Chapter Text
When Peter Parker walked into his last class on Friday, psychology, he just wanted to get through the class as quickly as possible so that he could spend some quality time with the Avengers at the compound. Aunt May had agreed that he could stay over for the weekend, because she was going to be working late each night. Seeing as they wouldn't be able to have their usual movie marathons, staying at the compound seemed like a positive alternative.
Peter took his seat at the back of the class, trying not to draw attention to himself, and MJ joined him, choosing the seat with the best view of their classmates. Psychology was one of the only classes Peter had without Ned, who chose systems engineering instead. Peter would have been in that class, but last semester he had found all the assignments kinda boring, and he didn't really learn a whole lot. The classwork was miles behind the things he worked on with Mr Stark, and he couldn't help but constantly compare his classmates' work with that of the other interns at Stark International. So he'd thought it might be a good idea to try out a different branch of science, and the psychology class seemed as good a choice as any. Plus he may have known that MJ was keen on getting into the class, which provided some incentive. Because he didn't want her to be alone, obviously.
As the rest of the class filed in, their teacher, Ms Phillipa, started writing out a timetable for the class on the board.
"We'll start off with a brief video on the application of psychology in different occupations, then we'll do some partner activities, which I'll explain later on. I also have a worksheet here for you to complete before the end of class, and we'll do a quick, 10 minute meditation before you leave. Now if you could all open up your laptops and go to our class page, you should see a link under today's section. If you didn't bring headphones, I have some spares here or you can share with the person next to you."
As all the kids settled down and plugged in their earphones to watch the video, or play games while pretending to watch the video, the room got much quieter and Peter's enhanced senses were able to pick up even fainter noises than usual. And that was saying something. As he found the link to the video, he found himself listening to the individual heartbeats of everyone in the room. They all kind of merged together, like an extremely rhythmically challenged percussion band, and he had to resist the urge to start tapping out some (equally rhythmically challenged) tunes on the desk with his pencil to match.
MJ's heartbeat was particularly loud next to him, and he sat listening to it for a while. (He wasn't trying to be creepy, really.) He heard her heart speed up a few times and glanced over at her computer screen. It looked like she was watching some kind of horror movie. He was a little surprised at the change in her heart's rhythm, honestly. He hadn't thought anything could faze that girl.
Click.
Peter jumped in his seat at the sound of the door opening, compared to the minuscule noises he had been tuning in to. Turning in his chair he saw, standing in the doorway, an obnoxious grin on his face, Eugene 'Flash' Thompson.
"Flash, so lovely for you to join us. Though I might wonder about the delay between your last class, which ended ten minutes ago, and this one? Perhaps there was some traffic?" The teacher said pointedly.
"No Ms Phillipa, no traffic. I just had to take a very important call." He stressed the word 'very' for extra affect, and then strutted to the last free seat, which just so happened to be next to Peter. He quickly pulled out his wireless earplugs and signed into a website that was very much not psychology related. Peter noticed the care he took when placing his headphone case on the corner of his desk in such a way that anyone looking could see the 'SI' of Stark Industries printed on the side.
"Where are yours, Penis?" he hissed waving at the headphones. "Did you leave them at home? Oh wait, that's right, you'd have to sell your whole house to afford them."
Peter just raised his eyebrows and ignored him. Flash just wanted attention and like hell if Peter was going to give it to him. In truth, Peter had picked up the new SI prototype for the headphones long before they'd hit the markets - with the added feature of a USB port to charge your phone (or even computer) from and a storage drive large enough to contain an entire computer's worth of data, all inside the case. But for the sake of inconspicuousness, he left them in the room set aside for him at the compound.
He spent the rest of the class ignoring Flash's jabs and counting down the minutes until he could leave.
With 15 minutes left of class, the teacher told everyone to hand their worksheets back to her for marking.
"I also have an announcement to make. Our head of the science department, the lovely Mrs Walsh, has arranged an excursion for us, which I think some of you might find particularly exciting. This will be a good opportunity for you to see how psychology can be used in conjunction with other branches of science as well as in marketing, public relations, etcetera. Could I have a drum roll please?"
Laughing, all the kids started banging on the tables and stomping their feet. Peter winced as the crescendo of noise rang out loud in his ears.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we are going on a three day field trip to Stark Industries!"
Instant chaos. The class erupted with chattering and enthusiasm, and Peter tried to smile weekly, even though his insides felt like they had dropped out of him. Stark Industries? Did it really have to be Stark Industries? His internal turmoil continued while Ms Phillipa handed out forms and calmed the class.
