Chapter Text
Tony has yet to talk to Peter, not since the battle anyway, which took place close to two months ago. The boy was obviously avoiding him and Tony couldn’t fault him for it. He had been extremely out of line with what he said in the aftermath of the battle. Tony knew this, but now he had to find a way to fix it.
In the meantime, Tony had a talk with Pepper. It had been a very difficult talk but it was a long time coming, at least for Tony. Settling back in his workshop, he thought of the conversation several weeks before.
~three weeks ago-home~
Looking at the picture in the kitchen one last time, he made his decision. Now all he had to do was follow through with it. He messed up five years ago but keeping his mouth shut and he really didn’t want to do that again. Taking a deep breath he walked into the living room where Morgan was coloring and Pepper was reading. Looking to Morgan, he really didn’t want to have this conversation in front of her, so he knelt down beside her.
“Morgan, would you mind taking that into your room so mommy and I can have a talk?”
She looked up and Tony focused on her big brown eyes, so much like his own and his mothers. He loved this little girl. This was the one good thing that came out of these last five years. She smiled at him and nodded. He helped her stand and gather up all of her crayons before she hugged him and skipped out of the room with her iron man coloring book in hand.
Looking towards the couch, he noticed Pepper looking at him having put her book down. She actually looked a little annoyed. What does she have to be annoyed about? He hasn’t even said anything yet?
Pepper huffed, “What is it Tony?”
“Well, I felt that we needed to talk.” Tony said sarcastically. He hates how they snap at one another. It shouldn’t be this way. He was also getting tired of how controlling she I was. It was fine, when she was the CEO of his company, because she was in charge. That shouldn’t have rolled over into their relationship though. Tony knows he is at fault too because he let it happen. In the beginning, he was in a daze about the whole world losing half its occupants thing. Then, well, he just drifted through the five years and let everything happen to him. Now, he could finally see things clearly and knew that he wasn’t happy. He hasn’t been happy in a very long time.
He must have paused to long because Pepper spoke up, “Again, what is it Tony? Are you going to put this family in danger and become an Avenger again?”
Tony couldn’t help but roll his eyes. She was always going on about that. He stood up and made his way to the chair closest to him and sat. “No, I wanted to talk about us.”
She looked surprised. “What about us?”
Tony closed his eyes for a second trying to prepare himself for the argument ahead when he said, “I don’t think this is working anymore”
“This? You mean US?”
“Yes”
“That’s all you have to say? After five years of marriage and a daughter? What about MORGAN? ARE YOU JUST GOING TO WALK OUT ON HER TOO?” As the questions continued her voice was rising until she was to the point of yelling by the end.
“I’m not walking out on my daughter. If you think that, then you really don’t know me well at all.”
“Well, then, explain yourself because what you said just doesn’t cut it!” She snapped back.
“This relationship just isn’t working anymore. You know it and I know it so why pretend that it’s such a big surprise? We aren’t who we used to be and a lot has changed.”
“So that is it? You want out without even trying?”
Tony growled, “Don’t you pin this just on me. You haven’t tried very hard either. Why do you think we still have separate bedrooms after a full year? We don’t see eye to eye on a lot of things and argue all the time. If anything, it would probably be better for Morgan that we do separate.”
“And how in the world is that? Will this make her think that relationships can work when her parents are no longer together?”
“No, but it’s better than her seeing us argue all the time. We both have a chance to move on and find someone else.”
“That’s it, isn’t it? You already found someone else and you just want out of this marriage so you can go stick your dick in someone else guilt free. We all know how you were before we got together.”
Pepper was clearly pissed by this point. But he honestly thought that was uncalled for. He hasn’t been like that in a very long time. And he would never go back to that now that he has a kid that looks up to him.
“Low blow don’t you think?” He replied outwardly calm. He didn’t want to make this any worse by picking a fight.
“I don’t see you denying that there is someone else…” Her voice shrilly rose until Tony just wanted to cover his ears.
Having enough of this shit he finally caved and said, “because there is.”
She sucked in a sharp breath and glared at Tony for all he was worth before spitting out. “I always knew that you would get bored with me eventually and cheat.”
