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“Petey, come sit down! I’m going to start the movie without you!” Morgan yelled as she picked up the remote and waved it in the air as if to prove her point.
She glanced towards the tv screen where Moana was waiting to play and then turned her attention towards the kitchen where Peter was located. She listened for his response but let out a sigh when all she heard was the rain that was hitting the roof instead. After another moment of silence from the boy, she scowled and threw her covers off of herself so she could go find him.
“Peter, I’m serious.” She warned with a glare when she reached the kitchen doorway. Peter quickly turned towards her and offered her a smile as he motioned her forward.
“One second, M. I’m just getting the popcorn.” He explained as he quickly dumped the rest of the butter he was pouring into the bowl before adding some salt, as well. “Do you want to add chocolate chips?”
Peter grinned as he saw the girl’s eyes widen in excitement at the prospect of adding the chocolates to the popcorn. Chocolate chips were a sort of delicacy in the Stark household. They were kept in a locked cabinet in the tallest cupboard and were reserved only for special occasions. Those occasions were usually when Pepper made chocolate chip cookies from scratch or when Tony made chocolate chip pancakes for one of their weekly Sunday brunches. When they weren’t being used, the chocolates had to be locked away to prevent Morgan from eating the entire bag by herself.
“Of course I do, Petey! You do know that mom is going to be mad though, right? We’re not supposed to eat the chocolate chips.” Morgan reminded him as she quickly dropped the remote onto the counter so she could grab the bag of chocolate chips out of Peter’s outstretched hand instead.
“As long as you don’t get sick from a sugar high, it’ll be fine. I can always pick up another bag of chocolate chips. We can pull out the puppy dog eyes on mom if she gets mad.” Peter laughed as he dug through a drawer and pulled out a measuring cup and held it towards the girl with a flourish.
“I don’t need that.” Morgan insisted as she waved it away so she could pour the chocolate chips into the bowl directly. Peter watched her with a smile as she put her full concentration into pouring the exact amount in the bowl. She carefully shook the bag to make sure the right amount of chocolate chips were falling out and would periodically stop to monitor her progress.
“This isn’t an exact science, you know.” Peter laughed as he grabbed the bag and tipped it upside down to let all the chocolate chips fall out. Morgan let out a cry as she quickly shoved the popcorn bowl across the counter and away from the falling chocolate chips. At the motion, the popcorn flew out of the bowl and landed all over the counter. The chocolate chips that Peter was dumping quickly added to the mess before he was able to turn the bag back upright.
“Help me eat these,” Peter requested as he gestured towards the chocolates and popcorn pieces littering the counter. Morgan happily obliged and began shoving the chocolate chips into her mouth.
Peter stared at her in confusion when she suddenly stopped and stared at him. He realized a split second too late what she was planning to do and was only barely able to catch the chocolate chips she threw at him before they hit him in the face.
After she recovered from laughing at him, Morgan began throwing entire handfuls of the chocolates towards Peter. It quickly became a game as she threw the chocolate chips in different directions to see if Peter would be quick enough to catch them all before they hit the floor.
It wasn’t long before popcorn had joined the stray chocolate chips that were littered all over the kitchen floor. The chocolate chips were quickly becoming smeared and the popcorn was crushed as Peter would step on them in his haste to catch everything Morgan was throwing at him.
Peter finally broke off the game when he slipped on a particularly large pile of chocolate chips and had to use his web-shooters to catch himself before he could fall.
“Wait, hold on, M.” Peter requested as he sat her on the counter and gently grabbed her hand from where it was poised in mid-air ready to throw another handful of popcorn at him. “Mommy is going to be mad when she comes home and sees this mess. Remember, she specifically told us not to have any more food fights.”
Peter shuddered as he thought about how furious Pepper had been when she and Tony had once come home to find that Peter and Morgan were in the middle of throwing flour and eggs at each other. What had started out as just a sweet gesture of making Pepper a cake to congratulate her on closing a multimillion-dollar business deal, had quickly devolved into a food fight when Morgan flicked flour at Peter’s nose. Peter had retaliated by throwing flour in her hair but soon, they were cracking eggs on each other as well. The fight had abruptly ended when Pepper and Tony entered the kitchen and had startled them. It resulted in Peter throwing an egg and hitting Tony in the forehead, leaving him with a huge bruise and Peter and Morgan with cleaning duty and a stern talking-to from Pepper.
