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Peter had no idea that his day was about to get a whole lot worse. He did not anticipate the slightest complication when he woke up that Friday. He even got a few more hours of sleep in yesterday, since he did not stay out as Spider-Man very long.
Right now, Peter was sitting in another Decathlon meeting, not that he was paying much attention. In the past few weeks, he often thought about quitting Decathlon as well. After all, he already quit Marching Band and Robotics Lab a few months ago and Decathlon was only reducing the time he could spend as Spider-Man. But in the end, his loyalty to Ned and MJ, who were basically his only friends in school, kept him in. He feared that he would lose them if he quit Decathlon as well.
It was quarter to three now and Peter only had to survive another 15 minutes, before he could get out of here. Then, he would quickly travel to Avengers Tower for his internship at Stark Industries. Not that anybody believed him that he had said internship, but to be fair, it was practically unbelievable that a 16-year-old high schooler was the personal intern of Tony Stark.
When Mr. Stark accepted his application, Peter thought that his secret as Spider-Man was busted. However, as it turned out, Mr. Stark had no idea that Peter was New York's newest vigilante. His internship and his "other" job were entirely independent from another. The only other people, who knew about his secret, were Ned and MJ, and the fact that they knew was more of an accident. Ned discovered him when he snuck back in his room late at night and MJ simply connected the dots when his explanations for some rather sudden disappearances got too wild.
And also, Peter's girlfriend, Wanda Maximoff, knew he was Spider-Man. She was the only person he told about it voluntarily, after they have been dating for a while. How that even happened, Peter had no idea. One day after his internship, when the time has run much later than usual, Mr. Stark invited Peter up to the living quarters of the Avengers to grab something to eat. Obviously, the other Avengers were also there and since Wanda was the only teenager in the team, she hung out with Peter for the evening.
After that, one thing lead to another and they were dating. Wanda even managed to get the Black Widow, Natasha Romanov, to train him in hand to hand combat, because Wanda insisted that it would be beneficial for the partner of an Avenger to know self-defence. That was shortly after he told her he was Spider-Man and since then, his time at the Tower has more than doubled. He now was there practically every weekday for his internship and training with the Black Widow and on the weekend, he would often visit Wanda.
Peter has been thinking about telling the rest of the Avengers about his secret for a while now. They seem like trustworthy people and Peter was honestly getting tired of lying to them. Also, Wanda was a bit overly flirty with Spider-Man when he teamed up with the Avengers three weeks ago. Ever since, they have been teasing Wanda about not being satisfied with just one boyfriend. Peter knew they were not serious and he also knew that Wanda was able to laugh about these jokes, but he still did not like it. If he would clear that up that would shut everybody up for good about that particular topic.
Peter checked the time on his phone again. Only five more minutes until he could get out of here. Unfortunately, Flash noticed Peter's impatience.
"What's up Parker, do you have a date with your imaginary girlfriend coming up?" Flash asked rhetorically. Right, that was another thing nobody believed him. That he, puny Peter Parker, could get an actual, real girlfriend. Of course, he never bragged about that. He never even told anybody but his aunt, Ned and MJ about it, but Flash overheard Peter talking to Ned about her once and that brought that in motion.
"First of all, she is not imaginary. Secondly, I don't have a date, I have the internship later," Peter sighed, knowing all too well what was about to happen.
"You don't have an internship at Stark Industries, Penis. They only take qualified personnel after all and since I don't have one, you can't either," Flash said arrogantly.
Peter decided to ignore his classmate, not wanting to relive the same argument for what felt like the thousandth time. Mr. Harrington, their teacher for decathlon, looked at Peter pitiful. Sometimes, Peter didn't understand his teacher. Peter knew that that Mr. Harrington knew very well that Peter had that internship, yet he never said anything about Flash apparent disbelief. Mr. Harrington even asked Peter once if he has met Dr. Banner at his internship, since those two went to college together. (Peter had in fact met Dr. Banner and it was absolutely awesome.)
Finally, the bell rung and signalled the end of the school day. Peter jumped up, ready to leave as fast as he could, but Mr. Harrington held everyone back.
“If you could wait just a second everybody, I have an announcement to make,” Mr. Harrington started. “I managed to arrange a field trip for our Decathlon team. We will go to Stark Industries at Avengers Tower next Friday.”
The room exploded in cheers. Peter however did not feel like celebrating at all. Flash would be completely unbearable during the trip and Peter seriously doubted that he had the patience for a full day of Flash’s constant bullying. Ned shook Peter around, nearly jumping out of his seat in the process. It was clear that he was more than just excited for the trip.
