Pepper walked with Peter to Tony's office, ignoring the looks that the two of them – especially Peter – garnered as they walked down the corridor.
"Is Tony your boyfriend?" Peter asked when they walked into the spacious room and headed immediately for the bathroom.
Pepper raised an eyebrow, even as she lifted her arms, showing him what she wanted him to do.
"Arms up, honey," she said, and carefully peeled his sodden, messy, shirt from his little body. "Did Tony tell you to ask me that?"
"No. I was just wondering." He shrugged, watching as some of the 'lava' dripped from his hair onto his belly and chest. "Do you like him?"
She smiled.
"Of course, I like him."
Peter unbuttoned his pants, dropping them and stepping out of them and then sitting on the bathroom floor to take off his socks.
"But like a girlfriend?" he pressed, looking up at her. "Like Mrs. Dickerson likes him?"
Pepper's smile never faltered.
"Our relationship is pretty complicated," she told the boy, honestly. "It's hard to explain."
"I know about sex…" Peter assured her. "May's boyfriend told me."
Pepper brokered billion-dollar deals without skipping a beat, and had faced down lawyers, judges, and congressmen of all sorts. She floundered just a little, though, at the turn of conversation. It was definitely one that she wasn't going to have with an eight-year old. No matter what he thought he knew.
"We're not boyfriend and girlfriend," she said. "But we're very good friends. Otherwise he wouldn't trust me to look after you, right?"
"Do you want to be his girlfriend?"
She took his hand, pulling him back to his feet, and handed him a towel from a cupboard. He didn't need her help getting himself clean; he'd taken a couple of baths while staying with her so she knew he was good, as long as he could reach the shower knobs.
"Can I tell you?" she asked. "But you couldn't tell Tony?"
Peter nodded.
"Yes. I promise."
"Sometimes when I see him with you, I think that he might make a pretty good boyfriend."
"Really?"
"Sometimes."
"I could ask him for you."
Pepper smiled, and reached out, her palms going to his cheeks, smearing the lava goop but holding his head still so he had to look at her.
"Don't you dare," she told him, her expression amused, but her words firm. "This is between Tony and me, and we'll discuss it, when the time is right. Understand?"
"Not really," he admitted. His brown eyes were happy, though. He really did think that maybe he loved her. Especially when she was acting like a mom. "But I won't tell."
"Thank you." Pepper leaned down and kissed his forehead, sputtering around the lava she tasted there. "Go take a shower. Make sure you get your hair cleaned. When Tony comes in, he'll need to take one, too."
"Okay."
She let him go and left the room, closing the door behind her. Peter smiled and went to the shower.
OOOOOO
Stark (the elder Stark) was wearing a pair of jeans and a t-shirt and carrying his shoes in his hand when he walked into his office only a short time after Pepper had left the bathroom. She was sitting behind his desk, examining her fingernails, but she looked up at his entrance and smiled, amused. He was wearing clean clothes, yes, but his hair was caked with drying lava goop and the stuff was smeared on his face and stuck in his facial hair.
"You keep clean clothes in your workroom?" she asked.
"Of course." He walked over and set his shoes on his desk. "It isn't the first time I've blown something up in there."
"First volcano, though, I imagine."
"True." He was amused, though. "Peter's okay?"
"Yes. He's in getting cleaned up."
"I sent an intern to go buy him something to wear."
"You should keep a change of clothes here for him, too."
"Yes." The intern had been instructed to buy more than one set of clothes because Tony had decided that, too. "I'll put him in one of my shirts, until they get here."
She nodded, and gave him a look.
"I want you to have a talk with him."
"About what?"
"The birds and the bees."
Stark frowned.
"What did he do?"
Pepper smiled.
"He didn't do anything. But he made a comment that concerns me."
"Oh?" Now he hesitated, wondering if he'd said something in passing that Peter had caught and maybe repeated in Pepper's presence. "What did he say?"
