September 22, 2019, 4:34 p.m.
Peter was barely listening to the monotonous droning of his history teacher, counting down the minutes until the saving bell.
He wanted so badly to go home already, crawl into bed, and sleep off the exhausting patrol that had unexpectedly dragged on all night, along with six whole classes that had left his head splitting.
He stared blankly into his notebook, dreaming about climbing into his little bed under the blanket, when he suddenly felt Ned jab him in the side.
He immediately snapped his head up and saw Mr.
Harrington entering the classroom.
Peter, who had been unable to focus on anything up until then, barely suppressed a shocked cry when he heard where exactly their field trip had been arranged.
Stark Industries.
In two days.
Catastrophe.
When Flash heard “Stark Industries,” he threw Peter a mocking look, and Parker could practically hear him silently mouthing, “The end of your internship lies, Penis.” Peter tensely took the permission slip that had to be signed by a parent or guardian and, when the bell rang, left the classroom, avoiding any conversation with Flash.
Ned trudged beside him, obviously not understanding why his friend was upset.
This was a wonderful chance to prove to everyone that he really was Stark’s personal intern.
As if sensing what he was thinking, Peter leaned against the lockers and gave Ned a tired, worried look.
“Ned, whatever you’re thinking, no.” Peter quickly shushed him, not giving his friend even a second to object.
“I don’t have an internship with Stark.
I live there, remember?
And I don’t want anyone finding out Tony literally adopted me, okay?
And I’m sure he’ll show up there and embarrass me somehow!” “Embarrass you?” Ned opened his mouth indignantly, gathering his thoughts so he could be even more indignant.
“Dude!
When someone like Tony Stark embarrasses you, that means you’ve reached the maximum level of coolness!” Peter rolled his eyes, waved him off, and reluctantly dragged himself toward the doors, realizing he would have to sleep at May’s tonight so she could sign the permission slip — not in his enormous bed, which Tony seemed to have dragged in from Rome.
No, Peter loved staying with his aunt, but sleeping off an exhausting patrol was much more pleasant at the Tower.
While Happy, who had picked him up from school, grumbled that Peter should not change the travel plan at the last minute just so May’s signature, rather than Stark’s or Pepper’s, would look nice on his permission slip, Pete was arranging the details of the field trip with Tony.
They decided that tomorrow after school he would go to the Tower and arrange with the teachers to join the trip there.
At first Peter was against it, but when Tony mockingly reminded him about the extra two hours of sleep, the kid agreed without a second thought.
All that remained was to call Pepper and beg her to tie Tony up and not let him appear during their field trip.
Well, and apologize for moving their dinner tonight to tomorrow.
Peter smiled weakly at his own thoughts, said goodbye to Happy, and went home.
May had not come back yet, so Pete, ignoring his need for food, quickly wrote a note, attached the permission slip to it, and dropped dead into bed, sinking into long-awaited sleep.
But even in his sleep, worried thoughts about the upcoming field trip continued to haunt him.
The only thing that comforted him was that, whatever happened, no one at school would dare accuse him of lying anymore.
In the morning, he found May sleeping off her night shift at the hospital, and the permission slip, along with a note about him arriving at the Tower on his own, filled out and attached to the refrigerator.
Whatever anyone said, Peter knew his aunt was one of the coolest people on Earth, and he knew Tony and Pepper.
Pete hurriedly swallowed his breakfast, mentally noting that he really should have eaten something before going to bed yesterday.
Happy’s car was already waiting under the window, and Peter felt unspeakably grateful, because if not for him, he would have had to walk to school, and then he would definitely have been late or underslept.
The school day went normally by the standards of a sixteen-year-old superhero whose adoptive father was Iron Man.
Mr.
Harrington did not ask why Peter did not want to ride with the rest of the class, obviously thinking he either did not enjoy Flash’s company or was avoiding the field trip that way, not wanting his deception to be exposed.
Classes flew by unnoticed, and Ned’s chatter and the argument with MJ about the trip were rather amusing.
Peter even agreed with their arguments a couple of times, starting to warm to the idea that a field trip to Stark Industries was not so bad after all.
