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“Peter, can I ask you a question?” Morgan suddenly asked, breaking the silence that had enveloped the pair ever since Peter had picked her up from school.
Peter paused to look over at the girl and took in the apprehensive look on her face.
Every Friday, Peter got out of school early so he could pick Morgan up from school. They’d spend the entire day hanging out and usually getting ice cream before returning to the tower where Peter would spend the night.
Friday was always Morgan’s favorite day of the week. From the moment Peter would pick her up, she’d recount every moment of her entire week as they’d walk around the city. Morgan was always practically bursting in anticipation by the time Peter picked her up, and that’s why it was especially strange when she’d barely said a word to the boy at all.
“Yeah, M, of course. What’s up?” Peter asked as he picked her up and swung her in the air before placing her on his hip so he could maneuver better through the large crowd of people who always seemed to be crowding the sidewalks.
“Well, we’re doing a family tree project in school. We’re going to hang them up so everyone can see them on Monday since it’s family day. You're coming to that, right?” Morgan hesitated as she stared up at Peter. He gave her a reassuring smile in return before answering.
“Yeah, I’ll definitely be there. I wouldn’t miss it for the world. I think May is going to come too. It’ll be a lot of fun.” Peter said as he smiled down at her. “Your project sounds fun too. Do you need help with it? I can help you start when we get to the ice cream parlor, but mommy or daddy would know more than I do.”
“No, I already started it in school.”
“Okay, so you don’t need help? Then what’s up, M?”
“Well, I was doing the project by myself, but my teacher told me that it was all wrong. She said that I couldn’t add you, Aunt May, Uncle Rhodey or Uncle Happy. She said I couldn’t even add Nana or Papa either because they’re Uncle Rhodey’s parents and not actually my grandparents. Petey, are all those people really not my family?”
Peter frowned as he glanced down at the girl in his arms who looked on the verge of tears.
“Morgan, hey, look at me. Of course, they are. Yes, 100%, they’re your family, okay? Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”
“Then why would my teacher say that, Peter?”
Peter paused as he thought about how to best approach the conversation. He quickly wiped away the tears that were threatening to fall down her cheeks as he gave her his best reassuring smile.
“Well, Miss Morgoona, I think this is a conversation best had over the biggest ice cream sundae on the menu. We’ll split it. You can pick the toppings.”
Peter carried the girl inside of the ice cream parlor and ordered the extra-large chocolate sundae. As promised, he let Morgan pick out the toppings and she went overboard by choosing almost everything on the menu. The sundae quickly turned into a sickly sweet disaster, but Peter carried it over to their favorite table without complaint.
“Okay, where do I start? First off, there are two kinds of families. Ones that share DNA and ones that do not. In fact, I personally think ones that share no DNA are pretty cool myself.”
“What’s DNA?”
“It’s what decides who you are. Okay, let me show you.” Peter said as he grabbed two gummy bears off the sundae and held them up. “See their DNA is gummy bear. That means that if they got married, they’d have gummy bear kids because that’s the kind of DNA they have.”
“Now these gumballs have gumball DNA. That means they’d have baby gumballs. Are you following?”
“Yeah, I guess so.”
“Okay great. Mommy and daddy are the gummy bears and this baby gummy bear is you. But I am this gumball. I had two gumball parents so technically I don’t fit in your gummy bear family but daddy chose to include me. So while I don’t have the gummy bear DNA, I’m still part of the gummy bear family, right?”
“Yeah, because you’re my brother.”
“Precisely. Now, Uncle Rhodey, Nana and Papa would all be like sprinkles and Happy is the cherry. None of them are gummy bears, but they’re still part of your gummy bear family too, right?”
“Yes.”
“Well, Morgan, sometimes families aren’t always just all gummy bears or all gumballs. Sometimes more people are added in like how I was added to your family. Family trees don’t go by that though. They go just by the DNA. Everyone either is part gummy bear, married into the gummy bears or was adopted and has a paper saying they became a gummy bear. That’s all the family trees count.”
“So a gumball couldn’t marry a gummy bear?” Morgan asked as she grabbed a blue gumball off the sundae and popped it in her mouth.
“Well, yes, it could. That was a bad analogy. My bad. Scratch that. Basically, DNA is what makes you different from everyone else. You’re one half of your dad’s DNA and one half of your mom’s. Then mom and dad are made up of their parents. Then their parents are the same and so on. Are you following?”
