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Sometimes, Peter hates being a Stark.
It made things like school hard; people expected him to be confident and strong, which is something his father has, but Peter does not.
It also made making friends extremely hard, but luckily Peter has Ned Leeds, his best friend since elementary. All he cared about was that Peter liked Legos and Star Wars, while everyone else only cared about who Dad was: Tony Stark and Iron Man.
Then there were the teachers; most of them absolutely adored Peter for his kindness and smarts. He is as brilliant as his father, and he has the wit of his mother—at least that's what his father tells him. Peter never met his mother; she died when he was 3 years old, on her way back from a mission with S.H.I.E.L.D.
But there are a few teachers who despise Peter, not only for how smart he is, but because of who his father is, what his father is, and how caring his father is.
When Peter was a kid, he never understood why everyone treated him differently until he grew older.
The only person who ever treated him like a normal person was Ned; they always had conversations about how stupid school was, how cute a girl was, a new movie that was coming out, Legos, and not always about Tony and how he saved the day once again, or if Peter could put in a good word for them to his dad.
So when Peter was five, he was struggling to breathe after playing with his Aunt Pepper, grabbing his chest, looking to Tony, scared and wide-eyed. "Da...Daddy,” he wheezed out, making him grab him, noticing how pale Peter was, rushing to the hospital as Peter continued to wheeze the whole way as Pepper stroked Peter's brown auburn locks, whispering that he'd be alright, that everything was going to be okay.
“It's okay, Pete. I am right here, bambino,” Tony whispered to him as the doctors grabbed him
That was the scariest day for both father and son, learning that the boy has asthma and would need an inhaler, but now, as a team, they’ve figured out ways to manage Peter’s asthma.
Peter didn’t have another asthma attack for nearly four years.
The only reason he had one was because of his bully, Flash Thompson. He loved to just pick at Peter and shove him around.
Flash refuses to believe that Peter is actually Tony Stark's son, thinking that Peter is lying just to get attention, and the first day he met Peter and heard his last name, he looked at Peter in disgust, telling Peter: “Why would Tony Stark care about some stupid, puny kid when he has the world to save?”
So now the school is divided between Flash, his goons, and some other students and students with common sense on whether Peter is actually a Stark or not.
Obviously, all the teachers and the principal know, and most of the students that have a brain do, but nobody can tell Flash Thompson anything because he’s a prideful little piece of shit who loves to brag about how his parents constantly donate to the school.
“He’s a stuck-up little prick,” as Ned so colorfully loves to call him, which always makes Peter laugh.
But today was the worst: it was gym, and Coach Wilson was out for a family emergency, leaving behind a substitute teacher who looked like he absolutely hated children
“Listen up and listen good. I am Coach Dick.”
Everyone giggled at his last name, making the man groan irritably.
“Yes, yes, haha, but as I was saying, today we will be doing laps. Now, when I call your name, say here when it is called.”
“Flash Thompson.”
“I’m here.”
“Ned Leeds.”
“Here.”
“Isabelle Gomez.”
“Here.”
“Cindy Moon.”
“Here.”
“Isaiah Brown.”
“Here, Sir.”
Coach Dick then paused, doing a double-take on the next name on the list.
“Peter Stark,” the coach said with slight disgust, which didn’t go unnoticed by Peter.
“Here, Sir,” Peter said, holding his hand up, his voice cracking slightly.
Coach Dick glared at him, then continued to read off the list, ignoring the note written by Peter’s name about running half the laps as the rest of the class because of his asthma.
He doesn’t believe that for a second and assigns everyone the same number of laps, no matter whether their father is Tony Stark or a postman.
Then the kid has the audacity to tell him, right after he assigns the laps, “Uhm, Coach…I-I have really bad asthma, and Coach Wilson always has me do half of everyone else. I have a doctor's note in my backpack if you need to see it.”
Coach Dick just glares at Peter with pure hatred, making Peter flinch.
“I don't care, Stark. You will run just like everyone else. Your daddy can’t get you out of this.”
“He has a medical condition, Dick!” Ned shouts, infuriated.
“That’s double laps for both of you!” The coach bellows, blowing his whistle to shut them up.
