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brainwasheddd · 2 years ago

Text

New to New York

warnings: hospital (ish), mention of flashbacks and panic attacks, this bitch got trauma for days, but i promise this one’s not too angsty. also a lot of cursing

A/N: this is mostly to introduce the character and how he got to the tower and it has a lot of loose ends. there’s gonna hopefully be multiple parts if people like this. Also! I know a lot of this isn’t exactly how ASL works, and definitely isn’t how you write it out (trust me, i know sign pretty damn well) but for reasons of Plot Development™ just ignore that- also also i know this is a long ass author’s note but i did not do a bunch of editting because we die like men (/j) so i’m sorry that this isn’t my best work like,, at all. I was just really excited to post it. excuse the shitty title we all know i suck at naming shit

tags: @love-pyramus @simonrriley @cchloeprice @goddess-of-night @yourknightinshiningplastic @himbos-hotline @christian-sings-the-eulogy @marstonjohn (ask to be added/removed!) ((also you motherfuckers keep changing your names (/lh) so sorry if you weren’t tagged correctly))

Word Count: 2,748

reblogs are very much appreciated

Andrew woke up in a hospital room. And, of course, momentarily freaked the fuck out.

Okay, what the fuck. What the fuck. Where was he, why was he, what happened? The first thing he registered was a dull pain in his leg. He flipped the blankets to find it in a cast. He took a shaky breath, running a hand through his hair. Okay, fuck. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Okay. He was okay.

What. Happened.

The door to his room opened and oh my god that’s what happened. Tony Stark, the Tony Stark, walked in, and the memories flooded back to him. Flying to New York. The new job. Overhearing something. Then the fight downtown. He shook his head. What time was it? All of that didn’t take more than 24 hours, but who knows how long he was asleep. God, today has been the longest year of my life.

Stark was saying something. His lips were moving at least, but nothing was coming out of them. Andrew just stared at him confused. He reached up to his hearing aid, trying to turn the dial. It was stuck. Shit.

Andrew opened his mouth to speak, but a familiar feeling came up instead. Like his words were a sticky syrup that had been put in the freezer and was now stuck, a sludge in his mind, unable to escape. Double shit.

“Do you know ASL,” he signed. Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck. He hated this.

Stark held up a finger and exited the room. He came back with another man, one Andrew seen at the fight but hadn’t a clue who he was.

“Hey. My name’s Clint. I work with Tony. I’m gonna translate for him, okay?”

Andrew just nodded. He looked up at Mr. Stark. He looked angry. Andrew didn’t like that. Cold. He had to put up a defense. Unfortunately for the men trying to get some answers from him, that defense always involved deflection. And heavy sarcasm.

Mr. Stark started saying something. Andrew paid heavy attention to his body language. Yeah. Definitely angry. Probably at him. He looked back at Mr. Clint.

“Translation: Can someone tell me why this child who apparently forged documents to become a Stark Industries employee ended up fighting with the avengers today?”

“Not a child.” Andrew signed back.

Mr. Stark just rolled his eyes before saying something else. Mr. Clint said something back to him. Andrew wished to himself that he knew how to read lips. Before he could ask Mr. Clint to tell him what was happening,Tony was storming out.

“Sorry, he’s stressed out. Our teammate got hurt on the mission and he had to deal with a slight” he hesitated before continuing to sign. “Hiccup relating to work.”

Andrew took it he was the hiccup.

“Let’s start over. Are you hearing or deaf?”

“Depends.” Not a lie.

Mr. Clint gave him a pointed look. “Can you talk at all?”

God this conversation was draining. “No talk,” he signed simply. Those were the first two words he learned in ASL, actually.

“You fought damn well today. Seemed like you had some sort of fire weapon on you. Wanna explain that?”

Andrew answered simply by raising his middle finger and doing his favorite party trick. Fire came out of the top of his finger like it was a candle. Andrew kept a straight face, secretly relishing in the man’s baffled look.

“Okay. So not a weapon, you can just do that. How?”

“I don’t know, must be magic,” Andrew signed back sarcastically.

“Got it.” He replied, exasperated. “So why are you here? Tony says you came from another state. Family troubles?”

No no no no no. Andrew shut his eyes. No. He couldn’t flash back now. He took a breath. Okay. 5432154321 54321 5 4 3 2 1. Okay. No. “No.”

“Don’t want to talk about it?”

“No.”

“…”

“Can you go?”

So Clint left. In the hallway, Stark was pacing impatiently. “What did he say?”

“Not much. He’s a sarcastic little shit, and he kinda shut down. I think he’s just scared.”

“I didn’t know you can be sarcastic in sign.”

“Have you seen me and Parker talk?” Clint retorted. Then something lit up. Maybe that would work. Peter was pretty fluent in ASL, and he and the mystery boy were about the same age. Maybe he’d be more willing to open up then. “Speaking of Peter, when does he get off school?”

