Work Text:
James awoke with a start, legs tangled with his sheets, hand moving to rub sleep from his eyes. He turned his head to the side, looking at the ‘2:13’ in the bright red of the alarm clock. He huffed out a breath, shutting his eyes. ‘ Four hours ’, he thought, ‘ More than usual, I suppose ’ It wasn’t surprising, him being up at this hour. Sadly, him waking up with his heart pounding, and body sweating was a fairly common occurrence as well. Usually from the multitude of nightmares, whether it was about falling from the train, or the HYDRA torture, or him with his hand wrapped around someones throat, or-
Nope , best not to dwell on it.
He groaned as he sat up, hand scrubbing down his face, stubble scratching at his palm. He decided to get some water, before he’d head down to the gym. He was up now, might as well do something productive.
He caught a glance at himself in a mirror in the hallway. He breathed out a laugh as he ran a hand through his hair, trying to make it look a little less like he’d just lost a fight with a raccoon. He shrugged, looking at his half-hearted attempt, before ultimately deciding that it was almost certain that nobody - except maybe Tony - would be up at this hour.
However, he theory was quickly disproven once he caught sight of the hunched-over figure, sitting on a stool at the counter. There was a single light coming from a small lamp, in the kitchen area, of the open-plan room, casting a yellow-orange glow.
It wasn’t Tony, because as small as Tony was, he wasn’t quite this small. From the small amount of light, and James’ enhanced senses, he could make out some brown curls. Annoyingly, the person had his back to him, so he couldn’t see any facial features.
“ Peter ” His brain supplied, quickly followed by, “ Oh shit, Peter ”
Peter who was Tony’s kid, - “ In all but blood ” he’d said when James had asked, after Tony had spent approximately twenty-three minutes whining about how the kid was going to give him grey hairs - Peter who was Spider-man, Peter who was staying the week at the Avengers Compound because his aunt was at some nursing conference in Washington. A fact James had completely forgotten about, despite Tony continuously bringing it up, whilst refusing to admit how excited he was.
Peter who had enhanced senses, strong enough that he one-hundred per cent could hear James’ slightly-accelerated heartbeat and breathing. Strong enough that he definitely knew that James was just standing there, staring like a creep for those however-many seconds that it took to put two-and-two together.
As if hearing his thoughts, Peter turned around, his smile simultaneously impish and innocent. James felt himself moving towards the counter where he was sat, nursing what James could now identify as a mug of hot chocolate. The mug was bright red and gold, in the shape of an Iron Man helmet, clearly matching the Spider-man one that Tony used constantly.
Peter put his finger to his lips and pointed towards a couch in the living room area. “Three-day work binge. He just passed out” His voice was quiet, but fond, accompanied by an eye-roll that all teenagers seemed to naturally do. James didn’t need to ask, to know Peter was talking about Tony. “Do you want some?” Peter asked, nodding to his mug. James shrugged and Peter seemed to take that as a yes, if the way he shot-up was any indication.
Peter moved around the kitchen effortlessly, already knowing where everything was. While he was occupied, James got up, out of his seat, to check on Tony. He puffed out a small laugh, lips tilting up at the corners as he took in Tony. His hair was disheveled and greasy, more than likely covered in oil from whatever he was working on, his clothes were covered in grime and his blanket had almost completely slid off his body. His mouth was wide open, and there was a small drop of drool gathering at the corner of his mouth. James thought he’d never been so beautiful.
He gathered up the blanket, before gently tucking it in around Tony. He sniffled a bit in his sleep, lip smacking together. His eyes opened slightly, brown eyes glazed with tiredness.
“Jamie?” He asked, voice rough from sleep.
James smiled, before pressing a chaste kiss to his forehead with a murmur of “Shush Sweetheart, go back to sleep.”
When he looked again, Tony’s eyes were already closed. He mumbled a quick “M’kay,” before his breaths evened out again.
James smiled, face ridiculously sappy as he stared down at him. He ran his hand through his hair, and stifled a snort at the way Tony sighed contentedly and leaned into it.
