Chapter 6
Tony isn’t facing the elevator when Peter stumbles out onto his floor of the Tower. “Welcome home party animal. When Happy said he wasn’t coming to get you anymore I decided to wait up for you.” Peter suppresses a groan, those drinks he gulped down too fast are really starting to not agree with him.
“So, tell me all about your wild night. Who broke up? Who hooked up? Did someone spike the punch?” He stumbles over to the sink, letting Tony’s words wash over him, totally blinded by his desperate need for a glass of water. “Peter?” Tony gets up from his seat leaving whatever he was doing on his tablet (probably work) on the sofa. “Are you okay kid?” Watching Tony’s expression morph from confusion, to concern, to angry and back to concern when he finally sets his eyes on the boy is really something to behold. It also confirms Peter’s suspicions as to just how awful he looks right now.
“Had a little too much fun?” Peter groans pitifully in response. Tony is clearly annoyed but he pushes it aside to take pity on his son. “Right kid, let’s get you to bed.” The older man hooks an arm around Peter’s shoulders and helps guide the boy towards his bedroom. “Don’t think you’re in the clear though, we are definitely having a conversation about this tomorrow.”
Tony places a glass of water on the bedside table as Peter burrows into the covers, the soft sensation of the bed making him feel slightly less ill. He sighs into the feeling of Tony running a careful hand through his hair. “Pete, before you drift off, do you think you might be sick?” Peter manages to whisper out a ‘no’ which satisfies Tony enough. “Okay. I’m gonna stay here for a bit just in case.”
In his alcohol daze Peter is vaguely aware of Tony settling into the armchair in the corner of his room, but he could also swear down the room is spinning so he’s not sure how much he should really be trusting his own judgement.
Before long the spinning stops and Peter falls into a deep sleep.
---
Peter regrets the decision to open his eyes the second it happens. The morning light is streaming through his window completely unobstructed causing him to wince away from the light in a way that makes his head pound painfully. He feels like he’s been thrown into a brick wall, and he knows from experience what that feels like.
The brunette pushes himself up into a sitting position and is thankful to find a fresh glass of water and two pain killers waiting for him. The pain killers won’t be of any great help, thanks to the enhanced metabolism, but they might take the edge off slightly. Peter’s not the biggest fan of his mutated abilities right now, they’ve screwed him a bit too much lately for his liking.
He doesn’t really remember making his way back to the Tower or getting into bed, but what does stand out brighter than all other memories from last night is the kiss he shared with a boy he finally admitted to having a massive crush on.
Even now, sober, in the light of day Peter feels lightheaded and giddy at the memory. He almost can’t quite believe it happened however as he stumbles out of bed and catches sight of himself in the mirror there is a painfully glaring reminder of the night displayed clear on his face.
The black eye isn’t as bad as it probably looked a few hours ago, okay maybe he’s back on better terms with the enhanced healing, but it’s clearly still a black eye blooming across the right side of his face. There is absolutely no way he’s gonna be able to hide this from Tony and Steve.
Speaking of his adoptive parents, Peter’s super hearing picks up on their voices in his kitchen area. They’re laughing and he can hear Steve singing along to a song on the radio despite Tony’s pleas to stop. Peter is desperately hoping the cheerful mood the pair are in might mean he escapes any punishment or serious chat about underage drinking, but that isn’t how his luck works so he isn’t holding out hope.
Steeling himself for the conversation that is about to take place Peter leaves the safety of his bedroom and pads down the hallway towards the kitchen.
“There he is! Our resident merrymaker Peter Benjamin Parker, party animal extraordinaire.” Tony is speaking very loudly and given the smirk on his face Peter has no doubt that he’s doing it on purpose. He glares intensely at the man as he slides onto the stool beside him at the breakfast bar. “Whoa! That wasn’t there last night.” Tony’s face shifts from amusement to concern and Peter really hopes he doesn’t have to see the alarm on Tony’s face again anytime soon. He really needs to not do anything for at the next forty-eight hours that could cause worry or any level of anxiety to either of his parents.
Steve makes his way onto their side of the breakfast bar, discarding the toast he was making in the process, to carefully take Peter’s face in his hands. “Who did this?” The seriousness of Steve’s voice conveys the intensity of Captain America, rather than Steve Rogers who makes the Avengers pancakes and sings along to Ariana Grande songs. Peter suddenly understands why bad guys think twice before taking this man on.
