"Do we wake them?"
T'Chaka nodded, looking down at his sleeping daughter. Shuri (and Peter) had slept the entire way to the airfield and the limo was now pulled up to the tarmac by the Wakandan jet, which was lit up and clearly ready for the flight home.
"I do not know about Peter, but Shuri would be disappointed if she did not have a chance to say her goodbyes."
Unspoken was the fact that she'd also be moody and the king didn't want to deal with that any more than he wanted his daughter disappointed.
"Peter would be, too," Pepper agreed, reaching over and shaking the boy's shoulder.
He was snig in Tony's arms, but not so sleepy that he didn't open his eyes at the touch.
"Hmmm?"
"We're there," Pepper told him, unable to keep herself from reaching out and brushing her hand against his forehead. He was that cute. "Ready to wake up?"
"I wasn't sleeping," Peter assured her, sitting up a bit and looking around – as Shuri did the same.
"You looked like you were sleeping," Tony told him.
"I was just resting my eyes."
"We are here?" Shuri asked.
"We are," T'Chaka confirmed. "Come; my leg is falling asleep."
The girl smiled at the gentle teasing and scrambled off T'Chaka's lap just as Happy came around and opened the rear door, smiling, cheerfully. Well, cheerfully for him, anyway.
"How was the drive?"
"It was wonderful," she said as she exited the back seat. "Thank you."
"My pleasure."
He waited until everyone else had gotten out of the car, as well, and then went to the trunk, opening it. The ground crew and some of the Wakandans gathered at the rear of the car to start collecting what luggage there was – and there was plenty more than there had been when the Wakandans (and Shuri) had arrived.
The other cars were parked, as well, and there were plenty of SHIELD agents watching the activities, but only Natasha, Steve, and Nick walked over to the edge of the red carpet that led to the steps going up to the plane. Tony and the others joined them a moment, later, and T'Chaka gave the small party a slight bow.
"Thank you for the courtesy of your hearth," he said, making it almost sound like a ritual comment.
"It was our pleasure," Tony assured him. He smiled, not completely certain how one said goodbye to a king and decided that he'd just do it the way he would with anyone – and hope that T'Chaka would understand that he had very little experience with royalty. Although many politicians were royal pains in the ass, but that wasn't the same thing, obviously. "We'll have to do it, again, sometime."
"Next week?" Peter asked, standing between Tony and Pepper, and watching everything going on around him with excitement.
Planes were fun, after all.
"It'll probably be longer than that," T'Chaka told the boy, amused. "It was a pleasure meeting you, though."
Peter smiled, happily. Everyone likes to be liked, right?
"You, too."
Ramonda and Pepper exchanged a warm handshake (they weren't quite to the hug stage, yet) but Peter wasn't shy at all about putting himself into Ramonda's embrace, while Shuri hung back, but looked hopefully at Pepper. She was a princess, after all, and knew much more than Peter did about what was proper and what wasn't. Pepper recognized the look, however, and held her arms out to the girl, who smiled and hugged her.
"We'll have to have you back, sometime," she murmured to Shuri.
"But this time it'll be an official visit," Tony said, stealing the girl from Pepper to hug her, while Peter grinned up at T'Chaka. "No skulking around, sneaking out."
Shuri nodded her agreement.
"It will not happen again, Mr. Stark," she assured him. "Thank you for having me, though."
"You're welcome." Tony offered her brother his hand. "T'Challa, it was good to meet you."
"You, as well, Tony." He wasn't a little girl, was he? He could call Tony by his given name. Not to mention, he hadn't snuck out of Wakanda to meet him. "I will make certain we have reason to come for an official visit as soon as possible."
"You do that."
The Wakandans also said their goodbyes to Romanoff, Steve, and even Nick Fury. Peter ran over to Okoye, who had purposefully separated herself from the little conversations that were going on around her. She tried to ignore the boy, but Peter was hard to ignore when he wanted to be seen.
"Are you going to miss me, too?" he asked her.
