After denying the internship for Stark Industries, Peter had to start dodging Tony. He would show up at Peter's school to 'give him a ride home' when in reality he just wanted to berate Peter trying to get him to change his mind.
Peter only made the mistake of taking the ride offer once after that.
But Peter stood his ground, he ignored the texts and calls. He even started to run home after school, taking different paths, so Stark couldn't catch him to talk.
But soon enough Peter found himself in need to Tony.
"What? More shifts? Headmistress you can't keep working yourself like this." Peter said.
The headmistress had been working herself to the bone, trying to up keep the amount of kids currently in her home. The government only gives so much money, and she was determined to give the kids a good home, and that cost money.
"I'm sorry peter, but you know the rent went up. We were barely making ends meet as it is. I'm going to have to work every shift I can." Headmistress Bea said reluctantly.
"Well, what if I?" Peter started but was cut off.
"No, peter. You're not getting a full-time job. You work enough helping out 'round here and contributing what you already do." Ms. Bea said.
Peter knew Ms. Bea couldn't keep working like she was, she'd already collapsed once doing the amount of shifts she did before.
Peter needed to come up with an idea to earn money without letting his her know he has a job. So now where around queens, wouldn't she find out.
Peter then started to think aloud, "Delmar's? No too personal, I work there enough as it is, god I wish I was a billionaire- Stark."
Peter found his solution, well maybe. So the next day after school he didn't run he actually went to the black car parked at the gate.
"Hey, Mr. Stark" Tony was surprised.
"Hey, kid. Whatcha doing?"
"Hey, can we go for a drive?" Peter asked.
Tony just nodded and told happy to drive anywhere. "So, what do you want to talk about?" Then Peter shyly looked down.
"You know the internship you offered me?" Peter asked.
Stark chuckled, "Of course"
"Well, I denied right? But, Maybe I will do it after all." Peter said.
"Great! I-" But Peter cut Tony off before he could say anything.
"But I have a request." Peter said making Stark to turn his head in confusion then smile.
"Shoot kid, tell me this 'condition' you have." Tony said smugly.
"So, you want to be paid? For the internship?" Stark asked.
"Yes, frankly we need the money at home right now. Plus the headmistress won't let me get a job. But if it's a paid internship at SI...well you get the idea." Peter explained.
"Well that will be easy! Honestly I was going to give up on trying to get you to work with me. You kept dodging me so I figured..." Stark said.
"Oh, yeah. I'm only doing this because I need money. If I had it my way, I'd never have to sit in a room with you again. No offense." Peter said.
"What did I do to give you such a bad impression?" Stark asked frowning.
"Its not that simple Mr. Stark. It's not that I don't like you, or the avengers. I just don't want to be apart of your world. I've lost a lot Mr. Stark. This would..." Peter softened.
Something seemed to click in Tony's mind.
"Put you and the people you care about in more danger. God kid, why didn't you just tell me? I full heartily understand. You didn't have to go to such lengths for just this. I get it kid, and trust me. I won't let anything happen to you." Stark said.
"It's not me I'm worried about." Peter said.
"Then who?" Stark asked. Peter just went quiet.
"Well kid, I promise I won't let anything happen to you or the people you care about. Ok?" Tony waited for Peter to acknowledge, which he did with a nod.
"Now kid, I got something I want to ask you." This made a chill run up Peters spine. Peter just looked at the man waiting for the question.
"So, I may have looked into you a bit, and I noticed something in your files. Things about your former foster homes, particularly why you moved on from them..." Tony trailed off.
Peter stilled, not knowing what the man was about to ask him, but if Tony knew about why he got kicked out of his old foster homes, it couldn't have been good.
"It said a lot about you sneaking out and getting into fights. Now kid, I get rebellion and all that. But is there a reason? Is it true at all?" Tony waited for an explanation and Peter's mind raced.
"I um, yeah I used to sneak out a lot. I wasn't like I was going out to deal drugs or purposefully get into fights, but yeah. I used to um, rebel a bit." Peter didn't dare to lift his eyes to the other mans.
"That doesn't fully explain kid, were you just, accidentally getting into fights every other night?" Tony asked again.
Peter sighed "I wanted to be stronger, since what happened with my Uncle, I uh, snuck out. I would just pick fights with people, I thought if I got some real world experience... I know I went about it wrong. I stopped! The foster homes never even cared, they just used it as an excuse to push me off on someone else."
"And why would the want to push you onto someone else so badly?" Tony asked.
"I'm a teenager Mr. Stark, no one wants a teenager. They eat more, hell get into fights. They never get adopted, so foster homes always know that when they get a teenager their there for the long haul, until 18. Until they age out. So I just, made myself as scarce as possible you know." Peter elaborated.
"Well, we will certainly circle back to why you thought going out and getting into fights wasn't an idiotic idea. But for now kid, I get why in that stupid teenage brain of yours you thought you had to, be 'scarce' as much as possible." Tony, seemingly satisfied with the explanation moved on.