Peter manages to push Steve’s hands away but Tony is glaring now too, something murderous burns behind both of their eyes. A parental need to protect that Peter hasn’t seen since May found out that Flash sabotaged his science project three years ago. Despite all the tension and anger a warm and happy feeling settles in Peter’s chest.
“It’s nothing honestly. Some kids were fighting, I tried to break it up and one of them hit me accidentally.” This seems to placate the men however now that the black eye is no longer an issue they get back to the drinking.
“Okay, so we have to talk about last night.” Peter says nothing, just nods in agreement to Steve’s words. “We understand that you’re young and there are pressures when you go to parties. But we trusted you Peter, and you let us down.” The disappointment is clear across both of his parent’s faces and Peter thinks it would be better if they were screaming and shouting instead.
Tony clears his throat. “I don’t have a good relationship with alcohol Peter. That much is well documented in the press, and my issues started when I was your age.” Steve rests a supportive hand on his husband's shoulder. “I’m not saying you’ll end up like me but I’m sure as hell going to do everything I can to make sure you don’t.”
There’s silence for a few seconds as the words and disappointment hang in the air between the trio.
“I’m really sorry I upset you both. If it’s any comfort at all, I don’t wanna drink ever again. I feel awful.”
Both men crack smiles at that, the tension leaving the room. “Strangely, it does make me feel better.” Tony laughs as Steve smacks him on the head.
“Well it doesn’t make me feel better. Let’s get some food in you Pete, you won't feel as sick after that.” Steve drops a kiss onto Peter’s hair as he walks past, Tony does the same on the way to the fridge leaving the boy blushing on his barstool.
A plate of toast, eggs and bacon alongside a giant mug of coffee are placed in front of Peter and he practically inhales the food after the smell makes him realise just how hungry he is. While he eats Peter decides to check his phone which has been buzzing since he woke up this morning.
He has several text messages from Ned gushing about how well he got along with Liz, Peter decides those can wait as there are far more pressing text messages. First there’s one from MJ asking where he went last night and asking if he’s okay. Then there are the texts that make his heart flip, three messages from Harry.
‘Hope you got home okay.’
‘Good morning, can’t stop thinking about you :)’
‘Call me when you can <3’
“I know that look.” Steve is smiling knowingly at Peter from the other side of the island. “Texting a certain pretty girl by any chance?”
Peter laughs the man off and feigns innocence about the whole situation, desperately hoping the whole topic will be dropped. Thankfully Tony chooses that moment to walk back into the room, hanging up a call as he walks.
“Alright love of my life,” Peter tries not to roll his eyes, his parents are so in love. “we are all set; they’ll be expecting us within the next few days.”
The pair launch into a conversation that involves a lot of enthusiastic hand waving and laughing.
“Okay I need to go start getting everything ready, and you need to let everyone else know. Peter,” The boy looks up at Tony, pretending he hasn’t been listening in this whole time. “we have something exciting to talk to you about, but right now we need to go and put some things in order, so can we schedule a conversation for after dinner?”
He nods. “Yeah of course. I was gonna go see Harry anyway… Check in to make sure he didn’t get in too much trouble for last night… If that’s okay with you?”
Steve smiles kindly, obviously pleased with Peter’s commitment to his friends. Little does he know Peter’s real intentions for going to see the Osborn boy. “Sure it is son, if you go out just be back home for six at the latest. Alright?”
---
After texting back and forth for a while the boys decide it would be best for Harry to come over to the Tower, rather than meeting up in public or, God forbid, Peter going to his apartment. JARVIS lets the blonde boy straight in and up to Peter’s floor.
He’s barely stepped out of the elevator before making a beeline towards Peter and tackling him a tight hug.
“Hello to you too.”
“Oh my God Peter.” Harry pulls back and cups Peter’s face in his hands. “Look at your face.” Peter’s head is forcibly turned from side to side as Harry thoroughly inspects the bruise. “Don’t ever do anything like that ever again.”
Peter removes the blonde’s hands from his face and grips them tightly between his own. “Something you’ll figure out pretty quickly is that I kind of attract danger, so I can’t really make any promises.”
