Archive of Our Own

“Do you think we could get MJ to draw the look on Flash’s face when you scan your alpha-platinum-avenger level badge?”

“My what?” Peter asked, turning to face Ned. 

“You know,” said Ned, “your special pass.”

Peter frowned and passed over his perfectly average intern pass, with a picture, his name, and intern designation. He’d specifically asked for nothing more than what any other intern would get. 

“Sorry man, but my badge isn’t anything special.”

The bus bumped along. As it got closer to Avengers Tower, the pit of dread in Peter’s stomach grew bigger and bigger.

“I don’t get it. If you’ve got everything planned to stay under the radar like this, why didn’t you want to come?”

It was true; Peter had tried to avoid getting the permission slip signed by trashing it two blocks away from home, just to avoid any chance of Aunt May spotting it in the kitchen trash can. Unfortunately for Peter, everything was digital now, and both Aunt May and Mr. Stark had filled out the form in the online portal the day it was posted. Peter hadn’t even known that Mr. Stark could access the portal! 

“Have you met me? I’ve never had a normal field trip before! I’m not even talking about the spider bite, remember kindergarten and the trip to that farm where I fell in a mud puddle? Or eighth grade Coney Island, where we got stuck on a roller coaster for two hours? There’s no way today will go well.”

Ned laughed. “Or maybe today will go really well, since you practically live here!” 

Peter shot him a nervous look. “Don’t jinx it!”

MJ, who was sitting behind them, leaned over their seat. 

“I’m not surprised you losers are acting weird about this, but what’s going on with Mr. Grace?” 

Now that Peter was paying attention, Mr. Grace, who sat a few rows ahead of them, did look a little off. He was pale, and fidgeting way more than usual. 

“He wasn’t supposed to come on the field trip, right?” Peter asked. 

He already knew. Mr. Grace’s planned absence from the trip was part of the reason Peter hadn’t originally wanted to go, on top of the whole field trip=disaster thing. Mr. Grace was awesome, the only teacher that really made Peter feel like someone was in his corner, and, for that matter, every other student’s corner as well. He’d actually gotten Flash to leave him alone! The truce they had only lasted the duration of Mr. Grace’s class, but Peter wasn’t complaining. Without Mr. Grace on the trip and the threat of losing beanbags hanging over everyone’s head, Peter would have been stuck listening to Flash trying to taunt him about his internship all day. 

MJ nodded. “It was supposed to be the other biology teacher, but she’s out sick.”

“Maybe he gets motion sickness and didn’t want to go on the bus,” Ned suggested. “I heard that’s why he always sends students down to the basement to get the lab equipment.”

“What?” Peter asked. “He said it was so we’d learn the names of stuff we’re working with.”

“Nope,” said Ned, leaning in to whisper conspiratorially. “It’s ‘cause he’s scared of the elevator.” 

“He looked sick before we even got on the bus,” MJ said, flipping back in her sketchbook. “I’ve been drawing his various crises all morning.” 

“Those are good!” Peter said, kneeling on the seat to get a better look. 

“Not the point,” said MJ, but Peter could see a slight flush creeping over her cheeks. 

He wondered why, but he wasn’t going to ask. 

“Should we say something?” Ned asked. 

“Probably not,” Peter said. 

He sympathized with Mr. Grace. He didn’t want any extra attention that day either, the other students would smell blood in the water and strike if they caught onto any of Peter’s jitters. Mr. Grace didn’t exactly have that problem, but it was the principle of it. 

“I wonder if he knows someone who works here,” MJ said, fingers twitching toward her drawing pencil as they all watched Mr. Grace polish his glasses for the third time in a row. “Maybe someone from the UNESCO conference?”

