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“May, it’s not your fault.” Tony tried to reason for the hundredth time.
A mean sort of snort left May’s mouth as she scowled. “It is Tony, it is. And your platitudes aren’t gonna change that.”
Oof. Parkers got feisty when they felt guilty.
“I knew he wasn’t feeling well in the first place, I should never have left him.”
“You and I both know he has an unreasonable amount of maturity for his age and leaving him alone before has never been an issue.”
A small little snort from the kid lying between them made both of them pause their harried whispered conversation for a moment before continuing.
“Well it was this time.” May grumpily pointed out.
“No one could have known his fever would spike!” Tony said, his voice raising enough in his frustration to receive an added death glare from Aunt May.
“I’m his Not Mom, I should have known.” May quietly said.
Tony’s sad eyes watched the overwhelmed woman in front of him break herself down and hold herself to impossible standards.
They were more alike than Tony originally thought.
“Yeah, well. I’m his Not Dad, so if you’re responsible so am I.”
Both the Not Parents seemed to have exhausted their arguing points for the hour. They sat back in their chairs, remaining at the bedside of one Peter Parker, disaster child.
——
Peter felt prickly, like his skin had been sanded down with rough paper and then sprinkled with rock dust.
It was uncomfortable.
And confusing.
Wait, why did he feel so gross? What was going on?
“Roo? You with us?” A muffled voice asked.
He was Roo! That’s one question answered.
“Mmph.” Peter decided to say, not completely invested in talking but gave it a try. Maybe he’d try opening his eyes next.
The feeling of a hand appeared and it started swiping hypnotically through his hair.
“Mmm.”
A little laugh came from over his head.
“You gonna wake up a little more, Baby or you gonna fall back asleep?” Another voice asked. It was such a soothing voice. It was nice. It made Peter feel like everything was so calm and warm and maybe a little fuzzy too but the happy kind. It made him forget all about the prickles that were annoying him to start with.
A little kiss was smacked onto his forehead, making Peter’s nose crinkle adorably in response.
A little more laughter.
Time to sleep.
—-
“Peeeeete, Petey, you have to wake upppp, otherwise your stomach is going to devour us allll.” Tony sang obnoxiously, causing a little laugh to escape May.
Couldn’t they see Peter was perfectly content NOT being awake and bothered right now?
“Ooh, grump kid has some attitude.” Tony teased.
Peter’s eyes popped open. Oops.
“Yeah, oops. Hearing the inner workings of a teenager boy’s mind is a nightmare in itself.”
“Itself?” Peter echoed, trying to catch on to all the words being said but really they just felt like a bunch of sounds being strung together.
Again, why was he so muddled?
He was however aware enough to see the brief glance of something cross Tony’s face as he looked behind Peter at something.
Curiosity got the better of him and he decided he would shove what little energy he had into the movement of rolling over.
And he was not disappointed.
“M-May!” Peter happily greeted, momentarily distracted from the bubbling irritation he felt within his body at its lack of coordination or desire to listen.
“Hi honey. How are you?” May asked, leaning forward to rest her hand on Peter’s sleepy face.
“M’fine. Why you?”
May sent a little eye roll in Tony's direction at hearing the man laugh at the kid’s incoherence.
“We’re all fine. But we want you to stay that way so you’re going to have to sit up and try some soup for us, okay?”
Peter’s eyebrows scrunched together. “I can sit up.” Peter explained like it was a brand new fact.
“Okay, why don’t you show us how.” May encouraged, moving her hand to rest on Peter’s shoulder, there and ready to offer support if needed. Thankfully she had many years of nursing experience that helped her remain calm in what most people felt like was an unsettling environment.
Tony watched the pair closely as he fiddled with the tray he was preparing for Peter. He unfolded the foil on top of the soup and opened the juice, adding a straw to it.
With a mighty sigh, Peter was sitting upright and only leaning sideways a little.
Bursts of black and white sparkled in Peter’s eyes with the change of position but they seemed to right themselves after a moment.
When he opened his eyes he found Tony, May, and a bowl of soup staring him in the face.
“Eat soup?”
“Yeah sweetheart, let’s eat some soup.”
“Then nap?”
