Chapter Text
“Dude, you’re starting to creep me out.” Ned admitted, staring at Peter with a mixture of concern and apprehension.
Peter shook his head, clearing his thoughts and brining himself back to reality. He had been so focused on how terribly this was going to go that he had forgotten where he was. Peter shot Ned a quick, forced smile before staring back at his own feet.
“Very believable.” MJ commented. Peter looked up at her, glaring slightly before noticing she was eating something. Something that appeared to be M&Ms? Where had she gotten those?
Peter was about to ask about her candy of choice when the elevator door opened. Mel and Miss Kesler ushered the class into the hallway where Mel gave them clear instructions. Don’t touch anything without permission and a whole bunch of other things Peter didn’t listen to. Unlike the rest of the class he’d actually been down here before.
“Peter?” A voice called.
Peter’s eyes shot up to meet Mel’s, who’d apparently been talking to him. He must’ve zoned out again. He really needed to work on that.
“I know this is a little unorthodox, but I’ve never been down to this level before, and since you have would you be able to lead the group to the lab?” Mel asked, biting her lip. Peter could tell she was just as uncertain about this detour as he was.
“Wait you’ve never been down here before?” Cindy Moon inquired.
“No, these are Mr. Stark’s private labs, only select people have access.” Mel explained.
“Then how’d Parker get access?” Flash spat; hostility clear in his tone. Apparently even a threat from Black Widow, the master assassin, wasn’t enough to deter him.
“Because I’m Mr. Stark’s personal intern Flash, that means I get access to the labs.” Peter said, slowly, as if he were talking to a young child. He didn’t have the brainpower to deal with Flash’s crap at the moment, so he just decided not to.
Flash looked about ready to punch Peter, but Miss Kesler stopped him with a sharp glare. Flash rolled his eyes and stepped back with a huff. Peter smirked slightly, it might have been wrong to feel satisfaction at that, but he had to admit, it felt good to watch Flash get shut down.
“Sure Mel, I’d be happy to.” Peter said with false enthusiasm. He was certain this was part of Tony’s plan, but he had no choice but to play along. At least with Pepper involved, it couldn’t be too bad. Right?
Peter led the group down the hallway to the door of the lab. AC/DC could be head blaring through the door and Peter grinned, for real this time. An idea was forming in his head, a very mischievous one.
Peter felt like he was channeling his inner Loki, or Shuri, or Sam, or… Why did he know so many trickery people? Either way, if Tony was going to mess with him, why not mess with Tony a little bit?
Peter turned to face the class, grinning mischievously. Ned looked wary but excited seeing Peter’s smile and MJ’s lip twitched up in the semblance of a smile.
“Ok, we’re about to enter the lab everyone.” Peter announced, turning back to the door and pushing it open. He led the class in and heard many sighs of awe throughout the group.
Even to Peter, it was an impressive sight, just a normal one at this point. The lab was in the same level as the garage so that Tony could access his cars to tinker on whenever he pleased. The lab was 2 stories, the second being about half the size of the first with a set of stairs connecting the two. Chalk boards covered the back wall on the bottom floor, words and equations scribbled across them in a couple different handwritings.
The top floor featured a wall of containers, each with a name on them. Natasha’s bin was almost overflowing with Widows Bites, Guns, and other weapons. Clint’s case contained at least 100 different types of arrows. Each Avenger had a case, as well as a case for Nick Fury, Maria Hill, and Phil Coulson, who Tony had just recently discovered was not dead. Tony had been pissed about that; Peter remembered.
Across from the bins were clear containers which held about 10 different Ironman suits. One case was open, the suit in disarray on the worktables in the middle of the floor, tools scattered around the different pieces. On a nearby table to the Ironman suit was one of Peter’s Spiderman suits and his webshooters.
On the bottom floor, chalkboards covered the back wall, words and equations scribbled across them in a couple different handwritings. The majority of the writing was Tony and Peter’s, Tony’s being large and slanted, but still elegant looking in a way. Peter’s was a mess and barely legible, Tony gave him grief for it all the time. Pepper’s small, neat writing was in a couple places, little notes reminding Tony that she loved him and to go get food for gods sakes. There was also a chicken in one corner, no doubt drawn by Clint, because chickens.
