st_arkintern | (no subject)

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"Are you really unhappy here?"

Peter's question cut through the relative silence of the woods, which he and Tony were surveying together. If Liz hadn't brought it up to him, he probably wouldn't have noticed, but now, it felt like he was looking for it in every one of Tony's words and in every one of Tony's movements.

It felt like something he should have noticed first, but the two of them hadn't spent much time together ever since he and Alec were fighting in the bar. He wondered if he had made Tony mad, but that wasn't a conversation for now.

Maybe later, but not now. Peter was ready to cut through one issue at a time.

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"It's not like I'm watching him or anything," Peter says quickly. The last thing he wants is for Tony to think he's some sort of Thor stalker. "But I have seen him hanging out with Jane and Professor River and Clarice sometimes."

"They're probably just friends." Tony replied just as quickly. "Everyone needs friends."

"Yeah, probably," Peter says. "I had friends of all genders at my school. It wasn't always just me and Ned."

He was increasingly starting to feel like the other kids in Decathlon were his friends, too. Especially MJ.

Satisfied, Tony sighed through his nose. On the list of secrets, this one in particular was nearing the top. He couldn't even imagine how Peter would handle that little bomb.

"Everyone deserves someone. I like to think, anyway."

"Yeah, if they want someone," Peter says. "Some people don't really want anyone, and I think that's okay, too."

They're not very far from camp now, and it's starting to get late, so it's probably good timing.

"Sometime, will you tell me about the people you dated when you were my age?" he asks.

"All the people I 'dated.' Right." Tony had to think--really think of any qualifiers. "There were a few outside of all the flings."

"Like, total?" Peter looks at Tony, incredulous. "Or just in high school?"

"Sticking strictly to high school, here." Tony hastened his steps as camp approached. "While I first had faith in romance. I lost it, got it back, peaks and valleys."

"Then, you'll have to tell me about that sometime, too." Peter gives him a tight-lipped little grin just as they reach camp. "I should probably send Liz a message though."

Peter turns and starts jogging backwards towards his tent, where his journal sits at one end of his sleeping bag. "Hot dogs tonight, Mr. Stark?" he asks.

"I'll get 'em going." So much for the moratorium on red meat. "You send your love letters, Pete. Take your time."

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