In hindsight, Peter should have known that the field trip to the Avengers compound was a bad idea. He didn't exactly have the best track record when it came to field trips. He told May as much when he asked her to sign the permission slip.
"Peter," she had said, thinking he was embarrassed about his "internship" and school life clashing. "I get it if you're worried about Tony and the others embarrassing you-"
"No, it's not about that." He cut her off. "I want to go, I mean, it'll get Flash off my back about the internship being fake but, I don't know, I just have this bad feeling about it."
At that, she frowned. "Should I call Tony?" He shook his head. "No, it's fine. I'm probably just being paranoid."
"Ok," May said, but she sounded unsure.
He should have let her call Tony.
"Hey Penis," Flash jeered as he got on the bus. "Ready for everyone to see how big of a liar you are?" Peter just rolled his eyes. The bus ride to the compound was long and it was going to be even longer of Flash kept up his snide commentary.
It didn't help that MJ was mad at him. And it was his fault.
He had skipped out on yet another date the night before with a lame-ass excuse about having to stay home to help May despite the fact that he was swinging through Queens chasing a guy in a stolen car as he said it. This was the third date he had bailed on because of Spider-Man and he knew that, after being together for over a year, he should have been able to tell her, but something held him back. She looked up to Spider-Man. He was a badass who saved people and Peter…. wasn't. What if he took off the mask and she was disappointed by what she saw? A part of him said that she wouldn't, that she wasn't like that, but a bigger part of him said she was.
So he kept his mouth shut and she kept being mad.
"Dude," Ned said after Peter tried to get MJ's attention and she ignored him. "Just tell her already." Peter huffed an irritated breath. "It's not that simple Ned, I just….she won't….I can't." There was a tone of finality to his voice but Ned didn't let it go.
"Peter, you guys have been together forever. She's been ok with all your weirdness, why wouldn't she be ok with this?"
Peter didn't answer. He didn't even look at his friend because he knew that when he did, Ned, who knew him better than anyone, would see just how scared he was of losing her. "Look, my point is, if you can't tell her now, you might not ever be able to, so maybe you should just get it over with. That way she'll stop being mad at you and it will be less awkward for me." Peter laughed, rolling his eyes. "Ok, whatever Ned."
Despite the playful lilt to his voice, anxiety clenched in his stomach like a vice. What if Ned was right? What if Peter could never tell MJ who he was, and he lost her forever because of it?
Flash, surprisingly, left Peter alone for most of the trip.
Until it was time to get off the bus.
Peter had jumped up from his seat before the driver had even stopped, desperate to get off the loud, claustrophobic vehicle, when Flash stuck his foot out into the aisle, sending Peter sprawling. " ," scolded sharply. "That's quite enough. You're representing Midtown Tech on this trip and I expect you to be on your best behavior. That goes for all of you."
"Sure thing Mr. H," Flash said with a shit-eating grin. "I'll see you inside Penis." Peter bit his tongue, cutting off his angry retort as he picked himself up off the floor and hauled himself off the bus.
"Are you ok?" a voice asked from behind him, and he turned to see MJ, her eyebrows raised. He was so stunned that he stared at her dumbly for a moment before saying, "Yeah. Flash is an idiot, nothing I can't handle." She smirked a little at that, which she tried desperately to hide, and Peter felt his heart skip in his chest. It was one of the things he loved most about her: that smile that was so rare when they first started dating but over time, started to appear more and more. Not the sardonic smirk that she showed to the rest of the world but a genuinely happy smile that she saved for the people she loved.
His conversation with Ned on the bus rang through his brain like a church bell.
Just tell her or might not ever be able to.
He made his decision before he could think twice about it. "Hey," he stopped walking and grabbed her gently by the elbow, spinning her so she was facing him. "I'm sorry about last night, I….um….I just….I have something to tell you." It was as if a wall went up in MJ's eyes and she huffed an angry breath. "Look, Peter, if you're going to break up with me at least tell me so I'm not wasting my time trying to-"
"What?!" He cut her off, his thought process coming to a screeching halt. "Wait, MJ no, that's not what I was doing at all." She must have heard the sincerity in his voice because her expression softened slightly. "There's just a lot going on, not that that's an excuse but-" he ran a hand through his hair, frustrated with his rambling. "You're important to me MJ and you deserve better than this. Just, please, give me a chance to explain."
