"So that's what he was up to…?"

Stark nodded, leaning back into his chair with a tired sigh.

"Apparently. He didn't say anything to you about it?"

Romanoff shook her head.

"No. Of course not. He just asked if he could sleep with me." She shrugged. "Pretty smart, really, if you think about it. If something scary happened, he was already in place and wasn't going to be roaming through the compound looking for one of us to keep him safe."

"Don't tell him that, okay?" Stark requested, rolling his eyes. "It was smart, I'll admit, but the idea here is that he did something so crazy without running it by anyone."

"It's not like he used the teleporting rock and actually went to this guy's planet, though," Natasha pointed out. "It was a mind thing, right? The mind stone was probably right there, making sure nothing bad happened. And Alec."

"It's the fact that he did it without asking."

"Two weeks is a long time, now that he's feeling better."

"I wanted to make it a month. Pepper talked me down to two weeks."

"Sounds a bit extreme. He was just trying to save us the trouble of having this collector guy end up on earth looking for him and causing even more headaches."

Tony scowled, annoyed with her for being so reasonable. He wanted someone to agree with him, not commiserate with Peter.

"You know, Romanoff, I can't wait until you and Stephen decide to have a kid. I'm going to sit back and watch as the little ninja wizard does something that scares the bajeezus out of you guys and then I'm going to be all kinds of calm and cool about it."

She smirked.

"Don't hold your breath."

That made him smile, though. She was practically glowing at the idea – or maybe just the fact that it was an option where it hadn't been, before – and that was incredible. He liked seeing her so happy.

"I'm not. But it might be fun to see you waddling around here, belly out to there and complaining about your back hurting and your feet swelling."

"I don't know that that's even a thing."

"Ask your boyfriend, he can tell you."

She rolled her eyes, amused.

"Are you done complaining about Peter being reckless?"

"Yes. Since you are clearly tired of listening to me. Do you have any plans, tonight?"

"No."

"Good. How would you like to be Juliet?"

"What?"

It was Stark's turn to smirk, and he opened a briefcase and tossed a book her direction. She caught it, easily, looking at the title and then at him.

"Peter needs help with his homework," Tony told her. "Apparently reading plays is boring and makes it hard to focus on the story."

"Because they are boring to read," she confirmed.

"Not if you have a few avengers reading it with you and acting it out."

"No videotaping."

"Scout's honor."

"When, tonight?"

"After dinner."

"I'll think about it."

She tucked the book into her pocket, though, and was still smiling when she left. He smiled, too, and then saw Steve and Carol walk into the lounge. He waved a hand to catch their attention, and double-checked his supply of copies of the play. Yup, there were plenty.

"Hey, Tony," Steve said, coming over. "What's up?"

"Funny you should ask. What are you two doing, tonight?"

OOOOOO

He was waiting for them when they pulled into the parking garage. Pepper smiled a greeting as she stopped the car, but Peter looked annoyed.

"How was the drive?" he asked her, taking her bag when he opened the door for her, and brushed a kiss against her cheek.

"Nice. The company was good."

That earned her a smile from the boy next to her. He unbuckled his seatbelt and got out of the car.

"I should go spend some time with Nutmeg," Peter said.

"You should come look and see what you think of the work I've started on your car," Tony corrected. "I think the bumper is going to be the easy part – and the new lights are supposed to be here, tomorrow. If I get all the pieces built, we might be able to start to assemble it this weekend."

"Really?" That definitely perked him up.

"Go look."

Peter moved over to the other side of the garage.

"Are you being nice to make up for grounding him?"

"No. I already planned on doing it – and he knows it. Why does he look upset? Is he still mad at me?"

"He sent Ned and the others an email to let them know that he's grounded, longer, now, and they weren't very nice about asking what dumb thing he'd done this time." She smiled. "Except for MJ. She just assumes he's going to do something dumb, now, I suppose."

"He didn't tell them, I assume?"

"No. But you know they're going to pressure him for a reason, and he's not very good at coming up with things like that. You might give him an idea of what he should say."

"Yeah." He smiled, though, and took her elbow. "The car's going to look great," he said, leading her over to where Peter was standing at the front of the Pontiac, looking at the pieces of the front end that Tony had already started.

The boy looked over at him.

"You did all this, today?"

"Manufacturing is the easy part, son," he said, modestly. "Putting the pieces back on in the right spot is a little trickier. We'll work on it this weekend."

"Okay."

"How was school?"

"It was good."

"Homework?"

"Nope."

Pepper smiled.

"He finished early and went to his room and played pinball."

"Sounds good. Are you hungry? We're going to order pizzas, tonight."

Which didn't sound like that big of a deal, except that there weren't any pizza places within delivery range of the compound. That meant that when the Avengers (usually Peter, really) wanted pizza, they tended to order them, have the pizza place make them and then freeze them so they could be picked up by someone, brought back to the compound and cooked in the ovens of the commissary or the lounge so they would be hot.

Pizza was a big deal and it always made Peter smile.

"Sounds great. Yeah."

"Clint's going to go get it. If you want to go and make sure he doesn't bring back anchovies, go find him. We'll be in the lounge waiting with beer."

"Okay."

Looking considerably more cheerful, Peter headed for the door to the garage.

"But no beer for you!" Tony added, quickly.

The boy waved his hand to show he'd heard, but didn't stop. Pepper smiled, and put her arm back through his.

"You know, when I was a kid, being grounded meant I didn't get to go anywhere…"

"You grew up on a farm," he pointed out. "Where did you even want to go? Someone else's farm?"

"You're such a softie…"

He snorted, and led her away from Peter's somewhat dismantled car.

"Don't tell anyone."

"Because they don't already suspect?"

He rolled his eyes.

"How's the school thing working out? Think it'll keep him occupied and distracted? Or do we need to come up with recess activities to break up his day?"

"You might start thinking up field trip ideas."

Tony smiled.

"I can do that."

"Educational field trips," she added. "Not trips to the arcade."

How well she knew him.

"The track?" he asked, blandly. "Strip club?"

Pepper snorted, amused.

"Never mind; I'll come up with field trip ideas. Maybe I'll see if Elon will show him around his New York office."

"Boring. He might as well be grounded."

Which made her smile.

"Did you find anyone to help him with the play?"

"Of course. We'll begin reading it after dinner. There aren't a lot of women roles, though. If you want to play, too, you might have to be Montague."

"Not Romeo?"

"Steve's Romeo, tonight. If we don't finish, you can be him, tomorrow."

"And you'll be Juliet?"

He smirked.

"We'll see."