“This is not a food fight, Peter. You’re not throwing any food at me. That makes it different.” Morgan laughed breaking Peter out of his thoughts. He frowned at her and went to explain what he meant, just as she was able to move her wrist enough to throw the popcorn in his hair.
She erupted into another round of giggles as she watched Peter shake his head to try dislodging the popcorn. He had to eventually resort to brushing it out with his hands and Morgan took the opportunity to run away as soon as Peter let go of her hand.
“Come catch me, Petey!” She yelled as she jumped off the counter and began sprinting towards the living room.
“Morgan, wait! We have to clean up the kitchen before your parents get home!” Peter yelled as he glanced around the room at the mess they had created. He sighed as he swept the stray chocolate chips and popcorn pieces that were still left on the counter into his hand so he could throw them away.
The only response he got back was more laughter from the girl. He quickly discarded the contents of his hand into the garbage before setting off to find her. He abruptly stopped in his tracks and winced as an especially loud clap of thunder seemed to shake the entire house.
All at once, the lights suddenly flickered out and the sound of the rain seemed to somehow grow even louder. Peter froze as he quickly blinked his eyes to adjust to the sudden darkness.
“Peter!” Morgan’s sudden cry broke through Peter’s trance causing him to quickly spring into action.
“Morgan, where are you? Are you okay?” Peter asked as he dug his phone out of his pocket so he could turn on his flashlight. As soon as the light came on, he wandered in the living room in search of the girl. He followed the sound of the small sobs and found her hiding under the couch while wrapped in her favorite blanket.
“Hey, it’s okay, M. Come here,” Peter whispered as he crouched down next to the couch and opened his arms for her. She immediately flung herself towards him and buried her face in his chest to cry. Peter sat down with his back to the couch and wrapped her back in her blanket and tried to calm her down. They sat there for a few minutes and listened to the roaring sounds of the storm while Peter rubbed her back to comfort her. Slowly, her sobbing turned into small sniffles instead.
“I’m scared of the dark,” Morgan muttered after a moment of silence. She didn’t make any attempt to move her face from where it was laying on his chest so Peter continued rubbing soothing circles on her back.
“It’s okay, M. I’m right here. We’ll be okay.” Peter tried to comfort her. The only response he received was a slight nod against his chest. Peter simply held her closer and waited until the girl felt better.
As they sat there in silence, Peter tried to think about what he could do to ease Morgan's fear. The only light source he had readily available was the flashlight on his cell phone and the occasional flashes of lightning that were illuminating the living room. All the candles in the house had been hidden when Morgan had accidentally knocked one over and caught the rug on fire so they were not an option either.
“Wait, your night light! It doesn’t run off electric!” Peter practically shouted causing the girl in his arms to flinch. “Sorry, M. I didn’t mean to yell.”
He carefully stood up making sure not to jostle Morgan too much and quickly made his way towards the girl’s room. As soon as he opened her door, everything was instantly bathed in a light blue glow.
Peter smiled as he picked up the small arc reactor that was lying discarded on the bedside table. It was a miniaturized version of Tony’s current arc reactor. It emitted the same blue glow and instantly lit up whenever it was in any low light area. Tony even designed it to stick to wherever Morgan placed it so it wasn’t uncommon for the girl to often sleep with it placed on her chest.
Once, in the early hours of the morning, when Peter was tinkering in the lab with Tony, the man had explained that he built it for her to comfort her when he couldn't be there. When she was a baby, she went through a phase where the only way they could get her to sleep was if the room was basked in the soft glow emitted from the arc reactor. It was a comfort thing, the doctors had told them, but it was a real inconvenience whenever Tony couldn’t be at home at night. The holograms in Tony’s lab made for a good substitute, but nothing beat the real thing. That’s why Tony decided to build her a small night light version of the reactor so that way, it’d be like he was always there for her.
