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“Didn’t think the old man let you smoke in the lab anymore.” Harley’s sly voice echoed across the lab, as he leant over Peter’s shoulder to snatch the cigarette out of his boyfriend’s hand.
“Harls?!” Peter all but screeched, a noise he would deny he made til his dying day, as he jumped in surprise, all four limbs now attached to the vaulted ceiling of Tony’s lab.
“Darlin’ for someone with a built-in alarm system, you don’t half scare easy.” Harley commented, idly rolling the lit cigarette between his finger and thumb, “Some reception for your boyfriend.”
“Well forgive me for being a little jumpy,” Peter started to snark back as he released the ceiling, flipping over effortlessly to land on the floor, “But dad is away on business til this evening, you’re still banned from the tower after The Incident That Shall Not Be Named, and mom only comes in here when FRI snitches to her how long we’ve been working.”
“Mini-Boss has been working for the last 20 hours.” FRIDAY announced on cue, and Peter scowled up at the ceiling, FRIDAY’s lilting Irish accent sounding halfway between amused and exasperated.
“No wonder you’re smoking.” Harley said drily, taking a drag from the still-lit pilfered cigarette, “When was the last time you slept.”
“This isn’t about me!” Peter defended, swaying unconsciously into Harley’s side despite their bickering, “How did you get past dad’s ban.”
“That’s for me to know and for you to never find out.” Harley replied with a smirk, throwing his arm around Peter’s shoulders and putting on a voice full of fake hurt, “Aren’t you happy to see me?”
“Always.” Peter replied seriously, pressing a kiss to his boyfriend’s cheek. Harley sighed deeply, nosing along Peter’s cheekbone.
“I’ve missed you, darlin’.” He said, capturing Peter’s mouth in a languid kiss.
“I’ve missed you too.” Peter replied, his words lost to the crush of Harley’s mouth against his.
Harley pulled back after a few minutes of contented kissing, Peter’s hands already roaming underneath his shirt, project and cigarette long forgotten.
“Thought you were too busy to see me.” Harley said with an arch of his eyebrow, pulling Peter in closer to him as he took a drag of nicotine, passing it back to its owner when Peter started to make grabby hands.
“Never.” Peter said, peering up at Harley fondly, “Dad grounded me after I got myself lightly stabbed last week.”
“You were stabbed!” Harley replied, incensed, “Why didn’t you tell me!”
“Dad confiscated my phone! And the two I built from scraps. And the pager I designed. And FRIDAY locked my access to her systems for a month after I tried to hack into her to read my messages.” Peter finished with a pout, “Besides I’m completely healed now, I just didn’t tell anyone until I passed out in the gym and apparently we’ve had this talk before about hiding injuries Peter.” He waved his arms around as he said the last part, dropping his voice lower in a spot-on mimicry of his dad’s, “He’s not even let me go to school this week.”
“You hate school.” Harley replied, taking one last drag of the cigarette before stubbing it out on the nearest counter, the lab's vents whirring into action almost immediately to clear the cloud of ash.
“I don’t hate school.” Peter said with a frown, “It’s just not challenging enough.”
“Only you would dislike school because it’s too easy darlin’.” Harley said, voice deep with amusement. “Is that Dash kid still bothering you?”
“It’s Flash, Harley.” Peter deadpanned, well aware his boyfriend was only pretending not to know the bully’s name, "Anyway, I’ve already told you, it’s pretty much nothing. If I didn’t let him take it out on me he’d take it out on somebody who can’t handle it.”
“Pete.” Harley frowned, winding his arms around Peter’s waist and pulling his boyfriend into him, “You shouldn’t be ‘letting’ him do anything. You don’t deserve to be treated like that either.”
“I’m Spiderman.” Peter snorted, “We both know I’m more than capable of handling myself. Anyway, I have you, and Ned and MJ, and mom and dad, and basically the whole of Stark Industries on my side. I think I can handle one kid being a little bit mean.”
