Chapter Text
It’s been about a month since Peter’s engineering class received their permission slips for this year’s “practical application” field trip. For the past several years, Midtown has put on a school-wide competition as an incentive for good grades. Good grades lead to good test scores lead to more funding, yadda, yadda, yadda. At the end of the competition, the class section with the highest collective grades and highest participation in a few Fun Team-building Activities ™ would get to go on an exclusive field trip to a place where they could potentially get a job applying the skills they developed in their class.
Peter’s classmates had pulled themselves together very effectively. Even Flash cooperated with everyone, much to everyone’s surprise! In the end, Peter’s engineering class came out on top and was rewarded with the coveted field trip. Which is great. Except that Peter’s life is going to end because the field trip is to his home. They’re going to Stark Tower in three days.
Sitting in his last class of the day, Peter was as anxious as ever. He couldn’t stop stressing about this stupid trip. He knew that his newly dubbed extended family would take their opportunity to embarrass the absolute shit out of him, and the thought had been giving him a major headache for the last few days. What if they accidentally reveal that I live at the tower? What if people find out I’m Spider-Man? What if Nat kills Flash for saying some stupid shit? All of those things could happen!
He had begged and pleaded for hours to the Avengers and other residents of the tower to leave his class alone when they were having their tour. It was a lost cause. Tony couldn’t wipe the shit eating grin off his face if he tried, Clint looked like a kid in a fucking candy store, and even Mr. Good and Righteous Captain America Sir seemed to be formulating a plan of attack in his head. At least Wanda had appeared sympathetic to Peter’s awful predicament, but she was one of the only few he would trust to not make his life a living hell for That Day ™. He supposed there were maybe a couple others who weren’t likely to rock the boat on Friday, like Bruce and Vision and maybe Uncle Rhodey, but for the most part he knew he was in for it. And on top of all that! Thor and his sibling had been staying at the tower for the past few weeks AND Shuri and T’challa were arriving this evening for some negotiations regarding vibranium shipments. Normally both of those things would make him ecstatic (who was he kidding, he was still excited to see his long-distance friends) but now it just meant more people to embarrass him in front of his class!
Peter was pulled from his nervous thoughts by a pencil being dug into his back courtesy of Ned. “Dude, pay attention!” he whisper yelled. The wound up teen huffed out a small sigh and refocused on what his teacher was saying. The end of class couldn’t come soon enough. He was itching to get back home and hang out with Shuri once she arrived.
The bell went off fifteen minutes later and Peter was out of his seat like a rocket, racing out the door with a rushed “see ya tomorrow” directed at Ned. Happy doesn’t like to wait long for him to get out of school and Peter always does his best to keep the man from being unhappy. Happy also doesn’t care for puns about his nickname, so Peter usually keeps those to himself. Usually.
“Hi Happy!” Peter greeted, not even slightly out of breath from his jog to the sleek black car that was parked two blocks from the school.
“Hey kid, how was school?” Came the reply from his honorary uncle figure. That was all the invitation Peter needed to launch into an uncannily detailed description of his day (sans Flash’s bullying). Happy always looked like he was tuning out his daily recap, but Peter knew that he was actually paying close attention to check up on him. The older man cared, he just didn’t like to show it. ‘Which is fine,’ thought Peter, ‘I can get my hugs from plenty of other people at the tower.’
The drive to the tower took about half an hour because traffic, and once they arrived, Peter was already feeling more relaxed than he had at school. Partly because it was nice to recap and process his school day with Happy and partly because he was back in his element. At the tower he doesn't have to worry about watching his words to keep his superhero identity and home life a secret, and he doesn't have to worry about bullies like Flash. Here, he’s just the smart, goofy intern who pops in to help exhausted college interns with their projects and walk them off the metaphorical ledge. Here, he’s the superhero who trains with Black Widow and Captain America. Here, he’s just a kid who speaks in meme references and has a handful of mental health issues and struggles sometimes, and that’s okay because his ragtag family is here to pick him up when he falls. Or when he blows stuff up. That happens far more than it probably should. Oops.
Happy and Peter parted ways upon entering the building, Happy to go do important Head of Security things, and Peter to go eat some pop tarts or something. FRIDAY scanned his biometrics at the security checkpoint instead of requiring a badge, and Peter said hi to every worker he passed. He always found it important to acknowledge and thank everyone for doing their jobs at the tower. After all, if there weren’t people here to ensure everyone’s safety and keep everything organized and running smoothly, Peter wouldn’t be able to do half the stuff he does in the upper labs. Plus, sometimes something as small as a smile and a short conversation can make someone’s day! It’s easy to do and fun to make people happy so he always makes a point to say hi. There’s one janitor in particular who is usually in the ground floor lobby when Peter gets back from school, who’s name is Paul. The man was having a rough time with a divorce, but he seemed to be in a good mood today, which Peter was glad to hear.
After catching up with Paul and a few others, Peter hopped in the private elevator and headed up to the common floor.