Same: LogicTeethDemonsTourniquet

by Phenobarbital

The first time they met, Peter had been fifteen. The next time they met, Peter had blipped and Deadpool hadn't. Time, having passed in unequal amounts for two very different people, had fundamentally changed their lives and the people they were. They hadn't even ever known one another before, and now that was about to change...[M for Language/slash]

26. Let me be the one who calls you baby

...all the time, surely you can take some comfort...

---

Peter left Wade's apartment in a relative hurry, going between walking quickly and intermittently jogging until he'd made his way two blocks down. Checking that no one would notice him, he ducked into a narrow alley then and once he was far enough down it and obscured from the busy afternoon hustle and bustle of the street, he activated his Iron Spider suit. It assembled over his body as he climbed up the side of the building a little ways before leaping, shooting out a web and swinging away.

But he didn't swing all the way home, because he wanted to stop at a drug store near his apartment.

He didn't have much lube left after the last time, and he didn't know if Wade would have any, and since he was going to be staying with Wade for a couple of days , he figured they'd need it since they would probably, almost definitely, have sex again. At least, he hoped they would. He wanted to. And he assumed Wade would want to, as well. Sure, he'd noticed Wade had been a little hesitant with touch since he'd come back the night before, and he'd even asked to kiss him, as if he wasn't sure Peter would let him or want him to. But by that point Peter knew Wade's hang ups and guilt processing well enough to guess that the merc still felt bad for what he'd done. And actions like keeping his distance plus asking for permission were probably just Wade's way of, Peter supposed, trying to figure out where they stood? Or like, it was the merc's way of trying to ease back into the physical side of things? Peter didn't know exactly what Wade was thinking, but he knew it had to be something along those lines.

Whatever it was and why ever Wade was doing it, Peter was sure that a few more kisses like the one they'd just shared before he'd left Wade's safehouse, would put them back on the same page really fast.

Because regardless of whether it was too hasty or not, Peter had already forgiven Wade and he didn't want them to waste any more time lamenting over what would have, could have or should have been done or said. What mattered, was how they moved forward.

A clean slate!

He was trying not to smile like an idiot as he left the drug store after making his purchase, choosing to walk the few blocks from there to his apartment. It took him an easy ten minutes to cover the distance at a good stride and soon he was crossing the street to walk in through the entrance door of his apartment building. He was thinking though, that maybe he should have bought painkillers, since the swinging earlier had put some strain on his partially healed ribs. But he wasn't going to go back, he was too eager to pack up some stuff and head over to meet Wade.

Thinking of Wade, and still fighting a dopey grin, Peter reached into his pocket for his cell phone as he crossed the small lobby of the building to get to the stairwell. And he'd been intending to text Wade, but he'd obviously missed the vibration of a text at some point because he saw there was already a message from the merc waiting to be read. Peter started up the stairs, allowing himself to smile down at his phone as he read the text, which contained the address to the place Wade mentioned, as well as a request for Peter to let him know when he was on his way because he wanted to be decent when Peter showed up, followed by a few winky emojis, a few kissy emojis, some heart emojis, and the Deadpool emoji signature was back too.

Smirking and shaking his head fondly, Peter stopped looking at his phone long enough to climb the stairs two and three at a time, grimacing a bit at the further strain it put on the worst of his injuries. But it was quicker, and once he was on the last flight of stairs, he slowed down again and walked up the stairs normally, able then to refocus on his phone so that he could type out a reply to Wade;

You don't have to be dece

But he had to stop typing when, as he reached the top of the staircase and quickly turned the corner into the hallway of the fifth floor, his advanced awareness of his surroundings peaked to alert him of a familiar presence. And sure enough, he looked up to see Sam Wilson standing down the hall...right outside of his apartment door. And even though he'd stopped walking immediately, Peter didn't even have a chance to turn and go back down the stairs, because Sam turned and looked right at him!

Crap.

So, presently, it left them standing and looking at one another from a fair distance across the empty hallway. And as the seconds ticked by, Peter was seriously actually considering just turning and running back down the stairs, after all, he'd been avoiding Sam quite determinedly recently and it wasn't like the guy could catch him anyway, he didn't stand a chanc-

"Don't even think about running, kid." the man said just loudly enough to be heard, sounding a bit annoyed and exasperated. Peter expression changed then, going from whatever shady expression Sam had seen on his face that gave his thoughts away, to being irritated at being called kid . He hated that. He wasn't a damn kid, and it annoyed him enough that he considered leaving anyway, thinking that Sam would deserve to be left standing ther- "I came all this way to talk to you, it'd be a dick move to bail, especially after you've been ignoring all my calls." the man said with a sigh, and not unreasonably either.

His words successfully made Peter feel bad, because yeah, that would be totally rude of him and he'd been raised better than that. And besides, it would be dumb to run from his own apartment, and even more importantly, he wasn't a kid , so it'd be dumb to run at all. Deciding that, Peter took in a breath and sighed it out, shoulders rising and falling, before he locked and pocketed his phone again as he started walking down the hall toward his apartment door, and Sam.

"You could have texted to say you were coming by." he said once he got close enough to speak without raising his voice, glancing over the other man and noticing that he had one hand on his hip under his brown bomber jacket, and in the other he was carrying a fairly thick brown, blank, docket folder. As he came to stop at his door, Sam stepped back to give him room to unlock it, while raising both eyebrows at him and saying,

"Why, so you could ghost me again, and again and again?" he sounded super unimpressed, "As it is I thought you were inside and just ignoring me. Was thinking about kicking the door in."

Peter reached into his back pocket for his key, snorting,

"You would have had to pay for it." pushing the key into the lock and glancing at Sam, who looked unimpressed and unamused then, so Peter added, "Yeah, okay, sorry," not sorry, "I've been busy lately." as he unlocked the door and opened it, walking inside and leaving it open behind him, "Uh, come in, I guess."

Peter walked through, heading toward the lounge area, but pausing by his bedroom door to throw the small brown pharmacy bag into his room where it landed on the bed, before he pulled the door almost closed and continued to walk to the coffee table. He dropped his key on the table as he stopped there and turned around, finding that Sam had followed him in after entering, but the man had stopped several feet away with a frown on his face.

It wasn't a comfortable moment of silence that followed, as they both folded their arms over their chests and sort of just looked at each other, Sam seeming annoyed and frowny, while Peter just feigned nonchalance and innocence. It was ingrained in Peter not to be rude though, so deciding to break the silent standoff, he pointed to the kitchen behind Sam and asked,

"You, uh, want something to drink?"

Sam's frown faded a bit at that, but he shook his head,

"Nah, I'm good." then he tilted his head and directly asked, "Do you have some kinda' problem with me?" cutting right through the polite small talk, and Peter was okay with that, it would save time. As for the question, the answer was no, he didn't have a problem with Sam, not specifically anyway, so it was easy to answer with a shake of his head and a facial shrug,

"No, I don't."

"You've been ignoring my calls for a long time, sure seems like you do." Sam stated plainly.

"I don't." Peter repeated, bobbing his shoulders, because again, it wasn't specifically about Sam. He just didn't like how all of the Avengers tended to look at him and treat him like he just couldn't do anything right. Like he wasn't on their level or something. He was really over it alrea-

"So then, is it that you have a problem with why I've been trying to contact you?"

Yeah, okay, there was that too, that was a bit more specific.

"If you're here about what you texted that Clint told you," he paused, and Sam's expression plainly gave away that that was exactly why he was there, so Peter unfolded his arms to more obviously shrug and upturn his palms, "then yeah, I have a problem with it, and I don't want to hear it." he said honestly.

There was another moment of silence then as Sam nodded slowly a few times, before asking,

"You don't want to hear what I have to say about Deadpool?" he cocked an eyebrow.

And of course, the fact that he wouldn't let it go wasn't surprising. Peter had expected as much, but he still sighed, annoyed, and shook his head,

"No, I don't want to hear or talk about whatever lecture you want to give me about-"

Sam snorted,

"Lecture?" he sounded genuinely amused and he was smiling like Peter had told a stupid joke. He shook his head and shifted on his feet as he unfolded his arms and raised them up briefly, one hand open, one holding the plain docket folder, "I ain't interested in giving you a lecture." he sounded quite serious about that, and also like he found it funny, "I'm not Tony, kid, I'm not tryna' be your-"

"I'm not a kid." Peter cut him off that time, speaking a little more curtly than was usual for him, and before Sam could go on and say literally anything else about Tony, he asked equally directly, "And if this is not about giving me some," he thought about what Wade had called it? Oh right, "blanket warning to stay away from Wade, then what is it about?" and yeah, he noticed how Sam's eyebrows had raised when he used Wade's first name, but it was too late to take it back, so he just kept his expression expectant and looked confidently right into Sam's amused face.

The man was nodding again and then he adjusted the docket folder between his hands and opened it, taking out another folder inside, but the one inside wasn't blank. It was black and silver, and it had S.H.I.E.L.D's name and logo on it, along with the embossed words; 'security level 8 or above required'.

Peter immediately knew it was Wade's file. He just knew it in his gu-

"I gotta' say, when SHIELD contacted me and asked me to talk to you about Deadpool, I was confused as shit." Sam was saying as he stepped forward and dropped the blank brown folder on to the coffee table, before holding up the S.H.I.E.L.D file for him to see, and Peter was actually starting to frown then, feeling confused. "I didn't believe it was true that you were a legitimate connection to him, because I couldn't picture what a straight and narrow superhero like yourself could possibly be getting into knowing a lowlife like that." Peter clenched his jaw and took in a tense breath to keep from saying anything in defense of Wade, "But after I mentioned it in a general discussion to a couple of the others at HQ, Clint told me that you are in direct contact with Deadpool, that he'd actually been in the room when Deadpool called you on your personal cell phone, so I had to take SHIELD's thing seriously." he finished.

Peter unclenched his jaw and raised a questioning eyebrow,

"Uh, take what thing seriously exactly?" and maybe he should have attempted to deny being a 'connection' to Deadpool, but since he wanted to be in a serious relationship with Wade, it didn't make sense to do so, not with people who already knew who he was as both himself and Spider-Man.

Sam sighed and shrugged then, holding the file out to him more pointedly,

"So SHIELD has apparently been interested in Deadpool for a while," he started explaining, and Peter reached out and took the file from him, holding it carefully so nothing slipped out. It felt quite thick and he swallowed a bit tensely as he imagined all those redacted files with encrypted information, and all those images, knowing they were all inside the file, no longer being kept from hi-, "but Deadpool wasn't interested in them, or, well, Deadpool wasn't interested in anyone official, or in anything to do with superheroing or just being on the up and up in general." Peter had carefully opened the file, which had the same first page that E.D.I.T.H had displayed to him with Wade's standard information, except nothing was redacted. "Not until now." Sam stated, stepping closer, "He seems to have taken an interest in you, the very official Avenger, well known superhero, and totally on the up and up, Spider-Man."

