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Quickly writing down the equation Tony and he were working on during the weekend from his phone, Peter bit the end of his pencil, trying to understand where the mistake was made. Despite being in school, specifically in the middle of his history class, Peter’s mind was in Tony’s lab, where both of them were trying to come up with the correct formula to enhance his webs. They spend the whole weekend trying to figure this out, only to come up with nothing. Sending him home, Tony jokingly offered a bet on who would find the answer first.
And Peter loved a good challenge.
Especially after Tony promised to let him work on one of his Iron Man suits if Peter wins.
For three days now, the young superhero has been trying and failing to come up with a solution and identify an error in the equation they were working on. At home, he had endless drafts of his attempts to figure out where he was wrong, what number or symbol was missing, keeping him and Tony from success.
Burning with his eyes the piece of paper with his new idea, Peter furiously crossed everything out, and turned the paper to start again, earning a look full of concern from Ned.
Safe to say that Peter did not care about the history class he was currently in, even in the slightest. Checking the numbers from the cracked screen of his phone, Peter made sure the device was on silent before moving to put it aside.
Peter might not give a damn about the class, but he would not risk being forced to answer his phone on speaker in front of his whole class. Stupid Mr. Sullivan and his stupid rule. There were a few occasions when some of his classmates were damned with this fate, and it was embarrassing.
Checking his phone one more time just in case, Peter was not ready to be called out of the blue by Mr. Sullivan to answer a question he hadn’t even heard.
“Mr. Parker, since you have been so eager to take notes of what I was saying, I assume that there won't be a problem answering the following question,” the teacher said, crossing his hands over his chest.
“The question?” Peter squicked, looking around for some kind of a clue what the lesson was even about.
When his eyes landed on the board, he couldn’t help but snort a little.
“I’m glad you find this funny, Mr. Parker,” Mr. Sullivan said, bringing Peter’s attention back. “Now, please explain to us the journey of Captain America during World War II.”
Now this was actually golden. If anyone from the Avengers found out what his question was, they would never let that go. Only a few days ago, Steve was recalling his good old days with Bucky back then, for the fifth time this month.
Peter really was not surprised that he had ignored a good part of the lesson. Why hear some stupid assumptions when he pretty much knows this information from the source?
“Well?” Mr. Sullivan promoted with a wave of his hand.
“I-” before Peter could say more, he was interrupted by the voice of the AC/DC lead singer when Back in Black started to play. For an unknown reason, the song was playing from his own phone, which he knew was on silent.
This was bad.
Super bad.
Because now he had to answer it.
On speaker.
In front of his whole class.
“Come on, Parker, answer the phone,” Flash taunted, and Peter was ready to hit him with his book.
“Yes, Mr. Parker, please do, since it is so important you couldn’t care to turn it off before the class,” Mr. Sullivan added, and Peter prayed to every Gog he knew that the ground would open and swallow him whole.
The problem was, he did turn it off… But he knew a person who would still be able to call him.
And with one glance at his phone, his suspicions were confirmed.
He got a call from Tony Stark of all people.
Cursing under his breath, Peter took a phone into his hand and looked up at the teacher.
“With due respect, sir, I would rather not answer this call,” he said, feeling his heartbeat in his throat.
“Puny Parker is scared to answer his aunt,” Brad laughed, trying to be funny. “What? Worried she would tell us about your toy collection she found?” he continued, and a few kids actually chuckled at his words.
“Mr. Parker, stop this now, and answer the phone so we can continue with the class,” Mr. Sullivan said sternly, and then added. “Or it would be a detention for you.”
Shit, a detention was something Peter definitely didn’t need. Both May and Tony would ban him from patrolling if there is going to be another detention this month.
Even if technically it is going to be Tony’s fault.
Taking a deep breath, Peter accepted his fate as well as the call.
“And I don’t care, I need to talk to him, so you better-” the voice of Tony Stark was immediately recognized as it filled the class, and everyone became silent.
Just what Peter needed.
“Mr. Stark!” the boy exclaimed, interrupting the man’s rant. “You are on speaker; my whole class can hear you,” he rushed to explain, hoping the man would get the memo and call later.
Of course, that’s not what happened.
“Oh, I’m well aware you are on a lesson, Pete, I just chose to ignore it,” Tony started, and the whole class gasped in sync, because why the hell did Tony Stark just call Peter by a nickname if Tony didn’t even know about Peter’s existence?
He didn't, right? The internship was fake, and everybody knew that.
So what was happening right now?
“Mr. Stark,” Peter groaned, hiding his head in his hands, while his class was following his every breath.
“Kid, we talked about it, it’s Tony,” the man replied, summoning a new wave of whispers from Peter’s classmates. Mr. Sullivann looked just as shocked by the words as the rest of the class.
