Starks Apprentice

Chapter 13

The new information about my ‘special genes’ made me ever more cautious when going out now, especially with Peter.

The last thing I wanted to do was hurt him or get him hurt.

So, I was careful.

Never taking shortcuts and avoiding every alley I could, going into shops when I saw black cars and Tony had even gifted me a new phone with a special chip in it which would send out an alert automatically if any known Hydra members were within a certain distance of me.

Peter constantly reminded me that he could take care of himself, and me if I needed it, and as much as I knew that was true, I didn’t want to put us in that situation.

It was weird, knowing I had a weird potential that I would never use…yeah, weird.

Imagine me in a different universe, imagine me as an avenger.

God. Absolutely mental.

Anyways, back to the important, non-superhero stuff.

Currently, Peter was sick. I know, not the start you were expecting but hey, even heroes had their down time. May and I had been taking turns looking after him, seeing as she had work and he was in a pretty bad state.

Thankfully, by some miracle, he had fallen ill after I had been given the all clear by Bruce to come out of best rest, so I was all good to go back to my flat after a few weeks.

“Alex” Peters whines sounded from his room as I sat outside his door, reading a book I’d found on their bookshelf.

“Yes dear?” I used a piece of carboard as a temporary bookmark, peering around the open frame to see the upper half of his body slumped off his bed whilst his legs remained under the blanket, puffy face looking at me with a sad longing which I couldn’t help but chuckle at.

“Cuddle me?” he sniffed, reaching his arms towards me like a child and I shook my head at him.

“You know if I do that, we’ll both get ill. Then who’s going to look after us?”

“Mr. Stark can, he’s a great guy” he grumbled to himself, his muddy brain leading his thoughts astray.

“That he is,” I agreed, getting up and walking towards him “come on you, back to bed” his hopeful eyes dimmed, and he let out another quiet cry.

I tried to lift his upper body back into bed but was surprised by how hard that seemed to be.

“Snuggle with me and I’ll get back into bed” I didn’t comply to his bargains, using his own body weight against him and rolling him back into his bottom bunk.

“Nice try lovebug” I smiled down at his disappointed face, brushing his hair away from his face, his skin like fire beneath my fingers, a frown appearing.

"You’re burning up” I muttered to myself, leaving his side to look for a piece of cloth or something, ultimately ending up with an ice pack wrapped in a t-shirt which made him flinch as I placed it against his forehead.

“that’s cold” no shit.

“Sorry, May said this was the best way to regulate your body temperature”

Maybe I should call her? But I don’t want to disturb her at work or freak her out. Lord knows her and Peter freak out easily.

“Do you feel warm?” I asked him, sitting by his side, feeling his hand brushing against the side of my jeans, enjoying the feeling of the fabric.

He just hummed, eyes closed, and I reached for the thermometer on his table. His temperature was high.

Shit.