Chapter Text
If he’s being completely honest, this isn’t that bad.
When he first started picking the kid up from school to take him to the Compound, Happy Hogan admits it was partially because he felt bad for the incident with the plane. He’d come over, pick him up, and roll up the partition when the chatter got annoying.
Eventually, Hogan started to realize that it took longer for him to feel the need for silence. Soon, he began making it to the Compound without even reaching for the button for the partition. Then, he started participating in the conversation with the kid. Talking about the boss and what they do in the lab, even if he barely understands it. Happy would tell stories about Tony that would make the kid laugh. He still hasn’t caved on the “no eating” rule that he has for his car, but he will admit that he looks forward to pulling up at this high school a few times a week.
Now, however, he isn’t glad to be hear. No, he’s quite annoyed.
All of Tony Stark’s cars are nice. As in, very nice. Not always the most expensive, but always very good to look at. He allows a slight decrease in quality for when he needs to be a little lower profile, but only just.
Happy has a few preferences when he drives. Has to be black. Has to have a backseat. Must have trunk space. Finally, tinted windows are preferred.
The problem is, most of the car’s he usually drives to pick up the kid are in some form of maintenance at the moment. Leaving him to drive one of those high-profile cars that Stark would be seen in.
So, now, he’s leaning against that car, waiting for his charge as a crowd starts to gather around the flashy and not at all under the radar vehicle. They all gape and stare, but Happy likes to think that his intimidating stature keeps them from getting too close.
He’s looking around, scanning for possible threats, when he sees Peter walking out of the double doors of the school with the Leeds kid. Pete spots Happy, and his face splits into a wide grin. He starts walking down towards the car, when it happens.
Peter Parker goes sprawling to the ground as a group of guys shoves past the kid, despite there being more than enough room. No, it was intentional.
“Hey!”
The bodyguard bolts forward, barely even noticing as the brats in front of him part to let him through. He stalks towards the group of kids that are now laughing at his charge while Leeds helps him up. The entire group doesn’t notice the man until he’s standing between the bullies and the two friends.
“What’s your problem?” Happy Hogan growls.
“What?” The group steps back, a bit of fear on their faces.
“Happy,” Peter sighs, wiping dust and dirt off of his clothes. “It’s okay.”
“Kid,” the man looks back at him. “It’s my job to make sure that you get to the boss safely. If that means stepping between you and a bunch of guys who seem to enjoy picking on others, then so be it.”
“Happy,” Peter grabs onto the man’s arm. “Please, can we just go?”
The Asset Manager of Stark Industries, former bodyguard of Tony Stark, and retired pro boxer looks back and forth between the kid and the jerks, before sighing.
“Fine, but I’m telling the boss about this.”
“But-.”
“Nope. Not hearing it. And your aunt is learning this, too.”
“Please, don’t.”
“It's happening, now c’mon. Tony’s always a bit anxious when we’re late.” He looks over at Ned, nodding. “Leeds.” Then, over at the others, glaring slightly, before walking away with Peter.
***
“And you didn’t think to tell us about this why?”
Peter is looking down as Tony Stark and May Parker sit across the table from him.
“Peter,” May gives him a comforting look. “If you’re getting bullied at school, you should have told us. Was it that Flash person?”
“No,” the teen mumbles. “He only calls me names sometimes, and that’s not really specific to me. He’s a jerk to everyone equally.”
“That means that there are others who do target just you?” Mr. Stark frowns.
The teenager being lectured sinks down even lower.
“Sweetie,” May tries to look in Peter’s eyes. “Why do they do that? If it’s just you, I would think they’d have a reason, right?”
Peter nods. “Some people, well… Some of the people at school still don’t believe I have an internship.”
“What?” Tony actually chuckles at that. “I thought all of that was settled when we turned in the paperwork to make it official.”
“It was for most people,” Peter sighs. “Like Principal Morita and most of the staff, but some people think I forged the papers. It’s apparently happened before. I mean, this is a STEM school, so there would be people smart enough to do that.”
