It was evening at the Tower, it had passed just a few weeks after Ironman sacrifised himself for the entire world, everyone had cried a lot, the avengers and people from all over the world but for the Stark family the blow had been the hardest, Pepper was still holding up on the last thread for the sake of their kids, but after losing his older son for five years and then when everything looked brighter see how his husband saved the world and died in her arms she still found herself alone in her room crying to sleep, she had saw her son Peter crying over his dad body on that batterfield begging him to not go, she held him and both cried, then nothing, after that he was stoic, trying to be strong for his Mom and Morgan who keep asking when her father was gonna come back until Pepper explained what happened and held her while she cried saying that she wanted her daddy back... The funeral was both beautiful and hard, everyone was there, even Harley came, all of them sharing their feelings all of them grieving for Tony, It was then when Peter allowed himself to look shaken up, his uncle Rhodey supporting him while his mom dumped his father's ashes into the lake and let his old reactor float away, the inscriptions proof that Tony Stark has a heart, visible under the sunlight, but even with that he didn't cry.
"It'll be okay kid" Rodhey said.
"I know uncle Rod..." he said.
It was later that night Pepper made everyone stay in the tower for a few days, all of them new the family needed their space to grieve, and they didn't have any place to go since the compund was destroyed and still half in construction so they accepted and went there, Peter was on his room sitting on his bed tear tracks on his face when Morgan entered his room...
"Mo..." he said. "Shouldn't you be asleep?..."
"I don't wanna..." She said. "I wanted a bedtime story but Mommy was tired so I pretended to be asleep... can you read me to sleep?"
"I guess..." he said cleaning up his face.
"Are you crying?" she asked.
"Eh... no..." he said. "I was cleaning and I got dust on my eye."
"You miss daddy don't you?" she said holding his hand. "I miss him too..."
Peter did his best to not burst into tears right there, instead he got up and opened his wardrobe getting out a small box from it, he opened and got a small book from inside it was a bit old and used but beautiful anyway, the book was pink with little bees and had a little girl with a pink dress on the center she was sitting on her high chair...
"What's that Petey?" she asked.
"It's a collection of Poems... dad used to read this book to me when I was tiny like you" Peter said smiling sadly. "Everytime I woke up from a nightmare or feel sick or sad"
"Can you read it to me?" She asked.
"Yeah...Come on..." He said patting the empty spot on his bed.
Morgan crawled to bed and curled up to his side, Peter cover her up with his blanket and layed down next to her opening his book at a random page, the bookmark was at a Poem named Spring Morning...
Where am I going? I don't know... Down to the stream where the kings cup grow...
Up on the hill where the pines trees blow...
Anywhere, anywhere I don't know.
Where am I going? the clouds sail by
Little ones, baby ones, over the sky
Where am I going? the shadow pass
Little ones, baby ones, over the grass...
Peter eyes became filled with tears, the momeries of his father reading to him coming back however he kept reading to his little sister as she was enjoying the reading and seemed ready to fall asleep besides now that his dad was gone Morgan was gonna need him more than anything, Pepper quietly watched them from the hall her eyes wet with tears at the sight of her two kids giving comfort to each other, she had gone to check on Morgan and panicked when she saw her baby girl wasn't on her room, then she heard Peter voice and recognized the Poem as one of the many Tony used read to Peter when he was just a baby, Tony always loved Poetry and made sure Peter apreciated it...
If you were a cloud, and sailed up there
You'd sail on water as blue as air
And you'd see me here in the fields and say
Doesn't the sky looks green today?
Where am I going? The high rooks call
It's awful fun to be born at all
Where I am going? The ring doves coo
We do have beautiful things to do
If you were a bird and lived on high
You'd lean on the wind when the wind came by
You'd say to the wind when it took you away
That's where I wanted to do today
Peter closed the book and kissed Morgan forehead before getting up and going to the kitchen, he was still afraid of sleep, the nightmares keep coming almost everynight, some days of himself turning to dust other more recent about his father dying, but what hurted him the most was that his father wasn't there to comfort him like any other times when Tony and Pepper stayed by his side until he feel asleep, this time it was just his mom and he felt like he couldn't ask her for comfort when she was hurting as much as him...the boy planned to make some hot choco for himself when he saw his mother sitting on the island nursing a cup of hot choco, she looked like she hadn't get any sleep either with dark circles under her eyes, her blonde hair that ofter was in a bun or a ponytail was falling on her face...
"Hey Mom..." he said sitting close.
"Couldn't sleep?" she asked softly.
"Yeah..." he said.
"Here..." she said giving him a cup of hot choco.
"Thanks" he said takig slow sips.
"I saw you reading to your sister" Pepper said. "Like Tony used to read to you..."
Peter just nodded but the tense and hurt look on his face said it all.
"I'm sorry you had to do that..." Pepper said. "I was tired I guess..."
"It's okay Mom... I'm fine" he said his voice wavering...
"I know your hurting darling" she said putting a hand on his back. "And I know you're trying to be strong for Morgan and me but don't you think that's a lot of work just for you?"
Peter shook his head, tears coming each one after another...
"You don't have to suffer alone..." she said. "Your father is gone but you still got me Peter..."
"This is unfair Mom..." Peter said his voice thick with tears. "This is really unfair..."
Pepper opened her arms for Peter and he crashed on them bursting in tears, hard sobs making their way out of him, both falling to the floor on their knees, the realization that his father wasn't coming back with some sort of miracle finally hitting him as he let himself grieve and cry for his dad, his mom whispering sweet nothings to his ear as she rocked him back and forth, he was just sixteen, a boy, her baby boy, he wasn't supposed to get biten by a radioactive spider, to go space and die, to come back to see his father die right in front of him... but life was unfair and people often have to learn to live with that..
"Shhh... honey..." Pepper said. "Mom is here... and I will take care of you... your dad will too...from the sky It'll be fine..."
"It...doesn't feel...like it..." Peter said between sobs.
"I know but it will..." she said giving him a kiss on his forehead. "We're Starks and we're strong and brave like your father are we?..."
"Yeah..." Peter said now just hiccuping. "Spiderman will protect you and Morgan...I promise Mom..."
"Aw... my baby" She said hugging him tightly. "I know you will... now how about we go to your room and sleep together uh? You, Morgan and me how that's sounds?"
"Sounds good..." he said getting up and helping his mom get up.