“This is going to be so great, Peter. Can you imagine when Flash and the others realise that you really intern there?” Ned said thrilled.
Peter said nothing in response and just wanted the ground to swallow him whole. Maybe he could fake being sick next Friday, but that would only help Flash’s argument that Peter was lying.
After a few more seconds of loud chatter between the team, Mr. Harrington finally managed to get them to quiet down again. Despite him being one of Peter’s favourite teachers at school, he really hated the man right now. Couldn’t he have arranged a field trip literally anywhere else? Then Peter could have continued his life in peace and wouldn’t have to worry about that trip and Flash’s behaviour during it.
“All right, everybody keep it down. I know this are exciting news, but we don’t have to trash the room just because of that. I have permission slips here for everyone. I need them signed and returned by Tuesday next week if you want to join the trip,” the teacher said in an attempt to calm everyone down.
Everybody but Peter and MJ, who has watched everything with a bored expression on her face, quickly made their way up to Mr. Harrington’s desk to grab a permission slip.
“You do know that you have to go there, right? Because I can see you thinking about skipping it,” MJ asked suddenly.
Peter let out a heavy breath before answering. Was he really that obvious? “I know. Doesn’t mean I like it though,” Peter said dejectedly, before walking up to the desk and grabbing a slip for himself.
Ned was already waiting for him outside of the room, when Peter and MJ finally appeared. His fried was still bouncing from all the excitement and Peter started to worry that he might break an ankle or something if he kept jumping around. Together, they exited the school, but as fate wanted it, Flash has indeed waited for them in from of the building.
“So Penis, are you ready for your lies to be exposed?” he asked Peter gleefully.
“You know, I really don’t want to deal with you right now. It is a fact that I have that internship no matter what you say. Also, I am a notoriously honest person; I practically never lie,” Peter said bored. MJ let out a cough that sounded suspiciously like ‘Spider-Man’ and Peter gave her a pointed look. Thankfully, she was quiet enough that the only person who head her was Peter with his enhanced hearing.
“Whatever helps you sleep at night, Penis. In a week, you will be begging me for forgiveness anyway,” Flash bragged, but Peter didn’t listen to him anymore. He had a train to catch after all.
Peter quickly hurried home, where May waited for him. She was just getting ready to leave for her shift at the hospital, when Peter quietly asked her to sign the permission slip.
“To Avengers Tower? That is just too funny! You get to tour your own work place,” May laughed. Peter only looked miserable, which prompted May to cheer him up. “Oh come on Peter, I am sure it won’t be that bad. And since you only work with Mr. Stark, you might actually see some real intern labs on the trip. That would be interesting, wouldn’t it,” she said softly.
“I guess,” Peter answered. He didn’t even think about that yet. In fact, he only worked in Mr. Stark’s private lab, which meant that Peter knew no other intern at the Tower. The only real workers he knew were Lisa, the receptionist who gave him his badge the first time he came to the Tower, and a bunch of security guards. If Flash realised that he did not know any other interns, he would take that as confirmation that Peter was lying all along.
Shortly after May left, Peter travelled to the Tower for his internship. He showed the guards his badge and took the elevator to the 95th floor, where Mr. Stark’s lab was. When he walked inside, Mr. Stark was already there and he noticed right away that something was off about Peter today.
“What’s going on with you today? Usually you are a lot more cheery on a lab day. Did Wanda ditch you for Spider-Man? If yes I am going to murder than web-swinging bastard,” Mr. Stark said.
Peter knew that Mr. Stark was only joking about killing Spider-Man (or at least he hoped he was), but the prospect of getting murdered by Iron Man didn’t really raise Peter’s mood all that much.
“No Wanda did not ditch me for Spider-Man. You know, it would be nice if you could stop teasing her about that for a change,” Peter answered a bit annoyed.
“You know very well that that won’t happen for a while,” Mr. Stark said teasingly before he grew more serious again. “No for real though, what’s wrong? I may not be an expert when it comes to kids, but even I know that letting a depressed teenager near dangerous equipment is a terrible idea.”
“It’s nothing serious. It’s just that my Decathlon team has a field trip next week and I really don’t look forward to it.”
“Well, I hope it’s to somewhere better than Oscorp this time around. I know you hated that trip as well,” Mr. Stark said. When he noticed that Peter did not meet his eyes, an evil grin started to appear on his face. “It’s here, isn’t it? You are coming to Avengers Tower.”
Peter finally met Mr. Stark’s eyes again. As there was no point in lying, Peter simply answered with a short “Yes”.
