John Hancock Smith was basically born to be a history teacher simply because of his name. His first name went along with both his middle and last name to pay homage to two famous people. John Hancock was the first to sign the Declaration of Independence and John Smith was an explorer mostly made famous after Disney made Pocahontas. And so, inspired by his parents' choice of name for their second born son, he went to NYU for a degree in history and then got his teaching certificate. Three years after his graduation, he got a job at Midtown High School in New York City.

He hated it.

He hated teaching and students and tests and grading and disrespectful teenagers and smart alecs and teachers and the principal and New York weather and pretty much everything in his life.

This reflected in his teaching. Peter Parker used to love history but ever since Mr. Smith became his teacher, he despised the subject. He still got an A of course, but the subject didn't come naturally to him like math, science, and even English. Peter had a gift for Spanish and other foreign languages. Any subject imaginable was easy or at least fairly easy with only a minimal amount of studying required to do well.

Everything except history.

Mr. Smith had pop quizzes and pop tests, essays and projects with deadlines merely days away, study guides that didn't cover anything on the test, low grades that didn't reflect the work, and a whole bunch of other horrible things.

Another thing Mr. Smith hated was when phones went off during class. Text messages were read aloud and phone calls were put on speaker. All solely for the embarrassment of the student.

Peter would rather not deal with the embarrassment of Aunt May on speakerphone or having Ned's texts read aloud so he kept his ringer off. As long as his Stark Phone was on silent, he couldn't get in trouble. And it worked. Until Tony Stark called.

Tony never called unless it was important. So he had a special setting on Peter's phone that even when it was on silent, it would still ring loudly to announce the call. And Peter couldn't do anything to fix it.

It was a boring day in history. Mr. Smith was babbling on and on about dictatorships and Peter resisted the urge to yell 'you're a dictator'. But he didn't.

The room was quiet save for the teacher's monotone monologue and the snoring of a student in the back. Peter himself was fighting off sleep. In his defense, he had pulled an all nighter with Spider-Man and homework and Mr. Smith was just so boring.

🎵IRON MAN IRON MAN DOES WHATEVER AN IRON CAN🎵

The sound of Peter's custom ringtone for Tony blared at full volume through the classroom. Peter jumped out of his seat and almost fell on the floor at the sudden sound. Mr. Smith did not look impressed and motioned for the embarrassed teen to answer the call, clearly livid at his lecture being interrupted.

Peter tried saying 'no' but he knew it was useless so he picked up the phone and answered. "Hello?"

"Heya, Pete. What's happening? Actually I don't care. Listen it's an emergency and yo-"

"Mr. Stark, you should know you're on speaker."

There was a pause as Tony absorbed the information. "Why the hel- heck am I on speaker? Where are you? The suit says you're at school. Pete I swear to Thor you better not be skippi-"

"Mr. Stark I'm not skipping."

Another pause. "Good. Pep would not be happy if her favorite kid was skipping school. And I told you to call me Tony. I feel old when you call me 'Mr. Stark'"

"But you are old"

The class gasped at Peter's words. Tony gasped too but his was in mock offense.

"You wound me kid. You really do. I don't know why you're my favorite kid but whatever. Oh! Cap wants to know what you want for dinner"

Peter decided to ignore the favorite kid part considering he was the only kid at the tower (not counting Clint's child-like tendencies or Thor's childish intelligence). "Lasagna. Listen, Mr Stark, I gotta get back to class. Can I talk to you later? If it's a real emergency you can contact the office."

Instead of Tony's voice replying, it was Flash. "There's no way Penis knows Tony Stark"

It was at that moment Peter knew Flash had fucked up.

"What did you call my kid?" Tony spoke with venom laced in his words, clearly trying not to blast Flash with an Iron Man repulsor. The thought only briefly flashed through his mind but he was seriously considering it.

Apparently nobody heard Tony call Peter 'his kid'. Either that or they just ignored it. Or they believed Peter was faking the phone call.

But Flash being an idiot decided to keep talking. "Yeah it's probably just Ned or he just edited footage to make it seem like he knows Tony"

On the other end of the call, and unbeknownst to the students, Tony was fuming at a puny kid calling him Tony (only Peter could but Peter was not considered puny) and the same puny kid bullying Peter.

Peter was worried about Tony's reaction. So he was definitely surprised when Tony left with a curt 'goodbye'.

The young arachnid sat down with red cheeks as students stared and Mr. Smith began to lecture about the Stark Internship lie. The only two people who actually believed him at school were Ned (because he had been to the tower numerous times and even had an internship with Bruce Banner) and MJ (because she had also been to the tower numerous times and was working with Pepper Potts). Other than his two best friends, everyone else believed Peter was lying. Students and teachers alike made fun of the young boy and lectured him about lying.

But Peter was used to it by now (at least he claimed, in reality the words still stung). So he pretended to listen to the long boring lecture about lying before the lesson on dictatorships continued.

Peter tried to pay attention. He really did. And in the beginning he was. He was even taking notes on the (super duper boring) lesson. Words were copied exactly as Mr. Smith said them until Peter's enhanced hearing picked up the sound of a suit.

