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Peter knew that it was going to be a bad day when he woke up in the morning, a headache was building behind his eyes. It felt eery like a migraine, which he hoped this wouldn’t evolve to be. Despite being Spider-Man it seemed that migraines still happened.
Doctor Banner, the last time they spoke, mentioned that the bite had altered a lot. However, with his senses dialled up to eleven on a good day his body would try to deal with that. Sadly, a lot of people with sensory overload could get migraines as their brains tried to deal with it all. If there was one thing Peter hated about his mutation, it would have to be this.
Dragging himself to class, he signaled to Ned that he had a migraine. Luckily his best friend already knew he got these and was prepared to deal with them. May had also made sure the school was aware and he had a special protocol in place to deal with this. He passed by the front desk to make a note of his migraine, but that he would be staying in school. However, he would need his aids and was certain he would be non-verbal most of the time. All that time spend with the Barton Family last summer came in handy as he was semi-fluent in ASL now.
“Everything seems to be in order, Mr. Parker, thank you for letting me know. I’ll make a note in your file and let your teachers know. Do pass by here or the nurse if it gets too bad so we can contact an emergency contact”, Sandy, the school’s secretary mentioned. He knew that she too had migraines at times so was glad she just made a note of that and let him go to classes.
Staying close to Ned, he smiled a little strained but found that class went well. Given that, he had headphones on to block the noise. Most of the people who shared a class with him before knew what it meant and tried to make this as easy for him as possible. Flash even looked the other way, in fact he looked positively worried for Peter which was a first.
Lunch signaled half a day over, making him settle outside as it was quite nice out. This way, he didn’t need to be in the full canteen with the noise bouncing around the walls. Ned and MJ joined him, with MJ also signing to ask how he was feeling.
‘Not better, but not worse either. I just have to hold on for the next three hours and we can go home’, he signed back. Smiling slightly at the notion that he could crawl back in bed and just rest.
Humming MJ smiled back softly before signing, ‘Don’t forget that we have that mandatory lecture in the last period. I don’t remember who the guest speaker was, but we can only learn from that, don’t you think.’
Peter nodded, signing back the name as he had looked her up. Violet Adams was someone renown in the physics field. She was also a former student at Midtown and had been invited to give a guest lecture on her study she had published recently. Their school liked to do things like this in an effort to give their students a glimpse into what they could do once they graduated and went to college.
Not that Peter needed that, Tony had mentioned in passing that he and Harley would always have a place at SI if they wanted. He’d even given them a full ride to a college of their choosing, poking at them both to choose his own alum; MIT. They had both been thinking about it, having talked about what they wanted to do after graduating and which direction they wanted to go. Since the snap they had gotten close, with Tony offering them both a place in his home as they tried to get used to the difference around them. Both of them had been snapped after all, with May slowly moving on and eventually finding love again. She was still his guardian but he knew leaving her to her own life had been the best thing he could have done.
Harley on the other hand, had been snapped when his sister and mother had not been. He came back to a home and a family that felt so alien he didn’t know how to deal with that. Beth, his mother, had reached out to Tony in an effort to find a solution. Which led to Harley also being a student at Midtown, abet a year below Peter. They would have the guest lecture together in the last period, which was another thing he was looking forward to.
Cleaning up after lunch, Peter couldn’t help but feel something wasn’t right. Like there was something going to happen. He was looking around to see if there were no space ships in the sky, or if there were sightings of either Doctor Strange or Tony dealing with whatever threat that was happening.
The two hours before last period luckily also went by fast, leading to everyone being called towards the auditorium for the guest speaker. Harley had already been saving them seats, a grin on his face as Peter settled next to him and took a deep breath.
“That bad, huh”, Harley asked, to which Peter just leaned his head onto the other boy’s shoulder. Adjusting his headset in an effort to block out all the extra noise around him.
Which is why he was shocked when suddenly the headset was grasped and pulled from his ears.
