CHAPTER 18: One Hell Of A Surprise.
"Speaking of bullying, if I'm going to be honest and share my problems, I should probably come clean about that." Peter said, rubbing the back of his neck. "Woah. Hold on. You've been getting bullied?" Tony said incredulously.
Peter winced. "Yeah about that... you know that Flash kid?" Tony nodded. "Yeah, the little shit who kept trying to talk over you and show off. And the one that exploded the damn lab." Peter hesitated for a second, as if debating what to say. Then he shook his head and looked Tony in the eyes. "He's been bullying me since freshman year, but it got worse after the blip and now instead of just the verbal abuse...it's physical, too."
Tony was livid, to say the least. But, To his credit, Tony kept his cool instead of hunting the poor bastard down and ripping him a new asshole. Natasha on the other hand, went full 'Mama Spider Mode' and immediately walked over to Peter, kissed him on the head, and left in search of Flash.
"We can talk about this some more later, Peter. Thank you for telling us." Tony said tightly. Peter nodded. Clint promised Peter he would make sure Nat kept the kid alive, but maiming was not off the table." Peter accepted that the deal was the best he was gonna get.
After Clint left, Bucky and Steve came in next. The couple profusely apologized to Peter for what they had done to him in Germany and thanked him for helping Convince Tony that they could come back.
Peter smiled, brushed it off as no big deal, and hugged them both before they excused themselves.
The next group to come in was Sam and Bruce. Sam, in all his sarcastic glory, teased Peter relentlessly while Peter bantered back. Soon though, Bruce asked the question of where Peter's webs came from and Peter excitedly answered, showing Bruce all his ideas and thoughts about how to make them better. Bruce even suggested that they work on it together one day and Peter almost exploded.
"Alright, nerds. That's enough chemistry talk for the next millennia." Sam said, not understanding a single thing they were talking about. "Sam, respectfully, Shut up. You're just mad your birdbrain can't keep up. It's not even that difficult, but if you want, I can dangle something shiny from the ceiling so you can actually pay attention." Peter quipped.
Sam nodded. "I'll give you that one, kid. But remember, birds eat spiders."
With that, Bruce and Sam exited the room to allow Rhodey to come in.
Rhodey kept his visit short. He gave Peter a hug, ruffled his hair, and asked him to please avoid elevators from now on, since he seemed to have bad luck with them.
Then he said that the next visitor would be "One hell of a surprise."
