I Met You in a Dream - Starker

Chapter 4

“You seem happy,” Wanda said with a smile as she approached Tony in the lab the following morning after receiving a text from Tony telling her to meet him.

Much to her surprise, she had walked in on him humming along with the music blasting through the lab, nodding his head to the beat as he flitted around to various monitors. Tony had always looked on edge to her; even during peaceful times he gave off the appearance of being too tightly wound. She imagined he had been that way since the Battle of New York. But at that moment, he looked…relaxed.

“Mute, baby girl,” he instructed to F.R.I.D.A.Y. who obediently ceased the music in order for the two to communicate without shouting over ACDC. Turning his attention back to Wanda, he shrugged with a grin. “What can I say; it’s a good morning. I got a whopping five hours of sleep.”

Having fallen asleep with Peter cradled in his arms, Tony had one of the best nights of sleep that he could remember. He had spent god only knows how long just watching the sleeping figure wrapped around him, carding his fingers through the boy’s curls and wondering if this was his reward for his previous sacrifice.

As much as he had hated tearing himself away from the very nude boy lying in his oversized bed, he figured the faster they finished with Wanda’s conundrum, the faster he could go back to said boy with breakfast in bed, which would hopefully result in another few rounds. “And I bring good news on Vision’s location. F.R.I.D.A.Y. is just wrapping up the final five-mile radius as we speak. Should only take another couple of minutes.”

Relief washed over Wanda hearing the news Tony presented to her. While she would never question the intelligence of Tony Stark, it had seemed like a longshot for such an impossible task. She knew there were additional struggles ahead once she actually found Vision, but what had seemed like the biggest hurdle was accomplished. “Thank you, Tony,” she said with sincere appreciation, full well knowing that the man had accomplished it purely out of the goodness of his heart. If not for her, then for Vision. If only there was something she could do in return…

But then she remembered how at ease the man looked; pure happiness lighting up his face. Perhaps she had, in a way, already helped in return. “I take it you spoke to Peter?” she asked smugly, having known all along that the boy telling his mentor the truth was the best thing for the both of them.

Tony’s eyes lit up when she mentioned Peter. “Ah, so you’re the reason he decided to confess, huh?” He couldn’t help the smile that broke out on his face, remembering fondly to the previous night when Peter had looked like a deer in the headlights, struggling to find the words he needed to tell him how he felt. After he had said as much, Tony decided to put him out of his misery and kiss him then and there. Sure, it wasn’t quite yet the boy’s graduation, but he had always had an unspoken rule that his plans could change if Peter was the one to approach him.

He also hadn’t expected everything that followed, but he was grateful that it did. There hadn’t been much talking after, so he hoped he had made it clear to Peter that he wanted it to be ongoing and not just a one-time fling. Though, knowing the boy like he did, he had the feeling that wouldn’t be a problem.

Wanda felt another burst of alleviation, hearing that Peter had actually listened to her and done as he was told. While she thought it was somewhat odd that Tony seemed jovial about this update, she was just grateful that there hadn’t been disastrous consequences. While she firmly believed the boy was in the wrong for what he had done, she knew that there hadn’t intentionally been any malfeasance behind it. “I may have guided him in the right direction,” she said.

Tony laughed. “For the record, I already knew.” Wanda froze. Tony was intelligent, but there was no scenario in which someone, especially someone with little involvement in magic, would possibly have deduced what had happened to Peter. “He’s not exactly subtle. If he hadn’t confessed, it was only a matter of time before I cracked under pressure.”