Okay, first, T'Challa and Ellaxus is a no go. I actually realized it pretty soon after I posted. For those of you who still really want it, I might write a one-shot, but yeah, it's not gonna happen in this main fic. He'll still be around, though. And flirting is always fun.

Also, now that I've seen the movie, I'd say there are Captain Marvel parallels - a mysterious girl with powers appears knowing things about an upcoming/ongoing alien invasion that a somewhat influential person does not, and then they run around solving mysteries and fighting crime like it's a superhero version of a buddy-cop film. Or whatever.

Also, according to the Far From Home trailer, Peter's passport says he's born on May 3rd, 2001. And it is currently April 30th, 2010, for Tony and Elle.

Chapter Nineteen - Friday, Part Two

Oh.

Ohhhhhhhhhhhh.

So that's why we're here.

I squatted down in front of the kid so my head was more even with his.

"Hey, kiddo," I said. "Are you lost?"

The kid slowly nodded.

"Do you want us to help you find your family?" I asked.

Nothing.

I tugged Tony's hand until he was squatted next to me.

"I'm sure that your family told you not to talk to strangers," I said. "But he's not a stranger."

I gave Tony a look and he took off his sunglasses and moved his hat.

The tiny gasp was still audible through the helmet.

"Are you here with your aunt and uncle, Peter?" I asked.

He pushed the helmet up, and I wondered if Peter had made the mask himself. "How do you know that?" the totally adorable child asked me.

"I have magic," I told him.

His eyes were a mix of hope and doubt.

"It's true," Tony said, and Peter's eyes shot to him in surprise.

"…Really?" he whispered doubtfully, but more willing to trust that his hero was telling the truth.

"Cup your hands," I whispered.

He did, and I made a small ball of light and passed it over to him. It illuminated the awe on his face as he looked up at us.

I blew out the ball like it was a candle.

"Peter, I know a lot about magical things, and I even know a bit of the future. And you're special Peter, that's how I know who you are."

"Really?" Peter asked.

I nodded. "Peter, everyone is special, in some way. I'm just…gathering some special people together. People who would've all gotten together eventually, I'm just picking up the pace."

"Including me?" Peter asked.

"No, actually, I wasn't expecting to meet you today," I said. "You're going to be a bit older before you can do a lot of the heavy lifting. But you know, you can probably give us a pretty good view on the science side of things."

"You like science?" Tony asked.

Peter nodded wordlessly at his hero.

"Peter, how about we look around for your aunt and uncle, okay?" I asked him.

He looked upset again. "I can't find them. I'm too short. I tried climbing up the back of one of the exhibits but I saw that they were keeping Perchloric acid near one of the walls and I didn't want to knock it over and cause a fire."

"What!" Tony asked, straightening. "I have crazy strict guidelines. Who the hell is breaking them?"

"Is it Hammer Industries?" I asked.

Peter shook his head. "No, they're called…AIM?"

"Advanced Idea Mechanics," I told Tony. "They could be an issue in the future. For now, we ought to be able to kick them off the Expo for not following safety rules."

I looked back at Peter. "You know, my husband will usually put lost kids on his shoulders to see if they see their relatives. Tony could lift you up."

"I could?" Tony asked.

"Yes," I said. "You could."

Peter's eyes were huge. "I-if it wouldn't be a problem, Mr. Stark."

"Please kid, call me Tony," Tony said, lifting Peter up on his shoulders. "Mr. Stark was my dad."

"You're really strong," Peter said, surprised.

"Well, the suit isn't exactly light," Tony said. "And I do a lot of heavy lifting myself."

"Wow," Peter said.

With Tony's regular platforms, he was still a few inches taller than me. I think he started switching to higher platforms when he realized that he'd be walking next to me for awhile.

"Will you message Pepper to get someone to search AIM's station?" Tony asked.

I nodded, and requipped my tablet out, opening an email.

"Woah. How'd you do that?" Peter asked.

"Magic, silly," I told him.

"I know that," Peter said. "But it's a different type of magic, isn't it?"

Tony looked up at him. "You're a pretty clever kid, Peter."

