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Things had been going great with Wade. After almost a year of flirting, of not-quite-dates and almost-innocent sleepovers, they’d finally gotten their shit together when Peter kissed him in the alleyway behind a Taco Bell after Wade dropped his meal. And really, things were fine. Better than fine.
Okay, so there was an issue. Despite their more frequent team ups and tendency to chat while they fight, Wade still hadn’t connected the dots between Peter, his boyfriend, and Spiderman, his superhero – idol? Friend? Team-up buddy? – and Peter really didn’t want to connect the dots for him.
But really. He would tell him when he was ready, and they’d probably have a good laugh about it. It was fine.
Until it wasn’t.
~*~
Peter didn’t spend much time in the Avengers tower – he liked the Avengers well enough, but it turned out that outside of fighting and superpowers, Peter didn’t have much in common with a bunch of proper adults with proper adult lives, and once he got over the whole holy shit it’s the Avengers thing, time in the tower could get dull.
However, as a poor biophysics major in his last year of college, he wasn’t going to say no to access to Tony’s labs or his fridge. It actually made his completely embarrassing and unintentional unmasking worth it. It was also useful in situations like these, where there was an attack on New York and Spider-Man was already there and ready to help.
“You sure you don’t need to finish your paper?” Captain America asked, and Peter knew him well enough to know that he was being teased. Probably.
“Can’t a boy take a break to fight some giant ants without being accused of slacking off?” Peter said, sticking his head out the window to survey said giant ants scuttling below. “Hey, from this high up they just look like regular ants.”
“Can we get going?” the ear piece crackled to life as Hawkeye prompted them into action.
“See ya in the field,” Peter saluted the Captain before jumping from the window.
~*~
“You build an actual web to catch actual insects. This is beautiful,” a familiar voice said, and Peter turned to see Wade, in full costume, standing beneath one of the webs he’d created to shepherd the ants to where his teammates were.
“How the fuck did you get a comm?” Tony demanded, sounding slightly winded.
“How could I join in the fun if I didn’t have a comm?” Deadpool argued, outright avoiding the question.
“And why exactly are you joining the fight?” Cap’s voice edged in.
“My baby boy came into the city today to study,” Wade responded, surprisingly serious. “You think I’m going to sit back and relax while there’s a chance my Petey could get hurt?” Oh, fuck.
They probably won’t connect the dots, Peter thought, stumbling slightly as he lowered himself from his web. Please don’t let them connect the dots.
It wasn’t that Peter was in any way ashamed of dating Deadpool. No, it was more… well, he just couldn’t be bothered to tell the team. He always figured he’d do it after he graduated – when he had some energy for the inevitable lectures.
The silence on the comm didn’t sound promising.
“This boyfriend of yours…” Tony eventually piped up, and dashed Peter’s hopes. “What does he study?”
“Hmm? Petey?” Wade asked, as if they hadn’t been having this conversation moments before. “Oh, he real smart, that boy. He’s in his final year studying biophysics. He’s topping three of his classes,” Wade bragged, and Peter swallowed the groan.
“Can we please get back to fighting?” He asked weakly, but suddenly the comm was full of noise as the rest of the Avengers tried to have their questions heard.
“Don’t worry, Spidey,” Wade said, close enough to Peter to hear him over the clamour. “I’m sure you’ll find love as well someday.” Well. That answered any questions about whether Wade knew that Spider-Man was Peter.
“How long have you been dating this guy?” Black Widow asked dangerously, and how Wade wasn’t instantly suspicious about Black Widow asking about his love life is beyond him.
“We’ve only been dating for two months, but hanging out for almost a year. I knew hours into meeting him that he was the one. He quoted Mean Girls and ate an entire pizza, even though he’s tiny. But Pete’s a classy boy – I had to woo him before we started anything. I had a ten step plan of seduction to make sure my baby boy got the courting he deserved, but he ruined it by kissing me during step six,” Wade blabbed, and Peter stared at him.
“Really?” He asked, unable to help himself, knowing that he was probably taking advantage of Wade like this, that if he wanted to tell him that then he would’ve. Wade was nodding enthusiastically.
“I wasn’t going to rush things. There’s no way I deserve that boy, but I had to try and make like I did.” Peter wanted to give Wade a sharp whack. They were working on the self-loathing stuff – it wasn’t fair for him to say something like that when Peter wasn’t around – well he was, but no in the right form – to tell him to knock it off.
“I don’t think Peter would appreciate you putting yourself down like that, Wade,” Cap said after a brief silence, and Peter was going to hug that man as soon as he washed himself clean of giant ant goo.
“You know what Cap, you’re right. He woulda jabbed me right between the ribs for a comment like that – and he has very sharp elbows, I worry he doesn’t eat enough, but no amount of food I cram into him seems to fatten him up –”
Peter, well he couldn’t quite tune Wade out for the rest of the fight, much like he was sure the others couldn’t, but he was able to ignore the barrage of compliments that Wade was dealing him, not knowing that Peter was right there listening and thanking fuck that he had superpowers, because otherwise there was no way he’d be able to make all of this up to Wade later tonight.
~*~
“So.” Tony said, the first of the Avengers in front of him to talk. They’d cleaned up and changed into civilian clothing, Wade not seeming to care that he wasn’t invited back to the tower and rushing off to call Peter, who’d had to lock himself away in a bathroom and try to end the conversation as fast as possible, not comfortable lying to Wade.
“You’re dating Deadpool,” Hawkeye was the next to speak, not sounding angry, but more shocked, appalled, maybe a little impressed.
“You know that he’s-” Tony started, but Steve cut him off quickly.
“Oh, please, leave the kid alone. You can’t actually believe that he’s in any danger after everything Wade said today,” Cap scoffed, and placed a reassuring hand on Peter’s shoulder. “But kid, you really can’t keep this secret from him for much longer, especially if you want this relationship to last.”
“Of course I want the relationship to last,” Peter blurted out in the silence after Cap stopped talking. “You heard him today – I’d have to be an idiot to let a guy like that go.”
“Maybe you are well suited,” Natasha said, surveying Peter with an unreadable gaze. “Both of you seem to think that we’re more invested in your relationship than we are.”
Natasha left, after that, Bruce following her with a quick thumbs up to Peter, which he took as silent support. With two of his teammates gone, one clearly supportive and the last more interested in rummaging through the fridge, Tony threw his arms up and gave up.
“If this blows up in your face, I’ll sort it out,” Tony said at last before disappearing, which almost sounded like support. Peter just wanted to get home to his boyfriend.
~*~
“I was worried about you,” Wade said, eyes serious and forehead creased with worry. Peter pecked the corner of his mouth.
“You don’t need to worry about me when these things happen,” Peter said hesitantly, covering Wade’s mouth as he went to interrupt. “Really, you don’t. After all…” Peter paused for a moment, smiling shyly, “We can’t let your ten step plan of seduction go to waste.”