Archive of Our Own

“TONY!”

Tony barely has time to set his mug of coffee aside before four year old April Jones Parker bolts out of her dad’s car, runs up the drive, and rams into Tony with the best hug she can manage. She ends up in a fit of giggles as Tony exaggerates the groans of pain (only a little, he’s not as sprightly as he used to be) as he lets her latch onto him like a koala. 

“Ugh, you just give the best hugs,” Tony praises, squeezing her tight and swaying them back and forth. He feels her leave a sweet little kiss on his scarred cheek in greeting and he melts, pulling away to give her a proper smile. “Look at you! You know, I didn’t think it scientifically probable.”

“What?” She asks, eyes glittering with curiosity.

He presses a kiss to her cheek. “You get cuter every day.” He brushes a few stray curls that have burst from her ponytail out of her face. “Cute as a donut.”

“...Blueberry?”

“Sure. Cute as a blueberry donut.”

“With pink sprinkles!”

“Even better.”

Peter’s super ears pick up on that as he gets out of the car, and he snorts at his analogy before he opens the back door of the sedan and starts fishing out AJ’s duffle bag. 

It gives Tony just enough time to lean in and whisper, “Thank god you look just like MJ. How would one manage walking around with your dad’s ugly mug?”

Ahhh. Gotta love that super hearing. The kid’s still got his head down, rummaging through the car as he yells, “I’ll be sure to ask Morgan how she copes!”  and he manages to put up a classy, respectable, middle finger Tony’s way. 

He doesn’t exactly get AJ’s eyes covered in time, if her giggles are anything to go by.

The commotion is enough to drag fourteen year old Morgan out of the house. Morgan’s coffee addiction is definitely one of Tony’s shortcomings as a parent, as he’s pretty sure that’s already the second cup she’s had that morning, and it might not be enough as evidenced by her disheveled hair, pajama shorts, and bare feet.

“Oh look,” she deadpans, a quirk of a smile hidden behind the rim of her novelty cheeseburger mug. “The circus came to town.”

Peter snaps his head up at the sound of Morgan’s voice, grin wide and completely shit-eating. “MORGAN!” he screams, abandoning AJ’s things entirely to run full speed up to the porch.

“No, no, no,” Morgan whines, shoving her cup of coffee into Tony’s prosthetic hand right before Peter literally tackles her off the porch and into Pepper’s prized pepper garden. “Pete!”

“You lost a bet!” Peter laughs, wrestling her in the dirt. Tony shifts AJ onto one hip and takes a sip of her coffee - way too much creamer, how have her teeth not fallen out - while he watches his children ruin his wife’s hard work. “This is the price! I knew she’d pick Johnny!”

“I’m never watching the Bachelorette with you ever again!”

“That’s fine! But you still gotta suffer the consequences of picking Oliver.”

Morgan just screeches, squishing Peter’s face into the dirt before she picks herself up and runs full speed to the back of the house to the dock. Peter’s right on her tail and Tony turns the corner just in time to see Peter push his daughter into the lake before declaring cannonball! and jumping in after her. 

Tony and AJ share an impressive sigh of exasperation. 

“I swear,” Pepper grumbles, joining them on the back porch. She takes the coffee and takes a sip, pulling a face of disgust before she shrugs non-committedly and takes another sip. “That’s the third time this year they’ve ruined that garden.”

“Still fewer times than Gerald.”

Pepper points a finger at him in warning. “Don’t get me started on your little alpaca.” She rolls her eyes before she finally lands her gaze on AJ, giving her a warm smile. “Good morning, sweet girl. You excited to stay all week at the cabin?”

“Yes!” AJ declares, wiggling a bit in Tony’s arm. He gets the message and sets her down on the ground. “Daddy said we could have ice cream for dinner every night.”

Tony lets out a low, impressive whistle. He glances at the lake where Peter and Morgan are still wrestling and tackling each other in the water. “That’s a lot of sugar, Miss Booger. And I’m not sure you’ll be up for it after you find out there’s a whole tray of cinnamon rolls in there.”

AJ’s eyes go comically wide and Tony has to bite his lip from laughing outright. “With apples!?”

He bends down and presses a kiss to the crown of her head. “Why don’t you run inside with Pep and find out?”

Pepper does laugh outright when AJ grabs her wrist with both arms and proceeds to tug her into the house along with her, chanting apples apples apples! under her breath the whole time. Tony stays on the porch, settling on a rocking chair, and keeps an eye on the two idiots in the lake. It’s not even three minutes before Morgan manages to escape, pulling herself up on the dock with all the grace of a drowned rat. Peter slinks behind her, there to give her an extra boost to get out if she needs it, but he ends up falling into Big Brother Antics and tickles the bottom of her foot instead. Morgan shrieks and kicks instinctively; she gets Peter right in the face.

He resurfaces coughing, but laughing, so Tony figures it’s all well deserved.

Morgan is grumbling grumpy things on her way into the house, but Tony spots the smug smile she can’t hide. Meanwhile, Peter practically skips back up to the house, sploshing water and leaving perfect shoe prints until he’s standing right in front of Tony. The kid gives an awkward grin that’s all teeth until he purses his lips out and spews a weak fountain of lake water onto Tony’s shirt.

At this point, Tony’s used to these shenanigans. Twenty-five years old, and Peter’s still the biggest kid he knows.

Peter opens his arms for a hug and Tony doesn’t hesitate to pull him in and drop a kiss on his cheek. No matter if he’s soaked in lake water, blanketed in dirt, or covered in blood, Tony will never deny the kid a hug.

“You and Miss Jones ready for a finals study lockdown?” Tony asks when Peter pulls away, his head tilted as he tries to smack some of the water out of his ear. “Finally gonna get that Bachelor’s degree soon?” 

“Masters, in MJ’s case. And she’s certainly ready,” Peter admits. “I’d much rather stay here and push all of you in the lake.” He grins, sticking his finger in his ear to get the last bit of water out. “May says she’ll give me five whole dollars if I can get Pepper.”

Hah. That’ll never happen. But in any case, Tony knows a deflection when he sees it. “You sure that’s all that’s on the agenda? Just studying?”

His kid’s face twists up in guilt. “Well. I mean. There might be some serious Avenger-level ass kicking planned? Perhaps?”

