#Steve spends two minutes having gay panic but gets over it quickly | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

samaraclegane · 5 years

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I was prompted by @thoughtfulllamataco to write a harringrove fic(let) based on the song Sex by The 1975 and I’m finally getting onto it! thanks so much for the prompt & sorry it took so long, I had fun writing this :)

-there’s a little... crush. well, less of a little crush, more of a huge problem, really. he’s been thinking for a while that Steve Harrington is just a little too pretty for his own good, and perhaps he should be knocked down a few pegs.

-even still, even though he pretends to himself he’s frightening and dangerous, there’s times he catches himself watching Steve with the tenderest of gazes, and he has to snap himself out of it before he says or does anything stupid and irreversible.

-Billy knows this is wrong. on some deeply-ingrained, natural, instinctual level, he knows they shouldn’t be doing this. it’s not even just a ‘gay is wrong’ sort of thing, though that is always in the back of his mind, it’s because they don’t even really speak as they do it.

-it doesn’t feel like love. Billy isn’t sure exactly what ‘love’ is, but the first time he shoves Steve against the window of the passenger side of his car and kisses him to within an inch of his life, he’s pretty sure it’s not this.

-the pretty boy speaks to much. he tussles his hair and panics, talking about everything and nothing, repeats the same point over and over and over again, makes Billy want to blow his brains out.

-they aren’t even friends. not really, anyway, and just because they’re forced to work together to stop the end of the world and aliens and shit doesn’t mean anything to him. the only reason he let Harrington in his car in the first place was because he had to drive his sorry ass home.

-then again, the longer Steve lets Billy kiss him for, something feels... different. the anger dissipates, all of Billy’s negative thoughts about the man vanish, leaving only want in their wake.

-there’s something heavy dragging about his mind. he thinks he should stop, but squashes this thought to save from ruining the moment, because now Steve is kissing him back, and he’s not pushing him off nor punching him nor - oh, God, this feels right.

-Billy leans back a little, giving Steve room to slip away and out of the car should he want to. to his delight, Steve follows him as he moves, keeping them impossibly close, even going so far as to push Billy back against his window, kissing into him now.

-is this going to happen? the two of them, together, in the Camaro. Steve Harrington, giving himself over to Billy Hargrove. the latter might hold this above the former’s head, if he wasn’t equally as desperate.

-his fingers go to Steve’s jacket, managing to get it off quickly then reaching for the hem of his t-shirt. Billy’s immensely grateful for the cover of night because if somebody walked past and caught them like this, he’s not sure what he’d do. move again, possibly, maybe kill them so they didn’t tell.

-thankfully, nobody’s there. it’s just them, the two of them, enemies from the very start kissing each other and touching one another like it’s the only thing they’ve ever wanted to do.

-Billy’s just about to pull Steve’s top over his head and discard it somewhere on the car’s floor when Steve’s hands catch his wrists and he’s pulling back from the kiss. he shakes his head.

-”no,” he whispers, then repeats again, sounding more sure of himself now, “no.”

-he doesn’t sound exactly standoffish, but his tone makes Billy feel like a scolded kid again. even still, even though everybody assumes he’s the worst person to ever exist, vile and depraved, he respects Steve’s words and, though feeling dejected, starts up the car and begins the silent drive back to Steve’s.

-they don’t speak much. it’s a little awkward, but Billy’s so in his own head he can’t do much else but ponder. it takes the entire fifteen minute drive for him to piece it together, to remember who they are and what they should be - not what they want to be - and Billy realises the problem is him.

-of course Steve said no. it was only in the heat of the moment that he let Billy kiss him, obviously it was, and when he came back to his senses he remembered her: Robin.

-the pretty new girl (was she new? maybe Billy just hadn’t ever noticed her before, be couldn’t be sure) who’d captured Steve’s attention and, no doubt, his heart. they’d been spending an increasing amount of time together, and he’d even heard she’d secured him a job somewhere half-decent.

-that was probably it, he resigned as he parked outside the Harrington household. Steve didn’t want him, he wanted Robin. Robin, the smart one, the cool one, the one who laughed so obnoxiously loud that you couldn’t help but join in with her, even if you’d never met her in your entire life.

-”thanks, man,” Steve murmurs to him as he clambers out of the car, slamming the door shoot and sparing Billy a half-smile on his way into the house. Billy can only watch him go, watch him walk away, knowing he’s probably changed things forever.

