Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“I search the area for any indication of people… its a 16.”

“There are a few broken twigs and a gold coin leading out of the clearing on the left.”

“I pick up the coin and follow the path of twigs.”

“As you walk you find more broken bushes, and an embroidered red cloth.”

“Perception check… ugh 4.”

“You don’t notice anything in the surrounding area.”

“Right. Since they have expensive cloth, and they dropped money, I assume I’m following someone rich? Intelligence check… 13.”

“You’re correct. You-”

The loud ring of the school bell cut Ned off mid sentence, and he and Peter began gathering their things. Ned packed his dice as they chatted loudly over the din of their classmates. Peter looked up suddenly, his attention focused on the front of the room. Ned was about to ask what was up, when MJ called, “Hey!” and everyone fell quiet.

Mr. Warren, their AP science teacher, was standing at the front of the room. He was frowning slightly towards the door, where several students had already escaped to. After a few moments he turned to the class.

“Thank you, Michelle. My voice simply isn’t as loud as it used to be. Now, before you go I have an exciting announcement.”

This sparked a wave of whispering throughout the students, including Peter and Ned, and Mr. Warren shushed them again.

“Now I’m sure you are all wondering what this not-school trip is. Although we aren’t fully sure why they picked us, Midtown High’s Junior and Senior advanced science and technology classes have been invited to tour… The main Stark Industries headquarters!”

This announcement sent an immediate wave of excitement through the room, which then erupted into ecstatic chattering. Ned was the only one who noticed Peter’s groan, but a smile from Flash made him think he’d heard it too. Another call of “Shut up” from MJ settled everyone back down, and the old teacher continued, his own excitement clear in his tone.

“A quick disclosure first, this activity will not be considered a “school trip” as to avoid claims of favoritism against other schools. Instead, we are simply a group of people that happen to be from the same science class, and our group name is ‘Midtown High’. This won’t make the other schools happy, but at least they can’t complain.
Next, Each of you will be required to read and fill out these information packets and disclosures before you will be allowed to get on the bus.”

As he spoke he began passing out thick paper packets to each student.

“I suggest getting these turned in sooner rather than later. As you can see, there is quite a bit to do. The injury, confidentiality, and rule forms are the most important to read carefully, as failure to follow those guidelines will lead to you being banned from all Stark organization buildings, and expelled from school. If you lose your packet or know of someone who was absent,” he glanced at the door again. “Come to me immediately to get a new one. The trip will be two weeks from tomorrow, on the Saturday after next. The trip isn’t required of course, but it is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity. Are there any questions?”

There were none, and Mr. Warren dismissed them. Ned turned his attention to Peter, who looked slightly put-out.

“What’s wrong? Is it bad that we’ll be going to the Industry Headquarters?”

Peter sighed. “It's not bad, but I wish we were going somewhere I’ve never been. Or somewhere where people don’t know me. How did this even happen?”

Ned smiled and patted Peter’s back. “Mr. Stark probably did something. Maybe he wanted to reward our classmates for having to put up with you?”

“Tony is the type to-”

Peter’s comment was cut off by a loud laugh.

“Like you’ve ever been in an SI building. Why would Mr. Stark having anything to do with you, Penis?”

“Peter has an internship, Flash. He even has proof.”

Ned had spent a long time trying to talk Peter into showing the photo of him and Mr. Stark with the certificate, but Peter insisted there was no need. He also pointed out that Flash would probably just accuse him of photoshop, since he was convinced Peter was inferior. The boy in question proved that analysis with his next words.

“There’s no way you have an internship when I don’t. You just want everyone to think your special. I’m way smarter than you.”

Ned opened his mouth to defend his friend, but Peter just gestured to just ignore him. Ned was still annoyed, but followed his friend’s advice. Flash continued to pester them, but the boys just collected the rest of their things and headed out of the classroom. Once clear of Flash they started back up their conversation.

“To be honest, I don’t really want to go.”

“What? Why not?” Ned gave his friend a critical look. “You’re not worried about Flash are you?”

“Of course not. What’s he going to do? There are cameras everywhere, and FRIDAY’s intelligent enough to catch bullying. Nah, I just think it would be a bit boring.”

“Boring? Boring? The a rare tour of the #1 leading company in science and engineering, the building that creates the highest level of technology known to man, the home of the Avengers and residence of the Man of Iron himself, is boring?” Ned waved his arms around slightly, as if the movement would help Peter realize what an idiot he was.

Peter laughed. “I see your point, but keep in mind that I’m there all the time. Not only do I work there, I literally have my own floor. I can go on my own tour any time I like.” Peter paused. “Actually, so can you for that matter. You’ve been there before, why do you want to go?”

“Peter, do I need to repeat myself? #1 in science and engineering? Sci-fi levels of technology? Avengers? Why would I not go?”

Peter shook his head fondly. “You know, we could ditch together and you could join me in the actual fun part of the building.”

“But you never take me to the labs. I may be a Geeky nerd type, but I’m still a nerd. And I don’t choose you over science.”

Peter gave Ned a look. “Was that double Pokemon reference necessary?”

“Yes.”

Peter laughed again at this, and they chatted for a few more minutes. They said their farewells as a familiar black SUV pulled into the lot.

“I’m staying at Tony’s place for the weekend.”

“You called him Tony again.” Ned grinned as Peter flushed red.

“As long as he never hears it, I’m fine.”

They waved at each other as Peter ran towards Happy’s car. Ned looked after him for a moment, then headed home himself.

Chapter Text

The bus had barely screeched to a halt as the students began shoving and pushing each other out the door. They were chattering loudly, Ned could practically feel the buzzing excitement in the air. He could hear Flash somewhere in the front bragging about how he was guaranteed a spot in the SI internship program because he was so smart. Ned just shared a quick look with MJ and didn't say anything. He glanced again at MJ, deciding to leave her to her book, and stepped off the bus.

As he approached his classmates, he saw that they were all stopped dead in amazement, as they entered the front doors. The Stark Enterprise building was big. Really big. And Ned could completely understand their awe. The magnificence of the building couldn’t be fully appreciated from the outside. The entire floor was huge and brightly lit. The outer walls were super enforced floor-to-ceiling windows, which were flooding the room with light. Directly in the front was a security checkpoint, and to the left was a large reception desk. Past the checkpoint was a long hallway filled with doors, most of which leading into conference rooms and storage spaces. Near the desk were three elevators, and on the other side of the room was another.

On Ned’s first time entering the tower, Peter had taken him all the way to the top, to his private room. Mr. Stark had not only given Peter his own room and lab but also his own entire floor, which was found on the 96th level.

The first time he’d gotten in the elevator he thought he would explode from excitement. Peter gave him a full tour, even showing off the 10 private floors at the very top. He even included Mr. Stark’s, which Ned was pretty sure is a violation of security. Not thirty seconds after exiting Mr. Stark’s lab, the man in question arrived. The. TONY. Freaking. STARK. Showed up, and Ned’s reaction was far from dignified. He had let out a somewhat terrified squeak, and practically hidden behind Peter.

Peter called out a casual, “Hey Mr. Stark” and kept walking, leaving Ned behind.

The man’s eyes moved to him, and with a raised eyebrow, he asked, “So you’re the one who hacked into my AI and helped Peter lose an expensive tracker in a hotel lamp?

Ned became even more terrified at this, and could only let out a nod and a small “Yes sir.”

Mr. Stark stared at him judgingly for a second before saying, “Right then. Good job. I’m glad Peter’s got such a good friend to help him be less of an impulsively naive idiot. Everyone can use a good man in the chair.”

Ned was so surprised he just stared at the man. Peter’s indignant “Hey!” snapped him out of it, and he mustered up his courage to answer.

“Th-thanks sir.”

Instead of responding, Mr. Stark turned his attention to Peter.

“Be sure you share your churros.” Then he walked off with no other explanation.

Peter had to spend the following 20 minutes calming Ned down from a panic attack, and convincing him that, “Tony really is okay with what we did. If he was mad, he would have done something by now.”

“Hey, Tomato face. We’re moving.”

Ned snapped back to earth and realized that his face had flushed slightly with embarrassment of the memory. He cleared his throat awkwardly and moved forward to MJ’s side, nodding his thanks.

The class had finally quieted, and moved into the building’s lobby.

Once everyone was inside, and Flash was staying quiet for once, Mr. Warren approached the front desk. A woman sat in the center chair, and a young man sat next to her behind a small laptop.

“Hello. How can I help you this morning?” The woman asked cheerfully.

“Ah, Yes. We’re Midtown High? We have a tour scheduled for 10 am today.”

“Of course, just let us check the schedule.”

The woman turned to the man, who after a moment of typing on the computer responded, “Here you are. Midtown High, junior science class, 24 participating students and one teacher, organized by Mr. Raymond Warren, 24 Omega 1 badges, tour of levels zero to 35, and parts of 36 to 50, led by Jesse Andrus, 10:00am to 3:00pm and lunch. Does that sound correct?”

Mr. Warren blinked at the sudden rush of information, but shook his head.

“I’m sorry, but we applied for 25 passes. 24 students and one teacher. Everything else is correct though.”

Ned shifted slightly, and forced himself to not blurt out ‘I have an Alpha 1 pass.’ in front of his entire class. Ned still felt slightly guilty about outing the fact that Peter ‘knew’ Spiderman, and didn’t want to do anything else that would make things harder for his friend.

The guy tapped at his keyboard for a few more seconds before stating, “One of the students has already received their badge.”

“Perfect,” the woman responded with a smile, “I assume they know who they are, so let's move on. Mr. Andrus will be here soon. He’s up in the labs making sure everything is ready.”

