When we’re all together
“Do you have the balloons?” Tony asked Pepper while he carried in a box full of streamers to hang around the house.
Pepper was holding Peter on her hip and had the phone on hold in her other hand. “Um… not yet. The delivery guys were supposed to be here twenty minutes ago but they got lost so now we have to wait another twenty minutes.”
Tony groaned. He was stressed. Who knew planning a birthday party would be so stressful.
He couldn’t believe his little girl was turning ten years old. It seemed unbelievable. Ten years ago she was born and he started a whole new chapter of his life.
Morgan was going to be turning double digits and he was still trying to process that. Even though her actual birthday was on Monday, they were celebrating on Saturday and a bunch of people were going to be arriving at two and it was eleven and they still weren’t even close to being done yet.
It was going to be a water park theme so they were setting up a bunch of inflatable water slides, slip and slides, water balloons and a bunch of other stuff. Tony couldn’t wait to see what the yard looked like when it was done but he was more grateful for the fact that the weather was nice.
It was supposed to rain all weekend but it was a bright, hot sunny day.
Morgan was confined to her bedroom until the party was ready because Tony and Pepper wanted it to be a surprise for her.
Pepper was taken off hold and started talking with the delivery guys so Tony held his arms out for Peter who was supposed to be napping. “Come here, little man.”
Peter reached his arms out for Tony and happily let himself be held by his dad. “Mommy’s talking to the water slide people.”
Tony nodded and shifted Peter into his other hip. Pepper was supposed to put him down for a nap but he didn’t know if she tried or gave up after changing him into his pull-up. “Are you tired? Do you think you’re ready for a nap?”
The five year old shook his head and smiled. “No. I wanna see what ‘dare playin’ outside, daddy.”
Tony walked up the stairs while he pulled out his phone to see four missed calls from the caterer. He was going to have to take care of that later. “No, baby. No ones playing outside because we’re all waiting for you to have your nap first.”
Peter played with Tony’s necklace as he spoke. “But I’m not sleepy.”
“You have to try.” Tony was about to walk into his and Pepper’s bedroom to put Peter down for his nap but he turned and went to go check on Morgan instead. He opened her door and smiled. “Hey, pretty girl. What’re you up to?”
“Hi daddy. I’m just playing with my babies.” Tony walked into the room and looked down at all the dolls who had on real diapers that they had bought for Morgan’s dolls. She was a pro at it and she was only ten. Nine still, Tony wasn’t rushing anything.
He hadn’t even changed his first diaper until he was way into his thirties and now, here he was, having a nine year old daughter who was already better at it than him. Well, with a baby that doesn’t move.
“Perfect. Do you want to play with Peter for a bit while we get everything set up?” Tony asked even as he was placing Peter on his feet.
“Sure. Come sit here, Peter.” Morgan patted the spot next to her babies but Peter sat down somewhere else so she groaned. “Here, Peter. I’m gonna change you.”
Peter stood up and walked over to that spot then Morgan was pushing him down. “No. I don’ wan’ to, Morgan.” Peter fought her and tried to sit back up.
“Morg, keep his pull-up on because I’m coming back up in a few minutes to put him down for a nap.” Tony told her then left the bedroom and shut the door behind him. He had no idea if Morgan would listen to him but he wasn’t worried about that right now.
Peter crawled over to the treasure chest full of toys and looked through it. “This is cool. It’s like a pirate. Arrrr!”
Morgan grabbed the plastic sword from him. “Don’t touch it. That’s mine.”
“But I wan’ play with it.” Peter tried to grab the sword again but Morgan pushed him so Peter let out a cry out then went back to searching in the chest for more toys for him to play with. He picked up a hat and put it on him then turned to look at Morgan. “Look!”
“That’s cool.” Morgan quickly glanced at her younger brother then went back to playing with her dolls so she could finish changing them and getting them dressed.
Peter busied himself with playing with the toys that he’s never seen before. He didn’t know why he didn’t come into Morgan's bedroom more often since it was fun in there. “Morgan? Help me put my dress on.”
Morgan laid her last doll out and turned to look at Peter attempting to put a princess dress on so she stood up and went to help him. “Okay but then you have to be my next baby for me.”
“No. I just wan’ you to help me.” Peter stood up so Morgan could help him get the dress on but then Tony was walking in to put Peter down for his nap so he wasn’t cranky later on that day once the party started.
“Pete, nap time. Come here.” Tony held his arms out for Peter who had apparently turned into a Disney princess while he was gone.
“Look daddy.” The dress hung over his feet so he tripped on it on his way over to the door to show his daddy.
“Woah. You look so cool. I think you rock that dress but we have to take it off for nap time.” Tony kneeled down so he could pull the dress off of Peter but the five year old tried to grab it and stomped his feet.
