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Morgan found herself replaying the moments of this morning again, wishing nothing more than to leave this hellscape of a school.
Mrs. Susan droned on about the feelings which Shakespeare tried to convey using some poetic device or the other. Ugh, she wished she could go back home to tinker in dad’s lab with him and Petey. Or maybe Petey’s lab too.
She wondered what Pete must be doing right now. He must have - she looked up at the calendar hanging next to the whiteboard, trying her best to remember his schedule - history right now, with MJ. Morgan liked Peter’s girlfriend, but that meant Peter must not be as bored as her right now, and she didn’t like that.
She remembered her dad telling her to not sleep in class and pay attention, before bending down to kiss her forehead. Meanwhile, Peter had to bend down instead so that dad could kiss his forehead. Ha, the height difference - courtesy of the growth spurt Peter had had, which left Peter towering 2 or 3 inches above dad supposedly overnight - was really grating on his dad’s nerves. He had made a show of it, but Morgan could still spot the fond albeit sad smirk on his face.
Morgan took pride in the fact that even though she was just 13, she already came up to her 17-year-old brother’s chin. She was going to catch up in no time, just thou wait and see.
She grimaced. An hour of Shakespeare was clearly doing damage.
FINALLY. FREEDOM. GOD BLESS AMERICA.
Morgan all but ran out of her classroom as the final bell rang. Reaching her locker, she took out her bag and waited for Petey to come. She stood alone in the hallway. Peter was getting late.
She spotted Mr. Johnson walking her way from the corner of her eye, but chose to act like she didn’t see him. She did not want to engage in conversation with anyone but Pete right now, especially not a teacher who didn’t even teach her class.
Mr Johnson stopped next to her, clearing his throat. Great, now he was unavoidable. She barely suppressed the roll of her eyes. “Good afternoon, sir.”
“Afternoon. Say, Morgan, I’ve noticed you are quite exceptional at maths, if the words of your teacher are anything to go by.” He flashed her a grin, all teeth.
If she had spidey-sense like Peter, it would have been blaring alarms right now. “Thank you, sir.” She didn’t know how else to respond to that.
“If you would like to further your skills, Morgan,” He started, his smile turning into a smirk that Morgan did not like.
“I could perhaps offer tuition?”
Morgan let out a breath. Of course he was asking for tuition, with her being a Stark and all. Anyone would love to be able to foster some connection to her dad.
“I will consider it, sir. It is a very generous offer.” Morgan could barely hold back the snark in her voice, very generous offer her foot. But she was polite, as polite as Peter would be. Whenever she didn’t know what to do, or couldn’t do what she wanted to (punch his lights out, in this case), she would just impersonate Pete.
She did not expect Mr Johnson’s hand to reach out and tuck a hair behind her ear. Disgust ran down her spine and it must have been pretty apparent in her face.
Mr Johnson laughed, “Oh, don’t worry princess, I won’t hurt a pretty thing like you.”
Bile ran up her throat. This guy was fucking creepy.
He took a step closer, stepping into her personal space. Her heartbeat hastened.
What should I do?
Grab the backpack and fling it in his face.
Her grip tightened around her backpack strap as she prepared to fling it-
Mr Johnson’s head snapped back with sudden force that almost seemed to break his neck. Peter stood there, fist in Johnson’s hair, towering above him as he glared daggers at the man.
God, Petey.
As far as Morgan knew Peter, he wouldn’t hurt a fly. But now, Peter was holding a teacher by his hair, and he looked like he was controlling himself from snapping the guy’s neck. She ran to Peter’s side, wrapping her arms around him and burying her face in his shirt. His hand automatically held her around the shoulders, pulling her in. She looked up at him, to see what he would do now.
Peter’s expression was set in stone, jaw locked, face relaxed. But his eyes held so much rage, riveted on the struggling teacher. His eyebrows were slightly raised as if he couldn’t believe what was happening, but had gotten over the shock. He looked so much like dad.
Johnson was yelling out a string of curses, and only stopped until Peter let him go with a jerk of his hands. Johnson hit the floor and his head bounced once and left him writhing in pain. He got up shakily and ran the way he had come.