Mr. Stark started laughing uncontrollably and Peter had serious thoughts about leaving the lab and visiting Wanda instead. However, the billionaire realised that Peter was not overly happy about his behaviour and stopped instantly.
“All right, no more laughing. It won’t be that bad, Peter. It’s not like any real worker here knows you. You will just be another student on a tour,” Mr. Stark reasoned.
“Yeah, that’s kind of the problem though. Nobody in my class apart from Ned and MJ seriously believes that I have an internship here. I mean, a few just ignore it, but some others really get riled up about it and say that I am lying. If they see that I don’t know anybody it will just strengthen their argument,” Peter explained.
Mr. Stark seemed to think about that for a moment. “They do know that you have paperwork filed with the school, right?”
“Well, the teachers believe me. It’s the students who don’t and they don’t exactly have access to the paperwork of every single student, so that paperwork is no good in that department.”
“You know what, I am going to make sure that your tour has a few extras. I can’t have people saying that my best intern is a liar,” Mr. Stark announced.
“I am your only intern. And please don’t give the tour a few extras. That could become embarrassing very fast,” Peter begged.
“Only a few. Just to spice up your tour a bit. Don’t worry, it will be fun. Now come on, we have some work to do. You can worry about the tour later,” Mr. Stark said in finality to his voice.
Three hours of work later, Peter’s stomach made itself heard. Mr. Stark looked over to Peter and checked the time.
“Well, time to grab some food. Your aunt has a late shift today, right?” Mr. Stark asked and at Peter’s affirmative nod, he continued, “Then let’s go upstairs. I am sure Wanda can’t wait to see you again.”
They took the elevator to the main living floor of the private quarters of the Avengers and entered the kitchen, where the Avengers were just about to start eating. Peter spotted Wanda on the far side of the table with her back to the entry. He quietly snuck towards her until he stood right behind her. He placed his hands in front of her eyes just as she was about to take a bite out of her pizza.
“Peter! Stop that!” Wanda shrieked and Peter started laughing.
“I’m sorry, I just couldn’t help myself,” Peter said and grabbed a slice of Wanda’s pizza. His girlfriend tried to slap his hand away before he could reach the pizza, but Peter was too fast.
“You have your own one over there, no need to steal my food,” Wanda argued, pointing to an untouched large peperoni pizza.
“I know. You can have one of my slices later. It’s just too much fun to tease you from time to time,” Peter said softly.
“Oh if he teases you about something it’s fine, but if we tease you about Spider-Man it becomes a problem,” Clint asked.
“That’s right,” Wanda deadpanned, making the Black Widow grin in the process.
“One day I will get back at either of you,” Clint complained and grabbed another slice of his own pizza.
“You might get your chance earlier than you imagined,” Mr. Stark said, looking at Peter with a diabolical grin on his face. Peter shook his head as subtle as he could, but the only thing that accomplished was that Mr. Stark’s grin widened even more.
“Young Peter here has a school trip next Friday. Where to you might ask yourself. Well, the answer is right here: to Avengers Tower. It would surely be a shame if an Avenger crashes the tour, right Peter?” Mr. Stark continued.
“Is that right?” Wanda asked him in disbelief. At Peter’s confirmation, she started laughing. “That’s just too great. Think of how much fun that will be.” While Wanda at least had the decency to stop laughing at Peter’s pained expression, the other Avengers were not as nice. They started a discussion on what to do on the day of the trip to make Peter’s day as hard as it could possibly get.
Peter questioned every single life choice that lead to the Avengers debating whether to embarrass him in front of his classmates or not, but he knew that once they set their sights at something, the team would not be stopped. His field trip was doomed and there was nothing he could do. If he called in sick on the day of the trip not only Flash, but also the Avengers themselves would never let Peter live that down. He was truly between a rock and a hard place.
A few hours later, Peter said his goodbyes to the Avengers. Despite their offer to stay the night, Peter declined, as he wanted to spend the weekend with his aunt. He has not spent as much time as he would have liked with her after everything that has happened in the past year, with his Stark Internship and him dating Wanda.
The Sokovian gave him one last short kiss, before Peter followed Happy Hogan, who would drive Peter back to his apartment. Over his shoulder, he heard Wanda shout, “Don’t worry, I will weed out their worst ideas!”
By the time Peter was back home, it was nearly midnight. Happy was not very happy about having to drive around a teenager in the middle of the night, but Peter was always grateful for whenever he did. Peter had big hopes that Wanda would indeed be able to stop the Avengers as well as she reasonably could.
Far sooner than Peter would have liked it was Friday again. When Peter turned in his permission slip on Monday, Flash’s disbelieving eyes made Peter’s whole day. Apparently, he was absolutely sure that Peter would bail on the trip.
