"Everything alright?"

"Yeah. It's going well. I don't know what you guys are looking at down south, but we've got some weather, here, and I was wondering if you'd be alright with me keeping him another night? I don't want to drive in the rain if I can avoid the risk of having a tree come down at a bad time."

"Peter's okay with that?"

"I haven't asked him, yet," Tony admitted. "In case you said no, I didn't want him to be disappointed."

There was a slight pause, and a muffled conversation – as if the man had put his hand over the receiver and was talking to someone. Which was confirmed a moment later when Eric came back on the phone.

"Is he going to miss school?"

"Yeah, probably."

"I'll call and let them know. It won't hurt him to miss a day or two, really. As long as he's not going to be in your way."

"No, he's great."

"Let me know if you need me to come out and get him, or something. Otherwise we'll expect you sometime tomorrow."

"Tomorrow evening," Tony confirmed. "I'll call you, first, to avoid inconveniencing you."

OOOOOOO

Peter was sitting on the books on the chair, talking to Sam and Rhodes when Tony walked into the lounge with Steve and Natasha. The little boy was holding a carrot that someone had obviously mooched from the kitchen for him, and he smiled at the newcomers when they walked over to the table.

"Where did you get that?" Tony asked him, shaking his head when the boy offered him a bite.

"Sam got it for me."

"Don't spoil your dinner."

Rhodey rolled his eyes.

"It's a carrot, Tony." The man had a lot to learn about kids and nutrition, obviously. "I think he'll be fine."

"We saved you a spot," Peter told him, pointing at a chair beside him.

"Thanks." He settled into it, looking at the boy. "What would you think about maybe staying over another night, here?"

Peter's eyes widened.

"Tonight?"

"Yeah. I mean, it's raining pretty hard, and we were thinking that maybe we could use that as an excuse to keep you another day. If you want to, that is?"

"Eric said it's okay?"

"Yup. Interested?"

"Yeah. Wow."

Tony wasn't the only one to smile at the awe in Peter's voice.

"Good."

"Clint and I are going to steal you after dinner, though," Natasha told him. "Tony has to call and let everyone know that he's not going to work, tomorrow, so you'll hang out with us. Yeah?"

"Okay." The boy looked at Tony. "I have school, tomorrow."

"Eric said it's alright if you miss a day. He's going to call and let them know."

"Wow."

Clint grinned.

"You say that a lot."

That made Peter blush, but Tony was pleased when the boy's arms wrapped around himself, carrot and all, and he hugged himself, excitedly. He reached out and tousled Peter's curls.

"I'm going to go see what's for dinner. Keep these guys out of trouble for me."

"Okay."

OOOOOOOOO

Rhodes had to leave when they were done eating dinner. He had several errands that he needed to run the next day, rain or not, and he had a meeting that he couldn't miss. He said goodbye to Peter, hugging the little boy, affectionately, and promised to see him, again, even if it meant that he'd have to kidnap him from Tony. Peter had smiled, looking so pleased that it had made the others smile, too.

"I'll walk you out," Tony told Rhodes. He looked at the little boy. "You're going to hang out with Natasha for a while, alright? I need to go make my phone calls."

"Okay."

Stark looked at Romanoff.

"If you need anything, call me."

"We're going to the gym," she told the billionaire.

Tony did walk out with Rhodes, thanking him for the help with distracting Peter, and promising that he'd see him sometime in the next week or two. Then he went to his workroom, but he didn't even slow down when he entered, closing – and locking – the door behind him. Luckily, it hadn't taken long for maintenance to repair it.

"JARVIS, pull up the live feed for the gym."

"You're spying on Peter?"

"Yup. Since no one will tell me what's going on with him, I need to figure it out on my own."

There wasn't a reply, other than the closest display coming on. Tony settled on the stool that he normally used when he was tinkering, and watched with interest as Natasha walked into the gym with Peter, Sam and Clint all following.

OOOOOO

What are we doing in here?" Peter asked, curiously, looking around.

"We're going to experiment," Natasha said, looking at Peter when they'd reached the free weight section that many of the young SHIELD agents used to build themselves up. "If you're alright with that?"

"Oh." His eyes lit up, hopefully. "Yes. Of course."

"Lift this weight, Peter," Sam said, gesturing to a dumbbell.

The boy did as he was told, effortlessly. It wasn't very heavy, though.

"And this one…"

Peter went down the entire rack, lifting each weight as it was pointed out to him. The five pound one was no big deal, but Sam knew the ones on the end were a full 50 lbs. He watched Steve use them; he should know.

"Can you lift one in each arm…?" Clint asked, awed, but not making a big deal out of it, to avoid making Peter nervous.

He demonstrated that it wasn't a problem, and even lifted them above his head in an impressive display of strength in a little body that certainly shouldn't have that kind of power.

"Wow."

Natasha smirked at Clint.

"He's right about being strong."

"Yeah." Clint shook his head. "What else, Peter?" he asked, smiling at the boy, and looking for any sign of strain, but there wasn't any.

"What do you mean?"

"Can you do anything else? Super speed? Flying? Close your eyes and concentrate really hard and see if you can teleport my bow to me."

Peter smiled, and shook his head.

"I can't do any of those things," he assured them. "I mean, I've jumped into the air and came down, so I can't fly, and I'm pretty slow…" he was limited by his short legs and small stride, obviously. "And it's telekinesis, or psychokinesis, not teleporting that brings things to you."

Clint rolled his eyes when the others snorted their amusement and he grabbed the boy into his arms, turning him upside down, playfully.

"Nobody likes a smartass, buddy."

Peter giggled, twisting his little body around so he could look up at the adults.

"One time Kyle threw a sock at my head and I caught it. He called me freaky fast."

"We'll have to try that," Natasha said, as Clint turned Peter upright, once more, and set him on his feet.

"With baseballs?" Sam asked, winking at Peter.

"We'll figure something out." She poked Peter. "You're an amazing little guy. You know that?"

He looked up at her, eyes shining with happiness. And with relief. Someone else knew what he could do, and had seen it. He knew they had other things to do, of course, but he was excited that they might be willing to help him learn what he could do with it.

"Thanks."

Clint picked up a basketball and tossed it to Peter.

"Let's play some ball," he suggested.

The boy was a bundle of energy, and Tony would probably appreciate it if they wore him down a little before bedtime.

"Okay."