck”

“oh, so you see the aliens, too? well, at least im not crazy”

tony stark has left the atmosphere

you and your mom were kinda......not chillin tho

she and you didn’t sleep for a few nights, then ppl just straight up disappeared

plot twist: you survived the snap and your family was lucky to be alive, you even got a little sister who became a big handful!

only bad thing was all your friends dusted and you were pretty lonely

but watching morgan grow up kept you busy

“ahhh, shes so big!”

happy times in bad times

bad times!!!!! bc after five years thanos came back as thanos from like ten years ago. outdated thanos. obsolete thanos.

but you made your first and only appearance in the suit tony actually designed for you many years ago

you should have just stayed home tho bc that fight didnt pass the vibe check

“please dont tell me he...no, no, no, no, no”

you and your mom latched onto each other in tears, tony was one of the best people in your life, he made you and your mom two of the happiest people on earth

best stepdad a kid could ever ask for

taglist: @alwaysananglophile // @rorybutnotgilmore // @locke-writes // @sweetheartliz07 // @queen-destenie // @natasha-danvers // @lokihiddles // @frostedgiantfavs // @emygirl // @lotsoffandomrecs // @johnmurphyisbisexual // @teenwaywardasgardian // @pappydaddy // @captainshazamerica // @freya-xo // @ravenmoore14 // @purpleskiesstorm // @ofthedewthesunlight //

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meepmorpperaltiago · 3 years

Text

Slipping Through My Fingers All The Time

I started a marvel binge about a month ago and I’ve been hyperfixating on spideychelle for a while now – so I started this fic and then realised the last prompt of @mjweek fit perfectly! This is a crazy long fic by my standards but I hope you like it!

The first time May hears Michelle Jones’ name is after the Washington Incident. She doesn’t particularly register it, not with everything else happening in their lives at that point. She’s just another one of his classmates, only just edging into the category of “friend”, if something like that can even be categorised at all.

She doesn’t hear the girls’ nickname for a while either.

Until one day, when Peter casually asks: “Would you mind if MJ slept over along with Ned?”

“MJ?”, she questions, turning towards him with a puzzled look.

“Michelle Jones... you know, the new Academic Decathlon Captain? Her friends call her MJ and now I guess Ned and I allowed to call her that since we’re her friends”.

She seems to bond to their group increasingly after Homecoming and then after the Blip. She’s not rude by any means, but she doesn’t really say a lot in comparison to her friends, so May doesn’t ever particularly chat to her in any depth beyond polite greetings and queries about being picked up after late night study -sessions-turned-sleepovers.

But as a platonic trio, the three of them seem to be on good ground.

Looking back, she’s not sure she could pinpoint when exactly when the true shift happened.

Slowly but steadily, Peter mentions her more and more in a way he’s never talked about any other friend before, even more than he used to mention Liz. It reaches a point where she expects to hear about the latest “badass” thing that MJ did whenever she asks him how school was that day, right alongside tales of their gang’s usual exploits and the regular gossip of Midtown. It’s not to an unhealthy or obsessive extent, but it’s enough for her to realise that something must be going on between them, even if it’s just a spark.

Not wanting to put pressure on Peter to talk about it, she waits patiently for her suspicions to be confirmed, because she becomes more and more certain every day that there’s something there.

A few weeks before the big school trip to Europe and what they’re both hoping will be a much deserved break, she comes home to Peter furiously scribbling something onto a scrappy frayed bit of paper, his entire face scrunched into fierce concentration.

“Are you designing a new suit or something?”, she casually asks, that being the only thing she can think of in spite of her nephews’ lack of artistic talent.

“Oh no”, is his slightly shy response. “It’s just... a plan...”

That confuses her even more and she sits down beside him, finally looking at what he’s been writing down whilst asking him: “a plan for what? World domination? Have you decided to go all angsty hero turned supervillain on us?”

He laughs at that and then explains himself. “I really like MJ. I wanna tell her how I feel in Europe and I thought it would be better to just write it down rather than winging it. I tried to just be honest with her earlier today and after I said that I had something I wanted to tell her I kind of froze... and ran... very fast... and elephant like... a lot of people stared, it was very noisy and embarrassing.”

She sits with him for about an hour after that, helping him to develop his pretty loose plan into something more concrete. She also had the sad thought that if Tony was still around he would’ve been all over this situation, helping Peter. It’s yet another figure in his life who will never be there for the big moments, but all she can do is try her best for him, like she has done since he was 4 years old and they all realised his parents’ weren’t coming back from that damn plane crash.

In the end, the trip of course gets derailed by (what else?) more superhero stuff and even before what follows a few weeks later, she feels awful that he can’t take a pause from stress and danger for even two weeks, at the age of just 16. He’s still just a kid, but the weight of the world never seems to lift from his shoulders.

But the one positive is that it looks like he didn’t need the plan. When they’re driving home from the airport, the first thing he talks and talks and talks about is everything that happened with him and MJ. Apparently she loved the necklace even though it was broken, they kissed 3 times on Tower Bridge (and a few more times on the way home) and now they’re going on a date soon. She questions if swinging around New York might be a bit intense, but he shrugs her off, saying that it’ll be fine.

She finds out later that it wasn’t fine, but everything that follows after their date completely crashes into everything and makes that detail anecdotal.

Everything changes after Mysterio’s video – at first he runs for far too long and she’s so worried and it breaks her heart to read all the awful, untrue things that damn Daily Bugle keeps on pumping out. The physical copy would be better off used as toilet paper in her opinion (she can’t think of anything as witty for the more popular digital version, but she’s trying). They all meet with him undercover, sporadically, supporting him in whatever way they can.

After an adventure involving Dr Strange (she’s proud of the fact that learnt his name properly now) and weirdest of all several other Spider-Men, he finally comes home and even though everything is still completely uprooted and unstable, at least she has him back now.

For everything that still comes afterward, for every run in with photographers and crazed fans and every time the danger they’re all in now that the world knows becomes apparent, she’s there to pick him back up. And MJ and Ned are too.

She notices that he comes back from patrols even later and when she talks to him about it he admits with a shy blush that he’s been stopping by MJ’s room every night for weeks now. It all seems very Romeo and Juliet. She also chuckles when it’s brought up in conversation with MJ’s mother, because of course she knows he’s there when they think they’re being so sneaky and secretive. How he managed to keep his identity hidden for so long, she’ll never know.

Over time, she gets to know MJ pretty well too: she learns that she’s smart and fierce and sarcastic and cynical in a way that balances Peter’s eternal sunshine perfectly. They really do fit together like pieces of an extremely adorable puzzle.

Her usually mended heart breaks a little when she realises how well she would’ve gotten along with Ben. But eventually she puts that thought away in a precious mental box, carefully kept and full of now bittersweet memories. She simply allows herself to share in her nephews’ new found and long overdue joy.

She truly realises the depth of their feelings for each other in unfortunate to say the least circumstances. A hammering from the Green Goblin puts him in hospital unconscious for a week even with his advanced healing abilities and MJ won’t leave his side for a second, holding onto the broken black dahlia necklace like it’s the only thing anchoring her to reality even after Ned has finally been persuaded to go home to bed. They sleep in plasticky, slightly sticky and hard hospital chairs right next to each other and when Peter finally wakes up the next afternoon he looks so happy to see the 3 people he loves most in the world carefully watching him.

She’s never seen him more scared than the first time a bad guy kidnaps MJ. They were aware that something like this was likely, the girl even prepared herself with self defence classes and her boyfriend is a literal freakin’ superhero. But still, when he finds her, May can see through the security footage that her and Ned are nervously watching, that he holds her with such relief, like she’s the most precious thing in the world.

They of course go to senior prom together and take the classic photos before they go — it’s incredibly corny but their radiant smiles put a bright grin on her face too.

They go long distance for college and although they’re both worried about growing apart, they seem to just get closer, moving into a cramped apartment in their second year.

She comes over for dinner (Peter has always been a disaster in the kitchen, but MJ’s competent enough to keep them from completely living off take out) and the three of them chat and laugh together and they’re not even out of college yet but MJ already feels like family.

What she doesn’t expect is for him to call her at 2am, in floods of tears, barely able to explain to her what happened except “I’ve fucked everything up, oh my god, I’ve fucked everything up...”

Eventually May gets a bigger picture through his tears (“it’s so stupid”, he hiccups down the phone). Essentially it all boils down to a lack of communication and small things boiling over into a blow out fight. Now she’s walking out in sheer anger and he’s frozen in panic. May feels panicked too, feeling the pressure of giving Peter the right advice when she’s honestly not sure how she would handle the situation. He might be all grown up, at college with a long term living together relationship, but sometimes she’s reminded of how young he still is.

She ends up telling him to run after MJ and apparently he does just that, rushing out into the pouring rain and kissing her through tearful apologies from both of them in what sounds like something straight out of a rom com. After that, they get better at sharing how they’re feeling and their relationship seems all the better for it.

She gives him her old engagement ring just after their two year anniversary of living together, after he comes to her apartment with an excited grin, telling her that he wants to propose. An everlasting symbol of her old love, of the love her and Ben shared, that their child can now share with the love of his life.

“So what’s your big plan?” she asks him excitedly over coffee in the mug he bought her a few birthdays back.

“Well, she hates public proposals, so I can’t do that – I was thinking of doing something at home, something cosy...”

That’s exactly what he does.

May helps him with his plan, just as she did 5 years ago – except this time she’s a little bit more directly involved.

Luckily, May and MJ already have a regular rom com night every few weeks, so MJ isn’t too surprised or suspicious when she invites her ‘round for an afternoon of Bridget Jones. Just as the perpetually single heroine is giving birth to Colin Firth’s baby, she gets a thumbs up text from Peter, letting her know that he’s ready to go.

MJ took the bus here, so May suggests they go back to the apartment together, because she couldn’t bear the idea of not being around for what awaits MJ at home. MJ gives her a strange look but just rolls with it.

When MJ opens the apartment door after saying goodbye to May, the lights are dimmed, except for a glowing structure in the corner, which Peter comes out of grinning.

“I made you a fort!” he declares happily with his arms in the air. As MJ grins and laughs and kisses him as she jumps into his arms, she takes that as a cue to fully leave them alone.

She stands and waits and wonders what’s happening inside. She could see that he’d filled the inside of the fort with fairy lights and she knows that he was planning on ordering MJ’s favourite food (pepperoni pizza) and putting on a murder documentary she’d been talking about for weeks.

After what must’ve been the time for them to eat their pizza and watch the documentary, plus about 7 minutes give or take, they open the door. They both have tears in their eyes as MJ holds up her left hand to show May the newly placed ring on her finger.

They have placeholder seats in the ceremony, for everyone who’s not there, who would’ve been there. Who should’ve been there. Everyone lost isn’t forgotten and it’s as heartwarming as it is sad.

He goes back to May’s the night before the wedding out of superstition and tradition. She wakes him up pretty early and he complains until he realises what day it is. He shares a soft phone call with MJ as soon as he’s awake enough to hold a conversation, but May has no idea what’s being said, as she goes to the kitchen, wanting to give them both privacy.

She makes sure to tell Peter how proud she is of him when she’s helping him tie his tie like he’s back in high school and getting ready for Homecoming.

When he sees MJ walk down the aisle, they both look at each other like they’re being given the entire world.

Peter speaks first, nervously taking cue cards out of his pocket and saying: “MJ, I know that you hate clichés and corny lines, so I’m not going to use any. Instead, I’m just going to make a bunch of promises. I promise to support you and stand by your side, to have your back in the way that you always have mine. I promise to always be there to make you smile when you’re sad. I promise to watch scary horror movies with you, even if they really scare me. I promise not to spoil endings of things. I promise to love you forever.”

An already tearful MJ follows him with: “Peter, a long time ago, I told you that I don’t have much luck when it comes to getting close to people. But that’s not been true for a long time, thanks to you. Sorry to use clichés my vows after you cut them out of yours, but I feel so damn lucky to be marrying my best friend. I promise to stand by you and fight for you even when you’re being really stupid, I promise to support all of your nerdy stuff and most of all, I promise to always love you, dork”

May thinks back on everything her boy has suffered through, everything that has been put upon him for so long. Seeing him brimming with joy, gazing lovingly at his wife, surrounded by everyone who loves and supports them both, she bursts into tears herself.

It’s one of the happiest days of her life .It’s only matched by her both of her wedding days and the days that Benjamin Anthony Parker-Jones and Taylor-May Parker-Jones are born.

#mj week 2021 #spideychelle #peter/mj #mcu fanfiction #MCU #marvel

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duskholland · 4 years

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Breaking Windows (Peter Parker)

Summary: You’re Thor’s daughter and may have a teeny tiny crush on your classmate and fellow Avenger, Peter Parker.

Word count: 3k

Warnings: Action and fluff! There’s a fight scene and a minor injury, but it’s nothing too gruesome. Also like one swear word? Otherwise just fluff.

A/N: This is my first piece of writing in...a year and a half? Ish? I’m nervous to post it but I really like how it turned out! It was requested and I love the concept and had a great time writing it, so thank you anon! I hope you like it too :D

“Please, Y/N, I’m begging… There are ways to escape a building that don’t involve leaping from the fifty-third floor.”

You scoff loudly. “Peter, I can fly,” you remind him. You stretch your hands above your head and let out a muffled groan as your muscles tense and flex, the tension of the previous battle draining away as you walk into the Avengers compound, your companion following just behind.

“And?” Peter squeaks. You glance to your friend and feel a little bad when you see the concern in his eyes. “You could still get hurt.” His eyes narrow. “Look- you still have glass in your hair!”

You bat clumsily at your head, hands scraping through your messy locks. “Got it?”

“Nope.”

You pause abruptly, irritation causing you to furrow your eyebrows. “Stupid glass,” you mutter. You’d already spent several minutes picking shards from your hair, and several hours more regretting your choice to dive through that window. Not that you’d ever admit that to Peter.

“Do you want me to get it?” Peter asks, voice gentle. He’s eyeing a spot just above your left temple.

You sigh, deflated and defeated. “Yeah, please.” You bow your head.

Peter shifts a little closer, and for the first time you become truly aware of the circumstances.

Now seventeen, Peter’s shoulders have filled out and he stands full and stocky, the worn reds and blues of his spidey suit clinging to the definition of his arms and chest. When you move your gaze up, you see ashy black lines clinging to his jaw, and a bit of soot nestled up against his ear. The wildness of his brown hair as it sticks up in all directions really adds to the whole just-escaped-from-battle look he has going on.

You smile quietly as you feel his fingers knock through your hair, and remain silently still as he works his magic.

Maybe you have a tiny crush on Peter. Maybe. But you’re both seniors at Midtown, and you’re both also superheroes who have to work together, so it’s complicated. Far too complicated.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t admire him.

“Got it,” Peter says. He’s part way through bringing his hands back from your hair when there’s a sudden burst of noise, and from around the corner comes two all-too-familiar figures.

“Oh- what do we have here?” You can practically hear the smirk in Tony Stark’s voice as he swaggers forward.

Peter quickly snatches his hands back, jumping away from you as if he’s just been caught doing something incredibly sinful.

“I told you,” Thor’s voice bellows. “Two young ones like these. Keep them together enough and… Well, I told you.” His eyes flick to you, a loose grin on his face.

“Shut up, dad,” you mutter. Embarrassment flames the apples of your cheeks as you scowl at Thor.

“Oi.” Tony and Thor are in front of you now, and Thor’s got his arms crossed. “I’m just saying.” You receive an affectionate scruff of your head from your father.

“No canoodling on official Avengers business,” Tony chimes in, voice lilted with tease. “Don’t tell me I’m going to have to start separating you both now.”

You groan, exasperated beyond belief. You’re tired, sore, and dirty from spending the last two hours fighting off New York’s newest threat, and now you’re dealing with this. “Goodbye,” you say, and grab Peter’s arm before he can complain. You drag him away from Thor and Tony and across to your room, slamming the door behind you as pointedly as possible. “They are so annoying!” You groan, resting your forehead against the cool wood.

“They call us immature.”

Your and Peter’s laughs mingle in the air, and you turn to meet his tired gaze. His cheeks are flushed and his lips a cherry red, and you find yourself momentarily losing your breath as you take in just how cute he is.

“I should go shower,” you say, after a moment of looking. Peter nods his head.

“Yeah, me too.” He scratches at his arm, looking down at his feet. “See you in class tomorrow?”

You nod, moving away from the door so he can shuffle past you. “Definitely.”

Peter’s hand rests on the doorknob for a moment of indecision, before he blurts- “No more spontaneous jumping out of windows, yeah? You’ll give me a heart attack.”

You grin. “But it makes my cape look cool!” You protest.

“I don’t care!” Peter’s laughing, but he’s still frowning. “You’re my partner- you- you have to be safe.”

You feel your heart melt. His eyes are round and soft and flooded with concern, and he’s staring at you bashfully. “I’ll be safe,” you promise. You’re starting to feel a little guilty now. “Besides, if ever I’m not safe, I’m pretty sure I know someone who’ll be near that can save me.”

Peter tilts his head to the side. “Who, Thor?”

“No, silly.” You reach out and push his shoulder, rolling your eyes. “You!”

His cheeks flame. “Oh…”

“Unless you don’t want to save me?” You tease, rocking back on your heels. He looks frazzled, and you can’t help but swoon slightly as he runs a frustrated hand through his hair.

“No, no. I’ll save you.” Peter finally twists the doorknob and steps aside, preparing to head out. He looks up to you, a mischievous grin on his face. “My life would be pretty boring if you weren’t around to keep it interesting.” He raises a hand in a friendly wave as he walks away. “See ya tomorrow!”

“Bye!”

You quickly shut your door and immediately press your back against the wood, sliding down until you’re resting on the floor with your knees pulled to your chest. You groan quietly, hands fisting your hair as you try to calm your racing heart.

“God damnit,” you mutter. You close your eyes and all you see is Peter and his stupidly cute lopsided smile floating behind your eyelids. You sigh, and open your eyes to instead stare up at the ceiling.

Maybe your crush is growing a little out of control.

----------------

It’s the following week when it happens again.

One moment you’re sat in maths class, mindlessly scrawling the answers to the pop quiz (turns out Midtown is a breeze compared to the education you got on Asgard), and the next the hairs on the back of your neck are standing on end as a cold feeling of dread sweeps through you. Your eyes dart up, finding Peter’s from two rows of desks away, and a moment later the both of you leave the room without a word.

“What is it?” You ask him, digging through your bag as the two of you walk quickly down the corridor of the school. Luckily no one’s around to gawk as you pull out your sword and quickly change out your jumper for your cape.

“Looks like it’s those Chitauri scrappers again.”

You’re at the end of the corridor now, and you peer out of the window to see Peter’s right: in the distance you recognise the same glowing purple light from the battle the week before. You eye the staircase to your right, and realise you’re on the fourth floor of the school.

“Race you?” You offer, hands already on the window sill. You jerk up the glass panes and feel the cool afternoon breeze rush onto you. The feeling of the wind on your skin is like no other - being the daughter of Thor, the God of Thunder, certainly has its perks.

Peter grabs your shoulder just before you’re ready to launch out into the city. He’s traded his clothes for his suit, but his face is still there, a deep worried line between his eyebrows, his mouth pursed with worry. “Be safe.”

His hand is on your shoulder, and he’s looking at you with such care and adoration that you just can’t help yourself. As if you’re two opposing magnets, suddenly his arms are around you and your mouth is on his, your lips connecting in a hot kiss. You melt into his body as you grab at his hair, his mouth feeling so good against yours. It feels like it lasts a blissful, wonderful infinity, but you know it’s only a few stolen seconds before you pull away. There’s a moment of silence, of you looking at him, and him looking at you, his head tilted a little to the side, and you know that a line in your friendship has been crossed. But is that such a bad thing?

“Last one there is a loser,” you say, after a moment. There’s a smile fixed to your face so strongly that you doubt you could drop it, even if you tried. You reach up and ruffle his hair before turning your back on him and launching yourself out of the window.

Wind rushes past your face as you soar across the city, happy laughter escaping your mouth. Your sword hangs off your belt as you do a few spins through the air, just because you can, and you have to concentrate extremely hard in order to calm down from your unbelievable high as you approach the dangerous scrappers. The last time you’d had a run in with them, they’d scarpered before you and Peter could apprehend them, taking with them several thousands of dollars worth of alien weapons. Today, you can’t afford to let them get away.

When you’re nearer the action zone, things pull into focus. It doesn’t look good. There are around twenty scrappers spread down the busy high street, but unlike last time, they are now equipped with the dangerous Chituari technology that they’d stolen from Tony’s lab. They have blasters of all shapes and sizes, and you can already see scorches on the side of buildings and rubble littering the streets. Though some of the Avenger team have already arrived, the civilians haven’t yet been cleared, and you feel your heart sink as you notice how near some of them are to the danger.

The communication device you’ve got shoved in your ear buzzes to life now you’re in the vicinity of the team, and it’s only a moment later that you get your instruction. “Y/N, clear the street with Peter. We’ve got this for now,” comes the stressed bark of Ironman. You mutter an affirmative agreement and quickly swoop down, landing on the street with a loud thump.

You begin scattering the crowd, using your sword to offer a barrier from any flying debris and laser beams that might harm the screaming people. After about a minute of your work, Peter shows up, swinging from between the towering buildings of the city before landing next to you. You hear him get similar instructions and look to him, flashing him a quick smile.

“I beat you,” you yell, voice rising above the noise. You continue to usher the civilians out of the street.

Peter scoffs, his voice static through your earpiece as he swings around, roping back the bricks and scaffolding that threaten to topple onto the street. “Barely,” he responds, breathless.

The both of you work together until the street is cleared and all that remains is around ten of the scrappers. They’ve made some considerable damage, even with the Avenger team slowly taking them down. You survey the scene before shooting up into the sky and stretching out your hands. Time to do some real work.

Closing your eyes, you concentrate for a moment on the sky, imagining the power seeping from the clouds into your hands, building, building, building, until…

With a crack of thunder, you blast a large pile of their weaponry with a lightning bolt, causing a few of the scrappers to fly through the air, crashing into the ground where they remain motionless. You hear a few whoops in your earpiece and smile, but only for a moment, because a second later, you’re being shot at by four remaining canons, their dangerous purple strikes skimming uncomfortably close to you.

“Shit,” you mutter, zipping away. They seem intent to pull you from the sky, and with each second, you feel the strikes getting nearer to your skin. As you’re forced to concentrate on dodging them, getting in only the occasional blast at the ground, you hear the static voice of Tony in your ear again.

“You alright being our live bait up there?” He asks. “We have a game plan. Distract them.”

“Yeah, yeah,” you say, pausing to curse as you feel a blast graze your side. “Just hurry.” They’re getting angry now, and you watch as the scrappers focus in on you, seemingly oblivious to the rest of your team on the ground who are slowly approaching them and picking off the weaker outer members.

You continue to pirouette in the sky, doing your best to be a distracting force. After a few minutes alone, you feel the air shift and look behind you to see you’ve been joined by your father. “I can do this by myself,” you say, not unkindly. You watch him shrug.

“Looked like fun up here. Finally some challenge.”

And you work back to back, combining your strength as Gods of the Sky to pinpoint the few remaining scrappers on the ground, just as the ground team swing into action. Before you know it, there’s only one guy left, and he’s glaring up at you with such piercing hatred in his eyes that you feel a little scared. He has one final shot with his canon before he’s webbed up by Peter, but much to your horror, the blinding purple light of his weapon pierces into your leg and you tumble from the sky, pain ricocheting through your body as you curse. Too blinded by agony, you wait for the inevitable collision with the dusty concrete, eyes screwed shut.

It never comes.

Instead, you feel chords of tight stringy material wrap around your body, and swing away from the ground. A moment later, you’re gently lowered to the road, and meet it with a soft oomph. You pry your eyes open and see layers of white sticky spider web wrapped around your entire body, and let out a watery laugh between the tears of pain.

“This- This is gonna take me so long to get off,” you whine, clenching and unclenching your fists as you’re surrounded by the rest of the team. Your head lulls to the side, and your eyes find Peter, who’s now crouching by your head. At your feet, you see Tony, and feel a cold pressure on your leg as one of his machines gets to work stitching you up. Wincing bravely through the pain, you look pleadingly to Peter.

“I can help you,” he says, face white with worry. He keeps glancing to your leg. “Uh- that- that was really impressive,” he mutters, forcing his gaze to your eyes. Grasping the importance for distraction, he clears his throat. “Until the point where you got blasted out the sky, that is,” he adds.

You laugh, the noise slightly strangled but still alight with appreciation. “It was epic,” you agree. “Did you get them all?”

Peter nods, his fluffy hair shifting in the wind. “Yep. Got all the weapons too. They’re taking them all into custody now.” You look back and see Thor roughly shoving the remaining conscious men into the back of a van.

“That’s your leg bandaged,” Tony announces. You look down and see him looking at you, arms crossed. “Try to stay off it for a few days. I know how you Asgardians are, so please, make sure to rest-”

Before he’s finished talking, you’re already on your feet, shaking out your leg as you marvel at his handiwork. It feels like brand new, the pain now just a distant throb.

“Thanks,” you say, beaming.

“Rest it,” he threatens, shaking his finger at you before moving off to help the others.

And then it’s just you and Peter, alone in the middle of the carnage of the street, a pocket of serenity amidst the chaos.

“Thanks for saving me,” you say, a little shy, now. You would’ve been fine if you’d crashed straight into the hard concrete, but you’re feeling particularly smitten now as you look at Peter, his face still pinched with an element of stress, but more relaxed now you’re up and about.

“‘S okay. Said I’d save you, didn’t I?” He replies. He reaches out and pulls at some of the stringy web that still covers your body, and winces. “This might take a bit of work, though.”

You laugh, and stretch your hand out to where his is resting on your side. Your fingers wrap around his and you slowly intertwine them, a tentative movement until he pushes in against you, connecting your palms and squeezing your hand warmly.

“We make a pretty good team,” you say, swallowing nervously. You meet his eyes, his brown eyes warm and inviting, and feel your heart pulse in your chest.

“We do,” he agrees. He steps a little closer, cheeks blooming with a rosy pink. “Maybe we should work together again sometime.”

You nod. He’s directly in front of you now, your hands still laced together. After a moment of just looking, you lean in and press a soft kiss to his waiting lips, your bodies slotting together gently, perfectly. It’s just a small kiss, but in the seconds that span out afterwards, your foreheads press together, and his breath fans out across your face. Your eyes are closed, and for a moment, you feel everything slotting together.

“Oi!” There’s a holler from the end of the street, and you peel back from Peter to see your dad glaring at you. “Stop that.”

You laugh lightly. “Go away!” You respond, and quickly tug Peter in the opposite direction. “They’re going to be so annoying about this, aren’t they?” You mutter, jerking your head back in the direction of the team, whose eyes burn into your backs as you and Peter hurry away.

“Yep.” Peter rolls his eyes. “Guess we’ll just have to deal with it.”

You nod your head slowly, your heart feeling lighter than ever before. “I guess we will.”

And what follows may or may not have involved a secluded alley and lots of kissing, but you’d never tell.

----------------

any feedback? I would love to hear any thoughts you have on this!

masterlist

#Peter parker #Peter Parker x reader #Peter Parker imagine #Peter Parker x y/n #Peter Parker oneshot #I LOV MY SOFT SON #my writing #odinson!reader #avenger!reader

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stark-tony · 3 years

Text

most recent bookmarks (6/18/21)

mcu

you game? cake time? by iron_spider (3k, T, pepperony) Peter stares at him.“I’d like your help,” Tony says, gesturing towards the ton of cakes. “Your refined palette.”Peter snorts. He can’t lie, excitement is rising in his throat and in his stomach, and he barely ate at lunch today because he was trying to finish up the book report before sixth period. “Does Miss Potts know you picked me?”“You can call her Pepper.”Peter cocks his head. “Does Pepper know you picked me to help you?”

The Dangers of Sleeping on the Upside of the Bed by Honorable_mention (1.1k, G, gen, quarantine) Midtown High School’s Academic Decathlon team had moved online. Once a week, even during the summer, everyone would log on and chat for a few minutes before trying to beat each other on Protobowl while hurling barely school appropriate threats at each other. It was really quite a lot of fun.Through these online meetings Cindy Moon had gotten the opportunity to intimately learn about her teammates in a way she hadn’t been able to when they were in-person. A person’s room and the way they talked to their family told you a lot about them.In which the members of the Academic Decathlon team get the chance to meet Peter's roommates

something bright coming his way by iron_spider (6.5k, T, gen, hurt peter) “Pete,” Tony’s voice says. “I’m heading to your location.”Peter narrows his eyes. Karen’s colors turn from dark red to a softer blue, which he takes as her celebrating Tony’s imminent arrival. How imminent? What?“What?” Peter says again. Like an idiot.“Your numbers aren’t what I like to see and you stopped moving and I was in the area, anyway. You know. Doing Iron Man things. You okay?”Peter blinks. He sees some more lights out ahead of him that he thinks are headlights, and he feels like Karen is trying to even out his vision by changing how things come across on the HUD. She’s failing, but he won’t say that. Can she read his brainwaves? No. Definitely not. Maybe. Either way he doesn’t wanna be mean to her, so he stops thinking.Ugh, his side hurts.

Of All the Nurses’ Offices in All the High Schools... by sahiya (7k, T, gen, outsiders pov, identity reveal, hurt peter) Peter Parker has his own gravitational orbit, and it tends to suck in the people around him. Including burned out school nurses who were just minding their own business.Or: Patrick Carmichael meets Spider-Man (and Tony Stark), adopts a cat, and gets just a little bit better.

a first time for everything by crowkag (7.7k, pepperony, sick peter) “Why are you whispering?” Pepper was asking, and the other noises were receding away behind the creak of a door and click of a lock.“Because I’m hosting a vigilante super-teen with enhanced hearing this weekend.” He slumped back into the couch cushions. “Or did you forget?”There was a sharp intake of breath.“Peter? Oh god, what did you—”“Nothing,” Tony rushed out, scrambling. “He’s fine. The kid’s fine, honey.”A beat of silence.“Okay, well, he’s not fine, but—”“Tony Stark—”

Is he or Is he not? by Omenthia_Arc (43.2k, G, pepperony, 5 + 1, people think peter is tony’s kid) Five times someone thought that Peter was Tony's biological son and one time everyone thought it.

The Moon Looks Lovely Tonight by Omi_Ohmy (35.7k, M, drarry, post-hogwarts, domestic) When Harry moves into the damp and empty Black house, it doesn’t quite feel like home. And then the first owl moves in. After that, it’s a steep slope leading to bed-sharing, more owls, assorted housemates, strange potions experiments, and terrible cooking. And a bit of waltzing, too.

The Wrong Sort by CaffeinatedFlumadiddle (289.5k, T, drarry, romione, gryffindor draco, canon divergence, torture) In which Draco Malfoy is sorted into Gryffindor and everything kind of goes to Hell from there… but hey. At least there’s a chance he won’t grow up to be an awful person. Alternatively titled ‘Draco Malfoy and the Worst Goddamn Seven Years of His Life’

The Mirror of Ecidyrue by starbrigid (998.6k, E, drarry, wolfstar, romione, neville/ luna, grindeldore, lockhart/snape, time travel, fix it, abuse) All it takes is one look in a mirror and an ill-advised attempt to shatter it, before an embittered Draco Malfoy fresh out of Azkaban is sent back into his body on the day he gets his Hogwarts letter.Suddenly, Draco has an unwanted second chance, with a Sorting Hat that doesn't know what to do with him, a certain Muggleborn who won't leave his study table alone, and green eyes he just can't get out of his head. And then there's his new wand, whose choice of him could just mark him as every bit as dark a wizard as his name means he should be.

more than getting by by sarewolf (34.4k, M, wolfstar, wolfstar raises harry) “What do you want me to do?” Remus says, tiredly. All he wants is to curl up on his bed. Smoke a pack of cigarettes. Get drunk. He can’t stop looking at Harry.“Remus...” Dumbledore is gentle. Remus hates when he has that tone. Hates that he knows it will hurt. “There is no one else left.”A bitter laugh escapes him. “So you’ll curse the poor thing with a werewolf for a guardian?”

How Like Home by waitingondaisies (63.5k, T, jily, dimension travel) When Sirius falls through the veil, Harry chases after him, determined to find him on the other side. Instead, he finds nothing at all. When he wakes up, he is informed by Unspeakables that he is from an alternate universe.Thanks to his uncanny resemblance to his counterpart, Harry is readily recognized as a duplicate of Harry Potter, a normal fifteen year old boy, and is entrusted to the care of Lily and James Potter. From them, Harry discovers that Voldemort is not, and never was, a threat in this universe.Now, Harry must adapt to life with loving parents in a peaceful world.

Professor Black by Haunted_Frost (29k, T, wolfstar, professor regulus black) Kreacher's unending loyalty has allowed Regulus to survive the Inferi. In order to destroy the horcrux and ensure Voldemort's death, he goes back to Hogwarts, this time as a Potions professor. Years at this position give him new insights, even as the papers rave about how both the Blacks were traitors to their sides.When Sirius gets loose from Azkaban, Regulus knows one thing: he is not going to let his lunatic brother hurt his students.Inspired entirely by this tumblr post.

atla

(let me be) there for you by lesmiserablol (8.5k, T, zukka, post-war, bodyguard sokka, friends to lovers, idiots to lovers) Sokka pulls out a clean piece of parchment and starts to write:Reasons Why Sokka Would Be A Great Bodyguard for Lord ZukoHe smiles in satisfaction at the title. Seeing it in writing only makes him feel more confident in this brilliant, two-minute-old idea of his. Zuko is one of his closest friends, and Sokka is a great fighter, he would be the perfect bodyguard! He has the entirety of his trip in the Fire Nation to prove it to Zuko. This is going to be a piece of cake.(or, Sokka mistakes his crush for just a strong desire to be a guard for Zuko, and Suki is amused)

boy problems by burnt_oranges (22.2k, zukka, mailee, friends to lover, post-war, arranged marriage) “I accidentally signed off on an arranged marriage to Sokka,” Zuko says faintly. He sits up so fast he almost falls out of his chair. “I signed off on an arranged marriage to Sokka, and he agreed."In which Zuko suffers in a variety of ways, including but not limited to: close and constant proximity to the object of his affections, assassination attempts, and irreparable injuries to his dignity.

we really should google these things first by Bundibird (3k, G, gen, modern) Sokka's aloe vera plant is in need of a good pruning, and what's Sokka gonna do, just throw out all the pruned leaves? When instead he can make aloe vera juice? Come on. (Only - maybe he should have googled this beforehand. Because it turns out there's an edible kind of aloe, and a toxic kind. Guess what kind Sokka has. Go on, guess.)(Or: the modern AU based on the time I nearly poisoned myself with a non-edible succulent.)

spn

Checked Out by whelvenwings (27.1k, G, destiel, dreamhunter, library au, librarian castiel, writer dean, openly bi dean, misunderstandings) Castiel Novak can think of many writers who would not be welcome under the roof of Heaven’s Gate library, where he is the librarian: Ayn Rand ranks highly (no explanation needed), as does Charles Dickens (he hasn’t forgiven Charles for the month he lost to The Pickwick Papers). And, of course, Dean Winchester. Dean Winchester, local author and obvious a-hole, who is entirely too handsome to be true and who is clearly totally lacking in profundity, intelligence, sincerity, and self-awareness. Unfortunately, though, Dean’s been invited to do a book signing at Heaven’s Gate - and Castiel’s about to be confronted by some unexpected feelings when he finally meets Dean for the first time.

Aim and Ignite by wincechesters (10.3k, M, destiel, cas in the bunker) After the angels fall and Cas loses his grace, and with Sam still recovering from the toll taken on his body by the trials, Dean starts a prank war as a way to lighten the mood in the bunker and alleviate his boredom. It might just have some unexpected consequences. --- A post-S8 canon AU.

bnha

Izuku plays video games with the League of Villains (among other things) by ADyingFlower (54.2k, T, gen, quirkless midoriya, villain deku) Izuku plays video games with the League of Villains, denies being a villain, has his beloved animal crossing file threatened, kicks ass with a shotgun, is proposed to, learns to deal with his depression, and accidentally kidnaps the son of the number two hero. In that order.Or: Five times Izuku played online with his friends, and one time he played with them in personThen Himiko screams.“CAPTAIN!” “Y-yeah?” Tomura asks almost hesitantly. “LOOK!!” All four of them spin around, right as a cannonball comes soaring inches from Izuku’s head from the Galleon less than a three feet away from them. They scream. “OH FUCK NO NO NO NO! NO!” Dabi yells, running to load the cannons. “DUDE WE HAVE SO MUCH SHIT! NO! HOLY FUCKING SHIT!”“Hey guys, guys! Hey, chill!” Izuku shrieks frantically, right as one of the players boards their ship and starts shooting. “CHILL THE FUCK OUT!”

our trust shot full of holes by nolov (louscr) (25.9k, T, gen) When he's twelve, Izuku meets his best friend. Neither of them are especially good at having friends, but they make do.The other shoe drops less than a week into his first year at U.A.

Are You Valued? by cyber_phobia (9.2k, T, dad for one) "What are you drawing, Izuku?" Hisashi asks with adoration dripping in his voice. "It's Uncle!" Izuku shouts, smacking his dad's arm for daring to ask once more. All the air leaves Hisashi's lungs in one fell swoop.

To Spark A Smile by awefull (1.1k, G, gen, dadzawa) A six-year-old. Aizawa was the guardian of a six-year-old. Aizawa, a pro-hero, who had poor eating habits, and no sleep schedule, was in charge of raising a little girl.He, reasonably, had some concerns.

Long Night in the Valley by Marsalias (53.7k, T, gen, suspected traitor, dad might, dad for one) On paper, the Hero Commission's plan to investigate Midoriya Izuku under the guise of a training course for combating mental quirks is solid, almost foolproof, even. If Midoriya turns out to be innocent, they can pass everything off as part of the training exercise, assuming he even remembered any of it. Otherwise, they could beg forgiveness after the traitor was securely imprisoned in Tartarus.The paper plan failed to take into account the feral ghosts living in Midoriya Izuku's head, or his equally feral living friends.Time to bring on the chaos.

i gave the voices in my head a megaphone by hannahbal (17.3k, todoroki/midoriya/shinsou) ...and they started singing Megan Thee Stallion.(Hitoshi, like any good friend, brainwashes Izuku’s anxiety away for a day so he can know some peace. The problem? Izuku has no fear of god or consequences.Izuku also has no goddamn filter.)

Nothing Could Be More Worthwhile by Krisington (3.5k, G, gen, dad might) Toshinori Yagi wouldn’t say he had let his guard down in retirement, not exactly. It was more accurate to say that he had let his guard down in his true form. He didn’t notice others, and others didn’t notice him. It had become a small pleasure, he realized, one he was reluctant to let go.He should have known better.The man managed to reach All Might’s forehead a split second before All Might grabbed the man’s arm. But a second was just enough.A villain showed All Might a vision of Izuku. Bloodied. Broken. Fading. Was that some future that would come to pass? Toshinori needed to do everything in his power to make sure it wasn't.

everything i wanted by raindrops_0 (9k, T, gen, 5 + 1) Izuku turns to face Hitoshi and flashes a bright smile, eyes folding into crescent moons.Bright like the afternoon sun swallowing Hitoshi whole, bright like All Might’s fucking perfect grin, bright like he’s already a hero.Bright like everything Hitoshi has ever wanted and then more.(Hitoshi can’t help it, but he hates. Of course Izuku can smile as if the whole world is in his hands. He’s never had to fight for every little thing and be hated for it.)Or 5 times Hitoshi misjudged the golden boy of UA, and 1 time he finally understood.

hp/bnha

Bend Before You Break by orkestrations (16.2k, T, gen) When Izuku set out for his morning run, the last thing he was expecting was to be plucked from his own world by magic and thrown into another universe entirely.Removed from his own conflict and with no way back, he sets himself to figuring out this world and its own incipient war while searching for a way to possibly reverse the spell that brought him here.It's just his luck that the year he arrives is the same year the government decides it's a great idea to bring back the potentially-deadly tournament.

#my fics recs #most recent bookmarks #hp recs #atla recs #mcu recs #bnha recs #spn recs #abuse tw #torture tw

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spontaneousstupidwriting · 3 years

Text

FebuWhump Day 3: Imprisonment

Peter gets locked in a closet at school and can't get out without risking his secret being found out.

Also on AO3

Peter sighs as Flash continues to taunt him as he walks through the halls. Normally Peter wouldn't care so much about the bully but both Ned and MJ are out today.

“Hey, Penis, I’m talking to you!” Flash shouts, Peter rolls his eyes and ignores his spidey-sense telling him something is about to happen. He grunts as he's shoved into the lockers. Flash crowds him and the rest of the students don't spare more than a glance at the familiar scene. "You should know better than to ignore me by now, Parker."

Peter huffs, "Whatever, Flash, can we just get this over with, we're going to be late for class."

Flash looks to the left of the lockers then to the thinning hallway crowd before turning back to him, "Oh I don't think you'll need to worry about that."

Flash grabs him by the front of his shirt and drags him to the door by the lockers that he glanced at earlier. "What are you-" Peter isn't given time to finish his question before the other teen opens the door and shoves him into the rooms. Peter stumbles into the shelves lining the back of what is apparently a small storage room. Dust fills the air after he disturbs it leading to a coughing fit.

"Have fun in there, Penis. Maybe you shouldn't ignore people," is the last thing Peter hears before the door is slammed and the light disappears.

His coughing dying down, Peter takes a second to get his bearings. The only light in the closet is what comes through the bottom of the door and as his eyes adjust to the low lighting he sees that he must be in an old janitor’s closet. The shelves are lined with cleaning supplies and everything seems to be layered in dust.

