Chapter Text
It was embarrassing for Peter to admit, but Tony and Pepper had been his Brangelina. Pepperony, if you will, which he won’t, because it’s just weird when you are personally acquainted with half of it.
That closeness had been manufactured adroitly (albeit accidentally) by Peter. He’d had a very specific idea for a Spidey-suit webshooter upgrade, had told Happy about it and the struggles he was having trying to find the resources to do it in one of his (many) voicemails. He described the trials and tribulations of being a teenager with big dreams but no money trying to sell his soul to any laboratory that would have him, “part-time vigilante, full-time science enthusiast” etc etc. Comedy central, his voice notes, even if Happy didn’t always entirely appreciate them. However, that time he hadn’t just received a half-hearted ‘thumbs up’ response, but also an unknown number offering him the use of his lab via SMS. And Peter had hoped with all his heart that he knew the identity of the unknown number but, even if he had been the first victim of a very specific kidnapping plot, would still have had turned up at the address because Peter was nothing if not willing to risk life and limb for scientific progress.
But then he’d turned up and it had been Literally Prof Dr Sir Mr Tony Iron Man Stark himself letting him in to the SI labs late in the evening once all the employees had gone home. And Peter was pretty sure Mr Stark had only turned up in person to try and steal the web fluid ingredient list (jokes on him, he could’ve had it for nothing more than a five second Cameo wishing Ned a happy birthday, but the man wasn’t to know) but then Peter got him involved by asking pretty much a million questions non-stop, ramping up every time he tried to leave and then, somewhat against his will, Tony had got super invested in Peter’s new webshooter design and they had made plans to meet the next evening, and the evening after that, and the evening after that and then that weekend at Tony’s private lab (turns out, Mr Stark was worse at work-life balance than Peter was, and Peter stays in his lab until three in morning when he has class at eight am the next day three days in a row) and, then— you can’t just upgrade the webshooters, obviously.
So, then Tony was essentially forced to upgrade his suit, and Peter begged and begged and baked (semi-edible) cookies and fake-cried and Tony let him hold the screwdriver sometimes and watch often as they rebuilt the Spidey-suit into something super-duper rad. And by that time, Peter had got a weekly slot in his calendar, because Tony was kind of a big deal and someone was always wanting to meet up with him or he had the world to save et cetera and most of the time he can’t just blow off a business dinner three nights in a row in order to Do Science with Peter, so Peter got his own little slot in his calendar, which Peter was over-the-moon but also totally super cool and chill about.
The suit, now they were forced by the evils of Capitalism and Peter’s aunt’s demands of his sleep schedule, to work on only once a week, was slowly coming along. Most of the progress seemed to be made by Tony in his own time, which Peter was both grateful for and disappointed about. Recently they’d hit a snag on the suit development, so they’d switched gears and were working on the web fluid. (Peter had initially been holding back the recipe, scared that once this singular trump card was given up that Tony would lose interest. But then Tony had said ‘We’re not getting anywhere with this, want to change tack and work on the web fluid?’ and Peter had found himself agreeing and giving away literally every tiny secret without any further prompting. His personality was like the exact opposite of a locked vault. It had been okay, though. He still had his little slot in Tony’s calendar, and it was their third week trying new web fluid recipes).
So, tonight Peter was hanging from the ceiling, and they were shooting the breeze. Or, rather, Peter was stuck upside down caught in what was potentially the stickiest substance heretofore unknown to mankind, while Tony attempted to make calming small talk while cutting him out without getting caught in the goop himself. Tony had got stuck briefly and had been forced to literally don the Iron Man suit to get free. This substance wasn’t playing.
At least, Peter reflected, he could still breathe.
His head felt a little funny being upside down for this long, though. Also, what if he doesn’t get out before school the next day? What if he never escapes and is forced to live out the rest of his natural life hanging from this ceiling? What if he needs to pee?
Actually, he kinda, definitely, already needs to pee.
‘You doing okay up there, bud?’ Tony, from down below. Maybe Peter’s minor panic attack isn’t as subtle as he’d hoped.
‘I’m fine,’ he said, trying not to sound too high-pitched or breathy.
‘Tell me about the current nerd-school drama,’ Tony said.
It was the world’s most obvious distraction technique, but Peter did love an audience for Midtown high drama. He got good reviews though- his Aunt May said it was better than a soap opera.
‘…and then David broke up with Abigail literally the day before finals, which was such a bogus move on his part, and you could actually hear her crying throughout chemistry and Ms Stevens came and asked her if she wanted a break and she was like, no, I will not let Stupid David impact my GPA, and although I totally agree in principle, the crying was kind of distraction for the rest of us, not going to lie.’
Peter was genuinely feeling better, and he was letting his mouth run away with very little input from his brain. If he didn’t think about how much he had to pee or the toxic airborne chemicals being generated it was sort of relaxing having the laser cut through the sticky. Kind of salon-treatment-spa vibes (Peter had never been to a spa).
‘We all –and by that I mean me and Ned and MJ– all think that it’s really for the best that they broke up because they were toxic for each other, but it’s also kind of weird, ya know? Like, they were Dabigail. They always came together as this dysfunctional pair. You wouldn’t say “are David and Abigail going to be there?” you would just be like “Are Dabigail coming?” And there are other couples in the year, but they’re not Dabigail. They’re just, like, Fred and Nina. And if your name isn’t a portmanteau, are you even anything?’
