It was a two and a half hour drive to the area that Stark had selected for their camping trip. Peter sat in the back, in the middle of the bucket seat so he could participate in any conversation and could see where they were going. The cloak was draped over his shoulder, pleased to have him to itself and humming contentedly in his mind, trying to lull him to sleep.

He wasn't sleepy, though. He was excited. He'd never camped before – which was going to be an adventure on its own – and he was going to have Mr. Stark and Doctor Strange's company for the next five days, which was going to be great, too, as far as he was concerned.

Even though he and Stark had had lunch before they left – Natasha had insisted that he eat a final hot meal before turning him loose into Tony's care – Strange hadn't had anything, so they went through a drive thru half an hour after they left the compound. They didn't stop, though. Stark didn't mind driving and eating, and he wanted to make sure they didn't get delayed so there would be plenty of time to find the campsite and get everything ready before dark.

"What kind of wildlife are we going to be dealing with out here?" Strange asked, curiously, unwrapping his burger as they pulled back onto the highway.

Meaning what will try to eat me, first.

"The big ones are black bears, bobcats, Eastern cougars, coyotes, Eurasian boars, foxes and maybe even a moose," Peter answered.

Strange turned to look at him, surprised by the ready answer.

"Is that the Mind stone telling you that?"

Peter shook his head.

"Google. I looked it up at school the other day."

Stark smiled, but didn't say anything.

"Moose, huh?"

"They're not that common," Peter told the doctor. "We probably won't see any of that. Just the little mammals."

"We'll have the tent," Stark pointed out. "And it's designed to keep the critters out. No squirrels in our sleeping bags or anything like that."

The conversation turned to Peter's classes and the computer symposium that Ned was attending that weekend – which was why he wasn't along for the camping trip. He'd decided that as much fun as camping sounded – and Ned had actually been a few times, so he knew about camping – the computer thing was a once a year event that he didn't want to miss out on.

Before they knew it, Stark was turning off the highway onto a dirt service road that had an open gate and a sign that proclaimed that camping was prohibited without permits and there was no hunting allowed.

"We've got a permit," Tony assured them.

They weren't interested in hunting, of course. Although Stark had packed fishing poles and bait for all of them to make the attempt at that particular outdoor activity.

"Do you know where we're going?" Stephen asked twenty minutes later. The dirt road seemed endless, and his rear was getting numb from sitting.

"I came out here and checked it out the other day."

"Driving?"

"Nope."

Why be Ironman if you couldn't save yourself some drive time once in a while?

A few minutes later, they turned a curve and there was a clearing in the trees, with the sparkle of water from a lake that was reflecting the late afternoon sun back at them, and the trees and hills surrounding it onto the flat, almost glass-like water. There was a graveled area that led to what was obviously a parking spot, adjacent to a fire pit area, and even a picnic table. The grassy area that touched the gravel was probably ideal for a tent.

As Stark pulled to a stop, Peter saw that there was also a port-a-potty mostly hidden in the tress a little off to the right.

Strange noticed it, too.

"Is that normally a campground amenity?"

Stark shook his head.

"I am only willing to rough it so much," he admitted. "I had it installed."

"I'm not going to complain," the doctor told him, approvingly.

They got out and stretched a little, looking around. Peter walked over to the edge of the water and was surprised to see a lot of tiny fish swimming right up against the shore of the lake. The cloak of levitation looked over his shoulder as well, but Peter couldn't feel any interest coming from it. It wasn't nearly as excited about being in the great outdoors as the boy was.

"There are fish in here," he said, looking at them and pointing.

"Don't sound so surprised," Tony told him, walking over to look as well. "All the lakes around here have fish."

Peter felt a little foolish for being so excited, but he'd never seen fish anywhere other than at the aquarium – or in fish tanks. This wasn't the same thing. It was his first indication that he was in the wilderness. Exciting, but he was also well aware that he was way out of his normal element.

They walked back to the truck and Stark pulled out a backpack, opened it and handed each of them a digital camera.

"Pepper sent them," he explained. "They are waterproof, they will float if dropped into the lake, and she wants photos of everything."

"Including one of us being eaten by a moose?" Strange asked, turning the camera around in his hands to check it out.

"Especially that," Tony replied. "Let's get camp set up so we can take a look around."

OOOOOOOOO

They didn't have too much trouble with the tent. Steve had taken Tony and Peter into the field the day before and had made sure that they would be able to set it up. Peter assumed - correctly - that Natasha had pointed out to Rogers that neither of them had done it before and she would want to make certain that they had a place to sleep at night. She had never been camping, either, and so she wasn't the one to show them how it was done.

The tent was fair-sized. It was sturdy and had plenty of stakes holding it down on the chance that a windstorm or something might come up. The coolers of food were put inside the tent and the tops were firmly closed. Like everything Tony Stark did, the chests were high tech and not simply filled with ice to keep their perishables cool. These had a cooling technology in them that would run on solar power – even in the tent – and would stay cold for up to two weeks if needed.

Stark wanted to camp, but he didn't want to deal with spoiled milk, if he could avoid it. Which he could.

They also had canned food, which went into the tent as well. The supplies; the fishing gear, the cooking items, enough firewood to last them probably a month and the like were all kept in the back of the truck with the canoe overturned above it to keep it out of the direct sunlight, or to keep it dry if it rained.

The last thing to go into the tent was the sleeping bags and pillows, and Stark took care of that while Peter took his camera and dutifully took pictures of their campsite – and Doctor Strange stacking wood near their fire pit.

"This is great," Peter said, looking into the tent when Stark came out so he could take a few pictures. He figured Ned would want to see them, as well.

He noticed that his sleeping bag had been put between Tony's and Strange's, and that Stark's was the one closest to the opening of the tent. It was all well and good to be camping, but Stark clearly had every intention of keeping himself between Peter and anything that might go bump in the night. Especially the dark and outdoor night.

Like moose.