Stronger

chapter twelve

Y'all. I don't actually have anything to say. But if you thought chapter ten was intense...

It's REALLY about to go down now.

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Over the next two weeks, he fell into a routine. Ever since he 'skipped school', he'd figured out one that worked. It largely involved avoiding Demon and always making sure to be home on time, take care of the kids, make sure the orphanage was always clean, and doing well at school.

Trying to be perfect all the time was exhausting, but it was worth it because he saw Demon less.

Although when he did see Demon, it was worse. She had come up with new ways to punish him. One of them was locking him in a small, dark closet for the night. She also really liked to use her new yardstick. It hurt, but the bad part was the lingering sting it left.

He thought the Avengers might've noticed a change in his attitude–that he was always on edge now, apologizing more, they probably noticed him trying to be perfect all the time–but they didn't say anything. At least not to him.

But there have been some good things that happened over the past couple of weeks. He didn't have any more panic attacks. He suspected it was because he was always so busy, that he didn't have much time to just think.

He was also able to buy more, better-quality food. Mr. Stark started paying him $1250 a week consistently. At first, Peter tried to decline so much money, but Mr. Stark insisted.

The Avengers started to let him train with them about a week ago. He usually fought hand-to-hand with Steve, Nat, and Sam. Fighting with Sam was the most fun because while Sam flew around, he could swing. He also trained with Clint and Wanda, but they shot stuff at him and he avoided it. It was actually pretty fun.

He got to train with them after Sam and Clint decided to challenge him to see who would win in a fight. He held his own pretty well and beat them, so training with them became part of his normal day. He still got pranked though.

He fondly, albeit somewhat annoyed, remembered one of the times he got pranked a few days ago.

He'd just walked into the elevator and was going up to Tony's lab. FRIDAY didn't greet him or ask him what floor he was going to, which was odd. But Peter didn't think much of it. After going to the same floor everyday, FRIDAY probably already knew.

Except the elevator didn't stop on the right floor. Instead, it stopped on the next floor up, the floor the Avengers used to train.

He tried to tell FRIDAY that he needed to go down one floor, but FRIDAY wasn't responding. Sighing, he stepped out of the elevator to use the stairs to go down a floor.

He opened the door to the stairwell, and he was instantly covered with flour, glitter, and honey. It was the same prank they planned to use on Scott! They couldn't even be creative.

Peter stood there for a moment, dumbfounded, until he opened his eyes and coughed.

Thor's booming laugh gave them away, and Sam and Clint started to laugh too. Sam had actually fallen to his hands and knees on the ground.

Peter couldn't help but laugh a bit, even if he had just gotten pranked.

He made sure to get them back though. That night when they were watching a movie, Peter got up to "go to the bathroom". He strategically made it so that Clint, Sam, and Thor all occupied one couch.

He then ran to his backpack, got out honey and glitter–if they weren't gonna be original, neither was he–and snuck up behind them. He dumped it all over them, and then left quickly laughing, because they were chasing him around the tower.