Request from tessalucy! Tadaaaa! I liked this one and hope you like it too!
Also, I'm this close to posting an a/n of just me ranting but idk if I want to subject you guys to that😂😂😂
Anyways here's the story, unedited, I'm sorry😂
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Peter wasn’t sure whether he was supposed to be excited or not. I mean, sure he was excited. He was going on a trip with his dad, and it was almost Christmas! But on the other hand, they were going to Clints’ farm.
Peter didn’t have anything against the farm. In fact, he loved it from the few times he'd been there before. But every time he had been to visit, it had just been him, Clint, and his dad.
That was not the case this time. It was Christmas after all, and no one who loves their family would spend Christmas without them. Peter was just nervous to meet Clints’ family.
He also wasn’t too thrilled about the five hour car ride. While he had brought things to keep himself entertained, he managed to get carsick easily. He had his sketchbook, which he didn’t want to throw up on, his tablet, which he couldn’t think of any good movies to watch on, and his phone, which was out of the question even if he wasn't car sick. It had been beeping and buzzing the whole trip, and Peter didn’t even want to think about what Flash was commenting on his social media platforms.
So he simply stared out the window for five hours, plugging his headphones into his tablet and listening to whatever music youtube played at random for him.
When they finally got to the farm, Peter practically jumped out of the car and into the fresh air, taking long, drawn out breaths. He loved going to the farm.
The area was big and wide, covering so many acres that Peter didn’t know what they even did with all of the land. The air was fresh and clean, the smells all sweet and lovely. Except for by the stables, where there were horses and chickens, pigs and cows. Peter had befriended the horses almost immediately the first time he came to the farm, and had spent the whole trip learning how to ride bareback. When he finally did, it was the most amazing feeling ever, and he never wanted to stop. Unfortunately, they had to leave, and while Tony had a lot of money, they didn’t have any room for a horse to live.
Tony smiled at his son who was already eyeing the stables. Chuckling, he grabbed Peters shoulder and led him to the farmhouse.
“Not now Underoos. Maybe later. Let’s say hi to everyone first, kay?”
Peter nodded and walked with Tony.
The farmhouse wasn’t big, but it also wasn’t small. The house was two stories with an attic, the outside painted a clishé red with white trim. Peter didn’t mind the cliché though. He thought it just made the house more welcoming and warm.
Peter walked into the house with his dad, looking around the room. There weren’t a lot of windows, but the room was still somehow lit just right.
“Hey! You’re here!”
The voice echoed down the hall and Clint followed right behind. He gave Tony a side hug and turned to Peter.
“How are you mini Stark?” Peter laughed at the nickname.
“I’m doing good uncle Clint.”
“That’s good! My kids should be down shortly. They’re excited to meet you guys.”
Tony chicken, and Peter smiled nervously. He was eager to meet the family, but was also scared of what they would think of him, or if he wouldn’t like them.
Soon enough, tiny feet came running down the hall, and a small blur headed towards Peter, CLint and Tony. The blur ran into Clint, who laughed and picked it up. It was a little boy, maybe around three. He looked similar to Clint, and Peter assumed that the blurs’ name was Nathaniel, the youngest of the three. More footsteps followed, and down came a girl. She was older than Nate, maybe a bit younger than Peter himself, around 10 or 11. She walked up to her dad, standing by him and taking in Peter and his dad.
Yet more footsteps followed, two sets. From the steps came a boy and a woman. Peter knew the woman was Laura, as he had met her before. The boy, however, he assumed was Cooper. He looked about Peters’ age, 12, almost 13.
Once the whole Barton family was downstairs and looking at Peter and Tony, Clint introduced them.
“You already know this, but this is Laura. This ball of energy is Nate, she is Lila, and that is Cooper. He’s your age, Pete. I roomed you two together while you are here. I just figured that would be more comfortable for you than rooming with a toddler.”
Peter nodded, smiling shyly. He was begging silently for anyone, literally anyone, to break the silence.
Cooper did just that.
He walked to Peter and shook his hand, smiling widely.
“Wanna set your stuff in my room?” he asked, gesturing at the backpack Peter wass holding. Peter smiled and nodded, following Cooper up the steps after an encouraging nod from his dad.
They walked down a hall to a door on the end, Cooper walking in before Peter. Peter walked in and smiled.
