Words: 1,941

Peter Parker was not having a good day. He'd woken up late and in his rush to get going for school, he'd skipped breakfast and was still a few minutes late. Flash was in a mood it seemed and he was bothering him more than usual and on top of it all, his head was killing him.

By the time lunch rolled around he thought his day might be looking up, his head still hurt but was no longer pounding inside his skull. Flash was distracted and was leaving him alone. His stomach has finally stopped growling as he ate for the first time that day.

That is until he noticed his best friend being abnormally quiet next to him, the other teen's attention focused solely on his phone. "What are you looking at?"

"Uh, nothing." Ned quickly said, moving his phone from Peter's sight.

"Sure," Peter chuckled, not believing his friend for a second. "What's up?"

"You don't want to know." Ned told him, turning back to his own lunch. He didn't like lying to his friend but he figured it was okay because he was also trying to protect him.

"Ned," Peter chuckled again, this one holds less humor as he looked at his friend, it was unlike him to hold things back. "C'mon man."

With a sigh, Ned caved and pulled out his phone again, unlocking it before handing it to Peter. "Sorry, dude."

Taking the offered phone with furrowed brows, Peter looks down at it to see an online newspaper article, the big, black, bold words at the top of the screen immediately catching his attention.

Spider-Man The Menace

"Don't listen to them, man, they don't know what they're talking about." Ned told him, carefully removing his phone from Peter's hands and he let him, but not before looking at the source of the article.

"Yeah, right." Peter mumbled, trying to make his words sound light as if they didn't get to him. He didn't understand why some people just couldn't see he was only trying to help. He'd seen stuff like that before, people saying he was no good, only causing trouble but no matter how many times he told himself it wasn't true, it still got to him.

"So I was thinking you could come over this weekend, we could have a movie marathon." Ned changed the subject, believing that his friend had already dropped the words he had read moments before.

"Yeah, sounds good." Peter agreed half-heartedly, his appetite now gone. Thankfully Ned didn't seem to notice and continued to talk about this and that until they had to head off to their next class of the day.

It went by slower than Peter would've liked. He tried to pay attention in his classes but he felt an itch under his skin as those words calling him a menace flashed in his mind. He needed to find that article and read it. He knew it was a bad idea, that it would only make him feel worse but he couldn't stop himself and as soon as the last class of the day let out, he pulled out his phone and started searching only to stop short at the notification on his screen.

It was intern day. He had to go to the tower right after school. He had forgotten about that, it was a new development, one he still wasn't used to. Happy was picking him up today since he had no other way to get there. He had offered to make his own way there. Walking, the subway, swinging as Spider-Man. But Mr. Stark had refused and said he'd handle it.

With his goodbyes to Ned, Peter made his way outside the school and followed the directions he was given to the sleek black car that stood out and blended in all at the same time before climbing into the back, giving a distracted greeting to the man sitting upfront as he once again turned to his phone, trying to hunt down that stupid article.

The older man didn't seem to mind the quiet. He didn't dislike the kid, he actually held some respect towards him but would die before he ever admitted that. But he perfectly fine with driving in silence until they reached their destination. Although he couldn't stop himself from looking in the rearview mirror every few minutes, noting Peter's uncharacteristically quiet behavior, but he shrugged it off, everyone has off days.

"Thanks, Happy." Peter mumbled as he exited the car, slipping his phone away as he made his way to where he always met up with Tony, not willing to risk running into someone or something if he had his face stuck in his phone.

He seemed to have arrived before the older man, giving him time to pull out his phone again as he took a seat and continued to read. While trying to hunt down the article he'd come across another few and found himself reading those on the drive over and finally found the one Ned had shown him moments before the car came to a stop.

That's what he was reading now. Every word that passed his eyes was like a punch to the gut. People see things differently, he understood that but this was a lot different. He'd always thought of himself as a hero but these people painted him to be the villain. It made him question everything he's ever done as Spider-Man. Made him wonder if he was doing more good than not.

"Whatcha reading?" A voice said right next to his ear, startling him into jumping from his seat and spinning around, blood rushing to his cheeks at being caught off guard.

