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intothestarkerverse · 5 years ago

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Welcome to My Dark Side (2)

Sequel to ‘Time of Our Lives’

Tony Stark has done his best to fit into the 21st century by embracing his new role, new family, and even his new nicknames. Determined to become a hero worthy of calling Peter Parker his life partner, everything seems to be going better than he could have hoped…until Tony’s efforts to help Peter uncover the truth behind his parents’ death put everything he knows and loves in terrible danger. In the face of absolute darkness, how can love and life survive?

(STORY CONTAINS ENDGAME SPOILERS)

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“You have breakfast yet?” Tony eyed the six year old perched on a stool at his breakfast counter. Her responding expression was beyond her sparse years, little mouth drawn into a serious frown, brows furrowed, dark eyes humorless with their intensity. “Guess I should ask if you had anything good for breakfast, instead, right?” Without waiting for a response, he turned back to his cupboards, plucking two bowls, two spoons, a carton of milk and a box of cereal out before precariously balancing his bounty back across the kitchen to the counter.

Morgan immediately perked up at the sight of the sugary breakfast treat that Pepper tried very hard to keep away from her growing daughter. The fact that she had dumped Morgan on him this morning because she had an early morning conference call with someone in Japan just meant that Tony had a chance to spoil her, and spoil her he would. Tony couldn’t bring himself to look on her as a daughter no matter what genetics said about the matter, but he’d always wanted a little sister and Morgan Stark was special in every single sense of the word. He loved that kid and he’d happily murder anyone who even breathed on her wrong.

Morgan examined the box of cereal carefully as Tony prepared their meal, amused by the sugar-covered pieces of processed grain in the shape of tiny arc reactors and corresponding red and gold iron man helmet-shaped marshmallows. “Let’s not tell your mom about this, huh?”

Morgan cocked her head at him, providing him with a half smirk as she chewed.

“Yeah, okay, don’t know what that means. Kid, you’re the most cryptic six-year-old I’ve ever met.” He enjoyed a few spoonfuls of his own bowl before he thought to ask, “Happy’s taking you to school in a bit, right?” Pepper hadn’t said anything about Tony playing chauffeur, but he also hadn’t been paying much attention when the mother and daughter had arrived early that morning either. Pepper could count her lucky stars that he didn’t require a lot of sleep and that he was still almost obsessively focused on the puzzle that Fury had presented to him after the fundraiser or he’d likely have been down for the count like most of the civilized folk in Manhattan at that hour. As it was, he’d been deeply ensconced in his workshop with something that was going to benefit his future plans with Peter...a project he’d had to artfully hide from Pepper before she connected the dots and realized something he’d rather she not know.

“Mhm,” Morgan barely afforded him a grunted response around her heaping mouthful of cereal. It really was a shame how Pepper fed this kid. Cutting sugar out of her breakfast food regimen was un-American. School plans settled, the two fell into a companionable silence, eating their cereal and glancing over the graphics of the Old Man on the box from time to time. Some kind of idle statistics about his do-gooding and IQ adorned the back. The IQ was off by twenty points. He was going to have to make them fix that.

Tony didn’t realize Morgan had finished her cereal until he looked up from the box to find her staring at him with that same intense expression. “You okay, Maguna?”

“How come you and daddy are the same?”

Tony almost spit his cereal out. Somehow, he managed to swallow it in a gulp and stall for time with a little coffee as he coughed and sputtered on the soggy grain and milk. “Uh, well, it’s just genetics kid. You and the Old Man are a lot alike, too.”

“Um...no. You and daddy are just alike, TJ.”

“Okay...well...there’s an explanation for that...”

Morgan pursed her lips and raised both brows at him, moving to a kneeling position on the stool so she could lay across the counter and reach out to place her hands on his face. “You look just the same. And sound just the same. And your fingers are the same. You’re the same as my daddy.”

Yeah, okay, so she was a Stark and he really should have seen this coming. He could almost pity Howard in this moment if this gave him any clue about what he’d been like as a six year old. Christ. Tony cleared his throat, searching for something to say to explain it all away. Instead, all he could do was stall for time. “How did you figure this out, Kid?”

“Miss Friday helped me.”

“Seriously? What do you have to sat for yourself, Fri?”

“You told me to assist in Morgan’s education whenever possible, Boss.” Tony let out a long sigh, that had not been what he meant. “She asked me about your fingerprints and voice analysis and how they corresponded to Mr. Stark’s so I provided her with detailed comparisons of both.”

Tony tapped the back of the little girl’s hand on his cheek with his finger. “You think you’re pretty smart, don’t you?”

“Cause I am.”

“Mhm, and what made you think to compare my fingerprints and voice with your father’s?”

“My teacher said everybody has a voice that is just their own and not like anybody else in the whole wide world but you and daddy sound just alike. Sometimes when you put me to bed I close my eyes and pretend you’re him.”

God, she was actually trying to kill him, now. Tony felt his throat constrict as he plucked her hands off of his face and gave them a tight squeeze. “I’m not your daddy, Morgan. I wish I was because you’re so damn smart and beautiful and amazing, but I’m not. You’re right, though, I’m not you’re brother either. I just....I really need your mom and everyone else to believe that I am so can this be our little secret and I promise that sometime real soon I’ll sit down and tell you everything, okay? For now...believe me when I tell you that your daddy is out there watching everything you do and he’s so freaking proud of you kid. Whenever you see a rainbow or a shooting star or something crazy good happens to you out of the blue, that’s your dad telling you how much he loves you.”

“3000.”

Tony blinked away the tears in his eyes, clearing his throat and abandoning the counter to tidy up. “Exactly.”

“Boss, Happy is here to pick up Morgan for school...” Saved by the AI.

“You hear that, Maguna? Get a move on or you’ll be late. Wait...I want a hug first. Yep, that’s the stuff right there.” He buried his nose in the little girl’s hair for a moment and gave it a good ruffle with his fingers before he let go. “Be good and kick butt in school, okay? Love you, kid.”

“I love you too, TJ.”

“3000?”

A pause. “2005.”

