Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Peter, right?”

He jolted, and his phone met the ground with a clack, his messages with Ned staring brightly up at him and what was probably a genuine, bonafide SI intern working in their R&D department, more specifically, their medical subunit. Emma, if he remembered correctly. They both bent down, heads clashing with a dull thump. Emma went down with a yelp, hissing in pain as she cradled her hand where she had fallen on the shiny floor of the hallway. Huh, she was wearing different glasses in her employee ID photo, and she had a new haircut too. 

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry. Are you okay?” sprang out of Peter’s mouth before he even thought about it. “I’m so sorry. Here, let me–” he reached out his hand and clasped it in hers to pull her up. “Is your hand okay? I have a mini first aid kit in my backpack, and I think it has a wrist brace if you need it.”

She looked up at him, dazed.

“Oh yeah, I’m Peter. Uh, Peter Parker, I mean. You’re Emma, right? Mr. Stark said you were part of the group that was going to review my presentation. Are you sure your head’s okay? Do you guys have, like, a nurse area around here or something?” Peter asked frantically.

She blinked and then huffed out a laugh, “No, but I think I’m good. My wrist feels okay now.”

“That’s great! But, seriously, let me know if it starts hurting again. I really wasn’t kidding about that first aid kit. Is that the conference room back there?” he asked, pointing to an open door Emma must have come out of. That was it, the room where it all would be decided. Emma and a small group of biomedical engineers and doctors were the ones that were going to be reviewing his prototype. He could picture it now Emma, SI medical intern, Dr. Crow (blonde, 46, leader of the biomedical engineer cohort of SI) Dr. Okoro (orthopedic surgeon of 18 years, and seasoned medical reviewer), Dr. Martinez (39, recently divorced, assistant to Dr. Crow), and Dr. Hou (immigrated from China when 12, now 56 and a renowned pediatric surgeon) all sitting in a line and judging him and his bandages. Mr. Stark had been pulled away for a few minutes, and Peter had just gotten a little curious about the reviewers. He may have hacked into the personnel files to check who was who, but really that was it. Well, the personnel files, and google, and LinkedIn, and their Facebooks, but it wasn’t overkill. It wasn’t. Plus, he now knew that Dr. Hou had a lovely baby granddaughter who looked adorable eating pears.

 “Is everybody in there already? I thought I got here early enough that it wouldn’t be awkward when I set up, but I guess–”

“Um, your phone.”

Peter felt his face get hot, and he knew his cheeks were turning a bright red. “Oh! Yeah…” he looked down. The culprit of his embarrassment was face up on the ground, its screen dark and adorned with a brand new crack. “I’ll just…get that real quick.” Cheeks still flushed, he swiped his phone from the ground. 

“You ready?”

“As I’ll ever be,” he muttered, trying to keep his school lunch from reemerging.

“They’re not as scary as they seem, promise,” she smiled.

Entering the room, he saw everybody, and although their combined genius was coming at him from all angles like a sledgehammer, they also seemed…weirdly human. Dr. Crow and Dr. Martinez were chatting, and Dr. Hou was showing something on her phone to Dr. Okoro.

It all stopped when Peter and Emma walked into the room. Any humanity vanished, and all that was left were the hardened faces of these professionals. The gravity seemed to push down on Peter, making it difficult to breathe. His prepped papers, clutched between his sweaty hands, felt like they were weighing him down. There were lives at stake, and, hopefully, this would be enough to convince them that he could help save those lives. Only this time, he was just Peter Parker, not friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. With a deep breath, he began.

At the end of his speech, they looked appeased, or so he hoped. He opened his mouth to thank them when Dr. Crow, eyebrows furrowed, asked, “Why this bandage? You’ve explained the methodology and procedure, but why this bandage? What makes it special?”

“Well, the materials are easy to find and cheap to manufacture. Every compound can be found within a high school chemistry lab. Additionally, there is also the advantage of this bandage being multipurpose, in that it can cut down on a lot of other production costs of other products like wound glue, or dissolvable stitches. Its composition means that you can make it in one of two forms: a versatile bandage form that’s lightly sticky and moves with the person’s body, and a thread-like form that can be used for sutures. Both forms are antiseptics and high in vitamin K, which, as you know, aid in blood clotting,” he nervously shuffled his papers in his hands, the ones that he had written on some of the only blank paper in Mr. Stark’s lab. His fingers ran over the embossed letterhead specific to Tony Stark himself. On it were the notes written by Mr. Stark, little words in the margin written with a ballpoint pen. There were suggestions on word placement and critiques on small things that would have been fine in a high school classroom. Mr. Stark had grabbed his papers with an academic excitement Peter had only witnessed when he was deep into explaining a topic to Peter. After all, Mr. Stark had said, even Iron Man had had to present his theses for review. It was nice to know Mr. Stark had been exactly where Peter was and took time out of his day to review Peter’s notes. It was a small comfort, but a comfort nonetheless, and he felt his heart begin to slow. “The bandages are similar to webbing, in that it has very small holes that allow air to reach the injured area, but also allows long term placement due to its ability to keep the injured area clear of most debris. This medical equipment can thus maintain a clean and breathable environment for the injured area. Just as there are also different synthetic dissolvable sutures that dissolve at different times, this formula is also able to conform to different time constraints with only a few tweaks. Overall, this product cuts medical waste and provides a cost effective method of wound care in addition to being safe for and beneficial to an injury.”

Dr. Crow nodded, “Thank you, Peter. We’ll discuss our decision and let you know in the coming weeks.”

By the time he had gotten to school the next day, he was still exhausted. The presentation had taken more out of him than he thought. Well, that and patrol from 12-3 may have had something to do with it. Regardless, he spent most of the day in a daze until the end of Mr. Harrington’s class.

