𝐕𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐀𝐆𝐄 . [peter parker]¹ ✓

i.

𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵: 1,013

pepper came back to them. colin can't decide if it was out of guilt for what happened to tony, or if she finally realized what her actions had done to the two starks.

colin can't hate her for needing a break, but he can be mad at her for not informing him when someone he saw as an uncle died. colin can't stay mad forever, not when his family was scattered across the world on the run and bruce was off the planet somewhere.

unfortunately, much to his dismay, colin had to return to school. tony could only excuse him for so long. tony had told him, "you can't avoid the kid forever, be bigger and show him what he missed out on."

and that is what colin planned on doing... until he saw him and his plan went out the window.

———

"i swear to god, if flash even looks in my direction one more time, i'll be the one throwing out the slurs." colin ranted to peter as the two walked down the hall to his locker. the younger boy chuckled, shaking his head at the stark.

"colin, flash is harmless." peter retorted, which made colin dramatically put his hand on his chest and gape at the arachnid.

"excuse you! that boy is nothing but the devil in disguise. don't defend him."

the two laughed before peter turned to open his locker, the tv playing the school news playing. "don't forget about your homecoming tickets!" colin rolled his eyes before laying the left side of his body on the locker next to peter's.

colin purposely ignored the annoying cheerleaders behind him as he started to poke peter's arm out of boredom. he ignored peter's attempts to get him to stop. the two were too caught up in their playful fighting that they hadn't noticed ned sneaking up on them.

"join me, and together..." ned spoke in a grave voice, making colin jump in his spot. peter was unaffected due to his spider senses. colin inwardly cursed peter for his sixth sense.

"oh my fucking god." colin overreacted, clutching his chest again. "don't do that."

ned laughed before turning back to his performance, "we'll build my new lego death star."

"what?" peter turned towards his friend, excited about the new lego set.

after hearing the cheerleaders call his friends lame, colin turned toward them.

"ya know, it's really lame to be the standard typical cheerleader that deep down nobody gives a shit about. this is a science and technology school, we're all lame. now move along." colin glared, crossing his arms as he stared down the cheerleaders. ned patted his shoulder and muttered thanks. the stark nodded his head, he would always stand up for his friends.

"thanks." peter verbalized before going back to their conversation. "that's awesome. how many pieces?"

"3,803."

"that's insane."

"i know. you want to build it tonight?" ned asked, watching peter grab what he needs before shutting his locker.

"no, i can't tonight. i've got the stark..."

"stark internship." ned interrupted while colin scoffed. it was colin who got the lie for peter. that was their deal when they had their talk. peter would stop lying to colin and tell him everything while colin put together his lie for peter so he would have his excuse and it be plausible.

"yeah, exactly."

"always got that internship." the trio began to walk down the hall to their first class.

"yeah, well, hopefully, soon it'll lead to a real job with them." peter explains to ned, keeping the disguise up.

"that would be so sweet."

"right?"

"my god, y'all are killing me. i'm two seconds from ditching you two." colin retorted to which peter chuckled.

"we're your only friend's lin, you need us." peter joked, laughing at colin's defeated expression.

"whatever."

"i'll knock out the bones of the death star. i'll come by afterwards. for the most part, the difficult thing is the base of it. the top half we can knock out in two hours, tops. with colin, maybe less." ned went on about the lego set, not realizing peter zoned out as he stared at liz. colin, who realized this felt hurt.

he had no right to feel that way, they never had a relationship and never will. peter only kissed him in colin's moment of vulnerability and that was that. peter's straight and colin has to respect that and move on.

it was too goddamn hard to move on.

———

the bell rang and class began, and colin just went through his motions. letting his body move while his mind was elsewhere.

unfortunately for his first class, colin was stuck next to flash. who, in a classroom setting wasn't as much of a dick, but he was still a dick.

"okay, so how do we calculate linear acceleration between points a and b?" the teacher asked, and while colin knew the answer he simply didn't care for participating. "flash." the teacher called on the boy next to him.

"it's the product of sine of the angle and gravity divided by the mass." colin choked a laugh, quickly coughing to cover it up as flash softly elbowed him. colin raised an eyebrow, almost daring him to do it again.

"that was a hate crime."

colin's comment went ignored as the teacher moved on, "nope. peter. you still with us?"

colin watched as peter abruptly sat up at the mention of his name, snapping out of his focus on whatever was on his laptop.

"yeah, yeah. mass cancels out, so it's just gravity times sine." peter stuttered as he shut his laptop.

"right. see, flash, being the fastest isn't always the best if you're wrong."

colin laughed, "get wrecked, dude. need a tutor? they got sign-up sheets in the lobby for ya."

flash rolled his eyes at colin before turning towards peter and making a motion with his finger across his throat and whispered, "you're dead."

"god, flash, every time you move or speak i'm
tempted to blow my ears out and stab myself in the eyes. buddy, stop."