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This was the twenty-ninth time Wade Wilson had tried to give the wrong answer in class, but ended up giving the right one.
Peter always noticed when he spoke in class, strictly because he sat behind him in every class and Wade’s back always tensed so visibly whenever he was called on to answer a question. It didn’t matter which of the four courses they shared, if the question was about Anne Frank, verbs, algebra or even fucking women’s rights history, Wade’s back always tensed. The guy would then crack some joke, followed by half of a completely wrong answer, then pause and give the right one. Wade Wilson never brought anything with him besides a black pen and three sheets of paper for each class. He never brought anything else, no binders, pencils and definitely no notes. The guy stared out the window half the time.
It was frankly getting really creepy. And somehow, really fucking cool. And Peter was kind of in love. Not even with the fact that Wade could answer really hard questions right at least twenty nine times in a row, but with all the other facts. How kind he was, how funny he was, how he always tried to keep a smile up, even when it was obvious he was hurting.
Peter had to study, you know, like normal people. Yeah, he was really smart, but sometimes concepts (mainly English ones) escaped him. He liked his hands on stuff, not abstract stuff. Well, unless it was photography. He understood taking pictures and themes and lighting and mood - all of that ‘artsy shit’ as Natasha so lovingly referenced it as.
It was the day of the biggest test Peter had ever had, almost one hundred percent of his grade in Chemistry. Of course, it was the next class he had, but Women’s History was before lunch, which was right before Chem. He also had a test next class in Women’s History, but that was a week from now, so Peter thought he could get away with some final cramming for the Chem test. It wasn’t last minute - he had studied for it all week. Did you think Peter was that stupid?
Apparently, he was.
His adoptive aunt, Natasha Romanova, also known as the most badass woman that Peter knew besides Aunt May, taught his Women’s History class.
She was the scariest woman Peter knew, and he really should have thought for a little longer about doing anything not related to the history of women in her class. Sadly, he had not done that and Peter realized just how fucked he was when she called on him. Specifically, bad fucked. Not the good kind where- okay okay we get it Peter’s kinky side. Christ.
“Parker. Are you doing studying Chemistry in my class?” Her voice called, and not many of her students could pinpoint the exact syllable Natasha got pissed, not like Peter, but they got the idea.
It was deader than dead silent, and right as Peter opened his mouth, Wade fucking Wilson spoke.
“He’s actually grading my Chemistry homework, Ms. Romanova. You might be thinking ‘but you don’t take any kind of Chemistry class Wilson’ and my reply would be that I signed up for one, but wasn’t sure if I could do it, and Petey offered to help me practice, so he copied some of his assigned homework and gave it to me, which I completed, and thus handed to him after I finished the sets. I asked him to grade this one as soon as possible, and he’s also very stressed because of the test he has in like, two hours, and he should probably get some rest because you can visibly see that stress posture, so he probably decided to do it now, during the rest period you give right now. I apologize for asking for you to finish that asap Peter, forgot you had that test.” Wade explained, and both Peter and Natasha knew he was lying, but damn if it wasn’t a well put together lie. So Peter said what came naturally.
“It’s no problem Wade, I know how bad you wanted to take Chemistry.” Which was also a lie, well… actually Peter had no idea if Wade wanted to take chemistry, or if he was already in that class, but-
“Hm. Very well, I suppose I’ll let it slide this time Parker. Thank you for explaining the situation to me Wilson, but I do have to ask you to stay after class, considering you inadvertently made Parker work on something that wasn’t for my class in my class.” Natasha said, quickly flashing Peter a very subtle raised eyebrow that only Peter caught.
No one else knew Wade and Peter had lied, and that their professor had gone along with it, but that really wasn’t Peter’s priority right now.
Why had Wade covered for him? I mean, yeah, everyone who took any of Natasha’s classes knew she would roast you alive if you worked on subjects other than the ones she taught in her classroom, but Wade didn’t know him.
They had never spoken for fuck’s sake.
When Natasha dismissed everyone, approximately three seconds before the bell rang. Why a university had bells, well Peter was not sure. The headmaster was kinda weird to be honest.
Wade went up to Natasha’s desk, and Peter decided to hightail it out of there, and wait by the door.
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It had been almost fifteen minutes before Peter heard Wade give Natasha a goodbye, and Peter looked up to see Wade across the hall and met his eyes.
“Shit, shit, shit,” Peter heard Wade mutter, before he waved to Peter. Peter waved back before asking the man the question that had been on his mind since the middle of the class.
“Why did you- why did you do that Wade? I mean, lying to Nat- Ms. Romanova, you’ve probably got detention for at least a week and a half, and it’s really my fault and why did you-” Peter froze as he took in Wade’s laughter.