Even Flash limited himself to only a couple of biting comments, obviously saving his jabs for tomorrow.
Happy was silent on the way home, lost in thoughts on his own , so Peter had time to think and recover after school, preparing himself for the fun that was about to begin.
There was almost always complete chaos in the Tower.
After dropping Parker off at the entrance, Happy drove on, probably to pick Pepper up from some scientific conference.
She seemed to have mentioned it last weekend while trying to wake Tony’s conscience and make him go there himself.
She had not succeeded.
Peter greeted the secretary at the reception desk in a friendly way, once again apologizing because he had forgotten his pass.
Somewhere.
Anna only chuckled, telling him for the tenth time that he was just like Tony and that no one could mistake him for anyone else anymore.
Peter understood perfectly well that he did not need a pass at all, because F.R.I.D.A.Y.
had long ago become his best friend and now always recognized him and let him through, but he kept apologizing anyway.
That was just the kind of person he was.
“Hi, Peter!” a cheerful voice rang out from the ceiling.
“Should I tell Boss you’re here?” “Hi, Gorgeous.” Peter liked calling her that, and he was always waiting for at least someone to ask why.
“Yeah, go ahead.” “Understood!” F.R.I.D.A.Y.
answered happily.
In general, it felt as if she showed emotions only with him — emotions that, in theory, she was not supposed to have.
“Can I do anything for you?” “Turn the kettle on, please, and heat up some food.” Peter loved talking to F.R.I.D.A.Y.
Tony even got jealous sometimes because she was much more eager to fulfill the kid’s requests.
“Thanks, sweetheart.
You’re the best.” Anna laughed, listening to Peter’s chatter with the AI.
Parker casually shrugged — as if to say, what can I do?
— stuck his tongue out at her, and entered the elevator, trying to quickly figure out what he should do first: eat, or find Tony and make him eat with him.
Of course, there was always the possibility that he would find Tony and get stuck with him in the lab until evening, forgetting both the tea F.R.I.D.A.Y.
had thoughtfully prepared and the need to consume food.
Peter was still amazed by how freely he felt when he was here, in the Tower.
It was cozy here.
Here, he could do whatever he wanted.
Tony was here.
Peter was not sure at what exact point ordinary internships and reports had grown into cozy hangouts with the Avengers, or when ninety-three floors had become something he could confidently call home.
At first Peter had even been afraid to admit it to himself, because you could never be sure that all of it would not disappear tomorrow.
And then his relationship with Tony had become something more than just an internship.
And it had felt so right that Peter had not even been surprised when he found out about the adoption.
And then, one evening, the realization had suddenly hit Peter that the person who had been his idol, his role model, and his personal superhero was the same person he called Dad.
Pete still remembered how one morning he had simply woken up in his bed and understood it.
F.R.I.D.A.Y.
claimed he had cried then, but Peter stubbornly denied it.
Tony did not even bat an eye when Peter appeared in the doorway of the lab, loaded to the top with food.
No one was allowed to bring food into the lab, but when Peter admitted that he felt uncomfortable eating alone, that rule was immediately reconsidered.
The little spider left everything on the table and came closer to Tony, who was lying under the table.
He was looking up through the glass surface, examining damaged parts of his repulsors, and quietly swearing.
Probably waiting for inspiration.
“Turning it over isn’t an option?” Peter remarked jokingly, noticing Tony roll his eyes.
“I needed to look at them from a different angle,” Tony parried, crawling out from under the table and heading toward the food Peter had brought.
“Where’s the coffee?” “That’s a figure of speech.” Peter nodded toward the pile of food, and Tony fished an enormous cup of coffee out from behind it, nodding approvingly.
“You’re terrible.
Are you going to embarrass me tomorrow?” “Of course,” Tony drawled, smiling like the Cheshire Cat.
“What else are kids for?” “I feel sorry for your future child.” Peter noticed surprise in Tony’s eyes and immediately corrected himself.
“Well, they’ll exist someday.” “Oh, so you’re not our child, then,” Tony objected sarcastically.
