ask-ursa-tonypeter

[ask-ursa-tonypeter]

A bit different than the usual asks- to all the Tonys, what do you think of canonverse Tony? Of his relationship with Peter? Do you think less of him for not having a relationship like that with Peter? Do you think he didn’t appreciate him enough? What about his marriage with Pepper?

YNYD!Tony: Am I judging the version of me that didn't end up dating a teenager? Yeah, of course. Horrible judgement, that guy.

Look, he made it work with Pepper where I never could, and he died when Peter was still in high school. He'd better have never looked at Peter that way. He could've been a better mentor and he could've been better at showing he cared, but let he who is without emotional constipation cast the first stone. We're all fuck-ups in that area.

[[🐻ursa interlude🐻

I cannot answer in skit format for all the Tonies but YNYD!Tony summarizes it pretty well for most of them! If there's any judgement (beyond rueful self-reflection about shared flaws) about how canon Tony treated Peter it's from the (good) dad Tonies and from the angle of "he should've been a better father figure," with the begrudging acceptance that canon Tony is not actually Peter's dad and was not a parent at all for the time that he actually had Peter in his life so of course he fucked that up.

The combo breakers are Stalemate Tony, who would instead be self-loathingly impressed that canon Tony is a better person than he is, and DB!SIM, who has zero self-awareness in this area and would judge canon Tony more harshly than the rest for not cultivating a closer/more emotionally honest relationship with Peter and for leaving him behind when he died. But even then, he wouldn't have thought canon Tony should've actually pursued him!

It's really the other parts of canon Tony's life where I think they'd have strong feelings about things! Pyrite!Tony would feel defensive/inadequate and pretend to be unimpressed regarding the Iron Man thing, and DB!SIM would think Iron Man was well-intentioned but disappointingly short-sighted relative to his own plans to "save" the world.

Everyone would have some degree of Thoughts about canon Tony's marriage to Pepper (varying from strong regrets to wistfulness to curiosity to awkwardness,) and about Morgan. (SIM!Tony probably shouldn't be allowed to know about Morgan.) Everyone would have thoughts about how canon Tony died and why and what he left behind.

But when it comes to Peter? Mostly just that vicarious regret that canon Tony never really let himself be as close to Peter as he wanted to! (But in an actual appropriate/mentorly/paternal way, because none of them think he should've actually viewed Peter romantically haha.)]]

[ask-ursa-tonypeter]

[fic: ynyd] happy new year and happy anniversary, peter and tony! how are y'all celebrating?

(also, happy new year, ursa! i hope this year brings you warmth.)

Peter: We were going to go to the SI New Year's gala and then have our usual stay-in anniversary date the next day, but some idiot with a costume, a pseudonym and some big ambitions decided to make his villain debut hassling the crowd at Times Square--

Tony: So many cat puns.

Peter: So many cat puns. And like, really? A tiger theme? Just get honest with yourself, sign up for FurAffinity and call it a day, man.

Tony: Long story short, the guy was shooting people with some kind of furry transformation ray and we ended up spending our anniversary engineering a cure for all the folks that didn't want to be sexy catgirls for the rest of their lives.

Peter: Some of them did, though!

Tony: More power to them.

Peter: So, you know. It's not what we planned, but spending an anniversary on a days-long lab binge and then crashing together isn't the worst thing in the world.

Tony: No, no. Mr. Stripey owes us a date. He better watch himself at trial; I'm taking a spray bottle to the courthouse.

[ask-ursa-tonypeter]

Kidnapping au- I’m assuming it’s YNYD!peter who saves him. What I’m curious about is what happens when YNYD Peter gets back to his universe and has to tell his Tony wtf he got pulled into and how not only was there a universe where an alt Tony was that universe’s Peter’s father, but that that Tony was an evil dictator who accidentally killed his own son after raping him (not realizing it was his kid) and kidnapped another universe’s Peter and began sexually abusing him when he couldn’t cope with what he’d done. And as if that’s not enough, the Peter he kidnapped was from a universe where they were siblings and that Tony had been sexually abusing that Peter already. I just want to see that scene and Tony’s dawning horror play out as Peter unloads on him 😬

[[🐻ursa interlude🐻

Aw I am sorry to not have a scene for you but the reality is that Peter simply would not tell Tony all of that! "Evil dictator Tony that kidnapped a Peter from another universe to replace his dead son (who was also a Peter,)" yes, and mmmmaybe even that SIM!Tony had accidentally killed his son.

But he'd consider Pyrite!Peter's sexual trauma related to SIM!Tony and Pyrite!Tony to be private matters, and he wouldn't tell Tony about that out of respect for his privacy. His goal is also to maintain contact with Pyrite!Peter for as long as P!Peter wants that, which makes it even more important to him to protect P!Peter's privacy when P!Peter and YNYD!Tony may meet each other someday!

(He also wouldn't want Tony to second-guess himself from learning that there happened to have been two whole scumbag Tony Starks somewhere in the vastness of the multiverse. If Tony roundabout asked if SIM was a creep Peter wouldn't like, lie to him, and if "I don't want us to visit the Pyrites while P!Tony is around" ever came up he might ultimately feel like he had to explain why, but he wouldn't go out of his way to bring it up otherwise.)

So! Tony wouldn't love learning about Evil Kidnapping Tony Stark, but it would be much easier to process "okay sure I had to have an evil twin somewhere out there I guess" and some mildly uncomfy feelings about him being related to Peter in other universes than, like… "the other two Tony Starks I know about both have a highly inappropriate and abusive sexual interest in their Peters." The latter would definitely set him back a ways in his therapy, sldjf.]]

[ask-ursa-tonypeter]

[fic: wicked love] so do the boys ever let themselves wonder about what Peter’s mom would think of their uh, current relationship dynamic?

