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“Auntie Nat!” Morgan’s squeal of delight interrupted Natasha’s train of thought.
She looked up from her cup of coffee and the holograms dancing in front of her. They were updates to the design of her Iron suit that Tony had sent her a few hours ago, along with the question/assumption that she would watch his tag-a-long group of kids.
Not that she needed updates to her suit or Tony even needed to work on the suits. After the whole Thanos and Endgame thing she had retired, as had Tony. Steve bringing her back from the soul realm had been disconcerting to say the least. The discovery that Tony had nearly died, and would have if everyone hadn’t joined forces to disperse the power of the stones, was a horrible one. There were many hours of ranting at him for his recklessness while he argued back that she was the one who had ‘died’ first. (Which no many times he tried to argue, was not a good reason for his attempted sacrifice.)
So now Black Widow and Iron Man were retired, along with Captain America. Steve had gone to return the stones to their proper places in time, coming back to his time with a heavy look in his eyes and giving the shield up to Sam. Natasha didn’t know the whole story but she had a pretty good idea. Bucky’s grateful look, the detailed sketches of Peggy Carter and the long whispered conversations behind doors gave a pretty clear picture.
Steve remained in New York, sharing an apartment with Bucky somewhere downtown that was close to the Stark Tower and close enough to the compound for an emergency call as well. He hadn’t provided this reasoning for his choice of a home but Natasha suspected. Tony lived full time at the lake cabin now and was preparing to give ownership of the company over to Harley and Peter, not that he had told them that of course.
Her mind drifted back to the present, Morgan Stark, the spitting image of her father with a wit to match, was sprinting towards Natasha. Peter and Harley followed at a much more casual pace, animatedly discussing something. Probably designs for their suits (yes, their suits. Harley was considering taking up the mantle of Iron man, which Tony was endlessly anxious about. His mother-henning and outright opposition forced Harley to continue upgrades in secret. Natasha was working on bringing Tony around.) or some other such engineering dispute.
“Miss Stark,” She greeted cooly, setting her coffee down and opening her arms up for a hug. Morgan happily obliged, but stepped back quickly. Her face was what Natasha guessed was an attempt at a serious business face, but the five year old hadn’t quite mastered that yet.
“We have a situation,” Morgan informed her.
“Oh? Avengers level threat or errands for Uncle Steve and Uncle Bucky?”
She screwed up her face in thought, “Probably not all the Avengers,” She decided seriously, “Peter wouldn’t know anything about this anyway,” Peter let out an indignant squawk, Natasha valiantly maintained her frown of concern, “Do Uncle Bucky and Steve know anything about makeup or hair dye?”
Natasha blinked. She seriously considered calling up Steve and Bucky to send them on Morgan's errand just for the fun of imagining it. They would do anything for their adopted niece, or at least try. No. She’d save the next Morgan request for them. This was a Day With Auntie Nat situation.
She stood up to give hugs to Peter and Harley.
“How’ve you two been doing? Keeping Tony on his toes?”
“Always,” Harley assured her, “Peter almost gave him a heart attack the other day,”
Peter scowled, “Barely! It was only a stab wound,”
Natasha shook her head at them, “Don’t be so unoriginal, he has a heart condition already. It’s not that hard to give the guy a heart attack.”
Peter momentarily looked horrified, his eyes going big and round like a puppy’s. As if he thought she were actually serious, Natasha had to give him some slack though, she made it hard to tell when she was joking. Harley on the other hand nodded wisely, appreciating the advice.
A very long suffering sigh sounded from below their eye level. Natasha raised her eyebrow, hoping for an explanation from Peter or Harley. They blinked at her, looked at each other and then in unison shrugged at her. An endearing sequence of animation.
“She’s been wound up all day,” Peter offered, “Pepper went to the tower early and Tony had to kick her out of the lab when she almost made an explosive combination of chemicals,” The small smirk from Morgan and past experience made Natasha suspicious that this was not an accident.
“Daddy said we could go get cheeseburgers later but then he forgot. I wanted to play dress up but mommy’s at work and Peter an’ Harley are terrible at it.” Morgan said matter of fact, taking over the conversation with an air of command that would have made her father proud.
“I see,” Natasha nodded, “Well, will you boys be ok here? There should be pizza left over in the fridge and workshop 2 is open. No acrobatics in the gym, Bruce isn’t here to patch you up. It sounds like me and Morgan have a day at the mall to get to.”
“We’ll be fine, Auntie Nat. I’ll keep Peter in line,” Harley assured her, though she was positive that it would be the opposite way around.
“Good to hear. Oh and I think Bucky put a new record on Mario Kart.” She mentioned casually, smirking at their outraged faces.
“How!?” Peter practically ripped out his hair.
Harley grabbed his elbow, draggin Peter out of the room and towards the common area. No doubt to spend the next few hours trying to beat Bucky. The trophy for quickest lap on Mario Kart was a standing competition in the Compound.
“Now, little miss,” Natasha looked down at her niece, “What shall we do first?”
