By the time he returned, now wearing sweats, thick socks and a sweatshirt, Natasha was the only one of the group still awake. He joined her in the kitchen, watching with interest as she heated a small kettle of tomato soup while watching three sandwiches grilling on the skillet beside the stove.

"Three for me?" he asked, leaning against the island to stay out of her way.

"Two for you. One for me," she corrected. "Unless you think you can eat three? I could throw another one on."

"I'm pretty hungry," he admitted.

She gestured for him to get the cheese out of the fridge and pulled a couple more slices of bread from the bag near at hand. While she was making the sandwich and getting it ready to grill, Peter stirred their soup.

"Are you having fun?" he asked her.

She nodded, leaning over without using her hands, and kissing his temple.

"Yes. How about you?"

"Yeah. It's selfish, I suppose, but I like having you guys around me."

"It's your birthday," she pointed out. "It's supposed to be about you. That's not selfish."

He snorted.

"A five-day birthday extravaganza? It's a little much."

"You know how Tony is. Wait until you see whatever he has planned for Pepper's. We'll probably all go to Saturn for a picnic, and then have a cruise on the Nile or something."

Peter smiled at that.

"What do you want to do for your birthday?"

"Exactly what you're doing," Romanoff told him, flipping the now finished sandwiches onto two plates and reaching for bowls for the soup. "Spending it with the people I love."

She poured the soup into two bowls and he carried them out to the dining room table, while she brought the sandwiches. They ate, talking about little things, like what he and Stephen and Tony had seen while out snowshoeing, and then when they were done eating they played chess while the others slept, and the snow fell outside the window.

OOOOOO

Tony was the first to wake. He carefully shifted Pepper's sleeping form to a fat couch cushion and then got up, quietly, stretching and feeling a little sore in leg muscles that had had far more of a workout than he was used to. He looked around, saw that everyone was asleep and smiled. Exciting, it wasn't, but there was no way the others could say it wasn't a relaxing weekend. It had to be something in the air when even Ned was asleep in the middle of the day.

He walked over to the dining room table, putting an arm around Peter from behind and winking a hello to Romanoff as he rested his chin on the top of the boy's head.

"Who's winning?"

Peter's hand came up to touch his forearm where it crossed his chest, but he didn't look up from the board.

"She is."

"Really?"

Natasha pretended to be annoyed.

"Don't look so surprised, Tony. Chess is all about strategy."

"Which Peter is remarkably good at, for someone who doesn't need to shave, yet."

The boy smiled at that and rolled his eyes, but he couldn't deny it.

"She's pretty good," he pointed out.

"You're not letting her win, though, right?" Stark asked, kissing the top of Peter's head before letting him go and sitting down beside him. "She gets to be trounced just like I did…"

"No."

"I don't need him to let me win," Natasha said, haughtily. "I can do it all on my own."

She moved her queen and Peter jumped on it, moving the rook that he'd been holding back while they played.

"Checkmate."

She scowled, looking at the board in surprise.

"What?"

Tony smiled.

"That's my boy. Tell me you were betting something?"

"Loser does the dishes."

He frowned, looking at the two bowls, the two spoons and the two plates.

"I lost a Quinjet."

"You're impetuous," Romanoff told him, getting up with a smile for Peter as she picked up the dishes. "I'm smarter than that."

He shrugged the truth of that and leaned back in his chair, watching as Peter gathered the chess pieces and put the board back in the wooden box it came in.

"Next time hustle her into betting something better. Okay?"

Peter smiled, glancing over into the kitchen and then shaking his head.

"She's good enough that she might win – and I don't have a jet to lose."

OOOOOOOOO

The three of them spent the afternoon playing Scrabble while the others slept. It was peaceful, and a good chance for Stark and Romanoff to reconnect with each other in a quiet setting that didn't have the fate of the world depending on the outcome. Peter was getting tired, but was enjoying himself too much to go take a nap and miss anything and while Tony could see that he was dragging a little, he didn't have a heated seat, or quiet music, or the thrum of car engine to lull the boy to sleep.

