Chapter 9
“Look who came over today.” You say to Morgan as Peter walks through the door of the cabin.
“Peter!” Morgan yells as she runs over to hug your boyfriend. “Are you going to play with me?”
“Sure Mo. We can play. What were you thinking?” Peter asks as he scoops up your sister.
“Hmmmm.” Morgan draws out the sound as she thinks about it. “Can we play Avengers?” Peter looks over at you, trying to figure out how much the five year old in his arms knows about him.
“You want to play with your action figures?” You ask, clarifying for Peter. Morgan nods her head. “Do you want to show Peter where they are?” Morgan nods again as she tries to climb down from Peter’s hold. He sets her on the ground before watching where she scampers off to. You offer him a hand to hold as you walk towards Morgan’s playroom.
“She has Avengers action figures?”
“They’re one of her favorite toys. She loves playing with them.”
“I’m surprised your dad didn’t outlaw them.”
You shrug. “Dad is fine with her being around them as long as she stays farther away from the real thing.” You add, “With the exception of a couple of them,” looking towards a certain masked hero. He relaxes upon hearing that. You place a quick kiss on his cheek. “He’s not going to kick Spider-Man from our house. He knows I would hate that.”
“He would never do something you would hate.” Peter agrees.
“That’s false.” Peter looks at you, confusion evident in his eyes. “He makes me drink green juice every morning. Sometimes twice a day.”
“That’s ‘cause it’s good for you kiddo.” Your dad’s voice comes from behind you. “Hey Pete. Didn’t hear you come in.”
“Y/N let me in.”
“Should have guessed. Where are you off to?” He raises an eyebrow as he asks.
“Morgan wants to play Avengers. So Peter is going to show her how it’s done.”
Morgan’s head pops out of the door leading to her playroom. “Daddy come play.”
“Would love to, but I have to look over some boring work stuff.” Morgan pouts. “Maybe in a little bit ok? Right now you have Y/N and Pete to play with.” He ruffles Morgan’s hair.
“Or you could play now and do the boring stuff later.” Morgan says with a Tony smirk. “Playing is more fun.”
“No can do Morguna. Mommy said I have to do this stuff now. Even if playing is more fun, I have to be an adult right now, as much as I’d rather play with you.” Morgan’s face turns into a pout at your dad saying no to playing right now. So you step into your big sister role.
“Come on Momo. We have playing to do while Dad does boring stuff. Plus, it means he has no say in what happens to Iron Man while we play. Plus we get to play with Peter and he doesn’t.” Your voice drops to a stage whisper as you scoop up your sister. “He’s going to be so jealous.”
“Man so jealous.” Your dad agrees and Morgan lets out a giggle as she lays her head on your shoulder.
“Well then you have to get work done so you can come play with Petey.” Morgan says, her tone mimicking your dad and you can’t help but smirk at that. Peter lets out a laugh which makes Morgan turn to look at him with a look that you can only call the Pepper disbelief look.
“Sorry Morgs. You’re just too right. Tony has to get his work done.”
“Why’d you laugh though?” Her eyebrows stay pulled down.
“You reminded me of your Mom. The laugh just slipped out before I could stop it.” Morgan looks over at Peter for a moment, but then decides she believes him and her face relaxes back into her normal smiling face.
“Avengers now?” she asks.
“Avengers now.” You agree, turning to walk into the big playroom. Part of you, seeing how Morgan is being raised, can only imagine what it would have been like to be raised as Tony’s kid your whole life instead of being raised by your Nana and Pops. Morgan will never want for anything. She won’t know what it’s like to not buy something because you need the money for Christmas presents in six months or to tell your friends you can’t go on a trip with school because you have to use the money for insulin instead. Insulin. Your blood runs cold. Will Morgan become a T1D too? She’s past the age you got diagnosed, but that doesn’t mean she can’t be. Peter notices your face looking zoned out.
“Babe?” He calls to you, catching your attention. You give just a little smile to him. His eyes are searching yours, trying to figure out where you went, but you’re revealing nothing. You shake your head, trying to tell him that this isn’t the time to talk about it.
“Later,” you whisper, knowing he’ll hear it, but Morgan probably won’t. He nods slowly.
