Chapter Text
Today is the second-worst day of Peter’s life.
He’s standing in front of Stark Tower, fidgeting with his hands. Peter’s wearing his second-best button up and a pairs of jeans under his winter coat. The building towers over him, early morning sun reflecting off its many glass windows. The streets bustle with an energy that’s unique New York, even before the sun reaches its peaks at noon. The sounds of the city streets surround him, overwhelming him so much that they almost consume him. He can smell the exhaust from the cars behind him, the metal from the subway stations under his feet.
Peter feels like he should feel more nervous. Normally, his mind would be working overtime coming up with all its awful “what if?”s. Today? His other feelings are overshadowed by the fact that he’s alone. He shouldn’t be alone.
May had a night shift at the hospital and didn’t get home until 4am, so Peter didn’t want to wake her. Ned’s probably busy with his family today, and he's probably still mad at Peter, and- that’s it. There’s no one else Peter could’ve asked to do this with him. Not anymore.
You’re gonna do great, Peter. You’re gonna wow everyone in the building.
Peter walks into the looming building, thinking that he should at least pretend to feel excited about today. The cream-colored marble floors reflect the harsh fluorescent lighting of the lobby. He walks over to a familiar leather chair before freezing at the greeting of a disembodied voice.
”Welcome back, Mr. Parker. You are 22 minutes early today. Are you by yourself?” FRIDAY says robotically.
“I- yes. It’s just me now,” he replies.
“Mr. Stark should be down to greet you in a bit, Mr. Parker.”
”Thanks, FRIDAY.” Peter sighs.
He resumes his movements and sits in the leather chair. He looks down at his opened hands, palms turned towards him. One second, his hands look their normal color, the next, they’re red. There’s red all over the concrete, splashed onto the wall across from him, pooling under where he’s sat on the ground-
Peter exhales shakily as he shuts his eyes, balling his hands into fists. His fingernails dig into his palms, the pain bringing him back to the present. He slowly opens his eyes to look back at his hands when he notices a familiar pair of footsteps enter the building.
”Welcome back, Mr. Leeds, Mr. Leeds. You are 18 minutes early today. Mr. Stark should be down to greet you in a bit.”
Ned? What is Ned doing here? Why now, of all times?
Oh. He applied for the Stark internship too. And he must've gotten accepted. Or course he got accepted. Ned’s one of the smartest people Peter knows.
“Oh, hi FRIDAY!” Ned replies excitedly. God, Peter can practically hear the stars in his eyes. He runs his hands down his face, exasperated. He doesn’t have the energy for this. Thankfully, he hears Ned and his father sit on the opposite side of the lobby.
“’Sup, Parker.” Peter’s heart nearly leaps out of his chest.
“Michelle! You applied to this too?” He turns to face the girl who is now sitting beside him.
“Yeah?” She looks at him, eyebrow raised in confusion. “Why wouldn’t I apply to this? They’re always doing groundbreaking stuff here. I’ve read the articles. Plus, I’ll get to meet *the* Pepper Potts. It’s the opportunity of a lifetime.”
Peter nods in agreement. “Yeah, that makes sense.”
Michelle squints at him as if he’s a puzzle she wants to solve, then turns away. She pulls out a pad of Post-it notes and starts doodling.
“Wait,” Peter suddenly says. “Why didn’t-” He cuts himself off. He was about to ask why he didn’t hear her walk in, and remembered that not everyone can hear footsteps approaching from a hundred feet away. “Why didn’t I hear FRIDAY welcome you?”
“I got here before you, you just didn’t notice me here till now,” she says, eyes stuck on her drawing.
"Tony Stark has arrived," FRIDAY announces. Did Mr. Stark really code his AI to announce his own arrival? Sheesh. Talk about egotistical. Michelle immediately stands up and starts walking towards him, Peter not far behind.
The pair meets Ned and his dad in front an elevator as Mr. Stark exits it. “Good, you’re all here. Names?”
“Michelle Jones.”
“Uh, Ned Leeds.”
“Peter Parker.”
“Alright then. Welcome to your first day working for Stark Industries,” Mr. Stark says as he shakes their hands.
“Yeesh, kid. You shake everyone’s hands this tightly or is it just me?” Peter suddenly startles, pulling his hand out of Mr. Stark’s grip. He hadn’t even realized he was shaking the man’s hand.
“Uh, sorry. I guess I don’t know my own strength.” Understatement of the year.
Mr. Stark’s brow raises when he only sees one guardian present, but thankfully he says nothing about it. “Okay then.” He claps his hands together. “We’ll head upstairs to the labs now, no parents allowed. Ready to go?”
Ned nods at his dad and waves as he walks back towards the entrance, and the four of them walk into the elevator. As soon as the doors shut, the elevator starts moving, even though no buttons were pressed. Peter wonders if FRIDAY controls this elevator and the others in the building.