How was it possible that a nerdy Peter Parker was on a first-name basis with Tony Stark?
Feeling as his cheeks began to burn, Peter prayed for an asteroid disaster or an alien invasion, anything but to be able to escape this.
However, so far, all he could hear was the murmurs across the room as every single person here was discussing what was happening right now. Understanding that there was nothing he could do now, Peter took another deep breath and, after straightening at his place, focused all his attention on his phone and not on the people around him.
“Right, Tony,” he started, and someone who suspiciously looked like Flash choked on air and began coughing furiously. “What’s the matter?” he asked, ignoring everyone and everything.
“What’s the matter?” Tony asked mockingly, and that silenced the whole room. “Care to explain why none of my coffee machines work, huh?” he continued, and Peter let out a quiet ‘ah’. “Or why FRIDAY won’t allow me to make my coffee and immediately snitch on me to Pepper or Cap? Does this ring a bell?” the man added, and by the tone of his voice, Peter knew he was not angry.
He sounded almost… impressed.
Leaning back on his chair, Peter confused his classmates even more with his satisfied smile.
“Ah, this.”
“Yeah, this, Pete.”
“But, Tony, this protocol would only activate if you didn’t sleep for the last 72 hours, and you promised me you would never do that again,” Peter explained, earning a few raised eyebrows in his direction. “FRIDAY?” he then asked, eyes not leaving the phone.
“FRIDAY, don’t-”
“It appears that the boss hasn't been sleeping for the last 76 hours since you left, Peter,” the AI replied before Tony could stop her.
“Mr Stark!” Peter exclaimed, crossing his hands and looking at his phone in disappointment. At the same time, his classmates and teachers bulged their eyes at him.
Was it really the shy Peter Parker? Peter Parker, who was too afraid to stand up to Flash’s bullshit? Too afraid to cause any trouble?
Same Peter Parker who just now shouted at Tony Stark?
“No, not the full name thing,” Tony whined, and Peter could almost see how annoyed the man must be. “Look, kid, just tell me what the code and password to the protocol you managed to put on my coffee machine is, and I will let you continue with the class.”
“Mr. Parker must be present to reset the code,” FRIDAY kindly informed them, and people across the room looked at him stupefied, not a single sound could be heard from them, sans the ragged breathing from Flash, who looked particularly pale.
Chuckling nervously, Peter rubbed at the back of his neck when Tony said:
“Tower. Now.”
“Respectfully, I cannot let my student go, especially when he is in the middle of answering a particularly interesting question,” the teacher interrupted their conversation, finally finding his voice.
Tony thought for a second before asking:
“What question are you tortured with?”
“You don’t wanna know,” Peter pinched the bridge of his nose tiredly.
“Try me,” Tony said in amusement.
“I’m explaining the journey of Captain America during World War II,” he admitted, running a hand over his face.
It was silent, and then Tony started to laugh.
“Like you didn’t hear it from Steve at least twice just this weekend.”
“How is that possible?” Flash muttered, grabbing at the roots of his hair.
“Did I just hear my name?” a new voice was heard from the phone, the voice that sounded suspiciously familiar.
“Oh, please, Cap, exclude yourself from this narrative,” Tony groaned, and by the sound of it, moved away from the Captain freaking America.
There was a quiet whine in the room, and a few people turned to find Flash shaking his head while he looked at the wall in front of him.
“But I can tell-” Steve started, but was quickly interrupted.
“Shooo, let me talk to my kid in private… Kid?” Tony asked, bringing the attention back to Peter.
Barely hearing that, Peter froze in his place, staring in front of himself. He didn't even care that Tony just now called him “my kid” in front of his whole class, no, all his focus was on something else. His lips moved as he muttered some numbers, thinking of something particularly hard. Before Tony could call his name again, he snapped back to reality and started to talk.
“Exclude… Mr Stark! What if all that we had to do was to exclude the second part of the equation, and then add a little of a new formula we worked on last Friday?” he suddenly exclaimed, picking up his notes and starting to write down what could only be described as a random pattern of numbers.
“I… FRIDAY?” Tany asked his AI after a short pause.
“Running diagnostics,” FRIDAY said, and after a few seconds added. “It appears that Mr. Parker solved the problem.”
“Yes!” Peter clapped his hands in excitement and then picked up his phone. “Does it mean I can work on your suit now?” Peter asked, beaming, while Flash fell on the floor, losing his mind over what he was hearing.
“Oh, shit,” Tony muttered, while Peter turned around to look at Ned, but instead was met with a dozen very confused people.
Chuckling nervously, Peter looked at them and then said:
“What? I told you I have an internship.”