I’m trying
Tony was already seeing a huge improvement in Peter.
After that long overdue talk they had a week ago, and the well needed crying session, Tony had helped Peter go to bed and he fell asleep within thirty minutes with no crying.
That night, Tony was too excited to sleep himself. He kept waiting for Peter to wake up throughout the night but he didn’t and stayed home the next day to have some more one on one time with his parents.
Now, Peter was putting himself to sleep and staying asleep. The bedwetting stopped which had both parents over the moon.
Tony had no idea how one assignment could completely break Peter down. As for the assignment, Tony had Peter rip it up and throw it out.
It definitely felt good for all of them.
Now, he was getting ready to drop Peter off at school and Tony was feeling a bit hesitant. He could tell Peter was feeling the same way but Tony didn’t want him to worry about anything.
School was supposed to be a safe and happy place for Peter to spend time with his friends and learn and Tony didn’t want him to feel scared to go.
He pulled up to the front of the school and looked over at Peter in the passenger seat. “Call me if you need me and I’ll come. I’m not doing anything today so don’t feel like you can’t call.”
Even if Tony was busy, Peter was always his top priority.
Peter knew that.
“I’m fine, dad. I have a biochemistry test today.” Peter was excited for that. Harley always teased him for being excited about school and taking tests but Peter took pride in it after Tony told him he was the same way.
“Alright, baby. Good luck but I know you don’t need it. I’ll see you after school.”
Peter leaned over to give his dad a hug and a kiss goodbye but he held on a little tighter, letting the hug linger on. He didn’t think he would ever get rid of his separation anxiety.
He had it with his whole family. Mostly his dad. He went absolutely mental if his dad ever had to leave for a business trip which became very rare for that reason.
“I love you. Be good.” Tony ruffled his hair and watched Peter open the door to leave. Part of him, the selfish and overprotective dad side of him, wanted Peter to turn around and run back into the car but he knew that wasn’t fair.
Peter didn’t look back.
He knew if he turned around and saw the car getting further and further away with each step he took then he would break and run back into his dad’s arms so he didn’t look back.
He walked into the front doors of the school and heavily sighed.
He only missed a few days of school but everything felt so different.
It was like it was his first day of high school all over again and he hated that.
When he was in elementary school, he didn’t really worry about what people thought or knew about him. About his past.
Now, high school was way different. He always felt like everyone knew about his past and always talked about him. Maybe that was the truth. Maybe people actually did talk about him a lot, it wasn’t a hidden secret that he was kidnapped and raised by another man his entire childhood.
If someone followed the news, they knew who Peter Stark was. Also the son of billionaire Tony Stark.
Peter kept his head up high as he walked to his locker. He hoped to bump into one of his friends on the way there but he didn’t which wasn’t a surprise. His locker was on the third floor which was where the grade twelves had their lockers since Peter was in a grade twelve biochemistry class.
It was probably one of his favourite classes since all the grade twelves didn’t look at him the way the grade nines did. Plus they were really funny and made him feel safe.
Peter walked into his class and climbed onto the stool at the front where his seat was. He pulled out his pencil and waited for the bell to ring.
“Hey, Peter. Where were you yesterday?”
Peter turned around to face one of the grade twelve students who he considered his friend. She had long brown hair that she always wore up in a tight ponytail and her eyelashes were extremely long. Apparently they were fake. Peter didn’t understand but she told him when he asked.
“I stayed at home with my dad.” He told her then fully turned around to face her. “Me and Morgan ended up building a fort in the living room too.”
She smiled at him. “I’m sure your parents liked that.”
Peter thought back to last night. His parents didn’t mind him building forts as long as they cleaned up after but all Peter had to do was give his dad his puppy dog eyes and Tony gave in.
“They like it.” Peter went to ask her what else he missed but the bell was ringing and the teacher walked in.
“I hope you guys have been studying all day and all night because this test is worth fifteen percent of your grade. Phones and books away and we’ll begin in five minutes.” Mr. Moore had said as he got all his stuff organized.
Peter turned around to face the front and swung his legs in the stool.
He liked Mr. Moore but was also a little scared of him. He had never yelled at him before but he yelled at one of the grade twelve students for cheating on a test and it almost made Peter cry.
