somewhere only we know {Parkner Oneshots}

i finally found you, my missing puzzle piece

{A Glee AU nobody asked for. Based on S2 episodes 6-8}

{TW biphobia/homophobia, bullying}

*

Being the only kid out of the closet at his school was hard enough for Peter.

Being on the Academic Decathlon, the nerdiest club in school, filled with the biggest losers according to all the popular kids in school, made it that much worse.

Peter likes to think it would've been different if he had been gay, still bad but in a different way. Being bisexual was like being a mythical creature to the other students.

Everyone on the Acadeca team were nice enough. They supported him, they cared about him, but they would never understand what it was like to be bullied for something he couldn't change about himself. They would never understand how hard it was to walk the hallways scared for his life.

"Oh my god, Peter," Ned gasps when Peter walks into the library for their Acadeca meet.

All eyes turn to him, staring at the bruises he's sporting from yet another day where his bullies attack him for simply being bisexual. One of his eyes is swollen shut, blood drying under his nose and across his mouth from his split lip where he holds a wad of tissues, bruises dark and splashing out across his nose and cheekbones.

"I'm fine," Peter says, voice low and shaking, giving away how much this is affecting him. There's tearstains shining on his cheeks, smudged beneath his eyes from trying to hide the evidence. "Just- Let's just keep going."

"Who did this to you?" MJ demands, slamming her papers onto the table, eyes burning with anger. "We can't just let you go through this."

Peter shakes his head, grabbing a pen from Betty and preparing to take notes on MJ's ideas for their Acadeca sectionals approaching. "I'm fine. Please, let's just keep going."

"We can't just stand by while you get hurt like this, Peter." Ned grabs his arm, trying to get Peter to look at him, but Peter keeps his eyes downcast.

"All of you have been bullied before too. I'm dealing with it, okay? Please, can we just move on?"

If Peter doesn't want the help, they can't really offer much. Plus, they don't get it.

His bully, the main guy that hates Peter's guts, threatened to kill Peter if he told anyone or tried to get him suspended. Peter's scared.

"Here's a job for you, Peter," MJ says, tipping her chin up to appear stronger and taller. "I want you to sneak over to Osborn Academy and spy on their decathlon. They won their sectionals, nationals, and got second place in regionals last year, and we need to beat them at nationals."

"Osborn Academy?" Peter repeats, dabbing at the blood on his upper lip, ignoring the looks of sympathetic glances from Betty and Liz.

MJ nods, picking up her stack of cue cards. "Yeah. They're our biggest competition for nationals. We're going to win sectionals, no problem, but we're going to lose to The Academy."

Peter shrugs, figuring he might as well. It'll get him out of seeing his bully afterschool to get beat up again behind the school. It's going to be hard enough to hide this from May.

Travis Wright is the quarterback of the school's football team, has pretty low grades for somebody who's still managing to stay in a STEM school, is too tall and too broad and looks older than most people, including the beginnings of stubble around his jaw.

And he's been bullying Peter ever since the ninth grade when Peter came out as bisexual.

The bullying's escalated from cruel words and being tossed in dumpsters, to being beat up behind the school.