"He told me that May's boyfriend had told him all about sex."
"Oh."
"Since we neither one know what kind of men his aunt was dating, I want you to make sure whatever he was told by this man is tempered with good sense and less euphemisms."
Tony nodded; he'd planned some kind of conversation, already. After hearing what Steve had been told about their neighbor with the open relationship with her husband.
"I'll take care of it."
"Thank you."
He smiled. It was touching that she liked Peter enough to be concerned. He'd never have pegged her for maternal, but he'd been seeing an entirely new side of her, recently. And he liked it.
A lot.
"Thank you." He went around his desk and opened the bottom drawer, pulling out a long-sleeved t-shirt that was stashed there with yet another pair of jeans. You never knew, after all, when you'd spill something on yourself. "I'm going to go take a shower."
"Get Peter dressed and send him out here. I'll keep him company until you're done."
"Will do."
OOOOOOOO
Peter joined Pepper only fifteen minutes or so later. He came out of the bathroom with his hair still a little damp – although now it was clean and clearly Tony had combed it – and was wearing the long-sleeved shirt, with the sleeves rolled up until they were more his length. The thing was also so big on him that it draped down to his knees, but there wasn't any way that his clothes from earlier – aside from his underwear – were going to be usable.
She smiled when he walked over to her and set aside the deck of cards she'd been shuffling as she waited.
"You look better."
He grinned, too, holding his arms up to show off the new wardrobe.
"This is Tony's shirt."
"I can tell," she assured him. "Is he taking a shower?"
Peter nodded, walking over and climbing into the chair across from the desk.
"He complained that I used all the hot water."
The little boy didn't seem too concerned. Pepper wasn't, either, since she knew there was an unlimited supply.
"Then he won't linger under the spray too long," she pointed out. "He told me that he sent someone to get you some clean clothes to wear."
"Yeah." He got on his knees, to be able to see the desktop better. "Want to play?"
"Of course." She handed him the cards. "Deal them up."
OOOOOOOOO
By the time Tony came out of the bathroom, once more dressed in the jeans and t-shirt, but now without any volcanic goop on his face, or hair, Peter and Pepper were engaged in a fierce battle of Go-Fish. He walked over, stopping to stand behind Peter, and looking at the cards he was holding.
"Who's winning?"
"She is."
He didn't seem too concerned, but Tony knew Peter wasn't even close to as competitive as he was. Surprising, really, since he'd been living with so many kids at the foster home. Tony would have thought it would have been breeding grounds for arguments and competitions for attention from Eric and his wife It was another indication of just how amazing a job Peter's former foster dad had done – and still was probably doing with the remaining boys.
"Your clothes haven't arrived?"
"We're not right next to the Gap," Pepper pointed out. "It's probably going to be a while."
She winked at Peter, who grinned.
"Do you want to play?" the boy asked.
"I'll watch."
Tony took the seat next to Peter's, and leaned over. Ostensibly, he was looking at the cards, but Peter smiled when the billionaire rested his chin on Peter's shoulder. Pepper smiled, too.
"Too bad that marker beard is gone," she said. "You two could be twins."
Peter nodded, but looked down at his cards.
"Do you have any fives?"
"I do not. Go fish."
The boy shook his head, and drew a card.
"We'll go home when you have something to wear," Tony told him, pressing down on Peter's shoulder with his chin, making him giggle.
"Okay."
"Pepper? Want to come to dinner?"
"I can't," she replied. "But thank you for the offer."
"Gotta hot date?" Tony asked, smiling.
"With my Spin class."
"Ugh." Tony hated going to the gym. "We're going to have greasy cheeseburgers."
"Make sure to have something healthy with it," she said, before asking Peter for any sevens. "I don't want him sick."
"It'll have lettuce on it," Peter assured her.
She didn't look impressed by that tidbit of information, and raised an eyebrow at Tony, who made a face.
"We'll have a salad, or something."
"Thank you."