I’m rising in a sea of nothing
Morgan ran into Peter’s bedroom holding a pillow in her arms and a blanket wrapped around her shoulders. She looked at Peter with a grin. “I have an idea.”
Peter copied her grin. He thought she always had the best ideas. “What is it?” He asked, pausing as he cleaned up all his legos off the floor with his dad.
“We can have a sleepover on the trampoline!” She exclaimed and bounced over to Peter’s bed to start grabbing all his blankets.
Peter jumped to his feet. “Yeah! Just you and me! No adults.” He turned to his dad to say, pointing his finger at him.
Tony didn’t know how to feel about their little plan. “Why can’t I join you guys? That sounds like a fun idea.”
“No. It’s just a kids thing. You can’t join us, dad.” Peter pulled his comforter off his bed and dragged it onto the floor but Tony didn’t like this idea. Too many thoughts were running through his mind.
“Hold on. Wait a minute, you guys aren’t sleeping on the trampoline tonight.” Tony stood up and grabbed the comforter from Peter. “We don’t know if it’s gonna rain or be too cold out. Plus it’s dangerous.”
Peter threw himself onto his bed. “No but I want to. Just me and Morgan.”
“Yeah, dad. We’re just gonna sleep on the trampoline then when the sun comes up we’ll be awake.” Morgan explained and ran into the hallway so Peter followed her into the hallway closet. They walked in and looked for things they would possibly need. “Get some extra pillows.”
Peter climbed to the top shelf to grab the pillows, throwing them onto the floor but then there were hands on his waist, lifting him onto the floor. “Do not climb the shelf. You could fall and hurt yourself.”
Peter stomped his feet and threw his head back, about to throw a temper tantrum for not getting his way so Tony gave him a warning. “Peter. That’s not how we behave when we don’t get our way.” Peter immediately stopped and looked over at Morgan. “I’ll talk to mom and see what she says.”
With that, Tony went downstairs to talk to Pepper. He opened her office door and shut it behind him.
“I’m almost done here. I just need to cancel my meeting for tomorrow and change it to next Friday.” Pepper said.
Tony sat in the office chair. “The kids wanna sleep out on the trampoline tonight. Pete and Morgan.”
“I’ll check the weather.” Pepper pulled out her phone but Tony stopped her.
“Wait, you’re okay with this? I thought you were gonna help me say no to them.” Tony didn’t like this idea. It was too risky.
Pepper put her phone down. “What do you mean? They just wanna have some fun. Some day they’re gonna grow up, Tony, and they’re not even gonna wanna sleep together anymore or have sleepovers with each other.”
“Okay but they’re sleeping outside.” He insisted. “Peter will be sleeping outside. Anything can happen and I just… no. It’s a no. They can cry and scream all they want. They’re not sleeping outside.”
Pepper sighed and stood up to walk around her desk, sitting in front of Tony on her desk. “It’s okay. Let them. I’m scared too but we have cameras. We can even sleep out there with them.”
“They said no adults allowed.” Tony laughed, but it wasn’t funny. He was scared all for the wrong reasons.
She gave him one of her looks. He knew exactly what it meant; that he was being ridiculous but she still understood him. “Tony, Peter wants some independence. He needs to be away from us sometimes too. This will be good for them.”
Tony sighed. “How about we tell them it’s gonna rain so they can’t?”
“Tony, no.” Pepper walked behind him and leaned over his shoulders. “Let them be kids and experience things. It’ll be fun for them.” She leaned down to whisper in his ear. “Plus you and me can finally have some us time. Without Peter sleeping between us.”
He stood up now, still feeling uneasy about this idea but he did miss having sex with Pepper as often as they did but they hadn’t had the time to with Peter sleeping with them every night. He shook his head. No he wasn’t risking it. “What if something happens? Like… someone tries to take Peter? It would be the perfect opportunity for them if someone was watching us. Just hop over the fence, take him and we’d never see him again.”
