I’ll Rearrange The Stars For You

“Can we get ice cream from McDonald’s on the way there?” Morgan asked as they headed to the car.

“Yeah, I don’t see why not.” Pepper unlocked the car and walked around the other side with Morgan.

Tony was carrying Peter since he refused to put his shoes on and Peter decided to rub his grubby hands all over Tony’s face on the walls from the house to the car.

Tony opened the back door and tried to pry Peter off of him to buckle him into his car seat but Peter stuck onto him. Pepper turned around in her seat and looked at Tony. “Did you bring his shoes?”

Tony held the shoes up and then tossed them into the already messy car. “Yep. Right here.”

“I wan’ drive with you, daddy.” Peter hugged his arms around Tony’s neck, choking him in the process.

“You can’t drive with me, Pete. Let go.” Tony tried again but Peter was holding on very tightly. It made Tony second guess if Peter’s spider powers had actually disappeared or not.

Morgan threw her head back and groaned. “Peter, let go so we can get ice cream. Dad’s gonna bring us to McDonald’s.”

That got Peter to let go and pull away from Tony. “Ice cream?”

Tony nodded. “Yep. But you have to let go of daddy and put your shoes on.”

“Then ice cream?” Peter asked just to clarify that he will be getting ice cream if he puts shoes on.

Tony nodded again and smiled when Peter let go of him so he sat him into his car seat and buckled him up then put his shoes on while Peter did up the velcro.

The whole drive to the ice cream shop was spent with Peter and Morgan singing the ice cream song and as loud and as repetitive it was, Tony loved hearing it so much because it reminded him that Peter was now a part of their little family.

“Make sure to get lots of napkins.” Pepper told Tony and pointed a finger back at Peter. “Since we have a five year old now.”

Tony felt his heart swell. “I love the sound of that.”

“This is our life now. Ice cream and trips to the store to buy baby gates.” Pepper spoke above the yelling going on in the backseat.

“Wouldn’t have it any other way.” Tony admitted and it was the truth. It was the only thing he wanted in life and it took more than ten years to get. Well worth the wait.

Once they all got their ice creams, they ate it in the car on their way to the store. Tony knew Peter was going to have his face covered in the chocolate ice cream so when he parked the car, he was almost scared to open the back door to see what monster was going to be awaiting him.

Peter had somehow managed to get ice cream in his hair and on his forehead. “Did you manage to get any ice cream in your mouth, Peter?” Tony asked, jokingly and Peter grinned.

“No so I need more!”

Little sneaky child. “I don’t think so. Pep, do we have any baby wipes?”

Pepper opened up Morgan’s car door and started digging around but came up with nothing. “No. We’re gonna have to start keeping that in the car again. I’ll just grab some napkins and wet them.”

Tony waited for Pepper to do that and moved aside so Morgan could climb up on the seat and laugh at Peter. “He was so funny when he was eating it. He was like,” Morgan began imitating the way Peter was licking the ice cream and then all three of them started laughing.

“Look at you, you little monster.” Pepper cooed and wiped Peter’s face and his hands so he wasn’t all sticky anymore.

“Yeah and daddy’s gin’ get me more!” Peter lied and looked up at Tony with innocent eyes.

“Out you get.” Tony unbuckled Peter from the car seat and held him in his arms until they were in the store so that he didn’t have to chase after him. Before he set Peter on his feet, he looked over at him and turned Peter’s head to look at him. “You’re going to listen to Pepper and me, right?”

Peter nodded his head. “Yeah and then I get ice cream ‘gin!”

“It’s again, Peter.” Tony corrected him but he knew Peter was doing it on purpose since he’s heard Peter say the right word before.

Peter nodded. “Yeah. Wan’ down, daddy.”

Tony placed Peter on the floor and grabbed a shopping cart. Peter ran over to Pepper and reached for her hand to hold. Tony loved that Peter got along with Pepper and that Pepper loved Peter equally as much.

He didn’t get much time to think about it since everything happened so quickly but later, once Tony had the time to think about it, in the beginning he feared that Peter wouldn’t take a liking to Pepper or Pepper would find it hard to love and want Peter but after just a few hours of watching them together, Tony knew that he was wrong for thinking that.

Peter held onto Pepper’s hand and tried to lead her towards the aisle that had the gummies and cookies. “You want to go down here?” Pepper asked him.

Tony and Morgan were following close behind but a few feet away so they couldn’t hear their conversation. Pepper liked that since she wanted to have more one on one time with Peter.

“Yeah, and get the um, the blue one.” Peter let go of Pepper’s hand and started running down the aisle until he saw the blue box of Scooby-Doo gummies.

