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"Dude, are you okay?"
Peter snapped out of his daydreaming at the sound of Ned's whispering voice. He looked at the teacher, checking she wasn't looking at their direction, and turned to his friend sitting next to him.
"Yeah of course!", he said defensively, "Why do you ask?"
"You've been stimming a lot since last period and you were zoning out now. You know you can tell me if you're gonna have a meltdown, right? I can take you outside if you need to leave", said his friend, eyeing him cautiously.
"Oh", responded Peter. The boy hadn't noticed he's been stimming this whole time, but now that Ned pointed it out he could see he was slightly rocking back and forth, his right leg was going up and down, and the fingers on his left hand were tapping rhythmically on his collarbone, sending vibrations through his chest. "I'm fine Ned, don't worry, I'm not gonna have a meltdown", the boy assured his friend, and it wasn't really a lie, he didn't feel a meltdown coming, but he knew he wasn't completely fine.
Since he woke up that morning, Peter had been feeling off, but he couldn't put a finger on it. Making a quick assessment of his body - was it hunger? Maybe he needed water? Was he feeling any pain? -, he figured he just needed to eat something, so he had two extra bowls of cereal for breakfast. But now sitting in his classroom in 5th period, he still didn't feel right. Still, he shrugged it off. There was no time to figure this out now.
It seemed like his friend had understood that Peter didn't want to talk about it, as he didn't ask anymore questions, only occasionally throwing worried glances at him, which Peter tried his best to avoid. He felt bad, Ned was just worried about him, but the truth was he didn't know for sure what was wrong yet - and his alexithymia was to blame -, but he'd soon find out.
The rest of the day at school was not great. Peter could barely concentrate in his classes, so he was grateful that his friends - who were used to him being like that - had taken notes for him. And as the hours passed, he kept getting worse, he went from feeling off to feeling wrong . It was like he couldn't feel enough . The boy tried tightening his shoe laces even more, and snapping his fingers close to his ear to have some more input. He'd give everything to be in the lab with Mr. Stark right now blasting music as loud as possible.
By the end of his last period, Peter had concluded that he was under-stimulated. It was as if his senses, instead of being dialed up to 11, had been dialed down to -11. The boy walked down the school hallways listening to music loudly with his headphones on, tightening his grip on his fidget cube, feeling the buttons digging into his palm. As soon as he saw Happy outside, he rushed into the fancy black car the man was leaning on.
"Someone's in a hurry today", grumbled the driver as he got into the car as well.
"Hi Happy, sorry about that", said the boy sheepishly, "I'm just excited for the weekend at the Tower!", he exclaimed, bouncing on his seat and lightly tapping his hands on his tights.
The man grumbled in response, eyeing the teen suspiciously before turning around and pulling away from the school. As soon as he did so, the kid started talking again, rambling about some new lego him and Ned wanted to buy. Peter tried his best to not let the man notice something was off, though he was clearly more fidgety than usual.
As soon as he felt the car pull over, he rushed inside the building, shouting a quick "thank you" to Happy, who just grumbled in response as usual. While inside the elevator, the boy jumped up and down, both due to his excitement for the weekend with his mentor, and to try and get more sensory input. When the doors opened, he headed to the kitchen, where he could hear sounds coming from, and saw Mr. Stark making popcorn on the stove.
"Ooh you're making popcorn!", exclaimed the boy, "What kind?", he questioned.
"Chocolate, I know it's your favorite", the man said, chuckling at how Peter started excitedly flapping his hands at that. "Why don't you go pick a movie? But not Hercules, Thor will start getting jealous at how much you watch movies about other gods", Mr. Stark said while winking at Peter to indicate it was a joke, and pretending not to see how the boy's cheeks flushed at the god's mention.
"Ugh fine!", said the boy, pretending to be annoyed.
The duo had agreed to have a lazy Friday, and work in the lab during the weekend instead. They were getting closer and closer, and their relationship wasn't limited to the internship and super hero-ing anymore as they slowly grew into something more than mentor and protégé - everyone around could notice how the pair almost seemed like father and son. Though the both of them were happy about these changes, neither would admit it.
