Chapter Text
Peter Parker had known that being an adult was going to be difficult, having seen his mentor (father figure) work his ass off as the boss of a multi-billion industry, even as a ‘regular’ teen he knew the struggles it held.
Then the aftermath of the Civil War had happened and gosh, he had never seen The Tony Stark so exhausted before. He had first-hand experience on how bad it was exactly, even the god of PR, Pepper Potts looked just about done with it all.
It was so bad. It was horrible, no other adjective could have described how horrific it was. Peter, as an intern—scratch that, as Tony Stark’s personal intern, he had access to an ungodly amount of work. The press was certainly the main issue on top of the wreckage in the airport, they almost got sued for property damage and what not. That was a whole different story and he praised SI’s legal team nonstop. He knew reporters were vicious with their interviews, but Jesus do they really have to barge on with everything?
Peter, being the sweet kid, he was. Offered to help Pepper on a few things. He could do it. I mean, he was trained to be Tony “I am Ironman” Stark’s personal intern.
So, here he sat in his own little lab. Files on top of files on top of other paperwork on his desk that weren’t even connected to the main issue at hand.
I really need to clean my desk more.
He thought, hands on his hips as his eyes scanned over the messy table. He wasn’t sure which were which anymore, admittedly he had lost track of it all by the time the day finished, Peter was sure he had even thrown some of his homework on there. With his phone ringing in his pockets, he snapped out of his thoughts. Quickly scrambling to answer. Scoffing a little at the caller ID.
(Y/n) (L/n)
He really hated her, despised her. Peter seemed to have never gotten a break from the girl. He had known her since middle school, and it seemed like every club he was interested in. She was there. You could say she was his academic rival even. Peter Parker was in first place? (Y/n) (L/n) was trailing close in second place, their marks were always one off from each other. If he had gotten a perfect mark, she would have gotten a 99% and vice versa.
She was part of The decathlon team and The robotics club. Two things Peter was also a part of, debating whether or not he should even answer. He sighed, defeated.
“Hello?” Peter speaks up hesitantly.
“Parker.”
Her voice echoed through the speaker as he placed his phone down on the table as he began sorting out his files. “Can I help you, Miss (L/n)? Or are you calling for kicks?” He questioned with a bit of sass. Checking the time he hummed, it was 3 in the morning, what could she possibly need from him?
“Funny, you’re hilarious. You should be a comedian, Parker.” She answered with a hollow tone. “I need you for robotics club tomorrow, after school.”
Peter pursed his lips as he quietly checked his schedule, he had a meeting with the R&D intern director about a new project by then. “For why?” He asked, curiously, eyes furrowed as he looked through his papers. Trying to see if he could squeeze whatever plan she had in his hectic schedule.
“What do you mean ‘For why’, Parker? We agreed to have a meeting about what we should do on the upcoming competition for the science fair. Are you even paying attention half the time?”
Her voice spoke loud and clearly irritated, Peter glared at his phone. Damn his Parker luck, did he really agree to that? He sighed tiredly. “Yeah—No, I remember. It just, you know…slipped my mind, my bad.” He lied, well, not fully. It wasn’t far from the truth.
“Right, well. I need you to be on time as well, I know you’re not particularly in sync with it but it’s important.”
Could God just strike him down, now?
“I’ll try.” He responded. “Parker.” She sighed out, as if it was a warning. Peter’s shoulder slumped, head hanging low. “Okay,” he manages.
Peter could feel her smirk through the phone. “Good, see you then.” (Y/n) then hung up the phone and he could only stare at it in disbelief. How was he going to figure this one out now? Damn you, Parker luck.
________________________
Peter had just barely scratched by with two hours of sleep. Mindlessly scrolling through his phone, rereading emails and getting himself prepared for the day. If you told him two and a half years ago, he would be working with The Tony Stark and Pepper Potts, he would have called you a liar.
“Morning, bambino.”
And just on cue.
“Hey, Mr. Stark.” He greeted with a nod. Looking up from his phone as he managed to give his mentor (Father figure) a tired smile. Tony hummed, eyes going up and down. “Did you sleep?”
“I did.”
“Oh really?” Tony raised an eyebrow, seemingly unconvinced.
Peter pouted. “I did, Mr. Stark.”
“Yeah? And for how long?” Tony chuckled, grabbing himself a cup of coffee, his back turned to Peter. “I slept enough,” The younger replied hastily.