She studied him for a moment and he was afraid that she was going to refuse but instead, she nodded. "Ok. Come with me to my car after we get back to school and we can-"
"Jones! Parker!" called from the main entrance of the compound. "Let's go! We don't have all day!" MJ rolled her eyes but complied.
"After school," Peter said and he just managed to catch her nod before a tour guide joined them. Peter knew him; he was a freshman in college, Ean, Peter thought his name was, with short brown hair and thick-rimmed glasses. He was nice enough, and upon seeing Peter's class he smiled brightly. "Hello, Midtown Tech. My name is Ean," Peter mentally high-fived himself for getting it right. "And I'll be your tour guide today. Oh, hey Peter!"
Everyone turned to stare at Peter as he waved and he couldn't help but feel smug at the shocked expression on Flash's face. Ean cleared his throat, drawing everyone's attention back to him. "Now, in order to get into the compound you'll have to have these." he pulled a plastic visitors lanyard out of the container he carried and held it up for everyone to see. "Each of you has one that you'll have to scan coming in the door. These passes will only work once, so once you leave, if you try to scan this again, FRIDAY will not let you into the building. Peter, I assume you already have yours?" Peter nodded, holding up the pass he pulled from his backpack.
"Who's FRIDAY?" a girl near the front asked.
"An AI created by Tony Stark. She practically runs the whole facility." Ean responded. "She'll call out your name when you scan your pass so don't be alarmed." He demonstrated, scanning his pass and waiting for the light above the door to turn from red to green.
"Ean Sinclair. Level 2." FRIDAY's monotone voice sounded.
"Oh, that's another thing," Ean said as Peter's classmates began to walk through the door. "Everyone needs a pass to get into the compound, but there are different levels of access that passes can give you. You're visitors, which means you're at Level 1." He explained. "Level 2 is for tour guides, janitors, lower level staff. Level 3 is for interns, Level 4 is for government officials and scientists that work with and Level 5 is for the Avengers, their families, and Stark Industries CEO Pepper Potts. Any questions so far?"
To Peter's dread, Flash's hand shot up. "Yeah?" Ean pointed at him.
"Does the compound offer internships to high school students?"
"No, most of the interns here are college students," Ean answered, causing Flash to grin maliciously. "But there are a few rare exceptions, like Peter. He was chosen by Tony Stark as a personal intern so, even though he's only in high school, here he is. Maybe if you get picked by an Avenger," he continued, a mocking edge to his voice. "You can intern here too."
Flash's face flushed bright red and Peter could feel the heat of his glare as he, one of the last students in line, scanned his pass.
"Peter Parker. Level 5. Welcome back, sir." FRIDAY almost sounded happy to see him.
"Hey FRIDAY."
Everyone's eyes were on him. Even MJ looked a little impressed. "How is he a Level 5?" Flash cried. "You said interns were Level 3!"
"I also said that Peter was an exception. He's 's personal intern." Peter could have sworn he saw Ean wink at him before he turned and led the group through the building. "So today we'll walk through hear, which is our main building and look at the lab where most of the Avengers tech is built and then we'll go out there," he pointed out the window where a small concrete shop could be seen. "And you'll get the chance to meet Tony Stark and ask him some questions."
The students chattered excitedly, including Ned, who leaned over to whisper in Peter's ear. "Dude, this is so cool! I can't believe that you get to hang out here every week!"
Peter wanted to say that he couldn't believe it either but he couldn't speak around the nauseous feeling crawling up his throat. It was the same feeling he had told May about yesterday.
This wasn't good.
There weren't as many people in the lab as he was used to. A few scientists lingered, tinkering with various machines and chemicals, and Bruce Banner stood among them, bent over Peter's Iron Spider suit. "Alright everyone," Ean said as they all filed into the large space. "This is where the magic happens. Or most of it." Bruce looked up at the sound of the tour guides voice. He frowned upon seeing Peter but his eyes widened in understanding as he took in the high schoolers around them. Peter supposed it was hard for him, someone who rarely ever left the compound, to remember that some of the Avengers had lives outside of hero work.
