Peter had hoped. He really had.
And it'd started to seem like his hope would come true as well! They'd gotten through every other one of his classes with only a small dose of mortification dolloped in each, but that was to be expected, really. He would've started to wonder if Mr. Stark was all right if he suddenly just didn't act like… well, himself.
There was only one more class. One more.
Ms. Warren's - his physics professor and the teacher who was going to take his class on the trip to Stark Tower.
As soon as Peter had pointed out which door was his classroom, Tony had come to an abrupt stop, giving him a blank smile before declaring - louder than necessary - that "Nature calls!" and veering off in the direction of the bathrooms. Then the man called over his shoulder, nonchalant as could be, "you go on in first."
Confused and extraordinarily exasperated as he was, go on in Peter did.
He knocked politely on the door before pulling it open, giving his teacher a small wave when she looked up from her desk. "Um. Hi, Ms. Warren," he greeted with a tight smile.
She didn't stand to greet him, instead lowering her glasses a smidge and giving an almost noncommittal hum.
They stayed like that for a few moments longer, Peter starting to fidget, shifting from foot to foot, before she let out a sigh that was a mix of exasperation and disappointment.
"Peter, as I'm sure you're aware, you have to come in with your parental guardian for these parent teacher conferences," she said plainly, still not standing from her desk.
He quickly shook his head, smoothing out his brow when it twitched downwards a hair. "Of course! Aunt May couldn't come but-"
"As far as I'm aware, Aunt May is your only registered guardian, Mr. Parker, so there is no 'but,' she cut in sharply.
Peter very much did not gape at her, his mouth snapping shut with an audible click. He moved forward a step. "I, uh Ms. Warren, I got a new guardian though?" he said a bit tightly, his voice lilting up into a question and making him inwardly wince.
She sighed again, going back to her papers and beginning to mark something as she spoke. "And who, exactly, might that be?" she questioned disinterestedly.
Peter shifted his feet, glancing towards the door and back at his teacher. He scratched at the back of his neck. "Mr. Stark?" he got out, trying and failing to contort his face into a guileless smile.
Her eyes narrowed and she glanced back up at him, her lips turning downwards as she set her pen down with a clack. "Mr. Parker," she began slowly, taking off her glasses and placing them lightly on the table. She squinted slightly and then rubbed at the corners of her eyes with her forefinger and her thumb, sighing again. "I know that most of your teachers may have been more tolerant than I've been about your supposed internship, but I had thought I'd made myself clear on that front," she said evenly.
Peter let out a nervous cough, taking a quick look through the door's window. Still nothing. He met his teacher's eyes and gave a single nod. "Yes, um, I know - I mean, yeah, yes, Ms. Warren, it's just-"
She sighed again, cutting him off with a raised hand. "I could tolerate not bringing this to the attention of the principal when your… disturbances did not affect your classmates to an intolerable level, but now? Peter, I don't think you understand the level of problems you could bring to the school by lying about this kind of stuff. Claiming Tony Stark has not only taken you as a personal intern but now that he's also taken up the role as your legal guardian?" She shook her head, steepling her fingers and looking at him with an unwavering, flat gaze. "I'm afraid I can't sit back any longer."
She certainly seemed to be sitting back, literally, Peter thought as he felt the indignation he'd been pushing back since he'd stepped into her classroom rise to the surface, his cheeks splotching red as he shifted uncomfortably and crossed his arms. "I'm not lying, Ms. Warren," he said quietly, steadily meeting her gaze and refusing to back down. He clenched his jaw and spoke up when he saw her opening her mouth to say something in return. "I've… I've been working for Mr. Stark for two years, Ms. Warren. I mean, the principal knows - so do the other teachers now, I guess. That's, like, the whole reason why I get to leave school early on Fridays," he pointed out, starting to fidget when her stare didn't let up.
He felt his chagrin rise when she only shook her head disappointedly, lightly placing her glasses back onto the bridge of her nose. "It seems that I'll have to put this matter on record, then," she said shortly, a note of finality ringing in her voice. "Dr. Stark -"
"Somebody say my name?" Tony loudly declared as he burst into the room, the door practically slamming into the wall with a startling bang.
Peter, having heard him coming from a mile away, only startled a bit at the abrupt noise, eyes skittering back to Ms. Warren to see her reaction.
She didn't let down.
