Chapter Text
"Shit."
It starts like this: Peter's Decathlon team is on a roll. Things were a bit rocky after losing their team captain, but MJ had whipped them into shape and by now they were mostly a functioning team. Flash was still a dick and Abe still cried when he got a question wrong but they were trying, and overall things were great.
That is, until Mr. Harrington announced they'd be going on a field trip to Stark Tower as a reward for all their hard work.
"I need these slips back by Wednesday," he was currently telling them, not that any of them were listening, too busy chattering excitedly about the trip to care what their supervisor had to say, "And I want everyone to be on their best behavior at the Tower. Mr. Stark has graciously allowed us to go on the tour at such short notice, and I expect you all to be respectful."
Peter tuned him out in favor of full-on panic. This was, in a word, bad. Of course, of fucking course he'd be going on a field trip to his own home, in typical Parker Luck fashion. He was already in over his head, and now this?
"Peter? Peter, you okay?" Ned was asking, a hand on his shoulder. "You look a little pale. You good?"
"Good?" Peter scoffed in return, "No I am not good, Ned. This is going to be a disaster."
"I'm sure it will be fine. I mean, it's the Avengers, Peter--"
"And that's exactly why it's going to be a disaster." He groaned, running a hand through his hair, "You know how they can be, Ned. And what's gonna happen when the rest of the team finds out I live with the fucking Avengers?"
"I mean, they already know you moved in with a foster family of sorts after May..." Trailing off, Ned cleared his throat, "That family just happens to be the Avengers. No big deal, right?" At Peter's look, he sighed, "Okay, yeah big deal. Huge deal, I still can't believe that you live with the freaking Avengers, dude, that's so cool. Does Captain America eat cereal for breakfast? He seems like a Fruity Pebbles kind of guy. And what about the Winter Soldier? I bet he likes Lucky Charms, wait no, Rice Krispies, wait no--"
"Aww, would you look at that, the nerds are picking names for their imaginary friends!" Flash interrupted, coming up behind them. He smirked when Ned stopped talking, "Hmm. Parker, you ready for everyone to know you're lying about your fake-ass internship when we get to the Tower on Friday?"
"I'm not lying, Flash." Peter mumbled, turning away from him. It was best to ignore him, even if what he wanted was to punch him in his stupid face. He could, and it'd be amazing, but that's not what superpowers were for, not really. Superpowers, Peter reasoned with himself, were for punching Bad Guys. Flash might be a bad guy, but he wasn't a Bad Guy. There was a difference.
"Sure, sure. I just can't wait to see the look on your face when you get kicked out of Stark Industries for lying to the world about working there. It's going to be hilarious."
"Shut up, Flash, before I push your testicles back into your body. If you have any, that is." MJ interrupted, shoving her way past them. Flash scoffed, but backed off, opting to go back to his asshole friends, leaving Peter only with a weak glare. Peter shot Michelle a grateful smile, pointedly ignoring the butterflies zipping around his insides when she returned it, if only partially. Half-smiles from MJ were like gifts from God, in Peter's opinion.
"Hey, Loverboy." Ned was smirking knowingly at Peter, whose eyes were still trained on their retreating team captain, "We still on for tonight? I got that cruiser set you've had your eye on, my mom bought it for my birthday. My place at six?"
"Uh, yeah." Snapping his eyes away from Michelle, Peter turned back to Ned, "But I can only stay a little while, I have to patrol tonight."
Ned sighed. As awesome as it was to be best friends with freaking Spiderman, actual Spiderman, he missed being best friends with Peter. Just Peter, no strings attached. Or, webs rather.
"Yeah, sounds good. See you later."
------
"So." Steve sat across the table from Peter, legs hooked around the chair he was currently straddling, eyes focused on Peter in typical Captain American fashion, a small smirk blooming on his face as he continued, "Your class is going on a field trip."
Peter groaned, dropping his head onto the kitchen counter. Wanda snickered from behind her wine glass. It was so-called Family Night at Stark Tower, meaning the Big Table™ was pulled out, the Avengers assembled (but with less deadly purpose than usual), and take out ordered. For a group of masterminds and superhumans, the Avengers were shit at cooking.
"Yeah, I have a field trip," He muttered, eying his family suspiciously from underneath his arms, forehead squished on the table still.
"Where to?" Scott asked good-naturedly, bouncing a sleeping Cassie in his lap.
Peter muttered incoherently.
"What was that? Didn't quite catch it, Bug Brain," Clint said loudly from down the table around a mouthful of food. Nat grimaced beside him but said nothing.
"To, uh. Here."
There was a dreadful, dense moment of silence, in which the Avengers exchanged knowing looks, looks Peter did not like. Tony was practically glowing. Pepper gave Peter a sympathetic look.
He was done for.
------
The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and Peter was miserable. He sat beside Ned on the bus, forehead pressed to the window as he tried to drown out his teammates' excited whooping and banter. MJ sat across from him, working on a sketch in her Crisis Notebook. It was most definitely of Peter.
