Published: 29-04-2019

WARNING:

DESCRIPTIONS OF VOMIT, DIARRHOEA AND ENDGAME SPOILERS

Set in an AU where Tony lives because I don't want to face the truth.


"Alright, food's up!" Pepper announces as she carries a pot from the stove to the tabletop.

"Uh, kid?" Tony asks as he spots Peter shuffling down the hall towards him, "You planning on eating within the next century?" ususally he's bounding towards the dining room immediately, nothing getting in the way of him and his food. Tonight, though, he's walking at a slower pace than the average human.

"Yeah, jus' tired, Mr Stark." The boy mumbles, "Fell asleep on my homework again." He finishes the explanation. Tony can see the circles under his eyes and the sleep on his lashes, but he knows there's something more.

They all eat and Peter helps with the dishes while Morgan babbles on about her day to Tony; spent with Peter and Pepper at a swimming centre. Tony refused to go and made his daughter and intern shower immediately upon returning because he really doesn't want to deal with the stomach flu, knowing he'll probably catch it (with his self-care habits).

They sit down to watch the movie the little girl wants to watch even though they find it disinteresting and then she's off to bed. Peter and his mentor go to the lab for some tinkering while Pepper watches a terrible horror movie, the night travelling smoothly.

Until the males hear fussing from upstairs and investigate, finding Morgan in vomit-covered pyjamas and Pepper trying to haul the bedsheets from the sick girl's room.

"Uh, let me help you, Mrs Stark…" Peter offers when it looks like she struggles with the heavy blankets. It only takes a moment for Peter to back off, however, when the smell reaches him. He gags into his palm before stepping away and looking towards Mr Stark for help.

"Okay, let's get this into the wash while Mummy helps you take a shower." The man says and takes the soiled sheets to the laundry. Peter can't handle the smell of vomit, so why he suggested he could help is a mystery to Tony, but the kid's got a handle on himself now.

Pepper bustles Morgan into the bathroom and leaves Peter in the lounge, alone. He hears the blankets being thrown into the wash almost carelessly as his mentor hurries to get them clean, and feels bad that he can't help. He's not firing on all cylinders, shoving imself into the source of the smell, but it certainly woke him up - and apparently his stomach, too.

Peter figures it's just from the smell and sight, and stands to get some water just as Tony comes back. He leans against the counter and sips a second before he hears retching and that's enough to make him feel gross again. Setting the glass down he presses a hand to his stomach and breathes deeply through his nose.

"You good?" Tony appears in front of him. He was so focused on calming himself that he didn't even notice Mr Stark approaching.

"Yeah, just- I can hear from the bathroom…" The spiderling mumbles and straightens up, concern taking over his features. "Is she okay? She seemed fine at dinner and this was really sudden-"

"She's fine. You probably did the same thing at her age." Tony comforts the boy, "It's just the stomach flu. I was hoping you two wouldn't bring it home, but oh well." he examines Peter's face, noting the tired shadows under his eyes, the paleness of his face, and the slumped posture.

"I'm going to bed, then, Mr Stark." Peter's voice pulls Tony back to reality, "Hopefully the rest of us can avoid this." he smiles and starts towards his room.

"Here's to hoping." Mr Stark agrees. "Night, kid."

By the time Morgan is curled up on the couch next to a bucket it's nearly one in the morning, so he isn't expecting it when Peter stumbles into the hallway and slams straight into him. He's paler than before, and looks distinctly nauseous.

"Whoa, okay. You feel sick?" Tony recieves a nod and the boy continues towards the bathroom, his mentor hot on his heels. Peter stands at the sink to splash his face with water as his mentor enters the small space. He leans his head on his hands over the sink and breathes shakily with an open mouth.

"S-sorry, Tony…" Peter cuts off with a hiccup and drags his jaw shut.

"It's fine, buddy. Guess we didn't hope hard enough, huh?" The boy wants to answer but turns and collapses in front of the toilet instead to start heaving his stomach into the bowl.

"Okay, okay… Just-" Pepper is better at this, Tony knows, but she's getting some much needed sleep and he wants her to steer clear of this bug. He settles for rubbing Peter's back until he stops retching, then passes him a glass of water.

Peter rinses his mouth before hesitantly swallowing a few small mouthfuls of the drink. Tony sets him up on the opposite end of the couch with Morgan and fetches a blanket and bucket for Peter. The kid curls up to try and relieve his nausea under said blanket.

The rustling wakes Morgan and she looks up at her dad with teary eyes before gagging, giving Tony just enough time to get the bucket under her chin and catch the bile and remnants of dinner.

Peter curls his hands over his ears at the sound and pulls the blanket over his nose to help avoid the smell, but it's futile because Morgan is crying and generally loud and his sense of smell is enhanced.

He pushes himself up and leans over the bin by the couch, retching and coughing into the plastic lining within seconds. The gags are too frequent to allow him to breathe and he coughs on the end of the last retch, noticing that Morgan is lying down again and Tony is replacing the plastic bag in her bucket.

"Try to sleep, okay Sweetie?" The engineer speaks gently and Peter realises just how much he needs Tony as a mentor and a father-figure.

"You done?" The man asks.

"Um, I think so. I don't know." Is the response, Peter's eyes fluttering shut as he leans back over the arm of the couch.

