Pepper was waiting for Peter and Tony when they pulled into the garage. She couldn't have been there too long, but she was leaning against Peter's Pontiac when they stopped the car, and waited for Tony to open the door before she stepped up to offer him her cheek.

"How was the drive?" she asked, turning to watch Peter get out from behind the wheel.

"Boring," he told her. "Which is exactly how I like it when Peter's driving."

The boy smiled at that.

"Happy said he would teach me to speed."

"That isn't what he said," Tony corrected, an arm already going around Pepper, easily. "He said he'd teach you defensive driving. When you were ready. That doesn't mean speeding."

"How am I supposed to escape if someone is chasing me if I don't speed?" Peter asked, pointedly.

"You run them over."

"Tony."

The billionaire rolled his eyes.

"Fine. But don't call it speeding. And you don't get to start that training until you're seventeen."

Which made Peter roll his eyes, too – although that wasn't a new stipulation. Tony wanted his son to have a year of driving experience under his belt before they allowed Happy (and to a lesser degree, Natasha) teach him about how to use his car as a weapon. Either to escape a dangerous situation, or to make sure that a dangerous situation didn't end tragically.

"I know."

"How long have you been home?" Tony asked Pepper as they turned and headed for the door of the garage and into the corridors of the compound.

"Long enough to know that Peter needs to go talk to his cat."

The boy smiled. He was used to that particular statement.

"What did he do?"

"Among other things, he was last seen walking down the corridor by the control room, dragging Steve's shield."

That was new.

"Steve got it back?"

"Of course. But he doesn't think that the scolding that he gave him will have the same effect as if you were to give him one, as well."

Peter grinned, but it was Tony who answered.

"Don't want the kitten to steal our fancy shield, we shouldn't be leaving our fancy shield laying around."

Pepper shook her head, and they stopped at the junction that led one way to their quarters and the other to Peter's.

"Steve said it was in its usual place and Nutmeg must have figured out how to take it down."

"I'll talk to him about staying out of rooms that aren't his," Peter promised.

As soon as he found him.

"You do that." Pepper reached out and touched his cheek – because she knew he wouldn't mind. "You might also ask him where he put my watch."

"How did you lose your watch?" Tony asked, amazed at the range of the little guy.

Flerkin or not, that was pretty impressive.

"How does Clint keep losing arrowheads? Or Natasha lose her things?" she gave her son a look that was supposed to be annoyed, but failed. "He's a menace."

Peter's eyes were wide and innocent.

"He's just a baby… he doesn't know any better."

"Go find my watch," she told him, smiling, tenderly. God, she loved him more every day. "And then meet us for dinner in the lounge."

"Yes, ma'am."

He turned and headed for his own quarters, figuring he'd see if anything was there – including his kitten – and Pepper slid her arm through Tony's as they turned toward their own rooms.

"Anything I need to know about?"

"Spiderman made an appearance somewhere where Flash saw him, but when he ran to tell the others on the team, Peter was already there."

"Nothing happened while he was patrolling?"

"Nope. He helped change a tire."

"What a guy."

"Yes." Tony was in a good mood. It was always nice to come home and having Peter to himself on the drive was a good way to reconnect with the boy. "Oh. And you will be happy to know that Ned can't pull ironman out of his ass."

She rolled her eyes but didn't even ask what had brought that particular tidbit of information up.

OOOOOOOOOO

"What are you working on?" Peter asked, greeting Wong with a nod and then smiling when the cloak of levitation came soaring into the room and draped itself on his shoulder.

"We picked up a couple of artifacts from the London Sanctum," Strange told him. "One we're pretty sure we know what it is, and the other Jorgan said that he found in an obscure vault that no one has looked in for maybe centuries."

They were always finding the truly interesting things in the sanctums in London and – especially – China. Those were the oldest of the ones on Earth and had the most history.

"We don't want you to touch it," Wong told him, seriously. "But we have no idea what it is, and we'd like you to at least give us an idea of its nature."

The boy smiled, pleased to be useful – and always willing.

"Yeah. Of course. Now?"

"Let's go to the library," Stephen suggested.

Not only would there be room for what they wanted to do, but the library was well shielded – just in case anything went wrong.

OOOOOOOOOO

Peter found his kitten, easily. Nutmeg had commandeered the boy's bed and was sleeping on the pillow. He opened an eye when Peter walked into the room, and the stood up, stretching, mightily, and then yawning. Peter smiled and walked over, sitting on the bed and picking the cat up.

Nutmeg was still a little guy, but he was beginning to lose a little of the baby fuzziness, finally – although he still hadn't grown much, and weighed very little, considering he held a pocket dimension inside his gullet.

"I hear you've been a bad boy," Peter crooned, cuddling his kitten and smiling when he started purring.

"He took Pepper's watch," Karen said, more than willing to tattle on the little creature. "It is under one of the bookshelves in the lounge."

"With Clint's arrowheads?"

"That is a good assumption," she agreed. "I have video footage of the watch being dragged along the corridor," the AI added. "But not where he took it from."

Peter knew that there weren't any cameras in Tony and Pepper's quarters, either.

"Well, I'll go see what I find in the lounge. Thanks."

He set his kitten back on the bed and stood up, but Nutmeg followed him as he left his quarters.

OOOOOOOOO

When Stephen Strange walked into the lounge, he stopped at the entrance and frowned.

"Do I even want to know what you're doing?"

Peter was flat on the floor on his stomach, sprawled next to one of the bookshelves that lined the wall with one arm in the small space between the floor and the . They held everything from reference books, to novels and paperbacks, as well as many of the boardgames, cards, and puzzles that the people at the compound amused themselves with during their downtime. Nutmeg was sitting on the boy's rear, contentedly kneading the denim of Peter's jeans while was supervising, and Jack was stretched out beside Peter, clearly trying to help – even though he didn't know what they were doing.

Beside the boy's arm was a small stack of items; two arrowheads, a necklace, several dominoes, a white chess pawn and what looked suspiciously like a bullet.

Strange took a photo, knowing that the others would be interested.

Peter didn't even look up, intent on his mission and trying to keep Jack's wet nose away from his face.

"I'm trying to find Pepper's watch."

"Did you look on her wrist?" the sorcerer asked, amused.

"Cute." Peter was amused, though, and Stephen could tell. "Karen told me Nutmeg put it under here."

"What did Nutmeg say?"

"He's a cat," Peter reminded him, pushing himself a little closer to the shelf. "He'll say he's innocent and will just blame Jack."

"What is he doing?"

The odd conversation was interrupted by Natasha walking into the room with Tony and Pepper. Strange looked over at them, and smirked.

"He told me that he's looking for-"

"Got it," Peter interrupted, his body twisting around so he could pull his hand out from under the shelving unit.

He rolled over, displacing Nutmeg who hopped off, gracefully, and wandered over to his cat tree. In his hand was a woman's watch, and Pepper smiled, reaching down to take it from him.

"Thank you."

Peter smiled.

"You're welcome." He looked at the pile of trinkets and other things that he'd brought out from under the shelf. "I'll go take Clint his arrows and see if I can figure out where the rest of this goes."

Romanoff reached down and picked up the bullet.

"I'll take care of that."

"Then come eat," Tony said."

"I will."

Peter gathered it all up and got to his feet.

"And wash your hands," Pepper added as he headed for the door.

"I will."