Chapter 10

The class was led into a giant conference room with numerous rows of seats on the floor and a raised stage with a long table and chairs on at the front and a huge glass wall of windows at the back. A few of the students recognised it as a place that the Avengers held press conferences that got televised. Sure enough, once the students were seated in the first several rows of seats, the Avengers filed in through a side door.

Peter and Harley had moved to stand against a far wall as opposed to joining the class. This way they could spend some time together without disturbing anyone. It wasn't as if they needed to listen to what was going to be said, after all, they lived with the Avengers, there was nothing that happened in the tower that the boys didn't know about, even if it had to be learned through sneaking about and eavesdropping.

Whilst everyone was welcomed, each of the Avengers were introduced and Tony explained why they were there, Peter had leaned into Harley, resting his head on his shoulder. Harley wrapped his arms around Peter and quietly hummed to him. Peter groaned. "Oh my Gods I swear this has been the longest day ever. Why are we even here? There's no point. We could've like spent all day in bed or training or something fun instead."

"Well, you did get to train for a little while. And we had some fun earlier. Well, I certainly did" Harley leered. "I promise to make it up to you later," he whispered in Peter's ear before kissing the spot just behind it. Peter just burrowed further into Harley's arms and closed his eyes, focusing all his senses on Harley, blocking out the questions that were being answered up on stage by various Avengers.

A little while later, Tony decided that he wanted to ruin Peter's life just a little bit more and called attention to the two boys. "You two, stop canoodling in the back and get your butts up here!"

"Canoodling Tony? Really" Harley asked once they reached the stage and clambered into their seats. "You're showing your age, old man." Tony just laughed.

"So I'm guessing neither of you were paying a blind bit of notice to what was going on up here, hmm?" Peter shook his head sheepishly.

"I was asked about what the future of SI is going to look like. I couldn't really answer that without you two up here." Tony looked out at the crowd of students and smiled at the looks of confusion on everyone's faces. Part of the reason that he was doing this was because the Avengers, Pepper and May had all seen how Peter's classmates were treating him and none of them were impressed. Sure, some of the Avengers got to blow off some steam sparring in the gym, but Pepper was ready to go out and verbally rip all of them a new one, which wouldn't look good for SI. So it was decided that Tony would reveal their connection and blow their small little minds.

"It was gonna come out next week anyway Peter, so we decided to just step up the timetable and tell the truth now." Tony whispered to Peter who was sat next to him, referring to the press conference that was scheduled for next week where Peter was going to be announced as the newest member of the Stark family. Peter just nodded nervously and grabbed onto Harley's hand, who gave him a reassuring squeeze in return.

"So I was supposed to keep this quiet for another week, but why should I, when I am so proud of my Son." All the avengers laughed at the looks of shock and surprise on the students faces.

"Yes, you heard that right, Tony Stark has a son."

One of the braver students put their hand up and got a nod to indicate that they could as their question, which was just a choked out "Who?"

"Everyone, meet my son, Peter Parker!" This announcement sent the room into chaos, mainly with people shouting that it couldn't be true. "I officially adopted him a while ago, but we were going to wait until he was 18 to announce it, hence the press conference scheduled for next week, a few days after his birthday." Everyone up on the stage were sitting laughing at the commotion down on the floor.

Flash seemed to be one of the first to get the implications of this announcement, the colour rapidly draining out of his face. "Oh god I've been making fun of Iron Man's son!" It was said quietly, but because he was in the front row and several people on the stage either had enhanced hearing or could lip read, he drew a lot of attention to himself.

"Yes. Part of the reason that this was supposed to kept secret for a while longer, was that Peter didn't want to deal with all the change in his life whilst still having to go to school. So I don't want you all suddenly trying to be a kiss-ass to him." Tony warned.