The bell signaling the beginning of first period rings and Peter sighs, one of the few days that he gets to school early and he still doesn’t get to class before the bell. He reaches for the handle and twists. Instead of turning as it should, it makes a grinding sound before it stops twisting completely. Peter uses a little more strength but it quickly becomes apparent that he’d have to use some more than he’s usually comfortable using outside of his suit. He debates with himself, remembering that the school recently installed cameras after someone raided the lockers and that it’d see him breaking the doorknob on his way out. Peter’s shoulders slump in defeat, he can’t handle another mark on his record.

Of all the days to forget my phone, Peter mourns. He resigns himself to waiting and settles on the floor, maybe he can use the small bit of light to outline his English essay. Surely Flash will come back.

So he waits.

He waits through the bell signaling the end of first period, and waits as the beginning of second period starts. He waits as the following periods begin and end and debates breaking the doorknob again as he regrets forgetting to put more snacks in his backpack and lunch begins. He waits as it ends and the later classes begin and waits some more till the end bell rings.

Throughout the day as he hears his classmates walk by Peter can’t bring himself to call out and face the humiliation that awaits his release that way. It’s only until about a half-hour after school ends that Peter gives up hope of being released by his tormentor that he gives in and starts pounding on the door calling for help. He can hear that the few people in the hall can hear him as steps slow and a few mention it to someone else, but no one comes to help him. That doesn’t stop Peter from continuing because surely someone will come to help.

But no one does. Not the stragglers or the club goers, even a janitor passes by later long after school ends, the sound of music coming from his direction, likely from headphones.

Eventually, the school clears out, void of any sounds. Peter slumps against the door, not believing that he was still stuck in here. By this point, there’s no light coming from the bottom of the door and it starts to cool as the heaters turn off for the night.

Peter reconsiders his options, while there's no chance of a person seeing him break the knob the cameras likely continue rolling after school ends and there are security alarms on the doors in case someone breaks in. Would they activate if he opens them from the inside? He doesn’t want to risk it. May is supposed to get home around ten tonight, a time still far off. Once again he resigns himself to wait, but this time it’s much more unpleasant.

His stomach has been growling since school ended and the cold begins to seep into his bones. It’s wintertime now and the temperature continues to drop as the night continues. The lack of food and overwhelming cold slows his thoughts and he just stares at the door in front of him. When was the last time he went so long without food? Mr. Stark is always hounding him to eat because of his metabolism so it’s been a while.

Despite how cold he is, Peter doesn’t shiver, something that seemed to happen due to the bite. He pulls his jacket even tighter around him and regrets not wearing a scarf like May told him to that morning. He shuffles into the corner connected to the door on autopilot and his eyes get heavier and heavier as the temperature continues its descent.

May, finally able to take a break, checks her phone as she takes her break getting some fresh air in the hospital courtyard. She frowns when she sees that she has a voicemail from Peter’s school and immediately checks it.

An absence notice? She checks for any messages from her nephew or Tony, because while these notices used to be pretty common, Tony usually checks Peter out at the office after being appointed as one of his emergency contacts. But there’s nothing from either of them, nothing to tell her where Peter is or if he’s okay.

Panic beginning to rise in her chest she clicks on Peter’s contact and waits with bated breath as it continues to ring. Maybe he’s asleep or in the shower she tries to assure herself but that excuse becomes a bit harder after Peter’s voicemail greets her for the third time. Giving up on that she scrolls over to Tony’s contact, hoping that he’ll answer and have some answers.

Tony’s working in the lab when FRIDAY interrupts his music, “May Parker is calling you, boss.”

Tony frowns, “What time is it, baby girl?”

“It is eight twenty-two p.m. May is scheduled to be working right now and Peter’s suit has not been online since his patrol two days ago. Would you like to answer the call?”

Tony nods, “Answer it and save everything here, for now, something seems off about this.”

Instead of a response from FRIDAY, the next thing Tony hears is May’s voice, “Tony?”

Wiping his hands off on a cloth, Tony answers, “Hey May, everything alright? FRI says you’re supposed to be at work.”

“Is Peter with you? Or have you heard from him at all today?”

Tony freezes, “No, he sent his usually good morning text at the ungodly hour he usually does but nothing else. What’s wrong?”

He can hear May’s shaky breath, “His school says he wasn’t at school today and he isn’t answering his phone. I haven’t heard from him since he left for school this morning,” by the end of it her voice starts to break.

A pit grows in his stomach as he tries to keep his voice steady for May, “You need to take a deep breath okay? I have multiple trackers on him. I'm sure he has at least one on him,” A hologram pops up on his workstation with various items and locations.

“In any other circumstance that’d be extremely creepy,” she faintly laughs.

“From the looks of it his phone and suits are at home but his wallet, keys, nano bracelets, and watch are at Midtown and got there right before school started. So he did make it to school, and because he never takes off the nanotech I’m willing to bet he’s still there.”

“What is he doing there?”

Tony signals for FRIDAY to shut the lab down, “I don’t know but I’m going to head down there, don’t worry May. I’ll call you when I find out what’s going on.”

May sighs, “I’m going to leave early and head to the apartment, please let me know as soon as possible.”

“As soon as I find him, and I will find him.”

“I know you will,” is the last thing she says before hanging up.

Tony makes his way up to the elevator, “FRI, landing pad, please. I want an update if there’s any movement on a tracker.”

“Of course, boss, shall I alert Happy to meet you at Midtown?”

Tony is enveloped by a waiting suit, “Tell him to bring some food and water too, it looks like Peter’s barely moved all day and it’s been a long time since breakfast.”

FRIDAY tells him that Happy will arrive ten minutes after him as he navigates the suit to Peter’s school. “What should be waiting for us at the school security-wise?”

“There are cameras in the hallways and classrooms as well as alarms on the doors and windows activated at six-fifteen today.”

Midtown comes into view and he starts to descend, “Disable the alarms and keep the camera footage on loop until we leave. Is there any footage with Peter there today?”

“Yes, boss, in it he appears to be walking to class when another student approaches him and shoves him into a room by himself, there is no footage of Peter leaving the room.”

The pit in Tony’s stomach grows as he enters the school still in his suit, is Peter hurt? Did he hit his head? “Where is the room?”

“Take a left at the end of the hall then a right into the hall after the cafeteria, the last door on the right is the one Peter was seen pushed into.”

Tony thanks his AI as he rushes down the halls. He stops when he gets to the door and notices the knob not turning as it should, “FRI?”

“The lock appears to be tampered with.”

Tony’s frown deepens and he uses the suit's increased strength to rip the door open. He’s greeted by a seemingly empty room. But Peter has to be here. He looks up to the ceiling and lets out a breath of relief before the worry sets back in, why hasn’t he responded to the door breaking,

“Pete?” no response. “FRI, vitals!”

“Heartbeat is dangerously slow and his core temperature is ninety-six degrees, nearing hypothermic levels. He appears to be in a deep sleep,” FRIDAY responds, voice worried.

“Shit.” Tony activates hover mode to reach Peter and catches a glimpse of his pale face. He reaches to pry Peter from the ceiling, be as careful as he can as he gives FRIDAY instructions, “Tell Happy to crank the heat all the way up and get the emergency blankets from the trunk. Also, alert medbay.”

“Already done, he will arrive in two minutes.”

Tony thanks his AI as he finally gets Peter into his arms, there’s no reaction from the teen. Tony steps onto solid ground and quickly makes his way to the front entrance again while trying not to jostle Peter.

Happy makes it to the front as soon as Tony opens the door, likely having sped more after the update. He opens the back door then quickly grabs the blankets from the trunk as Tony sets Peter onto the seat. He orders the driver to wrap Peter in them as the suit retracts around him before speeding off into the air back to the tower. When Happy finishes he gets back into the driver's seat as Tony slides in next to Peter. He wraps his arms around his mentee and rubs his arms.

Happy immediately starts driving off to the tower, questions coming, “What happened to the kid? Why the hell is he still at school?”

Fire starts to grow in his chest as he’s reminded how this supposedly started, “May called me saying that Peter was missing and didn’t show up for school but his trackers said he was at school. At eight-thirty. FRI checked the cams and saw another teen lock him in a closet but never saw him come out. Now we’re here.” Tony couldn’t help the anger that shone in his tone, what the fuck was that kid thinking, and why didn’t anyone help Peter? “I’m going through the rest of the footage after we take care of Pete and call May.”

Happy nods silently and speeds up.

The next morning Peter’s still sleeping in medbay, his condition improved with gradual warming and a nutrient drip. According to Cho, Peter adapted more spider-like traits than they previously thought, including hibernation. Because of course he did.

But instead of sitting by Peter’s side Tony is up in the penthouse, boiling with rage after seeing how no one helped his mentee, his kid , as he was thrown into lockers then shoved into that damned closet, and ignored him again as he yelled for help. Hell, some laughed instead of helping him. There was some slight frustration with Peter and how he didn’t use his powers to get out and just ask him to change the footage and lock like really, Peter, it was so easy, kid. It wasn’t even a new thing, Tony checked back and that kid had been bullying Peter since before the cameras were even installed. Why didn’t he tell me? Instead of wallowing on that he calls May up, his aunt deserving to know what this punk has been doing to their kid.

It’s only a couple of minutes later that May approaches him, having been downstairs with Peter. “Is this where you’ve been?” she asks quietly. “You should come down, you know Pete would love to see you there when he wakes up.” She touches his arm and gives him a sympathetic smile.

Tony smiles back tightly, “I’ll go down after this and handle the rest later, but there’s something you should see.” May nods in assent and he plays the video of Peter being harassed yesterday morning. May gasps and clutches his arm. Before she can say anything Tony stops the video and starts talking, “This isn’t an isolated incident either. I had FRIDAY check all of the footage, and this punk has been messing with our kid since before the cameras were installed a couple of months ago."

May's face tightens and her eyes seem to glow, “And the teachers do nothing? Does anyone help him? This is bullshit! It never should have gotten to this point! If Peter had been in there any longer who the hell knows what could have happened? We have to do something!”

Tony grips her shoulders and looks her in the eyes, “You’re right, and I’ll be with you every step of the way, and with me will be my best lawyers and even better, Pepper. As soon as she finds out about this there will be nothing stopping her from tearing that school apart for what’s happened to Peter.”

May goes to respond but is interrupted by FRIDAY, “I recommend heading back to medbay, Peter is showing signs of waking.”

Instead of saying anything, May takes a deep breath and shakily smiles, “Thank you, Tony. For being here for him.”

Tony relaxes and smiles back, “There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”

#irondad #febuwhump #febuwhump day 3 #febuwhump 2021 #peter parker #tony stark #marvel #irondad and spiderson #fanfiction

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css1992 · 4 years

Photo

Secret Smile

Prompt/Summary:“After being in a relationship for years, Peter is finally back on the market. Tony immediately rushes to make his interest known, but he didn’t realize he had competition. (Maybe a college AU? Or something where they’re closer in age)”

Warnings: Explicit, 18+, mentions of an abusive relationship (not between main pairing, not explicit), violence (not between main pairing), mentions of blood, jealousy. If you find anything triggering, please let me know!

Word count:13.4k

-x-

Finally, he laid eyes on him.

Peter was standing in the corner, drink in hand, and his eyes looked sad, but there was relief in his lose, smiling lips. Tony sometimes forgot how beautiful he was, how the corner of his eyes crinkled when he laughed; how his lips always looked soft an inviting, even when they were set in a straight line; how his curls always looked messy and bouncy; and how he used to be his.

In a way.

It was easy to forget Tony used to be the center of his attention, easy to forget how he used to look at him like he hung the moon. How he said things without using words, how he had this specific, secret smile that he used only for Tony. It was easy to forget because he used to think he would have time to commit all those things to memory. He used to think he had all the time in the world – but, as it turned out, time was a fickle thing.

So he didn’t want to waste it anymore, not again.

He stalked towards Peter and saw the exact moment when he noticed his presence. It was like the younger man had a radar, he could tell when Tony was looking at him, no matter from how far, no matter how many other people were around them. It was like he could smell him from miles away, he would look around and their eyes would meet before Tony could ever look away. And always, without fail, that beautiful, slow smile would spread across his lips, even if all he ever did was wave silently at him.

Even if they never talked anymore.

Peter looked surprised and the smile faltered a little when he noticed Tony was heading his way. The older boy took a deep breath and kept moving through the sweaty, dancing bodies that separated them in the living room. When he finally reached him, his eyes were wide, mouth hanging open, cheeks flushed. He looked breathless – and breathtakingly beautiful.

“Hey,” the older boy greeted, because how else could he bridge that two-year gap when they didn’t speak to each other, just smiled and waved politely from across the room?

“Tony,” Peter breathed out, still looking a little surprised, but mostly confused, and Tony couldn’t blame him. They used to be inseparable in high school, but ever since he left for college, it was never the same again, not even when Peter followed him a year later.

“Haven’t seen you in a while,” he said dumbly, and Peter frowned, but smiled anyway.

“We see each other every week.” He dropped his gaze to look at his feet, hands buried in his pockets. They took Professor Strange’s class together, so, yeah, of course they saw each other every week. Stupid Tony.

“No, yeah, I mean, we haven’t talked in a while,” which was the understatement of the century, of course. Tony was going to say something clever, but it slipped his mind when Peter raised his eyes to meet his gaze again and the older man finally noticed that his cheeks weren’t just flushed – his left cheekbone was bruised. It was a little swollen and purplish, just under his eye. Before Tony could think twice, his hand flew up to cup his face carefully, and Peter flinched for a fraction of a second, before leaning into the touch, eyes fluttering closed. “What –“

Someone coughed loudly to his left and it was like some kind of spell was instantly broken. Tony was reminded that they weren’t alone in some alternate universe where only they existed, but rather at a very loud, very crowded party.

“Uh – Sorry! Uhm, Tony, this is Harry!” Peter jumped away from him and Tony’s eyes flew to the guy next to him. He looked expensive and aristocratic in a way that Howard would probably want him to look, his clothes were impeccable, his hair carefully gelled back. He had high cheekbones, straight brows, and eyes that glared daggers at him, clearly telling him to fuck off. “He’s a friend. Harry, this is Tony, he, uh – we used to go to school together.”

Tony pretended that it didn’t hurt that now all that he was to Peter was an old acquaintance – it was mostly his fault, anyway. He focused on the purplish bruise on his cheek, ignoring the hand that the other boy extended to him in greeting.

“What happened to your face?” He asked, raising his fingers to try and touch it again, but Peter dodged them immediately.

“It’s nothing.” He looked intently into his eyes and Tony knew what he meant – let it go. And he wished he had a right to demand an answer, but of course he didn’t. He was just someone he went to school with.

“Where’s your boyfriend?” He glanced sideways at the other guy who stood that much closer to Peter now, frowning, trying to assert some dominance or something, but the younger man seemed barely aware of his presence.

“He – I – we’re not together anymore.” And Tony knew that, of course. Had known for a week, Natasha called him as soon as she heard it from Wanda. She didn’t know many details, but she said it was ugly, which begged the question: how ugly? Why was Peter’s face bruised?

And who the fuck was Harry, anyway, and what the fuck was he doing with an arm around Peter’s waist?

“Hm,” Tony muttered, eyes lingering on Harry’s fingers brushing Peter’s hipbone, and he noticed when the younger boy discreetly pulled away until he let go of him. “Do you wanna get out of here?” He asked, casually, like they could still say stuff like that to each other, and Peter was taken aback.

“Dude, we were having a private conversation here, wh –“

“Fuck off.” Tony didn’t spare the other guy a glance, eyes focused on Peter, who shook his head, as if getting out of a trance.

“No, he’s right, Tony, I – sorry, I can’t go with you. I’ll see you around, okay?” He waited for an answer for a few seconds, but when Tony said nothing and didn’t make any move to leave, he sighed. “Ok. C’mon, Harry.” He walked away in the general direction of the backdoor of the house the party was being held at and Tony let out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding, when he felt a firm hand land on his shoulder.

“Tough night, huh?” When he looked over his shoulder, it was Nat, smiling pitifully at him.

“Something like that.” He rubbed a hand across his forehead, turning around to face her. He accepted the red cup she offered him. “Do you know this Harry?”

“Harry Osborn. He’s been following Peter around like a lost puppy for a few months now, I think Peter and Beck’s fight had something to do with him, you know he was a jealous fucker.” Yeah, Tony knew. It was one of the reasons he and Peter hadn’t talked in nearly two years before that night.

“Do you think Peter likes him?” He asked, quietly, and the redhead shrugged, looking in the direction they had wandered off to.

“I’m not sure, he never tells him to fuck off, but he’s too polite to do that anyway, so.” She looked back at him with a serious gaze, brows furrowed. “Why, gonna give up that easily?”

“Of course not, I just –” Tony looked into his cup, biting his lower lip. “He didn’t seem too excited to see me, it’s all.” He shrugged, a little defeated, and Nat chuckled.

“He was a little shocked, you haven’t talked to him in years, give him some time.” She smiled, slapping his arm encouragingly. “C’mon, Romeo, the night is still young.”

But not young enough, it seemed. Tony didn’t see Peter again until a few hours later, when he watched him leave with Harry’s fucking arm around his shoulder and it felt like losing him, all over again.

–*–

One day, Tony blinked and Peter was taken.

Suddenly, that sweet boy who was always by his side, with huge, bright eyes and that innocent, wishful look on his face, went off with someone else. Which was – unexpected. Unexpected, yes, because Tony saw the way he looked at him, the way his eyes glinted as he listened to him, the way his cheeks burned a lovely pink when they touched, the way that shy, secret smile made its way across his face whenever they were close enough.

Tony knew Peter was in love with him, the boy couldn’t keep it a secret if he tried.

And he loved him, too. He loved the sound of his voice as he explained chemical equations Tony pretended not to understand, just to hear him talk nerdy. He loved how silly he looked when someone said something unexpectedly funny and he let out a surprised giggle. He loved his small, steady hands, that were always helpful in the workshop Howard set up for him back home. He loved his weird left eyebrow, which seemed to be perpetually disheveled.

He did. The timing just wasn’t right.

They were so young when they first met, Peter hadn’t even had his first kiss yet, all those years ago at Midtown High. Tony remembered falling in love with him on their way from the AP Physics classroom to the cafeteria, remembered stealing his first kiss after school by his car, in the parking lot, and panicking right after because he just wasn’t ready.

For commitment, for Peter.

But to be honest, he was so sure he was always going to be there, he wasn’t in any rush. He thought he could take his time before he settled down with Peter, so he dated other people – although, to be fair, it wasn’t really dating, it was just fooling around, he was just having fun, it didn’t mean anything. Even so, he knew it made the younger boy miserable. He pretended not to notice how red and puffy his eyes were some days, when rumors were spread about Tony’s hook-ups.

He thought he had all the time in the world, so he took it.

He left for MIT a year earlier than Peter and that was when it all went south. Because of Quentin Fucking Beck. He was charming, handsome and a genius in his own right. None of those things mattered to Peter, Tony knew, he was such a nice boy. What won him over were the niceties, the card on valentine’s day, the innocent teddy bear on his birthday, the invitation to senior prom. Tony fucking knew and he should have seen it coming, but he was cocky, he was confident that Peter loved him above all those little gestures, that he loved him enough to look past those and wait. Wait for him to be ready. Because he must have known, right? He must have known that Tony loved him, too. Wanted him, too.

But Peter didn’t know, it seemed.

Because he went off with Beck, he kissed him at the end of the night at prom, he went home with him, lost his virginity to him, then called Tony the next morning and told him all about it. Tony thought maybe it was just – maybe Peter was confused, maybe it wasn’t serious, because he loved Tony, why would he want to be with Beck?

The older boy went back home for the summer break, after a year away. He thought it would all go back to normal, that he and Peter would see each other everyday, hang out together in Tony’s workshop – the only place he felt at home – or at Peter’s place, and he would realize he was wasting his time with Beck. Tony was ready by then, the thought of losing Peter to someone else was enough of a wake-up call, so he was ready to settle down, he was ready for commitment.

Peter was waiting for him at the airport and jumped in his arms as soon as his Tony-radar picked up on him. He kept him company when he went home to face Howard, but then he had to leave early because he had a date with Beck. Which was okay, really. The following day, Tony went to visit May and they hung out for a while, but soon after, Beck was there, too. The next day he made plans to catch a movie with Peter and, sure enough, he showed up with Quentin attached to his hip.

And Peter laughed at his jokes and let him hold him by the waist and let him whisper in his ear and payed attention to every word he said, like it fucking mattered, and it didn’t, because seriously, that guy was a prick, he was arrogant and full of himself and – what the fuck was Peter doing with him?

Beck started tagging along every-fucking-where they went, even in the workshop. Tony slowly began to notice that it wasn’t because he wanted to be with Peter at all times, at least not only because of that. He was jealous – possessive, even. Whenever Tony got physically close to the younger boy, he’d glare at him, sometimes he even “playfully” pulled Peter back. If Tony ever suggested he and Peter do something just the two of them, for old time’s sake, the younger man looked uncertain, almost nervous, so he stopped asking.

At the same time, Peter seemed to miss their time together, too, but he couldn’t seem to be able to tell Beck to fuck off. He always had that apologetic look on his face when he asked if it was okay for Beck to come and Tony put on his best, fake smile when he said yes.

At first, Tony thought he could take it, he thought that he could hang out with them and not be weird, but he was wrong. It was fucking weird. Because he was in love with Peter and Peter was in love with someone else.

So Tony stopped calling as the weeks went by, then he stopped picking up Peter’s calls, then he stopped answering his texts until they were reduced to only exchanging waves and smiles by the end of the summer, as if they’d never been friends before.

To be honest, Tony thought it was temporary, because deep down he believed – had to believe – that Peter still loved him, even if he was dating Beck. So, whatever, they wouldn’t talk for maybe a few months, but soon enough he would realize that Quentin was shit and that he was better off with Tony. But he didn’t. He kept dating Beck for two fucking years and when Tony finally accepted that he had missed his chance and that he should move on and find someone new, Nat called him. And he decided he wouldn’t waste any time this time around and still, somehow, he was fucking late.

Because of Harry fucking Osborn.

– *–

Two days after the party, Peter posted a selfie on Instagram. He was lying in bed looking cozy and sleepy, the caption read “Three more weeks to go”, probably referring to the upcoming spring break. He looked effortlessly beautiful and soft, but what drew Tony’s attention, what got his heart pumping and his hands shaking was the glimpse of a dark blue hoodie with yellow strings that looked an awful lot like the one Tony had lent him in high school and never got back.

Did Peter do that on purpose? He must have known Tony would see it, right? Was that a sign? He was wearing his clothes, for fuck’s sake.

“Nice hoodie.” He shot him a DM and bit his nails as he waited for Peter to see it. For some reason, he thought he might not answer at all. Tony was still a little disappointed by the way he reacted at the party, but he didn’t even know what he’d been expecting. He was the asshole, after all, he was the one who stopped picking up the phone.

“I was hoping you wouldn’t recognize it, in case you’d want it back.” Tony’s heart did a little back flip in his rib cage and a wide smile spread across his face. It was a playful answer, a peace offering. And maybe it meant he’d been thinking of him when he took that picture, maybe even before that, when he put on the hoodie. Did he wear it often?

“Well, then you shouldn’t have posted that pic, I’d recognize it anywhere. It brings back lots of good memories.” Like walking back to Peter’s place after going to the movies together, wrapping said hoodie around his shoulders when he saw him shiver, hanging out at his place until late that night, getting yelled at by May for putting his feet on the couch, going home hoodieless, thinking that the next day he’d be leaving for Boston and wouldn’t be seeing Peter for a while. Little did they know they’d never have nights like that again after that day.

“So you want it back?” He asked with a sad emoji and Tony couldn’t help but smile to himself, shaking his head no to no one in particular.

“Nah, it’s yours. It has always suited you better, anyway.” Peter didn’t write anything back for a few minutes, and Tony was afraid it was the end of the conversation, but then another message came.

“Not true, you looked pretty good in it.” Tony puffed out his chest proudly and felt stupid when he realized Peter wouldn’t see it, then quickly started typing.

“Never said I didn’t, you’re just way cuter in it, what with the sleeves hanging off your hands and all.” He was again nervous for Peter’s answer, which came quickly.

“I just have short arms.” He sent it with the emoji of the little monkey covering its eyes. For whatever reason, it reminded Tony of the bruise on his face at the party, and it bothered him to no end that he still didn’t know what happened. Well, deep in his heart, he did, he just didn’t want to believe it was true, because if it was – then it meant he’d failed Peter.

“Hey, how’s your face? I was worried the other night.” He asked, trying to make it sound casual, but he knew it probably wouldn’t work, which proved to be true when Peter’s evasive answer came.

“No need to be, it’s fine.” Before Tony could say anything else, he sent another message.“Did you have a good time at the party?”

“Not really, I felt lonely,” He smiled to himself, again feeling silly because he was alone in his room and no one would see it.

“There were a lot of people there.” Tony could imagine his face, the smart glint in his eyes, already knowing what the answer would be. Or maybe he was insecure and shy, blushing as he waited for the answer. Or maybe he didn’t care at all and Tony was an idiot to think he might be interested in him. He preferred to believe the first option, so he answered accordingly.

“Yeah, but I was hoping to spend time with someone else. But he kinda disappeared on me.”

“Oh, yeah?” He imagined his secret smile making its way across his face, lighting up the whole room. “Next time look harder for him, then, I’m sure he didn’t actually disappear.” Tony’s heart fluttered.

“I will.” He answered and Peter was silent for several minutes, so he thought the conversation was over, but because he was a masochist asshole, he asked, “So, you and Harry, huh?”

“What about it?” He didn’t offer any information.

“You two seem close.” Tony said, dumbly, and Peter’s answer didn’t take long to arrive.

“We are.” And it crushed his chest, completely erasing the good feeling he had when the conversation started.

“Cool.”

“See you in class?” Peter sent as a way of goodbye and Tony thought it was a good thing there was no one in his room after all, so no one would see how his face fell.

“Sure, see you.”

–*–

Tony was always late to Professor Strange’s class, because it took place at ass o’clock in the morning every Thursday. Luckily, the grumpy, old man liked him well enough that he was always allowed in with only a threatening, “You are late. Again”, but nothing ever came of it, so it was fine. That Thursday, though, he was up early, too excited and anxious to see Peter again now that they were talking. So he hurried to the physics building and would have gotten in without paying any mind to his surroundings if he hadn’t heard Peter’s voice coming from the side of the building. He quietly turned around the corner and watched as Beck stared down at the shorter boy, who had his back to the wall.

“Tell me I’m wrong, tell me you weren’t fucking him when we were together, I dare you! We’ve been apart for three weeks and you’ve been walking around with him like you’re his fucking bitch!” His light blue eyes bulged out of his eye-sockets and made him look like a madman ready to pounce, but Peter stood his ground.

“You’re sick, Beck, you’re paranoid and obsessive and I told you, I won’t take it anymore! Back the fuck off and leave me the fuck alone, I’m serious!” He tried to push away from the wall, but the older man pushed him back, making him slam his head against the side of the building.

“You little whore!” He grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and Tony finally jumped into action. He rushed to them and before they even noticed him, he barreled into Beck.

“Hey, asshole, get the fuck away from him!” Beck was caught off guard and tripped, walking few steps backwards before he fell on his butt. Tony didn’t look back to check on Peter, he kept his focus on Quentin, who looked at him with fury in his eyes. “Don’t you fucking touch him, you piece of shit!”

“He’s not worth it, jerk, you’ll find out soon enough.” He got up and brushed his hands down his pants. “He’s a lying, cheating, little cockslut and before you know it he’ll be sucking someone else’s dick while you –“ Tony grabbed him by the collar and even though they were the same height, he was able to lift him a little off the ground, noses almost touching.

“If you say another word about him, I’ll fucking murder you,” he threatened, almost in a whisper.

“Fuck this,” Beck slapped his hand away from his shirt and pushed him for good measure, but Tony didn’t move and inch. He glared at him for a few more seconds and scoffed, shaking his head, hands raised in surrender. “You two deserve each other,” he said, walking away, not sparing a glance Peter’s way.

“Are you okay?” When Tony turned around and looked at Peter, he was slumped against the wall, both of his hands covering his face as he sobbed. “Oh God, did he hurt you?” He rushed to his side, checking for visible injuries, but Peter shook his head.

“I’m fine,” he managed to say between sobs, and Tony quickly gathered him in his arms, letting him bury his face in his chest, soaking his shirt in tears in the process. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to –”

“I know, it’s okay, he’s gone now.” He petted his hair, holding him even closer and tighter and Peter responded in the same way.

“How could I be so blind for so long?” He raised his eyes to look at Tony and the older boy ran a hand down his face, trying to stop the flood of tears that wouldn’t rolling down his cheeks.

“It’s – You didn’t...” Tony didn’t know how to tell him that it wasn’t his fault, that Beck was fucking toxic, abusive. It felt so fucking weird to acknowledge the fact that Peter was in an abusive relationship, he felt so fucking guilty. He should have noticed it from the start, from the very first few times he hung out with them, there were so many tells, but he was blinded by jealousy. So stupidly jealous he abandoned Peter when he needed him the most. He was childish and selfish and Peter got hurt – how could he ever forgive himself for that?

“I feel so stupid,” he whispered, drying his tears roughly with the sleeve of his denim jacket, which left red marks on the delicate skin of his cheeks. Before Tony could stop him or say anything else, they heard another voice.

“Peter, is that you?” They both turned in time to see Harry jogging to meet them. As soon as he was within reaching distance, Peter fell into his arms. It shouldn’t bother Tony, it was definitely not the time to be jealous, but he couldn’t help the way his heart ached and his stomach sank when the younger man left the warmth of his arms to hold Harry. “God, are you okay?”

“I’m fine, sorry I scared you.” He was a little calmer by the time he answered and Harry cupped his cheeks in his hands, looking closely at his face, searching for something – Tony knew what and it drove him crazy that Peter was in such a situation that people assumed he was hurt.

“When I got your text I thought that psycho was–“ Peter texted him, Tony thought, dropping his gaze to the floor, burying his hands in his pockets. Peter texted him. He wanted Harry to be there when he thought something bad might happen. Not Tony. Harry.

“I’m fine, Tony showed up and he left.” For the first time since he arrived, the other boy acknowledged his presence. He looked at Tony suspiciously and frowned, apparently annoyed that he was there.

“Oh. You.” He said as an accusation, as Peter let go of him to stand between them.

“Yeah. Me.” Tony straightened his back and puffed out his chest to seem a little taller and wider, but the other boy looked unimpressed.

“Hm,” he muttered, looking him up and down with disdain, then turned to Peter. He extended an arm to reach for the younger man. “Come on, Pete, I’ll walk you to class.”

“It’s ok, Tony’s headed that way anyway, right?” Peter shrugged his arm off, looking at Tony for confirmation.

“Yeah, right. I’ll walk you,” he answered quickly and it was his turn to wrap an arm around Peter’s shoulders – and he wasn’t even sure if he was allowed to do that, but Peter didn’t seem to mind when his secret smile made its way across his face as he looked up at him.

“Are you sure?” Harry frowned, arms crossed over his chest, annoyed, but Peter nodded.

“Of course. It’s fine, Harry, seriously.” What the fuck did that asshole think he was going to do, anyway? Who died and named him Peter’s keeper?

“Okay. Okay, but call me after class, will you?” He sighed, burying his hands in his pockets, eyes focused on Tony’s hand on the younger boy’s shoulder, anger and jealousy clear in his brown eyes. It made Tony smirk slightly in triumph, which wasn’t lost on the other man.

“Ok, talk to you later.” Peter waved innocently at him, seemingly unaware of the tension between the two of them. Harry stared for a couple more seconds, before nodding and turning around to leave.

Although he had put on a brave front for Harry, Peter was still pretty shaken when he left, Tony didn’t even have the heart to get (too) jealous of their little interaction. Peter ran a hand through his hair and raised his bloodshot eyes to look at Tony, it was heartbreaking how sad they looked. Tony didn’t remember ever seeing him like that when they were younger and the guilt crushed his chest. He could have prevented that look on his face if he had stayed and taken care of him, no matter what.

“Beck is a jerk, none of what he said is true, you know that, right?” He almost whispered, they were so close, his arm around Peter’s shoulder allowed him to pull him closer, close enough that their faces were almost touching.

“I don’t care what he says about me, I just feel – embarrassed, you know? It took him literally –” He interrupted himself, but Tony knew exactly what he was going to say. There was so much information in his silence, it was maddening.

“That bruise on your face –“

“It was my wake-up call,” he said, definitive, not leaving any room for any questions. “It had never happened before and it’s never gonna happen again, because we’re not together anymore and eventually he’ll forget I exist, so let it go, ok?” Judging by his expression, it was clear that he knew exactly what Tony wanted to do to Beck.

“What about today? What if I hadn’t got here in time, what if –“

“I’m not that delicate, Tony,” he chuckled as he started walking to the building entrance, forcing Tony to walk alongside him. “I probably couldn’t take him in a fight, but I’m sure I could do some damage.” He looked up at him with a wicked smile and winked. It made Tony’s heart melt a little.

“I’m sure you could.” When they finally reached their classroom, Tony stopped and held Peter’s shoulders, forcing him to face him. “If he ever comes looking for you again, please let me know?” Peter chuckled, shaking his head a little.

“Between you and Harry scaring him off this past week, I doubt he’ll try anything anytime soon.” Of course. He had Harry. “C’mon, we’re already late to class.”

–*–

When Tony moved to Boston, he had to stay at the dorms for his first year, as was required by MIT. He didn’t mind it much, to be honest, it was noisy and messy, but so was most of his life, so it was fine. Besides, he got Rhodey as his roommate and they became fast friends, which was awesome. But of course it wasn’t good enough for a Stark, according to Howard, so in the beginning of his second year, he got Tony an apartment close to campus. It had three bedrooms and an open kitchen, separated from the living room by a counter, and it was huge.

At first, it was fun having the whole place to himself, but after a year alone, he invited Rhodey to live with him, and it was the best idea he’d had yet, they spent all of their free time playing video games, drinking beer and tinkering, when they didn’t have friends over.

They were having a quiet night in, Rhodey was studying for finals and Tony was giving DUM-e a few touch-ups, when he decided to take a break to check his phone. Of course, as he did every time, the first thing he checked was Peter’s Instagram. There weren’t any new pictures – he wasn’t the type of person who posted everyday, it was more like once a week – but there were new Instagram stories. It was a series of short videos of him rambling about his tests and how he couldn’t wait for spring break, so Tony took the opportunity to shoot him a message.

“Someone’s excited for spring break. Do you have plans?” He asked casually, but his heart was pumping, he always wondered if Peter got excited to speak to him, too.

“Hey! No plans, I just really need a break right now. Lol. Why do you ask?” He answered almost immediately, and Tony smiled.

“No reason, you just seem really excited about it. Are you gonna be in town?” In all honesty, it was just an innocent question, because Peter could want to go visit May, but the answer took his breath away for a second.

“Yeah, why? Are you gonna ask me out or are you just stalking me?” The message was accompanied by a smiley face with the tongue sticking out.

“Do you want me to ask you out?” He sent back with the smirking face emoji.

“Answering a question with another question? Rude.” Tony held back a smile, biting his lower lip.

“I’m sorry, the answer is yes, I’m asking you out, what’s yours?” Go big or go home, he figured, and Peter seemed interested, so what the hell?

“You’ll know when you ask me.” He sent the emoji with the tongue sticking out again.

“I just did!” Tony argued, laughing to himself, he could almost see Peter’s secret smile in his mind.

“I’m sure you can do better than that. I’ll wait. So you’re not going back to New York for the break either?” He quickly changed the subject, which was fine, at least Tony knew that he was definitely interested, even if just a little.

“Yikes, no way. Twice a year is way too many times already.” He was suddenly reminded that he still had to call his mom to give her his final answer.

“Lol. If I remember your mom correctly, she must be calling non-stop.” Tony smiled again. Peter and Maria used to get along weirdly well for a nerdy teenager and an old, slightly stuck-up socialite. Tony even caught them trading stories about him once, it was terrifying. And a little heartwarming.

“Only everyday for a month now.” And he wasn’t even joking, Maria called daily to ask him to come home for spring break. And if it were for her, he would, but there was Howard.

“Lol.”

“She asks about you sometimes.”

“And what do you say?”

“That you don’t love me anymore.” He sent it before he could overthink the answer. It took Peter a full minute to write back.

“You’re a menace, Tony Stark. Next time tell her the truth: that YOU got fed up with me.” To soften the blow, he sent a laughing emoji. “Tell her I said hello.”

“That’s not true, I’m here now, aren’t I?” Before Peter could ask what was the truth, then, because that was a conversation Tony wasn’t ready for, he added. “I’ll tell her you said hi.”

“See you next Thursday?”

“Can’t wait.”

–*–

“Dude, calm down, I’m pretty sure he’ll still be there five minutes from now,” Rhodey chuckled, watching Tony with a bemused expression after he jumped up from the couch and rushed to the bathroom. He ran his hands through his hair to make sure it was a carefully planned mess, put on his best cologne and decided to change shirts – maybe something a little tighter across the chest, something that would show off his biceps better.

“I’m sure he’ll be there all night long, but I need to be the first to get to him, I swear to God, if that Osborn asshole gets there before I do, I’m losing my shit.” He made his way into his bedroom as he heard his roommate laughing from the living room.

“Just ask Nat to keep him busy until you get there,” Rhodey leaned against his bedroom door and Tony turned around and spread his arms, showing off the t-shirt he had picked up. It was plain black, with little holes in it, and just a tad too small. His friend gave him a thumbs up.

“I did, I just don’t know how long she can keep that creep away.” He sat on the bed to put on his sneakers and missed the way Rhodey smirked.

“Knowing her, I’d bet on pretty fucking long.” He wasn’t wrong, Natasha was scary as fuck, but still, Tony couldn’t risk it.

Just a few minutes earlier, he was lounging on the couch playing Counter Strike with Rhodey when Peter posted a picture on Instagram. He was all dressed up in tight fitting jeans, a light pink sweater and his old, beat-up vans. His curls were brushed back and he was smiling at the camera. The caption read, “#SpringBreakWarmUp”. Tony immediately sent him a DM.

“Hey! Spring break warm-up, huh?” He asked nervously, wondering where Peter was going and, more importantly, with whom.

“Yeah, you’re coming, right?” He answered just a few seconds later, and Tony was relieved he hadn’t been ignored.

“Coming where?” He tried to remember if he had any plans for the weekend, but none came to mind.

“Thor’s party! He said you were coming?” Tony slapped his forehead, he thought the party was the following weekend. But more importantly, had Peter asked Thor if Tony was coming?

“Oh, yeah, sure! Yeah, I’m on my way, where are you?” Of course he was nowhere near the party, but he could make it happen.

“I’m already here! See you soon, then.” As soon as he read that text, he jumped out of the couch, scaring the living shit out of Rhodey.

So excuse Tony if he was driving like a madman to the party, even if his older friend was begging him to slow down from the passenger seat.

“You can’t fuck him if you’re dead!” He shouted from his right and Tony just chuckled and said nothing. He told Rhodey a very short and edited version of his history with Peter, he left out words like “love” and “yearning” and “pining”, so he probably thought Tony just had crush on him.

When he got to the party, it was already in full swing. There were people hanging outside and the door was open, Tony could hear loud music coming from the living room. He and Rhodey walked in and were almost immediately engulfed by Thor’s embrace and booming voice welcoming them. They chatted for a few minutes, but Tony was a man on a mission.

“Hey, have you seen Peter by any chance?” He tried to sound casual as he looked around the room, trying to catch a glimpse of Nat’s fiery red hair, but Thor smiled knowingly at him.

“The two of you should have made arrangements to come together instead of asking around for each other.” He winked at Tony with one of his blindingly white smiles, and the brunette gasped.

“He asked about me?” He might have squeaked, but the music was really loud, so who knew, but Thor’s booming laugh told him otherwise.

“Ah, you kids.” He shook his head, placing a heavy hand on Tony’s shoulder. “He’s in the kitchen.”

Tony wanted to repeat his question, but he had embarrassed himself more than enough for one night, so he just smiled thankfully and rushed towards the kitchen. Well, tried, he was stopped by the “newly-wed” couple, Steve and Bucky, who had just moved in together and were even more annoyingly perfect than ever.

They tried to strike up a conversation about home décor, of all things, but he left Rhodey with them – not without getting a threatening look that said “you’ll pay for this”, but oh well – and kept searching, until he finally saw Nat talking animatedly to Peter by the kitchen counter.

“Hey there!” He approached them and tried to look – well, like he hadn’t basically run there after Peter messaged him.

“Tony!” And it paid off, because the younger man seemed really excited to see him, he smiled brightly up at him and, best of all, Harry was nowhere to be seen.

“Hey, I’m gonna go talk to Wanda, see you guys later.” He barely noticed as Natasha made her exit, Peter didn’t seem to care either, all his focus was on Tony and it reminded him of how they were in high school. Living in their own little world.

“Hey, for a minute there I thought you weren’t coming,” Peter said, getting a little closer to Tony so he could hear him over the music. He looked amazing, his clothes were clearly new, his hair was bouncy and shiny and he smelled incredible. It made Tony a little self-conscious because he had just jumped out of the couch and changed shirts, now he wished he had taken a little more time to get ready.

“Yeah, I almost forgot that was today,” He scratched the back of his head and Peter gifted him with one of his secret smiles.

“Figures, I bet you had other places to be.” He bumped him with his shoulder and that innocent touch was enough to send a jolt of electricity down Tony’s arm.

“Only one where I could find you, though, so here I am.” He winked and Peter blushed and pushed his shoulder like a younger version of him would have, anytime Tony flirted shamelessly with him back in high school.

“Shut up,” he mumbled, still smiling, then pointed to the backdoor over his shoulder. “There’s a keg out back, do you wanna…?”

