Peter never liked physical touch. It made him flinch every time someone touched him unexpectedly. Everyone thought it was just a pet peeve of his, but boy were they wrong.
It was just a casual night at the Avengers tower. They were having dinner. The original six Avengers, Bucky, Sam, Peter and Pepper were all in the private dining area on the common floor of the tower.
Peter had been jumpier than usual because of an incident earlier while patrolling. He had saved a little girl from an old man, who was trying to force himself on her. That brought back some not so great memories.
No one had noticed though.
He just decided to ignore the anxiety creeping in him and enjoy the rest of the night.
Happy dropped Peter off at the tower where he was going to spend his weekend.
Pepper was cooking this night. She had prepared an amazing lasagna.
“Pepper, this is so much better than the Tony’s attempt on making lasagna.” Clint said before taking another bite.
“I must agree, that this is better, but my lasagna wasn’t that bad.” Tony said defending himself.
“You didn’t even finish it and ordered pizza.” Steve said carrying his already empty plate to the kitchen. Tony just rolled his eyes.
“Well i’m glad you’re enjoying it, and yeah Tony isn’t the best cook.” Pepper said giving a warm smile to Clint.
“Thanks.” Tony said sarcastically.
Pepper just ignored him.
After Peter had finished his lasagna he carried his plate to the kitchen and started washing it.
“Hey, kid i’ve got it.” Steve said putting his hand on Peter’s shoulder totally forgetting about Peter’s pet peeve. Peter stepped to the side to let Steve get to the sink, but the touch threw him off the edge.
Suddenly he was back at his childhood bedroom. With Skip. Skip Westscott was Peter’s babysitter when he was 9, who sexually assaulted him.
Skip’s hands were all over him. He was trapped under the bigger man. He couldn’t breathe.
“S-Stop, please.” Peter managed to spit out before collapsing on the floor with his back against a kitchen cabinet.
Steve quickly reacted kneeling down next to the trembling boy.
“Hey, Peter, what’s going on? Can you hear me?” Steve asked with concern peeking in his voice.
Tony heard Steve, because the kitchen is concerned with dining area. He quickly ran over to where Peter and Steve were. Others just looked over confused. Pepper follower Tony.
“What happened?”he asked Steve.
“I don’t know, I just put my hand on his shoulder, I forgot about him not liking physical touch, but he has never reacted like this. He collapsed on the ground.” Steve explained. Tony just nodded and kneeled next to Peter. Pepper did the same. Steve decided to let Tony handle it and got up taking a few steps back to where the other Avengers were standing to give them space.
“Hey buddy, can you hear me?” Tony asked quietly so he didn’t scare the already freaked out boy.
“Skip, please stop, get away from me.” Peter cried pulling his knees to his chest struggling to breathe.
“Pete, i’m not Skip, i’m not going to hurt you.” Tony said calmly.
“It hurts, please stop.” the shaking boy said between gasps of air.
“Peter, we are not hurting you, you’re at the tower with me, Tony and the Avengers, you’re safe.” this time it was Pepper speaking.
Hearing a woman’s voice made Peter snap out of the flashbacks. His eyes flew open tears streaming down his cheeks and he was gasping for air.
“Come on, Underoos, follow my breathing.” Tony said starting to take exaggerated breaths. Peter nodded trying to take a deep breath, but it was like his lungs had given up.
“I-I can’t, I can’t breathe.” Peter whispered quickly.
“I know it feels like you can’t, but you have to try. Come on take a deep breath for me. Do it with me.” Tony said starting to take deep breaths and Peter trying to follow him. After a few minutes he managed to get his breathing under control. His body was still shaking.
“How are you feeling?” Pepper asked with concern in her facial features.
“Better.” Peter whispered looking down. He couldn’t look anyone in the eyes right now.
‘Did i just seriously have a panic attack in front the Avengers? I am so pathetic, now they’re going to think i’m weak.’ he thought.
“Come on, buddy, let’s get you to the couch.” Tony said helping Peter to get up. He allowed him to do that. The still shaking boy put one had on Tony’s shoulders and the other on Pepper’s, because he couldn’t walk by himself. His legs were shaking too much.
They walked over to the couch, which was was in the same room as the dining area.
The Avengers just stood there not knowing what to do or say. They walked over to the couch area but didn’t get too close giving Peter space.
“Pete, what happened? That seemed pretty intense.” Tony finally said breaking the awkward silence.
“I-I just freaked out a bit, no big deal.” Peter said almost whispering still embarrassed of the whole situation.
“No big deal? Because that looked like a really bad PTSD induced flashback and panic attack.” Tony said with a worried look.
