Pepper smiled when the two walked into the lounge. Well, Tony walked, but Peter had a decided limp, still. The two headed for the corner table she was sitting at, working on her laptop, but the bartender called Peter's name when they were about halfway across the room and he veered off, heading for the bar, leaving Stark to walk over to greet Pepper alone.
"You're later than I expected," she told him, kissing him when he lowered his head to her and ran a gentle hand along her cheek.
"Peter couldn't find his wallet, so we had to tear the place apart – and then put it back together once he did."
"Where was it?" she asked, looking over at the boy, who was chatting animatedly with the bartended, who was pouring him a soda while listening to him tell her about the trip. From the motions he was making with his hands, she assumed that he was describing the igloo the others had made. "Let me guess; in his jeans' pocket."
"Close." Tony sat down, waving at Peter to get his attention and then making a gesture that was clearly asking him to get him a cup of coffee. "He put it in his coat pocket for safe keeping."
"Where's Stephen?"
"He brought us as far as Peter's room and said he was going to go home and soak in a tub for a few days."
"He'll be back tomorrow, I imagine."
"Unless Romanoff finds a reason to go into the city."
She smiled at that very real possibility, but frowned at the pronounced limp she saw when Peter turned from the bar and walked their way, holding his cola and a cup of coffee for Stark.
"Why does he look like he hurts more now than he did before?"
"He opened the wound on his hip," Tony said. "Don't make a fuss about it, though, he's trying hard to hide it to keep you from worrying about him."
Peter sat his cola down on the table and handed Stark his coffee cup, and then Pepper reached out and caught his arm, pulling him close so she could steal a hug, even an awkward one from her seated position in the chair. The boy smiled and hugged her tightly, leaning over to rest his head on her shoulder.
"Hi, sweetheart. Welcome home."
"Thanks. Did you miss us?"
"I missed you. Tony? Not so much."
Stark smiled, knowing that she didn't mean it. He was the apple of her eye and he knew it. At least, he allowed himself to believe it most of the time.
"Just for that, you don't get to come with us."
She smirked.
"I'm driving. I have to come."
"Where are you going?" Peter asked, curiously, an arm still around Pepper's shoulders.
"We," Tony corrected. "Where are we going…"
"Where are we going?" Peter asked.
"It's a surprise. Do you think you can handle a short drive? We could get you a pillow to sit on."
"Yeah. Where are we going?"
"To the garage."
Peter rolled his eyes at the mysterious tone of voice Tony used, and stepped aside to allow Pepper room to get up. She smiled, as pleased to see the two of them as if it had been weeks and not just a day since they'd been gone. One arm went around Peter and the other around Tony.
"You didn't have dinner, yet, did you?"
"No. But we had lunch with Wanda."
He told her about Maximoff's visit as they went to the garage, downplaying the potential seriousness of the call and simply mentioning that the Mind stone was giving Vision an annoying time off and on where Peter was concerned.
"It has a crush on Peter, I think," Tony told her with a wink at the boy as they entered the garage. Peter's car was parked next to Natasha's Corvette, but Tony and Pepper didn't head to the sedan that they normally drove when they went somewhere as a family. Instead, Stark opened the driver's side door to the pickup truck and held it for Pepper, who got behind the wheel. "If it could do it without hurting Peter, I bet it would pop itself right out of Vision's head and come cuddle up to him in the middle of the night."
"Why are we taking the truck?" Peter asked, ignoring the comment about the Mind stone – although he was probably right.
"Because it has more gas," Tony answered, closing Pepper's door. "Do you need help getting in?"
"No."
He didn't hop in easily, but with the help of the door and the leather strap that May used to call the 'oh shit' handle, he levered himself up and into the back seat, carefully moving to the middle of the bench seat so he could watch where they were going and maybe get an idea of their destination. Stark looked over his shoulder while buckling in and checked to make sure he wasn't looking too uncomfortable.
"Are you good?"
"Yeah."
"We could get you something to sit on…"
"I'm okay. Thanks."
It wasn't like he was sitting on a wooden box, after all. The seat wasn't velvet or anything, but it wasn't too bad. He did find himself listing just a little to the right, though, as Pepper drove them out of the garage, down the access road and headed north on the highway.
While she drove, Tony caught up on what she had done that day. He heard about how sick Ned was on the flight back home – although he'd been excited about being allowed to drive one of the giant snow machines. He also heard about how she'd delivered both Ned and MJ back to their homes that morning after feeding them breakfast, and had assured Peter that Ned was well over his motion sickness by the time she'd fed them a hearty breakfast and that he'd been his usual animated self on the drive into the city.
"We have a million pictures to sort through," she told the two. "I want to find the best ones and make a slideshow of some sort for Peter – like a memory book, only digital – and maybe one for us, too."
"Good idea."
Peter wasn't going to be a kid for too much longer, and Stark wanted to make sure they had all the memories that they could make with him. While they were talking, and as they chatted about some of the pictures she'd already found that she loved, Pepper had taken them well up the road to the small farm that housed the place where the Avengers went anytime they felt the need to be buried in puppies. They had Jack, now, of course, and one puppy was a lot of fun and he was absolutely adorable, but multiply him by a dozen and it was a time that never ceased to be relaxing and fun.
Unless it hurt to be upright – and probably hurt to have even a cute puppy bumping into your bandaged gunshot wound.