Harry looks unimpressed. “Fine.” He wraps Peter into a gentler hug than the last one. “But if your face gets injured again, I’ll be pretty mad. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m kind of fond of it.” Peter blushes furiously shying under Harry’s attention. “See, how could I resist prettiest face around?”
They make their way to the couch, Harry sitting down casually and making himself at home as he always does, Peter hesitates not really sure if he should sit near Harry or not. He’s never been in this situation before.
After watching the brunette struggle to figure out where to sit on his own couch, Harry finds it all very endearing and takes pity on the teen, he grabs Peter’s hand and pulls him down to sit on the couch beside them with hardly any space between the pair.
“JARVIS?”
“Yes, Master Obsorn?”
“Could you put on the TV for us?”
“It would be my pleasure sir.”
Once again Harry’s coolness astounds Peter who is far too awkward for his own good in every situation, even in his own home. The boys settle in against the couch to watch what JARVIS has selected for them, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
Slowly the two boys slump closer together, Harry’s arm comes up to wrap around Peter’s shoulders and he pulls the other close against him. It’s very cosy and feels right. Being under Harry’s arm, snuggled up against him, feels natural just like everything with the boy does. Peter can’t quite believe he was denying his feelings for the blonde boy for so long. He wants to travel back in time and slap his past self across the face.
He really needs to apologise to Bucky. All the other man had been trying to do was help him feel comfortable being himself, of course he had been right all along, but Peter had been unwilling to admit it and he’d been awful to Bucky in the process.
He still isn’t really sure what this is between himself and Harry. Are they boyfriends? Or just close friends who kiss sometimes?
What does this mean for himself? What label does he use? Gay, or bisexual, or pansexual? It seems like there are too many words and Peter’s mind is slowly getting overwhelmed. He has put off thinking about this for a few months, since Harry came into his life really, and now it’s coming crashing down at once.
Harry’s soft voice breaks him out of his thoughts. “What are you thinking about? I can see the cogs turning in your brain.”
Peter pushes up into sitting, sad about leaving the warmth and comfort of Harry’s embrace, but he feels he has to look at him properly for this conversation. “At the risk of sounding like some pathetic person in a cheesy Rom Com, what is this? What are we?”
Harry’s face breaks into a delighted grin. “You are adorable.” He leans forward to grab Peter’s hands, holding them carefully in his own. “This is whatever we want it to be. Would it help if I told you what I want us to be?” The brunette nods. “Okay, well, I hope I’ve made it clear that I like you… a lot.” Making Peter blush seems to be a goal of Harry’s if the amount which he is causing it to happen is anything to go by. “And I’d really like us to date, maybe? If that’s something you’d like?”
“Um, yeah. Yeah, I’d like that.” Harry darts forward to capture Peter’s lips in a chaste kiss. “If there’s more of that involved, I’m really onboard with the whole dating thing.” The blonde laughs again, his entire face lighting up, eyes crinkling at the corners. Peter decides if Harry’s goal is to make him blush then his will be to make Harry laugh, because he looks beautiful when he does.
“Okay, well I’m glad we have that established.” He pecks Peter on the cheek. “I love being able to do that.” They smile at each other; Peter is certain he has the most love-struck look on his face right now. “But what else was bothering you? Because I know it wasn’t that simple.” How this boy has the power to see straight through him Peter will never know. He must have a spider-sense trained to Peter’s emotions, a Peter-sense.
Peter hesitates, he feels awkward talking about this, he hasn’t even come to terms with everything himself let alone having to put it into words. “I’m…” Harry waits patiently for him to figure out what to say, Peter’s heart flutters with the care being shown to him. After taking a deep breath he begins to speak. “I’m just trying to figure out how I fit into this. I’ve been denying how I feel about you for weeks now,” Peter tries to ignore the look of pride that flits over Harry’s features at his words, but honestly he felt the same when hearing Harry has liked him for so long. “And now that we’re here I don’t know what this means for me.”
“Peter, it doesn’t have to mean anything.” That was probably the last thing he expected to hear. “You’re still you. Still the same geeky, dorky, awkward, adorable mess that you were twenty-four hours ago when you were still pretending not to be blinded by my rugged good looks.” Harry flips his hair jokingly causing Peter to laugh. “Labels are overrated, they only need to mean something if you want them to. I’ve practically known I was gay since the day I could walk, but it isn’t something I feel the need to tell people, unless it comes up. For now, you can just worry about being you. Don’t force yourself into finding a label because you think you have to.”
