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He'd been sitting on his bed for the past few hours, watching whatever gay movie he could find, which all seemed to have sad endings.
Tony came into his room, and Peter immediately opened another tab out of habit.
"Hey, wanna watch a movie?"
"Um, yeah, sure." He closed his laptop, getting up from his bed, and putting his phone in his pocket.
Tony was at his desk now, looking around when he saw what Peter had in his cup holder.
"Are these your flags?"
A surge of panic rose up as soon as he said that.
"Trans, bi, and ace." He pointed at each one as he said it.
Peter fiddled with the hem of his shirt. "Uh, yeah."
Tony looked over at him. "Kid, you could've asked me for some. If I knew you wanted them, I would've gotten them for you."
"I know. I just didn't want to bother you."
That was partly true, but the main reason was, what if he judged him for it? He may not seem like he was, but what if he was secretly judging him?
They made their way to the living room, where a movie was already up on the screen. The room looked like an actual movie theater with the lights turned off, and the big screen only rich people could afford. Tony had also made popcorn with lots of butter, because as he liked to say, "we might as well have the full movie theater experience at home."
They started watching it, and a few minutes in, Tony looked over, and Peter had his thinking face on.
Tony nudged him. "What's up?"
Without looking at him, Peter said, "Nothing."
"I can tell it's something."
He shook his head. "It's dumb."
"Nothing you can say is dumb."
Peter sighed. "Can we please just watch the movie?"
They went back to watching the movie in silence, and after they finished it, Tony looked at Peter again.
"Pete, you know I'm here for you, right?"
This time, he looked at him, nodding his head.
"So talk to me."
Peter sighed, throwing his head back, finally giving in. "It just feels so exhausting."
"What does?"
"Everything. You've been so cool ever since I came out to you, but . . . " He took a moment to regain his words. "I just keep thinking that you and everyone else is judging me. Like, I can't even watch a gay movie, or I'm holding back from making a gay joke. Even with Ned and MJ, it feels like that. It's just . . . exhausting having to feel like that 24/7 like I'm just hiding even though I'm out. And, like, I'm proud of being a part of the community, but it's just hard to do all this stuff. Even talking to Aunt May about gay stuff makes me feel uncomfortable, and it's . . . a lot."
Tony sat there, frowning at the thought of him feeling this way, and thinking on what to say to make him feel better.
After a while, he started talking again. "I might not get what you're going through, but if watching movies with gay characters makes you happy, then that's ok. And if having these flags makes you happy, that's ok too. The most important thing is for you to be ok with who are, and if all this does that for you, I'm not gonna judge you for it. Even if it didn't, I still wouldn't. And I know your friends wouldn't either."
Peter turned to look at him, his head still propped on the couch.
"I'm proud of you, Pete. I want you to know that. And I know this might not help right away, but don't hold back. If you want to tell me a joke or send me a meme, no matter how cheesy it may be, you can. And your rambling sessions too. I miss them. Tell me more about queer history, don't be afraid. All I care about is you being happy, and all that certainly makes you happy."
Peter gave him a small smile. "Thank you, Mr. Stark."
"Hey, no problem. Now, how about we watch Love Simon?"
Peter laughed, feeling lighter already. "Yeah, ok."
After putting the movie on, Tony made sure to set a reminder to buy some flags for Peter to put up on his walls.