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Occasionally Peter judiciously saved his money, and that netted him enough dough to take Tony on a date.
They were low key things, of course. In this case, just Spider-Man arriving with pizza and a candle to light at Stark Tower. Still, Peter needed this date to ask an embarrassing question.
“I need to ask you an embarrassing question,” Peter said, sitting beside his boyfriend.
“Ask away, the more embarrassing the better,” Tony said, but Peter cut him off before he could continue with the obvious sexual innuendo.
“I... need you to buy me something.”
“Do I need to buy you a university? I told you, if the Bursar’s office gives you any more grief…”
“Tony, will you STOP OFFERING to... gosh I keep telling you I don’t need you to buy me a college…”
“Strippers? Of the male variety? Two or three? No twinks obviously because I don’t want you to get jealous….”
“Tony,” Peter said in his best adult voice, putting a hand over Tony’s mouth. “This is not that kind of serious talk, you don’t have to make jokes right now.” Tony, to his credit, stopped talking and looked properly chastised.
Taking a deep breath (and silently congratulating himself for NOT rising to Tony’s ‘twink’ bait) Peter made his case.
“I need you to buy me a piece of jewelry. Nothing extravagant or ridiculous, just... something... new. Something I can point to and say ‘My boyfriend bought me this.’ I’m not... exactly... I’m trying to be more out at school. If I had something new I could say ‘my boyfriend Tony bought me this’ and… that would work for me.”
“So, like, a ring?”
Peter’s eyes widened in surprise -– he had been picturing a watch -– but now he was picturing something silver on his middle or index finger, and he smiled. “Sure.”
“So... an engagement ring?”
“NO!” Peter said in horror, looking back and forth from his index finger and Tony’s face, only to see something there that made him change his tone in a hurry.
“I mean... yes Yes Tony, of course, someday. If you... really?”
“Why not?” Tony asked, and Peter couldn’t tell if this was a joke, a dare, or something more.
“Then yes, someday. But… one thing at a time! I just want to break it to Aunt May and her friends and my dormmates and some people I see on campus that I’m dating a guy and it's serious... lets do that first, maybe an engagement ring later…”
“Like, a month later?”
“Sure,” Peter joked mildly, feeling a little out of breath.
“Like a calendar month, 30 days, or lunar month?” and Peter just rolled his eyes, surprised (but should he be surprised?) and the strange, sharp direction this conversation had taken.
“So an Avengers club ring -– or maybe something with a diamond in it...”
“Oh I was thinking something solid, something sliver, no stones or anything…”
“Engraved?”
“What would it say?” Peter said, his voice quavering. Tony was doing that thing. That thing where he stopped acting like a comedian and acted like a guy with feelings. He was doing that now, and his eyes were making Peter nervous.
But then Tony’s face changed back into the Old Tony Standard. What came out of his mouth was obscene.
Peter responded by putting his hand over his lover’s mouth and trying not to reward that clever obscenity with laughter.
“Well... we’ll have it written in Latin.”
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
In the end there was no inscription. They went ring shopping together, in public, after much discussion about when and how they would let the world know they were dating (or at least, stop hiding it.)
Peter showed off the simple, masculine, silver ring that comfortably fit on his middle finger to anyone he knew (reminding him that, sadly, he had very few friends on campus.) Those girls he DID know oooed and awwwed over it and squealed appropriately when he bragged about his ‘boyfriend.’ It didn’t mean much, these girls that he sat in class with that only knew him by his first name, but the very fact that he got to say words like ‘My boyfriend’ out loud was a huge relief.
The inevitable conversation with Aunt May was a little harder, a little longer and more detailed. But at least, when it was over, it was over.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
Peter did little more than raise an eyebrow when Aunt May left a message that she and her friends had “won” an “invitation” to a party at Stark Tower honoring the Avengers, but he had many other things to worry about at the time, including getting his suit back from the cleaners in time for said party. The fact that Tony had invited Peter’s aunt and her family through the guise of a “contest” was sweet, he thought, and probably just an attempt to give Peter-the-intern someone to talk to among all the celebrities.
When Tony got the crowd’s attention to make a speech, everyone, including Peter, assumed its about the camaraderie and loyalty among the Avengers in the face of insurmountable odds. Then Tony started to speak.
First he meandered. Then he rambled. Then he continued, making some jokes (at the usual level of inappropriate) and kept going ON AND ON so much that more than a few people in the audience, Peter included, began to wonder if he was announcing his retirement.
“Get to the point!” Rhodey called out and Tony, much to the audience’s relief, announced that he will.
And then, after declaring that it was the bravest thing he had ever done, he strode across the room and produced, on one knee, a box in front of Peter.
“It’s been one month,” he said with a smile.
“I didn’t mean a literal month, Tony!” Peter cried out, covering his face, and his wide-open mouth, with both hands.
There was laughter from those who thought it was a joke and cheers from those who were in the know (And audible gasps from those who never had a clue.)
But Peter was trapped, hiding behind his hands, unable to close his mouth, understanding for the first time the term ‘jaw dropping surprise.’
His entire life he had watched with contempt videos of girls looking down at kneeling men, doing nothing but nodding or squeaking out single-syllable words. He would never do that, he promised himself. If he ever got the opportunity (he promised!) he would certainly be expounding upon his love and admiration for whoever was popping the question. So he put down his hands, and with a herculean effort, spoke words.
Unfortunately those words were “NEVER give this man any ideas!”
The audience reacted of course, some with more laughter (of the confused sort, this was a joke, right?) and others with noises of concern.
But Tony... Tony only looked crushed.
And that’s why Peter (who had despised all those girls with the nods and the single syllables!!) stopped trying to catch his breath or regain his composure and simply nodded “Yes.”
There are audible gasps from those who thought it was a joke and a round of “awwws” from those who were in the know and a great deal of conversation from those who were just now figuring it out. But they all broke into applause as Peter reached down to the kneeling man for a hug, only to be lifted off his feet.
Among the more confused-looking faces were Cap and Sam, standing together at one side of the room.
“Is this…good?” Cap asked, looking around in confusion.
“No,” Sam said, “No, no, no. This is bad…so bad. The age difference. The age difference.”
“You’re right,” said Cap.
“Peter is much too mature for him.”