Chapter Text
"Hey kiddo, it's time to wake up" Peter heard a familiar voice say.
Peter peeled open his eyes.
"Aunt May!" He shouted, jumping out of bed to give her a hug. As he wrapped his arms around her, a wave of dizziness shot through him, and his vision started to turn black.
May noticed something wrong, and held him firmly upright, until the black faded, and he could stand on his own.
"Sorry, dizzy spell." His aunt nodded, understanding, filling her eyes.
"I'm sorry I haven't been here Peter, I wanted to be out of there, but then this emergency surgery, and then a power outage happened in eastern Brooklyn, and so those hospitals needed our help, and it was just a really chaotic few days. I was only here for a bit, and we didn’t want to wake you if it wasn’t necessary. I’m off for the next few day though, and I’m planning on taking a leave to help out. Still, I'm sorry buddy."
"It's alright May!! Thankfully I've got Mr. Stark here, he's been super super helpful!" He smiled, not wanting his aunt to feel guilty for doing her job, the one that kept him well fed, and well, alive.
"How are you feeling now? Tony said that you burn out pretty quickly." May asked, flicking off the ceiling light, and turning his bedside lamp on instead. She took a seat on the side of his bed. And patted beside her, where Peter then sat down.
"I’m feeling okay, I've got a bit of a headache, but it's not too bad!! I think I'm getting better!" Peter said.
May squinted at him, her eyebrows furrowed together.
"What?!" Peter asked in confusion.
"Nothing nothing. Just don't think we're speeding up the process of anything." May responded. Peter groaned, putting his head in his hands.
"Why not?” He whined, “I'm a superhero, a little bump to the head shouldn't stop me!"
"Peter, you were hit with an alien weapon. If that isn't an excuse, I don't know what is."
Peter was about to reply with more frustration when his aunt spoke before he could.
"You've got people waiting for you. I'll go get them before you're all burnt out, and we can talk about this later." May stood up, and left the room, leaving a confused Peter.
"Hey FRIDAY?"
"Yes Peter?" The AI responded.
"What's the day of the week?"
"It is Thursday, Peter."
"Huh." He said out loud. Did his friends catch the bus all the way from Midtown to the tower, just to get the possibility of speaking to him? Besides, Ned had coding club today, and MJ was working.
The door then opened slowly, and Peter's mouth fell open at who was standing in the door.
Sure he'd worked with them a few times, fought alongside them even. He'd even fought some, but thankfully they had worked that all out.
He'd practiced, and trained with them more than a few times.
He'd even had the lucky occurrence of being invited to a movie night.
But even after the many times he'd met them, he'd never have expected the Avengers to be visiting him when he had gotten a concussion.
He still couldn't even speak around half of them normally, and yet, they were standing in his doorframe.
Waiting for something…
Ohhhhh they probably wanted to be invited in.
"Uh hey, c'mon in." Peter squeaked. He adjusted himself to be facing where they all gathered.
And there were more of them than he thought.
Mr. Stark trailed them all, not even trying to hide the grin on his face.
When he saw Peter's slightly agape mouth he winked at him.
That snapped Peter back. He shut his mouth, and stared back at all of the superheroes in his bedroom.
“Hey Peter, we thought we’d bring you a little something to cheer you up!” Dr. Bruce Banner said to him.
It still shocked Peter that all the Avengers knew his name. Peter cringed at the memory of when he first met the doctor.
Mr. Stark, of course, had surprised him on an internship day. They had gone to a different floor than usual because Mr. Stark had “accidently released a poisonous gas” earlier that day, and didn’t want to risk anything despite Peter's strengthened immune system.
Peter still remembered the first time he had seen the doctor, he’d nearly burst into tears, and then rambled on for hours about Dr. Bruce Banner's work.
Peter admittedly had seen a few tears, but he didn’t want to make him feel bad, so he continued to ramble.
While he’d been working, he later heard Bruce telling Tony that “all they ever cared about was Hulk, never his science abilities”.
Ever since Peter had made it a habit to always mention science, rather than Hulk around him, even if that was what he would do already.
Bruce stepped forward, holding a gift basket, wrapped in clear plastic.
"We made you this, and filled it with things you can use in your recovery!" Steve Rogers said.
Holy crap, Captain America had made a gift basket…FOR HIM.
Peter stared blankly at the basket, before Dr. Banner shoved it in his arms. Peter blinked trying to focus on what was happening, and not the excitement filling him up.