“Up. I wan’ reach ‘dem.” Peter lifted his arms up for Pepper to lift him up so she lifted Peter into her arms but to her surprise, Peter said something that she only dreamed of Peter saying to her.

“Thank you, mommy.” Peter said like it wasn’t a big deal at all but Pepper was left speechless for a few seconds.

“Oh. Y-you’re welcome, Peter.” Pepper felt the happy tears burn her eyes. She pressed a kiss to Peter’s face and placed him back on the ground. She felt frozen. Now she knows how Tony feels every time Peter calls him daddy.

She turned around and saw Peter run over and drop the gummies into the cart. “Here daddy.”

“Thanks Pete.” Tony smiled at him but then he looked up at Pepper and saw that she had tears in her eyes and a few falling down her cheeks. His smile dropped and he looked at her with so much concern. “What happened?”

She wiped her cheeks and smiled harder. “Peter just called me mommy.”

A smile broke out across Tony’s face. “What? Are you serious? Oh my god, Pep.”

Pepper nodded her head and accepted the hug and kiss she received from her husband. “Y-yeah. I’m crying. I’m just so happy. I never expected him to but I just… god. This feels good.”

Tony knew that feeling and it was definitely one of his most favourite feelings in the world. “Yeah it does. I have to hear him say this.”

Tony left the cart and rushed over to Peter and Morgan. He didn’t even think about the fact that Peter was stacking a bunch of boxes of bear paws on the ground. So kneeled down and asked Peter, “Where’s mommy?”

Peter looked behind him and pointed at Pepper. “‘Dare.”

“Yeah,” That didn’t work as Tony expected it to. He meant to get Peter to say mommy but it had to come out naturally he guessed. “okay,” Tony looked back up at Pepper who brought the cart over. “I’ll just wait for it.”

Pepper nodded with the smile permanently on her face. Tony stood up and joined her side. “I need to hear him say this. I’m so happy.”

Tony followed Peter and Morgan into the next aisle and watched them. He wanted to hear Peter say it but he knew he couldn’t force him to or it wouldn’t be as meaningful.

“Daddy?” Peter asked, walking over to Tony to tap him on the leg to get his attention even though Tony had already acknowledged him. “Daddy?”

“Yeah, Pete? I’m listening.” Tony tossed him two boxes of goldfish since that was very popular in their household.

Peter tugged on his hand. “I wan’ the blue one but Morgan’s not grabbin’ it but I tell her to.”

“What blue one?” Tony asked him while he continued to toss more snacks into the shopping cart. He turned to look at Pepper since he remembered another thing they needed to get. “We need to buy more wipes and pull-ups, Pep.”

“Daddy?!” Peter yelled at him and fell to the floor in front of his feet since Tony wasn’t giving him all of his attention.

“Peter, what is it?” Tony kneeled down so he was closer to Peter’s level and lifted him up so he wasn’t rolling on the disgusting store floor. “I can’t understand you when you’re screaming like that.”

Tony stood up fully and turned around to see Pepper walking into the aisle with some more snack boxes. Tony used to freak out when Morgan used to throw temper tantrums in stores but now he knows that it’s going to happen no matter what so just roll with it.

He had a big feeling that Peter was going to be throwing lots of temper tantrums in stores.

“I wan’ the blue one!” Peter cried and made grabby hands for a blue box of cookies on the shelf.

Tony simply reached forward and handed the box to Peter. He smirked when Peter immediately stopped crying and rubbed at his tears on his face. “Thank you, daddy.”

“Aw, you’re welcome, baby. Put it in the cart.” Tony spun Peter around after he threw the box in. Peter started giggling and it made everything worth it. “I love you so much, Peter. So so much.”

Peter shook his head. “No.”

“No. Why no?” Tony asked him with a fake pout.

“Because daddy’s poo poo.” Peter grinned at Tony and it didn’t make any sense but it was adorable either way.

“You’re so silly my baby. So silly.” Tony decorated Peter’s face with a bunch of kisses and set him back on the floor to catch up to Pepper and Morgan.

The family of four headed into the baby section to get a few necessary items for their youngest. Morgan helped pick out the wipes with Peter while Pepper looked at the best baby monitors.

“You need this one, Peter.” Morgan told him and grabbed a package of wipes, tossing it into the shopping cart.

“No. I wan’ this one.” Peter grabbed another package of wipes and placed them in the cart but Morgan took them out and placed them back on the shelf. “No! Daddy!”

Tony couldn’t help but smile because even though his kids were currently fighting, he was just glad that Morgan had another sibling to actually fight with.

“Let him pick it, Morg, because it’s for him.” Tony told her but she was blocking Peter from grabbing the wipes on the shelf so Tony pushed the cart forward and grabbed Morgan by the arm. “Enough. Let him pick.”

