An Act of... Love? [An Avengers Polyamorous Fanfic]

Chapter 64

            I was fidgeting the entire time as all of us gathered for dinner. I could feel Natasha's eyes on me, and I couldn't help but be flustered. I was sitting between Loki and Peter, but Nat was across from me. I could feel both Tony and Clint observing me as well. Every time I looked at one of them they smirked back at me, knowing exactly what it was that was making me so fidgety.

"Are you alright?" Peter whispered from beside me. I felt Bucky's head snap in my direction as worry flooded through him as he asked.

"I'm okay," I told Peter with a smile and a gentle touch to his arm before turning to make eye contact with Bucky. "I'm more than okay," I repeated, but this time I was speaking directly to Buck.

"Okay, you just seem nervous," Peter told me, causing me to face him again. I smiled at him and giggled.

"I have to admit," I said as I looked up to make brief eye contact with Natasha, "I am a bit of that."

"Oh?"

"It's not a bad sort of nervous, though, Peter." Peter spent a minute thinking as Natasha's eyes locked me into a staring contest.

"Oh!" Peter exclaimed after a moment, causing me to snap back to him. He was flushed red and his gaze was darting between Natasha and I.

"Eek, sorry, you weren't meant to figure that out," I rushed out as he flushed even redder. I could feel blood rush to my own cheeks as well.

"No no, I'm the one who asked, you're okay," Peter mumbled back as he stared down at his food. I could feel a swirl of feelings from him that I tried to ignore because in this moment, it felt like an invasion of privacy.

"You deserve a slice of happiness," Peter murmured after an awkward moment of silence. I cocked my head at him in confusion. "I know we don't talk much... but I do keep an eye on you, Ollie. You... you've been through a lot. I can see it. And you don't have to talk about it. But you deserve every ounce of happiness you can get your hands on," he told me. He nodded towards the super soldiers for a moment, and then Tony, and then Loki as well.

"You're... an observant kid," I responded with a nervous giggle.

"Well, that's just it, Oll's, I'm not a kid," he said in a gravelly tone causing my breath to catch in my throat. Was he flirting with me? Was that even okay? I mean, okay, sure, he was one of my soulmates. But he was basically a child! Even if he wasn't actually a child. But, if I really thought about it, I was technically closer in age to him than I was to Tony, even if I didn't know exactly how old he was.

"How old are you?" I blurted out of curiosity causing him to laugh.

"I'm twenty, almost twenty-one," he told me, causing me to nod. I was twenty-eight, so there was only a seven-year difference.

"Okay," I murmured back to him. This conversation with Peter was unlike any of the conversations we'd had before. Usually, he was a nervous and stumbling kid. But right now -- right now he was an adult.

"I'm feeling confident today," Peter chuckled, seemingly picking up on my thought process. I nodded to him, and we fell back into light conversation as we ate the rest of our meals.