Chapter Text
Peter didn’t understand why he had to be driven all the way to Midtown high, just to get on a bus full of his classmates and drive back home. Why couldn’t he have just ‘met them there’? It would have saved him from the constant stream of questions from Ned and the berating comments from Flash…
“There’s still time to come clean Parker!”
“Wait so do you like, train there? With the freaking Avengers?!”
“Poor kid thinks he actually works there, what’s next? He personally knows Spider-Man?”
“Oh my Gods, my best friend knows the Avengers, that means I practically know the Avengers!”
“Hey Penis Par-”
“You talk a lot about Parker’s dick for an apparently straight man” MJ decided to add fuel to the fire.
Just when Peter was about to web-sling himself out the window of the bus, they came to a slow. Oooo’s and ahhh’s riddled the bus as the tower came into view. Ned looked about ready to throw up from excitement and Peter couldn’t blame him – this is exactly how he felt when he was first introduced to his new home.
“Roll out team!” Peter flinched at Mr. Harrington’s voice; his heightened senses aggravated due to the rolling waves of anxiety he was currently experiencing. Regretfully lifting himself out of his seat, Peter joined the line of buzzing teenagers making their way through the grandiose entrance – Mr. Stark certainly didn’t do things by halves.
Two large glass doors led them into the main foyer, windows scaling the room. In awe of the giant diamond chandelier that hung above them, Peter’s class continued toward the lengthy glass table which held a half dozen name badges. There seems to be a lot of glass for a building that gets attacked at least once a month, Peter thought quietly to himself.
“Welcome, Midtown School of Science and Technology. Please collect your respective name badge and make your way through security. Your tour guide will meet you on the other side. Enjoy your stay at Stark Industries.” Friday chimed from the celling in a much more robotic voice than Peter was accustomed to.
Shuffling toward the back of the group, Peter waited in suspense as the rest of the class collected their name badges and stepped through the futuristic security system.
“Betty Brant, Beta Level 1, Welcome”
“Jason Ionello, Beta Level 1, Welcome”
“Cindy Moon, Beta Level 1, Welcome”
“Eugene Thomson, Beta Level 1”
Peter didn’t miss the way Friday skipped over the ‘Welcome’.
“Ned Leeds, Beta Level 1, Welcome”
“Michelle Jones, Beta Level 1, Welcome”
“What, you scared it’ll vaporize you or something Parker?” Flash jeered, pulling Peter out of his funk.
Here goes nothing he sighed, stepping forward.
“Peter Parker, Alpha Level 10, Welcome back Peter!” Friday’s tone picked up, sounding more life-like.
“Hey Fri” Peter ducked his as his classmates looked on in shock.
His spider-senses screamed at him. He figured it was as a result of the whole class staring at him, thanks to Friday, until he caught a glimpse of platinum blonde hair and icy blue eyes making their way towards the group.
“Welcome to Stark Industries Midtown High! My name is Steven Westcott, but you can call me Skip” he said with a wink. The man locked eyes with Peter for only a second, a second too long for Peter.
“I will be your tour guide for today.”
Now what did Peter do? He didn’t run. Peter didn’t run from his worst enemies. But he did walk. Because this was Skip, arguably worse than his worst enemies. He walked robotically toward the Avengers elevator. Destination? Anywhere away from that man.
-
To say Tony was an overthinker may be an understatement, but if you asked Tony, he most certainly was not an overthinker and he most definitely did not spend the next week overanalyzing every single word from that night in the lab.
So it was much to his surprise when he found Peter balled up on the black leather couch in his lab in the middle of the school day. Wait, what day was it again? Monday? Oh…
“Field Trip didn’t go quite to plan kiddo?”
“A familiar face came up” Peter stated bitterly.
“And… would that happen to be a good or bad thing?” Tony decided to play dumb, already sensing the distaste in Peter’s voice.
