Here We Go

14: Knight In Shining Armour

A lot can happen in ten years.

For example, Clint's life had changed completely. He and Laura got a divorce. Clint was absolutely devastated - it was Laura's idea - but he went along with it because she was right, they didn't have that spark anymore. Clint still went to visit and Laura brought the kids up, for their sake, so it's not like they hated each other. They were civilized and polite, they just weren't together anymore.

That thing between Natasha and Bruce, whatever it was, didn't work out. It fizzled to an end and they were both fine with it.

Then there was the thing with Wanda and the Vision. Nobody in the tower really knew what it was, but they were very close. Probably something to do with her being able to read his mind easily and him being only on the side of life, but they were basically a couple.

Thor still had Jane and he still went back and forth from Asgard to Jane to the Tower and his absences were a normality in the building. He had once even taken Peter to Asgard (on a drunken bet from Clint) and Peter met Thor's mother and Heimdall and the Three Warriors and Lady Sif, who he had been especially excited about meeting the little mortal.

Plus, Phil returned. None of them knew how it happened. They were out on a mission and they came back and he was just sitting on their couch, watching cartoons with Peter. Clint had, naturally, jumped on Coulson and hugged him. Natasha had just calmly walked over and gave him a kiss on the cheek. Their reactions made sense, however. Clint was practically raised by Shield from the day he met them and to Natasha, Phil was like that cool uncle who helped you out. Tony threw a party, obviously, and Steve finally signed those trading cards. Bruce tried to find out how Phil was alive but Phil wouldn't say.

It was one week from his birthday when Peter also broke his leg. It was a dare. Not the leg breaking bit, the skateboarding off the table bit that led to the leg breaking bit. He and Harry had been playing truth or dare, and short story even shorter, Peter skateboarded off the table and broke his leg, sentencing him to crutches for the next two months at least. That brings us to now.

The first day of freshman year.

He crutched to the basketball court where the classes met up before school and set off to find Harry. He spotted his best friend talking to Gwen and began going toward him slightly faster than he should have. One of the crutches hit a rock and suddenly he was falling backwards. His eyes snapped shut and he waited for the pain but it never came.

"Hi, I'm Wade," a voice said, hands grabbing his shoulders and pulling him up. Peter opened his eyes and was face to face with a guy about his age with bright blond hair and shiny blue eyes, plus freckles and scars galore along with a giant grin. He had a few band-aids on his face, but he looked perfectly fine. "Looks like I'm your knight in shining amour, huh?"

"Not really, but thanks. I'm Peter." Wade held him up and gave him his crutches.

"No problem. Just doing my job, sir," he said in an official voice, stepping back with the wave of a hand once Peter was situated. Peter raised a eyebrow.

"Really? And what would that job be?"

"Making sure the cute people don't get hurt," Wade said with a wink. Peter's face flushed scarlet and Wade laughed, his head tipping back and his eyes squeezing shut. "I'm only joking, kid."

"Whatever," Peter mumbled, starting once again towards Harry, just going about it slower this time. Wade walked by his side, chatting endlessly.

"I'm new in town, ya know. Me and my dad moved here last week because he got a new job. My dad won't tell me what he does, but he's always away for business trips and I think he works for the FBI or something because he always comes home hurt. His name's Logan." Peter didn't say anything, only rolled his eyes and kept crutching, so Wade continued. "I'm guessing you don't talk much, which is fine. I like talking, and it's fine if you just like to listen. That means more time for me to talk about stuff. What do your parents do? Got any uncles or aunts? Brothers or sister? Dogs or cats or fish? Girlfriend or boyfriend?"