Chapter 6: Scar Buddies

September 16th 20XX, End of the school day

Narrator's POV

*Ring!*

"Alright, nerds! That's the bell! now get the hell outta here! I don't wanna look at ya any more than I gotta!" Deadpool announced, just finishing his English lesson to the students of 1-A.

The teens breathed a sigh of relief as they started to get up and walk out of the room, some with more urgency than others.

Peter had to admit, Deadpool was a better teacher than he thought he'd be, a horrible teacher all things concerned, but not as bad as he expected.

Breathing a sigh of relief, peter disappeared into the crowd of students making their way towards the dormitories, and as much as he wanted to join them, he had things to do.

"What's up, bug-boy?" Came a snarky voice from beside him as he walked through the halls.

Peter knew who it was, it made sense she'd be on the way to his destination, yet deep down he wished she just... wouldn't be there.

Reluctantly, the boy turned his head only to be met by the smirking face of iron-man Jr, also known as Riri Williams.

Riri wasn't too bad sometimes, but it got to the point where having a mini iron-man around with all the stark snark and slight cockiness got tiring.

"Hey Riri, heading to the support studio so I can drop by web-shooters off, I already filled the form for them." He said as they walked the halls.

To be perfectly honest, Peter hated the amount of paperwork it took to be a hero, he had to fill an entire form for his web-shooters to even be included in his hero suit at school, and he wasn't looking forward to the arrest forms when he became a pro hero.

"Cool cool, I gotta start working on my hero suit, imma have to pull an all-nighter." She said this as if she wasn't bothered at all, Peter guessed that your quirk being that you were super smart had its perks when it came to support work.

Walking in relative silence as the crowds of students that filled the hall slowly dissipated, the pair of teens finally reached their destination.

A giant blast door with the words 'SUPPORT STUDIO' Hanging above it in big red letters that contrasted the white walls.

Peter opened the in his opinion, way too large door, only to be met by the strangest sight he's seen in a while

Tony Stark wearing an iron man gauntlet that morphed itself into a shield, trying to shield against a teenage girl wearing panther gauntlets that we're currently charging up.

"You ready, Stark!?" The girl shouted over the sound of her gauntlets.

"Hit me with all you got, kid!"

*FWOOM!*

The girl got sent about 3 feet back due to the recoil of the shot, which bounced off of Tony's shield and blew a hole in the wall right next to Peter's head.

"Oh man! that was awso- Pete? Riri? what are you guys doing here?" Tony asked while he is put down his shield, ignoring the fact they Peter nearly got injured for the second time today.

"He's here for those web-shooter thingies, im here to get working," Riri replied as she walked towards a workbench on another end of the room.

"Wait a minute, Are you Peter? As in Peter Parker? Oh, man! Stark hasn't shut up about you! Name's Shuri, 2nd-year support student." The girl now walked up to him, her hand extended.

She spoke in what he could only assume was a wakandan accent, Black Panther had the same accent when he appeared at the UN, she was an inch shorter than him while wearing a sleeveless tank top that had a couple burns and grease stains on it.

"Cool to meet you! I'm just gotta drop these things off and me on my way."

The brunette reached into his backpack and pulled out the two wrist devices and placed them on the table, they were quickly picked up by Stark and thrown back at him.

"Oh, I was gonna tell you, I updated your student ID earlier. You're now an honorary member of the support course, you can carry support items around and have full access to the studio. I bet you'd rather work on those in your own room, huh?" He said as he took off the gauntlet, it dissolving in nanomachines and entering a watch on his wrist.

"It's a shame, I wanted to see how those things worked, or how your boots stuck to stuff," Shuri said as she went to work on what looked to a grappling hook with a voltage counter on the side.

"Nah, I'm the one who's sticky, I gotta design some lightweight and thin to make my suit out of for it to work."

"Oh really? Hey, tell ya what, how about you let me do some upgrades to your suit that stark industries are working on and make it like, way better?" The girl said with a smirk that rivaled Riri's and Tony's

"Uh, sure! Anyways, I gotta run to the dorms, I'm beat right now. See ya!"

With a wave and a quick goodbye, Peter left the support studio, on his way to his new living space for the next 4 years of his life.

He pulled out his phone and checked the time.

'3:46, That gives me enough time to get started on that quirk history homework and that English assignment Deadpool gave out.'

Starting to put the device back into his pocket, the boy was stopped by a notification ringing out.

Clayton: Dude, get over to the dorms, the boys from 1-B came to hang out with us as a way to get to know each other.

Clayton: Please make it quick cause Pietro won't stop bothering me to text you, he'd do it himself but his phone is dead, funny enough he doesn't have a fast charger.

Peter: omw from the support studio, so it is like a party type thing or a hangout? I didnt really expect for this to happen today tbh.

Clayton: Hang out I guess, all of us except for that Reyes and that Alexander kid are doing it.

Peter: Cool, be right there!

