Peter sighed for what must have been the hundredth time as he sat at his desk doing his English homework. He was sooooo bored of being grounded and he still had three days to go until he could leave the penthouse or use his laptop for anything other than school work. Both his parents were at work, well his mom was, his dad was in a meeting with secretary Ross and the other Avengers. The man had turned up and demanded they all meet…that was five hours ago and Peter was bored beyond belief. He had rebuilt his Lego Spiderman kit but doing it alone wasn't nearly as fun as with Ned and he couldn't use his Xbox so he didn't really have anything to do other than his homework…who even cares about Macbeth anyway?

When he finished the paragraph he was writing he threw his pen down and stood up. It was three o'clock and that was definitely an acceptable time for a mid-afternoon snack. He made his way through to the kitchen asking FRIDAY to play his usual playlist as he did so. He hummed along to the music as he grabbed a knife and plate…the last time he made himself a snack he had just used the counter and it was safe to say his mom was not impressed. Like okay sure he got a bit of peanut butter on the counter that he didn't wipe up and some jelly fell out of his sandwich onto the floor but it was fine…well fine until his mom came in and stood in it while in socks then put her hand on the counter to steady herself…okay it was not fine at all. That was not an experience he was particularly keen to go through again to be honest. He made his sandwich as he sang along softly to the music dancing as he did so…that was the good thing about being home alone he supposed, he was sure his dad would laugh at him if he did it in front of him but only FRIDAY was here right now.

He made two sandwiches and continued dancing round the kitchen while he ate them, it was halfway to his mouth when he heard a strange noise he had never heard in the penthouse before...was that giggling? He spun on the spot still holding his sandwich in his hand which he promptly dropped his mouth wide. Standing inside the elevator were…children? "Ummm hello?" He said unsurely tensing slightly, his spidey sense was silent though so surely he was fine, it was highly unlikely they were assassins. There were four of them just staring at him, two boys and two girls, what was he supposed to do? "Are you lost? The MBP floor is number thirty five…"

The older looking of the two girls speaks up after a few seconds of silence, "the lady in the ceiling took us here, our mommy's are shouting at our daddy's so we had to leave with the voice."

Peter blinked at her words as he tried to process what was going on. He looked at the oldest of them, a boy around ten or eleven for help. "Iron Man told us to come up here when our moms started shouting. Where is here?"

Peter nodded dumbly, he supposed if his dad sent them here there must have been a reason. "This is my home….well Iron Man's home, I live here too. I'm Peter by the way." He added as an afterthought. "Come in…ummm sit down." He continued unsurely, he wasn't really sure how to interact with children.

"I'm Cooper Barton, that's Lila and Nathanial my brother and sister and that girl there is Cassie Lang," the eldest told him pointing lazily at each child as he introduced them.

At Cooper's words Peter knew immediately why they had been sent up to the penthouse. They were clearly Hawkeye's and Ant-man's kids and by the sounds of it said superheroes were currently being shouted at for their actions in the whole 'Civil War' fiasco so the kids had been sent up here. Great.

"Ummm…okay well you can just turn on the TV ask FRIDAY and she can put anything on…."

"Do you have an Xbox?" Cooper interrupted before he could give any more options.

"Well…yeah…but I can't use it right now so…I don't have the controllers."

"You're grounded." The older of the two girls Cassie piped up immediately causing the three eldest children to stare at him. "What did you do?"

"Well…ummm…I sort of…hacked into dads AI and shouted at Captain America and well…yeah…that's it." Peter rushed out blushing madly.

"Your dad's AI….wait is this your home? Iron Man is your dad? So cool." Cooper burst out suddenly interested in the older boy. Sure Hawkeye was cool he supposed but his dad wasn't…Iron Man though…so cool. "And you shouted at Captain America? Super cool!"

Peter suddenly found himself surrounded by all four children asking him questions. What was he supposed to do? Apart from Noah weeks ago he had never interacted with a child like this…well Ned's sister on occasion but this was new territory, there were four of them! His head began to hurt slightly from the incessant questions especially as their voices grew louder and louder. "Woah okay calm down. Yes Iron Man is my dad. Yes he's pretty cool sometimes and yes I shouted at Captain America, that was super cool."

