Allergic Reaction
It was Clint’s idea to challenge the man to a real, live tennis game when Tony had beaten him three times in a row in Wii Sports. The compound had a tennis court outside, which was rarely used because...well, it’s tennis. But Clint had found some rackets and invited the man outside.
Neither one of them were good at the game since playing outside meant you actually had to move instead of standing in place while swinging a controller. Tony was slightly worse than Clint at the game since his heart condition made it harder to jump high and run as fast as he’d like.
But they ended up playing for several hours, and Clint didn’t come to regret it until he hit the ball so hard that it bounced around the sides of court before landing in the far corner on Tony’s side. That wouldn’t have been a problem, either, if there wasn’t a huge bee hive that the ball had disturbed and was right below where Tony was fetching the ball.
It took Clint a few seconds to recognize the hidden hive that was slowly pouring with bees, but Tony who was simultaneously focusing on the ball on the ground as well as unfamiliar with the shape of hives having grown up in the city, didn’t realize what was happening until he was getting assaulted with bees. Clint barely had a second to yell out before the bees dropped out of the hive and started stinging Tony.
The billionaire dropped the ball and screamed in pain as the bees swarmed and stung him. Again, in his unfamiliarity with nature, he started swatting the bees to get them to go away, making them angrier.
“Stop moving, Tony!” Clint screamed. When he saw that the genius wasn’t taking his advice, he ran to the other side of the court and started tugging Tony out of the swarm. It took a minute, but finally he was able to drag Tony to the other side of the court, away from the bees, where the man collapsed on his back, panting.
Clint collapsed next to him, staring up at the sky. It took a few seconds, but Clint quickly sat up when he heard a mix between a gasp, choke, and wheeze. He turned to see Tony’s red face and swollen hands that scratched at his neck as he gasped for air. “Fuck!” Clint shouted, moving to kneel over the man. “Tony, Tony, what should I do?”
Tony’s eyes were glassed over and frantic. “Rho-Rho,” he wheezed. It took a second for Clint to understand the soft, slurred words, but as soon as he did, he ran to the building, sticking his head through the door and screaming at Jarvis.
Clint ran back to where Tony was laying on the hot court, fidgeting in panic. He was sweating profusely and Clint didn’t know if it was from the stings or from the heat of the day. “Calm down, Tones, try to steady your breathing,” Clint said, eyes wide.
When Tony didn’t react, Clint grabbed his shoulders and forced their eyes to lock. Clint took exaggerated breaths and slowly Tony’s breathing calmed down slightly, though a wheeze still was evident. There was a millisecond of Tony’s face turning green before he started vomiting. He choked before Clint turned him onto his side.
Mid-vomit, Rhodey’s feet were heard pounding on the ground before he was kneeling over Tony, hands hovering. “Rho,” Tony cried, choking on his vomit.
“I’m here, baby, I'm here,” Rhodey said, putting Tony’s head onto his lap. He stabbed an Epipen into Tony’s thigh but Clint didn’t notice any difference as the medicine traveled through Tony’s body. It was obvious Rhodey was in military-mode by the focused way he checked the genius’ vitals. When Tony was finished vomiting, Rhodey opened his mouth and noticed the way his tongue was swelling. “Jarvis, what’s the ETA on the ambulance?” Rhodey asked his watch.
“They are three minutes out,” Bruce said, running towards them. Before the scientist reached them, Tony started seizing.
“Fuck,” Rhodey huffed. He cushioned Tony’s head and started a timer on his watch. Bruce kneeled next to them and winced every time Tony’s limbs smacked the hard ground.
Clint handed Rhodey a towel and he used it to wipe the billionaire’s frothing mouth. Bruce examined Tony’s swelling hives. “Epi-pen?”
Rhodey shook his head, “Too far gone.”
Bruce looked to Clint, who was staring at Tony’s spasming figure in shock. “What happened?”
Clint focused his gaze on Bruce and pointed to the corner of the court where several bees were still swarming the shaking hive. “They j-just swarmed him,” Clint relayed.
Rhodey nodded wearily. “He’s never been stung- he must be allergic.” Finally, Tony’s twitching body started to calm and soon it was just his hand that quivered every few seconds. “Tones, can you hear me?”
Tony didn’t respond, his eyes didn’t even flicker. Rhodey ran a finger along the billionaire’s swollen cheek. “Come on, Tones,” he said wearily.
Suddenly, a herd of paramedics came running over and shoved them out the way. Rhodey watched them tend to his husband in fright as the adrenaline wore off. “He’s not breathing,” he heard one of them mutter. Bruce and Clint held Rhodey back as the man fought to run over.
“Let them work, okay?” Bruce said softly. Rhodey huffed, but he still bounced on his toes anxiously. They watched the medical professionals shove tubes and attach wires all over Tony’s body and in minutes, they had the man packed up in an ambulance and driving away to the hospital.
The trio stood in shock for several minutes. “I’m so sorry,” Clint whispered. “I was the one that convinced him to play outside with me.”
“Don’t,” Rhodey said firmly. “It wasn’t your fault. You didn’t know about the bees or his allergies, so don’t apologize.”
Clint sniffed and nodded slightly, still feeling guilty.
Rhodey spent a week straight in the hospital with Tony, who spent a majority of the week with a tube up his lungs and IVs covering his arms. They were able to get him breathing in the ambulance but they continued to intubate him for several days due to his reduced lung capacity.
After a week, Tony arrived back at the compound with a brand new medical alert bracelet and a refill of albuterol for his inhaler. Clint practically clung to his side, apologizing over and over until Tony smacked him with a magazine and told him to stop blaming himself.