Chapter 50
"Harry," a soft voice called, "Harry, wake up."
Harry lifted his head, squinting as his eyes adjusted to the lights of the kitchen. As his bleary eyes focused, he realized that Peter was leaning across the counter, a lopsided grin on his face.
"Peter!" Harry exclaimed, suddenly becoming infinitely more awake. "What are you doing here? I thought you weren't coming until tomorrow night!"
Peter just giggled and blushed coyly. "You have lines from your sweater on your face."
It was Harry's turn to blush as his hand flew to his face where he could physically feel the indentions that his jumper (that was actually Steve's, because he liked his clothes to swallow him) had left.
"You didn't answer my question," Harry mumbled, standing up and walking around the island and giving Peter a hug.
"Mister Stark asked if I wanted to come over, and I had finished my homework, so I said 'yeah, sure!'" Peter gave Harry's forehead a light kiss. Harry instinctively leaned into Peter's warm embrace, enjoying the sense of security it provided.
"What would you like to do today?" Peter brushed an unruly strand of hair out of Harry's face and smiled at him lovingly. Harry bit his lip and glanced back at the notebook and StarkPad that were sitting at the counter.
"Don't worry about that," Peter took a step towards it and pushed it away lightly. "What would you like to do?"
"Can we go down to Lily's? I want to finish decorating, and try out the new appliances," Harry spoke sheepishly. It sounded silly that, of all things to get his mind off of the wedding planning and the bakery's opening, he wanted to go to the shop and bake. But Peter knew that this was something Harry did to unwind, and he was willing to do anything to help.
"Of course. Let's go clear this with Mister Stark, and we'll go," Peter clasped Harry's hand in his own and pulled him towards the elevator, leaving all of the worries and stress on the counter behind them.
*
"You should have known that dad would send us in a car. He hates when we take the subway ourselves," Harry chuckled, stepping out of the sleek Mercedes that Tony had ordered to take them to the bakery.
Peter rolled his eyes, but he couldn't help but smile. He had been taking the subway by himself for what seemed like forever. But he knew that, if it came down to it, he could handle himself in a dangerous situation. Deep down, he knew Harry could too, but he still understood Tony's worry nonetheless. It was hard to imagine that his delicate, quiet and scarred boyfriend had fought in and won a war.
"Come on! I can't wait to show you the changes we've made since you were last here!" Harry pulled Peter towards the door, digging the key out of his pocket and unlocking the bakery door. The door now bore the Lily's logo design, with the word scrawled out in beautiful, easy to read cursive. It was simple, but elegant- perfect for the simple yet elegant building.
As Harry pushed open the door and flipped on the lights, Peter's mouth dropped open in surprise. The building had been completely transformed since the last time that he had been there. String lights had been strung across the ceiling in a zig-zagged pattern, the bulbs glowing brightly and bathing the bakery in soothing warm white.
The two walls of windows had been left without decorations, however the brick wall that had a small sitting bar fixed to it was decked out with photos from all over the city, ranging in all different sizes.
Behind the display cases and counter where the cash register would be was a large chalkboard, where someone with perfect handwriting had written out the entire menu and prices, along with a short description of the item.
Peter was in awe.
"Harry, this is... wow. I can't believe all of the work that you've done in here- it's beautiful," Peter breathed. Harry blushed, accepting the compliment gratefully.
"You haven't even seen my favorite part yet," he smiled, pulling Peter through the hinged double doors that swung open easily as they entered the kitchen.
Peter's eyes grew wide as he took in the immaculate, high-tech kitchen that Harry was showing him.
"I don't even know what half of this is, but holy shit, this is insane," Peter managed to say, looking around from appliance to appliance.
Harry grinned and wrapped his hands around Peter's waist, pulling his boyfriend into a loving kiss- a bold move that he never could have imagined that he would ever initiate.
"How about I show you how they work? You may, if you're nice, get some cookies out of it," Harry bantered playfully, pulling away from Peter and walking around to the other side of the counter.
Peter bit his lip as if to contemplate this for a moment, being over dramatic (a skill he had mastered from his mentor, the great Tony Stark) in his thought process.
"Oh alright, you twisted my arm," Peter giggled, bounding over to where Harry was pulling out some ingredients that he had stocked up on for later this week when he would introduce Caroline to the kitchen and all of his recipes.
As Harry began to teach, Peter couldn't help but let his focus wander from the ingredients laid out in front of them to his beautiful boyfriend standing beside him.
Harry blushed as he dumped the flour into the bowl, feeling Peter's eyes watching him intently. Turning, he looked up at Peter's goofy grin and beautiful brown puppy-dog eyes.
