The other half of me
“This piece goes there.” Morgan told Peter but Peter pulled the piece of wood away from her.
“No. I do it.” Peter tried to put the piece in the wrong spot and Tony knew it was but he didn’t say anything because he wanted Peter to figure it out for himself but Morgan was taking control.
“It doesn’t go there, Peter. It doesn’t fit.” Morgan grabbed the wood from Peter and had him falling back then he started crying and crawled over to Tony.
Tony pulled Peter onto his lap and rubbed his back while he looked at Morgan who was now putting the piece in the right place. “Morgan, that wasn’t very nice. You could have helped Peter instead of taking it from him.”
“He was too slow. I’m just trying to build it by myself and he’s getting in the way.” Morgan said then grabbed the screwdriver and started screwing the piece into place.
If there was one thing that Morgan got from him it was his stubbornness once he started a project. Both of them didn’t want anyone to help out or bug them until it was done.
“Morgan, put the screwdriver down and say sorry to Peter.” Tony shifted Peter on his lap so he was facing Morgan.
“Fine.” Morgan tossed the screwdriver down and turned to Peter. “I’m sorry.”
Peter kicked his leg out at her. “No.”
“Peter, she’s trying to help you.” Tony said to him but Peter was shaking his head and still letting out the occasional cry.
“I can build it without his help anyways. Not like he was doing much to help me anyways.” Morgan mumbled out as she continued to screw the piece into place.
“Morgan. Enough.” Tony warned then reached forward to grab the tool from her.
“Hey! I was using that.”
“Not anymore. Help Peter with something.” Tony raised his eyebrows at her when she glared at him but she was sighing and standing up.
“Come, Peter. I’ll show you where the other drawer goes.” Morgan helped Peter stand up and led him over to the area where they were making all the drawers. “You have to follow the instructions but me and dad are so good so we don’t need to. You might need to though.”
“Morgan.” Tony warned without looking up.
She didn’t answer but he knew she heard him. He listened to Morgan explain everything to Peter while he was building the nightstand table.
“I do it first.” Peter said and grabbed the hammer out of Morgan’s hands.
“Stop it, Peter. You’re not allowed. Only I am.” Morgan grabbed the hammer back from Peter but then Peter grabbed her arm and started biting her. “Oooww!”
Tony looked up once he heard Morgan scream and immediately got up to pull Peter off of her. “Let go, Peter. We do not bite.”
Peter let go of Morgan’s arm and then she pulled her arm protectively to her chest. “Are you okay, Morg?”
She held her arm out for Tony to see but it was just a bite mark. The skin didn’t even break but Tony guessed that it would bruise later. “I’m okay.”
Tony kneeled down in front of Peter so they were face to face. “Peter, you don’t bite people. That’s not what we do.”
Peter’s face scrunched up and he started crying and threw himself onto the floor so Tony sighed. He saw the hammer that Morgan was still holding and grabbed it out of her hands to put it on the shelf. He then lifted Peter’s limp body into his arms and walked out of the room.
“We’re taking a break because Peter isn’t in the mood right now.” Tony said but the truth was that he wasn’t either because Peter and Morgan weren’t getting along for obvious reasons. Morgan wanted to have all the control and didn’t want any help while Peter wanted to be a part of it but was too young to help.
Tony carried a crying Peter downstairs and dropped him onto the couch so he could go into the kitchen with Pepper.
“What’s wrong with Peter?” She asked Tony but he didn’t get a chance to answer because Peter was running over to him and screaming at him to be lifted into his arms.
Tony picked him up and looked at him but Peter just cried and stared at him.
“He sounds tired, Tony. Maybe you should put him down for a nap.” Pepper suggested and then looked over at Peter and saw his sad face.
“Do you wanna go for a nap, Peter?” Tony asked him and Peter was nodding his head.
“Y-yeah!” He cried out but still continued to cry. Tony transferred him onto his hip so he was holding him with one arm.
“It’s twelve now. How long should I let him sleep for?” Tony asked Pepper. He had no idea since they still hadn’t developed a schedule yet and as much as Tony knew teen Peter and all his needs, five year old Peter was a whole other story that couldn’t be compared so no, he didn’t know this Peter and all his needs just yet.
“Um, I’d give it until one.” Pepper suggested so Tony was off upstairs to go put Peter down for a nap.
He walked into his and Peppers bedroom and closed the curtains so it was dark then he walked over to the bed and laid Peter down.
Peter was hiccuping sadly now, “I wan’- I wan’ teddy bear.”
