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It was no secret to the avengers that Peter seemed to hate the cold, always being bundled up in a few layers of jackets, having blankets around him even when the heat was on in the tower, having a few hundred pairs of slippers after Tony saw him wearing a pair of reindeer ones and wanted to see how many different ones he could spot Peter wearing during the colder seasons, having a tally list and everything.
It was also easy to guess the first thing Tony had added to the spider suits he made for Peter were heaters, especially after the first winter the avengers had known him.
Something common to see during winter was Peter curled up with a few blankets on the couch but still shivering, like the boy would never truly be warm.
With all this in mind it was a total surprise when Tony asked Peter if he was up to a camping trip, already explaining how the weather wouldn't be too cold, and Peter had actually said sure.
“I'll make sure to pack heaters” Tony promised before going on to explain when it would be and that he had already gotten May on board with it.
Peter thought that everything would be fine, there were heaters, he had brought more blankets than he could count, and it wasn't meant to go below 50° during the trip.
He had still been slightly shivering as a breeze passed by when he stepped out of the car, feeling like it was below freezing for a second, leaving him to look out at the clearing in the forest they had picked, somewhere in West Virginia.
“Petey c'mon!” Morgan cheered when getting out of the car, well tired of it after a few hours of a car ride, grabbing Peter's hand and tugging him to where Tony was setting up the tent.
Pepper was grabbing things from the car, leaving the superhero stuff they had packed just in case in the trunk.
Letting himself be dragged along, Peter chuckled fondly while Morgan bounced up and down in a literal sense, “Dad, me and Peter are going to find sticks to build a fort!”
“Alright, don't wander too far off. Peter, you being a teenager doesn't change the fact I'm not letting you two go too far.” Tony explained, trying to get the tent set up was more of an annoyance than expected.
Peter gave a thumbs up before following Morgan, “so we're making a fort?” He settled on asking, it wasn't unusual for Morgan to already have something to do planned out, because even if the car had one of those miniature televisions that they used to watch the home alone movies, it was a pretty boring ride.
“Yeah! I have a bajillion designs we are gonna use!” She beamed, “We just need some really good sticks, so you get the big heavy ones and I'll get the long thin ones!”
“Sounds like a plan, iron kid” the nickname flowed easily, especially because Morgan always talked about becoming a superhero when she was an adult, something that always made Tony bring up grey hairs.
Peter just wanted Morgan to wait until she was an adult, being a teenage hero wasn't exactly the easiest of jobs.
Morgan giggled as she started to gather sticks and Peter started to look for the best sticks he could, after all if they were going to make a fort it should be the best fort possible.
And best fort possible it was, it would be able to withstand wind and rain, the only issue was that both Tony and Pepper were too tall to stand in it, and in some areas even Peter needed to lean down.
But considering they had managed to make a second floor to a fort made of sticks and leaves, Peter thought of it as a win.
Sure they had still needed to go out to get even more sticks for a fire, Peter didn't mind, however Morgan complained a little bit.
All of it was worth it for the s'mores they had after eating dinner.
“How can you even call that a s'more?” Tony asked, staring at the stack of chocolate and marshmallows that Morgan had created.
All Tony got in response was a sly smile before Morgan started to eat it, and just in spite of Tony the s'mores discriminator, Peter made a replica of Morgan's s’more and ate it with a grin.
Peter and Morgan shared an evil look before making a third one, “you should try one.”
Tony looked appalled, “I think I would actually blow up if I attempted to eat that.” He had to get up and take a few steps away to stop Morgan from shoving it in his face.
“Tony, come on just try it, they won't stop bugging you until you do” Pepper had a fond smile while watching everything happening.
Peter shot a web at Tony's foot to keep him in place, “we added in the most important ingredient of all.”
“Love?” Pepper questioned, knowing full well that wouldn't be it.
“Nope!” Morgan giggled, “five extra chocolate pieces!”
Tony eventually was forced to eat it, and had to go to bed with a stomach ache. It had seriously just been a stack of chocolate, toasted marshmallows, and two crackers.
