Morgan Stark lost her father when she was only a few years old. But that didn't mean that she grew up without people other than her mother taking care of her. There were people who felt like they were her brothers and sisters, there were a lot of women she called "Aunt", there were several men one could call a father figure and there had even been one man who was to her what a grandfather is to most kids. She was loved by so many people, most of whom had loved her father until the day he died.
And just as they all meant something different to her even at her young age, they all saw something different in her.
She had known Rhodey for all her life and loved him with all her heart. He had been her father's best friend and was family to her. And she had always been family to him as well. But after Tony had died, she also became his connection to the best friend he'd lost. Her kind eyes and the way she tilted her head whenever she tried to understand something reminded him so much of Tony that at first, it was hard to spend more than a few minutes with her. But she needed him and he stayed. He held her while she was crying, only when her mother wasn't in the room and couldn't hear her, as long as Pepper was there Morgan never shed a tear. He watched Disney movies and had tea parties with her. He did all the small things Tony used to do. Not the big things, he had no right to pretend to be her father. But playing with her and listening to her ramblings while Pepper was at Stark Industries, that he could do. Especially because every time he left the house at the lake a big smile was on his lips.
Steve knew how to take care of children. And he knew what being a grandfather meant. Because he had both kids and grandchildren. In a different timeline, yes, but he still remembered how to properly read bed time stories and exactly how many hints to give when Morgan was stuck doing a puzzle (her puzzles were way harder than the ones his grandchildren played with, but that wasn't really a surprise to anyone who had known Tony Stark). And so he did that. There wasn't really anything else he could do. Peggy had died years ago and his children and grandchildren did not exist in the world he had returned to. It had been hard to leave them behind but he had had a shield which needed to be brought to its new rightful owner. And he had to see Bucky again. And Pepper, Clint, Fury, all of the people he had known decades ago. He knew he was old and wouldn't have much time but spending it with Morgan felt right. The last time they spent time together, they tried to play chess. Apparently Tony had shown Morgan the basic rules before but she hadn't had anyone to play with for a while. They got through two games when Steve had to tell her that he was too tired to continue. So Morgan went inside and sent the people gathered at the kitchen table outside. Bucky and Sam stood next to Steve when he took his last breath, right there in the rocking chair on Tony's porch. Pepper tried to keep Morgan inside but she ran out and held Steve's hand. When his mind drifted away he was smiling. Smiling because he was about to see Peggy again. And because even though both he and Tony were gone, there were enough people left to take care of the world. Sam and Bucky and the others he had fought with. But also Morgan. She was the future.
Sam and Bucky didn't dare to spend too much time close to Pepper at first. Mostly because they felt like Tony hadn't liked them all too much. Well, Bucky was sure of it. He couldn't believe that Tony could ever forgive him for what he did. But after the first year passed and they all gathered at Tony's house again, to mourn him and Steve but also to celebrate the return of everyone, his mind was changed. By a little girl with brown hair and a soft smile on her lips. She told him about the stories her father had told her. About the man who had been sleeping for a very long time and hurt people while he was asleep. And how her father had told her that he used to believe it was the man's fault but that that was bs. She wasn't really sure what bs meant but she was pretty sure that it meant that her daddy had been wrong. When Bucky asked her what she thought about the sleeping man she said that no one could control what they did while they were sleeping. She told him, that sometimes she got up and walked over to her mom's room while she was asleep and she couldn't remember in the morning. So was it really her fault when she tripped and pushed down that ugly old vase that used to stand on the dresser in her parent's room? No, it wasn't. When she saw the sad look in Bucky's eyes, she hugged him and then turned away and skipped over to Pepper. Bucky kept his eyes on her and smiled, still with tears in his eyes. Sam came up to him and put a hand on his shoulder, and Bucky was almost sure that his friend was about to say told you so. But he didn't, he just stood there and let him know that he was there. And slowly, Bucky began to forgive himself. If Tony could, then he should too. Years later he thanked Morgan for giving him what he had been looking for for years. She couldn't even remember the incident and had no idea what he meant until she saw his smile. Peace.