MJ had been the one to dig that up when Mr. Grace had come to Midtown, and Peter still thought he was a legend for it. It was so cool; it seemed like something Mr. Stark would have done. Mr. Stark probably had done something like that, in fact. It irked Peter that the reason Mr. Grace had been ejected from academia was something that Mr. Stark was praised for, and that net worth was probably the deciding factor. Sometimes Peter thought about introducing them, but Mr. Grace the teacher seemed so different from the man on the grainy video they’d watched on MJ’s phone, calling someone “a staggering waste of carbon.” Maybe he really wanted to leave all that behind. That could explain the anxiety, Peter decided. 

“Maybe,” agreed Peter as the bus pulled up to a stop in front of the gleaming tower. 

Mr. Harrington unsuccessfully tried to get everyone’s attention, and after a few minutes of letting him flounder, Mr. Grace stood up and clapped his hands together. Everyone quieted.  

Peter ignored Mr. Harrington as he listed off the rules and reminded everyone to be on their best behavior. He dug through his bag instead. Mr. Stark kept the lab stocked with enough snacks to feed Peter for a year and then some, and he had a habit of stuffing Peter’s backpack full of whatever snacks were in reach whenever Peter wasn’t looking. For some reason, one of the snacks Mr. Stark always kept on hand was sour skittles, even though neither Peter nor Mr. Stark seemed to like them very much. Mr. Grace, on the other hand, was famous for his skittle addiction. Peter lucked out, a slightly crumpled bag of sour skittles was tucked in the very bottom of the bag under a pile of pencils and crumpled papers. He dusted it off and got ready to go. 

Mr. Grace was at the doors, checking students off on the roster as they climbed down the steps. He seemed like he was only paying half a mind of attention, staring up at the top of tower with a wistful expression in between ticking off names on the list. As Peter passed, he offered the bag to Mr. Grace. 

“Want some skittles?”

“Thank you, Peter, that’s very kind of you, but I can’t take your food.”

“The bodega had a deal this morning, every sandwich comes with a free bag of skittles. I don’t even like these.”

“He doesn’t,” said MJ, who was exiting behind him. “He can’t handle the sour sugar at all. It’s kind of sad. And he hates wasting food, so he’ll probably try to eat them anyway.”

Peter glared, even though she was helping. It wasn’t his fault the spider bite enhanced all his senses! Mr. Grace was considering it now, so Peter shook the bag. 

“Seriously, Mr. Grace, I want you to have them.”

Finally, he took the bag, and ate a quick handful. 

“Thanks,” he said, with a shaky smile. 

He looked a little less pale. Peter, Ned, and MJ moved further along as more students left the buses and crowded the sidewalks. 

Unfortunately, they ended up next to Flash. 

“So, Penis Parker, bribing the teachers so they play along with your fake internship? I was wondering how you got Mr. Grace to pretend to buy it.”

Peter sighed and bit back the urge to call Flash a staggering waste of carbon. 

Flash continued. “I wonder if they’ll even let you in. It’s probably a security risk to have a liar like you trying to sneak in.”

Peter chose to ignore him. His quips and comebacks were never as good as when he wore the mask. He froze – the mask! As always, he had his spider suit in his backpack and webshooters on his wrists. Normally this wasn’t a problem, he either came into the tower through a top floor window or directly from the garage, accompanied by either Happy or Mr. Stark, but there was no way he could get his stuff through security on an intern badge! 

He’d only taken the tour once, ages ago, but if he remembered it correctly, only the second half of the tour required a security checkpoint. The first half, the SI and Avengers museum, only needed a ticket. So, all Peter needed to do was get inside, stash his suit somewhere in the museum, and he’d be home free! Easy, he told himself, a foolproof plan. 

They were given free rein over the museum, and soon the class was spread out around the various displays. Peter, of course, went straight to the Thor exhibit. As he wandered through the displays, he looked for places to hide his suit. The Vita-Ray machine in the Captain America looked like a good option, he could keep the suit secured behind a closed door. 

“Peter!” Ned called. “Over here!”