He smiled good-naturedly, then became serious and perceptive.
Peter was shocked by how quickly Dad could change his mood.
“Listen, if you’re that worried about this field trip, don’t go.” “Yeah, I thought about that too,” Pete admitted reluctantly, slipping into his arms.
“But then Flash will definitely say I made everything up, and he won’t leave me alone at school.” “Well, in that case.” Tony smirked, throwing an arm around the kid’s shoulders and hugging him.
“Then just screw it all, show up there, and blow them all out of the water.
You’re my kid, after all, which means you’re terrifyingly cool.” Peter smiled, taking his slice of pizza.
Strangely enough, there was common sense in Tony’s words.
At school, he was just Peter, but here, this was his home, and he could relax and enjoy himself.
Tony took a sip of his coffee, theatrically outraged that there was no cognac in it, and began discussing which employee to send as their tour guide.
Peter listened to the candidate options, comfortably settled in his father’s arms, periodically nodding or rejecting certain people.
Pepper found both of them lying on the floor and looking at broken repulsors.
She cast an expressive look at the mountain of empty dishes, noting that once again, they had not waited for dinner together.
Peter immediately declared that he was capable of eating just as much again, so Pepper, laughing, left and said she would call them for dinner in about half an hour, maybe inviting a few of the Avengers too.
Peter woke up twenty minutes before his classmates were due to arrive.
He started getting ready quickly, hoping he would manage to be in the foyer before his class got there, so they would not notice him stepping out of the elevator.
Of course, if Tony were in his place, he would do the opposite — be late, then stroll leisurely out of the elevator — but Peter immediately dismissed that idea.
He wanted to find his pass, but after turning his room upside down, he logically decided that Tony had probably burned it ages ago.
Ten minutes later, having hastily pulled on the first clothes he found and completely ignored breakfast, Peter was standing on the first floor, casually leaning against the reception desk.
Anna was chatting quietly with him, telling him what had happened while he had been asleep.
It turned out that some of the Avengers had returned from a mission late the previous evening, and F.R.I.D.A.Y.
had been so happy to see them that she had accidentally turned on a light show.
Peter laughed and looked up at the ceiling, mentally giving F.R.I.D.A.Y.
an extra ten points on the coolness scale.
Sarah approached the desk with a bunch of passes in her hands and greeted Peter in a friendly way, saying she had been assigned as the tour guide today.
As soon as she found out Peter would be on the tour too, she immediately smiled happily.
She loved working with this kid, as, perhaps, did all the employees in the building.
Peter liked her too.
She was almost the youngest woman on the staff and was very smiling and cheerful.
As soon as his class entered the building, Peter hurried to join his friends, greeting Mr.
Harrington.
Ned immediately retold the unpleasant conversation with Flash, who, after noticing Parker’s absence on the bus, had instantly started spouting nonsense about him chickening out.
Sarah greeted the group and gave them a minute to look around and calm down before she began the tour.
Flash threw Peter a venomous look, making it clear he would not leave him alone during the trip.
“So, hello, Midtown High School.
My name is Sarah, and I’ll be leading your tour.
I’m going to call your names, and you’ll come up and take your badges, okay?” Sarah smiled in a friendly way and immediately began calling the students up one by one, handing them badges.
She skipped Peter.
Actually, MJ and Ned did not need passes either, because F.R.I.D.A.Y.
already knew them, but they were given badges anyway.
“I’ll explain what they’re for.
The Tower has strict security protocols maintained by our AI, F.R.I.D.A.Y.
Every employee or visitor must carry a badge showing their access level.
Any questions?” Mr.
Harrington asked her to explain more about the access levels, and Sarah launched into a lengthy explanation about being attached to a specific research department, or several departments, and about identifying access levels through scanning.
When she finished, Flash asked his question.
“Why doesn’t Parker have a pass?” “Um.” Sarah hesitated for a second.
“The system showed that Peter already has a pass, and reprinting is prohibited, so I didn’t make a duplicate.
Peter, sorry, where’s your pass?