Tony ran his fingers through his hair. “You want a teddy bear?”
Peter nodded. “Yeah, I need it.”
“Um, do you want to go pick one of Morgan’s?” Tony asked him and Peter was nodding and lifting his arms up so Tony picked him back up and went downstairs.
Pepper raised her eyebrows at him but he only shrugged then walked into the playroom. He bent down so Peter could pick out a teddy bear and watched as his five year old slowly dug through the pile in the corner.
He would pick one up and look at it then either push it to the side or hug it to his chest to see how cuddly it was. Tony didn’t say anything because the sight was adorable but also because he had a feeling that this teddy bear would be Peter’s for a long time.
Peter then picked up a rather ugly looking teddy bear and hugged it to his chest then turned around to look at Tony.
“Is that the one?” With a nod on his head, Tony picked Peter back up and walked out of the playroom and down the hall.
Pepper looked back at him with a smile on her face once she saw Peter with the teddy bear but she couldn’t look at him for long since Tony was going back upstairs and back into his bedroom.
He laid Peter back on the bed and covered him with the blankets then laid down next to him. “Close your eyes, Petey.”
Peter stuck his thumb in his mouth and turned towards Tony before letting his eyes shut.
Tony stayed with him even after he knew Peter was asleep. He wasn’t sure if this whole nap thing would be a temporary situation or if it was what Peter would need until he gets a little bit older. Either way, Tony was okay with whatever Peter needed because it meant he had his kid back.
He pressed a kiss to Peter’s hair and then got off the bed and left the room, shutting the door quietly behind him. He knew Peter didn’t need it and he didn’t need to get it for him but Tony wanted to buy a baby monitor for his kids bedroom just so when Peter starts sleeping without him then he’ll feel better knowing that his kid is okay.
When he went downstairs, he sat next to Morgan who was eating lunch at the kitchen table. “Hey, bug.”
“Hi dad. Is Peter in timeout?” Morgan asked him with her mouth full.
“No, I put him down for a nap.” Tony answered her. He could go for a nap himself, since he was up for a lot of the night with Peter, he wasn’t feeling all that awake but it wasn’t the first time. He had spent days awake in his lab before Peter and then he spent days awake after Peter because he was too scared to fall asleep and have more nightmares about him.
“Are you hungry?” Pepper asked him while she filled a bowl up with soup.
“I’ll wait to eat when Peter gets up.” Tony got up to make himself a coffee but he didn’t want to let Peter eat by himself after he got up.
“Alright. We should set up a schedule though. If he needs a nap at twelve till one then we should eat lunch at eleven.” Pepper joined Morgan on the kitchen stools
“Yeah, it’ll be nice to have a schedule set up.” Tony admitted then took a huge sip of his coffee, burning his mouth.
“We’ll get there.”
Morgan got off the chair to put her bowl and cup in the sink. “Can we finish building the dresser and bed now since Peter is sleeping?”
“Sure. Let’s go.” Tony and Morgan headed upstairs and walked into Peter’s bedroom, shutting the door. “We have to be quiet though since Peter is sleeping in my room.”
“Okay. We’ll whisper.”
Tony was content. It was nice to spend time with his daughter since he knew it’s only been two days but he hasn’t given Morgan any one on one time with her which she’s been a champ about so far but it was only a matter of time before she started to act out for some of the attention too since Peter joining their family was so unexpected and new.
“Hey, Morg?” Tony asked from where he was putting the drawer in the finished nightstand table.
“Yeah?”
“What do you think about Peter?” Tony asked, curiously. He knew she liked him but he wanted to hear her say it.
“I love him. He’s my baby brother and even though you and mom always said that he was my older brother, I like it better this way.” Morgan was smiling the whole time and you could hear the smile in her voice.
“You like it better?” Tony wanted to clarify and Morgan was nodding happily. “I like it better too. Of course I miss my boy as a teen but he’ll get there eventually.”
“Yeah, but this time we get to play with him.” Morgan said, matter of fact.
“That’s true. Hey, look. His nightstand table is complete.” Tony stood up so he could flip the table onto its legs and admire his work.
“Woah. It looks so nice. I can’t wait until he sees it.” Morgan said excitedly.
Pepper opened the door and walked in with a laundry hamper filled with Peter’s clothes. “Hi you guys. I washed all of Peter’s clothes so that they’re fresh for him to wear.”
Pepper set down the basket on the ground and walked over to the nightstand table. “Woah, this looks amazing.”
“Peter’s gonna love it. Don’t you think so, daddy?” Morgan asked.