Peter's heart had already been beating a little faster as he'd skimmed his eyes over the page, reading many things he hadn't been able to read before. And he was just regretting opening the file, because some of the previously redacted information just seemed way too personal, like it was stuff that Wade should get to tell him himself, when Sam's hand appeared over the page. The man had reached forward to point a finger near the bottom, just above a line under affiliations, a line that was new, where Peter now saw his name. Or rather, he saw the name Spider-Man.

"Now I don't know what your affiliation, or involvement, or team up or whatever it is you got going on with Deadpool," Sam went on as he removed his hand, "And real talk, I don't even wanna' know." and Peter closed the file, deciding not to look at anything else inside of it. Instead he focused on what Sam was saying, letting it sink in that S.H.I.E.L.D had been watching him, or maybe watching Wade, "I'm only here on behalf of SHIELD, because Maria is too busy with some shit, and she says it's better if someone you know talks to you, because you're not a fan of SHIELD meddling in your business."

"I'm not a fan of anyone meddling in my business." Peter said automatically, thinking also of the fact that he barely knew Sam Wilson. They were team mates in the barest sense of the word. He stretched his arm out, leaning over to set the file on the coffee table carefully, really not wanting anything to slip out of there. He didn't want to snoop into Wade's former life, and actually, he realized he needed to tell Wade about that, that he'd looked at his file before.

In fact, he had to think about whether there was anything else he hadn't yet told Wad-

"Fair enough, it pisses me off too, to know they keep an eye on me, but it comes with the territory." Sam said, sounding quite resigned, and Peter supposed that since he'd become Captain America, he probably handled almost everything from S.H.I.E.L.D pertaining to the Avengers. Probably sucked. Peter himself didn't even want to be involved with S.H.I.E.L.D if he could avoid it, but he did want to know what they wanted from him regarding Wade. And he was not so patiently waiting for Sam to get to the point when the man gave him a curious look and said, "I just handed you a file on Deadpool that you don't even have clearance for, and you barely looked at it." glancing from Peter to the file and back, and yeah, right, crap. Peter braced himself to be accused of hacking the syste-, "So I'm guessing you've already seen it somehow, or maybe you don't need the file to know who you're hanging around with?" he was relieved though, to hear that Sam sounded mostly indifferent about it, so he just raised his eyebrows in response. The older hero sighed shortly, "Whichever it is, good, it'll save me time." nice, seemed they were on the same page regarding hurrying things along, "I have a lot of stuff to do and running errands for SHIELD ain't high on my priority list. So let me break it down for you?" Sam gave him a look that said 'let's get this over with' and gestured for both of them to take a seat.

Peter almost shook his head, wanting to say he had somewhere to be and that they should hurry it up, but again, that felt like it'd be too rude, and Captain America's time was worth something after all. So Peter conceded with a short nod and he moved to sit down on the double sofa, while Sam sat on the single near the window. They both sat on the edges of their seats, elbows on their knees, and Sam didn't waste any time before saying,

"So, years ago there was-" but then he stopped and did a double take to his right, at the window...where there was a partial hole in the brick where Peter had punched it the night before. He quickly started trying to think up a plausible explanation for it, while also trying to keep a calm and collected expression, but when Sam looked at him again, the man just raised his eyebrows, saying, "I'm not gonna' ask about that, or why it smells like you been using bleach as air freshener." then he asked a bit more somberly, "But, uh, you know if you're ever in major trouble or you need medical help, you can contact us, or come to the mansion, right?"

Peter blinked, excuses derailed as he was thrown off by the sudden concern Sam was showing. But really, he was just glad the man wasn't looking for an explanation, so all he did was a nod, vaguely saying,

"Ye-yeah, no, I know, don't, that's, I mean, that's just, that's, not, it's nothing" as he randomly gestured to the wall. Sam just stared at him flatly for a moment, before making an 'ok then' face and after shifting in his seat and adjusting his bomber jacket, he carried right on talking, "Years ago, there was an agent named Phil Coulson, I don't know if you ever heard of him?" the older hero paused, looking at Peter to see if he recognized the name. But Peter had actually only seen that name two minutes earlier, in the no longer redacted information of Wade's file. Phil Coulson had apparently been Wade's 'assigned S.H.I.E.L.D agent' in the past. Peter hadn't heard of him before though, which was the question he'd been asked, so he shook his head,

"Uh, no, I haven't."

Sam nodded, shrugged facially,

"Thought Tony mighta' mentioned him," another somber pause, "they were friends and from what I heard, Coulson was a good man." he had a look on his face then, the kind someone had when they were sorry someone was-, "Coulson died about eleven years ago." yeah, the look of being sorry someone was dead. Peter knew his face had that look right then too, even though he'd seen the 'deceased' note in the file, "Loki killed him." Sam decided to offer...and Peter didn't really know what to say to that, because to that day, Loki being deemed a bad guy or a good guy was sort of a grey area amongst the Avengers. And Peter didn't even know the guy at all, so again he just stayed quiet, "But before he died, having been someone who was a very high operative in SHIELD, he was in charge of a lot of confidential and high profile things. One of those things was to recruit Tony Stark to the Avengers Initiative."

That actually piqued Peter's curiosity, because he didn't know all that much about Tony's start up days as an Avenger. But even as he nodded and filed that tidbit of info away, he wasn't curious enough to get sidetracked by it, as it was, he didn't know what the point was of Sam telling him any of th-

"Anyway, skipping ahead to the part where Phil Coulson was asked to recruit Deadpool." he pointed at the file, "He-"

"To be an Avenger?" Peter asked, eyes wide and amazed, for all of a second before Sam snorted, saying,

"Hell no." quite emphatically, and making Peter feel a little offended on Wade's behalf, "Be an Aven-, man, Deadpool came outta' the gate killing people in broad daylight." Sam said plainly and Peter blinked and frowned, "And sure, the people he was killing were really bad guys and kinda' had it coming for the shit they were doing. But Deadpool was all over the news, he didn't care, he was real flashy and he became infamous in his black and red get up and with all those weapons." yeah, Peter could admit Wade was far from subtle, "Not to mention there were literal piles of bodies that he left behind him." Sam shook his head, laughing mirthlessly. And what he'd mentioned, reminded Peter of that news bulletin where he'd first ever heard of Deadpool, and of course, he'd seen some photos in the S.H.I.E.L.D file. 'Piles of bodies' was not inaccurate. But as much as it sucked to hear it, it wasn't something Peter didn't already kn-, "Everything he did, and still does, is a mess, the kind of mess SHIELD usually cleans up when they can, because Deadpool is a super. But he also just happens to be a mercenary," Sam's tone changed a bit, still disapproving, but less so, "a mercenary with a caliber of skill that SHIELD is interested in." oh? Oh, okay.

"But Deadpool, being an immortal pain in the ass who doesn't want to answer to anyone, isn't so easy to deal with." Sam's tone went right back to disapproving, and Peter was looking at him again, still frowning slightly as he tried to figure out where it was going. Sam sighed again, "Despite all that, Phil Coulson was asked to recruit him. SHIELD wanted Deadpool assigned to them in any official capacity they could get, so they could have some control over him, but also because he'd be an asset to them." Peter wasn't surprised to hear about the former agenda at all, "And someway, somehow," Sam raised his eyebrows, "Coulson actually managed to get through to him." Okay, Peter was actually surprised to hear that.

"After just their first meeting, his report made it sound like he basically had it in the bag, like he just needed some time to bring Deadpool around completely." Peter was listening more intently now, because he remembered Wade saying he'd tried the 'hero gig' and it hadn't worked out for him, so then wha-, "From what I understand of the situation, at that time, Coulson had reported that Deadpool was caught up in something he needed to finish, some kind of personal mission slash vendetta. But, that he'd agreed to consider joining SHIELD once he'd finished what he needed to do. And Coulson had, according to his report, intended to help Deadpool take care of his issue, in order to speed up the process, but..." he trailed off, tilted his head, had that look again.

It wasn't difficult for Peter to conclude,

"He died before he could."

Sam nodded,

"Yeah," another sigh, "and real soon after that, the Chitauri Invasion happened."

Damn.

"Yeah, I remember that." Peter really did. It had been before the spider bite, he'd really been a kid at the time and it had been a scary thing to live through.

There was a moment of silence then, before Sam continued,

"So, Deadpool was put on the back burner for a while, even though he was still out there, killing people." the hero sounding like he just wanted to get to the end of the explanation, "Then one day he kinda' just fell off the radar, until SHIELD picked up on him again, then lost him again," he gestured with a hand as if the situation had been ongoing, on and off, "until eventually after he'd taken up the profession of a full time merc, it became easier for them to track him because he wasn't laying low, at all." and back to the fully disapproving tone. But, wow, there was a lot more to Wade's story than Peter had thought, and he felt a bit lost. But he tried not to let it show, "Deadpool's carnage level did not go down," Sam didn't look impressed, eyebrows raised, shaking his head, "but it did become more concentrated, more controlled, and also, international, which put a big ol' spotlight on the guy that SHIELD was having trouble ignoring." Yeah, Peter could see how that would become a problem, "So, eventually, SHIELD tried to send someone new to recruit him, but, well, Deadpool-,"
"Isn't easy to deal with." Peter finished for him.

"Exactly." Sam nodded, "But even though he had a spotlight on him, he wasn't really killing anyone that international governments were particularly up in arms about, same for the U.S government and even SHIELD." he made a face that Peter couldn't really read, "So when no major noise was made about him, and no one could recruit him, SHIELD decided to table his file, just occasionally checking on him." the man shrugged, then frowned and looked a bit confused, "Then at one point, the X-Men somehow managed to get him to become a trainee for them, but from what I read about it," he snorted an incredulous laugh, "that didn't even last an hour, before Deadpool gunned down someone during a mission, which was only meant to involve subduing a rogue muta-"

"Bad people?" Peter asked before he could help himself and Sam stopped talking to look at him,

"What?"

"Was- I mean, was it bad people, that he gun-uh, that he shot?" Peter asked more clearly, trying to remain outwardly calm, even as Sam's eyes narrowed a bit, before he nodded,

"Yeah, I mean, yeah, well, turned out they were abusing mutant children, so, definitely not good people."

Peter nodded then, feeling the sudden tightness that had formed in his chest ease. It mattered that Wade killed bad people, even though he knew to an extent, that he was just making excuses for it. He didn't approve of it, but he also wouldn't go against Wade, as long as it was bad people.

That was all he could tell himself...

