Peter Parker One-Shots

THE RUMOURS ABOUT PETER PARKER • BOWLINGFORNERDS ON AO3

Summary

"No way," Flash said, when he heard. "Stark Industries doesn't even hire high schoolers."

Peter shrugged, schooling his face to remain unbothered. "Yet here I am."

So the rumour spread that Peter Parker, top of the class and the only competent member of the track team, had a Stark Industries internship. That made it more difficult when Miss Adler, the Chemistry teacher, announced their field trip there.

OR

It's the Stark Industries Field Trip AU and I know we're all here for this one

They had to lie when people caught sight of the car that picked up Peter every day after school. Driven by a chauffeur, a sleek black Audi that sat idle, waiting for Peter Parker. Of course, people would get curious – especially when someone caught sight of the driver's face.

"That's Happy Hogan," someone said. "He's, like, Tony Stark's bodyguard."

Apparently, Happy Hogan was somewhat of a known figure. If you were in a thousand press photos with Tony Stark, you'd be vaguely recognisable too.

"How the fuck do you know Happy Hogan?" Flash asked (accosted was more the word) when Peter arrived for Academic Decathlon on a Thursday. Peter joined clubs purely because he didn't want to spend all his time at the house – school was the only reason he could go outside, what with being under the watchful eye of the Starks and SHIELD, and there was some form of parole going on for the ex-HYDRA agent. So he joined all the clubs Ned liked, so he'd know someone: robotics, band and Decathlon. He also joined track, because Coach Wilson wouldn't let up on him joining a sports team and running seemed the most inconspicuous.

Peter shrugged and ducked away from Flash's questioning. He kept his face devoid of emotion and sat down at a table, pulling out a textbook to read while he waited his turn to be quizzed.

"Hey," Flash said, following after him. "I'm talking to you."

"I heard," Peter replied. "I'm just not talking to you."

Still, the question hung, unanswered in the air. Peter figured Flash wouldn't be the last one to question it, so he brought it up when he returned to the house, right on the border of Manhattan.

"I'm being asked how I know Happy," he said at dinner. Pepper made something with spaghetti, because Peter liked spaghetti. There was some kind of sauce from a jar and Peter had decidedly not been allowed to help, due to what they referred as The Soup Incident.

"And what did you say?" Tony asked. His phone was sitting on the table, and Tony was splitting his attention in a 60-40 way between it and the people around him.

"I didn't say anything," Peter replied, "but they're curious how I know Tony Stark's bodyguard."

"Technically, he's asset management now," Tony replied, not looking up from the phone.

Pepper reached over Tony's dinner to swipe the phone, making Peter supress a laugh at Tony's face.

"Fine," Tony conceded. "If they ask, say you're... I don't know, an intern at SI."

Peter quirked an eyebrow. "An intern?"

"Yeah, they're unpaid staff and sometimes we recruit outstanding high schoolers," Pepper replied. "Actually, on that note, we should probably be paying the interns."

"FRIDAY can put that on a to do list," Tony agreed. "But, yeah, kid. Just say you've got an internship and Happy drives you there. Make something up – you're good at lying, right?"