Injured Baby Spider Protocol
“JEON JUNGKOOK IF YOU DON’T GET UP YOU’RE GOING TO BE LATE!”
Jungkook instantly snapped awake, wiping the drool off his face and history book. Of course, he just had to forget that he had to finish some history essay, which was due today! Thank God he finished it, but at what cost? Oh, right at the cost of barely getting an hour of sleep.
Damn he’s going to regret it in Spanish, isn’t he? Why did he have to take Español first thing in the morning? How do you say I’m really tired in Spanish? Estoy...ummmm calzones? Shit, my brain can’t even work well enough to formulate simple sentences, he thought to himself.
He quickly threw on some new clothes and put whatever he needed for the day in his backpack. He made sure not to leave anything that could give away his spidey ways to Aunt May. It’s only a matter of time before she finds out, so why not push it to a little longer?
“Bye, May!” He yelled while running out the door to catch the train.
“Wait!-” Aunt May called out but Jungkook was already out the door. “You forgot your breakfast and lunch money…, ugh that kid, he never slows down in the morning.”
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Jungkook was racing down the stairs of the subway station when he realized something very important. Fuck, he forgot his damn metro card on his desk.
School was about to start in 30 minutes, it took him 10 minutes to run back home (using regular human speed) to get it, and then 10 minutes to go back on the damn train. It would then take him another ten minutes to get to school.
Fuck it, he’ll just have to swing it. And with that, he quickly suited up and started swinging towards school.
Sure, the early morning breeze is a really nice feeling in the morning and the view of New York in the morning was pretty, but god, he felt like he needed 4 cups of coffee and 2 cans of Redbull just to wake up. He stopped swinging from building to building when he spotted an alley close enough to the school, but far enough to run to it (at least to make him seem like a somewhat normal kid who missed the train).
Jungkook being the clumsy teenager he is, instead of landing on top of the building smoothly, might have slipped a little bit and hit his side on the edge of a building, thus making him fall on top of a dumpster. Not a good way to start off the school day.
“Ah, shit.” Jungkook groaned out, holding his side in pain, praying that it wasn’t anything too serious. Oh boy, how much more wrong can he be?
“Jungkook, you appear to have fractured your ribs while hitting your side on the building. Your blood sugar levels are also dangerously low. I would recommend getting immediate medical attention and eating very soon, or you could possibly faint.” Sora said.
“Later, Sora, I have to get to class first. And I’ll heal.” He replied, slowly getting up and checking to see if anything fell out of his backpack on the way here.
“Jungkook, if you don’t eat soon or take care of your injuries, then I will have to report them to Mr. Stark as per the Injured Baby Spider protocol.” She said in a worried tone.
“No! No. There’s no need to bug Mr. Stark over something small! I can handle this and don’t worry. I can ask Jin for a snack, he always has food on him, he’s like a human vending machine.” Jungkook frantically said.
He definitely didn’t need to miss any class today or have Mr. Stark worry so early in the morning. It’s not good for the old man’s heart.
Sora tried to advise him to go see Mr.Stark again, but he quickly took off his suit and put on his regular clothes. He then ran as fast as his abilities let him, stopping about 100 feet away from the school, only to walk the rest of the way there, so people at school wouldn’t get suspicious of him.
Seeing the known scrawny and nerdy kid of the school who wears baggy clothing all the time and isn’t that great at P.E., suddenly running at insane speeds was surely bound to turn some heads. He didn’t really care that the rest of New York saw him because people were always running all over the place and it was the everyday norm. Also, people couldn’t really care less. People have places to go and people to see, no point in questioning what type of shit a teenager was on, especially at 7:30 in the morning, in New York.
Making it with at least 10 minutes to spare before class started, he decided to look for his group. He soon spotted a short mint haired person, along with several other people in front of his locker. He froze in place, the only reason they would meet at the younger’s locker rather than their designated spot was to discuss plans or to talk shit about Flash. He hoped that it was the latter.
“Hey, is there a new Lego Star Wars set for us to build? Or what type of shit did Flash do before the day even started? “ He nervously asked, while walking up to the group and opening up his locker.
They all looked at him and then at each other, until the tallest one of the group spoke up, “Hey Jungkook, We were planning on getting together this weekend and going to the movies to watch the new Star Wars movie. And we were wondering if you’re free this weekend?”
They all looked at him with hope in their eyes.
