Chapter Text
From the moment Peter woke up, he knew it was not going to be his day.
The stray rays of sunshine that slipped through the open curtain of the window he forgot to close when he got back from patrolling were resting heavy on his eyelids, heavily enough to wake him up.
With a groan and his eyes still closed, he tried to get up to a sitting position, careful not to press onto his bruised rib. ‘Thank God it's already mostly healed.’ Peter thought.
Yesterday, when he was heading back to the tower after a slow crime night with just a few amateur thieves and drunk heads, his senses picked up a drug ring happening nearby, so he turned around and swung to the spot where the ring was taking place.
After webbing up the last one of the criminals, he was about to call the police and take off when suddenly his spidey senses tingled, but it was already too late. The drug lord, who he had no idea was hiding in a closet thank you very much, took a swing with a crowbar at his ribcage and another one at his head. As soon as Peter regained his stability, he webbed the weapon away from him and then webbed the man up and left after hearing the cops around the corner.
He slid off the window of his room carefully and headed straight into the bathroom, took a warm shower and assessed his wounds. They weren't that bad: a broken rib and a few cuts here and there. He had had it worse. He changed into his pajamas, which consisted of an old science pun t-shirt and sweats. It was already 4 am on a school night, way later than the hour he thought he would be back, so he would have to be grateful with how little hours of sleep he was gonna get. He walked to his bed, and as soon as his head hit the pillow, he passed out cold.
He groggily took his phone out of its charger to check the time.
Holy shit. Fuck. He was so late. Happy was definitely going to kill him.
He got out of bed as quickly as his rib allowed him to, washed his face, brushed his teeth, and put on the first thing he grabbed from his closet: a grey shirt with a dark blue hoodie on top, a pair of black jeans, and sneakers. He grabbed his backpack and rushed out of his room.
As he stepped outside, he could smell the sweet aroma of the pancakes Steve loved to make for breakfast. Well, if he was already late, a minute or two wouldn’t make much of a difference. Besides, his metabolism needed the extra boost to finish healing. With his backpack slung over his left shoulder, he made a beeline to the compound kitchen.
"Good morning, Peter! Sleep well?" Steve said with a warm smile as soon as he saw him enter the area.
"Good morning, Steve. Can you give me some of those for the ride to school? I'm super late, but I'm starving. If Happy doesn’t kill me, starvation might," he asked with an almost desperate look on his face.
"Sure thing, Pete." He packed a generous stack in a tupperware with some fruit and bacon he had also prepared. As a man with a modified fast metabolism himself, he knew the feeling all too well. "Here ya' go. Have a good day."
"I’ll try." Peter said while he grabbed the container quickly and headed to the elevator.
The ride to school was quick, and if he ignored the deadly glares, Happy was shooting him through the rearview mirror as he ate in his pristine car, it was like any other day. He managed to arrive just in time, with a little to spare even. He was already seated next to Ned when the bell rang. He took out his books and pencil case, but he wasn’t really paying attention. The first three periods passed in a blur. He even managed to catch a bit of sleep.
For his last class, he, Ned, and MJ had science together. Mr. Harrington was late, so when he finally arrived, everyone was up and chatting or sitting with their friends. He carried a thick stack of papers and walked to his desk while the students returned to their seats. He had a huge smile plastered on his face. The biggest they had ever seen on him.
"Good afternoon, class. Quiet, quiet. I have an amazing announcement to make…” He made a dramatic pause, which was obviously necessary, obviously. “We're going on a field trip!"
The students were clearly excited; any excuse to get out of school was a reason to celebrate. But they still didn’t get why their teacher was so hyped. Until he continued.
"For years the school has tried to get the opportunity to visit this place, and today they finally accepted our request. So buckle up, my dear students, because this Friday we’re going to... Stark Industries!" As he said it, his smile somehow grew even bigger. The classroom instantly filled with excited chatter.
And Peter? Well, Peter wanted the earth to swallow him whole at that moment. Like, no he didn’t, but kind of, you know?
He slouched in his chair and quietly slammed his forehead against the desk with a deep sigh. At that moment, a paper ball hit the back of his head. Hard.
"Hey, Penis! You're stressing about how we’re all gonna find out your lies about being an intern, huh?" Flash asked in a mocking tone while high-fiving one of his goons. So lame.
"Why are you so obsessed with Peter and penises, Flash? Got something you want to share with the class, huh?" MJ replied with a straight face, maintaining eye contact. His face turned red and twisted into an expression they were all familiar with.
Flash looked away first, as usual.
After a few more minutes of excitement about the field trip, Mr. Harrington grabbed the stack of papers from his desk and began handing them out.
