(author's note: This is a story I wanted to get into after reading an unfinished Fanfic and craving more. So I decided to take out a page of Professor Tolkien's book and just started writing the story I wanted to read. Please let me know if you like it. Feedback makes all of us super happy, so do feel free to leave some. ;D)

summary

Tony Stark has just made it through the disaster with Ultron. He is trying to keep himself and the team together but relationships are strained and tempers are running high.

Peter Parker is on top of the world. After a few shitty years, losing his parents and then losing his Uncle, things are finally looking up. Sure he lives in a crappy little apartment with his Aunt but he might have just found his mission in life.

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This is an AU story. It starts out a few weeks after Age of Ultron took place. Civil War will be a thing. Other than that I'm not too concerned about sticking to every canon detail and storyline as there will be some significant varying events happening in this fic that are not canon. See endnote of the chapter for #tags.

Chapter 1 - And So It Begins...

He sat on the right side of the auditorium. The view was horrible and he had to sit on the edge of his seat, trying to see something. Anything at all. He peeked through the gap between two giant seniors right in front of him.

"Do you think it's only her or is Tony Stark gonna show up too?" Ned didn't so much whisper as shout into his ear to be heard over the sound system.

Just a second later someone hit him in the head. Urgh. It didn't hurt all that much, probably just the school paper, but this was uncalled for. He turned and scowled into the row behind him, trying to figure out, which asshole had made his head ring. That just earned him another swat with the paper.

"Hey!" he hissed until he looked into MJ's emotionless face. "I didn't even..." Another swat.

"URGH!" he turned back around. Focus. Pepper Potts was right down there, speaking on the importance of STEM education in furthering social mobility and he'd actually wanted to listen to this. Stark Industries wanted to assist schools to put more of a focus on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. They would be one of the leading supporters of public schools willing to intensify the advanced STEM courses.

"In addition to the financial support, Stark Industries will be offering new and advanced equipment to the schools that are willing to expand their STEM courses." Holy shit... Peter could already picture the state of the art laboratories they could install in the school and the things he could work on there. A whole new set of possibilities would open up to him with access to that kind of technology. But Ms. Potts wasn't done. "We will be offering individual internships to the brightest and most striving students among you. There is no set limit to the number of interns we will accept." A murmur went through the students. An internship with SI would pimp anyone's college application. And knowing Tony Stark, there might even be some money in it. He was notorious about despising unpaid work. Even with those giants in front of him, Peter could sense Ms. Potts smirking. Could be that her reaction was simply that obvious, even from his vantage point. More likely that it was his Spidey-senses picking up her expression from this far off.

"Let me add though, that Tony Stark will personally be approving interns that his team wants to take on." She laughed at the sudden silence that fell in the room. "Yeah, you better make those applications count."

He sighed. Dang. Those internships sounded like a sweet, sweet deal. But he couldn't risk bringing his Spidey skillz anywhere near Stark Industries. Someone there might figure out that he... Nope. Not gonna happen.

After a short goodbye, Ms. Potts left the stage. Peter jumped up immediately, bit a short "Bye!" to Ned and literally ran for the door. He had left his web fluid in the lab when they were hoarded out of their classes for the "special presentation". That had been a close call. He definitely had to retrieve the evidence and his equipment. Luckily, his had been one of the last classes that had been lead into the auditorium. Sure, sitting this far in the back of the room had sucked, but at least it left him with the possibility of a quick exit.

The lab was on the other side of the building. He wasn't really supposed to be going towards the labs at this time of day. Getting caught and thrown out by some wandering teacher would have been incredibly inconvenient so he hurried along as quietly as possible. Classes were dismissed for the day and most of the students were on their way to the main entrance on the opposite side of the building. All in all, he was unlikely to be seen, but Peter was always on the lookout.

Once he got to the room, he grabbed his stuff, fastened the web shooters and with nobody around on this side of the school he simply slipped out of the window on the second floor. Jumping the southern wall on that very side of the school was the fastest way to get home. He would avoid having to walk all the way back to the main entrance, possibly running into Flash on the way, and he didn't have to circle back around half the school to get to the street leading home. Really a win-win in every way.

The tricky part was getting over the southern wall without being seen. He groaned because he was an idiot. The mask was back at home with his suit. He had left it there on purpose trying to discourage himself from too much Spider-Man-ing too close to the school, where people could identify him. It had seemed like a great idea at the time. Of course, the irony of him being far more likely to be recognized shooting webs and jumping walls in plain daylight right at the edge of his school without his mask, struck him with the force of a cartoon anvil now.