As Peter made his way towards the dorm on a light jog, the two classes were starting to know each other.

"Man, can't believe you guys brought drinks!" Flash exclaimed as he took a sip from his soda can.

In truth, no one in class 1-A had expected to get to know their sister class so soon, most of them expected it to happen at a training exercise.

But after class let out, a boy named Bobby Drake told them that he convinced his class to try and come over to their dorms, a proposal that 1-A accepted in kind.

The get together was going incredibly well, half the group was sitting around the common room's couch in front of the TV playing with the PS5 Peter had brought from his apartment that the class decided to share.

Bobby and Danny were watching the group in the kitchen, they tried to cook something but they barely had any good ingredients so the group pulled money together for Pietro to get take out and bring it back.

Clayton, funnily enough, was playing music that boosted the boys' mood, with glob quietly relaxing next to him, making conversation.

Amadeus was currently arm-wrestling Luke, the winner was gonna get about 20 bucks pulled together as a bet.

"Hey, Danny," Bobby spoke up as he cooled his soda using his quirk, blowing a cold breath over it.

"Yes?"

"So what's up with the 3 that didn't even show up? They busy or something?"

Bobby himself considered himself a 'People person' so he felt a bit bad that he wouldn't be able to interact with as many people as he could.

"Robbie said he had a video call to make with his family, Samuel said that he 'had better things to do' and Peter should be on his way from the support studio," Danny responded in a relaxed tone, he looked over to their coffee table in front of the couch to see Luke had won the arm wrestling contest, the table had a few cracks on it.

"Cool," Bobby responded as he turned his gaze back to the TV. "To be honest, I thought you'd turn us down for meditation or something like that, you know?" The boy said chuckling slightly.

"I've already done my daily meditation at dawn, it does wonders for peace of mind. I cou-"

The conversation was cut short by the front door of the 1-A dorm opening, revealing one Peter Parker.

"Parker! Where were ya, dude?" Flash got up and walked over to Peter, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Needed to do some stuff at the support studio, kinda boring." He turned his gaze over to the couch, seeing everyone interacting so casually with each other on the first day was a surprise, but a nice one.

"Hey, Danny! Soda me!" Peter called out to the blonde boy, prompting him to grab a soda can, hold it to bobby who cooled it down and toss it to Peter.

Peter, who had put on his web-shooters on the way, shot a web at the can mid-air, pulling it towards him when the line hit.

In truth, he wasn't honest if he was allowed to just, use his web-shooters in the dorms, but the fact he was now an honorary support student and that they made tasks easier, he decided to take the risk.

"Man, can't believe we're having a hangout so soon. Speaking of, where where are the girls anyway? kinda weird they're not around."

"They're doing their own hangout at the 1-B dorm, probably watching movies or something. I tried to suggest a movie night but a mortal kombat tournament won out." Flash said.

For Peter, this was the first time he'd seen the boys from 1-B up close, and to his surprise, they looked like an incredibly normal set of teens. Maybe except for the guy with see-through pink skin, the one who looked like a 12-year-old and the one with tribal tattoos.

The evening went off without a hitch, with the classes getting to know each other and form new relationships, Peter himself started talking to bobby drake, he seemed cool in his opinion.

Pietro came back 10 minutes later with food, and everyone told stories about their quirks and personal experiences before coming to M.A and what made them want to be heroes.

If Peter was being honest? He was having a great time, he found out Clayton had a great music taste, goofed around with Pietro and Flash, and made a new friend in the form of Bobby.

After the hours passed and the sun dipped beyond the horizon, everyone started to go their own ways, they had homework to do after all, and Peter was no different, he really wanted to get used to his room as soon as possible.

Peter walked through the hall of the first floor of the dorm room on his way to the elevator, in an effort to reach his room on the 3rd floor. But sadly, the universe tended to not give him anything he wanted, and the good old Parker luck struck once again.

When he was a few steps from the elevator, a firm and small hand found a place on his shoulder, stopping him in his tracks.

"Peter" A familiar voice called out, a voice that showed little to no emotion.

'Not now, wolverette...' The boy thought to himself.

He weighed his options, on one hand, Laura may have something important for him to do, but on the other, he was incredibly tired and needed a nap.

Peter decided to pick the choice that didnt leave a chance for him to be snikted in the bub, and turned around to face the girl.

The girl who may or may not be wolverine's secret love child stood across from him in full workout gear, her hair tied in a ponytail, and why did he feel he was in slight danger?

"Hey, Laura! Uh, what can I do for ya?" Peter said as he flashed a smile that did its best to hide the boy's exhaustion.

"I would wish to spar with someone, and from what I understand you'd give me the biggest challenge in a combat scenario. May we spar?" She said, tilting her head.

'Damn it, how can I say not to that emotionless face that could probably kill me in 13 different ways?'

"Sure, I guess? I feel like there's better people to spar here like Amadeus or Gwen, their abilities seem way cooler." Peter said while he rubbed his neck, one last-ditch effort to be free to take a nap.

