Chapter Text
“The phone… is ringing.”
“So let it ring.”
“What if it’s important?”
“If it was important, Fury would’ve called the SHEILD line, not the regular phone,” Clint grumbled into his pillow, but all the same, he blindly reached up to the bedside table, fumbling around for a moment before his hand landed on the phone, picking it up and turning his head enough so he could answer it. “Hello?”
“Uncle Clint?”
Clint furrowed his brow for a moment, trying to process the voice on the other line. His mind was still a bit hazy from sleep. “Who is this again?”
There was a familiar chuckle from the other end of the line, “It’s Peter, Uncle Clint.”
“Peter… Oh! Peter! What’s up kiddo?” Clint couldn’t help but smile fondly, shifting in bed so he could lay on his back and talk to his nephew.
“Well… I kind of have a problem. It’s nothing big, so don’t go calling any SHIELD agents or anyone!” Peter said, and Clint could definitely hear the slight waver in his voice as he talked, “You remember I went to that science exhibit last week with my biology class, right?”
“Of course,” Clint replied. How could he not know? Peter had been looking forward to it for weeks. “What happened?”
By this point, Bruce was propped up on his elbow on his left side, regarding Clint with curious eyes. The words ‘Peter’ and ‘what happened’ in the same conversation couldn’t be good.
“Well… I kind of sort of got bitten by a spider that escaped one of the exhibits. I didn’t realize it until after it happened and I saw the spider on my hand. It’s just a red bump now, but I haven’t been feeling… normal lately. Think Uncle Bruce could take a look at me and make sure I’m not dying or anything?”
“Yeah, of course. Do your Dads know?”
“Of course not!” Peter nearly shrieked, “And you can’t tell them! I don’t want them worrying over nothing.”
“Hate to break it to you kiddo, but knowing Tony, he’s probably got JARVIS tracing and recording any calls you make with your phone.”
Clint could nearly hear the smile in Peter’s words when he spoke again, “I know. That’s why I borrowed my friend Harry’s phone.”
Clint couldn’t help but laugh, “Natasha needs to stop teaching you her little tricks. But here’s the deal: Bruce will take a look at you, and if we find anything wrong at all, we’re telling your Dads. Got it? If it’s nothing but a little bite after all, we won’t say anything. Fair?”
Peter sighed on the other line, “Okay, okay. Deal. Can I come over now?”
“Yeah, sure. Wait, don’t you have school today?”
“It’s one of those teacher meetings days,” Peter replied, shrugging, “Thanks Uncle Clint. I’ll be there soon!”
Clint shook his head and hung up the phone, turning to meet Bruce’s questioning gaze, “Peter’s on his way over here. He said a spider bit him while he was at the science exhibit last week and he’s been feeling a little… off. He wants you, good doctor, to take a look at him.”
Bruce’s brow furrowed, seemingly already running over different possibilities in his head, “Well if it was a week ago, it can’t be fatal. Most venomous spider bites kill a human in a couple days, if not hours, so long as they‘re left untreated.”
“Well, that’s reassuring,” Clint stated, sitting up and running a hand through his unruly blonde hair, “I’ll go down to the bagel shop and grab breakfast. You can… get started on whatever sciencey stuff you need to do.”
Bruce chuckled, “Right. Am I to assume Tony and Steve don’t know about any of this?”
“You assume correctly, doctor.”
Bruce looked amused, “Right, so when Tony finds out that we didn’t tell them, he can kill us both.”
Clint only grinned, “In case you forgot, we’ve got the big guy on our side.”
Bruce could literally feel the Hulk grinning manically in his head. It seemed that since the other Avengers showed the big guy that they trusted him, he’d been a lot more calmer around them. Bruce has suspected that maybe, just maybe Tony had been right. Since Bruce stopped hating himself and the Hulk, the big guy wasn’t as easily agitated as in the past. It was almost like him and Bruce could actually work together. Maybe even understand each other, on some level.
“Yeah, I guess you’re right. Pick up onion bagels. They’re Peter’s favorite.”
* * *
“Everything okay, Pete?” Harry asked, taking his phone back when Peter handed it to him, regarding his friend with curious eyes. It wasn’t unusual that Peter made the call outside; they were in the library after all, doing research for their term papers that were coming up.
“Yup,” Peter nodded, grabbing his book bag off the back of the chair he’d been sitting in minutes earlier, “I gotta run to my Uncle’s place. I’ll give you a call tomorrow, okay?”
Harry raised an eyebrow, “With your missing phone?”
Peter only grinned in response, “You forget who my dad is. He can make a new one in five minutes.”
Harry chuckled, “Yeah, gotcha. Have fun.”
He watched Peter leave, before his attention was turned to the small pile of books that he’d meant to check out for his paper. Harry shook his head in amusement, making a mental note to check them out for Peter and drop them off at his place later.
* * *
“It looks like a regular house spider bite to be honest,” Bruce stated, looking over the small red bump on Peter’s hand, “Do you have any symptoms?”
Peter shook his head, “No. Nothing like dizziness or anything like that. There is this one weird thing. Whenever there’s danger about to happen to me, I get this like… tingling feeling in my head. It’s hard to explain. It’s kind of like a dizzy spell, only without the disoriented feeling. Does that make sense?”
“And it only happens when something potentially dangerous is about to happen to you? Kind of like… a forewarning?” Clint asked, leaning back against a counter in Bruce’s small lab, arms crossed over his chest.
Peter nodded, “Exactly!”
Bruce furrowed his brow, before putting his glasses on and proceeding to take Peter’s vitals; blood pressure and heart rate and such. “Vitals are all in perfect order,” Bruce said, “Other than the… tingly feeling, is there anything else strange?”
Peter pursed his lips in thought, seemingly arguing internally with himself. “Well… I feel stronger. Like I’ve spent hours at the gym. And I can move easier. Kind of like how Natasha does. Only… smoother? I guess?”
“Couldn’t that just be hormones? Like, a growth spurt or something?” Clint asked, glancing to Bruce, “Have you been spending time in the gym with Steve?”
Peter shook his head no again. “No. I usually spend time in my room. Or helping Dad with stuff in his workshop.”
“Well, I don’t think a little improvement in strength or agility is anything to worry about. You weren’t exposed to anything else weird at the exhibit, were you?” Bruce asked, looking at Peter’s hand again.
“No. Nothing out of the ordinary.”
“Well, I don’t see anything wrong, from a doctor’s point of view,” Bruce concluded, “But I still think we should tell Steve and Tony. It’s nothing serious, really.”
“And, it’s not like you’ll get in trouble. It’s not like you went looking for a spider to come along and bite you. Right?” Clint asked, narrowing his eyes a little at Peter.
Peter sighed, “Of course I didn’t. The most I was doing was taking photos whenever we stopped to check out a different exhibit. But… I guess I have no choice but to tell them, huh?”
Clint smiled, “Either you do it, or we’ll do it, kiddo.”
* * *