Chapter Text
Peter Parker’s Day was going splendidly. He’d aced his Spanish presentation and finished his physics test with 40 minutes to spare. Normally this wouldn’t have put him in such a good mood alone, however Flash had had soup spilled all over his expensive shirt during lunch. Some younger student had bumped into Flash, who of course, hadn’t been watching where he was going. As a result, Flash’s shirt was ruined.
Flash had used all of his usual threats, calling the kid names and promising that his father would get him expelled, until the kid ran off crying. Flash had shown up to the next class wearing a sweater from the lost and found to cover the stain and Peter had happily watched as MJ sketched this specific person in crisis. He could admit that it was much more fun when he wasn’t the subject of her drawings.
So, when Peter showed up to AcaDec that afternoon, talking animatedly with Ned about a new Star Wars LEGO set they had to build that weekend, he didn’t expect his Spider Senses to go off. However as soon as he looked up, he understood why. Flash was smiling widely at them which could never mean anything good.
“Hey, Penis Parker!” Flash shouted and everyone looked up. Peter looked around frantically for Mr Harrington, who of course, was nowhere to be found whenever he actually had to do his job as a teacher at Midtown School of Science and Technology. “Have you heard where the field trip next week is to? I overheard Mr Harrington talking to some of the other teachers about it” Flash continued.
“No, Flash, I haven’t heard. Ned and I just arrived. How would I know?” Peter answered, looking at Flash waiting for his next, surely very original, insult.
“All of your lies are about to be exposed. Everyone will learn what a fraud you are and realize how stupid they were for ever believing you about your-”
“Oh, hey Peter, Ned.” Flash was interrupted as Mr Harrington walked back into the library. “Good that you made it. I was just about to announce and hand out permission slips for the field trip. I just had to print them first.” He waved the stack of paper in his hands at them and walked to the table seating the rest of the AcaDec team. Peter followed along apprehensively with Ned trailing behind.
Flash just sat down looking very happy with himself.
“So, guys, as you all know we have the field trip coming up next week. Now, this is a very exclusive location that we have been very lucky to get to tour as they don’t usually allow high school students inside. Therefore, you will all need to sign NDAs as well as your permission slips to be able to go on this trip. I am going to be needing these back tomorrow, so I can get them sent to our location, as they need to put you all into the system and create access badges for you” Mr Harrington looked very excited for this trip while Peter’s mood was getting worse by the minute. He had a bad feeling about where this was going. The mix of Flash talking about ‘his lies’, the NDAs and a ‘very exclusive location’ made him kind of scared to hear where exactly they would be going.
“Because of how well you have all been doing in recent competitions we have been allowed to visit, drumroll please...” Mr Harrington trailed off and waited for the kids join in on the drumroll, which most did, not including Peter (or MJ because she wouldn’t get caught dead doing a drumroll for something as lame as this)
Peter peeked at the permission slips trying to see the location. Not SI, not SI, not SI he quietly hoped. Before he had the chance to read it, Mr Harrington was happy with his drumroll and exclaimed “Stark Industries!”
Cheers erupted all around Peter who immediately tried to find ways to get out of this particular field trip. Even Ned was talking excitedly to an absentminded Peter. “Dude, this is so cool. Can you imagine? We’re actually going to Stark Industries.” Ned was practically jumping up and down with glee
“No, Ned, it’s not cool.” Peter answered, then lowered his voice to a whisper so only Ned would hear “I know people a regular intern shouldn’t know. People will ask questions. And I’m sure my uncles and aunts are going to take the chance to embarrass me” he didn’t even want to imagine what they would all come up with. Just thinking about it had him dreading the trip even more than 30 seconds ago.
Suddenly Flash was behind Peter “what’s up Parker? Scared that everyone will finally realize how much of a loser you are and that you’ll get kicked out for your lies?”
“Just shut up, Flash. Have you realized that you might be exposed for your lies about my lies?” Peter bit back. He realized that it didn’t make much sense, but now he’d said it and couldn’t take it back. He was kind of preoccupied with other things at the moment (like how to avoid having it revealed that he’d moved into the tower after Aunt May’s death), and he couldn’t be expected to come up with the best comebacks. Flash, of course, did not know this and just frowned, muttering “loser” before walking away laughing.
“Hey listen, I’m sure it’s gonna be fine” Ned, guy-in-the-chair tried to console Peter while awkwardly patting his shoulder. Just then, Mr Harrington walked by with their forms and Peter stared at his permission slip trying to decide if he should throw it out and pretend to not be allowed to go. Tony and Pepper never even had to find out.
“Oh, right, everybody I forgot to mention” Mr Harrington spoke up catching everyone’s attention, which was quite the feat with 9 excited students “On this trip we will be doing a little workshop which will be able to give any of you up to 15% extra credit in physics and engineering classes. So, prepare well, we don’t want to embarrass ourselves.”
Peter dropped his face in his hands. Now he definitely couldn’t skip out on the trip. Who would purposefully miss out on 15% extra credit? He could survive a day at the tower. He would just have to keep a low profile.
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After the meeting the 9 AcaDec students filed out of the library all buzzing with energy. All except Peter who also seemed to have infected MJ and Ned with his bad mood since they both stayed quiet instead of talking about their trip.
