I'm sorry. Work emergency. I won't be there. Love you.

Peter looked at the text once again. He couldn't believe it. Aunt May wasn't able to attend Career Day at his school. Flash was definitely going to use this against him. With a final glance at the words on the newest Stark phone (Tony's given him one that wasn't even on the market yet) Peter stood up and grabbed his backpack. Just because Aunt May couldn't make it didn't mean he could stay home all day.

He managed to make it to school with only a few minutes to spare and walked slightly out of breath to his locker where MJ and Ned were standing. They appeared to be debating about something.

"I'm just saying Spiderman could totally take down Hulk"

"And I'm just saying he couldn't" MJ retorted.

"Well why don't we ask Spi- I mean Peter?" Ned quickly tried to recover from almost revealing Peter's secret identity.

Peter's eyes bulged at Ned's almost slip-up. "Dude!" He hissed through gritted teeth.

MJ simply let out a laugh. "Relax loser. I've known for months."

Now both Ned and Peter stood in shock. "You knew?!" Peter managed to choke out.

The girl let out another laugh. "I wasn't 100% sure but I am now!" Another laugh rang out through the mostly empty hallway. "Later losers" she began to walk away with a two finger salute.

Peter turned to Ned and glared at him.

"In my defense, I was defending you"

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After the discussion with MJ, the only thing on Peter's mind was how horrible he was at keeping his identity a secret. He quickly made a quick list of everyone who knew his secret.

-Ned

-MJ

-all the avengers

-Aunt May

Huh. I thought the list would be longer. Oh well. Peter gave a slight chuckle at his conversation (with himself) and continued on his way to class. It was only as he walked into the classroom that he remembered Career Day. Everyone in the classroom had at least one of their parents attending. Peter had nobody. Flash took notice of this and left his parents back at his desk as he made his way over to Peter.

"What's up, Penis? Don't have any parents? Oh yeah. They're dead. They probably killed them selves to get away from you" Flash finished with a smirk and walked back to his parents, satisfied with the tears welling in Peter's eyes. The young boy quickly wiped them away. Nobody could see him crying.

—————-

After what felt like forever, Mr. Dumas began the presentations. After 3 teachers, a firefighter, a police officer, 2 accountants, and 2 lawyers (both Flash's parents), the teacher called on Peter.

The poor kid was caught off guard and took a second to respond. "Sorry. I didn't bring anyone. My aunt had a work emergency." He looked at his desk as he fiddled with his hands, embarrassed at his lack of parental figures.

Suddenly the door flew open and a suave man wearing sunglasses and a grey three piece suit walked in. "Sorry teach. Hope I'm not late. Someone-" he playfully glared at the shocked Peter "-didn't tell me about this thing 'til this morning. Hey, Pete. How's it hangin'?"

Tony Stark.

While everyone was digesting the new information (mainly Peter was only slightly lying about the internship) Peter simply waved and squeaked out a "hi" in response. He was in disbelief that Tony freaking Stark came to his school's Career Day. Nobody said anything for a good minute or so until Tony asked if he could start talking.

"Go right ahead" Mr. Dumas said surprisingly calm. He was probably in denial. But it's okay. Most of the people in that room were too shocked to say anything.

Tony began setting up and called Peter up in front of the class to help him. He laid down his briefcase (how had Peter missed that?) and pulled up his sleeve, revealing his watch. He tapped three times and the bracelet detached. The billionaire grabbed Peter's hand and attached the watch around his wrist. With a wave and a paparazzi smile to the parents and students, he began his presentation.

"Hello students and parents of Midtown High. You should all know me as Tony Stark. Owner of Stark Industries, billionaire, philanthropist, genius, and of course Iron Man. Today I'm going to talk to you about the latest technology from Stark Industries. The watch Mr. Parker is wearing is my- our latest invention. This however will not be for sale considering everything it can do. Care to demonstrate!" He directed the question towards the still-in-shock-teenager.

Peter nodded and double tapped the watch. A hologram appeared and Karen's voice rang out through the classroom. "Hello, Peter. How can I help you?"

The young boy was shocked to hear his AI in the watch and he quietly vocalized his thought. Tony gave a slight chuckle at that and turned to the audience. "Pete here is surprised that I added the AI he created to the watch. This was supposed to be a Christmas present but I guess not. Merry-super-early-Christmas, kid." Tony smiled once again at hi- the (not his) kid.

"Thanks, Mr. Star- I mean Tony" Peter thanked his mentor, remembering the recently implanted rule about his name.

"No problem kid. Now tell them about the watch. You should know enough about it. I mean you did help make it". The class wasn't sure if they could keep up with all the drama. Peter just smiled again (he seemed to do that a lot with Tony) and launched into the discussion.

———————-

Fifteen minutes later, Peter and Tony finished. They were given a long round of applause (only a select few parents received the honor but certainly not as long as Tony and Peter). While Tony basked in the praise, Peter seemed to shrink away. The spotlight had never been his thing. Tony of course noticed this and managed to get Peter back to his desk and calmed down.

Three more parents went (although no one paid any attention) and then it was time for questions. All of the adults in the room stood in front of the students and the teacher called on anyone with questions. Most were not surprisingly directed towards Tony. But who can blame them. It's not everyday Iron Man comes to your school for Career Day.