“I know so.”
“Well I’m gonna bring the bedsheets and pillowcases up after they’re done washing and then we have to put the comforter on the bed.” Pepper announced as she left the bedroom.
Tony and Morgan continued to build the dresser and since they made a pretty good team, they finished it in no time. The dresser was a lot bigger than Tony thought it would be. Peter would be able to open the top drawer but he wouldn’t be able to look inside so that meant Tony would have to bolt the dresser to the wall so Peter didn’t step on the drawer and have it fall on him.
“It looks so pretty. I’m gonna go get mom to show her.” Morgan announced and then she left the bedroom.
She was going to run downstairs but then she passed by her parents bedroom and couldn’t help but go peek inside to look at her brother sleeping.
Morgan ever so carefully opened the bedroom door and walked into the room. The light from the hallway shined in so that she could make out Peter laying in bed. As she got closer, she could see that his eyes were open.
“Peter?” She whispered.
Peter smiled at her and sat up. “It’s all wet.”
Morgan tilted her head in confusion. “What’s all wet?”
Peter tried to kick the blankets off and point down to his pants. “It’s all wet.” He repeated.
Morgan pulled back the blankets and saw the wet patch so she held her arms out for Peter like she’s seen her dad do so many times. “I’ll help you change. Come here.”
Peter crawled over to her and held his arms out so she could pick him up. Morgan struggled to lift him off the bed but once he was on the floor, Peter tried to get her to pick him up again.
“We need to get you clean clothes first. Come with me.” Morgan led Peter into the hallway and then onto the bedroom where his clothes were.
Tony looked up in surprise when he saw Morgan bringing Peter into the room but then he saw Peter’s wet pants.
“I was just going to check on him but he was already awake and wanted me to help him.” Morgan explained then started to grab clean clothes out of the hamper.
Tony smiled at how sweet Morgan was and then held his arms out for Peter who was stepping over the pieces of wood to get to him. “Hi baby. Let’s go get you cleaned up.”
Peter nodded against him so Tony lifted him into his arms, not caring about Peter’s wet pants. He’s had worse on him.
He took the clothes that Morgan so helpfully grabbed for him and then carried Peter into his bathroom but Morgan was following behind him. “Morgan, do you want to go finish up the bed frame while I quickly change Peter?”
“No, I wanna help you.” Morgan said and even shut the bathroom door so Tony didn’t kick her out. She looked up at Tony with big eyes, daring him to kick her out.
“Alright. That’s fine.” Tony didn’t think that Peter even cared anymore. He was definitely fully in his five year old mindset and Tony couldn’t help but wonder if everyone else who came back was too.
He wasn’t paying any attention to the news, he stopped obsessing about what was going wrong in the world after it wasn’t his problem anymore. He had kids that he needed to focus on.
“Can you grab the wipes?” Tony asked Morgan then pulled down Peter’s track pants and underwear and helped him step out of them.
“I’ll put these in the dirty laundry.” The nine year old said and went to do that while Tony did what he did last night and wiped Peter clean. He then grabbed the clean clothes that Morgan brought in and helped Peter get his underwear and pants on.
“I still really tired.” Peter said, rubbing his eyes and yawning.
Tony checked the time on his watch. It was 1:15pm so it was too late for another nap even if Peter didn’t have a full hour.
“You’ll just have to go to bed super early tonight, okay?” Tony stood up to wash his hands then he felt Peter hug his legs and he cooed. He definitely missed this age. “Come on, little monkey. You hungry?”
Tony lifted Peter into his arms and Peter nodded. “Uh huh. I eat a dinosaur!”
“A dinosaur? Do you think Peter can eat a dinosaur, Morgan?” Tony asked her as she walked beside them on the way down the hall.
“I think so.” She laughed.
Peter looked down at Morgan and put his arms in front of him like a T- Rex. “Roar! I eat everything!”
Tony tried not to reach out and pinch Peter’s cheeks but it was hard not to do since Peter was being so freaking cute.
They got to the bottom of the stairs and Pepper turned to them to smile at Peter in Tony’s arms once again. “Did you sleep well, Peter?”
Morgan jumped onto the kitchen stool. “Peter went pee in the bed again.”
“Oh, did he?” Pepper looked over at Tony with a frown.
“Yeah. He did so I’m thinking we need to add pull-ups to that list as well.” Tony mentioned as he sat down on the stool with Peter in his lap.
“Alright. Well we can drive to the shop after you guys eat lunch to get that stuff.” Pepper grabbed two bowls and filled it with the soup then placed them in front of the two boys.
