Making A Wish For You.

Tony thought his schedule was clear, but apparently Friday had other plans for him. Friday notified him early in the morning, too early (in his opinion), that his talents as a public speaker was needed in a near-by STEM school.

Pepper must’ve cleared this as Tony couldn’t remember agreeing to it. He reluctantly got changed, as Pepper nudged his side to get him out of bed. He wore a suit, a waistcoat and his dress pants. Go big or go home, after all.

He hadn’t even made a speech, but he was a genius and didn’t need to do such things. He stepped into the backseat, nodded to his driver and let himself relax as they drove to the school.

He looked down at his phone, to the text message Pepper sent him. ‘Midtown Tech’ Where had he heard that before? He shrugged the thought off, letting his head fall back onto the back of his seat.

Tony stepped out of the car as they arrived, looking forward to the school in front of him. He didn’t have much experience in high school, leaving to go to MIT at the age of 15. He waved to his driver, walking down the path towards the front doors.

He arrived at the reception, grinning at the lady on the front desk. He put a hand on the desk as the lady looked up, her eyes widening when she noticed who was looking back.

“Names Tony Stark, if you didn’t know. I’ve been told that I have a speech here. Would you like to tell me where I’m heading?”

“Uh, if you’d just like to, um, sign in here. I’ll just grab a visitors badge for you,” The woman said, her voice stuttering.

“Thanks,” Tony replied, glancing down to where the woman’s name tag was on the desk. “Pam.”

She placed the visitors badge on top of the table, allowing Tony to pick it up. He placed the lanyard over his neck. As Tony signed in, he overheard her calling for the principal to come and greet him.

Tony waved at the lovely lady who was sat at the front desk, walking behind the principal of the school. The man was dull and was clearly trying to hard to impress the billionaire. Placing his hands in his pockets, Tony made small conversation as he was led towards the hall.

Peter was sat in his usual spot for assembly, excited to see who this surprise speaker was. Their school hadn’t stopped talking about it for a whole week. Rumours spread that it was going to be a huge let down; Peter personally thought it was going to be a tribute band led by their music teacher (that man never stopped talking about his failed music career, he thought it was a good guess).

When Tony Stark walked in, the rest of the school erupted in cheers. Peter, however, gulped. Everything had been fine between them until, suddenly, Tony texted that he was no longer going to be his persona intern. Peter wasn’t too hurt, they only did one session (subconsciously he was very hurt, he just didn’t want to show that).

Tony’s eyes fell onto the averaged sized group of kids. His head hurt from the sound of them screaming. Taking a look in the sea (river would be a better term) of kids, a familiar pair of eyes stared back.

As if. Tony couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Sat there was Peter Parker. This was the third time he ran into the kid. It was getting to the point of ‘weird’ now. The back of his mind told him that maybe he was the result of his wish. That couldn’t be, however, as Peter was definitely not his kid (which he wished for) and magic was not real. If it was real, that meant Strange won. In Tony’s eyes, that was impossible.

Tony did his speech, as best as he could. He talked about his arc reactor tech. Pepper had packed him some posters of his latest work, so he used that to bounce off. As it was over, he smiled softly at the applause from the kids. Their smiles were suddenly worth waking up that early for.

As one group of kids finally left him alone, after countless autographs, they spread around to look closely at the posters he brought with him. Tony noticed the kid’s group of friends in the corner of his eye. He decided to go check up on Peter. The least he could do was make sure he was okay.

Peter was wearing one of the nerdiest t-shirts Tony had ever seen and, somehow, that just made Tony even more protective. The kid’s eyes focused on him, his hands gripping onto his backpack; he looked like he had something to say, but was too scared to say it.

“Peter,” Tony greeted him, “It’s nice to see you, bud. I mean, I didn’t know this was your school. Pepper sorted the whole thing out. I must introduce you two, you know.”

Tony never usually rambled. His words were short and understandable to the person who had the joy of listening, but for some reason he couldn’t help it.

