Chapter 1
Mr. Harrington clapped for the attention of the Midtown School for Science and Technology Decathlon Team. The teenagers groaned, pausing in packing up after a long practice.
“Now, now, don’t get cranky. I have great news!” Mr. Harrington said, beaming at the team. “Do you guys remember that there was a secret special prize for those who won the nationals?”
The teenagers looked at each other before shouting excitedly at Mr. Harrington.
“Do we get a party?”
“Are we going somewhere special?”
“Is it money?”
“Calm down, calm down!” Mr. Harrington said trying to quieten the students, failing epically.
“Dude, what do you think it is?” Ned leaned over and whispered to Peter.
“Ugh, I don’t care, I just wanna go home. Dad’s expecting me in the workshop; said we can work on some upgrades today.” Peter groaned, putting his head on the table.
It has been five months since the whole Vulture fiasco and May finding out about Peter’s…nightly adventures. May was hysterical at first, furious at both Tony and Peter for doing something so stupid in her opinion. But once Peter explained to her why he wanted to do this, why he had to do this, she understood. However, she didn’t feel that Peter was safe enough in their small but comfortable apartment, so she arranged with Tony to have Peter stay over at his most of the time. Peter still visited and stayed over on the weekends, but mainly stayed at Stark Tower.
Despite being hesitant at first, Tony slowly warmed up to Peter, the spiderling worming his way into his heart (yes, he has a heart, no matter what the media and the rogues would like to think) and taking up a big chunk of space. It started with working in the lab, tinkering together, and gradually grew to movie nights, game nights and so much more. Tony even brought Peter down to the R&D labs, or the minion labs as he like to call them, and soon enough everyone knew about Stark’s high school intern that seems more like his son, and did he actually just call Stark his dad before running away oh he definitely just did. No one at the company know what Peter’s name was, but they knew that he was smart, he likes to help out, and he was Stark’s son. They started to call him nicknames like Stark Jr. or Mini Stark, but after an intern overheard Friday calling Peter Mini Boss, that stuck. Tony and Peter’s relationship blossomed into a beautiful father and son bond, and Peter has even begun to call Tony ‘Dad’ without running away like he did when he accidentally called him that before.
“That, is so cool! What kind of upgrades are you thinking? Are you upgrading Karen’s code? Adding web combos? Oh, oh, are you gonna start trying out instant kill?” Ned began to whisper excitedly into Peter’s ear.
“What? Nooohoho, I’m not using instant kill unless ABSOLUTELY necessary Ned. And Dad didn’t tell me, just said he had some ideas——“ Peter was cut off by a sharp cough from MJ.
Even though MJ still called him loser, they became good friends over the past couple of months. They sat together during lunch, they talked about anything and everything. Except for certain nightly activities of course, but Peter has an inkling of suspicion that MJ had already figured out who he was.
“Shut up and listen to what Mr. Harrington has to say,” MJ said nonchalantly, still nose deep into her book.
“Uhem, yes, thank you Michelle, but if we could try to refrain from saying shut up in the future,” Mr. Harrington said. MJ simply shrugged and carried on reading.
“Alright! As the prize for winning the nationals, we have been given the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a tour at Stark Industries! No other school as ever gone on a tour there, since they only offer them to potential business partners. Consider this a great opportunity! Here are the forms, they are due this Friday. Please get them in on time, Stark Industries need them to make your security badges in time for the tour next Monday.” Mr. Harrington said, and the class erupted into chaos.
Most of the students, even during their cheering, stole glances at Peter, who is currently banging his head repeatedly on the table.
“Why me? Why this? Why is everything so horrible? Why?” Peter muttered each time he banged his head. MJ quietly slid her book under his head, and Peter just pressed his face into the cover, still muttering.
“DUDE! This is so cool! Do you think we’ll meet Mr. Stark? Do you think we’ll get to see the labs? Oh my god, do you think we’ll get to see YOUR lab?” Ned whisper-yelled, jumping in his seat.
“Hopefully not, probably, not in a million years,” Peter mumbled, turning his head to face his best friend. Unfortunately, there was someone else in that direction that heard this exchange.
“Ha, like Penis Parker has ever met Tony Stark, let alone have an internship at Stark Industries. You ready to be exposed like the stupid liar that you are Penis? You can still save yourself the embarrassment if you fess up now Penis!” Flash yelled annoying, catching the attention of everyone in the room.
“You seem to have an unnatural obsession with Peter’s genitalia, or the male genitalia in general. Don’t you have one yourself to fuss over? Oh wait, it’s so small that you probably have a hard time finding it, my bad. And stop yelling into our ears, Eugene, your stupid is probably contagious, and we are the Decathlon Team after all. We can’t all be stupid like you.” MJ said calmly, taking back her book now that Peter’s no longer banging his head on it.
