Living With Secrets

Beat Up

Shit, shit, shit, Peter thought. I'm late, shit.

He was coming home from a mid-evening patrol late. Dangerously late. Wade would be out of class soon.

Peter pulled himself through the window, landing on the bed tiredly. It had been a long night, and he had been shot in the leg. Fortunately, it had missed the bone, so Peter didn't need someone to reset fragments and all that.

But it still hurt like hell. Karen had constricted the suit over the wound, but Peter knew that as soon as he retracted the suit, his leg was going to bleed again. Though his leg begged him to sit back on the bed, he gathered some stuff from around the room. A few towels, a bit of rope, alcohol, and a roll of gauze.

The brunet got ready to retract his suit, a towel from his pile situated under himself, another stuffed into his mouth, and another next to him. He retracted the suit, getting ready to tie the rope tightly around his leg. He did just that, wincing and yelling into the towel, but gave a halfhearted smile when he saw the bleeding slow slightly.

Of course, just at that moment, Wade got home. "Petey, hey, I was thinking we could- Holy shit, what is going on?" Wade turned, only to be met with a scene straight out of a dark comedy.

Peter sat on his bed, blood beginning to soak through the towels under the boy's leg. There was also a towel in teen's mouth, a rope tied tightly around his thigh, and a bottle of alcohol next to him. Peter let the towel fall from his mouth.

"I got shot."

Wade paled, but quickly recovered. It wasn't the first gun shot wound he'd taken care of.

"What?"

"Oh," Wade said. "Did I say that out loud?"

Peter chuckled lightly, wincing and grabbing his ribs. He had a couple bruised at the very least. Wade moved towards his roommate, sitting on the bed carefully. "Man, this looks bad."

"Yeah, but it missed the bone, so I should be okay without a doctor. The bullet, however, is a problem." As if it were the most normal thing to do on a Thursday night, Peter stuck two fingers into the hold in his thigh.

Peter's face was contorted in pain and he felt around, Wade watching on helplessly. Suddenly, Peter gasped and pulled out a shiny bullet, wet, hot blood dripping from his fingers.

"Okay, now I'm ready to pour that alcohol in."

Wade took the bottle from Peter's hands and wordlessly and began to help the smaller teen clean up. Peter leaned back on his palms, closing his eyes and trying to ignore the burning pain in his leg as his roommate splashed alcohol over the wound.

"So," Wade said casually. "How'd you get shot? And more importantly, why aren't you at the doctor?"

Peter scoffed a bit. "I was shot off campus, some mugger and I-" he stopped himself with a wince and clutched the sheets tighter. Gun shots hurt like hell.

"Okay, so you were mugged," Wade filled in. Peter didn't correct him. "And the doctor?"

"No doctors. They'll call my parents and this honestly isn't the first time I've been shot." Peter laughed a little at the end, not even thinking about what he had just said.

Wade either didn't notice, or didn't mention it. To be honest, he wasn't really paying attention to Peter's responses, just trying to keep his friend distracted while he did the painful part of cleaning out the wound.

"Why have you seen so many gun shots?" Peter's question caught the taller teen off guard, and he almost spilled his secret.

"I live in Queens," Wade replied easily, his hesitation going unnoticed by Peter, who was groaning softly at his leg being wrapped tightly in gauze. "Lots of shootings, especially where I am. Its the worst part of town. Like, 4 drug dealers in my building alone, man. At least."

Wade finished up the wrappings, untied the rope on Peter's thigh, threw out some of the wasted gauze he had used to mop up the alcohol, and putting the towels in the sink to soak.

Peter was already asleep when he got back. Sitting down on his own bed, Wade put his head in his hands.

"If only I could give him some of my healing factor," the blond mumbled, falling backwards onto his own pillows and blankets. He was asleep before he even realized he was closing his eyes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wade woke up to an empty dorm and a note on the desk saying "had class early, thanks for last night. Dinner on me?"

Wade chuckled, checking the time and seeing it was almost noon. He'd missed his morning class. Rather than worry about something that was already done, he laid back in bed. That was the only class he had on Fridays, so the rest of the day would be spent catching up on school work and watching movies.

Peter got home just after Wade finished Pride and Prejudice, tears running down his face.

"Are you okay?" Peter's question was interrupted by laughs. Wade, feeling just the slightest bit embarrassed, closed the laptop roughly and tossed it aside.

"He called her Mrs. Darcy and that's what she said to use when he was happy," Peter's roommate sniffled, running his sleeve along his face.

"Oh, yeah, that movie is so sweet."

"You've seen it? Not many guys our age have."

"Yeah," Peter smiled. "Its my sister's favorite, she showed it to me. I love that movie, though, it definitely ranks as one of my personal top 10's."

Wade smiled, too. "That's adorable, Petey."

"Oh, shut up, Mr. I'm Crying 'Cause They're Happy Together," Peter laughed. Now that he and Wade were closer, Peter felt more at ease when it came to sassing him. He was like a brother to him.

"Whatever," Wade said, rolling his eyes and sniffling one last time. "I wanna check on your leg."

"I already did, its fine."

Something about Peter's tone of voice made Wade worry a little. There was something his roommate wasn't telling him.

"Humor me," Wade said, standing up. He was much taller than the brunet, and he tried to use a bit of his intimidation to get Peter to give in.

"Nah, man, I swear its-" Peter was cut off abruptly by Wade pushing his basket ball shorts up.

"Jesus, Wade. Boundaries much?" Peter fell backwards, throwing his arms out in defeat. "Just look and be done with it."

Wade unwrapped the gauze, shocked to find that the wound was almost healed. There was a bit of blood still oozing from the very center of the wound, but the edges were already scarring over. In some ways, it reminded Wade of his own healing factor, only... less quick.

"Peter, how the hell is this already healed up?"

Peter shrugged, eager to have this conversation end. What was he supposed to say? Years of having a nosy family and a lot of secrets, Peter was somewhat good at on the fly lies. He searched his brain for anyone else he knew with advanced healing. Steve, himself, Deadpool, Thor- Deadpool!

"I have some ties to that guy, Deadpool. Cousins or something. I don't really know a lot about it, I'm an orphan, remember?" Peter let the lie roll off his tongue, hoping to gods that Wade didn't know anything about Deadpool.

Wade threw his head back in a laugh, fully aware that Peter was lying, and finding that fact absolutely hilarious. He decided to let it slip. Whatever Peter was hiding, he was hiding it for a reason, and Wade knew what that felt like. Maybe the healing thing is from the torture thing he mentioned a while ago, the blond thought. In any case, he doesn't want to talk about it.

Peter, oblivious to Wade's knowledge of his... little secret, got up, changed into jeans, and grabbed his wallet off his bedside table. "Dinner?"

Wade smiled, though it was a little less perky as it normally was. "Sure."