-Billy couldn’t have ever realistically expected to fill Robin’s shoes, right? above all, she was a girl, and Steve was probably at the very most a repressed bisexual, so there was virtually no competition between the two of them.

-Billy was broken, and that was a fact. choosing damaged goods over pristine-condition items was an inane concept, and one Steve would never do.

-as he drove away, Billy couldn’t help but think, his mind whirring. he thought of Robin, he thought of Steve. he imagined how things could have been, in his ideal world: Steve would be his, spending the night at his place instead of Robin’s, wearing his shirt in the mornings, squirming with glee at Billy’s sleepy morning voice calling him beautiful.

-then, it’s gone. it’s replaced with images of a thoroughly sexed-up Robin, laying beside Steve, whose hair is splaying out in all different directions across the pillow beneath him, as he struggles to stop his world spinning.

-they looks sweaty, glowing, beautiful together. they look in love. they look like there’s no thought of Billy lingering anywhere - not even in the very backs of thier minds, not even in the deepest crevaces of their brains.

-Billy can only sigh. what else was he expecting? Steve couldn’t ever be with him - not really, certainly not as anything more than a one-time thing or, at most, a side-piece. they haven’t got a glistening future together, and he knows this.

-it’s not just about sex, Billy knows. he can’t even lie to himself about that, because it’s so obvious. there’s feelings - feelings he doesn’t understand, feelings he can’t even begin to grasp, feelings he doesn’t deserve to feel.

-he drives solemnly, gripping the wheel just a little too hard. he doesn’t want to cry, not at all, because what’s the point in shedding tears over somebody like that? if Steve doesn’t want him, that’s fine. he can live with that, as long as he’s told the truth now instead of five years of kisses and whatever else into the future.

-he’s got a girlfriend anyway.

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petoskeystones · 5 years

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In Which They Go To The Amusement Park

stucky, pepperony, thruce, danbeau, platonic clintasha

no warnings

tw: cursing, maybe anxiety/panic attack

5,556 words

chapter 1/1

no beta because I’m not a coward

Tony was excited to go to his favorite amusement park with his best friends. He was not excited about the fact he had to wake up at three o’clock in the goddamn morning to get there. But he did wake up, and it only took him 25 minutes to get dressed and meander his way into the kitchen.

“Morning, Jarvis. Hey, Peter- what the hell?”

“Hey Tony!” Peter Parker sat at his breakfast table while Jarvis- bless him- made bacon.

“And what are you doing here?”

“You told me to be here at 3:15!”

“Oh yeah.”

And Tony sat down and ate a piece of bacon and inhaled three cups of coffee while Jarvis looked concerned.

“Master Tony, we have to pick up Bruce Banner at three-forty-five.” So the boys grabbed some food and jumped in the car. Once Bruce was safely in the seat next to Tony (Peter had grabbed shotgun, and he was so cheerful at this ungodly hour that Tony didn’t complain) and Peter was rambling away up front, they raced to school and made it to the bus in time to grab great seats. Once they were seated Tony took the opportunity to look around. He saw Thor get out of a black escalade in the parking lot smiling, and as it drove away a hand from the driver’s seat waved (Hela, probably) and a hand in the back flipped him off (Loki, definitely)

Bruce had sat in the window and Thor quickly joined him, just across from Carol and her girlfriend Maria. Carol and Thor were chatting while their respective girlfriend and boyfriend slept. Steve and Bucky were sitting upright like the ridiculously well-adjusted people they were: Bucky was reading some Russian novel and Steve was sketching him. Clint and Nat were not sitting together but opposite each other. Natasha was listening to music and Clint was interrupting her every fifteen seconds. Natasha was capable of murder and Clint seemed to forget that fact. Scott Lang and Hope Van Dyne were watching Netflix and-

Pepper. Potts. She walked onto their bus? Pepper was on their bus? Tony nudged Peter, who was already vibrating with pent-up energy beside him: “Did you know Pepper, Rhodey, and Peggy were on our bus?”

“Yeah?”

“Sh-oot. Shoot.”

“You can swear in front of me, you know.”

And thus began the four hour bus ride to the competition and amusement park.