Should I go make a duplicate?” “Don’t worry about it.” Peter shrugged vaguely, and Anna at the desk giggled, calling Sarah over and whispering an explanation about Peter’s pass situation.
Sarah returned to the group with a smile and shook her head.
“Yeah, yeah, but I’m sure it’s lying around in one of the labs.
I just don’t know which one.
Don’t worry, there won’t be any problems.” Some of his classmates exchanged confused looks, while Ned and MJ stood there with expressions that said they were about to fall over laughing.
Of course.
They knew Peter walked around here like a “fare dodger.” Mr.
Harrington looked slightly nervous, hoping there really would be no problems, while Sarah, as if nothing unusual had happened, began talking about the AI and led everyone toward the elevator.
And as soon as she said that it was time to meet their incredibly cool artificial intelligence, F.R.I.D.A.Y.’s voice rang out from the ceiling, greeting the visitors.
Some of them jumped back in fright, looking around in confusion for the source of the sound.
Ned and Michelle bit their tongues, trying not to start chatting with her.
F.R.I.D.A.Y., ignoring the general confusion, announced that the group should approach the scanner by the elevator one at a time.
Mr.
Harrington quickly restored order in the group, sending each person to the scanner.
F.R.I.D.A.Y.
immediately announced the status and access level of each student.
Peter, without noticing it himself, ended up in the middle of the line and wanted to slip to the end, but under Mr.
Harrington’s strict gaze, he stayed where he was.
“Sarah Stewart, research biologist.
Biological Development Department.
Access level: medium.” “Ned Leeds, visitor.
Access level: minimal.” Peter could swear that somewhere deep in her programming code she was laughing, playing the video of Ned’s first reaction to her.
“Eugene Thompson, visitor.
Access level: minimal.” “Peter Parker.
Access level: unlimited,” F.R.I.D.A.Y.
declared confidently, with notes of joy in her voice as soon as he stood by the scanner.
“Enjoy your tour!” “Thanks, Gorgeous,” Peter answered automatically, but immediately bit his tongue when he felt thirty pairs of eyes stare at him.
“You wouldn’t happen to know where my pass is lying around, would you?” “Boss found it under the kitchen table three months ago and burned it,” F.R.I.D.A.Y.
reported cheerfully, making him freeze and blush.
“Should I inform Boss that you are upset by his behavior?” “No, no, I was just asking.” Peter stepped aside, letting the next classmate through and feeling Flash’s stunned and hostile stare on him.
Overall, the rest of the tour turned out pretty decent.
Sarah took them through the labs, talked about certain mechanisms and projects, and allowed them to ask some employees questions.
In the IT department, she briefly handed over her duties to Timothy, letting him explain their developments better.
Peter worked with him often, so a couple of minutes later, when Timothy noticed him in the crowd, he asked in surprise whether Peter had just stopped by or whether Mr.
Stark had sent him.
When he heard that Peter was here with the tour, Tim even laughed, narrowing his eyes in disbelief.
“I hope I didn’t sound too much like an amateur to you, explaining all this,” Timothy drawled, then clarified for the surprised class.
“Pete was recently working on adding emotions to our dear girl here, and I was setting up the search engine interface, so this must be terribly boring for him.” “Oh, I’m offended.
I was delighted by your phrase ‘nano-things’ when you were talking about nanofibers,” Peter said sarcastically.
“Next time, give them a cool name so Stark doesn’t bite you.” “Nerd,” Timothy shot back, smiling without any malice.
“I’ll complain to the boss about you.
I’ll tell him you discredited me as a specialist in the eyes of children.” Peter rolled his eyes, preferring not to keep chatting with Timothy.
He was no longer even trying not to attract attention, realizing nothing could help him now, since Tony’s appearance was not far off.
Ned quietly expressed his delight that Peter had decided not to act “like a scared first-grader.” Peter wanted to explain that he had not decided anything.
It was just this place.
It calmed him down and filled him with confidence.
But at that exact moment, Sarah announced that it was time for them to take a short break and have a snack.
