Chapter Text
“Okay, Pete. Real talk,” Ned said seriously, situating himself on the couch in the living area of the Avenger’s Tower. He managed to sit down on the squishy couch cross-legged without dropping either the bowl of popcorn or the glass of water (vodka, but no one other than Ned, MJ, and Peter needed to know that), which Peter found pretty impressive. “Which Avenger do you think is the hottest? I want your top girl and guy.”
MJ rolled her eyes, taking a long sip of her vodka water. “You sound like a 5th grader. I’m really doubting your maturity and judging you harshly right now, you should know,” she huffed.
“Come ooooonnnn,” Ned whined. “I’m not a 5th grader, I’m drinking-” He lowered his voice to a whisper, “-vodka!” He took a gulp, as if to prove his words, coughed, and continued, “You’ve never answered this question before, and that’s not gonna fly anymore.”
Peter laughed. “And you’re never gonna get it. I love seeing you frustrated and annoyed too much,” he shrugged.
“I bet it’s Hawkeye,” MJ sniggered, earning herself a pillow thrown at her head from Peter.
“OOOH yeah, you just can’t resist those eyes…” Ned teased, taking another sip (and struggling a bit less with it).
“Fuck you, I’m not into Clint,” Peter groaned, tilting his head back against the couch. “Gross.”
“Hey, sorry, but what about me?” Came a voice calling from the kitchen. “I missed half of that, was just putting these bad boys in. But I heard my name.” At that moment, a certain Clint Barton came into view from around the corner, gesturing to his hearing aids.
“Pete here thinks you’re the hottest Avenger, Mr. Hawkeye!” Ned announced.
“No. No, no nope. Not what I said. Nope. No. Uhuh,” Peter objected, a blush slowly creeping up his cheeks.
Clint laughed. “Didn’t know you’re into dudes, Parker.”
“I’m not!” He replied, almost too defensively.
“Okay, okay, calm down, I was just joking around,” Clint backed up, his hands raised in surrender. “Enjoy the rest of your night, kiddos.” He glanced back at Peter one last time for the briefest second, with an unreadable look on his face, before heading back to where he came from.
“You,” Peter glared at Ned, “are cut off,” yanking the glass out of his hands, to his best friend’s sputtering protest.
“You’re just digging yourself deeper into the closet, you know,” MJ observed.
With an exasperated sigh, Peter replied, “Shut up.” He knew she was right, but he was just not in the mood to get into that right now. What he was in the mood for, however, was to get drunk with his friends to forget the fact that he wouldn’t be joining them at Pride, and watch vine compilations through Youtube on Tony’s giant flatscreen. And that was precisely what he was going to do. He studied his glass for a spilt second, before downing the whole thing at once.
“Jesus Christ, man, you’re lucky you spider-metabolism allows you to do that, fuck,” Ned sputtered, gaping at Peter, both amazed and shocked.
“Yeah, I’m gonna need another one,” Peter deadpanned.
MJ went to pat him on the back sympathetically, and Ned got up to fetch Peter the entirety of what was remaining from the bottle stashed under his bed.
“If you give yourself alcohol poisoning…” MJ warned.
“I won’t,” he replied suredly. “F.R.I.D.A.Y, search Youtube for vine compilations that I haven’t watched yet, please.”
“Hi, Peter. What kind of compilation are you looking for? Your top searched are ‘vines that butter my croissant’ and ‘vines that keep me from ending it all,” F.R.I.D.A.Y piped up. Good on her for knowing compilations exist with different purposes for unique moods and occasions to invoke certain emotions. She’s a real one, Peter thought to himself.
“The second, but of course,” he playfully saluted the air.
“Sure, Peter,” the AI went silent for a moment, but then spoke again. “Are you alright, Peter?”
“Yeah, Fri, I’m gucci,” Peter laughed.
“Okay, Peter. But don’t think I won’t be telling Mr. Stark about your drinking.”
“F.R.I.D.A.Y, wait-” Peter panicked and started mumbling words incoherently to the AI. The three teens scrambling to their feet, Ned and MJ not wanting to be there when Tony arrived.