Peter smiled as he stared at the small arc reactor in his hand and imagined how happy little Morgan must have been when she was given her own arc reactor that matched her dad’s. Peter had a sneaking suspicion that the nightlight actually housed some kind of small Iron-man suit designed to protect Morgan in it, but Tony always vehemently denied it whenever he was asked. Though, Peter was sure that he just didn’t want Pepper to know that he designed armor for their daughter.
“Here you go, Morgan,” Peter muttered as he turned the girl in his arms and carefully stuck the arc reactor on her shirt. He watched as she slowly gazed down at the light before turning her focus towards him instead.
“Thank you, Petey.” She said with a blinding smile and a tight hug.
Just as Peter was about to respond, Friday’s voice filled the air, startling them both. “I’m sorry to interrupt, Mr. Parker, but I would like to inform you that the backup generators are not going to be coming online anytime soon. Boss was in the middle of performing an upgrade to them, and he never finished. They have been offline since, and I cannot reboot them.”
“Would I be able to finish the repairs?” Peter questioned as he glanced down at Morgan. He used his free hand to wipe the lingering tears off her face and placed a kiss in her hair when she returned to her previous position on his chest.
“I believe so, but it would take a substantial amount of time. Boss was doing major upgrades.” Friday answered causing Peter to frown. He couldn’t leave Morgan unattended in the lab long enough to do any kind of major work. “Currently, the only thing online is my network.”
“Okay, Friday. Thank you.” Peter responded before returning his attention back to the girl in his arms. “Well, Miss Morgan, I have an idea. Is your wagon still on the back porch?”
“Yeah, but what do you need it for? It’s raining outside, Peter.” She reminded him as she looked up to stare at him questionably. Peter only gave her a secretive smile in return before making his way towards the back porch.
As soon as Peter threw open the back door, the sound of the rain seemed to increase substantially. Peter winced as he instinctively rubbed his ear with his free hand before making his way out across the covered porch. When he reached the wagon, he carefully sat Morgan down inside it and began pulling her back towards the house.
Suddenly, as a loud boom of thunder cut through the air, Peter stopped in his tracks. He quickly dropped the wagon handle and raised his hands up to cover his ears.
“Petey, what’s wrong? Are you scared of storms?” Morgan asked as she stared wide-eyed at the frozen form of the boy who had become like a brother to her. She had never seen him act even a little scared before, and it frightened her to see the boy so visibly afraid.
At the sound of her voice, Peter quickly turned around as if he had forgotten she was even there. He let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding and gave the girl a shaky smile.
“No, I’m not scared. I just don’t really like storms is all. It’s okay. I’m okay. Sorry, I didn’t mean to worry you.” Peter gave her a small smile before picking back up the handle and making his way towards the house once again.
“Peter, stop!” Morgan yelled causing the boy to quickly turn back towards her in alarm. He frantically looked her over for any sign of injuries but didn’t notice anything except the shininess of the newly unshed tears in her eyes. He gave her a questioning look causing the girl to sigh before once again speaking.
“You know it’s okay to be scared, right? Like how I’m scared of the dark.” She asked as she searched his face as if that’d give her all the answers. Though her question was only met with a frown, she decided to continue anyway. “I don’t really like storms either. The booms are loud and scary and hurt my ears. But mommy and daddy told me that storms are just Uncle Thor’s way of saying hi. You know how sometimes he gets a little loud whenever he’s excited? Well, he has that same effect with the storms.”
“That’s a nice way to put it, M.” Peter smiled as he stared back at the girl who reminded him so much of both of her parents. The prioritizing making sure others were okay before anything else was a Tony trait, but the soft tone she was speaking in to make him feel better came directly from Pepper. Though Peter had never truly spent much time around any children, he was sure that there was never a child who truly embodied both of their parents as much as Morgan Stark did.
Morgan smiled back at him and studied him for a second. She frowned as he winced at the next thunderclap. She gave him a reassuring smile before once again speaking.
“Yeah, though sometimes I wish he would just call instead.” The girl joked giving Peter one of Tony’s patented grins.
