September 22, 2019, 12:26 p.m.
Peter ran past Anna, who was sitting at the reception desk, greeting her on the move, then dashed outside and very quickly climbed into the car parked by the tower.
Happy gave him a displeased look, which, in Happy’s language, was an ordinary greeting with the polite addition of asking why exactly his charge was late.
Peter had already studied him well enough to know that he was not nearly as strict and angry as he wanted to seem.
In general, this was literally an everyday situation.
Peter himself was still shocked by what had become routine for him over the past few months.
Waking up every day in Stark Tower, having breakfast with Tony and Pepper, going to school in a car with a personal driver, coming home, hanging around the tower, watching movies, doing homework or working in the labs, going on patrol as Spider-Man, then returning to where it had all started and spending the whole evening casually chatting with the AI or Tony.
Tell anyone and they would never believe it.
And after he had met the Avengers a week ago, everything had become much more fun.
What sixteen-year-old schoolkid could brag that he was allowed to train with absolutely-real-like-actually-real superheroes?
Peter still remembered how, a couple of days ago, Black Widow herself — oh my God — had asked him to braid something for her!
Ned and MJ had gone into the deepest shock at school when they found out Peter had Captain America’s actual phone number in his contacts.
True, they sometimes teased him about the video Tony had sent them after all, but otherwise they were in just as much ecstasy as Peter himself.
They did not try to invite themselves over, but it was obvious they really wanted to.
And since Peter was a very good friend, he had already taken care of everything.
It had, of course, been a little strange to ask for something like that, but Tony, Steve, Natasha, and a couple of other Avengers had literally lit up at the idea of meeting Peter’s friends and spending an entire evening with them — an evening that would clearly become the best one of their lives.
Peter knew Steve had already researched what modern teenagers liked to do and had bought a huge LEGO Millennium Falcon set.
When Peter had seen the seven-and-a-half-thousand-piece set, he himself had almost fallen into a happy coma, so imagining his friends’ reaction to that news was not hard.
Everything had been thought through down to the last detail.
All that remained was to invite MJ and Ned to the Tower, and that should not be a problem.
Peter had asked their parents’ permission in advance and knew they definitely were not busy today.
The only thing that could ruin his plans was a sudden threat in the city, but Sam — God bless him — and Vision had agreed to cover his patrol, for which he was extremely grateful.
The school day was moving exactly according to plan.
Peter was only waiting for the lunch break so he could tell his friends the news.
The only unpleasant thing was Flash, who continued bothering him, but Peter had even sort of come to terms with that by now.
Besides, Tony’s offhand promise that the second the little darlings made it to the field trip, everyone in Peter’s class would simply die of shock gave him very good odds of a coming Apocalypse.
Ned was chewing on a roll when Peter started talking about the invitation to a sleepover.
Naturally, he did not mention that it would not be happening at Aunt May’s place, but his friend, even without knowing that, was completely thrilled.
Not without the help of two words capable of making him want to collapse into a happy coma, of course.
Well, the Millennium Falcon had been their dream for a long time.
MJ did not even have to be persuaded this time.
She immediately agreed and buried herself in her sketchbook again.
Peter was glad she always carried it with her.
Once, she had mentioned that she would like to get the Avengers’ autographs under their portraits in that notebook.
Well, apparently, even that would not be all that hard to arrange.
Both of them wrote to their parents, who, already being in league with Peter, immediately allowed them to go to his place after school.
The remaining two classes passed almost instantly.
Ned asked something every second, like, “But the Millennium Falcon costs a ton of money.
Did Stark buy it for you?” Or, “Could it happen that Tony shows up at your place exactly while we’re there?” And also — the highlight of the program, because Peter had such a hard time holding back his laughter that he almost spilled reagents on himself — “Is that scary butler going to drive us to your house?” When classes ended, Michelle collected signatures from the cheerleading girls for a petition, and Ned memorized that he should under no circumstances call Happy a “butler” if he wanted to remain alive.
Then they finally left the school and climbed into the parked Audi under the disapproving gaze of he-who-must-not-be-called-a-butler.
Peter was proud of his plan.
He had managed to distract Ned and MJ with the Millennium Falcon so well that they did not notice at all that they were driving much longer than usual and not toward May’s apartment at all.
Realization hit only when Happy forcibly shoved all of them out of the car right in front of the glittering — in every sense — entrance to Stark Tower.
For a couple of seconds, Ned looked back and forth in awe between Peter and the tower, then announced that his friend was the most “wonderfully-amazingly-marvelous bastard on the entire planet.” MJ behaved much more calmly, but Peter could see that delight had frozen in her eyes too.
They had to be practically pushed inside by force.