(Tony was mad… would be an understatement. He came into the living room guns blazing. But, once he calmed down after the initial shock that this baby child was drinking, he came to realize that he rather Peter and the gang do it under his roof, in a safe space, than on the streets with sketchy drug dealers. So, punishment for Peter ended up being light. The worst part of it was enduring a four hour lecture/lesson on responsible drinking - powerpoint included - by Tony, Steve, Bucky, and Nat.)
—————
“Why do you look so grumpy today, Pete?” Tony asked energetically, walking briskly into the kitchen holding a cup of coffee. It was the morning of NY Pride, which Peter still salty about missing, by the way, and Tony made him get up at the ass crack of dawn for the so-called Avengers business.
“I just- you know I had important plans with Ned and MJ today, Mr. Stark,” Peter sighed.
“And as I’ve already told you, I need you today. Part of being an awesome, cool, sticky hero means responsibilities,” Tony shrugged, clearly in full parent-mode.
Peter sighed again, leaning over to rest his head on the table next to his bowl of cereal. “Doesn’t help that I’m also tired as fuck,” he mumbled to himself.
“Maybe next time you shouldn’t stay up until 4 AM video-chatting with Shuri,” Steve suggested having hearths mumbles, raising an eyebrow at Peter from his spot putting stuff away in the fridge.
“Uhhhhgg,” Peter groaned, rolling his head over to face Steve. “How’d you know about that?”
“Tony and I came in late, and we heard you two.”
At that, his head perked up with curiosity. “What were you two doing out together so late?”
“We-” Steve started, but Tony cut him off.
“Steve,” he warned.
After a beat of share silence, Steve spoke again. “Don’t worry about it, kid,” he sighed.
Peter typically would pipe up with more questions and interrogations, but it was far too early and he was far too done to press any further. He instead turned his phone, which had a new notification indicating a snapchat from MJ. He opened it, and it was a mirror selfie of her and Ned decked out in their Pride getups, ready to leave. It was simply captioned ‘thinking of you today !’. He smiled at the photo of his friends, because they looked good and they looked happy, but seeing them like that made a part of him angry, because he should’ve been there and been happy with them. “Okay,” he spoke up. “Lets just get this over then. F.R.I.D.A.Y, can you please yell at the others to get their butts down here, please, so we can get going?”
“Actually, Pete, the others aren’t coming. It’s just us three today,” Tony cleared his throat. “So, uh, F.R.I.D.A.Y, that won’t be necessary.”
“Yes, boss,” the AI replied.
Suddenly, Peter felt very aggravated. “Wait, so not all of us were needed today? So why were you so adamant that I cancel my very important plans to be here? You knew I was busy, so why didn’t you just ask one of the many others here? Bucky? Sam? Rhodey? Wanda? I know for a fact she isn’t doing anything today, so why me? Are you trying to make me miserable?” He exploded.
Steve looked a little guilty - just a little - but Tony didn’t seem phased by the kid’s outburst. “Underoos, you know I love you. And your friends. I wouldn’t call you away from them unless it was critical and, well, uh, date and time specific. Which it is. As for why I didn’t bother the others… we need you today. You, specifically. Spiderman.”
Peter blinked. “I’m sorry for snapping at you. I know you have reasons; I’m just, just bummed,” he shrugged.
“What was so important about these plans you had anyway?” Steve asked.
“Oh, uh, you wouldn’t get it,” Peter rushed.
Steve studied him for a moment, silent, before looking back at Tony. “We ready to go, Tones?”
Tony glanced his Stark Watch, checking the time, before replying, “Yuppers. Let’s get this show on the road. You got your suit on kiddo? And your mask on ya?” Tony turned to face him.
“Uh, yeah, always,” Peter confirmed. “Where are we going?”
Steve and Tony just laughed. “You’ll see soon enough, Pete. Soon enough,” Tony smirked.
—————
Happy dropped them off in a back alley dangerously close to where the parade would be starting soon. Peter could hear the crowds and the loud music, so he figured they were only a block away. How ironic, he thought.
He put his mask on before exiting the car, as Tony instructed. Tony was now in the full Iron Man suit save for his helmet, and Steve was in his full Captain America getup, which he was wearing when they left. He was also holding a tote bag, of which Peter was not able to see the contents. “So,” he stated, stepping out of the vehicle to join Steve and Tony on the pavement. “What are we doing here? What’s the mission?” He asked, taking a look around.
