The Life That Pietro Saved

6.0

Weeks later, Steve yelled out orders as Pietro tried to keep up.

He clung from the pull up bar, swinging himself up. This was the third set of ten.

"Five!" Steve's voice rang through the gym.

Pietro completed another, looking over to Clint who hung from the next bar. The archer smiled lovingly at his boyfriend.

"Six!"

Again he repeated the action, muscles tensing. He knew he couldn't keep this up much longer.

Tony, of course, never trained with them because he didn't need to. Neither did Bruce, or Thor. Wanda didn't either, most days. Technically Cap didn't need to either, but he enjoyed it. It was familiar.

"Seven!"

Pietro felt himself start to slip. He tried to grip tighter on the beam.

"Eight!"

He had nearly no stamina after the injury, no abdominal strength to help. He had to use all of his arm strength to swing himself up, which was even harder than the other teammates who often used a momentum as an aide.

"Nine!"

One more. One more

He grunted, pulling up again. His heart raced. Thirty pull ups for Clint or Natasha was probably nothing but Pietro's back was on fire.

"Ten!"

Up, and down.

Pietro fell from the bar and hit the ground harder than intended. A spark of pain flew through his back.

A shirtless Clint walked up to him, sitting down next to him. "You alright?"

"Mhm." Pietro sipped a water bottle that stood by the pole while he trained.

Steve always kept his shirt on because physical activity didn't really phase him.

Natasha stood against a pole, wearing a sports bra and yoga pants. Her red hair was tied up in a ponytail.

Pietro, as always, wore a long sleeve shirt to hide his scars. He didn't want the team to see them.

"Babe, you've gotta be hot in that shirt."

"No." Pietro panted, pulling his dead legs to his chest. The sweat soaked shirt stayed.

"Pietro..."

They exchanged a look and slowly, Pietro removed his sweltering shirt. It felt so much better, but he wouldn't admit it. The cold air rushed to cool his skin.

The white scars that speckled his back, chest, and upper arms were all exposed suddenly. If his cheeks weren't already red from the exercise he would've blushed.

He knew this was just the start of training. Sit ups were next. He hated them with a passion. The paraplegic used a medicine ball for a bit of momentum to get him sitting up because the muscles required didn't really work. Laying back down was the hard part. For that he held the weighted ball to his chest and tried really hard to ease himself back down. Repeat.

Clint picked him up bridal style and carried him to the other section of the mats. Some with Pietro's injury preferred to train strapped into their wheelchair. He didn't like to, it made him feel trapped and weak.

A grey foam triangular prism was placed to prop Pietro up at about maybe a thirty degree angle. This made it a little easier, but not much. Pietro pulled his feet up into position, looking over to see that Natasha was giving him a thumbs up. He reciprocated, watching Clint lay next to him.

"One!"

He pulled himself up, waited until the team released and tried to lay back softly but his back wasn't having it today. It seemed like all was going to plan and suddenly the nerves shorted out. He fell back against the foam and sighed.

The middle of his back was like that. On good days he'd have more muscle use and on bad days he'd have less. It sucked.

"Two!"

He sat up.

Breathe. Just breathe.

He fell back down.

"Three!"

His back hurt so bad that he felt tears pricking his eyes. He just wanted to stop, but was too embarrassed.

"Four!"

He tried but the pain was too great.

Pietro shook his head, sitting up fully and rubbing his back.

"You okay, honey?" Clint asked concernedly.

"Da. Cannot do sit ups today, it hurts too much."

"Alright."

Pietro sighed, watching them complete the exercise.

Clint wandered over to him, panting and sitting down. He looked over to his boyfriend with sympathy. "Baby, are you okay?"

"Yes." Pietro scooted closer. "I am alright."

Peter ran in.

"What're you doing in here?" Steve picked him up, kissing the top of his head.

"I wanna train with you guys. Then one day I can be an avenger!" Peter seemed so excited.

"I don't want you to get hurt, it might not be a good idea-"

"Please?" Peter made puppy dog eyes.

"Okay, fine." Steve knew Peter would get bored in a few minutes anyway.

Pietro put his arms around Clint, who's shoulder was healed. The archer lifted him up, sprinting to the weight room with the rest of the team.

Clint was getting stronger from carrying Pietro. The younger could use his chair, but sometimes it was just easier for him to surrender and let himself be carried.

Steve have Peter a thin half pound weight that was lying around, the little boy's brown eyes lighting up. He wanted to be just like his family when he grew up. He liked to watch them train. They were actually superheroes, all of them trained three times a week, even Pietro. He didn't know why Pietro trained though, he never went on missions.

He watched from a distance as Clint set Pietro down on the bench. Nat was gathering assorted weights and getting a forty five pound bar, carrying it all back to her station. He saw his adoptive father grab the most weights out of them all, not even wincing at the weight.

He watched Clint. He was fascinated by the fact that he was just a normal guy. He didn't have superpowers. The archer just never missed his target. That made him special.

He'd seen some fighting footage, too. He was too young to really understand, but the way he saw Clint be so violent out on the field and come back and be so gentle with Pietro really threw Peter for a loop.

Now he watched as the team lay back on benches and lifted the bars, starting benchpresses.

Peter copied with the small weight.

What he didn't know was that after training was over, Pietro cried because of the pain from his injury. He never really saw or comprehended the bad stuff. He was too young.