Chapter Text
The third room of the tech exposition was by far Peter’s favorite. And soon, it was the favorite of most of the rest. The room was divided into two clear halves. One side contained various demonstrations of new headphones and speakers from the audio department. One entire wall was a display of an audio visualizer program that reacted to the noise level in the room, with music options that could be tweaked to change what song was playing.
The surround sound was almost surreal in the room, the audio perfectly crisp and immersive. One of the students had selected a live performance from a concert and if you closed your eyes you would swear you could hear the soft murmur of fans near the front of the stage during pauses in the song. The bass seemed to resonate deep in your chest, it was an audiophile’s dream.
The other side of the room though was the real magnum opus. There was a massive wall dividing that half of the room a quarter in. The top of the wall held a series of monitors that displayed the contents inside.
Inside however was a massive VR machine. There was a helmet with a sleek design, able to fit comfortably on any head, as well as two gauntlets with detachable controllers depending on the simulation. Currently there was a student in the room, and the displays showed them fighting against a steady wave of robots.
“No way!” Ned practically shouted as he saw exactly what was happening. On one of the displays the view was from behind the person, rather than through their eyes. And instead of a generic looking character, it was an almost life model of the hulk. The student made an exaggerated downwards smash towards the ground, and on the monitor the ground cracked and shattered in a crater around them, the robots going flying before glitching out and vanishing. The student was shouting, but the room had been pretty isolated for audio both coming and going from it.
“That’s incredible!” Ned said running to hurry up and get in line.
“Insane…” Betty said, following her boyfriend.
“You knew about this?” Cindy said, joining them and pointing an accusing finger into Peter’s chest.
Peter tried to play it off with a shrug, but he failed to keep the massive grin off his face. Which only caused Cindy to narrow her eyes and MJ to roll her eyes at his attempt.
“Why didn’t you tell us about this first?” She asked, her mock anger being undercut by the fact she was still cradling the spider she printed off in one arm.
“Because this is probably the coolest thing for most people, and if you rushed here you might be disappointed with the rest. Also because we were going to get here eventually.”
Cindy stared at him for a moment longer, before she turned her gaze to MJ. “When did your boyfriend get so smart? I don’t like it.”
MJ just laughed. “He’s always been smart. He just only shows it when it helps other people.” She defended him.
Peter grinned at her, which only faltered slightly when he saw the twinkle in MJ’s eyes that showed she wasn’t done.
“Don’t worry, I have plenty of stories to make sure it doesn’t go to his head. Like last week when he was in science class and the burne-”
“No! Okay! Moving to the futuristic VR simulator now. No stories.” He interrupted, gesturing for Cindy to walk while he rested his hand on MJ’s lower back and started to push her towards the line.
MJ and Cindy laughed freely and Peter rolled his eyes and shifted his attention instead to the screens, watching the hulk on the display smash his way through robots as the counter in the corner slowly started to reach the end, showing there weren’t many bots left.
“So how many times have you done this before?” MJ asked, crossing her arms even though she was still watching the monitors as well.
Shrugging, Peter just smiled. “A lot. Like… a lot. They needed play testers, and I was paid for my time. I uh… spent a lot of time here.”
MJ thought for a moment. “Back in February.” She said after a moment. Her eyes narrowed. “You were practically dead on your feet at school for two weeks and you barely talked to Ned or me. We thought you were going through something since you wouldn’t talk to us.”
The burning on his cheeks probably gave MJ all the answers she needed. “I was under an NDA! I couldn’t tell anyone about it. You know I’ve trusted you guys with more but this was through the company rather than just Tony so I had to treat it like a real job.”
MJ raised an eyebrow. “So you blew off your girlfriend for two weeks to play around as the hulk.”
“You can play as any of the Avengers, to be fair.” He offered, only to see that argument didn’t really help much.
“I see. So you prioritize running around pretending to be the Black Widow over me.” MJ deadpanned, and Cindy started snickering.