"This is gonna be awesome, I'm so excited, we're gonna go to Stark Tower, do you think Tony Stark will be there? Will he-" Ned was talking nonstop, and for once Peter didn't find it endearing how excited his friend could get. He wanted to be anywhere but here. "Do you think the other Avengers will be there? Will Scarlet Witch be there? Or Black Widow? Or- Oh my god there it is!" Ned interrupted himself, leaning over Peter to get a better look out the window. And yes, indeed, there it was. Peter groaned, tapping his fingers against his thigh impatiently. He wanted this to be over. He would have stayed home, if it wasn't for the fact that that was where his field trip was, honestly what the fuck.
The bus rolled to a stop in the vast parking lot. Peter noticed a Jeep that looked suspiciously like Clint's parked near the entrance and clenched his fist in his hoodie pocket. They'd promised not to do anything, though Peter would be an idiot to believe them; they were them. Also, he swore he saw Hawkeye cross his fingers behind his back when he'd promised, that absolute child.
"Alright, alright, single file, let's get off in an orderly fashion, Flash don't do that, Abe put that down, come on people," Mr. Harrington was saying as the team stood and crowded towards the exit, "I want you all to be on your best behavior today. That means you, Flash, and that means you, Peter." He sent Peter a Look, and honestly Peter couldn't blame him; he did have an awful track record when it came to field trips. "And Michelle? Please try to be respectful. "
"Doubtful, but go off." She replied, stepping off the bus, nose still firmly in her notebook. Mr. Harrington sighed.
"Welcome to Stark Tower, you must be Midtown Tech!" A tall, strong woman called as they entered the lobby. She had blond hair and looked like she could snap Mr. Harrington in half. "I'm Helen, I'll be your tour guide today. Follow me, I'll get you your badges and we can get started!"
She led them to the reception desk, where she leaned over the counter to exchange brief words with the secretary, a woman Peter recognized named Ellie, before grabbing a clear bin and turning back to the class.
"Alrighty, so let me tell you a little bit about the security here at the Tower. Everyone, save a few individuals, has a security badge. There are strictly no reprints, so don't lose yours. Otherwise Happy will have your head," She chuckled, "And once you leave, these badges will deactivate, so that they won't fall into the wrong hands. You're welcome to hang onto them though. Souvenirs, or whatever.
"Stark Tower has five levels of security; within each level of security there are three sublevels, Alpha, Beta and Gamma. Your passes are Level One, Gamma. These are the passes commonly used for tours like this one. Maintenance workers and other guests are given Level One, Alpha and Beta passes most often, only allowing access to the floors they have business on." Peter tuned her out, having heard the spiel a thousand times, and instead surveyed his teammates. Ned was hanging onto Helen's every word, eyes wide and smiling, while MJ had taken a seat on the floor to get a better angle to draw from. He wondered who she was drawing now; no one seemed to be in crisis around them. Flash was nodding his head like he knew all of this already, though of course he didn't, that prick. Cindy and Sally were whispering to one another conspiratorially in the back. Peter caught Abe staring doe-eyed at Cindy and couldn't help but smile. It was no secret that the two were pining after one another. That is, no secret to anyone but themselves. Charles seemed to be the only one paying real attention, other than Ned.
"... Most of the Avengers have Alpha Four passes, excluding Tony Stark, who of course has an Alpha Five." Helen was saying, "Ms. Potts has a Level Five as well as one other individual. These three do not have passes; FRIDAY just recognizes them on sight." She clapped her hands enthusiastically. "Now, any questions before we get started?"
Cindy raised her hand. "What's a FRIDAY?"
"FRIDAY is Mr. Stark's AI. She runs the tower. You'll get to meet her in just a moment. How about I start handing out these passes in the meantime. When I call your name, please step forward. Sally Avril."
Sally pushed her way forward to grab her pass. "Abe Brown."
"Michelle Jones."
"Ned Leeds." Ned shot Peter a thumbs up as he grabbed his pass.
"Cindy Moon."
"Charles Murphy."
"Flash Thompson."
"And one Mr. Harrington. Alright, right this way."
"Wait, wait." Flash interrupted, pushing past the others to be in front of Helen, "What about Parker? Where's his pass?" He sneered, "You should just kick him out." Peter tensed from where he stood near the back with Ned. This was it. He was gonna die.
But Helen simply regarded Flash steadily, making him uncomfortable. "Peter doesn't need a pass." She said evenly, before turning to lead the class forwards again. Flash had gone pale.
"You'll all need to scan your passes through this machine, then step through the detector. Like so," She slipped her card through the machine, which lit up blue. "Helen Harper-Smith. Level two, Beta. No unauthorized equipment detected." FRIDAY said from above them, making the class jump. Peter stifled a laugh into his sweater.
"Single file now," The class surged towards the scanner.
