Raising Hybrid Puppies [a Starker coffee shop AU]

Chapter 31

All air seems to have gone out of the room. Tony swallows.

"Well," he says, without inflection. "Let's hear it, then."

Peter looks at him for a moment as if announcing they need to talk and actually talking are two entirely separate things in his head, but all too soon he clears his throat and says something about Rhodey and Pepper and the two of them raising some issues and Bruce urging him to be honest.

It all pours out of him with flailing gestures and wide eyes filled with insecurity cause "we've never talked about any of this, right, and we, uh, we've been living in a bubble, and I don't... I mean, it's burst now and I don't know how it'll all be if we keep going out and I never really thought about any of that until they, uh, until they brought it up."

While part of Tony is incredibly touched his friends went to this length to ensure Peter and he knew what they were doing this time around – cause who's he kidding, if Tony had any say no one in the world would have to spend more time than strictly necessary thinking about official photos and joint statements...

So yeah, he's touched but also really pissed off cause, "Where do they get off, ambushing you like that?"

"Yeah, that was, uh..."

"Shitty, that's what it was," Tony says. "They had no right –"

"Um," Peter says and Tony pauses long enough to let him finish. "They sorta had a point, didn't they?"

On second thought, he shouldn't have. So the kid agrees with them? What the fuck.

"Sorta my ass," Tony snarls. "Okay, kid, sure – let's talk about the many, many faults of Anthony Howard Stark, shall we?"

Peter makes to speak but Tony's done listening. If this is the kid saying he figured out being with Tony's too much for him now that they're out in the open, he's not gonna just roll over and take it.

"Not the classics, though, oh no – everyone knows he's an arrogant son of a bitch who drinks like a fish. Let's talk about how he stays up for days to finish some scrap of metal. Never mind it's gonna stop global warming one day, nah, why look at the big picture if we can fault him for how fucking useless he is at taking care of himself, huh? And oh, his aversion to PR is truly legendary, seriously, he'd rather design shit that's gonna do something than dance for the greedy little blood suckers from the press corps, how dare he be so selfish with his time! He's a genius right, so he's gotta be perfect but he's not living up to our fucking expectations, just like he never did to Howard's. Always out drinking and messing around, that selfish little shit –"

"You're not selfish!" Peter shouts, forceful enough to stop Tony in his tracks. "Everyone always acts like you are but you're not. I know you're not, no matter what your friends said."

Okay, that... doesn't quite sound like the prelude to a breakup.

"You'd never cancel an important meeting – like, really important – just to jet off to somewhere," Peter continues. "Well, not anymore, at least... but that's what counts. That's the only you I know."

Tony blinks. "And you're fine with that? Plus the long hours? Cause you had a point - or sort-of-a-point – and it ain't gonna be easy. With the all-nighters and business trips and ignoring the world when I'm on a project and all that."

"Uh, that's what I l-like about you. Anybody else, they'd work the minimum requirement and only until they have enough so they can retire but you..." Peter stops, apparently grasping for a better way to express himself cause Tony's not truly buying it and he's past not letting it show.