Everyone was silent. There was absolutely no sound in the room aside from MJ opening her book and flipping to where she was.
Flash sputtered, face beet red, trying to come up with a comeback but can’t seem to let out a single word.
The rest of the students erupted into laughter, even Mr. Harrington gave a slight chuckle, knowing how Flash can be just horrible sometimes.
Mr. Harrington schooled his expression, and said to MJ, “Michelle, try to not insult your fellow teammates in the future please,” though it was clear that even he was amused by the exchange.
“Yeah Flash, we’re getting tired of you going on and on about Peter’s internship. So what if it’s fake, I haven’t heard him go around telling everyone about it. That’s all on you, man. And we’ll find out next week anyways so can’t you just keep it to yourself for a couple of days?” Abe said.
All of the decathlon team, hell all of their years was getting tired of Flash going on and on about Peter’s internship, and his…penis. Sure, no one (aside from MJ and Ned) actually believed that was true, but it wasn’t like Peter was actively in their face trying to get them to believe him, and it was technically Flash who spread the news. To be honest, none of them really cared. It would be cool if it was real, but who cares if it wasn’t? It was Peter, he was still their teammate, they knew who he was.
Peter sent a grateful smile towards Abe, and Abe grinned back.
“Alright, you’re dismissed. Remember to take a form and get it signed before Friday!” Mr. Harrington called. “Peter, can you stay back for a moment?” He said.
“Uh…okay,” Peter said, sinking back down into his seat.
“I’ll wait for you by the lockers,” Ned said, MJ inclining her head in his directions as well, though focused in her notebook now, furiously sketching Flash’s face from before.
After everyone left, Mr. Harrington came up to Peter. “I know that Flash has been going on and on about this internship thing, and I just wanted to confirm with you. Do you actually have an internship at Stark Industries? It’s okay if you don’t, I just wanted some clarification.”
“Oh I do Mr. Harrington I promise I have all the documents confirming it if you want to see them——“ Peter rushed out.
“Hey hey it’s alright, no need to panic, I just wanted to know what was really going on. That’s all, Peter, I’ll see you tomorrow.” Mr. Harrington said with a smile.
“Okay, bye Mr. Harrington!” Peter said, waving as he left the classroom.
“Dude what did he want?” Ned asked as Peter reached his locker.
“He just wanted to know if the internship was real or not,” Peter said.
“Did he believe you?” Ned asked.
“Surprisingly he did! I thought no one believed me here.” Peter said with a sad smile.
“Hey, I believe you! MJ too! But seriously OMFG we are going to SI next week and I’m so excited and do you think we’ll get to meet Mr. Stark? Or Ms. Potts? Or Dr. Banner? Can we go see your lab? Can I go see your lab? OMG OMG this is really happening!” Ned exclaimed.
“Ugh, why did you have to remind me! This will be the end of me I swear.” Peter groaned, hunching in on himself as they made their way out.
“Come on man, what’s the worst that could happen?” Ned said with a nudge to Peter’s shoulder.
“Dad would come and embarrass me and the other interns will embarrass me and the lab directors will embarrass me and even the security will embarrass and Shuri’s coming on Monday so she’ll embarrass me. It. Will. Be. The. End. Of. Me.” Peter said.
“Dude, what I wouldn’t give to have Tony Stark AND the princess of Wakanda embarrass me!” Ned exclaimed animatedly.
“Ugh, can I not go? I’ve seen it all anyways!” Peter turned to his best friends, giving him the best puppy eyes (spidey eyes?) he could muster at the moment.
“Nope, not looking. And Peter you have to! Who will I geek out with over the science if you weren’t there? And we could finally show Flash that you aren’t lying! Please Peter, come on!” Ned said, shielding his eyes from looking at Peter’s face.
Peter’s expression drooped, “Fine, only for you Ned.” He grumbled.
Just then his phone vibrated at a frequency that normal humans wouldn’t even notice, specially designed by Tony for him since sometimes the notification sound was too loud for Peter’s senses.
DAD ❤️: Hey you coming? Happy’s been waiting for ten minutes and you know how he gets.
(Yes there is a heart, Peter is a SOFT babie and likes his dad very much okay)
Spiderbaby: Yeah yeah practice ran late, I’ll be there soon!
DAD ❤️: Alright, I’ll see you soon bud.
Spiderbaby: 😆
“Happy’s getting impatient, I better get going. See you tomorrow Ned!” Peter shouted back as he ran towards Happy’s car.
“You too Peter!” Ned shouted back.
“Hey,” Peter said quietly as he slid into the workshop after dropping off his bag in his room.
“Hey bud, you have a good day?” Tony asked without turning around from what he was working on.
“Yeah, you could say that,” Peter muttered, slowly making his way towards his dad.
