The next few days were a blast. While they didn't flaunt their relationship, or whatever it was they had going on, Peter and Loki did manage to hang out in the same room as one another without having to hide it. The only one who said anything at all was Steve, claiming he didn't care, but he also didn't like having to lie to Tony. Peter didn't know what Loki said to him after, but Steve managed to mind his own business after that.

For four days, they talked, they connected. Peter knew he was absolutely head over heels in love and there was no denying it now. When they hung out with Thor, he talked of their childhood, opening up a whole new world to Peter. When they were alone, Loki would tell his side of all of Thor's stories, painting a much sadder picture. Peter knew that perspective was everything, and that a good memory for someone might be bad for someone else.

It hurt him to hear all the bad things that happened to Loki, but he was glad they were finally sharing things with each other. When Thor let something slip about Loki's time with Thanos, Peter could barley contain himself from hounding Loki for answers then and there. Instead he managed to wait until later that night to ask about it. The few tears that escaped Loki's eyes as he was telling Peter of his encounter absolutely broke his heart into a million pieces. They didn't have sex that night, instead Peter just cuddled Loki, becoming even more heart broken when Loki clung to him like a lifeline.

The next morning Peter felt so much closer to Loki, though he wasn't sure if Loki felt the same or not. But he was a little more open with his affection with Peter, letting Bucky catch them in the act of a hug in the middle of the kitchen. Bucky, the Saint he was, just grabbed his bowl of cereal and took it to another room to eat, pretending nothing was wrong with what he had seen.

On the fifth day of no Tony, Peter went to visit Aunt May. They hung out all day, and while he did miss Loki, he was also glad to see his Aunt. She raised him, so not living with her anymore sometimes took its toll on him. He was just glad she was doing good on her own.

The next day Tony was back by the time Peter woke up. Sadly, Loki had slipped off out of his bed before then. Loki tended to wake up a lot earlier than Peter did. Honestly, it was awful. Being a morning person must be horrible.

"Peter." Friday's voice cut through the silence, making him jump. When he first arrived she insisted on calling him Mr. Parker. Peter hated it with a passion. Sure, he wanted to be treated like an adult, but Mr. just seemed to rub him the wrong way. "Mr. Stark would like to see you in the lab 'as soon as you're decent', as he put's it."

Peter just grumbled and agreed with her. Just when he forgot about their big misunderstanding, Tony had to go and remind him. He wondered how long Tony was going to make fun of him for this. It was better than the alternative though, which was Tony finding out the truth. Being humiliated was better than being dead For now anyways.

After a long drawn out process of his morning routine, Peter made it to the lab. He had been trying to take as long as possible, really dreading having to see Tony. There were a couple lies he had been going over in his mind in case Tony brought up the DoomBot thing again.

"Welcome back Mr. Stark!" Peter said as he walked through the door. Tony jumped at the sound of his voice, but turned around to smile at him. He looked less tired than usual. Wherever he had been, at least he had been sleeping and taking care of himself. That was probably Pepper's doing though.

"Hey kid. You seen Bruce? I wanted to show you guys something." Tony told him, looking around the table for something. "It's just a new idea for a suit I wanted to try. If everything goes good, I'll make you a new one too."

"He went out with Natasha. They should be back in a few days, I think." Peter said, though he wasn't really sure. As far as he knew, they could've just disappeared like Vision and Wanda decided to. "What about the suit though? Do you need help?"

"Of course I don't need help. But I figured between the three of us we can come up with something a lot cooler and a lot faster than if it was just me. My suits are finally a thing of the past, Helen was right. But I know what we can use to replace them." Tony was pulling up holograms of blueprints and notes. Peter glazed through them as fast as he could.

"Nanotechnology?" It was brilliant, and also quite the project. Peter definitely wanted in on it though. "Brilliant, Mr. Stark."

"I know. I've already got a few ideas, but like I said, with the two of you, I can make this the best it can be." Tony turned around to face him again, looking serious. "It'll be hard for those damn DoomBots to ruin my suit next time if it keeps growing back."

"They ruined it? Are you ok?" Peter hadn't even realized they ruined Tony's suit last time. Thinking back, he couldn't remember anything looking wrong with the suit physically. Maybe they messed up some of the inner functions.

"I'm alive." Tony walked to the other side of the room, still looking for something to show to Peter. He must've been back for a few hours at least because every work bench was a mess now, when the lab had been a lot tidier the last time Peter was in there. "But that's part of why I wanted an easier way to kick their metal asses. I don't like when things mess with my stuff."