Peter hasn’t really needed any Iron Man muscle in the past several years, which has given Tony a pretty calm semi-retirement. Emphasis on the semi. He may not don the suits anymore, but he can’t quite kick the habit of needing to know the major Avenger missions. So, it can’t be helped that he asks, “Yeah? Anything exciting?”

“Oh, definitely. It’s some Hydra knock off organization…” He waves his hand about. “...thing. I dunno.” A shrug. “It’s T’Challa’s mission, really. I’m just there for comic relief.”

“I’m sure that’s not true. You’d have to be funny to be comic relief.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Shuri calls me a clown all the time.”

There’s more to it that Peter’s letting on; Tony’s sure Peter knows the details inside and out. But these days, Peter does his best to censor his Spider-Man escapades, mostly for the sake of Tony’s blood pressure. He gets two, maybe three questions before Peter changes the subject entirely. He figures he’s got about one more. “Where is this fraudulent Hydra lurking?”

“Germany.”

Ugh, Germany. Peter’s had the worst luck when it comes to Germany. “Ah, a trip down memory lane. Try not to get run over by a train this time. Or get your ass kicked by the guy in the Captain America suit.”

He flashes a crooked grin. “I’ll do my very best.” He shakes his head, letting water in his hair fly everywhere, before he stops short, eyes wide. “Do I smell apple cinnamon rolls?”

Tony tips his head back. “You do. But considering our kids are in there, I’m not sure how many are left.”

A determined look flashed across his face. “I’ll body slam those kids for a cinnamon roll if I have to.”

“I’m not surprised. Since you just body slammed one into the lake.” He kicks lightly at the back of Peter’s shin. “Go ahead.”

While Peter literally runs inside, shouting about how he can shove an entire one in his mouth without a glass of milk, Tony decides to make himself useful and pick up his granddaughter’s things that were carelessly tossed to the side in favor of wrestling Morgan in the garden. AJ’s things consist of the smallest, dinkiest, most pathetic looking Halloween themed duffle bag, covered in orange and purple glitter spider webs. He looks around for a second bag or a pillow, but he doesn’t see anything. The back seat of Peter’s shitty sedan doesn’t even have a toy in sight, which gives Tony the idea to check inside the bag -

Yep. It’s just a bag full of toys. Typical.

He still carts it inside, slung over one shoulder. Pepper is on the other side of the house, dealing with Gerald, which leaves their daughter unsupervised; she’s already dressed in dry clothes and using the opportunity of being left to their own devices to pour AJ a cup of coffee. 

“Nope.” Tony sweeps in and grabs the mug before AJ can get a taste. The duffle swings and almost smacks Morgan in the face before she shrugs it off his shoulder and sets it on the ground.

“Awww,” AJ pouts, idly kicking her feet at the breakfast bar. Her fingers are messy as she picks apart a cinnamon roll. “I wanted to try it.”

“You won’t like it, Bugaboo.” Tony promises. He’s quick to open the fridge, grab a little carton of banana milk, and slide it AJ’s way. The replacement is more than enough to wash away the coffee disappointment and Morgan’s quick to help her open it up and put her favorite pink metal straw in it. “This is much better, yeah?”

AJ mumbles her agreement happily while Morgan stares contemplatively at her mug. Tony sees the outcome before it even happens, but he keeps his mouth shut while Morgan goes to the fridge, grabs another carton of banana milk, and then dumps it in the fresh cup of coffee.

“How’s it taste?” Tony asks when she takes an ungodly large sip. 

“Oh my god,”she sputters, reaching for a dishrag. AJ starts snickering when Morgan starts scraping her tongue with it. “That was such a bad idea. That was so gross.”

“What’s gross?” Peter asks, walking back into the kitchen with fresh, dry clothes and moderately less damp hair. 

“This.” Morgan slides the coffee mug down the counter. “Try it.”

Peter doesn’t even ask what it is; he just does as she says. Tony’s pretty sure he downs the rest of it. AJ ends up laughing at the screwed up face of disgust Peter pulls when he’s done, wiping his mouth with his clean sleeve. “Ugh, that’s...”

“The poison Romeo drank in the Capulet crypt.”

“Yeah. That.”

Morgan grabs the cup out of his hand and pours more coffee. “Want more?”

“...sure,” and he heads over to the fridge.

Tony ends up taping the toe of his shoe to the back of Peter’s leg again when he’s standing at the fridge. “I went outside to get AJ’s things, but all I found were her toys.”

“Uhhhh, yeah. That’s all we packed.” He tosses the banana milk behind him, which Morgan catches, before he goes shuffling through the fridge some more. “You got cheese sticks!”

Tony rolls his eyes and tries to pull Peter away by the back of his shirt. “ Why is that all you packed?”

“Well,” Peter begins, already yanking the mozzarella cheese stick out of its wrapper. He begins ripping it up into smaller slivers. “Judging by the fact that the fridge is stocked with banana milk and cheese sticks, I’m going to assume the pantry has…what? Lucky Charms and peanut butter crackers?”

“...yes?” 

“The spare bedroom decked out in her favorite glow in the dark astronaut quilt?”

“Yes-”

“Which, I’m assuming, still has the drawer with the extra clothes you keep for her just in case -”

“Well, duh, I don’t -”

“Her spare toothbrush still in the bathroom?”

“Yes.”

“You got bedtime stories?”

“Kid, I’m nothing but a walking talking storybook.”

“See?” Peter says, tipping the coffee cup his way. He actually, literally, pours banana milk in it. And drinks it. Tony positively can’t stand him. “There was really no need to bring much. Hotel Stark has everything AJ might need.”

“Except Sergeant Pickles.” 

Sergeant Pickles is one of the greatest gifts given to anyone by anyone. He’s the softest, most cuddly pink plush Alpaca that Tony gifted to April when she was born. It is, much to Tony’s delight, AJ’s favorite toy in the whole wide world. He didn’t see it in her bag.

Peter wags his finger, unable to form words quite yet due to the fact that he’s drinking...sludge. And eating cheese.  “Sergeant Pickles is under strict instruction to be Mom’s study buddy this week.”

“I brought a new friend!” AJ announces. She crawls out of the bar stool and goes through her bag, only to pull out what has got to be a literal raccoon from Build-A-Bear. “This is Lieutenant Rabies.”