Peter let out a surprised laugh and dropped the handle once again so he could make his way over towards the girl. He lifted her, blanket and all, out of the wagon and wrapped her into a hug that she instantly returned.
“Plus, mommy and daddy said they’ll always keep me safe and I know you will too. And don’t worry, Petey, I can keep you safe too.” Morgan assured him, causing a fresh round of tears to crop up in Peter’s eyes.
“I’ve never felt safer than I do right here.” Peter insisted as he squeezed the girl tighter. He thought about how there was never a sentence he had truly ever meant more before pulling away from her and planting a kiss on the top of her head. “Come on. Let’s go back inside where the storm isn’t so loud, yeah? I know what will make us both feel better.”
“Is it juice pops?” Morgan asked as she flashed him a smile and giggled when Peter tickled her stomach with his free hand.
“Both mommy and daddy said that we need to cut back on the juice pops, remember? They said we eat too many.” Peter reminded her as he sat her back in the wagon and began pulling her back towards the house again.
“They won’t even know!” Morgan insisted as she giggled at the exasperated look Peter shot towards her.
“Okay, fine, we’ll each grab one, but then we’re going to daddy’s lab.” Peter insisted as he changed his course towards the kitchen. “But just one. It’s our secret, okay?”
“Okay. Can we have blue ones?”
“Of course, they’re the best kind,” Peter responded as he shot an indignant look towards Morgan as if he was offended that she had even asked. This caused Morgan to giggle and Peter quickly joined in with his own laughter.
“God, I forgot about the mess in here. We need to clean this up.” Peter groaned as he stopped in the kitchen doorway and stared at the mess on the floor. After staring back towards Morgan and taking in her pout, he finally sighed. “Okay, fine, we’ll put it off for a little bit, but we do have to clean before mommy and daddy come home. I don’t want another food fight lecture from mom, little miss. You know she’s scary when she’s mad, and she’s going to be mad that we trashed the kitchen with the chocolate chips we weren’t even supposed to have.”
After accepting a pinky promise from Morgan that they’d clean later, Peter set off to grab two blue juice pops from the freezer. He carefully cut the tops off of both before returning to Morgan.
“What’s down in daddy’s lab?” Morgan questioned as she readily accepted the blue juice pop Peter handed her.
“My old Spider-Man mask. Back when I first met him, he noticed how overloaded my senses were, so he made the mask sorta dull them down. I learned that they really helped with thunderstorms, especially.”
“So I get to wear your mask?” Morgan excitedly asked as she tried to jump up causing the wagon to almost tip over. Peter quickly grabbed it before it could fall and gently eased Morgan back down into a sitting position.
“The old one yeah. But first, we need to make a pitstop and fill up this wagon.”
“With what?” Morgan questioned right as she shoved her juice pop in her mouth. The action made some of the juice fall down her chin and Peter carefully wiped it off before answering.
“Pillows and blankets. We’re going to make a pillow fort. We’re going to need snacks as well. Can you grab the popcorn and some juice boxes, please?”
Morgan enthusiastically nodded and quickly jumped out of the wagon to grab the snacks while Peter set off to gather supplies for their fort.
“Hey, M, do you think mom would be mad if we took the couch cushions down to the lab?” Peter called as he studied the oversized couch. The cushions were really soft, and they’d make the perfect base for their fort.
“Duh, Peter!” Morgan called back causing him to laugh.
“Yeah, she will be,” Peter muttered as he took them off the couch anyway and stuck them in the wagon. “I’ll cover them with a sheet. It’ll be fine.”
He quickly gathered all the blankets in the living room and threw them on top of the cushions. He then made a trip to the linen closet in the hallway and threw the guest sheets in the wagon as well.
“Come on, Morgan!” Peter called as he quickly webbed everything to the wagon so it wouldn’t fall out. He sighed when Morgan finally rounded the corner with the bowl of popcorn in one hand and juice pops and juice boxes in the other.
“How did you even reach those?” He asked as he eyed the six blue ice pops she was trying to hide from him beneath the juice boxes. “They were in the back of the freezer.”
