Friday at last, Peter chanted to himself as he rummaged through his locker, Friday at last. It had been four months since he was first invited. Sixteen evenings of working on crazy experiments and insane tests. Three evenings somehow ending with pizza and tv and relaxing on a really expensive couch. His favorite memory so far was hands down meeting the recently returned Dr. Banner.

"Hey Pete."

Peter set down the gadget he was working on, looking up at his mentor. Tony had stood up from where he had been working on his own thing and was now facing Peter. Peter had been getting better at reading the man (mostly because, weather or not either of them had realized it, Tony had started to drop his masks around Peter. It was something about the boy's bright and genuine personality that made him easy to trust.) and he could almost say that Tony was excited. He definitely looked happy, eyes bright and standing slightly taller than usual.

"Yes Mr. Stark?" Peter found Tony's reaction to the name hilarious, but he wouldn't admit that he wasn't quite comfortable calling his idol anything less formal. He had looked up to Tony for years, even before he was saved by the man when he was little.

Tony predictably twitched at the use of such a formal name but pushed on regardless. "Let's take a break, there's someone I'd like you to meet." With that he turned and walked towards the door.

Peter stood up and trailed after him, curious. A list of people that Mr. Stark could possibly introduce him to flew through his head as they headed into the elevator and up to the penthouse. As the doors to the elevator opened Peter caught Tony smirking before the man led the way out. Before he had time to figure out what the heck that meant they had both walked out into the living room and stood in front of the one and only doctor Bruce Banner.

Peter watched wide-eyed and visibly freaking out as the two men in front of him greeted each other. He managed to close his mouth as the doctor turned towards him.

"And you're Peter I presume?" The soft spoken doctor asked him, smiling kindly. Despite the smile Dr. Banner seemed nervous, his posture tense as though he was preparing for something. Peter then realized that he should probably stop staring and say something.

"Y-you're Bruce Banner," he stuttered, eyes wide. Not the most articulated thing to say, he realized as he caught Tony's smirk grow out of the corner of his eye. Not that he cared, he was meeting another one of his biggest idols.

Tony decided to bud in and let both of the awkward scientists relax a little. "Brucie here just got back from Asgard a few days ago," he said, placing a hand on his long lost friend's shoulder, "made quite the ruckus as well." He felt Bruce relax minutely as he watched Peter turn his attention over to the billionaire.

Peter blinked, somehow even more surprised than before, and turned back to the other scientist. "You- you've been to Asgard," he gaped. He watched as the frazzled scientist shifted, seemingly uncomfortable, and Peter suddenly realized that he had probably been acting rather rude. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry, it's just- I've read, like, all of your papers. Er, well, the ones I could find anyways, and I love your work and all the research you've done on radiation and it's really really fascinating and I didn't think that I'd ever really get to meet you and I'm pretty sure that I'm rambling-"

Bruce was staring at him, frozen with shock, as Tony started to laugh while watching the two. The billionaire could see the disbelief on his friend's face and, while it was hilarious that Banner was completely frozen, it was the exact reason that he had introduced him to the kid. A month or so after getting regular contact with the kid he had mentioned reading Bruce's theories and papers and, while at the time it was so that he could understand his powers better, Tony could tell that he genuinely admired and idolized the man. It was good, Tony had thought, that his friend get some recognition as a scientist instead of a superhero for once.

Meanwhile Bruce let a hesitant smile cross his face, amazed and bewildered by this kid who had apparently read and understood his papers. Pushing back his shock slightly he reached a hand out to the boy, "W-well, it's certainly nice to meet another science lover." The kid was staring at him in awe, which wasn't completely unusual in itself, but it was because of his scientific work. That was the unusual part.

"Science kid," Tony corrected as Peter hastened to shake Bruce's hand.

Peter spared a single second to glare at the now chuckling billionaire before turning back to doctor Banner. "So you really think that-"

Of course now the good doctor joined Tony and Peter in the labs whenever he felt like it, which was completely awesome. Those evenings were what he looked forward to on harder days, like today, when his Parker luck was at its worst and Flash just wouldn't leave him alone.

"Hey Penis!" Like right now for instance.

Peter sighed as he closed his locker door, he just needed to get out of the school and into the car that was waiting to take him to the tower. "Hey Flash, can we make this quick?"

Flash glared at him, "what? Got somewhere to be? Like your fake internship?"

Peter took a deep breath, he was really just done and wanted to go spend time in the lab with Tony. "Yeah actually," he said, starting to walk past Flash.

Flash sneered and grabbed him, shoving him against a locker, "no. You don't. You-"

"You know, you could just tell him that you want to kiss," MJ said, appearing next to the two boys. She looked almost bored, save for her eyes, which were narrowed dangerously. It was an expression that Peter referred to as her 'say one thing wrong and I'll stab you' expression.

Thankfully Flash was not an idiot with a death wish and released Peter, taking a step back pointedly with his hands raised. MJ took that moment to walk forward and lead Peter away by his shoulder. "You're a fraud and you know it!" Neither of them acknowledged Flash.

"Thanks MJ," Peter said quietly when they were out of earshot of Flash. MJ dropped her hand from his shoulder as they approached the front doors.

"Don't mention it loser," she said, her tone fond to anyone who knew her well enough, "now go have playtime with your billionaire mentor."