Ned knew that it just meant the scientists were hiding the confidential projects, but the comment set off a wave of murmurs through the students, speculating on what was being prepared. Ned kept quiet though, wondering if he should be worried about showing off his clearance level.

“In the meantime, I can explain how our badges work. We have one special level and three basic levels of clearance, Omega Pink, which is for visitors, Beta Blue, which is for staff, and Alpha Orange, which is for residents, their families, and Avengers.

Each of those is broken up into sublevels that allow different amounts of access to the building. There are 3 levels of Omega. 3 being the most restrictive, while 1 is what all of you will have. Omega 1 allows staff of Beta 3 or higher to grant you access to anywhere they have access to.

Beta clearance has 4 different levels, 4 being basic employees and interns, and 1 being the main security and lab supervisors. As well as your tour guide today.

Alpha has 3 levels, and they don’t usually need to carry their badges around. Our building AI, FRIDAY, can recognise them. Alpha 2 and 3 both have access to about the same floors, but can be differentiated by the level of lab access. A little fun fact, as far as I know, only 2 people have Alpha 1 badges, which give access to all facilities up to level 96. This technically makes it the rarest badge in the system.

The final type of badge is Gold and Red, to match Tony Stark’s colors. Although it was originally named the ‘Iron badge’, one of the four holders dubbed it “Stark Status” which is what everyone calls it now. Stark Status gives the holder complete control over the building, security, and even FRIDAY. Similarly, everyone who works in the building, cleaners, sciencits, doctors, engineers, etc, are generally referred to as ‘Stark Staff’.”

Ned shuffled his feet awkwardly at the mention of Alpha 1, and attempted to ignore the speculative whispers about who could have such a high status.

The first few times Ned had visited the tower, he had received an Omega 1 pass, and Peter granted him access everywhere they went. On the third or fourth trip however, they had separated so he could use the bathroom, and he had immediately been locked out of all doors, and security was called to remove him. Luckily Peter had saved him, and explained that FRIDAY was being snarky and over complying with her instructions concerning guest badges. (Her instructions being that Omegas could never be alone, in case they try to steal something, so she should report all of them.) After that incident, Peter convinced Mr. Stark to give Ned Alpha 1 clearance, on the promise to never break him into the personal lab again (yeah right). Shuri held the other badge, as it gave access to every floor in the tower including Peter’s floor, but excluding Stark’s rooms and the observatory.

One of the elevators on the right suddenly opened, and out stepped a younger looking man, maybe around 30. He had short red hair, glasses, and was wearing a lanyard on top of his t-shirt with the name ‘Andrus’ on it. He smiled when he saw the group of students, and Ned thought he looked slightly familiar. Mr. Andrus approached the students and introduced himself.

“I’m Jesse, and I’ll be your guide for the majority of the tour. I believe Amy has already gone over the badges with you,” he glanced at the female receptionist, who nodded, “So I’ll go over the rules, answer some questions, and we can get started.”

Flash and several other students groaned loudly at the mention of rules, but Jesse ignored them.

“Thank you for your patience. This shouldn’t take too long. Amy can pass out the badges while I talk.”

Amy grabbed a box from under her desk labeled “Midtown” and began passing out the Pink passes. Jesse went over all of the basic safety rules for the labs, explaining that goggles would be supplied when entering the first lab, and should be kept for the remainder of the tour. He also highlighted the importance of staying with the group, and anyone who becomes separated will be escorted out immediately. By the time he finished, Amy had passed almost all of the badges out.

While she finished, Jesse asked for any questions, and several people raised their hands.

He called on Flash, who shot Ned’s empty hands a look before stating, “I think there’s been a mistake. The receptionist guy say that there's a student who already received their badge, but none of us have ever been here before, so it doesn’t make sense.”

Jesse raised an eyebrow, “One of you clearly has been here before, otherwise the computer wouldn’t say they had a badge. However, since you're asking me these questions, I assume it’s a private matter, meaning it isn’t our place to pry. And I doubt it was a mistake. Mr. Stark’s tech is nearly unhackable, especially by an untrained high school student,” Ned smiled slightly at the irony, “And FRIDAY would notify us if there was a problem. Who else has a question?”

Flash didn’t look satisfied, but Jesse called another student and he stayed quiet.

“So what do you do here?”

“I’m one of the lab supervisors for floor 32. I’ve worked as an intern since I joined the program, until a few months ago, when I was promoted to a higher level lab supervisor. Now I work on my own projects, but I also help mentor the interns. I’ve been working here since just after I graduated high school, so it's taken me awhile to get here.”

Flash’s head perked back up at this, and Ned rolled his eyes. A few more questions went around until Flash was picked again.

“Do you know an intern named Peter Parker?”

A flash of surprise crossed Jesse’s face at the question. Ned knew most of the staff within the building had at least heard of Peter, but most weren’t allowed to even know his name. The ones who did knew that his involvement was supposed to be mostly confidential. And none knew his actual age.

Jesse composed himself immediately and answered, “No, I don’t believe that name rings a bell. But I haven’t met every Intern, so perhaps.”

Jesse moved to call on another hand, but Flash interrupted him.

“Does the company hire high school interns?”

Jesse’s smile looked slightly strained, but he answered anyway. “I don't think so. Internships are usually only open to university students.”

“Ha! So Pen...ter,” Flash quickly stopped himself from using the crude nickname, “was lying!”

Jesse raised an eyebrow once again towards Flash. “Well, tours aren’t usually open to high school students either, so you never know.”

“Yeah, but it would be really hard to get in as a sophomore right? Like almost impossible?”

“Well… I suppose. Interns aren’t allowed to miss school for their duties, and since high school hours aren’t very flexible, it’d be rather difficult to be accepted.”

Flash started grinning in victory and Ned held himself back from arguing. Flash was trying so hard to prove Peter wrong it’d be almost funny if it weren’t so sad. Although interns aren’t allowed to miss school, Mr. Stark worked out a deal with the principle to let Peter miss. As long as he kept his grades up, only missed up to 6 days (about 30 individual class periods) each month, and never missed a test day, he would be excused for interning duties.

The group started moving through the security checkpoint, and Flash made his way towards Ned.

“HA! There’s the proof that Penis was lying. No wonder he decided to wimp out of this trip. I wonder how interested our teachers would be in this.” Flash laughed triumphantly. “I bet he’ll get in trouble for lying about someone as influential as Mr. Stark.”

“Peter isn’t lying about the internship. Just leave him alone, Flash.”

“Well what about you? I notice you don’t have a badge. Did you trick someone into giving you access?” Flash taunted, and Ned felt himself getting slightly annoyed at his idiocy.

“We don’t have to explain anything to you.”

Flash opened his mouth to taunt him again, but Ned move forward into range of Mr. Warren and Jesse. The group had begun moving through the security check, emptying backpacks and scanning their cards.

The students moved quickly, wanting to get on to the fun stuff, and Ned was eventually at the front. Every badge scanned made a quiet ding to indicate approval, but when Ned walked through, there wasn’t one. Ned whispered a quiet thanks to FRIDAY for not using her usual greeting of “Welcome back Ned”, but still wished she’d made the ding. There were murmurs from some of the students, and Flash immediately stepped in front of him.

“How did that work? Why don’t you have a badge?”

Immediately a voice from overhead said loudly “Confidential Information. Clearance level non-sufficient.”

All of the students sans Ned and MJ jumped in surprise, searching wildly for the voice’s source. Ned grinned slightly at the terrified squeak Flash had made, and Jesse’s smile grew wider at their reactions.

“Ah yes, that was FRIDAY. She controls everything in the building. She doesn’t usually interact with the tour groups this early on, so I forgot to warn you. FRIDAY is the one who will be keeping track of all of you, and will report you to security for any misbehavior or wandering off, so be sure to follow all of the instructions. If that’s everything, I think we can get started.”

Flash glared at Ned as they started walking, but it seemed like he was going to drop it, at least for a while.

“Alright everyone, please follow me.”

Their guide led them down the hallway to a room labeled “Avengers museum” and opened the door. The students immediately went to rush inside, but Jesse stopped them. Ned could hear Peter’s voice coming from the room, and was relieved Jesse had noticed too. His classmates fell silent when they noticed the voice, practically holding their breaths.

“Did you know he updated the museum again?
…
Yeah, 'Spiderman's in it now. He even got a hold of one of the original suits.
…
Must’ve done it yesterday… I can never figure out how he does things so fast.
…
Hahah, You know, you should come by next week.
…
Yeah, but he can’t decide who I let onto my floor. If he doesn’t let you in the front, I’ll just carry you to my lab from the outside.
…
Exactly, so will you come? I miss youuu! We’re soul mates, Shuri, we aren’t destined to be apart.
…
Fine, no cheese bombs. This trip will be purely work. Get in, fix the broken web shooters, get out. Clean and simple. And maybe a bit of hanging from the ceiling scaring Clint and Steve.
…
Of course. And I’ve got the whole weekend. Aunt M-”

When Peter mentioned his aunt, Ned coughed loudly, breaking the group’s silence. As if his cough were a signal, the other students broke out of their quiet daze, and began yelling over each other.

“Spiderman’s in there!”

“Why can’t we go in?”

“Oh My Gosh!”

“Can we meet him?”

“Is he actually talking to Princess Shuri?”

Ned breathed a sigh of relief. He’d heard Peter sign off the call with Shuri, and knew he would have already fled the scene. He assumed Jesse had as well, as the man unblocked the door and the students flooded inside.

They all stood there for a moment before Flash announced an unnecessary, “Dang it, he’s gone.”