“I never cheated. I never would cheat on my partner. This is why we are having this very painful, in more ways than one, discussion now.” Tony slumped back onto the chair that he was sitting in and waited for her to respond. He didn’t really want to admit to her who it was. She would hopefully soon find out anyway. She looked upset but more mad than sad. This is what their marriage has come to. They were both always quick to lash out. She was probably wondering why he hasn’t yet.
“So what did you have planned? Are you just going to drop us like we’re old news and run to this new person? I don’t deserve this Tony. I’ve been there for you so much over the years. I even ran your damn company!” She sounded somewhat tired now, like it was inevitable, which it kind of was.
“I know you don’t Pep. I love you, and always will, but I haven’t loved you like I should have in a while….. and I think deep down you feel the same way.” He paused and took a deep breath this was harder than he thought it would be. He still cared deeply for this woman it just wasn’t enough. He thought of Peter. He thought of his smile and his dorky excitement over small things. He wasn’t jaded to the world like he and Pepper were. He also understood Tony’s need to be Ironman more than Pepper ever has. Hell, Tony doesn’t think she ever really tried. It was just Tony don’t do this or Tony don’t do that. She had never been happy with him ‘playing the hero’ like she calls it.
“This gives us a chance Pep to find someone who we are meant to be with. We were great for a while and then we weren’t. We have just been playing along with the script. We should never have gotten engaged in the first place. It wasn’t like it wasn’t a spur of the moment decision anyway.”
She looked at him obviously considering what he said. He wasn’t wrong in their faults but he felt like they could do this amicably. They really needed to try for Morgan’s sake.
“What about Morgan?”
“I want to be in her life as much as possible. She is my little lady. I would like for you to keep this house if you want it. I will be moving back to New York City. The tower needs a lot of repair but it’s good enough for me at the moment. You can also have your own floor in the tower if you would like once it’s fixed up. Or you can say here and I come to see Morgan as much as I can. We can also arrange times where she can come stay with me.”
“You’ve given this a lot of thought.”
“This is all I’ve thought about these last few weeks.”
She sighed and scrubbed her hand down her face putting into focus her exhausted expression. It reminded Tony faintly of how she used to look at him when he did something stupid that she had to fix. “These last few weeks? So...I’m guessing that this other person was a dusted?”
“You would be correct.”
“Can you tell me who it is?”
“I would rather not until I have a chance to talk to them.”
“Okay Tony” she sighed again “you are doing all the work since you are the one ending things. This includes explaining to your daughter why you won’t be around all the time now because I’m sure as hell not.”
Tony groaned and fell back into the chair.
~end~
Tony did end up explaining the best he could to a four year old that mommy and daddy would no longer be living together. He explained that she would now have two homes instead of one. She took it better than expected. She was also pretty excited when telling Tony what her new room should look like. So, Tony was now designing a room fit for a princess in his, about to be newly renovated, tower.
Tony was now, also in New York full time and the divorce papers have been submitted. These things usually take time but well, he’s Tony Stark. At this rate, he will be completely divorced in no time at all. They have also arranged it so they both have custody of Morgan. She will be alternating her time between living with Pepper and him. Things are likely to change of course, because he fully plans to bribe Pepper to come live at the tower at some point in the future, but he has to wait until she cools off some. At least now he knows not to buy her strawberries. In the meantime, he has already flown back to visit Morgan five times. She unfortunately can’t come stay with him for any length of time until the renovations are done.
Also during this time, He has tried to contact Peter but has had no luck. Every time he calls the man it goes straight to voicemail after a couple rings. When he calls the house, May always answers and says that Peter can’t talk.
He’s even tried to catch the boy alone when he was out and about but he would quickly disappear. Not to mention the fact that Tony was starting to feel like a stalker. The last time he saw Peter he was out with a group of friends that he had in high school. The dusted did age while they were ‘away’ not that Tony fully understood how that happened. But this now means that Peter is twenty-two. According to May, he was studying to get his GED along with his good friend Ned. But yes, as of right now he has had very little luck in regards to Peter Parker.
Tony had to come up with a way to get the boy alone but he wasn’t a genius, billionaire, once-playboy, philanthropist for nothing.