It was Maria who delivered Peter to Tony's office. The boy's face was red from the chill outside one minute and then the warmth inside the building, but his eyes were shining, happily, as he set his backpack on his desk and moved over to Tony's.

Stark had been sitting at the desk, looking over last minute specifications for his newest suit that was still in design stage, but he'd set it aside when JARVIS told him Peter was in the building, and he'd moved to stand in front of his desk to greet the boy.

"There's my guy."

Peter threw himself into Tony's arms, and felt his stomach do a happy flutter that had nothing to do with the way Tony picked him up, so easily.

"Hi."

He wrapped his arms around Tony's neck, and felt himself being cuddled. It was amazing.

"Did you have a good day at school?"

"Yes." Peter rested his head on Tony's shoulder, playing with the collar on the expensive suit. "Did you have a good day at work?"

"I didn't do much work," Tony admitted, carrying Peter to the closest chair by his desk and dumping him into the plush leather.

"What did you do?" Peter asked, excited. "Avenger things?"

"Nah. Although I did talk to Nick about you and Ned coming with me to the compound this weekend."

Peter's eyes grew even more excited. Tony hadn't thought it possible.

"Really? Did he say it's okay?"

"He did. You'll have to share your room with Ned."

"That's okay."

"Not your bed, though. Nick's going to bring in a spare. Maybe a rollaway one, for Ned to sleep on."

"Can I sleep on a rollaway one, too?" Peter asked, hopefully.

Tony smiled, amused.

"I'll see what Nick says. They might only have one."

"Okay."

Tony pushed the plate of cookies toward the boy and forced himself not to look worried when Peter picked one up and shoved the thing into his mouth. It was a habit the boy had that Tony didn't like – he was always worried Peter would choke, and he had a very active imagination, so it never ended well. Pepper had suggested he rectify the problem – at least at the tower – by making sure the cookies that he supplied for Peter's after school snack were smaller than the norm.

Then it wouldn't matter that the boy seemed to love stuffing them in his face.

"I did some research for your volcano project."

"You did?" Peter asked, drinking some chocolate milk to clear his mouth. "What do we need to do?"

"One of the chemical engineers doing R&D up on the 17th floor gave me a list of things we can try to simulate an eruption. She said she'd send them to my workroom, and JARVIS told me that they've been delivered. Shall we give it a try? Or do you want to do daycare, today, and work on the volcano, later?"

Stark wasn't shocked that Peter immediately got up, only stopping long enough to grab another cookie.

"The volcano."

"Excellent choice." He reached for a cookie, too, and then stood up. "Come on. Let's go see what we can find out."

OOOOOO

"Oh, good Lord…"

Peter and Tony both turned at the sound, and Pepper couldn't help the amused snort that bubbled up out of her at the sight of the two.

"It isn't as bad as it looks," Tony told her, quickly.

Considering the two of them were literally coated in an orangish-red goo that was splattered not only on them but also on the walls of the workroom and every surface in their vicinity, she wasn't convinced. Peter looked at the mess, pulling off the safety goggles that Tony had handed him before they'd begun experimenting with the materials that were waiting for them.

"That didn't work…"

"It worked," Tony corrected, also taking safety goggles off. He hadn't planned on using any, of course, but when Peter had pointed out that if Tony didn't think it was needed, why should he wear his, he'd put them on as an example. And it was probably a good thing that he had, really. "It just worked too well."

The paper mache volcano that they'd created (and they'd made four of them, so they could have more than one to experiment with) was destroyed, completely, and little bits and pieces of it were splattered everywhere, along with the concoction of flour, chemicals and vinegar that had been made to represent the lava.

"Considering it looks like Pompeii in here…" Pepper said, noting that there was even a coating of the orange lava goo splattered on three of the Ironman prototype suits that were in the room. "I'd say it's a fair representation of a volcano."

"Well, we wanted a big reaction," Stark told her, wiping his hand along his jaw, and looking at the goop that was now on his fingers. "But we might have used a tad too much baking soda."

Peter's hand went to his hair, and he was pulling goop from his curls, which were plastered against his head.

"I told you."

"Hush."

Pepper smiled.

"Tell me you have a recording of the eruption."

"I recorded it," JARVIS assured her. "All displays are smeared, at the moment, but if you want to move to a different room, I'll be happy to show it to you."

Tony scowled.

"That's proprietary information, you traitor…"

Peter giggled, spitting out orange lava when it fell off his lip into his mouth.

"I want to see it, too."

"You're going to go take a shower," Tony told his son. He was smiling, too, now. "You have lava in your hair."

"So do you."

"Among other places," the billionaire agreed. "Pep? Will you walk my messy little man to my office – preferably without allowing him to touch anything along the way – and install him into the shower in my private bathroom? I'll go get him something clean to change into."

Her eyes sparkling with mirth she wasn't even bothering to hide, she nodded.

"Take your shoes off, Peter," she suggested.

That much less to trail along the hallway floors.

He did as he was told and took his shoes off, leaving them on the worktable beside the remains of the volcano.

"We're still going to make a volcano, though, right?" he asked, uncertainly.

"Of course, we are," Tony assured him. "But not this evening. And we know just how much of everything we should use, now, to make it look impressive, but not quite so Krakatoa-like. We can build it, tomorrow, and have it ready to go Friday for your class."

"And you'll provide eye protection for everyone," Pepper added. "Just in case?"

"This won't happen, again," Tony told her, rolling his eyes at her assumption that it would. "We've got it under control. Right, son?"

Peter didn't look quite as certain as Tony sounded, but he nodded.

"Yes."

"Eye protection, Tony," she repeated. "And those frocks that they use for art class. I don't want a handful of claims for dry cleaning, or lava in the eyes."

He scowled, and that made Peter giggle.

"Fine. I'll talk to Peter's teacher, tomorrow."

"Thank you." She was getting used to not having any PR issues with him, and while an exploding volcano was hardly earth shattering (at least a paper one wasn't) she didn't want to deal with it. Pepper smiled at Peter. "Ready?"

He nodded and took her hand, automatically, which made Stark smirk. That little hand was covered in lava goo, after all, and now Pepper's hand was, too. She didn't even bat an eye when she realized it, and he had to be impressed.

"I'll meet you in my office," he told them, again.