Raffle Winners

"Did I ever tell you who won the raffle?" Tony asked, walking into the kitchen where Peter was working on frosting a gingerbread star even though it was early November.


"No."


Peter bit his lip, focusing hard on putting the perfect finishing touches on his gingerbread star. Grinning, he set the white frosting bag down to grab the red one.


"I doubt I would care, though."


Tony shrugged, grabbing a free cookie and eating it all in one bite. Pepper really did make the best gingerbread. Even if it was only November and much too early for Christmas, he couldn't help but enjoy it.


"I think you will," Tony replied.


Peter glanced up at his dad who grinned.


"One Mr. Olsen, sponsor to the Midtown High grade 11 class, won it and scheduled a class tour for next week."


The frosting squirted across the counter as Peter gripped it too tight.


"What?" he yelled, setting the frosting down. "He can't do that, can he?"


"The winner gets a full tour of the Tower," Tony said, wiping some frosting off the counter then eating it. "There was never a limit on how many people could come. Besides, Mom already confirmed it."


Peter's eyes bulged and he looked towards his mom as she walked off the lift.


"Mom! Are you trying to kill me?"


Pepper looked surprised and confused for just a moment.


"First of all, don't yell at me or no Spider-Man for a month," she said, giving him a look.


Peter promptly shut his mouth tight and nodded, murmuring out an apology.


"Second of all, you'll be fine," she promised, rubbing his back as she stepped into the kitchen. "Dad has meetings all day except for the end where there's a meet and greet. Besides, Happy is doing your tour and you know how he is."


Peter groaned. "But still."


He turned back to his cookies after Pepper gave him a warning look. At the sight of frosting on the counter, he groaned again and scooped it up with his finger. He licked it all off and Pepper scolded him.


"Peter! Don't eat it."


Peter scooped up the rest of the frosting and licked it happily, ignoring the look his mother was giving him.


"I deserve this," he said, washing his hands off. "I have to go on a tour of the Tower with my class, so I deserve this."


Pepper didn't agree.


* * * * *


Peter had made a list of just how many ways today could go wrong. At the top was his dad skipping meetings which was, unfortunately, a pretty high risk. Before leaving for school, he had made sure Happy knew not to even look at him during the tour and to make sure he gets a guest badge. The last thing he wanted was for someone to ask about his full access pass. Walking in through the front doors beside the rest of his classmates, Peter could only hope things would go well.


Happy met them at the front desk and didn't even look at Peter as he said, "Welcome to Stark Tower."


Some of Peter's classmates turn to their friends and giggled, making Happy roll his eyes as he grabbed the basket of badges.


"Please take a badge and follow me. And please, for the love of god, don't lose these."


Kids swarmed Happy and grabbed a badge. Ned grabbed one for himself and one for Peter, handing it to Peter excitedly.


"This is gonna be awesome," he whispered, pinning his badge on proudly.


Peter raised an eyebrow at him. "You've been here before."


Ned got defensive. "Yeah, but never on an actual tour." Leaning forward, he whispered, "Only to your house."


"Which is the only part not included," Peter said with a smile.


Ned rolled his eyes and elbowed Peter as they followed their class through the security gate. Once everyone was through, Happy took them upstairs to the first floor of offices.


* * * * *


Peter stood in the middle of the labs, watching while everyone else ogled over the different inventions on display. The only labs they were allowed in were the ones that were either empty or held inventions on display. After making it clear that touching anything would set off an alarm, Happy had let the students look around excitedly.


"Peter, come look at this!" Ned called out, waving him over to a display case.


Peter walked over to Ned to look at what he was reading about and saw one of the prototype Iron Man gauntlets.


"I forgot Dad sent this down here," he said, glancing over the gauntlet.


"Wait, how old is it?" Ned asked.


Peter looked at it closer then shrugged. "Maybe seven suits ago." Ned looked at him, confused as to how long ago that was and Peter clarified, "Maybe a year or so."


"Oh," Ned said, staring back down at the gauntlet.


When Happy called them to leave, Ned begrudgingly left the gauntlets and they walked back over to Happy. They were about to leave the room when FRIDAY stopped them.


"Lockdown protocol has been initiated."


The doors slid shut and panicked whispers turned into more worried chatter.


With raised eyebrows and wide eyes, Ned looked at Peter.


"I don't know," Peter mumbled, looking around. "Stay here."


