Peter Parker was unbelievably excited. It's finally winter break and Tony Stark had agreed to take Peter on a trip up to Quebec to go skiing.
May was going to see her extended family out in Italy and the two of them were going to meet up again just a few days before Christmas back home.
So on the way to Quebec, Peter was practically bouncing off the walls.
When they finally arrive at the hills a few hours later, Peter bundles himself up. A heavy winter jacket, on brand, courtesy of Tony Stark. A tuque covering his curls, cute little red mittens, and Spider-Man themed skis.
*
Peter was great at skiing.
No one really expected any different. I mean, what can't he do?
But he was really good, and before long, he had moved up to the more difficult ski hills with Tony, who was good too, but not as good.
"Race you to the bottom!" Peter shrieks, immediately pushing off down the hill. His spidey-sense is probably an unfair advantage at this point, avoiding trees and roots under the grass. But Tony had more experience and was better at distributing his weight.
Soon, Tony was flying past Peter, grinning wildly at his kid.
The scenery flies by in shades of white, green, and brown, as he pushes himself faster. Faster.
And then a scream echoes through the air.
Peter stumbles, skis pulling in the wrong direction, falling forward.
Blood. His hands are bleeding from where he caught himself on the tree, bark cutting into his palms.
Tony's already stopped, more gracefully than Peter could've hoped for himself, and staring up at Peter.
The younger hero, rips off his skis and starts running through the snow in his socks.
The cold nips at his toes and cheeks as he runs, but only one thought hits him. He's gotta save them. Whoever's in trouble, he's gotta save them. No matter what.
It takes a few minutes, but he finally finds the source of the scream.
There's a big, circular lake, probably the size of a soccer field. It's covered in what appears to be thick ice from the Canadian winter.
2 adults stand off to the side, tears flooding down both their faces. The woman is shaking, not wearing a jacket, blonde hair pulled back in a tight bun, little tendrils curling down her rosy cheeks. She sees me first.
She tugs on her husband's sleeve who waves me over. He's got ginger hair, a mustache, looking kind of like a friendly lumberjack.
The real issue is when Peter catches sight of the two other people in the area.
Children. Probably 10 years old and 6 years old by the looks of it. In the center of the lake.
Ice cracking beneath their feet.
"My babies!" the woman wails when Peter reaches them. "They can't move or the ice will crack. You've gotta save my babies!"
"Calm down, Lydia. Take a deep breath. They'll be perfectly fine. I promise," the man reassures. He turns to Peter. "Is there anyway you can get across and get them to safety? We'd be too heavy and break the ice."
He nods quickly, but then Tony stumbles into the scene. "No. There's no way in hell- Peter, listen. We've gotta call for help. You know you can't handle the cold like that."
"There's no time. I can do this. I can't just leave them there," the younger says. "I know what I'm doing, Mister Stark. I swear."
Tony lifts his eyes to the sky, snow falling lightly around them and sighs. "I hate you, you know that?"
A smile crosses the teenager's face. "I know! But I know physics. I know how to do this. I can't leave those kids out there."
Tony nods, sighing again. "Be safe. Turn back if you can't do it. Your aunt would kill me if she finds out."
Peter quickly hugs Tony, not even giving him a chance to hug him back before he's turning back towards the lake.
"I can do this. You can do this. It's okay," Peter mumbles to himself, carefully lowering himself to the ground. The ice bites into his hands and feet, but he pushes himself forward, carefully crawling along the surface.
It doesn't take as long as he thought, the ice mostly staying together, little cracks spreading through the surface but not enough to fall from under him. He can feel the 5 pairs of eyes watching him slowly slither along the surface.
"Hey," he calls out softly once he gets close to the kids. "I'm Peter. What's your names?"
"Tyler," the little boy says. He's obviously the younger of the two. Soft red curls peaking out from under his Iron Man tuque.
"Sophia," the girl says. She's standing almost protectively in front of her little brother, a determined look on her face.
