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“May, do you know how to treat kids? I mean — I — of course you do. But, like, can you give me advice—”
May interrupts him with a look. “Are you… taking care of an egg again?”
“No! No, no, no. Mr. Stark’s kid? You know, Morgan? Yeah, I, I’m just going to visit there for the week. And. I don’t know anything about dealing with kids. I’m a kid. I’m like, three.”
May wipes her hands with a cloth, smiling at Peter like she knows more than him. Which, she definitely does. She reaches out and rubs his back encouragingly. “You’ll get the hang of it.”
“That’s — that’s not advice.”
“There is no formula to dealing with kids, Peter,” she smiles sweetly. “Go get your bag ready. Think about that when you get there, okay?”
“Okay,” Peter says.
It’s not okay, like, at all. Peter is panicking. Well, not physically panicking, but he’s about to lose his mind. Tony had said it’d be okay, really, that he’s always welcomed to stay longer than a week, and whatever, but. Listen . Peter’s going through it. Sure, Tony (Tony!) liked him, and Pepper seemed to like him too, but their daughter? A five-year-old? Peter is not even sure he likes himself right now.
He’s pretty okay. Morgan should like him.
She should, right? She would.
Peter is very much panicking.
♡
She seems a bit of a quiet kid. She seems like it, but maybe she’s just shy around strangers, and Peter can’t really blame her. Pepper said Tony wasn’t home yet, but Peter could make himself comfortable if he wanted, and she told Morgan to show him around the house.
Now, they’re sitting on her bed. Peter feels like a bit of an intruder, but also right where he should be, maybe. Maybe he’s convincing himself that he fits well here.
Morgan looks at him, like really focuses on him. Peter chuckles nervously.
“What’s up, Morg? That sounds bad. Morgan. I shouldn’t attempt any nicknames. Anyway. What’s up?”
Morgan blinks a bit. “You’re alive?”
“I…” Peter licks his lips. Yeah, suddenly makes sense why she’d be awkward around Peter. He’s been dead for as long as she’s been alive. “Yeah! Very much alive! You can touch my hand if you don’t believe me.”
Morgan hums as Peter holds up his hand. She holds it — oh my God, so tiny . Tiny, tiny, tiny. Peter is amazed that this kid is Tony Stark’s: he’s always been so big, so great, and Morgan is just a baby. He briefly thinks that at one point of his life, Tony Stark had also been a five-year-old. That’s a lot to process.
“You’re alive,” Morgan happily confirms with a smile.
“Yeah, kid, I am!” Oh. God. Did he just use kid? When did he stop being the kid? Blinking rapidly, he tries to snap out of the reality where he thinks of Tony as his parental figure, and realizes that she’s the kid now. “Completely alive.”
“Dad has pictures of you,” she says, waving Peter’s hand around. “I thought you were gonna look old now. But you look the same!”
“Ah, well,” Peter laughs nervously. How does he ever explain this to a kid? Not to mention it’s hard to focus if he keeps thinking about how Tony keeps pictures of him. “I’ll explain to you when you’re older.”
“Hate that phrase,” Morgan says, pouting, but still holds Peter’s hand. “Wanna play in the garage?”
Well! If she wants to play in the garage with him, that means she doesn’t hate him. God. He’s so good at taking care of kids. He’s never been better at it. May was right, he didn’t need any advice.
“Yeah! Uh, won’t — your dad won’t get mad at us, will he?”
“He never does,” Morgan grins mischievously, as if she’s done this millions of times before.
“I trust you,” Peter says, about to add something else when Morgan raises her two arms. “Huh?”
“Up,” Morgan makes grabby-hands at him. “Up.”
Oh.
Peter has never held a kid in his life. He can’t even hold himself.
He grabs her as best as he can and as best as he thinks, which seems to work, because Morgan wraps her little legs around him and raises one arm. “Garage!”
“Yay!” Peter cheers back, immediately leaving for the garage.
On his way out, Pepper smiles at him, and he does his best to smile back like this was a completely normal thing he did.
Peter totally hangs out with kids. Tony Stark’s kids. Tony’s daughter. Technically his sister if he ever let himself live out his own fantasies.
The longer he thinks about it, the longer he’ll be weirded out, so he pushes back thoughts and decides to just play with Morgan.
♡
Tony comes home late at night, and when he immediately picks up Morgan, spinning her around, Peter realizes how well parenthood sits on him.
May used to do some jokes about Tony seeing him as his kid, and sure, Peter might’ve ended up feeling some kind of paternal vibes from him, but actually seeing him with his daughter is another thing.