It was more than that of course. Peter would never admit it to his boyfriend but Flash had been escalating his behaviour recently, ‘accidentally’ pushing Peter into things and taunting him about his ‘fake’ internship. He knew Harley knew, had seen the poorly disguised looks of concern shared between his boyfriend and his dad when they thought he wasn’t watching, and had heard snatches of conversations not meant for his ears – but he really didn’t want to draw even more attention to himself at school.
“Sure.” Harley said, voice heavy with disbelief as he buried his face into Peter’s neck, nipping lightly at where the pale skin of his collarbones peeked through his hoodie. The hoodie was familiar, swamping Peter’s lithe frame, the smell of engine oil, cigarette smoke, and another unfamiliar acrid scent clinging to the fabric.
“Have you been smoking weed in my hoodie again?” Harley mumbled, voice muffled where he had his face pressed into the crook of Peter’s neck.
“No.” Peter stuttered out, frame going rigid under Harley’s hands.
“You’re a terrible liar Petey.” Harley said, flicking Peter in the side, “Can’t believe you didn’t share.”
“Harls the amount of weed it takes me to get high for even half an hour would kill you.” Peter replied, “Remember the time you stole the Iron Man suit and ended up front page news for six weeks, dad nearly killed you.” He smothered his giggle in Harley’s hair, fingers twisting idly into the curls at the base of his neck.
Harley joined in with the laughter, unwilling to resist the bright giggles of his boyfriend. “Yeah, yeah, laugh it up web-boy.” He looked up then, grinning at the familiar sight of Peter shaking with laughter, before capturing Peter into another slow kiss.
Peter hummed against his mouth, still smiling broadly as they kissed for a moment before Harley pulled away again. He adored kissing his boyfriend, but he was actually rather interested in what Peter had been working on when he arrived.
“What does the old man have you working on then?” Harley asked, leaning round his boyfriend to get a glance at the scrap metal littering his workplace, all four blue monitors processing code.
Peter’s eyes lit up and he stepped fully out of Harley’s space, whirling round to point up at the screens. Before Harley could process the movement Peter had stepped back into his space again, back flush against Harley’s chest. Peter had never been one to understand personal space, and for his family working and living closely alongside the little spider they had become accustomed to the limpet that was Peter Stark-Parker.
“After FRIDAY snitched to dad about my pager I had the idea to upgrade employee badges to act as both a pass for the building and a pager so staff without access to FRIDAY can notify someone with the clearance to put out fires, or call security, or basically anything they would need to speak to each other about.” Peter explained quickly, gesturing to the black pass he had pried open and extracted all of the pieces from, and the small pile of light green passes strewn about the table. “Once I figure out how the level is programmed, I can work on what badge level can contact who, and so on.”
Harley’s eyes lit up as he leaned closer to the scrolling code for a moment before picking up a particularly dented piece of the black pass, “Did you steal Happy’s pass to test your idea out on?”
“Since dad is away, I’m not allowed a pass and mom got suspicious as soon as I tried to borrow hers, Happy’s was the next obvious choice.” Peter defended, “Charlie, Declan, Ash, and Anahi from R&D leant their passes to be tested on too. I want the lower access badges to be programmed with specific phrases, like their access to FRIDAY, whilst the higher access passes will be able to send personalised messages.”
Harley hummed thoughtfully, “It’s a good idea Pete, how far have you gotten with the programming?”
“Not as far as I would have liked by now.” Peter huffed, “If I was in my own lab I’d be further ahead, the way dad has his monitors set up is truly diabolical. Also I wanted to look at how dad programmed that part of FRIDAY, but like I said earlier she’s revoked my access for the rest of the month.”
“Are you still banned from your own lab?” Haley asked with a distracted laugh, screwdriver appearing in his hand as he got to work unscrewing the thin protective metal casing of the heart of Happy’s badge.
“Yeah everything is still singed from The Incident That Shall Not Be Named, and apparently whilst it’s okay for dad to blow things up we aren’t allowed to. Plus I’m supposed to be grounded. So.”
“Did you use Happy’s badge to get into Tony’s lab.” Harley asked drily, pointing his screwdriver in Peter’s direction.