May Parker had found herself taking care of a child that wasn't hers once before. That child had been her own nephew, but this girl she babysat whenever she could, was basically a stranger, and the daughter of strangers. But once again she saw a little kid after losing a parent and couldn't help but do anything she could to let Morgan know that there were still people who loved her. And even though it had been years since Peter came to live with her and Ben, May remembered what had helped him back then. And so she made gallons of hot chocolate over the next few years. She sprinkled marshmallows on top and told Morgan to keep it a secret from her mother, just as she had asked Peter to keep the enormous amounts of sugary clouds a secret from his uncle. And they painted in coloring books together, listening to music, just being there for each other. Morgan was so much like Peter had been back then that it kept breaking May's heart over and over. That girl was incredibly strong and determined to not let her mother see her cry. But no four-year-old girl can lose her father without crying from time to time. So when she had to, she curled up in May's lap if she was there and May just held her. She had been worried about the days she wasn't there for Morgan until Rhodes told her that the girl cried in his arms too. And so they kept that secret from her mother. May loved spending time with the girl and Pepper started taking her daughter with her to New York whenever she had to be at Stark Industries in person. She left her with May because she knew that she was well taken care of. And May was glad to have someone to take care of. Especially when Peter was out in his suit and she hadn't heard from him in a while. Then they'd sit together in front of the TV and zap through the channels, looking for a mention of Spider-Man. And whenever May was about to lose hope and spiraled back into the feeling of dread that had taken hold of her heart after Peter got beamed up to space, Morgan would take her hand and tell her that everything was fine and that Peter had to come home. There was food and he was always hungry so he'd be back. And even when Morgan wasn't there and May feared for her nephew's life, she heard the girls voice in her head, telling her that everything was going to be okay.
There were several people who stopped by the Starks' house every now and then, and even though she didn't know their names or just couldn't remember them, Morgan loved spending time with them.
There was the red-haired girl who always acted tough but once Morgan invited her to a tea party she actually looked as young as she had to be.
And the man with the scars who always brought his family and wouldn't let them out of his sight. Morgan became friends with his children, the kind of friends you love playing with but when they leave your house you don't really miss them because you know that someday they'll probably come back and you can just keep playing with them.
There was the blonde woman who was almost as strong as Morgan's mommy. But she had better stories to tell, about space and people who can look like whoever they want to be. She told Morgan that she could be whoever she wanted to be too, and Morgan told her that she knew that.
The blonde sometimes visited together with a funny dark-haired woman who taught Morgan how to kick someone who hurt her.
The blue girl that had visited them once taught Morgan something else: a game her father had taught her in space. She had some amazing stories to tell too, but mommy wouldn't let her tell them because apparently, Morgan was too young.
So Morgan was always happy when someone else came to visit them who people thought was too young too. Especially when the other girl brought the things she made at home, the robots and funny bracelets. She promised Morgan to help her build something too, once she knew what she wanted to build.
The big green guy told her that he could help her figure out what she wanted to make, but then he sat on one of her dolls so Morgan wasn't really sure if he'd be much of a help.
And the man with the eye patch she was kind of afraid of at first. That was until she met his cat and saw how he was around it.
And there was the tall sad man who never failed to put on a smile if someone seemed to worry about him. He told Morgan that he lost his brother and told her that his brother used to turn himself into a snake when they were younger. So they started to look for snakes outside and if they found one, they'd ask it if it was the blond man's brother or maybe knew where they could find him.
