#spidersting

“It’s the thought that counts,” Cassie countered, grabbing a pencil and writing down some changes in her plans. The bakery in Soho should do, then, and it’s not like the budget was an issue. “How are the tickets coming along?”

She let her gaze shift up from her notes so she could catch William’s eyes, who dutifully glanced over at Thomas’ computer screen. “He’s playing bubble shooter.”

“Thomas!” Cassie groaned, reaching behind her for one of the throws and hurling them at Thomas’ head. She missed, of course, but once again - thought that counts. “They have to be finished by tomorrow night, so we can get them printed on time!”

Thomas rolled his head back so Cassie could see his eyes. He was lying upside down on the Langs’ couch - at least his shoes weren’t on the pillows - and Cassie’s laptop was balanced precariously on his lap. “Don’t worry; I’ll get it do-“

Thomas stopped mid-sentence, face frozen, brows furrowing. Cassie was about to ask what was wrong, but it was quickly disturbed by Thomas sneezing loudly, causing the laptop to lose its balance and flop down onto the couch seat before tumbling onto the carpet. The sneeze was followed twice more for good measure before he groaned in annoyance. The speedster cursed at the ceiling in such a way that had Cassie instinctively look around to make sure Dia nor the younger ones were within hearing distance.  

Cassie frowned at the strong reaction and stood up to make sure her laptop was okay - which it luckily was - but her attention was caught as she noticed William’s grin.

The other twin’s smile was impish like she’d never seen before, as he turned a ‘loving’ grin towards his brother, placing his hand on his chest as if it was a touching moment. “Ah, the sound of spring.”

“Fuck you.” Thomas countered, sounding a bit more nasally than usual, but William had already blinked away. He reappeared next to the window a few seconds later, closed it, and had apparently stopped upstairs to grab Thomas a pill bottle, which he handed over to him.

Thomas opened it and swallowed two pills as William went to sit down again.

“Steve used to have allergies,” Bucky mused from his seat in the lounge chair. Cassie had almost forgotten he was there. It wasn’t usual that an Avenger was on the Lang floor - they usually all hung out upstairs or on their respective floors - but it reminded her of why they were there in the first place. Their prom, which was quickly approaching, and the preparations that still needed to be done.

Though Bucky refused to make the cupcakes, he’d been very accommodating with everything else; their 30s theme had been a strategic choice after all.

They continued working for another hour - Bucky giving helpful tips along the way - before he had to leave for an Avengers meeting.

Cassie and the twins had just finished washing the dishes from dinner when the elevator slid open again, and her dads stepped out. It immediately disrupted the calm of the entire floor, but Cassie didn’t mind. Scott and Quill were talking loudly, Scott laughing in such a way that still amazed her, filled her with so much joy just to see him so happy.

“Hey,” Cassie called out, alerting the two men of the three teens in the kitchen. “Your plates are in the fridge.”

“That’s okay, baby girl,” Quill replied, falling onto the couch and pulling Scott down next to him. “Stephen fed us.”

“Alright.” She turned back to the twins, grabbed her laptop, and went over their to-do list, ignoring her dads’ conversation in the background. They’d gotten quite a few things done already. After Bucky’s refusal, she’d already called the bakery to get their order in, had coordinated with a supermarket to get the other snacks and drinks delivered to the school at a lower price with minor sponsoring, and had most of the decorations planned out. Bucky and Steve would have to look over some of them still, but she’d already had alternatives for if there were any complaints.

Thomas had been surprisingly un-twitchy for the last few hours, and though his eye-lids seemed heavier than usual, at least he’d gotten the design for their tickets finished. She’d never really doubted him, of course, as otherwise she’d have given the task to someone else or done it personally. He’d done the design for their flyers a few months ago, however, and though it had come with a lot of stress on Cassie’s part - as Thomas only meets his deadlines last minute - she had to admit they looked better than anything she could have made. Her skills mainly stuck to glue-on glitter and stickers, actually drawing, even origami - anything that involved real paper, not online design.  

“I think that’s it,” she mumbled to the twins as she went over the list once more. “Want to watch a movie?”

When she got two affirmatives, she picked up her laptop and was about to suggest going to the twins’ floor when Quill sneezed. The sound of it rang throughout the living room, bouncing off the walls and scaring Cassie so much she jumped and threw her laptop onto the floor. Among the pounding of her heart, she heard metal crunch, but her attention was still pulled towards Quill. The celestial sniffed and yelled out an apology, ignoring Scott’s worried look as he wiped at his eyes.

