"What kind of surprise?" the boy asked, excitedly. He was still holding the new suit, but he knew that Tony didn't mind if he carried it. "Can it go invisible?"

"No." Stark smiled, looking at Bruce and the others as they headed down the stairs. "That would be pretty cool, though, wouldn't it? The same tech that works on the heliocraft would work on my suit, I bet. I wonder why I didn't think of that… Smart."

Peter beamed.

He knew he was smart, but he loved it when Tony said it.

Tony hadn't actually shown the others the suit that he'd made for Peter – it was only just finished, after all – so they were all interested in seeing it, too. And, of course, seeing Peter's reaction. Because of that they all followed the man and boy as they walked down another flight of stairs and across an atrium and then outside, once more – stopping only long enough for Tony to pick up a black, hard sided case that was propped against the wall by the door.

"What's that?" Peter asked.

"The surprise," Tony told him. "Trade me for my suit."

The boy handed the suit over to Tony, who set it down where he'd left the case, and then put the hard-sided case in Peter's hand.

"What's in it?" Peter asked, curiously.

"Open it up and see."

Peter didn't have to be told, twice. He set the case on the floor by the doorway and crouched down to open it. And found a gleaming chunk of metal. A chunk that looked a lot like the one in Tony's case.

"You made two suits?" Peter asked, looking up. "That's neat."

"Activate it," Tony said.

"Can I?"

"Of course."

Peter knew how Tony's suit worked; he'd watched him work on it the last few months, after all – and had been shown everything. He knew how to activate the new suit, and the panel on this other suit was in exactly the same place. He pulled the metal blob out of the case and then pressed the area, and jumped to his feet as the mechanics in the suit responded, the metal plates ejecting themselves into the correct forms until there was another Ironman suit now in front of them.

Peter frowned.

"It's too little…"

"What do you mean?" Tony asked, feigning confusion.

"It won't fit you," Peter said. "It's too small."

"It's too small for me," Stark agreed. "But I didn't build it for me."

Peter's eyes grew wide as he realized what Tony meant, and his jaw dropped.

"It's for me?"

"I told you I'd build you a suit," Tony reminded him, smiling. "Didn't I?"

"Yeah." Peter stared at the suit, and then looked at his father. "I didn't think you meant it, though."

May had promised plenty of things without following through. She'd say that she forgot; Peter simply gave up on her keeping her promises – although the boy knew Tony was much better about it.

"I meant it." Tony tousled Peter's hair. "It won't fly, and there aren't any guns or rockets or repulser blasters."

Peter had been looking at it as Tony told him what it wouldn't do.

"It has a Batman!"

He pointed at the hip of the suit. Sure enough, there was a very small, but obvious, Batman symbol etched into the metal.

Tony frowned.

"How did that get there?"

"Wow…"

Peter looked flabbergasted, and his eyes were wide and happy. He threw his arms around Tony, hugging him, tightly.

"That's pretty cool," Sam said, admiring the suit. "Are you allowed to put Batman on an Ironman suit?"

"You can if you pay a royalty," Tony assured him, kissing Peter's cheek and squeezing him. "You okay?"

"Yeah." Peter let him go and looked up at him. "Can I put it on?"

"I'd be disappointed if you didn't."

The suit opened and the boy backed into it, wriggling with happiness as the metal locked itself around him.

"Hello, Peter," a familiar voice said. "What do you think of your suit?"

"I have an AI?" Peter asked, awed.

Of course, it wasn't a brand new AI, but JARVIS was perfect.

"You can't have a proper Ironman suit if you don't have an AI to tell you how to use it," the AI told him.

"Wow."

"Go outside and try it out," Tony said, turning the boy around by the shoulders of the suit so he was facing the door. "Stay in the clearing."

Peter ran out the door, awkward in the bulky metal of the suit – although as strong as he was, the weight of the metal didn't bother him at all.

"What can he do in it?" Natasha asked, watching as the boy immediately tripped over his own feet and tumbled to the snowy ground.

"I'm okay!" Peter assured them, not stopping to give anyone a chance to check on him.

He got to his feet, immediately, and ran off, making repulser noises as he pointed his hand at invisible enemies.

"He can't fly off?" Fury asked, watching the boy.

Tony smiled.

"No. No rockets. JARVIS is in it, though, so he does have access to the same heads-up display and intelligence that I would have in any of my suits. To a point. No weapons, of course, but all the cool sound effects and the heads-up display is pretty cool."

"Nice," Natasha said, approvingly, also watching Peter. "He's going to have a lot of fun with that."

