When they were finished eating, they hung out in the lounge for a while. Mainly to give Ned a chance to meet the guardians. The boy was fascinated by them all and tried very hard not to be rude and stare while Tony and Peter introduced him to them. For their part, they'd all heard of Ned from Peter at one time or another, and their reactions to him varied from friendly (Peter and Groot) to somewhat aloof, only because they didn't really know how to relate to teenaged boys (Gamora and Mantis). Rocket was jaded and cynical, and Drax simply ignored him after the initial greeting.

Of course, Drax ignored Peter most of the time, too – and he was aware that Peter was about as interesting as a human could be.

While Peter's friend sat with Groot and Quill, learning more about them, Tony left to put the finishing touches on the D&D campaign for that evening, and Pepper and Peter discussed his homeschooling until Natasha arrived with Strange, and only a moment later Steve and Carol walked into the lounge, as well. All of them were carrying their D&D things.

"Where's Tony?" Natasha asked, walking over to the table where Peter was sitting.

She hugged him from behind, and smiled a greeting to Ned, who abandoned the aliens in favor of his crush and came over to sit beside Peter.

"He's on his way back here," Pepper replied. She looked at Peter. "Do you have your things?"

"No. I'll go get them, now."

Ned joined him, and the two walked back to Peter's quarters.

"Are Carol and Steve a thing, now?" Ned asked Peter, quietly, as if he was worried about being overheard. "They look pretty chummy…"

Peter grinned, but was forced to shrug.

"I'm not sure," he admitted. "They spend a lot of time together, but I haven't seen them holding hands or kissing… nothing like that."

"Which doesn't mean that they aren't…"

"Right?

"They're seriously a power couple, aren't they?" Ned commented as they gathered their things from his room. "Both military. Superhero types. Blonde. Good looking."

"I'm partial to Stephen and Natasha, myself," Peter replied. "He's super powerful and she's deadly. And they look good, together."

Ned made a face, which amused Peter.

"You know she's just leading him on, right?"

"Yeah?"

"Of course."

"Because…?"

"Because she needs to wait until I'm eighteen to make her move on me. Doctor Strange is just the distraction until I'm legal."

Peter smirked.

"Have you two talked that over?"

Ned shrugged.

"I'm still playing the field, Peter. Natasha knows that."

"And Stephen…?"

"She'll let him down easy, I bet."

The boy laughed, wishing that Natasha had used her ninja skills and had snuck up into the room, just then, to have heard that conversation. He certainly couldn't repeat it to her, after all – and there was no way it was simply going to come up in regular conversation.

OOOOOOO

Despite not having Shuri or Clint available, there were plenty of people playing and they were all attentive and engaged in the campaign that Tony set up. As such, it lasted well into the night, culminating in an intense final battle between their large group of diverse companions against a demon (which had made Stephen roll his eyes at Tony's description) who had three pet dragons at his command. There were multiple casualties, but miraculously, none of the party actually died.

Or maybe it was just Tony carefully manipulating the rolls that he could control to see to it that everyone had a good time, but no one suffered the indignity of losing their D&D creation to the maws of one of the dragons, or their master. When they were finished divvying up the loot, and were putting their character sheets away, Tony looked at Peter, gauging how he was doing.

"How do you feel?"

"I'm okay."

"And your hand?"

"Aches a bit."

Not enough that he was hiding it from them to avoid worrying them. Which was a relief to Pepper and to Tony.

"And your head?" Natasha asked, joining in the interrogation, amused.

"It's fine," he replied, rolling his eyes, good-naturedly.

"Steve's going to meet you in the pool in the morning to lifeguard while you do your physical therapy swim," Tony told him. "Then we'll have breakfast."

"Okay."

"Can I swim, too?" Ned asked, listening in.

Rogers nodded, not even bothering to check with Tony. Both boys were decent swimmers, now, and Stark wasn't quite as manic when it came to them being in the water. Not that they were allowed in the pool without any supervision, but he didn't insist on having someone actually in the water with them, now – only close enough to help out if something happened.

"I don't see why not."

"Don't wear yourself out, though," Romanoff warned Ned. "We're sparring after breakfast, sometime."

"Sweet."

Peter smiled at his friend's excitement. He always enjoyed having Ned at the compound. Not only for his company – which was a given, of course – but because it was fun for Peter to watch how the others let his friend in on things, and treated him like he was one of them. Ned lived for that kind of thing, and Peter liked it when he was happy.

They'd come a long way from being the loners that they used to be – although he knew they were still nerds. They were just in good company, was all.

The group started to separate for the night; most of them going to bed, but a few sticking around the lounge to socialize. Ned looked at Peter, and then at Tony – which gave both of them the warning that he definitely had something on his mind.

"Can we go look at the spaceship?" he asked Stark.

"You wouldn't be able to see much, right now," Tony told him. "It's under a screen and some camouflaging technology, and we've specifically made sure that the area it's parked in is dark. Wait until tomorrow, and we'll see if we can get you a look inside."

"And a ride?"

Tony looked at Peter, who shrugged his innocence. He hadn't mentioned the test run, but while Ned was talking to Quill and the other guardians, they had probably brought it up with him.

"That's up to the guardians," Tony replied. "And whether they think it's safe. That isn't a conversation that I'd care to have with your mother, after all."

Ned made a face, but he could definitely understand.

"Not to mention you get airsick…" Peter added.

"It's a spaceship," Ned pointed out, unperturbed by the thought. "I'd be fine."

"What are you two doing the rest of the night?" Natasha asked, knowing that they weren't going to be interested in sitting around the lounge watching the adults play cards when there were a lot of other options available to them at the compound.

"Video games," Peter answered, before Ned could.

"Don't stay up too late," Tony warned. "I don't want you falling asleep in the pool."

"We won't."

He and Ned said their goodnights to the others and left, and Pepper looked at her husband.

"You'll make sure they're in bed on your way to bed, right?"

"Yes."

OOOOOO

"A ride in a spaceship…" Ned said, shaking his head as they walked down the empty corridor toward Peter's rooms. "How frakking cool would that be?"

"It's cool," his friend agreed. "Know what else might be? I mean, not as cool as the spaceship, but might be fun…?"

"What?"

"Camping out in the field."

Ned was interested, immediately, of course. Camping outside wasn't something city kids did in Queens, after all. The compound was safe enough, but it would still be exciting.

"Tonight?"

"No. Probably not," Peter said. "We could ask, tomorrow, though, and do it tomorrow night."

"Tony would go for that, I bet," Ned said as they reached Peter's room. "Nothing could happen in the Avenger's backyard, after all."