This was war.
Not an actual war, of course, but a Nerf war.
You were hiding from your best friend, Peter Parker, guns attatched to your holster with spare foam bullets in your pockets. The Avengers HQs was the perfect place to do this kind of stuff; the place was huge. Which also meant, finding him was not going to be the easiest job in the world. Still, you were determined to find him and take him down.
Despite the fact that you kind of, sort of, maybe, had just a bit of feelings for him. You convinced yourself that it was just something that would go away with time, though.
To your dismay, it didn't. Those feelings stayed with you.
You snapped yourself out of it, and reloaded your gun as you crept around the corner, meeting a confused Steve. "Y/N...what are you doing?"
"Going into battle," you replied. "Now shhh! I'm trying to listen for him! I need to take him down!"
"Who? What? Who are you trying to kill?"
"I'm not killing anyone, these bullets are made of foam. It's a Nerf gun war against Peter."
"Ohhh," he finally responded, understanding the concept. "So basically...you guys are best friends who are hell-bent on filling each other with foam bullets?"
"Basically, yeah."
"O-kay then, enjoy your shooting spree with your boyfriend." Then he left with a smirk, leaving you standing there, cheeks flaming red.
Your base was in the training room, which was the basement. Thor saw what you were doing and looked at you weirdly. "Is this another weird game that Midgardians play?"
"It's a Nerf war. Basically they're like weapons, but they're just toy guns."
"Hm, sounds fun. Allies?"
"Sure, why not." You shook hands and showed him your stash of bullets, handing him some ammo and a spare gun. "Good thing you showed up, because I think Peter got my dad to team up with him." You were talking about Tony, who never said no to a fun little challenge that included shooting.
"Jarvis, please inform me of Peter Parker's current location, will you?" Thor commanded. "And would you also let me know who he's with."
"Yes, Mr. Odinson. As of right now, Mr. Parker is in the living room with Mr. Stark, building a fort which he says he is using as his base."
"Thank you," he said curtly, then to you, he gestured to his room. "There's a vent in there that I believe you can climb into. Then while you do that, I may sneak around down here, does that sound like a reasonable plan to you?"
"Yeah, that's good." He lifted you up so you could climb in. Giving him the thumbs up, you signaled for him to close the vent. This was perfect; nobody could see you or hear you unless everything was really quiet and they really listened.
After a minute of crawling, you heard some lowered voices below you, looking down to see a bunch of blankets draped over chairs in the living room. Tony and Peter. "Jackpot," you whispered to yourself as you prepared your gun again.
Carefully, you lowered yourself down with your rope and landed softly on the floor, not making any sound.
"Ha! Gotcha!" You felt someone grab your shoulders from behind and screamed. "Betcha didn't see that coming!"
"Peter!" you shrieked. Peter held you as Tony shot you in the stomach. It didn't hurt, but you pretended like it did. "Daaaad! Why did you team up with him and not me!"
"I felt rebellious," he joked, grinning at you.
Peter proceeded in tackling you to the floor and tickling you, resulting in you shrieking in a high-pitched voice. "Stop! Make it stop!" you shrieked again.
"Only if you say the three magic words!"
"What are those magic words?" He raised his eyebrows at you and smirked.
"Okay, okay! I love you!"
He let go, and you laid there for a second, giggling and shaking with laughter. Then you realized what you just said and your face turned bright red. You could feel the heat rapidly spread across your cheeks. Dusting off your pants, you got up and went to the kitchen to grab a drink and after that, headed up to Natasha's room, embarrassed.
"Did you see that?" you hissed, taking a sip of your soda. "I totally screwed it up! It was probably a phrase like 'Let me go!' or 'Please let go!' and the first thing that pops into my head is 'I love you'?"
"Well, he did let go of you. Did you see his reaction?" Natasha tried to hide her smile, because she did.
"He looked...disgusted."
"No, he did not! Wanda! What did you see?"
"Oh," the Scarlet witch perked up excitedly, "well, he was all blushing and couldn't stop smiling when you left and Tony literally said 'Damn, Parker, I can't believe my daughter pulled the L-word on you!'"
"Great," you groaned, slapping a palm to your forehead. "Now Peter probably thinks I'm some stupid, lovesick, desperate person."