There were a few disappointed groans and mutters of annoyance, but Jesse quieted them all down.

“Sorry about that you guys. I couldn’t guarantee Spiderman was in his suit, so I can’t let you see him. Don’t be too disappointed though, you’re in the home of the Avengers, so there’s a chance someone else might pop around later.”

Several students looked hopeful at this, and Ned was glad no one argued. Once again Flash didn’t look satisfied, but he too stayed quiet. Jesse took this as a sign to continue.

“This is the Official Avengers Museum of Artifacts. These display cases have many of the original weapons and armor the avengers have used, and holographic recreations of the ones they don’t have. You’ll have an hour to look around and test the interactive exhibits. I know that seems a bit short, but there are other parts of the tour to get to. You’re permitted to take photos in this area, in fact, please do. Everyone be back here at 11:00. “

As soon as they were given the go ahead, the students scattered in all directions. MJ wandered off towards Black Widow and Scarlet Witch exhibits, and Ned began a circle around the museum. Most of the exhibits showcased original costumes, and some had drawn designs of the first imagined versions of a suit. Many looked rather cartoonish, something straight out of a comic-book. Ned enjoyed reading about the first missions of some of the Avengers. Many of the stories were riddled with rookie mistakes that would make any modern hero would be mortified to make nowadays. It was refreshing to see the god-like beings brought back to human levels. Except Thor. Even though he was exiled from Asgard for a time, that man had a record of un-Godly proportions.

Many of the information tablets also described fun facts about each Avenger, like how Captain Rogers is terrible at cooking and texts like an old man, and how Hawkeye was the reason the Alpha 3 badge was created, after he managed to break two entire tables worth of expensive chemicals and electronics in just under an hour. (Since then, all child inhabitants of the building have also received Alpha 3’s, but Clint will always be known as the first.)

There were also several holographic simulations and games relating to different events, where the majority of the students spent most of their time.

Ned’s favorite part though was the Spiderman exhibit. Peter had shown him the museum only once, on his first tour, but they had only stayed for a few minutes. Since then, Mr. Stark had clearly made renovations. Ned assumed that the Red and Blue spider themed display case was the thing Peter had referred to in his call with Shuri.

The case itself had several suits in it, and it even had Peter’s first hoodie. When Spiderman first showed up, Ned hadn’t cared about the Hero’s terrible design skills, but now that he knows Peter’s secret, it amuses him to no end. The idea of Peter swinging around the city in tacky jacket and blue sweatpants, while awesome, was hilarious. Not to mention the red boots. When Ned asked Peter about them, he admitted that the first pair he had were taken from a pile of clothes Aunt May was getting rid of. After those wore out, he started visiting every shoe store in the city looking for matching boots. He said he didn’t want to buy it online in case May saw his search history or got to his package first. Ned found this hilarious as well.

Flash only bothered Ned a few more times, mostly with things like, “Have you met Spiderman too?” and “I guess Parker really did chicken out.” For the most part he didn’t waste time on Ned though, and enjoyed the exhibits alongside everyone else.

By 10:55 most students had already made their way back to the front where Jesse was waiting. After the last few stragglers joined the group, Jesse led them out of the museum and back to the front desk area. He stopped in front of the middle elevator, and turned to address the students.

“Now, we’re about to make our way to levels 15 to 19. We’ll only spend about 15 minutes there since there isn’t a lot of science stuff. Then we’ll move onto level 21 through 34, which are our main lab levels, where we’ll spend an hour and a half. Then we’ll have lunch on floor 20. Remember, absolutely NO photography is allowed beyond this point, as mentioned in the mandatory packets you should have all signed. Please put away all phones and cameras, and follow me into the elevator.”

Jesse scanned his pass on the elevator and said, “Beta code override, 0-M-3-G-4 bypass,” there was a chime, and Jesse continued, “24 guests, floor 47 override, 5 hours.”

There was another ding and the elevator opened. Jesse motioned for everyone else to scan their badges as well. The group moved through the security checkpoint without issue until only Jesse, Mr. Warren, and Ned remained outside.

They stared at each other for a second before Mr. Warren spoke up, “Well go on, Ned.”

Ned glanced at Jesse. “Uh, you need to go first. If I get on before you, the program will think I’m you, and you won’t be able to go.”

During the time Ned still had an Omega pass, Peter would just give the override code for the whole building, Ned would get in, Peter would follow, and they never had any issue. The first time they did this though, someone stepped in the elevator just before Ned, which voided the actions and locked Ned out. In turn, the scientist who stepped in before Ned found himself with temporary access to every floor. FRIDAY immediately voided his access though, since it was clear an accident was made. The security wasn’t directly controlled by Friday, as to lower malfunction risks, but she still had some access. Ned assumed that same protocol applied here.

Jesse nodded and motioned for Mr. Warren to go first. Jesse followed him to complete the override command, and Ned got in last. All the students were staring at him, and once again Flash was the first to speak.

“Why couldn’t you go before Mr. Warren?”

“Because the code only applies to the first 24 people who entered the elevator before Jesse.”

“But why didn’t Jesse need to override your clearance?”

“Confidential Information. Clearance level non-sufficient.”

That time, only Flash and a few others were surprised at the disembodied voice. Flash composed himself and glared at the ceiling. FRIDAY went silent, and Flash turned back to Ned.

“How did you even know about that code? What the hell is so special about you? I thought Parker was the one with the imaginary internship. What did you two lie about to get such special permission?”

FRIDAY piped up again, her tone seemingly almost annoyed, which was a contrast to her previously monotone sound. “Please refrain from questioning Mr. Leeds.”

Flash opened his mouth again but MJ cut him off before he could start.

FRIDAY continued as if there wasn’t any disturbance. “Where to Dr. Andrus?”

“Right, thank you FRIDAY. Take us up to floor 12 please.”

“Of course Doctor.”

Ned wanted to show Flash that he was an Alpha badge holder. It took most of his self control to not brag about how close Peter was to Mr. Stark, and it annoyed him to know end, knowing how easy it would be to prove Flash wrong about them lying. But he just bit his tongue. He had learned his lesson after blabbing about the “internship” (which was fake at the time) and didn’t want to make things any harder for Peter. The elevator began to rise, and Ned just hoped there wouldn’t be any more disturbances.

Chapter Text

As they rose, Jesse began explaining the functions of the different elevators.

“This elevator is made for larger groups and cargo transport, the one to our left has low floor priority, the one on our right has high floor priority, and the one accross the lobby is reserved for Alpha badge holders. This means that if a person wants to go to level 6, they would take the left elevator, because if someone in the other elevator was going to floor 52, it would go all the way up first, then back down. This is because…”

Several of the students lost interest in Jesse’s spiel, and began whispering amongst themselves. Ned zoned out slightly as well, and instead elected to study the elevator itself. It was rather large of course, probably big enough to comfortably fit another 15 people. The walls of the elevator were made of glass, as were most of the outer walls of the building itself. The view through the windows gave Ned “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” vibes. At least the elevator didn’t go sideways.

Ned could feel Flash’s eyes boring into him, but when Jesse asked for any questions, the other boy stayed uncharactaristicly silent. Ned ignored it, and hoped that it just meant Flash had finally gotten the hint.

The ride to floor 15 only took about 10 seconds, but the excited energy from the class still had time to settle around them like a hyperactive cloud. When the doors opened, Jesse halted the buzzing stampede.

"This floor is the main recreation level. There's a pool, Ping-pong table, arcade, climbing wall, you name it. Mr. Stark added it a few years ago, and keeps adding to it every time someone makes a request."

There were several excited gasps, but Jesse gave the group an apologetic look and continued.

“Now, unfortunately, we won't have time to take advantage of these facilities this morning, but you’re free to take a quick look.”

They only spent a few minutes on the recreational floors. Everything looked interesting, but Ned, along with most of the other students, just wanted to get to the good stuff. They moved quickly to the medical center, but as they walked through the hallways of mostly empty rooms and approached the elevators after circling the entire floor, several students groaned. When Jesse gave them a raised eyebrow, one of the students elaborated.

“I hoped we’d get to see Bruce Banner.”

Ned the Nerd felt the comment poke at his random list of“facts no one else knows” and he responded without thinking. “Dr. Banner has a PhD, not an MD.”

Jesse gave him another slightly strange look, but didn’t say anything.

“But he’s still a doctor,” another student argued.

Ned rolled his eyes. He’d done that a lot this trip.

“He’s a gamma physicist with a degree in Nuclear Physics, not a medical doctor.”

Now several of the students were also giving strange looks.

“How the heck do you know that?”

Flash was looking annoyed again, and Ned realized he probably shouldn’t be giving up information he shouldn’t have a way of knowing.

“Uhhh…. Peter told me. He worked with Dr. Banner a few times, and asked him once.”

Ned had met most of the Avengers at some point or another, but he had actually spent some time alone with Dr. Banner. Same as Peter, Dr. Banner was in and out of the Avengers labs all the time.

The first time Peter took him there, he had asked what the point of more secret floors were.

“The labs are for the super hush-hush things, you know? Like personal Avenger swag bag merch. Like Widow Bites and BoomBoom arrows.”

Ned had just stared at Peter for several seconds.

“What?”

“Everything about that is unbelievable and awesome, yet all I can think about is the fact that you just called Mr. Barton’s exploding arrows “BoomBoom arrows.”

“Oh yeah, Clint hates it.”

Ned wished Peter were with him. It would make dealing with Flash a lot easier.

The boy in question scoffed loudly. “You’re still on about that? Do you really expect us to believe that Parker works here, just because you’ve apparently been here before?”

