The next morning I woke up and went downstairs to find a breakfast tray waiting for me, a note folded beside it.

Thanks for the brownies, kid—I might have to make you baking a new requirement for your continued living in my home. Sorry I can't be here this morning, things ran late last night and I'm still taking care of some of it this morning. Have a good day at school, I'll see you tonight.

P.S. Peter isn't feeling well and won't be at school. Happy is going to drive you this morning. NO MORE SOLO SUBWAY!

My brow creased a little in concern, I hope nothing too major was going on with the company since Tony was usually pretty dedicated to getting to see me in the morning. I also hoped Peter was doing okay, idly wondering if he was the type who got easily wiped out by a cold or not. Rolling my eyes at the part about Happy—and Tony's use of all caps—I folded the piece of paper and put in my pocket. I ate my breakfast, then sat on the couch while I waited for Happy to show up.

He made his appearance a few minutes later, strolling through the doors with his usual grumpy expression.

I gave him a small wave, "Good morning, Happy."

"Morning, now let's get a move on."

I followed Happy down to the car and we headed to the school. While he drove, I sent a text to Peter, checking in on how he was feeling. I didn't get a text back from him, but I did get texts from MJ and Ned who told me they were also going to be out today, possibly having caught the same thing as Peter, apologizing for leaving me on my own. I frowned at my phone, a niggling feeling of uncertainty in the back of my head. They wouldn't be lying to me, would they? I shook my head, that was silly. Why would anyone lie about being sick? But what were the chances they all got it at the exact same time…

My thoughts were interrupted by the car's arrival at the school. I said goodbye to Happy, receiving a small grunt in return, and walked into my first day alone at school. I found my way to my locker, trying to ignore the bundle of nerves in my stomach. I winced internally as I passed Flash, sensing his eyes on me. But he said nothing and I continued on, surprised but grateful he was still leaving me alone when I had no one with me.

Of course, it made more sense when a moment later, my locker door slammed shut—narrowly missing my fingers— revealing him leaning next to me, a sneer on his face.

"Little Miss. Newbie is all alonnnneee, how sad."

I crossed my arms, straightening my back as I looked back at him, forcing an impassive expression onto my face, "What do you want, Flash?"

"Did you scare off your little friends already? Even Penis Parker didn't want to be around you? Can't say I blame him."

I just barely restrained myself from rolling my eyes, "That wasn't an answer to my question."

His eyes darkened and he stepped closer, making me instinctively step backwards to maintain space between us. The locker door clanged softly as my back made contact, and a look of satisfaction crossed Flash's expression, his voice mocking, "What I want, Newbie, is for you to remember who is in charge here. It's not you, or Penis Parker, or Leeds."

He leaned forward, his face inches from mine, "It's me."

I closed the gap a bit more and defiantly met his eyes, "If you have to say that you're the one in charge, it's not true."

His eyes blazed but I ignored them, shouldering past him and heading to class, exhaling heavily once I was away from him. Peter was not going to be happy I was antagonizing him. But then again, Peter wasn't here.

I sat down in class, watching as Flash stormed in after me, his group of followers giving each other concerned side eye at his grumpy mood. I flashed him a sugar sweet smile as he passed my desk, making his demeanor darken even more and he yanked out his chair, sitting down with enough force to rattle the pencils on the desk beside him. I looked down, covering my mouth with my hand to hide my smirk.

The day passed quickly, though quietly without Peter or his friends around. Flash threw threatening glances my way whenever he saw me and took every possible opportunity to "accidentally" bump into me in the hallways, but never escalated beyond that, and I just brushed it off and moved on, refusing to let him get to me.

At lunch, I sat down at our usual table, preparing to eat alone. I was pleasantly surprised when instead, Rose came and joined me. We chatted briefly about how lost I was in Chemistry and Physics, and she offered that we could get together after school sometime to do the homework together.

"That is, unless you already have plans with Peter for that? He is a bit of a genius after all."

I shrugged, "Actually, that somehow never came up as on option. Though I feel like that may involve the same problem that I encounter when T—my father helps me. He's also a bit of a science genius, and finds all the concepts we're covering super easy, and thus finds it a bit difficult to dumb it down on my behalf… or to even understand how I'm struggling with it. Though I'll admit, he does try his best."

She grinned, swallowing her latest bite, "Well, maybe I'll be the happy medium for you then, I don't find it especially easy, but it's certainly manageable."

I scrunched my face at her, "Show off."

We laughed and went back to eating, later walking to Chemistry together, smiling at each other from across the classroom. We met up at the end of class again to go to Physics, parted ways for the eighth period, and rejoined for PE at the end of the day. We had to do partner work again, and she happily waved me over to work with her.

I raised my eyebrow as I approached, "Not that I'm not thrilled that you like spending time with me, but I hope you're not neglecting your usual gym partner to be with me?"

She got into position for the exercise, "I mean, I don't actually have many friends in this class. Often, I'd end up partnered with whoever else was leftover. It's kind of nice having someone to default to. Though I suppose you'll be with MJ when she's here…"

"I mean, I can always switch between the two of you, and MJ may have someone else she usually partners with, I'm not actually sure—so far it's mostly been pity hanging out probably, since I know Peter and they're friends."

She gave me a little smile as she tossed the volleyball at me, "I guess that worked out well for you, huh? Knew only one person coming into the school, and got a whole friend group out of it?"

I hit the ball back, "I guess…though it also just makes me feel like a bit of an intruder. Like some kind of fourth wheel. Though nothing they've actually done has given me any reason to feel that way—they've been super nice and have done their best to make me feel included."

"Yeah, they're good people. Though…"

I raised my eyebrow, "Though what?"