“Tell him to pick the other ones, dad. Those ones smell bad.” Morgan crossed her arms over her chest and stomped her foot but Tony didn’t give her any attention because that’s just what she was looking for.

“Two, daddy?” Peter asked after he put the wipes into the shopping cart.

“Yeah, grab another one.” Tony looked down at Morgan who was still pouting. He needed to have some one on one time with her soon since he knew that it was a bit hard to all of the sudden have another sibling steal all of the attention in the family. “Can you grab the pull-ups, Morgan?”

The pout left Morgan’s face then she ran over to the diapers with Peter running after her. “I grab too.”

“No, Peter. Daddy said just I can do it.” Morgan went to push Peter away but Tony stopped her.

“Uh. Morgan. No thank you.” Tony grabbed another package off the shelf and handed it to Peter. “Here, you put this in for me.”

Peter took the package and stood up on the bottom of the shopping cart then tossed it in with the other box. “Daddy, two?”

“No, that’s all we need. We’re gonna have too many.”

Peter shrugged his shoulders and went to grab another one anyways. “And ‘nother one, daddy?”

“No, Peter. You don’t need anymore right now.” Tony said to his five year old again, feeling like he had more than just two kids right now.

“I wan’ to put in ‘nother one.” Peter put the other package of pull-ups into the box while he was looking up at Tony.

Tony grabbed the package and put it back on the shelf. “I said no more. You’re not listening to daddy.”

A pout formed on Peter’s face, showing Tony that Peter was about to start throwing a fit so Tony picked him up and sat him on his hip. “No crying, Peter. I said no more pull-ups because then we’ll have too much.” Tony told his son. They already had a half box at home as well as another box and a package in the shopping cart.

Morgan ran out of the aisle and into the next one so Tony grabbed the shopping cart and pushed it into the next aisle where Pepper was. She held out two boxes. “Which one do you think?”

Tony put Peter back on the ground and looked at both of the baby monitors. “This one has a bigger screen and better sound so definitely this one.” Tony put the box into the shopping cart. “Should we get two? One for our room and one for downstairs so when he eventually sleeps in his own bedroom then we’ll have one around us constantly?”

Pepper thought about it for a few seconds before agreeing and putting another box into the cart. Peter tugged on the back of Pepper’s pants and pointed to the price tag. “Three.”

“Yeah, that’s the number three.” Pepper smiled down at the boy and bent down to pick him up.

“And three dollars.” Peter said, causing both adults to laugh.

“Almost, bud, but there are two zeros meaning just a little bit more than three dollars.” Tony said, patting Peter’s back and walking over to Morgan who was looking at the baby gates.

“Look, dad. I like this one.” Morgan bent down and pointed to one of the boxes.

Tony bent down as well and looked over the labels and the image on the front. They needed at least three of them to stop Peter from going into places he shouldn’t such as the basement and one for the top and bottom of the upstairs so it was safer for Peter.

Pepper walked over to them with Peter on her hip and playing with her hair.

“Threes good, right?” Tony asked her. “Can you think of any other places we need it?”

“Two for upstairs, one for the basement…” Pepper paused to think about it. They still had a child safety lock on the front and back door from when Morgan was Peter’s age. “I think that’s all. We can always come back to buy more but you know what we do have to buy more of… all those annoying little safety locks on every single cabinet in the kitchen, bathroom and done doors.”

Tony groaned. He completely forgot about those and how incredibly annoying they were. They had only recently taken them off, by the time Morgan turned eight but Tony had a strong feeling that curious little Peter was going to need those to stay on for a lot longer than eight.

“I forgot about those. Oh well, we gotta get them. Let’s just throw a whole bunch in the shopping cart.” Morgan walked over to the shelf and started throwing in a bunch of the locks and doorknob locks.

Once they got everything that they came for, they drove back home with Peter falling asleep in his car seat. Tony saw him nodding off in the rearview mirror but he didn’t know why since Peter just had a nap.

Morgan was eating a package of gummies that they bought at the store and chewing away loudly. “Can we go on a picnic, mom?”

“A picnic?” Pepper turned around in her seat to look at Morgan. “I think that’s a great idea. We can get some stuff from home and go eat dinner somewhere.”

Tony took his eyes off the road for a second to glance over at Pepper. “Or we can order a pizza?”

“Yeah! Pizza sounds a lot better.” Morgan cheered. “And brownies too please.”

“Alright then. That’s what we’ll go and do.” Pepper declared and went to turn the Frozen disk up a bit.

They all continued driving in silence for a few minutes until Morgan was speaking up. “Peter’s going pee in the car.”