“God, is there something in the air?” Quill huffed.

“Not anymore. We closed the window earlier.”

“Maybe Peter’s flower,” Thomas suggested, pointing towards the vase of purple and red flowers on the living room side table. Peter had dropped them off earlier - ever the attentive boyfriend. “Trust me: Asters and Chrysanthemums are bastards. If it weren’t for the pills I took earlier, I’d be a mess too.”

Cassie leaned down to pick her laptop off the floor. The screen was broken, but everything else seemed intact - except for a mysterious rattling coming from inside.

“Shit,” Cassie cursed, mind spinning over the hundred-and-one things she still had to get done - Never mind, the tickets she’d need soon. “I hope Tony has time on his hands... or Peter as it’s technically his fault.”

“I’ll bring it to the lab right now!” William perked up, volunteering a little too eagerly. Cassie sent him a knowing look and caught Thomas’s fond eye roll.

“Thanks, William,” she said as she handed the laptop over, smirk on her lips. “Say hi to Harley if you see him.”

William’s red face was gone barely a second later, and Cassie got to bringing Quill a glass of water. She handed it over to him, and remained standing, leaning onto the back of the couch as she looked down at her parents.  

“Maybe you should get some medicine? See a doctor?” Scott suggested, tracing the skin under Quill’s eyes with a finger as his eyebrows creased in worry.

“Why? It was just a sneeze!” He argued, batting Scott’s worried hand away, though his voice was getting hoarser by the second, and Cassie could see his eyes turning red already. He tried pulling Scott closer against him, but he sneezed again - so loud that both Scott and Cassie jumped, the man ending up even farther away from Quill.

“Looks like hay fever to me,” Thomas yelled from the kitchen.

“Kiddo, I don’t have hay fever. I don’t get any kind of fever - and there’s not even hay around!”

“That’s not -,” Scott tried to argue before deciding against another approach. “I’m not sleeping next to you if you’re going to sneeze in my ear.”

“You wouldn’t last a day.”

“I will if I go to sleep upstairs. It will be at least a week before Tony and Stephen kick me out.”

Quill seemed to think this over, rubbed at his eyes, and sneezed again before deciding that maybe talking to Bruce wasn’t the worst idea after all. “Even if I do have hay fever or whatever, it’s not like Thomas’ medicine will work for me.”

Thomas tried speeding towards them, but instead of ending up on the opposite couch, he crashed against the table next to it. “Fuck. Sorry, I’m not supposed to run on my medicine.”

Quill looked at him, incredulously and pointed in his direction. “See! I ain’t taking that shit!”

“Relax,” Thomas countered, falling onto the cushions. “it just makes me a little drowsy. And I have cheap over the counter stuff, so it’s not as great as you’d probably get.”

“Why don’t you ask Stephen and Tony for better medicine?” Cassie frowned, making a mental note to ‘casually’ mention it to Stephen later.

“It’s no big deal.” Thomas waved their concerns off, causing Cassie to roll her eyes; Every time they thought the twins were making progress, there were times like this where they could still be so stubborn.

“Whatever,” Cassie let it go, for now, turning her attention back to Quill. “You know Bruce will probably be able to make something for you.”

“Or how about your boyfriend stops buying you shitty flowers. I didn’t have issues until those showed up.”

“Could be,” Scott shrugged, “but you never know. Sometimes allergies get triggered later in life.”

“You calling me old?”

Scott didn’t even respond, just rolled his eyes and poked Quill in the side.

“Fine,” he grumbled. Cassie shared a victorious smirk with her dad and stood up straighter, ready to follow them downstairs. Scott stood up too, reaching out a hand to pull Quill up from the couch. Despite his agreement, the Celestial remained seated, allowing Scott to uselessly pull at his arm.

“Quill, goddammit.”

“What? I’m not doing anything - just pull harder.” The celestial argued oh so innocently, but his smirk wasn’t hidden one bit. Cassie sent him a look, and he finally relented and got out of his seat.

