Chapter Text
Peter was coping. He had nightmares, and panic attacks, and flashbacks, but he had people and so it was okay. He had his aunt, and his girlfriend, and Tony, and Ned, and Nat, and Uncle Rhodey, and all the other Avengers – which was still super surreal to say that he had the Avengers in his corner.
And so, he was getting better. His favorite pastime was snuggling, which Aunt May loved, and MJ claimed she hated (she loved it), and Tony needed.
About Tony. Tony was not coping. I mean, when did he ever really cope well? Both Peter and Tony had been through a lot, which no one needed convincing about, but Peter had always had his aunt. Tony didn’t have one constant. Rhodey was amazing, but Rhodey was a peer. And sometimes you need support from someone that isn’t your best friend.
And Tony never really got that.
So, Tony was coping with Peter’s previous kidnapping the way he usually did: waking up at three in the morning from nightmares, drinking a buttload of coffee, and working in his lab for hours on end. Which, I probably don’t need to point out, is a terrible way to cope.
And the Avengers noticed. (Except for Scott, because Scott is oblivious)
But no one really knew what to do about it. They told him to go back to bed, but he didn’t listen. They told him to drink water, but he didn’t listen. They told him to socialize with other people, but he didn’t listen. The only people he vaguely listened to were Rhodey and Steve.
Okay, that’s not true, he listened to Peter.
Which is were the snuggling came in.
Rhodey noticed that Tony listened to Peter. He told Nat, who had also noticed, who in turn, told Steve. And so, they conspired and came up with plan: make-Tony-realize-he’s-being-an-idiot-and-learn-to-take-care-of-himself.
Step 1: Tell Peter.
“Hey, little Spider, what are you working on?”
Peter rolled his eyes. “My senior thesis. You’d think being kidnapped and tortured would make them be a little more lenient on the schoolwork front, but no they just said ‘welcome back from mysteriously disappearing for a week. Here’s the work you missed. By the way, what’s with all those stitches?’ No one even asked where I was. I mean, Ned and MJ already knew, but still. I was gone for a week.”
Nat smirked, patting the spot next to her on the sofa. “Do you need help?”
Peter slumped in relief, practically melting off the bench he was sitting on and walking over to the living area. “Yes, yes, yes, yes thank you.”
He slid in next to her, and they both assumed the ‘snuggling-with-Peter-position’ that a couple different Avengers (read: Nat, Wanda, Rhodey, and Tony [when he thought Peter was asleep]) had assumed: his shoulder tucked into their armpit, one arm around his shoulders, other hand in his curls, his head on their chest. He explained what his thesis was about, and how he wanted his essay to go, and they discussed different options for a while, getting snarky comments from Steve – who was sitting on a chair to their right – every once in a while.
Peter was surprised how sarcastic Cap could be.
Rhodey walked into the kitchen and started rummaging through the fridge, grabbing an extra soda and tossed it in Peter’s general direction, who webbed it into his hands and popped it open.
When he looked up, Steve was staring at him.
“What?”
Steve just smirked and shook his head.
“So, Peter, talked to Tony lately?” Rhodey asked.
“Yeah, why?” Peter asked, confused. He talked to Tony all the time. Why would Rhodey be questioning that?
Nat sighed, putting Peter’s papers on the table as Rhodey walked over with his own soda.
“Have you noticed anything about him?”
Peter blinked. He may have been suspicious if Rhodey hadn’t been asking, but Rhodey was, so he just shrugged. “Maybe more tired.”
Steve leaned forward. “Exactly. Why do you think that might be?”
Peter shrugged again. “Not sleeping enough?”
“Exactly,” Rhodey repeated, sitting on the table across from him.
Peter felt a teensy bit overwhelmed. Why were they talking about Tony? Did he do something wrong? Did Peter do something wrong? Was he getting kicked out? Was Tony beginning to realize that he wasn’t enough of a help to keep around? Was Tony ever going to talk to him again? Would he get to keep the suit? Surely, even if Tony disowned him, he’d be able to keep the suit, right? At least the normal Spider suit, if not the Iron one. Or maybe Tony would force him to start wearing the homemade one again. But what did that have to do about him sleeping?
“And why do you think that Tony isn’t sleeping?” Nat asked.
Peter said nothing, still internally freaking out.
“Nightmares.”
Peter’s heart sank. “Why is he having nightmares? Is it because of me? Am I getting kicked out, because if it helps Mr. Stark, I mean, I’d do it, but I really want to stay, you know? I’ll try not to get kidnapped again. That was kinda crappy of me. I can be a help, you know. Sometimes Tony likes my suggestions. I think. Or maybe he’s just saying that to make me feel better. Oh gosh, I’m so sorry, this is all my fault… what?”