Tony looked up at the ceiling. “Friday, how long did Peter sleep for?”
“About two hours sir,” The AI replied quickly.
Peter groaned, curse you modern day technology! He thinks as he slumped against the counter, using his arm as a pillow. “You really need to sleep more, kid.” Tony patted his shoulder.
“You don’t sleep either, Mr. Stark.” Peter smiled amusingly. His mentor feigned hurt, as he gasped dramatically. Hand reaching to clasp at his chest. “I do sleep, actually. Unlike you, bambino!”
“I sleep.” He tried.
“Right. Whatever you say, mini me.”
“Your nicknames get more and more creative every day.” A new voice speaks up. Tony whips his head around and smiles. “Oh c’mon, you love my nicknames, Pep!”
Pepper only rolled her eyes and affectionately rustled Peter’s hair. The kid yelped in surprise, trying to wriggle away. “Noo, I just brushed that.” Peter whined childishly as he tried to fix his hair. Quickly checking his watch, Peter nearly cursed out loud.
“Uh, sorry guys. But I gotta go, I’m gonna be late.” Peter says quickly as he begins scrambling for his bag. “Take Happy, you’ll get there faster.” Tony leaned against the counter top. Taking a sip of his coffee.
“Will do, bye guys!”
Tony’s eyes followed his figure with adoration. “Do you really think he’s ready, Pep?” He looked over his shoulder, concern written all over his face. Pepper, ever the affectionate fiancé she was, wrapped an arm around his shoulder and gave him a tight squeeze.
“Of course, he is, do you not trust him?”
Tony squawked. “I trust him! I don’t trust them.” He grunted frustratedly, running a hand through his face. “I’m afraid those upper bastards are going to eat him alive.”
“Peter can handle them, he’s a smart kid.” Pepper comforted him, as she rubbed his shoulder. “Besides, We’ll give him the training before we go,” she adds.
“Fine.” Tony settled for that.
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Even on the way to school, Peter’s brain never seemed to get any break. He was constantly on his phone, checking emails, answering urgent phone calls from his other coworkers who were in desperate need of help.
Happy watched him intensively from the rear-view mirror. “You need to relax, Pete.”
“I’ll relax when the press stops making wild accusations about Stark Industries.” Peter mumbled underneath his breath, typing away furiously on his phone. His eyes never leaving the screen as he bit his lip. “Hey, Happy?” He called out.
The man hummed in acknowledgement. “Do you think I could back out on the meeting today?” Peter asked hopeful. Finally, his eyes left his phone and instead stared back at Happy’s eyes from the mirror. “What meeting?”
Peter chewed on the skin of his lip. “Y’know, the meeting with R&D today after school?”
Happy frowned, fingers drumming on the steering wheel as he pulled to a stop as they hit a red light. “Well, wait—Shouldn’t you be asking Pepper or Tony that?” He questioned, raising an eyebrow at the kid.
Nervously chuckling, Peter looked away. “Yeahh, well I didn’t really have a chance to ask…and I have robotics club after school…and shtuff...” he drawled lazily, not feeling up to doing anything responsible today.
“Shtuff?” The other repeated
“Stuff.” Peter corrected, leaning further into the leather seat of the car. “It’s kinda important.”
“Meeting with the R&D intern director is important too. Y’know.” Happy replied, still amused. “ Obviously it is.” Peter pouted further. The Research and Development department was his favorite, his baby , his pride and joy. Peter definitely didn’t want to miss out on it.
Head lolling to the side as he saw his school come into view, great…He was already dreading the day. Peter debated in his head if the robotics club meeting was really that important, He weighed his options.
Get chewed out by his worst academic rival ever or his boss/parent figure possibly firing him.
….
(Y/n) and robotics club could wait. His job could not.
___________________
Peter had barely paid attention to his classes through out the day. Zoning in and out of consciousness as he thought about his work back at SI, thoughts drifting back to his hectic schedule. Even when he was supposed to be studying, he was still thinking about his work.
“Dude,” A voice brought him back. “Huh?” Peter blinked twice, thrice. His eyes focusing back towards his best friend. Ned deadpanned. “Are you even listening to me?”
“Yeah, sure.” Peter nodded.
Ned almost laughed as his best friend almost immediately started dozing off. “Dude, when was the last time you even slept?” He dared to ask.
“Sleep is for the weak, time is a social construct made to distract us from the government.” Peter muttered mindlessly, as he crossed his arms against his chest. “I work with the government.” He adds, almost bitterly.
