Chapter Text
It is the end of another humanities class at MIT.
Eighteen-year-old Peter Parker is sitting at a desk in the middle of the classroom with his boyfriend, Ned, in a desk next to him. Why taking a humanities class is relevant for engineering majors is beyond them, but everyone in that program has to take one, so here they sit. At least the teacher is interesting and not some old guy who sounds like the audio version of a textbook.
Professor Steven Westcott is a younger teacher, somewhere in his thirties. He's energetic, gets along well with his students, and actually makes the subject more enjoyable than what the name assumes. The man has even gone so far as to have the students call him "Skip" instead of "Mr. Westcott" because he doesn't want the kids to seem inferior to him.
He sounds almost too good to be true.
The professor says one last thing before he dismisses his students, "Okay, so I've read through your papers and well, most of them were, well, pretty bad. C'mon, guys, this isn't high school anymore, I know you're better than this. We're going over them, next class."
As the class groans in response, the young couple look at each other in confusion. Ned whispers, "I thought mine was pretty decent."
"Yeah, mine too."
At hearing the wordless complaining, Skip counters, "Or I could just flunk all of you and call it a day."
The class immediately starts cheering instead and the man smirks in response, "Yeah, that’s what I thought, okay go on, get outta here."
The crowd disperses as the two teenagers pack their things but Peter is taken by surprise when his name is called by his professor, "Hey, Peter, can I talk to you for a second?"
Thanks to his conditioned response throughout school, Peter's heart rate immediately increases with anxiety, "Um...yeah, sure." He then turns to his boyfriend and whispers, "God, my paper must really suck."
"Or your paper is so amazing that you don't need corrections and you're gonna be the reason why the curve is destroyed."
The spiderling snorts, "Yeah, I'm thinking it's the first one."
Ned fondly rolls his eyes as he gets up with his backpack in tow, "Whatever, dude, see ya in a few."
Peter walks to the teacher's desk as the last of the college kids are leaving and waits anxiously for why he was asked to stay behind.
Skip sits in his chair and gets his student's paper from the top of the pile, "I just wanna say that your paper was easily one of the best ones; it was well-written, well-sourced, you argued your points. Overall, it was a really good paper."
The eighteen-year-old is pleasantly taken aback and his heart rate gradually goes back to normal, "Oh...wow um, thanks."
Holy shit, Ned was right.
"My only negative is the summary, you kinda fizzled out a little bit there, but don't worry, we'll go over it."
"Oh, okay yeah...yeah, okay."
Skip leans back in his chair and asks, "I'm curious, though, the topic you picked isn’t like most of the others. How'd you come up with it?"
Peter tentatively scratches the back of his neck, "Um, well, you said to pick a controversial topic and explain your side of it and well, 'Does Asexuality Belong in the LGBT+ Community?' is a controversial topic. It shouldn't be, but it is."
"Interesting, but why that topic, I've never heard of it."
The teenager continues scratching his neck in nervousness, "Um, let's just say that that topic, uh, hits close to home for me."
Skip's eyebrows shoot up in surprise, "You're asexual?"
Peter's heart rate increases slightly. He wasn't expecting to reveal so much of himself to this guy but he stays confident, "Uh, yeah...yeah, I am."
The teacher nods his head and gives his student a friendly smile, "That's cool, man, never met one of you before."
The spiderling's eyebrows narrow in confusion.
"One of you"? What’s that supposed to mean?
Skip continues, "And you have a boyfriend, right? How does that work?"
How does he know I have a boyfriend?
"Um, it just-it just does," Peter can't help but smile, "Ned's great, he's-he’s awesome, actually. We're happy...really, really happy."
Skip's smile grows, "That's great, Einstein, I hope everything works out for you two lovebirds." He then changes the subject, “So, how’s college life so far?”
Oh my God, I’m gonna die of awkwardness.
Peter flushes at the nickname, “Um, it’s good so far, learning a lot and stuff.” He lightly adds, “It’d be even better if Cameron Hall could get some showerheads that actually work.”
Skip lightly snorts, “Welcome to college.”
The teenager is expecting the man to dismiss him but when there is a weird lull of silence, he says, “Um, I have another class that I need to get to so, um, thanks, Mr. Westcott.”
