Through the Web

Peter did not blame Natasha in anyway whatsoever. He did not blame Natasha. He was embarrassed in himself that he didn't check to make sure his mic was off; but secretly proud of the fact he managed not to make any noise beforehand. And now with Natasha and Clint gone for at least the next hour, Peter could've stayed in the training room and not worried about anything but with the way his luck was going today, someone else (probably Thor) would end up going down and cause a bigger disruption than the one Peter caused himself. Instead he opted for Steve's art studio after asking Steve first. He and Bucky ended up following Peter up there, both promising to be as quiet as possible. 

Steve let Peter borrow one of the desks he had; telling him it would be easier to concentrate if he sat at a desk than on the floor. So Peter sat on one side of the room while Steve sat at the other desk he had on the other side. Bucky had pulled up a chair and sat close to Steve, watching him intently. Everyone set off to work, not bothering the other. 

"Hello everybody. I know this isn't exactly what you had in mind when you pictured coming back to school but don't worry; we'll figure this out together," the teacher began class by saying. Peter smiled softly and bowed his head. She seemed nice. "As you all might be aware, I'm your AP US History teacher." Steve and Bucky shared a look, both finding it oddly comforting that Peter was with them for his history class. "Normally we'd be zipping through everything but at least for the first couple of days I'm gonna take things slow with you guys. We're all trying to figure this out." Peter's smile grew. 

"Hey, Pete?" Steve called. Peter, after checking to make sure his mic was off, turned to face Steve. "If you ever have any questions with this class, you can always come ask us." Peter nodded. 

"Thanks, Steve." Steve nodded and smiled back. Peter then turned back to his computer, tuning back in to what his teacher had to say. 

"Now, if you could all go to our Google Classroom I set up, you'd see the syllabus. Please pull that up." Peter opened up a new tab and logged in, finding the syllabus his teacher was talking about. He quickly scanned it over while he waited for her to continue. "As you can see, our first unit will be about the presidents. It's important that you guys know the order and a little bit about each of them. You're going to be voting soon. This is history you'll need to know." Upon hearing this, Bucky started to get an unsettling feeling in the pit of his stomach. Something about that unit didn't seem to sit right with him. "Of course we'll still go over the major presidents; the ones you've all heard before. Washington, Lincoln, Roosevelt--" Steve lightly kicked Bucky under the table, a soft smirk tugging at his lips. Bucky rolled his eyes. They knew all about Roosevelt. "--Kennedy-" Bucky's eyes widened, a memory long forgotten flashing before his eyes. Even though Shuri did her best to restore his memories, there were still some that slipped between the cracks. The assassination of President Kennedy was one of them apparently.  

"Uh, Pete?" Bucky called, his voice a little unsteady. Peter hummed, wanting to alert Bucky that he was listening but keeping his eyes on the screen so his teacher (who Peter was starting to really like) would believe he was fully paying attention. Bucky swallowed thickly and rubbed the back of his neck, sending quick glances Steve's way. Steve appeared to be oblivious to the conversation going on between them; that or he was trying his best not to listen in. "I think I assassinated Kennedy."

Steve's pencil dropped as he glanced up at his boyfriend. Bucky bit his lip. Peter remained staring straight ahead. 

The room was uncomfortably silent--aside from the teacher droning on about the second unit--for longer than Bucky was hoping for. 

"You what?!" Peter shrieked, turning around in his chair to look directly into Bucky's eyes, his own wider than the ones on his mask. Bucky glanced to the floor. Peter sent a quick glance back at his teacher who was still reading from the syllabus, not paying attention to anyone else in the class, before glaring at Steve. "Did you know about this?" Steve quickly shook his head. Peter raised an eyebrow. 

"I didn't! Pete, I swear!"

Peter eyed Steve skeptically. "Mhm. That's what you told Mister Stark when he asked you if you knew about Bucky killing his parents. Were you telling the truth then?" 

Steve blinked a few times before uncomfortably clearing his throat and shifting in his sit. The look in his eyes changed from the usual innocent look he managed to play off to the stern, Captain look he's used multiple times before. Usually he only uses his Captain eyes when he's out in the field or someone in the tower has done something so incredibly stupid he can't begin to understand why they did it. Which means he normally only uses them on Tony--regardless of if they're in or out of uniform. But Peter's seen those eyes before. He's seen them every time he did something bad at school. He's seen them every time his gym teacher didn't feel like coming up with a lesson plan on his own. He's seen those eyes enough that he's become immune to them. And when Steve gets up, spins his chair around, and sits on it like that, he's lost Peter entirely. 

"So," he started.

"You got detention," Peter replied automatically, catching Steve off guard. 

The look on Peter's face never changed, leading Bucky to believe Peter didn't realize he'd said anything. But there was something Steve and Peter knew that Bucky didn't; Steve's ears turning bright red quickly told him so. Bucky glanced to Steve, an eyebrow raised. Steve lowered his gaze to the floor, his face feeling incredibly hot. Peter's gaze remained on Steve, almost daring him to continue his speech. 

Since becoming Captain America, there's been a lot that Steve's done that he isn't proud of. The whole "Star Spangled Man with a plan" show being high on the list. But the thing he regrets the most, something that sometimes keeps him up at night, are those stupid videos he'd done when he was freshly thawed. Fury asked him to do them; he said they'd be a nice way to comfortably reintroduce Captain America to the world. Steve didn't think much of it going into the countless hours of recording sessions. They were going to be put in schools for the teachers to put on for kids who misbehaved. A different type of Mister Rogers. No one wanted to be scolded by Captain America, right? 

After a long and awkward moment of silence, Steve cleared his throat again and briefly locked eyes with Peter. "Why don't we all agree that whatever's said in this room, stays in this room?" Bucky and Peter nodded. The three of them then slowly went back to what they were doing before. Bucky was still a little confused but he decided not to question Steve about it. Obviously whatever him and Peter were talking about caused him enough embarrassment for one lifetime. And most of the time Bucky respected Steve enough not to embarrass him more. 

Because he, of all people, knew some secrets were better left unsaid.