"N-nothing," He stuttered, avoiding eye contact with the billionaire standing across from him.

"Sure," Tony didn't believe him for a second. "Shall we?" He'd drop it for now and see if anything came of it but he wasn't going to push the kid if it turned out to be nothing.

"Yeah," Peter nodded, quickly following the older man to the workshop. Or lab, he wasn't sure what to call it.

"Sorry I was late," Tony said offhandedly as they entered the room. "Got stuck taking care of some business."

"It's okay," Peter assured as he took his normal seat before the two got to work.

Tony enjoyed this time of the week. Getting to escape into the work he actually liked. He wasn't sure how it would go when he first decided to bring the kid to work with him a while back but now he thought it was stupid to have ever had any doubts. He enjoyed having Peter around, he brought a new life to the place. Stark also knew Peter liked coming as well. But if he hadn't known that previously, he would've thought the kid wanted to be anywhere but here at the moment.

He was quiet. That in itself was enough to know something was wrong. The kid loved to talk, not that it was a bad thing, Tony was surprised at how much listening to the kid's mindless banter didn't bother him.

He just seemed zoned out and Tony was pretty sure he knew why. Peter wasn't just lost in his head now but had been earlier, so much so that the billionaire was able to walk up behind him and read over his shoulder.

Tony Stark was many things but blind to the outside world was not one of them. He knew about the news, the papers, online articles, blogs, and so on. He'd learned to ignore most of them these days, you see something for most of your life and you learn to. But with the kid it was different. He was still new to this, he wasn't, and shouldn't have to get used to people dissing his good work.

Stark hated seeing how it got to him, he knew those stupid words were what was getting to him and he felt anger growing in the pit of his stomach about the fact and towards whoever wrote them. He would have it taken down if he didn't know once something was out there there was no taking it back. But there was something he could do.

"You can't take that stuff seriously, kid." He told Peter, his voice ringing out through the oddly silent room, gaining the teen's attention. "Just some hack writer trying to climb the totem pole."

Looking up from his work, Tony's eyes met Peter's and he saw the slight confusion on the kid's face and he nodded his head towards his phone that sat on the table next to him. "Don't waste your time on that stuff, it's nothing but garbage."

"Oh, it's fine Mr. Stark, I was just scrolling through." Peter lied with a forced smile. He knew it shouldn't get to him but it did.

"How you have a secret identity, I will never know. You're a crap liar." Tony said as he placed the items he was holding down before moving close to Peter. "I used to do it too. Read stuff people wrote about me and yeah, it got to me, but you can't let it."

"How?" Peter whispered, dropping his own things as he gave a defeated sigh. "I want to help people but when I read those things I wonder if I'm really doing that."

"Oh, Peter," Tony sighed. He hated that the kid felt that way, he knew all too well himself what it was like and he never wanted him to feel that way. "For starters, stop reading that crap. And it doesn't matter what they say because it's not true and the people who matter most know that."

"Your Aunt, your friends, me. We know you, Peter. You're a good kid, one of the best I've ever met." Tony said this like it was nothing but his words held weight. A good kind, more than what the stranger's words did. "You're a hero kid, it doesn't' matter what they say."

"Thanks, Mr. Stark." Peter said with a smile that came easily. He knew it wouldn't be that easy to just drop all the bad things people said and wrote about him, it would still bother him but Tony's words meant a lot and Peter realized it didn't matter what those people said, it mattered what the people he cared about said, they knew him, the real him and that's what mattered.

"No problem, kid." Stark shrugged. "If I ever catch you reading something like that again, I'll take away your phone privileges." He stated as he got back to work.

"I don't think you can do that." Peter said with furrowed brows and a shake of his head.

"I'm sure your Aunt would agree with me." Tony told him, not looking up from his work.

"Seriously, kid," Stark said only a moment later, looking up to meet Peter's eyes. "Don't pay attention to that stuff, I mean it."

"Okay, Mr. Stark," Peter nodded, seeing how serious the older man was. "I promise."

"Good," Tony said as he clapped his hands together. "The silence is starting to give me a headache."

'-'