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“I don’t wanna go, Ryland.”
Grace sighed, glancing up from the signed forms on his desk to give a weary look at the kid standing by his door. He heard him coming a mile away from the way he dragged his feet and mumbled to himself. Had it been any other day, Grace would have shot up to ask him what was wrong – but not today,
“Hey,” Grace chided. “If I have to go on this field trip, so do you.”
“But whyyyy!” Peter whined, petulant as ever. For once, he didn’t look like Spiderman – he looked like a fifteen year old kid being told to do something he really didn't want to do.
“Because Aunt May and Pepper said so.” Grace sighed, looking back down at the forms and mumbling to himself. “And, because I seem to be the luckiest man on Earth, every single one of your science teachers caught that nasty stomach bug that’s been going around…”
Peter grumbled, crossing his arms and leaning against the doorframe. He obviously heard that with his elevated hearing but decided not to comment on it.
Grace did feel sorry for him. Neither of them wanted to go on this field trip– Hell, Grace had successfully avoided chaperone duties for the last two years. He considered finding a way to catch the stomach bug himself but Tony would definitely find a way to cure him before the sun even set.
Was that possible? Probably not, but Tony would definitely try. After all, Grace was his husband and Tony had a protective streak a mile long. He might try to eradicate stomach bugs all together if Grace caught one.
He thought back to the time when Peter just started living with them in the penthouse and Tony learnt that the boy had frequent night terrors. Despite his own hesitations with therapy, Grace watched Tony gather some of the best psychologists that specialized in nightmares before Peter even woke up.
It had only been about two years since Tony took Peter under his metaphorical wing, and a year since he became one of Peter’s official legal guardians and Peter got his own room in the tower. It would have happened sooner, but May had a lot of conditions they needed to meet. Which, surprisingly, included a name change for Peter’s future benefit.
“But what if they find out I’m Spider-man!” Peter cried out, snapping Grace out of his thoughts. “Or even worse, what if they realize that I live at the tower!”
Grace shot Peter a look that only a tired dad could mimic. “How many times do we need to talk about the importance of keeping your secret identity, a secret, Pete? If they find out that you live at the tower, we can at least use the excuse of your internship.”
Peter pouted. “I guess…” he said before tilting his head. “Why aren’t you trying to get out of this? Isn’t it so much worse for you?”
“People finding out that I’m married to Iron Man is not as bad as people finding out a fifteen-year-old is Spider-Man.” Grace said, rubbing his temples. “I’d like to avoid it from happening, yes. But this type of news isn’t as confidential as your secret vigilante identity.”
“Not that.” Peter shook his head. “I’m still going to keep complaining, but I know that I have a better chance at getting through this unscathed since no one in the building, sans the Avengers, knows that I’m Spider-Man. All the employees just think that I’m Mr. Stark’s personal intern.” He levelled Grace a look, one that triggered an immediate headache for the man. “But every long-term employee in the labs knows about you.”
“I knoooow,” Grace cried out. “I tried getting out of this– I really did! But the only other teacher available is Mark and you know that Tony hates him. I don’t like him either, but once Friday’s system detects him in the building, Tony’s going to bring hell and I don’t want to deal with all that paperwork.”
Peter shrugged. “I have a feeling you’re going to be dealing with paperwork by the end of this. I don’t need my Spidey senses to tell me things aren’t going to go well today. No offence, Ryland, but we are not the luckiest people alive by a long shot.”
“Don’t need to remind me.” Grace sighed as he collected the forms and stood up. “As long as one of us walks out of this with our secrets intact, I’d consider today a success.”
Grace picked up his bag and made his way out of the classroom with Peter trailing right behind him.
“At least Mr. Stark is all the way in Antarctica with Pepper and Eva…”
“God bless the small mercies, kid.”
Grace and Peter should have known that their woes would begin the moment they stepped foot in the tower.
“Mr. Grace,” Betty said from Grace’s side. “Why does your badge look different from ours?”
“Hey, look at this!” Flash called out, waving another badge up in the air for the class to see. “Parker’s brought a fake badge! He’s really trying to sell us on his internship. Ha!” He holds it far to the left, away from Peter’s grabbing hands. “You didn’t even get the colour right, Parker! All our badges are white. Why the hell did you think it was red? Did you think it’d be red because Stark’s Iron Man?”
