"Why do you look so tired?"

Peter smiled, able to see that Tony looked more exasperated than concerned.

"Sorry."

"You slept okay?"

"Yeah."

"You didn't stay up all night, emailing Shuri?"

Since Ned and MJ were – presumably – sleeping, the Wakandan princess was the first suspect when it came to keeping Peter too distracted to sleep.

"No. Only a couple of emails before she told me to go to bed."

"And you did?"

"I went," Peter confirmed. "But I didn't go to sleep, right away."

"Because…?"

"Because I was thinking."

Tony rolled his eyes, looking at Pepper, who had been watching them as she buttered her toast.

"Are you listening to this. 'I was thinking…' Like he needs to stay up all night thinking, instead of getting sleep."

Pepper wasn't the only one to smile at that, but she turned to their son, and her expression was a little concerned.

"We can keep you home, you know. The school thing is important, but we can just ease you into it, especially with everything else that's going on."

"No. I'm good. Really. I was just thinking about the doctors checking my hand, today."

"You're worried?" Tony asked, glancing down at the brace on the boy's hand. "Is it bothering you?"

"Not too much. But it'll be a relief to get the brace off."

"I imagine it will be," Pepper agreed. She shrugged, then. "If you're sure you're good, then we'll see how it goes. If you're still tired after the doctors check your hand, then Tony can bring you home and we'll make a half day out of it."

Peter nodded.

"Alright."

He had practice, today, so he had no intention of going home early.

"If they take the brace off, you're back to kitchen boy status," Tony added, smirking.

"I'm not worried."

His expression proved that. The boy was cheerful. They'd had an easy night the evening before, spending time together playing Scrabble until Pepper had finally called it a night and sent them all to bed. Peter had gone, willingly, taking Nutmeg with him, and swinging by to check and make sure that Ironpig was in his pen – and stopping to see if Nick needed any help with Jack, who was sprawled in the director's bed, snoring, while Fury had been sitting at his desk debating if he wanted a furry bedmate, or not.

Then he'd gone to bed, but had chatted through emails with Shuri, who had assured him she was feeling much better and had reminded him that he should get some sleep. He'd intended to do just that, but his thoughts had been scattered, mostly thinking about the appointment the next day, and the fact that losing the brace meant that he was well enough to be able to Spiderman, again, and take care of the remaining stones.

Maybe he'd be able to get all of this mess past him and be normal for a while.

"You're far from normal," Alec had reminded him, cheerfully. "You're incredible."

Peter had actually blushed, and had smiled, knowing that the extraordinary ancient sorcerer had been sincere. Then he'd gone to sleep, soothed by the mind stone and dreams of planets floating in the darkness of space.

"The appointment is at 11:30," Pepper reminded Tony. "Doctor Thompson is going to be there, along with Stephen."

"I'll be there," Stark assured her.

"Academic decathlon practice, today, too," Peter added, looking pleased.

Pepper nodded.

"I haven't forgotten."

Tony frowned, though, because he had.

"It's at the school?"

"At 3 o'clock," Peter confirmed.

"How are we getting him there?"

"I'll take the bus."

"And I'm picking him up when it's over – I'll make sure I'm finished working by then."

"I could stick around the city and drive you there," Tony offered. "I'm not doing anything too important, today."

Rather than feel like he was being stifled, Peter understood that Tony just wanted to be there for him, and he appreciated it. Enough so that he nodded his agreement.

"Sounds great."

OOOOOOO

"Is Parker coming to practice?"

Ned nodded, looking up from his phone and seeing Flash standing at the table watching him.

"Yeah. Why?"

"Just checking. My dad said he was going to go check his hand, today, before lunch."

"It looks good," MJ told him. "He'll probably get the brace off, soon."

"Thanks to my dad."

Ned rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, all because of your dad, Flash." He wondered privately if Dr. Thompson was as much of a douche as his son was, or if there was a different source for the hostility in the other teen. Not that he cared enough to find out, though. "It didn't have anything to do with Peter being young and healthy."

"Are you going to be there?" MJ asked, not interested in watching the two boys go at each other. "We're working on the sciences."

"I'll be there. Got to make the rest of you look good, after all."

Flash walked off, and Ned shook his head, looking at MJ.

"You're the captain of the team. I think you should be able to tell him off."

She shrugged.

"Wouldn't do any good. He does what he wants, pretty much." They already knew that, after all. She smiled, though, and suddenly looked excited. "He'll want to be there, anyway," she added. "There's a special announcement that's going to be made."

Ned looked interested – of course.

"Yeah? What?"

MJ smirked.

"You have to wait – just like everyone else."

OOOOOOOOO

"This place really is beautiful," Dr. Thompson said, looking around as they walked into Pepper's office. "I drive by it pretty much twice a day but this is the first time I've ever been inside."

"I'll have someone giver you a tour before you leave, if you're interested," Tony offered. "There's a fair amount of medical research going on above us."

"I'd appreciate that, thank you." He smiled, turning his attention the actual reason for being there – which was sitting on the edge of Pepper's desk, where he'd been watching her and her personal assistant sort through some paperwork. "Hello, Peter."

