Chapter 22
EMERSON
Muffled voices slowly woke her up as she felt the sign of a headache forming. What was wrong with her body? She ached all over and took her time slowly blinking her eyes open awake.
The image was blurry, but after blinking a few times, she could make out she was lying on the couch surrounded by her family.
Which was...unsettling.
So she’s hungover, she thinks suddenly remembering her and Pete drank last night, she didn’t need babysitters.
“What?” she croaked out, glaring at the three until she felt a lump shift next to her. Legs make themselves visible as she slowly registers Peter as the lump shifting the shared covers around - and stealing them.
“Gimme,” she whined as she dragged the blankets back and turned over to smush her face back into the pillow.
“Do they not remember?” she heard Miles ask before Peter answered with a questioning grunt.
“How about we get some fluids in them first?” a voice that she was pretty sure belonged to her Pop asked as someone tried to pry the blanket from her.
“Nooo,” she whined as she buried herself further into the cushions.
“Whahapp’n?” Peter groaned as she felt him shift to sit up on the couch.
“They really don’t remember?” Miles asked again.
“What’d we do?” Peter asked as she heard him gulp some water.
“Do you remember drinking?” she heard her Dad ask them.
“That I remember...” Peter croaked groggily.
“But not what happened after, huh?” Pop spoke up again. Jesus what embarrassing thing did they do last night?
“Please tell me you didn’t record it and send it to Wade…”
“No, actually he was here last ni-” Miles said before abruptly stopping with an ‘oomph’ after obviously being hit by one or both of their dads. Emerson finally pulled her face out of the cushion just in time for her older brother to shout in her ear.
“WHAT?”
“Jesus Christ PETER!” she cried in pain before falling back into the cushions. Whatever was happening was juicy, but her hangover was making it impossible to get any joy out of it.
And top it off, her family only chuckled at her pain.
She buried her head further into the cushions, wondering if she could meditate to block them out.
“Why was he here?” Peter asked with a growl. Oh, right. He’s pissed at Wade.
“Well,” she heard her Dad say, “something happened last night when you two drank…”
“Yes! I get that. What happened?!” Peter snapped. Then she heard her Pops begin to reprimand him before also hearing her Dad shush the blonde.
“As the king of hangovers, he gets a pass on that one, babe.” She couldn’t help chuckling at that. “Let’s just be glad it was Stephen’s potion and not Thor’s mead.”
“The stuff you guys drank last night made you deage twenty plus years,” short, sweet, to the point Miles finally answered Peter as the words...then...suddenly hit Emerson.
That woke her the fuck up. Quicker than coffee would’ve done. She shot up out of the cushions and turned to the men looking sympathetically at her.
“Water?” Pop asked as he handed her a glass full of the best damn liquid on the planet. She ignored the blonde’s noises of disapproval from completely chugging the entire glass in favor of completely chugging the entire glass. She handed it back to him, but otherwise felt like she was on autopilot.
The words - deaged twenty plus years - were still ringing in her head to pay anything else any mind.
“Em?” her Dad asked gently as he tentatively reached a hand out to her. She couldn’t keep her gaze away from her hands in her lap as they began to shake.
“Goddammit JARVIS delete every bit of footage that exists!” Peter snapped in alarm while Emerson focused on not having a panic attack.
“Oh honey that has long since been saved onto various hard drives,” Pop spoke up in sympathy.
“Emerson nothing happened,” her Dad said quietly as one of his hands came into her vision, gently placing his in hers. After a moment, she squeezed her hands tightly around his, grounding herself back to the present as she went over other grounding techniques in her head.
“Okay well can someone at least tell me why my husband was - wait one goddammit minute Miles Morales Stark…” she heard her brother growl as a chuckle escaped her.
“He’s your husband! I thought he deserved to know. Come on, I already got this lecture from dads…” her little brother defended himself.
“You with me, baby girl?” her Dad asked her as she slowly brought her eyes up to meet his. He offered her a small smile as she slowly returned it and nodded in response.
“For the record, you were an adorable four year old,” her Pops added with a smile as she shot him a fake glare.
“Please tell me I just hid from you guys the whole time,” she groaned out as she flopped back against the couch.
“You spent a few minutes in the hallway closet, but Peter talked you out of it,” Pop said with a beaming smile towards his eldest.
“Great,” Peter muttered as he joined his sister in falling back against the cushions.
“You actually warmed up pretty quickly to us when Peter told you we were Avengers,” her Dad said with an almost smug grin. Pop jabbed him in his ribs with his elbow, causing the genius to let out a laugh before he turned to pout at the other man.
“What? I didn’t get to gloat before!” the brunette whined as Emerson stared at her fathers in confusion.
“You know... I think I’d rather not know whatever it was I said…” she said quietly as she racked her brain for what her four year old self knew about superheros.
“I’m your favorite!” the genius shouted as he threw his arms up in the air - before getting smacked up the backside of his head by his husband.