Peter blushed. "I-It just makes sense. The typed you used before was with light, but you just summoned that out of nowhere. Which means it has to do with...controlling space, right?"

"Yeah," I said. "The first type was Elemental Magic. This one was a type of Spatial Magic, called Requip. It's basically like an inventory in a video game, so I can carry things around in it."

"That sounds pretty handy," Peter commented.

"It is," I said, looking around us. "Peter, is it just Aunt May and Uncle Ben?"

"Yeah," Peter nodded.

"I know what Aunt May looks like, so I'll keep a lookout for her," I told him.

"Thank you," he smiled.

"What are their main features?" Tony asked.

"Aunt May looks like the girl from My Cousin Vinny," I told him. "Melissa Tomae?"

I haven't seen that movie, and I didn't remember her name, but that was all I knew about the actress.

"You mean Marisa Tomei?" Tony asked.

"…yes?" I guessed. "I dunno, it sounds about right." I turned to look at Peter. "What does your Uncle Ben look like?"

"He has short light brown hair," Peter said thoughtfully. "I don't think he was wearing his glasses tonight though."

"Is he tall?" Tony asked.

"No, he's only a bit taller than you," Peter said, and Tony sighed.

"Speaking of introductions, Peter, I'm Elle," I told him.

"Hi," he said, mildly shyly.

"How old are you Peter?" Tony asked him.

"I'm eight!" he said.

"Really?" I asked. "I thought you were nine."

"I will be in a few days," he admitted. "That's why I'm here! Aunt May and Uncle Ben got us summer passes for my birthday!"

"You know," Tony said. "I'm a May baby, too!"

"…Really?" Peter asked, not nearly as enthusiastically, and trying to sound surprised.

I tried to stifle my giggles. Of course, Peter would have looked up his hero's birthday.

"Do you know how old I'm turning?" Tony asked Peter.

"Forty?" Peter suggested shyly.

Tony gave a dramatic gasp. "I'll have you know that I'm turning thirty nine…for the second time."

Peter started giggling, and Tony tilted his head back to try and look at him. "You really wanted to come here for your birthday?"

Peter nodded vigorously, enough so that Tony probably would've been able to guess what he was doing even if he couldn't see his head. "I like science."

"So do I," Tony said.

"So do I," I added. "Almost as much as I like magic."

Peter giggled and Tony rolled his eyes.

"Alright, bud, what's your favorite type?" Tony asked.

"Of magic?" Peter joked.

"Of science!" Tony exclaimed.

"Mine is magic," I added.

Tony swatted my shoulder. "Stop that."

"What?" I asked, laughing. "We're already looking into the energy signatures of the magic. For all we know, you might be able to actually explain it."

"Really?" Peter asked, looking fascinated. "Does it emit radiation, too?"

I shrugged. "If it does, it doesn't harm the human body."

"Plus, she has a type of healing magic," Tony added. "That actually repairs the person."

"How does that work?" Peter asked, staring at me in awe.

"Well…" I tried to explain. "We're not really sure. I'm pretty sure mine speeds up normal regeneration speed, but also strings it back together." I paused. "Basically, imagine me stitching it together with magic, minus the pain, and speeding up the process. Depending on it, it might not even scar."

"That's so cool," Peter said, eyes shining.

"So, back to the important stuff," Tony said, and Peter giggled. "What type of actual science do you like?" Tony asked, his elbow nudging me.

"I like chemistry," Peter said. "And biology is pretty interesting. I've been building stuff, too," he said bashfully.

"Out of metal, or Legos?" I asked him.

"I…I'm too old for Legos," Peter said.

"You are never too old for Legos," I said seriously.

"Really?" Peter asked.

"Probably would've been safer if my Dad let me mess with Legos before electronics as a kid," Tony snorted. "Would've blown less stuff up, at least."

"Do you know what the world record is for amount of Legos used in one thing?" I asked. "It'd be kinda cool if we could beat it."

"Well, it changes," Peter said. "And they score by longest and tallest and stuff. But the longest Lego ever built was a few years ago, and it was over 2.9 million pieces."

"Longest Lego?" I asked. "Do you know how long?"