Peter was silent. He was hoping Tony wouldn't ask him about the 'heart' discussion they had before. Unfortunately it seemed to be the only thing on the older mans mind. "So finish telling me what you were saying about the heart."

"Um." Peter's heart dropped into his stomach. He didn't like lying, and now he had to lie to Tony's face and hope it was believable. "Well it all happened so fast, I don't remember a lot of it. But there was a little explosion and a piece of concrete with a pole in it went flying through the DoomBot's chest. Anyways there was a thing in him that kind of looks like a weird metal heart, and the pole stabbed through it, and the piece of concrete just made this big hole in his chest. But it landed on the ground and the Bot just collapsed after. Whatever it was, it seemed a little important, since he couldn't function without it."

Tony was quiet for a while. It only made Peter more nervous. He had no way of knowing if Tony believed his lie or not. Tony's face was unreadable. Just as the uncomfortable situation was becoming too much for Peter, Tony pushed himself off where he leaned against a workbench and walked to the middle of the lab.

"Friday, access the cleanup crews records. Find out where that heartless hunk of junk was found." Tony said, and Peter felt his whole body go numb. He knew there was no way this would end good, yet he couldn't force his feet to carry him out of the room.

"I found two, Boss. Three blocks apart." Friday told him, letting a few different pictures pop up in front of Tony. Tony had his back to Peter, but he could see just from the way he stood, that he was deep in though. Tony clicked on the images one after the other, studying them. One, Peter recognized as the DoomBot Loki had taken down for him. The other, Peter didn't recognize at all. The background at least, since all the Bots looked the same.

"Alright Friday, hack any surveillance around those two areas. I want to see exactly how it happened." The words fell out of Tony's mouth, nearly knocking Peter to the ground. He had to grab onto the workbench next to him to keep him up. Still, he was frozen in place.

The first video to play was of the DoomBot Peter didn't recognize. Funnily enough, almost the exact instance happened in this video that Peter described. The only difference was that Loki had caused the minor explosion that took the Bot down. The heart wasn't staked through, so Loki looked at it for a few seconds before kicking it through the dirt, making sure to crush it under his boot as he walked away.

"That dirty rat bag knew about these things having a weak point and didn't tell us? That's why I don't want you near him, Pete." Tony told him, still not looking back at Peter. He prayed to whoever was listening that Tony didn't feel the need to watch the next video. The breathe caught in his throat as the video played anyways.

The hologram Spiderman from the video was being knocked to the ground, then picked up by the neck and dangled. Watching it brought back phantom pains to Peter's throat. Yet it was easy to ignore when he saw the way Tony tensed up in front of him. It seemed to go on forever, when suddenly the same hologram Loki from the video before showed up and ripped through the Bot's chest, tearing out it's cold metallic heart.

"He saved you." Tony said, turning to face Peter, and thankfully away from the video.

"Yes." It took Peter a few seconds to find his voice. His tongue felt like lead in his mouth. "Uh, I didn't want to say anything because I know you don't want me around him. But he did save me. I just didn't want you to yell at me, Mr. Stark."

Peter could see the gears turning in Tony's head. A few emotions flashed across his face, most notably was anger and then understanding. He might've gotten away with his lie if he didn't let his eyes flash back to the screen involuntarily. Tony turned to watch too. Peter was unsure of where the video was being taken from, but there wasn't a clear view of the alley they had been in. Tony did turn around in time to see Peter being dragged into the alley though.

"Peter, what's this?" His voice was a little shriller than normal. When Peter didn't answer, he turned his attention to Friday. "Friday, get me a view of that back alley. Same time and Date."

The video stopped and nothing else played. For a brief moment, Peter thought he got lucky and Friday couldn't access a video for what Tony requested. Then another video popped up, and Peter practically felt his soul leave his body. He saw himself being roughly pushed against the back alley wall. He watched as Tony gripped onto a nearby table for support. Both of them were unable to tear their eyes away from the video in front of them. Finally as the hologram Peter was being forced to his knees, Peter seemed to snap out of it.

"Friday. Stop the video." Peter said as loud as he could manage. For a few painful seconds, the video continued, just long enough for the both of them to see Peter suck on Loki's thumb like a whore, then greedily take a cock into his mouth. Then it cut off.

"Peter." Tony said with such disbelief, before whirling around to face him. Peter had rarely seen him look as angry as he was right now. "I'm going to kill him. Then I'll deal with you after."

Without thinking, Peter's feet were moving. He was running out of the room as fast as he could, the only thing going through his mind was two words on repeat. 'oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck.' He needed to get to Loki before Tony did.