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Chapter Text

Peter Benjamin Parker was a very intelligent boy. By age 6 he was building robots out of broken appliances. At 10 he started coding his AI, Karen, inspired by Tony Stark's Jarvis. At age 13 he earned himself a scholarship to Midtown School of Science. So when, at the young age of 14, he was made the youngest person to ever intern at Stark Industries he should have been less surprised.

He had been spotted by a scout at his first high school science fair. It was a few months after the bite and Ben's death, so Peter had thrown himself into the project fully just to avoid thinking about things. The distraction (coupled with time out as Spider-Man) had worked and left him with an incredible project in the process. He didn't win (the judges didn't understand the science, so he placed third) but he left the night with a card and an interview.

Peter was given the job and assigned to the R&D department. For his first project he was allotted two weeks. He finished the project at the end of his second day. It had been almost busy work because they were testing him out, but they never told him what to do once he was done because they didn't think he would be done anytime soon.

Peter wandered into the interns' common area wondering what he should do. Walking in, he came face to face with a pile of coffee cups. The pile screeches to a halt and the top try of coffees would have hit the ground if not for Peter's quick reflexes.

"Um, do you need a hand there?" Peter asked tentatively.

A muffled "that would be great" could be heard so Peter started to remove try's until he could see a person behind the caffeine.

"Alright, whoever you are, where are we taking these?" Peter said, beaming at his fellow employee. The previously hidden girl gave him a soft smile.

"These some of these are for the IT department and the rest are for the Marketing department."

"Alright, I'll just follow you then." And with that they set off down the hall towards the other departments. They stayed quiet as they moved, focused on their task. When they got to the first group of people the girl started passing out the drinks and chatting with each person.

As they moved on to the next group in need of caffeine Peter started to talk, "I'm Peter, by the way. I don't think I introduced myself earlier."

"Well, Peter, thank you for the save. I'm McKenzie Whitefield. What department are you from? I haven't seen you before."

"I was just hired as an intern in the R&D department. It's actually my second day today."

"What are you doing wasting your time with me then? Don't you have 2 weeks for your first project?"

"I kind of, ya know, finished it?"

"What? I bought you said it was your second day!"

"Sorry, I would have finished last time, but I had an essay that was due the next day, so I couldn't stay late to finish." Peter blushed, now she wasn't gonna take him seriously. The project was obviously a test, but he really had needed to finish that essay and then he had to patrol, too.

He looked up to find McKenzie staring at him with her jaw dropped. He didn't realize he messed up that bad.

"So, what were you doing in the commons? I would be bringing that to my supervisor to brag, not getting coffee."

Peter's blush turned a shade darker "I don't know how to turn it in, so I was hoping to find someone who would tell me what to do. I know I should figure it out on my own, but I really don't want to mess this up."

"Kid, how old are you?"

"I turned 14 in August."

"How do you even have a job here? No, never mind, you finishing a two-week long project in two days explains that."

"Again, sorry, I get that the assignment is supposed to be a test, but I took two days and I can't figure out how to turn it in."

"Peter, did you realize that the fastest anyone else has finished the project is a week and a day? The reason no one told you how to turn anything in is because they thought they still had at least a week before you were even close."

"Oh, thank goodness. So, I have at least a week until I get another task?"

"Yeah, that sounds about right from what I heard about R&D."

Contemplating that Peter asked, "Do you need a hand with anything then?"

"I just told you that you could basically take the week off," she laughed, "and your immediate response is to find more work. Who even are you kid?"

"Hey! If I can help with something I should, right? What's the use of being here if I'm just gonna sit around?"

"Okay, I'll let you crash the Marketing department with me. I'm sure someone has something that needs doing."

Happy to have something productive to do, Peter followed along.

McKenzie just smiled. "Everyone's gonna love you."
---
After spending the day in Marketing, Peter had made friends with all the interns and had impressed the department head.

The next day, Peter went back to the commons to see if anyone needed a hand. He met up with someone from the PR department and she allowed him to come to her area to help.

Each day Peter went to a different department to see how he could help. Almost everyone in the company knew his name and they were in awe of his intellect. At the end of the week Peter went to his supervisor and turned in the opening assignment.

"Thank you, Peter, this is very good work. You finished quickly, too. In fact, it seems that you managed to take less time on this project then any intern we have had so far."

"I know, sir. I finished the beginning of the second day and while I was helping another intern I met in the commons she commented that eight days was the record."

"What have you been doing then?"