“I’m not a baby, Peter. I can reach things by myself.” She told him as she rolled her eyes. He carefully took the popcorn bowl and juice boxes from her and webbed them to the wagon as well, but paused when he picked up the juice pops.
“We can’t eat this many juice pops, M. Mom and dad are going to notice they’re gone if we do. This is practically the whole box. We can have one more each, but that’s it.”
Reluctantly, the girl agreed and handed over the excess juice pops with a sigh. Peter hurriedly ran to the kitchen and threw them back in the box before returning to the hallway, and scooping Morgan into his arms and setting off towards the lab.
“You can go talk to the bots, but don’t touch any of daddy’s things, okay? You know the rules.” Peter said when they entered the lab, and he sat the girl back down. Instantly, the girl rushed off towards the bots and started mimicking their clicking noises. “Hey, Fri, can you turn on all the displays? Not to anything particular for right now. Just so they’re providing some light.”
“Of course, Mr. Parker.” The AI responded before suddenly the whole room instantly became immersed in the soft blue glow. Peter smiled as he glanced over at Morgan and noticed her soft smile as she gazed at the displays.
“Thank you, Friday. Can you keep an eye on Morgan for me? Just to make sure she’s not getting into anything.”
“I always do,” Friday answered. Peter sent a soft smile up towards the ceiling at the statement before setting off the find his mask.
He immediately began digging through all the drawers in his workspace to find where he had discarded it. He finally found it at the bottom of the third drawer and quickly slipped it on.
“Hey, Karen.” Peter quietly said as the mask lit up before his eyes. He let out a sigh of relief as all the background noise was suddenly drowned out. He hadn’t noticed how loud the sounds of the storm had actually been. “Could you please set all the settings in this mask back to the training wheels protocol default? I just only need the senses dulling feature active.”
“Of course, Peter. Now activating training wheels protocol.”
Peter watched as all the displays in front of his eyes disappeared, and he thanked Karen before pulling the mask over his head. He quickly made his way over to Morgan and presented her with the mask. He smiled as he watched her pull it over her head, causing the eyes on the mask to widen.
“Petey, this is so cool!” She laughed in excitement causing Peter to laugh along with her. “I can’t even hear the rain anymore!”
“You look so cool. Like a little Spider-Baby.” Peter joked as he took out his phone and Morgan immediately started posing for pictures.
“I can’t be Spider-Baby.” Morgan immediately protested as she stopped mid pose to stare at him indignantly as if his suggestion was the most outrageous thing she’d ever heard.
“Why not, M?” Peter asked, confused by her sudden change in demeanor.
“Because that’s what daddy always calls you. We can’t have the same name, Peter.” Morgan explained. Peter could tell by her tone that she thought that it was a very obvious statement, but he was confused. He had never once heard Mr. Stark call him anything of the sort.
“What? No, he doesn’t. I’m Spider-Man, Morgan.” Peter tried to explain as he tapped on the mask as if to emphasize his point.
“Yes, he does. He calls you Spider-Baby all the time.” Morgan frowned at him. “I think I’m going to be Spider-Girl.”
“Well okay, Spider-Girl.” Peter resolved instead of continuing to argue with her. He instead engaged his own mask before continuing. “Let’s go make our spider fort then.”
Peter quickly set about covering the cushions with a sheet as Morgan gathered up all the snacks and laid them out on the table. After finding some spare parts around the lab, Peter was able to create a canopy-like fort with the couch cushions serving as a bed underneath.
“Friday, can you project Moana on the screen in front of us?” Peter requested as soon as he and Morgan were settled into the fort with their snacks.
Morgan quickly polished off both her and Peter’s juice pop before falling asleep.
Peter smiled as he adjusted the girl so she was laying down and continued to watch the movie until he grew bored. At that point, he laid down next to the girl and let the background noise of the movie lull him to sleep.
It seemed like only a minute later that he was woken up by a bright flash of light and some muttered cursing.
“Mr. Stark?” Peter asked as he slowly blinked his eyes to get them to stay open. He instinctively pulled Morgan closer as he stared at the man in front of him and willed his eyes to focus so he could confirm that it was truly Tony.
