long overdue

[watchesthewatchers]

It's Ricki's little ramshackle apartment, but there Peter is one morning, perched on the loveseat, reading a file, waiting for Bruce Wayne to arrive.

He has a gun, but tucked out of sight, not on his person. Just in case.

Comments

[watchesthewatchers]

"I do know."

Smiling, faintly.

"But it's also nice to hear."

[profiteering]

"If I had known it would bother you this much, I wouldn't have done it. I'm really not great at not spontaneously fucking other people but you are a priority. Okay?"

[watchesthewatchers]

"His part in it was much worse than yours. You just didn't think. He knew."

Peter explains, quietly.

[profiteering]

"So let's have that discussion we should have had then."

Tony Stark, making an effort to learn boundaries. Call the parade.

[watchesthewatchers]

"Don't sleep with people from that world."

Looking up at him, softly.

"If it's an acquaintance of mine, ask me first."

[profiteering]

"I promise."

He smiles, a little bit guilty.

"When I heard your voice on the phone after I told you about Ricki, I finally realized you liked me. You were worried."

[watchesthewatchers]

"He's dangerous. Not to you- but he could have been."

Defending, plaintively.

[profiteering]

"I know that now. I mean I kinda knew it when I told him I wanted him to fuck me with a gun and he had one of my high end models...but uh, I'm not used to being careful. Not for other people."

He shrinks back a little.

"I'm working on it."

[watchesthewatchers]

"Bruce Wayne took my gun."

He complains, quietly.

"Make me a new one?"

[profiteering]

"Give me the specs on paper and I'll get on it."

He loves making him things.

"How do you feel? Can you make it to my bed?"

[watchesthewatchers]

"Mmhm."

He agrees, straightening up a little.

"Bruce is eavesdropping outside the door."

[profiteering]

"He is-? How do you know?"

Spy talents fascinate him. Tony is too lost in his own head most of the time to notice the things that Peter does.

[watchesthewatchers]

"Educated guess."

He says, smiling, as Bruce pokes his head in.

"Need help into bed?"

[profiteering]

Tony nods and holds an arm out to him as if he's the one who's injured.

"Did you know my boy is psychic, Bruce?"

And he grins at Peter.

"You want us both to crash with you, right?"

[watchesthewatchers]

"If you don't mind."

He looks up at Bruce, anxiously, who nods back at him, smiling.

"Of course not. Whose bed?"

[profiteering]

"Mine."

Tony's bed is huge. He had upsized after his last encounter with Hulk, just as a little show of welcome.

"You fill Bruce in on what happened."

[watchesthewatchers]

"Bruce Wayne came upon me at Ricki's house, and thought I was there to coax him into something else dangerous. We fought badly."

Shrugging.

"I broke my wrist- not intentionally on his part. I said terrible things to him and now I'm not to go back to Gotham, or speak to Ricki again."

[profiteering]

That very last part is news.

"Okay wait is that Ricki's request or yours?"

[watchesthewatchers]

"If I show up in Gotham again, I get a year in a wheelchair. If I toy with Ricki again, I live out the rest of my days in a hospital bed, wishing he'd killed me."

He recalls, with a wry smile.

"I'm sure anger made the threats more colourful."

[profiteering]

Tony looks at Bruce, uncharacteristically and dangerously quiet.

"Let's get to bed."

He has no intention of staying there, but Peter needs to lie down.

[watchesthewatchers]

"I may have told him he's very good at getting the people he loves killed."

Full disclosure. Peter is spending an awful lot of time looking at the ceiling.

Bruce winces, visibly.

[profiteering]

"You didn't tell me that part."

Tony doesn't sound upset, because in his estimation it's true and what's done is done anyway. But he knows that his Bruce has similar issues.

[watchesthewatchers]

"He told me I dragged Ricki into war zones, I implied he was physically abusive. He dislocated my finger, I fired a warning shot past his ear. It was about as bad as it's possible to get."

[profiteering]

"...Yeah."

He coughs, and scrambles for a bright side so he'll be able to stay calm.

"You didn't shoot him and he didn't do whatever a non-fatal ninja does."

[watchesthewatchers]

"No. But Christmas may need to be a little less- everyone."

Is his caveat.