***

The next time Andrew woke up, there was a boy sitting criss cross in the chair beside him. He had curly brown hair and deep brown eyes with a light sprinkling of freckles. If nothing good comes out of this, at least I get to wake up next to a random attractive guy. Even if that guy tries to murder me.

“Hi.” the boy signed.

“Hi.” Andrew signed back.

“My names Peter. Peter Parker. Also I’m spiderman.”

“Why would you tell me that? Isn’t it secret?”

Peter looked nervous. “Yes, but I figured if I want you to be honest with me, I should be honest with you.” Oh, Andrew thought. So it’s just another trap to get me to talk

No. Stop. He was having those thoughts again. He was refusing to trust someone over nothing. Okay: logic. Avengers are the good guys. Spiderman is a good guy. And he was getting a good sense from him; warm. They weren’t Hydra. They weren’t out to get him. And so long as he didn’t mention CPS or anything of the sort, he should be fine to talk to the guy.

“Hey, are you okay?” Peter signed quickly. Andrew blinked. How long had he been zoned out?

“Fine. Tired.”

Peter didn’t look like he believed him, but he moved on anyway. “What’s your name?”

Andrew took a breath before he signed back. “Andrew Aguilar.”

The corner of Peter’s mouth turned up. It was kind of cute. “I like it. It has alliteration, like mine.”

“Assonance” Andrew corrected.

Peter looked confused for a minute. “You’re such a nerd,” he signed back.

Andrew smiled. His judgement was right; it seems Peter could be trusted. He was funny, at least.

“So, why are you here?”

Maybe not. Andrews face fell back to the glare it was at before. Peter quickly corrected himself.

“You don’t need to give all the details if you don’t want. But I’m curious. Mr. Stark said you fought with the team downtown, is that true?”

Andrew nodded.

“So you have powers?”

Instead of responding, Andrew motioned for Peter to give him his hand. Peter obliged, but in a split second pulled away, his mouth moving in what Andrew assumed was an “ow.”

Once Peter recovered from the burn (that was being dramatic, Andrew had made sure not to hurt him badly. He barely got to the temperature of a ceramic mug filled with tea, it was more the shock than anything), Peter started signing fast.

“That’s amazing. I mean, that was what, half a second and already that hot? Imagine how hot you can make it with more contact- how does your body put up with it? You must be enhanced in some way, too, like, can you get burned? Do you have thicker skin? How-“

Andrew waved his hand in front of him to grab his attention. “Slow down. And you call me a nerd.”

“Sorry. It’s just cool, seeing another person like me.” Andrew raised an eyebrow. “I mean enhanced. Like, I’m Spiderman, right? So besides being awesome, it comes with all these side things, and some of them are cool and helpful, and some of them are just weird. Like I stick to things so I can climb, but sometimes, when I’m tired I can’t shut it off, and I end up ripping pages out of books.”

Andrew nodded. He understood that. That’s why he created the hearing aids, after all. So when he was tired (or throughout the day, to conserve energy), he could block out the sounds he didn’t want to hear, but his stupid ears picked up anyway.

“Sorry I’m rambling.” Andrew shook his head as if to say it’s fine. “So, Mr. Aguilar, where are you from?”

“Arizona,” he signed.

“Woah,” Peter signed back. “That’s far. I’ve barely been outside the city a few times, never outside the state except to visit my boyfriend’s family in Tennessee one year.”

Boyfriend. Oh. Andrew felt his shoulders fall slightly, but he quickly tried to hide it. “Yeah. It’s pretty boring there. Hot. More hot. Pretty much it.”

“You have the Grand Canyon!” Peter tried and failed to sign grand canyon without finger spelling, instead saying ‘really big valley.’ Admittedly, a good chunk of the state was a really big valley, just not the one Peter was trying to reference.

Andrew suppressed a laugh and shrugged. “Never been.”

“Really?” Andrew nodded. “So what made you come all this way?”

“I got a job at Stark Industries as a chemist. Figured not needing a bunson burner was a plus.”

Peter frowned. “You’re like 16.”

“17,” Andrew corrected. “I may have forged a few documents.”

Peter raised his eyebrows. “And it worked?” He signed skeptically.

“Surprisingly yes.”

“So, you have family here or something?”

“Don’t really have family much of anywhere.”

Peter frowned. “Then where are you staying?”

“Well, my plane arrived about an hour before my first day at work. So I came to work. And now I’m here. I hadn’t really thought of where I’d go after this, I guess I’d just figure it out, you know?” He probably shouldn’t be saying (or signing) this. He just admitted that he, a 17 year old from across the country, was homeless in New York in the middle of winter. But he didn’t think Peter had the power to send him back, and that warm feeling was still there. Peter was still trustworthy.

Before Peter could give a response, another person came throw the door: a average sized man with black hair streaked with grey and glasses. He was wearing a lab coat, which totally definitely didn’t freak Andrew out at all. Peter and the man exchanged a few words before he turned back to the boy in the hospital bed. Andrew used this time to assess the new guy. He stared at the wall. Warm. But as soon as he looked back at him and the fucking lab coat he felt an icy flash. He closed his eyes. Breathe. Okay.

