“MMPHM! mMpHMAMPHM!!” Tom Holland shouted behind the ball gag as loud as he could while his shredded upper body jerked in place in hopes of freeing himself from the unsettling situation. In only a pair of workout shorts and his sneakers and ankle socks, the 27 year old Englishman found himself captured. He stood between the two sides of the gym’s squat rack with his wrists tied to the metal poles on either side of him, secured in padded cuffs that refused to let his arms drop below an obtuse V shape. His ankles were in a similar setup, connected to the same set of vertical bars of the rack and no matter how hard he fought, all his muscles and hours working out weren’t helping him now.

He still didn’t quite know what’d happened. He’d been invited to workout at the exclusive Marvel gym where RDJ, Evans, Hemsworth, and others spent a lot of time yet somehow he’d never been. One minute he was about to work on his shoulders and the next he was shirtless and tied in place to the squat rack with his back to the large mirror so he was facing the rest of the private gym. Suddenly the sound of a door opening caught his attention, his eyes widening with urgency as he started shouting again. “MmPHmMAPHMmPHMNNM!!” He felt a wave of relief as he realized it was Chris Hemsworth and Paul Rudd walking in.

“Looking a little stuck there, Holland…what happened?” Hemsworth greeted with a teasing laugh. “Is this a new workout I don’t know about or something?” Paul questioned with his own smirk, neither of them as surprised or confused to find him there as Tom had imagined. “mHPmMPHM!” He tried to get through to them, pulling on his arms and legs as if to point out that he needed their help but neither of his MCU co-stars seemed to take the hint. “How much do you think we can make off some pictures of him like this?” Rudd questioned. “Ooh, good question…probably a good market there” Chris answered, further throwing Tom the longer they sat there toying with him rather than letting him go.

“Alright, I guess we should fill you in. The studio knows and we know that you have a history of letting spoilers slip about your movies” Hemsworth explained. “I mean, we know it’s easy to do but it’s becoming a problem for the guys up top, ya know?” Paul added. “MMHM??” “We’re here to make sure you don’t tell anything else you’re not supposed to. You could be Spider-Man for a long time; we wouldn’t want you sabotaging your chances of that happening” Chris continued as if they were doing him a favor. “MMNhAmPHM!?” “Maybe we should take out the gag so we can understand him better” Rudd suggested. “Right” Chris agreed and reached out to undo the shiny red ball gag.

“The bloody hell is going on?! Have you two gone off the fucking deep end??” Holland asked with understandable attitude. “Relax, nobody’s gone off the deep end. We know this might seem a little extreme but you have to admit it’s original” Rudd answered. “What is? Tying me to fucking exercise equipment??” “No, we’re gonna tickle you” Chris answered so casually, demanding Tom’s attention back toward him. “What!? Are you joking? Is this a prank or something?? Are Evans and Downey gonna pop out now?” Holland asked as if he’d caught on. “Sorry, just us and no, we’re serious. Think of it like spoiler training” Chris explained, forcing Tom to wrap his head around the bizarre predicament he was in.

“This is fucking wacked…seriously, guys, you can’t tickle me. I’m sooo ticklish, really” Tom tried to convince with newfound dread in his voice, like they just didn’t understand how bad off he was. “Yeah we’ve heard. Why do you think we decided on this?” Paul admitted, putting Holland more on edge now that he understood they’d specifically decided to exploit such a severe weakness of his. “This is how it’s gonna work; this handy app here is gonna randomly generate a Marvel character and I’m gonna show it to you. The object of our little game here is that you can’t tell us who it is” Hemsworth explained as he fired up the app on his phone. “Oh and if you tell us early just to end it, we’re just gonna tickle you more. We’ll know when you really can’t hold out any longer” Paul added, giving Tom the parameters of the spoiler training as he tried to accept his fate and prepare himself to handle whatever they were gonna dish out.

“Shit…this is gonna suck” Holland sighed with a nervous laugh before Chris hit the generator button and he showed Tom the phone before either of them could see which character was on the screen. It was Nightcrawler. “You got it?” Chris asked. “Yeah, I’ve got it. Am I supposed to give you a hint to start off with or something?” “No, that’s part of the fun” Paul answered with a friendly, mischievous smile. “You two are trouble…” Tom added. “Trouble? Us? Why do you say that?” Chris asked with a slithery tone to his voice as he walked around behind him, making the screen Spider-Man tense up with anticipation. “We’re just here to help you out, man…make your lips a little tighter” Paul reassured with one of his warm, trustworthy smiles just before two giant hands landed on Tom’s sides.

