Received: Operation Spiderman Homecoming 6:30 am.

starlord: can you not go down to breakfast early this morning? we're still worried about erik

spiderman: i dont think he's gonna bother me again. u guys probably scared him last night [6:32]

captain america: just don't want to take any chances. let's give it a few days and see how he acts [6:35]

spiderman: alright [6:37]

spiderman: hey are you guys still fighting? [6:39]

starlord: oh yeah absolutely you still have to choose between us [6:41]

captain america: yeah we're cancelling everyone else's vote and making you the soul decider [6:43]

spiderman: ugh [6:43]

So Peter hung out in his room for a little while longer, until he was sure that the boys would be down in the cafeteria and would be fine with him leaving his room.

When he got down there he knew he was going to get a lot of stares, because the skin around his eye had turned a lovely shade of purple and yellow. It wasn't super bad, but it was very obvious and not a lot of people got into fights in Cantu.

He took a seat next to Scott at the table they always sat at during lunch. They apparently sat there during breakfast too.

"Dude Pete, Erik fucking sucks." Scott said and there were nods from around the table.

"Yeah, he was an okay player but always kind of an asshole." Quill added.

"I can't believe I'm related to that piece of human garbage." TC said, which was a nice sentiment but wasn't really different from how he usually felt about his brother.

"Thanks guys. It's not that big of a deal though, at least he's now sitting like across the cafe." Peter looked over to where he could see Erik, eating with some old friends of his that weren't from the soccer team. It was kind of telling that he even had friends that weren't from the soccer team, because none of them did. The only friends that the team had was the rest of the team.

"I don't know why you play off your own well being so much Peter." Loki commented, it sounded snide but Peter knew he meant it in the nicest way possible. He ghosted his hand over Loki's shoulder lightly.

"There's no reason for me to worry about it now." Peter rationalized. The bell rang and he dumped his half finished bowl of cereal into the trash can. Steve and Loki accompanied him to Mr. Stark's class. It would be the first time Peter had seen him since they had kissed.

The hallways were busier than Peter was used to since he was always a little early to class and now he was going to be right on time. He was kind of glad though, it wouldn't give Tony any time to mention his black eye, or at least hopefully it wouldn't.

"Do you sit next to Erik in Barton's class?" Steve asked. It was one of the few classes that Peter didn't have with Steve.

"I sit by Scott and Lokes, but Erik sits like diagonal behind me." Peter explained. They were able to choose their own seats, but Peter's best friends had won out over his (ex)boyfriend at the beginning of the year. Even since then things had been weird between them.

"You should ask Barton if he can move Erik." Steve suggested and Peter shook his head.

"I don't want to draw attention to the situation." Peter explained and Steve clapped a hand on Peter's shoulder.

"You were always too good for him Petey." Steve said and they entered Tony's class right as the bell rang. Peter didn't make eye contact as he took a seat in his regular desk. Loki and Steve took their usual seats next to him, but something felt different, like they were closer to him both physically and metaphorically.

He looked up, finally, at Tony who had his full attention focused on Peter. Pete shook his head at him, trying to get him to look away and forget about it, to especially not bring it up in front of the entire class.

"Uh," Tony started and seemed to gather himself, taking in a deep breath before continuing. "Announcements as always..." And then Tony seemed to fall into the lesson, trying quite obviously, to not worry about Peter.

Pete was watching him the whole time, his chin resting in his palm and thinking about how things had gone at the apartment, how they could have, and should have, gone so much better. He wondered what he could do, what he could say to make things better between them. Peter would be 18 next Monday, and even though it would still be illegal because Tony was his teacher, he was sure they could keep things a secret until he graduated. So it would be perfectly legal for them to have a relationship this time next year-but Peter couldn't wait that long, he couldn't. Technically, it was kind of legal now. Many states allowed relationships like this in the legal sense, but work places could still discriminate against their relationship of course, and the court of public opinion was a whole different matter.

It wasn't like Tony was just a passing phase that he would forget about next year, no, he wanted to be with Tony so bad that it would be torture to wait a year. Tony was patient, understanding, brilliant, and actually seemed to care about Peter.

Tony was handing back their tests from the other day, face down on everyone's desks. Peter flipped his over slowly and saw '100' scrawled on the top. He looked suspiciously over to Loki who had a 98, and then to Steve who got an 81. Peter looked back over the test and noticed near the bottom of the page, in a handwriting that wasn't his own, there was writing that said: 'Peter, please text me once you get out of class, 573-459-2111.' Peter looked up at Tony who gave him a small, almost unnoticeable smile, and then the bell rang.

Sent: Peter 9:10 am.

hey it's peter

Received: Tony 9:13 am.

Pete what happened? Who hit you?