“Maybe?” His boyfriend squeaked, “I was so bored upstairs and then I had this idea and I just had to try it.”
Harley laughed, prying the casing apart and chucking the screwdriver at Peter’s head. Peter dodged it automatically, already muttering to himself as his hands flew over the keyboards, changing and updating the code.
-
Several hours later Harley had turned his attention to tinkering with an old Iron Man helmet he had found lying in a cupboard, the lights burnt out and electrics fried. Peter had lost the battle with the code for the badges, FRIDAY still denying him access to her system despite his whinging.
“Fake-Boss says you can’t be trusted.” She’d teased him for the tenth time in a row, and Peter had let out a small scream of frustration, abandoning the still-in-pieces badges in favour of sketching an upgrade for The Winter Soldier’s metal arm, The Black Widow’s gun disassembled on the table around him.
Harley had taken to looking up at his boyfriend every so often, the jittery side of a sleep-deprived Peter making itself well and truly known. He was bouncing between projects almost aimless in his tinkering, motor oil now streaked up both of his arms, and very attractively, Harley couldn’t help but note passively, across the left side of his jaw.
“I need a smoke.” Peter finally said loudly, his voice almost startling Harley despite the thumping base of Led Zeppelin rippling through the lab. Even when Tony wasn’t there, the influence he had on the two boys would never go unnoticed.
“Help yourself.” Harley waved a hand in the direction of his bag, which he had unceremoniously dumped by the door to the inner lab when he had spotted Peter deep in the zone earlier that morning.
“Thanks Harls.” Peter said, dropping a kiss onto his boyfriend as he walked past. Harley hummed fondly, before he cursed loudly, dropping the helmet on the table and raising his hand to his mouth.
“Did you just cut yourself because you were too busy looking at me?” Peter threw over his shoulder as he rifled through Harley’s rucksack.
“No?” Harley replied, inspecting the jagged cut running down the side of his hand.
“Then why did that sound like a question- ahah!” Peter interrupted himself, brandishing the box of cigarettes above his head.
“It’s fine, it’s barely a scratch. It’s not like I was stabbed.” Harley teased, spinning round in his chair.
“Yeah, yeah.” Peter rolled his eyes playfully, crossing back over the Harley and plucked his injured hand out of the air, pulling it towards himself. “Do we need to take a trip to the medbay?”
“It’s fine.” Harley squawked, pulling his hand back, “I might not heal as fast as you, but it doesn’t need stitches I’ll be fine.”
“If you say so.” Peter shrugged, stealing a cigarette out of the pack and dropping it in the mess of twisted metal on the table. “I’m gonna have this and then I’m getting back to work on my Spidermobile.”
“Darlin’ you aren’t legally allowed to drive yet, why you are so insistent on building yourself a car I will never know. You can basically fly, why would you want to sit in gridlock.” Harley said with a fond shake of his head.
“If Batman can have one, I want one.” Peter replied with a pout, glancing about for his lighter.
“You missed my super cool new lighter.” Harley said, “It’s literally Spiderman themed.”
“Who needs a lighter in this lab.” Peter said with a smirk, fingers closing round his welding iron.
“Peter don’t you dare use whatever you’ve just picked up to light that.” Harley said with a long-suffering sigh, “Here.” He lit his own cigarette, before throwing the lighter across to his boyfriend.
“Ok this is pretty cool.” Peter acquiesced, turning the metal blue and red lighter over in his palm. “Maybe I should work on a line of high-powered, multi-use Avenger themed tools.”
“Thought you were working on your Spidermobile. And if Nat comes in and finds her gun still in pieces she won’t be impressed. You remember how badly the last mission went after you got distracted halfway through upgrading Barton’s bow.” Harley reminded him, taking a long drag of his cigarette.
“I guess.” Peter replied with a pout, “It was funny watching everyone find the spiders though. One chased Clint through the vents, he fell into the middle of an important meeting with General Stafford.”