Peter’s eyes widened. “You know that’s not tr-”
MJ’s composure broke and she laughed. “I’m just messing with you.” She reached for his hand but he pulled it away.
Peter crossed his arms and pouted, a little dramatically.
Reaching over, MJ tickled his side. He squirmed a bit but still continued to look away from her as he watched the monitor as they made it another position closer to the front of the line as the person in the machine swapped out and the attendant there helped the next person get acquainted enough to begin the tutorial.
Cindy snickered more, and Peter decided to go into full-on pout mode. MJ poked at his cheek, and he bit down on his tongue to avoid smiling.
It was quiet for a moment before he felt MJ lean next to him, getting right next to his ear and whispering. “Come on, Tiger. Look at me.”
Her words were like a shock of ice through his nervous system at her low tone as his eyes widened and he turned to look at her. She was giving him a sly smile and a look in her eyes that he was pretty sure he wasn’t going to forget anytime soon.
“That’s better.” She offered and his gaze flicked between her eyes and her lips for a moment before they went back up to her eyes. Now was really not the time to start kissing his girlfriend again. Her eyes still had that playful glint in them. “Sorry for teasing you.” She offered, even though they both knew full well he wasn’t actually mad.
Peter just shrugged. “No you aren’t.” She countered, a slight smirk creeping on his face.
MJ mirrored his shrug. “Not really, but I’ll make it up to you anyway, later.” She promised and Peter’s eyes widened slightly. They continued to stare at each other for a moment until Cindy gagged dramatically.
“I need an adult!” She whined.
Ashe wandered over to her, a teasing smile on her face. “Everything okay?”
Cindy shook her head dramatically. “Peter and MJ are being gross with each other.”
Both Peter and MJ turned to stare at her at the same time, eyes narrowing.
“See! They just did it again.” Cindy whined and Ashe just laughed at them.
“Keep it PG you two. No bedroom eyes in front of the headphones.”
Across the room Tyler looked up from where he was showing off one of the display models to a student who had already been through the VR machine. He raised an eyebrow and Ashe shot him a deadly look at him and he just barked out a laugh before he focused back on the oblivious student.
Peter rolled his eyes while MJ just smirked. The group made some small chat until they saw Ned emerge from the room, eyes wide looking like he had just had the highest moment in his life. Peter couldn’t only grin at that. He had been waiting for a while for a chance for Ned to see it. But he knew it was still pretty new, and because it was more the realm of SI business proper, he didn’t want to try and pull any favors with Tony. Peter really tried to avoid testing how much sway he had with Tony, knowing Tony’s carelessness could accidentally cause trouble with the company who would have to clean up the mess. Still, he figured with this he might be able to get Ned a chance to come back and try it later.
“I can die happy now.” Ned said, looking deified at the experience. They watched Cindy being hooked up and shown the ropes of the machine as Ned continued to ramble about how it was amazing and cool, and Betty was humoring him patiently, though she had had a similar dazed look on her face after her turn.
They all saw Cindy select the Black Widow simulation as she started to go through the training protocol.
“So who are you going to choose, Em?” Peter asked, as he watched his girlfriend stare up at the screen.
“My favorite Avenger, duh.” MJ scoffed, rolling her eyes.
Peter nodded. “I should send Nat the footage of you playing as her. I’m sure she’ll get a kick out of it.”
MJ glared at him. “Don’t you dare. I want her to think I’m cool, not a nerd jumping around pretending to be a spy.”
Peter raised his hands in surrender. “First of all, she does think you’re cool. I’m pretty sure you’re the closest thing she has to an apprentice considering how much she spends training you. I swear she almost spends more time with you than me.” His voice dropped in volume. “And I’m literally her teammate.”
MJ smirked. “It’s cause I’m cooler than you.”
Peter pouted. “But we’re spider-bros.”
“But we’re badass women.” MJ countered.
Ned thought for a moment. “We could ask Nat.”
“No! I don’t want to hear my hero side with my girlfriend over me.” Peter complained, crossing his arms again.
“So you admit it.” MJ said, barely holding back a laugh.