"Now, Happy. To the tower. We got to celebrate. Ah ah, no buts kid." Stark said.
So Peter just sat back quietly as he went to the tower. The Avengers were ecstatic that he had finally accepted and would be around once a week.
He stayed there for a few hours celebrating, mostly by playing Mario Cart and absolutely demolishing them all. Then he went home and told Ms. Bea.
She was confused to start, not even knowing that Peter had somehow known Tony Stark let alone the Avengers. Then she tried to argue against this 'paid internship' but Peter, after a lot of back and forth, managed to convince her that it was a good thing.
A good thing to get money to help out at the home, and a good thing for his future. It would look great on college applications and resumes and alike. That was what tipped the scales in his favor.
It wasn't what he, or the headmistress, wanted per say, but Peter was gonna have to make this work.
A Few Weeks Later
"Aw come on kid! This is the third time this week alone!" Stark exclaimed.
"Sorry Mr. Stark, just face it. I'm better at trivia then you." Peter said shrugging.
It had been awhile since Peter had accepted the internship, and he and Mr. Stark were pretty close. Peter was ok with the Avengers, but he was totally different with Mr. Stark. He opened himself up more.
But Peter wasn't totally honest with them. He still hid Spider Man from them. It had been roughly 5 weeks since Spider Man had a run in with the Avengers.
So Peter assumed Fury and Shield had finally given up on him. Which was a good thing.
Peter on the other hand was thriving. He used the money from the internship for bills, so Ms. Bea didn't have to work as much.
She still had to work a lot. Mr. Stark had offered to just pay his bills for him, but Peter couldn't possibly accept. That was a quality Mr. Stark loved in the kid, just how humble he was.
And humble Peter was, Stark offered him an outrageous salary to which he promptly denied and accepted a much lower amount. Not quite minimum wage, more like what the lowest of interns who ran coffee and such would get paid.
Which was more than enough for Peter.
He more often than not helped Mr. Stark and sometimes Dr. Banner, in the labs on his internship days. That's what he was hired for anyhow.
That didn't mean he didn't have little things going with some of the other Avengers. Peter and Clint particularly got along when it came to pranking the others, man Mr. Stark had been pissed when he and Clint painted one of his suits bright pink with pride stickers all over it.
"At least I'll have something to wear if I ever go to a pride parade." Was what Mr. Stark resigned too after the fact.
Peter and Thor had bonded after he showed the Asgardian what Poptarts were, let's just say when Mr. Stark got a bill for almost a thousand dollars in poptarts he was well confused.
Clint often pranked Thor by exchanging all the chocolate poptarts for plain ones, which as you can guess went over great every time.
Peter and Captain America found a consolidation in where they grew up surprisingly. Peter brought in sandwiches from Delmar's one day which in turn turned Steve's head to grab one every couple days on his run around the boroughs.
They also bonded when Peter bought him a mini sketchbook and pencil set to use if he ever wanted to stop and draw a scene while running.
Even with Bruce Banner he had a few running gags, mostly just them making chemistry puns at each other like snickering children that everyone was let out of the joke on.
Mr. Stark sometimes understood, others he was as clueless as the rest of the Avengers. But without fail every time either made a joke he would groan with cringe. It was nice, to have little things with all of them, well, except Natasha.
She always kept at a distance from him, constantly studying him. It had his Spider sense at a medium buzz the entire time he was at the tower.
Peter couldn't blame her, he was actually keeping things hidden, but when she watched his every move it of course made him cautious and uncomfortable. How could it not.
But wow, things with Mr. Stark were the greatest. He could just be his smart goofy self with him. Mr. Stark listened to his ideas and included him when they worked together and let him run free on some of his own things too!
He got so comfortable with Mr. Stark he even started talking about his life a little. Small things, like about Flash, to which Mr. Stark offered to do unspeakable things. Of course Peter laughed and denied.
Doesn't mean that M. Stark didn't make a call to some university heads to be on the watch out for a 'Flash Thompson'. Luckily that wasn't his legal name and so the calls wouldn't do anything in actuality.
Mr. Stark cared. It was something Peter had seldomly felt in a long time. But with that came the other side of him that was scared, because what if Mr. Stark found out his identity, what if he never spoke to him again.
What if, What if, What if.
The worry never left Peter's mind. He simply chose to feel the good moments as they came and to relish them because the day was eventually going to come when they all found out and would leave Peter just like everyone always had.
Or the day when his Parker Luck would be in full swing and he would lose them like he lost everyone else...Peter shook that thought away.
One day Peter was working in the lab alone, Tony and Bruce having been in a short meeting with the Avengers, when all of a sudden the lights went out. Peter called out for Friday but to no avail.
His sense flared, but before be could do anything he felt a cold wash over him.
Then he felt a prick on the back of his neck, and he blacked out.
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Not too much to say this time tbh. Here, have the re-written version of this haha.
Word Count; 2115