"Sure you don't want to come?"
"Yes. Have fun."
Tony slung Peter's backpack over his shoulder, and offered the boy his free hand – which was accepted, immediately.
"Party starts at three," he said. "Unless the movers screwed up. Then it starts, earlier, so everyone can help us move things around as needed."
"I'll see you guys there," Pepper replied. She was coming early, to help get it all organized. "Good luck."
They left her apartment, reclaimed the SUV from the parking garage and then drove to their new place.
"What's your address?" Tony asked Peter as they pulled into the gated driveway that began closing behind them, immediately.
The boy dutifully spouted off the new address, and smiled at Tony's pleased nod.
"I memorized it the first time," Peter pointed out, unnecessarily.
"I know you did, buddy," Tony told him. "But I need to make sure. What if you go for a walk, or something, and you get turned around and have to ask a police officer? Or a neighbor?"
Of course, that implied that Tony had any intention of letting Peter wander around the neighborhood unchaperoned – and that wasn't going to happen any time soon.
"If I get lost, I just wait for you to come find me," Peter reminded him. "You would."
"Damn right I would," the billionaire agreed. The garage door opened, and he drove into the spacious attached building, turning off the ignition and looking at the boy. "Ready to see how they did?"
Peter's eyes were bright with excitement.
"Yeah."
They walked into the kitchen, first, since it had the connecting door to the garage, and Peter stopped at the island, looking around. The coffee pot and the toaster were exactly where they were supposed to be, as was the wood knife block. Tony picked the boy up and set him on the island, even though his special barstool was in the spot Peter had requested that it end up.
"Pay attention, now," Tony said, moving toward the cupboards and opening them one by one, allowing Peter to see what he was looking at. It wasn't exactly the same as the apartment, of course, since there were more cupboards in the house, and they weren't in the same locations as before, but the dishes and everything were where they expected them to be, and so were the pots and pans and all the dry foodstuffs. "Are we missing anything?" he asked, finally.
Peter shook his head.
"Looks perfect."
"Yeah, it does." Tony opened the fridge and was pleased to find everything was fairly close to where it had been in the apartment's fridge, too. "Pretty impressive, huh?"
"Yeah."
"Come here," Stark said, picking the boy up and setting him on his feet. "Go check your room and your bathroom. Make sure your toothbrush is where it should be."
He watched as Peter left, and then looked around the living room.
"JARVIS? How does it look?"
"Domestic."
Tony smiled.
"Yes, it does, doesn't it?"
"Your room was unpacked."
"Good."
He went to check it out, but heard an excited noise coming from Peter's room and turned to investigate that, instead. And found the boy standing by his bed, admiring a huge gift basket that had been left on the stand next to it. It was wrapped in cellophane with a bow, but Tony could see that it was filled with candy, fruit, chips and other snacks – as well as little toys of all sorts.
"Look!" Peter said, excitedly. "Did you do it?"
"Nope." He plucked the card that Peter must not have noticed was under the bow. "Congratulations, Nick."
"Wow…"
Tony smiled.
"Pretty nice of him."
"Yeah." Peter hugged himself. "Did you get one, too?"
"You don't think that's for both of us?"
"It has toys in it," Peter pointed out. "Little kid toys, not adult toys."
Tony wished there were another grownup around, just then, so he could make the comment that immediately came to mind. A comment that would have been hilarious, wildly inappropriate, and would have gone completely over Peter's head – fortunately.
"We'll have to ask Nick why he didn't get me any adult toys," he said, instead.
"There is another basket in your room," JARVIS said, helpfully. "I believe it is more age-appropriate for your tastes."
"Sweet."
"Let's go look," Peter said, eyes excited.
"Not, yet," Tony told him. "I want to show you something, first."
The boy looked at him, expectantly, and was surprised when the man walked over to the wall, where there was a framed poster of Batman hanging.
Tony had rolled his eyes when Peter had chosen it a few days before, but Natasha had been the one to point out to the billionaire that Peter didn't need a bunch of pictures of Ironman and the Avengers on his walls. He had the real Tony Stark in his home with him. Could hug him and talk to him any time. Batman was fantasy, but Ironman was reality. There was no doubt in her mind who Peter preferred to be with.
"What is it?" Peter asked, curiously, when Tony suddenly reached up and took the picture down. There was an almost unnoticeable crease in the wall behind it "Wow! Is that a safe?"
Tony smiled as he opened it.
"It is. And it's yours."
"Cool." He looked confused, though. "What for?"
"I know that you're afraid of losing the things in your backpack, but you don't have to be," Stark told him. "It'll fit in here, with room left over, and no one can get to it – even if they knew where to look."
"The safe is electronically coded," JARVIS added. "It can only be opened by me, and I won't let anyone into it."
Peter's eyes grew wide. Now they weren't excited, though. They were awed, and a little uncertain. Almost afraid, but not quite.
"It's solid," Tony told him, gently. "And completely protected. Even if the whole house burned down – heaven forbid – the safe will still be there, and all of your things would be fine. You don't have to use it," he added. "But this is your house, too, and I promise you, you'll never have to move again and you'll never have to worry about losing your things."