"Sally Avril, Level One, Gamma. No unauthorized equipment detected. Eugene Thompson, Level One, Gamma. No unauthorized equipment detected. Cindy Moon, Level One, Gamma. No unauthorized equipment detected. Ned Leeds, Level One, Gamma. No unauthorized...." His class filtered excitedly through the detector, chattering loudly. Peter hung back, waiting for Mr. Harrington to go through before stepping up.
"Hello, Peter. It's nice to see you again," FRIDAY intoned cheerily, the robotic tone from before replaced with an amused lilt, "Would you like me to alert Tony of your arrival?"
"No, no, no need for that." He hurried though the detector without issue, FRIDAY giving a chuckle above him.
"He has been alerted."
"FRIDAY! I can't believe you'd betray me like this." Peter scoffed under his breath. He glanced up at his class, who were watching him with wide eyes. Sighing, he made his way back towards Ned, who was grinning.
"What?! How?" Flash squeaked, red-faced, "How did you--?"
Peter opened his mouth to spout some nonsense excuse, but FRIDAY beat him to it. "Peter is Mr. Stark's adopted son," She informed the team. Peter swore she sounded smug. "Peter, Karen tells me you haven't told your class about this. Why is that? Are you perhaps embarrassed? I have learned that that is a common emotion among human adolescents."
"Karen told you?! God, I always knew robots would rise up one day," He replied, scratching the back of his neck nervously. He could feel his class's eyes on him, face heating up. The plastic security pass dropped out of Flash's hand, and Cindy looked like her entire life had changed. She leaned over to whisper something to Sally and Charles, who nodded. Peter stifled a groan. This was going even worse than he'd thought, and they'd been there not even ten minutes. He knew everything would go wrong-- Murphy's law and all that bullshit. Speaking of bullshit--
"Pete!"
Oh god.
"H-Hey Mr. Stark." He squawked, not turning to face his father figure. Tony had just stepped off the elevator, taking off his pink sunglasses as he went. The class gasped. Because this was Tony Stark, doling out looks in a three-piece suit, walking up to Peter Parker, local nerd, and actually talking to him, what the hell?
He could hear the amusement in Tony's voice as he replied, "Bet you thought you could slip in here under the radar, huh kid?" Putting a hand on Peter's head to ruffle the kid's already messy hair, he tsked, "No way. Helen, I'll be taking over the tour, if you don't mind. Why don't you take the day off, spend more time with your wife. How many weeks along is she agian?"
"Uh, eighteen weeks, sir. The morning sickness is almost passed, thank god," Helen replied easily, smiling at her boss. "Are you sure it's alright though?"
"Of course!" Stark smiled wickedly, "I'm gonna be spending the whole day with Peter's class. Isn't that fantastic?" He turned to smirk at Peter who was glaring daggers at him.
"Yeah, that's just great." Peter said with all the sarcasm he could muster. Tony only laughed, hand slipping down to land on Peter's shoulder. With his other hand, he sent a salute to Helen, who scampered off dutifully.
"Uh, excuse me," Charles asked, high pitched with excitement, "But what the fuck?" Cindy gasped beside him and turned to shush him, whispering in a scandalized tone about how could he say something like that in front of Tony Stark, oh god, that was so disrespectful and--
Tony broke out in unrestrained laughter, choking out an amused, "I like these kids, Peter why didn't you tell me your class was so cool?" When his giggles had died down, he turned towards the class at large, straightening out his suit, "Alrighty then. Shall we?"
There were murmurs of ascent from the class, who followed the billionaire in a daze as he headed towards a large elevator, calling a hurried, "FRIDAY, up their security clearance to whatever they need so I can take them wherever I want in the tower," towards the ceiling.
"Yes, Boss."
Peter moved to get to Ned in the back, where he was motioning at the spiderboy, eyes wide. "Oh god, he talked to you, Peter, Tony freaking Stark talked to you, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna throw up, oh my god, I can't--"
"Oh Petey!" Tony sing-songed from the front of the class, "Why don't you get up here and help me with this tour, huh? See ho wmuch you really know about the company. You are the heir, after all." He winked at the kid, smiling wickedly.
Peter groaned, but reluctantly pushed his way to the front. He passed a delightfully silent and distraught Flash, who looked a bit like he was going to pass out. It wasn't really out yet that Peter was Tony's son, or that he was the multi-million dollar company's heir. He'd always just been Peter Parker, the quiet dorky kid who skipped class, and he still was that Peter, except now he could stop a bus with his bare hands and his dad was a genius playboy philanthropist billionaire. No big deal. Except it was.
"Alright, so who wants to hear a bunch of boring mumbo-jumbo bullshit about how the company was formed, blah blah blah?" Tony was saying as the elevator doors closed, having successfully herded the class inside. No one raised their hand. "No one? Didn't think so. Now who wants to meet the Avengers?"
All hands in the room shot up, except fo course Tony 'sand a tired Peter's. Even Mr. Harrington was sheepishly putting his hand up.
"Hm. Sounds like a plan. FRI, who's in the training room right now?"
"Captain Rogers adn Miss Romanoff, sir."
"Perfect, take us there."