Peter was in a particularly good mood. And for the first time in weeks it wasn't because of a singular good event. No, no. Peter was set to have a completely good day.

After the internship yesterday, Peter had decided to treat himself to a new second hand coat from the thrift store he had bought his other clothes from the other day. Sue him, he was feeling happy for once and had the money. He more than deserved it after the events of the last few weeks. That night, Peter didn't have to pray his makeshift heater didn't break down in the night because his hoodies wouldn't be enough to keep him warm. Oh no, now he had a warm coat.

Speaking of heaters—no longer did Peter have to rely on the crappy heater he had fixed up at the fire station. Since Peter had completed his advanced heater at the internship, Dr Williamson had agreed to let him bring it home. With the assurance that he would bring it back to show everyone when they all presented on Wednesday.

The fire station had never felt more like a home than when Peter had turned that heater on. He basked in the warmth from the machine that engulfed Peter and the room like a warm hug. Yeah, things were starting to look up.

On top of that, despite it being a Friday night, his shift at the bar wasn't too tiresome. He hadn't had to clean up any puke, shoo any creeps out, or even yelled at by any drunks. It was almost as if all the insufferable people that normally inhabited the bar on Friday nights had all called in and decided to not come. Not that Peter was complaining.

In fact, if someone had said that Peter silently cheered to himself about that very fact at some point that night, they wouldn't be lying.

To top off the Friday night, Peter's patrols had been another success while still being relatively quiet. He was starting to get used to the new environment. Small wins, Peter thought. Which seemed to be the theme of Peter's last 24 hours. Small wins adding together to make one almost perfect day. Yeah, Peter was pretty stoked.

And now, the piece de la resistance, he was on his way to spend the day in the lab with the one and only Tony Stark. Peter hadn't been able to wipe the smile off his face ever since Tony had told him to come to his lab yesterday. Peter doubted the smile would leave for sometime. Which was fine by him, he hadn't had much reason to smile recently. He, in some weird way, missed his own goofy smile.

Peter was in such a good mood, that even the normally long, boring walk to SI couldn't dampen it. Though it may have made him a little irritated. Peter couldn't put his finger on why but it felt as if it was taking twice as long to get to SI today. He was jittery and excited, causing him to make a few wrong turns before getting back on track.

It was ok though, he had left a little early because he was excited anyway, so he wouldn't be late.

As Peter walked, he saw a few people standing outside a shop that had a TV in the window playing the news. He meant to keep walking, really, he did. He didn't want to be late, though he knew he wouldn't. But he was stopped in his tracks by the sound of his name. Well, not his name—Spider-Man

"–Spider-man, a new vigilante, seems to have appeared in New York. This red and blue clad hero has already got in the good books for many people in the city after saving them from muggings and attacks alike. We spoke to someone who saw Spider-Man, and even talked to him. Over to you Sally." The news man reported before the video changed to a lady standing with someone else, a little girl. Riri.

"Thank you Matt. Now I'm here with Riri Williams who talked to Spider-Man himself. Riri, would you please tell us about your encounter?"

Riri smiled widely as she spoke, "I saw him early in the morning, I had to go get some food cause mommy was sick and couldn't go get some. It was really early so he walked me home so I wouldn't feel scared. He was really nice."

The news lady laughed, "Sounds like a true gentleman. Did he tell you anything else?"

"I asked if I could be his sidekick."

"And what did he say?"

"He told me maybe when I'm older."

"Haha, of course. Back to you, Matt."

Peter smiled and kept walking towards the internship. Kids could be so cute sometimes.

When Peter finally arrived in the lobby of his workplace, he practically sprinted past the receptionist (after having and saying hello to them of course) and into the elevator.

It was at this point that Peter realised something, he didn't know where he was supposed to go from here. Was he meant to ask FRIDAY? Or was he supposed to go to the intern floor and then find out where to go. Maybe he should have asked the receptionist if they knew anything. Peter was soon dragged out of his thoughts by FRIDAY coming in over the speakers of the elevator.

"Hello Mr. Parker, I am FRIDAY, Mr. Stark's personal AI. I also run many of the facilities in the building. Boss has asked me to take you up to his workshop."

Peter sighed happily, it was nice to hear FRIDAY's voice again.

