Peter was supposed to have a great weekend that would have contained working in Mr. Starks lab, watching a movie with his father figure, eating Pizza and all that stuff. He didn't even realize that he was sick - the worst Illness he got after the spider bite was probably a stomachache from to much candy.
Well nothing lasts for ever.
„A- ACHOU!", a loud sneeze escaped Peter's nose the whole attention from the class laid on him for a second.
„Bless you, Peter!", said Mr. Harrington cheerfully and everyone returned their attention to the black board.
„Ned? Do you have a tissue?", asked Peter silently and realized that his nose was running.
„Yeah of course I hope you don't get sick.", said his best friend while passing him his tissue box.
„Nah, I haven't been sick since you know when.", said Peter with a smile and blowed his nose.
„Yeah but if you are you should at least tell Mr. Stark... Working in his workshop while being sick is a bad idea."
„It was just one sne- Achou!", Peter blowed his nose again and he heard how the blood rushed through his ears.
„Peter, Ned stop talking!", warned Mr. Harrington and the lesson continued.
At the end of the day, Peter felt miserably. His nose was quite red from all the nose blowing and he felt how his mucosa swelled on.
„Dude your nose... it's completely red, are you okay? Do you have any other symptoms?", asked Ned when they left school. „No I am fine, I have to go Happy is going to be annoyed when I am late, see ya on Monday!", the Teenager got a bad feeling for lying to his best friend, it was true his nose was running, he but his throat also sucked at the moment - not to mention his scrappy voice.
With one last gulp he opened the door of the cosmos black Audi.
„Hey Happy.", he said and tried to swallow his Hoarseness - which didn't work, as he wished it would have.
„Hey kid, you coming down with something? Your voice sounds like that from a chain smoker.", Happy half heartily joked and earned a fake grin from the boy.
„I'm fine, just got some water in the wrong pipe!", said Peter and coughed for a short second.
Happy turned his attention to the steering wheel and drove of.
Peter's whole mind was in a fog and he couldn't thing straight, he felt like burning and freezing at the same time.
When they arrived at the compound, Spidey jumped out of the car and thanked Happy for driving him.
The cold January air gave him an temporary shiver.
*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*
„Peter, buddy! It was about time I thought Happy kept you for himself!", said Tony jokingly and ruffled the youngers hair.
Peter felt a warm sensation in his chest, when Mr Stark touched his hair. It made him feel loved and save.
„You certainly don't have to worry about that.", the Teenager tried to smile but the look of Mr. Stark let him frown. He seemed concerned.
„Your voice sounds hoarse. You alright?", he asked worried and Peter's nose began tickling. ‚Not now, not now, not'
„Achou!", the sneeze was soft and he sounded like a kitten with a cold.
„Bless you, Peter. Or would you prefer that I call you Rudolph by the look of your nose?", asked his mentor and passed him a tissue. Tony knew something was wrong with his protégé, there was no weekend where Peter didn't brabble about school, patrols, Ned, Mays cooking skills and so on.
‚He is sick... Terrible sick.', thought Tony as Peter grabbed the tissue with a trembling hand.
„Th- Achou! Thanks...My nose is just tickling you know.", it was the last lie that came to Peters mind, but the glance of his father figure made him realize that he knew exactly, what was going on.
Tony let out a sigh before he said:
„Come here and let me feel your head.", and Peter stumbled a few steps back.
The weekend was over for him, no experiments, no movie watching, just his bed...
„Don't be like that, You stopped being shy in front of me a long time ago.", the mechanic stepped forward and laid the back of his hand on Pete's forehead.
To his shock it seemed like the younger was burning up.
Another sigh.
„Let's bring you to bed.", he whispered, grabbed Pete's shoulders and lead him to the elevator.
Seconds later they were on the 48th floor and got into Peter's Star Wars themed room.
„Oh come on, stop pouting, Pete. As soon as you feel better we can make all the fun things!", said Tony brightening and gave his protégée a soft hug.
„Yeah sure.", he mumbled and crawled into his bed, under the soft blankets.
I am such a burden... I could have helped him in the lab, but no - stupid body.
„I'll make you a cup of tea alright? Which flavor do you wanna have? I have Camille, Peppermint, Strawberry and Cherry, Vanilla with- Hey...", Tony stopped the listing of his tea sorts as he saw Peters tear swollen cheeks and his red eyes - the eyes which were always sparkling with hope and joy were now filled with sadness.
Tony's stomach made a twist at that sight and he felt absolutely guilty.
„Peter, what's up? I was gonna bring you some medicine- is it that bad do I need to call Bruce?", he asked as he stroked a messy curl out of the teens face.
„N-no! You don't understand! I have been busy for weeks! I didn't do everything else then studying for three weeks now! I- I am tired and just wanted to enjoy this weekend and spend some time with you in the lab and watch a funny Disney movie with you- but now I am sick- and we can't spend time together!", Peters voice sounded a little slurred, probably because of his sore throat, but still Tony understood every word.
„Buddy, that doesn't mean that we can't do these things. We can watch The Lion King if you want. I'll get you a cup of tea now, okay? You want Camille? It's good to deal with stress...", the mechanic ran without a reply from Peter downstairs to the kitchen, got the tea and mixed some medicine into it. It was the one that Bruce invented for Steve's metabolism a few years ago and it worked perfectly fine with Peters metabolism too. So he hoped, he couldn't remember a time the boy ever got sick.
