Chapter Text
“You don't need Peter Tingle to have a gut feeling,” Harley stated seriously, eyebrows scrunched in anticipation as the car came to a stop at a red light.
Peter stared at the screen that divided them from Happy and rolled his eyes, fiddling with his fingers nervously. “Do you have to call it that?”
“It's just too good to pass up.”
The younger sighed, “It's not my Spidey-Sense,” he said, “It's just like this pit in the bottom of my stomach..”
Harley patted his brother's shoulder with a convincing smile, “Hopefully it's not too bad.” He murmured, pulling out the Messages app on his Starkphone.
“Anything from Flash?” Peter inquired, staring over Harley's shoulder. “His mom's on the school board, you know.”
Harley let out a sigh, pocketing his phone once again. “He couldn't convince her to tell him anything, apparently.” He rubbed the back of his neck- a nervous trait he had inherited from his father. “Guess we'll have to find out where this field trip is with the rest of the Decathlon Team.”
Peter groaned.
Happy parked the car a few blocks away from Midtown, and as the pair walked, Peter couldn't help but break the growing silence.
“Do you think- err, maybe..”
Harley clued in quickly, “No. Absolutely not,” he huffed. “He would tell us.”
“No,” Peter retaliated, “He wouldn't.”
“Mom would.. right?”
The two exchanged a glance and promptly burst into laughter—not regular laughter, but nervous chuckles.
“It's just the anxiety, probably.” Harley shrugged (although he wasn’t sure if he was trying to convince his brother more or himself), gripping the strap of his backpack and running a hand through his light brown locks. “Your Peter Tingle isn't going off, is it?”
Peter shook his head, fighting the urge to roll his eyes. “I already told you it wasn’t.” He snapped, harsher than he intended. Besides, sure, Spidey-Sense only went off in danger but what if it was Peter's social life that was in danger? Harley put his hands up in mock surrender. “We're probably just worrying for nothing.”
Peter Parker-Stark was, by all means, quite an optimist at times. This was not one of those times.
“Yes,” Harley agreed, as they approached the school gates. “Nothing.”
Peter sat with Ned on the bus, MJ and Betty sat in front of the two, discussing women in powerful positions. Harley opted to sit in the back with Flash, the two talking animatedly about some English assignment the Juniors had gotten.
Most upperclassmen in the Decathlon sat in the back, Peter and Ned, being Freshmen, had decided to sit near the middle.
“Where do you think we're going?” Ned asked curiously, his eyes scanning the window for any familiar routes. “I hope it's exciting!”
Peter chuckled at his best friend's antics before following him to stare out the window at the busy streets- they passed the ice cream shop Happy took him and his siblings to once, the diner he and Harley frequented on Saturday mornings when their parents were busy, the bakery that the two sometimes got breakfast from because Harley fancied the girl who's shift ended right when they would leave and she'd often accidentally walk with them.. and.. a light went off in Peter's head.
Uttering out a string of colorful language that had Ned staring at him weirdly, he reached for his phone and pulled up his messages with Harley.
It was like he had feared… and Peter, always the self-doubter, was for once confident to say he had little doubt on this theory of his.
Harley had been playfully arguing with Flash about something when his phone went off.
shit
shit
fuck
??
what
i figured it out
the field trip, i mean
.
spit it out spider boy
the tower
we were right
we're going to the tower
you're gonna have to be more specific than that parkour
wait
OUR tower??
yEs
oh
fuck
The two locked eyes, and Peter groaned, putting his head in his hands, but before either of the Starks present had time to dwell, the bus came to a skidding stop. His classmates stated awestruck at the building most of them probably passed when they went to school like they had been seeing it for the first time. Peter opted to keep his face buried in his palms.
“Here we are kids,” came Mr. Harrington's grinning voice, so excited Peter wanted to groan again. “Stark Tower!”
Harley caught his brother’s eye before trailing back to the blonde sat across from him, Harry Osborn, who Harley was quite friendly with (friendly enough to know his actual parentage) and Peter knew immediately what he was trying to say. Something along the lines of; It can’t be worse than Oscorp.
Harley, unlike Peter, never had a bad record with field trips. In fact, he was quite fond of field trips. After all, what was there to dislike? For the most part, you didn’t have to do school work and you got to hang out with your friends.
Not that he would ever say it out loud. Harley had always thought he was the lucky brother (to an extent—although everyone knew Morgan was the luckiest sibling), but he didn’t want to take the risk of speaking karma onto himself. Perhaps the odds weren’t in his favor as always.
Stark Tower’s lobby was the same as it always was, and the team was instructed to stay on one side as another school also had a field trip here at the same time (Stark Tower only gave educational tours and rarely did to regular tourists). Peter, for the most part, chose to ignore the other school’s dirty looks, but Harley scoffed in their direction. Idiots, he wanted to say, that’s my name written on this tower.