The three Avengers were staring at him like he was crazy.
“I never thought I’d ever say this, but you, sir, have a worse guilt complex than Tony Stark,” Rhodey said, glancing at Cap who nodded.
“Kid, it’s nothing like that. Yes, he’s getting nightmares about your kidnapping, but none of that was your fault. In fact, you leaving is an absolutely terrible idea. We want you to help him, not leave.”
Peter blinked, relieved. “Oh.”
“We want you to… get him to open up,” said Nat, running a hand through Peter’s hair.
Peter let out a nervous laugh. “I don’t think I’m the right person for the job, I-”
Steve barked out a laugh. “Kid, you got Bucky to trust you within the first few minutes of meeting you. Believe me when I tell you he absolutely hates trusting people, and you somehow managed it. You mean more to Tony than you do to Buck. If anyone can do it, it’s you.”
Peter sputtered. “But- what about…” Peter gestured at Rhodey who smiled sadly.
“He’s been saying no to me for years, Pete. Usually, I can force him to take care of himself by guilt-tripping him, but this time it’s because of guilt. My words can only go so far.”
Peter sighed, looking around the room as if looking for a way to get out of this. “But, I’m just… me! What can I do to get him to open up?”
“But that’s the point. You are you, and that’s why he opened up to you in the first place. Just be… you. He doesn’t love you because of Spider-Man. He doesn’t love you because you’re smart. He loves you because you’re Peter,” said Steve, standing. “And as for what you can do actions-wise… what did you do for us?”
“Talk,” Peter said immediately, “And snuggle,” he muttered, quieter.
Natasha laughed. “What was that my little Spider?”
Peter just buried his face in her shoulder.
Rhodey chuckled. “I’m sure you can work your magic, Pete. Just try to be subtle.”
Peter pulled away from Nat. “Uncle Rhodes, subtle is my middle name.”
He grinned as they rolled their eyes at him.
“Alright, Peter Subtle Parker. It seems you have work to do,” he said to himself.
Step 2: Talk to Tony… subtly
“Hey, kid, what are you doing down here?”
Peter shrugged. “It’s been a while since I, you know, actually interned. It’s probably a good idea to do what people actually think I’m doing, otherwise if they ask me about it, I’ll have to stutter through a fake answer.”
Tony blinked, suspicious. “What do you want to work on?”
Peter looked sheepish. “I wanted to look at Thor’s belt?”
Tony groaned. “Who told you about that! Was it Happy? Because I specifically told him-”
“Come on, Tony. You never let me see anything Thor related! Is it because you’re jealous that he’s the strongest Avenger?”
Tony threw him a pointed look. “That’s Bruce. Or Wanda. Or-”
“Thor?”
“Alright, you can work with me, and maybe I’ll show you eventually, but not today.”
Peter huffed. “Fine. What are you working on, anyway.”
“Something for Quill.”
Peter didn’t have to fake his excitement. He loved the Guardians of the Galaxy. “Oooooooo, what is it?”
“Well, since he insists on wearing that nasty Ravager crap or whatever it’s called, I decided I’d work with the Wakandan princess and weave some vibranium into it. It’ll keep him more protected and stuff. Since he also insists on only using long-range weapons. At least Gamora’s got her sword, but no. Quill has to have guns and only guns. Idiot.” Tony said, looking back at his work, Peter jumped over the desk in between them, making Tony flinch. “Don’t do that. It freaks me out.”
Peter cocked his head. “Why?”
“Cause I never expect it.”
Peter laughed, going back to the subject of weapons. “You only use blasters.”
“Yeah, but I have armor.”
“Ah.”
Tony pressed a few buttons on his computer, then looked up at Peter. “Well? Can you sew?”
“No.”
Tony glared at him. “Well, then you’ll be no help. I can’t either.”
Peter raised an eyebrow. “Rhodey can. And Steve. And Bucky, I think.”
Tony sighed. “I don’t like them in my lab.” He pulled Starlord’s coat off his workstation and walked it upstairs. “Come on, then. If you’re going to insist on following me around.”
“Why am I allowed in your lab, then?”
“Because you know how most stuff works.”
They reached the top of the stairs, were Steve, Nat, and Rhodey were still sitting, drinking different beverages (Nat: tea, Rhodey: pop, and Steve: a mocha frappe chino) and chilling.
Tony froze at the top of the stairs. “Any of you want to sew for me? Neither of us knows how to sew.”
Steve laughed, standing. “The two smartest men in this building and neither of you know how to sew.”
Tony and Peter glanced at each other and just shrugged.
Steve just beckoned for Tony to hand him the jacked and the thread before examining it. “Is this vibranium?”
