Pointe Shoes and Spider Webs

10. The List

"Spider-Man is climbing Avengers Tower, sir."
"Oh?" Tony Stark twirls in his chair, pushing himself away from his desk. "Don't recall making an appointment with him."
"Do I deny access?"
"Nah, F.R.I.D.A.Y., you can always let him in."
"Noted." A window opens and Spider-Man swiftly jumps in, landing like a feather.
"Those ballet classes are paying off, I see?" Tony's smirk falters when he notices Spider-Man's aggressive body language. He gets up quickly. "Peter?"

Peter rips his mask off and throws it in the corner. His eyes are red and his cheeks are puffed. He's been crying. Tony rushes towards him. "Kid, are you okay?"
"How is the Stark Arts and Sciences Scholarship set up?" His voice cracks and it sounds more like a demand than a question. Tony's taken aback by this side of Peter. He's never seen him this angry before.
"The Stark-" Tony stops and thinks, remaining completely calm. "Right, yeah, let me see." He walks to his computer, Peter follows quickly, ghosting behind him. Normally Tony would've told the kid to back away a little, but this is different. He seems different. Tony searches for the right file and puts it up on the big screen. "It's Pepper's baby, so I can't tell you much about it, but this is the graph." Peter squints at it. The scholarship is set up in different gradations. The lower the number, the more funding the student gets.

"I need a list of student names."
"I can't just give you that, you know that." Peter clenches his fist and looks down.
"Dammit."
"Woah," Tony drops himself into his chair. "Who knew Peter Parker could swear." Peter glares at Tony. He, in return, raises his eyebrows and clears his throat. "Right." He gets straight up out of the chair again and looks at the screen. "Through the scholarships I fund a hundred students. They are assessed every year by a board of professionals. I suppose you want to know where Daphne's at?"
"And one other."
"Who?"
"I only know his first name," Peter mumbles. Tony sighs and pushes his hand through his hair.
"I can't just show you this stuff, Pete. At least tell me what's up with the attitude." Peter drops himself on the floor in defeat, pulling in a leg.
"The school knows about the stalker." Peter talks softly now, but his muscles are still tense. "But they told Daphne to destroy the evidence." Tony cocks his head.
"And you want to see the list because he might be on it?"
"She said he's an opera singer and writer." Tony scratches his beard, understanding what Peter means with this. He walks to Peter and offers his hand. "Well then, let's check the list, shall we?"

Tony scrolls past all the names. Peter isn't allowed to look for privacy reasons. He impatiently takes multiple tiny sips from the glass of water Tony got him.
"Found Daphne," Tony says suddenly. Peter looks at him expectantly. "She's actually quite high up, spot 19." Tony reads some more, his eyes rolling over the words. He scoffs. "I didn't know Pepper kept such detailed assessments on all these kids." Peter raises his eyebrows. "Got reports on her progress, her grades, everything." Peter keeps quiet and looks at the half full glass in front of him. Tony starts laughing. "I really should start paying more attention to where my money goes to."
"She's worth every single penny, Mr. Stark." Peter says determined. There's a sparkle in his eyes that makes Tony smile. "Probably even more."
"I'm joking, kid. I just didn't know the scholarships were this elaborate." Tony scrolls further and further through the list of names. His brows furrow.

"David, you said?"
"Yeah."
"There's only one David on the list." Tony blows up his cheeks and forces out the air with a loud noise. "He's right below you, in the number two spot."
"Wait, what?" Peter stands up from his chair. "I'm on the list?"
"Of course you are, how else do I justify spending all this money on a random kid from Queens?"
"I thought I interned here?"
"Yes, you do. The highest arts scholarship gets an internship that fits their art and the highest science scholarship gets an internship that fits them!" Peter stares at Tony, wide-eyed. "I can't just take one intern and never specify what he does for me. People ask questions, kid. So many questions."
"Are you telling me-" Peter swallows and slightly shakes his head. "-that you created an entire scholarship system to keep my identity a secret?" Tony shrugs sheepishly.
"The scholarship already existed, Pepper just put you at the top of the list."
"Unbelievable."

Peter leans back in his chair, rubbing his gloved hands on his face. He stares at the ceiling, trying to process just how much money Tony actually spends on him. When they had first met, Tony told Peter that money would be involved. The deal was that he would fund all of Spider-Man's activities. This, however, was on a whole other level.
"We got no dirt on David," Tony says suddenly. Peter sits back up straight and looks at Tony. "His reports are completely clean. Never a mention of any complaints made towards him or even a hint that he could be a psychopath."
"What do we do?"
"Can't just scratch him off the list, Pete. He already works at the Met as an intern. Without any evidence there's no ground on which we can stop this." Peter groans, dropping himself forward onto the desk.
"Nooo..." He whines.

"It's absurd," Tony scoffs. "If what you say is true and the guy is indeed a nut job, then the school is monitoring his records and keeping it clean in order to keep receiving my money."
"Isn't that illegal?"
"It's fraud, kid." Tony closes his laptop rather aggressively and stands up. "Very illegal." Tony walks around the desk to get to Peter and then leans against it. "Need anything else? Otherwise I'm gonna go have a talk about this with Pepper." Peter looks at his hands in his lap. He's quiet for a second.
"Sorry for being mean to you, Mr. Stark."
"Eh, I've been handled worse." Tony waves his hand. "Good to have the real you back, though. Anger does not suit you." He moves his chin down, still looking at Peter, and raises his eyebrows. "Like, at all." Peter chuckles, but his smile fades. Tony hated seeing Peter like this. Something was still bothering him.

"Why were you crying when you came in?" His tone is serious and Peter is startled by the unexpected question.
"Well..." He rubs his arm. Thinking back to what happened earlier that evening. "Daphne yelled at me."
"Why would she?"
"I pressed with too many questions about David."
"You don't just ask a girl about her stalker, Pete."
"She threw a door in my face." Peter wipes his nose and Tony can't help but laugh out loud.
"First of many to come." He puts his hands on his hips. "I had my fair share of nose bleeds cause of doors combined with angry women."

"How do I make this right?"
"Flowers."
"Is that all the romance advice you give?"
"Floweeers!" Tony sing songs as he walks towards the door. "Just try it, kid. Maybe carnations?" Peter gets up and walks to the window he used to come in, grabbing his mask from the floor.
"You're the worst, Mr. Stark." Tony opens the door and walks into the hallway, a shit eating grin on his face. Peter pauses before he pushes the glass to open the window. He can't help but smile before putting his mask on and jumping out. "Thank you."