Alas, Harley was not one to brag (this is sarcasm, Harley was absolutely one to brag).
An intern Harley didn't recognize (weird, they must have been new) meekly stroke conversation with Mr. Harrington, handing the latter a small plastic bin containing, just what, Harley couldn't see from his far proximity.
"Welcome," said the intern animatedly. He was lanky and a redhead, a textbook nerd, if you will, as Mr. Harrington began handing out the badges, checking the names. "My name is Ed, and I'll be your guide this tour. You will all be getting Level 1 badges, meaning you can’t go certain places without someone with a higher level.” Harley opted to tune him out as he spoke.
Flash nudged Harley to show off his red, metallic badge labeled "E. THOMPSON."
"Pretty neat, isn't it?" Flash smirked as Harley playfully rolled his eyes all while internalizing that his cover was 100% blown. At least this new intern didnt recognize him.
Ed clapped his hands together once the badge basket was empty, leaving both Peter and Harley groaning and praying to whatever gods out there were listening (Harley, for his credit, was hoping Thor wasn’t too far to hear his pleas, wherever he was [which, unbeknownst to him, was currently being beat up by his older sister]). “Alright! That’s all the badges. Let’s get this tour started, shall we?”
Mr. Harrington cleared his throat, “Um, Ed,” he said dryly, “You missed a couple students.”
Blinking owlishly up at him, the redhead guide flipped through the clipboard resting at his arm.
“Peter, Harley,” Mr. Harrington ushered the two up to the front, each wincing as their names were called. Peter barely had time to catch Ned’s sympathetic expression, although Harley had plenty of time to retaliate with a glare to Flash and Harry’s amused expressions.
Peter was the one to speak up, “We don’t need badges, sir.” He said sheepishly, running the back of his neck.
Harley, feeling some pity for his little brother, nodded. “Right, we’re interns. Remember, Mr. H?”
”Oh, yes. My mistake.” Mr. Harrington responded, remembering the documents Stark Industries sent over once to confirm the statement.
”Erm,” Ed, with furrowed brows muttered, “That can’t be right.” Peter reddened, suddenly aware of his classmates stares. “Even Interns need badges.”
“Edward, right?” Harley questioned with a raised brow, seemingly confident. “You must be new here. We’re Mr. Stark’s personal interns. We don’t need badges.”
Ed blinked again, “I wasn’t aware Stark took high school interns.” He responded, despite his lanky (submissive and breedable looking) frame, he was clearly sure enough to challenge Harley, who stood a couple inches taller than him and was often described as intimidating.
As Mr. Harrington opened his mouth to speak, Peter cut him off before he realized what he was doing and before Ed or anyone could stop him he walked straight through the sensors without a badge, shocking both Ed and the security guards as it beeped with a green light.
“P. Stark, Level 10.” FRIDAY’s voice ranged from basically everywhere, considerably more chirpy than before. “Good Morning, Peter. Shall I alert Boss of your arrival?”
Peter, red faced, not at all panting from his mad dash to the sensors, tried to ignore the eyes once again. “No, thank you, FRIDAY.”
“See?” Ned’s voice, 2 octaves more high-pitched than usual, “FRIDAY even says he’s Stark’s intern.”
Peter quietly sent thanks to Ned, grateful for his best friend’s quick thinking.
”Alright.” Ed replied, quickly realizing not just anyone could be Level 10, although his tone was still wary. “Let’s get through these sensors then.”
Harley, shrugging, quickly made his way towards his brother.
“H. Stark, Level 10. Good Morning, Harley.” FRIDAY said as he passed through.
“Good Morning, FRI, how was your day?” Harley responded smugly.
Even FRIDAY seemed charmed, “Better now.” The AI replied.
Slowly everyone filtered through.
”E. Sher, Intern Level 5.”
"M. Jones, Visitor Level 1."
”N. Leeds, Visitor Level 1.”
Peter gave Ned a fist bump as they met on the other side. “Thanks, man, that was good.”
Ned nodded, “I am your guy in the chair, Pete, and I take this job very seriously.”
”E. Thompson, Visitor Level 1.”
”H. Osborn, Visitor Level 1.”
Harry shuddered as he approached his friends, “My dad’s not going to be happy when he finds out where I am.” He joked.
”Nah man, my dad will 100% let you hide out in the tower whenever.” Harley only half-joked back.
The Decathlon Team fit nicely in the elevator, even if it was a little snug, and Peter almost hoped there wouldn’t be a similar incident as last time when he remembered the precautions his borderline paranoid father always took.