"You have to bring this paperwork signed by your legal guardians by Wednesday. If you don’t, you won’t be allowed to go. I’m asking you to be responsible, as this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," he said. "It’s imperative that you remember you're representing the school, so please, behave." As he said that, he discreetly looked in Peter’s direction. Peter slumped even further in his seat.
—————————
When he arrived at the tower after the AcaDeca practice, he went straight to the dining room. Everyone who wasn’t currently on a mission was there.
Nat was setting the table, Pepper was placing the drinks, Steve was plating the pasta while chatting with Bucky about some reality show they'd watched that afternoon, Tony was on the phone talking about a meeting he’d attended earlier, and Clint, as usual, had his hearing aids off as he read a book.
Peter walked to the table, hugged his m-hugged Pepper, signed ‘Hello’ to Clint, helped Nat finish setting the table, then went into the kitchen to help Steve with the food, greeted Bucky, and returned to the dining table once everything was ready.
"Low blow, kid. I'm the only one you didn’t say hi to. You even greeted Popsicle's robocop!" Tony said dramatically as he entered the room, wearing a mock-hurt expression.
Peter looked like a deer caught in headlights and a tomato fused together. "I’m sorry! But I saw you on the phone, and it sounded important, and I didn’t want to interrupt you, and—" He blurted out without breathing in or out.
"Hey, hey, kid!" Tony interrupted. "I was just messing with you." He smiled and ruffled his hair. "What’s up with you? You haven’t been this shifty in a while." He sat down next to Pepper and Steve and started eating the bolognese Steve had prepared at the same time Peter sat down between Bucky and Natasha.
"Mr. Harrington told us we have a field trip… and you know how my history with field trips is. Just that." He chose not to reveal where the trip was taking place. He loved all of them deeply, but he knew the field trip would be uncomfortable enough already, being a visit to not only his workplace but also his home. He definitely didn’t want to add any Avengers shenanigans or chaos to the mix.
"You don’t want to go, then?" Nat asked him, pointing at him with her fork.
"I- Well- It's not like I can just not go. Everyone's going to think I'm hiding something or something like that." After he said it he realized how weird that sounded, and honestly he didn’t want to answer questions that might lead them to figure out where the field trip was going to be, so he stuffed a forkful of the bolognese into his mouth and avoided making eye contact with anyone.
Super suave move and not suspicious at all.
Thankfully for him, it seemed like everyone assumed it was just typical awkward teenage behavior and didn’t press any further.
"Well, just so you know, you don’t have to go if you don’t want to. It’s dumb to worry about what other people think of you. They can’t force you to do something you don’t wanna do, you’re smarter than that," Bucky said, making eye contact, with a subtle blink-and-you’ll-miss-it hint of worry in his eyes.
"Nah, it's fine, I'll just go. Who knows, it might be fun." He gave him a reassuring smile. He hated when he made others worry about him. He even had arguments because of that. Literally last week he and Tony got in a fight because he didn't tell anyone he had been stabbed, three times. He only found out because FRIDAY snitched on him. In his defence it was already 3 am on a week night. Pepper had just returned from a work trip to Tokyo and her sleep schedule was still very vulnerable.
Dinner continued to be fairly normal after that, they talked about nonsense and trivial things, he managed to get Tony to sign his permission slip without reading, which got him a smack in the head from Pepper and a "You have to stop signing things without reading what they are! That's how you make my work ten times more difficult" which he answered with a "I didn't read it cause i know Peter would make me sign anything that could jeopardize us! Do you not trust Peter?" which she then replied looking at Peter with a motherly expression and putting her hand on his. "I trust you with my whole heart sweetie, this is not about you, okay" then turned her head to look at Tony again "I see what you are trying to do and it doesn't work, so now tomorrow you man up and go to your 9 am meeting with the military, I will not invent any excuses" she said to then give a sip to her wine "Come on honey! don't do this to me!" he said pretending as if he had been stabbed in the heart.
—————————
The days passed quickly and before he knew Friday had already come.
As if he wouldn’t suffer enough from the field trip the had to endure today he got up at 6:30 am because his body decided he wasn’t going to get any more sleep after a tiresome patrolling night and when he went to shower he realized he had run out of soap. After getting dressed he went to the kitchen as he usually did but to his surprise Steve wasn’t there, he thought he was probably showering after his morning run, but he soon found a post-it note on the fridge with “Sorry kid, I had to attend an urgent meeting. I left you your breakfast and some fruit on the counter. - S.R” written on it.