Overwhelmed with emotion at hearing the exact thing he desperately needed to, even if he hadn’t realised it, Peter closes the gap to hug Harry tightly. “Thank you.”
Important conversations over the boy settle back into each other’s company for a few hours. Peter tries to broach the subject of Norman once but is met instantly with Harry shutting down, so he decides to leave it. They briefly talk about telling other people and agree that it would be best not to tell anyone at first.
About an half an hour before Harry needs to be home a text comes to Peter’s phone reminding him of the one thing he has been deliberately avoiding dealing with. MJ.
“Shit.”
“Whoa, language.” Harry jokes.
Peter hits him on the chest. “Ew, you sound like my dad.”
The text message from MJ is glaring up at him from his phone; ‘Hey, can we talk?’
“Is that from MJ?” Peter nods. “If you want to deal with that now I can go.” Harry begins to stand from the couch.
“No, don’t go.” He pulls Harry back onto the couch. “I’ll reply later. It can wait.” Harry looks like he wants to protest so Peter pulls him into a quick kiss. “Please stay.”
“Well, who am I to protest against such an excellent argument?”
---
Harry leaves just before dinner time. Peter walks him down to the lobby and watches the fancy black car until it is out of sight. When he gets back in the elevator he lets JARVIS take him straight to his parent’s floor.
“Excellent timing Pete, come help Tony chop the tomatoes before he chops off one of his fingers. I can’t handle the whining if he damages his precious hands.”
“Hey! These are the hands of-”
“A creative genius, yes honey I know.” Steve pecks Tony on the lips. “Now hand the knife over to our son and go set the table instead.” Tony is pouting as he storms off to lay placemats and cutlery.
Peter helps prepare the dinner with Steve, although there isn’t much left to do, before long the dinner is ready and being served to just the trio. The two Avengers ask Peter about his day with Harry, he spends the whole conversation desperately hoping his face isn’t flaming bright red and giving away his inner monologue of: I spent all day cuddling and kissing him! He’s cute! I like when he smiles, and he has really pretty eyes!
When they’ve finished eating the dishes get cleared away and the family migrate over to the couches. Peter’s been waiting all day to find out what the exciting news is, it’s taking all of his will power not to outright ask Steve and Tony right this second.
“Okay Peter, we have a proposition for you. I don’t think you’ll say no but please know that you can if you want to.” Tony’s intro doesn’t give anything away and Peter’s curiosity only grows more with each passing second. He simply nods in the hopes that his parents will get a move on and just tell him already.
“We really wanted to take you on a proper vacation this year, but unfortunately some things have come up that we have to go and handle. Nothing bad or dangerous, but important nonetheless.” Steve takes over from Tony. “The place we’re going isn’t your typical holiday destination, but we figured you might like to come regardless of that.”
“You want me to come with you on Avengers business?” Peter is only becoming more confused by the second.
Tony chuckles. “That’s the thing Pete, it’s not really Avengers business. If it was we’d only take a couple of people with us, but as it stands right now everyone else who lives in this tower is coming as well, despite the fact they don’t need to. Everyone has become quite fond of Wakanda, they look for any excuse to go back.”
“Wakanda?!” Peter practically shouts.
“Damn, I let it slip too soon. Sorry Stevie I ruined your big reveal.”
Peter shakes his hands in a sign for Tony to stop talking. “Let’s just rewind for a second. You want me to come to Wakanda with you?”
“Only if you want to.” Steve reiterates. “You’re on summer vacation from school now, I know it isn’t the standard holiday destination, but we thought you might enjoy it.”
“Yes, yes, yes! A thousand time yes!” The smaller boy throws himself at the two superheroes pulling them into a family hug. “This is so cool!” Tony smiles smugly at Steve over Peter’s shoulder, mouthing ‘told you’ at his husband. “When do we leave?”
Tony lays out the plans for Peter who is practically vibrating out of his seat in excitement. They hope to leave early tomorrow afternoon if everyone is ready to go by then. The husbands release the ball of energy that used to be their son as he says he wants to go back, but even as the elevator doors close they can hear him on the phone to Ned telling his best friend the exciting news.
The pair watch him go with fond expressions. “We got lucky didn’t we?” Tony says to his husband, reaching over to hold his hand.
“The luckiest.”