"I know this is all very exciting, and frankly, I'm also fairly astonished, but I need you all to focus on your meditation now. I want you all to put those forms away and close your eyes. Now breathe in… and out… in … and out… Relax your mind… and relax your body."
Peter tried to focus on the meditation, he really did. But his mind had other ideas. Of all the places, the class just had to be going on an excursion to freaking Stark Industries. There was no end to the number of things that could go wrong.
What if the employees acted too familiar with him? What if the avengers turned up? Or what if his class figured out the high status he really did have within the company? What if Flash found out that he was an intern? (Peter wouldn't even consider the possibility that anyone could find out about Spiderman. The dangers that would bring were pretty much endless, not only to himself but also anyone who ever knew him.) Either way, Peter didn't really see any way that the field trip could end well.
New notifications from the group chat "pineapple pizza"
parkingmania: ayyy so ned guess what
Thechairman: Yeah what is it Peter?
parkingmania: so theres this excursion were going on in psych right
Thechairman: Yeah…
lifeisalie: lmao you'll never guess
lifeisalie: I mean literally theres no way you could. Ned you aren't a genius
Thechairman: I never said I could MJ??? But Peter what happened where is the trip to?
parkingmania: FREAKING STARK INDUSTRIES!!!! We're going to the stark tower next wednesday and staying two nights asdfgh. plus! flash is on it too
Thechairman: WHAT?! I knew I should have taken psychology with you. That is so cool!
parkingmania: NO THIS A DISASTER NED WHAT DO I DO???!!
lifeisalie: the money I would pay to see your face right now
parkingmania: this isnt funny mj this is serious this could end up so bad
parkingmania: my life could be over after that field trip im already sensing its gonna be complete disaster
Thechairman: Ok seriously peter I think you might be overreacting a little bit here? SI security is literally so tight barely anyone knows anything about you there so it's not like your secrets are all going to get spilled
Thechairman: I don't really see what else there is to worry about?
lifeisalie: well there's always the inescapable threat of the canadian supervirus contamination cells that the government has been trying to cover up since 1952 being breached and unleashing mass destruction on the world and excruciating pain on every living organism before eventually wiping out humanity and restoring the universe to the barren wasteland it was naturally meant to be
Thechairman: Oookaaaaay aside from that
Thechairman: Peter you'll be fine
Parkingmania: idk maybe. i hope your right. gtg now talk later
Peter stashed his phone in the pocket of his bag as the bus came up to his stop. Thanking the driver, he made his way to the Avengers' Compound, a block away up the street. When he got closer, he used a shortcut through the neighbour's yard to get to the back entrance. He knew Mr Devon wouldn't mind. He worked as Tony's receptionist at Stark Tower anyway, so all the Avengers were on pretty good terms with him. As he entered, saying hello to Friday, he dumped his stuff by the door and went straight to the training rooms.
He heard the sound of metal ringing on metal and smiled. After one particularly uneventful session of training, Clint had suggested that they try something different to spice it up. Now, every now and then they rotated through a bunch of different forms of combat whenever they got bored. Peter had gotten pretty good at Iaido and judo, but was still pretty sub-par when it came to using the crossbow. Once, Tony had decided they should have a medieval style battle, where they all rode horses at each other with spears. That was an interesting day.
As Peter entered the room, he saw two people with thin weapons directed at each other facing off at the centre of the room. Today was a fencing day.
Peter quietly skirted the room to where Tony and Natasha sat on a pile of judo mats - left over from their last training session - watching the other two Avengers, moving backwards and forwards across the floor on the temporary fencing piste which had been set up. Tony grinned at him as he approached and ruffled his hair playfully.
"Hey kiddo, how was school?"
"Oh, you know, same as always. We have a psychology excursion coming up though." Peter said. He wasn't sure if he should really be telling Tony about the field trip, being unsure of how he would act during the excursion if he knew. But Peter was still feeling pretty overwhelmed, and he wanted to get it off his chest, so he did anyway. "We're going to Stark Tower next Wednesday for a three day field trip."
"Woah. Okay, cool. I'm looking forward to meeting your classmates. Is Ned coming?"
"No, but MJ is. And, Mr Stark, I'm freaking ou-"
"Hey Pete! Wanna fence?" Clint was calling him over as he removed his mask and shook hands with Steve, both of them bathed in sweat.
