SECRETS

III

Peter managed to make it through most of the first part of the tour without any major embarrassment. One of the interns did, however, wrap him up in a headlock and give him a vicious noogie, cooing 'baby Stark' as he vigorously scrubbed his knuckles over Peter's scalp.

Another intern asked for his help coding a bit she was working on. She couldn't seem to find the mistake that reversed the actions the bot preformed. Peter found it in five minutes.

"Thank you so much," she laughed. "I can't believe I missed it! Geez, I feel dumb now."

"Don't say that," Peter responded, patting her hand. "You just needed a new pair of eyes is all. You're doing a great job- I'm sure Doctor Christianson will love it." They looked over at the lab head, who was debriefing the class on a project they were doing to see which partner group could make the best functioning robot. Flash stared at Peter, jealousy and rage thinly veiled within his eyes.

It didn't take long for everything to fall apart.

They were in the final lab, most of the students antsy as they waited for it to be over so they could go to lunch. The lab head, Doctor Amelia, was explaining the basis of their division- designing and improving Avenger weapons.

Peter shifted uncomfortably, eyes roving the room over and over. His nerves where off the charts, skin itchy, hair on end. Not only was he nervous about being in that specific lab- after all, when he wasn't with Tony Stark, he was here- but his Spidey senses were telling him something very, very wrong was going to happen.

"Petey-pie!" A song-song voice filled the lab, and Peter flinched as the class turned around. Standing in the doorway was Clint and Natasha.

"Hello, маленький паук. How are you?" Peter winced as she wrapped an arm around his shoulder, ignoring the thirty some odd students in the room. Clint thumped him on his arm, grinning wildly.

"A little birdie told me you were babysitting today. Hope you're gettin' paid, Petey-pie, because that's a lot of students."

"I hope little birdie also said I asked you all to leave me alone," Peter grumbled, rubbing his arm.

"Now where's the fun in that?" Natasha's tone was teasing. Her eyes shifted over to the horde of teens, smiling at the thirty identical faces of awe. "You must be Peters class. It's nice to meet you all. Clint and I would stick around, but we have some business to attend to, so maybe we'll see you later, yeah?" Ruffling Peter's hair, she left, dragging Clint behind her. Not a moment later, the class converged on him.

"How do you know Black Widow?"

Rattling.

"What did she say to you?"

Heavy breathing

"Are you really friends with Avengers?"

Tight. So tight.

"What kind of business would they take care of?"

Stop! Stop, please!

"Do you think Hawkeye would sign my phone case?"

Can't breathe.

"Will you get a picture of them for me?"

Suffocating.

"Peter!" The shaking stopped. Peter realized the others had fallen silent as he continued into panic, and it became very clear why.

Red lights were flashing, a siren wailing a lament for the world to hear. The teen boy stiffened, eyes darting around in search of danger. A hand pressed against his, and he stared into the eyes of an intern, Celine.