“Peter,” Tony said seriously, staring him right in the eyes. “What is today?”
For a second, he was taken aback. What kind of question was that? What answer was Tony looking for? The date? Was it someone’s birthday, or an anniversary of some sort? Something Avengers related that he should probably know but clearly doesn’t? “Um,” he paused. “What?”
Steve lets out a breath. “What’s happening today, right over there?” He asked, pointing in the direction of the Pride noise. Peter followed where Steve was pointing with his eyes and oh my god, it hit him. They were referring to Pride, and they knew Peter had caught on though the recognition in his eyes, but why were they here and why were the asking him about it and Jesus fuck, does this mean they know? But how do they know and why are they confronting him about it in a back alley of all places and oh no no no does this mean they’re gonna kill him? Kill Spiderman and make it look like an Avengers accident? Oh god, oh fuck-
“Peter?” Tony urged.
“What,” he asked, voice shaking, “do you want from me?” He knew he didn’t stand a chance against both Tony and Steve but he sure as hell was not gonna go down without a fight.
“It’s 2018,” Tony shrugs. “It’s about time the Avengers show their support, don’t you think? So Spiderman is gonna march alongside Iron Man and Captain America in the Parade.” Tony smiled, all big and victoriously, like when you achieve a checkmate during a game of chess. “Doesn’t that sound like a good time?”
For the second time in this conversation, Peter was stunned. So they know? And are trying to be supportive by marching with him in the parade? Peter appreciated the sentiment, but he would rather just watch with his friends, you know? “I don’t-” He struggled for words. “I get what you guys are trying to do, but, I’d rather-”
Steve jumped in. “Peter, this will be good for you. A learning experience. We know that you’re a good kid, so any ignorance you have is just because you haven’t been exposed otherwise. I-”
“Uh, hold up,” Peter took a step back. “Ignorance? What? I thought I knew what you guys were on about but clearly I’m mistaken…” he trailed off.
Taking a step towards him, Tony opened his mouth. “Kid. Steve and I, we’ve just noticed some of the stuff you’ve said and we were worried, so we thought we’d bring to Pride to maybe, I don’t know, see if we could educate you a bit better? Because we love you and it hurts us to think that you wouldn’t fully accept us, and were were hoping we were just looking to deep into things, but then Clint was telling Steve about how offended you were about his joke about liking guys so that pretty much confirmed it for us so that’s where we got the idea to make Spiderman make a public appearance, and-” He didn’t get to finish what he was saying, because Peter’s barking laughter interrupted him. “What,” he frowned, “is so funny about this?”
“Wait… let me get this straight-” his unintended word choice sending him into another burst of uncontrollable laughter- “You- you think I’m… homophobic?” This was- this was just too funny, Peter thought.
“Um. Are we wrong?” Steve raised his eyebrows, confused.
Peter pulled off his mask and rubbed his temple, trying to put the very complicated situation he found himself in together. “Ok. Um. So the thing is. I’m not homophobic. I’m actually the last thing from homophobic, like, ever, because, um, I’m bi, and well, if that wasn’t funny enough, my plans today were going to Pride with Ned and MJ, but y’all made me cancel on Pride for, uh, Pride. Which. Oh. And- and the cherry on top of this is that I was actually trying to figure out a way to come out to you guys, but I wasn’t sure if you’d be supportive and based off of things you’ve said I was pretty convinced it was you guys who were the homophobic ones so I guess I was really wrong on that one, but wow, were you guys wrong too. But wait, what have I said that you thought was homophobic?”
At this, Peter would like to note, Tony and Steve both looked more surprised than when Thanos snapped half the world out of existence. “What have we done that came off as homophobic?” Steve retorted sounding offended, at the same time as Tony exclaimed, “Wait, kiddo. You’re bi?”
Peter turned and pointed at Tony. “Correct.” He then focused his finger on Steve. “Um. Well, when you hated on my gay skittles, for one?”