“AAhAHASShhIiIT!” Holland erupted with surprised eyes and tried to jerk free of Chris’ grip but there was nowhere to go. “Damn, he is ticklish” Paul laughed while Hemsworth squeezed up and down his sides between his hips and ribs. “AhoAoAohGgGEEttooOOFFFF!!” Tom howled with a wide, forced smile as he floundered in place. “Come on, Tom…it can’t be that bad” Hemsworth taunted as if he hadn’t subjected his brother Liam to the same torturous treatment enough times to recognize the frustrated laughter. “Maybe you should just tell us about the mystery character and save yourself the trouble” Paul suggested. “AAHOANNNNOAOAo!” Tom had to convince himself to reject with Chris’ strong fingers kneading into the sides of his abs and chomping into his lean torso.

“Maybe you could at least tell us if it’s an Avenger…” Hemsworth added. “AhAOAHAiIICCAAANNNTT!!” Tom argued like he couldn’t stand not being able to at least try and defend himself or run away. Normally there was always an exit route or way to block any wandering fingers but not now, not like this. They’d made sure of it. “We have ways of making you talk, Mr. Bond…” Rudd teased in his best Bond villain impersonation before slipping his index finger in his mouth and locking onto his target as his wet finger reached out toward Holland, earning looks of momentary horror from him as the finger got closer. “NNOO! nNOoAOOAH!!” The bubbly brunette couldn’t avoid the finger from landing in his bellybutton and swirling around, shooting his already vibrant laughter up a couple notches and contorting his face with ticklish disgust.

“That’s a classic right there” Chris laughed at Paul’s contribution while Tom shook in the straps between them. “Still works too apparently” Rudd answered while wiggling around in the tight navel amongst the sea of ab muscles while Hemsworth inched his way toward the ribs, just slowly enough to spark some suspense and make Tom anticipate the new attack. But Chris’ hands suddenly backed off, leaving Holland with only Paul’s bellybutton play to worry about before suddenly latching around his hips in a cruel fake out. “AAhAOhAOhGGoOODDAAAmMMIIiTT!! IIIhHAatTTEEyyYOoOUUGGUUYyYSS!!” Tom roared with renewed hysteria thanks to the tan hands working into his hips and flanks without an ounce of mercy in their delivery. “Shucks, did you hear that? He hates us” Paul teased. “We can always make him hate us more” Chris pointed out, planting a new seed of fear in Holland’s head before Rudd took the hint and went after the spot his partner had abandoned.

“NNoOOAohAOAH!! oOKOOK!! AhOAHAOhAIIiTTAAkKEEiiITTbBBAACCKK!” Tom tried to appease once Paul was drilling into his ribs but the beloved actor couldn’t be deterred. “I think you should just tell us what character you saw and we’ll call it even” “AhAOhAYYyOOuUSSAaiIiDDiIIiCCAAnNNTT!!” “Did we say that?” Chris questioned as his monster grip continued to wreck Holland’s slim hips, like you might manipulate a game controller in your hands during a high-stakes boss fight. “YYyEESS!! SHHiiITTiiIDdoOONNnTTKnNOOoWW!” Holland shouted like he didn’t know how to win, wanting to hold onto the character’s name long enough to prove he wouldn’t spoil anymore MCU secrets but the double-teamed tickling had him ready to tell them anything they wanted to know.

“Come on, Holland…you’re a tough guy, right? You’re Spider-Man!” Paul teased while using his thumbs to really dig between each rib, moving up both sides at the same rate with drawn-out back and forths each time. “AhoAHAIIIMMTToOOTTiIICCkKkLLLiIiSSHH! IITTOOOLLLDDYYoOUUU!!” “Well just tell us the character” Hemsworth insisted. “AHoAhAOhAFFuUuCCkKYYoOoUUU!!” Tom fired back as he bucked in the straps and his head flew around with a never-ending stream of adorably desperate laughter. “Cute underwear, Holland…do they stretch?” Chris asked after noticing Tom’s white Calvin Klein boxer briefs sticking out past his shorts. “WWHhAATT?!” was all Holland had time to ask before Hemsworth delivered the punch-line of his plan by grabbing a handful of the underwear and yanking it upward for a supreme wedgie. “AAAHHAaFFUuUCCK!” Tom let out with a surprised face and ended up on his tiptoes trying to lessen the blow of the material going firmly up his tight ass.