“Yeah Buddy. Then you can nap.”
—-
“I thought he was getting better!” Tony hollered over the rush of people filling into the med bay room.
“He was, he IS,” Cho corrected, “fever spikes aren’t uncommon when fighting an infection Tony, you know that.”
“A fever so bad it causes him to have a freakin’ seizure?!”
“Tony,” May tried to calm the man down although she herself felt completely unraveled. Of course getting little to no sleep the past four days wasn’t helping either of them as they obsessively fussed over Peter.
“For someone without enhanced genes, yes, it would be concerning. But with Peter’s metabolism being as high as it is, it can cause sudden and more severe symptoms for a shorter amount of time. He’s fine, guys. We’ll rerun his labs, put him on a monitored cooling protocol, continue his IV fluids and go from there.”
May nodded in understanding. That makes sense, those are things she would do for her patients. It made sense. It was fine. It was all fine.
“Why don’t you guys step out, go get some water, and freshen up while we get Peter sorted?”
It was posed as a question, but entoned as a friendly demand.
Tony’s shoulders deflated and May’s would have if they could any further.
“Twenty minutes, guys. That’s all I ask.”
—
“Mmmph, feel weird.” Peter mumbled when he felt like he was as close as possible to breaking through the foggy surface of his mind as body.
“Shh, it’s okay. You’re sick but we’re taking care of you.” Tony murmured, wrapping his hand around Peter’s, holding it firmly.
“Want, want Benji.”
Tony’s eyes scrunched together, not having heard that name before but looking up at May when she cooed.
“Aww Baby. Benji isn’t here, but maybe Tony has a different stuffed animal here.” May said, connecting eyes with Tony who easily got the picture.
“One amazing top of the line stuffie coming up. Whatcha feeling Pete? A zebra, an otter, a unicorn?” Tony asked with a dazzling smile, trying his absolute best to keep the atmosphere as light as possible.
“I’on man.”
“What was that buddy?”
“Iron man.”
May didn’t mention it when tears formed in Tony’s eyes.
But oh would it be fun to tease him about it later.
—-
The next time Peter woke up, he felt a bit more clear in the head than he had been feeling, however he was in no rush to open his eyes. He knew from the arms wrapped around him and the lingering scent of a comforting cologne that Tony was lying with him.
A smile tugged at Peter’s mouth as he snuggled down further into the man’s hold, the sound of snoring in his ear telling him the man was asleep. Peter hummed in contentness but noticed an irritating pull coming from his wrist.
His eyes popped up and found an IV line sticking out from his wrist which would mean, yup, he was in the Med Bay.
It was weird; he wasn’t sure what day it was or how he got here but he had blurry swirling memories of the last however long that instinctively told him he already knew he was in MedBay.
Now that the work of opening his eyes had been done he decided to look around the room a bit more. Rumpled blankets were strewn across more than one chair, a vase of flowers looked like they were on their last leg, and food crumbs and wrappers littered the bedside table and tray.
Okay, so apparently he’d been here a little while.
So where was-
“May?” Peter croaked, brown furrowing as he worked to clear his throat. He looked further around the room when his ears caught the pneumatic whoosh of the door sliding open.
“Pete! You’re up.” May said as she entered the room with Pepper at her side.
“‘re those Harry Potter ‘jamas?” Was the first thing Peter asked, noticing the matching set the gals were wearing.
Their soft laughter made Peter feel better.
“They’re Pepper’s. She let me borrow a pair of pajamas since I didn’t feel like making another trip to the apartment. Plus who doesn’t love Harry Potter?”
“Hate the author, love the books.” Pepper said confidently as she plopped into one of the chairs next to Peter’s bed, May taking the chair next to hers.
“How are you feeling Sweetheart?” May asked with warm focused eyes making Peter feel like he was worth the entire world to her.
“Fine. My wrist though…” He said, pulling his hand up to show the pair the annoying IV, as if they hadn’t seen it before.
“I know,” May tutted in sympathy, “You were so dehydrated they had trouble getting a line. They tried your elbows and the back of your hands.”
“Ew.” Peter said, staring at the tubing taped onto the underside of his wrist.
Pepper and May laughed quietly.
And then Tony snorted himself awake from a particularly loud snore.