"Uh, sure." He grabbed some gear from a pile in the corner of the room: mask, jacket, chest protector, plastron, pants, glove, and, most importantly, épée. Normally Peter wouldn't mind if he got hit but when they trained in foreign styles, Steve always insisted that they all wear all the correct protective gear. Facing the archer, he raised the weapon vertically in salute, then lowered it again and pulled his mask onto his head.
"En garde. Prêt? Allez!"
Peter started out on the defensive, waiting for Clint to make a move but still constantly moving forwards and back. Peter accidentally let himself fall into a rhythm and as he stepped forward, Clint attacked. Peter quickly stepped back again as Clint lunged, and took the archer's blade with a parry quarte, then lowered the tip of his blade to Clint's shoulder and riposted. Clint was fast, however, and parried the riposte with contra-sixte and moved out of lunging distance. The pair went back to moving backwards and forwards, this time Peter remembering to stay unpredictable and change up the pacing constantly.
This time, Peter experimentally took a step forward and extended his arm, testing Clint's reaction. Clint stepped back and parried quarte, and Peter disengaged and flèched, but Clint parried octave and riposted towards Peter's foot, missed and hit the ground with the épée.
They continued like this for a little while, until finally, Clint managed to land a hit on Peter's arm as he extended into a lunge.
"Touche." Then they reset and went back to guard position to start again.
"En garde. Prêt? Allez!" And off they went again. In the end they stopped after fifteen hits - five Peter's, seven Clint's and three double hits.
The two saluted again and shook hands.
Peter took off his mask and breathed the fresh air, and partially unzipped his jacket to allow for some air flow.
"Nicely done, Peter."
"Back at you."
The two went back over to where the rest of the team were having a heated argument over the pros and cons of public transport as opposed to superhero-ey transport. Well, part of the team, anyway. Wanda and Vision were currently on a 'research project' somewhere on a cruise in the middle of who-knew-where, and Bruce and Sam were off somewhere else, probably working on the new security system they were going to apply to the compound and the SI tower. Sam didn't really need to be there, but Bruce had said he needed someone to pass him tools, and Sam was that someone.
"But public transport is so much more interesting! I love being able to watch all the mortals' behaviour and watch the scenery as it goes by," Thor was saying. Apparently he had entered the training room while Clint and Peter had been fencing.
"No, it's downright boring. Tell him, kid," Tony said, turning to Peter.
"Personally, I love public transport. I love just relaxing and thinking, and listening to music. I actually commuted over here," Peter pointed out.
"Wait, you did? Why? You know Happy could pick you up perfectly easily."
"Like I said. It's relaxing."
"More relaxing than cruising in the amazing superhero suit that I put so much effort into making for you?"
"Yep, sorry." Peter lied, smiling at the picture of mock betrayal on Tony's face. What a drama queen.
"I tend to agree with Peter and Thor, too. I love getting to watch everyone on public transport, and listen to their conversations," Natasha weighed in.
"I'm surrounded by stalkers!" Tony cried.
"Well, yeah? It's basically our job…" Clint said with a laugh. "It's hard to work for S.H.I.E.L.D. and not be a stalker."
"Well, whatever. Your opinion is irrelevant anyway - you don't have a supersuit you can fly around in so you wouldn't understand. All you get is your little robin hood toys." Everyone looked to Clint expectantly, waiting to see how he would respond to Tony's insult.
"Okay everyone, let's all act like civilised Avengers for a moment," Steve broke in, changing the subject hastily. "Who's up for baking some cookies?"
"You are." Every other superhero responded, surprisingly synchronised.
Captain America nodded sadly. "You're right."
"Choc-chip if you could, cap," Natasha chimed in happily as he turned around and walked out of the room, presumably to start baking.
"You and me, Tony. Let's see what you can do without your little 'supersuit'," Clint challenged Tony snarkily the minute Steve had left the room.
"You're on, Robin Hood."
Peter relaxed a bit and sat back. At least the two Avengers would be able to take out their frustrations on each other while wearing complete protective gear, and where their tools of destruction were limited to the blunted épées. Otherwise, things could get pretty messy.
It wasn't like the pair had anything against each other personally, it's just that when you have access to the weapons they did, and had lived through so many massive threats to humanity, the Avengers tended to forget how much damage their hits could actually cause against someone who wasn't a super powerful evil villain. Peter had noticed that a lot of the Avengers tended to settle small disputes on a much larger scale than others would. It was okay for conflict between the Avengers, because they were all on a pretty level playing field - capable of taking each other's hits - although Peter tried to stay on everyone's good side anyway. Peter worried sometimes, however, that someday somebody outside of the Avengers would end up on the receiving end of a blast that they couldn't hold up against.
