Chapter Text
Peter Parker loves school. Some of the students are, well, assholes, but he’s got Ned and MJ, and all of his teachers are great.
All of his teachers, that is, except for Mr Butterworth, who’s hatred of teaching ran so deep he’d take off marks whenever a student even considered asking a question.
Peter’s favorite teacher, though, was Dr Grace, who taught biology. He was a new teacher, who transferred from some middle school in San Francisco to be closer to his family in New York.
Peter thinks he often forgot that he wasn’t teaching middle schoolers anymore, because he often turned the lessons into games the likes of which he hasn’t played since sixth grade. Peter didn’t mind, though. If anything, it just made him like the class more. Biology was his favorite class. Dr Grace was his favorite teacher. Nothing could change that.
Enter Tony Stark. Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist, and most recently, Peter’s guardian.
“You’re going too fast, kid,” Mr Stark said, voice muffled from where he was half buried in a project, “I can’t understand anything you’re saying right now.”
“I went to school,” Peter says slowly, as if talking to a toddler, using what Mr Stark had dubbed his ‘little shit’ voice, “I did schoolwork. I got a biology test back. Good grade. Yay! I got candy.”
“What kind of teacher is giving you sugar?” Mr Stark mutters, “You’re already hyper enough as is.”
Peter shrugs half-heartedly, popping a skittle into his mouth. Dr Grace had a drawer full of candy to give to the kids after tests, and though it was usually filled with what he considered the “superior” sour skittle, Dr Grace had tossed in a few bags of original flavor for the kids who weren’t fans.
Kids like Peter, who’s enhanced senses made sour candy feel like the equivalent of a nuclear reactor in his mouth.
Mr Stark holds out an expectant hand at the sound of the crinkling wrapper.
“You can get your own,” Peter protests, “I earned this fair and square.”
“It tastes better when it’s stolen,” Mr Stark smiles guiltlessly. Peter huffs but obliges, jumping off the work table he was perched on to drop a handful of brightly covered candies in the man’s hand.
“It’s not really stealing if I’m giving it to you, is it?” he points out. Mr Stark’s response is unintelligible behind a mouthful of skittles.
Peter turns his attention to the project Mr Stark is working on— some sort of blaster he’s planning to install on his suits. It’s clearly in the beginning stages of working, for the thing looks almost like it’s going to burst into flame on the table in front of him.
“Do you want me to put one in your suit?” Mr Stark asks, “Once I figure it out, that is. Flame-throwing Spider-man. That’d be pretty badass.”
He pauses.
“Actually, on second thought, maybe that’s not a great idea. I think Pepper might kill us both.”
“She’ll kill you,” Peter corrects, “She loves me.”
“She’ll love you less if you’re setting her tower on fire.”
Peter gasps, mock-offended, “I wouldn’t set the tower on fire!”
“You better not,” Mr Stark warns, “Especially not before tomorrow.”
“Do you have to let my school have a field trip here?” he tilts his head, giving his very best innocent puppy-dog eyes.
The man reaches for a screwdriver, returning to fiddling with the gear in front of him, “What, you don’t want to? Are you embarrassed of us? Embarrassed of me? Really, kid, I thought that you—”
“I’m not embarrassed,” Peter rushes to defend himself, “I just… I don’t know. It’s weird. I live here. We’re basically going on a tour of my house. And half my classmates don’t believe that I’ve even stepped foot in the tower, so they’re all going to be weird about it tomorrow, and it’s… it’s weird. But I’m not embarrassed.”
“Great! If you’re not embarrassed, you don’t mind if I tag along, right?”
His eyes widen, and he gapes, mouth opening and closing wordlessly like a fish out of water. He thinks about Mr Stark meeting Dr Grace, and decides the longer he can go without an impromptu teacher-parent meeting, the better.
“Uhm, are you—” Peter flounders, “You don’t have to do that. I know you’re probably busy with meetings and… things. It’s fine. No need to come.”
Mr Stark grins with a shit-eating look on his face that means he’s definitely showing up tomorrow. Peter desperately wonders if it’s too late to drop out or move out of the country.
—-
Setting the tower on fire was starting to actually sound like a good idea. Peter’s science class was currently waiting outside the gates of Midtown School of Science and Technology, waiting for the bus to arrive. Dr Grace was busy calling out the role, and the other students were chatting amongst themselves. Peter, Ned and MJ were all lingering under the shade of a tree, minding their own business. Of course, the peace couldn’t last for long.
“Hey Parker,” a distinctively annoying voice called out, and Peter looked up to see Flash pushing his way through the morning crowd of students, “Bold of you to show up today, huh? Everyone is going to see through your lie about your internship. Would’ve thought you’d just stay home.”
“Peter isn’t lying,” MJ says from her spot beside Peter, not bothering to look up from her sketchbook. He glanced down to see her working on a sketch of him looking depressed. He was pretty sure he took up half of her misery sketchbook at this point. “The reason you didn’t get an internship is because you’re not smart, Eugene. Stark Industries doesn’t hire people who failed freshman chemistry.”
“I didn’t fail chem!” Flash’s eyes widened, looking aghast, “I got one of the top marks.”
“Sure you did.”
“I did!”
