A/N: Aaah. I'm forever indebted to Zarri for introducing me to the wonderment that is Bare. Seriously, there are no words to describe how much I love it, and I'm so upset that there seem to be few fics for it xD. Anyway. Here's the first of what I'm sure will probably be at least a few Barefics from me.

Reprisal

It was ironic, really.

He had hated pretending. He had hated seeing Jason lie, straight to everyone's faces, assuming the role that society had thrust upon them. He had hated having to think before answering. He had hated that no one- well, no one but Jason- ever seemed to know the real Peter.

When Jason woke him up from his dreams, shattering his visions of a happy ever after, Peter swore he would never return. No more hiding. No more lying. No more pretending.

And yet, here he was, barely a week after Jason's death, back at the beginning again.

If anyone were to ask him how he was doing, he would just force a smile and say, "Getting by."

When he cleaned out their- his- room, preparing for life after graduation, he assumed the old façade, pretending to be all right, when in reality, every shirt, every book, every little thing in the damn room made him want to run far away.

In a way, he didn't want to stop pretending, for facing the truth meant facing the truth, having to deal with the immutable fact that Jason was never coming home.

What a reprisal.