Gasping, his eyes widened as an unfamiliar woman was standing next to where he was sitting, glaring at him, “I expect people to listen to me as I talk, so this counts for all of you, no headphones, air pods or whatever you all use now.”
Whimpering, Peter reached for the headset, only to have the woman keep it out of reach. He could recognize her now as the guest lecturer, but to have her act like this made him realize she was the reason his senses were going haywire.
Harley stood, “Excuse me, miss, but seeing as you’re a guest here don’t you think that you should just give your lecture and not bully students.”
This got Harley the glare, not that he minded as he just glared right back. Being raised in Rose Hill had given him thick skin, he wasn’t about to let anyone bully him. Least of all this bitch who thought she could lord it over people that she was an adult.
Mr. Harrison had appeared too, asking Ms. Adams to give Peter back his headphones. Stating that it was an aide for him to deal with over stimulation.
Ms. Adams scoffed, “This is what is wrong with youngsters these days, they can’t have anything. I’m sure if you keep this from him, Mr. Harrison, he’ll toughen up soon enough.”
Whimpering still, Peter tried to reach for his headset once more. The noises were getting too much, aiding his migraine which had been manageable until now but was growing by the second. Seeing was impossible, which is what made it all that much harder. He hated it when his sight left him, it left him in the dark in a place he really didn’t want to be right now.
His hand reached for Harley’s and clasped it not wanting to let go as Mr. Harrison, half the school and his friends argued with Ms. Adams about returning his headset and how utterly idiotic she was being. She didn’t seem to want to let down, however, her voice raising as well to ring in Peter’s ears with every word she shouted.
Yelping when all of the sudden, a hand grasped his wrist and pulled him up. He struggled, up until he smelled that familiar scent of motor oil, coffee and coconut. Nuzzling into the shirt he was now pressed into, relaxing into Tony who was holding him.
Something was placed over his ears and eyes, the soothing voice of Karen coaching him through a breathing exercise before he was able to open his eyes. The sunglasses he was looking through were familiar. Looking back at Tony, he could see him tearing into Ms. Adams with all the fury he could possess. An arm, the prosthetic arm, around Peter to ground him even more.
“How utterly irresponsible of you not to read the rules of the school you are visiting, even as an alumni here things change. My kid already has a sensory overload on a good day, we dealt with it, made sure the school knows and he has the aids to get him through the day. What do you do, without explicit permission and as a stranger, you take it away. That doesn’t make you look great at all, lady, in fact all it shows is how ignorant you are”, he’s ranting, only stopping to check on Peter when he leans into the embrace again.
Eyes soften as they look at him, “You alright, Bambino? I got the notification your heart rate was going through the roof, just as both Ned and Harls texted me what happened, I got here as fast as I could.”
Huffing, Peter nodded, listening as Tony started to ignore ms. Adams, especially as the whole auditorium was watching them and nothing was being said about why she was there. In fact, school would be over soon and nothing would be shared about Ms. - Dr. Adams’ study, except she was a prime example of how to be a Karen.
Tony eventually stopped when the bell rang, “I guess that’s that, come on boys, let’s go.”
Peter kept close to Tony, while Harley walked behind them, carrying Peter’s bag and the head phones that were taken back as soon as Tony appeared. It was nice to know that Iron Man would always be there to protect them even if among the teens in the tower he was often referred to as Iron Dad.
The internet adopted the name when a clip of what had happened showed up on twitter the next day. Additionally, it was reported that the funding for Dr. Adams’ study was cut and her whole research was put on hold. Speculations stated that Iron Dad had pulled some strings, even if most teens knew the physicist had made a fool out of herself to the point that to respectable Doctor or Research Facility wanted to be tied to her.
Peter, meanwhile, was enjoying a relaxing weekend to deal with the migraine and the aftermath of everything. Mostly by cuddling his favourite people in the world (all living at Stark Tower), watching Star Wars or Disney Movies and eating his favourite food (home made by Tony himself).