Peter sat up on his knees and leaned forward on the lab desk while his teacher handed out the tests to everyone. He had the same test as everyone else but it was worded slightly different for him to be at his reading level.
“If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask me, Peter.” His teacher smiled at him then spoke up to the rest of the class. “As for the rest of you, no questions. You have ninety minutes.”
Peter picked up his pencil and got to work.
His dad helped him study last night before dinner but now he felt like all that was going out the window. He was never nervous for tests so he didn’t know why he was now.
He tried to concentrate on the first question but he didn’t know what it was asking him. He looked up at his teacher who was looking at him and he felt his thumb nearing his mouth again so he quickly moved his hand down and turned around to see if anyone else was stuck on a question.
“Is everything okay, Peter?” His teacher asked him, taking off his glasses to look at him more intently.
Peter wanted to lie and say that he was fine but he wasn’t. He was suddenly feeling really anxious and he needed to calm down. “Uh… I-I need to go pee.”
His teacher nodded. “Alright. You can go.”
Peter slid off his stool and walked out of the classroom, racing down the hallway towards the bathroom. Before he even walked in, he was pulling out his phone and calling his dad.
He needed to hear his voice.
“Hey, buddy. Is everything okay?” Tony answered on the second ring and Peter felt instantly better.
He leaned his head against the bathroom wall, not caring that there was probably pee on it. “Y-yeah. I just needed to hear your voice.”
“Alright. Well, I’m just cleaning the house. Nothing interesting going on here.” Tony paused when Peter didn’t say anything. “Are you in class?”
Peter shook his head and squeezed his eyes shut. “No. I Uh… I’m in the bathroom.”
Tony didn’t like the sounds of that. “Do you need me to pick you up-”
“No. No, I didn’t… I’m fine. I just wanted to hear your voice. I’m fine now. I’ll see you after school.” Peter rushed out and then hung up the phone. He needed to hear his dads voice but if he talked to him for too long then he wouldn’t be able to hang out the phone so he had to do it fast.
Peter looked at himself in the dirty mirror and sighed. He looked a lot better than he did last time he was in school since he no longer had huge under eye circles after getting a full nine hours of sleep for the past few nights in a row now.
He rubbed at his eyes and left the bathroom to finish his test. He could do this.
.
.
.
Peter stared at his phone, pretending to text someone while he waited for Ned at his locker.
Ned’s locker was on the first floor which meant Peter was stuck waiting for him with a bunch of other grade nines staring at him. He felt extremely uncomfortable but he was used to it.
That didn’t mean it was any harder to block it out.
When he looked up and finally saw Ned walking towards him, Peter’s face broke out into a big smile. “Hi, Ned. Oh my gosh, so today in biochemistry class I had a test and I studied all last night with my dad but it was so hard.”
Ned stuck his hand out so they could do their handshake. “You’re so good at biochemistry so I know you passed. Don’t worry about it.”
Peter smiled. “Thanks. I think I get that from my dad-”
Someone bumped into Peter’s shoulder, almost knocking him off his feet. “Hey.” He caught his balance and eyed the guy who just bumped into him on purpose.
“Watch it, loser. Why don’t you go back home to daddy? Oh wait, you don’t even know who your dad is.” The kid said, Peter didn’t even know his name or who he was and then the group of boys behind him were laughing.
Peter felt his eyes burn with unshed tears but he refused to cry in front of them. He didn’t want to give them that satisfaction. He grabbed Ned’s arm to leave but Ned didn’t move.
“Don’t talk to him that way. We don’t even know who you are so stop obsessing over Peter and go obsess over that giant pimple on your forehead that’s talking to me right now.” Ned lashed out, pointing to the giant white head pimple that was ready to burst at any second.
Peter pulled Ned’s arm. “Ned, please. Let’s just go.”
Ned relented this time and let Peter pull him along. “Alright. Fine. Don’t listen to them, Peter. They’re just stupid.”
Peter nodded. He was used to it.
Peter swung his backpack over his other shoulder and pushed open the door to head down to the cafeteria but Ned grabbed his arm. “Wait. Wanna go out for lunch?”
