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Peter was having a pretty average day. Hell, he’d even consider it on the good side of average. Flash had only pushed him into a locker once so far, and it barely even hurt, and Flash had been preoccupied with something for most of their lunch break, so Peter actually got to eat his lunch in peace. He hadn’t been too bothered about what flash had been doing, until he walked into the cafeteria again and just grinned at Peter. That was never good news.
Peter had been getting bullied by flash for pretty much the entire time they’d been at school together. They’d been at school together since Peter was around 10, which sadly meant that Flash knew his deadname, and he was not exactly nice about it. He could handle it- really- especially after the spider bite. He didn’t mind being called a girl at all. It didn’t upset him. He didn’t cry himself to sleep over it. He was fine.
The bullying started out pretty minor- just calling him names, an ‘accidental’ shove every once in a while. After he came out, it turned into slurs, and being pushed into lockers. A while after the spider bite, when he’d been getting more comfortable with his powers, and had gotten stronger when he didn’t have to hide it from aunt May anymore, he tried to fight back.
He didn’t want to do too much- he was supposed to be scrawny and weak. He just- pushed Flash away from him, maybe slightly harder than he’d intended. It had ended with hand shaped bruises around his neck, that he only just barely managed to convince May were from spider-manning. He didn’t try to fight back again.
It was fine- he could take it. It barely even hurt- and his healing factor made it so he barely had a mark on him. So what if Flash broke his nose more than once? Besides, if he fought back, he’d get outed as Spider-man. And he’s pretty sure Flash would just pick someone else to bully- someone who couldn’t handle it. And he could deal with getting called slurs, or dead named, or whatever other shit Flash decided to throw at him. It wouldn’t kill him, so he was fine.
He was watching the clock in his last class of the day, not really paying attention to his physics teacher, he’d finished the exercise they’d been given in about five minutes, so now he was left watching the minutes pass before he could finally get the hell out of here and go home. He felt a small tap on his shoulder, and turned his attention back to the lesson.
Only for his world to very quickly come crashing down. A field trip to Stark Industries. If there was a god out there- they really really had to hate him. He could feel Flash grinning at him. Ever since he’d overheard Peter telling Ned about his internship, he’d been bothering him about it. Making sure he’d never forget that he was not nearly cool or smart enough to get anywhere near SI. It was sort of funny just how wrong he was. It was less funny when he started getting punched in the face for it. Peter had already tuned out his teacher talking about permission slips and NDA’s, too focused on how the hell he was going to survive this field trip. Or even how he’d survive how annoying Flash would be leading up to it.
He could just- tell Tony about the field trip. He’s pretty sure he would be incredibly dramatic and either take over the entire tour, or make it his life’s mission to embarrass Peter. But- he feels like, instead of shutting Flash up, it would just make him so much worse. And he really, really didn’t want to risk that. He’s not really sure what worse would be, and he’d really not like to find out.
So, he decides that he will just make sure that nobody in the tower finds out. Should be easy enough, right? He’s gotten Friday to hide his injuries before, he’s pretty sure he could use her to make sure Tony (or any of the other avengers) doesn’t know where he is, or that he’s even in the tower during the field trip.
By the time he’s done thinking through his plan, the teacher has already dismissed the class, and everyone is packing up their stuff. He quickly shoves his stuff into his bag, and speedwalks out of the classroom before Flash is done talking with his friends.
Ned quickly follows him out of the classroom, trying his best to contain his excitement because he knows how much Peter is dreading this. “I mean- if you can prove that you do work at SI, he’ll leave you alone, right?” Peter just sighed, “I highly doubt it- if anything, even if he does believe it, I feel like the embarrassment would just make him worse.” Ned frowns slightly at that, “Surely if you just tell Tony-” “No. Absolutely not.” Peter cuts him off. Ned sighs they’d had this argument a million times before, Peter insisting that Tony did not need to know he was being bullied- he could handle himself, he needed to show that to his mentor, and Ned insisting that Tony wouldn’t think any less of him just for being bullied, and he’d make sure that Flash would never bother them again.
They’d reached a sort of stalemate- where neither of them really wanted to bring it up, and both of them were thoroughly convinced the other was wrong. So Peter didn’t tell Tony about the bullying, and Ned kept trying to subtly get him to talk to Tony about stuff like this. Ned had tried threatening that he’d go to a teacher about it, but both of them knew that all of the teachers already knew, and didn’t really care. Flash’s parents were funding the school, so what if he beat up some scholarship student every once in a while?
May chuckles slightly when he hands her the permission slip to SI, “Does Tony know?” Peter shook his head, “No. I don’t want him to know- please don’t tell him.” She looks at him for a few seconds, sighing before softly nodding her head, replying, “Alright- but don’t try to blame me when he finds out and gets mad at you.” Peter just frowned in reply as she moved to sign the permission slip, as well as an NDA, and some other papers. Peter smiles when she hands him back the papers, “Thanks May, and he won’t find out.” May raises an eyebrow, clearly not believing him, but she didn’t push it any further.