“Believe whatever you want, Flash. I would prove it to you if Peter hadn’t asked me not to.”

“Bull crap. You and Peter are just a bunch of--”

“If I wanted to listen to pigheaded bigot try to argue over facts, I’d watch a political debate. Do you really think you’re going to win this, Flash?” Several students jumped when MJ spoke. Most of them seemed to have forgotten she was there. Flash looked angry, but closed his mouth.

“Um, no need for that Michelle, thank you.” Mr. Warren chastised half heartedly, but MJ had already gone back to her book.

Jesse clapped his hands to break the awkward atmosphere.

“Anyway! The young man is correct. While The Doctor will visit the infirmary occasionally, he dwells primarily in the upper labs. Now if you’ll follow me, we’ll head up another level to the gym.”

Many of the students seemed slightly put out over their second missed chance at meeting an Avenger, but Jesse ushered them all into the elevator. As the doors closed, everyone began chatting amongst themselves. Ned could feel Flash’s eyes boring into him, but he just stayed close to MJ, and Flash left him alone.

When the doors opened, Jesse led them down the long hallway and past several private training rooms. Jesse explained that the floor was open to anyone, and despite being a building full of nerds, the floor was actually quite popular. Most of the staff didn’t actually have set schedules, and just had to complete a certain number of hours per week, so the recreational floors were used during downtime and breaks quite frequently.

As they entered the main gym, loud grunting greeted them. As the students pushed through the doorway they all stopped dead in their tracks. There were several excited gasps and awed, shaky breaths, before a blanket of quiet disbelief fell over them all.

Ned grinned slightly at his classmates’ (and teacher’s) reactions. He made eye contact with Jesse, who returned the amused expression with a bemused smile.

One of the students managed to break through their awe and breath out “Black Widow.”

The woman in question released the man she had pinned to the ground, and stood up. As she stepped forward, Ned’s classmates seemed to shrink back slightly. Ned heard Flash squeak out a high pitched “ohmygod.”

“Well, who do we have here?” Miss Natasha (“I can’t call Black Widow ‘Nat’! Are you crazy, Peter?”) scanned her eyes over the group and made eye contact with Ned. As much as he wished to show off his connection with an Avenger, he knew better than that. He shook his head slightly, and she gave a single nod in response. Flash glanced towards Ned for a second, but quickly moved back to Miss Natasha.

“A tour group from Midtown Highschool.” Jesse ussered the students farther into the room, and the ring of scientists and engineers scooted over to make room.

“Highschoolers? That’s new. Be sure to keep a good eye on them. If Mini Stark is anything to go off of, teenagers these days are crazy. Especially the smart ones.”

A few students looked at the engineer who had spoken in surprise, as if they hadn’t noticed the group of people already in the room. The other Stark Staff nodded their agreement and Miss Natasha smiled.

“Well, you guys had pretty good timing. I was just giving a demonstration.” She turned to Jesse. “Do you guys have any time to fit me in?”

The students’ eyes grew even bigger, and everyone turned hopefully towards Jesse. “Sure why not? We’ve got some extra time.”

The students released a collective sigh of relief, and began to excitedly talk amongst themselves, staring at Miss Natasha expectantly.

“Well then, who's next?”

The students watched Miss Natasha defeat at least 10 individual opponents over the following few minutes. The class was entranced the entire time. Miss Natasha fought like she was dancing, and Ned could see the appeal. She and Bucky had been teaching Peter to fight hand-to-hand, and Peter’s skills had definitely grown.

One time, after he spent a week working up the courage to ask, Bucky had told Ned that helping Peter was good therapy for himself. Miss Natasha had just smirked and shrugged.

(“Why do you call Bucky, “Bucky” anyway? You don’t use nicknames with anyone else.”

“Because ‘Mr. Barnes’ just feels wrong. Like I’m talking to a highschool history teacher or a friend’s grandpa.”)

The longest anyone lasted was about a minute, but she gave pointers and tips after every fight. About halfway through, Flash pushed his way to the front of the group, elbowing Ned as he went. Ned just rolled his eyes and moved away, and hoped Miss Natasha hadn’t seen.

After the fights were finished, she turned back to the class. She smiled, but Ned noticed a strange glint in her eyes.

“Before you go, would any of you like to try fighting me?” Ned noticed her gaze flick towards Flash, and he felt a weird sense of apprehension (and excitement).

Several students raised their hands, but Jesse objected. “I’m sorry, but I’m afraid that, legally, I can’t allow this, as it wasn’t covered in the tour disclosure forms and Stark Industries would be the ones held responsible if an, *ehem* accident were to happen during the fight.”

Several students look put-out at this, and even Ned was slightly disappointed. Miss Natasha just smiled and smirked slightly. “Well, surely I can do a quick demonstration on self defense, using a student as a volunteer?”

Jesse looked slightly confused by her insistence and nodded his okay.

The students, guys and girls alike, began jumping up and down excitedly, waving their hands around. Ned and MJ stood quietly next to Jesse, who gave him yet another curious look. Miss Natasha acted like she was deciding who to pick, but after a few moments of “deliberation” Miss Natasha pointed at Flash.

“Alright then, come stand over here.” Several of the students muttered under their breaths, and there was a series of disappointed sighs. Flash grinned. He sent a look towards Ned that clearly read as “See? I’m way more impressive than you dweebs.” Ned just ignored him, and waited to see what Miss Natasha was planning.

“I’m going to show you all a few head and arm locks.” Some of the students looked slightly less disappointed at the announcement. Flash looked a bit apprehensive. The following minutes consisted of Miss Natasha holding Flash in various body locks, and making him struggle around and try to get out of them. All of the students, excluding MJ, who was smirking slightly, were laughing by the end of the session. The sight of Flash flopping about in Miss Natasha’s grip was something Ned would pay to see again. Ned made a mental note to ask FRIDAY to pull up the footage for Peter later.

Flash was flushed red by the end, and didn’t say anything when he rejoined the group. Natasha smiled at the students, and flashed Ned a wink as they left.

They walked back down the hall, everyone talking over each other. The class seemed to have finally gotten their Avenger’s fill for the day, and were ready to actually see some of Stark Industries.

As the doors closed behind them one of the students suddenly exclaimed, “Wait! Did that engineer lady say “Mini Stark”?”

The class immediately erupted into even louder chattering. Ned was surprised anyone had remembered, what with how entranced they were with Miss Natasha. Ned wasn’t worried though, there was no way anyone would realize the connection between mini Stark and Peter.

Finally, one of the students remembered that they had a source of infinite wisdom walking right next to them.

“Jesse, who’s the ‘Mini Stark’?”

Jesse paused, then shook his head. “I’m sorry, but that’s confidential information. No one under Beta level 3 is allowed to know what he looks like, though they might see him around without knowing it’s him, and no one under Beta 1 can even know his name. Technically, Omegas aren’t even supposed to know he exists.”

The class looked disappointed at this, but they dropped it. They followed Jesse into the elevator, and took it up to level 21. As they filed out of the compartment Jesse halted them again.

“Remember to be quiet and respectful on these floors. People are working. There isn’t really anything inherently dangerous on these floors, but still be careful in the labs and workshops.” Jesse led them through the hallways. Most of the rooms were empty of people, but clearly well lived. Most of the labs had empty take out bags and gatorade bottles strewn along the desks and around the garbage cans. The workshops were messy as well, half finished projects lining the walls and rolled up blueprints spilling out of baskets. Ned loved every second of it.

When they got to level 29 Jesse led them to a large room filled several engineers. As the engineers explained the projects they were working on, Jesse made his way to the back of the room and stood behind them. When the staff began splitting them into groups of two and three Ned moved towards MJ, but Jesse intercepted him.

“Excuse me Mr… Leeds? Was it?”

Ned nodded his head. “Uh, Ned is fine.” He had been expecting this, but he had hoped it wouldn’t be necessary.

“Right, Ned. Can I speak with you for a moment?”

The engineers were explaining the competition they had prepared, but Ned nodded his head and turned to follow. Most of the students paid them no mind, but Ned noticed Flash looking at him. Of course.

Ned followed Jesse into the nearest empty room. Once the door was closed, they turned to face each other.

“I don’t want to overstep my boundaries, but I need some more information, if its alright with you. Your class knows more than they should, and I wasn’t prepared for that.” Jesse laughed, but Ned just smiled nervously. “I’m just going to start with the easy stuff. How and why do your classmates know Peter works here?”

Ned glanced at the ceiling. When FRIDAY stayed quiet he decided to just go for it. “Well, technically, Peter told them, but I was the one who made it into a big deal. It wasn’t really a secret with them, but we don’t share details. They only think its an internship though, and most of them don’t even think it’s real.”

Jesse looked confused. “But why would Peter tell a bunch of highschool students something this confidential?”

Ned glanced at the ceiling. “Uh, I’m not actually sure if I can tell you. FRIDAY?”

“You’re free to give out whatever information you see fit, Ned. Within reason of course.”

“Right, thanks FRIDAY.” It still excited Ned to no end that FRIDAY would talk back to him. It made him feel like he had a connection to Tony Stark.

Of course, Peter liked to point out that “I’m your connection to Tony Stark, Ned.”

“Yeah, but this is like, different.”

“You could always just talk to Mr. Stark.”

“No, I can’t Peter. Normal people don’t just walk up to him and start talking.”

Ned mentally shook the memory back. Jesse was looking at him expectantly.

“Well, I know the most cause I’m his Guy in the Chair.”

Jesse gave him a weird look, “That doesn’t really answer my question.

“I help Peter with, uh, stuff. We’re best friends.”