He looked up from where his gaze had dropped to his hands, noticing that Sam was watching him with a look that Tony used to get, like he wanted to give him some 'grown up' advice, and immediately Peter got his back up and he sat up straighter, holding steady eye contact with Sam and deciding to move the conversation along himself,

"Okay, so, what do you want from me?"

Sam blinked then and gave him a 'really' look, as if Peter should have guessed, but Peter still had no idea, so he just gave him a 'what?' look, raising his eyebrows.

Sam sighed for the tenth time and continued,

"Even after getting his crazy ass locked up in the Ice Box," the wha- "Deadpool broke out under some pretty confusing circumstances that even SHIELD hasn't been able to completely figure out. And then he went right back out and continued doing what he'd been doing before, and he has been ever since, with no interest or cooperation with any official organizations or supers, until, like I said before, you came along."

Okay, that was the second time Sam was saying 'until him', so did that mean S.H.I.E.L.D want-

"Basically, SHIELD wants you to finish what Phil Coulson started." and yeah, bingo. That's exactly what Peter had just been suspecting the man was going to say.

"SHIELD wants me to recruit Deadpool, for them?"

Sam nodded,

"Yeah. That's what they said." he shrugged, "Deadpool is an asset to them in many ways, if he comes willingly. And of course, it would also mean there'd be a lot less unchecked criminal massacres that SHIELD has to sometimes look into, and sometimes clean up after, since Deadpool isn't exactly the sort who cares about discretion, in literally any way at all." he was shaking his head again, as he glanced at the file. He'd probably seen all those gory pictures. "I guess they're hoping he'll listen to you, maybe clean up his act." Sam added, elbows still on either knee as he put one hand over his chin while giving Peter a considering once over.

Peter noticed the look, but he was distracted remembering the pictures he'd seen of Wade's 'criminal massacres', remembering how they'd unsettled him. The level of violence they'd represented...he took in a breath. So, S.H.I.E.L.D wanted to recruit Wade? Then that was-...wasn't that kind of a good thing? If Wade worked for S.H.I.E.L.D they'd probably write off his criminal record history. It'd be another clean slate. Wade would be official and legal and he'd be doing way less killing, maybe even no killing hopefully, and May might even come around to accepting Wade then, becau-

Peter stopped himself, his next breath held in as he frowned when he realized he was thinking about changing Wade. Wade who, despite being a merc, and despite having a healthily proclivity for violence, was such a genuine guy, with a good moral compass, albeit from a more extreme perspective than most other people. And Peter liked Wade for who he was, and even though Wade being on the 'official' side would make being in an open relationship with him so much easier, Peter felt it would be wrong to try to change who he was and what he did. It wouldn't be fair for him to ask Wade to-

"What's going on with your face, ki-,uh, Peter?" Sam caught himself, and Peter quickly looked at him, "I can't tell whether that's a concerned or sad expression you got going on." the older hero said frankly, gesturing to his face with the hand on his chin before lowering it again. Peter blinked once, and again, and then sighed out the breath he'd been holding, before shaking his head,

"I, uh, I don't think it'd be right for me to ask Wade about joining SHIELD." he said honestly, voice a little quiet and tense. And there must have been something about his tone that was revealing, because Sam cocked an eyebrow and looked at him for a few long seconds, long enough that Peter started to frown. And then Sam said,

"Something tells me you don't look upset because he'd get pissed off, but because if you asked him to, he'd probably say yes." the older hero said, and Peter immediately felt guilty and turned his head to look away, "Am I right? I'm right, huh?" he asked then, a smirk forming.

Peter didn't answer...but yeah, that's exactly what he felt guilty about. Wade had basically told him, just that morning, that he'd do anything Peter asked of him. And Peter did not want to take advantage of Wade's dedication to him. That would be so wrong.

"Damn." Sam had a sort of amused and disturbed smirking frown on his face when Peter side eyed him, "You got that kind of power over Deadpool?" he asked rhetorically and Peter looked away again, sighed and clenched his jaw, then Sam said, "You got that kind of relationship with Deadpoo-"

"Look, I don't think I can help you, or SHIELD, or whoever." Peter cut him off, looking at him again and standing up to make it clear that the conversation was over for him. He was not willing to talk about Wade to Sam any more than he'd been willing to talk to MJ or even May, "I'm not gonna' ask Wade to do something he's already declined to do for, like, a decade. If he'd wanted to work for SHIELD, then he would have by now." he stated plainly, because it was true.

Wade had said he'd tried doing the hero thing, and if the X-Men trainee thing flopped, how in the hell would the man manage working for S.H.I.E.L.D? With all their rules and protocols and authoritative levels of clearance and operations. The merc obviously just had no interest in it. Peter would not ask him to do something he was so clearly not interested i-

"So don't ask him." Sam stood up too, shrugging, putting his hands into his jacket pockets, seemingly happy not to press the issue of what kind of relationship he had with Wade. Peter actually found himself feeling grateful that Sam was nothing like Tony or Steve Rogers, the former of which would have never let it go, and the latter, Peter imagined, would have tried to ask more questions and impart some kind of 'word to the wise' advice. Heck, even Clint had tried to lecture him.

Sam was almost blithe regarding the details of his relationship with Wade, and he appreciated that.

But Peter didn't get it,

"What do you mean don't ask him? I thought that's the whole reason you're here?" he asked as the man started to walk toward the door without prompting, Peter following several steps behind.

Sam bobbed his shoulders,

"I mean, maybe just let him know the option is on the table. Maybe if it's coming from you, he might really consider it, maybe something about you asking will be the same as it was from Coulson." Peter frowned, wondering if Sam was implying something about Coulson and Wade, but then the man clarified, "Whatever your personal relationship is with Deadpool aside, I think the thing you and Coulson obviously have in common," he stopped at the door but didn't open it, instead turning around to look at Peter, "is that you both just come across as trustworthy people." he didn't look or sound like he was being sarcastic, so Peter didn't roll his eyes, "I never met Coulson personally, but that's what everyone who did know him says about him." he paused, looking at Peter for a serious moment before nodding and saying, "And that's pretty much the impression I get of you. You got this genuine good guy vibe." and he sounded quite sincere about it. Peter figured maybe he should have taken it as a compliment, but he didn't feel too good about it, because he knew he'd made a lot of mist- "And maybe that's what'll make the difference. Maybe Deadpool felt like he could trust Coulson's intentions, and maybe he'll feel the same about you."

Peter frowned, shook his head,

"But my intentions wouldn't be trustworthy." he said flatly, "Because I don't work for SHIELD and I can't guarantee Wade that working for SHIELD would be suitable, or even good for him." which was absolutely true. Sam raised his eyebrows, slipping a hand out of his pocket to gesture back to the lounge,

"I'm starting to wonder if you ever did look at his file." the man commented and Peter felt a bit irritable at the whole file situation in general, "Look, Coulson's negotiations with Deadpool were not set in stone, his actual intention was to first start hiring the guy on a single contract by contract basis. Obviously, there'd be stipulations he'd have to agree in keeping with SHIELD's regulations and whatever, but SHIELD was willing to discuss terms back then, and they still are." he tipped his head, "That's what Maria said to me anyway." he shrugged again and turned to the door, grabbed the handle and opened it, "The file isn't that long reading-wise, so you should read it, especially what Coulson's ideas for him were." he stepped out, and then turned back as Peter walked up to the door, holding the door's inside handle and looking at Sam. He was feeling curious, and guilty because of it, stupidly actually considering what the man was saying. "So don't ask him," the older hero's voice was lower since he was standing out in the hall, "just bring it up to him and tell him he can contact the SHIELD agent whose card is paperclipped to the info file. That's all. He can do, or not do, whatever he wants after that."

Peter just looked at him for a moment, before frowning and asking,

"You're just hoping that coming from me, he might consider it." considering Sam didn't actually know anything about his relationship with Wade, wasn't the man being too optimi-

"SHIELD is hoping." Sam clarified, his face expressing just how little he actually cared, "I'm just passing on the message, because no one else was around HQ to do it." he sighed in annoyance, "And I mean, I don't know your business or whatever," Peter frowned a little more, because Sam's tone when he'd spoken sounded different, "but I can only assume that who you are," he meant Spider-Man, his tone implied as much, "probably clashes pretty heavily with what he is." he meant...Wade being a mercenary? "So, surely it wouldn't be a bad thing for you," a weirdly smug and amused head tilt as the older hero gestured at him, "if he became more of an, uh, honest man."

Peter felt his ears get red instantly then, because not only did Sam's tone sound amused and knowing , but also, his phrasing of Wade becoming an 'honest man' which would benefit him, was not subtle at all . So then, it seemed like, somehow, Sam had figured out he was involved with Deadpool in a non-platonic way...and the man wasn't lecturing him about it? Wow, okay.

Peter really appreciated that, so he didn't get pissed off at the forward comment.

He still didn't want to talk about it though,

"I hear what you're saying," he responded, not admitting to, or outright denying, what Sam was implying about him and Wade, and Sam's eyes just barely widened in surprise, "I'll, uh, I'll see." was all he was willing to commit to, "If I mention it, I mention it, if I don't, I don't." he shrugged, leaned on the handle of the door a little.

Sam nodded slowly a few times, before he shrugged again and stuffed his hands back into his pockets,

"S'good enough for me, it's SHIELD's problem anyway."

"Yeah." Peter nodded too.

There was an awkward silence that followed, with Sam glancing down the hall both ways and Peter shifting his eyes to the side and down, and then Sam abruptly said,

"Good talk."

"Yeah." Peter immediately responded, returning the awkward not-really smile.

"See ya' around." Sam tacked on just as abruptly and Peter raised a hand as a parting greeting just before the man turned and walked away down the hall. Once Sam was almost at the stairwell, Peter exhaled a quiet breath with puffed up cheeks and then he pushed the door closed as he turned to go back inside,

"God, so awkward." he whisper-muttered to himself as he walked back into the lounge, stopping near the table and staring down at Wade's file.

Sam had suggested he read it. And it was tempting to do so. He wanted to know about Coulson's meetings and ideas for Wade as a S.H.I.E.L.D operative, he wanted to know about the X-Men trainee rogue mutant incident, he wanted to know about the Ice Box, whatever the heck that even was...but at the same time, it would feel totally wrong to know any of that by reading Wade's file, more so than it had before when it'd been largely redacted. Peter just shook his head and looked away to the window, where beneath the sill, some paint had even faded off the wall from all the cleaning, then he took in a deep slow breath and blinked his eyes closed briefly, before nodding to himself, deciding he wasn't going to read the file.

As for mentioning the S.H.I.E.L.D thing to Wade though? He wasn't sure yet what he was or wasn't going to do about that.

