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Peter knew his grades had been slipping. His once tight grip over juggling Spider-Man with school had slackened and along with it, went his grades. Crime seemed to have escalated a lot in the past few months. Peter wasn’t really sure why but all he did know was that each time he tried to hang up the mask before midnight, something would go down and he wouldn’t end up getting home until the early hours of the morning.
This meant he had little time for homework nor sleep, resulting in a very tired spider and a wake of failing tests and unfinished homework pile.
In all honesty, Peter should’ve seen it coming. Midtown was a specialist school after all and they didn’t take kindly to when a star student who consistently got As suddenly slept through lessons and barely passed all his papers.
He should’ve known that what ended up happening was inevitable. Being a teenager and a superhero was hard but Peter knew that he would rather fight any villain on the planet than be sitting in Principal Morita’s office, his aunt on his left and Mr Stark on his right.
It had all started when he’d been lightly dozing in History, his brain far too tired from having stopped a robbery at 1 in the morning to listen to his teacher drone on about the Cold War. He’d been about to switch from light doze to full on sleep when a sharp knock at his classroom door had him bolting up in his chair. Ned had sent him an amused smirk to which Peter had rolled his eyes at his best friend.
“Ah Mr Parker, you’re wanted in the Principal’s office,” his teacher had called out, sending a sinking feeling into Peter’s stomach as the weight and dread settled in. Getting called to the Principal’s office was never a good sign.
Ned had whispered a ‘good luck’ to him as he’d packed up his things and headed out of his classroom, trying not to die from embarrassment, towards the small office of Midtown’s Principal. Principal Morita was a pretty nice guy, Peter reminded himself. He’d given Peter slack last year when he’d ditched the Decathlon Nationals in Washington and in general, he’d never been too harsh on any student.
All of those thoughts had circled his mind as he’d knocked on the Principal’s door. Peter’s palms were sweaty and a lump was beginning to form in his throat. The wave of dread that hit him as he began to push the door open only intensified when he’d seen who was sitting opposite Principal Morita.
Both Aunt May and Tony Stark had small frowns on their faces and their arms crossed. Peter immediately realised that this was definitely not going to be good. In fact, Peter was sure this was going to be where he died. This was his death service.
“Peter, won’t you have a seat,” Principal Morita waved a hand towards the chair in between Mr Stark and May, perfectly opposite the man on the other side of the desk.
Peter nodded, swallowing hard as he walked forward, sitting down in the seat with slight hesitance and nervousness. Mr Stark was staring at him like he was trying to solve a complicated puzzle. May placed her hand over his, making Peter feel suddenly less like he was on trial for witchcraft.
“Do you know why you’re here Peter?” Principal Morita started it off, giving the teen a small smile.
Yes, Peter wanted to say. “No,” he lied instead. Mr Stark’s staring didn’t stop and Peter knew he could see through the lie. He always did.
Principal Morita sighed. “Well, it seems Peter that we have reached very much the same point as we did last year. Your work has been severely lacking, your effort has decreased and i don’t even want to crack open your grades at this moment in time.”
Peter swallowed heavily, the lack of sleep and the way he had 3 pairs of eyes boring into his skull made him want to cry. May squeezed his hand gently, giving Peter a rush of relief that even though he was in trouble, she still loved him. The unspoken meaning of the hand squeeze made him feel safe.
“S-sorry,” Peter mumbled. He hoped that he could apologise, say he’ll do better and leave. But alas, that was never going to happen.
“Don’t be sorry kiddo— well, do be sorry,” Tony amended when May gave him one of her infamous unimpressed looks. “Explain it to us. Why have you been doing bad at school recently?”
Peter shoots his head towards where Mr Stark is staring, his eyebrows slightly raised. A small frown draws itself on Peter’s face. Surely Mr Stark knew why he was doing bad? It was kinda obvious. Was he baiting him?
“I dunno,” Peter mumbled, eventually, looking back down at his lap. “Been distracted.”
“I thought you managed to prioritise your time effectively a while ago?” May’s voice is soft and calm, a complete contradiction to how Tony’s baiting. It seemed his Aunt and Mr Stark had decided to fit into the roles of Good Cop and Bad Cop respectively.
“I guess sometimes its hard to manage,” Peter shrugged. It was true; he couldn’t always account on the fact that crime would end before his bedtime.
