**Request for Malaikatsalahcetak where Tony's prank goes wrong and Peter pays the price. Don't worry, it's a happy ending. I hope you enjoy this one!**

Peter hated field trips. He hated them more than anything else he had to do for school, and that was saying something. His last homework assignment had been a 30-page research paper on the general principals of differential calculus in the modern era versus the early period, and he would rather do that again than go on another field trip.

To recap, his last 3 field trips has ended in him getting bitten by a radioactive spider, Flash pushing him down a flight of stairs, and a maniac trying to kill him while he tried to tour the Washington Monument.

So no. Peter wasn't excited for this year's stupid trip.

Ned nudged him on the bus, but Peter just gave him a grunt. Ned sighed. "Are you seriously still upset about this thing?"

Peter huffed.

"You're being a baby," Ned said. "Listen, if you go in there and just be yourself, you're going to be fine. If Flash is a jerk, you'll literally be surrounded by people who love you and would do anything for you. You can really prove things this time, you can put him in his place!"

Peter just shrugged. It wasn't like he was close with the general employees of SI, so if they saw something, they'd just assume it was some random high schooler being mean to another random high schooler. The chances of his class meeting one of the team was zero-to-nothing, so it wasn't like they'd be stepping in on Peter's behalf.

No, this could only cause problems.

Peter watched as the Tower loomed closer, taking deep, calming breaths through his nose. This was fine, he was fine, everything was fine.

The bus rolled to a stop and the class filed out onto the crowded New York street before they headed into the lobby. A friendly intern came up to greet them, and Peter made a mental note of her name tag and the ID card on her hip. She was a pretty sweet girl actually, and Peter was going to let Pepper know. Pepper oversaw all the intern programs.

The intern led the class through the security check point, then up to the third floor labs where they really only did final touches on things, so there wasn't any experimental chemicals laying around or dangerous equipment to worry about.

Peter looked around with mock interest - he didn't spend a lot of time down here, but that's only because he was much more of an research kind of person. He and Tony would spend hours putting together projects and working through random problems.

God, just the last weekend, Peter had put in more than 17 hours on the same project, only ever stopping to get food and nap for a few hours.

Tony and he had finally found the secret, though, and then their newest transmission part was being sent to the lower labs for testing and finesse.

The intern called the class back over and announced they would be taking a tour of the legal department, then go down for lunch. Peter tried to keep to the back of the crowd. Pepper sometimes hung around with the lawyers when she had free time, and running into her-

Well, running into Pepper wouldn't be such a bad thing. She'd be actually really nice to see.

Peter followed along behind his class through the legal department tour, and then through lunch. After he was done eating, he threw away his trash and put his tray on the rack by the kitchen, then waited around to be led back to the busses. Mission accomplished. No one had embarrassed him.

But then... then Tony waltzed right through the doors.

Peter froze and made the mistake of looking over at Flash. Flash had a familiar glint in his eye, and Peter's heart sunk. "Mister Stark!"

Leave it to Flash to approach one of the more powerful and intimidating men in the world.

"Mister Stark, I'm sorry to interrupt, but there's a kid in our class who swears you know him. Peter Parker."

Peter knew the moment Tony decided to play one of his famous pranks, and he wilted a little more.

"Who?" Tony asked, his eyes flittering over the class until they latched onto Peter's. Peter closed his eyes and let out a defeated sigh.

Flash smiled wickedly. "So you don't know Parker?"

"Never heard of him," Tony said with a smile. This was exactly the kind of thing he and Clint would do when Peter came over for dinner, pretending they didn't know Peter and refusing to serve the poor teen until Steve scolded them both. Peter usually reciprocated with pretending not to know Tony when Tony asked for tools in the lab.

But this was a different damn situation.

Flash let out a triumphant yell and turned back to Peter. "Puny, Pathetic Parker was just looking for attention this whole time, then, huh?"

Peter didn't both answering, instead just shrugged. Flash slapped his hand down on Peter's shoulder harder than he needed to - Peter flinched badly - and Flash pushed his head up.

"You're a lying loser just making up stories so you can feel better about how stupidly poor you are."

Flash clenched his hand into a fist and swung, making Peter wince and jump back in fear, but the hit never came. Tony was holding Flash's hand in his own grip, looking as livid as Peter had ever seen him. Tony's eyes were weirdly alight, like he was burning up, and his face was red. Peter shook his head a little.

"Tony, it's fine."

Flash startled. "But- but- but you don't know- you said you don't know-"

Tony seethed. "It was a joke," he finally breathed out. "It was a joke between us, because I am a damned idiot, but you are the unfortunate fool who decided to pick on my kid."

Peter was watching with wide eyes as Tony released Flash's arm only to grab him by the collar. "Tony, it's fine," Peter repeated, a hint of desperation in his voice as he pleaded.

Tony finally looked over Flash's head to check on Peter. His eyes wandered up and down the teen's body, looking for any sign of an injury. "Are you okay? Why didn't you tell me this shit-stain was bothering you at school? Or that you were coming today?"

"It was a school trip, I didn't even think I'd see you," Peter said with a shrug. "But really. I can take whatever he throws at me, Tony, and at least this way he isn't picking on someone else."

A spasm of hurt flashed over Tony's face, but it was more empathetic than anything. The older man dropped Flash's shirt, letting the teen scramble away, and then pulled Peter into a hug. "You're too good for this world," he whispered into Peter's ear. "I'm so sorry I did this today."

Peter just shrugged again. "Really, it's okay. It's okay."

Tony let Peter go, and the class left, with Flash still sporting a pale face and shaking legs. Tony watched them disappear out the door, then let his shoulders drop.

He never pretended not to know Peter again, not even at the team dinner nights.