Though Tony was known for his dramatics, he was not over-reacting when he said he stood there for 10 minutes in silence as the kid seemed to be in a world of his own – clearly contemplating his next words.
“You might want to sit down for this one Mr. Stark.” Peter finally broke from his trance, slowly lifting himself up, gesturing to the spot on the couch next to him.
Taking a deep breath in as the older man settled in, Peter began to speak abruptly. This was not foreign to Tony; he knew all too well Pete’s tendency to just spit the words out as fast as he could before they got ‘stuck’, as Pete had described it.
“Um okay so… I was a smart kid, but I didn’t have many friends, so I spent a lot of time at the library where I met Skip. Skip was a lot older than me, but he understood me – he was really my only friend. For a while, we would just read together or quiz each other on whatever Math and Science content we came across, he listened to me when I needed someone to talk to – I thought he was so cool, so I introduced him to May and Ben. They loved him; they even invited him to babysit me so that May could pick up some extra shifts at the Hospital. I was really excited until he started showing me magazines. ‘This is what friends do, see? Let’s try it together, Einstein’.”
Einstein. The word seemed to echo around the lab as Peter paused to collect his thoughts, taking several deep breaths in and out. Tony waited patiently (despite the million screeching questions at the back of his head) as the kid put his head in his hands with a frustrated grunt.
His speech muffled into his hands; Peter continued.
“It started as just touching. I thought… maybe he was right? Maybe this is what friends do? Then it started to be a bit more like the magazines he showed me. The dirty magazines. And I guess that still wasn’t enough for him. ‘He’s such a good boy’ Ben and May would say. I didn’t have the heart to tell them.”
Peter paused for another moment, taking a deep breath in as he wiped away a few stray tears from his face.
“Anyways, he moved away after a few years, and I tried to move on and yeah, there isn’t much more to it.”
With every word Peter spoke, Tony got increasingly furious. Not at Peter, never at Peter. But at the monster of a person that hurt the kid – his kid. Stay calm for him, Tony reminded himself.
“Why all this now? What made it come up? Look at me kiddo, what happened?”
“He was our tour guide” Pete looked guiltily at the man, like it was somehow the kids’ fault.
“Mr. Stark, he didn’t even recognize me!” Peter finally broke. “I think about it every day and he doesn’t even fucking remember! I think I would have preferred if he came up to me and said ‘Hey Peter, it's Skip. Remember when I molested you? It's great to see you again!’”
Keeping calm (at least on the outside) Tony started rambling.
“How did I miss this? I personally do extensive background checks on all employees I-”
“Mr. Stark” Peter cut his mentor off firmly. “It's not your fault. I never told anyone so there’s nothing to find.”
Oh.
“Skip, you said his name was?”
“Well, it's Steven. Steven Westcott, he just prefers Skip, I guess.”
Nodding, Tony began to stand up.
“You think you’d be okay talking to Nat about this while I make a few calls?”
-
Surrounded by the Avengers on a regular Monday afternoon after a not-so-regular Monday, Peter tuned the TV to background noise, checking his phone.
Guy In The Chair
9:34 am
Peter what’s wrong?
Where did you go?
What happened???
Peter???????
Are you okay?
Peterrrr answer meeeeee
I’m getting really worried Peter
10:02 am
They cancelled the field trip, what the hell happened Peter???!
‘Postponed the field trip until further notice’ ??????????
5:28 pm
Sorry dude, I’m okay. Something came up, I’ll tell you later.
Peter replied. Suddenly the background noise of the news grew 10 times louder, despite unchanging volume.
“Former Stark Industries employee Steven Westcott has been taken in by SHIELD on accounts of Harboring of Illegal Technologies. He will be serving a life sentence in SHIELD’s Correctional Facility.”
Peter sat up straight, glancing across the room where Mr. Stark was sat, seemingly looking everywhere but in Peter’s direction.
Peter decidedly reached for his phone again.
Mr. Stark
5:30 pm
Thanks, Dad :)