The tent they had was big enough to fit all four of them, Pepper and Tony had shared an area with a few blankets, Morgan had taken all but three pillows to make a pillow fort that fell while she was trying to fall asleep, and Peter had called dibs on the raised outcropping that was similar to a hammock, he had piled blankets into it as if it were a bird's nest.
They had a heater setup, and had a second one in the car for if they would need it.
Everyone thought they wouldn't, so it was really more of a safety measure, it wasn't meant to be that cold at any point in the trip to require it.
But as Peter shivered more throughout the night, he was starting to doubt that they wouldn't actually need it.
Peter was woken up every few minutes because of more shivering, each time awake feeling colder than the last.
It was after he found it hard to open his eyes that he grabbed the blankets he had and moved close to the heater, curling up under the pile of blankets.
The warmth the heater provided was welcome, and he managed to get to sleep, hoping that it would be warmer in the morning.
…
It was not any warmer when he was being shaken awake by Morgan, who seemed excited, “it snowed!”
Blinking away some of the tiredness that he just couldn't get fully away from, Peter looked towards the open tent door to see the blanket of snow covering the forest, “oh… that's cool!” He tried to seem excited for Morgan, he wasn't even faking all of it, he also enjoyed snow.
However the fact it had snowed was a bad thing for Peter, he needed to get his spider suit on or the cold was going to send him into hibernation.
“I'm gonna go make sure our fort survived!” She smiled before running off outside, coat, gloves, and hat already on.
With the tent empty, Peter dragged the blankets along to grab the remaining amount of blankets and curl them around himself, trying to keep whatever warmth he could.
Tony walked into the tent, holding the second heater and a few jackets, he was quick to notice Peter awake, “I brought you some jackets, I couldn't get the car's trunk open though, it got frozen shut, which means we are slightly limited on what we have until it warms up.”
Reaching out to grab the jackets, Peter started to put on layer after layer, “It better warm up soon” he grumbled, realizing his spider suit was in the trunk.
“If it doesn't we can drive somewhere warmer, or worst case scenario get Happy to bring a jet with a spot for our car in it.” Tony sighed, getting the second heater on, “Morgan seems excited though.”
“I can make a few snowmen with her as long as you get a fire started so I can warm up when I need to.” Peter was a little more happy with the jackets around him, even if snow sucked, he couldn't let the opportunity go to waste.
Tony eyes him warily, as if trying to see if he was warm enough, “if you're sure, I know you dislike the cold.”
“I'm sure! Shivering has never stopped me before!” But hibernation has Peter added in his mind, he had never told the team about the fact he could hibernate if he got too cold.
Now maybe that was a bad thing, because the team should know each other's problems in case something on a mission went awry, but Peter could keep himself warm enough for that to not be an issue.
Tony seemed hesitant, “alright, I'm going to go find some dry sticks for the fire, try not to get frostbite.” And with that the man left.
Once alone, Peter's smile faltered, he was going to have one hell of a day if it didn't warm up. He shook his head, trying not to focus on that while leaving the tent, cold wind instantly making him regret it.
“The fort lives!” Morgan cheered from the second floor of the fort, head poking out of one of the windows.
Peter's smile returned and he ran over to the fort, “of course it did, you and I are the best builders around!”
Morgan was beaming, and she grabbed some snow from the roof before throwing it at Peter, who managed to dodge with a flip.
“Oh you are so on!” Peter chuckled as he grabbed some snow and threw a snowball at Morgan, who hid behind the wall of the fort.
Giggles could be heard as Morgan landed a hit on Peter, having made two snowballs instead of one, throwing them in quick succession.
The cold bit at Peter, but he just wiped the snow off the best he could and made a few snowballs, starting to throw them repeatedly at the fort, “you can't hide behind those walls forever!”
“Yes I can!” Morgan grinned and grabbed more snow from the roof of the fort to make snowballs when Peter ran out of prepared ones.
Peter and Morgan were in a full on snow throwing contest, both landing pretty good hits, Peter had used webs to launch a few around the window and at Morgan.
Peter hadn't been trying to not let Morgan get any hits, so he had been hit a few times and even got hit in his face, something that had him shivering to a concerning degree.