He stood up, only to meet similar brown eyes. Peter’s face smirked in amusement, as James flushed, blood rushing to his cheeks. “I was just-The-The blanket.” He stammered out.
Peter rolled his eyes, a smirk that was eerily like Tony’s still intact. “Uh-huh” He then nodded towards the mug on the counter, filled to the brim, of chocolatey goodness. “You want cream or marshmallows?”
James made his way over, shaking his head. He took a swig, relishing in the trail of heat it left as he drank it, and of the sweet taste of it in his mouth.
They sat in silence for a few moments, simply co-existing, drinking their hot chocolate in peace. It was surprisingly relaxing. James hadn’t - until now - been able to find someone, other than Tony, that could put him at ease. But there was just something about this kid that instantly made him release any remaining tension.
“How’s the new arm?”
The arm in question was the vibranium one that Tony - with help from both Princess Shuri and Peter - had built, despite Steve’s loud -and quite frankly, unnecessary - protests that Tony should’ve been able to do it himself without the help of kids. Nevermind the fact that Tony had a job to do, even with Pepper being CEO, he still had meetings to attend, and R&D to run. Or the fact that Peter and Shuri were arguably two of the smartest people on this planet, despite only being fifteen.
It was then that James realised he’d been staring silently into space, in lieu of answering the question. Peter was gazing at him, with his head cocked to the side, looking scarily like a small puppy with those wide, brown eyes. James now understood what Tony was talking about when he would whine about Peter’s ‘irresistible goddamn puppy dog eyes ’. Even James would struggle to say no to them, and he was a trained assassin. “It’s -uh, it's good, yeah. Thank you, by the way.”
But Peter was already shaking his head at the apology. “Don’t thank me. Honestly. If anything, I should be thanking you for agreeing with Mr Stark to let me work on it. Seriously, it’s so cool.”
James just shrugged. “Tony said you had a pretty big part in it. Something about ‘ Finding away to attach and detach it to my shoulder without blowing it off ’?
Apparently that was all the prompting he needed as Peter sat up a bit straighter, eyes lighting up in the same way Tony’s always did when he got launched into another rambled, caffeine-driven speech about his latest invention. The sheer amount of similarities between the two made James question, not for the first time, if Peter wasn’t secretly Tony’s illegitimate child. He further questioned it when Peter cut off his tirade, looking down sheepishly and blushing a vivid scarlet, mumbling a quick ‘ Sorry, I’m rambling, you probably didn’t want to know all of this ’. James, used to having this same conversation with Tony, knew just what words to say, to get Peter to continue his excitable word-vomit.
Somehow, in some way, they got onto the topic of movies.
“You’ve never seen Star Wars ?!” Peter whisper-shouted, as James shook his head, a fond smile playing at the corner of his lips. “ How ? You’ve seen the utter crap-fest that was the 2014 Godzilla but you’ve never seen the greatest movie to ever exist?”
James just shrugged his shoulders. “Are you sure that’s not a little bit of an exaggeration?”
Peter just shook his head vehemently, before grabbing James’ metal wrist, and tugging him off of his seat. A move, most would have either avoided, or atleast hesitated. Peter seemed to have no quarrel with grabbing the vibranium, dragging him out of the room and down a dark hallway. James let himself be pulled, enjoying the thrill of going somewhere not-yet explored by him.
They reached an abrupt stop outside of a nondescript door, similar to all the others in the area. Peter looked at it like a prized possession, something magical that should be treasured. Shooting an excited glance back towards James, Peter pushed open the door, not hesitating a second before waltzing through. As James walked through, he blinked a few times, allowing his eyes to get used to the bright lights.
The room was around twenty feet by fifteen feet, with high vaulting ceilings. There was a large L-shaped couch in the center of the room, with blankets thrown haphazardly over the backing of it. Beanbag chairs littered the floor, in all different colors. There was a large flat-screen on the wall, and all the furniture faced it. In the back of the room there was a snackbar, with loads of different dispensers.