“Okay class, settle down. I have a very important announcement today…We’re going on a field trip! In two weeks we’ll be going on a tour of the one and only Stark Tower! I’m going to hand out these permission slips, and I need your guardian to sign off on it a week before the field trip, so next Friday. Remember, this is an exclusive field trip, so no misbehaving. I’ll be giving you multiple forms to fill out, okay? SI needs NDAs and what not. They’ll all be due next Friday, so don’t worry about different deadlines. We’re splitting the whole grade up into different groups, and this is one group, so don’t listen to anyone else when they say their papers are due Monday or Tuesday, yours are due Friday. Friday, got it, guys?” Mr. Harrington was still shouting the word Friday as the class erupted into excited chatter 

“Stark Tower!” Ned exclaimed, shaking Peter by the arm, “This is going to be amazing!”

Peter internally groaned. He didn’t have a good track record with field trips. In fact, in the realm of bad field trips, he was something of a connoisseur with his Parker Luck. Even barring the horrific field trip to Oscorp, they never seemed to end up well. There was that time he got left behind at the museum in fifth grade, the time he had to get fished out of the tank at the aquarium in third grade, the list goes on. Needless to say, he wasn’t very excited. Besides, he had a bad feeling about this one. 

His bad feeling turned into anxiety when he heard a “Peter, can you stay after class for a moment?” coming from Mr. Harrington as he packed his backpack. 

A feeling of dread rose through Peter like a tidal wave as he walked to Mr. Harrington’s desk while the rest of the class filtered out.

“Peter, I just wanted to talk to you about the field trip. I’ve been made aware of some…rumors that you are currently interning with Dr. Tony Stark, is this correct?”

“Yes, sir, I am.”

He sighed, hand reaching up to massage his temples. “I’m afraid that this kind of behavior will not be permissible on the field trip. Your attendance in this class already leaves something to be desired, and I don’t want any extra drama to happen because of your attendance on this field trip. 

“But it won’t, sir. I swear I’m not lying.

“Peter! I’m not going to listen to lies. You will behave yourself on this field trip and that’s it.” He took a deep breath and sighed. “I just want you to know that there are resources that can help you. I’ve already talked to the counseling center, and they would be happy to have weekly meetings with you regarding this. I don’t want you to think you’re alone. I know losing your parents is hard, and after what happened with your uncle…I just want you to know that you have a support system here. You don’t have to lie, Peter.

“I want you to be able to come on this field trip, Peter, I really do, but I also need to know that you’re taking this seriously. Outside of high school, lying about things like this can lead to some serious consequences. So, Peter, I’ll ask you this again, are you currently interning with Dr. Tony Stark?”

“But, sir, I’m not lying. Nothing I say or do will change the fact that I am an SI intern.”

“And it seems like nothing I say or do will change your poor choices. I’ll have Mrs. Hernandez from the counselling office set up a meeting with you during your free period next week, Mr. Parker.

“But–”

“I’m tired of hearing ‘buts,’ Mr. Parker! That is my decision, and it is final. You should be grateful you can still attend the field trip. Now, I believe it’s your lunch period.”

Peter read the dismissal for what it was and left the classroom. As he closed the door behind him, his spider sense sprang up, and he heard a laugh to his side. 

“Rough conversation with Mr. Harrington, Parker?” Flash sneered.

One of Flash’s cronies pushed Peter, and his phone flew out of his hand, landing somewhere to the right of him. Flash yanked his backpack off his back, and its broken zipper–he had been meaning to tell May about it, but if she found out he needed to replace another backpack she would not be happy–made all of his papers flutter to the ground. 

Flash picked one up and laughed, “‘From the desk of Tony Stark’? Are you fucking kidding me? Did you print this off online?” 

Peter went cold. He made reinvigorated attempts to rip the papers from Flash’s hands.

“Puny Peter Parker thinks he could actually get into SI with these?” He started studying Peter’s speech notes more closely, “What is this shit? Webbing bandages? Pathetic,” He scoffed, “This is just embarrassing at this point. Why can’t you just give up the lie? What, mommy and daddy die so now you have to compensate with this ? Should’ve picked something more believable,” With a sharp yank, he pulled his arm away from where Peter was trying to grasp at the papers, and in one fluid movement ripped them in half. As if on cue, Flash’s cronies took Peter by the arms and slammed him against the lockers as Flash ripped the paper into shreds and ground them beneath his heel, leaving ugly shoe prints behind. All of Mr. Stark’s suggestions and notes were ruined under Flash’s shiny new shoes. 

Then Flash crouched down in front of him where his friends had dropped him down, holding Peter’s head up by his hair, Flash said, a smile in his voice, “Peter, you’re a loser and a liar, and don’t you ever forget it.” There was a deafening clang as Flash slammed his head into the lockers and the world went dark. 

When Peter awoke, it was to bruised ribs and an aching head. They must have kicked him in the stomach after he went out. With one hand to the growing welt on his head, he used his other to grope around for his phone. The crack it had gotten from the presentation day was joined by a multitude of others, spanning across the length of the phone like spider webs. Great. It would be nice explaining this to Aunt May. Maybe he could say he’s on a technology cleanse and hide the phone beneath his bed? He hissed as another round of pain pounded on his skull. He looked at the hand that touched his head and found it sticky with blood. He wiped it on his pants, crawled forward, and lightly touched his papers, his head still aching. The papers held all of the hours he had spent writing and revising, all of the time he had spent in Tony’s lab making notes and diagrams, tweaking his formula and testing it. They held Mr. Stark’s ramblings in the margins and little smiley faces where Peter had written something he liked. All of it culminated into this , and all that was left were paper shreds and shoe prints.

