**Request for tessalucy where Peter Stark and his family spend Christmas break on the Barton farm. Cue Cooper and Peter becoming best friends and a pep talk from Clint. Oh, side note, the new book is up! Enjoy!**

The plane ride wasn't long, but Peter was already cycling back through his playlist unhappily. He was searching for something he felt. He would know it when he heard it, but for now, he was just going through his massive collection to find something good.

"Still looking for the right song?"

Peter glanced up at his dad. Tony had never made him feel bad for his little quirks, something Peter was incredibly grateful for, especially now he was in high school.

"I thought I had found something, but..." Peter looked back down at his phone and yanked out his earbuds. "I'll just try something else. Want to watch a movie?"

The two settled into their seats, Peter moving over to be a little closer, and Tony brought up the movies on the screen installed in the plane. There was over a hundred different options, including the-

"Is that the new James Bond movie?" Peter asked excitedly. "It's supposed to come out next month, how did you even get this?"

Tony chuckled. "I'm Tony Stark, bambino."

Peter queued up the movie and pulled a plush blanket from the overhead compartment and leaned into Tony's side - the older man put his arm around his son and put a soft kiss to his temple.

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As soon as Peter and Tony pulled into the carport outside the main farm house, Cooper was out of the front door and shouting for Peter. Peter hopped out of the car himself and grabbed Cooper's shoulder just before the other teen bowled him over. The two teens hugged and laughed hard as they greeted one another. Tony just rolled his eyes and pulled his and Peter's bags from the trunk of the car. Clint was leaning against the door frame with a smirk on his face.

"Those two are going to be a serious handful."

Tony laughed. "Yeah, they are. Pepper sends her love, but she got called away on emergency business over seas. She's going to fly in the day after Christmas."

Clint waved his hand dismissively. "No worries."

Clint and Tony got the bags inside and left Peter and Cooper to their devices. Cooper was already ranting about the hot tub Laura and Clint had put in that month, and Peter was filling Cooper in on all of the projects Peter had been working on at the Tower - his most recent endeavor was creating a working communicator badge, like the ones in Star Trek.

"-obviously, but I think after the whole lightsaber incident, Dad was never going to let me do a Star Wars project again."

Cooper laughed. "Want to go put on swim trunks and we can go in the hot tub?"

"Hot tub? It's 20 degrees out."

"You've never had fun until you take in a snow storm in a hot tub."

Peter sighed, but Cooper's face was hard and set. There was no arguing this, and Peter knew better than to try. He just hung his head and went to change into his trunks. He knew that he would have to wear a tee-shirt over it, though, if he didn't want everyone there to start questioning things.

"You'll have to take that off." Cooper's words stopped Peter in his tracks. "If it gets wet and you sit up, it'll freeze and you'll get ice burn. I learned that the hard way."

Peter pursed his lips. "I don't- I don't think- maybe it would be better if we- if we didn't go in."

"What? No, come on!" Cooper took a running start and hopped over the edge of the hot tub, landing in it with a splash. "It's fun!"

Peter nibbled on his bottom lip before slowly pulling the hem of his shirt up.

"What the hell is that?" Cooper asked, his voice turning sour as he looked over Peter's side. A dark bruise was blooming over Peter's ribs like a painting, the blues, purples, and deep reds of the injury bleeding together. It was turning dark black in some places - the tell tale signs of healing.

"A bruise," Peter said gingerly, lowering himself into the hot water. Coop was right, the water felt amazing on the sore and damaged tissue. "I got it on patrol the other night."

Cooper raised an eye brow. He was well aware of Peter's alter ego, but if that had happened a few nights ago, it would have been gone by now. "Why isn't it healing?"

"It is," Peter said. "I got it last night."

"You texted me last night, you said you weren't going out. You said..." Cooper trailed off, his hand floating through the water until it was barely brushing Peter's side. "Did this happen at school? Is someone ganging up on you?"

Peter twisted away, but it was worse then. An imprint of a shoe was still visible in the mess of bruising.

"Oh, my God. You have to tell your dad."

"No way," Peter said, hugging his arms around his stomach to hide the worst of the injuries. "He'd go crazy and pull me out of class. I can't go back to private school, Coop, I hate it there."

Cooper was quietly pulling Peter's hands away, pushing along the bruising. Peter was right - it was healing - but not nearly as quickly as it should be. It had to have happened barely 6 hours ago, which meant it was right after Peter got out of school. Just before he went to the airport.

"Listen, Peter, this is really important! You have to tell someone, Peter, you don't need to-"

"You don't get to tell me what to do!"

"-to take this kind of abuse!" Cooper kept going as if he hadn't heard what Peter said at all. "How can you think this is okay? What would you- God, Peter, you're a superhero! You're above this!"

"Screw you!" Peter snapped back. "This has nothing to do with my life, okay? You don't know everything about me, Cooper, God!"

Peter hopped back over the lip of the hot tub and tugged on his shirt, stomping into the house and up to the room he was staying in. If Cooper thought Spiderman was somehow weak for this, then he could just forget being Peter's friend.

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The soft knocking at the door was barely audible over the music Peter was listening to, but he tugged the blankets off his legs and opened the door. Instead of Cooper, or Tony, both of whom Peter was expecting, it was Clint.

"Hey, mind if I come in for a bit?"

Peter shook his head and held the door open for Clint. "Why are you here?"

"Cooper said he was being a jerk and you were up here. Said he ruined the friendship and I just wanted to check on you."

"Well, he's not wrong," Peter said hollowly. "He was a huge jerk."

Clint pursed his lips and nodded. "Want to tell me about it? I can't exactly kick his ass right if I don't know how hard to kick it."

Peter gave a soft laugh, and it felt good. It felt good to not be so angry.

"It's nothing," Peter said finally. "I got into a little fight at school or whatever and Cooper is all like I think you're being a baby about things and how this somehow means I can't be a superhero." Peter huffed and threw himself back onto the bed, his arms flying up and collapsing back onto the bed.

"How much of a fight was this?" Clint asked, an eyebrow raised.

Peter glanced over his cheeks at the man. "A little one. Worse than training, better than patrolling."

Clint hummed. "And what did he say exactly?"

"That being a superhero put me above all of this." Peter rolled his eyes. "But that's the thing, Uncle Clint, I'm not going to give up my superhero work because I'm getting a little extra attention from a school bully. I know that's not the big deal here, that's not what I'm- Ugh! This doesn't make me weak!"

Clint smiled a little. "Oh, Pete, that's not what he was saying. Cooper doesn't think you're weak, he's saying that you deserve better because you spend your time helping everyone else. You stay up until 4, 5, 6 in the morning, protecting strangers, and then some kid decided to give you a taste of asphalt? It's not right. You're too nice, too sweet, too kind for that."

Peter's eyebrows slowly unfurrowed and he sat up. "Well, shit. I should go apologize to Cooper."

"You should." Clint got up and headed out into the hall, but poked his head back in. "And, just so you know, I didn't tell your dad. Though, you should really tell him about what's going on at school, he would listen. And he wouldn't pull you out unless you asked him to."

Peter hummed. "Thanks, Uncle Clint."

The teen changed quickly and headed downstairs for dinner. Cooper was setting the table and Peter grabbed some forks to help. "Can I help you?"

"I'd really like that," Cooper said, putting his last plate down. "Peter, listen, I'm sorry for earlier. It's none of my business, and I just hate seeing you hurt or whatever."

Peter gave Cooper a smile, genuine and warm. "Hey, that's alright. I'm sorry, too, I shouldn't have gotten so angry. I understand why you got so upset, that's what friends are for."

"Yeah," Cooper said. "Friends."