Throwing a snowball as Morgan threw one, he managed to hit the other snowball, causing both to explode into soft snow that fell steadily to the ground.
He tried to dodge one of the incoming throws, but had been a bit slow, something that he probably should've been more worried about, and got hit in the arm with the snow.
Morgan was running out of ammo, just a few more throws and Morgan would have to give up the safety of the fort, so Peter didn't throw more snowballs so as to not give more snow to Morgan.
It felt like each new snowball thrown at him, was another second he had slowed, Peter had been hit with each snowball.
Eventually though he had stopped shivering, and got distracted watching Tony making the fire before being hit in the face with a snowball.
Peter started to wobble, and he found a slight laugh come from his throat as he fell to the side, seeing Tony rushing over to him before everything went dark.
It took longer than Tony had anticipated to find dry wood, the entire forest being covered in the thick layer of snow.
But with arms full of dry wood he had barely managed to collect, he went back to the campsite, seeing Morgan and Peter having a snowball fight.
And as he started to set up the campfire, he saw Peter wobble and fall to the ground.
“Peter!” Tony rushed away from the pile of sticks towards the boy he considered to be his son, who was currently laying still in the snow.
His shout alerted Pepper, who had been working on trying to get the trunk of the car, and she looked over, immediately gaining a worried look, “Tony what's going on?”
The first thing Tony noticed when grabbing Peter was how cold he was, skin barely being warmer than the snow on the ground, “Pete, Peter, kid you gotta wake up” he tried to shake Peter awake, but he didn't even stir, “Pepper get the tent open!”
“Shiii- okay!-” Pepper dropped what she was doing and rushed over to the zipper to the tent and tugged it open while Tony picked up Peter and rushed into the warmth of the tent.
Morgan had climbed out of the fort she had built with Peter and followed into the tent, looking on the verge of tears, “is- is he okay?” She sniffled, probably feeling like it had been her fault.
Tony looked over, trying to keep himself calm, “yeah Morgan, Peter's okay” Tony attempted to reassure his daughter, “I think he'll feel better if he woke up and saw a snowman though, don't you think? You could make the best snowman possible” it was just a task to try and keep Morgan from realizing things weren't actually okay.
“Ooooh yeah!” Morgan cheered up rather quickly, running out of the tent, past Pepper who had grabbed all the remaining blankets from the car.
With Morgan distracted, Tony checked Peter's pulse, it was slow but it was there and steady.
That fact let him breathe a sigh of relief, “Pep, how did it go trying to get the trunk open?”
“It didn't even budge…” Pepper sighed, pulling the snow covered jackets off of Peter and wrapping him in blankets.
Tony knew it would be bad if they couldn't get the trunk open, having the spider suit would give Peter more warmth than what the blankets and two tiny heaters could provide.
It was worrying to think that Peter could be suffering from hypothermia, or something worse, but Tony wasn't sure if it would be an overreaction or not to call Happy.
“Hey,” Pepper put a hand on his shoulder, trying to comfort him, “Peter's a strong kid, I'm sure a little bit of cold didn't kill him.”
Tony nodded slowly, looking worryingly down at Peter, who had seemed to curl up more under all the blankets, “Yeah…”
“He'll wake up soon and get roped into building snowmen with Morgan” Pepper assured.
He didn't wake up soon.
It had gotten dark out and Peter was still out cold under a pile of blankets, however he had started to shiver again, which Tony hoped was a good sign.
The aforementioned pile of blankets had gotten smaller when everyone got back into the tent to sleep, they couldn't all get frostbite.
Tony waited until Morgan was softly snoring before grabbing out his phone, “I'm going to call Happy and tell him to be prepared to pick us up in the morning if Peter hasn't woken back up.”
“That's probably the best course of action” Pepper looked at where Peter was with a sad look, “I hope he's okay…”
“I hope so too…” Tony whispered before calling Happy, hoping he could explain everything without causing the man to rush over immediately, probably breaking some kind of speed law.
