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The day had started out normal. Peter Parker had almost been late for school. He had been half asleep through the first and second periods, but he already knew all the stuff anyway. He had spoken with his best friend, Ned, about theories of a new Star Wars movie. Flash had stopped by him at least three times to throw insults at him. And now, he had just arrived at the Avengers building to help Tony Stark with his latest invention.
“Hey kid, before we start, I’m going to need you to go up to medbay.”
“medbay…? Why?” peter asked confused, He wasn’t sick or injured or anything so it came out of the blue.
“Bruce Banner and I, want to take a blood sample, so he can start inventing some medicine that works with your metabolism,” Tony mentioned casually, and Peter stilled in his tracks
“w-what. Uhm- I really don’t think that’s necessary,” Peter said.
“You would burn through anything we can offer you without feeling it even slightly, better to be on the safe side in case you get hurt,” Tony defended. He and Bruce had been planning to do this for months but both had been busy.
“No, no. it’s okay. I’ve got my healing factor, remember,” Peter looked up at his mentor “Injuries are really not something we need to worry about, Mister Stark,” He said with a small laugh in the end.
“Not worry about injuries. Peter, of course, we need to worry about injuries, what are you talking about? one day it might be too much for your healing factor to handle, or you could get poisoned and need an antidote. If the day comes, we need to be prepared.” Tony glanced at peter seriously. This was not up for discussion, their information about Peter’s healing factor was still very limited.
“But-“ Peter tried before he got interrupted by Tony.
“No ‘buts’, Kid. I don’t wanna hear it.” He looked at Peter who was chewing on his lower lip in defeat. “What’s the matter Underoos? You and doctors don’t do well together?” he asked suspiciously while raising an eyebrow.
“No, no, it’s not… it’s not doctors… Just the... Uhm- the needles... make me feel a bit uneasy,” The 16-year-old responded quietly while looking down at his feet. This was not the conversation he had wanted to have with his mentor today. Or ever for that matter. He hated seeming weak. He was a superhero
“Oh well, I promise it will be just fine. You won’t even feel it. Bruce is amazing at what he does.”
Just on cue, they arrived at medbay where Tony leads them to a room where Bruce was waiting for them.
“Hello Peter, good to see you again. How are you today.” The scientist greeted with a big friendly smile on his face.
“Oh, hey Doctor Banner,” Peter greeted back, ah bit shaky, while trying to return the smile but it also came out shaky. “I’m doing okay.” He tried extremely hard to not look at the equipment, laying on the table.
Tony placed a hand on Peter’s back. “I know the plan was to just drop him off here, but the kid is apparently not a big fan of needles, so I’m gonna stay ‘till it’s over. Hope that’s alright.” Tony said while walking further into the room. Peter was looked down at his shoes, clearly uncomfortable and embarrassed.
“Oh yeah, of course, that’s okay,” Bruce said surprised. “Peter, why don’t you lay down on the exam table, it might make it easier.”
When Peter got himself laid down on the exam table, Tony took a seat in the chair next to him. There he sat with crossed legs and arms looking down on the 16-year-old superboy who looked about to pass out.
Bruce seemed more or less oblivious to Peter’s fears, or maybe he was just good at hiding it. He started with tying an elastic band around Peter’s lover bicep and then approached the teen with an alcohol swap and the needle laying close by.
As soon as the alcohol swap touched peter's arm, the boy flinched and gasped, everything was suddenly becoming too real.
“A little uneasy, huh?” Tony said mockingly, at which peter groaned.
“It’s not funny Mister Stark…” he mumbled back.
At that moment, Bruce was done disinfecting the skin and he grabbed the needle and prepared to insert it into the crook of Peter’s elbow. “Alright now, you will just feel a small prick.”
Peter whined and instantly jerked away from the doctor and scooted over until he was almost buried in Tony’s embrace. “Whoa! Hey! Peter, you can’t just move like that… you could seriously have gotten hurt.” Tony said startled.
“I-I’m sorry...” The teenager whispered, embarrassed, and breathing fast. He slowly slumped back to his spot on the table and hesitantly straightened his arm out to Bruce.
Tony had never seen so much fear in the Kid’s eyes, and being a superhero, that said a lot. He was starting to think that they might have a problem in their hands.
