"Now?"
Tony smirked, amused at the uncertainty in his son's expression.
"No time like the present. You don't have any homework, right?"
"No. It's done."
"Good. So we make your cake and we can have it for dessert, tonight."
"And if we burn the place down then I'm sleeping in a tent in the field…"
Stark snickered.
"You and me, both."
Peter had spent the majority of his day, thus far, in something of a daze. The conversation that he'd had with the… whatever, or whoever it was, had run through his mind several times as he tried to figure out how he was going to be able to concentrate on something – and what he was supposed to concentrate on – to get Pete back to his own reality when the spell was cast.
Alec, luckily, had been much calmer about things, and had finally stepped in (mentally, of course) and had stopped Peter's worrying before it could form even the slightest hint of being any kind of panic attack.
"You're going to be fine," the ancient sorcerer had assured him. "If nothing else, you'll focus on returning Pete to May. His May. That right there should be more than easy for you to focus on, right?"
Peter had nodded, and luckily no one was around to see it.
"Yeah. That's true." He could concentrate on May. "You didn't know that guy?"
"No. I don't even have a theory on who he could be – or even if it was a he, for that matter."
"He looked human. Kind of."
"He looked that way to keep you from freaking out on him," Alec told him.
"You think so?"
"I'm sure of it. It won't do you any good to speculate on him," he added. "So better to put the conversation to the said, for now, and take care of things in the here and now. Before you fail another test."
This last was said with enough amusement that Peter rolled his eyes, and leaned back against the leather of the chair he was sitting in. Pepper wasn't in her office – she had a meeting – but he was, and he was munching on one of the donuts that he'd brought back with him. Several more of them were in the meeting with Pepper and the VPs who were with her.
"I'll take the make up test when we come back from Thanksgiving break."
He wasn't worried – although he noticed that Pepper had given him a couple of worried looks.
"Because she recognized that you're distracted, and that makes her concerned. Don't be surprised if Tony pulls you aside tonight to sound you out about being anxious about anything."
Peter didn't doubt that, because it was definitely something that Tony would do. It was something that all of them would do, really, but they would defer to Tony to give it the first try.
"I'm fine," he said, deciding that it was even true. He was over the shock, now. It was amazing what someone could get used to, wasn't it? "I'll play it cool. He'll see there's nothing to worry about – and then he can reassure Pepper."
"Good. Although you can do that, too."
"How?"
"By not acting like a spaz when she comes back from her meeting."
Peter actually snorted aloud.
"I'm not acting like a spaz."
"When's the last time you bombed a math test? Or any test?"
"Fine."
He felt Alec's amusement and it made him smile, too. Then he shoved the rest of his donut in his mouth and turned on the display. He had some other work that he could use his time with, rather than sitting around brooding.
True to his word, when the meeting was over and Pepper was back in her office, Peter had spent some time asking her about it, and just having some him and Pepper time – which was something that he was going to miss when he was done with the whole homeschooling thing.
They'd have to find something else that they could spend time doing, he decided. He'd ask her, later, what she might suggest – or maybe ask Tony. Once they got Pete back where he belonged. She looked less concerned as the rest of their day at the tower had finished up, and the conversation in the car on the way home was spent discussing what they were going to do for Thanksgiving break since the tower was effectively going to be closed for the holiday.
They'd pulled into the compound, and Tony had been in the garage to meet them, lounging against Peter's Pontiac while he waited. He'd kissed Pepper, and smiled at Peter, and had then told the boy to meet him in the lounge kitchen in fifteen minutes. Before Peter could ask him why, the billionaire had put an arm around Pepper and had walked off.
Alec had been amused, though, so Peter hadn't been worried about it – right up until Tony had met him in the kitchen and had told him what they were going to be doing.
"You understand this is a from scratch cake, right?" Peter asked Tony, looking at the box of cake mix that had been waiting on the stainless steel prep table in the kitchen. "Not from a box."
The billionaire hadn't, it was obvious, but he shrugged.
"How hard can it be?" He was carrying his tablet, and set it on the table, propping it against the box. "Friday can tell us what we need, and what to do…"
"Or… we could have one of the cooks show us…"
Tony smiled, pleased that he didn't see any sign of concern in Peter's demeanor. No concern about other things, anyway. There may have been a little trepidation about the cake baking assignment. He was even more relieved that Pepper hadn't seen any the latter part of their day, together, so maybe whatever it was that had been bothering him was something that Peter had managed to figure out on his own.
Or maybe it hadn't been too serious.
"Where's the fun in that, Peter?" Tony rolled up the sleeves of the shirt he was wearing, and reached for one of the two aprons that had been on the table. His was maroon, while the one that he'd left for Peter had been light green and yellow and spotted with boldly printed daffodils. "Come on. We're not going to burn anything down. This place has a pretty good fire repression system."
Peter shook his head, but he reached for the apron, rolling his eyes at the way Tony immediately pulled his phone and took a picture of him the moment he had it on.
"If you say so."
"Oh, I do."
OOOOOOOO
"Nope."
"Awww… please?"
"No. Now stop asking."
"Peter has one."
"I'm aware."
"I'd look so cool. Just a little one?"
"No."
"It'd be on my chest, like his. And I'd never take my shirt off. May wouldn't even know."
"She'd know."
Pete wasn't ready to give up.
"I'll do whatever you want. Clean the whole place top to bottom."
"The place is already clean, and – presumably – you'll be gone before it gets too dirty, again."
"Please, Pepper…"
She was startled to find herself actually wavering. Peter didn't beg, very often – he seldom found anything that he wanted so badly that he needed to – and if he did want something Tony or one of the others would get it for him. Usually before Pepper could. Pete was exactly like the boy she loved so much, even though she knew that - technically - he wasn't the same kid. He was close enough.
"I can't let you have a tattoo, honey," she told him. "It wouldn't be right. And what would Tony say…?"
Pete jumped on the opening.
"He said he was fine with it if you said it was okay."
She frowned.
"He did?"
Of course, he did, she thought, even as she asked.
"Yeah." Pete's eyes were big, and hopeful, and excited. "Not a big one," he said, again. "Maybe like Peter's. His is great, and it's perfect for me, being Spider-man and all, right?"
"But you aren't an Avenger."
Peter's had the Avenger A on it, after all.
"If I had an Avenger tattoo it might make it easier for me to convince them when I finally meet them."
Pepper shook her head at that.
"No. It would probably come across as presumptuous."
"Something else, then," Pete said. "Something with the web, just not the A." His eyes were impossibly large and guileless by then. "Please?
Ugh.
"Let me think about it."