He followed Ned’s voice, waved to MJ as he passed her at the Black Widow exhibit, then found what Ned was trying to direct him to: the museum had a Spider-Man exhibit now. 

“No way,” Peter breathed. 

“Why didn’t you tell me about this?”

“I didn’t know!”

They both studied the display. It was big, almost as big as the displays for the Avengers. It had a replica of Peter’s current suit, and embarrassingly, his very first “pajamas” suit. How did Mr. Stark even get that? 

The signs held a bio and some fun facts, and across the top was written “With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility.” 

The Spider-Man section gave Peter an idea, which he held onto as he and Ned eventually pulled themselves away to go look around some more. 

As the Avengers museum time came to an end and the rest of the class moved forward toward the Stark Industries Through the Years section, Peter slipped back away from the crowd and hung around in the Avengers area. After all, what better place to hide something than in plain sight? On his phone, Peter quickly tapped out a message to Karen to ask Friday to loop the cameras around the Spider-Man display, then he was off. 

A careful use of his sticking ability popped the side panel off of the glass display case. There were no spare mannequins, so a quick spray of web fluid got his suit stuck to the back wall like it was always meant to be there. Then he paused, trying to decide if he should leave the webshooters too. The suit was recognizable, but the webshooters could probably pass as bracelets. He could leave them just to be safe, but he knew he’d feel much more comfortable keeping them on. They were practically part of him at this point! Finally, he decided that they could stay, and stepped down, preparing to put the panel back in place. 

Someone cleared their throat behind him, and Peter spun around, face to face with a security guard. 

“It’s okay!” he said. “I work here! I’m… fixing it, the display was crooked.”

“Yeah, right. Sure kid.” The security guard took him by the arm and roughly yanked him out of the display box. 

He continued pulling Peter along as they got back to where the group was. 

“We’ve had some incidents in the museum before, but I’ve never seen anyone trying to steal from the displays before. It’s a good thing your friend warned me about what you were planning, you could have hurt yourself. These aren’t toys!”

People were staring and whispering as Peter and the security guard got closer, probably because the guard wasn’t even trying to keep his voice down as he scolded Peter. Flash looked triumphant, Peter was pretty sure he knew who had seen him sneaking off. 

“I caught this kid breaking into a display case, I’m gonna need a teacher to come with us, I can’t have a kid alone in the security office. He’ll need to wait there for the rest of your trip.”

“I work here!” Peter said, trying to plead his case again. “I was fixing it!”

“Peter!” Mr. Harrington said. “I expected better from you.”

Mr. Harrington sighed and started to walk over. “I was looking forward to this trip, you know. As soon as we get back to the school we’re going straight to Principal Morita’s office, and-”

“I’ll go!” yelled Mr. Grace, from the other side of the room. 

He hurried over and was beside Peter and the guard before Mr. Harrington had even finished his next step. 

“I’ll wait with him,” continued Mr. Grace. 

“Are you sure?” Mr. Harrington asked. “This is your first time on the tour, I wouldn’t want you to miss anything.”

Mr. Grace waved his concerns off. “It’s fine, I’ll see it next year.”

The security guard frowned. “We wouldn’t ruin everyone’s trip today over one incident, but this is serious. We will be reviewing your school’s eligibility for future trips.”

Mr. Harrington looked like he wanted to say something else, but Mr. Grace was already speaking again. 

“Which way to the security office?” 

It looked like Mr. Grace would be going whether anyone else liked it or not. Internally, Peter was freaking out. Mr. Grace’s disappointed teacher face was killer, and the lectures were even worse. 

The holding area was freezing cold, almost as cold as the guard’s stare. Mr. Grace looked perfectly happy, now, none of that nervous energy left over. It seemed to confuse the guard as much as it did Peter, the way Mr. Grace was smiling and offering them each a skittle. 

“This is a serious matter, Mr. Grace,” the guard said. 