"They're cute, aren't they?" Agent Romanov said, watching as Tony and Clint bouted back and forth, looking amused.
"Uh - sure. I guess?" Peter replied, unsure of how to respond. He was never sure around Natasha. Sometimes she was really friendly, like now, but other times she was super intense and intimidating. Either way, nice as she was and much as he wanted to get to know her more, she scared him a little.
She grinned widely. "Aww, you're even cuter though! Relax, Peter. I'm not going to stab you."
Peter searched for something witty to say. "I bet you couldn't even if you tried."
Peter regretted the words the instant they left his mouth.
Her smile widened even more. "Oh you are on Peter. Next training session. Me and you. Knives. I've been meaning to work with you more recently."
Peter swallowed the sudden urge to run and hide from her grin, which was starting to look more than a little maniacal. "Uh, okay." He made a mental note to be busy for the next training session.
"Black Widow, I think you might be terrorizing the Spiderman," Thor said.
"What? No, Peter and I are best friends, right Pete?" she said, nudging him.
"S-sure we are!"
"Besides, us spiders have to stick together." She gave him an encouraging smile.
"Haha yeah, totally," Peter said, nervously, as Natasha gave him a quick nod and strolled purposely out of the room.
Now it was just Peter and Thor left in the training room, watching Tony and Clint fencing. Peter figured that he should make a quick escape before the god of thunder cornered him into any awkward conversations. Many skills though Thor had, socialising was not one of them.
"I should really get going, Mr. Thor, Sir. I've got some things to do in the lab, so I'll see you later," he said, as he followed Nat out the door with a quick wave back to the Asgardian.
The first thing Peter did was to go back and grab his stuff from the entrance to the compound where he'd left it, and check for notifications on his phone. Seeing there weren't any, except for a bunch of memes that had been sent to the Decathlon group chat, he slipped it in his pocket and headed straight for the elevators.
"Hello, Peter. Where would you like me to take you?" FRIDAY's cool, robotic voice filled the elevator as the doors slid shut seamlessly behind Peter, removing any trace of the entrance.
"Hey, Fri. Up to the lab, please. By the way, did you get an upgrade recently?" Peter asked, noticing how realistic the inflections in the A.I.s voice sounded. She had always been pretty indistinguishable from a human, but now the imitation was uncanny. She almost sounded more human than some of the humans he knew
"It's good of you to notice, Peter. In fact, Mr Stark has recently made some adjustments to my Speech Development and Advanced Imitation programs."
"Well he's done a good job. You sound amazing, Fri."
"Thankyou, Peter," she said as he exited the elevator and continued down the hall. "Might I ask how long I might expect you to stay for, in order to set to standby all the necessary Web-Disaster Protocols?"
"I still don't get why we need those, it's not like the webs malfunction that often. Only, like, once a week, tops."
"I would like to point out that last week the Web-Disaster Protocols required activation on at least four different occasions."
"Okay, well that was the exception. I will be here for the weekend, though, so like, maybe expect one disaster?"
"Duly noted, Peter. I hope you enjoy your stay."
"Thanks, Fri!"
As Peter pressed his finger to the pad outside Tony Stark's lab, the doors slid open silently and he entered one of his favourite places in the world.
The lab was really open, with lots of floor-to-ceiling windows, lots of bench space, lots of floor space, and almost every space completely littered with tools, notes, spare parts, snacks and half-complete projects. Peter picked his way to the bench where he had been working on a prototype for Stark Industries. Usually he kept that kind of work at the Tower but he'd dropped it off at the compound after working with Tony at SI last Wednesday. Peter basically split most of his free time between working at Stark Tower for Tony and hanging out with the Avengers at the compound. The latest project he had been assigned was to improve the battery life of the portable robotic dogs which were going to be made commercial the following year. Peter's job itself was possibly not the most interesting, but he still got to play with the robo-dogs while he was working - so that was an obvious plus.
Peter scanned his desk, looking for the notebook he knew he had left there. After shuffling through a few loose papers and sketches of ideas, he found it and flicked through, refreshing his memory. He quickly jotted down a few changes that he had thought of through the week, then sat down at the desk to implement them.
"Hey Fri, could you run me the simulation where the battery exploded again?" he said, getting to work. "Now I want you to alter the energy output to…" he did some quick calculations. "Wait, no, nevermind. That won't work." And just like that, he was lost to the world.
