5A/N: So sorry for the delay! Also, this was originally going to be 3 chapters but I've extended it to 4 because I sort of revamped the plot. :| soml
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Busy days are sort of few and far between for Tony recently and when he does have the occasional busy day, it's the kind to bury him deep in work for hours.
This is how he finds himself 32 hours later, snapped into the present by the sound of his stomach grumbling loudly. Tony hadn't realized how long he had spent bent over the table and when he gets up to stretch, his back almost gives out from the pain.
God, I'm getting old.
Upstairs in the kitchen, Tony fixes himself a quick lunch (or dinner, he's not exactly sure what time it is and hasn't really checked), when he gets a text from Happy. Still intensely focused on the sandwich, he absentmindedly phishes for his phone from his pocket and sets it next to the plate in front of him. He leisurely taps on the text bubble but there's a few seconds of delay before he fully comprehends what he's reading.
|The kid said he can't make it to lab today again, boss. Want me to "follow up"?
Tony lets out an exasperated sigh and loses immediate interest in his lunch. Running a tired hand down his face, he thinks back to Peter's recent and frequent absences. This is the fourth time the kid has turned down a lab day and while he's never encouraged Peter to prioritize Spiderman over school work, it's been a lot more frequent lately.
It all started last week when Peter texted Happy that he had a test and assignment to work on and wouldn't be joining for his weekly lab visits. At first, Tony thought nothing of it because there really was nothing to worry about. It wasn't uncommon for the kid to get busy with the occasional school-related task, and out of fear of Aunt Hottie, he tried not to give the kid a hard time about it, even if it was to tease him about it.
But after the third no-show, Tony started getting a little suspicious about Peter's reasoning. Sure, it could just as well be school-related, but it wasn't like him to fall so behind his studies that it took weeks to catch up. No kid gets into a school for gifted children on a scholarship unless they have a solid work ethic and grades to back them up. There's no way that someone as brilliant as Peter is falling so far behind when it isn't even finals' season.
Tony may be old but he remembers being a student, and the school excuses are just not matching up.
Last week when Peter had stood him up for a third time on lab day, Tony decided to give him one more chance to show his face before needing to intervene. As an extra cautionary measure, he also instructed Happy to keep an eye on the kid and to check in on him more frequently than normal, especially on Spiderman's patrols, and to follow up with it.
Of course, by "follow up", what he really meant was for Happy to stalk Peter and report back to him with any notable details. Happy seemed a bit put off by the idea at first but Tony brushed it off, saying that he's not going to confront the kid about it because it was "too dangerously close to caring".
He also considered for a while that Peter might be struggling with something Spiderman related but didn't find anything outwardly concerning when he looked through Karen's footage. Tony didn't think telling Peter that he checks up on him through Karen is something the teen will appreciate, and wisely made the decision to keep that to himself unless absolutely necessary. Peter already hated being treated like a child, and if there's one thing Tony's learned about him is that he's extremely protective of his image.
Hell hath no fury like Peter Parker with a curfew.
After the Vulture incident, Tony learned to respect the kid's boundaries more because he remembers how scary it was to fight people and crime when he first started out as Iron Man, completely unused to the feelings and consequences of heroism. Those fears are undoubtedly amplified for a fifteen-year-old who hasn't fully hit puberty yet.
Shoving the sandwich to the side, Tony shoots his driver a quick text to "follow up" with Peter while he devises the best way to approach him about it. Whether he wants to admit it or not, the genius knows he's going to have a conversation with Peter at some point, especially if this behaviour persists any longer.
He just really needs his intern back and it's definitely not because he misses him, there's just a lot of work to be done.
Brought out of his musings by the vibration of his phone, Tony quickly replies to Happy's text and pockets his phone before heading for his bedroom. Contrary to what many people think, he's not dismissive of his hygiene, he just forgets to shower every so often. How is he supposed to remember mundane things like eating and showering when there are gadgets to be tinkered with and little teenage vigilantes to be monitored?
Line Break (Yeah, I said it)
The only thing that Peter learned in the weeks following his locker room encounter was that teenagers are nothing if not hungry for gossip. And with Ned away for an entire week with a nasty stomach bug, he was left alone to deal with the fallout.
