Kid?

Chapter 2: Kid?

They were sitting in the couches. Collectively they'd decided on ordering in Pizza and watching a movie for dinner that night. Tony was on one side of the couch while Peter sat at the other end. Steve, Bruce, Thor, Clint, and Nat all sat at various other places around the room.

The movie was almost half way through when Tony glanced over at Peter. His head did a double take
"Pete, is that...blood? On your trousers?"
That caught the attention of the others.
Around the room Tony's words were echoed
"Peter?"
"What happened?"
"Are you alright kid?"
"What the hell?"
Immediately Peter felt panic swallow him up. No, no, no, nobody could know about this. No one.
He tried for a casual smile, "oh, must've spilled something, I'll just go and change."
Peter raced out of the room, he could hear talking behind him and he wouldn't be surprised if he was followed. He looked at his trousers and sure enough there was a large patch that was now stained by blood, it clearly wasn't just a spill, but Peter hoped that fate would be on his side and that the dark room had hidden that. Making his story more believable.

Peter reached his room he grabbed a clean, black pair of joggers, and went to the bathroom looking for fresh bandages. That's when he realised he'd used the rest to cover up his cuts earlier. Shit. He opted to rip his already stained trousers and use the clean part to wrap round his leg above the bandages. He could go buy some more before school tomorrow, he was no stranger to the pharmacy. Suddenly he heard a banging at his door.
"Hey, kid? It's Tony, let me in."
"Just a minute, I'll be right out."
"Look, if you went out on Patrol and got hurt you need to tell us, we won't be mad but you can't leave whatever happened untreated," it was cap this time.
"I appreciate the concern guys, but like I said it was just a spill. Go back to the movie I'll come down soon," Peter could here the begging in his own voice, despite trying to keep it calm to keep up his lie.
"I'm not joking, Peter. If you don't let us in right now we will come in ourselves. I have a genius IQ, Peter, I'm not that easily fooled damnit." They door was being hammered on.
"Just hang on a minute, please."
Peter's heart began racing even more than it had been before. He was still trying to bandage up his leg. All his scars on his other leg were just on display. This could not be happening. Peter had just pulled on his clean trousers and hidden the unused parts of his old ones when Tony overrided the lock on the door and both Steve and Tony rushed in. Peter just stood there, almost out of breath.
"See, every thing is fine, just like I said."
"Peter come on, tell me the truth," Tony looked right into Peter's eyes and Peter almost faltered. Despite this he continued on with his lie,
"There is nothing going on, let's just go back to movie." Peter walked past Tony and Steve and saw them exchange a look, even so they both followed behind Peter as he walked to the elevator and back to the floor below where everyone was waiting. When he got there, just before the other two, curious looks were thrown his way and the other team members tried to gage what was happening by watching cap and Tony who just shook their heads and shrugged their shoulders. All the while, Peter kept his head down and refused to make eye contact. What the hell was wrong with him, was there anything he could do right? Apparently not.

When the movie ended everyone got up and headed off in their own directions. It was only Tony who noticed Peter wince in pain as he tried to raise himself from the couch. Tony was responsible for the kid, legally, but it was more than that. He cared for him, he considered Peter a son, even if it wasn't biologically. So how was he going to figure out what was going on with him, because he sure as hell wasn't going to just let it go and it didn't seem like Peter was going to tell him.

Published: 02.06.2019