Tony blinks.

“Nebula named him,” AJ goes on to say. “She says I should mention that.”

Peter grins behind the mug.

“Nebula has a sick sense of humor,” Tony grumbles, gently taking the plush from AJ’s outstretched arms. He picks her back up and props her on his hip. “Does Rocket know about this?”

“Are you kidding?” Laughter bubbles out of Peter. “Who do you think bought it for her on their last Earth visit?”

“How do the two of them even know what Rabies are -” He comes to the conclusion before he even finishes. “Oh, MJ.”

“Yeah. She’s awesome.”

Tony looks down at the raccoon, which isn’t nearly as cute and soft as Sergeant Pickles, but AJ likes it, and that’s enough for Tony. He sets her back on the bar stool, plucking the toy out of her grip to have him sit in the bar stool beside her. Morgan, ever the mind reader, cuts an apple cinnamon roll and puts it on a plate in front of Lieutenant Rabies for him to enjoy.

Peter ends up eating two more cheese sticks and stuffing another entire pastry in his mouth before he looks at his bare wrist and announces, “Well, I better get going.” He’s already packing some food for the road. “I promised MJ I’d be back by one."

AJ isn’t a fan of this plan. She puts her head down on her plate, getting sticky cinnamon sugar on her chin and looks up at her father with some top notch puppy dog eyes. “Are you sure you can’t stay?”

“Aw, Itsy Bitsy,” Peter croons, rounding the kitchen island to scoop AJ up into his arms. She’s still pouting until he reaches forward and kisses her chin in a half-hearted attempt to clean her face and to get her to smile. It works. “We talked about this. Me and Mommy have a lot of work to do and we’re gonna be so boring, you don’t wanna stick around for that.”

The smile doesn’t last long. She lets out a little whine before she ducks her head on Peter’s shoulder, rubbing her cheek on the fabric of his shirt. “But you said school is fun.”

“It is,” Peter promises. “It’s just a lot of work sometimes. And we have to concentrate and be boring to do it. Trust me, you’ll have so much more fun here. You get to play with Gerald, swim in the lake with Morgan, garden with Pepper -”

“- build a toy airplane with me.”

Peter’s eyes grow comically wide. He lets out a loud, dramatic shout of anguish before he takes a few steps over and collapses onto the rug, AJ still pressed close to his chest. She starts shrieking with laughter at his theatrics. “No way! A toy airplane! Tony builds the best stuff! I’m so jealous.”

AJ looks up at Tony and asks, “....can the plane be purple?”

Tony smiles. “Purple and orange. With sparkles.”

She gasps. “Just like my bag!” She turns back around and pulls a little on her father’s shirt. “Daddy, you should stay and build the airplane with us.”

“Tell you what.” Peter does a weird somersault...thing and then he’s standing tall on his feet, AJ propped up on his hip. “When I come back to pick you up, we’ll celebrate being done with school by playing with your plane.”

AJ scrunches her nose. “We play with the airplane and we play in the tree house.”

Peter holds out his pinky. “You drive a hard bargain Miss April, but I think that can be arranged.” They do their little pinky promise before he presses a kiss to her cheek. “You be good. Remember what I told you.”

She nods seriously. “Morgan’s in charge.”

Dear Lord. What an absolute apocalypse of a sentence.

“You heard her.” Peter points a finger at Morgan. “You’re the sheriff.”

Morgan snaps with both hands before she mimes a gun with her fingers. She goes full on Bonanza, pretending to shoot all over the living room before she blows the imaginary smoke off her barrell-fingers, and pretends to holster them at her side.

“And I’m the deputy!” AJ cheers with both arms high above her head. She looks up at Tony and whispers, “Pepper’s the president.”

“Oh yeah?” Tony hums. “Then who am I?”

“Iron Man. Duh.”

“Right. How silly of me.”

“You’re gonna be just fine,” Peter goes on to say. His face takes on something soft, something that Tony had ever seen a handful of times before April - now he sees it all the time when he’s making sincere promises of love and hope and joy to his kid. “If you get scared, or lonely, or sad when we’re away, you go straight to Tony. He’s super good at making people happy and safe. He’s taken such good care of me, so I know he’ll take such good care of you, okay?”

AJ nods like it’s the most mundane fact in the world. “Okay, Daddy.”

“Good girl. Mommy’s gonna call you tonight before bed.” He gives her another kiss, this time on her forehead, before he hands her off to Tony. “See you later, alligator.”

“In awhile, crocodile,” AJ says, a little sullen, but she’s nowhere near tears, so that’s good. She gives a little wave.

“I’ll catch Pepper on the way out,” Peter promises as Morgan slinks over and wraps both arms around his waist. He gives her a one shoulders hug, pulling her to his side. 

“Let me know if T’Challa’s vanity project,” he says, vague, because he’s not always sure how much he tells April about the major Spider-Man stuff. “Gets any bumps and bruises?”

Peter gives a thumbs up. “It won’t. But I’ll let you know.”

Tony supposes that’s all he can ask for these days.

He starts to follow Peter out of the house, for last goodbye waves off the porch while he drives away, but he sees that Peter detours out of the back of the house, grabbing the keys on the wall to one of Tony’s last and favorite vintage Mustangs.

The brat.

“Kid.”

Peter puts on a puppy-dog pout immediately. “I’m out of gas!”

“You mean to tell me that ugly piece of scrap metal you call a car is sitting on empty in my lawn?”

“Yes.”

Tony groans, making April giggle. She kisses his nose to try and make him smile and by golly, does it do the trick.

“Ooh!” Morgan exclaims. “Can I take Pete’s car apart?”

“Only if you can put it back together!” Peter sing-songs, which makes Morgan shout out a CHALLENGE ACCEPTED in retaliation. “But if you can’t. No worries. I’ll just keep the Mustang.”

“Peter.”

“Have fun!”

“Peter.”

“ThankYouSoMuchForLettingMeBorrowYourCarMisterStarkYou’reTheBest!” he says, basically all one word before he gives one last shout of, “Love you, AJ!”

Peter doesn’t slam doors, so he shuts it as softly as he can, making Tony’s umpteenth sigh of the morning particularly loud. It’s barely ten in the morning on a Saturday and Tony’s already in need of going back to sleep. Too many kids around sucking out all his energy.