“Yeah, something for Quill.”
“Ah. Worried about your new space friends?” Nat asked, sipping her tea.
“Well they’re the only space friends any of us have, so I’m trying to keep them alive.”
“In other words, you’ve stressed about it,” Rhodey said knowingly.
Tony shrugged, throwing both hands in the air like the drama queen he is. “What can I say?”
“You stress?” Peter asked.
The others tried to hide their smiles at Peter’s obliviousness, but Rhodey just barked a laugh. “Why do you think your suit has so many protocols, kid. He stresses.”
Peter blinked. “Oh.”
Tony sighed. “Alright, enough ragging on me. Imma get a coffee,” he said making to walk towards the coffee machine sitting on the counter.
“No, you’re not,” Steve said, sitting back down in his chair and getting comfortable with the jacket and thread. “I grabbed the last cup.” He nodded at his frappe chino.
Tony froze halfway to his destination, blinking at it. “Seriously? You took the last of the perfectly good coffee and contaminated it with that sugar crap? I’m disowning you.”
Steve rolled his eyes, puncturing the jacket’s inner, lighter fabric with the needle. “Maybe I’m disowning you for being able to drink that bitterness all by itself.”
Tony huffed. “Too late, I disowned you… first.”
Peter’s head whipped to Tony, who was massaging one temple and pointedly staring at the coffee machine.
The others seemed to notice Tony’s hesitation, and they seemed to pause, concerned. Tony turned around, his forced smile resembling more of a grimace. “What? Do I have something on my face?”
Steve just shook his head, “Nope.”
The billionaire sighed, waving at his protégé. “Come on Pete. Let’s head back down. Got some other stuff I’ll sic you on. Maybe… be productive.”
Peter nodded, still scanning the room for what could have made Tony go back. His eyes lingered on the needle and thread in Steve’s hands. Tony had once told him his mother had taught him how to sew. So why had Tony said he couldn’t? Peter frowned as he let Tony lead him away. When he’d returned from being kidnapped, there hadn’t been many doctors around. The Avengers hadn’t completely organized themselves into the headquarters in preparation for another attack, assuming there wouldn’t be one in a while due to the death of Thanos. So, when Peter had gone to the med bay, the only real doctor who’d been there to restitch him had been Bruce. They’d put him under before he could really check his surroundings, but he could vaguely remember them beginning to pull out his stitches. Two sets of hands. Bruce’s and… someone else.
Peter stared at Tony’s back as they made their way downstairs.
“One second Mr. Stark, I… left something upstairs.”
“What? Your juice boxes? Cause I have a stash down here if you-”
“No, it’s… my school work, I wanted to ask you a question on it, I’ll be right back.” Peter ran halfway up the stairs before pausing. “And they’re not juice boxes!”
The only response he got was a too-loud-to-be-fake laugh that warmed Peter’s insides.
He bolted the rest of the way up, scrambling into the living room to a surprised Nat, Steve, and Rhodey.
“What, kid? Did Tony blow something up?” Steve asked, not looking up from his sewing.
“No, no…” Peter huffed catching his breath. “Um… who… who went into the room with Bruce?”
They all frowned at him.
“Who went with Bruce to help heal me after I came back?”
Rhodey frowned. “Tony. He insisted. You know, being overprotective and stuff.”
Peter deflated, shaking his head. “No, it wasn’t because of that.”
Nat cocked her head at him. “Why?”
“Tony told me he knows how to sew a long time ago. His mother taught him.” Peter said, walking over to his school things and grabbed them from the floor.
Steve’s hands froze, and he looked at Peter. “Then why am I doing this?”
“Because he’s not coping. He helped Bruce pull me apart and put me back together.”
Rhodey’s shoulders slumped. “That’s why he asked you to. Ten bucks says he was just sitting down there staring at the needle and thread for at least an hour before you showed up. Gosh, I’m such an idiot.” He rubbed his face with both hands. “I should have known.”
Peter shook his head. “You couldn’t have. Just… make sure not to sew in front of him,” he said to Steve, who looked like he didn’t know what to do with himself.
Step 3: Snuggling
Peter shouldered his backpack and bounded down the stairs. “Mr. Stark?”
“Still here Footy Pajamas.”
He rolled his eyes. “I have a suit made of nanotechnology. Can we drop the PJ nicknames please?”
Tony chuckled, swiping his work to a different monitor with one hand and typing with the other. “Whatever you say, Spandex.”
“That’s not better.” Peter dropped his crap on the floor and unzipped it. “Kay, here’s the equation that I- wait. Oh, nevermind. I already did it. I’m so stupid.”
Tony barked a laugh. “Stupid. That’s a good one.”
“I’m blushing.”