“Okay then. And the other students?”

“Um,” Ned bit his lip hesitantly, “Peter’s in our school class.”

“Like a teacher aide?”

“No, as a student.”

Jesse’s eyes widened in surprise. “Really? I can’t imagine Stark’s Kid being in highschool. He’s really that young? A sophomore?” He paused. “Why does he live in Queens and not here?”

Ned shook his head. He knew that everyone called Peter “Stark’s kid” but he didn’t realize they actually believed it. “I can’t answer that.”

Jesse nodded. “Right, of course. Sorry. What clearance do you have?”

Ned shrugged. “Alpha. Is there anything else?” Ned was seriously starting to worry that he’d somehow slip up and admit Peter was Spiderman. When he’d first learned Peter’s secret, he thought it was something cool and fun that could make them popular. After seeing Peter nearly die, Ned realized why Peter was so secretive, and he became hyper paranoid about keeping his friend’s secret. It had actually strengthened their friendship by quite a bit.

Jesse shook his head. “No, I think that’s all I need. Let’s get back to the other students.”

By the time they got back, the class had already gotten started. MJ was working alone, so Ned joined her. They were all given various objects and electronics that they should put together to make a little robot. They only had 10 minutes, but Ned and MJ managed to create a robot that rolled around. It didn’t do anything, but it was at least better than Flash’s. He had been boasting about how he could do it alone, so his partners left him and he was working by himself. Flash’s was the only robot that fell apart. The project was fun, and it was satisfying to once again see Flash knocked down a peg.

The following floors were mostly uneventful other than a few more mentions of the ‘Mini Stark’ and ‘Stark’s kid’. Ned had been slightly hoping they would run into Peter. Since Peter had already told them about the internship, seeing him in the intern labs wouldn’t give away information, but still prove Flash wrong.

After finishing the tour of floor 34, Jesse stopped them as they approached the elevator. He started giving instructions on how lunch was going to work. Ned heard a weird metallic banging sound from above. He noticed several other kids looking up at the ceiling as well. The banging got louder, and Ned heard a voice that sounded like Peter’s yell, “Wait, Clint, NO! There are people-”

There was a grunting sound, and suddenly the vent cover fell to the ground, and Spiderman followed immediately after. Mr. Barton was holding Peter’s arms with a death grip, and Peter made a breathy grunt when he hit the ground, Mr. Barton on top of him. They fell right in the middle of the group of students, who turned to gawk at the two Avengers.

“...Here.”

Peter managed to say, “Did you just tackle me out of the vent?” before the class exploded.

The students had been excited, yet terrified to meet Miss Natasha. She was new, dangerous, and exciting. Spiderman on the other hand? Spiderman was their own, and there wasn’t any apprehension when it came to questioning him.

The students were yelling questions over each other. Most where directed at Spiderman, who was attempting to escape from under Mr. Barton, but some were for the older man, who was focused on staying atop Peter.

“Why are you here?”

“How old are you?”

“Didn’t you help Loki?”

“Do you know Peter?”

“Can you defeat Black Widow?”

“Are you dating Black Widow?”

“Have you ever killed someone?”

“Can you control spiders?”

“Do you have powers? Can you fly like a hawk?

Peter escaped from under Mr. Barton and Jesse settled the group down. Peter turned on his voice changer before speaking again.

“Sorry, I can’t answer any personal questions. I’m sure Clint would be more than happy to answer some though.” Peter began inching away, but Mr. Barton grabbed him.

“Nope, I won, so fair is fair. Your first favour to me is to stand here and answer questions like a normal superhero, or I’ll tell Cap you’re trying to break a promise.”

Ned could almost see Peter rolling his eyes. Spiderman nodded and fell beside Clint. The older man smiled and turned back to the group.

“Because I was invited for dinner and showed up early. I’m 21, can’t you tell? Yes but No. I know lots of Peter’s. I wish. I wish, again. Yes. No. And I wish. Your turn kid.”

The students stared at him, trying to connect the questions with the answers.

Peter sighed. “What do you want to know?”

They spent the next few minutes answering basic questions (some being very similar to the questions Ned had asked when he found out the Secret) until they turned more personal. Mr. Barton continued answering questions, but Peter quietly idled his way over to Ned.

Ned whispered “I thought you would be avoiding us.”

Peter nodded and whispered back. “Well, I was trying, but I forgot to look at the schedule you guys are following, so I have no idea where and when you guys are going places. I think I’m just going to stay up in my room until you guys go.”

Ned stared at Peter’s mask covered face for a few moments. “Dude. You’re so cool.”

Flash made his way over to them. He didn’t even seem to notice Ned.

“Hey Spiderman. I just wanted to say that you’re really… Dope. You know? Like, I really respect you. I’m definitely your biggest fan.”

Peter grunted awkwardly and thanked him.

Flash stared, slightly star struck, before continuing.

“So like, do you know Peter Parker? Brown hair, average intelligence? Likes to make up lies to make himself sound cool.”

Peter shook his head, and Ned could tell he was slightly annoyed. “I know a Peter Parker with brown hair, but he doesn’t match your description.”

Flash looked slightly triumphant again, and Ned was dumbfounded at how thick headed his classmate was being. Ned opened his mouth to counter Flash, but Jesse stepped in front of Mr. Barton and silenced the group. He explained that it was time to move on, but most of the students weren’t listening. Peter cleared his throat and everyone turned towards him, when they turned back to Jesse, Mr. Barton was gone, and Spiderman disappeared as well.

The students looked disappointed, but Jesse just smiled and led them to the elevator.

“Three avengers in just under two hours. I’d say that’s pretty good. And now, it’s lunch time.”

Chapter Text

As the elevator sank to a slow stop at floor 20, Flash scooted in next to Ned. Eyeing MJ for a moment, he opened his mouth to speak.

“So why was Spiderman being so friendly to you? Did you pay him, too? How much begging did it--?”

Ned cut Flash off. “Really dude? We’ve already been over this.”

Flash sneered. “You keep lying. I’m not giving up until I get a real answer.”

Ned vaguely noted that the elevator had slowed down significantly. Flash opened his mouth to argue again, ignoring his friend tugging on his arm, but was interrupted as the elevator jolted and suddenly stopped. Ned could see through the clear doors that they were suspended between two floors. The students exchanged nervous glances. Jesse frowned in confusion, looking to the warning lights, which remained dark and unflashing. The elevator suddenly dropped several floors, causing most of the students to fall into the walls. Flash let out a terrified shriek as he lost his balance, falling to the floor.

Ned had a flashback to the elevator incident at the Washington Monument. He felt himself panicking slightly, but also felt a strange sense of calm. Something about the situation felt off.

Even as his brain connected the dots between the strongly controlled fall and lack of warning signal, the overhead lights flashed once again before turning back on on all the way, and the elevator began climbing back to the 20th floor.

Jesse’s face contorted into even deeper confusion. “Friday. Incident report.”

“Nothing to worry about Doctor” the unusually chipper voice responded. “Just an unexpected reboot. I’m sure it won’t happen again.”

Ned smiled incredulously at the ceiling. He’d have to ask Peter how sentient FRIDAY really was...

Jesse furrowed his brow slightly. “...ri-ight. Well, let's get back up the 20th floor; I’m sure these kids can use a break from all the excitement.

As the elevator reached the 20th floor, the food court was revealed through the clear doors.

The students began filing out, spreading around the court. Ned heard Flash mutter something about “death boxes” and “schisty state of the art technology” and couldn’t help but smile.

Ned followed his classmates to the food vendors. MJ seemed to have disappeared off somewhere, and Flash seemed occupied not having a panic attack, so Ned just got in line for some sort of gourmet fried chicken. While he was waiting, he thought about how unlucky his day had been so far. Ned laughed at the thought. “When did I start thinking that meeting Avengers in unlucky?”

In all honesty, Ned had enjoyed the majority of the tour. Peter never took him to the public sections, so he hadn’t actually seen much of what the Stark Staff did before that day. He wouldn’t have minded the extra attention he was getting if he wasn’t so worried about giving away secrets. He’d figured it’d be easier to pretend he had nothing to do with Peter’s internship, but maybe he should have asked Peter to ask Mr. Stark to give him a fake internship too.

Hiding his relationship with SI was proving more difficult than he expected. Because of the casual way he always visited the tower, Ned wasn’t sure how much of the stuff he knew was secret, and how much was public knowledge. He thought back to an incident a few weeks prior. He’d been with his younger cousins, when the topic of super heroes came up.

Ned ignored them for the most part as they talked, but then one of them asked, “What’d you reck’n Thor’s favourite ice cream is?”

Ned immediately responded, “Any kind, as long as it has chocolate syrup and sprinkles. They make him excited for some reason.”

He froze and his cousin gave him a weird look. “How’d you know that?”

He’d stammered a reply, when another cousin pointed out “It says it on fan pages and stuff.”

His cousins teased him for a while about doing fanboy research on Thor, but Ned was just relieved he hadn’t just revealed secret information. (Not that Thor would have minded, but the point still stands.)

Ned got his food and sat at one of the tables. He wondered if he shouldn’t just make up a new, easier to keep, lie, and admit that he knew more about the tower then he was letting on. Most of his classmates, with the exception of Flash it seemed, had already figured that much out at the very least. He wondered if he shouldn’t text Peter and ask for his opinion. He pulled out his phone just as Flash finally made his way over.

“You’ll just get fat if you eat like that. Well, more fat than you are now.” Flash taunted.

Ned eyed the triple tier chocolate-strawberry, caramel covered ice cream bowl Flash was eating, then rolled his eyes. “What do you want Flash?