The teacher blinks and shakes his head in a way that looks like he’s snapping out of a trance, "Oh yeah, no sweat, and please, dude, call me 'Skip.’ Mr. Westcott is my dad and I'd like to think that I'm not that old."
The teen fake-laughs as he damn near races out the door, "Okay, uh, I'll remember that."
-
"I don't know, Ned, something's off with that guy. Like, how did he know about us?"
The two teenagers are done with their classes for the day and are now sitting at a small table in a coffee shop on campus. They're both drinking their respective lattes with one hand while their other hands are held casually on the table.
Ned playfully smirks at his boyfriend, "Well, Peter, we're not exactly secretive about it," he gestures to the hand-holding, "Maybe he's just observant."
Peter sighs and takes another sip of his latte, "Maybe, but like he kept asking about my paper and stuff and...being asexual. I don’t know, it was just weird, man."
Ned looks slightly worried, "He didn't say anything bad, did he -"
"No, no he didn't, he was actually cool about it, surprisingly, I just -"
The other teen tightens his grip and starts lovingly rubbing his thumb on his boyfriend's hand, "Babe, you're overthinking again."
The young hero groans, "It's what I do best."
"Clearly."
"And why are we calling him by his first name anyway, that's so weird."
"Because it's cool, he's cool; he actually makes the class interesting. Him having us call him by his nickname, that makes us his equals, not his degenerates. He's like one of us, dude."
"I guess -"
"I know. Stop worrying so much, you're gonna make your hair go gray before you’re twenty-five."
Peter smiles cheekily, "You'd like the 'salt-and-pepper' look -"
"You would not rock the 'salt-and-pepper' look."
"Wanna bet -"
"No!"
They both get in a giggle fit at that. When they calm down, Ned says, "Okay, forget about that 'Skip to My Loo' guy or whatever. So I was thinking," his grin grows fully and he tightens their grip, "Tomorrow's Friday, aaaaaaand it's supposed to rain all weekend."
Peter's smile grows as well, "Yeah?"
“I say we get hot chocolate, like gallons of hot chocolate,” the other teen playfully rolls his eyes at the exaggeration, “And we watch Netflix all weekend and never get out of bed, we’ll be sewn into it.”
The spiderling snorts, “Babe, we do that on most weekends when we wanna procrastinate homework.”
Ned shrugs, “Yeah, but this time it’ll fit the aesthetic.”
Peter’s snort turns into a full-blown laugh, “Obviously, it sounds perfect.” He tightens his grip on his boyfriend’s hand.
Ned reciprocates, “I’ll get the hot chocolate tomorrow while you’re in class.”
The other teen whines, “How did you end up not getting Friday classes?”
The genius says smugly, “‘Cuz I don’t have ‘Parker luck.’”
Peter props his free elbow on the table and rests his cheek on his fist, “I hate you.” He continues after Ned has a short “snicker-fest”, “This is why when we get married, I’m taking your name.”
The other teen shakes his head, “Hell no, this is why when we get married, we’re keeping our names. I don’t want my last name to be tainted by yours.”
The hero jokingly scoffs, “The second you say ‘I do’ will cement that ‘luck’ into place, babe.” He puts on a smug smile of his own, “Face it, Ned, you’re doomed.”
Ned’s smile falls and he gives the teenager an unamused look, “I hate you.”
Peter’s smugness doesn’t falter, “You love me, ‘cuz you wouldn’t risk tainting your last name if otherwise.”
“You’re making it hard to love you, right this second -”
“But not hard enough?”
“Shut. Up.”
“What, it’s a viable question.”
“I’m gonna smack you.”
“You would never.”
Ned pauses for a brief second before sighing in defeat, “Fine, you win.”
Peter smiles victoriously, “I love you.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, love you too.” Ned can’t help but crack a smile, himself. How is it possible not to love him?
-
Later that evening, the two lovebirds are in their dorm room and about to go to the cafeteria for dinner when their humanities professor unexpectedly knocks on their open door, “Hey guys, how’s it going?”
The two teenagers are startled at the unexpected guest but are happy to see him, all the same. Ned answers, “Hey, man, it’s all good, whatcha doing here?”