“Is Petey your boyfriend?” Morgan asks, not looking up at you from where she sits on the floor, pulling out her Avengers action figures. She has literally every action figure, even ones that were specially made, like when Aunt Nat changed her hair at different times or a Loki figure that wasn’t made for the public because of Thor’s stories of how he sacrificed himself to try and kill Thanos.
“Would you like it if Petey is my boyfriend?” Morgan stops pulling the toys from the plastic container they live in to think about this.
“If he’s your boyfriend, does that mean he’ll come over to play more?”
“Yeah, among other things.” You hope this answer will satisfy her.
“Then yes.” Morgan says as her head nods.
“Well that’s good because he is my boyfriend.”
“Good, then he should come over to play more.”
“Well sometimes he comes over to help me with homework or to watch movies remember?”
“Yeah, but I don’t get to play with him when he does those things because that’s at night and Mommy makes me go to bed. I want Petey to come over to play with me.” Morgan points at herself as she emphasizes the part of the sentence she finds the most important.
“What if I make time to come over just to play Mo? Would that be better?” She nods her head without having to think about it.
“You can come over and play or watch movies or play with Gerald or Finn!” Morgan says, her voice filling with excitement. Almost as if he heard his name, Finn’s nose pushes the door of the playroom open and he walks in to curl up on the floor next to you, his head resting in your lap. You reach down to scratch behind his ears, watching as his tail starts to wag slowly at this.
“Hi buddy.” You say softly. Peter smiles at the sight of you and your dog before turning back to Morgan.
“I think all of those sound like good ideas, Morgs.” He looks over all the Avenger figures she’s picked out so far. “Maybe I can come over on some Saturdays to play.”
“Yay!” She turns the bin over to dump out the rest of the Avengers. She hands Peter Iron Man and Spider-Man. “You can be Daddy’s favorites.”
“These are your dad’s favorites?” Peter asks slightly shocked but Morgan just nods.
“He says he gets to be Iron Man and Spider-Man everytime. Which isn’t fair because you’re supposed to share. But he’s Iron Man so I let him be him. I don’t know why he likes to play as Spider-Man so much. But he wants to play as Spider-Man so I let him.” She goes to dig through the toys and pulls out the five Aunt Nat dolls she has and hands them to you. “You get to be Black Widow because she’s your favorite.” You can’t help but smile at how well your sister knows you.
You still miss your aunt a lot. With how many scientists you know there should have been a way to bring her back. To stop yourself from crying in front of your little sister, you push the thought from your mind and instead decide which Black Widow to play as. You know the longer red hair is from when she started working at SHIELD from what your dad told you, the more bob like cut is from the start of the Avengers, the shoulder length hair is from when you met her, the blonde bob your almost shocked there’s a doll of since she was in hiding with that look, and the last one you didn’t ever see her like that but it must have been right before she… Her hair is red with bleached tips and it looks awesome. You wish you had seen it like that. You wish you had seen her again. Peter tries to catch your eyes as you stare at the dolls sitting in front of you, but he can’t. So instead he distracts Morgan while you’re in your head. He knows how much Natasha meant to you before everything. So her being gone hurts you. But after a few minutes you pick the doll with red shoulder length straight hair and place the other dolls to the side. “Who else am I playing as today MoMo?”
“You can be Uncle Clint because where would Aunt Nat be without her best friend?” Morgan hands the archer to you. She splits up other Avengers between the three of you and then you all start playing.
“We should play a prank on Iron Man.” Bucky (Peter) says to Falcon (also Peter).
“The Avengers don’t play pranks on each other.” Morgan says, placing her hands on her hips, dropping Captain America and Thor back on the floor.
“The Avengers play pranks all the time.” Peter says. “Bucky and Falcon are the biggest pranksters of the group.”
“How would you know?” Morgan cocks her head to the side.
“Because Peter interns for Dad, remember?”
“What kind of pranks did they pull?” Morgan asks, suddenly interested in what pranks might have been pulled.
“All kinds of pranks. They would put buckets of water over doorways. They would change the times on clocks, or change different things around to f- mess with people. But mostly the pranks were on Steve or your dad.”
“Can we play a prank on Daddy?” Morgan asks with wide eyes.
“Uh, what did you have in mind?” Peter asks, trying to see if you’d step in and stop them. But you’re waiting to see what your boyfriend and sister do.
“Can we tell him I’m a superhero?” His heart might actually stop.
