(Ham POV)

That afternoon, as I was exiting school, I saw Peter walk up to me with Bruce fricking Banner next to him. Peter looked downright miserable - which meant, since I saw he was miserable, he was uber miserable.

'Sup Lix!' I called, running over to him, and he gave me a quick hug: his way of showing he cared. Maybe his face couldn't show any emotion, but at least he did his best with body language, making sure I knew he cared about me.

'Sup little bro.' he said, trying to force a smile on his face, but genuinely failing. I discretely told him non-verbally to stop and that it wasn't working and he quickly stopped, knowing to believe me when I said not to do something: after all, I had been in the outside world more than he had ever been.

Bruce Banner stepped forward, extending his hand: 'I'm Bruce Banner, Lix's Biology teacher.' he introduced himself with a smile. I took his hand and shook it:

'Name's Ham, Hamilton, if you wanna be extra about it.' I joked, making him crack a smile. 'What brings you here with Lix?' I asked, wanting to get to the bottom of this.

'I'm here about your home situation.' Mister Banner responded, explaining the sour expression on Lix's face. 'I want to help you with CPS and get you a home.' he added quickly.

I nodded shortly: 'Yeah, I heard about CPS today, also something about foster care or something?' I added uncertainly, 'There was this really nice lady called Margaret who was considering being a foster mum.'

Mr Banner nodded his head, about to say something, when he was interrupted by someone calling me: 'Ham, hold up!' it was Margaret's friend. She panted slightly when she reached our group of three: 'Hey, I wanted to talk with you about something.' she started, then glanced over to mister Banner, seemingly seeing him for the first time: 'Oh wow, you're Bruce Banner!' she exclaimed, flushing a bit.

He chuckled slightly: 'Yes ma'am, that's me, call me Bruce.' he extended his hand, which she eagerly took:

'Becky Jameson.' she introduced herself breathlessly as I saw Peter roll his eyes: he hated fanboys and -girls and always got annoyed whenever they acted dramatic when meeting a celebrity. 'Do you know these boys?' she asked hesitantly.

'Ah yes, Felix here is one of my students, I'm helping them get into the system.'

'Oh how wonderful of you!' she exclaimed, turning to me: 'That's actually what I wanted to talk with you about: Margaret, remember her, my friend from the bus station?' she asked. I nodded in confirmation, 'Well, she decided to listen to our advice and is now officially a foster mom!' I smiled widely:

'That's great, miss Jameson!' I cried out, grinning from ear to ear, as Peter raised an eyebrow, I motioned I'd explain later.

'Well, she remembered you, and - only if you want - she'd love to take you in!' she cried excitedly. I couldn't help but grin: that woman? She wanted to take me in? She was so nice! I excitedly turned to Peter, waiting for his approval.

'Oh, who is this?' Miss Jameson asked, eyeing my brother suspiciously.

'I'm his older brother, ma'am.' he responded politely.

'How old are you?'

'16 going on 17 soon.'

'M hmm.' She turned back to me, opening her mouth and shutting it again, as if trying to force herself to say something.

Peter decided to help her and piped up: 'Let me help you: miss Margaret is just going into the foster care thing and isn't ready for more than two people, especially not for a 16 year old teenager, who will be gone in 2 years anyway.' he stated, matter-of-factly, his face void of emotion.

'Well, noo, It's nothing like that!' Miss Jameson said stuttering.

Peter grimaced: 'You're a bad liar Miss Jameson.' he said with a forced chuckle, one that I must say was pretty convincing, 'It's okay, I don't mind: as long as my little brother gets a good home and I can still see him.'

I turned to him, searching for any sign of lie in his eyes, then came with an idea: we both knew Russian, he from his time in Hydra, and I from my grandmother, who was Russian:

'Питер, тебя это действительно устраивает?' I asked him (Peter, are you really okay with this?)

Peter nodded slowly: 'Чувак, ты в последнее время странно себя ведешь, я профессиональный шпион: я заметил и выяснил, почему ты сегодня такой странный. Ты хочешь семью. Я тебя не виню, все хотят ее. У тебя есть шанс завести ее прямо сейчас, не упускай его!'(Dude, you have been acting weird lately, I'm a professional spy: I noticed and found out why you were so weird today. You want a family. I don't blame you, everyone wants one. You have a chance to have one right now, don't throw that away!)

'А как насчет вас?'(But what about you?)I asked him, tilting my head to the side.

'Чувак, я пережил Гидру, я смогу выдержать еще два года несовершеннолетия без родительских фигур: мне они и так не нужны! Просто пообещай мне, что позволишь мне навестить младшего брата.'(Dude, I survived Hydra, I can survive another two years of being a minor without parental figures: it's not like I ever needed any anyway! Just promise me you'll let me visit little brother.)Peter answered, crouching down slightly to look me in the eyes and ruffling my hair. When he had said this, Mister Banner had stiffened significantly, but quickly composed himself, I guessed he wasn't used to people speaking different languages.