Feeling a rush of joy by the reminder, Peter gave her a wide grin and pushed the doors open. Once outside he took a moment to find Happy's car and then proceeded to cheerfully walk towards it. Stepping inside the car he greeted Happy with a chipper attitude. The man did nothing more than grunt a reply, as always, but that didn't really deter Peter. Happy could deny it all he wanted but Peter was sure that he cared at least a little more than he let on. Peter was going to have to thank MJ later, she seemed to have helped his bad mood tremendously.

As usual Peter did homework on the way to the tower, which was recently repurchased by SI, managing to get the majority of it finished by the time that they reached the tower. Tony had a rule, imposed by May, that he couldn't work in the lab until all of his homework was done. Mostly because the weekends were for superheroing and hanging out with his friends and family. That being said, he scooped all of his stuff into his bag and bolted out of the car the moment they parked.

"Slow down kid, geez," Happy called out to Peter as he ran off, wincing as he watched the kid almost trip and fall on the concrete.

Peter just smiled cheerfully back at him and waved goodbye as he bolted over to the elevators. He skid into the elevator and spun to face forward, bouncing on the balls of his feet as Friday started talking to him. "Hello Peter, Mr. Stark is currently in his lab, however, he requested that you finish homework before heading there."

Peter nodded, having expected the request, "ok, thanks Fri." He started to hum a song to himself as the elevator took him up to the penthouse. He was singing quietly by the time the doors opened and he stepped out, heading over to the kitchen table. Placing his bag down he got out his homework and started to work on it.

It was another hour before Peter finished his homework, which was half an hour later than usual, which was largely because of an essay he had to complete. Taking a moment to lean back and stretch he let out a quiet sigh, glad to be done with the boring work.

"You ok Peter?" A voice interrupted Peter's bubble of calm, resulting in a very manly squeak and five foot high flinch. Bruce was watching him, his expression a mix of concern and amusement, along with his ever present air of quiet kindness.

Peter took a moment to make sure that he wouldn't fall out of his chair, before turning to the doctor with a sheepish smile on his face. "Yeah, just finally done with my homework," he glanced over at the clock, "do you want to come with me to the lab? Mr. Stark and I were going to work on my web-shooters. Or his new suit, I'm not completely sure."

The doctor shook his head, "no, I don't think so, unfortunately I have boring adult stuff to do." He said, a teasing lilt to his voice, for which Peter stuck his tongue out at him in a show of complete maturity. (Peter had once used that phrase to describe a private meeting that Tony and Bruce had to attend, and as such the two older scientists would tease him for the childish sentence. Also Bruce was now part of the specialized eco-science division, although he usually didn't work with the other scientists.)

Bruce walked across the room to the elevator as Peter packed up his things into his book bag. He gave Bruce a wave as the elevator door closed then turned and walked down a hallway. Turning into one of the rooms he paused at the doorway. Sometimes he still couldn't believe that he had a room in the avengers tower. One day Tony had taken him to the penthouse and led him to the room.

"You know, just in case there's an emergency and you have to stay here for a while." Tony had said, placing a hand on Peter's shoulder. Peter didn't comment on the open invitation, too busy trying not to cry.

The room was mostly star wars themed, complete with posters and bedsheets. There were also Avengers themed items spread out within, to Peter's mild embarrassment. A few of the clothes drawers had avengers themed pajamas, which Peter had been too embarrassed to wear up until Ned had found out about them and dared him to. It was equipped with the latest homely technology and even had a few Avengers perks in it, such as an emergency suit hidden in a compartment on the wall. There were also tasers hidden next to the bed in case he needed a weapon to defend himself with. (Tony didn't want Peter using anything lethal, much to the relief of everyone involved.) Peter's favorite thing was on one of the ceiling corners. A permanent web hammock hung there with special headphones in them, designed specifically for when Peter was having a hard time with sensory overload. The amount of thought that had gone into the room never failed to give Peter a warm feeling in his chest.

Walking in he placed his bag next to his desk, surveying the room one more time before leaving and heading out to the elevator. Stepping in he let Friday take him to the Tony's lab. Friday had probably warned Tony that Peter was heading down in advance because he was cleaning up a project when Peter walked in. Putting the last of whatever the other project was away, Tony turned approached Peter, ruffling his hair. Peter ducked his head and scrunched his nose, heading over to his side of the table. A laugh accompanied Tony's "Hey underoos."

"Hey Mr.Stark," Peter replied automatically, studying the now empty table, "so, what are we doing today?"

Tony brushed off the formal name in favor of pulling up holo blueprints. As Friday brought out the parts necessary he started to speak. "Well, the new mark is being designed for agility over everything, I've been playing around with the mechanics so I don't loose defense with it... here, take a look"

Peter looked over the design, studying it for a long minute as Tony watched him with a soft expression. Peter truly didn't know how far he'd burrowed into the hearts of everyone he spent time with. Those musings, however, disappeared as soon as Peter shifted to speak again.

"Ok so I think that if we shifted this right here out with this one over here and then changed this out-"

Yup, Friday nights were a favorite, and not just for Peter.

~~~~

Y'all marching band takes up so much time it's not even funny, don't let Peter's joke about it fool you he would n o t be able to do that and be Spider-Man. But I love it and I hope that everyone liked the chapter!

~Kathy