“What would your super powers be?” You ask, not able to stop the words from leaving your mouth.
“I think I can help with that.” Peter says before reaching for his backpack that he dropped over on the floor when he had started playing with you and Morgan. He pulls a couple of black inserts out of his bag.
“What are those?” You ask, more worried for your sister.
“Shuri and I made them when she came to visit last. They basically mimic… Spider-Man’s ability to walk on walls and ceilings. But all they are are inserts. You put them in your shoes. They’re totally safe to use. Shuri tested them herself.”
“And you have them to…” You ask.
“I was going to show them to your dad. So that he could see the tech that Shuri and I made.” Peter shrugs. “I thought he would like them, but using them for a prank, well that seems intriguing.”
“Can I use them? Please, please, please!” Morgan begs. You’re hesitant. This is your little sister. If she gets hurt, you’ll be in trouble for letting her use them, but also you’ll feel bad for saying yes.
“Let me try them first.” You finally say, not wanting to just blindly allow your five year old sister use them without having someone else test them first and the only people who can test them are you and Peter- who is out of the question since he will stick to the wall no matter what. So that leaves you testing it out. With your fear of heights, you’re not thrilled about it, but your fear of your sister getting hurt is stronger than that. Peter looks at you with what appears to be fear in his eyes. “What Parker? Not trusting your invention?”
“I’m just shocked you’re willing to climb walls when you hate heights.”
“Well you’re willing to let my little sister use them without someone else trying them first?”
“Technically Shuri used them already.” You raise an eyebrow at him. “But if you want to try them too, I’m not going to stop you.” You kick off your converse to slip the inserts inside.
“Does it matter how far inside the shoe they go?” You ask him and he shakes his head. So you place them right under the arch of your foot before sliding your blue converse back on.
“It’s going to feel really weird the first time you climb up the wall. But just walk like normal. It will become less foreign as you keep going.” Peter says, his hands rest on your arms, a little unsure of letting you walk up the wall now. What if the invention doesn’t work like it did when he was with Shuri? What if something goes wrong and you get hurt? Tony will kill him if something happens to you. Or Morgan. Maybe this is a bad idea. But you look pretty set on this idea. And that’s probably because Morgan is set on the idea and you love making your sister happy. Even if it means having to face your fears and climb walls.
“I can do this. Climbing a wall is nothing.” You say and Peter can tell you’re trying to convince yourself.
“You don’t have to do this. We don’t have to prank your dad.”
“It will be funny if we do though. And Morgan wants to do it.” You take a deep breath and place one foot on the wall, the other resting on the floor. Peter’s hands rest on your shoulders, not wanting to risk you failing because of him. “You’re going to have to let go at sometime babe, or we’ll never know if this works.”
“I will, in a moment.” Peter says, but neither of you really believe his words. So you lift your other foot to the wall. The higher you get the less likely he can keep holding on to you and you can actually test out whether this is safe enough for Morgan. You take another couple steps and finally Peter’s arms drop from you.
“Wow.” Morgan’s word is breathless as it leaves her lips. “You look like Spider-Man.”
“I think that’s the point.” You say, focusing on walking higher, knowing your sister will want to go all the way to the ceiling. When you get to the turning point from wall to ceiling, you take a breath and then lift your foot to step onto the ceiling. How Peter does this when he’s pacing you’ll never know, but feeling your ponytail flow in the opposite direction is a weird feeling.
“Y/N is upside down!” Morgan’s voice goes a little louder. Flinn is by her, but resting his head on the ground.
“Momo, you’ve got to keep it down if you want to make sure Dad doesn’t hear you.” Morgan’s finger flies to lie in front of her mouth signalling that she gets that she needs to be quiet. You bounce a couple of times to test the strength of the hold of the inserts. They seem to be holding pretty strong. Now you just need to get back down and let Morgan try them out. You take the steps to get back down to the ground.
“My turn?” Morgan asks the moment you’re back on the ground. You kick your shoes off and pull the inserts back out.
“Sure Momo.” She’s undoing the velcro on her pink shoes and pulling them off. You slip the inserts into her shoes. “We’re going to let you test them out before we play any pranks on Dad ok? Make sure you’re comfortable using them first.” She nods her head, excited to walk on walls more than anything. Peter knows his invention works, but he’s calmer seeing you back on the ground with no injuries.