"Yeah." Stark looked incredibly pleased with himself. As well he should, really. "It turned out perfect."

"So are you guys going to dress up in your matching suits and take on a snowman army?"

"I'm going to put my suit on and we're going to take on the Avengers in a massive snowball fight," he replied.

None of them mentioned that they'd spent the morning playing in the snow and were already cold. Like Peter, they had had a chance to warm up during lunch and during the flight to the compound. They'd all signed on to spend the weekend with Peter, after all, and a snowball fight wasn't outside of their skillsets.

"If you get to put yours on, you know I'm putting mine on, too," Sam said, already turning. "I'll be right back."

"I'm going to get my shield," Steve told them.

"It's getting real," Nick said, amused.

"Are you going to play?" Natasha asked.

She didn't need to get a suit, or a shield – although she knew that those things would add to the fun that Peter would have – and with him in a suit to protect him, they could really go all out to try and hit each other.

"No," Fury replied. "I'll play referee."

OOOOOOOO

"Did you have fun?"

"It was great."

The snowball fight had been epic. Tony, Steve, and Peter had squared off against Natasha, Clint and Sam – with Bruce finally being convinced to play, although he'd been very cautious, and everyone but Peter understood completely. The new suit that Tony had built for Peter (and his own, of course) had a heater in it, so Peter was never chilled – although he did manage to get wet from snow working its way into the seams of the suit.

They'd battled for hours, until all the snow in the grassy field was either trampled or left in the little remains of hundreds of used snowballs. Sam had cheated outrageously, flying overhead and dumping armfuls of snow on Peter and Steve, while Tony countered with flight of his own, although he was careful – as always – since his flight involved thrusters and he didn't want to burn anyone. He was adept at it by then, of course, and Natasha and Clint would occasionally find themselves bombarded by snow flurries of their own.

They'd only called a truce when the skies began to darken, and everyone started getting hungry.

"Next time we do this, we'll have to bring Ned and Cooper," Tony suggested, packing his suit back into its case, while Peter did the same, lingering long enough to run his fingers over the batman logo. "I bet they'd have a good time."

Peter smiled.

"Yeah." He hugged Tony, surprising the man, although he was also pleased, of course. "Thank you."

"You're welcome, son. I'm glad you like it."

"I love it."

They finished packing up the suits and took them out to the car to stow into the back, and then went to the lounge to meet up with the others for dinner.

Peter sat between Natasha and Steve, and listened excitedly while Rogers went through the snowball fight like he did a mission; going over different attacks that had been used to discuss the validity of the offensive, or how they could have been deployed differently. Tony rolled his eyes, amused that even a weekend snowball fight was being used as a lesson, but he engaged in the activity. First because Peter thoroughly enjoyed the conversation, even if he didn't understand most of it, and second because the snowball fight had been a safe way for the rest of them to see how the new suit worked in a group setting.

"Are you coming out next weekend?" Natasha asked Tony when they'd finished eating, completed their conversation about the snowball fight, and Peter was happily helping Sam and Clint pick up the dishes from their dessert to take them to the kitchen.

"It depends," Stark said. "I promised Ned that he could introduce you to his new puppy."

"Her name is Natasha, too," Peter said, cheerfully. "She's a baby, now, but she's going to be big."

"He named his puppy after Natasha?" Clint asked, amused. "So much for us naming our next daughter after you, Nat."

"You have to," Romanoff said, rolling her eyes, but just as cheerful as Peter was. It had been a fun day for her, too, after all. "You lost the bet in Budapest."

"Come out, if you can," Fury told them, also relaxed from the good day. "But if that puppy chews on anything that she isn't supposed to, someone's going to get a stern talking to – and don't get me started on if it craps in the hallways."

Peter grinned at that, and climbed into Nick's lap for some cuddling. They were going to be leaving soon, and he hadn't had much chance to spend time with the gruff man that day.

"I'll help keep an eye on her."

"I know you will, Peter," Nick replied, putting his arms around the boy to keep him from falling off. He ignored Bruce's look of amazement at the action, and turned his attention to Tony, instead. "You guys could stay the night. It's getting late."

Tony shook his head, but he was also amused at Bruce's reaction.

"Pepper's expecting us, tonight. Besides, Peter's going to Ned's, tomorrow, to meet Natasha."

"Can't miss that," Peter said, his cheek on Nick's shoulder.

"I can understand that." Nick hugged the boy, then tousled his hair, gruffly. "You keep your dad out of trouble, alright?"

"I will."