Peter stayed over at the tower that weekend, and the whole time, he was really tempted to just tell Tony that he had a field trip to the tower the next Friday, but he didn’t. Tony left him in his room for a while on Sunday, having some meetings that Pepper wouldn’t let him get out of. Peter took the opportunity to get Friday up to date on his latest plans. For once, he was really glad none of the employees knew him as anything other than a somewhat strange intern. It would have sucked to convince all of them not to tell Tony- or to say anything that’d out him. He just really hoped that Flash wouldn’t try anything in front of any of them, they’d absolutely get him kicked out for bullying, and he would absolutely take that out on Peter
He made sure that his instructions to Friday were thorough, he knew that she took everything literally, and he really didn’t want anything to slip through the gaps. For once, he was glad that his thinking was so literal. He made sure that Friday wouldn’t be able to tell anyone his location while he was on the field trip, and that during the field trip, she wouldn’t refer to him as anything other than the intern Peter Parker. He could’ve just made it so that she couldn’t tell Tony, but he knew that Tony would ask someone else to ask for him, and he didn’t think that Friday would be able to tell if someone was going to tell Tony where he was when they asked her. So, nobody would know he was in the tower, or where in the tower he was, under any circumstance.
He’d be safe- there’d be enough to prove his internship, and not enough to prove that it was anything more than just a normal internship. They wouldn’t find out that he was pretty close with all of the avengers- that he practically lived at the tower on the weekends, and his secret identity would stay safe. Tony wouldn’t find out about Flash, and his life would stay exactly the same. Hopefully.
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Peter groaned when he heard his alarm, it was field trip day, and his ribs still hurt from when he got kicked in them while patrolling last night. He was really hoping they’d have healed by now- but he supposed that one (short) night of sleep wouldn’t heal everything, and he didn’t really worry about it too much more. He just really hoped he didn’t have any broken ribs- they took forever to heal.
He lay there thinking about his impending death by field trip for a while. When he looked back over at the clock, he realised that 10 minutes had passed and he was so going to be late. He got dressed as quickly as he could, and said a quick good morning to aunt May as he grabbed some breakfast and hurried out the door, deciding to just eat his breakfast on the subway. He almost missed his train, just barely managing to jump through the doors as they were closing. He groaned slightly when he realised there were no seats left, his ribs were killing him from running to the station, and he was already starting to get overstimulated. He felt around in his backpack, and realised he’d forgotten both his earplugs and his stim toy. This was going to be a day.
Peter only just barely got to his school in time, thanks to the train getting delayed. He was glad he wasn’t the last one to get on the bus, but a lot less glad that Flash was already there and yelling that he’d skipped because he was scared he’d get caught. Peter just rolled his eyes as he slid down into his seat next to Ned. Peter smiled at Ned, opening his mouth to say something, when he got cut off by Flash, “So, Penis, are you excited to get exposed in front of everyone? Do you think they’ll kick you out when they find out about your pathetic little lie?” Peter sighs, deciding to just ignore Flash, he really doesn’t feel like dealing with his shit today- he just hopes he’ll tone it down when they get to Stark tower.
When Flash opens his mouth to continue his harassment, MJ speaks up from the seat behind them, “Jesus Christ Flash, can you shut up for five god damn minutes? We get it, you hate Peter, you don’t have to remind us.” Flash looks taken aback, and when he realises that pretty much everyone else on the bus agrees with her, he goes back to his own seat. Peter smiles at MJ, “Thanks, I really didn’t feel like having to deal with him all day.” MJ just nods at him, “I really don’t care if your internship is real or not, Flash just really needs to shut up about it sometimes.” Peter spends the rest of the bus ride quietly chatting with Ned, trying his best to tune out the sound of his classmates.
Peter was worried his class would get way too loud once they got to SI, but instead, they all just looked at the building in stunned silence, and while Peter was long over that now, he could definitely see where they were coming from, Stark Tower was a really beautiful building, mostly due to Pepper’s designing. There were still very clear traces of Tony’s input (namely, the giant Stark sign on the side of the building), but most of the tower was designed by Pepper.
His class seemed to break out of the stunned silence when his teacher told them to get out of the bus, and gather in the lobby. Peter cringed as the bus erupted into loud chatter, covering his ears with his hands, and squeezing his eyes shut, trying his best to block out the sound. He opened his eyes again after a few minutes, most of his class having left the bus, and the sound level being somewhat manageable. At least, good enough for him to get out of the bus himself, following after Ned. He’s glad that Flash seems to be too distracted by the design of the tower, and by his own excitement, to bother him.
Peter stays at the edge of the group, still covering his ears with his hands, mourning the loss of his earplugs. He’d never really noticed how loud the lobby was- he’d not been there all that often, and whenever he was, he had either his earplugs or his headphones to block out the sound. He really hoped that they’d be going to the more quiet floors of the tower on the tour- he really couldn’t handle a meltdown today, on top of everything else. One thing he was happy about, is that the loudness of the lobby completely blocked out whatever Flash was trying to say to him, his brain constantly trying to tune in to conversations that were half a room away, focusing on all of them at the same time, while not really comprehending any of them at all.
He hadn’t noticed that his teacher had walked away until he was walking back to the group, their tour guide following after him. Peter was glad that he recognised the tour guide, she was one of the interns from one of his favourite labs, he’s pretty sure her name was Sarah. He was really tempted to wave at her, but that would mean taking one of his hands off his ears, and drawing attention to himself. She took her place in front of the class, introducing herself (her name was Sarah, he was right), and going over the rules, which included a very strict no bullying policy. Peter could feel Flash shoot him a look at that one, but he didn’t really pay any attention to it.
When Sarah was done going over the rules, she started handing out all of their badges, explaining that they needed to keep them visible at all times, and that they all had a hidden clearance level, so the AI could make sure none of them went anywhere they weren’t supposed to be. Peter carefully pulled one of his hands off his ear, wincing slightly at how loud the sound was, pulling his own badge out of his bag. He didn’t really need one, but he figured he’d be less suspicious if he did have one. His badge looked pretty much the same as his classmates’, the only difference being that his didn’t have the small visitor under his name. For once, he was really glad that Tony hadn't gotten his will in giving all of the badges visual levels, Happy having to explain to him that that would be a massive security risk, and that hidden levels were really the safest option.