The first tear fell, then, and Tony reached down and picked Peter up, making a soothing noise when the boy sniffed and tucked his face into the billionaire's neck.
"Thank you."
"You're welcome," he murmured, rubbing Peter's back, soothingly, pleased with himself for thinking of the addition and the surprise that it had been for his boy. "You like it?"
"Yes. You're the best dad, ever."
Now it was Tony who sniffed, and he couldn't help that his hold on Peter tightened, a little. They were quiet for a long moment, just being with each other, and then Tony kissed his cheek.
"Let's go look at the rest of the house. Just to make sure they got it right."
"Let's go see what Nick got you," Peter suggested as Tony put him down.
"Good idea."
OOOOOOOOOO
It turned out to be a basket of snacks – peanuts, mixed nuts, and trail mix – and several little bottles of booze, all surrounding one very expensive bottle of scotch. Peter watched with interest as Tony opened it, sitting on the man's bed beside him.
"No toys?" He asked when Tony had pulled the last bag of nuts from the basket.
He started to say no, but then gave a soft snort of amusement when he found a small box with a little Lego Tony Stark and an even littler unnamed boy that just so happened to look exactly like Peter.
"Look at this."
"Wow! Is that us?"
"It looks like us, doesn't it?"
"Yeah."
Stark smiled, and put the two in his pocket.
"I might need to get a safe, too."
He'd have to remember to thank Fury when he saw him. Peter, with typical limited attention span, turned to the rest of the items pulled from the basket.
"Are those little bottles the kid-sized ones?"
Stark frowned, looking over at him.
"You're not old enough to drink. Not even close."
"They have non-alcoholic beer, though, right? One of May's boyfriends was always talking about it. May let me have a sip of her beer, once." He made a face. "It wasn't very good."
Tony held up one of the little bottles of vodka.
"This stuff is a lot worse, and I don't want you anywhere near it. Understand?"
Peter nodded.
"I won't. I promise."
"Good." He put it all back in the basket and stood up. "Let's go check the rest of the house."
"Okay."
They walked through the house, which was much more spacious than the apartment had been – and had several more rooms. Because of that, they didn't have all the furniture that they would need, but Tony (after consulting Peter) had decided that he wouldn't order more furniture until he knew what they'd need. As a consequence, the game room that was off of the family room didn't have anything in it, yet – although there would eventually be an impressive array of pinball machines, arcade machines and a pool table. As well as a large flat screen display on the wall for video games, or watching sports.
The work room that was next to his den had a large drafting table, as well as another table designed for building. This room had a security lock on it that Tony palmed on his way in. The lock wasn't to keep Peter out, he told the boy, but it would make sure that no one who might be there for parties, or other social events that they couldn't get out of would manage to sneak in and see what Tony was working on,
There was a real dining room, and a sunroom, and a back porch. A small building next to the pool would house barbeque items, and pool toys and whatever else they needed, but since it was winter, it was empty, for now. Two guest bedrooms that would need furnishing before they were usable and a bathroom.
"It looks a little empty," Tony said as they walked back into the living room.
"I like it, though," Peter said, loyally.
"Yeah, me too." He smiled at the boy. "Are you ready to eat?"
"Yes."
"What do a couple of single guys with a fancy new house eat for their first meal in said house?" Tony asked his son as they walked into the kitchen and Peter climbed up onto his special bar stool.
"French toast?"
"Sounds about right."
While Tony made them their dinner, they talked about the housewarming party that they were having the next day. Not that they had anything to plan; Pepper and Steve were doing all the planning and spearheading it. Peter and Tony only had to show up. And since it was going to be at their house, that wasn't so difficult to do. It was still going to be their job to entertain, though, Tony reminded Peter, since it was their home.
That made the boy feel warm inside in a rush of something that was like excitement, but so much more profound he couldn't even describe it to himself. He had a home, again. A place where he was going to be able to call his. His own room, with all his own things and even a safe if he wanted to put his stuff in it to make sure it was always there when he wanted it.
It was amazing to him.
Tony smiled, looking over at the boy as he pulled the griddle out.
"What are you thinking?" he asked, tenderly. "You look like you're a million miles away, suddenly."
"I was thinking that pretty I'm lucky."
"Yeah? How come?"
"Because I have you."
With his hands full, Tony couldn't reach out and hug him like he suddenly wanted to. His expression softened, though, and his eyes stung with unshed tears.
"You're killing me, Peter," he said, leaning over and pressing his cheek against the boy's for just a moment, the griddle still in his hands. "You know that?"
He smiled, though, to show him that it was a good kind of killing, and Peter smiled back, rescuing the eggs that threatened to roll off the griddle.
"I know."
Tony snorted, amused, and set the griddle down, taking the eggs from the boy.
"Why don't you go get ready for bed?" he suggested. "Then we'll eat and watch a movie."
It wasn't a school night, but Peter hadn't really been on much of a schedule the last couple of weeks, and he wanted to start getting the boy ready to go to bed at a decent hour, again, and into a night-time routine, since he'd be going back to school Monday.
"Okay."
The boy climbed down the stool and started toward his room. Tony watched him go, and he smiled, again.
He was pretty lucky, too.