“That the Avengers love my girlfriend more than me? Yeah.” Peter said, looking up at the screen and watching Cindy slowly get more comfortable. There were obviously less flips than Nat normally did, but the game did have a button you could press to have your character do a backflip away, which was definitely a bit jarring from first person, but Cindy was doing well and even throwing in some kicks. Peter started to wonder if Cindy had any experience in fighting, her form was pretty good.
“You’re awfully pouty today.” MJ observed, resting her chin on his shoulder.
Peter resisted the urge to shrug to not jostle her. “I’m just on edge. None of them have shown up yet, and they definitely will at some point. They’re going to embarrass me.”
MJ let out a noncommittal hum. They watched Cindy in silence for another few moments. “It’s not true, you know.”
Peter turned to side-eye her, not able to get a good angle with her still hanging on his shoulder. “What? I think they will com-”
“No. That they like me more. They adore you.” MJ offered.
Peter shook his head. “MJ, I was just kidding. You’re like the coolest person ever. I’m not surprised they like you more, I’m glad they approve of you. Not that you need their approval, but it’s nice to not have it awkward when I ditch them to go hang out with you.”
MJ sighed and stood up, raising a hand to comb it through his hair. “You don’t understand how sweet you are, do you? I’m an acquired taste, but I’m glad you think so highly of me. But I don’t think the Avengers would open their lives so easily to anyone, Peter. You’re special to them.” She offered as Cindy slowly stepped out of the machine, out of breath but grinning ear to ear.
Peter wanted to retort that, but her hand was still carding through his hair and he found it really hard to think clearly. He was pretty sure MJ knew that, and used it as her secret weapon whenever she wanted to shut down his brain. Peter was also pretty sure it’d literally always work. He wasn’t sure he minded either.
Eventually MJ stepped away from him and walked up to the booth as Peter leaned against the wall, letting his brain reboot after the girlfriend-induced shut down. Peter pointedly ignoring the look Betty and Ned were giving him, knowing they definitely didn’t have moral high ground over him. He saw the looks that passed between them. Ned especially.
Cindy made her way back over to him and he smiled at her.
“Had fun?” He asked her, and Cindy could only mutely nod. She gave him a thumbs up and Peter grinned.
“Glad all the work paid off. You okay? I know it’s pretty immersive.”
Cindy swallowed and nodded. “Yeah. I feel like I need to work out even more after that, if that’s how the Black Widow feels all the time.”
Peter could only grin. He couldn’t exactly tell her that flipping really did feel that cool, because she wasn’t aware how much time he spent in spandex doing unnecessary flips.
Peter’s gaze shifted back to MJ, seeing her getting hooked up and she was waiting to meet his gaze, a smirk on her face. Peter quirked an eyebrow but she just put the goggles on and he watched her navigate the menus after it was calibrated.
Peter’s jaw dropped when she selected Spider-man.
My favorite avenger, duh.
Peter’s face flushed red, and he could see MJ’s shoulder in the familiar motion of her laughing, even though she couldn’t see him. Peter raised a hand to cover his face. “Oh my God.” He mumbled out, earning confused glances from everyone except Ned who was far too amused.
“Everything okay?” Ashe asked, her brow dipping in concern.
“Nothing. It’s fine. Just something MJ said.” Peter offered, and they accepted that. For once he wasn’t exactly ashamed of his habit of getting flustered, it helped the lie this time.
Peter watched her go through the training, and he couldn’t help but imagine her in a spider-suit. That made his face flush even more. That… was something he definitely needed to see. He wasn’t sure what would be harder, working up the courage to ask her to try it on, or figuring out how to bribe her enough to do it.
Peter’s eyes were glued to the screen as MJ went through the training, getting used to moving, shooting webs, throwing some punches and kicks.
When a lot of people tried out Spider-man they tended to make smaller arm motions when they shot out the webs. Which made sense, because they didn’t know the actual motions required to swing, or how reaching out offered more of a range of motion for pulling the web. But MJ was doing it almost perfectly. He even recognized some of the stances he often took when trying to web something up or shoot a web for distance, jutting out his arm and learning with his hip forward. MJ was copying it perfectly. It really probably shouldn’t be as hot to Peter as he found it.