Tony looked in the rearview mirror to try and look at Peter’s pants, already regretting not waking Peter up right away.

Pepper turned around in her seat and sighed sadly. “Aw, Uh oh. It’s alright.”

Tony was already pulling over on the road and putting the car into park. “It’s fine. Um… we don’t have any extra pants in here, do we?”

“No. Just grab a pull-up from the trunk and take off the wet ones. It’ll be fine since we’re just going right home after.” Pepper said then took her seatbelt off to shift on her seat so she was reaching in the back. “Morg, can you take off your seatbelt and grab them in the trunk please.”

“Sure.” Morgan took off her seatbelt and jumped right up to do that.

While Morgan was busy doing that, Tony opened up the back door and started to take off Peter’s car seat buckles. “Wake up, Petey. You already had nap time.”

Peter shifted in his seat and rubbed at his eyes while Tony lifted him up out of his car seat and stood him up on the floor of the car.

Peter stumbled a bit but caught his balance. “Yeah. I felled asleep in the car.”

“You did fall asleep. Lift your leg up.” Tony ordered him as he tugged down Peter’s now wet pants and Hulk underwear but Peter wasn’t lifting his leg up so To y forced it up.

Once Peter’s pants were off, it seemed to suddenly click what just happened. “Oh uh. I’d pee pee.”

“It’s alright. We’ll be home soon.” Tony told him as he tried to stop Peter from jumping out of the car and grabbing a pull-up from Morgan. “Thanks, little miss.”

“Do you need help, dad?” Morgan asked, already moving into the middle seat to grab onto Peter.

“That’s okay.” Tony answered but then Peter was grabbing his wet clothes from the car floor and trying to pick it up. “That’s dirty now. Leave it please.”

“But-but I need to put it in da bag, daddy.” Peter explained and went to try and pick it up again but Tony said no again. “I need to.”

“Here you go, Peter. You can put it in this bag.” Pepper said to the five year old before a temper tantrum started so Peter turned around and walked a few steps over to grab the reusable bag that Pepper was handing him.

“Thank you mommy.” Peter replied like it was nothing but everyone else’s jaw dropped, including Morgan’s.

Pepper felt Cher heart flutter again, loving that Peter called her that since he was her new little baby. She actually had a son and she loved that so much.

She looked over at Tony who was hearing it for the first time and looking like it was the second best thing he ever heard, the first best being Peter calling him daddy.

“Peter called mommy ‘mommy’!” Morgan blurted out and pointed her finger at Peter who was standing there and looking shocked at Morgan’s accusations.

“That’s okay, Morg. Mom is his mommy too now.” Tony said, trying not to act like it was a big deal but it was and he was so freaking happy.

Pepper nodded her head and cleared her throat. “Yeah, Peter. Both daddy and I are you parents now.” Pepper said even though they already talked about this and knew that Peter knew.

“Okay.” Was all Peter said but Tony knew that deep down, he knew he had a family that loved him more than anything and that he was all they ever wanted and needed.

“Okay. Now come over to me so we can put this on and go home.” As Tony was helping Peter into his pull-up, he thought about his life growing up and now it turned out the complete opposite of what he thought would happen but he wouldn’t have it any other way.

Growing up, he didn’t think he would ever get married or have kids but he also didn’t see himself being very happy in life. At least not genuine happiness.

Every time he thought of having kids, he always thought that he would be a boy dad. He pictured himself having a daughter but was convinced that he would be no good at it so years later when everything happened and Fourteen year old Peter came into his life and after he started to think of Peter as his kid, he was so happy that he was a boy dad and wouldn’t change anything about it.

Then, after the snap and Peter was gone… Pepper and him found out they were having a girl which Tony did not expect but he was happy because he didn’t want a boy baby to replace his other boy who wasn’t there anymore… when Tony wished but thought he would never see his boy again.

And ten years later, everything worked out for the best because he had a daughter and a son.

The best of both worlds.

“Okay, all done.” Tony announced once Peter was in his pull-up. Peter began clapping his hands because of Tony’s excitement. Tony checked the car seat to see how wet it was but it wasn’t too bad so he would clean it once they got home.

“I want a hug.” Peter said when Tony went to pick him up to place him back in his car seat. “Please. I miss you.”

Tony laughed. “But I’m right here, baby.”

Peter stuck his bottom lip out in a pout. “Yeah but you’re not huggin’ me, dada.”

Tony felt his heart melting and reached his arms out to hug Peter against his chest. “I love you so much, my baby.”

Peter hugged Tony back as tightly as his tiny arms would let him. “I love you too, daddy!”

“Now picnic time!” Morgan cheered.