Cassie followed her dads to the elevator, turning to check if Thomas was following them, only to find the other teen passed out on the couch. Clearly, the medicine was indeed making him sleepy. She would definitely have to talk to Stephen later and hoped Bruce would be able to make a celestial version that wouldn’t have any severe side-effects. She quickly ran over to toss one of the decorative blankets over him before joining her dads in the lift. They were arguing about something - Cassie tuned in just long enough to recognize it as something stupid before promptly ignoring them.

They went down to the Stark Industries Head Bio lab, as FRIDAY had told them of Bruce’s location, and when they arrived, it was still full of scientists, despite the late hour. Cassie didn’t usually come to the SI floors - none of the kids did except for maybe Harley or Peter - and it was weird to leave the familiar elevator and step into an entirely different world.

The penthouse was often crowded, yes, but not like this. The offices and desks were spread out luxuriously, the lab being plenty big enough, but the number of strangers mulling around was kind of unsettling. Still, Cassie knew only the most trusted would be allowed in Bruce’s lab as it was one of the higher floors, close to the Avengers and with some of the most enhanced technology they had available - which said a lot.

She did recognize a few of them from around the tower, and most employees were always kind to her whenever they had a chance to meet.

She was just used to exiting the elevator onto spaces she could only honestly describe as ‘home’; this definitely didn’t qualify. It felt more like being nine years old and going on a school field trip to the local hospital to learn about vaccines - leaving the comfort of your school desks to experience the chaos of the real world.

It wasn’t hard to spot Bruce and focus on him instead; he’d clearly been expecting them, as he noticed them quickly and came up to greet them. “Hey, what’s going on? FRIDAY told me you were coming down to meet me.”

“Quill’s showing signs of hay fever,” Cassie told him.

Quill looked gruff and stubborn, but a little better since they’d left the Lang floor - perhaps it indeed was only bound to the flowers. Then again, they might as well test him. They were going back to the cabin in a few weeks - as spring was always a time for barbecues and picnics - so it might be better to be prepared if he was going to react to the trees or flowers there.

“Hay fever?” Bruce frowned, glancing towards Quill. “What makes you think that? He’s not supposed to get sick…”

“He was sneezing, and his voice got a little hoarser than usual,” Scott supplied helpfully, seeming a little troubled by the reminder that this indeed wasn’t supposed to happen. Cassie was starting to worry herself; what if it wasn’t just allergies but instead a sign of something more serious being wrong with his immortality. “His eyes were getting red, and he kept rubbing them.”

“Thomas was around, and he recognized it as well.” Cassie supplied helpfully.

“Thomas has hay fever?” Bruce frowned, getting distracted for a second. “There’s nothing in his chart.”

“Yeah, I thought so,” Cassie sighed, “I’ll mention it to Stephen later.”

Bruce nodded, attention efficiently shifting back to the patient at hand. “Well, we can test you. I’ll start by taking your blood and then doing a general check-up while waiting on the results. It shouldn’t take long.”

Bruce led them into a side room, and Cassie took a seat while Bruce rummaged through one of the cupboards for supplies. Quill seemed a little too nonchalant as he placed himself on an examination chair and made himself comfortable. On the other hand, her dad was starting to twitch nervously, and Cassie noticed him reach up to scratch at his neck before Scott seemed to catch himself and stop the movement. She motioned for him to take a seat next to him, and he smiled, trying to be comforting as he sat down and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer.

“Cassie,” Bruce called her name as he placed the basin with the needle and tubes on a side table and grabbed the elastic to clamp off Quill’s bicep, “You want to collect the blood?”

“Really?” Cassie queried, sitting up straighter in intrigue. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah, of course,” he shrugged, glancing to Quill to check if it was okay for him.

“Sure, baby girl, if you manage to kill me, I’ll be more surprised - and proud - than angry. Let’s see it.” Quill joked, shaking his arm at her as an offering.

She got up and stepped up to the chair, nervous but also already itching to grab the supplies and get to work. Collecting someone’s blood had never been on her bucket list, but being given the opportunity, she couldn’t help but feel excited. “What do I do?”

“Right,” Bruce grabbed Quill’s arm and traced the elbow, trying to search for a clear vein. “You feel this bulge here?”

Cassie traced her fingers over the spot Bruce had just left, and indeed found she felt an area that was slightly rounded and bouncy. “Yes.”

“Good. Now put on these gloves and disinfect the area.”