At 7:45 he found himself stuck in a traffic jam with Happy. They had to drive to Midtown just to be instantly driven back to the tower, which he thought it was not only unnecessary but also wasteful. He rested his head on the window with a little bit more force that needed with only one thought in his head ‘Fuck New York traffic’.
At 8 o’clock, he stepped on the bus with his friends and headed straight back to the SI.
As soon as they sat he opened the tupper with 4 pb&j , two bananas and an apple. Sue him, he was a hungry mutate who had to heal a lot of injuries. And besides, he even shared one of his pb&j with his friends.
Thankfully Flash and his goons didn’t bother them, they sat a few seats in front and were too busy talking about how they were all going to end up working at the SI to mess with them.
Ned and MJ just laughed at the idea of Eugene ‘What's daddy gonna do, sue me?’ Thompson working for Peter when he graduates college.
The bus ride passed in a flash and soon enough they were getting out of the vehicle and making their way into the building.
When they entered the main entrance of the Stark Enterprises, all Peter could hear was the amazed chatter among his classmates.
The "Oh! This is even better than I imagined," or “Is that a real Gerhard Richter piece?!” and multiples variations of "I really want to work here someday, this is awesome!" filled his sensitive ears more than he would have liked. And maybe, just maybe, he was in a mood but could anyone truly blame him?
Ned was talking animatedly while MJ sketched Peter's expression of existential dread, when a fairly young, tall, caramel skinned woman approached the group. She had shoulder-length wavy black hair, hazel eyes framed with large glasses that perfectly matched her outfit. She was wearing a dark red, almost maroon, suit with a black button-up shirt underneath. She gently clapped her hands to get everyone's attention.
With a sweet smile, she said. "Hello, Midtown students! My name is Eliza, and I’ll be your tour guide today.” She made a short pause to make eye contact with everyone. “It’s also my first day giving tours on my own, so if at the end you could tell me how I did, that would be lovely. Now, follow me, please."
She led them away from the entrance and further into the first floor. She stopped when they reached a machine that resembled a metal detector. Pulling a clipboard from a box labeled 'Midtown' on a small table, she turned to face the group.
"Okay, before I start handing out your badges, I’ll remind you of the Stark Tower's policy rules. First, you're not allowed to use your phone unless told otherwise. For example, during this tour, you’re only allowed to take photos in the museum. If you take pictures elsewhere, FRIDAY, the building’s AI, will automatically erase them, as stated in the forms you previously signed. Second rule, we have a strict no-harassment policy. You get two warnings, if it continues, you'll be escorted off the premises. Number three, during the tour we’ll be entering workspaces. Please don’t disturb workers who are busy, there will be workers available to answer any questions you may have. And last but not least, you need to wear your badge at all times. If you lose it, you will also be escorted off the premises. Once the tour the badge deactivates and becomes invalid, you can keep it if you want but we insist you leave it on the front desk box labeled ‘tour badges’ for their recycle and use in future tours. Everything's clear?"
At the sound of various 'Yes' Eliza proceeded to take the small box from the table near the detector.
"When I call your name, please step forward," and quickly she started to call every single one of the students present, well, everyone except for Ned, MJ, and Peter. Each one took their badge out of their backpack and hung it in their belt loops, no one had noticed the different badges thanks to their personal excitement, but of course the only one to notice that they hadn't been called was Flash.
"Excuse me, miss, why didn’t you give those three a badge?" He asked, abruptly interrupting the conversation Betty and Mr. Harrington were having with Eliza.
"I already called every name on this list and gave every badge I had in the box, so I guess they already have their own, as our head of security is against any type of reprints." She smiled and looked at the trio, once she saw the badges they were carrying her eyes widened and her smile fluttered a little bit.
"There is no way those people have their own badges. I’m sure it is a mistake. Maybe as his parents didn't sign the paperwork, he is not even supposed to be on the field trip, and that's why he's not on the list."
"And where would that theory of yours leave us, Eugene?" MJ said. "We weren't called either."
"…" He frowned as he pressed his lips in frustration. If he was a cartoon he surely would have smoke coming out of his ears and clenched his fist.
"I thought so." MJ she rolled her eyes and looked at Eliza again, signing her to continue.
For a moment everyone was quiet, then Eliza smiled again and asked, ignoring what she thought was normal teenager banter.
"Before we start, does anyone have a question?" She looked around the whole group and pointed to the only raised hand. "Yes?"
"Why are our badges so different?" Abe pointed out looking at her badge then at Eliza's then at MJ and Ned's and lastly at Peter's.
"Well, there's different types of badges to make it easier to know who is doing what in here. There are 5 different categories: bronze, silver, gold, palladium, and platinum.
