Chapter Text
Tessa was having a great day. She'd slept well and woken up feeling refreshed. She'd even left the house early enough to swing by her favourite coffee shop and grab herself a large Caramel Chai Latte.
She sipped on it now, sat at her new reception desk with the soft cotton Stark Industries cardigan she'd received alongside her promotion. She doesn't have to wear it, although she prefers to; the Tower is always just the right temperature. Its to be expected really, for a company owned by one of the richest men on the planet.
She pulled the cardigan tighter around herself, feeling cozy. Work was slow that morning, mostly scientists and interns flittering in and out of the building for some reason or another and Tessa was content scanning their I.Ds and watching them rush about their business.
It doesn't take much to turn a great day into a bad one however.
It started with a young boy, a teenager, with worn shoes and ripped jeans. He was being swallowed by a large MIT hoodie, his hands completely engulfed. He played with the hem as he approached her desk.
"Hi," he smiled, "are you new? I'm not sure I've seen you here before." he asked, cheeks rounded and tinged pink.
Tessa didn't dignify him with an answer, instead switching into customer service mode. "Hello there, what can I help you with today."
"Oh! I'm just here to see Mister Stark." He tugged at his ear slightly, waiting, as if that was explanation alone. Tessa simply raised an eyebrow and he jumped to add, "It's lab day!" like that cleared everything up.
"Right..." Tessa sighed. "Do you have an appointment?"
"Um, no." he frowned.
"A pre-posted or valid visitor's pass?"
"Oh right! That thing, yeah one sec!" He rummaged around in his pockets for a while, eyebrows drawn together. Seemingly unable to find it, he moved onto his backpack, sinking one arm into it and bringing up a knee to balance it on.
Tessa waited patiently, tapping her nails on the desk as she watched him with keen eyes.
"I - ah - Can't find it?" The boy squeaked, looking embarrassed.
"Have you been here before?" Tessa asked, taking pity on the boy.
"Yeah! Loads of times."
"Your name?"
"Peter Parker, Ma'am."
Tessa brought up the scanner history and searched for a 'Peter Parker' amongst past badge owners, temporary and permanent. As she expected, nothing came up.
"I'm sorry," she smiled politely, "I have no record of a Peter Parker in my system."
"...Oh.." The boy, Peter, frowned once more, eyes downcast.
"Without an appointment or visitors pass, I cannot let you past this point. If you would like to make an appointment, please contact our hotline."
"That's not necessary, thanks." Peter ran a hand through his hair. From his pocket a phone bleeped. Tessa turned away from the boy as he checked whatever message had come through. She had almost forgotten he was still there when he cleared his throat. "Um, I'm actually running super late, so could you maybe ask Mister Stark to let me up?"
Tessa spluttered, "I will do no such thing!" She breathed in deeply, reigning herself in, "Mister Stark is a very busy man and is not to be contacted unless absolutely necessary."
"It's super important!" The boy countered.
"If that's all I'm going to have to ask you to leave." Tessa's voice grew stern.
"Nonono, how about Happy? Happy Hogan?" The boy tried.
"Mister Hogan is otherwise occupied." Tessa drawled, becoming exasperated to the point of lying in order to get the boy to leave.
"Pepper Potts?"
"Listen kid, if you don't leave now I'm going to have to call security and have you removed."
"Wait! Bruce should be in the labs today too! What about him?"
Tessa ignored him, picking up her headset and patching herself through to the security line. A telltale click told her she'd gotten through and a voice came through, "Darren." the voice stated.
"Hi Darren, its Tessa from reception. I've got an issue here with a young man who refuses to vacate the premises."
"Right, I'm on my way." The line clicked off.
Tessa turned back to the boy who was spluttering apologies. "That really isn't - I can let myself - I'm really sorry. I can just come back-" The boy was cut off by Darren's arrival. The security office was only down the hall, mere seconds from the lobby, allowing security swift access in cases such as this one.
Tessa focused back on her computer, trusting Darren to remove the problem efficiently.
"M-Mister Parker!" Darren yelped, dragging Tessa into the mess once more.
"I'm sorry, have we met?" The boy scratches the back of his neck, looking sheepish.
"Not personally, Sir, but Mister Hogan speaks very highly of you. Sir."
Tessa couldn't believe the sight before her. The big, tough, ex-military badass Darren Miller was bowing his head to some scruffy teen in an oversized MIT hoodie he wasn't old enough to have gotten for himself.
"Oh, Happy does?" The boy beamed, "I always knew he secretly liked me!"
"Of course he does! He keeps a picture of you two in his office."
Tessa's eyes bulge from her head. Who the hell was this kid?
The boy blushed a bright red, smiling happily.
"What brings you here today then, Sir? If you don't mind me asking that it." Darren asks.
"Its lab day today, but I must have left my pass at home."
Darren practically leaps forward to assist. "That's no issue! I'll let you right through and you can head up when you're ready."