Emerson just stared at the ridiculous men - cut her some slack she was still hungover - before the thought suddenly smacked her in the face. A small smile slowly appeared on her face as she wonders how she’d made it this long without him finding out.
Iron Man - at ONE TIME in her life - had been her favorite Avenger.
From apparently four years old until like a month before she met him, actually. (Then she had seen Black Panther on the news and quickly changed teams) She’d been too intimidated the first time she met him to say anything and after meeting him - well...she was kind of a little shit who didn’t want to stroke the man’s already suffocating ego.
Yes! Okay? Yes. Iron Man had been her favorite superhero (her wife has held the title the last ten years, thank you very much) for the first chunk of her life.
But to be fair, he had saved her life.
And maybe now was the time to voice it?
She looks up at her Dad, her wonderful, ridiculous, man child of a parent and decides it’s time.
“You got me,” she said with a smile, regretting it when he stood up in triumph as the collective rest of her wonderful, ridiculous family groaned.
“Look what you’ve done, Emerson,” Peter chastised.
“Her name was Ashley,” Miles muttered, but still loud enough for her to hear. She turned to him before being completely distracted by her Dad full on dancing in front of her.
“Ack! What the hell -? DAD! Either stop what you’re doing or I won’t tell you why!” she threatened, though it was undercut by her chuckling. He froze at that, turning to look at her in genuine surprise. Which...admittedly...surprised her.
“Wait, it’s real? It wasn’t just some...magic potion side effects?” he asked, stilling above her, as Emerson felt her heart burst at his insecurities. The amount of love and appreciation she already had for him, combined with the genuine surprise from the normally cocky genius filled her with the sudden urge to confess.
“Well yeah, you saved me-”
She was, of course, interrupted by her forever ranting father.
“Since you were fifteen?? Not too shabby, eh Steven? How does it feel, coming in second? Does it hurt? Peter may have prefered Hulk and Miles was obviously in love with Spiderman-”
“HEy now,” Miles piped in as Emerson decided to try and control the conversation again.
“No! Not since I was fifteen. You saved me when I was four,” she explained, smiling as her boys all physically looked back at her - Peter sitting up as Miles and Pop peered around her Dad - all in confusion.
She couldn’t help but laugh.
“What happened?” Pop asked in concern, stretching his arms out to yank his husband to sit back down on the coffee table next to him. The genius yelped but was immediately silenced by his husband’s hand firmly keeping his mouth shut. The blonde, somehow able to keep a straight face, then ushered for her to continue.
She did after she let out another laugh.
“Remember Hammer’s bots crashing the Stark Expo twenty-fourish years ago?” she asked as she studied her Dad’s face. Her Pop had gently removed his hand, which was surprisingly without saliva.
The genius’ brows were furrowed as he looked deep in thought. She’d only seen that face when he was doing some kind of equation.
“When did I…?” he asked quietly before stopping himself, staring at a spot on the floor as he shifted his eyes in calculation.
“One was stomping towards me and you flew in and tackled him into a nearby dumpster. Then you turned to me and gave me a thumbs up, which I returned, then you flew off to kick more ass.”
“Oh my goodness, that is precious,” her Pop said with a hand to his chest. That got her and her brothers groaning in unison - their Pop was the biggest sap - as she noticed her traitorous brothers share a look.
“Say Miles, why don’t I go watch while you whip up something greasy for your poor hungover siblings?” Peter asked as he dragged the teen into the kitchen with him.
Traitors, Emerson thinks to herself as her Pop took Peter’s spot next to her and pulled her into a strong embrace. The quick movement wasn’t exactly welcome with a hangover, but she’d be lying if she said she didn’t enjoy a loving hug from her Pop.
“Um, sweetheart?” her Pop asked, pulling back to look her in the eye. “Is Miles aware...of your past?” he asked her gently.
“I do remember you!” Dad interrupted them before clearing his throat and motioning for them to continue their conversation.
“I’m guessing no by your question?”
“He just...seemed shocked you were skittish,” he said with sad eyes that hurt Em’s heart.
“Well, if he has any questions he can come to me,” she said tiredly.
“He started to ask us, but I didn’t think it was my place…” her Pop trailed off as he stood up.
“It’s fine, if he feels more comfortable asking you guys, then it’s fine. I honestly don’t care. If he wants to come to me, he’ll have to wait until I’ve slept this off and eaten something,” she says as she lays down again on the couch, pulling the blanket over head.
She doesn’t look at her parents, but she can feel them having a silent conversation with each other.
“Alright sweet girl, well we’ll let you get to it then,” her Dad said quietly as he patted her blanket covered leg. Her Pop pulled the blankets back and planted a quick kiss on her forehead.
She scoffed out a laugh as he pulled the blankets back over her before giving her shoulder a quick rub in comfort.
“We’ll have food and coffee ready whenever you wake up, Thumper,” her Pop said before she heard the sounds of footsteps leaving.