Work Text:
Tony sat quietly in his seat, sipping coffee in a small café, he had his laptop out and was going through some mails, which Pepper had forwarded to him.
The café was almost full, save a seat in front of him, thankfully no one had noticed him yet, so he was quiet content working. A moment passed and the door opened with a slight chime and a teen hurriedly ran into the café, he saw the kid looking for a table and eventually came at his.
"Excuse me is anyone sitting here?" The kid asked in a quiet voice. Tony shook his head, "No, it's only me."
The kid hadn't recognized him yet thankfully.
As the kid sat down Tony inspected him carefully, he looked pretty skinny, and his face was flushed as if he had run a lot to get here. He kept glancing anxiously at the door, as if waiting for something.
The door burst open again and a huge, burly group of boys burst in. They seemed to be looking for somebody and as soon as they spotted the teen in front of him they made a beeline for him, the smallest one of them seemed to be their leader and he saw sneering. Tony instantly disliked them, recognizing them as bullies. He himself had encountered plenty.
The biggest of the lot went to grab him but another one nudged him, finally noticing Tony. He backed off at the glare Tony was throwing but not before Tony caught him mouthing, "You're dead tomorrow."
The kid looked scared but slightly relieved too, once the group left Tony quietly asked the kid, "Those idiots bullying you kid?"
The gangly teen in front of him nodded glumly, "Yeah, but I can take it, better me than somebody else."
Tony is slightly impressed at the kids reasoning but says, "That doesn't make it okay kid. Nobody should be bullied, regardless of whether they can take it or not."
The teen simply shrugged, "Well, it isn't like I can do anything about it anyways."
Tony doesn't pry anymore but is determined to help somehow, he'll figure it out later. For now he decides to change the subject, "So, kiddie what school do you go to and what's your name, I'm Tony."
The kid narrows his eyes suspiciously at him, "Why should I tell you, what if you're some killer or something?"
Tony chuckles, "Well then I'll tell you a little about myself, I'm Tony and I'm an engineer, I love building things and hate paperwork." He purposely leaves his last name.
Peter then smiles and replies, "I'm Peter Parker and I go to Midtown High."
Tony whistles impressed, Midtown is a hard school to get into, the kid is clearly smart. "Impressive kid." He remarks.
Peter simply blushes and stutters out a thank you and after a beat asks, "Do you mind if I do my homework here?"
Tony replies, "Sure, no problem, go ahead."
He pretends to go back to his work but quietly observes Peter, and he is amazed, the kid is really smart, he simply breezes through his work, the questions look complicated for a high school kid but Peter doesn't even pause, muttering formulas and calculations under his breath.
The kid is quickly done with his work and takes out another book, which looks completely filled with various equations and a complicated looking formula. Peter is modifying the formula and the changes look pretty impressive if Tony says so himself.
Tony opened a problem he was trying to solve since the past two days, he slid the now tablet towards Peter, "Hey kid, can you help me solve that?"
Peter glanced curiously at the formula, analysed it for a few moments then said, "Sure." He then copied it onto his notebook, and started working on it, once again scrawling furiously and muttering under his breath.
Tony watched in fascination as the kid solved the problem he was stuck on for two days in 5 minutes.
"Done." He hands the paper back to him with a flourish, Tony whistles lowly impressed, the kid had not only solved it correctly but corrected some mistakes.
Tony decides then and there that he wants this kid to work with him, it will be awesome having someone who can keep up with him intellectually, don't get him wrong Brucie-bear was amazing but he didn't understand too much of physics.
He then makes the choice to reveal himself to Peter, "Well congratulations Mister Parker you managed to impress Tony Stark, and let me tell you that it doesn't happen often."
After that Peter just gapes at him for a solid minute and Tony starts to get a little concerned and asks, "Peter you okay?"
Peter nods and replies, "Yeah, nothing much, just getting over the shock that my idol is sitting in front of me and complimenting me, and I've been talking to him for the past thirty minutes."
Tony chuckles, fondly but something warm unfurls in his chest after that little speech, "Well you better get over it soon 'cause I have an amazing offer for you kid."
Peter gulps once and then nods, "Yeah?"
Tony continues, "Peter look, you're a really brilliant. The problem you just solved, I was stuck on it for two days, and you solved it in five minutes," Peter opens his mouth surprised but Tony raised his hand and said, "Nope, the adult is talking, what I'm trying to say is, I would like you to be my personal intern, you'll get paid and everything and you'll be working with me personally."
Peter looks like he's completely short-circuited at this, and sputters out, "Work with you? Personally? At Stark Industries? Really? Am I dreaming?"
Tony calmly replies, "Yes, yes, yes, yes and no you aren't dreaming."
Peter is silent for a moment before replying, "I'll have to ask my Aunt first."
Tony nods, "Of course, here's my personal number and mail, tell me your answer soon and if you agree, which I sure hope so, because it'd be a shame watching a mind like yours go to waste, text me when you decide and I'll send you the details then. Goodbye for now kid."
Peter accepts it, still having trouble believing it and waves at the billionaire he had idolised since he was a kid. He stared at the card for a full minute before his face split into a huge grin and he shot off towards his apartment.
*Time skip to Peter entering the apartment*
"May! May! You'll never guess what happened today!" Peter shouts as he enters their apartment.
May laughs and call backs, "What's the matter Peter?"
Peter dashes into the kitchen, excitedly waving the card in his hands and recounts the events of the afternoon. May just listens in surprise and then once he's done she engulfs him in a huge hug.
"That's amazing Peter! You should definitely take up that internship." May tells him, her eyes shining.
Peter asks her, "You really think, he'll want to work with me?"
May fondly says, "Peter, he himself offered it to you. He asked you personally, this is once in a lifetime opportunity Peter, I say go for it."
Peter then lights up and gives her a quick hug, "Thanks May I'll tell him then."
May nods happily after him, the proud smile never leaving her face.
Peter grabs him slightly cracked phone, wincing at it's state it, but then copies the number on to his phone programming it as Mr Stark and texts him that it's Peter speaking and that he'll take the internship.
Mr Stark texts him back only 10 minutes later answering
Great answer kid, I knew you'd do it. Anyways the internship will be on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, we'll see about the weekends later. My driver Happy will pick you up after school and will drop you back home.
Peter reads the text message over five times before thanking him. He then fell back on his bed another huge grin on his face, his dream was finally coming true.
He couldn't wait for tomorrow.