“Ouch.”

~~~~~

“I’m still not sure about this.”

“What’s not to be sure about, Beautiful? I’ve thought of everything.”

Peter turned back to the holographic read outs with a long sigh. They were blueprints of the old Oscorp labs, or at least what little information Tony had been able to hack his way into at Shield, along with a few other reports that looked like weather and topographic readouts of the area. Peter knew that this was their best bet, but he didn’t like it. He didn’t think he could attribute it to his Spidey Sense, or Peter Tingle as the rest of the Avengers had taken to calling it (thanks to May). No, it didn’t feel quite the same. There was no sense of impending danger, just a heavy blanket of foreboding that was threatening to choke off his air supply. Tony obviously didn’t feel the same, so maybe he was just being silly. Or maybe he wasn’t.

Peter was supposed to tell May that he was going on a spring break trip with Tony, MJ, and Ned. While MJ and Ned were actually going to go to Florida to live it up, he and Tony were heading to upstate New York to infiltrate Osborn’s lab. Ned would be armed with a special Stark Phone that Tony had outfitted with the tech to provide realistic synthetic substitutes of Tony and Peter. If May or Pepper sent texts, they were going to get varied and believable responses meant to replicate the young men’s actual speech and text patterns. If they called or video chatted, a variant of the BARF technology was going to provide a realistic computerized response that would again fool the older women into thinking they were both in Florida living the good life by utilizing actual noise pollution and visuals from Ned and MJ’s vacation. The guilt of leaving May at the airport thinking they were taking Tony’s private jet to Florida when they were instead flying headfirst into danger...it was almost suffocating and he couldn’t ignore the worry any longer. “What happens if we’re not back in a week, Tony?”

“If we’re not back by the time that MJ and Ned have gotten back, than Friday is going to reveal our true destination to May, Pepper, and Fury so arrangements can be made.”

Funeral arrangements or just rescue mission arrangements? Peter wanted to ask, but he knew better than to say any of that out loud. He and Tony rarely fought, but Peter knew that nothing made Tony angrier than mentioning their own mortality. “Are you sure this is a good idea?” Because Peter wasn’t sure at all. He’d heard Tony’s argument a hundred times but part of him still felt sick at what they were planning to do.

“Your parents are out there. They’re alive. We don’t leave men behind. Besides, if there is something big and nasty coming than we need to know what it is and how to stop it. I refuse to do what the Avengers did and just sit around waiting for the Big Bad to come knocking down our door. We’re not going to be surprised again, Peter. Whatever this bad thing is...we’re going to identify it and even after we close that gateway...we’re going to be ready for it because there’s no guarantee that closing the gateway will end the danger. None.”

Peter could only nod slowly. “Yeah, okay. No, you’re right. Of course you are. I’m just...I’m nervous about getting my hopes up and visiting another world and just...everything.”

Tony laughed, reaching out to tug Peter across the room and into his arms. His lips ghosting against the younger man’s, breath hot against Peter’s mouth as he embraced him, “We had sex in two different times, Baby, now we get to consummate parallel earths. Tell me that’s not hot as fuck.”

“Depends on the parallel earths.”

Tony snorted a laugh as he nuzzled into Peter’s neck and nipped at his ear, “You need to stop worrying. We’re superheroes, Baby. Arguably the two best superheroes on the planet.”

“Only because Thor is off world with the Guardians...”

“Honestly, you and Thor. If I didn’t know better, I’d be jealous.”

Their conversation died off as the Quinjet came to a quiet landing. Peter held onto Tony for several more seconds, eyes closed, breathing in the scent of the older man in an attempt to calm the frenzied beating of his heart. Finally, though, he gently pushed himself away and tapped his watch to engage the Ironspider suit.

Several things became apparent to Peter as the two descended the ramp from the cloaked jet plane. This was clearly going to be even more difficult than Peter had thought. Fury hadn’t been lying when he said that Shield had sealed the lab in an attempt to prevent anything from the Gateway from breaching the outside world. From outward appearances, it looked like the entire building had been encased in a giant block of cement. “Uh, so...”

“Don’t worry, I had the Iron Legion working on our way in for the last twenty-four hours. Believe it or not, inside this cement, there’s another layer of titanium. Anyway, it took six suits, but we have a way in. Follow me.” Iron Man circled the building with Spidey close on his heals. The moment they turned the corner, Peter could see the suits. It appeared that they’d concentrated their repulsers into a succession of laser-like beams that had sliced a rectangular chunk of cement and metal to reveal one of the doors on the blueprints. “I’m leaving them on guard duty while we’re gone. Friday will make sure that nothing comes out of this facility until we get back...and if by some miracle something gets by, she’ll radio the New Avengers. You don’t have to worry, Pete.”

“Famous last words.” It was in times like this that Peter found himself missing Mr. Stark. Tony just hadn’t experienced the level of failure and defeat that Mr. Stark, or even Peter, had. He didn’t know to expect the worst, but Peter did. He cast a wary glance at the Iron Legion, biting his tongue as Tony moved for the door.

It came open with a pop, the musty smell of stale air, dust and mildew washed out around them. Peter only got the smallest whiff before he felt the filtration system in the suit come online.

The interior looked like nothing but darkness. No light could penetrate from the concrete and titanium covered walls, so there was nothing visible beyond a few feet into the entry. It wasn’t as if Mr. Stark hadn’t thought of those concerns a long time ago. Something as mundane as darkness was hardly any match for Iron Man. Lighting and night vision had been built into the earliest models of the suit, after all. As Iron Man stepped into the abyss beyond, that tech came online to illuminate the area around him and several feet in front of him. A similar array of artificial illumination ignited on the Ironspider suit as well. Gulping back his fear, Peter reached out to close the door behind them and they were bathed in black.

The entire facility was filthy, awash with dust, debris, and cobwebs. Out of the corner of his eye, Peter caught sight of what he could only assume was the corpse of a fallen Shield Agent, but he did his best to avoid looking at it for too long. Still, the momentary glimpse of the skeleton was burned onto is retinas. “Tony...”

There was something wrong with that sight. The body. As much as he wanted to avoid looking, he couldn’t help but glance back towards it. “Tony, if the building is sealed...how is that body not mummified...”

Tony was already bending over it to examine the bones as the oddity of the body struck him as wrong at almost the same time. “I think these are tooth marks...”. He held up an ulna, running an armored finger over the grooves on the bone. “These are definitely toothmarks. Friday says they appear...humanoid.”

Peter certainly hoped that Tony couldn’t hear him gulping in fear behind his own mask....but with the sensitive comms, he probably could. “Tony...what are we locked in here with?”

“I don’t know. Let’s just...be careful, and hope that Peter Tingle of yours is on point tonight.”

“Spidey sense.”

“Hmm,” Tony reverently replaced the bone and stood, brushing off his gauntlets.

“I prefer the term ‘Spidey Sense.’ “

“Give me one good reason why I should call it Spidey Sense, Baby, because that name isn’t nearly as funny...”

“Because you’re the only thing that makes my peter tingle.”

Tony had to brace himself against the wall to support himself as he laughed. “God, Beautiful, every time I don’t think I could love you more...you go and drop one of those gems on me. Damn.”

Peter’s response was lost on his lips. He felt the telltale warning of danger shiver down his spine as he caught sight of movement just at the periphery of their location. There wasn’t time to warn him, there was really only time for Peter to fire a quick line of webbing at his lover and tug him back as something dark and terrifying lunged from the shadows. Peter could swear he could hear it moaning the word ‘meat.’

“What the fuck...” A repulser blast bit into the wall inches from the creature, scorching its arm and the tatters of what appeared to be clothing and once more driving it back into the shadows before either hero could get a good look at it. “Well, at least we know what ate the bodies...”

“Yeah, Tony, that’s not nearly as comforting as you think it is.” Even worse, perhaps, were the observations from both Karen and Friday that the creature had no heat signature and wouldn’t be visible on infrared. Now their trek through the building was much more careful and calculated. There were signs of the creatures everywhere. Claw marks on the walls, ransacked rooms, shattered furniture, the little skeletons of rats and mice and anything else unfortunate enough to have been sealed into the lab with them. It was only the knowledge of the Parkers’ distress call that kept Peter moving through the corpse of the once thriving laboratory. His parents were alive. They’d escaped this place, and so would he and Tony. They just had to.

At least Tony seemed to know where he was going. He’d studied the blueprints much longer than Peter and had no doubt pinpointed precisely where a lab with a dimensional gateway would be located. Neither man mentioned the occasional sound of shuffling footsteps, the soft grunts and moans, the momentary glimpses of shifting shadows. There were clearly more than one of those things in there with them, but for the moment, they were hanging back. Maybe Tony had scared them with the repulser. Or, maybe as with many of the hunters in the animal kingdom, they were stalking their prey and waiting for exactly the right moment to strike.

The Gateway didn’t look anything like Peter had imagined it would. Shows like Stargate had always made them out to be large and imposing, a shifting, whirling mass of colors housed within an intricate metal or stone structure that provided it shape. This portal was anything but.

Peter could barely make it out without one of the specialized lenses of his suit. To the naked eye, it appeared as little more than the somewhat fluid appearance of very hot air on a humid July day. It was in that subtle wavering of the light that the slightest glimpse of a world beyond their own could be captured...but never long enough to make anything out. A quick sweep of the area showed that the portal was being maintained by a strip of metal along the ground that was joined to a large and imposing computer. While Peter had been examining the Portal, Tony had been taking stock of the technology.

“They cut off power to the lab in the hopes that it would cause the Gateway to close. It didn’t, which means that whatever is powering this portal isn’t coming from our dimension anymore.”

“That’s comforting.” Peter reached out to touch the shimmering air. As his finger hit the air, the tip of it vanished. He felt nothing. No pain, no tingling, no disconnection. Nothing to suggest it was a portal to another world besides the fact that the tip of his finger had vanished before his very eyes.

“Peter, stop poking the portal. It has a radiation signature...”

The young man withdrew his hand quickly, glad that Tony couldn’t see what he was certain was a guilty look on his face. Neither of the men had withdrawn their suits since entering the laboratory. The air inside the lab was breathable, if their read outs were any suggestion, but also so stale that it would likely not be pleasant for either one of them. Besides, with those monsters running around, it seemed smart to have some kind of protection on hand. Now, with what looked like a radiation signature emanating from the portal...the suits were staying on for the foreseeable future.

Tony was busy patching one of the main computer terminals into a handheld arc reactor to allow him to reboot and access the information they both hoped was still accessible on the hard drives while Peter was pacing the lab like a nervous animal in a zoo. Just like a nervous animal in a zoo, he could feel what was an indeterminate amount of eyes trained on his every movement and his inability to know where they were or what they were planning was making his every instinct scream warnings in his head.