When the others started getting up and joining them, they put away the board game and started passing around the cameras, looking at the pictures that each group had taken while out that morning. The snow outside was pretty to look at, but Tony wasn't going to let the teens out in it to go sledding or do anything that wasn't right outside – he didn't want to lose anyone in the dark – so the discussion and descriptions went on until Strange and Pepper started dinner, and then the kids set the table, while Steve and Tony took Jack out to his snow enclosed play area and watched the rambunctious puppy chase falling snowflakes.

"We're not going to get snowed in, right?" Steve asked, looking at the snow falling, reflecting off the lights on the porch.

It had grown dark while the others slept, although it wasn't really that late.

"I doubt it. The weather report didn't mention any blizzards, and I have a feeling it would take something pretty significant to close this place up." Jack finished his play and came over to join them, and Tony reached down and picked the puppy up, cuddling him and rubbing his ears. "There are worse places to be stuck, though, I suppose."

"Would you really want to leave Clint in charge of the compound?"

"There is that."

Of course, Nick was at the facility, so it was in good hands, but yeah, they didn't want to be stranded behind a snowstorm. Not that that could happen with Stephen with them.

OOOOOOO

Dinner was good. Not surprisingly, since Strange used a lot of magic – although Peter and Pepper were the only ones who knew it. Pepper because she was watching in the kitchen and helping when she could, and Peter because he could feel it every time it happened. But their dinner wasn't the only thing the good doctor magicked up that night, because once the meal was eaten and the dishes cleared away, Peter was seated at the head of the table, the lights in the dining room were dimmed and Pepper brought out a magnificent cake, with 16 candles that Tony lit while the boy looked on with a bemused smile on his face.

Natasha handed out party hats; brightly colored and held on with elastic bands under their chins.

"Make a wish," Ned told him before anyone else could.

Peter nodded, even though he knew that wishes didn't depend on candles being blown out to come true. He closed his eyes and it was only a moment before he opened them again and easily blew the candles out.

They sang happy birthday to him, then, and he blushed with pleasure and a little embarrassment at being the center of attention, and then suddenly the table was filled with wrapped gifts as everyone crowded around to set them down in front of him, and Pepper moved the cake so she and Natasha could cut into it once the gifts were unwrapped.

"Which one do I open, first?" he asked, them, pushing the chair aside so he could stand up.

"Mine," Tony told him, pushing two presents wrapped in gold paper with festive party hats on it.

One was little, and one was about the size of a breadbox. Peter unwrapped the bigger one and found a tool kit that was perfect for someone who liked to tinker with electronics. All the finest gadgets complete with a soldering iron and all of them neatly situated in a case that had his initials on it.

"We'll open up a room near my workroom for you to have your own projects," Stark told him, giving him a hug. "That's a starter kit. If we need to add to it, we can."

"Thanks."

Peter opened the little present, then, and smiled when he pulled out a simple keychain. It had a Pontiac logo on one side and a miniaturized photo of Peter's mom and dad and him as a toddler in between them on the other. He looked at the photo, wondering if it was photoshopped, since he hadn't seen it before.

"It's from the stack of pictures that Jack gave us," Pepper explained, before Tony could. "The original is in your room, now, but we didn't want you to see it until you opened Tony's present.

"Wow…"

He was quiet for a moment, but they all understood, and no one was in a hurry to rush him. They had all night, after all. Finally, Peter looked at the keys, realizing something was off. He recognized the ignition key to the car his father had left him, and the trunk key, but there was another on the ring that he'd never seen before.

"What does that one go to?" he asked.

Tony smiled.

"It's a surprise. You'll have to wait until we get back to find out."