Bronze is for people who don't work in the building, such as you, and there are three levels. Level number one is for businessmen, international and national partners, and benefactors, as they only have access to the floor where meeting rooms are. Level number two is for tours, as they have access to the places the tour requires. And level number three is for the press.
Silver is for the PR, Finance, and HR departments. There are also three levels, level one is for the heads of department, level two is for employees, and level three is for interns.
Gold is for the R&D, Design, and Marketing departments. Palladium is for the biochem, and mechanics laboratories, the levels mean the same as the Silver ones.
Platinum badges are the most important ones, as they are meant for Tony Stark, Pepper Potts, and a few people of their trust, as well as the Avengers. These badges have only two levels, level number one is for those who have full access to every facility, and level number two is for Avengers and such.
Then cleaners, customer service, security, first floor employees, and tour guides,"
she grabbed her badge from her neck to allow the students to take a good look, "have special badges that allow access to their respective areas. These badges are white, with our name and picture and our occupation." She looked at MJ and Ned and said. "But I don't think I've ever seen those." She shrugged and looked at everyone again to see if there were more raised hands, there were not.
"Now you need to go through these detectors. They work the same as metal detectors, but they also activate your badge as it's your first time in the tower." She said as she stepped through it herself.
"Elizabeth 'Eliza' Jackson, Tour Guide. Welcome back, Eliza."
The students, except MJ, Ned and Peter, looked at the ceiling trying to figure out where the irish voice was coming from.
“That is FRIDAY, the building’s AI, she was created by Tony Stark himself and it’s in charge of a lot of functions of the building and the company, and even if you tried it she’ll not answer to you, she’s programmed so only few people of every department can speak to her. Anyways, it's your turn now. One at a time and no shoving, please."
Soon enough almost all the class had passed through the detector.
“Jason Lonello, bronze level 2. Welcome”
"Eugene Thompson, bronze level 2. Welcome."
If Peter didn’t know any better he would have thought FRI said Flash’s name a bit more dry than everybody else’s.
"Michelle 'MJ' Jones, repeating visitor. Welcome back, MJ. You have three messages from The Empress, would you like me to read them to you?"
“No thank you FRI, i’ll read them later.” She said in the nonchalant way only MJ could pull off.
"Edward 'Ned' Leeds, repeating visitor. Welcome back, Ned. You have a message from Dr.B, would you like me to read them?"
“It’s fine FRI, i’ll do the same as MJ.”
"Peter Parker, Platinum level 1. Welcome back, Peter. You are here earlier than expected. Should I alert Boss of your arrival?" Suddenly all eyes that were on his friends were on Peter. Shit. Fuck. He knew he had forgotten something but he didn't remember that he forgot to change his status. Okay, Peter, if you act normal no one is going to find it weird, right? Yes, do that.
"No thanks, FRI, I’m on a field trip." He tried to answer as nonchalantly as he could, sadly he didn’t pull it off as MJ had, he sounded as if he had one of those plastic penguins toys. And also being very, very aware of all the stares he was receiving he just wanted to disappear.
"Oh, I see. Enjoy your field trip then." She said, sounding sweeter than usual, with almost a motherly tone, that made him even more aware of the eyes that were on him.
"Thank you, FRI." He said lowering his head, walking quickly next to his friend, while one of said friends enjoyed his suffering. (It was MJ. She was drawing him. Again.)
Eliza cleared her throat, thank you Eliza we all said in unison.
"Well, our first stop is going to be the museum, follow me please." She quickly guided them through the second floor where the museum was. "You have an hour to explore and take pictures. In each one of the stands you have a little guide and in the Avengers expo you have some fun facts about them. Have fun and we'll meet here when the time comes."
All the students started to wander around, the trio had already been there numerous times so they went directly to the Avengers expo as it was their favorite part of the museum when they suddenly saw a brand new stand.
"Hey, so quick question, was that there before?" Ned turned around to face them and asked, pointing at his back. "I don't remember seeing that the last time we were here."
"Me neither." Said Peter and MJ at the same time, they hastily looked at each other while a faint blush crept up MJ's face and a very noticeable blush crept up Peter's, Ned looked at them a bit weirded out, but at the end just shrugged.
"So let's go see what it is about." Ned started to head to the shiny stand.
When they reached it out they finally could see it was actually a Spider-Man stand. There his first suit, the one he made out of pieces and scrapes, his first web shooters and a replica of his current suit were on display. In the background there were a lot of pictures of him swinging in the streets of New York, some photos of him helping citizens and a few of him in battle. At the left of the stand there was a little plaque that explained how he became Spider-man when a radioactive spider bit him, how he chose to use his powers to do good even when people hated him and about how he isn't an official Avengers just because even though he has been asked many times to be one he always said no.
