"Hungry?"

Peter nodded, looking across the table at Tony and Pepper, who were watching him, carefully – as they had been surreptitiously doing since he, Ned and Shuri had met them in the garage. He knew they were just watching to make sure he didn't tire himself out, but he thought that they might be a little concerned because now that they were out in public at the buffet restaurant he didn't have Nutmeg or the cloak with him, working on helping him heal faster.

On the plus side, after another night with both of them keeping him company as he slept, he felt better than he had the day before. Still tired, and still sore enough that he could feel it, but not too bad.

He'd woken in his own bed, the cloak humming in his mind, and Nutmeg purring in his ear. A quick double-check to make sure that he hadn't slept in, and he got himself up, managed to undress and get boxers and jeans on one-handed (which hadn't been that easy – and the button on the jeans hadn't been fastened, because it turned out to be impossible to do it, for some reason) but by the time Ned came knocking on his door – sent by Tony to check on him since Karen told them all he was awake – Peter was hopelessly entangled in his t-shirt and his friend laughed at him so hard that he actually had to sit down for a minute and hold his side before he could get it together enough to carefully help Peter into the shirt.

"You realize no one can learn of this, right?" Ned had asked as he helped Peter further by taking care of the button on his jeans. "I mean, seriously… I'd have to kill you."

Peter had smiled, feeling better for his friend's company, but unwilling to say anything like that while Ned had buttoned his jeans for him. He just thanked him, profusely, and then had prevailed on him to tie his shoes for him, as well.

"Thanks, dad…" Peter had said, once Ned had him dressed for his day.

Ned had grinned, reaching out and tousling Peter's hair and deepening his voice to do a fair impression of Tony.

"You're welcome, son. Now, let's go meet your mom and the others and get some breakfast. I'm starving."

Peter had stopped long enough to drop Nutmeg with Groot, who wasn't coming to brunch for obvious reasons. The young tree didn't mind; none of the guardians were interested in eating out. They were going to spend a leisure day around the compound, and Peter and Rocket had mentioned double-checking the Milano for any system issues since they had the ship on the ground and could give her a complete retrofit, if needed. Peter had been interested in that, when he'd heard about it, but Quill had shooed him and Ned (and Shuri) away from the heavily camouflaged and guarded ship, telling them that they should go eat with their family, instead, and could check out the ship another time.

The guardians didn't seem to be in any hurry to leave earth, yet, and Peter was glad, really. He liked them, even Drax, who was pretty blunt but knew some great phrases that he was teaching Peter (and the others) without realizing it. Pepper hadn't been impressed, but since Peter (Parker) knew better than to say any of them around her, she couldn't complain too much.

He'd spent some time talking to Groot and Rocket when he and Ned had delivered Nutmeg to the lounge, reminding the tree that the kitten wasn't allowed outside.

"Groot doesn't care," Rocket had pointed out, reaching out and caressing the kitten's furry side, with a furry paw of his own. "He doesn't like to go outside, either."

Groot had nodded his agreement rather than shake his head and had handed Rocket the kitten just as Shuri walked into the lounge, dressed casually and ready to go to brunch with the others. It was something she'd done more than once, now, but was still novel enough to the princess that she grinned, cheerfully, when asking Peter and Ned if they were ready, because Tony and Pepper had stopped by her rooms to make sure she was still planning on going with them.

They'd met up with Stephen and Natasha on the way and the cloak had vanished through a portal that was terminated in the 3rd floor library at the sanctum. Wong had been invited, but he was researching that morning and hadn't even looked up at the invitation – he'd simply waved Strange away and told him to have fun and tell everyone hello.

An easy drive – in two separate cars, since Stephen and Natasha were taking Ned home after they were finished eating – and the group had soon found themselves in their normal private room at the restaurant.

"I'm pretty hungry," Peter replied to Tony's question.

None of the adults were surprised. They'd already seen the byproducts of his enhanced healing – especially with Nutmeg and the cloak accelerating it. Peter slept a lot, and every meal had found him wolfing down even more than his teen-aged appetite usually called for.

"I don't want you trying to carry your own plates," Tony told him. "One-handed, you'll just be asking to make a mess."

And making the mess would stress him out, he and Pepper knew.

"I will help him," Shuri assured Tony.

"Me, too," Ned agreed.

So Peter found himself spending brunch telling his friends what he wanted and having them bring it to him. There were several trips, but they all encouraged him to eat as much as he wanted; even Ned and Shuri knew that it was the best way to get him healthy as soon as possible. They teased him, lightly, as he sent Stephen up for plate of little corndogs that he liked so much – the doctor was going that way, anyway, after all – but he and Shuri polished off the plate and Shuri and Ned had both gone back for more.

