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Peter Parker had, sort of, fucked up a little bit. Or maybe a lot. Because he and his class were going on a field trip to Stark Industries, and he’d kind of, possibly, potentially been using his ‘internship’ at the tech company as an excuse for his activities as the friendly neighbourhood hero, Spiderman. Except, of course, there was one slight issue with that.
He didn’t actually have an internship.
In fact, he didn’t have any connection with Stark Industries. He’d never been there, had never stepped foot inside the building. Didn’t know Tony Stark. He’d never even met the man when out on patrol. But when there was an emergency in Queens–Peter had figured out how to tap into the police walkie talkies and kept it on hand–he had to dash out of school to save people sometimes, and his ‘internship’ was the excuse he told his teachers when they asked why he’d gone. He’d had to go to the dentist one too many times, and had panicked and made up his new excuse when he saw a poster from Stark Industries up in the classroom.
They didn't believe him, at first. The staff of Midtown School of Science and Technology should have been thrilled to hear that he’d gotten an internship with Stark Industries (aka the Science & Tech company), and they likely would have been genuinely pleased for him if it had been real. They asked for proof of his internship, which was considerably difficult given that the internship wasn’t actually real , but he couldn’t let his ruse go down without at least an attempt to keep it going. It was so much more convenient than making up various appointments.
Peter hadn’t been proud of his following action, i.e. turning up with forged documentation signed by Pepper Potts. Her signature was all over Google, and it hadn’t been too difficult to copy. Okay, maybe it was a bit illegal, but Peter figured that his little white lie was for the sake of saving civilians. It was the sort of thing Tony Stark, renowned world-saving superhero, Avenger, would probably get a kick out of, right?
After that, the lie had been smooth sailing. No-one asked too many questions about it, he nodded to his teachers and said the word ‘internship’, and it had worked smoothly. Peter didn’t think too much about the fact that he was lying through his teeth about it.
Except then one of his teachers–Mr Harrington, of course it had been Mr Harrington–had mentioned it in class when the subject of Tony Stark had come up in class, and he’d watched Flash Thompson’s face light up.
Because Peter kind of went under the radar most of the time. He was a smart kid in a class of smart kids, and tried his best not to draw attention to himself. But by mentioning the internship, Mr Harrington had inadvertently placed a red dartboard with the bullseye directly over Peter. The internship had been a thing he’d avoided telling his classmates, because he knew they would have a lot of questions, but mostly because of Flash. Flash Thompson was the richest kid in their year, and he was insufferable about it. He was convinced he was better than everyone, and had spent the last year picking on Peter for everything he did.
“Have you ever met him, Peter?” Mr Harrington had asked casually. “On your internship?”
All heads swivelled around to look at Peter in shock. Mr Harrington naturally assumed that his peers knew about the internship. He blindly expected Peter to be friends with the members of his class, expecting them to share secrets.
Peter had to say no , had to keep it lowkey. He just worked in the R&D department, working with a few minor scientists, nothing special. No, he’d never met Tony Stark , he opened his mouth to say. Except then he looked at Flash’s face, which looked shocked, and there was a twist in his stomach. There was a layer of jealousy there and Peter felt victorious for the first time.
Peter coughed. “Uh–yeah. I’ve met him a few times.”
It was wrong. It was so wrong to lie, but he just wanted to feel like he wasn’t pathetic Peter Parker for once. It was nice to see Flash be surprised. He hadn’t thought about the consequences. He hadn’t expected such perfect karma to ever come around.
Ned had approached him after class with wide eyes and a million questions.
“Why didn’t you tell me!”
Peter’s eyes cast to the floor. “It was a secret. I had to sign, like, a dozen NDAs. Sorry.”
“Well, it makes sense now why you keep leaving ,” Ned said, scuffing his feet. “I thought you like…had some kind of chronic illness and had to keep going to the hospital.”
“No,” Peter swallowed. “Just an internship.”
He felt bad lying to Ned, he really did. The guy was his best friend, and if he confided in anyone, it would have been him. But he’d read comics, knew the danger of telling people you loved about your secret identity. It was why he’d kept it a secret. There was no-one in the world who knew that he, Peter Parker, was Spiderman. And he was planning on keeping it that way as long as possible, for the sake of his loved ones.
Most of his classmates had treated Peter with a slight aura of respect from then on, except Flash. The jealousy and shock had disappeared, had been replaced by a mask of anger and disbelief. The other boy was determined to prove that the internship was fake, and was very public about that fact. Peter thought Flash’s reaction was honestly the most normal. He didn’t have an internship at the most prestigious tech company in all of America. He was a fifteen-year-old nobody with no connections, nothing that could get him an audience with Tony Stark.
But his ruse had worked, had been flawless, until it hadn’t been.
When the news of the field trip had emerged, Peter’s heart had shot straight down into his stomach in horror. It was mandatory, although who the hell would say no to going on a free tour around Stark Industries? He would. Well. The Peter from before he’d started lying about being an intern would never have turned it down, but now there was nothing more he wanted to do than to get out of it.
He begged with May, but she had no idea about his made-up internship. To explain it fully, he’d have to tell her that he was Spiderman, and that was out of the question. She didn’t understand why he’d want to skip out on the field trip, and faking sick was never going to fool her. Peter was going to go on the trip, and his perfect excuse was all going to come crashing down.
He pondered this on the coach on the way over, tense in his seat, his throat bitter with bile. Peter was dreading it. Ned, in contrast, was sat next to him, babbling excitedly about getting to go to the tech company and all the things he hoped they would see. Ned had been surprisingly very low-key about his supposed internship, and hadn't asked too many questions. Peter suspected he was trying very hard not to ask, after Peter had told him about the NDAs, but desperately wanted to know.
Their coach kept driving, Stark Tower looming closer and closer, and Peter kept feeling worse and worse.
