Its not like class is boring, its not exactly, its just that Peter keeps sending him pictures and Tony has a small attention span, okay? He can be the bigger man and admit that he’s got less of an attention span than a very stupid goat and he doesn’t even like pastel pink but he very much likes the idea of Peter using those pretty pink cuffs on him. Rhodey, maybe because he senses Tony’s distraction, looks over at his phone and squints, giving Tony a funny look. Tony shrugs because he’s not about to be repentant about the stuff he’s into. Rhodey rolls his eyes at him and that’s rude, hurtful even.
He’s quickly distracted by another picture and where is all of this coming from? Okay, so like, Tony isn’t complaining exactly but also he wouldn’t have taken Peter for they type to want to gag people. He didn't take himself for someone who wanted to be gagged. Not that he’s complaining. Rhodey looks over again and this time he gets an even more what the fuck look and Tony rolls his eyes. “You don’t have a right to say shit after Camilla!” Tony hisses and Rhodey sinks in his seat.
“It was one time,” he mumbles.
“Bullshit, we both know that’s not true so get that look off your face,” Tony tells him.
Carol half turns in her seat, “tell me what weird shit Rhodey was into that’s less weird than the weird shit you’re into,” she says. “Vanko makes me want to die.”
Vanko makes everyone want to die but Tony doesn’t says that. “Tell me what’s more normal, cuffs and gags or pretending to be dead turning sex,” he says, raising an eyebrow.
The look on Carol’s face is so worth outting Rhodey like that and he doesn’t even care that Rhodey kicks him under their shared table. “Bro what the fuck? Are you a Brooklyn Nine Nine skit? Obviously Tony is more normal than you, you fucking freak,” she tells him.
“It was one time and and Tony is the one being tied up,” he says like that matters.
Carol squints, “the fuck is the implication here? That omegas tying up alphas is somehow less normal than fake corpse fucking? Because its so not and also what’s the problem if Tony’s into it?” she asks.
Rhodey rolls his eyes, “you wouldn’t get it,” he mumbles and Carol snorts.
“Yeah, I don’t get weird macho alpha attitude. I don’t see why you guys need to think you should be like that and-” her words are cut off by Vanko.
“Something to share with the class, Danvers?” he asks and Carol, because she has just as little shame as Tony, whips around.
“Votes, what’s weirder- an omega tying an alpha up or pretending to be dead durning sex?” she asks and the class collectively makes a disgusted noise. “There you have it Rhodes, you’re wrong according to everyone in this room.”
“Bro what the fuck?” someone says from the front of the room and Tony has never talked to him before but he looks damn confused.
“It was one time!” Rhodey says, “don’t act like y’all have never done it.”
Everyone, but especially Vanko, looks confused. “That is perhaps the boldest claim I have every had anyone make in this classroom and I once had a student tell me the earth was flat. What, pray tell, led to this being brought up in theoretical physics?”
“Oh, this class makes me want to kill myself so I was sexting my boyfriend,” Tony says, absolutely shameless. Carol lets out a sharp snort and starts laughing and Tony grins while the rest of the class dissolves into giggles too, though slightly uncomfortable.
*
Tony knows he’s not really any good at this and he’s like ninety percent sure May hates him. Not that he hasn’t given her good reason to, but still. So he takes a deep breath and knocks on her door hoping she doesn’t immediately kick him out or something. When she answers the door she mostly looks annoyed and confused, which is better than outright pissed so he figures he’ll take it. “Peter isn’t home,” she says like he wouldn’t know that.
“Yeah, he’s at school um. I wanted to talk to you, actually,” he says awkwardly. God, he hates this. He should have just bypassed this stupid step and went straight to Peter because he’s the one who’s opinion matters anyway.
May squints at him like maybe she thinks he’s stupid or something and he will give her that, he’s not smart for a genius. Not when it comes to people anyway, or at least not this kind of thing. “What could you possibly want to talk to me about?” she asks, clearly baffled.
