Work Text:
Peter Parker. He was simply Peter Parker. Some nobody from Queens who went to Midtown and had a few secrets. But everybody had secrets. But none as big as the whole Spider-Man ordeal.
Peter had accepted Tony’s offer to become an Avenger, and he partially lived upstate. May didn't know that it was because he was an Avenger, she thought it was a part of the internship. Peter stayed down in familiar territory for the most part, though, since he had school, May, and the city to protect. It was hard to accomplish any of those tasks when he was stuck in a compound in the forest.
It had started off as a normal, pleasant day. MJ was being her usual nonchalant, flirty self. Ned rambled on and on and on and on about Star Wars, almost making Peter’s eardrums bleed by the constant overwhelming chatter.
Peter was excited for next week, specifically Friday. Everything had been cleared with the teachers. He was supposed to have a day off to work with Tony at the compound. The reason for such an occasion? Shuri and Bruce Banner would be there. It was basically a science nerd convention.
They would talk, catch up with each other, and build cool things. It was labeled as an educational incursion to the school, but in all reality, Tony would be giving a bunch of nerds with brilliant minds but the personality of sixteen year olds scraps of metal and wiring and free reign over the labs. It was to be a competition. Nat had volunteered to judge the inventions in the end, since she had no bias. (LIES. She liked Peter the best since they were Spider Buddies, but she’d never admit that.)
So, Peter wasn’t too thrilled about the fact that he’d be missing some field trip on said Friday. (HE’S ALSO A LIAR. Peter hated field trips ever since the bite, Washington DC, and that weird trip to a restaurant where everyone got food poisoning.)
Peter essentially said ‘aw shucks!’ and asked if he could skip the meet, since all they would be discussing was the field trip. MJ allowed him to leave (perks of being the team captain's boyfriend), and so he did.
Peter adorned his suit in a back alleyway, careful to web his backpack high on the wall so that no thief would try to steal it. Or the trash company. He’d lost too many backpacks to trash collectors.
As he swung through the streets of New York, Peter let his worries get cast aside. Who cared if he had a biology quiz the next day? Not him! He had perfect grades, and it wasn’t like he was going to get hit by a truck–
—
“Explain to me how you broke three ribs,” Tony sighed. Peter was propped against a wall on some random roof.
“I got hit by a semi-truck…” Peter mumbled.
“How many times have I told you to be more careful?” Tony was sitting next to the kid. His Iron-Man suit was off, and was hovering ominously nearby. “I thought you didn’t want May to know.”
“I don’t!”
“You’re making that pretty hard to cover up.” Tony gestured to the kid’s side, which was a mosaic of red and purple. “You sure you don’t want some medical help?” Tony sounded genuinely concerned.
“I’m sure. Thank you Mr. Stark.”
“Please, Underoos, you’re killing me with the formality. Tony is fine.”
“Thank you Tony,” Peter said venomously, although it was all for fun and he didn’t have any malice behind his words.
Tony didn’t leave, though. He hesitated. He made sure that Peter made it back to the alleyway and he also insisted that he let Happy drive him home. Peter begrudgingly obliged.
—
Peter had taken a nice, long nap once he had returned to the apartment. He was awoken by the sound of frantic texts being shot at him. The buzzing sent a ripple through the wood of his desk, vibrating all throughout Peter’s head.
He groggily checked the texts. It was the AcaDec group chat, one which Peter didn’t really want to be in. Something about Flash? Lies? Whatever, it was all about the field trip, anyways. There were also missed calls, but he didn’t care to check the caller ID. It was probably Ned.
Peter set the phone gently onto his desk, face down. He got out of bed and made his way to the bathroom to check on his ribcage. Most of the pain was gone, dulled by his enhanced healing. He could feel the broken ribs shift uncomfortably in his chest. It almost made him gag.
The skin was mostly fine now, it was only purple. (That is heavily sarcastic). The violet shade could possibly be explained… maybe he fell off a curb? That would have to do.
The front door to the apartment opened. “Peter?” May called in an exasperated tone. “Peter, are you here? You didn’t tell me about any lab time today, you haven’t answered your calls and–” May stopped short when she saw Peter in the bathroom. “What happened?” Her worry was immediately replaced by surplus concern.
Peter tried explaining, but May, the expert nurse in training she was, knew that Peter was lying. She made him swear as if he were in court to tell the truth.
