Blinking heavily, Peter began to slowly sit up, he winced slightly as he propped himself up with his shaky, matchstick arms- the pain was still there: the teen was hardly surprised, but he still wished it would stop.
As he fully opened his eyes, the young hero looked around the hospital room, the white room still surprised him- he was used to waking up to grimy streets, hard, concrete pavement and the freezing cold New York wind, not clean walls, a comfortable bed and a warm blanket.
He was pulled out of his thoughts when his Spidey-Sense tugged at the back of his head.
At the door.
The vigilante moved his focus to the other side of his room, he saw a nurse with blonde hair and a small smile, she had a piece of paper with her, which she handed to the boy when he waved nervously at her.
Hi. We need to do a couple of checks on you, is that alright?
Peter cleared his throat and gave the nurse a small, nervous smile, "I-It's fine. And y-you can just talk," Relief flooded into his eyes when he realised that it no longer hurt to speak, "I can lipread and speak, just treat me like a normal patient, but could you just make sure I can see your lips,"
"Of course," The nurse nodded and smiled before giving him a basic check-up, Peter happily zoned out as she checked his blood pressure and took down a few notes. She tapped Peter on the shoulder when she was finished to get his attention.
"All done, Dr. Banner should be here soon to see if you can get out of bed,"
"Thank you," Peter nodded at her as she walked out of the room.
He began to fiddle with his hands when he saw the door close, his blinking eyes flicked around the room as thoughts began to fill his head.
'Dr Banner? I get to meet Bruce Banner?!'
'God, he'll think I'm weak, just like Mr. Stark does,'
'Will he let me leave the bed? God, I hope so,'
'What am I gonna tell the Avengers if I meet them?'
'There's no way I can let them know that I'm homeless on top of being a deaf teen,'
'They're probably disappointed- probably thought I was better- definitely thought I was better,'
'Mr. Stark said I could stay until the Doctors stopped wanting to observe me, so when Aunt May 'comes back', God, I wish she could,"
Peter began to blink rapidly, trying to get rid of the tears welling in his eyes, he didn't want anyone to see him like that.
'I'll say she comes back in... 4?... days. Yeah, 4 days. I should be fine by then, I won't have to annoy them for too long, be a nuisance, be...'
At the door.
Peter quickly looked up, following his Spidey-Sense's direction.
"U-Um, h-hi, you're-you're Bruce Banner. I'm-I'm Peter, Peter Parker," The teen jabbered, scrambling to sit up the best he could as he ignored the aches and pains.
Bruce simply gave Peter a small smile as he walked over to the bed, "A Hulk fan, I see,"
Peter shook his head as he read one of his hero's lips, "Not really, I mean, the Hulk's impressive, he's really cool, but your Bruce Banner! Your research papers are amazing, I read as many as I can, I did some school projects on them and everything. I just read some of your newer ones, they're ground-breaking, I mean, just wow!" Peter let out a nervous laugh half-way through his rambling, "You're one of my heroes!"
Bruce looked on at the teen in shock, a small smile played on his lips, "You understand my papers?"
Peter nodded with obvious admiration in his eyes as he smiled.
"I told you he was a smart kid," Tony said quietly.
"First Bruce Banner fan I've met," Bruce muttered, still in disbelief.
"So, um, the nurse said that you wanted to do some checks on me or something," Peter said awkwardly as he began to fiddle with his hands again.
"Oh, yeah," Bruce said, snapping out of his trance of shock and happiness with a shake of his head.
Tony smiled at the boy as Bruce rushed across the room in search of papers, "You doing alright? Can you read our lips alright, or do you want me to grab Katniss? I can't say it'd be fun if you didn't know what we were saying,"
"I'm OK, Mr. Stark, thank you though. It would be great if you guys could make sure I can see your lips while you're talking to me, though, I'm pretty useless otherwise" The teen let out a sad little chuckle at the end of his sentence.
Tony simply nodded and turned his attention to his friend, who was reading over some notes the nurse had taken.
"Well, Kid, it says here your doing much better than you should be, I'm assuming you have a major healing factor," Peter nodded at the doctor's words. "Can you tell me how you're feeling pain wise?"
"Yeah, well, everything just... aches a bit. But it's not that bad, I've been through much worse, so I think I'm fine, I should be able to stand up,"
"Are you sure, kid? I mean, you were in an awful condition when you got here, most people wouldn't even be alive right now, are you sure you'll be able to stand up? We were thinking we could get you in a wheelchair or something to get you out of the bed,"
Peter simply shrugged, "I've got really advanced healing, if I broke any bones, they'll have fixed themselves by now, same for most things,"
"You think your bones have completely healed?"
