Coming out.

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"MJ how did you come out to your parents?" Peter asked.

"I just thought, that if they are homophobic then I don't want to be their kid, and then I told them," MJ said, she had even put down the book, which was a huge indication that this topic had interested her.

"You make it sound easy," the boy responded. Uncle Ben never viewed him or talked to him the same way after he came out. After that Peter was too afraid to tell May until it was too late. The boy didn't want any of those scenarios to repeat with Tony. Peter had seen and heard of many coming out stories gone wrong, of unconditionally loving parents throwing their children out on the streets. Dad and the rest of the team were the only family he had left and the boy didn't want to lose them.

Coming out to Ned and MJ had been easy, but only because MJ had done all the work for him. Peter had been stressing for the last few weeks about how to tell them, however, his girl friend had beat him to it. "I wonder why we can't get straight A's like Peter?" Ned said with a sad voice pointing at the B- on his Algebra test. "I know why I can't" MJ didn't even look up from the thick book she was holding, "I'm not straight, I'm a lesbian." "That's not it," Peter said smiling, at the fact that at least one person would definitely accept him, "I'm gay, and I still get them." For a few seconds, the boy and the girl had made eye contact, while their other friend shot glares from one of them to the other, nodding and repeating, "Cool." Then they all bursted out laughing.

"Well, if it goes bad, you can always move in with MJ!" Ned announced, not filtering as always.

"Real encouraging, man, thanks," Peter looked at him with fake annoyance.

Ned smiled innocently: "Sorry, bro, maybe I dunno you should leave some hints?"

"I've thought about it, but first, I don't want them to be too obvious, but I'm not sure if he would understand the meaning if they aren't, and second, I kind of want to tell him," he told his friend.

"That's it, the next Sunday you're telling him, I don't care if anybody else is around or isn't, Sunday, breakfast," MJ announced.

"You can't just decide for me!"

"Yes, I can, since you're probably going to die before you do that!" she took the book back in her hands. Peter sighed, knowing she's right.

It was sunny when Peter looked out of the window, well the glass wall, of his bedroom, in the Stark tower. His feet seemed to drag slower through the room than any day before, and his hands were moving slower as he got dressed. On an ordinary Sunday, the boy would have gone to breakfast in his pajamas, but today felt too important. After he had checked his room about a dozen times, not sure what for, he finally opened the door. And his steps seemed way too fast as he made the way through the corridor to the dining space.

When he entered and saw all of the avengers already in their seats, talking over waffles and pancakes (which were better was an ongoing argument). Everybody greeted him, called him sleeping beauty or sleepy bear. Peter had the feeling, like before a storm – it was hot and the coming rain could be felt in the air, the sky was blue, but the presence of dark clouds was strong.

He didn't know when to or how to start, it wasn't something he could just bring up. So he sat down, took a few waffles, put blubbery jam on them, and slowly started to chew, today it was weirdly hard to swallow or to follow any conversations, that were going around.

Soon Steve was getting up – off to draw people in the central park, entertaining themselves in the weekend, that's when Peter got up: "I need to tell you guys something," his voice was quiet, but Steve's super-hearing was still sharp. With the man stopping and Peter standing up, even the ones who didn't hear him went silent soon enough. All eyes were on him, he met his own eyes with Tony's - concerned, understanding, "I have to tell you something important," the boy repeated, "It – it's okey, if you hate me afterwards, just I can't, it's too hard to hide all the time," his voice remained quiet and at the last words the boy could no longer withstand eye-contact with his dad as the worry in his eyes grew, "Please, just afterwards, let me leave, I already have all of my stuff packed," the boy not being able to sleep had taken care of it the previous evening, "just let me leave."

Tony's parental instincts were kicking in. He couldn't imagine anything in the world that would make him despise his son. Did he kill somebody or something? The quietness and trembling of his voice, how he slowly, unconsciously had been slowly stepping back from the table for the entirety of his short speech, now standing about 13 feet away, how afraid his son was, was scaring him.

"I'm – I'm," the word wasn't finding its way out of his lips, everybody was staring at him, waiting, "I'm gay," a whisper. The boy's head was bent down, he didn't want to look up, he didn't want to know their reaction, if he would just keep his head down, it would be alright. It was silent, then a chair squeaked, so loudly. The boy felt footsteps approaching, he knew they belonged to Tony. This was it. These were the first drops of rain falling, right before a storm begins. Peter's shoulders moved closer together and his head lowered even more, afraid of the thunder, afraid of yelling or, or hitting. The man in front of him raised his hand, the boy shut his eyes.

But nothing came, no thunder, no lightning. The sky was blue. The storm had passed, leaving only a few raindrops on the boy's cheeks. Peter was in his dad's arms: "You – You don't hate me?"

"Pete, I could NEVER hate you," Tony's voice was gentle, his so put his hands on his back, "and I'm sorry, that you felt like you can't tell me this," the boy just shook his head, smiling, "I want you to know that I will always accept you, besides, I used to have a fair share of male partners myself ..."

"And I definitely do not need to know about them!"Peter interrupted, making the rest of the table finally come to life with laughter.

The boy jumped a bit, remembering that the two of them weren't the only people in the room. Cautiously he looked into everybody's faces, widely smiling, then they got up and ran into a big group hug. Soon they resumed their breakfast, taking ice cream out for the occasion.

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