Her mouth was hanging open so wide that it caused her entire face to tilt forwards, her glasses slipping right off her nose and the frames knocking against her chin as the sides hung onto the cuffs of her ears for dear life. She made a few inarticulate noises, frozen stiff in her chair as she stared wide eyed at Mr. Stark.
"D-Doctor - ?!" she stuttered out, barely managing to scramble to her feet.
"Always nice to hear the proper title used," Tony noted, nodding along and coming to a stop by Peter's side.
Ms. Warren's gaze flicked between Peter and Mr. Stark, and she licked her lips nervously as she set her glasses back up onto her nose. "Can I help you… sir?" she got out from behind teeth bared in a strained smile.
Tony hummed dubiously, raising an eyebrow. "I'd hope so," he said derisively, "seeing as I'm here for the conference."
"You're here… for the conference," she repeated slowly, a desperate tinge lining her voice as if she was still hoping to have misunderstood.
Tony spared an overemphasized glance towards Peter as if to say 'is she serious right now?' before addressing her again, clapping a hand on the teen's shoulder. "Clearly," he drawled, and Peter withheld a grin.
Ms. Warren hesitated for a moment. "Dr. Stark-"
"Is there something I'm missing?" Tony interrupted, looking around the room as if the metaphoric elephant would pop up into existence with his seemingly genuine confusion. "Cause you're acting like I'm missing something," he clarified.
Ms. Warren's eyes darted to Peter for a fraction of a second before refocusing on Mr. Stark. "Of course not!" she quickly exclaimed, a bit too high pitched, waving a hand about a bit too jerkily to be genuinely dismissive. She retook her seat and gestured for the pair to do the same as she pursed her lips, still managing to quirk them up at the corners in a way that looked more painful than anything. "If you have permission to be here as Peter's guardian, then there's no issue at all," she said with a slight pointedness to it.
Tony sniffed, leading Peter over to the desks where they reclaimed the same seating positions as they had in the previous meetings. Ms. Warren's cheek twinged.
Peter spoke up hesitantly. "Mr. Stark's my second guardian," he informed his teacher again, fidgeting a bit as a light flush started up at the back of his neck from the winning smile Tony beamed out at him from his admission.
Ms. Warren's smile sharpened, eyes narrowing a fraction. "So your… connection… is familial in nature?" she questioned lightly, interlacing her fingers and tilting her head in a rather bird like manner.
Mr. Stark tapped his fingers against the desk. "It is," he said easily, and Peter shot him a bit of a wide eyed look, the man continuing on and saying, "not that I see how that relates to current matters," with a disinterested sort of rebuke.
Ms. Warren didn't back down, though, her focus turning towards Peter even as she continued to address Mr. Stark. "I completely understand your confusion Doctor; however, several discrepancies, shall we say, have come to my attention over the past semester that I feel I must address to you, as his guardian," she emphasized, and Peter withheld the slight scowl that tried to form on his face. Then he mentally shrugged. He wasn't sure if he was feeling spiteful glee to see his teacher digging a deeper hole for herself or if he was suffering from severe second hand embarrassment. Probably both.
Tony waved an impatient hand for the woman to continue.
"You see, I'm well aware that your company has a multitude of internship and job opportunities available in a variety of fields, but there is at least one common point that they share," she noted, staring at Peter. "All of your employees are at least college age."
Tony glanced at his watch, his eyebrow raising a hair in feigned disinterest. "Is there a point to this Miss…"
"Warren," Peter's teacher quickly filled in. "Of course! - I apologize, Dr. Stark. The problem is, we currently have a student in their third year here at Midtown claiming to have an internship with you, and, as I'm sure you've deducted, they're clearly not of age," she surmised lightly.
Peter ducked his head a bit and muffled a snort as a cough while Tony huffed impatiently. "And this is an issue now because…?"
Ms. Warren startled a bit, clearly more than a little baffled at Mr. Stark's complete lack of care for the issue, before her expression shifted into something irrevocably vindictive for the fraction of a second it took her to hide it under a film of proper care. "You see, Dr. Stark, the person in question is your charge - Mr. Parker," she said soberly.
Tony let out an aborted breath, eyes widening a fraction and head snapping to look between Peter and his teacher, the former shrugging their shoulders lightly while the latter looked on with subjective reproach. Ms. Warren's expression was one of barely veiled vindication as Tony's expression filtered through shock, confusion, to outright denial, and Peter bit his lip, emotions warring between utter distaste over his professor's pretty obvious opinions and anticipation over what Mr. Stark would do.