He called these false flashes. When someone reminded him of a different memory, his signals would get clogged and mix up. He calmed himself down, but before he could try and assess again, Peter was waving for his attention.

“This is Dr. Banner. He patched up your leg while you were out. He has some questions for you, can I translate for him?”

“Can he lose the lab coat?” He signed back, careful not to look at Dr. Banner. Peter said something to the man, who gave Andrew a puzzled look, but complied. As soon as the coat was out of sight, Andrew looked at the man again, as a new person. Warm. Okay. Good. He was good. “Alright,” he signed to Peter.

Dr. Banner talked to Peter, who dutifully translated to sign. “He wants to know about your hearing. What causes you not to be able to hear right now? He says you told Clint whether you were hearing or not ‘depends.’ What did you mean by that?”

Andrew thought for a minute before he responded. “I have hyperacusis. I can hear literally everything around me really loud and from far away, so I have hearing aids to block out noise when needed. They’re on the fritz right now, so I can’t hear anything.”

“Why don’t you just take them out?” Peter signs, apparently saying it aloud as well.

“Too loud. I get too overwhelmed and just shut down completely.” Andrew replied. He never takes out his hearing aids, even when he wants to hear far away. Even at the highest setting, they let him focus on the sounds he wants to hear. Without them, he’s attacked by a cacophony of sirens and voices and electronic whirring and he just couldn’t handle it. Even the thought of it made his skin crawl.

This time translating from the doctor, Peter signed “What if we get you noise cancelling headphones for a bit? They don’t cancel out all the noise, so you’d be able to understand us somewhat, and we can work on fixing those for you,” he pointed to the hearing aids at the end of the statement.

Andrew nodded. “That would be okay.”

Dr. Banner left the room and was back with a pair of large black headphones, which he handed to Andrew.

Andrew braced himself before pulling out his hearing aids. Sure enough, the sounds around him attacked, and he rushed to put the headphones on. Once he calmed his breathing, he tried to listen. Sure enough, he could still hear. It sounded close to level two on his hearing aids; the noises were very muffled but definitely there, and noises closer took precedent. He could make out footsteps on floors above him, and what sounded to be an elevator. The whole building had that distinct whirring that seemed to follow all forms of technology. The headphones weren’t as advanced as his hearing aids, so he couldn’t focus in on certain sounds with them. He’d just have to deal with the sounds surrounding him until he got his hearing aids back.

Peter waved. “Are they working?” He signed.

Andrew nodded. “Try speaking,” he signed.

“Hello?” Peter said out loud.

Andrew nodded again. He signed, “I can hear you, but not too well with all the other sounds. You guys can talk, but I’d like it if you still used ASL as well?”

Peter repeated what he said back to Banner, who nodded and began to speak. “Okay Andrew, I have a few more questions. Why can’t you speak?”

“I’m nonverbal right now,” Andrew signed. “It happens when I’m stressed out or hurt or sometimes out of nowhere, so I sign instead.”

Dr. Banner nodded. “Alright. Is your leg still in pain?”

“Not much, just a dull hurting now.”

“I’m going to have you stay here and sleep tonight, and we’ll see how you are in the morning,” Dr. Banner said, standing up. Peter followed him, waving goodbye.

Andrew was left alone in the room. He didn’t want to fall asleep, not in a place he didn’t know, but he was so tired…

Needless to say, he was asleep in less than 10 minutes.

***

“Alright kid, what’s the deal?”

Peter tapped his knuckles nervously. The other guy seemed pretty closed off, and it felt wrong to tell everything about him to Mr. Stark. But on the other hand…

“I hadn’t really thought of where I’d go after this, I guess I’d just figure it out, you know?”

He was alone here. No home, no family, nothing. They were the same age, and he couldn’t imagine the tables being turned. So, for Andrew’s own well-being, he told Mr. Stark.

“He’s harmless, but he doesn’t have anywhere to go. No family anywhere near here, no place to live. He just got to New York this morning. Can we keep him?”

“He’s not a puppy, Peter. He forged documentation to get a job here, not to mention he started fighting alongside us out of nowhere. If anything, we should be turning him in to SHIELD-“

“It’s not like he was fighting against you!”

Tony sighed. Peter was giving his best puppy dog eyes. “Still, we know nothing about him, not really. We’ll send him on his way as soon as he’s recovered.”

“We know he’s enhanced,” Peter retorted. “You really want some enhanced kid with no clue running around New York by himself? He’s gonna get himself killed.” Or worse.

He had him there. “Okay. Okay, he’s staying. You got me, kid.”

Really, he was never going to just kick him out in the first place. He would’ve set him up with a place to live until he was on his feet. But Peter made good points- the boy was just a kid, after all. And not everyone can burn a building down with their mind.

I guess a new hero just got added to the tower, Tony thought to himself. He just hoped it would end up okay, for both parties.

#marvel oc #spiderman oc #mcu oc #Andrew Aguilar #awsten writes (oc edition)

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