There were the stereotypical questions about what the suit was like and how fast it was. The number of bad guys he killed and whether or not he was going to finally propose to Pepper. MJ asked questions about his charity work and the renewable energy products he and his company were developing. Tony was impressed with her and made a mental note to introduce her to Pepper. She would make a great CEO with the right training.

And then came the dreaded question from who other than Eugene 'Flash' Thompson. "How do you know Pen- I mean Peter?"

Tony narrowed his eyes slightly at the almost insult but decided not to bring it up. At least not yet. "Hasn't Pete told you about the internship?"

"Well uh yeah. But we all thought he was lying. You only accept college students."

"I met Peter at the MIT science fair that I was judging at and he became the youngest participant and winner. I was impressed considering he was like 12-"

"14 1/2" Peter corrected.

"14 1/2" Tony imitated Peter in a high pitched impression of his voice. The class laughed at this and Peter's ears turned a slight red.

"I'm just messing with ya. I knew that. See, kid. I told you I could remember stuff. Any who, he was in the newspaper a lot that week and I was impressed so I reached out to him and offered him the job. Now he's my personal assistant and the best intern I've ever hired" Tony smiled towards the blushing Peter.

The moment was nice until Flash spoke up again. "But why him? Out of everyone you could've picked you chose him."

Peter was scared for Flash as he saw the flashes of anger in Tony's eyes. "What do you mean 'why him'? I just told you why I offered him the internship. Are you having trouble realizing the kid you've been bullying actually has an internship with me?"

Oh no.

Flash's parents did not like their son being threatened and began to yell at Tony. Tony however has had a lot of practice with lawsuits and quickly fired back and threatened to bring this to the school board. Which would go in his favor considering Tony Stark is a heck of a lot richer than the Thompsons and would bring better publicity to the school. When the two realized they couldn't win, they stood there with their arms crossed and eyes narrowed. On the other hand, Tony had a smirk on his face.

'Typical' Peter thought.

Mr. Dumas (bless his old soul) decided it was time to intervene. "Mr. Stark, Mr-"

"No. You listen here, Mr. Dumbass. My son has been bullied by this lowlife for years and you haven't intervened ONCE! Instead, you've left Flat or whatever his name is off the hook! So don't lecture me on being civil if you can't do the same to high school bullies or I swear to Thor I will take Peter out of this school. How would you like Iron Man to publicly denounce your school, huh?" Tony finished his mini-rant with a smirk (typical)

The class was speechless. At least until MJ stood up and began clapping. Soon, the rest of the class was on their feet and applauding Tony 'Mama Bear' Stark. Well, everyone except for the Thompsons who began to scream at Flash. Peter of course felt bad about it but decided not to bring it up to Flash in fear of being hit.

After the applause died down, Tony decided it would be best if he left. He waved Peter over and placed an arm on his shoulder, giving a semi side hug to the embarrassed teen.

"Thank you, teach, but I'm taking Pete home. Don't worry. If you're lucky I might bring him back tomorrow." He have a slight chuckle, spurring the rest of the room's occupants to do the same.

Mr. Dumas was flabbergasted. "Mr. Stark, you can't take a student out of school without permission from a guardian!"

"Good thing I am a guardian. Talk to his aunt if you don't believe me. Toddles." He gave a small finger wave and walked out of the door, pulling Peter along.

After a short walk in silence, Tony finally spoke. "I really do have partial guardianship over you. May suggested it. Said that you love coming to the tower and that it'd be easier if I had some guardianship rights so we went to the courthouse this morning and um yeah. So-" he clapped his hands together in an effort to change the subject "- you want food or wanna go to the tower or your aunt's place...? Your choice."

Peter stayed silent for a moment or two. Whether it was in thought or disbelief we won't know. But he finally spoke as Happy pulled up in Tony's (and Peter's) favorite Audi.

"Can I call you 'dad'?"

Now it was Tony's time to be surprised. Peter saw the look on his face and quickly backtracked.

"Well I-I mean only if uh only if you want to er if you w-want me to um you don't have t- I mean I don't have to call you um da-"

"Pete" Tony placed a comforting hand on the rambling kid's shoulder "I'd love it if you called me dad"

Peter looked like he was going to burst from happiness. "Really?! Thanks, dad. It's so weird calling you dad you know cuz I mean you're Tony Stark and I can't believe that I have an internship with you let alone you're my dad! This has got to be the greatest day of my life! OH MY GOD! Wait til I tell Ned I call Tony Stark 'dad'! He's gonna have an aneurysm or somethin'. I'll tell him tomorrow right now I just wanna hang out with my dad."

Tony could not believe his luck. His kid was calling him 'dad'! Finally! He smiled at Peter's enthusiasm and stepped out of the car (when did we get in a car Peter thought).

"We're home, son"

I could get used to this, Peter thought with a smile as he walked into Stark Towers with his dad. I could get used to this.

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Things were going great until the newspaper headlines read

After that, things were going better than great.

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Hi everyone. I know this ending isn't the best but I have 5 other drafts that I'm working on. Thank you to everyone for reading this and please comment any requests. Thanks again and happy reading!