“Yeah, sure, lead the way.” He followed Peter outside, where there was a big yard with a pool. They each grabbed a cup of beer and stood close to the water. The music wasn’t too loud out there, which allowed them to talk more easily. “So, where’s your guard dog?” Tony asked and watched as Peter frowned for a second, before realization dawned on him and he laughed.

“Who, Harry?” He asked, amused, and Tony nodded. “He couldn’t make it, he’s packing, he’s going home for the break.”

“Ah, what a shame,” Tony said, sarcastically, and Peter laughed again.

“You don’t like him very much, do you?” Tony looked at him with a look that screamed “you think?!” and Peter chuckled. “Funny. He’s not a fan of you, either.”

Of course he wasn’t, Tony thought, huffing, but didn’t say it. Before he could change the subject, though, he heard something. It was quiet and discreet, but Tony caught it, and so did Peter, if the way his face fell and his smile disappeared were any indication.

“Slut.”

He didn’t need to look to know who it was and who the person was talking to, so Tony didn’t waste any time when he turned around, he only stopped long enough to aim right at their nose and punched, making sure to put all of his body weight and force behind it. Beck swayed and, for a minute, it looked like he was going to topple over and fall in the pool, so Tony grabbed him by the collar. It was the first time he got to look at him after he knew for sure what he’d done to Peter, and it took all of his willpower not to smash his head in, but he knew the younger man wouldn’t want that.

“Oh, my God! Tony –“

“Let’s make something clear, right here, right now.” He didn’t pay any mind to the people gathering around them, nor to the fact that there was a decent amount of blood running down Beck’s nose, he even pretended not to feel the way Peter was trying to pull him away, he was focused on those crazy blue eyes. “You don’t get to talk to Peter anymore. Ever. You’re not worthy of him, you don’t get to call him names, you don’t get to look at him, you don’t even get to breathe the same air as him, so if I ever see you within breathing distance of him again, we’re gonna have problems, Beck, do I make myself clear?” Beck stared at him with huge, scared eyes, blinking rapidly as if to trying to remain conscious.

“You’re ins--”

“Do I make myself clear?” He shook him hard for good measure, and it seemed to cause his nose to bleed even more. “It’s a simple yes or no question!”

“Yes, fuck off!” His hands tried to weakly pry Tony’s away from his collar, but he didn’t succeed.

“Good, get the hell away from my face.” He pushed him with enough force that it almost sent him straight to the floor, but some friend of his held him up and they scurried away. Slowly, things went back into motion, it appeared, Tony could hear the music again, people started talking to each other loudly and some of them were dancing. He kept breathing hard, trying to regain his calm and gather enough courage to face Peter, who should be mad at him for making a scene.

“I wish you hadn’t done that.” In the end, it was his sweet, quiet voice that lured him back to reality and he turned around to meet the smaller boy with his arms crossed over his chest, but he didn’t look nearly as pissed off as Tony thought he would be.

“I don’t. I wish I could have killed him.” He could barely believe how true that statement was and Peter must have noticed, too, because his eyes widened a little, before the muscles around his mouth softened in that secret smile of his.

“Well, thanks for – I don’t know, protecting my honor, I guess?” He chuckled, letting his arms fall to his sides, before grabbing Tony’s right hand, which was a little bruised and dirty with Beck’s blood. He examined it for a few seconds, then looked up at the older man. “Just don’t ever do that again, okay? I’m sure we can find other ways to keep him away.”

We, he said. He didn’t want to do that alone, he wanted Tony to help, he wanted Tony to be there for him. We.

Tony smiled breathlessly and nodded, squeezing the small hand that was still in his. He looked around, worrying his lower lip, then looked back at Peter.

“Do you wanna get out of here? I have a six-pack back home,” He suggested as he pulled him a little closer and the younger man shot him a slightly shocked and surprised look. “Wh –no! It’s not what – I mean, we could go for some coffee instead, really, whatever you want, I just don’t feel like staying here, but I will, if you want, I just –“ Before he could finish his ramble, Peter started giggling, shaking his head.

“I could really use a beer. And I guess I don’t wanna stay, either,” He shrugged and Tony smiled, taking his hand to lead him back inside.

They quickly said their goodbyes to their friends and Tony let Rhodey know that Peter would be over. His friend quietly pulled him to the side as Peter talked to Wanda and asked if he needed him to crash somewhere else for the night and it almost made the brunette burst out laughing. “I wish,” he told him. Peter would probably stay for a few beers and leave early, if he knew him. Rhodey shrugged and said he would crash at Carol’s, just to be sure, and Tony clapped him on the back and thanked him.

He and Peter walked to Tony’s car, the air was cold, not terribly so, but the older man regretted not having a jacket when he saw Peter shivering. He had a little déjà-vu about their last night together in New York, almost three years and a half earlier, the day Peter kept his hoodie. They were walking to his place from the movies, the air was a little chilly, summer was almost over. Peter’s cheeks were flushed and when Tony wrapped an arm around his shoulder, he looked up at him and shivered. The older man quickly unzipped his hoodie and wrapped Peter’s smaller body in it.

It felt like a lifetime ago now.

When they got inside the car, Tony made sure the heater was on max as Peter rubbed his hands together, pulling the sleeves of his sweater down.

“Sorry, I don’t have a jacket to lend you, but it’s gonna warm up soon.” He smiled apologetically and the other boy waved a hand dismissively.

“It’s for the best, you’d never get it back if you did.” He batted his eyelashes playfully and Tony laughed as he started the car and pulled out of the driveway. They were quiet for a few seconds, but it was a nice, comfortable silence.

“How’s your aunt?” Tony asked, just to make small talk, but also because he liked May, she was really cool, although she sometimes screamed at him for no reason, like the time he allegedly blew up her toaster.

“She’s getting married, actually.” Peter looked amused and a little unsure. “To a doctor from this new hospital she’s working at. He seems like a nice guy.” He didn’t sound specially excited sharing the news.

“But you don’t like him?” Tony asked, confused, and the boy shook his head quickly.

“It’s not that. It’s just – It’s weird. I guess. For so long it was her, uncle Ben and me, then everything changed when uncle Ben died and we had to learn how to be a family just the two of us. Now it’s all changing again. I just feel weird when I come home to them, you know? It makes me feel a little like an outsider, like I’m intruding in their privacy. And it kinda makes me miss uncle Ben, for some reason. But he seems to make her really happy, so that’s more than I could ask for.” He shrugged and Tony smiled softly at him, he knew exactly what he meant. Peter blushed slightly, but smiled back. “How about your parents? Is your dad still on your case?”

“It’s a little better now that we’re in different states. Summer break is always a pain, though.” Tony felt like he and Howard would never get along and he was slowly getting used to that idea.

“Well, if you ever need asylum, I hope you remember your way back to Queens,” Peter grinned at him and it warmed his heart. He didn’t trust his voice to answer so he just smiled and nodded. As if I could forget.

When they got to Tony’s building, the older man warned Peter not to mind the mess, but he was relieved to remember that he and Rhodey had tidied the place up a little just a couple of days earlier, so at least the living room and the kitchen should be fine. They rode up the elevator to the top floor and when they finally got to the apartment, Peter whistled lowly, looking around the spacious living room.

“Wow, this is awesome! Do you live here by yourself?” He asked, walking towards the couch. The PlayStation controllers were still on the coffee table by the couch and there were a few empty beer bottles on the floor.

“I used to, Rhodey moved in a year ago, it was boring living here on my own.” He gestured for Peter to follow him to the kitchen, which he did, still in awe of the place.

“Cool! He’s that guy you were talking to before we left, right?” Peter and Rhodey had never met formally, when the younger man joined MIT, he and Tony weren’t talking anymore. Tony nodded, offering Peter one of the beer bottles he grabbed from the fridge, before leading the way back to the living room.

“Yeah, we were roommates my first year here.” They sat on the couch, but not too close to one another, and they both opened their drinks.

“Remember we used to make plans about being roommates if we both got into MIT? We were such dorks,” Peter laughed with a reminiscent look on his face and Tony’s heart melted, because, yeah. He remembered.

“About that.” Tony took a deep breath and then a long gulp of his beer, before turning to face Peter in the eye. He owed him at least that. The younger man looked back at him curiously, head cocked to the side. “I owe you an apology,” he breathed out slowly and Peter frowned. “We had a great friendship and I screwed up royally, so. Sorry for being a shitty friend.” He bit his lip for a moment, watching Peter’s reaction, but his face didn’t move, so Tony took another long sip of his beer. “Say something.”

“I –“ Peter started, but then paused, narrowing his eyes and shaking his head. “I just never really understood what happened. I mean, I can see now that Beck was a jerk and it must have been a pain to hang out with him when we were together, but you just –“ He smiled sadly, looking down at his beer. “You didn’t even answer my calls anymore,” he mumbled the last part, as if Tony didn’t feel terrible already. “Was it something I did?”

“What? No, of course not. I was –“ He debated for all of three seconds if he should tell the truth, but he was too much of a coward and so not ready for that particular conversation. “I guess I was feeling a little like a third wheel, maybe. And I really didn’t like him. It was stupid, it’s not gonna happen again.” Peter nodded slowly, staring at him as if he could find out the truth if he looked hard enough.

“Okay.” He was silent after that, his nose scrunched up in a cute way, as if he was thinking hard, trying to understand something, trying to make a decision. He downed the rest of his beer in one go and Tony thought he hadn’t bought his terrible excuse, so he was going to try to explain himself better, but Peter was faster. He slid across the couch and sat right beside him, then grabbed Tony’s bottle and drank the rest of his beer, too, placing the empty bottles on the coffee table. Tony just stared a him in confusion. “Uhm. I’m gonna do something crazy, so just – I’m sorry in advance.” And just like that, he kissed him.

Tony would be lying if he said it tasted familiar, that it took him back to that awkward first kiss in the school parking lot, leaning against his car. It was completely different, it was like kissing someone else for the first time, Peter was different. He wasn’t awkward or shy when his soft hands grasped Tony’s face and pulled him closer, when his tongue begged for entrance in his mouth. He tasted like beer when their tongues touched, and it must have gotten Tony immediately drunk, because he lost control over his own actions just like that. His fingers found Peter’s hips and started pulling him closer and closer, until the younger man climbed onto his lap and straddled his thighs.

It was heaven, that moment right there, engulfed in Peter’s smell, his hands getting lost in his hair, his lips demanding Tony to keep up, his body undulating discreetly on top of his, begging to be touched. Tony indulged him, his fingers squeezed the deliciously soft flesh of his hips, before making their way up to his waist then down to his lower back in an eager caress, pulling him even closer. His lips chased Peter’s like he was starved, never letting him get away for too long, maybe worried that he would wake up from a daydream if he stopped.

Peter bit and pulled on his lower lip and Tony groaned, hips bucking up and fingers squeezing Peter’s waist in anticipation. The smaller boy looked into his eyes for a fraction of a second, like he, too, didn’t want to wake up in case it was dream, then his lips slid across Tony’s scratchy cheek, down his jaw, then up to his earlobe, where he bit teasingly, his hot breath sending shivers down his spine when he heard the boy whisper a timid “please”.

It was all it took for Tony to grab him by the hips and flip him, laying him down on the couch and positioning himself between his legs. It was a tight fit, but he was afraid that if he suggested they moved things to the bedroom, it would be over. Peter whimpered when Tony let his weight rest against him, bodies touching from chest to groin, pressed closely together, rubbing against each other each time either of them moved.

Tony started sucking on Peter’s smooth neck as his hands dragged the offending sweater up his torso until it was bunched up under his armpits and his chest. Peter raised his arms and Tony took it off completely, mouth promptly latching onto a tiny, pale-pink nipple, which made the smaller man hiss, hands flying to entangle his fingers in the brunette’s hair.

Peter pulled the strands of Tony’s hair, as if he wanted him to stop his ministrations, but as soon as the older man’s mouth left his chest, he pulled him back down, moaning and squirming, seemingly undecided if he wanted more or less of Tony’s lips and teeth on him.

Meanwhile, the older man bit and sucked on his nipple, which became rigid and swollen, sensitive to the point that Peter couldn’t take it anymore and finally pulled him up for a kiss. Tony obliged happily, hips grinding down against Peter’s, feeling his erection rubbing against his, both so hard it hurt.

Peter started pulling Tony’s t-shirt urgently and the older brunette made just enough room so that he could take it off and drop it to the floor. They went back to kissing, Tony’s stubble leaving faint, red marks on Peter’s cheeks and down his neck, the boy under him whimpered and begged quietly – for what, exactly, neither of them was entirely sure.

“Do you – uh – can we –“ Peter started, but didn’t seem capable of finishing his line of thought for a second, when Tony bit down on his jaw. “God – uhm, can we go to your room?” When Tony looked down at him, his cheeks were flushed and he wasn’t sure if he was embarrassed or hot.

“Of course,” he smiled, kissing his lips briefly, before wrapping Peter’s legs around his waist. “Hold tight.” With a little effort – which he would never let Peter notice – he was able to get up from the couch with the other boy in his arms, and he quickly moved to his bedroom. He kicked the door closed but didn’t bother locking it, since Rhodey said he wouldn’t come home that night – God bless him.

He carefully laid Peter down on the bed – which was miraculously made and clean – and his small frame was engulfed in the king-sized bed sheets and pillows, his flushed skin contrasting with the dark gray linens. Such a mouth-watering vision. Tony positioned himself between his legs again and stared shamelessly, as his hands traveled all over his bare chest and down his toned abs, until Peter blushed and grabbed his wrist, trying to pull him down.

“Stop that, c’mere,” he whined when Tony didn’t comply, choosing to keep staring at him for a few more seconds, before leaning down to kiss him deep and soft.

“You’re beautiful,” He whispered against his lips, one of his hands stroking Peter’s hip, close the waistband of his jeans. His fingers lightly made their way to the buttons on the front, where they rested against Peter’s lower abdomen. “Is this ok?” He asked, looking directly into his eyes, and although Peter’s face grew almost impossibly red, he nodded, breathing out an almost soundless “yes”.

It was all the permission he needed to undo his pants, dragging them down his legs along with his boxers, leaving Peter completely bare and exposed to him, like a dream, a vision. Not even his best fantasies – and he had quite a few – could live up to the real thing. Peter’s body was lithe, but fit, the lines of his muscles were visible under his soft, unblemished skin. His nipples were perked up and helplessly rigid and red, which made his mouth water once again. His tapered waist led to narrow hips and plump thighs, his cock was small, but fully hard, swollen and flushed pink, resting heavily against his belly.

“Stop staring, it’s embarrassing,” He blushed, but smiled, hands pulling Tony’s biceps, forcing him rest his weight on top of him, skin on skin, so hot he felt his chest burning. “Besides, it’s not fair if I can’t admire the view, too,” he whispered against his ear, fingers playing with the waistband of Tony’s jeans.

Tony devoured him in a kiss and rutted against him, trying to take some of the edge off, the whole thing was driving him insane, he worried he wouldn’t last a minute longer if he didn’t get things under control, it was embarrassing, he hadn’t felt like that in a long time.

Peter wrapped one leg around his waist and pressed up against him, before throwing his head back, exposing his throat, and Tony buried his face in it, nose quickly filling with the smell of his cologne and a little sweat, the perfect combination to send him straight to heaven. Tony’s hands went down to cup Peter’s ass cheeks and he was not surprised to find they were deliciously round and soft, but firm. He kissed Peter one more time, before gently nudging him to turn around and lie with his stomach down.

“Fuck,” he muttered under his breath, once again hypnotized by the sight of his slim body, from his gorgeous shoulders, down to his thin waist and glorious ass, so fucking round and juicy, like a ripe peach begging to be bitten. Peter gasped in surprise when Tony leaned down and did just that, bit his flesh softly, but it was enough to make the younger man jump.

“What are –“ he was cut off by his own moans, as Tony started licking and biting on his ass cheeks, starting almost at his lower back, making his way down to the fleshiest part of his ass, before moving inwards. “Tony,” he whimpered, sounding like he wanted to resist, but his body said differently, if the way his spine curved and his hips were pushed up from the bed were any indication.

Tony grabbed both of his cheeks, spreading them apart to expose his hole. Again, his mouth watered, the little ring of muscles looked insanely tight, but it was fluttering eagerly in anticipation. The way Peter whimpered “Tony” made it seem like he maybe wanted to say something, but his body didn’t leave any room for doubts. Still, he asked.

“This okay?” It was a little of a low blow that he was close enough that his hot, moist breath could probably be felt between his cheeks, but Peter buried his face in the pillow and, after just a couple of seconds, nodded. “I need to hear you, baby.” He whispered again, and the boy just turned his head a little to the side to whisper a breathless “yes.”

Tony squeezed his cheeks one more time, before moving his hands down a little to Peter’s thighs, to spread his legs further apart. Again, Peter buried his face in the pillow, the skin of his back turning red in a full-body blush, but his hips were pushed up, slightly off the bed. Tony smirked and started teasing him by licking his balls, sucking each if them into his mouth in turns, making the boy cry out and push his hips back into the bed, trying to rub his cock on the mattress.

Tony quickly held him in place as his tongue made its way up, finally reaching the quivering hole that had been begging for attention from the start. He circled the rim with his tongue, feeling its contractions, as Peter whined and writhed underneath him. He pushed his tongue against his entrance, trying to make his way in, but it was still too tight and he could barely get the tip in.

Once he felt Tony’s tongue trying to breach him, Peter started humping the bed, hips moving up against Tony’s face, then down, pressing his cock against the mattress. The older man smirked but let him keep fucking himself on his tongue, as his hands alternated between spreading his cheeks further apart and kneading his thighs, occasionally slapping his ass for good measure.

“To-Tony, I – I can’t, please, I gotta –“ He couldn’t finish his sentences properly, but Tony understood exactly what he wanted to say. He placed one last kiss on either of his cheeks then moved up the bed, reaching for his night stand. He saw Peter turn his head to the side, watching as his hand fished for a bottle of lube and a condom. He bit his lower lip and looked back at Tony. “Please.”

“Fuck,” he groaned, almost dropping everything to the floor. He left the items on the bed and started undoing his pants in a haste. As soon as he heard the sound of the zipper being undone, Peter turned around, lying on his back, resting against the pillows. Tony was a confident motherfucker, so he didn’t even blush as Peter watched him with hungry eyes, lazily stroking his cock as his eyes traveled all over the older man’s broad chest and toned abs.

Once he finally freed his cock, Peter sat up, reaching for it. Tony was kneeling between his legs, looking down at him as the boy wrapped his fingers around his shaft. The older man moaned, closing his eyes when he felt Peter start moving his hand up and down, slowly. He grabbed his shoulders and let his head fall back a little and enjoyed the feeling of Peter’s smooth palm sliding up and down his shaft. He gasped, though, when he felt the warm moisture of his mouth enveloping the tip of his already leaking cock.

“Pete – shit, fuck,” he jerked back sitting on his heels in front of the boy who looked back at him with a naughty smile. “Lie back, you fucking tease.” Peter complied immediately, feet planted on the bed, knees pointing up, legs spread wide.

The older man uncapped the lube, covered two fingers with a generous amount of it, then prompted Peter to place his heels on his shoulders and the boy obliged easily. Tony leaned forwards, almost folding him in half, knowing full well that he was flexible enough that it wasn’t uncomfortable. Exploring said flexibility further was on his secret list of fantasies, but it would have to wait.

He covered Peter’s lips with his in a hungry kiss at the same time as his middle finger forced its way into his entrance. Peter flinched for a second, but soon lost himself in the kiss, hands tangling in Tony’s hair, as he relaxed, making it easier for his finger to slide in smoothly. Once inside, he started moving it gently, curling it a little to loosen his muscles and Peter whimpered, pushing down against his hand as much as possible in the position he was in.

Tony moved his lips to Peter’s neck, teeth leaving faint, red marks on the way, as he tried to insert another finger in. He met a lot of resistance at first, and actually felt on his lips the way his shoulders tensed, so he made sure to be extra careful and gentle as he peppered kisses along his collarbones and lips, trying to distract him from the pain.

It worked, after a couple of minutes Peter’s body opened up beautifully for him, almost pulling him in as his fingers made their way inside. Tony stopped to let him adjust for a few seconds as he devoured his lips again in an eager kiss. Peter’s hands slid down his back and pulled him closer as his hips pressed back against Tony’s hand.

The older man started scissoring his fingers as he thrust his hips against Peter, the tip of his cock just lightly brushing his ass cheeks, but it was enough to drive him mad. Peter rocked back and forth with him, rolling his hips on his own account until, finally, his eyes grew wide and he threw his head back with a gasp.

“Oh – right there, Tony, right there, right there, please,” he begged incoherently and the older man quickened his pace, fucking harder into him, trying to keep hitting that spot again and again. “Fuck! Tony, please, just – please, fuck me.”

“Fuck, you can’t – just say things like – fuck,” He let his body weight rest on top of Peter, burying his face in his neck as he tried to get himself under control. The younger man’s legs slid down from his shoulders to the curve of his elbows as the boy chuckled. Tony pulled his fingers out and sat on his heels, reaching for the packet of condom. He opened it deftly and put it on in record time, before spreading a generous amount of lube to his cock, but didn’t waste much time stroking it. He put one of Peter’s legs back on his shoulder, the other wrapped around his waist, and positioned himself, holding the tip of his cock against the boy’s quivering hole. “Okay?” He asked one last time, to which he boy whispered a quick yes, arms tight around Tony’s neck, as the older boy started breaching him.

It was obvious he was in pain at first, but Tony was patient and placed little kisses on his face as he waited for him to get used to the burn, before he kept going. Once he felt the boy relaxing around him, he took his lips in a deep kiss as he sank deeper and deeper into his warmth, his hole felt so fucking tight and inviting and when he was finally completely sheathed inside him, he let out a breath he didn’t even know he’d been holding, eyes rolling back in pleasure.

“You’re amazing,” he muttered, dazedly, and felt Peter’s lips stretch in a smile against his neck. He wondered if it was his secret smile or just an amused one, because Tony sounded high, and maybe he was, maybe he fucking was because Peter was like opium and Tony was already addicted. “Fucking amazing.”

Tony drew his hips back slowly, then thrust forward a little faster, making them both moan in pleasure. He grabbed Peter’s thighs and squeezed tight, imagining leaving marks on his pale skin, imagining that no one else would dare to touch him after. He set a quick pace, hips snapping firmly against his, their mouths and tongues lost in one another, chests touching, Peter’s legs around him, his arms around his neck, everything felt so fucking amazing, like in a dream, a fantasy.

“You feel so good,” Peter whispered in his ear, hips rocking to his rhythm, meeting him thrust for thrust, and it drove the older man a little mad as he fucked harder into him, so fucking hot, so tight, so –“Oh, shit!Tony, right there, please!” He cried, nails digging into his shoulders to the point it hurt, but he didn’t stop, he went wild, aiming at that same sweet spot, hitting it over and over again, as Peter moaned and writhed underneath him, babbling things Tony couldn’t quite understand.

He grabbed Peter’s cock, which was rock-hard and bobbing between their stomachs, and stroked in sync with his thrusts and, without any warning, Peter cried his name, eyes squeezed shut, as he came, spilling his come all over their chests and stomachs, the pressure of his hole clenching down on him and the sight of Peter lost in his own pleasure sent Tony over the edge. He bit Peter’s shoulder to avoid screaming like a madman as he emptied himself inside him, hips never losing rhythm until they were both completely spent.

He let himself rest against Peter for just a few seconds before rolling off of him to take off the condom, which he tied and threw in the bin by his bed. He quickly turned back to Peter and pulled him to his chest, and the boy nestled against him and buried his face in his neck, taking a deep, calming breath.

Tony wanted to say something. Like “I love you”, but maybe less intense. Maybe “we should do this again”. Maybe “do you wanna go out sometime?”. Anything to ensure that that wasn’t a one-time thing, a one-night stand. He knew it wasn’t Peter’s style, but he had to make sure, he needed to know for sure that it meant something.

The prolonged silence made it possible for them to hear a phone vibrating somewhere on the floor. They both raised their heads to look and Tony reached down to grab Peter’s pants when he saw its pocket shining. Peter thanked him and took the phone, eyes going a little wide when looked at the screen just as it went silent.

“Fuck, it’s Harry, and he’s called a hundred times already, I gotta take this.” He looked flustered and a little nervous as he prepared to jump out of bed.

“Please, don’t.” Tony sat up and grabbed Peter’s arm before he could leave and the younger man frowned, a little confused and apparently a little annoyed, which made the older man feel embarrassed.

“What? Why?” He demanded, and Tony bit his lower lip, trying to find a way to explain himself without sounding clingy or needy.

“Because – I mean, I know you just got out of a bad relationship and maybe you want to meet other people and have different experiences and stuff, and it’s probably not a good idea to jump in a relationship with someone else right not, which is fine, I mean – I guess what I’m saying is... If you want to keep seeing him, I understand, just... keep in mind that I really wanna be with you and I think we’d be great together, so I hope you’ll pick me in the end.” He probably didn’t make any sense to the other boy, he wanted to say “Leave that jerk and give me a chance” but somehow ended up encouraging Peter to keep seeing someone else and now he felt stupid.

“Wh – Tony, I – you think I’m two-timing you and Harry?” He shook his head confusedly, eyes blinking rapidly as if he was having a hard time understanding something so absurd.

“Not two-timing, just – you’re seeing him, right?” He felt stupid when Peter just stared at him for a few seconds before he burst out laughing, to the point that he laid back down on the bed, clutching his belly. “What? So you don’t – you two aren’t –“ Tony was still sitting on the bed, looking down at a laughing Peter drying tears from the corner of his eyes.

“Tony, Harry is just a friend – a very overprotective friend who thinks you’re a jerk for hurting my feelings when we were younger, by the way – but that’s it. He’s straight, he’s got a girlfriend back in New York. I thought you knew this, it’s all over his Instagram.” He sat back up by his side, shoulder touching his, and Tony felt unbelievably dumb and so fucking relieved he wanted to cry. He wasn’t even embarrassed that he’d made a fool of himself just a few minutes ago. He sighed deeply, closing his eyes to thank whatever deity was out there. When he opened them again, Peter wasn’t laughing anymore, he was looking curiously at him, worrying his bottom lip. “So… What did you mean by, you know, wanting to be with me and stuff?” He mumbled the last part, looking down at his naked lap.

Tony felt weirdly vulnerable and exposed in that state of undress, so he reached for a sheet and covered them both with it. Peter smiled gratefully at him. He took a minute to organize his thoughts, he considered trying to play it down a little, but at the same time, he really needed to get that out of his chest. So he took a deep breath.

“The reason why I stopped talking to you back then wasn’t because I was feeling like a third wheel. I was jealous, because,” he paused, glancing sideways at Peter who looked back at him with huge eyes. He bit his lower lip and shrugged. “I was in love with you.”

“You – but you – why didn’t you –“ Peter looked and sounded pretty confused, he shut his eyes and shook his head as if it could get his thoughts in order.

“I don’t know, I was stupid,” Tony answered anyway, because he knew what he wanted to ask. Peter was silent after that, the older man kept looking at him, expecting some kind of reaction, but he just looked back at him, pursing his lips. Calculating.

“Did you, uh – are you over it? Like, do you –” He tried speaking again, but he seemed to have lost the ability to string sentences together, so Tony smiled softly and put him out of his misery.

“I love you, Pete. This hasn’t changed.” It was amazingly easy to say those words, words he’d been using in his mind for so long, ever since they were teens. Anytime he said “take care”, “call me”, “I missed you”, “see you soon”, he actually meant “I love you”. So it fell from his lips like the easiest words in the English lexicon. It felt freeing. “But I understand you’re not there yet, so don’t feel pressured to –“

“Are you crazy? I’ve been in love with you since ninth grade,” Peter’s eyes were wet when he looked into Tony’s, one hand coming to rest on the older man’s cheek. “I thought it was hopeless, I thought you’d never love me back.” He frowned and tried to pull his hand away, but Tony held it against his face, heart breaking. He never meant for Peter to feel like he could never love him back, he was just a stupid kid. “I thought I could forget you if I replaced you with someone else. I guess it worked for a while, until you talked to me at Clint’s party and I just – it reminded me how just talking to you makes me weak in the knees.” He smiled shyly and it was Tony’s turn to cup his face in his hands.

“I’m so sorry, Pete.” The younger man smiled and shook his head fondly.

“I love you, too, dummy,” Tony smiled brightly, his heart felt so fucking full and complete. It was like a missing piece fell right into place. He kissed Peter’s own smile right off his lips, forcing him to lie down, bodies entangled from head to toe. Things were heating up again quickly, when they were interrupted by Peter’s phone vibrating again.

“Oh my God, Harry is gonna kill me, hold on.” He grabbed the phone from the bed and Tony watched, amused and relieved. So fucking relieved. And happy. And whole. “Hey – okay, calm down, I’m fine, I – yeah, I’ll tell you if you let me speak. I’m at Tony’s. Yeah, that Tony. No, it’s fine, we’ve talked and – what? Harry, no! This is ridiculous, I’m an adult, you’re over – okay, fine! Hold on,” He turned to Tony with a frown, looking embarrassed and shy. Tony raised a brow. “Uhm, I’m really sorry about this, but he wants to talk to you, could you –? If he’s too much, just tell him to fuck off, he can be a little overbearing.”

“It’s ok, gimme.” Tony was actually grateful Peter had a friend like Harry – well, now that he knew they were just friends. Peter needed that, he needed someone to be there for him and to put Tony in his place if he was ever out of line. He deserved someone looking out for him, something Tony wasn’t capable of doing when Peter was with Beck. “Hello?”

“Listen here, punk, I know your type, I know how you operate, and let me just tell you, it ain’t gonna fly with me, do you hear me? I will not allow you to hurt Peter again, I want you to know that I’m fucking watching you and if you so much as touch a hair on his head I’m gonna make your life a living hell, I fucking –“

Tony wasn’t even mad, he really wasn’t. He was so happy he wanted to cry. When he looked at Peter, he looked mortified, but still, his lips were spread in a smile. That beautiful, secret smile of his, the one Tony missed so damned much for too fucking long.

He’d never have to miss it again.

“Nobody knows it,

But you’ve got a secret smile

And you use it only for me.”

(Semisonic – Secret Smile)

#starker #college au #CssPrompts

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lexieelouuu11 · 4 years

Text

HC: Peter Parker didn’t know he was Bi until Harley Keener

So this took a turn I wasn’t expecting, also it’s a lot longer than I was expecting I’m sorry also Idk how to do the cut thing so my bad

TW: Mentions of Rape

Okay so Peter Parker is *Straight*

He likes girls, really likes girls

He literally went on a date with Liz (it may have ended with her moving away bc he put her dad in jail but that’s besides the point)

And he may have had a brief crush on MJ

So Peter Parker is *Straight*

Boys are gross, and trust Peter he knows

He doesn’t ever want to think of men in a sexual matter

He 10/10 supports anyone who comes out to him

But anytime he thinks about how boys could possibly be into him, his brain immediately goes to Skip Wescott

And how Peter was 9 when it started and that he never wants to be in a position like that again

It was horrible and scary, and Peter Parker likes women and only women, and he will never be anyone’s Skip. And he will never put himself in a position where there can be another Skip.

So Peter Parker thinks men suck.

(Obviously beside Ned and Mr Stark, they’re cool, but Peter has known Ned forever and Mr Stark is literally a super hero, and Peter only became such a huge fan of Iron Man and Tony Stark because of what happened)

His therapist tells him it was his way of coping with what happened

Then one day Happy picks Peter up at school on an non-lab day because Mr. Stark has someone that he wants Peter to meet

Peter really hopes its the Black Widow (because they’re both spider themed heroes !! how cool !!!)

Peter meets Mr Stark and this mystery person in the living room

Mr Stark introduces Peter Parker to Harley Keener

Harley Keener looks hot good, hes tall and wears a leather jacket and cowboy boots with skinny jeans. He looks so out of place, but he doesn’t look bothered by it either

Peters heart skips a beat, but Peter chalks it up to be anxiety

“Hey there Peter, I’m Harley”

Oh my god he has an accent, an actual southern accent

And doesn’t that just make Peters heart race

“Tony here tells me you’re a real Einstein” He laughed

Harley laughed. Peter is not laughing

Peter hears his blood rushing, and feels himself go cold. His spidey-sense is just going off

Peter looks to Mr Stark whose smile falters at the look of pure-fear on Peters face

Mr Stark doesn’t know. Peter never told him. Any files about what happened never include Peters name, or any family members name, so Mr Stark wouldn’t have stumbled on it, unless he went into Peter’s Therapists notes, which he hasn’t because he may be nosy but he isn’t invasive

Peter knows what this is, he knows he’s going into a panic attack. He was triggered and he needs to get out. Out out out before anything can happen

“So-sorry, I’ve gotta, I gotta go, something came up wi-with May. It was um, it was nice meeting you Harley.”

Peter left, and made it back home, though he doesn’t remember how he made it from Manhattan to Queens and into his apartment.

He’s home and it’s not the safest place, can’t go into his bedroom but it’s better than there

Tony beat him to the apartment (without Harley), already sitting with May when Peter walks in

May is quick to give Peter his favourite over-sized sweater (it makes him feel safe) sitting him down in the living room, putting a knit blanket over him, and giving a bottle of water.

“Pete, you okay kid?” Mr Stark asks

And Peter is fine, he always has been, so he nods

“Do you want to talk about why you were triggered into a panic attack” His voice is soft as he speaks to Peter, like Peter would break

May sits next to Peter, pulling him into her

“Adrian Toomes was not the first person Spider-Man sent to jail” Peter started the story like this because it was easier to tell it, his therapist may not be happy with it but she’ll be happy he’s making progress by telling some

“Spider-Man was 11 when he sent his first person to jail. It was a year long trial, one kid versus one 18 year old. He used to call Spider-Man, Einstein”

Peter seemed to be done with his explanation after this, deeming it enough information for Tony to understand what happened

It wasn’t

But May sending a text that said “Search Skip Wescott” gave Tony the opportunity to find out what happened later

(Tony is really pissed when he reads what happens, and makes sure Skip get transferred to worst prison and that he can never leave)

“Okay, Pete, I’ll talk to Harley about not calling you that. But Harley will be going to the same school as you, okay? That’s why I wanted you two to meet.”

After that first night Peter goes back to being his usual chipper self

And Harley starts at Midtown

Peter was just rounding the corner outside of the school to see Harley getting dropped off by Happy

After a moment of hesitation Peter went up to Harley and offered to help him on his first day (because Peter will not let his overwhelming fear take over and he will be friendly for the sake of Mr Stark and that is all)

Despite Peter’s uneasiness and distrust Peter and Harley get on like a house on fire

Peter started to feel really close to Harley, and Harley would often throw his arm around Peter’s shoulder and call him things like sugar, or sweet thing or darling

And Peter liked that a lot, except he didn’t because it was weird (but he really did)

And Peter would always go tomato red whenever Harley was around

Even Ned and MJ recognized the crush Peter had on Harley and vice versa

“Dude when are you going to make a move on him?”

“What the fuck, Ned? I’m straight, Harley and I are friends”

“Peter are you being serious right now? You both obviously have a crush on each other. Harley knows you like him too.”

“The fuck MJ, I expected you to be more understanding about this. We are friends. Maybe I come off as gay to you because I choose to respect people and am not the exact definition of a ‘toxic male,’ but I don’t fucking like you guy assuming that I like men. Men ain’t shit and I’m not going to find myself in another situation like I used too. I like women”

“What’s your issue Peter? You homophobic now? Didn’t peg you as that.”

“Fuck MJ, this isn’t your business. I’m an ally, people love who they love, but I don’t like men, and you need to stop pushing that on me. I have my reasons, you have yours.”

“Peter, the way you’re going off on MJ isn’t really helping your point much-”

“Would the two of you just shut up about this. I don’t like other guys. Women are it for me. I will not be stuck under another man. Fuck, I’m straight and you need to stop pushing the idea that I’m into Harley just because you want me to live out your little fantasies of what my life should be like.”

Peter didn’t talk to them the rest of the day. Not because he was angry but because he was embarrassed that he said too much

At the tower Peter and Harley were cuddled together sitting next to each other watching Brooklyn Nine-Nine and talking

Peter really loved Harley’s Blue eyes

And his accent

And his face

And Harley in general

But totally only in a friends way

They’re bros

“I want to try something real quick, you can tell me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think I am”

And then Harley kisses Peter

Harley Kisses him

And Peter freaks out

Without even thinking about it, Peter pushes Harley off of him and bolts, leaving the tower without his phone, shoes or bag, Peter just leaves

Once Peter gets outside he throws up, before his anxiety takes over again and he just runs and runs and runs

Harley is left now sitting on the ground, tears in his eyes, confused and hurt about what just happened

Tony makes it to Harley in record time thanks to Friday, and without a question Harley explains what happened

“I thought he liked me too, Tony, I really did. I don’t know how I messed up this bad.”

“I’m sorry Harls, Peter has been hurt a lot and I just don’t think he was ready yet emotionally for a relationship.”

Tony knows that Peter has probably just been triggered. He’s only heard Peter talk about girls romantically, never boys, but he was sure that Peter and Harley were going to be together at some point

Once Harley finally calms down enough and goes to his room Tony calls May

“May, is Peter with you, he left all his stuff here.”

“No, I thought he was staying with you tonight. what happened?”

“Harley kissed Pete, and he freaked out and ran out without any of his stuff, I was hoping he was with you. His phone is here too.”

“I think I know where he is, College Point Park. Ben and I used to take him there after any court date.”

“I’ll meet you there.”

“What about Harley?”

“He’s already asleep, I’ll meet you there.”

Tony and May get there in record time, finding Peter sitting on the rocks facing the East River.

“Peter?” May called out.

Peter turned around, his face clearly red, tears streaming down his face.

“I don’t understand” Peter finally said as May and Tony got close enough

“What don’t you understand?” Tony asked

“Harley kissed me. He kissed me. I expected to hate it. But I didn’t. I liked it when he kissed me. I should hate it though. He’s a boy. I shouldn’t have liked it.”

“Peter it’s okay if you liked Harley Kissing you, and it’s okay if you like him romantically too” May tried to comfort

“But it’s not May, because if I like Harley, and I like him kissing me then that means that I liked it when Skip kissed me. And I didn’t like anything he did to me.”

“Peter, I like when Pepper and I kiss, but that doesn’t mean that if May were to kiss me that I’d like it. Same thing goes for you kiddo.”

“I like girls though. I can’t like Harley.”

“You can like both boys and girls. You could be Bisexual or maybe not. No matter what it’s okay.” May said again.

“I need time. I can’t- I need Dr Rosenburg and I need to not be Spider-Man and I need to not see Harley or Ned or MJ. I need time.”

“Okay baby, you can have as much time as you need.”

Peter ends up taking a week off of school, with daily appointments with his therapist. He went completely ghost mode. Wasn’t active as Spider-Man, wasn’t active on social media. Didn’t read or respond to anyone’s messages. Only talking to May or Tony and only if they were at the apartment.

After his week off, Peter finally reappeared at school, still having not responded to anyone’s messages, preferring to just deal with things in person.

“Peter oh my god you’re alive we all thought you died.” Ned shouted from down the hall going to greet his friend, MJ and Harley in tow.

“I’m fine guys, I just had some stuff from the past come back up that needed to be dealt with before I did anything that would hurt other people.”

“What are you talking about Parker, you wouldn’t hurt a fly let alone anyone else.” MJ said confused

“I’ll tell you when I’m ready too but I’m not there yet. My therapist thinks I made good progress this week though.”

“Your therapist?” Ned asked.

“Uh yeah, sorry. MJ, Ned, I really messed up with how I treated you guys the other day, regarding my sexuality, turns out I may of been wrong and you guys were right, I just repressed any of those emotions due to trauma. So, I’m sorry you didn’t deserve that.”

Ned and MJ obviously forgive Peter bc duh they’re friends

“I would like to talk to Harley privately though, so you guys wouldn’t mind?”

So Peter pulls Harley to the side finally getting the chance to talk to him, and wanted to say his words before he lost his nerves.

“Peter I’m sorry-”

“I liked when you kissed me. That’s why I freaked out. I didn’t think it was possible for me to like that, or men. I’m sorry for pushing you away. I wasn’t prepared and my brain automatically went to a dark place. I like you Harley Keener, but I have problems and I want you to be aware of that before we do anything.”

“Okay.”

“If we are going to try this I need you to be aware of my limits. I have a lot of them apparently, and I’m not sure if more will come up or not, but my therapist said that I should talk to you about this stuff before we do anything. If you still like me, that is.”

“Peter Parker you are too precious, of course I still like you, I don’t plan on not liking you for a while yet.”

And then Peter smiles and he feels relieved, because getting to this point took a lot of work and now he’s here and he likes a boy who likes him back who won’t hurt him

#parkner #parley #peter parker #peterparker #harleykeener #harley keener #bi peter parker #bi peter #irondad #spiderson #insecure #skipwescott #marvel #marvel cinematic universe #mcu

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sassy-starker · 4 years

Text

Jupiter

Word Count: 28,576

TW: Serious physical bullying (to the point where some might consider it unrealistic, but you wouldn’t believe the shit I’ve seen in public schools)

“Well, tell me how am I supposed to see the magic? ‘Cause I don’t believe in it no more”

-EDEN, XO

Soulmates were a strange thing, connecting two people together for eternity, yet not being able to tell if a person’s soulmate would die before they had the chance to meet or giving someone no soulmate at all. There were theories about how it worked, from quantum entanglement to straight-up magic, but nobody was really sure in the end. Most didn’t care about the science anyway.

They cared about falling in love.

Anthony Edward Stark had been born without words on his wrist and those words had not appeared in the years after he was born, leaving him destined to never find true love. Destined to be isolated from the rest of the world. It was partly why his father hated him, but his mother didn’t mind all that much.