The man didn't let down, standing abruptly to his feet and turning to face Peter dead on, his back to the professor. As soon as he was fully faced away, his expression turned vengefully thrilled, his smile showing too many teeth and making Peter wince.
"Are you telling me," Tony started slowly, Peter's eyes fixed on Ms. Warren over the man's shoulder as he continued with a dark tone, "that your own teacher doesn't believe you have an internship with me?" he finished incredulously, and Peter watched as Ms. Warren's expression dropped into something vaguely between "what?" and "oh shit."
Mr. Stark whirled around to face the professor, and she threw her hands up in startled surrender at the look on his face. "Dr. Stark! -"
He cut her off with a slicing motion of his arm, tone completely level but laced with a potent venom. "Since I can see that professionalism isn't a term here, we'll see ourselves out," he said coldly, jerking his head for Peter to follow him as he stalked to the door and not turning to speak directly to the woman as he addressed her a final time. "I suggest you don't make any more bold assumptions about my charge, Monica; I doubt you'll be able to handle it becoming a legality issue," he threatened darkly, the door slamming shut behind him with a solid smack that mirrored the way Ms. Warren's face looked like it'd just gotten slapped with a wet fish.
Peter followed after Tony as they wound through the empty halls and towards the entrance of the building, periodically glancing at the man. "That was uhh…" Peter trailed off, and Tony slowed his pace with an abrupt sigh, raking a hand through his hair.
"Jesus, kid. I know I'm an ass- a d- a," he stopped for a moment, taking a deep breath and starting again, more calmly. "Please tell me I'm not as bad as that piece of work," he said flatly, expression clearly portraying how repelling the thought was to him.
The tension dissipated, Peter letting out a bark of laughter and shaking his head. "You're nothing like that, Mr. Stark," he assured, grinning up at his mentor, and Tony quirked his lip up in response. It died down after a moment.
"Pete," Tony started, but Peter cut him off, waving his arms around a bit wildly.
"I know I should've proven it was real or something somehow Mr. Stark - like, I could've asked for papers or something. It was totally my fault," he readily admitted.
Tony put a gentle but firm hand on his shoulder, bringing them to a stop as he turned Peter to face him, slowly shaking his head. He sighed again, lip tilting up at the corner as he rolled his eyes in something like amused exasperation even as he gave Peter a deadpan look. "This was not your fault," he shot down succinctly, then winced. "It was more of mine, really."
Peter made a noise of disagreement, frowning up at his mentor and shaking his head. "It wasn't!" he staunchly defended.
"And who, exactly, was supposed to give you those 'papers' to prove your internship then?" Tony pointedly asked, and Peter spluttered.
"But I didn't ask!" he rebutted.
"You shouldn't've had to," Tony fired right back, a note of finality entering his tone as he dropped his hand from Peter's shoulder and gestured for them to continue their trek. "I'm the adult here, Pete - your adult, now. I should've figured this out a long time ago."
"You didn't know," Peter said quietly, shoving his hands into his hoodie pockets and plodding along.
Tony side eyed him, fidgeting with the cuff of his sleeve before catching himself. "You're right," he agreed. "But I still should've done better anyways." He waffled for a moment. " I'm always gonna be here, Pete. If you need to tell me anything. Or want to, I mean. I'm here."
Peter's shoulders hiked up for a second, and it took him a few moments to relax them back down. He shot Tony a grateful smile, if a bit tense, his cheeks tinged a sheepish red. "I know," he assented, ducking his head a bit when Tony bumped their shoulders together.
"You better," the man said in a grouch, opening the front door and making his way out first. He stepped forward with a flourish and held it open from the outside as Peter moved to go through - only to close it at the last moment, causing it to shut right in the teen's face.
Peter gave a startled laugh and pushed the door back open for himself, doing a quick jog to catch up to where Tony had started walking away. "Hey!" he exclaimed. "You just said you'd always be there for me, like, two seconds ago!" Peter protested with another laugh, not managing to hold onto the indignancy he'd tried to weave into his tone.
Tony sniffed. "I'm here, aren't I?" he pointed out with a dismissive air, giving his watch another unnecessary glance.
Peter huffed, his smile staying firmly in place, and he glanced up at Tony again, taking in the small twitch of the man's lips and the slight crinkles from behind his shaded glasses. The teen's grin melded into something more sincere, and he hummed. "You are," he agreed, staring resolutely ahead, pretending not to notice the subtle glance Tony made at him or the way the man's chest puffed up in something of a blend between contentment and pride.