He knew it'd be wrong of him to tell Wade he thought it was a good idea outright, because he felt like Wade would give in to whatever his opinion was. Maybe he was overestimating himself, but he didn't want to chance it. But did that mean he couldn't even mention it?

Peter frowned to himself, looked at the file again, pursed his lips...if he mentioned it, he mentioned it. If he didn't, he didn't. That's what he'd said, so that was how he was going to play it. If there was no reason to bring it up, he wouldn't, end of story.

Yeah. That felt right to him.

He nodded to himself once more then and took in a breath as he cuffed a hand up into his hair and looked around, then he remembered he hadn't answered Wade's last text and he quickly reached into his pocket for his phone. He unlocked it and found his unfinished text from earlier still waiting. Peter reread Wade's text and even though at the time his response had been playful and teasing, he felt like that mood was lost to him right then, so with a sigh he backspaced what he'd typed and started a new reply;

Got it. I'll be there in

about an hour.

And not wanting to seem too blunt, and despite his ears getting red all over again, Peter sent a kissy emoji and a heart emoji. It was still so weird for him to use those kinds of emojis, but he also didn't totally mind using them, at least not with Wade, who really had no hang ups about it-

Cue the typing bubble flickering before a message filled with kissy, wink and heart eye emojis was displayed on his screen. Peter just grinned like an idiot and bit the inside of his lip as he exited his messages and locked his phone. He glanced around his apartment again then, thinking about what he had to do before he went to Wade's place, and after a moment of thinking, while trying to ignore the anticipatory butterflies blooming in his stomach, he decided he'd shower first.

He quickly leaned over to set his phone down on the coffee table and then turned to go to his bedroom. His ears hadn't really cooled yet when they started to heat up all over again, because as he walked into his room and spotted the brown paper bag with the lube in it, Peter was pleasantly reminded of the fact that he'd be spending some really real alone time with Wade, where the only thing that might interfere would be Spider-Man duty, from after which, he'd return to Wade, who was taking a break from merc work just for him.

He was grinning as he walked into the bathroom, glancing at himself in the mirror and seeing the stupid smile and weirdly glowing look he seemed to have, bruises notwithstanding. Yeesh, it was ridiculous how giddy and excited he felt. But he wasn't complaining, it wasn't a bad thing at all to be feeling excited about spending time with his boyfriend . Even Sam showing up and dumping S.H.I.E.L.D stuff on him couldn't dampen his good mood and anticipation to spend more than just a sorry few hours with Wade for once.

He started to strip his clothes quickly, but once he was left in only his boxers, he got distracted again when a thought occurred to him. A thought about his body, or rather, many thoughts about it. He was still in view of the mirror, so he paused to look at himself properly, ignoring the healing bruises he could see to focus on his lean but obvious musculature. It automatically got him thinking of Wade's body, which was lean too, but so much broader and larger than his own. Peter really liked Wade's body, his build. After having had sex with Wade, he'd confirmed with himself one hundred percent that he was attracted to him, all parts of him. Peter still very much wanted to explore his physical attraction to the merc, wanted to have more time to touch and know Wade's body, using his hands and his mouth...

He rubbed a hand over his quickly heating face, feeling arousal stir in him that was really not convenient right then. There would be time for it later! God, he really hoped so. He felt like the emotional and physical sides of their relationship had been all over the place for too long, they needed some steady, more affirmative time together.

Peter dropped his boxers with a quick movement...and his semi-erection and horny mind took him right back to thinking about Wade, specifically about the fact that Wade liked his body too, and Wade really liked his butt. Peter huffed a self-embarrassed laugh and very pointedly did not try to catch a glimpse of his backside as he kicked the boxers up and caught them, dropping them into the hamper when he walked over to the shower stall. He was glad that he could feel confident that Wade liked his body, although, he couldn't help wondering if Wade would still have had any interest in him if they'd met under the circumstance where he was never Spider-Man at all, if he'd just been skinny Peter Parker. He couldn't recall if he'd had much of a butt back then, but he doubted it, also, he'd had plenty of other body insecurities. But he definitely didn't have them anymore, since becoming Spider-Man, he had a great body.

As he stepped into the stall and closed the door, his mind stayed on Wade, stayed on how Wade liked his butt, made him consider what he would say if Wade mentioned wanting to do that thing again. The thing Wade had mentioned three times on the night they'd slept together...wanting to 'eat him out'. It had been a terrible couple of weeks and Peter hadn't really thought much about it in that time, but it had just resurfaced, and with new possibilities and questions he needed to ask and answer for himself. Because after being with Wade, with a man, he was more aware of his body, and in new ways. And it made him feel self-conscious about certain things he'd never had to think about when sleeping with MJ.

Peter hadn't yet had a chance to do any research on that kind of oral sex because of how things had played out, and he didn't have any time to do any research before he went over to Wade's place. Still, he felt like he wanted it, like he wanted to say yes, but , if Wade was going to do that to him, Peter had to make sure he felt comfortable hygiene wise. He didn't need to look up anal oral sex to know hygiene was extra important, it seemed like common sense to him. So, armed with nothing but general knowledge and common sense, and continuing to blush, Peter decided to get a little more intimately familiar with himself than he ever had before in an effort to make sure he felt comfortable for if Wade wanted to do that to him.

---

The safehouse Wade had invited Peter to was an industrial warehouse loft-style place.

It was a large building with an open plan layout and a wall of windows. It had one full level with a really high ceiling, as well as a second mezzanine level, which had steel stairs leading up to the empty space. When Wade had bought the building, it had been a commercial warehouse property undergoing a conversion into a loft apartment, which had been interrupted by his purchase, so the interior was partially incomplete. He'd liked it originally because he'd seen it as a good place to store larger caches of weapons. He had some big stuff that he couldn't keep in apartments, like missiles, rocket launchers and other shit, and also, one day he hoped to own a tank, and not a mini one or a modern day one, no, he wanted a fucking King Tiger or a 214 Conqueror, for like aesthetic purposes. So yeah, he'd wanted space for that shit. But, size aside, the place also suited him to use as a safehouse if he ever needed to, because the basics were all installed; functional wiring, plumbing and Wi-Fi, as well as a kitchen and full bathroom and a few other standard built-in finishings. And after buying the place, Wade had also had all the windows tinted, to be reflective on the outside, as well as some personal things he needed added, like gun rack shelves, lockers for his suits, a couple of safes, a steel floor hatch for storing very, very illegal secret things. That sorta' thing. Additionally, and like all of his other safehouses, it had the basic furniture for each room, except since he'd never, ever used the place, nothing was open or unwrapped or set up and ready to be used.

He'd paid a lot to get the property developers and owners to sell what they had to him as it was, way back during the blip, having expected to make more use of it, but then he'd forgotten about it altogether, as he tended to do. Spend a shit ton of money on something and then forget about it. Typical of him really. So as he rolled the large metal door open, he wasn't surprised to be hit with the smell of stuffiness and unventilated fumes of chemicals, sediment and paint. It also kind of echoed inside the place, even with the stacked weapons crates, still wrapped and packed furniture and appliances and the various mercenary, personal and miscellaneous shit all over in boxes, packaging and suspicious black duffle bags. But it was still a great space over all. Nice and new. Never seen a drop of anyone's blood, not even his own! Like the clean slate Peter had mentioned that morning!

There was literally no food in the place though. Shit.

Wade reached to the side of the door for the light switch and flipped it on, waiting as the bright overhead lights flickered to life. And before they were all on, from the entrance where he stood, he could see across the large space to the sterile contemporary kitchen area, where the refrigerator and microwave still stood in their original boxed delivery packaging.

Wade stood in the doorway with wide mask eyes, thinking that maybe having texted the address to Peter just after getting out of the cab had been too soon. He stepped inside then and dropped the bags he was carrying onto the floor, before sliding the heavy roller door closed with one hand while pulling his phone out of his pocket with the other. He quickly checked to see if there was any reply from Peter, but the younger super hadn't answered. That left Wade with no idea of how long it'd be before Peter would be on his way. He knew anything could happen to hold Peter up though, since he had to be Spider-Man both on and off a set clock as well as having other people in his life he had to pay attention to. So Wade wouldn't be surprised if he'd got caught up doing something, but also, Wade knew that if nothing happened to hold him up, Peter could possibly show up really soon. Fuck.

The next forty five minutes was a rush around.

He started by opening some of the windows, and then checking to make sure the water was on and running, getting his duct taped suit wet with harsh sputters of water from both the kitchen and bathroom faucets as they were opened for the first time after a long, long while. At least the utilities hadn't been cut, Weasel was extremely annoying but he was good at his job of managing Wade's shit. Next, Wade unpackaged various necessities. He ripped and tore away boxing and plastic off most of the lounge furniture, the kitchen furniture and appliances, and then finally unpackaged and laid out the double bed, putting the mattress on the low platform bed frame in the back corner of the loft, which was nearest to the bathroom. Afterward, he grabbed up all the packaging he'd ripped off and in two awkward trips he managed to carry it all upstairs to the mezzanine level where he dumped it to deal with later or whenever.

After dumping the second mess of packaging, Wade stopped halfway down the steel stairs to pull out his cell phone. There was a reply from Peter! He said he'd be there in about an hour, and Wade let out a relieved breath to see that the message had only come through ten minutes earlier, which meant he still had time to sort out some other shit. Like food . He slowly descended the rest of the stairs as he did a quick search of the area for restaurants that delivered, but he didn't want some fast-food shit. No, he wanted to order some real food, nice food, the kind you ate on a fancy date night. That meant he had to hit up places that weren't food chains.

He wasn't too well versed on the kind of fancy food people ate on date nights, he and Vanessa had often winged it at grocery stores whenever they weren't eating fast food or microwavable stuff, but a search in the immediate area provided him a few options and eventually he settled on placing a delivery order from an 'authentic' Italian food place on Lexington Avenue, which was nearby enough. It took frustratingly longer for him to order though, because he actually had to read the dishes to know exactly what he was ordering, which was a real pain in the ass. But $250 worth of food and a bottle of red wine later, Wade placed his order.

And then he was back to rushing around. He wanted to try to make the place seem a little less cold and unwelcoming, but he also still needed to get himself cleaned up and changed.

---

He wasn't particularly successful on the 'less cold and unwelcoming' front, because the place was big and warehousy and there were literally crates of weapons and duffle bags and cases of more weapons, all over the place. But he did make use of the dimmer-capable lighting, for his own self-conscious sake as much as wanting to set the mood. And after he'd set out some emergency candles, he could just picture it, that when he lit them up later, the atmosphere would seem a little more datey.