Peter hesitated. He’s never gone out for lunch before. He only went out once but that was when his dad picked up both him and Ned.
“Uh… I don’t know.”
“C’mon. My friend knows this guy who’s friends with the owner of some pizza place and he says it’s super good. It’s just like, three blocks away so we can be back before third period.” Ned tried to use his own puppy dog eyes on Peter but it never worked. Ned needed to work on that.
Peter felt guilty already that he was thinking about it.
He thought back to when Harley was in high school and how he went out for lunch almost every single day and never had to ask. His parents sat him down and told Peter that he always had to tell them where he was going. Peter knew that was only because of what happened to him and he normally wouldn’t care about his parents being overprotective of him but now he did care and he didn’t like it.
“Fine. But we have to come straight back to school. You know I’m not allowed.” Peter looked at Ned to make sure his best friend knew he was being serious.
The walk there was quick. Peter was feeling guilty and anxious for the first few minutes but after they were walking for a bit, he started to feel a lot better.
They began talking about the latest StarWars lego set that they were going to build this weekend when Peter’s attention fell onto something else.
He spotted a dark blue car in a parking lot of one of the plazas and he could have sworn that he saw the same car in the parking lot of his school because it had the same sticker on the back.
Peter tried not to think anything of it. He knew he was paranoid and usually he didn’t have to worry about anything because his parents did that all for him but they wanted him to always be aware of his surroundings and not to be too trusting but his dad had told him that he was extremely gullible and apparently that was a dangerous thing.
They turned the corner and he lost sight of the car so he put it out of his mind and walked into the store with Ned.
“Supposedly you can ask for like triple cheese here.” Ned practically drooled over the counter at the food but Peter didn’t have much of an appetite.
“Cool.” He shoved his hands in his pocket and went to take a step back but he bumped into someone. “Oops. Sorry.”
“It’s fine, kid.”
Peter turned and looked up at the man. He seemed oddly familiar but he couldn’t figure out where he knew the man from. He gave him a weak smile since the older man was staring at him and making him feel uncomfortable so he looked down and moved closer to Ned’s side.
Once they got their food, they sat at a table near the window and Peter pulled out his phone, debating if he should text his dad about where he was but he wanted to be like Harley. He didn’t want to have to tell his parents everything… even if he liked to.
“Hmm. This is so good. It kinda reminds me of that one place we used to go to with…” Ned looked up at Peter once he realized what he was about to say and he stopped. “Oops. Sorry.”
Peter shook his head. He didn’t want to talk about Steve but he knew that he had a lot of memories with Ned that involved the man so he was bound to be brought up at times.
“It’s fine. And I know what place you’re talking about.” Peter took a bite of his pizza. “I heard that place shut down because they found like a bunch of dead rats in the freezer.”
“Gross.”
Peter nodded and went to take another bite but the same man from before was standing at their table and smiling down at Peter. “Would you hand me the ketchup bottle please? My table doesn’t seem to have one.”
Peter handed the bottle of ketchup to the man without a word. He felt like he knew him. Like really knew him but he couldn’t place his finger on it.
Once the man had the bottle, he nodded at Peter and walked across the restaurant to a table.
Peter watched him. The man didn’t look over at them again and went onto his phone while he ate so Peter slowly forgot about him and continued eating and talking with Ned.
“Did you even ask your parents yet?” Ned asked him, shoving his last bite into his mouth.
“I will. I told you I would.” Peter shrugged. He was never good at sleepovers. He got too anxious and had to call his dad to come pick him up but he was too old for that now, right?
Ned would probably laugh at him if he had to leave at midnight because he couldn’t be without his parents overnight. He just didn’t know how to tell Ned.
“Just ask them. My mom said you can sleep over this Friday so ask tonight and let me know.” They both stood up and threw out their garbage so they could leave.
“Well… I don’t know if I can this weekend because Harley is coming back down from college so I want to spend time with him.” It wasn’t a lie. Just that Harley was coming down next week and not this weekend.
“Fine.” Ned sighed and Peter felt bad. He hated when Ned made him feel guilty but Peter guessed it was his fault for not telling Ned what he was going through.
When they opened the doors to go outside, Peter felt all the breath leave his lungs.