Sent: Peter 9:15 am.

its not a big deal dont worry

Peter was holding his phone in his lap during a lecture on the affects of gamma radiation in Mr. Banner's class. He sat in the middle so it wasn't a big deal, he doubted the Mr. Banner would notice him on his phone. He was pretty sure that Tony had a class right now too, so he wondered how the man was responding to him so promptly, or even responding at all.

Received: Tony 9:20 am.

It is a big deal and I'm going to worry. Who hit you?

Sent: Peter 9:22 am.

erik

Received: Tony 9:25 pm.

oh fuck kid. can you come to my office during lunch?

Sent: Peter 9:27 am.

yes.

They day dragged by as he got closer to lunch time, and also closer to Barton's class, which he had with Erik. Peter honestly didn't think that Erik was going to say anything to him, or try to approach him, he just didn't want to be anywhere near Erik at the moment.

He just had Calc III and then English after lunch, so he would get to have another class with Tony. He wanted to see Tony, to just curl up in Tony's arms and stay there forever, but he was worried that the man was going to report Erik or something. There was a no violence policy at Cantu, but still Peter didn't really want Erik to get kicked out or anything.

When the bell rang for lunch Peter pulled his book bag over his shoulder and jetted out of the room. He told Thor, the first team mate he saw, that he wouldn't be at lunch today and made his way to Tony's room.

It wouldn't be seen as odd for a student to go to a teachers room during lunch, they could just say he needed extra help or was doing test correction or something. Last year he spent a ton of time in Banner's room working on experiments and no one had questioned what they were doing.

The last few kids were just filtering out Tony's room when he got down there, Scott was exiting as Peter tried to enter.

"Hey Pete, what are you doing?" Scott asked, stopping them just short of the door.

"I, uh, test correction with Mr. Stark." He explained quickly with a small shrug of his shoulders, trying to make it seem more real.

"You? Test corrections? Sucks to be you dude. See you for practice tonight. Coulson got back early or something, so he'll be there too." Scott explained and Peter nodded along.

"Yeah, hopefully we can get all this whacked shit cleared up tonight. We can't miss anymore practices." Peter said with a sigh at how childish they all were. For a group of guys that had such great on field chemistry, they could really use like a bonding retreat or something.

"See ya later Petey, hope you're feeling better." Scott said and Peter shared a smile with him before entering Tony's room. The man was in his attached office so Peter headed right back, knocking softly on the closed door.

"Come in." Tony said and Peter pushed the door open slowly, seeing Tony sitting at his desk, leaned over a pile of assignments that he was working on grading.

"Uh, hey Mr. Stark." Peter said and closed the door behind him, taking a seat in one of the chairs in front of Tony's desk. It was a nice office and it reminded him of Tony. There was a picture on the wall of a young Tony standing next to who appeared to be his parents, another one of him standing next to Ms. Romanov at what appeared to be a party. His desk was cluttered, there were a few random car parts laying around that Peter wondered about how they had gotten in his office.

Tony looked up at him from the papers and unclicked his pen, setting it on the desk next to him and taking in a deep breath, sucking his lips in for a moment and then deflating. "Pete, this is the... It's the first time he's hit you right?" Tony asked.

Peter sighed, figuring that this was going to be the line of questioning, just him doing his teacherly duty to keep violence out of the school. "Yeah, of course. Look I don't want him to get in trouble or anything." Peter emphasized and Tony stood up from his chair, adjusting his tee shirt that was tucked into a nice pair of jeans.

"That's okay, I just... Are you alright kid?" He asked, leaning against the windowsill.

"Of course, I'm fine, I told him I don't want to see him ever again." Peter explained.

"Come here." Tony said and Peter stood up, pushing the chair back in and coming to stand in front of Tony.

"I don't want him fucking near you ever again." Tony ground out and then he was pulling Peter into a crushing hug, basically squeezing all the air out of his lungs.

Peter was surprised for a moment and then sunk into the hug, feeling his body go limp against Tony. He rested his head against the mans shoulder and Tony rested his chin on top of Peter's head. "He saw the hickey that you gave me." Peter whispered.

Tony clutched him tighter, which Peter hadn't thought was possible, before whispering back: "I'm so sorry Pete. I shouldn't have left any marks, I was being stupid."

"No, no I'm glad you did. I don't want to be with Erik." He responded and felt tears well up in his eyes. He hadn't wanted to cry, didn't even think that he was going to, but here he was tearing up in Tony's office. "I haven't wanted to for a while." He added.

"It's okay Petey, you don't have to." He reassured and rubbed Peter's back soothingly. "You don't have to do anything you don't want to do."

"I want to be with you Tony. Please, don't push me away." He begged, his voice wet, but it wasn't like he was sobbing. Peter didn't cry very often, and if he did it was never around other people.

"I won't kiddo, I won't. I was just worried last Thursday." He explained and they broke the hug finally, Peter looking up at Tony.