He slipped his lanyard over his head, quickly covering his ears back up with his hands. Peter noticed Flash watching him, and Peter was pretty sure that he’d noticed him pulling the badge out of his bag, and knowing Flash, he was not going to just let that go without saying anything. He sighed when Flash put his hand up, he’d really been hoping he was wrong this time, and Flash would just shut up.
“Miss? Peter didn’t get a badge!” he yelled, not even waiting for Sarah to call on him. She turned to him, “Oh- did I forget someone? I don’t have any more badges-” when Flash pointed at Peter, she stopped, “Oh- Hi Peter, you’ve got your own badge, right?” Peter nodded in response, just barely comprehending what she’s saying, and not having the energy to talk.
She smiled in response, “Alright then, if everyone has their badges, it’s time to start the tour!” Peter could feel Flash staring at him, and he was pretty sure he was absolutely not going to let this go that easily.
Peter hung back as they were walking to the security scanners- he was pretty sure that Friday would just announce him as an intern, he’d specifically asked her to- and she’d never not listened to something he’d asked before, but he could still feel the anxiety creeping up his chest. He could still tell his breathing was getting faster as he got closer to the scanner. It felt like the eyes of the entire lobby were on him, burning into his back. He was trying his best to hide it- he didn’t want people to know he was almost having a meltdown over having to go through security- but he couldn’t help his hands flapping around slightly at his sides.
Before he knew it, it was his turn to walk through the scanners, the rest of his class already waiting on the other side, some of them looking back at him, some of them looking over to where Sarah was trying to get their attention- god why did he have to go last. He tried his best to ignore the stares of his classmates boring into his skull, walking up to the scanner, holding his badge up to it with his right hand, while his left was rapidly tapping at the metal.
He hadn’t really noticed that Friday hadn’t called out to any of his classmates- she never did for visitors, so when she called out, “Peter Parker. Intern” almost his entire class jumped up in surprise. The only one who didn’t respond was MJ, looking bored as ever.
Sarah chuckled at his class’s response, “That, kids, is Friday, the building's AI. She runs a lot of things in the building- but you’ll mostly notice her as security. Everyone say Hi Friday.” Peter was glad that the attention was off him, letting him quietly slip back into his spot at the back of the group. Peter’s pretty sure that most of his class believes his internship now. But from the glare that Flash is still sending him, he’s pretty sure that Flash is not going to give up that easily.
As they crowded into the elevator, their tour guide started talking about the history of SI, Peter mostly just tuned her out, already having heard all of it from Tony. He spends the elevator ride trying his best not to touch anyone, and fidgeting with the fabric of his sleeves.
Peter hurried out of the elevator as soon as the doors started to open, squeezing through the small gap in the doors, no matter how many times Tony had told him to stop doing that, and no matter how much his ribs screamed in response. As Peter was trying to recover from being in such a small space with way too many people, his classmates looked around the room in awe. It took Peter a while to fully recognise the room he was in- just being happy that it was quiet, but after a little bit, he recognised the museum floor. He smiled, he was glad they were starting out the tour with a pretty chill area, where he wouldn’t have to pay too much attention, and that wasn’t assaulting all of his senses at once.
As soon as Sarah had finished her introduction to the museum floor, and had told them that they could freely explore the floor, as long as they made sure to be back at the elevators in 45 minutes, Peter followed after Ned, who had started walking towards the Stark Industries section of the museum. He looked over his shoulder, and was glad to see Flash hurrying off into the Avengers section. He half-listened to Ned’s rambling, taking some time to just enjoy the quiet rooms, and the lights that were way dimmer than they were in the lobby. Tony insisted that he’d made the lights less bright in areas where they didn’t need to be bright because it ‘adds to the atmosphere’ but Peter was pretty sure that he’d done it because he knew how much Peter hated bright lights.
After a couple minutes Peter noticed that MJ seemed to be trailing after them. He didn’t bring any attention to it- he just looked over at her and raised an eyebrow, to which she just shrugged, and pointed to her sketchbook, and then gestured to Ned, who was still excitedly bouncing around and rambling in excitement. Peter smiled, he knew that she liked to draw people’s expressions.
After a couple minutes, she gestured him over, and showed him her sketch of Ned, as well as sketches of Flash glaring at him, and his classmates’ surprise when Friday talked. Peter was honestly surprised that there weren’t any sketches of him in her sketchbook yet- but he wasn’t going to bring it up. He didn’t want to risk giving her any ideas.
After they were in the Stark Industries section of the museum for around 20 minutes, some of their other classmates seemed to have gotten bored of the Avengers museum, and wandered over to where they were. Peter’s pretty sure that it wouldn’t be long before Flash also made his way over, so Peter gathered Ned and MJ, and led them through a back hallway that he’d found out about when he was chasing a bot through the building a few weeks before. They ended up at an almost empty Avengers museum.
Ned excitedly rambled about all of the displays, especially excited about the Iron man suits, and Peter joined in from time to time, adding some extra information that Tony had told him- or when talking about the other avengers, what he’d learned from talking to them. MJ joined in a couple of times, either when they were looking at the Black Widow display, or to add some political commentary.
When the 45 minutes had passed, and they went back to the elevator, Peter was feeling a lot better- he’d taken the time he’d needed to recover. Small sounds no longer felt like hammers slamming into his brain. He could actually handle the fluorescent lights of the hallway without having to squint. He actually managed to listen to the tour guide as she was telling them where they’d be going next.