Desperate for some distraction, Peter started to look more closely at the room itself. It looked as if the place had just been abandoned in the middle of a shift. There as a mug of coffee by one terminal with what appeared to be dried contents of a cup still housed within it. A stack of granola bars and food from what must have been a break room vending machine sat next to a swath of complicated equations that Peter picked up and shuffled through silently. Not everything was immaculate, however. A few desks had been upturned. Chairs broken. There were bullet holes in the wall near the door and the door itself had clearly been forced open from the outside by organic means.

“I think...I think after they sealed them in here, my mom and dad must have gathered some supplies and tried to stick it out in here. But um...whatever’s out there...it must have wanted them pretty bad.”

Tony glanced up from the computer, the expressionless mask of his armor giving Peter no hint as to what was going on in the mind beneath.

Peter’s foot met with something on the floor and it skittered forward. Upon closer inspection, he recognized an old school camcorder with a tape still housed inside. “You um...you think you can make this work?”

Tony had already Jerry-rigged a thumb drive to the computers’ memory to download any and all information he could. Waving Peter over, he took the camcorder and in a matter of minutes had it once more powered up, tape rewound.

For several seconds it appeared to be a tape recording the team’s initial attempt to establish the Gateway. Then, the scene cut out and a familiar face came into frame.

She was a little older and much less put-together than she had been the last time that Tony and Peter had seen her, but there was no mistaking Mary Parker for all that she and Peter resembled one another. She was dirty, sweating, tired, but still very much alive as she addressed the camera.

“If you’re seeing this, than that means you came back for us...which...all due respect, Fury, but that was stupid. I told you we’d be okay if you sealed us in here, that we’d figure something out...and we did. I think. I hope. No, I’m sure that we did.”

A loud sound shook the frame and with wide eyes Mary glanced off camera where Richard was shouting “Hurry up, Mary, we don’t have a lot of time here.”

“Right. Right. We can’t stay here, Fury. The anomalies are...they’re not like we thought. They appear to have higher brain function, an ability to communicate. They’ve displayed a remarkable ability to reason and hunt and now that they know they’re trapped in here with us...that we’re the only food supply left...they’re pretty determined to eat us. So uh....it’s time to go. And since we can’t get out of here through the door....we’re going to use the Gateway.”

“I’ve had a little bit of time to work on the math. I think I understand how this thing works at least as well as the men who built it...which arguably isn’t very well.” She held up the swath of complicated equations that Peter had seen on the desk nearby. “It’s all here. I’ll...leave if for you. Hopefully...hopefully it‘ll still be here for you.”

Another loud sound, a curse from Richard, and Mary paled considerably. “I’m sorry...I’m sorry I’ve got to cut this short. I...I can’t shut the Gateway down because it’s not being powered by our dimension anymore. Unless or until we find the power source, this thing is open for good...but I can change the world it opens up to. We’re not going to the world where these things originated...but beyond that. I don’t know. I’m going to try to make it home, Fury. But if we don’t...you keep your promise and you make sure my baby boy is taken care of, you hear me. You owe us that.”

The sound of wood splintering, of those creatures hissing and screaming and moaning. The camcorder dropped, still recording and slid against a desk, catching the image of Richard and Mary Parker as they ran through the Gateway to the screams of the monsters they left behind.

Peter closed the camcorder, hands trembling slightly. “Tony...if those things are as smart as she says...why aren’t they coming after us?”

Tony hazarded a glance towards the broken door and rubbed the back of his neck with a gauntlet. “I don’t know, Beautiful, but I don’t like it.”

Peter considered it for a moment. “Maybe they’re trying to get out again...”

“I don’t care how scary they are, Peter, there’s no way they’re getting past the Iron Legion.”

“So...when they can’t get out the door and they realize that we’re the only food source...”

Tony cursed, “Yeah. I think the ones we can hear are sentries...”

“They’re watching to make sure we can’t get away.”

“‘Fraid so. Or hoping that when we get done here we’ll leave them an opening to get out.”

Peter was already gathering the papers his mother had left behind, stuffing them into a briefcase he’d found discarded beneath a desk. He threw the camcorder in with it and after a moment’s hesitation grabbed the handful of granola bars as well. They probably didn’t go bad, right? And he might get hungry later. “What I don’t get...is why they didn’t go through the portal, too. If they’re smart and they’re hungry and they’ve been surviving in here for over a decade....why not try that other world out?”

“Because your mother was smart enough to leave it open to a location they wouldn’t be able to utilize, Pete. Radiation signature. Whatever is on the other side of that portal is deadly for them...at least as deadly as it would be for us.”

“But my parents...”

“They didn’t go through to that world, Pete.” Tony gestured to a read out near the floor where a long alphanumeric sequence could be seen. “You can see most of the readout on the video. It’s not the same. After your parents went through...they must have found a way to redial the Gateway and make sure it emptied to someplace...innocuous.”

Peter didn’t know if this new made him feel better or worse. “Okay...so...what’s our next move...” His words died on his lips, replaced by an anguished cry brought on by what felt like the pain of being set on fire. His Spidey-Sense had never felt like that before. It had never been so strong that it was excruciating, but as his gaze moved from Tony to the doorway and he caught sight of what had triggered the tingle...Peter completely understood.

His Spidey Sense was right.

They were so totally and completely fucked.

#starker

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intothestarkerverse · 5 years ago

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This is one of my favorite scenes in any movie, and if you can’t see Peter doing this with Tony at some point...you have no imagination. Give me a no-power au with this. It’s a scene I need to seeee.

#starker

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intothestarkerverse · 5 years ago

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This cannot be said enough. Even just the kudos make my day. NOTHING brings a smile to my face faster than seeing a similar username leaving kudos on several stories of mine at once, or liking or reblogging stories from way down the blog. To know someone liked my stuff enough to go back and read the oldies...that’s beyond flattering!

As a fic writer, i need every reader to know that:

I don’t care if your comment is coherent. I know what you mean and i love you

I don’t care if you ramble. I read every word and i love you

I don’t care if you leave a comment on a fic from four years ago or leave comments/kudos on like ten of my fics in one go. This isn’t IG, pls stalk my AO3. I love you

I don’t care if you mention the same thing in your comment that four other people have already mentioned. It’s actually really useful to know what resonated with people and I love everyone who takes the time to tell me they liked a particular turn of phrase

I don’t mind if your comment is super long or just a couple of sentences, i love them all

I love you

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intothestarkerverse · 5 years ago

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I loved Paper Hearts. Can I request a Starker version of The Good Place?

Ohhh! I hadn’t thought of his particular Starkerization, but this was loads of fun and I hope that I did it justice!

I hope you like it Nonnie and if anyone else has any requests, feel free to toss them my way!

The Good Place

(https://archiveofourown.org/works/23048128)

When Peter Parker dies, he doesn’t expect to go to Heaven. Oh, sure, he’s tried very hard to live his life in the best way he’s known how, but he is also totally responsible for his uncle’s death and that alone had to get him a one way ticket down south. So, the last thing he expects after his untimely demise is to wake up sitting on a nondescript couch in front of a very handsome man who calls himself ‘Tony’, the ‘architect’ in charge of Peter’s ‘neighborhood’ in ‘The Good Place’.

While Peter thinks Friday the heavenly computer is amazing, he’s a little trepidatious about spending eternity with his ‘soul mate’. He’d been so unlucky in love on earth, he couldn’t imagine that his track record would improve just because he is now dead.

Quentin Beck is handsome, and at first he seems pretty cool...until he doesn’t. In fact, he’s a little bit of a jerk. Peter is completely unimpressed by his soulmate and tries to spend every moment he can away from home. Really, he doesn’t understand how anyone in charge of the Good Place could think that he was into egomaniacal, self-serving, not-as-smart-as-they-think-they-are jackasses. Cause he’s not. So not.

His neighbor is worse. So much worse. Peter begins to question the nature of the Good Place based entirely off of Flash’s presence there and continued insistence in referring to Peter as Penis Parker. Surely in Heaven you are spared from your High School bully...and why when the word sh*t is censored is Penis still a totally okay thing to bellow at the top of your lungs during a fancy ‘Welcome to the Afterlife’ party, anyway? Perhaps Peter’s first inclination that something is not right comes when he catches sight of Flash in the crowd at said party and his attempts to dodge him are thwarted with a shout of, “Yo! Hey, Penis is here! Penis Parker! Penis, it’s me! Ya boi! I can’t believe you made it here, dude, you were such a loser....”

Then there’s the case of Bucky and Steve. They aren’t soulmates. At least...not according to Tony and Friday, but Peter has to be blind not to notice the looks they give each other across the room and behind the backs of their respective mates. While he tries not to be superficial, Peter cannot even begin to imagine what it’s like to go to bed with Arnim Zola every night. Brock Rumlow is a lot hotter, but also a lot scarier...

No, something is definitely wrong.

To discover exactly what it is, Peter decides to get close to the only one who seems to have any clue about what’s going on. Tony. It helps that Tony is super hot and while also egomaniacal and self-serving, he is every bit as smart as he thinks he is...and Peter digs it.

~ ~ ~

This is his last chance.

As far as last chances go, it could be worse, really.

Tony knew going in that he was probably going to fail, but this was the Bad Place and things never go quite the way you want them to here. Still, the idea of eternal torment or ceasing to exist are not things he really wants to look forward to, so he is determined to do his damnedest to make this thing work....even if he knows it’s doomed to fail.

Peter Parker is a problem.

He becomes a problem on the first night when that Flash kid makes such a spectacle. Really? How is Tony supposed to sell this Good Place Schtick with some annoying Gen-Z’er publicly humiliating the most innocent, Bambi-looking soul in the bunch? Also, it made him look bad because he hadn’t done that on purpose...though if anyone asked...

He doesn’t know how he ends up with the kid tagging along with him like some intern from hell. (Ha!) In the beginning, it seems like Tony despises having Peter around. He tries to ditch him, tries to distract him, tries any number of methods of ridding himself of Peter...but Peter is like the gum in his hair that won’t leave until it’s cut out...and unbeknownst to Peter, Tony isn’t able to cut Peter free no matter how badly he wants to. So, he begrudgingly begins to accept Peter as an assistant of sorts. He tries to assign him meaningless, boring tasks, but Peter seems to thrive under the attention.

He keeps coming back form more.

Every embarrassment Tony imagines to demean him, Peter shrugs off and pushes through. Every injustice he faces, Peter shoulders and works his way around. Every torture Tony can dream up, Peter endures with grace and humility and begs for more. He’s amazing. He’s fucking good, and Tony has never met a good one before.

Not a really good one.

Not.

Ever.

He doesn’t know when he begins looking forward to the kid being around; when he finds himself spending a little too long admiring the boy’s chestnut curls and warm brown eyes; when his eyes begin a downward adventure, enjoying every chiseled edge and soft curve on the boy’s form.

