"This is so cool…"

Peter smiled his agreement.

"Yeah."

They were changing into warm clothes after finishing getting cleaned up. The day was still very young, and both of them were excited about spending time out in what certainly looked like a blizzard to them.

"You must be used to being with Tony and the avengers," Ned said. He grinned. "I can't believe I get to call Tony Stark Tony. It's awesome."

"You think that's awesome?" Peter said, pulling on the long-sleeved thermal shirt that Tony had outfitted him with in preparation of the snow. "Try calling him dad."

Ned smiled.

"True. Does he let you play with the Ironman suit?"

"No." Peter grinned. "But I've touched it."

"Wow."

A knock on the door interrupted them, startling Ned, and Tony's head poked in.

"You guys almost ready?"

"Yeah."

"It's still snowing," Ned added.

"I saw." Tony was dressed in jeans, a thermal shirt similar to Peter's (and Ned's) and a sweatshirt over that. "Plenty of snow for a snowman, looks like."

"Maybe even a snow fort," Peter said. "We could build it by the playset."

"A fort by a fort?" Tony asked, shrugging. "We'll see." He walked into the room and sat down on the bed, gesturing for Peter to move closer. When he did, Tony put Peter's coat on the boy, and then turned him around and zipped it up, his eyes meeting Peter's brown ones. "Got your mittens?"

"Yeah."

"Ned?"

The bigger boy smiled as he put his own coat on, zipping it up.

"Yup."

"Let's go over some ground rules for today."

Ned walked over to stand in front of Tony, too.

"Like what?"

He didn't look at all concerned about having rules. It was exciting to both boys but to Ned, especially.

"It's going to be tempting to have a snowball fight," Tony said. "And that's fine, but I don't want anyone getting hit in the head, or in the face and maybe getting hurt. So no aiming at each other's heads. Yeah?"

Both boys nodded their agreement.

"Okay."

They didn't want to hurt anyone, either.

"If the playset that Steve built is too slick, no climbing on it. Play on the slide, but not the monkey bars, or anything."

"Yeah."

"What else?" Peter asked, leaning on Tony's knee, expectantly.

He was clearly ready to go play.

"If you get cold, come in and warm up for a while. No frozen fingers at the end of the day."

Ned nodded.

"I heard about a guy who actually had his hands fall off because they froze."

Since Stark doubted that had actually happened, he wasn't too concerned. He nodded, though.

"We don't want that to happen to you guys, right?"

"Right."

"Then go play. No wandering off."

The boys didn't wait to be told, twice. Like they'd been shot from a cannon, both of them ran from the room and since they hadn't closed the door, Tony had no trouble hearing the echoing sounds of their laughter and snow boots clumping along. He was slower to follow, but wasn't concerned. There were avengers everywhere, and the place was crawling with SHIELD agents, both working and not.

The boys were fine.

OOOOOOO

They were fine, too, he discovered as he walked outside the gym door that led to the field.

And was promptly hit in the chest with a snowball. A quick glance showed Ned and Peter playing on the playset with Sam and being watched by Natasha – all of whom were bundled warmly in heavy coats against the rapidly falling snow.

"Gotcha!"

Stark rolled his eyes, amused, as Rhodey walked over, forming another snowball as he did.

"What are you, six?" Tony asked, casually leaning down, and scooping up his own handful of snow. It was wet and packed well. "I told the boys no aiming at the head with snowballs," he added, throwing the newly formed snowball at his friend and smiling when he managed to land it, even though Rhodes tried to dodge. "So we'll need to set an example."

"Tony Stark? Being an example – for anyone, especially a couple of little kids? No one would ever believe me."

Tony rolled his eyes.

"We all have to grow up, sometime."

That made Rhodes smile, and his expression softened.

"I'm proud of you, Tony."

"I still have a reputation to uphold," Tony said. "So don't spread it around, too much."

Before his friend could say anything, another snowball came sailing in, striking Stark in the shoulder. Both men looked over, and saw Peter and Ned standing at the bottom of the slide. Even from the distance they were at, there was no disguising the twin innocent looks on their little faces – although Ned was pointing directly at Peter, as if to make sure there was no mistaking the transgressor.

"Oh, it's on," Tony told his son, reaching down for more snow, and already moving toward the boy.

Peter squealed with delight and turned and ran, his little legs no match for Tony's longer ones.

"Natasha! Help!"

The assassin looked over as the boy ran by, but only smiled, shaking her head.

Tony caught up to Peter and swept him up into his arms, looking around and finding the perfect snow drift to dump him into. The little guy giggled, even as his father started kicking snow onto him, but was rescued by Ned, who rushed up and grabbed Tony's leg and wrapped himself around it.

"Run, Peter!"

He didn't, of course. Instead, Peter scrambled to his feet and joined the fray, taking Tony's other leg and wrapping arms and legs around it. The extra weight overbalanced Stark and he tried to save himself but was soon falling backwards into the same drift he'd tossed Peter into. Both little boys jumped on him the moment he was down, and Tony wrapped them both into his arms to try and keep them from white-washing him with snow.

"Think we should rescue him?" Steve asked, walking over to stand close to the skirmish.

Natasha shook her head, still smiling.

"I don't know. He's a grown man… he should be able to handle two little boys."

"I'm a grown man who was ambushed," Tony pointed out, an arm hooking around Peter as he tossed him to the side, careful not to hurt him, but still allowing him some rough and tumble because he knew that Peter loved to be tossed around. "Save me, or you guys are going to be making dinner while I thaw out."

"He did promise us take-out, tonight," Sam reminded them, smirking when Peter dove onto Tony with a triumphant yell, even as Ned was tossed aside in a similar fashion as the younger boy had been. "If we don't save him, then it's probably something unbearably healthy, instead."

"We could form a committee and vote on it…" Rhodey suggested, wincing when Peter's knee caught Tony in the stomach – although it was certainly better than hitting him lower. "All in favor of-"

"Arghh!" Tony yelped, exaggerating the danger he was in, but making both boys laugh as they were tossed aside, once more.

Before they could regain their feet, both found themselves under attack, and now, though, the other adults joined in, picking sides without even discussing it. Romanoff scooped Ned up and tossed him aside, making sure he landed in a soft drift of snow, while Steve went for Peter – and Sam and Rhodes attacked Tony, pushing him back to the snow, once more.

"Et tu, Brutus?" Tony managed, just as he saw Peter dive onto Sam's back, now trying to protect Tony, instead.

Lines in the sand could be fickle things when you're eight, after all.