Half A Heart

As the months pass by I slowly get to know Peter plus Ned and MJ!!! They’re all so cool and so chill....actually it’s just MJ that’s chill, the other two are absolute dorks. I start sitting with them on breaks as we try to figure out why flash is suddenly harassing me but we don’t really come up with a solution other than he probably thought I was an easy target. I mean come on, I’m short af, quiet, black, and have no friends, I might as well have put a target on my back (right next to my metaphorical one that I was born with #BLM).

Though even after we figure out what flash’s deal is they still invite me to sit with them at lunch which is......wild. Not only cause that hasn’t happened in years for me but also because MJ was extremely skeptical of me at first. Which I completely understand I mean I’m some random girl coming up outta nowhere and invading your inner circle....I’d be skeptical too. She’s just very protective of her boys even though she pretends she isn’t. But I think I broke through with her because I didn’t show fear (kind of like a bear hahaha). Plus once I’m comfortable I’m a pretty affectionate person so she couldn’t escape my hugs and cheek kisses!!! That surprised all of them at first but they’re used to it now. They expect them now, especially after flash has tried something. Peter usually knows when something happened and will pull me into him when he sees me (which is not good for my heart but I’m not turning it down hehe).

Also, Peter and MJ are not dating!!! MJ actually has a beautiful girlfriend (who looks extremely familiar....) that lives far away and they’re very happy together!!! I also learned that they all work at SI which soooo awesome. They don’t tell me much about their jobs but they seem to really enjoy it. Other than that everything is pretty good!!! We’ve all gotten pretty close and we’ve spent time outside of school together. Sometimes I feel like there’s a disconnect between me and them but I try not to let it get to me. We’ve only been friends for less than a year and I’m sure they have lots of little group secrets that they aren’t ready to share. I can’t blame them, they still don’t know about my powers or nighttime excursions. They are aware of my parental situation though. Gosh they were so mad at my parents when they found out. It kind of made me feel happy when I saw them being angry for me and not at me (is that selfish? Whatever). Anyways I need to stop drifting off down memory lane.

Today has been.......off. Nothing is different or anything and classes are as boring as usual but...I haven’t seen flash or his crew today once and I have a weird feeling in my gut that it’s a bad thing. Peter seemed put off too. He keeps looking around and staring at me, Ned, and mj as if we’re about to disappear and he’s not keen on letting us go too far today. I asked him if he was getting a weird vibe too and he said yes but didn’t wanna go into it further. Right now it’s the end of the day, I don’t have my last class with any of them so I’m walking to meet them. As I’m walking past the empty locker rooms near the gym, a hand reaches out and drags me in. The door slams behind me and I’m dragged a little farther into the room before I’m slammed against the lockers and my bag is dropped to the floor. Jolting from the pain in my back from the lock digging in my spine I groan as I look up to see who the fuck is tryin me. Of fucking course, Flash. Two of his goons are holding my arms against the wall while flash is standing in front of me like a movie villain.
“Hey baby” flash smirks.
“What the fuck do you want this time creep” I spit back. Flash’s jaw tightens a bit before he grins.
“You’ve teased and avoided me long enough whore. This time you’re not getting past me.” He says. I start to panic a little, realizing that fuck he might be right. No one is in the school anymore and it’s 3 versus 1. Plus I can’t use my powers against him and hurt him, I’ll get kicked outta school since his dad is one of the university’s biggest benefactors.
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
“Flash listen to me, I haven’t been teasing you at all, there is nothing between us, let me go please you don’t have to do this.” I try to calmly tell him but it’s hard to hide the shake in my voice.
“No you HAVE been teasing me” he starts to get loud. “With your slutty clothes and the way you’ve started hanging out with Penis fucking Parker and his nerd squad just to get under my skin!” He’s starting to look a little unhinged as he rants. I start trying to yank my arms away from these dudes attempting to use the shock to escape. They recover quickly and start slamming my back into the wall multiple times. I can feel my back start to bleed from where the locks dig in and my head starts to feels dizzy as it richoctes off the wall.