He put the cup of tea, some crackers and a bottle of water on a plate and ran to Peters room again.
A load wet cough, let Tony shiver for a moment- that sounded bad.
„Pete, we have to do something against this cough... it sounds awful.", whispered Tony and patted Peter on the back after he set down the plate on the table.
„'m fine...", he gasped after five minutes of coughing and curled up into a small ball.
„Come here.", whispered Mr Stark and pulled Peter into his lap.
„I am tired... I am exhausted and just wanna sleep.", whimpered Peter and snuggled his head into Tonys warm chest.
„Shh, I know.", the billionaire rocked the kid softly before getting the cup of tea with medics.
„You'll feel better I promise.", he whispered as he brought the cup down on Peters lips.
Peters fingers were shaking he couldn't hold the mug himself he felt utterly embarrassed, because Tony had to hold him like a baby.
„I feel sleepy.", mumbled the Teen after he drunk the whole cup and didn't wait for a reply- he just fell asleep.
Tony was surprised how fast the medicine worked, on the other hand he knew how much effort Bruce stuck into these things.
„Fri, tell me if something odd happens to Peter, alright? I'll be in the lab.", said the mechanic after he watched Peter for a few minutes and decided that he had to do something productive on a Friday afternoon.
„Yes of course, Boss"
The first thing Tony did was oiling Dum- E and then he worked on one of his suits.
He drank two cups of Coffee and ate a package of Gummy worms.
„Boss, it took me some time but I fully analyzed Peter's body, to find out what Illness he has. My first suspicion was that he has a cold, but that's not the case"
Tony stopped his work and looked at the ceiling with concern.
„What do you mean, with it's not a cold?", his voice was rushed and without second thinking he ran to the elevator to get to Peters room.
„I detected a lot of poisonous bacteria on Peter's tonsils. There is a 99,98 percentage chance that he has diphtheria. Immediate medical attention is required, because the Illness can lead to death."
Tony never ran faster in his life.
Once he made it to Peters door he kicked it open and jolted him awake.
„Pete, you have to wake up! Now! Please, we have to get you to the med bay!", Tony's voice cracked at the last two words and it took him another 53 seconds until Peter opened his eyes.
„I feel funny, Mr. Stark... Didn't know a cold could be such a hoe...", he whispered and began coughing again.
„Were you vaccinated against diphtheria?", Tony didn't even think about to correct Peter about his language in such a situation.
„Wha- why? I don't think so... I missed it because it was the day we flew to germany? We really kicked Caps ass back there didn't we?", giggled the Teenager and Tony didn't waste another minute, he put his hands under Peters knees and his head and dragged him to the med bay.
„You don't have to drag me- I can walk!", protested Peter and struggled to get free from Tony.
„Don't. Move. I swear I'm gonna ground you till college.", Peter stopped moving immediately, and felt a little hurt because of this words. He just wanted to help Tony... what was wrong with him?
„Bruce! I swear I have no clue, what do to with diphtheria but, holy shit just drug him up with some antibiotics.", Bruce already had an IV ready and injected it into one of Peter's left veins, as soon as he was in the bed.
Tony stroke his hair, meanwhile Bruce took some blood of the right hand.
„Too much needles... Stop it.", he was absolutely exhausted and began crying again.
„Shhh, it's over soon. You're going to be fine, Bambi. You know why I call you Bambi?", Tony did his best to soothe Peter down and to get him on other thoughts.
„Cause we are both orphans?", the question wasn't was Tony expected but the goal was to distract him, so it worked in his sight.
„Not really, cause you have the same eye color. Hazelnut brown. Just like him.", as Tony finished talking Bruce finished taking the blood and analyzed it.
„'m I gonna die, Tony?", asked the slurred voice of Peter and looked at his father figure with fearful eyes. Another tear fell down his cheeks.
„No- see we give you tons of antibiotics you will not die, never under my watch, have you understood?! What would I do if my Bambi suddenly left, huh?", Tony felt how his own eyes began to tear up.
„Tony, I am sorry to interrupt this, but you must leave. Peter has indeed diphtheria and it's very contagious. You spent a lot of time with him, so I‘ll have to give you antibiotics in form of pills. Do me a favor and take them...“, said Bruce and gave Tony a package of red and yellow pills. He left the med bay with a sad face.
„Get better soon, Pete.“, he mumbled and went to the kitchen to swallow some pills with a cup of coffee.
„Fri? Did you call May?“
„I tried several times, she isn’t picking up the phone.“, Tony let out a loud sigh and jumped onto the couch in the living room.
2 days later ~
„Look, Mr Stark! I can crawl on the wall again!“, screamed Peter happily as he crawled on the ceiling and opened the fridge with a net.
„Pete, come down here! You are still high on medics!“, Tony closed the fridge again and tried to reach for one of Peters legs that tangled from the ceiling.
„But I‘m hungry!“, said the teenager and started pouting, Tony sighed and got the menu card of the nearest Pizzeria.
„You can order as much as you want - when you come down from the ceiling!“, another second later Peter jumped happily on the floor and grabbed the card.
„I want a Peperoni, one with Bacon, one with Pineapple and another one with sardines!“, said Spidey happily and started to climb on Tonys back.
„PIGGYBACK RIDE!“
‚This kid...‘