Happy Hogan had been working for Tony Stark for almost thirty years. And even when Tony wasn't there anymore he still kept an eye on things. On Tony's legacy. His inventions were safely stored away until the day Morgan would be old enough to understand them. That was what Tony had asked him to do. Keep them out of her hands, just in case she turned out to be like him. Although Happy was pretty sure that if Morgan really turned out to be like her father (which he was pretty sure of, judging from how smart and confident she was already) she would build her own superhero suits and tech before going to high school. But he had made a promise and he kept those. So he visited the storage facility every month. Only because he had to make sure everything was alright. Not because the suits and tech made him feel connected to Tony or anything. And taking care of Morgan he only did out of obligation as well. After the funeral, when Peter and Harley and with them May Parker left and only Pepper and Morgan stayed behind, Pepper completely gave in to her loss. She spent three days in bed and didn't leave her room. But Happy was there to take care of Morgan and to help her make some soup for her sick mommy. He had taken care of Tony's daughter during and right after the battle when Pepper hadn't been able to come home yet. They were a well-coordinated team and used to living together. Happy knew that Morgan needed her space every now and then even though she was only four years old. He was pretty sure that it was because she didn't want to spend all her time with people dumber than her and since neither Tony nor the two boys were around, she had to do with her own company. But those few breaks, half hours of being alone, were welcome to him too. He spent that time in the living room, looking at pictures. There weren't that many and Tony was only in half of them but Happy preferred the actual printed out pictures in their frames to the thousands of pictures FRIDAY could have probably found of Tony. Because in the pictures taken in public, Tony was wearing a mask. The ones in his home showed him how he actually had been. One day while washing the bowls he and Morgan had used for breakfast Happy looked up and saw the picture of Tony and the kid from Queens. They held a certificate upside down in one hand each and were giving each other bunny ears with the other. Happy had taken the photo. As well as the one Stark Industries had actually published. He asked FRIDAY to pull up the official picture and the differences were so apparent that it hurt him. The smile on the kid's face was the exact same genuine smile but Tony's was so different. In one picture he looked like the genius, billionaire playboy philanthropist he had wanted everyone to believe he was and in the other one, he actually looked happy. He looked the way he had looked every day since the day Morgan was born. Happy felt one tear trickling down his cheek and he hated himself for crying. Because he really couldn't lose it at that moment. Pepper needed him. Morgan needed him. And in that second, Morgan came back into the room, followed by her mother and they both went over to Happy to hug him. They went out to eat that night (they had cheeseburgers in honor of Tony) and it became their Saturday night tradition. And every time they ate together, Morgan asked Happy to tell a story about Tony. Just a few minutes of anecdotes, and that way they kept him alive together.
The two people who actually became family after the snap were the two boys with the brown hair and long legs. They already looked like brothers and she fit in right away.
In the beginning, Harley was the only person at the house who laughed. Right after Tony Stark had died, no one dared to laugh around Pepper and Morgan. The little girl realized they were treating her like something that could break any second and she kind of hated it. But they also treated her mother that way. Didn't they know that Pepper Stark was the strongest woman on the planet? But when Harley came to the funeral and stayed for a few days after, that all changed. He was laughing with Morgan and telling jokes and making silly faces. Morgan's belly hurt for days after he left just from laughing so hard. He told her that her dad used to make him laugh whenever they were together and so he decided to make her laugh too. He told her the jokes his sister had loved at the same age and some of the dumber ones people his age still laughed at. It had taken him years to process losing his little sister and he never really had gotten over her death. But now, within a few days, he got back two sisters. His own at home was just as young as she had been when she died five years ago and it was so incredibly easy to get back to their old level of closeness that he almost forgot about the heartache he had gone through after losing her. And Morgan was such a smart and open girl that being with her made him feel like he had known her forever. After a few days of playing hide and seek and catching each other around the house, Harley realized that in his head his sister had grown younger and younger with every year he had lived without her. She wasn't actually the baby girl as which he remembered her. And he understood that he missed that little girl, who hadn't died and come back to life five years later. Who couldn't remember feeling every cell in her body disintegrate and turn to ash and dust. He had spoken to a few people Thanos had killed and all of them remembered the feeling, though no one had felt it as much as Peter had. Still, it couldn't have been pleasant judging by the way their eyes shifted to the ground. And his sister was no different. She had lost something that he was mourning more than she herself probably was. She lost her naivete, her innocence, the freedom of being a child. And he had too. He had been a teenager when Thanos first attacked, barely sixteen when he lost his little sister and half of all his friends. He wasn't a child anymore from that day on. Losing his sister was hard on him but so much worse for his mother. So besides trying to finish high school with half the teachers and trying to find a job because his mother wasn't needed at hers anymore, he was also trying to take care of her. Until she finally got back up two years ago, just in time for him to leave to go to college. But playing in the garden with Morgan and Peter, chasing her soccer ball and running from Peter's webs gave him some of that freedom he had missed so much back. He laughed and ran and sang to the songs they played in Tony's lab. He built a small robot, only designed to wave back at people who waved at it, just to see Morgan's eyes light up every time she did. Peter and him found some blueprints of Tony's and looked them through together, finding small flaws that Tony surely would have been able to find with a little more time. And Morgan watched them, for hours on end, content with just sitting there with some skittles and observing them. Reminding them to just have some fun. To laugh and play and fool around with some fireworks they found. And Harley loved every second he spent with Morgan and her free laugh at his stupid jokes and the way she hugged his legs whenever he just couldn't make a joke. He loved his little sister.