It didn't help that even MJ was away on a family trip and wouldn't be back for another week, though she was there to witness the first few days of the disaster that followed.
It all started with the day after his encounter with Lip Ring.
When he walks into the school building, the very first thing he notices is how the staring has gotten significantly worse, namely that no one is trying to hide it anymore.
This makes the trek to his locker a dangerous one, with people snickering loudly when he passes by them as others whisper indiscreetly. It feels like he's surrounded, locked in a circle of predatory students waiting for him to turn his back so they can pounce. He tries to pay it no mind, awkwardly opening up the door to his locker and grabbing the textbooks he needed, while silently praying that the other students have become bored of his false apathy.
Instead when he shuts the locker door, he senses a familiar body sidle up to him alarmingly close as a hand settles on his shoulder. The gesture is meant to look friendly but Peter knows something sinister lays beneath, only confirmed by the malicious smile on Flash's face when he finally looks at him.
"So Penis, heard you almost got into a fight yesterday. Gotta say, that's not really your style," Flash teases.
Peter suspects that Flash knows very well what happened in the locker room, likely having recruited Lip Ring to do his 'bidding himself', but says nothing of it. In all the years of being bullied by his rival, Peter learned which buttons not to push in an argument, and talking back was a huge one. He made that mistake once when they first met and now knows better than to respond to verbal bait with sarcasm.
But it's not like Flash would ever hit him for talking back because, for all his verbal aggression and childish taunting, he never gets physically violent.
Dismally turning to face his tormentor, Peter shrugs out of the other boy's grasp while tightening his hold on his textbooks.
"It wasn't a fight, Flash. We were just talking."
"Riiight. Talking. Kind of like how everyone's talking about your internship. I've heard some really interesting stories, you know."
"Are you sure you weren't the one to tell them?"
Okay, so he knows better than to sass back but that doesn't mean he's smart about it.
Flash moves closer into his personal space, crowding him against the wall of lockers as Peter becomes acutely aware of the attention being directed towards them. There are so many eyes on him that he's certain Flash won't try anything violent now, right?
"Are you accusing me of something, Penis?"
For a moment, Peter is scared that Flash really is about to deck in him squarely in the face, but is fortunately spared from finding out when their audience suddenly flees like a swarm of rats. Momentarily distracted by everyone's dispersal, Flash moves far enough that Peter can swiftly maneuver out of the way, already preparing to bolt in the direction of homeroom. His attempt at freedom is interrupted by none other than Principal Morita, however, who Peter thinks is the reason everyone else scattered so hastily in the first place, and is now blocking his only escape.
Flash, on the other hand, gets away clean, already disappearing down the hall before Principle Morita can stop him.
Of course, that just leaves Peter to pick up the slack. It seems like the other man realizes this too for he sighs loudly and appraises Peter questionably.
"I don't suppose you'll tell me what all the fuss was about, Mr. Parker?"
Peter simply shrugs his shoulders in an attempt to seem indifferent and redirect suspicion away from him, but is only marginally successful. Principal Morita's face adopts an air of annoyance, likely irritated by the commotion in the first place.
"It was nothing, sir. We were just talking," he says.
The older man simply nods his head though he doesn't look convinced in the slightest.
"Hm, yes. There seems to be a lot of that happening," he cryptically offers.
Saying nothing more, the principle walks past Peter, not even acknowledging the absurdity of his comments. It leaves a bitter taste in the boy's mouth, just like yesterday when Lip Ring accused him of unseemly behaviours.
Deciding to let it go for the moment, Peter slowly starts walking towards homeroom, sorely wishing his best friend wasn't away sick.
After that, it turned out that Flash's little display of dominance was the only form of confrontation to happen moving forward. Surprisingly, Peter saw very little of Flash outside of his classes for a while, though the other boy still teased him mercilessly during class time. Thankfully, he didn't have very many classes with him, so it was nice to get a break from him more often.
The other great thing to happen was Ned, who had finally returned after four days of being sick and remaining glued to his side. Peter could never express how grateful he is for a best friend like Ned, a constant buffer between the outside world and his social incompetence. The one week spent without him was brutal for both Peter and Spiderman, highlighting all the reasons why their friendship has stood the test of time.
