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“Hey, Kid, What have you got there?” Tony asked as Peter skipped into the building with his loaded backpack over his shoulder and a small gift bag in his hand.
“Oh! It’s a present for Captain Rogers,” Peter happily chirped. “It’s not much, but I couldn’t come over on his birthday and not bring him something.” When he’d been invited to spend the holiday at the compound to celebrate both the holiday and Steve's birthday he’d been beside himself. Not many people could say they had been invited to Captain America’s birthday party, and he felt honored to have been included.
“You don’t actually believe he was born on the fourth of July do you?” he asked with a roll of his eyes. Because despite the fact that every record and document he’d been able to get his hands on saying it was true, he still didn’t wholly believe it. The man that would be chosen to become Captain America being born on Independence Day seemed like a relatively unlikely coincidence when you calculated the odds. And he was excellent at complex calculations.
Peter followed his mentor across the grand lobby, with a look of considerable confusion crossing his features. “Um, yes? That’s what it says in every book everywhere, Mr. Stark. Why wouldn’t I?” he asked, wondering if he had missed something at some point. He didn’t think he had.
“Seems a little too obvious to me but whatever. Cake is cake,” Tony replied with a shrug of his shoulders and a dismissive wave of his hand.
“I’m pretty sure Captain Roger’s said he wanted apple pie instead of cake,“ Peter corrected. He’d been there for that particular conversation. Everyone had been fiercely debating what kind of cake the most superior. Steve had insisted no cake could be superior to apple pie, not even triple thick New York cheesecake with strawberry sauce. Pepper, in turn, had promised to order him the biggest one she could find. With vanilla ice cream, of course.
“As if we’re not having both,” Tony scoffed and then practically shoved the kid into the waiting elevator. Though he added a quick “Put your stuff down and meet us outside, Kid,” as the doors began closing.
As Peter walked through the doors and towards the huge back lawn he couldn’t stop smiling. There were several long tables filled with enough snacks to properly feed a large group of superheroes, several coolers filled with cold drinks, and lounge chairs to spare. First, he spotted Tony who had taken up residence under a wide umbrella. Pepper and Bruce were seated beside him at a small table chatting and everyone else was scattered all over the grass wrestling over an old football.
“Can I play?” Peter shouted as he bounded across the lawn.
“Of course you can play,” Steve said, smiling brightly as he dusted some grass off of his knees. “You can be on my team.”
“No way! He can be on our team. One enhanced person per side,” Clint complained, having clearly taken the brunt of the pile up.
Steve rolled his eyes and waved his hand towards the opposite side of the large extensive space they were playing in. “You have Thor.”
“Yeah, but he doesn’t know how to play and we have to keep reminding him whose team he's on,” Clint shot back, crossing his arms over his chest for emphasis. “He hardly counts.”
“Fine,” Steve capitulated.“It’ll be myself, Sam and Nat versus you, Thor, Rhodey and the kid,” he announced with authority before looking in Peter’s direction. “You Got that Queens?”
While Peter enthusiastically nodded his head, Rhodey shook his head and wandered towards the sidelines. “Actually I’m going to sit this one out. You guys have fun,” he called over his shoulder as he went, leaving the teams at an even three on three.
The game went on for over an hour. Steve and Peter faced off more than a few times. Thor eventually got the hang of things and became a huge asset to ‘Team Queens'' defense. However, Natasha was agile enough to avoid the majority of the blocking and subsequent tackling. As a result, she ended up scoring the majority of the points, giving ‘Team Brooklyn’ the win.
“Having fun, Kiddo?” Tony asked when the kid tiredly flopped down onto the chair beside him, still smiling.
“Yeah. I’m having a lot of fun, Mr. Stark,” Peter replied, as he used the hem of his shirt to wipe some sweat off of his brow and took a long swig of cool water. It was hot, and he’d been going constantly since he’d stepped outside. “I never really get to play like that because as much as I love football, I was never any good at it. Before the whole spider thing anyway. But there would have been a lot of questions had I suddenly been able to make the team.”
Tony hummed in mutual agreement. “I’m sure Cap and his band of merry men would be happy to play with you again sometime.”