Peter: I always… I like to think that she'd understand, wherever she is. Dad loves me. We only ended up this way because I was sick. He's not hurting me, and-- he wouldn't hurt me. Ever.

She'd probably… she'd probably be disappointed that I… y'know… with how everything started. But I… I hope that she'd understand that, too. That I'm trying to make up for it, and be good for him, and be-- better.

It's probably all wishful thinking. But I want to think that she'll be happy as long as we're happy, even if it looks like this.

[ask-ursa-tonypeter]

[db kidnapping au] in the MCU we see Tony create the iron man suit as a result of Afghanistan & see Tony attempt to create a “suit of armor around the world” as a result of the chitauri invasion. Do you see Tony (Peter’s brother ) after having Peter back & learning about the multiverse gain that motivation to create the next Big Thing & start thinking more about how to protect people? Or is Tony less scummy but still mainly preoccupied with Peter?

[[🐻ursa interlude🐻

Ooh interesting question! I don't think Pyrite!Tony would have, like, "putting my life on the line for the general public"-level development like canon Tony, but figuring out how the multiverse works and how to safeguard against it definitely is one of his goals in the aftermath of Peter's return! In a large part for Peter, yes, but also because he can recognize what a threat that could pose on a broader scale as well.

Other than that, I've mentioned before that in the course of trying to help law enforcement track down Peter, he (and Howard) definitely advanced the fields of forensic/investigative technology by like, decades. (Which is part of why he was so ready to believe Peter's multiverse story-- even after all of Tony's advances on the investigation, all the evidence still pointed to Peter disappearing into thin air, because. Well. He did!) After being so invested in that for so long, I think he'd continue to put money and time towards better methods of locating missing persons/solving their cases!

So in general-- yes, I think Tony would come out of the experience a less self-centered person with bigger impulses towards helping other people, but he wouldn't necessarily develop canon Tony's massively altruistic bent! The other things would be background goals, and he'd still primarily be focused on Peter, trying to do what he could to make Peter feel safe, and trying to make up for how he treated Peter in the past.]]

[ask-ursa-tonypeter]

[fic: wicked love] Peter, do you want to top Tony? Is talking about positions something you’ve done together?

Oh! I… really haven't thought about it? I like what we already do plenty, so I just haven't really… Well, and even when it comes to what we normally do, we haven't really had a big conversation about it or anything? We kind of just… go with the flow. Like obviously if one of us is tired or something we might say "let's do this" in the moment to be most comfortable or whatever, but we haven't really… Huh.

I guess.... yeah, I guess I could ask him! I mean, there's no reason not to try it out, right? It would be weird not to ever try it, so-- I should see what it's like! If he wants to. It felt kind of weird to think about when you first asked, but if we both liked it… maybe that would be really nice?

[ask-ursa-tonypeter]

[db kidnapping au] Are there any memories that particularly haunt Peter from his time with SIM?

[[cw: standard "soft" noncon warning for this universe, physical abuse, mentions of sexual and non-sexual strangulation, vague depiction of pre-canon character death/murder, passing thoughts of potential addiction and self-harm, general misery]]

Lying to his parents was inevitable, but Peter had mostly been honest with Tony since he got home.

Mostly.

The other Tony did hit him once. Just the once, and Peter eventually understood why it happened, so he almost didn't even hold it against him.

Peter had been staring at the ceiling, tracing the pattern of stick-on stars there with his eyes while he waited for Tony to finish. The stars were juvenile, but Peter got so bored sometimes, and Tony let him do basically anything he wanted with decorating his room, so— stars. In different sizes, mapping out actual constellations and fictional ones alike, and Peter liked to find new patterns in them to name himself.

Maybe he'd rearrange them when Tony was at work tomorrow. Maybe he'd see if Tony would get mad if he found some of them in the garbage disposal. Maybe he'd spell out HELP on the massive penthouse windows, just to see if JARVIS would drug him for it even when there was no chance of anyone helping him anyway.

Maybe he'd swallow one whole. Just one of the tiny dime-sized ones. Or five, or ten. How many before JARVIS stepped in? How long would Tony leave him alone, if he got sick?

"Peter," Tony sighed roughly, leaning in for a warm, lingering kiss, almost wholesome if not for the mingling of their panting breaths; the tackiness of Peter's come pooled on his stomach.

Tony liked kissing, during. That was a difference from Peter's brother, who would kiss him before or after but not usually during. But this Tony always wanted to kiss him, even though— or maybe because— Peter hadn't wanted to let him do it in the beginning; had always turned his face away until he was too wrung-out to resist.

And then eventually it got to be too hard to resist at all, and now it was always this: Peter on his back and Tony pumping into him, brushing kisses against his neck and jaw and lips, breathing his name and telling him 'you're perfect' and 'so gorgeous' and 'I love you.'

The same thing, all the time. Gentle. Tender. Loving.

Monotonous.

That was really all that Peter was thinking when he did it. He was only half-hard even though it had really been a while since the last time Tony made him come, and he was bored of sweet kisses and tender caresses and 'I love you' and looking at those fucking stars.

So when Tony pulled back to look down at him, reverent and possessive and who knows what else, Peter reached for one of his hands, took it in his own, and pulled it over his throat.

He'd done it with his brother before. Not actual choking, because Tony said that was dangerous even if you were careful, even for professionals, so he wouldn't do it. But he'd put his hand over Peter's throat and let the weight of his fingers settle there, gentle, nothing constricting. And even if Peter hadn't liked it himself, seeing the way it made his brother's eyes spark with molten want would've done it for him.

Tony's eyes didn't go dark and hot, this time. Peter barely had time to process the change in his expression at all, actually— widening eyes, a slack mouth— before there was a burst of movement and Peter was suddenly looking at the wall to the right of his bed, blinking away spots with the taste of copper in his mouth and a searing heat on his cheek.