“No! Nooooo! I wan’ it!” Peter tried to reach for the dress again but Tony took it off of him and set it on Morgan’s chair.
“Nope. It’s nap time. You’re already cranky so let’s go to sleep.” He picked the now screaming five year old up and held him like a sack of potatoes out of Morgan’s bedroom.
It was going to work out perfectly since Peter could nap for an hour and a half then he would wake up just in time to get changed into party clothes. As long as he went to bed quickly. Tony didn’t want to take any chances so he had brought up a bottle with him to help Peter get to sleep faster, knowing that always did the trick even though they were trying to wean him off of it.
He was about to carry Peter into his bedroom which was now fully complete with his bed built and set up along with his bed rails, his dressers and toys all in there but Tony and Pepper were still letting him sleep with them every night.
Tony knew they were setting up bad habits but in all honesty, he didn’t care. He lost his child for ten years, not knowing if he was ever going to get Peter back and now he had his baby back and if Peter didn’t want to sleep in his own bed, then he didn’t have to.
That was a problem for later. Much, much later.
So Tony carried Peter into the master bedroom and laid the crying five year old on the bed and handed him his bottle before he tried to run away from him like he usually did.
He had taken Peter to Morgan’s paediatrician a few days ago, just to make sure everything was okay inside and out especially since Peter was one of those who had gotten snapped and de-aged.
Everything was okay but they had to start weaning Peter off of his naps soon which neither of them were looking forward to. Tony still thinks that Peter needs his daily nap because he gets cranky but his paediatrician had said to try and cut it down and see if Peter reacts to it well.
They had cut it down to an hour and a half but he hadn’t noticed any difference yet. He just didn’t want to cut nap time out.
Although he was sure it was going to have to happen eventually since Peter was going to be starting school soon. He was looking forward to that but also dreading it at the same time.
Morgan was going to start full time school again very soon so he had no idea how that was going to go.
After all those who had gotten snapped came back, the world was in chaos and still is. Although a lot has been taken under control, the return of the dusted victims definitely put everything on pause for quite awhile.
There were new schools having to be built, new houses, basically new everything to accommodate billions of people after having half the world’s population wiped out.
The world was definitely a mess right now so Tony wanted to keep his family as far away from it as possible and he was grateful for what he had, but it was time for Morgan to go back to school and pretty soon, Peter as well.
They had to start what was going to be their new routine.
Tony was worried and stressed about it because everything seemed a mess and was so unknown but everything would happen with time so he couldn’t do anything about it.
Because he was the reason for everything happening in the world right now, he felt a lot of responsibility to help out so he had a team, a very large team of people working on it to help reunite friends and family members, accumulate those who have lost someone or basically anyone who was being affected by the duster returning which was basically everyone.
He continued to stroke Peter’s curls gently as he watched Peter drink his bottle and his eyes start to shut. He was lying next to him in hopes that he would fall asleep faster and it always did the trick.
After a few minutes, Peter pulled his bottle from his mouth and put it next to him so he could put his thumb into his mouth instead and get more comfortable on the bed. Tony sat there and continued to run his fingers through his hair, waiting for Peter to fall asleep so he could leave.
He quietly shut his bedroom door and went downstairs to go see how things were getting on. There was still so much to do and not enough time.
Pepper was on the phone and opening boxes with her other hand, looking extremely stressed out. He slowly approached her to see if she needed any help but was a tad scared that she was going to freak out at him for asking. “Do you need any help with anything?”
She hung up the phone and sighed loudly. Tony could see how stressed she was. “There’s about… a million and one things I need you to do.”
“Okay. Just tell me.”
“I want the whole downstairs decorated for Morgan to come down and see since no ones going to be coming inside besides for using the bathroom so I need you to clean that. Also, Ally just had a baby so I told her she could bring her newborn inside whenever she wanted so she’ll probably be in here most of the time to nurse him.” Pepper stood up and walked to grab another box while he was making mental notes.
“Alright. Marking it all down.” Tony tapped on the side of his head which caused Pepper to roll her eyes at him.
“Can you handle that?”
“Yes. Obviously. I can’t believe you would have such little faith in me.” He went to grab a box to start decorating but Pepper was grabbing his arm.
“Can you also get Morgan and Peter ready?”
“Yes.”
“I hung Morgan’s party dress on our bedroom door and Peter’s dress up top and shorts are hanging up as well. Morgan wants pigtails in her hair so can you do that?” Pepper asked seriously but he was annoyed that she had such little faith in him.
“Yes, honey. I can handle getting two kids ready.” He reassured her.
As it turned out, he could not handle it.
Getting two kids ready was definitely a lot harder than getting one kid ready but his first mistake was waking Peter up before having Morgan ready. Now he had two wild kids running around.