Pete turned towards Morgan, and his expression softened instantly. “Sorry to keep you waiting, Mo. He didn’t touch you, did he?” Petey’s concerned voice reminded her of what happened.
“No..” her voice was shaky, but she didn’t have time to dwell on it as Peter pulled her into a hug. She leaned her weight on him before hopping and wrapping his legs around his waist, holding him tight. Peter didn't even grunt as he lifted her. His hand rubbed circles on her back, comforting and safe, but that uneasy feeling remained.
She let him carry her out of the now mostly-empty school, clinging on to him with all her might. She buried her face in Pete’s neck, squeezing her eyes shut.
Petey is here. He will keep me safe.
Happy Hogan watched from his driver’s seat, as most of the school emptied out with no sign of the two Starks.
He took his phone out to text Peter, and waited for a reply frowning at his screen. He looked up once more to see Peter waving at him, Morgan in his arms.
He was carrying Morgan. What the fuck happened?
Happy bolted out of the car as Peter walked towards him. Peter’s murderous expression caught him by surprise. His face was lax except his tense jaw, and the absolute rage in his eyes. He looked like the spitting image of Tony, right before he got a reporter’s image tarnished and job ruined after he implied that Pepper had slept her way to the top. Happy has seen that look on Pepper too, in PR Meetings where Tony’s personality and integrity was questioned in any way.
What the actual fuck happened?
He was going to voice his thoughts but one look from Peter was enough to shut him up. This was strange. Peter was usually a nervous, hyperactive teenager who would apologize profusely for stepping on someone’s shoe, but this was a new side to him.
Happy pulled open the door to the Audi as Peter let Morgan sit inside. He turned to Happy, and spoke in a low tone. “Some teacher tried to corner her. Flirt, suggest and all that shit. Can you get everything settled inside, Happy? Get his credentials and everything, I want your hands on anything that Mum needs to ruin a guy’s life. I’ll stay here with Morgan.”
Oh. Oh.
Yeah, Happy was more than glad to get everything settled inside. But there was one question, “How do I know which teacher it is? Can you give me a description?”
A ghost of a smile spread on Peter’s face as he said, “He’ll be the one that is bleeding from his head.”
Happy’s eyebrows shot up as he stared at Peter, who climbed in to sit next to Morgan.
The words ‘Peter’ and ‘Violence’ had never belonged in the same paragraph, let alone sentence. Yet here we are now. Happy was distinctly proud of his nephew.
They were late. Tony kept checking the time every 30 seconds, and it was worrying Pepper.
“Ton-” Her voice was cut off by FRIDAY.
“Boss, incoming call from Happy Hogan.”
Tony immediately stood up. “Pick up.” His kids, along with Happy, were supposed to be here 30 minutes ago.
“Tony, we have a problem.”
Tony grit his teeth as Pepper’s hand came to rest on his shoulder. “Straight to the point, Happy. Why are you guys late?”
“Morgan and Peter are okay. Come to the school ASAP, I don’t think I should be explaining this on the phone. Also- bring Pepper with you too.”
Happy hung up.
Tony raced out the door, with Pepper in tow. He took one of the many luxury vehicles from his garage before heading out full speed to Peter and Morgan’s school. All the thoughts of what could have happened were flying through his mind, but he focused on the road. He did not need to have a panic attack behind the wheel with Pepper in the car.
Tony sped up the driveway and parked right behind Happy’s car. Both him and Pepper stumbled out of the Mercedes and yanked open the door to find an asleep Morgan and a human-pillow Peter.
“Hey mom, hey dad. Happy’s inside the school, probably in the principal’s office by now. You may want to go to him.” Peter’s tense shoulders had relaxed the moment he saw the familiar faces. Mr Johnson was going to wish he was dead.
Tony relaxed only after he had conducted a thorough search for any injuries the Peter might be hiding. Leaving them be, both him and Pepper entered the school, walking straight to the principal’s office to find Happy, Principal Coleman, and a guy who was bleeding from the head.