“Didn’t Tony then gather them all and put them all in your bed.” Harley laughed around the cigarette in his mouth.
Peter blew out a thin stream of smoke as he laughed along with him, “He did. Jokes on him though I slept in their room until mom made him collect them all back up. And General Stafford swore never to come back which was a good result all round, he’s a dick.”
“Most US Army Generals are dicks.” Harley agreed.
“Yeah they all want us to make them weapons no matter how much mom reminds them we don’t do that anymore. It’s going to become my problem soon, mom is trying to train me in the art of negotiating with the US military.” Peter said, striding over to the Spidermobile, “I wonder if I can…” He trailed off, voice dipping to a low murmur as he mumbled to himself.
Harley shook his head fondly as he watched Peter roll himself under the car with a lit cigarette pinched in his mouth. It was a wonder they didn’t set fire to the lab more often. It was the other reason the Spidermobile was kept in Tony’s lab, where Peter wasn’t supposed to be smoking at all.
“Peter I’m bored.” Harley said ten minutes later, twirling the last cigarette in his hand.
“Literally no one is making you stay here.” Peter replied from under the car.
“Peteeeeer-” Harley dragged out the last syllable of his boyfriend’s name, grinning when Peter rolled himself out and sat up to glare at him. “Come here and smoke this last one with me and then I’ll leave you to your tinkering.
“Fine.” Peter acquiesced, walking over to his boyfriend, lighter in his hand.
“Good boy.” Harley said wickedly, yelping as Peter came to a stop in between his legs, smacking him hard on the shoulder.
“Give me that.” Peter said, although there was no bite behind his words.
Harley gave the cigarette up happily, staring up at his boyfriend sappily.
“Stop looking at me like that.” Peter said, breathing in the smoke from the cigarette happily. He passed the cigarette to his boyfriend who took it without complaint, inhaling the nicotine as his free hand dropped to the small of Peter’s back, pulling him closer.
“Harley.” Peter said breathily, taking the cigarette back and taking a long drag. Harley smirked, reaching up and dragging Peter down into a kiss, licking into Peter’s mouth expectantly.
Peter chuckled humourlessly against Harley’s lips and breathed the smoke out into his boyfriend’s mouth, a thin stream directly into the back of Harley’s throat. Harley moaned, breathing the smoke in as the kiss got sloppy, mouths sliding together messily.
Harley pulled back after a few moments, and Peter brought the cigarette up to his mouth, letting Harley breathe in the acrid smoke before they were kissing again, Harley dragging Peter down into his lap as they exchanged the smoke between them.
Distantly the elevator pinged, doors whooshing open as a chattering group all piled out into the lab.
Peter could feel the skin on the back of his neck prickling but he ignored it, too lost in the sensation of kissing his boyfriend. He pulled away, taking a long drag of the cigarette before he angled his mouth over Harley’s, blowing a thin stream of smoke directly into his mouth. Harley smirked, breathing the smoke in as he pulled Peter back down against his mouth.
Somewhere behind them someone gasped, a sudden draw of air in that alerted Peter to the presence of someone else, of several other people.
“We appear to have an audience, Harls.” Peter said suddenly, drawing away from Harley with a smirk.
“Piss off Barton.” Harley replied automatically, not bothering to open his eyes as he breathed out the smoke, flipping the group off as he pulled Peter back into his lap, “Bird-brained perv.”
“No, Harls, Clint is somewhere on the Avenger’s Compound. We have An Audience.” Peter said more urgency, bracing his hands against his boyfriend’s collarbone.
Harley pulled back abruptly, opening his eyes and peering round Peter.
“Why are a bunch of highschoolers standing watching us kiss?” Harley said dumbly, arms falling away from Peter’s hips, raising the lit cigarette to his mouth and taking a long drag.
Peter snatched the cigarette from his boyfriend, took a deep breath and spun to face the group, climbing awkwardly out of Harley’s lap.
“Who gave you the clearance to be up here?” He asked loudly, voice stone cold as he stared down the tour guide he vaguely recognised.
