i heart spiderman - peter parker
summary: peter parker isn't mentally prepared to see his teammate and crush wearing an 'i ❤️ spiderman' t-shirt, but he tries to play is off smoothly despite being around teammates who can read his behaviour better than anyone in the world. wc: 1k+ cw: fluff, peter gets humiliated. trying to bring the old thor eats poptarts and clint is in the vents vibes back.
The elevator announces its arrival at the avengers living quarters with a muted ding sounded from inside its closed doors. They begin to open with a dull noise as the mechanisms shift, and from across the living room, Steve hears you humming absentmindedly from inside the elevator. The doors finally open, and the three avengers in the room glance up as you walk out, sipping at a cold drink, your phone in your other hand. There’s a couple of shopping bags hanging from your arms, and your lips are decorated with what seems to be a new gloss.
Natasha and Steve watch as you walk slowly towards the couch, letting all your bags drop from your arms, and Peter, on the couch in front of them, listens closely to your movements while pretending to mind his own business. Your eyes are still glued to your phone as you scroll through texts you missed out on hours ago, and you slump down on the couch between your shopping bags, melting into the cushions and throwing your feet up onto the table. Peter turns his head to look at you, smiling softly at your focused expression. He’s on his own phone, seeing in real time as the texts between him, Ned and MJ get read by you, your little profile photo popping underneath each message as you read it. He almost feels bad for you; the three of them aren’t done with this conversation and it started the second you left the tower.
Then, despite having just sat down, you get to your feet again. You put your drink on the table, putting your phone in your pocket and grabbing all of your bags again. And it’s only then, when you’re standing up straight and moving all your bags to one hand that Natasha sees the design on your tee. She instantly grins, taking the moment to stare while you pick up your drink again and take another sip. Then, she strikes.
“Is that an ‘I love Spiderman’ shirt?”
Peter’s head snaps up towards Natasha, then towards you. You aren’t taken aback by the question at all, only glancing down at your shirt and humming. “Huh, yeah. I’ve had it for a while actually, but these jeans were just never clean.”
Peter’s heart thrums a little too hard in his chest, and he doesn’t miss the way Steve’s lips quirk up into a smirk at his reaction — one which is only obvious to the super soldier. He shakes himself out of his daze, calling out “That doesn’t look like me at all.”
The way you laugh causes another dangerous reaction in Peter, whose breath hitches as you smooth a hand over the graphic design of your shirt. There’s a big red heart, and on it swings an animated Spiderman, who admittedly looks nothing like Peter. In or out of his spider suit. “I’ll make sure to let them know.” You tell him, walking away in the direction of your room.
“Good job buddy, you almost managed to hide that little crush of yours.” Steve comments when you're out of earshot, and Peter huffs to hide the way his face darkly flushes. He sticks his nose back into his phone to hide himself from Natasha before she gets involved with the teasing too. “You gonna tell her how you feel one of those days?” She asks, her voice velvety smooth in a way that almost has Peter marching up to your room and confessing his feelings for you. “I don’t know what you guys are talking about.” He retorts, pitch spiking embarrassingly.
Steve laughs, the sound coming from deep in his chest, and Peter wishes in that moment that he could just disappear. He doesn’t think he’s ever heard Captain America laugh like that. Neither does Tony apparently, who comes walking into the living room with something to say — because when does he not?
“A laugh from Captain America? How do you manage that?” Tony asks, pulling his phone out of his pocket. “Is it the little article that came out about your girlfriend?” Peter and Natasha straighten up: Peter in a panic and Natasha in a newfound curiosity.
“What article?” Peter squeaks, his mouth going dry. Tony smirks as he walks around Peter, sitting down in the exact spot you were in just a couple of minutes ago. He puts one foot on the table, then swings his second leg over it while he flicks through his phone. “Oh, just this article that popped up on my google alerts. ‘Avenger goes shopping in New York City wearing an ‘I love Spiderman shirt: Is she telling the fans to back off her man?’ And there’s this cute little picture of you guys in your suits outside this mexican place.”
Tony hums to himself as Peter sits there in horror, only imagining your reaction. Would you laugh it off, make a joke, and pretend it never happened? Would you make a face and an accompanying noise of disgust, only able to see Peter as a brother to you? Peter shudders at the possibility.
“That sounds like a first step to me.” Encourages Steve with a smile, but Peter decides to move his gaze to Natasha instead, eyes widening at the sight of her grinning widely at her phone and scrolling through what he only imagines can be tabloid headlines. In his hand, his phone screen lights up with notification after notification, and he furrows his eyebrows as links keep going through the Avengers group chat, all under the name ‘Spider sister🤪🤪🕷️🕷️’. “Not cool, Natasha!” Peter argues, and yet he opens the group chat to scroll through all the news articles she sent. “Now she’s gonna see all of those!”
Except what Peter doesn’t know is that in your room, you scroll through your phone with a smile on your face. You’ve purposefully looked your name up yourself after seeing the text through Natasha’s notification, not wanting her to see that you’ve read her messages. You’re honestly impressed that the news outlets got your message so clearly, but you’ve also learned how to communicate with them, so what can you say?
Maybe this will finally hit Peter with an inspiration to come and tell you how he feels. If not, you might have to buy a ‘I love nerds who are also my roommates who are also spiderman’ shirt.