“Alright, so we’ll be visiting some of the labs, where we’ll be given a presentation by one of our very talented employees, and then we’ll have lunch, and after, we’ll be going to some of the intern labs, where we’ll have a chance to look around, and maybe even participate in some experiments ourselves!” The class filed back into the elevator, Flash still glaring at Peter. He’s pretty sure that SI’s anti-bullying policy scared Flash off a decent amount, considering that all he’d really done so far was glare at him. He couldn’t help but feel slightly worried, though. He couldn’t help the feeling that Flash would be doing something big later today- and he was really not excited for that.
For now, though, Flash seemed to be mostly leaving him alone. The class filed into the lab, each of them picking a seat from the circle of seats in the room, with a large table with a scientist next to it in the middle. Peter hadn’t been in this specific lab before, but all of the labs looked pretty similar, the only real differences being what projects people were working on. He also hadn’t met this specific scientist before- but he seemed nice enough.
Once they were all settled, the scientist introduced himself. Peter proceeded to instantly forget his name. The scientist continued talking, explaining what projects he was working on, and going into pretty detailed explanations of the science behind them. Even though Peter knew most of this already, it was still a very interesting lecture. Usually he’d have to try his best to look like he was paying attention, but this time he actually listened to every word. When he was done talking, he asked if any of them had any questions.
Peter winced slightly when he saw Flash’s hand go up, He’s pretty sure that couldn’t be anything good. The scientist went around the room, answering questions about his projects, and a couple about what it was like to work at SI, until he got to Flash. “Sir, can highschoolers intern here?” He looked slightly confused, answering, “I- I don’t think so? I’m not really an expert on intern stuff, though. Doesn’t your tour also take you to the intern labs? Maybe you could ask one of them?” Peter couldn’t help but feel slightly bad for the poor guy, even as Flash sent him a very meaningful glance that just screamed “We’ll come back to this later.” Peter was very not excited for whenever later was.
They left the room after a few more questions, heading to the elevator. On one hand, Peter was glad it was lunchtime, he’d not had a lot for breakfast, and his enhanced metabolism meant that he was starving. On the other, he knew how loud the cafeteria was- and he barely handled it with earplugs on a good day.
When they entered the cafeteria, Peter tried to find a more quiet table- hoping that Ned would grab some food for both of them, settling on a table in the very corner of the room.
The cafeteria was a large room, most of the floor space taken up by tables of various sizes. Along two of the walls, various different restaurants had booths where employees could get a bunch of different types of food. All employees got to eat there for free, guests getting a small balance on their badges, enough to feed them for however long their tour was.
Ned and MJ joined Peter at his table after a couple minutes, Ned carrying a large pizza for Peter, and a sandwich for himself. Peter tried his best to block out the chatter that filled the cafeteria, trying to redirect his attention to eating his food. It worked partially, managing to finish his food, but still being massively overstimulated by the time they went back to the elevator. Flash seemed to be leaving them alone, or maybe he just couldn’t find them.
Peter squeezed his way out of the elevator again once they got to their floor, leaning against the wall next to it while the rest of his class made their way out. Sarah went over the rules for the labs once again, as she headed down the hallway that’d lead them to the intern labs. Peter hung back, staying at the back of the group while Ned and MJ walked up to the front. He didn’t notice Flash walking behind him. He did recognise a side hallway he’d run through after someone had set a lab on fire.
He continued after his class, when suddenly he felt a hand grabbing the back of his shirt, pulling him into the side hallway. He tried to fight them off, without using any extra strength, but their hand was in a really awkward spot- and Peter just couldn’t pull them off. He got pulled further away from his class, into a corner of a hallway that he knew barely anyone ever went to. Eventually, the hand let go, and when he turned around to face his assailant, they shoved him into the wall, causing his ribs to scream in pain. His eyes quickly landed on their face, his brain wanting to piece together what was going on as quickly as possible- “Flash? What are you doing?!” He’d thought he was getting kidnapped- that someone had realised how close he was to Tony and was hoping to get a lot of money out of him. He hadn’t thought that this’d be Flash’s ‘master plan’.
He’s pretty sure he’s never seen Flash this angry before- and he’s never been fully alone with him in a room before. He can’t help being a bit scared.
“So, how did you hack the AI, huh?” Peter starts to defend himself, “I didn’t- I told you-” Flash slaps him across the face. “Don’t fucking lie to me, Penis. So, How. did. You. do. It?” “I didn’t do any-” Slap “I told you not to lie to me. You heard what the scientist said, right? They don’t take highschool interns.” Against his better judgement, Peter tried to explain himself again, “Well, I’m the exception- I’m Tony Stark’s personal intern.” Flash punches him in the ribs that time, causing Peter to double over in pain, struggling to hold back tears.
Flash pins his shoulder to the wall again, “Aww, did famous playboy Tony Stark want a pretty girl like you around?” Peter couldn’t stop the tears anymore, rolling quickly down his cheeks as small sobs escaped his lips, bile rising in his throat. Flash just laughed, “Hit a nerve, did I?” He used the hand that wasn’t pinning him to the wall to tilt up his chin so he could look him in the eyes, “You’ve always been so emotional. You’ll never be anything other than a girl. Stop lying to yourself.”
He punched Peter in his ribs again, before grabbing him by the back of his shirt again, ignoring Peter’s cries of pain, and the small sobs that were still escaping his lips, Opening the door to a nearby storage closet, throwing Peter into it, and shutting the door. He messed with the door handle for a little bit, until he heard the satisfying click of the door locking, smiling to himself, and walking out of the hallway to go join his class.
