This cannot be happening right now, not here. It really couldn't be. Not while he was in a confined space with Flash. He thought maybe he could just get into bed early and try to sleep it off, but the thought of even having the bed or blanket touching his skin right now sounded worse than burning your own eyeballs off. And if Flash could just turn that stupid TV down, then maybe, maybe his senses would calm down just a little.
"H-hey can you turn that down a bit?" Peter tried to say with a normal tone. He couldn't let Flash know he was in pain, then he would make a big deal out of it. It would give him more fire to the flame he already built between them because they had to share a room.
Flash groaned and rolled his eyes, he reached for the remote and turned the TV down only 5 decibels. It was still too loud for Peter, he needed it to be completely off. He thought about unplugging the TV or maybe even picking up the entire thing and throwing it across the room. That would be causing property damage though and he didn't feel like committing a crime.
Peter was sitting on the edge of his bed, his chin low by his chest. He didn't dare move a muscle, it would cause too much pain. He could hear Betty and Michelle gossiping in the room over and Ned snoring as he was already asleep. There was a birds nest in the tree outside their window and some couple downstairs having sex, there was water dripping from some pipe in the building and the wind was making the most sickening sound through the leaves in the trees. It all sounded like ear rape, millions of nails on a chalk board all at once.
His eyes were clamped shut, making his forehead scrunch up and eyebrows touch. The room was as bright as the sun, he could feel the light on his eyelids. Seeping past his skin.
Peter swallowed thickly, trying to breathe through the wave of nausea. The only thing worse than tasting every food he ate today would be tasting it after its been digested. He really didn't want to mess this up.
Peter jolted like he'd been struck by lightning when something touch his arm. He yelped in surprise.
"Yo man, chill out!" Flash said too loudly for Peter to handle apparently. Flash watched as Peter withered down off the bed and onto the floor, he brought his hands up to his ears and pressed on them tightly.
Flash didn't know what to do, all he knew was that when he looked over at the nerd, he was whimpering like he was in pain. Now he was curled into a tight ball on the floor, practically sobbing. What a wuss.
"Dude, stop. You're gonna get us in trouble!" Flash wanted to kick him in order to grab his attention. He thought better of it when Peter cried out.
"S-s-stop talking," even Peter's own voice was sending shock waves through his body.
Flash stood above him, towering over his body. Peter was thankful he was blocking some of the light from entering the creases of his eyelids.
Wait. Flash has seen this before, once before. He was at a family reunion when his cousin went awol and started having a meltdown. Flash's parents told him that his cousin had autism, that's why he was having one.
Flash snickered at Peter's deteriorating form. He rolled his eyes, he couldn't believe he found out Peter's secret. He has autism.
"Hey Penis, I found out your little secret. Is that why you're crying," Flash knelt down beside Peter. He was digging his phone out of his back pocket so he could take a picture of the pathetic spectacle. He stopped when Peter started heaving.
Peter doubled over on his side and threw up 3 times, he couldn't stop it from coming out. The pain was just too much, all with Flash yelling above him. Peter was gasping for his breath by the end of it.
"Never did I suspect you were autistic Penis?" Flash's voice waivered.
Perer couldn't hear much because of it all coming in at once, but he definitely heard that. Did Flash really think- doesn't matter.
"No' au'istic," Peter mumbled out. "I'm gonna pass out," Peter was talking more to himself at that point.
Flash wasn't thinking he was autistic after he threw up, no because it was starting to look like Peter was dying.
"Peter- peter. You okay man?"
"M' head hur's," Peter's hands were still clasped over his ears, but the one that was trapped between the floor and his head moved to cover his eyes.
"I'm gonna get Mr. Harrington, this is bad- this is bad." Flash went to stand up but stopped when Peter grabbed his arm.
"No!" Peter made a feeble attempt to open his eyes, but as soon as he tried he shut them. "P-please Flash, don't."
Flash was stunned, he'd never heard Peter beg before. To plead with him to do something, this was all too vulnerable for even him.
"And why the fuck not? You could be dying for all we know!"
"Not d-dying, please just t-turn the lights off and tv." Peter was pretty sure he was going to pass out soon. He wished he would.