Nobody else saw Peter that day until when, at ten o'clock, Tony came into the lab and found Peter sitting on the floor in a pile of assorted papers, idly patting a robotic puppy and staring intently at a hologram displaying a bunch of complicated calculations.
"Uh, kid? Have you like, eaten? At all today?"
"Sure! I had breakfast," Peter replied, never taking his eyes off the equations.
"You wanna have some dinner maybe?"
"Suresuresuresuresure just a minute. I just have to figure out why this. Isn't. Working."
"Okay, time for a break, I think," Tony said, scooping the teenager up and starting to carry him, bridal style, out of the lab.
"No! Wait! But the puppies! They need me!" Peter said, audibly distressed, trying to reach back to the robot dog which had been left sitting on the ground, wagging its tail enthusiastically.
"The puppies can wait, Pete. How about I help you figure it out tomorrow, after you've had some food and sleep? How does that sound?"
"You'd really do that Mr. Stark?" Peter said, wide eyed.
"Of course kid. I'm meant to be your mentor anyway. But first, let's get some food into you, so May doesn't sue me. Or worse."
The rest of the weekend passed in a fairly similar manner, with Peter hanging out with the Avengers, working in the lab and - well that was basically it. Those two things took up 98% of his time at the Compound. (The other 2% was spent cleaning up after one of the web shooters he had been experimenting with had malfunctioned.) If he were at the Tower, the time he spent with the Avengers would be replaced by visiting the lower-level interns and helping Ms Potts out with running the company, but he wasn't, so he settled for pancakes with Earth's mightiest heroes.
The time flew by, and before he knew it, Peter was packing his things up and carefully choosing which top-secret projects he could leave there and which he would have to smuggle out in his backpack to work on at home. Only then did his thoughts return to the dreaded field trip scheduled for the following Wednesday, and he felt the roots of anxiety worming their way into his stomach.
He tried his hardest to push them to the back of his mind. After all, maybe he wouldn't even go. Maybe Aunt May wouldn't sign the form. Maybe a robo-dog would eat it by accident.
Before long, Peter was saying his final goodbyes to everyone who wasn't too busy - just Bucky, Steve, Sam, Nat and Clint - and heading off to the nearest bus stop ready for his super-long commute back home. He was looking forward to being able to relax and listen to some music, and just think about all things not field trip related.
When he reached the bus interchange where he had to switch busses, he noticed a woman in dark clothes and with a hood pulled up, looking at her phone. He remembered seeing her at his first stop as well, and even before that on the walk from the compound to the bus. She seemed to be tailing him. It could have been coincidence, and Peter was probably overreacting and being paranoid, but he thought it was better to be safe, than to accidentally lead an evil supervillain to his house. He decided to strike up a conversation with her. If it turned out to be nothing, there was no harm in having a little chat, right?
He walked up to her, trying to act friendly and not like a creep or a murderer, and tapped her on the shoulder gently. She looked up and turned to him. There, red hair ablaze as she lowered her hood, stood Natasha Romanov.
"Agent Romanov? What are you doing here? Were you following me?" Peter asked, taken aback.
"As a matter of fact, I was. Consider it as a training exercise. I was testing how long it would take before you realised you had a tail." She said shrugging offhandedly.
"And? How did I do?" Peter asked, letting his curiosity outweigh his usual tentativeness regarding his fellow spider.
"Dismally, especially considering you're meant to have a bunch of extra senses. But compared to that friend of yours - Ned, was it? - you deserve at least an A+." She said it with dry humour, with just the barest trace of a smile on her lips.
"Wait, you tailed Ned? You can't just do that."
"I can and I did, and it was the easiest thing ever - I didn't even have to try to act inconspicuous. I doubt if that kid could spot a giraffe in an empty room."
"Don't be harsh on him, we can’t all be superheroes or spies."
"Oh, but how I wish we could. Just think how much more interesting our lives would be," she said wistfully.
As they were talking, the bus had pulled up, and the Black Widow made to get on, indicating that they could continue their conversation on the bus.
"Okay, well anyway. Don’t you have, like, things to do? Places to be?" Peter asked as they settled into seats, Natasha taking the vacant row in front of Peter and turning in the seat to speak to him. The bus was mainly empty, with just a few elderly folk seated at the other end of it, closer to the front.
"Maybe, but I wasn't kidding when I said that us spiders should stick together the other day. I didn't get to spend nearly as much time with you as I would have liked this weekend, what with Tony hogging you all to himself. This was the only way I could think of to get you to myself."