Anna greeted them with a smile, trying not to laugh at the sight of their awestruck faces.
And this was only the lobby.
What would happen to them when F.R.I.D.A.Y.
spoke or Captain America stepped out of the elevator?
“Peter, have you ever heard of the pass system?” Anna kept count of how often she reminded him that he needed to wear a badge.
This was probably already the twenty-sixth reminder.
“And what, you didn’t order any for your friends either?
Kid, you are killing me!
Who do you think the security system was made for?” “The security system?
Are you kidding?” Peter tucked his head into his shoulders with a slightly guilty look, but Anna knew he did not regret anything for even a second.
“I hacked your security system when I was fourteen.
And he did too, by the way.” Ned gave a slightly embarrassed wave, sending Anna into a fit of laughter.
With exaggerated sternness, she shook her head and sent them toward the elevator.
What was even the point of these warnings when even the artificial intelligence adored Peter?
“Peter!
Welcome back!” F.R.I.D.A.Y.’s cheerful voice rang out from the ceiling, making Ned and MJ jump and stare wide-eyed in surprise.
“Should I inform Boss of your return?” “Yeah, tell him I brought my friends,” Peter said, watching their changing expressions from the corner of his eye.
“Gorgeous, you’ll let us upstairs without passes, right?” “Of course!” Peter stuck his tongue out at Anna.
“Your friends are Ned Leeds and Michelle Jones.
Should I register them in the database as regular visitors with trusted guest access?” “Like Mr.
Rhodey?” Peter asked.
F.R.I.D.A.Y.
confirmed it, which made Ned and MJ even more delighted.
“Yeah, do that.
Thanks, Gorgeous.” Peter watched with a smile as Ned and MJ stepped into the elevator, barely holding back awed sighs with every step.
They had not even recovered enough to start pestering Peter with a hundred questions.
Not even the obvious one, like why he called an AI “Gorgeous” when she did not even have a physical form.
Ned, eyes bulging, watched the elevator rise to the eighty-sixth floor.
Actually, even the elevator in this building was unusual.
No buttons — Tony had not liked them, though Peter suspected he had some kind of button-related phobia, but that was only a theory — just a small screen showing which floor they were on and a scanner for those who had badges.
Well, besides, F.R.I.D.A.Y.
knew perfectly well where to take people and whom to take there.
Peter was delighted by the awe with which his friends looked around, examining the room.
They kept looking around until they noticed that there were not three people in the room.
Peter counted the seconds until someone noticed Natasha sprawled out on the couch.
She was probably watching something on her tablet, but now she had already been distracted and was watching the newcomers closely, winking at Peter with a smile.
Ned noticed her first and let out a small startled cry.
Peter tried with all his might not to laugh, fully aware that the first time he had come here, he had probably looked exactly the same.
But to be honest, Tony had laughed in the most tactless way possible every time Peter got surprised.
As in, he would not shut up at all and practically rolled on the floor.
Around that very moment, according to Pepper, he had lost his entire intimidating reputation.
Nat smiled in a friendly way, getting up from the couch.
She did not seem the least bit embarrassed under two examining-shocked-awestruck gazes.
Of course not.
Almost everyone looked at her that way.
“Hi there.” Nat adored hugging people when meeting them and saying hello.
It was probably her broad Russian soul’s fault.
Peter hoped Ned would remember to breathe when he was hugged by Black freaking Widow herself.
“I assume this is Ned and MJ, right?
Nice to meet you.
Should I call Steve?
Don’t tell him, but I’m already tired of watching him run around excitedly with that LEGO set.
Honestly, Peter, I swear, if you and Tony show him Star Wars, I’ll have to shoot myself.” “What’s wrong with that?” Peter held back laughter, catching out of the corner of his ear the question Ned whispered, apparently addressing either God or F.R.I.D.A.Y.
“Yes, Ned.
Captain America really wants to build the Millennium Falcon with us.
What’s more, he bought it himself.” “What’s wrong with that?” Natasha looked mockingly disappointed.
“Nerd-Steve?
Are you trying to kill me?” Laughing softly, she left the room, obviously to return with Steve, leaving Peter alone with his friends.
For a couple of seconds, they blinked, digesting everything that had happened to them over the past half hour, and then they literally buried their friend in questions.
“We’re sleeping over here?
The Avengers are going to build LEGO with us?
Is this how you spend every day?
Are we sure this isn’t a dream?” Peter nodded at every question, which was already making his neck hurt.
“Tell me, did a Russian spy really just hug us?” “Dude, I’m so shocked I doubt I can be surprised any more than this,” Ned declared one second before Tony stepped out of the elevator, covered from head to toe in fire extinguisher foam.
