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The door to the bedroom creaked open and Tony entered, crawling into bed next to Pepper who was already laying on her side, having put her book away and watching him with a grateful smile.
The worn-out look on Tony's face told Pepper that he had successfully managed to do the impossible which was put their daughter to sleep.
Tony pulled off his t-shirt and then lay next to his wife, eyes trailing her form.
She was wearing an old PE shirt and boxer shorts. She looked amazing and Tony had never been so glad to have a sleeping daughter in his life.
He lay on his side, hand on his wife's hip. They were inches apart.
"Daddy duties over?"
He wiggled his eyebrows up and down, hoping it'd make him look a lot more seductive than tired.
"Now, it's husband duties."
Pepper giggled and let him bring their lips together.
The kisses were lazy ones; they were far too tired for it to be anything more, but Tony was always willing to try taking it up a notch.
Tony still had a hand on her hip, but his thumb had pushed the waistband of her boxers down, touching skin. Pepper's palm was on his bare chest, right over the small scar there. It was barely visible but she could always feel it. Her leg was over Tony's hip, she could feel his warmth more that way and it was cold tonight.
Tony broke the kiss to stifle a yawn but failed.
Pepper laughed, playfully bumping her nose to his.
"Morgan wore you out, huh?"
"Yeah, and I'm looking forward to you knocking me out dead."
"We could postpone."
"No. We've barely had any sexy times together since she was born—"
"Please don't call it that—"
"I'm fine. I can do this." His body betrayed him at that moment as he yawned again.
Pepper caressed his cheek softly and Tony's eyes fluttered shut. "Sleep." She urged him. "I'll still be here tomorrow…and the day after that and the day after that."
Tony smiled and Pepper gave him a soft, chaste kiss.
When she pulled away, he was already asleep.
She pressed herself closer against him and closed her eyes too.
...
They woke up to the sound of Morgan's cries.
Tony was lying on his back while Pepper was curled up on the other side of the bed, stirring.
She hit him with a free pillow, a garbled sound coming out of her mouth.
"I'm on it, I'm on it."
She went back to sleep while Tony got up and went to Morgan's room.
His little girl was crying and that was always a pretty effective alarm clock.
Cradling her against his chest, Morgan quieted immediately bringing a sense of achievement to her father. Tony usually couldn't bring Morgan to stop crying especially when she was—
Looking down at his daughter, Tony's eyes widened.
"Honey!" he cried from the nursery.
When his wife didn't respond, Tony walked over to their room, going over to Pepper's side of the bed.
"Pepper!" he hissed.
"What?" Pepper was not happy to be woken up.
"You gotta see this."
Pepper turned slowly and saw Tony carrying their daughter in one arm—their daughter who was currently trying to suckle on Tony's nipple.
Pepper laughed, all signs of drowsiness immediately dissipating.
She sat up, still shaking arms outstretched for her baby.
"I'm sorry daddy doesn't have the right parts," Tony said handing the infant over with a genuine apologetic look on his face.
Tony Stark would grow mammary glands if he could make his daughter happy.
Pepper was still chuckling when she lifted her shirt and let Morgan latch on to a breast.
"That was a strange yet satisfying fatherly experience,” said Tony, motioning at Pepper to scoot over as he sat beside her, back to the headboard, one outstretched leg crossed over another. “You know, that she trusted me enough to try and drink from my sorely-lacking-in-milk-man nipples.”
“It was bound to happen at one point,” said Pepper, wincing when Morgan got a little too enthusiastic with her breakfast.
“What’s it feel like?”
“It hurts a little bit. Probably because my nipples aren’t the right size.”
“They are the perfect size. I love your nipples.”
Pepper only gave him an amused smile and Tony turned his attention back to their daughter.
“Stop giving mommy a complex. She has great boobs.”
Pepper nudged him with her knee, laughing.
“I miss your boobs,” Tony said sighing dramatically.
“If anyone ever heard you say that, they’d think sex is all you care about.”
“Not true! I don’t love your boobs for sexual purposes. Clearly, if anyone ever misinterpreted my previous statement, it’d be because they’d never placed their head on a chest with a comfy pair of boobs. In fact, I’m more worried about the reason why someone would even be close enough to overhear us having this conversation.”
“Well, you can rest your head on my chest again as soon as I wean Morgan off the breastmilk.”
“Don’t feel pressured on my account. Clearly Morgan loves resting her head on your boobs too. And she technically has priority resting, what with your boobs being a source of magic milk and all.”
Pepper laughed.
“You ever wonder what it would be like if we had gotten a head start on this ten years ago?” Tony asked her, hand stroking Morgan’s head.
“Ten years ago?” They were so young ten years ago. Young and filled with different priorities.
“Yeah, we'd have a whole brood of kids.” Tony was pretty sure if there was an alternate reality where he and Pepper were married before all this superhero business began, they’d probably have an SUV full of children.
“You were allergic to kids ten years ago,” Pepper reminded him with a wry look.
“The second falsehood you’ve claimed today and it’s only, what—” he glanced up at the ceiling. “Fri, what time is it?”
“It’s 5:26 in the morning, boss.”
“It’s five—It’s five in the morning?” He stared disbelievingly at Morgan and then at Pepper. He didn’t usually get up this early. In fact, he never got up this early. “Why do I have a feeling that a daughter was part of your grand master plan to get me to wake up at ungodly hours in the morning everyday?”
Pepper only gave him a smile, one that had proven to be his waterloo when it came to arguments over the years. “Well, it’s working, isn’t it?”
Tony shook his head at her. “Now, see, if we did this ten years ago, I never would have been late to a single meeting. Ever.”
Pepper scoffed at his insinuation that his being late to all the meetings in the previous years have been because he was daughter-less.
“You would be late to a meeting—”
“Nope. Perfectly on time.”
“—for whatever silly reason you got in your head—”
“Prompt and responsible, that’s me.”
“You’d probably even skip all the meetings—”
“I really wouldn’t.”
“—in favor of watching your daughter drool in her sleep all day—”
“I’d bring her to the meeting and show her off. On time.”
Pepper nudged him with her knee again and Tony almost fell off the bed.
He laughed but pointed out, “Hey! If she turns out violent, that’s on you.”
He kissed Pepper on her temple and then kissed the top of Morgan’s head.
From his spot on Morgan’s head, mouth still pressed on the little tuft of hair, he looked up at his wife through his long lashes and said, “How long do I have to wait before I beg you for another one?”
Never mind that conceiving another one would be quite challenging given their ages; hey, there was adoption now too.
Pepper groaned half-heartedly but said with a smile, “Hmm, ask me again when Morgan’s four.”
“Deal.”