Pepper looked down. She didn’t want to think about that. “No. It’s not going to happen.”
They stared at each other in silence before Tony spoke. “I’ll ask Harley to sleep out there with them.”
“Good idea. Did they go outside?”
“No, I left them upstairs in the closet.” The two parents made their way upstairs but they weren’t in the closet where Tony had left them. “Maybe they went outside.” He was about to walk down the stairs but he heard Peter giggling so he followed the sound into Morgan’s bedroom, finding the two of them grabbing her blankets. “What’re you guys doing?”
Peter turned to face him. “Getting blankets.”
“Well, your mother and I talked about it and we don’t want you sleeping out there by yourself so if you can convince Harley to join you, then you guys can sleep on the trampoline tonight.” Tony watched their faces go from disappointed to excited in the span of a few seconds.
They both ran into Harley’s room and jumped onto his bed. Peter climbed onto him and straddled his hips, grabbing his face. “Sleep on the trampoline with me and Morgan.”
Harley recovered from the sudden attack. “Woah, what?”
“They wanna sleep on the trampoline tonight but I’m only letting them if you do too. No pressure.” Tony sat on his bed, feeling a bit bad for his oldest because Peter was squishing him.
Harley sat up and easily pinned Peter onto the bed, pinning his arms above his head. “I guess I have to then.” Harley said, poking Peter in the chest.
That caused Peter to move and squirm away from him, trying to scream at Harley but he was laughing too hard so Harley stopped and looked at his parents. “Are you guys coming too or just us?”
“Just you guys.” Tony still wasn’t okay with this, he considered pulling out a lawn chair and watching them the whole night but he didn’t know yet.
“Yay!” Morgan jumped off the bed and ran out of Harley’s room with Peter chasing after her right away.
“Just watch them. Especially Peter.” Tony warned. He knew Harley knew that but he still felt the need to say it.
“I know, dad.” Harley got off the bed and opened his dresser drawer to grab pyjamas out of it. “If you guys aren’t gonna be there, how will Peter fall asleep?”
Tony had no idea. He patted Harley’s shoulder. “I guess we’ll see.”
He left the room to go find his other kids but they were already bringing the blankets outside onto the trampoline with Pepper. He followed them out and looked around, not liking this idea at all but he wasn’t going to admit that to the kids. “You gotta make it super cozy.”
Peter climbed through the net and pulled all the blankets on. He jumped a bit, landing face first into the blankets. “We should hang the blankets on the net so it’s like a fort.”
“Yeah!” Morgan climbed on after Peter and started attempting to hang the blankets up but they couldn’t reach the top. “Dad! Help us! Please.”
Tony went to climb onto the trampoline to help but Peter threw himself onto the trampoline and kicked his legs out, whining. “Noooo! No no no no! I don’t want you to help us! Noooo.”
Tony looked back at Pepper, sitting on the edge. It wasn’t very often Peter refused help from them and although he was basically throwing a temper tantrum instead of saying no, Tony was proud. Peter wanted to do something by himself.
“Okay.” He hopped back off. “You guys do it by yourself then. I’m gonna go get more blankets.”
Peter watched his dad walk away. He continued to lay on the trampoline and watch him walk into the house but then Morgan was tossing a blanket on him which made him feel a lot better. “Let’s bounce and make the blankets stay up.”
They tried and failed to get the blankets to stay up but they had fun doing it anyways. Harley walked out just in time with a pile of sheets in his hands. “We’ll hang the sheets up since it’s lighter. Trust me. It’ll be easier.”
Peter sat back and watched Harley hang the first sheet but then he looked over at Morgan and kicked her in the bum.
“Hey! That hurt, Petey.” Morgan turned around to give Peter a dirty look.
Peter grinned. “Are you going to kick me back?”
Morgan ran at Peter and kicked him in the arm so Peter pushed her down so they could play fight. He loved fighting with Harley the most but recently Harley hadn’t been playing fairly so he fought with Morgan.