“Can’t I just want to socialize with my classmate?”

“You never had before.”

Flash sat down across from Ned. He put his hands on the table and leaned forward, as if getting down to business.

“What’s going on? Do you think we’re stupid? You’ve obviously done something illegal. If you tell me, then I won’t tell security that you aren’t supposed to be here.”

Ned sighed in frustration. “Really dude? Do you honestly and truly believe Peter and I would do something like that?”

Flash sneered. “Well you certainly did something.”

“Peter has an internship.” Jeeze, this lie was falling apart. Ned mentally groaned.

“Well that doesn’t explain how you got in here without a pass. Or why you have a higher clearance than us.”

Ned started racking his brain for something to say when he noticed the students around them get quieter. Flash glanced towards Jesse, who had started talking to the group, and Ned took advantage of the bully’s distraction. He grabbed his -now- empty tray of food, and began making his way towards the trash bins.

He glanced towards the elevator on the far side of the room and stopped dead in his tracks. He felt his heart both rise and fall at the same time, and suddenly felt the urge to both cough and faint. After getting over his weird heart attack, he opted for the coughing option. The sound caught the attention of the source of his panic.

Mr. Rogers led the group out of the Alpha Elevator. Wanda made eye contact with Ned, while Vision and Bucky continued whatever conversation they were having. From what Ned could see, they both looked rather awkward. This reminded him of the time Vision refused to supervise their bake off.

“I don’t get it. If Vision is just Jarvis with a body, how did he manage to actually look stressed when we asked him to watch us?”

“The Ionic mass of the photosynthesis causes the stoichiometry to merge with the disembogue and meretricious to form facial expression.”

Ned had given Peter an amused look “Did you just--”

“ssshhhhh..” Peter then put a hand over Ned’s mouth. “Vision works in ways too difficult for your young mind to comprehend.”

Some of the other students and staff also noticed them, and had started talking amongst each other, completely ignoring Jesse. They had to raise their voices over the din of the cafeteria, and Ned heard one of his classmates exclaim something about ‘never ending super heroes’.

Wanda beckoned towards Ned, but he chose to ignore her. Instead, he looked away from the group of Avengers and pointedly walked in the opposite direction.

His escape was quickly cut off by a loud voice right behind him. “Hello Ned! Peter didn’t mention you’d be here so early.”

Ned turned around. “Oh! Mr. Rogers, Captain America, sir! What do you mean? Peter who?” Ned winced at his crappy acting.

Mr. Rogers raised a confused eyebrow. “...Peter your friend? I think he’s upstairs playing hide and seek with Cassie, if you're looking for him, but dinner isn’t until 5... Is something the matter? You haven’t called me ‘Captain’ in weeks.”

Ned stopped and gave Mr. Rogers a pained look, but decided that the damage was already done. Peter was the one who didn’t want to be famous, which was the whole reason Ned had been trying to be secretive in the first place. But the universe was obviously against them. Ned mentally threw his hands up in surrender. Admitting that he’d been to the tower before wouldn’t be the end of the world, and his entire lie had already gone out the window. There were so many holes he could hardly call it a story anymore.

Ned sighed. “No, I’m fine. I’m actually here on a school trip.” Ned mentally berated himself for being too casual. This was Steve Rogers for heaven sakes.

(“You know he doesn’t care right? He’s a human being too.” Peter paused. “Well, mostly”

“I can’t just talk to him like we’re on the same level.”

Peter sighed. “You can, you know. Any friend of mine is a friend of his.”

“That’s really not how this works, Peter. Especially with superheroes.”)

Mr. Roger’s face showed a look of realization as he glanced around the room, finally noticing the students, who were all watching the exchange with looks of awe.

Ned shook his head and lowered his voice. “No going back now, sir, its fine. It’s our fault for not warning you I’d be here.” Ned glanced back to his classmates who were whispering amongst themselves.

Mr. Rogers smiled and turned to Ned’s classmates. Ned retreated back towards Wanda, Vision, and Bucky as Mr. Rogers addressed the other students.

Wanda smirked. “So, have you given away Peter’s secret yet?”

Ned smiled back. “Mostly sure I haven’t.”

Out of all the Avengers, Ned was the most relaxed around Shuri and Wanda. Their closeness in age made it easier for Ned. It also helped that Wanda was pretty chill, and didn’t randomly start ranting about how amazing computers are, or give accidental death glares when she got distracted. Not that Ned wasn’t still slightly surprised every time she talked to him.

Ned glanced at Bucky and Vision, who seemed to have ended their conversation. Bucky grimaced.

“Steve thought I should ‘Go socialize’ with the staff.”

Wanda scooted closer to Vision. “Some of the others are up in the lounge discussing battle strategy or something, so I thought we’d come with.” Vision spoke up at this.

“She insisted I have more interaction with humans. Though I am not sure what I’m meant to accomplish by watching you eat.”

“Humans are at their worst when their at their hungriest. If you want the full experience, you have to study them in all stages.”

Ned looked back at his classmates, whose wild stares were split between himself and Mr. Rogers. Wanda noticed the eyes on them, and turned back to Ned.

“How much do they know?”

“That I’ve been here before, at the very least.”

Suddenly Wanda stepped towards him and hugged him around the shoulders. Ned blushed slightly and stiffened.

“W-what are you doing?”

“Confusing your classmates. Making you popular. Hugging a friend. Take your pick.”

Ned smiled and pushed her off. “I guess I should be glad your not Shuri. She probably would have kissed me.”

They looked back at the other students, who had turned their full attention to Wanda and Ned. Mr. Rogers noticed his lack of audience and stopped his lecture on proper seat belt use. He used to give Ned lectures every time he saw him, but Ned eventually realized he was making a really drawn out joke. Mr. Rogers was well aware of people’s perception of him, and enjoyed the bored amazement his lectures created in students.

Ned sighed, and turned towards his classmates. “Wanda, meet my class.”

Chapter Text

Surprisingly, Ned’s class didn’t freak out. There was some excited chattering, but no one looked overly surprised. Flash made a sort of dieing, choking goose noise, but everyone ignored him.

Ned could hear Flash muttering as Wanda introduced herself and Vision. Mr. Rogers walked over to Ned and put a hand on his shoulder, and Bucky stood just behind them. Ned still wasn’t used to the familiarity the Avengers showed with him, and resisted the urge to squeal over the hand.

“Why didn’t Peter come on the field trip with you? He probably could have gotten the class into a few new places without being too obvious.”

Ned smiled slightly “He said it’d be boring.”

Mr. Rogers pretended to look offended. “Us? Boring? More likely he was afraid we’d try to do something embarrassing.”

Mr. Rogers opened his mouth again, about to say something, when Flash’s brain seemed to finally catch up, and he began swearing loudly. A few seconds later, his brain seemed to actually finish catching up, and he cut himself off, seeming to remember exactly whom he was in a room with.

A wave of emotions crossed his face, and his defeated expression made him look like he couldn’t decide on yelling some more or just crying.

“But-- I- h- why you?

Ned knew the question was coming, but still hadn’t settled on an answer that would fix all the questions he’d created. Luckily, Mr. Rogers spoke first.

“Well know, we can’t tell you everything, but if you ask your questions one at a time, I’m sure Ned here should be able to answer at least some of them. Afterwards, I’d be happy to answer your questions as well”

His words got the attention of all the students, including the ones that were talking to Wanda and Vision, and a small crowd formed around them.

“Uh, yeah, well, what do you want to know?” And so it started.

“How do you know all of the Avengers?" As his classmates surrounded him, Ned had to admit that the attention felt good. Pretty much the only person that usually talked to him was Peter, and the swarm of students made him feel popular. He knew his classmates were more interested in his connection to Stark rather than in him as a person, but it was nice regardless. He shook his head of the thoughts and focused on his classmates.

“So, like, I’ve been here with Peter several times, and like, we just sorta, like, see each other around sometimes. And Wanda, like, hangs out with Peter sometimes so I, like, see her a lot more.” Ned cringed hard at the number of “likes” that sentence held, and urged himself to calm down. Another girl spoke up.

“Why is Peter allowed to bring in friends? That seems like a large security risk for an intern.” Shoot. One question in and he already slipped up.

Ned wasn’t sure how much Peter was okay with him revealing, but luckily FRIDAY came to his rescue. “Mr. Parker is in the Stark Program as a beta tester for highschool applicants, and has some say in who he is permitted to invite to view his work.”

Ned nodded his appreciation to the ceiling. “Right, so Peter made some suggestions to Mr. Stark about starting to show other students his work, especially students who are more computer/ technology oriented rather than Biology/Math oriented, and since I had already been cleared to know about the internship in the first place, and since Peter trusts me, I was picked for that.” Ned smiled proudly to himself. ‘Not bad’

There was some excited whispering at that. “Is there a way for us to be cleared for that?”

Ned froze. “Uhh.. Probably not, sorry. I don’t really know how it works.”

Most of them looked disappointed, but they didn’t press any further.

“How did Peter get an internship in the first place?” This time, a boy Ned recognized from his class spoke up.

Ned tried to think of a reply, but once again FRIDAY interrupted. “Confidential information. Clearance level non-sufficient.”

Flash seemed to have finally composed himself, and yelled out at that. “Seriously? Why is that confidential information?”

“Confidential information. Clearance level non-sufficient.” Flash groaned.

“Why does Peter-”

“Confidential information. Clearance level non-sufficient.” Flash looked incredibly offended at the ceiling. Ned smiled; the AI wasn’t even trying to hide her disdain towards FLASH.