Peter had never had a sibling. Or a cousin. He grew up with Ned but that wasn't the same. But spending time with Morgan and Harley made him realize that he was no longer an only child. He had an older brother who was even more chaotic than him and a younger sister they both doted on endlessly. They watched movies (Peter had missed five years of cinematic history. Catching up took them forever because they always had to watch prequels for Morgan's sake and got sidetracked all the time, having to watch an old movie before they could continue working on the list they had compiled) and played catch and soccer in the garden or with Morgan's Barbies in her room and developed ideas for robots (Morgan wanted one that could puke freshly made popcorn; they both laughed at the idea but unbeknownst to the other built exactly that kind of robot for Christmas; so Morgan ended up with one in her room and one in the living room) and listened to Tony's songs that FRIDAY played throughout the entire house. But even when they weren't as happy and carefree as they were most days they were there for each other. Morgan sat with Peter every time he was struck by a sudden wave of grief and guilt and he did the same when Morgan felt down. They were simply there for each other, because what more could they do? For the first few weeks, Peter felt so guilty because of what had happened to Tony. He had had the gauntlet in his hand, maybe he should have used it? He was stronger than normal humans, even stronger than Tony Stark. Maybe he could have survived. And even if it had killed him, his life would have been better than the one of a father. Until he walked in on Morgan and Harley playing checkers once. He had taught Morgan only a few hours before and already she was beating the crap out of Harley. She laughed as she won and took his final piece and Harley just smiled down at her. Peter had been beating himself up over not saving Tony for months by then. But to fully understand everything he first had to get over some things that battle had left him with. It took him days to stop crying whenever someone mentioned his mentor's name, but every time he did someone was there to hold him. Or just hold his hand because she was way too small to really hug him. And it took Peter weeks to stop flinching at every sudden loud noise, every bang of a door closed too quickly. He knew that people saw the way those sounds affected him but no one dared to pressure him into talking. Until one day Morgan told him that they could just let FRIDAY play music all the time and then the noises would be drowned out by AC/DC, Black Sabbath, and Metallica. It might have taken the others a while to get used to the constant noise but Peter and Morgan just told them to dance instead of walk, just as the two of them did. But only when he forgot to turn on the music at home in Queens one morning and didn't notice for a few hours Peter was struck by the sudden realization that the car horns outside didn't scare him anymore. And after finally feeling like himself again for a few weeks he could even begin to think about what had happened. He was thinking about Tony the whole weekend he spent with Pepper and Morgan and Harley that October, almost six months after Tony's death. He had been thinking about it while teaching Morgan how to play Checkers and while getting more snacks. And when he came back he saw the little girl viciously beat Harley and laugh out loud while the young man smiled down at her. And at that moment Peter realized that he couldn't keep hating himself for what he had been unable to do. He was just a child. A child like Morgan and Harley. Tony knew what using the gauntlet meant for him. But Peter had to trust that his mentor had also known that his sacrifice would make sure that his daughter got to grew up in a world full of love. A world that would never forget what her father did for them. Tony gave his life so that no one else would ever loose theirs fighting Thanos. And all they could do now was live their lives to the fullest and always remind themselves and each other of his sacrifice. Peter knew that he would never forget. And he'd remind Morgan that she was loved, every day, for as long as he could.
Because she was.
She had been loved by her father until he took his last breath and she was loved by all the people he had left behind. And none of them would ever let her forget that.