The fact that Happy showed up only thirty minutes later and made everyone get onboard the plane he had brought, including a half awake Morgan, made it evident that Tony had failed in convincing him that it would be fine until morning.
No one could say that Happy didn't have a soft spot for Peter anymore at least, because as soon as Peter had been brought to the plane, the heat had gotten turned up all the way.
“What about my snowman” Morgan said sleepily, “I made it for Peter”
Tony ruffled Morgan's hair, “I got photos of it to show to Pete, and I bet it'll be there next time we go camping”
“It'll melt” Morgan frowned, clearly not convinced.
Tony nervously laughed, “you could always recreate it, maybe even make it better?”
And that caused stars to return to Morgan's eyes, “yeah! I'll even bring food coloring to make a Spider-Man snowman!”
“What about an Ironman snowman?” Tony chuckled.
And Morgan gave him this ‘really’ kind of look, “Your name doesn't even have a hyphen”
Tony feigned betrayal, “But I'm your father, doesn't that count for something?”
“Nope!” Morgan giggled, “Brothers come first, so I'll make a Snow-Spider-Man!”
That caused Tony to have a fond smile as Morgan giggled while leaving to go back to sleep, a yawn coming from her.
He just hoped Peter would wake up quicker to hear the idea and get to giggle alongside Morgan.
Peter felt like he had been asleep for weeks, his mind was kinda fuzzy, and everything felt warm, he was just covered in a ton of blankets.
And that struck him to be weird, so he sat up and looked around, remembering the camping trip.
This definitely wasn't a tent.
And remembering the fact it had snowed so much that he couldn't sleep with the shivers.
It's almost too warm in the room.
Along with the snowball fight he swore he was just having with Morgan.
He had passed out.
“How long has it even been?” He mumbled, rubbing his eyes, Peter had guessed that he ended up going into a hibernation state, something he had only done twice before in his early days of being Spider-Man.
Both times he had been asleep for at least three days, the first time had been three days and a half, and the second time he had gone unconscious outside and was out for a week.
He pretended he had gotten kidnapped, deciding that it would be easier than saying he had slept for an entire week.
So it could've been a day or a week, all Peter knew was that he planned on finding it out, so he grabbed just one of the blankets and started walking around what he now recognized to be one of the various aircrafts Tony owned.
Peter wandered around for about an hour before he ran into Tony, the man was barely awake, but Peter was happy to find someone finally, “Tony!” He ran over and hugged onto him.
“Wha- kid!” Tony didn't hesitate to hug back after the shock, “You should've brought some more blankets with you”
“It's already like a sauna in here, I'm good” Peter let go of the hug, keeping the blanket around him like a cloak the entire time, “how long was I out for?”
“About a day.. Has this happened before?” Tony sounded completely worried at the possibility of him passing out in the cold before.
Peter sucked in a breath, almost making it obvious it had happened before, “It happened when I was just starting out…” he decided that it wouldn't be worth it to lie, Tony was already suspicious of him.
He felt like he made the wrong decision not to lie, Tony looking at him as if Peter were a hurt puppy.
“Listen it's not my fault spiders hibernate” Peter huffed, turning away, “and yes I knew that it happens if I get too cold, but you know I'm not passing up on a chance to hangout with Morgan.”
Peter didn't see Tony's sad face before getting hugged, “listen little spidey, you have to tell me these things, I'm pretty sure you hibernating is important enough to tell me.”
“Well then it might be helpful to also bring up the fact I can't thermoregulate, but I'm guessing you already figured that part out?” Peter said, voice being slightly muffled from where he had his face pressed into Tony's shoulder.
The silence was answer enough that no Tony did not know he couldn't thermoregulate like a regular person.
Laughing for a minute, Peter pulled away, “Does this plane have hot chocolate?”
Tony narrowed his eyes but had a look of amusement, talking in a mocking voice, “does this plane have hot chocolate?” He stopped repeating, “what do you take me for? A loser? Of course it has hot chocolate!”
Peter smiled happily while following Tony to get hot chocolate while on a plane, because of course the rich guy would have plane hit chocolate.
Next time he'd bring a third heater, he thought happily.