"That's okay, you can take as long as you need." Tony assures, "But I do want to clean this if you think you'll be okay?" Peter hesitantly nods, but as soon as the bucket is out of sight his stomach decides it's a great time to rebel and he has to dash to the bathroom before he pukes everywhere.

He's not so lucky, though, and while he's running with his hand over his mouth Tony exits the bathroom and they crash into each other again. The impact causes Peter to belch wetly before burping up a stream of acid onto the floor between his feet.

"Shit- sorry, um- shoot." Mr Stark is dumbfounded at first before snapping into the role of caretaker again, holding the kid up until he finishes and settles him in the bathroom. Peter hovers over the toilet, spit dangling in strings from his mouth as he prepares to heave.

"Daddy?" It's Morgan. She's standing in the doorway watching Peter with glassy eyes, "Is Peter okay?" she asks innocently, like she didn't just melt her father's heart.

"Yeah, he just feels a bit yucky right now. He'll be fine in a couple of days, just like you." Morgan nods and presses herself into her dad's side as he rubs her 'brother's' back soothingly. The boy's breath hitches and he brings up watery vomit with little effort. Morgan turns away and buries her face in Tony's shirt so she doesn't get sick again and he hugs her closer while Peter spits and rinses his mouth.

"Daddy," There's a slight urgency to her voice that makes Tony's eyes snap to her face, "I need the toilet!" she says unashamedly loud. Peter shuffles up and out with his clean bucket alongside Tony, who's now listening for any cries for help while also trying to comfort the other child through unabating nausea. The teenager slides down the wall outside the tiled room and clutches the bucket white-knuckled.

Peter declines medicine when it's offered because he knows it won't stay down. Hell, it might not even get down the way things are going. Tony forces him to sip at a water bottle every now and then, but the liquid just bounces back up each time. He doesn't stop persisting though.

Eventually Morgan comes back out and snuggles into her daddy, face red from fever and embarrassment at the smell that followed her out. Tony told her it was fine and stroked her hair, whereas Peter immediately gagged and heaved involuntarily.

"Okay. Let's move so daddy can help Peter." Morgan nods and makes her way back to her spot on the couch to fall asleep almost instantly.

Peter, still retching, is pulled up to standing and practically dragged to the end of the couch, but he protests the movement greatly. Finally, he finishes and falls into a restless sleep.

He wakes up to a gag hanging in his throat and a pressure in his lower stomach. Peter vomits a tiny bit into the bucket before he releases the bucket and tries to go towards the bathroom.

"Peter, you have a bucket here." Pepper is apparently awake and the sun is just breaking the darkness over the horizon. She can see the discomfort on his face and his suppressed gags, assuming he's simply nauseous in her tired, just-woken state. He doesn't have the ability to explain, he just shakes his head and continues walking.

"Hey, come back to the couch and sit down, okay?" Peter, again, declines and takes a few more steps before his legs wobble and he knows it's too late.

The kid feels something drop inside of him and a loud fart squeezes it's way out with a small amount of shit. The nausea rears it's head again and he falls to the floor, dry heaveing forcefully, mostly liquid exiting from his other end rather than him actually vomiting. Tears slide down his cheeks and he feels dizzy from the heat of embarrassment in his face.

Of course, Tony chooses this moment to return to the lounge and is greeted with his teenager sitting on the floor above a tiny (but slowly growing) puddle of diarrhoea under him as he sways dizzily, gagging pretty much emptily. He takes action before Pepper, who is shocked and a little guilty because she didn't realise he wasn't going to puke.

First of all, he helps Peter to the bathroom, noticing a high fever emanating from his skin, then takes a towel and covers the mess. After that, all that's left is to get new pyjamas for Peter. After about 10 minutes he knocks on the door and passes the clothing and a fresh towel through the small gap Peter allows it to open and hears the shower start.

After a half hour of the shower running it shuts off, but Peter doesn't emerge for another 30 minutes. The only reason he does is because Morgan has to go, and he's redder than a tomato, tear stained cheeks and glassy eyes.

Tony says nothing, but goes to hug him. There aren't any words that will make him feel any better right now, so he settles for comforting actions. The poor spiderling shies away and attempts to retreat to his room, but crosses the room to the couch when he's told not to infect his bedsheets, or he'll keep catching it, over and over.

It takes a lot of time and patience, but Peter's skin becomes less flushed and he stops silently crying and drifts off, huddled in the blanket. When he wakes up hours later, he can't even remember 90% of the incident because of how high his fever was at the time. He remembers enough to be embarrassed, but he doesn't start crying.

Peter's still nauseous as hell, but he manages to keep down a bit of toast for more than an hour. Morgan seems almost better and is watching cartoons with Pepper, and Tony's still supervising Peter. He makes him eat some mildly-flavoured soup and another half-slice of toast at lunch time, but he ends up throwing up in the sink.

"God, I hope that's the last time I puke." Peter moans when he returns to the dining table, "There's nothing left… Why do I still feel so sick?" he continues, more to himself than Mr Stark.

"You're sick, Underoos. You're going to feel bad for a while, but you'll be okay soon." Tony's so much better at handling this than before The Snap, and Peter says as much.

"Kinda comes with the label of 'Parent', kid. One day you'll be immune to this - and able to handle puke." Tony laughs, "And trust me, there's a lot of it."