“Yeah, I think so, Petey. So DNA comes from your parents?”
“Bingo. So you, for example, are one-half Stark and one-half Potts. For someone to be considered in your family tree, they have to share some part of DNA from one of those halves. Uncle Rhodey, Uncle Happy and I all do not share that DNA.”
“So you’re not technically my family?”
“Well not by DNA, no, but we’re family in everything that matters. There’s always a stocking for me on the mantle on Christmas, right? There’s always a plate set at the table, too? I was chosen to be part of your family. I’m your brother in every way that counts. It doesn’t matter if we share DNA or not.”
Morgan paused as she considered what he was saying before she slowly nodded.
“But there’s still no way I can put you in my family tree? I don’t care about DNA.”
“Not in any official way unless your parents adopt me, no.”
“Well let’s do that, Peter! Call daddy right now! We need to tell him to!” Morgan practically shouted as she tried reaching across the table to grab Peter’s phone.
“Woah, Morgan, hold on. We can’t just ask him to adopt me. That’s a very long process and lots of paperwork. It’s not something you just do on a whim.” Peter protested as he yanked his phone back out of Morgan’s grasp.
“No, it’s fine! He will agree! And mommy does a lot of paperwork every day anyway. She won’t mind some more. We have to call them now so they can get started! Besides, when we adopted Gerald from the farm, mommy and daddy filled out the paperwork for him. They’ll do it for you too, Peter. I know they will.”
“M, it’s a very different process to adopt an alpaca. I’m an actual person who is almost 18 years old. I’m almost an adult.” Peter indignantly argued.
“That’s why we need to do this today, Peter!” Morgan insisted.
“I’m not calling him, Morgan.”
“Fine, I’ll do it myself.” She shrugged as she dug into her backpack and pulled out the panic alarm Tony had specifically designed for her. She pushed in the hidden button on the side and the device instantly let out a high pitched siren noise.
“Woah, Morgan! Turn that off!” Peter yelled as he grabbed for the device and tried to shut it off.
“It only shuts off when I say the secret code, Peter. You know that. And I’m not saying it. Dad gets an alert whenever I press it and he’ll be here soon.”
“Morgan!” Peter exasperatedly yelled. “Turn it off right now!”
Peter gave an awkward smile towards the other people in the ice cream shop and offered an apology in response to their angry yelling.
“Tony! Don’t worry! We are fine! In absolutely no danger. Well, no danger other than the people in this ice cream shop are about to murder me.” Peter had to yell over the noise as he answered his phone on the first ring. He quickly grabbed the ice cream sundae in one hand and scooped Morgan up with his other. He paused a second to grab both of their backpacks and quickly bolted out of the ice cream shop and down an abandoned alleyway.
“Peter, what’s going on? Why did Morgan use the alarm? Put her on the phone so I stop worrying you two have been kidnapped and you’re trying to hide it from me.”
“Hi, daddy!” Morgan enthusiastically answered as she took the phone from Peter’s outstretched hand.
“Morgoona, thank god.” Tony let out a breath of relief at the sound of his daughter’s voice. “Are you okay? What’s the matter, sweetheart?”
“I need your help,” Morgan answered. She removed the phone from her ear at the sound of her dad’s sudden barrage of questions and instead watched as Peter used one of his taser webs to shoot her alarm and make it shut off.
“Morgan, give the phone to Peter right now, please.” Tony insisted and Morgan smirked as she handed it to the boy.
“Tony, hey.” Peter was just able to get out before Tony suddenly cut him off.
“Kid, please be honest with me. Are you two really in trouble? Why did the alarm system suddenly go offline? God, please tell me you’re okay. You know I’m an old man with heart issues. I can’t take this stress.”
“I promise we’re both fine. I had to taser the alarm because Morgan wouldn’t shut it off. We’re both really okay.” Peter assured him as he stared at the rest of the dissipating crowd who had gathered at the noise.
As soon as the last person cleared out, he quickly used his web-shooters and shot him and Morgan on top of the closest building so they could be ready for when Tony would eventually show up. Peter was sure he was already almost there.
“Pete, I’ll be there in under two minutes. You promise I’m not going to show up to you both held captive?” Tony frantically asked. Peter could hear the anxiety seeping into his voice even though he was trying to hide it from him and he sounded moments away from an anxiety attack so Peter quickly thought up an idea to reassure the man.
