"Peps, are you okay?" Rhodey asks when he sees Pepper clutching a tissue tightly in her hand. She is sitting on the curb and it is simply disconcerting to see her like that.
She shakes her head and wipes away her tears. "I'm fine," she says between hiccups. She has a bottle of whiskey next to her. Rhodes couldn't be more confused.
"No, you're not okay, you're crying" Rhodey argues and sits next to the woman.
"I'm not crying," she says while effectively drying her face, "they're not tears, my feelings are thawing."
"Uh-huh. Sure. So what caused this? I had a shitty day so I'd like to take this anger out on someone's face. Tell me who I have to hit."
Pepper lets out a watery laugh and Rhodey grimaces. He hasn't seen her like that since... actually Rhodey never saw Pepper like that.
"Did you have a bad day, Rhods? Let me tell you how my day was" she says with a broken smile. "Today I saw the l-love of my life kissing the love of h-his life," she whispers.
Rhodes closes his eyes and lets out a sigh. Of course. How did he not think of that? Of course Pepper would be devastated. Especially after the divorce scandal and all the harassment from the press.
"If I said I wanted him to be happy I'd be lying" Pepper says again. She uncaps the bottle of whiskey and takes a big sip. "I still love him but- I'm s-so envious of the kid."
She passes him the bottle and Rhodes accepts it. He takes a sip while he thinks about how he has to dislike the video of Tony and Peter kissing on Instagram. Fuck.
(I was listening to sad Mexican country music, yup)
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StarkerFestival 2023 : Summer Bingo
Consensual Infidelity
After discussing it for almost a month, Tony and Pepper finally decided to be more opened in their relationship.
Tony caught feelings for another man. But his feelings for Pepper are still very much there. He’s still in love with his wife, but there’s this boy… Who makes Tony loses his mind over him.
Seeing his husband mopping about it, Pepper came to the conclusion that they could both see other people. If that would make Tony happier, Pepper wants to try.
It’s how Tony started “cheating” with Peter. And oh god, that boy is a perfect creature of this world. He never saw someone with a face as pretty, with a skin as soft as Peter.
It feels like falling in love when you’re 16.
Yeah, Tony is definitely happier this way.
for @starkerfestivals 💖
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peter and tony are broken up and everyone knows it. nick fury knew it when he made peter accept this mission, his teammates knew it when they piled into the jet, and tony knew it when he sat down as far from peter as possible
peter is awkward on a good day but he's not sure he can handle being side-eyed by the most powerful people in the world. black widow's round kick has nothing on her disapproving look, but peter does his best not to pay attention.
he wasn't even the one to break up with tony. it was mutual, after months of barely finding time for each other. peter had tried, but with college and...who is he kidding? if tony wanted to make it work, he would have.
with that in mind, peter tries not to stare at tony through the reflection in the glass and tony tries flirt with the flight attendant and only one of them is successful.
the mission goes fine. peter almost expected to be useless, but considering about 75% of the fight happening on scaffolding, he was much more active than expected.
peter doesn't think about getting thrown off by a ninja (which, like okay, that's pretty cool) and being caught by tony. he would have caught himself just fine, but he hadn't even hit free fall before his nearly brained himself on tony's chest plate. and then tony did the extremely predictable thing and told him to pay more attention and didn't flip his face plate up but peter knew it was a little derisive but he still really wanted to see tony's face, just a little.
he wasn't handling the break up well.
afterwards peter is sitting on the ambulance passing out shock blankets to hostages and tony shoots a syringe of pain medication into peter's forearm before peter realizes its happening
"you threw your shoulder out," tony says.
"you shouldn't be stabbing people when you're not a doctor," peter replies dully, even though he's pretty sure he tore his trap. tony opens his mouth and peters cuts him off because it's familiar. "not THAT kind of doctor."
tony wipes off the bead of blood on peter's arm from the needle. its a little useless, since the suit is torn and his skin is greasy with sweat and blood. "take better care of yourself, then."
peter scoffs, because tony is even worse than peter is. when he asks karen, friday snitches on the limp tony is hiding with the armor -- old knee injury. peter knew about it because there was a time when he knew everything about tony.
he could count the moles on tony's thigh and trace the shape of tony's scars and now its been four months since tony really looked him in the eye. its been longer than that since they talked about something that meant anything.
its another week before peter gathers the nerve to take the suit to tony for repairs.
he wonders if tony is still limping, or if someone held tony down and took him to medbay. tony had stayed in the area by himself after the mission to schmooze, and peter had flown back with a pleasantly numb arm and the avengers trying to figure out if peter did something wrong.
it doesn't matter when peter says nothing happened, or reminds them that the breakout was both mutual and none of their business. bruce is the only one mature enough to tell peter that tony is miserable, so clearly it wasn't really mutual at all.
well, it's great that he's miserable. they were miserable together too, because peter always thought tony missed the thread of women in and out his door and tony proved him right by putting out the queue line as soon as he was single
"don't trust all those articles," pepper told him, near the end.
