Chapter Text
"Alright class, before you go I need to make an announcement." Mr Harrington rubbed his hands together and took a deep breath, excitement emanating from his body. "As you know, next week is the annual field trip... and this year's trip will be a 2-day one, as we will have the honor of...visiting Stark Industries! The class was silent for a second, then erupted in cheers
Fuck.
Peter let out a whimper, his eyes wide open, Beside him, the faint scratching of a pencil on paper could be heard, MJ was probably sketching his crisis. Ned, on the other side, looked at him with childlike excitement
The professor calmed his class to give some missing information,"and.. we also were invited to stay one night in Stark Tower." The class went wild at that moment; Peter would swear he even saw some girls crying with excitement.
Fuck,fuck,fuck,he was screwed.
Peter's mouth went dry and he felt his stomach drop. Of all the fucking places, did it have to be there?
"Hey Penis! Ready for everyone to see the liar you are?" Flash shouted from his seat, earning laughter from his friends. Mr. Harrington, as always, ignore him and continued handing out the permission slips
"The trip will be on Monday. That day we'll go to Stark Industries, then at night we'll stay at Stark Tower, and the next day we'll do a tour of it," Mr. Harrington explained.
"Too bad for you, Penis. When Mr. Stark finds out you've sullied his name, he'll ban you from his facilities!" Flash mocked again.
Sure. his dad is going to fire him from his job and kick him out of the house, Peter thought
MJ made a move to get up and confront Flash, but Peter stopped her; there was no point in paying him any attention.
"Dumbass" Ned muttered under his breath, then turned to Peter. "You're going, right?" he asked excitedly.
Peter rest his head on the table, and looked at him as if he had gone mad
"Obviously I'm not going," he hissed.
Ned looked at him like he was stupid
"Dude, it's the Stark Industries."
"I live and work there, there's nothing I don't know." He realized something. "You have seen it already too!" he remarked
"But we've never been on a tour, we only know your office."
"Well, you'll have to go without me, I'm not going." Peter crossed his arms.
"Oh come on Peter, what's the worst that can happen? It'll be boring going without you," Ned pleaded, dying to see Flash's face when he found out Peter really worked there.
" If I go, everyone will find out that I'm Iron Man's adopted son, or... " he look around "that I'm Spider-Man," he muttered so only Ned could hear.
Ned grimaced, he had just remembered that.
"you think Pepper will let you skip it?" MJ caught both their attention.
Shoot. He hadn't thought of that, He loved Pepper, but she was the strict type of mother about responsibilities; there was no way to avoid the trip.
After what felt like an hour, Mr. Harrington let them out., At the door, Mr. Harrington stopped Peter to talk to him. Peter shifted nervously, Flash, who was passing by, shouted at him to start counting down the days until his secret was revealed.
"Look, Peter, I know you're a good kid, and that you've been through a lot." Peter lowered his gaze; it had been a year since his Aunt May had died,"But that's no excuse for lying about working at Stark Industries."
Peter felt his chest tighten. That his classmates didn't believe him was one thing, but that even his teachers didn't? That hurt.
"It's not a lie..." Peter tried to defend himself, but the teacher interrupted him.
" I don't care if you lie or not. , but this field trip means a lot to the school, don't even think about embarrassing us. I don't want you provoking Flash or making a scene, understood?" Peter just mumbled a "Yes, sir" and went to where Happy was waiting for him.
"Finally! What take you so long, kid?" Happy grumbled as he looked at Peter through the rearview mirror. "Why are you so quiet?"
"Im fine," Peter shook his head "is just that my class has this field trip..., and it's to Stark Industries, and if that in itself wasn't bad, We're supposed to stay overnight at the Stark Tower..." Happy almost twisted his neck looking back
"What? Are you telling me that a bunch of brats are going to be in the industries, and nobody informed me?" Happy looked at him offended, and Peter shrugged nervously.
Happy muttered something about being the head of security and needing to be the first to know these things. "You're going no matter what. I need eyes on those brats. Pepper won't let me be there because I'd scare them."
Peter sighed , he had a bad feeling. It wasn't his spider-sense, but still, it worried him
The rest of the car trip was silent until they arrived at Stark Industries.
Upon arriving at his office—yes. Tony had given him a oficce —Peter slumped into his chair and closed his eyes for a moment.
