Chapter Text
Peter Parker was extremely, incredibly, unimaginably out of his element.
When Mr Stark had offered him an internship once again, he assumed it was code for secret superhero-ing business. Or something like that.
What he had not expected, however, was a mound of paperwork delivered to his and May’s apartment, along with an official Stark Industries lanyard and hoodie. While surprised and slightly confused, he filled out the paperwork as instructed. Later in the evening Mr Stark texted him (Holy crap, Tony freaking Stark had personally texted him!) to let him know that Happy would be picking him up every Wednesday morning to take him to the tower for what he referred to as ‘Very Cool Interning Stuff’. A space to develop his Spider-Man tech! A new project! Free food!
After Peter reminded him, that yes, he was still sixteen and very much enrolled in high school, Mr Stark said his school would just have do deal with it because an internship took priority over whatever schools are teaching these days, or so he said.
He was later notified that Miss Potts had already gotten permission from his school, and to balance his workload from missing a full day of school he would be dropping his Biology class. On one hand he was a bit saddened at the idea of missing his favourite class, but on the other hand, he was slightly glad he wouldn’t have to go over the stuff he had taught himself at age ten. He had read and finished the paperwork before putting what was necessary for school in his backpack (why did it have to be Thursday today…) and headed out for some much-needed crimefighting.
“Karen, I’m getting an internship at Stark Industries, for real this time!”
He was slightly embarrassed by the degree to which he had humanised his AI in his head, but in his defence, she was the perfect superhero partner and confidant (not Mother thank you very much).
“FRIDAY told me such this morning, congratulations, Peter.” Her voice was warm and kind as it had always been.
If Peter was nearly brought to tears by the approval of an artificial intelligence while swinging around New York City that was no one’s business but his own.
The rest of the week dragged on for what seemed like an eternity. In a rare instance that he caught May alone (without a glass of wine in hand – he wasn’t scared to bring it up but he certainly wasn’t going to) he let her know about the ‘changes’ to his Stark Internship. He had considered telling her about his double life for a while now but came to the conclusion she was safer if he left her in the dark. She just told him to stay out of trouble and make Uncle Ben proud, and with a strained smile he excused himself.
Telling Ned was a long exchange of lengthy texts. His English teacher would be proud as he was sure he had written the equivalent of a thesis in terms of length, even if half of the characters were exclamation marks.
Ned: “You better not replace me with your cool new college age friends lol
Peter: “As if I would!!!!”
Ah, of course, there were other interns, people he would be working with. Co-workers? His amusement at that idea faded into anxiety. What would some cool, genius level intellect college kids think of Peter Parker? Peter Parker, the lame high schooler who didn’t even go through the proper application process in order to get in? The fake intern…
The anxiety built up inside him, tightly coiling in his stomach. He could feel the quivering in his hands as he quickly bid Ned goodnight. All he could imagine was a room full of Flash Thompsons, except they actually had a reason to hate him. He was invading their space, taking up space that could’ve been given to a real intern who deserved it one hundred times more than he did.
He brought his hands up to cover his face, and they came away wet- Really Peter, you’re crying? Come on, be logical about this. He was able to settle his nerves a little. He was Spider-Man, it didn’t matter if some college kids didn’t like him. He didn’t care.
Wednesday came far too quickly for his own liking.
Happy had pulled up outside his building at 8:30 sharp, and with that, they began the 40-minute drive to Stark Tower, his new internship awaited. What would have usually been a chatty (albeit one-sided) car drive was instead plagued by a tense silence. At a red light, Happy made eye-contact with Peter in the rear-view mirror.
“Something the matter kid? I doubt you’ve spoken this little since you were born.” What was an attempt at breaking the ice so to speak was once again met with silence. After a while though, Peter finally broke it.
“I’m just nervous, or not really nervous just kind of worried to be honest – so much could go wrong today but I totally think everything is under control and everything! You just can’t account for everything and all that, better safe than sorry as they say,” The rambling had returned full swing, and Happy found he only slightly regretted Peter opening up. “As I was saying, it’s just super crazy that Mr Stark offered me this internship, you know? For real this time. I’m sure there’s someone more deserving than-”
“I’m going to stop you right there, kid.” Peter looked up in uprise at Happy, his eye firmly on the road. “Tony wouldn’t give you this internship if he didn’t want to, and if someone else deserved a place and Tony could put up with him they’d get one.” Another silence fell over the vehicle, but as they pulled up to the tower Happy didn’t miss the small “Thank you.”
Tony met them at the entrance, dressed in a sharp suit with sun glasses to match (what the heck Mr Stark, it’s like 9am). The building was somehow larger than he remembered, making him feel small. The lanyard was heavy around his neck.
“Glad you could make it kid! Now the fun really begins, have you met our lovely receptionist Sarah?”