Tony winced seeing the blood. That had to be a pretty bad concussion.
“You called?” Tony asked Happy who gave him a short nod as Coleman began to speak.
“Yes, but you wouldn’t answer the phone, and hence I had your bodyguard call you.” Tony raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.
“Now, would you believe if I say that the injury to Mr Johnson, a respected teacher, was caused by your son?”
Pepper almost laughed in disbelief. “Principal, Peter? Really? He has never gotten into any fights ever at school, and he is a rather quiet boy. He would never attack an authority figure, if not given good reason.”
Tony pointed to her, “What she said.” Are you sure you are not the one who sustained a head injury?
“Well, apparently Peter thought he had a good reason, and we would like to know what that reason is. I would recommend having Peter here.”
Tony gave a look to Happy, who gave a short nod and moved out of the room to get Peter. Tony could practically feel his hair turning gray in real time.
Pepper pushed further, “But how did this happen? What were the events leading up to this?”
She moved forward and sat in the chair vacant in front of Coleman, the other chair being occupied by concussion guy. Tony stepped forward to stand beside her, one hand on her shoulder.
“Mr Johnson here was reportedly talking to Morgan Stark about her excellence in maths and wanted to recruit her for some extra classes as he saw good potential in her. However he believes that Peter misread the situation and assaulted him, believing himself to be protecting Morgan.” Coleman explained.
“Did Morgan try to stop Peter?” Tony asked, hand moving from Pepper’s shoulder to the back of the chair.
“No..” Johnson said, voice shaky.
“Then Peter didn’t misread the situation.” Pepper’s voice was low as she herself saw what the situation was implying. Tony’s hand tightened around the cool metal of the back of the chairs as the realization dawned on him. He grit his teeth as his eyes flicked to Johnson. He prayed to any deity watching that the reality was not what it was making itself out to be.
“You said Peter misread the situation. What do you think Peter read the situation as?” The end of Tony’s sentence was punctuated with the swinging open of the door to reveal Peter.
Tony was not used to seeing Peter angry. At most, he’d rage cry at Tony and then Tony would make hot chocolate for Peter as he cuddled into Tony’s side, and both would apologize. Tony did not ever expect to see himself in Peter. Peter was lovable, energetic and anxious. He was too good for the world.
But right now, Peter stood straight, jaw set and eyes slightly narrowed. His face was unreadable, but you’d know without even looking at him that he was angry.
“Ah, Peter. We were waiting for you.” Coleman greeted him.
Peter’s lips curled into a small, tight smile. “I’m sure you were.”
Shit. He really was Tony’s son, wasn’t he?
All Pepper saw was Tony Stark’s teenage reincarnation in Peter. A proud motherly feeling swelled inside her at his response.
Clearing his throat, Coleman continued, “Why did you… injure Mr Johnson, Peter?”
“I believe that was an appropriate response to be given to a man harassing your little sister.” Peter’s voice was dangerously low and controlled, his eyes narrowing.
Pepper gasped. Before she could say anything, Coleman started speaking.
“Do not make such claims without evidence, Mr. Parker.”
“Stark,” Tony corrected before Pepper could.
Coleman opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by Peter. “If you want evidence, I don’t assume it would be too inconvenient to check the multiple cameras lining the hall, would it?” Peter’s brows were furrowed in mock confusion.
“The cameras are programmed to turn off the moment school ends, hence the cameras were not on during that time.” Coleman replied through gritted teeth.
“Hm.. then I believe legal action is in order,” Pepper declared, standing up from her place. She dragged a seething Tony from behind her, and Peter followed behind, but not before a sarcastic, “Good afternoon, sir.”
She had to step out before Tony lost his cool and killed the man on the spot. That would require way more paperwork than Pepper was honestly hoping to ever see in her entire life.
She put Peter and Tony in Happy’s car, telling them she needed to make a detour and talk to her lawyers. Happy was waiting in the driver’s seat and took off after a sharp nod.
She was going to make sure that the teacher did not have the courage to look at a child like that ever again.