"Yo man this is sick!" Ned said, looking at the stand wide-eyed as he grabbed Peter from his sides and started to shake him.
"Hey loser, why didn't you tell us you had a new stand?" MJ asked without looking at him, instead she was meticulously inspecting the stand.
Peter was in total shock, Tony hadn't told him he was going to do this, and from the look of it it had already been there for some time, so why hadn't he said anything?
If his eyes watered a bit he blamed it on the AC.
"Dude! What do you mean you're afraid of spiders?" Ned said while laughing.
"Well, it's a bit traumatic when a radioactive spider bites you and for the nexts few days you feel like you're dying but the all of the sudden you are sticking to every surface and your senses are fucked up." He said deadpanned. "Wait... where did you see that?" He looked to where Ned was looking and saw a small square that said 'spidey facts' there it read.
1. He is afraid of spiders.
2. He knows multiple languages.
3. He is a genius.
4. He is every Avenger's favorite superhero.
5. He loves to walk on the ceiling.
"I didn't know you were everyone's favorite superhero." MJ said, reading behind his shoulder.
"Neither did I." Peter said with his gaze locked in that small square that right now felt like the biggest thing he has ever seen. He was in a state of shock, that was until Flash decided it was a good idea to go where he was and ruin the moment.
"Hey, Penis!" he called, making sure Eliza wasn’t nearby to hear him. "How did you get that robot to say you had such high level access and act like it knew you all? Who did you bribe?"
"I didn’t pay anyone, Flash. Didn’t you say last week I was so poor I couldn’t even afford lunch? Make it make sense for once."
Blame it on Flash interrupting a very serious internal debate, or on the warm feeling still blooming in his chest after reading what his stand claimed, but for once, Peter couldn’t care less about Flash’s antics or how he saw him. Even if it was out of character for the persona he’d carefully built, the quiet, bullied teenager who never fought back.
"Oh oh, so he does speak!" Flash said, clapping his hands. With a smirk, he kept going. "And here I thought you’d gone mute, always needing your lame friends to speak for you."
"Fuck off, Eugene. Go find the attention you’re clearly lacking somewhere else and leave us alone," MJ replied, calm and unfazed as ever. Her voice steady, she didn’t even glance his way.
"Let’s go, guys. I want to see the other booths." She turned on her heel without waiting for a response, knowing her friends would follow.
—————————
Some time later, they returned to the entrance to regroup with the rest and made their way to the fourth floor, where the PR and HR departments were located. Peter didn’t usually hang around the lower levels. His and Tony’s labs, plus Pepper’s offices, were all higher up. Still, he recognized a few employees, who waved and nodded in his direction and murmured polite good mornings before going back to their work. Nobody thought much of it; they just assumed he was being greeted like the rest of the group.
Soon after the PR and HR lectures, they entered the eleventh floor, where the food court was located, ready for lunch.
"Okay, group, now’s the time to eat," Eliza announced. "As you can see on the map to my right, there are 20 different food vendors to choose from. We’ve got options for everyone. Vegan, vegetarian, gluten free, and such, for those with dietary restrictions. Mr. Stark generously gave each of you 20 dollars to spend. Just scan your badge to pay. If you go over that amount, you'll have to cover the extra cost yourself."
Once she confirmed everyone understood, she dismissed the students.
MJ walked off on her own toward her favorite restaurant in the compound. She said the sushi there was the best she’d ever tasted. Well, actually she’d called it “pretty decent”, which was basically the same thing coming from her.
Peter and Ned went straight to their go-to spot, Joe’s Pizza. Peter had begged Tony to let the owner open a small place in the food court. He loved that pizza.
After placing their orders, they were forced to sit on a bench-style table near the entrance since all the others were already taken by classmates or employees.
In just a few minutes, Peter had devoured his pizza. Normally, he’d have eaten more, but he didn’t want to freak anyone out with the amount of food he could consume, especially after the big breakfast he had just a few hours earlier on the bus.
He was chatting with MJ about the internship in Pepper's department that she had asked him to bring up last night, when he heard the sweetest voice in existence.
"Petey!" Morgan shouted as she ran toward him.
He stood up from his seat and hugged her tightly when she reached him, then picked her up and poked her in the side.
"What are you doing here, young lady? Aren’t you supposed to be in school?" he asked in what everyone called his “big brother voice.” (It wasn’t.)(It totally was.)
