Ultimate Spider-Man One-shots

Hibernating 3

Do another hibernating with Spidey cuddling with Hulk!

Spider-Man was over the moon! How often do the Avengers ask you come over for a sleepover?

Tony Stark, Iron-man, was personally coming to pick him up from the Triskelion and Spider-Man could not wait! Spider-Man's idol had asked him if he wanted to visit Avengers Tower and stay over the weekend so that they could train together. Of course, he said yes.

Spider-Man felt the cool air through his costume and saw the angry grey storm clouds in the sky, threatening to release their load and engulf the city in their fluffy white blanket of snow. He was just glad that Avengers Tower had central heating installed. The frozen gust of wind were knifing him, already encouraging him to slip into a lethargic mood. It wasn't even midday yet.

The arachnid themed hero only had to wait for a few minutes before he was warmed by the engines of Tony's jet. The roar of the engines was uncomfortable for his too sensitive hearing but he ignored it as he moved closer to greet his idol.

"You coming or what, kid?" The elder hero's smirk encouraged Spider-Man to scramble into the jet with more enthusiasm than before. This was real. He really was going to train with the Avengers! A small part of him was glad that there were no hard feelings from when he had quit the Avengers and another, often overlooked part of him swelled with pride with at the knowledge that he had grown enough to be asked if he wanted to train with the Avengers.

Spider-Man settled into the co-pilot's seat as the jet took off again. The two heroes discussed a variety of topics during the journey, however, Spider-Man was only half focused on the conversation. He was more focused on enjoying the tingle of warmth returning to his limbs and gradual return of energy to his body.

By the time that they arrived at the tower, snow was falling thick and fast and Spider-Man was immensely glad that the hangar for the jet was indoors. The warmth of the jet was enough for him to feel as awake and alert as he normally should. Ordinarily, a cold winter's day wasn't enough to cause him to fully hibernate but this year promised to be the coldest that New York had seen in decades. He was not looking forwards to testing whether or not it would be enough to force him into a dreamless sleep.

The tower was the same as the last time the spider had visited apart from the upgraded defence systems in place. He had to admit that he was impressed due to the fact that he couldn't see the changes or defences at all. When Tony had been so surprised by the compliment (he had frowned when the younger hero mentioned it), Spider-Man explained through his laughter that his Spidey-sense was responsible for him discovering the new upgrades.

After greeting the rest of the Avengers, the training exercises began. Spider-Man was able to keep up with the Avengers training despite his lack of experience in comparison to the other heroes. He even managed to survive a one on one fight with Black Widow!

It was during lunch that things took a turn for the worse. Captain America decided it would be good idea to train on the roof so that they could get in a bit of could get in a bit of cold weather training without having to travel somewhere. None of the Avengers objected.

"Spider-Man, will you be joining us?" Steve's smile was amused but his voice held a subtle command.

"Yeah, sorry. I just zoned out," said Spider-Man. He managed to control his shaking as he stood up but Steve's critical eye must have seen something because his smile faded.

"Are you feeling okay?"

"Yeah. I'm fine. I just don't like the cold much." Not a lie. Technically, he was fine at the moment and technically, he didn't like the cold.

Spider-Man could have sworn that the temperature had dropped by several degrees throughout the course of the day. The snow was up to his knees and he felt his strength being slowly sapped by the cold. The unrelenting blizzard attacked him , adding to the cold that was already draining his energy.

He was shivering and tried to keep moving, if only to pretend that he wasn't minutes away from his body shutting down and going into hibernation. He prayed that the Avengers either wouldn't notice his distress at all and he wouldn't begin hibernating or that they would notice send him inside before he could begin hibernating. Unfortunately, no one answered his prayers.

It was twenty minutes into the training before anyone noticed how sluggish the youngest hero's movements were becoming. He wished that he had had the foresight to put on some warmer clothing, maybe he wouldn't be starting to hibernate so soon after coming outside if he had.

It Black Widow who first realised how uncharacteristically quiet and unbalanced Spider-Man was becoming, however, it was unfortunately to late for her to do anything about it. Before she could open her mouth to ask what was wrong, the spider fell face first in the snow.

Tony was nervous, no, terrified about the fact that he was going to have to tell Fury that the kid had passed out for seemingly no reason. Maybe there was a reason, but that didn't mean that he knew what the reason was. Maybe Fury knew. If there was a reason, why wasn't he told? He was going to die.

Hulk looked down at the young super hero in front of him, laying still on the concrete of the roof. He didn't know why the other hero had suddenly collapsed. He didn't think that fainting was normal for him.

In his determination to help his friend, Hulk ignored his teammates warnings and carefully picked the spider up, holding him close to his chest. He was surprised when he felt the younger hero move- not a shiver but a proper, controlled movement. Hulk didn't think much about it.

"Is bug man hurt?" The concern in the statement would have touched Spider-man's heart if his mind was alert enough to gather more that the basic sentiment of what was said to him.

"'M jus' tired. 'Nd cold. Tired 'nd cold. Yeah, sounds 'bout righ'," responded Spider-man.

His brain wasn't working properly, like a lagging computer. One thing that his delirious brain, or perhaps, just his body, noticed was that there was something warm nearby. The arachnid themed hero curled up into that warm thing. That warm thing happened to be the Hulk.

To say that the Avengers were surprised was an understatement. First, Spider-man had collapsed during training and now he was cuddling with the Hulk in his sleep. They had tried to separate the spider from the gamma powered hero to no avail. The spider's stickiness was too strong, however, it wasn't like Hulk was complaining, either.

Tony had made the dreaded call to Fury, only to find out that Spider-Man was hibernating. Of all things that it could possibly have been, Spider-Man was hibernating! Tony didn't even know that spiders hibernated, let alone that spider themed heroes hibernated.

He was mildly annoyed at not being told but he did understand why he wasn't. It wasn't Fury's secret to tell and Spider-Man was probably embarrassed by it as well. He couldn't expect someone with super-powers to explain all of the little downsides to people without powers. He knew just how frustrating it could be to explain why he needed the arc reactor and the downsides that came with  having it. The kid probably thought that he would be laughed at for having such a 'pathetic' weakness.

It ended up taking three days for Spider-Man to wake up. Tony was pleased that it was so quick as he had been told that it had taken a week of him to recover both times before. Tony felt somewhat sorry for the kid; Steve planned on giving the kid a talking to about not admitting to having weaknesses as soon as he woke up.

Spider-Man felt that the talk with Steve went alright, or as alright as it could have anyway- he was only chastised for half an hour (it was much shorter than a Fury rant could be).

As Spiderman was leaving the Avengers behind to go back to his teams, Tony stopped him.

"Kid, I want you to remember that there is always a place on the Avengers for you. And don't forget about telling people about little 'problems' like this if they happen again."

With that, the Avenger left and Spider-Man now had to endure a lecture from Fury and his teams about trusting people, again.