And then, because he was really not paying attention to anything other than whether he should insist that Tony wears a gas mask because whatever particles were becoming gaseous with the laser smelt really, really bad and chemical-y, he continued, ‘Like, Pepperony used to be totally iconic, everyone knew about you guys. It was a whole thing. Although, I guess you went the way of Dabigail—’
Peter checked back into what his mouth was saying halfway through the last sentence, but not in time to stop saying it.
Now, if he hadn’t been watching a laser very, very carefully avoid slicing off one of his fingers for the past fifteen minutes, he might not have noticed the way there was a minute pause in proceedings, before it started up again.
Tony gave a dry laugh. ‘I guess we did.’
And then there was literally the longest, most awkward silence of his life. Well, apart from that time when they’d been playing a board game with Dabigail and Peter had looked to say, “it’s your turn,” and the two of them had been full-on Frenching. Every go. Or that time he’d said, “here’s your daughter back, Sir” and the man had said, “I’m her boyfriend.” Or that time he’d accidentally stuck himself to a criminal for a full hour as Spiderman. That had been a situation he really didn’t have any pre-prepared small talk for. This wasn’t quite an hour getting nothing but profanity or cursing your name out of someone, but it was still pretty bad.
The silence continued to stretch out. But Peter can’t not fill a silence. Also, he was starting to think about his bladder again and needed a distraction. ‘Sorry to bring it up. You were my favourite celebrity couple,’ Then, his commitment to the absolute truth striking, the way it always does to ruin an anecdote, ‘Apart from Zanessa.’
‘Zanessa?’
Then, because clearly Tony’s Disney education is sorely lacking and this is unacceptable, Peter gives him the low-down. Which shouldn’t take much longer than ‘they did the same three movies together,’ but Peter gets sidetracked into describing the plot of High School Musical one through three so that takes a fair bit of time. He ends with, ‘…But they haven’t been seen together in years, so it’s not looking good.’
‘Sorry to hear that,’ Tony says, almost managing to sound genuine.
Now things had got back to normal, and Peter probably should not say anything. But, he’s curious, okay? He wasn’t lying about the ‘second-favourite-celebrity-couple’ thing. Honestly, Zanessa have been over long enough that he could probably bump Pepperony up in the rankings. That’s why he says, ‘Do you think you and Miss Potts will ever get back together?’ (Well, that and his pressing need for distraction).
Tony is silent for long enough that Peter is worried he has actually offended him, but eventually he says, ‘What did you say about Dabigail? Dysfunctional pair? It’s probably for the best we don’t.’
If Peter had the freedom to move his limbs, he would’ve dropped to the floor yelling a slow-motion ‘Noooooooo.’ In his head, he still does this, but externally has to settle for saying, ‘You’re breaking a nation’s heart, Tony. It’s, like, what if Brangelina divorced?’
‘…They did?’
‘And a generation lost their belief in love.’
‘And a society needs to learn that parasocial relationships are unhealthy.’
Tony was smiling as he said it, though, which gave Peter the courage to push further. Also, Peter was a vigilante. Pushing boundaries was in his freaky spider DNA.
‘But you’d totally get back together if she asked, right?’
Tony laughs and doesn’t answer, which Peter interprets as a yes.
Thing is, Tony has made the odd comments over the months they’ve been working together. Things like ‘Oh yeah, I used to go there all the time, but haven’t been back since—’ and then he’d trail off and look, okay not devastated but definitely a little sad around the edges if you looked super-duper closely. Or, ‘Oh that was Pepper’s favourite artist.’ And there was a definite downturn of his mouth, or at least he wasn’t smiling to say it. And, sometimes he just sounded a little lonely. Like, he seemed to have a very full calendar in terms of ‘Oh I saw so-and-so at a soiree last night’ or ‘I’m presenting at a conference in Brussels next week so won’t be able to make it’ but there seemed, at least to Peter, a conspicuous lack of hangouts with buddies in his schedule.
By the time Peter had become unstuck (‘sorry, but I think we’re going to have to leave that chunk of ceiling on your hand unless you want to lose that finger’) he’d come to a decision.
He was going to get Tony and Miss Potts together in the same room. He wasn’t crazy enough to think he could influence what came next, but he was confident that that would be enough. They were meant to be, they just needed to remember it by means of geographical circumstance. Then the laws of gravity could take over.
(And if that didn’t work, he was going to find someone else to set Tony up with. Granted, there were not that many candidates in Peter’s life, but he kept getting adverts for a ‘senior singles dating app’ and he was more than willing to do some swiping for a good cause).
~
Peter’s internal conviction was strong, but the means had somewhat escaped him. He could get Tony, by himself, in a room, probably, and that was pretty much where his influence ended.
So, he did what he always did when he was stuck and brought it up over lunch to get the hive mind in on it, a teenage MDT.
Ned and MJ knew about his weekly appointments with the literal Tony Stark, because that wasn’t the sort of information Peter could keep to himself, although he had been a bit vague on the details of what they were working on when talking to MJ. All this meant that they were well up-to-date and he could just go straight in with the, ‘I want to get Mr Stark and Miss Potts back together, but I don’t know how to get them in the same room.’
‘Did you ever stop to consider that they are adults, and if they broke up there probably was a reason?’ MJ, of course.
‘But was it a reason they could not overcome?’
‘If they broke up, probably yes.’
MJ could be a little too realistic for Peter’s personality. Sometimes it balanced him out, sometimes it crushed his dreams. He turned beseechingly to Ned, only to be greeted with. ‘They are –after Zanessa, of course – my top celebrity couple, but I kinda agree with MJ. Maybe it ran its course.’
