"Got everything?"

Peter nodded, grinning, excitedly.

"Yes."

"Stay with the group."

"I will."

"Why does he get to go to Stark Tower?" one of the older boys complained, his expression dark with jealousy. "He's a runt."

"A runt with a higher IQ than yours by about a million," snapped one of the other teens. It was clear that he wasn't any less jealous of Peter's upcoming excursion, but he was looking to pick a fight and it was a good way to get in a dig on the other. "You should have Peter doing your homework, maybe you'll get something other than an-"

"Stop…" Eric adroitly interposed himself between the two teens, while at the same time moving Peter out of the way – just in case. "He gets to go because they want to raise the level of intelligence in the tower without having to raise the height of the doors."

He winked at Peter as he said it, and the boy smiled, pleased at the compliment, but well aware from the scowl on the oldest boy's face that he'd want to steer clear of him for a few days, if he could.

He'd been shocked to hear his name called in class only a couple of days ago, and he'd walked to the principal's office wondering what was going on. When he'd arrived, there had been a few other kids in the man's office; all much older than him, and all top students in the school. The principal had smiled at all of them, and congratulated them on being chosen for a special field trip to the R&D labs at Stark Industries. None of them were going on the same day that Peter was, but they were all told that each would be given the opportunity to get a tour of the place, see some of the experiments and goings on and even meet Tony Stark, himself.

Permission slips were handed out, and itineraries given to each student, depending on the day that they were scheduled. Peter looked at it with a growing excitement and had rushed home as soon as he could, to get his slip signed and turned back in.

When he'd logged on to speak with JARVIS that night and ask if he'd had anything to do with being chosen, the AI had pointed out that he hadn't needed to tamper with the invitations. Peter was just that smart, and as one of the top performing students, it had been a no-brainer that he'd be selected to check out the experiments and tech that were going to be available to him in the future.

Even though it was a lot further into his future than most of the other kids'.

Eric smiled down at him just as a horn sounded outside.

"It's a limo!" Ned yelled, excited.

Eric walked out with Peter, hand on his shoulder, over the backpack the boy was carrying. He spoke with the driver, and compared his photo with the one that the school had sent over, and then zipped Peter's light jacket up for him.

"Have fun."

"I will."

"And don't pester Mr. Stark."

The little boy shook his head.

"I won't."

JARVIS had said the same thing to him the night before – and just as nicely. He was to stay clear of Tony Stark, if he could, and just look around with the group and enjoy himself.

"He's lucky," the driver told Eric, with a smile as he opened the back door for the boy. "It's Friday, and they're feeding them lunch in the executive dining room instead of the cafeteria."

Peter just smiled, again, and got into the fancy car, smiling at the two much older students who had been picked up before him.

This was going to be great.

OOOOOOOOOO

"Last one…"

Tony rolled his eyes, his expression artfully set to look as put upon as he could possibly manage.

"Good. I'm exhausted."

Pepper's smile wasn't at all sympathetic.

"It isn't that difficult to be nice. You just need more practice at it."

"I've been practicing all week," he pointed out.

Monday had been a large group of kids from one of the closer schools. They'd all been seniors and promising juniors and had been noisy and disruptive to Tony's normal morning routine. He'd been tasked with giving them a personal tour of the building; from the parking garage to the business floors where calls were taken, to the cafeteria where the regular working class ate most of the time and all the way up to the conference rooms, VIP offices (not his, though, since he flat out refused to let anyone into his personal space) and then the research labs.

They'd had a good time, and the smiles showed that while Tony hadn't enjoyed himself, the kids clearly had.

Tuesday was exactly the same formula, only with a different group of kids. Just as many, just as noisy, just as promising. They were smart, he had to admit, and many of the questions were intelligent ones. It didn't mean he enjoyed himself, but at least he didn't have to lower himself into mud to dumb down his answers to them.

Wednesday had been kids from a trade school. They weren't as interested in the science as they were the tech, and that was fine – except that Tony informed them that the science was the thing that made the tech work, so maybe they should be more interested in that, too. And math, he'd added.

He had to admit – strictly to himself and never to Pepper – that he'd enjoyed watching some of them suddenly becoming excited by the science.

Thursday again the same, with a group of junior high aged children. These were assembled from a few different schools, and when he saw them, he almost hesitated, immediately assuming that he was going to see the very familiar face of Peter Parker looking at him from the middle of that group. He realized, though, when he didn't, that these kids were older than Peter, still, but weren't even close to being on par with his intelligence. They'd been noisy, and intrusive and everything that Tony had assumed all of the kids were going to be, and he'd been glad to see the last of them crowd into the elevator at the end of the day.

Pepper took hold of his chin with one hand, cheerfully, clearly enjoying his misery, he thought.

"And you're doing such a good job with them."

"Tell me, again, why this group get to eat in the executive dining room?"

"Because these are the brightest students, with the most potential. Each principal from one of the schools I called was told to send their top performer. Besides, I'm going to be looking for a few interns when the older ones graduate in the summer so I might as well get a good look at them."

