A/N: So don't let it be said that i am unwilling to be flattered - or bribed - into changing my mind. That said, I'm revisiting my AU for at least one more story.

OOOOOOOOOOO

"You Americans are very fond of holidays…"

Peter shrugged.

"Not really," he said.

Shuri raised an eyebrow.

"You just had your Halloween," she pointed out. "Now you tell me that there is Thanksgiving."

"Don't forget Christmas is coming after that," Tony added, making Shuri smile at Peter's father, who had stuck his head into the video call.

"And then New Years," Pepper said, although she didn't move from the chair that she was sitting in. They were in the lounge, and it wasn't very crowded, so she had no problem hearing both sides of the conversation when Peter had called Shuri. "Can't forget New Years."

Shuri looked at Peter, who rolled his eyes, good-naturedly, at the assistance he was receiving from his parents.

"It's called the holiday season for a reason," he told her. "Do you want to come, or not?"

"Of course, I do." She smiled, clearly pleased at the invitation. "What does it entail?"

"Well, Thanksgiving is pretty much a day to eat a lot of food and watch football," Peter told her. "But the lead up to it is pretty fun. Jack has pumpkins at his farm left over from what he didn't sell for Halloween and he told us that we can have as many as we want."

"For what?"

Peter's eyes grew excited.

"Have you ever heard of pumpkin chucking?"

"It's called Pumpkin chuckin'…" Tony interrupted. "You have to make it rhyme or it isn't a thing."

Shuri looked confused.

"What is it?"

"It's tossing pumpkins," Peter replied. "But not with your hands. You have to make a machine. Something without an engine – like a catapult or a trebuchet – Tony and I thought we'd have a contest. Maybe have Ned, and MJ, and you, all compete, too. And anyone here who wants to."

"What is it?" she asked, again.

"You make a machine," Peter told her, again. "And it's designed to throw the pumpkins as far as you can."

"Not off the planet," Pepper said, quickly.

"Not off the planet," Peter echoed. "But in a field. The one who throws the pumpkin the longest distance wins."

"That sounds like fun."

Of course it did. Tony knew that building anything would appeal to Shuri. It was one of the reasons that he'd thought of it – and thought of inviting Shuri to join in. he'd already known that Ned would be interested and most likely MJ would enjoy it, too.

"It will be," Peter agreed, feeling cheerful. "There are other things, though, too. Not just tossing pumpkins around."

"What else?"

"Jack made a corn maze," Peter said. "He did it for Halloween, but it's still up and none of us have done it, so we thought we might go through it the same day we do the pumpkins. Interested?"

"I do not know what a corn maze is."

"It's a maze," Tony told her before Peter could.

"In corn," the boy added.

Shuri rolled her eyes, and she wasn't the only one.

"You're both geniuses and that's the best explanation you could come up with?" Pepper asked. She shook her head and took Peter's phone from him so she could talk to the princess. "Shuri, ask your brother if you can come over Thursday after next. We'll keep you for the weekend and do some Thanksgiving holiday activities – which I will email you in advance so you aren't as clueless as these two are. Peter will be out of school starting that Wednesday, and we'll invite Ned and MJ out for the weekend for extra company."

"And to chuck pumpkins," Tony added, sticking his face into the call, again. "So make a machine."

She smiled, pleased at the invitation even though she knew nothing more than she had when the call started, really.

"If my brother allows me, I will happily come. Thank you for the invitation."

"You're welcome."

Shuri turned to look at something off the camera range and then turned back.

"I am afraid I must go," she told all three of them. "There is a problem with one of the mag trains."

"I'll call you later," Peter promised.

"I shall look forward to it."

The girl ended the call and Peter turned his phone off and tucked it into his pocket.

"What are you going to do, today?" he asked Tony, turning his attention back to his breakfast.

"I'm driving in with you and mom," was the reply. "There are a couple of meetings, this morning."

Peter affected great surprise – which made Pepper have to take a sip of her coffee to hide her smile behind the coffee mug that proclaimed her to be the World's Best Mom.

"You're going to a meeting?"

Tony scowled, but he was amused and it showed in his eyes.

"I do work, sometimes." He looked at his wife, who was studiously sipping her coffee. "Help me out, here, Pep."

She smirked.

"He does work… sometimes."

The boy snorted, pleased to see them both so cheerful, and loving the fact that he was part of that happiness. The last couple of weeks had been pretty good, really, and he was going to be back in school after the Thanksgiving break, so it was something for him to look forward to.

Tony pretended to take a swipe at him.

"You have practice, this afternoon?"

"Yeah. I'm going to do a patrol before it, though, so I can get to school on my own."

"One of us will come get you after practice" his father told him, looking at Pepper, to see if she had anything to add.

Or if she had a meeting or something that might make her day go longer than usual.

Pepper nodded her agreement.

"I will. That way I can talk to Ned's mother about Thanksgiving weekend."

Thanksgiving, itself, was for family, so the invitation to the compound had been for the teens to come on the weekend, instead. Peter had confirmed that neither Ned's, nor MJ's, families were going out of town to visit relatives, anywhere, so there wouldn't be any kind of conflicting schedules. But Pepper and Tony would still want to keep everyone in the loop.

"Anything in particular that you're planning for this afternoon?" Tony asked Peter. He didn't look worried, Peter decided. "Any tingle nagging at you?"

Peter shook his head.

"Just going to make sure people don't forget about Spiderman. He hasn't really been needed too much, lately."

Not that the crime rate was going down in Queens, or anything, but really, it sort of had the last several months. The major crimes, anyway. The little stuff that Peter dealt with was still happening, and besides, he liked swinging through the city and talking to the people who lived there.

"Don't be late for practice," pepper told him.

The boy smiled, reaching for a slice of toast.

"MJ would kill me."

OOOOOOOOO

"Now that's interesting…"

Stephen Strange looked over at Wong, his expression somewhat sardonic.

"You could say that, yes."

"I could say scary…"

"And you'd be right about that, too."

Both men were looking at what seemed to be a fancy, gilded, mirror, but was, in fact, a viewer of sorts. A window into other places that allowed the sorcerers to see what was happening without actually needing to go there, physically.

"What do we do?"

"Nothing we can do," the sorcerer supreme pointed out. "It isn't happening here, and it isn't our place to try and fix it unless our assistance is requested."

"And if it spills over into our realm?"

"Then we fix it."

"Do you know how?"

"No." Strange waved a hand in front of the viewer, and looked at his friend. "Time for some research, I think."

Wong nodded.

"I agree."