Peter hadn’t noticed Ned trying to talk to him during her turn until he gave up, knowing Peter was a lost cause at the moment.
MJ made Peter proud. The robots didn’t stand a chance as she webbed them and smashed them through the stage. Peter had actually let out a cheer when she had done a reverse kick into one, knocking it into another, much to his mortification. Everyone gave him knowing and strange looks at the outburst. Peter couldn’t help it, he had seen MJ practicing that kick with Natasha a few times when she joined them for training. She had pulled it off flawlessly, while pretending to be Spider-man.
This woman.
Peter almost groaned in disappointment when her turn finally ended and she pulled off the headset, a little sweaty, out of breath, and turned to him with a massive grin and throwing up a peace sign.
“I fucking love her.” Peter said to anyone nearby.
“We know.” Cindy, Ashe, Ned, and Betty all said.
MJ stepped out of the booth and he couldn’t help it. He rushed over, enveloping her in a massive hug and swung her around once.
She laughed and let out the smallest squeal at the sudden action. “Peter!” She scolded, hitting his shoulder gently.
“Good… uh… good job.” He said finally setting her down and cheeks burning from the amused look the attendant was giving him.
“Don-” Flash started to say something but Cindy backhanded him in the stomach hard enough to cut off whatever snark he was about to say. Ashe just happened to be looking away, and Tyler had just happened to get the teacher’s attention at the moment.
MJ grinned. “It was fun. All I needed was the suit.” She offered, still running a bit high from the experience.
A sly grin crept on Peter’s face. “That can be arranged.”
MJ quirked a brow, and Peter saw her eyes sparkle as her mind started racing, clearly reading into that statement, all the stuff Peter had implied with it. Her lips quirked upwards into a smile, but she glanced over at the amused attendant who was clearly trying to keep the line moving.
She gently shoved Peter towards the room. “It’s your turn now, go get em’ Tiger.” She said with a wink before she walked back over, sharing a high five with Cindy. Peter did not get a shiver down his spine, thank you very much, before he turned into the room and moved over.
The attendant recognized him, so they just let him get set up as he looked at the menu, trying to figure out what to play. His mind was pretty scattered still, a million thoughts of MJ in increasingly better situations so he decided to go with something simple and familiar. Selecting Iron Man, he cycled through a few different suits. The choices were purely aesthetic, but he still settled on the classic one and breezed through the tutorial.
Outside the room MJ was doing her best to ignore the smug grin from Cindy. “He’s so smitten with you, it’s adorable.” She offered.
Shrugging, MJ tried to pretend like her own cheeks weren’t burning. “He has good taste.” Was all she said in return.
Her eyes watched the screen as she saw him handedly destroying bots in Iron Man’s armor. He was blasting the bots easily and with precision, and it was clear he was the one with the most experience out of the group by far.
“That has to count as cheating. He’s clearly done it before.” Cindy complained.
MJ glanced back at her, raising an eyebrow. “It’s not a competition.”
“If it was, he’d be cheating.” Cindy continued. MJ just rolled her eyes and went back to watching the screen.
“Dude, he’s, like, super good.” Ned praised.
MJ’s eyes drifted lower to watch him through the glass. Her mouth felt a little dryer as she watched him carefully. His motions careful and precise as he snapped his aiming around the room. She didn’t keep up with the other Avengers as much as Ned did, but she did often see them fighting by proxy of watching her boyfriend to make sure he came home in one piece, and she saw a striking similarity to how Tony actually fought.