The room wasn’t big, but it was comfortable. The bed was big enough for both boys to sleep a comfortable distance away from each other, and there was another set of blankets on the edge for Peter so they could each have their own. The floor was hardwood, and was so clean Peter could see his reflection in it, which he hadn’t expected. There were two windows on opposite walls, letting in natural light that showed the posters on the wall.
All of the Avengers, of course.
There was one of ironMan, Hawkeye (forced by Clint, Cooper said), Black Widow, and every other Avenger.
There was even one for SpiderMan, which made Peter snort. He wondered how Cooper would react if he knew he was rooming with SpiderMan. Not that he would tell. Secret identities are secret for a reason. His dad didn’t even know.
“KIDS! DINNER!” came a yell from downstairs. Peter and Cooper raced to the dining room, sitting next to each other at the table. Peter didn’t know much about Cooper, but he liked the confidence the boy held himself with.
Dinner was amazing, creamy mashed potatoes and steak, carrots sprinkled with some brown sugar as a vegetable.
When dinner was done, they all talked a bit until Clint and Tony told the kids to get to bed. Peter changed into his pajamas and set up his blankets while Cooper changed. He thought about grabbing his phone and just skimming through the messages, but he knew that it never worked like that. He would always tell himself, just skim, see if MJ or Ned texted, and then would get too self conscious about whatever Flash was saying that he would just look to know, and then would spiral into a pit of sadness and self-loathing for the rest of the night.
No, he wasn’t going to do that today.
Cooper came into the room and flopped on the bed next to Peter. They talked for a while until Laura came and turned the lights off.
But of course, it would be against sleepover rules to just simply sleep.
“Milk before or after cereal?” Cooper asked. They were playing twenty questions, even though it was now more along the lines of fifty six questions.
Peter snorted.
“After obviously. You pour cereal first and then milk so you know how much milk to pour for the cereal you want.”
Cooper laughed and nodded.
“Yeah. Dad does that though. Pours milk first and then cereal.”
“Yeah, well your dad also sleeps in the vents when he comes over.”
Cooper laughed loudly, Peter joining. It was the kind of laugh that you can’t stop, so you just laugh until it hurts and you physically can’t. Then there was silence, until the boys caught each other's eyes and started laughing again.
“Boys, BED!” came Clints yell.
The boys snorted again and smiled, but did end up trying to go to bed. Peter grabbed his phone to tell MJ and Ned goodnight, as per usual, completely forgetting about the Flash problem.
The instant he unlocked his phone, Instagram pulled up, where he had almost forty comments on just one post (idk how instagram works because I don't have it, so if this isn’t how it works just pretend it is). The post was a picture of him and Tony in the lab, shocked faces as they bolted away from a metal object which ended up exploding. There were two comments from MJ and Ned, Ned telling him how fun lab day looked and MJ telling him he looked like he was having fun before telling Flash to go away lest he want some precious info involving the bribes at school leaked to the media. Flash had posted no comments after that, but the ones he had posted before did enough damage.
Peter couldn’t help it. He scrolled through, reading each one. Each one was different, of course, and Peter took all of them to heart.
Too fat, too loud, too crazy, unlovable, everyone will leave you Parker they always do, Tony will die next you’ll see, and so many more. So. Many.
Peter didn’t even realize when he started crying, but Cooper did.
He thought it was nothing at first, when he heard the soft sniffles. But when he turned over and saw a light from Peters’ side of the bed, he leaned over his shoulder to read Peter’s phone.
His stomach twisted, in all honesty. Cooper and his siblings were homeschooled, and they had never really had to deal with bullies before. They were also very limited on social media, only one or two platforms, and even then their accounts were private, as per the request of their parents.
But even with the lack of being bullied, he still understood what it did to a person. And based off of what he was seeing, this wasn’t the first time that Peter had gotten a comment like that.
“Peter.”
Peter jolted, turning to Cooper, hiding his phone under the pillow.
“I already saw.”
Peter shook his head, pulling the phone back out.
“I wasn’t going to look, but when I opened my phone to message my friends it was right there. I guess I forgot to hit the home button,” he said softly. Cooper nodded.
“Yeah. peter? Who is that guy?”
“Hm? Oh, no one.”
“Peter, please.”
