Arguments
Chapter 7: Arguments
Peter grabbed his shaking hand by the wrist to steady it before picking up the backpack. He had been too stressed to tell Ned and get help from him which was probably why he was doing such a bad job at sneaking out. He was going to court TODAY, and knowing the team would try and take it into their own hands instead, he needed to stealthily get there. Either way, he did NOT want them knowing about his… experiences… with the white haired sicko. Friday refused to open the windows, very unfairly taking sides, so Peter had been limited to strolling through the hallways (pretending he wasn’t up to anything) and hope not to get caught red handed when he was at the door. Which he did.
"Pete! You didn't come for hot chocolate this morning, wanna get some la- wait, what are you doing?"
Oh, crap. Natasha. Peter purely acted on his thoughts. 'Okay, just play cool. Pretend you didn't hear her.' He reached out for the handle of the door. 'She's a damn spy, of course she'll know if you're airing her or not!' His hand froze an inch away from it. 'Okay, just-'
"Helloooooooo, where are you going?"
Peter spun around. "Uh..."
"Spit it out."
"It's none of your business."
"Oh, I think it is. You are in our house don't forget that."
Peter looked at her for a few seconds, unable to find the right words. Mental note, never forget to ask Ned to help with lying again. "Well...? Want me to get Tony down here?"
"No! Uh... no. I was just... uh... going to school."
"Huh, realistic considering 1, its Saturday and 2, Stark has made sure you don't have to attend school for god knows how long. C'mon Peter, the truth is what I want."
"I..."
Suddenly Natasha's wristband started buzzing and vibrating, which meant the team were calling her. She had a short debate in her head. On one hand, the vibrations were only weak against her wrist, which meant it wasn't something too urgent or some crazed villain jumping around the city causing damage or worse, casualties - she could stay with Peter a little longer and find out what was going on. But, they never called her unless they did genuinely need her. With a sigh Natasha decided to go upstairs. "Don't you dare do anything bad." She spun on her heels and speed-walked to the elevator. Well, that was close. Peter reached into his pocket and- crap. He forgot his phone. Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid- Peter dragged his feet to the elevator next to the one that Nat had just disappeared into.
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"He knows."
"What?"
"I got his phone to try and delete the email. When I opened the mail app, he already had the email open."
"Shit."
"Yeah, Shit."
Tony was sitting at the dining room table, Peter's phone before him - Natasha halfway from the elevator and the table, staring at the phone wordlessly. Natasha's eyes suddenly widened, flashes of Peter's awkwardness and secrecy playing like a movie inside her head. "What day was the court case?"
"Huh?"
"What day was the court case?"
"Uh..." Tony's eyes skimmed through the email. "Today." It took a second for the realisation to kick in. "OH, BLOODY HELL. FUCK. ITS TODAY."
"Don't you dare move, stark." She hissed through her teeth. "I'm going to stop him from leaving the premises. On the camera's, if you see him do as much as look at the buzzer asking reception to open the gates, go on lockdown mode." With that she left through the elevator she came out from, heels clacking against the marble floors. Another elevator's doors opened from beside the ones that had just closed.
Ding...
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Peter stepped out warily, flinching violently when he saw Tony at the table, watching him. “Oh… uh… hi..?”
”… why, hello there…”
Okay, why was Tony acting like a creepy, fancy dude who would work for the British queen? And why was peters phone in front of him?
“… Is that my phone?”
”OH, UH… THIS? No… NAHHHHH, it’s…”
”my phone.”
”precisely! MY phone!”
Peter furrowed his eyes in confusion before taking a few steps forward and reaching for his phone. “Right, okay… uh… Ima just take my phone and… go…”
”NO!” Tony quickly slapped the phone and dragged it closer to him, putting a protective arm around it. “No… you shall not take the phone on my watch. Fine, it’s not my phone. ITS NOT YOURS EITHER! THE phone! You hear me? THE phone!!! And you can’t leave this building- room- this PROPERTY without THE phone! So take that! HAH!”
There was another few second silence. “You know, don’t you?”
"What?"
Peter sighed. “Give me the phone. I need to go.”
”Where?”
“You know where.”
This time Tony sighed. “Your not going to that court case.”
”why can’t I? It’s my business. Not none of yours.”
”I know that, but just let us handle i-“
Peter interrupted him, voice slowly rising. “Why? Why should I? You just agreed with me- it IS none of your business. Just let me deal with my own fu- fffff… freaking matters and you deal with yours! Deal? Now give me the phone.” He held out his hand expectantly.
“no, kid. I’m sorry- I can’t.”
Peter pulled back his arm. “Did you not hear a word of what I just said?! MIND YOUR OWN DAMN BUSINESS!”
”I CANT! Okay, i can’t. I won’t let you go out to court and make a fool of yourself, sending that bastard free to do whatever the hell he wants!”
”Oh, so you're looking through my entire history now?! You know about... him, you know about the plane crash, I wonder what else you know!” Peter shouted, offence hinted in his tone.
“Yeah, I did. Never know who to trust in your home, y’know? Specially when its an orphan boy runaway. Don’t want anything to go missing.”
”So you're calling me a thief now?! Where'd that come from!?”
”who knows? I mean, you’ve lied in the past. Sexual assault isn’t exactly a small fib, either!”
”WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?!”
”What the fuck is wrong with ME?! YOU'RE THE ONE WHO WONT LISTEN. LET NATASHA GO TO COURT FOR YOU, YOU JUST FORGET ABOUT IT!”