Which she supposed shouldn’t surprise her, considering how alike the two were. Still, seeing the muscles on his arm flex and contract as he moved around the room, as if it was a serious life-or-death situation, dodging attack after attack instead of relying on the health bar like the rest of them did. It was almost like a dance, and it was enchanting. It was weird seeing him fight outside of a suit, something she only rarely got whenever she happened to drop by on his practices with Natasha. MJ realized he would probably make a good dancer, and that thought started sparking date ideas in her head. She wondered how hard it would be to convince him to take a ballroom class with her. Then her thoughts started drifting to him in a suit, and MJ almost missed seeing him step out of the room as her train of thought had been a bit more than a little distracting.
Peter wiped some sweat from his brow and walked over to her grinning. “That was fun.”
MJ entwined her hand into his as she pulled him away so the next student could get into the machine. “Now I see where all that time you spend not practicing for Acadec goes.
In response, Peter only shrugged. “Priorities.”
MJ rolled her eyes and before she could respond Cindy nudged his side. “Think you could get us in the weekend sometime to try it without the lines?”
Peter paused for a moment, wondering. His eyes drifted to over where he saw Flash, predictably, swinging around as Spider-man. He was doing pretty well, and seemed to be enjoying himself. A small smile crept on Peter’s face, before he turned to back to Cindy. “I can probably arrange that. As long as like, this trip doesn’t end horribly for us and I get fired.”
“What are the odds of that?” Cindy asked with laugh, turning back to look at Flash.
Peter, MJ, and Ned shared a glance. “Higher than you might think.” He offered, but Cindy was too distracted.
A little while later and everyone had had their chance at the game and were assembled at the exit point. With the last stragglers showing up, Ashe stood on her tippy toes to get a head count of everyone, double checking before she nodded.
“Seems like we have everyone! Did you all enjoy this demonstration!” There was a chorus of praises and comments. “Well that chaos sounded positive so let’s give Tyler a thanks for hosting it for us, okay?”
A series of “Thank You, Tyler!” Rang out as the doors on the opposite side opened up and students started to filter out. Kong pushed through the crowd in order to try and get a better view.
Peter, Ned, and MJ loitered back a moment waving goodbye to Tyler once everyone was through.
“Hope you had fun playing around at your work.” He teased, making Peter roll his eyes.
“My dream field trip.” Peter muttered in response.
“We still on for lunch?” Ashe asked, resting a hand on his lower back before she leaned in to kiss his cheek.
“Of course. Now try not to lose any students this time.”
He offered with a wave as he walked back through the rooms to start cleaning up.
“This time?” MJ asked, glancing back at Ashe as they were ushered into another plain looking hallway.
“Okay! Onto our next stop!” Ashe announced with a clap of her hands, pointedly ignoring the burning curiosity in the gaze MJ was sending at the back of her head.
“Buddy system! Or not! Just try not to get lost please.” She offered as she held up her hand and walked to the front of the group and lead them through another series of hallways. FRIDAY had helpfully lit up lights along the floor to keep any of the more distractable students who saw something nifty from straying too far from the pack.
After a trip just long enough to have people start complaining, Ashe stopped outside another set of frosted glass double doors. Holding out an arm, Ashe quieted down the murmurs. “Are you all ready?”
A few more cheers and people trying to peak through the glass. Opening the door, Ashe watched the people start to rush through the doors only to look around confused. They were in what looked to be a large conference room. Instead of one large table though, there were a few separate tables, each with stark pads resting on them and a podium in the front of the room. Some students started to poke at the tablets but Ashe cleared her throat, tapping on her own pad for a few moments. “Okay, everyone we’ll need you to break into teams of 3 to 4. Make sure everyone ends up in a group. Do you need me to divide you up or can this prestigious school manage to organize itself?” Ashe asked, raising an eyebrow.
“We’ll manage.” Mr. Harrington offered before looking at the class with a desperate look, begging them not to embarass him. For once, Peter felt relieved that he wasn’t going to have to struggle to find a group to buddy up with. MJ and Ned were already moving to one of the front corners of the room. Peter would have prefered a quiet corner in the dark where the chance of him being noticed by whoever was going to handling this section of the event wouldn’t notice him, but his friend’s didn’t seem to have any interest in keeping things quiet for him.
