Chapter 1
“Peter has just been dropped off at the compound.”
Tony smiled, already looking forward to seeing how his son’s sleepover had been.
“Phil’s staying with him?” Pepper asked, sliding her hand onto Tony’s thigh to remind him that there wasn’t any reason to increase their speed and get home sooner.
“He met him on the porch,” JARVIS confirmed. “They are - incoming call from Eric Tatro.”
Tony nodded. Peter had been with Eric so it wasn’t a big shock that the other man would want to check in with them to make sure they knew where their son was.
“Put him through.”
The monitor that was between the passenger and driver seats came on and sure enough it was Eric Tatro’s face that came online. From the background it was clear that he was driving. Easy enough to have high tech video phone conferencing in your car when Tony Stark was a good friend, obviously.
“Hey, guys. You’ll be happy to know that I’ve dropped your son at home and filled him up with sugar before I did.”
Pepper wasn’t the only one to smile at that.
“Did he have a good time?”
“Of course he did.” Eric’s handsome face turned slightly serious. “Ned did, too. But I thought I’d call to give you a heads up…”
Pepper raised an eyebrow at that.
“Are you getting another dog?”
“Nothing like that.” He hesitated. “Ned’s going to summer camp.”
“What?”
There was a slight smile. Tony was a billionaire, sure, but he had to know what summer camp was, didn’t he?
“Summer camp. The state pays for the foster kids to go – to give them a chance to experience nature and have an adventure in a vastly different setting than what they’re used to. Some of the boys are going and Ned wants to go, too.”
Unspoken was the fact that Eric would do anything to make his adopted son happy.
“When?” Pepper asked.
“It starts in two weeks.”
“For how long?” Tony asked, already frowning, because he had a feeling that he knew what was coming next.
And he didn’t like it.
“A week.”
“Where?” Pepper asked, also well aware of what was going to happen next.
They both knew their son, after all.
“Camp Wood Leaf. It’s about an hour north of your compound. In the woods.”
Hence the name Wood Leaf.
“And you’re letting Ned go?”
“I don’t have any reason not to. Jamie went, last year, and he told the kids at the house that he had a good time. None of them have said they don’t want to go.”
“They’re all going?”
“They’re all going to the high school session. Ned’s going to the one before that, which is for the younger kids.”
“Ugh.”
Eric gave a wry smile. He knew Peter, too, after all.
“Sorry.”
“Send us what you have on this place, will you?” Tony asked.
“Sure.”
“And thank you for the heads up,” Pepper added.
“Of course.”
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
“Did you ask them?”
Peter shook his head, looking somewhat mournfully at Ned’s image on his phone. He’d seen his friend in person only an hour ago at Eric’s house, before Eric had taken Peter home. Tony and Pepper weren’t there – they were at the tower – but they were on their way home, and while Eric wouldn’t have minded waiting with Peter for them to come home, Phil Coulson had been close at hand and had offered to wait with the boy, instead.
Eric had given Peter a hug and had left, and Phil had asked the boy if he’d had a good time at the sleepover. Peter had been able to be honest and say he had; he always had fun with the kids at Eric’s (and Ned in particular) but he’d been a little subdued as he realized that Tony and Pepper would be home, soon, and there was a conversation that he wanted to have with them – but didn’t want to have with them, at the same time. He’d told Phil that he was going to go to his room and unpack his backpack but had agreed to come back out and tell Phil about what he’d done the day before.
Ned had called him, first, however.
“They’re not home, yet.”
“And then you’ll ask them?”
“They aren’t going to let me go.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Tony’ll say it’s too dangerous.”
“It’s not.”
“I know.” Peter felt a tear trickle down his cheek, and he wiped it away. “But he’ll say it is, and Pepper will agree.”
“I’ll have Eric call them,” Ned promised, upset at his friend’s obvious distress. “He’ll talk to them – like he did when you wanted to play football.”
“This isn’t the same thing.” He forced a smile, knowing that he was upsetting his friend. “It’s okay. Thanks, anyway.”
“Are you sure?” Ned pressed. “I don’t mind. Eric-“
“No, it’s okay. I’ll figure something out.”
“Okay. But tell me if you change your mind.”
“I will. Bye.”
“Bye.”
“What’s going on, Peter?” JARVIS asked as the boy walked from the desk he’d been sitting at and went over and sat down on his bed. The lower bunk. That was where he’d tossed his backpack, too. “What won’t Tony and Pepper let you do?”
Peter shook his head, another tear falling, now that he didn’t have to hide them from Ned.
“Nothing.”
There was a slight hesitation, as if JARVIS was considering his line of questioning.
“Is it illegal?”
“No.”
“Dangerous?”
“No.”
“But you told Ned that they will think that it is…”
“Because they’ll think that it is.” A soft sniff. “But it’s not.”
“Is it a secret?”
“No.”
“Then why won’t you tell me?”
“Because you’ll tell Tony.”
Bad enough that Peter wanted it so badly. At least before he asked, he had the slight hope that something would happen and Tony would say yes. If JARVIS told, then Tony would know, and he could say no and that would be the end of it.
Peter didn’t exactly think of it that way, but that was the way it was in his nine-year-old brain. Brilliant though it was.
Another hesitation.
“Will you tell me if I promise not to tell them?”
The little boy hesitated, too.
“Or anyone else…?”
Phil was in the living room, after all.
“I won’t tell anyone,” Jarvis promised.
Peter sniffed, again.
“Ned’s going to summer camp, next month.”
“And you want to go, as well.”
“Yeah.” Another tear. “But Tony and Pepper won’t want me to go, because there’s no Avengers at summer camp.”
“They couldn’t go?”
“It’s only the kids and the counselors.”
“An avenger could be a counselor, no?”
“Then everyone would be spending time with them, and not act normal. It wouldn’t be like real camp.”
“Perhaps you could go camping,” came the suggestion. “You had fun doing that, before. Then the Avengers could come.”
“It’s not the same as summer camp,” Peter said, and he wiped the tear that fell. It would be fun, though, he knew. Tony would make sure it was fun. “Ned’s going to camp. I want to go to camp, too.”
“Peter?”
The boy looked over at the tap on his door – which opened without his reply. Coulson stuck his head into the room, looking a little concerned – although he usually looked serious, anyway.
“Yeah?”
“Is everything alright?”
“Yeah.”
Coulson walked into the room, drawn by the woeful expression he was seeing on the boy’s face. The SHIELD agent knew the boy as well as anyone – and better than many – and knew that while Peter was a serious little guy, a lot of the time, he was also a happy kid, and Phil preferred to see him happy.
“What’s going on, buddy?”
Peter turned away.
“Nothing…”
“You look pretty sad for it to be nothing.”
“Oh.” Peter wasn’t a good liar. He didn’t have much reason for lying – aside from when he played poker and was trying to bluff – so he shook his head. “I’m not sad.”
“Upset?”
“Maybe.”
“Did something happen?” Coulson asked, frowning. “Did someone say something to hurt your feelings? Or scare you?”
“No.”
Phil came over and sat on the bed beside Peter.
“Do I need to tell Natasha that someone is messing with her favorite Avenger to be?”
That made Peter smile, even though it didn’t light up his expression like it normally would at the thought of being called a future Avenger – especially coming from Phil.
“No. No one said anything.”
“Then what’s going on?”
Peter hesitated, but JARVIS interrupted any comment he was going to make.
“Tony and Pepper are pulling up the driveway.”