"Over 5,000 feet!" Peter said eagerly.

"Okay, I've got to admit that seems pretty awesome," Tony said.

"You want to build something out of Legos now, don't you?" I asked him.

"Hush," he told me.

Peter giggled. "That's the most amount of pieces that were used. So it doesn't matter what is built as long as more bricks are used."

"Over 2.9 million Legos," I said. I would've whistled if I could. "That's a lot."

"Yeah," Peter said quietly. "I wanted to build one. But…we don't…have enough Legos."

Tony and I both knew he meant 'couldn't afford more Legos'.

"What would you build?" I asked him.

"A spaceship," Peter said. "Or a boat maybe. If I really had enough, maybe I'd build a house."

"Out of Legos?" I asked.

He shrugged. "Or a castle. But it'd be cool to be in a giant castle made of Legos."

Cheating person that I was, I figured we could just build a complicated miniature castle and use Pym Particles or Brandish to make it bigger, but the thought of actually being able to build a full size castle out of small, miniature Legos, was pretty impressive.

"It would be pretty awesome," Tony muttered. "Uh…Elle?"

I followed his gaze, and recognized someone who I was pretty sure was May.

"Is that them, Peter?" I asked, pointing at her and the man walking beside her both searching the crowd worriedly.

"Yeah!" Peter said excitedly, and began waving.

The two spotted us and started running, and Tony put Peter down, who ran up to his aunt and uncle happily.

"Uncle Ben! Aunt May! Guess what, guess what guess what!"

May threw her arms around him. "God, Peter, we were so worried!"

"Guess what!?"

"What?" she humored him.

"Look who I met!" he pointed back at me and Tony.

Ben frowned. "Peter, we told you not to talk to strangers."

"But they're not strangers," Peter said. "They're friends."

Tony moved his sunglasses up and gave a little wave while May and Ben stared. "Hi."

"...They're still strangers," Ben said when he got his voice back.

"If I can't trust superheroes, who can I trust?" Peter asked.

"Us," Ben said.

"But you weren't there!" Peter pointed out rationally.

Tony snorted. "I'm starting to understand how Jarvis felt when I was a kid."

"Who's Jarvis?" Peter asked, turning back to us.

"His dad," I said.

Tony looked at me in shock. "What? No, he's not."

"I already told you that Howard Stark is a dick…tator," I finished, eyeing Peter. He giggled. "I'm not going to acknowledge him as anything other than your donor. Jarvis was the one who raised you."

Tony stared at me. "Please do not throw an emotional curveball at me in public, ever again."

"Relax, no one can see us," I said, waving my hand. I turned to the nearest person, who was looking in our direction, and made faces at him, before flipping him off (making sure Peter couldn't see).

He didn't react.

"What, you're using Eris?" Tony asked.

I shook my head. "Nah, I don't need to use it for something this simple. A mix of Venus and Saturn."

He raised an eyebrow. "You're deflecting the light around us?"

"Yep," I said, popping my lips.

"That's so cool!" Peter whispered, his eyes wide. "Can they hear us?"

I shook my head.

"I'm sorry, who are you?" Ben asked. May nudged him.

"Sorry, I'm Elle!" I said, reaching out a hand and shaking his.

"She has magic," Peter said.

Ben sighed. "Peter-"

I summoned a ball of light again.

Ben shut up.

I waved it away.

"What's your superhero name, Elle?" Peter asked.

I shrugged. "I dunno. We're working on it."

"What, you're his sidekick?" Ben gestured to Tony.

Tony started to laugh, and I could see his eyes watering. "Sidekick! Ah! I can't breathe!"

"He's my sidekick," I told them.

"Iron Man is not a sidekick!" he gasped.

"My minion, then?" I suggested.

"Fine," he gasped. "I'll be your sidekick, if you be my minion."

"Deal," I said.

"That was easy," he said, breathing better.

I snorted. "Yeah, I got you to agree to be my sidekick."

"I got you to agree to be my minion," Tony pointed out.

"I was already your minion," I said.

Tony groaned.

Peter stared. "Is he really your sidekick?"

I laughed. "Nah, this is more like a buddy-superhero relationship."