All but two of the kid’s friends looked between the two of them with shocked eyes. Maybe the kid didn’t tell anyone about his internship? Tony would have. If he was in Peter’s shoes, he’d broadcast every small achievement in his life. He definitely wouldn’t hide his superpowers. But that’s what made Peter Parker special.

“Hi Mr Stark,” Peter finally replied, letting his hand relax of his bag.

“I see that you’ve met your tour guide for today,” The head teacher said, walking towards the two of them before they could more.

“I didn’t know it was you,” Peter whispered.

Tony looked between them, smiling. Out of all the kids possible to take him around Midtown, it had to be Peter. Somehow, this kid was everywhere Tony was since their first meeting. A feeling in his stomach told him that it was a sign he should listen to. But he decided against that. Instead, he followed the kid down the hallway as all the other’s drifted into their classrooms.

“Should’ve known you went to a special stem school,” Tony said, the tap of his boots hitting the floor.

“I love it here, Mr Stark. Almost as much as I love interning with you.”

“Yeah about that-,”

Peter should’ve known that Tony felt guilty. Tony’s text message to him was abrupt. Leaving Tony’s office one afternoon as his personal intern, the only kid that got that title, was the best moment of his life.

As he sat in his bedroom that night, a text message popped up on his screen. Peter blinked a few times, scared that he had accidentally done something to hurt his mentor. Going down to the intern lab after spending time with Tony was embarrassing at first (he did like his co-workers, however. Just- being with Tony was a whole new experience) and he spent the whole session cramped over his desk.

“No, no, it’s okay,” Peter interrupted. Tony looked to him with a concerned face, not quite believing Peter’s apologises. “Really, Mr Stark. I understand. I, uh, I- I mean, I- don’t know what happened and all but, uh, if there’s something wrong and you want to be alone - I completely get it. So, if that’s the case- I’ll be right here if you ever need anyone back up with you. Only if you’d like that, Mr Stark. If you want me to take a step back then- uh, I will.”

Tony stopped in the hallway for a second, pretending to look at the art work on the wall. The first one he looked at was one with the name ‘Peter Parker’ etched onto the bottom. Damn, the kid was everywhere he looked. He looked back at Peter who was staring up at him with those, stupid, adorable wide-eyes. Tony’s heart could’ve stopped. The kid was just too pure for the world, wasn’t he? Tony resisted the urge to reach out and ruffle the small curls on-top of his head.

“Well, kiddo,” Tony sighed, a small breath escaping from his mouth. “You’re-, uh- I promise you that whenever I get my shi- stuff together then I’ll give you the suit- if that’s why you want to come back up. I’ve also heard that everyone loves you down in the labs so, uh, I have to stop being so damn selfish, don’t I? Sharing is caring, Petey-Pie. You’ll learn about that in the future.”

“It’s not about the suit,” Peter said, his hands in his jacket. He looked awkward as ever. He didn’t want to make Tony feel weird, he just wanted to reiterate that his mentor was worth his worries. “I just wanted to make sure that you were okay, really. I promise, Mr Stark.”

Tony chuckled lightly. Weirdly enough, he felt like telling this kid all of his problems. He immediately decided not to do that. He couldn’t push that onto the kid’s shoulders.

“Kid, I’m fine. Really, really, fine. In fact, I’m so fine that I even take time out of my precious day to come and speak to little, evil, gremlins.” He looked down at Peter for a second. “Except you, of course.” He wasn’t so sure why he added that part.

Peter just smiled at him, resuming the tour. He wasn’t so sure that pushing Tony to tell the truth was a good choice. Midtown Tech had wonderful hallways, after all. That’s all that he had planned for today, so that’s what he was going to do. Peter Parker was the best damn tour guide in these halls and he was going to prove it.

Tony left the school, with a group of kid’s watching him leave (he wasn’t going to think about how weird that was). Stepping into his driver’s car, he watched Peter speaking to his friend (Ted, was it?) and a pang of guilt spread through his body immediately. He turned his face towards the front of the car, forgetting about the whole day.