In the end, the lower lighting and arranging the furniture and appliances into some weak semblance of order, all weapon stuff shoved aside as much as possible, seemed like the best he could do with the limited time he had. He also ripped open boxes to find some bedding and pillows, which even though it all smelled factory packed, he made the bed up with it because at least it was all 'clean'. Around the time all that was done, the food delivery arrived and Wade collected the food at the door and overtipped the delivery guy, who looked ready to bolt at seeing him in his suit, but was still polite enough to say thanks before he took off.

Wade checked the time again then, seeing he was down to about roughly twenty minutes, if he was lucky and Peter wasn't ahead of time. He was more than ready to get out of his suit and take a shower at that point, but he first wasted a full two minutes trying to remember whether Vanessa had told him red wine should be chilled or not. In the end he couldn't remember and just left it out of the fridge...because it occurred to him that he hadn't yet seen or even heard Peter mention drinking alcohol. That reminded him that there was still so much they didn't know about each other, and it made him realize how little time they'd actually spent together, which bummed him out, but also made him more determined to do nothing other than spending whatever time he could with Peter in the upcoming weeks. Before running into the spidery super again a few months back, Wade hadn't thought it would be possible for him to be in love and in relationship ever again, and his disbelief had made him act like a daft twat. But the reality was that Peter was his second chance to be happy, to not be alone , and he didn't want to take a moment more of it for granted.

Feeling nervous, but also surprisingly good, and having nothing left to do then but get cleaned up, Wade headed to get his bags from where he'd dropped them by the door when he'd entered earlier. Once he'd picked them up, he carried them across the large place, over to the bedroom area in the back. The space where the bed was set up was as open plan as the rest of the place, even the bathroom didn't have a door, only offering some privacy in the form of being walled off. Wade wasn't sure how Peter would feel about that, but he couldn't exactly magic up a door on short notice so he had to hope Peter would be comfortable with it like that. Focusing on getting done in the short amount of time he had, he opened one of the bags he'd packed and took out the drug store packet he'd stuffed in there, removing a few items he'd purchased to use in the shower, before shoving the rest still in the bag under the space of the low bed frame. Next, he took out some clothes to wear and then toed the bags aside on the floor and headed to the bathroom.

---

Wade unboxed some stuff in the bathroom, usual items he bought bulk stock of in all his safehouses; toiletries like toothpaste, toothbrushes, deodorant, body soap, etcetera, as well as other bathroom necessities, like towels and toilet paper. But he had no need to worry about shit like shaving, or washing and styling his hair, or trimming his pubes, so he didn't need things like a razor, shaving cream, shampoo or hair gel, but he had a shit ton of ugly skin that he wanted to show a little more consideration to going forward, in order to make it marginally less horrible for Peter. So he'd purchased some special bodywash at the drug store.

He'd occasionally used special skin suitable products over the years when he'd wanted to make himself feel better, mostly before the blip, but then also after the blip, during the time he'd been piecing his sanity back together. The products did actually work sometimes, for brief periods of time. They could never sooth the perpetual pain of the cancer alive in his skin, or make the ruin of his flesh look less Freddie Kruger-esque, but using moisturizing bodywashes would temporarily affect the texture and scent of his skin.

And he hadn't forgotten that Peter said he tasted like blood, but in the end, he couldn't do anything about that. The smell of blood though? He could try to mask it, so he'd bought cologne as well. He'd worn cologne around Peter some of the time, and the younger super seemed to like the way he smelled. So while it wasn't much, trying to improve his skin texture for a while and smelling like expensive cologne felt like the least he could do for Peter, who always felt smooth and soft and smelled and tasted good. Fuck. He was dying to bury his face in Peter's hair and just breathe him in...

---

When Wade was done showering and brushing his teeth, and not forgetting to make himself smell good for Peter by using deodorant and the cologne he'd bought, he dressed in some nice and new, but very basic and standard, clothes he had brought from his other safehouse. It was just a grey T-shirt and blue jeans, but it was fine, it wasn't like Peter was expecting him to look like Ryan Reynolds in that 2017 Men's Health issue.

He didn't know if he'd always be able to do the whole dolling himself up thing though, he was bad at consistency when it came to taking care of himself...and many, many other things, but for Peter, he intended to try.

Presently he was walking through to where he'd left his phone in the lounge area, stopping at the metal frame room divider that was built into the wall. As he picked his phone up and unlocked it, he glanced at the flat screen TV still in its box on the floor, wondering if he should unpack and set it up, but the thought didn't linger because he saw a new text from Peter which took all of his attention, even though it only read 'on my way'. Wade checked the time stamp, seeing that it had been sent just a few minutes earlier, which meant if nothing got in the way, Peter would be there pretty soon.

Trying to ignore that he felt girlishly excited, Wade did a final walk around to make sure everything seemed okay enough. Then when he couldn't do any more productive looking around, he went to the kitchen area and proceeded to unpack the food containers so they'd be all ready to warm up. But even after a whole three minutes had passed while doing that, Peter still wasn't there, so Wade went back to the lounge area and pushed two mismatched side tables together with the low coffee table so there would be enough surface area for all the food. He arranged them in front of the sofas so they could eat more comfortably, and then he belatedly remembered to light the emergency candles.

There really wasn't anything else to do after that, but the place looked quite nice and while it still smelled paint fumey, the stuffiness was mostly gone. But Peter still hadn't arrived and Wade felt idle and it started to feel like the large space was too quiet, so he decided to remedy that by going over to the TV box, and picking up the smaller one beside it.

An essential in every safehouse he owned was some sort of equipment or device for playing music. The smaller box he'd picked up was a blue tooth speaker dock, and it didn't take long to unbox and set it up. Once it was switched on, Wade connected his phone to it and then he opened up his preferred music app and searched through some premade playlists he thought seemed like they might set the mood. It was difficult to choose though, because beyond 'datey', he had no idea what mood that was, but he knew he wanted some songs that were in between his own music taste and the interest Peter seemed to be taking to older music as well. So like with ordering food, he took a bit longer to choose a playlist he thought had some suitable songs, with a mix of older, and also more recent years.

He was an impatient person by nature though, so he didn't look through more than the first few songs listed, which was probably not the best move because he'd set the playlist to shuffle, which meant the first song that played wasn't any of the songs he'd read on the list. Wade kind of froze as the song started playing, but he relaxed after a moment because it was a pretty nice song, a little too sexy-slow maybe, If I ever fall in love by Shai, but Peter wasn't there to hear it, and it gave Wade the opportunity to hear how well the acoustics in the place made the sound carry. Not too loud or too soft, and quite clear. He felt a little worried though, because if more songs with love-sex-slow themes played, Peter might think he was trying to set the mood for sex...

Thing was, he wasn't sure whether that would be a good or bad thing, even though he was about ninety percent sure they'd end up having sex.

Unlike the last time, the first time, Wade felt more confident about it, confident in Peter's confidence from earlier when they'd kissed. And Wade was so ready for it, eager for it in a way that was far more real than the confusing seesawing feelings of fantasy and disbelief from last time. The only other thing was, he felt like he needed to make sure he and Peter were actually on the same page once and for all. He didn't want to just assume it, not after everything that had happened. He'd felt like total and utter shit when Peter had called him out for 'ditching' him after they'd had sex. But even that , the only way he could rectify it, was by never, ever ditching Peter after sex again, which he could only do if they actually had sex again. And dammit, he was starting to stress himself ou-

Wade's inner overcomplicated thoughts were interrupted by the loud sound that was more of a bang than a knock, since the door was metal. And yeah, that would definitely be Peter, and Wade felt his stomach flip nervously as he glanced around one more time at how everything was set up. Well, it was definitely ten times better than his last apartment at least, cleaner too, he only hoped Peter wouldn't find the candles, music and dimmed light to be...cheesy? Fucking fuck, he hadn't ever felt so insecure about this kind of shit. Then again, with Vanessa, whenever he'd tried to be a cheesy romantic, it had usually been done mostly jokingly, whereas with Peter, it was the first time he was trying it, and it felt more serious because he wasn't sure how the younger super would react. How would he see it?

All the same, he had to answer the fucking door, which he was presently heading to do, striding silently in white socks on the smooth floors. Wade stopped at the door and paused to take in a quick deep breath, pushing down all insecurities about not having a mask on, before he reached for the handle and slid the large door open, the sound of it rolling on the runners seeming way louder for some reason, grating on his stressed nerves...

But all of his stress faded into the background the moment his eyes landed on Peter, who had a smile on his face the instant their eyes met, and it was so obvious that Peter was happy to see him, to see that he wasn't covered up. He had no mask, no gloves, no jackets. Just a thin T-shirt with plain jeans and white socks and seeing Peter be so happy to see him uncovered went a long way to quieting his miserable self-consciousness. It was enough of a balm that he found it easy to smile at Peter in return and Peter's smile just broadened, making Wade feel a little lightheaded as he stepped aside and gestured for the younger super to come in.

It was also impossible for him to miss how Peter sort of side-eye checked him out as he walked in, and Wade was sure he would have felt awkwardly bashful about it, if he hadn't gotten caught up likewise checking Peter out. The younger man was wearing just one shirt for a change, a T-shirt, but a plain black one that was a little more fitted than his usual nerdy ones. And he had on dark denim jeans that also fitted him well , with a pair of well worn, grey and white Nike Air Jordan's. But that T, and damn, those jeans , double damn...Wade was sure they were the similar, or the same, as the ones Peter had worn on their first 'date'.

Wade hadn't been able to openly appreciate them at the time, he'd been too mentally spastic over pretty much everything that night, but he was able to right then. And because Peter's T-shirt wasn't as long as the others he'd worn before, it meant it didn't hide the swell of his-

"Wow, this place is so, so awesome." Peter said, sounding like he really meant it, and Wade snapped out of his ogling to see Peter was looking around and up and further inside, taking slow, absent steps forward while holding onto the shoulder strap of his black sports bag, which appeared well used since the Stark Industries logo was quite faded. Wade blinked and then glanced at the door as he proceeded to roll it closed, before turning away from it and raising his eyebrows, looking around the place again. He was feeling more concerned with whether or not Peter had noticed the candles and music yet, but the younger super seemed totally caught up in the place itself. Wade hadn't personally ever thought it was 'awesome', just nice and large for storage, but,

"You like it that much? Really?" he asked seriously, eyes trailing to watch Peter again.

"Yeah, I mean, wow, it's so spacious and the ceiling, and the windows. And it's just- its huge! " he'd stopped walking as he looked around, absently slipping his bag off his shoulder. And even though Wade was thinking 'fuck a tank I'm living here permanently', he couldn't stop his stupid mouth from saying,

"Ah, so size does matter." to which Peter snorted, glancing at him with an amused look as lifted and set his bag down on a weapons crate.

Apparently without noticing.