“Alright, so we’re currently on our way to the Research and Development department, where I’ll hand you off to Dr. Warren. He’ll guide you through the labs, and then he’ll take you up to the Marketing floor,” Mr. Stark starts again. “Mr. Li will take over from there, and after that I’ll take you up to one of my private labs and explain the internship a bit more. Then we’ll get some food, sign some contracts, and then you guys can get to work.”
Peter can almost feel his classmates’ excitement from where they stand beside him. He knows that he should feel excited too, but he’s just… not. He hasn’t felt much of anything since that day.
The elevator comes to a stop on the 40th floor, and the doors open to reveal an array of organized chaos. Close to the front of the room are dozens of steel tables and stools, their rows arranged in two groups with the elevator in the middle. In the back, all sorts of tools cover a navy blue wall, and there are tables set up with soldering irons that a couple people are using. Peter even sees a particle accelerator against the wall to his right. *Dang, these people really have it all.*
One of the workers walks towards the elevator upon their arrival and greets them. “My name is Dr. Warren, and I’ll be giving you a tour of the R&D department. Believe me when I say this is the best place in the building for a scientist. Now, if you’ll follow me this way…”
Peter, Ned, and Michelle follow Dr. Warren as he introduces several scientists and their current projects. Apparently, Research and Development takes up ten of the tower’s floors, and Dr. Warren leads them through them all. There are separate floors for the biomed projects, thermodynamics, genetics, and animal-related experiments. Peter shudders as he remembers the spider from OsCorp.
He doesn’t remember much else of the tour. He knows they must’ve gone through Marketing at some point, because the next thing he notices is another person leading the group back towards the elevator, where Mr. Stark waits for them.
“Oh, good, you’re all still in one piece. C’mon, time for the most boring part of the day.” He gestures for Peter, Ned, and Michelle to follow him into the elevator, which starts moving again without being told to.
When it comes to a stop, its door opens to reveal a huge, warmly lit space. An array of metal tables are placed around the room, tools and parts scattered on their surfaces. A large table sits in the middle of the room, standing out among the rest. Iron Man suits line the walls, and an incomplete one sits on a mannequin close to the room’s center. Mr. Stark walks in as if he owns the place (well, he owns the whole tower, actually,) and sits at one of the room’s many chairs. He gestures for Michelle, Ned, and Peter to sit in the various chairs facing him.
“Alright, so,” Mr. Stark starts as he claps his hands together, making Peter flinch. “Time for terms and conditions. I know you guys got school and lives and whatever, so you’re only scheduled for three shifts a week. I’ve already contacted your school about the internship, and they’ve agreed to allow you to work here during school hours on Wednesdays. You’ll have one from 4-8pm on Mondays and a 9-5 shift every Wednesday and Saturday. You’re to report to the 30th floor ten minutes early to check in in the R&D department every shift. You’ll work there on Mondays, but you can do whatever on Wednesdays and Saturdays. You can work in marketing stay in R&D, be an understudy to Pepper, or work with me. Choice is yours.
That was a lot, and I know your underdeveloped child brains won’t remember anything I just said, so I got FRIDAY to record it all and send it to you phones.” He stops speaking as the teens’ three phones buzz in sync. “Now for the most boring part: contracts. Here at Stark Industries, you’ll encounter all sort of things, from new medicine, to UN officials and prime ministers, to the latest StarkPhone prototype. All of it is confidential. If I hear about any of you yapping about any of it, internship’s done. Got it? Good. It’s all in the contract,” he finishes as he hand them the contracts. “It’d be better if we could do this digitally, but Pepper insists on having everything on paper for… whatever reason.” Mr. Stark scratches his head somewhat guiltily. He waves his hand at the contracts. “Have at it.”
Peter looks at the contract in his hands. He’d flipped through it while Mr. Stark was talking, and it contain a bunch of legal jargon. He doesn’t want to sign this. He’s only 14. He shouldn’t be signing contracts on a Saturday. He should be eating a late lunch with his uncle while they wait for Aunt May’s shift to end. He should be laughing with Ned about Flash’s antics while they build Legos. He should at least be able to call his uncle for help on understanding this damn contract. But he can’t even do that.
“Parker. You done with that?” Mr. Stark asks, breaking him out of his thoughts.
“Um, almost,” Peter lies.
“Alright, well, your shift’s over in a few. Just hand it over when you’re done.”
Wait, what? His shift’s almost over? Is it five already? Last time Peter glanced at a clock, it’d been a little before three. Was he really out of it for two hours?
Peter signs the contract where it asks and places it on the table Mr. Stark works at. “Um, is it- is it okay if I stay here for a few more hours? I have a project I want to work on.”
“Uh- sure. You get paid for overtime, so… knock yourself out,” Mr. Stark tells him, not looking up from whatever he’s tinkering with.
“I’ll just- head down to R&D. See you later, Mr. Stark.” The man hums in response.
Peter makes his way back to the magic elevator. He gets in inside and it immediately starts its descent. Peter doesn’t want to go home. He doesn’t want to go back and see that Ben isn’t there. Instead, he plans. He finds an empty spot on the R&D floor that has everything he needs, and he gets to work on making synthetic spider webs.