Peter was quiet. If she knew the truth she could be in danger… but Peter always thought about the worst outcomes. May would most likely be totally fine…if no one else found out about his alter-ego.
“The truth…” Peter tried. He sighed. “It’s very complicated…”
“Oh come on, spit it out. Peter, tell me why you keep coming home all beat up. Who is doing this to you?”
“Nobody is doing this, May.”
“Tell me the truth! It’s not like you’re Spider-Man!”
Peter was silent, but apparently his thoughts were written all over his face.
“Oh my goodness,” May whispered. “Peter, you cannot be doing that kind of thing! You know how dangerous it is?”
Peter nodded. He was so good at keeping secrets from May. “You won’t stop me from doing it, though.”
“I feel like I should have some say in this!”
“But May! I have the ability to do good. Real good. If I don’t do something, if I sit around and watch people get hurt? When I can do something about it? I can’t just not help people! It’s just like what you do at the hospital. You help people!”
“I help people, yes. But I don’t try to throw my life away in the process! I’ve seen those videos on Youtube! Spider-Man has absolutely no self preservation in mind!”
“Well maybe that’s because all those videos were filmed right after Ben died! I didn’t know what to do with my life!”
Even though their conversation was quiet, those words hung in the air loudly.
“May, please, I’m better now. I’m careful, I’m not throwing myself into death or death situations, and it’s not like I’m gonna go to space. You aren’t going to stop me from helping people, in my own way.”
May was quiet for a moment. She took a deep breath, held it, and let it out.
“Did Stark help you build those suits?” she asked quietly.
Peter let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. “Yeah. He did. We’re working on a safer one. It’s going to be metal, nano tech, so I can take harder hits without the damage being done. I’m calling it the Iron Spider.”
“I’m calling Tony.”
Peter didn’t object. May needed to have the full picture. She deserved it.
After a long call with Tony, May, much to Peter’s delight, would allow him to continue being Spider-Man. But of course, it came with restrictions. Curfew. Peter would be allowed to stay at the apartment, Tower, and Compound at any time during the week, as long as Peter or Tony let May know. Peter would have to be at one of those places before midnight. He’d have to tell either Tony or May about any injuries, no matter how small.
Peter inwardly groaned in protest, outwardly smiled and nodded. He asked if there were any other rules.
“One more,” May said. “Tony has to clear any Avengers missions with me before taking you along.”
Peter verbally groaned. Yippee.
“I’m still mad about the Germany thing.”
“Wha-”
“Tony told me.”
“Oh.”
“Now go to bed!”
—
For the next few days at school, Flash sneered about the internship, verbally and physically messing with Peter.
“It’s a shame you won’t be there,” Flash pouted. “How convenient.”
Peter wasn’t stupid. The field trip was to a Stark-owned building, most likely the Tower. It was a shame indeed that Peter would miss the field trip; he hadn’t seen very much of the lower floors. Most of the building belonged to Stark Industries, anyways, aside from a few floors at the top which still were Tony’s.
“Whatever Flash,” Peter then reminded Flash of the reason he wouldn’t be attending. “The Internship, oooo,” he sounded like a ghost at the end of his statement.
Flash grabbed Peter by the collar of the shirt. Peter smirked innocently. Seeing that he did not get the intended reaction, Flash shoved Peter into a locker and left. Peter turned around to make sure there wasn’t a dent in the wall, but then remembered that Flash was pathetically weak and incapable of doing damage to a wall.
—
Come Thursday afternoon, Peter was ecstatic. He had been on and off the phone with Ned. Neither boy brought up the field trip, aside from Peter saying have fun.
Peter was swinging through the streets of New York when an irritating voice from below caught his attention. Flash. He was live streaming some stupid video, bragging about an expensive watch of some sort. Peter watched from a roof, amused by the desperate attempts for attention.
Flash made weird faces. It was probably a part of being an influencer. Two men, large, burly, tough looking guys, walked closer and closer to Flash until they were backing him into an alleyway.
“Yo yo!” Peter heard a man say. The voice sounded much younger than the man appeared. “What’s up, chat?” The man had taken Flash’s phone. “Wow! Three thousand watchers? I’m surprised someone would want to listen to some bratty spoiled kid with an annoying voice.”
Wow, this man was great with insults. Peter stuck a web to an overhanging wall and let himself down gracefully on the silk.
“Hey, it’s not nice to steal you know,” Peter said flatly. He webbed the phone and tossed it to Flash. “Why don’t you two go on your merry way, and I won’t have to fight you.”