Peter, who had not eaten since morning, was absolutely happy, even despite nasty Flash, who continued talking some kind of nonsense.
Peter understood that after everything that had already happened, no one would doubt anymore that he really interned at Stark Industries.
Ned and MJ were excitedly chattering about everything, even though they had already been here, more than once.
In general, Peter understood that the coolest part was still ahead of them.
His senses — and possibly F.R.I.D.A.Y.
the tattletale — told him that Tony had prepared an unforgettable tour plan.
And there was a very small chance Natasha had not helped him with it.
Well, no, there was no such chance.
Peter was sure those reckless puppies — read: the Avengers — had already been waiting for the moment to show off in front of a crowd of schoolkids.
And these were the people trusted with protecting the planet!
Sarah cleared her throat, drawing attention to herself.
Apparently, she inspired respect, since even Flash immediately shut up and began listening.
Well done.
Keep it up.
Maybe Peter would hint that she deserved a promotion.
“So, now that you’ve had a little something to eat, how about we go up to the upper labs and the Avengers’ living room?
They just recently returned from a mission and might be able to spare us a few minutes.” Sarah broke off abruptly when she heard the soft chime of the elevator behind her.
Out of it, as if nothing out of the ordinary were happening, stepped Tony freaking Stark himself, causing a shocked silence from everyone in the room.
“Oh, good morning, Boss!” Tony smiled out of the corner of his mouth, giving everyone his signature greeting gesture, and walked over to Sarah, wrapping an arm around the girl’s shoulders.
Peter barely suppressed a laugh when she started blinking in surprise.
She had probably never spoken to her boss one-on-one before that moment; Pepper handled hiring, just like everything else.
Peter tried to merge with the table, half-crawling behind Ned.
Maybe if Tony did not notice him, he would not embarrass him too badly?
Although Peter was no longer sure he did not want Tony to notice him.
“Hi there.” Tony smiled warmly at the class, searching for Peter with his eyes.
At some point his gaze landed on MJ, and he quickly went back to looking over the students.
“I assume you’re going to visit the Avengers, right?
I think we should hold off on that for a bit.
They’ve only just woken up and haven’t washed their faces yet.
Three of my floors smell like them.
I suggest we visit my personal lab first, and then those slobs.
Sound good?” Tony listened to the kids’ excited noise with a smirk.
Apparently, that meant yes.
“Parker, I can see you.
Don’t even try to hide.
Because of you, I’ve been deprived of my Netflix subscription and my veto rights.” “Hey, why am I immediately to blame?” Peter instantly protested, then bit his tongue when he realized his class had just seen him argue with Tony freaking Stark himself.
But it was too late to retreat.
“Pepper doesn’t like it when teenagers don’t eat breakfast, remember?” Tony moved away from Sarah, slowly approaching Peter.
From the outside, it probably looked threatening, but inside, Peter was laughing, because he knew Tony was a terribly adorable puppy at heart.
“She blames me for setting a bad example.” “Because you really are a bad example.” Peter stubbornly stared him in the eyes, some distant part of his mind understanding that at school they would forever remind him of the time he had called Tony freaking Stark “a bad example.” “Do I need to remind you that you seriously consider a cup of espresso a full dinner?
And anyway, don’t threaten me, or I’ll tell Pepper how you burned my pass three months ago and watched me run all over the place looking for it.” Tony choked in disbelief, narrowed his eyes at the ceiling, briefly admitted defeat by ruffling Peter’s hair, and, as if nothing had happened, returned to the elevator, inviting everyone to come look at the lab after all.
Ned tried to stay calm, but his rounded eyes and barely audible “Dude” showed that Peter had reached the maximum level of coolness in his friend’s eyes.
And, apparently, in the eyes of the whole class, because Flash could not say a single word, opening and closing his mouth like a fish thrown onto land.
In Tony’s lab, everyone simply lost the ability to speak as they looked at the piles of holograms, parts, tools, and half-finished robots.
Perhaps the most picturesque part was the several racks located by the far wall, each of them holding pieces of the Avengers’ gear.