"I wasn’t feeling well this morning, so Daddy said I could stay home," she said with a wide smile, playing with a stray lock of hair that had fallen onto Peter’s forehead.
"Is that so?" He squinted at her. "And why aren’t you in bed if you’re sick?"
"I feel better now, silly!" she giggled. "And I wanted to see you, and then FRIDAY told me you were here."
"IS THAT MORGAN STARK?!" someone yelled across the food court, it even echoed a bit. Huh. Weird.
More shouts followed.
"WHY IS PARKER HOLDING HER?"
"OMG, SHE’S EVEN CUTER IN PERSON!"
Morgan buried her face in Peter’s neck, and he hugged her tighter. He knew that as he, she didn’t like people shouting, so he did his best to cover her littler ears and calm her down.
Eliza had started walking in their direction, but Mr. Harrington got there first.
"Mr. Parker! What do you think you’re doing?" he shouted, clearly panicking. Peter now looked like a deer caught in the headlights. "Let go of the child right now! What did I say about behaving? I didn’t expect this from you! Who am I lying to? I did expect this from you."
He was speaking so fast Peter didn't have the chance to explain himself to his teacher. When Eliza arrived, Peter saw salvation.
"Why don’t we all take a deep breath and relax, yeah?" she said calmly, her voice soothing, even if behind her eyes he could see a wave of panic. He made a mental note to send her a big gift basket after this.
"I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation for all of this, right?" she added, though her face now betrayed the hint of panic he saw in her eyes a bit before. And honestly? He couldn’t blame her.
He would’ve been panicking too if he saw the very young daughter of his eccentric boss curled up in a stranger's teenager's arms, especially one who had way too much access to everywhere on the compound yet never have been mentioned by anyone, and it was only your first day.
So yeah. Her (frankly peaceful) freak out was totally justified.
He looked at Mr. Harrington. Then at Eliza. Then repeated that motion a few more times.
He needed to say something that sounded credible, and fast.
Let's see. He could say
"Yeah, well, you see… she’s kind of like my little sister, but not really, even though everyone says we look alike… Her dad, the richest, smartest, and most important man on Earth, took me in, started treating me like his son, and began training me to take over SI when he retires. All that after finding out I’m Spider-Man and kind of a genius. So yeah."
But instead, he went with.
"Oh, I sometimes look after her when Mr. Stark asks me to." He shrugged as he spoke, trying to keep his tone steady instead of the high-pitched one he usually slipped into when lying.
And, to be fair, it wasn’t a total lie. Tony did ask Peter to babysit when he had plans with Pepper. So, half-truth.
"And as his intern, I can’t exactly say no." He added a light laugh, the cherry on top of his, not lie, but strategic omission.
That seemed to answer the question Eliza hadn’t dared ask out loud, and made his excuse all the more believable.
"So it’s actually true? Do you work here?" Mr. Harrington asked, wide eyed and genuinely surprised.
And somehow, that hurt him more than it should’ve. His favorite teacher hadn’t believed him.
Looking back, he shouldn’t have been so surprised. Mr. Harrington never defended him when Flash mocked his internship. And he just gave him those pitying looks whenever Peter spoke about his work at the company with MJ and Ned.
"There you are! You sneaky young girl!" said a woman’s voice he knew far too well.
The entire room fell silent the moment everyone realized that the woman that just entered the room was no other than Black freaking Widow. She was wearing casual clothes, a dark gray cotton v-neck that Peter was pretty sure belonged to someone else, blue jeans, and leather boots, which somehow made her presence even more surreal.
She also was so focused on finally finding Morgan that she didn’t noticed their surroundings, which honestly was a bit out of character for a trained-since-childhood assassin but you didn’t asked Peter.
"Hey, Pete! Didn’t know you were here." Oblivious to the now painfully awkward atmosphere, she ruffled Peter’s hair and gently took Morgan into her arms.
"Что ты здесь делаешь, маленький паучок?" she asked him as she tenderly tapped Morgan's nose with her finger. "Weren’t you supposed to be on a field trip today?" She locked eyes with him as if she was trying to decipher his soul but still unaware.
"Uhh… yeah, about that..." he mumbled, scratching his neck and looking around the room slowly.
Natasha quickly caught on and scanned the room.
"Почему ты не сказал нам, что экскурсия была здесь?" she asked with a more serious tone.
"Я не хотел вас беспокоить или волновать." he replied in the same language, because saying that in English, a language that they could all understand to a literal assassin, who happened to be an Avenger, sounded much, much weirder.
Not a dumb line of reasoning.
Right?
Well his classmates didn't think that way.