“Yeah, Pete, it’s me. Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you. I just wanted to get a picture of my spider kids.” Tony explained as he held up his phone. Peter only nodded in response before laying his head back down onto the pillows.
“She’s Spider-Girl. I suggested Spider-Baby, but she told me that’s already what you call me. That’s mean, Mr. Stark. I’m not a baby. I’m an adult.”
“Kid, you’re still practically a baby.” Tony laughed as he reached down and moved the half-full popcorn bucket away from Peter’s arm so he wouldn’t knock it over.
“I am not.” Peter sleepily protested as he once again closed his eyes.
Tony shared a smile with Pepper as they watched the scene in front of them.
“Peter, honey, don’t you want to sleep in your own bed?” Pepper asked as she crouched down and pulled the mask over her daughter’s head. “You do know you’re on the lab floor right?”
“Yeah, on our expensive couch cushions. Those things weren’t cheap, kid. They weren’t really made to be laid on dirty lab floors.”
“I didn’t let them get dirty. I made sure to put the sheets over them. They were the perfect bottom to our fort. The power went out those so we came down here for the light from your displays.” Peter explained as he opened back up one eye so he could look at them. “I can help you bring them back upstairs.”
“There’s no rush, sweetheart. You can stay here.” Pepper said as ran her fingers along Peter’s chin when Tony disengaged the mask.
“M said the sound of the thunder hurt her ears and I thought the mask would help,” Peter explained when he once again opened his eyes at the touch and caught sight of the mask clutched in Pepper’s other hand.
Tony caught Pepper’s gaze when she glanced back at him and they both shared a soft smile. Neither one of them would ever be able to express the gratitude and love they felt towards Peter for wholeheartedly taking on the big brother role for Morgan without even being asked. He was constantly protecting her and doing everything he could to make her happy.
After a moment, Tony broke Pepper’s gaze to look at the kids and was startled when he saw Peter still staring back at him instead of sleeping. He quickly cleared his throat and wiped the corner of his eyes before speaking to the boy.
“You know, I was planning on making chocolate chip pancakes tomorrow but the chocolate chips seem to be covering my kitchen instead. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?” Tony joked as he leaned down and carefully readjusted the blankets to cover the pair.
“Sorry, it’s my fault. Food fight. I can go clean it up.” Peter muttered and attempted to sit up but was stopped when he got tangled in the blankets.
“It can wait until the morning, Peter. It isn’t going anywhere.” Pepper murmured as she tried to get the boy to lay back down.
Tony chuckled as he watched Peter struggle to escape from underneath the mess of blankets he and Morgan were covered in without waking the still sleeping girl beside him.
“No, I can clean it.” Peter insisted causing Tony to roll his eyes and lightly push the boy back down.
“Really, Pete, it’s fine. Stay here in your fancy lab fort.” Tony’s insistence was coupled with a stern look when Peter looked like he was about to protest.
“It’s a spider fort.” Peter corrected as he carefully pulled Morgan back towards him before once again closing his eyes.
“Thank you for looking out for her, sweetheart,” Pepper whispered as she carefully retucked the blankets around them and Tony made an agreeing noise to accompany her sentiment.
“That’s what big brothers are for,” Peter insisted before falling back asleep.
Tony and Pepper shared a smile and told the kids goodnight before gathering up the discarded popcorn bowl and juice pop wrappers and leaving the room.
As they reached the lab entrance, Tony turned back once more to look at the kids as they laid there on his lab floor. Though only one of them shared his DNA, they were both still a part of him. They were both the pieces he had never realized he was missing in the puzzle that is his heart. They were both his kids and Tony softly smiled at them as he silently thanked whoever had allowed him to get so lucky in life.
Hours later, when Peter woke up, it was to Morgan’s hair in his face and her soft snores against his chest. The faint blue glow from Morgan’s arc reactor didn’t give him a ton of light to see by but he could still make out both Pepper and Tony sleeping on the pull out bed that Peter did not know was inside of the couch Tony kept in his lab. He fell back asleep with a smile on his face and a feeling of warmth in his chest. For the very people inside of that lab were a family that was made up of joy, a lot of laughter and plenty of love.