He continued in then, walking more pointedly and heading toward the lounge area, where the music had just changed to John Legend's All of Me, which made Wade want to rush across the room and chuck the fucking music dock through the window. Jesus, the playlist was not- oh, oh yeah, okay, shit, Wade watched wide eyed, breath held, as Peter finally noticed the music and the candles and even the food all the way over in the kitchen. And fuuuuuck, his pretty brown eyes widened, and very honestly, like something out of a fucking movie, Wade could see some of the candles fire light reflecting in his eyes. And in the dimmed lighting Wade could just about make out how Peter's ears adorably reddened as he took everything in all over again with new awareness...and a small smile forming on his face.

Wade was still holding his breath, but he almost choked sucking in air when John Legend started falsettoing about giving each other all of themselves and Peter's gaze very obviously drifted to the speaker dock, his lips pursing on his smile. The rest of the lyrics weren't any less embarrassingly accurately feely and Wade couldn't take it anymore, at that rate he would start blushing. So he, not so subtly, crossed the space from the door to the lounge area, going right for the speaker dock.

He could feel Peter's eyes on him all the way, even as he stopped abruptly before the device, using all of his will power to not pick it up and throw it, and instead as calmly as possible, he picked up his phone and paused the playlist, frowning with awkward embarrassment when Peter asked,

"So, is this, like, a proper first date?" and he sounded like he was smug and pleased and amused about it all at once. Which made his voice sound sweet and sexy and playful and it made Wade forget all about the playlist as he absently put his phone down, turning to look at Peter with raised his eyebrows,

"I guess, I, I was kinda'- uh, kinda' going f-for that." he admitted hesitantly, always finding it so hard to be sincere about feelings, which was the reason why he usually made everything into a joke. But it wasn't a joke when he made himself say, "You deserve a proper first date...you deserve the best first date. Best every date." then he nodded and followed through with some more honest word vomit, "It's still not up to standard, it's not the best, but on short notice and as stupid as I am, this was what I could manage. But I can do it again, I can do it a million times better if you give me another chance. With more time, I can do better, and go bigger, really big, huge , because size mat-"

"Wade." Peter huffed out, half a laugh, but a totally fond one, his beautiful smile on full display as he shook his head, "This is great, seriously, I really like this, just this." then he bit the inside of his bottom lip, all hella cute and playful sounding when he added, "And you don't need to go bigger," Wade just watching him, dazed and in love with how Peter's expression got a little more mischievous when he said, "I'm really happy with the size of things," one hiked up eyebrow, ears still red, "on all fronts."

Fucking-Abraham, Wade was so screwed. He was ass over eyeballs in love with Peter Parker and it was fucking fantastic . He'd been subconsciously running from it all along, but now he just wanted to run toward it, and right then he wanted to physically go toward Peter, to touch him and kiss him and maybe tell him he loved him, straight up and directly while looking right into his pretty, pretty brown eyes. But there were still just a few wrinkles to iron out, particularly Wade feeling like he needed to very clearly and desperately apologize for leaving Peter the way he had weeks ago, right after they'd had sex and just in general and for no good fucking reason. He felt like he couldn't move forward until he'd had a chance to tell Peter again it would never fucking ever, ever happen ever aga-

"Uh, what are those?" Wade blinked back to attention, and anxiety quickly replaced his previous floaty feeling as he watched Peter start to walk toward the far wall, where two crates were stacked, the top one of which contained a grenade launcher, the bottom one, a MANPAD.

"Uh..." Wade started walking after him with quick, silent steps, but Peter had already reached the crates and he unlatched the top one, opening it to reveal an RPG-32. When Wade came up beside him, Peter was just staring at it and all Wade could say was, "I'm gonna' get all this stuff moved out of here as soon as I can," reaching a hand out to touch the lid of the crate, hoping to ease it closed, "this place was originally just for storage." which was true, but that had changed minutes ago, when Wade decided on the spot that since Peter liked the place, he was going to make it his main pad, so all the armaments had to go.

Peter was nodding, but he was still looking at the grenade launcher with slightly wide eyes, and Wade was about to apologize for the weapons when Peter muttered,

"All..." letting go of the crate lid and turning to look around, once again taking in the space with newer new awareness. Wade absently closed the lid of the crate as he nervously watched Peter notice all the stacks and piles of crates and boxes of different sizes, as well as some cases and duffle bags, all shoved aside as much as possible so everything was out of the main walking and living areas.

Wade couldn't help swallowing tensely then, watching Peter look at everything with no expression and wide eyes, feeling concerned because he was well aware that it was the first time Peter was being so blatantly presented with the extent of his toys . At least none of his many, many, many guns were unpacked onto the racks...but, ah shit, he clenched his fists, stressed, as Peter made a frowny 'wow' face, the younger super quickly walking over to another crate. He seemed in a hurry to see what was inside, lifting the lid to reveal a PF-M134.

"Woah, is this, like, a gatling gun?"

Wade made himself approach calmly, fighting the urge to rush over and close the lid of the crate so Peter's pretty eyes didn't have to look at his illegally purchased murder weapons. It was funny though, it hadn't bothered him before, but now that he wanted to take things very seriously between them, he felt nervous about Peter seeing these things. But he hadn't missed the hint of curious interest in Peter's tone when he'd asked, so Wade answered seriously,

"Uh, no, actually, this is a minigun." and Peter frowned, glancing at him before looking back to the gun,

"Is that what a gatling gun is called today? Isn't it like what Starscream has in Transformers?"

Oh, okay, Wade understood where the curiosity was coming from, and he'd watched Transformers, so,

"Uh, sure, if you wanna' use the word gatling, you could say he used a gatling cannon . But it's actually called a rotary cannon, and this," he pointed to the minigun in the large crate with one hand while reaching for the lid with the other, "is not a rotary cannon," although he had one of those around there somewhere, "it's a minigun."

"Oh, wow. Okay." Peter looked kind of confused, which was cute, but he let go of the lid without further questions, so Wade closed it, "I've never actually seen stuff like this up close." Peter looked at him, frowning, but not in a bad way, "And it's weird, because I've literally been on an alien space craft and fought aliens with crazy weapons, but, seeing this," he looked at the crate again, shook his head, "just sitting here, in a crate, just sitting here, is..." he trailed off, blinking.

Wade kinda' got what he meant, oftentimes the dangerous things one was familiar with, knew the destructive capabilities of, could be far scarier or would have more of an impact on a person than something new and unknown. But holy shit, did Wade love discovering new, dangerous weapons. He didn't want to talk about weapons with Peter, though,

"I think it's situational." it was a super unromantic topic, "You probably wouldn't take a second to think about it if a bad guy were shooting at you with one of these. It wouldn't be surprising or interesting, you'd just destroy it, or web it or whatever..." he trailed off as Peter moved on to another thing, walking away and passing a crate with a flamethrower in it to go over to the case leaning against an empty gun rack.

Peter seemed very interested in the black aluminum double sword hard case, not hesitating to crouch down and shift the case so it was lying flat on the floor before he popped the latches, opening the lid.

"Oh, wow." he breathed out, sounding...appreciative? Wade blinked and looked down at one of his usual, high quality, dual sets of steel katanas. They weren't anything fancy, just a back-up set, of a back up set, of a back up set and so on. He had many extras of the usual weapons he preferred over others, hence having so many, many, many guns, but Peter seemed to find it, cool? It confused Wade a little, since the younger super had never shown interest in the ones he'd been strapped with around Peter a few times. Or maybe he'd been interested, but hadn't wanted to, or thought to, ask about it? Or maybe they just seemed more interesting in a case, unused, all shiny and brand spanking n-, "Can I?" Peter asked, gesturing to the case.

Wade just nodded, because he wasn't about to say no to anything Peter wanted if he could help it, but,

"Just be careful, fancy spider senses or not, many people have lost their limbs because they underestimate how sharp these babies are." he warned, genuinely concerned as he watched Peter lift one of the katanas out carefully by its red and black wrapped grip, from where it had been set in the polyurethane foam between its respective scabbard and the other katana.

Peter stood up then, holding the katana out,

"You obviously didn't lose any limbs, or did you learn to use the swords after your mutation?" he asked, sounding genuinely curious as he held the katana out in front of him with two hands, as if it were a knight's sword. Which made Wade want to laugh, but definitely in a fond way, because seeing Peter showing some interest in his weapons, and also seemingly not getting upset, made Wade's chest tighten with warmth and weird feelings, and his stomach feel light with relief .

"Uh, no, I learned before." Wade remembered to answer, and then he realized it was a great time to start opening up and sharing some stuff about himself with Peter, so he said, "I learned Kenjutsu during my special forces days, so before my mutation. There were some, uh, extra special things required of us during that time, in extra special fields." he admitted, still vague, but honest enough.

Surely Peter didn't want to know about the twisted, corrupt and weird shit he'd seen and done and learned during his miliary days? The military wasn't exactly what most people thought it was, not in a world with supers, mutants, in-humans and aliens.

Shit was whack.

"Wow, so, then you were a natural or something?" Wade just blinked, "And you know martial arts too, right?" Peter asked without waiting for an answer, while making light and slow movements with the katana he'd probably seen people do in movies with swords.

Wade nodded,

"Yeah, I know plenty of martial arts." he admitted, smirking at how cute Peter looked. And also how hot he looked, because he just did-

"That's so awesome." Peter said sincerely, stopping his actions to hold the sword up nearer to his face so he could examine the blade and grip closely, "I noticed when you fought Bullseye that time." oh? Had Peter been watching him with interest? He wished he'd known. "I know exactly zero martial arts." the younger super snorted, "Other than what I've seen in movies of course, and I'm probably not even getting those moves right when I fight." he sounded amused, albeit also a little self-deprecating.

Wade didn't like that tone, and he'd never noticed a single fucking issue with Peter's fighting style, because,

"You're a fucking bad ass, Baby Boy, you don't even need to know any martial arts. I've seen you move, it's like a fucking art of its own." he said honestly, sounding a little dreamy, "Like Spider Arts."

Peter lowered the katana then and looked at him, and maybe he'd wanted to say that it sounded stupid, but he looked away again quickly because he started to blush slightly at the dumb compliment. Wade just smiled, folding his arms over his chest as he watched Peter look more closely at the filigree design of the hand guard. And Peter frowned when he noticed a word in the design.

He looked up, saying,

"Oates?" as a question, and Wade, who knew Peter had been educating himself on 80s music, couldn't resist the cue to sing a good classic. He started clicking his fingers and humming the intro beat and he watched as Peter immediately had to fight off a grin.