He leaned up and pressed their mouths together, glad to be feeling Tony's lips again after he'd briefly thought that he never would again. Tony brought his arms down to wrap around Peter's waist, pulling the boy back up against him.

Peter's mouth moved softly against Tony's, not trying to seek anything more than comfort. One of Tony's hands ran long soothing stroked over his back and the other one gripped his hip. Peter had his arms around Tony's neck, leaning into the kiss with everything he had.

It was passionate but not sexual, soft but not innocent and Peter had never felt more connected to an individual before in his life. It was like Tony knew everything that he needed, and was there to offer it. It's like being in a good relationship, Peter's mind supplied and he ran his tongue over Tony's lower lip, causing the man to open his mouth, and then there was a whole second dimension to their kiss.

They pulled away for air after at least a few minutes of just kissing and Tony rested his forehead against Peters. "Pete, you know you can't tell anyone about this." He whispered, a little short of breath.

"I know, I wouldn't want to ruin this." He responded and then moved his lips to Tony's neck, kissing down it slowly. He pushed aside Tony's shirt and sucked hard on the exposed skin of his shoulder, biting at it softly and swirling his tongue on the soft skin. When he finally pulled away there was a deep purple mark. "There, now we're even." Peter said and pulled aside his own shirt to show Tony the mark that he'd left.

Tony just grinned at Peter and kissed the top of his head. Lunch would probably be over soon, they didn't really have time for anything else. So Peter just leaned against Tony, resting his head on his shoulder and enjoyed the feeling of being loved.

"Hey Tony?" He asked after a moment, feeling weird that he was breaking the silence, but wanting to ask him a question.

"What's up?" Tony asked, his hand still rubbing against Peter's back.

"So the soccer team split up while I was gone. Like they formed two opposing factions who both want a different captain, it's kind of crazy if I'm being honest. But they want me to choose who should be captain." Peter gushed it all out. He needed someone new to give him an opinion on this, he wouldn't be able to decide on his own.

"Who do you have to choose between?" He asked, pulling away a bit so he could look at Peter instead of just speaking at him.

"Steve Rogers and Peter Quill." He said, he obviously knew who Steve was, but Peter didn't know if he had Quill in any of his classes.

"Damn." Tony said after a long moment of thinking. "Well, who's the better player?"

"They're almost perfectly tied in that category." Peter explained hopelessly.

"I mean Steve seems academically smarter, but Quill's just more of a leader..." Tony trailed off. "I don't know if I can help you kid. I don't know anything about soccer."

"Yeah, I figured it was going to have to be all my decision." Peter said with a long sigh and disentangled himself from Tony. The clock on the wall warned him that he only had about five more minutes left of lunch, he had Tony's class so he wouldn't have to rush anywhere.

"Sorry Petey, that kind of sucks." Tony said and gave him one last peck on the cheek. "Alright, now I just have to figure out how to now kill Erik next class." He said, his voice going kind of low again.

"Don't do anything you'll regret." Peter warned and leaned up, giving Tony a peck on the lips. "I'm gonna go take a seat. I'll text you tonight?"

"Yes, please do."

"Okay, I heard there was a disagreement while I was gone. Someone wanna explain it to me?" Coulson asked. They were all sitting on the bench and he was standing menacingly over them.

"Well, half of us think Quill should be captain and half of us think Steve should be captain, but Peter's undecided." Scott filled him in quickly. Peter could see Coulson physically try not to roll his eyes.

"And where's Erik?" He asked next. It had been made very clear to Erik that he was off the team.

"We unanimously decided to kick him off the team because he sucks." Quill supplied.

Coulson looked at Peter's face and then didn't comment, just moved on past it. "Alright, so why the sudden disagreement?"

Both sides of the argument wanted to jump right into it immediately but Coulson shut them up and asked Steve to speak first. "Well, I've been a captain before, a pretty good one. I just don't think that Quill is taking this team in the right direction." He kept it short and sweet.

Quill filled Coulson in next, "guys I've been your captain for a year now, we almost made state last year, and we're totally going to make it this year. You're used to my coaching style, and you all seemed to like me before this."

Peter thought that both of them had pretty good points, and he was going to have a very hard time trying to choose between the two of them. Although, maybe Coulson would dispel this and leave Peter out of it, that would honestly be better.

"So you're both just having temper tantrums, noted. Alright what are we going to do about being down a player?" Coulson tried to move on.

"Wait, coach, so who's going to be captain?" Bucky asked.

Coulson paused for a moment, lost in thought. "I'm not sure yet, let me think for a moment. Come on, are there any more soccer players in this school?" He asked.

"Uh, there's this guy that just came in this year. He's a junior uh... Paul, yeah Paul Bettany. Said he played at his old school." Loki supplied. Peter had seem Paul around, he was in his calc III class, pretty smart guy and definitely looked like he played soccer. Peter hadn't actually had a conversation with the kid but he seemed nice enough.