AJ snaps him out of his thoughts with a light tap to his peppered goatee. “Grandpa? Can we pretty please go build the airplane?”

Screw a nap. He’s about to do the impossible and stay awake for a week straight. Peter’s kid is just too cute, he doesn’t want to miss out on a minute of time with her. 

“Sure thing, kiddo.”

The first day goes pretty well. Tony and AJ spend most of the time in his little garage slash workshop, working on her plane. He probably could have finished it in an hour or two, but he enjoys taking the time to try and teach her all the parts and how the little motor works. She’s still young, and he’s pretty sure a lot of it goes in one ear and out the other, but he’s also impressed by how much sticks. Peter’s kid certainly got his brain. 

They take breaks for lunch of course - a picnic of homemade sandwiches and fruit out on the dock. Pepper picks out her chunks of honeydew and throws them in the lake, hoping to grab the attention of the fish, but nothing really comes of it. Tony promises they’ll wake up real early one morning before she goes back to go fishing, which she loves. They get the plane finished by sundown and take it for a test run before he puts it up with promises of more fun tomorrow, and they eat cheeseburgers out on the porch that Tony grills. MJ calls before seven to wish her daughter goodnight as promised, but the conversation is a little short considering poor little AJ is dozing off in Pepper’s lap in the rocking chair. So they clean up, get her ready for bed, and put her in her room. So yeah. The first day goes pretty well.

And then little miss tiptoes into Tony’s room in the middle of the night.

When Morgan was a kid, she’d sort of ...lurk. Wait for the perfect opportunity to make herself known before she’d climb up into bed with them. It led to a lot of terrifying moments of Tony waking up to the feeling of someone watching him only to find that, yes. There’s a toddler standing at the end of the bed like a creepy horror film monster.

AJ doesn’t do that. She’s still quiet, but she makes no hesitation to just walk right into Pepper and Tony’s room and crawl into their bed. Peter warned them that this might happen, but Tony expected more of her settling in between them, or curling up like a roly poly at the foot of the bed. But no. Miss April Jones Parker climbs into bed and sprawls herself completely on Tony’s chest. She even moves his prosthetic arm to rest across her back so she’s hugging him.

It’s pretty adorable. It’d be more adorable if she didn’t seem so upset.

“Hey, kiddo,” Tony says slowly, voice thick like molasses from sleep. He rubs his metal fingers up and down her back. “What’s wrong?”

“Bad dream. I got scared. Daddy said to come here if I got scared.”

Tony smiles a little, and wraps his other arm around her in a full hug. Beside them, Pepper still sleeps. Or. She’s pretending to. “That’s right. I’m a modern day SandMan.”

“I thought you were Iron Man.”

“That too.” He pokes her cheek. “Want me to go read you another story? I’ll get a real happy one to bring all the good dreams.”

AJ whimpers. “No. I don’t wanna sleep,” she declares, ironically, around a yawn.

But Tony can live with that. “Wanna watch a movie?”

She lifts her head. “Can we do that?”

“Yeah. We just keep the volume real low so Pepper and Morgan can keep sleeping, okay?”

She nods, content with that idea, and Tony scoops her up with him as he gets out of bed. He gets her settled on the couch in her favorite lavender-scented blanket before he goes to the kitchen and starts making two cups of hot chocolate. “Pick whatever movie you like.” 

As he’s making the drinks he hears the soft swish of the holographic menus as she goes through the movie library, choosing. It’s only when he settles in on the couch beside her and hands her Morgan’s novelty burger mug does he realize what exactly she’s chosen.

“Jurassic Park?” It doesn’t seem like a very good bedtime movie. 

“I like dinosaurs,” AJ admits, sipping on her cocoa. Tony watches to make sure she doesn’t burn her tongue. “I wanna visit them one day.”

“It’s just a movie, Bugaboo. It’s not real.”

“I know that,” AJ stresses. “But Daddy said one day it could be.”

Tony snorts. “I’m pretty sure this entire movie is an ode to why Jurassic Park is a really, really bad idea.”

She scoots carefully over towards him, careful not to upset her hot chocolate or destroy the cocoon that Tony tucked her into. In the end, she ends up propped up underneath his arm, snuggled into his chest. “Can you build a Jurassic Park with all the dinosaurs? Daddy says you have a lot of money, plus you’re really smart. You could bring the dinosaurs back to life.”

Tony wants to refute that, but he’s not one to tell people he can’t do something. Especially science wise. He did invent time travel, after all. “I’ll think about it. How about that?”

That seems to appease her. “Okay. But if you do it, make sure there’s a T-Rex. I like those.”

“Bet they’d like you too. You’d be very tasty,” he tells her, reaching down to grab at her toes that stick out from under the blanket.

She squirms, a smidge of cocoa sloshing out of her cup. “They wouldn’t eat me. I’d be it’s friend.”

“If you say so, kid.”

Tony expects that AJ will doze off in the first twenty minutes just like Morgan always does, just like Peter always does. But she doesn’t. She stays awake the entire time, moving and twisting and occasionally yawning, but very much awake. She gets up once to grab Lieutenant Rabies and another to grab a cheese stick from the fridge. The clock in his living room reads 5:08AM when the movie finishes and she’s wide-eyed and alert, searching for another. Because it’s almost sunrise so. They might as well stay up. Tony can make waffles in an hour or so.

The brat puts on Star Wars, because of course.

“I like space,” AJ tells her. “Can we go one day?”

Now that one is actually feasible. All he has to do is call Nebula. Or Lieutenant Rabies - uh, Rocket. “Sure.”

“Cool.” The yellow intro continues to crawl on the screen. “I want a lightsaber.”

“...maybe for Christmas. We’ll see.”

Tony was afraid that after the first night, AJ would keep having nightmares, or just want to stay up late watching movies and not sleeping. But that’s not what happens. The second, third, and fourth nights are fine. The days are fine, too. It’s full of lake swimming and good food and picking wildflowers and playing in the tree house -

That damn stupid tree house.

Anyway. The disaster that is day five starts like any other:

Morgan doing some bullshit. 

