Voices talking in soft murmurs woke him. A hand brushing against his forehead made sure he didn't go back to sleep – although he had a feeling that they were trying not to disturb him. He stirred, though, and opened his eyes. Tony, Pepper and Stephen were all standing around his bed, watching him wake up with varying degrees of chagrin.

"Hey," Tony said, gently, sitting down on the edge of the bed beside him, since he was awake, now.

"Hi."

Peter looked around, but he was in his own room, and in his own bed – and he didn't seem to have had anyone with him. He looked at his watch, absently, but noted that it was only a few hours later than it had been when he'd gone to sleep, and the sun was now shining through his bedroom window.

"How do you feel?"

Peter hesitated, trying to judge how he felt around the warmth and the exhaustion, knowing that some of that would be from just having woken up and from being covered with a blanket.

"Tired."

"Warm?" Strange asked from beside Pepper.

"Yeah. A little. I'm okay, though."

"You were beginning to worry us," Tony admitted, once more touching his cheek with his palm.

"Why? Did I sleepwalk?"

"No. But you've been asleep for more than a day."

"What?" He looked at his watch again, but this time he checked the date and saw that Tony was right; it was the day after they'd returned, not the same day as he'd automatically assumed. "Wow."

"Yeah wow," Tony agreed, moving his hand and getting up. "we're going to feed you and then get you on your feet for a while – even if it's just a walk to the lounge and back."

"Or some water walking in the pool, if you'd prefer," Strange added. "I want you to get some normal activity under your belt so I can get an idea of how you're doing. If you still feel sluggish after some exercise, then I'll worry. Right now, you're probably just tired from sleeping so long."

"That doesn't make sense," Peter pointed out.

"And yet, it's common knowledge. Do what I say, alright? I'm tired of Tony checking in with me every half hour asking if he should wake you up, or if you need to eat."

The doctor winked at Peter, good naturedly, assuring the boy that he wasn't annoyed, really, he was just getting a dig in on Tony, and Peter nodded.

"Okay."

"What do you want to eat?" Strange asked.

"Did you guys already eat?" Peter asked, pulling himself upright into a sitting position so Pepper would hopefully lose the worried look on her face.

They all nodded.

"Oatmeal."

A tray appeared with the requested oatmeal, as well as a plate of sausages and a glass of orange juice.

"Eat, and then get up, okay?"

"Yeah. Thanks."

Strange looked at Pepper and Tony.

"I'll be in the lounge."

"Okay."

Peter watched him leave the room, and Tony frowned and gestured to the tray, getting the boy's attention back to where it needed to be just then.

"Eat."

OOOOOOO

Once he was stuffed with a big breakfast, Peter admitted that he didn't really feel like going into the pool. Instead, he changed into clean clothes while Pepper and Tony waited for him in his living room and then they all walked to the lounge.

"Did you hear anything from Thor?" Peter asked.

"No. We just left him," Tony reminded him. "Probably won't hear from him. He doesn't keep us up to date with what's going on very often."

"Oh."

Noting the slight disappointment in Peter's tone Pepper looked over at him.

"Were you hoping to hear from him?"

The boy shrugged.

"I was just wondering how Loki was doing."

Tony rolled his eyes, but was careful to not let Peter see the action.

"I'm sure he's fine, Peter," he told him. "Don't worry about him, okay?"

"We have other things to think about," Pepper said.

"Like what?"

"Well… we did interrupt Stephen and Natasha's cruise to come help us. How do we make it up to them?"

Peter hadn't even thought of that.

"Were they mad?"

"Of course not," Tony told him. "You know better than that."

"The people on the ship were a little shocked at their sudden disappearance, though," Pepper said with a smile. "Luckily, they had a port of call the very next morning, and it was assumed that the two of them went ashore with the others and never came back."

"Which Natasha told them was the case, when they started calling around looking for them."

"She claimed a family emergency," Pepper said, smiling. "Which wasn't even a lie, when you think about it."

"They can't go back and finish it?"

"It's over. And it was the last one of their season – so it's either a different cruise somewhere else, or a different vacation entirely."

"So start thinking of something that they might want to do to make up for it," Tony told him.

"Probably not a sledding trip to Montana, though, huh?"

"No," Stark agreed, putting his hand on Peter's shoulder. "Definitely not."

Strange and Natasha were sitting at a table when they walked in. Steve was there, as well, and Peter suddenly found himself grabbed from behind and pulled away from his position between Tony and Pepper. Both of them shook their heads and walked to the table as Clint wrestled Peter to the floor. A moment later both of them were the subject of an attack by Jack, who was always willing to be part of a dog pile.

Encumbered by Clint's weight and strength and the need to keep Jack from getting rolled onto by either of them, Peter soon found himself pinned, and Jack trying to chew on his right ear, his tail wagging, excitedly.

"Uncle?" Barton asked, pointedly, holding Peter's head to allow the puppy access to the boy's ear, while Peter tried to squirm away.

"Not, yet," Peter grunted, forcing himself over and onto his belly with Clint straddling him still holding him down.

He reached for Jack with both hands and pulled the puppy under him to keep him from getting hurt as he drove himself up to his hands and knees, causing Clint to lose his grip and slip off, hands wrapped around Peter, still. The archer let him go, and grinned, scrambling to his feet and reaching down to offer Peter a hand up.

"Finally woke up, huh?"

"Yeah."

They headed for the table, with Jack following, cheerfully.

"How do you feel?" Clint asked him. "You look Better."

"I feel good. Thanks."

He smiled a greeting to Natasha and Steve and settled next to Rogers, who reached down and scooped Jack up, cuddling the puppy while he was still small enough to be held that way.

"Well," Strange said, approvingly. "You look much better."

If the boy was well enough to wrestle, then he was probably well enough that he didn't need any of them hovering over him, waiting to catch him if he toppled over.

"I'm fine," Peter assured him.

"Well enough to spend some time at the sanctum today?"

The boy looked immediately interested.

"Sure. Doing what?"

"Notice he said yes before he even knew what you wanted?" Clint pointed out. "Tell him that you have a sink full of dishes that need washed."

Stephen wasn't the only one to smile.

"Nothing too exciting," the doctor admitted. "Wong is putting together a tome – a book. He wants the recent events put down on paper and catalogued into the library – just in case something like that happens, again."

"He wants to put my story in a book?" Peter asked, just to make sure that he understood.

"Some of it, yes."

"Wow."

"We've already pestered Steve, Natasha and Clint. Tony and Pepper have promised to add their own accounts, as well, and he'll track Wanda down to get her side, also. Your perspective will be very interesting, of course. And he wants your impression of Asgard."

"He was there," Peter pointed out. "He's a magician."

"Everyone sees things differently," Natasha reminded the boy. "You know that."

Strange had already told her that he was going to invite the boy to the sanctum. From the lack of surprise on their faces, Tony and Pepper had been warned, too.

"It would probably just take a few hours – at the most – but we'd keep you overnight, if you'd like. We haven't had you over for a while, after all."

Peter looked over at Tony and Pepper, who understood that he was asking for permission. It was clear that he was interested.

"It's up to you," Stark said, smiling. "We don't have anything planned for today."

"Yeah. That would be great."

"Good. Go pack a bag," Strange told him. "We'll see if Ned wants to stop by, too."

That would save them all the trouble of telling the other boy what had happened - and besides, Wong and Steven both enjoyed Ned's company. And Ned loved the sanctum - almost as much as he loved the tower and the compound.