Oh lust isn’t a problem. It is one of the Big Seven. They are encouraged to feed on it, trouble is...Tony isn’t dreaming of Peter screaming in pain or begging for mercy from the dark and twisted sexual acts encouraged by those in the Bad Place. No. No, if he was, well, everything would be fine, wouldn’t it? No. Tony is thinking about the whimpers of mercy from the gentle caresses and tender worshipping a boy like that deserves. He wants to take him apart in the best possible way. Not to torture him, but to revere him. Peter Parker is everything about humanity that Tony thought could never really exist and he wants him...wants to taste him, to have him, to know what it’s like to become so close to something that isn’t festering and rotting and putrid like everything else in the Bad Place.

So clearly it’s all his fault when Peter Parker shows up at his office one day with a look of determination and declares.

“I know this is the Bad Place, Tony.”

Well, that’s it. The jig is up. If he’s going to cease to exist or spend eternity in a fiery pit of excruciating agony, he might as well have one moment of joy. So, he silences the boy with a kiss. Peter seems surprised, until he isn’t. One moment he is frozen in shock, and the next moment he has his arms around Tony, fingers caught in his thick dark hair and the boy is kissing back with everything he has.

It’s is everything Tony ever thought it could be. It is warm and tender and gentle and soft and good and passionate and fills him with something he cannot even begin to describe but really, genuinely fears might be love. He never wants the moment to end and every time Peter tries to pull away, Tony pulls him back, pawing at his clothing and throwing everything on his desk into disarray in his harried attempt to make room for everything he wants, everything he needs. If a demon can die happy, than he will die happy, just give him a night of this, a night of Peter.

Tony commits every moment to memory, tracing his hands over the soft ivory skin, exploring every edge and curve, ever ridge and furrow. He tastes everything, spends what could be hours (time is such a Jeremy Bearimy) turning every sordid sexual torture from the Bad Place into the most worshipful offering he can. Peter screams his name a dozen times, sometimes muted against the desk and others freely into the room. Tony relishes every sensation, pauses in certain moments to remember what it feels like to have his body so close to something so good. He isn’t worthy, he never will be, but Peter is giving it all willingly and enjoying every minute of it. That does have to stand for something doesn’t it?

It has to end, everything does, and in the morning even though they’re both spent, Peter is still determined to have his answers. So, Tony tells him everything. Who he is. What he is. That this is the Bad Place and they’re all being tortured for eternity. Peter begs him to show mercy to people like Steve and Bucky and even, surprisingly, Flash, but Tony isn’t really in charge of anything. He’s just as doomed as the rest of them.

“So, that’s it, we’re all just...we’re all just going to be here forever like this?”

Tony looks away, scrubbing a hand over his carefully groomed facial hair and cocking his head slightly as he winces. “Not really, Baby. You know. My bosses are going to call this a failure. I’m dead, or good as...and, uh, you and the others are going to go to the Bad Place for real this time. It’s....pretty terrible. Lot worse than this. Eternal torment. Worst fears. You know the deal, I’m sure.”

“You can’t let that happen.”

“What part of I’m not in charge did you not get? Do I look like I run the place? Cloven hooves, pitchfork, horns? Huh? I can’t save any of them. I can’t even save you, and if I was going to save anyone...for the record, it would be you.”

Peter is reaching for his hands with an indistinguishable look in his eyes that Tony soon learns must be what humans call ‘hope’ because what he is suggesting is insane. “Maybe, they don’t have to know. That I know, I mean. I could pretend that I don’t. We could go back to things, the way they were. We could pretend and we could all just stay here because if here is better than there...than here is all we’ve got.”

Tony knows its a ridiculous plan, but he can’t look into those eyes and say no. He hears himself agreeing before he even realizes that he has, and the next thing he knows...he and Peter have returned to their normal lives...only with a lot more sex. A lot of sex. And sharing, Peter is big on the sharing. Tony pretends to mind, but really...he’s never actually been to earth and it’s interesting to learn about what it’s like to live there, to be human. He can even find himself fantasizing about what that might have been like. To be one of them. To be free to live a real life with Peter instead of...whatever this is.

~ ~ ~

Peter isn’t giving up.

It’s not in his nature.

There has to be a way out of this, not just for himself but for everyone and for Tony. He refuses to believe that any of them belong in this place, not really, and he’s determined to find a way to get them all out.

Tony is so gentle, so starved for affection, so eager to drink up every drop of the human condition. He’s no demon. In bed maybe, sure, but not....not in the torture people and take pleasure in their pain kind of way. And Steve and Bucky, they haven’t done anything worthy of being in the Bad Place. Even Flash wasn’t that terrible.

Something is wrong and Peter is going to figure it out. He has to, but also has to do it without Tony knowing because that would ruin everything, wouldn’t it?

It happens in small doses, when Peter is alone with Friday he asks her all kinds of innocent questions about how The Good Place operates. How do people end up there? What do they do to earn the way there? What happens if they’re bad? A thousand questions that he asks and records carefully and innocently in such a way as to avoid alerting anyone to his true intentions.

Slowly things begin to make sense and his also carefully considered questions to Tony about how the Afterlife works and the hierarchy of upper management is laid out provides Peter with the solution.

“I can’t call the Judge for you, Peter.”

Peter purses his lips in an almost petulant frown as he looks the human-like computer over unhappily. “Why not?”

“I am almost certain that Boss wouldn’t like it very much.”

“Almost isn’t certain. C’mon, Fri, did Tony tell you that I’m not allowed to speak to the Judge?”

The computer pauses, considering this for a moment before she gives a curt shake of her head. “No, he hasn’t.”

“Has he told you that he would be angry if I did?”

“No.”

“Than you can’t be certain at all that he’ll be made if you call them now. So. The Judge. I need to talk to them and I need you to call them for me because I know you know how.”

“Peter...”

It is a round about argument that goes on for an indeterminate amount of time before Peter finds himself standing in front of an imposing dark man with an eye patch and a penchant for leather who is looking at him like a bug he would like to crush beneath his steel-toed boot.

“Who the fuck are you?”

Peter clears his throat and plunges into his carefully pre-written speech. He can tell that this man is not the sort to be swayed by emotion, so he skips some of his more eloquently penned descriptions of the situations to stick with cold hard facts.

Something is wrong in the Bad Place.

There are souls there that shouldn’t be and he can prove it.

To his credit, the Judge listens with only a few derisive snorts and muttered curses, but it is a mention of Tony that finally draws an interruption.

“Wait a minute, wait a minute. Slow you’re roll there, kid. Go back to this Tony guy. He’s a demon right? Bad guy? Tortured and all that. So why did your voice get soft when you talked about him? Don’t lie to me. I’ll know and we’ll end this little chat of ours in ten seconds flat.”

Peter didn’t know what to do besides simply tell the Judge the truth. So, he did. Everything that had occurred between himself and the ‘architect’ and everything that he felt for the man.

“You love him? A demon.” Another snort. “I mean, I know humans can have some pretty self destructive tendencies but...”

“He loves me, too.”

“Yeah, no he doesn’t. Demons can’t fall in love. Can’t feel it. Don’t even know what it is.”

“Tony can.”

“If that’s true, there’s more wrong in the Bad Place than even you realize.”

Peter crosses his arms and stares the bigger man down victoriously. “I told you.”

The Judge lets out a long sigh, “I’ll have my best people look into it and if you’re correct...I’ll make it right, because that’s my job.”

Peter is returned to his every day existence and does his best to hide his deceit from Tony. Though, he does not seemingly have long to wait to learn to the fate of himself or his friends.

Just as the upper management arrive to take them all to eternal torment, the Judge returns with his findings.

Something is indeed wrong in the Afterlife. There are souls in the Bad Place that were never meant to be there. Clerical errors that may be (but probably are not) a mistake resulted in the damnation of an undisclosed number of human souls. These souls would be immediately relocated to their correct resting place. Peter included.

“What about Tony?” Peter cannot just let that go.

The Judge rolls his one good eye as he looks down at the kid again. “You won, Kid, enjoy your victory.”

“I can’t. Not if Tony is going to stay here. He doesn’t deserve to be here....”

“Look, you were right. He can feel love. He does, in fact, feel love. But he’s a demon and there’s not a damn thing I can do about where he is. If he were human maybe...”

“Than make him human. Let him live. If he sucks he can suffer here like he’s going to anyway and if he doesn’t than he can be with me there...in the Good Place.”

The Judge narrows his one good eye at Peter. “It’s a reasonable compromise, but I’ll only consider it on one condition.”

“What’s that?”

“You go back with him. Tony can be human but he’ll have no memory of any of this. Not until he dies and comes back here. I will erase the moment of your death, return you to your life as if you have always been there. If you really want, you can retain some memory of all of this as a near death experience because I have a soft spot for wise ass kids. I’ll even make sure you cross paths with Tony while you’re there. But you live your life and you take whatever Afterlife you earn. If Tony leads you down a dark path, you’re back here. If you manage to reform a demon, you can both shine your halos into perpetuity. Sound fair?”

Peter is sure this is a trap, but he cannot see how he can refuse. Despite the protestations he can hear coming from Tony where is he is being restrained by demons several yards away, Peter nods his agreement and the world goes dark.

~ ~ ~

It isn’t nearly as hard to get used to being alive again as Peter thought it would be. Details are a bit fuzzy when it comes to the Bad Place. He remembers some things better than others and wonders about the Jeremy Bearimy of it all because Flash is still very much alive when Peter is given his newfound lease on life. He’s literally never going to get away from that guy.

Peter has no idea when or where he will encounter Tony again, but he waits eagerly for the chance. He is still daydreaming about the demon when he’s being led into the office of his new boss on the first day of his internship exactly a month after his resurrection.

“Peter, this is Tony Stark...”

Anything else Ms. Potts has to say to Peter is completely lost to him as he takes in the roguish form of his devilish lover. Peter cannot hide the smile from forming on his lips as Tony holds out a hand to shake.

“Wish I could say it was nice to meet you, Kid, but being my intern is probably going to be Hell.”

“I don’t doubt it, Mr. Stark, but I can’t think of any place I’d rather be.”

#starker

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intothestarkerverse · 5 years ago

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If you’re a fan of the Young Tony AU’s and you have a Disney Plus subscription you have got to watch Iron Man the Armored Adventures. There’s some major Teen Tony as Iron Man fuel for what could be an endless number of amazing powered high school au’s with Petey.

#starker

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intothestarkerverse · 5 years ago

Note

I always try to stay positive and ignore anyone who comes for discourse in my anon messages. The most you’ll ever get from me is a little encouragement during hard times for the tag.

I love you. Can you maybe tag some starker blogs that only post positivity? I could use some of that rn

Just a few off the top of my head! @starkerintheparker is a major one. She is discourse free at all times, very open and loving to the fandom. @starkerflowers is also very mellow and discourse free! @starkerkeyz (osim ily) is the same. @darker-soft-starker, so so kind.

Please reblog and add more, also reblog if your blog is starker and peaceful and discourse free so that others can follow.

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intothestarkerverse · 5 years ago

