I do not own Spider-Man or The Avengers.
Peter felt his consciousness return slowly; when he remembered what had happened he sighed. He did a quick check and sighed again, this time in relief. He wasn't hurt and his headache was better than the first time; the first drug use had led to feeling like Juggernaut had smashed his face into a wall. This time it felt like Rhino had smashed his face into a wall; good improvement.
'Maybe my body is adapting to the drugs?' he mused.
He finally opened his eyes and looked around. His arms and legs were bound to a chair, but they were only tied with ropes; he could break out easily if he needed to. The young man scanned the room and frowned. At first glance it looked like an average room, but on a closer look it was strange. There was no guards but the floor had lasers crisscrossing it and there appeared to be arrow holes in the walls. Who put lasers in a hostage room? He knew the people that had kidnapped him weren't average thugs; they had used tranquillisers which normal people couldn't get easily. He was also sure the room wasn't in a warehouse; which answered his question of whether it was only his villains that used them. The confusing thing was that nothing in the room was lethal. Even Hawkeye and Black Widow would, probably, be fine; it might be a crippling wound but they would live. The arrows placed on the walls were meant to aim for the lower areas, not for the neck, heart or head.
The lasers crisscrossing the floor weren't that strong either. He'd dealt with lasers before; these would cause injury, bleeding, and a fuck ton of pain but they, probably, wouldn't even sever a limb. Which left the main question: if they didn't want the heroes dead, what did they want? And who specifically were they targeting?
'Being on the hostage side of the situation sucks,' he concluded.
He tilted his head back in the chair to look at the ceiling; at least that looked normal. The young man didn't have to act worried; he was, for the others though, not for himself.
Waiting was the worst part he decided. There was nothing he could do but sit there and think. No one had come to threaten him or tell him their entire plan; no one came to see him at all. That worried him; what was going on? Nothing about this situation seemed ordinary, granted he had always been on the saving side but still. Hostages were usually kidnapped to get something and yet no one had come to see him. There were no cameras to watch him and he knew the heroes were smart enough to demand evidence of his wellbeing if this was a ransom kidnapping. Everything about this seemed off to him but he didn't know why. The man let his head fall back and his eyes shut; he could feel his phone in his pocket so he knew the others were on their way.
'They can't be too professional,' he mused. 'Not if they didn't search me.'
It was several hours later, okay he might be exaggerating a bit, that the door suddenly banged open and Peter's head jerked up. Captain America stood in the doorway; his uniform was dirty and torn in several places but he didn't look hurt and wasn't bleeding; Peter let out a sigh of relief. The room must be soundproofed as well since he hadn't heard anything, and that just raised more questions. Lasers and soundproofed; who the hell even had the resources to make a sound proof hostage room?
"Watch out," Peter quickly said. "It's trapped."
"Black Widow!" The hero snapped.
Behind him the young man could hear gun shots and crashing and then the women showed up by the Captain's side. She did a quick survey of the room.
"Lasers and arrows," she told him.
"Can you disable the lasers Iron Man?" Captain America shouted.
"Who puts lasers in a hostage room?" Peter heard the other say incredulously.
"That's what I said," the younger man muttered.
A minute later the lasers shut off and the Captain headed in. He used his shield to block the arrows as he moved to Peter's side.
"Are you alright?" He asked as he cut through the rope binding his wrists.
The young man massaged his hands and nodded.
"I'm fine, just a migraine," he sent the hero a pointed look. "I told you this would happen."
The Captain looked ashamed and Peter sighed. He felt like he'd just kicked a puppy.
"Honestly, I'm fine," he reassured the man.
The situation still felt odd to him; he just couldn't figure it out. No one had held him at gunpoint or strapped him with explosives; he'd only had to deal with that once, thank god. The whole thing seemed off and rather anticlimactic. His instincts were telling him something was wrong but he couldn't figure out what it was.
Captain America studied him but Peter hadn't lied; he really was fine with no cuts or bruises. The hero nodded and proceeded to lead the younger man out. Peter looked around the area outside, well outside his room, they were still inside a building. Men dressed in white were all over the place though several of them seemed to be running. Peter felt his spider sense go off at the same time he heard Steve yell-
"Peter!"
-and felt himself shoved away. Something whizzed by him and the hero made an odd hissing noise. When the young man turned to investigate he found a red bleeding hole in the Captain's shoulder.