"Ugh."

She smirked.

"Not to mention, one of these might be the kid you end up mentoring."

"Yeah." He scowled at that thought. "I get to pick this kid?"

"Of course."

She wasn't completely heartless, after all.

"Good."

He was going to look for the quietest one. The one that seemed to be smart enough that he wouldn't need to hold his hand (and he had no intention of picking a girl, at all – mainly because he didn't want a teenaged fangirl swooning on him every time he spoke to her) and one that was unobtrusive, and the least annoying.

Pepper's tablet beeped a gentle alert and she looked at it.

"Happy is just pulling up at the lobby. Ready to go meet them?"

She didn't wait for a reply. Grumbling just loudly enough that she'd know he wasn't enjoying any of this, Stark followed her to the elevator, and straightened his shoulders as it descended to the lobby, passing anyone who was waiting. They walked over to the huge receptionist desk just as a small group of youngsters walked in.

Older kids, not surprisingly. They walked in and – of course – noticed Tony, immediately. He forced his best not-too-annoyed smile and then scowled when the last of them walked in, also looking around with interest and much – much – smaller than the kids he was walking with.

"You've got to be kidding me…"

Pepper looked over.

"What?"

"That's Peter…"

"Peter who?"

"Peter Parker."

She frowned, looking at him and then back at the boy who was trailing the group that was walking toward them, shepherded by Happy.

"He's the one you've been complaining about to me?"

"Yes."

"The one that is stalking you?"

Tony scowled at her tone.

"Yes."

"He's a baby."

"I told you he was young." His expression tightened. "You didn't know he was coming?"

"I didn't pick the students, Tony. I sent letters to principals. They chose who would come. If he's in a group of kids so much older than him, then of course he's going to stand out to his principal and admins and be chosen for something like this. They're going to want to show him off, as well, after all."

Case in point, the little boy was carrying a backpack over a jacket that proclaimed the name of Peter's school – to make sure there was no mistake where he was learning to be as brilliant as he was.

"This is ridiculous. I'm not going to-"

"You're going to finish this week," she said, firmly. "And you're going to be amazing." She smiled at the students who were closing in on them. "I mean it."

He didn't answer. Not in words. But his smile wasn't completely terrible when he greeted the kids and had them line up to have pictures taken and ID badges made. He didn't even scowl when they had to bring a step stool over for Peter to stand on since the camera didn't tilt far enough down to capture his image. Pepper smiled, though, and introduced herself to him, shaking his hand, warmly.

"Did you enjoy the ride in?"

The little boy wasn't the only one to smile at that. All of the kids had enjoyed the ride in. The older ones understood that it wasn't normal; they normally were bussed to field trips, and recognized that they were being treated like VIPs – especially since Tony Stark himself was there to greet them at the door. Peter had simply been amazed at all of the crazy luxuries that could be stuffed into the back of something as simple as a car.

"It was great. Thank you."

Tony rolled his eyes when he saw how Pepper's expression softened as she spoke to the youngest member of their little tour. Sure, Peter was adorable. Big-eyed and curly hair, and cute smile that made those eyes happier. But he was a little kid. He was supposed to be adorable. It was nature making sure that the kid didn't get eaten, or something – he knew there was a scientific reason for cuteness, but he wasn't a biologist, was he, so he didn't have that boring stuff memorized.

All Tony knew was that the kid was in his bubble, once more, and was probably going to hound him all day, now, getting underfoot and distracting him – when he wasn't even doing anything that he wanted to be doing in the first place.

He scowled over at Pepper when the last ID badge was clipped onto clothing, and the small group of students were guided to the elevator. To his surprise, Peter moved to the other side of the elevator car and ended up beside Pepper, instead of himself, well out of his way. And out of the way of the rest of the kids, too.

Probably just making sure he didn't get trampled, Tony decided, relieved nonetheless.

He frowned, though, when he saw Pepper's hand slip to Peter's shoulder to keep him steady in the press of people, and watched as the little boy looked up at her and smiled. Before he could wonder why it bothered him, one of the older kids raised a hand, catching his attention.

"This is great, Mr. Stark. Thanks so much for doing this."

Tony's smile was a little tight, but he shrugged.

"It's my pleasure. We're all about supporting and encouraging the youth of today, after all, and making sure they know what kind of opportunities are waiting for them. You guys – and gals," he added, giving the three girls in the group his most charming smile. "Are all very welcome, here. I hope we'll put on a good show for you."

There were murmurs of excitement, and the elevator stopped, then, and it was Pepper who spoke, first.

"We're going to show you some of the more mundane things that go on here at the Tower, first," she said, her hand still on Peter's shoulder as she walked out of the elevator. "Then we'll go on to the exciting and more fabulous activities."

"Will we get to see the Ironman suit?" one of the kids asked.

All of them looked at Tony, hopefully, and he shrugged, pointedly not looking at Peter to see if he was looking hopeful, too.

"We'll see how it goes."