Like a giddy puppy Darren turns to her to scan his pass.
"Um.." She hesitated, having no idea what exactly was happening.
"Tess." Darren prompted, sliding the pass closer to her.
She picked it up on autopilot, scanning it and adding a temporary visitor to his pass ID. Soundlessly sliding it back to him, she eyed the boy once more, apprehensive.
"Right this way, Sir!" Darren gestured cheerfully to the automated security barrier. The boy thanked him quietly and passed through. Tessa swiveled in her chair, watching as Darren led Peter past the security checkpoint and straight to the elevator at the other end of the lobby.
As soon as the sleek silver doors slid shut behind the boy, Darren turned on his heal and marched straight back to Tessa's desk.
"What do you think you're doing?" He hissed, leaning over her desk and glancing around conspiratorially.
"What?"
"Do you even know who that is?" He raised his voice before dropping it again as if in fear of being overheard in the empty lobby.
"Is something wrong?" A voice came from behind them.
Darren shifted and behind him, in all his six foot glory was the head of security himself: Happy Hogan.
"NO!.... Um.. no.. Sir. Just, Mister Parker had some trouble getting into the building this afternoon is all." Darren said.
"How so?" Mister Hogan asked, moving closer to Tessa's desk.
At this point Tessa was sweating in her cozy Stark Industries cardigan. There was obviously something else going on here, something she wasn't privy to. Frozen still she let Darren take the lead.
"He, um, forgot his pass you see, and his name didn't appear on the register I presume." Darren muttered, turning frantic eyes onto her, thawing her frozen state.
"Yes, that's right." She agreed, unable to make eye contact with The Happy Hogan without feeling the cold chills of dread creepng up her spine. "When I searched his name nothing came up."
Mister Hogan hummed, leaning further over her desk to peer at her computer screen. "Show me."
"Of course, Sir." Tessa moved her hands robotically, sure she was living in some alternate universe where everything was mad and nothing made sense. She entered 'Peter Parker' into the search engine once more, and again nothing came back.
"Hmm. He should be on there..". Like a lightbulb had flicked on behind his eyes, he pointed at the screen, "Try 'Underoos'."
"I'm sorry?"
"'Underoos'. Just try it. "
"... Yes Sir." Confused but not about to disobey, Tessa typed it in. Immediately several loggs came back, all coloured in the bright telltale gold of an all-access individual. "What the fuck?"
Mister Hogan just sighed, because for some reason this entire situation made sense to him. "Tony." He put a hand over his face. "Just, just add the kids name to it would ya?" He asked, already turning away and heading back to do whatever it was that the head of security does.
"Of course, sir." Tessa whispered despite the fact the Mister Hogan was long gone.
Her fingers ran over the keys on autopilot adding a 'Peter Parker' to the recognised names for the all access clearance, linking it to one 'Underoos'. Next to her Darren slumped against the desk.
"Oh my God that was a close one. We were like this close to loosing out jobs just then." He held up his index and thumb just millimeters apart.
"You can't be serious." Tessa breathed, "Was that kid honestly that important? I thought he was just some super fan."
"You've got no idea. That's Tony Stark's personal intern, but he might as well be his son. Some guy up in R&D looked at the kid funny and - bam - he was fired on the spot."
This time Tessa did take off the cardigan, sweat pooling at the base of her neck.
Was she really that close to loosing her job? Just the thought was bizzar. About as bizzar as the entire past ten minutes actually.
The next time she sees that kid she's running the other direction.
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
Meanwhile
"Hey Pete! You're late, was beginning to think you'd ditched me." Tony called, putting down his tools and jogging to meet Peter by the lab door.
"Mister Stark" Peter called, always happy to see him. "I had some trouble at the front desk, that's all."
Tony steered Peter back around, guiding him with an arm over his shoulder. "Do I need to fire someone again?" He joked, semi-serious.
"Mister Stark!" Peter scolded, "You promised you wouldn't do that again!"
"And I also reserve the right to fire any of my employees whenever I want."
"For a valid reason." Peter prompted.
"Yeah, sure."
By this point they'd reached the kitchen where Tony practically manhandled Peter into a seat at his sparkling marble island. "Are you hungry? I'm hungry. How do you feel about leftover pizza?"
"My favourite kind of pizza." Peter grinned, pulling out his homework and dropping the backpack on the floor.
This has become routine for them lately, after a particularly traumatising experience that taught them just how much more Peter needed to eat than your average person, Tony refused to start work in the lab unless he'd seen the kid eat something with his own two eyes.
"How was that Spanish quiz you were worried about?" Tony asked, letting the kid's chatter wash over him as he reheated the pizza in the microwave - one of man's best inventions if you ask him.
He glanced over at Peter across the island, feeling himself soften at the sight of brown curls and glistening eyes.
For Tony, lab days are always great days, because Peter is there.