In the parking lot of the store was the same dark blue car with the sticker on the back. Peter felt frozen in his path.
He heard that Ned was talking to him but he couldn’t focus on what he was saying. He walked away from the car, not looking back. “Let’s just get back to school fast.”
“What is it?” Ned asked, running to catch up with Peter.
Peter shuttered. “Nothing. I’m just worried we’re gonna be late.”
They began walking back to the school in silence.
Ned tried to start a conversation with Peter but he ignored him for the most part. Just wanting to walk into the school and feel safe.
Maybe he should just call his dad. He knew his dad wouldn’t be mad at him. He promised he never would be for anything and if he seemed upset, it was only because he was worried but Peter was fourteen now. He could handle it by himself.
They were almost at the school, Peter could see it up ahead but he heard a car pulling up beside the sidewalk so he looked back and spotted the dark blue car.
He felt frozen with fear. Were they being followed? Of course it was because of him and not because of Ned.
Ned stopped and turned to look at the man that was getting out of the car. “Do you know him?”
Peter didn’t say anything but he recognized him. It was the same man from the pizza place.
“Hey boys. I’m sorry to bug you but I’m new to the area and I seem to be lost. Do you know where fifth street is by any chance?” The man asked, walking closer to them. Even though he was talking to both of them, he was only looking at Peter.
“Uhh… I think it’s that way.” Ned pointed in the opposite direction of their school but the man continued to stare at Peter.
Peter stared back.
“Are you sure? My GPS might be broken then.” He laughed and it sent shivers down Peter’s spine.
“I’m not sure. Maybe I’m wrong. I’m new here too.” Ned shrugged and turned to start walking again so Peter followed him, taking his eyes off the man and trying to calm his breathing. “Anyways, what were we talking about?”
Peter still remained silent.
“Peter? Hello? Are you okay?” Ned grabbed his arm so Peter looked at his best friend and forced a smile.
“Y-yeah. I’m okay. I just want to get back.” Peter picked up his pace and looked behind him. The car was gone but that didn’t make him feel any better.
Peter tried to forget about what happened but it was hard to put it out of his mind.
He just wanted to go home now but he still had two more classes left. He was glad that one of his classes was with Ned. He wasn’t happy that that class was gym though.
They grabbed their change of clothes from their lockers and walked into the gym changing room where most of their class already was.
Peter took a seat on the bench and kicked his shoes off. “I’m so tired. I wish this was the last class.”
Ned agreed, kicking his own shoes off. “Same. My mom said she’s making lasagna for dinner so I’m excited for that.”
Peter didn’t know what his mom was making. He sometimes helped her after school just to spend some extra time with her without Morgan taking her attention away from them. He felt the need to cling onto his mom for the rest of the night so he was probably going to ask to sleep with his parents tonight or crawl into their bed in the middle of the night.
He stood up to take off his pants and his shirt but hesitated when he heard some of the boys in his class whispering. He always immediately thought it was about him but this time he knew it was because he heard his name.
He roughly grabbed his shorts from his bag and put it on then put his shirt on and shoved himself down onto the bench.
One of the boys that Peter hated so much and wanted to punch his face just from looking at him, was giggling and walking towards him.
Peter looked up at him, giving the boy a dirty look. He knew the boy was a whole year older than him since he failed grade nine last year by not showing up. No wonder all the other grade nines idolized him.
“Hey, Petey.” He said and Peter’s blood ran cold.
“Don’t call me that.” Peter clenched his fists, feeling his nails dig into his palm.
“Why not? Don’t you like it?” The boy asked, teasing him. “Was it because he called you that?”
Peter felt Ned appearing at his side again and the whole change room went quiet. All of the attention was on him.
“Shut up. You don’t know anything.” Peter hissed back. He clenched his fists tighter and tried to breathe but he couldn’t.
Peter saw a flash of anger rush across the boys face at what Peter said. He narrowed his eyebrows. “What did he do to you all those years? Did he like chain you to the basement so you couldn’t leave the house? And force you to eat out of a dog bowl?”
The boy laughed at what he said and then he was gasping with amusement. “Did he rape you? Is that why you’re so messed up?”