For a couple of seconds, he looked at the kids in his living room, then sighed sadly, anticipating the explosion of laughter poor Peter could no longer hold back.
Because if it had previously seemed that Ned could not possibly make his eyes any wider than when he learned his friend’s alter ego, that assumption had just been disproven in practice.
“Silence, Parker,” Tony whispered threateningly.
“I swear, I’ll take DUM-E apart and burn him.” “Did you set something on fire again?” Peter whispered through laughter.
Tony pulled a clump of foam off himself and threw it at the kid.
“No, which is even more outrageous,” Tony snapped.
“He sprayed foam all over my smoking coffee.
Hello, Peter’s friends.
Please rate the damage this event has caused to my reputation on a scale from one cute puppy to ten.” “Thirty-six puppies, but only because I’ve been destroying your reputation in their eyes for two years already.” Tony hissed at him and went off to the bathroom, leaving a very long trail of foam behind him.
Ned watched Tony go in delight, then returned to examining the room.
A few minutes without any Avengers present allowed both of them to relax a little, get used to the setting, and start thinking coherently.
MJ settled on the couch, fishing a notebook out of the depths of her backpack.
Poor Avengers.
Steve’s arrival with a huge LEGO box, Natasha, Thor, and Pepper made an even more indelible impression on Peter’s friends.
MJ recovered almost instantly, immediately sliding their portraits over for signatures.
Now it was the Avengers’ turn to gasp in admiration as they examined their portraits.
Steve even declared that Tony had to print his so he could hang it in his room.
All evening, Peter kept catching Pepper looking at him.
She sat in an armchair, drank tea, and pretended to read, acting as if she were not happy at all that her son had finally brought friends home.
MJ and Ned seemed to be on cloud nine.
Seriously, when Captain America scolds you for not following the instructions for assembling a toy, you are hardly capable of feeling ashamed.
Especially if he is also scolding Black Widow, who is smiling slyly right along with you.
Ned fell into the deepest shock about thirteen times that evening.
Peter had asked F.R.I.D.A.Y.
in advance to record all the most interesting moments of their hangout so he could later edit a video gift for his friends called “A Trip to the Avengers.” He suspected it would be very funny to show them their own faces a couple of months later.
Returning to Ned’s shock, here were some of the most impressive moments: Tony returned clean and changed, jokingly asking Ned if he knew what Tony’s lawyers could do to him for hacking Peter’s suit.
Ned nearly had to be revived.
Bruce dropped by for waffles and immediately complained that the intern Stark had sent to his lab was extremely annoying.
They had to explain that mild irritation would not make the Hulk appear.
Steve enthusiastically announced that he liked modern toys.
Ned, in general, reacted to him with an awestruck coma.
Natasha started a Disney cartoon marathon.
Ned was shocked that almost every Avenger had a favorite Disney princess.
By the way, he shared his love for Merida with Clint, which became another shock.
Peter made a bet that he could dodge anything, so Tony narrowed his eyes cunningly and called Clint.
Ned went wild with excitement as soon as he realized that the best archer in the world could not hit his best friend.
MJ convinced Thor to take her to the rest of the Avengers so each of them could leave her an autograph, and then returned to the living room extremely happy, made friends with Pepper, braided the God of Thunder’s hair, and scared Tony half to death.
And when she acknowledged the fact that she and Peter were sort of dating, Tony and Pepper exchanged disbelieving looks, and Tony announced that there were now four women he was afraid of, and all of them were his son’s girlfriends.
By the way, when Tony called Peter his son, not only Ned was shocked, but everyone present as well — except Tony, Pepper, Peter, and, oddly enough, Michelle.
Of course, compared to everything that had already happened, the fact that Peter had his own room in the tower — actually, several rooms, including a bathroom, a closet, an office, and a mini-lab, but they decided to tactfully keep quiet about that, because even the Avengers only had bedrooms — should not have impressed anyone.
But Ned was surprised by that too.
And when Tony said he could give Ned and MJ rooms of their own too, the boy almost burst into tears.
The next morning, while having breakfast with Pepper and Tony, Ned suddenly announced that it had been the best day of his life.
Peter did not tell him that they had already decided to take a trip around the world during the next school break, with mandatory visits to Wakanda and Asgard — Thor had insisted — savoring in advance the even more surprised expressions his friends would have.
As he walked them to Happy, who had grudgingly agreed to kindly drive them home, Peter felt like the coolest friend in the world.
Ned, of course, immediately confirmed it, and MJ did not even call him a loser when saying goodbye.
Definitely the best day ever.
And the Millennium Falcon had turned out really cool too.