“I promise I was just trying to fix the display!” said Peter again, like a liar. “I really do work here, Mr. Stark said I can go wherever I want.” 

That part, at least, was true. He held out his internship badge for the guard as proof. 

The guard took the badge, squinting at it. “This is fake. I’m going to have to confiscate this, your friend warned me you might be planning something like this.”

“Okay, he is not my friend,” said Peter, flushing red in anger, “and he’s the one that was lying! Just scan it.”

“He is actually an intern here,” said Mr. Grace. “I’ve seen the paperwork.”

“He can’t. SI doesn’t accept high schoolers for any internships, and the interns we do have would never have even spoken to Mr. Stark.”

“Then Peter’s the exception. He’s the type of talent Tony would jump at.”

“With all due respect, sir, he’s a child. Stark Industries does not hire children, and his badge is clearly fake. If he’s been forging paperwork, too, I’m going to have to escalate this.” 

“It’s not fake!” said Peter, holding himself back as he gripped the arm of his chair, needing to grip onto something to keep himself grounded but teetering on the edge of gripping too hard and crushing the metal. 

“I need to go get my supervisor. I might have been willing to let you go with a warning if it were only the attempted theft since you are just a kid, but this is clearly premeditated and legal’s going to want to be involved over the paperwork issue. All of this together, we’re going to have to get the police involved. Sir, if you can call his parents, I’ll be back soon.”

Sometimes, Peter really disliked security guards. They always got in the way of important Spidey business, in and (now apparently) out of the suit. 

The guard stepped out and Peter slumped in his chair. This was the worst the Field Trip Gods had ever managed to curse him! He was going to jail!

“What’s got you so nervous?” Mr. Grace asked. 

The badge technically, and only very technically, was actually a fake. But Peter could not tell Mr. Grace that, especially after he’d gone to bat for him like that. Peter didn’t actually need a badge, Karen and FRIDAY took care of all his entry permissions for him, but he wanted one anyway, to make him stand out less. Happy had eventually acquiesced and given him his intern badge, but it didn’t work the same way an intern badge did. It would scan, but if you dug into it it was clear that Mr. Stark’s AIs were involved. Peter doubted this security guard would have gone digging, but a supervisor might. It would look like he hacked FRIDAY or something. Oh, Thor, he really was going to jail. Aunt May would be so disappointed. 

“I’m just, um, upset about missing the trip like this. And I’m sorry about making you miss it too.”

“I don’t mind, believe me. I’m surprised you haven’t been on the trip before, with you working here and all.”

“I have!” Peter said quickly, in case Mr. Grace was starting to believe the security guard and not him. “I just thought it might be fun to take the tour with my friends too.”

He felt so very bad about lying to his favorite teacher so much. 

“But seriously, I’m sorry I dragged you into this. I promise I didn’t steal or forge paperwork or anything.”

“I know, I believe you. You’re a good kid, Peter. You shouldn’t have gone into the display case like that, but I can’t blame you for wanting to show off a little. I’d have done the same thing when I was your age.” 

“Really?” Peter asked. 

“Oh yeah,” said Mr. Grace. “I’d be a bad teacher if I told you what I got up to back then, so I’ll just tell you that I get it. It sucks being underestimated. I was a smart kid in an adult environment once too.”

“Really?” Peter asked. “What do you mean?”

“I was probably your age when I started university,” Mr. Grace said. “No one thought I belonged, that’s for sure. One time, I almost got chased out of a summit I was presenting in. Apparently two teen presenters was an impossibility, if To-,” he cut himself off and his face did something strange. “If the other guy my age hadn’t been there and made a bigger scene than the one I was about to make, my career in academia would have been over much, much sooner,” he laughed. 

“I didn’t know you started university so young. Mr. Stark did too! It’s cool you had a friend there,” Peter rambled. 

“Friend could be a word for it, I guess,” said Mr. Grace. “We only ever saw each other at conferences and competitions, we didn’t keep in touch outside of that.” 