Ned scoffed. “ Tanga, you barely work for them.” his accent drips and matches with his annoyed look.
“I still do.” Peter made a face as he was called stupid. “Don’t call me dumb.”
“Just get another intern to work for you, you are technically a boss.” Ned suggested.
Peter shrugs. It wasn’t like he didn’t consider the idea of having help, its just that…nobody was really qualified enough. He loved his work; he loved his coworkers especially. He would kill for half of the people he was always with, but most of them were too dependent on him. Constantly in a need for help, his help especially.
“I’m fine on my own, Ned.”
“You fell asleep in multiple classes today,” He points out, munching on his own food. Peter grumbled as he leaned against the table. “I’m thinking about ditching the robotics club meeting” his voice muffled as he hid his face with his arms.
“Won’t (Y/n) chew you out?”
“(Y/n) is the least of my concerns, Pepper might decide to kick me out of the industry.” Peter lifts his head up and decides to nibble on his lunch for the day.
“Pepper Potts won’t kick her best worker out because he decided to miss one meeting.” Ned raised an eyebrow, seemingly confused his statement. “Besides, you’re like a son to them.” He added.
“Uh, I guess. But still!” Peter shakes his head. Stumbling over his words.
Peter knew his odd relationship with them. He was painfully aware of the longing looks of his parental figures, the overprotective protocols they set up for him. He had even slipped up once or twice with Tony, having called him dad accidentally and nearly set the man to a paralyzed shock.
“Besides, nobody is qualified enough for half the stuff I do.” Peter pointed with his fork. “They’ll either crumble from the stress or quit from how annoying those old geezers are.”
“I can’t do that to someone,” Peter pouts for the nth time today. Whilst he was in the position to hire his own intern or secretary, he was too nice to put someone through the things he did.
“Your niceness is horrifying.” Ned comments.
“Hey!” Peter weakly protested.
____________________
Peter had decided, for the most part, that swinging around the city was faster than making Happy take him back to the tower of SI. It was good, it was easy. He was able to patrol and travel without even breaking a sweat. It’s like killing one bird with one stone. He hadn’t been able to be the friendly neighborhood superhero/vigilante in a while and he’d seen the tabloids of his sudden disappearance, Peter couldn’t have that on his back.
So, of course. When his spider senses began tingling he sprung into action. Heading towards the alleyway, quietly crept and stuck to the wall. As he focused on the task at hand.
He squinted. Why is this place so dark? It was barely past 4 pm.
“KAREN, Can you enhance my vision for me?” He asked the AI connected to his suit. “Of course, Peter.” Mumbling a quick thank you he approached further. Propping himself onto a ledge as he heard a loud yelp.
He sees a girl, probably his age. Holding what seemed to be a taser and a guy on the floor, clutching his crotch as he pathetically moaned in pain, the man’s voice echoed in the alley.
Oh.
Wait.
Peter squints again. Fuck, it couldn’t be right?
“Fucking pervert!”
Yeah no, that was definitely (Y/n) (L/n). Peter dropped down, quickly webbing the guy on the floor so he stayed down. Peter—Well, Spider-Man, turned to her. Tilting his head to the side, almost amused.
“You alright, Miss?”
(Y/n) hummed. “All good, Spidey.”
She was calm. Too calm for Peter’s liking as if she tazed people on the daily. “Shouldn’t you be in school?” He speaks up. Staring her down. “Shouldn’t you?” She barked back, arms crossed. Almost definitely, she shifted her weight to her side as (Y/n) stared at him with a raised eyebrow.
Fair.
“What makes you think I go to school?” Peter laughed nervously, almost fiddling with his fingertips. “ Anyways , how about I take you back home, Miss. Too dangerous for you to be walking all alone after…” He motioned to the guy on the floor.
“I’m good, thanks.” She nodded and began walking away.
Peter quickly followed, jogging up next to her. “C’mon, it’ll be on my conscience if I let a girl walk all alone.” It was true, no matter how annoying she was to him, he would never ever let her get in any sort of danger.
“I’m fine, I’m heading back to school anyways. I just needed to sneak out to buy some good coffee.”
Always so difficult and stubborn Peter grumbled in his mind, still walking albeit faster to catch up to the girl.
“You’re like fifteen, should you even be drinking coffee?”
