Chapter Text
Peter had felt off the whole day. It had started when Aunt May woke him up for school, she was a little too loud for Peter's comfort and when she placed her hand on his arm he could still feel it even after she stopped touching him. She must have known something was up because before she left for work she reminded him not to overwork himself.
He was just sitting at the table with a bowl of cereal in front of him, moving the pieces of cereal with his spoon, only to stop when the spoon scrapes against the bottom of the bowl in a way that has the sound echoing through his brain. He can feel Aunt May's eyes on him as he winces slightly from a car honking its horn outside the apartment building. After a while she just sighs deeply before standing up and grabbing her bag, Peter looks up at the clock to find that it is in fact her time to leave. She looks at Peter and sighs once more, then walks over to him and gently kisses the top of his head.
He doesn't know if she does it on purpose, but when she finally says something, it's in a low whisper, he appreciates it. “I'm off to work Peter, just remember to call me if anything goes wrong. You have been overworking yourself too much recently. Don't forget that it's okay to take breaks.” Peter smiled at her as she turned around and walked back to the hallway leading to the door. “Aunt may! Before you leave, can you do something for me?” She turned around to show she was listening, a small, caring smile on her face.
“Can you please turn the lights off?”
_
In hindsight maybe he should have listened to Aunt May and stayed home, taken a break or whatever she had been suggesting, But he had stuff to do. School didn't just stop because he was feeling on edge so instead of listening to her, he had grabbed his backpack and left the apartment. When he had gotten to school he was already regretting every choice he had ever made in his life that led to this moment. Everything was too much to process, his sense we're working on overdrive for some reason and he felt like he was in hell because of it. Ned had been a bit anxious when talking to Peter, But he wasn't sure if that was directed towards Peter or towards the test he had forgotten to study for. However, MJ noticed immediately.
“What's wrong with you? You look more like a kicked puppy than you usually do.” Peter looks up and tries to make an offended squeak, but by the awkward faces of his friends he’s guessing the noise he made wasn't meant to be heard by normal people. “Nothings wrong with me, I just…I don't know, feel off?” he gets a look of confusion from Ned at the jumble of nothing-ness that just came out of his mouth. “What do you mean by feel off?”
Peter just kind of stared at them for a little before opening his mouth once more “everythings just kind of loud, and bright, and too much and- I think you get the point.” MJ just nods, seemingly thinking over what he said, Ned watches Peter, something like concern showing in his expression. All of the sudden the bell signifying the end of their break period rings out, Peter silently curses as he slaps his hands over his ears, trying to keep as much noise out as he can. The sound blaring like it would never stop, Peter squeezed his eyes shut when he started to see black dots taking over his vision.
When it finally stopped he could feel Ned and MJ put their hands on his shoulder, making sure he didn't fall over in his seat. His head was spinning and when he tried to open his eyes again the cheap fluorescent lights on the ceiling were way too bright. When he finally seemed to calm down (to an extent) he looked up at his friends who were staring down at him. “Are you okay? You looked like you were about to pass out!” Ned spoke up when he seemed to realize that Peter was able to respond again. Peter flinched slightly at the abrupt change in volume, “I’m fine” MJ glares at him, making him quickly add on “I think, i don't know what changed from yesterday, i wasn't struggling last night.”
Peter feels another wave of discomfort rush over him. Students passing by with wet shoes, making a loud squeaking noise as they make contact with the tiles. The air in the building was too cold for him, making goosebumps rise on his skin and making him shutter. The smell of the school lunch mixed with whatever other foods that were thrown in the trash only a few feet away from their table assaulting his nose. The bright, blinding lights and the extremely bright colors on the mural painted on the cafeteria walls making everything hard to look at. His lunch mixing with the sugary cereal he had for breakfast makes him want to throw up, then Peter realizes, not want to throw up. It's going to make him throw up.