“I can’t. Sorry. I have to go to Mr. Stark’s this weekend to work on a prototype for the Expo.” Jungkook sem- lied. He wasn’t going to tell them that the Rogues were finally going to come back to the facility and that he needed to be some sort of peacemaker for the whole broken team and to be there for Tony.
“Can’t you just take a weekend off? I’m pretty sure that having a 16-year-old working on the weekends is against child labor laws. Plus we haven’t hung out with you in a while and you have been ditching the last few hangouts!” Taehyung questioned and whined.
Kim Taehyung is Jimin’s best friend, who’s extremely friendly and knows a lot of people. So by proxy, he was also Jungkook’s best friend. He was also the second person to meet when he first moved here. He remembered that Taehyung would always smile and offer positive advice, he was the cute little bear of the group.
As the sounds of “yeah” and “come on” sounded around him, he realized that the sharp pain coming from his stomach was getting worse. He winced and continued to apologize while trying to convince them that he could probably do it next weekend.
The bell soon rang and they all scattered to their respective classes. With every step, Jungkook felt like he was going to sink into the floor. I definitely need a big fat cat nap, he thought to himself.
Spanish passed with ease, they just watched Coco and answered questions about it. Jimin was so absorbed with the lovely Dia de Los Muertos film that he didn’t even question or notice that Jungkook’s fists would clench in pain every few minutes.
Why was he in so much pain? He should be healing super fast, plus he didn’t get hit yesterday, and if he did the iron suit protected him really well.
Soon, it was time for his chemistry class, of course, they had a pop quiz because their chemistry teacher likes to torture them. For some reason, he couldn’t focus that well. Sure he answered all the questions, but it took him twice as long as it usually did. Yoongi raised his eyebrow at him and sent him questioning gazes. He tried to stop Jungkook after class, but he hurried off to his next class as if his life depended on it.
Jungkook’s P.E. class was the most unbearable class ever. Out of all the things he had forgotten today, he had also forgotten that they had to run a mile today, so he almost passed out after running half a mile. He was way weaker than normal, and when Flash saw that, the number of insults that came out of his mouth that period was almost a record-breaker.
His class after that passed with a bit of a struggle because he started to doze off again, but thanks to the pain in his stomach, there was no way he was going to fall asleep any time soon.
The class was soon over and he rushed to the lunch cafeteria, only to realize that he had forgotten his lunch money. This only made the pain worse. Could this day get any worse?
He made his way to his usual spot and gave his friends a small smile. They started talking about classes and how they got too much homework. Jungkook only nodded along and tried to distract himself from the pain, until the eldest human vending machine, Jin, noticed that he wasn’t eating anything.
He glared at him and pushed some of his lunch towards him. Jungkook shook his head and told him to eat it, saying that he could go without one meal and that it wouldn’t kill him. The older glared at him harder when Jungkook’s stomach grumbled louder. Jungkook sighed and gave in, only eating the cheese stick that Jin had and refusing to eat any more of the elder’s lunch.
Kim Seokjin or Jin was the eldest of the group and was one of the most handsome human beings that he had ever met. It was funny how they met because they met at a convenience store and were both fighting over who would get the last pack of cheese balls. They eventually gave up, shared it, and became friends. Good times and damn now he craved cheese balls.
A voice suddenly snapped him out of his cheeseball dreams, “Hey are you okay, JK? You look a little pale buddy. Did you have enough water? Are you sick? Did you eat enough? Did Flash do something to you?”
The group now stopping their debate on the Wicked Witch of the West and the princess of the East had all their eyes on him. He cleared his throat and replied with a light smile to Hobi, who was asking him a million questions at the speed of light.
“Uhh, yeah I’m fine. I’m just a bit tired, Hope. Nothing to worry about.”
Hobi aka Jung Hoseok was the worrywart of the group. He was kind and super energetic. Jungkook had met him at one of the homeless shelters he volunteers for with Aunt May. Hoseok was there a lot of the time so, he eventually befriended him when one of them almost fell into the trash chute (cough cough Jungkook). Jungkook used to go there a lot, but his Spidey duties now take up most of his time. However, he still goes when he has the time.
The entire group looked at him with suspicion and were about to start interrogating him when the bell rang signaling that lunch was over and that Jungkook could escape the heavy interrogation and go to Mr. Starks. Saved by the bell!