‘But Mr Stark is, like, totally heartbroken.’ A slight stretch in terms of hard evidence, but it felt true.
‘Even if he is,’ Ned said, ‘I don’t think we can do much about that.’
‘I just want to get them in a room together,’ Peter begged. ‘Just set the ball rolling, and then fate will take it from there.’
‘I think that ball has already rolled down the hill and stopped,’ MJ, again.
‘All it needs to regain momentum is a meet-cute.’
‘I’m pretty sure that only applies to first encounters.’
There was silence, while Peter tried to look pathetic and desperate and heartbroken etc. It was hard– drama was the one class he couldn’t get higher than a B+ in, so his emoting skills weren’t exactly something he could generally rely on.
Ned broke first, as always. ‘Fine, Peter, stop looking at me like that. If you want to try and get Brangelina back together, who are we to stop you?’
‘Who are we to help you?’ MJ said.
‘Uh, my besties?’ Peter said.
MJ almost cracked a smile. Then her face returned to its usual impassive set. ‘You’re going to be the heartbroken one when your meet-cute doesn’t work.’
‘Fate,’ Peter said, waggling his fingers in her face in a mysterious(ish) way. ‘Faaaaaaate.’
~
Despite maintaining throughout the entire planning process that this was dumb, stupid, futile and absurd, MJ ultimately turns out to be their link to Pepper Potts.
Now, Pepper Potts has a scheme for underprivileged teens to be able to get work experience at Stark Industries prior to college applications that MJ had been accepted on to months ago but stayed quiet about previously due to her downplaying nature (she would make an awesome superhero, Peter often thought).
It didn’t matter that her interaction with Pepper Potts was likely to be zero-to-none in this internship program, somehow they were going to use this to restart the Pepperony train. Somehow. The how was still seriously foggy, but Peter wasn’t letting this deter him. They now had an “in” with both halves of the whole.
~
Peter was not planning on relaying any part of this back to Tony at any point but… he couldn’t help himself.
‘Do you think that if you and Miss Potts saw each other again, you’d hit it off?’
‘She might hit the roof? Don’t give me that look, kid, it would just be awkward.’
Peter was not discouraged. We’ll all be finding out soon, he thought, hugging the knowledge happily to himself.
~
Although by far the most reluctant of the trio, MJ was participating, primarily in order to “be the conduit through which Peter can learn a life lesson.” Peter was a benevolent leader who gladly welcomed all, no matter the motivation.
So, she was the one that relayed to the team that as the internship came to an end, Pepper Potts was going to be the special guest and lead speaker at their final big presentation.
The internship was a pretty sweet deal; it was not only being the coffee runner (although there was a bit of that as well), it also gave students access to the resources at SI, and they each had to participate in a project that meant they left those nine months with something to talk about at interviews beyond just ‘I watched some other people do real work while I did grunt stuff’. Also, according to MJ, if the person leading your project liked you, you could be invited back over summers and potentially post-graduation. It was a pretty cool internship (and wildly competitive, Peter still was full of pride for MJ getting it in the first place).
Now this final presentation was coming up, and Pepper Potts was going to be there as judge and speaker. And Tony Stark...was going to be there by hook or by crook, if Peter had anything to do with it.
He and Ned had brainstormed over an entire weekend to try and come up with a viable plan. The one they had ended up with depended on a lot of external factors going exactly the way they hoped them to, but it was at least in existence.
The long and short of it was: Peter had an internship with Tony Stark. MJ had an internship with Stark Industries (SI). Tony Stark was involved in SI. All the SI intern-leads would be there on the final presentation night. Peter would get his Tony-Stark-internship into an SI-official internship, and therefore he (and Tony Stark by extension) would be there on final presentation night.
There. Easy. Kind of beautiful in its simplicity.
They ran into issues almost immediately.
‘Who could have foreseen us not being able to force a whole new internship slot into existence,’ MJ said drily.
It wasn’t untrue, but it was still a disappointment. Peter had introduced himself as ‘Tony Stark’s personal intern’ to the woman in charge of running the internship program, and politely enquired whether he might be able to get presentation slot at their final meeting to present what they had been working on. The intern-lead, a Ms Sarah Frean a) clearly didn’t believe him and b) definitely took Pepper’s side in the breakup. Even if, she informed Peter, he did in fact have an internship with Tony Stark (derogatory), he still would not be invited to their evening.
Down, but not out, Peter switched to plan B. There was no plan C.
~
‘So, what part of the project do you think I could get away with presenting at the final meeting without revealing my identity?’
Tony looked genuinely confused. He had a very expressive face, and it did confusion well. ‘What do you mean, present at the final meeting?’
‘You know the presentations that the interns do on what they’ve been working on?’
‘Yeah, I know, that was Pepper’s thing, I heard a lot about it.’ He looked Peter square in the face with the mien of someone breaking bad news, ‘You do know you’re not a real intern?’
Peter looked him steadily in the eyes and lied to his face, ‘I used to not be. But then I went and spoke with Ms Frean and she got me a slot. I need something I can use for college applications, and Spiderman is not going to be it.’
Tony looked even more confused. ‘Ms Frean put me on as an intern-lead?’
Big gulp, look in the eye and utilise that single iota of drama skills that means you are getting a ‘barely passing’ instead of ‘failing’ grade, Peter. ‘Yup.’
Tony pulled a face. ‘I would not have thought she would let me anywhere near her program, she hates me.’
‘I think my crying about my future for half-an-hour straight finally got through to her. It was worth the three-day headache.’
