Both Tony and Stephen wake with a start when Peter sits with a heavy bounce in the middle of the bed and crosses his legs. Tony slowly lowers his hand (usually one of his gauntlets would form but it was missing) and Stephen dismisses the shields around his hands when they discover their attacker is just Peter.

Tony rubs his face tiredly. "Pete, you're gonna give your old man a heart attack."

"Can we go to the beach?"

Stephen looks at him half-asleep. "How are you awake?"

"It's past noon." Peter's stomach growls as the sorcerer grabs his phone off the nightstand to check the time and Tony looks at the teen's noisy abdomen.

"Did you eat Underoos?"

"...no. We don't have anything."

"Room service kid. I'm not exactly wanting for money. Besides, food is a necessity."

Stephen mumbles something about brushing his teeth and climbs out of bed as Peter fiddles with the hem of his shirt. "I didn't want to assume."

Tony groans and yanks the teenager down onto his chest. "You know, a lot of couples would kill to have you as their kid."

"That's good?"

Tony laughs. "Not for me if people actually find out I-" The engineer ignores the correction of 'we' from the bathroom. "-have the perfect kid. Then I'd have to beat them away with a stick." Tony pushes Peter back up and gets out of bed, stretching his arms over his head. "Anyway, if we hurry, we can probably make it for brunch downstairs and then we can go to the beach."

Tony walks into the bathroom and Peter loudly exclaims his disgust when the engineer smacks Stephen's ass when he walks into the bathroom to brush his teeth. The doctor coughs at the unexpected slap and spits out his toothpaste before he chokes on it, earning a smug grin from the man beside him. Stephen turns a blind eye as he rinses his mouth then walks out just in time to watch Peter trip over his pants and pauses until a muffled 'I'm okay' rings out. He rolls his eyes adoringly as a mess of curls pop up from the other side of Peter's bed and digs through his bag for his own clothes.

There was a semi-private beach behind the hotel (it was for hotel patrons only) so all they would really need to do after they got something to eat was come back up to their room to change. They weren't really prepared for a day at the beach but there was a gift shop downstairs that sold what they would need so that wasn't an issue.

They only had their swim trunks because it was unspoken rule to always have swimwear when you went on vacation. Even if you went somewhere cold because there was always the chance of a hot tub being available for use.

"I take back that being okay thing."

Stephen looks over his shoulder to see Peter pinching the bridge of his nose, and he grabs the tissue box off the nightstand as he rushes over to the teen. The doctor holds a few tissues up to Peter's bleeding nose while he sits down on the bed and when the teen takes over holding the tissues, Stephen gently touches the bridge of his nose.

"It's not broken. Probably just bruised."

"It'll be healed in a few minutes. I'm okay Mom."

"You just rescinded that statement ten seconds ago."

"Well I'm rescinding that rescindment."

"Please stop. I am begging you. Just hush and sit there until your enhanced healing kicks in."

Tony walks out of the bathroom and looks at Stephen hovering protectively in front of their son. "Everything okay?"

"I fell." Peter responds nasally.

Stephen laughs. "I watched."

"He must be fine if the doctor's away and Mama Bear is out to play."

Peter grins and looks over his shoulder at the genius. "The doctor was out for about five seconds in his defense."

Stephen lightly pinches Peter's nose in retort and the teen hisses as the sorcerer returns to his bag and pulls on some clean clothes. Tony follows suit and a couple minutes later, Peter finally tosses the soiled tissues into the wastebasket, and finishes getting dressed. His parents wait patiently as he brushes his teeth, and then they suddenly find themselves being pushed out of the room, barely able to grab the room key cards, their phones, and Tony his wallet.

"Okay! Come on, let's go! I'm starving!"

Tony stops with a sly grin in Stephen's direction before slowly falling down against Peter. "Oh no! Gravity is increasing on me!"

"What?! No it's not!"

"It is too Peter. The same thing happened to me at home a week ago."

Stephen hides his laughter by turning away when Tony fully collapses on the teen, and Peter glares at his father.

"I really want to be mad at you but I'm also super proud you made a Disney reference."


Peter hoovered brunch and the family of three found themselves at the beach within an hour. He nearly ran off in his excitement, so Doctor Strange had to come out and grab Peter by his shirt and practically toss him back onto his towel to get him to put on some sunscreen. It took a couple of tries on the teen's part to finally get to run off as Stephen pointed out parts of his body he missed, but he did eventually get a nod of approval and dashed off, leaving his parents to their more leisurely pace.

"This whole vacation has made me question if he's really sixteen." Stephen says with some amusement.

"I haven't carbon-dated him yet. We might just have a six-year-old on our hands."

"Or it's just Vacation Peter. He hasn't really had a vacation to enjoy has he?"

"Last time he was on a beach, he was being beaten to death."

Both men cringe at the thought. They were both actually really surprised Peter wanted to go to the beach, but it was possible he just wanted to replace the bad memories with good ones. Something they couldn't really fault him for and was actually a pretty good coping mechanism considering he occasionally still had nightmares of that night. Both of the beach and the building. The first couple of times he had those nightmares after being adopted, he woke up screaming and hyperventilating. When Tony ran to his room to calm him down and comfort him, he accepted the embrace but would choke out 'You weren't there' until his sobs finally stopped.

Tony always returned to bed looking bedraggled afterwards. It was no secret the genius felt responsible.

"Vacation, Tony, no bad memories." He gently noses the man's cheek while simultaneously holding up the sunblock. "Do my back?"

Tony snorts. "How romantically common of you Strange."

"I have no idea what you're talking about. I just can't reach my back."

"I'm sure whatever press is hiding around here is trying to pick their jaw up from the ground with all the nuzzling you're doing."

"Our relationship and Peter are old news." Stephen says matter-of-factly as he pulls away, pulls off his shirt, and lies on his stomach. "My back? Please?"

"Well since you asked sooo nicely."

Tony applies sunblock to Stephen's back, and the doctor returns the favor before they both spend the rest of the afternoon sunbathing. Peter at one point managed to get them out to the water for about an hour of splashing, and in Stephen's case, using magic to toss the teen farther out. Neither complained about the sorcerer's use of the mystic artes since it was used in fun, but both adults eventually tapped out and retreated back to their towels to dry off and Peter was dragged away by some children to help build a sandcastle.

He was so good with them that the other parents actually trusted him enough to relax and enjoy the other's company, much like Tony and Stephen had. They actually felt a little bad when Tony announced to the remaining parents later that evening that they were collecting their son and that they would have to carefully watch their children again. Families that had already left, and even the ones that remained, thanked the teen for playing with the kids.

His genuine smile and answer of 'No problem, I had fun' had everyone swooning.

Perfect child indeed, Tony thought as he throws his arm around Peter's shoulders.

"Have a good time Underoos?"

"Best vacation ever." Peter smiles up at him. "Thanks Dad. Really."

Stephen comes up on Peter's other side and gently ruffles brown curls. "You could make a sandcastle out of the sand in your hair."

"I could make a sandcastle from the sand from my everywhere. Dibs on the shower."

Tony raises an eyebrow. "I saw those kids burying you in the sand at one point. How bad are you chafing?"

"It hurts to even think about it."