“Okay-“ Bruce looked at Peter reassuring, “we’ll try again, try and take a deep breath for me, okay?”
Peter didn’t respond but took a deep breath and started chewing lightly on his lower lip.
When Bruce once again was about the insert the needle, Peter once again jerked away. But this time, he sat up and crossed both his arms. Bruce was prepared and had instantly pulled the needle away so that Peter wouldn’t get hurt.
“NO! No. y-you can’t do this. I-I can’t. I don’t want to do this.” Peter stammered frantically. And looked pleadingly up at his mentor in hope that he would give in.
Tony didn’t miss Peter’s trembling features and glazed eyes. “I know you don’t want to but I’m sorry buddy, this is a ‘have to’ thing,” he said sympathetically. He truly felt sorry for the kid, but this wasn’t something that was up for discussion, it just had to get over with. He put his hand on Peter’s shoulder and applied pressure to nudge the boy to lay down again.
“Noo. You can’t. I don’t want to. Y-you can’t force me!” Peter's expression suddenly went more serious, yet still frantic, and he glanced between Tony and Bruce. “You can’t force me to do something I don’t want to. you have no right to do that. Y-you can’t.”
Tony sighed; he had not imagined getting a blood sample done could be that big of a deal. “You’re right,” He then said, and Bruce looked at him with a look that asked, ‘what do you mean’. But Tony wasn’t about to let Peter get his way. “You’re right. I have no authority to force you to do a medical procedure…” he paused and gave Peter a sassy glare “That would require permission from your Aunt May, whom I will gladly call by the way, and that will of course also include telling her that you are spiderman.”
Peter’s jaw dropped, offended. “You wouldn’t do that.” He argued.
“Oh yes, I would. But we both know that either way, you are going to end up with that needle in your arm, so don’t you think we should just get it done without involving her?” he asked with his eyebrow raised.
“B-but Mr. Stark… I really don’t think I can do it…” The teenage boy admitted miserably and defeated.
The mentor's smug smile from winning the argument turned to a concerned one.
“I might have an idea of how to get you through this,” Bruce chimed in and caught the attention of both Tony and Peter. He gave a soft, sympathetic smile, as he explained further, “We’re gonna do a practice round with a pen first,” he pulled out a pen from the pocket in his coat.
Tony looked and the kid and then dumbfounded at the doctor, “Bruce, you know I admire your brain. But how the hell is that supposed to help?”
“Idk why or even if it will work, but I saw it once in a show on the television, so let’s just try okay?”
“…okay..” Tony complied, they had nothing to lose, after all, if it could help the kid even a little bit, it was a win.
“Alright Peter, could you lay down for me again.”
“mhm,” he didn’t currently trust his voice enough to speak, he knows it would come out shaky and whiny
“Okay, so what we’re going to do is that I want you to take some very deep breaths and look over at Tony. And, uhm… hmm...” The doctor seemed to be considering something. “Tony please let him squeeze your hand... or maybe like- just two fingers, so he doesn’t break your hand with his strength.”
Peter looked up at tony miserably, the adult held out his hand and Peter hesitantly grabbed two of his fingers. He really didn’t want to do this, it was embarrassing, he couldn’t believe that he was acting this way in front of two of his idols, but he couldn’t help it.
“I’m going to hold your arm, so you don’t pull it again, is that alright?” Bruce asked, when peter gave a nod of confirmation, he took a hold of the kid’s elbow and locked his wrist between his own arm and torso so Peter couldn’t jerk away. “Remember to look at Tony and take deep breaths, you’re just going to feel a small poke,” He reassured.
“I feel like you’re going to trick me,” Peter said anxiously and bit his lip.
Bruce gave sympatric smile. “I promise you that I won’t, buddy. You would be able to fell me tugging in your arm if I tried to reach for the needle,” He tried to comfort.
“O-okay…” Peter sighed and turned his head to look at his mentor. He wasn’t even sure why he was so scared of a little needle.
“Alright, Buddy, you’re just gonna feel a poke now,” Bruce repeated, as he took the pen out of his pocket and pressed it into the crook of the kid’s elbow.
Peter squeezed Tony’s fingers and whined startled from contact with the object because of how riled up he was. “Relax Spidey, it’s okay it’s just the pen,” Tony reminded him as he brushed Peter’s brown curls away from his eyes.