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Since I don’t have any content to post to fill our tag with happy thoughts (at least not at this point in the evening) I’m going to heed a confession I saw on the only Starker Confessions blog that matters and rec some fics that I’m not sure have gotten the attention they deserve.

‘Idée Fixe’ by Skyjoos is like the most decadent dark chocolate truffle. It’s dark, so heed the tags. Based off Netflix’s ‘You’, it follows an aged down Tony as he obsesses over and pursues Peter through all sorts of obstacles. It’s unfinished, but it’s written so well and has so many delightful twists and turns that it’s well worth waiting for....and so exciting to read as it’s updated instead of waiting for the whole shebang. I adore it and I have no idea if the author is present on tumblr or not...but if they are I want to be friends. 😍

#starker

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intothestarkerverse · 5 years ago

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Still hard at work on content for you beautiful people, but I felt the need to post a quick OT for my fellow Starkers. I’ve blocked the ‘uncensored’ confessions blog and am politely asking anyone involved in that blog to block me. I want my tumblr to be a place of love, friendship and positivity and I have no time for anyone who posts such vile and hateful things about people I consider to be beloved members of our community. (Because I consider all of our contributors to be as loved and valued as they treat others).

To everyone who has been attacked by that blog, don’t listen to ‘em baby. Even Shield got infiltrated by Hydra. Don’t let our bad apples spoil it for you. Block them and carry on, my loves!

#starker #offtopic #discourse

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intothestarkerverse · 5 years ago

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Welcome to My Dark Side (1)

Sequel to ‘Time of Our Lives’

(STORY CONTAINS ENDGAME SPOILERS)

Read on AO3

Eyes that once held love were empty now. There was nothing there beyond his own reflection in their familiar hues. He could do nothing but stare into those eyes, feeling as if he was drowning in the absence of emotion, in the loss that reverberated through every piece of his soul.

He wanted to cry out, to scream, to plead, to curse, but no words would come.

He wanted to cling to the one in front of him, grab fist-fulls of shirt in his hands and drag him closer. He wanted to wrap his hands around that throat and squeeze the life from that alabaster flesh to somehow quench the fury scorching through his very soul.

He could do none of this, though.

He could only stand, motionless, staring at the figure in front of him, powerless to do anything.

Perhaps it was a blessing.

As long as he was forced to stare at the one in front of him, he couldn’t be made to look at the lifeless body that lay beyond them and once more face the implications of it.

Everything.

He’d lost everything.

Tony didn’t know how, he didn’t know when, but he wasn’t going to let that death go unavenged.

Peter Parker had to die for what he’d done, and Tony would be the one to kill him...gladly.

~ ~ ~

Much Earlier…

~ ~ ~

“How long do you think we can hide here before someone realizes we’re missing?” Peter’s lips against his ear made the billionaire shiver. Thinking about all of the things he’d rather have Peter doing with those lips…that was doing other things to entirely different areas of his body.

“Oh, I don’t know, Beautiful, depends on if anyone saw us disappear into our hiding place or not.” He certainly hoped that no one had witnessed their escape. If Tony had his way, he’d have Peter all to himself for the rest of the evening.

“May was busy with Happy…”

“And Pepper was talking to some old guy from the Board. Long as the OG Avengers weren’t paying us any mind, I think we’re safe.”

“Good.” Peter snuggled in closer to him and Tony was only too happy to wrap an arm around the younger man. Cuddled together in the muted darkness with the only light that which was filtering through the white silk all around them, they were both eager to forget the world they’d left behind in favor of the one they’d created for themselves. Maybe it was irresponsible. It was a fundraiser for May’s charity for the ‘Blip’ displaced, sponsored by Stark Industries because Tony would do anything to make Peter smile…and also to make May like him better than she’d liked the Old Man. But there was really only so much a guy could kiss ass and sip champagne and make eyes at Peter in his tux before it all became unbearable. Not that their new activity was any better, really. It wasn’t what he wanted to be doing, but Tony could make the best of a dull situation.

So, the seat was far from comfortable. Hard really. Cold too. The body next to him was warm and pretty and smelled like that inexpensive drug store cologne that Peter always wore…the one that Tony had gone to a big box store to find and purchase just so he could spray it on his sheets and pretend he still had Peter on the bed next to him. Worst part about the future, for sure, that Peter was still living at home with his aunt and wasn’t able to share Tony’s bed like he had for six months in 1992. It was hard to get used to sleeping without him. Tony hadn’t had any idea just how much Peter had weaseled his way into his mind, body, and soul, until he was laying in an empty bed acutely aware of the boy’s absence from his arms.

Tony shifted his grip on the phone in his free hand, making the projected holographic image of ‘Reno 911’ jump slightly. Peter whimpered and Tony could only laugh. He wouldn’t have heard the small sound of dismay at all if they weren’t forced to share a pair of wireless earbuds. One for each of them. It seemed that only Tony had come prepared to entertain himself during the fundraiser…though, he could never disappear to enjoy binge-watching the decades of movies and television he’d missed out on without Peter at his side. Next time, he’d remember to bring two full sets of earbuds so they could both enjoy stereo quality sound.

The soft ambient light of the ballroom was obscured by a looming, dark shadow. A moment later, the white silk in front of them shifted to reveal a very annoyed strawberry blonde kneeling on the floor in an expensive designer gown and scowling at them in a way that was sure to cause frown lines. “Are you two seriously hiding under a banquet table watching Netflix?”

Tony cocked an eyebrow, looking from Pepper to their surroundings and back again. They had, indeed, both crawled under a banquet table to watch television in lieu of mingling with guests that were old and boring. “I mean…as much as I want to come up with a better explanation for what we’re doing, I got nothing. Peter?”

Peter shrugged with a stifled giggle. “Sorry, Tony, if you can’t think of anything…we’re doomed.”

“You’re worse than Morgan. Both of you.” Pepper looked to be at the end of her patience, though Tony was completely unperturbed.

“Now that you mention it, Pep, I notice you didn’t make Morgan come to this…”

“She’s six.”

“And I have the emotional maturity of a six-year-old according to a lot of therapists..” Tony pointed this out with a broad grin and a quick glance at his boyfriend.

“That’s true, he does.” And Peter would know.

“Peter…don’t help him. I really expect better from you. You’re supposed to be a good influence on TJ, he is not supposed to be a bad influence on you.”

“Hey,” Tony’s smile was gone, as was his good humor. “Peter is a good influence. I wanted to sneak off into an empty office and re-enact some dirty movies. Peter convinced me to keep it PG and stay close to home in case we were missed. You can snipe at me all you want, Ms. Potts, but don’t even think about dragging Peter down because you’re pissed at me. Not gonna fly. He’s a literal angel...”

Peter let out a melodramatic sigh, “Tony, it’s really okay…”

“It’s not. It’s really not. Pepper owes you an apology.”

“Tony…”

“Well…” He cocked his head at the older woman, unafraid to meet her gaze without flinching. He didn’t care if the Old Man had married her, or if as far as Pepper was concerned…she was his stepmother. He was a twenty-one year old man, and he’d had a perfectly good mother of his own. Pepper’s eyes narrowed slightly, but he was confident that she saw something in his gaze that made her reconsider her current tactic, because she turned her gaze to Peter.

“I’m sorry, Peter. TJ is right, I’m sure if you weren’t here he would have done something worthy of a Stark that would have required a press conference tomorrow to explain the TMZ video. Now, I’d really appreciate it if you could convince him to be responsible and come out of here for the remainder of the fundraiser though. He’s not going to do it for me…but he will for you.”

Peter was blushing when Tony cast a sidelong glance in his direction. “No, Peter…” He could not be falling for it, could he?

“C’mon, she’s right.”

Fuck. He was.

“It’s May’s fundraiser. We shouldn’t be down here.” Ugh. He loved his beautiful, goody-two shoes boyfriend, but there were times Tony really wished Peter would get in touch with his inner dark side.

“You win this round, Pep.” Tony was already thumbing the holographic screen off and sliding his earbuds back into his tuxedo jacket pocket. Just as he was bracing to crawl from beneath the table and rejoin the party, if that’s really what they wanted to call it, (Tony thought party was severely mislabeling it), when he felt the watch on his wrist begin buzzing frantically. Their newest AI had been named in honor of a fallen Avenger; the Newly Analogued Technological Avengers’ Sentinel Hazard Alarm or N.A.T.A.S.H.A. was proving to be a very valuable asset, too. The AI monitored CCTV footage, news media, social media, and cell phone chatter to locate and categorize threats that required Avenger intervention and then immediately contacted the closest Avengers when any such threat was discovered. So far, she’d done her job with only a few minor hiccups. The buzzing coming from both Tony and then Peter’s smartwatches meant they were among the closest Avengers to something that could prove to be very dangerous.

Pepper let out an annoyed groan. “Of course. Of course this would happen now.”

“Nothing we can do, Pep, duty calls.” If Tony looked a little too smug, well, there was nothing he could do about that really.

“And what am I supposed to tell people Peter is doing while Iron Lad and Spider-Man are off saving the city?” From Pepper’s expression, Tony knew she thought she’d stumped him...but honestly, she should know better. Tony could not hide his self-satisfied smirk as he typed something into his watch. “Peter’s going to be in the conference room watching his boyfriend save New York. He’ll pace. He’ll worry. He’ll even react to the fight in ways that Friday deems to be appropriate. Just make sure that no one but you, Happy, or May goes in to ‘check’ on him…that way, no one will know he’s just a bit of BARF re-purposed to save my boyfriend’s secret identity.”

“He thinks of everything.” And the pride in Peter’s voice at that bit of praise was somehow Tony Stark’s only reason for living in that particular moment.

God, he could die happy with that being the last thing to ever grace his ears. Not that he didn’t have a hell of a lot to live for…

~ ~ ~ What. The. Actual. Fuck.

“You know, Spidey, when you told me all those stories about you and Iron Man saving the world from threats both alien and domestic....I somehow did not imagine that I would one day join you and find myself facing a man who calls himself ‘Unicorn.’” Despite the gravity of the fight in which the New Avengers currently found themselves embroiled, the crimson and golden figure of Iron Man could be seen (though not heard) by anxious bystanders canting his head in the direction of an otherwise engaged arachnid crime fighter.

“To be fair, as weird as my bad guys are...this one is weird even for me.” Spider-Man flipped backwards, finding purchase on the side of skyscraper upside down as he avoided the laser beam that slashed dangerously through the air...a laser beam that had originated from the forehead of the villain’s unfortunate green helmet. The beam arced, slashing a clean and gaping line in the mirrored glass facade of the office windows just below Spider-Man causing the young man to edge backwards on fingers and toes as he glanced from his boyfriend to the villain and back again.

Tony really wished that Peter could see him rolling his eyes. “I mean, at least he’s comitted to his concept, I guess. The unicorn on his leotard is a great touch but the orange and green color scheme...”

“As if it is not bad enough that we are fighting a grown man committing crimes as a Unicorn, is it really necessary for you two to make us listen to you flirting the whole damn time, too.” The irritated words were accompanied by the soft whoosh of metallic wings as another hero joined the fray and attracted the Unicorn’s attention only to be rewarded with a concussive force that blasted the hero backwards several feet before he was able to escape the current of the blast and circle back for a return attack.