Peter felt his heart drop and all the colour leave his face. He was never raped. Steve never laid a hand on him like that… he never did. It wasn’t like that.
The boy saw that he hit a soft spot so he continued. “He did, didn’t he? How did it feel-”
Before the boy could finish, Peter was lunging himself at the other boy, falling on top of him and straddling his hips. He threw a punch at the boys face but before he could throw another punch, someone was lifting him up and pulling him off.
“What the hell is going on?!” His teacher, Mr. Wilson, asked, still holding Peter back.
Peter felt his whole body shaking.
He didn’t know what he just did. He didn’t even think. He just did it and the boy was still lying on the ground and holding his bloody nose.
Peter tried to turn away but his teacher was holding him against his chest. He wiped desperately at his eyes, trying so hard not to cry right now.
He wanted his dad.
He needed his dad.
“Peter Stark. What the hell did you do?” His teacher asked, turning Peter’s body to face him but Peter looked over his shoulder and whimpered. His teacher gave a sigh and turned to look at Ned. “Take him to the office.”
“But Peter didn’t do anything wrong, Mr. Wilson! It’s all Flash’s fault!” Ned tried to defend Peter and looked over at Flash who was still lying on the floor and holding onto his most likely broken nose. “Maybe it’s because he failed grade nine the first time and that’s why he’s so stupid!”
“Ned! Take Peter to the office and come right back.” His teacher ordered again so Ned grabbed Peter’s arm and led him out of the change room and down the hall.
“That was sick, dude. He didn’t even see it coming.” Ned tried to praise him but Peter felt awful.
Peter tried to hold in his tears. He didn’t say anything until he noticed that he didn’t have his stuff meaning he didn’t have his phone to call his dad. “I don’t have my phone and I-I need to call my dad.”
“Okay. I’ll go get it for you.” Ned opened up the office door to let Peter walk in and then he was walking away.
Peter stood there awkwardly. He needed so badly to cry but he didn’t want to.
“Peter. Please follow me while we call your parents and wait for them to come.” His principal said so Peter continued to stare at the floor as he followed the man into a room. “Take a seat for the nurse to check you over.”
Peter looked up and saw that he was sitting in the nurse's office. He’s been there plenty of times before. Once when he had a panic attack so bad that he wet his pants and all the other times was when he didn’t feel good so he laid down until his parents picked him up.
He climbed up onto the bed and looked down as the nurse put gloves on and stood in front of him. “Does your hand hurt?”
Peter shrugged. It burned. He didn’t really care though. He just wanted his dad.
“I’m going to rub it with the rubbing alcohol so it’ll sting a bit.” She explained to him before cleaning up his knuckles. The whole process took about five minutes then she was leaving him.
Peter heard the door open so he looked up at it eagerly, wanting it to be his dad but it was his principal so he looked back down at his lap.
“Peter, can you tell me what happened? Why did you punch him? Did he say something to you?” His principal tried to get it out of him but Peter wasn’t going to talk.
He was scared that if he did, his voice would break and he wouldn’t be able to stop crying.
“Can you come sit on this chair?” He asked so Peter slowly slid off the bed and went to go sit on the chair while his principal stood over him with his arms crossed.
Peter continued to stare at his lap.
He heard the door open again so he snapped his head up and saw his dad walking into the room. He felt himself break but he held it in a little bit longer.
Tony kneeled down in front of his chair and placed his hands on Peter’s knees. “What happened, Peter? Are you hurt?”
Peter continued to stare down at his lap.
“He hasn’t spoken since he came in.” His principal explained to Tony.
Tony ignored him. He tilted Peter’s chin up to look at him and his heart broke at the tears in Peter’s eyes. “Baby.”
That was all it took for Peter to completely break. He sobbed out and fell forward into his dad’s arms, letting his dad catch him and wrap him in a hug where he felt safest.
Peter sobbed violently into his neck so Tony rubbed at his back. “Oh Peter. What happened? Tell me. I promise I won’t be mad.”
Peter didn’t want to tell his dad because he didn’t fully understand what it meant but he had an idea and he knew it wasn’t a good thing. “I-I didn’ mean to! He-he just made me so mad.”
Tony nodded, encouraging Peter to continue. “Who, baby? What did he say?”