“Okay, I was not hating on your gay skittles. I was letting out my frustration on some companies for exploiting our history of oppression for profit. I- I thought that would be clear. But what about you? When you were telling Tony about how your lesbian classmates were toxic?”
“Because Beth is a horrible person!” He threw his hands in the air with exasperation. “Not because they’re lesbians, geez.”
“Okay, okay,” Tony stepped in. “From what I gather, neither of you are homophobic. You’re both just idiots.”
“I’m really sorry Pete, for assuming. I should’ve asked outright,” Steve sighed.
“We should’ve asked. I believed Steve when he told me about his… questionable encounters, because when you were making that lesbian vine joke I thought... well, you know, and that was all present in my head when you were telling me about the school thing which is why my thoughts went there right away, and I know that’s not an excuse, but um, yeah. I’m sorry too, kiddo,” Tony bit his lip. “Also sorry for kind of making you out yourself just now. I shouldn’t have put you in this situation in the first place.”
“It’s fine, really, I’m- I’m relieved it’s now just out in the open. And I’m sorry for assuming that just because you two are old…er that you wouldn’t be accepting. But wait.” Something Tony said a while back just registered in Peter’s head. “It hurts us to think that you wouldn’t fully accept us. That’s what you said. Us. What- does that mean…”
Tony sniggered. “Kid, I’m bi too. Bi-five?” He suggested, raising his hand.
Peter laughed, high-fiving his mentor, and then hugging him tight right afterwards. “That makes me so, so, happy,” he whispered to Tony. “But, that’s not all, is it?” He inquired, pulling back a bit.
“Smart kid,” Tony ruffled his hair. “You’re right, there is more. Steve?” He looked over at the super soilder.
“You know how you were asking what we were doing out so late last night? Well, we were coming back from date night. Because, uh, well, we’re together. Cause, um, I’m also not straight. Pan, actually.”
Peter backed right out of Tony’s arms. “I knew it! Don’t get me wrong, I’m completely mind blown, but I sensed the sexual tension from day one. Day. One. Major ship, OTP and all that, but I thought that was just a dream of mine and Stan Twitter. ”
“Oooookayyy, kiddo,” Tony mediated, chuckling softly. How about you just go join your friends now, unless you’re now okay with Spiderman making a Pride debut?”
“I think it would be good for some of the Avengers to become public allies, if not come out. Now that I know you’re fine with it I’d love for Spiderman himself to come out, if that’s fine? And I can just go join my friends afterwards.”
“Yeah of course it is, Underoos. We’ll do it too. We won’t go public with our relationship yet, of course, but the world does need more positive LGBT role models,” Tony nodded. “I mean, I’ve never hidden my sexuality; I’ve been super open about it. I’m pretty sure a sex tape or two have been leaked over the years. I guess people and the media chose to ignore it. Erasure, and all that. So I wouldn’t mind reminding them again.”
“Oh! And here,” Steve reached into his tote bag and pulled out a Bi flag, handing it to Peter. “I was gonna make you wear this for Tony, but I guess you can wear it for yourself now,” he smiled.
“Thanks, Cap,” Peter smiled, going in for a bear hug.
With that, the three of them took off in the direction of the people, the laughter, the music, the pride.
And when thousands of people cheered in the streets of New York when Iron Man, Spiderman, and Captain America appeared in the Parade with their respective flags, Peter swinging from building to building, Tony flying, and Cap on his motorcycle, Peter couldn’t have been happier.
And when he called May to fill her in, she almost cried, both with laughter and happiness for her nephew, which made Peter cry.
And when he joined his friends later in the day, he was met with the biggest hug possible. “So. Everything worked out perfectly fine, then,” MJ commented with a smile, happy for her friend.
Peter simply laughed. “It did. But man, it came about in the craziest way imaginable. Lemme tell you…”
And when the rest of the Avengers found out, by means of the trio sauntering back into the tower at dinnertime, covered in glitter with flags tied around their necks like capes, he was met with even more hugs from his dysfunctional, sometimes idiotic, but most definitely loving, family.
To say the least, Peter Parker’s heart was full. If he were to elaborate, he would also simply say that his heart was full, because his heart was so full, and he was so happy and excited that he was unable to elaborate on how full his heart actually was.