Tony looks calm, so relaxed when he’s picking her up. He’s always seen Tony as never-able-to-relax, always fidgeting, always having something to do. He looks like Morgan could absolutely reduce him to a puddle of emotions, and maybe she could. That’s funny. Peter is not sure what to do with that information.
He gets to join dinner with all of them, and it’s very, very natural.
“You got anything you want to work on, or do you wanna relax the entire week?” Tony asks him. “You can do whatever you want. But if you need help, you know, Morgan’s a real brainer here.”
“I do have some projects,” Peter starts, trying to come off chill but the excitement starts building up. “I’ve heard the water’s been keeping clean during the five years, and then I heard people being worried the earth would go back to being bad with suddenly being filled with people again, and so—”
This is usually where Peter would stop talking, overly self-aware of his ramble, but God has parenting changed Tony. Peter feels overly aware that he’s being stared with patience and fondness, so he does the natural thing: choke up on his words. Five years really do something, because he’s sure Tony isn’t even doing it intentionally.
Peter’s going to have a meltdown.
“Kid?” Oh my God he’s still the kid. “You okay there?”
“Ah, yeah, yeah,” Peter quickly shakes his head. “Sorry. Got too excited and forgot words.”
Everyone laughs a little.
Peter finishes his idea, and Tony hums.
“Sounds great, kid. Caring about the environment. You said you have it all planned already?”
“Yes, I — it’s on my bag, upstairs, but it’s all the things I thought I might need, if it’s not too much bother to work—”
“Never a bother,” Tony turns to look at Pepper, “right? Right. I’m glad we all agree. Oh, yeah, what do you think about Morgan? You think she can help us out?”
Peter grins. It feels nice being so included into a family. “Oh, definitely. She’ll be the best.”
“You know, we have an extra room for you,” Tony says, “but you also can sleep with Morgan if you’d like to keep hanging out with her. Up to you.”
“Yeah, I’ll…” Peter doesn’t really like sleeping alone nowadays. “I’ll join Morgan, thank you, Mr. Stark. You think she’ll mind? What if she hates me?”
“Nah, she loves you already,” Tony starts walking to her room with him. “She warmed up to you quicker than she did to Happy.”
Peter’s chest swells with pride. Wow. Warmed up to him quicker, huh? That’s his privilege.
There was already another bed inside Morgan’s room, making him realize Pepper and Tony were probably already expecting him to choose her room rather than a room by himself. He doesn’t really have time to be embarrassed, because Morgan smiles at both of them when they walk in, and that’s where all his focus goes.
“Tell me a story,” Morgan says.
“Oh, I… I don’t know any stories,” Peter is about to scream. Maybe he could’ve asked May for some book, or to tell him some story so he could tell her—
“Kid, I can hear your brain from here,” Tony flicks his head gently, “it’s not the end of the world. She’s asking me, right, sweetie? Yeah. Let’s go with our favorite one.”
“No, not that one,” Morgan stretches on her bed, “you never tell me the full story!”
“This time I will,” Tony promises. Morgan gives him a look. “Look, Peter’s here. Can’t be a bad dad in front of him. I will tell you the stories.”
“You’re never a bad dad, Mr. Stark,” Peter blurts out involuntarily. “I mean, not like I’ve seen you being a dad for long, but— yeah. Yeah. I’ll shut up now.”
Tony laughs a bit and carries on with his story while Peter sets up his bed.
He actually tells the full story, and Morgan is very sleepy once Tony gets up.
“Love you 3000,” he says, and it feels so weirdly intimate, Peter doesn’t really know what to do.
Tony looks over to Peter. “You’re gonna sleep well here?”
“Yeah, Mr. Stark, don’t worry,” Peter gives him a thumbs-up. And then, because he’s an idiot, “Don’t I get a special goodnight?”
Tony gives him a stare that’s both fond and wow, you’re really gonna do this, kid?
“How about…” Tony stops to think about it, hand on the doorknob. “See you tomorrow.”
“ See you tomorrow?” Peter echoes back. “That’s so basic, Mr. Stark. I see you play favorites.”
Tony laughs. "Anyway. See you tomorrow, kid.”
“See you tomorrow, Mr. Stark.”
Tony turns off the lights and closes the bed.
Peter hopes he drifts off to sleep.
Yet again, he dreams about fading away.
Once he wakes up with a gasp, he tries to do his best to calm down. Deep breaths. One, two, three. Inhale. Exhale.
He’s not in his bedroom. He can’t scream all he wants. Maybe he should’ve chosen to sleep by himself rather than sleeping with Morgan.