Skip steps into their room, “Oh,” he gestures to the paper he’s holding, “I was in the neighborhood and I was wondering, Peter, if you wanna go over your paper that we talked about earlier?”
Peter raises an eyebrow in confusion, “Um, yeah, sure, but is it gonna take long? We were just about to head out.”
The older man waves him off, “Yeah, yeah, it won’t take long, I promise.” He then turns to Ned, “Sorry, I didn’t know you guys were also roommates or else I would’ve brought yours too.”
Ned shrugs uncaringly, “No worries.”
Peter turns to his boyfriend, “Hey, Ned, you can go ahead and go, I’ll meet you there in a few.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah, it’s fine, I know you’ll get bored.”
The other teen shrugs again, “Okay cool, bye, Skip.”
The professor responds with a goodbye of his own and after Ned leaves the room, he sits in one of their desk chairs. Peter sits on the edge of the bed that’s closest to said desk and leans forward to make sure he absorbs any information his teacher gives him.
Skip starts once he flips to the end of the paper, “Like I said earlier, you fizzled out in the summary, it’s like you did a one-eighty: the paper itself was really good but then you got vague at the end here.” He moves from his spot in the chair to the bed next to Peter and shows him where he went wrong.
Peter is even more confused, “Aren’t I supposed to be vague in the conclusion? I mean, I spent six pages discussing this topic, I didn’t want the summary to be completely drawn out like you’re reading the paper all over again.”
The older man scoots a little closer to Peter without him noticing and says, “Yeah, but there’s a difference between summarizing and barely stating what your paper’s about.”
Peter resists the urge to roll his eyes.
Can’t you just give me the “A-minus” and call it a day, I’m starving.
The boy then decides to just give in to defeat, “Okay, I’ll remember that for next time, I’ll be more detailed in the conclusion. Thank you.”
“Oh yeah, man, no sweat. You’ve got a lot of potential, Einstein, I just wanna see you use it.” Skip then scoots even closer to his student, to the point where their legs are barely touching.
That is when Peter’s “spidey sense” flares up.
He is suddenly aware of how close he is to his teacher...and how said teacher is sitting closer to the door than he is.
This sick fuck...at least the door’s still open.
Not wanting to give away his knowledge of Skip’s real plans for being here, he gingerly scoots away from him while still pretending to be into the conversation. The boy then says, praying that there is no shakiness in his tone, “Well, I’m-I’m definitely using it as best as I can, and I’m, um, I’m learning a lot so...thanks...have a good night.”
Get the fuck out of my room.
Obviously not taking the hint, Skip scoots closer to his student, but this time he takes said student by surprise and lightly puts his hand on the teen’s leg, right above the knee.
The web-slinger’s “Peter Tingle” is screaming at him.
Peter gets Skip’s hand away from him and works up the courage to say, “Get out, I want you to leave.”
The pervert gives him a smug look and responds with, “No you don’t.”
What the fuck?!
The genius scrunches his eyebrows in even more confusion, “What?”
Skip puts his hand back on the kid’s leg, slightly higher up this time, “Y’know, I’m really glad you took my class, Einstein.”
Really? ‘Cuz I’m starting to regret it like a lot.
The older man continues, “From the first time I saw you,” he locks eyes with the teenager, “I knew you were something special.”
Peter feels bile crawling up his throat and swallows it to keep everything down.
Ewwww, what the fuck is this?
The kid gets that disgusting hand away from him again but Skip just puts it back where it was except this time it’s terrifyingly close to his groin. Peter finds his voice as he attempts to get the hand away from him, “I’m asexual and I have a boyfriend, so when I say ‘get out’, I mean it.”
Skip talks to him in a way that sounds like he’s talking to a little kid, “Oh, Peter, you just don’t know what you want yet, but that’s okay, I’m here to help you.” He goes to put his hand on the hero’s upper thigh again when said hero quickly stands up to get away from his touch.
The freak follows suit, making sure to block the path to the door, “Whatcha gonna do, Einstein?”
Bodyslam you into the wall if you don’t get the fuck out.