"We're doing the puppy thing?" he asked, trying to look enthused but his expression was more dubious than anything.
Pepper smiled and shook her head, pulling the truck to a stop next to the barn instead of the building.
"We weren't planning on it. Unless you want to? We didn't think you'd be up to having them crawling on you, right now."
"No. It's fun, don't get me wrong," Peter said. "But I'd rather not, right now."
It made him wonder what they were doing there, though, and he saw Tony's amused grin when the man opened his door and got out of the truck, with Pepper doing the same.
"Come on, Peter," Stark said, slapping a hand against his door. "Bring that key."
The boy frowned and eased out of the truck, stiff from being in the seated position that he'd been in for so long. The other two waited for him, and then they walked toward the barn, where they were met at the great, closed doors by a man in overalls and a light jacket, wearing a cowboy hat. He shook Tony's hand, and smiled at Pepper and Tony.
"We expected you a few days ago," the man said. "Glad to see you made it home."
"We're glad to be home," Stark assured him. "Is everything ready?"
"Just waiting on your boy here."
"What are we-?"
"Go unlock the door," Tony said, gesturing at an odd lock that was on one of the barn doors. "Your present is on the other side."
"Is it a tractor?" Peter asked, limping over to the doors while fishing the key chain out of his pocket.
"No. Do you want a tractor?"
Peter shrugged.
"Might be fun."
He'd never driven a tractor, after all.
He unlocked the barn door and pulled the odd padlock off the latch, and pulled open the door, peeking inside. There was a concrete walkway that ran the length of the huge building, with stalls on either side. In a few of them, Peter saw horses looking out over the tops of the doors to their stalls, watching him. He hesitated, but the man didn't. He led the way down the center aisle to a stall about halfway along the building and stopped, looking at Peter, expectantly.
The boy frowned and looked and what he was pointing at. In the stall they were stopped in front of was an undersized horse. Mostly white, with splotches of brown along its back and legs, it stared at him as dubiously as he looked at it. It wore a leather halter on its head, and affixed to one side was a bright blue bow. Tony came up to stand beside him and Pepper made an awwwing sound when she joined them.
"He's so cute."
"Happy birthday," Tony said, gesturing to the horse.
"You got me a horse?" Peter asked, wondering if Tony had lost his mind, but trying very hard to look pleased at the idea.
It was a present, after all, and Tony looked smug and happy. Pepper had her phone out and was taking pictures, switching between Peter and the small horse in the stall.
"That's a pony," the man in the coveralls corrected. "A horse is a bit bigger."
"Oh."
"Well, go say hi," Stark told him, fumbling at the latch that kept the stall door closed. "You guys are going to be best friends, after all."
Peter hesitated. It wasn't the biggest creature in the world, but it still weighed a lot more than he did, and for all he knew, it liked the taste of people.
"He won't hurt you," the man assured him. He handed the boy a couple of chucks of carrots, and gave him a gentle push into the stall. "Go ahead."
The pony looked at him, expectantly, and Peter glanced over his shoulder at Tony, who was standing beside Pepper, now, with an arm around her waist, watching him. He limped up to it and flinched when the creature flipped its head up, making a noise that sounded suspiciously like a growl.
"City kid," Pepper said, amused, taking pity on him and joining him in the stall with a grin. She took one of the carrot chunks from Peter, and presented it to the pony, who took it from her fingers with a flash of velvety lips and huge teeth. She put an arm around the pony's neck and it nuzzled her, looking for another treat. "See? Like that."
Peter held the chunk of carrot out, closing his eyes and hoping that he wasn't about to lose a finger or two. He needed them.
"Put your hand flat," the man said at the last minute, causing Peter to flinch, again, and almost drop the carrot.
He stretched his hand a little, and the pony took the treat, crunching it loudly and messily, and then nuzzled Peter's hand, licking it and clearly looking for more. The boy pulled his hand back, wiping it on his jeans – on his uninjured side, luckily.
"What do you think?" Tony asked, holding his arms out, expansively. "A real live pony. Just like you've always wanted."
Well aware that a pony had never been on any wish list that he'd ever made as long as he could remember, Peter's expression was uncertain, and Pepper laughed, and hugged him.
"He's for you," she said. "But only until tomorrow. Then you are going to go with Clint and present him to Lila for her birthday."
"Which is going to make Clint the second-best dad in the world," Tony said. "Behind me, of course. And will almost certainly cement the crush that she already has on you."
Peter blushed, but smiled, relieved.
"He's for Lila?"
"No. He's for you," Tony said. "Because I wanted to buy you a pony. But Pepper has pointed out that we do not really have the accommodations for a pony, and that just because I wanted to get you something, it doesn't necessarily mean that you would be happy to receive said something. Which you've proved nicely just now."
"So we compromised," Pepper told him, rubbing her knuckles on the brown splotch on the pony's face and smiling when he closed his eyes in bliss. "He gets to give you a pony, and you get to give it away to someone who has wanted one for years, and has finally convinced her father that she's old enough and responsible enough to take good care of him."
"What if she doesn't want him?" Peter asked.
Stark rolled his eyes.
"You don't know anything about women, Peter, do you? She going to want him. Look at Pepper. She's probably trying to figure out how to keep him for herself, even as we speak. Girls love ponies. It's in their DNA, somewhere."
"I'll pull the trailer around to your truck," the man said. "And then we can load him up."