(Of course, she didn’t. His mother had always cared about him.)

No matter where he went, Tony wore bracelets over his wrist. When people asked, he claimed that he wanted his words to be private so nobody could see them and pretend to be his soulmate. He never let it slip that he didn’t have a soulmate, making sure that the only people who knew were his parents and Jarvis.

Not having a soulmate, along with his abusive asshole of a father, was a factor in how he acted once he had grown up. He drowned himself in alcohol until he was sure it would fill up his lungs and had sex with as many people as possible, hoping to fill the loneliness inside of him.

It didn’t work.

Luckily, Pepper and Rhodey were there to remind him that not having a soulmate didn’t make him any less deserving of familial and platonic love.

Pepper had already found her soulmate, a woman named Natasha Romanov. She had been searching for a long time, but eventually found Natasha when the woman came in for an interview for a job in PR. Pepper had the words, ‘I did not expect you to be this pretty’ on her wrist while Natasha had the words, ‘And I didn’t expect to find my soulmate in a job interview’ on hers.

Rhodey had found his soulmate when he was grabbing takeout for him and Tony. He accidentally bumped into his soulmate, Sam Wilson, in a Chinese restaurant. Rhodey had the words ‘Fuck, I am so sorry,’ while Sam had the words ‘Don’t be’ on his wrist.

Both Pepper and Rhodey were there when he got a soul sentence.

It was a rainy afternoon in August, droplets of water falling down gently like shimmering diamonds outside the windows of the penthouse kitchen. Tony hummed a tune as he grabbed a granola bar from the pantry, coffee brewing behind him. As he turned back toward the coffee maker to grab his mug, he felt a strange sensation across his left wrist. It was somehow comforting and stinging at the same time. It burned and yet it was cooling and soft. It was like no sensation he had felt before. He dropped the granola bar, pulled down the sleeve of his shirt, and there it was, the words that would haunt him for years to come.

What’s your favorite planet?

Tony Stark screamed.

Pepper and Rhodey came rushing in to see what was wrong, only to find Tony staring at his wrist and a granola bar on the ground.

“Tony, what’s wrong?!” Pepper exclaimed, her face portraying her confusion. In response, the man just turned his wrist around, showing off the words that had chosen to place themselves on his skin.

“Tones, this is amazing,” Rhodey told him. “Why aren’t you excited?”

“I am thirty-one years old,” Tony replied, pulling his wrist away and staring down at the words as if they had hurt him. “By the time my soulmate is eighteen, I’ll be forty-nine. Whoever they are, they don’t deserve that.”

“Tony-” Pepper started but was cut off.

“And I’m a superhero that could get killed at any time. It just wouldn’t work.”

“Tony, you have to-” Rhodey began but Tony interrupted again.

“No! I’m not going to look for my soulmate, I’m not going to meet my soulmate, and I’m sure as hell not going to fall in love with my soulmate! We’re not even going to talk about them, okay!?” Tony was shouting at the end of his little speech, tears glimmering in his eyes like the rain outside. He stomped off, leaving his coffee and his granola bar behind him.

+++

“I just needed company now. Yeah, I just needed someone around.”

-Conan Gray, Comfort Crowd

When Peter Benjamin Parker was born, it was a rainy day in August, rain dripping down the window panes in the hospital. He was born with a single word on his wrist.

Jupiter.

His parents loved his soul sentence.

When he was young, he heard stories of soulmates meeting and staying in love through their entire lives, never giving up on the other. He completely believed in soulmates and true love, never having doubts about it.

Peter’s parents died when he was four years old.

The idea of soulmates lessened in his brain, falling into the back of his mind to deal with at a later time. As he began to open up to the idea of soulmates once more, tragedy struck.

He lost his uncle.

Grief overtook him and he didn’t have the room to worry about soulmates, instead filing them as fantasies and pretended they never existed in the first place, despite the happy couples around him and the words on his wrist.

Peter spent his years wearing a bracelet and never looking at the single word that had planted itself on his left wrist. He gave up on romantic love, instead choosing to find a couple of friends who wouldn’t mind his inherent lack of interest in soulmates.

Luckily, he met Ned Leeds and Michelle Jones in middle school.

Ned was a hopeless romantic, constantly looking for his soulmate everywhere he went. He was determined to find them and never lose them. It hurt Peter’s heart a bit to know that his friend still believed in love but didn’t let that get in the way of helping the boy find the one the universe chose to be his.

MJ was a different story.

The girl acted as if she had no interest in love or even friends, but Peter was good at acting like he was dumb. He didn’t let it on, but he knew that she was looking for her soulmate. He saw the subtle glances to her words when she thought nobody was looking and the ways she strained to observe every last person she saw.

Peter loved being with his friends, but it changed when both of them found their soulmates in the same week of junior year.

In the middle of October, a new kid arrived at Midtown and everybody was eager to talk to him, wanting to know if he was their soulmate. Due to that, their little trio didn’t get to meet him until the beginning of November.

Turns out, his name was Jacob and he had the words ‘You’re the new kid, right?’ on his wrist while Ned had the words ‘Is three weeks too long to be considered new?’ on his. They were soulmates.

Peter had tried to be happy for Ned, he really did, but it was hard when his friend practically abandoned him to start hanging out with his soulmate all the time. He was down a friend and left with MJ. He didn’t really mind, but it was difficult when he realized he had nobody to talk to. May was always gone and MJ was always buried in a book or drawing people in crisis, leaving Peter to drown in loneliness.

Still, he was glad he had anybody at all.

That Friday, at Academic Decathlon practice, a new kid joined the team. Her name was Sydney and she had the words ‘Welcome to Academic Decathlon practice, loser’ written on her wrist. MJ had the words ‘If I’m your soulmate, am I still a loser?’ on hers.

And then MJ abandoned him too.

Peter found himself alone at lunch and without somebody to talk to, without anybody to listen to his frustrations and his interests that he so badly wanted to talk about. He began to keep to himself, never opening his mouth to say a word except when asked to speak in class, but even then he gave short, often one-word answers. He even quit Academic Decathlon. This, of course, led to him being the freak of the school.

Rumors constantly floated around about him and stares, whether curious or disgusted, followed him wherever he walked in the halls. He kept his head down and tried his best to ignore everyone despite the verbal harassment and physical bullying.

Silence ruled his entire life as he moved from junior year to senior year, voice becoming hoarse from lack of speech. His teachers rarely called on him, knowing he would only give short answers and that he already knew the material. He was left alone in that sense, but the bullying only got worse. Teachers would turn their heads and pretend they saw nothing, never getting Flash and his posse in trouble because of how much money was between the group.

So Peter let it happen, let it become as normal to him as the seasons and days pass. He was waiting for the last day of school so the torture would finally end.

As much as he wished to go to college, he couldn’t afford it. He had gotten into MIT and hadn’t responded yet, but knew he would soon have to decline so he could take a gap year, or possibly two, to work and get enough money to go through at least two years of higher education.

The universe really had it out for him.

+++

“Called to the devil and the devil said quit. Can’t be bothered, better handle your shit.”

-Rainbow Kitten Surprise, It’s Called: Freefall

The universe really had it out for Tony Stark. He was practically knee-deep in paperwork and had so much more work to do, meaning he couldn’t go back to the workshop. He groaned as he flipped through another legal document, trying to figure out why he even owned the company at this point. Still, he worked on.

Tony was almost grateful when he heard a knock at his office door, hoping it would be someone who could distract him from his work for a bit. Unfortunately for him, the door opened to reveal Pepper, who was holding a small folder of documents in her hand.

“I’ve scheduled for you to go to Midtown School of Science and Technology next week to give a talk about aeronautics to the senior class,” she told him without a greeting, walking forward and setting a folder on his desk. “These papers contain all the things you need to talk about, what to remember about the school, and the top students just in case you run into them or have to talk to them in the lecture.”

“Are you seriously trusting me to talk to impressionable young minds about science?” Tony asked her, picking up the folder and beginning to flip through the files.

“It’s just a simple lecture,” the CEO reassured him. “You’ll be fine.”

With that, Pepper exited the room and left Tony to flip through everything. He sighed and opened the folder completely, deciding to look at the top students first. It was the ten best students, the first paper on the stack being the tenth best kid.

Tony flipped through the files without interest, half-heartedly glancing over the information about the students’ extracurricular activities and GPAs. He paused when he got to the last paper, though, as he saw a handsome young man who happened to be the brightest of everyone in the impressive school.

He was a senior named Peter Parker. He had a perfect GPA, took seven AP classes, had near-perfect scores on the SAT and ACT, and had been accepted to several nice colleges.

Tony couldn’t stop staring at the paper, taking in all the boy’s accomplishments and his soft eyes and fluffy brown hair and bright appearance. He suddenly wasn’t dreading the lecture as much.

+++

“Make my messes matter. Make this chaos count.”

-Sleeping At Last, Jupiter

When it was announced that Tony Stark was going to be giving a lecture to the, frankly rather small, senior class, Peter couldn’t find it in himself to care. There wasn’t any big excitement for him. Yeah, sure, Tony Stark was a genius superhero with a shit ton of money, but Peter himself was a genius superhero with no money, so it didn’t really matter.

Peter was just glad the attention was focused on the lecture and not him. That meant he got through the next few days with minimal bruises and no bloody noses. It was the best week he’d had in a good while.

His luck ended on Thursday, the day before the lecture, when Flash decided that Peter had gotten through the week so far too easily. So he beat up Peter a little worse than usual, leaving him more bruised than other weeks. The blunt force had also caused some bleeding, but it didn’t really matter to Peter. He would usually heal fast but he knew that May’s paycheck wasn’t the highest, so he skipped a lot of meals just to make sure he wasn’t taking more money away from his aunt than he needed to. It upset his advanced metabolism but didn’t hurt more than everything usually did.

When Peter patched himself up, he noticed the black eye he was donning. He didn’t really care about that either. Apathy was a common thing for Peter and it didn’t matter to him just like everything else. Knowing nobody would care, Peter came to school with the black eye. The teachers wouldn’t do anything about it anyway.

It was only when Peter arrived at school that he remembered the lecture that was happening. The seniors were taken straight from homeroom to the cafetorium for the presentation and would be allowed to leave early afterward. Chairs were set up in front of the small stage and the tables were pushed back.

Peter sat down in the back row, alone and away from the other students, who were trying to sit as close to the front as possible to be closer to Tony Stark. Once everyone was seated, the genius came on stage and was met by cheers.

“Thank you,” Tony said in his press conference voice. “Thank you all so much. Big shout out to your school for having me. I’m excited to talk to you all about aeronautics.”

As he spoke, Tony searched the crowd for someone, and nobody noticed except Peter. When the man caught Peter’s gaze, recognition flashed in his eyes and his smile turned genuine for a second before returning to his paparazzi smile.

Peter didn’t care.

Instead of paying attention, the boy pulled a sketchbook out of his backpack and flipped to an empty page, putting his pencil to the page and waiting for something to come to mind to draw. Eventually, without thinking, he began to draw the solar system. He liked space after all.

“And since you’re such a small group, you each get to ask one question!” Peter heard Tony say once he had turned back to the lecture. The questions began as he continued to sketch.

When Peter’s mind came back into focus once more, he realized he had sketched Jupiter in the middle of the page. With a glare at the sketchbook, he dropped his pencil and let it clatter to the ground. He gave a small growl and ripped the page out.

“How about the young man in the back?” Tony asked and everybody turned to Peter, who was holding the torn out paper, which he was getting ready to crumble up. He closed his fist around the paper and tried to ignore the stares.

“What’s your favorite planet?” Peter questioned with a shrug, looking halfheartedly at the famous man just a couple dozen feet in front of him.

Tony’s eyes widened and he gave a quick glance down to his left wrist before regaining his cool and answering, “Jupiter.”

Peter’s own eyes widened at that. He pulled up his sleeve and looked at his bracelet-covered wrist, going to move the jewelry, before stopping himself and lowering his hand. Tony had moved onto the next person, so the vigilante grabbed the discarded paper in his lap and finished crumbling it, letting it drop onto the floor without a second thought.

“Thank you so much for having me, Midtown!” Tony said with his press smile plastered on before giving a wink and walking off stage to the applause of the teenagers. In the very back, he could see Peter packing up his sketchbook.

“Thank you so much for coming, Dr. Stark,” Principal Morita expressed with a grateful smile.

“It was no problem,” Tony chuckled before sobering up. “I’d love to talk to your top student though. Peter Parker, was it?”

The principal turned nervous. “Uh, may I ask why?”

Tony gave a suspicious look. “I’d like to talk to him about a job opportunity at Stark Industries.”

“I don’t think you want Mr. Parker for the job. Perhaps you might like Flash Thompson. He’s extremely smart,” Morita advertised with an anxious smile.

“I didn’t see Mr. Thompson on the top ten students list,” Tony commented with a dangerous edge to his voice. “I did see Mr. Parker though. I don’t get why you’re so against me meeting him.”

“Well,” Morita stuttered out, “it’s just that Mr. Parker is a bit . . . quiet and, uh, strange. He doesn’t quite fit in with the other students.”

“I don’t see why that matters. I’d like to see him.”

With a sputter and stammered, “Of course,” the principal rushed out, leaving Tony alone in the wings.

“Mr. Parker!” Principal Morita called to the person at the back of the exiting crowd. Peter whipped around and looked at him with no emotion. “Could you come over here?”

Everybody watched as Peter made his way over, not quite walking fast, but not quite trudging to the stage. Whispers broke out about it as the seniors exited, the doors closing behind the last of them.

“Dr. Stark wants to discuss job opportunities at Stark Industries with you,” Morita told him quietly once he reached the stage. “Please don’t mess this up for the school.”

Despite the hushed tone, Tony heard him, eyes widening at the very prospect of a staff member saying that to a student. He studied Peter for any sign of shock or fear, but all he saw was an emotionless face and a small nod in acceptance.

Principal Morita walked out and gave Peter one more warning look before exiting the cafetorium.

The boy turned around and looked over to Tony, who was frozen in shock in the wings.

“If you don’t want me as your soulmate and never want to see me again, just tell me,” Peter reassured him. “I wouldn’t hold it against you.”

Tony sputtered for a second before walking out of the wings and standing right in front of Peter, who seemed to shrink back a bit without even moving a step. “What in the world gave you that idea?”

“I don’t know . . .” Peter muttered, averting his gaze to the floor. “The way you seemed shocked to see me right now. The look you looked at me during the lecture. The way you moved on so quickly after my question. It just kinda gave me that impression.”

“I moved on because I didn’t want to announce you as my soulmate in front of your classmates in case you didn’t want to be my soulmate,” Tony answered, “and I was looking at you in shock because of what your principal said to you.”

Peter looked up to meet the man’s eyes before looking down at the floor again. He gently pulled up his sleeve, took off his bracelet, and offered up his wrist, showing off the word ‘Jupiter,’ which stood out against the yellow and blue bruise.

“Peter . . .” the genius started quietly and trailed off. “Peter, are you being abused?”

The way Tony said his name felt so intimate, but the boy didn’t have time to dwell on it.

“What?!” Peter exclaimed, looking up at the man and startling him with the outburst. “No! My aunt wouldn’t do that!”

“Then what’s this bruise?” Tony questioned a bit louder now, but it was more around his normal volume.

“Just . . . bullies. It’s nothing I can’t handle.”

Tony sighed and looked down, putting his face in his hands for a moment before looking up again. He gently grabbed Peter’s hand and the boy began to pull away before stopping himself. Tony added that to the list of things he needed to ask him about.

Tony tenderly led him to the edge of the stage before releasing his hand and sitting down with his legs hanging off. Peter followed his lead but kept his legs up and crossed them, twiddling his thumbs in his lap.

“What's your favorite planet?” Tony asked him after a moment of silence.

“Pluto,” Peter answered after thinking about it for a second.

“You know that isn’t actually a planet, right?”

“Shhh, you’ll hurt Pluto’s feelings!” the boy quietly exclaimed with a grin. Tony could see a bit of the younger man’s true personality cracking through the mask, so he turned to him and returned the smile, giving a soft laugh.

A faint blush rose to Peter’s cheeks as he realized that he was the one who made the man of iron laugh.

“Seniors, you are now free to go. I repeat, seniors, you are now free to go,” a voice said over the intercom.

“Since you’re being released early, do you wanna come to the tower?” Tony offered, giving Peter a kind look.

“I’d love to.”

+++

“Milemarker twenty-seven says we’re on the way to heaven and I smile at the passenger seat.”

-Lincoln, Banks

The ride to the tower was mostly silent, interrupted every once in a while by Tony asking Peter a question about himself and then giving his own answer after the younger man.

When they arrived, Tony led Peter up to the penthouse and let him sit in the living room while he quickly went to the kitchen to make them coffee. When it was finished, he brought in milk and sugar and set them on the coffee table, sitting in the armchair next to the couch Peter was seated on.

“I really wanted to avoid this topic,” Tony hesitated, “but I have to ask about the black eye.”

Peter retreated into himself, the slight light in his eyes disappearing and the mask of apathy falling back on. “It’s really nothing,” he defended in a monotone voice.

“If it really is nothing, then why did you go back to pretending you don’t care?”

Silence fell over them as Tony continued to look at Peter with a sadness that made the younger feel a wave of guilt wash over him.

“It’s just bullies, so it’s really not a big deal.”

“Is this a regular thing? Do the teachers not care?”

Peter’s silence said more than anything he could’ve answered the question with.

“When did it start?”

That’s when Peter broke down. He began to quietly sob, trying to muffle it as tears rolled down his cheeks. He hadn’t cried since before he met Ned and MJ and it felt good to just let it happen.

It was the first time in about a year and a half that somebody had cared enough to ask if he was okay.

“Peter, love, you don’t have to try and stay quiet,” his soulmate assured him softly. “Just let it all out.”

Tony stood and moved to sit down next to Peter. He tenderly reached over to the younger man but hesitated when he flinched and went quiet for a moment. Then the sobs returned at full force, even harder and somehow conveying the younger man’s anger at himself. Tony felt his own tears well up in his eyes but didn’t let them out. Instead, he continued to move and gently coaxed Peter into his arms, letting the younger cry into his chest. He rested his chin on the curly mop of brown hair and finally let his own tears gently fall from his eyes.

Tony rubbed Peter’s back gently, nearly getting up to go find the bullies who hurt Peter every time he felt Peter flinch against his chest from his hand running over a bruise.

“Baby, I’m so sorry I didn’t find you earlier,” he apologized sincerely before wondering when the last time Peter heard an apology was.

“‘s not your fault,” the younger reminded him as he pulled away from his chest.

“Could you tell me the full story?” Tony inquired as he tenderly took Peter’s hands in his.

And so Peter did. He told him about meeting Ned and MJ and then them both leaving him in junior year. He told him about not talking because he had nobody to talk to. He told him about the touch starvation he felt. He told him about being bullied because of not having friends. He told him about his teachers letting the bullies get away with it. He told him about covering up his emotions with complete apathy. He told him about being beaten up the day before. He told him about his doubts and fears about love. He told him everything.

“I just gave up on emotions. I just gave up on me,” Peter sobbed quietly, looking up at Tony with glistening eyes.

“Well, I’m not giving up on you,” Tony declared, making the younger give a small, wavering grin, but a grin nonetheless.

Peter leaned into Tony’s chest and listened to the man’s heartbeat. Both weary from the day, they fell asleep in each other’s arms on the couch, ninety-three stories up from all of their problems.

+++

“I’ve been naive and I’ve been feeling hazy maybe.”

-Bowling Shoes, Portland

Peter left early the next morning but not before Tony made breakfast for them. They had pancakes, which was the only food the genius knew how to make without completely ruining the kitchen.

Now, Tony was left sitting at the breakfast bar, drinking his coffee and looking down at the drawing Peter had torn out of his sketchbook for him.

It was a pencil sketch of an ocean under the starry sky and had Peter’s signature in the bottom right corner. He was contemplating where to hang it up in the tower when Pepper walked into the kitchen, moving to the coffee maker to grab a cup before the workday started.

“How are you, Tony?” she asked, not looking up from where she was choosing the cup size for her coffee.

“His name is Peter,” Tony told her, staring at the paper. Pepper looked over to him with confusion etched onto her face.

“I’m sorry, but what are you talking about?”

“My soulmate,” he elaborated. “His name is Peter. Peter Parker.”

“What?!” Pepper exclaimed and ran over to the breakfast bar, coffee long forgotten. “You met your soulmate?! Where? How? When?!”

Tony set down the paper and looked up at his long-time friend with a sad smile. “He goes to Midtown. He’s the top student and he’s a senior, so he was at the lecture.”

Pepper noticed his somber face and immediately sobered up. “Does he . . . does he not like you?”

“He does,” Tony sighed as tears slightly welled up, “but some things have happened to him recently and he’s scared of me leaving. Fri, could you bring up some pictures of Pete from yesterday?”

“Sure thing, boss.”

The hologram on Tony’s watch activated and showed a picture of Peter sitting in the back of the audience and not looking up. He swipes and there’s one of him looking up, but you can see the black eye. Pepper’s brow furrowed in concern. The next image was of Peter showing Tony his soul sentence, but there’s the hand print bruise.

There were more images of bruises of his arms and where his jeans rose a bit and showed off his ankles.

“Is he being . . . ?” Pepper started but trailed off.

“He’s being bullied because he’s quiet. He doesn’t have anyone to talk to since his friends left him and his aunt is always working,” Tony explained, eyes focused on the image of Peter crying into his chest. “The teachers don’t care in the slightest. Hell, when I asked to speak to Peter, giving the excuse that he was the top student, the principal tried to convince me to talk to a student who wasn’t even in the top ten. He’s hurting, Pep, and I don’t know how to help him”

Silence fell over them and the hologram shut off, leaving Tony’s deactivated watch behind.

“You just gotta be there for him, Tony,” Pepper encouraged. “I know you, and I can tell you care for him. If you show that to him, I have a feeling that you’ll be a lot closer to making everything work out.”

+++

“Could’ve been one lonely night just like the others, but you lit up my life. This is what it’s like to be lovers.”

-Ollie MN, Please Never Fall In Love Again

Tony had never had a proper first kiss. Hell, he’d never even had a proper relationship. His younger years had been filled with emotionless sex. There was no meaning in real romantic love for Tony, so he learned how to focus on family and friends in his thirties.

Well, that was all before Peter Parker.

Tony had always been one for looks, but that tended, of course, to be for sex. Men and women, anybody really, just had to be hot for Tony to have sex with them. There was no appreciation for kind eyes or fluffy hair or soft skin.

That was all before Peter Parker.

Tony had thought he would never feel romantic love. He had heard stories of falling in love with your soulmate faster than one would think to be possible but was never too intrigued by the topic. After all, why should he care about how fast someone falls in love when he doesn’t even have a soulmate?

That was all before Peter Parker.

Tony wanted to kiss Peter and run his fingers through the boy’s hair and drag his calloused hands across his skin and look into his coffee-brown eyes all day and fall in love as fast as possible.

And, dear lord above, he had fallen in love.

The second time Peter came over to the tower was the following week. The two sat on the couch, close together but still with a bit of room. Tony didn’t push his soulmate to move any closer, completely content with going at the younger man’s pace.

That was new, too. Tony had always wanted to set his own pace, but, for once, he wanted someone else to decide how fast everything moves.

They sat and talked, blabbing away about science and basking in each other’s company as they sipped mugs of hot chocolate. Tony’s chest felt lighter every time Peter inched even a little bit closer to him, wordlessly informing the genius that he was slowly growing more comfortable around him.

“So you made the webs yourself?” Tony asked Peter, astonishment laced into his tone. Peter couldn’t stop the blush that spread across his cheeks.

“Yeah,” he replied sheepishly but with a small grin. “Used some scraps for the actual shooters and some chemicals from the school chemistry lab to make the web solution.”

“That’s amazing!” the genius exclaimed, knowing that he meant it. “Just imagine what you could do when I get you in a proper lab!”

“You’re . . . you’re gonna let me in your labs?” Peter questioned in amazement, yet somehow remaining slightly neutral.

“Of course! You’re a fucking genius!”

The praise made Peter turn a deeper shade of pink. Tony couldn’t help but just stare at him in awe. His soulmate was gorgeous in his opinion, especially when he allowed his emotions to peek through and paint across his face. Without thinking, the man reached forward and began to run his fingers through Peter’s hair.

Peter froze for a moment, shock getting to him as he looked up at his soulmate. For a second, Tony thought he would flinch back, but Peter leaned into the touch. As Tony began to continue the movement, his soulmate’s eyes fluttered closed and his shoulders sagged as if the simple touch helped release everything he had been holding onto. He let himself be pulled into Tony’s side as the soft feeling of his hair being played with calmed him.

When Peter leaned against him, Tony wanted to shout for joy. He slowly shifted the younger man from where he was leaning on his shoulder to his chest and then to a lying position with his head in the genius’s lap, all while continuing to run his fingers through his hair.

Tony couldn’t help but notice how at peace Peter looked.

It was the most relaxed he had ever seen his soulmate.

+++

“If it makes you happy, then why the hell are you so sad?”

-Sheryl Crow, If It Makes You Happy

“Hey, FRIDAY said you had something to tell me,” Rhodey said as he entered the lab, finding Tony working on an Iron Man gauntlet. He looked up and motioned for the colonel to come and sit next to him. Albeit hesitantly, Rhodey walked over and sat down.

“I found my soulmate,” Tony blurted out, looking at his friend dead in the eyes.

“You what!?” Rhodey cried out.

“He’s a senior at Midtown and I met him in the presentation,” Tony told him. “His name is Peter Parker and I care about him so fucking much, Rhodey. I wish I would’ve listened to you and started searching sooner because he’s . . . because he’s really needed someone this past couple of years.”

“What . . . what are you on about, Tones?” Rhodey questioned him with a puzzled look.

“He hasn’t had anybody to talk to since junior year. No friends. His aunt was always gone. He was just . . . alone. And he’s been bullied really terribly and no one cared and I wished I found him sooner so I could’ve helped.”

“Tony, it’s not your-”

“Except it is my fault, Rhodey!” Tony shouted, pulling at his hair in frustration. “I completely ignored the fact I had a soulmate and, by the time I found him, he’d already put on a complete mask of apathy and hadn’t cried for a year and a half! He had bruises all over him and a black eye and just said it didn’t matter! He sat on my couch and sobbed and . . . and flinched when I reached over to hug him and tried to muffle his sobs and I wish I had found him earlier.”

They both stayed quiet, letting the echoing effect of the words fill up the air.

“Tony,” Rhodey finally chimed in, “I’m gonna help in any way I can.”

+++

“Told you not to worry, but maybe that’s a lie.”

-Billie Eilish, ilomilo

When Peter came over a couple Saturdays later, for the fourth time since they met, his bruises were mostly healed and his black eye from the first time they met was gone, but there were new bruises and his cheeks were red, and it obviously wasn’t from the sun. The marks almost looked angry, but maybe that was just because of Tony’s rage toward whoever hurt him.

Tony didn’t let his anger show on his face, instead electing to delicately bring the younger man into his arms. When he felt Peter hug him back and bury his head in his shoulder, the billionaire could only smile.

“How are you doing?” Tony asked as they pulled away.

“A bit better than last week,” Peter told him with a soft smile that made the genius feel warm inside. Tony returned the smile in order to tell Peter that he was glad about that, and he thought he got the message through.

“I’ve got a surprise for you,” Tony announced and held out his hand for Peter to take. The younger did so while giving him a skeptical look.

“Those words can never end well,” he replied. Tony said nothing more, though, and led him to the elevator, asking FRIDAY to take them to the roof. Peter kept glancing anxiously at the man, who just gave him comforting smiles in return.

Finally, the elevator dinged and the doors opened, revealing the rooftop terrace, but it wasn’t the terrace that caught Peter’s attention.

In the middle of the roof, there was a table set up with a white tablecloth that had rose petals scattered on top of it, a candle in the middle, and two champagne flutes with a green bottle next to the candle.

“Tony,” Peter breathed out in amazement, “what is this?”

“Peter Parker, would you do me the honor of going on a proper date with me?” Tony asked him, offering his hand once more. The younger man looked up at him with a mix of surprise and love in his eyes, simply nodding and putting his hand in Tony’s.

The genius led Peter to the table and pulled out a chair for him, pushing it in once he was seated. He moved around to the other side and sat down, smiling at his soulmate.

“You didn’t have to do all this for me,” Peter told him softly.

“I didn’t have to,” Tony admitted, “but I really, really wanted to.”

A bright blush rose to Peter’s cheeks, nearly hiding the angry red. Tony reached for the bottle and began to fill Peter’s glass.

“Tony, I’m not old enough to drink,” Peter reminded him.

“This makes it way less romantic,” Tony chuckled, “but it’s sparkling grape juice.”

Peter put his hand up to his mouth and laughed.

“You really didn’t have to do all this for me,” the younger told Tony, a small smile still gracing his face.

“I would do anything for my soulmate” Tony replied with a soft grin. Peter’s smile, however, began to fade a bit, making the billionaire’s eyes turn concerned. “Is everything okay?”

Peter sighed. “It’s just that word. Soulmate. I just . . . it’s just strange to me.” Before Tony could even open his mouth to reply, Peter added on, “Not in a bad way or anything! I’m really excited to have a soulmate and you’re amazing. It’s just that having a soulmate or even just anyone to care for me is . . . weird, I guess.”

Tony wondered if Peter could hear his heart splintering and shattering in his chest. His soulmate’s words echoed in his head, the broken tone they were uttered in going straight to his gut and making it churn uneasily.

“Pete . . .” Tony started but trailed off.

“I know, I know. I sound really dumb,” Peter noted, a sad smile on his face as he looked down at his hands folded in his lap.

“I don’t think it sounds dumb.”

The vigilante risked a glance up, only to find Tony looking at him with a loving yet melancholy expression.

“Nobody’s cared and you deserve so much more,” Tony told him. “I never looked for my soulmate. I just . . . believed that whoever they were wouldn’t want me. Then, Peter, I found you and I just wanted to get to know you and love you and be your soulmate.”

“Tony, I-” Peter started but was cut off.

“I saw you and I knew that I never wanted to let you go. I didn’t even know if you wanted me as your soulmate and I was taken aback that you actually did. And then . . . then I talked to you for a few minutes and it broke my heart.” Tony let out a chuckle that sounded slightly like a sob. “You are one of the most amazing people I have ever met and you have gone through so much shit that you don’t deserve and you’re still so wonderful. Under every mask of apathy, I found the real Peter Parker, the one who makes me laugh and is a genius and the one that I planned this date for and the one that I want to plan a million more dates for.”

Tony’s emotions were on full display, concern and sorrow and love painting his features. Peter couldn’t stop the look of shock and love that his face morphed into, crystal clear tears pooling around his coffee brown eyes. He wiped away his tears with the sleeves of his sweatshirt, Tony catching a glimpse of his soul sentence as he did so.

The two soulmates fell into easy conversation as a chef came by and put down plates of spaghetti with arancini on the side, the scent of the food wafting through the cold, early spring air on the roof.

“Traditional Italian food?” Peter asked and looked up at Tony as he picked up his fork.

“I’m Italian and I thought it would be fun for us to have some traditional food,” Tony responded with an easy smile that Peter returned.

“I didn’t know you were Italian.”

“I mean, we haven’t had that many chances to talk.”

“Besides the fact that we text all the time every day.”

The two laughed and returned to their food, letting a comfortable silence fill the air on the rooftop terrace. It was quiet and cozy without them having to try. It was a feeling that Peter hadn’t felt in a long time. He couldn’t help but relish in the feeling of content that was filling up his chest. It was like happiness was returning, the whole world turning back to being right once more.

It couldn’t last though.

“I really hate to bring this up,” Tony quietly started, “but I have to ask about the red cheeks and new bruises. Same bullies?”

The content poured out from his chest, leaving the empty, hollow feeling that Peter almost always felt.

“Same bullies,” Peter muttered in confirmation before taking another bite of his pasta to avoid having to say anymore. Tony sighed and rubbed a hand over his face, leaving the worry to fill Peter’s head.

“I, uh, I know. I’m just- they’re . . . it’s really okay. It’s kinda stupid. I mean, I’m a superhero and I deal with worse. It’s not that bad. It just kinda looks . . . bad?” Peter stuttered over his words as he choked them out, hoping Tony wasn’t exasperated with him.

“What? No, it’s not stupid!” the billionaire insisted. “You’re being hurt! That’s not dumb. You shouldn’t be getting hurt.”

“You shouldn’t have to worry about it,” Peter told him quietly, barely meeting the man’s eyes.

“But I do,” he declared, his voice rising in volume. “You’re my soulmate, Pete, and I can’t stand you coming over here and always having to see you hurt!”

“I’m sorry,” Peter blurted out, guilt eating away at the inside of his stomach.

“Don’t apologize, love.” Peter blushed at the nickname. “I’m supposed to worry. That’s my job as your soulmate.”

“I’m just not used to having somebody who cares so much about this.”

“I’m going to change that.”

+++

“It cannot wait, I’m yours.”

-Jason Mraz, I’m Yours

After dinner, they slow danced to music played by a live pianist. Towards the end of one of the songs, Tony leaned in and pressed a light kiss against Peter’s lips, and everything felt right.

+++

“Hold, hold on, hold on to me, ‘cause I’m a little unsteady, a little unsteady.”

-X Ambassadors, Unsteady

Later that night, Peter and Tony found themselves cuddled up in Tony’s bed as a movie played in the background. The warmth between them began to fill Peter up with content again, the gentle feeling of skin against skin calming him down. It truly felt like he was ninety-three floors up from all of his problems.

Then his phone began to ring.

The sound startled the couple, disrupting the soft peace of the room. Peter pulled away from the embrace and grabbed his ringing phone off the bedside table while Tony paused the movie. He wiped at his bleary and unfocused eyes until he could make out that the contact was Aunt May.

Shit.

Slightly panicked, Peter accepted the call and put the phone to his ear, shooting up from the bed and starting to pace the room.

“Peter Benjamin Parker, where are you?!” May shouted loud enough that Tony, who was worriedly watching Peter pace, could slightly make out what she had said.

“Uh, I’m, uh, at Ned’s,” Peter attempted to lie, but May knew better.

“I already called Ned and he said you weren’t even friends, so I have no clue who you think you’re fooling,” she replied sternly.

“I’ll, uh, I’ll be there soon and I’ll explain. I promise,” Peter swore and hung up the phone before his aunt could answer him. He sighed and threw his phone on the bed before flopping down beside it.

“Fuck,” the younger muttered, bringing a hand up to cover his worried face.

“Was that your aunt?” Tony asked him, sitting down on the edge of the bed and intertwining their hands.

“Yeah,” Peter replied, sitting up and putting his head on his soulmate’s shoulder. “She wants me to go home, but I thought she was working the night shift.”

Peter began to stand up, pulling his hand away from Tony’s to grab his phone and shove it in his pocket before grabbing his sneakers off of the floor. He sat down on the bed once more and laced his shoes up.

“I’m so fucked,” he groaned as he ran his hands over his face once more. “I don’t even know what I’m supposed to say to her! ‘Oh, hey, May! Where was I? Oh, yeah, just at Stark Tower because my soulmate is Tony Stark! Anyway, it’s nice to see you because we rarely see each other anymore. Goodnight!’ I can’t just say that!”

“Maybe . . . maybe you could,” Tony told him after a beat of silence. Instead of replying, Peter just gave him a look as if he was out of his mind. “Hear me out! I could come with you and we could explain everything! It’ll be fine!”

“I . . . you would come with me?” Peter questioned quietly and looked up at Tony. The genius gave him a gentle smile.

“If you’re okay with it.”

“Then we should get going because she is going to kill me if I’m not there in the next twenty minutes.”

Tony stood up, grabbing Peter’s hand and dragging him up too. He grabbed a pair of sneakers and slipped them on before snatching a jacket up from where it was carelessly thrown on the back of a chair.

“I’ll drive,” Tony announced before intertwining their hands once more and pulling Peter with him. They speed-walked through the halls of the penthouse and took the elevator down to the garage. Tony picked a car that wasn’t too flashy, though Peter would disagree on that, and got in the driver’s seat, leaving the younger to get in on the other side.

The ride over was filled with conversation and Tony assuring his young lover that he would be okay. What Tony didn’t say was that Peter could stay over at the tower for however long he needs if his aunt needs time to process everything. He internally made the promise though.

When they pulled up to the apartment complex and parked along the street, Peter had to take some deep breaths. Tony turned the car off and reached over the console to take Peter’s hand in a gesture of comfort and reassurance.

“You’re gonna be okay,” Tony guaranteed. “We’re gonna be okay.”

Peter nodded and took one final breath before opening the car door, Tony doing the same on the other side. Luckily, the street was practically empty and too dark to see much, so nobody saw as Tony Stark walked to the other side of a flashy car and took his soulmate’s hand. The two quietly walked up to the building and Peter unlocked the door with one hand, having had many years of practice doing so. They climbed the stairs, not even bothering to approach the elevator because they wanted to stall having to tell May.

Finally, they reached Peter’s floor and found themselves in front of the door. They disconnected their hands and the younger fumbled around in the side pocket of his bag to get his key. Once he got it, he took a breath and softly swung the door open, immediately seeing Aunt May glaring at him from the kitchen, her anger evident on her face.

“Peter Benjamin Parker, where were you?!” she shouted, making Peter flinch back a bit. “I got my shifts moved around and thought ‘won’t it be great if I come home early and get to spend some time with my nephew?’ But apparently not because you aren’t at home and you aren’t at your friend’s house and you won’t answer my texts and I was just stuck-”

May cut herself off, finally seeing Tony standing behind her nephew with a mix of worry and guilt painted on his face. She couldn’t help but gawk at him for a minute in complete and utter confusion.

“Peter,” she whispered dangerously, “you have ten seconds to tell me why the fuck Tony Stark is in my doorway.”

“Well, that’s, uh, that’s a funny story,” Peter stuttered, scratching the back of his neck anxiously and not meeting his aunt’s eyes. He took a step in as she glared at him and Tony followed, gently closing the door behind him.

“Peter,” she warned, “tell me what’s going on.”

“I found my soulmate!” he blurted, finally making eye contact with the woman.

“You . . . you what?”

“I found my soulmate,” Peter repeated quietly, shoulders sagging. May gave him a bewildered look before sighing and walking over to the living room. She sat herself down in an armchair and put her head in her hands as she rested her elbows on her knees.

Peter and Tony shared a distressed look before hesitantly following her. They sat on the couch, a little closer than an acquaintance or co-worker would, and May noticed this when she finally looked up. Her eyes traveled down to where Peter’s soul sentence would be and realized that it was uncovered for the first time in years as if it had never been hidden away at all.

“Who?” May questioned quietly, meeting Peter’s gaze. Her nephew fell quiet, unsure of what to say.

“Me,” Tony told her gently, making the woman’s eyes fall on him. Her face morphed into confusion and then shock, brows furrowing.

“You?” she asked in bewilderment. “You, Tony Stark, are my nephew’s soulmate?”

Tony simply nodded, not knowing what else to tell her. He felt so uncertain, terrified of what could come out of his mouth if he opened it.

“I . . . I just can’t . . . I can’t even process this,” May stammered out, looking between the two men, completely and utterly astonished.

“I should probably go for now,” Tony murmured and the ‘for now’ wasn’t lost on her. She could only wonder how long they had known they were soulmates.

“We still on for next Friday?” Peter asked him, tearing his gaze away from his startled aunt.

“Of course,” Tony replied with a tender smile. He gave his soulmate a kiss on the forehead, not wanting to straight out kiss him goodbye in front of the rattled woman, and began to leave, but not before turning around and shooting one more concerned look at the woman.

Once the door had shut, Peter and May looked to each other again, the young adult nervously twiddling his thumbs.

“Peter-” May started but the teen interrupted her.

“Let’s just drop it, May,” he said decidedly and stood up, beginning to make his way to his bedroom.

“Why did Ned say you guys weren’t friends anymore?” she asked him and her nephew stopped dead in his tracks. He slowly turned around but kept his gaze on the carpeted floor.

“Because we aren’t friends anymore.”

“Why? When did that happen? Why didn’t I know?”

“Because you never cared to ask!” Peter shouted, looking up at her.

May finally noticed the bruises, the purple and yellow around his arms and his ankles. His cheeks were red as if he had been slapped. The bags under his eyes gave away the little amounts of sleep he’d had.

“He stopped talking to me! Found his soulmate and left, okay?! It doesn’t matter!” Peter continued, venom laced into his tone. “Let’s just leave it!”

May Parker didn’t know what to say in the slightest. She was baffled beyond belief. Her nephew, the only living relative she had, and only through marriage, was standing before her, shouting and bruised and without a friend. It opened up a pit in her stomach as wide as a canyon and she felt like she was falling into it. She hadn’t been there. She hadn’t been there for anything that had happened and it felt awful. She felt awful. What type of guardian was she? She wanted to scream and cry and get mad but it was only at herself.

“When did you find out who your soulmate was?” May questioned quietly, not finding it in herself to even raise her voice a bit.

“A month ago,” Peter told her softly, his face showing off his defeat. “And it was the best day I’ve had in a year and a half, no thanks to anyone I knew before it.”

Peter turned around and left, slamming his bedroom door behind him and leaving May to go over everything she had done wrong.

+++

“Do we have to talk about it? You know how I make you feel, right?”

-gnash, feelings fade

Much to Peter’s surprise, the next week was not too terrible. As it was nearing the end of the year, most of his grade was too worried about college acceptance letters and scholarships to notice him, so he spent most of the week slipping under the radar. There were only a few shoves here and there, giving his previous bruises and cuts time to heal.

Peter was sitting in his last period of the day, eagerly awaiting the final bell. His physics teacher had seen how antsy the students were, as it was their last period before the weekend, and gave them the last ten minutes of the period to do whatever they wanted.