Peter is about to say something of that nature when he unexpectedly hears Ned’s voice from the doorway, “Hey, sorry to interrupt but I forgot my phone.”
The web-slinger has never been so damn happy to see him, he actually feels a bit alleviated. He glances at his desk and low and behold, the savior that is his boyfriend's cell phone is sitting on the edge of it.
Skip casually turns to Ned and reassures him, “No worries, Ned, I was just leaving.” He then turns to a slightly trembling Peter, “Bye, Peter, see you Tuesday.” And with a wink, his tormentor is out the door.
Peter sits back on the edge of the bed and tries to collect his bearings but his knee can’t stop shaking and his brain can’t fully grasp at what the fuck just happened.
Ned asks as he grabs his phone, “You ready to go, I’m hungry.”
I’ll be lucky if I don’t throw up my insides.
At hearing no response, Ned looks at his boyfriend and his forehead creases with worry, “Babe, you okay?”
Peter doesn’t say anything for several seconds. After that time passes, he wraps his arms around his gurgling stomach and whispers, “I-I didn’t like that, I really didn’t like that, Ned, I didn’t…”
His boyfriend’s worry skyrockets to a hundred and he quickly sits on the bed next to him, “Peter, what happened, what’s wrong?”
Ned puts his hand on his boyfriend’s knee with the intention of comforting him, but all that Peter can think about is Skip and he shouts, “No!” before pushing the other teen’s hand away.
But unlike Skip, Ned complies, “Okay, okay!” He scoots away from him and puts his hands up in mock surrender, “No touching, got it.”
Peter realizes what he did and looks at the other genius with guilty eyes, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, oh my God, I’m sorry -”
Ned reciprocates the look with wide eyes of his own, “You’re fine, Peter, but calm down, what happened?”
The other teenager calms down slightly by taking a few deep breaths. His gaze goes to the floor between his feet, “Skip...Skip, uh, he-he made a pass at me. He didn’t wanna go over that damn paper.”
Ned’s eyes widen even more and he feels his own stomach gurgle in disgust, “No way, what the fuck?!”
“I know!” Peter takes another deep breath and puts his head in his hands, “I know…”
The other genius’s mind then jumps to the worst-case scenario and he asks apprehensively, “Um, Skip didn’t...I mean, um, did he, um...Peter -”
The spiderling quickly looks up and locks eyes with his boyfriend, “No! No, um, it wasn’t that bad, he just touched my leg a lot it's-it’s fine now.”
Ned looks at him in disbelief, “No it’s not, are you kidding me? You have to report this.”
Peter’s eyes widen in fear, “With what evidence, Ned? All they’re gonna do is hang me out to dry, they’re not gonna believe me.”
“You don’t know that. Look, something needs to be done. No one hurts my boyfriend, my best friend, and gets away with it.”
Peter blushes at “best friend” and cracks a shy smile. Despite taking their relationship farther than that, they’ll never not see each other as such, “I’ll think about it, mostly ‘cuz if I see him next week, I know I’ll puke.”
Ned sympathizes. He’s itching to physically comfort him so he tentatively asks, “Can I touch you -”
The hero cuts him off by wrapping his hands around him in a hug, “Thank you for forgetting your phone.”
Ned reciprocates and lays his head on top of the other’s for additional comfort, “I’m so glad I did.”
-
Peter wanted some time to himself and while the other teen was hesitant to leave him alone again, he gave in anyway, mentally kicking himself the entire walk to the cafeteria.
Ned is fucking furious.
Not just at the newfound attacker, but at himself as well.
How stupid was he? How stupid was he to leave his boyfriend alone with a teacher in their room? How stupid was he to not realize that any teacher waltzing into a student’s dorm room - especially after hours - just screams trouble.
The anger towards that scumbag increases the more the teenager thinks about it. He trusted Skip, he liked Skip, but little did they know that the guy is moonlighting as a sexual predator.
Everything makes sense now, Ned thinks: the staying after class, the weird questions about Peter being asexual, it all adds up.
So when Ned walks into the cafeteria and sees said tormentor talking animatedly to a group of young college girls, he can’t resist the urge to go confront him.
So, he doesn’t have a type. Well, that’s good to know, I guess.