"Sounds good, we'll take what we can get. Loki why don't you ask him if he wants to come to practice tomorrow." He said and Loki nodded. "Let's do laps today, how about five? Peter, you stay back I want to talk to you." With a chorus of groans all the players got on the track and started around it. None of them really liked running other than him, Scott, and Sam. Thor and Drax sucked at running.

Once everyone was out of ear shot Coulson looked down at Peter. "Who do you think should be captain?" He asked and then took a seat next to him on the bench. Coulson was wearing his nice suit, which he usually wore to teach, he taught social sciences classes and rarely changed out of the suit. It kind of made him all the more intimidating, plus he was wearing his usual 'special agent' glasses.

"I, uh, I don't know sir. I've only been on the team for a year, I don't really know if I should choose." He finally decided on saying. He and Loki were basically the only ones who had been on for a year. You had to be a sophomore to join the team so most of the other members had been on for three years now. He really felt like if it came down to it, the decision should be left to someone who knew everyone better, knew how the team functioned and flowed.

"You're a good player Pete, no one dislikes you, I just want your honest opinion. Forget about Steve and Quill, who on this team would make the best captain?" Coulson asked frankly. Peter wanted to interject and say that actually not everyone liked him, but this wasn't really the time. The question left him a little stumped. The best player was T'Challa by a long shot, but the person who called the most plays in the heat of it was Thor, he scored the most goals, Scott had the most sneaky maneuvers, Loki saved the game more times than they could count, Sam could ride someone like nobody's business, and Bucky was a scary defender.

"I mean, I guess T'Challa seems like the best person out of everyone else." TC was smart and good at soccer, basically the same qualifications that Quill had when he'd become the captain.

"Why?" Coulson asked, and the simplicity of the question made Peter reel, trying to think about an acceptable answer, something that would make sense, something that could actually convey a point.

"He, uh, well he's a really good player for one, always has been. He scores a lot of goals, at least half of all the goals we've ever scored. He's super dedicated, I mean I've seen him practice when he was basically dead sick. He's always been trying to keep the team out of conflict, to keep it together. He's been around for a while, and he's smart, I've seen him come up with some pretty risky moves that ended up working out." Peter rattled off, he wasn't exactly able to come up with one really solid reason why, but he figured that giving a few of them wouldn't hurt at all.

"You know who you just described Pete?" Coulson asked and looked over at him, he'd pulled his glasses off and made direct eye contact with Peter. Pete had no idea what Coulson was getting at, he'd obviously just described T'Challa.

"Uh, who sir?" He asked for clarification. For someone taking the most advanced classes he could, Peter could be kind of thick at times.

"You." He said simply and Peter had to gain his bearing from what Coulson meant by saying that.

"You mean... Me? As captain?" He questioned, almost feeling like he was going to fall over. He wasn't a captain, he wasn't a leader, he was the person who did all the work in group projects, hated bossing people around, didn't even liked it when he'd worked a summer at a coffee shop and had to tell people what to do. "I can't do that."

"Yes you can Pete. I watch every game, you know," the joke made Peter laugh slightly, but he was still uneasy. "T'Challa's not the best player. You are. I don't think anyone else realizes just how ridiculous it is that you score as many goals as you do. You play a position that most players in the big leagues don't score goals in for their entire career. Anytime anyone asks me where you're at, I tell them to check the track because you're always working on bettering yourself. A captain isn't a package deal Peter, and we can work on your plays and your leadership, but there's a reason I promoted you to vice captain." Coulson explained and Peter was honestly stunned. He wasn't the best player, he really didn't score that many goals... And... Peter couldn't think of anything else.

"I, uh," he was trying to come up with a reason why he shouldn't be captain but he honestly couldn't. "Ok." He finally said and gave a short nod to Coulson.

When the boys finished their lap Coulson called them over for a huddle. "I made my decision." He said and Peter saw Steve and Quill flash a look between one another.

"Dude Petey whoever you chose, it isn't gonna hurt out friendship." Quill said and Steve gave him a nod as well, both of them obviously still believing that they were the only candidates in the race.

"I didn't choose guys." Peter made sure to butt in, he didn't want them to think that he had suggested himself to Coulson, he would never do that and he hoped they realized that.

"Yeah, I made the decision. Peter Parker is your new captain." Coulson finally said and there was silence throughout the team for a moment.

Scott was the first person to talk, he said: "yeah sounds alright to me."

"Makes sense." Sam said with a shrug.

"Better than you lot." Loki added.

"He's a good player." Thor said.

"Maybe our best." T'Challa answered next.

"You'll be a good captain Pete." Bucky assured.

Steve and Quill shared one more look with one another before finally responding.

"Sounds good." Quill said with a nod at Peter.

"You'll do great, Pete." Steve said and clapped him on the back.