Tony didn’t look much reassured by that information. He did at least look like he bought it. ‘So, you’re doing a presentation?’
‘Yup.’ It felt like one-word answers were safer.
Tony looks around their workstation. The spider-suit lying half done. The webshooters broken apart into their individual pieces in one corner. A vat of the finalised New and Improved web fluid sitting in a plastic container. He said, finally, ‘None of this can be used for the presentation unless you want to paint a bright red-and-blue target on your face that says I AM SPIDERMAN.’
Peter was committed to the cause, but he wasn’t that committed. ‘Is there nothing we can sell as not being related to Spiderman?’
Tony looks back at their inventions, then back at Peter. ‘What were you thinking, exactly?’
And Peter hadn’t been thinking, at least not about anything that wasn’t making sure that Tony knew he would be taking him to the presentation. But, there had been this time a few months ago when he had used his web fluid to dam up a near catastrophic haemorrhage at a road traffic accident, and he’d thought then ‘I wish I knew literally anything about medicine because I feel like maybe people could use this’ and he hadn’t taken that thought any further at that point because he had no resources and no one to help him, but it had sat there in the back of his mind just waiting for its time to shine.
‘Medical grade web fluid for wounds?’ he said.
~
And it was pretty cool how Tony Stark could take six words and turn them into a reality that was way cooler than anything Peter could have imagined, but, over the next weeks, he did just that.
And then Peter was first author on his very first published paper with a PubMed ID and everything and May printed it out and stuck it on the wall even though it was pages and pages of pretty dry academic scientific language and formulas and not that aesthetic as a wall decoration, and he got a full-on-patent and then the medical R&D at Stark Industries was offering him a contract and one of Tony’s lawyers sat him down and went through all the complicated wording with him before he signed, and although it would realistically be years before it could even potentially start being used on real people, he might (in ten years’ time) see some monetary return from one of his ideas which felt like a significant milestone.
He updated Ned and MJ over lunch. NJ high fived him and MJ gave him a fist bump and then said, ‘Glad to see the presentation award will go to a deserving winner.’
Peter made a pfft sound. ‘How can you say that when your presentation on widening participation to the widening participation internship program is happening?’
She shrugged. ‘I’m proud of my work, but yours has the wow factor. You should be proud of yourself. This is really cool.’
Peter went all warm and fuzzy at her words, although it did set a little flare of panic off. He had a presentation he hadn’t started preparing. What with Spiderman, school, homework, vegging out on the sofa, his schedule was pretty packed at baseline. Couple that with all the extra work he had been doing to get this publication over the line, and he had not spent any time with PowerPoint.
(That’s not even mentioning the fact that no one was actually expecting his entry into the presentations, but that was a Future Peter problem).
He skipped patrol and stayed up way too late one evening choosing the right theme and adding in transitions and making sure that the animations appeared at the right time on the right slide and changing the font size in 0.5 increments and then he had to go back and add in all the references because he’d forgotten about that and that always takes way longer than you expect it to, especially when you’re doing it bleary-eyed in the middle of the night.
He presented it to Ned and MJ at lunch the next day, frantically inputted their suggestions in his free period and then that evening presented it again to Tony. Mr Stark had not asked for this to happen and didn’t look wildly enthused to be forced to sit through it, but Peter didn’t give him a choice. He needed feedback and was willing to push through social anxiety to get it.
‘So?’ Peter said, when he'd finished, slightly out of breath because presenting messed with his ability to speak and breathe in a coordinated manner.
Tony gave him a thumbs up. ‘Looks good to me.’
Peter looked expectantly at him. ‘Any constructive criticism?’
‘Speak slower. No need to be nervous, no one is going to really care, realistically. Although they’re all nerds, so maybe someone will.’
‘Should I add anything else, do I need more detail?’
‘Non-specialist audience, no one is going to care. It’s pitched fine,’ Tony looked hopeful, ‘Back to the lab?’
That was all the feedback Peter was going to receive before presenting it in front of a large audience who weren’t expecting him. It would have to do.
Although the potential to help save lives was a fair motivator to this project, Peter hadn’t forgotten his primary aim, the reason this was all happening in the first place. ‘Am I meeting you there, or are we arriving together?’
Tony pulled a face. ‘Do I really need to be there? You’re doing the presentation, and I’m not sure what I’ll be doing beyond getting hounded by a bunch of nerdy spotty-faced teenagers who think that now I’ve let one of them into my lab I should let them all.’
‘Ms Frean was insistent,’ Peter said. ‘Having an intern lead that attended was a condition of my being able to join the program.’
‘Probably thought she could count on me not coming,’ Tony said.
Peter tried to look like this was a likely story, and not like something based on an imaginary situation. ‘Please come,’ he said instead. ‘I’d like you to be there.’
Tony pulled another face but conceded. He then looked conspiratorial. ‘Do you want me to send a car to pick you up? The scary girl you like is going to be there, right? Might get some brownie points not arriving on foot.’
Tony teased him about MJ quite a lot. Peter really didn’t think he spoke about her as much as Tony said he did. ‘She’s just a friend,’ he protested, as per his script. ‘Although, if I ask her to come over could you pick us both up?’
‘Sure thing,’ Tony said.
‘So, see you there?’ Peter pushed.
Tony sighed heavily and gave a mock-salute. ‘See you there.’ He was up and heading for the coffee machine, but added over his shoulder ‘If you don’t get a letter of acceptance from college that directly references this presentation as the reason they’re accepting you, I’m going to sue.’