The conversations were light as they ate; not about anything avenger or compound related, but the waitstaff did stop and ask him how he'd managed to hurt himself, and teased him, good-naturedly about trying to do things with only one hand. Peter had then regaled them – and the others – with stories of trying to tie his shoes, put a shirt on and mourned the fact that he hadn't had a shower in weeks, now.

The staff – who always took great care of them, anyway – was sympathetic, of course, and the two assigned to the room were just as good as the others about making sure Peter didn't need to get up for anything he wanted. By the time they were done eating, Peter had eaten a sample of pretty much everything the buffet had to offer and had sent Ned for more than one piece of cake.

And, of course, had to endure some teasing because of it.

"Are you finished?" Pepper asked, her eyes soft and amused at the look on Peter's face.

He smiled, slightly, but nodded.

"Probably."

"Are you sure?" Tony asked. "We can always go hunt down a mastodon, or something, if you're still hungry."

"The mastodon is extinct, Tony," Stephen reminded his friend. "Most likely because of a couple of hungry teen-aged paleolithic humans."

Natasha snorted, softly, amused, but she winked at Peter.

"Don't you listen to them, baby," she told him. "You eat as much as you want. We'll worry about the famine that it causes, later."

Shuri laughed, and Peter rolled his eyes.

"Are we ready?" Tony asked the group, well aware that with the heavy meal Peter had just eaten he wasn't going to even make the ride home, most likely. He already looked satiated and Tony and Pepper knew the look well enough to know that sleepy wasn't far behind. "I have some things to get done before Monday."

"Are you working at the tower, Monday?" Shuri asked Pepper – and they all saw her hopeful expression and knew she wanted to go see the building, again, but wouldn't ask to be invited.

Princesses didn't finagle invitations; they waited until someone else did the inviting – at least for something like that, which she was almost certain would require a call to her brother for permission.

"I am," Pepper told the girl. "And if T'Challa clears it, I'd love some company. We can do a day in the life kind of thing, and you can sit in on my meetings, if you're interested – or you can look around."

"With proper security supervision," Tony added, pointedly.

"Are you going?" Shuri asked, as they all got up to leave.

"No. I hate Monday at the tower."

"And Tuesday…" Pepper added. "And Wednesday… and-"

"There are so many meetings…" Tony complained, smiling. "Pepper is much better at handling them."

"I'll drive them in," Happy offered. "And then I'll keep Shuri company when she isn't with Pepper."

The princess smiled, cheerfully. She liked Happy – who was gruff, but really nice. Even better, she knew that Happy was basically a body guard for Pepper, and T'Challa would accept him as a companion for her, as well, since if he was good enough that Tony trusted him to keep Pepper safe, her brother would trust the man to guard her, as well.

"Thank you."

Peter was pleased by how happy she looked, even though he knew that he wasn't going to be allowed to go to the tower with Pepper for a while, still. He didn't mind, though. Stephen and Flash's dad were going to take his bandages off and get a look at his hand to see how he was doing. They'd do it before Pepper left, of course, but if it looked like it was healing enough, he could keep the bandages off – or maybe just go with normal ones instead of the heavy, nanotech enriched ones that he had, now.

The group split up at the door. Ned, Natasha and Stephen waited for the valets to bring the sedan that Natasha would drive them back to the city in, while Happy brought the limo for the rest of them.

"You good, Ned?" Tony asked Peter's friend.

"Yeah. Thanks for letting me come. It was great."

He didn't mean brunch, of course, and Tony knew that.

"You're welcome. We'll see what next weekend looks like, alright?"

"Yeah."

Ned hugged Shuri and Pepper, before saying his goodbyes to the others and getting into the back of the car when it arrived.

"How do you feel?" Pepper asked Peter when they got into the limo.

He eased himself into the seat beside Tony, across from Pepper and Shuri, who was also watching him.

"I'm good." He smiled. "Thanks for letting me come."

He did mean brunch.

Pepper nodded; she was just relieved he was healthy enough to be moving around a little.

"You're welcome. Nothing more active than sitting around for the rest of the day, though, alright? Stephen wants you to rest."

"Okay."

He didn't argue. For one thing, he was certain that it wouldn't do any good. For another, he was already feeling worn out, just from being on his feet as little as he had been. He knew he wasn't going to be up to doing much more than he was, just then.

"Wise man," Alec told him, amused.

Peter ignored that and found himself leaning against Tony as they pulled out of the parking lot and onto the highway. As Shuri asked Pepper about her schedule at the tower the next day, Peter fell asleep, shifting to get comfortable until he was laying across the seat with his head on his father's leg. Pepper smiled at her husband and pulled a blanket from a side compartment and carefully covered the boy, who mumbled something, and then went back to sleep.

"Down day," Tony murmured to Shuri, telling her that he didn't want them being too active.

The princess nodded.

She figured they could find something interesting to do that didn't require running around.

A video game, maybe – or a movie marathon. Peter was pretty easy to please, usually.