man, that boy so damn good lookin’
Peter’s life was shit. He has accepted this fact.
Okay maybe that’s a bit dramatic but still - the universe hates to see him winning. His life was actually, surprisingly, going well.
He was almost finished with his junior year, and things were good. He had stopped skipping so much school and never doing his homework (even if he stole the answers from Ned , it was a step up from leaving it blank). He had settled into his routine as Spider-man and even made some awesome vigilante allies to watch his back when the Avengers were too big to do so. He was, for once, actually doing really fucking well and experiencing real happiness. So of course, the universe had to go and knock him down and kick in his ribs.
He had his shit figured out, and then there it was. A crippling shift in his worldview that completely breaks his streak of happiness.
Maybe he was being dramatic again, but really, he had just wanted to finish his junior year strong and keep his shit together. So why, why on Gods green earth did he have to go to that party. Why couldn’t he have spent the night in Meds room building legos or watching horror movies on MJs couch?
But no, of course he had to show up to another one of Flash’s extravagant house parties and stand awkwardly in the kitchen, sipping on grossly sweet vodka seltzers and pretending the god awful music wasn’t giving him a blearing migraine.
Flash’s parties were well known for being, well, stereotypical rich kid parties. He has all kinds of alcohol and the biggest speakers known to man in every damn room, multiple dealers ready to set you up and way too people. Seriously, how do you even meet 200 something randos? Peter wasn’t even sure why he still attempted to show up and have fun, considering the fact that any alcohol he drank was absorbed in minutes and his enhanced senses made it his own personal hell.
For some reason, Flash had personally “invited” him to this specific party, something he’s never done for any in the past. And by invited, Peter means that Flash cornered him in the locker room and said he’d “better see you there, or not - I don’t give a shit anyways..” It’s not like Peter can stand Flash, let alone his parties, but something was so pathetic about Flash cornering him and inviting him that Peter felt bad enough to actually show up.
The air was thick with radiating body heat and smoke, and he was just about to head out when he saw it - or him.
Standing under blue led lights in Flash’s absurdly large living room was, to be frank, the hottest man Peter had ever goddamn seen. Of course, there’s nothing gay about h noticing an ethereal stranger - he could admit a dude was hit and be totally straight.
And then it just kept happening. He noticed these beautiful guys around his age, and sometime it started to feel less like admiration and more like attraction. He felt his cheeks heat up and his heartbeat speed up when the cute guy working at the 7-11 near his apartment grazed his hand.
It was something that, while not completely new to him, was slowly spiraling into something he wasn’t all too familiar with. He wanted entirely sure what to do about it either - did he act the cute cashier dude out or ignore all of this?
He had all his shit figured out - everything was fine, and now he was dealing with all these new feelings (or perhaps they ah always been there, lingering in his mind-) and he really, really didn’t know what to do.
And suddenly it was June. The air was thick with heat and school was out, and he was left with all the time in the world to think. So he did.
Whenever he wasn’t skating with Harry or having sleepovers with Med and Mj or even messing around in Tony’s lab, he was thinking. Wondering about all of these feelings and how he felt about them.
Eventually, it stopped being so scary. All of it wasn’t so foreign, and he realized that he had accepted it. Accepted himself. He went even sure what he was - gay, bi, pan. But it doesn’t really matter to him, because he could accept it no matter the label.
And then it was the matter of those he loved, of coming out to them and being honest. With Ned and MJ it was easy - as easy as sharing something to vulnerable could be. They were all sat on the couch, watching The Proposal for the millionth time and seeing who could jug minters the fastest when he said it.
“I’m pretty sure Ryan Reynolds ass made me like dudes, cause I only notice the hot ones that look like him-“
They had all laughed, Ned nearly spewing monster out of his nose and MJ smirking like she always did. They had accepted him, although he had known they would, and the whole thing had so sickeningly sweet he knew he could would never forget it.
Next had been Aunt May, which was certainly more terrifying than his two closest friends. Logically he knew she would accept him, she had accepted him no matter what his whole life - liking boys was barely a scratch on his record of shocking changes. Hell, she accepted him as a spider mutated vigilante - this was minuscule.
And yet anxiety had still settled deep in his gut, leaving him nauseous all day as every worst scenario plagued his mind. Finally, she arrived home from her shift around eight - the sun had begun setting a sun the apartment was suffocatingly warm, but he did it.
He sat next to her on their couch, takeout dish in hand, and with some random black and white movie in the background, he told her as simply and straightforward as his anxious mind could generate.
She had smiled and hugged him, reminding him that nothing could change how much she loved him and that she accepted anything he was as and wanted to be. The whole ordeal had ended with tender “ I larb’s you’s” and Peter was left content.
Of course, the final contender: Tony.
The two had become ultimately inseparable, and Peter had truly grown to respect and love the man. Of course, he had issues with Tony’s billionaire tendency and the man hypocrisy and often struggled to feel dorothy in front of the man. Yet Peter had grown, both physically and mentally since they had first met, and he was no longer afraid to call bullshit to what used to be his childhood favorite.
Similarly to May, he knew that logically, Tony wasn’t homophobic. There wasn’t any reason to him to fear the worst when he had no evidence to say the worst was possible- yet he still felt sick to his stomach.
Due to all of his free time without school, Peter had begun showing up to the compound 3-4 times a week, and it was doing that time that he intended on coming out to Tony.
Tuesday had come and Happy was on his way to pick him up and Peter had planned - keyword planned - to tell Tony that day while they were in the labs.
And yet that time never came. He had tried to find a moment throughout the day, when they were eating takeout or when he had been messing his new prototype web shooters, yet he didn’t have the balls to actually do it.
And then the next day came and went, and suddenly this was completely eating away at his conscience and he knew he wasn’t going to see Tony again until Friday, but he had to get it off his chest. So he decided, at 12 o’clock that night, to simply text the man.
PB&J
hey mr.stark, i kinda need to talk to you about something important
read 12:39
tin man 🦅
What’s up kid? Did something
happen?
sent 12:40
PB&J
nothing happened don’t worry
i just wanted to tell you something kinda big
read 12:42
tin man 🦅
Okay, what’s so big that you needed to text me at 12? Why didn’t you tell me this earlier in person kid?
sent 12:44
PB&J
i just wanted to you tell that
fuck
ignore that i just wanted to tell you
i like guys
as well as girls actually im not really sure what i am i just know im not straight
read 12:44
tin man 🦅
Okay then kid. Thanks for sharing that with me, couldn’t have been easy. That’s probably why you didn’t just tell me in person then, huh. I’m not very good at this stuff Pete, but I want you to know that I support you and that won’t change, no matter what. I want you to be able to tell me this stuff without fear.
sent 12:46
PB&J
um wow
thank you so much mr.stark i think we have a water leak my face is pretty darn wet
that means a lot to me you don’t even know
read 12:47
tin man 🦅
Of course, spider-kid. Now we should both get some beauty rest, I know you need it for that growing body and shit. I’ll see you on Friday, okay Pete?
sent 12:49
PB&J of course you definitely need it old man
thank you again seriously
goodnight see you friday 🔥
read 12:50
tin man 🦅
Goodnight, kid. Don’t let the spiders bite.
sent 12:50
The whole thing had been pretty nerve wracking for Peter. Mad he kind of wished he had had the balls to do it in person, but still, he couldn’t have wished for anything. He felt damn near giddy to know that he was fortunate enough to be surrounded by the most loving and accepting people he
could.
And so, even if his life was shit and the universe hated him - at least he had his family to get through it all with. That was all he needed.