"Hi Ms. FRIDAY, thank you!" Peter responded happily as he felt the elevator begin to move upwards. Barely a minute passed before the doors of the elevator opened and Peter found himself staring out at the personal lab of one Tony Stark.

Though, Peter didn't see the man in question. Looking up at the roof, Peter expected FRIDAY to tell him something about where the man was. But she didn't. So, Peter stepped into the lab.

Looking around, he called out "Mr. Stark, Sir?"

Peter heard the sound of a swivel chair moving from somewhere. Suddenly Mr. Stark popped out from nowhere. He was no longer dressed in a full suit like he had seen him yesterday. He now was dressed in his usual lab gear, an old MIT t-shirt and a pair of black pants.

The man looked up at Peter before smiling, standing to his full height, and walking towards him. "Mr. Parker. Good to see you're on time. C'mon, I'll give you a tour before we get to business."

The man wrapped an arm around Peter's shoulder. He flinched slightly at the sudden contact, but if Tony noticed it, he didn't mention it. Which Peter was thankful for.

Stopping at one of the desks, Tony took a piece of red liquorice from a packet. Holding it with his left hand, he took a bite before offering the packet to Peter.

"Liquorice?"

"Oh, Ah. Yes, please."

Peter took a piece and began to awkwardly nibble at it while Tony showed him around the lab. Peter just smiled and nodded, it wasn't like he could say that he already knew where everything was in the lab. He did, but he couldn't say that. It would be weird, and it wouldn't be like he could explain why. So Peter stuck to nodding along.

One thing Peter did notice was that he had more rules on what he couldn't touch in the lab compared to the last time he worked with Mr. Stark. Though that made sense. Last time Tony and Peter knew each other, Tony had seen Peter work before and he trusted his abilities. Now, Tony had seen what he had made but they hadn't built any trust. Yet.

"You got all that kid?" Tony asked as he finished explaining the rules.

"Yes sir," Peter replied confidently.

"I appreciate the sentiment, but you can drop the sir. Makes me feel older than Cap," Tony joked.

Peter just laughed as he responded "Yes si-, ah, Yes Mr. Stark."

Tony nodded and gestured for him to follow him to one of the desks in the room. Pulling out two chairs the two of them sat down.

"Ok kid," Tony began, leaning back in his chair, "I've seen your electronics work, impressive. The work you did on the AI code was way beyond what a 12 year old should be able to do."

Peter bit his tongue, not wanting to start any bickering over his age just yet. He didn't really know Tony yet, it would be awkward.

"Once again, impressive," Tony continued, "I'm curious, you can fix an AI code. Think you could make one?"

The question hung in the air as Peter thought for a minute. Logically, he knew he probably could. He had seen AI code thousands of times. He had also fixed them many times before. He knew he could do it. Gathering his courage, Peter responded.

"Yeah, I think so."

"Alright, think of this as a test. I work on some tough shit here– I mean stuff– I want to see if you're up to the task. Make a simple AI code, I'll test it later. We'll see how this goes," Tony said calmly, still munching on liquorice before turning and walking over to an Iron Man suit that has half taken apart and lying on a nearby desk.

Which was how Peter once again found himself sitting at a desk in front of a laptop working away on an AI code.

Deja vu anyone?

Don't get Peter wrong, he wasn't upset to be working in the lab with Tony again. He was ecstatic. But he missed the thing that made working in the lab with Mr. Stark so fun. The best part of it was actually working with him. Not working away on the other side of the lab on completely different projects.

But really he shouldn't complain. He didn't want to sound selfish but part of the reason he was so excited this morning was that he thought he and Tony would be working together. Like they used to back in his time.

Stop being so selfish, Peter screamed at himself. People would kill to be where you are now. And you complaining? Pathetic.

Peter tried to shake the thought from his head. He just needed to work on the code. If he did well he would get to stay. He needed to stay. If he didn't stay how would he save everyone? How would he stop everything? How could he save a world he wasn't a part of? He needed–

"Kid, you good?"

Without Peter noticing, Tony had made his way over to Peter as was waving his hand in front of Peter's face. Shaking his head and blinking his eyes, Peter put a smile on his face.

"Yeah sorry, zoned out for a second."