---

Peter was unsurprised when after some humming Wade started to sing,

" Eeeeasy, ready, willing, overtiiime. Where does it stop, where do you dare me to draw the line? " and of course in his usual falsetto, " You got the body, now you want my soul, don't even think about it, say no go, yeeaheaheah, " and he hadn't actually answered the question but Peter figured it was the name of a singer and he decided he'd look it up later and add it to his 'Wade likes to Sing' playlist. " Iiiii-iiiii, I'll do anything that you want me tooohoo. Yeeah, Iiiiii-, I'll do almost anything that you want me to. " he was still smiling as he crouched down again, to put the katana back in its place, briefly lifting the grip of the other katana to look at whether it also had a word in the design, " Yeah, but I can't go for that, nooo, no can do. I can -"

"So, Oates and Hall?" Peter asked after he read the name on the other sword.

Wade stopped singing and answered without missing and beat,

"Known as Hall and Oates actually, sounds much catchier, but yeah."

"Cool." Peter said, making a mental note as he set the second sword down flat again and then he closed the case lid.

When he stood up next and looked around again, he had to take in a quiet, deep breath. He was a little thrown and overwhelmed by...well everything, and he was still processing it all. The apartment, or loft, or whatever it was called, was amazing , he really liked it. It was the kind of place, with the kind of space, he'd only ever dreamed of owning one day himself. And then there was the candles and food and music Wade had set up, which all sent his heart racing, even right then as he thought about it and looked around, butterflies were still fluttering in his stomach. It was really romantic and he hadn't expected anything like that so it totally surprised him in a really great way. But then there were all the weapons just piled and packed around. That had thrown him for another loop. But while it made him feel a little anxious, it was also such a new experience to see such things in such a casual setting. And holding the sword had been cool, talking to Wade a bit about it as well, but he definitely had no interest in ever knowing much more about the other stuff, and he was glad Wade had said he was going to have it moved out. It made him feel relieved, since, if he was going to be spending more time there in the future, he'd rather not be surrounded by dangerous heavy weaponry.

Of course, it also reminded him and made him feel anxious about Wade's work and life as a merc, thinking of what he used the weapons for. It brought Sam's visit about S.H.I.E.L.D right back to the forefront of his mind, made him think of how different it'd be if Wade worked for an official, legal organization. But Peter really didn't want to think about all that! It was totally going to mess up his mood, so he went ahead and chose avoidance again, over what was probably more important, deciding instead to focus on enjoying the evening which, it seemed, Wade was trying to make into a romantic first date do-over! Peter was all for it.

Peter had been looking around as he turned his thoughts over in his head, but once he refocused on Wade, he noticed the older super seemed to be feeling awkward, or he seemed to be hesitating again, like there was something he wasn't saying, or doing. A part of Peter wanted to just come right out and ask about it, he wanted Wade to just speak , but he also didn't want to ruin the mood Wade was going for with the candles, food and music. If the merc had something to say, he would probably get around to it during the course of the evening. Peter wanted him to feel comfortable enough to say or do whatever was on his mind, and thinking of those things, he said,

"You should put the music back on," because he hoped if he showed Wade he liked how everything was, then the man would lose the awkward tension, "I'll warm up the food?" he asked right when he glanced toward where he'd seen a kitchen area, and sure enough, he spotted a microwave. He heard Wade say 'yeah, sure' as he moved to the kitchen, to where all the restaurant's food containers were set out on the counter.

Wade had mentioned a few times already that the place wasn't really set up, had been more of a storage place, and Peter could see it as he walked into the kitchen area. Everything smelled and seemed new, but still looked unfinished. The smells of construction work and paint still lingered in the air too, and even though the kitchen was fully fitted with cupboards and counters and all the rest, it also all looked unfinished in little ways. Missing cupboard handles, one cupboard missing a door entirely. Also two of the drawers were not put in, but rather stacked on the floor, and there was a fine sandy dust on the counters and uneven paint strokes on the half-painted wall.

The microwave was very much totally new though, it even still had the plastic over the buttons panel, and as Peter started the process of warming up the food, he heard the music switch back on...but the song was quickly skipped, followed by the next one, and the next one as well. Peter was smirking to himself as he opened the microwave when it beeped the end of the first warm up, because he knew Wade was probably skipping some 'feels heavy' songs for his own sake. Or maybe for both their sakes actually. Peter fought a blush thinking of the lyrics of that song that had been playing earlier, trying to focus on continuing to warm up the food, the delicious smells starting to overpower the faint paint fumes.

But the process of warming the food, container after container, left his mind time to wander and he glanced over to where Wade was busy with his cell phone and the music as thoughts of earlier, at the merc's other apartment, replayed in his mind. He recalled how good it'd felt to finally have Wade kissing him again after so long. How good it'd felt when Wade had crowded him up against the wall, had roughly and heatedly kissed him breathless. It's been so good, and it'd felt so right. His head had been spinning, heart racing, arousal swelling...but he had no idea how they'd gone from making out earlier, to having a weird distance between them again. Since he'd arrived, there was something tense in the demeanor of the merc, and it was definitely holding Wade back. Peter really wanted to know what was wrong. Maybe it had to do with Wade not saying whatever he'd wanted to say before? Peter really hoped Wade would just say whatever it was soon, because he really wanted Wade to kiss him again. He wanted Wade to be the one to kiss him first again. He liked it when Wade was confident when touching him, when Wade didn't feel the need to ask-

BEEP BEEP BEEP

Peter blinked out of his thoughts and jabbed the button to open the microwave, changing out the container. He was on the second to last one just then, and Wade joined him in the kitchen, some music Peter didn't recognize playing as Wade picked up a bottle of wine that'd been standing on the counter, holding it up to show it to him,

"I ordered this too, but only realized afterward that I don't actually know if you drink wine, or even alcohol in general." he said with a questioning tone.

Peter blinked, and blinked again. He definitely wasn't interested in drinking, but he figured it probably suited the food Wade had ordered, and honestly, if he had a little with his meal, it wouldn't be so bad. So he shrugged,

"I don't drink, like, regularly, or, like, a lot." or ever, "I'm not great with alcohol honestly, kind of a lightweight. Really a lightweight." that was more honest, even though he hated to admit-

"We don't have to drink-"

"No, no, uh," Peter cut off Wade's easy accepting dismissal, "I mean, like, a half a glass," ugh, no, "or a few sips will be fine, to go with the food, you know." he could manage a few sips.

Wade frowned,

"Pete, we really don't have to drink the wine." he paused and darted his eyes around, "We can just drink..." he trailed off, blinked and then frowned, and Peter surmised that Wade didn't actually have anything else to drink, besides maybe tap water, which, ew, no.

He just smiled and shook his head,

"Wade, really, it's fine. I've had small amounts of wine before with food." like once, at a fancy restaurant dinner with MJ, "I just won't drink too much."

Wade sighed,

"I don't even have paper cups." he admitted, sounding quite down and defeated about it, broad shoulders sagging.

It made Peter huff out a laugh. It was almost like Wade had just moved in, which he kind of had, and it felt oddly nice, because the place felt new, untouched by anyone else and Peter was there to sort of...christen it with him. His far too horny thoughts immediately flashed to the bed he'd spotted when he'd looked around earlier and he cleared his throat,

"Then we'll drink from the bottle."

"And eat with the plastic take away utensils." Wade said, still sounding down.

"And eat with the plastic take away utensils." Peter repeated agreeably and more enthusiastically, turning and gathering up as many containers as he could, before heading to the lounge area. Wade followed him with the remaining containers and the wine, but Peter noticed he'd stopped to get something from inside an open box before he came over to the sofa where the mix of pushed together tables were set up. Peter helped him put the food containers down with the rest, seeing then that Wade had picked up a small knife, which the merc proceeded to use to uncork the wine.

Peter looked twice though, and his gaze lingered, because even though it took Wade no effort to pull the cork out and despite his built upper body already being so obvious in his thin T, everything still flexed for just that second as he'd turned and pulled. Peter felt silly for how turned on by it he felt, but there was something about Wade's fantastic body dressed down in normal clothes, not all covered up, that was just so attractive to him. And Wade being comfortable like that around him made it feel less like Wade had been gone for weeks, less like they'd suffered some kind of relationship setback, except...

They still hadn't even so much as touched each other yet, but Peter hoped that would fall into place naturally soon too. The whole atmosphere, everything Wade had done for their first evening together there, suggested the older super wanted all the same things Peter wanted. So Peter just remained patient, smiling at Wade as he set the wine bottle down and they sat down to eat together.

They sat on the three seat L shaped sofa, the other two sofas being mismatched single seats, and they were both sitting forward and slightly facing each other. They'd pulled the small collection of tables closer so they could open different containers and reach more easily as they ate, and Peter was amused, but also pleased, when they had the same idea to just set some containers between them on the sofa seat, eating buffet style, since they had no plates or anything. There was a variety of foods to eat too. Wade had ordered some pasta dishes, as well as some sea food dishes and some mixed vegetable and chicken dishes, and everything smelled and looked delicious.

And it turned out they were both really, really hungry. They ate in silence for a few long minutes, not speaking beyond Wade asking if the food was good and Peter humming and commenting on the seafood in particular. After a while, a fair amount of food in several of the containers were almost cleared, and Wade picked up the wine bottle, proceeding to drink from it. Peter watched as he poured the liquid into his mouth rather than drinking directly from the bottle and when Wade offered him the bottle next, he did the same, although he only took a small sip just to wash down what he'd eaten, before handing it back. He really didn't want to even get tipsy , so he wasn't taking any chances.

Wade took another drink before putting the bottle back on the table, and they continued eating for another minute or so. But feeling quite satisfied hunger-wise by that point, after chewing and swallowing a mouthful of the lasagna, Peter decided he wanted to talk, so he started with something conversational and simple, saying,

"This is a really nice place." and Wade immediately gave him his attention, like the man had just been waiting for him to break the silence, "Are you gonna' stay here?" he kind of hoped Wade would. The place was awesome, and it was also close to his place by car, but even closer if he webbed. If he stayed over there often, he could easily and normally do his Spider-Man duties and also go to univ-

"Yeah." Wade said, but his tone sounded hesitant in that same weird way as he went on, "I think I will. It's close to your place, right? Which is good for, you know, if you want to come over, or, uh, stay over some times or whenever."

Peter wasn't surprised that Wade still sounded like he doubted he was all in, but he was a bit sad about it, still, he confidently confirmed,

"Yeah, it's really great that it's close, I could come over and stay over really conveniently." he forked a meatball into his mouth and chewed with a small smile, glad to see how some tension left Wade's shoulders. Wade seemed pleased by his answer, but Peter didn't just want Wade doing stuff because of him, so he asked, "Do you like it here, though? Like, do you have good, uh, neighbours?" it felt like a stupid question, but there were other similar buildings around, and maybe people lived in them, "Who lives around here, do you know?" he looked up from forking up more food, eating as he trailed his gaze over the wall of tinted windows. He hadn't been able to see inside the place at all from outside because of the reflective film, which was great. Lots of sunlight during the day, but also still lots of privacy.