Flash stomps over to me and wraps one hand around my hip and the other around my neck slowly putting more and more pressure. I try to thrash more at first but as I realize the more I struggle the more his grip tightens I freeze. Trying to breath, I look at flash and attempt to kick him in the nuts. One of his goons sees it coming and pins my leg against the wall, the other follows suit.
“Struggling will only make this more satisfying when you finally give in.” He chuckles as he moves closer to my face. He kisses my cheek and I squeeze my eyes shut in disgust. His kisses slowly move down to where his hand is still wrapped around my neck and then he bites down, hard. I cry out as I try to move away from the feeling but the hand on me just get tighter, flash finally moves his head away from mine to stare at my neck and he smirks
“I’ve been wanting to do that for a while.” He says. He looks so proud of himself.
“I’ve been wanting to do this for awhile too.” I reply back as I spit directly in his face. He freezes as my spit rolls down his face. I knew it was a bad idea but it was worth it. He backhands me and his ring catches on my cheek cutting it.
“You fucking slut” he growls as he starts wailing on me. He punches my face and stomach. He kicks me in the legs and I would’ve crumbled to the ground if his goons weren’t holding me up. He lifts my head up by my hair and then wraps his hand back around my neck and lifts me two or three inches in the air. My eyes grow wide as I really start to freak out, I try to kick him and take his hand off my neck but it’s not working. Then, of course because it’s just my luck, the absolute worst thing happens. My pocket knife falls out of my pocket.
“Well what do we have here” he drawls as one his goons pick up my knife. He drops me to the floor and I land on my knees coughing trying to get my breath back. The other goon kicks me to lie on my back and restrains me as flash takes the knife to examine.
“You know what,” flash smirks. “I think you need a more permanent reminder of what you are.”
He flip my knife open and starts to close in on me. At this point im fighting with all I have left in me but it’s useless as the other goon comes to help hold me down. I thrash as flash kneels down and starts cutting open my shirt. He tears it all the way off and throws it to the side. He then starts cutting off my leggings. I knee him in the chest while he’s doing this and he puts the knife to my neck.
“Don’t make this more difficult than it has to be babe, just give in” he says as he grazes the knife on my neck. I shake as I say nothing and look away. He finishes getting my pants off and leans back to inspect my body. I feel everywhere his eyes land and it feels like bugs crawling all over me.
“You know I didn’t wanna do this but you left me no choice. This is a lesson to you to remind you of what you are and that you shouldn’t fight me.” He tuts as if he’s disappointed and leans closer. I try to hold in my tears as I try one more plea.
“Flash please don’t do this STOP YOU DONT HAVE TO DO THIS” I cry as I attempt to relieve my arms from their captive place.
“Bad girls need to learn their lessons” he chuckles as he starts to carve the word ‘Slut’ into my stomach. I try to keep my mouth shut as to not give him the satisfaction of hearing me scream but I screech a bit as he digs deep into the last letter. By the time he’s finished I’ve gone limp as I try to process what just happened. He sees me stop struggling and takes the opportunity to grasp my right boob in one hand and start to shove his other hand in my underwear.
“See” he mocks. “That wasn’t so bad was it, all it takes for the slut to calm down was a bit of pain.” He laughs as he shoves his finger in my vagina. At this point I’m in and out of consciousness mumbling for him to please stop though I’m not sure I’m making any sense. He lets go of my boob to unbutton his pants and push them down to his knees. As I finally begin to try and succumb to the darkness around the edges of my eyes, I hear that beautiful, familiar voice.
“Hello 911, yea there’s three guys in my schools bathroom about to rape this girl.”
Apparently the others hear it too because they freeze. I see them look at each other as they stand up quickly and bolt for the door not even glancing at Peter. I breathe a sigh of relief as a tear finally falls down my face. I hear hurried footsteps come towards me as Peters face finally comes into my vision.
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
“Oh my God Sydney are you okay?! What the fuck am I saying, of course you aren’t okay! HEY wait hold on stay awake for me love.” He panics as he shakes my shoulder when my eyes start to flutter.
“Peter *deep exhale* thank you so much for finding me. How’d you find out I was here?” I reply as I try to sit up. He comes closer and supports my back as I come forward, but as he pulls his hand away there’s blood on it.