Someone knocked on his door and Peter told her to come in; it was Katie, his secretary - both he and Harley had secretaries who helped them organize things when they had to be in a meeting or something - "Good afternoon Mr. Parker, how was your day?"
Peter sat up straight and began taking folders out of his backpack to hand to the woman "It was good Katie, thank you. These are the folders Dr. Banner needed." The woman nodded and started to leave, but Peter stopped her. "Katie, I need you to cancel any meetings i have next Monday, please."
"Of course, Mr. Parker. Oh, I almost forgot, Mr. Stark is in his office" the woman said goodbye and left
Peter yawned and ran a hand over his face. Before leaving, he took an energy drink from the minibar he had in his office, and headed to his dad's office. He was going to take the opportunity to ask him to sign the permission slip
Along the way he greeted several of his colleagues; some stopped him to ask him to review a project later. It was going to be a long day.
When peter arrived, he noticed that tony was muttering something while checking his screens. He noticed the large number of coffee cups; Tony looked like he hadn't slept at all in two days. Pepper was going to scold him.
"Hey kid, how was school?"
Peter smiled and cleared his throat. "It was good... I... i need you to sign something though" He handed him the school permission slip. "It's for a field trip."
Tony signed it without looking, "Where are you going?" Peter tensed up.
"Here, and home." Tony turned to look at him, somewhere between confused and amused.
"Here, here?" Peter nodded and Tony laughed. "Sorry kid, If I had known it was your school, I wouldn't have invited them. It's part of a new program Pepper wants to implement to get kids more involved in science and all that. "
Peter groaned, "I don't wanna go." Tony smiled at him. When he acted like this, he remembered that he was just a 16-year-old kid.
"You know If it were up to me, I would let you not go, but your mom will be mad." Tony raised his eyebrows and made a face of terror.
Peter laughed dryly at his own misfortune. "I know" Peter frowned; his dad was really enjoying his suffering.
Tony laughed and stretched . "By the way, what time will you be here?"
"at approximately 1 pm, why?" Tony smiled maliciously and Peter paled
" you better not do anything." He looked at him accusingly. "I mean it."
"You're not the center of my life, brat," Tony feigned innocence and ruffled his hair. "Anyway, I'll be very busy that day"
Peter relaxed a little, perfect, with Tony busy he just had to make sure he didn't run into Bruce. Luckily he was always in his lab
But that only solved his dilemma of the first day; it was impossible for him not to run into one of them on the second day.
All he could do was pray to God - excluding Thor and Loki - that everything would go well and that he would emerge from that trip with his identity intact.
...
Monday
Peter already regretted not coming; they had been traveling for 45 minutes and Flash hadn't shut up ever since they got on the bus
" excited, Penis? I mean, you are going to show us your workplace" Flash and his friends laughed like idiots "Are you going to introduce us to your boss? To Mr. Stark?
More laughter and a ball of paper hit him on the head
"You have a very creepy obsession with Peter, don't you, Flash?" MJ defended him, and Flash became flustered but remained silent.
Everyone had fallen silent as soon as Stark Industries came into view. Peter, on the other hand, looked at the place like someone looking at their grave. Outside the building, holding a box in one hand and a tablet in the other, stood a girl Peter knew, Emily.
"Very well, class. You know the rules. Don't separate from the group and behave yourselves," Mr. Harrington said the last part looking at Peter, who just sighed.
Peter decided to stay behind the group; hopefully the guide wouldn't recognize him.
"Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Stark Industries. I'm Emily, and I'll be your guide for today." The woman looked around the students until her gaze fell on Peter, and she smiled broadly.
Damn, he had really bad luck.
"Before entering, I need you to form a line and take the id card with your name." Mr. Harrington was the first to take his, and then he signaled the class to line up.
Peter was the last in line and Emily greeted him with two kisses on the cheek. Some of his classmates looked at him strangely, but ignored him.
"Alright, now you'll go through this security checkpoint where you'll have your ID scanned."
Flash, as cocky as ever, went through first. " Welcome Eugene Thompson, Visitor Level 0 " When Friday's voice welcomed him, he jumped and let out an unmanly yell.
The class burst out laughing, Flash looked at the woman, waiting for an explanation.