"Hi, Doctor Thompson. How are you?"

"Well, thank you." The doctor nodded to Stephen, who had been seated on the sofa where he'd been sipping coffee with Tony until the call had come from the lobby that the doctor was there for Peter's appointment. "Doctor Strange. Nice to see you, again."

"Thank you. And you."

"Thanks for inviting me to check his hand," Thompson added. "I was hoping I could do a follow up and see the finished result of the nanotech."

"Let's take a look, shall we?" Strange asked, standing and heading for Peter, as well. As far as he was concerned – and Tony and Pepper agreed with him – Dr. Thompson deserved a chance to see how the hand was healing. He'd put a lot of effort into Peter's recovery, after all. "Peter?"

The boy smiled, holding out the braced hand for whichever doctor wanted to do the honors. It was Thompson who stepped forward and carefully removed the brace, and then studied the boy's hand, tilting it every direction and making several approving noises each time he looked at it from a different angle. Stephen did the same when he was done, and Tony and Pepper watched as both doctors ran Peter through a series of range of motion tests – all of which he passed, easily.

"It looks amazing," Thompson said, shaking his head, smiling. He looked at Pepper. "It really does. I'm not just saying that to keep you from worrying."

She smiled her relief.

"Any pain at all?" Thompson asked, Peter.

"Only when I've used it a bit, like doing the swimming for rehab, that kind of thing."

"You'll want to keep doing it," Thompson said. "I can't believe there isn't any scarring. I expected most of the flexibility to come back – you're young – but scars were inevitable, I thought. Well done."

The boy just shrugged; he really didn't have anything to do with that part of things, now did he?

"Thank you."

"So, your conclusion?" Strange asked.

"Keep doing whatever the physical therapist is having you do. I'd let that person make the final call on it, but I don't see any reason for him to continue to wear the brace, either."

Peter beamed, looking over at Pepper and Tony, pleased to see the relieved expressions on their faces.

"We'll keep it on him until this evening," Stephen said, tempering the boy's enthusiasm, and smiling when Peter scowled. "Just to give your physical therapist the final say."

"Sounds like a plan," Tony agreed.

Pepper nodded.

"You want that tour?" Tony asked Thompson, more than willing to do him the favor, after all the help he'd been with Peter's hand.

"Absolutely."

OOOOOOOO

The team was excited to see Peter when he showed up at the first practice of the year. Most of them crowded around him, greeting him and checking out his hand, asking him what he'd been doing and what he knew about what had happened with the light, and the aliens that had attacked the Avenger compound and China. They all knew that he'd know a lot more than what they would, after all.

Peter smiled, happy to be back with his friends – even if it was just going to be for the practices, for now – which would be a couple of times a week throughout the decathlon season. He admitted that he knew more than they did, but then gave them an apologetic look and told them that he was sworn to secrecy, and grinned when they groaned, dramatically.

There were a couple of teachers present, as well as Mr. Harrington and their principal, which was unusual enough that the practice wasn't too helpful, since the kids were all distracted. When four thirty came, and MJ and Harrington finally gave up on them getting anything done, the principal stepped forward, smiling at the kids.

"We've got some exciting news, kids," he said, watching them with a smug expression. "Thanks to our impressive win last season, this year we're getting the opportunity to add to our network of competitions by hosting an international competition. Fifteen teams will be competing over a one week span."

"Please tell me we're going somewhere…" Ned said, excitedly.

"We're hosting, dipshit," Flash said, contemptuously. "That means we're not traveling, right Mr. Harrington?"

"Right and wrong," the principal said, scowling at Flash until the boy rolled his eyes in apology. Then he turned his attention back to the others. "We're hosting, but the competition won't be in our school, of course. We'll be having the competition in the city, at a location thus far not yet selected. It'll be fancy, though, so you can believe that it's going to be exciting – and I expect that we'll do we'll do well."

His tone made it clear that he meant it, too.

"We should have it at the Avenger's compound, Peter," Ned whispered, nudging his friend. "Wouldn't that be cool?"

Peter smiled, but shook his head. He couldn't even imagine asking Tony and the others to do something like that. They'd gone all out when it was just his school team coming for a field trip. Having kids from fifteen different schools show up on their doorstep for a week? That would be nuts.

"That'd be impossible," he replied, trying to be quiet so they wouldn't disturb the excited murmuring of the others, who were already talking about how different the questions would be with different nations involved – and how tricky the whole thing could become. It was exciting. "We don't have that kind of space."

"Maybe a field trip?"

Peter shrugged.

"Maybe. No promises."

The principal smiled. He'd been listening.

"There's plenty of time to decide everything – and map out the schedule. For now, we just wanted to let you know so we can get you kids started on practice questions that are standard for the international competitions."

He left, as did the other adults, since the practice was over, but most of the kids stuck around talking about it, and wondering what kind of questions would be standard.

"Too bad we're hosting," Peter said, smiling at MJ when she came and sat with them.

"Probably couldn't drive your car to London," she pointed out.

"Not to mention we get into enough scraped here at home," Ned added. "Could you imagine what would probably happen if we were far from home?"

OOOOOO

A/N: couldn't help myself, sorry! heh