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Other than Tony, Bruce spent the most time down in the lab. This also meant that he spent the most time with Tony. They were almost always down there together. Figuring things out and working on new projects to help the team. Currently they were upgrading a suit for Spiderman, who Tony apparently knew. All the while Tony was rambling on and on about this guy that he seemingly had a crush on. Don’t get him wrong, Bruce loved that Tony had finally found someone that makes him happy and shares his love for all things tech, but this Peter guy is all Bruce has heard about for the past two weeks. He felt kinda bad about it, but he did start tuning it out a while ago.
“... and oh! Have I told you that he’s finally going to come over and meet the team? I’ve been trying to convince him to get his ass over here while everyone else is actually in the building but he’s always been so concerned about his identity. And I respect that, of course I do, but it’s definitely time he meets the gang.” Tony said, finally finishing up what he was saying.
“Really?” If Tony is bringing Peter to the tower to meet the rest of the Avengers then it must be serious. Outside of Pepper, Bruce hadn't met any of Tonys past relationships and he didn’t think Peter had been around long enough for Tony to bring him around. “Already? He must be really special Tony. How long have you two known each other again?”
“Brucie, have you not been listening? I’ve told you a few times now I’ve known him for the past year. We met last summer, right before Germany. You know I’m hurt. Here I thought you were actually listening to me but instead you're just staring at my pretty face.” Tony said, giving his infamous little smirk. And wow… Bruce doesn’t know how he missed that part. A year? Really? Tony Stark has known this Peter for a whole year and only started talking about him a couple weeks ago? That seems unlike Tony, but he could let that slide. After Germany had been a tough time for the whole team. It took a while, but eventually everyone was able to negotiate terms on the accords and slowly they had gotten back to being like they were before. A little family, full of many quirks and flaws.
“Sorry Tones, I don’t know how I missed that. But hey, congrats anyways. When is Peter gonna be coming over then? Sometime soon?” He hoped so. Having another big brain in the lab would be great.
“He should be coming over after school this Friday. Happy’s gonna pick him up as soon as he’s done and bring him straight here.” With that, Bruce furrowed his brows. School? Was Tony dating a college kid? He didn’t realize Tony still liked them that young, but to each their own. “You are required to be here, by the way. Pete loves you, he’s written papers about you and he’s read all your stuff. Under no uncertain terms are you allowed to ditch, got it?”
“Got it. He must be really smart to have read and understood all my work. Is he going for a PHD in anything I have? I’m sure I could help him out if he needed it.” At that, Tony gave a little chuckle.
“God no, the kids smart enough to be in college studying for his PHD by now, but his aunt wants him to have a normal teenage experience. Whatever that means anyways. He goes to a private science school though, under a full scholarship. Kids a genius, I can’t wait for you to meet him.”
Hold up! Kid? Teenage? What in the actual fuck. Bruce knew Tony used to date them a little young but he’s in his forties now, and apparently with a teenager?! And for the past year nonetheless! What the hell is he thinking? “Wait so Peter lives with his aunt? And she’s ok with this? Does she even know what’s really going on?” Bruce said, a little agitated. He really thought he knew Tony but this was just a new low.
“Yeah she knows. She was a bit pissed when she found out, especially at me for letting Pete do all this under the false pretense that he was my intern. But she got used to the idea over time, especially after I went over all the precautions we’re taking, and all different protocols I’ve implemented to keep him safe.” Bruce can’t believe what he’s hearing. Tony went back to rambling about anything and everything, but Bruce had tuned him out by that point. How in the hell was he supposed to concentrate now that he had this information to try and process.
___________
Later that evening after dinner Tony went back down to the lab alone. Bruce stayed upstairs with the rest of the Avengers and decided he needed to talk to them. Maybe he was thinking a little too harshly of his colleague, but he wanted to get some other opinions. “Hey guys, did you uh… did any of you know that Tony has been dating a teenager?”
“WHAT! No, there is no way. I would have found that out by now. What the fuck. Do you know anything else about this? Are you even sure?” Natasha started, just as shocked as everyone else. She really didn’t like not knowing things. Steve was next, obviously disgusted but trying not to let his anger show too much.