Peter cried out in pain as he hit the floor of the closet, landing hard on his ribs- which he was pretty sure were broken by now. Tears filled his eyes as he heard the soft click of the door locking.
He knows he could get out- join his class, finish the tour, go home. Try his best to hide his injuries- but he still couldn’t stop the tears from flowing down his cheeks, his senses were still going haywire, and his brain was still screaming about being touched, his shoulder felt like it was on fire, flash’s handprint burning into his skin. And he can’t think because there were hands on his skin and the touch was bad and he wants to rip off all of his skin, piece by piece. And he wants to claw out his ears because god everything is so loud and he squeezed his eyes shut ages ago because the room was dark but it was so bright. And everything hurt and he couldn’t breathe. And his ribs burned and everything hurt and he didn’t want to be here. He didn’t want to be anywhere. He didn’t want to feel anything because all of the feelings were bad and he didn’t want them. He didn’t ask for any of this. He didn’t want to be him. He didn’t want to be anyone. And his brain was screaming and his thoughts were too loud and the world was too much and he couldn’t handle any of it. And he was still sobbing and it hurt and everything was fucking awful.
He didn’t know how long he sat there with every part of his body screaming in pain, or in distress, or in whatever else. He managed to blink open his eyes, glad the room was still dark, and he managed to pull himself up, feeling around until he found an empty wall, crawling over to it, and leaning into the wall. When he’d sat there hugging his legs, trying to focus on his breathing for a few minutes, Friday’s voice cut through the silence, her volume greatly turned down, but still so loud. “Peter- it appears you are in distress, I think you should alert someone.” Peter let out a teary chuckle ‘in distress’ really? He hadn’t noticed. Peter shook his head in response to Friday- he didn't think he could talk even if he had wanted to. He was fine- well- he could handle himself, he didn’t need to worry anyone over it. If AI’s could sigh, he’s pretty sure she would have. She couldn’t, though, so she went quiet, and Peter was left alone with his own thoughts, which was never really a good thing.
A couple minutes later, Peter was sobbing again. Flash’s words had only just properly registered- and with them came a million other words from throughout his entire life, and soon enough, everything was too much again. And he couldn’t breathe through his tears, and his eyes hurt, and he’d never felt so inferior in his entire life. Maybe they were right- maybe he’d never be a real boy. And his ribs still hurt- and he wanted to rip them out piece by piece. Claw out his scars until his chest and his hands were covered in blood. He’d squeezed his eyes shut again but the tears kept flowing and it hurt. And he couldn’t think and all of his remaining brain power was used to stop himself from clawing at his skin in any places that it had decided it couldn’t handle any touch. And his clothes felt like they were on fire and he was burning and dying and he doesn’t think he’ll survive it this time and nothing makes sense and there is too much energy in his body and he just wants to collapse and he wants nothing more than just to crumble and join the dust on the floor. He wants to shatter like glass and explode and take everyone else with him and he just wants to be hugged and any touch would ignite him. And he is a flammable gas and the air is a lit match. And he’s breathing too much and too little all at the same time. And he wants to let his soul float out of his body and soar across the skies. And he wants to be okay.
He wants to be okay
He wants to be okay
And somehow, repeating it to himself often enough actually makes it true this time, and his brain goes quiet, and his breathing returns to normal, and the muscles that he’d had clenched finally relax. And the world is a normal amount again, and he can open his eyes.
He leans his head back against the wall, he doesn’t think the peace will last, but he’s going to profit from it as much as he can. He’s pretty sure he could just- get up now. Leave the storage closet, go home. But- he doesn’t think he wants to. This isn’t the worst place he could have died. He’s in the building that he loves- even if he’s in a storage closet. Getting up just seems like so much effort. He just wants to stay here. He’d just bother everyone if he did leave. He doubts anyone would even really notice he was gone. He’ll just sit there. And maybe someone would come looking for him, wouldn’t that be nice? He doubts anyone would, though. He’d forgotten that he’d told Friday to not let anyone find him. She doesn’t remind him.
An alarm sounds out from a nearby lab- and suddenly everything is too much again. And Peter gets stuck in his head again. Squeezing his eyes shut like his life depended on it, covering his ears with his hands, unable to stop his nails from clawing at the skin on his skull. And he can feel the blood pouring down the side of his head and it makes everything worse but he can’t stop himself and his nails are still digging into his skull and every part of his body is screaming in pain and his thoughts are rushing by faster than he can handle and everything is too much and he thinks he’s sobbing again but he can’t tell because he can’t hear anything but he can hear everything and he can’t feel but he feels too much and his soul is being split apart and he’s stuck in the middle and he doesn’t know how to be anymore. His brain is exploding and his body is falling apart and he’s stuck watching from the stands. And his thoughts are still racing and his ears are still ringing but he can’t feel his ribs and his skin is no longer screaming and he doesn’t feel his breath getting stuck in his throat anymore. And he sees himself but he’s not there and his breathing calms down and his hands drop back to his sides and his head leans back into the wall and blood still runs down the sides of his head but he’s not there. And he can’t feel anything and he looks calm but his brain still feels like it’s exploding and his ears are still ringing and he thinks his eyes are still closed. And he doesn’t know what’s going on and he’s terrified and it’s not helping and is this what dying feels like? But his thoughts are still running and he doesn’t think dead people think and his body is still sitting up and his hands are still clenched and he doesn’t think dead people can do that either. And he keeps watching himself and he tries to move but he’s no longer in control and then everything is back to darkness and his thoughts are everywhere and it’s all too much.