On Friday, Peter arrived at school far too early, but he did not want to give Flash the slightest bit of reason to doubt Peter’s internship. The day would be bad enough as it was, no need to make things even more stressful. May thought that Peter was overthinking this whole trip, but Peter did not listen to her.
One after another, the other students and Mr. Harrington came to the school. In the end, it was not Peter, who was the last one to appear, as everybody expected, but Flash instead. For a short moment Peter had hoped that the bully would not come today, but he will take what he could get.
After Mr. Harrington made a final head count, they boarded the waiting bus. Peter, Ned and MJ toot seats in the back of the bus, since they didn’t want to be disturbed by others. Sadly, Flash did not get this memo and sat down close to them, fully intending to annoy Peter as much as he could.
About halfway through the bus ride, Peter’s phone signalled that he received a new message. He quickly grabbed it, wondering who would write him now. Maybe he forgot something at home and May was telling him about it. However, it was Wanda who texted him.
I managed to get them to drop the worst ideas, but I also don’t think that they told me every single one. Still, it should be a nice trip now. Have fun at security!
‘Have fun at security!’ made Peter feel everything but relaxed. What could be so special about security now? He went through it hundredths of times and never did anything special happen.
What exactly will happen at security? Will I survive it?
Wanda’s answer to Peter’s question didn’t take long.
You will see. I promise you it’s nothing bad. It might help you out even.
That ominous answer did nothing to ease Peter’s worries, but he also knew that Wanda would never do anything that would actually harm him.
Flash also noticed that Peter texted someone. He tried to grab Peter’s phone to read the messages for himself, but thanks to Peter’s Spider-Sense, he was able to evade Flash’s attempted robbery.
The bully did not like that Peter managed keep his phone, which lead to Flash’s favourite activity: annoying Peter as much as he could.
“Who texted you, Penis? Your imaginary girlfriend?” he asked gleefully.
“Besides the fact that she isn’t imaginary, you are right for a change, Flash,” Peter answered annoyed.
Flash did not like Peter’s answer. He never liked it when Peter replied with anything but total submission. It was honestly sad to see and Peter had his doubts that he would survive for long in college if he didn’t drop his act. “Let’s just say that you do in fact have a girlfriend. Did you tell her also that you have a fake internship? Because that is a sure-fire way to get dumped,” Flash said rhetorically.
“Actually, I met her through the internship, so she already knew about it before we even met,” Peter explained.
It was clear that Flash did not believe Peter in the slightest, but he dropped the topic for the remainder of the bus ride. Instead, Peter has to listen to Ned’s excited rambling about the trip to the Tower. Ever since Peter told him that the Avengers might drop by to annoy Peter, he barely could contain himself. MJ was completely unbothered by that, even though Peter knew that she would like nothing more than to meet the Black Widow or Wanda, but she hid that fact very well.
Soon, the impressive Tower came into sight and the bus came to a halt. One by one, they exited the bus and Mr. Harrington ushered them inside the spacious and busy lobby.
“So how is it to walk into the Tower for the first time, Penis?” Flash asked Peter as soon as they were standing still. Mr. Harrington went to the reception to announce that they were here.
“I have been here before, Flash. Countless times in fact,” Peter said annoyed. If that was how this day was going to go then Peter was not sure if he would make it through.
“I doesn’t get any more real if you continue to say it more often,” Flash said arrogantly.
Peter decided to ignore his classmate and not pay him any more attention. After a few more minutes, Mr. Harrington finally returned from the reception with their tour guide, a young blonde woman.
“Hey everybody, I am Katherine, but you may call me Kate. I am your tour guide for today. Now, if everybody could come up here when I call your name so you can get your visitor badges,” their tour guide started.
One by one, everybody went up to Kate to get their badges, until only Peter remained. Flash was already looking at Peter in a cheerful mood when he realised that, but Peter already expected that. His hand was already in his backpack when Kate said, “I heard that one of you, Peter Parker, is an employee here and already has a badge.” She looked at Peter expectedly and Peter dutifully put his badge out for everybody to see. Kate was staring at him with wide eyes when she saw the badge.
“Where exactly do you work to get such a badge? That’s a way higher clearance than even I have as a tour guide,” she asked incredulously.
“I am Mr. Stark’s personal intern,” Peter answered in a quiet tone.
Kate was shaking her head at that, clearly struggling to believe that a 16-year old managed to become Tony Stark’s personal intern. However, their security was absolutely secure, which meant that the badge was legit, so who was she to doubt her boss whom he chooses as his intern.
