I Met You in a Dream - Starker

Chapter 3

It took Peter the rest of the night to gather his thoughts and prepare what he was going to tell Tony; how exactly he was going to explain that he had knowingly lied about their real meeting and how well he actually knew the man. How to tell the man that the Mr. Stark that Peter knew wouldn’t touch him the way this Tony did.

While there had been no malicious intent with any of his actions, that night he lied awake in his bed, thinking about all the times he had unknowingly manipulated their relationship. All the little lies scattered throughout the past year made his stomach clench. All the previously acquired information he used just to make Tony happy: bringing him his favorite coffee from the shop down the street, telling F.R.I.D.A.Y. to play his favorite band during a lab session, even the choreographed moves they had whenever they fought together. Tony would always comment that they had an unspoken connection with their moves in battle, but a part of Peter always knew it was because he had fought along side him many times in the past.

By the time he gained enough courage to face Tony, it was already the evening of the next day. He trapsed into the lab, lack of sleep apparent in the bags under his eyes.

“There you are,” Tony called out to him, spinning toward him in his chair planted in front of a multitude of screens buzzing with activity. “F.R.I.D.A.Y. said you were holed up in your room since yesterday. Everything okay? You seemed a bit on edge with our visitor.”

Peter attempt to wipe the tiredness from his eyes as he got closer to the man. “I’m fine,” he lied.

“I know she’s a bit…intimidating with all the stories you’ve probably heard, but I don’t want you to worry about her being here. If you want me to kick her to the curb, just say the word,” Tony offered somewhat nervously. He was sincere about the offer, but wasn’t certain of the consequences that particular action would bring about.

“No,” Peter assured him. “No, of course not.” The boy’s stomach fluttered at the idea that his mentor would do just about anything in his power to keep him happy, even if it meant going head-to-head with a witch with an indeterminate amount of power. Besides, he knew how important it was to Tony to ensure that Wanda was on the Avengers side and not be the next big bad for them to deal with. Not to mention sending her away would do nothing to aid him in his current predicament when she could just easily flood Tony’s mind with memories at the snap of a finger.

The fact that the man offered to say no to her spoke volumes. He could have just as easily offered to send Peter away to some fancy hotel or to Tony’s house in California for a miniature vacation, but he didn’t. It warmed him knowing how much the other man wanted him by his side. He idly wondered how much Tony would want him by his side once he knew the truth.

They had been dancing around each other for over a year. Longing glances, lingering touches… Peter knew Tony was a very tactile individual, but it always made him hot under the collar any time Tony’s fingers would dip below the center of his back or when the man would stand far closer than what’s socially acceptable.

Despite the look in Tony’s eyes each time Peter would innocently bend over the table to grab something or strip out of his Spider-Man suit to get into normal clothes, the boy didn’t dare instigate anything.  He didn’t feel he had any right to ask Tony for anything, let alone a date.

And now that date would for sure never happen. He would miss the way his heart would skip a beat with each touch.

“How’s it coming with finding Vision?” Peter finally asked, breaking himself away from spiraling any further. 

“Surprisingly well. Actually, not surprisingly because I’m me, but faster than I estimated,” Tony said smugly. “Fortunately for us, S.W.O.R.D. left in the majority of my coding—probably because they couldn’t understand it—All we did is located redundancies on Earth that match F.R.I.D.A.Y.’s base coding and voila. Lucky for us, he’s still on Earth. Now we’re just narrowing down his exact location. Currently we’re down to a 1,000-mile radius.”