“Alright,” Mr Harrington said, when got close enough to the Tower. He stood up and started leaning on the seats closed to him so he could address the students without falling over whilst the driver jerked the coach around. “We all need to be on our best behaviour today. No funny business, no sneaking off, no nothing. We’re representing Midtown.”
There was a murmur of half-hearted assent from the students, who all went back to chatting. Mr Harrington walked down the coach, doing a silent register in his head, and paused when he saw Peter.
“I bet this is going to be weird for you,” He grinned, patting Peter on the shoulder. “Not very exciting, going on a tour of your workplace, is it?”
Peter’s reply was forced. He was incapable of speaking–it was all too overwhelming, so he just awkwardly nodded and hoped that was sufficient.
They arrived at Stark Tower without dying (it had been a close run thing though, because the driver’s incompetence to park his vehicle was downright terrifying to sit through) and walked into the ground floor. Peter kept his gaze to the floor, miserable. Why had he ever lied? It had been such a stupid, stupid thing to do.
“Hi guys,” one of the employees–a lady with dark blond hair down to her shoulders–approached their group. “Midtown, right? I’m going to be your tour guide today, my name is Val.”
Mr Harrington greeted her, clipboard in hand, and they spoke quietly for a moment. Peter glanced around the building, trying to take it all in.
“Okay, perfect,” Val nodded. “If you guys would follow me, we’ll get started on the tour.”
“Don’t we need badges to get in?” Mr Harrington asked, curious.
Shit, if they needed badges then Peter was going to get ridiculed by Flash demanding he show his badge, which he absolutely did not have.
But the employee shook her head. “No, we don’t carry badges or lanyards. Too physical, they can get lost. FRIDAY, Mr Stark’s AI, controls the system and monitors who enters and exits the building at any given time.”
“How do you make sure that no-one goes onto a floor they shouldn’t be able to access?” Cindy asked, a classmate.
“Employees each have different rankings. You’ll hear FRIDAY read them out when you cross the scanner. I have level seven access so I can tour most of the building with groups, whereas a scientist working in R&D would have more limited access, maybe about four or five.”
“What about interns?” Flash asked, a devious grin on his face.
“Interns have a lower access level than scientists or tour guides. It really depends, but most of them have an access level of about two or three, I think. Because you guys are visitors, you’ll be given temporary level one access that is tied to me. If you stray too far from me, security will be alerted.”
Well. His plan was going to be rumbled before he even got into the main part of the building. He was going to walk across the scanner, and it was going to give him visitor access’ instead of denoting him as an intern with a higher access level. And then they’d all know that he was lying, that he was faking it. He wouldn’t even get to see the labs, probably, because once Mr Harrington found out he was lying, there was no way he was going to be let in. He bet his teacher was going to get him to sit back in the coach and spend the entire day there whilst the others got to tour around.
Val got them all to walk through the scanner one by one, and sure enough, as each student passed through, what Peter assumed was the artificial intelligence Val had mentioned announced their level. Flash had been the first to try it out, and had delighted when it said, “Eugene Thompson – Temporary Level 1 Access (Visitor)”.
Peter hung back with Ned, trying his best not to panic, not listening to anything his best friend was saying. His entire body was practically shaking with anxiety. He wasn’t made for this.
But then it was his turn, so he swallowed and stepped into the scanner, his eyes on the floor. Peter didn’t want to see the triumph on Flash’s face, the hurt in Ned’s eyes, the anger in Mr Harrington’s when they realised he’d been lying.
“Peter Parker, Level 9 Access (Redacted).”
Uh–what? Had he heard that right?
Peter’s head jerked up, and he quickly schooled his face into a neutral expression as if that hadn’t shocked the hell out of him. Level nine access? He shouldn’t have had any level, let alone nine . That was higher than the fucking tour guide. Someone had to be playing a joke on him.
He glanced around him–Flash’s face was white as a sheet, and Mr Harrington’s eyebrows were raised almost to his hairline. The rest of his classmates just seemed stunned.
Val stared at him, eyes wide. “So…you uh–work here? Are you aware that you have such a high clearance level?”
Peter paused, looked at her for a second, and then lied through his teeth. “Yes. Yes I knew all about it.”
“Can you…uh…explain why it said ‘Redacted’ after your name?”
Peter looked at Val, with her slightly nervous expression, as if she thought she was dealing with someone important, and straightened his shoulders. It was all about confidence . “I’m afraid it’s classified, ma’am. I can’t….say much.”
He couldn’t say much because he had no fucking clue why he had level nine access, but sure, classified, that worked!
Val nodded once, swallowed, and then stepped forward, trying to force her gaze away from Peter. He tried to keep his same unbothered expression, but he was just trying to figure out what the hell had just happened.
It must have been a fluke. A mistake. There must have been some other employee with his same name. They were reasonably popular names! It had to be. He should have mentioned it, and shouldn't have lied to an actual employee, but fuck it. Peter was too deep in the lie now to back out.
Val seemed to recover from the shock and got back to the tour. They walked through the first floor of the building, which seemed to be like a kind of museum talking about the history of Stark Industries
“Dude,” Ned said when they started walking and he’d gotten Peter alone. “I hope you know I am dying not to ask you a million questions right now.”
Peter had a million questions himself, and absolutely no answers for them.
“Ha, yeah,” Peter smiled. “I–uh–the NDAS, so.”
“I know, I know,” Ned nodded, and went to go and look at an exhibit of a missile Howard Stark had developed for the war.
God, Peter was a terrible person.
Peter had little interest in history, at least the military history of Stark Industries. Once it got to focusing on tech stuff–and Tony Stark, for that matter, as opposed to the guy’s dad–he perked up a bit. Peter was a science kid at heart, and he admired the projects that Stark Industries had been working on. Clean energy, and all that. They even got to see the giant arc reactor that was powering the building, which Peter guessed was the big version of what powered the Iron Man suits. It looked familiar enough, but the displays said nothing about it specifically, so maybe it wasn’t public knowledge.