The question froze her, and she was torn between complete honesty and the knowledge that too much honesty would not be acceptable. She ignored Natasha Romanoff's smirk as the assassin read the predicament in the other woman's expression and looked down at the boy.
"I will not not miss you," she replied, finally.
It was plenty for Peter. He hugged her, too, and then went to each of the other members of the Dora Milaje who had stayed the night at the estate and hugged each of them, as well. Their expressions ranged from surprised to resigned as they returned the hug and still attempted to maintain their required dignity.
"Come here, son," Tony said, waving the boy back to his side. "Say goodbye to Shuri so they can get wheels up."
Peter nodded, grinning at the princess.
"Bye, Shuri."
She nodded, waving her hand, slightly.
"Bye."
Tony frowned but didn't say anything as T'Chaka led his family up the stairs and then into the Wakandan jet. The door closed with a hiss that they could all hear.
"How come you didn't hug her?" Natasha asked – for all of them – as they all moved back toward the waiting vehicles.
They'd stick around until the jet was in the air, and then the avengers would head back to the compound (they had several debriefings to do with some officials from the state department) and the Starks would be going home.
"Shuri?" Peter asked, curiously.
"Duh."
He grinned at the way she said it, and then he shrugged.
"Cause she's a girl."
"So is Ramonda," Tony pointed out.
"She's not a girl," Peter replied. "She's Shuri's mom. And a grownup," he added, catching her hand as they walked over to the back door of the limo, where Happy was already waiting. "I'm not hugging no girls. Even Shuri."
He liked Shuri, after all. But he had to make a line, somewhere. After all, he liked MJ, too, but they didn't hug, or anything, when they said goodbye after practice or games, did they?
Tony wasn't the only one to smirk.
"We have that recorded?" Pepper asked her husband.
"Oh yes."
"Good."
Peter grinned. He didn't know why she'd asked, or why they were so amused, but he wasn't too worried. He knew Jarvis pretty much recorded everything.
"Besides," he added, letting Natasha's hand go so he could get into the car. "It's not like I'm not going to talk to her, tomorrow."
"Are you?" Romanoff asked.
"Probably."
"Unless she gets grounded when her parents get her home," Tony pointed out.
"They won't do that." Peter hugged Natasha when she leaned over Tony to kiss the youngster's cheek. "She's a princess."
"We'll see." Tony looked at his son, and then at Romanoff. "What are you doing, next week?"
She smirked.
"We're going to take Peter for a couple of days," she replied.
The boy's eyes widened.
"You are?"
"Yup."
"Where are we going?"
"Bucky wants to go camping," Steve replied. "We thought you might want to come, too."
Peter's eyes widened.
"Really?"
"Does that mean you're interested?" Steve asked, smiling.
"Yeah!" The boy looked at Tony and Pepper. "You're not coming?"
"Can't," Stark confirmed. "We have a pretty busy week, next week, so we're going to leave it to the others to keep you from getting eaten by a polar bear, or something."
"Wow."
Pepper smiled at how excited their son looked, suddenly. The camping trip surprise had been intended as a way to cheer him up if he'd been sad about Shuri leaving, but Peter was clearly alright with it. And excited.
"It won't be until Tuesday," Natasha said. "We have a few details to work out – and we need to finish taking to the official people about the visit from the Wakandans."
"Okay. They're pretty neat, huh?" Peter asked.
Pepper wasn't the only one who clearly agreed.
"Yes, they are. It'll be fun having a chance to get to learn more about them."
"Yeah." Peter smiled as Natasha closed the door to the car, and Happy went and got behind the wheel. "What are we going to do, tonight?"
"Good question," Tony said. "Got anything in mind?"
Now that they didn't have their royal guests in the house, it was time to be a regular family, again. As regular as Tony Stark's family could be, after all. A brilliant wife and a son who could climb walls was never going to be ordinary, really.
"UNO?"
Tony looked at Pepper, who smiled her acceptance of the idea.
"Sounds like a plan."