"That's Friday, the main artificial intelligence; it handles everything related to opening and closing doors, lights, elevators, etc. It's the "heart" of the industries.
"Good afternoon, Midtown High," the AI greeted them,And the students smiled amazed
His classmates continued to pass until it was Peter's turn. Emily looked at him, confused by his hesitancy as he walked by.
"Welcome Mr. Peter Parker, intern, level 10." His classmates turned to look at him, speechless.
fuck He forgot to exchange his card for a visitor's one
"Mr. Peter Parker?" one of his classmates asked
"Wait, does that mean Peter is really an intern? Another question
Flash glared at Peter. "Seriously, Penis? You hacked this thing just to keep up your lie?"
Peter blushed, some of his colleagues who were passing by turned to look at him confused, and even security personnel made a move to approach him.
"Excuse me, but you can't speak to him like that. Mr. Parker is a employee. If you insult him again, you will be removed from the premises immediately." Emily defended him, looking disgusted at Flash.
A collective "oooooh" was heard from his classmates.
"The boys are just playing, miss, nothing serious," Mr. Harrington tried to downplay the matter and I give Peter a dirty look . Emily turned to look at Peter, who just nodded, embarrassed.
"Very well then, let's continue the tour." The woman smiled a little forcedly, at least the reprimand kept Flash quiet. Ned looked at him in silent support Then he turned to look at Flash and made a face at him.
"Excuse me, miss," Betty said, glancing at Peter for a second before turning to Emily. "What does level 10? mean?"
Peter closed his eyes for a moment. Of all the questions, did it have to be that one?
"Level 10 employees like Mr. Parker have full access to both Stark Tower and Stark Industries." His class stared at him again, Peter wished the earth would swallow him up.
"have you ever met an Avenger?" Alice, a girl Peter had never spoken to, asked him.
"Yeah.... I've seen one or two," he managed to hear Flash murmur a "Yeah ,right," "I've also worked with both Dr. Banner and Mr. Stark."
The whole class started bombarding him with questions, Peter looked to Emily for help.
"You'll have plenty of time to ask Peter questions, but we need to continue with the tour. Remember you have to be at Stark Tower in a few hours." That got the class's attention back, and Peter thank her with a look.
The next 40 minutes of the trip were chill. Emily talked mostly about the company's origins, Tony's parents, the first projects, etc. Peter remained calm until his spider-sense tingled.
The sound of footsteps echoed across the floor, though his class didn't notice because they were engrossed in looking at the old weapon prototypes, it was three people, Peter recognized by the sound
"You're a sore loser." Peter panicked, it was Bucky's voice.
no no no no, not them
"And you're a cheater!" Sam shouted offendedly, which caught everyone's attention. "You shot them just because I was winning!"
"Behave yourselves, we have company." Nat noticed the presence of Peter and his class.
"Peter!" Sam spoted him immediately. "Thank God!" The three of them approached him, completely ignoring Peter's nervousness. "I need you to take a look at my wings. Bucky shot them and now they don't work."
Peter frowned in confusion, forgetting his class for a moment. "Why did you shoot them?" He looked at Bucky, who just shrugged indifferently.
"We were seeing which was faster, my motorcycle or his wings, I win." Peter's class stared in disbelief the four of them, feeling a bit like the odd one out.
" I won, you cheated," Sam emphasized, offended.
"I was the one who crossed the finish line"
"That's not fair!"
"Life isn't fair" Bucky replied.
While the Falcon and the Winter Soldier were arguing, Nat greet Peter
"Привет, маленький паучок/ Hello little spider" Peter blushed and wished that no one in his class knew Russian
"Hi Nat," Peter rubbed his neck, uncomfortable with the attention.
"Are you giving a tour?" Natasha found the presence of so many teenagers at Stark Industries out of place.
"No... this is my class, we're on a field trip, Emily is giving the tour." His classmates looked between , increasingly surprised.
"Hello, children" Natasha greeted them with a wave, and almost laughed at the astonishment of the students; sometimes she forgot the reaction they caused in civilians.
Betty approached her excitedly; the Black Widow was her favorite avenger, she admired her greatly. "Hello, Miss Natas-Black Widow," she stammered nervously over her own words.
Peter smiled; he had acted the same way the first time he met the Avengers. "Nat, this is my... friend. Betty." He didn't know how to refer to her, since they weren't close, "She's a great journalist," Betty said, looking at him, touched by the boy's kindness. "Do you think you could answer some of her questions?"
