When The Day Met The Night

When the Sun Found The Moon

"You know, you don't have to do this.." Tony muttered, standing outside of Peter's doorway.

"He is right," Steve agreed. "Maybe you're not ready yet."

Peter slipped on his black converse from the foot of his bed. "But I really want to." He said. Today is supposed to be his first day of school.

As an eleventh grader.

He had been homeschooled all of his life since getting the diagnosis of lung cancer from the age of four. Until he was ten years old, he was mostly bedridden and lonely. His naive child like self-was too young to understand what was actually going on. All his Dad and Pa said was that his body wasn't doing so well, and he will be home before he knew it.

His childhood was mostly hospital visits, chemotherapy, and radiation, surgeries, and then maybe a month at home if he was lucky enough before the whole cycle repeated itself for years on end.

Until he got really sick when he was ten and went through this surgery that basically saved his life. They thought that he wouldn't make it through the procedure because he was too weak to actually breathe on his own.

But it was either going through the surgery that might've saved his life, or death since he was expected to die in a couple of weeks.

The doctors said that it was a miracle that he even survived.

After he recovered and had some tests done, his family found out that the cancer was still bad, but not as fatal as before. Although the cell division slowed down it was still very abnormal. He was able to leave the hospital and finally reconnect to the outside world, but the happy news was short lived.

He still had to take an anti cancer medication called Taxol. It slowed the growth of cancer in his lungs and helped keep it from spreading to other parts of his body. It was nice having a sense of hope because it was supposed to keep his cancer stable. But deep down, Peter knew that it wasn't really a cure.

He had a nasal cannula wrapping around his head, behind his ears, and down his shirt helping him breathe. The tubes were connected to a small oxygen machine that he carried around with him everywhere. He was kind of a lonely kid growing up, his parents were either at work or, visiting hours at the hospital were over.

So the tiny machine was his first and only friend for a while. It was like a small backpack with wheels that he rolled around.

He wasn't in perfect health, but beggars aren't choosers. All those years ago, his illness was so severe that he wasn't expected to survive past age ten.

But he did since he would be turning seventeen in about nine months.

Peter stood from his bed and slid his backpack on. He walked towards his parents by the door way. He put on a reassuring smile for the both of them.

"I'm going to be okay, I promise," Peter said. "I really really want to try this." At this point in his life, he would've given almost anything to feel normal. He had spent most of his life at home with his parents or with doctors and nurses at the hospital. He knew how desperate he sounded, but he really wanted friends, or at least, a friend.

Stark's brown eyes went from Peter to his husband, Steve. The look he gave was pleading but already embraced in the essence of defeat.

"Do you have everything in your bag?" He asked.

Peter nodded.

"Read them all out to me," Steve commanded. His voice had a natural strong ness to it, but his eyes and his body language said otherwise.