Peter bursts into Natasha's room, covered in sunscreen, wearing an Iron Man helmet and a sumo suit.

"BEACH TRIP TIME!!!" He yells, turning on the light.

Natasha groans, reaches under her pillow, and throws a knife at Peter. Luckily, He dodges it easily, but the second one pings off the helmet.

"You have to get up now! I've gotten everyone else up but I was too scared to wake you up 'cause I knew you'd try to kill me so I wore an Iron Man helmet and a sumo suit so if you threw something sharp at me it wouldn't kill me. Anyways, Mr Stark said if you don't get up I'm allowed to jump on your bed..." Peter explains, dodging the many sharp weapons Natasha kept throwing at him.

Natasha groans again. "Fine, I'll get up. But get out of my room before I punch your lights out."

Peter scurries out of the room, breathing a sigh of relief as the door closes behind him. He turns to the group of Avengers huddled in a group in the hallway.

"Good news, she didn't kill me! Also, she's getting up now 'cause I threatened to jump on her bed."

"See? Told y'all it would be a good idea to send Queens in." Steve explains, and everyone nods.

"Can someone help me out of this sumo suit now? It's getting a bit stuffy." Peter complains, and Wanda steps forward and helps him out.

Half an hour later, the Avengers are sitting on a bus, pulling out of the compound. Natasha and Clint are sharing earbuds, Wanda and Vision are having an in depth conversation no one quite knows what about, Steve is drawing Bucky as he sleeps, Bruce is trying to show Thor how to use Twitter, Sam is throwing tic-tacs at Scott in front of him, Rhodes is reading, and Peter is bouncing in his seat next to Tony, who is tapping away at his phone.

Finally, Tony turns to Peter. "Could you sit still for one minute?"

Peter grins. "I'm just so excited!"

"Go be excited somewhere else then, I'm busy." Tony turns back to his phone.

Peter nods, getting up, and walks down the isle of the bus, but everyone is doing something with someone else. Feeling a little left out, he makes his way to the back of the bus and curls up in the corner seat.

After a few minutes, Steve notices Peter is missing. Frowning at Tony's head in front of him, he peels Bucky's head off his shoulder and jumps over the seat to sit next to Tony.

"Where did Queens go?" He questions.

"Dunno. Don't care." Tony responds, not even looking up from his phone.

Steve scans the bus, sees Peter curled up in the back corner, and frowns again at Tony.

"Just remember he's still a kid, Tony. He looks up to you." Steve returns to him seat, and Bucky slaps him for waking him up.

Tony stares at his screen, Steve's message resonating in his head. He subtly looks back at Peter, a pang of guilt stabbing his heart as he sees the dejected look on his face.

By the time they reach the beach, Peter has fallen asleep. Everyone piles off the bus, and Tony waits until everyone is off before walking down to the back. He looks down at Peter's angelic, sleeping face, before gathering him in his arms. Peter doesn't even flinch as Tony walks down the stairs of the bus and lays Peter down on a towel. He makes sure the umbrella is shading Peter's face before sitting on a towel next to him. After a moment's hesitation, Tony reaches down and brushes a loose curl out of Peter's face.

Peter wakes up on a towel on the beach, shaded by an umbrella. He sits up and looks around, a bit confused. He sees Tony sitting next to him and almost jumps up in excitement, but remembers what he said on the bus and just sits up quietly, bringing his knees up to his chest.

"I'm sorry, kid." Tony mutters quietly, but Peter's keen ears pick it up.

"It's alright." He whispers back.

Tony pats Peter's shoulder for a split second, but it feels like the biggest hug to Peter. He jumps up, ripping his shirt off and pulls a frisbee out of his bag.

"Are you gonna play, Mr Stark?" He asks, but Tony shakes his head.

"I'm happy to just watch, Pete." Peter shrugs, then runs down the beach waving the frisbee over his head.

Steve walks past Tony and nods, recognising the apology. Clint comes and sits with Tony.

"Is it possible to love someone like a child even if they're not your kid?" Tony asks after a minute, and Clint smiles.

"Why don't you tell me, Tony?" Tony accepts this answer, hiding the smile threatening to spread across his face.

"Bring it on, spidey!" Sam yells from on top of Steve's shoulders.

"CHARGE!" Peter hollers at Thor from his shoulders. The two pairs charge forward and Peter and Same wrestle, trying to push each other off the other's shoulders. The fight ends when Peter pushes Sam at the same time as Thor kicks Steve's legs and they go splashing into the sea.

"We won again! Woohoo!" Peter yells, and Thor parades him around for a victory lap.

"I do not know what this game is, but I love it!" Thor answers, happy to be a part of the game.

