Work Text:
When Tony first offered for Peter to tag along on the Stark family vacation to the newly renovated mansion in Malibu, California, Peter was quick to accept the invitation. It was during the week of February break, so Happy and May planned a little vacation of their own to Paris, with Tony pulling a few strings to get them the best hotel room that had a good view of the Eiffel Tower.
Peter really didn’t know how to feel about that, but recently he’s been getting used to Happy being around a lot more since he and May have been “officially” dating. It was now almost normal for Peter whenever the man stopped by for dinners or Sunday brunches, which is how Peter’s discovered that Happy is one heck of a cook. If Happy ever got tired of being head of SI security (highly unlikely), he had a calling as a professional chief.
But now, however, Peter was really starting to regret coming along on this trip.
They’ve been in Malibu for not even a day and Tony’s already dragging Peter along for a hike that he stupidly agreed to.
If there’s one thing that Peter’s learned from this, is that jet lag and hikes don’t mix.
“H-Hey… can…” Peter pauses to suck in a wheezy breath through his dry mouth, panting. “Can we stop… for just a sec?” He asks, squinting in the harsh sunlight.
Tony stops from up ahead, turning around to face him with a raised brow. He doesn’t even look like he’s broken a sweat yet in the hour they’ve been out here.
He takes one look at Peter before nodding. “Yeah, good idea.” Tony agrees, walking back down the path towards him.
Peter breathes out in relief and slowly eases himself to the dirt covered ground as Tony stops in front of him. Peter’s muscles feel like they’re on fire, as well as his lungs. There’s a weird, fuzzy grogginess that he hasn’t been able to shake all day, even with the three lattes he downed with breakfast.
He’s even starting to feel a little nauseous now.
Tony slides his backpack off his shoulders and zips it open, taking out two water bottles. He unscrews one of the caps and hands it to Peter, brows pulled together in concern.
Peter takes the bottle with a shaky hand. “Thanks.” He breathes out before taking a few large, desperate gulps.
The cold water is heavenly in his horribly dry mouth. Peter downs at least half of the bottle before he pulls back with a gasp. He glances over at Tony, finding him to be looking at him with a worried expression.
“You alright?” Tony slowly asks.
“Yeah… all good.” Peter nods with a tired smile, screwing the cap back on the water bottle.
Tony seems to let the matter go for the time being as he drinks some of his own water, the two of them resting for a few more minutes.
“Do you want to head back or keep going? We have another thirty minutes until we reach the top.” Tony asks as he starts to stand up, groaning when his knees click in protest.
The only thing on Peter’s mind is going back to the house and taking a nice long, cold shower to wash off all this sweat and dirt before crashing into bed.
But Tony was so excited to show him this hiking trail, the same on he apparently used to use before his first mansion got blown up a few years ago.
They only had a little bit left to go, anyway. So why give up now?
“Keep going.” Peter decides.
“You sure?” Tony questions.
“Yup.” Peter smiles, as he gets up, trying to hide the wince from his face when his strained muscles ache from the movement.
Tony smiles as he slips the backpack back over his shoulders. “Alrighty then, let’s go.”
…….
Peter remembers a time before he got his powers, when he was in the eighth grade in gym class, and how he collapsed outside on the school’s track.
It had been a cool, foggy morning when they went out on the track to run laps. But Peter never saw the asthma attack coming. He had been so unprepared, that he didn’t even have his emergency inhaler on him.
The inhalier in the nurse’s office had apparently expired a while ago, but it was just too expensive for Ben and May to pay for two of them, especially without insurance since Ben was in between jobs, so they had Peter hold onto the one they bought in case he ever needed it outside of school. Which he did, a lot.
It started with him sucking in wheezing breaths when he started the first lap with Ned in step at his side. Somewhere around the halfway point, the wheezing had grown worse and there was a horrible growing tightness in his chest, restricting his lungs from taking in anymore air.
Peter remembers blacking out like someone flipped a light switch in his brain, then waking up on the ground, unable to breathe. Ned was screaming from help at Peter’s side, staying there the entire time, even when the ambulance arrived.
Fast forward a couple of years and a radioactive bug bite later, Peter was now really starting to question if his powers actually cured him from his childhood asthma.
Peter’s breathing was coming out in short wheezes as he trudged up the rocky terrain hiking trail, feeling his clothes clinging uncomfortably to his sweaty body. Everything ached terribly, which was not normal for him. He could go a whole day web slinging around the city and not even break a sweat. A hike shouldn’t have him so winded.
Peter lifts his heavy head from looking down at the ground and sees Tony’s blurry figure up ahead.
“T’ny? S’mthin’s… s’mthing’s wrong…” Peter pants out, brows pulling together.
He feels like he can barely get any air in his lungs now with how badly they’re burning.