And not the kind from Brooks Brothers.

The one made from a gold-titanium alloy.

A.K.A. the Iron Man suit. (Duh)

The young hero looked out the window to see the familiar flash of gold and red across the New York skyline before landing in the schoolyard.

Students flicked to the window and began taking photos and shouting about the exciting entrance. Other classes also moved to see the famous Avenger and those on the other side of the school found out through various social medias and messaging apps. Those lucky enough to see Iron Man firsthand were grilled later that day for any and all information regarding the billionaire.

When Flash and Mr. Smith saw him, they both paled with fear as they recognized the world renowned hero. The arrogant teenager recovered first and quickly realized it would be a perfect opportunity to embarrass Peter.

So when Tony walked into the school and finally into Peter's history class (he either took a pit stop somewhere or he just got lost since it took almost 5 minutes), Flash strolled right up and began speaking. "Hello. Flash Thompson. With my 3.5 G.P.A. and various achievements, I will make a perfect fit as an intern at Stark Industries." He puffed his chest out and held out a hand for Tony to shake.

But Tony ignored the egotistical teen and instead walked over to Peter, looping an arm over his shoulder and ruffling his already-messy hair. "Hey, Pete"

"Hey, Mr. Stark"

Tony looked over in mock anger and gasped. "Now you're just doing it to be mean!"

It was at this moment Flash realized he had fucked up.

The kid he was bullying for 'pretending' to know Tony Stark (the famous genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist), actually knew Tony Stark and was joking around with Tony Stark.

And now Tony was at the school with the Iron Man armor.

Flash was so screwed.

Tony and Peter seemingly ignored the stares and whispers and continued conversing together about dinner and the new Mark 84 they were working on together, completely oblivious to the students still in the room.

It took a second but Mr. Smith finally shook out of his stupor to scold Tony for breaking into a school.

But Tony only laughed in his face. "I don't think you understand, teach. I already signed Pete out of here. He's coming back to the tower with me. Internship stuff." He waved a hand throughout the air as if saying it was nothing big to take a high schooler out of school for internship stuff.

That was where Tony was wrong.

It was definitely a big deal but everyone was still too shocked to say anything. So they just sat in stunned silence as the scene unfolded before them.

Mr. Smith was flabbergasted at the way Tony was speaking to him. "No, you don't understand. That is my student and he wi-"

"No, you don't understand. That is my kid and he will be going to Stark Towers with me. You can go to the office but I am his secondary guardian and his aunt will not be happy if she has to leave work to deal with you." Tony turned to Peter, a smile appearing on his face. "Whatcha waiting for? An invitation? Let's go!" He joked.

A bigger smile (if that was possible) appeared on Peter's face. Tony simply assumed the teenager had been smiling about leaving to go to the tower. In all actuality, he was smiling because Tony Stark called him his kid.

"Alright alright. I'm coming!"

They began to walk out the door but Tony went back to the room, claiming he forgot his sunglasses (they were in his suit pocket). When he got back to the classroom, he searched for a particular student. He found his target and yelled for them to stand up.

"Flash...just know that if you ever bully my son again, I will not hesitate to blast you into next week. Peter designed the new repulsers and I gotta say they pack a powerful punch." He smiled and started to leave before turning around and shouting "I am Iron Man!"

Tony walked out the door as the students began to shout about him and called the Iron Spider suit. Since they couldn't have Peter put it on (or rather have the suit put itself on Peter), Tony called the suit to a hidden alleyway a few blocks down the street.

He met up with Peter and they began the short stroll. As they walked in silence, the two were both thinking about what Tony had said in the classroom. Tony was beating himself up about, thinking Peter wouldn't want to be his kid. But Peter wanted nothing more than to have Tony as his dad.

Since Tony obviously wasn't going to make a move anytime soon, Peter broke the silence and spoke first. "Can I call you dad?"

The billionaire stopped walking and stared at the young arachnid in shock. Peter took this as a bad sign and began to ramble. "It's just you called me your kid and I really liked it and I think if you as a father figure and I want to call you dad and if you don't want me to that's fi-"

"Pete" Tony interrupted. "I'd really like it if you called me dad...but only if I can say you're my kid."

Peter laughed. "You already call my your kid but yeah. I like when you say it."

The two had the biggest smiles on their faces. They didn't think they'd ever feel this happy again. Tony opened his arms and Peter instantly fell into the embrace. Time seemed to slow down and sped up at the same time while they were hugging. It felt like they had been hugging for days while simultaneously feeling as though it had only been a few seconds. In reality they stood on the sidewalk for about 10 minutes, just relishing in the moment and the feeling of family and security.

They pulled apart after Peter's stomach rumbled, laughing at the loud sound. Tony wrapped an arm around Peter's shoulder and they walked in a comfortable silence.

Until Peter decided to talk.

"I have the perfect Christmas present for you!"

Tony gave a chuckle at th- his kid's enthusiasm. "What is it?"

"A world's best dad coffee mug"