With a beaming smile, folded his arms behind his head and said, “Yeah, that would be awesome.”
As the afternoon turned into evening, the group all gathered around one large picnic table to eat. There were steaks, corn on the cob, potatoes, and, of course, cheeseburgers, that had all been cooked on the largest grill Peter had ever seen in his life. And being enhanced, meant being able to put away one of everything with room in his stomach to spare. Which worked out, since not long after everyone had eaten their fill, desserts were being carried outside. Including an entire pie just for Steve.
The group sang ‘Happy Birthday,’ gifts were opened and then for quite a while after, everyone sat around and talked. Then the moment the sky fell to darkness, several of the Avengers wandered back into the open part of the yard, hauling a few large boxes along with them.
“Hey, Peter!” Clint shouted across the grassy lawn. “We’re setting up the fireworks. Wanna help?”
When the kid eagerly agreed, Tony flashed him a dubious look. But Peter just smiled and shrugged his shoulders in return. Then took off towards where Clint, Sam, and Steve were gathered together, unloading several packages.
“This is so cool,” Peter said as held up one of the larger glittering fountains and turned it over in his hands. “I didn’t think these were legal in New York.” He’d, of course, seen grand displays before and he’d played with sparklers as a kid. However, neither of those things was quite the same as setting off rockets and mortars yourself.
“They’re not,” Sam said as he flicked the lighter a few times, making a roar to life. “Unless, of course, you happen to have the necessary permit. Which we do- so stop worrying about it,” he added and then lit a generous handful of colorful sparklers all at once.
They started slowly, with some ground spinners, smoke bombs, and Roman candles. When those ran out, they moved on to some novelty fireworks and a few aerial repeaters. Peter was fascinated by all of it and at some point, had even managed to beckon Tony over to join them.
Though eventually, the supply of tame pyrotechnics ran dry and Clint began unboxing the larger explosives. “This was all fun and good,” the archer said, already setting up a collection of mortars and dropping the shells inside. “But I think it’s time we break out the big boys.” Then he leaned down to ignite the fuse, waving for everyone to take a step back in the process.
The shell propelled into the moonlit sky, leaving a bright yellow trail blazing behind it before bursting into a brilliant green sphere. “Oh wow! They’re amazing!” Peter shouted as he allowed his hands to drop from his ears back down to his sides. “They’re really loud, though.”
Tony agreed with a shrug and then looked over his shoulder towards the tables where the majority of the group sat. “Yeah, why don’t we go sit over there while they take turns playing rocket man?” he delicately suggested. “You’ll still be able to see. It’ll just be quieter.”
“I’m okay, Mr. Stark, really. I can just cover my ears. It’s fine,” Peter said, doing just that, as the next few fireworks were sent rocketing above them.
“Suit yourself,” Tony said and then wandered off, leaving Peter with Clint, Sam, Steve, and a hefty supply of shells.
With each blast came a round of cheers and by the time their supply had dwindled down to practically nothing, it was already nearing midnight. “This is the last one, want to do the honors?” Clint asked, holding the lighter out for the youngest participant to take.
Peter willingly accepted the invitation and kneeled down beside the mortar. “Five, four, three, two, one and-” he said, lighting the long fuse and then stepping back to cover his ears. However, when the spark fizzled out of sight and wasn’t followed by the shell erupting into the night, he took a tentative step forward. “What happened?”
“Probably a dud,” Clint said, coming forward and tapping the tube with his foot.
As the man’s shoe made contact with mortar, Peter’s spider-senses flared painfully at the back of his neck and his reflexes took over. He ran at maximum speed, towards the perceived danger and shoved Clint away from it with more strength than he’d meant to use. That had sent him to the ground with an audible ‘oof’ and Clint flying towards Steve who caught him adeptly.
At that same moment Peter tried scrambling to his feet as his body was screaming at him to do, but it was too late. He barely had time to get his knees beneath him before the shell exploded beside him, a sharp pain shot through his ears and the world around him went completely white. He clasped the sides of his head tightly, hardly able to breathe through the intensity of it, and squeezed his eyes shut.