“I absolutely promise. Hold on, let me switch this to a video chat.” Peter promised as he quickly pressed the right button and watched as Tony’s face showed up on the screen.
As suspected, his eyes filled with relief when he saw both Peter and Morgan smiling at him. He let out a reassuring sigh before once again speaking.
“God, I’ve never been so glad to see you both. I’ll be there in a minute.”
As promised, Tony landed on the rooftop shortly after. He immediately disengaged his suit and rushed forward to pull both Peter and Morgan into his arms. Neither kid commented on how long the man hugged them for or how forcefully he planted a kiss on top of both of their heads.
When Tony finally pulled away, Peter pretended not to notice the tears that had fallen down his face or the slight shaking that was still present in his hands. He instead just gave him another reassuring smile to try and quell some of the fear that was still lingering in his eyes.
“Hey, listen, Tony. I’m really sorry for worrying you. Morgan was just being a drama queen. There was absolutely no danger, I promise. I’m also sorry about tasering her alarm. I can help you build a new one tonight. I was just sure that someone was going to stab me over it and it was attracting way too much attention to us. I know it’s good in kidnapping situations but it’s awful when you’re in a small crowded ice cream shop.”
“Kid, forget the alarm. I don’t care about that. I’m just glad you’re both okay.” Tony paused as he studied both kids and let out another sigh of relief before reaching out and gathering Morgan into his arms. “But maybe, little miss, you’d like to tell me what made you decide to trigger the alarm. Remember, we had that talk on how you should only ever use it if something's wrong and you’re in danger?”
“Yeah, I remember, but daddy.” Morgan practically pouted as she gave her dad her best puppy dog eyes. “I needed you and Peter wouldn’t call you on his phone.”
“What?” Tony asked as he stared at the boy in question and tried to figure out what was going on.
“Wait, it wasn’t like that, I swear! See Morgan and I were talking and she had this idea and insisted that I call you, but the thing is that I didn’t need to. It wasn’t something to bother you with and it wasn’t even important anyway. I didn’t think it was necessary to call you so she just set off the alarm, instead. I really would’ve just called if I knew she was going to do that! And I definitely would’ve called if it was something major!” Peter frantically began to explain before Tony raised his hand up to stop him.
“Woah, hey kid, slow down. I’m not mad at you. Come on, let’s go over here and let Morgoona explain her dire issue.” Tony said as he gently wrapped his arm around Peter’s shoulders and helped him sit down before sitting down next to him and keeping a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “Okay, little miss, one second, I have to call your mom first and let her know you’re both okay.”
Tony smiled as Peter’s eyes widened in panic and he stopped with his spoon halfway to his mouth. He watched as the ice cream dripped off the spoon and landed on the roof with a splat. He quickly stole both the spoon and the sundae from him and paused to eat some of the ice cream before explaining.
“She gets the alerts for the alarm too. But don’t worry, Pete, she isn’t going to be mad at you. I know you’re internally panicking about it. Relax, okay. She had a big meeting today, but she called me in a panic as soon as the alarm went off. It took a lot of convincing for her to not drop everything to be here and I promised to call her when I found you both. She’ll be relieved to see you’re both okay.” Tony explained as he pulled up the video chat and smiled when Pepper picked up on the first ring.
“Hey, momma, look who we have here,” Tony said as he pointed the camera towards Peter and Morgan. Morgan enthusiastically began to wave and Peter gave an awkward smile towards the camera.
“Oh, thank god! Are you both alright? No injuries?” Pepper asked as she frantically tried to check them over through the small screen.
“We’re good, mommy! We’re not hurt!” Morgan immediately answered as she grabbed the phone from Tony’s hand and pulled it closer to her until her face was the only thing filling up the screen.
“I’m so so glad, Morgan.” Pepper answered and both Tony and Peter watched as some of the anxiety left her face.
“We’ll let you get back to your meeting, Pep, but don’t worry. I have the kids and I’ll stay with them for the rest of the day. We can even swing by and pick up takeout from your favorite Italian place and have it waiting for you when you get home. We love you, honey.”
Pepper returned the sentiment and gave them one last glance before finally hanging up so she could return to her meeting.
“See, Pete, it was fine,” Tony reassured him as he gently took his phone back from Morgan and pocketed it before fixing a hardened stare at both kids. “But, now I’d like for you both to answer some of my questions. My first question is what kind of gross sundae concoction is this? Are you guys trying to kill yourselves with a sugar overload?”
