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1. Pepper: grandson
Pepper’s phone buzzes with a text alert, and Peter looks up so quickly that he almost gives himself whiplash.
Across from him, Morgan does the same, her eyes wide and anxious.
“Who is it?”
“What does it say?”
They speak at the same time, the Candyland board sitting between them quickly forgotten.
Pepper smiles, but it doesn’t reach her eyes. “Nothing,” she assures them. “Just May texting me to check in.”
Peter and Morgan both let out a sigh in unison, half-relieved and half-disappointed. On one hand, it’s not bad news. On the other hand, they still don’t know if Tony is okay.
“Just remember what Dr. Cho said,” Pepper reminds them for the third or fourth time. “This is a very minor, low-risk surgery. Tony is going to be completely fine.”
But Peter can see how tightly she’s gripping her phone — as though it’s a lifeline. He knows that both Pepper and Morgan are remembering the long vigil they’d held over Tony while he’d been in a coma a few months ago.
It was miraculous that Tony had survived snapping with the gauntlet, and even more miraculous that he’d come out of the ordeal in such good shape. He’d lost one arm from the shoulder down, and he tires more easily nowadays. But his recovery over the past two months has been swift and complication-free.
Honestly, it’s incredible that he hasn’t needed any additional surgeries until this one. And as Pepper had said, Tony’s surgery today is routine — something having to do with the scar tissue near the amputation site. Peter hadn’t paid much attention to the explanation, not wanting to think about the procedure too much.
The surgeon comes highly recommended by Dr. Cho, and Dr. Cho herself is down in med bay supervising. Peter knows that they can trust her judgment, and he’s trying his best not to let his fears rule him, especially for Morgan and Pepper’s sakes.
But…it feels too good to be true sometimes — the fact that Tony had actually defeated Thanos and lived to tell the tale. Peter feels like he’s waiting for the other shoe to drop — for Parker luck to steal Tony away from him just when it finally seems like things are stable and looking up.
With another sigh, he turns back to the board game. The least he can do is keep Morgan occupied. They’d played a lot of board games back when Tony had been in his coma, getting to know one another over long days spent surrounded by beeping monitors and the white walls of med bay. They’d played a lot of Yahtzee back then, and Peter had avoided suggesting that game today due to the association. Maybe Candyland will be added to their “do not play” list after today.
“Your turn, Mo,” he says, trying to smile.
Morgan dutifully takes a card, although she doesn’t look pleased about it. Her expression falls even further when she flips it over.
“Ugh!” She moans. “I got Plumpy!”
Her eyes fill with tears, and Peter grimaces. May and Ben hadn’t believed in letting him win board games just because he was a kid, and he normally takes that approach with Morgan, but this doesn’t seem like the right time to teach life lessons about losing gracefully.
“That’s okay,” he says quickly. “The way May and I play, you can give a card to another player one time in the game if you want. So you could give me the Plumpy card, if you wanted.”
Morgan looks skeptical — like she wants to believe this but also has played Candyland with May before and knows there’s no such rule.
She’s saved from deciding by the sound of Pepper’s phone buzzing again. They both jolt in place, turning to look over at Pepper, and between the two of them, they manage to accidentally elbow the board off the coffee table.
“Nothing,” Pepper shakes her head. “Just Cindy from work.”
Peter lets out a shaky exhale.
Morgan stares morosely at the ruined game.
“Alright,” Pepper says suddenly, sounding determined. “You know what? We need to do something to take our mind off of this.”
“Like what?” Morgan asks.
Pepper casts her eyes around the living area of the penthouse, looking for inspiration. “Like…make pasta! That way we can have a nice dinner, and Tony can have leftovers tomorrow if he feels up for it.”
Morgan nods eagerly, coming around to the idea. “I want to turn the crank on the pasta maker!”
So they clean up the board game and reconvene in the kitchen. Pepper pulls an old-looking leather-bound book out of a cabinet, flipping through it and reading off ingredients while Peter and Morgan check the refrigerator and the cabinets.
“Peter, honey, would you mind popping over to the corner store and getting some tomato paste?”
“Of course,” Peter says. He’s more than happy to have something useful to do.
By the time he returns, Pepper and Morgan have things well underway. He helps Morgan make the pasta while Pepper focuses on the sauce.
“So this is Nonna’s recipe, Mommy?” Morgan asks when the noodles are cooking on the stove. She’s sitting on a stool, swinging her legs idly while Peter wipes down the kitchen island.
“That’s right, Morgan,” Pepper nods, sprinkling some oregano into the sauce.