He looked back at Tony, startled and confused and so disoriented that it wasn't until he saw Tony's own expression of dawning horror that it actually sank in what had happened:

Tony had hit him.

Tony had hit him.

"Baby," Tony said weakly, a totally foreign sound from him, just one more dizzying detail to process. "Petey, wait, no, I'm sorry—"

He cried, too, when Peter burst into tears. He held Peter close and kissed the top of his head and said, frantic and shaking, 'I didn't mean to' and 'you scared me' and 'I'm sorry, I'm so sorry.'

It took Peter a long time to get ahold of himself. He wailed and sobbed into his pillow like a toddler, curling away from Tony's desperate apologies with panic clawing at his throat and feeling so, so stupid— for freaking out over a slap like he hadn't been asking Tony to choke him, for trying to change things from the safety of routine simply because he was bored, for thinking he was actually something special or precious and protected, for ever letting himself believe even for a second that Tony wouldn't really hurt him—

"I love you, sweetheart," Tony was saying when Peter could finally really hear him again, burnt out on tears, and his own voice was still scratchy and thick with misery. "I didn't mean to. Oh— there you go, honey, it's okay, let me see—"

His fingers were gentle on the unharmed side of Peter's face when Peter sat up to let him look, but Peter's head still hurt all over. There was a sharp pain inside his mouth where his cheek had split against the ridge of his teeth, and a headache underscored the deep throbbing on the whole left side of his face. Tony made him open his mouth to check the cut and watch him test his tongue against his teeth to make sure none of them were loose, face pinched with emotion.

"I could've really hurt you," Tony said, helpless and horrified. "Baby, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry."

Peter's voice felt like a wisp of a thing, buried and frozen under an avalanche of fear, but he had to ask. He had to know, so he could make sure it didn't happen again—

"Why did you hit me?" he asked, wobbly and plaintive and babyish.

Tony looked near tears again. His own voice was a whisper when he said, "Petey, you know why. You know why. Please don't do that to me again, baby; I'll never hurt you again but you can't do that to me."

And even if Peter didn't know why, didn't know what Tony was talking about, he knew what to say.

"I'm sorry," he said, looking down at his lap. "I won't do it again."

It took a long time for the bruise to go away. Tony got him painkillers in the meantime— ridiculous ones at first, way too strong even considering how tender the whole left side of his face was. They felt really, really nice to take, all floaty without being boring and numb, and Peter was almost tempted to keep them— he could bear living like this, if he got to feel like that all the time— and if things had been a little different, he might have.

But under the circumstances, it would've been a total waste. Because as much as it hurt— as scary as it had been— it only took Peter a single day to recognize the opportunity in front of him, and to realize he needed to stay as sharp as he could.

Because that next day, Tony didn't ignore what he said even once.

He let Peter stay in bed to sleep in without a complaint. He went to get Peter's replacement painkillers the moment Peter said he didn't like the ones he'd been given. He asked if Peter actually wanted to be held and cuddled in bed, and he retreated to the living room when Peter said no. 

He kissed Peter's hands and forehead and unmarred cheek, and absolutely nowhere else.

The bruise was huge and ugly when Peter could finally bring himself to look at it in the mirror. Mottled and dark, the striped impressions of fingers radiating out towards his temple and ear made his own hands want to shake again, but—

It didn't matter what it looked like. It didn't matter that it had hurt. It didn't even really matter that Tony could do it again.

What mattered is that if he flinched when Tony reached for him, and made his voice very soft, and looked toward the floor with the purple of that bruise angled ever-so-slightly outward, Tony would give him whatever he wanted.

He got to sleep alone in his bed. He got to shower by himself. He got to go days at a time without once having to lay on his back, legs spread and mind drifting while he watched the illusory spray of stars across his ceiling.

He got open access to the lab.

He didn't push his luck. He was careful. He didn't even look in the multiverse machine's direction for the first week he was allowed in the lab by himself while Tony was at work. He only slept alone for two days before he asked Tony to join him again. He slowly peppered in chaste kisses— his mouth did still hurt— until he was ready to gradually, gradually go back to their old routine.

There was a part of him that wanted to see if it would last, of course. To see if somehow, miraculously, Tony would just leave him be, even once the bruise had faded.

But he couldn't risk losing his chance. The thought of how Tony might shorten his leash if he had to drag Peter back to him instead of Peter coming willingly was haunting, so Peter circled back to him as soft and sweet as ever, like he didn't even know the leash was there.

He tried not to call himself names over it. He tried not to feel ashamed. He didn't do a very good job, until—

The glowy stars were kept on the top shelf in his closet. He dragged out a step-stool to get them one day once the bruise had long faded and left only his new hopes and fears and incremental freedoms behind.

It was only a whim that made him press a few of those little plastic stars to the closet ceiling.

It was only chance that he found that hidden panel, and the red mask behind it.

'Syncing data,' the HUD read when Peter put the mask on.

'Extremis,' the hidden notes in that final video recording read, discovered by a different Peter living a different life.

'—but not enough to do you the kindness of sharing some last words,' Tony said in that same video, and Peter's hands were shaking so hard by then that he didn't manage to rip the mask off in time to miss the desperate, strangled noises that its microphone had last recorded.

He cried for a long time after that, but it did help, in the end. He finally understood some things— precious, invaluable things— and they were worth a morning spent sobbing on the closet floor.

First: he knew why Tony had hit him, and he really did believe that it wouldn't happen again.

And second, with more urgent clarity than ever—

That he needed to get out of there. No matter what he had to do and who he had to be to make that happen.

He put the mask back on once he'd stopped crying. He fast-forwarded through a confrontation in a warehouse, and a long dizzying swing back to an unfamiliar mansion, and an uncannily familiar voice muttering to itself as its owner keyed in the access code for a panic room.

"Pause," Peter said when the notes for Extremis were once more filling the screen, and he started to read.