It was true that Peter never really got to know Natasha as much as the other Avengers, and that he had spent a lot more time with Tony than usual this trip. But he had never imagined that Natasha Romanov - the cool and distant spy who barely anyone truly knew - was going out of her way to, what? Bond with him? As surprised as he was, Peter was more than a little touched. It was quite self-affirming to realise that she had thought of him and taken time out of her day just for him. Even if the way she did it was by stalking him. Peter didn't really know what to say.
"So talk to me, little spidey. Let's get to the bonding. What's on your mind?" she said casually.
"Uh, well…" he searched his brain for something he could make a conversation from. He came up with nothing.
"Tell me about school. It must be a breeze for someone as smart as you, right?" she gently prompted.
"Haha, not really. I mean some of the tech and math subjects are, like, a bit easy." He ignored the disbelieving eyebrow raise from Natasha. "But English isn't really my strong point, and I'm learning Japanese, which can be a bit difficult."
"日本語を勉強していますか？"
"Uh, yeah? That's what I just said? I didn't know you spoke it though."
"Well, now you do. And," she said pointedly, "if you ever need help with homework or anything, now you know who to come to."
"Okay, thanks. I will."
"On the topic of school, I overheard you telling Tony something about a school field trip to Stark Industries. That sounds pretty interesting, is that for one of your tech or science subjects?"
"Actually, it's for psychology, and please don't remind me."
"Oh, so you aren't looking forward to it then?"
"Not really. I don't see any way that excursion can end well. I'm considering getting myself kidnapped for that day so I don't have to go. It shouldn't be too hard, there's plenty of psychos around here." Peter glanced around the bus, looking for a likely psychopath he might be able to recruit. Unfortunately, he didn't think the old ladies would make for a particularly believable story.
"Aww, come on, are you really that worried? What exactly do you think is going to go wrong?"
"Everything! My classmates don't know about any of this! They don't even believe that I have the internship with Tony." He dropped his voice automatically when talking about the internship and the - everything else - in public.
"Okay, I get that this is stressing you out, Peter, but which part, exactly? 'Everything' doesn't really narrow it down." she says gently.
"I don't know, just, my classmates - what if some of the interns act like they know me?" Peter is squirming uncomfortably in his seat.
"So what if they do?"
"Well what if my classmates see it?"
"So what if they do? Would that be so bad Peter? This internship is just a part of your life that the other kids don't really get to see."
"Exactly!" Peter could see that she did have a point, but he wasn't going to give in yet.
"Exactly, what?"
"My classmates don't get to see this side of me! They aren't meant to see this side of me!"
"But why aren’t they? Why shouldn't they see a more confident version of you, in a place where you feel comfortable? You aren't ashamed, are you Peter?"
"What? No! Of course not, why would I be ashamed to work at the most awesome place in existence?"
"Well why else wouldn't you want your classmates to know about it? If you're embarrassed, I can tell you that you don't need to be. I'll bet that some of your classmates would sell their souls to have what you do."
"No, I'm not embarrassed. I just - I don't know." Peter racked his brains for a valid reason.
"There's this one kid in my class - Flash - he's the one who convinced everyone my internship was fake. I kind of don't want him finding out anything that he can use to - you know," Peter said awkwardly.
"Bully you? Well, I guess that's fair," she said, nodding thoughtfully. "But you know, it's possible this kid might get what's coming to him at the tower - considering the owners and your friends there."
Peter's eyes widened. "No, that's partially what I'm worried about too. I don't know what everyone is going to do if they see Flash do anything. He may not be the nicest guy but he's still just a kid. He's still just a human."
"Peter, you always were too good. How about this. I'll make sure that everyone behaves during your trip, and then you don't have to worry about a thing."
"You would do that?"
"Of course, little spidey. Do we have a deal?"
Peter would never admit it to anyone but the new nickname made him feel strangely warm and comforted - a feeling he had never really associated with the spy before.
"Okay, Agent Romanov."
"Come on, we're friends now. Call me Nat."
When Peter stepped off the bus at the train station to a 'see you on Wednesday, little spidey' from Nat, he also stepped away from the most sincere and enjoyable conversation he had ever had with the Black Widow. He was also feeling much better about the field trip after her reassurances and was even looking forward to it.
It was only much later, when he stepped into the apartment and greeted Aunt May, that he started to wonder how exactly Nat would 'see him on Wednesday'. But he refused to let it ruin his optimism.
Maybe this field trip wouldn't be so bad after all.