“Peter!” Ned shouted, “You weren’t at lunch so I went looking for you. Are you okay? What happened?”

“Flash and company happened,” He groaned, “Don’t worry about it though, I’m fine.”

“Ugh, they’re horrible! We should go to the principal’s office. There has to be cameras in this place, right?”

“No, no–it’s not worth it. Nothing really happened anyway,” He said, looking down at his speech notes. He bit his lip, trying to hold back tears. All of his work for nothing. All of his work destroyed and Flash probably walked away, laughing just like he always did.

“It doesn’t look like nothing happened,” Ned frowned.

“Ned, just drop it? Please? I don’t want to make a mess of things.” 

Ned sighed but nodded, “Alright.”

Chapter Text

Peter’s head was still smarting as he went to the tower the next day. Huh, Flash must have banged his head up against that locker pretty hard if he could still feel it days later even with his accelerated healing. He didn’t want to worry Mr. Stark, but it was a Wednesday, and Wednesdays were always lab days. It would be weird if he didn’t show up. Whatever. The bruises were underneath his shirt and the bump on his head was hidden by hair. That would have to be fine, he thought as he entered the tower’s grand doors, all windows that stretch to the ceiling and dazzling lights when he tilted his head up. He didn’t think he would ever get used to the pure wonder that always struck him when he entered. 

As he walked in, he said his greetings to Nick, the security man, who quickly waved him through security. Peter walked through with his backpack on. His first time he’d tried taking it off, but FRIDAY’s voice had boomed through the speaker to tell him that due to ‘sensitive material,’ which Peter had taken to mean his spider suit, Peter was to keep his backpack with him at all times when going through the lower levels of the tower. Peter left, wishing Nick luck on his cat’s vet appointment. 

"Welcome back, Peter.” FRIDAY said as he stepped onto the elevator, “Boss’s floor?”

“Yes, please. Thank you, FRIDAY.” 

“Of course.”

He stepped out, and was met with the sound of familiar music. He followed the tunes, and when he entered Mr. Stark’s lab, the music abruptly stopped.

Mr. Stark stopped, and turned to look at Peter, his eyes widening in surprise, “You’re early. Are you early? What time is it?” he glanced down at his watch. “Oh. You’re not early.”

“I think it’s time for a break, Mr. Stark.”

“Let’s leave that up to fate, shall we? You just got here. How can I take a break when my favorite lab assistant just got here?”

“I’m your only lab assistant.”

“Oh, whatever. Let’s just get to work.”

Peter hissed, snatching his hand away from his prototype and its wobbling, jagged metal pieces that Peter had rescued from the scrap bucket. He looked down, where blood was slowly creeping down his hand from his thumb.

“Whoa, are you okay? What’s on your mind, kid?” Mr. Stark asked, looking over from where he was tinkering underneath the hood of a car.
“It’s nothing, Mr. Stark.”

“Sure doesn’t seem like nothing. I’ve never seen you this clumsy in your life. Those spider reflexes are really worth somethin’, eh?”

“I’m fine, Mr. Stark. It’s just–I mean–ugh this isn’t working,” he shook his head, took a deep breath in, and collected his thoughts, “Do you ever just feel like…” you’re not enough. That nothing you ever do will be enough. No. Surely Mr. Stark couldn’t have ever felt that way. “Nevermind.”

“Spit it out, kid. Uh, I mean, I’m here if you ever want to talk. This is a safe space and whatever,” he waved his hand around haphazardly, “But really, we can talk about whatever you want to talk about, and if this ‘thing’ you don’t want to talk about is an issue, we can solve it. Together. You’re never alone in this lab, bud, and I don’t want you to feel like you are.” 

“You just wouldn’t get it.”

“Oh, please. You’re talking to the greatest mind of this generation, what could I possibly not get?”

Peter withstood the urge to roll his eyes but shouldered on anyway, “It’s just that what if the bandage review doesn’t get approved?” He clenched his hand into a fist and looked down, unable to meet Mr. Stark’s eyes, “What if I don’t get into a good college? What if I’m stuck where I am right now, and I can’t do anything to help anyone?...What if Peter Parker just isn’t enough? What if the only part that’s worth anything is Spider-Man? And–and what if there’s nothing I can do about it?”

“You can always do something about it, Pete. You already are doing something about it. How many other kids your age can say they know how the arc reactor works? Or have presented an invention to a board of scientists? What is this really about? Did something happen at school?”

“Nothing happened. I was just thinking,” He shrugged. 

Mr. Stark looked at him with calculating eyes, and it made Peter remember just what kind of life Mr. Stark had lived, filled with betrayal and messages hidden and revealed. Mr. Stark took Peter’s fraying backpack and started rifling through it before pulling out Peter’s trusty first aid kit. Then, with gentle hands, he took an alcohol wipe and tentatively dabbed at Peter’s cut. He used one of the Avengers band aids from the kit and placed it where the blood had started welling up again. 

“Listen, Pete, it took me a long time to learn that how people react to you is a reflection of them and not you. Stay true to your decisions and acknowledge that you can never be in control of how people behave, but also know you’re also not responsible for or beholden to their reactions to you. When people thank you, that’s a reflection of them, just the same as when they shake their fists at you, even when you acted the same way in both situations, and even when you make mistakes,” he put a hand to Peter’s shoulder and held it there for a moment, the same way May did before she pulled him in for a hug. “Even without the powers, even without me, Peter Parker is someone you deserve to be proud of. Just being yourself is enough. Every human being is deserving of respect, Pete. Respect yourself and take pride in what you’re doing, whether it’s small or not. Any progress is still progress. I don’t want you to forget that.”

“Thanks, Mr. Stark.”

