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“Mr. Stark?”
“Nope, that shit is not going to fly Mr. Parker .”
Peter sighed, dramatically, ignoring Tony when he turned to glare at him. He loved to call him Mr. Stark just because Tony would smile warmly and happily when he relented and did call him Tony.
“Tony?”
“Yes, ungrateful child?
Peter sighed again. As it was required from every self respecting teenager. It would also give Tony a false sense of security.
“You know, I think I liked it better when you were still awestruck by my awesomeness.”
“Yeah well that wore off quickly when I heard you being told off by Jarvis.”
“And why is that, Mr. Parker?” Jarvis asked, with a playful disapproving tone to his voice.
Peter looked up at the camera in the corner, smiling innocently. “I thought he was this untouchable genius and found out he was just like me.”
“Shit, Underoos, you can’t say stuff like that!” Tony whined, leaning heavily against his workbench.
Peter just shrugged, smiling at his mentor and father figure.
“You wanted to ask me something?”
Tony never ignored a question Peter might have. Never brushed him off or told him he was annoying. Not once. It was a miracle. Or, Tony remembered how he had felt back when he had been a kid genius. Not that Peter thought he was as smart as Tony. Of course not!
“Yes. Why haven’t you told Steve that you’re in love with him?”
Tony, apparently, started choking on thin air.
“You okay?” He asked, not impressed. It had taken him only a few months to realize that Tony Stark™ was smooth and in control of every and any situation. Tony though was anything but and got flustered every time feelings were brought up.
“No! I’m not okay!” Tony spluttered. “I have no idea what you-”
“Oh, please.” Peter crossed his arms in front of his chest. “You’re in love with him since-”
“Peter!”
“- he stopped being an a-hole.”
“Peter, I swear-”
“He can’t stop looking at your ass, which-”
“-I will take away the suit-”
“-is terribly disturbing, you know-”
“-I will adopt you just to disown you-”
“-and we have a betting pool-”
“-and then I’m going to tell May about this!”
“-when you will finally confess to each other.” Peter relaxed his stance, letting his arms uncross. “I think you would be happier.”
“Peter…”
“You told me to tell MJ that I was in love with her. You said that I had to be brave. That love was the best reason to be brave and try something even if it didn’t work out.”
“This is different.”
“Why? Because you’re working together? Because he lives here? You’re already as good as married! I-”
“Peter. Stop.” Tony’s voice had changed. It sounded defeated and small. Hurt. “I don’t want to talk about this.” Turning around, Peter saw Tony sigh, before starting to work again. As if nothing had happened. Even though he had seen the hurt in his mentor.
Without thinking about it, he stepped closer, hugging Tony from behind. He didn’t mean to upset him. Not like this.
Relaxing, Tony turned in his arms, hugging him back.
“I’m sorry.”
“I know, Petey, it’s okay.”
But it wasn’t. And Peter wouldn’t ask Tony again. Which meant, he had to ask Steve. And possibly hit him. Or bury him, if he had been stupid enough to hurt Tony. Not that he actually thought he had. Steve loved Tony. Everyone knew that. At least everyone living in the Tower.
“Jarvis, where is Steve?”
“He is in the kitchen of the common floor, Mr. Parker. Might I add that even though no one in this Tower keeps out of everyone else's business, I would like to think you are better than that.”
“I’m clearly not, though.”
“You still have the opportunity to learn.”
“Thanks, Jay, but I think that ship has sailed.”
“If you say so.”
Peter was sure that if the AI would have been able to, he would have sighed, exhaustedly.
Stepping out of the elevator and into the kitchen, his eyes narrowed on Steve, who sat at the kitchen island, reading something on his StarkPad.
“Steve, can I ask you a question?”
Looking up, Steve smiled, as he always did, although it wasn’t the same smile that would always light up his entire face when he saw Tony. Because, say it with the class: Steve was in love with Tony.
“Of course, Peter. What do you want to know?” Putting down the tablet, he turned, giving Peter his whole attention.
“Why haven’t you told Tony that you’re in love with him?”
Steve froze. And probably stopped breathing. Then he turned beet red.
“What- I- I don’t…”
Peter waited, looking at the super soldier with his most innocent expression. No one else would fall for it, but Steve always did.
Sighing, Captain America crumbled in front of Peter’s eyes.
“How did you know?”
Biting his lip, Peter moved over to the kitchen counter and swung himself up to sit on it. “We all know.” He said, almost apologetically.
“You all?”
“Well, everyone aside from Tony, to be honest. Clint made a betting pool.”
“Of course, he did.” Steve sounded defeated. Almost as defeated as Tony had. He was staring at his hands, as if avoiding to make eye contact with Peter. Which he would normally never do.
“You love him, don’t you?” Peter prompted after a few minutes of silence.
Sighing, Steve looked up at him. Peter could see nothing but defeat in the Avenger’s expression.