Peter hadn’t noticed Wade trying to contain it, but soon he was laughing wholeheartedly. It clicked for Peter, this was a joke, wasn’t it?
“So, a joke then, got it.” Peter said, running a hand through his hair and begging himself not to snap at Wade, or cry. This had always happened in high school. People would help Peter and then demand him to do his homework and then laugh when he got confused - or just laugh outright. He shouldn’t have gotten his hopes up. Peter was about to walk away when he heard Wade speak.
“What? No! I hoped it would save you from Ms. Romanova’s wrath. Anyone with eyes knows you’ve been stressed, I mean, hunched shoulders plus coffee twenty four seven automatically equals stress, and anyone with a brain knows that equation in a university means a test.” Wade explained quickly.
“And I get nervous laughter when other people are nervous, so…” Wade rushed out, aware he hadn’t explained that.
“Oh. Huh… Thanks. For explaining, saving my ass, and also suggesting some rest. I should probably do that after the test with Banner…” Peter trailed off.
“Yeah, that’s in like an hour though right?” Wade asked, and Peter nodded, before pausing.
“How did you know that? And how did you know before?” Peter asked, curiosity and fear mixing. Was he being stalked? Well maybe that wouldn’t be the worst thing if it was Wade but-
“Banner’s an old friend of mine, helped me take the step to start school again after everything. He also only teaches one class, so there’s that. So no, not stalking you, in case that’s what you were thinking.” Wade said, before chuckling at Peter’s blush.
“Guess I just notice that sometimes you drink Starbucks coffee and you always wear really dumb oversized sweaters when you probably haven’t gotten any where near the right amount of sleep.” Wade added, shrugging.
“Dude, that’s really… Well, uh. Do you maybe. Want to go get lunch? With me?” Peter said, after mustering up the courage. He swallowed, and his throat felt really dry.
“You want to be seen in public with the scarred freak?” Wade asked after a beat of silence.
Peter’s eyes snapped back to Wade from where he had been staring at the floor.
“Well, do you want to be seen with the ‘kid who only got in because his adopted father is Captain America’?” Peter responded, shoving his hands into the pockets of his hoodie. Wade frowned, and opened his mouth a little to speak.
“These kids don’t know anything about you-” Wade started, before Peter interrupted.
“My point.” Peter said, and what was there of Wade’s brows raised, and his eyes held realization.
“No one knows anything about you, just that you have scars. My point is that there’s more to a story than the cover. Or what’s spread around by rich university kids.” Peter explained.
Wade blinked.
“You are fuck tons more insightful than any of those rich university kids could ever understand.” Wade said, looking down at his shoes.
Peter walked across the hallway, and grabbed Wade’s hands.
“You are more than whatever gave you these scars Wade. You are funny and smart and so, so kind. You are caring and stand up for everyone but yourself. You somehow answer twenty nine questions the same way, and you always give the right answer to those, which is really admirable because you only ever bring a black pen and three sheets of blank paper to every single one of the four classes we have together, and your back tenses right before you make a joke, half of the wrong answer and then you pause, like you’re rethinking giving the wrong answer and then you give the right one and I am absolutely floored every single time.” Peter rambled, and he knew it, but he hoped it wasn’t as creepy as he thought it was. And then Wade kissed him.
It was soft, gentle, and perhaps a little hesitant, but it was way too short and Peter realized why when Wade was halfway stumbling through an apology and halfway berating himself. Peter, had failed to kiss his crush back. His crush who apparently liked him enough to kiss him- holy shit Peter was not gonna mess this up.
“Wade,” Peter called softly, still stunned Wade had kissed him.
Wade kept rambling, and Peter guessed he would have to be tactile to get Wade’s attention. holding one of Wade’s hand to his shoulder, and then grabbing Wade’s jaw with the other, Peter kissed him. Peter didn’t move away from wade, kept his hands on Wade until Wade hesitantly and so slowly kissed back.
Peter smiled into the kiss, and Wade pulled back, this time slower and with stars in his eyes instead of tears.
“Really?” Wade whispered, and Peter nodded as his grin threatened to break his face in two.
“Well. Yeah. Okay lunch. Sounds good.”
“Awesome.” Peter replied, kissing Wade on the lips before tugging Wade’s hand to get him to follow him. Wade chuckled, shaking his head and followed.
(That night, Natasha would text Peter asking if they had figured their shit out, and all she would get in reply was a smiley winky face that was signed with a single W. Natasha would send a thumbs up emoji, and text in the group chat she had with Tony, Aunt May, Steve, and Bucky that Peter had finally gotten laid.)