Causing everyone to laugh again but a little louder.
“Wassat, what?” Tony grumbled as he awoke, trying to sit up but unable to. He opened his eyes and remembered how he crawled into Peter’s bed the night before, just wanting to hold his son close and take away his pain. Tony looked up and found Pepper and May laughing, probably at him.
“What’s goin’ on here? Having a party without me?” Tony asked, regaining some clarity and tossing an unimpressed eyebrow the pair’s way.
“Mmno, you’re invited Mister Stark.”
“Peter, you’re awake! Hi Buddy.” Tony greeted excitedly, not even knowing the boy he had his arms wrapped around was awake but received a squeeze back in acknowledgement that he was. “How long have you been up?”
“Not sure. Don’t even know what day it is.” Peter admitted, quickly realizing again that he had lost an unknown amount of time which meant he was probably falling way behind in school, and oh gosh Ned probably thought he was dead, and and what about patrol?? Or bills. Did he pay bills this month? Is it even the same month?!
“Peter! Take a breath hun.”
“You don’t have any bills to pay, Sweetheart. You’re a teenager.”
“And I’d pay them anyways.”
“Tony! Now is not the-“
“You are really something el-“
“Guys!” Peter’s voice broke through the conversation, “what’s going on?” He finally thought to ask.
Tony moved to slide out from behind Peter but as soon as he started to, Peter quickly caught his arms and pulled them back over his chest. “No! Don’t go!”
“Aww, Buddy. I was just gonna move so you could see my face when I’m talking to ya.” Tony gently explained but allowed himself to be wrapped around Peter.
“No.” Peter pouted, laying his head back against Tony’s chest with a little more insistent pressure.
“Okay, okay. I was just gonna explain.” Tony said, wiggling one of his hands free from Peter’s to brush his fingers through the boy’s mopey curls. “I don’t know what you remember but last Thursday you came home from school not feeling well. You were at the apartment resting for the evening but you took a turn pretty quickly. Helen says it’s cuz of your metabolism; when you get sick now, you get hit hard and fast.” Tony trailed off as his words were sinking in.
The newly discovered ramifications of Peter’s enhancements terrified Tony to no end. He was a mechanic, he knew how to invent and how to defend but when it came to the squishy sciences he was completely out of his element. How could he protect Peter from his own body?
Maybe it was time to get another PhD…
“And what day is it now?” Peter asked, unknowingly pulling Tony from his dower thoughts.
“It’s Wednesday afternoon.” May answered, preparing to deal with the panic Peter would surely feel from being out of commission almost a week.
“And…and I’m fine now?” Peter asked, slightly surprising May but pleasantly so.
“It seems like it Roos. Cho checked you this morning and you’re fever broke late last night. You’re fluids and nutrients are trying to play catch up still, hence the IV, but otherwise your immune response has significantly calmed down.”
“You sound like a doctor.” Peter said, absently dragging his pointer finger in random patterns over Tony’s knuckles.
“Not that kind of doctor, Kid.” Not yet
.
“Thank heavens too. Can you imagine Tony trying to fix himself up instead of actually seeing a doctor?” Pepper groaned.
“Hey! It wouldn’t be all bad! Then May and I could work together.” Tony said with a smirk.
“As if.” May said with an eye roll, making Peter laugh.
“Now that is a sound I’ve missed.” Tony said, leaning his cheek against the top of Peter’s head, soaking up the closeness and the consciousness of the boy while he had it.
“Well I’m not going anywhere.” Peter reassured. “Although I wouldn’t say no to the shower room. I feel disgusting.”
“I think that can be arranged.” Tony confirmed, glancing up to Pepper and May.
Pepper nodded and stood up, leaning over Peter to give Tony a quick kiss before Peter got one to his forehead.
“I’ll go grab some towels,” Pepper explained. “If you need anything that these two knuckleheads won’t give you, just ask Friday to get me alright?”
Peter smiled at the grumbling from his parents.
“Yes ma’am.”
“Perfect.”
Tony scoffed. “As if we wouldn’t burn down the world for you, Peter Parker.”
“No burning please.”
“Deal.”
“But how about a puppy?”
Tony and May grumbled again.