One of the men pulled some large device out of his trenchcoat. His figure seemed to deflate, so whatever item he was holding was the explanation for the older-looking appearance.
“Woah! It’s the Chitauri weapons! I thought I got rid of all of those!”
Peter shot webs at the man, hitting him in the face and sticking his foot to the ground. The man shot a repulsor-beam at Peter. Peter dodged with ease. He kicked the legs out from under the other guy, webbing him stuck.
Once both men were securely webbed, Peter turned to Flash. “You alright?”
“Yes Mr. Spider-Man sir,” Flash stuttered.
Peter gave him a thumbs up. Flash did not move. “You know, most people either walk away or ask for a picture right about now. You sure you’re ok?”
Flash nodded. “Can I get a picture?”
“Sure, why not.” Peter posed for a selfie, but realized that Flash was still streaming. It apparently didn’t matter, since the picture was still taken.
“One more thing,” Flash said before Peter was able to jump away. “Do you really know Peter Parker?”
“Turn that stream off and I’ll tell you.” Flash did as he was told. “Yeah, of course I know Peter! He’s my best friend! In fact, I think I recognize you… He’s told me about this kid named Flash…”
Flash gulped. “Wh-what did he say about me?”
Peter nodded his head back and forth. “Nothing much. Nothing horrible, nothing good.”
“What’s that mean?!”
“It means that I don’t know much about you. To me, you are an average person. You aren’t a bad guy, you aren’t a hero.”
“Oh…”
Peter was sure to get told off on Monday, but he didn’t really care. His phone began to buzz in his pocket.
“Oh! I gotta take this. Can you…call the police or something? You know what, nah. Just get out of here and stay safe.”
Flash bolted as if his fear finally caught up with him. Peter answered the phone. Tony was on the other line.
“Hey, so, funny thing,” Tony started, “Someone spilled a bunch of highly reactive chemicals in my lab at the compound… so we’re going to be at the Tower tomorrow. We’re gonna steal one of the intern’s floors.”
“Alright! By the way, there’s some guys with Chitauri tech at my location–don’t worry! I’m fine!”
“I’ll send someone to deal with it. Alright, I gotta go. See you tomorrow.”
“Bye.”
Tony hung up and went about his day, doing more important things. He didn’t realize his phone was ringing, since he was caught up in some Avengers business.
Peter was frantically calling Tony, attempting to let the man know about the tour. It would probably be fine. Right? Right?! It wasn’t like a tour group would look at every lab. Peter gave it a rest. Tony would deal with it. It would be fine.
Peter swung home with minimal interactions with people. It was nearing nine when he arrived at his apartment window. May had locked the window. He knocked on the glass and waited for May to open the window.
The scent of grilled cheese filled the air. Peter slipped into his room and changed, honestly glad that he didn’t have to hide his secret anymore. He came back to the kitchen and ate his grilled cheese sandwich with May. He didn’t want to mention that he needed more food than what she had provided.
Peter, in his ever-present worst-case-scenario thoughts, thought it would be an amazing idea to start a conversation with “If our apartment ever caught on fire, and Tony offered us a place at the Compound or Tower, would you take the offer?”
May stared at him blankly.
“Sorry. I always think about these kinds of things.”
“That’s… you know what? I don’t even know anymore. I don’t think I'd accept the offer, since we are perfectly fine by ourselves.”
“What would you do if I died while being Spider-Man?”
“Peter! No! We are changing the topic right now!”
“Sorry.”
“And stop saying sorry!”
“Sorry.”
May threw a bread roll at Peter. It hit him in the head. May laughed, forgetting the previous situation they were in. “What? So you can dodge bullets but not bread?”
“It doesn’t work with bread!” Peter cried, exasperated. “My Spider-Sense only works with real threats!”
May laughed even more. Peter smiled. He tilted his head and captured every moment of this interaction. Because what if May died tomorrow? He didn’t want to forget her. Ever.
—
Peter got up at seven o’clock sharp. He swung to the Tower, still disappointed in the slight chance of his class ruining the day. But Tony would have gotten that sorted out. It was fine. He gracefully slammed into an alleyway and changed into his civilian clothes.
He crossed the street to Stark Tower, narrowly avoiding getting hit by a bus. He climbed the steps and walked through security. He greeted the security guard on duty, and waited as he was, yet again, flagged at the metal detectors.
