Peter couldn't believe his luck.

Of all the places his end of the year field trip could be at, it had to be Stark Tower.

And Tony and Pepper had to be doing a presentation.

"May! I can't go!"

"Peter. I told you this before. You can't skip the trip just because you're worried Tony will embarrass you."

"I'm sick", Peter faked a cough.

May laughed, "No. You're ridiculous. Now get going."

 "Fine! If I die of embarrassment you have to pick me up."

"Okay Peter. Have fun."

Peter scoffed.

Fun.

He wouldn't have fun.

Tony would use this as an opportunity to torture Peter.

At least Pepper would be there. She might help him.

Maybe Peter could just tell everyone he lied about the internship and pretend he didn't know anyone.

Yeah.

That was a good plan.

When Peter got to school everyone was getting ready to go.

"Hey Penis! Did you tell your good friend Tony Stark that we're coming?"

"Shut up Flash."

"Hey Peter!" Ned was practically shaking with excitement, "Does he know you're coming?!"

"No. I wish I wasn't going."

"Why?"

"I don't need to draw attention to myself."

Ned opened his mouth to reply but was interrupted by the teacher shouting for everyone to get on the bus.

As Peter got on the bus he whispered to himself, "Tony better not find out I'm coming."

When they got to the tower, Peter ducked behind Ned, so no one who would recognize him would see him. Unfortunately, that plan didn't work to well.

Everyone was being given a guest pass by a woman who Peter knew did all the tours.

Everyone was given one but Peter.

"You can just use your regular pass."

Everyone stared at Peter as he took his pass out of his bag and headed to the security line.

"You have your own pass for Stark Tower?" Ned asked.

"It's not for Stark Tower. I didn't even know it worked here."

"That's so cool!"

Ned went through security and Peter was next. He was about to take go through the scanner when Katherine, the tour guide interrupted him, "you don't need to do that. Just scan your pass."

Peter did, blushing with embarrassment, and F.R.I.D.A.Ys voice came over the speakers.

"Welcome back, Peter. I'll inform Tony that you're here."

Flash gawked at him, "you weren't lying."

Ned beamed, "Of course he wasn't!"

"Fri", Peter sighed, "that's really not necessary. Please don't."

"I already told him. He's on his way."

"If everyone could follow me..." Katherine started the tour but no one was paying her any attention.

They were all talking about Peter.

The lights were too bright.

The voices too loud.

Peter could smell the chemicals from the labs upstairs.

He could feel the vibration of every step.

"Peter? Are you okay?"

"Yeah. I'm fine Ned."

Peter wasn't fine.

He felt like his head was exploding.

He couldn't breathe.

"Friday?"

A reply came over the speakers but Peter couldn't distinguish what was being said.

He opened his eyes to see the rest of the students were gone. Ned was stood in front of him, looking confused.

He closed his eyes again.

It was too bright. 

 Peter had his eyes screwed shut and his hands covering his ears. He was sat on the ground, rocking back and forth.

Someone was saying his name, probably Ned, but he didn't open his eyes.

He couldn't.

Everything was too bright.

Arms wrapped around Peter and all of a sudden he was being carried.

"Hey Peter."

It was Tony. He was whispering.

"I'm going to take you upstairs okay?"

Peter nodded.

"Friday, dim the lights. Can you open your eyes, kid? We're in the private elevator. It's just us and the lights are low."

Slowly, Peter opened his eyes.

The darkness comforted him.

But the sound.

He could still hear so much.

"I know it's all to much, just focus on my voice. Do you want me to set you down?"

"No", Peter said under his breath, "the vibrations of all the people. It's better when I'm not on the ground."

"Okay. We're here. I'm going to take you to Bruce's old room for when he needed space. It's soundproof and padded, so you won't feel the vibrations as much."

"Thank you."

"No problem kid."

As they left the elevator Peter tucked his head into Tony's shoulder.

"I'm going to set you down now. You should be okay."

Peter looked around at the room. It had padded walls and flooring.

But he didn't feel trapped.

He felt safe.

The room was dark and all he could hear and feel was him and Tony breathing.

All he could feel was Tony's hand on his shoulder.

Tony pulled him into a one armed hug, "Why didn't you tell me you were coming?"

"I didn't want it to be a big deal.", Peter sighed, "I wanted to be normal. People already make fun of me enough."

"Normals no fun. Hell, if either of us were normal I would never have met my favourite spider brat."

Peter chuckled, "you have to go do the speech with Miss Potts."

"First, she'd be very sad you're not calling her Pepper", Tony chuckled, "and that's not for half an hour."

"My teacher probably thinks I'm skipping."

"I dealt with that. He knows you're with me."

"Thanks." Peter yawned, "I wanna see the speech."

"I haven't even read my cue cards yet. How about you take a nap and I'll wake you up before I go? You can watch from backstage so you don't have to be in the big crowd, if you really want to see it, but it won't be anything you haven't already heard."

"Okay" Peter curled up to Tony's side and just like that, he was asleep.

Tony smiled down at the kid he had come to think of as a son and pressed a kiss to his forehead. 

Peter woke up to Tony reading over some papers.

"Good timing kid, I have to go to the speech now. You wanna come?"

"Can I stay backstage?"

"Of course. Let's go. Pep will kill us both if I'm late!"

Peter sat up and noticed he had lines on his face from Tony's jacket.

"So, do you think I could make it as a pillow?" Tony pulled Peter up.

"Definitely", Peter laughed.

Tony wrapped his arm around Peter as they walked to the elevator.

"If everything get to much just tell Friday and I'll come get you."

"Tony, you don't have to do that."

"I know, but I care about you kid. Now come, let's get down there before I accidentally say something else nice."

They got in the elevator, talking and laughing the entire trip down.

Peter could only hear Tony's voice and an amount of background noise that was almost... normal.

"Tony! You were supposed to be on two minutes ago!" Pepper ran up to them, heels clicking on the concrete floor, "Peter, good to see you. I'll set you up backstage. Tony has to go."

"All right kid, see you later!"

"Bye Tony!"

Tony jogged off towards the stage and Peter could hear cheering.

"Come on, honey. Let's you all set."

Peter followed Pepper to a chair that was out of the way, but he could watch Tony.

He showed off some new tech and then Pepper talked about some scholarships.

"Thank you all for coming. I hope you have a wonderful summer!"

"Wait up, Pep, don't get rid of them yet. I have something else to say."

"Tony", she smiled sweetly, "what are you doing?"

He whispered something in her ear and she left the stage.

"Pepper? What is Tony doing?"

"Apparently he's improvising." Pepper pulled up a chair and sat beside Peter, "We'll just have to see what happens."

"You guys are all from MSST, right?"

Peter's classmates cheered.

"I'm going to tell you a story about a kid you go to school with. I'm not going to say his name, because he will kill me." Tony faked a cough, "Peter."

Tony was right.

Peter was going to kill him.

And he wouldn't be using instant kill.

It would be slow and painful.

"I normally hate having interns, but this kid is the exception. He's an actual genius. Smarter than me. Except for the time he blew up my lab."

Everyone laughed.

"Do you want me to make him stop?"

Peter sighed, "Thanks Pepper, but the damage is done."

"I heard that some of you bully this kid, so I just wanted to remind you that I am a superhero. Thank you, good night!"

"Tony! You can't threaten a bunch of high schoolers!"

"Too late Pep", Tony ruffled Peter's hair, "what'd you think?"

"I'm going to kill you."