He lightly jogged out the school doors and noticed that the black car that usually picks him up was not there. He then got a message from Mr. Stark saying that Happy couldn’t pick him up today because he was visiting his mom and that he’d send a car for him. Jungkook being Jungkook tried to decline and said that he could just swing over to the facility, but Mr. Stark being as stubborn as Jungkook is, said he was picking him up instead.
As the minutes passed by slowly, he felt the pain in his stomach increase. Was it the cheese stick? Was it some chemicals he might have smelled in chemistry that made his stomach feel like it was turning inside out? He felt like he was playing Jeopardy in his head trying to figure out why he felt like ripping his stomach out.
Mr. Stark soon arrived and Jungkook quickly hopped in, hoping that Tony wouldn’t look at his face and ask why he looked like a raccoon. Tony told the kid to buckle up and put on some AD/DC. He was humming along to the song when he noticed that the kid hadn't said a single word since getting in the car and that all he got was a nod of acknowledgement.
Was his kid okay? Did someone hurt him at school? Was it something Spiderman related? He thought to himself, along with thinking that it was better to ask the kid before freaking out more (internally of course).
“ So Underoos, how was school? Anything new? How is your grade in Spanish looking?” Tony tried asking calmly. The next few moments were full of silence. The kid was looking out the window in a curled-up position, not saying anything, so he tried to say something that would hopefully catch his attention or cheer him up.
“Is your Español really that bad? Anyway, I was thinking that when we got to the lab, we could work on the new spider prototype or even work on improving my suit. What do you think Jung?” Tony asked, hoping for at least any type of response.
“Huh oh yeah that sounds great,” Jungkook said in a monotone voice. Now the kid was starting to worry him.
“Kid, are you hurt anywhere? Do we need to take a little trip to the Medbay?” Tony asked in a slightly worried voice.
Jungkook shook his head and mumbled that it was just an exhausting day. Tony didn’t believe it and sighed, they made it to the compound anyway, so he’d press for more answers when they were in the lab.
Jungkook felt like absolute crap the entire time they were in the car. It was like if he had the option to fall off a cliff into the water full of sharks or to continue to feel this sick, he would dive headfirst or maybe do a couple of flips into the sharks. Maybe, he was being a bit dramatic, but hey, he’s all for dramatics.
When they made it up to the lab, Tony made sure to keep a close eye on the kid, he feared that the kid was hiding some sort of major injury from him. Tony wasn’t a person who was known for being patient, so he looked through the kid’s activity when the kid went to the bathroom.
He looked over the footage and saw nothing that was really alarming about the suit’s activity from the day before (of course he was concerned about the Brooklyn fight, but the kid didn’t get hurt and ended things quickly) and also checked the time he was out on patrol and noticed that he was back before curfew. However, Tony noticed that the other suit was used this morning, so he looked over that footage as well.
He did not like what he saw. The kid slammed into the edge of a building and landed on a dumpster. No wonder his kid didn’t seem as cheery as he usually is. What was wrong with this kid? Why didn’t he call him and tell him that he was seriously injured?!
He definitely didn’t like the next thing he heard. Sora then appeared and told him that Jungkook’s blood sugar was low and that he was at risk of fainting. Fainting? Why?
What type of shit did they give to him at lunch? He knew that high school lunches weren’t really appetizing or fulfilling for the kid, especially for his insane metabolism.
His. Insane. Metabolism! Of course, god how could he not have noticed it earlier?! The kid had barely let out a single sound besides his stomach rumbling since he got to the lab. Speaking of a single sound, he hadn’t heard the kid come back from the bathroom and that was 20 minutes ago.
“Boss, Jungkook appears to be in distress. He seems to be struggling to walk back to the lab.” FRIDAY’s voice said, making Tony snap out of his thoughts. “Damn, thanks Fri. “ He replied, quickly exiting the lab.
He noticed the kid leaning against the hallway wall for support and decided to guide him to a nearby couch.
“Alrighty kid, What’s going on? And don’t you lie to me, especially when you look like one of Casper’s friends.” Tony asked in a worried tone, hoping that the kid would look at him and just come clean.
“Nothing’s wrong Mr. Stark. I’ve just been having an off day.” Jungkook hesitantly replied, not looking at Tony.
“Nope, wrong answer kiddo. Sora just informed me that you’ve been hiding fractured ribs from me and that you haven’t been eating enough. Is there anything else she might have not caught or does Fri need to do a body scan?” He said in a firm voice, really hoping that this kid didn’t have any more injuries that he didn’t know about.