He doesn’t know if he should be offended or not or... well, he doesn’t know what the hell to expect. “Uh... Peter,” he says slowly, which mostly results in an even more confused look.
“I’m sure Peter is fine,” she says and she’d know, Tony supposes, she lives with him.
“Not what I- you know what, I’m just going to get to the point. I um. Want to court him, formally,” he says. When she looks confused he wonders if maybe this is another one of those rich people holding onto old traditions for way too long as some sort of stupid status symbol type thing like omega balls but May decides to clear things up before he has to ask.
“You’ve got balls, I’ll give you that,” she says and oh, great, he already figured she didn’t approve. “And you look... relieved?” she asks more than states, clearly confused.
“I’m pretty used to people not liking me much, can’t say I blame you in this case uh- Point is I actually really like Peter. And I mean normally I think asking for permission to date someone is antiquated at best and insulting at worst given that you know, this is Peter’s choice, not either of ours and asking your permission like that matters more than his is bananas offensive on account of it kind of strips him of his ability to speak for himself but uh. The point, yeah, is that you’re the only one he’s got left. His parents are dead, his uncle is dead, and yeah, normally I’d bypass the whole asking permission thing because its kind of bullshit but in Peter’s case I know how much it would mean to him, if you actually gave me permission. You know, on account of everyone else is dead.”
Its not until he gets all that out that he realizes it kind of sounds like a dick move to rub all May’s dead relatives in her face so he’s a little confused when she looks surprised. “That’s... surprisingly well thought out,” she says.
Tony shrugs, “I mean, sure. Just seemed like something Peter would appreciate.”
May considers him for a moment, clearly unsure what to make of this before she crosses her arms over her chest. “What’s Peter’s favorite color?” she asks and that has to be some kind of joke.
“Is... is that a real question?” he asks, confused.
“Well apparently Quentin didn’t know what his favorite color was, so yes,” she says.
Tony blinks rapidly, confused. “He didn’t guess that they guy who wears a freakish amount of baby pink, with his room painted baby pink, who actively goes out of his way to buy things that are baby pink’s favorite color is baby pink? What a fucking dildo,” he says, absolutely baffled at how a person couldn’t know that. Even Rhodey could have passed that test and he’s met Peter like seven times.
“You don’t happen to know more about their relationship, do you?” May asks and no, not exactly but that doesn’t mean Tony knows nothing either.
“I don’t think so but let me tell you Peter has asked permission to do some strange shit. Like I don’t give a damn what he posts to his social media accounts, that’s his business. And I don’t care what he does with his friends, and why the fuck would he need my permission to do that anyway? Every time he says or does something weird like that I’m just a little bit more glad I broke that asshole’s nose. Even if it was an accident,” he says.
May frowns, “how do you do that by accident?” she asks and Tony sighs.
“Spend enough time with me and you’ll learn to do all sorts of things by accident that wouldn’t normally seem like things you can do by accident,” he says. “But I maintain that he had it coming.”
*
When Peter gets home he’s ready to have a five day nap but the moment he sees May and Tony sitting at their small kitchen table he goes into panic mode instead. “Hey Tony, what are you doing here?” he asks nervously, eyeing May and she doesn’t look impressed. Oh god he can only imagine what kind of information Tony let loose out of nervousness. He’s a nervous babbler and Peter doesn’t want May to know anything. Or more accurately more than she already knows.
Tony turns around looking just as irritated as May and that doesn’t say anything good. “We’re bonding over how much we hate your ex,” he says and Peter relaxes.
“Oh thank god, yeah, Quent sucks,” he says, deciding to use his newfound energy to get a drink. He’d been worried there, for a moment but with the knowledge that they’re not annoyed with each other Peter figures he’s fine.
“You’re okay, right, Peter?” May asks as he rummages around in the fridge. That... hurts to hear so he takes a few moments before locating a Redbull and pulling it from its hiding spot behind an old can of peas.