Peter rapidly blinks when black dots dance around his vision, Tony’s figure growing even more distant.
It all happened so fast.
One minute Peter was standing, and the next he’s falling to the ground, landing heavily on his knees before he blacks out.
…….
There’s something cold trickling into his mouth. Peter sucks in a wheezing breath, only to start choking on something watery, breaking out into a painful coughing fit.
“Hey, hey- Peter. Breathe.” A voice filters into his ears amongst the static.
Peter coughs again and managed to peel open his heavy eyes, looking up at Tony’s slightly blurry, worried face. He even looks a little scared. Peter lets out a shaky breath, finding that he’s on the ground, propped up with Tony’s backpack behind his head.
“Wh’t… wh’t happ’nd?” Peter hoarsely asks.
“I think you fainted, bud. I was walking and then I turn around just as you took a swan dive to the ground.” Tony tells him, kneeling at his side, brows pulled together in concern. “How are you feeling?”
“Tired.” Peter answers honestly.
Tony’s frown deepens as he looks at him, before he closes his eyes with a sigh, shaking his head. “I’m sorry this happened, kid. I should’ve seen that you were having a hard time. We could have stopped and turned around.”
“It’s okay.” Peter tiredly says.
“No. It’s not.” Tony firmly says, running a hand down his face.
Peter knows Tony well enough to know that he’s blaming himself for all of this. He had a guilt complex that rivaled Peter’s.
“I’m ok, Tony. Really.” Peter says, as he begins to push himself up on shaky elbows. “Let’s just finish and-”
“Yeah, that’s not happening. What we’re going to do is go back to the house so you can get something in you, maybe a smoothie or something to raise that blood sugar of yours.”
“But-”
“Nope. No buts.” Tony says as he stands up, pulling his phone out of his pocket.
He begins to type away at it and Peter frowns at him. “What are you doing?” He asks.
“Calling a suit. There’s not way I’m having you walk back down.”
“But I’m feeling better now.” Peter argues.
It was true. His chest didn’t feel like a fiery inferno anymore, just sore, as was the rest of him. He was pretty tired though and the trip down probably wouldn’t do him any good, he just wasn’t going to admit that out loud.
“And that’s good.” Tony says as he pockets his phone. “The suits still coming.”
Peter lets himself lie back down against the backpack, breathing out a defeated sigh.
“Now,” Tony says as he walks back over and kneels down at Peter’s side. “I want you to drink that water and just try to relax, alright?” He grabs the half empty bottle of water from the ground and hands it to Peter after unscrewing the cap.
Peter takes a small swig of the room temperature water, just to ease the man’s worrying.
…….
Back at the house after a twenty minute flight, being held bridal style in Iron Man’s arms, Peter is settled down in bed after a cold shower, sipping at his second gatorade.
Tony has been on the phone for the past fifteen minutes with Bruce, listing off all of Peter’s symptoms to him despite Peter’s protests with not wanting to bother the man. Peter was thankfully feeling a lot better now, just a little shaky and tired, with a slight headache. Nothing he couldn’t handle, and certainly not bad enough to bother Bruce with. The guy was probably busy enough with trying to save the world from climate change or something.
“Well, good news. Bruce thinks he knows what’s wrong with you.” Tony announces as he walks into the guest bedroom, off the phone now. “A severe case of jet lag and a little bit of dehydration, which we already know about.”
“Jet lag?” Peter repeats, slightly shocked at that.
“Afraid so, kiddo.” Tony nods as he sits down on the edge of the bed with a sigh. “It’s nothing we can’t fix though with plenty of fluids and rest. I’ve had my fair share of jet lag in my day.”
Peter lets out a small groan and drops his head back against the mountain of pillows he’s propped up with. “This really sucks.”
Tony nods in sympathy. “Yeah, I know it does. Bruce thinks that it’ll wear off by tomorrow, Saturday at the latest.”
Peter pouts at that, looking up at the white ceiling.
“But hey, that means that we can watch some movies and you can eat whatever you want.”
That definitely gets his attention.
“Anything?” Peter questions.
“Anything.” Tony nods with a smile.
“Can we have a Star Wars marathon? I also wanted to check out the new Mandalorian series.”
“Sure.”
“Cheeseburgers too?” Peter asks with a small grin, knowing that they’re one of Tony’s weaknesses.
Tony huffs out a laugh at that, smiling at him. “Yeah. Cheeseburgers too.”
Pepper and Morgan arrive home, the car filled with shopping bags, to find Tony and Peter in the living room on the couch in the middle of their Star Wars binge, Bruger King wrappers piled up on the coffee table, two of them Tony’s while the other six are Peter’s.
But there’s a takeout bag on the kitchen counter with two burgers inside, as well as a container of French fries and a small kids meal toy inside for Morgan.