Chapter 5: Time Well Spend
A/N: This chapter is set in March of 2018, I think. So, this has a lot of Stucky (Steve and Bucky) in it as well as the introduction of Spideypool (Peter and Wade). Thanks to a good friend I know a song for Steve and Bucky now.
Triggers: Swearing, mentions of past homophobia, kissing, grief and mourning a loved one.
Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel or any other related franchises.
Tony woke that morning with a sigh, he'd been particularly comfortable with Loki last night and hadn't wanted to leave in the slightest, but he knew that he had to every morning. Still though, it pained him. but today wasn't about him, it was about his fellow Avenger and begrudgingly stated friend, Steve Rogers and of course, James Barnes, but most call him Bucky. Tony showered, dressing into a classy red suit with black flecks speckled throughout the material, hints of gold on the sleeves, collar and jacket buttons. Steve had wanted them to wear something inspired by their uniforms as Avengers. His tie was paisley red and gold, a crisp white shirt underneath with slip on leather shoes and cufflinks. He went to the bathroom to trim his goatee, but there was a knock on his bedroom door before that. "Come in, kid." he replied, knowing that it was his adoptive son, Peter Parker-Stark. The soon to be twenty-two year old, as of this coming August, came in with a rumbled blue and yellow tie in his hands, blushing a bit as he told Tony, "Um, dad? How do you tie a tie?" He put out his hand for the tie, speaking softly, more to himself than his son, "I call myself a dad, I didn't even teach you how to tie a Windsor knot." The brown eyed man rolled his eyes at him, "Dad, I'm almost twenty-two. I should know this by now." He nodded, "Okay yeah, fair, fair. Let me show you." he showed him how to tie a perfect Windsor knot and looked at him – his suit was mainly blue, with yellow pinstripes and a red shirt underneath. He nodded, "You clean up nice, kid." Peter laughed, running a hand through his hair, "So do you, dad." He rolled his eyes at his words and asked, "Ready to go? Pepper should be here any minute with Happy to pick us up." Peter nodded, "Yeah. I'm kind of nervous, I've never been to a wedding before, let alone been the best man." The former CEO of Stark Enterprise smiled softly at him, "You'll be fine, don't worry. Let's just hope that Thor either isn't invited or doesn't say something stupid." The web-slinging man looked at him softly, "You sound like father when you say that dad." The dark haired man smirked a bit, "Not sure if that's a good or a bad thing, but I'm taking it as a compliment. C'mon, Pep's outside." He squeezed his shoulder before walking with him to the car. They arrived shortly at the hotel that the two had picked for the occasion, both having felt uncomfortable about the idea of a church. Tony nodded to him, "See you in a bit, son. I'm going to go find Cap. You good with finding Bucky or…?" Peter nodded, "See you at the ceremony, dad." He walked in the opposite direction, going to the front desk. Tony went to the room that Steve had texted him he'd be in, so he knocked. "Tony?" Steve asked, opening the door. Tony snarked, "No, it's the room service. Yes, it's me, Steve." The blond chuckled and let him in. He was halfway through getting dressed into a black and blue suit, the blue being patters of stars embossed into it, Tony had ordered it for them through their Avengers accounts so they wouldn't have to worry about money. The tie he was trying desperately to close with shaking hands was bright blue with lighter blue stripes. Tony put out his hand, "Let me help you with that. I'm the best man after all, for you anyways." He nodded as he handed him the tie, "Thanks again for the suits, Tony." He waved him off, "Don't worry about it. I had money put aside for when me and Loki got married but sadly, we couldn't…so it's for you two now. Stars and stripes, huh? Original." Steve shoved him gently, a friendly gesture, "Shut up, it's what we wanted. Buck's more comfortable in darker colours and he suggested to do stars and stripes to be funny." he put a hand on Tony's shoulder as he added, "He would with Bucky right now, they'd probably be saying something sarcastic together." The inventor smiled sadly, "You're not wrong, who knows what they'd get up to if left together alone. It is kind of funny, the whole 'stars and stripes' thing, considering."