“Guys, stop. You’re gonna ruin all my hard work.” Harley complained but they didn’t stop so he grabbed Peter by his arm and leg and tossed him. He was scared he was too rough but then Peter was pushing himself up and laughing so hard he couldn’t catch his breath.
“Then you fight me.” Peter stood up and raised his hands into a ready stance, wanting so badly for Harley to fight him like old times.
Harley debated it but he didn’t want to hurt Peter. “No. We have to build our tent so we can actually sleep.”
Peter wasn’t going to let Harley not fight him. “Oh, Harley’s a little baby. He’s too scared to fight me cause he’s scared he’s gonna lose.” Peter teased, seeing the look Harley gave him so he continued. “C’mon, little baby, let’s fight. Unless of course you don’t have any balls to fight me.”
Harley dropped the edge of the sheet and stepped towards Peter. “Alright,” He got into a fighting stance like Peter. “Let’s fight then. Morgan decides who wins.”
Peter bounced on his toes. He was so excited. He charged at Harley and took a swing for his face but Harley blocked him with one hand and kicked his legs out, causing Peter to land on his hands and knees.
Peter was quick to jump back up and punched Harley’s arm then grabbed onto his hand and swung from it. He turned his body so he could flip Harley over and then straddled his hips but Harley flipped him back into his stomach.
Harley stood up, lifting Peter up and throwing him over his shoulder.
“Ahhhhhh!” Peter screamed, laughing as he was thrown upside down over Harley’s shoulder.
Tony and Pepper watched them play fighting from inside the house. He was so happy to see them playing together like that again, knowing it was a huge step up for both Peter and Harley in the recovering process. Tony knew it was hard for Harley to do this with Peter, scared that he was going to hurt his little brother.
When they decided to go outside, Peter was kicking Harley’s legs out and jumped up, cheering in his victory. “I win! I win! You’re the loser!” He stuck his tongue out at Harley for good measure.
“Looks like you three are having fun out here.” Tony observed, climbing onto the mats to sit. “Can I come in to say goodnight to my kids?” He asked Peter specifically.
“Yeah, but our bed got ruined.” He looked around the trampoline, sighing a bit at the mess of blankets and pillows.
“I’ll help you guys.” Tony climbed in and picked up a sheet to hang it over the net. The plan was to hang all the sheets up so they’re covered from the outside and then lay all the blankets on the actual trampoline so they could sleep comfortably.
Peter tried to reach the top but he couldn’t so Tony picked him up and held him with one hand so he could reach. “There you go. Try this end.” Instructed Tony.
Once they were done, their trampoline fort was looking extremely comfortable. Although Tony still couldn’t shake the nerves of having Peter sleep out there at night, even if he was with his two siblings. “Okay guys, give me hugs and kisses.”
Peter was the first one to throw himself into his dad’s arms and press a big kiss to his face. “Are you gonna go sleep with mom?”
“Yep. In our bed. That’s where we’re going right now.” Tony kissed Peter back and had to only hug Morgan with one arm since Peter didn’t want to let him go. “I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”
“But… okay.” Peter sighed and reluctantly pulled away from his dad. He was starting to feel super unsure about sleeping without his parents.
Tony could read Peter like a book, he knew what Peter was going to say before he even said it. For the most part. So he knew Peter was having second thoughts about this and Tony would support him either way but he sometimes forgot that Pepper knew Peter almost as much as he did.
She pulled Tony by the hand. “Let’s go. Leave the kids to their sleepover.”
Tony didn’t want to leave but he did anyways. “Alright. I love you all. I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”
“Bye!” Peter yelled, waving bye to Tony.
Peter watched his parents leave. He had his siblings on either side of him but he still felt alone. With a sigh, he laid down, moving Morgan over so he could sleep in between them.
“Are you tired, Pete?” Harley asked him, lying down himself.
