#wonder if the 10th gen knows how cruel their love can be

[akatsuki-tia]

"i can see now how the og post might come across otherwise, but it never was about going "why doesn't the 10th gen care about tsuna??" or anything lol." @hopeswriting

Woops. I didn't actually mean it like that if you’ll believe it. It was more of general statement to answer my own diss on their emotional intelligence and people’s negative sentiment on the way they treat Tsuna’s wishes in general.

But yeah, I do have a good idea of your opinion on the 10th Gen. I’m pretty sure I’ve read every single one of your posts and your Ao3 fanfics on the subjects. And I absolutely loved them. I think your thoughts influenced my own interpretation of them a lot over time.

"like, there's this subtle power dynamic between each other, you know?"

Yeah, I do know. It’s like- a sense of responsibility, you could say? That Tsuna has toward them. He feels responsible for them, for their happiness, their safety, in a different way they feel responsible for his. If anything, the responsibility component in the 10th gen’s wish of happiness and safety for Tsuna is way lesser than Tsuna’s own. Though that doesn’t mean their wish is any less strong for it. And that gap in the sense of responsibility that colors their relationship, leader to subordinate, Sky to Guardian, even as they remain friends and family as well, it influences the direction their actions will take. Nuances the love they share. At least, that’s how I see it.

"but the 10th gen? there's no universe where letting go of tsuna can ever be an option. which also means that they have to do anything they can so tsuna won't be the one to let go of them first, forcing their hands. and if it means it leaves them with only two options to fight for his happiness to the bitter end, either making his pain a little easier to bear by never letting him know the true extent of their own, or letting him know he isn't in this fight alone but watching him hurt even more for it, is it any surprise at all they made the choice they did?"

Yes. You get it. That’s exactly it. I’m glad I was able to get my thoughts across.

"the love makes it worse but it's good enough the end of the road will be loving if nothing else. it's all that matters, even. they don't need it to be anything else but loving."

Yes, yes yes. Love was the beginning, and it’ll be the end, because what else could it be? When it’s the most precious thing they hold, when it’s the whole reason, when it’s the whole point? It’s the love they found, the love they’ll cradle and fight for and bleed for, till the bitter end. This love is the answer to their struggle, the source and reward of their pain.

It's no choice at all really, when it’s drinking the poison or dying from the thirst.  

[ID: Three panels from the manga Katekyo Hitman Reborn, showing Gokudera Hayato, Sasagawa Ryohei and Yamamoto Takeshi. They say “Woah—!!”, with bright and happy faces while smiling widely. /End ID]

this is their reaction to reborn letting them know about the upcoming inheritance ceremony, and it made me think of that ask i got about how frustrating it can be that the 10th gen seemingly has no problem being/becoming mafia even if it’s the last thing tsuna wants. and i actually didn’t remember this scene, but seeing this it’s only fair to wonder if they do, in fact, even care about tsuna not wanting to become mafia, yeah.

but honestly this reaction feels kind of off to me? and a bit–well, not necessarily ooc, but also not the type of reaction the natural progression of the story should have led to, because they’re literally right out of the future arc here, and we all know how that one went. tho gokudera is one thing because being mafia is all he’s ever known, and becoming vongola, let alone the leaders of vongola and all that it implies, is the best thing and happiest ending that can happen to him, and he still projects that on tsuna and assumes he must feel the same, but yamamoto? whose dad was killed in the future because he was mafia? who was forced to give up on baseball (i.e. his civilian life), even if it was only temporary, so he could give his best trying to make things right again? and ryohei who was so mad (and scared) about tsuna involving kyoko in the mafia any more than she had to to the point he punched him?

like, even putting aside tsuna altogether and how they should care to take into account his wishes on the matter, why would they be happy with the prospect of officially becoming mafia? tho the way the scene is framed they’re solely being happy for tsuna here, and still the question remains because why would they be? don’t they know tsuna at all??

(and not quite relevant, but it’s interesting that hibari’s reaction isn’t shown, and in fact he disappears from the conversion entirely from this point onwards. and i know it’s likely just hibari being hibari and not considering himself part of the group and so not considering himself concerned by any of this but like… interesting.)