[ask-ursa-tonypeter]

[fic:YNYD] so when Tony told Peter about his fantasy of eating him out while Peter wears his MIT sweater, Peter seemed surprised and flustered by it. What else was Peter thinking about (basically I’m sooo curious to hear what his inner monologue was during that scene or shortly afterwards when he had time to really think on Tony’s fantasy.)

Peter: Oh, man, this is embarrassing to talk about.

It was just-- really, super hot out of nowhere, and I didn't know Tony would, like-- he'd been kind of uncomfortable talking about stuff like that before so I wasn't really expecting something like that, and-- and I kind of didn't know back then whether that was something that people did in real life or just in porn?

S-so it was just surprising and really hot and I figured it would feel good if it was something Tony liked to do, so. Thinking about it was… good.

And the sweater thing was just, like… It meant he really wanted me, you know? Like… not only did he love me, but he'd thought about-- clothes I'd look good in, and wanting me in his clothes, and… It just made me feel really really, um, sexy, I guess. And close to him.

Anyway! That's enough about our dirty talk!

[ask-ursa-tonypeter]

Can we talk abt the first laugh, the first smile after uh Pyrite and Double Blind Peters’ trauma? Was it over a dog video? Tony saying something that was so emotionally mature and it crystallizes everything for Peter that he’s safe now? Maybe it’s a traumatic type of laugh like, angsty to the max, wow I don’t have to worry about my virginity anymore?

Peter woke to the sound of arguing.

"—read one article, and you decided to just go off on your own, pick one out and bring it home without even asking?"

"Yep, that's about the size of it."

He sat up slowly on the couch, limbs leaden with exhaustion and eyes bleary. He'd passed out in the living room after only catnaps all night, but no matter how deeply sleep had pulled him under, he couldn't sleep through Tony and Howard arguing anymore.

"You could have at least taken him with you," Howard's voice floated in from the hallway, and from the sound of his and Tony's steps, they were headed Peter's way.

There was another sound mixed in with their dull footfalls, though— a kind of jingling like jostled keys.

"He wouldn't have come," Tony said as he rounded his way into the living room, but Peter was already preoccupied by what had made it into the room just before him.

It was a dog. Big enough to come up to Tony's knee with a coat of wavy copper fur, blazes of white at its chest and paws. It was sniffing the carpet busily as it came into the living room, tail moving at a steady wag, but its head came up abruptly when it spotted Peter staring from the couch.

"Hey, kid, you're awake," Tony said, and he dropped the red leash clipped to the dog's collar. It promptly trotted over to Peter, tail wagging double-time, and occupied itself sniffing his knees. "Happy early birthday."

Peter looked between him and the dog, still sluggish with sleep.

"...My birthday isn't 'til summer," he said, turning his hand up on his knee so the dog could snuffle into it. Its wet nose was cool against his palm while it took in his scent, and he slowly pet its head, dazed.

"Yeah, that's why it's early," Tony said. He shrugged, and then spread his arms wide in celebration. "Congratulations, Pete, it's a girl. The shelter said her name is Eunice of all godawful things, but I know you can save her from that fate."

"You don't have to keep her if you don't want to, Peter," Howard said reassuringly, but he shot a pointed frown at Tony. "Or if you want a different pet, we can get you one that you've picked out yourself."

The dog sat, leaning her weight against Peter's leg while he scratched her ears. She was watching him with bright interest, dark eyes trained on his face and her mouth parted in a gentle doggy smile.

Her fur was really soft. He'd had lots of soft things in the tower, piled with plush throws and silk sheets and buttery-smooth pajamas, but he still couldn't help but find them comforting.

"...Did you get her toys or anything?" he asked, ruffling her fur with both hands.

"Left 'em at the front." Tony rocked onto the balls of his feet, fidgeting, obvious even out of Peter's peripheral vision. "Wanna see?"

In typical Tony fashion, there were bags and bags of dog toys and walking harnesses and different varieties of dog food on the patio. Tony and Howard watched as Peter picked through them, thinking vaguely that maybe he'd offer the dog a toy from each kind of category to see what she liked best.

"You could've let him pick something," Howard murmured disapprovingly, never, ever satisfied.

"I'm picking right now," Peter said, not looking up as he dug out a plush squirrel with a huge fluffy tail from the first bag. "He just brought the store here."

"...Well, that's true," Howard said after a pause. Waiting for Tony to interject with something smug, probably, but Tony was quiet where he was holding the dog's leash again to keep her from digging into the pet store bags herself. Howard cleared his throat then, and his voice was more gentle when he asked, "You think you'll like it, then? Having a dog?"

The dog took the plush squirrel when Peter handed it to her, dropping to lay on the patio so she could gnaw on it with her tail wagging furiously, but her head came up hopefully when Peter shifted his weight back towards the bags. Not a mega-hit, then. Maybe a squeaky toy?

…Howard had asked him something— right, he wanted to know—

"He wouldn't let me have one," Peter said, unthinking.

—and froze. He hadn't meant to say— ugh, stupid—

He rushed to busy himself digging through the bags to distract from his stinging cheeks, and hurriedly mumbled, "I mean, obviously not a dog because I couldn't take it outside, but like— a cat or a turtle or a… I think he just, didn't want me to get attached to anything else, so—"

'Stop making it awkward,' he begged himself, desperately dragging a squashy orange squeaky bone out of the bag and giving it a squeeze to cover up his family's frozen silence. 'They don't want to hear about it; just shut up—'

There was a sudden rush of jangling, and Peter looked up just in time to see the dog tangle herself in her leash as she spun in a giddy circle, landing on her side with an audible oof. His eyes widened with concern, but before he could even move towards her she sprang back to her feet and dove into a play-bow, enthusiasm fully restored.

