*PETER'S POV*
I tried not to focus on the fact that somebody just raped my boyfriend and focus more on the mission. It was hard.
After I had hung up with Harley, I just sat there on the bed for what seemed like an hour. I was boiling with anger and thinking about what I could do to hurt Eric as much as possible when I got back home but then I had to calm myself because Tony and Stephen came back.
"Hey, you okay?" Stephen asked slowly. I nodded quickly. "Your face is really red."
"I'm fine," I said monotonously.
"O...kayyy," Stephen said.
"Mr. Stark, I need to talk to you." I said as soon as he got off of his phone. He widened his eyes and opened his mouth slightly. "Uh, alright. Out in the hall?"
"Mhm," I nodded vigorously, my hands still balled up in fists.
I know Harley might not want me to tell anyone but Mr. Stark has to fire Eric after what he did. I don't want him having to work in the same building, especially not the same room as his rapist.
Tony shut the door quietly. It was around 10:00 at night and a lot of people were already asleep. We have a full day of work tomorrow.
"What is it? Is everything okay?"
"Um... I have something to tell you."
"I got that already. Now tell me."
I tried to form the right words.
"You know Harley Keener?"
Tony looked bored. "Yes, Peter, I know Harley."
"Well something bad happened to him."
Tony's face suddenly got very serious. "What happened?"
"It's not really my place to tell you but I feel like I should..."
"Peter, just tell me. You're worrying me."
"He, um... he was assaulted."
"What? Like he got punched or something?"
"No," I paused. "Sexually assaulted." My voice was barely above a whisper.
A long pause.
"Um... when?"
"Today. A few hours ago I think."
"Who did it?"
"Um... another one of your interns."
"What's their name? Do you know their name?"
"His name's Eric."
Tony looked down uncomfortably. "Well what happened?"
"I don't know all the details," I took a deep breath. This is hard for me to talk about. "He called me after and told me some stuff but he said he's not going to the police."
"What? Why?"
"I don't know, he said that I just don't understand."
"Well I need to call him, I'll be right back." He started to go inside and get his phone but I stopped him.
"No, please. Don't. I don't think he wanted me to tell anybody."
"Peter, I have to call him. This is serious."
I sighed. "Okay."
He went inside and grabbed his phone then headed back out to the hallway.
He walked a few feet away and I could distantly hear Harley's voice coming from his phone. Tony's voice rang out in the empty hallway:
"After everyone was gone?"
"He said that to you?"
"Have you told anyone other than Peter?"
"No, I promise that won't happen."
"Of course."
After that, he typed something, called another person, called another person after that, and then hung up and put his phone in his pocket.
"Just took care of it."
He walked back into the room without another word.
I smiled. My heart felt lighter.
"Did you, um, call the police station?" I asked after I shut the door to our room.
"Nope," Tony plugged his phone into the charger and walked to the sink. "That's Harley's decision."
"Okay, good." I fiddled with the hem of my sweatshirt. "Thank you."
"Mhm," Tony mumbled as he splashed his face with cold water. "My question is," he dried his face off with a towel, "why would that son of a bitch do that? Harley is kind, innocent, caring... I mean he would never hurt anyone. Why would that fucktard hurt him like that?"
I could tell Tony was way more hurt because of this than he let show. After all, Tony's known Harley for years. Even longer than he's known me.
"I'm going to hurt him," he said as he stared at himself in the mirror. "I'm going to make him pay."
"No, don't," I said. "I will."
"You?" Tony turned around and laughed. "You would never hurt a fly."
"Not unless they did something to make me want to hurt them."
Tony's face hardened. "You and Harley are close, huh?"
I nodded. "Very."
"Either way, let me take care of this. You can't be getting into trouble, okay? Plus I don't know how dangerous this guy actually is."
"No." I planted my foot on the ground. "I have to get my anger out somehow. He hurt Harley."
"Fine then let's attack him together," Tony said casually.
I agreed. Tony sighed.
"I'm supposed to protect that kid, I'm supposed to protect you," he motioned to me and shook his head. "How could something like this have happened? In my own building, too?" He put his face in his hands.
"It's not your fault," I offered. He nodded but still wore a frown. "I will never let anything happen to you, okay Peter? Never. Something like this happening to Harley is bad enough as it is but you? You've already been through too much." His voice was breaking on the final words and I hugged him softly.
He wrapped his arms around me and sniffed. The hug didn't last long. "Okay," he patted my shoulder and turned away as he wiped his eyes secretly, "I'm going to bed. Big day tomorrow."
"Yeah," I said, "me too."
And that was that.
*HARLEY'S POV*
Coming in to work the next day was difficult. Getting out of bed, getting a shower, getting dressed, everything I would usually do in the morning was dreadful. All I could think about was having to look at his face as I tried to go about my day normally. Just me and him. Nobody else knows.
When I walked into the office, the whole vibe had changed. For me at least.
The first thing I noticed was the desk he had pushed me up against. He fixed it after it was over so it looked completely normal. But my brain just played it back over and over again. The feeling of my arms being pinned to my sides, not being able to move. My heart rate increasing and not being able to breathe at all versus rapid breathing. My muscles pulling together all at once and trying so hard to escape but we couldn't fight him. The edge of the desk burning into my thighs as he pushed me against it harder and harder. His venomous words and his condescending tone.
