The car was smooth on the ride back, but Peter was anxious.

Since Mr. Stark had left they'd had no contact with one another, which would be obvious because they didn't have each others numbers, but it made Peter unsettled all the same. The way he'd left, his tone of voice, everything left Peter with a sick feeling in his stomach.

He'd messed up. He'd messed up bad. And he may have ruined everything between him and Tony. Him and Aunt May, Peter could say, were at the forefront of his life at the moment. Erik was on the back burner, just someone that he needed to break up with so that he could be with Tony.

But maybe he couldn't be with Tony, maybe breaking up with Erik would be for nothing and Peter would just be alone.

Left by himself in a car for three hours was a great way to let his thoughts stew in his head, to concoct themselves out of proportion.

Cantu seemed like a dreary place to be compared to Aunt May's bright apartment. She was doing well, the hospital was going to release her in the next few days, and she'd urged Peter to go back to school. He hadn't even been worried about what he'd miss while he was gone, but she'd reminded him that he had other responsibilities than visiting her and sadly eating pizza in his pajamas. He hadn't even visited Ned or Michelle, he'd just sat around and moped.

So, basically Peter was a lovesick wreck.

The front gates were open, it was late in the afternoon on Monday, and as he drove into his parking spot he could see three figures sitting near a few trees off a ways from the parking lot. There weren't a lot of students at Cantu, and Peter could easily pick out his soccer team mates.

He parked the car and then pocketing the keys, not really sure what to do with them. He supposed he should probably give them back to Tony though, so he double checked that the car was locked, leaving his bag in it to retrieve it later, and then walked over to the three figures. It was Bucky and Sam, smoking cigarettes, and Steve looking a little irked, leaning against a tree adjacent to them.

"Hey guys." Peter said, trying not to spook them as he swung around the tree from behind.

They all looked up at him in surprise, Steve spoke first. "Hey Pete, how's you aunt?" He asked as Peter took a seat, forming a bit of a lopsided triangle with the position of their body's, more of a rhombus, Peter's mind supplied.

"She's good, wasn't hurt too bad. Thankfully." He answered and Steve gave him a sweet smile. Bucky and Sam nodded in acknowledgement as well. Bucky held him out a smoke and Peter shook his head. "Check out my hand, I burnt the other one out on it." Peter said and held his hand up. It was blistered in a perfect circle where he'd burned it. Was obviously going to scar.

"Oh shit Pete, at least we didn't get in trouble though." Bucky said with a bit of a laugh and Peter put his hand in the pocket of his sweats.

"Yeah, what are you guys doing out here. It's five, isn't there practice right now?" He asked, he'd planned to get to school right before practice so he could make it, but obviously it wasn't happening tonight. People didn't just skip practice. Coulson would probably kill them.

"Oh, uh, about that. Yeah the whole team's kinda fighting right now." Sam filled him in and Peter was pretty sure his eyes just about bugged out of his head.

"The whole team?" He questioned, mouth basically gaping. This was bad, this was very bad. They were four games into the season, only a 75% winning streak and now the team was on such bad terms that they had temporarily disbanded? This was mega bad.

"Well, we kind of split into two teams." Bucky supplied, rather unhelpfully and Peter furrowed his eyebrows towards him. "See, Sam, TC, Thor, and I all think that Steve should be captain, and the rest of them think that Quill should stay captain." He explained in further detail.

"Dude, Steve, why?" Peter asked, not able to comprehend why they would jeopardize the team for some petty rivalry. Steve had never shown any interest in being captain before, and they'd had damn elections the year before.

"Well, I wasn't really into the idea at first, but Buck got me around to it. I just don't think Quill knows what he was doing. I was captain in junior high, and Quill transferred freshman year so then we couldn't even be on the team. Sophomore year some dick named James was the captain, and then junior year I just kind of forgot about being captain and Quill stepped up. But our winning average went down from two years ago to last year, we've already lost a game this season. I just don't think that he's the best captain we could have." Steve explained and Peter quirked his lips to the side.

Steve being captain made sense, but Quill's track record really wasn't so bad that they needed a new captain, he was doing fine and Peter just didn't really understand where all of this was stemming from. Losing one game wasn't really new to them, Peter wondered when they'd become such sore losers.

"Yeah, Quill just doesn't know what the fuck he's doing man. Most of us are banking on soccer scholarships for college and if he fucks this up for us then we're screwed." Sam elaborated and Peter cocked his head to one side in thought.