“Call me Tony, kid. I think you’ve earned it.”

“No siree, Mr. Stark,” he said with a quick nod, and suddenly his vision flashed as pain erupted behind his eyes.

“Hey there, take it easy,” said Mr. Stark as he eased Peter into a chair. “Is it time for me to play nurse again?”

“Ah!” Peter winced and sucked in a quick inhale. “I’m okay, I’m okay, I just need a minute,” he said, but he wasn’t sure if it was to reassure Mr. Stark or himself. 

“What happened? Are you okay?”

“I just fell a couple days ago, and my head’s still acting up.”
Mr. Stark raised an eyebrow. “Must’ve been a really hard fall if it’s still hurting, kiddo, wanna tell me what really happened?”

“I got into an…altercation with another student a couple days ago. I’m sure it’ll heal up quick. It just needs time.”

“Pete–”

“It’s just stupid high school drama.”

“Hey, just because you’re in high school doesn’t make the drama any less real.”

“Doesn’t make it any less stupid either,” Peter muttered. 

Mr. Stark stifled a smile and turned away like Peter couldn’t see it. 

“It’s just this will all pass, and everything will be fine after. I know that. It’s just–it’s just hard going through it, you know? Like, sure, do I wish people could be a little bit more mature? Of course. But I can also recognize that, for now at least, this is the reality, and there’s not much I can do to change it. If I stop doing what I’m doing, it’ll just happen to someone else, and then it would be my responsibility to stop it anyway. It’s just easier this way.”

“But don’t you have a responsibility to yourself? This kid sounds like he needs to be stopped. Prolonging this won’t do anyone any good, especially if he’s not learning his lesson.”

Peter opened his mouth for a rebuttal, but Stark raised both of his hands in mercy, “You don’t have to say anything, Pete, just think on it. Remember, if there’s not a solution, make one.”

If there’s not a solution, make one.

“Hey, Mr. Stark, I think I have a new project I wanna work on.”

“Hey, Ned, does this look dumb?”

“You look the way you always do, Peter.”

“Gee, thanks, but no, what I meant was, does this pen look stupid?”

“The one hanging out of your shirt pocket? I mean, no, but you might look a bit nerdier than usual but it’s fine.”

“Gee. Thanks. My confidence is really skyrocketing here, Ned.” 

“Why do you have it there anyway?”

“Let’s just say I’m running a little experiment this week.”

Peter ran to school, dodging passersby. If his math was correct, he should show up five whole minutes before the first bell rings. A new semester record! He pushed through the doors, flew through the main entrance atrium and made his way to the lockers. He had just opened his locker when he stopped. Something was watching him. He heard whispers surrounding him. It was like time halted still. Everyone at their lockers turned to face him, and looked at him with beady eyes and smiles on their faces. That wasn’t just his imagination, right? No, this was real. People giggled behind their hands and sneered. 

“Did you hear? Parker’s got an internship with Tony Stark himself!” one person said with a smirk.

“I heard that he goes to the Avenger’s compound on the weekends!” another said, laughing.

“Did you hear about how he threatened Flash with a knife?”

“I thought it was a gun.”

“No, no, he’s just crazy. Did you hear that Harrington got him kicked to the counseling office? Parker’s about to take a trip to the psych ward!”

Peter felt himself blush. Another set of whispers made its way to his ears and his heart stopped. His vision started blacking out around the edges and his breathing got shallow and quick. He made a move to run to the nearest bathroom when a warm hand landed on his shoulder. “Peter! Just the face I’ve been looking for! You have your free period first thing in the morning, yes?” Mrs. Hernandez looked down at him, cheery as ever.

Peter was shocked into stillness.

“Perfect! Let’s head to my office for a chat.”

She ushered him into a hard chair a few hallways down, inside a room lit with a lava lamp and fairy lights. There was a bright green beanbag in one corner and a desk in the opposite. Posters lined the walls full of cats hanging off tree branches and other various animals in precarious positions with hopeful messages. Peter was across from one that had a cat looking in a mirror with a lion looking back and the message mindset is key . She closed the door and sat behind the desk.

“So, Peter, I’ve heard that you’ve been having some issues in class, and I just wanted to check up on you and see that you were doing alright. Is that okay? Great. So, tell me what’s been happening. Anything you want to talk about?” She asked with her hands clasped in front of her. 

“Is this about the internship thing?”

“It can be about anything you want it to be about, Peter.”

“I swear it’s real. I mean, I can’t bring Mr. Stark here to tell you about it because he’s so busy, but my aunt May can vouch for me. I go there every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday after school.”

Mrs. Hernandez pursed her lips. “Yes, well, I have spoken to your aunt, and she seems very sure that you do go to this internship of yours.”

There was a pause that stretched, and time seemed to slow.

“Peter, I know with your family’s…situation, and you’re in a place where you have to make a lot of hard decisions. Your parents have passed, and recently your uncle has as well. You need to maintain high grades so that you can keep your scholarship for the next semester and manage your social life. I understand why it would seem like a good decision to make your life seem,” She took a breath in, “happier. You can be honest with me. I want you to know that I’m here to support you. We’re all looking out for you, Peter, but we can only look out for you the best we can if everyone is honest and open. Does that sound okay?”

What should he do? Lie? Would that make the situation just go away? Peter didn’t want to deal with this anymore. Mr. Harrington, Flash, and Mrs. Hernandez–they were all against him when all he wanted was to live a normal life in high school. He was always worried about not getting there in time, not saving someone, anyone, that was in need of help. Was it too much to ask to have an average high school experience? Maybe it was, Peter thought. Maybe this was Peter’s life, a lifetime of chaos. It might be easier to lie, but Peter wasn’t going to. He’d worked hard to get where he was. He’d suffered bullet wounds, stabs, punches, and kicks. He’d gone through being underestimated, dismissed, disrespected, and discarded. He’d gone through too much to discredit everything he’d worked for. 