He suddenly became quite uncomfortable under the worshipping gazes of the four kids around him…well three he supposed Nathanial probably didn't really understand what was going on. The all stood in a slightly awkward silence for a few moments until the toddler reached forward and started to pull on his trouser leg. "Pway?" Before he could answer he heard Cooper let out a groan.

"Ugh no Nate…Peter doesn't want to play with a little baby, he's practically a grown up. We don't want to play loser baby games."

Peter could see the child's bottom lip begin to tremble and without thinking lifted the toddler up easily and balanced him on his hip. "It's okay Nate…don't worry we can all play something together," he directed the last bit towards the other three sending a slightly pleading glance Cooper's way. He could see why the boy was complaining he had seen Ned do the same countless times but he was out of his depth and needed to find something to do to keep all of them occupied. "Any ideas?" He said silently praying he wasn't going to end up in some children's tea party.

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Tony froze as he entered his penthouse ignoring the grumbling of Scott and Clint behind him as he prevented them from entering the room as he pinched himself to make sure what he was seeing was real. The five kids…well three kids, one toddler and one teen were laughing madly with their backs to the door having not seen the adults yet. Peter was wearing a blanket as a cape holding his Thor hammer above his head while Nathanial clung to his back dressed as Spiderman giggling madly, Cooper was wearing two Iron Man gauntlets and a mask while Lila was holding a plastic bow and arrow and Cassie was holding what appeared to be toy widow bites in her hands.

"Fri, get a photo of this." Tony ordered grinning as the kids jumped and spun around to stare at the assembled adults. When they turned Tony could finally see what they were all looking at and had 'defeated', there was a what appeared to be a large teddy bear with a toy shield duct taped to its arm…a very familiar looking shield. He raised an eyebrow as he looked at his son for an explanation.

"Well we didn't have any other enemies to use, we can't fight the hulk and it's not fair to fight Loki he's a good guy now." Peter explained with a shrug.

Tony decided to leave the fact Peter had called Steve a bad guy in a round about sort of way for now and entered the room properly. He couldn't help but smile at the kid's costumes, he supposed the others must have had theirs with them because he didn't recognise anything but the hammer his son was still holding...well and the blanket, it had cost him a small fortune, probably best not to tell his son that though, he didn't want him freaking out about it, it was nice seeing him act like a kid for a change. "As sad as I am to break this game up I'm afraid it's time to go kiddos, your dad's want to see you all," he explained as he lazily waved behind him where the kid's dads' both stood. He felt slightly sorry for the two of them…not that they hadn't deserved the brutal dressing downs from their wives…well in Scott's case ex-wife but still, he was glad he sent the children upstairs, things turned nasty…fast.

Cooper nodded at Iron Man's words not really registering what he was saying, he would agree with anything Iron Man said he was so cool, he had to be pretty cool to be Peter's dad. Peter was cool, he would have loved an older brother but no he got stuck with a sister and a baby brother, they weren't fun! At that moment Iron Man's words registered, "But I don't want to go yet Peter said we could use the Iron Man robots…."

"Yeah, he said he would show me how to fly the little Iron Man so my Ant could chase him." Cassie continued.

"It's okay guys, the robots can wait till another day, you haven't seen your dad's in ages."

Tony grinned at his son's words. The boy was red as a tomato clearly embarrassed at having everyone's attention focussed on him. "Pete is right kiddos, it's time to go home, we all have another Avenger's meeting tomorrow he can babysit you then." He heard a sigh from behind him at his words and before he could ask Clint what his issue was the man's son made it very clear.

"Hey! I don't need a babysitter! I'm ten. I look after Nate all the time when mom's busy." The pre-teen didn't bother explaining it was literally for like two seconds while his mom stirred the dinner or hung out laundry but that was beside the point. He was practically a teenager!

"Good one Stark" Clint mumbled under his breath as he stepped around the man to look at his son properly for the first time in over a year. He kneeled down slightly so he was at eye level with the boy, "hey kid, there's no need to shout okay. That was rude."

"Sorry Iron Man." Cooper mumbled looking up at his hero eyes wide. How could he have been rude to Iron Man? What if he hated him now?

"It's okay squirt, I've already forgotten about it, now why don't you munchkins go with your dad's and you can play with Peter again tomorrow okay?" At the kid's nod he ruffled his hair like he did to his own son before helping Nathanial off his teens back and handing the toddler to his dad as the other two grabbed all their toys and the teddy Captain America and went over to their dads.