Nat smiled warmly at the girl. "Of course." Betty was about to faint right there. After recovering, she took out her phone to record their conversation and began asking her questions, some about her beginnings as an Avenger and others about how she became so close to Peter, who tensed up every time they talked about him.
Upon that, the whole class approached surrounded the Avengers, taking pictures and asking them to sign things.
Peter laughed at Bucky's discomfort, prompting him to quickly throw a pencil he was holding. Peter caught it out of habit. His classmates turned to look at him with surprise.
"Damn Parker, you've got good reflexes, you should join the baseball team!"
Peter mentally scolded himself for the slip-up. "Nah man, I'm already in plenty of clubs," he laughed nervously.
The guy made a sound of understanding and refocused his attention on the Avengers.
Flash had moved away from the group and stealthily approached Peter, who was leaning against the wall.
"Listen, Penis, I don't know what the fuck you did to make the Avengers pretend to know you, but I'm going to find out and everyone will see what a fucking liar you are," Flash whispered, not even looking at Peter.
Peter just glanced at him out of the corner of his eye, tense. Natasha had noticed his change in attitude and looked at him expectantly. Peter nodded to her that it was nothing.
"Well, we're leaving now so you can continue your tour," Sam said goodbye. "Peter, can I leave my wings in your office?"
"Take them to the tower instead, we'll spend the night there." The three frowned; they didn't know that, But they preferred to say nothing.
"Okay man, see you later"
The class watched them until they were out of sight.
"Very well, we'd better keep going, there's still much to see," Emily said, guiding them back to the elevator.
"What did Flash say to you?" MJ looked at him worriedly, as did Nat; she had noticed their interaction.
"The same old thing." Peter decided not to dwell on the matter; he didn't want to worry his girlfriend.
"Peter!" Betty excitedly approached the trio. "Thank you so much! The Black Widow gave me the best interview of my life!" Peter smiled kindly at her.
"It's nothing, Betty"
"I absolutely have to interview you too." Peter's eyes widened. Before he could make his excuses, Betty had linked her arm with MJ's, rambling about how the four of them had to organize an outing and things like that.
Peter and Ned had to hold back their laughter to MJ's discomfort, who looked at them as if to say, "Help me."
They had arrived at the floor where the Stark cars that ran on reactor energy were located. To Peter's surprise and suffering , Shuri and a few Dora Milaje were also there.
Peter looked at Emily, confused. "I didn't know they were visiting us today." Emily just shrugged.
"Why would they tell you that? You're just an intern, Parker," Flash tried to mock him, but was ignored.
At that moment, Shuri noticed him and waved to him through the glass.
The class turned to look at Peter again, who waved at her awkwardly
"What is she doing?"
"Princess Shuri is working on cars with vibranium nanotechnology... That would make them more resistant, but also would reduce the average number of vehicle accidents" Peter replied a little nervous even though he knew about it very well, after all it was his project
"That's the famous project you two were working on? " Emily asked, relieved to have Peter there so she didn't have to explain the technicalities.
"you work with the princess of Wakanda? OMG, have you ever been to Wakanda? Betty Brant approached him, invading his personal space, writing in her notebook.
Peter opened and closed his mouth without uttering a word, luckily Shuri gestured for him to come closer, so he took the opportunity to avoid the questions.
the glass were soundproof, so he felt more relaxed
"I didn't know you were coming," Peter said, giving her a high five.
"I wasn't supposed to come, but My brother wanted to talk to Stark, and I took the opportunity to come and make progress on the project. I think it's finished now, though, we just need to do the field tests."
They both looked at the screens. With all the information gathered from months of work, it was one of their most ambitious projects. Peter brought up another screen from his watch and started a call with Katie.
"I'll ask her to coordinate the tests as soon as possible; there's a press conference tomorrow where Pepper will present the new projects, I would like us to be able to present it as well"
Meanwhile, Peter's class had their faces pressed against the glass, watching in amazement at such advanced technology.
"Who is Peter talking to?"
"If you're referring to the girl on the screen, that's Katie, his secretary," MJ replied as if it was nothing important
They turned to look at her, mouths agape.
Flash laughed, Parker with a secretary? Yeah, right.
