Changes
It was safe to say it failed, Penelope thought, coughing. Some Spider-Bot this was, not being able to take a step before going up in fire and smoke. How Tony Stark could invent things on his first try she had no idea; not that she expected this to take less than a few tries; her webbing had been far more complex and difficult to create than this small little robot could ever wish to be.
Then again, she had her suspicions that the spider bite had helped her along with creating the web formula.
“You good, Penny?”
Penelope swept her hand through the smoke, clearing it. “Yeah!” she yelled back to Tony (“Don’t call me Mr. Stark, it makes me feel old”), grabbing a hammer and smashing her creation to even more pieces, so as to not arouse any suspicious as to what exactly she was making. No one knew her secret. Not Aunt May. Not Ned. Not Tony Stark. Not even J.A.R.V.I.S. knew, for she had strategically placed her workstation (she might have squealed when Mr. Stark had given her one) in a comfortable, cozy little corner of Tony’s workshop, away from prying cameras.
Tony peaked his head in and blinked. “You’re not trying to replicate one of my suits again, are you?”
Penelope swung her head around and pouted. “No.”
Tony’s lips twitched as he entered the room. “Good. Pepper would kill me if I let you fly yourself into the sun or something.”
“Pepper doesn’t even know I exist,” Penelope pointed out.
Tony grimaced. “Yes, well, I was technically supposed to get an intern through applications and paperwork and all that —” he waved his hand impatiently “— legal stuff.”
“So... I’m here illegally?”
“Just because it’s not legal doesn’t mean it’s illegal.” He pointed a finger at her. “Important life lesson there.”
Penelope made a disbelieving noise.
Tony shrugged. “Pepper’ll deal with it when she gets back. Besides, what’s so wrong with just having you over to tinker and whatnot?”
Penelope gave a shrug too, as airy and offhand as his, but with a mocking edge to it. “Preeetty sure the media and internet won’t be as lighthearted as you. If you haven’t noticed, old man, you’re spending time alone with a teenage girl.”
Tony frowned at her. “Old man?”
“That's all you got from that?”
Tony dismissed her with a wave of his hand. “Post about it on your Twitter or something, then.” He turned and walked back out, not waiting for a response.
Penelope watched him go, thinking. In the week that she had accepted Tony’s offer, she hadn’t once thought what would happen if the world found out she was his intern; she had been too busy freaking out about it all. Her few hundred followers on Instagram and Twitter would probably explode into the hundreds of thousands.
Or millions (jesusjesusjesus).
She pulled out her phone. She had encrypted practically everything she could to make sure not even the likes of Tony Stark would be able to get into it; this was made somewhat easier when she was able to use the exact same technology the man himself used, seeing as he had practically given it to her.
Penelope logged onto her personal accounts (she had reserved accounts for Spider-Man, all named ItsyBitsySpidey) and went to edit her bios.
Penelope Parker, 14 was changed to Penelope Parker, 14, Stark Intern.
Real exciting.
Confirming the edit to her Instagram and Twitter accounts, she switched to her Spider-Man accounts. While her personal accounts had about two hundred followers, totaled together, her Spider-Man accounts each had thousands. Her Spidey Instagram had twenty-two thousand. It was a bit silly for her to grin so much about this fact, but it did excite her.
“Suuuper heeero,” she murmured, looking through the comments on her most recent Spider-Man posts.
Unfortunately, they were Instagram comments and she wasn’t really sure if reading them was worth it in the end. There was lots of love and lots of hate, plenty of support and plenty of “Let the police do their job!” and “You wannabe hero!” type of comments.
Penelope didn’t know how Tony did it. The amount of negative attention he received was truly staggering — though, she supposed, he had plenty of time to get used to it.
Would she have to?
It was only a matter of time before it was confirmed she, Penelope May Parker, was the first and only intern of Tony Stark — the Tony Stark — the Iron Man!— andshe was the intern of Tony Starkand Tony Stark wanted her as his intern and she was now his intern because he wanted her to be his intern so she was his intern and oh my god —
She squealed — jumped out of her chair — was out of the room in a flash — and sprinted around the large living room of the Avengers Tower, resisting the almost-instinctual urge to hop on the ceiling or otherwise high spot.
“I’m Tony Stark’s intern — I’m Tony Stark’s intern — I’m Tony Stark’s intern.”
