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“Megan Hazran has started a queer alliance group.” MJ sat down next to Ned and placed a flyer on the table. “I’m going. You want to try it with me, either of you?”
Ned stared at the flyer quizzically. “Am I allowed to go?”
“It says straight cis allies are welcome as long as they’re not jerks.” Peter read out. “How did she clear that with the school?”
MJ shrugged. “Ned, you gonna not be a jerk?”
“I won’t be a jerk.” He promised. “Guess I’ll go with you, then?”
“Peter, what about you?” MJ asked quietly.
Peter bit his lip. “I dunno.”
“You can always go under the pretense of being straight if you wanna go but don’t wanna come out.” Ned suggested.
“No. I’m gonna go as myself.” Peter decided. “When’s the first meeting?”
-
Surprisingly enough it wasn’t Flash who started the comments after Peter was seen going to the Queer Alliance Group. In fact, he didn’t make any comments at all because it turned out he had a gay sister, who he completely supported and accepted.
There were comments and pushing and rumors. It only ever happened when Peter was by himself and he was too scared to tell anyone.
But then one day, it got bad and there was nothing Peter could do to hide it.
-
“Where did you get that black eye from?” Bucky demanded.
Peter froze.
“Where did you get it from?” he asked again.
“School.”
“I’m going to get Flash exiled.” Bucky said simply and started heading towards the nearest computer.
“No, no, no! It wasn’t Flash!”
Bucky looked back over his shoulder. “It wasn’t?”
Peter shook his head.
“Then who was it and why did they do it?” Bucky demanded.
Peter looked down at the floor. “I’ve started going to a Queer Alliance group at school.” he whispered. “Some kids have been picking on the kids that go.”
“A black eye is not being picked on, it’s a hate crime.” Bucky spat. “We’re having a family meeting.”
“We don’t need a family meeting!” Peter said hurriedly. “It’s fine, I’ll tell a teacher-”
Bucky glared at him. “Family meeting. And before you make anymore protests, it’s also to help me calm down.”
“Ok.”
The family meeting took place in the lounge on the shared floor. Bucky and Peter sat on the sofa, waiting for everyone to come in.
Bruce was the first to arrive. He stopped short when he saw Peter’s black eye. “You put an ice pack on that yet?”
Peter shook his head.
“I’ll get you one.”
Pepper hugged him when she saw it.
Nat got a murderous look on her face. “You tell me everything. You better tell me everything.”
“Wait for everyone to get here.” Pepper said.
Clint was angry. Steve was silent as he sat down next to Bucky, as was Sam. Wanda muttered something in Sokovian and hugged Peter.
Tony was the last person to enter, as Scott was in San Francisco and Rhodey was at work.
He stood stock still as he looked at Peter.
Everyone watched as his face darkened with anger and his fists clenched. "Who did it?”
“Kid at school.”
“Was it Flash?”
Peter shook his head.
“Tony, sit down. Let Peter tell us what happened.” Pepper placed a hand on his arm and gently tugged him down next to her.
“Who do we need to send to jail?” Clint asked.
“Tell us the whole story.” Sam said. “Start at the beginning.”
“This wasn’t a patrol incident, was it?” Bruce asked.
“It was school.” Peter said. He took a deep breath. “And it was biphobic.”
Tony swore.
Peter continued. “There are these kids, three of them, they’ve been picking on all the kids who’ve been going to the Queer Alliance Group at school. Muttering, elbowing. They’ve been getting worse, calling people names and they’ve been hitting some kids, but only the kids who aren’t out at school because they know they won’t tell the teachers or anything.”
There was silence and some tears.
Steve rubbed his face. “What do you want us to do?”
Peter took a deep breath. “I’ve got a plan.”
-
“Do you think Flash is gonna behave?” Ned whispered to Peter as the school minibus headed towards Avengers Tower.
Everyone apart from Ned and MJ were acting strangely around Peter that day; being nice to him in case his internship turned out to be real or treading cautiously in case it turned out to be fake.
Peter shook his head. “He leaves me alone now.”
“Are you nervous?” MJ asked.
“Yep.” Peter let out a deep breath and wiped his hands on his jeans.
The teacher was giving long lists of instructions on what to do and what not to do. Peter ignored them, knowing full well that they didn’t apply to him in the same way they did the other students. He didn’t need a pass to get around the Tower, because he was recognized by JARVIS’ security system, but the other students did. They arrived at the Tower and Peter smiled at the pride flags flying outside the door.
The first part of his plan was in place.
They walked into reception and Peter was allowed to merely jump over the barrier. He watched on as all the other students went through the tight security checks to pass through, snickering at Ned and MJ who never had to go through it when they came to the tower with him before. They glared at him and he giggled.
The tour guide came to collect them and looked at Peter in surprise. “Peter! Is this your school?”
Peter nodded.
“I had no idea you were coming in today. Does Mr Stark know you’re here today?”
“Yeah.”
The tour guide smiled at the group. “Maybe Mr Stark will come and see you then.”
Peter gave a small, polite smile and moved to the back of the group with Ned and MJ. They weren’t as interested as the other students, as they had been to the Tower before and knew that the really interesting things were all behind locked doors.
They started heading to the labs set up specifically for school tours. Peter suddenly caught sight of Maria Hill heading towards them, who was looking very much like she was on a mission.
(Spoiler alert: she was.)
Maria looked up and saw Peter. “Aha! Peter!” she turned to the tour guide. “Can you stop for a moment so I can talk to him?”
The tour guide nodded and Peter grinned at the sight of the pride flag pin on Maria’s jacket. “I’ve got some documents I want to go through with you, are you in at the weekend?”
Peter nodded.
