AN: I wrote this a while ago but didn't upload it and just forgot about it for some time. Let me know if you guys like it and want more!

I'm always open to suggestions and feedback.

Anyways, have fun reading!

Peter is just another foster kid with a troubling past he doesn't like to remember. He now lives with his abusive foster dad Hank but after the police show up at Hank's apartment everything changes for Peter. Rated T for violence and language.

While walking back from another horrible day at school, Peter figured that he should get home fast in an attempt to not make it any more horrible than it already was. This meant no detours past the building with the beautiful architecture that always baffled him. No, today he would go straight home. Maybe this way Hank wouldn't be angry with him. Maybe this way he would be able to do his homework without tending to all of Hank's wishes first. This did not mean that he minded it, no of course not. That would be mean. It would only be helpful if he could finish his homework first, or finish his homework at all for that matter. It would also help if he didn't go to bed with new bruises already forming on top of the old ones for the first time this week.

Like he said this was already a pretty bad day, he got his results back of the Spanish quiz from last week and to be honest, it was even worse than he had expected. Ever since living with Hank, his grades had been slipping. That may be due to the fact that he never actually studied anymore. He just didn't find the time. When he did have time, he was either too tired or too sore to study.

He would probably have to hide this result from Hank, for the time being, he wouldn't want to make his foster dad upset. He won't be able to hide his grades for a long time though, with the parent-teacher conferences coming up and all that. Well, that was if Hank would actually attend.

Walking up to the door of the flat, he bit his fingernails, a nervous habit that he had picked up over the last couple months. He croaked open the door, an odour of alcohol and sweat greeting him. Something that he was used to by now, he had lived with Hank over a year and the smell greeted him most days after coming home from school. To his delight, Hank wasn't home yet. Not that it would be bad if Hank were here. He shouldn't think like that. This fact, however, meant cleaning up a bit, maybe that would make Hank a little bit happy. Maybe that could mean that this pretty bad day can eventually turn in a not-so-bad one. He was going to make sure of it.

Over the course of the next hour or so, he scrubbed everything. He scrubbed the whole apartment from top to bottom. After finishing his task, he felt accomplished, as he had actually done something good.

This meant that he got started on his homework. There were some advantages to not being able to afford a phone, one of them was obviously the absence of a distraction from his homework. There was nothing else to do, he couldn't procrastinate without anything to do. On the other hand, when he had no homework or anything else to do. His mind would wander to places he didn't want to remember, a phone would take that away. But no such luck.

He had a lot of homework, some of which was actually from last week that he just didn't do. No better time to catch up on homework than the present right? He did his best to concentrate, with the growing hunger in his stomach, also not something he wasn't used to by now.

He rummaged through the kitchen, desperate to find something to eat. To his surprise he found something other than alcohol or packages in which he knew were probably some kind of drugs, he had to find this out the hard way after Hank caught him holding one day, and let's just say he wasn't happy. He found exactly two slices of bread which were rare. He didn't find anything to put on them so he decided to just eat them bare. This did something to still his growling stomach but was still not nearly enough for someone of his age. But well, it's not like he had a choice.

There was nothing else to be done so he decided that it was time for him to go to bed. He was increasingly getting more and more tired over the course of the last few weeks. He figured it was because of the lack of food, but again, nothing he could do about that. So sleeping was his only option, hoping that that would help him a bit.

It now was almost midnight. He was sound asleep but awoke by the front door opening. Hank was home.

Hank stumbled through the apartment, clearly almost too drunk to stand on his own. He stumbled his way over to the room of the boy who had made his life so much worse. All Hank's misery was the fault of this one boy, he was sure of it. This boy needed to understand that, he needed to feel all the pain that Hank was feeling. It wouldn't be fair otherwise. "Peter" he slurred while opening the door, ready to give this boy his fair share.

That was why when Peter went to school in the morning, he felt his black eye pounding and the bruises aching around his ribs.

It would be fair to say that he wasn't in the best mood when going to school. He had no way to cover up the black eye like he could cover up bruises under clothes. Fortunate that he didn't have any friends other than Ned to ask him questions about it. However, with previous bruises, he had said he fell off the stairs, maybe it would be suspicious to tell that lie again. Ned must think he is really clumsy or he might suspect something already.

When Peter arrived at the school's campus, he felt nervous. That, however, was nothing out of the ordinary. A bully like flash could turn up any second and make fun of him, ruining his day further. The bullying didn't bother him as much as it used to. While living with Frank he had learned that there were worse things than a few mean remarks. He was kind of grateful for frank though, because of Frank he didn't have to live in a group home, which would be far worse. Or so he heard. Living with Frank also meant that he could still go to his own school. That was the only thing that hadn't changed since… Nope, not going there. 'I am not thinking about that right now' Peter thought while trying to think of something else: what classes do I have to go to today?

He saw that Ned was already waiting for him in front of his locker: Ned was usually way too early.

"Wow, dude, what happened to your face?"

"Good morning Ned," Peter said while forcing a smile. Wincing when it hurt his eye. "You will probably think I'm like super dumb, but I actually ran into a door"

"Auch, that looks like it hurt." Ned made a face like he, himself could feel it. "And for the record, I would never think you're dumb, just super stupid that's all" he added.

"Is there a difference?" Peter asked while trying to remember the classes he needed books for. After some contemplating, he just put some books and notebooks in his backpack, hoping that at least some of those would be for the correct subjects.