The ride up was actually fun? Peter was surprised that he made it either way though. He could barely make it from the Stark building to the school. And he usually would walk around the bus and maybe talk to someone at the front, or ask the teacher a question, but when Fury was the chaperone he decided to not risk it. He contented himself by scrolling his Tumblr dash for an hour, then checking his regular tags (“ravenclaw”, “adhd”, “thomas sanders” and “science side”), then he rearranged his apps. He also added some songs to his playlist and watched an episode of Buzzfeed Unsolved. Then he texted every group chat he was a part of, chatted with Steve who was across the aisle to him, and took some aesthetic pictures. He also went over his sheet music, scoured the website for the park, and finally fell down a Wikipedia rabbit hole about Dracula that ended up with the Korean revolution. And then they were there.

He was in band, and so was Tony, Bruce, Thor, Carol, Rhodey, Hope, and Bucky. Everyone else was in orchestra. That’s why they got to go on this sweet field trip: they were competing in their individual categories and then would spend the day going on roller coasters.

The performance went well, surprisingly. Peter yawned during their second song but that’s all and he was singled out by the moderator for being the youngest! Skipping two grades had its perks. Then they were on the bus getting ready to go! Peter had his headphones, his earplugs, his earbuds, his phone and his portable charger and his money and his raincoat in case it rained. His science teacher had gone over the weather the day before and it would almost definitely rain, and so everyone brought an umbrella or poncho or jacket. Except Steve and Bucky.

“How does the weatherman know?”

“All that technology can’t be trusted.”

“And besides, Ms Bowey gets things wrong.”

They hadn’t brought anything and everyone was waiting for it to rain to see the looks on their faces.

So after a lot of rules and yelling from Fury, and some smiles and reminders to have fun and to be at the ballroom area for the awards at five pm from Hill, they were off!

Bruce was happy. He was happy to do this forever, maybe: walk around the park holding hands with Thor, smiling while Peter talked and talked and talked, while Steve and Bucky walked side by side with whispers and scowls at Tony, and while Tony suggested every huge and scary coaster in the place, while Nat and Clint walked a ways behind and bickered. No school, no stress, no worrying. Even when Peter stopped to put his headphones over his ears when it got especially crowded and noisy, even when Tony stopped dead and hid behind a bench (Pepper had passed) and even when Clint tripped over absolutely nothing and they had to stop to check that he hadn’t broken anything he was absolutely fine! What a concept.

Carol and Maria were having the time of their lives. They had gone on every medium-level coaster in the park and were excited to try the especially fast and scary ones. The ride up had been nice too: Maria had napped and listened with one earbud to their Queen playlist and Carol had taken the other earbud while she chatted with Thor and exchanged pictures of their pets. Carol’s cat Goose was the greatest cat ever, but Mjolnir was a huge golden retriever and he was pretty freakin’ awesome too.

Carol had only joined band because Thor joined band. Thor only joined because Bruce joined. Bruce joined because Tony talked him into it in sixth grade. Thor had been dismayed to find he was the only jock. Carol had had to choose between orchestra with her girlfriend and band with her best friend, but she decided violins were dumb and took up the trombone. It wasn’t her favorite thing ever, but they got to take cool trips. And now they got in line, holding hands, hair windblown and messy. About five seconds after they got in line it someone put up a sign: the ride was closed due to weather. Good thing, too: it started to pour about five minutes after they left the line.

It started to rain while the group looked for food and Steve was going to punch something, he swore. Tony had an umbrella, Peter had a raincoat, even Nat brought a jacket. Clint had a dumb poncho. Thor and Bruce had jackets too and he and Bucky had nothing. As everyone started to snicker, Bucky scowled and Steve rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, yeah, keep laughing Poncho Boy. “

“Poncho boy!” Nat started to laugh. “New contact name.”

“Oh, you’re getting rid of Katniss Ever-lame?” Clint fake-smiled at her.

“Yep,” Natasha already had her phone out and was typing. “Smile!” Clint looked confused and so his new contact photo was him looking confused in a poncho while the rain poured with the new name “poncho boi”. Everyone was already changing the name too. Steve smiled while Clint looked disgruntled. He was still, however, wet. Peter’s hair was starting to frizz and Bucky looked less than enthusiastic. He dragged his boyfriend, along with Tony, Peter,. Thor and Bruce, and Clint and Nat, into a random store that apparently had candy and ice cream. And ice cream cheered everyone right up.