Peter Parker is someone you deserve to feel proud of. 

“That doesn’t change anything about my internship, ma’am. I’m sorry.”

“No need to be sorry, Peter, I just need you to be honest with me. Listen, I know there’s no internship,” she said like they were both in on the same secret, “If there is, it’s not at Stark Tower. Look,” she turned her computer monitor around to face him, and the Stark Industries website glared at him, painting him in a cold white light, “It says right here that interns need to be in undergrad.”

“I know it sounds crazy, but it’s kind of a special case. You see, there’s this fund that Mr. Stark recently–”

“I think it’s best to set up a meeting with your aunt. Just the three of us.” Mrs. Hernandez picked up the phone at her desk and dragged a finger down a piece of paper before dialing a phone number. 

Peter could hear the phone ring in the silent room before his aunt’s automated voice mail spoke back. Mrs. Hernandez huffed a sigh and placed her finger below the a line that said EMERGENCY CONTACT in bold letters, with the name Anthony Stark complete with a personal cell phone line. Her eyes grew large, and she looked up at him with disappointment. 

“Peter…” she said with pitying eyes. “Please, I can only help if you tell me the truth.”

“I’m not lying.” he said, gritting his teeth and trying to brace for whatever she said next. His head started pounding.

“I’m sorry it had to come to this. Peter, you’re being suspended for the rest of the week, today and tomorrow. Go to the front office to update your emergency contact information before you leave.”

“What?” said Peter, broken, “Suspended?”

“You’ve already incurred multiple infractions that go against Midtown’s code of conduct, lying to teachers, getting into fights, threatening students, and lying on official school documents.”

“Mrs. Hernandez, please, just call him and he’ll pick up, I promise,” he begged. 

“I’ll let your teachers know about your suspension. Please leave, Peter.”

Peter picked up his bag and left her office, staggering to his locker. The second bell rang and students flooded out of their classrooms. He would need to get all of his books if he was going to be gone until next week, even if it was just a couple days. Hopefully Ned could send him his make-up work. He numbly made his way out of the building, ignoring the whispers. He couldn’t bring himself to go to the front office to update the emergency contact information. There was no one else he could put on the list. 

A sharp whistle resounded through the air, and Peter stopped and turned. 

“Hey, Parker. Heard about the suspension. What a pity,” Flash laughed. 

Peter grit his teeth but continued walking, making his way away from Midtown. 

“Hey! I thought I would let you know that all it took was a couple words here and there, and suddenly everybody got all up in arms about a student lying about his internship, especially when Mrs. Hernandez heard all about how you violently threatened me before lunch the other day. Poor little Peter just couldn’t stand me taking his spotlight,” he smirked.

It didn’t surprise him. Flash was the only one waiting outside the classroom while Peter had his conversation with Mr. Harrington. It would make sense that he had been behind the other rumors as well. 

Peter kept walking. 

“Listen to me when I’m talking to you, Parker.”

Peter stopped and turned. “No, you listen to me, Flash. I don’t know who you think you are, but I’m not going to spend my day trying to make some high schooler feel better about himself by playing along with his little games. I’m not lying, and that answer will never change. Don’t you have anything better to do? Go get a job or something.”

Flash’s face shifted from bewildered to murderous in an instant. He grabbed Peter by the shoulder and pushed him into an alley. He punched Peter in the face, and when Peter steadied himself on the brick wall to the side of him, he kicked his leg out from beneath him. Peter fell to the ground, wheezing when Flash kicked him in the stomach.

Peter didn’t care, he’d suffered so much more during patrol that this was nothing. He wasn’t scared anymore. At the end of the day, Flash was a high school bully, and that was all he’d ever amount to in Peter’s life. 

Flash crouched down and grabbed him by the shoulder, jabbing Peter in the chest with his index finger. “Listen, Parker, it doesn’t matter if I lied about you threatening me, and you want to know why? Because to the rest of the school you’ll never be known as anything but a liar. You made your choice the second you chose to say that you were Tony Stark’s intern. You can’t blame me for taking advantage of it. I’ll just give you one piece of advice: don’t make an enemy of me.”

“What is he, on some soap opera on TV?” laughed Ned,  “‘Don’t make an enemy of me,’” Ned imitated in a comically low-pitched voice, “Don’t make me laugh. Did he really say that?”

“No, I swear! Can you pass me that lego? Thanks. He got all up in my face after I said my piece.”

“That was pretty brave of you, you know. I’m not sure if I could’ve done it.”

“I mean, it was just the truth. I have so many other things to worry about that getting anxious about him shouldn’t even make it on my to-do list. He’s a high school bully. He’ll go on after high school, and hopefully grow up. We’ll go our separate ways after graduating, and we’ll never meet again.”

They continued building for the next few minutes before Ned broke the silence, “Hey, would you want to stay over for a movie after this?”

“Oh man, I really want to, but it was hard enough to get Aunt May to let me leave the house today after you got off school. I think she only let me leave because she’s still plotting the school’s downfall or something.”

Ned laughed, “Can you blame her? I hope the school gets in some deep shit because this whole thing ,” He waved his hand around, “they’re doing with your internship is not okay.”

“I know, everything will be handled once I finish my experiment though, just you wait. Mr. Stark was right, Flash can’t keep getting away with this. He needs to be stopped.”

“May still signed your papers for the field trip, right?”

“Yeah, after she caught her breath from laughing too hard.”

“I know you’re not that excited, but I have really high hopes for this field trip, Pete. How much of the tower have you seen?”