Iron Man had always been his favourite of the Avengers. Whilst Tony was a billionaire, he was a normal person. Not enhanced, just surviving on the power of his own technology and weapons he’d made with his bare hands. Eight year old Peter had seen that, seen the man in the armoured suit fight against villains, and had gone, “I want to be that”. His aunt and uncle had dismissed it, of course, but here they were, years later, having been bitten by a radioactive spider. Peter tried to look out for the little guy, when he was out on patrol, but sometimes he thought about the Avengers. Thought about what it would be like to run into one of them. Whenever he’d pictured it, it had always been Iron Man, because the guy could fly and was crazy good at tech and Tony seemed like he could have been monitoring the happenings of an up and coming hero in the city he lived in.
But it had never happened. He’d always flown solo–or swung solo, more aptly. Left to his own devices. Maybe that was for the better.
“Now we’re going to go and have a look at the R&D labs,” Val announced, leading them to a lift. “We’ll get to talk with some of the scientists and interns about their latest projects. If they’re up for a Q&A, feel free to ask them questions. There are no stupid questions.”
That was up for debate, really. Val hadn’t ever interacted properly with some of his classmates. Peter often wanted to hit his head across the wall when they opened their mouths in class. He sometimes despaired over the stuff that his teacher said, so she was setting an unknown precedent for stupidity, really.
All thoughts of that, however, left his head when the elevator lift doors opened to the labs. It was the coolest thing he’d ever seen in his life–scientists everywhere, experiments going on everywhere he looked. Holograms, blueprints, chalkboards, equations. His dream environment. Peter had to literally clench his jaw to prevent it from dropping, because Flash was watching and he’d just told everyone that he knew he worked in the Tower, and if he did then seeing the labs shouldn’t surprise him, goddammit! He might be able to actually get away with this ruse if he was careful, and he wasn’t going to risk that just because he was amazed by the environment he’d found himself in.
For a split second, Peter wondered what it would have been like to have been an actual intern at Stark Industries. He wanted it so much it felt like he couldn’t breathe, as he stared at the teams of scientists working together. What would it be like, to be actually making a difference in the world?
Val guided them all toward a particular group of white-coat wearing individuals who were crowded round a chalkboard, staring at an equation. They looked the least busy out of everyone–most of the scientists were running between desks or trying to stop something from exploding.
“Hi guys,” Val waved, drawing their attention away from whatever they were puzzling about. “These guys are here on a tour, is it okay if they ask you a few questions about what you’re up to?”
“Sure, yeah,” The guy who Peter guessed was the leader of the project nodded, running a hand through his hair. “Shoot away.”
His classmates started asking questions about what it was like working at Stark Industries and what the benefits were. Someone asked about the cafeteria food, which made Peter want to let out a deep sigh. They were talking with actual scientists, employees of Stark Industries, who probably had actual PHDs. It was depressing.
Whilst the staff commented on the wonders of the mac and cheese served, Peter turned his attention to the chalkboard behind them. He frowned as he saw what was written on it–they had the equation all wrong. Something was off. He tilted his head and tried to figure it out.
“What’s that on the board there?” MJ asked–a girl Peter was kind of friends with, they had a complicated relationship–and finally a semi-decent question had come around.
“We’re just figuring out this for our latest project,” The guy waved toward the board. “It’s a bit tricky–and unfinished, because we’re all a bit confused about the next steps, so I don’t expect you guys to understand any of it, but this is the cutting edge of science.”
Peter raised an eyebrow as he stared at the board for another few seconds. It wasn’t that difficult, you just had to switch the– hey, he knew how to solve it!
Val had said any questions applied.
“Shouldn’t it be parallel to the x and not perpendicular to y?” Peter asked the guy.
He blinked, and then stared at Peter. “Excuse me?”
“It should be parallel to x,” Peter repeated slowly, this time pointing toward the board.
The guy swivelled around to face the board, staring at it helplessly, and then turned back to look at Peter with a confused expression. “I’m sorry, I don’t understand what you mean.”
“Can I?” Peter stepped forward, holding his hand out for the pen that the other guy was holding. No one told him to stop, probably because they were so perplexed by a teenager offering a solution. When he was given the pen he quickly changed the last line of the equation that had been the problem.
“See, it’s parallel to x and then if you take the other variable and just divide it by this , that makes much more sense,” Peter continued scratching away, not stopping to consult the team of scientists. After he made the first few changes, he stopped narrating as it was slowing him down but he continued writing more and more math on the board. It took him another minute or so before he had it completely solved.
He put the cap on top of the pen, and turned back around to see that everyone’s jaws had dropped. Both his classmates and the collection of Stark Industries employees who had been watching him work.
“What?” Peter muttered, slightly self-conscious at the amount of eyes on him. “It’s nothing special, just, uh…math.”
Basic math, at that. Peter could have done it in his sleep, but, then, in fairness, math was one of his strong suits.
“You just solved something that’s taken us weeks,” The project leader’s eyes looked like they were going to pop out of his head
Weeks? That equation had taken them weeks? Jesus christ.
“Without even taking a second to ponder it,” one of his colleagues said faintly.
“Well, y’know,” Peter shrugged as if it was no big deal. “Sometimes when you’ve looked at something too long, you can’t see the solution.”
The project leader shook his head. “Who are you?”
“Just Peter,” he repeated his prior action, handing back the pen.
“And you’re a high-school student ?”
“He works here,” Val jumped in to clarify, and Peter grimaced. He did not want any follow up questions, but from the way the guy was looking at him, his odds were not looking so great. He shouldn’t have solved the equation, that had been a bad call. It had just been bothering him, like an itch he needed to scratch. Leaving it unfinished would have been torture.
“No offence,” another scientist chimed in, looking reticent to believe Val. “But Stark Industries don’t hire teenagers .”
Peter had to give him some credit to that guy, he was probably right.
“What department are you in, kid?” The project leader asked, looking genuinely intrigued.