Jungkook nervously rubbed the back of his neck and said, “ Well, um… I might have not gotten the recommended amount of sleep for an average teenager. And that I mayhaps forgotten to eat breakfast. Don’t worry though! I had lunch! So I at least ate something…”
Tony sighed and asked, “ How many hours? And what did you eat for lunch? Because your blood sugar is so low, kid, that it looks like you only ate air for lunch.”
“One hour and a cheese stick for lunch…” Jungkook said in a small voice while anxiously rubbing his hands together.
“Jungkook Jeon! One hour is not healthy for a growing baby spider and a cheese stick is most certainly not enough for your insanely fast metabolism! Seriously, kid, you need to take care of yourself!” Tony scolded.
“I-I know! It’s just that I had to finish an essay that was due in the morning, so I stayed up late to do it and then I woke up a bit late. Then I forgot to eat breakfast because I was going to be late for the train. Then I forgot to bring my subway card and had to swing to school.-”
His breath became uneven as he continued to ramble on, panic grabbing him by the throat.
“Then, I forgot we had to run a mile in gym class and ended up forgetting my lunch money. I didn’t want to eat Jin’s lunch because he loves his mom’s cooking so much that I felt bad to even take anything else besides a cheese stick. I’m sor-”
“Hey kid, it’s okay. Calm down. Breathe with me. In and out.” He said while trying to get Jungkook to breathe with him. The kid’s breathing became normal after a few minutes, and he seemed to have calmed down completely, so Tony continued to talk to him.
“Okay, I get it, you tend to forget things sometimes and that’s okay. But kid, you can’t forget to eat, your metabolism is so fast, that not eating all day will make you pass out and slow down your healing factor. So let me order you some food and let’s go down to the Med bay to get your injuries checked. Fri, can you order 3 pizzas and some chicken wings?”
“On it, Boss.” FRIDAY’s voice echoed around them as Tony led Jungkook to the medical bay.
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“Jungkook needs to get more food and sleep in his system for his healing to go at its normal pace, right now it’s going slower than usual because of the lack thereof. It will also take a couple of days to heal, so no Spider-Man activities until his ribs are fully healed. He also needs to take some pain meds.” Helen Cho explained to both Tony.
She then turned to Jungkook and said in Korean, “Jeon Jungkook.Kid, you need to eat more. And sleep more, I don’t think your aunt will be too pleased with you falling asleep in class. And if you get any injuries you are to come to the med bay immediately or I will scold you and give you an hour lecture, full-on in Korean. I’ll make it seem like you're getting scolded by your aunt and we both don’t want that.”
Jungkook nodded furiously. Sure getting scolded in English was one thing but getting scolded in Korean was a whole other thing. It was a terrifying experience, that only happened once or twice and was something you never want to happen more than once. Sends shivers down his spine, when he remembers the last time Aunt May scolded him for staying up late.
“I don’t know what Cho said to you, but I agree and it seems like you won’t be doing what you did anymore. Heck, that even scared me. I hope Cho doesn’t know any Italian or she would chew me out like a dog’s toy. So no spidermanning for the next couple of days and you need to finish your homework before patrolling and you need to get at least more than 4 hours of sleep, or I’m telling Aunt Hottie.” Tony said after Helen left the room. “Now let’s go, there’s lots of food waiting for us to devour!”
Soon after eating that huge meal, they both decided to rest on the couch in the living/kitchen room and watch a couple of movies (only for Jungkook to fall asleep halfway through the first movie). Tony looked at the sleeping figure next to him and called his aunt, asking her if he could stay the night due to him falling asleep. She surprisingly agreed to it and said that she had a night shift anyway and didn’t want him to stay alone.
She also asked him if Jungkook could stay tomorrow and the weekend with him since she was going to be at a conference in San Diego for a couple of days, he agreed and told her that he was about to ask her the same thing since they need to work on things for the “Stark Expo” coming up. The call soon ended when May was called in for her shift.
The kid began to wake up toward the end of the second movie, so Tony sent him to bed, saying that he was going to stay here till Monday so don’t worry about going back to the apartment. The kid made a sound of acknowledgement and went to his room. Tony soon turned in after. This is going to be a very eventful weekend, isn’t it? They both thought to themselves as they drifted off to dreamland.