Tony really, really wished that Sam could see him rolling his eyes. At least he could see the bird that Iron Lad was now flipping in the direction of the newest Captain America. The face of the Iron Man suit was not expressive, but Tony was more than capable of getting his point across with body language.

“Real mature, there are going to be kids watching this, Stark.”

“If you all insist on calling me Iron Lad, I might as well live up to the name. Tell me, Cap, do you have to have a stick up your ass to carry the shield or is being a total prude just a star-spangled side effect?”

“A little of both, actually.” A new voice echoed across the coms, causing Tony to glance away from Spider-Man as the young man took a gracefully web-anchored leap in the direction of the Unicorn, planted a successful kick, and sent the man careening towards a waiting, very perturbed Captain America.

The Winter Soldier wasn’t hard to spot, and really...Tony had been expecting him. After all, you rarely saw Sam without Bucky. “You know, I really didn’t want to like you, Winny, was all set to hate your guts...but I think next to my sexy Spiderling, you’re definitely my favorite Avenger.”

Bucky’s eyebrows rose but he chose not to comment as the Unicorn used his helmet to erect a force field that blocked Sam’s attack and sent him skidding backwards.

In the end, it wasn’t much of a fight. Once the quartet had goaded the man into showing all of his cards...or at least, in this case, showing them all of the abilities his helmet possessed, it was easy enough for them to coordinate and overpower the man. Of course, their success did not come without a good bit of destruction to several of the neighboring buildings, a few light posts, and a Sky Blue Vespa.

As Sam and Bucky dealt with the responding law enforcement, Tony had taken to the streets with his helmet retracted to address the adoring public. “Relax guys, I can spare a few minutes to give you some sound bites.” He held up a placating hand and leaned back against one of the badly disfigured lamp posts. This one had been bent in a shape that looked suspiciously like the outline of Cap with wings fully unfurled. It was no accident Tony had chosen that one. “You.” Tony gestured with his head to vaguely familiar blonde he’d seen at a few of the press conferences for SI. If he remembered right, she’d seemed friendly enough with Pepper that he could afford to throw her a bone.

She didn’t waste any time with pleasantries today. “This is the third time in as many weeks that a number of Avengers have responded to an emergency in the city. Does this mean the you’ve ‘re-assembled’ the Avengers and are acting with authority of the government again?”

Tony’s laughter startled several of the other reporters. It was true that up until he’d made his grand entrance in the present that the Avengers had failed to live up to the messianic promise of the Old Man’s death, but he could hardly take complete credit for their new re-unification. Of course, in order for his current plan to work, that was precisely what he was going to have to do.... “Oh yeah, we’re back and better than ever. Turns out all they were missing was a little young blood to give the Avengers some real initiative. Spiderling and I were exactly what the doctor ordered. But it’s cute that you think we need the authority of the government.

“Look. We tried the whole government oversight thing and it didn’t work. When heroes have to answer to bureaucrats, the universe has a fifty percent survival rate. Push comes to shove, there’s a reason that we’re the heroes and they’re the politicians. When the bad guys can literally dust our loved ones with a snap of their fingers, no one has time to cut their way through a mile of red tape. The Old Man would probably still be alive if the UN had trusted us to do our thing in the first place. So, yeah...no...we’re not officially acting on behalf of the government and we probably won’t ever do that shit again. We’re also not ‘the Avengers’. We’re the New Avengers. Remixed. Improved. We’re younger, smarter, better looking...with a hell of a lot more initiative and righteous fury than the OG crew. They might have slept with one eye open, but we don’t intend to sleep on the job at all.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the red and blue clad figure of his boyfriend facepalming in the shadows. The kid really had to have more faith in him. Tony was doing it all for him anyway. Not that he knew that. Not yet. It would spoil the surprise.

~ ~ ~

“Why aren’t we going back to the party again? It better not be for sex. I mean...I like sex. I love sex. But Ms. Potts and May are going to know that we’re done with the bad guy and one of them is bound to come looking for us in your penthouse...May is already convinced that we’re ‘too serious’ for our age without us dipping out on her party to do it. Tony, she made me promise I wasn’t going to marry you until after I got my college degree. Do you know how embarrassing that conversation was?” It was horrible, Peter had actually preferred the literal sex talk from May to the dinner he’d spent listening to her bemoan the fact that he and TJ seemed to be so wrapped up in each other so young. Never mind that she and Ben had been high school sweethearts... Tony paused on the helipad of the re-acquired Avengers Tower and cast a weary glance in Peter’s direction. “Wait, you actually promised her we weren’t going to get married until you got your degree? That’s a thing you said? I hope you don’t intend to keep that promise because I don’t know how willing I am to wait four years to get you back in my bed full time...”

Peter felt his heart stall out in his chest. “Wait.” He froze in place, jaw opening and closing several times without making a sound while he floundered for the words. “Does that mean you’re planning to propose...Tony...You want to get married? To me? I mean...okay so sometime in the next four years but still. Wow. Wow. Wow wow wow.”

Peter’s expression looked like a mixture of horror and elation. Tony shook his head at the younger man and started walking to the door again, forcing Peter to rush to catch up. “But May...I promised because I didn’t think you’d want to get married for a long time anyway because Mr. Stark was never really big on commitment and you’re still kind of like even if you’re different and...were you going to ask...like soon? Did I spoil a surprise? Just because I promised not to get married doesn’t mean we can’t get engaged...or live together...or both. Preferably both...” His voice trailed off abruptly as he brows drew into a quick, alarmed ‘v’. “Wait!” Peter grabbed for Tony’s arm abruptly before he opened the roof access door. “There’s something wrong...”

“There’s nothing wrong, Beautiful. At least...nothing I didn’t see coming even before your impressive Peter Tingle went off. Relax. We have a guest. He probably thinks he’s surprising us...but I’ve been goading the son of a bitch into a private meeting for the last month. About damn time he took the bait.”

“Who...”

“Come with me, you’ll see.” Tony rested a hand on Peter’s lower back, gently pushing him through the door and towards the elevator to the penthouse. Although he was concerned, Peter trusted his boyfriend implicitly.

The moment the elevator doors opened, it was easy for Peter to ascertain what he’d meant. The comments about ‘initiative’ and the government and the things about ‘one eye’. He was trying to piss of Nick Fury, and apparently he succeeded because the former head of S.H.I.E.L.D. was sitting on Tony’s sofa with a bottle of Scotch sitting on the table in front of him. His feet were kicked up on the coffee table and he looked far too comfortable for an intruder.

“Glad to see you’re making yourself at home, Fury.”

“Since you’re AI watchdog didn’t stop me at the front door, I assumed I was welcome.” He didn’t look up from his tumblr of scotch, instead swishing it around the glass idly before emptying it and reaching out for the bottle to refill it.

“True enough, if I didn’t want you to be here...you wouldn’t be.” Tony guided Peter around the coffee table, gesturing for him to take a seat in a large overstuffed chair while Tony himself perched languidly on the arm. “I won’t insult you by pretending that I don’t know why you’re here.”

“And I won’t pretend that I didn’t know those insults you’ve been letting fly in your little press bites aren’t intentional. If you wanted to talk, you could have just reached out.”

“I don’t like to do things the easy way, Fury. Never have.”

“So I’ve noticed.”

Peter looked back and forth between the two men, one eye narrowed questioningly, lips thinned out in concentration. What was going on here?

“There’s a little something we need to know that only you can help us with. I thought we had a better chance of getting you alone over the New Avengers than the Parkers.”

Peter let out a little gasp of surprise, swiveling in his seat to look at Tony in disbelief. This was about his parents? Tony had gone to all of this trouble for Peter, to help him solve the mystery of what had happened to them. If Peter hadn’t already been head over heals in love with the man, that would have surely done him in.

Fury did not appear to be quite so touched, not if the scowl he was shooting Tony was any indication. “I was afraid of that. Sadly, Stark, you’ve wasted your time. I don’t know now anything about...”

“I call bullshit.” Tony had risen from his seat in one fluid movement, confiscating the bottle of scotch from within Fury’s reach and invading the man’s personal space all at the same time. “I’ve seen the personnel reports, Fury. You recruited Richard Parker. No way you don’t know what happened to a guy you brought into your agency. You’re a prick, but you’re not an irresponsible one.”

Fury let out a long sigh, scrubbing a hand over his face as he sat forward on the couch, his forearms resting on his knees. “The information in classified. Way beyond your clearance.”

“Not gonna fly, Blackbeard. Peter’s got all the security clearance you’ll ever need because he’s their god damn son. And me? I’m the man he loves, the man who will do literally anything to make him happy. I’m not taking no for an answer here and you know it.”

“Knowing may not make it better, Stark...”

“With all due respect, Mr. Fury, Sir, I think...I think that should be my decision, shouldn’t it?” Peter reached out to take Tony’s free hand and tug him back to the chair as he met Fury’s gaze with more bravado than he felt.

“And I want to know. I need to know, Sir.”

Fury stared at the kid for a long time, his drawn expression relaxing into a grimace as he rolled his eye and shook his head. “Fine. Don’t say I didn’t warn you, though, Kid.

“You know your parents were Agents. Damn good ones, too. Mary Parker was the best scientist we had on board at the time. Hand picked by Howard Stark right out of college. We still use some of her inventions and her breakthroughs have saved more Agents’ lives than I can count. Richard...he was a field Agent and a damn fine one at that. Fearless. He ran into fights that would have terrified most. Honorable, too. He was a good man, just a ridiculously good man. If the Super Soldier program had continued beyond Cap, I have no doubt that Richard Parker would have been offered a dose. He was just that kind of guy.”

Peter felt Tony give his hand a squeeze. Through a veil of gathering tears, Peter glanced over at his boyfriend and could only blush over the intensity of emotion he saw in those deep brown eyes. “Wow, Pete, reminds me of someone...”

“Shut up,” Peter’s cheeks burst into an embarrassing flame of crimson as he tore his gaze away from Tony to once again focus on Fury. “Go on.”

“There was an incident at a lab in upstate New York. One owned by Oscorp.”

“Norman fucking Osborn...” Fury continued to speak over Tony’s angry growl.

“Anyway, we sent our best scientist. And where Mary Parker went, Richard followed. The event was...it was bad. Worse than we expected. Norman Osborn had been playing with dangerous forces. There was talk of Multi-Verses and gateways and the shit we saw in that lab...gave me nightmares for years. We tried to close the gateway but...we couldn’t and the stuff coming through was...it was bad. We tried to evacuate everyone before we sealed the place but Mary and Richard refused to leave until the very last minute because they thought they could still get the gateway to close.”

“You gotta understand, Kid, it’s not S.H.I.E.L.D.’s proudest moment. If I could have done anything I would have but I wasn’t in charge then and...they sealed the place with them inside.”

Peter didn’t move, didn’t breathe, just let the words reverberate inside his skull for the longest time. It was several long minutes before he finally felt Tony stroking the back of his hand and the meaning of Fury’s words finally settled into his conscious mind. “So...what you’re saying is that they could still be alive?”

Fury’s nostrils flared. “No, no that’s not...”