“Honestly? Not much outside of Mr. Stark’s lab and the lobby. When I get there FRIDAY just whisks me on up.” 

Ned stopped building and looked at him with stars in his eyes.

Peter sighed, but he was smiling when he asked, “How about I ask Mr. Stark to see if you can come along for a lab day sometime?” 

Ned squealed with joy and they returned to their lego sets.

Chapter Text

The next week was filled with Flash “accidentally” tripping Peter during class, the occasional shove into lockers, and, notably, Flash picking individual ketchup-covered french fries from his tray and flicking them at the back of Peter’s head. It wasn’t fun dunking his head under the sink of the boy’s bathroom, and he went to class with his hair still dripping down the back of his shirt. He flinched every time another drop of cold water landed on his skin. It was fine. Really, it was. So what if it was like pre-spider bite all over again. It didn’t matter. It didn’t. He had a plan, one that didn’t involve May and Tony, and soon, everything was going to be fine. It was already Thursday. The field trip was tomorrow and then he was free for the weekend.

He stopped, his shaking hand reaching for the apartment door. 

“Are you okay, Peter?” May asked. 

“Yeah, I’m fine,” he sighed and opened the door to head out for school. 

“Okay class, I want everyone on their best behavior. Their best , no exceptions! This is an important day. Let me just…” Mr. Harrington said, beginning to do a head count. Once he finished, he looked up to the ceiling of the bus, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath, muttering, “Please, please .” He raised his voice, “Okay guys, we’re ready to head in.”

The class filed out of the bus in a rush, while Peter lingered behind. Ned put a supporting hand on his shoulder and stayed behind with him until Mr. Harrington forced them to get a move on. 

The interior of Stark industries was exactly how Peter remembered it. The sleek windows, the dazzling lights, and high ceiling were all a reminder of just how unpredictable his life had become. 

“Hello, and welcome to Stark Industries,” a bright voice said, “My name is Emma, and I’ll be your tour guide for today. I’m a biomedical intern here at SI, and I’m excited to be the one to show you the wonders of SI!”

You’re a biomedical intern?” Abe said with wonder in his voice. He shook himself out of it before asking, “What made you get stuck with this gig then?”

She laughed, “In order to complete your internship at SI, you need to proficiently demonstrate your knowledge of the company, so it’s either this or a verbal test. I chose this. I think it’s more fun to be walking around and seeing everything rather than just explaining something to a superior. Anyways, we’ll begin with going through security. Line up in alphabetical order as well as you can, and I’ll hand out your cards before we go through security. Remember, you’re going to take your backpacks off and place them in the bin before entering. They just need to be scanned for anything dangerous before you get them back. Also, please do not have liquids around any technology throughout the tour.”

They lined up and got their cards, everyone except Peter. He’d never needed a card to get in before. He didn’t even know a person needed a card to get in. He always said hi to Nick and went on his way. Well, this was looking like it was going to be a problem. Maybe Nick would let him slide by on this one? If anything happened, Emma would vouch for him, right?

The rest of the class lined up behind the detectors, and Peter made his way to the back. He wasn’t about to cause a scene by going first, not when he wasn’t sure what was going to happen. As the class slowly trailed through security, Ned found Peter.

“Aren’t you excited? Dude this is going to be amazing! Do you think they’ll let us look at old Avengers tech? Oh man, I’m so excited! Look at my card! It even has my school ID photo on it! I wish they had let me choose the photo though. It’s whatever, I guess though. Where’s yours?”
“I don’t have one.” Peter rubbed the back of his neck. “I mean, I don’t normally have one either, but I guess security didn’t think I would need one.”

“Is that why we’re at the back of the line?”

“Yeah,” Peter said, fiddling with his web shooters.

“Hey, don’t be nervous. Everything’s going to be okay. I’m sure you’ll shoot straight through security.”

“I don’t know, man. I hope so.” 

By then it was Ned’s turn to go through the detector. The machine beeped green and Ned walked through, quietly thanking Nick, the security guard.

The rest of the class was waiting on the other side, watching. Maybe it hadn’t been the best move to go last. Peter took a deep breath, making a stilted move to shrug off his backpack.

“Oh no, Mr. Parker, you don’t need to do that. You can just walk right through. I don’t want a repeat of last time, if that’s okay with you.”
“Are you sure? Everyone else did it.”
“I’m sure, Mr. Parker, you’re fine.”

“How is your cat doing? Are the treatments working okay?”

“Martha’s doing fine now that she’s got her new medicines. She might be old, but she’s got a lot of fight left in ‘er.”

“That’s great to hear! I’m really glad she’s doing better!”

Emma cleared her throat, biting her lip to keep away a smile. Luckily most of the class were talking amongst themselves, but Flash was looking at Peter with a vicious glare that promised more shoulder-shoving and foot-tripping in the future. 

“Oh, I guess I gotta go. I’ll talk to you later, Nick.”

Nick nodded, “Have a great field trip, Mr. Parker.”

“Aside from that being a complete security risk, that was pretty cool, Peter.” MJ said, sliding into step beside him.

“Thanks,” he said, his mood brightening. 

“Our first stop, which some of you have already guessed, will be a museum detailing both the history of the Stark legacy and the history of Mr. Stark himself, with additions of armor coming directly from the Avengers!” said Emma, walking through the building. She came to a stop outside of a set of large doors that entered as they approached.

Inside, it looked like a real museum. Pieces of old Stark technology were placed on displays and boxed in by glass. The room was dim in a way Peter wanted to call almost artistic because of the way it made the pieces stand out when he took photos. There was information written on plaques on the wall and underneath every item. Ned seemed absolutely ecstatic in the museum room. He flitted around to each item, carefully reading all of the information. 