"Well, no one told me how to turn in any assignments, so I went to the commons to try to ask someone, but I ran into McKenzie and she looked like she could use a hand, so I helped pass out coffees and then helped in the marketing department for the rest of the day. She mentioned that it would likely be about a week till I got another assignment, so I've been volunteering my help in other departments in the meantime."

"Seriously, I thought Liam was playing a joke on me when you were brought in. You're going to prove me wrong, boy."

"I can try, sir."

"Goodness! You're polite too. You're gonna take this company by storm."

"Thank you, sir, do you have another project for me?"

'Dang, this kid is something else.' The man thought before he shook himself and realigned his thoughts. "Enough of this sir nonsense. My name is Aiden Miller. And no, I don't have a project for you yet. I can have one ready for you by Wednesday at the earliest, so you have anytime between them and now to work on personal projects or do other work."

"What do you mean personal projects?"

"Interns are allowed to use labs and some limited supplies to work on projects that they are either developing for themselves or those they are working on to present for SI to produce. They're basically projects that you work on without being assigned."

"Got it. And can I continue helping in other departments in my down time?"

"As long as I you don't get under their feet and you do the work assigned to you, I don't see any reason for you to stop if that's what you want to do."

"Thank you, Mr. Miller! See you Wednesday!" Peter turned and headed to find someone to help for the rest of the day.
---
Friday was an impressive system but even she could not do everything at once, so she had minimum contact with the common employees in her Boss's business. She interacted with department heads if there was a need, but she kept away from anyone of a lesser office.

So, it surprised her when she couldn't help herself from helping a young intern. "Mr. Parker, if you are going to be Bioengineering labs then you need only go take the next right and follow the hall."

Peter jumped, his head whipped back to see who had snuck up on him and was confused to find no one there. "Okay, I'm either hearing things or this tower is haunted... well, hello, ghost lady, thanks for the directions. Spook ya later."

Inside her processors Friday laughed. She enjoyed the response enough that she saved the footage.

Oh no, she was going to get attached to this human, wasn't she?
---
Happy had been having a stressful day when he met the kid. Pepper had needed to get to a business meeting across New York, but traffic was even worse than usual, so they barely arrived in time then while she was in that meeting, he had to pick up Tony from the tower and drop him at a meeting of his own only to come back to get Pepper. Once more driving through sections of chaos and complete standstills. Once he was released (until needed, of course) he went to his office to escape any added annoyances.

When he heard the knock on the door, he mentally prepared himself for another pile of work, so he was curious to see a wide-eyed kid gazing up at him.

"Hi, I'm Peter, well, I uh, I was doing a coffee run and I asked the ghost lady if I had gotten orders from everyone who wanted coffee, but she told me another order and told me to bring it here, so I guess it's yours. So, yeah, have a nice day." The kid, Peter, apparently, flashed happy a bright smile before turning and wandering away.

"How the heck did a kid get access up here?" Happy muttered to himself.

"I assure you Mr. Hogan, Mr. Parker is no threat. I allowed him up because he is trustworthy, and you seemed in need of a cup of coffee." Friday responded to the rhetorical question a little coolly.

"I ain't questioning your decisions Friday, the kid just looks like he's twelve. How does he even work here?"

Friday left Happy to his musings about the mystery that was Peter Parker.
---
Emily Dickenson was proud to say that she held the much-coveted office of Pepper Pott's personal assistant. Most anyone in the company would love to have her job but they didn't realize how many strange things happen in this position. Case and point: a twelve-year-old just dropped off some highly sensitive documents from the R&D floor like it was nothing.

"Excuse me, who are you?" She asked as politely as she could manage through her shock.

"Oh, hi, my name is Peter Parker. What's your name?" The kid replied with a grin.

"I'm Emily. So, Peter, did you get lost from a school tour?"

Peter's eyebrows scrunched tougher adorably. "No?"

"Did your parents bring you to work then?"

"Um, my parents are kind of dead so that's a no. Why?"

"Why are you at SI then, Peter?" She countered in with deep confusion.

"I'm an intern in the R&D department. Mr. Miller sent me to deliver some documents for him."

Embarrassed, Emily turned red, "I'm so sorry, you kind of look like a twelve-year-old, not a college student."

"Well, I'm not in college yet but I'm getting there. I'm 14, I'm the youngest intern SI has ever had."

Oh, so this was the young intern taking the lower levels by storm. Emily's friends had raved about the time they had gotten with the kid genius helping with their projects. Apparently in this baby-faces kid there was a mind that could rival Mr. Stark.

"Well, it was nice to meet you, Peter." Emily said with a parting smile.
---
Within a couple months it came to the point that almost everyone in the tower had met and worked with Peter.

