It was an ordinary Friday for Peter. He woke up, got dressed, had breakfast, brushed his teeth, said good-bye to Aunt May, and went to school. The only thing different about today was he woke up feeling like shit. His head pounded, his eyes watered, his throat was sore, his stomach was churning, and his nose was stuffed. He would've asked Aunt May for medicine or something to at least ease the nausea, but Mr. Stark and the others had invited him to hang out at Avengers Tower and even spend the night. How could he possibly say no to that? He had little hope it would go away as the day went on, but it was better than staying home and missing out on all the fun. Peter didn't want to have to reschedule, or worse, be sick in bed at home.
School was a nightmare. Instead of focusing on what his Social Studies teacher was saying, he was so focused on not puking all over the floor. At lunch, Ned and MJ were laughing about something, loud enough to make Peter's headache worse, forcing him to try and cover his ears without them noticing. The bus ride there and back was the worst; the bumping up and down, kids shoving each other, yelling and cackling, and the countless stops where the doors peeled open with a screeching noise like nails on a chalkboard. Still, he didn't say anything and managed to hide the fact that he felt like garbage from everyone, even Ned and MJ.
When he finally arrived at Avengers Tower, it was Mr. Rogers who greeted him at the doors. "Hey, Peter. Glad you could make it."
Peter, trying hard not to puke all over himself and Captain America, kept his mouth shut, smiling and nodding.
Countless stairs made Peter exhausted and panting by time they finally reached the floor the other Avengers were on. From various spots in the room, he saw Natasha, Clint, Bruce, Thor, Bucky, and Tony all smiling at him and greeting him. Mr. Stark led him to the table. When Peter started to take out his homework, Tony reached out and took the backpack, putting it on the counter. "No, no, no, none of that nonsense. You're here to have fun, kid! C'mon, we rented a movie."
Everyone was claiming spots around the TV, Nat and Bruce squished in an arm chair with Clint sitting at their feet, Steve and Bucky tangled together on the edge of the couch, and Thor in the wing chair. Peter flopped down next to Tony on the other end of the couch, his head still aching, and trying to hide his weird sounding voice due to his stuffed up nose. Clint hit play on the movie and everyone stopped talking and settled down.
It was an action movie that Peter couldn't focus his attention on. Every time one of the other Avengers made a comment or laughed at something, and when they started booing and yelling at the characters for making dumb choices, he squeezed his eyes shut and tried to focus on something other than his growing headache. About a half an hour in, Peter heard someone say "Pizza's here," and Bruce left to go get the door. They had paused the movie and everyone was talking, waiting for Bruce to return. Once he did, they all dished out the pizza, and when Bucky passed the box to him, he pushed it away, holding his breath and gave it to Thor. "No, I'm not hungry."
They all looked at him, all a little surprised. Natasha gave him a weird look. "When have you ever turned down a slice of pizza?"
He shrugged weakly. "Aunt May packed me some for lunch today. I don't feel like having anymore, that's all."
The rest of them brushed it off and unpaused the movie, but Tony seemed to notice something was wrong. He quietly asked "Are you okay, Pete?"
Peter nodded and turned back to the movie, hoping Mr. Stark would buy it. He didn't. The rest of the movie, Tony was quieter and seemed more focused on Peter than what was happening on the screen. By time the movie was over, it was getting close to eight o' clock, and Clint disappeared for a few minutes, returning with a board game and a big smile on his face. "Eh? Who's up for a game of Monopoly?"
Everyone immediately agreed, grinning, and sat around the coffee table, sitting on the carpet. Peter kept forgetting what game they were playing, when it was his turn, and how to even play. Normally, Tony would be arguing with everyone that he wasn't 'cheating,' he was using 'loopholes that everyone else hadn't thought of yet,' but this time he was playing fair, from what Peter could tell. Bucky was the first to be bankrupt, and he flopped onto the couch to watch the rest of them, followed closely by Steve, then Bruce, then Tony.
Pretty soon it came down to Nat, Peter, and Thor, after Clint had to pay a smirking Natasha the rest of his money, and he joined the others. Peter wasn't sure how he was still in the game, and he still had a good amount of money. Once Thor had landed on one of Natasha's monopolies, it was just him and Nat. She had a whole stack of money, and Peter strongly suspected she had cheated somehow, very sneakily, without anyone else noticing. For a moment, he was so focused wondering what she could've done, he forgot about his sickness.
In the end, Nat won the game. The others started to question how she had acquired so much money, then accused her of cheating, which she, of course, denied with a sneaky smile. At this point, it was getting close to ten o' clock, and everyone was tired, with Bucky already asleep, his head in Steve's lap, and Bruce dozing off in the arm chair. As everyone started to head to their rooms, Peter stayed in the kitchen, and pulled his homework back out of his bookbag. He spread it out on the counter and tried to focus, anything to take his mind off his horrible cold. He didn't want to go to sleep; his sickness would probably keep him up tossing and turning anyway.
Mr. Stark walked into the kitchen and studied Peter for a second before sitting down across from him. "What's wrong?"
Peter decided to play dumb. "Whad'ya mean?"
"You've been acting weird all afternoon, and the Peter I know would never turn down pizza."
"I told you-"
"Yeah, yeah, I know. I want to know what's really bothering you," he sighed. "I just wanna help you."
"I really am fine, Mr. Stark," Peter said, doing his best to sound normal with a stuffy nose and a raw throat. "I'm just a little ti-"
Before he could finish, he puked all over the floor. THE FLOOR OF AVENGERS TOWER. He looked up at Tony, horrified. "Ohmigosh Mr. Stark I'm so so so sorry I'll clean this up right now."
Tony just jumped up, walking right around the vomit, and put a hand to Peter's forehead, checking for a fever. "You're warm, Peter! Are you sick??"
"Uh..." was all Peter could say while pointing at the vomit splatter on the floor.
"Bed. Now," Tony ordered. "I'll bring you something, just go."
Peter stumbled down the hallway, every sound making his head nearly explode; Clint and Nat laughing about something by the TV, Thor's loud voice booming from the room where him and Bruce were discussing something, even the moans and sounds of the bed creaking coming from Steve and Bucky's bedroom. His own footsteps sounded like thunder claps to him.
He finally reached the bedroom that had been fixed for him for whenever he wanted or needed to stay over. He climbed into the cloudlike bed and pulled the covers to his chin. A few minutes later, Tony slowly opened the door, carrying a pack of saltine crackers, a glass of water, a medicine Peter didn't recognize, and a bucket.
"Thought you could use this, just in case," Tony said, putting it down by the bed. He poured a small capful of the muddy looking medicine and made Peter drink it, despite his protests. He ate a few saltine crackers to keep it down and finished it off with a small gulp of water.
"I'm gonna call the doctor tomorrow, you need to rest now. You have flu-like symptoms," Tony said.
"Mr. Stark, I don't think that's really necessary," Peter said, wincing at the pain of the sore throat, now coated in the disgusting medicine.
"Better safe than sorry. Also, you're staying home from school tomorrow."
"But-"
"No 'buts.' I'm gonna call your Aunt May and let her know." He stood and brushed Peter's hair out of his face, kissing his forehead softly. "Get some sleep, kid."
"Thank you, Mr. Stark," Peter said drowsily.
Tony smiled. "Good night, Peter." He slipped out quietly, closing the door behind him, leaving Peter to rest.