He pushes up from his seat and sprints past Ned and MJ, distantly hearing them question him. By the time they finished their questions, Peters was already out of the cafeteria. He bursts into the mens restroom and heads for the stall furthest from the door, quickly slamming and locking the door, then toppling over in front of the toilet and promptly emptying his stomach. When he finishes puking he slowly backs away and bumps into the wall, settling for resting his head against the wall, closing his eyes.
He hears the door to the bathroom open and internally groans, which he quickly replaces with an emotion close to relief when he hears Ned's voice, whispering. It would usually be too quiet for a normal person to hear but it seems Ned caught on to Peter's discomfort from loud noises. Thankfully, Peter could hear him just fine. “Dude, what happened, you totally booked it out of nowhere?” Peter just mumbles something under his breath, a smile creeping upon his lips as he scoots over enough to reach the door lock and unlock it for Ned. Ned enters the stall, looking down at the other. He had grabbed Peter's bag, which told him that he would not be returning to his next class and if he tried he would be threatened by MJ and promptly dragged down to the nurses office.
Ned seems to realize that Peter just threw up his lunch by the way his nose scrunches up in disgust, which Peter entirely agrees with. “Let's get you to the nurse before the second bell rings and they think we're skipping.” He just nods at him and lets himself be pulled up, leaning heavily on the wall for support, then transferring to leaning his weight on Ned. as they walk over to the entrance of the bathroom, he catches a look of himself in the mirror. He looks like shit more or less. His hair is messy and he’s sweating more than he does when he gets back from patrol, he’s also partially aware that the smell of vomit lingers.
He can feel the eyes of other students that were not in their classes yet on his figure. He didn't let his mind stick on that thought for long when they were suddenly at the front office. The woman at the desk looks up before pointing her finger to the door behind her, her eyes softening slightly. They quickly made their way past her and into the hallway that led to the nurse office. Peter used to go to the nurse office all the time, needing ice from when flash would take it a little too far and punch him. But ever since the bite he hadn't needed ice as the bruise would heal before it could ever really develop.
The nurse opened the door quickly after Ned had knocked, moving out of the way to allow them in, Peter had settled on one of the beds, exhaling at the way his head stopped pounding just a little bit. The nurse was in front of him after telling Ned to wait outside after being told he couldn't go back to class before knowing Peter was okay. “Hi Mr. Parker, I haven't seen you in a while. What's wrong?” she had stepped back to grab a nurse note and a pen, she quickly wrote down his name before looking back at him. “I'm not quite sure, I was getting overwhelmed and then threw up I guess.”
She simply nodded before writing something down on the piece of paper “Well it seems you’re not in the mood to return to school, so i'm going to call the contact you have on your record to come pick you up, Okay?” Peter simply nods back and watches as she leaves the room. He would listen into the phone call but he’s too focused on not throwing up again to care. Eventually the Nurse and Ned enter the room again, drawing him out of his thoughts. “I called your guardian, they said they’ll be here soon, i'll leave you and your friend here and call you when they arrive, please rest and come get me if anything happens.” he just nods along to her words and listens with a small smile as she tells ned that he will get a note to explain his absence from class, but not to push it.
Eventually she leaves once more and Ned sits next to him on the bed, choosing to just shoot him a look that translates into ‘you okay or do you need to puke again?’ Peter just rolls his eyes and nods. He can feel himself sink into the somewhat soft material, he would fall asleep if it weren't for the noises in the office that made him jump every once and a while. Ned seemed to understand that Peter wasn't in the mood to talk and settled for putting his bag down and sitting with Peter in equal silence. They sat like that, letting their heads rest against the weirdly cold walls (or maybe they were just cold for Peter) of the nurse office before the nurse walked in and told Peter his guardian was here.
Peter sat up slowly, he had calmed down in the time they had been sitting there but his senses were still screaming at him and the pounding in his head that had been quiet decided to make itself known once more. He simply suppressed a wince and picked up his bag, he said goodbye to Ned who had already gotten his absence note and was ready to return to class. He watched Ned leave the nurse room and got ready to apologize to Aunt May, who had to leave her job to come here. When he finally prepared himself, he pushed off the wall and walked out of the nurses office.
