marvel one-shots

He Can Change... Right?

TW: Mentions of abuse in a relatonship

Peter walked out of the elevator onto the penthouse floor of avengers' tower and straight into his room without greeting his family. He removed his shirt and studied himself in the mirror. Looking up and down his own torso he could see the colorful bruising, ranging from purple to green to yellow to black, mostly clumped around the right side of his ribcage – something was definitely not in the correct place in there. As he stood there, looking at himself and the damage that had been done he had only one thought 'I deserved it, it wasn't his fault'.

He hadn't noticed how long he had been stood like this, but it had apparently been long enough to raise suspicion in his family as he heard the door open, and before he had the chance to throw his shirt back on his Uncle Sam was stood in the door way, his jaw hanging loose and shock evident in his eyes. He could clearly see the bruising on Peters body and by the clenching of his fists he had connected the dots and figured where they had come from. Peter looked down, a look in his eyes Sam could just make out as a mix of shame and deep sadness and Sam took a tentative step forward and closed the door, knowing Peter would rather have this conversation in private until he had to tell the others for Peters own safety.

"Pete, kid, did he do this to you?" Sam asked softly, so as not to startle the teen.

"It wasn't his fault, I had it coming" Peter replied quickly, defensively, without looking up.

"You can't have done anything to deserve this Peter, nothing warrants this kind of action, especially from your partner" Sam took another step forward, gently reaching a hand out as If asking for permission to examine the obvious injury, to which Peter dropped his shirt on the floor and let his arms flop to his sides, allowing it.

"I broke a mug, I was careless. It's my fault"

"no. No it isn't kid. I'm sorry, but I gotta tell the team" Sam said, to which Peter looked up, alarmed, But Sam held up a hand with a stern look on his face, and Peter knew this wasn't a fight e could win. "c'mon kid, we're gonna tell them together"

The two of them walked out of Peters room, Peter still not wearing a shirt due to a stern look from Sam, and walked to the living room where the rest of the team was sat around chatting to one another. As they entered, the team turned to look at them. When the saw Peter, looking small and vulnerable, their jaws dropped and emotions ranging from sympathy to pure and unfiltered anger could be seen on their faces.

"Peter. Who the hell did this to you?" Steve asked, standing up and walking towards Peter before kneeling in front of him and looking at him. Peter looked back at him and hesitated before answering.

"...Jake" He answered in a small, broken kind of voice which could barely be heard by the people without enhanced hearing abilities "but he didn't mean it, he just got angry"

"Pete, just because he got angry doesn't mean he can hurt you. How many times has this happened?" Steve asked softly, taking Peters hands in his own, but Peter could only shrug having lost count of how many times his boyfriend had hurt him in the year they had been together.

"Kid, you gotta get out of this relationship, it isn't healthy." Tony supplied gently, taking in the beaten sight of his son

"I can't end it; he can change I know he can. I just need to tell him and talk to him about it all"

"People don't just change like that Pete" Natasha piped up

"He can. I know he can, please" Peter said, looking up for the first time since he had entered the room, and everyone could see the tears in those broken brown eyes they had loved to see the joy radiating from, but that joy was gone.

"OK, but if he hurts you again, you tell us and we will have a word with him, alright?" Steve answered, looking at the boy in front of him with a stern but soft look that only Steve could give. Peter nodded and gave the tiniest smile known to man.

-------------a week later-------------

Peter walked into the living room of the penthouse floor, tears streaming down his face that mixed with the blood dripping from his nose and busted lip. He collapsed into the seat next to Steve and clung on to the man like his life depended on it. No one needed to speak, they could all see the broken boy, regret and misery emanating from his body. He curled into himself as he hugged the body of his father and cried for the next fifteen minutes.

When his cried had turned to small sniffles he looked at the sofa he was sat on, not making eye contact with anyone in the room and wiped the remaining tears from his blood-stained face.

"I'm sorry I didn't listen to you guys, I thought he could change, I thought he could take his aggression out on something else or let me calm him down. But I was wrong." Peter let out, still looking at the sofa

"wanna tell us what happened?" Came the soft voice of Wanda

"Um... I went over there a few days ago and he was annoyed because I had been spending more time at school or studying for exams and so he took the aggression out on me, sorry I didn't tell you, and then I went over again yesterday and he started shouting at me cause I was a few minutes late than I said I'd be because I had to talk to a teacher and my phone died and I couldn't text him. Then this morning I decided I couldn't do it anymore and wanted to break up, so I went over there and told him I couldn't do it anymore and wanted to break up and he just lost it. My face is bleeding, I probably have concussion and I think my ribs re-fractured" Peter told the team, sniffling every few seconds and still clinging onto Steves arm, which was now wrapped around his shoulders, holding him close.

"I'm sorry you had to go through all of this, but it's over now. He can't hurt you anymore, we'll make sure of it" Bucky told him, shifting to sit on the floor in front of Peter, knowing that playing with the older mans hair always calmed the teen.

For the first time in a while the team saw a genuine smile on Peters face, and even though he was bloody and tear stained, he looked truly happy. He was starting a path of recovery and he had the worlds best support system.