"Is Parker speaking fucking Russian with the Black Widow!?"
That comment seemed to wake Eliza from her shock, she shook her head, cleared her throat and raised her voice and then said.
"Students! if you have finished eating your lunch please follow me to the elevator as it's time for our next stop." She smiled then looked at Peter and quietly said. "Please join us as soon as possible. You two come with me please" And just like that he turned on her heels and made her way to the elevator while MJ and Ned followed her.
He looked the woman who had grown on him so much that he now considered his aunt in the eyes and promised, “We’ll talk about it later, yes?” She gave him a small smile and nodded, she knew him well enough to know that he was really struggling so she didn’t press any further, even if she really wanted to.
"Bye aunt Nat, bye Morg" He said, once he realized no one was looking at him, to busy gossiping with each other about him, he kissed both of their cheeks. "See you later!" He smiled at them and made his way to his group.
Said group looked at him as he had grown a second head when he got to where they were, he also couldn’t blame them, and he actually internally thanked them for not asking him any questions.
"Now that we're all here, our next stop will be one of the R&D departments on the forty fifth floor." Eliza’s jovial voice said.
Now that is a floor where Peter has been on multiple times. Was that a good or a bad thing, he had to wait and see how that goes.
—————————
He officially was on the verge of insanity.
As soon as they entered the floor, they were met with chaos.
Coffee cups littered the place, small, uncontrolled fires burned in almost every corner, and employees ran from one side to another carrying things they absolutely should not have been carrying while running. Peter couldn’t help but worry about someone injuring themselves, or worse. He knew that kind of pain on a serious basis and, oh boy, it was not a pleasant one.
He swallowed the taught urge to scold the workers and ask them why they were being so reckless. Instead, he took a deep breath and waited until one of the employees took notice of them.
“Hello! Excuse me! We’re here for the tour!” Eliza tried to get the attention of one of the racing interns. A young ginger man who looked like he was running purely on caffeine and nothing else. If Peter remembered correctly, his name was Neal, and this was his second week working with the company.
“I’m so sorry, but I can’t right now!” he squeaked as he rushed past them and straight toward one of the many fires, extinguisher in hand, putting it out rather quickly.
The whole group—except Peter—looked completely taken aback by the chaotic environment in which everyone there seemed to thrive.
A man slowly approached them.
Peter recognized him. He had talked to him a handful of times—when Tony sent him to retrieve a prototype he wanted to work on himself or to grab materials he’d already used up. He wasn’t very tall, but he carried himself as if he were a giant. His green eyes matched the shirt under his lab coat, and the gray in his hair didn’t clash with his chocolate brown curls, it complemented them. For an engineer who spent all his time researching, he had an impressive build, something many of Peter’s classmates quickly started whispering about.
“You must be Midtown! It’s a great pleasure. My name is Gerald, and I’m the head of the Research and Development Department,” he said, gesturing to the whole floor behind him.
“Here, we research the current market as well as our customers’ needs, and we develop new and improved products and services, or refine existing ones to better suit those needs. We do a lot of testing and experimenting, as you can see.”
He pointed to several workstations, some functioning perfectly, others actively on fire or experiencing small explosions.
“Today, you’re going to do an exercise,” he continued, smiling brightly, clearly enjoying himself. “You’re going to develop something to cover a need or want that you, or someone you know, has. That way, you’ll get a little taste of what we do here every day.”
“You can work solo, in pairs, trios, or larger groups. The important thing is that you have fun doing it and that everyone’s voice is heard throughout the project.”
He clapped his hands together once they reached a section of the floor that was mostly empty, save for a few worktables and one large table covered in bits and pieces.
“You can use everything that’s here. If you need anything else, which I don’t think you will, as I made sure this area has more than enough, you just have to tell me what you want. If I can give it to you, I will, and if I can’t, we’ll look through other options that might work. Each worktable has pencils, paper, and a Stark Industries holographic tablet. Use whichever you like and feel most comfortable with.”
“You’ll have an hour and a half, and then you’ll present your creations to us. If it’s innovative enough, it might even reach Mr. Stark and be produced.”
That part was probably just to hype up the tour, but dreams were dreams.
“And the time starts… now!” And with that and the sound of a digital clock ticking, everyone got to work.
MJ, Ned, and Peter obviously grouped together. They headed to one of the workbenches—the farthest one from Flash—and began brainstorming. Once they reached an agreement, MJ started sketching the design, Ned began coding, and Peter gathered the materials they needed and started working on a prototype.
After just an hour, their creation was finished.
They tested it a couple of times, and when they were completely sure it worked, they high-fived and celebrated a little.