“Now that’s messed up” Paul laughed at the juvenile stunt. “I haven’t gotten a wedgie since I got one of these” Rudd added before leaving the ribs to twist Tom’s nipples between his fingers. “AAAHHSShIIIT! What the hell, guys!?” Holland questioned as his now stiff nipples were released and the pain of the wedgie was eclipsed by the titty twister. “Sorry, that was mean of us…I guess we should get back to where we were” Hemsworth added, putting Tom on red alert for another tickle attack until the same powerhouse hands shot into his armpits before he even saw they were coming.

“AAHAHAHhHAoHaohNNOOOAOhAOH!!” Tom exploded with clenched eyes and his mouth wide open as Chris dug into both pits on full blast, using his long fingers to really get in there. “SSTTohOHOHOPP!! AOhAOHOAOhOOKOOKAAOhAOhA!! CChHhRRIIISSS!!” Holland almost screamed while Paul laughed in awe of the over-the-top reaction. “Holy shit! I think you found the sweet spot” Rudd added. “The pits are usually a safe bet” Chris answered with a smile like he wasn’t surprised at his ability to drive Tom up the wall; it was a known fact that out of all the MCU guys, Hemsworth was the tickler you didn’t want coming after you. “GGuUUYyYSS! AohAOhAOHAnNOoOMMmOOOorRREEE!!” Tom shrieked and yelled but Chris’ hands made themselves at home in his hairy underarms, burrowing in and prodding around without so much as a two second break.

“Well, I don’t think you need my help but I can’t just sit back and watch” Paul added like seeing Tom go so crazy was too enticing to let Hemsworth have all the fun, prompting Rudd to kneel down and latch onto Tom’s thighs. “AAhAAOHANNOOAoHAOha!! MMOoOTTthHEERFFUuUccCCKKEERRSSAHAHA!! GGEETTooOFFF!!” Holland raged even louder once Paul was squeezing into his thighs, even having forced the gym shorts up a little to really get a lock on both slim legs. Rudd’s grip wasn’t nearly as lethal as Chris’ but his enthusiasm helped make up for it, chomping between the upper thighs and knees in opposite directions while Tom’s legs tried to kick away but never could escape him.

“AhAPPLLLEEAASSEEE!! AohAOhAAOhAMMmEERRCCcYY!!” Holland begged like he’d reached his limit, never having endured such direct tickling in his adult life. “We still don’t know what character you saw” Chris pointed out while still destroying his unbearably ticklish pits like it was nothing. “OOKOOK!! AOhAOHAiIITTWWAASSAAnNNXXMMAAANN!!” Tom spat out as clearly as he could in hopes of doing something to help his situation. “Bad move, Holland…this is how the spoilers happen; one little clue leads to another and then the whole thing’s out there” Chris added as his hands sank in toward the base of both underarms and again had Tom on his tip toes, this time trying to avoid the playfully sadistic tickling. Paul on his thighs was one thing, almost manageable but the pits, the pits were a fucking nightmare.

“Hold on, Chris, I want to shift gears before we keep going…besides, it looks like he’s cosplaying as a tomato” Paul added, thankfully relieving the red-faced heartthrob for at least a couple minutes. “What the fuck, man?” Tom asked as he caught his breath like he couldn’t believe Hemsworth had gone so hard on him. “What? We’re here to make sure you don’t fuck up again…so no tricky question or some guy in an interview trips you up; if you can keep a secret through this, you’re golden” Chris assured with a chummy flash of his pearly whites from around Tom’s shoulder. But the moment of reassured good intentions was ruined when Tom felt the cuff around his left ankle being undone. “I wanna get my hands on these feet; they’ve gotta be super ticklish” Paul explained as he held onto the ankle. “No! Paul, come on! It’s bad enough as it is!” Holland protested as he kicked away but Rudd wrangled it back thanks to Chris tickling Tom’s neck enough to distract him.

