With great power comes great responsibility

~ mystisophia 🍒

Let’s be real. Bringing up “Starker” is usually a surefire way to start a war. You’ll instantly get hit with the “But it’s father/son!” and “The age gap is predatory!” comments. And look, the movies give those arguments a whole lot of ammo. The mentorship is the obvious text. But the subtext? The subtext is a messy, electric, and profoundly intimate connection that feels too big to be contained by just one label. For a lot of us, what makes their dynamic so magnetic isn't the paternalism, but the frighteningly equal understanding between two people who are, at their core, two versions of the same story.

They’re both geniuses haunted by the same ghost. The ghost of “my power, my failure, my fault.” Tony builds a suit of armor to atone for his weapons. Peter puts on a mask because he didn’t stop a thief. That’s not just a shared backstory. It’s a shared psychological wound. And nobody else in their lives gets it. Pepper loves Tony but fears his obsession. May loves Peter but can’t know his burden. But Tony and Peter? They look at each other and see a reflection. They speak in a shorthand of guilt and responsibility that feels closer to two traumatized veterans than a dad helping with homework.

This is where the romantic reading plants its flag. It asks: what happens when that recognition isn’t just mentorship, but attraction? What if Peter’s hero-worship of Iron Man curdles into a devastating crush on Tony, the real, vulnerable, exhausting man he meets in the lab at 3 AM? He doesn’t fall for the billionaire. He falls for the insomniac who’s just as broken as he is. And Tony, a man who’s armored his heart as thoroughly as his body, finds himself disarmed by this kid whose moral compass is so innate, so uncynical. It’s a love built not on pedestals, but on seeing each other’s worst flaws and loving the person in spite of, or even because of, them.

And yeah, people yell about the age gap. But in what world are these two mentally the same age? Peter was literally dusted in an alien war and came back to fight a purple titan. He’s been making life-or-death calls since he was fifteen. Tony, meanwhile, is emotionally stunted, a chaotic genius in a mid-life crisis who connects more with his A.I. than most people. Their meeting ground isn’t a birth certificate. It’s the shared, aging weight of saving the world. It’s the PTSD. That creates a terrifying parity.

This isn’t about ignoring the fatherly beats in the movies. It’s about arguing that the relationship is bigger, weirder, and more complex than that one box can hold. The canon gives us the skeleton: the protective panic, the desperate legacy-building, the world-ending grief. Fanfic just puts a different kind of heart inside that same skeleton. It takes the undeniable canon truth, that they love each other desperately, and explores a different shape that love could take.

THEY WENT HIKING

THE BEST PART IS THAT THEYRE HOLDING THE PHONE UP WITH A SHOE

MY HEART

WHO WAS THE FIRST TO PICK UP THE TOY- IM-

WHOSE HOUSE IS THIS

MY CROPS

Peter: *Hands Tony a list of random countries*

Tony: You want Mali, Seychelles and Haiti for Christmas?

Peter: I want to visit any one of the countries on the list.

Tony: Why?

Peter: All the countries listed have a legal age of consent of 15 or below.

Tony: Peter

Peter: YOU CAN FINALLY FUCK ME!

Tony: So all you want for Christmas is to get fucked by a man three times your age?

Peter, eagerly: Yes.

archive of our own is an archive. not a social media.

archive of our own was built with the stance that there would be no censorship, because other platforms already had censorship where some things that were taboo were reported/removed. ao3 was built with the purpose that all of these works, that were not allowed on other platforms, would be allowed on ao3.

the archive will house anything that’s considered fanworks. so no, you cannot report this fic because it portrays in explicit details taboo topics about xyz, you cannot report that fic because it romanticizes and glorifies xyz. ao3 will not remove any of those fics, because whether or not you like it, those fics do not go against ao3’s terms of service.

“but these things are not allowed on other platforms” that’s precisely why ao3 was created, to house and give a platform to these things that were censored/banned/removed from other platforms.

if you have a problem with this, you can use other platforms to post and read fanfics

Peter: Oh. It wasn’t a hug from me either. I was going in for a kiss.

