Peter flopped onto his bed, trying to work through the pros and cons of each of his options. Now that he was sure his powers had been unaffected, the last lose end to tie up from the incident, was schooling.
With the knowledge that the bad guy was a student, the team of superheroes had worked out that it would be most important to keep Peter safe at school. They'd given Peter 2 options: be home schooled, or have one of the family or another super with him at all times. Both were appealing to Peter, but he was indecisive and asked for a few days to think it over. During that time, he'd be missing school so he could figure things out without his family freaking out every time the teen left the Tower. MJ and Ned had left on Sunday to go home, but would be back on Wednesday for a movie night.
Home school had been a favorite daydream of Peter's, especially in his chemistry class. He could do science with his dad and Uncle Bruce, history with his Uncle Steve, reading and writing with his mom, and gym with his Auntie Nat. It'd work out so well, and he wouldn't be bored to death at school!
But he wouldn't see Ned and MJ every day like he was accustomed to. If there was one thing holding Peter back about the decision to be home schooled, it was that. His friends.
Then again, home schooling would make his family safer as well. What if the baddie grabbed one of Peter's family members while they were watching the school?
"Ugh!" Peter grunted and pushed his palms into his eyes, watching as lights danced behind his eye lids. He was too worried about all that could possibly go wrong to make a carefully thought out decision.
Peter eventually decided it was best to simply ignore the issue for now. He could drive himself crazy over it later tonight.
The young man ended up wandering out into the living room. There wasn't much going on, apparently most of the family had gone out. He noticed Steve and Bucky in the corner, talking in low voices, and his father, who was nursing a cup of coffee despite the late hours.
"Should you be drinking that?" The teen flopped into the seat next to his dad. The older man looked up, startled.
"Hey, Underoos. I have a project I want to finish tonight, so I'm trying to stay up." Tony went back to the blueprints in front of him. It was clearly the designs for a new and improved suit. Upon closer inspection, Peter realized it was a suit for him.
"Can I help?" His brown eyes lit up, and Tony chuckled.
"Sure," he shrugged, and the two got up and made their way down to the labs.
Working in the labs was one of Peter's favorite things to do. He was carefree down here, just him, his family when they were around, and science. The chemistry and engineering came easily enough.
After about an hour of idle chit chat and requests like 'can you hand me that?' and 'what about this color?', Peter's father spoke up.
"So," he started. "Have you decided what to do about school yet?"
"no," Peter mumbled. His dad raised an eyebrow, and Peter quickly got to explaining. "I would love to be home schooled, I mean, its a no brainer that I would probably be challenged more here with you all, but... I love seeing Ned and MJ every day at school. I don't want to give up seeing them to stay here and I don't want to go and put you all in danger while you patrol around the school. Plus you guys have other stuff going on!"
Tony chuckled lightly. "Peter, you never look out for yourself. Just pick one. It's not a big deal, one way or another. We'll work it out and we are literally superheroes, its pretty much written into the lifestyle that we will be in danger."
Peter smiled softly.
"If you could pick one, right now, no other people get effected," Tony said, sliding back and putting up his hands. "Which option would you take?"
"Home schooling." Peter didn't even think about it long.
"Then lets do that! We can have Ned and MJ come over on the weekends and whenever else you want, even just to do homework! It'll be good for you to be here instead of dealing with all the crowds and what not."
There was a certain finality to the things Tony said, and Peter simply smiled up at him.
"I guess that takes care of that problem, then."
The two men settled back into their work, Peter now feeling notably more relaxed. He didn't have to make a choice, he could stay home, keep his family safe, and see his friends. He just needed someone else to show him how.
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**A/N: A few things. 1) this chapter was a monster to write, I'm trying to bridge over to the next 'big thing' so these fillers are kind of hard to write and make sure all the little details are right. 2) I will be on hiatus for the next 2 weeks, as I am traveling out of the country for spring break!! I promise to update again when I am back, and I'll probably be back on a Tuesday/Thursday schedule. I have some really fun stuff coming up for the story, so just bear through the short, boring filler and the wait, and then I promise it'll get good ;) 3) I want to thank you all so much, I am beyond ecstatic to be writing this for you all and to have you guys like it! I can't believe I have 3K reads!!!