Her tail was wagging so hard that it made her entire back half wiggle with it, and it was— ridiculous and silly and perfect somehow, the way she was so entirely oblivious to the tension. There they all were, paralyzed by mortification and guilt and the weight of said and unsaid things, and she may as well have been the happiest dog alive with just the promise of some chewy latex and a squeaker.

Peter scoffed a laugh, grinning, and wagged the toy towards the dog's face so that she could eagerly snatch it out of his hand.

"I think she might have a favorite," he said while she squeaked her new toy in a rapturous frenzy. He glanced up to trade a grin with Tony, but—

Tony was staring at him, expression like a wound, all raw shock. He gathered himself after half a beat when Peter's smile started to drop, fixing his expression and giving a nonchalant shrug.

"Gotta love a lady that knows what she wants," he said, and looked towards Howard. "Dad, do you wanna get Mom?"

"...Yes," Howard said, belated and somehow dazed, and he cleared his throat again. "Yes, ah… The dog seems like a perfect fit; Maria should meet her. Why don't— why don't you let her off her leash, Peter, and you can play with her in the yard?"

"...Okay," Peter said, feeling a little lost and off-balance, but— Tony's bizarre hurt hadn't turned itself into defensiveness, and Howard had actually praised one of Tony's ideas, so maybe everything was okay?

The dog streaked down the patio steps into the yard when Peter threw her squeaky bone for her, a bolt of copper and unrestrained delight, and it was almost startling to see something move so fast when he'd gotten used to the stillness of a life entirely indoors. He couldn't help but smile at the way she danced back up to him with her toy successfully reclaimed when he joined her out on the grass, and when he glanced back at the patio, his dad was still lingering in the open doorway, watching.

Howard smiled back before he finally turned to go into the house, which was strange but nice. He used to smile at Peter a lot before everything, but— well, it was just good to know that he could still be something for his parents other than baggage.

Tony came down into the yard to stand with him as Peter threw the dog's toy again. Watching her race after it, Peter felt steady enough to ask, "Why are you guys being weird?"

Tony didn't answer right away. Peter wasn't really nervous anymore after seeing his dad's smile, but he glanced over, curious, and Tony looked away.

"S'just nice to see you happy, kid," he said gruffly, eyes trained back towards the house. He swallowed hard and added, "Mom'll like her too. I bet she'll want to put her in sweaters and stuff."

"Oh," Peter said. "...Yeah, that would be cute."

He knelt down when the dog came back to him this time, ruffling her fur and feeling the soft warmth of her simple happiness under his hands. She wiggled from the attention, dark eyes crinkled with contentment and tongue lolling out ridiculously around her toy even as she nosed towards his face. She really was crazy cute.

It was nice that his family was happy because he was happy, he decided. That was normal. That was how it was supposed to be. Being watched so closely for his reactions reminded him a little of— well— but that was different. They weren't looking for— a performance, or compliance, or a 'thank you' that he didn't mean.

Tony would've been sad if he didn't want the dog, probably, but he wouldn't have insisted that she was staying because Peter really did like her and just needed time to figure that out. That was a difference, just like Tony's brown eyes and the careful distance he kept between them, and it was a difference that mattered.

Tony cleared his throat.

"What are you gonna name her?" he asked, shifting his weight in an awkward fidget. "I know you're not going to leave the poor gal stuck with Eunice."

Peter scratched her ears as he gave it some thought, and smiled.

"Leia," he said. Maybe tonight she could lay with him on the couch and he could introduce her to her namesake.

"A classic," Tony said.

Peter gave her ears one last ruffle before he stood, playfully wrestling the squeaky bone away from her to give it another throw. He stood with Tony as she raced off again, and before she'd made her turn to come back, he said, "Thank you."

'Of course, baby,' Tony would have said in the tower, or even here a year and half ago, if their parents had been away. And he would have pressed for a kiss, sweetened by Peter's gratitude.

"No problem, kid," Tony said, and they stood together quietly in the fresh spring chill, watching as Leia filled the yard with tracks of uncomplicated joy.

[ask-ursa-tonypeter]

I've actually got two questions, and didn't know whether to separate them. Oh, well. I've been wondering, what will happen eventually for Pyrate Peter and Tony? I can imagine that this a spoiler that you will explore in next works, so I understand if you can't answer, but man, I just can't help thinking. It's such a bomb waiting to go off. Not just the feelings involved; the way Peter is basically all in but might be too young to recognize it as love, or to even realize how messed up the power imbalance would be and the shady circunstances in which they first came to make out - and then Tony, who is getting deeper and deeper into the mud, sliding down with no chance to crawl back up, trying to convince himself that he's not gone on his baby brother. But also the whole morality of it and the aspect of Tony taking advantage of Peter, seeing it even as a game. On top of all of that you still have Howard and Maria, and the whole problem that would be dating your brother while being one of the most famous families in the country. It's just not the fact of Maria and Howard finding out, like that one ask talked about, but just the notion that any road might lead to complicated branchs and difficult avenues. What would a happy ending look like for them? Would they be able to keep up the charade their whole lives? Would Peter feel groomed and go no contact? So many questions... Then, the second one, more of a prompt than an actual question. If you have any plans for continuing Kidnapped!au, I'd love to see the exact conversation Other!Peter has with Pyrite!Tony when Other!Peter and Pyrite!Peter make it to Pyrite!Peter's reality of origin. Like, the shovel talk, the warning; the I hope this goes without saying, but you are never touching him again. Would he threaten him? Use a little bit of Spidey intimidation tactic? I love Pyrite so much. Best Starker AU ever.

[[🐻ursa interlude🐻

Aww thank you I'm so glad you enjoy this universe! I admit the Pyrite boys take up a LOT of space in my brain haha so it makes me happy when other folks are interested. The things you talked about here are indeed a lot of the things that will be discussed in the sequel, which, mild basic premise spoilers, will follow the brothers as their relationship changes/develops over the years! Lots to dig into there and I hope you enjoy the eventual outcome 👀

Aaaand as far as the kidnapping AU, wellllll:]]

"Tony, can you show me Pete's room? He asked me to make a few changes," Peter said.