Peter’s eyes went slightly wide before he could help himself. Fuck, what department was he in? Had he mentioned that to anyone ever? He’d just said intern, that was vague at best, and he couldn’t say R&D, because they were at R&D and the employees obviously didn’t know him. “Uh–”
“It’s classified,” Val stepped in. Thank god for Val. And thank god for the other Peter Parker out there who had a redacted job title and access to the entire building.
“Classified,” Project Leader guy raised an incredulous eyebrow.
Val stepped close and whispered to the guy. Peter wouldn’t have been able to hear what she said without his enhanced hearing. “I think he works with Mr Stark himself. He has level nine access. Either that or he’s his lovechild.”
Peter almost spluttered, because– what?! Excuse me? Had she really just said that? Was that what she’d been thinking this entire time? Tony Stark’s illegitimate child?
“Right,” the guy leading the project stepped forward and held out a hand to him with a smile. “Well, Just Peter , you’ve just expedited our project by about three months and solved a puzzle we’ve been trying to fix for weeks. So thank you for that.”
“Not a problem,” Peter smiled back, shaking his hand, only slightly concerned about the fact that this guy also thought he was the son of Tony Stark, who he was not in anyway related to and who Peter would undoubtedly never meet in his entire life.
There was an almost comically timed ding from the elevators at that moment, and the lift doors swung open to reveal…oh, fuck.
A series of gasps were let out from his classmates as Tony Stark strode into the lab.
Peter really, really hadn’t been anticipating that they would run into the guy himself on their tour. Or that the billionaire would, in fact, run into them. Tony strode toward the team with his sunglasses on and a grin on his face, spreading out his hands wide. He briefly paused to look at the Midtown students.
“Hi, guys,” Actual Tony Stark waved casually, entirely unphased by the amount of highschoolers in his lab. He turned away from them, facing his team of scientists (and Peter, who hadn’t returned back to the group of students). “Team! Congrats! FRIDAY announced that you guys had finally solved the little conundrum you were having.”
No-one said anything. They seemed to be at a loss for words.
Tony Stark seemed disappointed by the lack of response, and his grin slowly lessened. He looked at the Project Leader guy, who was still slightly fixated on staring at Peter in awe, and addressed him. “Justin, why do you look like that?”
Justin’s eyes were still a little wide, but he looked away from Peter to stare at his boss.
“Well, uh,” He stumbled over the words. “It wasn’t…we didn’t solve it.”
“Oh,” Tony frowned. He seemed like he was slightly out of it. Peter wondered how often he came to congratulate his colleagues for their projects. “Why am I here, then?”
“We didn’t solve it,” Justin repeated, then pointed a wavering finger at Peter. “He did.”
Oh, fuck. Peter should have told them to just take credit for his little tweaks to their calculation. He didn’t want the credit!
Tony blinked several times, and then cast a steady, focused glance at Peter. He was making direct fucking eye contact with Tony Stark. This was decidedly not how he’d thought the day was going to go. It was a far cry from sitting on the coach all day in banishment.
Peter immediately started apologising. “I’m sorry, uh, Mr Stark, I just–”
But Tony cut him off. “No, no, that’s interesting. Very interesting, in fact. I suppose I should say thank you–”
“Hold on,” Flash interrupted, and the idiot must have had a death wish, because he was stepping forward and interrupting Tony Stark like that wasn’t entirely insane. “Hold on.”
“Eugene,” Mr Harrington reprimanded, but Flash was shaking his head.
Tony raised an eyebrow and gestured for him to continue.
“You can’t thank him. You can’t.” Flash informed him. “He’s been claiming that he has an internship here, and that he’s met you before–he’s lying, and it’s pathetic.”
And that was it. The part where it all came tumbling down, his ruse, his lie. He could just picture it–the disappointment on May’s face, a meeting with the Principal, and even worse, they’d get him for forging the CEO of Stark Industries on a document. God, would Pepper Potts take him to court? He couldn’t afford that!
Peter was about to close his eyes in despair at his misfortune–except it wasn’t really misfortune, because he’d done this to himself, he’d lied, he’d created the problem, except then his best friend stood up for him.
Ned tried to come to his defence. “Peter’s internship is real, didn’t you hear the–”
But Flash wasn’t done, and practically growled in response before Ned could finish his sentence. “No. No. None of the employees here recognise him! You saw them all, they had no idea who he was! One of them even said they don’t hire high schoolers! The Stark Interns work in this department, if he worked here, they should know him.”
“He just works in a different department,” Ned responded back, but he was wavering, looking at Peter, expecting him to defend himself. Peter couldn’t defend himself. It was all true. Flash was right. He was pathetic.
“It’s obvious he’s lying. He said he’s met Tony Stark before, it’s blatantly clear he hasn’t, for fuck’s sake–”
“ Mr Thompson! ” Mr Harrington reprimanded.
“It’s not real,” Flash stared at them all, then turned to the scientists, turned to Tony. “He’s fooling you. Don’t thank him for doing some stupid equation. He probably hasn’t even solved it, he just wants you to thank him because he’s pathetic and doesn’t have parents to love him.”
You could have heard a pin drop in the room after that, and Peter’s heart was racing. His gaze dropped to the floor– don’t cry, don’t cry, fuck, don’t show weakness . He could tell everyone was watching him, and he needed to say something, anything, needed to admit the truth.
It’s not real. I made it all up. Come on, Peter, anything. It wasn't hard.
“I–” Peter started to say, shakily, but he was cut off as Tony Stark, billionaire, superhero, a man who’d never met him before in his life, lied for him.
“I have met him before,” Tony said, shrugging as if it was the truth. “He works here.”
Why the everloving fuck would he do that? Tony Stark had never met him in his life. And Peter didn’t work there? Why was he lying?
Flash looked startled, but still not certain. “Then why don’t any of the employees here recognise him? Your interns work in this department.”