It stopped raining and they headed outside in the post-rain warmth and haze. Everyone else was smiling outside and when Bruce tugged on his hoodie sleeve Thor looked up and saw a double rainbow. He took a picture and posted it to instagram along with most of their friends, but Peter won Best Caption.

The sky said GAY RIGHTS

The speakers around the park had been playing music the whole time and all of a sudden, You’re My Best Friend was playing and through all of the people, Thor saw a tall girl with dark, short hair start wildly waltzing with a shorter blonde girl in a flannel. He smiled.

Their group had a problem, Clint soon realized. Natasha, Thor, Bucky and Tony wanted to go on every single ride and coaster in the park. Peter, Steve and Bruce, along with him, wanted nothing to do with scary rides. So they compromised. They built up to the scary rides and they started with some of the wild, spinny rides; those were Peter’s favorite anyways. There was no line for them. They rode them about five times in a row: Clint and Peter (he was mad at Nat), Nat and Steve, Bucky and Tony (they looked ready to throw the other out of the seat) and Thor and Bruce. Peter weighed about five pounds so he was repeatedly thrown into Clint while they laughed.

Then they went on the pirate-ship that rocked from side to side. Peter wasn’t allowed to have headphones and Nat saw him get worried, so she sat next to Peter and let him latch onto her wrist during the ride.

“HOLY FREAKING- OH MY- Oh wait, this isn’t so bad!” Natasha laughed as Peter relaxed next to her (even though he maintained his grip on her arm) and once they got off of the ride everyone was a lot less stressed.

“YOOOOOO,” Tony yelled. Bruce looked over and saw one of those cheesy games: Guess Your Age, Weight or Birthday! If I Guess Wrong, You Win A Prize! The prize was a large stuffed sloth that was about as big as Peter.

“Nope.” Natasha flat out forbid Tony. “You want to drag that thing around the rest of the day and then on the bus? Bad idea, Tony. Just buy one, you’re literally a billionai-”

He was already giving the lady five dollars and hopping on the scale. Natasha sighed and resolved to join the group with Pepper, Rhodey, Peggy, and Carol and Maria next time.

“So the way this works is that I guess the weight. If I’m wrong by five pounds you win a small prize. If I’m off by ten pounds you win a big prize.” Tony nodded.

“Hmmmm. I wanna say ninety pounds.” Tony stepped on the scale.

“A hundred and ten! Jeez, okay. You win a big sloth.”

“Fine. Nice job, Tony.”

“How on earth do you weigh a hundred and ten pounds? I can bench press you,” Steve wondered.

“It’s all muscle, Steve.” At that, Bucky choked on his water.

They sat down at some benches in order to get situated when Steve’s eyes opened wide and Tony turned around and Pepper Potts, the most beautiful girl in school, his best friend Rhodey’s new sort-of best friend, the girl who was rumored to already have been accepted to Harvard business school, she was walking right towards him and he was holding a ridiculous sloth and also hanging out with a bunch of nerds and Thor.

“Oh, hey, Peg. Hi, Rhodey, hey Pepper!”Steve smiled like he wasn’t talking to a literal goddess, the head of the debate team as well as the head of the Women’s Club at their school, and the greatest person possibly ever.

“Hey, so Tony, Rhodey pointed out your sloth and we were wondering where you got it? It’s so cute!” Pepper smiled at him and Tony would have come up with a good response, he swears, something like oh yeah I won it at that game over there they guessed my birthday wrong! And his friends would have maybe kept their damn mouths shut because they all knew how long he had liked Pepper. He forgot, however, that at the particular late-night study session when he had admitted this, Bucky hadn’t been there and so Bucky ruined it all.

“Yeah the lady at that booth guessed Tony’s weight as ninety pounds because he’s a midget, haha, and he actually weighs one-ten! Which is probably the snacks we’ve all been eating today. It’s funny because Steve’s maximum weight at the gym is one-thirty, Steve could literally bench press Tiny- sorry, Tony, here-”

A few things happened at this point.

Bruce yelled “Bucky, shut up!” while

Steve clamped a hand over his boyfriend’s mouth.

Meanwhile Peter and Thor began to ramble to cover everything up and

Natasha apologized for “my dumbass friends.”

Clint was giggling and the worst part was that

Rhodey shot Tony an I’m-so-sorry-dude-I’ll-talk-to-her look while

Pepper walked away, confused and probably thinking Tony was a short, weird, loser who could be bench-pressed by her best friend’s ex boyfriend, and most likely deciding to never speak to him again.