Peter adored this place, but now he had a hard time holding back laughter as he imagined the unhappy face Tony had made when Pepper had announced that cleaning up was necessary.
Sarah looked around with a certain reverence.
Before this moment, she had not had high enough access to wander around the Tower.
Stark wandered between the tables, periodically answering questions about one thing or another.
Peter also wandered between the racks for appearances’ sake, trying to make the same awed face as everyone else.
As if he did not see and sort through these little things every blessed day.
His attention was suddenly caught by his hoodie hanging on one of the chairs.
So that was where it had gone!
He had long regretted wearing a T-shirt for the tour, because many of the labs were very cold.
So Peter tried to get into the hoodie without a second thought, completely forgetting that this was the exact one he always got tangled in, and that there was a prototype parachute in the pocket — he had put it there only a week ago; how could he possibly be expected to remember that?
— for the suit.
Tony, hearing the already familiar crash that only his kid could produce, was beside him in a fraction of a second.
He was not even a little surprised when he found Peter buried under a pile of scrap metal, a half-opened parachute, and the hoodie he had gotten tangled in.
Honestly, kid, you are an inhumanly strong and agile superhero capable of flying on webs between buildings.
Why does such a “complicated” action as putting on a hoodie completely short-circuit you?
“Peter!” Mr.
Harrington exclaimed loudly, about to scold the kid, who was staring at the parachute in his hands in confusion.
“Mr.
Stark said not to touch anything!
Oh, please forgive him, he’s always this clumsy.” “Yeah, I know,” Tony drawled mockingly, lifting him to his feet and straightening the hoodie.
Peter remained silent, paying no attention to anything around him.
“Hey, brat, did you hit your head?
I thought I removed all the sharp corners so you wouldn’t kill yourself grabbing this hoodie.
Hello?
Can you hear me?
F.R.I.D.A.Y., sca—” “F.R.I.D.A.Y., don’t,” Peter interrupted sharply.
“Tony, turn off mommy mode and look at this.
It opened.
It works!
Dibs on the patent.” Tony blinked a couple of times, shifting his gaze to the parachute in the kid’s hands.
Then to Peter’s confused class, and then to the boy himself, who was practically glowing with joy.
Tony could not hold back his laughter.
“Of course it’s yours,” he managed, patting the kid on the shoulder.
“I hope the field-testing section says you made a parachute out of nanofiber and tiny spider-bots work by falling down while putting on a hoodie in the middle of a school field trip.
When I report to the board of directors about the budget for this thing, I’ll attach the security footage.” “You’re bluffing.” Peter smiled sincerely, briefly hugged Tony, and put the parachute back on the rack with Spider-Man’s gear.
“You don’t go to those meetings.” Tony laughed again, then assured the utterly confused teacher that everything was fine, and Peter had even done a good job, and anyway, all kinds of chaos happened in this lab all the time.
The main thing was knowing which kinds of chaos were deadly and which were not.
Mr.
Harrington nodded, accepting Tony’s assurances, but looked at Peter with his “I’ll-have-to-call-your-guardians-and-tell-them-how-you-wrecked-Tony-Stark’s-lab” look.
Interesting.
How surprised would Tony be to learn about this incident?
He would probably be shocked, because Peter was usually such a careful guy!
Pete had already decided he would not tell Tony that he might get a call, just so he could see his face.
And it would be even more fun if Natasha answered the phone.
Flash was complaining loudly enough about whether Peter really would not get fired for being such a klutz.
And Tony clearly heard him, judging by the devilish sparks that flashed in his eyes.
God, Peter was already starting to feel sorry for Flash.
Tony could be very, very vindictive when it came to his kid.
And Stark knew a lot about what Peter had endured at the hands of that little bastard.
On the eighty-sixth floor, which Ned and Michelle knew as the “Avengers’ living room” and had already managed to study inside and out, everyone in the class felt nervous excitement.
Now they were about to meet the actual Avengers.
The ones whose action figures stood in everyone’s homes.
The cool defenders of Earth.
Even Ned and MJ felt a drop of nerves, though they had already managed to meet each of them a couple of times.