"Hello everyone," he said reservedly. "I'm ." he paused, not sure what to say. "Does anyone have any questions for me?"
Nearly everyone's hand shot up in the air.
"Yeah," Bruce said, pointing to a redhead in the front of the group. "What do you do when you're not out being the Hulk?" Banner winced at the name of his green counterpart but answered her question nonetheless. "Well um, the Hulk is usually only used for heavy-duty missions, which don't happen often thankfully. So mostly I'm here," He held his arms out to the lab around him, a small smile in his face, and for a second he reminded Peter of Tony. "Working with tech or patching up people that need to be."
The redhead nodded as he moved on to the next question. "What's that?" The dark-skinned boy standing next to Peter asked, pointing to the spider suit on the worktable. "My latest project," Bruce answered. "Spider-Man got pretty banged up on his last mission so we're just trying to fix the tech that got damaged."
Out of the corner of his eye, Peter could see Ned glance at him worriedly and he flinched at the memory of the night before. After he got off the phone with MJ, he had dropped down into the street, searching for the stolen SUV that had somehow slipped out of his sight. He was only half paying attention, his guilt at lying to MJ eating away at him, so he hadn't seen the car as it came barreling down the street towards him, his spidey-sense screaming at him to move out of the way.
It wasn't a fast enough warning.
As he jumped his foot caught on the bumper, arresting his escape and sending him rolling over the top of the SUV and crashing to the pavement hard. He had managed to catch the guys that had stolen the car but had walked into his apartment with a sprained ankle and multiple bruised ribs. He could still feel the ache in his chest as he did his best to pay attention to what Bruce was saying.
"We're also trying to upgrade his AI so that he can't so easily override protocol and hide his injuries from us." He shot Peter a meaningful look that was gone before anyone else could notice it and he glared in response. He didn't need a lecture from Bruce right now, even if it was only through eye contact.
"Yo Banner." Every head in the room turned towards the new voice and was met with Clint Barton, trailed by Natasha Romanoff. "How's it going with those new arrows I asked for?"
Bruce sighed and reached behind the worktable to pull out a quiver. "Finished."
"Awesome." Clint took the quiver and pulled out a single sleek black arrow, studying it as though it were a fascinating specimen. "Who are they?" Natasha asked, gesturing towards Peter's class with her head. "Tour group from Midtown Tech," Bruce replied and at Nat's frown, elaborated. "A high school downtown."
"Midtown Tech," Clint muttered. "Isn't that-" his eyes scanned the group and stopped when they landed on Peter. "Parker! Great job with that car-" Peter's eyes widened in horror. This was it. Clint fucking Barton was about to tell his whole class about Spider-Man.
The archer scrambled to pave over his mistake. "Um, great job with the project last night. You did a good job." Peter sighed and put his head in his hands. He knew Clint was trying to help but he wished he wouldn't because he could practically feel Michelle's glare searing into him. "So you were here last night. I thought you had to help May?"
"MJ-"
"So this is the girlfriend I've heard so much about?" Natasha inquired smoothly. "It's very nice to meet you." She held out her hand and MJ's expression melted from furious to flattered. "You too ."
"Please, Natasha's fine." MJ flushed. "Natasha."
The assassin chuckled at her embarrassment and Peter silently thanked the gods for her as she turned her attention to the rest for the class, the question of Peter's whereabouts the night before forgotten. "Well then, does anyone have any questions for us while we're here?" Just as they had with Bruce, nearly every hand shot up in the air.
"What's new about those arrows?" Betty asked. "They've got some sort of nanotech in them," Clint said. "So when I shoot them, they come back to me."
Another girl, Diana, raised her hand and when Nat called on her she was so flustered she could barely get her question out. "Oh um, I-I was just wondering what kind of training you guys have to do to get as good at fighting as you are?"
Clint and Nat exchanged a look before Clint grinned. "I'll show you. Follow me." He lead them out of the lab and down the hallway to the elevator, which they took to the fourth floor, and the doors opened to a massive room that was nearly twice the size of Midtown's gym.