Grace tried to hide his badge behind his hand. Of course it was red because Tony was Iron Man, not even Pepper could talk him out of it. Him, Peter, Pepper, Happy, and all of the Avengers had glaringly red badges. The only person who had an all-access badge that was a sleek black as opposed to red was Pepper’s long-term girlfriend because no one, not even Tony, dared to cross Eva Stratt.
“If you think it’s fake, then let Peter scan it!” Ned defended his friend. Grace was quite glad that no one was picking on Ned for his blue guest pass, but it was probably because MJ had one too and no one dared to cross her either. Grace had always thought of her like the younger version of Eva.
“You know what, that’s a great idea.” Flash said with a sly smile, dropping the badge back into Peter’s hands and pushing him forward to the security gantries.
“Hey,” Grace called out, eyebrows furrowed. “We do not shove our classmates, Flash.”
“Sorry, Mr. Grace…” Flash muttered, looking uncomfortable.
Grace sighed. He didn’t like that Peter was Flash’s constant target, but at least the kid respected Grace enough to listen to him. He had spent the better part of the school year trying to get the bullying to stop, but it wasn’t as clear-cut as he thought. Flash had a troubled home life and as mad as Grace was that his kid was getting bullied, the teacher in him spotted a child in need. So, it had been a work in progress.
Peter stood at the gantry and made desperate eye contact with Grace. Grace could empathise, he was panicking too.
Normally, when a badge was scanned, it would just read out the name of the person and the level of clearance they held. However, when Grace and Peter’s names get scanned, Friday greets them with the most embarrassing and revealing nicknames Tony had set for them.
Grace did not want to find out what his nickname of the day was in front of all his kids.
He quickly shot a text to Happy, praying that the man could help him out in the span of the next thirty seconds.
“What is it, Parker? Scared to be exposed?”
Flash didn’t even know the half of it.
Grace watched as Peter gulped and scanned his badge. The gantry gates opened and they heard Friday’s voice fill the room.
‘Welcome back, kid-that-blew-up-Tony-Stark’s-lab-and-tried-to-hide-it-from-me. Clearance Level: Ten.”
It seemed like Happy didn’t get the text in time. Thank God that Tony’s nickname of the day wasn’t about Peter’s spider-activities.
Still, it didn’t stop the blush that formed on Peter’s cheeks and he felt bad for the boy. In hindsight, they should have told Happy about this field trip a lot sooner. They just assumed he knew– Happy knew everything.
At that, the other students began to tap into the gantry.
‘Welcome to Stark Industries, Flash Thompson. Clearance Level: Two.”
‘Welcome to Stark Industries, Betty Brant. Clearance Level: Two.”
‘Welcome back, MJ the Scary One. Clearance Level: Five.”
‘Welcome back, Ned the Best Friend. Clearance Level: Five.”
As they started to filter through, some of the kids giving Ned and MJ odd looks as they did so, Grace felt his palms begin to sweat. Soon enough, he was the last one left. He should have been the first, being their chaperone and all. Thankfully their tour guide was gathering them together on the other side, but the kids were still waiting for him.
“Mr. Grace?”
“I’m just doing a headcount and making sure no one’s left here,” Grace tried to explain. He knew he wasn’t fooling anyone, there was quite literally no one else around but a single security guard by the door. Not to mention, these kids were in Midtown for a reason.
He couldn’t delay it any longer. Biting his tongue, he walked up to the gantry and was about to scan his badge when he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. He hoped it was Happy as his badge registered him and the gates opened up.
‘Welcome back, Ryland Grace. Clearance Level: ███.”
Friday’s system produced some kind of jumbled up noise at the end. It was odd, and he noticed that he didn’t get the standard guest greeting, but he’d take it.
“Huh,” Their tour guide, a lovely new hire named Adrian, looked up in confusion. “Something must be off with the system. I’ll report the bug to our security department.”