"You, Mr. Parker, are not paying attention," Harry chastised in a low voice, raising his eyebrows questioningly.
"I'm sorry, I guess I'm just a bit distracted," Peter murmured, taking a step closer to Harry and turning him so that he was leaning against the counter.
Harry braced his hands against the counter as Peter leaned in to kiss him. Deciding that he wasn't going to let him off that easily, he reaching into the flour and tossed a bit into Peter's face (making sure that his eyes were closed so that he wouldn't blind him), and lightly smudging the flour on his nose.
Peter jumped away, momentarily taken aback before he saw Harry giggling, hand coated in white, before he chuckled.
"Oh you're on!" Peter exclaimed, reaching for the bag of his own and tossing the flour at Harry, who turned away with a staccato shout.
The kitchen soon became a war zone, flour and chocolate chips flying all over, with Peter and Harry both covered head to toe with more ingredients than were in the bowl.
Finally, both collapsed into a heap of giggles, breathing heavily and exhausted from the food fight. Harry sat up, wiping his glasses clean before sliding them back on his face and bursting out laughing once more.
"Look at you!" He cried, pointing at Peter, whose shirt that was at one point red, was now almost completely pink with a thick coat of flour covering it.
"Look at you! You're a mess!" Peter quipped, laughing hysterically. Harry looked down at his own clothes, noticing that he was caked in flour and baking soda.
"I'm going to be finding chocolate chips in my hair for weeks!" Peter giggled, raking his hand through his curls and pulling out a few of the sweet baking chips.
Harry rolled his eyes dramatically with a mock-exasperated sigh before pulling out his wand and waving it around the room in a lazy sweeping gesture. Peter watched in amazement as everything was suddenly put back in place and clean of all mess.
"Your turn," Harry grinned mischievously, pointing his wand at Peter whose eyes grew wide as a warm glow was cast upon him. It felt weird, but not uncomfortable, as the flour and chocolate chips vanished, no signs of ever being there. Harry proceeded to do the same to himself, before carefully rising to his feet.
"How about we put on some music and actually finish the cookies?" Harry smiled, helping Peter to his feet.
"I think that's a good idea," Peter chuckled, turning to the radio and tuning it to a station that he and May listened to a lot while they cleaned or fixed dinner. The song that had been playing drew to a close, and Peter walked over to where Harry was tossing in the chocolate chips and had began to ball the dough and place it on the cookie sheets.
"Oh I love this song," Peter spoke, wrapping his arms around Harry's waist as the next song began to play. Gently, he turned Harry around and guided his boyfriends arms to wrap around his neck as he began to sway back and forth. Harry smiled, leaning into Peter's embrace as he listened to the song.
Put your head on my shoulder,
Hold me in your arms, baby
Squeeze me oh-so-tight
Show me
That you love me too
Peter smiled down at Harry, noticing that his boyfriend had done as the song said, and had rested his head on his shoulder. Pulling Harry even tighter, the swayed back and forth as the song continued.
Put your lips next to mine, dear
Won't you kiss me once, baby?
Just a kiss goodnight, maybe
You and I will fall in love
Peter pressed his lips to the top of Harry's head, and quietly began to sing along to the song as they danced.
People say that love's a game
A game you just can't win
If there's a way
I'll find it someday
And then this fool will rush in
Put your head on my shoulder,
Whisper in my ear, baby
Words I want to hear, tell me
Tell me that you love me too
Harry looked up at Peter, eyes swimming with tears of happiness as he whispered.
"I love you too."
*
"What're you smiling about over there, Stark?" Clint joked, watching as Tony's face slowly grew brighter and brighter until he was practically beaming to himself.
Clint rounded the desk, looking at what Tony was watching on the StarkPad. Beside him, Pepper and Natasha appeared as well.
"Isn't this kind of an invasion of their privacy?" Nat questioned, looking between Tony and Pepper with raised eyebrows.
"I was just checking the security cameras to make sure they were working, and I caught this. I couldn't look away," Tony replied, not taking his eyes off the screen where he was watching his kids slow dance.
Natasha looked towards Pepper, who she knew would be the one to shut something down if she felt it was inappropriate. She was surprised, however, to see Pepper biting back a smile of her own as she watched the two teenagers slow dance.
"They're so happy," Pepper murmured, leaning down and wrapping her arms around Tony's neck as they watched the two. Tony reached up and squeezed her arm lovingly with a calloused hand, leaning into her shoulder.
"They are. Finally, they really are."