One Shot Collection

At Least he's happy - Parksborn

Peter isn't purposely avoiding Tony. He's not. It's just that college is a lot more work than high school, and between signing up to a few too many classes, swinging around the city and actually studying, there's not a lot of time left to accompany the billionaire on his weekly lab binges.

(He may also be a tad sick of being treated as a damn kid. He went to space. He died. He grew up.)

So he tries to settle into this new milestone of his life, and blames it on sleep or reading whenever his roomate is about to murder him for ignoring his phone for too long.

How's college?
Do you need anything?
Up for lab time anytime soon?
Miss you, kid.

Tony has known Peter for years, though, so he knows damn well that Peter lives purely on caffeine and stubbornness most of the time.

Sorry, I'm busy.

*

Tony is trying really hard not to screw up his second chance at life. He really is. It's a miracle he survived using the stones in the first place, and when you're sure you're going to die, and everything you didn't get to do is flashing in front of your eyes, it kind of gives your choices a new perspective.

So he spends as much time with Morgan as possible, makes an enormous effort to love his wife like she deserves, and orders Friday to lock his phone whenever he's been pestering his mentee to the point where he doesn't even bother with emojis in his three worded reply.

Sorry, I'm busy.

There's something in his already patched together heart that shatters, but he doesn't dare to dwell too much on it.

He hears the phantom laugh of a beautiful teen whenever the glass door to his lab opens for him. He locks the sound away in a drawer and throws away the key.

He imagines a red and blue blur in the sunrise as he drinks his coffee in front of the floor to ceiling window, watching the streets below buzz into life with the rising sun.

He falls asleep to a ghost of a voice, whispering in his head. Mr. Stark, We made it. We won. I don't want to go. Please.

Please, Mr. Stark. Somewhere the whimpers and sobbing turns to lovely moans and murmurs in his mind as he clings to the soft skin and curves of his wife, thinking of lean muscle and deep, brown eyes.

Tony turns off the tracking and recording in the Spider-Man suit.

#

Peter meets Harry at the library, asking for a pen, which ends up in elaborate discussions about their shared classes and professors, which ends up with a coffee date.

The date goes as well as it can go, with Peter flustered and pink cheeked, admiring the sharp features of Harry's jaw as he talks, the way his blue eyes shine in the fluorescent light in the coffee shop. He's one of the most beautiful men Peter has ever seen.

Harry walks Peter back to his dorm, kisses his cheek with soft, warm lips and asks to meet him again, soon.

#

Tony realizes soon enough that holding on to Pepper is everything but fair. She deserves better than an old man wasting his second chance pining for a teenager.

They don't talk about how Peter just up and left Tony's life. They don't talk about how Tony scrambles for his phone with every ding, whether it's actually there or imagination. They don't talk about how Tony stopped saying I love you, because he feels bad for lying to her.

He does love her. Just not the right way.

Tony isn't naive enough to think she doesn't know. Which is probably why she doesn't make a fuzz when he brings up the topic of divorce. It's probably also the reason why she squeezes his shoulder with a sad smile and says I hope it's worth it.