“Uhm, Junior! I didn’t know you and Mr Keener would be in here.” The tour guide stuttered out, gaze darting between Peter and Harley, “This group, uh, won the national academic decathlon final and viewing Mr Stark’s lab was part of the prize.”
Peter frowned. He’d won the nationals.
He finally let his gaze slip from the tour guide, Lucy he finally realized, to take in the varying shocked and pale faces of his Academic Decathlon team. He took a deep breath, and then raised the cigarette to his lips, smoking until the tremor in his hands subsided.
This broke the quiet shock in the room, this Peter Parker so unlike the quiet nerd they were accustomed to. This Parker was smoking in Tony Stark’s lab, wearing pink hello kitty pyjama bottoms stained with motor oil, hair ruffled and slightly singed, and he had never looked more like he belonged somewhere.
“Peter?”
“How are you here Parker?”
“Why weren’t you in school?”
“What do you think you’re doing Penis?”
The sneer in the last question made Peter pause, holding up a hand as he snapped “Silence!”. The room fell quiet immediately, Mr Harrington paled further as even he listened to his student. He looked across to the tour guide, expecting her to tell Peter off, to exert her authority over the intern but she said nothing, face just as pale as his class. He blinked in shock, suddenly wrong-footed by the assumption he had made about Peter’s internship being low-level.
“Harley, meet my Academic Decathlon team.” He gestured towards them before stubbing the cigarette out on the nearest table and looking back across his team’s faces.
“Huh.” Harley said eloquently, slinking up beside Peter and throwing an arm across his shoulders. “Hi MJ, Ned.”
“Hi Harley.” Ned replied, grinning at his best friend’s boyfriend. MJ waved without looking up from the notebook she was sketching in furiously.
Harley leant in close to Peter, his lips grazing the shell of his ear. “Which one’s Dash.”
“Penis what do you think you’re doing?” Flash repeated louder, eyes narrowing as he took in Harley nosing fondly at Peter’s neck.
“You!” Harley started, anger descending rapidly over his face as he took a step forwards from Peter.
“Stop it.” Peter hissed, elbowing his boyfriend in the side, risking a glance at Flash to see the boy was slowly turning purple.
“Peter, what are you doing here?” Mr Harrington finally asked tiredly, “And you shouldn’t be smoking in a lab you could set fire to something.”
“FRIDAY won’t let that happen.” Peter replied with a shrug, “Not from a cigarette anyway.”
“FRIDAY is the safest system in the world, she can put a fire out before it starts.” A new voice added from the far side of the lab, drawing everyone’s attention to Tony Stark strolling towards them, hands tucked deeply in his pockets. “Peter should know better than smoking in my lab though." Tony directed the last part at his son with a raised eyebrow.
“Hey you lock me out of my own lab, you reap the consequences.” Peter defended himself, tucking himself further under Harley’s arm.
“You should be in school.” Mr Harrington said faintly.
“I’m ill!” Peter protested loudly.
“If you’re capable of smoking in your lab, I would think you were capable of coming into school, Parker.” Mr Harrington said tiredly.
“Mini-Boss has been working for twenty-nine hours.” FRIDAY supplied dutifully.
“Oh my God!!” Peter let out a little scream, “Take this up with him!”, throwing his hands up in the air as he pointed at his father, “He grounded me.”
“Oh that’s why you didn’t see any of my texts about this trip.” Ned said, understanding dawning over him.
“Yeah. He confiscated all of my devices, and I’m still locked out of FRIDAY’s system.” Peter said with a shrug.
“You were grounded from school?” Mr Harrington asked quietly, anger quietly settling over his face.
“Well.” Peter started, and stopped. “Technically…” He trailed off again, glancing towards his father for help.
“He was in a coma for two days after he got stabbed last week! And he knows he isn’t supposed to spend more than 15 hours in the lab at any given time.” Tony supplied helpfully, smirking at Peter.
“Oh.” Mr Harrington said quietly.
“Dad!” Peter yelled exasperated.