As soon as the teacher had announced that they could do whatever they wanted until the bell rang, Peter pulled out his sketch book and a pencil. Ignoring the world around him, the young man began to draw, letting the sound of his peers talking fade into the background.

Ned was sitting right next to Peter, as they had been given assigned seats at the beginning of the year. He was looking at his phone, scrolling through Twitter, but couldn’t help but let his eyes wander to the friend he’d drifted apart from. He watched as Peter sketched out a picture of space, with Jupiter in the middle of the page. He followed the boy’s eyes as he looked down at his wrist with a small smile.

Ned nearly had a stroke as he realized that Peter’s soul sentence was uncovered. He had never seen it before, as Peter had always been really secretive about it when they were still friends. His gaze was focused on the word ‘Jupiter’ as Peter went back to his drawing. In a rash decision, Ned decided to speak up.

“Did you find your soulmate?”

Peter startled a bit before looking at Ned. He shyly pointed a finger towards himself, silently asking if the boy was talking to him. He received a small nod in response.

“Uh, well, yeah,” Peter replied, looking down at his wrist before looking back up at Ned. “It’s a really weird story.”

“Are they, uh, nice?” Ned asked, unsure of what else to say.

“Yeah . . . he’s great. Sweet, supportive, kind, loving. He’s everything you could ever want in a soulmate.” Peter looked a bit wistful, eyes soft as he traced a finger over the soul mark.

Ned opened his mouth to speak again, but the dismissal bell rang. He watched as Peter quickly shoved his sketchbook into his bag before flinging it over his shoulder and racing out of the classroom.

All Ned could think was, ‘Who even is he anymore?’

+++

“Keep me in your glow, ‘cause I’m having such a good time with you.”

-Kacey Musgraves, Golden Hour

“Thanks, Happy!” Peter exclaimed as he made his way out of the car. He received a light grumble in response, but he knew that Happy still appreciated the thanks.

The young genius made his way to the private elevator, ignoring all the confused looks he usually gets from staff in the lobby. As he stepped in, FRIDAY spoke up.

“Good afternoon, Peter!” she greeted kindly. “Boss is in the penthouse kitchen. Would you like me to take you there?”

“Yes. Thank you, Fri!”

Peter checked his phone as the elevator ascended. He scrolled through Twitter, just taking a look at what was going on and retweeting a few dumb posts that he found funny. He slipped his phone back into his pocket as the doors opened.

The young man was met by the sight of his soulmate leaning against the counter with a mug of coffee in one hand and his phone in the other. He looked up from where he was checking his email once Peter walked in.

“Pete!” He set down his coffee and phone on the counter. The younger man dropped his bag by the elevator doors and ran over, the two embracing each other. Peter buried his head into Tony’s shoulder and the man put his chin on the crown of his soulmate’s head. The two fit together like two puzzle pieces that were always meant to go together. They stayed that way for a few moments before pulling apart, though they continued to stand close to each other.

“How was your week?” Tony asked gently.

“It actually wasn’t too bad,” Peter admitted with a shy smile. “Everybody’s really preoccupied with figuring out what college they want to go to and trying to get scholarships for it that I was able to just fly under the radar.”

“That’s really good,” Tony replied with a smile. “I’ve never actually asked you what college you’re going to. Have you already accepted an offer somewhere?”

Peter gave a small sigh at that, looking away from Tony and down at the floor. “I’ve been accepted to a few good schools and I was hoping to accept an offer from MIT, but my aunt and I just don’t have the money for me to pay tuition, even with what we’ve been saving for years, and I don’t qualify for enough financial aid scholarships to cover it. So I’m probably gonna take a gap year or two to get a job and save up.”

Disappointment radiated off the younger man and it was obvious to Tony that his soulmate wished he could just go off to college right after senior year like pretty much everybody else. An idea sparked in Tony’s mind.

“I can pay your tuition!” he exclaimed with a smile. Peter quickly looked up from the floor to give Tony a bewildered gaze.

“I couldn’t ask you to-”

“But you aren’t asking me to! I’m offering and, by ‘offering,’ I mean that I’m paying your tuition to whatever school you want to go to and I’m not taking no as an answer.”

“Tony, tuition is so expensive!” Peter argued.

“And I’m a billionaire! It wouldn’t make a dent in my wallet!” Tony countered.

“But-”

“Peter, it’s okay! I have the money and you deserve to go to college! I’m not gonna let you give up the opportunity to go to a school you want to go to just because-”

“Tony, I’m not a charity case!” Peter shouted, cutting the man off. The room fell into silence, Tony staring at him in shock. Peter just averted his gaze, staring back at the floor.

“What?” Tony breathed out in confusion.

“I’m not a charity case,” Peter repeated in a quieter voice. “You don’t have to pay my tuition just because I’m some poor kid from Queens.”

“Peter . . . that’s not why I want to pay your tuition,” Tony told him gently, reaching forward to grab the younger man’s hands. “I want to pay your tuition because you’re my soulmate, and I want everything for you. You deserve the fucking world.”

Peter looked up from the ground, his hopeful eyes gazing into Tony’s. “You promise you’re not just doing this because you pity me?”

“I promise.”

Peter raised himself up a bit, balancing on the balls of his feet, and gave Tony a short peck on the lips before coming back down and leaning his head against the man’s chest. Tony released his hands in order to wrap his arms around the boy, Peter mirroring the action and wrapping his arms around Tony’s waist.

“I’ll let you pay for my tuition under one condition,” Peter said quietly. “You can only pay for whatever my college savings doesn’t cover.”

“Deal,” Tony replied with a smile, glad he had convinced his soulmate . “And it’s not like you’ll have to pay for a dorm on campus.”

Peter pulled back a bit, looking up at the man in confusion.

“I have a penthouse that’s basically right next to campus,” he elaborated, “so you can stay there and I can go visit all the time.”

“Don’t freshman usually have to live in the dorms?”

“I can pull a few strings.” Tony shot him a wink. When Peter opened his mouth to protest, Tony simply said, “Trust me, those dorms are disgusting.”

Just accepting it, Peter laid his head back on Tony’s chest.

+++

“I started working as a dime store clerk. I thought it would make me the kind to put you first.”

-Blind Pilot, Packed Powder

That evening, Tony and Peter sat on the couch together, Peter’s laptop open. Peter found the email that announced that he had been accepted and went to the link that prompted him to accept or decline the college offer. Taking a deep breath, the younger man moved his mouse and clicked to accept. A screen popped up, congratulating him for being MIT-bound and giving him information about the next steps.

Peter just stared at the screen in shock while Tony jumped up from the couch and started clapping. The younger man set his laptop to the side and his soulmate pulled him up from where he was sitting, giving him a quick hug.

“You’re going to MIT!” Tony exclaimed as he grabbed Peter’s hands.

“Holy shit, I’m going to college! I’m going to college! I can’t even believe it!” Peter exclaimed.

“MIT is pretty impressive,” a voice spoke from behind the couch. The two soulmates whipped around only to be met with Pepper fucking Potts right outside the doors to the elevator. Peter froze up while Tony gave the woman a huge smile.

“You must be Peter,” she says, walking forwards and offering a hand to him over the couch, which the young man tentatively shook. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“Um, all good things I hope,” Peter replied sheepishly as he pulled his hand back.

“All great things,” Pepper assured him before taking on a teasing smile. “Ever since you two met, Tony has spent half his time talking about you.”

“Really?” Peter questioned while Tony looked a bit abashed. Pepper gave him a nod along with a huge grin.

“Anyway, I just came up to hand some paperwork off to Tony,” she told them, motioning to the files she had placed on the counter, “but I’m really glad I finally got to meet you, Peter.”

“I- uh- um- it was really nice to meet you too,” the young man stammered out with a small smile.

And with that, Pepper went back to the elevator to return to whatever she had been working on before.

“Do you think she liked me?” Peter asked as he tore his gaze away from the elevator doors and looked at Tony.

“Oh please, she already loves you.”

+++

“One, two, three, and four. How long til I feel like myself again? And I’d walk out the door, but where would I go?”

-Tessa Violet, Honest

The next night found Peter eating an awkward dinner with May. Tension continued to linger between them from the conversation the week before. Neither could come up with a topic of conversation, so they just sat there in silence, focusing on their meals. Finally, Peter spoke up.

“I committed to MIT.”

May looked up at him, eyes wide and mouth agape.

“Peter, what the fuck?!” she shouted, standing up from her place at the table. “You know we can’t afford tuition to MIT! You and I decided you were going to take a gap year or two where you could work and save up money! Why would you-”

May cut herself off as he finally took another look at her nephew, who was just looking up at her calmly. Slowly, she lowered herself back into her chair, giving him a suspicious look all the while.

“Can I explain?” he asked, seemingly unflappable.

May, unsure of what else to do, simply gave him a nod.

“My soulmate𑁋” May was never going to get used to him saying those words. “𑁋asked me about college and I told him my plan to reject all the acceptances so I could save up money during a couple of gap years. He simply interjected and said he would pay for my tuition, and I-”

May cut him off again. “What?! You’re just-”

Peter cut her off right back, being just a little bit louder than her. “I told him no. He kept trying to convince me and I told him I wasn’t a charity case. He was . . . shocked. He didn’t realize I felt like he was only offering cause I’m some poor kid from Queens.”

May was quiet and the look on her face was indiscernible.

“He assured me it wasn't because of that, but that he wanted to because I’m his soulmate and he thought it was wrong that I had to turn down an offer from an amazing school just because I couldn’t afford it.”

She opened her mouth to speak, but Peter kept going.

“I made a deal with him. He could pay my tuition, but only the part of my tuition that my college savings don’t cover. He told me he had a penthouse near campus and that I could stay there so I wouldn’t have to pay extra for a dorm room. So, I committed to MIT and, whether you like it or not, I’m going there in the fall.”

May stayed silent as her nephew stood up from the table and walked to his room without another word. She couldn’t fall asleep all night and, when she heard Peter’s window open at one am as he came back from patrol, she left a plate of food outside of his door, knowing he would still be hungry after not finishing his dinner.

+++

“I won’t hate you, but oh it stings. How does it feel to be adored by him?”

-dodie, Adored By Him

Only a little over a month ago, Peter would’ve jumped at the chance to be friends with Ned and MJ again, despite how quick they were to leave him behind as soon as they found their soulmates. Once MJ had left him too, Peter began to feel as if he was only a stand-in until his (ex) friends’ soulmates came along, ready to replace him as if he’d never been there at all. He remembers trying to convince himself that he was being irrational, that all of these thoughts were just him being over dramatic. He tried to defend their actions, no matter how much they had hurt him.

Once Peter met Tony, that changed. He’d told his soulmate how he felt, trying to downplay it and make it seem as if he was the one who had been acting like a shitty friend. It took a lot of time and many conversations for Peter to begin to realize that he was allowed to feel upset that his friends had abandoned him. It wasn’t his fault.

A little over a month ago, Peter would’ve jumped at the chance to be friends with Ned and MJ again. Now, Peter had no interest in being friends with either of them.

It was midday on Tuesday and Peter was sitting at lunch, just texting his soulmate.

Soulmate<3: Do you have any plans for spring break?

Peter: nope lol

Soulmate<3: Have you ever been to Italy?

Peter: no???

Soulmate<3: We should go during your spring break!

Just as Peter went to respond, somebody sat down across from him. He sighed and looked up, expecting one of his bullies, but, instead, he saw MJ, looking like she was trying to play it cool. He saw right through her, though, as she was avoiding eye contact and had a slight flush on her face.

“What do you want, Michelle?” Peter asked coldly, setting his phone down on the table. He watched her wince a bit as he called her by her real name instead of her nickname. “You don’t sit over here anymore.”

“Sydney isn’t here and I wanted to sit with somebody I know,” MJ told him, crossing her arms.

“Why don’t you just sit with Ned?” he shot back at her with a raised eyebrow.

“His table is full.” She motioned and Peter followed her movements, looking at the table where Ned was sat with his soulmate, all the other seats being filled up with his new friends.

“Well, I’m sure you know plenty of other people, so why don’t you go sit with them and leave me the fuck alone.”

MJ was quiet for a few moments, just looking at Peter. He glared right back, not breaking eye contact, as if he were daring her to say something else.

“Your soul sentence is uncovered,” she said quietly, focusing her gaze on his wrist.

“And?” he retorted, but didn’t bother hiding his wrist.

“And why is it uncovered? You’ve always kept it covered. You never even told Ned and I that it said𑁋” she stopped to look at it for a moment more. “𑁋Jupiter.”

“Well, it’s not like it even fucking matters, considering we’re not friends anymore.”

“But-” MJ started to counter, but Peter’s phone buzzed, interrupting her. He went to reach for the phone, but she grabbed it first, looking at the notification.

Soulmate<3: Did I scare you off?

It buzzed again.

Soulmate<3: I know how you feel about me spending money on you, but I feel like you’d like Italy a lot!

And again.

Soulmate<3: Just give it some thought. It would be a really fun vacation! I promise Italy is really cool and I have some villas and such in a few cities, so we could travel around the country!

And once more.

Soulmate<3: Anyway I’ll see you this afternoon! I love you!

MJ slowly handed the phone back to Peter, who looked down at the notifications, quickly reading them, before looking up at the girl’s shocked face. Peter, without a second thought, slung his bag over his shoulder, standing up and walking out of the cafeteria. After a beat, he heard MJ running after him. He made no attempt to speed up or hide, simply resigning to his fate of being bombarded by her questions.

“Peter!” MJ called, catching up to the boy. She eventually did and started walking by his side, having to speed up as he began to power walk. Eventually the two entered the library and MJ followed Peter all the way to the back, where he set his bag on a table and collapsed onto a chair next to it, glad to be hidden by the bookshelves.

MJ just slowly sat down in the other chair, turning to look at Peter. He, decidedly, did not meet her eyes.

“So . . . you found your soulmate,” she said more than asked.

“Why does it matter to you?” he snapped, trying to keep his voice down. “Why do you give two shits who my soulmate is?”

“Because we used to be friends.”

“The key phrase there is ‘used to,’ as in, we aren’t friends anymore, so let it go.”

MJ fell silent, her gaze once again falling to Peter’s wrist. Something felt familiar about it, as if she had some idea of who his soulmate is.

‘What’s your favorite planet?’

‘Jupiter’

MJ’s eyes widened in realization as she looked back up at Peter’s face.

“Holy. Shit,” she said, staring at him. He turned to her with a suspicious look.

“What?”

“Holy shit!” She still tried to keep her voice down.

“What?!”

“It all makes sense! The lecture, Jupiter, your soul sentence suddenly being uncovered, your soulmate wanting to take you to Italy! Your soulmate is Tony-”

Peter slammed a hand over her mouth, effectively shutting her up. His eyes were wide as he tried to figure out if anyone had heard her words. Slowly, giving MJ a look of warning, he took his hand off of her mouth.

“Is he . . . no fucking way,” she said, voice quieter.

Peter’s shoulders sagged and he began to fiddle with his fingers, looking defeated. “Yeah, he’s my soulmate . . .”

MJ paused, just needing to let it sink in.

Peter fucking Parker was Tony fucking Stark’s soulmate.

And, even more than that, Tony fucking Stark was Peter fucking Parker’s soulmate.

“You can’t tell anybody,” Peter told her quietly, anxiety dripping into his voice. “It’ll get leaked to the press and . . . everything will suck for me and him.”

“I . . . I won’t tell anybody,” she promised, “but you’ve gotta answer my questions about it.”

Peter sighed, but nodded.

“Is he, like, actually interested in being in a romantic relationship with you?” MJ asked tentatively.

“I mean, he sets up romantic dinner dates and invites me over all the time and wants to take me to Italy, so you can probably fill in the blanks,” Peter answered, a bit of sarcasm laced into his voice.

“What’s he like?”

“Kind, sweet, supportive, caring. He’s pretty much everything you could ask for in a soulmate.”

Despite having her own wonderful soulmate, MJ couldn’t help but be a bit jealous by the way Peter described his soulmate with a loving look in his eyes. A sweet, caring soulmate who wants to whisk you away to Italy over your spring break and set up romantic dates for you all the time? That’s basically everybody’s dream. She couldn’t even begin to imagine being adored by a world famous billionaire superhero. From the loving look in his eyes, MJ could practically see how in love the two were. Tony Stark probably worshipped the ground Peter walked on and would give him the universe if he asked for it.

Everybody wanted that— MJ wanted that.

“Does he know about, ya know, your alter-ego?”

“He built me a new suit actually.”

“Have you two done it?”

Peter’s eyes went wide and he looked at her in shock. “Jesus Christ, absolutely not. He knows I’m not ready and he’s . . . actually really okay with that.”

The questioning went on and on until the bell rang. The two stood up and prepared to go their separate ways, but before MJ could leave, Peter grabbed her wrist. She looked back at him in confusion.

“I was serious when I said that you can’t tell anybody. If anything is leaked to the press, I’ll know exactly who did it and me and my soulmate won’t hesitiate to destroy your entire fucking life.” The girl had never seen Peter act so cold, so she nodded along, a bit scared, until Peter let go of her wrist and she could leave.

That afternoon, Peter could feel MJ’s eyes burning holes into his back as he got in Happy’s car.

+++

“Nothing’s gonna hurt you, baby. As long as you’re with me, you’ll be just fine.”

-Cigarettes After Sex, Nothing’s Gonna Hurt You Baby

When Peter reached the penthouse floor of Stark Tower and the elevator doors opened, the first thing Tony said to him was “Did I scare you away by asking if you wanted to go to Italy?”

The young man sighed, dropping his bag by the elevator before walking to the living room and collapsing onto the plush couch that probably cost more than his apartment’s rent. Tony walked after him and lifted Peter’s head up a bit so he could sit down, placing his soulmate’s head down on his lap and beginning to run his fingers through his hair.

Peter hummed a bit at the comforting gesture. “I was going to respond to your text, but then MJ sat down at my lunch table.”

“What did she say?”

“She told me that her soulmate wasn’t there and she wanted to sit with somebody she knew. Then she commented about how my soul sentence was uncovered. As soon as I told her that it was none of her business, my phone buzzed. She read the texts, I ran away to the library, she followed. Long story short, she put all the pieces together and found out that you’re my soulmate.”

Tony sucked in a breath, completely freezing up.

Sensing the man’s anxiety, Peter continued. “I threatened that if she told anybody, then we’d destroy her life. She seemed pretty scared, so I think we’ll be safe.”

The man let out a breath of relief, going back to back to running his fingers through his younger soulmate’s hair. The two let the room be silent for a little bit, simply basking in each other’s presence. Finally, Tony spoke up.

“So . . . about Italy.”

Peter sighed.

+++

“What would it feel like to put this baggage down? If I’m being honest, I’m not sure I’d know how.”

-Sleeping At Last, Six

Peter climbed through his window a little past midnight, having gone on patrol right after having dinner with Tony. He took the suit off and changed into some more comfortable clothes before walking to the kitchen, hoping to grab a snack before he went to sleep.

When he got to the kitchen, Peter found May sitting at the table with a mug of tea. She appeared to be deep in thought, but looked up when her nephew came in.

“Peter,” she murmured, stopping the boy in his tracks, “can we talk?”

It may have been a question, but Peter knew he couldn’t say no. So, he padded forward gently and sat down on the chair across from the woman, not meeting her eyes.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, making him look up at her. “I haven’t been there for you. I haven’t been a good guardian. I have no excuse. Yes, I was working a lot to pay rent, but . . . I should’ve been checking up on you instead of just assuming that you were okay.”

“Aunt May-”

“No, Peter. I’m sorry. I barely talked to you. For fuck’s sake, I didn’t even know you’d met your soulmate! That’s inexcusable.”

May tore her gaze away from Peter’s eyes, looking down at the table as tears fell. Guilt came off of her in waves.

“Aunt May, I’m not gonna act like it’s all okay, but I accept your apology. It’s obviously not all gonna go back to normal right now, but I’m willing to put in the effort if you are.”

“Of course I’m willing to put in the effort, Pete.” She met his eyes once more. “You’re my nephew, and I love you.” She stood up and walked around the table, leaning down to give him a hug.

“I love you too, Aunt May.”

They stayed like that for a few moments before pulling away. May sat back down, but now on the chair next to Peter.

“Now, tell me about this soulmate of yours.”

Peter laughed a little, giving her a smile as he began to tell her about Tony. She nodded along and asked questions, chuckling at the stories he told about all the dumb things they’d done together. Finally, the conversation was starting to wind down.

“He wants to take me to Italy for my spring break,” Peter admitted quietly, rubbing at the back of his neck.

“You should go,” May told him. The young man looked up at her in shock so quickly that he might’ve given himself whiplash. “I’m serious! It’d be fun for you and it’ll be nice for you to get away with your soulmate for a little bit.”

“You’re sure you’re okay with it?”

“Peter, I only want the best for you.”

+++

“I don’t care if you’re not sorry, I forgive you. And with or without your support I will continue.”

-The Front Bottoms, Cough It Out

Just like the day before, on Wednesday, Peter was sitting at lunch and texting Tony, who was figuring out all the details for their trip to Italy. Then, because Peter couldn’t go a single day without something happening to him, two people sat down at his table. He looked up and saw MJ, once again, but she was with her soulmate this time.

“What do you want?” Peter snapped as he turned off his phone. He kept a hold on it though, not wanting to make the same mistake as last time.

“Um . . . I’m Sydney,” the girl introduced herself, extending a hand across the table. Peter looked down at it and then back up at her, raising an eyebrow.

“I know. We met before I quit AcaDec,” Peter replied dryly, causing Sydney to retract her hand a bit. “If you two don’t want anything, then could you very kindly fuck off?”

“I just wanted my soulmate to meet one of my friends,” MJ told him.

“We aren’t friends, Michelle.”

“Look, I’m extending an olive branch here. You obviously have no friends-”

Peter cut her off. “And whose fault is that? Oh, right, you and Ned’s. Completely forgot that you two cut me off and avoided me for a year and a half! Funny how stuff like that slips my mind!”

The two girls winced a little bit, not saying anything as Peter went back to looking at his phone and resolutely ignoring them.

“Are you texting your soulmate?” MJ asked him, leaning over the table to see his phone. Peter quickly pulled it back, shutting it off once more.

“What’s it to you, Jones?” he replied in lieu of an answer.

“I was just curious if you’re going on that Italy trip.”

“Did you tell her?” Peter demanded, leaning into MJ’s space aggressively as his eyes flickered to Sydney for a second. “‘Cause if you did, you’re completely aware that your life would be ruined, right? You know that he would absolutely destroy you everything you’ve ever loved, and for all the shit you’ve put me through, I wouldn’t even try to stop him.”

“Is that a threat?” she challenged.

“It’s a promise.”

Sydney looked back and forth between the two as they stared each other down, her face giving away how confused she was.

“I didn’t,” MJ conceded, leaning away. With one last glance to the girl’s soulmate, he leaned away too, but there was still that dangerous air to him.

“Smart choice.”

“I’m sorry, but what the fuck is going on?!” Sydney asked, looking absolutely bewildered at the interaction.

“It’s a long story,” MJ replied without tearing her gaze from the boy in front of her, “but that’s not the point. Like, I said, I came to extend an olive branch. You let us sit here at lunch, and we’ll ward off Flash and his clique from coming near you.”

Peter mulled it over in his head, eyeing her suspiciously. After a few moments, he seemed to make up his mind.

“Fine, but you can’t force me to talk to you.”

“Deal,” MJ agreed, putting a hand forward. Peter shook it before going back to looking at his phone. Sydney didn’t say anything, but continued to shoot the boy confused looks every once in a while.

“And, Michelle?” Peter piped up just before the bell rang.

“Yeah?”

“We’re still going on that Italy trip.”

The girl gave him a small smile, which he didn’t return, before getting up and leaving, Sydney by her side.

+++

“Aren’t you the guy who tried to hurt me with the word goodbye? Though it took some time to survive you, I’m better on the other side.”

-Dua Lipa, Don’t Start Now

The next week and a half passed in a blur of less bruises than usual, hanging out with Tony, trying to make things go back to normal with May, and sitting with MJ and Sydney during lunch. Peter didn’t really talk to the two, leaving them to their own devices. It took him a couple days to even greet them when they sat down, and a few more to make any conversation with them. He decided that lunch definitely wasn’t his least favorite part of school.

Finally, finally, it was Peter’s last period of the day before he was released from school for his two weeks of spring break. As soon as that bell rang, he was going to race out of there and go meet Happy, who would drive him to the airport, where he’d board Tony’s private jet and be whisked away to Italy for an incredible vacation with his soulmate.

Everybody was just sitting around and talking, eager for the bell to ring so classes would end and break would begin. Peter was enthusiastically texting his soulmate, who, despite having traveled to Italy several times, seemed just as excited for the trip as Peter was.

Ned, much like two weeks before, couldn’t help but let his eyes wander to Peter, who was smiling down at his phone. His eyes drifted to his soul sentence again, where the word “Jupiter” was still beautifully scrawled. Peter, able to sense the gaze, turned to look at Ned.

“Who are you texting?” Ned asked, trying to play it off.

“It’s nobody,” Peter replied before going back to texting, assuming that the boy would be satisfied with that answer.

Ned, not wanting the conversation to die, continued. “I, uh, I noticed that you’ve been sitting with MJ and Sydney. That’s new, I guess.”

“Less like I’m sitting with them and more like they’re sitting with me.”

Ned, again, was not satisfied, so he tried once more.

“Are you doing anything over spring break?”

“Some stuff, yeah,” Peter told him, not looking up from his phone. “Doing a bit of traveling.”

“Oh, you and May are going somewhere?”

“Nope.”

Ned sighed, but, for reasons unknown to him, he didn’t want to give up until he got a real answer.

“Are you-”

“Why do you even give a shit?” Peter interrogated, looking up from his phone to face Ned. “We haven’t talked in a year and a half, so I’ve got no fucking clue why you care now.”

“I’m just curious!” Ned defended.

“Why? Because I’ve got a soulmate now? Is that why you’re so fucking curious? Well, I don’t give a shit, Leeds. So why don’t you go run off to your perfect little life with your soulmate and your new friends and leave me the fuck alone.”

“What happened to you, Peter? Why are you like this?”

“Wouldn’t you be oh so eager to know?!”

The bell rang and everybody raced to get out of the classroom, excited for break. Peter was happy to run out alongside those people, effectively ending the conversation.

Ned moved slower, watching the boy go. As he slung his bag over his shoulder and followed the crowd, he could only think of what an enigma Peter Parker had become.

+++

“Baby, there’s no question, no competition. I love you more.”

-Son of Cloud, I Love You More

“First time out of country?” Tony asked as he watched Peter stare out the window of his private jet. The younger man turned to him, looking sheepish.

“Second time out of state.”

“I guess I’ll have to force you to travel with me more.” Tony took Peter’s hand gently in his, rubbing circles into the back of it, and the younger man gently rested his head on his soulmate’s shoulder, feeling happier than he’d felt in a while.

“You already know what I’m going to say to that.”

“I do, but I’m still gonna try.”

Peter only snorted.

+++

“‘Cause I am captivated by you, and I am so in love with the things you do.”

-mxmtoon, late nights

“Holy. Shit.” Peter was standing outside Tony’s villa in Florence as the chauffeur who drove them there brought their bags inside. The villa was large, with beautiful landscape in the front and an elegant porch that had large curtains drawn open. Ivy was growing up the walls and there was a balcony on the second floor that spanned the entire length of the house. It looked grand in the early afternoon light. He stood, completely entranced, as his soulmate came up beside him and put an arm around his shoulders.

“What do you think?”

“What do I think?” Peter repeated incredulously. “What I think is that this place is absolutely insane!”

Tony only laughed and grabbed the younger man’s hand, pulling him inside the villa. As expected, it was as luxurious inside as it was outside. It wasn’t the type of luxurious that the tower was, though. It was less high tech and more open air, with plush couches and potted plants and large windows and hardwood floors. It could be described as looking like the embodiment of the typical luxurious Mediterranean house.

Peter looked around in awe as Tony led him up the stairs and through the second floor hallways to their room. It had a gaudy california king canopy bed and french doors that led out to a balcony overlooking the pool that was in the backyard. Through an open door, Peter could see a spacious bathroom. He broke away from Tony’s hold to step forward and examine in, slowly spinning in a circle to take it all in.

“You like it?” Tony asked, bringing snapping Peter out of his trance of astonishment.

“Like? Tony, this place is unbelievable!” the younger man exclaimed as his soulmate walked over to him. “Like, this is practically the most beautiful home in the world. I’ve never been somewhere that looks like this before! It’s absolutely extraordinary and I-”

Tony grabbed Peter’s hands in his own, which made the younger man stop rambling and look up at him.

“I just want you to have the most incredible spring break in the world.”

Peter couldn’t help but smile at that.

The late afternoon found the two soulmates lounging in beach chairs by the pool, soaking up the golden rays of the afternoon sun and drinking local wine.

+++

“But it’s too late. You believe in fate.”

-dodie, Absolutely Smitten

“Why do you love me?” Peter asked Tony on their last night in Florence. They were sitting on the balcony after having gone sight-seeing all day, overlooking the landscaping in front of the villa, with a delicately made cheese and meat platter on the small table between them.

“What?” Tony inquired, turning to look at the young man who was curled up in his chair and looking out over the gardens.

“Why do you love me?” Peter repeated before shifting his gaze to look at his soulmate. “Of all the people in the world? I know we’re soulmates, but beyond that . . .”

He paused, looking away from Tony again.

“What did you even see in me that made you want to be my soulmate when you easily could’ve walked away and never seen me again?”

It was silent for a few moments, Peter simply staring out over the balcony railing and Tony studying him.

“I spent thirty-one years thinking I didn’t have a soulmate.”

Peter turned to look at him, but he had started staring out at the landscape.

“Honestly, when I got my soulmark, I felt so guilty. I couldn’t help but wonder what poor soul would be stuck with me as a soulmate. I intended on never going out looking for my soulmate. I didn’t want to burden whoever it was in that way, they didn’t deserve that. I spent all this time trying to avoid my soulmate, and then I ran straight into you. Funny how fate works, right?”

Peter tore his gaze away from Tony and looked down at his lap, messing with the hem of his shirt.

“And then I met you, and I felt guilty all over again, but it wasn’t the same. I felt guilty because you were suffering, looking for anybody to hold onto, and I was out there, in the same exact city, doing everything I could to avoid you.”

Peter looked up at his soulmate, who was already looking at him, and their eyes met.

“I couldn’t𑁋 can’t let you go. You’re sweet and kind and compassionate and a genius. You were this ethereal being that crashed right into my life and, if you met me and still wanted to stay, then there was no way I could let you go.”

Peter closed his eyes, tears gently rolling down his cheeks. Tony shifted forward and wiped them away with the pad of his thumb and the young man leaned into the touch.

“I love you,” Tony whispered.

Peter opened his eyes and looked up at him. “I love you too.”

+++

“Love has flooded my heart and there’s rain in Venice for the first time.”

-Steve Harley, Rain in Venice

Tony’s villa in Venice was along the canals. It, of course, was smaller than the one in Florence, but it was just as elegant. The moment they entered the city, Peter fell in love with the canals and the buildings lining the water. Tony made a mental note to bring him to Amsterdam one day.

The days spent in Venice were much more laid back than those spent in Florence. Tony took Peter to the Teatro La Fenice to see a ballet performance and they spent the days visiting old churches and being rowed through the canals. Peter had insisted they visit the Ghetto Ebraico di Venezia, the small part of the island that the Jews in Venice had been forced to move to in 1516, as he had promised May he’d go to get a bit closer to his Sephardic roots.

Peter had seen movies that took place in Venice, rom-coms and such, but he took them all with a grain of salt. Over the course of his stay in Venice, he began to wonder if perhaps those movies weren’t as fictional as he thought after all.

+++

“Hold my hand, darling. Pull me in your waters. When you call my name, I’ll be on my way.”

-Rainbow Kitten Surprise, Pacific Love

As Peter had predicted, Tony’s villa right outside of Rome was just as fanciful as the one in Florence, with a fountain out front, several balconies, an outdoor shower that overlooked vineyards, and an even more elegant pool in the back. They had arrived there towards the evening, just as the sun was beginning to set, so they decided to eat dinner on the balcony connected to their bedroom, watching the sun go down as they talked about their plans for the next day. There were so many museums to visit and sights to see𑁋 and there were a few places that couldn’t not go.

The Colosseum, the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, the Sistine Chapel, the Arch of Constantine, and the Vaticans were must-sees, of course, but more was added to the plans for the rest of the trip, such as going to a wine tasting and seeing Palatine Hill.

As Peter slipped his hand into Tony’s, he reminisced about how everything felt right.

+++

[snapshot; Florence, Italy; Peter Parker and Tony Stark are sitting on lounge chairs by the pool in the late afternoon with two half-full wine glasses sitting on the small table between them. They are both in shorts and a t-shirt. Both are smiling, laughing over something.]

[snapshot; Florence, Italy; Peter Parker and Tony Stark, who is in a disguise, are walking along the Ponte Vecchio. They are holding hands.]

[snapshot; Florence, Italy; Peter Parker and Tony Stark, who is in a disguise, are in the Uffizi Palace and Gallery. Stark is reading the plaque next to a statue while Parker looks up at said statue.]

[snapshot; Florence, Italy; Peter Parker and Tony Stark, who is in a disguise, are walking through the Boboli Gardens, holding hands.]

[snapshot; Florence, Italy; Peter Parker and Tony Stark are eating dinner on the front balcony of Stark’s villa. They appear to be laughing about something.]

[snapshot; Venice, Italy; Peter Parker and Tony Stark, who is in a disguise, are being rowed along in a traghetti along the canals of the city. Parker is looking at the buildings in awe while Stark is looking at him lovingly.]

[snapshot; Venice, Italy; Peter Parker and Tony Stark, who is in a disguise, are eating dinner at a restaurant along the canal. Parker is taking a sip from his wine glass while Stark appears to be telling him a dramatic story.]

[snapshot; Venice, Italy; Peter Parker and Tony Stark, who is in a disguise, are sitting across from each other in a cafe. Both have a cup of coffee in front of them. Stark appears to be speaking while Parker is giving him a look of fond exasperation.]

[snapshot; Venice, Italy; Peter Parker and Tony Stark, who is in a disguise, are walking into the Teatro La Fenice to see a ballet. They are both dressed nicely.]

[snapshot; Venice, Italy; Peter Parker and Tony Stark, who is in a disguise, are standing in front of a synagogue at the Ghetto Ebraico di Venezia. Parker looks extremely emotional and Stark has an arm around his shoulder.]

[snapshot; Rome, Italy; Peter Parker and Tony Stark, who is in a disguise, are standing in one of the rows of the Colosseum, overlooking it. Parker looks amazed and Stark is looking at him with a smile.]

[snapshot; Rome, Italy; Peter Parker and Tony Stark, who is in a disguise, are standing in front of the Pantheon, looking up at it. They are holding hands.]

[snapshot; Rome, Italy; Peter Parker and Tony Stark, who is in a disguise, are at the Trevi fountain. Parker has his back to the fountain and his eyes closed as he throws a coin over his shoulder into the water. Stark watches him with a smile.]

[snapshot; Rome, Italy; Peter Parker and Tony Stark are sitting on the ledge of the pool, both in swim trunks, with their feet dipping in. Each has a glass of wine beside them. Parker is leaning his head on Stark’s shoulder.]

[snapshot; Rome, Italy; Peter Parker and Tony Stark, who is in a disguise, are standing in front of the Arch of Constantine. They are holding hands.]

[snapshot; Rome, Italy; Peter Parker and Tony Stark, who is in a disguise, are walking through a vineyard. They appear to be going to a wine tasting. They are holding hands and Parker appears to be talking.]

[snapshot; Rome, Italy; Peter Parker and Tony Stark, who is in a disguise, are sitting on a picnic blanket in a park with grapes, cheese, meat, and wine in front of them. Parker has a homemade flower crown on his head that he appears to have made from the wild flowers around them. Parker is putting a homemade flower crown on Stark’s head and the latter is looking at him with a fond smile.]

[snapshot; Rome, Italy; Peter Parker is leaning over the edge of the balcony connected to the villa’s master bedroom. Parker is wearing only a too-big button down shirt and a pair of shorts. He is holding a wine glass in his hand. Tony Stark is hugging him from behind. Stark’s head is resting on Parker’s shoulder. They are looking out over the vineyards.]

[snapshot; Rome, Italy; Peter Parker is sitting in a chair by the pool with a journal and pen in hand. Stark sits beside him, reading a book.]

[snapshot; Rome, Italy; Peter Parker is standing alone on the balcony in the front of the villa. He has a slightly sad smile on his face and he leans over the railing. He appears to be looking up at the stars. His mouth is open, like he’s saying something.]

+++

“But I’m gonna have to learn that this love will never be convenient.”

-The Front Bottom, Tattooed Tears

On the day that the two soulmates were meant to fly back home, Peter woke up to his phone buzzing incessantly on the nightstand. Sluggishly, he pulled himself up a bit and grabbed it, looking through the notifications. His Instagram suddenly was getting a ton of new comments and followers and people were tweeting at him, asking about being with Tony. Panicked, he opened up Safari and typed in his name. It came up with pictures of him and Tony throughout their trip in Italy and news articles about who he was.

Peter turned his phone off and set it back down on the bedside table. He pulled himself out of Tony’s arms and got out of the bed. He stood up, but just froze, staring out the window. He didn’t even notice when tears began dripping down his face.

“Peter?” Tony asked groggily, blinking against the light shining in through the window. The younger man turned around and faced him. Once Tony saw the tears, he shot up and scrambled out of bed. He gently took Peter’s hands and led him to sit down on the edge of the bed.

“They found out,” Peter told him, voice choking up.

“Found out about what?” Tony rubbed circles on the back of his soulmate’s hand. Peter grabbed his phone off the table and pulled up Safari again, showing Tony the search results from earlier. The man only stared at the news articles and pictures of them, disbelief and a bit of fear shining in his eyes.

“Someone must’ve leaked something to a tabloid cause they’ve been following us and I . . . I don’t know what to do.” Tears came down faster as Peter rambled on.

Tony let go of the younger man’s hand and wrapped him in an embrace, pulling him close to his chest. “I promise, we’ll figure this out. We’ll put together a press conference and, afterwards, we’ll destroy the life of whoever leaked it. Everything will be fine. I’ll be right there beside you the entire time.”

As Peter’s sobbing slowed, the two pulled away. Tony kept his hands on Peter’s shoulders though, whether to ground himself or his soulmate, he wasn’t sure.

“I’m gonna call Michelle,” Peter declared, determination seeping into his tone, “and I’m gonna figure out if she pulled this shit or knows who did.”

Tony only gave a nod as Peter pulled up the old contact from when the two teens were still friends, intertwining his hand with Peter’s free one.

The phone barely finished ringing once when the girl picked up, Peter putting her on speaker.

“Peter, I know it looks bad, but I wasn’t the one who pulled this shit,” MJ told him before he could even get a word out.

“Why should I trust you?” Peter bit back, but his voice wavered a bit.

“You know me. You know I wouldn’t have done this. We may not be friends, but I wouldn’t hurt you like this, I wouldn’t ruin things like this. You know that.��

Peter let out a shaky sigh. “You wouldn’t have. I know that, but did you tell anybody?”

“I only told Sydney because she was demanding answers out of me, but I already talked to her this morning and she was freaking out about the whole thing, genuinely worried about you. I told her before decathlon practice so nobody was there that could’ve heard-”

MJ paused, her end of the line going silent.

“Holy shit, I think I know who leaked it!”

“Who?! Please, MJ, you gotta tell me.”

“Flash must’ve gotten there early or something! We both know everybody on the team and none of them would do this except for him!”

Peter paused, the realization that Flash had fucked up his life more than he already had with his bullying sinking in.

“Peter, I’m so sorry . . .”

“I know you didn’t mean for him to overhear it, MJ. I don’t blame you.”

“Hey, Peter?” she asked.

“Yeah?” he responded cautiously.

“Fuck up his entire life for me, would ya?”

“What else would I do? Let him get away with this shit? He’s gonna regret this shit for the rest of his life.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Peter hung up the phone and turned to Tony. His eyes shone with determination as he thought of how much he was going to fuck up Flash’s life. “I have a good feeling about this.”

“Really?” Tony laughed. “Because I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

“Then I’ll just have to prove you wrong.”

+++

“Does that seem right? Wade through pain to know the chosen life?”

-Jack Stauber, Pizza Boy

The moment Peter and Tony got off their eight and a half hour flight from Rome to New York, they were being whisked off to a press conference. When they reached backstage, Pepper threw them each a pair of clothes and ordered that they go freshen up in the bathroom so they don’t look like absolute shit at the conference.

When they got back to her, she was pacing back and forth rambling off orders to an assistant, who looked freaked out. She stopped when the two soulmates showed back up, now looking like they were actually ready to face the press.

“Pepper, I’m so-”

“Peter, don’t say sorry. This wasn’t your fault,” the CEO told him before turning to both of the soulmates. “I may be stressed about this whole thing, but I’m not mad at either of you.”

Peter gave her a small, sad smile that she returned.

Footsteps were heard behind the two soulmates, so they whipped around, coming face-to-face with Rhodey. The man quickly extended a hand towards Peter. The young man took it, the two shaking before separating.

“I’m Rhodey, though I’m hoping Tony already told you about me,” he introduced with a humorous tone, but everybody could tell he was trying to hide his nervousness. Peter gave a smile a nod at that. “I’m glad to finally meet you, Peter, but I wish it wasn’t under these circumstances.”

“I wish it wasn’t either, but I think it’s gonna be okay.”

As the clock hit three pm, Pepper walked out on stage and to the podium. Reporters began yelling questions, but she held up a hand to silence them.