[badmcuposts]

A New Favorite Thing

No warnings

Good ole irondad and spiderson as suggested by @dantedeletes

Set like, a week or two after Civil War this is very very very early in their relationship.

Tony wants to learn how this slightly annoying snot-nosed kid from queens manufactured webbing that a genius billionaire can’t replicate for the life of him. In the end, he learns the slightly-annoying-snot-nosed-kid-from-queens is actually a miniature version of himself, and decides to keep him.

-

All Tony wanted was to find out how the kid designed that stupid webbing.

He had spent five-no-six days holed up in the lab over this, and nothing. Pep was getting concerned, rightfully so, that he hadn’t just asked Peter to show him. But how was he supposed to do that? ‘Oh hey buddy can you teach me how to do the thing i have multiple phds in because you’re smarter than me at 12?’ The whole thing was god awful embarrassing.

Which would be exactly the reason as to why Tony was about to burn the whole tower down if she pulled something like this again. Inviting the kid herself like she owned the place. Well, she did, but that wasn’t the point of it all. He didn’t even know what to do with an annoying little kid!

It wasn’t that Tony didn’t trust Peter in his lab. He had seen the kid’s grades. It was more or less worrying about what he was supposed to do in the highly unlikely event that the kid wasn’t as trustworthy as he seemed. If they got in there and Peter couldn’t hold his own, he would be at a total loss to keep control in the lab. There were so many questions, so many worries in case something went wrong.

Was he even old enough for the energy drinks? What else was in the minifridge up in the lab? Bagels? Did he like bagels? What if Peter got scared up in the workshop? Would he fit into Tony’s spare safety goggles? What if he didn’t like the way the workshop was organized? What if Peter didn’t want to be around Tony after this and got himself hurt?

And this would be why Tony really hadn’t contacted Peter, huh? His own insecurity about how he was supposed to continue on with his relationship with a something-year-old child after no doubt traumatizing the poor thing in a battle and then embarrassing him via benching halfway through.

He’d read the countless articles in old newspapers, seen the police files involving the kid. The Parker boy was a ticking time bomb, no doubt about it. If Tony didn’t keep him in line and make sure not to hurt him any more, those special abilities might turn into weapons of mass destruction. And he really didn’t want to start planning for the kid to go to the dark side.

But, it was time to man up and face the music. Or, rather, the child standing three feet away with the most worn duffle bag to ever grace the eyes of someone with the Stark name. Tony gently smiled, raising his hand for a polite shake that Peter took with innocent eagerness and aptitude. God, this kid is definitely gonna break something up there.

“Peter, nice of you to join me. I’d love to talk a bit about that webbing we discussed before.”

Peter’s smile faltered a little, but returned within the second.

“Yeah, Miss Potts said to bring my stuff. Though, if you wanna do me a favor, let’s not break any of it. Technically, I’m borrowing it from the school labs.”

“You don’t have your own equipment?”

Tony was honestly shocked. Where had Peter been making all of this? He couldn’t have been using public school half-ass production level equipment this whole time, could he?

“No, sir. I just make the web fluid during chemistry when the teacher turns around.”

Well, that answers that question. How smart was this kid? A few years of straight As indicated intelligence but, at this rate, shouldn’t he have skipped a few grades?

“Well then, looks like it’s time to get down to business, isn’t it?”

Peter’s breathing managed to begin to replicate the tune of “I’ll Make a Man Out Of You”. This kid...

“Yessir.”

And as they reached the elevator, Friday automatically carrying the pair of nerds to floor 79, Tony finally said it.

“Stop calling me sir, you make me feel older every time you speak than most people do when they remind me that my father was young and spry in the smack dab middle of World War Two.”

“Only if you start referring to this stuff as “web fluid”, Mr. Stark. It’s very important to repect scientific nomenclature in the form given by the original scientist.” “How much of that was a the answer to a science class pretest?” “The whole thing.”

Fair enough, you little-

The elevator came to a halt (smoothly, of course. It’s stark tech) at the workshop. Luckily for Tony, he had plenty of extra space so Peter would feel comfortable. He pointed to a desk a few feet from his own and briefly stated “Set your gear up over there, tell me what chemicals you need.”

Peter, however, didn’t seem to willing to let his host take the lead.

“Oh no, sir, I brought my own stuff. Midtown is loaded with spare bottles. They won’t notice.”

