Some Cursing - Tumblr Posts

Whumptober day 28 - Beaten

This @whumptober2019​ fill is a High School AU and is also available on Ao3. No pairings, but it’s sort of pre-Avengers as family :) There is some cursing in this.

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Tony gritted his teeth as another foot hit his legs, the same time another one hit his back. By now, he’d curled up to protect his chest and head, but they didn’t show any sign of stopping.

He would not give them the satisfaction of seeing him cry, though. He might be bruised, and bloody, and dirty, but they would not break him.

"Yeah, not so high and mighty anymore, are you, Stark?"

The best thing to do would be to stay silent, to just let them get it out so they’d feel like they won and would walk away. But if there was anything Tony was terrible at, it was keeping his mouth shut when he should.

So he looked up at Stone, at Hammer, at Killian, at Vanko, at Beck, and sneered. “Fuck you.”

Just in time, he managed to protect his face from the kick that followed. They got even more vicious, and he wondered if his ribs would be broken, but he couldn’t bring himself to regret it. Not when he’d seen the way it had knocked all of them off the high horses they felt they were on, the way it made them feel like they were the weak ones.

Which they were, honestly. Five against one, there was no way Tony could fight back and win and they had known it. Which was why, despite most of them usually hanging out with others, they’d gone for this together.

Because they all hated Tony.

Being smart, and rich, and good-looking, had not made him all that popular overall. There were enough people who wanted to be his ‘friends’ as long as they could get something out of it, and there were times where he was tempted. But if there was anything he’d learned from his Aunt Peggy, aside from how to defend himself, it was not to compromise himself for others, not when they would never return the favor.

It had left him fairly alone, which was an unfortunately familiar feeling, but at least he still felt like he could respect himself.

Unfortunately, that also left him vulnerable. And when the people who disliked him didn’t even have the courtesy of dealing with him individually, there wasn’t a whole lot he could do but try to make sure they wouldn’t do any lasting damage.

With the way they were carrying on, he was starting to worry.

“Hey! What’s going on here!?” The voice sounded vaguely familiar, and the hitting stopped.

Tentatively, Tony looked over to where the voice had come from, only to see Steve Rogers. And not just him, either - he had his entire group of friends with him, and none of them looked very happy.

“Mind your own business,” Hammer told them.

“Just teaching the Stark kid a little lesson,” Stone elaborated a little. Considering Tony was well-known and unpopular, he probably thought they’d leave them be after that. And Tony had to admit, for a moment he was afraid they would do exactly that.

But apparently, their rumored intolerance of bullying even extended to Tony himself, because Rogers only stepped closer, the others right with him. “Leave him alone.”

“Why the hell do you care?” Beck snapped. “Not like anyone gives a shit about him.”

“Last chance, assholes.” Rogers tended to be nicer about things - until he threw himself straight into a fight. Barnes, his best friend, had no such compunctions. “Back off or get your asses beat.”

They did not back off, and all Tony could do was watch in astonishment as Rogers, Barnes and the others completely swept the floor with the five of them. For him.

Huh. They might have hurt some ribs after all. His chest was feeling warm in a way it usually didn’t.