Peter laughed, nervously, and followed him out.
~
Peter had a lot of chutzpah. No one dressed up and called themselves a superhero without some degree of blind self-belief and ability to go against the grain. But even he was slightly nervous on the night of the presentations. And not just because he was breaking in and forcing them to listen to a presentation on medical grade web fluid against their will. Also, a little bit because…this was kind of a date, right? Inviting himself to a presentation for an internship program he’d never been a part of with MJ.
She’d turned up looking professional and gorgeous and he’d stumbled through something that was intended to be a compliment but came out a bit wonky (although she'd seemed to smile at it anyway).
Then they’d gone down to the car and Peter had assumed it would be a driver picking them up, but then it was Mr Stark behind the wheel, and sure, he mostly seemed to be there exclusively to embarrass Peter in front of MJ, but he was also asking questions about the presentation and Peter was abruptly coming face-to-face with the reality of the situation.
His main aim had been getting Mr Stark and Miss Potts to bump into each other, but a rapid new aim was developing: Keep Mr Stark and Ms Frean separate At All Costs.
How was he going to achieve this? Well, his plan was so insubstantial as to be non-existent.
Then they arrived at the venue, and it was nice nice, real swanky and new with lots of glass and an interior that clearly had a paid designer. They had someone at the door with drinks and lots of people walking round with canapes, refilling glasses.
They got given a program at the door and Peter breathed a massive internal sigh of relief when he saw his name on the list. He sent a photo of the program to Ned with about a bajillion love hearts. Until he had held the printed word he hadn’t quite believed Ned when he’s said it was “sorted, bro, don’t even worry about it, you’re totes offish.”
MJ’s intern lead was some woman from the internship department who was quietly intense, but not in a bad way and looked like an exotic crane. She and Mr Stark seemed to a long way back and were having a friendly discussion about other people they had in common and the presentations they were looking forward to (there were several presentation titles that were a little…rogue). ‘Is there such a thing as encouraging too much individuality?’ MJ’s lead asked, and the four of them were properly laughing and Ms Frean was nowhere to be seen and Peter’s nerves were evaporating like the bubbles in his sparkling elderflower drink.
A buzz started around the entrance, and Peter strained to see over the crowd. ‘The other half of your plan is here,’ MJ said in an undertone into his ear.
Peter was just about able to see the top of Pepper Pott’s head on tiptoes. He cast a surreptitious glance at Mr Stark, but he was still speaking to MJ’s lead (Janine?) and didn’t turn around.
Then Ms Frean stood up with a mic and a lead weight should have dropped into his gut, but he was still feeling optimistic.
Peter shifted casually so his body was blocking as much of Mr Stark’s body as possible from her, although it was unlikely that she would spot him in the crowd.
‘Each year she looks more bitter and twisted,’ Mr Stark said in an undertone. Janine made a sound in the back of her throat that was part disapproving, part laugh. Like she agreed but thought that she shouldn’t.
Ms Frean made a generic greeting, and asked the intern leads to make their way to their seats and presenters to their row right at the front of the room (Peter internally crossed his fingers that Ned’s influence extended to a seat plan).
Mr Stark gave him a hearty clap on the back for luck, then Peter trailed after MJ, keeping his face angled away from Ms Frean, a task more difficult when he was front row and she was presenting.
On stage Ms Frean professed gratitude for attendance and gave an overview of the evening to come. She sure could command a stage. Turns out her reign of terror extended beyond just a private one-on-one meeting. Then, she invited Ms Potts on stage.
Peter’s nerves were in a heightened state, but he felt said nerves tick down a notch as she spoke. Pepper Pott’s speech was genuinely inspiring. It was an opportunity to talk about something he was passionate about and proud of to a group of intelligent, like-minded people. He was looking forward to listening to everyone else’s presentation. He did deserve to be here (well, with a very generous interpretation of the word ‘deserve’).
Peter’s speech was in the first third, directly after MJ’s. He’d been relieved that he could at least enjoy two-thirds of the presentations without mentally practising his own and measuring it up against what was on stage.
When MJ stepped up, he tried to turn his anxious brain off and really listen in. He knew the speech, had had it performed to him several times already, but he still wanted to be able to give authentic feedback when she asked.
As it was, she killed it. Peter was re-inspired all over again by her vision, her passion. Then, all too quickly she was exiting the stage to thunderous applause, and it was his turn.
Deep breath, and step off the ledge. Fear can only exist in the future, turn in into the past as quickly as possible.
Ms Frean was on the front row, with all the presenters. Peter initially tried to not make eye contact, but his sense of curiosity outweighed his common sense. She looked pretty thunderous. Okay, so he had been hopeful thinking that she had probably forgotten his face. That face said I told you that you weren’t welcome here and that hasn’t changed. At least she didn’t look like she was going to run up on the stage and stop proceedings, but it also looked like it wasn’t not a possibility.
Peter slightly rushed through the end of the slides but felt that the presentation went well, on the whole. He’d been intimidated when he’d seen everyone else with their ‘bring and show’ which sent him spiralling to “why didn’t I do a display, that would’ve been way cooler I could’ve got a mannequin and done fake blood and that would have been so much better than PowerPoint” but it had also taken the pressure off. There was no way that his presentation would have the ‘Wow’ factor that the laser-shooting one did, or the one that had a hologram of the village centre they were building, or the one that had the video testimonial where the lady was crying with gratitude at what the intern had accomplished for her and her children with their redistribution app. But that meant it didn’t matter if he was absolutely the best he could ever be or just good enough. Either way, he wasn’t coming out on top, so he might as well view it as practice for future opportunities and enjoy himself.
