Work Text:
Peter dashed towards the engineering labs and workshops, drunk pledges stumbling after him. He knew it had been risky to work late in the chem labs during pledge week, especially given all the trouble they'd been stirring up but he'd hoped it would have settled down by now.
He didn't know what they wanted him for, but given the leers he had received when they'd first tried to corner him, he didn't want to know.
A dim light glowed from the crevices of one of the labs, so Peter ducked in, locking the door behind him and praying whoever was working late wouldn't mind the intrusion.
Tony was working on his latest tech for the Familia when a skinny kid burst into his workshop like a bat out of hell. He watched silently as the kid locked the door and then listened carefully for sounds outside.
Not even a minute later Tony heard shouting from the corridors, and then more footsteps as the other students took off again.
Tony hoped for the kid's sake that he unlocked the door and left now. He clearly hadn't noticed Tony or what he was working on, so he could still walk away from this.
Unfortunately, the kid chose that moment to look directly at Tony.
“Fuck,” Tony muttered under his breath. He always hated having to intimidate innocents.
Before he could even start though, the boy burst into tears and sagged against the door.
“I’m sorry, sir,” the boy said, frantically wiping at the tears, though they didn’t seem to be slowing. “It was my own fault for staying too late in the chem lab and then it's pledge week, and I knew I should have gone earlier but I had this idea and I wanted to research it, and I can’t afford a computer so I had to do it in the lab.”
“Hey, hey, easy,” Tony said, keeping his voice soft. “Can you tell me your name?”
“Peter, sir,” the boy said through his sniffles. “Peter Parker.”
“Alright Peter, how about you sit over here,” Tony said, guiding the kid to one of the unused work tables. “Take some deep breaths. I’ll be right back.”
Peter nodded, so Tony quickly covered his project and shut the station down, then grabbed water and a small snack from the mini fridge he kept in the shop.
“Alright, keep taking those deep breaths,” Tony said as he stepped back over to Peter. “When you’re ready, there’s a water bottle here and a snack.”
Peter nodded and sniffed, trying to stem the tears, but it was hard. The adrenaline crash coupled with post anxiety hormones were likely why, his mind automatically deduced, not that it did him any good to understand what was happening.
Eventually, he was able to sip at the water bottle and finally get himself back under control.
“Sorry, sir, I didn’t mean to interrupt your work,” Peter said, looking up at the older man.
“No worries, kid, it wasn’t anything sensitive,” the man said. “I’m Tony Stark by the way. I’m one of the teachers here.”
“You teach the advanced mechanical engineering classes and are head of the Engineering department,” Peter gasped, flushing with embarrassment.
“Oh, you’ve heard of me?” Professor Stark asked.
“I, uh, wanted to double major in chemical and mechanical engineering, but I haven’t declared yet because I wasn’t sure if I could finish both before my scholarship runs out,” Peter said, going an even darker shade of red. “When I asked the counselor about it, they said I’d have to talk to you to see if I could double up classes to try and finish in time.”
“Ah, well, I’m not sure that you could rush it because a lot of the classes are part of a series so they have to be taken in order,” Professor Stark said. “But I’m sure we could see about getting you a merit scholarship through the department if you have the grades for it. What was your admittance project?”
“Ah, I did the synthetic spider webs, sir,” Peter said, trying not to get too hopeful. Parker luck meant things rarely went in his favor.
“I remember reading that one, it was an interesting premise and lots of applications if you could make it work,” Professor Stark said. “You could go far with a bit of mentoring on it.”
“Thank you, sir,” Peter mumbled, flushing at the praise.
“So polite, I like that, kid,” Stark said. “Make an appointment with me this week and we’ll go over your schedule and graduation plan. I’m sure we can make it work somehow.”
“Yes, sir.”
Peter stayed a bit longer until the shaking stopped and he felt confident he could get home without running into any more trouble. He immediately emailed Professor Stark’s office to request an appointment and then tumbled into bed.
Over the next few months, Peter flourished under Tony’s mentorship. Tony found him a grant that would cover the extra year of schooling so he could get a double major, and he even found a lab position that they’d let him work as a freshman so that he had a little extra for food and miscellaneous supplies.
Whenever he had time, Peter couldn’t help stopping by Professor Stark’s offices and workshops to say hi. That slowly led to him staying to chat sometimes, and even getting pizza a time or two when they ended up in the workshop late at night.
The closer Peter got to his professor, the more he started to fall for the older man. His stomach would flutter when the man would praise an idea, and he’d have to excuse himself to the bathroom when the man would ruffle his hair and then rest his hand on the back of Peter’s neck. It was embarrassing, but Peter was too enamored to even try and stop being around Professor Stark.
Peter should have known better though. Parker luck never failed to mess with the good things that happened to him.
It had started out as a normal enough day, and after his last job in the lab, he immediately headed to Mr. Stark’s workshop. They were supposed to manufacture one of the new projects that he had helped Mr. Stark design, and Peter had been looking forward to it all day.
“Hey Mr. Stark, did the materials come in?” Peter asked as walked into the workshop, heading straight for his own workstation out of habit. He was halfway there before he realized there were people other than Mr. Stark in the workshop.
“Well well well, who’s this, Stark?” a dark haired man with a metal prosthetic arm asked.
“One of my students,” Mr. Stark replied with a wave, though his tone was far colder than Peter had ever heard. “He was supposed to pick up some parts for a project after classes today.”
“He shouldn’t be here,” the other man replied.
“No, you should have called first so I had time to cancel standing appointments,” Mr. Stark retorted. “And I’ll be sure to let Cap know my feelings on the matter. Now get out of here so I can do my day job.”
Peter watched mutely as the man left, trembling at the glare that was sent his way.
“Mr. Stark-?” Peter started to ask, only to stop because he didn’t even know where to start.
“Don’t, kid,” Mr. Stark said, his voice still hard and full of authority. “Forget you ever saw him and don’t ask questions, you understand?”
“Yes, sir,” Peter replied quickly, blushing and looking down. Who knew you could be so turned on by someone’s voice after being terrified.
Tony smirked at the boy’s reaction. He had noticed the infatuation early on. Rather, he would have had to be blind to miss it, yet he was always so careful to keep up his persona of caring mentor. Over the years, he had worked very hard to cultivate the persona of responsible faculty, but all of that fell away now.
Bucky’s sudden appearance had caused him to drop the mask, and he was finding it a lot harder to ignore his blushing protege.
“Something wrong, Petey-Pie?” Tony teased, his voice low and gravely. He stepped closer, getting into the boy’s space, though he left room for the boy to escape if he really wanted to. “Looks like you’ve got a bit of a problem of your own.”
“Wha- I, uh, that is, sorry, sir,” Peter stuttered, and Tony just chuckled.
“How about I help you forget what happened just now with a much more pleasurable memory?” Tony asked, watching Peter’s face to gauge his reaction. Peter’s eyes went wide, and the boy bit his lip, dropping his gaze. Tony wondered if he’d have to prompt the kid again, but Peter surprised him.
“What kind of memory, sir?” the boy asked coyly even as his face flushed again.
“Oh, I have a couple of ideas,” Tony said, leaning in slowly to capture Peter’s lips with his own.