Tony wakes up to the sound of heavy clunking in the distance. He smells the coffee, so he knows Morgan’s awake, and a small part of him wishes she spent her summer breaks like Peter: dead to the world. But no. Morgan, as promised, has taken Peter’s car apart and put it back together. Tony assumed she’d be working on the finishing touches considering he’s seen her progress all week. He isn’t sure what’s left that could possibly be so noisy.

He walks outside to find his daughter ripping out the seats in Peter’s car.

“What are you doing?” he asks, begs really, on a breathy sigh.

“I’m -” a grunt as she pulls the passenger seat out. “Reupholstering.” 

“With what?”

Morgan points to the ground where there’s hot pink tiger striped fabric waiting to cover all of Peter’s seats before she grabs a lightweight box and tosses it Tony’s way. “I also got a matching steering wheel cover. And fuzzy dice. And!” she grabs another box but this time she pulls out a single bumper sticker that reads:

Rock Out With Your Spock Out! 

“Morgan,” Tony sighs. His hand runs over the picture of the Vulcan salute. “I don’t think this is the best idea -”

“It’s not. It’s a terrible idea. Especially since I’ve already covered the bumper with them.”

“Covered.”

“Mostly. I left room for that one. Go see for yourself.”

With much trepidation, Tony rounds the back of the care and...yep. The car is covered in bumper stickers. Star Trek bumper stickers. Which is very much not Star Wars. As he and Ned have made clear over, and over again.

“Peter’s gonna kill you,” Tony scoffs, hand running over the one that says Beam Me Up, Scotty!. “How many Starfleet insignias are there on here?”

“19.”

“He’s killing you and dumping your body in the lake.”

“No, no,” Morgan defends. “I put a little variety in there. Like this one,” She points to a picture of BigFoot that says I Believe. “And this one,” another that says Nessie Is My Spirit Animal. 

“This is…” He has no words.

But Morgan, apparently, does. “Ameatuer hour, I know.” She sighs, dejected, as she crosses her arms across her chest. Her fingers drum against the opposite arm. “If I had known he was gonna leave his car here, I would have planned ahead and rented a crane.”

Tony feels a migraine coming on. “Why would you have needed a crane?”

“To lift the car on the roof.”

“Where did Pepper and I go wrong with you, huh?”

Morgan shrugs. “I’ve got several theories, but nothing conclusive.”

Tony gives a weak kick to the wheel, secretly hoping that would cause it collapse on itself. It doesn’t. It holds strong. Because his girl knows what she’s doing. “Well. I’ll leave you to it. Your funeral and all. Try not to do anything ridiculous.”

“Is messing with the car horn ridiculous or brilliant?”

He slaps the bumper on his car anyway. “I’m walking away now.”

“Mmmhm, you do that, Debbie Downer.” He turns sharp on his heel to head back to the house until Morgan points out. “AJ’s in the tree house.”

Tony blinks. “By herself?” He cranes his head to look at it. There’s only a bit visible from where they’re standing.

“Relax,” Morgan scoffs, reaching into the floor of the car for a walkie talkie. “I’ve been checking in with her. Watch.” She lifts the walkie talkie to her face and says, “Deputy this is the Sheriff, come in Deputy. Over.”

AJ’s voice crackles to life in seconds. “Deputy here! Hi! Uhh….over!”

“I’ve got Iron Man requesting entrance to the tree castle. Can I get a 10-4, over.”

“10-4, over!”

Morgan nods to the tree house. “You may approach.”

Peter had helped Tony build said tree house back when Morgan was seven or eight years old. All of the kid’s super strength and sticky webs made it really easy for him to pull the supplies way up high to make the perfect little tree house. And Morgan loved it. She used it for years on the daily, and even now that she’s a teenager that’s too cool for school, she still goes up there once in awhile to…scream, or whatever it is teens do these days. But these past few spring and summer months, it’s been AJ’s palace. She spends half of her time when she visits the cabin up in the damned treehouse. Peter assures Tony he’s made some high end improvements. Whatever that means. Tony’s not exactly in the best shape to be climbing trees anymore.

But he does. Because he’s a sucker. And he loves her.

As it turns out, the high end improvements consist of a freshly nailed platform of white cedar above the tree house. It looks a little like a crow’s nest of a ship, and it seems AJ agrees if the scarf tied to a stick waving up there like a pirate’s flag is anything to go by.

The crow’s nest, however, is not finished. The platform is there but Peter hadn’t finished with the railing, and he’s not sure if he promised to get to it eventually, or if it was delegated to Morgan and she’s been too busy playing mechanic to finish it. Either way, Tony does not like the sight of her standing up there by herself.

“Hey, AJ?” Tony grunts, climbing up the ladder and into the tree house. It’s a monumental effort, and he’s just thankful it’s an actual ladder that sits on the ground as opposed to a flimsy rope one that swings in the wind. “Can you come down from there?”

She just beams at him before straightening the flag out for him to see. It’s definitely one of Pepper’s designer scarves with paint on it. “Look at my pirate flag! It’s got a dinosaur, see?”

For a four year old, it looks...impressively like a cartoon dinosaur. Michelle’s artistic touch has graced AJ at an early age. “A masterpiece. I’m calling the MOMA.”

His quip goes over her head. “And look! I put a spiderweb in the corner.” She settles to sit on the platform, legs tucked under her knees, which makes Tony marginally less nervous. Though he does wonder about a splinter. “Do you like it?”

“Love it. Pirates will be shivering in their timbers, or whatever it is they do.” AJ laughs at him, a mess of giggles that puts a big, dumb grin on his own face. “Now, how about coming down and getting some breakfast with me? I’m guessing your Aunt Morgan only tried to force feed you coffee.”

“Okay,” she hums, carefully rolling up the scarf. “Can we have watermelon?”

“You can have as much watermelon as you’d like. Stuff the whole thing in your mouth, if you can.”

She giggles again, and then that’s where everything goes wrong. 

In hindsight, Tony blames his dumb quips for distracting her. That, or it’s just plain dumb Parker luck. AJ’s sundress - her adorable, rainbow printed sundress that Pepper bought for her before she got here this week - is a little on the long side. It can’t be helped, since AJ is a little on the short side, just like good ole’ Dad. But Tony didn’t think anything of it. The kid isn’t tripping on it. 

Until she tries to get up.