“I will admit that with your knowledge of chemistry, engineering, and programming,” Tony Stark nods. “You’d definitely be able to pull off a passable false internship report.”
“But that isn’t the case right now,” May frowns. “Have the teachers done anything about this?”
“When they actually catch the guys doing it.”
For the next half an hour, there’s a back and forth between the three of them. May and Tony try to find a solution to the problem. Peter, and on occasion Tony, shut down a lot of May’s suggestions. Some of them wouldn’t work in a modern high school setting. May and Peter stonewall Tony’s suggestion of expulsion of the problem children and blacklisting their families from anything involving Stark Industries and their affiliates, even if May was just barely on Peter’s side about the expulsion.
At the end of it all, the three of them decided that the best thing to do is alert Principal Morita to the situation and having Mr. Stark at least offer to upgrade their security system. Not much, but it’s a start.
***
“Isn’t there something else we can do?” May Parker sighs as she sits back on the couch.
“From what I heard from you two,” Pepper Potts smiles comfortingly. “I think you’re doing everything you can short of making a public announcement about it.” She holds up a finger to Tony, who had opened his mouth. “And we promised that we wouldn’t do that until Peter was at least in college.”
There’s a few more moments of silence, before Tony opens his mouth again.
“There is one more thing,” he tells the two adults. “Honestly, I didn’t suggest it earlier because I’m not sure what Peter would think about it. It’s not a public statement, but it’s still pretty out there.”
As the two women hear his suggestion, their eyes widen.
“That could work,” May agrees.
“And we could still have FRIDAY restrict the media exposure if we need to,” Pepper nods. “Should we tell Peter?”
“I think it might be better if we let it be a surprise,” Tony tells her.
“You just want to see the look on his face when he realizes what’s happening,” Pepper smirks at her fiancé.
“You’re not wrong.”
May laughs a bit at that. “Please record it.”
“Of course.” He peeks the sunglasses out of his jacket pocket for a moment.
***
Peter Parker is having a pretty good day. He just got back a few tests, aced ‘em. He’d managed to get to lunch early enough to get the real pizza and not just that cheese covered cardboard they call food. MJ even smiled at one of his jokes during the decathlon meeting during study hall. It’s been great.
That’s why, when he opens up the doors to leave school, he has to stop short and gape. I mean, it’s not something bad that he sees in front of him, but it’s definitely not something he would’ve ever expected on a day like this.
The crowd is a hell of a lot bigger than it was before the weekend. That’s because, instead of Happy Hogan, there’s a confident and well-dressed billionaire in sunglasses. His face turns away from one of the students asking for an autograph as he looks at Peter exiting the door.
“Hey, Pete!” He calls to the teen. “Ready to go?”
All eyes turn to Peter Parker as he feels Ned tugging excitedly on his arm. Peter starts walking towards the group as it parts, shock and awe on the faces of the students. He feels his cheeks heat up as he reaches Mr. Stark and the man puts a hand on his shoulder.
“Welp,” the genius billionaire pats the boy’s shoulder. “We’d better get going. We’ve got projects I need your help on.”
Peter can hear the whispers as he loads up into the passenger’s side of one of Mr. Stark’s cars. He doesn’t actually say anything until they’re almost out of the city.
“What was that?” Peter frowns.
“The only way we can completely prove to the students that you actually work with me,” Tony replies, a bit smug. “It was either that or have Pepper come, but she has a meeting.”
“But I thought that we weren’t going to reveal that I was your intern until later.”
“It shouldn’t spread too much,” Stark assures him. “FRIDAY’s filtering out a lot of the posts that actually mention you and Midtown High. Anything else can be dealt with by our lawyers to keep your name and information out of the press. You’re still a minor, so that makes things easier for us.”
Peter smiles a bit at the thought that was put into all of this.
“Thanks, Mr. Stark.”