{edited 7/11/22}

peter felt like burying himself in the sand and never coming up again.

of course mr. stark had offered his school's science department a tour of stark industries. he had offhandedly mentioned that his school was going to oscorp, and his mentor had nodded and smiled (if only he knew that the man was planning on changing that trip). now he was on a school bus heading to the tower.

yay.

"ned, how much money would it take for you to shoot me?" the teen asked for the fifth time since getting on the bus.

ned merely rolled his eyes, an amused laugh bubbling from his lips. "peter, you're going to be fine," he assured. "at least everyone won't think you're lying about your internship anymore."

peter huffed and slouched in his seat. he had to admit that ned had a point; his internship claims would be validated. however, the idea of stepping into the tower with his classmates was still overwhelming.

the bus ride didn't continue for much longer, the vehicle coming to a stop outside of the tower. peter swallowed thickly, trying to keep himself upright as he and his class filed into the building. his hands shook with nerves, and it took everything in him to not run back out the glass doors.

"hi everyone!" a young woman greeted, her heels clicking against the tiled floor as she walked over to the group. "midtown, correct?"

"yes, that's right," mr. harrington replied, extending his hand to shake hers. "it's such an honor to be invited here for a tour."

the woman smiled. "it's a pleasure," she stated. turning to the class, she held her hand up and offered a small wave. "greetings, everyone. my name is claire, and today i'll be your tour guide."

peter thought he was going to pass out when she grabbed a basket of badges from the front desk.

"in this basket are your admission badges. they are only level one badges, so you won't be able to access any floor above floor ten without someone with higher clearance. these badges are only valid through today."

claire began to pass out the badges. peter stood, back straight as a board, as she neared him. he already knew what she was going to say.

"good morning, mr. parker!" she said with a smile. "do you have your badge with you, or do you need me to get you a temporary one?"

the teen returned the smile with one of his own, shaking his head. "no thanks, i have mine." to prove it, he pulled his badge from his pocket, showing her the card.

claire nodded. "wonderful!" she exclaimed. she turned back to the group. "okay everyone, follow me!" she took them to a scanner. "you stand in the scanner and press your badge to this screen."

peter watched as flash took it upon himself to step into the scanner first. the boy awkwardly fumbled with his badge before pressing it to the screen.

"eugene thompson, level one access. welcome to stark industries."

peter wanted to roll his eyes at the 'awes' and 'wows' of his classmates. however, he held himself back; he had to remember that just because this was a daily occurrence for him, it didn't mean that other people couldn't be impressed.

claire continued to usher the students into the scanner, and peter blocked out FRIDAY's voice repeating the same thing over and over again. he finally came back to the real world when he saw ned press his badge to the screen, and he couldn't help the smirk that began to form.

"edward leeds, level eight access. good morning, ned, how are you? would you like me to alert the tech-lab of your arrival?"

ned grinned. "morning, FRIDAY, i'm good! and no thanks, i can't help out right now. how are you doing?"

"i'm doing splendid. thank you for asking."

peter glanced over at his classmates, whose mouths were wide open. he shook his head and shuffled forward after mj, pausing as she stepped into the scanner.

"michelle jones, level ten access. hello mj, would you like me to alert ms. potts and let her know you have arrived?"

mj hummed and stepped out of the scanner. "hi FRI; yeah, you can tell her, but i'm here on a field trip, so i can't assist right now," she replied. "tell her i said hi?"

"of course, mj."

peter hesitated as he stepped forward. his hands were clammy, and in all fairness, he knew it was dumb; he was spiderman, for all things good, and yet he was scared of his classmates finding out that his internship was truly real? if mr. stark could hear his inner monologue, he would laugh so hard he fell over.

"come on peter, we don't have all day," mr. harrington called out, glancing at his watch. "step through the scanner, please."

peter turned towards claire, and she offered him an encouraging smile. with a deep breath, the teenager stepped onto the scanner and put his hands out, not even bothering to press his badge against the screen. before his teacher could 'correct' him, the A.I's voice rang out.

"peter parker, level ten access. peter, you have a pending message from mr. stark, would you like me to play it for you?"

peter tensed, staring at the ground. "no thanks, FRIDAY."

"very well."

peter stepped out of the scanner and hurried over to mj, wrapping an arm around her waist. he stared at the ground as he felt his classmates' eyes on him.

claire cleared her throat, and peter could've jumped for joy as the attention turned from him to their tour guide. "alright, everyone! follow me; first stop is the business office."

......

"and here is the intern floor! the entire floor is dedicated to those who have internships here at stark industries; the interns work on projects and equations!"

peter shrunk in on himself. he was all too familiar with this floor; while he didn't necessarily intern for the company, he always came down to help out when needed. the interns jokingly called him "mini boss" whenever he came around, and the silly nickname had grown on him.

anyways, he'd accepted his fate that he was going to die of embarrassment.

"alright everyone, you can walk around and chat with interns who aren't busy. if they tell you they cannot talk, please don't push them."

peter, mj, and ned broke off from the group, hurrying over to the corner. the web-slinger was nearly hyperventilating at the thought of being recognized, and his friends were attempting to calm him down.