"Couldn't you guys just be like co-captains or something?" Peter supplied, but even as he said it he knew it would never work between the two of them.

"I doubt it, I mean he would just be vetoing everything I said." Steve said with a small shrug.

"Oh hey, let me add you to the new text group." Bucky said and pulled out his phone.

"The Avengers is disbanded?" He asked. It was actually kind of fun to read all of their messages, not that Peter ever chipped in, but they could come up with some ridiculous things.

"Oh yeah, Avengers is basically a war-zone now." Bucky said and Peter's phone bleeped.

Bucky added you to group: Captain America: Civil War

"Really guys? Civil War?" Peter questioned with one raised eyebrow.

"Hey, Quill is the one who made this war alright?" Sam said, but it was more of a 'shut the fuck up' than an actual statement of fact.

"The situation now is basically just that you've been gone man. Without you we have ten people are we're perfectly split. So you're the tie breaker." Steve explained. Peter had worried they were going to say that after doing the math in his head and realizing that he would have to tip the scales. Peter didn't want to pick sides between his friends. He liked Steve and Quill pretty equally, they stood up for him, always made sure that he was doing okay, and were generally both great guys. There was no way that he could choose between them.

"Uh, I think I'll talk to Coulson before I make my decision." He said, it seemed like the safest answer. Coulson was pretty unbiased when it came to his players, he didn't like anymore more than anyone else. He was surprised that the man wasn't boiling with rage from how stupid everyone was being.

"Well, he's uh, he went on his vacation remember?" Bucky said and suddenly Peter did remember that Coulson had told them he would be gone through Friday this week. Well shit, they're gonna eat me alive, he thought to himself.

"I need some time to think guys, this is a pretty heavy decision to make. I mean, I like both of you guys. You're basically the same level of players... I just, I need some time to think."

Received: Captain America: Civil War 6:32 pm

captain america: hey pete, any way we could get your answer by like tomorrow?

winter soldier: yeah, we kind of want to stop cancelling practices [6:33]

spiderman: how many practices have you cancelled?! [6:35]

falcon: all of them since friday [6:36]

spiderman: shit guys we have a game on saturday! [6:38]

winter soldier: yeah so we really need you to make a decision [6:40]

black panther: but only if it's in our favor [6:42]

god of thunder: honestly you could just stall and make quill look bad [6:45]

spiderman: i'm not going to make anyone look bad! I'll let you know when i decide [6:47]

Not a second later Peter got a different notification on his phone, this one from Quill.

Quill added you to the group: Guardians of the Galaxy Volume I

Received: Guardians of the Galaxy Volume I 6:48 pm.

starlord: pete, word around town is ur back. meet me on the pitch in twenty

spiderman: if this is about your STUPID fight with steve i am not coming [6:49]

starlord: no, no it's about soccer plays [6:51]

god of mischief: oh it's definitely about the fight [6:52]

starlord: LOKI R U ON MY SIDE OR NOT? [6:54]

god of mischief: I never said I was on your side, just that I wasn't on my brothers [6:55]

drax the destroyer: yeah it's about the fight but you gotta hear our side of the story [6:57]

spiderman: alright alright, i'll be there [7:00]

Received: Captain America: Civil War 7:01

falcon: so we heard that quill is inviting you to a secret meeting. dont listen to him [7:03]

spiderman: you guys are taking this way too seriously [7:04]

god of thunder: i'm just doing this to spite my brother [7:08]

winter soldier: thor i thought you were on our side? [7:09]

god of thunder: oh no, loki hates steve. that's the only reason [7:11]

captain america: yeah, maybe you guys are taking this a little too seriously [7:12]

spiderman: how did you even hear about the meeting? [7:15]

winter soldier: oh scott's been leaking us information to 'keep things interesting' [7:17]

Peter decided that no matter who texted him next, he wasn't going to check it, so he headed down to the pitch to hear out Quill's side of the story. It was kind of scary how involved a group of players had gotten in a dumb argument. Peter had seen Quill and Steve share some pretty close moment during matches. He thought that everyone was friends, it made no sense why they would suddenly be so angry at each other.

That fight they had after they lost the game had really escalated exponentially. They had won two games since then. It didn't make sense why they would be mad now, they must have all just been stewing in their anger about what had happened.