“Having you been staying up late again, kiddo?” Tony asks even though he knows the answer. The bags under Peter’s eyes had grown in size in the past few weeks, just around the time that his grades started to slip.
“Yeah i guess so,” Peter shrugged again.
“You guess so?” Tony’s voice was harder now and when Peter glanced up at him, he realised that Mr Stark wasn’t playing around. He took this— Peter’s education— seriously.
“Yeah,” Peter muttered in reply. “I lose track of time.”
“You have a bedtime of 12, honey,” May reminded him in her soft voice. She was careful to say ‘bedtime’ as if Peter was like every other teenage boy who stayed up late playing Fortnite or watching YouTube. If she’d said his ‘curfew’ was 12, it would raise red flags as to why Peter was being allowed out so late.
“I know but sometimes the time slips away.” One second it was 11:40 and before you knew it, it was nearing 2am and he had to be up in 5 hours.
“What about the techniques we taught you on time management?” Tony asks and Peter knows he means the ‘Baby Bedtime Protocol’ Karen had been installed with that basically began to slowly shut down the suit after 12 so Peter couldn’t use it.
Peter felt heat rise up in his cheeks. Busted. He’d disabled that Protocol (or at least Ned had) a few months ago when the rise in crime had initially gone up. He was no good with a powered down suit at 1am when a robbery was going on.
“I, uhh, forgot it all?”
From the way Tony’s stare got even harder and his lips twitched a little into a frown, Peter knew that he’d managed to infer the truth: Peter had hacked the suit once more. Yeah, if Mr Stark wasn’t the Bad Cop already, he would be now.
“We’ll be talking about that later buddy,” Tony’s tone tilted into the dangerous angry-parent zone that Peter had come to learn and cringe at. When angry-parent Tony came out, Peter usually ended up grounded.
Peter groaned, leaning back in his seat. Could this go any worse?
“Well,” Principal Morita cleared his throat, glancing between the frowning Tony Stark to the teenager slumped in his seat and May Parker carefully holding his hand. It struck Principal Morita as bizarre how normal they looked, as if sitting there like a make-shift family was the most natural thing in the world. It was strange how parental Tony Stark acted as he exchanged looks behind Peter’s back to May, the both of them seemingly engaging in a secret conversation.
“This behaviour won’t be tolerated any longer.”
“I understand,” Peter grumbled, his expression glum. “I’m sorry.”
“Peter,” Principal Morita leaned forward in his chair. “I said it last year and i’ll say it again: you’re a good kid. And a great student. Midtown really takes prides in your work and achievements. You have so much potential and the reason for this meeting isn’t to pick on you or get you into trouble: its meant to help you. You can do so much with that brain of yours but you need to put more effort in. Greatness is all about trying, remember.”
“I couldn’t have said it better myself,” Tony Stark nodded.
“Peter, do you promise to put school as a priority from now on?” May asked in the ‘you better say yes’ tone that parents seemed to universally have.
“Yes.”
“And get your homework done on time?” Tony added.
“Yes.”
“And no more sleeping in class,” Principal Morita threw his last few cents in.
“Okay.”
“Well then i look froward to this new chapter,” Principal Morita nodded, smiling. “It was nice seeing you again Ms Parker and a pleasure to meet you Mr Stark— i’m a big fan.”
“Who isn’t,” Tony replied cheekily as they all stood up, shaking the Principal’s hand one last time before being ushered out of the office.
“Come on kiddo, i’ll give you and May a lift home,” Tony nodded towards the exit, swinging his car keys around on his fingers.
“I still have 10 minutes of my lesson left,” Peter frowned. “First you tell me to put more effort in and now you’re encouraging me to ditch— hypocrisy much?”
“Peter,” May shook her head but Tony just rolled his eyes.
“From what it sounds like, you were using that lesson as more a nap time than study time. Car, now.”
Peter groaned again, secretly glad that school wasn’t finished yet so people couldn’t see him getting dragged out the school by his Aunt and Iron Man himself. The car Mr Stark had brought was the orange Audi that made May scoff as they all climbed in. Peter had to hand it to Tony though, he drove far more sensibly than he was known for, obviously not wanting May to yell at him for reckless endangerment.
They all trudged into the Parker’s apartment in silence but Peter had a sneaky suspicion that shit was going to hit the fan the second the door closed.
