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Peter Parker hated his life.
That morning at school, their teacher had announced that they were going on a field trip. She hadn't said where they were going, just that it was going to be super exciting, and they didn't want to miss it.
Of course, that was why Peter was being forced to miss it.
He had missed too many homework due dates - it wasn't his fault he had been so busy Spidermanning that he had forgotten to put them in his bag - and apparently the punishment for that was missing the trip.
Like Peter had already said, he hated his life.
He slowly walked into Tony's lab, dragging his feet. Normally he loved spending time after school in the lab with Tony, but today wasn't normally and today he just wanted to curl up under a duvet and never emerge. He knew he was slightly overreacting, but he thought he was allowed an overreaction every now and again.
After all, he was a sixteen year old superhero. That mess came with a fair bit of pressure.
"What's up kid?" Toby asked, putting his soldering iron down and turning his full attention onto Peter. Apparently he was even worse at hiding his emotions than he was at handing in homework on time.
"I'm not allowed to go on a school trip next week," Peter explained. He didn't see any reason to lie. It was Tony after all, he would see right through any lie he tried, and call him out on it instantly.
"What are you going to be doing instead?"
Peter's scowl deepened even more, "I'm the only kid in my class not going. So I'm probably going to have to join a different class, or sit in an empty classroom doing homework all day." He appreciated the fact that Tony didn't even ask why Peter wasn't allowed to go, he just focused straight onto the important details, which right now, was apparently what he would be doing at school?
"So nothing important?" Tony had already pushed his chair over to his phone, which was on a different workbench to the one he had been working on.
"No, definitely not."
Without another word Tony grabbed his phone and typed something into it. They both waited a moment before his phone dinged with a text, before Tony grinned triumphantly.
"May is calling into the school to get you the day off. You can spend the day here in the labs instead."
Peter was practically vibrating on the spot by the time Tony finished talking. He couldn't believe that this was happening. He had so many projects he would be able to work on in that time. Peter would even go as far as to say that this was even better than going on some stupid trip.
They might get to go and see something cool, but Peter was going to spend the day here, doing science with Tony.
"Thank you Tony," Peter squeaked in joy, jumping up and down a few more times. "Thank you thank you thank you." Who cared about how childish he was being. It wasn't every day he got permission from both May and Tony to skip school to spend time in the labs. And when he said not every day he meant this had never happened before.
"You're welcome kid, now come on, this science isn't going to science itself."
Peter nodded, rushing to his own workbench and pulling out his web formula. He was designing a new version of it which would be less long lasting, so it would dissolve in five minutes instead of fifty, just in case he ever needed quickly dissolving web fluid. He had the formula all written out, so now he just needed to grab the chemicals and mix it together and hope it didn't explode.
Worst case scenario he would have a lot of cleaning up to do, but as Tony always pointed out, the clean up was just another part of innovation.
Peter thought that was probably just Tony trying to make clean up less annoying, but it worked either way.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The week passed surprisingly quickly, and before he even realised it he was heading to Stark Industries. He was heading over in the evening, staying the night, and then staying the day there instead of going on the trip. The sun was just starting to dip under the horizon and he was texting Ned and MJ while Happy drove him over, and he could tell that they were super excited about the mystery trip tomorrow, but didn't want to make Peter jealous.
They had to go before too long, both of them wanting to head to sleep early because they were meeting at school early the next morning for the trip, so Peter returned to staring out the window, watching the evening traffic drive past. He was glad he was spending the next day with Tony, but he was a bit sad that he wasn't getting to spend some time with his friends.
Happy dropped him off at the front entrance, and he quickly walked up, making sure not to forget his night bag, as well as his Spiderman suit in case he had time to make some improvements.
JARVIS let him up to the top floor of the building, and informed him that Tony was in the sitting room. Apparently Tony wasn't in his lab for once, which Peter was ninety percent sure was just because he was trying to be a good role model to Peter. If it was any other day then Tony would almost definitely still be in his lab up until three in the morning.
"Hey Tony," Peter grinned, dropping down onto the couch next to Tony, his bag flopping down onto the ground in front of him. "How are you doing?"
"I'm fine kid," Tony grinned, ruffling Peter's hair, "you ready for our sleepover?"
Peter rolled his eyes. Tony was the only fully grown man he had ever heard refer to anything as a sleepover. "Of course I am," he muttered, "did you buy ice cream?"
"What kind of heathen do you think I am? Of course I bought ice cream!"
Peter laughed louder, relaxing back into the couch cushions. Spending time with his favourite father figure always made his smile.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Peter woke up slowly, the overly comfortable bed at SI was amazing for sleeping, but awful for when he had to get up.
He just wanted to stay in it forever.
"Peter, Tony would like you to meet him in the labs," JARVIS said from the ceiling, giving Peter a good reason to get out of bed, but that also meant that he had to get out of bed.
"Thank you JARVIS, tell him I'll be there in ten minutes please," Peter groaned, rolling out of bed and putting some slippers on. He was only going to be going down one floor and he knew everyone who worked in SI so he didn't bother getting changed out of his pyjamas, he just put his slippers on and shuffled into the kitchen.
He carried his plate of waffles with his as he headed to the labs, deciding that he could eat and science as long a he was careful.
This way he could also get Tony to eat some of his waffles, making sure both of them ate some breakfast before they got too busy with their projects.
"You wanted me?" he asked Tony as he walked in, bleary-eyed and more focused on his waffles than the surrounding room.
"Peter?!" A surprised voice gasped, from the other side of the room.
He turned slowly, already knowing what he was going to see but almost hoping that if he turned slowly it wouldn't be there.
Nope.
Still there.
His classmates were there, standing in the lab, staring with wide eyes as Peter awkwardly stood in Tony Stark's lab, in his pyjamas, holding a plate of waffles.
"Hey," he said, waving as he walked over to Tony, "did you actually need me or did you just want me to see them?"
"Yeah, you can go," Tony grinned, not a hint of regret in his eyes as he saw right through Peter's words and saw what he had been really asking.
"Great, thanks," he said, walking straight out the door before his face could get any more red, "nice seeing you all."
He knew that people would have a lot to say tomorrow at school, but today he would just lurk in his room until JARVIS told him it was safe to emerge. It was embarrassing, but the more he thought about it the more hilarious he started thinking it was.
He lay on the floor of his room, laughing quietly in his pyjamas, eating a bite of waffles between laughs and he realised, his life was pretty awesome.