Grace cleared his throat as he passed through, knowing that the bug report was going to Happy so he wasn’t too worried about what that would do. What he was worried about were the suspicious looks that the guards and his students were giving him. The guards knew him, and they knew that wasn’t his regular greeting. His students could also tell that something was off about his badge, but they seemed to be too excited at the prospect of their tour.
He caught Peter’s eye and felt a sense of dread wash over him.
Yeah, they were not making it out of there in one piece.
The first hour of the tour went disturbingly fine. Adrian was doing a wonderful job despite being a new hire with no experience. They made the tour interactive enough that it stopped his typically-hyperactive kids from causing a ruckus as they explored various rooms, exhibits and labs.
Grace was thankful for their abilities because he was a little focused on watching everyone and everything around him. Whenever someone noticed him and looked like they were about to call out to him, he’d panic and shake his head as discreetly as he could.
He managed to shoot off a few texts to some of his friends in various departments, but he couldn’t predict if they saw it or not. He wasn’t worried about the engineering department, his best friend was in there and Rocky always had his back.
The science department might be a different story. The scientists there were dedicated, they spent more time looking at lab samples than their phones. Happy heard about his predicament through a series of panicked texts, but there wasn’t much the man could do all the way in Antarctica.
Every time they left a room, he felt all the tension in his shoulders fall off. Every time they entered a new room, he felt all the weight return.
This wasn’t exactly doing wonders to his already-high blood pressure.
“Alright, everyone!” Adrian called out, clapping their hands together and gesturing to the end of the hall. “We’re going to go on a short, fifteen minute break. Feel free to use your badges to take some complimentary snacks from the pantry at the end. If you need to use the bathroom, they’re right at the opposite end of the hall. You’re free to roam around this hall, but only this hall! I’ll see you guys back here in fifteen!”
At that, his students excitedly broke off into their own groups, exploring the area and checking out how much free snacks they could sneak into their bags.
Using the distraction, Grace walked up to Peter and his friends.
“Peter.”
“Hey Mr. Grace,” Peter replied. It didn’t take a genius to tell that Peter was also in a state of hyperawareness. Sure, the tour helped solidify Peter’s internship and got Flash to quieten down, but there had been one too many times where Friday almost spilled the beans. Although, Grace had to admit that one of it was Peter’s fault. He told the boy to leave the suit at home, or in his secured locker. How could he expect to walk around with such high-level technology and not flag the security scanning systems?
“Yo, Mr. Grace.” MJ nodded at him. “You don’t look too good.”
“Really?” Grace tried to laugh it off, but he could practically hear the stress in his own voice. “I feel great, MJ.”
“Yeah, and Peter doesn’t look like he’s constipated.”
What an odd sight they must have been. If Tony was there, they’d be the poster boys for anxiety – different forms of it, too!
“How much longer is the tour going to last, Mr. Grace?”
“Two more hours.”
Peter blanched. “I’m going to throw up.”
Grace sympathised with Peter so much.
“Hey, look on the bright side!” Ned spoke up, ever the optimist. “We haven’t run into any of the Avengers – which would have been cool any other day but maybe not today.”
“Ned, no!” “Oh God, please don’t say that–!”
Peter physically reached up to cover Ned’s mouth, while Grace shot up and frantically began to look around. Everything looked fine and normal, but the two of them have learnt that if they didn’t want something to happen, they shouldn’t even bring it up.
“You jinxed ‘em, Ned.” MJ sighed. “Now we’re bound to run into an Avenger.” She shrugged, looking around before letting out a bored hum and went back to her sketchbook. “I hope it’s Nat.”
Honestly, Grace hoped it’d be Nat too. She was the least likely to slip out a secret with the whole ‘multiple identities’ thing. That, and she was fond of Peter. She wouldn’t want to do anything that could harm him. She had a tendency to analyse an environment and read the room faster than anyone he knew.
Thor, on the other hand…
“Alright, guys!” Adrian called out. Grace didn’t even realise it had already been fifteen minutes, he was too focused on scanning the hall in case someone they knew walked in. “Let’s reconvene. I’ve got some really exciting news to share.”
Peter shivered beside him. Grace didn’t like that.
“Was that a tingle?”