The questions continued, most of them centered around what it is that Peter does and how many Avengers he knows. The class eventually ran out of questions he was allowed to answer, and they switched their focus to the four Avengers in the hall.

Ned zoned out a bit after that, not really paying attention until he heard his name again.

“Well what about you, Leeds?”

“W-what?”

“You’ve got a high level Beta pass don’t you? Don’t you know who Stark’s Kid is?”

“Uhh.” Ned looked at Mr. Rogers, then at Jesse, neither of which made any move to help.

Ned spluttered out, “N-no? To both of those. I mean, I don’t have a Beta pass. Or know who that is.” Ned winced slightly. He knew how bad he was at keeping secrets.

“Of course you’ve got a Beta pass. Maybe even an Alpha 3. We aren’t dumb. You got in without a badge and all the Avengers know you. Even if you do visit with Peter sometimes, it doesn’t make any sense for them to remember you by name, let alone for The Scarlet Witch to hug you!”

Ned looked back at Mr. Rogers, but Flash cut in before either of them could speak.

“What are you talking about? How could he get clearance like that? That’s Avengers level.”

“Uh.. I- so like--” Ned’s brain short circuited a bit and he said, “I have an internship too?”

The class stared at him in surprise, and a noise from behind him suggested one of the heroes was muffling a laugh.

“Yeah, so like, Peter and I both have uh.. Beta 3 clearance. And because we’re in the special program FRIDAY remembers our names.”

They kept staring at him until another student repeated the question. “But do you know Mini Stark? Is he actually Stark’s kid?”

“Uh,” the class stared at him expectantly. He sighed and continued slowly. “Yeah, I do. But I don’t know him by name! Or who he is. I’ve just met him. He’s like, super secret.”

The class looked like they were about to start asking questions again, but luckily Jesse finally cut in

“Please, no more questions. I’m sorry if you’re not content with the information we’ve given, but it’s the best we can do at this time. Even his existence is incredibly confidential information, much less his name, and we will be having a chat with our staff to remind them of that. Most of the people who meet him just think he’s an intern, so I can guarantee Mr. Leeds has no more information. Now, if you follow me, we are running late, and I don’t want to have to rush.” Leaving no room for argument, Jesse turned and started back towards the elevator.

The class said their farewells to the four Avengers and reentered the large elevator. Just before the door shut, Ned heard Wanda yell, “Don’t forget about dinner tonight!” He winced at the commutative intake of breath from his classmates.

“Monthly staff dinners?”

Ned spent the rest of the short ride to floor 35 answering another round of questions. When the elevator stopped, Jesse shushed them again with a smile.

“I know this has all been exciting, but there will be plenty of time to talk later. For now, we need to move on.” Jesse turned and led them out of the elevator. “It’s 1:30 now, but we’re running late, so we’ll only spend about 2 hours in the labs. After that, Mr. Stark has personally scheduled a conference that will take place back on the main floor.”

The following hour was spent jumping up floors level 35 to 54, skipping several in between. They were shown into some of the less confidential labs, and the Stark Staff would give them a brief rundown of what they were working on.

Ned had just let himself think that things were finally settling down when he heard hearty laughter from down the hall. No one else reacted to the sound, but Ned recognised the voice immediately. Ned debated hiding, but just decided that more Avenger interaction couldn’t exactly make his situation worse. Almost immediately, his thoughts were proven wrong.

“Ah! Friend of Spiders! You’re early! Our feast is not until sundown.” He laughed loudly, and Ned couldn’t help but smile at the infectious sound. “The Son of Stark is above us with the Daughter of Ants. They are playing a hunting game, if you wish to join them.”

Ned opened his mouth, not sure what he should say, when his class exploded once again from behind him.

“You’re friends with THOR too??”

“Did he just call you “friend of spiders”?”

“You DO know the Mini Stark!”

“You play hunting games INSIDE STARK TOWER?”

Thor blinked at Ned’s classmates, and his face once again broke into a wide grin. “Ah! Young Midgardians!” Thor’s words grabbed the class’s attention, and most turned away from Ned, their sole focus on the literal God in front of them.

The students mobbed the unassuming man, and soon were yelling questions over each other for the fourth time that day. Thor answered most of them with his booming voice and a laugh, but paused when the questions became directed towards Mjölnir.

“Who would like to test their worthiness against my mighty hammer?” As he spoke, Thor pulled out Mjölnir and sat it on the ground.

There was an immediate scramble as everyone tried to get to the front of the group. A messy line was quickly formed, and Ned’s classmates took quick turns with the hammer. As expected, no one was successful.

Ned decided to hang back near Thor and watch the other students; he and Peter had already made their attempt weeks ago. Although Ned hadn’t expected to be able to pick the hammer up himself, part of him had been hoping Peter could. As it turned out, Peter actually wasn’t worthy yet.

The best they could figure, Peter was quite literally too pure to lift Thor’s hammer. Although he had many of the other necessary traits, he wasn’t ready or willing to kill other people. Thor had said that one day Peter might be worthy, but for now he wasn’t prepared to do “what must be done.” Personally, Ned felt like that was a little unfair to Peter, but it wasn’t like his opinion mattered much when it came to magical alien lighting weapons.

Ned’s class moved quickly along their line, most only trying two or three tugs before moving on. Flash, however, was not one of those people. Ned was snapped out of his memory by the sounds of groaning and laboured breathing. When he looked, he saw that Flash had positioned himself firmly around the hammer, legs spread wide, his feet planted on both sides. He was clearly pulling with all his strength, straining with the effort.

When it was clear nothing more was going to happen, one of Flash’s friends put a hand on his shoulder and tried to convince him to walk away.

“NO. I can--DO. Thisss” Flash pulled again, and his friend looked slightly uncomfortable.

“Come on man, it’s not gonna work.” He glanced back at the other students with a grimace, “and this is getting sort of embarrassing.”

After a few more seconds Flash let go and sulked off to the edge of the group. The last few students finished their attempts as the others continued questioning Thor. The information about his homeland was especially interesting, but Jesse finally stepped forward.

“I’m sorry to say that, once again, we’re running behind. If everyone would say their farewells, we need to be going.” everyone looked put out at the words, even Thor. The class did as they were bid, however, and Thor smiled again.

“It was good to meet you, young Midgardians, but I also must be going; I need to get my shirt repaired.” He motioned with the piece of cloth in his hand as he spoke. “Loki has been up to his usual antics.” Thor laughed loudly again, “Luckily he only has 13 knives left, so we’ll see how that goes.”

Several students looked as if they weren’t sure if he was being serious, but moved out of the way regardless. Ned couldn’t help joining the other students as they stared in awe at the Thor as the god walked away.

After everyone settled, one of the female students turned to him. “So Leeds, before we move on: is there anything else in your cover story you’d like to change or fix?”

Ned blushed slightly. “I uh.” He sighed. “Sorry, but the internships and all are super confidential.”

“Then why would Mr. Stark let us, people who know Peter relatively closely, on a tour in the first place?”

Ned sighed again; he felt a bit defeated. “Peter’d probably say it’s because Mr. Stark thinks it’s funny, but I really don’t have any idea.”

They looked like they wanted to ask more, but Jesse interrupted. “Come on everyone, we need to move on.” They finished touring that floor and moved along relatively quickly through the following few levels, and Ned once again allowed himself to relax.

Chapter Text

As they rose through the building, Ned noted that Flash maintained his unnatural silence; he idly wondered if Flash’s soul had cracked under all the stress. He smiled slightly despite himself and carefully re-schooled his expression. As they rose towards the top of the tower, Ned started to wonder if they were going to run into Peter again. Mr. Rogers and Thor had both said Peter was somewhere upstairs with Cassie, but they hadn’t seen them yet.

They stepped off the elevator on floor 60, and Ned wondered if he might have gotten his answer.

Cassie was standing in the middle of the hallway with a slight pout on her face. She was staring at the ceiling as if searching for something, but when the elevator doors opened she turned her attention towards them.

The group made their way towards her, and one of the students knelt in front of the smaller girl.

“Hi Honey, are you lost up here?”

Cassie gave the girl a decidedly unimpressed look, and turned her attention to Ned instead. “Do ya know where,” she paused, looking at the other students, “You know who is? We were playing hide’n’seek, but he started cheatin’. “

She puffed her cheeks out in indignation, and Ned wondered what it said about the Stark Staff that a 9 year old kept Peter secret better than they did.

“Did you ask FRIDAY?”

“Yeah, but he told her not to say anything. Is’okay now though, cause I had FRIDAY call Aunt Carol.”

Ned froze. “Wait, Miss Danvers is coming up here?”

“Yup! FRIDAY told her I was about to cry cause You Know Who left me alone.”

He stared at the beaming girl in front of him. “You can just uh, call him Mini Stark, these guys already know about him,” he motioned absentmindedly.

His classmates looked curiously at Cassie at his words, and after a few seconds, one stepped forward. “You mean the mini stark was just here? And you were playing games?”

“Yup.”

Everyone stared at her for a second before realising she wasn’t planning on elaborating. “Right, uh,” They turned towards Ned instead. “who’s Miss Danvers?”

“Captain Marvel! She’s like my aunt, and has the best cat.”

At Cassie’s words, the class perked up again, even MJ glanced away from her book, a look of mild interest replacing her expression of disinterested boredom.

“CAPTAIN MARVEL? ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh! She’s coming up here?”

Cassie looked surprised at the class’s outbursts, before her face split into a knowing grin. “I can help you meet her!” She announced proudly. “She likes meetin’ kids. You can’t meet her cat though,” she lowered her voice mysteriously, “he might try and eat you and stuff.”