“We have to get you to a hospital NOW” Peter says as he stands to go find me a tshirt and pants.
“NO” I say loudly as I snap my head towards him. “I can’t go to the hospital” I state in a more normal voice, realizing that I got a bit too loud.
“Sydney, you’re bleeding all over, he could’ve broken a bone, what do you mean no hospital?!” He looks at me like I’m crazy as he opens up his backpack he dropped by the door and grabs a hoodie and sweats out of it.
“Here put these on and let’s get you out of here.” He says coming back over but noticeably avoiding looking lower than my neck.
“I can’t afford a hospital bill, it’s fine, I can treat myself at my place” I mumble as I struggle to put on the clothes with my injuries. My stomach is still bleeding and turning my head to the left leaves a sting from the disgusting bite mark he left.
“No no no no no you can’t just not go to a hospital” he says coming to help me stand after I’ve dressed myself.
“Actually I can haha. Seriously Pete, I genuinely just can’t afford it, plus I don’t have insurance. I’d also have to tell them how I got it and then there’s the police report and I don’t know if you’ve noticed but I’m black so me and the police don’t really mi-“ I cut myself off as I squeak. My back protests immensely with my first step and I stumble forward. But a strong arm wraps around my waist, catching me before I face plant. I cringe as I look up.
“Thanks” I mumble
“No problem but this isn’t gonna work” he reply’s.
“What isn-“ I get cut off again as Peter carefully wraps his arms around my upper back and knees and lifts me off my feet.
“WOAH Parker wait when did you start working out?! I am way too heavy for you to carry out the school, put me down I got it.” I say as I squirm in his arms, blushing (once again, THANK YOU MELANIN GODS).
“You’re light as a feather love and no I’m not letting you down, if you won’t go to a hospital at least let me carry you so you don’t injure yourself more.” Peter lightly scolds as he bends down to grab our bags. He sees the bloody knife on the floor and stares for a few seconds. “Hey” I nudge him. “It’s okay, let’s just go” I tell him quietly starting to feel the adrenaline leave my body and grow tired.
“No hold on a second” he says as he sets me down on a bench. He takes his bag, looks through it for a second, and takes out a sandwich bag I assume from his lunch earlier. He goes to the knife, picks it up, dumps it in the bag and puts the bag in his backpack. When he sees my look he just says “what? It’s evidence” I roll my eyes. He shoulders both my bag and his and comes back to pick me up. We stay quiet as we walk out of the school and I lay my head on his shoulder.
“I’m sorry I’m getting blood all over sweater” I mumble as we finally exit the school. He chuckles.
“It’s fine, I’m sure I can get it out” he reply’s. I realize we’re walking towards the nice black car with Happy standing outside looking stressed.
“Peter I don’t think he’s gonna wanna drive me anywhere” I say as we get closer and the man spots us.
“Don’t worry about Happy. He’ll be totally fine with it, trust me. He’s been wanting to meet you for a bit actually.” He says walking over a little quicker. As we come close Happy looks concerned seeing all the blood on me.
“What the hell happened?” Happy asks once Peter walks up.
“Flash happened.” Peter grumbles coming to a stand still and letting Happy are bags. Happy hearing this surprisingly growls lowly.
“That’s it Pete. You’re telling your father about him when we get home. This is too far!” Happy exclaims as he examines my injuries that he can see.
“Ugh I know but Happy we gotta go she’s still bleeding and she might have a concussion.” Peter says as he sets me down and directs me into the car.
“Pete I’m gonna get blood on the seats!” I exclaim as I try to resist.
“Don’t worry about it love just sit down and relax.” Peter soothes as he pushes me in and follows behind. Happy joins in the drivers seat and starts the car.
“We’re heading to the hospital right?” Happy questions.
“No, take us to the tower please Happy.” Peter reply’s as he wraps his arm around me and lets me lean on his chest.
“Are you sure kid?” Happy asks. Him and Peter make eye contact in the mirror and have a silent conversation. Happy breaks the eye contact with a nod and starts to head downtown.
“Where are we going Pete?” I question into his chest.
“We’re heading towards my job Syd, they have a med bay that’ll fix you up free of charge.” He reply’s.