The other employees seemed to think it was a good point, because they had pensive looks on their faces. Justin was just staring wildly between Peter and Tony, eyes drifting between them every few seconds, as if trying to see whether they looked similar. God, he was still going for the father-son theory, wasn’t he?
Tony paused, and then said smoothly, “That’s because he’s my personal intern. Works for me personally. Doesn’t work with anyone else. Just me.”
Peter felt like he was about to melt into a puddle on the floor. What? Personal intern?
Flash’s disbelief at this idea was summarised in the expression he gave as he delivered his monosyllabic question, “ Why? ”
Whether that was Why Peter or Why would Tony Stark have any need for a teenager to work with him personally was left unclarified, but Tony continued on bravely. He glanced briefly at the board where Peter had scribbled the answer to the equation.
“He’s whip smart,” Tony shrugged, gesturing to the board. “Keeps even me on my toes sometimes. I need that.”
Wow. Peter really hadn’t expected for his field trip experience to go this well.
He felt like someone was playing a prank on him, or he was in the middle of an elaborate dream that he would soon wake up from. In what world would it be possible for Tony Stark to be defending him against Flash Thompson? It had to be a dream, surely. Personal Intern for Tony Stark.
Except Peter reached over to subtly pinch himself, and nothing happened.
Tony paused for a few seconds, and then nodded, matter-of-fact, like he’d just made a decision in his mind. He decided to share it with the class. “In fact, I need to borrow him. Right now. Yeah.”
Peter’s mind went devoid of any thoughts, and all he knew was that under no circumstances would he let himself be cornered into a private conversation with the billionaire after he’d committed fraudulent activity and proceeded to flaunt it by walking into the building. “Oh, Mr Stark, I really don’t–”
Tony had walked closer to him. There was a sparkle in his eye and a twitch in his expression that suggested he was enjoying the whole thing immensely. “C’mon, kid, deadlines to reach, papers to sign, things to invent, all that jazz. If you’ve started trying to solve these guys’ issues, I clear have to give you something more stimulating. You know I made up this team personally and if I’d wanted you to solve their problem, I would have handed it to you weeks ago. This was theirs to solve.”
“I’m…sorry?” Peter apologised, going along with the lie.
Tony nodded again, then let out a contented sigh.
“Right, I’m taking this one,” Tony announced to his teacher, placing a hand on each of Peter’s shoulders to steer him away from his classmates. Peter had to school his expression into something calm, but he was pretty sure it was just a nice mix of confused, alarmed, and what-the-fuck .
Mr Harrington, who, bless him, looked like he was about to burst into tears for having to say anything, shook his head. He was almost shaking. “You can’t take him, he has to stay with me, it’s school policy for excursions.”
Tony’s returning look to his teacher strongly implied that school policy was something that didn’t exist for the billionaire.
“With all due respect,” he replied slowly, as if he wanted to get it into Mr Harrington’s head, “I’m Tony Stark. I own this building. No harm is going to come to him, and I need him right now.”
And with that, Peter was being led out of the room, towed by Mr Stark, into the elevator he’d just exited from. None of his classmates were speaking, all just a group of people with their jaws dropped. Flash looked catatonic. Mr Harrington was seconds away from tears. Ned was grinning at him and shot him a thumbs up as Tony leaned to press a button in the elevator.
As the door started to shut, trapping him, Peter heard Justin lean over to Val and whisper, “Oh, they are definitely related.”
Then he was in a moving elevator with Tony Stark, trying not to visibly sweat too much.
“So,” Tony said, breaking the few seconds of silence as they started to ascend. “Uh.”
He seemed at a bit of a loss, to be honest, but Peter didn’t know quite what to say either.
“I don’t know you,” Tony continued making direct eye contact with him. “I have no idea why I’m covering for you, but I looked into those pleading brown eyes of yours and thought okay let’s do this. So, what’s the rundown? That kid’s bullying you?”
“He’s not a bully,” Peter muttered. “Just an idiot who picks on me because he has parents who don’t show him enough attention.”
“Okay, so, a bully. Might not be his fault entirely, but, still a bully,” Tony raised an eyebrow.
“Why did you–you shouldn’t have–you didn’t have to lie ,” Peter stuttered.
“I don’t think you are really the best person to give me a lecture about lying, young buck. Pretty sure that’s what got you into this mess.”
“Why did you even stick up for me in the first place?” Peter asked, bewildered. “I was lying, I don’t work for you or your company.”
“I know,” Tony quickly told him. “We don’t hire high-schoolers, even as interns.”
The billionaire sighed. “Look, I don’t like bullies, and what he said got under my skin, alright? Maybe I should have let you take the fall, but I just–it felt right.”
He was frowning, as though he didn't quite know how to explain it himself.
Peter fell silent at that, unsure of what to say, and then the doors to the elevator opened.
“Woah,” Peter said, as he took it all in. “Where are we?”
“My workshop,” Tony gestured to it, then sighed slightly and walked in as if he’d walked into a totally normal, not incredible space. Peter had thought the labs in R&D were the coolest thing he’d ever seen. He’d been seriously, seriously wrong. Tony Stark’s personal workshop was the coolest thing he’d ever seen, no contest.
There was an entire row of Iron Man suits displayed on one of the walls, and various countertops with holograms, computers, as well as machines practically everywhere. In one corner, there was a robot moving toward them, lifting its…arm (Peter wasn’t quite sure) as if to greet them curiously.
Tony held out a finger to it. “Uh, uh, uh! DUM-E, stay away!”
The billionaire smiled, shook his head slightly, and then picked up a spanner and presumably what he’d been working on before he’d gone up to the R&D labs, which caused Peter’s breath to catch, and he stopped walking forward. “That’s–”
It was the helmet of the most recent Iron Man armour, just there. Just in front of him, as if it was nothing.
Tony glanced at it. “Yup.”