Which, he mostly did. Though he did get an extra shot of anxiety every time his eyes strayed to Ms Frean.
He received polite applause and questions that were all well within his capability to answer and sat down next to MJ feeling the rush of happiness only achieved by getting to the end of something you’d been dreading.
‘You did great,’ she said in a low voice.
‘You too!’ he said and would have gushed further but he could feel Ms Frean’s presence like a black cloud looking for any reason to evict him.
Now his presentation was over he could properly enjoy the rest of them, and there was a lot to enjoy. The projects ranged from big sociological efforts to small technological advancements (one Peter particularly enjoyed was just on minutely increasing the efficiency of different parts of a CPU which ended up having quite a marked effect on its final efficiency). It was nice to sit back and take it all in. Stark Industries really had got the cream of the crop in terms of interns, thrown a huge amount of resources at them and it had paid dividends. No wonder Ms Frean wasn’t interested in adding me in, Peter thought, but not unhappily. He felt fortunate that his wacky plans meant he had an opportunity to be front row to all this. He would be leaving tonight inspired and hopeful for the future.
For the final presentation, two young men stood up. Quite a few of the presentations had been in groups, which made sense given their scale. Their project was on safer, more sustainable demolition. They had formulated nanobots to “eat” a certain type of common bonding agent in construction, to break down the structure into far smaller pieces than any usual demolition could manage, which then required much less space to dispose of, and by changing the structure by this “eating” (both a mechanical and chemical breakdown process) into a non-water soluble solid it would not seep into the water supply, and could potentially even be repurposed and used again in future construction. This was the first iteration that had worked, but they had hopes of developing it to break down things like concrete or other rubble.
It was a clever concept, and they’d brought a hunk of building rubble to demonstrate the nanobot’s capabilities. Peter sat up straighter in his seat, and it was undeniably cool to watch this large chunk be consumed and broken down into a far smaller solid unit. Neat, speedy, exactly what you would hope for.
At the exact moment it finished and the hall broke out into applause, Peter’s Spidey Sense went off.
It started low-level, but increased rapidly, a siren throughout his chest that spiked his blood pressure. He looked around and couldn’t see anything, but the warning system wasn’t abating. If anything, it was getting louder.
He gave a whispered excuse to MJ ("restroom") and sneaked out. If something was about to happen, he wanted to be in a different suit to handle it and he couldn’t change in the front row.
Peter re-entered the conference area from the back after doing a quick-change a Broadway star would be envious of. He was hopeful that a new perspective might give him more information about why his senses were ringing the alarm. On the stage, the interns were taking questions, looking relaxed.
Peter scanned the room again. His inbuilt warning system was getting louder. Whatever was in process was getting worse. He activated the extra surveillance systems built into his suit. Nothing. A text message pinged in the corner of his screen. Why has your suit just come online? Tony. A second later. Nice talk btw.
Peter could see the back of Tony’s head. He took a moment to shoot back a quick reply. Spidey-sense going crzy but idk y can u c naything?
Peter looked round again. Left, right. Up—
Oh.
People always forget to look up. Including him.
The place the presentations were being held was Fancy. As part of the interior design they had suspended a huge modern art piece from the ceiling as the light feature, a feat of engineering made possible by the supports made of the exact material the nanobots were designed to eat up.
Which, they were obediently doing.
Peter didn’t hesitate.
He was up the walls and heading for that sculpture. Very modern, very ugly, very big, very very heavy. He could hear gasps from below as he headed up, and he turned on the loudspeaker in his suit.
‘Excuse me up on stage there, please can you recall the nanobots?’
He’d been trying for something calm and casual, but a sudden wave of sound rolled up and hit him like a wall as people looked up and saw what the nanobots were doing. In his peripheral vision he could see people starting to get up and run for the doors. He hoped there wouldn’t be any crush injuries, and he could hear some kind of commotion from the two on the stage, but he couldn’t actually take his focus off the sculpture that was about to—
Peter just made it to the ceiling in time to shoot out a web to catch it. The sculpture paused at the end of his rope, swinging back and hitting into the side of the room.
But it wasn’t over yet as there were creaks and groans as the plaster Peter was holding onto on the ceiling developed cracks. The final layer was not designed to carry weight. Peter had his legs up as well, trying to spread the weight out but his warning system was not abating. He dropped, taking 3 chunks of the ceiling with him and shot out another web to the ceiling, then another three trying to grab the chunks of ceiling he had just sent falling towards peoples’ heads. The webs landed true, but it just moved the same issue to a different chunk of ceiling, and now Peter was hanging onto five different threads and in no control at all as the next part of the ceiling started to fall away and he tried to shoot out another web to re-catch himself and everything else.
And sure, everyone was heading for the periphery but those had been some efficient nanobots. It had been less than half a minute from his warning and there was no way people were going to get out in time before the ceiling, sculpture and Peter summarily dropped on them.
Then the sound of repulsors and abruptly the weight from below disappeared. Relief rushed through him like a wave.
‘I’ve got it, let go, kid.’ Tony’s voice through the comms.
The sculpture was slowly lowered to the floor below him. Peter climbed down as quickly as he was able, just in time to help support it the final few feet to the floor.
Immediate danger over, Peter looked around for the first time since it started. People were at the periphery of the room, pressed tight against the walls or caught in the bottleneck for the emergency exits. On stage, the two teens were nearly in tears, hunched over their control panel. Peter scanned the crowd until he saw MJ, alive and unharmed, and he could breathe again.