Tony looked glanced in Peter direction, opening his mouth to retort, catching himself when Peter wasn’t there. “Peter?!”
“Up here, Mr. Stark.”
His gaze went up to his kid sitting on the ceiling, flipping through pages of his homework. He breathed. “Wow, you actually are blushing.”
“No Mr. Stark, that was called sarcasm. This,” he said, gesturing at himself with his free hand, “is all the blood rushing to my face.”
Tony huffed. “That can’t be good for you.”
“Yeah well neither is not sleeping, but you seem to be doing just fine.”
Tony blinked. “What?”
Peter glared at him. “Don’t think I didn’t notice.”
“Um… I sleep.”
“Yes, and I can’t hang from the ceiling.”
Tony rolled his eyes. “Tone down the sarcasm, kid. I’m getting too old for this.”
“Stop dodging the judgment.”
“And shouldn’t the old judge the young?”
“Mr. Stark, old people have dull senses, how can they judge the young if they can’t even see them?”
Tony just looked at Peter, who had this cocky little grin on his face.
“Especially old people who don’t sleep.”
Tony sighed. “Kid get off the ceiling.”
“You can’t make me.”
“Now that’s very mature of you. FRIDAY get him off the ceiling.”
The ceiling tile that Peter was sitting on dropped, the young spider-ling with it.
“Ow.”
It then disintegrated, leaving Peter behind.
“Sorry, Mr. Parker.” FRIDAY’s sterile voice echoed through the room.
“Mr. Stark?”
“What kid?” asked Tony, who’d gone back to doing his work. He growled as the words protocol: failed basked his face in red light.
“Do you think we can, I don’t know, finish the Flash?” Peter grunted, rolling onto his back
Tony smirked for a moment before his earlier scowl reappeared as the protocol failed a second time. “Is that why you came down here? Cause you wanna finish your show, but you feel bad about leaving me?”
“No,” he stood and brushed the dust off his pants.
“Yes, it is.”
“No, I swear. I just wanted to… I don’t know…” Peter scuffed his shoe on the cement floor before bending down to gather up his things.
“Pete, what did I say about starting thoughts and not finishing them?” Tony asked, trying a few more combinations with the same results. “I mean seriously, you do it all the time. It’s like finish you’re-”
“Spend time with you.”
Tony’s fingers froze for half a second. “Ah.”
Peter panicked. “I mean, if you don’t want to, that is totally okay with me. It’s not like I don’t have anything to do, what with finals coming up and all. You know what, I really should be studying right now. See ya, Mr. Stark!”
“No, no, no, no!” Tony sounded almost desperate. He whirled to face Peter. “If you wanna watch it. Yeah. That’s fine. Um. Like you said, I’m not gonna finish this anytime soon. Might as well procrastinate some more.”
Peter swallowed, trying not to grin like an idiot. “Right. Yup.”
“If you fail finals…”
Peter allowed himself a small grin. “Just come on Mr. Stark.”
When they made their way upstairs, Steve was gone, probably to his room to finish sewing.
Peter saw Tony visibly relax at the lack of needle and thread but ignored it. “We’re watching the Flash, are you guys gonna join?”
Nat’s smile mirrored Peter’s. “Of course.”
Rhodey rolled his eyes. “I suppose if I have to.”
Peter laughed. “You know you love it.”
Tony shrugged. “I was dragged here against my will as well.”
His intern stuck out his tongue. “Lies from the pit of destruction. FRIDAY turn on our next episode of the Flash.”
“Right away Mr. Parker,” she replied, and the TV emerged from the wall.
Tony and Peter made their way to the couch, where Natasha would usually offer to snuggle with Peter, but this time she didn’t, choosing only to wink at him when Tony wasn’t looking.
Be subtle, be subtle, be subtle, Peter inwardly chanted the entire time they were watching the episode. At first, he just sat near him, scooting closer and closer until he was pressed against Tony’s side. Tony said nothing, only wrapped one arm around Peter and tugged him closer. As Peter laughed too hard at one of Cisco’s pop culture references, Tony strung one hand through Peter’s hair.
And they had assumed the ‘snuggling with Peter position’. Subtly.
Peter lay his head against Tony’s chest. It was a little different with each Avenger. With Wanda, it was sweet, like they were snuggling just because they felt like it. With Rhodey, it was comforting, because Rhodey seemed to strangely understand him (disclaimer: it’s because Peter is a lot like Tony). With Nat, he felt protected, like nothing could hurt him.
But Tony… it was like all of that combined.
They relaxed into each other, and were both out by the third episode, pulling comfort from each other’s warmth.
Nat and Rhodey glanced at each other and smirked.
“FRIDAY, take a photo.”
“Already done, Colonel.”