“Great. I’ll see you then.” Maria carried on walking.
Phase Two complete. Peter thought. Time to shine, Clint.
-
The next of Peter’s legal guardians to make an appearance was Clint.
He walked out of a door in the corridor wall and ran immediately into the group, who started whispering.
“Oh! Sorry, I had no idea you were here!” Clint started to back into the door, then saw Peter. “Oh hey Peter! Is this your school?”
Peter nodded.
Clint brightened up. “If you’re Peter’s school, then if you want I’ll take you on an even better tour. Show you the stuff you’re not supposed to see. Can I take over for a bit?” he asked the tour guide.
She nodded, looking slightly bewildered by the day’s turn of events.
“Do you mind if we do that?” Clint asked Peter’s teacher.
“Not at all.”
Clint grinned and rubbed his hands together gleefully. “Follow me!”
-
At the range, Clint got out a variety of bows he used to use and showed the class how they worked. He talked them through his equipment and the stages of development it had gone through.
Then he took questions.
“Doesn’t your ring catch on the bow string?” someone asked, gesturing to the black ring on the middle finger of his right hand.
“Oh, my ace ring?” Clint pointed to it and the girl nodded. “I only wear it when I’m not working. If I’m on a mission, I wear arm guards and they attach to my fingers.”
Clint took some more questions and then took them onto the next part of the tour.
“Where are we going?” Ned asked Clint.
Clint grinned at the class. “Why don’t we go and see if Tony Stark’s at home?”
-
He was.
He took them into his workshop, which had an enormous bi pride flag hanging on the wall.
When the other kids were oohing and aahing over DUM-E, Tony caught Peter’s eye and winked. Peter grinned. Phase 4 was complete.
-
Nat came to collect them for the next part of the tour.
“Happy Pride Month!” she greeted the group. “I’m Natasha Romanov, and I’m one of the Avengers. We’re going to go down to the gym where we all train and then I believe someone else will be taking you to see the hangar.”
“What’s in the hangar?” Ned asked Peter.
He shrugged. “I’ve never been allowed in. Hey, Ms Romanov!” Peter stuck his hand up.
Nat turned around to face him. “Yes Peter?”
“What’s in the hangar?”
Nat winked. “You’ll see.”
-
Peter got pretty bored pretty quickly in the gym. He’d been there several hundred times and other than some marks on the wall Nat wasn’t authorized to tell them about, there wasn’t much to look at.
Things got far more interesting when Wanda showed up.
“Aha! My fellow lesbian!” Nat waved at Wanda. “Everybody, this is Wanda Maximoff. She’ll be taking you down to the hangar.”
Wanda waved at the group. She was wearing a t-shirt that said ‘the world has bigger problems than girls who kiss girls and boys who kiss boys’. “Who wants to see a quinjet?”
“So that’s what’s in the hangar.” Peter muttered.
-
The hangar was pretty cool. All sorts of planes and vehicles were stored there, along with large crates of things Peter couldn’t wait to ask about later.
The quinjet was very interesting.
It was the first time Peter had seen it in daylight, as his last encounter with it had been on moving day. He made a mental note to ring Carol and ask her if she would take him for a ride in it.
“Here they are!”
Peter turned to see the final part of his plan arriving.
For the final part of the plan, he’d brought in the big guns. Quite literally; Steve was wearing a muscle t-shirt and Bucky was following him.
Steve was grinning from ear to ear. “Hey! We never get to see school groups, this is great!”
Wanda beamed. “You can show them out, then.” she turned to the group. “It’s been a pleasure meeting you; ask Cap some questions and have a wonderful day.”
Wanda left and Steve went into full PSA mode. Bucky sat on top of a car and watched on, highly amused.
Then came the speech.
Peter had no idea what was going to be in it, but he had full faith Steve would deliver.
He did.
“I’ve heard a lot about your class.” Steve said. “Peter’s told me about the kind of things you get up to, and the projects you embark on. You all walked out to protest school shootings, you’ve joined Black Lives Matter marches and launched a Queer Alliance Group. You’re making incredible inventions and extraordinary scientific discoveries every day and are winning national competitions in a variety of academic fields.
“I’m a proud American. I’m a proud bisexual, transgender, first-generation American military veteran. There are times when it’s hard to be proud to be American; be it because of our politicians, our President, the actions of our military overseas, home and foreign policies or the behaviour associated with others who are American. You all make me proud to be American and you give me hope in the future. Thank you for that.”
Peter was pretty sure the rest of his class has stopped paying attention to what Steve was saying at the bi, trans, part.
“Oi! Teacher!” Bucky called.
The teacher turned to him, startled.
“Do you need to be heading back now?” Bucky asked.
The teacher seemed to be taken aback by having a conversation with the Winter Soldier to be able to form complete sentences. “Uh…”
“We do.” MJ interjected. She handed the teacher a copy of the day’s itinerary. “We’ll be late getting back to school if we don’t leave soon and then parents and legal guardians may think that we have all been kidnapped by aliens.”
Bucky grinned. “I can never tell whether you’re joking or not. I like you.”
MJ smiled warmly at Bucky. “I like you too.”
-
Peter couldn’t stop smiling the whole way back to school.
-
The next day, the papers were full of rumours that the Avengers were all gay.
Tony corrected them with a selfie on Twitter of the Avengers wrapped in a Pride flag and the caption ‘Actually, we’re queer’.
The bullying stopped.
The kid who punched Peter stayed away from him.
MJ and Bucky had a blossoming bromance.
Peter was happy, safe and loved by his strange little family.
But most importantly, Nat replaced the Stars and Stripes outside the White House with a pride flag in the middle of the night.
THE END.