*Wade shook his head and swallowed his mouthful before he spoke,

"No neighbours, Baby Boy. Just the two of us."

"What, seriously?" Peter found that hard to believe, "Aren't the other buildings at least used for businesses or something?"

Wade shook his head again, twirling his plastic fork between his fingers,
"Nah, when I buy a place for weapons storage, I usually buy isolated places, or I make it isolated by buying up the places around the one I want." he explained casually, as if he wasn't talking about spending millions of dollars on property at a time. Peter nodded, but he was pretty stunned, and also kind of amazed and lowkey excited, thinking about empty buildings and large open spaces where he could run suit tests and practice webslinging and new fighting techniques! Man...

"Is this place the former or the latter."

"The latter." Wade admitted. "Property developers were gonna' turn the area into a bunch of warehouse lofts, got to em' just before they got too far."

"..." Peter just nodded again.

So, yeah, Wade was mega rich. That was confirmed.

His excitement waned though, and then fizzled out, because he remembered it was all merc money, blood money.

Peter ate a few more bites as silence fell between them again, needing to take some time to put those negative and unpleasant thoughts aside in order to keep his mood up. He noticed though, through his own quietness, that Wade was not as talkative as he was used to. It was like the merc was distracted by whatever was going on in his mind, probably the same thing that was making him so weirdly tense. Peter kept himself from outright asking Wade about it though, reminding himself to be patient, to bring Wade back around to feeling comfortable by letting him see everything was okay between them.

He tried a different conversation starter next, commenting,

"My aunt isn't much of a cook," as he poked his fork into the container of lasagna he was eating, "but she makes pretty nice lasagna." he finished, feeling a small lump form in his throat and a heavy knot in his stomach, as he thought about May. She'd been distant for so long, only keeping contact to make sure he was doing okay, in so far as he would tell her he was at least.

"Yeah?" Wade said in the way that sounded like a question, but he continued without waiting for an answer, "I haven't eaten much homemade food myself." he was using his fork to twirl up some spaghetti, "Even for holidays like Christmas and Thanksgiving, always had a bunch of delivery menus on hand."

Peter's mind involuntarily went to picturing that beautiful woman from that picture, and he automatically wondered if she'd ever cooked for Wade. But then he also recalled Weasel having mentioned that Vanessa had been a prostitute and his thoughts became very abruptly messy on the subject, so he steered clear of it all together and said,

"You make perfect pancakes though." since he'd eaten all of the delicious pancakes Wade had made for him so many weeks ago. He'd also cried a bit while he ate them, but Wade didn't have to know that.

Wade didn't respond to the compliment, and Peter knew why. He'd realized it too late, but his choice of conversation topic inadvertently brought up the memory of when Wade had made those pancakes, and with it came the memory of everything that followed, and how it hadn't played out so well for them. Peter was about to say something, anything else, to change the subject again, but Wade didn't seem interested in avoiding bringing the mood down, because he said,
"I should have been there when you got back." and yeah, it really did bring the mood down instantly, but not only because the hurt of being left after they'd slept together was still kind of poking at Peter's soft insides, but also because it reminded him even more of what had happened with May. Of how May felt about Wade...

It also reminded him that it could have all possibly been avoided, if he'd just been more honest with Wade from the start. It reminded him that he needed to start being more honest with Wade period,

"I don't know why I didn't tell you about MJ." he'd stopped eating by that point, feeling anxious and a little nauseous from it, but needing to say, "I think maybe some part of me was uncertain about how I felt about her."

Wade cleared his throat, let go of his fork and said,

"Understandable." in a tense voice as he reached for the wine.

Peter watched him, watched the tense line of his defined jaw as he took a generous swig of the wine, and Peter started to shake his head even though Wade wasn't looking at him,

"But I figured it out, I figured out what I felt and didn't feel." he sighed, smiled a little, "Honestly, even when I was having dinner with her, at Subway," he added so Wade wouldn't think it had been anything fancy. And sure enough, the merc raised his eyebrows as he set the wine bottle down again, "I was thinking about you. I was looking forward to seeing you again." his throat felt a little tight and he paused, licked his lips and picked up the food containers they'd placed between them, moving to put them back amongst the others on the nearest table. "I'm kinda' slow on the uptake about that kind of thing, sor-"

"Please don't say sorry to me, Peter." Wade cut him off and he looked at the merc directly, noting Wade looked sorry and very regretful, "None of what happened that day excuses me taking off, not like I did, not for how long I di-"

"Okay, yeah." Peter agreed, because that was true. He swallowed tensely, wanting the ache of the memory to be gone, needing to say, "It h-hurt a lot, that you were gone for so long, and without any contact."

"Fuck." Wade breathed out, hanging his head as he clenched his fists, "I can't even-fuck, I want so badly to apologize for that specifically," he raised his head again, held eye contact, "but I don't even know how to make it mean enough, how to make it hold the weight it needs to." he breathed in and out again, pausing to swallow just as Peter had before, "I don't even know if it's possible to ever apologize for it enough, Peter."

"I don't want you to apologize either." Peter said honestly in a bit of a rush, because he didn't need an apology, he just needed to know it wasn't going to happen again. He just needed Wade to show hi-

"I don't get that." Wade sounded a little annoyed then, but Peter knew it wasn't directed at him. He wasn't an expert on people's behaviors and feelings, but he had gotten to know Wade well enough to guess that the man was angry at himself.

"You don't have to get it." he said sincerely, and he chose to use actions to speak louder than his words could, shifting forward closer on the sofa, closing some of the gap between them to show Wade he didn't even want any physical distance between them. He was facing Wade more then, his knee pressing into the man's solid thigh and the top of his sneakered foot touching Wade's shin, and he lowered his voice to be much quieter when he started to say, "I just want to move forward from here, Wade. Can-" but he stopped talking when the song that had started playing drowned out his quiet voice with the sexual lyrics of 'I'll always think of you, inside of my private thoughts' and 'I can imagine you, touching my private parts', throwing Peter off completely.

Peter stared into Wade's face, which was twitching somewhere between pain, regret and amusement. The song played on, not getting any less sexual and eventually Wade breathed out,

"Fuck, this fucking playlist is fucking..." but he trailed off into a huffing laugh, because Peter was unable to help breathing out a laugh of his own. They sat that way then, occasionally making eye contact while listening to the song, smiling, shaking their heads and trying not to laugh, Peter blushing a little. Eventually, when the lyrics repetitively said to do it again and again and then again, Wade shook his head and sighed out,

"I really need to check all the songs on a playlist in future, I'm definitely not cut out to vibe as hardcore sexy as Toni Braxton." and Peter pursed his lips, wanting to smile more because Wade finally sounded more like himself, and that weird tension also felt like it'd lessened.

"Yeah?" he kept smiling, face still hot, his emotions getting a bit all over the place again, but in a way that was far from bad as his gaze drifted between Wade's eyes and his lips, "Is it not your usual vibe?"

"Fuck no, don't get me wrong, Toni is amazing," Wade sounded a little breathy, "but I'm more of a Mariah Carey. I mean, I just know I'd look great in a butterfly halter neck top, playfully giggling on a swing and singing in a really high pitch-"
"You do love singing in a high pitch." Peter almost giggled himself, maybe he was a Mariah too.

Wade hummed, Peter licked his lips...

It was so ridiculous but Wade's hum had been low and drawn out and it did things to Peter.

And Wade was smiling right then, showing his teeth and he smelled so good.

And his smile was so sexy, he looked handsome, scars notwithstanding.

And Peter kept looking at his mouth, and Wade had started looking at his mouth too.

Their foreheads touched. Breaths mingled.

The air around them shifted, becoming warmer, charged.

Peter blinked slowly, eyes slipping half closed as he quietly suggested,

"Maybe Toni is trying to tell us something." and damn, it was a stupid thing to say, but Peter really had been thinking of Wade in his private thoughts, and he really did want Wade touching his priv-

"Fuck, babe," he sounded comically strained and when he shifted his head, it changed the angle of their faces so their noses brushed. Peter's breath caught and he felt dizzy from wanting Wade to kiss him, but Wade was saying, "I thought we were having a serious talk, but if Toni is trying to tell us something, should we listen-"

"Yeah, yeah we should." Peter heard how he sounded, Wade heard it too. Amused. Aroused.

"Yeah?" he chuckled just a bit, and his tone of voice dropped lower and Peter wanted .

"Yeah, Wade. Don't you want to?" he asked before he could stop himself, leaning closer. He sounded teasing and coy even to his own ears and Wade hummed again, large hand settling heavy on his thigh and sliding up firmly,

"Fuck, Pete," his voice was a gruffer, "I absolutely want to. You look so good, and you smell so good and all I've been able to think about is kissing you aga-"

"So why haven't you?" Peter asked directly, wanting Wade to kiss him first . No asking.

"Because even though you keep telling me it's all fine, Pete, I feel like shit for leav-"

"Wade." Peter cut him off and lightly bumped their foreheads so they could make and hold eye contact steadily, brown eyes to brown, when he said, "I want to move past it. Can we please?" that had been what he'd originally intended to say before Toni had inter-

"Ah, fuck, please don't say please, I don't want you having to say please to me." Peter's heart was racing and he was pretty damn turned on by that point, and Wade was saying, "Tell me what you want, I want you to always just tell me what you want." sounding like he was in the same condition.

Peter didn't want to tell Wade what to do, but right then he could use the power Wade was giving him to help them both, to move them both along, so he said,

"I want to forget about the past couple of weeks." Wade started to nod, "I want to move on, move forward, together as a couple-"

"Fuck, yes, Peter, yes." Wade was nodding, he kept nodding,

"No more hesitating," Peter brought his hands up to Wade's shoulders, fisted handfuls of his T-shirt, no more second guessing." more nodding and Peter went for broke with his words, with his feelings, "I want you, Wade, I want us-"

"Fuck."

"I want to be with you."

"Pete, fuck." Wade closed eyes, both his large hands settling on Peter's hips as the merc shifted, turned more to face him, leaning closer, pressing their foreheads together more firmly.

"Wade," Peter slid his hands up, held Wade's face, waited for his eyes to open before he said, "I want this. You want it too, right?" he asked, throat tightening.

Wade didn't disappoint with his answer, his voice equally tight when he said,

"More than fucking anything ." he was nodding again, and Peter nodded too,

"Good," he responded, and then when Wade just kept looking at him emotionally and with so much feeling, Peter just returned the look, intense as it was, before saying, "Wade." softly.

And Wade didn't ask or wait to be told, Wade just kissed him.

---

...knowing that you're mine.