Wednesday afternoon, Peter walked into Tony's office at his usual time. He waved goodbye to Maria, who nodded a greeting to Stark but didn't stay for small talk – which was completely normal for the SHIELD agent. She liked Peter, but she rarely stayed around after delivering him to the tower, knowing that he was eager to spend time with Tony, or go to daycare – or both.
Today was a little different, though. Tony was on a conference call when the boy went over to his desk, stopping only long enough to drop off his backpack. He didn't rush up to him like he wanted to, in deference to the conversation that he was having, but he was pleasantly surprised when he saw the image of the person his father was talking to – and she seemingly noticed him at the same time.
"Natasha!"
Romanoff smiled, watching as Peter climbed into Tony's lap with a well timed boost.
"Hey, sweetheart," the assassin greeted him. "How was school?"
"Good." Peter shifted, turning around in Tony's lap for a few moments, bony knees catching the billionaire in the thigh and then the groin as Peter positioned himself so he was facing the display and Tony brought an arm around him from behind to hold him steady – and still – rolling his eyes when Natasha smirked at the cavalier treatment of one of the most powerful men on the planet. "Are you home?"
"Not, yet," she told the boy. "Clint and I are still on special assignment with some of the others."
"Is he there?"
"He will be. Tell me what you're up to."
"Pepper is taking me and Tony to the boonies this weekend."
She'd heard that from Stark before Peter had arrived, but smiled at the boy's phrasing, because it was clear that he'd picked it up from Tony.
"The boonies, huh? Are you camping in tents?"
Peter leaned back against Tony's chest, grinning.
"No. It's too cold. There's a cabin. It's on a lake, and it has a lot of trees, and some deer, sometimes, and there's a fireplace, and the room I'm going to stay in has bunkbeds!"
"Are you sharing a room with your dad?" Natasha asked. "Does he get to have the bottom bunk?"
"He has his own room." Peter had seen a few pictures of the cabin and the surrounding area. Pepper had shown them to him – including the bunkbeds in the bedroom that the boy would be sleeping in. "I get to decide if I want to sleep on the top or the bottom."
"Wow."
The boy nodded.
"I've never been on top. Have you?"
There was a soft snort of amusement in Peter's ear as Tony reacted to the question, his grip tightening, slightly, on Peter.
"Yes, Agent Romanoff," the billionaire said to the display. "Have you been on top?"
"Several times," she replied, blandly, her expression cheerful, although Peter had a feeling he was missing something. "You'll want to be careful not to fall off."
"I won't," Peter assured her. "Besides, I stick, remember?"
"Good point. What else have you been doing? How is your Mars project coming?"
"We're almost done. The others are coming, tomorrow after school, to finish it. We turn it in on Friday."
As Peter launched into a detailed explanation of the progress that had been made, Clint joined the call, moving into the camera area so he could see Peter and Tony, and they could see him. He listened just as intently as Natasha did, and even asked a couple of questions that proved he was just a grunt, but was pretty intelligent when he wanted people to know it.
"Sounds like you're doing well," Romanoff said. "No stomach aches, recently?"
"No." Peter shook his head. "I'm okay."
"Good. We need to go take care of some things. You be good and take care of your dad for us."
"I will."
"Call me later," Stark said over Peter's shoulder. "I have some more questions for you."
"I will."
She ended the call, and Peter looked up at Tony.
"They're okay?"
"They're fine. You saw them. Natasha and Clint work well, together. They'll be back before you know it." He hugged the boy and then set him on his feet so he could take a different chair. While Peter scrambled into one, Tony put out cookies and found a carton of chocolate milk from the mini fridge. "How was school? Anything I need to know about?"
He knew there couldn't be anything too serious, or he'd have heard about it from Phil or Maria. But what SHIELD thought was worth telling him, and what Peter thought was important were sometimes very different.
"It was fun. We played dodgeball in PE."
Tony frowned.
"They're making you play?"
"I get to play," Peter agreed. "It's fun. They throw balls at you, and you try to dodge them – or catch them. Then the person that threw it is out."
"Did you catch any?"
"No. They don't throw a lot my way. I think they're afraid of hurting me."
"Or they're afraid you'll catch the ball," Tony said, although he was sure that Peter was correct – and he was relieved.
That made the boy look happy, and he took a cookie from the plate.
"It's fun. What did you do?"
They talked for a few long minutes while Peter had his snack, and Tony mentally congratulated himself for being such a genius to have this time with the boy after school. Never mind that it had initially been Pepper's idea; he was good at taking credit for the brilliant things she thought up, sometimes. It was a good chance for Peter to wind down after school and before daycare, and a chance for Tony (especially now) to reassure himself that the boy hadn't taken any harm being out of his sight for part of the day.
A win – win for both of them.
By the time Tony walked Peter to the elevator to deliver him to daycare, the conversation had switched back over to the weekend excursion – again. It was clear that Peter was looking forward to it, and Tony was, too, he had to admit.
OOOOOOO
"Incoming call from Ned."
Peter's eyes lit up. Not only because his friend was calling, but because JARVIS had sounded so cool when he'd announced it – and it had been directed at him, rather than at Tony. Stark smiled when he saw Peter's expression change, and he was glad that he'd thought to provide Ned with a cell phone that could support the video conferencing so his son could be face to face with his friend, even when they were just on the phone.
"Put him through, JARVIS," Tony replied, since Peter actually wasn't sure what to say, next.
A moment later Ned's cheerful face was looking at them from the display in the game room.
"Hey, Peter. Hey Mr. Stark."
"Hi, Ned," Peter replied, even as Tony waved a greeting. He could see Eric in the background of the video feed, sitting on the couch close by, but playing a board game with a couple of the boys. "How are you?"
"Good. We're going to the movies, Saturday, and I wanted to see if you wanted to come."
Peter smiled at the invitation.
"I can't. We're going to the boonies with Pepper, this weekend."
Ned frowned.
"Where's that?"
"I don't know," the boy admitted. "Somewhere in the woods. In a cabin. There's bunkbeds."
"Wow."
"Right?"
"We can do the movie another time, Peter," Eric said, proving that he'd been listening to the conversation.
"Okay. Thanks." Peter grinned at Ned. "Guess what? On Monday I'm not going to school."
"Why not?"
"Monday is doctor day."
"What does that mean?"
"I have a doctor appointment to meet my new pediologist."
"Pediatrician," Tony corrected, absently.
Proving he was listening to the conversation, too.
"Pediatrician," Peter echoed. "And then I go see a kid shrink."
"Why?" Ned asked, eyes widening. "Did you do something crazy?"
"No. I don't think so. Just because Tony and Pepper want me to talk to him."
"About what?"
"Anything I want to."
"Oh." Ned shrugged that off. "Did you finish your rover project?"
"We will, tomorrow, and turn it in on Friday. It's amazing."
The rest of the conversation went on and on about the rover that Peter's group had designed and were still building, and Tony noted with satisfaction that the questions Ned asked were intelligent and well thought out. Ned was a smart little boy, too.
When they finally ended the conversation and the screen went dark, the billionaire reached out and tousled his son's hair.
"You could go to the movies with Ned and Eric," he said. "If you really want to. Pepper would understand."
A fun time with a kid his own age instead of hanging with adults?
Peter shook his head, though.
"I want to go to the boonies. It's going to be fun."
They'd already established that there weren't any sledding hills, but that wasn't the end of the world. There were a lot of trees, and Peter would take some toys to keep himself occupied if there wasn't anything for him to do, otherwise.
"I think so, too." He shooed the boy away with a flourish. "Go get ready for bed."
"Okay."