“I’m seventeen.” (Y/n) deadpanned. “And so are you,”
Peter sputters at the accusation. Okay, it was the truth but she didn’t know that. He thought. “No I'm not!” He weakly protested. Goddamit why was she so good?
“Yeah, because a regular adult has a squeaky voice like yours, Spidey.”
Okay now that was just rude, typical of her. Peter almost paused his train of thought, did he really have a squeaky voice?
“Are you always this rude?”
Yes was the answer.
“Why so many questions?” She dared to say as they finally made it to midtown, people were definitely staring as to why some random high school girl was walking with The Spider-Man. “You can go, shoo shoo.” She made a shooing motion with her hand as she began walking away.
If Peter didn’t have a mask on, his jaw would have been on the floor. Unbelievable ! He thinks.
____________________
He climbed a window to get into the robotics club's room. Admittedly, it was not his smartest idea, and honestly he could've just walked in the front door. But he needed to prove to (Y/n) that he had been in the room, waiting and was not late.
Checking his watch, yeah. He had time. He could still make it to the R&D meeting. Peter was already back at midtown anyways, there was no point in him ditching the meeting here if he was already there anyway.
Peter could totally make it back in time at SI. No problem.
He bites his lower lip, he probably shouldn’t jinx it. Ned was always mumbling to him to never greet a situation prior to it happening because of bad luck. His best friend was surprisingly superstitious.
“If you’re done thinking, I’d like some help here.”
Please just kill him already.
“How long have you been there?” Peter’s lips formed into a thin line. Goddammit. He had never met Lady Luck but she was really enjoying the fact that she was messing with him on the daily.
“Enough to see you climb through the window,” She answered. “Not really discrete by the way.” (Y/n) adds humorously.
Maybe he should have ditched.
“Haha, okay.” Peter gave an empty laugh, sauntering over the desk and peering over her work that she had been fiddling about with throughout their conversation. “So, what’s up?”
“So. The direction of this meeting changed.” She began. “You know Midtown isn’t necessarily one hundred percent well off right?”
“Sure.” Peter shrugged. Midtown wasn’t perfect , every school had its flaws. Of course his school had them. Okay, they had the funding and they were fine enough, or so Peter thought. He grabbed his backpack, searching the inside and without a beat began placing down some blueprints he had made for the upcoming competition.
“The administration spoke to me earlier in the day.” She chewed on the inside of her gums as she grabbed a screwdriver. “They’re thinking of cutting back on the robotics club's funding and, well, they wanna put it all on another club.”
“But, that would set us back?!”
“That’s what I said.” She grumbled.
“There’s not many of us in the club. Unlike in the AcaDeca, apparently people aren’t that interested in robots which is stupid , this is a science school after all.” She rambled on. “I can’t believe the principal even agreed to such a suggestion.”
Peter was about to respond when his phone rang loudly. He winced. “Sorry, Uh…” he scrambled to get his phone. Mcalaster was calling, one of the interns at R&D. Shit.
“I need to uh, take this.” He gulped nervously.
Peter moved to the other side of the room to quietly take the call. Whilst (Y/n) looked down at the blueprints that Peter had set down, curiously. She picked them up and started scanning through them.
Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. One by one she went through them, these weren’t regular blueprints for some silly robotics competition for school. No, these were actual, legit blueprints from Stark fucking Industry.
Why the fuck does Peter Parker have blueprints for Stark Industry?
“Just five minutes, I need five minutes. I’ll be there, tell Ellie to calm down. The R&D meeting will still be on, I’m just a little tied up here.” She hears Parker speak quickly and quietly.
R&D meeting?
(Y/n) connected the dots quickly. She wasn’t stupid. Unlike everyone else who was oblivious in Midtown, the rumors of Parker being an intern at SI was obviously the truth. The boy was constantly mumbling about the tower and projects with his best friend.
And not in hushed tones either.
Well I’ll be damned . (Y/n) pondered over it. Yeah, it made sense. His tardiness, him being spotted outside of SI, and the not so hush hush conversations with Ned. She wondered if MJ was in on it too since she was always hanging around them.
“I’m sorry about that, my uh…my friend needed help with something.” Peter scrambled hastily, another thing. Peter Parker was a horrible liar.
“Uh huh.” She nodded, without missing a beat she handed him the blueprints. Peter mindlessly took it and stared.
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“Oh fuck.” Peter cursed loudly.
(Y/n) was amused to say the least. “Care to explain why you’re just casually carrying Stark Industry issued blueprints?”
Damn you, Parker luck.