Peter supposed he had noticed that the usual constant banter in their group chat had slowed down considerably before it had stopped altogether earlier that morning, but there was nothing hostile in it, nothing to suggest that they all hated each other now.

It was getting dark around the pitch and Peter was still wearing Tony's stupid flannel, that looked absolutely stellar with his sweat pants. He couldn't be asked to care right now though, he was more worried about the fate of the team than what he was wearing.

Quill, Drax, and Loki were all sitting on the bench, bundled up and waiting for Peter who approached from the side, Loki noticing him first.

"Hey Peter." Loki said and patted the spot next to him lightly with his hand.

"Hey Lokes." He said and took a seat, resting his elbows on his knees and looking over at Quill and Drax, who looked very much like they belonged in a secret society right now with their hoods pulled up and the diminishing sunlight.

"How's your Aunt May Pete?" Quill asked and Peter was struck with just how similar Quill and Steve were. They were both natural born leaders, gifted soccer players, witty, funny, and cared about Pete. Seemingly cared about him a lot.

"She's good, gonna be home soon, thanks." He answered easily and then looked out over the pitch. This was no time to go for a stress run, even if he wanted to. He was going to listen to what they were going to say.

"So I guess I'll just jump right into it. I know Steve talked to you just a little while ago-"

"Wait, how do you guys know what Steve is doing?" Peter asked, is there another mole? This is fucking ridiculous.

"Oh Thor texts me everything. For a brother who claims to hate me, he sure does talk a lot." Loki explained passively, waving it off like it was trivial that his brother actually did love him very much. Peter elected not to tell them about how Scott was also ratting on them, didn't want to make any more animosity.

"So yeah, anyway. I guess he told you about how he was captain in middle school? Yeah, complete lie, he was co-captain." Quill said, giving him a roll of his eyes liked he'd just blown the case wide open.

"Okay, well that isn't a complete lie then. Co-captain is still captain." Peter said. He wasn't going to put up with them acting like children. He didn't often get mad at anyone, but right now he was very mad at everyone except for Scott, who obviously wasn't taking this seriously, but everyone else he was furious at. Why the hell would they put everything at stake for petty rivalry.

"Okay so he was basically captain. But he's never captained a high school team, who's to say he's any good at it? I mean our record last year was 89%, one percent away from making state." Quill said, Peter already knew this of course. It had been a really shitty game when they'd lost their chance at sate last year.

"And out record this year is 75%." Peter pointed out. He wasn't trying to be a contrarian, but he'd tried to be nice with Steve and them, they were just too set in how they wanted this all to end up.

"Yeah but it's only the first semester and we lost one game! Only one. We lost out fourth game of the season last year, simply getting it out of the way early." Quill explained and Peter sighed, running a hand through his hair.

"You guys are ridiculous." He muttered.

"Ridiculous in a good way or bad?" Quill questioned and Peter could only let out another sigh.

"I'll see you guys tomorrow, it's too late for this shit." He said and got up, walking away before they could stop him.

Walking back towards the dorms he typed out a quick message.

Sent: The Avengers 7:48 pm.

spiderman: practice is on tomorrow, i have a plan

starlord: thanks petey

captain america: sounds good pete

TC was not in their dorm when Peter got back. He'd gone back to the car and then climbed his way up to their dorm and collapsed on the bed. Mentally exhausted from having to deal with overgrown children.

Peter felt his phone buzz once again and he honestly debated not looking at it, but then he worried it could be May so he pulled his phone out with an exasperated sigh. A picture of him and Erik flashed on the lock screen, he would have to change that.

Received: Erik. 8:10 pm

hey, can i swing by and see u? tc is out with them

Peter thought for a long moment about what to say. He didn't really want to see Erik, didn't want to be roped into doing his homework, and didn't want to do anything silly around him like blurt out he was seeing someone else. Finally, Peter decided that maybe they could just talk for a bit, he could get a feel for how TC was feeling about the relationship.

Sent: Peter 8:15 pm.

yeah, sounds good

He pulled the flannel off and took his shoes off so he was just wearing socks. He wasn't quite ready for bed since it was only eight, but he wanted to relax for a while before he finally fell asleep, maybe do some reading for Barton's class or something. Maybe he would go out and just sit in the car in hopes that Tony might be there.

Erik knocked on the door and Peter called for him to come in. He was laying against the pillows with The Great Gatsby upside down on his legs. He was wearing a faded tee shirt that he'd gotten from Ned probably five years ago with a picture of Ronaldo on it. He probably looked a mess but Peter didn't really care all that much.