Tony— this younger Peter's Tony, Peter Stark's Tony, and it would've creeped Peter out a little that they were brothers even before knowing everything else—rose to his feet, looking appropriately haunted as he struggled to tear his eyes away from where Pete was still huddled with his parents on the couch, all of them with shaky hands and red-rimmed eyes and unsteady voices even hours later.

He was such the perfect picture of a caring older sibling, shellshocked by his little brother's return, that it was hard to imagine him doing the things that Pete had quietly told Peter about back in that warped version of Stark Tower.

But it was hard to imagine a Tony being the cruel dictator Peter had seen with his own eyes in that world, too, and after managing that situation, Peter wasn't feeling charitable.

It was convenient that the Stark family home had such long, isolated hallways. Peter closed the door behind them when they reached Pete's room anyway, but not because he was afraid of being overheard.

"Pete doesn't want your parents to know this, but he asked me to tell you," he said in response to Tony's vaguely questioning expression. He leaned against the wall, arms crossed, and continued, "I'm proof enough of the whole multiverse thing, yeah? So we're going to skip the part where you don't believe me when I tell you that the guy who kidnapped Pete was another Tony Stark."

Peter didn't say anything as he watched Tony's expression shift from incomprehension to shock to— there it was: horror.

"He— but then he— what does that mean?" Tony shook his head, wild, and it was fascinating to see any version of him thrown this off-balance. "No, no, that's—"

"Yeah, no," Peter interrupted, pushing off the wall. "We're skipping that part, I said. What it means is that the whole time Pete has been gone, the creep that he's spent every single day with for the last year, the creep that's been keeping him prisoner and abusing him and forcing him to do stuff he didn't want to do, the creep he's been living in fear of being murdered by, looked exactly like you, plus thirty-odd years. That's what it means."

Tony stared at him with a kind of numb dismay that seemed genuine enough, but Peter stayed quiet, eyebrows raised and waiting for a response. He wasn't going to rush in with softening disclaimers or rug-sweeping platitudes. He'd told the truth, and it was Tony's turn to talk.

He saw the change on Tony's face once he realized Peter was letting the words and all of their implications dangle there on purpose. Tony flinched back, and he had the audacity to look offended as he said, heated, "I wouldn't—"

"You wouldn't?" Peter's voice was sharp, cutting off Tony's defensive protest at the knees, and it was gratifying to watch his eyes widen with the recognition that Peter knew.

"Yeah," Peter said, and maybe it was a point in Tony's favor that he didn't shrink away as Peter stalked closer. "Me and Pete had a lot of time to talk while we were figuring out how to get us both home, you know? So I really hope that this goes without saying, but—"

He laid a heavy hand on Tony's shoulder, and leaned in close when he said, "You are never going to touch him again. Understood?"

So much about this Tony was jarring and unfamiliar. His family tie to his Pete. The things he had done. The youth of his face; the way he was closer to Peter's age than to the Tony that Peter knew. The way he stared at Peter, pale and frightened, because Peter's Tony had never had a reason to be afraid of him.

But Peter knew what regret looked like on Tony. He knew what self-hatred looked like on Tony— the furrow in his brow, the downturned corners of his lips, the crack of helplessness in his eyes that wasn't resignation but rather the desperation to fix.

So when Tony finally, finally nodded, silent, just a tiny wobble of his head with his eyes trained on the floor, Peter let his hand drop away from his shoulder.

"Good," he said, and he stepped back with a firm nod of his own. "Because Pete doesn't want to blow up another part of his life, and he deserves to have what he wants, but I'm going to be staying in touch. And I'm not going to let him get hurt again, and neither is anyone else in this house. Yeah?"

Tony nodded again, his eyes squeezed shut, and this time he managed to whisper, "Yeah."

And that was something. Peter didn't know how much it meant that Tony was agreeing with him; that he felt guilty. He'd wondered before— if he'd had the opportunity to talk to Westcott afterwards, would he have felt guilt? Would he have bowed his head with shame and been unable to meet Peter's eyes, like this unfamiliar Tony?

He didn't know. He couldn't know, and he wasn't sure he would've felt strong enough to take the opportunity even if he could. But this was what Pete had said he wanted, and Peter wasn't going to take another choice away from him if he could help it.

"Awesome," Peter said, and he cocked his head. "Pete said he wants to move his room closer to your parents'. I'll do the heavy lifting, but help me pack up the little stuff?"

Tony's head jerked up as he was clearly startled by the ask, but it only took a few beats for his expression to wash out with relief— relief and focus, and oh, Peter recognized that too.

"Okay," Tony said weakly, and he cleared his throat. "I— yeah. I can do that."

Peter watched as he moved with renewed purpose, packing trinkets and framed photos into boxes with scrupulous care and thrumming with the energy of having something to do with his regrets. His eyes were still downturned and his shoulders hunched with shame, but— nothing could've been more familiar to Peter than a Tony who was doubling down on fixing something he thought he had broken. And if Peter was still suspicious— still planning on keeping close tabs on Pete, still ready to dig up more insight into Tony's true feelings and exact intentions surrounding his little brother— that was enough to have him hoping that maybe, maybe, maybe things would be okay.

[ask-ursa-tonypeter]

[fic:YNYD] How would each of the Avengers react to Peter and Tony’s relationship when — let’s say — they are celebrating their 2nd anniversary together?

[[🐻ursa interlude🐻

By two years in, while I definitely don't think everyone would be fully on team "this is an awesome idea and they're perfect for each other," their teammates all would've more or less adjusted to the reality of Tony and Peter being in a long-term relationship!