“BUCKY!” Steve was berating his boyfriend. “Why would you say that?”

“What does it matter, Steve?”

“Bucky. Pepper- Pepper’s the first person I ever really liked, like I really like her!”

“The first person you really-really like?” Steve arched an eyebrow. Tony had confessed to liking him in their freshman year, and Steve had felt the same way for a while too, but it was all in the past now. “The first person ever?”

Tony rolled his eyes. Bucky, meanwhile got the drift.

“Ohhhhhh, shit, Tony, I’m so sorry.”

“As entertaining as this is, guys, we’re going to be late for the awards if we don’t haul over to the pavilion thing. It’s four fifty-five,” Bruce interrupted. “C’mon.”

When Bruce said “C’mon”, the Panic! At The DIsco song got stuck in Peter’s head and he hummed it while they jogged through the park. They found everybody in their school standing at the pavilion, milling around with the students from a bunch of other schools in the area. Peter felt his chest getting tighter and took a few deep breaths in order to calm himself down. Hill and Fury called them all into the huge room and told them to sit with their groups on the ground. Peter hated sitting on the ground. Everybody was so darn loud, why were people so loud? He was sandwiched between Peter Quill, who was yelling something, and T’Challa, who was at least talking at a normal volume to Nakia, and Quill was touching him and everybody was so loud still, and where was Tony? Why were people touching him? Why couldn’t he breathe correctly? He heard Thor yell something across the floor, and his jeans felt weird on his knees, and he really hated the way those jeans felt, why did he wear them? Was the floor always slightly sticky? He grabbed his headphones and slid them over his ears, screwing up his eyes and humming “C’mon” a little louder and tapping a beat on the sides of his headphones. WAs that kid from another school laughing at him? He had to get out of here. Natasha and Clint were the closest to him. Clint noticed Peter and signed “are you o k?” at him. “No. SOS” Peter signed back. (Most of them knew sign language. Clint was deaf and Peter, when things got to be too much for him, would slide headphones over his ears and revert to signing everything.)

“I'm gonna take Pete outside, Nat.” Cluint stood up, earning a glare from Hill, and grabbed Peter’s arm and took him outside. They sat on a bench and watched the ceremony.

The band was the only one in the mixed highschool category and got first place, but the orchestra got third. Peter smiled and met up with ihs friends afterwards, keeping his headphones on but chatting with them nonetheless.

Maria and Carol were in line for the biggest roller coaster in the park. Again. They had been kicked out due to rain, had to leave the line to watch the awards, and now they were back. There was a huge line and Pepper and Peggy were supposed to meet them in the line after finding Tony and Peter and trading Rhodey for Thor. They were looking at a picture of Goose on Carol’s phone when they heard Thor’s loud voice from the back of the line (they were about halfway there, and the line was long as hell) yelling “Carol! Maria! I am here with Pepper and Peggy!”

The girls and Thor started to walk past the people waiting and were almost there when some lady stopped him.

‘Excuse me, where do you think you’re going, young man?” Karen (Carol decided to call her Karen because she looked like a Karen) asked him.

“Well, those are our friends right up there and we were going to ride the roller coaster with them.” Karen looked up at Carol and Maria, still holding hands, who waved at her and smiled. Karen faced Thor again.

“No.”

“But we have to be in a group together! It’s the rules for our school trip. Let us up!” Peggy looked angry.

“Young lady, go to the back of the line!”

Peggy was going to yell some more, and Pepper was seriously annoyed. But then there was a chime from their phones.

Maria: just leave it

Maria: legit it’s okay we can go on this one and y’all can pick another ride

Maria: and meet at another, cooler ride

Carol: my girlfriend is so smart❤❤❤❤❤❤

Pep: fine

Thor: sounds good!

Peggy: i will fight this lady tho

Carol and Maria advanced in the line, and they saw that the coaster even went upside down. They looked at each other and grinned.

“Good practice for when you’re in a fight and your plane goes upside down,” Maria said with a smirk.

“Yes, Maria. Because going on one roller coaster will prepare us for the Air Force. Mhmm. Yep. Okay. Put that on your application, Rambeau.

Carol and Maria continued the back-and-forth that Bruce and Thor loved to watch on their frequent double dates until it was their turn on the roller coaster-

“Sorry, girls. The ride’s full. You get to be first on the next turn!”