Pepper was sat in her office, working hard to run the company, when her husband opened the door. He walked in and sat down on the chair in front of her desk, a smile on his lips. She knew he’d have a good day at the school, hanging out with the kid always did that to him. It was a very, very, handsome look on him.

“So, did you happen to know?” Tony asked, taking one of her pens from her pot, playing with it between his fingers.

“Know what?” Pepper said, pretending not to know what Tony was asking. “I’ve just been here all day, Tony. I’ve been working, I didn’t even know where you’ve been.”

“Hmmm, sure,” Tony chuckled. “Ok, Pep, I’ll pretend that you don’t know about this whole situation. Fun fact, Peter Parker happened to be a student at Midtown Tech. Isn’t that crazy?”

Pepper faked a gasp. “No. Way.” Tony nodded, laughing. “I had no idea, Tony. I was totally unaware that the kid that makes you happy was a student at a school I booked you to speak at. What a coincidence.”

Later that evening, after a lovely conversation with his wife, Tony sat down in his lab with a glass of water by his side. He thought about his day. Peter Parker really was a special kid and it wasn’t fair for Tony to push him away like this.

He thought back to his own childhood for a second. Howard Stark was a cold man, an ever colder father. Nothing Tony did was ever good enough for him. As a child, people called him a child prodigy. His own father didn’t see it like that. In fact, he never saw Tony at all. Howard was constantly in meetings and never, ever, took time out of his day to check on him. Tony would even harm himself sometimes, accidentally, whilst working with the equipment people let out. Whenever he cried about an injury, his father was less than helpful. ‘Stark Men don’t cry’ had been instilled in his head since he could even remember.

With a shake of his head, Tony tried to rid his memories away. He never liked thinking, or talking, about his parents. Instead, he asked FRIDAY to show the kid’s application on a hologram in front of him.

“Friday, baby girl, Pete should still be in school right now. Right?”

“Yes, sir. Peter Parker’s school schedule finishes at 4.00pm. It is currently 2.34pm.”

“Oh, okay,” Tony replied, tapping his pen against the table. “I have his phone number, don’t I?”

“Yes, indeed. You do, sir. Would you like me to send a message to him?”

Tony thought about for a second, taking a deep breath. “Yeah, actually. Ask him if he’d like to come back up to my lab tomorrow. Tell him I am in desperate need for an assistant.”

“Message sent.”

“Thanks, baby girl.”

Hours later, Peter stepped out of his school grounds. With Ned by his side, he grabbed his phone and read the message from Tony. He almost dropped the phone as he did.

“Of course!” He texted back, followed by another long strain of messages. “I’m an amazing assistant, Mr Stark.” “I’m so excited.” “Is Happy picking me up?” “He doesn’t have to.” “I’d be more than happy to get there by myself.”

After his 6th message was sent, the typing for his 7th was quickly interrupted by a message from Tony.

“I thought my phone was going to blow up. Cool with the messages, kiddo. You can send ones that are longer then 10 words.”

“Yeah, sorry about that. See you tomorrow Mr Stark!”

“See you tomorrow, Pete.”

Exactly twenty four hours later, Peter was sat in the back of Happy Hogan’s car. Peter tried to make conversation. Try, being the key word. If Peter didn’t know any better, he would’ve thought that the bodyguard wasn’t speaking for a day for charity. But, no. That was just Happy.

The trip to the tower wasn’t too long, but it did allow the kid to collect his thoughts. His mind has been blurry for the whole day, because he hadn’t had much to eat or drink all day. Plus, someone got a few bad hits on his stomach during last’s nights patrol. Really, he was just in a lot of pain.

The car stopped in the familiar spot. It was the second time Happy brought him into the internship with Tony. Once, before Tony told him he didn’t want him in the lab and again now that he was allowed back.. Peter waved goodbye to the man, getting a gruff sigh in response.

He said hello to the receptionist, grabbing a lollypop from the pot on her desk, and jumped into one of the lifts alongside other staff members. The rest of the people stood tall alongside him, but Peter was the only one left as the lift kept going up into Tony’s personal floors.