She did as told, following his instructions carefully as she grabbed the needle and carefully kept the vein in place. Bruce told her to be careful about not touching the needle or contaminate the results. She carefully pushed the needle forward and - jumped when Quill yelled out in pain, immediately pulling her hands back and staring at him in shock.

“Just kidding.” Quill grinned mischievously, utterly immune to Cassie’s furious glare.

“Don’t do that!”

“Sorry, sorry, I couldn’t help myself. Go ahead; I’ll behave.”

Cassie inched forward again, glancing wearily at her Papa, but also less worried now she definitely didn’t care about hurting him anymore: he’d deserve it. In the end, it only took her two tries before blood flowed into the tube smoothly. Quill, of course, didn’t flinch a bit.

“Great job, Sunshine,” Quill said, sitting up straighter and rubbing his arm.

“Indeed,” Bruce smiled kindly, collecting the tubes and filling in a form. He put them in a plastic bag along with the sheet and handed it to Cassie. “Now go give this to Joan down the hall; she’ll get us the results quickly.”

“Sure.” She took it, knowing it was just a way to get her out of the room so they could check his healing. She appreciated the thought, as, even though he could be a shit, she didn’t like the idea of watching anyone hurt her Papa - no matter if he healed quickly or not. It did make her itch impatiently, eager to know whether his healing was okay or not as soon as possible.

She found Joan quickly enough in a lab down the hall, marked with her name, and the woman took the tubes with a smile and assured she’d get it done right away. Cassie took her time getting back to the examination room, letting herself get distracted by the different labs and machines and listening eagerly whenever any of Bruce’s colleagues felt like gushing about their work.

When she got back to her parents fifteen minutes later, they both seemed more at ease. A glance at Scott showed her dad wasn’t nearly as nervous anymore, and Quill had even moved to the chair Cassie had sat in earlier, arm draped around his husband.

“So?” She still asked, moving to stand next to her parents as her gaze shifted between them and Bruce.

“Nothing seems wrong with him, and his healing still works perfectly,” Bruce reassured her distractedly, his attention was torn between answering her and checking his tablet.

“Told you,” Quill caught her gaze and stuck out his tongue at her. Cassie flipped him off, which Quill responded to with an exaggerated gasp, making it difficult for Cassie to hold back her smile. Despite knowing logically that Quill was probably fine, it still felt like a massive weight had been lifted off her shoulders. And - as Quill had taken her seat - she sat down heavily on Quill’s lap, making him huff as she ‘accidentally’ jabbed him in the stomach with her elbow.  

“You might still have hay fever,” Scott argued with him as if Quill had been told that multiple times already.

“Yeah yeah,” Quill waved him off, draping an arm around Cassie’s waist, so she was sat more comfortably.

“How so?” She asked Bruce, more out of intrigue than worry.

“You know how the immune system works?”

“Yeah,” she replied carefully. They’d learned the basics in her bio class. “Immune cells target and kill foreign substances.”

“Exactly. Pollen is already recognized as harmful to some people who have lived on Earth their entire lives - so I can imagine that to a human who hasn’t been in contact with any pollen in the last 30 years, it wouldn’t be so weird to react badly to it.”

“But how come it only started now? He’s been back for years.”

Bruce shrugged, putting away the tablet. “It’s just a theory, of course. The fact that he was off-Earth might be completely unrelated. Some people just develop allergies later in life.”

“I still don’t get why Quill would even get allergies,” Scott questioned, that earlier worry returned. Quill, who still had his arm around Scott’s shoulder, tugged at Scott’s hair, causing the other man to yelp and turn to glare at his husband.

The anxious frown was gone, though, and Cassie felt another wave of fondness for her Papa, leaning further against him.

“Quill’s immune system is enhanced, but, though he won’t die, he’ll only heal once the contaminant is taken away. Hay fever isn’t deadly either way, so your body can continue ‘healing’ the infected tissues constantly, but as long as the pollen is in the air, they’ll just start the infection all over again.” Bruce explained patiently, making sure to catch everyone’s eyes at least once to make sure they understood what he was saying. “Besides, the symptoms you experience are side effects of your immune system getting rid of the pollen, not directly caused by the pollen themselves. Say you get the flu; your body might go through the same symptoms anyone else goes through - coughing, runny nose, fever, headache, etc - but because your system gets rid of the contaminant so quickly, you don’t even notice the minute you might have been ‘sick’ for.”