“Well then, everybody follow me through our security gate. Mr. Parker, as you probably already went through a few times, could you maybe go first?” Kate asked Peter.
However, before Peter could even make one step towards the security gate, Flash interrupted them.
“What do you mean Parker has a higher clearance than you do? And why do you believe him that he really is Tony Stark’s intern. That’s complete bullshit, as if a genius like Tony Stark would even need an intern,” he said loudly.
Kate was clearly annoyed by the interruption, but her face remained neutral. Peter figured that staying calm after a stupid question was a requirement to work as a tour guide.
“And you name is…?” Kate asked Flash.
“Flash Thompson,” Flash said.
“Well Flash…,” Kate started.
“Technically it’s Eugene,” MJ interrupted Kate. Flash looked at her with a murderous expression on his face.
“Well Eugene, I was going to explain that after we make our way through security, but I guess I can start now. We have multiple different clearance levels for this building. The only level that is higher than the red level of Mr. Parker here is the gold level. This one is reserved for the Avengers and other people who live here like Ms. Potts. They don’t even need badges and usually never use the main entrance anyway. You have a white badge, which is a visitor’s badge. You can’t go anywhere without supervision. Then, there is a colour scheme, which indicates the rest of the badges. You can see a list of the colours in the handout,” Kate explained and gave everyone a copy of a handout that gave everyone a short overview over the most interesting topics. Kate obviously enjoyed the fact that Flash’s real name was Eugene, which became clear after she had to hold back a smile after hearing his real name.
“As for you second question, it is not my place to question Mr. Stark’s decisions. If he deems Mr. Parker is the best possible option for his personal intern, he must have his reasons. And our system is as secure as it gets, it is therefore impossible that he could have forged the badge,” Kate continued.
Flash looked ready to continue this argument, but Mr. Harrington stopped him before that happened. Kate lead them to the security gate, where she let Peter walk through first. He scanned his badge, as he always did and walked through the metal detector. However, as he walked through, Friday suddenly called out Peter.
“Hello, Peter. Miss Maximoff has informed me that she would like to meet you after your tour. Would you like me to send her an ETA?” the AI said.
Peter groaned loudly. This was definitely something Mr. Stark would do to annoy him. Friday usually never said anything when somebody went through the security gate. However, Peter was mildly disappointed that Wanda would join in on that. He had at least hoped that his girlfriend would leave him alone.
“No Friday, I am sure that Wanda already knows when the tour ends, no need to tell her twice,” Peter finally said.
His classmates went through the security gate without any interruption, which only increased Peter’s annoyance with the situation. Couldn’t Mr. Stark at least made Friday say something to everyone? That way Peter wouldn’t stick out as much.
When everyone was on the other side of security, Cindy cautiously raised her hand as if she were in class. Kate looked at her for a second, not realising that she had a question.
“You don’t have to raise your hand if you have a question, just ask away,” Kate said after a short, awkward pause.
“Right thanks. What was the voice that just talked to Peter?” Cindy asked.
“That was Friday, Mr. Stark’s AI. She runs the whole building, but mainly Mr. Stark uses her for his own projects. It seems like your classmate Peter has a meeting with the Scarlet Witch later,” Kate explained, her interested eyes wandering off to Peter. His classmate also stared at Peter with wide eyes, clearly surprised that Peter was apparently on a first name basis with an Avenger.
“How in the world would Parker know an Avenger?” Flash asked incredulously.
“I don’t know, maybe you should ask him. Now come on everybody, we have to get the tour started,” Kate said and lead everyone to the elevators.
Peter tried to stay as far back as he could, but that proved to be rather difficult. Ned was so excited about the trip that he always wanted to be the front for the whole trip and being the good friend Peter was, he stayed with his best friend. MJ just watched his suffering with a neutral expression on her face, but Peter could see in her eyes that she was enjoying every single minute of it.
Kate led them to the Avengers museum, where she announced that they would be allowed to spend one hour. There were displays of every single Avenger with different memorabilia and some details on their different missions over the years. Peter, together with Ned and MJ, wandered off and looked at all the different displays. He has never been here before, so it was rather interesting to see. After a while, they came to Wanda’s display.
It did not have a lot of information, as Wanda was still only 16 years old. It was also the only display, which lacked any sort of memorabilia, as Wanda only used her magic powers during a fight. She had no distinctive gear that could be placed in her display. However, when Peter read the ‘fun facts’ section of her display, he was absolutely shocked by what he read.
The Scarlet Witch has a huge crush on Spider-Man.
Peter was sure that this was not here yesterday. He had no actual proof, but that was exactly something Tony, or maybe Clint would do to annoy Peter and by extension Wanda.