He treated me like a piece of garbage. Like he could just do what he wanted with me and then toss me away like trash. Like I wasn't even human.
Felicity snapped me back into reality. "Harley?"
"Oh," I shook my head, "hey."
"Are you alright?"
"Yeah. I'm fine. Just a little tired."
"I understand," she smiled. "Me too."
I smiled back and set my bag down on my desk. "Eric says he needs to see you when you get a chance."
"Eric?" My heart dropped.
"Yeah. I don't know. Hopefully you're not in trouble," she joked and widened her eyes playfully.
"Yeah, haha," I chuckled forcefully.
I sorted through the papers on my desk. I really didn't want to talk to Eric. I didn't even want to look at him. But I also really wanted to know what he had to say. So I walked across the room to his desk, where he was turned around talking to another intern. I cleared my throat loudly.
He turned around. "Oh, Harley, good." He said goodbye to the other intern and then stood and walked over to me. "How are you?" He whispered. "The morning after isn't always pleasant."
"I'm fine," I snapped. "Is that the only thing you called me over here for? Because I really don't even want to look at you."
"No, that's not it." He narrowed his eyes. "Have you told anyone?"
"So what if I have?" I started to walk away but he grabbed my arm and squeezed hard. "Have. You. Told. Anyone?" He repeated and let go. I rubbed my throbbing arm and walked away.
I could feel his stare on the back of my neck but shrugged it off. He can't blackmail me.
30 minutes later, two security guards walked through the door. I looked up from a packet I was reading and my mouth dropped open as they headed for Eric's desk. Everyone in the office watched in silence. They said something to him quietly. He stood up and left with them. On his way out, he stared at me and I stared right back.
"Oh my God," Felicity came over to my desk after they left. "What was that about?"
"No idea," I shrugged and continued reading.
"I hope he's okay," she said with a frown.
"I don't," I muttered.
"Huh?" She looked at me over her shoulder.
"Nothing," I waved it off.
Kate Jensen, the manager of the internship program, came through the door minutes after the "incident."
"I've been informed to notify you all that Eric Barden has been fired from his internship."
A hushed murmur filled the room and I looked around nervously.
"The reason as to why is undisclosed. Have a good day."
With that, she left.
Here comes Felicity, I thought.
"What. The. Hell?!"
Of course.
"I can't believe they fired him! What could he have done?"
Hm... I don't know. Maybe raped a gay teenager because he wanted to "fix his ways." Plus just being a homophobic asshole.
"I have no clue," I shrugged.
Felicity huffed and then trudged back to her desk solemnly.
*PETER'S POV*
So Eric got fired.
Tony told me this morning as we were getting ready.
I'm thrilled.
But I'm still coming for him.
I heard a knock at the door and opened it. Steve was standing there with a smile. "Everyone ready? We've got another meeting."
"Yay, another meeting." Tony rolled his eyes and Steve smiled bigger. "Come on, Tony," he put pressure on Tony's shoulder as he guided him down the hallway, "be happy."
I glanced at Stephen with a confused expression, who glanced back with the same confused expression.
"Okay everyone," T'Challa announced as all the Avengers took their seats, "thanks for being on time. As you may have noticed, my little sister Shuri is here with us. She has decided to help us in the fight. She has extensive knowledge on all the technology here in Wakanda and has actually created a lot of it. I think she'll be a big aid to us," T'Challa nods to Shuri and she smiles at the team. "Anyway, today is a big day. Based on our analysis of the data, Electro is supposed to hit another city today. We don't know where, there's no way to tell, but once we do get news of his attack, we'll head there. Got it?"
Everyone nods.
"So everyone should be prepared to very quickly suit up at any given moment. It could be somewhere near here and it could be somewhere very far away. We've got planes here that can travel at high speeds, though." He smirks, "way faster than your moderate helicarriers."
Tony glares at him and he smiles. "No offense."
Steve casually puts his arm around Tony's shoulder and Tony smiles. Steve whispers something in his ear and he laughs quietly.
I'm so confused. I thought they hated each other. Now they're apparently best friends.
"I wanted to work out a game plan but it'll be hard to work out a plan if we don't know where we're going to be fighting," T'Challa sighs.
"Maybe we should separate into groups depending on who fights best with who," Wanda suggests. "Then we can bombard him all at once, no matter where we are, and then continue fighting individually."
"Good idea," T'Challa shoots her a bright smile and she nods. "So... I haven't really fought with you guys much so far so maybe it'll be better if I leave it up to you? You know your skills way better than I do."
"Bruce and Clint should be together," Natasha says. They both nod. "I think I should be with Sam."
"Peter's with me, I don't trust anyone else with him," Tony says.
Everyone divides themselves into groups — after a babbling discussion that seemed to last for hours.
The groups:
Natasha and Sam
Clint, Bruce, and Stephen
Tony and Peter
Thor, Carol, and Vision
Steve, Bucky, and Wanda
T'Challa and Shuri
"Okay, looks like we got it sorted out," T'Challa says. "Uh, I think that's all I have. I'll let you know immediately if something happens."
We all nod and start to disperse.
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(A/N hello beauties, hope you enjoyed the chapter :) remember to vote, comment, and follow me! have a bomb-ass day and don't forget that you're beautiful and valid and I love you all <3)
bye for now✱
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