Several students looked concerned at her words, but most didn’t seem to be paying attention anymore. Everyone turned at the sound of voices across the hall, coming from the direction of the Avenger’s elevator.

Ned made his way to the back of the group, when he suddenly found himself being forcibly pulled into a conference room. He half expected it to be Flash, but was relieved to see it was actually Peter. He was still in his Spiderman suit, which Ned assumed was related to Cassie’s accusations of cheating.

“Oh Peter, thank the gods. I can’t believe you trust me to keep this secret literally everything has gone down hill, and I think at least part of the class thinks your the Mini Stark and now they think I have an Internship too cause that’s what I told them and they’ve met like half of the main Avengers already and everytime I make a new lie something happens and everyone knows I lied, and now Miss Carol is up here and you were right I should have just stayed with you and I’m so so sorry because I probably gave away one of your secrets.” Ned was panting by the end of his rant, trying to display just how sorry he was through his eyes.

Peter let him finish before laughing and giving him a shrug. “It’s not your fault, man. From what I’ve heard, neither Stark’s Staff or the Avengers were very conservitive when it came to the information they were giving out. I had a talk with Mr. Stark, he’ll help clear things up later. Like you said, most already figured it out, and it’s not like they can tell anyone anyway.”

Ned looked at him, surprised. “Really? How much are you going to tell them?”

“Just enough so they think everything you said was true, and Mr. Stark’ll remind them that the forms they signed say they won’t talk about it. So don’t stress so much.”

Ned grinned. “I can’t wait to see the look on Flash’s face.” Ned’s smile turned mischievous. “Actually, that reminds me. FRIDAY?”

“Yes, Ned?”

“Can you pull up the footage from earlier onto this computer? The one with my classmate and Miss Natasha…?”

Peter and Ned continued to talk for the next twenty minutes, though it mostly turned into Ned gushing about how amazing the tower was. After about two, voices from the other side of the door indicated Miss Danvers had arrived, as well as Mr. Rhodes and Dr. Strange. They ignored them in favour of their own conversation, but when Jesse’s voice could once again be heard over the students, Ned knew it was time to regroup with the others.

He sent Peter one last grin as he left. “See you later!”

Ned easily slipped back into the group; no one had even realised he was gone. Cassie and the heroes had gone, leaving Jesse back at the front of the group.

“... three o’clock right now, which leaves us with 20 minutes to go through this floor, then we’ll go up to the 68th floor for a private conference with Mr. Stark himself! Usually such meetings would be held on the first floor, but I just received word that Mr. Stark has something special for you all, and doesn’t want to risk any wandering eyes.”

There was a lot of excited chatter at that, and everyone quickly followed him through the hall.

“This floor is another for supervisor level personal labs, and I’ve managed to secure a little surprise for you guys.”

He scanned his pass to one of the doors, and it slid open to one of the labs. There was a communutave intake of breath from the entire class, before they all rushed into the room. As they stood in front of the only occupant of the room, several students were so excited they looked on the verge of tears.

Dr. Banner raised his hand in greeting. “Hi.”

Unlike with other hero encounters, the class actually managed to stay calm in front of their idol. Ned even noticed Jesse smile as the students began raising their hands for questions.

(Insert a bunch of super techy, gamma and nuclear physics related questions that last about 15 minutes. (I consider myself a somewhat intelligent person, but I don’t even know what types of questions would apply in this situation lol.))

“You’re the Hulk too, right?” Dr. Banner looked slightly disappointed at the mention of Hulk, but opened his mouth to answer. The student continued before he could speak. “How did that happen? Was it an experiment or an accident?”

At this question, it was as if a dam broke, and all of the order the students had disappeared.

“Was it gamma radiation or something else?”

“Is your DNA different now?”

“Is Hulk’s DNA different from yours?”

“What causes you to turn green?”

“What material are your stretchy pants made from?”

“Is it reversible?”

“Have you ever got stuck half changed?”

The questions continued for about a minute, and Dr. Banner looked slightly overwhelmed at the influx of questions, but he smiled again and started answering them.

He was about halfway through them when Jesse stepped in again.

“Alright students, I’m afraid it's time to move on. We need to meet Mr. Stark upstairs in 10 minutes, and we’ll need time to give instructions.”

Several students groaned at the interruption, but no one complained. As they filed into the elevator, the anticipation was palpable, and the class once again started excitedly talking amongst each other.

Jesse shushed them as they reached the new floor, and they followed as he entered a large conference room.

“Alright, everyone choose a seat and settle down. Mr. Stark will be here soon. Don’t worry about being loud, but please avoid screaming. One incident was more than enough.” Several students looked curious, but Jesse had already begun walking away. Ned blushed slightly at Jesse’s words, but also stayed quiet.

The “incident” as Jesse had called, had been a combination of Ned’s already fried nerves and an ill timed prank from Peter. They had been watching a horror movie in the theater that night, and Ned had stepped out for a drink. He knew that literally nothing could happen in the tower, but they aren’t called irrational fears for nothing. The movie had taken place in a penthouse with high security measures, just like Stark Tower. The main characters were to teenages, just like them. The monster was a literally freaking moving shadow, which the Tower happens to be filled with at night due to the floor to ceiling windows everywhere.

So yeah, Ned had been nervous and jumpy, and to this day he feels justified in his reaction to Peter’s prank.

He had been staring dubiously at every shadow he passed, as was trying to move as quickly as possible, when suddenly the shadow from the hall started wriggling and moving towards him. Ned simply followed his instincts. Unfortunately for Peter, Ned was still holding his glass cup.

As Ned screeked bloody murder, even before he chucked his glass at Peter, FRIDAY had sounded an alarm, alerting every Avenger on the upper floor that something was wrong. As the glass shattered against Peter’s chest, knocking the wind out of him, FRIDAY changed the alarm to signal that someone was being attacked.

Peter was fine.

Mostly.

He was ‘grounded’ (literally, a week of no extra or unnecessary Spiderman-ing) for waking up half the tower, getting himself injured, and not “reading the freaking atmosphere.”

Ned smiled at the memory, but was quickly distracted by the sound of a door opening. Everyone turned to the front of the room, falling silent without Jesse’s prompting. There, in all his (large amounts of) glory, stood Mr. Stark.

He smiled widely and raised both his hands, as if inviting applause, a request which Ned’s class happily granted. After a few moments, he rested his arms and cleared his throat.

As he ran through the obligatory greeting and introduction, Ned could feel his excitement grow. Judging from the increasing restlessness in his class, he assumed they felt the same way.

“Now, let's move onto the stuff you guys actually want to hear.” Mr. Stark said with a teasing smile. “Don’t forget, you can’t talk about what you see or learn here blablabla. Oh! You can talk about the Avengers, but not Stark related stuff. I’ll leave it up to you guys as to what you want to tell people about the heroes. Absolutely nothing you hear in this room can leave though, so if you feel you might be unable to keep an international secret, then I suggest you step out.”

Many students looked slightly nervous at his words, but everyone stayed seated.

He smiled again. “Right then, down to business. I’ve been told you guys know about my ‘Mini Stark’? Is that right?” There were several affirming mutters, and Mr. Stark nodded. Ned was confused as to where this was leading, but figured he’d just trust Peter and Mr. Stark have a plan. “Perfect. Now, I’m sure you’re all curious as to who he is?” There was a loud excited buzz at his words, but the class quickly shushed themselves and turned back to Mr. Stark.

“This isn’t usually a big occasion, but since you already know him, it's a bit more exciting. FRIDAY?” Barely giving them time to process his words, the door behind him opened, and in walked Peter. Ned stared at him, completely at a loss.

“Hey everyone.”

If Ned thought his class had exploded while meeting the other Avengers, they seemed to completely detonate at Peter’s entrance. Everyone started yelling over each other and asking Peter questions. Ned looked at Flash, and found him staring dumb struck at the raised stage. After a few seconds, Mr. Stark said something to the ceiling, and FRIDAY released a shrill beep, interrupting the other students.

“Quiet, please! Now, I’m sure you have questions about SI, so let’s start with those.” Mr. Stark glanced around the students and pointed to a boy near the back. “You, go first.”

The questions went around, most of them about SI, but it was clear everyone wanted to ask about Peter. Eventually, the questions finally changed topic.

“So what does Peter actually do here?”

Mr. Stark smiled. “Wonderful start. Peter here is one of our lab techs and supervisors, and helps oversee most of the process happening in the building when I’m too busy to check on them. He’s also on the team in charge of Avenger weapons and armour.”

Several students looked like they were still trying to process that, but Mr. Stark moved on. “Who else? You, red shirt. In the middle.”

“Why does Peter have that high a position, how does he even know this stuff?”

Mr. Stark’s smile widened. “Well I taught him of course. He already had a good amount of basic knowledge before we started, and he’s almost as smart as me, so that helps.” Behind him, Peter blushed at the praise and grunted. Mr. Stark's smile turned teasing, and he returned his attention to the class. “Blue hair, second row.”

“Who is Peter?” Mr. Stark looked like he was positively beaming

“Peter Stark, my adopted son as of yesterday afternoon.”

- - - - - - - -

“Did you plan that from the beginning?”

“Whatever do you mean, my dear and most beloved friend?”

Ned looked at Peter while he unloaded his dice and set onto his kitchen table.

“You totally did! You were already planning on telling them and just wanted to see me suffer.”

Peter smiled. “Well, it worked didn’t it?”

Ned punched his arm. “I hope you know that all of the monsters in our campaign just increased by six levels.”

Peter gave him a horrified look. “You wouldn’t.”

Ned laughed and adopted a mischievous smile. “Anything to see you suffer, my dear friend.”