Peter had plonked himself right smack-dab in the centre of the couch, and was already signalling for James to sit. He did, next to Peter, leaving about a foot of space between them, clearly not trying to cross any boundaries. Peter pulled down two blankets, one for James and one for himself.
Peter gestured for FRIDAY to start the movie, and she did. Peter sat still for the first few minutes, clearly enraptured by the film, before he started twitching, looking as if he wanted to say something. James left him to it, figuring that if the kid wanted to say something, he would. He didn’t have to wait long.
“I’m stronger than Captain America.” James raised his eyebrow at that, not at the admission, but at the way Peter just blurted it out. Peter blushed furiously, picking at the edge of his blanket, staring resolutely ahead. “Just saying. Mr Stark and I, we uh-we did a test. I’m stronger than him. By a lot.”
“I don’t doubt it, kid. Tony himself showed me the records”
“Right, yeah. Which means, considering you and Rogers had the same super-soldier serum, I’m probably stronger than you.”
Ahhh .
“Just saying, if you fuck him over, I’ll fuck you up.”
Peter, the giant ball of bumbling words and teenage awkwardness, turned to him then with determination in his eyes that made any doubts James had about whether he’d follow through disappear.
Despite his brain being blended and blitzed into a million different pieces, he knew, for certainty, that it wasn’t Rhodes or Potts he should be most scared of, it was the fifteen-year-old son of Tony’s. Somewhere, deep in the jagged crevices of his heart, he knew that the next words out of his mouth had to be good. Really fucking good.
“Peter, if I ever hurt Tony, I’ll almost certainly come find you, to let you kill me myself” Peter stared at him, hard, eyes searching, and James willed himself to show the sincerity he felt, deep in his bones, ingrained in the very fibre of his being. He must’ve found whatever he was looking for, because next second he nodded. “But Peter, I promise you, I’m going to try my hardest to make sure that never happens”
He just smiled softly at him. It was a sad little smile - one that James found himself not liking half as much as he did the other ones - before saying: “Not too long ago, a different super-soldier would’ve said the exact same thing. Now look where we are. Don’t make the same mistake.”
The words were simultaneously a threat, a promise, a demand and a plea. James found himself nodding anyway.
They sat in silence for a few more moments, both having silently agreed that the conversation was over and to turn back to the movie.
‘You’re good for him, you know?” James pivoted once again to Peter. “You make him eat regular meals, and keep him on some semblance of a sleep schedule. But you still give him his space, you know? You don’t force him to do random things, or act like his entire world should revolve around you. You don’t take advantage of him.” ‘ Like the others did ’ was left unsaid. James understood anyway. “He needs that, needs more people in his corner. Especially now with the Rogues back,” Peter turned, smiled a tiny smile, before turning back to the movie.
Somehow, during the course of the movie, Peter had made his way closer to James. So much so, that by the time Luke and Co. had encountered the Death Star for the first time, Peter had passed out with his head on his shoulder, curled around James.
‘ He’s like a koala, ’ Tony had said one night. ‘Or a cat. The kid has no concept of personal space. Especially during movie night. At this point, I’m starting to think I should add ‘personal pillow’ to my resume’ . At the time, James had laughed, calling Tony an idiot. Now though, he one-hundred per cent got where Tony was coming from.
When he first felt Peter’s head drop onto his shoulder, he tensed, muscles clenching. Slowly, over the course of the movie, he felt himself relax, so much so, that his own eyelids started drooping. He felt himself missing more and more parts of the movie, and he also felt himself not giving a shit. The blanket was warm, the couch was like lying on a marshmallow, Peter’s breaths against his collarbone created a nice, soothing rhythm. And as he closed his eyes for the final time, he felt himself finally slip off into dreamland.
( And if during breakfast the next morning, James smiled to himself as he heard Tony’s evil cackles while he ran from Peter’s outstretched hand, trying in vain to grab Tony’s phone to delete the picture of him drooling on James’ shoulder, well then, he’d keep it to himself. )