Tony was not pacing. Well, he was... But it wasn’t because he was nervous. He was far from nervous. Hanging out with a child wasn’t something that stressed him out. He was pacing, because... He didn’t have a suitable reason, really. He had been waiting for Peter to arrive since the clock turned 4.00. Happy said traffic was slow. Looking down at his watch,he realised it had been 40 minutes. He sat down on his sofa, sighing. As soon as he did, FRIDAY let him know the kid was on his way up.

“My favourite young adult!” Tony exclaimed, Peter’s face popping through the lifts doors. Peter rushed up to him with that excited puppy look and Tony’s turned to smush. “Good to see you, buddy.”

“Good to see you too, Mr Stark!” Peter said, popping his bag down on the sofa. “I’ve been so excited for today, lets go!” He smiled wide, taking Tony’s hand to pull him down to the lab.

Tony let himself follow Peter, watching the kid’s excitement as he ran down the stairs towards the lab. Peter’s face pushed all his bad thoughts away from him.

The Spiderman suit stood in the middle of the room, almost finished. Peter ran up to it, letting go of Tony’s hand as he did (Tony didn’t miss the warmth, he really didn’t). He stared up at the suit and gasped at the sight of it.

“Mr Stark... It’s so cool! Can I try it on!?”

“It’s not got all it’s features yet, but sure. Go on, buddy.”

When Peter emerged in the suit, Tony was sat at his desk. He didn’t even hear the kid walk in. As he leant back in his chair, his eyesight focused in on the ceiling. He almost fell out of his chair when he noticed the kid sat there on the ceiling. He stuck to the ceiling with one hand, waving the other.

“Fucking hell!” Tony shouted, putting a hand over his heart. “Peter- what- oh my god- you scared the hell out of me.”

Peter laughed, louder than Tony had ever heard. He couldn’t be mad for too long as even Peter’s laughter was music to his ears. He watched the kid jump down. He rushed to him, making sure he was okay. To mask his concern, Tony ruffled his hair awkwardly (again, he wasn’t sure why he kept doing that, or thinking about it, to the poor kid).

“This is seriously awesome, Mr Stark. I feel like a proper superhero now!”

“You always were, kiddo.”

After two hours of adjusting the kid’s suit, after getting him to finally change out of it, they moved onto working on some robots. Peter had Tony’s lab coat and goggles on, looking far too precious as it was so oversized on him. He was working over on a machine and Tony had to keep glancing over at him to make sure he was doing okay.

Tony turned his head for one second, to focus on his coding, when he heard a high pitch squeal from Peter’s workshop. He turned in an instant to see a small pool of red on the kid’s hand. He rushed over, almost tripping up over his chair.

“Pete? You okay?”

Peter immediately put his hand behind his back, out of Tony’s sight. “Yep! I’m so okay!”

“No. No you’re not. Give me your hand,” Tony said, putting his own out.

Peter looked at him with a pout. But, he quickly obliged. He placed his injured hand into Tony’s, wincing when Tony’s fingers traced over the wound.

“You need to he careful.”

“I was being careful!” Peter frowned, “I-I was just excited to finish the robot and I-I got too hasty and-,”

Tony just smiled at him, shaking his head. “Oh, buddy.” He sighed, letting Peter’s hand go to grab a first aid kit. “Come here, let me bandage you up.”

“Mr Stark- I don’t need a bandage. I have superpowers, remember,” He told him, pointing to the superhero suit that was on the table.

“Come and get bandaged or I will tell DUM-E that you hate him and he’s a very sensitive robot, Peter,” Tony said, glaring at the kid as he took the roll of bandage out of the kit (along with all the cleaning items he needed).

“That’s just cruel,” Peter laughed, rolling over to Peter’s desk on his own chair. He let Tony grab his hand, flinching when Tony accidentally touched the actual wound. “I-It hurts, Mr Stark.”

“I’m sorry, buddy. I’ll clean it up for you. It’ll all be okay,” Tony smiled, taking a alcoholic wipe from a packet. He cleaned the fresh blood and gently wiped the wound. “That’s it, you’re doing a good job.”