Okay. Okay, okay, okay. That was cool. That was so cool, and he was going to be calm and casual about it. No big deal. He wasn’t in the room with one of the smartest guys in the world as he worked on his superhero suit. If Peter hadn’t been Spiderman himself, he would have been completely geeking out. He still was pretty close to it.
Peter had to stop himself from asking whether he could try on the helmet, instead
Mr Stark started fiddling with the helmet, saying nothing, and Peter stared. After another minute, he frowned and asked, “Why am I here?”
Tony’s eyes lit up, turned back to face him. “Oh! I just wanted to ask how you solved the equation. It was like, a test, to see who I can rope into the super fun projects I’m planning. I got the best of the best on it, or so I thought, but they’ve been working on it for weeks and as you saw, made little progress.”
“They said I advanced their project by three months, though?” Peter said slowly, slightly confused.
Tony waved it off, “Oh, yeah, it’s complicated, the test ties into an overarching project, it’s irrelevant really. How did you solve it?”
“I mean,” Peter didn’t want to insult the man, but he was unsure of what else he could say. “It was kind of…just basic math, to me at least?”
“Shit,” Tony blinked multiple times, seeming genuinely impressed. “Basic math…maybe I will have to hire you as my personal intern. Is that what they’re teaching in high school Calculus, now?”
“Well,” Peter scratched the back of his neck. “Not really. I kind of did this online course set up by MIT a few weeks ago, I guess that’s what made it easy.”
Tony’s eyebrows shot up. “Was it by Dr Emerson by any chance?”
“Uh…yeah,” Peter nodded.
“I told him to publish that course online, years back! He said he was never going to do it because it was impossible to complete,” Tony shook his head, a small smile on his face. ”Did you know only three people have ever completed it?”
“Really?” Peter asked.
“Yeah, me, him, and Bruce Banner. Emerson tested it on me before he thought about publishing it, when I last went to visit MIT. It’s like, legendary. I got Bruce to do it when it went online and he passed, but no one else he tried it on ever passed. I eventually just told Emerson to let me know if anyone ever managed it.”
“Well,” Peter shrugged. “It was…fun.”
“I can’t believe someone else actually finished it, he’d be delighted,” Tony bit his lip. “Did he contact you?”
“You had to pay to get the certificate,” Peter shrugged. “I couldn’t.”
“FRI, send him a message now, will you?” Tony asked, turning his head to the computer. “I don’t want to be depriving Peter–it is Peter, right?”
“Peter Parker,” Peter nodded, suddenly horrified by his lack of manners. He hadn’t even introduced himself to the man. “But you really don’t have to–”
Tony continued, regardless of what Peter was saying. “I don’t want to deprive Peter here of his qualification.”
“Of course, Boss.” FRIDAY’s warm voice rang out through the room. It startled Peter a bit because she sounded like she was coming from everywhere.
“You’ve met FRIDAY, right?” Tony asked, gesturing vaguely around. He shifted topics every ten seconds, or so it seemed. It was difficult to keep up with.
“She’s awesome,” Peter nodded.
“So, what do you think?” Tony asked, and Peter faltered. What did he think about…what? FRIDAY?
“Uh,” Peter stuttered.
Tony blinked, and then realised. “Oh, shit, right. I forgot to ask the question. I haven’t slept in a while, I don’t think. Probably. How long has it been?”
“68 hours, Boss,” FRIDAY chimed in again. Peter’s mouth dropped open. He himself had a pretty poor sleep schedule, because of going out on patrol and all of that, but sixty eight hours was insane. That was almost three days.
“Right, that,” Tony smiled again, this time at him directly. “Intern. What do you think?”
“Intern,” Peter repeated slowly, wondering whether the singular word was supposed to make sense to him.
“Yes. You, intern,” Tony waved his hands. Peter was beginning to realise the man was very expressive with his hands. “Thoughts?”
“I’m sorry,” Peter tilted his head slightly. “I don’t understand?”
“Well, you’re a genius prodigy teenager who is so damn good at science and math he can out-compete my employees without even trying. I can’t just let you go now, chances are someone like Hammer,” Tony shuddered, “will snatch you up and I can’t be having that. Absolutely not.”
Tony sat back, sighing.
“Hold on,” Peter swallowed, his heartbeat ticking faster, because he was starting to get what Tony had been saying. “Are you saying– me –becoming an intern–like, actually being an intern here ?”
“I could use someone like you on my team,” Tony nodded. “My team of one, that is. Personal intern. I don’t want to have to share you with others. You’re brilliant.”
“I don’t understand,” Peter shook his head. “You don’t even know me, sir. You haven’t seen me do any science, or any work. And–Mr Stark, I lied, I lied about your company, I forged the CEO’s signature on a document to prove I had an internship, you can’t give me an actual internship!”
“Why not?” Tony questioned.
Tony hadn’t even asked why he’d faked the internship.
“Because I don’t deserve it! I deceived people, I lied.” Peter gestured to the lift. “Like Flash was saying. The internship was never real .”
“They don’t ever have to know that. As far as they’re concerned, the internship you’ve had is totally legitimate.” Tony shrugged again. “It doesn’t bother me that you pretended to have one. I don't mind.”
Peter wanted to explode, wanted to ask the man how , how could something like that not bother him? How was he looking at Peter Parker and going yes, you’re the kid I want to be my intern. But he was stumbling over what to say, how to say it.
Of course he wanted to be an intern. He’d made up the ruse of working at Stark Industries for a reason. And Tony Stark’s personal intern–it was like his dream position. Working with the man himself. But there were things he had to consider, things that were making him hesitate. Most centred around him being Spiderman. He was trying to keep it a secret from everyone, but being around Tony was just bound to cause some issues at some point.
“And besides, I have seen you work. You corrected the team’s project. Parallel to x, not perpendicular to y, very good, etc, etc. And you passed Emerson’s course. That’s enough for me to know you’ll be able to keep up, and I bet your grades in school are stellar. What do you say?” The billionaire was smiling at him.