The blond nodded and started combing his hair before slipping on the jacket to his suit and putting on his shoes. Tony smirked as he asked, "So…where's the white and red?" The first Avenger smiled warmly, pinning three small flowers into the left jacket pocket, near to his shoulder – a red peony with two sprigs of baby's breath on either side of it. In their time together, Loki had read many books to him and like the sponge he was to interesting things, seeking knowledge where he could find it, knew some flower meanings so he replied, "Nice touch. Want to know what they mean?" Steve arched his eyebrow, "How do you know flower meanings?" He smirked a bit, "I dated a sharply intelligent millennia old deity, who became the love of my life. He taught me many things, Rogers." Steve grinned at him like an idiot, "Won't be Rogers much longer." The tech genius arched an eyebrow at him, "You're taking his name? Not the other way around?" Steve blushed darkly but nodded, "Um, yeah. We talked about it for a while and decided that if we'd been able to be so…so open and free in our own time, God knows we couldn't have had this. It would have been out of the question." The inventor nodded, letting out a sigh, "Cap, it's not the forties anymore. You two will be fine, don't worry about it. Now come on, don't want to be late, right?" Steve nodded, walking with him to the ballroom of the hotel, where they had planned to get married in. They waited there while Peter was helping Bucky put the flowers in his top pocket, his hair tied back in a small ponytail for the day. He nodded to Peter, "Thanks kid. You'd have made him proud, y'know. There's someone I want you to meet actually. He's outside. New friend I made, he moved into Avengers Tower about two weeks ago." Peter tilted his head, "You mean the new guy? Huh, well I guess, I could meet him. I've never met him before. I have to help you first though. It's your wedding day after all." Bucky smiled a bit at him before nodding, "You're right. C'mon, let's go see Stevie." Peter walked with him to ballroom where an officiant was waiting with everything ready to go. Bucky couldn't help but grin at the image, finally, Steve was going to be his forever, no dark damsels could intervene this time, or so he hoped. He felt his throat constrict suddenly with panic, what if, there was someone else that would worm their way into Steve's life like Peggy had? He didn't think he could go through that again. He walked towards Steve as the procession started and whispered, grabbing his hand, "Promise me that we're it for each other, Stevie?" Steve gently kissed his wrist while waiting for the officiant to get organised, he whispered, "I'm yours 'til the end of the line, Buck." He smiled at that, entwining his fingers with the blond's and whispered hoarsely, "Good answer, Rogers." Steve laughed softly, smiling at him warmly as he whispered back, "You're going to have to stop calling me that soon. In like…twenty minutes? I'm going to have a different last name." He smirked a bit at his best friend who had always, secretly or not, held his heart in his formerly small or serum-enlarged hands, "Yeah, I know. 'Cause it's mine too." The ceremony went off without a hitch, thankfully. Both of them were fumbling over the vows, some things didn't change – serum, Wakandian vibranium arm or not. Once they put on the rings and shared the customary kiss, they grabbed each other by the hand and didn't leave each other's sides for much more of that day. They danced, tears streaming down Steve's face, slow tears falling down Bucky's cheeks, both comforting each other softly as the swayed and twirled in each other's arms to the sound of It's Been A Long, Long Time by Kitty Kallen and the Harry James Orchestra. It was a song that had been popular in the forties. After they danced, dinner started, and speeches were said. After dinner, there was casual slow jazz and strings in the air, the sound coming from a CD that was in a computer somewhere in the room, Bruce Banner and Natasha Romanoff standing beside it while talking quietly and sitting together. Tony was giving Steve and Bucky some space; they were sitting over in a corner almost sitting on each other they were that close. He was sitting at the bar with a glass of single malt scotch on the rocks. Stephen Strange was suddenly sitting beside him, ordering a gin and tonic before asking him, "Why don't you try talking to someone instead of soaking up your misery, Stark?" He didn't turn around, he just spoke, "Look, the love of my life is dead, he didn't mind when I did this so, if you excuse me, I intend to have a peaceful drink." He sighed but replied, "Very well. I won't stop you." he walked off to some remote corner and seemed to disappear. However, most of the other Avengers were here, there weren't many other people here but that didn't matter much.