“I do.” It was nothing more than a breathless whisper, still it carried love and despair in equal measures.
“Then why don’t you tell him?”
“It’s not that easy, Peter.”
“Why not?”
“Because he doesn’t want me.”
“What?”
Steve clenched his hands to fists before relaxing them again. “I told him that… I was interested. He turned me down.”
“ What? ”
“I shouldn’t be… I mean, why wouldn’t he? There is nothing I can offer him.”
“But he loves you!”
“He does. As his friend. As his family. Just not like that.”
“But-”
“It’s okay, Peter.” Steve smiled, or at least tried to, because that grimace was everything but a reassuring smile. “I only want Tony to be happy. And if all he can give me is friendship, I’ll be happy with that.”
“But-”
“I’m sorry, I need to go.” Pushing himself off the chair, Steve rushed out of the kitchen, heading towards the elevator.
Peter was left behind staring at the StarkPad laying innocently on the kitchen island.
What the frick was going on?
“Jarvis?”
“Yes, Mr. Parker.”
“Is it… is it possible that they… what exactly did Steve say to Tony?”
“...you know very well, Mr. Parker, that I do not relay private information to anyone if there isn’t a good reason such as a threat to national security.”
“Yes, I know I don’t- It could actually be a threat to national security if Tony and Steve were fighting.”
“I can assure you, that Sir and Captain Rogers aren’t fighting.
“Because they aren’t talking?”
“...they are not fighting.”
“Okay, you can’t tell me what happened, but… could it have been a misunderstanding?”
“I’m not at the liberty to-”
“If it was a misunderstanding, I could help!”
“Even if it is difficult to remember, both Sir and Captain Rogers are, in fact, adults, Mr. Parker.”
“That doesn’t mean they don’t need help! Or that they can communicate.”
“You are right, of course, still this is a rather personal topic, Mr. Parker.”
During their family dinner that night, Peter sat next to Tony, observing his and Steve’s behaviour closely. At first glance they were fine. But if you knew them, you heard the awkward pauses, even if they only lasted for a second.
Worse still was that both didn’t look at each other.
What the frick had gone wrong? If it had only been him, Peter might have thought he could have read the signs wrong (even if both Tony and Steve had been embarrassingly obvious about it). But Tasha and everyone else had seen it too.
No, Tony and Steve loved each other. There had to have been a misunderstanding of epic proportions to fudge this situation up like this.
And if he wanted to correct this, he would have to get help.
“What do you need, little spider?” Nat smiled at him, when the elevator doors opened to her floor.
Peter had waited until Tony went down to his workshop, claiming he had some homework to finish before he could join them in the workshop (which was technically true, as he had homework he needed to finish, even if he had no intention of finishing it tonight).
Jarvis hadn’t been happy when he had asked him to ask Nat whether or not he could talk to her. But he had asked her.
“I think Steve tried to tell Tony that he loved him, but something must have gone wrong, because Steve says Tony doesn’t love him, which is ridiculous, right, because we all know Tony loves Steve, but something must have happened, because he thinks Tony doesn’t love him like that and Tony told me he doesn’t want to talk about it and I don’t know what to do and-”
“Slow down, Peter.”
Nat took a step closer, her hands slightly raised. “What happened?”
“MJ and I were talking, okay? And I told her that I don’t get it! Tony and Steve are two of the bravest people I know. They are literal heroes! And both of them are smart. Tony is a literal genius and still they aren’t talking to each other. So she told me to just ask them.”
Nat nodded, encouragely.
“When I came here, I went down to Tony’s workshop and asked and he… first he was surprised. Then he told me he didn’t want to talk about it. He looked… sad.” It hadn’t been more than sadness, but Peter didn’t feel right telling that. Even if he suspected Nat would know regardless.
“After that I talked to Steve. He said he told Tony but that Tony wasn’t interested in him. Then he left.”
“What were his exact words?”
“Ahm… He said that Tony doesn’t want him and that he wasn’t interested in him. Which is BS, right?”
“Total BS.” Nat agreed, almost absentmindedly. “That would explain a lot, actually.” She mused, calmly.
“What do we do?”
“You know, that I swore I wouldn’t meddle with any of the Avengers.”
Peter sighed, yes, he knew. As the Black Widow, Nat was good at manipulating situations and people and as she had done that in the past to Tony while she was working for SHIELD, she had promised to never do it again.
“Screw that.”
“Miss Romanov-”
“You know as well as I do, Jarvis, that they are both miserable. Let us help them.”
“I cannot, in good conscience, agree to this. I would have to inform Sir about any plans I came across.”
“Thanks, Jarvis, you are the best.”
The assassin smiled up at the camera in the corner of the room.