”FORGET ABOUT THE GUY WHO RUINED MY CHILDHOOD GETTING OUT OF PRISON?!”
"EXACTLY!"
"WHY WON'T YOU JUST LEAVE ME ALONE TO MY OWN SHIT!? OR USE YOUR COMMON SENSE, IF YOUR NOT GOING TO LEAVE ME BE. TO START UP THAT BIG BRAIN OF YOURS, ANSWER THIS. WHY CAN'T I JUST FUCKING GO? WHY DO YOU LOT NEED TO BABYSIT ME ALL THE TIME!?"
"hmm.. well, we don't want you lashing out on this Westcott guy, do we? Let out all your anger on him? From all your reports from your old foster parents, IT SEEMS YOU'VE TAKEN NOTES FROM YOUR UNCLE! TELL ME, PETER. IF WE DON'T SET BOUNDARIES, WHO WILL? WHO'S GOING TO STOP YOU FROM BREAKING SKIP'S NOSE? WHO'S GOING TO STOP YOU FROM GIVING SKIP WHAT YOUR UNCLE GAVE YOU!?"
"WELL, YOU'RE ONE TO TALK! AS SOON AS HOWARD STARK DIES, HIS SON INSTANTLY GOES ALL OVER NATIONAL TV, NOT FOR HIS GRIEVING - NO. FOR HIM ACCUSING HIS FATHER OF CHILD-ABUSE!"
"YOU SHUT UP ABOUT THAT. YOUR NOT GOING TO COURT, THATS FINAL."
"WHO ARE YOU TO TELL ME WHAT TO DO!?"
Tony continued in a sarcastic tone before quickly returning back to shouting. "Fine. As one of the adults you now live with, essentially family, hell - some even would call it a father, I FORBID YOU-"
"WELL YOU'RE NOT, ARE YOU?! MY DAD'S DEAD. YOUR JUST A REPLACEMENT FROM HELL WHO WAS SENT TO DO THE WRONG ROLE-"
"DON'T YOU DARE SPEAK TO ME LIKE THAT!"
Peter banged the table with his fist, hard. The table shook from the impact. "FOR FUCK'S SAKE, STOP PRETENDING YOU CARE! YOU DON'T GIVE A FLYING CRAP ABOUT ME! THE ONLY REASON YOU KNOW I EXIST IS BECAUSE OF SPIDER-MAN!"
"WHO DO YOU THINK LET YOU INTO THIS BUILDING, HUH?"
"IM NOT STUPID. YOU LET ME IN OUT OF PITY, NOTHING MORE."
"YEAH?! WELL-"
"uh..."
Both heads snapped towards the door to see Steve standing awkwardly, eyes quickly moving between the two in front of him. Tony got up to shove him out, leaving the phone unguarded. Steve was trying to get in and see what was going on and why the air was so tense and cold, Tony putting all his body weight into trying to get the super-soldier out, giving Peter the opportunity to leave without Tony setting the tower on the Lockdown protocol. He snatched the phone and stormed into the elevator before using his finger to violently thrust the button to take him down - using the tiny bit of control he had left to prevent his super-strength from smashing it. The elevator, contrasting with his mood, happily started to play some elevator music and closed the doors with a cheerful 'ping!'
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As soon as the doors closed Peter put his back against the wall and sunk to the ground, head in hands.
"Didn't want anything to go missing.'
He doesn't even trust you. Which he shouldn't. After all, you're just a useless burden - no wonder you were mistaken for a thief. You might as well be one.
'We don't want you lashing out on this Westcott guy, do we? Let out all your anger on him? From all your reports from your old foster parents, it seems you've taken notes from your uncle!'
You promised to yourself you'd never be like him, but here you are. You're just as much a monster as him - if not, worse. Tell yourself you never did hurt any of your old foster family all you want, that they just falsely accused you, but you'll always know that inside you're just like Ben.
'Orphan boy runaway.'
Yeah. That's all you are, and all you'll ever be. A stupid, hopeless, orphan boy runaway.
Each aggressive, menacing thought rung in his head, cutting and tearing into the same wound that Tony's words had, making them wider.
When the elevator music stopped and he heard the doors open with another 'ding!' he quickly threw himself up from the wall. He stepped out and checked his phone, eyes widening.
HOW WAS HE GOING TO MAKE IT IN 15 MINUTES!?
He went with a running start towards the gates, seeing Natasha in the corner of his eye and quickly stopped behind a pillar. He watched as she looked at the camera surveillance on her phone, probably at Tony and Steve pushing each-other in the doorway and considering she's a spy, probably at the empty area on the table where Peter's phone used to be. Peter could practically feel the heat radiating off of her and could practically see her blood boiling, her eyes glowing red with anger and the steam out of her ears. Peter thought she might throw her phone on the ground, smashing it with rage when she stormed towards the elevator.
Peter took this as his chance to continue sprinting to the gates, jabbing at the buzzer to ask reception to open the gates repeatedly. With an eye-roll and a groan, the man behind the desk lazily pressed another button to open them and Peter went hurtling through.
When he was around halfway through, the lockdown protocol was activated - probably by Nat or Tony - and the gates started to close in. The bottom of the gate nudged Peter's ankle making him trip and make painful contact with the ground. Ignoring his now bleeding elbow, he quickly used his arms to drag him away from the gates, avoiding being stuck under them. He got back up despite the ache in his ankle and sting of his elbow, before continuing to belt towards his destination, not much time to spare.