And to think, getting the whole downstairs decorated by himself was less stressful than this. He cleaned the whole house, decorated the downstairs and the freaking bathroom so he was pretty proud of himself.
Now, he wasn’t.
“Peter, stop jumping and come here so I can change your pull-up.” Tony reached across the bed for Peter but he jumped away while singing something about dinosaurs in space. Tony cringed. “Come, Pete. I’ll be quick.”
“No, daddy. I’m bouncing.” Peter moves away from him as Morgan walked out of the bathroom.
“Daddy, where’s mommy? She always does my hair better than you.” Morgan asked, totally back handing Tony with that comment.
“She’s busy so I’m gonna do it.” He grabbed her dress off the back of the door and shut it so no more kids ran out. “Do you need help to change into this?”
Morgan looked up at him with an annoyed look on her face. “Duh. I can’t do it myself.”
“Okay then. It looks like ten year old Morgan is even sassier than nine year old Morgan.” He teased her which had a smack delivered to his arm. “Hey. No hitting.”
Peter jumped off the bed and tried to leave the room so Tony used his other hand to keep the door shut but then Peter was swinging off of his arm. “Wee! Daddy, higher!”
“Peter. Get off and take off your clothes because you’re next, Mr.” He shook Peter off of him and used his foot to hold the door shut while he helped Morgan get the dress on which was hell of a lot harder than it looked since it seemed like where so many more holes than just three. “Morgan, lift your arms up.”
“I’m trying.” Morgan whined and then he eventually got the dress on and went to go zip up the back but Peter started lifting up her dress and trying to crawl under. “Hey, dad! Peter’s looking at me!”
“Peter. Stop it.” He struggled to pull Peter’s legs out and sighed. Peter was definitely a hand full. “Can you start taking off your clothes so daddy can change your pull-up?”
Peter shook his head and crawled back onto the bed. “Na-na boo-boo! You can’t catch me!”
Tony finished zipping up the back of her dress and when she turned around, he felt his eyes start to water. His little girl was growing up into such a beautiful lady right in front of his eyes. “Look at you. You look so beautiful, little miss. Wow.”
“Thanks daddy. Do I look like a princess?” Morgan spun around in a circle, making her dress spin outwards.
“The most gorgeous princess I’ve ever seen. I love you so much, Morg. Happy early birthday.” He pulled her in for a hug and pressed a kiss to the top of her head but it wasn’t for long because Peter was tugging on his hand.
“Daddy. I wan’ see.” Peter pushed his way in so Tony moved aside to let Peter have a look.
“Doesn’t your sister look pretty, Pete?” Tony asked him but Peter didn’t seem to care at all.
“Uh huh.” Peter then turned to Tony and lifted his arms up, wanting to be held. “Up daddy.”
“Okay, baby.” He lifted his youngest up and bent down to grab the wipes so he could get Peter ready now before doing Morgan’s hair. “You’ll never grow up, right, Pete? Do you promise you’ll always be my baby?”
Peter nodded aggressively. “Yeah. I promise.”
Tony pressed a bunch of kisses to Peter’s face then laid him on the bed and pulled his pants off in one movement. As he pulled the wet pull-up off, he spoke to Morgan. “Morg, can you do me a favour and hand me a toy?”
He knew it was always easier doing this when Peter had a toy in his hand to stop him from reaching down there and touching his grubby hands everywhere. He tossed the pull-up onto the bed and took the toy from Morgan. “Thanks, Morg. Lift your legs, Pete. Gotta wipe your butt.”
Peter looked at the toy then threw it at Tony and tried to roll over and crawl away. “No. Peter. Stop moving.”
Tony pulled a now screaming and giggling Peter back to him and flipped him over so he could push Peter’s knees to his chest and finish what he was doing but Peter was kicking him and crawling away again so he sighed.
“Okay. Morgan. Hand me your brush so I can brush your hair.” He wiped his hands with a clean baby wipe and looked over at Peter who was trying to stand on his head on the bed.
“Don’t brush too hard because it pulls my knots.” Morgan warned him before handing the brush over and turning around to let her dad start brushing.
“I’ll be gentle.” As he started brushing, he looked over at Peter who was kicking at the headboard and trying to flip over but Tony was worried he was going to fall off the bed so he moved over to sit downstairs and have Morgan stand in front of him. “Pete, no more. Settle down now.”
“No! I’m-I’m tryin’ to flip.” Peter told him then did a somersault, kicking Tony in the back in the process. “I sorry, daddy.” Peter wrapped his arms around Tony’s neck, choking him.
“It’s okay. A little tight though, Pete.” Tony unwrapped one of Peter’s hands from his neck and went back to brushing Morgan’s hair but Peter was trying to sit on his shoulders as if he were a climbing structure. “What are you doing? You’re crazy, Pete.”