Peter freezes, unsure of what to do, adjusting his glasses on his face, turning to Ned, who puts his hand on Peter’s shoulder.
“We’ll go slow, and if you need to stop, tell me and we will. That dickhead will just have to suck it up.”
Peter nods as he starts to run, following Ned's lead as Flash pushes past them with a laugh. By the third lap, Peter could feel his chest start to hurt already; it felt like someone was sitting on his chest. He couldn’t help but cough, making ned stop as he rubbed his chest, trying to catch his breath
Ned forces them to stop, placing his hands on his best friend's shoulders, concerned for him. “Peter, are you okay?”
Peter shakes his head, his watch vibrating on his wrist, definitely signaling Tony that something is wrong—Tony had it designed to do that.
“Let’s sit, and I’ll get you your inhaler,” Ned says kindly, leading Peter to the bleachers.
Only to be stopped by Coach Dick, shouting aggressively at him. “Hey, Stark, I don’t know what the hell you think you’re doing! Just because your Daddy is rich doesn’t mean you get to be exempt from the assignment!”
“Shut up, Dickhead!” Ned yells as he helps Peter sit down on the bleachers.
“Oh, quit your faking. Just because your rich little ass doesn’t like to run, doesn’t mean you can get out of this. And it’s triple laps now for your little stunt, Stark.”
“Oh, absolutely not!” Ned yells, outraged.
“I..its …f…f…fine, Ne.. Ned,” Peter wheezes, struggling to speak and breathe properly as he gets up from the bleachers and continues to run with Ned by his side, making the coach smirk, but as Peter runs, he grabs his head. “N..ed..s..s..something is w…wrong,” he wheezes as he starts to sway, frozen in place.
“Peter?!” Ned shouts, alerting the coach to the situation, who only rolls his eyes before Peter wheezes once more and falls to the ground, his eyes rolling back into his head, making all of their classmates freeze in place and turn to the loud thud, gasping at the sight of Peter on the ground.
“Someone call 911!” a student shouts.
“Someone get the nurse!” Cindy shouts, the gym filling with pure chaos, Ned staying by Peter’s side the whole time.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tony Stark has been what everyone calls a very overprotective parent.
He can’t help it, though; he wants to be sure his son stays safe at all times.
So when he discovered Peter had asthma, through one of the most terrifying days of his life, he made him a custom watch that constantly monitors Peter’s heart rate and oxygen level, vibrating on Peter’s wrist and instantly notifying Tony when the numbers reach a concerning level.
It’s only ever happened once since he made the watch, when Peter was in elementary school, and the local bully kept poking fun at Peter, causing him to have an anxiety/asthma attack.
So as soon as Tony got the notification that Peter’s levels were astronomically high, Tony ran as fast as he could, calling Happy to pull the car around and to make it snappy.
Tony wasn’t wasting a damn second.
“Please be okay, please be okay,” he thought over and over as Happy drove them to Peter’s school.
His phone rings, startling him out of melancholy thoughts. He picks it up, noticing that it was the school. “Shit,” he mumbles, answering the call. “You’ve reached Tony Stark.”
“Good morning, Mr. Stark. Your son Peter is in the nurse's office. He had an asthma attack during gym class. One of our nurses brought him there.”
“I am on my way. Is he okay?”
“Yes, he’s doing okay.”
Tony lets out a long sigh of relief. “Thank God.” Then he ends the call, looking up at Happy. “Drive faster.”
Happy nods, pressing harder on the gas. “You got it, Boss.”
They arrive at the school in record time, Tony walking right through the front doors, heading straight for the nurse's office.
The front desk workers know him, so he doesn’t bother showing ID and all of that other shit; he’s got something more important to worry about: his son.
Tony storms into the nurse's office like a flash, spotting his son and his friend Ted. Ed?
The nurse smiles, spotting Tony before looking back at Peter.
Tony sighs, relieved to see that Peter is, in fact, okay. He turns to Ed.
“What the hell happened, Ted?”
Ned, having to correct Tony already a thousand times, doesn’t bother to correct him this time and just rolls with it, explaining to Tony everything that happened.