Just as he predicted, the second the door was closed shut, Mr Stark pointed to the sofa in the middle of their living room. “Sit.”
Peter did as he was told, watching as May and Mr Stark stood over him, both in matching positions of their arms being crossed over their chests and frowning.
“So,” Mr Stark starts. “You disabled the Baby Bedtime Protocol.” It wasn’t a question.
“I never said that.”
“Don’t get smart Peter,” Mr Stark warned.
“I thought the whole point of this was that you wanted me to be smarter,” Peter mumbled, the lack of sleep finally catching up to him.
“Peter, this isn’t about intellectual ability,” May huffed in the same way she always did when she called out bullshit. “This is about your effort. You’ve completely given up on school; your grades are, quite frankly, pure shit and there were numerous complaints from teachers about missed homework deadlines.”
“We want the best for you Peter,” Mr Stark added. “That includes your education.”
“I’m sorry that i messed with the suit,” Peter spoke sincerely, looking up at them with large, brown orbs.
“We know kiddo,” Mr Stark spoke softly. “But the protocol is there to make sure that you get home for bed. Sleep— and ignore the hypocrisy i spread now— is important.”
“Every time that i try to leave and get home, something happens!” Peter complains. “I can’t just go home and sleep if there’s a robbery or mugging— even if it is past my bedtime.”
“We need a compromise,” May frowned. “Because this isn’t working. School is just as important as Spider-Man.”
“How about next week, you come over to the lab and we’ll programme some of the old Iron Man suits to protect Queens when you go off to bed?” Mr Stark suggested. “That way then, spider babies get their much needed rest and Queens is still being looked after.”
Peter thought about it; on one hand, protecting Queens was his thing— he was Spider-Man, he should be looking after his borough. But on the other hand, he was so tired. Staying out till 2am and getting up for 7am was really starting to take its toll and Peter was exhausted.
Slowly, he nodded. “Okay.”
“And between next week and now,” May went back to strict mom mode. “You’ll be grounded.”
“May?” Peter shot out of his seat, eyes wide and darting between the pair. “What? No! Not fair!”
“I think it’s very fair,” Mr Stark cut in. “Be glad that your Aunt is more benevolent than me; i would’ve said 2 weeks.”
“Ooh, that does sound good,” May smirked. “2 weeks it is.”
“That’s not fair! You can’t just add more time!”
“I think you’ll find we did,” Mr Stark had a small smirk on his face as well.
“Keep complaining Peter and it will be 3 weeks,” May threatened to which Peter let his shoulders sag and accepted his punishment. At least 2 weeks away from Spider-Man and going out meant he had a chance to do his unfinished homework and catch up on sleep.
“Go to sleep sweetheart,” May ran a hand through Peter’s curls, kissing the side of his head gently. “Not to be rude but you look dead.”
Peter nodded, his eyelids already starting to droop as he mumbled a goodnight and staggered off to his much needed bed.
May sighed as she watched Peter’s retreating body, turning slowly to Tony. “We make a pretty good team.”
Tony smirked at the woman, rolling his eyes in a playful manner. “Who ever would’ve thought.”
May let out a small laugh before sobering up and speaking with more sincerity. “Thank you for coming today, i don’t know if you had anything important on but it really means a lot that you came and helped me out.”
“Of course May,” Tony nodded at her, a fond smile on his lips. “I know that wrangling that kid can be tough; it’s definitely a two-man job.”
“That it is,” May chuckled lightly. “That’s why i’m glad you came.”
“I’m always available to help out my Spider-baby Mama,” Tony teased.
May just rolled her eyes, wondering why she even bothered.
“But seriously,” Tony’s voice changed, becoming almost deeper as he became more serious. “There isn’t anything i wouldn’t do for that kid, so whenever you need help: call me. Any hour of the day or night, i’ll be there. Like you said: we’re a good team.”
May smiled again, pure happiness spreading her lips across her face as she took in the man before her. Never in a million years would she have thought that she could ever get along with Tony Stark nor that he would be opening himself up to her in such a kind-hearted way. No matter how insane it seemed that a literal billionaire and superhero was standing in her living room, teasing with her, May wouldn’t have it any other way.
Because they both had a united goal: protect Peter. And to May (and Tony) that was the most important team to be a part of.