Whatever. He quickly shot a glance over his shoulder. He was not gonna walk all the way back around the school now, so here went nothing. Juvenility gave him wings as he sprinted towards the wall and jumped high only to have his Spidey-senses spike up. He came to a full stop on top of the wall and cursed under his breath. Of course, he had jumped right into the beginning of a crime scene that was basically made for Spidey. Two sketchy looking dudes creeping up on a woman on the other side of the wall, not far from where he was clinging to the top of the wall. Her back was turned to him, so were the backs of the sketchy dudes. She was on the phone, not paying attention to the particular alleyway, she had wandered into. And he didn't bring the damn suit. Urgh. But what was he gonna do? As the creeps crept closer there really was only one choice: he had to help!

He double-checked his web shooters, swinging over to the building opposite the wall behind the backs of the creeps. He was careful to keep enough distance to them so he would stay out of clear sight. The danger of being identified was real. But the closer he was the better his aim. He really needed to put some long-distance target practice on the calendar. He was in position when the lady turned. The creeps charged right at her. But she didn't scream. That's what they usually do. She just stood there, letting her shoulders drop like she couldn't believe this was actually happening right now.

Lucky for the lady though, the creeps were not as close as they had probably hoped to be when jumping her. Peter had ample time to jump over to the next building, shoot a couple of webs at them that left them stuck to the wall and then ducked into the afternoon shade of the building top. The lady glanced up in his direction, surprised and still unmoving, but she shouldn't be able to see him up there in the shade. As a car pulled up right next to her, she still stood her ground looking up right at him. Uh-oh... Maybe he had been less inconspicuous than he thought? He stepped back further into the shadow but then she opened the door of the car which carried her off towards Manhattan.

#

It was 7:00 pm on a Thursday. One of Tony Starks prime working hours. The prime working hours that were not to be disturbed. By no one. His prime working hours had been the main reasons he had missed hundreds of dinner dates in the past because he had just gotten too caught up in his lab. Uncountable times the minutes had just ticked by and next time he checked it had been 9 pm already. So, when his phone rang, he jumped. FRIDAY permitting a call to ring out on his phone at this time?

"Yes?"

"It's Happy."

"What's wrong?"

"I...I'm sorry."

With a loud clang, the wirecutter he had been holding came to rest on the work desk.

"What for? What happened?"

A short impulse on his watch was enough to call the suit to form around him.

"Where are you?"

"Ok, calm down. Everything is fine now. I just couldn't call before."

"You fucking kidding me? Don't call me after 3 pm for things that can wait." He let the suit retract itself and picked the wirecutter back up.

"It's about Pepper."

Tony froze. God, he was glad this wasn't a video call cause his face had just flinched to an extent that would have been hard to explain to Happy. He tried to keep his voice as passive as possible.

"What about her?"

"She...listen, I told her to stay put and I would come and get her, I just...all these moms in Volvos were blocking the main and the side entrance. They weren't even supposed to be there because school really wasn't even supposed to be out for another 20 minutes, but I just couldn't-"

"Happy. OH my god. Just tell me what the fuck happened." His heart was beating in his throat, his anxiety threatened to be overtaken annoyance. Why was he calling now?!

"Two dudes tried to attack Pepper and -"

"Wait, what?"

"Tony, I took every precaution but the exits were just jammed and then Pepper refused to wait, cause the students were starting to storm out of the auditorium and-"

"Are you telling me right now, that my head of security was incapable of picking up my CEO at a high school without her being attacked by random men?"

"She just didn't wait for me! She headed for the other side of the school and I couldn't turn around-"

"My god, Happy, where the fuck is this school? South LA? Watts? Is she ok?"

"Em. No. I mean, yes. She's fine. We - erm. No, we're not in LA, I picked her up at a STEM school in Queens."

A cold shiver ran down Tony's spine. "Of course you're in Queen. I - hem - I knew that." He facepalmed and walked over to his couch, falling into the cushions and pressing one of the pillows over his face to let out a frustrated moan.

"Tony, there's more... I didn't stop them. I got there and there were two dudes literally sticking to the wall. Pepper told me someone shot some kind of sticky web stuff towards them when they came for her. She is... I think she suspects that you have something to do with this. We're on the way to the Compound."

"Someone shot some kind of sticky web stuff at the dudes attacking her?"

"Yeah, we just left them there actually, stuck to the wall."

"And she thinks, that was me?"

"Uh-huh."

"Well. Fuck."

(author's note:

Thanks for checking the story out, guys. Here are a few tags for you that should indicate the direction this story will take. Read at your own risk of spoilers going forward.

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#

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#slowburn

#CivilWarTeamIronMan

#Tony-centric

#IDon'tHateCaptainAmerica #ButHeWillBeHeldAccountableForHisMoralSuperiority

#HurtTonyStark

#AnxietyAttacks #PanicAttacks

#HurtPeterParker

#Irondad

#Spiderson

#Kidnapping

#PepperPotts/TonyStark

#ClintBartonIsAGoodBro

#NotSpider-ManHomecomingCompliant

#SortofCivilWarCompliant #Fixit #OfSorts

Thanks, guys)