"If Pen... Parker has a secretary, then I'm Spider-Man," Flash and his friends laughed sarcastically.
MJ and Ned looked at each other, holding back laughter. At that moment, Captain America approached them
"Good evening guys, how's the tour going?" Steve greeted the group, some girls giggled softly.
"You are... the Captain America" A boy looked like he was about to faint.
Steve smiled and shook the boy's hand. "Nice to meet you, kid. What's your name?"
The boy replied in a whisper, "charlie... sir."
Steve laughed and patted him on the shoulder, "You can just call me Steve, charlie."
The boy smiled, paralyzed, and simply nodded.
"You should be very proud of yourselves, you're the first school to visit the industries under the new program." Steve was one of the few Avengers who knew about the field trip
Flash saw an opportunity to reveal the truth about Peter.
"We are, but we have a problem." Everyone turned to look at Flash. "There's a kid in our class who's a liar." MJ and Ned shot him a glare. "He goes around pretending to know the Avengers and even Mr. Stark. His name is Peter Parker."
Flash smiled when the captain frowned. Perfect, he thought, now they were going to kick Penis out of the place or even expel him for making the school look ridiculous.
Emily, annoyed, opened her mouth to kick out Flash for bad mouthing peter , but Steve raised his hand, stopping her.
"Those are serious accusations. What's your name, kid?" Flash smiled confidently. Surely the captain would thank him personally, or even better, all the Avengers would thank him for helping put Penis in his place.
"Eugene Thompson, captain. But you can call me Flash" He tried to stand up straight to appear taller
"You should be more careful, Eugene. It's wrong to accuse someone without knowing the truth." Flash frowned. And the gratitude? "Peter is truly a great friend of ours." The whole class—except Flash—looked through the glass. Shuri and Peter watched them with confused expressions, then turned back to Steve.
"What? But how?" Flash was about to lose his mind
Steve just stared at him seriously; the boy reminded him of the bullies he himself had to deal with when he was Peter's age.
"Peter is a great kid, He's helped us thousands of times with our suits and equipment, but that's not why we appreciate him, He's kind, resilient, and a truly good person." Some of Flash's friends lowered their gaze in embarrassment.
Flash froze. This couldn't be true. How could someone like Parker, someone with no friends, no family to impress, get a job at Stark Industries and be friends with the Avengers? While he always had to come in second place, having to deal with his parents calling him a disappointment for not being the best.
It wasn't fair.
Just as Steve was leaving, Shuri and Peter came out of the lab and looked at the class in confusion, they were staring at Peter as if they were really seeing him for the first time.
Steve nodded to them and headed towards Tony's office; he wanted to talk to him about that Flash kid.
After what happened, Emily decided to continue the tour of the nanotechnology floor, taking them to the area where prototypes of Iron Man suits with this technology were on display.
Shuri decided to accompany them just for the gossip and because she found hilarious how nervous they were about the presence of the Dora Milaje
"What happened?" Shuri asked
"Flash was being a ass and Steve put him in his place, it was incredible," Ned whispered excitedly
"What?" Peter frowned, he'd only been gone for 15 minutes.
"Flash started saying you were a liar, he thought the Avengers were pretending to know you, and he tried to 'rat' you out to Steve," MJ explained. "It backfired on him, though. Steve defended you tooth and nail." Peter blushed, embarrassed. He'd have to thank Steve when he saw him again.
"Wow, please tell me that the idiot cried." Shuri smiled wickedly; she knew who Flash was. Peter had told yelena, kate and her once.
MJ laughed, she adored Shuri "sadly not, but it seems his little brain short-circuited"
The four of them laughed, until Peter noticed his classmates glancing at him several times, as if trying to decipher something.
"Relax, I don't think they suspect anything about you-know-what," Shuri whispered, noticing his nervousness.
"I know, but the last thing I wanted today was to attract attention." Peter cursed his bad luck.
The rest of the trip was surprisingly normal. They had seen four more floors, and Peter had helped Emily explain each place in more detail. Shuri separated from them to check the test results, promising to see them later. They were now in the cafeteria, It was 4 pm
"Hey, do you know if the rooms are single or shared?" MJ asked, looking up from her tray. "I really don't want to share with Betty. She's going to make me dizzy with questions about whether or not you know any other Avengers and stuff."