Peter stared at him for a long moment, toying up the pros and cons of it all, and then just said, “Yeah, sure, that’d be great.”
“Brilliant,” Tony rapped on the desk with his two index fingers. “Okay, uh, I don’t know how to do this or where to even start, but I guess we should figure out when we’re both free. Pepper will kill me if I don’t get you to sign an NDA now you’ve been in here, kind of classified, so I suppose we should do that, and probably ask about changing your access level.”
Oh, shit, his access level. He’d completely forgotten about his access level being absurdly high. Peter’s heart started beating fast again, even though he hadn’t done anything to change it from the standard level of a visitor.
He would have felt awful if he just hadn’t mentioned the flaw in the Stark Industries system that had labelled him with a higher access level than he should have rightfully had. Pointing out the mistake was the honest thing to do.
“Oh, uh, Mr Stark, ab–”
“Call me Tony,” Tony instructed, raising an eyebrow. “We’re colleagues, now.”
Colleagues with Tony Stark. First name basis with Tony Stark. Jesus christ. Not that Peter was ever going to call the man Tony to his face, even though he’d just asked for that very same thing.
“Uh,” Peter said, instead of addressing him again. “About the access level thing. When I came in today, through the scanner, it sort of gave me a higher access level than it should have?”
“Oh?” Tony cocked his head. He had a spanner in his hand that he was twirling nonchalantly, very unconcerned by Peter’s declaration. “That’s odd. What level?”
“It was supposed to be one, I think but, uh, it said I had level nine–”
“ Nine? ” Tony sat up in his chair, alarmed. If he'd been drinking coffee, he would have choked on it. Yup, there was the concern. “Nine, really? Are you fucking with me?”
“No, I’m not,” Peter shook his head.
Tony seemed stunned. “That’s the level we give the Avengers . That’s-Pepper and I only have level 10 ourselves. I own the building. She's the CEO.”
Oh, god. He had the same level of access to the building as the actual Avengers? What a mess.
Tony pressed two fingers over the bridge of his nose, closed his eyes as if in immense pain. “Please god tell me it wasn’t the same for the rest of your classmates.”
“No, just me.” Peter mumbled. “It must have been some kind of mistake, I’m not sure?”
“No, that’s. It’s impossible. There can’t be mistakes. FRIDAY controls the system, she’s an all-knowing, all-powerful AI, not to toot my own horn. She knows who should have what clearance, whoever has been in the building at any one given time, everyone’s roles, she’s never done it wrong.”
“Sometimes mistakes happen,” Peter suggested, not wanting to hurt the man’s feelings. At the end of the day, it was possible.
“No, it’s not a mistake,” Tony waved the idea off, closing his eyes. He was talking at a faster pace than he had been since the conversation had started. “There’s literally only one reason I can think of for someone I’ve never met before to have such a high level and that’s– oh ,” he frowned. “Huh. Wait. No–FRIDAY?”
“Not saying anything, Boss,” FRIDAY commented.
Tony’s jaw dropped, and he started staring at Peter as if seeing him in a whole new light. Peter blinked, perplexed at what had changed.
“Wow,” Tony mumbled under his breath. “Seriously? I was expecting more–uh, a person in their twenties with a stable income, or maybe a college student at the youngest but wow, high school. Now I’m feeling like I should have stepped in sooner instead of keeping a respectful distance.”
“Sorry, uh, what’s going on here?” Peter asked, his heart rate quickening in his chest. He didn’t like the way Tony was looking at him, sort of in awe, or the words he’d just said.
“You’re Spiderman,” Tony announced, and Peter’s heart stopped.
He took a second of recovery and then stumbled through giving a reply, “Uh–no, no, I'm not.”
Tony shot him a look of disapproval. “Kid, please.”
“I’m not Spiderman,” Peter said matter-of-factly, trying his best not to stumble over the name of his alter ego, aware that would be quite telling.
Tony sighed. “Well, there’s only one way you could have gotten that access level kid, and you’d have to be Spiderman to get it.”
Peter stared at him, wondering how the fuck that made sense.
“I didn’t want to overstep and find out Spiderman’s identity directly, but I wanted to eventually get to know him and invite him to the Tower, introduce him to the Avengers. So I put in place that FRIDAY should ensure that Spiderman, whoever he is, should have the same clearance as the Avengers in case it ever happens. It’d be awkward if I’d invited him over and security kicked him out for not being on the system. I thought it was sensible.”
And Tony hadn’t ever anticipated that he’d run into Spiderman’s civilian identity, that the person under the mask would ever walk into the building for unrelated reasons. But here they were.
Except, there was a flaw in that plan, really.
“How do you know that I–he wouldn’t have turned out to be a bad guy?” Peter stumbled over his slip up, slightly mortified. “What if I–what if he'd stormed into Stark Industries with a bomb or something one day?”
He’d slipped up twice in two sentences. Jesus christ.
Tony eyed him with a smirk. “You’re not very good at this, are you?”
Peter threw his hands up in the air. “No-one’s ever asked me outright before!”
“So, you’re Spiderman,” Tony repeated.
Peter sighed. Fine. He gave up. Clearly it was impossible to keep from the guy. He’d given it his all. “Okay, yeah, I am. I made up the internship so I'd have an excuse to leave class.”
He was telling Tony his biggest secret, so he might as well explain the reason he'd ended up in the scenario in the first place.
Peter was quite impressed that he’d managed to immediately fuck it up. Impressively fast, even for him. Was he seriously going to have the shortest internship ever in recorded history? Because obviously Tony wasn’t going to want him to be an intern now. Tony had expected to be working with someone responsible, he’d said it. A person in their twenties with a stable income. He wasn’t that, he wasn’t responsible. Spiderman was a reckless teenager in high school trying to protect the people of New York as best as he could, and that wasn’t the kind of person who should be interning for Tony Stark.