“I don’t like that that’s the term that’s sticking.” Peter frowned, but followed everyone to the middle of the hall where Adrian was. “But… Yeah.” He stopped somewhere by the back of the group, close enough to listen to Adrian but far enough that the two of them could whisper without the other students (sans MJ and Ned) overhearing them. “I don’t have a good feeling about this.”
Neither did Grace, but he tried to hold out hope for what was next in the tour.
“I’ve just gotten word that we’ve been given access to the labs on the higher floors! Normally, they’re only for grad school tours, or fellow scientists, but they must have heard that your school specialized in science and technology and offered to let us up!”
That’s–
“Which means there’s a chance that we’ll get to see the famous Bruce Banner in his element!”
Oh no.
Bruce was a sweetheart. He was kind and polite to Grace, always excited to talk science with the man. They’ve spent a lot of time together in the labs and he even considers Bruce one of his close friends.
Which means that he knows Bruce has no idea that Grace is there. Like Tony, he gets so engrossed in his work that they have to drag Nat in to pull him out of it. There’s a very low chance he saw Grace’s text.
Peter stilled beside him as well. Bruce would probably have the sensibilities to not mention Peter’s extra-curricular activities to the class and a new tour guide. But the chances were not zero, and that was enough to make Peter worry.
“I’m–” Grace cleared his throat. “I’m sure it’ll be fine.”
MJ hummed, still sketching something in her book. “Yeah,” she said nonchalantly as she finished whatever she was sketching and turned the book up to them. “Look, I drew the two of you.”
They stared at the book. It was an over-exaggeration of how they actually looked like, with their heads partially melted and huge beads of sweat rolling down their faces
And yet, they could relate to it.
Good news, Bruce was not there that day.
Bad news, his students managed to break something in the lab.
Correction– Peter managed to break something in the lab.
Grace had been keeping a close eye on all the kids. When they got to the lab and noticed that Bruce wasn’t there and one of the lab techs had actually read his text, he managed to relax a little and pay more attention to the tour. Of course, he already knew what Adrian was telling the students, but he wanted to listen anyway.
Despite being in the clear, he failed to notice that Peter was still freaking out. So, when the lab tech asked the students to move to another end of the table to observe Bruce’s latest experiment, Peter tripped over air and grabbed out to the nearest thing in an attempt to stabilise himself.
It was just his luck that he grabbed onto the one rolling cart they had in the whole lab and spilled a bunch of chemicals on him as he hit the ground.
Now, Grace knew that Peter’s spider-genes would protect him from almost anything. He also knew that there was a zero per cent chance that Bruce or any of the lab techs would leave anything too toxic out in the open.
But, at the end of the day, Grace was a teacher. He was also Peter’s kinda-parental-uncle figure.
Of course he was going to panic.
“Pete!” Grace yelled out, quickly throwing his own jacket off and using it to protect his arms as he tried to swipe the chemicals and loose glass off his kid.
He could hear Adrian asking everyone to stand back and the lab tech calling one of their on-site medics – which wasn’t going to work. Peter needed to be seen by Helen. If one of their regular medics checked in on him, they would immediately tell that something was odd about how fast his cuts would heal.
“Ryland, I–”
“Don’t speak,” he urged. “Some of the chemicals got on your face. I do not want you digesting that.”
“Really, I’m fine! You know I’ll be fin–”
“Peter Parker-Stark,” Grace lowered his voice and looked at Peter like he was in so much trouble. “Not another word, or so help me God, the identity part will be the last thing you need to worry about.”
Peter snapped his mouth shut, looking up at Grace with wide eyes. It was never Grace’s job to discipline him, he wasn’t Peter’s legal guardian. But, sue him for also growing fond and protective of the kid.
“Mr. Grace, our medical team is on their way here.” Adrian spoke up from behind them and Grace turned back to see that they were the only ones by the table. The class had been escorted out of the lab, but were still looking in through the glass panels. The lab techs were all in the corner, already running through the protocol for chemical spills. “Uhm, the normal medics are attending to something on the lower floors so one of the specialists will be coming up.” ‘Oh, thank God it’s Helen’ Grace thought to himself.