DUM-E, U, and Butterfingers whirred around the bottom floor, avoiding collisions with the many lab tables strewn around with various projects on them in varying levels of completion.
In the center of the bottom floor was a gorgeous red BMW 507. Well, it was going to be gorgeous once Tony was finished restoring it. Peter led the class forward until they were about 20 feet away from the car. Clanging sounds were coming from under the car, although only Peter could hear them over the volume of the music, and he could see Tony’s feet sticking out from underneath.
“FRIDAY, play All Star, volume 100.” Peter instructed, grinning. The class continued to take in all the sights of the lab, not able to hear his request.
Suddenly, the song blared to life, even louder than the previous song.
Somebody once told me the world is gonna roll me I ain't the sharpest tool in the shed She was looking kind of dumb with her finger and her thumb In the shape of an "L" on her forehead
Then the song cut out, allowing the whole class to hear Tony curse and bang his head on the car in surprise. Everyone stared in shock as the billionaire climbed out from under the car scowling and rubbing his head. Peter burst out laughing, Ned joining in while MJ just smirked, still eating her M&M’s. Seriously, where did she get those?
Tony grinned and nodded in a ‘Yeah, yeah, very funny’ sort of way before turning to the class and donning his trademark paparazzi smile.
“Hello, uh- “Tony trailed off, looking expectantly at the ceiling.
“Do you seriously not know what school Peter goes to?” A voice asked incredulous. Pepper emerged from a door not too far away and stared at Tony in exasperation. Tony gave her a blank look and she shook her head.
“Welcome Midtown, I hope you’ve enjoyed you’re tour so far.” Pepper greeted, smiling. Tony regained his smile, and nodded, as if he had known that all along.
Peter got ahold of himself, breathing shakily after laughing for so long. Pepper shot him an amused look.
“So, I’m assuming you’d like a look around the lab?” Tony asked, looking around the group who just stared at him. “Or we could just stand here and stare awkwardly at each other if you’d prefer.”
The class hurriedly agreed to looking around the lab and Tony let them wander under strict instructions not to touch anything.
“FRIDAY keep an eye on that Flash kid. I don’t trust him.” Tony murmured, loud enough only for the AI to hear. Well, the AI and Peter. People really needed to stop forgetting that along with all his other superpowers, he also had superhearing. It made for some really awkward situations.
As the rest of the class walked around, admiring all the different projects, Peter made his way over to his parents.
“Hi Peter.” Pepper greeted, ruffling his hair.
“Hi mom.” Peter responded quietly as he grinned.
“What am I, chopped liver?” Tony quipped, holding his hands up in humored disbelief.
“Something like that.” Pepper said, raising an eyebrow in amusement.
“Really?” Tony asked, grinning. He walked up behind her and kissed her, hugging her from behind. Pepper giggled and kissed him back, smiling.
“Ugh gross, get a room or something.” Peter grimaced, holding his hand out to cover them. Tony and Pepper laughed but at least they stopped kissing. Peter counted that as a win.
“Mr. Stark, what’s on this?” Abe called out. Tony glanced towards the voice and saw that Abe was point at the chalkboard. He motioned for Peter to follow and Peter obliged. Pepper smiled at her boys and left for a meeting.
“Well, the chalkboard is used for a lot of things by a lot of people, as you can see.” Tony began, the class filing over to listen. “Most of what I write are reminders to fix certain things or to-do lists for Avengers tech. Like over here for example, this is a list of arrows that Clint wants made so that I’ll actually remember to make them at some point.”
“My handwriting is the really messy one.” Peter added, and blushed when he saw the recognition in Miss Kesler’s eyes. “I typically write- Well, I kind of write anything and everything that’s on my mind. There’s song lyrics, random tech ideas, oh and I think somewhere there’s the notes for the English project due next week.”
“What’s with the chicken?” Cindy Moon asked.
“Barton.” Peter and Tony responded at the same time. They began to laugh but got interrupted by an alarm going off.