“Flash. Well, Eugene, but if I had a name as lame as Eugine, I’d go by Flash too,” Peter snorts, trying to play off the situation.
“Peter.”
“Yeah. Flash had been kinda tormenting me for a while.”
“And by tormenting you mean bullying?”
Peter nodded.
“How long?”
Peter hesitated before answering.
“Literally since fourth grade, so about three years now.”
Cooper started, thinking. Four years. Four years. He stood up suddenly, taking teh phone out of Peters’ hands and walking out of the room.
“Hey, what are you doing?” Peter half yelles.
Cooper ignored him, already halfway down the stairs and looking into the living room, where his parents and Tony were looking at him, wondering why he was awake. Peter was jogging after him, but stopped when he saw his dad. He suddenly knew where this was going, and he didn’t want it to go there.
Still, something in him didn’t let him move as Cooper went into the living room and grabbed his dad's hand, pulling him to the hallway. He stayed still while Cooper gave Tony his phone. He held his breath while Tony read the comments, convinced that if he was still enough, he could dissolve into nothing.
It didn’t work.
Tony looked at his son, who was standing still, looking like he’d rather be anywhere else. He looked back at the phone, at all the comments from this kid that Peter went to school with. Then back up at Peter.
The next thing Peter knew, he was being wrapped in a hug, his dad holding him tightly. Peter didn’t know why, but something in his snapped. He started crying, trying to be quiet, all too aware of Clint and Laura watching, concerned. Tonys’ hands ran up and down his back in soothing motions, trying to tell his osn through his actions that that kid is stupid, and I love you so much, you are perfect, you are beautiful, you are amazing, I’m not going anywhere, I’m staying right here.
~
Peter eventually deleted his social media. For some reason, it was really hard. He liked being able to post about things he liked, but it just wasn’t worth the comments. Tony watched over his shoulder as he deleted them, one by one. He smiled at his son afterwards and they went out for ice cream.
As much as Peter hated school, it was a little more bearable now after The Incident.
The Incident in question being when Cooper decided to pay a visit. See, Flash hadn’t given up on his bully status that easily. He just thought to himself, Parker can delete his social media, but he can’t just stop coming to school. So the bullying continued in person, and once it even got physical.
Tony was livid, and he completely freaked out. He threatened to sue the school, to sue the Thompsons, to make everyones lives a living hell if they didn’t leave his kid alone. He didn’t, only because Peter said that Flash didn’t usually do that. So they had a talk in the principal's office, and Flash promised not to do it ever again, after nearly crapping his pants from the lecture he got from both his parents and Tony Stark himself.
Peter was still sad, but Tony didn’t know why. So he invited Cooper to the tower. He figured a friend is exactly what Peter needed, and he knew that the boys had hit it off last time they went to visit.
Cooper showed up to what he believed was a solved problem, only to find out on his second day that the problem wasn’t solved at all, but only getting worse. See, Flash had promised not to hit Peter, but he had never promised to stop his verbal assaults.
And so Cooper did the only logical thing.
He went to school with Peter and completely KO'd Flashs’ ass in the middle of the hallway before first period had even started.
Flash had cried like a baby, and Cooper had simply spit on him (actually spit on him!) before walking away, dragging Peter behind him.
When he was sad, Peter still thought about the face Flash made when he realized that he had been spit on. It never failed to cheer him up.
And neither did Cooper. The two stuck together, staying friends throughout middle school, the death that is highschool sophmore year during corona with counselors that don’t know what they are doing and people who are people and simply that is enough to make them stoopid (if you get the reference i love you), collage, and after.
Yes, Cooper and Peter were friends, and pretty good ones at that. And every once in a while, even when they were forty year old adults, they would get together and do stoopid things. Wanna guess what one of them is?
Yeah. blanket forts and ice cream boats. Because it doesn't get more mature than that.
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Tadaaaaaaa! I'm reallu energetic right now because stuff happened yesterday and so now I'm a combination of terrified and so happy, but the happy outweighs the terrified for time being.
I'm working on the other requests now, so hang tight! My schedule is changing and I have a new class that shouldn't be as hard as it is, but the teacher is an absolute ASSHOLE so yeah.
AnywAys, I hope you guys gals and enby pals are having a good day today!
Peace out,
-person