Ah, looks like it's time for another oneshot. No spoilers for Far From Home. I just watched it and kinda missed the Peter and Tony bits. Guess that's how this happened XD

Enjoy!

A Bullying Case

Yet another stupid, boring, mundane board meeting. The billionaire uncrossed his legs and crossed it again in the other direction, before catching a warning look from Pepper, berating him for fidgeting during such important meetings. Glancing down at his watch, he stifled a yawn, then did a double take.

Wait… 3:30 pm? Seriously? He'd sat here until his butt ached and his legs were going numb and his watch was telling him that only thirty minutes had passed? Just great.

Running his hand along his goatee and feigning interest in whatever the speaker was saying, he wondered if he could get away with the excuse that he had a stomachache. Tony quickly brushed off the idea as knew Pepper would not be fooled by his antics and merely resigned himself to the fate of death by boredom.

At least another fifteen excruciating minutes had passed before he was finally granted a distraction. His watch vibrated, and he looked down at the display to see one missed call with no caller ID listed.

Huh, that was strange. This was his private number, and he gave only a handful of trusted people this number. But he wasn't complaining because this meant that he finally had an excuse that may get him out of the board meeting, if only for a while. He straightened in his seat and whispered, "FRI, any information on the identity of the person who called?"

His ever helpful AI was quick in replying through his earpiece, "Sir, the caller is the principal of Midtown School of Science and Technology. I believe his name is Mr Hendorff."

So maybe Tony had listed his number as Peter's guardian, as an extreme emergency in the event that May wasn't available. Perhaps Peter's aunt was working shifts and this hour and could not pick up the call. That was likely. But he wondered why the school had called in the first place. Concern swam in his stomach and Tony found himself speaking more urgently to his AI, "Why did he call, FRIDAY? Where's Peter right now?"

"I am unable to find any information behind the reason of the call, although the principal has left a voice message saying that this is an urgent matter. Peter Parker, however, is currently in his school, at Mr Hendorff's office, sir."

Tony shot to his feet, picking up the briefcase by his feet and lifting a finger up to signal the board directors that he had an urgent call. As Pepper swivelled around to look at him, he mouthed 'Peter' at her, as she quickly nodded in understanding, taking control of the situation immediately. Not bothering to look back, the billionaire dashed out of the conference room and into the elevator.

"FRI, ground floor, have my car ready. Drop Mr Hendorff a message telling him that I'm coming over right now. I'll be there in twenty minutes, tops."

"Yes, sir. Message sent."

The elevator dinged at the ground floor and he found his car waiting for him by the drop off. Throwing his briefcase into the backseat, he climbed in at stepped hard on the accelerator.

"Did the school contact May Parker?"

"Yes sir. However, Ms Parker is currently unavailable and has not picked up the call. I believe she is scheduled for double shifts."

"Do me a favor and leave her a message, FRI. Tell her not to worry. I'll be fetching her nephew."

"Message has been sent, boss."

"Great." He muttered, "now let's see what kind of trouble that kid got into. It better be good."

Fifteen minutes found Tony pulling into the school compound. He parked by the entrance and got out, jogging down the gratefully relatively empty school halls towards the principal's office. Just before knocking on the door, the billionaire paused, smoothing down his dark grey suit and throwing on his sunglasses. He supposed it wouldn't do for him to look unpresentable in front of a school principal. Ironing out the wrinkles on his cuffs, and adjusting his tie just a little, he gave the door a gentle knock.

"Come in." A man said.

Turning the knob, he pushed open the polished wooden door and observed the scene in front of him. The principal, with salt and pepper hair and a rather tired look graced his features, though his eyes were sharp and held a rather intelligent look in them. The man, roughly in his mid thirties had stood up the moment Tony stepped into the office, one hand outstretched in greeting and his expression curious, mixed with awe.

"Mr Stark. Nice of you to be able to come. I would have preferred to have Ms Parker to join us in this… session. However, it seems that she is uncontactable at the moment." He paused for a moment and gestured to the figure sitting on the chair opposite him, hunched over and legs dangling from the armchair, looking wide-eyed at the exchange happening before him, "You are listed as his guardian, yes?"

"Correct." Tony said, taking off his sunglasses and falling into the other identical armchair beside Peter, who was still gaping at him. "Hi, kid."

"What are you doing here, Mr Stark?" Then he added, "You didn't have to. I told Mr Hendorff not to disturb you."

"It wasn't like I had anything else to do anyway. If there had been something important, I promise I wouldn't be here, wasting my time at some fifteen year old getting into trouble."