It didn't matter much to Wade Wilson, who was trying to fade into the background with his glass of whiskey. He knew that he likely was only here because he and Bucky had become friends when in Avengers Tower over the past few weeks. He looked around the room to see if there was anyone interesting here, he spotted a brown haired, brown eyed man sipping what appeared to be an orange juice by a window, the sunlight was dim behind him in the evening, the sun almost setting. Wade downed the remaining whiskey and walked over to him out of curiosity, greeting with, "Hey." Peter looked up at him, a flush covering his cheeks, probably looking at his scarred face, Wade thought. Peter took out some subtle headphones, "Hi. Sorry, did you say something? Big gatherings kind of unnerve me but music helps. I'm Peter Stark, nice to meet you." he offered his hand to shake. Wade inhaled sharply but tried to smother it by smiling in what he hoped was a charming way, "Hi, I'm Wade Wilson, we work together, I think. Stark as in like, Iron Man Stark or…?" Peter laughed softly, "Yeah, as in Iron Man. He's known as Tony Stark in places like this, though. Do you have superhero name?" he asked, shooting him an easy grin, it might as well have been an arrow of cupid to the merc with a mouth, but he hid this well, replying, "Ah, so you're his kid, right? Even though you're like…twenty?" Peter chuckled, "Yeah, that's me. Actually, I'm almost twenty-two. Tony's kind of always treated me like a kid. It used to kind of annoy me, but I think it's sweet." he replied with a smile. Wade nodded slowly and asked, "Say, what would it take to be able to get your phone number?" Peter smiled, replying smoothly, "Do you have your phone with you right now?" The mercenary raised an eyebrow, "That easy, huh?" Peter blushed at this and shyly replied, "No. I just haven't met anyone this charming before." Deadpool smiled warmly at him, sliding his phone out of his pocket, "Here you go, sweet boy." he flirtatiously replied. Peter proceeded to blush more but put his number into the phone, playfully setting a ringtone for himself, 'The Force' from Star Wars, admiring the Hello Kitty wallpaper on the phone's background. He grinned and got out his phone, passing it to Wade while he gave him back his phone, "Your wallpaper's cool, by the way." The taller man had a huge smile on his face, "He likes Hello Kitty and Star Wars? What a sweetheart!" he forced himself not to swear in front of the seemingly innocent twenty year old. Peter grinned at him, brown eyes shining, "You can cuss, you know. It's not like I haven't heard it before." He mumbled under his breath, "Thank fuck for that." The arachnoid superhero smiled warmly at him, "Text me sometime?" Wade was already tapping at his phone but smirked at him, "Check." Peter looked down at his phone to see a text, it was a picture of a cat that said 'you're purrfect'. He couldn't help but laugh, it was his humour, but it was on now, he simply had to make a science joke. He found a picture of a clipart lab with the words 'we have chemistry'. Wade snorted at this, thinking to himself, 'Fuckity fuck, I think I might be in love with this adorable cutie. Oh shitshitshit! Stark's coming!' True enough, Tony was approaching Peter so the unkillable mercenary smiled at him, "See you 'round, Skywalker." Peter blushed darkly and mumbled, "May the force be with you." Tony just about heard him mumble this and smiled a bit, "Making friends?" Peter blushed and nodded, "Um, yeah. Are we going?" Tony nodded, "Yeah, ready to go?" He nodded and walked out of the room with Tony before saying congratulations to Steve and Bucky. On the drive home, he asked the young webslinger, "So…that friend of yours?" Peter blushed, nervously fiddling with his hands, "Um, yeah dad?"
The engineer smirked a bit at his son, he had only had two or three glasses of scotch, so he was fairly sober, "Peter, I'm not stupid. I know you only use Star Wars references outside of me and Loki if you're flirting. I know you too well, kid." He shyly asked, "…Yes, I was. He's really nice, dad." Tony mumbled something that sounded oddly like, "I swear to the stars that if my son's attracted to bad boys, I'll have grey hairs by the time I'm fifty…" Peter stifled laughter, but nodded, "Don't worry dad, I'll be careful. After all, I'm Tony Stark's son, I know how to take of myself." That seemed to made the aforementioned man happy, so he grumbled good-naturedly, "Fine, fine. I'll try not worry." As soon as they went inside, Tony asked JARVIS to set the alarms for him, too tired from the excitement of the day. Peter went into his room and texted Wade for a bit, 'He made a bad boy comment. Should I be worried? – P.' He opened his laptop and started working on a paper, not tiring easily due to the spider venom giving him an excess of energy. Wade text back a few minutes later, 'Not sure if there's anything 2 worry abt, spider boi. Ur dad told me who you were btw. Don't u use txt talk?' Peter laughed softly, putting his wireless headphones back in before he replied, 'OK – wait, when did he tell you? Not really, no. Sorry but I can if you want me to.' His fellow, red-suited Avenger replied, 'That's actually kind of cute. I won't if you won't, spider boy. About…20 minutes ago? He called me and told me 'hurt my son and I'll find a way to kill you'. So, what are you up to?' Peter checked the time, noticing that it was almost one in the morning so he texted back, 'Okay, I have questions tomorrow, but I should go to bed, it's 1am. Talk to you tomorrow, Wade :)' A reply came back, 'Of course you have questions, you adorable nerd. I mean that in a good way. Ttyl, spider boy x' He had put his phone on silent for the night, so he wouldn't see it until the morning. He got dressed for bed and went to sleep not long after, plugging in his computer and phone for the morning.