The boy shook his head and put the keys in his pocket so he wouldn't lose them. He knew just by the way Tony was watching him that asking what it was wouldn't do him any good. The man loved to surprise him. Then Natasha pushed a present to him.

"Mine, next," she told him with a smile.

It was a 3-D chess set, and Ned gave a squeal of excitement when Peter unwrapped it. Both boys had seen it played and neither had actually played it. Peter passed the box to Ned to examine and hugged Natasha, who kissed him, pleased that he liked the gift.

"Happy birthday, baby," she murmured in his ear.

"Thanks, Natasha."

Their hug was a little longer than his and Tony's, but they were both smiling when they broke apart, and Peter reached for the next. It was Fury's and it wasn't an ice cream bar; it was a wallet. A simple black trifold but Peter smiled when he saw that very subtly there was an Avenger logo stamped into one corner of the leather.

"I told you it wasn't an ice cream bar," Pepper told him as he admired it.

He grinned, and Steve handed him a small box. Peter opened it and grinned when he pulled out a pair of fuzzy dice on a string.

"You hang them from the rearview mirror of the car," he explained. "It makes the car that much more retro."

"Thanks, Steve. It's awesome."

Rogers pulled him into a rough hug, too, thumping him on the back.

"Happy birthday."

Ned pushed his present over, next, and Peter's smile was impressed when he'd opened it. His friend had gotten him a new set of D&D equipment, including a figurine for the character that they'd created to use with the campaigns that Tony had made for them. Definitely something that he needed.

Ned hugged him, too, tousling his hair like he'd seen Tony do so many times.

MJ's present made everyone smile, not just Peter, when he unwrapped it. He laughed and handed the book to Tony, and blushed when he was suddenly being hugged by her.

"Happy birthday, Peter," she told him, stepping back, blushing just a little herself, although it wasn't as easy to see as Peter's.

"Thanks, MJ."

"An Idiot's Guide to the Avengers…?" Tony read, smiling over at Pepper before looking back at MJ. "Where did you find this?"

"Amazon."

"I didn't even know there was such a thing," Stark said, turning the book over, and flipping through it. "I'm going to borrow this, Peter."

"Okay."

He grinned at MJ, who was obviously pleased that her present was so well received. Not just by Peter and Tony, though, because all of them were passing it around.

"Open Clint's," Natasha said, handing a present wrapped in Christmas wrapping over to him.

He found a Robin Hood activity kit. Complete with a miniature bow and a dozen soft foam tipped plastic arrows, a hat, and a few cardboard targets. Peter smiled at that, too.

There were two gifts left on the table, and Peter picked up the closest, which turned out to be from Strange and Wong.

"You guys already gave me a present," Peter reminded the doctor.

Strange shrugged.

"We figured you could use something else."

It turned out to be a case for his phone. Plain black, with an Avenger logo on it, as well, and Peter felt it tingle the moment he touched it – which made him look over at Strange, curiously.

"It has a few features that I'll show you how to use later," Stephen told him, understanding the look. "But it's guaranteed to never be lost, so put your phone in it when you have a chance, alright?"

"Thanks."

Strange hugged him, too, and Peter smiled, feeling the love from so many hugs from all of them. Who needed presents?

He picked up the last present, which was wrapped in red paper with birthday hats on it and was definitely a card of some sort. When he opened it, he found he was right. He pulled the birthday card out, opened it and a certificate fell out of the card and onto the table. Peter picked it up, read it, and then looked at Pepper.

"Cooking lessons?"

She nodded.

"For two. You and Tony are going to learn how to cook. More than macaroni and cheese."

"Tony can't even cook that," Strange told her. "Believe me."

Stark reached over and took the certificate from him, reading it, while Pepper pulled Peter into a hug that lasted a long moment, and like Natasha's, ended with a kiss.

"Happy birthday, sweetheart."

"Thanks, Pepper."

"Did we miss anyone?" Stark asked. "No? Let's have cake and ice cream, then."