"I just talked to your parents and I'm going to get you back to them, okay?" the teenager says, giving them a reassuring smile.
They both nod, relaxing easily. Peter's got a pretty trustworthy appearance.
"Tyler, kid, you're going to go first, okay? And then your sister's going to follow. Lie down like how I was and I'm going to push you."
Tyler does as asked, spreading his weight out like a starfish. More cracks spread out underneath his body and Peter knows he has to hurry if they're all going to make it out.
Peter holds onto Tyler's snow boots, pulling himself onto his knees so he can use more of his strength.
"If you don't get all the way to the end, slither like a snake the rest of the way to your parents, okay?"
Tyler's back shudders with a held in sob.
"Tyler, you like Iron Man, right?" Peter asks, knowing he can't delay forever. "Iron Man is right over there. You see him?"
Before Tyler has the chance to respond, Peter uses a good portion of his diminishing strength to push the kid's boots. Tyler goes sliding across the ice, right to where his parents catch him.
Peter knows that someone's going to have to explain Peter's strength to the parents, but currently there's more cracks along the surface, deeper ones as Sophia moves down to her stomach as well.
Peter sighs heavily, making his acceptances. Nobody's behind him to push him to safety. He's not going to get to the other side fast enough.
He does the same thing with Sophia, calming her down as well, though it's less important because all she wants is to get to her little brother.
"Go. Do it. The ice is breaking," she says, voice high and scared.
Peter does the same for Sophia, pushing her across the ice. This time she barely makes it and Peter's already trembling, cold seeping into him through his hands and feet.
"Peter! C'mon!" Tony shouts from the shore, waving towards where the teenager is, watching the ice crack under his knees.
He's not going to make it, but he might as well try.
He pushes himself onto his stomach again, crawling back towards where Tony and the family are waiting in anticipation, but saving the kids, being in the cold, it's taking a toll on him.
And it's going to be the death of him.
One wrong movement and suddenly the ice cracks, earsplitting crack, and then cold.
Peter doesn't know what's happening, all he knows is the cold that's in his bones and in his lungs.
Peter!
It's a strangled scream of sorts and sounds like he's hearing it from underwater.
Underwater!
The realization makes him breathe out through his nose quickly, trying to expel the water he knows he's already inhaled and kicking his leaden legs to get back to the surface.
As soon as he hits the surface, fingers scrambling for purchase on the ice, heavy jacket weighing him down, he heaves for air, coughing up the water. Tears burning his eyes, as he chokes on the water.
His whole body is trembling, but he knows he has to keep going. He has to get his body out of the water, has to get to shore, has to get to Tony. Whatever he does.
It takes too long. Way too long, to get himself out from under the water and the world is spinning around him.
He heaves again, coughing up the water, breaths burning his lungs.
"Peter! Come on! You can do it!" Tony is shouting from the shore, and Peter lifts his heavy head to see how far the shore is.
"You can do it. You can do it. Come on. You can do it," he mumbles to himself, words getting caught in his throat and he begins to crawl, fumbling with his shaking, unwilling fingers.
And before he knows it, there's arms around his shoulders, pulling him up to his heavy legs.
"T'ny?" Peter slurs, leaning heavily against the warm body.
"You have to get those off him. Being in those wet clothes will only keep him cold. Is your car far from here?" Another voice says.
Peter's ears are ringing too much to fully comprehend the rest of the conversation. His coat his tugged off his shoulders, the wind biting into his skin, but arms are wrapped around his shoulders, holding him into another's chest.
"'wanna go home," Peter says, coughing on the words and knees trembling beneath him, barely able to hold himself up.
"I know, kid. I know. I'm so sorry. We'll get you back to the compound soon, okay?"
Peter tries to nod, but he can't seem to lift his head up after letting it fall forwards.
He spaces out again, feeling his body get light as he's lifted into someone's arms. Not Tony, but his spider-senses don't scream danger.
"Peter? Can you hear me? We need to get your clothes off, okay?" Peter hears. He thinks it's Tony but his ears are still ringing.