At the end of the day, they were still just nerds.
That left them with fifteen minutes to spare. In the meantime, Ned went to the bathroom, and Peter launched into a rant about how great Star Wars was after MJ said she didn’t get why both boys were so obsessed with it.
She did get it—she liked it a lot herself—but she also really liked listening to Peter talk about the things he loved, even if she would never say that out loud.
Meanwhile, Flash had obviously grouped up with his goons. And while they were actually trying to make a decent project, Flash couldn’t stop staring at Peter’s workbench. Why was the poor orphan boy so unconditionally loved when he didn’t have the money, the looks, or the brains Flash had? It was simply and completely unfair. That was always the thought that crossed his mind whenever Peter was involved. And now, seeing how Penis and his friends managed to have finished a great project that worked like clockwork within the time limit, rage coursed through his veins, becoming harder and harder to ignore.
“Okay, students! Time’s up!” Gerald said, clapping his hands together. “We’ll start with the bench on the right side of the room and continue clockwise.”
He walked over to the first project, Betty and Abe’s, with a big, bright smile plastered on his face.
“Well, tell us what you made…”
—————————
By the time they reached the trio’s project, they had already seen a device that helped people with arthritis open and close objects and massage their joints (Betty and Abe’s), a dancing robot that could open beers and had a lighter integrated into one of its hands, which almost exploded (Flash and co.’s), and a solar powered scooter (Jason, Kenneth, and Vihaan’s).
“And what does our last group have for us?” Gerald asked, looking at the project on the workbench and rubbing his hands together.
“So, for our project, we had elderly people in mind, specifically those who have trouble taking their medication at the right time,” MJ began, a slight smile on her face. It was the kind of smile that only appeared when she talked about things that genuinely excited her.
“That’s why we built an automatic medication dispenser for seniors that always gives the correct dose and has built-in alarms,” Ned continued, matching her enthusiasm.
“It’s designed to connect to the person’s medical records,” Peter explained, “so it’s always up to date with their needs, like dosage and scheduled times.”
“We also made sure it’s programmed to contact the nearest pharmacy when the medication is running low,” Ned added.
“We were concerned about potential privacy issues,” MJ went on, “so we made sure all personal information is fully encrypted against outside sources. I also drafted some provisional legal paperwork to cover any hacking attempts—though I doubt anyone would actually manage it.”
She finished by nodding at Ned and Peter. Both boys smiled; they knew that acknowledgment meant a lot coming from her.
“And for the design,” Peter said, “we made sure it’s stylish, compact, discreet, and easy to carry. You can charge it via cable or renewable energy.”
They demonstrated how it worked, using small nuts as mock pills. The device functioned perfectly, and they were all clearly proud of it.
“This is amazing!” Gerald said, genuinely in awe as he inspected it more closely. He asked Ned for the tablet to review the code.
“I’ve done a lot of tours, but your project is by far one of the most thoughtful and useful I’ve seen students create.” He made sure to lower his voice slightly, not wanting the others to feel bad. But the moment his eyes landed on Peter, a flicker of recognition crossed his face.
“Hey! I know you… you’re Peter, right?” he said, still smiling as he clapped a hand on Peter’s shoulder. This time, he didn’t bother keeping his voice down.
For what had to be the ninth time that week, Peter wanted the earth to swallow him. Whole.
“Yeah… that’s me,” he muttered, lowering his head as he felt everyone’s eyes on him.
“How do you know Peter, sir?” Betty asked, bravely voicing what everyone else was thinking.
“Oh! He comes here a lot,” Gerald replied easily. “Always asking for parts or borrowing prototypes to work on them on the higher levels.”
He draped an arm around Peter’s shoulders in a friendly manner and chuckled. “I can’t believe I didn’t recognize him sooner. In my defense, I never thought I’d see him on a High School Junior's class tour.”
Before anyone could ask more questions, Eliza burst into the room.
“Group! Hurry!” she said with a huge smile. “You’re about to experience something that has never happened before!” And then she giggled. She let out an honest to god giggle, before turning on her heels and heading straight for the elevator.
The room erupted into whispered confusion.
“What the hell was that about?”
“Did she just giggle?”
“Students!” Eliza called from the elevator, snapping them back to attention.
Everyone hurried over, offering quick goodbyes and thank-yous as they went.
“Can we know where we’re going, miss?” Abe asked as soon as the doors closed and Eliza pressed the button for floor 79.
‘Wait…’ Peter thought. ‘Isn’t that…’
Before he could finish the thought, Eliza chirped, “We’re going to the Avengers’ practice floor!”
Fuck his life.