Despite the early hour they'd left, it was still well after noon by the time they arrived at their meeting point. Two sled were waiting for them in a small valley next to a wide river. They weren't as large as the ones that were transporting them, now, but they weren't supposed to be, really. There would be a permanent camp for the safari, where they'd sleep each night safely behind one of the portable forcefields that were designed to keep any wandering animals out of their tents in the middle of the night.

The two smaller sleds would be carrying them to their destinations each day. Four days of looking at animals and a final day of searching through the vibranium mines on the Avengers lands. Permission had already been asked – and granted – for the safari to spill over into the adjoining lands of the Water tribe. The Avenger lands were relatively small, after all (on purpose since they didn't need a lot of land), and while it was all wildlands, there wasn't the diversity that would be needed in order for the kids on safari to see everything that Wakanda had to offer.

Peter and Shuri both knew the guides that had been brought on for their safari. They were the same ones who had guided them on the short safari during Tony and Pepper's honeymoon, after all, and the best of their kind. Peter grinned in response to the wave of greeting the guides gave them, and he hopped down from the sled that he was in as soon as it came to a full stop. Shuri, Ned, and MJ followed, and the security team joined them, but were staying in the background as much as they could. They were there for security, but were trying to keep themselves unobtrusive to allow the teens their fun.

The guides were introduced to Ned and MJ and then it was explained to everyone that the plan for the rest of the day was to start the safari on the bank of the river while the large sleds continued on to the campsite and start erecting the tents and preparing the site. They'd return to the site in time for dinner and with enough daylight left to familiarize themselves with the placement of the tents and also the area that would be covered by the shield.

They loaded into the new sled; Peter and his friends with two guides and the security people with another guide who would follow at a distance but still be around if anything came up. Wild animals, a problem with the sled, or something else that they might not anticipate. Better to have back up than wish it was there, later.

"What are we going to see first?" Ned asked, curiously, seating himself in the front of the sled next to the driver.

MJ, Peter, and Shuri ranged themselves behind them with the other guide, and they didn't miss that there were stunner weapons stashed in various spots around the sled. Again, for safety in case one of the many unpredictable animals they were going to see caused an issue.

Both guides spoke very good English.

"We saw a small herd of elephants when we were coming to meet up with you," the driver replied. "We will go back and see how much they may have moved."

"It is a herd of females with their young," the other said as the sled started up and they parted ways with the larger ones. "One is very young. Perhaps only a week old, or so."

"Wow." Ned was already making sure he had easy access to the digital camera that he'd brought with him. He had his phone, too, of course, but wanted a back up. "Will they let us look at it?"

He'd done some research and knew that many animals were fairly protective of their young. He also knew that not every young animal was born in the spring like he'd thought was the case. Mainly from the many movies he'd seen.

"Most likely," the guide assured them. "We will not get too close, though."

"Sweet."

Shuri smiled, and leaned back into the seat next to Peter, allowing her hand to brush his leg for a moment to get his attention.

"And no trying to grab it and run," she told him, her smile turning into a smirk.

Peter rolled his eyes.

"Not a chance."

He was in his right mind, this time, and had no intention of going after any baby creatures.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

"What are you doing?"

Tony flinched, looking over his shoulder, guiltily.

"What?"

Pepper walked the remaining few steps to the small table, not missing that he had his tablet out, but that it wasn't showing the usual specs and figures that it normally did when he was working on his normal research or projects.

"I asked what you're doing," she repeated with a smile. "But now I don't think I need to."

"I'm not doing anything," Tony told her, slightly defensive.

She reached for the tablet and saw that it was displaying a map. A map of Wakanda, with a single red dot on it. Moving slowly along a riverbed.

"Are you tracking Peter?"

"What? No. Of course not."

"What's the red dot?"

"What red dot?"

Now Pepper rolled her eyes as she gestured to the spot in question.

"This one. The one that is moving at the same speed as someone who is on safari might be moving…"

"It's a zebra."

"Peter's zebra?"

Since they both knew that the half-grown zebra actually did have a tracker that allowed Peter to keep up to date with what was going on with him Tony also knew that Pepper could call him on that if she wanted to. She knew how to pull the zebra up as readily as Tony and Peter both did.

"No. A different one."

"A different zebra?"

"Right."

"Because…?"

"In case Peter's zebra is looking for a girlfriend."

"Uh huh. Are you ready for lunch?" she asked. "Or do you want to keep watching your random zebra?"

"No, we can eat." A final last look at the red dot and then he turned off the tablet. "Do you want to go into the city?"

Pepper was surprised and didn't bother to hide it. She knew that Tony wanted to be close at hand in case something came up and there was any kind of emergency call from Wakanda.

"You want to go out?"

He shrugged, understanding the look.

"We could. If you'd like."

Now she hesitated. It was all well and good to tease him about being overprotective when it came to Peter, but she was also very much aware of the fact that their baby (and yes, he was a teenager, but they'd seen him as a baby and it was hard to separate the two, sometimes) was so far away from home. What if something did come up? What if he needed them to be close at hand to come to the rescue? She knew that they could call Stephen and lock in on Peter in an instant, but it would be harder to do that if they were on the road somewhere.

"We could eat here…"

Tony smiled, catching her hand and kissing her knuckle – the one that was closest to her mother's ring, even though that hadn't been by design.

"He's fine, Pep. We can go into the city to eat."

"Tony's keeping an eye on Peter," a new voice said. "You don't need to worry about something happening."

They both turned to look at Nick, who had walked up to the table, silently, in time to hear the last part of the conversation – and understood the reluctance. He was holding Nutmeg, who was sprawled along Fury's forearm, bonelessly, sleeping.

"With the tracker, you mean?"

Nick smirked and shrugged.

"I'm sworn to secrecy."

Without another word he walked away, heading to the exit that led to the corridor and the control room and Pepper turned back to her husband.

"Just how much are you tracking?" she asked. "We promised him to not-"

"Nothing more than what you saw," Tony assured her. "Just a little red dot, making sure that they stay on their planned schedule so nothing happens."

She frowned.

"Are they on schedule?"

"Yes."

"Then let's go out to eat."

"Sounds good."