Five minutes later, she and Peter were in Clint’s bedroom, as Jarvis could be asked to not observe bedrooms and planning how to force Iron Man and Captain America to, in Clint’s words, grow a pair and talk to each other .
“The most important part is that they actually talk. With words. And no hidden messages.”
“About feelings? Good luck.” Clint snorted, leaning back and throwing more skiddles in the air to catch with his mouth.
“We could kidnap them.”
“And trigger a panic attack? Good idea, Nat. Let’s water board them, just for the fun of it.”
“Not like that.” She threw a pillow at the archer, which, judging by the sound, hit him hard in the head. Not that Clint showed it. He just grinned at the other spy.
“I’m just saying, forcing Tony and Steve to do anything they don’t want to do is a bitch .”
That was certainly true, Tony only let Miss Potts - Pepper - force him to do anything. He could be begged and persuaded, especially if Peter or Steve used their puppy dog eyes, but forced? No. They would have better chances to try to turn Captain America into a spy for Hydra.
Not that they wanted to do that, of course.
“And if we just tell them, they are wrong?”
“You mean like you did?” Clint contered, seemingly unconcerned. “Look, do I want Iron Mom and Captain Dad to finally acknowledge that they have been married for years? Yes, I do. But if I learned anything then it’s that Steve won’t move if he doesn’t want to and that Tony won’t stop moving if he doesn’t want to.”
“Okay?” Peter asked, while Nat glared at the archer.
“That means we have to make them want to talk to each other.”
That was actually a good point.
“And how do you propose we do that?”
“I have no clue.” Clint shrugged, a crooked smile on his lips. “I just know that when pushed into a corner, both of those idiots will start lashing out or run away. And we can’t have them do either.”
“So back to the kidnapping idea, I see.” Nat leaned back against the cushion.
“Or we collapse a building on them. Last time I swear they were this close to actually talk feelings.” Clint said, holding up his thumb and index finger with barely any room between them.
Thirty minutes later, Peter joined Tony in the workshop. The spies hadn’t been able to come up with a plan but had promised to keep thinking about it. And that it wouldn’t include kidnappting, torture, holding them hostage or putting them deliberately in danger.
If Peter didn’t know that both Nat and Clint loved Tony and Steve like family, he might have been legitimately worried.
“You okay, Peter?”
Looking up, he smiled at his mentor and father figure. “Yes, I’m fine.”
“Good.” Tony didn’t seem to believe it but let him get away with it for now. “Come here kid, I want to show you something.”
Peter had barely time to look at the contraption before Tony grabbed his arm, yanking him back forcefully enough to make him stumble while his spidey senses went haywire.
But it was too late. Tony had already thrown himself over Peter, protecting him with his body when something went off.
Having heightened senses did mean you heard, saw, smelled, tasted and felt more. It also meant that it was easy to get overwhelmed. Or got knocked out when you got overwhelmed.
“Tony!”
Peter blinked, closing his eyes as soon as he had opened them, the bright light piercing his brain like a hot needle.
“ Tony !”
Something squishy was laying on him, wasn’t it? Something wet, trickled down on his cheek.
“Tony, no, no, no-”
The squishy thing was lifted off of him, carefully and Peter could breathe more easily.
“Oh god, Peter!”
Blinking again, Peter tried to make sense of what was happening. A warm hand pressed itself to his face. There was no tingling from his spider senses, even if the familiar voice was shrill with panic.
“Peter, look at me!”
He tried, blinking again, he recognized Steve. He had white powder all over him, and judging by his expression he was close to completely freak out.
“St-eve?”
“Oh thank god. Keep still, okay?” Without waiting for an answer, Steve stepped over him, kneeling down almost immediately.
Turning his head was excruciating, but he forced himself to do it regardless. Because there was only one person that Steve would freak about like that.
He couldn’t see much, but it was enough to know it was bad. There was blood. Too much blood.
Steve had placed a hand gingerly on the genius’ shoulder, as if holding onto Tony. As if to make sure he wasn’t going anywhere.
“Help is on the way, Captain Rogers.” Jarvis' voice sounded from far away. But maybe it was just Peter’s hearing.
Pushing himself upright, he ignored when Steve tried to push him down again.
“Tony?”
He didn’t get an answer, because Clint was suddenly there, grabbing him and hauling him out of there. Away from Tony.
He tried to protest, tried to tell him to go back before the vertigo hit again and he blacked out once more.
-c-c-c-c-c-
“Peter?”
“He is okay. You’re okay.”
“Where is he?”
“Right beside you. He is just sleeping. He is fine.”
Biting back a groan, Peter wasn’t sure if he would agree, before he remembered. Fudge. Tony and he had been in an explosion. Opening his eyes, he closed them instantly, again. The light was still way too bright, even if the room was arguably dark, with just the lamp beside Tony’s bed being on.
“You sure?”