Peter started giggling as he climbed up but Tony was reaching behind him and lifting Peter over his head and onto his hip as he stood. “All done. You’re silly.”
He took off Peter’s shift in one movement then stood Peter on his feet and bent over him. He grabbed another wipe and held Peter with a hand over his chest to quickly clean all the urine off then picked him back up to carry him into the bathroom.
“Alright. Morgan, pick out the elastics you want in your hair so I can start.” He told her and shut the bathroom door so Peter didn’t try to escape again. “Sit on the toilet, Pete, and try to go before you get dressed.”
Peter tried to climb into the bathtub to grab his action figure bath toys that were there but Tony picked himself up, placed the toilet seat on the toilet and sat Peter on top.
He then walked back over to Morgan and tried to remember how to do her hair in pigtails. He didn’t want to have to call Pepper to come and do it for him since he swore he could do it. And he was going to.
Tony looked over at Peter who was still on the toilet and unrolling all of the toilet paper so he hoped he had time to get Morgan’s hair done before Peter was done.
Tony managed to get one pigtail in and was about to start with the other one but Peter was calling for him. “All done, daddy.”
“Give me a second, Pete.” Tony let go of the parted piece and put the brush down to go help Peter out. “Come wash your hands and then wait here while I finish your sisters hair.”
Peter pushed the stool up to the sink to wash his hands and watched his daddy. “It’s my birthday too, daddy?”
Tony smiled fondly. “Not yet, baby. Your birthday is not for another year. It’s Morgan’s birthday today.”
“Actually it’s not today but we’re celebrating today, dad.” The nine year old corrected him.
Peter shut the water off and tried to climb onto the bathroom counter so he could stand on top but Tony was reaching over to take him off since he didn’t want any trips to the hospital today. Or at all.
“I wanna sit up ‘dare, daddy.” The five year old whined out and sat down on the floor instead to try and take off Tony’s socks.
Tony finished up with Morgan’s hair and proudly looked at his accomplishment. “All done! Look how beautiful you look, Morg. A real princess.”
Morgan smiled at her finished look in the mirror then reached for hair gel. “Can you put these sparkles in it at the top so I can put my princess tiara on after?”
“Yeah. Do you want a lot?” Peter was already standing up and trying to see what Tony had in his hand so Tony had to show him. “Look, Pete.”
“I wan’ see.” Peter hung off of his dad's arm so Tony picked him up and set him on his hip so he could be a part of the process.
It was Peter’s first time here to celebrate a birthday or celebrate anything for that matter.
Last year, Morgan had a quieter birthday with just a few of her friends coming over for a sleepover and eating cake but this year, Tony wanted it to be huge. Mainly because Morgan was turning double digits and that was a huge deal but also because they had Peter back.
Their family was complete now and Tony wanted this day to be extremely special.
“All done! I did it but-but put in my hair, daddy.” Peter patted the top of his head for Tony to add it to his hair but Tony was going to be putting something else in his hair.
“We have to get you dressed first.” He took Morgan’s hand to spin her around. “I can’t wait for mommy to see. She’s gonna love it.”
Morgan touched her hair and skipped out of the bathroom so Peter kicked his legs to be put down so he could skip out of the bathroom as well but a little less gracefully.
“Hurry, Peter. I wanna see everything.” Morgan leaned against the bedroom door but Tony knew she was going to have to be patient now since it was Peter’s turn.
“Wait, Morg. I have to get Peter ready now. Do you want to pass me his underwear?” He grabbed the dress clothes off the back of the door that Pepper hung up for him and picked Peter up so he was standing on the bed.
“Yay! This for Morgan’s birthday?” Peter asked as he stepped into his underwear and excitedly started to jump on the bed. Tony couldn’t wait to see his kids' faces when they saw what the yard looked like.
“Yeah! Aren’t you excited? We’re gonna eat so much cake.” Tony was looking forward to that out of everything. He wanted to sit as a family and celebrate a birthday with the delicious cake, the best part about everything was that he had Peter.
After getting Peter dressed in his shorts and button up dress top, Tony lifted Peter off the bed to bring him in the bathroom so he could do his hair. He couldn’t help but coo at how adorable Peter looked.
Morgan seemed to agree with him. “You look so cute, Petey. We get to take pictures together!”
Peter squealed while Tony put the gel into his hair, messing it up so it made his curls stick out more. “Look how cute you look, Petey. I could just eat you up.”
Peter giggled as Tony lifted him back into his arms to press a bunch of kisses to his face. “No! Then ‘dare be nothin’ left.”
“I love you so much. So much, Petey.” He pressed a bunch of kisses to his face again before setting him on the floor and opening up the bedroom door. “Let’s go show mommy and get this party started.”