“Coach Dick, despite seeing the note Coach Wilson left and Peter offering a doctor’s note, still didn’t believe him about his asthma and made us run double laps because Peter was defending himself and I was defending Peter. Then by the third lap, which is as much as Coach Wilson requires him to do, Peter was feeling tightness in his chest, so I brought him over to the bleachers. Coach Dick thought that he was lying since you’re, you know, his Dad, so he forced Peter to run again, and triple this time! But we didn’t make it far before he passed out, and someone called a nurse, who had to carry him with my help because Coach Dick refused to, still thinking that Peter was lying. And now we’re here.”
Tony’s face changed drastically hearing about what that bastard of a teacher put his son through. There was a reason for that note so this very thing wouldn’t happen, but this Coach Dick thought Peter, his innocent bean of a child, would lie and use Tony’s fame as an excuse—big mistake; someone was getting sued and fired.
“Where is this Coach Dick? I’d like to speak with him with the principal present for what he did to my son,” Tony asks one of the nurses, holding Peter’s hand in one of his own.
The nurse nods, hurrying off to get Principal Adams.
Tony then turns to Ed. “Watch over him; I have something to take care of.”
Ned nods. “Yes, sir.”
Tony takes one last long look at his son before rushing out of the room and making his way to the gymnasium to confront Coach Dick.
It only angers him more that once he opens the large doors to the gymnasium, this prick is
spewing the same crap that he ned had about
“JUST BECAUSE WE HAD SOMEONE FAKING ASTHMA DOES NOT MEAN YOU GUYS GET TO STOP RUNNING. YES, THAT MEANS YOU, MISTER THOMPSON!” shouted Coach Dick, still upset.
Flash groans; clearly, Peter wasn’t the man's only target after all
“So you still believe my son was faking it, then?” Tony asks, startling the coach slightly.
Flash then decides now is the perfect moment to interrupt. “So you actually know Penis Peter?” he asks with amusement.
Tony glares daggers at him. “What did you just call my son?”
Flash just gulps and scurries off, getting his answer.
Then Tony storms towards the coach to say what he has to say.
Coach paled slightly at the sight of an enraged Tony Stark before smiling smugly
“Just the truth, Stark "
Tony took his sunglasses off, handing them to the nurses who walked into the gym with a very irritated Principal Adams in tow.
“Oh yeah, Dick. What truth keeps me from punching you in the face right now?”
Tony got close to the man's face; he could smell booze on his breath, making Tony wince. That explains a lot. “Ha, you’re drunk, aren’t you?”
The principal turns to Dick, seeing his pale face.
“Daryl, is that true?”
“No... no, of course not,” Coach Dick weakly defends.
“Not only are you intoxicated on school property, but you deny proper care to someone with a disability, pushing them past their limit to the point where they faint. You have lost all rights to teach here ever again, and hopefully forever, Daryl,” Principal Adams says sternly, making Tony smile proudly.
Principal Adams then calls in security to escort Daryl out of the school while he stays with the students for the rest of P.E.
Once Dick is gone, Adams turns to Tony while the kids all take a rest and water break. “I am truly sorry, Dr Stark. Our staff is usually much better than this. I’ll be talking with Coach Wilson when he returns on Monday.”
Tony nods, understanding that this was likely an isolated incident; he still fully intended to sue Daryl. “Just make sure all staff know what to do next time so that never happens again “
The principal nods. “Of course, Dr. Stark. I assure you this will never happen again.”
Tony reaches his hand out for the principal to shake, glad that they came to an understanding, now making his way back to the nurse's office to see how his son is doing.
He finds Peter awake in the bed, smiling weakly at Tony when the man steps into the room.
“Hey, Dad,” Peter greets, his voice cracking.
“Hey, kid,” Tony says, walking closer, sitting at the edge of the bed, holding one of Peter’s hands in one of his. “Just so you know, that man is never going to be a problem again.”
“Thanks, Dad.”
“Anytime, bambino. That’s what dads are for.”
Then Tony repositions himself in the bed, pulling Peter into his arms.
Peter, content in his father's arms, breathes evenly as Tony runs his fingers through his son's brown, curly locks, kissing his forehead softly. “I love you so much, Peter.”
Peter closes his eyes, and he can’t help but grin.
He might hate being a Stark sometimes, but he loves his dad so much.