When peter wakes up, it’s to the concerned look of Aunt May and a white room with beeping machines. He blinks. From the feel of the room he thinks he’s in Stark tower. But since when did that have a medical ward? What happened? The last thing he remembers is being on a random ass planet with thanos disappearing behind him, his hand disappearing in front of him as Mr Stark tells him he’s going to be okay. His emotions weigh him down into the bed, and he distinctly hears aunt may say something, but it sounds too muffled. Like she’s underwater. Too many noises and senses, he can feel the clock ticking in a far away room and the softness of his blanket and knows his spidey senses haven’t recovered from the fight yet. “-ter? Peter? Come on that’s it, look at me baby” he melts into his Aunts touch, glad for the familiarity. But when the door slides open, he jumps out of his skin, his instincts kicking in an- yep he’s stuck to the ceiling. He looks at a woman’s amused face and tilts his head, trying to get a view of her face from upside down.
“Oh,,,hey. I’m peter?” The woman laughs, walking further into the room while he peels himself off the ceiling and blushes. “Yes, I remember. Peter Parker, right?” Her smile is subdued and all memories flash in front of his face, the war. Thanos disintegrating and....Mr Stark was hurt! He must convey his panic on his face because she places a hand comfortingly on his shoulder, “Tony is fine, just recovering. You, on the other hand, have been asleep for several days” He grins sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck and standing up off the bed. “That happens after battles, my senses need time to calm down because they go into overdrive when I’m hurt” he flinches at the door opening again, “everything is a bit bright and loud for a couple of days.”
The woman, Carol Danvers,- made up name captain marvel- is actually just leaving now to check on the damage on other planets. She tells him tony had asked her personally to check on him, saying that he was the future of their world. He’s pretty certain he went an alarming shade of red at this, thanking her profusely and brushing off the compliments as quickly as he could. She looked him up and down once more, before nodding and walking away. Once she’d left Aunt May tried to cox him back into bed but she couldn’t, he needed to check on Mr Stark and he wouldn’t be able to sleep until he knew he was okay. “I’ll just go find him and then come home, I promise, I’ll be fine!” She hugged him tightly, whispering that she loved him before heading out of stark tower. He wandered down the hall for a minutes, passing people in various states of pain and recovery before getting to the elevator and asking friday to take him to Mr Starks floor. “Of course, Mr Parker. He is with Mrs stark and Morgan at the moment but I have been instructed to send you straight up when you woke”
He crinkled his nose, his head still spinning, who was Morgan? Has he already met this person? I suppose he’d find out soon. The elevator dinged and he opened the door to a room full of avengers. His spidey senses slowing the room down as he watched them all tense. He flinched as they all turned their weapons on him, obviously still in battle mode several days after they’d won. Peter wasn’t surprised. “Who are you?” He held up his hands at Captain Americas question, taking a step into the room but freezing as a gun cocked. Peter scanned the room, counting at least 4 of his childhood idols sitting in the room. He’d only ever met them in battle, never as himself, always as Spider-Man.
“Answer the question, son.” He opened his mouth, no words coming out as pepper came storming into the room. “What are you all doing! Steve, Natasha, Clint, sit down and put your weapons away!” He smiled at her as she turned her attention to him, giving her a hug and ignoring everyone’s confused looks. “Tony is in there, first door on the right. He’s not awake but I’m sure that won’t stop you.” Peter thanked her, quickly taking off in that direction. Doing everything but running if only to stop embarrassing himself in front of literal superhero’s. His head cocked as he hears Steve quietly asking who he is, but he doesn’t hear the response because... There’s a little girl sitting on the edge of the bed with a sleeping Tony lying next to her. She looks up and blinks at him, before shyly waving. Ah, it makes sense now, this is Morgan.
He waves back, suddenly feeling very out of place. He must have been gone for a really long time if mr stark and pepper have a kid. He feels lost, a million thoughts flashing in his mind. He wasn’t there when she was born. Or when they found out pepper was pregnant. Or for their wedding. He missed so much in Mr Starks life, what if he didn’t want peter around anymore? “Um, hi, little girl?” He internally rolls his eyes at himself, “I’m peter” She smiles, nodding as if she knows him.
“Spider-Man” she said, nodding, as if it’s obvious. He walks slowly into the room, taking in mr starks burn marks and injuries, he could see the wakandian technology littered around the room and knew that mr stark would be fine. Peter let out a breath he hadn’t realised he’d been holding, quietly grabbing his mentors hand. Pepper knocked quietly on the door, popping the bubble peter had put around the three of them. He didn’t mind, he felt like she was family at this point. “You okay?” She grimaced as she looked him up and down, and he realised for the first time that he probably looked like shit. He chuckled, nodding. “I am now that you guys are okay” he grinned, “hey we weren’t the ones that died, kid” he turned at the sound of that voice, “Mr Stark! How are you feeling?” Tony grunted as he sat up, “better now that I know you’re safe.” Morgan quietly passed her dad a drawing, and while he gushed about how amazing it was peter pulled pepper aside. “How’s he been? Is Wakanda helping? His face looks a lot better that’s a good sign right?” He babbled on before pepper placed a hand on his shoulder, stopping him. “Everything is gonna be fine” Those words. Those words were never true for peter. First his parents, then his uncle Ben, and now almost Tony. Almost. He blinked away the tears, “I can’t lose him” he gave her a watery look, one she returned. “I can’t lose anyone else, pepper, I can’t” She just pulled him into a hug, pretending she didn’t feel the tears on her shoulder. He felt a small hand tug at his jeans, looking down to see Morgan holding up a drawing of her, Tony and pepper. He blinked at her, before realising she was handing it to him and kneeling next to her.
