Chapter Text
Mother’s Day Brunch
“Daaaaaaaddddddddyyyy” Morgan called running into Tony’s lab.
Tony used to his daughter’s antics didn’t even flinch at her loud and sudden appearance. “Morgan are you supposed to run in here without permission?” Tony asked in the sternest voice he could manage while looking at his daughter.
“But I have important news!” Morgan explained throwing her hands out to drive her point home.
“I could have been working on something dangerous, and you could have gotten hurt running in here like that,” Tony said avoiding Morgans deflection.
“But you weren’t working on something dangerous, and I didn’t get hurt, so it’s ok,” Morgan said matter of factly.
“I think you’ve been spending to much time with Peter lately. He’s rubbing off on you. You sound just like him” Tony grumbled.
He was excited that they were getting along so well, but it came at a cost to him. Putting the two together made an unstoppable team, with both knowing his weak spots. When they used their puppy eyes on him, there was nothing he could say no to.
Morgan shrugged at this omission, “Don’t you want to hear my news? I think you’re going to like it,” Morgan said grinning.
“Shoot,” Tony said.
“Peter and Aunt May or coming over this weekend for Mothers day, and Mommy said that she’ll let me go on a hike with Peter if I promise to not wander off from him,” Morgan said.
“Oh really? That is good news isn’t it,” Tony said.
“Yeah and Peter still hasn’t shown me his spiderwebs, but he promised he wouldn’t forget this time!” Morgan said.
“I don’t know how I should feel about that,” Tony muttered, he can only imagine the things the two of them would get up to hiking through the woods with Peter’s webs.
“Daddy?”
“Hmm,” Tony hummed.
“Why does Peter call Aunt May Aunt and not Mom?” Morgan asked.
“May isn’t Peter’s mom. She’s his aunt.” Tony replied.
Morgan’s face scrunched up in confusion “Why does he live with his aunt and not his parents?”
“When Peter was younger he and his parents were in a car accident,” Tony explained. “His Parents died, so he went to live with his aunt and uncle.”
“Oh,” Morgan replied in a soft voice, the news obviously was not what she was expecting. After a few moments of heavy silence, she added, “But he only lives with his aunt, did his uncle die too?”
She looked up at Tony with such sadness and fear that he had a hard time answering her question. “Yeah hun, he died when Peter was 14 I think.” The statement hung thick in the air for a few moments.
Morgan ran to her dad wrapping him in a tight hug. “I don’t want you to ever die daddy,” Morgan whispered against her dad’s shoulder.
Tony bit the inside of his cheek thinking how close he had come just a few short weeks ago. “I’ll do everything in my power to stick around for a long time I promise.” He said kissing the top of her head.
Morgan nodded against his chest gripping her father’s shirt even tighter. “How is Peter always so happy if he’s lost so many people. If I lost you and mommy, I would never be able to be happy again.”
Tony contemplated how he should respond. He didn’t think he would be explaining grief to his four-year-old daughter today, but here he was. “If something happened to your mother and me, we wouldn’t want you to be sad forever. We would expect you to miss us and be sad, but we wouldn’t want you to spend the rest of your life depressed. We always want you to be happy, that’s our main goal as parents.”
Tony brushed his fingers through Morgans hair as he continued, “When Peter’s parents and Uncle died I’m sure he was very sad. It probably took him a long time to be able to be his happy self again. But he eventually did because he knows that his parents and uncle want him to be happy. Sometimes Peter still has bad days where he misses his family, and he can’t get himself to be happy no matter what do does, and that’s ok because losing someone is hard and complicated. A part of Peter will always be different because he has lost so much. Does that make sense?”
“I guess so,” Morgan said softly.
They sat in silence for a few more moments with Tony breathing in the scent of Morgan’s green apple detangler getting the most stubborn knots out of her hair.
“Peter’s so nice though, why does all this bad stuff happen to him?” Morgan asked.
Tony sighed, “Sometimes the worst stuff happens to the best people, and it’s not fair. It’s not always like in your stories where the bad guy always gets what he deserves, and the hero has a happy ending.”
Maybe that was a bit too real to tell his four-year-old, but she had already encountered death so much in her life it was important that she got some clarification.
“I think May is Peter’s mom,” Morgan said softly.
Tony pulled his daughter out from his chest and asked: “How so peanut?”
“She takes care of Peter” Morgan replied.
“I guess that logic makes sense,” Tony said.
“And we’re also his family. Because we take care of Peter and sometimes Peter takes care of me?” Morgan said.
It never got old for Tony to see how a child viewed the world. It made it evident that people always try to overcomplicate things. “Yep, we’re one funky little hosh posh of a family,” Tony said.
“So that means Peters my brother!” Morgan exclaimed a grin taking over her face.
“I think so,” Tony said.
“I’m going to go tell mom that I have a brother! She’s going to be so excited.” Morgan said jumping off Tony’s lap. She ran out of the room without another word to her father.
Tony laughed as his daughter’s antics and got back to work. He will never get over how he managed to luck out with such a fantastic family.