"Why do you look so worried?"

Tony scowled, looking at Pepper, who had walked into his office a moment before to discuss some paperwork she was dealing with for an upcoming meeting. Something that held absolutely no interest to him at the best of times, but was definitely on a back burner, at the moment.

"I'm not worried. I'm anxious."

It was her turn to frown.

"It's the same thing, Tony."

"Worried implies that I'm afraid. Anxious is more that I'm nervous…"

"Fine." She hated it when he was an insufferable know it all – and she was pretty sure, despite his speech, that the words were interchangeable. "Why are you anxious?"

"Peter has a test, today."

"So?" She hadn't heard any complaining from the man about the boy for almost a month, now, and was definitely pleased at Stark's personal approval ratings. Not that they publicized Tony being Peter's mentor (they would if he was an adult, but they weren't going to give the press a reason to harass the child) but he'd been a bit under the radar, lately, and she hadn't heard anything from HR in weeks. Her public relations teams were even beginning to take a breath. Either spending time with Peter was mellowing him (unlikely) or it was wearing him out, and she liked that. "He's had tests, before, presumably."

"Not important ones," Tony said, leaning forward a little in his enthusiasm. "It's a placement test – to see if his engineering abilities are equal to his math skills."

"And…?"

She didn't understand why that would matter – and she didn't bother to hide it.

He rolled his eyes.

"If he can keep up in both, then he can be placed in the pre-college classes."

"Pre-college? Tony, he's eight. He's too little for college. For that matter, he's too little for high school."

Stark nodded.

"And yet, he makes most of the other kids in his classes look like imbeciles."

Pepper frowned. And then her eyes narrowed, and a slightly amused, slightly awed smile creased her face.

"You like him."

"What? No." The denial was automatic. "I just want to see him prove to everyone just how much better he is than they are."

"Bullshit." Her expression was pleased. "You care about him."

He scowled, but then he shrugged.

"Yeah. A little."

"A lot?"

"No." Another shrug. "Maybe."

Before she could reply, there was a shuffling at the door. Peter had long since been told that he didn't need to knock, but had been taught that it was polite to announce your entrance to avoid startling people. As such, he tended to make a little more noise than was actually necessary when he entered the office. Tony stood just as the door opened, and the billionaire came around to the other side of the desk to stand beside Pepper.

"Well?" He asked without preamble as Peter walked across the room and dropped his backpack on the floor beside the little desk. "How did it go?"

Peter grinned.

"I passed."

Tony made a triumphant noise that surprised Pepper, but not nearly as much as he did when he swept Peter up in his arms and hugged him, tightly.

"Good job! I knew you could do it."

"I was pretty anxious…" Peter told him, hugging him, happily – relieved. "But I got a 92%."

"What did you miss?" Tony asked, squeezing him for just a moment and then letting him back to his feet. "Was it the one about Bazien statistics? I knew we should have worked on that, more."

Peter shook his head, still grinning, a mixture of relief and happiness.

"I don't know, yet. They haven't returned the tests." He looked at Pepper. "Hi, Miss Potts."

"Hello, Peter. Congratulations."

"Thank you."

Pepper turned to Tony.

"Are you boys going to celebrate?"

"We should," Stark said, looking at the youngster. "Ice cream?"

Peter nodded.

"Yeah."

She frowned.

"Seriously? That's it? Ice cream?"

Two sets of brown eyes turned toward her, confused.

"You don't think we should have ice cream?" Tony asked.

"How long have you been working on this…?"

"Weeks." He ruffled Peter's hair, cheerfully. "And he's been staying late, a few times, if it was something that he didn't get."

"And you're just going to celebrate with ice cream?" Pepper asked, pointedly.

Stark smirked, and gave the boy a sly look.

"I suppose we could do something a little more exciting…" he said, casually.

"Like what?"

"Well… I need to go out to the compound, tomorrow. What if I asked Eric if I could take you with me? Do you think he'd allow it? Maybe do an overnight?"

Peter's eyes widened.

"Really?"

"If you're interested…"

"Wow." His normally serious face had already been cheerful, flush with his success on the test. Now it was so excited that Pepper chuckled. "Can I call and ask?"

"No. I'll call him," Tony said. "That way I can set up when I am coming to get you and when he'd expect us to be back. Maybe Pepper will take you for an ice cream in the executive dining room while I make the call…"

He looked at her, expectantly and she almost refused, until Peter turned hopeful eyes on her. Big, brown and adorable hopeful brown eyes. She smiled, and offered him her hand.

"I think we could do that."

"Thank you."

Pepper looked at Stark.

"We'll be in the dining room. Come find us when you're done."

"I will," he promised, reaching for his phone. "Then we can make some plans."

Besides, he needed permission from more than just Peter's foster dad to take the boy to the compound. There were, after all, Avengers to consider, too.

OOOOOOO

"Wait… you want to bring him out to the compound?"

"Not permanently," Stark said with a shrug. "But for the day – maybe even overnight. As a special treat."

"We're not an attraction, Tony."

"I know, Nick. It's one kid, and he isn't very big. You're not even going to be there, this weekend, so you won't even know he was there."

Which was true, since Fury had to go to Houston. The director of SHIELD didn't look mollified, though. Even on the display, Tony could see that he didn't like the idea.

"And if something comes up…?"

"An Avenger something, you mean?"

"Yes. Then what?"

"Then we take him with us and hand him a gun and a rocket pack." Tony rolled his eyes. "What do you mean, what then? Then he goes home, obviously. Happy can take him, and make sure he's delivered back, safely."

The sarcasm wasn't appreciated, but it was also somewhat expected. Fury scowled.

"If he breaks anything, you're paying for it."

"I paid for everything out there, already, as I recall," Stark pointed out. "It's just a favor, Nick. I don't ask for them very often."

That much was true. Of course, there were very few things Tony Stark wanted or needed that the Avengers could give him. A benefit of being crazy wealthy.

The other man sighed, and then shrugged.

"Fine. Bring him out. I'll let Steve know."

"Thank you."

"Don't make me regret this."

"You won't."

Fury ended the call without a word – although his expression was still uncertain – and Tony smiled, pleased.

This was going to be great. He couldn't wait to see Peter's excited expression when he told him it was all set.

It was much better than ice cream.