For a few long seconds, there was no sound at all, as if he’d been transported into the vacuum of space. And then, all at once, it returned in the form of a high-pitched tone.
After a few seconds, when the initial burst of pain began to ease into a relentless ache, he cracked his eyes open to find Tony no more than six inches from his face. He could see his mouth moving, but he couldn’t hear what he was saying over the ringing. When he tried to tell him such, he realized he couldn’t hear himself either and took in a harsh breath. Then, in his distress, he let go of his head and took hold of the man’s shirt instead. As he did so, Tony’s eyes momentarily widened before going back to their average size. However, it was just long enough for Peter to recognize something was very wrong.
Still leaning onto his mentor’s chest, he reached up to touch his earlobe and then drew it back to find a small amount of blood smeared across his fingers. He hastily wiped it off on his shorts and attempted to investigate the other side but Tony grabbed his hand and squeezed it tightly. That was enough to get his attention and when he looked up he realized everyone had since gathered around him. Though, his mentor appeared to be doing a valiant job of keeping them back far enough to give him some space.
When he turned back towards Tony, he realized that the man had begun speaking again. He could see his lips were moving slowly and deliberately but he still couldn't hear him. He thought he recognized the words ‘Medical ’ and ‘Docto r’ but he didn’t really have time to decide before he was being pulled to his feet. The movement made his head swim and his knees buckle beneath him. He probably would have toppled over completely had Steve not rushed in to take up his other side. However, even with the added support, he couldn’t seem to get his feet to cooperate.
The walk to Medical was slow paced, with the two men taking on the majority of his weight, and Peter was grateful when he was finally being lowered onto a bed. He hoped the dizziness would stop when he did but he only had a few moments of still before Dr. Banner’s pinched face was hovering above his.
“I’m going to look in your ears,” Bruce said, waving the otoscope he was holding in the kid’s field of vision.
Peter creased his brow and tried to take in the man’s words, but there was nothing to focus on outside of the tonal noise that seemed to be coming from inside of his own head. “I can’t- I can’t hear you,” he strained, perhaps a little too loudly, if Bruce’s reaction was anything to go by. But being as he was unable to hear himself he was having difficulty gauging his own volume.
The man stepped away, returning seconds later with a small whiteboard in his hands. Peter read the words, ‘ I’m going to look in your ears ’ and tentatively nodded his head. Bruce tapped his jaw to encourage him to rotate his head to the side and he compiled. Though his entire body tensed up with anticipation. While the severity of the pain had lessened slightly, he was afraid that the probing was going to renew it. And with that in mind, grabbed the side rail of the bed so tightly that it was sure to warp as he closed his eyes.
Bruce made quick work of checking Peter’s ears and then began jotting down questions on the whiteboard. Starting with ‘ What is your pain level? ’ and then completed the exam with a few quick hearing tests.
As he responded to each question, Peter looked around the room. Tony had walked out shortly after they had arrived. And even though he knew he likely had more urgent things to dwell on, the lack of his mentor’s presence was bothering him. He was starting to get concerned that the man was upset with him. Especially since he’d tried luring him away from the fireworks multiple times throughout the evening. “Where’s Mr. Stark?” he ultimately worked up the nerve to ask and his answer came in the form of blue holographic letters appearing before his eyes. ‘I’m right here, Underoos ,’ he read to himself and then jerked his head to the side, relieved to see Tony standing in the doorway.
After that, the conversation carried on mostly between the adults, as they discussed his injuries. Though he was able to keep up, thanks to the ‘Captions Protocol’ that Tony had quickly thrown together, the moment it had become necessary. It seemed that the high decibels emitted from the explosion had perforated both of his eardrums, along with a few other things that he didn’t precisely understand. Yet lacked the capacity to question. Though it had mostly boiled down to tinnitus and temporary hearing loss. Temporary. He tried focusing on that word, in particular, in hopes that it would make the others sound less intimidating. But it didn’t help much. Not when his head was throbbing and he was having to read the conversation that was taking place right in front of him.