Flash stood up and turned the TV off, along with the lights. He went for Peter's phone, so at least he could call someone for help. Flash almost laughed when he turned Peter's phone on and there wasn't a lock on it. What a dumbass. He swiped to the contacts and started looking them over. There weren't many contacts on his phone, go figure. He went back to the top and put his thumb over the one marked as 'Aunt May', he stopped when he regrettably remembered that Peter's aunt died a year ago.
It was then he realized that he didn't know who Peter was living with. It's not like he should know, but they had decathlon competitions all the time and parents and guardians usually showed up to those things. If Peter's did, he never saw it.
He looked over the other contacts reading them in his head one by one and marking them off as no as he continued down. 'Betty Brant? No. Bruce? No, who the hell is that. Cho (Dr)? No, but they could be useful.' Flash stopped his scrolling when he reached one that was simply labeled 'dad'. He scoffed and clicked it and hit the call button before thinking.
As it rang he began to wonder if it could even be anyone that was remotely a dad. Come to think of it Peter could be into some freaky stuff, he overheard Brad saying something about Peter being a male escort. Maybe the rumor was true?
"Hey bud, missing me already?" The voice that came through was gentle, Flash marked it off as a dad after the word 'bud' left their mouth.
"Hi, uhm I have a problem," Flash said lamely.
The other end was silent for a second too long, "who is this?" The voice wasn't so gentle anymore, it was brute and almost threatening.
"Sorry, I'm Flash. I go to school with Pen- ter, somethings wrong with him."
"You better talk kid," Flash could hear shuffling on the other end.
"He's sick or something. Dying? He's curled in a ball and sobbing. He threw up, a lot. I think he's having an aneurysm or something. Please," Flash was freaking himself out even more as he kept talking and describing what was happening. "Oh god, he keeps complaining that his head hurts."
It didn't click in Tony's head that his kid was having a sensory overload, the way the child on the phone described it made it sound worse than it was. He said the words 'dying' and Tony was out the window and in the air.
They weren't far from Manhattan, they were upstate a bit for an instate weekend competition. Tony would've been there if he wasn't slam packed with SI work and inbetween a meeting he only had a spare amount of time to watch Morgan at her recital. He didn't have enough space to make it upstate and back for Peter. Peter understood though, he was good like that. Tony was regretting his choice right now though.
Tony made it to the run down hotel and opted to climb the stairs as it would be quicker to get to the room. He was thankful the kid didn't hang up the phone, "What's the room number."
"Huh? Oh- it's 214, I think he's passed out."
Tony ran down the hall. It was the last room on the right, he didn't even knock, he just barged right in like he owned the building. He noted that the room was completely dark, except for some light in the far end of the room that was lit up by the phone screen that Flash was holding in his hands.
Tony walked over and knelt beside Peter, he pulled out his own phone and a blue scanner materialized from it and went over Peter's body.
Flash was staring at Tony's face, not that Tony even realized, as he was too concerned about his kid.
"You-you're Tony Stark."
"Let's skip the flatterys kid." The room dimmed back down once the blue haze from the phone was gone.
'Scan complete. Vitals are showing normal, his heartrate is slightly elevated.'
"Give me something Fri," Tony called out.
'Based off the symptoms and scan, I deduced that he suffered from severe sensory overload.'
Tony nodded to himself and then gathered Peter into his arms and placed him on the bed. He didn't have anything with him to help. They had made sound proof headphones that could work with his hearing, but they were back in his room at home. All Tony could do was sit with him and help sooth his symptoms when he woke up again.
"Where's his bag?" Tony was looking around for it, unsure of where it could be. He wanted to grab the painkillers that he made Peter pack just in case, now he's thankful he forced it.
Flash got up and headed for the bathroom to retrieve it, he placed it next to Tony on the bed, avoiding Peter's hand that was near him.
Peter was still breathing odd and had his face pinched in his sleep. No, not sleep. He wasn't sleeping, he had passed out from pain.
Tony had only seen him pass out two times from pain before. The first time it was because of a sensory overload much like this, afterwards Tony worked on getting Peter some sensory deprivation glasses and the headphones. The second time had been when Peter had to have emergency surgery to remove a bullet that lodged into his arm and broken off into his bones. They didn't have any anesthesia at the time that worked on Peter, it wasn't that they didn't have any made. Someone messed up big time and didn't bring any on the quinjet as they were far from the tower. Tony had screamed at all the staff in med-bay, they were responsible for supplying the quinjet. He almost fired every single nurse for the incident that day.