“Do you wanna go today?” Tony asked her. It would be their first time leaving the house with Peter and putting him in a car with everyone so it’ll be an interesting trip.
“Is his car seat set up?”
“Yeah, I just have to put it in the car.” Tony knew that part would take less than a minute so they were set.
“Okay. So we’ll leave after lunch.” Pepper announced and Morgan cheered.
“Yay! We’re going for a car ride with Peter!” Morgan turned to look at Peter. “Peter, you’re gonna love the car ride. It’s so much fun.”
Peter looked over at Morgan and grinned. “When I drived here before I was sleepin’.”
“Why?” Morgan asked.
“Mm maybe I was just tired but now I’m not.” Peter explained then took another bite of his soup and spilled more of it down the front of his shirt.
“You’ve got more on your shirt than you have in your belly.” Tony laughed at Peter and poked him in the stomach.
Peter giggled and arched his back against Tony’s chest but then Morgan was grabbing his spoon from him. “It’s okay. I’ll feed Peter.”
Tony wasn’t sure why Peter was letting Morgan feed him. It was so weird since at Peter’s age, Morgan was so independent and wanted to do everything by herself. Even if she physically couldn’t because she was too small, she would find a way to make it work and that was so amazing to watch but none of them ever got any proper cuddles from her since she was always up and doing something and never wanted to be held.
Peter was different. Tony could already tell, even from knowing his teenage self, Peter was extremely cuddly and liked to cling onto anyone who was willing to give him physical affection.
His five year old self was the exact same but now he was letting someone feed him even though Tony knew he was perfectly capable of doing that himself. “How about you let him feed himself, Morg.”
Peter shook his head. “No. She feeds me then I don’ spill.”
Tony rolled his eyes and looked over at Pepper.
After lunch was done and Peter was changed for the third time that day, they were all getting ready to leave the house but that was taking twice as long with Peter.
“I wanna bring my bear with me.” Peter said and tried to run away from Tony who grabbed his new shoes and tried to get them on Peter.
“No, you don’t need your bear.” Tony grabbed Peter’s hand and tried to pull him over to the front door but Peter was still trying to get away.
“I’ll get him for you.” Morgan went to go run away but Pepper stopped her.
“No, Morgan. Come back, he doesn’t need his bear.” Pepper handed Morgan her shoes when the nine year old walked back over.
“I want him! I want him!” Peter yelled as Tony sat him on the floor and grabbed his shoes.
“Your bear is sleeping. He doesn’t want to come.” Tony told Peter as he was putting one of his shoes on.
“Why he sleeping?” Peter asked and stopped trying to get away so Tony took advantage of that and quickly put his other shoe on.
“Because he’s so tired so we have to let him sleep.” Tony finished putting Peter’s shoes on so he then stood up to get his own shoes on.
“But then he won’ go sleep tonight. He gonna go up all night.” Peter stood up and exclaimed.
“Well then we’ll just have to tire him out tonight. Do you need to pee before we go?” Tony asked and then looked over at Pepper and Morgan who were already ready.
“Oh yeah. I forgot.” Peter grabbed onto Tony’s hand and started leading him towards the bathroom. Tony rolled his eyes at Peter for not going by himself but he didn’t say anything.
Once they got into the bathroom, Peter turned towards Tony and lifted up his shirt, waiting for the man to do something.
“What are you doing?” Tony asked him.
“Help me.” Peter struggled to pull his pants down and Tony watched him for a few seconds before kneeling down to tug down Peter’s pants and underwear then led him to stand in front of the toilet.
“Can you reach?” Tony double checked to see if he could reach and he could but he still wasn’t going. “Go pee, bud.”
“I sit down.” Peter looked up at Tony desperately.
“You don’t need to, Pete. Just go pee.” Tony pushed him gently towards the toilet but Peter pushed back.
“No. Lift me up on toilet.” Peter reached up for Tony and looked at him with wet eyes.
“On the toilet, Pete.” Tony corrected him but lifted him onto the toilet anyways. Peter calmed down immediately which was a good thing but Tony didn’t understand why Peter couldn’t just stand up.
Peter started to pee but it was going all over his pants instead of inside the toilet. “Pete, you have to point yourself down.”
“Oh.” Peter tried to but it was too late because his pants were in need of another change now. “All done.”
“Well you didn’t get any of that into the toilet.” Tony laughed, defeated. Peter tried to look inside the toilet as if he could see the lack of pee in there.
“It’s on my pants.” Peter pointed to his pants to show Tony.
