Their Boyfriend, Chapter 1
Summary: Peter has a crush on Pepper Potts and Tony Stark, too bad they're married, and out of his league.
Pepper and Tony try to figure out why their boyfriend, Peter Parker, is acting odd.
Didn't know they were dating Pepterony fic!
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Peter's favourite way to spend time was at the Tower.
He loved getting to work in the labs. Get more access to equiptment, a space to make things without upsetting may by lightly burning the carpet with a home-made soldering iron.
He loved seeing the bots. And the cat, Chewie, usually curled up on the couch in the common room. He loved giggling quietly when an avenger would try and sit down on said couch and immediately jump back up, having recieved a clawed swipe for their attempts, and Chewie somehow stretching to take up even more space.
He loved going through the floors and helping out interns, and he loved the view from the top floor.
But more importantly he loved seeing Tony and Pepper.
They had given him an ongoing invitation to the tower. At first he'd thought they were just being polite but when it had been a week and he still hadn't come they had both called him, asking if he was alright, if he wanted some space from them, if something was wrong. He made sure after that to visit multiple times a week. Knowing he truly was welcome there.
Tony and Pepper were amazing. Today Peter went up to the common room when he arrived to greet Chewie first.
"Peter, you're here!" Pepper greeted him with a wide smile and a hug, gently pressing a kiss against the side of his head before pulling away.
"Hi, Pepper!" Peter blushed. Still feeling the warmth of her arms around him. "I can't stay away too long, Chewie would feel abandoned!" He hoped some humour would distract her so she wouldn't notice the pink colouring his face.
Pepper laughed, "Well we cant have that, now can we?"
Peter crouched down by the couch, placing his hand on the cushion, Chewie hissed briefly, before noticing the pillow's shift was caused by Peter, and purring loudly. Peter gently rubbed the cat's fluffy cheeks before moving on to vigorously pet his body with both hands.
"Good god," A new voice. A familiar voice. Tony's voice. "How did you get that little monster love you so much? If I got that close I'd wind up bleeding again." Peter smiled up at the man in the doorway, quickly looking back down to hide his face's red hue once again.
Tony, clearly coming back from a work out, was in a black tank top, the fabric clinging to his muscles, his arms glistening with sweat. 'How can both of them be this good looking?' Peter wondered to himself.
"She's a good kitty." Peter said, smiling at Chewie.
"No, she's evil. She just hides it more when you're here."
----
Tony pretended he wasn't fond of the cat. But she had grown on him slowly, Peter knew.
Once, on patrol, Peter had heard an odd noise coming from an alleyway. Coming closer and closer, trying to figure out what it was, he found a scraggly ball of fur in the alley's dumpster, a cat, making noises while trying to open a packet of old chicken. Peter's heart melted instantly, and spent the next hour slowly coaxing her into a box from the same dumpster.
He was late for his agreed upon visit to the tower, so he hadn't had time to drop her off somewhere before he was off to visit Pepper and Tony.
He carried the box the whole way, walking softly to not disturb the upset cat.
"Hey Pete- What is that?" Tony was instantly suspicious of the rattling box.
Peter had looked sheepish and gently placed the box down, the cat quickly escaping, jumping on the back of the couch, and hissing at the room's occupants.
"Oh god." Tony groaned.
"Oh!" Pepper was interested at least.
"I'm sorry! I was gonna drop her off somewhere first but I didn't have time! She's just so skinny! And it was cold outside! And- Oh, wait, what should I even do with her? The apartment doesn't allow pets, I don-"
"Peter," Pepper's voice was calm and comforting. "Just leave her with us, Sweetheart."
"I- Really?" Peter blushed at the pet-name.
Tony shared a look with Pepper, a silent conversation, and gave a slight smile. "Yeah, Kid, our home is your home. We care a lot about you. And, well speaking of. We were kinda hoping-"
Peter zoned out, he was so excited! The kitty was gonna be so well looked after! The little fuzzball was going to be somewhere safe, and warm, where Peter could visit and shower her in love! At the back of his mind he noticed Tony had stopped talking.
Peter made a happy squeal. "eeee! I'm so happy Mr. Stark! Thank you, thank you, thank you! You're both amazing!" He rushed to them both giving them tight hugs. "Oh!" An idea struck him, and suddenly he was running out the door. "I'm gonna buy some cat food! I'll be right back!"
Tony and Pepper were a little dumb-struck.
"Well. That went... Shockingly smoothly?" Tony said to Pepper.
Pepper grinned.
The cat hissed.
"Well, I'm sure you helped in some way, Angry Cat." Tony replied to the animal with a wry grin.
When Peter had returned Tony had smiled at him. Asked what Peter wanted to name the cat, ordered some pet supplies, and had been in a great mood since Peter had dropped the cat off, so Peter was sure Tony liked Chewie. He wouldn't have such a love-struck mood on his face otherwise.
---
"Tony, don't accuse Chewie of evil-doing." Pepper grinned good-naturedly.
Peter smiled, Pepper's grin was beautiful, he loved the sight of it.
Tony chuckled, and leaned over to kiss her.
Peter quickly looked down in shame. He shouldn't be pining over the two of them. They're married. He didn't have a chance.
"Peter?" Pepper asked worriedly, seeing his face.
"Oh. Oh! Not a fan of PDA?" Tony asked. Peter went to correct him but he barrelled on. "Ah. That makes sense. No problem. Want to go work in the lab for a while?"
Peter nodded, grateful they hadn't yet noticed his inappropriate crushes, and followed Tony into the elevator.
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It was a week later, when Peter was out buying a snack at the supermarke5, that he noticed a newspaper on the shelves, who's front-page headline made his head spin.
TONY STARK ADMITS TO CHEATING ON WIFE?