Begrudgingly he made his way over and plopped down into the chair next to MJ. His pouting was stiffled as he sunk into the plush chair, a content sigh escaping him. Okay, these chairs were comfy. Glancing over at Ned and MJ who both had similar melted states of beings, he figured he wasn’t alone in his assessment. Sometimes money really could buy happiness, it seemed.
Spinning slightly, he glanced over at the rest of the class as they all settled into their groups. He had considered inviting Cindy, but she had settled into her own group with Betty and their friends already, the little spider resting on top of her stark pad. Peter hummed to himself, looking over to the door to see who would be running this show, but no one was there yet. Letting his eyes drift back, he saw Kong talking loudly in the back of the class with his group. Except… there were five students. Frowning, Peter wondered what was going to happen only to see them all turn their back on Flash.
Flash’s shoulders slumped as he clearly tried to say something else, but nothing was getting through. Glancing over, he saw MJ and Ned had noticed him as well. A silent conversation took place for a moment, before MJ jerked her head over towards Flash.
“Flash!” Ned called out, making the boy turn around surprised. Flash saw Peter and Ned waving him over and he stood there for a moment, clearly weighing his options before his shoulders slumped slightly and he crossed over to them.
“What?” He asked, curt and short, clearly tense as if he was ready to be mocked.
Ned kicked Peter under the table and he sighed. “You wanna join our group? We need a fourth.”
Flash and Peter stared at each other for a moment, both of them clearly a little unsure about having to team up outside of Acadec. Both boys were clearly waiting for the other one to do or say something before MJ sighed loudly. “Just sit down Flash, come on.”
Flash glanced over at MJ, then at Ned, before finally at Peter who nodded after a moment. Moving over, he sat next to Ned. They were quiet for a moment before Flash nodded. “Uh… thanks.”
“No problem.” Peter offered, opening his mouth to say something else, only to close it after failed to craft any other words.
Across from each other MJ and Ned glanced between Flash and Peter, then back at each other and let out another sigh.
Thankfully before Peter had to result to talking about the weather, the doors opened and in walked two women.
“Alright everyone, settle down!” Ashe called out, waving her hand to try and stop the explosion of murmurs that had resulted.
“This must be midtown, correct? Welcome everyone, to Stark Industries. I hope the start of your tour has lived up to everyone’s expectations. My name is Ms. Potts, pleasure to meet you.”
Pepper’s eyes scanned the crowd, landing on Peter’s with a slight smirk but made no further indication as she gestured to the lady who had walked in with her. “This is one our star interns, Ms. Stacy. She’ll introduce the event and our special guest.”
The woman offered a brilliant smile and a wave to the group. “You’ve heard the spiel about SI before so I’ll skip to the good stuff. Today, you will all be participating in a product pitch.”
There was another wave of murmurs throughout the group as everyone started to talk about it until Ashe cleared her throat again. Gwen flashed her a grateful smile before continuing.
“You will retain the rights to all ideas, but we will offer feedback on the pitches, and the group with the best pitch will receive a set of the latest model of stark pad.”
Pepper chimed in. “If any of the pitches do show promise, we will consider reaching out to formalize a bid for the idea, with fair compensation of course.”
Louder conversations now and they just let the kids stew for a moment in the excitement.
“Now then, for our surprise guest judge, may I introduce Princess Shuri of Wakanda.”
A stunned silence fell over the room as the princess walked out casually, leaning against the desk at the front with her arms crossed and a smug smile. She was accompanied by a pair of Dora Milaje guards who stood back behind her
“Sup!”
Another beat before the class started to lose their mind again. “Please, settle down. My guard gets twitchy around yelling.” She teased, and Peter noticed both guards roll their eyes and he had to bite back a laugh.
Shuri scanned the class, raising an eyebrow when found Peter. He quickly shook his hands back and forth as subtly as he could, and Peter could see the gears in her head turn as she debated making his life easier or miserable. She knew his secret, and he figured she must have decided it wasn’t worth too many questions being asked.
“So then, who’s ready?” Shuri asked the class with a grin.