Peter looked back towards the entrance of the tent. He wanted his bottle even if he was sleeping on the trampoline tonight. He still wanted it so he crawled over to leave. “I’ll be right back. I need my milk.” He slid off the trampoline and ran back towards the house, opening the back door and finding his parents standing there.
He knew he interrupted them since they stopped mid conversation to stare at him. He looked towards the fridge. “You forgot my milk.”
Tony didn’t forget. He walked into the kitchen and grabbed the bottle from the cabinet. “Remember, milk in a glass.”
“What if I spill?” Peter asked, watching his dad fill the bottle up with water and then grab milk from the fridge.
“Then you should drink the milk here and take the water onto the trampoline.” Pepper suggested but Peter shook his head.
“No, I’ll drink it all once I get on the trampoline so I don’t spill it.” Peter hugged both of his parents one last time before he grabbed both items and walked back outside.
He grinned on his walk back, getting an idea. He made sure no one was watching him then he dumped the water out of the bottle and poured the milk in, closing the lid and happily climbing onto the trampoline. “I’m back.”
“We were just talking about that one time we went snowboarding.” Harley said, still laughing from their conversation.
Peter crawled between them and took a few sips of his milk then rolled closer to Morgan. “Was it about that time I fell on my face?”
Morgan started laughing again. “Which time? You fell on your face like a million times.”
Peter sat up on his knees. “I was the only one who was brave enough to jump off the ramp though. You guys were too scared.”
That was true, Peter cried for a full hour that day since he didn’t like the feeling of all the snow gear on him, not liking the fact that he couldn’t move but once Tony got him on the board and got him to calm down, he loved it and didn’t want to give up until he made it down the hill without falling on his face.
“That was a fun day.” Harley reminisced. He would never forget the smile on Peter’s face when he landed the jump. Then he did it a second time and landed on his face and started crying so they called it quits for the day. It was one of his favourite family vacations. Probably because they went up to Colorado for four days just to ski and then straight from there they got on a plane and went to Bali for the second time.
“You know what I hope we do again though?” Harley asked.
“What?” Both Peter and Morgan said at the same time.
“I hope we go back to Bali.” He admitted. “Those were the best summers.”
Peter chewed on the nipple of his bottle as he spoke. “Yeah, I remember when dad taught us how to surf.”
“Petey, remember our room?” Peter turned to Morgan, how could he forget it. They shared a room together and then when they got home, they begged their parents to share a room at home too but they said no.
Peter laid back down and twirled his hair while he drank his milk, feeling incredibly content. “I remember.” He turned to lie on his stomach next and yawned. “Maybe… we'll go back soon. Maybe this summer.”
He closed his eyes and tried to think about that. He would love to go back to the house they stayed in for those months. It led out straight to the ocean. Peter remembered waking up and running straight into the ocean, sometimes not even bothering to change into his bathing suit.
It was some of the best memories he had. He wished they could go back soon but maybe things were too different now.
Peter turned to face Harley and drank his milk, staring at him for a few minutes. He put his milk down and stuck his thumb in his mouth until his eyes drifted shut.
The next time Peter woke up, he looked around and saw that both Harley and Morgan were asleep. He didn’t like to be the only one awake but he didn’t know how to put himself back to sleep anymore.
He sat up and leaned down to watch Morgan sleep for a few seconds, debating if he should wake her up to play a bit until he fell back asleep but he didn’t want to do that so he turned over to do the same thing to Harley but this time, Harley was waking up.
“Wha-what’re you doin’?” Harley rubbed at his eyes, a bit delirious.
“I was wondering if you wanted to do something fun.” Peter leaned closer to Harley’s face, opening his eyes further.
Harley pushed Peter’s hands away from him. “No. It’s… late.”
Peter sighed. “Then what am I supposed to do?”
“Are you serious? It’s the middle of the night.”