The security guard, Bob, knew Peter well enough to let him through without searching his backpack. Peter had complained to Tony about the whole security ordeal, but Tony always ‘forgot’ to tell Friday to fix the problem. Peter knew deep down that Tony was just a traitor.
Peter stepped into the elevator and it climbed twenty nine floors to his designated intern floor. Why Tony hadn’t used the personal labs was a mystery to Peter.
What Peter didn’t see was the flabbergasted faces of a few classmates as they watched him casually enter Stark Tower without supervision.
Whatever, though. It was fine. Flash was already covering for Peter, how kind of him!
Peter stepped out onto the intern floor and met up with the other nerds. He and Shuri did a little handshake.
“Nat will be here in seven hours max,” Tony stated. “No guidelines or instructions. We each have a full lab to ourselves. Each lab has a fabricator, and FRIDAY will be available to all. Try not to blow up the floor, it costs money to fix your shenanigans.”
FRIDAY dinged, signalling the beginning of the nerd competition.
Peter had millions of ideas. He decided on a robot dog. Fully functioning, but sadly without fur. He’d add the fur later.
“Tony! I’m making a dog! Because you won’t let me have one!”
“Don’t blame that on me, Underoos! May’s allergic and you hardly stay over!”
“That’s gonna change soon. We are gonna have the coolest pet ever!”
“Don’t use real fur! Nat and I are allergic!”
“I’m not going to!”
It was funny how they had to yell. FRIDAY could very easily open up a comm system between the four labs, but, being the idiots they were, the four nerds liked to scream at each other. Shuri yelled at Bruce about some movie she had watched recently. It was one that Bruce had recommended.
Peter tuned out the chattering and got to work on the code. He also sent some schematics to the fabricator to begin the printing process. (The fabricator is basically a 3D printer, but with metal parts. Idk I thought the name was fitting). Peter shot a web at a USB drive, which was among a pile of other unused USB drives.
“WHAT THE F-” Flash yelled loudly. He was cut off by the sound of Peter startling so hard that he fell out of his chair. “PARKER?!”
“Yeah?” Peter stood up and rubbed his shoulder.
“YOU JUST SHOT A WEB!! LIKE SPIDER-MAN?!” Flash could not contain his surprise. Or was it jealousy?
“Yeah?” Peter had to think of something quick. “I told you I work here. I intern with Mr. Stark.”
“Oh come on! I’ve been reduced to Mr. Stark again, thank you Flash Thompson,” Tony cried from one of the other corner labs.
“I sometimes work on the Avengers knick knacks,” Peter continued. “I test them out. I forgot to take the web shooter off after my last testing session.”
“How are you so good at aiming?” Betty asked.
“I have tested the web shooters many times.” Peter, for once in his life, had come up with a convincing lie. He sat back in his seat and continued working.
“Mr. Stark, I am so, so sorry, we bring tour groups through this floor since it’s almost always empty– I didn’t think to check if it were in use,” the tour guide continued to blabber an apology, but Tony cut her off.
“You did well to follow your schedule. Go spook the interns downstairs, that’ll be real fun!” Tony laughed.
The tour guide led the AcaDec team away, leaving Peter and his fellow nerds to create things in peace.
—
At the end of the seven hour mark, Peter had been able to construct his robot dog and give it life-like qualities. “Hey Tony! Whoever stuffed things into this closet was really crafty! I found fake fur!” So, Peter was able to create an Australian Shepherd out of the black, white, and brown scraps of faux fur.
Nat stepped into the room and began a thorough judging process, totally (not) unbiased. Shuri had made a Panther (“Copycat!” Peter had exclaimed. To which Shuri replied, “Horrible pun.”), which was supposed to protect the owner while being able to fold down to fit in one’s pocket. Due to the time constriction, the Panther was not functioning fully in the folding category, and got stuck at a weird angle.
Bruce had made an alarm clock that sounded like Batman.
Tony had made a pair of rocket powered Heely’s. Peter was so going to steal those.
In the end, Nat chose Peter’s as the winner. She was totally (not) unbiased in the decision. She simply liked the idea of being able to have a pet dog, since she was allergic.
Tony invited everyone to stay for Dinner. He was cooking.
He burnt the food.
Some Thai restaurant was cooking.
The takeout tasted great compared to the charred chicken. Peter was sure that absolutely nothing wrong could befall him in the near future because of what his classmates saw today. Everything would be fine and dandy.