Why the fuck had he agreed to this?

He was ready to kill someone, web them to the wall and Bunsen burner their face off, but unfortunately he was still playing nice little Peter Parker and that meant that he would not be committing a felony in the near future. At least not here, in Tony Stark's beautifully chrome laboratory.

Laboratory of Evil!

(He was spending too much time with Wade).

No, but seriously, this was kind of getting the worst kind of annoying, all of them coming in, bad-talking Wade, trying to convince him to dump his boyfriend. And, yeah, they all thought he was a cheating bastard, so Peter could kind of understand, but still! He was going to absolutely murder the next person who came in wanting to talk about Wade. He'd been blowing them all off so far, but he doubted it would work for much longer. Oh, and look, there coming down the hall was Captain 'I'm going to tell Peter about Wade cheating on him with his favorite Superhero' America.

Damn him for being just and noble!

Ok, yeah, Peter could admit to himself that had any of this been real, had his significant other actually been caught pre-coitus with a… coworker of sorts, Peter would definitely want to be told. And he'd probably thank the good captain and the other Avengers, and throw them a party or whatever, but that wasn't the case! At all!

Peter had already worked himself so much into a tizzy that he was practically vibrating by the time Steve took a seat next to him. Peter had to take a few deep breaths to get his breathing back to normal and then he looked up into the blue eyes of America itself, looking for all the world as if he'd come to tell Peter his dog had been run over by Doctor Doom, and Peter had to clamp his lips shut just keep himself from spewing actual acid from a new gland in his mouth that he had just grown just then for this very occasion of being angry at a national icon.

"Peter," Steve said solemnly, and Peter had to look away.

On the other side of the room, both Bruce and Tony had stopped working, and were actually making their way over to Peter! What the actual fuck!? This wasn't an intervention!

"Peter," Steve said again, slowly, and his voice was all calm understanding and non-prodding, and all other sorts of things that Peter usually really appreciated and would fight tooth and nail for.

Did the fact that Steve's Captain America voice no longer affect him mean that Peter was slowly turning into the villain? He looked into the teary (actually fucking teary) eyes of the star spangled man, and thought that he could probably swing being a villain. He'd probably have to ditch the red and blue, which would be a drag, but he could make it work. Maybe buy himself a cape. He was sure Wade would appreciate dating a baddie.

Bruce and Tony took up stations on either side of Steve, Tony looking himself like he wanted to strangle someone, and Bruce with actual, god-forsaken pity. Peter tried to keep himself from tensing, but he couldn't help it. He debated running away and never returning, but figured that it would be more mature and financially responsible to just listen to his friends (or maybe no longer friends, he couldn't tell) dish about his boyfriend real quick and then go back to ignoring everything until it all was forgotten and everything was happy again.

Steve, who still hadn't actually started any sentences, said "Peter" again, in that solemn tone, and Peter snapped.

"What!" He shouted, loud enough to even startle himself, and jumped from his seat only to find himself pacing back and forth in the middle of the lab. He bit his thumb, and debated once more just telling them. They'd understand, he was sure, and even if they didn't, at least it would all be out in the open. But then he remembered the look on Wade's face when he'd said that at least Peter's secret was safe—he'd looked so proud of himself, so protective. Peter couldn't break that.

"You already know," Steve asked, though it sounded more like a question. His tone made Peter pause. It was half surprise, one-fourth compassion, one-eighth wonder, and one-eighth respect (probably for Wade).

"Yeah," Peter said slowly. He'd latched on to Steve's tone, and hope soared through him that maybe it wouldn't be too bad, trying to figure out how to re-form the relationships here into something resembling the past camaraderie.

And of course, wasn't it just like Tony to fuck it up?

"Did he tell you?"

Peter nodded slowly.

"Really?" He sounded much too incredulous for Peter's liking. "That sonovabitch just casually let you know that he about fucked a guy in spandex on the roof of your goddamned apartment building?"

Peter gritted his teeth and glared at his boss, hoping the heat in his eyes could set the man aflame.