“That makes sense,” Scott nodded before getting to actually fixing the issue. “So can you get him some medicine or something? We can just throw out the flowers, but he can’t always avoid them.”

“Sure,” Bruce replied carefully, “I can definitely try.”

Cassie already saw him getting lost in thought, working out possible theories and treatment plans. They got up and left him to it, and though it wasn’t even that late, Cassie was starting to feel exhausted. When the elevator stopped at their floor, Quill immediately sneezed again. Cassie only stepped off the elevator to grab the flowers - she noticed Thomas had already left - before getting back in and pressing the up button.

She yelled out to her parents that she’d be on the family floor if they’d need her right as the doors closed on her.

Once upstairs, she waved at Stephen and the girls in the living room before heading for Peter’s bedroom.

“Hey!” She smiled as Peter looked up from his desk and turned to face her, dropping his work as Cassie placed the vase onto his side table. “I’m going to have to leave these here until Bruce makes medicine for Papa. Turns out he’s allergic.”

“Seriously?” Peter asked, smiling widely.

“No need to look so excited.”

“I’m not, I promise!” Peter reassured her, holding his hands up in surrender. “I surely will not pass this information on to Harley either.”

Cassie glared at him but quickly gave up and went to sit on his bed, patting the space next to her in invitation. “Come, I want to watch a movie.”

Peter did as told, moving in next to her and wrapping an arm around her shoulders. Cassie asked KAREN to play a rom-com she hadn’t seen before and leaned into Peter’s touch. It was nice to finally relax fully. Clearly, the last hour - and before that, too, to be honest - had been more stressful than she’d thought. She prided herself on her efficiency and ability to plan things to a T, but being the head of the prom committee was a bigger job than she’d expected.

Shit. The prom.

She tensed in Peter’s arms at the thought, anxiety running through her as she pushed herself away from him so she could sit up straight and think more clearly.

Peter glanced up at her with a worried frown. “What is it?”

“What’s going on with my laptop? I need to finish -”

Peter quickly relaxed when he noticed it was nothing serious, reaching out to place a calming hand on her thigh. “Don’t worry! Dad’s working on it; it won’t take long at all.”

Cassie frowned, still uncertain - she might yet have time to make a new design if she could borrow someone’s computer…

Peter rolled his eyes fondly at her hesitation before speaking up; “KAREN, what’s dad’s progress on the laptop?”

“He finished an hour ago and is now playing peekaboo with Lucy.”

“See,” Peter smiled triumphantly, leaning forward to pull Cassie back against him. Cassie sighed in relief and allowed herself to relax in Peter’s arms once more, turning her attention back to the movie.

——

A week later, Bruce finally had a treatment plan ready for Quill to try out, which couldn’t have come any sooner. As it turned out, it wasn’t just the flowers, and though Quill was spared mostly by the fact that they lived in the city, he and Scott hadn’t been able to go on their usual walks in the Park anymore. Apparently, having an enhanced immune system isn’t great when it’s working against you.

Bruce had been busy that week with some other research he was working on simultaneously, so he had asked them to come down to the lab whenever they had the time. Cassie decided to accompany Quill, as Scott had a meeting, and she was actually quite curious to see the lab again.

The sight of the lab floor was still foreign to Cassie, but it was already starting to look a little more familiar. Once again, Bruce rushed up to meet them, holding two nasal spray bottles and a strip of pills.

“This is what my seven Ph.D.’s have led to; designing nose spray to cure an immortal being’s sniffles,” Bruce sighed as he handed the stuff over, but his smile betrayed his amusement. “Nasal spray twice in each nostril. The pills might not work, but I thought we could give it a try. Best to take them at night before you go to sleep.”

Quill rolled his eyes but mumbled thanks as he opened the cap of the nasal spray and tried it out.

“Let me know how quickly you notice improvement - if you notice any at all. I have a few other ideas for alternate approaches or possible tweaks.” Bruce spoke eagerly, clearly curious to the result of his work, but was quickly called away by another one of the scientists allowed in the head lab. Cassie wasn’t an expert in biology or any of Bruce’s interests, but he knew that despite Bruce’s earlier jab, he had quite a few projects running at any given time.

“Oh, Cass,” Bruce stopped mid-step as he turned back to face her. “How were the results on your Bio test?”

“Full marks, of course. Thanks, Bruce.”