"He didn't last long, did he?"

Tony shook his head, looking at the sleeping boy.

"I'm not too surprised. He's pretty worn out, still, from being sick."

Pepper smiled.

"You guys all look tired, too."

"Because taking care of a sick little kid is exhausting."

"Part of the learning experience, though, I imagine."

"Yeah." He shrugged. Looking around the lounge, but everyone had cleared out, now that the ball had dropped, and the new year had been properly acknowledged. He and Pepper were alone with Peter, who was in Tony's embrace, sound asleep. "It ruined the trip to Disney, though."

"Why? You can still go."

"He starts school, again, in a few days. And he's still not completely over being sick, so we can't go, now."

"He's pretty smart, though," she pointed out. "Maybe take him out of classes for a few days and go. You two should spend some time together that doesn't involve getting sneezed on."

Tony hesitated, but he didn't say no, immediately. It wasn't a terrible idea, after all. Peter could miss a few days – or even a week – of school. There was going to be a fair amount of initial disruption, anyway, really, once it became common knowledge that Tony had adopted him over the Christmas vacation. And since his name was going to be changed to Stark, there wasn't any way to conceal that fact.

"I'll talk to him about it in the morning."

She smiled.

"You do that. You could use a vacation, too."

"Funny you say that," he said. "I was thinking that you could, as well."

"If you're gone, that's a vacation in itself," Pepper told him, smiling to soften what might have been considered harsh – despite being true.

Although with the addition of Peter in Tony's life, things had definitely become a lot easier for the PR (and HR) people. Which made things much easier for Pepper. The guy was practically human, now – and as far as she knew, there hadn't even been a single party, or any overnight female visitors.

"You could come with us."

"To Disneyland?"

"Have you ever been?"

"When I was a girl."

"It's probably changed a bit, since then. What do you think?"

"I think you should have some vacation with just your son."

The phrasing made Tony smile down at the sleeping boy, again, before he shrugged.

"I think he'd love for you to come. Besides, I could use some help keeping an eye on him."

"The others aren't going to be invited?"

"Could you imagine the craziness that would ensue if the Avengers were to show up at Disney? The place would be a madhouse, and we wouldn't be able to do anything without people swarming us."

"And the presence of Ironman isn't going to cause a scene?"

"If I do it right, no one will even know I am there."

"Yeah?"

"People won't notice me. I'll be in jeans, and holding hands with a little kid. We'll look like everyone else there."

"Until you tell them your name when you check in at the hotel."

"As Tony Parker, you mean?"

"Seriously?"

"Why not? He's taking my name, it's only fair I use his." He smirked. "Want to be Mrs. Parker for a week?"

She rolled her eyes.

"I have a business to run. Your business."

"You have vice presidents and assistants, right?"

"Yes."

"There you go. Let them run it for a week."

"I-"

"I'll have Peter ask you in the morning."

She wasn't driving home as late as it was, and had already accepted an invitation to use one of the guest rooms. It was one of the reasons she wasn't in any hurry to leave, and was more than willing to socialize for a while rather than go to bed.

"That isn't fair."

The billionaire didn't look at all repentant.

"Well?"

"I'll think about it."

"Good. You can let me know in the morning." He shifted his grip on the boy so he could stand up. "Now, you can help me put him to bed."

It was a pain in the ass to try and pull back blankets and hold him, after all.

She smiled, and stood up, too.

"Can I carry him?"

"Sure."

He handed Peter over, and the boy roused at the transfer, his little body tensing.

"It's morning?" he asked, sleepily.

"No, honey," Pepper said, softly. "Go back to sleep."

He rested his cheek on her shoulder, his nose pressed against the side of her neck and sighed, lightly, and did what he was told.

Tony smiled.

"See? Easy peasy."

She shook her head.

If it were that easy, he wouldn't look so tired, now would he?

OOOOOOOO

"You'll never win, Darth Vader… the avengers will find you."

"But when they do, I'll use the force on them…"

"It won't work on them."

"It works on everyone. Even Ironman."

"What are you doing up?"

Startled, Peter looked up at Tony. He was in the lounge, sitting at the little table that was so perfectly sized for him. In one hand he was holding the Lego Ironman, and in the other he had a Lego Darth Vader. They were clearly at odds with each other.

Tony was looking at him, expectantly.

"I was just playing…" Peter replied.

"You're supposed to be sleeping."

They'd put him to bed only a few hours, before, and he'd been sleeping soundly enough that Tony had expected him to still be asleep the next morning when breakfast time rolled around. Instead, the billionaire had been woken by JARVIS advising him that Peter was not only awake, but that the boy was in the lounge.

Since there hadn't been any urgency in the alert, Stark didn't rush to the room to save Peter. He stopped long enough to put a shirt on, and some slippers, and then had gone looking for his boy.

"I woke up."

"I see." Tony reached down and brushed the back of his hand against Peter's forehead, feeling for a fever, and relieved when he didn't find one. "How do you feel?"

"Okay. Not sleepy."

"No?"

Peter shook his head.

"No."

"Well, that's understandable, I suppose. You've been sleeping a lot, lately. But I don't want you up all night, because then you'll be too tired to do anything with us, tomorrow. When you were sick, you would just fall asleep at any time, but you're not going to want to be awake at night and sleepy in the day, now that you're feeling better."

"Oh." He thought about it. "I'm still not sleepy, though."

Tony smiled at that.

"Then come talk to me for a minute, okay?"

"Okay."

Tony waited for Peter to set the Lego figures down, and then he picked the boy up and carried him over to the sofa, sitting down and bringing Peter to his lap. It was pretty much automatic, now, after days of cuddling him when he didn't feel well.

"I was talking to Pepper…" he said, hooking the coffee table with his foot and pulling it closer so that he could put his feet against it, lifting his knees to allow Peter to lean back against his bent legs and look at him. "I told her that I was thinking about taking next week off from working."

"Can you do that?" Peter asked. "You stayed away this week, too."

He knew that Tony had been present almost every time he'd woken up and asked for him while he hadn't been feeling good.

"It's my company," Tony reminded him. "Of course I can. But… I was thinking that maybe you would want to take next week off from school, too."

"Why?"

"Because you got sick and we couldn't go to Disney this week like we talked about, and I still want to go. We need some time to get the school ready for you to be Peter Stark, anyway, and to get some additional security into place. So it'd be a good time to do it – and nobody does anything really important right after the holiday, so you probably wouldn't miss much."

"Oh."

"Are you interested?"

Peter nodded, smiling.

"It would be fun."

"I think so, too." He echoed Peter's smile. "You know what else might be fun?"

"What?"

"If we invited Pepper to come, too."

"Yeah?"

"The others are going to be busy doing Avengers stuff, and can't go, but Pepper could get away. We just need to make sure she understands that she's invited and that we really want her to come with us. What do you think?"

"I'd like that."

"Maybe we'll bring it up, then, tomorrow. Before she heads home."

"Okay."

Tony smiled, reaching out and tapping Peter, tenderly, on his nose – making the little boy smile.

"But… in order for you to do that, you need to be awake, tomorrow. Which means…?"

He waited, expectantly, and Peter shrugged.

"What?"

"That you need to go to sleep, tonight."

Peter groaned, theatrically, and Tony shifted him in his lap with a soft chuckle. He put his arms around Peter, and recognizing the invitation, the youngster cuddled against Tony's chest, sighing, when he felt those strong arms come around him and hold him.

"Maybe I could try…" he conceded, pressing his cheek on Tony's collarbone.

"Yeah."

He'd hold him, quietly, until the boy was lulled back to sleep. Then he'd put him to bed for a few more hours, at least.