“I’m seriously fine. Can we not talk about it?” Peter snapped back.
“You don’t have to talk about it, but you can, you know that, right?” Tony said.
Peter didn’t say anything for a moment.
‘Should I tell them? Screw it, are probably gonna find out about anyways.’ he thought.
“I was 9.” he started and everyone in the room looked at him. “I had this babysitter, because sometimes May and Ben couldn’t watch me because of work. His name was Ski-Skip.” Peter even struggled to say his name. “At first he was nice, i considered him as a friend, because back then i didn’t really have any friends. He was older than me, i think he was around 17. We would usually play with action figures and read comics together. But one time he came over and offered to look at some of his “comics”.” Peter took a deep breath before continuing.
“What he showed me was disgusting, they were these magazines of naked people.” he looked down not wanting to see their reactions. “I told him i didn’t like it, but he said that this it was fun. After that he said he wanted to play a game.” Peter’s voice started to get shakier. “He told me to go to my room and i did. He followed me and when we got to my room he closed the door.” at this point there were tears were rolling down his face. “And- and then he undressed me and started touching me.” Peter was sobbing and everyone in the room knew where this was going.
“And then he raped me.” the sobbing boy said almost whispering. There were gasps going around the room.
“Oh my god, Peter, i’m so sorry that happened to you.” Pepper said holding back tears in her eyes.
“It’s not your fault.” Peter said not being able to look into anyone’s eyes.
‘They probably hate me now. They think i’m dirty.’ he thought.
“How long was that going of for?” Tony finally asked after hesitating for a while.
“Two months” he finally looked up to see everyone. Bruce was getting up to head out. He needed to calm down so he didn’t hulk out. Steve was standing there trying to mask up his emotions and Natasha was doing the same. But even after the efforts to keep a straight face, he could see the rage and sadness in their eyes. Bucky was staring at the ground and it looked like he was trying to calm himself down. Sam was helping Bucky calm down. He didn’t know why Bucky reacted this way. Thor was gripping on to mjolnir with rage in his face, it looked like he was about to go kill that son of a bitch. Clint was just standing there shocked.
Pepper, who was sitting next to Peter, was crying with her hands covering her mouth.
Then he looked at Tony and could see a lot of different emotions in his face, that the billionaire was trying to hide. It was anger, sadness, shock and worry.
They were all quiet for a while trying to process all the information. It all made sense now. Why he always flinched when someone touched him, why he was always uncomfortable around other men who he didn’t know that well.
After a few minutes of silence Tony finally spoke up.
“Can I hug you?” he asked holding back tears. Peter nodded and Tony pulled the boy in a tight hug. Peter was sobbing in Tony’s chest and the older man rubbed comforting circles on the sobbing boy’s back. “That’s it buddy, let it out.”
After a few minutes the sobs turned in sniffing and he pulled away from Tony’s embrace.
“Did he get away with it?” Natasha finally said something. She had to know, because she was ready to go kill this monster.
“No, he went to prison for 30 years. He didn’t get a life sentence because he was underage. One time he was watching me like usual and he started doing stuff to me again, but this time May and Ben were home early so they saw everything. They immediately called the police and he was arrested. But before the police got there Ben beat him up pretty badly. They both apologised to me and promised to never get babysitters for me again.” Peter explained.
“I would’ve probably killed him if i was there.” Sam said.
“I think we all would’ve done that.” Nat said.
“So May knows, that’s good.” Tony said. “But i think you should talk to someone.”
“Like a therapist? No thank you, that is way too expensive plus this was a long time ago. I did go to therapy, because May insisted, but it didn’t really do anything.” Peter said not wanting to burden anyone.
“I know this really good therapist for kids that deals with this issue, and i’ll pay for everything.” Tony said. Peter almost started to protest but he stopped him. “And I know you don’t want to take money from me, but I really don’t mind, I am one of the richest people alive. And i want you to get better, i care about you, we all do.” he said and everyone in the room nodded.
“Fine.” Peter said still hesitating. He hated taking money from Tony, sure he was rich, but he didn’t want to take advantage of that. “Thank you.” he said and wrapped his hands around Tony again and the genius didn’t hold back taking Peter in a hug. Pepper joined the hug, which he didn’t mind.
Their touch was soft and gentle. It was nice and Peter felt safe.
After that Bruce returned and he had calmed down. They all settled down on the couch and watched a movie. After everything that went down, they still had a great time.
As Tony promised, Peter had to go see therapist. That helped him a lot. It of course took a while, and the the memories didn’t magically disappear, but he got better.