Tony rounded the corner of the hall so fast, his shoes slipped on the sleek, hardwood floors, and he went spinning to the ground. The billionaire jumped up and barely righted himself before he was taking off again towards the elevator. Despite having cleared his schedule today, there had been an emergency and Tony was called in to a meeting at the last minute. At least it wasn't like the last week when he'd been called into the intern labs to put out literal fires.

"FRIDAY, where is Peter?"

"Happy just picked him up, Boss. They should be home in the next 20 minutes."

Tony cursed and picked up his pace. It was absolutely inexcusable to be late to your own son's surprise birthday party. The billionaire practically tore the doors to the elevator open and began pressing the button inside rapidly. He had less than 20 minutes to get the cake ready, set up streamers, serve the chips and chill the soda, and get the last of Peter's gifts wrapped and stacked on the coffee table to be opened later.

The elevator doors slid open and Tony was off, rushing into the kitchen only to skid to a stop. Pepper was standing at the island, finishing putting candles on the cake.

"Hello," Pepper said, looking up.

"You did the cake." Tony took a moment to look around the penthouse. Streamers were hung all around the living room. Balloons were arranged in little bouquets, weighed down by those silly disks of hard plastic you buy at party stores and scattered around the room. A massive stack of presents, wrapped in bright colors and eclectic patterns, were teetering on the coffee table. "You did it all."

Pepper chuckled. "I did. I got a call from your assistant when you got called into that meeting and I knew you would be stressed about Peter's party."

In the 14 years since Peter was born, Pepper had moved up fro Tony's assistant to the CEO of the entire company, taking over the role of administrative head.

"You're incredible," Tony sighed, his eyes closing as he relaxed. "I don't know what I would do without you."

"Probably die."

Tony helped Pepper pick up the cake to move it to the dining table for later. Rhodey would be here any minute, followed by Peter and Happy, and then they'd jump right into the festivities of presents, cake, and a traditional pizza dinner on the couch while Star Wars played in the background.

"What was the meeting about?"

Tony looked up from the plates he was setting along the table. "Huh?"

"What was the meeting about today?" Pepper repeated. She walked back over to the kitchen to get forks to put on the table.

"The team. Fury said he wanted to talk about where to establish home base."

Pepper hummed. "Did you all find a place?"

"Yeah. Here."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Peter was excitedly ripping back wrapping paper with wild hands, working his way through the presents Tony, Pepper, Happy, and Rhodey had gotten him. Blue ribbons and paisley paper went flying as Peter got to Rhodey's gift (a pair of customized sneakers).

"-So then Ned told me that we were having a field trip to Oscorp which is so cool- oh, there's tape here..." Peter tried to get his fingers between the shoe box and the top. Pepper had a bad habit of taping things closed before wrapping them, even if they didn't need it. "Got it. Oh, wow! These are so cool!!"

The sneakers were red and blue, with black striping and white soles.

"I love them!" The teen beamed up at Rhodey, his eyes sparkling. "I really love them."

"Can we go back to the part about a field trip to Oscorp being cool? Is Stark Industries not cool enough for you?" Tony faked a hurt expression.

"I just really like science, so anywhere sciency is cool to me." Peter set the shoes aside and looked around. "Well, I think this means its Star Wars time, right?"

"Yeah, bambino," Tony said. "Go get it started and I'll help Pepper with the dishes and wrapping paper."

Peter ran off, leaving his family behind to clean up. Peter was normally really good about doing his part of the chores, but on his birthday, he got a pass. Tony was a sucker for Peter's puppy dog face, and special celebrations only made it worse.

"You doing okay?" Rhodey asked, checking in with his friend. "I know today can be hard."

"'m fine," Tony said, balling up wrapping paper to throw in the trash. "Today is about Peter, not me."

Losing Mary had been harder on Tony than he liked to admit, and through it all, Peter kept him going. There was no time to feel sorry for yourself when a newborn depended on you for everything. There was no time to cry on the anniversary of a loved one's death when a little kid was running around your feet, excited to be another year older. To be honest, without Peter, Tony worried he might have gone the same way Howard had and started drinking. Peter was Tony's savior.

"Did Tony tell you about the meeting today?" Pepper changed the subject.

"Nah."

"I heard that it effects security," Happy said as he piled the dishes on the table. "They told me we'd be opening up some of the security levels and to prep new badges."

Rhodey snorted. "In this building? No way. Tony wouldn't let anyone get near his precious baby." It was said teasingly, but there was some truth to it. Tony was overly protective.

"Fury brought in me and Steve Rogers to talk about where to establish a home base. Naturally, Fury wanted to go with a SHIELD-controlled base, but I think that'd just lead to long nights and overnight stays, and that'd be hell with Peter's school, not to mention how we could-"

"You're rambling," Pepper said, cutting Tony off.

"We're going to establish the base here, at the Tower. I'm having the lower levels converted to gyms and conference rooms, and there'll be a floor of guest rooms for the team."

Everyone hummed, taking in the information. "Have you met anyone else that's going to be on the team?" Rhodey asked.

"Not yet," Tony said. He picked up the last of the cake to save for the next day. "I did get a list, though. Steve Rogers, Mr. America himself, who I've met; Clint Barton and Natasha Romanoff, both SHIELD agents; Bruce Banner, who apparently is a huge nerd and asked for a lab to tinker in; and Thor, who is apparently a literal God?"

"Sounds like an eclectic crew," Happy said. "Should I be worried about the two SHIELD agents hacking our systems and taking over the building?"

Pepper laughed. "I doubt they'll try it. I took the liberty of going through Tony's files on them-"

"Thanks for invading my privacy."

"-You're welcome, and it sounds like they were thinking of leaving SHIELD anyways, so I doubt they'd run back to Fury to report on us." Pepper scrubbed a little bit of dried cake frosting off the table with her nail, mostly ignoring Tony.

Happy nodded, pushing in the dining chairs. "Ready for the movie then?"

Tony shrugged. "Yeah, sure. Maybe Star Wars gets better the 14th time around."

"Don't you dare pretend you don't like Star Wars," Happy said. "You literally hum the Imperial theme to yourself when you walk into meetings with the board."

Tony blushed. "Whatever."