A mat was laid out on the floor and various targets for arrows, guns and throwing knives lined one wall. A few punching bags hung from the ceiling at the back of the room near rows of weight-lifting equipment and long spars hung on racks, waiting to be used. Peter was all too familiar with this room. He spent hours in here every week, at the insistence of the other Avengers, training with Bucky, Nat, Clint, and even Thor when he was around.
Steve and Bucky stood at the back of the room, taking turns spotting each other as they each took swings at a demolished punching bag. "Boys!" Nat called. "Come here." Steve turned away from the punching bag, using the back of his hand to wipe sweat from his forehead. "Hello everyone. I'm Steve Rogers. Welcome to the compound." Bucky didn't give more than a small wave and Peter noticed how uncomfortable he looked, probably able to hear the students nervous whispers. "It's him….the Winter Soldier."
"This is where we train," Nat said, walking backward like a tour guide. "We often use weapons, but we also practice hand-to-hand combat. That's what you'll learn today." She stepped onto the mat and Clint and Steve moved to stand on either side of her. Bucky leaned in to whisper something in Steve's ear before walking out of the room, clapping Peter on the shoulder as he went. Despite all the time he had spent in Wakanda trying to reverse HYDRA's brainwashing, Peter knew he was still afraid of someone saying something that would set him off. Of someone getting hurt because of him.
"Now," Nat continued. "Everyone get into three lines in front of us. We'll teach you some basic blocks and offensive punches and then you'll have a chance to practice with each other."
Peter ended up in Clint's line and when it was finally his turn, he noticed the punches the archer threw were coming faster and harder than they had with the other students, one catching him in the chest and forcing the air out of his lungs. "Dude," Clint whispered. "You know all this stuff already. Why are you letting me kick your ass?"
"Because," Peter hissed, sloppily dodging another punch. "As far as they know, I've never been athletic and you already almost told them about Spider-Man once. I don't think me suddenly being a master of jiu-jitsu is going to help." Clint nodded as if he hadn't considered this. "Fair point."
After a moment, he sent Peter off to practice with everyone else and he paired up with the first person he could find. It was Diana, the timid girl from before and Peter was surprised to see how quickly she had picked up what they had been taught. The Avengers roamed between the pairs of students, correcting form and giving praise when Natasha called for them to rotate and Peter's heart sank.
Flash was his new partner, and he sneered at him as he corrected his form. "I've been waiting for this Parker." Peter just rolled his eyes. He was not in the mood for this right now. "What's your problem Flash?" he asked as he blocked a punch the other boy threw. "No problem. Just trying to figure out whose ass you had to kiss to get the Avengers to lie for you." He threw another punch and Peter gave up on trying to pretend he was uncoordinated, blocking it easily. Flash stumbled but recovered easily.
"I didn't kiss anyone's ass. Even if I had, why would the Avengers lie for me?" "Don't know." Flash huffed. "But I'm going to figure it out."
Peter stopped, staring at his classmate in disbelief. "Are you serious? Why, Flash? Why are you doing this?" Flash didn't miss a beat. "Because you're Penis Parker. Stuff like this doesn't happen for you."
"You're just mad because I have something that you want. That's kind of childish don't you think?"
He regretted saying it the instant it came out of his mouth and before he had a chance to block it, Flash's hand came up and slammed into his face, his head whipping back with neck-breaking force. Natasha had specifically told them they weren't supposed to actually hit each other but he guessed it didn't matter to Flash.
"What's going on?" asked. Everyone had stopped what they were doing to turn and stare and Ned, who was standing at the front of the group, looked horrified. "Peter you're bleeding." Peter pulled his hand away from his face and sure enough, his fingers were slick with blood and he could feel the sting of his split lip as he ran over it with his tongue.
That got 's attention.
" ," he said, barely concealed anger dripping into his voice. "Care to explain?" Flash's face turned bright red, knowing he was in trouble. "It-it was an accident-" "Oh bullshit," MJ said from where she stood next to Ned. "You really expect anyone to believe that when you've had it out for Peter since-"
" ." The teacher cut her off with a wave of his hand. "We will discuss this when we get back to school. , you will spend the remainder of the trip on the bus." Flash opened his mouth to protest but didn't let him get a word in. "As for you , go get yourself cleaned up." Peter nodded curtly and left without another word, taking the door opposite the elevator into the hallway and rounding the corner into the bathroom, brushing off Natasha's hand as she reached out to him.