Tony:

Peter:

Tony:

Peter:

Tony: Get out.

Tony grew up with his mom and dad who weren’t soulmates. Howard was a raging prick, and Maria would often make Tony promise that he’d only settle for his soulmate. It wouldn’t have been such a problem, but Tony never got his soulmark. Most people are already born with theirs; If they aren’t born with a soulmark, then it usually appears in the first few years of life. Statistics show that if someone hasn’t had their soulmark show up in the first 10 years of life, then the chances of them ever getting one drastically decrease.

Tony gets older, and his soulmark never appears. All his peers get one. Though, his mother comforts him, her kindness feels hollow when he can see the disappointment clear as day in her eyes.

And Tony grows to resent soulmates. Grows to resent the whole system that revolves around soulmates. He becomes hypersexual, fucks with people and forgets them the next day. The universe didn’t want to give him a soulmate? Fine, he didn’t need one.

He got older, his mom died with sadness in her eyes. Sad that she never got to see her son live up to his potential. Tony pretended to care less than he did. Because he cared so much.

Everything got duller after his parents died. His drinking habit became a full blown addiction, his hypersexuality only became more intense. Everything to avoid the sharp pain of never being enough.

But Tony remembers when it happened, a warm night in August. He was partying, clubbing - had been all day, going on all night. He was wasted on some cheap liquor in some seedy club full of seedier people.

Despite everything from that night being a hazy, neon blur, he remembers vividly the warmth that wrapped around his wrist. When he examined it, it was a mark. The tattoo-esque mark his mother had anticipated for years. A soulmark.

He had a soulmate.

It was August 10th, 2001 when his soulmate was born. And he was 31 years old, in some club drunk on something surrounded by a group of hedonistic assholes just as lowly as himself. And he truly had no idea what to do from there. 

So he lied. He covered it. He wore long sleeved blazers, and strategically placed watches. He was careful to ensure no one saw the mark that proved he wasn’t unlovable. 

-

Meanwhile, in Queens.

Peter is born on August 10, 2001 happy and healthy. He’s set to have a good life with loving parents and a stable household, when the plane crash happens. He’s far too young to understand the true gravity of it.

He lives with his Aunt and Uncle from then on. Soulmates, love at first sight. Ben and May, who were so perfect for each other that it made the insurmountable grief just a little easier to handle.

Peter had been lucky enough to be born with a soulmark. He had known love from the moment he was born. And was eager to share his heart with a soulmate. He had heard of people born without soulmarks, people who never got a soulmate. Or, perhaps worse in a way, people who did have a soulmate, but never crossed paths with them.

Though, rare, Peter was petrified he’d be so unfortunate. And his fear ramped up in intensity when his beloved Uncle passed suddenly and tragically. 

One moment, Ben and May were in the kitchen; They were singing along to some lame love song. The next, Ben was gone. 

May and Peter handle it the best they can. But, when Peter stares at his soulmark he feels nothing but fear anymore. What is the point in having a soulmate. Someone given to you by the universe, only to have them ripped away as suddenly?

He wears sweaters that cover his soulmark, bracelets that hide it from view. He feels nothing but fear when he looks at it. A soulmate is just another person for Peter to lose.

-

It truly is a stroke of fate that they meet. A poor, charity case from Queens, and an eccentric billionaire with a wild streak. There aren’t many circumstances where people like them can meet.

Peter is working for Oscorp. His title is something fancy, but he’s basically a glorified assistant. 

There had been an excitement in the air amongst the workers, but Peter hadn’t cared enough to ask why.

It’s when he bumps headfirst into Tony Stark, does he realize what the hell everyone was so hype about.

Tony is more mellowed out, and helps Peter up. He grabs Peter’s wrist, because Peter is as wobbly as a newborn fawn. When Tony looks, he sees the briefest glimpse of Peter’s wrist, of the mark on it.

He stares at it, it is identical to his own. Which would mean they’re soulmates.

Tony feels his heart beat out of his chest. Peter gently pulls away from Tony and mutters out a quick, bashful apology.

Aren't they so cute? (^o^)