"He does not. He likes you!"
"We'll see about that." You chugged down the rest of your soda and threw it in the trash can. Putting your confident face back on, you headed back downstairs as if to pretend you hadn't made a fool of yourself just earlier.
"Hey," you said casually to Steve, Vision, Thor, and Tony, avoiding Peter's gaze.
"The Nerf war was pretty fun, I did not expect that," Thor commented, looking happy.
You didn't reply to that, you simply looked down at your feet, the blush spreading across your face once again.
After a few minutes of awkward, strained silence, you shook your head and ran upstairs to your room, slamming the door. You screwed it up so badly...you thought. Before the Nerf war had started, things hadn't been going too well between you two, either. It was really strange, because it was all of a sudden and you didn't see it coming at all. What was the reason behind it?
The reason was that Peter was scared of exposing his crush on you, so he had locked those feelings away and did what he believed was best: ignoring you. You took it the wrong way, however, and sensed that he was doing something else.
A tear slipped down your face as your back slid down against the wall. You let yourself cry, those cries morphing into screams, and you grew so furious that you chucked three pillows across your room.
After a bit, you stopped, and just continued crying, too upset to even do anything at that point.
A knock sounded on the door, and Tony stepped in, dodging the pillows on the floor. "Y/N? What happened?"
"Nothing," you lied, your voice muffled by your pillow.
"Tell me," he ordered.
"Nothing!"
"Something's bothering you. What's going on?" he said in a more gentle tone.
"It's..." You choked on a sob, wiping your face with your sleeve. "This is the first interaction I've had with him in over a week...I don't know why we haven't been talking but he just cut me off all of a sudden..." You couldn't help it anymore, and burst into tears.
Tony wrapped an arm around you and smoothed your hair back. "Peter's just scared, sweetheart. Terrified, in fact. He just needs some time."
"What is he so scared of that makes him not want to talk to me? Am I scary?"
"No, of course not," he chuckled, then grew serious. "He's scared of the feeling you give him."
"What are you talking about?"
"He's avoiding you because he feels like he's been too obvious about his feelings for you and is afraid that you'll find out."
"But I didn't know! And I'm in love with him too..."
"That's what he thought, though. And as your dad, I require you to do something about it and let him know how you feel because if you don't, you'll lose him. And if you do, well, you'll regret it. Trust me on that one."
"But do I really...I totally screwed it up earlier---"
"Just do it. Okay?"
"Okay..."
"Good." He kissed your forehead, then pulled you up off of the floor. "This is such a proud moment in the billionaire's life! Daughter of the amazing Tony Stark falls in love for the first time. It'd make a great newspaper story---"
"Daaaaad! Please, not you too!" you laughed, swatting his shoulder.
"What can I say? It's so cute to see you in this state."
-----
It was after dinnertime now, and it was your turn to wash the dishes.
You finished washing the last plate, and then put that into the sink. However, you didn't look where you were going, and nearly slipped on something before you felt a pair of strong arms catch you. "Woah there," the person chuckled. "You could've bruised yourself by crashing into that table!" It was Peter, with his gorgeous hair and dazzling smile that made you weak in your knees.
He pulled you to him to prevent you from falling and didn't let go, even when you gained a firm footing. For a moment, it seemed as if the whole world had gone still, holding its breath, waiting for someone to make the next move.
And that someone would be you.
His arms slid around your waist, and yours around his neck. You could hear him breathing, slow and labored, and you wondered why neither one of you was letting go, why neither one of you was stepping out of the hug.
Peter's eyes met yours and you relaxed instantly, almost completely forgetting about what happened before.
"Will you just kiss me already? I've done enough waiting," you said, exasperated, taking your dad's advice and simply going for it.
He chuckled, leaning in, letting your lips meet his. "I've been waiting to do that for so long. And I'm sorry for not talking to you enough."
"BET'S UP!" you heard Tony shout from upstairs. "Twenty bucks! I told you she was going to kiss him!"
Both of you looked up, laughing, to see several folded bills exchanging between the hands of Steve and Tony.
On the other hand, the others wouldn't stop cooing and teasing you about how cute you were together.
"I love you," Peter whispered into your ear.
"I know," you replied smugly, earning a belly laugh from Clint and Bucky.