Peter nodded along to his dad's words, sure he had fun with the kid's, but he was now slightly embarrassed to have been caught in such a position, he was fifteen not five! "Seeya tomorrow" he called after them before making a hasty exit to his own bedroom.

Tony watched the boy go grinning to himself as he picked some stray cushions of the floor. He supposed he should have got Peter to do it it was his mess after all but the boy was clearly embarrassed, it was probably best just to leave it and it was only a few cushions after all. He could understand the boy's embarrassment, to Peter being caught playing around like a child when he tried so hard to act older than his age was embarrassing but to him it was a step in the right direction, the teen wanted to be seen as an adult desperately and it had worried him. He had asked Peter's therapist about it in fact months ago, it had concerned him that Peter felt the need to put up a front so often and her explanation had been eye opening. She explained that the behaviour probably started when his parents died and she believed he attempted to act older to be less of a bother to his aunt and uncle who he felt in some way had been forced to take him in. This had then only become worse once Ben died when he was left 'man of the house', with his at the time new powers added to this Peter forced himself to leave many juvenile behaviours and impulses behind. She had told himself and Pep that over time Peter may begin to pick up some of these behaviours he dropped in a subconscious attempt to reclaim his childhood and that if he did they should support them but not necessarily point them out…which to Tony didn't make much sense but she was the expert. He supposed Peter letting down these walls even though it was more for the benefit of the children who had been foisted upon him…which he should apologise to his son for it had been a terrible thing to do without informing him…rather than his own benefit was a good sign. It showed the boy was comfortable in the tower, sure he knew Peter was but this cemented it even more, obviously taking Peter in after May's death had been a no brainer but still it had been daunting and he had been worried he would somehow mess it up so to see the teen so at ease here was heart-warming as well as reassuring for himself.

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The following morning Peter was sat in the kitchen with his breakfast halfway through a huge stack of pancakes when his dad turned to face him, "you don't mind looking after the Barton kids and Cassie do you Peter? I know I just shoved them on you yesterday but I didn't want them to see their parents arguing and I didn't have time to get them signed into the MBP. It's okay if you don't want to look after them today though, you can just hang about here and watch TV or something when we're at our meeting, I can get them set up in the MBP no problem."

Peter just shrugged as he continued eating his pancakes, "I don't mind, we had fun. It was a little scary I don't know anything about kids but it was fine really and I did tell them they could use the Iron Man robots today, I don't want to let them down. I can call you if I need help though?"

"Of course, kiddo, just ask FRIDAY and she'll contact me or Pep."

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Peter didn't actually know what time the kids were coming up to the penthouse, his mom was going to be with SI all day, the Rogue Avengers coming home was not going to be the cause of any loss of production within SI after all, and his dad had a meeting with the R&D department followed by a business lunch with a journalist about the Avengers and then a meeting about the accords. He had been lying on the couch for quite a while by now, he had watched six episodes of Brooklyn-99 and when his stomach began rumbling louder than the TV he made himself some sandwiches and heated up some soup before dropping back onto his usual spot in the couch. Before long he felt his eyes begin to close…a nap would probably be good before the kids came up now he thought about it.

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Peter could hear high pitched giggling and had a sudden itch on his face. Still not opening his eyes he reached up to scratch under his nose causing even more giggles. Peeling an eye open he was faced with Cassie leaning over him almost nose to nose, before he could even realise what was going on her panicked and rolled to the side and off the sofa with a thud causing even more hilarity for the kids around him. "Uncool Cassie" he mumbled as he rolled onto his back to look up at her again, immediately paling when he saw the pen in her hand. Whipping his head around he made eye contact with Cooper who was holding Nate's hand loosely, "please tell me she didn't," when he only received a nod from the other boy he groaned dramatically.

"Sorry," Cassie said blatantly insincerely as she continued laughing softly.

"You know if you give me a makeover it's only fair I give you one kid." Peter told her with a raised eyebrow. "Coop the Iron Man is over there if you want to have a practice and I put one of the ones from the shop in the corner if Nate wants to try it, the robot only goes forward and backwards he won't have any difficulty." When he received a nod from the preteen he turned to look at the two girls. "And you two…how about a makeover, I know you had something to do with this goatee as well Lila."