Except Tony was grinning, sat contentedly in his chair. He picked his spanner back up and said, “This is brilliant.”
“Wait,” Peter paused. “Aren’t you…mad?”
“No,” Tony looked almost put out at the idea. His face was almost comical. “Why would I be mad? I mean, sure, I should probably be discouraging you from the whole superhero gig because you’re a teenager and that would be responsible of me to do, as an adult, but this just makes the whole thing so much sweeter.”
The man shrugged. “I thought you were just a kid who loved science who could work with me. Now you’re the hero I’ve been dying to meet ever since I first caught sight of the clips on YouTube. I have questions, by the way, about the sticky substance, but we’ll get to that.”
A hero. Tony Stark had just called him a hero. He’d called him the hero.
Tony continued talking. “So, no, I’m not mad. I’m really not mad. I’m the opposite of mad. Ecstatic, maybe. I’m definitely at the age and stage in my superhero exploits to be a mentor to a young buck like you. If you’re up for that sort of thing, that is. No pressure.”
Peter’s brain was warping around the phrase young buck before he could process that Tony had just offered to be his superhero mentor, and that was probably when his brain just broke. It was all too much, all at once.
If Peter had been asked what he would’ve thought Tony Stark’s attitude around children would be, about 12 hours ago Peter would have said the billionaire would probably have disliked kids, and would have been uncomfortable around them. But Tony was smiling like anything sat in front of him, and offering to be a mentor, and therefore Peter was pretty sure he’d been wrong on that front. Tony liked kids. Tony was good around kids. Tony wanted to be his mentor.
“Mentor,” Peter mumbled, repeating the word, feeling what it felt like. What did a mentor do? Was Tony going to teach him how to fight better? Planning strategies? Would he meet the Avengers?
“Yeah,” Tony swivelled around to face one of his monitors. “First things first, I think we need to get started on making you a new suit. I made up some designs one sleepless night when I was bored, you can ignore them completely if you want, it’s all just—”
“Uh,” Peter interrupted, slightly scared to interrupt. “Mr Stark–”
“Tony,” the man corrected distractedly, pulling up a hologram of a superhero suit that had Peter written all over it.
“I think it’d be really cool if you were my mentor,” Peter started, unsure of quite what to say next.
Tony’s fingers froze where they were enlarging the hologram, turning to face him. “There’s a but coming now, right?”
Peter swallowed. “No–uh–it's just, can we not, um, start right this second? I think I should probably get back to my class, my teacher will be going crazy with one of his students missing, and my friend is there alone, and also you should probably get some sleep before we start doing any proper work.”
“Wow,” Tony blinked, shutting down the holograms he’d pulled up. “That’s…yeah. That’s mature, kid. Damn.”
Turning down an offer to work on a personalised superhero suit built for him by Tony Stark himself in order to go back to a group of people he mostly disliked to tour around a building when he’d already seen the coolest room in it? Yeah. Maybe Peter was crazy.
But Tony needed sleep more than Peter needed a new suit, and they had time.
“Which—uh—evenings work for you best?” Peter asked.
Tony winced. “It’s variable. Here, I’ll put my personal line into your phone and we’ll figure something out. Text me whenever you’re free.”
Peter let Tony type in his number and then handed back the phone, wincing at the cracks on the screen. He often dropped it on patrol. His reflexes were good, but he wore gloves, and that was sometimes an error.
Tony cleared his throat. “I presume you wouldn’t accept it if I tried to give you a phone upgrade right now?”
“You’re right,” Peter nodded. “I wouldn’t.”
Because it was a matter of principle. Because his phone worked perfectly fine as it was, and even though the new Starkphones were awesome, he had no need for one.
“Do you need me to escort you back down?” Tony asked. “I did promise your teacher that I’d make sure no harm came to you.”
“Eh, I’m sure FRIDAY will help me find my way back,” Peter smiled. “Thanks, Mr Stark. Get some sleep.”
“Only if you start calling me Tony,” the man called as he stepped into the elevator. “But yeah, yeah, I will, Spidey. I promise.”
Spidey.
“See you later!” Peter waved as the doors shut, trying to get his brain to process that he'd just casually told one of the most famous celebrities ever that he'd see him later. He looked up at the ceiling in the lift, and asked whether FRIDAY was taking him to where the rest of Midtown students were. She said yes. They settled into comfortable silence, Peter’s mind buzzing as he turned over everything that had just happened to him.
“Peter?” FRIDAY asked, slightly tentatively.
“Yes, FRIDAY?”
“Thank you for telling Boss to go to sleep,” The AI sounded extremely relieved. “He doesn’t often listen.”
“No problem,” Peter smiled. He was glad to have helped. Tony did genuinely look like he’d benefitted from sleep.
It turned out that Midtown had ended up listening to a talk being given by one of Stark Industries’ top scientists. They were all sat in what looked like a conference room as the lady gave her presentation on clean energy.
“What did Mr Stark need you for?” Ned whispered to him as Peter slunk into a seat next to him and started half-listening to the talk.
Peter knew when there were eyes on him. He could tell that everyone of his classmates, including Flash, as well as Mr Harrington (who’d looked so relieved that Peter had returned it wasn’t even funny) and even Val had started listening to their conversation. He couldn’t exactly be honest with Ned, as much as he wanted to be.
So he smirked, looked back at Ned, and simply said, “I’m afraid that’s classified.”
He was surprised that there weren’t a series of sighs across the room at his response, but he guessed they didn’t want to be so obvious about it. Peter sat back in his chair and tried to relax.
Peter smiled to himself. His expected-disaster of a field trip had warped into being one of the best days, if not the best day of his life. Someone finally knew. For the first time in his life, someone knew he was the superhero who’d been running around Queens. He had someone to confide in, and it was Tony Stark. And even better, his internship, which had been completely fabricated at the beginning of the day, was totally real!
Now all he had to do was make sure no one else found out about him being Spiderman. It wasn’t going to be too hard.
Right?