“Wait, this is weird. You’re being weird. Where’s your weird teenage energy?” Tony turns around, looking Peter up and down, “Are you okay? Are you hurt? Did someone say something?” He said as he made his way over towards where Peter was shuffling his feet.
“No no no Dad I’m fine.” Peter’s head shot up, shaking his head promising that he’s fine.
“Come on bud, I know something’s up. What happened?” Tony asked, still concerned.
“thedecathlonteamhasafieldtripherenextmondaycuzwewonthenationals.” Peter muttered out all in one breath.
“Kid, you know I can’t understand you like that. Take a breath and come again.” Tony said, amused.
“Ugh,” Peter groaned, walking over to the bench and taking a seat on a stool next to it, with Tony following behind, plopping down next to him. “So you know how the decathlon team won the nationals, right.”
“Sure do bud,” Tony smiled with a grin like the proud father he is. “But that’s a good thing. Why are you upset about that?”
“I’m not upset about winning…I’m just not very happy with what came with it.” Petter muttered, leaning into Tony’s side. “There was a secret prize for winning, and Mr. Harrington told us what it is today.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah…It’s a tour next Monday. To here.” Peter said then promptly buried his face into his father’s neck.
Tony almost choked, then started laughing so hard that he almost fell over.
“Oh that is just wonderful! How come I didn’t know about a tour? I thought we didn’t do schools? FRIDAY?” Tony mused.
“Ms. Potts told you last week, Boss. You were working on the Iron Spider.” FRIDAY stated calmly. You could hear a slight amusement in her tone.
“Huh, guess it flew over my head,” Tony said, “Aren’t you looking forward to the tour Petey? There’s so much I can show to the class!”
“Dad nooooo! You’ll just embarrass me in front of my whole team! I already get enough from Flash——“ Peter covered his mouth. He’d told Tony that Flash didn’t bother him anymore.
“Flash? I thought you said that he didn’t bother you anymore? Is that still going on?” Tony frowned.
“Um…maybe? It’s nothing though, just saying that I’m lying about my internship. No one believes me, and it’s not really believable anyway. Why would a high school kid have an internship at the most prestigious company in the world amirite.” Peter said with a nervous chuckle.
Tony turned to Peter, completely serious. “Pete, you are one of the, if not the most intelligent person I’ve ever met. And I’ve met Bruce Banner. And me. Don’t doubt whether you deserve this or not. I would gladly give you a full-time job as Lab Director any day.”
Peter’s eye widened, and there was a suspicious glimmer that quickly passed as he blinked at his dad. He paused for a moment, then buried himself deeper into Tony’s arms.
“Thanks, Dad.”
“No problem bud,” Tony chuckled, threading his fingers through Peter’s curls, “Now about this field trip…you say it was a prize for your win, hm?”
“No! Please don’t do anything! It’s already embarrassing enough that they’re gonna meet the other interns, not you too!” Peter whined into Tony’s shirt.
“Of course I’m gonna embarrass you, who do you take me as?” Tony faked a scoff.
“Daaaaaaad, if you do this I’m telling Mom to make you go to board meetings all day!” Peter threatened.
“Fine, fine, I won’t do anything——“
“I can see your fingers crossed behind your back Dad!” Peter reached around to try and grab Tony’s hand. Tony twisted away, and the two started play wrestling, which eventually evolved into a tickle battle that had the two ending up sprawled out on the floor on top of each other, out of breath.
“Uh, Dr. Stark, not that I’m not flattered that you are willing to meet with us, but, uh, what exactly is the purpose of this meeting?” Emily, a college intern said.
There were about 30 people in the room, ranging from interns to scientists to lab directors to managers to security. Everyone in the tower knew about Peter, but these were the people that Peter would interact with on a more constant basis. Shuri is also there, on video call from Wakanda.
Tony cleared his throat and caught the attention of everyone in the room.
“Alright, minions plus Shuri, there’s a tour coming in next Monday. We are going to prepare for it.” He said simply.
“Why would a tour of your tower concern me? Is your age finally catching up with you, Stark?” Shuri said with a smirk. Tony glared at her but said nothing.
“A tour? Aren’t the tour guides responsible for that?” A scientist asked, confused.
“Yes, under normal circumstances. But this tour is different. You guys all know about the kid, yes?” Tony asked.
“Mini Boss? Of course! We would love to get him down here more often Dr. Stark, don’t hog him to yourself so much.” One of the lab directors replied.
“Oh please, your technology is much too simple for the boy. He is better suited in my lab, Stark, you should let him come to Wakanda more often.” Shuri said.
“Hey he’s my kid and I do what I want. Anyways, his decathlon team won the nationals and are given a tour of this place as a prize. We, are going to do whatever we can to embarrass him. Good? Good.” Tony said. Everyone in the room smiled with a mischievous glint in their eyes, rubbing their hands together and began to plan everything for the tour.