Carol was hopping up and down in excitement, and Maria was excited too (just a little less… bubbly) and that’s when the ride lurched forward and took off. They saw how fast it was and it was going to be so cool and then they heard the mechinery of the ride sort of stop. They waited for amminute but they couldn’t see the roller coaster come speeding back around. And then the announcement:

“Laaaaaaaaaaidies and gentlemen, the roller coaster is experiencing technical difficulties and we’re going to have to shut it down for the rest of the night. Our apologies again, and have a lovely evening!”

Maria snapped a picture of the priceless look on her girlfriend’s face.

Peggy, Pepper and Rhodey were having a great time on their own. Peggy was happy to see how much fun all of her friends were having, but the one thing that would have made her day almost-perfect was having a boyfriend there with her. Not because she particularly cared about romance right now, not because she was pining over Steve (she wasn’t) but because she was in a group of either five or three all day. Carol and Maria were roller coaster buddies for life, and Pepper rode with Rhodey because she was the one who had invited him along with their group to spend the day away from his best friend anyways, it would be rude to make him ride with Peggy or with a stranger. So Peggy was stuck with the “dad in the family of three” or the “third wheel” or the “flirty boy who had no sense of boundaries” and she was sick of it. On this ride, which might be one of their last, she turned around to see her prospects and decided that she might as well be proactive and pick someone who looked nice and her age and who would be willing to shriek with terror and exhilaration in the front seat.

There was a group of about seven boys directly behind them and so she took a deep breath and pivoted around, smiling.

“Hey, I’m Peggy. I’m in a group of three-” she indicated Pep and Rhodey, “-and so I was wondering if any of you guys would want to ride the roller coaster with me? Preferably someone who doesn’t mind the front seat and my incessant yelling.”

The boys looked at each other and Peggy worried she was about to be made fun of, or worse, put in yet another bad situation, but instead a boy with a smile and a crutch walked forward.

“Daniel Sousa, roller-coaster-rider extraordinaire, at your service, Peggy.” He smiled and she smiled back and the boys behind her started to giggle and Pepper did too. Peggy didn’t care, though.

Apparently Daniel wanted to go into the military, maybe the government, same as Peggy. He was here with a different school and had lost his leg after a bad car crash when he was a kid. He did martial arts and liked roller coasters and Peggy had a good feeling about her roller-coaster buddy.

The coaster itself was great. Pepper hated it but Rhodey, Peggy and Daniel loved it. And afterwards, when they were leaving to meet Carol and Maria at another ride, Peggy said “Well, it’s been lovely riding roller coasters with you.”

“Come on, Daniel! Give her your number and let’s get outta here,” one of Daniel’s friends called. Peggy and Daniel turned red.

“Shut up, Ray.”

“Wait!” Peggy grabbed a random piece of paper in her pocket, it turned out to be a note Steve had tossed her on the bus reading “does peter quill ever shut the heck up” but she scribbled her number on it and handed it to Daniel.

‘If you ever want to talk more about politics and martial arts, let me know.” Daniel nodded and Peggy smiled before walking away with her friends. As soon as they were out of earshot from the boys, Pepper whooped and Rhodey high-fived her.

“Tooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnyyyyyyyyyy,” Peter groaned in the arcade. “Lend me a dollar. Please. You’re part of the reason I lost five bucks on the bus! You’re a billionaire. Please.”

“What do you want to play, anyways?”

“I want to do the claw machine? They have a stuffed Bulbasaur I’m almost positive I could win.”

“Fine. Have a dollar. One dollar only.” Tony handed it to Peter, who grinned and ran to the machine. Clint was trying to get a stuffed Rowlet, and as soon as he lost Peter pushed him aside.

“My turn, poncho boy.”

Peter did win the Bulbasaur, and he gloated to Tony the whole way to the next ride.

“Okay. So some of us want to go on the huge, scary rides. And some of us want to go on the smaller ones. So Rhodey and Maria are meeting us here, and I’m going with Thor, Bucky and Tony and meeting Pep, Peggy and Carol at that ride that goes up the huge pole thing and drops down? And you guys can go on another ride. Deal?” Natasha finished speaking and nodded at Rhodey and Maria.

“Pep and Peg are at the Big Scary ride, Carol’s meeting them there after she eats her ice cream. Have fun!” Maria waved them off and the new group set off for some smaller rides.