Ned notices that Peter’s missing about halfway through their time in the intern labs, when the intern that had been presenting told them they could walk around the lab on their own for a bit, and he turned to Peter, only to find he wasn’t there. He looked around the room, hoping to find Peter in a corner somewhere, but he didn’t. He didn’t think much of it at first- maybe he just went to the bathroom. When he still didn’t come back after about twenty minutes he started to get slightly more worried. Well- Peter worked here, right? Maybe there was some sort of emergency that they needed him for? Or maybe he’d just decided that the tour wasn’t really worth his time. He wouldn’t just leave without telling him, though. He started to notice Flash glancing expectantly at the door a couple times, slightly smiling to himself when he didn’t see anything there. Surely that was nothing, right? Nobody else seemed to have noticed.
When the tour guide announced the end of their time in the intern labs, and the end of their tour, Ned still hadn’t seen a glimpse of Peter. He hung at the back of the group with MJ, who turned to him as they were walking to the elevator. “Have you seen Peter? I haven’t seen him at all on this floor, did he tell you anything?” Ned shook his head, “No- but, I mean- he works here, right? Maybe he had something to do? Besides, Peter’s not exactly known for staying with his group on tours.” MJ chuckled slightly at that, but there was still a small frown on her face, her eyes glancing over to Flash every once in a while.
In the lobby, the tour guide was saying her goodbyes as his teacher was doing a headcount. He frowned after counting, counting again at least twice. Ned realised that his teacher finally noticed that Peter was missing. Took him long enough. After counting several more times, and seemingly coming out with the same result each time, he slightly raised his hand to get the tour guide’s attention. “Miss- my apologies, but it seems like we’re down a student-” the class seemed to be surprised at that- none of them having noticed Peter leaving, nor their teacher counting more than once. The only people that didn’t seem surprised were Ned, MJ, and Flash. MJ frowned when she noticed the lack of surprise on Flash’s face.
The tour guide stopped talking- surprised to be interrupted. “Huh- that usually doesn’t happen, an alarm would go off if any guests left their group leader. Luckily, we have Friday, I’m sure she’ll be able to find them in a heartbeat.” She smiled, hoping to calm down the anxious students a little, “Friday? Could you tell me where the missing student is?” It took a few seconds for Friday to reply, “I’m sorry, Sarah. That information is classified.” Sarah frowned, the location of a student should not be classified information. Maybe she’d misinterpreted her? She turned to the teacher, “Could you tell me the student’s name? I think Friday got a bit confused.” The teacher nodded in response, “Yeah- I’ll do a roll call,” he turned to his students, “Alright- say here if you’re here.” He started listing off names, getting a consistent reply of ‘here’ until he got to Peter Parker, at which the group stayed entirely silent. She nodded, that made more sense- of course no alarms went off, the kid works here. “Alright, Friday? Could you tell me the location of Peter Parker?” In the few seconds it took for Friday to reply, she noticed two students near the back of the group sharing worried glances with each other, she recognised them as the kids Peter had been hanging out with- she supposed they must be his friends. “I’m sorry, Sarah. It appears that information is classified.” Friday’s response rang out over the tour group, the teacher starting to look increasingly worried, whispering something about ‘damn Peter’ and how he ‘always does this’ to himself.
Sarah’s frown deepened, she’d never heard of an intern’s location being classified. Where the hell had this kid ended up? For a second she thinks he might have left the tower- but then Friday would have just told her that. She decided that Friday might just be bugged- She vaguely remembers an email about updates, and how if they found any bugs, they should inform Tony Stark. She was somewhat terrified of that idea- she’d never actually talked with him before- and he did, y’know, own the company she works at, as well as being an international celebrity and superhero.
She takes a deep breath, “Alright Friday, can you call Tony Stark? I think you have a bug.” Her heart started beating faster in her chest, “Calling Tony Stark.” it was silent for a couple of seconds, before a voice rang out from the speaker, “What seems to be the issue?” she huffs a little, right to the point, huh? “Hello Mr. Stark- I tried to ask Friday for the location of a student that’s gotten lost from their tour group, and she keeps saying it’s classified.”
Tony frowned, a missing student? That was never good- he hadn’t even known there’d be a tour group today, and Friday had never had any issues with classified information before, he sighed. Properly fixing this was going to suck. “Alright- I’ll look into it.” He heard the person on the other line stutter for a second, before replying, “Sir- there is a student missing, currently. I- I’d consider this a pretty urgent matter? Not to be rude- but I think we- and especially his teacher- will need more than just a ‘I’ll look into it’. We don’t know if he’s safe.” Tony sighs, he’d forgotten about that, “Yeah- it’s a clearance issue, right? Give me a second.” Tony redirects his attention to Friday, ‘Fri? Where’s this missing student?” Friday takes a few seconds to respond, “I’m sorry, boss. That information is classified.” Tony frowned, “Fri- I made you. What the hell do you mean ‘that’s classified?” He tried his best to not let his frustration show in his voice- not wanting to worry the poor tour guide and teacher all too much. “I mean that it’s classified.” Friday responds. Tony groaned, sometimes he really hated how much snark he’d programmed into her. He turned his attention back to the tour guide- digging in his mind for a second for what Friday had said her name was “Alright- Sarah, was it? I’ll look into Friday’s code- give me ten minutes, I’m sure you can keep the tour group entertained- make them some coffee, or something.” He asked Friday to mute the audio before he could hear a response, opening the holograms that let him look through Friday’s code, “Let’s see what we’ve got here.”