It happens in slow motion for Tony. Her light up Iron Man sneaker catches the hem of her dress when she tries to pull one leg out from underneath her. It pulls and traps her knee and she pitches forward. Which normally wouldn’t be more than a few inches in front of her. 

But the railing isn’t there. She pitches forward, straight off the crows nest.

Tony reacts the only way he can. He jumps off the tree house to grab her. 

It’s impressive for someone his age, if he does say so himself. He manages to grab her midair and hold her to her chest as they fall. He twists his body, trying to make it so he lands on his prosthetic arm. Which he does. 

But it’s a sloppy landing. AJ’s right shoulder hits the ground and then she gives the most heartbreaking wail.

She’s broken something. The kid is broken. Tony broke Peter’s daughter.

Morgan rushes over, shouting his name as well as her mom’s. Tony can hear the porch door squeak and slap open as Morgan hovers, not quite sure who to help first.

“April,” Tony croaks out, doing his best to sit up. Now might not be the best time. He needs a moment. His back fucking hurts, and some of the finer wires in his arm are most likely out of wack, but he’s more or less fine. He knows what a broken bone feels like, and he’s pretty sure he doesn’t have any. “Sweetie, what hurts?”

She’s crying too hard to get a word in. Pepper runs over and does the math without anyone having to say anything. “Oh, honey.” Pepper looks AJ over. “Is it your shoulder?”

AJ nods pathetically, still crying. 

“Okay. Okay, we’re gonna go to the doctor. Can you stand for me?” It takes a minute, but AJ gets on her feet and Tony can at least be relieved that the kids legs are in tact. “Good girl. You’re so brave.” She looks over to Morgan. “Help your father, I’m gonna try and get her in the car -” She looks over to where Peter’s car lies in disarray. “Uh. A...different car.”

Morgan’s nose wrinkles. “Sorry.”

Pepper helps a hiccuping and sobbing AJ to the garage with his cars on the other side of the house while Tony keeps laying on the ground, staring at the sky between the leaves. “Dad.” Morgan snaps her fingers in front of his eyes. “Are you okay?”

“I broke AJ.”

“We’ll deal with your emotional damage later.” She ignores him in favor of inspecting his prosthetic. “This is broken. I’ll have to help you fix it. Did you hit your head?”

“No.”

“How’s your back?”

“Still as terrible as before. Add a few extra bruises."

“Okay. Uhh. I’m not a doctor. So I hope I don’t paralyze you but let’s...sit you up.”

With her help, Tony sits up just fine. No paralyzation, He stands by his assessment that nothing’s broken, but he’s probably got a few bruised ribs. He’ll get checked at the doctor just in case. But more importantly. “Morgan.”

“Yeah,” she hums, distracted. One of her hands is on his cheek, the scarred one, while the other gently prods at his head to check for wounds. 

“I let AJ get hurt.”

Morgan blinks, snapping out of her pseudo doctor phase. “Aww, Daddy,” she sighs, running her hand through his grey hair. “It was just an accident. She’ll be fine.”

“Peter’s never gonna let her stay here again.”

She scoffs, hauling him to his feet. They both wince when he back pops and Morgan takes the initiative to wrap her arm around his waist as a precaution. “Don’t be ridiculous. Everything’s gonna be okay.”

As they walk to the car, Tony tries to tell himself what Morgan says is true. Everything’s gonna be okay. He’s just being ridiculous. Peter will let AJ come back.

He just hopes AJ herself will forgive him.

“Tony. We have to call them.”

Tony stares at where AJ is laughing and playing a board game with Morgan on the floor in the living room. It’s a three person game, the third person being Lieutenant Rabies, and Morgan and AJ swap off taking his turn for him. But no matter how hard he tries, he can’t tear his eyes off of the sling that Peter’s daughter will be trapped in for 6 or so weeks.

Broken collarbone. It’s official. Tony truly and officially broke the kid.

“Forgive me for postponing my funeral.”

Pepper sighs for the umpteenth time. “They will not be mad that you two took a tumble. But they will be mad if they found out you kept it from them.”

“We don’t have to tell them,” Tony presses. “I had the medical bills set up to be invoiced to me. We can tell them the sling is just a fashion statement. That she’s pretending to be...”

“Pretending to be what?”

AJ laughs again and Tony sighs, leaning over to bury his face in his hands. His back aches. His heart is sore. Okay, flip that. But either way. He's got nothing.

“Okay, yeah. I have to tell them.”

As Pepper heads off to take a shower, Tony pulls out his phone and sees the time reads 1:33 PM. He does some quick math and realizes that MJ is right in the middle of one of her exams, so she’s not an option. And despite him trying to put this off for all of about 20 minutes since they got home, Tony now feels that if he doesn’t tell Peter how he ruined his daughter’s trust in him (and also...her shoulder) he might keel over and die. So he finds himself kinda-sorta-maybe holding his breath as he phones Peter, half hoping he gets the voicemail so he can just...blurt it out the worst crime he’s ever committed. And then he can throw his phone in the river and never suffer any consequences.

Peter answers the FaceTime in two seconds. While sporting a black eye.

“Jeez, kid. What’d I say about bumps and bruises?” Tony says, momentarily forgetting about AJ. It’s been a hot minute since he’s seen a shiner like that on the kid. Looks like Germany might have been a bit of a bigger deal than the kid made it out to be.

Peter shrugs. “I’ve had bigger bumps and bruises.”

“It’s half your face.”

“It’ll be nothing but a speck of dust in the morning, you know that.” Another shrug. 

“Well. Tell me that the black eye is the worst of it.”

Peter nods. “Oh, yeah, for sure. T’challa sprained his ankle and Bucky somehow messed up his arm but that’s it -” he stops short, confusion pinching at his face. “Speaking of. Where’s your arm?”

The mechanics had been fizzing out on him in the car and at the hospital, so he and Morgan had taken it off as soon as they’d gotten home. It’s on his workshop, ready to be messed with later. “Uh, that’s kinda why I called. It needs some repairs because I...fell.”

Peter’s eyes go wide. “You fell? From where?”

“The tree house.”

“Oh my god,” Peter groans. “Please tell me your achy breaky back is in one piece.”