I think a few folks (Steve, Clint and Sam come to mind, in addition to Pepper, Happy and May) would still have quiet reservations about the whole thing to varying degrees, but not to the point of it actually impacting their individual relationships with Tony anymore. (Or Peter, but like, no one was mad at Peter in the first place haha.) And the anniversary itself might be a little bit of a… not tipping point, but a kind of shift towards, "well, okay, they've made it this far and that's more than I was expecting, so maybe things will turn out different than I thought," haha!

For everyone else, by year two I think it would mostly be a non-issue! Still not necessarily in the sense of "awesome idea," but in the sense of "sure whatever, if they break up it'll be a normal break-up and not a Big Messy Life-Ruining Unhealthy Shit Is Happening Here break-up." Wanda, Vision, Bucky and Natasha (and Thor, whenever he learned about it) were bbbbasically somewhere on the scale of "not worried at all/actively supportive" to "ehh, let's give 'em a chance to see how it shakes out" from the start, so it wouldn't be a huge adjustment!

Bruce was a little further over the line into actively concerned/thinking it was a bad idea but giving them the benefit of the doubt, and of the "initially had Very Serious Reservations" group, I think Rhodey would've been fastest to recognize that Tony and Peter really were giving the relationship their all and working really hard to avoid any aforementioned big messy life-ruining unhealthy shit. They'd definitely get to a place of it being a non-issue by year two as well!]]

[ask-ursa-tonypeter]

[open to Tonys from any fic in the Ursa cinematic multiverse] how has the uh traumatic events affected or changed Tony and Peter’s love language? Or now that affects how they show each other affection? I want to think there’s at least one Peter’s physical touch love language has been completely ruined

[[🐻ursa interlude🐻 because the boys themselves would not be into this lens of introspection I don't think

wicked love: Tony is a little hot'n'cold when it comes to the physical stuff, because sometimes he can settle into their physical relationship as a new normal and sometimes he will have an acute attack of the guilties (or just, like, legitimately be touch-averse for a bit due to lingering trauma over what he and Peter did together before he knew Peter's identity.)

Peter meanwhile doesn't necessarily need praise but does want to know that he's wanted because he worries a lot about what Tony might be thinking that he's not saying out loud.

double-blind: Peter is actually MORE clingy and in need of physical touch than before everything went down with SIM! Tony………. is too but he doesn't like that about himself so he feels conflicted about it, haha. They are also both traumatically codependent and I guess you can call that a version of "quality time" lmao.

perpetual motion: I'm working on it!! 👀

DB kidnapping AU/outside the program: oh yeah Peter's relationship with touch is ALL fucked up. Also words of affirmation. Also gifts. Actually maybe just all of them. The boy is Unwell. Relevant snippet:

He did hug his parents, though. Sometimes, when he could stand to. Sometimes he wanted to cling to his mom like a parasite and never let go, burning like lungs without air to be held by someone that actually loved him, that actually wouldn't hurt him, to have the memory seared into his skin of what family and love and safety actually felt like. And sometimes it set him on edge even to have someone sit too close to him on the couch, like the next accidental brush against his body might finally be the touch that he could never come back from, and sometimes his feelings flipped back and forth between need and 'nonono' so quickly he was just left sitting with an agonizing, indecipherable ache that he didn't know how to get away from.

[ask-ursa-tonypeter]

[open to Tonys from any fic in the Ursa cinematic multiverse] What are the ways that Tony indulges in Peter’s hair sensitivity/ hair pulling kink?

Pyrite!Tony: It's cute how much of a sucker he is for it. If he's trying to be a brat, if he's feeling shy, if he's trying to hold off when I want 'im over the edge, I can just get my hand in his hair and he's like putty.

Even in public a little tug will get him tenting his pants, which is way too much fun for how careful I have to be pulling that move. He'll squirm all the way until we're home; it's great.

[ask-ursa-tonypeter]

Okay! Since we’re basically in spooky season, how’s Pyrite! And DB!Peter for the holidays? Are they shut-ins? Or! For DB!Peter, how does Cured Tony try to manage a Christmas? I assume he tries his best, but he’s dealing with all the fall out, I can see if he drops the ball on things like Thanksgiving

[[🐻ursa interlude🐻

For kidnappingAU!Pete, I could see Howard taking the family to some exclusive ski resort for the holidays so Peter could get out of the house and do something fun without it being super public/busy! Peter would be on-board for that, and it would be nice to have a total change of scenery for the holidays to keep his mind off the Christmas he spent with SIM.

For the DBs, loool it would depend a lot on how close we want to say the holidays were at the time of the original fic, I guess. If Tony was still smack-dab in the middle of figuring out how to extricate himself from organized crime + a treason plot without getting himself/Peter killed then yeah, the holidays would understandably not be a big priority for either him or Peter!

But once they were settled in whatever way that turned out to be, I think cured!Tony would also want to change things up and start some new holiday traditions with Peter to have a firmer separation between the years he spent with Peter as SIM and their lives post-cure. Peter would appreciate that!]]

[ask-ursa-tonypeter]

For Pyrite! Peter, did he experience any victim-blaming from his parents? How has he navigated the media fallout? I’m just so curious how he’s able to explain away everything and if Howard has picked up on any clues. At some point we know Tony learns the full story, and maybe he can run interference afterwards when Peter gets interrogated but until this, how does Tony help behind the scenes with his limited understanding?

[[🐻ursa interlude🐻

Peter would kind of be forced to just say "I don't know/I don't remember" about a lot of things (how the abduction happened, "idk I didn't see anything I was blindfolded" about the trip to be returned to his family bc otherwise he would theoretically have an idea of where he had been kept,) which would be very suspicious to law enforcement, but I think after some pressure to make sure Peter wasn't hiding things to protect the culprit his parents would be on his side without any suspicion that it was actually a runaway situation etc.! Rather than victim-blaming I think it would turn into a "how dare you accuse my child of lying" thing haha.