"Tony," Bruce said quietly, and squeezed the man's upper arm.

It looked like Peter wasn't the only one unhappy with Tony's phrasing.

Peter generally liked Tony, they worked together seamlessly, and Peter enjoyed their conversations, but this was just cruel. He debated the merits of punching Iron Man in the face, but was interrupted mid-pros-and-cons-mental-debate by Steve.

"Well, at least he told you. I didn't think he would."

"He's not a coward," Peter spit out, and he tried very hard to remember back to just a few days ago when they'd all huddled around a Frankenstein's monster of a homemade scrabble board, laughing when Clint tried to convince Thor that 'Oserjerskin' was a word, of course it was, what are you talking about? The memory was there, but the contentment that usually followed was missing.

"He was cheating on you," Tony growled, and Peter wanted to make some cutting remark about Tony's own past of sleeping around, but he held himself back. Once you started something like that, there was no return.

He tried to remind himself that from their point of view, they were obviously the correct ones here, and that if he were in their shoes, he'd be doing the same thing. The thought made him calm down enough for him to sit and talk, to say the things he'd rehearsed all the way to work that morning, and had promptly forgotten upon seeing all of their stupid, uncaring, annoying faces again.

"He told me what happened, that it was a one-off, it was the adrenaline rush—"

"And you believed him?" Tony demanded.

"—and he promised that it would never happen again."

There was a pregnant pause, and then Tony asked, a bewildered expression on his face, "You did dump his ass, right?"

Peter looked at Tony, and Steve and Bruce, really looked at them for the first time since he'd walked into the lab that day, angry and raring to duke it out with someone, and saw only concern. Yes, Tony was rude, and yes, Tony was being an ass, but he was trying. And Steve and Bruce honestly cared about him. They didn't want to see him get hurt.

He understood that.

But what was really hurting him was seeing his friends just completely destroy any hopes of his boyfriend being in their good graces ever again.

Peter sat back down, and stared at them with what he hoped was his most earnest expression. "Please give him another chance." He focused on each of them individually, trying to get across how important this was to him. "I promised I would trust him again, and I don't want it to be ruined by you guys treating him badly. Please, just give him one more chance."

Tony was staring at him wide-eyed, and even Steve looked surprised at Peter's vehemence, but it was Bruce who asked the question. "Why?"

Peter glanced down at his hands where he had subconsciously begun to twist his engagement ring around his fingers. He gave the only true answer that he could. "I love him," it was a quiet confession, and then he looked at them again and said, loud enough so that there would be no mistake, "I love him. I love him and I want to let him fix this. I want to spend the rest of my life with him, and I want to work with you all forever, and be happy. Please, just please let him try. Please."

Steve met first Tony's eyes and then Bruce's. They nodded. Steve spoke, naturally becoming both leader and spokesperson. "Ok, we'll give him a chance."

"You'll treat him the same as before?" Peter questioned.

Tony crossed his arms and glared at a computer screen to his side, but Steve nodded and said, "Yes. We'll try. I'll even talk to the others."

Peter let out a relieved sigh.

"But don't be afraid," Bruce said quickly, "if something goes wrong, don't think that you'll be alone in whatever it is. We'll support your decision."

Tony straightened. "And if you need a place to say, you're always welcome at Avengers Tower."

Peter's expression softened. "Thank you. Really, it means a lot."

Steve got to his feet and sighed once more. "I'll let the others know to lay off Deadpool. I can't promise they'll be nice to him, but I'll make sure he isn't mistreated or ostracized."

Peter nodded and gave a little smile as Steve left the room. Tony and Bruce also returned to their stations, and soon everything was back to normal.

It was a nice feeling, looking around and once more feeling at ease in this place he loved.

Peter was glad that they'd taken what he said to heart, and it would probably still be awhile before they could return to the level of camaraderie with Wade that they had been at before (and that still rankled him) but at least they were going to try. He let out a breath as he realized that he wouldn't have to worry about Wade as much as he thought he had.

Little did Peter know that it was never Wade that he was going to have to worry about.