"Hey Petey." He said softly, almost sweetly as he came into the room. They were dressed very similarly but Erik had his hair pulled up on top of his head and still had his shoes on. He took a seat in the desk chair next to Peter's bed. His half of the room was immaculate. TC's was a little messy but no big deal. It was a lot better than Erik's room had been when he'd visited the past summer.

"Hey Erik." He greeted, giving him a small smile. He would placate Erik if it meant they weren't going to fight, he really didn't want to fight right now.

"How's aunt May?" He asked, putting his elbow on the desk and leaning his cheek into his palm. "I would have texted but I didn't want to interrupt any time you were having with her." He explained.

"Oh, she's really good. Just a broken wrist and some ribs. Really dodged a bullet with that one. Thankfully the driver that hit her is able to pay for most of the hospital bills or else she wouldn't have a home to be released to." Peter mused. It had been really good luck that the man had insurance, and as such Aunt May wouldn't be drowning in debt for the rest of her life, she definitely couldn't afford that.

"That's great Petey. I was super worried, next time you see her, tell her I say hi." Erik said and Peter was a bit taken aback by how kind and gentle he was being. Usually Erik didn't really give a shit about Peter's life outside of Cantu, let alone Aunt May.

"She got a phone actually, she's been texting me off the hook." He said with a bit of a laugh and Erik laughed too, his eyes crinkling up and his top lip flattening with his smile.

"I didn't know people that old were allowed to have phones." He joked, which made Peter laugh more.

"Hey, what do you think about all of this stuff with Quill and Steve?" Peter asked once he was done smiling. It had been a long time since he and Erik had a good laugh with one another, Peter had missed it. Things used to be so easy and natural between them, not tense and angry.

"Not sure to be honest. Quill's been a pretty good captain and not to rag on the dude or anything but I kind of hate Steve. I mean, there's a reason we call him Captain America, fucking humble prettyboy." Erik said and rolled his eyes.

Peter raised his eyebrows at the man. "Uh, not to rag on you or anything but I kind of hate you. There's a reason we call you killmonger, fucking egotistical lug." Peter repeated back to him and Erik blinked a few times before cracking another smile.

"Okay, that didn't sound right, but you know what I mean. We've never gotten along, so why would I support his crusade to be the captain. Quill's got the possibility of a full right to Cornell right now on soccer, I don't want it to get ruined for him." Erik explained.

Peter honestly didn't think he'd ever known Erik to think about someone like that before, to value what would happen to Quill if he wasn't captain. The back of Peter's mind told him that Erik had probably just found a reason to support Quill because he hated Steve so much, it was pretty obvious that he didn't like him. But Erik didn't like most people so it wasn't really a surprise.

"I missed you Pete." Erik said when Peter was quiet for a long moment and Peter looked over to him from where he'd been blankly looking at his comforter and thinking. He flashed Erik a smile.

"Missed you too Erik." He said, and it was true, he missed this Erik. The one who thought about him and others, the one who was kind and gentle. Not whatever fucking piece of shit he'd turned into in the past year.

Erik reached forward to brush a finger against Peter's cheek bone and Peter stared at him in rapture for a moment. He had Tony now, he couldn't kiss Erik. He shouldn't even let Erik touch him right now, but he couldn't move, was entranced by the feeling of familiar fingers on his skin. Erik's finger trailed downward, brushing over Peters lips and bouncing them a bit as his fingers rolled off. He trailed it over Peter's jaw and then traced the veins of his neck. Erik's finger hooked in the collar of his shirt and pulled it aside slightly to reveal milky skin, and then Erik stopped.

"Peter." Erik said, his tone changing completely and Peter looked down to where Erik's finger was. It had pulled his shirt aside by his shoulder and was now resting on top of a purple and yellow fading hickey that Tony had given him. That hickey had haunted him after Tony had left, and Peter was surprised that he'd forgotten about it for long enough to let Erik find it.

He couldn't say anything, just looked up at Peter with disgust on his face and stood up from his chair. "What the fuck Peter!?" He yelled, instantly angry and at full volume. Peter stood up too, but wasn't anywhere near as tall as Erik who was quite intimidating right now.

"Erik, I'm so sorry, I don't know what to say." Peter stuttered over his words, trying to come up with an excuse, a reason, anything he could say to placate Erik and stop the impending barrage of insults and screaming that was going to come at him.

