Another Discord-baby. The idea of the Avengers being kind of aggressive with their affection where Peter's involved (like you have a puppy that's SO CUTE YOU JUST WANNA SQUEEZE IT TO DEATH - but resist) because he's so indestructible, and because he enjoys it, came up, and Happyaspie, call_me_coley, and I somehow ended up promising to write the idea (without sharing how we were doing it) with each other, then exchange stories today. So make sure you check theirs out, too, if you can find them on AO3!
This isn't stuff I usually write either, so a little bit of a reach, like the last few one-shots I wrote!

Peter Parker tried not to bounce too much in the back of Happy's car. The forty-minute drive to the Compound seemed longer than usual today, but that's probably because Peter was excited. There had been a lot of missions this month (that he hadn't been invited to, mostly since he'd been doing term papers and taking finals for the last several weeks) and he hadn't seen most of the Avengers in weeks or even months. But there was finally nothing going on (that they knew of) this weekend, and Peter had been invited to spend a few days with the team, just hanging out. There was going to be pizza, and games, and science, and movies, and maybe some super-powered Capture the Flag, if Peter could talk Tony into it.

"You glad your finals are over, kid?" asked Happy with an almost-smile, meeting Peter's eyes in the rearview mirror. "You're kinda quiet back there." Happy used to mostly keep the divider up while they drove, but he hadn't done much of that since they'd started getting more comfortable with each other. Peter had been surprised to realize that a lot of Happy's reticence and gruffness actually seemed to be masking some low-level social anxiety. Peter definitely empathized with that. But Happy had been more chatty in recent months.

Peter smiled back at him. "Right, I'm super glad. It's been a rough couple of weeks. Mostly I'm just excited to see everyone though."

"I guess you haven't been around much lately, huh?"

Peter shook his head. "The last time I got to see everyone was like two months ago. I mean, I saw Ms. Romanoff last week for training, and Dr. Banner helped me with my final Chemistry paper, but otherwise…"

"And you've seen Tony, of course."

"Well, yeah. I couldn't not see him. I just haven't seen the rest of the team, or been together with them in a while."

They finally pulled up, and Tony must have been stalking them, because he was waiting outside in the driveway. It had been a few days since Peter had seen his mentor, and he slid eagerly into his arms for a quick hug. He was so glad they'd been "there" for over six months now. Peter was pretty tactile, and he loved any contact he got with the people he cared about. He'd been gratified to discover the Avengers were a touchy group.

As Tony released him and Happy was grabbing Peter's bags out of the trunk, suddenly Peter's spider-sense tingled, and he quickly jumped back away from Tony and Happy. He was just in time to help avoid them getting hit with a SHIELD assassin, who dropped on top of him from the overhanging eaves.

"Mmmph!, Mr. Barton!" Peter protested, only staggering a little, instead of being taken to the ground by the archer's aerial "attack."

"It's Clint, kid. How many times I gotta tell you?" Clint said, sliding gracefully to the ground and ruffling Peter's hair. Clint slung an arm over his shoulder and they walked in together.

"Hey, guys, Peter's here!" Clint called out as they entered the common room.

"Peter!" Bucky called from his spot on the couch. Steve walked in lazily from the other room to smile and wave, and Natasha, who was curled up in the window seat with a book, smiled brightly at him. It was nice to be back.

"If the kid's here, we can get started!" Bucky said excitedly, walking over.

"Get started with what, exactly?" asked Tony.

"Smash Brothers tournament, of course!"

Tony just rolled his eyes, giving his protégé a little shove towards the super soldiers, and headed toward the kitchen to put some appetizers in the double ovens. Bruce usually stayed out of the craziness, and mostly hung out in the kitchen, helping Tony with food.

The evening was just as fun as Peter thought it would be. Even if somehow Super Smash Brothers turned from virtual into actual soon after Thor showed up.