The room went still, the group of school kids exchanging glances silently. They had thought Peter Parker was an orphan, that he had no family left. But here he was, stood with a boyfriend and a father, bickering as if he had been here his whole life.
“You were in a coma!” Harley demanded turning his boyfriend around.
“So dramatic.” Peter muttered, kicking at the ground and refusing to make eye contact with anybody.
“Are you okay Peter?” Betty asked with concern, the sentiment rapidly echoed by everyone else in the room, aside from the very obvious exception of Flash.
Cindy followed closely, finally summoning the courage to ask the question that was on everyone’s minds.
“Tony Stark is your dad?”
“I’m fine.” Peter defended, tactfully ignoring the second question, “But I’m locked out of my own lab still.”
“You still shouldn’t be smoking in my lab.” Tony said teasingly.
“It’s literally impossible for me to set fire to something.” Peter said drily, resolutely ignoring the horrified looks on his classmates faces.
“Didn’t stop you from blowing up the lab last month.” Harley interjected.
“You!” Tony said loudly, wheeling round to point at Harley, “You are still banned from my tower. Why are you here? How are you here!”
“Don’t look at me.” Peter replied with a shrug, glad the attention was off of him as his classmates' heads whipped to follow the argument, “He won’t tell me.”
“Only because your dad built a snitch into the walls.” Harley replied, kissing Peter’s cheek sweetly, “No offence FRIDAY. You know you’re my favourite AI.”
“None taken Harley.” FRIDAY replied, voice fond.
Peter’s class all jumped at the voice, they had forgotten she existed, since nobody on the lower floors had direct access to her.
“How come she responded to him and not me!” Flash yelled rudely, finally recovering from his shock as he pushed Betty out of the way to point at Harley, “Mr Stark just said he wasn’t allowed in the tower.”
“FRIDAY only responds to people Mr Stark has allowed access.” The tour guide said automatically, face still pale.
Peter winced and made a mental note to send her a fruit basket next week for putting up with Flash all day.
“Don’t point at people, Mr Thompson. We are here representing the school and you will act like it.” Mr Harrington hissed at his student, fighting a losing battle against the tide of shock and awe in the room.
“Yeah the old man here loves me really. He just pretends not to because I’m dating his only son. Hear that Tony, I’m gonna inherit your company some day.” Harley said loudly, laughing at the shade of green the man went.
Shocked gasps echoed around the room, Peter’s classmates' jaws falling further than even they thought was possible. Flash was slowly turning an ugly shade of purple as more information was spilled.
“Peter, you need to break up with this farm boy.” Tony implored his son.
“I know you like each other, stop it.” Peter said tiredly, “I’ve been awake for the last forty hours and I will get FRIDAY to play the footage of you asleep on the sofa together.”
“Darlin’, baby, love of my life, you would never.” Harley implored his boyfriend, peppering his face with fond kisses.
Peter giggled, pretending to try and bat his boyfriend away whilst Tony let out a loud fake groan.
“My sweet, innocent child. Corrupted!”
“Dad we’ve been dating for like a year.” Peter said with a giggle as he finally escaped Harley’s clutches, ducking past Tony and burrowing under his arm. “This is hardly the worst thing you’ve seen.”
“Don’t remind me.” Tony said in mock horror, ruffling Peter’s hair fondly.
“You’re heir to Stark Industries.” Cindy said blankly in much the same way she had asked about his parentage moments earlier.
“Uhm.” Peter said eloquently, suddenly reminded his Academic Decathlon team must have heard every word. He took in their shocked faces, only Ned and MJ were acting like this was normal information, snickering at Flash’s expression as MJ was sketching in her crisis notebook.
“Had you not told your friends?” Tony asked.
“Yes?” Peter said, “You’ve met Ned and MJ many times.”
“What about the others?” Harley said, prodding his boyfriend’s side.
“Well I’m not close to anyone else, why would I out myself as Tony Stark’s son before we announce it to the rest of the world?” Peter said, looking and sounding truly baffled.
“Do you not consider us your friends?” Abe asked, frowning at Peter across the room, “Because, like, y'all are my only friends.”
