By starsnspace

Tony Stark wasn’t above using his name, money, or influence to get what he wanted. And, truth be told, there wasn’t much that he really, truly wanted. In fact, what he wanted, he could count on one hand. One: make Pepper happy. Two: keep Rhodey safe. Three: look out for Happy. Four: protect Earth. And recently, five: do not let Peter Parker suffer anything.

Simple. Easy. And at this point in time, there was only one thing on his short list of desires that needed to be fulfilled. Peter had walked into the lab one day a little less bright than normal, and Tony being the ever so caring mentor he was, immediately began digging.

“Kid, you’ve barely said a word this entire day and you’re only this quiet when you’re gravely injured- which you better not be otherwise FRIDAY or KAREN would have altered me- or there’s something else wrong. Spill,” Tony spoke, startling the teen from his thoughts.

“I-It’s nothing, Mr. Stark,” Peter replied, stuttering with surprise at Tony’s quick deduction.

Tony turned around in his chair, wheeling it so that he was opposite Peter at the teen’s lab table and narrowed his eyes. “Yeah, sure, I totally believe that. Is it May? Ted? Have a test in chemistry that you’re nervous for? Which, by the way, you shouldn’t be because after me and Bruce you have the most-“

“No!” Peter exclaimed, eyes wide and almost frantic in his attempts to stop Tony from worrying. “No, Mr. Stark, May’s fine, Ned’s great, and I actually just got my test back today, I got a perfect!”

“Then what’s the matter? Listen, I know I’m not great with all the emotions and the expressing myself shit- stuff I mean stuff- but I’m trying to break that and be a better person ang a good mentor to you. But you gotta meet me halfway, kid, please?”

Peter sighed and looked back down at his project. He fiddled with the pen in his hands, twisting it so viciously that Tony was surprised that it didn’t snap in two because of the kid’s super strength. Tony stared, waiting, almost praying that he wouldn’t have to break out the big emotion guns, when Peter finally broke.

“So, normally it doesn’t get to me. And I’m used to it, so I don’t know why today was so hard. That’s a lie I do know. In a week it’ll be the anniversary of Ben’s death and it’s been hard and May’s been working overtime because that helps her not focus on it and I don’t want to bother her with my little issues. But, anyway, today Flash was annoyed that I got the only perfect on the chemistry test, so he stole my tablet that you gave me and dropped it in the pool and it had all my notes on it for Spider-Man stuff and lab work and then he started going off about how I must’ve had to beg on my knees to even step foot in the Tower and how I’m good for one thing and one thing only and that’s for rich guys to use and, and-“ Peter stopped suddenly, and looked up at Tony with tears in his eyes. “I know that none of it’s true, and I know Flash is just jealous, but sometimes it just hurts to be seen like that.”

Tony had grown more and more tense as Peter talked. When he said “on my knees” his vision went red, and as soon as Peter left today, Tony was going to dig up this punk’s dirty secrets. But first, he had to deal with the hurt teenager in front of him.

“Listen, Peter, what this kid Flash says is obviously not true. And whoever believes it, well, they’re just sheep who can’t think for themselves. You’re a hundred times the man that Flash will ever be, and you’ve got more brains in your pinky than he has in his whole body. And I know it hurts, of course it does, it’s cruel and it’s evil and it’s painful, and you’re allowed to feel that pain. But don’t let what one kid says about you influence your life. You are so much more than that, Pete, and you have people in your corner.”

Peter looked at Tony with a small smile on his face, and Tony felt his heart lighten a bit.

“Thanks, Mr. Stark, that means a lot to me. I just wish there was a way to show Flash that too, maybe get him off my back,” Peter sounded wistful, and in an instant Tony knew how to help Peter out, for good.

(----)

“Okay, guys, Mr. Harrington has an announcement before we leave,” MJ was in her element, bossing the Decathlon team around at the end one of their practices, never once letting the team get the best of her iron grip.

“Thank you, Michelle. So, due to our excellent win at last year’s Nationals, we’ve been invited to tour Stark Industries for an exclusive viewing of the Stark Tower in Manhattan, with a behind the scenes look at the labs and what goes in to making Stark tech the greatest in the world! Here’s your permission slip, everyone get it signed and back to me by next Tuesday. See you all tomorrow!” Mr. Harrington stated with excitement. Peter, on the other hand, was horrified.

Ned turned to him and whispered, “Dude, did you know about this?”