“You all good?” He can’t help but ask. His hands rest on your waist, he decides he likes you safe on the ground the best.
“I’m fine babe.” You’re helping Morgan slip her shoes on with the inserts. Without looking up at him, you walk over to the wall with Morgan. “Take it one step at a time ok Momo?”
“I’ve got this.” Her voice sounds just like Tony in that moment as she places her first foot on the wall. She climbs up the wall step by step, but much faster than you did. In mere moments, she’s on the ceiling, her hair standing on end and she’s flashing the world’s biggest smile at you. “Can we prank Daddy now?”
“Sure Momo. I’ll get him. Hold on.” You know that he is going to react to this badly so before you call for him you make one more call. “FRIDAY, can you record what’s about to happen?”
“Of course Y/N.”
“Dad! Come quick! It’s an emergency!” Tony is sitting at his data table and Pepper is on the couch. Both of them look at each other with concern in their eyes. Y/N’s voice is filled with something that they haven’t heard before and seeing as you were upstairs playing with your sister and your boyfriend, they were betting something was wrong with Morgan. Both go flying up the stairs to see what was wrong. What they weren’t expecting to see was their daughter upside down on the ceiling.
“What… what happened?” Tony asks, his voice filled with concern. He’s used to seeing Peter on the ceiling, but his little girl is perplexing him. How did she get on the ceiling and why is she not falling?
“We were playing Avengers and next thing I knew Morgan said she wanted to show us something she had figured out she could do.” Peter says. “I-I-I never expected her to do this.” His hand flies up towards the ceiling.
“Daddy, can I be an Avenger now?”
“Morgan H. Stark, how did you get on the ceiling?” Tony asks, a little harsher than he means for it.
“I climbed Daddy. My feet stuck to the walls easily.”
“Since when?”
“Like last week. I was playing with a spider outside and he bit me. After that I could do this.” Morgan’s lying skills are too good you can’t help but think to yourself.
“You’re saying a spider bit you and now you can stick to the walls?” Tony is glancing at Peter who just shrugs.
“Daddy, does this mean I can be Spider-Girl?”
“No this does not make you Spider-Girl. Right now you need to get down from the ceiling.”
“But I want to be Spider-Girl and hang out with Spider-Man.” Morgan pouts and you’re shocked at how convincing your sister is. So convinced that a laugh bubbles out of your lips. Your dad’s head spins to look at you.
“This isn’t funny. Your sister is on the fucking ceiling.” But once you start laughing you can’t stop. And once you start, Peter can’t help but join you.
“Peter made… an invention,” You get out between laughs.
“What?” Tony asks harshly.
“Morgan never got bit by anything.” Peter clarifies since he’s not laughing as hard as you. “Morg, come on down.”
“But it’s fun being up here.” Morgan whines, but does eventually come back down.
“Can you show them what I made?” He asks and Morgan unbuckles her shoes pulling out the inserts.
“What are those?” Tony demands.
“They’re inserts. They work a little like magnets, except they basically are attracted to anything really. Shuri made them with me. They basically replicate what Spider-Man does.”
“And you let my five year old use them?” Tony’s words once again come out like a demand.
“She heard about how the Avengers like to prank people and wanted to try it out.” You explain. Your dad’s hand flies up to his heart.
“You can’t do this to me. I have a bad heart.”
“You brought this upon yourself, you pranked the Avengers first.” Pepper points out.
“That’s… not entirely wrong.” Tony tries to disagree but can’t, remembering the pranks he pulled on Steve, Sam, and Bucky.
“So it seems karma got you back.” Pepper adds.
Tony scoops Morgan into his arm. “No super powers ever. Or I’ll sell all your toys.” Morgan pouts but wraps her arms around your dad’s neck.
“But you love me.”
“I love you without super powers. You don’t need them.” You roll your eyes at your dad’s antics.
“He’ll love you no matter what Momo.” She leans her head to lean on your dad’s shoulder.
“Daddy, you love me right?”
“Yes I do.”
“So can we have juice pops?”
“I guess we can with that logic.” Tony says before carrying Morgan down the stairs.
“You guys got him good.” Pepper says looking at you and Peter. “But if you do it again, you just might give him a heart attack.” She wraps an arm around you and you follow down the stairs to get a juice pop too.