Peter laughed and MJ shot him a glare. "I don't know, but I'll ask Tony." He looked around and leaned closer so only she could hear. "We can always sneak out and sleep in my room." MJ blushed and looked at him knowingly
Ned coughed and glared at them, they both blushed even more and separated. "Don't eat in front of the poor, I'm still single."
Flash, who had been watching them, approached and sat next to Peter, glaring at him
"So, Parker? Tell me, whose dick did you suck so the Avengers would pretend to know you?" Peter choked on his food and stared at him in horror.
"What the fuck..." Flash interrupted him
"Was it Captain America's? Because he really defended you, or maybe you slept with the Black wi..." Flash couldn't finish; one of his friends grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him back, making him stand up.
"What's wrong with you, idiot?!" Flash had to look up; Charlie, his friend, was much taller than him.
The commotion began to attract the attention of those present, except for Professor Harrington, of course, who was eating with his headphones on.
"What's wrong with me? You're getting on my nerves. What about you? Why can't you leave Peter alone?" Several classmates, some supposed friends of Flash stand up in support of Peter
Flash laughed incredulously, "Are you seriously defending Penis Parker?"
"Yes. We're all on peter's side, Flash," James, another of his friends, replied.
The trio looked at each other, confused. What the hell was going on?
"You are all idiots for not seeing the truth, and hypocrites," he added. "You were always the first to make that poor imbecile's life miserable, along with me."
"You're right, we did it, but we're sorry." Flash frowned. Where his friends with Parker now? "Flash, we were just going along with you because we thought you were right, but you were wrong. The only liar here was you."
He let him go and pushed him lightly. Peter looked around; he had to stop this soon. He noticed one of the guards talking to another, probably to get more.
"What's wrong, Charlie? Did you hit your head or something?" one of Flash's closest friends laughed and tried to calm them down
"No, i just came to my senses. Don't you realize? We've been ruining peter's life day after day, someone who's done nothing to us, someone who's loved even by the Avengers." Okay. Peter thought, this is getting awkward.
"Did you really believe that garbage? Captain America probably just felt sorry for this guy." Flash turned to look at Peter and pointed vaguely at him. "Poor orphan who doesn't even have a place to lay his head. He probably just felt sorry for him, he sees him as an abandoned dog."
Peter felt a little bad at the reminder of his family's death, MJ and Ned stood up to put Flash in his place, but someone beat them to it.
"What the fuck?!" Betty had thrown a glass of water at Flash.
"Just leave him alone, Flash. Peter hasn't done anything to you. Why do you hate him so much?" A few sounds of agreement were heard.
"Stay out of this" Flash said, giving Betty a light push. Ned, angry, walked over and pushed him harder.
"Leave her alone." Peter stood up, this was going to end badly.
"Wow, looks like you have a lot of defenders, penis!" Flash glared at Ned with disgust. "Don't touch me, you disgusting fatso!" At that, Charlie punched Flash, sending him to the ground and starting a fight between Peter's defenders and Flash's friends.
Peter intervened, and with a few gentle blows—since he didn't want to hurt anyone—he managed to control the fight, just as Happy arrived with other guards
"What the hell is going on here?!" Happy grunted. Everyone looked at each other without saying anything. "Well?"
Peter and his class looked at each other, in a silent agreement to not say anything.
"Aren't you going to say anything, Peter?" Happy looked at him seriously
"Everything's fine, Happy, I'll take care of it," Peter replied. He could feel a little blood trickling down his lip; he'd had to let someone at least hit him, so as not to arouse suspicion
"Tell that to Tony, all of you to his office now!" Happy turned around and shook Professor Harrington, who was still oblivious to the situation. "Shouldn't you be keeping an eye on them? ?"
The man looked at him, frightened, then at his class. He tried to stammer something, but Happy just yelled at him to call the parents of the involved.
The elevator ride was uncomfortable. MJ hugged his arm, while glaring with pure hatred at Flash. While Ned, Betty, Charlie, Abe, and others who had defended Peter stayed close to them.
Peter paled when he noticed that not only Tony and Pepper were there, but Steve, Nat, and Bruce were there too. Fuck, he thought.
"Assuming none of you is going to tell me what happened," Tony looked at Peter who only avoided his gaze "Mind to fill me in Happy?"