"I mean, everything else heals ridiculously fast, I'd be dead by now if they didn't, and my legs don't really hurt. I don't really know though, I've never broken a bone before,"
Tony interjected before Bruce could add anything, "How about we do an X-ray on the kid? We've got the equipment to do it here,"
Bruce nodded slightly before turning to Peter, "Is that OK with you?" Peter simply nodded, nerves still obviously floating around him.
***
"Wow, just, wow," Bruce was peering over his glasses, looking at Peter's X-ray result with wide eyes, "They're... wow. They've completely healed. That's- that's really impressive, kid,"
Peter was awkwardly nodding along, his pale face flushing as he put on a hesitant smile, "So, um, can I get out of the bed?"
"You can try if you want," Bruce raised his brows and shook his head, letting out a small chuckle, "You're healing factors made sure you won't get hurt anymore. Be careful though, it might hurt a bit,"
Peter gave him a quick nod and smile before he focused his attention on getting up.
Clenching his teeth, the vigilante shifted himself so that his legs were swinging freely from the bed, he ignored the scars littered on the matchsticks as he pushed himself up from the bed and shakily stood up.
He winced slightly before biting down further and cleaning his face of the pained expression, when he looked down to see he was fully standing he let out a small breath- he did it!
He was brought out of his triumphant thoughts, which were pushing back pain, when Bruce tapped his shoulder, the doctor started talking when he gained the teen's full attention, "Do you think you can walk around?"
Peter gave him a strained smile and nodded before fully straightening himself up, he walked around the room stiffly with slightly shaky legs, "It doesn't hurt, I think I'm fine!"
He lied.
It definitely hurt.
But, plenty of things had hurt him much more than that, like when he got shot, or when he was stabbed, and he walked through all of that pain with gritted teeth. This was almost nothing in comparison.
Once he'd walked a lap around the room, he turned to the two scientists, "So, am I discharged?"
Tony let out a chuckle and Bruce simply shook his head smiling, "Give me a second, Kid. Sit down for a sec and I'll get it all up straight,"
Peter sat down on the bed with an eager expression on his face, he obviously wanted to be able to walk around and feel free, the teen hated being confined to one place when he had a chance to go somewhere else.
After a few minutes of scribbling and quiet discussion between the two scientists, Bruce looked up and gave Peter a smile, "I want to keep you under observation for a couple of days, but you're obviously healed up enough to get by. So, as long as you swing by here for a check-up every day for the next few days, you're free to get out of the bed, just make sure you don't overdo it, OK?"
Peter nodded eagerly as he read the doctor's lips. He then quickly turned his attention to Tony, who started speaking a few seconds after his Science Bro.
"Now, for living arrangements. You said your Aunt was out of town, right," Peter nodded, "How long?"
The hero hesitated slightly before answering, "Four more days, Mr. Stark,"
Tony chuckled slightly at the teen's politeness before quickly muttering something to Bruce, he then turned back to Peter, "How about you stay at the tower 'til then, like I said before. Just make sure you check in with Bruce every day. When you go back home, you should be fine without the checkups considering your healing factor, just take it easy,"
Peter nodded along, failing to hide his excitement about being officially invited to live at the tower, even if it was just for a couple of days.
Tony then checked his watch before looking up and smiling at the teen, "The team should be eating lunch about now, I'm sure you know we wanted to talk to you, well, recruit you. Let's go and talk to them now,"
Peter was about to say agree before he looked down at his clothes (a hospital gown with a pair of loose basketball shorts, Tony had found them in the Tower and said Peter could wear them for dignity's sake), "Um, is there a chance I could wear something more, well, um, more..." He vaguely gestured at his apparel.
"Oh, yeah, forgot about that, one sec," Tony walked out the room, leaving a blushing Peter awkwardly stumbling over his words.
A minute later, he returned with a pair of sweatpants and a band T-Shirt, "They might not fit amazingly, but, they'll do,"
Peter gave him a grateful smile and took the pile of clothes, "Thanks,"
"No problem," The two scientists then left the room, leaving the teen to get changed.
Peter quickly got changed, the clothes were a little saggy and a smidge too big, but they were fine, way better than a hospital gown and basketball shorts.
He reached for the doorknob and took a deep breath.
'Time to meet the Avengers!'
A/N: Hia! Thank you so much for reading- I really hope you enjoyed it!
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