“I’m fine, May,” he says honestly. “I got tired of his garbage eventually.” Well, more like Tony in comparison was like a billion times better and he wasn’t even trying. Still, point still stands, he learned that Quent was maybe totally shit for him and he should move on. Its not like he was much better, mostly they just brought out the worst in each other.
“Not tired enough, I know he still texts you all the time,” Tony says.
So he does, but he’s been learning to keep his distance. Peter wonders if maybe its a calm before the storm type thing but he hopes not. he hopes Quent gets over himself and moves on and leaves him alone. He’s happy with Tony despite everyone’s worries and they’ve been together for awhile. He thinks they’ll do okay.
“He’ll get bored eventually,” Peter says and he can see that both May and Tony have their doubts, they actively exchange a look about it and that floors Peter honestly, but neither of them say anything. Peter maintains that Quent will eventually get bored, its just that he’s like a dog with a bone until he knows for sure he’s not getting his way. Maybe it should have sunk in by now but Peter knows it will, eventually.
Tony and May turn back to each other and May gives him a small nod that leaves Tony looking weirdly excited. Peter is going to need at least one more Redbull to deal with this cryptic shit.
*
Peter kind of wants to know who freaks out the most, Ned or Liz. MJ will keep her cool because she’s not a crazy person but Liz and Ned are dramatic and romantic at heart so he’s curious as to who will do what. The few people that see him walk in give him a double take but he ignores that as he makes his way to his and Ned’s locker. Ned should probably already be there, more than likely having hitched a ride with Liz, so he figures he’ll get his answer soon enough.
He’s surprised to see MJ there also given that she usually takes the bus and the bus takes eight hundred years to get to school but maybe Liz picked her up too. When they look over he’s excited, almost as excited as he was when Tony gave him the collar to begin with. He’s managed to keep this a secret all weekend so he could get a proper reaction out of them today, unaffected by previous knowledge and bad phone pictures.
Ned and Liz look shocked and he’s sure either one of them would have said something but MJ shoves them both out of the way to walk over to him first. Liz ends up in the middle of the hallway and Ned ends up halfway in their locker as MJ tilts his head to the side. “Okay, eat the rich and all that but that’s a fucking nice collar,” she says. “When the hell did you get that?”
“Friday,” he says excitedly.
MJ, Ned, and Liz all make an offended noise. “And you just said something?” Ned asks, betrayal face on.
“I wanted you guys to have a better view than a cell phone camera picture,” he says. “He asked May if he could give me the collar,” he adds.
MJ wrinkles her nose and he figured she’d do that. “Kinda gross,” she says and Peter sighs.
“He didn’t ask like that. He said he thought I might like if my only living relative actually approved of my relationship. Otherwise he said he thought asking for someone else’s permission for a decision that’s mine is an asshole thing to do because it says he cares more about their opinion on my relationship than my opinion on my relationship.” And Peter thought that was sweet, and he’d had a nice conversation with May afterward. He knows she’s worried about him still but she shouldn’t be because Tony is really sweet and supportive. And he lets Peter experiment with things that interest him not that he’s about to tell May about his interest in bondage, that’d be like... way too much information.
“Alright, back in my good graces but he’s on thin fucking ice,” she says. “And he has good taste,” she adds, nodding at the thin rose gold metal collar around his neck. Peter loves it, loves that it matches most of what he owns for outfits too and he knows Tony did that purposefully. Especially since if Tony had his way he’d wear a hell of a lot more red. Peter doesn’t see his obsession with the color but Tony doesn’t get his thing with pink either so they’re even.
“I can’t believe you didn’t tell us he gave you a collar until today,” Ned says. “We’ve been bamboozled,” he adds dramatically. Liz nods along in agreement and MJ rolls her eyes.
“Dramatic sea goblins,” she accuses.