“As you are all aware, some photos came out recently after an unknown person leaked Dr. Stark’s new relationship to the press. Before anything else is said, I would like to let you all know that this was highly inappropriate, not only leaking this relationship, but also taking pictures of someone’s private life. The reporter who did this had absolutely no right to do so and there will be repercussions.”

The room stayed silent as she paused.

“Unfortunately, what has happened cannot be undone, and so we must have this press conference much earlier than we were hoping to. Now, Dr. Stark and Mr. Parker will come out to answer questions.”

Pepper stepped away from the podium as Peter and Tony walked onstage, one of Peter’s hands intertwined with Tony's. The younger of the two winced a little bit as the cameras began flashing and questions were yelled at them. As they stepped up to the podium, Tony raised a hand, signaling everybody to be silent. Luckily, it worked; the man had always been the kind of person who could control the room.

“You all know me, but, due to unfortunate circumstances beyond our control, today, I am introducing you all to Peter Parker, my soulmate.”

The room went up in a frenzy as he said the word “soulmate,” reporters taking pictures and more questions being yelled. Tony held up a hand once more before motioning to Peter to speak.

“Hi. My name is Peter Parker, and I apologize because I’m new to this whole ‘press conference’ thing, and by new, I mean this is the first time I’ve even stepped foot into one,” the young man introduced sheepishly. The crowd gave light laughs at what he’d said.

“We will now be taking questions,” Tony announced. Hands went up and questions were yelled. The man searched through the crowd, eventually picking someone. “Yes, the reporter from CNN.”

“Mr. Parker, according to what’s been revealed through the press leak, you are eighteen, correct?” When Peter gave a nod, the woman continued. “So when and how did you and Dr. Stark meet?”

“It’s kind of a funny story actually,” Peter replied a bit sheepishly. “About three months ago, Tony was actually giving a lecture at my school about aerodynamics and, since it was only the senior class, we were all allowed to ask one question, so that’s how we found out.”

“Um . . . the reporter from the Washington Post,” Peter called out before the room could get too crazy.

“What do your soul sentences say?” the reporter asked.

“Mine says, ‘What’s your favorite planet?’” Tony answered, holding up his wrist.

“And mine says, ‘Jupiter.’” Peter held up his wrist too. Cameras flashed as the reporters rushed to take pictures of them showing off their soul sentences. The soulmates met eyes and gave each other a smile before looking back out at the sea of people.

“Reporter from the Wall Street Journal.”

“Dr. Stark and Mr. Parker, why did you two decide to keep your relationship hidden once you two met?”

“We kinda wanted to keep it on the down low until I graduated high school,” Peter admitted shyly.

“We knew it would affect both of our lives once the public knew,” Tony continued, “and we wanted to wait until we were ready. As you can see, though, the choice to wait was taken from us.”

“Uh . . . the reporter from the LA Times,” Peter called.

“Mr. Parker, seeing as you are being introduced into the limelight, would you be willing to tell us some more about you?”

“Uh, sure, I suppose,” the young man answered, a bit surprised by the question. He’d never really been asked about himself, as most people weren’t very interested in what he did. “I’m sure you all already know, but I’m a senior at Midtown School of Science and Technology, so you can assume I’m a bit of a nerd.”

“‘A bit’,” Tony said with a snort.

“You don’t get to talk. You’re practically the king of nerds!” Peter shot back, causing his soulmate to fondly roll his eyes.

“Besides that,” he continued, getting back to the question, “I like to read poetry and draw. Also, I believe one of the photos was Tony and I in the Jewish ghetto of Venice. We were walking through because I insisted, seeing as I’m Jewish. Side note, I can’t believe that with all the Jewish guilt I grew up with, my soulmate still ended up being a goy. My ancestors must be so disappointed that I didn’t score a nice Jewish boy.”

The crowd laughed at that and Tony gave him a playful shove that the young man returned.

“The reporter from the Huffington Post!”

“Mr. Parker, it’s going around that you are going to MIT in the fall, and that is Dr. Stark’s alma mater, correct? Could you tell us about that?”

“I am going to MIT in the fall, that is correct,” Peter replied before Tony cut in.

“And before anybody says anything, Peter got accepted to MIT before we even met each other, so I had nothing to do with it.”

Peter nodded along before calling on another reporter.

“Mr. Parker, obviously you are being thrust into the spotlight very quickly. Do you feel able to stand it and everything that comes with it?” asked the reporter from the New York Post.

“It’s definitely going to take some getting used to, and I wish I had been able to do it on my own terms, but I think I’ll be able to get through it. Plus, I have Pepper to make sure I don’t say anything too embarrassing.” Peter smiled at Pepper offstage.

“Reporter from the Daily Bugle,” Tony called out and Peter felt a sense of dread.

“Now, seeing as you, Mr. Parker, are 18 and you, Dr. Stark, are 49, there is a 31 year age gap between the two of you. Is nobody else worried about this? Mr. Parker, do you parents feel okay about this? Are they worried that you’re being taken advantage of?” The reporter looked smug.

Tony opened his mouth to respond, but Peter cut in before he could.

“First of all, obviously soulmate relationships don’t always seem conventional, they go beyond traditional. It’s not like we can argue against fate. Second, nobody else is worried about this because I am an adult who can think for myself and recognize when relationships are toxic. Third of all, if you took five minutes to look up the information about me that people found once my identity was leaked, you would know that my parents are dead and I was raised by my aunt and, by the way, she’s just fine with me being in a happy relationship.”

The room went silent, everybody taking a moment to absorb the answer that the young man had just given. Before long, the conference got going again.

“The reporter in the very back. I apologize cause I can’t see what company you’re with, the man in the blue shirt.”

“I’m with Breitbart News,” he told them. “I was wondering, despite being soulmates, is this a more traditional relationship or more of a monetary exchange?”

“Are . . . are you asking if I’m a sugar baby?” Peter questioned incredulously.

“I was trying to say it in more formal terms, but, yes, that is basically what I was saying.”

“No hate to people who make money that way, but I’m not a sugar baby. This is a genuine relationship.”

“You should see how much I try to get him to let me spend money on him,” Tony cut in with a smile. “When I suggested we go to Italy for his spring break, it took hours of arguing to finally get him to agree to go. Even then, I think it was just because I wore him out.”

Peter rolled his eyes but gave a smile.

“One last question. We’ll take it from the NPR reporter towards the back.”

“Mr. Parker, do you have any plans for working at Stark Industries?”

Peter lightly smiled at that. “I was already working with Tony in the lab and I’ll continue to do that, but I think Pepper wants me to look around a little bit in the business side of the company, so I’ll probably end up shadowing her for a bit.”

“Thank you all for coming,” Tony called out before he and Peter walked off stage, both waving as they did so.

When they got off, they were greeted by Pepper, who had a big grin on her face, along with May, who had finally gotten to the tower in the middle of the conference. She came up and gave her nephew a big hug, making sure he was okay. After several reassurances that he was fine, May pulled back, satisfied.

“Do you think it went well?” Peter asked Pepper anxiously.

“I think it went better than expected.”

+++

“He’s never gonna make it. All the poor people he’s forsaken. Karma is always gonna chase him for his lies.”

-Alec Benjamin, Outrunning Karma

The moment that Peter arrived at school, he already knew it was going to be a bad day. As he stared through the windshield at all the paparazzi surrounding the school, he let out a tired sigh. Tony had tried to convince Peter to let him drive him to Midtown, but he had refused, thinking he was prepared to face his newfound stardom on his own. As he sat in the driver's seat, gazing out at the sea of reporters and students while anxiety bubbled in his gut, Peter began to regret not taking Tony up on his offer.

Deciding he couldn’t delay it any longer, Peter turned off the car, grabbed his backpack from the passenger's seat, and opened the door. He stepped out of the car, swinging the bag over his shoulder as he closed the door and locked the car Tony had lended him. The slam of the door alerted people to his presence, and he was quickly crowded with paparazzi. Gritting his teeth, Peter attempted to move through the horde, slowly getting through. By the time he made it through the entrance of Midtown, he felt like he’d spent hours just trying to push through the reporters.

To nobody’s surprise, all the students in the lobby stared at Peter as he came into the building. He tried his best to ignore their gawking as he walked through the halls to his locker. As he turned down the first hallway from the lobby, two people came up on either side of him. He looked to them, feeling anxious, but realized that it was only MJ and Sydney, standing by him as if they were guards.

“Are you doing okay?” Sydney asked him, genuine worry laced into her voice.

“As okay as I can be at the moment,” Peter replied, but gave her a smile that she returned.

“So . . . not very okay?” MJ questioned with a hint of sarcasm. Peter let out a small laugh.

“Yeah, not very okay, but at least I’ve got my two friends to help me.”

Both MJ and Sydney stopped in their tracks, Peter stopping only a foot ahead of them as he quickly realized they fell behind. He turned around, giving the two a questioning look. They slowly came back to his sides and began to walk with the young man, both looking a bit tentative.

“Are we . . .” Sydney started but trailed off.

“Are we friends?” MJ asked him quietly.

“Yeah . . .” Peter replied quietly, “I think we’re friends.” He turned and smiled at them and they returned it as they got back to their normal pace.

As the three rounded the final corner, they all stopped, finding Flash and his little posse of rich assholes all standing in front of Peter’s locker, the leader of the group leaning right back against it with a smug smile on his face.

“Well, if it isn’t the sugar baby slut himself, Peter Parker!” Flash announced to the hallway, causing Peter to roll his eyes. “Oh, are you getting an attitude now?”

“Can I just get to my locker, Flash?” the boy asked, him, MJ, and Sydney walking forward until they were right in front of the clique.

“Damn, you're moody today, Parker. Has being spoiled by your sugar daddy made you whiny when you don’t get what you want?” Flash’s gang laughed while MJ and Sydney looked like they were getting ready for a fight. The student lining the halls whispered to each other as they watched.

“Listen, I’ve dealt with enough bullshit these past few days already, so can you just lay off for the first time in seven years? Get your head out of your ass and take a moment to look past your own ego. Isn’t bad enough that my relationship and my identity got leaked for the entire world to see and now I’m gonna be followed by paparazzi until I die?!”

“Oh, I’m so sorry, Parker! That must be so hard! I wonder who in the world could’ve leaked your identity?” Flash’s fake sympathetic face turned into a smug grin once more as he reached the end of his sentence.

Flash was expecting Peter to cry or scream or punch him. He was waiting for the boy to storm off or get into a full blown fight with him. Internally, he was hoping he would be lucky enough to see him have a full breakdown in the middle of the hallway.

What Flash wasn’t expecting was for Peter to start laughing. A huge grin spread across the brunet’s face and he looked away for a second, running his tongue along the inside of his bottom lip and turning back to Flash, all while chuckling like a mad man.

“You're an absolute idiot. You do realize that, right?” Peter asked once he stopped laughing. The smile was still on his face.

“What?” Flash shot back, brow creasing.

“I said that you, Eugene Thompson, are an absolute idiot.”

“What are you on about, Parker?” Flash took a threatening step towards the boy. To his surprise, though, the brunet didn’t look scared in the slightest.

“No, wait, I think he’s onto something,” MJ cut in with a somewhat sadistic grin.

“Yeah, I can see where you’re going with this, Peter,” Sydney added, appearing to be in on whatever the boy was talking about.

“Spit it out, Parker,” Flash threatened, towering over the other boy.

“You do realize my soulmate is Tony Stark, right?”

“Obviously,” Flash retorted, rolling his eyes. “The entire world knows now because somebody was so cruel as to give away your identity to a reporter!” He looked proud of himself.

“A reporter who trespassed onto private properties owned by Tony several times in order to get those pictures.”

“So what?”

Peter snorted, looking up at the boy in disbelief. “I can’t believe you aren’t catching on to what I’m implying.”

Flash’s brow creased even more. A feeling of dread built in his stomach as Peter looked at him, eyes filled with pure, unadulterated glee, as if everything he ever wanted was about to come true.

“Can you even begin to imagine how mad my soulmate is about me not being able to come forward about my relationship with him on my own terms?” Peter questioned, voice laced with slightly sadistic happiness. “And can your tiny brain even process how much power he holds in the world? And do you have any idea of how much my soulmate genuinely cares about me? Maybe, since you are on the decathlon team, you’ll find a way to connect the dots.”

Flash paled, him and all of his posse taking a step back from the boy.

“Now, how do you think Tony felt when, on the day he met me, his soulmate, I was covered in bruises and scrapes and had a black eye because of you? And then how do you think he felt when I told him about how you’d been bullying me for seven years? And how about when I kept flinching cause I was terrified I was gonna get hit like I did every day in these very hallways? How livid do you think my soulmate is right now? I can promise that he’s ten times more angry than that.”

Flash was trembling, staring at the boy who could ruin his life with a single word.

“Peter, do you remember what you told me when I first found out about who your soulmate was?” MJ asked the brunet with an evil grin directed at Flash.

“Of course!” Peter turned to look at MJ. “I believe I said, ‘If anything is leaked to the press, I’ll know exactly who did it and me and my soulmate won’t hesitiate to destroy your entire fucking life,’ and later I told you that it wasn’t a threat, but a promise.” He turned back to flash. “And, lemme tell you something, Flash, I never go back on promises.”

The bully was shrinking in on himself, gazing wide eyed at Peter.

“I’m not gonna encourage Tony to do anything,” Peter told him with a kinder smile, and the boy began to gain back his confidence. “But I’m not gonna stop him either. Now, can I get to my locker?”

Flash quickly scurried out of Peter’s way and his gaggle of rich kids dispersed immediately, leaving him standing there beside the locker. As Peter grabbed his things, he made conversation with MJ and Sydney, the three swapping stories from spring break. Halfway through MJ’s story about how she and Sydney got gal-pal’d at a cafe where they were having a date, Peter closed his locker door to see Flash still next to his locker.

“Why are you still here?”

“Your soulmate . . . he isn’t actually gonna hurt me, right?” the bully asked, voice wavering like Peter had never seen before.

“He isn’t going to hurt you, Flash,” Peter replied with a smile. “He’s gonna hurt your future and I’m not gonna stop him.”

Without another word, the three teens left, heading to their first class, as Flash just watched them go, wondering what would happen to him.

+++

“And for a moment I thought you were there, but, then again, it wasn’t true.”

-AURORA, Runaway

The day passed in a blur of stares and teachers being unusually nice to Peter. Despite how nice it was to not have to deal with bullies, Peter felt worn out by the time he collapsed into his seat in physics, his last class of the day. About a minute after he sat down, other people started flooding in. Ned sat down at the desk next to him but awkwardly kept his gaze towards the front of the room. When the bell rang, Mr. Harrington stood up from his desk and closed the door before standing in front of the chalkboard.

“Today we’re going to continue the renewable energy unit that we started before spring break. Keeping true to our syllabus, we’ve covered hydroelectric, biomass burning, solar energy, wind power, and geothermal. As I told you at the beginning of the fall semester, in an attempt to keep up with modern science, they added on an extra energy source to look at. After that, we’ll be finished with this unit.”

Most of the class let out a sigh of relief. Physics units tended to drag on and everybody was glad to be moving onto something new.

“So for the next couple of days,” the man said, taking a glance down at the clipboard he was holding, “we’ll be talking about Stark Industries’ arc reactor technology as a renewable energy source.” He stopped and looked up at the class, and at one student in particular.

Peter was looking forwards at the board, decidedly ignoring all the eyes on him. The room was silent for a few moments as everybody just stared at the boy sitting in the back corner of the room.

“If you wanna say something, then go ahead and say it,” Peter dared, finally looking away from the board. The class looked slightly apprehensive and he figured that news about his little confrontation with Flash must’ve gotten around.

“Well . . .” Mr. Harrington started uneasily, “I suppose we just, uh, you know . . . had something to say about it since . . . since you’re . . .”

“Since I’m what?” the brunet replied with a challenging glint in his eye.

“Since you’re . . . well . . . uh . . . well, I don’t wanna make you uncom-”

“No, I wouldn’t be, so why don’t you go ahead and tell me what I am,” Peter tested with a dangerous smile, crossing his arms and leaning back in his chair.

The tension in the classroom was thick enough to cut with a knife.

“I thought you'd like to say something about the arc reactor technology since you are, um, Tony Stark’s, you know, uh, soulmate and all,” Mr. Harrington quickly rambled, his voice lowered a bit as if hoping Peter wouldn’t hear it.

Everybody stayed quiet as Peter uncrossed his arms and leaned forward a bit, putting an elbow on his desk and resting his chin in his hand as if bored. “Well, it’s a fusion reactor that can produce an electromagnetic field, provide renewable energy, the whole nine yards. It has a palladium core and a new element was synthesized to stop the reaction within Tony’s body due the palladium that was poisoning him, et cetera. Can we get back to normal class please?”

Slowly, everybody turned back to the front of the room, where Mr. Harrington was frozen. Seeing the eyes on him, he jumped back to reality and started the lesson.

Towards the end of the class, Ned worked up the courage to rip a bit of paper off of the page he’d been writing in and pass a note to Peter. He watched out of the corner of his eye as the boy opened it, looked at it with raised eyebrows for a moment, scribbled something down, and then carelessly threw it back to him. Ned picked it up and saw what was inside.

Under his original note, which read ‘so what happened at the beginning of class was crazy, right?’ was Peter’s simple response of, ‘I guess.’

Ned just let out a sigh and crumbled up the note, shoving it into his backpack and giving up for the time being.

When the bell rang, Peter rushed out of class and Ned ran after him. By the time he got outside of the classroom and caught sight of his old friend, though, the boy was walking with MJ and Sydney, the three of them laughing over something.

‘When did they become friends?’

+++

“As I watched you walk away, I felt something in me change.”

-Sorority Noise, Blonde Hair, Black Lungs

Ned spent the rest of the week trying to talk to Peter in physics, the only class he had with the boy, and watching him, MJ, and Sydney hanging out during lunch or in the halls together. All of the students stayed out of the way of the three friends, more terrified of Peter than MJ, despite how much scarier her demeanor was.

Despite all of his friends and his soulmate, Ned was realizing that he missed Peter a lot. He yearned for their days of going to the library during lunch to hide from Flash and having Star Wars marathons with the boy. He couldn’t believe that he’d let go of his best friend so easily after their years together.

“No, no, really!” Peter’s voice cut through Ned’s thoughts. The table Peter sat at with MJ and Sydney was actually pretty close to his own and he couldn’t help but let his eyes drift over.

The two girls were laughing, but he was laughing with them.

“I swear!” the brunet got out through his laughs. “He walked in and went, ‘Do you know who Jimmy Fallon is?’ and I was so confused because who the fuck doesn’t know who Jimmy Fallon is?!”

Peter and Ned used to video call and watch Jimmy Fallon together on school nights, talking about how they hoped to get invited onto the show one day and why they would be invited.

“And then what did he say?” Sydney prompted.

“He just goes, ‘I was hoping you did because Pep scheduled you to go on his show on Friday’ and I just immediately walked out on him!”

Ned watched MJ open her mouth to say something, but a hand waved in front of his face, breaking him out of his trance. He turned and saw Jacob, his soulmate, looking at him in concern.

“You okay?” he asked, brows furrowed.

“Yeah, I just have a lot on my mind.”

In the background, he heard MJ say, “That’s honestly insane! I would love to be on Jimmy Fallon!” and Peter responded, “Tony said I’m allowed to bring people backstage, so you two should come with me tonight!”

In the foreground, he heard his mind wishing it was him that Peter was inviting.

+++

“Shooting stars never fly for me. My heart’s on Mars, kinda hard to see.”

-Shakka, When Will I See You Again

That night found Ned on the couch with his mom, Emilia, The Tonight Show playing on the TV. He had been home alone for a little over a week since his dad was (and still was at that moment) on a business trip and his mom was out volunteering with the Red Cross to bring water to a small village in Lebanon, meaning that she’d been completely disconnected from the news cycle. Before long, the interview portion of the show came up, and Ned felt dread building up in his stomach.

“With us tonight, we’ve got a young man from Queens who was recently thrown into the spotlight, and I have the honor of being the first talk show host to interview him. You probably already figured it out, but Peter Parker is here with us tonight!”

“No fucking way,” Emilia breathed as she watched her son’s friend walk out on stage, shake hands with Jimmy Fallon, and sit down on the chair closest to the desk. She turned to her son with confusion written across her face. “Ned, why the fuck would Peter be on The Tonight Show?”

Ned opened his mouth to answer but Peter talking on screen stopped him. “Thank you so much for having me!”

“Of course!” Jimmy responded with a smile. “I’m glad I get to be the first person to interview you after the press conference! Speaking of which, you did great in that!”

Ned and his mom just watched the show, frozen.

“Thank you!” Peter replied with a laugh. “I was a bit worried that Pepper would be mad at me after I low key popped off at that Breitbart reporter . . . and when I just suddenly started talking about being Jewish and proceeded to call Tony a goy on stage.”

The audience laughed while Peter gave a sheepish smile.

“But, in terms of scoring a non-Jewish soulmate, Tony Stark is pretty high up there!”

“Holy fuck,” Emilia whispered, eyes glued to the screen.

“I guess, but have you seen Thor’s abs?” Peter joked. “I mean, I would gladly become a pagan if it ensured that he was my soulmate.”

The audience laughed once more, Jimmy joining in.

“I’m kidding, I’m kidding. Tony and I love each other a lot.”

Awww’s sounded in the crowd while Peter gave a shy grin.

“Ned, what the actual fuck?” Emilia exclaimed, turning to her son, who gave a shrug before they both turned back to the TV, unable to stop watching.

“What’s it like being soulmates with Tony Stark? Is he as suave and smooth as people remember from his playboy years?” Jimmy questioned, leaning forward with his arms on his desk as if the young man was about to tell him some hot gossip.

“Absolutely not,” Peter replied plainly, making everybody chuckle. “He’s sweet, he’s supportive, he’s an absolutely incredible soulmate, but he’s also a huge dumbass.”

“Wait, you can’t just leave us hanging! You gotta tell us what he does!”

“Tony just forgets that he’s a human sometimes. Like, he somehow just doesn’t remember that he needs to eat and sleep. One of his little robots, Dum-E, likes to make him smoothies, but he puts motor oil in them, and usually Tony knows better than to drink them, but when he’s tired, he doesn’t even think twice.”

“Holy shit!” Jimmy choked out through his laughter.

“Not to mention that he is nothing like the playboy persona he’s portrayed as. Affection and gift-giving are one-hundred percent his love languages. Everybody’s like ‘Tony Stark is a cool playboy who only cares about sex and being rich,’ but half the time we’re together is just us holding hands and hugging and cuddling.”

“This is absolutely incredible,” Jimmy says. “You got your identity leaked, got right off a flight from Italy, went to a press conference, told off a reporter, and then five days later literally destroyed the entire persona Tony Stark had built up. You’re amazing.”

“Somebody’s gotta tell the world that Tony loves setting up romantic dates and watching shitty rom-coms and if nobody else is going to, then it is my moral responsibility.”

“Absolutely incredible,” the host repeated, looking out at the audience and motioning to the young man before going back to his original position of looking at him. “So, what’s up for you next? What’re your plans?”

“Well, I’m graduating high school in a little less than a month and I’m going to MIT in the fall, which I’m super excited about! As for the summer, Tony is almost certainly gonna try and take me traveling, and as much as I tell him that it’s okay and he doesn’t need to do that for me, he won’t stop trying. He’s stubborn as all hell.”

“That's so nice though!”

“It’s really sweet, but it takes time to get used to having a soulmate who’s rich. Like, I live in a two-bedroom apartment in Queens with my aunt and now, suddenly, I have a soulmate who can just hang out in Paris for a weekend like it’s nothing. It’s like whiplash!”

“That’s absolutely insane.”

“I know, right? But it’s also really nice to have access to good scientific equipment so I can work on projects that I’m really hoping can help people!”

Jimmy nodded along, motioning for Peter to continue.

“Well, I’m working on making these bandages that are modeled after Spider-Man’s webs that would be biodegradable and also more effective than regular bandages because they could go on any size cut and wouldn’t fall off as easily. Plus they could be used in an emergency to stop someone from bleeding out from a stab or gunshot wound! Besides that, we're working with the Trevor Project to set up a shelter in Queens for homeless LGBTQ youth.”

“You seem really committed to these projects,” Jimmy told him sincerely, causing the young man to smile.

“I mean,” Peter replied quietly, “if you have the power to do something and you don’t, then how are you better than the bad guys? Now that I have the ability to help people across the world, I’m not going to stand on the sidelines and watch them suffer anyways. So I’m really glad that Tony and I are working on some great projects and that we’re going to help a lot of people.”

“Peter Parker, everybody!” Jimmy exclaimed, motioning to the young man, who blushed as the audience cheered for him. Standing up and shaking the host’s hand once more, Peter waved as he walked back off stage, the applause following him as he went.

“Coming up, we have our guest performance from-”

Emilia turned off the TV and let the room fall into silence. Ned looked over at her as she just stared at the black screen. Slowly, she turned and met his eyes.

“So . . . Peter is Tony Stark’s soulmate?” Emilia asked her son distantly.

“Nobody knew until a bunch of photos of them on vacation in Italy were leaked,” Ned explained.

“He didn’t tell you? I thought you two told each other everything?!” Emilia’s tone echoed with confusion and concern.

“We haven’t really talked in a year in a half,” the boy admitted. “We kinda stopped being friends after I met Jacob, and then he didn’t really hang with anybody after MJ met Sydney.”

“You just left him all alone?”

Despite Ned knowing what he’d done in the back of his mind, the weight of it didn’t occur to him until that moment. He was the reason Peter never had any protection from bullies. He was the reason Peter was always covered in bruises. He was the reason Peter stopped caring about everything and everyone around him.

If you have the power to do something and you don’t, then how are you better than the bad guys?

“Yeah . . . I guess I did.”

“You should talk to him,” Emilia told him quietly. Then, she stood up and walked off to her bedroom without another word, leaving Ned in the dimly lit room with only his thoughts to keep him company.

+++

“But I’m a constant headache, a tooth out of line.”

-Joyce Manor, Constant Headache

Flash Thompson was flipping through channels as he sat on his family’s living room couch, trying to drown out the silence of the empty house. Both of his parents were on business trips, so he was all alone. With his homework done and him being unable to fall asleep, the boy found himself down stairs with a tub of ice cream he pulled out of the freezer.

Flash hit the button to switch channels again and found that he’d made it to HBO. Seeing as it was a little past eleven thirty, Last Week Tonight was on the air and the host was finishing up his main story. With nothing better to do, the high schooler put down the remote and watched.

“Now, I know we often finish with our main story, but we wanted to talk about an event we haven’t had a chance to cover yet, since we weren’t on the air last Sunday. I’m sure you’ve all heard about it, since you haven’t been living under rocks, but we wanted to talk about Peter Parker.” “You have to be fucking kidding me,” Flash groaned, rolling his eyes as a picture of his peer showed up next to the host.

“I know he’s been the talk of the week, but if you haven’t heard of Peter Parker, he is Tony Stark’s soulmate and the two of them were keeping their relationship private. However, somebody found out about their relationship and told a reporter about it. That reporter then followed them around their vacation in Italy, took pictures of them, and then posted them online, therefore leaking Peter’s identity and pushing him into the limelight.”

A couple of people in the audience booed.

“He’s actually handled it surprisingly well, though. He and Tony Stark did a press conference where they gave reporters a chance to ask questions and then, just on Friday, Peter went on The Tonight Show and talked about what his life is like and what he’s been up to.”

Flash looked at the TV deadpan as he remembered the interview.

“Very excitingly, I am being given the chance to talk to Peter Parker tonight, so everybody give him a warm welcome!”

The audience went crazy as John Oliver stood up and walked over to the area beside the space where his desk is. There was a table with two chairs set up on opposite sides. Peter Parker walked onstage and waved shyly as he made his way to his seat. The two men shook hands before sitting down. Flash booed at his TV from where he sat on his couch.

“Thank you so much for being on the show!”

“Thank you for having me!” Peter had a bright smile on his face. “I’ve been a fan of your show for a long time!”

“I’m glad to hear that, but that begs the question𑁋” John leaned in a bit, as if he were about to tell a secret. “𑁋has Tony Stark watched my show?”

The crowd laughed.

“He actually has! I made him watch it one night and he’s been watching it every week since!”

“Yes! We made it!” the host shouted, raising a fist up in victory as the crowd cheered and Peter laughed.

Flash rolled his eyes again and began to half tune-out the interview as he just stared blankly at the wall about his TV. His mind was in a different place, thoughts running through his head at lightning speed.

‘Why does Parker get a rich and famous soulmate?’

‘He doesn’t deserve all of this!’

‘Why does everybody like him now?’

Flash tuned back into the interview at some point, catching the words that his classmate said.

“Yeah, I was bullied a lot, but it kinda stopped once I was outed as Tony’s soulmate. I think people are a little afraid of me now, but before that, it was really awful. It was extremely physical to the point where-”

Flash turned off the TV.

+++

“I wanna be someone to someone, someone to you.”

-BANNERS, Someone To You

Ned spent that school week attempting to build up the courage to talk to Peter. He finally did that Friday, seeing Peter head to the library for lunch and promising to meet up with MJ and Sydney later.

“Hey, Jacob, I think I’m gonna go to the library for lunch,” Ned told his soulmate and bolted to after Peter, not giving the boy a chance to respond.

Ned slipped into the doors right after his ex-friend, watching as he disappeared behind some bookshelves and subtly following. He kept a good distance as he pursued Peter and peeked through some books to make sure the boy was sitting down at the little study area in the back before making his way in.

The moment Ned stepped into the study area, Peter looked up at him, his face turning into a slight scowl.

“What do you want?”

“I need to talk to you,” Ned told him, practically begging.

“We’re talking right now,” Peter shot back sarcastically.

“Seriously.”

The brunet sighed and shut his laptop, which he had opened to work on his assignment. Ned couldn’t help but to stop and notice that the laptop looked custom, looking nothing like the Stark Computers that were on the market. It wasn’t lost on him that it was probably a piece of tech that Tony Stark had made for the boy. He pushed away the thought that it was likely something the two soulmates had made together.

Ned took the sigh to mean that Peter was giving in and letting him talk, so he sat down in the chair across from him, twiddling his thumbs nervously in his lap. It was silent for a few moments as they both waited for the other to say something.

“If you wanna say something, then go ahead and say it,” Peter told him, repeating what he’d said the week before in physics.

“I miss being friends with you,” Ned murmured, looking up and making shy eye contact with the boy, who did not seem fazed. In fact, he only raised a disbelieving eyebrow.

“Are you fucking with me?” Peter asked him. When Ned remained silent, Peter gave a small chuckle. “You aren’t fucking with me. You really came to talk to me and say you miss being friends with me only after a year and a half and finding out who my soulmate is. You’re absolutely unbelievable.”

“Why can’t we be friends again? You’re friends with MJ!”

“Because MJ didn’t just try to be friends again. We slowly started hanging out and she didn’t give a shit who my soulmate was. She just hung around because she had nobody to sit with. We were like acquaintances who became friends.”

“I don’t care who your soulmate is! I just miss you!” Ned defended.

“Too little, too late.” Peter shoved his laptop into his bag, stood up, and left, not giving his ex-friend another chance to speak.

Ned just let him go.

+++

“I think my head is fit to burst. Which breakdown shall I deal with first?”

-dodie, I Won’t Be Done

Flash, much like Ned, had been watching Peter for the entire week, however, it was for a different reason. That reason being that he was absolutely and utterly pissed at the boy. Sure, he was already mad that Peter had leverage on him now, but having seen the boy on several talk shows and being happy with his friends throughout the week made him livid. In the back of his mind, he knew that what he was about to do could cost him his future, but all he saw was red.

That’s why, on the way to last period, Flash and his little gang of rich kids cornered Peter. The boy was walking to physics alone, as neither Sydney nor MJ were in the class with him, and they approached him from all sides, forming a semi-circle around him and forcing him back against the lockers.

“What the fuck do you guys want?” Peter spat, voice conveying his lack of patience.

“What we want is for you to tell your soulmate to back off and not ruin my future,” Flash told him with venom, the rest of his posse voicing their agreement.

“Why should I?”

“Do you really want to know?”

Peter crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. The certainty that the group couldn’t do anything to him was written across his face. Despite his better judgment and the threat of his life being ruined, Flash took a step forward, raised a fist, and punched the boy.

Hard.

Peter stumbled back and hit his head against the lockers, incapacitating him for a moment. A couple of the bully’s “friends” took advantage of that and grabbed the boy’s arms, pinning him up against the cold metal. Flash took a threatening step towards him and gave a smug grin, watching as Peter’s nose started bleeding.

“Not so confident now, huh, Parker?” Flash wound up his fist again and punched the pinned boy in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him. One of his goons took the chance to kick Peter in the leg, hard enough that there was sure to be a bruise by the end of the day. A flurry of hits and kicks rained down upon the brunet, him wincing with every single one. Peter was counting down the minutes until the tardy bell rang.

Mere seconds from the sound of the bell, a stern voice called out, “Thompson, Parker, principal’s office! The rest of you, vice principal’s office!”

As the gang let go, Peter stumbled a bit, struggling to get back on his feet. The pain throbbed across his body as the beaten up boy trailed behind the clique. Someone came up beside him and he turned his gaze to them, only to see Ned staring straight ahead.

“Did you . . . Were you the one who alerted Mr. Warren?”

Ned moved his gaze to the boy slowly before giving a small nod.

“Thank you,” Peter told him softly, sincerity shining through his voice.

The group split up as they reached the faculty offices, Flash’s gang turning the corner to go sit in front of the vice principal’s office while Ned, Peter, and Flash sat in the chairs outside the principal’s office. They all stayed silent, not daring to utter a word. After a few minutes, Mr. Morita stepped out of his office and the three boys looked up at him.

“Mr. Parker and Mr. Thompson, I’ve alerted your emergency contacts. Mr. Leeds, there was no need to contact anyone as you were not involved in the incident, but please stay here so I can hear your story of the incident.” The man walked back into his office and the hallway went silent again.

After only a few more minutes, a man rushed into the faculty offices and immediately made a beeline to the three boys. As he stopped in front of them, it dawned upon Peter and Ned that it was Flash’s father.

“What the hell happened?” the man said gruffly, looking over the teens. When he caught sight of Peter, his eyebrows furrowed, trying to figure out where he knew the boy from. Before anybody could answer his question, Morita walked out of his office again.

“Mr. Thompson, thank you for showing up on such short notice. We’ll get started in a few minutes once Mr. Parker’s emergency contact show-”

“Am I late?” a voice asked, cutting off the principal.

All of the people already there turned to look at the entrance of the faculty offices, coming face-to-face with Tony Stark. The new arrival made his way over coolly while the five already there stayed quiet. Peter stood up as his soulmate joined the group. Tony gave the boy a once over and his relaxed smile turned into a frown. He took his soulmate’s face in his hands and took in all the bruises and the dried blood from his nose before letting go and turning to the starstruck principal.

“After a fight, aren’t students supposed to be sent to the nurse first before the principal’s office or have things changed since I was in school?” Tony questioned impassively, but it was obvious that the question was rhetorical.

“Uh, right! I’ll, uh, grab some ice for Mr. Parker’s nose! I’ll be right back!” Morita rushed out of the faculty offices and towards the nurse’s office.

While Ned, Flash, and Mr. Thompson stayed frozen, staring at the billionaire, Tony and Peter turned to each other.

“I didn’t know you were listed as an emergency contact for me,” Peter told him with a raised eyebrow, a question hidden behind the statement.

“Soulmates are allowed to be listed as emergency contacts as long as they’re over eighteen,” Tony answered the unspoken question and slipped one of his hands into Peter’s.

“I didn’t really pay attention when I had that class on soulmates in sophomore year,” the younger man admitted.

“Neither did I.”

Peter gave a small laugh, a little bit of light flooding into his eyes.

“You’re . . . you’re Tony Stark,” Mr. Thompson uttered, eyes wide as he stared at the billionaire superhero.

The two soulmates turned to acknowledge the other people in the room. Ned looked a bit starstruck, but seemed the least shocked of the three, Mr. Thompson appeared to be shaken up, and Flash was pale, with his eyes wide and features conveying his horror.

“I don’t believe we’ve met,” Tony said with a sickly sweet voice, putting his hand forward.

The man took it, his hand shaking. “I, uh, I don’t believe we have. I’m Eric Thompson.”

“Pleasure to meet you.” Everybody could tell that Tony was, in fact, not pleased to meet the man.

“I’m a big fan of your work,” the nervous man told him as he drew his hand back.

Tony only gave a short nod of acknowledgement, not caring to make small talk with the bumbling fool. Luckily, he was saved from the conversation by Morita reappearing, out of breath and clutching a bag of ice in one hand. He walked over and handed it to Peter, who gently put it up against his injured nose.

“Let’s all go into my office,” the principal said, opening the door and holding it for all of them. As soon as they all sat down in chairs in front of the desk, Morita went around to his side and practically collapsed into his chair. Peter and Flash sat on opposite ends of the five seats set up, each having their respective contact sitting beside them. Ned was stuck in between the two groups, feeling anxious despite having done nothing. They all sat in silence for a few moments while the principal fumbled around for something to say.

“Now, I’m sure you’re wondering why I called you in today.”

“I’m assuming it has something to do with Peter being covered in bruises,” the billionaire cut in.

“Tony,” Peter warned, looking to his soulmate. The man put his hands up in defeat.

“There was a fight in the hallway and I wanted to head everybody’s side of the story,” Morita continued as if the interaction hadn’t happened. “Ned, as you were the one who told a teacher, can I hear your side of the story first?”

Ned gave a nod before starting. “I was walking to physics and I was rushing because I was going to be late, but when I turned onto the 300 hallway, I saw Flash and some of his friends beating up Peter while a couple of them held his arms to pin him against the lockers. I turned into the first classroom, which was Mr. Warren’s, and I alerted him of what was happening.”

“Thank you, Ned. Mr. Thompson, may I hear your side of the story?”

Flash, unsurprisingly, jumped into a false narrative. “I was walking to pre-calculus with my friends when Peter came up and tried to punch me. I tried to get him off, but he just kept trying to attack me, so I had to hit him back to make him stumble away and then my friends helped restrain him!”

“Are you sure about your story? It does not align with Mr. Leeds’ report and what Mr. Warren told me when he emailed me about the incident only a few minutes ago.”

“Are you calling my son a liar?!” Eric Thompson butted in, not giving his son a chance to respond. “I’ll have you know Flash here is a good kid who wouldn’t do anything like this! I cannot believe that he is being accused like this!”

“Mr. Thompson!” Morita spoke over the man. “No accusations have been made yet! I am simply telling your son that his story does not line up with the other ones. I am not calling him a liar.”

That seemed to calm the father down because he stayed quiet after that.

“Mr. Parker, could you please tell your side of the story?” the principal asked. Peter took a deep breath and Tony grabbed his hand, squeezing it encouragingly.

“Well . . . I was walking to physics when Flash and his friends cornered me against the lockers in the 300 hall. I asked them what they wanted and Flash said that he was mad over the face that Tony was angry at him because he’s been bullying me for seven years. When I told them that it wasn’t my problem, Flash punched me in the nose and I stumbled back, hitting my head against the lockers. Two of his friends pinned me against the lockers and I started getting beat up. That’s when Mr. Warren broke it up.”

“He’s lying!” Flash shouted as soon as Peter finished telling his side of the story. Tony glared at the bully, but Peter squeezed his hand and gave him a warning look.

“Seeing that Mr. Parker’s testimony lines up with Mr. Leeds and Mr. Warren’s testimonies, along with the security footage that the counselor sent me, I believe that you are lying about what happened, Mr. Thompson.”

Flash went pale again, looking over at where Tony and Peter were sitting. The former had a smug grin on his face while the latter had a neutral expression, but happiness shone in his eyes.

“Mr. Parker, Mr. Leeds, and Mr. Stark, you are all free to go.”

The three men stood up and exited the office. As soon as they were out, Tony turned to Peter, questioning if he was okay. Ned watched his old friend spout off reassurances that he was fine and that his soulmate didn’t need to be worried. Eventually, the man seemed satisfied and turned away from Peter.

The two soulmates looked at Ned for a moment while he stared right back.

“Thank you, Ned,” Peter murmured kindly, “for telling Mr. Warren, I mean.” Tony nodded along to the sentiment.

The two walked out and Ned waited a few moments before heading out the same way, not wanting to seem like he was following them. As he walked to physics to catch the last few minutes of class, he wondered if he had made progress with Peter.

+++

“And I’ve been in this place before. Fine as we are, but we want more.”

-Lauren Aquilina, Fools

It seemed that Ned had made progress with Peter, because, the next Monday, MJ invited him and Jacob to sit with her at lunch.

“You’re biting your lip,” Jacob informed Ned as they stood near the doors of the cafeteria together.

“Oh.” He forced himself to stop.

“It’ll be okay,” the short boy’s soulmate reassured him, taking his hand. “I’m sure of it.”

Ned gave a curt nod and the two approached the table, sitting down across from where Peter, MJ, and Sydney were sitting. The latter two gave the boys a smile while the brunet gave them a two-fingered salute, his face remaining neutral.

“Nice to see you two losers,” MJ greeted in her usual fashion.

“We were just talking about our weekends,” Sydney chimed in, trying to include them in the conversation.

“Cool. What did you guys do?” Jacob replied, saving Ned from where he was floundering for words.

“I mostly worked on a painting,” MJ told him simply.

“I visited my grandparents.”

“Nice! Ned and I spent the weekend hanging out.”

“What about you, Peter?” Ned asked, finally speaking.

Peter looked up from where he was picking at his nails, taking a moment to realize that everybody at the table was looking at him, waiting for an answer.

“Oh, uh, I spent most of the weekend with my soulmate.”

The table fell back into easy conversation, everybody satisfied with Peter’s answer. It took a little bit, but Peter joined in by the end of lunch.