Iron Man walked out from behind the sculpture and the entire room erupted in applause. Tony brought the faceplate down and waved. He made his way to Pepper Potts who Peter hadn’t even seen at the side of the room. They had a short discussion, then he went to the stage. He must be able to link his suit into other networks because his voice came over the loudspeakers as he reassured the room and instructed them on where to go next (essentially, wait in the foyer while we sort this out).
‘And,’ he said as he was coming to the end, ‘Three cheers for Spiderman, who saved us all from being crushed to death!’
The room obeyed with enthusiasm and Peter blushed under his mask.
Slowly, people filed out. Peter made his way over to Tony. ‘You didn’t need to say that,’ he said, ‘If not for you it would’ve still dropped on people’s heads, I couldn’t get a hold on that ceiling.’
‘Team effort,’ Tony said easily, clapping him on the back, still in the suit but faceplate down. Ms Potts was stood next to him.
‘Thank you, so much,’ she said formally. ‘A lot of people, including me, owe you our lives and I am beyond grateful.’
Peter blushed all over again and said something that wasn’t quite in the English language in his haste to get something, anything, out. Then, he remembered his wingman role all at once and said, ‘Mr Stark was the real hero of the day, I was totally dropping the ball until he came along.’
Pepper looked at Tony and a look Peter couldn’t decipher passed between them. ‘He’s a hero,’ she said, in an odd tone of voice, but not unfriendly. Then she was pulled away before Peter could say anything else, like ‘Yeah, he is!’ or take a photo for Ned to prove that he had successfully got the two of them standing next to each other having a sort of conversation.
There was silence for a moment, while Peter internally raged he hadn’t done better, then a thought struck him. ‘Erm, should I still be worried about the nanobots?’
‘Nah, they’re back in the console. Their radius of work had been set a bit too generously, that’s all. Once they’d eaten all they could in their radius they went back themselves, perfectly fine. Which is more than I can say for those two interns.’
Said interns were still on the stage, with their intern lead who seemed to be trying to comfort them. Peter’s heart went out to them and he went over.
‘Your nanobots were really cool,’ he said to them. ‘I know there were a couple of issues, but that doesn’t change how good an idea they were, or their potential.’
Tony looked fondly at Peter, then added in the intern’s direction. ‘Gotta break a few eggs and all that. Looking forward to seeing more of your work, that was really impressive. We’ll fix this all up and it’ll be a fun story to tell at parties.’
The interns mostly looked shell-shocked, but Peter felt better for at least having tried.
‘You’re such a nice kid,’ Tony said as they made their way back. ‘That would not have crossed my mind at your age.’
Peter blushed for a third time, relieved his mask was still on.
At the door, the fire department had turned up. Pepper Potts was there coordinating things. As Peter and Tony arrived they were immediately recruited to assist with clean-up. By the time that had finished and they were back in the foyer things were wrapping up there. Ms Potts was still on the stage, thanking people for coming and telling them that information about a do-over would be communicated through their intern leads.
People were gradually filtering out, so Peter took the opportunity to go and change out of his suit and find MJ. She hugged him hard when she saw him, and he returned it with just as much pressure.
‘I’m so glad you’re okay,’ Peter said.
‘You too,’ she said into his neck.
The two of them made their way back to Tony, their ride home. Despite literally everything, Peter still nudged MJ when he saw who Tony was stood next to.
‘Well done to the both of you on your presentation,’ Pepper said once they were close enough. ‘Sorry that the rest of the evening didn’t go to plan.’
‘Thank goodness Mr Stark was here to save us,’ Peter said faithfully.
‘Yes, although I didn’t realise you were part of the program?’ she said, turning to Tony.
Tony opened his mouth to reply, when Ms Frean started speaking. It was a testament to how distracted Peter was that he hadn’t even noticed her coming up to join them. ‘He isn’t,’ she said furiously. She looked at Peter, who felt like something was about to drop on his head for the second time that evening, perhaps an axe this time. ‘I told you, you couldn’t approve your own acceptance to the program.’ She casts an even more furious glance at Tony. ‘It’s just like you to believe that the rules don’t apply to you or your interns.’
Tony looked confused. He opened his mouth, ‘What are you—’ There was a pause then, as he looked at Ms Frean’s furious face, and then at Peter, and Peter could swear he could watch a lightbulb going off behind his eyes. He sighed heavily. ‘I’m sorry, Sarah. I got so excited about Pete’s medical marvel I thought he deserved a platform.’
‘Well, next time, make your own platform.’ And then she stalked off.
Peter was genuinely gobsmacked. He opened his mouth but nothing came out. A frown developed between Tony’s eyes the minute Ms Frean had left, but it looked like he was waiting for Ms Potts to leave before laying into him. However, offence is the better part of defence, and inspiration struck. He turned to Pepper Potts and said in a confidential tone of voice. ‘I think he just wanted to see you.’
It was Tony’s turn to be rendered speechless.
For her part, Pepper gave a light laugh. She patted Tony on the shoulder in a conciliatory manner, ‘Is that so?’
Tony recovered enough to laugh back, although his eyes were still glaring daggers at Peter. ‘A right old comedian, this one,’ he said, gripping Peter’s shoulder a little too firmly.
‘I tell you, if I had to hear him say one more time while we were working on the project how much he missed you, I don’t know what I would have done.’