They found one that didn’t have a very long line. It was basically a tilted platform, with a big circle on top with the seats. The circle spun around, slightly elevated, and Bruce took a long look at the machinery underneath. It was greasy and not very well maintained, but still cool.

Peter was hugging his Bulbasaur (“Her name is Delilah!”) and while they stood in line and watched some smaller kids go around and around, Maria picked Delilah up.

“Aww, how cute.” Clint grabbed Delilah away and put her in between the metal railing separating them from the ride. And Peter made to grab Delilah but only knocked her onto the ride. He looked in horror as she spun around, fell off, rolled to the edge of the underneath platform, and settled mere centimeters from falling into the greasy, deep pit of machinery and despair.

“Clint! Look what you did!” Peter said as they watched, transfixed by the steady brushing of the top platform brushing her bulb. The ride stopped, finally after what seemed like an eternity. Peter rushed forward and rescued Delilah, sticking his tongue out at Clint. The ride was starting, and Rhodey yelled “Steve! Your hat!” but it was too late and Steve’s army patterned baseball hat was blown off onto the platform, then off the platform, then it slid down to the gate. After the ride he grabbed it, ignoring the snickers from his friends, and they set off to find their friends. They were not in line for the Big Scary ride, on the ride, or anywhere near the ride.

“I’ll call Natasha.” Clint grabbed his phone and the conversation on the end Peter heard went like this:

“Hey Natasha, where are you? I can’t hear you. Yes I’m wearing my hearing aids, zhopa. I’m hanging up now.” Clint hung up and then said “No idea, couldn’t hear.”

Peter, Bruce and Rhodey went to their group chat with Tony:

Petey boi: tony where u at

Platypus: yeah tiny where r u

Bruce Banner: Tony, where are you guys?

Tiny stank: can’t talk rn guys

“Nothing.”

“Let’s get some food, then, we haven’t had dinner,” Maria suggested.

“Yeah! Let’s get this bread!” Peter punched the air and Btruce closed his eyes in silent pain. He missed his lab, with its complete silence and absence of memes.

They found the food and sat down on some benches in a sort of courtyard area, laughing at Peter as he stood on the tiptoes of his converse to order some tacos. Then Clint saw poor Delilah (who had already been through quite an ordeal) and grabbed her and sat on her.

Peter returned, saying “Dinner orders are in! For Maria, Clint and Steve: hotdogs! For Steve: a slice of pizza! For me and Bruce: Tacos! Where the frick-frack is Delilah?”

Clint snickered and everyone else maintained a poker face.

“You have to find her and then we can leave.”

“Give her to me, Clint!”

“Why do we always assume it’s me that does these things?”

“Because you’re the only one who does these things.” Everyone nodded.

Peter, resigned to his fate, walked in circles around the courtyard while Clint shouted “HOT” and “COLD” and Maria stifled laughs. FInally Peter gave up.

“Where is she?”

Clint stood up, Peter started to pounch Clint’s arm, and then their friends walked up.

“Topolino, what’d poncho boy do to you?”

“He took Delilah, Tony.”

“I swear to god, Tony- if you just referred to Peter using an Italian word that parents call their small children- I’m gonna-”

“Shut it, Steve. Like Bucky doesn’t call you dorogoi more than he calls you Steve.”

They kept bickering through two more small coasters, and another spinny ride, and then when it got dark they walked back to the bus. It was eight pm and they were going home.

Pepper was standing with Peggy and Carol, Rhodey and Maria jogged over and some of Peter’s group followed. Tony went over, too, and so Peter followed and left Clint, Nat and Steve on a bench looking at a vine compilation.

‘Hey… guys,” Tony said and Peter watched him not look at Pepper, but like in a subtle and chill way so it was less of a I’m-not-looking-at-you-because-Bucky-made-me-look-like-an-absolute-buffoon

And more of a I’m-just-really-interested-in-this-story-Rhodey’s-telling-about-that-one-guy-behind-you-on-the-ride

And Peter thought he was doing very well. Then they all drifted away to their own groups and Tony returned to casting wistful glances at Pepper, who was chatting with Peggy and some boy with a crutch and a wide grin.

“Y’know, in the cheesy romance movies, the boy wins a stuffed animal and gives it to the girl. Give your sloth to Pepper!” Bucky aid it like it was an amazing plan.