"Man of Spiders!" the Asgardian shouted as he walked in. Peter hadn't seen Thor in months. He was often off-world, and Peter was only around sometimes. Thor pulled him up into a bone-crushing hug, literally squeezing the breath out of the super-powered teenager. He accidentally bumped Peter into Steve as he plunked him back down, which made Steve drop his game controller, and Bucky took full advantage of his character's momentary incapacitation. Steve roared angrily (he was surprisingly competitive at video games once he finally figured most of them out) and launched himself at Bucky, who pushed back, sending them both crashing into Thor and Peter, which led to a full-out floor wrestle-extravaganza. Tony glared at the group and grabbed a glass end table out of the way. The engineer took the opportunity to look carefully at Peter's expression when the boy managed some eye contact. Peter grinned at him before getting bodily dragged back into the chaos. It only lasted a few minutes, but it was understandably intense, and when they were done, somehow someone had managed to put a foot through the hardwood flooring, prompting a lecture from Tony.

Once the Avengers had realized how strong Peter really was, they'd all gotten steadily more aggressive with their affection. Which really, he was fine with. He knew it was nice for Thor, Bucky, and Steve to not have to constantly watch their strength sometimes, and he enjoyed the hugs, and even the rough-housing, as Aunt May would call it when Ben used to play with him like that. It was kind of nice not to hold back so much as well, and he enjoyed the unrestrained hugs most of the time. Though they did need to be more careful. Pepper was still mad at them for flattening the last couch.

He had no idea what it was about him that made the rest of the team react to him like they would to an overly-adorable puppy, even when Natasha cited his "clean-teenager scent" and "indestructible cuteness." Whatever it was, though, prompted lots of squeezing, rough cuddling, and tackling him to the couch or the beanbag chair, in Bucky's case. Natasha and Clint were better, since they obviously didn't have super strength, but they liked to get in on the wrestling sometimes, too, and enjoyed trying to get the drop on Peter when possible. They were all basically just a bunch of hyped up adolescents themselves, and when they hadn't had a mission in a week or so, their energy had to go somewhere.

And, as usual, Peter was fine with it.

Until he wasn't. They'd all eaten enough for any three dinner parties (thanks to several super-metabolisms) and were getting ready for a movie when Steve took exception to something snarky Peter said, and grabbed him around the neck to scrub roughly at his hair in retribution. When he stopped, he didn't actually release Peter, just stood up with his arm slung around the teenager's neck, and continued his conversation with Clint as they all moved towards the couches, several bowls of fresh popcorn in tow.

Suddenly, Peter was aware of Tony's eyes on him, and he met his mentor's questioning look with a weak smile.

"Hey, I've been generous all night, but I'm ready for my kid back. Hand him over, Rogers," Tony said brusquely, taking proprietary hold of Peter's arm and tugging him gently away from Steve. Tony took a middle spot on one of the couches, pulling Peter down next to him, so no one else could sit by him. A few team members made noises of protest, since there's nothing they liked more than snuggling with the "Baby Avenger" as they liked to call him, during a movie night, but Tony ignored them.

Tony settled and left Peter to decide how close he wanted to be. Though Peter had been feeling a little touched out after such an involved evening (something he didn't even know could happen), he still found himself settling close to Tony, especially since it was his choice. After a while he felt Tony's fingers scratch lightly at the base of his hair, and he looked questioningly at him.

"This okay? You good now?" Tony said so softly that probably only Peter's super-hearing picked it up.

Peter blinked slowly. He really hadn't gotten enough sleep this week. He nodded with a surprised quirk of his lips. Oh. He hadn't been okay before. He'd needed a little space, and little less pressure, and didn't even realize that's what had been happening until now. But somehow Tony had. Feeling completely loved (by all the Avengers) and seen and protected by the man next to him, he let his head drop onto Tony's shoulder, his body slouching further down into the couch to close the distance. As much as he enjoyed all the rough affection and playfulness of the rest of the team, he needed this even more. He was barely aware of the major fight scene happening in the James Bond movie playing on the screen, as the solid safety of his mentor next to him, and the feather-light touch in his hair sent him straight to sleep.