𝐖𝐞𝐛 𝐨𝐟 𝐋𝐢𝐞𝐬

8 | Newspaper

Stretching his arms and yawning, Peter shuffled into his small apartment kitchen, greeting May with a short 'morning' and pouring himself a cup of coffee.

"How was last night?" May asks, holding her mug in both hands and blowing on the rim. Without looking up from his cup, Peter shrugs, not wanting to get into too much detail this early in the morning.

"Is she still here?" May asks, causing Peter to choke on the mouthful of coffee he had now inhaled.

"How did you even know I brought someone home?!" He questioned, thinking he had snuck Y/N in pretty well last night. May smiled and shook her head before sitting on the back of the couch.

"Peter, you're not particularly the quietest person you know, especially for a superh-" she spoke, before stopping and turning her head towards a hungover Y/N who was stumbling out of Peters room wearing nothing but his shirt and her underwear. She didn't notice the two in the kitchen as she made her way to the bathroom.

"You brought home Y/N Stark?!" May continued in a hushed tone. "Does Tony know about this?!" She whispered, grabbing Peters arm and pulling him into a corner Y/N couldn't see them from. He shook his head and tried to communicate with May without speaking, failing to effectively convey what he meant through hand gestures and facial expressions. Y/N walked past again, going back to Peters room and crawling back into the warm bed. Peter hunched himself over the kitchen bench with his hands covering his face.

"I dunno Aunt May I just really like her and I think she likes me but Tony doesn't want her dating any 'colleagues' and I can't tell her about you know who" he groaned, his face squished against the granite bench top. She shook her head and sipped her coffee.

"She really is gorgeous though Pete, good job" she muttered as he entered his bedroom again.

Y/N stirred in the bed to face him, a shirtless Peter standing in the doorway and handing her a cup of coffee.

"How's your head?" He asked, sitting next to her and pulling the blankets over their legs.

"I actually feel pretty good, I didn't think you'd make a comfortable pillow" she smiled, placing her coffee on the bedside table.

"I um, I just wanted to talk about last ni-" she began, turning towards him.

"No, no don't worry, I get it, you really did me a solid favour" he interrupts, looking towards the door which had now had a mans voice join that of Aunt Mays. Confused, Peter jumped out of bed and opened his bedroom door to see Happy speaking with May.

"Harold, y-you look good" she said softly, Happy blushing and turning to Y/N.

"Y/N, home. Now." He sighed, staring at Y/N. "Your dad had no idea where you were, saw one of the cars was missing and you're late for training with Ms. Romanoff" he continued, moving back towards the door. "Come on, you've got plans" he said, before she kissed Peter on the cheek goodbye.

She sat in the car staring out the window pretty much the entire trip home to Stark Tower before Happy locked the doors when they parked in the garage.

"Alright tell me what's going on Y/N/N, I cross my heart I won't tell your Dad" he urged, sympathetic that she was obviously upset he had been sent to collect her from Peter's house.

"I just, I really like him and he works for Tony and I can't see him cos of that" she spoke, still avoiding eye contact with Happy, who was now sighing and holding his head against his hand.

"Look, I just think you should at least talk to him about this and see if you can both kind of, compromise" he suggested before Y/N turned to him.

"How do you know Peter's Aunt May huh?" She asked Happy, raising one of her eyebrows.

"I saw the way you looked at her" she continued.

"Alright alright enough from you, get upstairs" he laughed, now getting out of the car. Tony stood with his arms crossed looking out the panoramic window to the city.

"Oh cool, you're not dead, I can sleep peacefully now" he scoffed, moving towards the dining room table she was passing.

"Sit" he instructed, taking a newspaper and dropping it on the table in front of her.

"Care to explain?" He asked, referencing the front page image of Y/N kissing Peter from the party.

"A newspaper? I didn't think people even read these things anymore" she said, trying to steer the conversation to anything but her relationship with Peter. Tony sat down opposite her.

"No, I meant the 'Stark daughter follows footsteps of her early Playboy father', nice title don't you think?" He continues, quoting the headline of the exposé. She rolled her head back and stumped in her chair.

"Can I not have fun with a boy I like?" She whines, desperately wanting her father to approve of her crush. "I'm an adult I can like whoever I want to like" she pleaded, staring her father in the eyes.

He sighed, knowing he couldn't argue with his daughter. After all, he raised her as a spitting image of himself; stubborn, determined and witty - it was like arguing with himself.

"Fine. If you want the lines to be blurred between work and home, you can" he scoffed. "I want him to have dinner with us tonight. With Pepper. With Happy. With half of the Avengers too. If he's going to be in your life, he's going to be in all of our lives" he said, admitting defeat. She was shocked. She was shocked that her father had given up and given his blessing, but shocked that he was giving up on most aspects of his work life balance and inviting actual Avengers to his home to finally, break the immense shelter he gave his daughter.

"You want to be treated like an adult? Then be an adult" he finished, almost smugly.