"You sure you're good?" Tony asked, "You were staring at that code like it killed your dog."

Peter tried to play off the comment with a laugh, but it came out forced. Even Peter could hear how plastic it sounded.

"Yep, like I said just zoned out for a second."

Tony seemed unsure, but nodded nonetheless and made his way back over to the suit and continued working. But not before asking:

"Is it cool if I play some music, kid?"

Peter just nodded as the sound of AC/DC came over the speakers. Peter was flooded with the familiar sound and soon found himself back in the zone. Time flew past him as he typed out the simple AI code. Checking for mistakes every now and then as he worked. Once he shook the negative thoughts out of his head and focused on how much he loved working in the lab, he seemed to speed through the task.The thing was, most of what he was writing was coming from memory. Making changes from codes he knew every now and then to improve it.

When the clock rolled around to 1pm, Peter found himself with a completely tested, completely working AI code. Now he just had to name it. Peter thought for a minute on what the code could be called.

JANIS? Just Another Nice Intelligent Server?

No, acronyms were Tony's thing. Peter supposed there was only one right answer to name the code. Typing in the name, Peter carefully wrote: Karen.

As Peter turned around to inform Tony that he had finished, another voice entered the lab.

"Tony? C'mon man, you've been in the lab forever. Time to eat food so you don't, you know, die."

Peter instantly recognised the voice. Colonel Rhodes. Tony whipped around to greet the man, smiling as he did so.

"Platypus! Good to see you, come meet my new intern. Peter, come meet Rhodey."

As Peter made his way over to the duo. He could hear Rhodey say, "Intern? I thought you hated most kids."

"Then he must be one of the tolerable ones. Ah, Pete, meet my best friend. Rhodey, meet the kid."

Peter held out his hand to shake the Colonel's hand, "Pleasure to meet you Colonel Rhodes."

Shaking his hand, Rhodey seemed to have a realisation. "Hey I know you kid. You're the one who found my wallet. Thanks again, Peter, was it?" Peter just nodded in response.

Looking between the two, Tony asked, "Wait so he's the kid you saw yesterday? How did you meet my kid before me?"

"Well I'm just so much more likeable than someone who never leaves their lab. Which reminds me why I came here. It's 1 o'clock and you haven't eaten since last night, I'm here to make sure you don't die of starvation. Plus apparently you have a living child to keep fed, so now I got two kids to feed."

Peter couldn't help but snicker along with Rhodey as Tony said in a jokingly serious tone, "Oh well, laugh it up you two. Since you are such good friends with the kid, why doesn't he be your intern?"

Joining in Tony's serious act, Rhodey moved to stand behind Peter and put both his hands on his shoulders.

"Perfect, Ok Pete, lesson 1: why War Machine is better than Iron Man."

With a dramatic sigh, Tony said, "Blasphemy, in my own house. FRIDAY, you got that on record for next time Rhodey wants me to do something for him?"

The kind robotic voice came in over the speakers, "Yes boss, I've already added it to the list."

"You know me too well."

Laughing at his friend's dramatics, Rhodey added "Seriously though, it's lunchtime lets go."

Tony looked back at Peter with a look he couldn't quite place. Eventually, he assumed that he didn't know what to do with Peter while he went to lunch. Peter wasn't surprised that he didn't want to leave a random kid alone in his personal lab. To try and clear this up, Peter said:

"Don't worry Mr. Stark, I'll go take my lunch at the cafeteria. You go have lunch with Mr. Colonel Rhodes."

Both adults wore looks of surprise on their faces as Peter spoke. Clearly that was not what they were thinking. Though Peter would have said it anyway, he didn't want to force himself into Tony's life.

"No kid, I'm not gonna just throw you out by yourself. The closest cafeteria is the one for the biotech department and those people are heathens. I swear I have seen them practise dissections on their steak. You're coming with us, c'mon."

Let's just say Peter didn't argue with the two superheroes as they made their way up to Tony's penthouse for lunch. It felt just like old times. It felt like things were going back to normal. For the first time in a while Peter felt like he was starting to be part of a family again.

A small voice in his head whispered to him "If you mess this up, so many people will die."

So I won't, Peter thought to himself He was going to fix everything.

Right?