Grace looked back down at Peter and helped the boy stand up. “Safety deluge shower, now. Then the eyewash station.”
Peter complied, rushing over to the shower with Grace not too far behind.
“I’m so sorry about this, Mr. Grace.” Adrian began to apologize as the lab tech turned the shower on and they both watched Peter get drenched. “I should have paid more attention to what was in the lab.”
“It’s–” Grace took a deep breath and collected himself. “It’s not your fault, Adrian. Heck, I was behind him and I didn’t have enough time to catch him before he fell. Plus, the change in the tour was sprung on you. You did well considering you weren’t even briefed on these few floors, weren’t you?”
“No, sir.” Adrian confirmed. “The only reason I know even a little bit about this floor is because my partner works in the engineering lab here… N-Not that he talks about confidential information to me at home!”
Grace gave Adrian an understanding look. He was a little too stressed to smile, but he wanted to make sure they knew that this wasn’t something they could have prevented (and that everyone in the labs tends to forget about their own NDAs ninety per cent of the time).
“Ry– Mr. Grace,” Peter called out, now that he was done with the eyewash. The lab techs had already brought him sweats to change into and his soggy clothes were already in the contaminant basket, along with Grace’s jacket. “I…”
Peter trailed off, looking at the lab techs around them. Grace asked them to bring over some towels and they went off looking for them. Once they were away from earshot, Grace walked up to Peter.
“You okay, kid?”
“I’m sorry,” Peter apologized, not making eye contact with Grace. “I’m so sorry, Ryland. I… I should have been paying attention and now… Now the tour is ruined, and it brought more attention to us– to you. I should be able to catch myself, I don’t know why I couldn’t just–!”
“Hey,” Grace cut Peter off. “None of that.” He stepped aside, shielding Peter from the prying eyes of his classmates. “I’m not saying you weren’t clumsy – You were, and this is going to be a lesson about being more mindful in the lab.” Peter nodded. “But, people make mistakes. I’m not angry about what just happened, I’m just really, really worried for your safety.”
“But I’ll–”
“I know you’ll heal, Pete.” Grace said. “But I couldn’t help it. What if they weren’t normal chemicals? What if it was something significantly worse that could have really hurt you. Just because you heal fast, doesn't mean you can’t feel the pain from your injuries. Chemical burns hurt so much.”
Grace watched Peter nod, still not making eye contact. He did notice the boy glance at Grace’s exposed arm and the raised scar from an accident involving very hot ammonia gas.
“Just, be more careful. Okay?”
“Yes, Ryland.”
“I’d hug you, but I don’t have the same regeneration factors you do.” Grace said. Even after the drench shower, it was still advisable for Peter to take a proper shower. There were a lot of vials that spilt on him. He would have used his jacket to reach out to the boy, but it was in the contamination basket.
“Thanks, Ryland.” Peter finally looked up and Grace could see a light sheen over his eyes. “I still feel awful about the tour.”
Grace took a deep sigh and looked back at the class, expecting to see them gossiping behind the glass, but paused when none of the kids had their eyes focused on them (sans Ned and MJ). In fact, they seemed to be watching someone walk up from the elevator behind them.
“Oh,” Grace said, once he caught sight of who was coming up to the lab. “I… I don’t think they’re going to feel like the tour was ruined.”
“What do you mea–?” Peter turned around. “Oh no.”
“Pete?! Ry?!” Tony called out, rushing into the lab and heading straight to the two of them. Poor Adrian looked like all the colour had drained out of their face and Grace made a mental note to send them a fruit basket for the stress. “Holy shit, kid. Are you okay?” Tony reached out to hold Peter’s shoulders – which were thankfully covered by the sweatshirt.
“I’m okay, Mr. Stark. Really, I promise.” Peter was quick to reassure Tony before Tony went into full protective parental-figure mode. “I caused a small accident and spilled a cart of chemicals on myself but I’m not hurt at all, really!”
“And Helen’s already on her way here to give him a once-over.” Grace spoke up for the first time, causing Tony’s head to snap towards him.
“How about you, Ry?” Tony said, hands still on Peter’s shoulders but his eyes were Grace for any injuries. “Did you get splashed?”