Tony caught the principal with his eyebrows raised, watching them talk and carefully taking note of every word. Coughing and turning to the principal, he folded his arms across his chest. "Remind me, why did you call me? Is he in trouble?"

The principal studied them, then took his time to reply slowly, "One of my teachers in Peter's physical education class has brought something to my attention. A bullying case."

Anger crept up his skin at the mention of a bully. Was there a student bullying his kid? Because if there was, he was tear that prick limb from limb - okay, too violent, maybe. He'd probably give this bully a piece of his mind. A large piece.

Nevertheless, he kept his expression as nonchalant as possible, which was something Tony Stark had mastered during all those board meetings over the years. Instead, he brought his hand up to his chin and rubbed it thoughtfully, as he turned to look at Peter full in the face for once. There weren't any fresh bruise marks, except for the one on the side of his jaw which had been there the day before when the kid - tripped? - on his own foot in his haste to change out of his Spider-man suit. Pretty far fetched story, he knew, but he'd fact checked that with FRIDAY and even saw the footage from Karen himself. Kids these days, God.

So apart from that bruise, there wasn't any other visible...hang on. He scrambled to lean closer to the boy, who was now frowning and leaning away from him. His lip had been bleeding? It was small, no bigger than a millimetre in diameter, and the cut had already been cleaned and clotted up. But still…

Peter, still leaning as far away as he could, shook his head by the tiniest fraction, such that only Tony caught it. Was the kid telling him not to pursue this subject? Because he should know this was a losing battle.

Snapping his gaze back to the principal, Tony growled, "Who did that? I want the name of that bully, now."

Mr Hendorff merely adjusted his glasses. "Mr Stark, I have the bully held in the school currently. If the punishment is deemed appropriate, I will be obliged to take action on the student."

"How about a two week suspension, or a whole month. That student hurt Peter. What's to say he or she wouldn't do it again? As a principal, you've got to make sure that this stops."

The teenager beside him squirmed, shaking his head again, "Don't, Mr Stark. Mr Hendorff thinks..."

The principal held out his hand, and Peter trailed off into silence. Mr Hendorff gave the boy a piercing look before meeting Tony's steady gaze.

"The bully is Mr Parker."

Tony was stunned at the words that it jarred him out of his usual cool demeanour. "Say that again?"

"I repeat, Mr Stark," said the principal, "The bully is Peter Parker."

Tony pretended not to have heard the minute groan that escape the kid's lips. He already knew that there must have been a misunderstanding of sorts. From the two years he knew Peter, it never was in his personally to do anything close to harming a fly. The billionaire was this close to giving a snarky retort at the principal, only held back by the fact that he was supposed to act like Peter's guardian. A sensible adult and parental figure. Pepper wouldn't approve if he'd just went all Iron Man on Peter's school principal.

For all the good it would do, Tony looked at the boy, who suddenly took interest in playing with the zipper of his hoodie, "Anything you want to tell me, kid?" He gave the smallest of winks, one which the principal couldn't detect. The corners of Peter's lips twitched in a barely concealed smile, and Tony could almost feel the relief flowing through the kid because his mentor and guardian stood on his side.

"It...wasn't me?"

Deciding to handle this in a very mature way, like how he always did obviously, Tony turned back to Mr Hendorff, "Do you have proof?"

The principal clicked a few times on his laptop, and rotated the screen so that it faced them. A video by the school CCTV camera close to the basketball court was pulled up, and played.

Peter's entire class, Tony assumed, were playing some sort of ball game in the court. From what he could tell, it starts off with one student at the corner, throwing a basketball at the rest of the class as they tried to dodge the oncoming ball. If it hit them, however, the student would then be considered as 'out', and will join the first one at the side, targeting the shrinking number of students in the center until only one remains.

They were mid-game. And only three students remained in the center, Peter, a tall and lanky guy and a small but really nimble girl, while the rest were standing at the borders of the court and pelting them ball after ball, in an attempt to hit their fellow classmates. As Tony watched, among the thicket of flying basketballs, Peter, who had been a good distance away, suddenly took a running leap and slammed his body into hers for seemingly no reason at all. Peter stumbled, but managed to regain his footing, although the girl was knocked to the ground. She looked unhurt, just a little shocked by what had happened. Meanwhile, the coach on watch blew on his whistle to stop the game, as the curly haired boy was shown to be waving frantically at the coach while pointing at Peter.

