First Meetings
As the final bell rang, Peter gathered his things, throwing everything into his rucksack and swinging it over his shoulder. He headed for the classroom door, Ned falling into step beside him.
"Dude, have you got your internship today?" his best friend asked.
Peter nodded. "Yeah, I'm going to the compound now."
"Will you have time to hang out this weekend? I was going to build the Millenium Falcon. It would be cool if we could do it together."
Peter turned to look at his friend, eyes wide. "That's awesome!" he declared, grinning widely.
"Seriously? Have you got time?" Ned asked, and Peter felt guilty at how hopeful Ned sounded. Admittedly, he hadn't spent much time with his best friend outside of school or decathlon recently.
"Yeah," Peter agreed. "Tomorrow afternoon? I'm at the Tower in the morning."
They had made it outside and Peter was waiting for Ned's response to his suggestion but his friend was silent. He glanced over his shoulder to see the Lego enthusiast frozen a few steps behind him, staring wide-eyed at some point beyond Peter.
"Ned?"
"Dude," Ned breathed out. "Is that Tony Stark?"
"Wha-?" Peter began, turning. He whipped around, expecting to see the familiar black Audi that Happy usually picked him up in. Instead, he was greeted by an orange sports car that Peter recognized at Tony's Saleen S7. As if the obnoxiously expensive car wasn't confirmation enough that Happy was not the one picking him up today, the face of Stark Industries himself was leaning against the driver-side door looking at his phone.
Before Peter could collect himself, his best friend was tugging on his elbow. "Peter, introduce me. Please?"
The teen could only swallow, nodding dumbly as his feet guided him past the crowd of students that had stopped to stare at the billionaire casually hanging around in their school car park. As the two boys approached, Tony looked up and smiled, pocketing his phone.
"Hey kid," he said casually. "How was school?"
"Hey Mr Stark," Peter returned, feeling his cheeks burn under the scrutiny of all the students watching. "What- what, uh… where's Happy?"
"My staff are entitled to annual leave, kid," Tony answered, though he was smirking. "So I thought I would, you know, swing by and pick you up."
Peter could only stare back wide-eyed but the sound of his friend almost choking at Tony's joke drew his attention, and he stepped aside.
"Uh Mr Stark, this is my friend, Ned Leeds. Ned, Mr Stark," he introduced awkwardly. He wasn't sure how Tony would feel about him introducing any of his friends so he was relieved when his mentor stepped forward and offered his hand, which Ned reached for, shaking enthusiastically.
"It's an honour to meet you Mr Stark. I'm a big fan!"
"It's a pleasure, Mr Leeds," Tony returned. Then as they released each other's hands, the billionaire frowned. "Ned?" he mused to himself, and he pointed at said teen. "You're the guy in the chair?"
Ned's face lit up like a child's on Christmas morning, his head nodding enthusiastically. He turned to Peter, mouthing 'He knows me!'
Tony smirked. "You're the guy who hacked my suit."
Just as quickly, Ned's face fell, his mouth opening and closing before he sputtered. "Mr Stark, I'm- I'm so sorry. It's just, you know, guy in the chair… I told Peter it was a bad idea but-!"
Peter was already smirking by the time Tony laughed. "Relax Mr Leeds," the genius interrupted as he clapped a hand on the squirming teen's shoulder. "That was some impressive hacking skills. I do hope your future lies with Stark Industries, that's for sure."
Ned froze for a moment before he processed what he'd just heard, and he was grinning once again. "Wow, thanks Mr Stark!"
Tony smiled in return before turning to Peter. "You ready?" Peter nodded, and Tony turned back to Ned. "Can we drop you off somewhere?"
Peter could only grin at the pure joy and amazement on his friend's face. Ned looked to him as if asking permission and Peter nodded. As they all clambered into the car, Peter and Tony were both smirking as Ned gushed about how he was getting a ride from Tony Stark.
The drive to Ned's house wasn't far, and was almost entirely taken up with Ned talking, mostly about how amazing it was to be in one of Iron Man's cars. Peter had to agree but he tried not to let his own excitement show, knowing that his mentor would never let him hear the end of it.
"Wow," Ned said suddenly. "It's so amazing how things turned out."
Tony frowned. "What do you mean?"
"You know, Peter becoming your intern after you met all those years ago," Ned answered.
The billionaire glanced sideways at Peter, who suddenly looked a bit flushed, before answering, "Years? It's just coming up for a year since I turned up at Pete's apartment."
"No, the first time. At the Stark Ex-," Ned began.
"Oh look, Ned, we're here. This is your stop!" Peter broke in, pointing to a house a few doors down. "Pull in, Mr Stark. This is Ned's stop!"
If Ned was annoyed at being interrupted, he didn't show it, and Tony did as instructed.
"Thanks for the ride, Mr Stark," Ned said, before turning to Peter. "Text me if you still want to hang out tomorrow, yeah?" When Peter nodded, a rather strained smile on his face, Ned grinned and shut the door.
