Work Text:
Rising from the dead may be a miracle, but does nothing to save your marriage. Tony learned it the hard way. A year is too long and he had asked for too much all the years before, when Pepper endured every mission and every second he had been away with the fear he would never return.
He cannot be angry that she finally was able to free herself from him.
She still cried a lot when she sat beside him at the hospital bed after he was resurrected.
He tried to comfort her, but failed terribly – he was just a man, she was Pepper Potts – what can he do?
They talked for hours and hours, tried to fit a whole year he missed seeing his daughter into seventeen hours of talking till Pepper nearly fell asleep sitting and he had to send her away.
The next time she comes she would take Morgan with her.
But before he sees Morgan, he sees the kid.
Peter cries before he steps through the doorframe properly. He tries to talk, but Tony doesn’t understand a single word through his sobs. So, he does what a good mentor does.
“Shut up, Pete. No crying, more cuddling.”
The kid literally throws himself into his arms and they stay embraced for what feels like an eternity.
Tony presses him closer to him, even if his ribs hurt.
♦
Tony tries really hard. His daughter lived a year without him – but it’s alright. She is doing good. Her therapists praise her (of course – she has Pepper’s genes) for her progress and everything should be well. After all, she is important, she and all her worries.
Not Tony. Just Morgan.
He worries a lot. The circumstances of his resurrection stay mysterious. Not even Strange knows how he ended up being back on Titan.
It feels like he is not supposed to be alive. He fears that someday he will not wake up because the universe suddenly realises its mistake. Tony Stark does not deserve to live after all.
But there are two reasons to live for. To make his daughter smile.
And to make Peter smile.
In lab, in bed, in his dorm.
♦
They lie in his Alaskan size bed and in moments like this he sometimes asks himself if this is some weird mid-life crisis.
(He had always thought creating a suit made of iron and then pissing in it was his midlife-crisis, but he might be wrong after all.)
Maybe Peter is just a rebound because his brain cannot be without any person and its replacing Pepper.
He told him, once. Communication is key in any relationship. (Being dead is bad for communicating).
“You are my rebound for dying,” Peter answers.
Tony does not bring it up anymore. When he has these thoughts, he presses Peter against his chest till he can feel every singe bone of his rib cage.
(Tony is just not capable of accepting happiness and doubts it. Still, they live happily ever after.)