*
Peter doesn’t really mean for Tony to find the cuffs, he knows the picture he took of them was nice enough to pass for a stock photo so its not like Tony knew he had them but he finds them nonetheless. Peter’s about to tell him they don’t really mean much, he got them forever ago and Quent threw a fit about it and that led to their first breakup though he came crawling back the next day after one of his teammates decided to hit on Peter but still.
Tony doesn’t throw a fit though, or break up with him. Instead he looks at them kind of like he’s located the holy grail and that’s... well, Peter has wanted to use them on someone since he got them not that he had a willing partner until recently. “So you’re like... actually okay with those?” he asks and Tony frowns at him.
“At what point did I indicate I wasn’t?” he asks and Peter pauses for a moment, biting his lip. Tony rolls his eyes, “I don’t want to know what Quentin did about it,” he mumbles, accurately guessing the problem here. Peter has found that a good number of his problems boil down to Quent.
“I mean, text messages are one thing, real life is another,” he points out. Obviously the distinction doesn’t matter to Tony with the way he’s eyeing the cuffs in his hands.
He considers them for a moment before turning to Peter. “We’re all going on a vacation of sorts to Malibu and you’re done school by the time we’re leaving. Want to come?” he asks.
That’s... a change in subject. “If May lets me, sure. Who counts as ‘we’?” he asks.
“Carol, Maria, Rhodey, and me. And you too, if you can. And bring the cuffs. And that ball gag, if you’ve got that lingering around somewhere too,” he says, looking around like Peter keeps that kind of thing lingering around for May to find.
He smiles a little, reaching under his bed and pulling out a box. He hands it to Tony, who takes that as an opportunity to snoop through it, finding that ball gag fast. He finds the rest of the set too and his reaction is pretty much the same as when he found the cuffs. Peter feels a little flush of excitement at the possibility that Tony might actually let him try some of this stuff out and he’s got like a million ideas and he really, really wants to put them to the test.
Tony sets the box aside and all but drags Peter into his lap, “please tell me you have more of that stuff,” he says.
Peter wrinkles his nose a little, “I don’t, it took me forever to get all that as it was.” That stuff isn’t cheap and Peter did his research, he got nice stuff not that it amounted to anything. He’s not entirely sure why he got more stuff after Quent lost it about cuffs of all things. He thinks the flogger is more worthy of freaking out over, not that its that bad, but no. Cuffs.
The last thing he expects is for Tony to all but shove a card into his hand, “buy whatever you want,” he tells him and Peter raises an eyebrow.
“Seriously?” he asks and Tony nods. Wow, okay. “Do I um. Have a budget?”
Tony squints for a moment, like the idea is foreign to him and Peter figures maybe it is. He looked up the price of his collar and almost had a heart attack at the ripe old age of seventeen. Well, almost eighteen but still. “Uh. I don’t know, what’s a small number to poor people? Like five thousand dollars?” he says and Peter can’t help the wheeze he lets out.
“What the fuck? How is that a small number?” he asks, mind absolutely boggled.
“That’s not a very large number, Peter,” Tony says and Peter snorts.
“Oh, as I poor person I know that’s not a lot of money, that’s like... half of what most poor people make in a year,” he says and at least Tony looks baffled now.
“How does anyone live off that?” he asks and Peter rolls his eyes.
“They don’t, babe. Hence being poor. Five thousand dollars, that’s the lowest number you could pull out of your ass?” he asks, shaking his head.
Tony looks like he’s trying to figure out poor people bills for a half a moment before he shakes his head and leaves it be. “Whatever, doesn’t matter at the moment. Spend whatever you want. Replenish that lingerie stock I’m sad I never got to see,” he says.
Peter snorts, “you would want me to do that,” he says.
Tony shrugs, unrepentant. “I mean, yeah. I got like, a small taste before May decided to ruin my fun before I even got to really experience it,” he says, pouting.
Peter laughs, shaking his head. “Okay, sure. I’ll get whatever I want,” he says like he won’t feel guilty immediately after buying anything.