Over the ten minutes he’d given himself to find, and fix, the issue, which he’d been sure he could do- he got increasingly frustrated. Her code seemed perfectly fine- there was nothing there that would lead to her giving the wrong levels of clearance to any information. He’d even looked through her code on people’s location data, not seeing anything wrong there either. When Friday informed him that 10 minutes had passed, he groaned in frustration, letting his head drop onto the desk. He decided to give asking Friday one more attempt, “Fri, Why can’t you tell me this kid’s location?” She replied with the now so familiar “I'm sorry, boss. That’s classified.” He groaned. “Alright- patch me through to the tour guide again, please.”
“So. There appears to be nothing wrong with Friday’s code. We’ll probably just have to do this the old fashioned way. I’ll send security to look through every corner of this tower, they’ll probably find them by tonight.” Sarah nodded slightly in response, “Okay, what do we do with the tour group, though?” Tony thought for a second, before replying, “We can probably just send them home, we don’t need to keep the whole group here just to find the kid. What school are they from? I’ll call them once we find them, they can send a parent here to pick them up.” Sarah hummed in response, “I’ll ask the teacher, give me a second.” he heard a muffled conversation for a second, before hearing Sarah’s voice again, “Midtown school of science, the teacher’s agreed to take the kids back to school, he did add that he would not hesitate to sue if you don’t find the kid.” Tony recognised that name from somewhere- it took him a second to place it, and when he did, a spike of worry stabbed into his chest. He tried his best not to let his emotion show as he asked, “What’s the kid’s name? It could help the investigation.”
“Peter parker-” she kept talking, but Tony couldn’t hear her- he couldn’t hear anything over the ringing in his ears. Peter. Shit- Peter was fucking missing? Wait- how did he not even know Peter was in the tower? Where the hell was his kid? He tried his best to stay calm- failing miserably, resorting to just trying to seem calm. “Alright- I’ll find him. You can send the tour home.” he disconnected the call. He grabbed his phone, quickly sending off messages to Happy, the avengers that were currently in the tower, and a few of his best doctors- he didn’t know if Peter was okay- or alive, even, but he tried not to think about that, either way, he wanted to make sure he had doctors on standby. He’d told Happy to get the security team to look through every single corner or small crevice of the tower.
He then turns off his phone, telling Friday to not let anyone other than Happy disturb him, and starts digging through her code again. He starts in the same places where he did last time, digging through them in even more detail, inspecting every line of code down to the letter. He didn’t find anything, though. Happy had sent him a couple updates by then- still not having found anything. He started going through other areas of her code- anything that could be even slightly related. He still didn’t find anything.
He’d never gone through Friday’s storage on specific people before- he wanted to respect their privacy. The idea started seeming more and more tempting as time passed. He’d already spent two hours looking through her code- Peter had been missing for well over three, and he still hadn’t found anything, neither had Happy. He’d tried asking Friday a million more times- small variations on the questions, hoping to find some sort of loophole, some confirmation that Peter was alive, at least. He’d gotten nothing. As much as he hated to- he had to give Peter credit for how solid this was, and maybe himself- for apparently coding a system that was so hard to break.
After three hours of searching he finally gave in, opening Peter’s file, Friday had blocked out most of the information- his location was covered with a large [CLASSIFIED] sign, as were his vitals- and a surprising amount of other stuff. He looked over the information- trying to not look at anything unrelated, he still felt like he was invading his privacy. He probably was- but it was for Peter’s own good. Eventually, he noticed the small bit of text underneath his name, where his clearance level was. Huh, that’s weird- Peter had the same level of clearance as Tony did. He’s pretty sure he hadn’t done that- then an idea struck him. He went to look at his own file, reading the small bit of text underneath his own name. There it is. He sighed to himself- somehow he’d managed to give Peter a higher clearance than himself. Well- at least he’d found the problem.
He felt a certain amount of calm return to him- knowing what the problem was meant he could fix it. He was good at fixing things. He could still fix this. Peter would be okay. He started working on changing his clearance- which was harder than he’d expected, having the lower clearance of the two. He was tempted to go into the deepest parts of Friday’s code to manually change it there, but that felt a little bit too much like digging into someone’s brain- he’d rather not. It took him around half an hour to finally fix it- too long, really. Peter could have died in that time.
“Fri- is Peter alive?”
“Yes, boss.”
Tony took a breath of relief, letting himself collapse onto his desk. He took a second to message Happy and Pepper- who had been worried about both him and Peter, just a simple “he’s alive.” He didn’t need to say anything more.
After laying there for a few minutes, he gets up. Time to get his kid. “Fri, tell me where Peter is.” “Of course, Boss.” He didn’t think to ask anything else, in too much of a hurry to find Peter. He followed the directions Friday gave him- slightly confused on why he’d ended up on an intern floor- but well, he’d been on a tour. Tony was overall still pretty confused at what was going on- but he’d decided on just asking Peter once he’d found him.
Tony rushed out of the elevator, speeding down the hallway, ignoring the confused shouts from people behind him, he turned into the hallway that Friday had said Peter would be in and found- nothing. The hallway was empty. Peter was nowhere to be found. He walked further into the hallway, ignoring the door to the storage closet, to look around the corner. Still nothing. “Fri? Where is he.” “He’s still in the storage closet, boss. He has not left it in five hours.” What?! Peter’s been stuck in a storage closet this whole time? Fucking hell- Poor kid. He rushes back over to the storage closet, trying to open the door, only to find that it’s locked.
“Pete? It’s me- Tony- could you open the door, please?” No response. “Kid- at least let me know you’re okay. I will have to break down the door otherwise.” Still no response. Tony couldn’t help his thoughts from running wild- What if Peter was dead- or dying- and he was just standing here talking to a wall. He didn’t want to just break into the room and risk scaring him more- but he didn’t want to wait too long and have Peter die because he was standing here thinking for too long.