Instead of saving really out-there problems to see if Mr. Stark would choose to answer their questions people saved the hard ones for their "Peter time".

Friday had grown to like and help the boy more each day and without him knowing had been slowly increasing his clearance and recording every project he worked on. Peter was integral to the company at this point, and on her priority list, he was right under the avengers (and Tony's closest friends).

Peter's schedule was packed. After he started getting a reputation as a helper he was readily accepted around the tower. When he got a new assignment from his actual department, he finished it as quickly as he could manage. After he was done departments or individuals could request his help with things. Friday was an angel and helped manage his schedule even though he still thought she was a ghost.

He was confused as to why, but at times he was treated like a second in command when Ms. Potts and Mr. Stark were unavailable.

Peter was fine with all of this (other than having to break up a few fights over himself) but, unbeknownst to him, there was a major problem in his unofficial position of power: neither Ms. Potts nor Mr. Stark knew he existed.

Both heads of the company had been pleased that for months now moral was at an all-time high, products were coming out even better than before, and employees weren't coming to them for trivial matters nearly as much anymore. They were a little confused at first because they didn't know what the change was that had inspired this change for the better, but they decided that it was better to enjoy it while it lasted instead of worry over it.

Since Peter was common knowledge to most everybody, nobody thought to mention Peter to the big-wigs. Their introduction to Peter was a bit more memorable than most.
---
A bioengineering team from SI had finally, after years of research, managed to figure out an affordable water filtration system that could be used worldwide. It was a huge success for the company and almost more of a success for the individuals.

There was talk of Nobel prize nominations for the project heads. MIT was giving degrees to employees and interns on the project. Almost no one acknowledged the name Peter Parker listed as a key contributor.

The achievement was big enough that Pepper convinced Tony to go and congratulate the team who made it possible.

Their elevator slowed to a stop on the right floor and opened into a party. They mingled with the lower employees for a couple minutes each before finding themselves drawn into a circle that included the heads of the team and some department heads.

"So," Pepper questioned conventionally, "you've been trying to get this to work for years, what let it happen now?"

Tony leaned forward to hear the answer, after all, he had tried for a little to pull this off before passing it down the line and he hadn't had much luck. Then this team came along and managed to reinvent water filtration in a single weekend.

"We finally got our turn with Peter." Came the response from the project head.

"Huh?"

"Oh yeah," Someone else chimes in, "where did you even find that kid? He's a godsend!"

People clustered around all started chuckling and recounting to each other ways this Peter had helped them. Nearly everyone had a story and those who didn't were telling about their friends’ interactions or the wilder Peter sightings.

"Who the heck is Peter?" Tony exclaimed suddenly.

Everyone was shocked. "How do you not know who Peter is? He's been doing major work in every division for a few months now."
At their blank looks he continued "He might be even smarter than you Mr. Stark, and Ms. Potts? He was the one who came up with the solution to the elephant problem while you were out of town."

Now Pepper was really confused, the employee speaking up, Cam Rich, addressed this problem like she should know it, but she had no clue what it was. Cam seemed to pick up on her hesitation and explained.

"He spotted the problem before anyone else because he was reading over a contract to help someone in the marketing department. From there came up with an amazing solution, pulled together a team from those in the building, and was able to work things out with the other companies involved in less than 24 hours! That alone saved the company upwards of a few million dollars. Did you not hear about this at all?"

"Considering that this is news to me I might have to look back at our financial records and spot whatever I missed."

"That won't do you any good. Peter's solution let us edit the contracts, increase our standing with those involved, and earn us even more money than planned. And that's nothing on what he has made or helped others with."

"What has he done?" Tony questioned cautiously.

"There hasn't been a major product put out since he got hired that he has not either contributed to in some way or designed himself. He also helps with as many smaller projects as he can with his time."

Tony was floored by this new information, with everything he learned about this kid he seemed more and more impressive.

"Yeah, other than you two, Mr. Stark, Ms. Potts, he is most likely the most valuable member of this company. You really don't know about him?" Another employee asked confidently.

The two leaders stood in shock. Not only had they not known about a valuable employee, but all their employees seemed to have enough respect for this boy that they were either yelling at their boss for it or standing back nodding.

"Well, we'll have to solve that then. Hey, Friday? Can you bring Peter here?"

Friday paused, "Are you sure, boss? Right now, R&D have him and likely wouldn't be happy with you taking their Peter time."

Now Tony was really bewildered; he didn't know the last time Friday had second guessed him. Who the heck was this kid?

"Okay then Fri, when does this kid have some time open that he can come and meet me?"