“But they could be. Best scientist in Shield and a top Agent and a gateway to a Multi-verse. They’re lost but they’re not dead. We just...we just have to find them. Tony...we just have to find them.” He snatched up Tony’s hand in both of his own, staring up at him hopefully. “Mr. Stark invented Time Travel to get me back from Thanos, so you can definitely invent Multi-dimensional travel to get back my parents, right? Right?”

Tony nodded slowly, bringing Peter’s hands to his lips to kiss. “Baby, I’d do anything for you, you know that. If you want to cross the Multi-Verse to find your parents, that’s what we’ll do...”

Peter was crying now, fat tears streaming for his eyes as he nodded repeatedly, utterly convinced that he and Tony were going to be able to do this. They’d accomplished much worse.

“You ever pay for those handcuffs you borrowed from S.H.I.E.L.D., Parker?” Fury’s question brought Peter screeching back into the present with a choking gasp. He couldn’t possibly mean... “Wha...Bu...But you weren’t supposed to remember, Mr. Fury.”

“Funny thing about the Infinity Stones, I guess. They did a damn good job of erasing my memory in 1992, but when they brought me back after the Blip...they didn’t make sure those memories were still gone. I remember everything about you and the Boy Wonder. I’ve seen some pretty crazy shit in my time, too, so my only other question is for Stark. Just what the fuck are you? You’re not a Skrull. So what? Life Model Decoy? Clone? AI? Did Stark save his brain in a computer so he’d never die? One thing I know is you sure as hell aren’t his kid Stark.”

Tony just gave a nonchalant shrug, once more rising from his seat, hands now stuffed into his pockets as he paced the living room. “Oh, you’re right there. I’m Tony Stark but so was the Old Man. It’s complicated, Fury. And if you weren’t trying to distract us and change the subject, I’d take the time to explain it to you. But, since I can tell that Peter is a little too close to something you had no intentions of telling us...I think I’m just going to leave it at that and instead I’m going to ask you what they fuck you’re hiding. See...I know it’s not proof that the Parkers are dead. If it was, you’d produce it and that would be that. Peter would give up. You’d go home, we’d go back to our party...but you’re trying so hard to get us onto another subject that it has to be the opposite. You have proof that Mary and Richard Parker are alive and you don’t want us to know about it...but here’s the thing, Fury. I meant what I said to my sexy little spider. I’ll do anything for him. There’s no firewall, no encryption in this world strong enough to keep me out...not when I’ve set my mind on hacking it, not when I’m willing to create a whole damn AI whose sole job is to hack into ever piece of electronic intelligence in the god damn world and find me that one piece of information about the Parkers that you don’t want me to know. It’d be a lot easier if you just told me, Fury, but if you want me to do it the hard way I sure as fuck will...and I’ll do irreparable damage to your networks in the process.”

“Are you threatening me, Stark?”

“I mean, I thought I was being really fucking obvious about it but fine, you want me to spell it out for you, Fury. Tell us what you know about the Parkers, all of it, or I’ll make it my personal mission to destroy any alphabet agency you can dream up to replace S.H.I.E.L.D. now and for the rest of my young life because we’re the fucking heroes, the ones who save the god damn world day in and day out. Peter asks for nothing out of it. Nothing. All he wants is to know what happened to his parents and you fucking owe him that you one-eyed, self righteous, superhero wannabe. You knew the Old Man, so you know that I’m not bluffing. Spill it or get the fuck out of my house.”

Tony Stark had never looked so resplendently sexy to Peter a day in his life. The teenager really wanted to rip off that tuxedo and drag him into the bedroom to test their endurance for the rest of the night based on that speech alone, but his desires were quickly squelched by Nick Fury’s next words.

“We’ve been picking up a distress beacon emanating from the old Oscorp laboratory facility. We think it’s coming from the open gateway. It...appears to be Mary and Richard Parker...but they’re not radioing us for rescue, Stark. They’re radioing us to tells us to close the gateway...because something very bad is coming...”

#starker

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intothestarkerverse · 5 years ago

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I’m Baaaack

Not that I think anyone noticed I was gone...but I have returned from my unwanted and unintended hiatus. Technological issues (and my own lack of inner strength that prevents me from attaining the fortitude needed to type out content on my mobile device) prevented me from writing for the last several months. But....Santa has seen fit to reward me for good behavior and I am now back and (hopefully) better than ever.

So, expect to see a sequel to Time of Our Lives coming your way shortly. ( I may have somehow managed to come up with two more sequel ideas in that verse during my absence so I probably won’t be saying goodbye to that piece for a while......). I am also working on a sequel to one of my Starker Week stories, finishing up the first story I began writing in the fandom and then abandoned on the side of the highway... As well as no less than eleven Starkerized AUs and some other bits and bobs along the way.

I am also open to prompts if you guys want to throw anything my way. I am admittedly better at fluff than smut, but I am willing to write either or both when the muse dictates. I am also fine with Canon and Non-Canon characterizations. Young Tony is my guilty pleasure and fantasy is my jam, so if you have something along those lines...I’m more than down, guys.

Anyway, I’m back and hoping to get to posting sooner rather than later. What with the drama of last year and the subsequent hiatuses, I thought it might be a good time to get my ass back in gear....

Peace, Love, and Happy New Year guys!

#starker

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intothestarkerverse · 5 years ago

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You want the solution to this discourse? Here it is:

Reblog this if:

You create canon-based content (can be off-hand, majority or balanced with fanon)

You are open to receiving canon-based asks and prompts

You reblog canon-based content even if you don’t create it yourself

You are an artist or author that accepts commissions or creates canon-based content

This post is now your easy-access list of creators that actively engage in and/or create the content you prefer. Or, you can look at it as a list of people not to follow if your preferences lie in ‘fanon’ content.

Please note; blogs that reblog this may also create heavily fanon based or non-canon based content. They are welcome. Scroll past or block the tags of content you dislike. I will not tolerate bullshit on this post.

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intothestarkerverse · 6 years ago

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Paper Hearts

The Starker-Office AU the world needs.

Tony Stark is a paper salesman who hates his job but is secretly in love with the beautiful receptionist. A glimpse into their unorthodox courtship and happily ever after.

Tony Stark hated his job.

Selling paper was one of the most boring professions he could think of, and it had a very obvious expiration date that drew ever closer the more digitized the world became. At best, he thought, he had another few years before he had to hit the unemployment line and look for another job he despised. Nothing left to do but collect his paychecks until then, really.

His boss was an idiot.

Scott Lang was no where near as funny as he thought he was. His jokes caused Tony actual, physical pain. The way the guy was a lapdog for Hope from corporate, that was even worse. Didn’t help that for some reason Scott thought he and Tony were best friends. The indignities he put up with for this job were not worth the pay check he took home. Not. At. All.

The guy across from his desk was a killjoy. You’d think Steve Rogers had some amazingly important job with how dedicated he was to it. First one to arrive. Last one to leave. He was a puny little, sanctimonious nerd that Tony loved to play practical jokes on…which was really only one of two things that made the job bearable. The second? The second was Peter.

Peter fucking Parker.

The receptionist.

Light of his life.

His reason for waking up in the morning.

The only damn reason he hadn’t left this fucking job in pursuit of something that didn’t make him contemplate using his letter opener to carve a giant hole into the middle of his chest.

Peter was young and beautiful and sweet and he sat directly in Tony’s line of view. He caught himself staring at the kid way more often than he should. He would day dream about running his fingers through those fluffy chestnut curls, tugging on the strands in the throes of passion. He pictured what Peter’s lips would look like wrapped around more than just the straw of his water bottle. He committed every centimeter of Peter’s face to his memory, knew every piece of clothing in the kid’s wardrobe…enough that he recognized when Peter had treated himself to a new sweater or pair of skinny jeans. Tony stared because it was all he was allowed to do, and it was the only thing that got him through the day. Peter caught him, too, but either the kid didn’t realize that Tony was head over heels in love with him…or he didn’t care.

Tony really hoped it was the former, but it didn’t matter really because Peter had a fiance, Quentin Beck, some handsome asshole from the warehouse who had been promising Peter a ‘happily ever after’ that the kid had yet to realize was really a ‘never gonna happen’. Quentin wasn’t ready to grow up, settle down, be a fucking man, and Tony had caught him flirting with people who weren’t Peter enough times to know he was a piece of shit. Quentin Beck didn’t know what he had, but Tony did. He hated that fucking guy, and the feeling was clearly mutual.

Someday. Someday, Tony was going to sweep Peter off his feet, steal him away from the asshat and show the kid what a happily ever after should look like.

Someday.

If he ever worked up the nerve.

Until then…

***

Tony leaned against the reception desk, drumming his fingers on the Formica counter and waiting for Peter to finish his call. Peter glanced up at him through a curtain of eyelashes, biting back a grin and holding a finger to his lips as he quickly scrawled a message on a notepad for Scott.

“Mhm, yeah, no, I’ll totally have him call you back…Yeah…Soon, for sure…Uh huh…Yep, I have here that it’s important so he’ll definitely get back to you…Yep…Cool, okay. Bye.” He placed the phone back in it’s cradle carefully and turned his attention to Tony, resting his head in one hand and blushing intensely under the other man’s gaze. “That was corporate. You could have gotten me into trouble.”

“I’d never get you into trouble, Pete. I’d sooner die.”

“This job’s not worth dying over, Mr. Stark.”

“You might be…”

Peter choked out an embarrassed giggle. “Stop it! You’re the worst. Did you just come over here to tease me or did you need help with the copier again? For someone with half a degree in computers, you really suck with copiers, you know that?”

Tony shrugged, so what if that was one of his many excuses to spend a little time with Peter during the day. He could hardly be faulted for that. “Got you a present. Wanted to make sure you got to enjoy it properly.”

“Oh yeah, what did you get me?” Peter looked more than a little skeptical, and in all honesty, he probably had a right to be.

“Wait until Rogers gets back from his coffee break and then enjoy the show, Kid.”

“Oh my god, what did you do?”

Tony chuckled, stealing a piece of candy from the bowl Peter filled every week. “I may have hacked his computer last night…sent him a very official looking email from the US Army inquiring about a very special kind of paper needed for a top secret mission and included a referral from one of his best clients.”

“You didn’t!”

“He’s always acting like his job is a matter of life and death, let’s give the geek a thrill, huh?”

“Mr. Stark, that’s so mean…”

“I could abort the mission if you really think…”

“I mean it would be a shame to waste all that hard work…”

***

“No.”

“Seriously, Steve, I haven’t even gotten to ask…”

“I know, but whatever it is you want, Tony, it can’t be good. So, no. My answer is no.”

Tony frowned, hanging his head in frustration for several seconds. “I know you got Peter in the office Secret Santa thing…”

“How do you know that? Did you just conveniently skip over the ‘secret’ part?”

Tony was trying really hard to be nice here. Steve wasn’t making it easy. “I asked everyone else. Paid them. Did them favors. Tracked down the lucky bastard who was gifting Peter…and Fate hates me, so here we are. Look, Rogers, I know we’re not friends…”

“Whose fault is that?”

“Mine. Mine. It’s clearly mine. I accept the blame. I do. It’s just…I have something planned for Pete and I need to be his Secret Santa. I will do literally anything. Name your price.”