“How long will it take for him to get his hearing back?” Tony asked, careful to mask his outward concern with curiosity. He didn’t know if it had been Intentional or not, but he’d heard the kid audibly shudder at the diagnosis. And he couldn’t really say he blamed him. Peter was enhanced and used to his hearing being dialed up to eleven. Having it suddenly muted was probably an arduous adjustment.
Bruce pressed his lips together in thought before releasing a tired breath. “I don’t know, Tony,” he admitted, his eyes falling momentarily on Peter, who was looking at him with a peculiar combination of trepidation and hope. ”Typically, I would say up to a month or more but with his healing factor it’s hard to tell. It could be a few days or as many as a couple of weeks. We’ll just have to keep an eye on it.”
Questions dwindled after that. Medication was prescribed, a recheck was set up for the following afternoon and eventually, Bruce finally collected his things. Thus leaving Tony and Peter alone in the exam room.
“Alright, Pete,” Tony said, the moment Bruce had stepped out. “We’re going upstairs, giving you some pain meds, and putting you to bed, okay?”
“Okay,” Peter replied, once he’d quickly read the words before him. Sleep sounded good. Pain meds sounded even better.
Once they had made it upstairs, Peter made a wobbly attempt at getting himself ready for bed. He had to sit at the edge of his mattress to get his pajama bottoms on. But had just managed to get them in place just in time for Tony to return. Bottle of water and pain medication in hand.
Peter swallowed the pills without question and then laid his head gingerly onto his pillows. Tony patted his leg and told him good-night, and then he rolled over onto this side. However, he quickly realized that the sleep he was in want of wasn’t going to come as easily as he’d hoped. While the ringing in his ears had become nothing more than background noise, he couldn't hear anything else and it was unnerving.
After the spider bite, when he’d become enhanced, his hearing had become so sensitive that he’d been able to pick up every little noise. So much so that he’d had to learn how to tune things out in order to focus on the most relevant sounds. But at the moment there was nothing. He couldn’t hear his mentor as he walked leisurely around the penthouse mumbling to himself. He couldn’t hear the wind blowing through the trees just outside of his widow or the soft snores of Pepper who was asleep in the room across the hall. He couldn’t even hear the hum of the air conditioner that he knew was running. He’d never realized how heavily he relied on the familiar cacophony until it was no longer there, making it difficult to sleep.
Almost an hour later, he was utterly exhausted and his ears still ached despite the pain medication. But every time he tried shutting his eyes, the darkness seemed to amplify the silence. That alone caused anxiety to settle in his chest. If anything were to happen, he’d never know. He couldn’t hear the alarms and if his eyes were closed he wouldn’t be able to see any kind of messages either. Worse, he wasn’t even sure his spider-senses would be able to properly function under the circumstances. They had never tested it. There had been no reason to. However, the more he thought about it, the more quick and shallow his breaths became. Though, he’d not really considered how upset he’d become until Tony walked into the room.
“Hey, Kid. Why are you still awake?” Tony probed. He’d asked FRIDAY if Peter was asleep and had been surprised to find out that he wasn’t. With his metabolism being what it was, they'd given him enough pain medication to instantly knock out a raging hippopotamus.
Yet, as he made it farther into the room, he could see the kid’s genuine distress. “What’s wrong, Buddy? Still hurt?”
Peter followed the words before him and vigorously shook his head. “I can’t hear you. I can’t hear anything !” he shouted, as he tried to blink away the spots that had formed in his vision with the motion.
“That’s going to get better. You just need to sleep it off. Let your healing factor do its thing,” Tony attempted to assure but the kid looked far from mollified.
“I can’t! I can’t sleep. It’s too quiet. And when I close my eyes-” Peter began, pausing to gather a few deep breaths. “I’m not used to it, Mr. Stark. And it’s-” He didn’t want to say it was scary, for fear of sounding petulant. But he didn’t know how else to accurately describe it. So he simply didn’t. “I don’t like it, Mr. Stark.”
Tony sighed and tiredly ran a hand across his face. “What can I do to help, Kiddo?”
“I don’t know,” Peter said around the painful lump in his throat.