“Alright we are ready for the real deal now,” Bruce said as he reached to take the needle and the other equipment closer. “You won’t even be able to feel it much more than the pen.”
Tony pressed his lips together, he was actually getting kinda nervous too. He didn’t really know what to do if Bruce’s idea didn’t work, he definitely couldn’t just let the kid go without having gotten the blood. He couldn’t even get himself to think about situations where they would need to sedate him or at least ease the pain. He knew that if it ever came to that, Peter would probably be thanking him for making him do this. But he would really hate if he had to forcefully hold him down.
Luckily Peter didn’t resist and only gave a high-pitched hum in response. He flinched a bit when the needle went in, but Bruce had a firm grip on his arm so he couldn’t pull away. Instead, he squeezed his eyes shut, gritted his teeth together and squeezed his mentor’s hand- or- fingers. “Holy shit, I can’t believe that worked,” Bruce muttered
Tony looked down and his mentee and wished there was something he could do to make it easier for him. He hated seeing him so miserable. “So, Kiddo, what do you want as a reward for being brave, huh?” He said in an attempt to distract the younger. “Ice cream? Pizza? A lollipop?” He knew that he wasn’t very good at comforting, it wasn’t really his thing. When Peter didn’t answer, he took his free hand and started to ruffle the teenager’s hair.
“You’re doing super great buddy, you’re almost done,” The doctor comforted. “I’m just taking a little bit extra so we don’t have to do this again anytime soon.” because he knew that none of the three would want to repeat the experience.
Peter wasn’t really listening to what they were saying, his arm was aching, he didn’t know if it was because of his enhanced senses. Suddenly his ears started to ring and his mind became fuzzy. “Breathe, Peter,” he heard someone encourage, he felt like he was underwater. He hadn’t even realized that he had been holding his breath. He tried to breathe, but it was like the air wouldn’t go down in his lungs. He didn’t know what was happening, but it was scary, and he started to panic a bit.
Bruce slipped the needle out of the younger's arm and pressed a cotton ball onto it.
“Deep breaths, kiddo, you’ve got this, it’s over now, you can breathe, all the way down to your stomach c’mon” Tony encouraged calmly now that it was over, he could recognize a panic attack from a mile away.
“That’s it,” He said when Peter seemed to have calmed down enough to take steady breaths. He still had his eyes closed but they weren’t squeezed together anymore “It’s done. You did well,” he nudged peters arm to try and get him to talk to him “Now we hopefully don’t have to do this ever again,” he muttered
When Peter finally creaked his eyes open, the first thing he saw was the used equipment laying on the table. This was a huge mistake because he barely had time to roll over away from his mentor before everything he had eaten that day came splashing out on the floor. And he decided that this had to officially be the worst. Day. Ever!
“Geez Pete, you really go all out don’t you? Uhhm Banner?” Tony called as he gently rubbed Peters back.
“Sorry… Don’t like needles...” the 16-year-old apologized in a husky, tired voice as he flopped back onto his back.
Tony was happy to hear that peter didn’t sound so miserable “You don’t say,” the inverter joked sarcastically
“My guess is that you either got sick because of the adrenaline crash or lack of oxygen from holding your breath,” The scientist explained. He pulled over an oxygen cannula and placed it under Peter's nose which led the spider kid to give him a skeptical glare. “It’s just to make you feel less dizzy so you can come back to playing engineer with Tony,” he smiled
“Hey, you never answered what you wanted for being brave,” Tony asked in an attempt to light up the mood. For a moment, Peter considered telling him that he didn’t want anything, but he knew that this was tony who wouldn’t give up before he was allowed to spoil him even just a little bit.
“Ice cream sounded pretty good,” He replied sheepishly. The reeking smell of vomit started to get to him. “I’m really sorry for making a mess,” He apologized gesturing to the vomit on the floor.
“Don’t worry about it, bud,” tony smiled “Do you think you’re ready to get out of here?”
Peter nodded eagerly, although his head was still a little fuzzy, he didn’t think he had ever been more ready to get to the lab.
“Banner, please, for the love of God, tell me you can make that medication pill-form?”
“I-I’ll try my best.”