Tony snorted. "Which one of us is the rookie?"

"We're both the rookie and the experienced one, in this case," I said. "Because we're both experts at different things."

"I'm sorry," Ben interrupted again, and May sighed as he continued. "...Who are you? What are you doing here? How did you meet Peter?"

I sighed. "Well, I like to play a game with lost kids…" I blinked. "Wow, that came out wrong. Okay, so where I'm from, I'm pretty well known. I guess like a mix between a superhero and an Olympian athlete? It's kinda complicated. Anyway, since I'm a…very identifiable character-" I gestured to my face, particularly my hair "-if a kid is lost, they usually find their way to me. And most of the time, the kid is pretty scared. So, I make a game of it. I put them on my husband's shoulders, because he's really tall, and I turn it into I-Spy. Especially since some kids have a lot of problems actually describing their parents, or even knowing their names as something other than 'Mom' and 'Dad'. This helps us find the parents, and also calm them down a bit."

"How tall?" Tony asked.

I nodded. "Taller than you. You're going to need bigger heels."

"You wear heels?" Peter asked curiously.

"Heels were made for men in the first place!" Tony insisted.

"Tony's actually only 5'9"," I said. "At most. He's taken to wearing heels around me so I'm not taller."

"Elle!"

"Don't feel bad, Peter doesn't get very tall, either," I said.

"I don't?" Peter pouted.

I shook my head. "Assuming you're done growing at around seventeen, which I think you are-" I'm pretty sure that after getting bitten, he finished growing "-then you'll be around Tony's actual height. Maybe an inch or two shorter."

"Okay, that makes me feel better," Tony muttered.

Peter looked at Tony. "That's not that bad."

I lowered a hand to my eye-level. "This is how tall Tony really is."

"Oh."

Ben was looking at me, Tony and Peter with a look of confusion and frustration. May just seemed kind of amused.

"Alright, we should probably get going," Ben said abruptly.

"Awww," Peter said.

"To be fair, we need to go pick up a map," I offered.

"We do?" Tony asked, surprised.

"Yeah, a big, giant, paper World Map," I said, staring at him.

"Why can't we just use a projection?" he whined.

"Because my Locating Magic doesn't like your projections, we've been over this."

"We have a big World Map!" Peter said enthusiastically. "You can come over and use it! And we have Legos, too!"

"What?" Ben asked.

I bent down to face Peter. "Peter, sweetie, you can't just invite people over to your house without your guardians' permission. What if they have things to do? What if they have to clean? What if they don't want to host a bunch of strangers and just sleep after losing their ward for a bit at a giant science fair?"

"Science fair," Tony scoffed.

"It is one and you know it," I said.

"Ohhhhhh," Peter slumped.

"Hey," I said softly. "Tony's building a place in New York, and we're going to be moving up here soon. And when we do, we might be able to invite you over for science and stuff."

"Yeah, schools out soon, right?" Tony asked. "We can watch Elle teleport and look at it through UV and X-Ray and infrared and stuff."

"You can teleport, too?" Peter asked.

I disappeared and reappeared behind Peter. "Boo!"

"Wow that's so cool!" Peter cried.

I pouted. "Not even a jump scare?"

"You don't do that to me," Tony said.

"You have a heart condition," I said, as I requipped out a cookie from storage space and offered one to Tony and the others, who shook their heads. I shrugged and requipped away the container, taking a bite out of the cookie.

"Why don't you come over for dinner?" May offered suddenly. "Or dessert, at least."

"What?" Ben cried.

"Really?" Peter asked excitedly.

"Yeah. Besides, we should probably get going soon anyway."

Peter pouted a bit. "Why can't we stay longer?"

"Because it's getting late and we have passes for the whole summer," May said gently. "The exhibits will still be there this weekend."

"It's true," Tony said. "The next exhibit doesn't rotate in for another week. Though they might come early because we're kicking out AIM."

"Speaking of which," I said, looking at my tablet, which had dinged. "Pepper wants to know if we want to make it a spectacle. Jarvis told her I said they'd be a problem and he suggested discrediting them."