“I can’t be bought, Tony. Peter has a fiance, or did you forget that? Whatever you want from him, it can’t be good.”

Tony groaned, hitting his forehead against the top of his desk. “I know Peter has a fiance, Rogers. Believe me, no one is more aware of Quentin’s existence than I am. The guy’s a jerk…a bigger jerk than me, and that’s really saying something. You know it’s true. He’s a piece of shit and Peter deserves better. The guy is going to give him some generic piece of crap for Christmas, no thought at all. You know it. Peter’s a good kid. He deserves…he deserves a lot more than that shithole. Let me give him something nice. I’m not going to break up his relationship. I’m not going to lead him down the path of temptation. I just want to give him something nice and make him smile without him feeling like he needs to do something for me, okay? Rogers…I’m begging you.”

Steve stared at him for several long minutes before he sighed and nodded. “Fine. Yeah. Okay.”

“Bless you, Steve Rogers. Consider this our armistice. War over.”

“I’ll believe that when I see it.”

***

Tony had never wanted to hug anyone as badly as he wanted to hug Peter in that moment.

The kid looked defeated.

He was seated at a little card table towards the back of the comic book shop with several stacks of his own self-published comic in little piles all around him.

No one was stopping to look at them. To talk to him. To acknowledge his existence at all.

His eyes were glassy. The kid was literally minutes away from crying and he just couldn’t let that happen.

“Just your luck that you’d have your debut on a rainy day, Parker.”

Peter jumped, scrubbing a hand over his cheeks and putting on a brave face as he looked up at Tony with a paradoxical mixture of relief and fear. “Tony! You…you came.”

“Course I came. Wouldn’t miss this for the world. But seriously, you know rainy days are terrible for business, right? It’s a proven fact. Why…I’ve never seen so few people in here before. Gotta be the weather.”

“Yeah…no, yeah, I’m sure you’re right.” Peter looked like he didn’t quite believe Tony, but he was also apparently eager for an excuse to explain his lackluster turn out. Had anyone else from the office even come? Ass holes. All of them. And where the fuck was Quentin?

“So, let’s see…” Tony reached out for one of the books, carefully flipping through the pages and perusing the content with a little humming noise. “Hey, now, do you take inspiration from people you know?”

Peter was blushing. “Maybe…”

“No maybe about it, Peter, you cannot tell me this handsome bastard isn’t based off me.” He flipped the book around, tapping at an image of a roguishly handsome superhero in crimson and gold armor. “You know I’m a raging narcissist, right? I was going to buy a book anyway, but now I have to buy the whole series cause I’m one of the stars. You in here, too?”

Peter nodded slowly, his blush darkening. “Yeah…but I won’t tell you who. You’ll have to figure that out…”

“I do love a challenge.” Tony closed the book and reached out to add one from every pile to the one in his hands. “So, how much?”

“Um…they’re ten a piece but…”

“But obviously that’s much too low so I’ll give you a hundred for the set of five.”

“Tony, no…”

“Fine. A hundred and fifty it is. You’re a tough negotiator, Pete.”

“Tony!” The smile on Peter’s face was worth every fucking penny. And who needed to eat, anyway?

***

“Mr. Stark! You promised that the goatee was not because of my comics.”

Peter was standing at his desk with both hands over his mouth. His face was as brilliantly red as the home made Halloween costume Tony had donned for work that day…the costume he had based entirely off of Peter’s comic and the character he just knew was based on him. Had to be. And dammit, if he was right…if he was right, than Peter had even made himself Tony’s fucking love interest…and wasn’t that just the most interesting thing he’d ever read in his whole damn life?

“So, I lied. It’s not my fault. You’re such a damn good artist that I took one look at my comic book self with that awesome facial hair and said, ‘Fuck, Tony, why did you never realize that you’d be even more devastatingly attractive if you just had an impeccably groomed goatee?’ The world has you to thank for it, Pete, and I’m definitely keeping it because it’s been a hit.”

Peter’s hands dropped from his face to his sides. He was chewing on his bottom lip, looking pensive. “Who…I didn’t know you were dating anybody Mr. Stark. I’m glad…they like it. I guess…”

Tony didn’t bother to correct him. Not yet. A little jealousy might do the kid some good, let him know how much Tony wanted to choke the fucking life out of Quentin every time that piece of shit showed his face.

***

Peter was wearing a new soft blue sweater over a button down shirt and Tony was trying very hard not to swoon over how fucking adorable he looked. He was playing with his gum, winding it around his finger before popping it into his mouth to begin again. He had his phone concealed in his lap so no one could see him playing on social media while he was supposed to be working. That was probably why he didn’t hear Tony approach until the man was standing directly in front of him, leaning against the reception desk and looking at Peter with what Tony recognized was something very close to the heart-eye emoji. God, this kid.

He really couldn’t take it anymore.

He had to make a move.

Be brave.

Be bold.

Be the fucking hero in that kid’s comic.

“What are you doing tonight, Pete?”

Peter jumped a little, looking up at Tony with a little flush of surprise. “Tonight? I don’t know. Quentin’s got poker at Drax’s, so probably just going to lay in bed and catch up on Netflix. Why?”

Tony smirked, dropping something on the desk in front of him.

“Oh my god, how did you get this? It’s not even supposed to be released for another two weeks…” Peter’s excitement was quelled by the sudden realization, “Is this a bootleg?”

Tony nodded. He was never going to admit to how much he’d spent for a bootleg copy of something he cared absolutely nothing about because in the end…it was going to be completely worth it. “Come over to my place tonight. We can break the law together.”

“You think if the FBI raids your place while we’re in the middle of it that we could at least be cellmates, Mr. Stark?”

“Don’t worry, Pete, I’ll protect you in the prison yard. No one would dare put a hand on you.”

“I’ve always thought you’d make a great prison husband.” The witty banter ground to a halt with Peter’s last quip, his light brown eyes flaring wide. His mouth had runaway without his better judgment, but Tony wasn’t quite ready to let it go yet.

“Oh, I’d make a great husband, prison or not.” Tony held Peter’s gaze for a second longer than was probably comfortable for both of them, the kid’s face was red as a cherry tomato when they were interrupted by the sound of an exasperated sigh from behind them.

“Tony…could you just grow up already? Some of us are actually trying to work…”

Peter giggled into his hand, leaning to the side to look around Tony at Steve Rogers’ desk. “I thought you and Mr. Rogers had finally ended the Civil War, what did you do this time?” He was careful to keep his tone soft enough that it didn’t carry.

“Hm?” Tony was still distracted by thoughts of Peter as his prison wife, but managed to pull himself out of it to look back over his shoulder and shrug. “I super glued everything to his desk last night.”

“Everything?”

“Everything.”

Peter was under his desk now, hugging his sides and laughing himself breathless.

***

It was far from the first time he and Peter had spent time together outside of work. They were friendly, in fact. Quentin didn’t share any of Peter’s interests, and that left plenty of things for Tony to exploit. Movies Quentin wouldn’t be caught dead seeing. Video game releases. Comic conventions. Hell, Tony had even gone to a few games of D&D with Peter because he would take literally any excuse to spend time with that kid.

Now, they were cuddled up on Tony’s couch in his apartment with enough snack food to weather the apocalypse and a bootleg that Peter was dying to see. Though, for something Peter was dying to see, he didn’t seem as enthusiastic about watching it as he had earlier that day.

“Pete? You okay? Something happen after work?” He’d been fine when they’d said their goodbyes that day.

Peter ran a hand through his curls and let out a long, shaky breath. “I think Quentin might be cheating on me. I don’t have proof but…Drax didn’t know anything about a poker game tonight and it’s just, it’s little things, you know? I found this little church I really liked for the wedding and I mentioned it to him, that we could maybe set a date…but he brushed me off. MJ…you know from customer service? She says I’m an idiot, that he’s never going to marry me and now I’m afraid she’s right…do think she’s right, Tony?”

Tony reached out, drawing the younger man close and inhaling the scent of his shampoo as he tucked Peter against his chest. “You’re not an idiot, Peter. You’re way better than that piece of shit in the warehouse deserves. You’re beautiful and smart and funny and talented, and if you were mine…we’d have fucking eloped the second you said you’d marry me.”

Peter pulled back with a watery smile, “Yeah?”

“Mhm. They increased the limit on my credit card last month. Enough for two tickets to Vegas, a week long stay in a crappy casino and a quickie wedding chapel. I’d lock that shit down before you had a second to realize that you could do better than me, too.”

“Better than you?” Peter sounded as if that idea was more insane than eloping to Vegas minutes after a marriage proposal. “Tony, there isn’t anyone better than you.”

“If you believed that, you wouldn’t be with that piece of shit, Quentin Beck.”

Now, Peter just looked confused. “In what universe did I ever have a choice between you and Quentin?”

“This one.”

Peter’s head slowly canted to one side, brow furrowing and eyes narrowing. “No…”

“Oh yes, Pete.” Never in his wildest dreams had ever thought that Peter thought Tony was out of his league. Was the kid blind? Did he not own a mirror? Did he not know how brilliant and funny and talented… “Oh yes..” Those last two words were repeated a hair’s breadth from Peter’s lips as Tony leaned forward to bridge the distance between them.

It was everything Tony had ever thought it would be and so much more. Peter’s lips were soft, his whimpers were music to Tony’s ears. Tony let himself bury his fingers in those chestnut curls and inhale the scent of him, revel in the taste of him, live in that moment as if it was the only one he was ever going to get.

The kiss went on until neither one of them could breath, until they were forced to pull back with heaving chests and swollen lips. Peter stared at Tony for several seconds before he threw off the blanket and walked out of the room.

What.

What the fuck.

Tony was dumbfounded. Was Peter not into it? Had he just been shot down? Was Peter not even going to talk to him…

No.

Peter was back.

With his laptop?

Tony frowned, watching as Peter dropped the computer in his lap followed by something small and golden. Glancing up, Tony caught sight of Peter’s now empty ring finger.

“Put your money where your mouth is, Stark.”

Tony stared. “What…”

“Two tickets. Vegas. ASAP.”

“Wait…” He couldn’t be serious.

“No, you said you wouldn’t make me wait. I already Snapped Quentin. We’re broken up. I’m single…but I don’t want to be. So buy me those tickets to Vegas and a ring…when we get there.”

Tony slowly opened the laptop, stealing glances at Peter ever few seconds as he booted it and pulled up a travel site. “You’re not…this isn’t a joke, right?”

“Not a joke. You’re not the only one who’s been pining, Tony Stark. Why do you think Quentin hated you so much? He knew I was super into you…hell, Tony, I made you my lover in my comics…You’ve been my unattainable crush since I started my job. You’re the nicest guy I’ve ever met. Most supportive. We have fun together. We have a lot in common. We just…”

“Yeah.” Tony was smiling now, not even second guessing himself as he typed in his credit card numbers. “I don’t know if we can get a week off work…”

“Four day weekend is good enough for now. I’ll call Mr. Lang and let him know we won’t be in. I’ll have to tell him why…”

“God help us.”

***

Four days later when Tony and Peter returned to work in the same car, they arrived to find an impromptu wedding shower waiting for them. Quentin had quit. Left all of Peter’s stuff in the warehouse in a pile in the middle of one of the docking bays. But whatever, the less they had to see of that prick the better. Scott seemed happier about their elopement than they were, and he’d gone to great lengths to print up t-shirts proclaiming that everyone in the office ‘shipped Starker’. Even Rogers was wearing one.

Tony pretended to hate it.

Really he fucking loved it.

Maybe his job wasn’t the absolute worst after all…

#starker

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