Erik turned towards the door and wrenched it open, not saying anything as he left. Peter followed him out, not wanting to let the man take out his anger elsewhere. Peter had fucked up, that was true, but Erik had fucked up first. Erik had been treating Peter like shit, and to be fair, he and Tony had only kissed.

"Erik, stop, come on let's talk about this." Peter tried to say, but Erik had led them right to the common room and suddenly Peter was angry too. Erik had purposefully led them to the common room, so that everyone could watch him and Peter argue. So that everyone could have an insight into Peter's private life. Erik knew that Peter hated sharing his personal life, and so here he was, basically forcing Peter to stand on a stage in front of basically the entire soccer team and a few other random kids.

"Was your aunt even in the fucking hospital peter? Or did you just want to go up to DC to whore yourself around?" Erik accused and the words cut, they just made Peter even more man. Just a few minutes ago they'd been being nice to each other, Erik had been sweet, and now he was a fucking monster. Peter couldn't believe Erik would accuse him of something like that.

"Oh that is rich coming from you." Was all Peter retorted with, but Erik understood the message and Erik was basically shaking with anger.

"Who is is huh? Who's this fucking prick that you're letting dick you down? One of your old friends? Old teachers? Huh Peter? How big of a fucking slut are you?" He ground out and Peter narrowed his eyes at Erik.

"Hey, guys, just calm down for a second." Bucky tried to interject and Erik screamed at him to back off.

"Erik just, yeah, calm down please." Scott said, but was once again screamed at.

"I won't fucking shut up until Peter tells me why he won't even let me get to second base but has been apparently whoring himself around to every other man. You're always texting other people Peter, how long has this been going on?" Erik demanded.

"Nothing is going on! I text the fucking soccer team, you know that. You know me!" He emphasized each word and he could feel the veins in his forehead twitch. Oh he was pissed, very pissed.

"Okay then explain the fucking hickey Peter!" Erik shouted and Peter went quiet. He couldn't explain it. There was nothing he could say that would calm Erik down. It was true, he had cheated on Erik, but he didn't think he fucking deserved this.

Erik quieted down for a second too and Peter was distracted by everything going on around him, he didn't even notice the open palm that was coming at his face until he was knocked to the ground with the force of Erik's arm.

Immediately Quill and Steve tackled Erik to the ground, holding him so that he basically couldn't move at all.

"Oh shit Petey." Scott said and knelt down to help Peter to his feet. His lip was bleeding slightly and his face hurt like fucking hell. Erik packed a punch and Peter was sure he was going to have a black eye.

"Okay you've crossed the fucking line Erik. You ever get within ten feet of Peter again and I'll cut your fucking dick off." Quill ground out and spat in Erik's face.

"Don't even think about coming to practice tomorrow, we'll make sure Coulson kicks you off the team." Steve warned and then they were letting him up and pushing him harshly out of the common room and towards the dorm rooms. Erik walked away and didn't look back, but his stride said that he was still very pissed off.

"It's fine, I'm fine." Peter assured Scott and got to his feet, wiping the blood with the back of his hand.

"Peter, what was that?" Quill asked, wincing when he saw Peter's face.

Peter pulled his collar aside and showed them the hickey. "I fucked up, he got angry."

"I don't give a shit that you were cheating on that douche bag. I mean what the fuck was him hitting you? Has he ever done that before?" Quill questioned and Steve was standing right next to him, like they were his very ticked off big brothers.

"No, no of course not." Peter gushed out, Erik had never hit him before.

"Pete you can tell us the truth." Steve urged and Peter just shook his head again.

"No I promise, just the yelling." He explained, he didn't want Erik to get in serious trouble, he had never hit Peter before. Peter just wanted him out of his life.

"Oh Peter." They said, almost in unison and then they were pulling him into a tight bear hug, sandwiching him between the two of them.

When they finally pulled apart everyone else clapped a hand on Peter's back and told them what a fucking douche Erik was.

"We still hate each other, but we care about you a hell of a lot more than some dumb rivalry." Quill said, resting a hand on Peter's shoulder.

"Yeah Pete, we all care about you a lot." Steve reassured and rested his hand on the other shoulder.

"Thanks guys. I just, I just don't want him in my life anymore. Nothing else, just don't want him around me." Peter explained.

"Oh, we can do that." They promised.