"Peter has departments scheduled until eight tonight. Would you like me to ask him to meet you then?"

Friday was calling him by his first name. Friday. She barely interacted with the department heads but here she was calling some guy by his first name.

Tense as he was, Tony continued to give an appearance of calm. "Alright," he chuckled, "so, good work everybody. You are amazing and deserve a bit of a break but I'm going to have to get back to my lab. Have a great day and I hope to see more projects from your team soon." With that quick goodbye he turned heel and stalked onto the elevator.

The people who were part of the discussion just rolled their eyes about how see-through their boss was being that this bothered him.

Despite how funny the employees found it, Pepper was a little concerned too. Apparently, someone had gained the loyalty of most of the SI employees without her noticing and he apparently had enough sway over the others that he was running the company when she was unavailable. With worried eyes she turned to the head of the Human Resources department.

"Could you tell me about Peter? I see that all of you are quite taken with him, but you can understand why we are somewhat wary of some employee taking a leadership position without our knowledge."

"Of course, Ms. Potts, what do you want to know?"

"What is Peter's job title?"

The employees around Pepper let loose a giggle before the lead answered, "Pete is the newest R&D intern."

Pepper's jaw dropped. All these people, who hardly listened to her, were taking orders and suggestions from a college student. A kid?

"Honestly boss, it's best that you meet him for yourself." One of the other interns smiled, "Then you'll understand."

With that confusing sentiment, Pepper said a few shaky goodbyes before going up to join Tony in the penthouse.
---
When eight o'clock rolled around Peter was nervous; it wasn't every day that the CEO and owner of the company want to talk to an intern.

He stumbled out of the elevator trying to straighten his rumpled shirt. Friday hadn't told him what floor they were going to, so when he glanced up, he was surprised to find himself on a floor he didn't know. He thought he had been to every floor except... No. it couldn't be.

"Ghost lady! Did you bring me to the penthouse? I thought you were taking me to some empty office or something, not Tony Stark's personal area."

Peter heard a cough behind him from where he had turned to yell at the elevator. He twirled so that he faced the noise and was mortified to find the amused face of his idol staring back at him.

"Oh, Mr. Stark, I'm so sorry, the ghost lady sent me up here. I can leave if you want me to, sir." Peter backed up until he was pressed to the elevator doors that remained resolutely closed.

Instead of an introduction Tony just asked, "Did you just call Friday Ghost lady?"

Peter's blush could match a fire truck at this point. "Well, um, yeah. The first time she said anything to me I was alone and running on more coffee than anything else, so I thought that I was either hearing things or she was a ghost. I know that she's a fabulously advanced AI by now, but Ghost lady is kind of my nickname for her, if that makes sense."

'I can see why everyone likes this kid.' Tony thought as he watched the boy stutter and blush his way thought the explanation.

"So, back to the topic at hand. My lovely CEO and I heard that you have been taking charge down in the lower levels. Care to explain?"

"Taking charge? Mr. Stark, I'm no leader. I use my free time to help whoever I can, but I wouldn't say I'm all that important in the scheme of things."

This kid wasn't even joking.

"I can tell you right now, that isn't true. From what I've heard today you have the skills that you could start your own company and half of my employees would follow you."

Peter had the gall to look horrified. "Why the heck would I want to do that? Your company is amazing, and you do so much for the world, I'm just glad I can be a part of it."

"That's good to hear," Pepper chimed in from the doorway, "because I have a proposition for you."

"Oh, my mint chocolate chip, you're Pepper Potts! My friend MJ says that you are a woman's icon, she would be so jealous right now." That made Pepper smile. "Wait, what kind of proposition are you talking about?"

"Well, we have heard and researched what you have done for this company for the last few hours and we would like to give you a couple options. The first option is that you become a full member of the SI staff, not just an intern. You would work as a collaboration expert and do, basically what you have been doing, just getting paid better for it."

"That sounds amazing! I'd love to keep helping people, but what's the second option?"

"Well..."
---
And that is the story of how Peter Parker began his training to be the future CEO of Stark Industries.

Chapter Text

I’m actually working on a second part for this. It’s going to be a field trip. I’m just terrible at stopping reading for long enough to write (also all use of words leaves me when I actually try). I don’t promise quality or speed but it will happen eventually. And it’s not the only field trip I plan to write (I’m kind of obsessed with the field trip fics).

Also I couldn’t think of any doc that I could stick this tidbit into but do y’all realize that when you you call February 14th Single Awareness Day (instead of Valentine’s Day) it literally says SAD? It’s hilarious.

Anyway, I’ll try to get more content out soon. Peace.