Now Pepper stepped in, a severe frown on her face, not being able to hold herself back any more. "That being said, none of us up here are happy with the way you have been treating Peter and that is going to stop right now." Her tone and facial expression terrified his classmates, and they realised that they had been bullying or standing by and letting someone be bullied, who had the full might of the Avengers behind him and the only reason that they hadn't had any retribution was because he was obviously protecting them and stopping the Avengers from going after them. It was obvious in the faces of many of them up on the stage though, that that time was over and now that they had witnessed it for themselves, they were pissed!

"The only reason that Peter is still attending Midtown is because he wished to stay with his friends. Therefore he will get to stay and enjoy his last small part of high school before he heads off to College, like he should have done years ago." Pepper informed everyone.

"Yeah right, like Parker could even get into community college." Flash commented, but only because it was ingrained into him to pick on Peter. As soon as it was out of his mouth he clasped his hands to his face, clearly regretting his outburst.

"Peter was accepted at MIT by the time he was a Freshman Mr Thompson and every year since he has had colleges scrambling to try and recruit him. Unlike you who I imagine is going to have a hard time getting accepted anywhere. It's so easy to suggest to different Deans that a certain student is undesirable. All I would need to do is show them any of the clips that Friday has recorded today about you. I wouldn't even need to go in person, Friday could email them right now. Or perhaps I could let Asphera do it, she is only young and is very eager to protect her creators, who knows what sort of information she may accidentally send to Deans all across the US." Pepper threatened.

"Pep…" Tony warned, placing a calming hand on her arm. "Peter wanted to stay with his friends and then go to college with Harley and that's what they'll do. It's fine."

All the other student were looking terrified now, realising why Pepper was the most cutthroat woman in the business sector. Although one girl put her hand up and said, "Miss Potts, I want to be you when I'm older!" which at least calmed Pepper down and got a smile out of her.

"Oh, it gets better!" Loki announced with a smirk. "Why don't you tell them the other thing Peter?"

"I can't, if I say it, it just sounds like I'm bragging." Peter snarked back.

Harley then leaned into him and whispered in his ear, "Do it just like Tony, I bet he gets a kick out of it!"

"Fine! Here goes- I am Spider-Man." Peter announced with a blank look on his face. Tony burst out laughing, causing Harley to laugh too and nudge Peter with a "See, told you!"

The student's faces were going to get stuck permanently in a shocked, dumbfounded expression if they were dealt any more surprises.

"Look at Flash's face!" Harley crowed. "Fri make sure I get the recording." Flash was struggling to process the information. Everyone knew that Spider-Man was his favourite superhero.

"I love Spider-Man! He's my favourite Superhero!" He exclaimed loudly.

Peter just scoffed at him."Really? I couldn't tell! No, really, you've been bullying your so called favourite for years, treating me like it was your personal mission to make my life as miserable as possible." Flash just paled further and put his face in his hands.

"Spider-Man hates me!" He moaned.

"No, Peter Parker hates you. Spider-Man does his job, regardless of what he thinks of people. You can't be a hero if you pick and choose who you want to save." Peter replied coldly. Several Avengers looked at him in slight disbelief, they had never heard him take such a tone with anyone before, but they supposed if anyone deserved to be on the receiving end, it would be the kid who had bullied him for years and turned classmates against him. Several of them piped up though, saying "Well I hate him" and others agreeing with them, which brought a slight smirk to Peter's face.

"Well I'm glad that the truth is finally out," Tony started, "But now to answer what was originally asked, about the future of SI." Everyone quietened down once more, paying rapt attention to Tony.

"SI will be being split three ways between Peter, Harley and my daughter Morgan, but Peter will be inheriting the title of CEO, at least until Morgan is old enough for them to decide between themselves who should fill which role." He looked over at his boys and smiled, cutting across what harley was about to say. "No Harley, you don't get to be CEO. We all know that Peter is the more responsible one and I want my company to long outlast me." Harley wholeheartedly agreed, he'd only been planning on making a joke about it.

"Each of my kids are a very important part of my legacy, and will be taking over at SI. Although we are refraining from calling Harley my son until after the wedding, otherwise its just too weird, even if I did technically meet Harls first. Doesn't mean that I don't love you too Harley!" Tony joked.