peter thought it was mean, so he didn't say it out loud, but he wasn't sure he could trust tony either, since tony wouldn't talk to him.
it was childish. in the moment, peter and tony both knew peter was being childish. four months later, peter knows he was being childish -- it's also childish of him to hesitate outside the door of the lab, psyching himself up like he's about to go to war.
it's just tony. peter tells himself that for two days before he shows up at the tower, and he's telling himself that now, even though tony has never been Just Tony and peter is childish and he misses him and peter didn't want to break up but he's scared and he's lonely.
friday opens the door before peter knocks. tony looks up in alarm, double-take, and then cooly goes back to sewing up the kevlar on widow's uniform. "long time no see, kid."
its not warm, but it warms peter. he's awkward, quiet, and smooths the suit out flat on the worktable that was his until it wasn't. there's still web fluid stuck on the corner. tony left his photos up on the wall.
peter watches tony finish widow's suit, and the wordlessly passes the spider suit over and watches tony run his fingers over the torn fibers. "next time it will be better," tony tells them both. "next time it won't tear."
after two hours, peter brings tony a sandwich, pats dum-e on the head, and says, "i think i'm still in love with you," and it's quiet except for the sizzle of the solder gun.
and tony just puts his tools down and looks at peter and his eyes are a little wet and his jaw is clenched. "don't do this, pete." and a few years ago maybe peter wouldn't have but this is important enough that he doesn't care what tony has to say about it.
"i just...wanted you to tell me i was crazy," peter admits. "i thought...it wasn't about the--the girls. i know that...i know that you wouldn't. didn't." the clock ticks. tony doesn't say anything, and peter clears his throat. "i just...missed you. i was angry. i don't know."
"i'm an old man," tony tells him. "i'm not interested in playing around anymore. i'm not going to be alive long enough to play around--don't tell me i'm wrong." he's not even looking at peter, but they know each other backwards and forwards, and he knows peter will tell him off.
"i'd bring you back," peter says quietly. he's never thought about it until now, but he would. he knows that he would. "even if you hated me. if you never forgive more or...well. i would bring you back."
"i don't know if that's what i'd want." tony picks up the gun again and returns to working on the circuitry, lovingly crafted to protect the love of his life, even if the thought makes him choke. "i'm just saying, kid, that this is it for me."
"you have a funny way of showing it." peter won't pretend he's not bitter. tony ignored his calls and cancelled plans and then swept peter up in his arms and kissed him and then disappeared again, like a ghost. like a man on the run.
"you're it for me," tony says again, eyes on his work, "and that terrifies me."
peter is still sitting on his stool and his workbench, hands folded in his lap like he's getting scolded. but he can't stop himself from scowling. "why? we want the same things, so why is it...why are you terrified?"
"i can't be the guy on your posters, pete." the circuit sparks and tony tosses the soldering gun away with a huff. dum-e whirrs over to pick it up and tony runs a hand through his hair, frustrated. "you're so young. i can't predict what you're going to want in ten, twenty years."
"i don't need you to." peter consciously relaxes his hands, smoothing them over the rough denim of his jeans. sweaty. nervous. pointed. "i just need you to be here."
tony curses, and then his stool is kicked over and he's rounding his workbench and he's pulling on peter's clothes and he's burying his face in peter's neck and breathing so deep, like he's been drowning and now he's on the shore.
peter is apologizing and tony is telling him not to, and tony might be crying or maybe the collar of peter's shirt is just mysteriously damp, but when peter pulls back and kisses tony's cheek and his nose and his forehead it's good. it's so good.
"it's been so horrible," tony groans, and then cups peter's face and kisses his mouth, sweet. it's just as good. "it's been the worst four months since i was dying that one time."
and peter punches tony lightly on the side and then sighs into the kiss like he's been longing to.
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When Tony and Peter are lying in bed together, during the day or during the night, Peter talks. He rambles. He doesn’t shut up. Usually he’s in his own little world talking about the most random stuff that come to his mind. The first time he notices Tony sleeping during his ramblings, he feels a little bit annoyed. How long had Tony been asleep for? Was he even listening or did he even care about what Peter was saying?
Then it happens again another time. And then again. And Peter really starts to worry he’s boring Tony, so it gets to the point where he just keeps quiet (a very difficult feat for him).
One time they’re lying together cuddling and Tony asks Peter why he’s so quiet, and Peter mumbles out that he feels like Tony gets bored when he talks so he’d rather not bore him.
And Tony is just like “no, Kid, you’re so wrong,” explaining that he’s had trouble sleeping for years upon years and hearing Peter’s soft voice is so soothing and comforting to him that he finally feels at ease and it’s like a relief for his body and mind to actually feel safe to rest. Peter relaxes him. His ramblings aren’t boring, Tony finds himself hanging onto every word until he drifts off to sleep, and even then, his dreams are peaceful because Peter is there in them every single time, like an angel.
Peter feels like he’s going to melt hearing this, and just snuggles in closer to Tony, smiling against Tony’s chest as he begins letting out all of things he’s been dying to talk about all day, feeling like the luckiest person in the entire world ❤️🥺🥰
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