And I do think they would respect what he wanted as far as staying out of the public eye as much as possible and so on, so he wouldn't have a lot of navigating the media to do himself-- I think he probably genuinely would not want to know/see what was being said about the case so it would mostly just be imagining what could be said vs actually having to contend with, like, people claiming it was a hoax or he was just with a boyfriend or he had been abducted by aliens (close by no cigar, conspiracy theorists!) or etc. As he got older that might change but like, idk, he's rich, he could get away with being a recluse until he felt ready to not be.

Tony I think would mostly be helpful in terms of helping deflect questions from the holes in Peter's stories by deliberately pissing off Howard to distract him from probing deeper (because even trusting Peter, Howard would have questions!), or playing the "stop being mean to my brother you assholes" card with media/law enforcement. He and Peter would not necessarily be on "actively collaborating together to come up with a cover" terms or anything imo!]]

[ask-ursa-tonypeter]

What are some healthy hobbies or self-care activities that Peter from DB and Pyrite try to take up post-trauma? Does Tony from DB also try to take care of himself? I like to imagine Peter makes collages of New York City. How is the therapy schedule like? Can they even be forthcoming in therapy? But also, DB-Tony was basically ruler of the free world almost so maybe his money can really pay for secrecy?

[[🐻ursa interlude🐻

The idea of the Peters making photo collages (reveling in being able to explore and experience the city after being kept captive, perhaps?) is very sweet! For DB!Peter, I feel like once he got to a point where he could start taking steps forward for himself, he would also majorly throw himself into charitable work as a replacement for Spider-man/his usual "I'm going to channel my own trauma into helping people" coping mechanism.

Pyrite!Peter could also get there eventually, but I think he'd have a lot harder of a time wanting to get back in the public eye when what happened to him was a huge media circus in contrast to DB!Peter! Even without any uncomfortable details being released to the public, he was abducted for months and months-- people can do the math on that regardless, oof. I think for him a lot of it would be leaning into having personal agency again and exploring that through different means of self-expression with stuff he could do at home. I could see him getting into music as an outlet!

Unfortunately I don't think actual therapy is in the cards for either of them 😢 Their situations are just both so emotionally complex and tied up in insane sci-fi bullshit that even with their respective families' blessing/influence I don't think they'd ever actually feel comfortable speaking honestly about what happened.

I have been poking at a third installment to the whole kidnapping AU scenario that looks at Pyrite!Peter's life/relationships with his family after he gets back home (with no real plan, I just add a bit more to the doc every time a new thought occurs to me haha,) and I have a snippet that actually addresses exactly that! Buuuut go in forewarned that it's not really happy healthy recovery vibes and he is very much still in a bad mental health place at the time of this excerpt:

His mom wanted him to see a psychologist. Howard did too, even, or at least he wasn't against it, which— just went to show how fucked up he thought Peter must be, because Peter knew what he thought about men who went to psychologists. Peter had gone noncommittal in his panic. His old patterns colliding with his new ones— the desire to be a good son and go with the flow to make his parents proud, the conditioning that if he let his dismay show on his face it would be taken as an excuse to be pet and coddled and fucked until he was too exhausted to be afraid anymore— and he hated it, he hated himself, he hated that after everything he was still just going to let things happen to him that he didn't want— And then Tony had piped up with, "C'mon, give the kid a little time before you start adding stuff to his plate." Maybe he'd seen the suppressed panic in the tension of Peter's shoulders, or maybe he'd just recognized what a waste of time it would be for Peter to try and talk about anything when he couldn't be honest about what happened. Or maybe he had his own reasons to not want Peter to talk to a therapist, Peter had thought even in the midst of his relief, because he had weird, mean thoughts like that about Tony now.

[ask-ursa-tonypeter]

[fic: wicked love; double-blind; Pyrite] Last question got me thinking - i'm not well-versed in hanahaki trope, so i don't know what would happen if the person gets hanahaki, and then he person who they love dies, but they still love them? Is that an automatic death, or cure, or something else? I'm asking because the idea of SIM!Tony in various AU getting hanahaki intrigues me - what if Tony's feeling in kidnapping!AU develop into something you can call love _after_ his Peter dies, and he kidnaps P!Peter to cope (unsuccessfully)? Or what happens if SIM!Tony in double dads AU actually grows to love Peter and gets hanahaki over it, how would Peter and cured!Tony react? So many possibilities xD xD xD

[🐻ursa interlude🐻

I admit that "oh shit doubledads!SIM with Hanahaki would be a great excuse for Peter and Tony to have to keep him around" was my first thought with that other question haha, given the "if one Tony gets hurt/dies so does the other one" set-up for doubledads! JUICY. How fucked up for Peter, especially since I think he would be the person to be afraid of the easy solution of SIM getting the surgery due to "uhhh if he's this fucked up and evil and hard to control while he's in love with me then how dangerous would he be if he wasn't??" I love it.

I imagine people handle the "what happens to someone if the target of their Hanahaki dies" question in different ways! It's interesting to think about what kidnapping!SIM having Hanahaki over Peter would change for P!Peter-- I imagine he would fluctuate between seeing it as a relief (he would only have to put up with SIM for so long if SIM was dying of Hanahaki!) or a stressor ("what if he decides that if he's dying that means he should just take me with him? what if he keeps refusing to send me home 'til the end and just leaves me stranded here?")

It's also interesting to think about how kidnapping!SIM would react to the tangible evidence that Peter didn't love him back, no matter how hard P!Peter tried to fake it. I almost think he would be slightly less awful because he would understand the need to "seduce" Peter instead of just forging ahead like Peter's feelings would fall in line on their own? But then he'd also be more, like, desperate and pitiful, and very well could end up circling a "if I'm going to die then it's best for us to die together" brand of delusion in his least hinged moments, sssooo. P!Peter just can't catch a break either way I think sdfjsl. It's definitely fun to consider!]