“I know.” Tony had to take Peter’s shoes off so he could take the wet pants and underwear off of Peter once again and called out. “Morgan? Can you bring Peter more pants and underwear, please?”
“Yeah!” Tony heard Morgan say then running up the stairs.
Pepper walked to the bathroom and looked inside. “What happened?”
Tony lifted Peter off of the toilet and onto the floor. “Do you wanna tell Pep, Pete?”
“My pee pee went on my pants.” Peter explained to Pepper.
She laughed at the innocence of the situation then moved aside to let Morgan into the bathroom. “Here you go, daddy. I can help Peter.”
“I’ll help him with his underwear but you can help him with his pants.” Tony took the underwear from Morgan and helped Peter into it once again. He was glad that Peter didn’t care about the fact that he literally had an audience watching him get dressed.
“Okay, Peter, step into it.” Morgan held out the pant leg for Peter and he grabbed onto her for support but he kept falling over since Morgan was struggling to get his leg through it.
“I’m falling over. If I fall in toilet I fall on all the pee pee.” Peter laughed at himself but then Morgan yanked his leg and almost fell over but Tony grabbed onto his arm.
“Okay, I’ll finish putting his pants on while you go get the car seat from the playroom, okay?” Tony took the pants from Morgan so they could leave faster since they were still trying to leave after over thirty minutes.
“Let’s go, little lady.” Pepper and Morgan both left the bathroom so then Tony had Peter’s pants on in seconds followed by his shoes. He lifted him into his arms so no more distractions would happen on the way from the bathroom to the car.
“We got his car seat, dad.” Morgan announced as she helped Pepper carry the car seat.
They left the house and went to the car where they would take most of their car trips in. It was a black Audi suv which was Tony’s favorite of all his cars. Not that he had a lot of cars at his house but it would still outwin every car.
“I’m gonna put you on the ground, Pete, so no running.” Tony warned and set Peter on his feet. That was one thing that he was really worried about with Peter since he didn’t actually know what he would be like in public.
Peter started running but stopped at the start of the grass which was only five feet away from Tony. He pointed excitedly to the swing. “I wanna go on the swing ‘gin.”
“Later, Pete. Look, everyone is getting in the car so come here.” Tony grabbed the latch of the car seat and hooked it onto the car tether.
“I wanna see.” Peter tried to push Tony’s legs so he could look at what he was doing.
“Come, Peter.” Pepper picked Peter up and held him on her hip so Tony had a chance to put the car seat into the car. She walked around to Morgan’s side of the car which was behind the passenger seat. “Say hi, Morgan.”
“Hi Morgan. I sit here with you.” Peter pointed to his car seat that Tony was struggling to get hooked up properly.
“I can’t get this fu-” Tony cut himself off but Morgan heard exactly what he was going to say.
“You were gonna swear, daddy!” Morgan caught him.
“No. I wasn’t.” Tony got the latch to hook onto the last car tether and smacked the seat in excitement. “Yes! Finally!”
Peter and Morgan were both clapping their hands together excitedly. “Yay! You did it.” Peter cheered.
“Come here, baby.” Tony grabbed Peter from Pepper’s arms after she walked back around the car. “Let’s see how you look in this monstrosity of a car seat.”
He placed Peter in the seat and made sure to get his arms through the straps and properly buckle him up then he took a step back to admire his work. Peter was grinning at him widely so he couldn’t help but take his phone out and take a few pictures of him.
Pepper got into the front passenger seat and looked back at Tony and Peter and then Morgan was leaning over so Tony took a picture of three of his favourite people in the world and then stared down at the picture.
He could cry from looking at it. Peter was in the picture which is what made everything complete and took away the constant pain that he had in his chest for ten years straight.
“What’s wrong, Daddy.” Peter asked and Tony felt his heart stop beating.
He looked up from the picture on his phone to see Peter’s big brown eyes staring up at him. He felt his eyes tear up and the sudden need to cry.
“Nothing, baby. I love you so much.” Tony leaned into the car so he could hug Peter the best he could with the five year old in his car seat and then he pressed a bunch of kisses to his face. “I love you.”
Peter giggled at the attack on his face, having no idea what his innocent question did to Tony.
Tony smiled at Peter and shut the back door so he could get into the front seat of the car. He looked down at the phone in his hand and looked at the picture. Two big brown eyes were staring back at him and that’s all he could focus on.
“You okay?” Pepper asked him. She leaned her head against the seat and turned to him with a smile on her face.
He looked over at her and smiled back. “I’m perfect.”