As the bell rang and all the teens got up from their table and began to head back to classes, Peter shot Ned a small smile before exiting the cafeteria.

In some strange sort of way, things were heading back to normal.

+++

“It’s a simple suggestion of a moment worthy to keep.”

-Wilderado, Millie

The Friday afternoon the day before graduation found Peter leading his little friend group through the lobby of Stark Tower, weaving his way around the crowds. Nobody gave them a second glance, everybody knowing exactly who Peter was. He even shot the desk lady a quick hello as they passed. When they finally made it into the private elevator, all of his friends looked a little shaken up from the business of the ground floor, but Peter was unbothered.

“That was insane,” Ned announced, leaning back against the side of the elevator.

“Is it always that busy?” Sydney asked, looking a little out of breath.

“Only on weekdays,” Peter answered nonchalantly. “Not too many people are here on weekends.”

Soon enough, the elevator doors opened to reveal the penthouse living room and kitchen, which were connected to each other. Peter, of course, walked out and dropped his bag by the couch before making his way over to the kitchen. His friends walked out more slowly, taking in their surroundings before putting their stuff next to Peter’s. Even MJ, who rarely showed emotions, looked a bit in awe.

The place had a modern design, very Tony Stark chic, but, despite that, it looked lived in. There was a fuzzy blanket draped over the couch and what the group recognized to be one of Peter’s sweatshirts was hung over the back of a kitchen chair. There were framed pictures on the wall and a bit of clutter on the kitchen island. In a way, it was cozy.

The two pairs of soulmates watched as Peter opened up the fridge and pulled out a can of root beer before turning to them.

“You guys want anything? You can take whatever you want.”

“Are . . . are we allowed to?” Ned questioned, looking a bit anxious.

“I mean, I just gave you permission.” Peter had already moved to the pantry and grabbed a party size bag of chips before getting a big bowl out of the cabinet and pouring them in.

Sydney watched him with a raised eyebrow. “Yeah, but, like, this kitchen belongs to-”

“Me?” a voice cut in. The four teens in the living room whipped around and found Tony Stark standing at the entrance to one of the hallways that led off from the living room. They stared in awe at him as he walked past them and into the kitchen.

“Hey, Tones,” Peter greeted as Tony approached him. Once in range, the two shared a short kiss before separating.

“What are you all up to? You never mentioned you were bringing people over.”

Before Peter could even answer, Jacob cut in, worry laced into his voice. “You didn’t ask if we could come over?”

“Nope,” Peter responded plainly, popping the ‘p’ and laying his head on Tony’s shoulder as the man put an arm around his waist. Jacob furrowed his eyebrows while the other three teens gave each other slightly bewildered looks. However, they didn’t get any more answers.

“We’re decorating our graduation caps,” Peter told Tony, pulling away from his hold and grabbing his soda along with the bowl of chips. The older man followed him as he walked back over to his friends and set the items down on the coffee table. “Also, don’t you have a meeting in, like, five minutes?”

“Shit,” Tony muttered, checking his watch. “I should probably get going, but we’re still on for getting takeout and watching movies tonight, right?”

“Of course!” The two soulmates shared another quick kiss before Tony made his way over to the elevator, the doors already opening for him.

“Say hi to Pepper for me!” Peter called.

“You got it!” Tony called back right before the doors closed.

Peter turned to his friends, who looked back at him in shock.

“Let’s start decorating!”

+++

“But God I want to feel again. Oh God I want to feel again.”

-Sleeping At Last, Touch

“Going through high school was one of the most challenging things I’ve ever faced. I felt alone for a lot of it. I faced a lot, from bullies to rumors to nearly failing classes. And, yet, here I am, standing in front of all of you today, giving this speech. Despite everything, all of us made it through. We made it to graduation and we’ll make it so much farther. And I am so glad to have made it here, to be graduating with the class of 20XX. We did it.” Peter finished his valedictorian speech with his voice strong, looking out over the crowd of teary eyed parents and proud relatives and caring friends from other high schools. Everybody cheered, some seniors throwing their caps into the air.

He couldn’t believe that he had made it.

Peter made his way out into the lobby, weaving through the people, trying to find the people there for him. Eventually, he spotted his aunt talking with Ned’s parents and made his way over. Once he did, he also found MJ, Jacob, and Sydney’s parents, all talking with them. His friends were standing beside them, all chatting excitedly. Finally, there was Pepper, Rhodey, Happy, and, of course, Tony.

He made it. He actually made it.

+++

“I did it all. I owned every second that this world could give. I saw so many places. The things that I did. Yeah, with every broken bone, I swear I lived.”

-OneRepublic, I Lived

Five Months Later - November

Peter awoke to a banging on his door. He groaned, burying his head into his pillow.

“Come on, Peter! We’ve got class in forty-five minutes!” Ned’s voice floated through the wood.

After a moment more, the brunet got out of his warm bed and stumbled to the door, opening it up and seeing his friend, who was already dressed. Looking over his shoulder, he saw that the room across from his had its door open, which meant that MJ and Sydney were both already up.

“Go get dressed,” Ned ordered. “Jacob made breakfast.”

Peter gave a nod and closed the door, drawing himself out of his sluggish state to get dressed and ready to go for the day. When he got out of his room a few minutes later and walked into the kitchen, he saw his friends all sitting down for breakfast. He joined them at his seat, happy to eat the pancakes that his friend’s soulmate had made. There was light conversation as they all discussed classes and their plans for the day. Peter and Sydney were talking about their engineering class when MJ asked the group if anything was going on for the day besides classes.

“Tony’s coming in today,” Peter told them and everybody looked at him, the table going silent. “You guys are really never gonna get used to this, huh?”

“Bro, your soulmate is Tony fucking Stark. How could we get used to that?” Jacob questioned him.

“Maybe because you guys live in his penthouse with me?” Peter suggested with a raised eyebrow. “Anyways, if you guys are free tonight, we could all go out to dinner together!”

Everybody voiced their agreement. After a few more minutes, Peter and Ned got up from the table to head out to their first class of the day, which was earlier than everybody else’s. They threw on their winter coats and gave everybody a goodbye before leaving, talking the whole way to the classroom and ignoring the looks that Peter got everywhere he went. He had gotten used to people recognizing him.

That afternoon, when Peter and MJ walked back to the penthouse, having their last class on Fridays together, they didn’t talk much. They simply stayed side by side and took comfort in each other’s company.

When they got to their place on the top floor of the building, Tony was sitting at the kitchen table, doing some work on his StarkPad.

“Tones!” Peter exclaimed, a large smile on his face. Tony got up from his seat and the two soulmates gave each other a warm embrace, sharing a kiss.

MJ gave a small grin at the loving looks on the two men’s faces before walking to her and Sydney’s shared room to put her stuff down. When she got there, she found her soulmate sitting on the bed with Ned and Jacob sitting on the little couch in the corner, all three of them talking. The four only hung out for a few minutes before Peter popped in to tell them that they should get ready because Tony made reservations for all of them at a nice restaurant.

That night, the three pairs of soulmates sat around a table at a nice restaurant, telling stories and laughing, as if they’d known each other for forever.

It was as Peter laid in bed, held by his soulmate and looking at his alarm clock, that he realized how much everything had changed. He was happy, warm, content. It was everything he had ever wanted, and it was right there.

They cared about falling in love.

And Peter Parker and Tony Stark had fallen in love.

Tag List For All Fics (lmk if you want to be added):

@darkerstarker @dim-ships-johnlock @ashleybeattie

Tag List For Jupiter:

@haylove5 @honeybunstarker @bizzlepotter @freezing-blue @deni-gonzalez @chaniegaroo @darkerstarker @prism-opals @twokinkybeans @ilikestarker @smallnjh @starkerthanreality @bookworm1015 @starkershomelife @antis-fuck-off @itsdisapointmentasmrworld

#tony stark/peter parker #starker fluff #starker #starker fanfiction #ironspider #jupiter #soulmate AU #starker soulmate au #this took me way too long #im sorry it sucks #but i hope you like this!#pls like this #axiwrites

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spider-pxrkers · 4 years

Text

replacement pt. 2 || peter parker x stark!reader || tony stark x stark!daughter!reader || series

i do not own any gifs used. all credits go to the original creator.

summary: After your mother’s death, your father, Tony Stark takes you in. Your heart breaks as you realize he’s already found a child in the broken kid with spider-like powers.

word count: 1884 words

a/n: as i wrote this, i was watching jacksepticeye’s livestream on his youtube channel. he, and several other youtubers, are currently doing charity livestreams for covid-19 (corona virus) relief for the next few hours, so if you can, please head over there and donate! if you can’t watch, head over here to donate:D

warnings: none. please let me know if there are!

masterlist || series masterlist

i do not own any gifs used. all credits go to the original creator.

It’d been a couple days since you first met Tony. Calling him your ‘dad’ seemed out of place since your first interaction. You hadn’t seen Peter since either; not that you cared.

You honestly didn’t know what you expected when you’d first meet your father. You built a fantasy of him in your head ever since you were little. In your head, he’d be a middle aged man with graying hair and an irrational love for baseball who’d enjoy the occasional beer while sat in balcony of his townhouse. Not the billionaire philanthropist with hundreds of estates and his Iron Man suit inside a room in the building you lived in.

You barely got to get to know Tony, it all seemed like such a big let down. On the day you first met him, he shortly had to leave to attend to some ‘Avengers Business’, however insisting Peter show you around the tower.

The entire tour felt like repeated slaps in the face.

You realized just how close Peter was with man who was supposed to be your father. The boy appeared to be rather quiet when you first met him, however, he never refrained from going on minutes long rants about certain memories he had associated with each and every room in your new home. His expression was almost childish while he recalled encounters he’d had with Tony and other Avengers, his hands moving as if animated.

It was almost cute, listening to the boy rather excitedly jump from topic to topic while walking you around the compound, but the entire time you couldn’t help the resentment growing for Peter as he spoke about the memories he had which you, Tony Stark’s real daughter, should have had instead.

Anger seeped through you with every word Peter let out the entire hour of the tour, describing the life you had missed out on, and instead the one he got. You couldn’t help but let out a groan as he took you to yet another floor of the building, the one that you were supposed to stay in but still, another floor filled with probably half a dozen new rooms for Peter to go on and on about.

You decided to take it until you reached one of the kitchens and Peter’s eyes lit up, about to tell you a story about something to do with Tony making him try a new brand of coffee as they worked on his chemistry homework together, which made you realize you had enough.

“Peter, you know what?” you cut him off, your temper rising, his wide smile faltering a bit as he lowered his arms that were in the middle gesturing to the coffee grinder.

“What?”

“I think I’ve had enough of you-” you paused and looked up, your hard stare meeting his softer gaze on you. For a small moment, you didn’t want to blame him, you didn’t want to blame him for living the life you were supposed to have. But as you saw his hand lower onto the coffee grinder, you shook your head slowly, any forgiveness you had for him draining away. “I’m pretty tired after the flight, I’d rather finish the tour up myself.”

Your words were standard, your tone however much harsher. Peter’s breath hitched as he stood, confused as to why you seemed so offended, but he wasn’t going to pry. “That’s okay,” he began quietly. “I-I gotta go anyway.” He gestured to the watch he had on his wrist before letting out a small smile at you.

Should he apologize? He felt like he should, but apologize for what?

Maybe you were just tired.

Without saying anything else, he made his way to the elevator, giving you one last smile, before the elevator door closed between you two, and he began to descend.

You sighed as you sat on one of the bar stools at a kitchen island, your head finding your hand as you tried to calm you breathing. You peered your head up, your eyes wandering your floor. It was big, for one. Bigger than any other house you’d lived in. It was spacious, minimally decorated, probably for you to fill in with what you’d like. The elevator Peter left in opened directly into the kitchen on one side and a sitting area with a television on the other side. By the sitting room, was a small study area, with a desk and empty bookshelves, leading to a corridor that connected to a bathroom and bedroom probably. As your eyes scanned the kitchen once again and landed on the red coffee grinder, you wondered if Tony had any one else stay here before you.

You stood outside the large building of Midtown High School. your hands curled around the bag resting on your shoulder. You took a deep breath, everyone’s nervous on their first day of school, it was normal. But your case was different. As you pushed your feet underneath you to head inside, you felt multiple eyes on you, all eager to see who Tony Stark’s illegitimate kid was.

Tony wasn’t keen to send you to public high school. You didn’t know why, you hadn’t talked to him about it, in fact you hadn’t spoken to him at all since your brief encounter on your first day in New York. But you made it clear to the man, Happy Hogan, who spoke to you about it that you wanted your life to be as normal as possible. He seemed nice enough, but he too had already been acquainted with Peter Parker. It couldn’t help but make you feel Tony couldn’t care less sending the same man to tend to you that tended to Peter.

You pushed the thought away, recalling Tony having called you earlier this morning, letting you know he was going to take you for lunch after school. You found yourself smiling after he hung up, things looking up

You walked through the crowded halls of the school, your hands desperately clasped around your class schedule and school information. Just as you turned to the school map, you heard a familiar voice calling your name.

“Y/N!”

You eyes closed as you silently pleaded to yourself, turning around. You looked up and saw Peter Parker standing by a locker, another boy next to him, a smile on his face, waving at you. You looked between the confusing paper in your hand and the two boys in front of you, debating your options before figuring you were better off with help than without.

You made your over to the pair, silently greeting the boy you didn’t know before he stuttered out something about having to head to class,

It was quiet after that, you refused to make eye contact with Peter as he explained the map to you. After your call with Tony this morning, you felt a little ashamed to be mad at him. You probably were tired and took it out on him that day.

Peter seemed to notice you averting your gaze at him as the two of you headed to your shared homeroom, but he didn’t say anything, probably understanding you were sorry, though you didn’t say it.

As the day went on, you felt more and more uncomfortable with people’s gazes on you. You found yourself sticking to Peter because somehow, you shared your first four classes before lunch. You got to know Ned a bit in your English class who you learned was going through a little bit of shock after meeting the Y/N Stark. It made you feel uneasy at first before Ned changed the topic and began a rant about the new Star Wars movie, making you laugh as your teacher glared at him.

During lunch, you sat with the two and was later joined by a girl named Michelle. The next thirty minutes was filled with Peter softly chuckling at Ned who could not stop talking about some comic book and Michelle occasionally looking up from her book while passing sarcastic comments. You felt almost content for the first time since you arrived in this city. You looked up at Peter, who you severely misjudged, silently thanking him for bringing you into this group, before you noticed his gaze instead on Michelle, who sat by you.

You looked between the two, his eyes almost pleading as he looked at the girl who instead stared at the book in front her. You found your lips tugging into a light smile, as you connected the dots, realizing Peter had a crush on the girl next to you.

A few minutes before lunch ended, Peter’s phone on the table began to vibrate. The conversation seized as he grabbed his phone, his light eyes crinkling as he looked up and shared a look with Ned.

You found you eyebrows furrowing, “What is it?” you quietly asked.

Peter’s gaze snapped to you as he hurriedly stood up, as if something clicked in his head while looking at you. “I-I gotta go do something.” he rushed to grab his things before he left the table, almost sprinting out the cafeteria door.

What was going on? You turned your head to look at Ned. “What was that about?”

Ned looked at you, his face flushing as he if he was choosing his words carefully. “Peter has an- he has an internship. Yeah, an internship, and he has some work to get to.” He quickly nodded, before shoving a juice straw in his mouth.

“What internship?” you turned to Michelle this time, hoping she’d give you a more straight forward reply.

She still had her eyes in her book, not even looking at up before saying, “I don’t know man, some internship at Stark Industries.”

You face fell and your smile faltered. “Oh.” you breathed out before your gaze inverted to the table. Of course Peter had a Stark Internship, that probably explained how he knew Tony so well. It still hurt, knowing he was probably headed to the place that was supposed to be your home.

Both Ned and Michelle shared a look with each other, Ned silently scolding her as she just shrugged.

By the end of the school day, Peter still hadn’t returned. It left you to spend your classes alone, sharing one with Michelle, but still. You figured with him attending to his internship, Tony would probably be busy after school, but that didn’t stop you for waiting. You sat on a bench outside the school gate, your bag on the seat beside you. You played a game on your phone for a bit, as you waited for Tony to pick you up. Minutes eventually turned into an hour, and you typed a quick a text to Tony, asking him where he was. After a few minutes, when he didn’t reply, your heart sunk.

You stood up, slinging your bag over your shoulder as tears brimmed your eyes, making your way to the nearest bus stop. You connected the dots together, realizing your father was probably with Peter. That’s why Peter hadn’t come back, why Tony didn’t bother to get back at you. It stung, it stung knowing Peter had intruded on another moment in your life with you father.

It stung knowing that Tony picked Peter Parker over you.

Taglist:

@marvel-is-a-mood @lovebooperdooper @yosoymuyloca

@iguessweallcrazyithinktho @mylittle-peach @potter-head-phanatic

@the-greatt-perhaps

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hpsamantha · 3 years

Text

Rogue Avengers Return: Pt. 1

Y/N is Angry

Word Count: 2390

Backstory: Y/N joined the 'New Avengers' as the superhero Tidal (OC) when she was 14 and a sophomore, she skipped a grade, joining Peter Parker at Midtown. Y/N was previously put under the guardianship of Fury after her parents died when she was 11 and is living with her "Uncle" Tiny (oops sorry she means Tony). Y/N is adopted by Stark and they live happily ever after, until a year later. Steve and his crew have been pardoned. Bucky who now goes by James, has been forgiven by Tony and now resents Steve for bringing him in this mess. He is annoyed about the pardon, Tony is not happy about it, Y/N is furious and Peter is scared of what his girlfriend will do to them. What will happen when they arrive? Read to find out!

Pt. 2

Steve sighed as the jet hit a patch of turbulence. His hair was a mess and stringy from the many times he has pulled at it. He was distraught and you could tell, he was also angry at Stark for abandoning him and the team by not helping them through this. T'Challa helped them but it should've been Stark helping, after all he did owe them. He was brought out of his thoughts by Sam who shook his shoulder.

"Hey man, we're almost there." Steve smiled at him, reassuring him that he was ok. But he wasn't. He missed Bucky a lot and couldn't wait to see him. Standing up and looking around at his teammates, he couldn't believe how separated they have became after some people saw the Siberia video. Nat, Clint, and Scott were in the corner avoiding Steve, Wanda, and Sam. His real friends stuck up up for him after watching the video, especially Wands, saying that Tony attacked first and that it wasn't Steve's fault. While the rest of the team stayed away from him.

Even before, Lang didn't like Steve. He hasn't seen Cassie in a year and resented him for that reason. He was the one that turned the rouges over to the UN, and wasn't the only person that hated Steve Roger's guts. The jet jerked again as it landed on the ground, Steve let go of the breath he didn't realize he was holding and stood up, facing Wanda. "Whatever happens, just know that i'm by your side." She nodded and stepped off of the jet, followed by the rest of the rouges.

As they adjusted their eyes, they saw a girl with H/L H/C hair and piercing E/C eyes. She walked forward a bit as anger flashed across her eyes and she stopped in front of the rouges. Her eyes scanned them until she found who she was looking for, Natasha Romanoff. Y/N walked toward her and the rouges became tense, awaiting the next action the girl would take. Instead of doing anything drastic, Y/N hugged Natasha with all of her might, "I haven't seen you in so long Nat."

"I missed you приливный (Tidal)."

"Me too madre araña (Spider Mother)."

"I see you still speak Spanish."

"And you still speak Russian."

Y/N walked away from Natasha and turned to address the rouges with a now serious look on her face, "Hello rouges. My name is Y/N, but you can call me Mrs. L/N. Many things have changed over this past year and I hope you realize that you're not on top anymore." Wanda opened her mouth to say something but, Y/N glared at her and she closed it. "Anyways, In the compound there is the East and West wing, you guys are not allowed in the West wing. You each have your own room in the East wing though."

"Why aren't we allowed in the West wing?" Scott asked politely.

"The New Avengers reside in that wing." After Y/N spoke those words Steve, Wanda, and Sam looked up with a look of disbelief on their face. "Many of them are not happy about you guys being pardoned, i'm doing you a favor."

"A favor?! We have the right to reside in the West wing!" Wanda exclaimed furiously.

"Maybe someday you will, if you earn my trust." Y/N said in disappointment, "I am in charge of you guys since you're "part" of the Avengers Initiative, and making sure you don't hurt anyone ever again."

"Is that a threat?" Steve said in a dangerous tone.

"It can be."

Y/N wasn't happy that she had to keep an eye on the rouges since one of them almost killed her dad. When she found out what happened in Siberia she was furious and couldn't believe that Rogers would even do that. She felt numb when Vision found Tony lying on the ground dying. As soon as he carried him into the compound, he was rushed away and there was nothing Y/N could do to help except to pray. She didn't eat, drink, or sleep for days on end because of the worry.

Then Peter came over to check on Tiny and everything became better. The way he bounced around with endless energy and never stopped talking, the way he made sure she ate enough and slept through the night, and the way he took care of her when she felt like the world was crashing all around her. Peter was her guardian angel, and she never wanted to let go of him.

Y/N was shook out of her thoughts as her alarm went off signifying that they needed to move on.

"So, schedule. We get in there, you get your new security badges, I show you to your rooms, you leave me be afterwards."

"Security badges? That's a little low tech for Stark, isn't it? I mean c'mon, what about the weirdly invasive ID'ing Friday usually does? Also I'm still confused, why aren't we allowed in the West wing?" Sam added.

Y/N sighed and turned to them just as they reached the front doors. "You being cut off from the West wing was a request from another Avenger who was not comfortable with any of you being around him. As for the security badges; there are new people who need to get familiar with your faces so they know if you're in a place you shouldn't be just by looking at you. I know you are all some what used to Friday's regulated scanning but I don't care. You'll have those badges with you 24/7 by the way." She promptly turned back around and walked through the main automatic doors that lead into the compound. Y/N held up a finger, indicating it would just take one moment, before she punched a code into a panel installed in the wall next to the door. It slid open once more, this time long enough fore everyone to make it through. She gestured for them to follow once more before walking away briskly, not checking to see if they were following.

Wanda leaned over to Steve and under her breath said, "Cut off from the West wing because of a request from another Avenger," she scoffed, "Tony's not even supposed to be an Avenger, isn't he mentally unstable or something?"

Steve was just about to answer her when he ran straight into Y/N who had stopped in the middle of the wide, glass hall.

"Contrary to all your popular beliefs it was Vision who requested that you lot were to be kept out of that part of the building." She announced loud enough for everyone to hear while staring down Wanda who only showed bitter distain on her face, even though everyone knew Vision was a soft spot for her. Then Y/N was lowering her voice just so the witch could hear and crouching to her height to meet her eyes. "And aren't you one to talk about being unstable?" She bit out, venom leaking from her tone.

Then she abruptly straightened up and continued walking, everyone else warily following after her.

They walked down a hall that looked new to Steve, floor to ceiling windows that showed off the meticulously cut lawn behind the compound. There was a flash of red that flew by the wall of glass and immediately all of the Avengers stiffened while Y/N continued walking, unaffected.

"Ms. L/N? Did you- what was that?" Scott asked, hesitantly.

However, before Y/N got the chance to even open her mouth something burst through the door that lead to the outside, the red blur, followed by a... young child with a gun? The highly trained soldiers and assassins tensed as they watched the spider-kid from the airport swing from the ceiling and come to a stop, upside down, in front of Y/N. The younger boy pushed past them to also get to the young girl, a manic grin stretched across his face.

"Hello Y/N." Both of the kids said together.

Said girl eyed them disapprovingly before holding out her hand to the smaller boy. He begrudgingly handed over his colorful gun, made from thick tubes and heavy duty springs from what Steve could see.

"Harley, what did Tiny say about your food guns outside of the workshop?" Y/N asked sternly, though also with a touch of fondness. She pulled back a lever to reveal light green apple in the chamber.

The rouges watched the exchange, feeling awkward for having been pushed aside and ignored so easily by the two kids. "He said, and I quote, 'Harley, I swear to the galaxies above, if you break one more two thousand dollar art piece with that potato gun I will dig up the old Jericho missile and blow it to hell.' This, however, is not a potato gun." He gave Y/N a big, mischievous grin. "Apples." He said smugly, pointing at the fruit.

"He does have a point, Tidal." Said the Spider-boy, still dangling precariously from the ceiling. However everyone there knew that his webs were strong enough to hold him.

"Sometimes I really do wonder why I talk to you." She mumbled.

The Harley kid sighed dramatically and said, "Well you are my sister."

Steve felt uncomfortable listening to the ordinary conversation because since they were all completely disregarding the Avengers it seemed more intimate somehow. Clint looked like he was trying his hardest not to listen into their talk and Sam was giving Wanda several pointed looks like he was trying to tell her something, while Scott was just looking around the compound in awe. To be perfectly honest it was sometimes weird to see that Scott still hero worshipped them and what they did even though he was basically one of them now.

Steve also wondered who the kid's dad was. Maybe they were Ross'... Steve was never even close to being an acquaintance with that man so it made sense to not know about him having a kid.

Y/N's voice cut through Steve's thought. "I doubt he would want me to introduce you all to each other but I'll do it anyways because of the meeting later and we all need to have some sort of chemistry on the battlefield." She began, but was cut off by Sam.

"Battlefield? That kid looks five?!" Sam said, pointing at the youngest.

"I'm thirteen, but sure, thirteen, five? Same difference." The 'kid' replied sassily.

"Well Harley won't actually be on the battlefield but he does operate some of the aerial scouting tech from time to time, just as an extra pair of eyes." Y/N responded coolly, tugging Harley close to her side as the spider gracefully let go of the web one limb at a time until he was upright and on his feet. He then yanked the web from the ceiling and wrapped it around his arm. "Good, you're learning not to leave behind a mess wherever you go." Y/N murmured, pleased.

"Are you sure that's appropriate?" Clint asked, brow raised. "I mean, for someone so young... I can't imagine my kids having to see such a gruesome battle on a regular basis. His father must not care much for his child's mental health." He said this with a slightly sarcastic lilt to his voice which only served to harden Y/N glare.

Surprisingly, Harley answered. "I bet your kids have already seen enough. I mean, with them having a deadly assassin as a dad and all." He basically whispered, a certain edge taking to his voice. "But what would I know about raising a family, Hawkeye. I'm so young. I couldn't possibly understand what it's like to have to make the choice between staying retired or stepping out on your family for no apparent reason."

They were all shocked. Well, not Y/N or Peter, they had been expecting something even more brutal. Steve was about to argue or at least ask why the boy knew so much but thought better of it and allowed Clint to answer for himself. "Hey, kid, you don't know my situation. It was a tough decision but it had to be done. I knew what I was doing and I knew how leaving to help Steve would effect my family. I- I know I have a responsibility to my kids, as their father, but it was the right thing to do." He ended righteously.

"Eh, it happens, dads leave, no need to be a pussy about it, though." Harley replied nonchalantly. Peter chuckled, recognizing the line from the story Harley had told him about how he had met Tony for the first time.

"Language, young man. You should never speak to your superiors like that!" Steve turned to Y/N helplessly but she just stared back at him, "Not trying to tell you how to handle kids but are you really not going to say anything about that?" He asked incredulously, hands flailing.

"No, Rogers, I will not. He is my boyfriend, and he is my brother. So I personally don't give a fuck. I was going to say something worse." She answered simply, turning away from him to continue down the hall. "Oh, and by the way, I will also be on the battlefield with you as one of your superiors. I may be 15, but I am much more powerful then all of you combined, so I suggest that you don't try anything to Harley, Spidey, or Tony." The rogues looked shocked, while Y/N smiled.

"Now, on wards with the schedule, I really do need to get a good night of sleep tonight." The two boys walked closely to her one either side as they disappeared into another corridor.

Clint glanced over at Steve, a completely baffled look on his face as he began walking to catch up with them. The others followed after them, just as confused by what had happened as their Captain was. Sam shook his head and mumbled under his breath, "damn teenagers and their damn angst" but kept up with his friends nonetheless.

#marvel #fanfiction #peter parker x reader #the avengers #peter parker #tony stank #tonystark #steve rogers #wehatesteverogers #bashing #teamcap #teamcapbashing #bucky barnes #rogueavengersreturn

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abundanceofsoph · 4 years

Text

SkyFire 3: Chapter 2

New York & Saturday Night Live: April 2017

Word count: 4.8k

SkyFire 3 MASTERLIST

Sorry it's been so long since the last chapter but I'm finally back at work after 75 days in lockdown. Updates will probably be a bit more spaced out than they were in Parts 1 & 2 but please know that I am still working away at it and I already have so many future chapters planned out that I'm really excited for.

This chapter is a bit of a long one and I thought about splitting it in half but figured you deserved the treat after waiting patiently.

Don't forget to leave a comment if you're enjoying the series and let me know what you think.

>Instagram posts

By the time Aurora woke up Monday morning, Harry’s side of the bed was cold, and he had long since left for the day. Since he would be appearing in multiple sketches on the upcoming episode of Saturday Night Live, he was needed for rehearsals all week. Aurora was thankful that she and the rest of the band weren’t needed until Friday and instead she was able to sleep in. Their flight had arrived in New York well after midnight and by the time they made their way to the tower they had both decided to head straight to bed. Aurora was fairly certain her father would have still been awake, working in his lab but she was far too tired for a reunion after hours on a plane.

Once she managed to roll herself out of bed and get dressed for the day ahead, Aurora made her way down the hall to the open plan kitchen/living area of the penthouse with its wide, floor to ceiling wall of windows looking out over the sprawling expanse of Central Park. Both Tony and Steve were sitting on the stools at the kitchen’s island bench, waiting for their daughter to wake up. Steve had seen Harry earlier that morning as he was leaving, and Steve had been coming back from his early morning run. Both he and Tony were eager to have their daughter home for an entire week and while Steve was happy to sip on his tea and read the morning while they waited, Tony was practically vibrating in his seat with barely contained excitement. Steve’d had to stop him twice from having JARVIS ‘accidentally’ wake Aurora up, so Tony was unsurprisingly the first out of his seat when she finally appeared.

Aurora was grinning widely and broke into a fit of giggles as her father rushed over and lifted her off the ground in a crushing hug. Despite having seen each other only two weeks ago, the craziness of the wedding hadn’t really allowed them much time to just hang out together and prior to the wedding they had spent a solid 5 months apart given the last minute changes to their Christmas plans in the wake of Johannah’s death.

“Missed you Dad,” she said, returning the tight hug.

“Missed you too Kiddo,” Tony replied, finally setting her back on her feet and allowing her to cross the room and fall into Steve’s arms.

The small family spent the entire day together, watching a movie and then moving down to Tony’s workshop in the afternoon so that he could work on a prototype for Stark Industries while Steve and Rori sketched on the sofa. It was reminiscent of how they had spent many evenings shortly after Rori first came to live with her fathers, the memories of those long nights brought a soft smile to her face as she sketched Dumm-e and Butterfingers, where they were attempting to help Tony, but instead were causing more problems than they were able to solve. Harry found them all there when he arrived back to the tower later that evening, grinning excitedly as he launched into his recounting of his first day with the SNL cast.

xXx

Since first meeting her father’s childhood best friend, James ‘Bucky’ Barnes, three years ago, Aurora had slowly come to see him as a member of the family. For the first year that they had both lived in the tower together, they had coexisted amicably but had been far from friends, nothing close to the way Aurora was with the rest of the team. Even as her relationship with Sam had flourished quickly as he acclimatized to life as an Avenger she had struggled to be around Bucky. He hadn’t held her distant behaviour against her, knowing that while most of the team had been able to separate the actions of the Winter Soldier from Bucky himself, Aurora had struggled to accept into her home the man who had tried, on several occasions, to assassinate one of her fathers. Following the Columbia Shooting, she had surprised him by seeking him out during her recovery and their friendship had bloomed after her amputation surgery. Now, many years later Bucky easily filled the role of another uncle in Aurora’s life, a shift that had made Steve overwhelmingly happy.

It was late Tuesday afternoon and Steve went in search of his daughter, having not seen her since they’d shared lunch together. He expected to see her in the workshop with Tony, however his husband said he hadn’t seen her since breakfast. With the help of JARVIS he finally found her on one of the lower floors, the one shared by Sam, Bucky and Rhodey when he was in town. She was in the living room sitting across the table from Bucky, a game of Battleship between the pair. Steve suppressed a chuckle as he joined the pair, well aware by now of how much his best friend and his daughter enjoyed playing a variety of tabletop games together. Many arguments had been started over a game of backgammon or canasta.

“Who’s winning?” he asked, pulling up a chair beside Aurora and throwing an arm around her shoulders.

“I’m kicking his ass,” she smiled.

“She’s getting cocky,” Buck replied, “and it’s going to backfire on her in a minute.”

“Of course it is,” Aurora said, her tone dripping in sarcasm.

The game continued for a while, Aurora cheering and taunting when she sunk another of Bucky’s ships, mocking him mercilessly when he continued to miss her own turn after turn.

“I don’t understand why you always beat me,” he moaned when she won. “I mean surely your luck has to run out eventually.”

“It’s not luck, Bucky,” Rori laughed. “It’s about strategy and reading your opponent and I hate to tell you, but you are entirely predictable.”

“I’ll have you know I’m an excellent battle strategist,” Bucky retorted.

“Apparently you’re not,” Aurora bit back, a wide smile gracing her face. Steve let out a loud peel of laughter at their bickering.

“Excuse me,” JARVIS interrupted. “Miss Stark, you requested that I alert you when young Mr Styles returned to the tower.”

“Thanks J,” Rori replied, kissing her fathers’ cheek and jumping to her feet, ready to head towards the elevator.

“Miss Stark?” Steve asked.

“He said that Dad programmed him to call me that and no marriage certificate is gonna change it,” Rori explained with a roll of her eyes. “Dad could probably get him to stop but honestly I like it. I didn’t get to be a Stark for very long so it’s nice to be one when I come home.”

“You’ll always be a Stark, bug,” Steve promised, returning the kiss on her cheek and watching as she left the room in search of Harry on the upper floors of the Tower.

“Enjoying having her home?” Bucky asked.

“Absolutely,” Steve answered. “I miss her when she’s not here. Tony does too, even if he won’t admit it. She grew up too fast on us.”

“Can’t have been easy not meeting her until she was practically all grown up,” Bucky pointed out.

“No, you’re right,” Steve agreed. “Sometimes I wish we’d got to raise her, but I’d also never want to have taken away any of the time she got with her mom.”

“You and Tony ever think of having another kid?”

“We’ve talked about,” Steve said. “It’s not very easy process. The worlds come a long way since the 40’s Buck, but it’s still hard for two men to adopt. It certainly doesn’t help that we’ve got such dangerous jobs.”

“Guess that makes sense,” Bucky replied. “Never known you to back down from something just because it’s hard or because someone tells you no, though.”

“You might have a point there. Seems we’ve managed to accidently adopt Peter over the years so maybe we’re just meant to keep collecting teenagers.”

xXx

Something Aurora loved about the city was the way that New Yorkers didn’t care about anyone around them. Everyone was busy getting from one place to another and had very little time or care to look at those surrounding them on the crowded sidewalks. Aurora could easily wander the streets without being hassled as she went about her day. Occasionally a tourist would recognize her, but more often than not, a large pair of sunglasses and a hat pulled low would hide her enough to avoid all but the most astute fan. She wore a loose oversized cardigan which hung over the tips of her fingers completely concealing her prosthetic hand as she headed through the streets of midtown Manhattan, her hands full of shopping bags as she walked back towards Avengers Tower. She could have halved the time to get home by taking the subway, but the weather was nice, so she enjoyed the walk, reaching the towers lobby a little after 2 in the afternoon.

By the time she stepped out of the elevator and into the penthouse, she noted Steve, Clint and Bucky sprawled out on the sofas in front of the tv. She dropped her shopping bags onto the floor and launched herself onto the sofa cushion next to Steve, curling herself into his side as his arm fell around her shoulders, hugging her tightly against him.

“Where’ve you been all day?” he asked.

“Went shopping,” Rori explained.

“Do I want to know?” he asked with a soft chuckle.

“I bought wigs.”

“Why on earth are you buying wigs?” Clint butted in.

“Because with the tour coming up,” Rori said, “I want to try out some different hair colours, but I’ve never bleached my hair before and I’m honestly terrified of ruining my hair. So, wigs.”

“Do we get a fashion show?” Steve asked.

“Maybe later,” she mumbled, yawning widely before resting her head back against Steve’s shoulder and staring, glazed eyes at the tv.

xXx

The following day, Sam found Rori sitting alone against one of the large windows, hugging her knees tightly against her chest as she stared out over the city.

“Hey, you,” he said as he took a seat next to her on the floor. “You ok?”

“Yeah I’m good,” she replied, her voice soft and a little distant, her gaze remaining on the view spread out beneath them.

“Remember when you promised me you wouldn’t lie about how you were feeling,” Sam reminded her.

She sighed, her shoulders sagging and her head leaning forward to rest against the cold glass. “I had a panic attack last week,” she mumbled.

“When you got home to London?” he asked.

She shook her head. “On the last day of our honeymoon. This thunderstorm came rolling in out of nowhere the day before we flew home, and I just freaked out and ruined everything. I thought I was getting better.”

“You are getting better,” Sam argued. “This is the first panic attack you’ve had in months. That’s a huge improvement.”

“But I thought they were gone,” Rori sobbed. “I was just starting to feel normal again but I’m never going to be like I was.”

“No, you’re not,” he agreed. “I know this isn’t what you want to hear, but PTSD isn’t something you just get over. It’s going to be with you for the rest of your life, but that doesn’t have to mean there’s anything wrong with you and I’m sure Harry didn’t think you ruined the trip.”

“Of course he didn’t, he’s Harry,” she said. “He’s always so supportive and just wants to help me through it. It’s not even really about last week,” she admitted. “It’s more about what it says about the rest of the year. The rest of my life. When Harry asked me to join his band, I was terrified that somehow, I would do something to ruin it all, like that somehow my prosthetic would malfunction, and I’d ruin a show. Now I’m wondering what will happen if I have a panic attack at a show? There are so many things that can go wrong, and he’s worked so hard for all of this. I’ll never forgive myself if I do anything to damage that.”

“What happens if Mitch slips over in the rain and breaks his hand and can’t play the guitar? What if Sarah gets the flu and has to sit out a few shows? What if something happens with Adams kids and he has to leave the tour?” Sam asked. “There are so many what ifs and things that can go wrong but did you notice how none of those things had anything to do with anyone’s disabilities? There are things in your life that are going to be more challenging for you than they would have been if you hadn’t been shot. You can’t let that stop you from living. I’m sure Harry and Jeff have all kinds of plans in place for what happens if one of you gets sick and can’t perform, so maybe you should talk to them about your concerns and you can have some plans in place and that will help with the anxiety of it all.”

“You know I really hate when you’re right Sam,” Aurora mumbled, the corners of her lips twitching.

“I know,” he smirked. “But one of these days you’ll learn to accept that I’m never wrong.”

Aurora stuck her tongue out at him before letting out a tired sigh. “I’m just so exhausted. Like, my brain just never stops stressing over these tiny little things and it’s so exhausting to constantly be worrying about everything. I mean Christ, I chipped my nail polish at lunch and it’s all I’ve been able to think about for the last few hours which is ridiculous because who cares if my nail polish is chipped, but I’m going to be on live tv in two days and what if they want a shot of my hands while I’m playing and it’s not like I have time to go get them redone now.”

“Why not just tell the camera operators not to set up that shot?” Sam asked, always the rational voice.

“Yeah,” Rori nodded. “Yeah, that makes sense.”

Having said his piece, Sam stood up after giving her shoulder a quick squeeze and then walked away, leaving her to think about what he’d said. She was still sitting on the floor beside the window deciding how to bring her anxieties to Harry without adding to his already full plate when Nat appeared beside her. “Heard you could do with a manicure,” she said.

She extended her hand, helping Aurora up off the floor and then led her to the elevator and down to her personal floor. Nat didn’t press Aurora to talk as they settled down in her living room and set about removing the chipped polish from the nails of her right hand. Rori was grateful for the silence, not sure that she had the energy to carry a conversation but also glad that she wasn’t alone. Where others in the tower felt that they needed to distract her from her anxiety, it was always Nat that provided what she needed without her ever having to ask. Her thoughts whirled in her head as Nat applied the new pale yellow polish to her nails in slow, methodical strokes, Sam’s advice echoing in Aurora’s ears.

“You seem stressed,” Nat finally said as she finished the topcoat on the last nail.

“Just nervous about the show on Saturday,” Rori replied softly. “Live TV doesn’t leave any room for error.”

“I’m sure you’ll all do great,” Nat promised with a warm smile. “Now lay back and I’ll do a face mask and help you relax. You’re way too tense for a 22 year old.”

Aurora did as she was told without argument, laying back and closing her eyes as Nat spread the cool clay over her face and then she started massaging her long fingers into Rori’s scalp. Once the mask was finished and Nat had cleaned it away with a warm cloth, she set about rubbing moisturizer onto Rori’s face, soothing the pinched muscles between the younger woman’s brow until she fell asleep under Nat’s hands.

When Harry arrived back at the tower a little over an hour later he found most of the team in the penthouse, however his wife was conspicuously absent from the group. He asked JARVIS if she was downstairs in either of the studios, his brow furrowing when the AI informed him that she was in Agent Romanoff’s private quarters and he headed for the elevator.

Nat was sitting on the other sofa across from where Rori was sleeping peacefully, a book in hand when JARVIS’ voice filled the room and she was thankful that she had asked the AI to lower its volume when Aurora had fallen asleep.

“Mr. Styles is requesting access to your floor Agent Romanoff,” JARVIS announced in a hushed whisper.

“Tell him to come in,” Nat replied in an equally soft tone.

A few moments later, the elevator doors opened at the end of the hall and Harry strolled into the room, his eyes immediately falling to his sleeping wife. “Hey,” he whispered to Nat. “Everything ok here?”