“I’m sure. He was even conscious when I found you. A little disoriented but fine. Bruce says he will most likely sleep for a few more hours. He-”
“Heals better when he sleeps, yes.” Tony’s voice calmed down. And so did his heartbeat. Bit by bit.
“You’re sure, he is okay?”
“I promise you, Tony. He will be right as rain when he wakes up.”
“Thank fuck.”
“What happened?” Steve sounded almost hesitantly.
“It was stupid.” Tony sighed.
“Involving you? I doubt that.” The underlying teasing of that statement was almost under the worry Peter could still hear.
“Oh, but it was, Cap, seriously. Peter… we had something of a… disagreement… so I wanted to do something fun with him and-”
“You had a disagreement?” There was a new form of worry in Steve’s voice, and embarrassment?
“Yeah, well… I don’t know if I can call it a disagreement, we… he hugged me afterwards, but-”
“Did he…” Steve cleared his throat before trying again. “Did he ask about… me?”
“What? I-” Tony spluttered. Even though Peter couldn’t see the older genius’ expression, he would have bet his suit that he was looking frantically for a way to run.
“I’m sorry, Tony, that is my fault.”
“Your fault? How in the everloving fuck could it possibly be your fault?”
“He came to me, asking… well, I tried to explain the situation, but I… when I didn’t answer his questions he must have gone to you.”
“What did he ask you?”
Peter tensed under his blanket. Tony sounded angry now.
“I…” Steve exhaled, heavily. “He asked if I loved you.”
The silence following was excruciating.
“I’m sorry, Steve.”
“Don’t be. He said everyone had picked up that… well.”
“I think this is my fault.”
“What? Why?”
“I think Peter came to me first. I told him I didn’t want to talk about it and then he came to you, so-”
“What did he want to talk about with you?” Steve sounded confused.
“He asked… why I hadn’t told you that… that I am in love with you.”
“Oh… that… must have been awkward to explain.”
“I didn’t though.” Tony sounded defeated again and Peter wanted nothing more than to crawl out of his bed and apologize again.
“Why didn’t you? You normally tell Peter everything. I really admire that about you.”
“What was there to explain?” Tony asked, brusquely.
“Your feelings are valid, Tony, you know that. You could have told him that he was wrong. I tried to explain it to him, but-”
“I would never lie to him.” There was more venom in Tony’s voice than Peter would have suspected. Sure, Tony had told him that he wouldn’t lie to him and made Peter promise to never lie to him either, as dishonesty was something that the older genius couldn’t stand from people he trusted. That didn’t explain the vehemence behind his words, though.
“I didn’t mean-”
“I’m sorry, Steve, if my feelings are an inconvenience to you, I’m happy to stay your friend, if you let me but-”
“Woah, Tony, what are you talking about?”
“I know you don’t… like me like that, but-”
“What? I-”
“-if my feelings are valid, then, yes, he was right. I’m in love with you. I know you love someone else, and that is fine by me. All I want for you is to be happy and if that-”
Tony abruptly stopped.
Opening his eyes just enough to glimpse to the two men, Peter saw Steve’s hand covering Tony’s mouth, a look of pure concentration on the soldier’s face.
“You’re in love with me?”
Tony rolled his eyes, glaring at the other man. But not moving back. Not trying to push the hand away. Not backing down.
Steve must have seen the obvious answer in Tony’s eyes, as his whole body bowed down, as if Mount Everest was just lifted from his shoulders.
“I love you too.”
Tony stiffened, while his eyes widened almost comically.
Removing his hand, Steve leaned forward, a new confidence in his expression.
“Can I kiss you, Tony?”
Instead of answering, Tony surged forward, pressing his lips to Steve’s.
Peter closed his eyes, when Tony slung his arms around Steve’s neck, hoping they would remember that he was right there . He was the first one to be happy that they had finally confessed to each other, but that didn’t mean he wanted to see his dad- father figure doing that .
“You said you were in love!”
“Yes, with you.”
“You didn’t say that !”
“I said, I was in love with the most caring person I had ever met.”
“How the hell was I supposed to know you meant me ?”
“You’re kidding me, right? Tony! You made the Avengers a family! Who else could I have possibly been talking about?”
“I don’t know? Literally anyone else? I-”
Burrowing deeper into his cushion, Peter hid a smile in the fabric. That was familiar. Tony and Steve loved to tease each other. Or fight like an old married couple, as Clint would say.
“I love you, Tony. I’m in love with you. Romantically. Would you do me the honour to go on a date with me?”
Tony spluttered. “Hell, Steve, you can’t-” There was the strangled sound of someone clearing his throat. “I would love to.”
Their date wasn’t until a week later, after Bruce had actually cleared Tony to do more than rest.
Tony sent Peter a selfie of him and Steve smiling at the camera in one of Tony’s favorite restaurants.
Steve also sent him a text.
Thanks for helping us out.