Peter was looking at a replica repulsor when he felt his spider senses tingle. 

“You seem awfully curious about the museum, Puny Parker,” Flash said, “It’s almost like you’ve never seen it before, which would be interesting, especially since all interns are required to know about all this stuff. What about you, Parker? Ready to back down?”

Peter was silent, trying to find words that weren’t a lie but also didn’t out him as Tony’s personal lab assistant. 

“What’s wrong, Petey, cat got your tongue?” laughed Flash, pushing him back with a jab of a finger. “That’s what I thought.”

Flash turned away with a smile.

By the time they were done in the museum, it was already time for lunch. Peter, and by extension, Ned, had once again separated themselves from the rest of the class, both of them taking in the large room filled with 

“I’ll go save our seats,” Ned decided, “Find some good grub, Pete!”

Peter nodded with a dim smile. The day was only halfway over, and he was aching to go up to Tony’s lab for a reprieve. He sighed, looking at his class congregate at the tables. They had gone to lunch a bit early, probably because they didn’t want a tour to come at peak hours when everybody else was eating. 

He made a move to wander around the dining hall when he felt a poke on his shoulder.

“I knew it was you! I didn’t want to make a scene in front of everyone in case I was wrong. How are you doing, Peter?”

“Could be better, all things considered, but things are beginning to turn up.”

“That’s great! I wanted to talk to you about your bandages. I really liked your presentation! I’ve never thought that something like that could be applicable to the medical field! Are you excited to–”

“Mr. Parker!” Mr. Harrington exclaimed, walking up towards the two of them, “I’m so sorry he’s bothering you. Come on, Peter, time for lunch.”

“Oh, he wasn’t–”

“I’ve gotta go, but it was really nice talking to you. Hopefully, they’ll tell me whether or not they accepted my research soon. I’ve been a little too busy to think about it. See you later!” he said, walking away, turning around before he was able to see Emma’s confused face lingering behind him.

Peter meandered around the dining hall before picking a place that sold sandwiches. He got a couple and began to make his way back to the seats Ned had picked. 

He heard mutterings and felt a familiar tingle. Flash. It had to be. He turned around and was met with hot soup pouring down the front of his shirt. He dropped his tray in the chaos.

“Oops.” Flash sneered. “It’s a good thing SI’s paying for our lunches today. I would hate to have to pay for another meal with my own money,” he laughed.

It burned. It burned and it hurt. Peter clawed desperately at his shirt, trying to get the material off of his skin. He fumbled, reaching for his pen before letting out a sigh of relief. It still worked. The soup was quickly cooling down, but he could still feel his skin hot and aching. The feeling of the cold cotton sticking to his skin made him want to cover up and shield himself from the world. He didn’t want to be here anymore, not that he ever had. But now humiliation was sinking into his skin like a familiar weight, and he rushed down a hall, hopelessly rushing to find a bathroom to rinse off his shirt and skin. 

Ned met him in the bathroom as he was wringing the water out of his shirt. 

Peter, are you okay?” Ned caught sight of Peter’s red chest and hissed, “I know you said that you had this under control, but this has gone too far. We need to go to Mr. Harrington and try to get Flash punished. At the very least, Flash should be escorted back to the bus.”

Peter sighed. He felt like he was doing that a lot lately. “Mr. Harrington won’t let him off with more than a reprimand.”

“I don’t care! At least then Mr. Harrington would know that something is up.”

“Fine, but don’t get your hopes up.”

After Peter was done, they went back to the cafeteria, looking for Mr. Harrington amidst the small crowd. Emma was lining everyone back up, and Ned grabbed Peter by the wrist and hauled him to Mr. Harrington.

“Sir, Flash spilled his soup on Peter on purpose.”

“Don’t worry, Ned, Flash will receive an appropriate punishment on Monday.”

“What? He’s not even going to be sent back to the bus? He purposefully harmed Peter!”

“I’m sorry, Ned, but as I didn’t actually witness the altercation, I’ve decided to wait until Monday to punish Flash.”

Ned looked angrier than Peter had ever seen him, his jaw clenching, his eyebrows drawn together, and his face rapidly turning a dark shade of pink. Of course, sir,” he said, “I understand.”

He turned back to Peter as Mr. Harrington walked away. “This is bullshit,” he said, “We’re going to the principal’s office first period next week. I don’t care if I have to miss class.”

“Don’t worry too much about it, Ned. Flash’ll get what’s coming to him eventually. Besides, I remembered to ask Mr. Stark if you could have a lab day with me, and he said you could!" Tony did say that Ned could come up, but that after Peter reminded him who Ned was. ("Ted, was it?" "Ned, Mr. Stark, Ned. You know for being a genius you sure can't memorize a three letter name, can you." "No snark to the Stark, kid.") Ned didn't need to know that part. 

They weren't going to have to go the principal's office to plead for Peter's innocence, not if Peter's plan worked out the way he'd planned. With the way Flash was acting, it wouldn't be long.

Emma led the class to a lab, one side lined with windows, and the other three walls were filled with instruments and prototypes. Peter stared at the room in awe. It was a bit different from Tony’s lab, where he focused mostly on mechanical engineering. This room had test tubes and compounds, solvents and fume hoods. It was amazing. Peter could spend the rest of the day and the whole weekend here and have to be torn away from it. 

“This is where I work, here in one of the biomedical labs. Today, we have Dr. Crow and Dr. Martinez, who are both my supervisors, to give you a little taste of what lies behind the scenes in the biomedical division!

“Hello, Midtown,” Dr. Crow stated, “We are the biomedical engineering cohort of Stark Industries. Today, we’ve set up some stations around the room for you guys to look at. These stations hold some of our contributions to our research. We’ll stand behind each one and let you guys move around as you please. Don’t be afraid to ask questions! That’s what we’re here for,” she smiled. 