Peter stood up and started jumping but he woke Morgan up in the process so he jumped onto his knees next to her and pushed her over. “What’re you doing?” He asked her.
“I’m sleeping. Why are you awake?” Morgan sat up and rubbed at her eyes.
“I wanna jump.” Peter grinned but Harley was pulling Peter’s legs and pushing him so he was lying down. “Hey- oh.” He took his bottle that Harley handed to him, happy that it was still half filled. “Yummy. For my tummy.”
“Go back to sleep. Why are you even awake.” Harley laid down, exhausted. He had no idea how his parents did this every night. Now he understood why his dad was so tired all the time.
Once Peter drank a bit, it calmed him down enough to fall back asleep and that’s how he stayed until the sun started to rise just after five in the morning.
.
.
.
Tony woke up early.
He didn’t sleep very well without Peter between him and Pepper. It was surprising since he also didn’t get a lot of sleep with Peter kicking him or rolling on top of him or waking him up in the middle of the night for no reason.
He got dressed and ready for the day then immediately went out to the trampoline to go check on his kids and do a headcount. He knew they were all there, he just couldn’t stop that paranoia he was feeling. All the time.
Tony opened up the blankets by the entrance and seeked out Peter first. He was sleeping, taking up almost the whole bedding area. Both of his other kids were still sleeping as well so Tony took a few pictures of them and went to head back inside but Peter was sitting up.
Peter took his thumb out of his mouth and looked over at his dad, breaking out into a smile.
“Good morning.” Tony whispered, chuckling at Peter’s extreme bed head. “Did you sleep good?”
“Yeah, and I stayed out all night.” Peter was proud of himself for it. He kicked the blankets off and grabbed his bottle then crawled towards his dad.
“Shhh. Your brother and sister are still sleeping.” Tony took Peter into his arms to carry him into the house. They were the only ones awake and it looked like they would be for the next few hours considering how early it was in the morning.
Out of habit, Peter stuck the bottle in his mouth and that’s when Tony saw the milk in there. He pointed at it. “What’s this?”
Peter realized he just gave himself up. He laid his head on his dad’s shoulder. “Oh. Milk.”
“Yeah? How did it get in there?” Tony didn’t want Peter to think he was in trouble because he wasn’t. He just wanted an honest answer from him.
“I put it in there.” Peter wrapped his arm around his dad’s neck. “I wanted to and-and you or mom weren’t there to say no and Morgan let’s me.”
“Does Harley let you?”
Peter nodded. “Yeah. He likes it when I do.”
Tony knew that wasn’t true. He placed Peter on his feet once they got inside. He debated taking Peter upstairs so he could get dressed for the day but there was no point since it was barely 5am. Way too early to be up but by looking at Peter, Tony knew he wasn’t going to go back to sleep.
“Are we gonna do something just me and you?” Peter asked, following his dad into the kitchen to watch him make a coffee.
“Yeah. What do you wanna do?” Tony loved spending one on one time with Peter. Although he’s lucky enough to get it often, it was still never enough.
He missed out on seven years of Peter’s life that he will sadly never get back.
Peter thought about it. He wanted to do something fun but he didn’t know what. “Maybe we can build my legos in my room? Do you want to?”
“I want to do anything with you, buddy. Let me just pour my coffee and then we’ll go up.” Tony grabbed the milk out of the fridge and saw the way Peter’s eyes lit up. “How bout you go pee first. You haven’t gone since last night.” He held his hand out for the bottle. “Can I have that first? You don’t need it now.”
Peter’s eyes widened as if he was just realizing he had to pee but he didn’t want to give up his bottle. He drank the last few sips and reluctantly handed it to his dad. “Oh yeah! I’ll go down here so we can walk up together. Wait for me!”
Tony fondly rolled his eyes then rinsed the bottle, leaving it in the sink for either him or Pepper to wash it later. He then grabbed his coffee and waited by the bathroom door for Peter. He was used to waking up early from when Peter was a baby but also from when Peter wasn’t sleeping before he was kidnapped. He assumed they were going to go back to that soon.
