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Mr. Stark had invited Peter to the tower to discuss something with him. Peter didn’t know what, but most likely it was Spider-Man-related. Then Mr. Stark has gone off to fetch something and left Peter in the lab. He tinkered with the equipment as he did more often now that Mr. Stark had discovered he wasn‘t completely inept.
Peter loved working in the labs next to Mr. Stark, and the genius billionaire even seemed to appreciate his input.
“This is for you,” said Mr. Stark from behind him suddenly.
Peter turned around and a phone and card were shoved into his hand.
“Thanks?” He said uncertainly.
“I’ve made you an official intern, so that’s your keycard in case you’d like to go to the other labs maybe get a space to start your own project. Of course you’re always welcome up here, but you might like company when I’m away. The phone is just because you’re old phone is old.”
“Thank you so much Mr. Stark,” Peter gushed.
“Whatever, kid. No Spider-Man projects below this level for secrecy reasons, obviously. With the card you can come and go as you please, so don’t lose it!”
“Yes, dad,” Peter said exasperatedly and immediately turned red with embarrassment as he realized what he’d said.
Tony on the other hand was inwardly grinning that the kid was becoming more comfortable around him.
Three weeks later found Peter working in the intern labs, like an actual SI intern! He still felt overwhelmed sometimes, but he was getting more comfortable. He got on well with the other interns and employees. He usually came and went through the roof during or after his patrols. He liked to leave his backpack in the tower so he didn’t need to buy a new one every other week.
Peter yawned, it was nearing 2 am.
“Friday, close the lab behind me, would you?” Then he remembered that the A.I. was down for maintenance until morning so he turned off the lights and locked the lab manually.
“Hey, you!” someone shouted behind him.
Peter turned around to find a security guard jogging towards him and scowling.
“What do you think you’re doing here?” the guard asked.
“I’m an intern,” said Peter, pulling out his keycard. “I was just working late.”
“Yeah, right,” said the guard, snatching his card. “This is a Gold-Level pass, interns don’t get gold-level passes, therefore, it’s a fake.”
Peter opened his mouth to ask Friday for backup, then closed it again as he remembered she was down at the moment. That’s probably why there was security up here in the first place, but Peter wasn’t sure. He took a breath and considered.
“Well,” he said. “I am not sure how I could convince you that my card is not fake, but since I was going home anyway, it’s not really a problem, you can throw me out and I’ll sort it out later…”
“No can do, kid,” the guard said. “You’re coming with me.”
Peter considered for a moment, but he really didn’t want to wake anyone this late, and everything could be sorted out in the morning. He probably couldn’t go grab his backpack, it was in the penthouse and he didn’t want to seem more suspicious.
“Okay. I’ll just text my aunt where I am, so she doesn’t worry,” Peter said and pulled out his stark phone.
The guard seemed to get angry and snatched the phone from him.
“Hey,” Peter exclaimed.
“I’m not going to let you keep stolen goods,” the guard scowled. “We can’t legally hold you over night so I’ll take you to the police.”
When Tony walked into the kitchen the next morning, he immediately noticed the backpack sitting on the counter.
“That’s the kid’s…” he wondered. “FRIDAY, did Peter forget his backpack last night?”
“Unable to confirm,” FRIDAY answered. “I was on shutdown for maintenance from eleven pm last night until five am this morning.”
“Was the kid there at eleven?”
“Yes.”
“And gone at five?”
“Correct.”
“Hm, call May Parker,” Tony instructed.
But May didn’t pick up.
“If I may Boss,” FRIDAY said. “Mrs. Parker has had a late shift last night.”
“Alright, can you confirm that Peter is at school?”
“Negative.”
“He should be at school though, right?” Tony asked.
“His physics class started forty minutes ago.”
“He isn’t in school?”
“Correct,” FRIDAY said.
“Where’s his suit?”
“In his backpack,” FRIDAY said. “Boss, a report just came in.”
Peter sat in the interrogation room. He scowled. After letting him sleep in an overnight cell, he had been woken up at six am and been sitting here for almost three hours.
“You expect me to just believe that a high schooler has an internship at stark Industries and a pass that according to the security guard that brought you in, shouldn’t exist?” the police officer said.
“I expected you to give me the benefit of the doubt and try to verify my story,” said Peter, trying to keep calm.
“Yet you can’t offer any proof,” the officer continued.
“I don’t have anything on me,” Peter said exasperatedly. “But you could call SI, somebody must have a record of my internship. Or you could give me my phone and I can call Mr Stark.”
“The phone that you stole.”
“I didn’t steal it, Mr Stark gave it to me.”
“Ah, yes,” the officer said. “You also can’t verify your identity.”
“Because my ID is in my backpack,” Peter explained (again).
“Which you left in Mr. Starks Personal Penthouse.”
“Yes.” Peter knew it all sounded suspicious and unbelievable, but seriously, it was so easy to just check! Why were they asking him the same questions over and over again?
Then someone knocked on the door.
“What is it?” The officer interrogating him asked.
“Sir, there’s someone here to see mister Parker,” another man said from the door.
“Alright, I’ll talk to them.”
Peter didn’t know what happened next, but barely five minutes later, the door was opened by none other than Tony Stark.
“Mr Stark,” Peter exclaimed in relief.
“Come on, kid,” Tony said. “Let’s go.”
“They’ve still got my pass and my phone.”
“I took care of it.”
As they passed the officer who had interrogated Peter, Tony scowled at him.
“Would you like to apologize to Peter?” He asked icily.
“Mr Stark,” the officer said. “You have to understand, his story is quite unbelievable. Did you expect me not to question it?”
“I would have expected you to do your best to verify or falsify his story.”
“That’s what I said,” Peter mumbled.
“Are you up for going to school or would you like to take the day off?” Tony asked Peter.
“I can go to school,” Peter said.
“Alright, I expect you to explain to his school why Peter missed his first Period today,” Tony said to the police officer.
“Of course, Mr Stark.”
“Let’s get you to school, kid.”