Suddenly, Peter’s Spider-Sense alerted him of another person that was coming up from behind him. Before he could turn around to see who it was, the person started talking.
“Do you like the new, updated display, Peter?” Clint asked him amused.
Peter turned to face the new arrival. Ned could barely contain himself when he realised that he was in the presence of an Avenger.
“I hate you,” Peter stated, “I guess that was your doing?”
Clint grinned devilishly. “Maybe. I mean, usually I would take full credit for that work no matter who did it, but I am a bit scared of Wanda’s reaction,” Clint explained.
“Well, then I will have to make sure that she hears about that,” Peter said and took out his phone to snap a picture of the display. Clint tried to stop him, but Peter still managed to send the picture to Wanda. The bunch of angry emoji in Wanda’s reply were enough to shut Clint up for good. The archer left Peter and his friends in front of the display and walked away, looking as if he was questioning his decision to make that joke.
“Dude! That was Hawkeye! And you just totally made him shit his pants!” Ned said excitedly. Peter grinned at Ned’s reaction, satisfied with the way things turned out.
The three of them just wanted to walk to another display, when Flash walked up to them.
“So, who was that?” Flash asked truly curious.
Peter faced Flash with a frustrated expression on his face. He really hoped that Flash would leave him alone for a bit longer. “Just some guy I know from my internship,” Peter said evasively.
“Yeah right. I guess your ‘internship’ is also how you ‘know’ her?” Flash said, pointing at Wanda’s display.
“Wow, right again! That’s the second time today, must be a new record for you,” Peter said sarcastically. He expected Flash to question his every move today, but he really had enough of it already. The tour was rather interesting so far and Peter would much rather stay focussed on it.
However, Peter’s answer hit a nerve in Flash and his classmate moved to punch Peter. Thankfully, before Flash could go through with his plan, Mr. Harrington arrived. Flash tried to look as innocently as he could and to his great luck, their teacher has actually not seen what was about to happen.
“So, Peter, how do you know the Scarlet Witch?” Mr. Harrington asked Peter curiously.
“Mr. Stark introduced us one day after the internship. We are close in age, so we became friends soon,” Peter explained carefully, not wanting to say too much.
“That’s nice. It is always good to have friends form outside of school,” his teacher continued before he walked off to another group of students.
Flash looked at Peter as if to say that this wasn’t over yet, but Peter didn’t care. He would take that win and cherish it for the rest of the day.
Soon, Kate announced that they would continue their tour in the quality assurance department. The department was testing all kinds of new products and there was a strict no photography police on this floor. Overall, the processes itself in the department were boring though. Peter worked on far more interesting stuff with Mr. Stark and the ‘quality assurance’ part of their work usually involved the use of a fire extinguisher at some point. Still, Peter figured that this would be interesting for people who didn’t work with Iron Man on a regular basis.
They spent the next hour touring different departments, from quality assurance over the marketing department to the software development. That was the one department where Ned felt right at home. During their whole way to the cafeteria when it was time for a lunch break, Ned was begging Peter to arrange an internship for him in that department. And while Peter could understand Ned’s begging, he was not sure if he had enough pull with Mr. Stark to actually convince him of that. After all, Mr. Stark was extremely opposed to any form of nepotism and you could argue that giving Ned an internship was just that. Still, Peter would do his duty as a best friend and try his best. However, he was tremendously worried about what else the Avengers had planned. After all, it has been a while since something has happened.
When they reached the cafeteria, they were all surprised by the magnitude of it. There were countless shops, which sold all kinds of food. Everybody with a visitor’s badge would get one meal for free, which meant that Peter would actually not get any free food as he had no visitor’s badge. Ned offered to share his food with Peter, but he didn’t wasn’t to take anything away from his friend, which led to Peter being the only one without anything to eat on their table. Flash grinned at him when he noticed Peter’s lack of food, but otherwise didn’t comment on it in the presence of Mr. Harrington. Peter was sure that the mean comments would arrive later during the tour.
However, as if it was planned all along, Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson came to their table with a few slices of pizza wrapped in tin foil.
“Tony said something about you not getting any food without a visitor’s badge, so we decided to bring you some leftover pizza from yesterday,” Steve said and gave him the wrapped pizza. Peter eagerly unwrapped it and started stuffing as much as he could in his mouth.
“That’s really considerate of you. Thanks a lot,” Peter said between chews.
“Don’t expect that kind of an effort from us in the future. We are only here because Stark begged us to,” Sam replied, amused at all the teenagers staring at him and Steve with open mouths. “Oh and by the way, who of you is the tour guide?” he continued.