“She was getting a bit anxious about Saturday, so we had a bit of a spa day to help her calm down,” Nat explained.

Harry nodded and then headed over to the sofa, sitting on its edge next to Aurora’s hip and reached out to trace his hand along her cheekbone. “Rors?” he soothed. “Time to wake up love.” As she began to stir, Nat left the room allowing the couple to have some privacy.

“You’re home,” Rori mumbled, her voice thick with sleep and a soft smile lifting the corners of her lips. “Missed you today.”

“Heard you had a bad day,” Harry said, pulling her up and into a tight hug. “Sorry I wasn’t here.”

“S’ok,” she replied as she pressed her face into the crook of his neck. “Just got in my head a bit and spiralled.”

“Feeling better now?”

“Much,” she promised. “Always feel better when you’re here.”

“Mitch text me about 20 minutes ago that their flight landed so they’ll be here soon. Wanna come upstairs with me? Think Steve’s cooking a massive dinner.”

Aurora nodded her head and laced her fingers through Harry’s as the headed for the elevator doors.

xXx

Aurora tried to hold back her anxiety as she walked through the door with Harry, Jeff and the rest of the band Friday morning. She knew she was doing a poor job of it when Harry squeezed her hand tightly in an attempt to comfort her. She was angry at herself for her nervousness, knowing that she had performed on bigger stages in front of live audiences in the past, but she couldn’t seem to overcome the fear that she would make a mistake that would make Harry look bad. She could always deal with embarrassing herself, but the idea of screwing up everything that Harry had worked for was what truly made her terrified.

The set was a blur of activity and Harry led them down the halls towards the set where their equipment had been set up. Sarah headed straight to her drum kit and the boys picked up their guitars while Rori and Harry walked over to where the keyboards where a grand piano was waiting for her.

“You look like you’re going to be sick babe,” Harry said. He kept his voice low, whispering in his wife’s ear as she sat down on her bench seat, not wanting draw anyone’s attention to their conversation. “I know you’re going to nail this. Just gotta trust me.”

“I know,” she replied. “God anxiety is such a bitch.” Harry chuckled at her little outburst and then he kissed the top of her head before walking over towards the microphone stand.

They spent the rest of the day running through the two songs they would perform the following evening. They discussed the lighting and camera set ups, making sure that everyone in the band and the crew knew exactly where they would stand and which way the equipment would move during the live broadcast. Occasionally they would take breaks for Harry to go work on the sketches he would be appearing in or they would stop so that Aurora could remove her prosthetic for a while. In the year since she had started wearing the prosthetic hand, Tony and Peter had redesigned the original many times, constantly upgrading and improving it’s coding to make it easier for her to wear for longer periods of time. Despite these upgrades, she still found it hard to wear for too long and after about 4 hours of prolonged use she would start to get horrible tension headaches from the transmitting device she wore behind her left ear. It was for this reason that the majority of their soundchecks were happening on Friday so that Aurora wouldn’t be required to play before the show was ready to go to air. She was always uncomfortable whenever plans had to change in order to accommodate her disability, but Harry had assured her repeatedly over the course of the week that it was not a big deal and that they wouldn’t have been needed much on Saturday afternoon anyway, so it wasn’t even that much of a change to the schedule.

By the end of the day, Aurora was exhausted. They had taken plenty of breaks throughout the day, but she knew that she had definitely pushed herself, never wanting to be the one to call for a break and know she was paying for it. She had her prosthetic off and stuffed into her bag before they even reached the car that would take them all the few short blocks back to the tower. She sat in the back seat beside Harry and let her head fall against his shoulder, closing her eyes for the quick 10 minute drive.

“You alright love?” Harry asked quietly as they pulled up in the underground carpark of the tower.

She hummed in response, letting him lead her out of the car and into the waiting elevator. “Just tired,” she promised. “It was a long day.”

“It was,” Harry agreed, his arm wrapped tightly around her waist. “Went great though. Think tomorrow’s going to be amazing.”

Aurora wasn’t the only one who was tired and after such a long day of rehearsals, everyone in the band was happy to return to the tower, the inviting smells of dinner greeting them as they stepped out of the elevator to see the entire team crowded around the dining table, waiting for them. Aurora’s eyes lit up as she saw Peter at the table and immediately rushed over to him, pulling him out of his seat and into a hug, her exhaustion evaporated in the wake of seeing him again for the first time since they’d arrived back in town.

“God, where have you been all week?” she asked.

“Sorry been busy with school and patrols,” Peter replied. “I usually only have time to come over Friday nights and on the weekends.”

“Lucky we’re not leaving till Monday then,” Rori smiled. “Otherwise I wouldn’t get to spend any time with you at all. Now talk to me, how’s it feel to almost be finished with High School?”

Harry watched them with an amused smile as they sat next to each other, talking excitedly about Peter’s upcoming graduation and which colleges he had been accepted to. They barely stopped talking throughout the entire meal, completely oblivious to anyone else at the table. Harry hadn’t spent a great deal of time around Peter, given how much time he had spent on the road with One Direction or off filming Dunkirk while Aurora had still been living in the tower full time, but it didn’t really take a lot of time to understand why Tony, Steve and Rori had all rushed to absorb Peter into their little family. He was such a nice kid, always energetic and excited about anything going on everyone’s lives and he was joy to be around. He had so seamlessly fit into the family dynamic that everyone considered him a Stark in all bar name. Harry had once asked Rori about his place in the team, and she had smiled brightly, explaining how happy she was that while she and Steve had always had their art to bond over, she was relieved that Tony now had someone that could keep up with him in the lab and that he could teach Peter and watch him improve. She’d always wanted a little brother and now she had one in Peter. Tony and Steve had already experienced the emotional minefield of establishing parental roles without stepping on the memory of Rori’s mother, to it had been so easy for them to find a way to fill those same roles with Peter over the last few years without diminishing May’s place in his life or erasing the importance of Peter’s parents. The Avenger’s had always been a messy, happy, found family, and with the addition of Peter and May, and then with Mitch, Adam and Sarah, the family just seemed to keep expanding and Harry could see how much Aurora loved having each and everyone of them crowded into the penthouses dining room.

xXx

Saturday was a blur of activity and rushing around, and before Aurora realised someone was yelling that they were going live in 10 minutes. She was sitting out of the way with Sarah on one side of her and Adam on the other, waiting for their time to perform. Harry was off getting ready for the first sketch and they had a small tv hanging on the wall nearby so that they could watch the show while they waited. The first half of the show went off without a hitch and all four of them simply tried to keep out of everyone’s way until a technician came over to heard them towards the set. They were all situated behind their instruments by the time Harry joined them and he quickly ducked over to Rori for a good luck kiss before taking his place at the mic stand and waiting for the signal to start. One of Aurora’s knees was bouncing beneath the piano and there was a slight tremor in her right hand as she closed her eyes and took a few deep breathes on the darkened set. She tuned out the camera’s and the studio audience, her attention narrowing down to her instrument and Harry a few steps in front of her as she began the opening chords of the song. For a few brief seconds her piano was the only sound as the lights began to lift, and Harry’s voice rang out through the studio. As they hit the pre-chorus Rori and Sarah added their voices to the mix and then all of the other instruments joined as they entered the chorus. All of Aurora’s nerves disappeared as Harry belted out the lyrics of the chorus, and in the brief moment right before the second verse he turned, catching her eye and winking before returning to the microphone. In the final lines of the song, right in the middle of the most difficult notes, Aurora heard Harry’s voice falter and he missed a line. She tried to hide a grimace, knowing that he would be kicking himself for slipping at the end of the song. The moment the camera’s cut away she was at his side, arms wrapped tightly around his waist and he pecked her lips quickly. She attempted to comfort him before he was quickly whisked away to change into the costume for the next sketch.

By the time they returned to their little set for their second song Harry appeared to have shaken off the slip up and everyone, including Aurora, was buzzing with adrenaline and ready to go with their second performance. This time the grand piano was gone, and Aurora’s keyboard was positioned behind Harry’s spot at the centre of the stage. With all the sketches out of the way, Aurora watched happily as Harry allowed himself to enjoy the performance. As they finished the song and the audience cheered, Harry quickly pulled his guitar strap over his head and walked over to where Rori was seated behind the keys. He cupped her cheeks in his hands and kissed her softly. “That one was for you my love,” he whispered as their lips separated.

“So proud of you,” she whispered in reply. “You absolutely killed it tonight.”

NEXT CHAPTER

OR CONTINUE READING ON AO3

#skyfire fic #Husband Harry Styles #harry styles fanfiction #dad!tony #ptsd #domestic fluff #iron dad #step dad steve rogers #aurora stark #harry styles #tony stark #found family avengers

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issa-me-addy · 4 years

Text

Better Than Words (OC x Bucky Barnes)

Corner’s

PART ONE/?

A/N: HELLO welcome to my chaos. This takes place in an AU after Spiderman: Homecoming where the Avengers have reassembled and the following all live in the Avengers tower: Tony, Pepper, Steve, Bucky, Natasha, Wanda and Vision. Peter Parker’s identity is still intact and he spends his free time training at the Avengers tower under a “Stark internship”.

also here is my masterlist!

Word Count: 2261

Warnings: fluff, mild angst, and slow burn

New city. New apartment. New job. New life.

Maya was ready, though. After living in her parents house up until her mid 20s, she was beyond prepared to leave and get the change of scenery she’s been craving since middle school. And with everything she did, everybody could see how sure of this she was.

She did everything without hesitation. She said yes to the Midtown School of Science and Technology without even taking the time offered to think about it. She signed the lease to the first studio apartment she found in Manhattan and she started packing the moment she knew the job and the apartment were hers.

By the beginning of June, Maya had moved everything to New York and was pushing her parents out of her apartment. But of course they insisted on staying.

“Just one night! I can make you dinner and help you organize the kitchen. We’ll be out of your hair by the morning.” Her mom practically begged, as she was, quite frankly very anxious about the entire move.

And of course Dad agreed, “I could install your shelves and build your bed frame so you don’t sleep on a mattress on the floor tonight.”

But Maya needed this. She couldn’t wait another night to fully embrace the reality of her new life.

“No, it is fine! Really!” Maya was already grabbing her mom’s purse, and fishing her dad’s keys out of the pile of junk on the kitchen counter. “I want you guys on the road before it gets too dark. Just make sure you call me when you get back to Philly!”

And through bewildered arguments at the daughter’s new found independence, Maya continued to walk them towards the door. She managed to yell over them, and then physically pushed them out of the apartment, “I love you! Drive safe! Dad, make sure to use your turn signals!”

And like a coming of age film, she closed the door, fixed all the locks, and pressed her back against the door of her studio, her eyes scanning the first thing that was completely and utterly hers. She took a breath and felt excitement like no other started to fill her veins.

Maya spent the rest of the night fixing the bathroom and then the kitchen. By 3 in the morning she was freshly showered and sitting on the floor of her living room with her back pressed against the couch. She smiled at the cluttered space, a piece of pizza in her hand, and Shrek 2 spinning in the DVD player.

For the next two weeks Maya spent her days unpacking, arranging, decorating, reading, online shopping, rearranging, and singing at the top of her lungs.

Most afternoons she’d go downstairs to the Corner Cafe that was renting the apartment to her. Maya would sit and work on transfer paperwork, brainstorm potential classroom setups, and draft book lists for the Fall semester. Every now and then she’d make conversation with the barista, a high school student named MJ. Maya would ask about local bookstores, where to get the best Thai food, and eventually about Midtown. They both laughed when they realized they’d probably be spending the school year together. Needless to say, Maya and MJ got along really well.

The following Friday afternoon, the Cafe was a bit more crowded. But all the same, Maya sat at her corner table by the pick up counter. She had always gravitated towards this spot, but now it was mostly to chat with MJ when things got slow and to cheer her on during the rushes. And MJ definitely needed a lot of support this shift.

And then to Maya’s disbelief Natasha Romanoff walked in.

It was an interesting scenario considering everyone knew who the Avengers were now, but what was far more interesting to Maya was the way no one paid any mind to her presence. She figured it was true what they said about New York: everyone just minded their own business, really. In any case, Maya didn’t feel any strong emotions towards being in the presence of known vigilantes, but she couldn’t help but feel her muscles tense when Natasha stood at the side of her table.

A few moments passed and before Maya could properly comprehend what she was doing, she opened her mouth. “Would you like to sit?”

Natasha was taken aback but nodded appreciatively, smiled and pulled the chair opposite to Maya and sat down. “Thanks, stranger.” Natasha’s knees were facing the counter though, an elbow each on the back of her chair and another on the table they were now sharing.

A handful of moments passed again and Maya let out an exasperated groan after realizing that she, yet again, sent the wrong attachment to her new boss.

Natasha’s fingers were now rapping rhythmically, against the wooden table top and then she spoke up. “Rough day?”

Maya was a bit razzled, despite the fact that she was the one that opened up the possibility of a conversation just moments ago. “Uh, yes and no? It's just a new job. It's a bit overwhelming, you know?”

It was only after the words came out of her mouth that Maya realized she shouldn’t have said her job was overwhelming to a person who fought crime for a living. She bit her tongue and braced herself for a laugh but it didn’t come.

“You’ll get a hang of it.” It was at this moment that MJ called Natasha’s name out. She stood and pushed in her chair before grabbing the little white baggy off the counter. “Try one of the pastries. I promise it’ll make you feel a bit better; they’re the best in the whole city.”

Maya gave her a small smile and a nod, “I’ll do that! Have a good night.”

“You too, Stranger.” Natasha proceeded to pinch the little bag between her teeth, rummaging through her pockets and walking towards the exit

In the following weeks, the interactions only became more frequent. It was probably every other day that the two would see each other at Corners.

At first it was Hellos and Goodbyes but eventually Natasha would sit at the same table with Maya while waiting for her order to be ready, not that it ever took all that long. Before the end of the month, the two exchanged names and Maya was happy to find that Natasha actually preferred to be called Nat.

Shortly after the proper introductions Nat started to enjoy her pastry at the table with Maya before leaving.

Very quickly, Maya grew tired of the same courteous conversations and started talking about her new teaching job and Nat helped in large part with all of Maya’s online shopping decisions. Sometimes Maya was afraid of coming off as self centered but she was pretty wary of asking Nat about her life outside of the coffee shop. But, fortunately Nat was much more interested in classroom decor and keeping updated with Maya’s personal challenge of trying every possible drink MJ was willing to make.

By July, Nat started bringing the other Avengers by for coffee runs.

Maya immediately hit it off with Steve. After finding out that Maya was a literature teacher, Steve would talk about how reading was his favorite pastime pre-serum and that he’d love to visit the classroom one day. He even geeked about the latte art that MJ would do in the wide mouth mugs for Maya. She and Nat did not miss the opportunity to laugh about this when Steve excused himself to use the bathroom.

It was peculiar though. Nat would tease that Maya and Steve were a literal match made in heaven. She’d go on about their overlapping interests and how smoothly they got along from the beginning. Maya had to think about it, though. On one hand, Maya thought, who wouldn’t want to be of interest to Captain America himself?

But alas, Maya was the kind of girl who believed in the kind of love that you felt in your gut. And despite the blush on her cheeks when Nat talked about the two of them, Maya didn’t feel it in her gut.

Weeks had passed and Maya had grown accustomed to greeting Nat, Steve, Pepper, Sam & Wanda whenever they made their way into Corners. None of them really stopped to chat, except for Nat and Steve, but Maya thought it was still nice to share small smiles and waves with the rest of them.

In the back of her mind, Maya thought a lot about the rest of the Avengers. She was well aware of Tony Stark and heard things about Vision in passing, but Nat eventually clarified that Tony doesn’t get his own coffee and Vision still doesn’t entirely comprehend the act of food consumption.

Truly, Maya was most curious about Steve’s best friend, Bucky. Steve did talk about him in passing from time to time but Maya knew to not straightforwardly ask about him. She knew the bare minimum about The Winter Soldier from the Daily Bugle and the tabloids. And knowing that Steve was his best friend, Maya bit her tongue despite all the questions flooding her mind whenever his name came up.

It was the last week of July when Nat finally brought Bucky to Corners.

In Maya’s mind, aside from meeting Nat, Bucky’s introduction was the most memorable. When she thought long and hard about it, it was mostly because of the fact that Bucky’s first impression was distinctly different from the rest of them-- less chirpy, you could say.

When the two of them walked in, Nat basically made a beeline for Maya’s little table and greeted her right away.

“Hey, Nat! Pastry or coffee today?” Maya hummed, barely looking up from her laptop. She was intensely focused on finishing a thought about her lesson plan before properly opening herself up to conversation.

Nat sat to the right of Maya, her back facing the counter. Then, Nat gestured for Bucky to sit in her usual spot, across from Maya.

“Pastries! I caught ol’ Bucky here snagging some of my extras in the middle of the night, so I decided to let him in on the secret.”

Maya nodded before properly looking up, “Sounds like quite the racoon to me,” a small smile forming on her face. Then she lifted her eyes from her computer screen and there he was. Maya’s stomach turned in the most peculiar way.

Bucky had on a hoodie and his hair was tied up in a low ponytail. The hood wasn’t up on his head but instead fluffed up enough to come up around the bottom of his ears and his hands were in his pocket, resting in his lap underneath the table. He seemed hesitant to hold any eye contact with her, which Maya didn’t take offense to, but he did manage to look at her for a moment.

He gave the smallest acknowledging grin before saying, “Hello, I’m James.”

Nat was preoccupied during this small moment, busy trying to wave down MJ who was in the middle of pulling a shot of espresso. “MJ! Just the pastries today, but make it a double order, please!”

Nat turned back to Maya before she could properly introduce herself to Bucky.

“Yeah, he caught me with a jam filled one last week and has been snatching them ever since.”

Maya smiled at this. “So what? The jig is up? Everyone in the tower knows that tough Natasha Romanoff is obsessed with flakey pastries?” She loved to tease Nat, but some of her joy was being overcome by the tension she was creating in her own mind about even looking at Bucky.

Hearing him chuckle at her remark did help her muscles ease up though.

“Ha. Ha,” Nat dully retorted. “The only reason I decided to share my secret with him is because he won’t tell a soul. It’d be much easier for me to gain my dignity back if I got caught, but he would lose most of, if not all of his tough guy credentials.”

Maya giggled in response before looking straight into Bucky’s eyes and reassuring him, “Don’t worry. Even if you get caught I think Corner’s pastries are well worth losing your street cred.”

Bucky chuckled and brought his flesh hand up to rub his index finger underneath his nose. “I think you’re right, doll. I’d risk it all for another raspberry one.”

Maya felt a wave of mixed emotions following Bucky’s response. She felt her skin grow hot after processing the outdated nickname and only hoped that her complexion wasn’t visibly compromised. All the while though, she was glad to have been able to have any kind of conversation with him.

Fortunately for Maya, she didn’t have to withstand that burning feeling for much longer because MJ called out Nat’s name and she was quick as a cat to grab the little white bags off the counter.

Nat patted her hand on Maya’s shoulder, not even bothering to sit back down. She looked at Bucky and nodded her head towards the door. “Alright, Maya! We’re out. I’ll see you next time.”

“Yeah, get back safe,” Maya responded, her hand reached up and patted Nat’s knuckles as Bucky pushed in his chair. “It was nice to meet you, James.”

“You too, Maya,” and with that, Bucky gave a small wave and pulled his hood up as he and Nat made their way out the door and down the street.

Maya watched until they were out of sight.

—

TAGS: @asuperconfusedgirl

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ablogcalledrevenge · 4 years

Text

Never Really Over

(a Gabriel O’Malley x Reader Insert Multichapter Fic, Rated M)

Chapter Two

You love weddings, love everything about them. You love watching families come together and celebrate the joy of a new union. You love the dancing and the food and dressing up. You love the extravagance of it all. And the Italians knew how to throw an extravagant wedding. Even if it usually ended up looking more ungapatchka than classy.

You’d asked Simone to do something new with your hair for the wedding and the breeze through the shorter tresses felt amazing. You’d still teased and feathered it out but you felt a little better, with your cool style and pretty new dress. You didn’t want anything too crazy, no matter how many times Simone begged to give you bangs. Maybe once the 80s rolled around, you’d take her up on her offer.

The purple maxi dress is light and airy as you walk among the guests at the reception, saying hello to the dozens of family and friends. It had been a while since such a big wedding happened and when your cousin marries the daughter of the Don, it’s gonna be a big affair. Everyone who’s anyone was already here and hoping to be seen. Everyone wanted to give the best gift, make the best impression to the new couple. Speaking of…

“Lisa, oh my god! You look so stunning, you look like a dream.” You say to the bride, kissing her on both cheeks. The veil and long train she sported during the ceremony were gone and she had the telltale flush of happy inebriation. You’d known Lisa since you were both kids, playing together in her father’s backyard and walking around in her mother’s heels. She was known as Little Lisa back then and it makes your throat tight with happiness to see her not so little.

“Thanks (Y/N). I’m just happy to be here, I felt like that ceremony would never end.” She says, both of you laughing in your joy. Your cousin Benji is talking to his groomsmen and when he glances over at you two, his eyes grow impossibly fond. Fuck, what you would give for someone to look at you like that.

“By the way, I heard Gabe’s back. How’s that going?” Lisa asks, raising her dark eyebrow. You scowl and roll your eyes. You haven’t seen him in a week and you’d be happy if that continued.

“Nowhere, that’s where it’s fucking going.” You shoot back, taking a glass of champagne from a passing waiter. Then Lisa looks over your shoulder and her face turns mischievous. You follow her gaze and groan in realization.

“Really? ‘Cause it looks like he’s here to see you. Seems like it might be going somewhere.” She teases while you down your drink. Handing the glass to her, you square your shoulders and walk towards him.

He’s leaning casually against a tree, smoking a cigarette and looking like a goddamn model. You desperately want to stomp on his foot.

“What the hell are you doing here? You weren’t invited!” You question, feeling more tired than anything else. Gabe opens his mouth, probably to make a smart remark, and then wisely changes tactics.

“I came with Tony. I wanted to see you. I also needed to see the Godfather and I knew he’d be here.” He says quietly, his eyes squinting in the sun.

“Yeah well, you’ve seen me, so scram. I don’t know why you think you can just…” You trail off, his words and their implications sinking into your brain. You stare at him in disbelief.

“Are you fucking mental? You’re gonna ask the Don for a favor? You can’t do that! You can’t give him that power over you.” You whisper angrily. Only desperate men asked the Don for a favor, it was a dangerous thing to do. Sure you got a favor, but so did he. And you couldn’t question it when it came. Gabriel knew this, he saw what happened when favors were called in.

“Nah, it’s just something I have to do. You were right. I can’t get any fucking work out here unless I get in good with the family and this is the way to do it. Trust me, it’s worth it.” He says, pushing off the tree and reaching over to touch your cheek briefly. There’s an air of sadness to the gesture and you swallow down your emotions.

You watch him walk away with Tony and the sudden wave of fear that settles under your skin only slightly overpowers the rush of desire you feel watching him strut across the lawn.

You walk back to the party in search of another drink. You need it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It’s cool inside the house, family streaming in and out. Gabriel was proud that his hands weren’t sweaty, that they didn’t shake, as he ascended the stairs to the Don’s office. It also helped that Tony was right behind him, providing quiet support like he always did. As simple as this was, it was good to be working together again.

Back before he left, Gabe and Tony were the guys you called when you wanted to take care of things. If someone wasn’t paying, you sent them to get the money and leave a message. If someone was causing trouble, you sent them to make sure they stopped. They made an interesting pair, he had been told. Tony was shorter than him by a few inches but he was thick and broad. He’d been a linebacker in high school and it showed. He could take a beating like no one else and on occasion, his punch could knock a guy’s lights out in one go. But most people would’ve preferred that to having to deal with Gabe.

Gabe may not have been much to contend with physically, other than his height, but he was quick and he was ruthless. The war had changed something in him and it left him detached when it came to violence. He could gut a guy 10 ways to Sunday without batting an eye and if anyone tried to interfere, he’d shoot them too. Most people would rather meet Tony in a dark alley than Gabe. He did his job and it did it well; hopefully that would be enough to help him now.

He enters the dark and smoky office, Tony staying outside. Everyone knew he was coming but he still needed to make a good impression. This was his one chance.

“Hello Godfather, it’s good to see you. You’re looking well.” Gabe says, shaking the older man’s hand. He hasn’t changed at all, still heavyset with salt and pepper hair cut short and slicked back. Same simple but well made suit, nothing fancy but the rings on his fingers. But before Gabe sits down in the offered chair, he turns to the consigliere. If anything, he’s more worried about Jacob Levine than anyone else in the room.

“Hello Zayde, it’s good to see you too. You haven’t changed a bit.” He says, shaking the old man’s hand. He doesn’t get anything back from either men and he sits in the chair. Someone hands him a small glass of cordial.

There is silence for a moment as the men settle and the Don fixes his eyes on Gabe.

“Gabriel O’Malley, I must say it’s a surprise to see you here. It’s been awhile since you left us for New York. And, from what we hear, you didn’t return to us of your own volition. I don’t know whether to call you brave or stupid for coming back here after what you did.” He says, his deep voice steady and clear.

“You know, you got a lot of fucking nerve coming back here after the shit you pulled! You didn’t see the way-” Zayde starts, pointing an angry finger in Gabe’s direction. The Godfather holds up a hand and he shuts up, glaring daggers at Gabe.

“I’m sure Gabriel is aware of the risk he took in coming back. But now that he is here, I’d like to know what he wants.” The Don continues, sitting back in his chair. Gabe takes a fortifying breath.

“I came here to ask for a job. I know it’s been a while and I know everyone is mad at me, but I have nothing. I have two suitcases and a gun and not much else. I need to get back on my feet. I always did good work for you, I was quick and clean wasn’t I? I could do that again. I’ll start at the bottom if you want me too, taking the rough jobs and teaching the newbies. I’m asking for a job and I’m asking for protection.” Gabe says, keeping his emotions in check while the Don listens, stone faced.

“That’s quite a request Gabriel. You’re not wrong, you did good work for me. I remember things like that. But you also left us with no warning or preparation. We let you into our operation Gabriel, and you broke our hearts when you left. Then we hear about New York and Gabriel; that wasn’t a good look for you. Now I consider myself a progressive man, I believe women can do anything they want to. God knows most of them are smarter than us. But women don’t belong in this world Gabriel, you know that. It’s messy and dark and dangerous, I don’t like the women getting involved. So when I hear you’re helping a bunch of women take control of their business, well I have to tell you, I don’t really like that.” The Don lectures with a sigh.

“But, from what I hear, maybe the women should’ve been in charge this whole time. Having you there to protect them was smart and I can respect a man who protects women. But Gabriel, you let them take the Hasidim from the Italians; you let one of them die on the steps outside his store, payis covered in blood. You know we don’t like that, we’re all a family here. So before we continue, I need the truth Gabriel. Did you kill that man?” Don Rossi asks, gaze turning fierce and getting up from his desk.

Gabriel shakes his head. “No Godfather, I would never.” It’s technically the truth and no one would be saying otherwise. Zayde seemed to relax a little from his spot on a couch.

“So,” The Don continues, looking out his office window at his daughter’s wedding, “why should I let you back in?”

“I left for New York because they were in trouble and they were my flesh and blood. I had to go and help them. You taught me how important family was and it seemed like the right thing to do. I know I disrespected everyone with the way I left but I had to rush to Midtown to help Cathy and the girls. But while I was there, I noticed some things and I remembered some things. When I left New York the first time, it was because I ran into some trouble with the cops. I got in trouble with the cops because the guys out there didn’t protect me. They treated me like a machine. They treated me like I was expendable, which maybe I was, but it’s not a good way to feel about yourself. Instead of helping me after the war, they kept me in that mindset. I was mindlessly killing and going insane. I was going insane Godfather. Then I came out here and I was terrified. You would’ve had every right to ignore me or kill me just for being Irish, but instead you took me in. You gave me a place to stay and good food in my belly. You taught me what family really meant. I knew I was safe with you. I felt like I was an important part of the business, like I was needed.” Gabe says, drinking his sweet cordial with a soft smile.

“I guess I could’ve gone anywhere after Cathy kicked me out. I could’ve gone upstate or to Boston. I could’ve gone to Iowa and become a peanut farmer. But I didn’t feel safe; I was afraid. I needed my family again. I know I’m going to have to work really hard to prove to you that I’m here to stay, but I’ll do whatever you need me to. I was stupid for leaving the way I did, I was stupid for leaving at all. I thought I was doing the right thing. Maybe I was, maybe I wasn’t. But all I know is that the whole time I was out there, I wanted to come home. Home to this family and this place.” Gabe finishes, praying to God he doesn’t start crying.

The Don nods his head in understanding, tapping his chin with a finger. He glances over at Zayde who gets up from the couch and approaches Gabriel.

“What about (Y/N)?” The consigliere asks, lips going tight.

“That’s the other reason. I know I messed things up with her and I want to apologize. I want to make things right. Even if she never wants to have anything to do with me again, I want to at least show her how sorry I am. She never deserved a lousy guy like me but I figured that the least I could do was try to make things better. I know I hurt her badly Zayde, and I regret everything I did to make her feel that way.” Gabe offers focusing on the man in front of him, your grandfather. The Don leaves the window and comes around his desk.

“You’re a good boy Gabriel, I always thought that. So I’m going to give you a job. There’s this Hollywood bigshot who’s causing trouble with the unions, I’ll send you to deal with him. Zayde will give you the details.” The Don says, extending his hand.

Gabriel kisses the gold ring with gratitude and respect, the older man’s hand turning in his grip to rest on his cheek.

“Thank you Godfather, I won’t let you down. Whatever you need, I’ll do it. I won’t disappoint you again.” Gabe says, full of relief and something approaching joy. The Don smiles down at him.

“I know you won’t Gabriel, I’m glad you’re back. We all are.” He says, slapping Gabe’s face once before pulling him up off the chair.

Laughing wetly, Gabe nods and pulls out an envelope of cash and offers it to Don Rossi.

“Here, for your daughter. It’s a beautiful wedding, and I wish them every happiness.”

The Don gives a rueful grin and takes the envelope, shooing Gabe out of the room. Before he crosses the threshold, he hears his name from the older man.

“Just promise me that you’ll work things out with (Y/N). She’s a nice girl Gabriel, make things right.” Is what he says, but the warning is implicitly clear. Zayde’s raised eyebrow guarantees it.

“If she’ll have me Godfather, I’ll spend the rest of my life making her feel like a queen.” Gabe shoots back with a grin.

“Get outta here you beanstalk, go get some food and dance.” The Don chides, waving an affectionate hand in Gabe’s direction and kicking him out for good. The door closes and he lets out a huge breath, the tension leaving him.

He needs a drink and he needs a dance, preferably with you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You’ve been pacing the small stone patio that led into the house the whole time Gabe and Tony were up there. To be honest it wasn’t even the Godfather’s reaction that you were most worried about, it was your grandpa’s. When they finally come back outside, you attempt to screw your face into something calmer but your bitten lip and clasped hands probably reveal your worry. Gabe sees you and breaks out into a big grin.

Letting out a whoop of happiness, you rush into his arms and he spins you around in glee.

“I’m back baby, they took me back!” He cheers, taking your face in his hands and kissing your forehead. You laugh and hug him tightly before remembering everything and pushing him away with a scoff. Tony smirks as he walks past you towards the party.

There’s a brief moment where you and Gabe just stare at each other in the bright sunshine. It seems like all you do nowadays is look at each other. A lot of the stress he seemed to be carrying was gone and he looked relaxed; that was good. The sun makes his hair shine like copper and his suit fits beautifully on his lean frame. It’s a great suit, dark blue linen with a light blue tie and-

“Is that the suit I bought you?” You ask, stepping closer to him to inspect the suit. You run your fingers down the lapel and across his shoulders. Gabriel flushes and looks at your hands.

“Yeah it is. Best suit I’ve ever worn, fits like nothing else. But you’ve always had a good eye for that sort of thing. I was afraid it wouldn’t fit but it looks good, right? First time I’ve ever worn it.” He says incredulously. You look up at him, which is a mistake. Those green-blue eyes arrest you and you forget how to breathe for a moment.

“You didn’t wear it in…?” You ask, refusing to finish the sentence. He shakes his head.

“Nah, didn’t feel right too. The first time you wear a suit shouldn’t be to a funeral and I wanted to save it for something special. You got it for me, it deserved a grand reveal. Now come on, let’s dance.” He says quietly, pulling you towards the large open dance floor. Elvis Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling in Love” is being sung by the Italian bandleader and you give Gabriel a withering look. But you still join him because you’re weak.

Gabe’s hand settles on your lower back as you sway with all the other couples. You forgot how nice it was to dance with someone. You haven’t danced in a long time. His cheek rests against your forehead and you hear him hum along to the words.

“You look beautiful (Y/N), that’s a great dress. You always look so good, you know that? Fuck I’m glad I’m back.” He mumbles into your skin, breath warm and smelling like the sweet cordial the Don liked. You step closer to him and close your eyes, letting yourself be a little pathetic.

“I guess, I guess I’m glad you’re back too. I’m glad they gave you a job. But don’t think just because we’re dancing, that everything’s fine. You’re a pain in my ass and I still hate your stupid face. But I’m glad you’re back. I missed you Gabe.” You whisper into his neck and his arm wraps tighter around you. The song has changed, it’s something faster and lighter but neither of you stop dancing.

You just stay in your corner enjoying the sunshine, the good music, and each other.

Chapter Three Coming Soon...

Tagging: @babbushka, @theold-ultraviolence, @stylelovechild, @niniita-ah

Please let me know if you’d like to be tagged in future chapters.

#gabriel o'malley x reader #gabriel o'malley #gabriel o'malley imagines #the kitchen movie #self insert fanfiction #reader insert fanfiction #fanfiction #my writing #never really over

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honeydewday · 5 years

Text

2 Weeks ( Prologue )

Summary: the beginning of summertime means the livings easy

Pairing: Peter Parker! x Stark!Reader

A/N: I’m gonna look on the positive side and hope this turns out really good. I just wanna say a quick thank you if you read and plan to continue reading :) Also! In future chapters I’ll be mixing up the mcu timeline for the story to fit in. Enjoy!! :)

Warnings: just yelling

---

“You got your phone? Remember if you don’t like it you can call Happy and he’ll pick you up right away”

You were being bombarded with questions when Tony woke you up, while he attempted to make breakfast, during the elevator ride, and now the lobby.

“Tony! It's just the orientation! I’ll be fine!” you exclaimed stopping in front of him

He shook his head and let out a sigh “They already know your situation. They won’t use Stark they’ll use your actual stupid last name”

You smiled and nodded then followed Happy to the car. Today is the day for Midtown Tech School orientation for the freshmen. Honestly, this wasn’t the school of your choice but, you made a deal with your old man saying that if you finished developing new tech for his suit he would let you go to public school. There were way too many long sleepless nights just to figure out the basics but finally, you learned everything there was to learn about his suit, thanks to FRIDAY, and updated his suit three times.

He looked at you with a little sadness in his eyes and smiled “Get outta here, I’ll see you later” and with that, he turned around leaving you to rush out the building and into the car.

Eventually, you pulled up in front of the building, watching kids get out of their parent’s car and walking with their friends in the building. Your breath hitched as you grabbed the handle to the car door and opened it. You could hear Happy say what's already been said but at this point, it was just static in the background. You shut the door behind you and rushed inside. Nothing really started until you got there right? Well, it seemed like orientation was already in progress. Groups of teens had started to follow their teacher for the tour, friends were talking to each other as if they just hadn’t seen them a few weeks ago. You felt uncomfortable, you knew you didn’t belong there but it’s what you wanted. Plus, you had to prove Tony wrong because he knows at the end of the day you won’t like Midtown.

You found your assigned group for the tour but seeing how boring each stop would start to get you wandered off. You toured some of the interesting looking classrooms, the gym, cafeteria. You were started to grow tired of the same colored walls, the same classrooms, and every motivational poster that was plastered everywhere.

“Uh h-hi? Are you lost?” a brunette nerdy looking boy questioned

You panicked looking back down the hallway you just walked from then back to him nodding.

He just gave you a nervous look with the urge to say something, anything that could kill the awkwardness.

What the hell

“My name’s Y/N,” you stuck your hand out “I’m new, d-do you mind showing me around?”

He looked at your hand but took it and oh boy, once he took it, you could feel your heart beating a million miles a minute. Not only that but you knew something was going to happen to this boy. Something he couldn’t come back from.

“P-Peter Parker” he smiled as his cheeks turned a light shade of pink.

You had spent the rest of the orientation with each other. The two of you practically talked each other’s ears off, well more like he talked your ear off but you were happy listening to the pretty boy rant. However, all good things must come to an end.

“So where’s your car?” he asked as the two of you walked out the door.

You did notice your car but you also noticed Happy thus leading your new friendship going downhill from there.

Before peter could anything a car pulled up honking “Peter! Come on!” A pretty woman shouted from the window “Is that a girl? Oh my god! You met a girl!” She continued. Peter’s looked down and back at the woman “I-I- that’s my aunt, um, I better go” he says flustered. “Wait! M-maybe we could hang out during the summer or-or you could show me around” you asked nervously.

—-

To say the least, freshmen year was a breeze.

The food wasn’t all that great, the teachers seemed decent, but having Peter and meeting Ned and MJ made the year unbelievably fun for you.

You were in your final class of the day when you heard the bells of freedom. You gathered your things and waited for Peter outside the room. He jogged up to you finally able to leave this place.

“So....what’re you up to this summer?” He asked as the two of you continued walking

You thought about it for a moment, “Probably nothing, my parents are super busy do to anything anyways. What about you?” You asked bumping his shoulder

He smiled nervously at the gesture and put his hands in his pocket “s-same”

You two walked and made small talk till you reached the parking lot. He looked around for his aunt while you looked around for your dad. You were surprised when you left for school that morning especially when Happy told you that Tony would pick you up.

You spotted the Audi and immediately went into a panic mode. How were you suppose to just tell peter bye and then get into a sports car? Granted, your parents and your house where very mysterious to your little group. You always told them you wouldn’t be able to have a game night at your house or asking for a ride from either Ned or Peter but at a random apartment that was only a few blocks away from the Tower.

You cleared your throat “Well, I see my dad. Maybe we can hang out really s-“ you started but Peter suddenly turned towards you with a nervous look

“I-I really-“ he gulped, then mentally slapped himself and repeated what he’s been saying for six months

“You’ve been meaning to tell her since December so tell her!!”

“I really want to hang out with you too” he awkwardly laughed “my aunt’s here, I’ll see you soon,” he said then quickly made his way to the car

You stood there in confusion until Tony started honking. You sighed and shook your head as you sped to your car.

—-

Peter opened the car door quickly, threw his backpack in the back and shut the door in frustration.

“Ouch,” Ned said from the back shoving Peter’s backpack to the side

“So I’m guessing it didn’t go well?” May asked looking at her poor nephew

“I-I chickened out,” he said softly

“Dude, you’ve been trying to tell her since December! Did you see how disappointed she looked when she got into her car?!” Ned exclaimed “I don’t know if you’re too sad to notice but she just got into a really sick car”

“She was waiting for it, Pete. You gotta shoot your shot.” May said finally taking off

“I know! It’s just, I- it’s her first year and I didn’t want anybody to think she was stuck up or-or I was keeping her from making new friends” Peter explained “besides, who wants a nerd like me”

“Peter, we’re not nerds. We’re just highly knowledgeable of mainstream topics” Ned smiled proudly

“Yeah, highly knowledgeable of legos at 15” Peter mumbled

—-

“So, sweet child of mine, can you describe your first year of school?” Your father asked looking over as you settle in your seat

“It was...interesting,” you say buckling up

He nodded, shifted gears, and peeled out of the parking lot. You were still a bit sad that Peter didn’t ask you anything else. Maybe you were just overthinking it? Maybe you should tell him how you feel? Now you had to deal with your feelings all summer. Alone. Since, your father obviously being Tony Stark, who knew when you would see him. He would either be in his lab or with Pepper. Now your mom, she absolutely tried to make time for you. You girls would at least have a girls' days once a week but after she became CEO it turned into once a month if you were lucky.

“Let’s grab a bite to eat?” Tony asked looking over at you but noticed you were deep in thought.

“We’re moving to South America.”

“What?!” You shouted looking at his smug face

“Gotcha kid” he smiled “what’s on your mind? Is it that boy, uh, Patrick? Paul? The one you were talking to before you left?

“You mean Peter?”

He nodded “your mother said you talked quite a bit about him during your latest shopping trip”

“He’s a really good friend...I guess” you shrugged

Tony’s eyebrow raised “listen here missy, no dating. We already had this agreement with the school-“

“B-but I’m worried about him” you cut him off

Tony looked over at you concern “Why? Does he do drugs? Sell them? Make-“

“I...I had one of my dreams about him and I know it sounds crazy but hear me out!” You pleaded

“Y/N. We’ve talked about this” Tony said in annoyance

“I know! But somethings going to happen to him and-and he’s gonna be different! Not like going through...puberty different” you whispered the last part

“Enough.” Tony demanded, “I don’t know what you kids watch or read nowadays but you better stop because now you’re dreaming about it!”

“Dad! It’s-it’s real!! Remember when you guys first got me, w-we had that huge fight about a dream I had describing your kidnapping” you explained started to become frustrated with him “then when you started creating Ultron!”

Tony continued to drive through traffic in silence.

“You never believe me when it happens and you don’t believe me when it does.” you huffed

“Enough,” Tony said “I don’t know what’s what kind of trend you’re following but it stops now. It’s suppose to be summer and I’m trying to take an easy. Hand over the phone.” Tony said extending his small arm right in front of you making a little grabby motion.

You groaned and slammed the phone into his hand.

After a few moments of silence,

“Shawarma for dinner?”

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