She shrugged and avoided my inquisitive gaze, "I really shouldn't say."

"C'mon, spill. They're one of the closest things I have to a friend group, if there's a downside to them, I should know about it."

She bit her lip, then nodded, "Okay, well, it's just that, this past year or so, they've started getting a reputation for a being a bit… weird. Mostly Peter at first, and then Ned, and recently even MJ a bit."

"Weird how?"

"At first, we noticed Peter getting more distracted in class, then getting flakier with his attendance—not just on normal school days, but even with decathlon— showing up and disappearing between periods, seeming more tired, almost constantly snacking between classes, way more headphone usage—can't even really remember the last time I saw him without them and he used to never wear them, a lot more full absent 'sick' days… a lot jumpier and secretive… each thing on its own isn't really that weird, but all together…and the fact that some of those behaviours started getting copied by Ned and MJ…well…a lot of us think they might be getting into drugs or something…"

I stared at her in shock, the volleyball she'd just bumped towards me falling to the floor in front of me. I scrambled after it before it could roll away, then returned to our conversation.

"Drugs, really?"

She nodded, a serious expression on her face.

I gave her a deadpan look, "I don't think its drugs."

"Well, what else could it be?"

"Maybe, I don't know, adolescence?" My tone dripping with an undertone of obviously.

"I don't think adolescence really accounts for all of that, Y/N."

"Okay, so maybe adolescence and the Stark internship are causing an overlay of factors."

She looked at me incredulously, "You don't really believe that he has a Stark internship?"

"Sure, I do. That's how we met."

And as soon as the words were out of my mouth, I regretted them, visions of everyone learning about Tony being my dad before that was supposed to be public, flooding my mind.

"You met him at Stark Industries?"

Well. Technically a few floors above it, but semantics. I nodded meekly, panic racing in my veins.

"You're telling me you're also an intern there?"

My eyes widened as I realized that obviously she hadn't defaulted to 'Tony Stark is Y/N's Father', "What? No, of course not. You know what I'm like with science. My dad works there, doing something science-y that I've never been able to understand."

"Hmm. So, he brought you to work?"

"Well, to the building, not to any of the actual company portions. I happened to meet Peter while meeting with my dad for breakfast there one day."

She nodded slowly, and I held my breath until her previous friendly smile crossed her face again, "That's kinda cool. Don't let Flash know though, he'll lose his mind if he finds out you have a connection—no matter how small— to Stark Industries."

I nodded, breathing a sigh of relief that she was accepting my story, and that I'd gotten through the situation without having to actually lie to her about anything.

I smiled back at her, lifting the volleyball into the air, "Another round then?"

I walked into the penthouse, having been picked up from school by Happy. The room was empty so I asked FRIDAY where Tony was.

"I'm afraid that information is off-limits at the moment. Would you like me to tell him that you've returned?"

Off-limits? How peculiar.

"I don't want to disturb him if he's in the middle of something important…why is it off-limits?"

"It's Avengers related, above your access level."

I frowned, so far they'd been pretty open about all the Avengers stuff, though I suppose there hadn't really been any official Avengers business going on either. I shrugged and put my bag away, eying the kitchen speculatively.

"So Tony won't be here for dinner, FRIDAY?"

"That is correct, Y/N."

"Will anyone be joining?"

"I'm sorry, no. Would you like to me to pull up some delivery options for you?"

"No, that won't be necessary. Thank you."

A grin spread across my face and I eagerly went over to the kitchen, opening the fridge to see what we had. This would be the first dinner on my own since I'd moved in with Tony, and a chance for me to finally get to cook again.

Luckily, Pepper made sure the kitchen stayed stocked for when she was over to cook, so I had lots of food to choose from. I pulled out all the ingredients for my favourite meal, had FRIDAY blast one of my playlists, and danced around the kitchen while I cooked, enjoying the moment. Not long later, I was sitting down to my hot meal, happily eating while the turned-down music played in the background.

After washing the dishes, I checked my phone again. I still hadn't got a reply from Peter, and had gotten no more texts from Ned or MJ either. Tony hadn't even checked in, but he was probably busy with the Avengers stuff.

I pushed down the feeling of uneasiness that tried to creep up inside of me, instead going to do my homework. Once that was done, I pulled out a book and went to sit out on the balcony in the night air, watching the lights of the city twinkling in the night. Everything was so quiet from up here, aside from the occasional scream of a siren, and in those silent moments, if I closed my eyes, I could almost pretend I was back home.

My reminiscent thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the door opening, and I looked up to see a very tired looking Tony walking towards me.

He slumped down on the adjacent chair, running his hand over his eyes and through his hair. "Hey, kid."

"You okay, Tony?"

"Hmm? Oh, me, yeah…I'm okay."

I looked him over, "You sure about that?"

He gave a dry laugh, "Yeah, I suppose I don't look it. It's been a rough day."

"Getting better though?"

He nodded, a relieved look in his eyes, "Yes, thankfully."

He refocused on me, "So, how was your day?"

I shrugged, "Same-old, same-old. School was quiet without the others, but I hung out with another girl."

He nodded absently, "Good…good."

Noting that he seemed to be struggling to keep his eyes open, I nudged his side, "Time for bed, maybe?"

He tilted his head in acknowledgement, "Probably not a bad idea. For you, too?"

I glanced at the time, it was almost 11pm. I nodded, "Yeah, me too."

We walked back inside together, hugging goodnight in the hallway, before going off into our respective rooms. As I did, I paused for a moment, wondering if I'd imagined that Tony had held me a bit tighter than usual tonight, before closing the door and going to get ready for bed.