Living With Secrets

Refusal

Wade and Peter were doing homework, Wade seated at his desk and Peter cross legged on his bed. Every now and then, Peter would side eye his roommate, assessing how he might be doing. Wade pretended not to notice.

It had been 2 days since that emotional, 2am talk when Wade had cried to Peter, which was something he never wanted to do, and Peter had told Wade about his scars. Not all of them, not all the stabbing and bullet scars he got from Spiderman-ing, obviously. Wade only knew he'd been tortured and hurt during training.

Wade hadn't been able to look at Peter the same way since. He just kept thinking of how much Peter had been through, and how the taller teen was now supposed to kill him. He tried not to say too much to his friend, for fear that he'd break down and tell about his friend about the dilemma.

Peter felt the awkwardness between the two boys, and he was starting to get tired of it. He couldn't tell if he'd overstepped a boundary, if Wade was just uncomfortable with his past, or if he'd somehow found out about his secret identity.

Peter wrote down the last answer to his chemistry homework, then tossed the book to the side.

"What's been up with you? You've been quiet since we got back from New York."

"I'm fine," Wade grunted.

"That's a lie and I know it! I don't know if I did something, or if maybe I overstepped some sort of boundary, or maybe you're just uncomfortable having a torture victim as a roommate, but I just want to make things better so we can talk again."

Wade was silent. Tears were threatening to spill over his cheeks and the teen worried that if he cried again, it would only make things worse. Peter, taking this as a sign that Wade didn't care stood up, stomped his feet into his vans, and walked out of the dorm.

The shorter teen stopped at the door. "Listen, Wade, I don't care what happened or what I did wrong. I just want to fix it so we can move on. I've had 2 friends my whole life and I was excited to have a third." With that, Peter left.

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Wade threw himself back onto the bed, letting his tears out. He would kill for a million dollars. It was enough to get him and Al a better place in a better building. It was enough to set Al for life.

He just wouldn't kill Peter.

Wade had only ever been close to one person his whole life: Blind Al. Now, he was close to someone new. Peter was important. He was the only other family Wade had ever known.

Wade had never refused a job. Though feeling completely lost and scared, Wade grabbed his phone and redialed the number from a few days ago.

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Peter paced on the roof, finding the common rooms full of people and having no where else to go to have a private conversation.

Having already tried to call his Aunt 3 times, he thought they may have been on mission. He'd tried Ned and MJ, but seeing as it was still kind of early there, both of them were still in classes.

"Ugh," he said, crouching down and holding his hands in his hands. After a moment, Peter took some deep breaths and decided to head back down to the dorm. If he couldn't talk to family or friends about it, he'd just have to Ironman up and talk to Wade.

What if Wade refuses to talk?

Peter's mind flashed briefly with a concern, but he quickly shook it out of his mind.

He was so focused on his worry that he didn't pick up on the conversation inside his room until he was at the door.

"-I already told you, deal's off. Find someone else... No, I don't- doubling the money won't help! No. No, I told you no and that's that."

Peter heard something hit the wall and the creak of the bed as Wade slumped back into his bed. Taking that as a sign that it was safe to enter, Peter walked back in.

Surprisingly, Wade looked up and smiled at Peter. "Hey, man."

"Hey."

"I'm not... I'm not mad at you. Or upset that you have a history. We all have history. I was off because I was having a bad week, I got a bad call on Sunday when we got back. I never meant to take it out on you. I'm just not very good at emotional stuff."

Peter chuckled a little. "Yeah, no offense, but you're really not," he laughed harder, making Wade laugh, too. "But seriously, just talk to me. I know I'm not really able to fix problems, but I could totally listen and order some take out and, ya know, just like... hang out."

"Hey," Wade said, throwing his hands up in a surrendering form. "That is more than I deserve, given how I treated you these last 2 days."

Peter smiled softly. "All's forgiven?"

"Yeah, of course."

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He snapped his phone shut. Damn that kid. Damn him.

What kind of a mercenary declines a job to kill someone? Especially for over a millions dollars!

He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself before he did something rash. He needed that kid out of the way by the end of the week, and there was only so much he could do without drawing attention to himself directly.

"Sir." A young man stood in the doorway holding a clip board.

"What do you want?" The man snapped at the boy, hands clenched on the table in front of him.

"We're ahead of schedule, we should be able to start preliminary testing this weekend."

"Thank you," the man breathed. "Get out."

The boy in the doorway hurried away, not eager to upset this man anymore than he already had. The man, turning back to his desk, was starting to feel less in control. With a yell, the man swept everything off the desk.

He had a week until testing. A week before Peter might figure things out. A week before that kid had to be dead.

"If you want things done right, you gotta do them yourself," he said through gritted teeth.

**A/N: I know, mostly angst. Nest chapter will be much more balanced, promise! Vote and comment if you want!**