After a morning of snow fights, and an afternoon of playing in the gym, both boys were ready to settle down a little. They ate dinner with the others, and Peter felt warmed by the fact that none of the others had taken their Batman shirts off. Ned even proclaimed that he was going to sleep in his.

"You have homework?" Tony asked Peter after the little boy finished eating.

"Yes."

"Is it hard?"

Meaning, did he need help with it?

"No. I don't think so."

"Why don't you work on it, now, and then you and Ned can play video games or watch a movie until bedtime."

Peter looked at Ned, who nodded, and he nodded, too.

"Okay."

"Can I watch you do your homework, Peter?" Ned asked, hopefully.

"It's just physics," his friend replied. "But yeah."

They jumped down from their chairs and ran out of the lounge. Sam rolled his eyes.

"It's just physics," he repeated, shaking his head. "That little boy is insanely smart."

Which made Tony smile.

"I know."'

"He isn't going to be going away to college anytime soon, though, right?" Natasha asked, frowning. "I mean, he's taking college classes, right? He's only eight. You can't send him to-"

Tony raised a hand, shaking his head and pleased at how concerned she looked. Peter would never have a stauncher supporter than him, but Tony knew that he couldn't have a deadlier advocate than Romanoff, and he liked that she was already so integral in his son's life.

"I'm not sending him anywhere. He isn't starting the college courses until next year, and it's only going to be a few – and they will be at his current school. He's advanced in math and science – and engineering, of course – but he still has a ton of things to learn. The college classes will be designed to keep him interested in his studies while he's catching up in the rest of it."

"Good."

"Besides," Tony added. "I just got him. I'm not going to let him go anywhere away from me for a long time."

OOOOOOO

Both boys were sitting at the little table in Peter's room when Tony came to find them an hour or so later. Since they were playing with Legos, Tony assumed that Peter had finished his homework, but he decided it didn't hurt to make sure, even as he walked over to lean over Peter and hug him from behind.

That was what dads did, right?

"Homework done?" he asked.

Peter nodded, smiling up at him.

"Yeah. It was easy."

"I helped," Ned added. "Kind of."

Tony smiled at that.

"Good. Are you guys going to watch a movie? Or keep doing what you're doing?"

Peter looked hopeful.

"Do you want to watch a movie with us?"

"I would, if you wanted the company."

"Yeah."

So the boys stopped what they were doing, and ten minutes later they were in a jumble on Peter's bed. Tony in between Ned and Peter, with both boys cuddled against either side of him and all of them covered with blankets, even though the room wasn't cold.

Tony knew he was pretty much stuck where he was, even when the boys fell asleep – which he knew they would considering the active day that they'd had. It would be hard to get out of the bed without waking one or the other. He didn't mind, though. He had managed to get some work done, earlier, while the boys were playing in the gym, so he didn't feel at all guilty about spending the evening lounging around watching movies.

Besides, with the snow still falling outside, he had no plans to go anywhere, anyway.

OOOOOOOO

Peter's room was dark when he woke from the dream that he'd been having.

Not a scary dream; Peter was having less and less scary dreams, now. This dream had been a good one; he'd been sledding with Tony. The others had been there, too, but Tony had been the one featured in the dream, and it was only a bonus that the man was next to him when the boy opened his eyes.

He smiled, feeling warm and safe. Instead of moving, Peter closed his eyes, again, savoring the fact that when Tony had fallen asleep he'd done so with an arm around him. He was too restless to lay still, though, and after only a few minutes his eyes opened, again. The room was dark, but Peter had no trouble seeing even in the low light. He was also very good at moving stealthily, which is what he did when he slid out from Tony's embrace and then out of his bed, leaving Ned and Tony both snoring, softly.

Then he left them to their sleep and quietly shut the door behind him.

The corridor outside his room was quiet but not dark. They always had lights on, Peter knew, in order to make sure the security people could see everything that was going on and any potential threat. Natasha had told him that, explaining how the defenses in the compound worked so he'd understand if anyone had woken him in the middle of the night with an emergency. The boy waved at one of the almost invisible cameras as he walked by it on his way to the lounge.

He didn't stop at the little table, though. Instead he went to the large picture window and sat on the couch that was under it. Sat on it backwards – on his knees – so that he could hook his hands on the back of it and look out the window at the snow.

OOOOOOOOOO

"What are you doing up, little man?"

Peter turned his gaze from the window and looked up at Nick who had walked up silently behind him.

"I couldn't sleep."

"Where's your dad?"

"Asleep."

Fury walked over to the sofa, and reached out, running his hand along Peter's forehead.

"Are you feeling sick?"

"No."

"Thirsty?"

"No."

"Hungry?"

Peter smiled.

"No. Just not sleepy. I'm okay."

The SHIELD director sat down on the sofa.

"Something bothering you?"

"No."

"Someone at school bullying you? You're a lot smaller and younger than them all."

The boy shook his head.

"Maria and Phil wouldn't let anyone do that. And no one really did that, before, either."

"Before Tony, you mean?"

"Yeah."

"So, there's really nothing bothering you?"

"Nope."

Fury frowned.

"Then why are you awake in the middle of the night?"