The video ended here. And Tony looked up at Mr Hendorff's stern face. "I don't get it. What seems to be the problem?"

Mr Hendorff narrowed his eyes as annoyance briefly flashed through his features. "Mr Stark, I know this does not seem significant compared to the threats you usually deal with, but Peter here physically assaulted his fellow classmate. Thankfully, the girl was not injured. But it could have potentially ended in a much more severe situation."

A pause. Tony rubbed his chin, deciding how to best defend Peter, but apparently the principal took his silence as agreement and carried on.

"Our school is very strict on its code of conduct and anti-bullying nature. We take cases like this very seriously, and Peter, I know he is one of our top students academically and our teachers feedback that he is a helpful and usually reserved student. That's all good and admirable, actually, but we cannot tolerate bullying." Mr Hendorff shut the laptop screen, and leaned back in his chair, arms crossed as he gazed unblinkingly at Tony. "That is why we wanted to speak to his guardians, to check in with them so that they at least know what has happened."

The video was pretty much solid evidence of what Peter had done, and now the two adults in the room looked at him. The teenager wasn't afraid of the consequences, because he didn't regret his actions, and if he was faced with the same situation, he was sure he would do it again. He supposed he could live with the rumor circulating that the scrawny, usually overlooked kid, had become a bully himself. Flash had practically created so much bad reputation for him that Peter should really start confessing it anyway. It didn't matter.

But he was afraid that his mentor, and the person whom he thought of as a father figure would be disappointed by the despicable path his own mentee had chosen. What if Mr Stark believed what he'd seen and since he knew who Spider-man, the hero vigilante, behind the mask, would he then be disgusted that Peter was no different from the very people that he tried to take down?

Feeling two pairs of eyes digging into his face, he looked up from his knees, decidedly not meeting the rather penetrating eyes of Mr Hendorff, who looked confident because Tony hadn't rebuked with any sort of defence. Choosing instead to decipher Mr Stark's expression, Peter found that he couldn't tell whatever was going on in the inventor's head. His mentor seemed to be thinking, even as his eyes looked at Peter, though he wasn't smiling like he was before.

As their eyes met, Mr Stark raised his eyebrows by a fraction, "The video's proof, alright, kid. But I'm really having a tough time believing you'd do something like that. Just doesn't seem like you, y'know?"

"It really wasn't me." Peter blurted out, "I mean, it was me, but I didn't do it on purpose. I - I mean I did it on purpose b-but I didn't have a choice?"

The principal took a deep breath and opened his mouth as if to say something, but Tony stuck out his finger, effectively shutting him up.

"Nuh, uh. You've said your part. I believe it's only fair to hear the kid's reasons, don't you think?" Tony said, with a slight tinge of annoyance.

The words slipped out of Mr Hendorff's lips before he could stop them, "yes, sir."

"Good." Giving Peter a little pat on the knee, the billionaire said in a much softer tone, "Alright, Pete. Time's all yours. I want to know your side of the story."

Peter steadied his breath, comforted by the fact that Mr Stark was much more open to hearing what he wanted to say. "The girl in the video, that's Maddie. She's our new exchange student who just moved here a week ago. She usually goes around on her own, and the other students don't talk to her very much because she's got some speech problems, and keeps stuttering over her words. But she's nice.

"And that guy that threw the ball at her is Flash. He bullies the kids who seem weak or...or different. But most of the time it's verbal, and I guess if you don't think too much about it then it doesn't matter. Usually he targets...me." Peter's eyes widened as Mr Stark narrowed his eyes dangerously, and quickly interrupts, "but it isn't serious! I don't care about what he says. It's nothing, really!"

Mr Stark didn't look like he was going to drop this subject so easily, but nevertheless let him continue without interruption. "So Flash found his new target in Maddie, and during our physical education class, he happened to have been carrying around some pins in his pocket. Everyone was so intent in the game that they didn't see him sticking the pins on the basketball he was holding. The pins didn't show up on CCTV because they were so small. I only noticed what he'd done when he'd already thrown the ball aimed for her face."

The principal had his mouth slightly agape, and seemed to have put two and two together and figured out the rest of the story. Mr Stark, meanwhile, didn't look very surprised as Peter unfolded the events, and instead still seemed to be lingering on what he'd said earlier about Flash.

"There wasn't much I could do, because I was quite far away from her. So I just ran at her and tried to shove her out of the way. I know it looks different from the video, but I swear that's what happened."