Peter looked back at his best friend, pale with wide eyes, and replied hoarsely, “No I didn’t but oh my God I am so dead.”

“Hey, Penis!” Flash shouted. “Outta luck now, everyone here is gonna see just how elite your ‘Stark Internship’ really is.” He laughed as he left the room, and Peter realized just how much shit he was in.

(----)

It’s all gonna be fine, Peter thought to himself, I just have to keep my head down and pray to all the gods and Thor that Mr. Stark doesn’t embarrass me. Today was the day of the exclusive trip, and everyone was excited, everyone that is, except for Peter. Even MJ had a gleam in her eye, one that reminded Peter of a special he had seen on National Geographic where the tiger had its prey right where it wanted. Peter, on the other hand, felt like the prey, but maybe not from a tiger, maybe like a gigantic evil alien that was going to just swallow him up whole and force him to reveal his most embarrassing secrets. He had tried to reason with May that going was a bad idea, but she was firm in his attendance.

“Peter, if we could all just ignore whatever we’re afraid of, nothing would ever get done,” May had stated with an air of finality that even playing sick earlier that morning hadn’t been able to change. So here he was.

The team entered through the gigantic front doors, and everyone was in awe of the glass atrium. A woman in her late twenties approached and began speaking.

“Good morning, Midtown High! My name is Chloe, and I’m an intern here at Stark Industries. Today I’ll be your tour guide,” the woman was bubbly and seemed knowledgeable, and Peter wished he could focus, but the pit in his stomach was too much for him to bother. “-I have badges for you all, one per guest, please wear them and have them visible at all times.” With that statement, Peter knew he was screwed. Mr. Stark had a thing about waste, so he knew that there wouldn’t be a new badge for him for today only, and with the different color coding for the different levels of security, he was bound to draw attention.

“Chloe, why is ours black and yours red?” Flash called out.

“Good question! The different colors are an instant identifier for the different levels of security. Here at SI, we have ten levels. Black is the lowest level, only allowed in certain areas without being escorted by someone of a Red ranking- like me- or above. Green is the highest level, and at this point in time, less than ten of those badges are in use. People like Tony Stark, Pepper Potts, and the Avengers have this badge.” And Peter. Peter had a green badge. “Okay guys, we’re going to step through this detector here, please swipe your badge as you walk through and put it around your neck for the duration of the trip.”

Peter fell back in the group. Ned looked at him and fell back as well. “Peter, I didn’t get a badge, why didn’t I get a badge?”

“Because Ned, we already have one. Mr. Stark hates waste, he gave Chloe two short because we already have them,” Peter replied, longing for his bed. The two glanced at each other, pulled out their badges, and put them on, green for Peter, and ranking three levels below him, yellow for Ned. Ned had gotten his badge right when Peter had gotten his, days after the Vulture incident when Mr. Stark yelled and lectured for over an hour about how irresponsible both boys had been and finally sighing before passing off a badge to Ned, saying how the teen’s coding skills must be astounding if he’d been able to break through Tony Stark’s personal coding.

The teens walked through the security point, and quickly scanned their badges. All they could do was hope that none of their classmates would notice that they had special badges, which, with Peter’s luck, was not going to happen.

“Stark Industries has been around since the mid 1930s…” Peter tuned out the tour guide, having learned all this ages ago. When he first began regularly visiting the Tower, Mr. Stark had eagerly showed off his building to his protégé. Peter had soaked it all in, reveling in the attention his favorite Avenger showed him and marveling at the technological advances around him.

The two friends followed the group, Ned, along with everyone else, looking with awe, and Peter, dreading what he knew was to come. The group entered an elevator, and proceeded to head to Floor 30, the first floor dedicated to labs only. Here, the experiments were focused on basic stuff, like coding and chip making. Peter had never visited here, and for the first time all tour, was interested in the sights.

“These labs are dedicated to improving the technology in SI’s public sphere. Here, Starkphones are improved and perfected. Other floors above us are focused on other items specific to the public, like tablets and computers. Floor 40 begins the robotics labs, Floor 50 begins the biotechnology labs, and Floor 60 begins the personal labs for the Avengers and Tony Stark, along with their personal quarters,” Chloe said, leading the students through the lab and showing them a few of the tricks the new phones could do. “Before you get too excited, we here at Stark Industries have a surprise for you! We have put together a skills lab to test your abilities, as you come from the premier school in New York for science and technology. If you’ll follow me, we’ll split you into teams of three and show you the project you’ll be working on!”

