"You sure you don't want us to drop you somewhere?"

Peter shook his head, getting out of the car, and closing the door behind him, careful not to jar his injured hand – although it wasn't so sore that morning. He was still in the brace, though, and would be until further notice.

"No. Thanks, though. We'll take the train."

"We'll be at the tower if you need anything," Tony told him.

Not working, though. It was Sunday, after all, and they were going to enjoy the weekend, but Tony wanted to see what Pepper's people had set up for Peter's homeschooling in her office. Then they'd spend some time together, giving their son the rest of the afternoon to spend with MJ. There wasn't any sense in them driving all the way back to the compound, though. Not when they had the tower to occupy themselves.

"Okay."

He waved and they watched as he walked into the building where the girl lived, and then drove away.

"He looks nervous," Tony noted.

Of course, they'd noticed that all morning.

They'd met the boys in the garage to go to brunch. Ned and Peter hadn't gone back to sleep, after, having been too excited by the departure of the Milano – and helped along by a new batch of sugar in their systems from the remaining marshmallows and chocolate. They'd run out of graham crackers the night before. Instead, they'd discussed the coming week and Peter's upcoming homeschooling, Ned's classes and what he was enjoying most about them, the rebuilding of the Pontiac – and Peter's upcoming afternoon with MJ.

Which was what had Peter so nervous.

He was hoping for a good time, and maybe a chance for them to reconnect a little, but he hadn't had a lot of chance to actually talk to MJ, since he was grounded from his phone and they'd been only able to converse with somewhat stilted emails the past few days.

Pepper nodded her agreement, looking over her shoulder as they left, even though she couldn't see the boy, any longer.

"Yes, he does. Poor baby."

Brunch had been a good time, even though it was only Tony, Pepper and the boys that morning. The others had had things that they needed to do and had begged off for that weekend, but they still had a good time. Ned was always fun company and the boys were both interested in what Pepper planned to do with the Rescue suit, now that there wasn't a desperate need for it. Tony had already started up plans for an AI that wasn't Friday and wasn't Vision.

Pepper had cast a sly glance at him and mentioned she might want a male themed AI since he and Peter both had female ones. He'd simply rolled his eyes and said that he'd ponder the notion. Which Ned pointed out sounded a lot like his mom before she said no to something crazy that he'd asked her to let him do.

Stark had feigned annoyance and had sent Ned off to fetch him another piece of pie before they left to head into the city.

OOOOOOO

It was MJ who answered the knock on the apartment door, and she smiled when she saw him.

"Hi, Peter."

He smiled, too.

"Hey. How are you?"

"Good." She stepped to the side, gesturing for him to enter. "Come inside. Mom and dad want to say hi."

And to make sure they knew what the two were planning on doing that afternoon.

"Okay."

The greetings were friendly, and he was a little less nervous when they left a few minutes later. It was supposed to sprinkle later, but they were much more prepared for that eventuality, this time, since both were carrying umbrellas. It was still sunny, though, when they reached the park, and were finally able to escape the crush of people who were also out and about on a Sunday.

"How have you been?" Peter asked, as they chose a pathway to walk on. One that purposely wasn't the same one that they'd encountered the mobsters on months ago. "Are you getting ready for academic decathlon?"

She'd sent him an email telling him that she had already received the schedule, and had warned him that practice was going to be starting, soon, asking if he was going to be able to join them. His reply had been instant, and affirmative.

"Good." She nodded. "We're just waiting for the freshmen signups," MJ told him. "Then we'll set practice times. I'll make sure you have the schedule."

"Okay."

"How was brunch?"

"Good. It was just me, Ned, Tony and Pepper."

"Where's everyone else?"

"Busy doing stuff to get ready for their week. Clint's at the farm, of course. Natasha was doing something with Stephen, and Steve is going over some data from last week."

"Is Carol still here?"

"She's gone, right now, but she'll be back." He smiled, pleased to have a little bit of harmless gossip. "She and Steve are a little bit of an item."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I think so."

"Wow."

