Today, Peter decided as he headed out the main doors of the school, was just a day he would be glad to throw away and forget about for the rest of his life.

No, there was no world ending catastrophe, no one died, no one was badly injured. It was just a terrible day in general. Ned was sick with the flu and Michelle's parents had pulled her out of school to attend a protest she had been talking about nonstop for days. He had a Spanish quiz he had forgotten to study for over preterite versus imperfect verbs, and he had had a very long patrol the night before thanks to a very persistent and slippery group of muggers he chased for several hours before being able to finally corner them. So, all in all, Peter was ready to head home, eat something, then pass out on his bed.

Unfortunately, Fate had other plans.

"HEY PENIS!" Peter winced at Flash's nickname. Even though he was used to it, he certainly didn't enjoy it. He elected to ignore Flash, hoping he'd give up. "Hey Penis, I'm talking to you! Are you deaf now?" Peter grimaced. Thanks to his enhanced abilities, he didn't think he ever could go deaf. Not that he couldn't wish.

"What do you want Flash?" Peter asked tiredly. Maybe he could just deal with this quickly and get home to Aunt May and his comfortable bed.

"Just wanted to ask what it's like working for Tony Stark, but then I remembered that you made that story up for attention!" Flash yelled. If Peter had had the energy to roll his eyes, he would have.

"I told you, I don't work for Mr. Stark, I intern for him. Two very different things," Peter retorted. Flash scoffed.

"Oh please, Tony Stark would never even spare you a second glance, let alone have you intern for him. Tony Stark doesn't even take interns!" Flash sneered. He was following Peter down the front steps of the school now, and once he reached the bottom step, Peter's spidey sense went off. Sure enough, he felt a force push him through his backpack and he sprawled onto the ground. Peter grunted, trying to ignore Flash's cruel laughter. Even though he had advanced healing, it certainly didn't help his pain tolerance. He pushed himself up, pulling bits of rocks out of his palms. He wasn't bleeding, which was good. All of sudden, there was a new voice above him.

"What is going on here?"

Peter's head shot up to see Tony standing a few feet away. He had a blank facial expression, but Peter could sense the coolness in it.

"Mr. Stark!" Peter exclaimed.

"Holy shit," he heard behind him. He turned around and saw Flash with his mouth hanging open. He seemed to recover quickly, pulling his facial expression into one of calm. "So, Mr. Stark, can I ask you a question?" he asked.

"You just did. If you intend to ask me another one, I won't guarantee an answer," Tony said, glancing over at him but keeping most of his focus on Peter.

"So, do you know who he is? Or have you never seen him before in your life?" Flash asked, confident that Tony would say he didn't know who Peter was.

"Excuse me?" Tony asked, shifting his focus on Flash and giving him a withering glare. "This is Peter Parker, my intern. Who are you?" Flash's mouth dropped open. A few seconds passed. "Well?"

"Oh, uh, Flash Thompson sir," Flash said, clearly at a loss for words. Tony raised his eyebrows.

"Ah yes, I've heard of you." Flash's eyes grew hopefully, "You're the one that has such a huge ego and need to prove yourself that you terrorize Peter, despite the fact that ten million of you would never be worth one of him." Flash's eyes widened. "And if I ever hear something, or God forbid, see something like this happen again, I will personally contact any university worth a grain of salt and make sure they know to never accept you into their doors." Tony paused for a moment to revel in the terrified look on his face. "Are we clear?" There was a moment where Flash stood frozen in shock. "I said, are. We. Clear?" Tony spat. Flash quickly and furiously began to nod his head so hard it looked as though it would fly off at any second. "Good. Now, leave us alone." With another nod, Flash scurried off. Tony let out a triumphant smirk. He turned to Peter. "Ready to go Peter?" he asked, looking back over at the boy. Peter, looking at the ground, shrugged and began walking over to where the car was always parked when Tony picked him up. He was silent for the first minute or so of the ride.

"Why did you come pick me up?" he finally asked. Tony raised his eyebrows.

"It's Wednesday," he said. "You come to the lab every Wednesday. Did you forget about that? I'm hurt," he joked, trying to lighten the mood. Peter shook his head, gazing out the window.

"Just forgot what day it was," he said. There were a few more minutes of silence, then Tony huffed.

"Okay, what gives, you're always talking up a storm whenever you're, well, conscious, so why the sudden silence?" he asked. There was a pause. "Seriously Pete, what's wrong? Was it something that Flash guy did? Because if so, I'm gonna personally go and..."

"It wasn't Flash," Peter cut it. He paused. "It was you."

Tony almost crashed the car. What? What could he have possibly done? Immediately his mind ran through every interaction from the time he met Peter until the current moment in the car.

"What?" he asked in almost a whisper.

"What you did with Flash was not cool. You just threatened to destroy the life of a teenager, and for what?" Peter said, clearly angry. Tony was at a loss for words.

"I just stopped a guy from picking on you and prevented it happening in the future, and you're mad at me?" Tony asked, frustration and confusion filling his words.

"Yes! Because you know what? It's nothing I couldn't handle on my own. I have told you about this before. You knew that he gave me a hard time at school. But you promised that you'd stay out of it because I asked you to. And you also promised to let me fight my own fights. But you didn't, and it kind of feels like that means you don't trust me enough to protect myself, despite the fact that I have been doing that again and again since I first became Spiderman!" As he spoke, Peter's voice got louder and thicker. This left Tony at a loss for words. Suddenly, the memory popped up of a conversation they had had months prior.

"Flash? What a stupid name. And he has the guts to try and mess with you?"

"His real name is Eugene, and yes. He does."

"You want me to scare him off?"

"No, I can handle him. I heal quick, and can take things better than others, so I would rather him take his frustrations out on me."

"Seriously? Hold on, let me look him up."

"No! Please, just this once, promise me you'll stay out of it Mr. Stark. Please?"

A pause.

"Alright kid, if I have to. I don't like it though."

"Shit, I'm sorry kid. I forgot about that." He glanced over at Peter, still holding his gaze put the window. "I just, well I guess I just like you too much kid, and I hate to see someone hurting you." At this, Peter's eyes darted over to meet his for a brief moment before Tony had to turn his eyes to the road.

""Well, that's unfortunate, given that people try to beat me up every night," and try to kill me every other, he thought, but didn't day say aloud. Tony's lips pressed into a thin line.

"Yeah, but I generally don't have to see that," he tried to joke, but his facial expression caused it to go flat. There was another brief pause before he added, "I am sorry though. Any way I could make up for it?" he asked hopefully. Peter looked lost in thought for a second, before replying,

"An apology to Flash tomorrow, and an ice cream cone," he said a somewhat sly smile on his face. Tony rolled his eyes, but a small smile appeared.

"Alright kid, alright."

And even though his apology was somewhat stiff to Flash the next day, and Flash still looked terrified of him afterwards, the ice cream cone was delicious, and hanging out in the lab was exactly what Peter needed to unwind after a day like that.

Alright, and with that, we are done with the first oneshot! Please, feel free to leave any requests, or else there will not be much of this book. Anyways, see ya!