“Bruce, that is a terrible accusation to make. I’m gonna need you to tell me everything you know about this before any of us make any rash decisions.” Steve had his arms crossed and a scowl on his face. No one could blame him for that. Steve may have grown up in a different time. A time where even announcing that two men were dating was wrong, illegal even. But while he may have gotten over his old rooted homophobic tendencies, there was no way he would get over his 46 year old friend dating a minor.
So they all sat down together in the living area. Bruce in one of the chairs, Steve, Nat and Sam on the couch, and Clint and Wanda in the other chairs. The rest of the team had their own places. Everyone had their own rooms in the tower, courtesy of Tony Stark himself. But this was the only group that used their rooms, and lived here on a regular basis. Bruce went straight into it. Telling the group how Tony had been talking about this Peter kid nonstop for the past two weeks, how he thought Tony just had a crush on a guy who was also really smart. He told them that he was informed about the two of them meeting a year ago, and not as recently as two weeks ago, giving Bruce the impression that they were in fact together and it wasn’t just a crush. The part that shocked everyone just as much as it had shocked himself was that this kids aunt was ok with it.
“Ok I don’t exactly agree with what Stark’s doing,” Clint piped up. “but do we know how old this kid is? I mean it’s definitely on the pervy side either way, but maybe this kid is 18.”
“I’ll find out and bring that information back to you guys. Where did you say he went to school again Bruce?” Nat asked.
“Tony didn’t tell me the name of the school, just that it was a private science school. He also told me that Peter is there on a full scholarship and he lives in Queens. Hope that helps.”
“I can’t believe the rest of you are even trying to find a light in all of this.” Wanda piped up for the first time. “I don’t care if this guy is 18 or not. There's still like 30 years difference between them and if he’s known the kid for over a year, who’s to say he hasn’t been grooming him? Or that this hasn’t been going on much longer that he’s letting on?”
“Gotta say I agree with the Witch.” Sam said. “I know we’ve all had our differences with Stark before, but this takes the cake.”
“Exactly.” Wanda started again. “I mean this Peter is hardly younger than me and I know it’s really easy to be coerced that young. Whatever Stark is doing to that boy is wrong and I will not stand for it.”
“Ok come on guys.” Bruce said, feeling the need to speak up for his friend. He was up against most of Team Cap anyways, he probably should’ve guessed this would happen. “Tony’s done a lot of not so smart things but he’s not stupid. He knows the media would have a field day with this if they ever even slightly caught wind of it. He told me Peter was coming over to meet everyone after school on Friday. Maybe we just wait it out and if this is how we think it is we can intervene. But until then we could at least give him the benefit of the doubt.”
To everyone's surprise, Steve agreed. “Bruce has a point. Tony isn’t an idiot. He wouldn’t send his personal driver to a high school, and bring this kid back here if there wasn’t some way that this was ok. There’s gotta be something we're missing here. Lets just steer clear of any Peter talk around Tony for the next couple days. I don’t want anyone going after him for this when we don’t even have all the details. I’d like to meet the kid first, see if he’s alright you know?”
And for the next two days everyone avoided talking to Tony at all. Not that he noticed, but everyone was too put off by the thought of what he had been doing to actually talk to him. It wasn’t until Friday afternoon that everyone was finally hanging out with Tony. They were all back in the community living area listening to the genius go on about how they’d all love Peter and his infectious personality. He still hadn’t noticed that everyone was just uncomfortable with the topic, when F.R.I.D.A.Y. spoke up.
“Boss, Peter Parker has just arrived, he seems to be a bit anxious and would like for you to meet him at the door before meeting the other Avengers.”
“Ok, thanks FRI, tell Pete I’m on my way down to get him. K everyone stay put. The kid’s nervous enough, but he’s also stupid excited about meeting the team. Be on your best behavior, I’ll be right back.” And with that Tony left.
The tension in the room was high. Everyone was silent, waiting to meet this supposed teenager that had captivated so much of Tony Starks attention. Nobody had realized how much time had passed before the elevator opened back up and good god. This kid was definitely not legal. Tony had his arm around the kids shoulder, leading him over to the team.
“Everyone, this is Peter. Peter you literally know every single person here, and I’m not doing individual introductions for you. So go ahea-”
“Oh come on Tony!” Steve said, very clearly angry. “What the hell are you doing! How old is this kid even?!”