Excited murmuring began in the group, with kids immediately grabbing onto their friends in order to be placed with one another in the same group. Chloe began to the elevator again, this time taking them to Floor 47. She glanced at the group and smirked, enjoying their infectious happiness.

The kids spilled out of the elevator, and Chloe led them to the practice lab. The first three became the first group, the second three the third group, and the final group, somehow, consisted of Peter, Flash, and Ned.

“Penis, I’m taking point here I can totally figure this all out,” Flash bragged, despite not knowing the task at hand.

“Whatever, Flash, go for it,” Peter replied, glancing down at his feet.

The three went to the unoccupied lab table, which had some spare parts, a partially built bot, and a computer resting on it. On its screen, instructions to finish building the robot and coding it scrolled across the screen, and when everyone was ready to go, the screen flashed to SI’s main coding platform. Flash, meanwhile, was a bit over his head. He was good at science, but not technology. He was screwed. Peter and Ned, on the other hand, could finish this project in their sleep. Peter had helped with the latest upgrade of the Iron Man suit, a simple robot programmed to pick up objects was nothing!

The other groups had already jumped to start, each trying to complete the robot before the others in hopes of gaining the attention of anyone at Stark Industries, praying that it would help to assure them a spot in a future batch of interns. Flash finally unfroze and began to get to work. He had just attached the claw when Chloe called time.

“Good job, everyone!” Chloe exclaimed. “You guys had as much time as we could allot to work on those bots, and now we’re going to test them. But first, one last surprise… Tony Stark himself!”

And then Peter’s worst nightmare walked in. Strutting in a custom-made suit, wearing red shades, and a Black Sabbath t-shirt, Tony Stark walked like he owned the place. Which, he kind of did.

“Hello, boys, girls, and anyone in-between. You know who I am. Let’s see these bots! I had some of my tops R&D guys come up with these, so they should have been pretty challenging. First Group, you’re up,” Mr. Stark said.

The first group sent their bot going, and it was able to get into position to pick up a mug, before its programming stopped, and it shut down. The kids retrieved their robot, and Tony took notes on the performance of the machine. The second group sent their robot up, and it was able to pick up the mug, but violently smashed it into the ground.

“Points for flair, I suppose,” Tony murmured to himself, smirking.

Finally, Peter’s group was up. Flash placed the robot on the ground, pressed start, and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Nothing happened. Tony looked up and made eye-contact with Peter. “Kid, what kind of shoddy engineering is this? I’ve seen you build AIs before, you can’t code a robot to pick up a mug?”

Suddenly, Peter saw an opportunity. “I know Mr. Stark, but Flash wanted to do it all himself. So Ned and I let him,” Peter replied, giving his mentor a small smile.

“Ahh, hubris. Man’s greatest downfall. Kids, don’t let your pride get in the way of success. It takes teamwork to get anything done, not wasting everyone’s time on things that don’t work, or matter. Take this as a lesson, don’t be like this kid here,” Mr. Stark said with a harsh glare to Flash.

A beat of silence reigned in the lab.

“Alright, everyone, time for you to go, this is the end of the tour. Pete, come here for a sec,” Tony requested, watching as the students filed out behind Chloe, whispering in awe of how Flash got burned by the Iron Man.

“Mr. Stark, I-“

“Listen, kid, I know you can take care of yourself. And I know you’re probably mad that I arranged all this just so I could say one word to that Flash kid. But, Peter, you’re not in this all alone, you’ve got me, and May, and Pepper, and even that teacher you came with to help you out. For the love of God, just go to us if you’re having problems. We’re all on your side.”

Peter looked up at him, eyes shining a bit. “I just wanted to say thank you, I know you could’ve done a lot more and embarrassed me to death, but you didn’t and I just… thank you”

Before he knew what he was doing, Peter was hugging Mr. Stark. The teen had known that Mr. Stark would be there for Spider-Man, but it was a relief to know that he was there for ordinary Peter Parker’s problems, too. It might not have solved everything, but Flash was taken down a peg, everyone knew that Peter’s Stark internship was real, and most importantly, Peter was sure that he had people in his corner.

When he pulled away, Mr. Stark’s eyes looked a little teary themselves. “God, kid, let’s just…never speak of this again I fuc-I mean freaking hate emotions. Now go skedaddle on to meet your friends, have a juice box, I’ll see you Friday.”

“Bye, Mr. Stark,” Peter said, giving the older man a genuine smile. “Thank you.”