"No."

"Awww, c'mon, Pepper…" Ned's eyes were as big and hopeful as he could possibly make them. "They're letting little kids ride them, and their moms aren't saying no."

He turned the camera so she could see, and sure enough, a very small boy – maybe six or seven – was scrambling up on the closest beast to the delight of his friends and many of the adults who were watching.

"You aren't seriously using the everyone else's mom is letting them argument, are you?"

Ned scowled.

"Shut up, Peter… I'm working."

His friend smiled, and leaned against a rail fence that had been erected for the short market period. Not to hold the rhinos in, obviously, but to keep a line between the creatures and those who weren't handlers. Rhinos were very unpredictable at the best of times, after all.

"He's going to have to do better than that if he wants Pepper to say yes," he whispered to Shuri.

"Let me ask you this," they heard Pepper tell the other boy. "If you were asking your mother, would she say yes?"

"Of course."

Peter smirked. He couldn't see the screen, but he didn't need to see it to be able to imagine the look on Pepper's face.

"Really? You think so?"

Ned's confidence faltered, just a hair.

"Well, probably. I mean, she would see the other people riding it and want me to be happy, right?"

"You don't think she might hesitate to allow you to ride something so dangerous?"

"Of course not."

"Ned…"

"Maybe." He rolled his eyes. "Peter rode one, and he didn't die."

"Peter also didn't ask permission and very nearly was grounded because of it. I appreciate that you asked, first, but I'm going to say that your mother wouldn't approve of the risk, and I don't, either."

"Not to mention," Tony added, now that he didn't have to be the bad guy. "You threw up in an elevator. Do you really think your stomach would be alright with riding something that moves up and down like that?"

That made Ned hesitate even more.

"Oh. Yeah."

"Why don't we start you with something a little less… exotic?" Pepper asked. "And then, we'll see how you handle that and maybe work our way up to rhinos."

"Or you wait until you're eighteen and then you don't have to ask permission," Tony put in. "You just have to get them to invite you back."

Ned glanced over at Shuri.

"You'd invite me back, right?"

"Of course."

He gave a mighty sigh.

"Okay. I'll hold off on riding the rhino."

Pepper smiled.

"Thank you. Are you guys having a good time?"

"Yeah. It's incredible."

"Did you eat?"

"We had some sugar covered sugar things, and a pastry on a stick thing that was pretty good. A-"

"She means did you have anything healthy to eat," Tony interrupted, as Ned went to stand beside Peter, to make room for the people lining up to ride the rhinos. "You know, meat? Vegetables? Something a little more filling than carnival food?"

"We had a thing with rice and chicken," Peter replied, smiling at the two of them. He liked watching them do mom and dad things – even when they weren't doing the parenting toward him. "Did you eat?"

"We're waiting for T'Challa," Tony replied. "He's going to treat us to lunch."

"I want you boys back at the palace before nightfall," Pepper said. "Shuri? You'll make sure they get there?"

"Of course."

Peter smirked, well aware that Pepper knew she didn't have any control over the princess, but had just made her comply with the demand, simply by making her responsible for him and Ned. It wasn't like they couldn't find their way back, alone, after all.

Although there were a lot of distractions along the way.

"Need anything?" Tony asked them. "You still have money?"

"We're good," Peter assured them both. There was nothing at the festival that he could spend that much money on, so quickly, after all. "Love you."

"I love you, too," Ned said, pushing Peter's head out of the way.

"As do I," Shuri assured them, smiling to be part of such a domestic scene.

She loved her brother and her mother, of course, but they were not so open about showing that affection – and it was almost certainly because as a teenaged girl she wasn't always willing to be.

Tony and Pepper both smiled at that.

"We love you, too. Stay out of trouble."

The call ended and Ned tucked his phone back into his pocket.

"What do we go look at, next?"

Shuri smiled, and took Peter's hand.

"I know. Let's go."

He didn't even ask, but he had to admit that her smile was just a little more amused than it probably should be – which should have warned him.

OOOOOOOOOO

"What are they doing?"

Both of the palace guards turned at the question, and recognized Steve Rogers, immediately. Captain America was well known in Wakanda, too, after all. They knew the woman he was with by sight, but only had the briefest of her history. Enough to make sure it was safe to allow her inside the palace. They both looked back at the small group of youngsters, most of them half-naked and wearing traditional garb of their tribe, who had been joined by Ned, Peter and even Shuri.

"They are dancing," came the reply.

Carol raised an eyebrow.

"Are you sure? I mean, Shuri looks fine, and Ned isn't too off beat, but Peter looks like he's having some kind of episode, or something. No one's been shining a disco ball in their eyes?"

Steve chuckled, watching as a little girl caught Peter's hand, trying to explain – for probably the tenth time – how to do the steps, while several others clapped to the beat of a drum that was playing from the side of the little area. Shuri was also demonstrating, but Peter just wasn't getting it.

"The kid's hopeless," Steve said. "You should have been there when we tried to teach him to dance for his first dance with Pepper."

"I've seen him dance," Carol pointed out.

"You've seen him slow dance," Steve replied. "Try to get him moving at any speed faster than that, and that is the result."

"He is not that bad," the guard said, loyally. "He may catch on, yet."

Steve smiled, but Carol moved away from his side, walking over to the edge of the dance circle, clapping her hands in the same rhythm that the children – and those along the side were using. Peter noticed her, immediately, and smiled a greeting, and Shuri leaned over and said something to one of the little boys, who immediately ran over to take Carol's hand and pull her into the circle. She went to stand between Peter and Ned, and almost instantly caught the footsteps of the dance, and the beat.

She was dancing in time within moments, and Peter was still trying to match the clapping of his hands to the stomping of his feet.

Steve snorted, and pulled out his phone.

The others were definitely going to want to see this.