Tony once again ate another spoonful of the sundae and made a face when he got a bite with both gummy bears and sour skittles.
“Morgan was in charge of the sundae today. She was having a bad day.” Peter explained as he tried to get the conversation back on the right track and off of the fact that he willingly bought the sundae that was way over Morgan’s daily sweets limit.
“Oh yeah? And what was the matter with you, missy?” Tony asked as he poked the girl’s stomach to make her laugh.
“Daddy, I want Peter to be my brother,” Morgan explained as she jumped up to stand in front of him.
“What?” Tony asked as he stared quizzically between the two kids. “Morgoona, he already is your brother. He’s the closest thing you have besides the bots.”
“But, daddy, he isn’t my brother in the way that counts. I want him to be my real brother.”
“Morgan, what are you talking about?” Tony questioned before handing the sundae off to Peter and pulling his daughter into his lap. “Peter definitely is your brother in every way that counts. He always helps you with your homework, he dresses up to have tea parties with you, he always lets you play with the best toys, and he even let you pick out all these toppings for this sundae even though you both know you’re not supposed to have this much candy. Morgan, those are the ways that count. That’s what being a big brother means.”
“But, daddy, Peter and I don’t share the same DNA.”
“And you should be thankful for that. You don’t want his weird spider DNA.” Tony joked. He smiled at Peter’s amused protests before continuing. “But, in all seriousness, little miss, sharing DNA has nothing to do with it.”
“Can’t you just adopt Peter?” Morgan asked.
“Well, sure, technically I could. Adopting someone is a big deal though, Morgoona. It’s a lot of paperwork and a long process. It’s mostly just for legal reasons anyway. That still doesn’t change the fact that Peter is already your brother now.”
“But you adopted Gerald. Why can’t you adopt Peter too? Mommy is good at paperwork. It’ll be easy.”
“Morgan, hey, what’s this all about, huh? Why are you so insistent on me adopting Peter? What’s going on?” Tony asked as he gently lifted Morgan’s chin so he could look at her face.
“Well,” Peter interjected, causing both Tony and Morgan to turn towards him. “this is kinda my fault. She’s doing a family tree project for family day at school and her teacher told her she couldn’t put me, Rhodey, or Happy on it since we’re not technically family. I tried explaining to her the concept of DNA and how people get added into family trees and all she took away from it was that you could adopt me and add me in.”
“It’s not your fault, kiddo,” Tony said, reaching over to ruffle Peter’s hair and then pull him into an awkward side hug. “Morgan’s teacher is in the wrong here. You are all absolutely part of the family. Let’s go home and we can help Morgan make her family tree the way she wants it. We’re all about weird blended families here. None of that DNA nonsense.”
“But my teacher said I couldn’t do it that way.” Morgan protested.
“Yeah, well, she can take it up with me on Monday.” Tony decided as he stood up and then reached a hand out to Peter. “Come on, let’s go home. We have work to do.”
Tony quickly led them down to where Happy was patiently waiting for them in a car. They made a quick stop at Pepper’s favorite Italian place to grab takeout before returning to the compound.
As soon as they got there, Morgan gathered her best crayons and they set to work on creating the project. Morgan drew a tree that Peter helped color in while Tony printed off small pictures of everyone that they wanted to add. He carefully glued them all on in their proper spots before allowing Morgan to label them with everyone’s names and how they fit in the family.
By the time they were done, the paper was a mess of superheroes, bots, and one ancient god. Mostly everyone on the paper was affectionately referred to as “aunt” or “uncle” and it was definitely clear that the people on that paper were a chosen family rather than a biological one. Yet, that’s what gave it it’s charm. Morgan’s family wasn’t just those who were biologically related to her. Instead, it was made up of all the people who had chosen to become family over the years.
At the bottom of the tree trunk, Tony carefully wrote: “Family isn’t always those that share your DNA, sometimes it’s a mixture of superheroes and robots that you choose to love”.
When Tony, Pepper, Peter, Rhodey, Happy and May all met at Morgan’s school the following Monday for family day, they were happy to see Morgan’s family tree hung on the wall alongside everyone else’s. Though hers was a bit more unique, it still perfectly captured the people who actually were her family. Before they left, the group made sure to get a picture in front of the drawing. That picture, along with the drawing itself, was proudly framed in the entryway of the compound for years to come.