"Of course there is, definitely a big difference," Ned said, failing to explain his point further.

They walked to class, Peter tried his best to sound interested in what Ned was telling him. Something about a new star wars lego set that he wanted. Peter had perfected his looking interested façade over the last few months. He had figured out that if he just nodded and let out a few 'aah's' and 'really's', Ned never seemed to notice that he wasn't even listening.

"So are you nervous?" Ned asked Peter.

"Huh, why would I be?" Peter frowned.

"For the result of the internship at Stark Industries, to see who will win it. You do remember that they are going to announce it tomorrow right?"

To be honest, it totally slipped Peter's mind, it had been such a long time ago he applied. Maybe even before… "No, of course not, I just don't think that I'm going to win"

"What are you talking about? You could totally win!" Ned exclaimed, he seemed actually confused by Peters' comment.

"Well, everybody at this school is pretty smart and it's not like I'm exceptionally good at anything so…"

"That is so not true, you one of the best at the decathlon team and you are like intensely good at robotics!" Ned shook his head in disbelief.

"Umm, I don't think so, besides I quit robotics club."

"I don't think you should think so low of yourself. But let's just wait for the results tomorrow and we'll see who of us is right." Ned said, trying to end this useless argument.

"Fine…"

Over the course of the day, he would begin to feel more relaxed. That is the advantage of having a great best friend who made your smile less strained and more real. It also helped that he got something to eat in the lunch break, Ned was used to Peter not bringing any food for lunch, Peter always said that he forgot it, so he decided to just pack a second lunch a couple of weeks ago. This meant that nearing the end of the day Peter could even actively engage in the conversation, even adding some remarks here and there.

At the end of the day, however, when the last bell rang, signalling that they could go home, Peter felt a knot in his stomach. Wishing that the school day wasn't over yet, hoping he didn't have to go back to the apartment where he would find an already drunk Hank on the couch. It was no use though, the bell rang, he got up and went to Hank's apartment.

This had been his reality for the last few months after his aunt and uncle died he was put in the system. He didn't have any family left so there wasn't any other option. He had thought he would be put in a group home, or maybe an orphanage. He never expected to be put with anyone like Hank though. He couldn't help but think that was maybe what he deserved. Everybody close to him died anyway, so maybe it was a good thing to not become close to his foster dad. If everybody died because of him, it was best not to get close to anybody. For Ned it was already too late, that's a friend he will never shake, nor does he want to. He also doesn't live with Ned and he's pretty sure that that helps his chances of survival.

Nothing changed for him for a long time, he was just hoping to age out of the system while continuing his school, hopefully with better grades than he has been getting the last couple weeks. He was already fifteen so he just had just a couple years left. He just held out hope to survive. To just get his diploma, turn eighteen, maybe get a scholarship so he could go to college, otherwise, he would work. Work hard and make his own living, hopefully never having to look back to these times.

He never hung out with Ned after school anymore, not wanting Ned to come to the apartment and not wanting to bother Hank with the question if he could go to Ned's. So he went to the apartment, the place that should feel like home by now but could never.

Hank was home this afternoon when he got home. This meant that Peter got a couple of punches in his stomach and a kick after he fell down before Hank passed out on the couch.

Peter made his homework as fast as he could that afternoon while keeping an eye on Hank to make sure that he was still sleeping on the couch in the living room. He decided to look for food in the kitchen, knowing there probably was nothing new after he ate all the bread yesterday. But before he could do so he heard a knock on the door.

"POLICE – OPEN UP"

Peter's heart sank, he didn't know why they were here, it wasn't for him, was it? They were probably here for Hank, but he was currently passed out on the couch. So there was not much he could do, except for opening the door. Not that he wanted to have the police barging in here and kicking down the door or something. Maybe that's only something that happens in movies, he didn't know.

Peter walked over to the door, wasting no time to open it, afraid that the police were done waiting and would kick the door in with him behind it.

"Uhm, hello?" Peter asked although it wasn't really a question.

Three police officers wearing bullet-proof-vests and holding large guns rushed past him and into the apartment. Leaving behind two officers who looked a little less threatening; they weren't holding guns.

Peter looked behind him and caught a glimpse of one of the three officers, he was standing over Hank, looking at him questioning. But before he could see any more he was ushered out of the door by the remaining two officers. They started to walk him over to one of the police cars that were parked outside the building. Peter hesitantly let them take him there, figuring it was better not to resist.

Luckily they didn't put any handcuffs on him when they put him inside the back of the car. The officers also got in, but they were still not saying anything.

"Uhm, I'm sorry but what is going on?" Peter decided to say, afraid that it might not be the right thing to do.

"Right now we are taking you to the police station, where you will be questioned and you probably will have to be drug tested also." One of them said in a professional tone.

"huh drug tested, why?" although Peter knew what they were probably referring too, it seemed smart to play dumb in this instant. He was also fairly sure that he was clean, so he didn't have anything to worry about right?

The police officer didn't answer his question so they spent the rest of the car-ride in relative silence. They arrived at the police station, one he recognized from the last time when he didn't have a home anymore, but he wasn't going to think about that right now.

The officers stepped out of the vehicle, and Peter also tried to open the door. But the door had a child lock, that was actually to be expected, it was a police car after all.

One of the police officers walked around the car to open the door for him. When Peter got out, the officer put a hand on his shoulder and led him through the doors of the police station.

AN: That's it for the first chapter, I hope you liked it! Please review!

Okay, bye, stay safe!