Peter choked on his crying so Tony turned around to look at the principal. “Give us a minute.”
Once they were alone, Tony stood up and lifted Peter into his arms, letting his child cling onto him. “Just breathe. It’s okay. It’s okay, Peter.”
Peter cried harder into his neck and then tried to speak. “I-I just… I was changing in gym and-and one of the other boys said that-that…” Peter broke off into more sobs so Tony took a seat on the chair and stood Peter up between his legs, still holding him close.
“You can tell me. What did he say, baby?” Tony knew it was bad. If it got Peter this worked up. He didn’t know much, he just knew that Peter got into a fight at school. He could see the broken skin on his left fist and there was no bruising or marks on Peter’s face or anywhere on his body that Tony could see so he assumed Peter only punched the boy.
Peter rubbed at his eyes. “He-he said that S-Steve r-raped me. But he didn’t. He didn’t.”
Tony saw red.
That was always a fear of his while Peter was kidnapped. That someone was taking advantage of his son like that. Then when he found out his son was kept by the same man for seven years, it wasn’t until a few days after they got Peter back where he was positive that that man didn’t rape his kid.
Now some bastard was saying that Peter was raped by his kidnapper to his face. Tony felt sick.
He didn’t blame Peter for punching the kid.
“It’s okay. I know he didn’t do that to you, baby, and you know he didn’t. That boy was just being a,” fucking ass hole “horrible kid.”
Peter nodded and rubbed at his eyes. “I k-know. I still didn’t like it and-and I didn’t mean to punch him but-but I did. I’m sorry.”
Tony pulled Peter back to hold him firmly and look him in the eyes. “Don’t be sorry. That boy had no right to say that to you and there will be serious consequences for him. Don’t ever say sorry for what you did.”
“But… I hurt him.” Peter thought back to Flash lying on the floor and holding his bloody nose. “I think I broke his nose.”
“What he said to you was cruel and unfair. I don’t want you to think that hitting is ever okay and I don’t want you to make a habit out of it but I’m glad you hit this guy.” Tony hoped he wasn’t being a bad parent for saying that but whoever this kid was definitely deserved it.
Peter’s self defence classes he took a few years ago and all the times he play fought with Morgan were definitely paying off.
Peter nodded. There was a knock at the door so Tony told them to come in and it was the principal handing Peter’s bag to him with his clothes.
Tony thanked him and looked back at Peter. “Change and then we’re going home.”
Peter took his clothes from his dad but hesitated. “Does mom know?”
“I told her your school called me to pick you up. I didn’t say why.” Tony waited for Peter to take off his clothes so he could scan his body for any other injuries or bruising but Peter didn’t make any move to take his clothes off.
“Can… can you not tell her? I don’t want her to know.” Peter knew it was a long shot but his dad has kept other secrets for him. Like that one time he spilt her makeup or broke the picture frame.
Tony sighed. “Baby, I have to tell her. If you want I can tell her separately then we can talk to you later.”
Peter stomped his foot. “But I don’t want her to know. I don’t want her to be mad at me. And-and you already talked to me. Why are you talking to me again later?”
“Because it needs to be talked about with your mother and not in a nurses office at your school.” Tony explained to him then tugged on Peter’s shirt so he got the hint and took it off. “C’mon.”
Peter took his gym shirt off and then his shorts. “I don’t wanna go home after this. Can we go get ice cream?”
Tony quickly looked over Peter’s body, feeling a lot better since he didn’t see any marks on him. “Not today. Let’s just go home and we’ll decide what we do there.”
Peter didn’t say anything. He put on his clothes and thought about what he did. He still felt extremely guilty but he also felt kinda good. What Flash said to him was rude. He deserved it.
Tony grabbed his backpack and swung it over his shoulder. He opened up the door to leave but Peter stopped. “Will I get expelled? I don’t want to. I like it here.”
“You’re not getting expelled but I’ll talk with your teacher and principal tomorrow. Let’s just go home.” Tony gave a reassuring squeeze to the back of Peter’s neck and gently pushed him to start walking.
He just wanted to get the hell home and hoped he didn’t spot a kid with a potential broken nose because he didn’t think he would be able to control himself if he did.