Random one-shots

Christmas Special

Peter was not having a very good day. He was on a field trip. In itself, that wouldn't have been so bad, but the field trip was in the middle of the woods. In winter. And Peter couldn't thermoregulate, an absolutely awful downside to the spider bite, he quickly decided. It was Christmas time, and the trip was for everyone who didn't have a family to spend it with, so they wouldn't feel too alone. Peter liked the idea. What he didn't like, was the fact that he had forgotten to grab the clothes with heaters built in, and the fire was doing nothing to warm him.

"Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree, of all the trees most lovely..." The sound brought Peter back to the present with a start. Oh right, he thought. Christmas carols. He was not amused by the off-key singing, as his sensitive hearing made the young boy's voice cracks and high pitched tune hurt his ears. He grumbled in annoyance as he shivered, pulling his coat tighter around him and shuffling closer to the fire. MJ looked up from her book.

"If you go any closer, you'll set yourself on fire. And it's your own fault you're cold, I told you before we left to grab the heated clothes."

Peter half glared at her. "I know. But I was rushing, and I forgot." One of their classmates was about to ask why Peter needed heated clothes, and why he was so cold, when the teacher interrupted.

"Peter, why are you so close to the fire? You'll get yourself burned." At this, all eyes turned to Peter. He  shrunk a bit under their gazes, despite there only being a handful of people, and getting similar stares as Spiderman every night.

"Uh- you see, I'm really, really, really cold, because, uh-" thankfully, MJ saved the day.

"Peter was born with an extremely rare condition that makes it extremely hard for his body to retain heat. Usually he has heated clothes on during the winter, but he was an idiot and forgot." One last half glare was sent his way, before MJ retreated back into her book. The teacher was about to keep questioning Peter, when suddenly a phone went off. Everyone looked around, to see where it was coming from. Eventually, they all stared at Peter once again, who had paled and was frantically searching his bag and pockets. Oh crap please not him not now oh dang it why him why now was running through his head on loop, because he recognized that ringtone, and only one person had that ringtone. But why was his boss calling him? Why now? On Christmas Eve? He pulled out a phone, checked it, and discarded it. He rummaged through his bag once again, before pulling out a knife.

"Whoops. Forgot I had this," Peter mumbled, before turning to MJ. "Hey, could you give this back to Agent Romanoff, please?" MJ looked up, then took the knife.

"Yeah, sure."

"Thanks." MJ said nothing, only putting the life in her bag and returning to her book once again. They both ignored the teacher and students who had witnessed the exchange. Finally, after going through the bag once more, Peter found the ringing phone. He pulled it out, and paled again. He had been right. It was him. And he would only call now for one thing. Or, to be more exact, one person. One, idiotic, murderous person that despite it all, Peter couldn't help but care for.

"Uh, I may need to leave after this call, but I promise I'll be back before midnight. Uh, hopefully." With that, Peter answered the call and brought the phone up to his ear as he walked away from the fire, shivering as he went. "Hey, Sir. How can I help you?"

Silence. At least to the normal humans. The person on the other side was talking, and the students were either shocked, trying to listen in, or both. Peter, on the other hand, could hear the Avengers talking with each other as his boss spoke, along with the heartbeats of every person on either end and every other sound in the forest. He did his best to focus, and immediately wished he hadn't.