Chapter Twenty-One
Peter's POV
Morning at Avengers tower was oddly very normal.
Steve had already gone for his morning run, and was now reading the morning paper while drinking coffee. Natasha and Wanda were doing some sort of intensive yoga effortlessly. Tony was working in his shop, or so I was told. Thor was in the kitchen following some recipe by Rachael Ray on the TV. Clint Barton was nowhere to be seen, though I could practically hear him snoring through the walls.
I was curled up on one of the couches, still taking in the environment. I didn't think I'd ever been in a home this nice before. But the part that shocked me the most was how homey it managed to feel. To me "home" was the place where there were marks on the walls from reckless childhood years, where nothing was in the right cupboards but that's the sole reason you knew where everything was. This place was a modern architect's dream, and it was the tidiest place I'd ever seen.
I pulled my phone - which was cracked, and the design on the case was fading - out of my pocket. You see, last night I passed out as soon as my head hit the pillow, exhausted from the day of agility tests and being poked and prodded at. The result of my time asleep was that I now had the joy of reading through a spam of messages from Ned and MJ. Most of it was MJ trying to see just how oblivious Ned was to fact that I was Spider-Man. I laughed and rolled my eyes simultaneously as I read through the texts.
There was one additional text, from May. "The apartment is so quiet without you! Hope everythings going well. Love you xx".
I quickly replied, "Love you too, I'll call you tonight."
I didn't say anything in response to Ned and MJ, however, but I figured I would get a chance to FaceTime with them later on.
"What's that smile, Parker?" Natasha asked, smirking at me. "You got a girl on that phone?"
"Uh, no, I'm not-" I started, my face reddening with embarrassment. "It's just my aunt, and some of my friends."
"Girl friends? Friends that are girls?" she pressed.
"No, they're not," I replied shortly. I wasn't annoyed so much at the fact that she was asking, but more so at the fact that she assumed I was straight. Yeah, I was bi, but I definitely had a preference for guys.
"Good morning, Barton, can I make you anything to eat?" Thor chirped from the kitchen, causing us all to look up.
Sure enough, there stood Clint Barton, still in purple pajama pants and a black jumper, rubbing groggily at his eyes. "YasureThor," he yawned. "I'll have whatever yer makin, plus some coffee. Oh hey kid, good to see you didn't die in your sleep or something, do you want anything? Tea, maybe?"
"Uh, yeah, tea sounds good," I said, utterly confused.
He then dragged his feet across the floor and slumped onto the couch beside me, looking about ready to fall asleep again.
"Does that happen often? Like, do people usually die in their sleep on the first night here?" I questioned.
"Huh?" he asked, looking as though I woke him up when I spoke. "Oh, that. Nah, but after the stunt I pulled yesterday, Tony will kill me if anything happens to you on my watch. He said something about how being a dad gives me a moral obligation or some shit. I don't really know."
"I'll be fine, Clint," I said as I laughed, though I was surprised that the one Avenger who had dropped a truck on me purposefully also happened to be the one who had kids themselves.
"Yeah, yeah, just don't blow yourself up by accident or anything." I watched him lazily close his eyes again, his head falling back onto the cushion.
Moments later, he suddenly shot straight up, just as Thor entered the room with two mugs. Clint eagerly accepted his coffee, chugging it despite the steam that was clearly coming off of it. I thanked Thor as he handed me a mug of tea.
I brought it to my lips, blowing on it in attempts to cool it down, however I felt Clint grab my arm.
"Don't even think about drinking that yet. The tea's too hot, you'll burn your tongue," I sensed the humor in his threat, however we were immediately interrupted by an electronic voice.
"Peter's 't' is not meant to be digested! Shall I dial poison control?" J.A.R.V.I.S. asked, sounding awfully anxious for a robot.
"No! J.A.R.V.I.S. no, I'm fine!" I shrieked, turning bright red as I stared upwards. "It's not- it's just green tea, J.A.R.V.I.S.!"
"Steve, can you confirm this?" The voice asked.
I rubbed my forehead with my hand, not wanting to explain what J.A.R.V.I.S. thought was going on. Regardless, I thought he would be smarter than to confuse testosterone with tea. He surely had inherited Tony's protectiveness.
"Uh, yeah, he seems fine to me," Steve replied in the most confused voice ever. Everyone else seemed to be thinking the same thing, from the looks on their faces.
"My apologies, although for the record Mr. Barton seemed very concerned," the AI said.
"Well yeah, concerned for my own life! Tony would've slaughtered me!" Clint whined.
"Speak of the devil," Tony said, entering the room. He arms were smudged with grease and his hair was sticking up in odd places.
"Yknow, I don't think you're allowed to say that about yourself," Steve spoke up thoughtfully.
"Why do you all look so stunned? And more importantly, why does Clint think I'm going to kill him?" Tony asked, looking around at us. I threw on my best innocent face, begging the moment to pass. "Nothing? Well, then. Peter, wanna take a field trip?"
A/N:
Happy pride month!!! Is anyone going to any pride events? I might, there's one close to me but its on the morning of my graduation so we'll see.
Also I hope y'all liked the text messages cos they were really fun to write! (I hope they weren't too obnoxious.)
Jamie