“I didn’t say we weren’t friends!” Peter defended, “But it’s kinda a lot.”
“I don’t believe you.” Flash said loudly, drawing everyone’s attention back to him, “Why would Puny Parker be the son of Tony Stark. It’s not fair.” He stamped his foot, and Peter narrowly avoided bursting into laughter at his classmate’s childish tantrum.
“I can assure you Peter is my son, and the heir to Stark Industries.” Tony said coldly, drawing himself up to his full height as he stared Flash down. “No matter who Peter dates he will always be my heir, and he will be announcing his identity to the world once he is ready at eighteen.”
“But, but, why aren’t they wearing a badge!” Flash said finally, cowering under Tony’s glare and pointing at the two teens again before turning back to their tour guide, “You said Tony Stark’s close family all wore red and gold passes!”
“Mine is around here somewhere.” Harley said, patting his pockets as he searched for it.
“It’s here.” Peter said guiltily, the red and gold pass appearing in his hand.
“You little thief! Can’t believe you waited until my guard was down.” Harley tried to snatch the pass back from his boyfriend but Peter was faster.
“I need it! I need a pass from every level to test now that dad is back and can get FRI to give me access to her code.” Peter defended himself loudly, “Besides, I’ve had it since you scared me so badly I landed on the ceiling, it’s not my fault you’re unobservant.”
“Why aren’t you allowed one?” Betty asked quietly, interrupting the bickering.
“Underoos here isn’t allowed one because he can’t be trusted.” Tony declared, plucking Harley’s badge out of Peter’s hand and tossing it back to him.
“You drop one pass off a bridge.” Peter muttered, attempting to escape the grip Tony had on his shoulders.
“It was way more than one Junior.” Tony said, “There was also the one you left in Shawarma Palace, the one you dropped off the tower, the three you blew up in R&D and the one that’s still in Wakanda. And those are just the ones we know you lost or destroyed.”
“The badges!” Peter shouted, finally freeing himself from Tony’s grip and darting to the table.
“Peter?” Tony asked with suspicion, peering at the table's contents, and then his son’s face, “Am I looking at our Head of Security’s disassembled badge right now.”
“No?” Peter said, the end of the word trailing upwards as he shifted on his feet.
”He’s testing turning the badges into functioning pagers.” Harley called out to him.
“I thought you were working on the Spidermobile. Since you’re in my lab and all.” Tony said distractedly, glancing over to the half finished car and then back to the table, wandering closer to have a better look.
Small gasps echoed around the lab once again and Peter frowned at his dad, “Snakes! Both of you! For Spiderman. See! The Black Widow’s gun is on the table over there!”
“Harley, give him your badge. You too…” He trailed off and Peter arched an eyebrow at him.
“Lucy.”
“Yes, thank you Peter. Lucy, hand me your badge sweetheart, you too Ted.” Tony said, winking at the tour guide when she flushed red at being directly addressed. Yeah. Peter was sending her flowers AND a bouquet of flowers.
“It’s Ned, Dad.” Peter corrected with an eyeroll.
“Hey, why do you need mine.” Harley said loudly, “Use your own old man.”
“Oh mine is somewhere in the sea by China.” Tony dismissed with a wave of his hand, “Badge now Potato Boy and I will consider letting you stay tonight.”
Harley narrowed his eyes but threw his badge at Tony, catching the man in the chest just below his Arc Reactor with startling accuracy.
The man let out a physical oof as the badge clattered to the floor loudly, “You aren’t staying in Peter’s room.”
“Dad.” Peter said scandalised, sparing a glance towards his favourite teacher, who was staring blankly at the floor as if it was going to open up and swallow him whole.
“Peter.” Tony repeated back at him before looking up and following Peter’s gaze.
“Oh come on he’s an adult and he just walked in on you two making out shamelessly on a bench in this lab. I think he can probably figure out you two share a room.”
“Dad!” Peter squawked, flushing a brilliant scarlet and throwing his hands up helplessly.