"Aren't you gonna do something!" Flash was still pacing the floor, unsure if Peter was dying or not.
Tony flew a single hand in the air, "nah. He needs to sleep it off anyways, or else he'll just be back in pain when he awakes." Tony kicked his shoes off and laid out his legs along the bed, bringing his body to lean against the headboard.
Flash calmed and took a seat on his own bed, "so, you're Peter's dad?"
Tony snapped his head towards Flash, "yeah, sort of. He hasn't called me dad yet, but I think we're making progress." Tony looked down at Peter and ran his fingers through his curls. Tony could've sworn his face relaxed slightly at the touch.
Flash handed Peter's phone to Tony, "You're in his phone as 'dad', that's how I knew to call."
Tony grabbed it and looked it over and his heart melted. He's been wanting Peter to feel comfortable to call him dad for so long. He would never force it and if Peter wanted to call him 'Tony' for the rest of his life, well that was just as good.
Tony scrolled some more and found a contact listed as 'mom', he let a few tears of happiness drop when he saw that it was Pepper's number. He wiped them away when he remembered the other kid in the room, he wasn't used to showing emotions in front of people that he didn't consider family.
"So uh-" Tony cleared his throat, "you're the kid that's been bullying my-"
"Sorry!" Flash shouted, "sorry... yeah. I don't know how to stop. It just started and never ended?" Flash knew how lame that sounded, how much of a jackass he was to only admit this when he was on the verge of getting in trouble.
Tony nodded along to what Flash was saying, he didn't really give a shit about the kids explanation. "Alright, here's how it's going to work. You, are going to stop giving my kid a hard time and I won't have to call up your parents then. Cool?"
"Cool."
"Now that, that is done. If you don't mind I've got some boring paperwork to look over," Tony took out his phone and pulled up some emails that Pepper had sent over to him a couple weeks ago. Now seemed like no better time to do it.
Peter woke up around three hours later, Flash was knocked out on his own bed, as it was the middle of the night and all. Tony was still as wide awake as ever. Peter twisted his body and tensed when he felt his arm smack something that felt too similar to a human body part.
Tony held in a laugh, as Peter slowly turned his head around to look where his hand landed. It was a thigh, Tony's thigh. Peter shook his head, he must be dreaming. What the hell?
"Hey, Roo. Feeling better?"
Peter sat up and looked at Tony, his head cocked to the side. He put his hand up to his forehead to check if he had a fever. Nope.
"You had a sensory overload, your buddy over there," Tony pointed his thumb back towards the other rooms occupant, "Flash. He called me, don't worry though, I was gonna leave once I got notice that you're okay. So are you?"
"Wha- yeah, yeah. I'm good, never better."
"Alright," Tony got up, put his shoes back on and walked towards the door. "I was never here," he whispered, "you're going to crush this competition." Peter nodded to Tony's voice and when he finally left Peter put his head back on his pillow and passed out.
The next morning Peter was unsure what even happened last night, he remembered being on the floor, but then he wasn't. He was too petrified to hear the answer, that he didn't feel obligated to ask Flash. He also remembered seeing Tony, but he couldn't be too sure if that was just in a dream or not.
Peter sat down in his chair between Ned and Mj on the stage. The crowd wasn't too large and he could make out everyone's faces pretty good, as the lights weren't overly bright. He was wringing his hands beneath the table. He always got nervous before competing, he was scared of messing up. He saw Ned's mom in the crowd and smiled at her.
Mj nudged Peter's leg, he slapped his hand on the spot she touched and whispered, "ow?" It didn't hurt, not at all.
Mj nodded her head towards the crowd, Peter looked at her confused but then looked into the crowd once more. He didn't know what she was getting at, until.
"Tony?" Peter said to himself. There in the back of the room, standing by the exit, enterance doors, was no other than Tony Stark. His dad.
Peter smiled from ear to ear and gave a little wave, in reply Tony gave Peter two thumbs up and a grin of his own.