“Wait a sec” I sit up straight but immediately retreat back with a groan as the cuts on my stomach pull. Peter puts his arm up over my shoulder and holds my head to his shoulder.
“Jesus Christ Sydney don’t fucking do that you’ll make it worse!” He exclaims.
“You just told me that you’re taking me to the fucking Avengers tower! What did you expect me to do?! Peter I can’t go to your work especially looking like this! They won’t even let me into the lobby.” I try to reason but Peter isn’t hearing any of it.
“Trust me love, it’ll be okay, I pinky promise” he says as he holds up his pinky.
“You can’t go back on a pinky promise dude.” I giggle as I wrap my pinky around his.
“I know” he says as our hands fall and our conversation fades to silence.
As we quietly head towards downtown my mind starts to wander back towards what just happened and my eyes start to water. As my tears silently fall and I start to sniffle, Peter just holds me close and lets me silently cry on his shoulder.

3rd person POV

They finally pull up into the Avengers Tower private garage and Sydney is exhausted. Peter is trying to keep her awake but her eyes just do not wanna cooperate. Happy notices this and heads around to open the door for them.
“Get her up to the med bay quick, she shouldn’t be falling asleep.” He says as Peter exits the car. Peter turns around to pick Sydney up and she groans, nuzzling the unscarred side of her face into his shoulder.
“Peter, your friend has sustained multiple injuries. Should I alert Dr. Cho to expect you in the med bay?” FRIDAY asks as they walk towards the private entrance.
“Yes please FRIDAY.” Peter says as the doors open automatically for him.
“Okay Peter. Also, Bucky, Loki, and Natasha have overheard you request the med bay and are on their way to intercept you.” FRIDAY states.
“Aw cmon FRI, I need to get to the mad bay ASAP.” He says a bit anxiously as Sydney slowly blinks her eyes at the bright elevator lights.
“I’m sorry Peter, they are waiting for you on the med bay floor.” FRIDAY reply’s regretfully. Peter just sighs and looks down at Sydney.
“Cmon sweetheart just stay awake a little bit longer” he pleads.
“I’m trying” Sydney mumbles as she turns her head towards the elevator doors from where it was against Peters neck. The elevator starts to slow down and the doors open and there they are, as promised. Bucky, Loki, and Natasha are standing in front of the door, all with different looks on their faces. Natasha has one eyebrow raised with her arms crossed. She’s wearing a T-shirt and a grey pair of sweatpants. Bucky looks slightly worried when his eyes spot the blood with his hands on his hips. He’s wearing blue jeans with a black hoodie. Loki has a carefully blank face with his hands behind his back. He is wearing his loungewear Asgardian clothes, a loose green top and black bottoms.
“What the hell happened?” Bucky questions slightly concerned by the blood and random girl in Peters arms.
“This is Sydney, and she got attacked and needs Cho so if you’ll excuse me.” Peter reply’s as he tries to slip by the three.
“Oh no you don’t” Nat says as Loki grabs Peter by the back of his shirt.
“Loki and I will take Sydney to Cho while you stay here and explain to Bucky what happened.” She explains as Loki gently takes Sydney from Peters arms after he examines how Peter is holding her and seeing the blood on the stomach area of the sweater.
“I’m not leaving her by herself” Peter reply’s as Sydney’s eyes open a little more from the switch. She examines who’s holding her and the other two new people before looking back at Peter.
“What’s going on?” She whispers.
“Everything is fine Syd, we’re almost at the med bay.” Peter reassures moving closer. Loki takes this moment to turn around and start heading towards the bay, the rest following suit.
“Fine you’ll come and explain to Cho what happened and then you’ll tell us the full story after.” Bucky negotiates, seeing that his nephew is adamant about seeing her treated.
“Sure” Peter states as they finally enter the room. Loki sets Sydney on a bed near Cho as she sets up her tools.
“Who is this and what happened?” Cho asks as she turns to face Sydney. Peter hesitates and makes eye contact with Sydney. They stare for a few seconds before Sydney realizes that she won’t get away with lying to the fucking Avengers. She gives a slight nod and breaks the eye contact to look down at her hands and close her eyes.