“He definitely had that one worked out, sorry darlin’.” Harley said, slipping his arm low around Peter’s waist, sneaking his hand into his boyfriend’s pocket.
Flash shoved Ned out of the way before he could give his pass to Lucy.
“Why don’t you have mine.” He said excitedly, walking forwards towards the family as if he had forgotten their last exchange.
“I wouldn't…” Peter was cut off by a loud alarm blaring out, only Harley’s arm draped across him stopped him from hitting the ceiling once more.
“Eugene Thompson, get back here right now.” Mr Harrington bit out, seizing his student’s arm to drag him back to the group.
“It’s rather too late for that.” Tony said with a sigh, moving closer to his son as the alarms continued loudly.
Peter’s teeth were gritted, body tightly wound under Harley’s tight grip. He didn’t enjoy loud noises on a good day, but his senses were heightened running on the little sleep he had gotten.
Security burst into the room, closely followed by an angry Happy Hogan. Peter winced away from the thundering footsteps, eyes screwing up as he ducked his head, covering his ears with his hands.
“Tony I’m gonna take Peter upstairs, it’s too loud in here and he needs to sleep.” Harley said quietly, hands moving to hold Peter against his chest.
“I’ll be up as soon as this situation has been dealt with.” Tony promised, pressing a kiss into Peter’s hair.
Harley nodded and scooped Peter up off the floor effortlessly, cradling him closely to his chest.
Tony watched him walk off towards the private Stark lift before turning back to Security, who were encircling the group of students. Ned and MJ were staring after Peter and Harley worriedly, and the rest of the team looked as though they were torn between fear and concern.
“What happened, boss.” Happy asked, frowning at the group of teens in the lobby.
“That kid tried to walk across the security boundary.” Tony said carelessly, pointing directly at Flash.
“I offer my deepest apologies for Mr. Thompson’s behaviour today.” Mr Harrington said firmly, offering Flash a look that promised he would see some punishment when they returned to the school.
“I’m afraid our security will have to detain Mr. Thompson until his parents arrive to collect him.” Happy said, turning to address the teacher, “He specifically disobeyed the rules of the paperwork his parents signed, and as a minor we will have to speak to them about punishment.”
Mr Harrington paled considerably as he glanced between the security guard with a heavy hand on Flash’s shoulder, and the rest of his class.
“He will be perfectly safe in our custody, and all of their parents have signed off on us being able to detain them if they disobey our strict guidelines. It seems like it’s time for Lucy to escort you and the rest of your charges to the giftshop before you leave.” Tony said, spreading his arms, “Thank you for coming to Stark Industries.”
“Come on guys.” Lucy said finally, “I will take you down to the giftshop, your visitor passes will cover up to twenty dollars.”
The class dutifully turned and followed Lucy towards the lift, Mr Harrington pausing only for a moment to shoot a worried glance at Flash who was getting paler by the minute.
“Tony, what the hell happened to my badge!” The group heard the head of security ask loudly as the lift doors closed behind them.
-
”Thanks Harls.” Peter said quietly, smiling tiredly up at his boyfriend through the mound of blankets.
“I love you darlin’, but you need to start taking your health seriously.” Harley said sternly.
“I promise I will try.” Peter said.
“That’s all I can ask for.” Harley replied, dipping his head to kiss Peter sweetly.
Peter smiled against his lips, whining sadly when Harley tried to pull back, hand sneaking up to cup the back of Harley’s neck and pull him down against him.
“I love you.” Harley mumbled into Peter’s mouth.
“I love you too.” Peter replied quietly, relishing in the tired slide of their mouths for a moment before he pulled back, tucking himself into Harley’s collarbone, his head suddenly too heavy for him to lift.
Tony smiled at the sight of his two charges curled up with each other on the sofa, the fake fire crackling softly in front of them. He may tease them both, but nothing in the world was better than seeing them relaxed and safe together.
-
“So Peter’s definitely Spiderman.” Cindy said, turning to the team on the bus.
“Oh for sure.” Abe replied, everyone else mumbling their agreement along with him.