“I-I’m 15 Mr. Captain America sir.” Peter piped up, nervous but visually excited. “It’s so cool to finally meet you guys. Mr. Stark has been re-” Steve couldn’t hold back any longer though.
“Stark what the fuck is wrong with you? A 15 year old? Are you serious? You’re a lot of things but I can honestly say I never expected this from you, and I am thoroughly disgusted. We all are. How did you ever think this was ok? Or that any of us would be ok with this. Peter, are you okay? We can help you, you don’t need to be around Tony anymore.”
Peter looked confused and Tony just looked infuriated. The kid had taken forever to agree to meet the rest of the Avengers and this is their reaction? No, his kid deserved better than this. This was unacceptable. “You listen here star spangled fuck face, I don’t know where you get off, but you do not get to talk to my kid that way. And if the rest of you agree with him, you can get the hell out of my tower. Peter I’m sorry, this was a mistake on my part. Let’s just go back to the lab and work on your suit.”
“Wait, your kid?” Bruce questioned. “Tony hold on-”
“No Bruce. I told you when we were working on his suit together how stoked Pete was to meet you especially. And you’re siding with Rogers? Really? So much for science bros huh?”
His suit? “Peter’s Spiderman?” he asked quietly.
“Yes, he's Spiderman! I told you that the other day! I invited him to be a part of the Avengers and thought it’d be nice for him to get to know the team before he starts training with us.”
“So you’re not dating Peter?” Sam asked.
“EXCUSE ME?”
“YUCK!”
And suddenly everyone was staring silently at Peter. “I mean… not yuck? You’re great Mr. Stark but like, I’m 15… and not into you like at all. You’re awesome! Don’t get me wrong! But you’re more like my dad… not daddy, so-”
“Kid, shut up.” Tony said facepalming. “Why in the hell would you all think I was dating a teenager?”
“Bruce told us you were.” Clint said, throwing Banner under the bus. Bruce looked like a fish out of water. Mouth moving, but not able to figure out what to say.
“Brucie bear, would you please explain how on earth you came to the conclusion that I was in a romantic relationship with a high schooler?” Tony asked, crossing his arms, but looking less agitated than he was a couple minutes ago.
“You uh… I mean, well… In the lab we-” Bruce ran his hands through his hair. “You kept talking and talking about a Peter all day everyday! I just thought you had a crush on the guy, but then you said you’d known him for a year and that he was meeting the team. I just thought things were getting serious, but then you said he was in high school and-”
“You really weren’t listening to me then. Half that time I was explaining to you, or at least trying to explain to you, about who Peter Parker was. And how I’ve been mentoring Spiderman for the past year, and letting the kid play with all the tech he can get his hands on here.”
Steve had to insert himself again. “Stark, I am so sorry, that was really unfair of me. But we were just rolling with the information we were given. Don’t get too mad at Bruce, he was just trying to look out for the kid by telling us.”
“I knew the whole time the kid was Spiderman and just hanging out with Tony, but this has been really entertaining. So thank you for that boys.” Nat said grinning. I looked him up after Bruce talked to us about it the other day and every trail led to the same place. But Rogers said not to talk about it, so I just let this play out. It’s nice to finally meet you Spiderman. You’ve been doing a real kick ass job in Queens.” She said and went up to shake Peter's hand.
“Thanks Ms. Widow. You kick ass everywhere. I mean you’re so cool. And pretty. I mean pretty cool… uh sorry this is awkward. Not you! You’re not awkward, you’re great! And I'm gonna stop talking now.”Peter rambled. Finally dropping the weirdly long handshake.
“Ok ignoring whatever the hell that was,” Tony said, gesturing around Peter. “We’ll circle back to that later underoos. Nat, that was sadistic. But also kind of hilarious. Next time let me in on it and It’ll be way funnier. Since we’re all on the same page now, I want everyone to talk to him nicely. Play together, have fun, whatever. Bruce, talk to the tiny nerd about gama. Peter… hands to yourself from now on. Come down to the lab when you're ready.”
Peter never did end up going to the lab that evening, he was too busy hanging out with superheroes. But man was Ned gonna laugh at this story.