I chuckled lightly: 'То есть мне нужен родительский надзор?! Это обидно!'(Meaning I do need parental supervision?! That's hurtful!)I joked, earning a smirk and another hair ruffle from Peter. Then turning serious, I looked him in the eyes: 'Вы же не собираетесь отдаваться в приемную семью?'(You're not going into foster care, are you?)

Peter shook his head: 'Нет'(No)he answered softly, 'Я слишком опасен. У меня уже есть план: я стану супергероем по имени Человек-паук и исправлю все зло, которое я причинил этому миру, находясь под контролем Гидры.'(I'm too dangerous. I actually already have a plan: I'm going to become a superhero named Spiderman and make up for the wrong I have done to this world while under Hydra's control.)he answered, making me roll my eyes:

'Тебе промыли мозги'(You were brainwashed)I told him, my eyes squinting at him: why wouldn't he accept that?! Why wouldn't he just let the past be, knowing it wasn't his fault?!

He rolled his eyes in return, switching back to English: 'That's a discussion for another day,младший брат(little brother)' he said, ruffling my hair and standing up to his full height once again.

I turned to miss Jameson, who was looking between me and my brother like a deer caught in headlights: 'I'd love to go live with miss Margaret, my brother says it's okay.' she nodded slowly, a smile spreading across her face as Peter gave me a pat on the back.

'Well then, let's get the paperwork in order shall we?' she asked cheerfully, gesturing to the bus: 'We can take that to get to the foster home to organise the details, Margaret is already waiting.'

I smiled happily up at her, turned back and hugged Peter as he crouched down: 'Make sure to visit me Pete.' I whispered in his ear. He nodded softly, ruffled my hair and then shooed me away to Miss Jameson, who was already standing by the bus.

A final wave, a final smile, and we stepped in. The last time I would ever see my brother like that: the last time I ever saw this version of Peter.

(Bruce Banner POV)

In my life, there were not a lot of times when I was the definition of shocked. Today, however, I was.

I was just minding my own business, helping these two angels out, when they started talking Russian! Of course, there are many people who know Russian, but the thing that shocked me was when the older brother, Felix, mentioned having survived Hydra.

Also, his name wasn't even Felix, it was Peter.

This kid had been gaslighting me since day one! He was an ex-Hydra prisoner! I made sure to quickly remove the shocked look from my face when his younger brother - were they even brothers - looked at me inquisitively.

Now you might be wondering how I even knew Russian, the answer to that is simple: Natasha used to curse at me in Russian, so I decided to learn it, so I knew what she was saying to me, only to find out that she was actually not cursing at me, but saying kind words and one time even confessed her love, hidden by shrieks of faked anger.

You can guess what happened next. She is my girlfriend now, and sometimes I still pull up the footage of her shocked face when I first spoke Russian to her, saying I loved her as well, and whether she wanted to go out on a date with me.

Ham and Felix - or I guess Peter - continued lore dropping: Peter was planning to become a superhero named Spiderman? I seriously thought Spiderman was already a thing?! What had Peter done inside Hydra that caused him to feel so guilty?

I finally understood a bit better why he had had that panic attack when I told him something wasn't normal. Because he wasn't. He wasn't normal.

My brain worked a million miles per hour: what should I do? He was planning to run off and not go into foster care because he deemed himself a danger to others. My heart broke slightly when I heard him say that: he reminded me so much of Natasha and Bucky. Constantly thinking they were monsters for the things they had done while brainwashed. It wasn't fair. Though as Tony liked to point out on the daily: life's unfair, just deal with it.

Their conversation was now over and Ham walked off with the friend of the woman named Margaret and entered a bus, happily waving back to his ?brother?.

I heaved a sigh when the bus dissappeared out of view, turning to the kid who didn't want my help. How do you help someone who doesn't want help?

'So,' Felix-Peter started, 'What now?'

'Uhh...' I stuttered, staring at the boy. Dumb me. I just had to stare.

'What?!' he asked, his eyes growing defending.

'NothingмладшийЧувак.' I answered absentmindedly, using Nat's nickname for teenagers she met. My second mistake: I used Russian. How could I have been so stupid!

I realised my mistake as soon as he backed away from me, his eyes widening slightly: 'You speak Russian?!' he hissed. My head snapped towards him, realisation dawning on my face:

'No, no, kid, I just heard the phrase somewhere!' I said desperately, trying to save myself. But he didn't buy it. Of course he didn't! He was probably a trained assasin!

He backed away slowly. 'Peter.' I tried, my third mistake: I used his real name. His eyes formed slits as he turned and ran.

'Peter!' I cried loudly, running after him. He rounded a corner and I followed, finding no one. He had dissappeared just like that, much like Natasha and Bucky did so often. I cursed myself: how could I have been so stupid?! I finally had found out where the two escaped Hydra prisoners were, and I scared one of them off!

I picked up my phone and scrolled through my contacts until I found the one I was looking for, it ran twice before it was picked: 'Hey Tones,' I breathed, 'I need your help, like right now.'