He looked sad about it. 

“Why don’t you get in touch with him again now?” asked Peter. 

Mr. Grace laughed once, in a way that almost sounded like a sigh. “I don’t know if I feel up to seeing him again. It’s been a while. He probably doesn’t even remember me.”

“Did you have a fight or something?” 

Mr. Grace looked down at his bag of skittles, fidgeting again with the corner of it. “Not exactly…” he coughed, “but it’s all in the past now!”

Peter thought that was an odd way to answer the question, but decided not to push it. Adults were weird sometimes. 

The door opened, sending another gust of chilly air toward Peter, who was beginning to wish he’d worn a jacket. Karen followed him around the public areas and labs in the tower, keeping the place warm enough for a spider that couldn’t thermoregulate, but private offices like this one stayed set at their owner’s preferred temperature. 

It was Happy behind the door, and Peter nearly fell out of his chair in a combination of relief that he wasn’t going to jail and fear at the annoyed look on Happy’s face. 

“FRIDAY just called me away from a very important meeting for this, you’d better have a good explanation.”

“Are you the supervisor?” asked Mr. Grace. 

“I’m head of security,” said Happy. 

Peter wisely decided not to comment on the fact that his official designation was forehead of security. 

Happy slapped a badge down on the desk beside Peter. “I told you the intern badge was a bad idea.”

The new badge Happy gave him was still plain looking, the same as everyone else’s, thank Thor, but this time instead of ‘Intern’ it read ‘He can do what he wants. Call Happy if you’ve got a problem with that and prepare to face his wrath.’ 

Mr. Stark had definitely had a hand in the design. Peter really, really hoped that no one but him would ever see it. At least that eliminated the scanning problem. Peter stuffed the badge deep into his pocket, but at Happy’s subsequent glare he slowly pulled it back out and clipped it to his jacket. He, and everyone in the building, knew all about Happy’s security rules. 

“Come on,” Happy said. “I’ll take you back to your group and then I’d better not hear from you for the rest of the week.”

Peter nodded. He’d call in his nightly Spidey updates anyway. He knew by now that Happy secretly enjoyed them, even if he always pretended he didn’t. 

Mr. Grace’s smile didn’t seem quite as bright any more, dimming by the minute as Happy led them back to their group. The group had just wrapped up the arc reactor demonstration and was headed for some of the labs, so at least Peter didn’t have to go through the security checkpoint with his new badge in front of everyone. 

“Peter!” Ned shouted, trapping him in a tight hug. Peter hugged back. “You’re not in juvie!”

Peter laughed. “All thanks to Happy.”

The tour guide cleared her throat. “As I was saying, I’m about to take you into the most interesting section of the building: the prototyping room! You’ll get to see some designs and tests for the projects our engineers are working on.”

She opened the door, ushering the group inside. Peter tuned her out as she started to give an overview of the products SI had out right now, scanning over the workspace. A few people were tinkering with a robot at one table, in another corner a group was working with some circuits, which Peter was pretty sure had something to do with the next Starkphone, and plenty more people were working on computers. 

Peter wasn’t the only one not paying attention to her speech. 

“I bet this is the closest you’ve ever gotten to any labs here,” Flash hissed in his ear. “I’m surprised they let you back in. You know what the tour guide told us earlier? You have to be in college to get an internship here. They don’t take high schoolers.”

“They do when the high schooler impresses Mr. Stark.” 

Flash scoffed. “Yeah, right.”

“Just because you’re not smart enough to work here doesn’t mean I’m not.”

“Is there a question back there?” the tour guide asked, and Peter shrunk back, shaking his head. 

He used the distraction as an opportunity to move away from Flash. There was an open spot near MJ, so Peter squished past other students until he made it over there. From this new spot he didn’t have as good of a view of the workers, but it did give him a view of Mr. Grace, who seemed to be trying to shrink into his raincoat. He’d pulled out his beanie and put it on, too, even though it was warmer now, and pulled it as far down as it could go. 