The sight of his reflection made him freeze. Not only was his lip split but there was a steady stream of blood pouring from his nose, staining his chin and upper lip crimson. He knew it wasn't broken, which was a relief because it would have been hard to explain why it had healed before they got back to school. The biggest pain in the ass though was his lip. Not because it hurt but because everyone in the training room had seen Flash's fist rip it open and now he would have to keep biting it to stop it from healing.
This is just fantastic. He thought as he wiped the blood from his face. My luck with field trips continues.
Looking back, he wished he hadn't let himself believe that getting punched in the face was the worse part.
When Peter regrouped with his class they were already in the small garage Ean had pointed out earlier. It was a part of the compound Peter was rarely ever in, as it was mostly reserved for tours. It was set up like a gallery; glass cases stood all around the room, holding old suits, weapons, and tech. One of 's original Iron Man suits sat in a case along with the first arc reactor and Peter's "onesie".
stood at the front of the room and he gave Peter a strange look as he walked in as if to say What the hell happened to you? The kid just shook his head, opting to lean against one of the pillars by the window, not even bothering to pretend he was listening to what his mentor was saying.
Instead, he watched out the window as a black van pulled up outside the gate of the compound. There was a brief pause before the gate opened and the van rolled to a stop in front of the building Peter stood in. At first, he thought nothing of it, until the driver jumped out of the car and his spidey-sense flared.
The man was carrying a gun.
"Get down!" he yelled. "Everybody get down!" He ran for the group and caught sight of Tony raising his arm to summon a suit before the floor-to-ceiling windows Peter had been looking through a moment before blew out, sending him flying to the side.
His ears were ringing and he struggled to blink black spots out of his vision as Tony and Ean rushed to help his classmates stand and escape through the back door of the garage. Though a few of them had cuts and limps, none of them seemed severely injured and Peter was relieved when he saw the last of them slip out the door. He hadn't been able to pick out Ned or MJ in the fleeing crowd, but he prayed to God that they had the good sense to get as far away from there as possible.
There had been five men in the truck, all carrying weapons, and they all filed in through the remains of the broken window one by one. On their jackets, Peter could see the octopus emblem of HYDRA.
"Well, well. What do we have here?" One of them asked upon seeing Peter. "A scrawny kid who thinks he can be the hero?" Peter laughed dryly. "Not exactly." Before the man could raise his gun again, Peter webbed it and hit him in the face. He fell to the floor, boneless, and Peter tossed the gun across the room before turning to the others. "Anyone else?"
He barely had enough time to jump out of the way before a guy in the back raised his gun and fired it in Peter's direction. He sprung backward and ducked behind a pillar breathing hard. He could feel it vibrate against his back as bullet after bullet was fired and each wound up lodged in the stone.
"So I see what you wanted to talk about after school."
Peter froze in horror.
Crouched behind the pillar next to him was MJ. There was blood on her face and Peter's first reaction was to panic. "MJ what are you doing here?"
"I didn't see you leave, I wasn't going to go without you."
Peter both loved and hated her for it.
"MJ you need to get out of here-" "No." she said glancing around them quickly before lowering her voice. "I am not some damsel in distress ok, I don't need you to save me, so I am not going anywhere." Peter could feel his panic rising as the gunmen's footsteps drew closer and he prayed that Tony had called for backup, that the other Avengers would come busting through the door and that, for once in her life, Michelle would stop being so stubborn and go.
"I know you're not," he said, grabbing hold of her shoulders. "But these guys….they're….if something happened to you I'd never….I need you to get out of here please."
He never gave her the chance to respond, because at that moment Tony, fully suited, came running back into the building and Peter practically shoved MJ at him. "Tony get her out of here!" To his surprise, she didn't fight it as carried her out of the building and he finally let out the breath he had been holding. "Ok," he said, turning back to the four men he had left standing. "Let's do this."
The fight ended quickly and before he knew it Peter was running out of the gallery, scanning the crowd of medics and terrified teenagers for MJ. He finally found her with Ned, Tony, and Bruce, who was finishing off stitches for a gash in her forehead and when she saw him she stood, despite Bruce's protests and threw her arms around him, whispering a string of curses in his ear.