So it's safe to say that Peter is just really, really glad to have his support system back, but that didn't mean everything was right again.
While things had gotten kind of quiet at school, the constant staring and whispering never really went away. It persistently put Peter on edge, his spider-sense ever-present as a constant buzz on the back of his neck, strong enough to keep him alert but also subtle enough for him to ignore it.
To make matters even worse, he had been skipping lab days with Mr. Stark for the past three weeks, making the same excuse each time. It's becoming apparent to Peter that he's quickly running out of excuses, having blamed tests and assignments in the last three excuses he made, and that if he doesn't come up with something new, he'll have another problem on his hands by the name of Tony Stark.
He knows this because Happy has been asking a lot of questions lately, ones that Peter could accuse him of caring for. For one, he's always asking him about patrol, which is the biggest and only red flag Peter needs to confirm the other man is fishing for clues. Happy never, ever initiates conversation with him, let alone anything related to Spiderman, so he's absolutely certain that Mr. Stark has put him up to something.
Not to mention that Peter is well acquainted with Mr. Stark's personal brand of paranoia (please refer to Baby Monitor Protocol), and isn't naive enough to believe that his mentor hasn't been keeping an eye on him already. Fortunately, he's confident that the man won't find anything because Karen isn't with him at school, which is the one place he doesn't need Mr. Stark to be.
If anyone found out that his relationship with the genius is a lot closer than an intern, then those rumours aren't going anywhere. No matter that they'd be dead wrong but Peter's not sure he could deal with such an implication if were to become anything more than speculation, like it is now.
This brings him to the present moment, leaning by his locker as he waits for Ned to join him so they can walk to Delmar's. The hallways are empty, with most students having gone home for the day, leaving Peter and a few stray students milling about.
As he waits for his best friend, Peter's attention shifts to his phone that just lit up from a text. Unlocking the screen, he sees a text from Happy.
|Hey kid, where are you? I've been waiting for 2 whole mins! Hurry your ass up!
Stricken with panic, Peter pockets his phone and rushes to the school entrance. He completely forgot that today was a lab day and hadn't told Happy to not pick him up, even though that's not his first concern. What's he's truly worried about is how Tony Stark's personal car driven by his personal chauffeur parked in front of his intern's school is going to reinforce the already distasteful rumours being spread about him. If anyone got a glimpse of Peter near that car, things are going to go beyond rumours and that's just not something he's looking forward to.
Once he's outside, Peter slows his run to a casual pace, attempting to seem nonchalant and unhurried. Approaching Happy with a false smile, he stops a foot away from the other man while subtly looking around for witnesses.
Happy notices this and gives the kid a strange look, clearly perplexed by his strange behaviour.
"C'mon kid, stop wasting time and get in the car. Boss is waiting."
"Uh, I can't make it to the lab today, I have a lot of work."
The other man pauses for a minute, staring at Peter intensely as the kid looks everywhere but at Happy. Clearly he's lying, as evidenced by the obvious discomfort seen in his posture. Deciding that now is the time to confront him, Happy wastes no time getting to the heart of the matter.
"Yeah, I don't believe that for a second, and neither will Tony when you explain to him why you almost didn't show up, again."
The kid sighs in exasperation, gearing up for an argument he knows he'll lose. If Peter's smart, he'll simply accept his fate and get in the car, but things are never simple with him.
"Can't you just come up with something to tell Mr. Stark? I swear I'll make it up to you."
"You can make it up to my right now by getting in the car," says Happy, gesturing towards the passenger door.
"Happy!"
"Listen kid, I don't know what's gotten into you but whatever it is, you're better off explaining it to the boss."
Peter opens his mouth to argue but Happy is quick to cut him off.
"Nuh huh! In the car. Now."
Shoulders slumping in defeat, Peter trudges towards the passenger seat as he shoots a quick text to Ned, apologizing for ditching him. Happy is already rounding the front of the car to get to the driver's seat as Peter pulls the door open, neither of them hearing the soft click of a camera going off behind them.
