They weren't too much later getting home than they usually were.

"It's a good thing we didn't have to wait around and clean up the workroom…" Peter said as he got out of the SUV in front of the house, grabbing his backpack as he did. "We would still be there."

"Yeah," Tony agreed. He'd left a huge cash tip on the table and asked JARVIS to advise the poor cleaning people that were going to walk into that mess that they were to help themselves to the money and thank them for not just closing the door and walking away. "We'll owe the cleaning company big-time."

Peter reached up to open the door.

"It was fun, though," he said with an excited smile. "It was like I was really a scientist, or something."

"I had fun, too." Tony tousled his hair once the hood to his coat was brought down. "Go get ready for bed."

"We haven't had dinner, yet."

"You can eat in your jammies."

"And we'll do something after dinner?"

"Do you have other homework, besides the volcano?"

"No."

"Then we can do whatever you want – as long as it's inside."

He didn't want to have to say no to a walk around the neighborhood in the dark, after all.

"Okay."

Peter hung his coat on the coat rack and headed for his room, and Tony hung his jacket above the boy's and headed for the kitchen.

OOOOOOOO

"What are you looking at?" Peter asked when he joined his father in the kitchen not too much later.

"Just some research," Stark told him, turning off the display. "Might as well, since I'm waiting for the burgers."

Peter climbed up onto his special stool so he could see the burgers that were grilling.

"It smells good."

"Yeah." Before Peter had entered his life, permanently, Tony's excursions into the kitchen were fairly limited. Since he'd made the vow to feed them both healthier, he was learning all kinds of recipes that he'd never tried, but that Peter loved. Hamburger helper and macaroni and cheese were two favorites that were always requested. "Get the salad mix from the fridge, will you?"

It wasn't something that they ate a lot of; Peter didn't care for it, and Tony would rather down a vitamin and call it a day, but he'd promised Pepper, and didn't want it to come back to her that they'd skipped it. Peter hopped off his chair and brought out the bag of lettuce, shredded carrots, and whatever else was in it, and also pulled out the ranch dressing.

"I wouldn't say anything if we skipped salad," the boy assured Tony, climbing back up onto the stool.

"I promised."

Might as well be a good example, right?

"Okay."

A promise was a promise, Peter supposed.

OOOOOOOO

When the burgers were done, and while they were eating, they discussed the volcano and what had gone wrong – as well as what had gone right. They cleaned up the kitchen, together, simply enjoying the company of the other, and decided that they'd go play pool to kill the time before Peter's bedtime.

"I wanted to talk to you about something," Tony told the boy as Peter gathered all the balls and put them in the rack.

He was too little to actually be able to see very well over the table – it came to his chin – but he had a stepstool that he used to help him. The boy looked over.

"About what?" he asked, curiously.

"Well, you mentioned something to Steve, once, about some of the guys that May used to hang out with. That she dated. JARVIS told me, today, that you mentioned in my office that one of May's boyfriends told you all about sex. I wanted to talk to you about that."

It wasn't exactly why the conversation was coming up, but Tony didn't want Peter to think that if he said something to Pepper, it was going to get back to Tony. Blaming it on his AI tattling was a lot easier.

"What about it?" Peter asked him.

"Well… I was wondering what he told you. You know, to make sure you're not confused."

This really wasn't a conversation that Tony had anticipated a need to have with Peter until he was much older – although when he'd been cooking dinner, he'd been doing a little searching, and had read that it wasn't that unusual for parents to start discussing a very edited version of the birds and the bees with children as young as seven or eight.

Apparently, they were right on track.

Peter shrugged.

"He said that women get on the bed and men…" the boy hesitated. "He said they fuck them," he whispered the curse word, but couldn't think of an alternative. "And that if they scream, then you're doing it right."

Tony looked at him, blankly, for a moment.

"What else?" he asked. "Did he mention the process?"

"You mean how to do it?"

"Right. Do you know?"

"No. I didn't want to ask. It sounded scary."

Because the unnamed boyfriend had done a shitty job of explaining it, Tony decided, forcing himself to keep his expression from looking disapproving.

"Well, it's a lot of things," he finally said, taking up his pool cue. "But scary shouldn't be one of them."

"Have you done it?" Peter asked, curiously.

"I have."

"Did she scream?"

Tony snorted, unable to help himself.

"They don't have to scream, buddy. And it shouldn't be scary. It's a way for a man and a woman to show that they love each other. A physical way."

"Oh."

"But only adults," Tony added, quickly. "Not little guys like you. That's a completely different kind of love. Equally amazing, but way different."

Peter nodded.

"I understand. Kind of." He hesitated. "I think I love Pepper – a little. Is that normal?"

The older man smiled.

"It is. I'm glad you love her."

"Do you love her?"

"Yeah. But you can't tell her, okay?"

"Why not?"

"Because she works for me, and it might get weird. I don't want things to get weird between me and her."

"Oh." He watched as Tony shot the white ball into the others, sending them everywhere around the table. "She's nice, though, isn't she?"

"That she is." Stark wasn't sure exactly how the conversation had turned to Pepper, but he steered it back to the topic at hand. "Do you have any questions about any of this?"

"About you and Pepper?"

"About sex," he corrected. "And doing it," he added, using Peter's verbiage. "I want you to understand it, but I don't want you to feel overwhelmed. It isn't really something you're going to need to worry about for at least a few more years."

"When I hit puberty?"

"Right." The kid went to high school; he was going to have at least noticed the differences between the older boys and himself. "It shouldn't be a while, but I want you prepared so it doesn't scare you."

"I don't know what to ask…" Peter admitted.

"Well, if you think of anything, write it down, or just remember it, and we'll talk about it. Got it?"

"Yeah. Thanks."

That made Tony smile.

"You're welcome." He allowed some of his focus to go to the game, and watched as Peter tried to knock a solid in but missed and made a stripe drop into the pocket. It didn't matter, since they weren't calling their shots. "Now, tell me about the rest of the things you did in class while I was away…"

He'd be able to tell Pepper that he had the talk, and Peter seemed to be fine. Not freaked out like Tony knew he probably would have been at that age. Tony wanted to keep his little guy innocent for as long as he could, though. Time enough, later, to learn about the craziness of dating and relationships beyond the ones that he was already developing with those around him.

Stark understood, then, too, that there was very little chance that he would be having any women over, even once Peter became more settled in. That wasn't something that he wanted the little boy to have to deal with, really. He especially wouldn't be inviting the neighbor.