Tony rolls his eyes. “Yes, it’s fine. Just a few bruises. But uh, Peter. I’m not...the only one who fell.”

As if on cue, AJ is finally distracted enough from her boardgame to realize Tony is talking to Peter. “Daddy!” She squeals, running over and jumping to sit on the couch with Tony. She presses her face real close to his. “Hi, Daddy. I fell and broke my collarbone today.” She tilts her body so the camera can catch her sling. “See? I got a sling. The doctor said I have to wear it and use my other arm. But I’m no good with my other arm,” she pouts, waving her left arm limply.

Tony’s heart skips a beat, waiting.

And then.

Peter’s just...Peter about it.

“Oh, wow!” Peter breathes out, playing out the part of astonished. “That’s pretty gnarly, Bugaboo. What happened?”

“I was on the crows nest and I tripped on my dress trying to come down.” She tugs on the hem, dirtied from their fall. “Did you know your collarbone is called a clavicle? That’s what the doctor said.”

“Yes, I did. But AJ,” Peter says, trying his Stern Dad Voice which...isn’t stern at all. “You know you’re not supposed to go up there until the railing is finished. This is exactly why.”

“I know, I’m sorry. I just wanted to put our pirate flag up there.” and AJ does look properly guilty. He has a feeling that Peter won’t really punish her for it. Tony wouldn’t either. A broken bone seems like a good enough lesson learned. “But Grandpa caught me! He jumped all the way outta the tree house!”

Now Peter looks properly surprised. “He did? Wow. Impressive for an old man.”

“Daddy! He’s Iron Man! He’s a superhero. He’s saved people lotsa times.”

“That’s very true, honey, you got me there.”

“We still both got hurt though ‘cause he didn’t have the suit to fly is in the sky soooo we hit the ground.”

“Oooh, that must have hurt real bad.” 

“It did,” she admits. “I cried a little.”

“I bet. I would have, too.”

That’s...likely a lie that his own daughter doesn’t believe, but they all let it slide. “But s’not so bad anymore.”

“Oh, yeah? That’s good to hear, Itsy Bitsy. I always knew you were Salty Spitoon material.”

The Spongebob joke goes right over her head. Instead, AJ starts to calm down a little, snuggling closer to Tony. “Does your eye hurt?” she asks him quietly. 

He tilts his head, expression going all soft. “Yeah. But. You’ve seen Daddy’s bruises before, they’re always better by morning.”

“Right! ‘Cause you’re Spider-Man!”

“Damn right I am!”

Aaaaaand the excitement builds again. The Tall Tales of Peter Parker tend to do that. “Did you get the bad guys?”

Peter scoffs, waving his hand around in nonchalance. “Of course I did, who do you think you’re talking to? I’m not some chump like Sam. All the bad guys got their asses properly kicked. Don’t you worry.”

“Yay!” She goes to throw both arms in the air, but remembers her sling a second too late. She jostles her bad arm and winces, throwing out a little whine. Tony’s quick to press a kiss to her cheek in hopes that it’ll keep the tears a bay.

“You gotta be careful with that arm,” Peter tells her. “You keep that sling on so it gets better, okay?”

AJ hums. “Okay. Can Mommy paint my sling with glow in the dark ghosts on it when I get home?”

“I’m sure she’ll be thrilled to. Now, do you mind giving me and Tony a minute alone? I want to talk to him.”

Oh no. It’s here.

He hopes his casket is hot rod red.

AJ scoots off the couch and runs to go finish the board game - it’s Sorry! He realizes, which is just...so, so ironic, given today’s chain of events. God, is he sorry. Sorry he let the kid wander out of the house at the ass crack of dawn, sorry he let her in the crows nest, sorry he didn’t catch her sooner -

“Thank you.”

Tony blinks out of his funeral planning. “What?”

Peter laughs a little. “Thank. You.” he repeats, slower. “You caught AJ.”

Tony isn’t sure if he’s hearing right. Maybe he did hit his head. “Are you forgetting the part where she broke a bone or…?”

“It happens. And she’s not crying and whining about it. I think it’s safe to say she’s okay.” He points a finger at the camera. “You jumped out of a tree house for her. That’s insane. You’re like a thousand years old -

“Hey.”

“-and you could have really gotten hurt!” he laughs a little. “Little itty bitty kiddie bones heal a lot faster than dinosaur bones. I feel like I should be lecturing you instead of her!”

Tony rolls his eyes. “Well what was I supposed to do? Just...let her fall?”

A dopey look takes over Peter’s face. It’s that same soft look he gives his daughter. The one that makes him want simultaneously melt into a pile of mush. “That’s why you’re the best. There’s no one like you, Tony. She’ll always, always be cared for when she’s with you.”

“You’re really missing the part where she got hurt -”

“I’m not missing anything,” he interrupts. “C’mon, you’re a dad. You’re basically my dad. You know how this stuff works. You do your best, we all do. But you can’t protect her from every little thing. She’s gonna get hurt. Everyone does. But you, Tony...you soften the blows. You’re there to pick us up when we fall. Me, April, Morgan, Pepper, the world - we’d be a lot worse if you didn’t jump out of the metaphorical tree house for us. So thanks.”

Damn. 

For Tony, Peter’s always been the better version of him, the better superhero, the stronger will and a stronger heart. But it still knocks him off his ass when Peter looks at him like he hangs the stars in the sky.

Family is really something else.

Tony smiles, because it’s really the only thing he can manage. “Love you, kid. Three thousand tree house jumps worth.”

“Cornball,” Peter scoffs, but his smile is warm. “I’ll call back in a few hours, okay? And don’t worry about MJ, I’ll tell her you broke our child.” Before Tony can get a word in he yells, “YO, AJ!"

“YEAH!” AJ screams across the room. 

“TRY NOT TO BREAK THE OTHER ARM.”

“OKAY.”

“LOVE YOU, BOO.”

“LOVE YOU, DADDY.”

Peter winks into the camera with his badly bruised eye. He winces and mumbles, “Ow, fuck, that hurt,” before he disconnects the call.

Tony lets out a long, terribly tired sigh. It’s been a day. A very, very long day. He needs a nap. Or sugar. Yeah. Lots of sugar. He doesn’t care if it ruins dinner. Or is it lunch? Whatever. It’s gonna be a meal. “Alright. Movies and sweets. Who wants Spider-Man Spin-a-Web Buns ice cream?”