As soon as they got outside Peter scoured the parking lot for Happy’s car. He quickly spotted the black SUV, said goodbye to his friends, and hopped into the backseat of the car.
“Hey, good day?” Happy said, for once living up to his nickname.
“mmhwhegoinfietritostarindustri” Peter mumbled something unintelligible.
“What was that? Also, put on your seatbelt” Happy asked from the front seat.
“I was having a great day yeah.” Peter answered “until the AcaDec meeting which completely ruined it” he whispered that last part so Happy wouldn’t hear, wanting to limit the amount of people who knew about the trip.
When they arrived at the tower Peter barely heard FRIDAY’s “Welcome back, Peter” as she scanned his face and recognized him passing security. He rushed to the residential elevator as soon as Happy let him go, not bothering to take out his badge. Not like he needed it anyways. FRIDAY knew him well enough without having to scan his badge.
“Where to, Mini boss?” she asked when the doors closed.
“Up top, please” Peter answered.
Then he watched as the numbers on the little elevator screen got higher and higher until finally it slowed and stopped at 93. The doors opened and Peter walked out to the worst possible scene he could have imagined. It seemed that most of the Avengers were in. He would struggle to hide his asking Pepper to sign his permission slip from all of them especially considering multiple of them either had super-hearing or were spies/assassins, trained to listen for the smallest sounds.
And he had to ask Pepper because there was no way he was mentioning this to Tony who would probably find it incredibly funny. He knew he couldn’t keep it from the guy forever, but he could at the very least delay the inevitable.
Peter tried to sneak into his room without any of them noticing, using his spider-like way of walking silently. He almost made it as most of the Avengers were busy, until a small figure came rushing toward him.
“Pete!” the tiny tornado, who most knew as Morgan, screamed as she flung herself into Peter’s arms. He barely caught her in time and lifted her up with a sheepish smile.
“Hey there, Little Bug. Aren’t you energetic today, huh?” he asked her and then turned toward the now-silent living room. Steve was walking toward them.
“Did you seriously just try to sneak in without saying hello, young man?” he asked with a teasing smile on his lips. Peter looked around Steve seeing the others had also turned toward them, and now that he looked more closely there were actually a few faces he hadn’t seen in a while.
Steve was a common view at the tower, usually planning some new prank with Bucky. So were Dr. Banner, Vision, Wanda (those last two also usually seen together in a quiet corner), Rhodey, and Sam. There were also a few additions that hadn’t been at the tower for a few months. They had been out on a mission, but nobody would tell Peter anything more than that.
He put down Morgan as a smile broke out on his face again
“Aunt Nat, Uncle Clint, you’re back” he said as he walked toward the two, arms outstretched for a hug. Most of the world saw Natasha as a cold killer but in private she was a cinnamon roll who always helped Peter with whatever he needed. Clint though was exactly as everyone saw him: also, a big cinnamon roll with a weird habit of crawling in the vents.
“Hey kiddo” Peter heard Clint say as he released the two again. Automatically Peter looked them both up and down to check for any big injuries. Thankfully the two seemed unharmed although that didn’t mean they didn’t have any healed injuries. Peter always worried whenever any of the Avengers left for missions. Especially when he wasn’t told about them as that usually meant it was something dangerous and they didn’t want Peter to worry or try to help. Not that he always tried to tag along (not ALWAYS). He liked taking care of the small things in Queens. Friendly-neighbourhood-Spider-Man and all that.
“Good to feel appreciated” came a familiar voice from behind him. Peter turned and saw Bucky standing with his arms crossed while Steve and a few others nodded, agreeing with Bucky’s statement.
“Sorry, guys. To be fair I see most of you every day. I haven’t seen these two in months” Peter pointed a thumb over his shoulder.
“Pe-ete. You promised we would play when you came back from school” Morgan apparently thought she had been kept waiting for long enough. And it was true; Peter had promised that. Mainly to get her to leave him alone as he was trying to eat his breakfast before school, but a promise was a promise. And so, he left the Avengers behind to go play some video game with a 4-year-old.
“What do you want to play today, Little Bug?” Peter asked Morgan as she all but dragged him to his room where his PlayStation was set up and a stack of video games including some of Morgans favourites were laying in front of a few bean bags on the floor.
When they entered, Peter webbed his bag to the wall so it would be out of the way, only vaguely recognizing that he should probably clean up soon. His room was becoming a mess. But that was an issue for later. Right now, he just had to play games with his favourite little person.
Morgan excitedly picked up her current obsession; some new barbie game. Peter would never admit this, but he actually also liked that game so he sat down in the beanbags without complaint and Morgan sat between his legs so they could play together.
“Hey, Little Bug, do you know where your mom is this afternoon?” he asked hoping he would be able to catch Pepper before she joined all the other’s and he would be able to keep them from learning of his field trip. The less time they had to scheme, the better.
“She’s in the bedroom. She came up home early and said her head was hurting” There went that plan. He wasn’t going to bother Pepper if she wasn’t feeling well. If she wasn’t better by dinner and he couldn’t catch her afterwards, he would have to ask Tony.
They needed to hand in the slips tomorrow after all. Even though his information wouldn’t need to be put into the system since it already was, he was pretty sure he wouldn’t be allowed to wait for Monday to roll around. Mr Harrington didn’t know how much time Peter spent at the tower after all.