The teen walks over and interrupts his teacher mid-story, “Hey, Skip, can I, um, talk to you for a second?”
The man looks at the student in surprise but then cracks a “friendly” smile, “Oh, sure thing, Ned.” He turns back to the group, “Have a good night, ladies.”
They get up and walk out a side door of the cafeteria, where Ned knows there won’t be heavy foot traffic. He then stops and turns to face his professor, whose back is now to a window; at least Skip won’t try anything with so many other students around.
Unexpectedly, Skip talks first, “Ned, your paper, it was good, but there’s definitely some room for improvement -”
“Um, we’re not talking about the paper.”
The attacker’s eyes widen in confusion, “Oh, okay, what’s up?”
“Look, Peter wasn’t comfortable with you in our dorm room earlier.”
Skip crosses his arms, “Really?”
“Yeah, he said you were hitting on him.”
The older man thinks about that for a few seconds before shrugging his shoulders and saying, “What if I was?”
Ned is in so much shock that he staggers back a step, “What?”
Did this guy seriously just up and admit it? How cocky is this son-of-a-bitch?
Skip nonchalantly shrugs his shoulders again, “So lemme ask you, Ned: how can you stay with someone and not get anything out of the relationship?”
Ned rolls his eyes and crosses his own arms in front of him, “If I don’t get anything out of it, then I wouldn’t be with him.”
That takes the creep by surprise, “Really? You do see what I see, right?”
What the fuck is he talking about?
Skip continues, “You see the way his hair curls in all the right places? The way his shirt rides up when he raises his hand? The way his jeans are juuuuust tight enough to -”
“You’re sick.” Ned feels his stomach gurgle again and thinks that maybe eating dinner is a bad idea.
His teacher ignores him, “You mean to tell me that you see that every day and you’re not hitting that?”
The teenager tries his best to not let his anger show, “What Peter and I do or don’t do is none of your damn business, but that’s not the point. The point is: you made a pass at him in our fucking dorm room. Why would you pursue someone who’s half your age, your student, taken, and asexual?”
Skip rolls his eyes, “Y’know, I looked up the whole ‘asexu-thingy’, didya know that some of them actually like sex?”
Ned rolls his eyes again, “Yeah, some do, but Peter doesn’t.”
“He just doesn’t know what he’s missing, and obviously you’re too chicken to help him. He needs a real man for that.”
The young genius’s anger increases tenfold, “Stay the fuck away from him or we’re gonna report you.”
The pervert busts out laughing, “Good luck doing that with no evidence. And who says he didn’t enjoy it?”
“He said he didn’t enjoy it.”
“That’ll change...after I fuck the ‘asexual’ right out of him.”
It happens in one swift move, so fast but in slow motion at the same time.
Ned pushes Skip square in the chest.
And he goes flying.
Skip crashes into that window behind him, the sound of glass shattering leads to gasps and screams of horror from the crowd.
The teenager just watches it all like he's watching a 3-D movie that's too entirely vivid, not even realizing that he just assaulted his damn teacher.
The predator lands on an empty table that still had a few plates strewn on it. The sound of crunching from under him doesn’t sound like it’d be good for his back but Ned could not give any less of a fuck.
But what the teen doesn't expect to see is his boyfriend looking at him from inside the cafeteria with eyes of pure, unadulterated shock.
In a flash, he sees Peter rush out the side door and then quickly envelopes him in a hug, “Ned! Oh my God, what happened?!” Ned hugs back but doesn’t say anything, still in somewhat of a daze.
Yeah, what did just happen?
They hear more commotion from the direction of the broken window and turn to see Skip struggling to get off the table but eventually sitting up.
Everyone in and around that room is dead silent.
The man pushes some chairs out of the way and stands up fully, stretching while doing so. He then turns to the two teenagers and they can’t tell if he’s angry, hysterical, or both.
Definitely both.
A strike of fear filters through the pair and Peter protectively steps in front of Ned. Skip locks eyes with the spiderling and gives him a menacing smile, making the other teen’s eyes flare with hatred.
As he’s looking at Peter, Skip says only one thing before walking away, “Congratulations, Einstein, looks like your little boyfriend just got himself kicked out of college.”