So imagine his surprise when instead of Aunt May in her nurse uniform, he's met with Tony Stark. The older man was in his usual fancy suit and sunglasses that he always wore in public. He can see the moment the man lays his eyes on him, because he's already walking over to Peter's sight. He's suddenly extremely aware that he’s sweating heavily, and putting all his weight onto the doorframe of his high school's main office, and that famous superhero and billionaire Tony Stark is in the same place, here to pick him up cause he started feeling a bit sick.
He snaps back to reality when Tony is suddenly standing next to him and pulling him away from the wall and instead to him. Peter stumbles before stabilizing with the help of the other, allowing himself to fall in step as Tony walks back to the front of the desk and waves to the same woman from earlier, who simply looks up and smiles. Tony takes this as his sign to leave and leads Peter out of the building and to the car that's parked outside. There's no doubt about it that they are happy sitting in the driver's seat waiting for them. He adds that to the list of people to apologize to for this little incident. He prays to whatever god out there that Pepper is not also in that car. That would be really embarrassing.
Peter struggles down the stairs in front of his school a little, each step makes his migraine grow a little worse. The sun blazing down seems to have fixed the problem he was having with the school's temperature, but it's so bright that he settles for just keeping his eye shut instead of fighting to keep them open. Tony seems to realize his fight against the sun and silently takes his glasses off and puts them on Peter's face instead. It doesn't fully block out the blinding light but it makes it manageable and allows Peter to open his eyes. He sighs, relieved, hoping that Tony gets the silent than you he was sending his way as they kept walking.
Tony opens the door to the car and Peter slides in wordlessy, Tony closes the door and a few seconds later he enters on the other side, also sliding into the seat without a word. Happy seems to take this as a sign not to talk and turns the radio off. “So kid, what happened? Not everyday that you get a call that the kid you're keeping an eye on is sick, especially when said kid is enhanced and apparently doesn't get sick.” Tony side eyes Peter, who laughs under his breath slightly. “I'm not quite sure Mr. Stark, I'm just off today, like my senses are going haywire.” Tony just hums a sound of acknowledgement, listening. Peter takes that as a sign to continue.
“I thought it was just a slight annoyance but then the bell for class went off and I suddenly became aware of every little noise, and then I was really nauseous and ran to the bathroom and threw up. And then I developed a really bad migraine that has kinda been there since then.” When he was finished explaining, he let his head fall on the window of the car. He could feel sleep calling him but he had to stay awake until he got home. He could hear Tony next to him moving around, then he heard him clear his throat which had Peter sitting up and turning to him. Tony just handed him a box he had seemingly grabbed from somewhere else in the car. He gestured for him to open it when Peter looked at him in confusion.
When he opened the box he was met with a pair of headphones, when he looked up to make eye contact with Tony, the man seemed to understand and explained. “When we first met, you told me that it was like your senses were always dialed up to eleven, i didn't know this would happen but in a case that it did i began working with the idea of noise canceling headphones. It seems that the work paid out and they're actually of use now.” Peter looks back at the headphones that back up at Tony before smiling and thanking him. He was quick to take them out of the box when he heard a car next to them honk, making him jump. He quickly slipped them on.
They fit very well, not risking to fall off or to leave marks in his skin and the sound proofing worked almost too well. Peter was convinced that everything just stopped until he looked out the window and found the same car that was honking to still be moving and the person driving it to still be pressing down on the honk button, looking annoyed at the car in front of them. He then turned back to Tony, who was staring at him with a proud smirk on his face, as if patting himself on the back for making such a great quality product. Peter just sunk back into his seat, finally starting to get a grip on his senses with his noise canceling headphones and Tony's glasses still on his head.
He was starting to fall asleep while looking out the window, he was distantly aware that where they usually turn to his apartments was back from where they came from. Peter shook it off, maybe they were taking a different route. That was all before he fell asleep in the comfort of his own seat.