"I'm fine," the man said quickly.
Peter didn't say anything; he just moved to the side, near the wall. He knew, since he wasn't Spider-Man, he would just get in the way. As Peter avoided the fighting he made notes. There were men and women among the fighters, they were all trained, and they all wore white for some reason.
'It would be cooler when fighting,' he guessed.
There were no logo or insignias on their clothes but it was clear they belonged to a group of some kind. It didn't look like the master-mind was there either. Peter tried to stay out of the fight but he highly enjoyed punching anyone that came near him. He had some anger to work out; sadly it was still there when the fight was over.
Captain America had some more cuts and bruises and there were a couple puddles of blood on the floor, seeping towards a corner; apparently the floor wasn't level.
"So that happened," Iron Man commented. "I just want to inform everyone here that none of this is my fault."
Captain America turned towards Peter, taking his mask off to become just Steve.
"Are you alright?"
"Fine," Peter responded shortly.
He turned on his heel to exit the building. There was silence behind him and then he heard the others following. Outside was Steve's bike and two shiny, expensive looking, cars.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Steve repeated.
"I said I'm fine," Peter snapped.
There was more silence and then Steve wordlessly offered Peter a helmet for his bike. The young man ignored it and stepped into one of the cars instead. He could see the heroes talking quietly, almost arguing, before Tony joined him.
"It's not Steve's fault," The genius told him as he started driving.
"I know, 'cause it's yours."
"What? No it's not," Tony protested.
Peter felt a small smile creep onto his face as the genius took a very sharp turn. His driving was dangerous but it was fun and the young man let the argument distract him. They arrived at the tower at the same time as the others and Peter's scowl returned. He stormed past them, hearing them whisper behind his back, and up the stairs; he did not have the patience for the elevator. Even JARVIS was being silent.
Bruce was waiting for them when he got there, holding a first aid kit. A relieved smile appeared on his face when their eyes met.
"Good," he said. "Are you alright?"
Peter returned his smile and nodded.
"I'm fine."
His scowl came back when he heard the others walk in and he snatched the first aid kit from Bruce. Peter whirled around to face the others and pointed at Steve.
"Sit the fuck down," he ordered.
There was a stunned silence as Steve dropped into a chair quickly.
"Shirt off."
He could hear Tony start to open his mouth and cut him off before he could say anything.
"Shut up, Tony."
He walked to stand between Steve's legs and doused the bullet wound with a healthy, maybe too heathy, amount of disinfectant causing the man to hiss.
"Who do you think you are?" Peter demanded. "I don't care that you're god damn Captain America; never do this for me again. How dare you? Is taking a bullet so normal for you?"
He wasn't being particularly gentle while checking to see if the bullet was still in the wound and he ignored the gob-smacked look on Steve's face.
"You could have been seriously hurt. What if the bullet had gone higher," he tapped the man's neck. "Or to the left," he tapped Steve's heart this time. "I don't care how kick ass you are; you don't come back from that," he hissed angrily. "What if you died? Because of me? I've seen enough dead and you are not going to become one of them. I-"
Steve cut him off by sliding his good hand into Peter's hair and pulling him down into a kiss. The younger man melted into it and placed his hand on other's shoulder to steady himself. It felt good, safe, and Peter had been touch deprived for a long time. Since Gwen really.
That brought Peter back to the present and he jerked away. Images flashed through his mind: Gwen dead because of him, Aunt May in a broken heap next to J. Jonah Jameson, buildings on fire. What was he thinking? He couldn't have this; Peter didn't have the right to this. Not to mention it would hurt Steve when Peter left; Steve who was looking at him worriedly. Peter did the only smart thing he could; he turned and ran.
XXXXX
AN: I found the plot again guys; I got distracted by Peter and Steve, can you blame me? But I found it again so YAY. Sorry for how long this took to update. Thank you to everyone that has reviewed it. I am taking advantage of the holidays and saying this is a late Christmas/ early New Years gift.
I had one reviewer ask if there would be any lemons in this and I want your opinions on that. Do you want full on lemons? Or just imply that it happens. If you do want lemons do you want them in the actual story or as little side one-shots?
Thanks to Zharlee for editing this for me.
I hope you all enjoy the new chapter and wish you Happy Holidays.
