"Do we wake him?"

Tony looked at the boy who was sleeping beside him. Peter had one arm literally hooked around Tony's, holding him close as he slept. His face was buried against the billionaire's side, so they couldn't see if his expression was pained, or troubled – but both suspected that it probably was.

It had been a long time since Peter had come to their bed, after all, so it must have been something serious. Or scary. Or both.

"No." Tony had tried twice to ease his arm from Peter's embrace, but each time the boy had held tight, even asleep. "If he needs to be here this badly, I'm not in any hurry to make him move."

"I wish I knew what happened…" Pepper said, worried.

"He can tell us when he wakes up." Tony shrugged. "You're not going to the tower?"

She nodded.

"I am. Not until he wakes up, though, and I know that he's alright. There are a few meetings that I have to attend. I'll start warning people that I might be in and out a little more frequently, though, in the near future."

"You know we can't tell them what's happening, right?"

She rolled her eyes.

"None of them would believe me, if I did." She leaned over, careful not to bump their son and maybe wake him. "We're going to keep these things from the city, though, right?"

"Yeah. We're not going to have a repeat of the battle of New York. Not if we can avoid it."

"We can," Peter said, suddenly, not moving his face from Tony's side, but still understandable.

Tony felt him tremble, and he frowned down at him, even though he couldn't see his face.

"You okay?"

"No. I'm scared."

Pepper leaned over, pressing her hand against Peter's back.

"Did you have a bad dream?"

"I saw what happened," Peter said to them.

"To Xandar?" Tony asked.

"To Wakanda."

Tony pulled back, now, pretty much forcing Peter to look up at him, which he did.

"What do you mean, you saw what happened to Wakanda? Did something happen?"

"It wasn't here," Peter told him, realizing that he wasn't making much sense. Of course, he'd just woken up, too, and was still reeling from the vision that he'd been given. Tony could see the fear in his expressive eyes. "It wasn't even in this time, I don't think."

"This verse…" Alec corrected. "It did happen, I think, but not in your space and time."

"Start at the beginning, okay?" Tony asked, gently, treating him carefully to make sure he didn't spark a panic attack.

Bolstered by Tony and Pepper on the outside, and Alec on the inside, Peter sat up and told them what he'd seen. And what had been said to him.

"You were on the roof of the compound?" Tony clarified.

"With you. I'm not sure who was in the blue and silver."

"Pepper's suit is going to be blue and silver when it's finished manufacturing," Tony told him – and her. Now he looked worried, too.

Peter realized that he had probably not expected Pepper to be part of the upcoming conflict. The suit he was making her had almost certainly been his way to make sure she was clad in metal and protected from injury. Not clad in metal and standing in front of the crazy guy bent on destroying half the universe with a snap of his fingers.

"Then it might have been her."

"Of course it was me," she said, firmly. "Where else would I be? You were holding one of the stones?"

"I think the soul stone."

"That one isn't on earth, though," Tony pointed out. "Are you sure it was you in the black?"

"It was my new suit."

"And it wasn't hurting you?" Pepper asked.

"I don't feel anything in the dreams I have," he reminded her. "It didn't seem to be, though."

"Well, we know the shield works, then," Tony said, trying to look a little less concerned. "That's a start."

"How do you get that stone, though?"

"I'm not sure," Peter admitted. "I didn't see that part."

"Well, it isn't something we can figure out right now," Pepper said. "Maybe one of the others can think of something. Stephen, perhaps."

"Is he back from Asgard, yet?" Peter asked, thinking that the answer was almost certainly no – or he would probably have ended up in Natasha's bed, instead of with Pepper and Tony.

"No," Tony replied. "But I'm not worried."

Thor was an ally, after all.

"Are you feeling better?" Pepper asked her son, her hand brushing his forehead and then his cheek. "Anything we can do?"

Peter shook his head.

"You already did it," he told them, honestly – even though he was pleased that they both looked a little less worried with the comment. Peter didn't feel as afraid, either, in the light of day and tucked between them like he was. "I'm sorry…"

"For coming to our bed?" Pepper asked. "Or not having more information for us? Because you do realize that you have no reason to apologize for any of the rest of it? None of this is on you, after all."

"For worrying you."

"We're getting used to it," Tony told him with a wink and a soft smile that made Peter feel better. "Do you hurt?"

"No."

"Do you need more sleep?"

"No. I'm okay."