"Yeah, yeah, keep hamming it up old man." Harley retorted, over the noise from everyone in the room talking over each other.

The entire conference had blown the students' minds, but someone still managed to ask, "Wedding? Are you and Miss Potts finally getting married? What does that have to do with Harley and Peter?"

"No, not my wedding, theirs. Can't have them being brothers and in love, so Peter is my adopted son and Harley will become my son-in-law. I'm sure it wont be too much longer now. We've all known forever that there was never gonna be anyone else for the two of them." Tony answered.

"We are waiting until after College, Tony." Harley chastised, having had this conversation multiple times. "That being said though…" he trailed off and reached under the collar of Peter's shirt and undid a chain, pulling it out from under his top and removing the engagement ring that Harley had given him months ago on their 3 year anniversary. "Now that the cat's out of the bag, will you wear it so everyone can see? I want the whole world to know that you're with me." Harley asked Peter, who was beaming.

"Only," Peter started to say, digging into his pocket, "If you wear this one." He requested, presenting a matching ring to Harley. "You attract too much trouble, I think you need a ring too, to show them all that you belong with me."

Harley's smile was so wide as he nodded that his cheeks ached. "When did you get this?" He asked as he allowed Peter to slip the ring onto his finger, admiring a ring that perfectly matched the one meant to sit on Peter's finger.

"I made it earlier when I slipped off for a while after we made Asphera. I decided after today, that I wanted you to have a ring too. No fair if I'm the only one in college who doesn't get hit on 'cause he's got an engagement ring." He joked, holding his hand out for Harley to place his ring on his finger.

Harley leaned in to kiss him, smiling too much for it to turn too serious and make the adults complain.

"Yay, party later! Harley and Peter are getting married!" Clint exclaimed, jumping up and down like a child.

"You're acting like Harley just proposed. We had an engagement party a couple of months ago. We just aren't hiding it any more. Thanks for that Tony!" Peter said sarcastically.

"You're welcome." Tony returned seriously. Peter just smiled.

"You know we love any excuse to party kid."

Tony then turned to address the class again, who had been sitting mostly forgotten and completely confused as to how a science trip had turned into watching a classmate kind of get proposed to (again apparently) as well as finding out that said class mate had been adopted by Tony Stark, was set to inherit a large part of his company, oh and apparently was Spider-Man! "So I think thats a good place to leave it for today. Emma will lead you all to the exit. Peter, Ned and MJ wont be joining you on your trip back. We have an engagement to celebrate. Thanks for visiting Stark Industries. Bye!"

With that, Tony got up and started to leave the room, encouraging the others on the stage to follow, leaving the class of kids sat in shock, along with their very confused teacher.

Peter and Harley waited hand in hand by the door, calling for Ned and MJ to follow them, who came running up to join them. They were the last ones to disappear through the door.

Once they got back to the common room Peter suddenly groaned as the events of the whole day hit him. He hid his head in Harley's shoulder and complained 'School's gonna be a nightmare on Monday!"

"You could always just not go back." Harley half joked. He'd been trying to persuade Peter to just take a gap year with him since the school year had started.

"There's gonna be so many questions," moaned Peter.

"Well, look on the bright side, there's not long left before we all graduate." MJ joined the conversation.

"Also," said Ned, "Party!' He started jumping up and down.

"Yeah, you guys go ahead, me and Peter will be there in a little bit. I have a promise to live up to." Harley said with a smile.

"A promise hmm?" Peter asked, after Ned and MJ had gone to join the other Avengers, and the two boys had moved into the elevator.

"I do believe I told you that I would return the favour later My Love. And what better way to start our celebration," Harley whispered, pressing Peter back into the wall of the elevator and then starting to kiss down his neck as the doors closed and the lift rose up towards their floor.

The End.

Let me know if you like it ending there, or I should do a final chapter for the celebration. I don't have anything written at the moment, but can do.