The Revenge of Devil | Irondad, pepperony

Chapter 28

"Hey, are you okay?"

Michelle looked up in surprise to find Ned standing by her locker. She wasn't expecting him here right now. She looked over his shoulder a little unnecessarily to see if she could see Peter there, but he was probably gone. She wasn't sure if she was sorry or not. She was completely exhausted after today, and all she wanted was to crawl under a blanket with a good book, preferably from Poe. Och. But of course, she remembered Peter in connection with Poe.

"I am all good. No problem," she replied to Ned, closing the locker. Because that's exactly what people answer when they're not okay, right? Her throat tightened a little, but no tears welled up in her eyes to her relief. Either she had none left after the weekend, or she didn't even have the strength to cry.

"Look, I noticed that... that you and Peter didn't talk too much today. You weren't even at lunch. Did something happen between you two?" he asked cautiously. He thought he would ask Peter about it, but he was absent-minded all day and headed straight home after school.

"Well, you should probably ask Peter about that, shouldn't you?" MJ growled. "He's your best friend." But when she saw Ned's look, she sighed. "Okay. It's just... we have a break or something. We argued. Can we not talk about it? I am kinda sick of it."

"Sure, I'm sorry, I just... I meant I'm sorry. I'll try to talk to him-"

"No, for God's sake, don't do that," Michelle snapped. "He might still think - it doesn't matter. Just leave it to us, okay? It'll just turn out somehow." Somehow. "Goodbye, loser," she muttered, raising her hand in greeting before walking out of the school building.

It started to snow. Michelle pulled her hood over her head and headed home. The February wind blew wet flakes on her face and she squinted. Each step seemed harder than the previous one as if she had a heavy ball tied around her ankle. She didn't want to go home. She wanted Peter. But she couldn't have him.

She remembered the words from her favorite author. I wear these shackles today and I'm here. I'll be without shackles tomorrow! But where?

When did it all get so complicated?

•••

Pepper was dealing with some things about the wedding, so she didn't protest as much when Peter asked her to go to the Avengers compound. So he stood in the gym and banged on a punching bag to get all the anger out of him. He was angry at everyone around him, even at those who had done nothing to him, and it had to go out.

He was a little surprised that Dad and Mom didn't notice that the three of them weren't spending as much time together as before and that Peter was more closed and spending a lot of time alone. They would have solved something like that before and designed a joint program, but now... nothing. He knew they had a lot of work to do to prepare for the wedding. And in fact, this regime suited him. At first, he thought of his sister, whom he now knew didn't exist, but she occupied his mind long enough to the fact that she was just an illusion. And now he had his head full of Michelle and the situation they were in.

"Don't forget to do it right. Or you'll hurt yourself," a man's voice came from behind him. Peter wasn't even scared, he just nodded and hung his head. He realized he was gasping for breath and his hands were shaking. He dropped his gloves on the floor and went to sit on the bench. "You look pretty upset," Bucky said as he looked at him.

"Yeah? I guess so," Peter muttered, wiping his sweaty face. He looked at the black-haired man. "I followed your advice. And I ruined it. Or maybe not? I don't know. Anyway... it didn't turn out the best."

"I'm so sorry," Bucky told him honestly and went to sit next to him. He placed a palm on his shoulder in a comforting gesture. "Do you want to talk about it?" He himself was surprised at how easily he could talk to the boy.

"I don't know," Peter replied in fact. He looked at him. "On the other hand, it's probably easier for me to talk about it with you than with my mom. That would be quite difficult. And I wouldn't probably say anything to her now, I know she's worried about the wedding."

"Sometimes it's easier to confide in complete strangers with what bothers us. Because we know they won't judge us and they'll take it differently from someone close to us," Bucky agreed. "I can see it on my own now. I can almost have a more honest talk with you and Agent Romanov than with Sam or Steve. I don't know why, I guess it's not as easy as before, I've never had a problem talking to others before. Now... that's the problem for me. I guess I can't open up to others after all, do you understand?"

"I see," Peter nodded, feeling as if their bond had strengthened a little after this. "I... it was one girl. I mean, specifically my girl. We had an argument over one thing... and now we take a break. One part of me doesn't want it, but the other sees it as the best possible solution. I don't want to lose her, I'll miss her, but I probably need to get through it first."

James smiled and leaned against the wall. "Well, relationships. You have to reckon with the fact that there will always be some disagreements. Just don't start with another now."

Peter frowned. "Why would I do something like that?"

"I don't know, someone does it." Bucky jerked his shoulder and stared at the ceiling. "You don't even know I'm glad I don't have to deal with something like that. But sometimes I miss it."

"Tell me, but really: do you think we have any chance that the relationship will last when we're just fifteen?" Peter asked, feeling his stomach twitch in unpleasant anticipation.

Bucky sighed. "That is hard to tell. Most people can't stand these relationships. But that doesn't mean you belong to them. You can't collapse from just one argument," he told him.

"I know," he said quietly, "I'm just afraid I'll lose her because of what happened. And I wouldn't want that. But this is such a baggy situation! I've seen what a lack of communication in a relationship can do. And... I don't want this." Bucky didn't know what to say. So at least he squeezed his arm to let him know he was here with him. "Well, thanks for listening to me, sir - um -"

"Stop calling me sir," he said abruptly, holding out his hand. "I'm Bucky."