Kate blushed, timidly raised her hand and said, “That would be me, Mr. Wilson.”
Sam grinned at her and gave her a sheet of paper. “Stark gave me that. That’s an updated itinerary for the tour after your lunch break,” he explained at her curious expression.
“Well, we better get back on our way, Sam. Let these kids eat in peace. Peter, we will see each other later, I was told that you would stay here after the tour,” Steve said and started to drag Sam away from the table. Peter could feel the eyes of all of his classmates, as well as Mr Harrington’s and Kate’s staring at him. Peter could feel his cheeks heat up a bit, but stubbornly did not look up and continued to munch on his pizza. Anything he would say could only make the situation worse.
After Kate had time to read the updated itinerary more carefully, she quickly cut their lunch break short. Peter barely had time to finish his pizza, but to be fair, he got his food way later than everyone else.
“We have to up our tempo now. Apparently a Q&A session with a few selected members of the Avengers has been arranged for later today,” Kate said and ushered them all to the elevator. It brought them up to some low level labs. Peter has already anticipated that they wouldn’t see any exciting labs, but he was still a bit disappointed. Once again, there was a strict no photography policy on this floor and all floors above.
Since they had a busier schedule now, they couldn’t do everything that was planned. Initially, they were supposed to try to build a small robot out of some spare parts, with everybody getting an equal opportunity. However, since half their group had no overly big interest in robotics anyway, they weren’t too sad about missing out on that. Peter had actually looked forward to this part of their tour, as it originally sounded like something he would enjoy doing.
Far too soon, their time in the lab was up again and Kate led them to a large conference room on one of the lower floors. Peter dreaded what was about to come. He only hoped that the Avengers would take pity on his poor soul. When they entered the room, it was thankfully still empty. To Peter’s great disappointment, Ned dragged him and MJ up to the front row. Peter originally wanted to sit as far back as possible, but it seems like his plan was prevented by his best friend of all people.
It took a few minutes until the Avengers finally came in. Peter noticed that Kate was already getting nervous about messing up something when nobody came to the room for a while, so he was glad that at least one person could calm her nerves now. He on the other hand was in very different situation. Mr. Stark, Clint, Ms. Romanov, Steve and, to Peter’s great surprise, Wanda came into the room and sat down at a long table in front of them. Wanda gave Peter an inconspicuous wink, which he returned with a pained expression on his face. However, his girlfriend only grinned harder at Peter’s apparent pain.
“Hello everybody, my name is Tony Stark, but you already knew that,” Mr. Stark started. “The others next to me are Steve Rogers, also known as Captain America, the Black Window, Natasha Romanov. Next to her, we have Wanda Maximoff, who is the Scarlet Witch, and Clint Barton, known as Hawkeye.” They all gave a short wave with their hands when Mr. Stark mentioned them. “You may now ask us questions. We will try to answer them all,” Mr. Stark continued.
Before anybody else could even think about asking a question, Flash raised his hand. Mr. Stark motioned for him to ask away.
“Flash Thompson, I have a question for you Mr. Stark. Why is it that Parker here is allowed to tell everybody that he is your intern with no repercussions?” he asked arrogantly. Peter wanted to smack his own head at that question. He thought that Flash at least believed him about the internship after how the day went so far, but it seemed like Peter overestimated his classmate.
Mr. Stark also looked at Flash as if he had grown a second head. “Because he is? I mean, Peter is one of the most honest people I know, why would he lie?” Mr. Stark answered.
“But why him? I am sure that there are better options out there,” Flash complained.
“He wrote an application, I looked into him and accepted it. Easy as that. He is one of the smartest people I have ever worked with, so the decision proved itself to be right in the end. Now, does anybody have more serious question? Mr. Thompson’s question just wasted our time,” Mr Stark said, slightly annoyed that a random teenager would question his intern.
After that, all of them (minus Peter and Flash, who was skipped every time he raised his hand) took turns in asking questions. The Avengers dutifully answered every single one of them as well as they could. Ms. Romanov noticed that Peter did not ask any questions and Peter got shivers down his spine when he spotted the calculated look she gave him. When nobody but Flash had any more questions, Ms. Romanov called out Peter.
“You have not asked any questions yet, Peter. Are we not interesting enough for you?” she asked challenging.
“I didn’t have any questions, Ms. Romanov. However, if you could tell me what’s for dinner tonight, that would be great,” Peter finally said innocently.
“Vision wanted to make some weird recipe, but Sam managed to ban him from the kitchen. Now he will cook something,” Ms. Romanov answered sweetly.