"Apparently there was a fight in the middle of the cafeteria. According to witnesses, this kid"—he looked at Flash, who seemed to shrink under his gaze—"insulted Peter. Some classmates defended him. Then the same kid pushed the blonde girl. Ned defended her. The guy insulted him, and they started throwing punches." he summarized
Tony pinched the bridge of his nose. "I want you to be honest with me. How many of you were involved?" Tony watched about 12 hands go up.
Pepper got up and walked over to where Bruce was, "Very well, those involved plus Mr. Harrington will stay here and the rest of you who didn't participate in the fight, don't worry, you're not in trouble. You'll continue the tour with Dr. Banner." Bruce waved awkward
Peter focused his eyes on his hands; he could feel Steve and Nat's gaze upon him.
Tony got up from his chair and paced back and forth with his fingers together.
"Your name is Flash, right?" Tony looked at Flash, who just nodded nervously. "So you're the idiot who's been bullying my kid?" Tony glared at him furiously. Peter looked up in surprise.
All his classmates turned to look at him, surprised.
Flash tried to defend himself, but only murmurs came out. "Wait, sir... Stark... Iron Man... I... I didn't..."
Peter felt chills throughout his body, now everyone know he was Iron Man's adopted son. This would make impossible to go unnoticed at school.
"Wait, sir, what do you mean by 'your kid'? Does you have any relation to Peter?" Mr. Harrington immediately regretted his question, Pepper looked at him outraged , and Tony looked at him as if the guy were an idiot.
"You're his teacher. How is it possible that you don't know we're his parents?" Pepper frowned. "And where were you when my son was being bullied just for existing, or now during the fight?"
Mr. Harrington looked around nervously, Pepper just rolled her eyes in annoyance
"I'm so sorry, miss, if I had known he was your son..." Tony Scoffed
"you would have done something? They've been making his life miserable for years, and you haven't done a thing." Tony muttered something about incompetent people and took a breath.
"The program is very strict about these things," Pepper observed the students and sighed. "This type of action is punished by ending the tour immediately and prohibiting the school from applying for future trips to the facility."
Peter looked at her pleadingly. Yes, what happened wasn't right, and he was happy that Flash was finally getting punished, but because of this, the whole class would suffer too, and despite everything, he didn't want that.
He got up and walked over to where the both of them were. "Mom, I know what we did wasn't right, but you're being unfair to everyone else," he whispered.
"I'm sorry, honey, but rules are rules. It's time they pay for what they do to you." Pepper stroked his hair, wincing at his split lip.
Peter ran his hand along his neck, and turned to look at his classmates, who loo so sad, clearly affected by the decision then he look at Tony pleading with his eyes, Tony sighed and moved closer to Pepper
"Why don't we let him decide?" Pepper looked at Peter, her sweet boy, and sighed.
"Okay dear, what do you want to do?" Peter smiled and hugged them, then remembered they were in public and pulled away, embarrassed.
Peter turned to look at his class, who were looking at him expectantly. "We'll finish the tour, and we'll see the Stark Tower," he thought for a moment and added, "on one condition."
"Flash." Peter looked at him, not with hatred, just serious. "I don't want you to apologize to me, but I do want you to apologize to the others." Flash looked at him surprised. Just that? He'd made his life miserable for years. He could have gotten even and taken revenge, but he preferred not to? Was this another way of proving he was better than him?
MJ and Ned stared at him, speechless. At that moment they weren't listening to Peter, they were listening to Spiderman.
Everyone's eyes were on him, and before he could say something, two people practically forced their way into the office followed by a guard
"Excuse me, Mr. Stark, they say they're here for their son." Tony nodded and looked at the couple.
"Who is your son?"
"Eugene Thompson, Mr. Stark." Peter turned to look at Flash. He was pale and sweating. He'd never seen him so scared. Some of Flash's friends looked at each other; they seemed worried.
"You have no idea how embarrassed and disappointed we are by his behavior, We are very sorry " bullshit, Tony thought, he could detect the guy's condescending tone
"I suppose you're not going to apologize," Tony said, looking at the boy, who seemed to have frozen at the arrival of his parents.
"Don't worry, Mr. Stark, we'll deal with him." Flash's mother took him slightly roughly by the arm and made him stand up. "We're taking him, goodbye."