There was silence for a good few moments, and Peter wondered if he was still in trouble. Eventually, Tony broke the silence clapping his hands together, "Well, I think we can all agree that explains his punctured lip better than your miserably low resolution video."

Peter watched as the billionaire now turned to Mr Hendorff, eyes hard and he stared down at the principal, who nodded weakly.

Tony wasn't done, however, "You should have listened to the kid's story before blowing this whole thing up and jumping to conclusions. Did you know I was in a very important meeting with the Head of State and the Prime Minister? I had to apologise and tell them that my kid, was apparently in trouble with the school, when he was actually trying to save the day."

Mr Hendorff stood up, apologising profusely to Tony for wasting his time, before attempting to make amendments, "I will personally write a letter of apology for this misunderstanding. I assure you it will not happen again, Mr Stark."

Tony huffed, "I don't need to hear your apology, I think you should save it for Peter instead."

The principal turned to Peter, bowing his head, "I'm sorry for not hearing your explanation earlier, Mr Parker."

"N-no problem, sir." Peter said quickly, "I know you just wanted to protect your students."

"Still, I'm sorry for not hearing it first." Mr Hendorff said, looking genuinely apologetic.

"And secondly," Tony interjected, this time directing his words at Peter, "what's that I heard about the bully? Name's Flash? Why -"

"It's not a big issue, Mr Stark!" Peter protested, "I can handle him by my-"

"You should've told me, kid. Or your aunt. How is it that I'm only hearing about this now?" Tony rounded on the principal, "I hope your school plans to take action against that bully. He hurt my kid, and you saw he very nearly caused some serious injury to the girl in the video. What's her name? Mavis? Masie?"

"Maddie." Peter said helpfully.

"No, hang on, kid, the adults are talking." Tony said impatiently, not looking away from Mr Hendorff, "This Flash kid needs to stop. And if I hear one more complain about that kid, I will be forced to take things into my own hands. Got it?"

"Mr Stark, that won't be ne -"

"God, kid! Stay out of this for one second, please." Tony almost wanted to clamp his jaw shut, "Got it, Mr Hendorff?"

"Yes, sir." said the principal, "I will be having a word with Mr Flash Thompson and his parents, and have my teachers be aware of this so that it doesn't happen again."

"Good." Tony said, whipping out his sunglasses and sliding them on again, "will that be all?"

"Yes, Mr Stark. Once again, I'm sorry to have disturbed your meeting. Have a good day. And you too, Mr Parker."

"Bye, sir." Peter said, before catching up with his mentor as he stalked out of the door.

They walked out to the parking lot in front of the school, with Tony leading him towards the car in silence. Peter wasn't sure what to say, because he couldn't really tell how pissed the billionaire was for having his meeting interrupted just because he got himself into a sticky situation at school. Imagine that, Tony Stark, an Avenger, and Iron Man, coming to a high school to pick up a teenager.

As Mr Stark reached out to open the door of the driver's seat, Peter said softly, "I'm sorry."

Tony's hand froze an inch from the handle, "What's that, kid?"

"I said I'm s -"

"No you're not. Because you didn't do anything wrong in the first place, Pete. For the record, I was pretty sure your principal got it wrong the minute he told me you were a bully."

"Really?"

"Kid, when your principal called, I thought maybe you were in trouble for blowing the science lab or something, but bullying was the last thing on the list. Actually, it wasn't even on the list. For someone to be swinging around Queens and stopping crime, it's seriously ridiculous." Tony got into the car and waited for Peter to follow suit.

Shutting the door behind him, Peter looked at him, "Thanks, Mr Stark."

Tony reached out to put his hand around the boy's shoulders, shaking him a little, "One thing you've got to promise me though, Pete."

"What?"

"Next time that Flash guy bullies you, you tell me, got that?"

"I -"

"Kid."

"Okay." Peter sighed, "Sure."

Tony grinned, removing his hand and stepping on the accelerator. "Hungry for some pizza?"

"I thought you were in the middle of an important meeting?"

"Yeah, but it was kind of boring, and since I've got an excuse for leaving, I think we might as well say out of it until it's all over. Sound like a good idea?"

Peter sniggered, "Miss Potts is going to be so mad at you for missing another board meeting."

Huh, great, here comes the snark again. "I guess I'll just tell Miss Potts that the principal called me to tell me you were being a bully."

"No you won't!" Peter's jaw dropped.

"Oh I think I will."

Hope y'all enjoyed! Because I had plenty of fun writing it :D

Do leave your reviews! Any thoughts at all, feel free to drop it in. Thanks!