“Mind if I sit with you?” Tony asked and when Peter shook his head and scooted over to make room, he awkwardly took a seat beside him. “Okay. Well, how about we try this, hmm?” He gently nudged Peter so that he was laying on his stomach and then placed his hand heavily onto his back. When there was no protest, he began to rub firm circles over the kid’s shirt, hoping to ground him. Maybe make up for the loss of one enhanced sense by doubling down on another. It seemed to be working. He could feel the boy relaxing under his touch, but when he looked down, there were still two big brown eyes blinking back at him.
“Is this not helping? We can try something else,” Tony suggested, hoping he’d not overstepped any sort of boundaries. Though in reality, he wasn’t sure what else there was to try.
“It’s helping but- can you maybe, scratch my head instead?” Peter sheepishly requested. That had been the way his aunt and uncle would put him to sleep as a small child. Because of that, he’d always associated that kind of touch with reassurance and care.
Tony chuckled at the request. But since the noise didn’t register as language, it wasn’t projected. However, Peter could feel the vibration and that combined with the man’s fingers in his hair was soothing. Just knowing that Tony was in the room made him feel significantly safer and as such, he managed to finally fall asleep within minutes.
The next morning, Peter woke up to a soft muffled voice saying something that sounded like it could be his name. He reacted accordingly and turned towards the noise to find Tony, looking pleased that he’d elicited a response.
“Can you hear me, Buddy?” Tony asked but when the kid gave him a quizzical look, he quickly reinstated the ‘Captions Protocol’. “Can you hear anything?”
“Sort of,” Peter unsurely replied. “It’s like- It's like I’m underwater or something. I can hear you, but I can’t tell what you’re saying.”
“Good. That’s good. That’s an improvement,” Tony said, feeling far more confident than Peter looked. Though he supposed that was reasonable. He wasn’t the one who was healing. “How’s the pain this morning?”
Peter shrugged his shoulders. “I’ll be okay.” It still hurt but it was far more manageable than it had been the night before. He really didn’t want to take any more pain medication if he could help it. He didn't particularly like the way it made him feel and tried to dodge it when he could. He hoped the man wouldn't push.
Once he’d finished typing into his phone, Tony looked the kid over with scrutiny. He knew that Peter tended to downplay how much pain he was in. However, when the kid didn’t look terribly uncomfortable, he opted to believe him. His healing factor was obviously doing its job quickly. “We’ll go to see Banner later so that he can take a look at you.”
Peter nodded politely and ducked his head when he felt his stomach rumble. He didn’t need to have impeccable hearing to know that it had been loud enough for his mentor to hear. When he peeked upward, he could see the man laughing. “Can I have breakfast now, Mr. Stark?” he asked.
“Of course, you can have breakfast now,” Tony scoffed and then turned towards the door. “You get up and get ready for the day. I'm going to make us something to eat.”
Being as it was a Monday, Pepper had to go to work. That meant the moment breakfast was over, she’d kissed her husband on the lips and ruffled the teenager’s hair before leaving the two of them on their own. Normally that would mean going down to the lab, but Peter wasn’t feeling up to it and Tony wasn’t willing to leave the kid to mope all day. So they sat on the couch and watched familiar movies with the captions playing on the illuminated screen.
Sometime after lunch, they went down to medical where Bruce took a quick look in Peter’s ears. That was followed up by a few repeated tests from the night before. But things were progressing favorably.
“I’ve never seen anything like it. This should have taken weeks- maybe even months to recover,” Bruce said, shaking his head in considerable awe. “But I’m willing to bet that everything will be as good as new by tomorrow.”
The ringing in Peter’s ears persisted throughout the day. However, by evening it was virtually indistinguishable from the other sounds within the penthouse. It still felt odd to not be able to singularly focus on Tony’s heartbeat or the light murmuring of the building's other occupants but he was happy to no longer need FRIDAY’s assistance to grasp what was being said to him. But it still wasn’t quite the same as it had been before. For a moment he sat there and tried to recall what it was like to not have enhanced senses.
“Do you think my hearing will come back, Mr. Stark?” Peter eventually asked. “To the way it was before, I mean.”
“Banner seems to think so,” Tony replied with a flourish of his hand followed by a soft smile. “And I trust his judgment. Don’t you?”