“You’re not a very convincing liar, Flash.” Ned pipes up.
“I’m not lying! I’m—”
“Everyone coming on the trip, listen in please!” Dr Grace calls out over the noise of students chatting, finally finishing with marking the role and effectively cutting off Flash’s rebuttal, “This field trip is a really great opportunity, and I need all of you to be on your best behaviour. Which means…?”
“No breaking stuff!” Abe shouts out, resulting in scattered laughter from the gathered students.
“No breaking stuff,” Dr Grace echoes in agreement, “Stay with the tour guide and I, even if you see something really cool you want to run off and see. The Stark Industries labs are super interesting, but they’re not usually available to the public for a reason. If you guys lose any limbs, I’m going to be in big trouble. So stick together, otherwise we’re all walking around holding hands like kindergarteners so I don’t lose you. Got it everyone? Betty?”
Betty, who’d been spending his speech looking on her phone, glanced up with a nod.
Dr Grace claps his hands together with a grin, “Alright guys! Let’s load up the bus, then! Fill up the back first.”
“Is it strange?” Ned asks Peter as they make their way towards the obnoxiously bright bus, “Going on a field trip to your house?”
“A little,” Peter says, and then after a moment of consideration, “A lot, actually. But I only really live on the top few floors, and it’s not like we’re going to be visiting the living areas, right?”
“We’re not?”
Peter blinks, moving into the seat beside Ned. “I hope not. I didn’t make my bed.”
Ned snorts a laugh.
“Twenty bucks says Tony Stark is going to laugh in Peter’s face when he finds out he’s been lying about his internship for the past two years.” Flash calls out from the back of the bus, still insistently refusing to believe the idea that Peter Parker could possibly succeed where he’d failed.
“Tony Stark isn’t going to be there, dipshit.” Cindy calls back, “He doesn’t go to random high school tours. He’s too busy for that.”
“Yeah, Mr Stark isn’t going to be there,” Peter echoed her words, though it sounds more like a prayer. Please don’t let Mr Stark show up. He could handle Flash’s asshole comments easily enough. He was fine being the loser kid in the background. He was used to it.
But he can’t exactly be in the background if people know he’s working with— living with Tony ‘I make the front page of every newspaper for sneezing’ Stark.
“Language, Cindy!” Dr Grace calls from the front of the bus, “And be nice, Flash, or I’m going to have to send you home, alright?”
The teacher glances over to Peter, giving him a questioning thumbs up and a mouthed a silent “You okay?”— Peter returns the gesture, smiling awkwardly. Once Dr Grace returns to facing the front of the bus, Ned turns on Peter.
“Is Mr Stark really not coming?” he whispers, sounding distraught.
“I told him not to, Peter shrugs, “And, dude, why are you disappointed? You literally saw him last weekend.”
“It’s not the same,” Ned shakes his head, staring mournfully out the window, “It’s not the same.”
“He doesn’t even remember your name,” MJ points out from her seat behind the two of them, “Didn’t he call you Ted last time we went over?”
“Ned is a difficult name to remember,” he defends.
“It’s one syllable.”
“A unique syllable.”
“One. Syllable.”
“He definitely knows my name,” Ned says, changing course, “Ted is… a nickname. An inside joke. That’s how close we are.”
“Impressive,” MJ smirks, sounding thoroughly unimpressed.
The rest of the bus ride to the tower was largely calm— Flash hadn’t been brave enough to say anything against Peter on the chance that Dr Grace would kick him off the trip, a trip that he’d been spending the last few weeks bragging that he was going to. He seems to be under the belief that upon entering Stark Tower, he’d immediately be hired on the spot. For what, Peter wasn’t sure.
The bus comes to a stop just outside the staff parking of the tower, and kids make their way off the bus at full speed, eagerly talking amongst themselves. Dr Grace counts the students as they all stepped off, determined to not lose any.
Peter imagines he either had some bad experiences with middle school field trips, or he’d heard the horror story of the decathlon D.C. trip. Maybe both. Probably both.
“Have you ever been here before, Dr Grace?” Ned asks as the teacher leads the class towards the entrance. Dr Grace’s face does a strange thing, an unreadable expression that Peter has no clue what it could possibly mean.
“Uh…” Dr Grace says, adjusting his glasses, “A few times. Many years ago.”
“Did you work for Stark Industries?” Peter asks, curious. Their teacher had mentioned he’d worked in research and academia before he became a teacher. It wasn’t a far fetched idea. For some reason, the question only draws laughter from Dr Grace.
“Definitely not.” he shakes his head. “But that’s… it’s not an important story.”
“Did you meet Tony Stark?” Flash tunes into the conversation, butting in.
“Yeah,” he says, pushing open the door to the lobby of the tower, “I doubt he remembers me, though. It was a long long time ago.”
The way Dr Grace says it, it almost sounds like he hopes Mr Stark doesn’t remember him. Peter decides he’ll ask Mr Stark about it later.
“Midtown High?” a distinctly familiar voice calls out from the other side of the lobby, and— oh, no. Tony Stark walks over to the crowd of students, who all watch, mouths agape in surprise. Peter looks terrified. Dr Grace, for some reason, looks equally if not more so terrified. “You guys don’t mind if I join you for your tour, right?”