"Where did he find me?"
Pepper smiled, looking over at her son for the briefest moments before turning her attention to the road, again.
"Out by the field." She reached over and patted his leg, cheerfully. "He told me that he almost expected it, really."
Peter nodded, but couldn't help but be a little exasperated with himself.
"He asked me outright last night if I thought I was going to end up with Natasha and I told him no."
She shrugged, not at all concerned. This wasn't a bad episode and he hadn't had one for a while.
"You didn't end up with Natasha," Pepper pointed out. "So you were right about that."
"Did he say anything to me?" Peter asked. "Do you know?"
She did. Of course she did. From the minute Friday had given them the heads up that Peter had left the compound main building until Tony returned to their bed – without Peter – she'd been kept apprised of what had happened.
"He found you sitting in that old chair," she told him, referring to a lounge chair that Peter liked to sit in when he was watching the military people do drills. Or if he was just in the mood for some fresh air. "When he asked you what you were doing, you told him you were thinking."
"About what?"
"You didn't tell him. Tony took you back to your room, rather than ours – since you seemed fine – and told me what happened."
She had asked, of course, but Tony hadn't been sure. He had his own ideas, and shared them with her, but without Peter confirming them, they were just guessed.
"Huh."
Pepper glanced at him, again.
"Are you alright, sunshine? Is it the hand bothering you? Or something else? Are you worried about school?"
"No. I mean, my hand hurts a little, but nothing like it did, before. And school is okay. I'm going to catch up." He looked out the window for a moment, watching the trees go by and wondering what the deer that he'd hit was doing. It was probably fine, he knew, but those were things that he tended to worry about. "I'm trying to figure out where to put the power stone," he told Pepper.
She was pretty smart. Like Tony, but in a different way. Wiser than him and Tony combined, he knew. Maybe she could act as a sounding board. Besides, he didn't like having a secret like that hanging over him – and maybe that was why he was stressing enough to leave his bed in the middle of the night.
Pepper nodded.
"That was what we were thinking it probably was." It didn't hurt to have confirmation, though. "What are your thoughts, so far?"
"It can't go back to the people Thanos stole it from. They've been decimated, really, and can't keep it safe."
"Even if they wanted it…" she agreed. "The thing was nothing but trouble for them and their world. They'd probably kick you off their planet for suggesting it."
"Yeah." He hadn't even thought of that. He was more worried about keeping the stone away from someone who might make a play like Thanos had. "Thor and the Asgard could probably protect two stones – they're pretty tough. But I don't want the power stone anywhere near Loki, really. And the collector can't have two – because he might obsess and decide to start trying to get them all – even though he was warned off. It's his nature to collect things, and it might be too tempting."
"So what are your options, then? It's not like we know a lot of alien cultures, after all."
She inwardly was bemused to be having this kind of conversation. Most parents taking their kids into school, or the office (or both, in this case) were probably talking about their homework, or a fieldtrip that was coming up, or something their pet did. Of course, Peter's pet was an alien creature that looked like a kitten and sprouted tentacles and teeth out of its mouth, but still…
"Yeah. I don't… it's really powerful. And Alec and Stephen and Wong have all warned me that it would be really tempting to use it, again, for something that I really want – or thought I needed. And it's dangerous. So I can't keep it. Not here in the compound, anyway."
"So you want it far enough away that you can't have ready access to it, but close enough that you know it's safe."
"Right. But someplace out of reach, really, unless I make an effort to get it. Just in case."
"The moon?"
He hesitated. He hadn't thought about that. But then shook his head.
"I don't think it would be protected, there. It would just be out where someone – an alien someone, more likely than an astronaut – could just find it."
"Why do I get the feeling that you have an idea, but you're not sure about it?"
"I was thinking Wakanda," Peter admitted. "I don't know where. The gorilla city, or T'Challa's palace have a lot of people, but if they weren't told it was there, maybe it could be hidden and be safe. But there's a chance that someone might find out where it was and go looking for it – and put T'Challa's people in danger. I don't want that to happen, and it wouldn't be fair to them."
"If someone were to come look for it, you'd know, though, right? The mind stone would know they wanted it, and give you a heads up?"
"I think so. Still… it's a lot of people."
"How about your mine? Would it be safe in that?"
He looked over at here, an eyebrow raised.
"The vibranium mine?"
"They run deep, right? As I recall. There aren't a lot of people in the area, normally, and it's far enough from the city that no one is just going to stumble over it. All of those mines have been picked clean, the guides told us, and no one goes there but tourists."
Of course, Wakanda didn't have tourists, normally, so that wasn't really a concern, now was it?
"That's a good idea…" Peter said, suddenly feeling a little excited. "I mean, I wouldn't just sneak in and drop it off. I'd ask T'Challa so he could give the final okay – or say no. He might have a better place, too…"
But the mine was definitely a good location. Isolated, and deep, and still protected.
"You could probably talk to him and Tony about it," Pepper added. "Maybe they could set up some kind of shield that would keep people out of it."
"Or we could set something up just where the stone is – at the bottom of the mine, I mean. That way it doesn't look any different from any of the others from the outside, but if someone happened to be out and was looking around the mines, and got too close, then it would stop them, or something."
"Not permanently."
He shook his head.
"No. Nothing like that." He smiled, feeling a surge of relief. It might be the best answer, really. "I'll think about it, a little more, but that's a good suggestion. Thank you."
"You're welcome. Feel better?"
"Yeah."
"Good. Now let's discuss your schoolwork, today."
Peter rolled his eyes, good-naturedly, but allowed his thoughts to pull back from the power stone for the time being so he and Pepper could talk about the test that he was taking that morning.
She smirked at the typical teenager expression and knew that she'd need to talk to Tony, later, so he could discuss the idea with T'Challa – and Peter. But it could wait. Now she wanted to spend some quality time with him, doing nothing more lifechanging than discussing physics.