"Does Alec agree with you?" Pepper asked, archly.

There was a snort of amusement that was purely mental.

"You're healthy."

"He says I'm healthy."

"Then get out of my bed and go put some clothes on before Shuri wakes up and comes looking for you," Tony said, ruffling his hair, affectionately. "I don't want any international incidents that I have to try to explain to T'Challa."

"Or to her mother," Pepper added.

Feeling better because they were able to tease him, he did a double-check, really quick, to make sure that he was wearing pants (he was relieved that he actually still had the sweats that he'd been wearing when he went to bed) and then he rolled over Tony and tumbled out of their bed, landing gracefully on his feet.

"Breakfast soon?" he asked.

"I need to wake up, first. Mom's going into the city for a while – do you need anything from the tower?"

Peter felt just a stab of worry, and then realized that he was being stupid. Pepper could go there safely; she wasn't the one who was going to have Thanos coming after her, so there probably wasn't anything dangerous about her being in the city, or at the tower.

"A donut from the shop next door?"

She smiled; as he'd hoped that she would, and nodded.

"That could probably be arranged."

OOOOOO

When he was gone, Tony took a deep breath, that ended in a long, worried sigh.

"Well, that all sounds horrible…"

"Because it is," she agreed, taking his hand. "What do we do?"

Tony hesitated, forcing himself not to say what he wanted to do, since Pepper would agree with him, and Peter wouldn't. If he had his way he'd lock the boy somewhere deep in the sanctum – maybe in the same room that Stephen had the time stone in – and keep him there while he and the other Avengers took on Thanos without him.

And the prophesy telling him otherwise be damned.

The problem with that, was that Peter wouldn't allow it to happen. Between his own natural tendencies, hanging out with superheroes all day and the values that had been instilled in him even before Tony had ever met him, the boy had a sense of responsibility that wouldn't let him sit back and watch when he could help.

Besides, he could be useful – if they could make sure that he was someplace safe, if – when – this Thanos came looking for him.

Of course, that didn't mean allowing him to stand up on the roof of the compound looking like a giant target, though. They'd have to have a talk before that happened, because Tony's Ironman suit could fly, and the Rescue suit that Pepper was going to have would have the capabilities of flight, but Peter's amazing suit that Shuri had built him was limited to being earthbound, and that meant that there wasn't a way for him to get off the roof quickly, if he needed to do so.

"We do what we've been doing, honey," he said, instead, squeezing her hand. "Do what we can to mitigate damages, and keep him as safe as we can."

"And this stone?"

"Vision and Wanda are coming, today," he reminded her. "Maybe Vision has a thought about that."

He had a stone in his head, after all, and it was tied to the memories of everyone in the universe if Tony understood how it worked. Maybe it would know what the next step was.

She didn't look convinced, and she didn't look any less worried, but she allowed him to kiss her, softly, and then gather her into his arms, stealing some comfort and giving some to her at the same time. Pepper sighed.

"These aren't the teenaged problems that I expected when you first brought up the idea of you adopting him… you know that, right?"

"Under aged drinking, sneaking out for parties and girls…?" Tony guessed.

"Those were up on the list, yes."

"This is Peter, Pep," Tony told her. "A kid as extraordinary as he is isn't going to have something as mundane as a hangover looming over his head."

"If he gets hurt, I'm going to ground him."

Stark smiled.

"I'll make sure that he knows."

OOOOOOO

Peter went to his rooms to change, and walked into a disaster.

"I should have had you bring him with you…"

"Yeah."

Nutmeg had clearly not been impressed to wake up and find himself alone in Peter's quarters. Unchaperoned, the kitten had worked his way along every shelf in all three rooms, including the bathroom, and had knocked everything off of each of them. A quick glance into the bathroom showed the toilet paper was shredded and pulled from the roll, left in a pile, and the vibranium polymorph cage that protected Peter's Ironman plush doll had been dragged up onto the sofa – where Nutmeg was pawing at it with one foot, trying to figure out how to free the doll from its confines.

Peter shook his head and scooped the kitten up in one hand and the polymorph with the other, wrestling the doll from one stubborn claw.

"You're a bad kitten," he told him. "You know that, right?"

"He almost certainly doesn't care," Alec pointed out.

"Probably." Peter looked at the mess. "Karen? Tell Friday to pass word to Tony that I might be late for breakfast and not to worry."

"You got it."