Again, Peter’s classmates were staring at him with open mouths, not believing that Peter could banter with an Avenger. As only Flash had a question left and Mr. Stark took pity on him and allowed him to ask one last question.
“That one is for Wanda,” he started and Peter did not like how he called her by her first name.
“Is it true that your real name is actually Eugene?” Wanda interrupted him before he could actually ask his question.
Flash blushed at Wanda’s question and only managed to press out a short “Yes”.
“I can’t decide which name is more ridiculous, but whatever. What’s your question?” Wanda said uninterested.
“Why did you want to meet Parker after the tour?” Flash asked. His face has become even redder after Wanda’s previous statement and he had a serious resemblance to a tomato now.
“You know, that’s private. It only concerns me and my boyfriend what I do with him in our free time,” Wanda answered harshly. Now, Peter imagined that his face also resembled a tomato by the way his face heat up. He did not expect Wanda to drop that bomb on his classmates today.
“Your what?! How can Parker be your boyfriend? I thought you are dating Spider-Man?” Flash nearly shouted, in complete disbelief. The rest of his classmates looked at Peter impressed.
“He asked me out. It can be that easy, you know. And as for the Spider-Man rumour, that’s only something the media invented. Some of my darling teammates also ran with it, but they were punished accordingly,” Wanda said with a sharp look at Clint, who shrunk down in his seat. Peter wondered what she did to him after Peter sent her the picture of her ‘fun facts’, but she would surely tell him later. Flash looked physically ill after Wanda told him that Peter was her boyfriend. Even though Peter was a bit surprised that Wanda told his classmates about that, they have talked about it before and he was fine with it. He would deal with Flash next Monday.
“All right, that was enough excitement for one day. Now get lost everybody. Peter, you can stay here, we already cleared that up with your aunt,” Mr. Stark announced after Wanda’s answer.
While his classmates and Mr. Harrington followed Kate out of the room, Peter stayed back with the Avengers. As soon as the last one left the room, Wanda jumped over the table and gave Peter a quick kiss.
“See, today wasn’t as bad as you feared. You should have seen their initial ideas,” Wanda said.
“I have to admit, I imagined far worse,” Peter agreed with Wanda. “I take it Clint has been taken care off?”
“She threw knives near my head as a warning. Honestly, I nearly needed new pants after that encounter,” Clint admitted.
They walked up to the living quarters of the Tower, where Sam has already started to cook their dinner. Peter and Wanda went to her room to catch up on everything that has been going on during the tour.
“I texted May by the way. You can stay the night, if you want to,” Wanda offered when they were both laying in her bed watching TV.
“That would be great,” Peter said and cuddled up to Wanda.
Soon, it was time for dinner. All the Avengers, as well as Peter and Ms. Potts sat down at the large table and Sam served the steaks he prepared for the last few hours. During dinner, their topic of conversation once again shifted to Spider-Man and as usual, Peter looked around uncomfortably when the Avengers talked about his alter ego.
“Hey, Peter, you are from Queens, right? Have you ever seen Spider-Man?” Sam asked him across the table.
“Uhm, I don’t think that I have ever seen him in action,” Peter said carefully. Wanda smiled slightly at Peter’s attempt to hide the truth. Thankfully, nobody caught on to Peter’s carefully crafted answer, even though Peter thought that Ms. Romanov looked at him funnily.
“Well, I guess we just have to ask Wanda to contact him for us. I am sure she has the contact info of her true love,” Sam teased. It was obvious that Sam was not aware of what happened with Clint earlier that day if he was still teasing Wanda about Spider-Man. Peter noticed that Wanda’s knife was engulfed by a red energy field and he slightly touched her leg under the table to calm her down. The Avengers proved themselves trustworthy and Peter intended to take care of that constant teasing once and for all.
“You know, it never really made any sense that you would say Wanda has two boyfriend in Spider-Man and myself,” Peter started. Wanda looked at him with wide eyes, not believing that he was about to tell the Avengers the truth about his secret identity. “That would be physically impossible. After all, for them to be considered two boyfriends, they would have to be in different bodies.”
“Are you telling me…?” Steve asked incredulous.
“Yeah. The truth is that I am Spider-Man. Wanda knew for quite a while now, which is why she always jokes around with me during a mission,” Peter confessed.
The room was quiet for a moment, before it erupted into loud shouting.
“Are you kidding me?!”
“I knew it! You evaded that topic every time it came up!”
“Does you aunt know about that?”
“I can’t believe that Wanda managed to keep that from us for so long…”
“And I can’t believe that my intern wears his pyjamas to fight crime in his free time…”