“I’m okay, Tony. None of us were near him. If I was, I’d have tried to catch him.”
“God, okay.” Tony rubbed a hand down his face, causing Grace and Peter to cringe – they hoped the chemicals had been properly washed away from Peter’s body before Tony did that. “Thank fuck the two of you are alright.”
“How’d you even…” Grace paused. “How are you here?”
“Well, no one cared to even inform me that my husband and kid were in an accident!” Tony said incredulously. Adrian blanched from their spot and Grace mentally upgraded that fruit basket to a paid vacation. “I quite literally had to overhear it from someone down in security.”
“No, I mean,” Grace shook his head. “You’re supposed to be in Antarctica. You weren’t even supposed to be in today–!”
“And miss your field trip?” Tony let out a small, amused huff. “Not a chance.”
Grace and Peter groaned.
“You knew?!”
“Babe,” Tony raised an arm to cup Grace’s shoulder, still mindful of the dozens of eyes on them right now (apart from the lab techs who knew about their relationship and were busy cleaning up the spill). “Pepper may be handling most of the things here, but I do check the calendar.”
Grace spluttered, “But–! Wait, did you–?”
“I called ahead to send your group up to Bruce’s lab, yes.” Tony nodded. “I was going to surprise you guys with some slightly-unregulated science, but…” He glanced around the lab, eyes lingering on the spill and broken glass on the floor. “Maybe this isn’t a place for a bunch of fifteen year olds to be running around in…”
Tony’s eyes lit up.
Grace and Peter felt the blood drain out of their face.
“Whatever it is,” Grace started. “The answer is no.”
“Pete needs a change of clothes. The kids need a fun, exciting tour to forget about this little accident.”
“Tony. No.”
“I’m going to bring them up to the Avenger’s floor.”
“Mr. Stark.”
“After we stop by the penthouse so that the kids can grab some refreshments, and Pete can change into his own clothes.”
“Tony.” “Mr. Stark!”
Tony paid them no mind, already texting the Stark Industry lawyers to prepare some NDAs and asking Helen to meet them at the penthouse instead.
What was Ryland Grace’s life?
He was standing in his own living room, surrounded by his students as they fawn over various Avenger-related items that the members themselves have left strewn around the house.
Grace was a mandated reporter. His students were in his home. Granted, he didn’t want them to be. He didn’t know the protocol for this.
Peter ran off the second the elevator doors opened, dragging MJ and Ned with him. Helen had joined him a few minutes later with her med kit. Grace had a strong feeling that Peter was not going to be coming out of his room until the day was over. Flash didn’t even bother trying to make fun of him, he and the other students were too busy freaking out over being in Iron Man’s living chambers.
“Don’t look so tense, handsome.” Tony whispered behind him, sliding Grace a coffee on the counter. “What’s the worst that can happen?”
“Stop teasing him, Tony.” Pepper called out from the couch, sipping on her coffee and reading something on her tablet, as if there weren’t dozens of kids walking around them. “Poor guy already looks like he’s been through enough.”
“Mmm,” Eva hummed, looking up from the article she was reading in the comfort of her girlfriend’s arm. “Nah, he looks fine. I’m sure he can take more.”
“Eva!” Grace called out to his supposed best friend. He wished Carl was there. Eva seemed to be nicer to him whenever Carl was around for some reason.
Before he could say anything else, Betty walked up to them with a picture frame in her hands.
“Mr. Grace?” She asked. “Why is there a wedding picture of you and Tony Stark on the TV stand?”
“You’re missing the huge ass portrait of them by the entrance,” Jason called out from somewhere deep in the pantry.
“There’s also a wedding photo album on the shelf.” Flash pointed out. “I wanted to pull it out but Thor left his hammer right in front of it so I can’t.”
“Must suck to not be worthy, huh, Flash?” MJ yelled out from Peter’s room – how she managed to hear them was beyond Grace but she was a mini-Eva. Who knew what they were capable of?
Grace groaned and buried his face in his hands. Betty remained there, holding up the picture frame but diverted her attention to Tony instead.
“I assume we can’t tell anyone that our science teacher is married to Iron Man?”
