Peter Parker... Stark?

A Genius, Sir?

"Peter Parker here about an internship please, ma'am?" Peter said quietly, gripping his backpack nervously as the woman behind the desk looked up from her computer at him. Her name tag glinted up at him with ROSEANNE printed on it in big bold letters.

She smiled, brushing a stray lock of red hair from her face. "Oh, you're Peter Parker? I've been so excited to meet Mr. Stark's new personal intern! I'm just going to need some government issued ID to verify that you're who you say you are, and then I can get you your badge and send you on your way."

Peter felt himself freeze at her words. "Did you say Tony Stark's personal intern?" he asked, his eyes going wide.

"Well of course you are! Mrs. Stark made that very clear when she notified me of it last week." Roseanne said, taking Peter's driver's license and examining it. "Here's your badge. You have a Code Silver access, which means you're allowed to go to most parts of the building, including Mr. Stark's lab."

Peter took the silvery lanyard from her with a shaking hand. "Thank you," he squeaked as she passed back his license.

Roseanne laughed. "Relax, kid. He's not going to eat you. Elevators are to your left. Friday should know where you're going." Peter nodded absentmindedly and approached the elevators. When one finally arrived, he stood aside to let everyone out and then stepped in. He made to reach for a button and began to panic when he realized that not only were there no buttons in sight, but the doors were closing.

"Hello, Peter Parker." Peter squealed. He was so high strung at the moment that he couldn't contain the high pitched shriek as a voice echoed from seemingly all around him. Once he'd calmed down, he responded.

"Uh, hi, Friday."

"My apologies, Mr. Parker. I did not mean to frighten you. Your badge has Code Silver clearance. Are you looking for Mr. Stark's laboratory?"

"Yes, actually. Thanks Friday." Peter smiled up at the ceiling nervously. He nervously ran his fingers up and down the edges of the badge nervously as the elevator made its way towards the top of the building. He could feel a drop of sweat trickling down the back of his neck.

After what felt like hours in the spacious elevator, Friday announced they'd reached their destination and the doors slid open. Peter hesitantly stepped out into the empty hallway, glancing around nervously as he followed the directions to Mr. Stark's lab Friday was spouting.

Peter arrived in front of the door Friday indicated, took a deep breath, and stepped inside.

~~~

"Boss, your intern is here. I suggest tidying up your lab before his elevator arrives." Tony stared up at the roof, a perturbed look on his face.

"Intern? What intern?"

"The one you recruited at the Expo after the Hydra attack."

"What?" Tony paused, his brow furrowed in thought. Suddenly, his countenance changed, giving substance to the analogy of a lightbulb going off above one's head. "Oh, the boy who somehow understood the programming behind my nanotech suit!" He frowned again. "Wait, how did you know about that Friday?"

"Mrs. Stark asked me to specifically remind you of him, because she knew you would forget." Friday paused before adding, "Clearly that was a wise decision on her part."

Tony scoffed in surprise. "I don't recall ever programming you to sass me like that, Friday."

The AI merely responded, "Mr. Parker is approaching the lab now, sir." Tony could swear there was a hint of smugness in Friday's voice, but before he could backtalk her the door to the lab swung open. A nervous face framed with curly brown hair peeked in, the boy's wide eyes expanding even further upon seeing Tony.

Tony leaned back dramatically in his chair as the boy stepped fully into the room. "You must be the new intern."

"Uh, yeah, I'm Peter." The boy looked like he was about to collapse. "Parker. Peter Parker."

"Of course. I remember you." Tony looked around, trying to mask how unprepared he was for the kid to show up. He spotted a machine in the corner he'd long since given up on. "There," he said, pointing at it, "I've left that for you to work on. Something about it doesn't release heat properly, so it doesn't work for long before reaching scalding temperatures and shutting itself down."

The boy approached the machine and lifted it up tentatively, twisting it around to examine it from every angle. He put it back down on the table and pulled up a chair before turning to Tony again.

"Sorry to bother you, Mr. Stark, sir, but are there some tools I could use?"

Tony chuckled. "Of course there are. If you go look in that cupboard over there you should find everything you need." Peter got up and crossed the room.

"Oh, and call me Tony, kid. Mr. Stark makes me feel ancient."

~~~

"Mr. Stark?"

"Tony, kid. Tony."

"Sorry, uh, Mr. Tony sir, can we give this a try now?"

Tony glanced up from the repulser he was tinkering with. "You fix it?"

"I think so," Peter said, squinting at the machine.

"Well, if you're confident about it, fire it up." The boy swallowed heavily, but placed the machine on the floor and pressed the button to power it on. It began to hum, glowing a soft blue. Amused, Tony began counting the seconds. If it malfunctioned the same way it always did, seventeen would pass before it shut itself down.

They watched. Tony's smirk slowly faded as seventeen turned into eighteen, and eighteen turned into twenty two, and twenty two turned into three minutes.

Tony leaned forward as the machine kept rumbling away on the floor, a look of disbelief on his face. "How did you...?"

Peter met his eyes hesitantly before lifting the machine two point out the changes. "The way the circuits were designed had one of the parts doing two things at once. I just rerouted that part and added some extra cooling features along the inside."

Peter looked up to see Mr. Stark's eyebrows raised. His heart skipped a beat as the billionaire took the machine from him and closely inspected it. Peter couldn't help but worry he'd done something wrong.

"Kid... I don't know what to say. You're a genius!"

Peter felt his eyes widen to comically large proportions. "A genius, sir?" he stuttered.

Tony grinned. "Yep. However, unfortunately for you, I'm still smarter."

"Oh, there's no doubt about that Mr. Stark," Peter quickly said, still trying to catch up to the conversation.

"Tell you what, kid," Tony said with a chuckle, slinging his arm around Peter's shoulders, "keep doing work like this and I'll make sure you get into whatever school you want." Peter smiled widely, hope glimmering in his eyes.

"Really?"

Tony returned the grin. "Absolutely."

(AN: I love making up random sciency-sounding stuff. Please don't bully me about it lol)