"Because I don't sleep too good, sometimes."

"You don't sleep too well," Nick corrected him, automatically. "What does Tony do when you can't sleep?"

"Sometimes he doesn't know, because I don't tell him. I talk to JARVIS."

"The AI? About what?"

"Everything. He'll tell me stories, or give me math problems to solve. Sometimes he asks me about what I can do."

"Your new abilities, you mean?" Fury asked. "Or the ones that you've always had? Like being smart."

"Mostly the new ones. I don't really know all that I can do," Peter said, settling on the couch, now, instead of still being on his knees so he could look out the window. Nick Fury was more interesting than snow, after all. "I think he's trying to figure it out for me."

"Has he?"

"Not, yet." Peter didn't look too concerned. "He reminds me that I'm still pretty little, though, and that we have a lot of time."

"He's right about that. There's no rush."

"No. I know."

"What else does the computer talk to you about?"

"He asks me about before," the little boy said. "About what I remember about my parents, and what it was like living with May."

"Sounds like he's trying to know all there is to know about you."

Nick could relate; he was doing the exact same thing, after all. A middle of the night interrogation.

Peter smiled at that.

"He's really neat."

"I can tell." Fury was very relaxed with Peter. Probably more than he was with almost anyone. The week that the boy had been sick at the compound had allowed all of them a chance to get to know him, and lose any awkwardness with him. Having someone sit on your lap and wipe their nose on your neck will do that, after all. "What do you do in the middle of the night when you're not talking to JARVIS?"

"I read. Or play. Or draw. Or sometimes Tony wakes up and comes."

"Yeah? Then what?"

"Depends, I guess."

"On?"

"If he's sleepy. If he is, then he takes me back to bed, or to the couch, and he'll hold me in his lap. Sometimes he reads to me, and sometimes he just hums or sings to me. Then I wake up in the morning."

The eye widened, slightly.

"He sings to you?"

"Not loud," Peter temporized. "Just soft. I like it. My mom and dad used to do it."

"Yeah?" Nick reached out and pulled Peter into his lap and the boy went willingly. He was comfortable with the SHIELD director, too, and for the same reason, really. He felt Nick's arms come around him, and Peter rested his cheek against the man's collarbone. Nick was a lot harder than Tony, more muscular, but he was still comfortable – and Peter loved being held more than anything in the world. "What about your aunt? Did she?"

"Sometimes. It was nice when she did. She was usually pretty busy, though, with her betting, or with the boyfriends."

Fury scowled at that response, although Peter didn't see it. He'd already run a check on the people that May Parker had buddied around with during the two years that she'd been Peter's guardian, and he hadn't been impressed with the woman's choices. Not surprised, either, though, considering how things had ended for her.

"None of those guys ever hurt you, did they?"

Peter shook his head, bringing his arms around Nick and feeling himself relaxing, completely, now. He closed his eyes, listening to, and feeling, the deep rumble of the man's voice when he spoke.

"No. One did. He slapped me in the back of the head when I pointed out that he had his odds wrong, but May yelled at him and he didn't do it again. He even said he was sorry."

"To you?"

"To her. She said I was her cash cow and that if he did it again she'd kill him. I don't think she really meant it, though. He was bigger than her. But he left me alone."

"Good." Nick didn't think much of May, but he wasn't going to tell Peter that. The little boy had loved his aunt, and Nick wasn't going to crap on that memory, even when it was obvious that the woman hadn't thought of her nephew as more than a commodity. "Do you even know what a cash cow is?"

"No. I just liked that she yelled at him. And then she made sure I wasn't hurt."

"I see."

"What's a cash cow?"

"An amazing person," Nick assured him, running his fingers through Peter's fine curls. "Someone who is going to grow up to do amazing things."

"Really?"

Peter was practically asleep, now, and despite his lack of experience with kids, Fury had held enough lovers that he knew when someone was falling asleep on him. Not the same thing, of course, but the way Peter's weight seemed to double was a sure indicator.

"Of course. I wouldn't lie to you, would I?"

"No."

"No."

Peter made a soft sound of contentment.

"Tell me a story, Nick…"

"I can do that." He glanced around to make sure no one was watching – although there were security cameras in the lounge, and he'd have to find the footage, eventually and destroy the evidence – Nick shifted just a little to get more comfortable under the boy – and to get the pointy knee out of his thigh. "Once, a long time ago… there was an idea."

"Yeah…?"

It was a sleepy response.

"Yup. About forming a group of extraordinary people together and making them into a team."

"Wow…"

Nick started the story, but despite the fact that it was a story very few people knew, and it was interesting, Peter was too far gone by then to have anything pull him back. The embrace, and the soft tone, the heartbeat that wasn't his own, and the vibration of that deep voice all worked together and lulled him back to sleep within minutes.

Fury finished the story, but the only ones listening, now, were the Lego figures on the little table in the corner – and none of them seemed at all interested. He debated picking Peter up and putting him back to bed – or putting him in Tony's bed – but opted for neither. He didn't want to wake the boy, now that he had him asleep. In the weirdest version of Coyote Ugly that he'd ever found himself in, the man made himself more comfortable, and just waited for morning.

Or for someone to come rescue him.