"I understand, but you seem to have the most combat experience, and we're friends are we not? I think friends spend time with each other." She said, looking a bit confused.

Alright, she won him over when she said they were friends. Cause outside of becoming a friendly neighborhood spiderman, his other main goal was to get the girl in front of him to open up, somehow. What can he say? he liked a challenge.

"Awww! I knew we were friends!" Peter exclaimed as he punched her arm playfully, getting a slight smile from his soon to be sparring partner.

"Anyways, lemme go change, and I'll meet you in the common room so we can go to one of the gums together."

"Very well." The girl walked off calmly in the direction of the common room.

'Phase one of getting Wolverette to open up to me, complete! Way to go Parker!' The boy cheered in his head, stepping into the elevator to head to his room for new clothes.

neither of the teens noticed the small smiles that were plastered on their faces.

One and a half hours later.

THUD!*

The sound of Peter hitting the sparring mat echoed through the empty gym, one that Laura had especially picked.

The boy had been laid out on his back at least 14 times already, only taking down Laura 4 times. And the weirdest thing? he was having fun.

Even though he, all things considered, was getting his ass kicked incredibly, it was nice to spend time with Laura when he wasn't facing down a giant robot or anxious about his first day at school.

He could only hope that she was having fun too, he had been talking the entire time whole they fought, trying to both make conversation and distract her. Neither of these worked very well.

A hand reached down to the boy laying on the floor, it belonging to a girl who looked down at him with a slightly amused expression.

"Is you talking some sort of effort to distract me?" She asked with a slight smirk.

"Well, my dashing good looks and charm can only take me so far!" The boy beamed and took her hand to get up.

"Break?" she asked as he dusted himself off. She had to admit that Parker wasn't too bad of a fighter, he could use to take things more seriously though.

"Sure." The two walked towards a bench on the wall nearest to them, water bottles and towels they brought in the backpacks were scattered around on it.

Sitting down next to each other, they spent a minute in peaceful silence, feeling the cool air of the AC hit the sweat on their faces.

Peter turned his head as he took a sip from his water bottle, Laura had her eyes closed as she drunk from her bottle, Peter couldn't help but notice the 2 small scars that ran across her cheek.

He wondered how they even existed, wasn't her quirk being able to regenerate from any injury? she talked about some training in her past a couple times, it must be what made the scars. What kind of training could do that though?

Peter swallowed and decided to do something very stupid, which might end up getting to know what wolverine was best at, which probably wasn't very nice.

"Hey, Laura?" He called out, making the girl turn to face him.

She hummed and tilted her head, not giving him a verbal response.

"I'm sorry if it's personal or anything, but how'd you those scars? I thought you could regenerate." He asked, silently bracing himself for what might happen.

Her expression fell, one of the biggest displays of emotion he had seen from her in like, ever.

She sighed "It's... complicated." She said in a low tone, a tone Peter had never heard from her. "I don't like to talk about it."

"Yeah, I get it... I think they look cool though." He said with a slight smile, a smile that made her look up and raise an eyebrow.

"It just shows you were strong enough to get through whatever happened, you know? that's how I like to think about mine, at least." He lifted his sweat covered shirt and showed his abdomen, covered in old cuts, scratches, and burns that were at different levels of fading.

She looked at the scars, her eyes widening slightly at them. The boy blushed at being looked at so long and pulled his shirt down.

"I don't really know what you went through, and you don't know what I went through either, but we both now know we overcame it, right?" He said as he smiled wide at the girl, who seemed to be processing what he told her.

The brunette chuckled and held his fist up to the girl, it seemed to snap her out of her thoughts.

"Scar buddies?" He offered with a big smile, probably one of the biggest she had seen, also the stupidest.

She looked at him for a good minute, then brought her fist up, and connected it with the boy's.

"Scar buddies?" She laughed out loud, the sound echoing through the empty gym. That was probably the stupid thing someone had ever said to her.

But it might also be the sweetest.

She will never admit that last part to anyone though.

Wiping the tears from her eyes, she looked up to Peter to see with a giant grin, one filled with satisfaction.

"What are you smiling for?" She asked.

The boy got up and picked up his backpack, and simply said "I made you laugh!" His smile not wavering for even a second.

The girl felt her cheeks heat up slightly, and then she started to laugh slightly.

"You're an idiot" She got up and collected her things, joining her friend as he walked out of the gym towards the dorm.

"Hey, I'm kinda hungry after all that, you in the mood for pancakes? I know it's like 5 PM but I really want some pancakes, how about I make us some?" He said.

"Yeah, I'd like that," She said with a genuine smile, a smile she hadn't had in a while.

(Yo! it's me, the author! Sorry for not getting to the battle training arc but I think I'll start doing cooldown chapters between arcs, and this one introduced us to Shuri, the 1-B boys, and developed the relationship between Peter and Laura! I don't think I did half bad but let me know if you wanna see anything next!)