No Lie

An Aggressive Q & A in the Halls: Part 2

Flash does physically attack Peter, so if that's a trigger for you, then don't read this part.

Peter was extremely thankful when lunch finally arrived. Being able to hide near the back of the cafeteria with Ned and MJ without feeling his classmates' stares was a welcomed relief. During the morning part of their tour, they'd had to scan their badges every time they entered a lab. Every time, FRIDAY drew the entire group's attention to the fact that Peter had an unregistered, high clearance badge. Larissa had given him strange, bordering-on-rude looks and checked her tablet every time his name was called.

"Attention, Midtown High!" Larissa called, drawing the attention of all the students. "We're headed to the last part of our tour, so if you'd all throw out your trash and follow me, we can continue."

"I wonder what it is," Ned mused as they stood up.

Peter shrugged and walked over to the trash bin, throwing out his trash then standing near the back of the group once again. Larissa led them back onto the lift and they rode it up to floor 37, the highest they'd been all day. As they followed Larissa down the hall and into a large room where what looked like scrap parts were lying around, whispers erupted between the students.

"Your teacher assigned partners already," Larissa announced. Several groans resounded, but she continued on. "You'll be working together to create a robot and show it to the group after an hour."

Stepping back, she motioned towards Ms. Warren who began calling out the groups. Peter was shocked to learn he wasn't with Ned like he always was. Instead, he was with Flash which confused him even more. Flash always got the partner he wanted; all he had to do was ask a teacher and remind them how influential his parents were. Why was he assigned to Peter? He got his answer the moment he joined Flash.

"So, Penis, how'd you get that badge?" he asked, scowling. Peter sighed.

"I told you," he replied, looking down at the scraps on the table. "I have an internship."

Flash scoffed and Peter picked up a wire.

"Like I believe that," Flash said. He crossed his arms. "How come an intern would have a badge that doesn't exist, huh? I know Larissa wasn't lying when she said there wasn't a Navy Four, so how'd you fake it?"

"I didn't fake it," Peter insisted.

Flash nearly growled and grabbed Peter's arm.

"Ms. Warren?" he said, waving at their teacher. "We're going to the bathroom."

Before Ms. Warren could respond, Flash dragged Peter out of the room and into the hall. The doors slammed behind them and Flash shoved Peter to the ground.

"How'd you make a fake pass?" Flash demanded, "How?"

"I already told you, I didn't," Peter said, standing back up.

Flash punched him, his fist colliding with Peter's cheek. Peter grimaced but didn't yell out in pain. He'd been hit worse.

"You liar!" Flash yelled, jumping on Peter.

Peter held Flash back so he wouldn't be hit again, but Flash wasn't going down easy. As Peter held him off Flash continued to flail and try to hit him. When the elevator started to move, Peter was momentarily distracted, allowing Flash to get a solid hit on his nose.

Peter heard more than felt his nose break. His hand immediately went under his chin as his nose began to bleed, but Flash kept striking him. Holding Flash back with one arm, Peter tried to prevent blood from covering his shirt and the floor.

"Hey!"

The lift doors opened and someone pulled Flash off Peter. Getting up from the ground, Peter cupped his nose and turned to see who had found them. To Peter's horror, Mr. Stark was the one holding back Flash and preventing him from launching at Peter again. He also didn't look very happy to discover someone beating up Peter, but Peter didn't have much time to think about that before he was distracted by someone turning him around. It was Pepper.

"Oh my god! Peter!" she exclaimed, taking in his bruised cheek and his busted nose. "What happened?" she asked worriedly, "I know he beat you up, but how? What—What happened?"

"Nothing, Miss Potts," Peter mumbled. Even though she was married now, she still went by Miss Potts and after a long argument, she'd told Peter that he could call her Pepper or Miss Potts if it made him too uncomfortable otherwise.

"Clearly that's not true," she disagreed. She was about to scold him some more, but the blood from Peter's nose was spilling from his hand. "Alright," she murmured, "Let's go find Bruce."

He let her steer him back into the lift and take him up to the Avengers med bay. By the time they got there, his nose had stopped bleeding which meant they had about ten minutes before it began to heal incorrectly.

Bruce met them at the door with a smile and guided Peter over to a bed where he sat down. While Peter cleaned off his hands, Bruce carefully set his nose then gave him some ice.

"What happened?" Bruce asked, passing over the ice pack.

Peter shrugged. "Nothing."

Pepper gave him a sharp look and he looked away.

"One of my classmates was jealous of my badge."

"So he broke your nose and bruised your face?" Bruce asked sceptically.

Peter reached up to feel his cheek, but the bruise had mostly healed already.

Bruce gave him a small smile and said, "Yeah, I noticed it when you first came in. It's gone now, though."

"Oh." That made sense, he supposed. "Thanks for fixing my nose."

"Anytime, kid," Bruce said.

After receiving the all-clear from Bruce, Pepper took Peter back down to his class where Mr. Stark had just finished talking to Ms. Warren. She looked a little shaken up and so did Larissa, but he must not have yelled because he wasn't breathing hard.

"Tony, what happened?" Pepper asked, keeping an arm around Peter.

Mr. Stark turned to face her and Peter.

"Apparently they don't believe in treating kids equally and stopping a bully if their parents are important," Mr. Stark said haughtily.

Pepper raised an eyebrow at Ms. Warren who quickly avoided eye contact.

"Therefore," Tony continued angrily, "I said that unless something is done about the bullying at Midtown High, my son will not be attending and I will make sure no self-respecting parent sends their kid there."

"Tony, you can't just..." Pepper sighed again and nodded, turning to Ms. Warren. "I'm sorry, Miss..."

"Warren," Peter provided. Pepper thanked him softly.

"I'm sorry, Ms. Warren," she said, "However, I stand beside Tony in this. Fix this bullying issue or you can guarantee Midtown High will be dragged through the mud at Tony's next conference."

"Yes, yes," Ms. Warren stuttered, nodding quickly. "Of course. It will be fixed and we will deal with it as soon as we return to the school."

Mr. Stark nodded, content with that answer then turned to Peter and took him from Pepper's side.

"Now, how about we talk about why you didn't tell me about this earlier," he said, walking Peter out of the room and back up to the penthouse where he spent the rest of his evening.

Peter did have to admit though, if Mr. Stark called him his son every time Flash broke Peter's nose, Peter wouldn't mind it happening again.