"Ok, ok MJ, I get it." He chuckled, running his thumb lightly over her stitches. She caught at his hand and squeezed his fingers. "Peter, I'm ok." He studied her, searching for any sign of untruth but finding none. Instead, he found concern, fear, though he didn't think it was for herself, and….understanding? That one confused him.
"Did you know?" he asked. "About….this?" he gestured to the web shooters on his wrists and she sighed. "I had my suspicions. I mean, it wasn't hard to guess with all your lame-ass excuses for missed practices or whatever. You disappear, Spider-Man shows up. I don't know, I guess I was just hoping…."
Peter's heart sank. It was exactly what he was afraid of.
"You're disappointed that it's me."
"Not for the reason you think," she said and when he started to turn away she reached up and touched his face, forcing him to look at her. "Hey. I'm disappointed because everything I've seen about Spider-Man is something about him getting shot at or almost being run over by a car or being trapped under a collapsed building. I just….I…." Peter stared at her. It was probably the first time he had ever seen MJ get flustered about anything.
"You're not the only person afraid of losing someone."
If he didn't have enhanced hearing, he was sure he wouldn't have heard it. MJ looked frightened, vulnerable in a way he had never seen her and it left him speechless. So instead of trying to find comforting words he knew would be useless he leaned down and kissed her. For a moment she hesitated but then her arms went around him and his senses blurred.
"I love you." He said when they broke apart and she rolled her eyes, a grin splitting her face. "I love you too loser."
He was about to make a joke about how she shouldn't call Spider-Man a loser when a voice yelling "Yo Parker!" over his shoulder made him stop. Flash stood behind him, a guilty expression on his face and Peter sighed. He didn't want to deal with this right now.
"What's up Flash?" he asked, trying to keep the irritation out of his voice.
"I just wanted to say thank you for, you know, stopping those guys," he shuffled on his feet uncomfortably. "And um, not kicking the crap out of me when I was a dick to you. You're actually pretty cool Parker." Peter almost managed a smile. "It's no problem. Just doing my job." The other boy laughed and shook his head, muttering something that sounded like "fucking Spider-Man" under his breath.
Peter thought that was the end of it, desperately wanting this conversation to be over, but when did he ever get what he wanted.
"Dude, just wait till we get back to school. Everyone's going to flip."
Peter's blood ran cold.
"What do you mean?" Flash pulled his phone out of his pocket and spent a few moments tapping on the screen before handing it to Peter. On it was a video of the fight with the HYDRA gunmen, and though the video quality was pretty bad, there was no mistaking that it was him in the video. He knew that, if anyone else saw this, there was no hiding that he was Spider-Man.
"You have to delete this," he said, the edge to his voice making it clear that the command was non-negotiable. His classmate stared at his as though head had grown another head. "What? Parker, are you nuts? If people saw this you'd be the coolest kid at school-" "I don't care about that." Peter cut him off. "Flash, my identity is a secret for a reason, so that the bad guys, the dangerous people I've put away, don't trace anything about me back to them," He pointed to where MJ stood with Ned and , watching them warily. "So they can't hurt them. Look, I've put up with your shit for years and you even said I could have kicked your ass, but I didn't so please, I'm begging you, you can't show that video or talk about what happened today to anyone. You owe me that much."
Flash looked surprised at his outburst. Peter was surprised himself. Before he had gotten his powers he never would have dared to talk to Flash this way, but he was desperate. Suddenly, Tony pulled the phone out of his hands and tapped a few buttons, waiting until the video disappeared from the screen completely before handing it back to Flash. "There," the inventor said with a satisfied smirk. "Its taken care of. And you," he pointed a Flash, a threatening phone to his voice. "Are never to speak to anyone about this. Ever. Do you understand?"
Flash looked like he couldn't decide whether to be terrified or amazed that the Tony Stark was acknowledging him. "Y-yes, sir." Then he turned and disappeared into the crowd and Peter could practically feel the relief rolling off him in waves.
"Thank you, Mr. Stark." Tony clapped him on the shoulder. "No problem kid. Just be more careful about revealing your identity next time." Peter knew he was joking but he couldn't stop himself from rolling his eyes.
"Whatever Mr. I am Iron Man."