“Guys! This is ridiculous! Seriously!!” Tom argued in an effort to save himself even more trouble but couldn’t prevent Paul and Chris from bending his left leg so his foot was in the air and then duct-taping it to the weighted barbell resting on the rack behind him so it was about level with his butt. “Dude! Where the hell did the tape even come from??” “We might have a whole bag of stuff; who knows?” Chris teased, sending a twinge of ticklish fear up his back as Rudd pried off the sneaker and revealed the upturned, white socked foot. “Sock or no sock?” Rudd asked. “SOCK!” Tom shouted. “Maybe start with it on…you can always take it off later” Chris answered. “Good point” Paul agreed, granting Tom some more relief but it certainly didn’t last.

The half barefoot/half naked movie star tried to look back at what Paul was doing but was cut off by fingers tasering into the side of his neck. “AGGhAhA!” Tom couldn’t help but gurgle out with awkward, bubbly laughter as his head dipped down trying to block it, only for Chris’ other hand to wiggle into the opposite side. “AAhAhAFFuUCCK OOFF!” Holland spat with hilarious frustration while Hemsworth’s talented fingers wiggled all around his neck until his head was bobbing around like a toy, urgently trying to stop the annoyingly ticklish assault. Chris focusing on his neck was a real dick move but Paul quickly threw a whole can of gas on the fire by letting all ten fingers break out into a scribbling frenzy across the captive left foot. “AAhAhAHANNOOAohAOhAOH!! CCOoMmMEEoOONN!!” Tom spiraled higher with harder laughter and tried to jerk his foot away while Paul proceeded to go to town.

“Oh man, this is great!” Rudd announced with devious delight in his voice as he danced all over the slender 11, with the crisp cotton sock even helping his fingers to glide a little faster. “It’s an X-Men character, huh? Let me see…Wolverine?” Chris asked while still terrorizing his neck. “NNOOhOAHAO! JJUUSSTTSsTTohOhoPPFFoOORRAASEEecCCoONNDD!” “What about Cyclops?” Paul chimed in. “NNOOAoOAOHAOH!!” “See? That’s how you do it; always say no and deny whatever questions you get asked about important stuff” Hemsworth reminded. “OOKoOKK!! iiIGGEETtTIiITT!” Tom assured as loudly as he could but it didn’t do him any favors. Paul had unknowingly selected the most ticklish of Tom’s feet, with Holland specifically having not gotten the spider tattoo on the left foot because he knew he couldn’t handle it and Chris proved to have his own superpower of being a naturally excellent tickler. The two of them working together soon had Tom a sweaty mess trying to hold onto the secret he’d been tasked with keeping.

It wasn’t long before Rudd started dragging several fingers down the sides of Tom’s foot at the same time, like mini rakes clawing up and down to and from his heels. “AAAHAHaFFuUUCCkKIIINnNGGSSTTHOHOOHP!!” Tom tried to persuade as he continued wearing himself out hopelessly fighting the tickling. “Me or him?” Chris asked. “BBOoOttTHH!!” “Sorry, not really an option” Hemsworth answered with a smarmy grin and a playful wiggle of his tongue along Tom’s right ear. “Alright, time to lose the sock” Paul soon announced as he grabbed the elastic edge and started pulling it down. “NOOOAOO!! PPAAUULLCCoOMmEEOOONN! DDoOONNNTT!!” Tom begged like he didn’t know if he could handle his bare foot getting such undivided attention, not right now, not after being worn down so much.

“Just tell me who the mystery character is then” Paul answered once the sock was practically just hanging off Tom’s toes. “IiIcCAAnNNTT!” He held out, fearing that if he gave in too soon he’d fail the strange challenge. “Well then no sock for you” Rudd added before just barely brushing the toes and forcing the rest of the sock off, exposing Tom’s beautiful pink sole that’d been baking in the sneaker for close to three hours since leaving his house. His bubbly, peachy toes curled with anxiety and his sole wrinkled with its only chance of a defense, “I don’t know why you think you can avoid this” Paul laughed before starting at the heel with his short nails and skittering down with wiggling fingers to test him out, quickly realizing a lighter touch was just what Tom needed.

“AAhAOHAAFUUUCCKkIInNGGhHHEELLL! AohASSTTOOHOPPPIIITT!!” Holland demanded with newfound panic. “Stop what? This?” Paul answered before repeating the same restrained technique and forcing out more explosive, erratic laughter. “YyYEESSS!!” Tom tried to answer back but Rudd was already traveling back down again, pushing Holland further toward his breaking point with every trip across his delicate, supple sole. The only silver lining around that time was Chris leaving his neck alone but it wasn’t 20 seconds later that Tom’s discarded sneaker was held across his face and Hemsworth’s free hand shot into the left armpit at the same time.