Peter looked at the carefully wrapped present, trying to decipher what was in it, without messing any of it up.
“Well… are you gonna open it?” Mr. Barton asked, grinning. Peter smiled back and carefully unwrapped the gift.
“We know how tough it is to be injured on a mission, and how upsetting it can be.” Ms. Romanoff said, giving Peter a slight smile.
“Especially when you are enhanced.” Mr. Rogers added on, “but just because you can do more than others physically, doesn’t mean you don’t need a break from time to time.”
“Yeah, take the break now so you can get up on your feet later!” Mr. Wilson said. “If you avoid it now, it’s going to have to be a much longer break.”
“I put some colouring books in there, so when you are bored, but symptomatic, you can work on those.” Ms. Romanoff said. “Whenever I’m stressed, those are my favourite, so I thought they’d help.”
Peter pulled out two colouring books from the back of the box, and began to flip through them. One had a bunch of patterns, and the other was superhero themed. He spotted a huge Spider-man on the one page and grinned.
“Thank you so much Ms. Romanoff!” Peter said, still flipping through the pages.
She laughed, “You can call me Nat, Peter, I think we’ve known each other long enough.”
“Believe me Nat, I’ve been trying to get him to stop with the Mr. Stark thing for ages, but he doesn’t listen.” Mr. Stark said, shaking his head.
Peter smiled at them both, “Sorry! It’s just habit.”
They both smiled back, not able to be mad at the kid for long.
Peter began to rummage through the package again, when they started speaking up, saying what they had contributed to the box.
“I added some decaffeinated tea, and a Star Wars mug, to help you calm down and let yourself relax.” Dr. Banner said. Peter had nearly melted at the fact that his childhood idol (besides Mr. Stark of course) had remembered Peter’s obsession with Star Wars, along with the fact that he wasn’t allowed caffeine.
“I added a journal,” Mr. Wilson told Peter. “ I don’t know how long you’ll be out for, but I’m betting it will take a toll on your mental health. And journaling is proven to help.”
“I made some cookies.” Mr. Barnes said. Peter would have laughed if he had been told the Winter Soldier liked to bake, if he hadn’t seen it himself. But after seeing it with his own eyes, Peter couldn’t think of any other hobby that suited him.
“I got you this book.” Mr. Rogers said, “It was my absolute favourite when I was your age. I’m surprised it’s still around. I know you probably can’t read at the moment, but I thought your aunt, or Tony or something could read it to you.” Peter smiled, he vaguely recognized the name, but couldn’t place from where.
“I got you the stuffed dinosaur.” Mr. Barton said. “I don’t really know why, it just looked cute, and I thought you’d like it.”
Peter looked up from grinning at the dinosaur, like a toddler, to see Mr. Barton getting jabbed in the stomach from Mr. Wilson.
“Owww” Mr. Barton whined.
“You were supposed to come up with a good reason, not just ‘it looked cute’! What about it will bring you comfort when you’re lonely, or it’s nice to cuddle when you sleep.” Mr. Wilson sighed.
“Huh, I guess so,” Mr. Barton agreed, “But, it was really cute.”
Peter nodded his head, grinning widely at the superhero, “I love it Mr. Barton! He’s so cute!”
“Oh god! You call me Mr. Barton in your head?! Please never again, it’s just Clint” Mr. Bart-Clint said, sounding disgusted.
The rest of the Avengers laughed at Mr. B-Clints tone, because clearly, he wasn’t used to Peter’s manners yet.
“Alright, we should probably get going.” Mr. Rogers said once the laughing died down, “We don’t want to burn you out completely.”
Peter smiled, only really noticing his symptoms now they were pointed out. As much as he loved the Avengers, he just wanted to fall asleep in his own bed.
They all filed out, leaving Mr. Stark behind. The room instantly felt better, with less people.
“So, did you like your visit?” Mr. Stark said smiling, pulling Peter’s desk chair up to the bed. He picked up the unwrapped gift, and placed it on Peter’s desk before sitting down. Peter shimmied under the covers, and looked up at Mr. Stark.
“Yes! I can’t believe they remembered all that about me!” He said excitedly.
Mr. Stark smiled. “I thought you’d want to see them before you headed back home.”
“Of course! It was so cool.” Peter smiled as he closed his eyes, happy to know that people cared about him, even if they didn’t really have to.