As soon as he thinks that, Morgan sits up on her bed, and she walks over to Peter’s bed. Crap. Crap , he woke up the kid and now she hates him—
Her tiny hand holds his.
“Bad dream?” she asks.
Peter can’t really talk right now. Eyes widened, he manages to nod, although he doubts Morgan can see anything.
“Daddy gets bad dreams too,” Morgan explains like this is normal procedure.
Her grip on his hand is very grounding. He’s real .
Peter is still breathing shakily. Morgan climbs on the bed with him, still holding his hand, and it’s so so so grounding.
She waits quietly until Peter’s breathing regulates again.
“I’m alive,” Peter says quietly.
“I’m touching you,” Morgan squeezes his finger a bit. She yawns a bit, and Peter feels sorry for waking her up. “You’re here!”
It’s the cheerful tone that gets him to finally believe it.
“Yeah. Yeah, I’m here,” Peter turns back around, trying to get Morgan in a sleeping position and putting a bit of distance between them. He’s sweating. She shouldn’t get the sweat on her, either. “Thank you, Morg. Morgan. Morgie. Morgan. Yes. Good night, okay?”
“Night,” she says, quicker to drift off than him.
Peter smiles.
It was a good idea to sleep with her.
♡
The next nightmare he gets, he decides to go out rather than bothering Morgan to help him realize he’s alive.
Of course Tony is awake when he steps into the kitchen.
He doesn’t have to say anything, he just gets one look from Tony and gets gestured to sit down with him.
“Bad dream,” Tony states, handing him a glass of water. “Do you want to talk about it?”
Tony probably asks out of politeness. He must know already what Peter is dreaming about.
“Dying is not fun,” Peter says with a dry laugh. “Mr. Stark. I really don’t want to go through anything like that again — I. I love my life, Mr. Stark. I want to live every day. It’s— it’s hard to explain.”
“Not hard to get,” Tony puts a hand on his shoulder. “Kid. Here’s a promise. You can choose to believe me or not, and you’re in your rights to not believe me—but I swear to you, I’ll make sure you stay alive every goddamn day, okay? Seeing you die was not fun either.”
Peter swears that this is because he’s a little tired, and exhausted from nightmares, because he just lets his head drop on Tony’s shoulder. “I am alive, right?”
“You better be,” Tony puts his hand on his head. It feels extremely real. He’s alive, okay. “Because I won’t let you go a second time, you hear me?”
“I hear you loud and clear, sir,” Peter smiles despite everything. He’s really comfortable here. Tony’s warm hand is comforting. “Thank you.”
“You should sleep,” he says, patting his head a bit. “See you tomorrow, okay?”
“See you tomorrow,” Peter says back.
Sleeping is a lot lighter after that.
♡
After one pretty bad nightmare, Tony says, “Wanna know why our goodnight is ‘see you tomorrow’?”
“Because you don’t want Morgan to feel any less loved?”
“No — what — Peter,” he gets his forehead flicked lightly. He deserved it. “It’s because I get to see you again. There was a time where I saw you one last time, and there was no tomorrow for you and me. So. If you ever get a nightmare outside this house, remember that you’ll see me tomorrow. And you’ll realize you’re alive. Okay?”
Oh.
That was a pretty big and dramatic way to say I love you 3000.
Peter smiles, bright and genuine. “Thank you, Mr. Stark. I love you.”
Tony looks a bit caught off guard, but shakes his head. “Me too, kid. Get to sleep.”
♡
Morgan is clinging onto him like a koala.
“Don’t leaveeee,” she holds his t-shirt like that’s going to absolutely stop him. “Live with us!”
“I need to go back to my aunt,” Peter smiles, trying to hand her back to Tony. She lets go, but reluctantly. “And I can’t keep Happy waiting.”
Tony pokes her cheek. “You know how impatient Uncle is.”
Morgan pouts. “I miss you, Peter.”
“He hasn’t even left,” Tony laughs. He turns to Peter, a bit serious now, “Take care of yourself, okay? Don’t get in many fights. Remember if anything happens to you, Karen will tell me.”
“Traitor,” Peter mutters jokingly. “I’ll take care of myself, Mr. Stark. You too, okay?”
“Yeah, yeah, this isn’t about me,” Tony walks him to the car anyway. “Be careful.”
“I’ll be fine, sir!” Peter smiles. “See you tomorrow.”
Tony’s smile grows softer, suddenly. “Yeah. See you tomorrow.”
♡
After he wakes up drenched in sweat, he thinks about Morgan’s hand in his.
He thinks about seeing Tony tomorrow.
He’s alive.