He decides to break into the room. He’s already looked at the lock- he won’t need to break down the door, it’s pretty flimsy, he can easily take it apart. It only takes him about thirty seconds before the lock falls apart. The door opens to an average storage closet- three of the walls covered in shelves.
Tony takes a quick look around the room- until he sees Peter’s small form leaning on the wall next to the door, dried blood on his head, and in lines down the side, staining his clothes. “Oh poor kid” he mumbles to himself, crouching down so he’s in Peter’s line of sight. “Hey, kid. One hell of a day, huh?” Peter doesn’t respond. His eyes keep staring into the distance, not seeing anything.
Tony frowns slightly, he knows Peter has autism- he’s seen him have meltdowns before, but he’d never seen him like this. When he looks at him for a bit longer, he starts noticing smaller things. The small half moon shapes of blood on his hands, where his nails had pierced his skin. The tear tracks down his cheeks. The way his ribs seem to be slightly the wrong shape. Tony wants to pick him up- but usually, touching Peter after a meltdown is about the worst possible thing someone could do. “Fri- can you run a scan on him for me, please? And- you know what happened right? How long has he been like this?” How can I fix him, he wanted to add. He left the question unspoken in the air. Friday responds after a few seconds, “He had three meltdowns within the span of an hour. He dissociated after that. He hasn’t moved in four hours.” Tony sighs, he should’ve expected something like that. Somewhere in the back of his mind, a voice screams, That’s not normal- How did that happen? Who did this to him? He ignores the voice, he has more important things to worry about.
“I’ve finished the scans-” Tony cut her off before she could tell him what she found- he didn’t want to know, “Send them to Dr. Cho, please.” He thinks for a second, before following up with “Fri- do you think it’d be alright to touch him?” He knows he has no other choice- but he wants to at least have asked. “Yes, boss, I feel that would be the best approach.” Tony nodded- alright. He turned his attention back to Peter, he still hadn’t moved. “Alright kid- I’m gonna pick you up now.” He carefully picked him up, one arm under his shoulder, one under his knees. He carefully carried him to the elevator- not wanting to jostle him too much, and wake him up out of whatever daze he was in. He didn’t know how he’d react to touch- and he knew he couldn’t put him down.
Luckily for him, Peter didn’t move. He carried him to the medbay, carefully laying him down on the bed, glad to be able to give responsibility over to someone else- he had no idea what he was doing. He sat down on the chair next to the bed, not wanting to leave.
Peter’s brain was suspiciously quiet. As he started waking up more- everything that had happened came back to him. He expected the pain in his ribs to come back too- but it never did. After a while, he realised he was laying down- and he’s pretty sure he was laying on a bed. He tries to blink open his eyes- wincing slightly at how bright the room was. A voice spoke up next to him. He winced more- he couldn’t hear what the voice was saying- all he knew is that it was too loud. Before his brain can start spiralling- the lights dim, and the voice stops- starting again, but in a whisper.
“Hey kid, you alright?” Peter recognises the voice from somewhere- he doesn’t know where, his brain still feels far away. He doesn’t trust himself to speak- nor does he really want to, so he just gives a thumbs up. He hears a very quiet chuckle “I’m glad, kid. You managed to break three of your ribs.” Peter huffs slightly, he should’ve expected that. He slowly blinks his eyes open, turning his head in the direction of the mysterious voice. He blinks about five more times before his vision decides to focus enough to let him recognize the figure.
Tony. Of course it was. He smiled slightly, waving at him. Tony chuckled slightly at that, “Welcome back to the land of the living.” Peter pushes himself to sit back up, only wincing slightly at a small pain in his ribs. Tony smiles slightly, before his face turns more serious. “So, what was that all about?” Peter winces slightly- he’s not even entirely sure what Tony’s referring to. Flash? The meltdowns? Hiding his location? Hiding injuries? He’d been lying to Tony a lot lately- he didn’t want to start talking about something only for it to be something he didn’t know yet.
Tony sighs at his silence, leaning forward slightly. “I watched the security footage. All of it, from the whole trip. Why didn’t you tell me you were being bullied? Why didn’t you get Friday to call me?” Peter looked at his hands, not wanting to have to look at Tony, letting one of his hands absentmindedly hit his knee, while the other started picking at some of the scabs he had on his hands. “Kid- stop that.” Tony handed him a fidget toy, letting Peter focus his hands on that, instead.
“Do you not trust me?” Peter looks up in surprise at the question, He has no idea where Tony’s coming from. Tony sighs, “Kid, you didn’t tell me you were being bullied. You didn’t want to call me when you had a meltdown, there’s got to be something there.” Peter opened his mouth in an attempt to answer- He did trust Tony, he just didn’t want to bother him. He groaned in frustration when no words would leave his mouth. Tony nodded in understanding, walking over to a desk in the corner of the room, handing him a pen and paper.
Peter started writing down his thoughts, dropping the pen a couple times when it felt wrong in his hands. After a few minutes, he handed Tony a note.
I do trust you, I just didn’t want to bother you. I’m sure you have more important things to worry about than some kid having a meltdown. And I can handle Flash, I don’t want him to bully someone else.
Tony sighs slightly when he finishes reading the note. “Kid, you can always bother me. I don’t care if you just stubbed your toe. If you need someone, I want to be there for you. I really don’t have that many commitments, I let Pepper handle most of those.” He winks at the last sentence, causing Peter to chuckle slightly.
After a few seconds of comfortable silence, Tony gestures to the TV, “So, Star Wars?” Peter nodded, and Tony reached for the remote, making sure to turn the volume down a bit before starting the movie.