“AAhAhAOAOaAoHAOHAANNOOO!!” “How’s that smell, Tom? I think it’s time for some new trainers, huh?” Chris taunted while Tom tried to shake the ripe shoe off his face or even hold his breath but the nuclear fingers digging around in his armpit helped force him to breathe his own flavor in faster than normal, another childish move that Chris really seemed to get a kick out of. “Come on, tell me how it smells” Hemsworth instructed. “AhAohaohAOAHAFFUUUuCCkKOOOOFF!!” “Tell me how it smells!” Chris insisted as his hand tickled harder and Tom squealed into the dirty sneaker. “BbBAAADD!! IiTTSSMMEElLLLSsAHAHAABBAADD!!” Holland answered with humiliating obedience before Chris laughingly pulled the shoe away and tossed it on the floor before letting that hand start teasing the inside of his elbow, throwing Tom for a loop as he discovered yet another spot he had to worry about.

Paul had settled on Tom’s silky toes, teasing them with his fingertips as they stayed clenched the best they could to avoid things getting worse. “You better loosen up these toes or I’m gonna have to tie them down” Rudd warned in a country cowboy accent, striking enough fear in Tom to oblige and open them up to Paul. He quickly wished he hadn’t. The 54 year old held the top of the foot in one hand to steady it and landed on the undersides of his toes with the other fingers before scurrying along them with full concentration. “AAAHAOhAOHAOHAOHASSHHiIITT! AOhOHANNOONNOOO! AohAohAOhAAPPPAAUUULLLPPPLLLEEAASSSEE!!” Rudd just laughed at the newest cartoonishly wild reaction and continued scratching along the baby soft toes with a smile on his face.

“Alright, Tom…I think it’s time you told us who the character is” Hemsworth pointed out. “YYYOoUUSsAAIIidDnNOoOTTToOOO!!” Tom tried to counter once again. “Well, you’re not supposed to…but it sounds like you’re about ready to give up” Hemsworth explained while focusing on both inner elbows now with light, fluttery tickles. “CCOoOMmEEoONNN!! JJuUSSTTsSTTOOHOPPTTiIiCCKkLLIiiNNGGmMMEEE!!” “Hey, Paul…I think it’s time to see just how much our buddy here can take” Chris announced. “You got it” “NNOOO!” Holland tried to deter with a fresh wave of panic on his handsome face before Hemsworth blasted into both armpits and Rudd brought his chin down to Tom’s foot to rub his stubble back and forth along the smooth sole.

“AAAAAAAHAHAHAHA!! FFUUUCCKkFFUUUCCKKFFUUUUUUCCCKK!!!” Tom lost all the composure he had left and screamed into the gym with guttural laughter, putting smiles of surprised, sinister excitement on his friends’ faces. Paul held his foot steady and made sure to never lose a second of contact with Holland’s foot as he grazed his prickly stubble all over from heel to toes and even nestling into the undersides while Chris adopted a two-finger technique for drilling into pits that should really be outlawed. Holland’s head slung around and the hair that wasn’t stuck to his forehead by sweat flew around with it and his whole body shook in place like he was ready to explode while his eyes held back ticklish tears until he had no choice left but to surrender. “AAHOAhAOANNIIIGGGHHTTCCRRAAWWLLLEERR!! NNIiIGGHHTTCCRRAAWWLLEERRR!!” Tom shouted with everything he had to break through the insane laughter, finally using the one word that could earn him some peace.

“Ya know, Nightcrawler would’ve been my next guess” Paul added as he stood up. “Yeah right” Chris dismissed as they both walked around to face Tom. “Well, I’d say you passed. I couldn’t expect a guy as ticklish as you to last much longer” Hemsworth added while Holland caught his breath. “…thanks I guess…am I done now?” “What do you think, Paul?” Chris asked. “Yeah, I’d say so. He’s had enough” Rudd answered before they started undoing the cuffs around his wrists. “Just do me a favor and don’t tell anybody else about this, alright?” Tom asked like he didn’t think his pride could take another person knowing about it. “Of course not” Chris answered as if it was silly for him to even ask, mostly because Evans, Pratt, and Mackie had been watching through a two-way mirror the whole time, none of them willing to miss what they knew would be one hell of a show.