She repeated this again and again and she jumped around in joy.
Tony sat on one of the couches, sipping coffee and reading something on his phone. It was a testament to how often she had done this that he didn’t even look up anymore. Though, Penelope’s enhanced vision caught his lips involuntarily twitching.
“You should join the track team or something,” he said when she was all done and had leapt onto a couch. “You’d be a star.”
Penelope’s blush never made itself quite clear due to her sudden fear washing away any blood rushing to her cheeks. She really had to watch how fast she ran around and how much she did so. She had once easily caught up to a car going forty miles per hour, and it wouldn’t do to have Tony catch her jumping all over the place at inhuman speeds.
“Sorry,” she said. “It just kind of builds up, you know? One minute, we’re talking — then I realize we’re talking — and — and —”
“Uh huh,” said Tony, back to reading whatever it was he was reading. “Did you update your thingy on the thingies to say you’re an intern now?”
“Yeah!” Penelope said. “Don’t think anyone will believe it, really, but —”
“Yeah, well, they will now,” Tony said, looking up at her. “I just followed your Twitter account. And I follow like four people. Congratulations, big shot, you’re famous.”
And with that, he got up and moved to the kitchen, which was really a part of the enormous living room.
Penelope stared at the spot he had sat in for a long moment before finally pulling out her phone. It had been set on silent. But now, as she unlocked it and looked through her notifications, she saw what an absolutely life-changing decision this was.
And oh god, Aunt May and her apartment —
“No worries,” said Tony, as though he had read her mind, “I’ll make sure you and May are safe from paparazzi or — uh —”
“Assassins,” Penelope whispered, her eyes going wide.
“Uh, no,” said Tony, frowning, “totally not what I was going to say.”
She turned her wide-eyed gaze to Tony. “You killed us.”
Tony blinked. “What? No, no I didn’t! I already have it all figured out! I talked with May about it, actually — and she’s okay with it! She’s agreed to move to a penthouse I bought you two.” Penelope, whose wide eyes had been merely a joke before, now was really shocked. “Yeah, she had that face too. Wouldn’t accept at first, something about not taking money or charity — anyway I used you against her, said you could get in danger if she didn’t accept it.” Tony shrugged. “Didn’t really have a choice after that.”
Penelope stared.
Tony frowned. “That sounds bad.”
She sat down on the couch heavily, staring out into the city. “Mr. Stark...”
“Tony!”
“Tony,” Penelope corrected, “you... you... you bought us a penthouse?” Her voice became high-pitched at the end.
“It’s nice,” Tony said, grimacing. “Really. And it’s already bought, so you can’t take it back now, unless you want me to waste millions of dollars —”
“Millions of dollars?!”
Tony’s grimace deepened. “Wow, I’m astronomically bad at this.” He sighed. “Look, it’s not me just trying to spoil you — well, partly — but I do want you safe. You really think it’s a smart idea to stay at your current apartment? Not that it’s bad, of course, but I have enemies and the penthouse will be guarded, secured, you won’t have to worry about your Aunt May; she’ll be closer to her work, you’ll be closer to the Tower — which, by the way, is something I’ve been thinking about.”
Penelope eyed him warily. “What is it?”
“You wanted a suit, right?” he said. “An Iron Man suit?”
Penelope’s mouth moved wordlessly.
“I mean, there’d be no weapons on it, of course — it would be used purely for flying. It’s not built yet, actually, and I won’t be building it for you.” Tony sat down on the couch next to Penelope, who was frozen in shock. “I figure we could do it together, a team building exercise or whatever — I dunno, the Cap said something about that being good for two people bonding; plus, you know, it would be good for you to know how it works and how to fix it.”
Penelope stayed silent, and her phone continued to vibrate with notifications.
Tony continued: “I know we’ve known each other for like a week, but this is a good thing. It is!” he claimed, seeing her skeptical look. “Do you have any idea how many people have rivaled my intelligence? There aren’t many, and those few don’t ever really swing by...” He positively reeked of arrogance as he talked, but Penelope could’ve sworn she saw a hint of something like longing in his eyes. Was Tony Stark — the Tony Stark — seriously lonely?
“I... okay,” said Penelope. “If Aunt May is really okay with it...”
“She is,” said Tony. “Her pride is hurt, but she knows it’s best for you.”