He wanted to avoid that for as long as possible though.
Peter pulled him upstairs and into his bedroom, shutting the door behind them so he had his dad all to himself.
“Sit.” Instructed Peter. “Let’s build legos.”
Tony did as he was told, enjoying his time with Peter even though it was barely 6am in the morning. That was the life of kids, waking up early to do things you never expected to do at that hour. Ever.
They were building in silence, Peter looking over at what his dad was building and then scooted closer to him. “Wait, can I see that?” He dragged the model closer to himself. “What’re you building though?”
Tony had no idea. He was just building. “I’m not sure yet. I’ll find out along the way.”
Peter pushed it back over to his dad and crawled over to sit next to him. “I’ll help you. Otherwise it’ll turn out so ugly.”
Tony chuckled. He appreciated Peter’s honesty. “Okay then, you help me.”
Back outside, Harley started to wake up from the sun coming in and the birds loudly chirping in the garden. He rubbed at his eyes and looked over to see if Peter and Morgan were still sleeping but he didn’t see Peter and his heart dropped.
He moved the blankets around aggressively, thinking Peter was somehow stuck under them but he wasn’t anywhere. “Morgan, wake up. Where’s Peter? He’s not here.”
Morgan sat up and looked around too, freaking out. “He’s gone! Peter’s gone!”
Harley jumped out of the trampoline to go wake up his parents or call the police or something. He ran inside in a frenzy and raced upstairs to barge into his parent’s bedroom but then he heard voices coming from Peter’s room so he pushed the door open and visibly sighed in relief at seeing his little brother with their dad.
“Morning, Harls. Did the little ones keep you up?” Tony asked but Harley was clearly in some turmoil. “What’s wrong?”
“You just gave me a heart attack. I woke up and Peter wasn’t there and I thought… I thought he was taken again.” Harley explained then collapsed on the bed. “Don’t do that to me again.”
Peter was completely oblivious, still wanting all of his dad’s attention on him.
“He’s fine. Sorry, Harls, he woke up so I took him in. I should have left a note or something.” Tony felt bad. He knew how on edge their family was most of the time, even if they didn’t realize it.
“It’s okay.” Harley stood up, going to go get dressed but he turned back around. “I don’t know how you and mom do it with him every night, he’s too crazy.”
Peter grinned. “I’m not.”
Tony playfully pushed him. “Yes you are. You’re a wild child.”
Morgan ran into the bedroom and hugged Peter but Peter pushed her off. “Nooo, get off.”
“What? I’m just happy you’re not kidnapped.” Said Morgan but Peter didn’t like that so he pushed her harder.
“Peter, stop. Be careful.” Tony had to grab Peter and pull him to his other side to separate the two of them.
Morgan stood up. “Fine. I’m gonna get dressed.”
“I’m not getting dressed today at all.” Peter said as he continued to build. “I’m gonna stay in my pyjamas all day.”
Morgan hesitated then. “Me too.”
“No, you can’t because I already said I am.” Peter pushed her again but looked over at his dad to see if he saw. He quickly crawled towards the door and stood up to run into his parents room.
Peter jumped onto their bed, giggling like crazy and then jumped on top of his mom.
“Peter.” Pepper moaned, not expecting anyone to jump on her at such an early hour. “What is it? Let me sleep.”
“Morgan’s chasing me! Ahhhh!” He screamed as Morgan ran into the bedroom.
Tony followed both of them in. He grabbed Morgan’s hand to lead her back outside the bedroom then grabbed Peter’s ankles to pull him off the bed. “Shh. Let mom sleep. Come here.”
He carried Peter out into the hallway and placed him on his feet. “You guys be good for me until mom wakes up. I don’t wanna be outnumbered.” He told Morgan and Peter.
Of course, they weren’t good for Tony and he had a really busy morning with them.