What the hell?
No. No, Tony and Pepper were in love. They wouldn't do that to each other. Peter added the newspaper to his cart.
Peter sat on a bench outside the mall, reading through the article with disbelief and anger.
The article claimed that during an interview Tony had been questioned on how his relationship was, and after some hesitation, began shamelessly speaking about a person who he had been seeing behind his beloved wife's back for a few weeks.
Peter was worried, he didn't believe it was true, but if Pepper saw the article before Tony could tell her it wasn't true she'd be heart broken.
He was full of rage that someone would say something like this about Mr. Stark, a hero, who loved his beautiful, brilliant, strong-willed wife with all of his heart. He wouldn't hurt her like that. And he wouldn't brag about it like this writer claimed.
He decided he needed to see the couple. Warn them of the article before it caught them off guard and caused issues in their relationship. He hid in an alley and changed into his suit, before swinging off to the tower.
----
"Chewie. Chewie please. I'm going to give you this, and in return, you let me sit down without any claws dug into my flesh, okay?" Peter's super hearing made it so he could hear into the common room long before the elevator arrived on that floor.
The doors opened, Tony looked up from his spot, warily scrunched to the side of the couch, Chewie taking up the other side, eating out of a large tin of tuna. "Peter!" He tried to shift to look more composed, but when the cat mewled in warning he went right back to his previous position.
"Uh. Hey, Mr. Stark."
"Oh, hey Peter!" Rhodey came from the kitchen with a bowl of popcorn, sitting on one of the other seats in the room. The angle for the TV was worse, but there was no angry cat there, so it felt a fair trade.
Other Avengers slowly filtered into the room after him. Movie night, right. He had gotten distracted by the article.
"Peter?" Tony questioned with a soft voice. "What's wrong?"
"Uh." Peter felt a little awkward having others in the room for this. He passed Tony the newspaper.
Tony took it. Peter being one of the few people he let hand him things without complaint or discomfort. Pepper came from the kitchen with her own bowl of popcorn as Tony brought the paper to his face.
"What do you have there?" Pepper asked, leaning over her husband's shoulder, passing him the bowl, which he accepted with one hand. Peter's eyes widened in alarm, he wanted time to talk to Tony about this before she saw! She was going to be so hurt!
"Tony..." Pepper began in a dissapointed voice.
"Fuck. I'm sorry Pep."
'Oh god no.' Peter thought.
"You know better than to talk to interviewers about stuff like this." Peter's mind boggled at Pepper's words. 'Stuff like this?'
"What?" Peter asked, mostly to himself. The Avengers staring at the couple's exchange.
"I thought for once they'd actually listen to what I said. I explicitly said it wasn't cheating and they cut that out! And- Okay this quote is entirely made up, what the fuck." Tony exclaimed pointing at the page.
"What?"
"Yes, Tony. You know better than to tell an interviewer: 'Oh I'm dating a guy in addition to my wife,'" She put on a deeper voice to imitate Tony, with a slight mocking tone. "You know how the media spins stuff like that."
"Wait." Peter sait a little louder, the couple -and the Avengers- turning to him. "Are you actually cheating on her?"
"What?" It was Tony and Pepper's turn to be confused.
"No, of course I'm no-" Tony's face was scrunched up in confusion. "I- You know that-?"
"Peter," Pepper began gently, glancing at each of the Avengers out of the corner of her eye. "You know that this isn't cheating, don't you?"
Peter looked confused.
Tony's eyes also darted to the other Avengers, looking as though he wanted to say something to Peter, without the rest hearing him. "We're- We're polyamorous? Cheating is violating your partner's trust, we're all aware and consenting?"
Peter's jaw dropped impercievably, taking in the information.
"So you are dating someone?" Clint asked from his spot on the back of Rhodey's chair.
"Yeah." Pepper responded. "Tony and I have... A boyfriend." She looked at Peter with a questioning look. Peter didn't know why.
They were both dating someone?
Wow.
----
Tony and Pepper kept eyeing Peter strangely, but as he snuggled in between them for the movie, and stole handful after handful of popcorn, their strange looks went away, changing to smiling at him. Tony kept rubbing his shoulder where his arm was draped over Peter's shoulder, Pepper coaxed Peter into resting his head against her shoulders as she gently played with his hair, and the rest of the movie passed without issue.
"Tony," Pepper whispered, "Remind me later to sue that article's writer."
----
Peter's first action when he arrives back home is to google 'Polyamorous'. He spends hours reading and reading, wanting to learn everything he can about it.
He goes to cook dinner, preparing enough for two though May is still at work. He'll put her's in the microwave for when she comes home.
As he sets the water to boil his mind starts to wander, he wonders what Pepper and Tony's boyfriend is like. Is he handsome? Tall? Does he treat them right?
He imagines Tony and Pepper right now, they'd order in. But maybe if their boyfriend were there he'd cook for them?
Tony would probably sit on the counter, his StarkPad in hand, working on a new project, but still wanting to be close.
Pepper would ask if he needed any help, and smile as she watched them both. He would smile up at them both, getting the sauce ready, like peter was doing now and he-
Oh.
He was picturing himself.
Peter slapped his forehead. "Just because they're polyamorous doesn't mean these crushes are suddenly okay. They're still not going to date you, Peter. They have each other and some hot guy, they're out of your league." He muttered annoyedly to himself, stirring the sauce.
But his thoughts continued despite his words. He imagined Pepper coming from the other room, enthusing about the smell of the food.
He pictured Tony coming up behind him, wrapping his arms around his waist. Give a quick, scratchy kiss to Peter's cheek as he watched the food coming together.
He saw Pepper's beautiful smile before she kissed Peter's other cheek. Swatting Tony playfully for distracting their chef.
God Peter had it bad.