“Dr. Grace!” one of the workers came over. “What’s a crazy bastard like you doing teaching high school?”

“Please don’t swear in front of the kids.”

Was this the person Mr. Grace was avoiding? 

“It’s good to see you, man! You totally dropped off the face of the Earth there,” he laughed. “You and Marissa both, but for pretty different reasons. Have you heard from her lately?”

“We talk. As for me, I’ve just… been busy,” Mr. Grace said. 

He didn’t actually seem that upset about the man recognizing him. There was no way that this was what had him so nervous. 

“Your teacher and I go way back,” the man said. “We went to grad school together. No one parties like Ryland here. That time he destroyed everyone at beer pong while totally blackout is still legendary.”

“It’s not like it’s a difficult game!” said Mr. Grace, “You just have to pay attention to trajectory and bounce physics. If you use the 45 degree rule…” he trailed off, realizing that everyone was staring. “I think we should talk about something else now."

“Legendary,” repeated the scientist. “Does he teach you about his water-based lifeforms hypothesis?”

“I teach them the AP bio curriculum.”

“Good, one Crazy Grace is all this world can handle.”

“Well, I guess you’re entitled to your opinions,” said Mr. Grace, “even if they are cruddy and closed-minded.”

“We’ve all read the paper, though,” said Ned. 

“Yeah!” agreed Betty. “It’s a great paper, it was so funny how he calls all those other scientists out!”

“You guys have read that?” Mr. Grace squawked.

“It’s a good paper,” said Peter.

“Do you have family who work here, kid? I feel like I’ve seen you here before,” the man said, looking at Peter now that he’d spoken up.  

Now it was Peter's turn to blanche. 

“Nope! None of them work here.”

“Are you sure?” 

Peter nodded. The man looked suspicious, but the tour guide’s tablet beeped and drew everyone’s attention away from Peter and Mr. Grace. Saved by the bell. 

“Oh wow! This must have come from someone really high up!” she said. “This has never happened before, but I’m being told that your tour is going to go to the restricted biology labs next instead of the admin department.”

Mr. Grace made a choking sound at the news. He had a degree in molecular biology, so maybe that’s where the person he was avoiding worked. Peter, Ned, and MJ all made eye contact, confirming that they had all come to the same conclusion. 

The tour guide led them through the halls to the lab, and one by one they all scanned their passes as they filed in behind her. 

“Hi!” said the biologist as they all crammed against the wall. “We don’t normally get to be a part of the tours, so I don’t really have a spiel prepared for you all. Does anyone have any questions before we start?”

No one from the tour group spoke, but the scientist didn’t get to continue. 

“You!” a man yelled from behind the group. He was out of breath like he’d just ran there. “I told you to wait in the office while I got a supervisor!”

It was the security guard from before, and he was headed straight for Peter. 

“Happy came and got us,” Peter said. “He brought us back to the tour.”

“Happy wouldn’t let you in here without a badge.”

Peter held up the new badge he’d been given. “He brought me a new one.”

“Hello, students!” said the voice Peter was hoping not to hear that day. Mr. Stark was here. 

That was the third reason Peter hadn’t wanted to come. There was no way he could avoid drawing attention if Mr. Stark was there. 

“Welcome to the restricted biology lab! I’m sure your brilliant teacher has taught you enough that you won’t be confused. Kid, good to see you.”

He clapped Peter on the shoulder as he passed.

“I heard that the kid, Peter, my personal intern, was on this trip, so I thought I’d make it extra special for you all.” 

“His badge was real?” asked the security guard. 

Mr. Stark wrinkled his nose at him. “Obviously? He couldn’t have gotten in without one. Who are you? Why are you here?”

“I’m Kevin,” said the security guard. “And I watched him break into a display case.”

“I don’t actually care. Didn’t you read his badge?”