“This is beautiful, Morgan! You’re very talented” she grinned, wringing her hands together and blushing at him. It seemed the child liked him. After Tony went back to sleep, pepper looked like she was ready to drop as well, so peter volunteered to watch Morgan. He took her into the sitting room, everyone had gone back to their separate rooms now so it was empty. He let out a deep breath, glad he didn’t have to explain who he was to anyone. “So!” He grinned at the small girl, “what do you want to do? We could watch a movie or play a game or have some food?” She pointed towards the tv and shouted “Disney movie!” He couldn’t argue with that. Pepper comes down a few hours later, feeling more well rested than she had in weeks, after checking on Tony she heads towards the living room. Hearing noise from down the halls and smiling as songs from lion king filled her ears. It was obviously just finishing, Morgan giggling uncontrollably as peter held her up high, mimicking the end of the movie. He put her down carefully as he saw pepper, grinning as Morgan ran up to her and hugged her. It was around 5pm now, peter and pepper talking while Morgan did some more drawings. It felt nice to speak to someone about everything that had happened. They were sitting in Tonys room, peter offering to get everyone drinks and heading towards the kitchen, humming softly under his breath. He ran into Natasha again, tensing up as he slowly got himself, pepper and Morgan some diet cokes. The silence was deafening between them, but he didn’t know what to say.
As peter went to leave, Natasha’s eyes followed him closely. “Um...” he clears his throat, “I heard you drop kicked happy once?” She nodded slowly, “that’s cool, I love that story...I’m peter by the way” He shook hands with her, smiling slightly in an attempt to seem friendly and less awkward. “I’m Natasha, but I’m sure Tony has told you that?” He nods before realising his mistake and quickly shaking his head, “oh no! Mr Stark doesn’t tell me things, I’m just his intern!” She tilts her head, looking at him in a way that reminds him of a lion looking at its next meal. “Stark industries doesn’t take interns.” This time it wasn’t Natasha speaking, peter audibly gulping as captain America himself walks into the room. “Well, captain America, sir, I’m kind of an exception! I guess because I’m his intern I must be the first one!” He babbles, trying not to sweat under the stare of America’s number one superhero -after Mr Stark obviously. “We’ve noticed you’re the exception son, we’re just trying out figure out why” he hadn’t noticed Clint and Thor were in the room as well until they agreed with Steve. Quietly cursing his messed up senses he tried to look for an escape route, Steve stopping him. “What are you to Tony?” “Well, I’m, I don’t know?” They obviously didn’t like that answer because he kept getting questions thrown at him, dodging them as much as he could. But he was running out of excuses.
“Oh, don’t get your panties in a twist Steve, he’s my son.” The room went quiet, everyone turning to look at where Tony stood in the doorway. Clint quickly standing up to help him into a seat. “How did you hide ANOTHER kid from us?” They all turned their questions to Tony, peter stood there in complete silence. Did Tony just call him his son? He can’t have heard that wrong. Yes, he always felt Tony was a father figure in his life and there was that one time he’d accidentally called him dad but he never thought Tony would call him son. “Pete? Peter, come on kid snap out of it” he felt someone poke him, making him jump 6 feet into the air before hitting the wall...and sticking to it. “Aw man why does this keep happening? Mr Stark I think there’s something up with my senses I-“ he paused, realising his mistake as every avenger looked at him like he’d just grown another head. Steve was the first to talk, “...Brooklyn?” Peter nodded slowly, climbing off the wall and sitting down next to Tony. The entire room was quiet.
“We took a CHILD INTO A WAR?”
“TONY HES SO YOUNG”
“HE FOUGHT THANOS!” He saw Tony’s uncomfortable face and frowned at the avengers, “hey! Don’t you think he feels bad enough about thanos! I mean I missed his freaking wedding because of that guy!!” Tony snorted, “that’s what you’re worried about? You missing my wedding.” Peter just shrugged, as If to say, yeah duh. The bickering died down as Pepper and Morgan joined them in the living room, Morgan jumping onto her dads lap and smiling up at him. Peter felt the entire room melt at that moment, as if everyone was finally accepting the fact that they’d won. The world was safe. It was nice, being surrounded by superheroes who all understood the pain of loosing people in your life. But looking at all of their faces, all their dark, brooding faces that lit up while looking at that one little girl. He knew they were all gonna be okay. He also knew that Morgan stark was gonna do big things when she grew up. How couldn’t she? She had a band of superheroes ready to protect her against the world, and he would be first in line.