Peter nodded his head and pulled his bottom lip between his teeth. “You know, when I first got my powers, it was super overwhelming. But now. Now I don't think I could ever go back to not having them. It’s weird to be unable to hear literally everything. Like, I’ve gotten really used to being able to do things like, hear the heartbeats of people around me,” he said, his cheeks pinkening a bit as he spoke.
“You can hear heartbeats ?” Tony asked, with a quirk of his brow. He’d known the kid had an acute sense of hearing, but he’d not realized it was to that extent.
“Yeah,” Peter easily replied. “And I can tell which one is yours because it skips a beat every so often.”
“Kid,” Tony uncharacteristically stammered. “Exactly how sensitive is your hearing?”
“Right now? Not very,” Peter grumbled and then sighed as he leaned back onto the couch cushions.
Tony moved his hand from where it had been stretched out across the back of the couch, allowing it to fall onto the boy’s shoulder and pulled him into a firm side-hug. He couldn’t say he completely understood the situation the boy was in. But he could certainly empathize.
For a few minutes, Peter remained where he was, pressed into his mentor's side. But the moment the sitcom ended and the credits began to roll, he ducked out from under the man’s arm. “I’m going to bed, Mr. Stark,” he mumbled as he stood up and brushed a few popcorn crumbs off of his shirt.
Despite the early hour, Tony didn’t argue. They had all been up late the night before and then he’d woken the kid up early to check on him. Between that and the fact that he was still healing it was easy to assume the boy was probably exhausted. He sincerely hoped that enough of his hearing had returned for him to be able to actually sleep. Which had him hesitantly asking, “Will you be okay, Kiddo?”
With The abrupt reminder of his juvenile behavior the night before, Peter blushed and nodded his head. “I’ll be fine, I swear,” he said. “But um- thanks for last night, Mr. Stark. It was- nice .”
“Not a big deal, Bud. You were upset, and I’m just glad I could help you,” Tony replied and then brought himself to stand as well. “I’ll be in the lab if you need me, alright? Just let FRIDAY know, and I’ll be right up.”
Peter agreed but not before pointing out that it wouldn’t be necessary and went into his bedroom. It was still far more quiet than he would have liked but leaving the bathroom fan on helped significantly. Correspondingly, he was able to fall asleep fairly quickly.
The next morning, Peter woke up bombarded by the unmistakable sounds of Tony cooking breakfast. He could hear the man humming to himself over the sizzle of the pan and Pepper moving around the penthouse. But more so, when he closed his eyes, he could easily pick out the distinct sound of his mentor’s slightly arithmetic heartbeat and sighed in relief.
“Hey, Kiddo,” Tony cheerily greeted when the kid came into the kitchen smiling ear to ear. “Feeling better I presume?”
“I can hear you ,” Peter replied, knowing that the man would decipher the underlying message.
“That’s great, Buddy. I knew Banner wouldn’t steer us wrong,” Tony chuckled as he slid a plate full of eggs across the bar towards the kid.
Peter hummed around a mouthful of food and nodded his head. “But, you know. I have brand-new respect for fireworks, and I don’t think I like them nearly as much anymore,” he said with a grin. Though he wasn’t sure that was exactly accurate. He still liked looking at them. He merely lacked the desire to ever be the one setting them off again.
“Good to hear. Because I’ve already barred them from the property. Permit or not,” Tony shot back without missing a beat. The entire team had already been thoroughly informed about the newest injunction and surprisingly, no one had protested.
“I mean, they are still pretty to look at, Mr. Stark,” Peter amended slightly. “I just don’t want to be the one igniting them.”
Tony hummed and nodded his head. “Yes, well, you can look at them all you want, on the television.”
“Oh come on! What about the professional shows they do in the city?” Peter protested, laughing appreciatively at the man’s overly protective stance.
After some thought, Tony squinted his eyes and pointed an accusatory finger towards the kid’s nose. “Fine, but only from a cautious distance. We have to protect the spider-baby’s ears.”
Peter rolled his eyes at the nickname but didn’t disagree. Because watching from a so-called 'cautious distance' was good enough for him.