“This just says that he can do what he wants.”

“Exactly. You can go now. Leave the kid alone.” 

The guard looked at Peter’s badge one more time, then sighed a deep, heavy sigh.

“I should have been a mall cop,” he muttered as he left. “This place is so weird.”

“SI doesn’t take high schoolers as interns! Everyone said so!” said Flash, who in his indignation that Peter could have something he couldn’t, seemed to have forgotten who he was talking to. 

“Sometimes, exceptions are made for exceptional people. SI doesn’t take just any kid, but Peter was worth it.”

At this, the rest of the class started to whisper to each other, mostly variations of “It was real?” and “I totally thought he was making the internship up! He actually works for Tony Stark?” 

Flash looked just a little bit like he’d died inside.

Mr. Stark continued. “MIT doesn’t take just any kid, but I was obviously worth it. I could say the same thing about your teacher, there. UC Berkeley doesn’t normally admit kids either.” 

Hold on, thought Peter. Was Mr. Stark the old friend Mr. Grace had mentioned earlier? They clearly knew each other somehow, was this why Mr. Grace had been so nervous about the trip? That… actually made sense. Peter was right, they would make good friends! He should have introduced them so much sooner. He was sure that whatever had kept them apart could be solved. 

“Anyway,” finished Mr. Stark, “if you’ll turn your attention to the scientists, they’ll tell you what they’ve been working on.”

Peter pretended to listen to what the biology lab employees had to say, but really he turned his hearing to Mr. Stark as he pulled Mr. Grace aside, wondering what was going on. 

“So, Mr. Grace, hm?”

“That’s me! Nice to meet you, Dr. Stark.” As Mr. Grace spoke, his voice sounded tight. Nervous. 

“You’re going to pretend not to remember me? I’m hurt, Ryland. And after I organized this special lab detour just for you.”

Mr. Grace sucked in a breath. “I didn’t think you remembered me.”

“How could I not?” Mr. Stark said, his tone taking on something that sounded softer, almost sadder, very different from his normal larger than life persona. 

“It’s been a long time, we’re different people now.”

“Are we?” Mr. Stark asked. “I heard about your departure from academia. I never pictured you as a school teacher.”

“I like it,” said Mr. Grace, defensive. “The kids are great.”

Mr. Stark hummed. “I don’t have the patience for that. One kid is already more than my heart can take. Pete’s in your class, isn’t he?”

Mr. Grace nodded. “He is. Good kid.”

“Great kid,” confirmed Mr. Stark. “He mentioned a Mr. Grace but I didn’t think it could be you, at least, until my AI told me you were in my tower under a security hold. That’s when I knew it had to be you. We’ve had a lot of fun times in security lockups, haven’t we?”

Mr. Grace laughed, a real laugh. 

“I’ve always got room in my company for great scientists like you,” said Mr. Stark. “Look at this lab, it could be yours.”

“I don’t know,” said Mr. Grace. 

“We can see each other again,” continued Mr. Stark. 

“It’s not that I wouldn’t want to see you, it’s just… It’s been a long time! I can’t leave my job, either.”

Mr. Stark was silent, a rare event. Peter decided to help. He broke away from the crowd lining up to peer into a microscope and joined the conversation. 

“Mr. Stark, you can be friends with people who don’t work for you,” he whispered. 

“Kid, that’s not exactly-”

Peter continued. “You should exchange numbers or something. Mr. Grace is very trustworthy, he won’t leak it to the press. Maybe you could get dinner together and catch up? I know a great Thai place in Queens.”

Mr. Stark looked at Mr. Grace with a smile and a raised eyebrow. “He knows a great Thai place in Queens. Maybe I can take you there? Tonight?”

Mr. Grace was looking away, scratching at the back of his neck, but he was smiling. “I’m free tonight.”

“Great!” said Mr. Stark. “Give me your phone. I can finally do what I’ve been meaning to do every time we crossed paths in university: give you my number.”