“Hey, keep those eyes open hun.” Cho states as she comes near Sydney. “What happened?”. Peter finally answers.
“There’s this guy Flash at our school. He’s a huge dick and he’s been fucking with me since high school. For a long time I was the only one he messed with but a while ago he decided to set his sights on Sydney in a..........ya know........way.” Peter gulps as he starts to get angry again.
“He tries to catch her when she’s alone and touch her and try to get her to sleep with him but me, ned, or mj are usually close enough to catch him and run him off. Today we were supposed to meet up in the front after school but Sydney was late and I had had a bad feeling all day so I went to look for her, after a bit of searching I passed the locker room and heard some weird sounds so I went in to check it out. Flash........” Peter pauses taking a shaky inhale, Bucky and Loki’s jaws are clenched and Natashas face is carefully blank.
“.....was on top of Sydney with his pants down and his hand down her...underwear... He had carved a word into her stomach and he still had the knife so I pretended to call 911 and they got scared and bolted.” Peter finishes with tears in his eyes. Bucky puts a his hand on Peters shoulder and steers him out of the room. Loki stares at Sydney for a minute than looks at Cho.
“Are you in need of my assistance?” Loki asks with a sharp edge to his voice.
“I should be good but I’ll let you know if I do” Cho reply’s as she starts to grab disinfectant and gauze. Her eyes also have a hard look to them as she gathers her supplies. Loki nods and exits after Bucky and Peter. Natasha pulls out her phone.
“I’m texting Wanda to bring down some clothes. I’m sure you don’t wear these old ones do you?” Natasha directs her question at Sydney who froze from being acknowledged.
“Um no yea that’d be great but please don’t go out of your way just because of me.” Sydney says once she recovers.
“Don’t be ridiculous” Nat says as she comes to sit by the bed, “we girls gotta stick together” she winks. Sydney giggles in surprise before her attention is turned to Dr. Cho.
“Okay Sydney I’m gonna have to have you take off the hoodie, can you do it or do you need help?” Cho questions.
“Umm I think I got it....” she reply’s squirming at the thought of being in such a vulnerable position.
“I promise you are safe here, we just wanna help you dear.” Cho says when she notices how uncomfortable Sydney seems.
“Thanks...” Sydney mumbles as she slowly starts to pull off the hoodie, being mindful of both her stomach and back. Once she finally removes the top Sydney avoids eye contact as she sets it aside, feeling both sets of eyes searching her every injury.
“Oh lord did he bite you?” Natasha asks, slightly appalled at the teeth marks she sees as she had been inspecting the girl. Sydney rubs the back of her head as she nods slowly.
Cho regains her composure after inspecting the damage, still slightly seething at the obvious signs of the sexual assault. Grabbing the disinfectant spray, bandages, and towels to stop the bleeding, she takes focus again.
“Okay dear I’m gonna need you to lie back so I can treat your wounds but don’t fall asleep on me okay? I need to check for a concussion.”

***bunch of medical things that I know nothing about happen. Basically they patch up all her wounds and put stuff on her bruises. She doesn’t have a concussion but she needs to take it easy till the dizziness goes away. We’re picking up when she’s completely patched up and Wanda is coming with clothes***

“Why am I bringing down another set of clothes?” A Sokovian accent rings through the air as the door slides open. Wanda is dressed in a pair of black leggings, a long sleeved red shirt, and her hair down flowing past her shoulders. She sees Dr.Cho cleaning up around the bedside table and Natasha sitting at the edge of said bed. She’s surprised ,however, at the unfamiliar face in the Avengers med bay but just sends the shirtless girl who looks around Peter’s age a small smile.
“And why do the boys outside look so serious and worried?” Wanda further questions as she hands off the clothes, consisting of another pair of sweatpants and a blue longsleeve, to Natasha.
“This is Sydney, Peter’s friend that he’s been telling us about.” Nat answers with a glint in her eye that Sydney doesn’t understand. However Wanda understands perfectly as a flash of mischief and amusement pass through her gaze. She inspects Sydney in a new light but frowns slightly at the noticeable scar and bruises on her face and, well, the rest of her body.
