liar liar ⦚ spider-man

ACT I, SCENE IX * SAME LOVE

The next day, after Peter had spoken to May and the two had had a pizza, Peter lay in bed in pain. Heart pain and physical pain, because he thought it was a good idea to sneak out at three am and try and stop a burglary. As he lay on his bed in his usual baggy sweatshirt, Peter's mind drifted to Karter. A fresh wave of guilt passed over him as he wondered what Karter was doing at that moment in time.

Karter had reluctantly been dragged to his sisters meeting with Tony Stark. Elizabeth was an empath, an ability she was born with, and together she and the billionaire were working to develop an almost 100% affective treatment (initially they'd wanted to find a cure, but they eventually grew to doubt that that would happen) for depression and anxiety.

They'd met after The New York Invasion, Elizabeth was working the Shawarma they went into, and had been overworking herself to project calmness and stability over the city. When she collapsed, they found her, and she told them everything. She often said how stupid that had been, but it was too late for that now.

So that's how Karter ended up throwing a tennis ball at Tony Stark's living room wall for twenty minutes. He'd been invited to make himself at home, but he was still bored out of his mind. Now one could ask 'how the hell are you bored in the Avengers Facility, Karter? Dude, wtf?' but Karter, if he could, would reply 'because I'm being a massive dick'.

Okay, maybe that's not how he would reply, but if his conscious could be it's own person, it would say that.

Anyway, Karter had been throwing the tennis ball he found at the same spot for twenty minutes, when he heard a door shut and someone sigh.

"Kid, please stop that." Karter froze up at the voice of Steve Rogers, and instantly stopped. "Sorry, it's just you've been doing that for almost half an hour and it's starting to annoy Sam."

"Sorry." Karter replied sheepishly, slightly in awe of the super soldier. "I didn't mean to be annoying."

"You're not being annoying, kid." Steve said with a sigh. "It's just Sam started complaining ten minutes ago and hasn't stopped, that's what's annoying." Steve did a once over of the boy and tilted his head. "You okay? Girl troubles?" Karter raised his eyebrows at Steve's oddly specific (and partially correct romantically wise, although Peter wasn't a girl) guess.

"You could say that." Karter said, laying back into the chair he was sitting in. Much to his surprise, Steve sat in the chair adjacent to him.

"Wanna talk about it?" Steve asked, and Karter shrugged. "You'll feel better, I always talked to Bu-, my friends, whenever I was nervous or sad, and it made me feel better."

"But you're Captain America." Karter began, sitting up and looking at the man who had an amused look on his face. "What could you possible be nervous about?"

"I wasn't alway Captain America, kid." Steve said, a sad smile on his face. Karter decided not to push it any further, and decided there was no one better to talk to than Steve about his problems. What could go wrong?

"Well, I mean, I guess it could hurt." Karter mumbled, and looked at Steve, who nodded. "First, my name is Karter, and second, you were right about it being relationship troubles, but it's my boyfriend." Steve hardly moved, only nodding his head.

"Boyfriend, okay." Steve started, and Karter waited for the homophobia to be said by his hero. "Cute guy?" Was what actually was said, much to Karters shock.

"Yeah, really cute." Karter said with a smile. "His name's Peter and he's far too good for me. He-" Karter didn't want to tell Steve about Peter's situation, the Spider-Man stuff, and Peter's identity was his to reveal, so Karter tweaked the story. "He wasn't feeing too good. He snapped. I guess I've been distant lately, that might be why, but when he snapped I was a total dick and just walked out. He tried texting and calling me, Hell, he even sent me a Facebook message, but I ignored him."

"I guess I can relate." Steve said. "Not to the ignoring text and calls, but feeling guilty for leaving someone behind. I've done that too many times. First, I left a boy back in Brooklyn without a goodbye, God only knows what happened to him. Then I left a friend to die in the war, he didn't deserve it, and then I left Peggy. There are somethings we do that we can't explain or justify, Karter, but they happen anyway. The best thing to do is acknowledge your mistakes and do your best to make it up to the people you hurt." Steve said, moving closer and putting a hand on Karters shoulder.

"Damn, strong, hot, and good at advice? That Peggy chick hit the jackpot." Karter mumbled under his breath. Steve chuckled slightly, signalling he heard and Karter froze. "I mean, I hit the jackpot too, but the jackpots empty at them moment." Karter was saved from his awkwardness by Elizabeth walking in.

"Tony voudrais parler avec toi." She said with a smile, and Karter nodded. "Sorry, Steve, am I interrupting?"

"Not really, Karter just wanted to talk about Peter." Steve said smiling, and Karters eyes widened slightly. He shot Steve a look that seemed to say 'seriously, dude?' and Steve cursed internally. "His, um, friend. He isn't well."

"Yeah, well, Karter can complain about his boyfriend another time," Elizabeth said, putting emphasis on boyfriend. "Right now, Tony needs to talk to him. I'll bring him back after, if you want."

"I'm sure Sam and the others would love to meet him." Steve said, his smile turning to Karter. Karter smiled back, a thankful smile, even if Steve had just thrown him under a bus. When they got home, it was almost certain that Elizabeth would grill him about Peter, but right now Karter didn't care.

"See you later, Steve." Karter said, as he followed Elizabeth out of the room. Steve said a quick goodbye as well, before disappearing back to Sam and Wanda. Elizabeth was walking fast, so when Karter fell into the room after tripping over a wire, Elizabeth was already sitting down, and she'd led him to be laughed at for his clumsiness by his hero, Tony Stark.

I had the worst anxiety attack of my life today, and it's really shaken me. I've been trying to write a chapter for a while now, but can't get anything legible out. There may be a delay in updates for a little bit while I reconstruct myself.

xoxo
- N A N C Y