Peter went back to the group. It was a success, he thought, friendship restored! Maybe the Field Trip Gods would consider this good karma and let him have an uneventful rest of the trip. Flash was still in shock, so it didn’t look like there’d be any more comments from him, and he had a functional if a little bit embarrassing badge, and the hiding-the-suit incident seemed to be taken care of. Not to mention, Tony crediting him earlier meant that he was basically a king among his classmates, saving them from the drudgery of having to tour the admin offices. If he had any luck, this new reverence would carry over when they got back to Midtown. All in all, this was probably the best field trip Peter had ever had. 

Peter managed to put the only-semi-disastrous field trip out of his mind afterward, because everything mostly went back to normal. That was, until one Monday morning after Peter had spent Saturday fighting alongside the Avengers and Sunday recovering in his room at the tower under careful and constant AI monitoring. 

Something was wrong with the elevator, keeping Peter from reaching Mr. Stark’s penthouse, including his fully stocked kitchen where Peter hoped to find his breakfast. No matter what he tried, FRIDAY wouldn’t unlock access. This wasn’t totally out of the ordinary, it was protocol for lockdowns and when Tony had Pepper staying over. But they weren’t under a lockdown, Peter checked, and Pepper wouldn’t be staying the night anymore because she had a steady girlfriend, Eva Something, who worked for the ESA. Mr. Stark had seemed happier than usual, but Peter was pretty sure that was just because he’d rekindled his friendship with Mr. Grace. So, Peter was pretty annoyed at whatever was keeping him from going upstairs. 

He decided to take the long way, putting on his suit and climbing up the side of the tower. One of the windows was open, so Peter squeezed through. Inside, he pulled off his mask and sped to the kitchen, fully on autopilot, until his Peter Tingle interrupted him as he poured a cup of orange juice. 

He turned. 

There was Mr. Grace, in his pajamas, frozen with his coffee mug lifted halfway to his mouth. And Peter was there with his spider suit on and his mask off. 

“I can explain!” both of them shouted. 

At first, Peter was confused about what Mr. Grace had to explain. His mind was too focused on the fact that his identity was out for it to analyse how weird the situation was. But once it clicked, it clicked: his teacher was in Peter’s pseudo-home, wearing pajamas, and oh-my-Thor he had hickeys! 

“Ew…” whispered Peter as he realized. 

A chuckle sounded from the other side of the kitchen. 

“That’s what you get for ignoring the elevator, Underoos.”

Mr. Stark came into the kitchen too, also wearing pajamas and just as rumpled, and poured himself a cup of coffee. 

“Guess the cat’s out of the bag for all of us, huh?” 

He sipped his coffee and came up beside Mr. Grace, smacking a kiss on his forehead. 

“You two should go get ready, I’ll have Happy drive you both to the school.” He took another sip to drain the mug, then went over to refill it one more time.

“I’m going to my workshop. See you later, kid,” he said to Peter, then turned back to Mr. Grace, his voice getting lower, “and see you later too, gorgeous.”

Ew. Maybe the Field Trip Gods really did hate him and had just delayed their vengeance. 

Mr. Stark left, leaving Peter and Mr. Grace behind. 

“So. Spider-Man?”

Peter nodded. “Yep. Mr. Stark’s secret boyfriend?”

“Mhm.” 

“Cool.”

“Right.”

They continued to stare at each other. 

Finally, Peter broke. “Want to see where he hides the good cereal? All this healthy stuff’s just for show.”

Mr. Grace looked interested. “Are there any Froot Loops?” 

Peter slid open the secret snack cupboard. “There’s everything.” 

He slid the box of Froot Loops over to Mr. Grace then picked some cereal for himself. 

“I won’t mention any of this at school if you won’t,” Peter said. 

“Deal.” 

He’d also ask Happy to drop him off an extra block away from the school. And then he’d never return to the tower ever, ever again.