As Ned's front door closed behind him, Peter released a breath before glancing at his mentor who was looking at him questioningly. He knew Tony was about to ask so he deflected before he could.
"So, what are we doing today, Mr Stark?"
Tony held his gaze a moment before checking his mirrors and pulling back out to continue their journey. "Want to look at my suits?"
Peter's eyes went wide. "The Iron Man suits?"
"No, the ones I get from my tailor," Tony answered sarcastically. "Of course the Iron Man suits." He chanced a glance at the kid who was grinning, and Tony couldn't stop himself from smiling too.
When they arrived at the compound, they headed into the elevator.
"FRIDAY, take us to the kitchen please," Tony instructed.
"Sure thing, Boss."
Peter frowned at his mentor. "I thought we were working on the suits?"
"We are," Tony agreed. "But a growing Spiderling has to eat, especially when he has an enhanced metabolism." He glanced at his protégé who rolled his eyes but still smiled.
The elevator doors opened and they walked out into the common room. Tony headed straight into the kitchen, opening a box of pop tarts and putting them all into the toaster. He turned to find Peter gazing at him questioningly.
"Make yourself useful," he instructed. "Grab some drinks." He jerked his thumb towards the fridge and obediently, Peter traipsed over to get some sodas and then headed to the cupboards to collect glasses.
Minutes later, they were sat at the worktop with a plate of pop tarts placed in the centre. Peter had taken one bite when Tony launched his attack.
"So, we met at a Stark Expo?"
Peter choked on the mouthful of pop tart he had just taken, smacking on his chest and coughing to dislodge it. His eyes watered and he took a large gulp of soda before he managed to compose himself. "What? He asked breathlessly.
Tony smirked. "You really think I didn't work out what Ned was saying?" he asked. When Peter didn't react, he pressed, "Go on then, tell me. Was it a meet and greet? Did you get my autograph?"
With very deliberate movements, Peter placed the remains of his pop tart down and clasped his hands. He took a deep breath.
"No, May and Ben took me as an early birthday present. I was a big fan of Iron Man, not to mention I thought the science behind the Arc Reactor was super cool. We, uh, we could only afford the cheap tickets so we were just looking around some of the exhibits. We couldn't go into the demonstrations or anything."
Peter was looking at his hands, which had began fidgeting as he started talking and Tony watched him carefully, his own smile slipping from his face as he listened. He had thought he was about to get some kind of embarrassing story about the kid he could rib him for later but he had a feeling he'd made a misjudgement.
"It was all so cool, and Ben and May were just happy to see me so excited. And then, all the drones started to go crazy."
Tony felt sick. He had been there in 2010.
"Everyone started running," Peter continued. "I was holding May's hand but someone bumped into me and I lost my grip. I ended up on my own and this drone was right in front of me."
Suddenly, the night came rushing back to Tony and he knew exactly where this story was going but he desperately wanted to be wrong.
"I had on my Iron Man mask and my homemade gauntlet glove, and I wanted to be brave like Iron Man so I raised my hand but then you landed beside me and blasted it away, and you said-!"
"Nice work, kid," Tony finished, voice barely above a whisper.
Peter's head snapped up, eyes wide and the corners of his lips pulled up.
"Yeah!" he exclaimed. "You remember? Mr Stark, this is awes-!"
"Peter!"
The kid jumped and his mouth snapped shut when Tony shouted his name like that. He tried to read his mentor's face, and realized he had seen that expression before, after the ferry incident, and his heart sank. He opened his mouth to apologise when Tony spoke again.
"Do you have any idea how close I was to not getting there in time? You could have died!"
Peter frowned. The expression may have been the same but the tone was different. After the ferry, anger had coloured the billionaire's tone. This time it was softer, almost pleading, like the man was afraid.
"But you saved me," Peter pointed out. "That was the coolest thing that ever happened to me. Of course, nobody believed me except for May, Ben and Ned. Ned even said that it made me your sidekick!"
Tony huffed out a laugh but he couldn't let go of the horror that had gripped him. The same horror he had felt on that day when he watched a kid try and stand up to a Hammer drone with a toy repulsor, and the sheer panic that he might not make it on time.
He quirked an eyebrow as he levelled Peter with a deadpan stare. "So just to be clear, you've never had any self-preservation instincts? They didn't disappear after the spider bite?"
He tried to hide his smirk when Peter scowled. "What was I supposed to do?" the kid challenged. "Iron Man wouldn't have run away."
Tony shook his head in exasperation as he remembered a previous conversation with the kid. 'I just wanted to be like you!'
"Yeah, well," Tony muttered, "Iron Man also has real repulsors. Not a flashlight sewn into a glove."
"Hey," Peter said defensively, "I made those gloves myself!"
Tony snorted, and with another shake of his head, replied, "Well, we've got real repulsors to go look at. So shut up and eat your pop tarts."
As the kid resumed his snack, Tony had never felt more grateful for having saved someone.
'Peter Parker, giving me grey hairs since 2010.'
Tony wondered how he could wrap this kid in a protective bubble and never let him leave.