"it'll be fine, peter," ned stressed, placing a hand on his friend's shoulder.

mj nodded in agreement. "the loser's right; so what if you get recognized? everyone will have no choice but to believe you."

peter shook his head, drawing in a few quick breaths. "it's not that easy, guys," he replied. "how am i going to explain being called 'mini boss' to our class?"

"hey, it's mini boss!"

"no way, for real? at this hour?"

"hey m.b! come help me with this project?"

peter stiffened like a board, and mj placed a hand on his back. ducking his head, the brunet teen tried to calm his erratic heart.

"h-hey guys!" he greeted, finally bringing his eyes up to meet the interns that had gathered around him. "i-i'm on a class trip right now, so i can't help you guys out. i'm sorry."

"hey penis? what's with the orgy going on over here?"

flash sauntered over to the growing group, eyebrows raised and hands shoved deep into his pockets.

"screw off, flash," mj groaned, rolling her eyes. "do you have brain damage or something? why would you ever compare this to an orgy?"

flash scoffed. "aw, penis, you need your dog to defend you? how sweet."

peter took in a deep breath. grabbing onto mj's hand, he pulled her away from the interns, ned following close behind. walking away, he could only focus on flash's laughter.

......

"alright students, our final stop will be at the avengers' training landscape," claire announced, walking backwards down the hall. "if we're lucky, the avengers might answer a few questions!"

peter sighed as his class neared the training room. at this point he was exhausted, mentally and physically, and didn't care enough to realize just where they were headed. he leaned into mj's side as they walked, half-listening to ned rattling on and on about legos, and passed under the doorframe and into the observation deck.

"everybody say 'hello' to the avengers!"

peter's head snapped up, his eyes widening in surprise. how had he missed this?

"greetings, students," steve said, holding his hand up in a wave. "as you all probably know, i'm steve rogers."

tony saddled up next to him, holding a hand out. "wait a damn minute, capsy; this is my tower." he turned towards the group. "midtown, right? obviously i'm tony stark, a.k.a iron man, but you already knew that. this is my glorious tower where my team of smarties conduct operations for the company and where the avengers stay part-time."

steve chuckled. "we get it tones, you own the tower."

peter shrunk into mj's side. "do you think they'll see me?"

mj snickered. "beats me, parker."

the avengers continued with introductions, and once they were all finished, claire started the questions.

"juliette?"

"what do you do when there's no threats to fight?"

"that's a good question," clint replied, bringing a hand up to smooth about his chin. "well, i guess you could say we act like normal people... kind of like roommates? we eat together, watch movies, go on walks—really, we're just like you guys."

"brian?"

"who's the toughest villain you've fought?"

"probably ultron," bruce answered. "he had access to, essentially, all databases across the world. he was able to predict almost any move we were going to make."

the questions continued on for a while, and eventually, flash raised his hand.

"eugene?"

"do you guys allow high-schoolers to intern here?"

tony paused. "no, we don't," he replied. "however-"

"ha! i knew it, penis! you're a freaking liar!"

peter's breath caught in his throat. all eyes turned to him and he shrank in on himself even more, trying to fight the anxiety clawing at his chest.

"what did you just call him?"

steve's stone-cold tone drew everyone's attention away from peter. his gaze was hardened, his eyes focused on flash.

"u-um, i was just pointing out that pen-peter was lying, 'cause he says that he interns here-"

"if you would've let me finish my sentence," tony interrupted, "i was about to explain how there is an exception to that."

peter's stomach dropped.

"pete? come here for a second?"

"u-um," peter stammered, eyes flickering nervously around the room. "is that such a good idea, mr. stark?"

tony pressed his lips into a fine line. "come on, up you get, kid."

reluctantly, peter moved away from the safety of his friends and towards the front of the group. as he came to stand next to tony, his sleeves were a hundred times more interesting than the conversation at hand. somehow he didn't flinch when tony wrapped an arm around his shoulders, tugging him close to his side.

"as i was saying earlier, we have exceptions to rules sometimes," the hero drawled, his gaze fixed on flash. "peter, here, participated in a state-wide science convention last summer, and i had some of my people there scouting for new employees. the work he submitted was absolutely remarkable; i offered him an internship in exchange for his talents."

while it was true that peter had participated in the science fair, he knew that story was complete bullshit. however, he made no move to correct the man; after all, he couldn't just announce that he was spider-man to his entire science department.

"of course, we had to work around his busy schedule," tony continued, patting peter's shoulder. "seriously, this kid is busy twenty-four-seven, i swear. we've worked out arrangements for him to stay in the penthouse on the weekends so he can get the most out of his time here."

sometime during tony's impromptu speech, natasha had made her way over to him and peter. "wonderful explanation, tony," she drawled, pulling peter away from him and to herself. "however, i have something i want to say as well." her eyes focused on flash.

he audibly gulped.

"if i ever hear such vile lies spew from your mouth again, you won't live to see another-"

"natasha, you can't just threaten the students!"