The hand on his shoulder increased in pressure, but Peter’s eyes were on Pepper. She looked surprised. ‘Oh?’ she said, politely.
‘A very creative memory you have,’ Tony said through his teeth.
‘You know, I’ve heard so many good things about you from Mr Stark, it’s nice to see they’re all true.’
Pepper continued to look mostly confused. Tony, clearly deciding the best course of action was to shut down this conversation, said ‘Well, good to see you, but we should be going,’ and started trying to steer him away from Ms Potts.
Fortunately, Peter had mutant strength to resist. ‘What do you think of my presentation?’ he asked, purely to keep the conversation going.
Pepper seemed relieved the conversation was on safer ground. ‘It was fascinating!’ she said, sounding genuine. ‘The concept is so exciting, and you explained it so well, I really enjoyed it.’
‘Well, the whole thing was basically Tony’s idea,’ Peter said, back on his wingman game. ‘He’s so smart, and such a good mentor, he’s been really great to me with this whole thing.’
A smile was pulling at the edge of Pepper’s lips. She seemed to have twigged as to his angle. ‘You have a very complimentary intern,’ she said.
‘News to me,’ Tony said, smiling while his fingers dug more painfully into Peter’s shoulder. Peter didn’t budge an inch.
‘He was so kind with getting me this opportunity to present, you know, he’s really gone above and beyond to be the best mentor I’ve ever had.’
‘And this is how you repay me?’ Tony said under his breath, still smiling at Pepper. At Peter’s other side, MJ snorted. She always enjoyed seeing a man in distress.
‘Well, I’m pleased to hear you’ve had a good experience with our intern program.’ She turned to MJ, probably to escape whatever Peter had going on and said, ‘I loved your speech on social justice in your presentation, it was an excellent mix of convicting and inspiring. I might have to steal a few lines.’
If Peter didn’t know better, he would’ve thought MJ was blushing. ‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘I- I based it partially off the one you did a few years ago at the Summit. I really liked your approach.’
‘That’s so kind of you to say,’ Pepper said, and even if this evening resulted in the implosion of everything Peter had been working towards building with Mr Stark, it may all be worth it to give MJ this moment of connection with her hero.
He couldn’t, however, miss the opportunity to say, ‘Mr Stark always said you were an excellent speaker, it was an honour to hear you present.’
Tony might actually be grinding his teeth next to him.
‘Well, you’ll be forced to listen to me again at the rescheduled event, I’m afraid.’
Tony appeared to have given up on being able to forcibly pull Peter away, and instead went on the defensive. ‘So, does Peter have a chance to win this thing?’
Peter pulled a face. Mr Stark wasn’t playing fair.
‘I’m only one of the judges,’ Pepper prevaricated.
‘Just a hint as to where he is in the rankings?’ Tony pressed.
‘You’ll have to find out at the awards ceremony with everyone else, I’m afraid.’
‘You should let the nanobots win,’ Peter said, suddenly serious.
‘Oh?’ Pepper fixed her gaze on him, curious rather than confrontational.
‘The two guys made a mistake they feel terrible about, but their project is objectively incredible. They should be able to end this with pride, not regret.’
‘They did nearly kill half the entrants, I’m not sure what kind of message we would be sending having them win the competition,’ Pepper said, but she looks considering. ‘I’ll think about it, discuss with the other judges. We do believe in second chances here,’ she said, and was it Peter’s imagination or was she looking at Tony while she said it? He was wearing his lenses of hope today though, that might be skewing his vision.
‘I agree with Peter,’ MJ said. ‘Or at least, that they shouldn’t be automatically out of the running. They shouldn’t be disqualified just for making a mistake.’
‘A fairly significant mistake,’ Tony said. ‘Although that really should be something their lead picked up on. I don’t think Burt is the most involved leader.’
‘He’s not, I was impressed the interns got as far as they did. I’ll think about it.’
With that, someone from the venue staff was coming up to her and demanding to know what had happened to their venue and why Spiderman had destroyed their main event hall. Peter started backing away.
‘Oh, now you want to go?’ Tony said, but followed him out.
~
The atmosphere in the car was awkward enough for MJ to pull her sketchbook out of her bag.
After as much silence as Peter could take, he felt he had to say something. ‘I’m sorry if I overstepped,’ he said.
‘If?’ Tony said, then sighed. ‘I know it’s coming from a good place, but I would appreciate it if you never again said anything at all to my ex-girlfriend, ever.’
‘Seems unlikely I’ll ever see her again since Ms Frean busted my scheme.’ A thought struck him, a wave of gratitude washing over him, ‘Thanks for taking the fall, by the way.’
‘There’s literally nothing I can do to make her opinion of me lower, I figured I might as well take the hit.’ More silence. ‘If this project isn’t the sole reason you get into MIT I’m coming back and demanding compensation.’
The air was lighter after that.
‘You know, you’re a pretty cool guy,’ MJ said to Tony when he dropped her off.
‘I’m aware,’ he said drily, and waited until she had made it safely inside before driving off.
Once they were alone in the car, Peter tried again. ‘I’m sorry if I made things more awkward between you and Ms Potts, I just wanted to remind her how great you are.’
‘It’s not possible to make things any more awkward,’ Tony said with a laugh that had no humour in it. ‘Don’t do it again and we’ll call it quits.’
More silence. Then, because even Spiderman was a little selfish sometimes, ‘What did you think of my presentation?’
Tony sighed heavily. ‘You did great, kid. I’m proud of you.’
Peter hugs that warm feeling all the way home.
~