Peter was sitting up in his bed when they walked into his room. The Cloak of Levitation was wrapped around him, a corner of fabric caressing his ear and the boy was holding the remote, looking as if he'd just been woken up – which was almost certainly the case. Strange scowled, ready to scold him for being upright when he had left orders for the boy to keep pressure off his side at all times, but then realized that Peter wasn't actually touching the bed. He was hovering about two inches above his blankets but the cloak was draped around him and had hidden that until he took a closer look.

"Seriously?"

Peter grinned when he looked over and saw them. He was obviously pleased and maybe even excited that the ancient relic was willing to allow him a loophole that let him sit up.

"Pretty cool, huh?"

"How did you convince it to float you?" the doctor asked.

Pepper had never actually seen the cloak do more than float itself around the place, and she was impressed, walking over and sliding her hand under Peter, between his leg and the bed. The cloak brushed a corner of fabric against her hand, and Tony remembered – only for the briefest of moments – that the thing had fried a guy a lot more magically inclined than Pepper was in an instant.

He didn't protest, though. He knew the thing liked Peter and Peter loved Pepper. She was safe from anything the cloak could do.

"I didn't," Peter told him, shrugging. "It woke me up covering me up and then I felt it lifting me. Not much, but it's not putting any pressure on my hip."

He looked slightly rebellious, as if he was expecting the doctor to tell him it wasn't the same and he still had to stay prone. Strange didn't, though. He simply walked over to the bed, too.

"Set him down for a minute, will you?" he said directly to the cloak. "I want to check his hip."

The boy was lowered to the bed and the heavy fabric moved to the side.

"Does it have to be wrapped around him to float him like that?" Pepper asked, curiously.

"It levitates me, and it just touches my collar most of the time," Strange told her.

"Can it lift two people?" Tony asked.

"I don't see why not," Strange replied, carefully pulling the side of Peter's pajamas down to expose the bandages on his hip.

"Is there a weight limit?" Peter asked.

He felt a negative coming from the cloak, before Strange shrugged.

"I don't know."

"Could it lift the Hulk?" Tony asked.

Peter answered for the cloak.

"It says yes."

"Can it lift Thor's hammer?" Stark asked with a smirk.

"It doesn't carry inanimate objects," Strange said. "Only people."

"Could it lift Lila's pony?" Peter asked, wincing, and looking down at the wound Strange was treating with a medicated bandage. It was still red, but not as bad as before, he decided. "Peter Pony?"

Stephen looked up from the wound.

"She named him Peter Pony?"

The boy rolled his eyes and nodded. He'd assumed Natasha had told him.

"Yeah."

"I've never seen it lift an animal," the doctor admitted. "What is it saying?"

The cloak gave a grudging yes in Peter's mind.

"I think it could, but it wouldn't want to," the boy reported.

"Huh."

"Would it lift me?" Pepper asked, still fascinated. "Or is it just magicians and their favorite patients?"

"That would be up to it, I imagine," Strange told her, still focused more on Peter's injury than the conversation but well able to handle both at the same time. "It does what it wants, for the most part."

The cloak gave a cheerful assent in Peter's mind and reached that same corner out and tucked against her blouse. A moment later she gasped as she felt herself rise off the floor several inches, hover for a moment, and then slowly drift back.

"That's amazing."

She was smiling, and that reaction made Peter and Tony smile, too.

"We could hire it out for parties," Stark said, winking at Peter, well aware what the cloak would think of that particular idea. "Probably wouldn't need a magician or pony rides that way."

Predictably, the ancient relic reminded Tony that it wasn't afraid to administer an admonishing slap, and the same corner of fabric that had lifted Pepper reached out slapped Stark's shoulder. Peter felt only amusement coming from the thing and he realized suddenly that the cloak actually liked Tony.

There was a cheerful agreement in his mind, and the boy laughed as Stark pointed a finger at it, silently scolding it for the reprimand.

"How does it look, Stephen?" Pepper asked, also amused.

"Much better."

While they'd been distracted by the cloak, he'd put a new bandage on the wound and taped it securely down.

"I can get up, then?" Peter asked.

"No. Not until Sunday."

"But you said it's better."

"Better. Not healed. Do as I say and it'll be Sunday. Get rambunctious and reopen it and you'll be in bed until Christmas."

"But-"

Peter's protest was cut short by the cloak wrapping itself around him once more and again lifting him off the bed. He wanted to grumble, but his own indignation wasn't strong enough for him to feel it over the cheerful comfort the cloak was overwhelming him with.

Strange held up his hand.

"Don't argue with me, okay? The other option we have is to have Wong come up with a potion of some kind that might heal you from the inside – and there's no promise it would work that quickly. Your choice."

Knowing full well from past experiences just how awful Wong's medicines tasted, Peter fell silent. The doctor waited for any more argument, and then nodded.

"Sunday. It's only a few days away."

If you were stuck in bed it was a lifetime. Peter didn't say that, though. The cloak caressed his ears, and Tony turned to Strange.

"We're going to eat. Interested?"

"No. I'm going to go find Natasha. Thank you, though."

It was obvious that he was planning on staying at the compound, though, since the cloak didn't show any sign of leaving Peter, just then. Before he left, though, a large tray appeared in the middle of Peter's bed. On it was a meal for three, including porkchops, potatoes, salad, bread and coffee.

"That was nice," Pepper said, approvingly, as she went around to the other side of Peter's bed and settled on the uninjured side of the boy.

She liked magic.

Tony agreed, went to Peter's fridge and pulled out a cola for the boy before joining his family on the bed.

"Elmer made his local news," Pepper told them as they settled in to eat their dinner.

"What do you mean?" Peter asked, curiously.

She set the bread roll down and picked up her phone which was more convenient than her tablet.

"Local man gets rescued by Ironman, spends 3 days snowed in with the Avengers in Montana." She smiled. "There's a picture of him with Tony at the cabin and a short article about Tony finding him lost in the snow and saving him, taking him back to the cabin and then getting snowed in with us. Nothing really intrusive and only the one picture. I'm impressed. He had enough material to write an entire book."

"No mention of Peter?" Stark asked.

"Only that we were there celebrating his birthday. Nothing else. Nothing about the other kids, either – although it does mention Captain America being there, too."

"If it'd been me, I'd have plastered every picture I could across the front page," Peter said, smiling. "And I'd have name dropped everyone."

"It does mention being rescued as a group by the military, and being transported home," Pepper said, putting her phone down, again so she could eat. "His wife said she was very grateful to everyone who saved his life."

"That's nice," Tony said. "Maybe she'll send me a postcard from Idaho."

He winked at Peter, amused and pleased that the man hadn't tried to gain any notoriety from being with their group. It made him feel a little better about that whole mess.

"Maybe we can send him something with an autograph," Pepper suggested. "It would impress his little girl, I bet."

Stark rolled his eyes, but he knew he would, because she wanted him to do it.

"Maybe."