Pepper and Steve were the first to arrive, and they were there an hour earlier than the others were scheduled. They didn't catch Tony and Peter unaware, of course. Not with JARVIS being in complete control of the security cameras and the gate to the driveway. So when the sportscar pulled up to the front, followed by the dark SUV, Peter and Tony were at the door, waiting, and shivering just a little in the chilly afternoon air.

The little boy waited for the cars to come to a complete stop – mainly because Tony had taken a handful of the back of his sweatshirt to hold him in place until they did – and then he ran over to the sportscar, first, waiting impatiently while Pepper opened the door.

"Pepper!"

The cheerful greeting was irresistible, and she made a soft noise and hugged him, close.

"Hello, Peter. How are you?"

"Good." He hugged her, tightly, for a moment before releasing her. "We played Legos and went for a walk and I got to walk Trixie."

Pepper smiled down at Peter before looking at Tony, who had walked over to greet Steve, but had then joined Pepper and Peter, with Rogers beside him.

"Who's Trixie?" she asked, curiously. "Tell me it isn't a hooker."

Tony snorted, and the sound was echoed by Steve's amused chuckle.

"Trixie is the neighbor's dog," he told them both. "We were out walking and met them. Come inside and you can hear all about them while I'm not freezing my rear end off."

"We have some things to bring in," Steve said. He looked down at Peter, tousling his hair in greeting and making the boy smile up at him. "Come help me?"

"Yeah."

"A lot of things," Pepper added, looking pointedly at Tony. "We might need more help than Peter can provide."

The billionaire rolled his eyes, but it was a good-natured gesture.

"He's a pretty strong little guy."

Steve had already led the boy to the back of the SUV, and was opening it when Tony and Pepper joined them.

"Wow! You do have a lot of stuff," Peter said, excitedly.

"Well, how many housewarming parties do you think you're going to have in your lifetime?" Steve asked – although he privately agreed. The SUV was loaded with bags of food, and party favors and decorations. "We wanted to make sure we did it right."

"Is there a cake?" Stark asked, hopefully.

Pepper nodded.

"It's in my car."

They began gathering up the bags, and just as a way of testing him, Steve and Tony couldn't help but load Peter with several of them. Pepper frowned, but had to admit that the little boy wasn't even straining as Tony kept handing them to him, until he had several. Only the fact that his hands were too little to hold more kept him from taking all of them, most likely.

"That's amazing," Steve said, shaking his head as Peter headed for the front door of the house, following Pepper, who had a couple of bags, herself.

"Right?" Tony was just as impressed, of course. "He's an amazing little guy."

"And to think; you used to be afraid of him."

Stark rolled his eyes.

"I wasn't afraid of him," he corrected, reaching for a few of the remaining bags, but purposefully leaving the ones that looked heavy for Steve to deal with. "I was annoyed by him. There's a difference."

"Uh huh."

The men carried their load into the house and set it with the rest on the kitchen island, then Pepper sent Tony out to her car to get the cake, reminding him not to drop it, or he was going to have to go find another one on short notice.

"How do you like the place?" Pepper asked Peter, who had climbed up on his special bar chair to see what they'd brought with them. "Anything missing that you can think of and haven't told Tony?"

He smiled and shook his head.

"I like it," he assured her. "It's big, but Tony says we'll get used to it."

"You need some more furnishings," Steve told him.

"That's what Tony said, too."

"He's right," Pepper said. "And a play area out in the back yard, like the one Steve built you at the compound."

She looked at Rogers, pointedly, and he nodded, smiling good-naturedly.

"We could do that."

"Do what?" Tony asked, joining them, again, and now holding a large sheet cake that was cleverly shaped like a house.

It had white frosting and there was a house that looked similar to their new home, with the words Happy Housewarming in blue letters across the bottom.

"Your back yard is missing a jungle gym," Pepper replied. "Steve and you need to rectify that."

"It's winter, Pep," Tony reminded her. "He isn't going to need one until spring."

She didn't look convinced, but Peter nodded his agreement.

"Besides," Steve added. "If he has one here, he won't pester Tony to bring him to the compound to play with ours. We want him out there as much as possible."

That made Peter smile, happily.

"We'll take care of it when it thaws outside," Tony assured her.

"Can I help?" Peter asked.

"Of course."

He grinned.

"Want to see my new room, Steve?"

"Of course."

When the boy had led Steve away, excited to show Captain America his room, she turned to Tony as they started unpacking the food, first, to get the perishable items into the fridge.

"How'd he do the first night in the new place?" she asked, curiously.

Tony shook his head, smiling.

"He ended up in my bed with me," he told her. "Because the house makes funny noises."

This last was said with air quotes and it made Pepper smile, rather than be concerned.

"The realtor has to disclose if it's haunted, right?"

"I'd think so. JARVIS said it wasn't anything to worry about, so it's probably just that it's not as noisy, here, and the noises that he does hear are different and new to him."

She nodded. He'd clearly thought it out and it made sense.

"How did you sleep?"

"With Peter sprawled across me and his foot in my armpit."

That made Pepper smile, too.

"You guys probably looked adorable."

"I always look adorable," he pointed out.

She rolled her eyes.

"Since Peter took my helper, you can hang the banner."

He did as he was told, taking the decoration from her and allowing her to tell him where to hang it. He was used to taking orders from her, after all.

OOOOOO

"This is a pretty nice set up," Steve told the little boy, looking around the room with unfeigned interest. "It's pretty similar to your old room, right? Only bigger."

"A lot bigger," Peter agreed. "Look at this, though," he said, walking over to pick up his little chair from the table in the corner and carrying it over to the Batman poster and stepping up onto it so he could move the poster out of the way and reveal the safe. "It's a safe," he explained, looking at Steve, who moved to stand next to where he was still on the chair.

"Wow." He tugged on it. "I don't see a code pad, or a dial."

"Only JARVIS can open it. To keep my things safe."

"Are they in there, now?" Steve asked, looking around for the boy's backpack.

"Not, yet."

"It's a nice touch, though," Rogers said, not pressing what was a very delicate subject for Peter. "No one can break into it – even if they broke in while you and Tony were at the compound for a visit and stole everything else in the house. It's tighter than Area 51, I imagine," he added, knowing that Peter loved sci-fi and could relate.

Even better than Steve could, really.

Peter grinned, excitedly.

"Yeah."

The boy put the poster back in its place and hopped off the chair.

"Tell me about your neighbor you met," Steve said, knowing Natasha would want to hear everything that happened in the initial meeting. Chances were Peter and Tony would both find themselves being interrogated later that day when Romanoff arrived. "What's she like?"

"Her name is Mrs. Dickerson," Peter reported, looking out the window as if hoping to spot the woman and her dog walking – even though his room was completely on the wrong side of the house for that. Which was intentional, on Tony's part, of course. "She's nice."

"That's good."

"Yeah." Peter went over and climbed up on his bed, looking at Steve. "I think she likes Tony, though," he added. "And not because he's Ironman."