“ME!” AJ shouts, waving her good arm. “Can we watch Jurassic Park?”

“Again?”

“I like that movie .”

Tony shrugs. If the girl with the broken arm wants to watch the dino movie, then they’re gonna watch the dino movie. “Alright.”

“Tony’s gonna build it one day,” AJ tells Morgan. “I want to be a dinosaur veterinarian.”

Tony scoffs as he heads to the kitchen. Morgan follows to help him with his one arm endeavors. “She also said she wants me to build her a lightsaber.”

“Ooh, ooh!” Morgan cheers. “I want one! Multicolored. An absolute rainbow mess.”

“Can’t be done.”

“Sure it can. You invented time travel, you can figure it out.”

“That - you guys pull that card a lot.”

AJ comes over and climbs onto the kitchen bar stool, resting her chin on the counter as she watches Tony and Morgan dip the ice cream. “Can mine be purple?”

“With, lemme guess-” He pauses for dramatics, pointing the ice cream scoop her way. A bit falls on the counter and AJ is quick to lick it up. “- an orange sparkly handle?”

“Yes! Black spiders on the handle too!”

Tony sighs, letting the last of the ice cream fall lazily from the scoop into the last bowl. He’s really got a lot to do before Christmas.

“You got it, kid,” he admits. Because he’s a sucker. Always a sucker. He slides the bowl her way. “Here, dig in.”

AJ smiles at him before she holds the spoon in her left hand and starts eating. It’s an amusing sight. She’s finding it very difficult to get most of the ice cream into her mouth. Tony’s almost about to help her out without laughing at her when Peter’s daughter scowls, drops the spoon, slips her arm out of her sling, and continues eating with her right hand.

Morgan’s eyes are on her own bowl as she’s lost in a rant about a theoretical dinosaur zoo, so he doesn’t see what he sees. Tony just watches, waiting for the whine or the crying that comes with using the arm attached to the broken shoulder.

It doesn’t.

“Huh.”

“I know!” Morgan bellows, clearly thinking Tony is listening. “That’s why we have got to have a stegosaurus, no exceptions.”

“Mmmhm!” AJ agrees as her feet kick happily underneath the counter. She rolls her right shoulder as if testing it before she goes back to using it and finishing her ice cream. 

Well. Okay then.

He finishes his ice cream without another word.

“What have you done.”

“I redecorated.”

“It’s hideous.”

“Thank you.”

AJ giggles in Peter’s arms as he looks forlornly at his destroyed sedan. He circles around to see the bumper stickers, the copious amounts of hideous bumper stickers, and that’s when he lets out a childish whine, which sends AJ into a loudest fit of laughter. “Not Star Trek!”

“It’s the superior space franchise.”

“I hate you.”

“No, you don’t.” Morgan grins as she opens the driver’s door with an exaggerated bow. “Please. Get in. Many more surprises await you.”

Peter groans, setting AJ on the ground. She ends up running to Tony’s side, threading her little fingers with his.

He feels forgiven for the tree house incident.

Peter grumbles some things that sound a lot like profanities as he snatches the keys from Morgan’s hands and gets in the car. She bumps the door shut with her hip and takes a few steps back, coming to stand next to Tony.

“What did you do -”

Peter turns the car on and inevitably presses on the brake.

Which, due to Morgan’s shenanigans, sounds off the horn.

AJ jumps, covering one ear at the sound, as Peter keeps testing his new horn/brake.

Beep. Beep. BEEEEEEEEEEP.

“MORGAN!”

The window to the door is rolled down, so Morgan steps back over and invites herself into his space, gesturing at the dash. “Keep playing around. There’s more.”

He fiddles with levers, presses all the buttons. When he gets to the turn signal, it turns on his brights before the radio starts blasting music.

Fucik’s Entry of the Gladiators, to be precise.

“Clown music for the biggest clown I know,” Morgan explains.

Peter’s eyes are wide, horrified. He keeps messing with buttons, but all he manages to do is turn the windshield wipers on and blast wiper fluid. The stupid circus music still plays at the loudest possible setting.

Eventually, that flat, defeated look takes over Peter’s face. He turns his head, and as stoically as possible announces, “....Run.”

Morgan cackles as she takes a head start towards the cabin. Peter gets out and slams the door shut behind him, catching up to her real quick. Tony picks up AJ with his one and only arm and rounds the back of the cabin just in time to see Peter tackle Morgan at full speed into the lake.

Some things never change. 

“I don’t want to go home in that car,” AJ whines. The clown music continues to echo in the distance.

“Don’t worry, baby,” Tony promises, pressing a quick kiss to her crown. “I’m gonna let you take the Mustang back. I wouldn’t let those knuckleheads embarrass you.”

AJ grins. “Good. ‘Cause if we borrow it, that means we get to come back real soon to give it back, right?”

Tony smiles. “You want to come back and stay? Even though you hurt your arm?”

“Yeah!” AJ cheers. “Daddy will fix the railing on the tree house so that’ll never ever happen again. It’s so fun here! I love you and Pepper and Morgan lots and lots and lots. ” She kisses his cheek. “Thanks for catching me when I fell.”

How silly of him to doubt she’d ever want to come back. He’s awesome. He’s Iron Man. He’ll break his back to catch you from a tree house.

“You’re very welcome. We love you, too.” He kisses her nose this time. “But y’know, it’s only so much fun because you’re here.”

There’s a loud gasp as Morgan comes up for air. She tries climbing into one of the canoes roped up to the dock but Peter grabs her ankle and starts tickling the bottom of her foot.

“Peter!” she shrieks, trying to kick out of his grip.

“Say Star Wars is better than Star Trek!”

“Don’t be such a dork!”

“Say it!”

“No!” 

“Fine!” and he laughs maniacally as he pulls her back into the water.

“Well,” Tony amends with a sigh. He hears vague shouting about a sea monster and a curse of a thousand years which is...ridiculous. Especially since he’s pretty sure they’re fighting over who gets to be the sea monster. “I guess those two are pretty amusing as well.”

AJ tips her head against Tony’s. Her breath smells like blueberry donuts as she laughs.

He doesn’t think he’ll ever tire of the sound.