With a three day weekend and no homework, Peter could be found lying on the church marathoning Stars Wars for the 71st time (but who was counting?) on Friday afternoon. He had just finished Return of the Jedi and was about to start The Phantom Menace when the lift dinged, announcing the arrival of someone. Twisting around to see who it was, Peter was only slightly surprised to see Pepper. After all, his dad was out with the team and Pepper had promised to take shorter workdays so Peter wasn't alone in the penthouse all the time.

"Pepper?" Peter asked, "What are you doing here?"

"I'm off early," she told him, directing his attention to the clock. 12:32 PM. Yeah, she was definitely early. "I was thinking, how about we go into the city this afternoon? I figured we could do something other than lie around and watch TV," she said, giving Peter a pointed look.

Peter turned off the TV, forgetting about his marathon and running to his room to change out of his pyjamas.

"Yeah!"

He rarely got to hang out with Pepper anymore. If she was suggesting a day in town, he was more than willing to join. Besides, he could already quote every Star Wars movie and didn't really need more practice.

Once both Pepper and Peter were changed into clothes suitable for the August heat, Pepper grabbed her purse and followed Peter into the lift. They rode it down to the garage and Pepper let Peter choose which car they took.

"Where are we going first?" Peter asked, clambering into the passenger seat. Pepper fastened her seat belt and Peter hurried to do the same.

"I was thinking the New York Hall of Science in Queens," Pepper suggested casually.

Peter's head whipped around to look at her so fast she wouldn't have been surprised if he had whiplash.

"But I don't know if you're interested..." she trailed off, sparing a glance at Peter.

"I'm interested!" he yelled. Pepper smiled.

"Good," she said, "Afterwards, we'll get dinner somewhere."

Peter grinned even wider and nodded.

As they ate their dinner, Peter told Pepper about his favourite parts of the museum. Just as Pepper had expected, they spent nearly 4 hours there and walked through almost the entire museum twice. Peter had been so excited the first time through, he had run from exhibit to exhibit. Once he had seen everything, he went back to carefully read all about it so he could tell Ned everything when he visited the following Saturday night.

"Ned's gonna be so jealous!" Peter said, promptly taking a large bite of his burrito and nearly spilling it on the ground.

"I'm sure you'll tell him so much he'll feel like he had been there too," Pepper teased.

She felt kind of bad about not offering to take Ned, but she had wanted to spend the day with Peter while Tony was gone. Ever since Peter had started school, she had only ever been with him when Tony was around or for a few hours while he was out at SHIELD. There was the occasion where he would be on a mission and she and Peter would be alone for a few days, but they never went out and did anything together.

"Thanks for today, Pepper," Peter said shyly, wiping his face. "It was fun!"

"I'm glad," Pepper said, smiling at him.

After finishing their meals, Pepper drove them back to the Tower and Peter led the way into the lift and up to the penthouse. As soon as he caught sight of his mess of blankets in the living room, Peter sighed and moved to clean it up. The least he could do was clean up his mess without Pepper asking. After all, she had taken him to a museum.

When Peter reached for the first blanket though, Pepper stopped him.

"I'll join you for your marathon," she said.

Peter's eyes widened. She never watched Stars Wars with him and Tony.

"For real?" he asked and she nodded. Throwing his arms around her, Peter hugged her tightly and said, "You really are the best not-mom I could ever have!"

Pepper laughed softly and hugged him back, kissing the top of his head.

"To be fair, you're a pretty good not-son," she joked.

Pulling away, Peter grinned then ran to his room to change back into his pyjamas. Once Pepper was ready as well, Peter started his marathon from the very beginning and explained (in explicit detail) everything that was about to happen.