Tony was in his office when Stephen came looking for him. Dressed in a suit that was just as perfectly tailored as the one Stark was wearing the sorcerer supreme looked perfectly at home in the well appointed office, and he was more than comfortable there, of course.

"Tony…" there was a pointed glance around the room. "Where's your wife?"

The billionaire smiled, leaning back in his chair, totally relaxed with his friend.

"She heard you were coming and ran away."

Strange snorted, amused, and took the seat across from Tony's.

"Meetings?"

"Yes. All day long, really."

"Why aren't you in them?"

"Because she's better at people than I am," he admitted. "If I'm needed, she tells me and I come, too. Otherwise, I let her deal with that, so she doesn't need to clear up whatever mess I might have made if I was allowed to go, too."

"That's kind of you."

The sarcasm wasn't missed on Stark, but he knew that Stephen knew Pepper preferred it that way – and she didn't mind handling the business side of Stark Industries. She'd been doing it for a long time, after all, and doing it well. With the addition of Peter into their lives, it had become even easier for her, since she'd cut her crazy working hours back to more manageable amounts and allowed her VPs and assistants to do many of the menial and trivial things that she'd once refused to let anyone else handle.

It was working well, and they were all happier for it.

Tony smirked.

"Right? Did you come from the hotel?"

"I did. I had lunch with Natasha."

"And checked things out?"

"Of course. She said she'd check in with you, later, but wanted me to let you know that your son and his friends have snuck out of their room three times to go skinny dipping in the outdoor pool, stole hard liquor from the hotel bar and were last seen in a drunken orgy on the rooftop – with a bonfire."

A snort of amusement.

"That's my boy. What did she really say?"

"Everything looks good. She has no concerns at this time, and she is going to put Barnes in a room down the hall from Peter's team just to make sure everything stays that way."

"Good."

"You're not going to ask me why Barnes and not Rogers?"

"Because Steve is a well known face and Barnes isn't. As far as anyone knows, he's an unknown and that means anyone dumb enough to be thinking of causing trouble won't know the danger they're putting themselves into."

Stephen smirked.

"You're learning."

He'd had to ask Natasha the reason.

"Yeah. Hanging out with Nick Fury will do that to a guy."

"She told me that you and Pepper are going to be staying here for the duration…" the sorcerer said.

"Yes."

"Because you're that concerned?" he asked, a little amused. "What are you going to do when he goes away to college?"

Tony smiled, shaking his head.

"We're not that concerned," he replied. "If we were, Peter would be staying here in between rounds – or Steve or someone equally formidable would be in his room with him and Ned. The tower is more convenient, really – remember, we stay at the compound because it's better for Peter, not for us. Since he's in the city, we'll be in the city."

"That makes sense," he conceded.

"And because it's closer to Peter," he added.

OOOOOOOOOO

"Did you find out anything?"

Natasha shook her head.

"Kid's clean and so is everyone related to him – here and in Japan."

"So no concerns about the two meeting?" Steve asked her.

"None that I can find." She shrugged, looking at her watch and then at Barnes. "I want you at the mixer."

He nodded, not at all annoyed to be given orders. Especially not from her.

"Fancy suit and hanging out by the wall looking like a bored SHIELD agent?" he asked.

She smirked, amused.

"Casual and broody. I don't want any of the foreign kids trying to take selfies with you like they might if they think you're SHIELD."

One of the reasons she wanted him in the room instead of her or Steve.

He nodded, ignoring Steve's amused guffaw.

"I can do that."

OOOOOOOOOOOO

It wasn't – officially – a party. It was a mixer. A chance for all of the teams to have a chance to mingle with the other kids. They were competing, yes, but the idea was to interact and have an exchange of ideas and get to know each other. When Peter and Ned walked into the ballroom, the mixer was already underway.

He wasn't the last one there on purpose. He'd been up in his room talking to Tony and Pepper who were checking in to make sure he didn't need anything – even though he knew they knew he didn't – and then he'd gotten a call from Shuri, who had been curious how things were going and despite how late (early) it was for her, had decided to call and see what he was doing. Since Ned was in the room with Peter, he'd decided to just hang out with his friend until he was ready to go down, too.

"Might as well let the French girls have a last chance to flirt with all the other guys," he'd said, ignoring the way Shuri rolled her eyes and giggled at his announcement. "Because they'll forget all about them when they meet me."

"Because you are so much more interesting than the son of Tony Stark?" she had asked, pointedly.

"Better looking, anyway," Ned had replied – and then it was Peter who had rolled his eyes.

"We need to get going," Peter told her, cheerfully. "Before Natasha sends someone after us. I'll call you, later, and tell you all about it."

"I will look forward to your call," she assured him. "Good night."

"Night."

This is pretty cool," Ned said as they walked through the double door that opened into the ball room.

It wasn't decorated, or anything; there was simply a banner that welcomed them to the international competition and had each country that was participating on it. There was a table with refreshments and drinks on it and there was soft elevator music playing in the background. The teams were all there, but none of them were wearing uniforms, or anything, so it wasn't easy to tell who was who.

The coordinator at the door gestured for them to stop long enough to get name tags, which were simply stuck to the front of their shirts.

"There's MJ," Peter said, gesturing. She was standing talking to a few teens that Peter didn't know – which meant they were from the other teams. "Let's go talk to her."

"Sure."

They walked over, catching the eye of pretty much everyone as they crossed the room. Peter recognized the SHIELD agents who were standing out of the way watching everything going on, and he noticed Bucky not looking at all like a SHIELD agent, also standing to the side. The SHIELD guys looked formidable, but Bucky looked just a little annoyed.

"He's going for the lean, brooding, look," Alec said, amused.

"He's got it."

MJ smiled at them when they joined her and gestured to the three people who were with her.

"Peter? Ned? This is Rufus – he's the captain of the team from England – and Sandy. She's the captain of the Australian team." A smile at the other person, who was pretty young, even in a group of teens. "This is Rufus' brother Nigel."

"How old are you, Nigel?" Ned asked, offering the boy his hand, first.

"Thirteen," he replied, grinning.

"Nigel's pretty smart," Rufus said, looking like a proud brother might as he offered Peter his hand. "It's nice to meet you both."

"You, too," Peter said, smiling at all of them.

"Are you really Tony Stark's son?" Nigel asked, looking at Peter with awe that he wasn't trying to hide.

"Yeah. Adopted."

"Which is the same thing to Tony," Ned assured him. He looked smugly at the newcomers. "I call him Tony. We're pretty much BFFs."

"That must be exciting," Sandy said, also offering him her hand and then looking at Peter, expectantly.

"It has its moments," he admitted.