Without waiting for a response, they both took him away, leaving the office in silence.
"Well, I'll text Bruce to find out where everyone else is so you can all continue the tour. " Pepper sighed. The Avengers exchanged glances there was something weird about those people
"You guys go ahead, I... I have something to do," Peter excused himself and left the office.
He needed to talk to Flash. Yes, he hated the guy; he'd made his life a living hell. But it was obvious his parents were abusing him. Peter had helped many children in that situation; he knew the signs.
He couldn't call himself a hero if he didn't try to help him, although it was very likely that Flash wouldn't accept his help.
He had found them in the parking lot; he could tell they were saying something to him. Flash looked like he was about to cry.
At that moment, Flash's father grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, forcing him to look at him, Peter decided to intervene
"Flash!" The three of them turned to look at him, Flash surprised, and his parents looking at him as if he were an insect.
"Um, they let us continue the tour," Peter said, nervously running a hand over his neck. "If you want, you can continue too." He tried to smile, but it came out more like a grimace.
Flash's parents turned to look at him as if to say, "Who is this kid?"
"He's Peter, he's Mr. Stark's son." Flash's parents automatically changed their attitude.
"Oh! Nice to meet you, young man, it's a pleasure, I am Harrison Thompson"The man approached and shook his hand; Peter returned the greeting awkwardly.
"Are you coming, Flash?" Peter gave him a look of silent understanding.
Flash turned to look at his parents, startled. "Of course he'll go. He's not going to refuse an invitation from Stark's son, right eugene?" His father patted him on the shoulder, and Flash nodded without saying anything.
After they left, the two boys looked at each other uncomfortably. "You won't tell anyone, right?" Flash inhaled shakily. "About what you saw?"
Peter shook his head. "No, I won't." He nodded toward the building and they started walking. "Flash... I know I'm the last person you'd talk to about this, but..." Peter braced himself for Flash to tell him to get lost for meddling in his affairs. "But if you need someone to listen, I'm here."
Flash looked at him, surprised and grateful. "Why are you like this?"
Peter looked at him confused, "Like what?"
"Kind, i mean i've been an asshole to you, and yet you came here for me, you helped me, and I don't understand why."
Peter was silent for a moment, remembering something May had told him when he was little
"When you help someone, you help everyone." Peter smiled at the memory of his aunt. "It's something my aunt used to say."
Flash felt so disgusting at that moment. He had spent the last few years mocking and mistreating him , and here he was, Peter, making him feel understood and supported, for the first time in his life.
"I'm sorry." Peter stopped abruptly and turned to look at him to make sure he had heard correctly.
"I've been a... idiot, and asshole, and you didn't deserve it, I'm truly so sorry." Peter looked at him for a moment, trying to see if he was really being honest.
He debated whether to accept the apology; Flash had hurt him so much, but if there was one thing he had learned as Spider-Man, it was that everyone deserves a second chance.
"It's okay, man," Peter smiled slightly. "Look, we probably won't become best friends or anything, but what if we're just respectful with each other?" Peter extended his hand.
"Yes, I'll like that, Peter." Flash shook his hand and they continued walking. "But let's be clear, I'm still way cooler than you," he joked, reverting to his narcissistic personality.
They both laughed; they had reached where the others were, who looked at them strangely.
"what? Don't tell me you two are friends now?" Ned looked at him confused
Peter shook his head and looked where Flash was, apologizing to Charlie, Betty, and the others. He liked the thought that with that little help, Flash could be a better person.
"No, we just had a talk" Ned was about to say something when Flash approached them.
He apologized for everything he had done, not only for today, but also for all the years of bullying, Ned looked at him suspiciously, noticing that he wasn"t doing it just for the sake of it, so he just nodded and thanked him for the apology, although a little unsure
Peter smiled and noticed that Steve, Nat, Tony, and Pepper were watching him proudly
Peter looked at his classmates. Charlie had accepted Flash's apology and now they were talking as if nothing had happened. MJ was even talking slightly animatedly with Betty; apparently they had read the same book.
As a matter of fact, the whole class was talking animatedly about everything; everyone was talking to each other as if they were friends.
It was these little moments that reminded him why he was Spiderman, the power to make a positive impact, even with just a small action
Maybe this trip hadn't been so bad after all.