“FRIDAY?” Tony questioned, ready to call for a suit if needed.
“Boss, you asked me to alert you if Eugene Thompson touched anything.” FRIDAY reported. Peter looked wildly around for Flash. He hadn’t realized that the bully wasn’t with the group. He spotted Flash up on the second floor by the Spiderman suit. Go figures.
Tony raced to the second floor, taking the steps two at a time with Peter close behind. The class followed but much slower.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Tony demanded, reaching Flash. Flash froze, his hand on one of the webshooters. “I gave you one direction, only one. What was the direction?”
“Don’t touch anything.” MJ supplied, munching on a red M&M, unperturbed.
“Thank you, Miss Jones. My one direction as said was don’t touch anything. And what are you doing?” Tony continued, rage heating up.
“Touching something.” Flash responded; his voice 3 octaves higher than usual.
“Something that only 3 people have access to; me, Spiderman, and Peter Parker.” Tony added.
“Wait, why does Parker get to touch it?” Flash retorted, regaining his cool. “He’s just Parker!”
“Just Parker?” Tony asked incredulously. “This young man right here is one of the brightest people I’ve ever met, especially this young. There is only one teenager on his level, and that is the princess of Wakanda who I believe you talked to earlier. He has the intelligence to keep up with me and Bruce on projects that far exceed what you do in school. He also has one of the highest GPAs, second only to Miss Jones. And most of all, he is more than just an intern at this point, he’s part of the Avengers family and each and every Avenger will be more than willing to fight you on Peter’s behalf if need be.”
The class, Peter included, stood in shocked silence. The only sounds in the lab were the whirring of the robots and MJ’s chewing as she popped a few more M&M’s in her mouth.
“Well, on that note, we better get you all to your bus.” Mel said, breaking the silence awkwardly. She ushered the class out, including one frozen Flash. Tony grabbed Peter’s arm to hold him back.
“Hey kid, I know you were trying to keep a low profile, but that dick got me on a roll.” Tony apologized.
“Did you really mean all that?” Peter asked.
“Every word.” Tony confirmed. “I know that you’ve had a rough life kiddo, but I’m exceptionally proud of you.”
“I love you dad.” Peter said, hugging Tony.
“Love you too.” Tony responded, hugging back. Peter let go and sent Tony a wave as he ran out the door to catch up with his class.
Tony smiled, enjoying the moment. Then a crash sounded, followed by a disappointed sounding whirr.
“DUM-E…”
…
Peter was sprawled out on one of the couches in the Avenger’s common room, his face pressed against Nat’s shoulder to hide his embarrassment.
Tony had dubbed Friday as movie night, so every Friday whoever was in the tower gather in the common room to watch a movie. Movie selection rotated from week to week, this week landing on Tony. Normally this meant they’d watch some sort of pop culture phenomenon like Mean Girls or some sci-fi classic like Star Wars.
But tonight, Tony had picked something special. It was called ‘Peter Parker and the Fantastic Stark Industries Field Trip’ starring all of the interesting and embarrassing things that had happened to Peter throughout the day.
Peter sunk farther into the couch and groaned as the events in the lab replayed. He pushed his face against Nat’s side, and she played with his hair.
Sure, he didn’t totally hate rewatching the day, Steve’s face when Shuri’s call came on was precious. But did they have to watch everything? According to Tony, yes.
Finally, the credits rolled, and the lights came up. Clint was rolling on the floor laughing at the look on Flash’s face and there were quite a few tears around the room at Tony’s final speech and the ‘I love yous’ that happened afterwards.
“Uhh, Nat, you realize it’s illegal to threaten children, right?” Rhodey pointed out. He’d had meeting all day with different army and SHIELD officials, so he hadn’t been around for the field trip, but he never missed a movie night.
Nat shrugged. Peter started laughing against her side and she flicked his head gently.
“So, did you enjoy your field trip, Peter?” Wanda asked, smiling.
Peter thought about all the things that had happened, and while it had been embarrassing, it was just his family after all.
“Yeah, I guess I did.”