Two could play at that game, couldn’t they? Well, there was always one way to find out.

“Yeah, and you’re gonna leave them in the bag and put them back tomorrow morning.”

“Tomorrow’s saturday.”

“Monday, whatever. My cabinet has a billion variations of every science-related doohickey known to man and it could use some more use. No point wasting all the money that school probably spends with the intent of it being used in class, huh? And what did I say about calling me sir?”

“Sorry, sir.”

The kid was smirking. What did Tony do to deserve such cruel treatment from the universe?

Peter tossed his bag onto the desk with enough force to make any non-enhanced teenager look like they were about to throw a tantrum. But, Peter merely glanced at his hands, sighed, and checked that none of the gear had gotten damaged.

Right, super kid. Not a normal intern. Not an intern at all, technically. Unless...

Nope. Later, Tones.

Tony quickly assisted in the set-up, hoping he could rush this and memorize the formula as quickly as inhumanly possible. And that’s when he noticed, Peter’s notes were in the back of his chemistry notebook. How in pointbreak’s name had nobody figured this kid out yet?

Pushing his lack of faith in humanity and all of its company, Tony unlocked the cabinet of infinite chemicals.

“Alright can you grab me some... uhhhhh.... Salicylic Acid, Touline, Methanol, Carbon Tetrachloride, H-Heptane, Potassium Carbonate, Ethyl Acetate, Hexate, BHA, Sodium Tetraborate, and why not just jump the gun and grab the Cactivator Activated Silica Gel now instead of waiting until later?”

Jesus christ this might as well be a liquid bomb with how little he trusts a child with any of these products. Especially silica gel. Don’t kids get high off of that stuff? No, no, Tony, be a good mentor-figure-thing. Now was the time to let the kid have a little room to make mistakes. Let him blow up the lab now instead of later. Sounds responsible.

“Gotcha, Wiz Kid.”

“First off, if I was a sim, my childhood aspiration would be Rambunctious Scamp.”

Tony deadpanned at Peter for another three minutes and twelve seconds before finally responding.

“I literally have no idea what you are talking about, ever.”

Well, ain’t that the truth. However, if Tony was being honest with himself, a little back and forth did wonders to calm his nerves. Maybe the kid wasn’t all too frightening. More like a kitten in the freezing rain.

“What’s next?”

Peter grabbed the worn notebook and examined the page closely.

“Uhhhh, now we add activator degas for 30 minutes, I think. Or is it 45? Wait a sec, I’ll find it somewhere in my notes.”

“You don’t have it memorized?”

“Well, usually I don’t have an audience.”

“Touché.”

Time continued on like that for the next half hour. Back and forth, quip after quip, each remark from the thir-fif-twe-si-fourteen year old “August 10th, 2001, the day the world wishes had never happened. No, it’s a joke Mr. Stark. More of a gen z kind of thing.” reminding Tony of himself. Perhaps, in another world, he could have been as amazing as Peter Parker was proving to be.

He even introduced Peter to the bots, who immediately decided they had a new brother to play with and went hog wild trying to play ball with the kid who was far more interested in marveling at their hotwiring. To Tony, their designs were juvenile and messy. However, to the teenaged dumpster diver next to him, they were beautiful.

And once time slowed, they finally went back to work.

“Now we need to heat it, slowly! Don’t hurt my baby, Mr. Stark!”

“Your baby?”

“You literally just called a little robot your baby but I’m the weird one, ok.”

“Dum-E has artificial feelings, your super glue wouldn’t care if you magically turned to ash.”

Ok, too far. But the kid took it as a joke, no doubt. He snorted the whole way through his laugh. Snorted.

“How slowly is this supposed to be anyway?”

“For the next 24 hours.”

“24 HOURS? What are we supposed to do until then?”

“I dunno. I can swing over tomorrow and we can finish it up then.”

“Yeah, yeah, sounds good.”

Tony helped Peter load his equipment back up, hoping the kid wouldn’t get caught stealing school property.

“Heck, maybe make it a tradition. Lab days until one of us explodes from too much science.”

And Tony smiled. The brightest, most genuine smile he had ever given in his lifetime.

“You got it, kiddo.”

Yeah, Lab days.

He could get behind that.

It might just be his new favorite thing.