“Well it’s nice to finally meet the girl that Peter has been going on and on about but what happened to you if I may ask?” Wanda questions as she reaches her hand out for Sydney to take in a handshake. Sydney looks slightly shocked at the gesture but quickly recovers and takes her hand in what she hopes is a not too firm handshake. Shaking off the realization that Peter knows the Avengers and sees them what seems to be pretty often with how comfortable they are with each other. Also the fact that Peter has brought her up with said Avengers. Sydney opens her mouth to answer but Natasha beats her to it.
“Apparently both Peter and Sydney have a bully and today he took it way too far. Pete brought Sydney to the tower after he found this Flash guy sexually assaulting her. Bucky and Loki and whoever else has joined out there are trying to get the full story out of him.” She recounts as she tries to remain calm. Cases of sexual assault or rape hit close to home for her, to be honest really everyone on the team. In their minds there are few things more evil in this world than that. However Natasha is unsure why she’s feeling so strongly for this girl she’s never met. Maybe because her baby spider talks about Sydney so often it feels like she’s known her for months. Maybe it’s cause this dickhead has also been bullying Pete for years (which they will be having a long discussion about later), but she wants to find this guy and show him why Black Widow is the most feared assassin the Red Room ever produced. Wanda is also having a hard time processing and controlling her anger. Peter is like a little brother to her and to hear that he’s been getting bullied for years and they never knew anything about it? She wants to rip Flash apart from the inside out starting with his brain. Wanda is extremely protective of her found family. Every Avenger is extremely protective giving what they do and have experienced in their individual lives but Wanda is...more so. She knows what it’s like to have family ripped away from you, to have her entire life ripped away from her and she’ll die before she lets this new family be ripped from her and her twin. Especially her little brother Peter. And his friend Sydney, she doesn’t deserve this. Wanda knows what sexual assault can do to a person psychologically and she doesn’t wanna see that happen to Pete’s friend. From what little time she’s been in the room and inspected Sydney and gotten a feel for her aura, she gets the inkling that she has been dealing with this shit for a while. It reminds her a little bit too much of herself and if she can help it, she won’t let it get that far.
“Are you okay Sydney? Do you need water or anything?” Wanda asks, trying to shake off the rage.
“OH no no I’m perfectly fine Ms.Wanda. Thank you so much though!” Syd replies with a shy smile, not expecting to be treated so gently.
“You aren’t really fine but I’ll let that slide this time since we don’t know each other well yet.” Natasha chimes in with a smirk. “What I wanna know is-“ She goes to continue but is cut off by the door sliding open again and Peter bursting into the room.
“SYD!!! How are you feeling? Are you okay? What did Dr.Cho say? Do you have a concussion? I can’t see a cast so no broken bones which is great! What about sprains, were your wrists checked? I saw the handprints around your wrist and I was worried. I mean I’m worried about all your injuries but you know what I mean. What about your neck or your stomach?! You’re not dying are y-“ Peter fires out questions rapidly until he’s cut off by none other than Shmaptain Shmerica himself, putting a hand over Peter’s mouth. “If you take a breath and let her talk she might be able to answer some of those questions kiddo.” Steve chuckles as he feels his son push his hand off, blushing. Steve looks up at the young girl and sticks out his hand
“Hello ma’am, my names Steve Rogers-Stark. I wish we could’ve met Peter’s friend under better circumstances.” Sydney shakes his hand in slight awe but replies quickly.
“It’s nice to meet you Mr.Rogers-Stark sir. And I’m fine Peter, no major injuries or anything like that.” As she sits on the bed she’s starting to feel a bit overwhelmed with all the hero personnel and Peter, being the great friend he is, notices and starts to help her off.
“Back up guys you’re overwhelming her. We’re gonna go sit and talk for a bit, I’ll tell FRIDAY to let you know when we’re done.” Peter says as he as quickly as possible, while being mindful of her injuries, pulls Sydney out of the room and towards the elevator before the hero’s can react. They pass by Bucky, Loki, and Thor who are still outside the door seeming deep in conversation. Sydney manages a slight wave to the men before she’s pulled into the elevator and the doors close behind them.