“Cheeseburgers and juice pops!”
“Lunch it is. We’ll take my bike, don’t tell your father.”
...
Cheeseburgers, french fries, and enough sugar to give Tony a hyperactive five year old later, Morgan and Natasha hit the mall.
“What’s on the agenda, little miss? Dying our hair for a mission, getting our nails done, outrageously expensive outfits?”
“Hair first! I want a red stripe,” Morgan bounced happily, eyeing the mall with a general air of excitement.
Natasha smiled, the similarities between Tony and his daughter were hilarious sometimes. For a split second she was back in MIT, snapping pictures of Tony’s newly dyed hair as he whined about it. She briefly considered calling Tony to ask first, then decided against it. They would get dye that should wash out after a month and it’s not like he wouldn’t be charmed by Morgans choice anyways,
“Excellent, I think I’ll get black stripe to match.”
This seemed to please Morgan to no end. They marched into the hair salon like they owned it, asking for matching stripes of color through their hair. An hour later, with stripes that the ladies in the salon fawned over she and Morgan took a selfie together. She quickly sent it off to Rhodey and Pepper, ignored the absurd amount of messages in response and skipped to the nearest designer store with Morgan.
“Every girl needs a first day of school outfit, thanks to your father we have no monetary limits. Go crazy.” Natasha released Morgan into the store.
“I don’t think that’s how it works,” Morgan informed her before bounding over to the section with camo print and ridiculously small but expensive leather jackets.
The girl had good taste, just like her father. Natasha snapped a quick photo of Morgan trying on a black leather jacket in the kiddie mirror. The contemplative expression on her face was adorable. A message popped up on her phone.
shellhead: i see u took morgan out for a mall day, u better not have driven on ur bike
She laughed at Tony’s correct assumption, not even bothering to wonder how Tony found out about the mall day. Natasha sent him the picture she just took along with text ‘she inherited ur taste in fashion, b glad for ur fortune’
shellhead: stop corrupting her, she doesn’t need to look like a hipster at the age of five
Natasha ignored him. Morgan had decided on a golden camo print miniskirt, the leather jacket she had been looking at and ruby red leggings with a matching t-shirt. She bundled them into her small five year old arms, carefully following Natasha as they joined the line. At the front, Morgan insisted on putting them up on the counter despite it being taller than her.
The cashier blinked at the five year old who looked expectantly up at her. The five year old you had just spent over two hundred dollars on a singular outfit. Natasha handed over the golden membership card, using her most casual face, just to see the lady squirm. Morgan gazed at her innocently, her face the picture of unbotheredness. Natasha was very proud.
Normally this kind of obscene spending would not be allowed. Tony wanted his daughter to know how to responsibly manage money. He didn’t want her to be endlessly spoiled, and tried his best to make sure she had some self restraint. (This meant having to say ‘no’ sometimes, he mainly made Pepper do that because it was physically impossible for him to.) However, with the Avengers as her family, resulting in a ridiculous amount of Aunts and Uncles, it was her fate to grow up with everything her heart could ever want.
Besides, Natasha thought, Morgan was her only niece, she could treat the girl to a day at the mall anytime. God knows Tony wouldn’t take her to the mall and Peter and Harley wouldn’t know the first thing about it.
…
The beauty store was next, Morgan had passed on the pedicure (spouting something about how ‘the paint gets ruined when I help int he lab anyway’. Natasha would definitely be asking what Morgan was helping with in the lab and why later.) but she insisted that they get stuff to have a Proper Tea party.
“Who’s invited to this tea party?” Natasha asked Morgan, who was inspecting some labeling on a container of eyeshadow.
“You, obviously, Harley, but not Peter because Peter will sit on the ceiling which is not good party manners.” Natasha hummed in agreement, “Uncle Happy, Aunt May and Uncle Rhodey.”
“Isn’t your father invited?”
“No. He always wants to drink coffee even though I’ve told him it isn’t a coffee party. He said that’s discriminaion and that I was a cruel dictator. I told him I didn’t know what that means.”
Natasha laughed. Sometimes it was easy to remember that Morgan was a five year old simply because she had her fathers intelligence and her mothers tenacity. Being surrounded by her genius adopted brothers and with one of the smartest minds for a father, Morgan was growing up to be very perceptive. She caught on to new things quickly and had a rapidly expanding vocabulary. That being said, there were many things she still didn’t know.
“Peter and Tony can mope about not being invited together then.” Natasha said.
Morgan thought about this, “I suppose that’s ok. Daddy and Peter are always talking about Spider-man and working on Petey’s suits. I tried one of Petey's suits on one time, Karen was nice. But then I accidentally put webs on Daddy’s coffee and he took away my gummy bears,”
Natasha faintly remembered a Karen being mentioned in one of Peter and Harleys conversations one time. Probably another AI that Tony made for Peter.
Morgan was frowning in seeming memory of the lost gummy bears like it was a great injustice. Natasha should really talk to Tony one of these days about what is an effective way to teach kids lab safety. Because depriving them of unnecessary sugar they shouldn’t have in the lab anyways was not a good teaching method.