“No,” Natasha and Peter said in unison.

“If you had won the smaller sloth, and if Bucky had kept his mouth shut, and if you had given the hypothetical smaller sloth to her earlier, and if you were better friends with her, maybe. But if someone you were good acquaintances with gave you a sloth that was, like Peter’s size, and this was after that same person’s friends had acted like idiots- me and Peter not included- that would be red flags that that person had a huge crush on you. Don’t do it.”

Then they were called to get on the bus, and so they did.

AN HOUR LATER

Natasha was smiling at her phone. She was watching her favorite anime, First Squad. Her head was leaning on the chilly bus window, her feet were dangling off of the seat, one earbud was out, and she could hear the bus sounds around her.

Pepper and Peggy giggling and looking at Peggy’s phone.

Bruce and Thor watching Masterchef on Thor’s iPad.

Peter humming a Panic! At The Disco song right behind her.

Tony’s classic rock very faintly, he was blasting it in his headphones.

Carol and Maria quietly singing “Good Old-Fashioned Loverboy”.

Rhodey whispering to Tony, something like “it’s okay, she didn’t care.”

And of course, Clint Barton being a bitchass bus-mate.

Clint was her best friend, a decision she regretted almost every day. Right now she just wanted to watch some anime, relax, and maybe doze off a bit. But Clinton Francis “Poncho Boy” would not let that happen.

Natasha had brought snacks, and in the aisle of the grocery store at ten pm the night before, a big box of Welch’s Fruit Snacks seemed like a good idea.

“Nat, I want a fruit snack.”

“Natty, I can’t open the fruit snack!”

“Tasha, can I have another one? This one is mostly raspberries and those suck.”

“Natka, I started season three of Stranger Things and I swear to god, If Joyce Byers doesn’t get a break this time I will destroy the Monster Of The Year myself.”

“Holy shit, Tashie, you will love this season of Stranger Things.”

Finally Natasha opened her texts and just texted him with both earbuds in.

Poncho boy: it’s too loud on this fckin bus

Nat: take out your hearing aids and shut up

Nat: <shutthefuckupandgotosleep.mov>

Poncho boy: rude

Poncho boy: u know what

Nat: what

Poncho boy: imma watch buzzfeed unsolved

Poncho boy: also fuck you

Natasha was fine with that as long as Clint shut up, so she lay down and tried to fall asleep for a bit but Clint was also laying down (he took off his shoes because he was a horrible human being) and their legs were too long to fit on the seats, so after a brief (read: five minute) foot war they settled by having Clint put his legs on Nat’s seat and Natasha balanced her toes on the edge of Clint’s, she was shorter by about six inches. Clint soon fell asleep and Nat rested her head on her arm and finished her show.

Peter was less bouncy on the ride home. He got a seat to himself and so he curled up with The Office, spinning a fidget spinner and chuckling quietly, and then settled into his playlist until they pulled into the parking lot. That’s when the BIG THING, the thing that made this field trip go from “just another band trip” to a trip that was legendary in their friend group.

TOny had been eating the whole trip: chips in the morning, and then ice cream and tacos and cotton candy at the park, and on the bus home he finished off Natasha’s fruit snack stash with Clint and ate a Hershey's bar he found in his bag. Then he watched Netflix the way home on the bumpy bus ride. And the bus stopped, Peter Kept his earbuds in and then… something changed in the bus. Peter pulled out his earbuds:

So don't go breaking my heart

I won't go breaking your heart

Don't go breaking my heart

And nobody told us

'Cause nobody showed us-

“What the fuck just happened?”

“LANGUAGE, Mr. Lang.”

“Tony? You OK?”

Tony Stark, the heir to the biggest tech company in the world, a genius, the coolest dude in school, had just thrown up in the dimly lit bus aisle with his crush- the beautiful, incredibly smart and poised Pepper Potts, sitting two seats in front of him. Natasha started to yell.

“You guys. Let’s just get off of the bus, everyone.” Clint supplemented with “Shut up, Burch. It could have happened to anybody.”

Everybody got off of the bus except peter, Tony, Delilah, and the giant sloth that Tony named George. Tony looked at Peter. He really didn’t look that bad.

‘I should have given her the sloth, Pete.”

Peter laughed despite everything and helped Tony off of the bus, where JARVIS was waiting.

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