“Smart kid.” Grace could hear the grin in Tony’s words.
“You’re probably going to make us sign an NDA, but I can get the class to keep the secret without the hassle of all the lawyers – on one condition.”
God. There were two mini-Evas. Grace cried out into his hands.
“Really smart kid,” Tony replied. “I’ll bite. What’s your condition?”
“Internships,” she stated. “For anyone here that wants one.”
Grace’s head whipped up at that, so did Eva and Pepper’s.
“Oh,” Eva looked at Betty with an impressed look. “She’s good. I like her.”
“No, Eva.” Grace pointed at the lady lounging on his couch. “You are not taking my student to an aircraft carrier in the middle of the South China Sea.”
“Boo,” she responded and went back to her article. Grace had a feeling Pepper was interested in taking Betty in, which was probably fine. At least Pepper worked in the tower.
“You drive a good bargain, kid.” Grace felt Tony lean over him and hook his chin on Grace’s shoulder. He sneaked one hand around Grace’s waist, and used the other hand to reach out to Betty for a handshake. “Deal.”
Betty grinned and shook Tony’s hand.
“One more question.”
“Shoot, kid.”
“Why does Peter have a room here?”
“Internship reasons.” Tony said, plain and simple. “Now, I am going to make you guys sign an NDA for that.”
Betty shrugged, probably having realised that she ran out of luck and dropped the topic. She was about to make her way back to Chrissy when Pepper called out for her and started to talk about an internship.
Now that Grace’s secret was out of the bag, he allowed himself the luxury to melt into Tony’s hold – the kids were way too busy trying to steal from Tony’s pantry, pick up Thor’s hammer, and score themselves a resume-winning internship to care that their science teacher was married to Iron Man anyway.
“Missed ya, handsome.” Tony said into Grace’s ear, dropping a kiss against Grace’s temple. “Long day?”
“Shut up,” Grace chuckled, leaning his head against Tony’s. “Missed you too.”
Tony adjusted his hold and buried his face into the nook of Grace’s neck, squeezing his arms around Grace as he did so and eliciting a chuckle from the man himself. Contrary to popular belief, Tony Stark was a very clingy and very cuddly husband.
“Cute,” Grace smiled, sipping on his coffee. “So, what did you guys do in Antarctica again?”
“Mmm…” Tony breathed out against Grace’s neck. Grace could tell that he was getting sleepy and used his free hand to hold Tony in place. Standing up and being surrounded by kids didn’t mean Tony wouldn’t be able to fall asleep – not when he had Grace in his grasp. “Nothin’ much. Nuked Antartica.” He yawned. “Eva’s orders.”
Sounded like a typical day for Iron Man and Director Stratt– Wait.
“... Could you, uh–” Grace cleared his throat. “Could you repeat that, Tony?”
“Mmm, don’t worry.” His words began to slur together as he started to drift off into sleep. “Saved the penguins first. Pete likes penguins.”
“That’s not–! Tony? Tony!!”
“Grace!” Rocky yelled out, hopping out of the elevator with a pep in his step. “Have you met Adrian yet! It was their first day here! I didn’t wanna tell ya because I knew they were taking your group today and thought it’d be real funny to–”
Rocky paused when he saw the chaos unfolding in the penthouse. There were about a dozen teenagers making an absolute mess. One of which seemed to be stuffing his pants with snacks from the pantry and another looked like he was about to hurt his back trying to lift Mjolnir.
He walked in and turned the corner to see his best friend on the ground, wringing a struggling Tony Stark’s neck and repeating the words ‘What the fudge did you do to the Antarctic ice shelf, Tony?!’.
Rocky almost dropped the keycard in his hand. It wasn’t every day you witnessed a domestic dispute between your best friend and his husband, who also happened to be your employer and an Avenger.
“Oh. Hey, Rocky.” Eva called out from the couch. Beside her, a fifteen year old was flipping through a Project Hail Mary file – a project so confidential that Rocky hadn’t even been able to tell Adrian about.
Grace looked up, his glasses askew and his eyes distraught.
“You wouldn’t believe what happened today, Rock.”
Rocky gulped.
“... Why room so messy, question?