"Yeah. They're a good match, I think."

"What's Shuri up to?"

"She has a cold. From coming and going between here and Wakanda so much, the doctors say. So she's stuck in bed for a few days."

"Oh." She looked at his hand, still encased in the brace. "How have you been?" she asked. "I mean, how's your hand? And your arm?"

"I'm okay. I swim and squeeze a rubber ball to strengthen it." He produced the ball and handed it to her. "It's working. I feel pretty good."

Most of the time.

MJ squeezed it, experimentally, and nodded. Then she hesitated, handing it back to him.

"I'm sorry I was such a jerk to you," she said, abruptly. "I was upset."

Peter nodded.

"I know. I mean, I could tell. I'm sorry, too."

She walked over to a picnic table and sat down on it, followed by Peter.

"It's hard," she said. "I'm used to knowing what's going on around me – I'm pretty observant, and even when people don't tell me things, I can usually figure it out – but it's different with you. Obviously. That drives me crazy, and I worry about you getting hurt."

"I know. You shouldn't, though." He sighed; he'd kind of hoped that they weren't going to have this conversation, just yet. He'd been looking forward to a fun afternoon with her, and it didn't really take his spider senses to tell him that this could go south, quickly, if he said the wrong thing. And he was pretty good at saying the wrong thing, he knew. "I know it's tough on you and you've had to deal with a lot of weird and terrible things because of knowing me. But I have a lot of people already worrying about me and watching out for me, like I said before. I need friends, not protectors."

She scowled, clearly not appreciating a lecture in response to her apology.

"Friends are supposed to worry about each other."

"I know. About how they're doing in school, and what they're wearing, or helping them with their classwork or how to beat the boss in the last level of whatever videogame they're playing."

"You don't present those problems," MJ pointed out. "I have to worry about if you're going to do something dumb and get killed swinging through the city trying to be a hero."

He scowled.

"I'm not trying to be a hero," he snapped, annoyed. "I am one."

He'd save the universe, right? Even though she didn't know it, that had to count for something – and that wasn't even adding in all the things that he'd accomplished as Spiderman. Those she knew about, after all, and he was pretty good at it.

OOOOOOO

"This is nice…"

Tony smiled, looking out at the view of the city without getting off the sofa. He was comfortable, after all, and Pepper was cuddled up against his side. Both had kicked their shoes off and were enjoying a little quiet time, just the two of them.

"Yes, it is." He kissed her cheek, but it was more or less chaste, even though they figured they had several hours to kill. Plenty of time to goof around, of course, but both were more in the mood to simply be together, and comfortable enough with the other by then that they certainly didn't object to doing just that. "Did you have that talk with Romanoff?"

"I haven't had a chance, yet," Pepper admitted. "Something always comes up just when I think about it. I will, though."

"Think Stephen proposed?"

The assassin had been really cheerful, lately, and they'd all noticed – and were speculating on it. Well, the adults were, anyway. He wasn't sure if Peter had noticed, as well, caught up as he'd been in how his hand and arm were healing and the aftermath of the whole Thanos thing.

"Wouldn't that be interesting?" she speculated, smiling. "Superspy and sorcerer. Things would be-"

"Incoming call from Peter," Friday announced, integrated into the room, since they were in the tower.

"What?" Tony sat up a little, alert as always when something was out of the ordinary. He'd expected to have silence from that department for at least a couple more hours before they got the call to come get them. Which made visions of attempted kidnappings, or muggings, or even gangsters accosting the teens in the park come to mind, immediately. "Put him on. Peter?"

"Yeah."

"Everything okay, son?"

"I'm done," he said. "You don't have to come get me, if you're not ready, though. I can go to the-"

"No. We're just killing time, hanging out. Meet you at MJ's?"

"No. I'm at the park. The west entrance."

He frowned and looked at Pepper, who was already reaching for her shoes.

"We'll be there as soon as we can. Are you alright?"

"Yeah."

"Hang tight." The call ended and Tony looked at Pepper. "He didn't sound alright to me. You?"

"No."