The rest of the class wandered around the lab and Peter made his way to Dr. Crow’s. He was looking at the device when Dr. said, smiling, “Oh, Peter, I was wondering if that was you or not. Congratulations!” 

“What?” Peter asked.

“Congratulations on the bandage tech getting approved!”

“It got approved?!” This was amazing, he needed to text Tony about this right now. “Oh, wait,” he patted his pants pockets. No phone. It was still broken from the whole Flash debacle. 

You didn’t know?” Dr. Crow blushed. “Well, I’m sorry to surprise you, but still, congratulations.”

“I can’t believe it! Thank you so much for this opportunity, Dr. Crow.”

“You’ve earned it, Peter.”

He had done it. He had actually done it!

Peter wandered around the rest of the displays in a haze of happiness, asking questions and making comments when he felt another tingle. He braced himself, waiting for Flash to make his next move, but suddenly he heard a crash as the window of the lab shattered inwards, and in rushed a man, oddly enough, dressed up like Mr. Peanut, monocle, cane, and all. 

“I am the Monocle!” he cackled, “Everybody down on your knees and hands behind your head! Where is Iron Man?” 

“You are now my hostages until Iron Man comes here himself,” he said, waving around an honestly pretty intimidating looking plasma gun. He walked around, making all of Peter’s classmates gather in the center of the room.

Great, just great. This was just what Peter needed to complete this day.

“FRIDAY?” Peter said. 

“Boss has already been contacted.”

First he had that conversation with Mr. Harrington, then the confrontation with Flash, and the subsequent suspension, and now this ? “Give me a break,” he muttered, shaking his head. 

He walked forward as the villain was monologuing and decked him across the face. The villain–monocle man?--went flying back into the lab tables and landed with a crash. Man, that was going to suck to clean up. He’d need to ask Jeremy the janitor if he could borrow the keys to the janitor closet later. The rest of his classmates seemed stunned but uninjured, so he walked over to Monocle Man and got out his backpack’s first aid kit. Peter looked him over and patched up a small cut from a broken beaker on Mr. Monocle’s hand before surreptitiously using some webbing to immobilize him. 

Just then Tony burst through the door, Iron Man suit on.

The rest was pandemonium. Tony stared dumbfounded for a moment, looking from Peter, to the rest of his class, to Mr. Monocle, unconscious on the floor. The rest of the class knelt, terrified and huddling together, but there was a palpable moment of relief when they saw Iron Man in the doorway. 

“FRIDAY, what just happened?” Tony said, helmet shrinking back as he reached a hand to massage his brow. 

“Peter subdued the Monocle while his class was on a field trip, Boss.”

“Don’t worry, I have everything recorded on this,” Peter said, lifting a nondescript pen from his shirt pocket. “It’s a camera.”

Flash balked.

“It’ll make it easier for the police to complete their investigation. It even has audio too.” Peter turned towards Flash’s ashen face. “I’ve been wearing it all week.”

Flash stumbled back in shock. “You have? But that means…”

“I have proof of everything, Flash. Everything. And on Monday, I’m going straight to the principal with it. I think it’s about time you learned your lesson.”

Mr. Harrington stepped up, “I’m so sorry, Peter. I never thought…”

“Well,” Tony said, “I’m sure that we can head down to the school on Monday to get that suspension off your permanent record. Right, Mr. Harrington?”

“Of–of course. I’ll talk to the principal right away.”
“How did you–,” said Peter. 

“May and I do talk, you know. Did you just think that we would let you run around willy nilly?” 

“You don’t care about the suspension?”

“Of course not, kiddo. It’s not like you did anything wrong. In fact, I’m starting to feel a little proud. Pete’s first suspension. Maybe I should get a little placard and hang it up right above the TV in the living room,” he mused. “Well, that’s enough of this. We’ll have more words later, young man. Ha, I’ve always wanted to say that. You’re staying for dinner, yeah? I’ve already checked with May.”

Dazed, Peter said, “ Uh, yeah.”

“Everybody,” said Tony, turning, “The police are on their way, and they’ll probably need to get your statements. I’m so sorry this happened today. If you need any medical help, whether it’s physical or mental, to help cope with what you’ve just experienced, please don’t hesitate to reach out to Stark Industries. I’d be happy to answer any questions you might have while we wait for the police to arrive.”

The class exploded in a cacophony of questions and comments and Tony answered every single one of them, though with varying amounts of patience, but then Flash, finally cowed, asked, “So who is Peter to you really, Dr. Stark?”

Tony took a few seconds before his face relaxed almost imperceptibly. He marched over to Peter, clanging every step of the way, and slung an arm around his shoulders. “Peter here is my lovely personal intern.”

The class’s mutterings came back full force, but just then the elevator rang, and out stepped a pair of police officers. 

They watched as the rest of the class gave their statements, and Peter handed over his body camera for evidence, having already uploaded the videos with Flash from the week to a flashdrive.

Peter and Tony followed the rest of the class down to the lobby, but stopped as they watched the rest of the class filter back into the bus. 

“Mr. Harrington, a word?”

“Yes, Dr. Stark.”

You should be getting an email right about…now,” Mr. Harrington’s phone dinged, “saying that Peter and Ned have permission to stay here at the tower instead of getting on the bus to return to school.”

Mr. Harrington pulled out his phone, his eyes wide, “Yes, sir, of course.”

Ned squealed.

“Perfect! You ready, Pete?” said Tony. 

“Yeah,” he said, smiling, excited to show Ned his area of the lab as he walked to the elevator with Ned and Tony, his heart light.