|| Peter Parker Protection Project ||

Bullies

Summary: Peter gets bullied.

AU: I decided that this story will ignore Infinity War althogether, and pretend that all the Avengers and Guardians are on earth and everything's fine.

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Peter POV.

Flash Thompson has been tormenting me my whole life, but he's never done anything physical. It was easy for me to ignore him. But when two of his large, very muscular cousins showed up at Midtown Tech and began helping as he mocked me, it got harder and harder to turn the other cheek. Especially since every time I turned the other cheek, they'd hit that one too.

I wasn't particulary happy about that, but it was better than the alternative. The first time they beat me up, I tried to fight back. Obviously I didn't fight as well as I could because I didn't want to hurt them, having super strength and all. But I soon found out that that was a mistake, because the next day Ned showed up with a busted lip and black eye. They'd concerned him on the way home and I hadn't been there to protect him.

I was so angry i could barely think straight, which is probably why instead of telling a teacher or even one of the very powerful friends I had in the Avengers or the Guardians, I took the matter in my own hands. I told Flash's cousins, Rick and Oscar, that I wouldn't fight back if they bullied me, as long as they promised to leave Ned alone. And so began my almost daily bullying session, which usually resulted in bruises and cuts all over my body. My healing factor allowed at least the ones om my face to disappear fairly quickly, so no one suspected a thing.

So it continued for several months, and became progressively worse. I began coming home with cracked ribs and sprained wrists and ankles, and one time my left arm was dislocated. Setting that by myself was not fun, Actually, none of it was fun, but I was willing to endure it if it meant keeping Ned safe.

Rick and Oscar kept their promise; they left Ned alone, and focused only on beating me up. Ned knew something was happening, but he didn't know how bad. And I didn't tell him, because he just would have been mad and would have insisted that I break off the deal and let them beat him up. But I couldn't do that, not when I had the ability to protect him. So i didn't say anything to anyone about how bad it was to anyone, and it kept happening.

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"Hey Peter, you wanna hang out after school?" Ned asked me during lunch one Wednesday in mid December. I swallowed the bite of my sandwich nervously, feeling the bruise on my neck which Oscar had left when he partially strangled me the day before.

"I don't think i can, sorry," I said. "I've got the Stark Internship after school."

Ned knew that the 'Stark Internship'actually meant being Spiderman, but he looked dissapointed anyway.

"Maybe after?" He asked. "It just seems like we haven't really hung out outside of school for a while."

I winced internally, knowing that was true, but there was also no way to avoid. Rick and Oscar concerned me right after school every day, and the bruises weren't healed enough by evening to convince Ned that everything was fine. I could try pass it off as some of the consequences of being Spiderman, but that would only work for so long. Ned was smart, and most of the time he could tell when I was lying.

"Mr. Stark actually texted me this morning," I said quickly. "He, uh, he wants me to meet up after patrol tonight to, you know, check out the suit, make sure everything's working okay, stuff like that."

I wasn't technically lying; Mr. Stark had texted and asked to meet up, but I had told him I had a Decathlon meeting I couldn't miss or I would be kicked off the team.

Ned looked dissapointed, but he nodded and tried to smile.

"I understand." He said gloomily.

I felt a really sharp pain in my chest at his sad face, but I pushed it away, telling myself that this was to protect him. It was, but that didn't felt right. I sighed internally and we finished our lunch in silence.

After the last bell rang, signifying the end of school, I dragged my feet as I made my way to my locker. I was in no hurry to get outside, because I knew what was coming as soon as I stepped in that parking lot. Unfortunatly I couldn't delay it forever, and within a few minutes, there I was, lying on the ground with my arms curled protectively around my head as Flash's cousins kicked me repeatedly as hard as they could, which was pretty damn hard.

My ribs were still pretty sore from yesterday, so they didn't last long under the pressure. I bit back a scream as I felt at least three of them shatter. Rick grabbed hold of Oscar before he could continue kicking, and pushed him away from me. He roughly turned me on my back, so my face was exposed and facing the malicious smile on his. He placed his right knee on my collarbone, and pushed down hard, moving up and down like I was a trampoline. I felt the bone crack, and a burst of pain shot through my shoulder. I couldn't hold back a slight whimper.

That only made them smile more; they loved it when I finally gave some acknowledgement of the pain.

"You feelin' that, pretty boy?" Rick mocked, imitating my whimper and exaggerating it to sound like a baby's wails. "How d'you like this?"

He clenched his fist and began whaling on me, pounding my face with his brute strength, all the while kneeling on my broken collarbone. Oscar got tired of being left out, and began kicking my legs. He stepped on my left ankle and twisted, causing the bones to pop out of their sockets and a fire to flare up my leg.

Tiring of simply pounding my face, Rick cracked his knuckles and then pushed down on my throat, cutting off my oxygen supply. I gasped and choked, my hands moving of their own accord to try and pull his off.

"Oscar!" He growled. "Grab his hands!"

Oscar quickly pulled my hands away from my throat, but instead of just holding them away and allowing his brother to continue strangeling me, he placed one flat on the ground and stomped on it with the weight of his entire body. At least three fingers snapped under his weight. Then he went and did it on the other hand too, and on the wrist of that hand.

Involuntary tears pooled in my eyes and slipped down my cheek, making Rick laugh at me even more. He said something, but I couldn't tell what it was through the rush of blood in my ears. Everything was coming through a haze now. I was blacking out from lack of oxygen and I guess Rick realized that, because he released the pressure on my throat.

I gasped, greedily sucking in air through my chapped lips. Oscar and Rick both stood back, standing over me and laughing as I coughed and gasped pathetically, letting the tears continue to drip down my face. My chest rose and fell heavily, and I winced every time my broken ribs shifted.

"I think he's had enough," Rick said, still laughing cruelly. Oscar shook his head.

"One more thing." He said. He walked over to where my left leg lay stretched out on the asphalt. He planted his foot over my knee, and raised it to stomp down. For a split second I considered moving my leg so I wouldn't have to endure a broken knee, but an image of Ned flashed through my mind. It was from the day after I resisted their first attack, and they ambushed Ned istead. I saw his black eye and swollen lip, and I remembered how mad I was when I saw that. I never wanted that to happen to him again.

So I stayed strong, I kept my leg exactly where it was and Oscar's foot came down on my knee with full force. I screamed as it cracked and popped, sending what felt like waves of flames dancing up and down my leg.

They both bent double laughing at my agonized screams, but I didn't care or notice. I only on what hurt at THE moment, which was everything. My face was throbbing, and I was fairly certain that my nose was broken.

I was so focused on my injuries that I barely noticed when a stern voice yelled from across the parking lot. I barely noticed when Rick and Oscar turned pale and ran as fast as they could in the other direction. But I did notice when a gentle face with kind blue eyes and concern etched all over it bent into my line of sight.

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Imma bit busy but chapter 2 of this fic are out soon :D