"Okay then champ, verse me! Steve and I used to rock this game." Bucky growls, clambering onto Steve's shoulders.

"Wait! You have a metal arm that's no fair! I'm not using my webs, you don't use your arm. Deal?" Peter objects, and Bucky agrees.

"Deal." He throws the arm onto the beach, then Steve runs at Peter and Thor, and they meet them readily. This fight takes longer; Thor can easily hold up the small teen, but Bucky and Steve have been playing this game for years. Bucky gives a hard shove to Peter, who starts falling back, but grabs onto Bucky's arm and pulls the other team down with them. In the end, they decide on a tie, unable to tell who hit the water first.

Soon, Peter starts to get bored as the adults slowly start laying on towels, sleeping, sunbathing, or reading.

An idea comes to him as he is pushing sand around aimlessly. "Let's have a sandcastle competition!" He yells, and everyone looks around, deciding whether to join or not.

"Okay, but I'm gonna win. I make the best sandcastles for Cassie all the time." Scott brags, getting to his feet.

"I think I'm going to win, I also have kids. Three of them." Clint gets up, not wanting to be out-dad-ed.

"You're speaking to a genius. I'm going to win, hands down." Tony gets up completely confident in his abilities.

Soon everyone is putting their achievements in, and they all agree to a contest. Peter, Thor, and Bruce agree to judge, with no one else wanting to give up the opportunity to show off. For the next few hours, Peter scurries from group to group, watching the castles slowly form.

"Time's up! Put the shovels down!" Peter announces after a while, and everyone steps back from their castles. He and the other judges walk around, carefully examining each creation. After looking at all of them, the judges have a discussion, then Peter steps forward and clears his throat.

"Me and my fellow judges have come to a decision. The top three castles are Mr Steve and Mr Bucky's, Mr Clint-I mean Clint's, and Mr Stark's. Sorry Mr Scott, your third pillar was slightly cracked, and it took several points off." Peter declares, and the top three teams steps forward.

"In third place we have Steve and Bucky!" Bruce announces, and everyone claps.

"Second place is... the man of hawk's eyes!" Thor bellows and everyone cheers louder, and Tony pumps his fist.

"Which means that Mr Stark is first!" Peter finishes, and Tony bows.

"Thank you everyone, just another reminder that I am the greatest and you all suck. Thank you." Tony gives his victory speech.

"Now it's time to throw the winner in the ocean!" Rodney yells, and everyone surges towards Tony. Thor and Steve take a hold of his legs, and Bucky and Clint each take an arm. They carry the squirming and yelling Tony to the water and wade in waist deep. They throw him as hard as they can, and Tony comes up after a moment, spluttering. Peter jumps up and down, clapping his hands. Everyone is laughing, until Tony starts splashing everyone. An all-out water war starts, every man for himself. Peter is right there in the middle of it all, enjoying every second of it. Even when Natasha dunks him right before a big wave bowls him over, he is all smiles.

After watching the sunset from the rocks, everyone piles back onto the bus, all sunburnt and wind swept hair. Peter sits up the back of the bus, and is shocked as Tony sits down next to him.

"Did you have fun, Pete?" Tony asks, making Peter jump.

"Yeah, I did." Peter smiles, answering eagerly.

By the time they've pulled out from the bay, Peter is already fast asleep, resting his head on Tony's shoulder. Tony smiles down at him, once again pushing a curl out of his face. He looks up and makes eye contact with Steve, who smiles back at him. Tony pretends to ignore him.

Getting back to the compound, Tony waits until everyone is off to pick Peter up, and the sleepy boy wraps his arms and legs around Tony. Once off the bus, he realised everyone is still standing there, waiting for him.

"If you're gonna wait here, someone get Peter's bag!" He whispers, and Natasha rolls her eyes and goes to collect the bag. They all walk into the compound, and every time someone talks loudly, everyone else shushes them. Tony makes his way to Peter's room, and carefully lays him on his bed.

"Thanks Dad." Peter mutters, half asleep, and Tony freezes.

"Pete?" He whispers, but Peter is asleep. Tony pulls a blanket up over him, and after a battle with his inner voice, leans down and presses a light kiss to Peter's forehead. Standing up and turning around, he realises everyone is crowded in the room, watching with big smiles.

"If any of you say a word to the kid I'll blast your brains out with the suit on." He hisses, and everyone nods, smothering laughs.

"We know you love him Tony. You can't deny it." Natasha whispers, and Tony fights back a blush.

"Maybe." Tony replies, ushering everyone out of the room.

"You need to tell him before you can't." She finishes, and Tony shuts the door with a quiet click.

"I know, Nat. I will." Tony waits until everyone has left before peeking into Peter's room again. "One day Peter. One day."

.

.

.

.

.