Peter swore that nobody had ever wrapped a bandage around his hand so tight. If Tony tightened it just a tiny bit more, his blood circulation would’ve been cut off. However, it made him feel happy. Tony obviously cared. He even signed his initials on top (Peter didn’t care to tell him that people only did that on casts).

“I think it’s time for some food before I ship you home,” Tony said, putting the first aid kit away. “Come on, buddy. Lab’s shut until Friday.”

“Really? Can’t we stay for just a little bit?”

“Alas, my protege, the robin to my batman... I’d love to spend more time down here, but I’d rather not be yelled at by my scary wife for keeping you down here. I’m a responsible adult, Mr Parker.” Tony wiggled his finger in Peter’s face, telling him to come upstairs.

“Hmmm. I don’t think I believe that, Mr Stark,” Peter giggled. “But fine, let’s go.”

They put all of their used equipment away, walking up to the penthouse. The conversation was all about science and their minds were so far away that neither of them noticed the group of people standing in Tony’s living room.

“Peter!” Tony called into the kitchen, walking back into the living room to grab the kid’s bag, “Don’t forget to eat those vegetables. Veggies are good for a growing body!”

Tony grabbed the backpack. He looked up, blinked a few times, and finally realised that his team was standing there. The duo had walked straight past them all.

“Oh, hello there,” Tony smiled. “Pete! Would you cone here a sec?”

“Coming, Mr Stark! Just washing the plates!”

“Kid, I’ve got a dishwasher. Just leave the plates in the sink,” Tony shouted back, enjoying the confused looks on his teammates faces.

Peter rushed in moments later, a smile still wide on his face (as always). When the kid noticed who was in the room, that smile just got bigger. Somehow.

“Oh my god! Hi guys!” Peter grinned, “It’s awesome to meet you all!”

“Peter, is it?” Steve smiled, the first person to speak out of the new guests. “It’s lovely to meet you, son.”

“Wow. Mr Captain America, Steve Rogers, sir. It’s truly an honour,” He said, walking towards him. He shook the man’s hand, looking back to Tony as he did. “Mr Stark- It’s Captain America.”

“That it is, buddy.” Tony smiled.

Tony sat on the sofa as Peter introduced himself to the Avengers one by one. He could tell that each and every member liked the kid as much as he did as soon as they stopped speaking to him. Tony started to call it ‘the Peter Parker effect’. Nobody could ever hate the kid, it was just impossible.

The time went by quickly and Happy was getting annoyed waiting for the teenager. Tony told the kid to wrap up his conversations, letting him know that it was time to go.

Peter rushed into the lift, his backpack over his back. The doors began to shut, but Peter quickly ran back into the penthouse. He ran straight to Tony, wrapping his arms around the man’s waist. “Thanks, Mr Stark,” He whispered.

Their hug only last for a few seconds. Peter let go, smiled at him, and than ran back to the lift. The lift door’s closed and Tony’s face flushed red.

That warmth feeling of pride and love a parent feels when their child sits in their arms was something Tony could never imagine. For a few seconds, his mind let him believe that Peter had always been his. He imagined himself as a father, acting as someone that Peter could always come to when he needed help. That would be... amazing. Well, the thought of it was a feeling that blew every other feeling out of the water. He couldn’t even think about how great it would feel if it was true. But, it wasn’t. Peter had his Aunt, he didn’t need another adult pushing into his personal business. He’d stay as a mentor and that’s all it would ever be.

Coming back down to reality, Tony realised the whole team was looking down at him. He quickly looked away from the lift doors, where Peter had just been, and tried to move the conversation on like nothing happened.

“Did you just let your little intern hug you? Stark’s gone soft!” Sam grinned.

“Give him a break,” Natasha said, stern. Tony smiled at her, thinking somebody was on his side (for once). A smile came onto her face. “He’s probably tired looking after the little one. Congratulations Tony.”

As much as the Avengers mocked him, and they did, he was far too happy from hanging out with Peter to care...