"So, what did you pick?", asked Mr. Stark as he sat next to Peter on the couch with a bowl of popcorn, interrupting the boy's thoughts.
"Empire Strikes Back!" said the boy, bringing a handful of popcorn to his mouth, moving to sit closer to his mentor.
The man noticed all of the lights were still on, the sound of the tv was louder than Peter usually preferred, and the boy seemed really fidgety, but decided not to comment on that. He adjusted himself on the couch once more, quietly watching the movie.
Peter was sure that his under-stimulation had gotten better, sitting under his weighted blanket, quietly tapping his hands on his thighs, but that only seemed to last for a bit. Soon, he noticed he had tuned out the movie, and he felt wrong again, just like he had earlier in school. He was still insecure about opening up to his mentor, so the boy did his best to get more sensory stimuli quietly. He did so by rubbing his foot on the soft carpet, running his hand through his hair in different directions, and chewing on his other hand - he was not proud of that one, but he made the mistake of leaving his chewy necklace inside his backpack near the kitchen entrance. It didn't take long for Mr. Stark to notice something was wrong though, especially when the boy started humming while frantically tapping his fingers on his face. That's when the man stopped the movie and turned to look at Peter.
"Pete, what's wrong? What can I do?", he asked calmly as to not upset the boy even more.
"I'm sorry, I thought it'd gotten better since this afternoon", the boy said, flapping his arms in distress.
"Hey kid, it's okay! What do you need me to do?", the man asked, putting his hand firmly on the boy's shoulder to give it some pressure, which Peter seemed to be grateful for.
"I- I'm under-stimulated, I need to do something , nothing's working", he stuttered slightly, "It didn't use to be this bad to get stimulated before the bite"
"Hmm so it's like super under-stimulation?", asked the man with a smirk, "I think I know what we can do", he said, guiding the fidgety boy to the elevator. "FRIDAY, dear, take us to the gym"
And that's how Peter found himself on a Friday night, jumping on a trampoline with none other than the Tony Stark. They jumped, spun around, rolled on the surface of the trampoline and doing flips while blasting music from Peter's favorite playlist. After a while they got back on the ground and proceeded to have a dance party, while Peter also screeched as a way to vocally stim, with no fear of being heard through the soundproof walls.
They kept moving around the gym for a long time, running, jumping and even having some light training. Soon they found themselves laying side by side of the mat, getting their breathing under control after so much physical activity.
"Feeling better now, kid?", asked the man as both of them sat up.
"So much better! Thank you, Mr. Stark", said the boy before tightly hugging his mentor, surprising the man.
The man didn't react at first, still processing what was happening, but soon he returned the hug.
"Anytime, kid. And drop the Mr. Stark already, I think we're way past that by now"
That night, Peter got into bed while his mentor carefully watched him from the doorway, still worried the boy might have a shutdown after what happened. Peter still wasn't 100% better, but it was enough for him to be able to get some rest. Or so he thought. He frowned as he still felt somewhat off.
"Still feeling bad?", asked the man, concerned, "What do you need?"
"I need some pressure. But May doesn't let me sleep with my weighted blanket, she says it can be dangerous. Ned usually hugs me, it's usually enough pressure", the boy responded, "I'm not saying you have to hug me though!", the boy completed quickly.
"I don't mind. May I?", the man questioned, motioning to the boy's bed. Peter felt embarrassed, but nodded anyways.
Soon he felt his mentor lay next to him on the bed, carefully pulling the boy close and hugging him tight. They stayed like that for a while, and soon Peter started feeling a bit better again. He was almost asleep when he remembered what they'd been doing before all of this happened.
"I'm sorry I ruined our movie night", he apologized. They'd been looking forward to that all week, and he ruined it.
"Don't worry about it, kiddo, you didn't ruin anything, I promise", said the man, running his hand through the boy's curls. "We can watch a movie tomorrow. I'll make more popcorn and we can even have a blanket fort!", he said, making the boy giggle - he giggled -, which brought a fond smile to his mentor's face. "Now go to sleep, you need to rest"
The boy tiredly hummed in response, already close to falling asleep.
"Goodnight Mr- I mean, Tony", the man chuckled at that.
"Goodnight, Pete"