Pushing through the crowd of classmates, Peter made his way over to where Happy was furiously typing something into his phone.


"Happy, what's going on?"


Happy held up a finger to silence Peter while he tried calling someone. No one answered.


"I don't know," Happy replied, putting his phone away. "Your dad isn't answering. Hey, I thought you didn't want me to even look at you on this tour."


Peter rolled his eyes. "That was before lockdown protocol."


Happy shrugged and suggested, "Ask FRIDAY."


As FRIDAY only took direct commands from the Starks, Happy couldn't ask her about the reason behind the lockdown. Peter, on the other hand, could ask her to destroy the building and she would simply ask for the confirmation code (which he knew after seeing it on his dad's computer).


"Hey, FRI?" Peter asked, glancing up at the ceiling. "What's going on?"


A few kids nearby looked at him, wondering why he was talking to the ceiling, but the majority seemed too worried to care.


"There was an attempted theft on display case 320A."


That caught everyone's attention.


"Security and Boss are on their way down to investigate."


"Wait, can you keep D-Boss away?" Peter asked worriedly, frantically glancing back up at FRIDAY.


Unfortunately, Peter could already hear the group walking down the hall and knew it was too late before FRIDAY even told him.


"I bet it was Penis!"


Peter's eyes widened and he glanced back towards Happy. Luckily, Happy was on his phone and hadn't seemed to hear.


"Flash, why would I try and steal something?" Peter asked, moving away from the front door to the back by Ned.


"You're trying to hide!" Flash said accusingly. Talking over Peter's attempt to deny it, Flash said, "You probably tried to steal it to prove you really do know Tony Stark. Jokes on you! Now they're gonna arrest you!"


"We're not arresting anyone," Tony said, leading security into the room.


The group of students stepped back quickly, giving Tony room to walk in. Peter held back a groan and ducked behind Ned.


"We're just here to figure out who tried to take it and why."


"It was him!" Flash yelled, pointing to Peter. "He tried to take it to prove he knows you, but that's not true and we know it."


Tony glanced at Peter who gave him an awkward smile.


Keeping his eyes on his kid, Tony told FRIDAY, "Do a scan of everyone in the room and match it to the person that tried to take my stuff."


Peter wished he would stop staring at him. It was drawing everyone's attention in a way that Peter did not appreciate.


"Scan complete." Tony asked who it was. "DNA code on attempted theft matches DNA code of Eugene Thompson."


"Who's Eugene Thompson?" Tony asked, looking around the students.


Flash was suddenly very quiet. No one spoke up.


"Eugene, I'm not gonna kill you. I just want to know why you stole my stuff."


"That's Eugene!" Flash exclaimed suddenly, pointing to Ned.


Ned's eyes widened but Tony just sighed.


Glancing back to Peter, Tony pointed at Flash and asked, "Is that Eugene?"


Peter nodded and Tony turned to look at Flash.


"Why are you taking my stuff?"


Flash gulped, looking anywhere but Tony's face. "It's cool."


Tony looked unimpressed.


"I know," he replied, "But why'd you try to steal it?"


"I didn't! I just touched it!"


FRIDAY confirmed the object had not, in fact, been shifted in any way. It had only been touched.


"Don't touch my stuff," Tony told him. Without looking away from Flash, he said, "FRIDAY? Cancel Mr. Thompson's badge. Security will escort him to the front."


"Wait, no!" Flash yelled, trying to escape the two security guards. "FRIDAY! Don't cancel the badge!"


"Cancellation complete."


"No! Make it good again!" Flash cried, whining even more when FRIDAY didn't respond.


"FRIDAY only responds to the Starks," Happy finally said, grabbing Flash's arm and guiding him towards the other security officers.


"But it listened to Penis!"


Tony's eyes narrowed but Peter grabbed his arm before he could move forward.


"That's because Peter is my son," Tony told him, swatting Peter's hand away.


Flash looked first confused and then concerned.


"Don't touch my stuff and don't bully my son," Tony ordered, scowling at Flash. "We clear?"


"Yes, sir," Flash said weakly.


He allowed the officers to take him back downstairs while the rest of the group finished the last half hour of the tour. As Happy had left with Flash, Tony took over and led the class downstairs to have lunch in the Stark Industries cafeteria. At least the disaster that had happened was only number twelve on his List of Things That Could Go Horribly Wrong. 

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