"Mm... Mis'er S...S'ar'?" Peter slurs, desperately trying to get his eyes to open.
It takes too much of his wasted energy, but soon he can see the world around him. They're at the car. He's being passed to Tony who's already in the car. The dad having helped carry Peter all the way back to the car.
He's still trembling, badly. All he can feel is cold.
"'m cold," he mumbles, pulling at his soaked shirt with numb, shaking fingers.
"I know. I know. Take a deep breath for me, Pete. You need to breathe," Tony says, placing his hands on Peter's shoulders.
Tony helps pull off Peter's shirt, switching it for one of Tony's old ones in the backseat. It's already making improvements, but Peter's lips are turning blue, eyes glazed over as he fumbles with his jeans.
"Cold," he repeats, unable to close his fingers enough to undo the button.
"Hold on a second, kid. I've gotta find you some new pants to put on. Wait," Tony says, grabbing the teen's fingers as he searches through their backpack they packed for the trip. Finally, he finds Peter's pair of hello kitty pajama pants.
Tony quickly helps Peter change into the pajama pants, fear running through his veins. Peter's so far out of it.
Peter fumbles with Tony's jacket, opening it up just enough to slip his body into the front of it, leaving Tony in it too.
Tony pulls the kid closer to him, pulling him onto his lap, wrapping the teen tightly.
But the kid doesn't stop trembling, lips a light shade of blue, skin a sheet white color.
Peter lifts his head up, just a little bit. "Mis... Mis'er S'ark?"
"I'm right here, kid. I've got you. Calm down. You're okay," Tony reassures, carding his fingers through Peter's wet curls.
Peter opens his mouth to speak, ending up coughing again. It takes a moment to control himself again, but when he does, he looks even more confused.
"'We at the tower? 'm cold?" Peter says, eyes unseeing as they slowly move around the car. "Why... why am I cold?"
Tony shakes his head, pulling the kids body tighter against his chest, continuing to card his fingers through his hair.
"'M tired, Mis'er... Mis'er S'ar. 'M tired," Peter slurs, clumsily fumbling for Tony's shirt.
"We're almost there. Try to keep him awake," another voice says from the front seat. Peter's too tired, too confused to try to figure out who it is or where they're going.
Peter's still shivering miserably, and Tony pulls away to tug the jacket off his shoulders and then his shirt off too, hoping the soft heat from the arc reactor plus his body heat will keep Peter warmer until they make it to the hospital. He pulls the jacket tight around Peter's shoulders, pulling Peter's small body back into his chest.
"I've got you, Peter. You're okay. You're going to be just fine. I've got you. Breathe, Petey," Tony murmurs, hugging him close.
Finally, they arrive at the hospital, Peter barely on the brink of consciousness.
"No, no, no. Peter, keep those eyes open. You can't pass out now," Tony begs as Peter struggles to keep himself awake.
"'M sorry," Peter mumbles, and finally allows himself to let go.
*
When Peter comes to, he feels warm and safe.
Unfamiliar room, but familiar arms wrapped around his back and shoulders.
He shifts a little bit, curling tighter against Tony's body in the hospital bed.
"You awake?" Tony murmurs, pressing a kiss to the kid's temple.
"Yeah... Are they okay? Tyler and Sophia, are they okay?"
Tony huffs out a small laugh. "You're in a hospital bed, after getting real close to dying, and all you care about is whether the kids are okay? Yeah... They were perfectly fine. Not even a single bruise on them. You saved their lives."
Peter sighs in relief, relaxing against Tony's warmth even more.
"The parents told me to thank you about a thousand times for saving their kids. You're so stupidly selfless... I love you, kid. You know that?"
"Love you too, Mister Stark."
____
Chapter one :)
I'll be uploading this onto AO3 as well as here and if everything goes well, it'll be uploaded every single day!
Also check out my Spideypool fic if you feel like it Glazed Eyes, Empty Hearts and my other fic Melancholy Hope if you haven't already
Lyss