Peter was a little nervous too, but not because of the upcoming meeting.
It was because the Avengers had been away from the base for a while, and usually, after all those missions, having missed him terribly, they tried to strangle him in hugs.
Peter did not even know why they liked him so much, though Tony thought it was because he looked far too much like a puppy.
Mr.
Harrington asked everyone to behave calmly, because the heroes had only just returned from a mission and were probably a little tired of the constant fuss around their public personas.
Tony only snorted almost imperceptibly at that comment, whispering with Sarah.
The girl snorted into her hand, trying to keep calm.
Peter was curious too about what they were whispering about, but he would not survive another warning look from his teacher for pestering Mr.
Stark.
Actually, it was usually Tony who pestered him, not the other way around.
Tony stepped out of the elevator first, inviting the others to follow him, and announced loudly that a children’s tour was being held on the floor, so anyone who was not dressed or was doing something that might undermine their reputation as cool heroes in the eyes of the little darlings needed to hide immediately.
Natasha, lying on the floor right in the middle of the room and zoning out into her tablet, hummed skeptically and got to her feet.
Steve and Thor, sitting at the table and drinking tea — clearly having been interrupted from watching the Disney cartoon playing on the TV — stared at the billionaire in surprise.
“Stark, you have F.R.I.D.A.Y.
at your disposal.
She could have warned us so we could prepare for the children’s arrival, but you decided to catch us off guard.
Very mature,” Natasha immediately scolded him, tossing her tablet onto the couch.
“Hi, kids.
Sarah.
Oh, Peter!
Don’t tell me you’re making your child give tours to other children.” “My child goes to school with these children,” Tony said as if nothing unusual had happened, heading deeper into the room.
Peter knew the kitchen was there.
“And he was, in fact, trying to hide that he’s my child.” Natasha’s lips formed a perfect circle, and she looked guiltily at Peter.
He simply shrugged as if nothing had happened.
As if his whole class were not staring at him like the richest man in the world had not just called him his child.
His own reaction seemed far too calm even to him, but that was surely the influence of this place.
At home, he was always relaxed.
“Don’t worry, Nat.” Peter separated himself from the class and hugged the woman.
“They would have wanted to contact my guardians soon anyway.
Or Tony would’ve blurted something out somewhere.” Even the shock of Tony freaking Stark adopting Peter did not stop a flood of questions for the Avengers.
Steve and Natasha were giving out autographs left and right, while Thor offered some of them the chance to try lifting his hammer.
No one managed it, but that was no reason to be upset, because, God, they had touched Thor’s hammer!
Of course, there were a few people, including Mr.
Harrington and Flash, who approached Peter while he was drinking tea from a mug with puppies on it.
Well, it was his personal mug.
They wanted to know whether Tony had told the truth and how long this had been going on.
Flash was in complete shock.
Tony himself was leaning against the wall and casually chatting with a whole crowd of kids, telling them about how he had come up with the idea of combining nanoparticles, human DNA, and vibranium to make a fully functional prototype of a human limb that could actually be felt.
At the end of the tour, Peter volunteered to take everyone downstairs himself so Sarah would not have to run back and forth and could return to work.
The whole time the elevator was going down to the first floor, Mr.
Harrington questioned Peter about his life in the Tower.
And Pete happily told him that Tony was surprisingly caring and responsible, and that Pepper was absolutely wonderful.
“Actually, Mr.
Harrington, I’m almost ninety-three point seven percent sure that Tony is watching F.R.I.D.A.Y.’s live feed from this elevator right this second.” Peter smirked when some people started looking around.
“Stop spying.” “Mr.
Stark wants you to know that he is not spying, he is showing care and responsibility,” F.R.I.D.A.Y.
said.
Peter snorted.
“He asks you to pick up the pizza from the delivery person.” “Okay, Gorgeous.” After seeing his classmates off and collecting the pizza, Peter was satisfied with everything except one thing.
They had managed to interrogate him about literally everything, but no one had even asked why he called F.R.I.D.A.Y.
“Gorgeous.” Seriously, damn it?