"Do you know for sure they'd be a problem?" Tony asked. "If not, it could become a self-fulfilling prophecy."

"I know," I said, nodding seriously. "But I also know that the guy in charge is a sociopath and that kicking him out will make us hate him even more, whether it's public or not. If it is public, we can at least use him as an example so everyone else knows to follow the rules."

"Sociopath?" Tony asked.

I nodded. "Yeah. The guy's nuts. But I'm also pretty sure they don't start actual human experimentation until early 2012, so Jarvis and I are still working on it…"

At least that's when I think that the guy in Rose Hill exploded.

"Human experimentation?" Ben asked, alarmed.

"She knows the future," Peter explained.

"Yeah, I mean it's been happening for years- oh, that's not common knowledge yet, right."

"You're talking about Banner?" Tony asked.

I nodded.

"Bruce Banner?" Peter asked excitedly. "Is he okay? Is he alive? He disappeared a few years ago and I've read some of his papers and some of them were confusing but most of them were really really cool-"

I laughed and ruffled his hair. "You'll meet him someday, kid."

Peter was nearly bursting with excitement, and he started shouting and running around in circles about how this was the best day ever.

"I never really know what to do when he does this," May commented, sighing.

"Let him run out of energy," Tony said. Ben and May looked at him, and he continued. "I had ADHD – well, I still have ADHD – and when I was a kid, it was horrible. Made my…made Howard can't stand me. I was always super hyper, excited about showing people products, I can't stop moving, I get distracted easily if I'm not interested...A lot of people have the problem. For now, I'd just let Peter get the energy out. It's not like anyone can see us."

It was true. I was still deflecting light and sound away from us.

"He has some trouble in school," Ben said quietly. "And we don't exactly have much experience raising children."

May nodded, and I realized that, looking at her now, and at Ben, that they were in their late twenties.

"When did you get him?" I asked them.

"Richard and Mary died four years ago," Ben said. "We've been trying, since then…"

"You're doing a good job," Tony said. He was watching Peter run around with a mix of fondness and longing on his face. Whether it was longing for a childhood like Peter's or for a kid, I didn't know. "He's a good kid. And very smart. And he obviously loves you guys very much." He turned back to May and Ben. "He have trouble concentrating in class, you said?"

"He does a good job," Ben said. "But he's always scored lower than we thought he should be."

Tony nodded. "Some kids with ADHD do terrible in school. Others find a way to use it to their advantage. But even when you use it to your advantage, it can still be debilitating. What happens is that if you're uninterested, your attention wanders. When you are interested, you sort of hyper-focus on that thing and get pretty productive with it. It's one reason I make so many things; I just love to build. I can give him some tips."

"…that would be nice," Ben admitted.

May shared a smile with me.

"Men," I muttered to her, rolling my eyes.

Peter ran back up to us, slowing down as he approached. "That's so cool!"

"Now, how about we go back to your apartment, yeah?" I asked him.

"We took the bus," Ben told May quietly. "Remember?"

I requipped out a Memory Card and handed it to Peter. "Alrighty, Petey, put this to your forehead and think about the sidewalk in front of your apartment."

Ben and May stopped to stare and Peter closed his eyes as he thought of his home. A magic circle appeared before fading, and he opened his eyes.

"Did I do it?" he asked.

"Perfect," I said, taking it from him. "Now, everyone hold hands."

Peter took Ben's hand in one hand and shyly took Tony's in the other. May held Ben's hand and I put the card to my forehead, concentrating on the image Peter put there.

"Does it hurt?" Ben asked.

"Yeah," Tony said, before shaking his head 'no' at Peter, who giggled, despite the fact that it was still in clear view of Ben.

I put my hand on Tony's shoulder. "Let's do this."

Tony Stark and Peter Parker have ADHD and you can FIGHT ME ON THIS.

Also I used to invite my friends over to my house all the time without my parents permission and my mom hated it and would ground me all the time for doing it and looking back it actually makes a lot of sense, because after watching a bunch of children run around for hours, I think I'd just want to put my own to bed and take a nice bath.

Also 2.9 million is still the record for Legos, and it has been since 2005.

Next update is Friday.