Morgan handed Natasha two small packs of eyeshadow. In Spiderman colors. She highly doubted that it was a coincidence. Morgan adored her brothers. Harley took this in a stride, assuming the position of older brother with grace since he had practice. Peter was a natural with Morgan, yet he still endlessl worried about corrupting or hurting her despite Tony’s constant reassurances that he was doing a wonderful job.
After handing Morgan her credit card and sending her up to the counter to buy the makeup by herself (You had to teach them confidence young) they made their exit. They had spent four hours at the mall and were carrying enough bags to be part of a Hollywood movie scene.
Thanking Tony silently for the extra storage in her bike, Natasha packed Morgan's finds into the compartment. She tossed the bike helmet at Morgan, who put it on expertly, Bucky and Steve had both taken her out on their bikes enough times before (Not that Tony or Pepper knew about it)
…
The rest of the day passed uneventfully. Peter and Harley had once again claimed their rightful spots as champions of Mario Kart and almost succeeded in hiding the evidence of the explosion in the lab from Natasha. (Again, almost) Morgan put on a fashion show with her new school clothes, her brothers applauded and fawned over her appropriately. True to her secret sentimental side, Natasha snapped hundreds of pictures of the adorable spectacle.
In the end there was no tea party, Morgan had forgotten all about it by the time Natasha had finished applying her makeup in an elaborate (and very sparkly) look.
(“Petey look!” She had squealed, dashing out of the bathroom, grinning wildly.
Peter had gasped exaggeratedly, looking over her Spider-man themed eyeshadow, sharp eyeliner and new red stripe in her hair, “Beautiful! Harls look at Maguna,”
“Well, well, well,” Harley had drawled, letting his southern accent come through to make Morgan giggle, “Ain’t you pretty. Peter, I think you’ve got a fan.”
Peter nodded along, “A very dedicated one, too.”
Morgan was positively beaming, trying her best to not outright laugh at her brother's show.
“Such a dedicated fan deserves a dance, don’t you think Peter?”
“I don’t know how to dance, but I'm sure Harley here does,” Peter whispered to Morgan, who practically bounced.
They danced to All Star and AC/DC for hours.)
Tony arrived at the compound at dinner time, waving his phone wildly at Natasha. Rhodey had forwarded the picture of her and Morgan to him.
“What is this? Are you mocking me? Trying to pass on my mistakes to my daughter?” He raised his eyebrow at her. Natasha was unaffected. She had taught him how to raise his eyebrow like that.
“Good to see you too. Your kids are all in one piece and I’m pretty sure your daughter has passively aggressively mentioned you in conversation several times in the past hour.”
“Oh,” His pretense of outrage was forgotten already, “So she misses me?”
“No idea why, but yes,”
“She obviously has better taste than you,” Tony sniffed, walking towards the kitchen where Peter, Harley and Morgan were talking (read:arguing) about MJ, Peter’s girlfriend who he insisted was not his girlfriend. He and Natasha hung back in the doorway to watch.
“You make goo-goo eyes at MJ everytime we see her,” Harley was saying. Peter looked like he wanted to strangle Harley and was seriously considering it.
“She’s on your phone wallpaper,” Morgan put in helpfully, biting into another pizza slice, “Daddy says that means you’re in love.”
Peter blushed an amusing shade of red, while Harley grinned evilly, “Thanks for the back up Mo-mo.”
“I dunno Pete,” Tony announced his entrance, “They put up a good argument.”
“Tony..” Peter whined, sliding down in his chair.
“Daddy!” Morgan shouted, leaping out of ehr chair and attacked Tony’s legs.
“Maguna,” He greeted, “I see Auntie Nat was fun to be around today,” He squinted at Natasha, questioning Morgan’s Spider-man makeup with his eyes. Natasha smiled innocently back at him and gestured vaguely at the bags of clothes from designer stores. Tony tried to glare at her, but failed miserably, melting when he looked back down at Morgan.
“Uh-huh! She took me to the mall and we got stripes in our hair, it’s like Iron Man colored!”
A ridiculously sappy expression took over Tony’s face, “Is that right? Is Iron Man your favorite superhero? Mommy’s favorite is Iron Man.”
“Iron Man is ok,” Morgan said, “I like Black Widow though! And Petey is cooler!”
Tony’s expression fell, he scrunched up his face as laughter echoed behind him. Harley guffawed and Peter snorted chocolate milk out of his nose.
“Alright, that’s it!” Tony roared playfully, snatching Morgan up and swinging her over his shoulder, she giggled like it was the most hilarious thing in the world, “You all have been corrupted by the Black Widow. It’s time to say goodbye to Auntie Nat and get back home,”
A collective ‘aww’ came from all three kids, even Morgan who was still hanging upside down over Tony’s shoulder.
“I think they like me more, Antoshka,” Natasha gave him a smug grin.
He scowled back, “I told you to stop stealing my kids,”