Peter looks back over at the recipe, handwritten in flowing cursive. He remembers Tony making lasagne for him using this cookbook once before the blip. He hadn’t put two and two together at the time and realized who created the recipe.
“And Nonna is Daddy’s mom?” Morgan asks, tilting her head to the side while she tries to make sense of the connection.
Peter smiles. He’d come from a small family, but May has a million distant cousins, aunts, and uncles. He remembers attending her family reunions in New Jersey when he was a little older than Morgan and struggling to understand how everyone was related.
“Right. Nonna means grandma in Italian.”
“So…Daddy’s parents were my grandparents…and your parents are my grandparents.” Morgan asks. She looks like Tony when she’s thinking. “So I have four grandparents.”
“Yes, everyone has four grandparents, actually.” Pepper pauses thoughtfully, then smiles at Peter. “Well…except for Peter. He might be setting a world record for how many grandparents he has. What would it be…eight?”
Peter can only frown in bewilderment, trying to understand the direction of Pepper’s thoughts.
She laughs. “Or come to think of it…when my parents visit in a few months and meet you, I’m sure they’ll fall in love with you. Then you’ll have ten!"
She’s really lost him now. But before he can ask what she’s talking about, her phone rings. Immediately, they all freeze in place. Then, with the strength and calm of a CEO, Pepper unlocks her phone and answers the call.
Peter’s enhanced hearing can pick up Dr. Cho’s voice on the line.
“...did very well, Pepper. He should be waking up in a few minutes…”
That’s all he really needs to hear. In an instant, all the tension leaves his body, and he collapses onto the stool next to Morgan, relief flooding his veins.
Pepper smiles and gives them a thumb’s up, and Peter can’t help but grin back.
“Well, she said Tony did just fine. I’m sure he’ll be awake and asking for us soon, so why don’t we wrap up here and take our dinner down to med bay?”
They do exactly that. Tony is groggy when they arrive, but he’s awake, and that’s all that matters.
“Why’s my hospital room smell like an Italian restaurant?” He mumbles after receiving a hug from each of them.
“We made pasta!” Morgan exclaims. “Look, Daddy! Mommy made the sauce, and Petey and I made the noodles.”
It seems like Tony is struggling to keep his eyes open, but he dutifully squints at Morgan’s bowl. His gaze drifts over to Peter, and like always, Peter is caught off guard by how open and unguarded his expression is when he looks at Peter now, the careful mask that he’d worn before the blip peeled away by the last five years.
“‘S that right, Pete? You made pasta using Nonna’s recipe?”
For some reason, Peter feels his ears growing warm.
“Yeah. You better heal quickly, or there won’t be any leftovers for you.”
“Ha! I’ll be up and at it again in a few minutes. I’m just gathering my strength. Just you wait and see, Parker.”
Naturally, Tony falls asleep three minutes later. After they finish eating, Pepper takes Morgan upstairs to get ready for bed, leaving Peter to sit with Tony. It’s quiet and tranquil, but something is sticking in his mind.
What would it be…eight? Pepper had mused, talking about the number of grandparents Peter had.
Eight grandparents?
There were his mom’s parents, and his dad’s parents (who were also Ben’s parents). His parents had been older when they’d had him, so their parents had all passed away before Peter was born, and he’d never met any of them.
That was four.
May’s parents could also be considered his grandparents, he supposed. He’d met them once or twice, but they’d both died when he was about eight.
That was six.
You made pasta using Nonna’s recipe?
Tony had been looking right at him when he’d said it. Not at Morgan.
When my parents visit in a few months and meet you, I’m sure they’ll fall in love with you. Then you’ll have ten!
Had…had Pepper and Tony been suggesting that Tony’s parents were also Peter’s grandparents? That Morgan’s Nonna was also Peter’s Nonna?
Peter shakes his head. Clearly, he’d misunderstood. Pepper had obviously meant something else, Tony was coming off of sedatives, and Peter is just misinterpreting things.
It’s been a stressful night, but Tony is fine, and that means everything is good. So there’s no point in dwelling on it further.
He deposits the leftover pasta in the mini-fridge in the corner of the room so that Tony can eat it tomorrow. Then he settles back in his chair, lulled into peace by the steady rise and fall of Tony’s chest.
2. Rhodey: nephew
Peter had gotten over his hero worship of Tony Stark very quickly once he actually knew the man.
Well. Mostly. He still has moments, even now, working in the lab, when he’s unable to believe that he’s sitting next to the smartest person alive — the best superhero in the world —
But then Tony will do something…Tonyish, usually fueled by caffeine and sleep deprivation, and Peter will be swiftly brought back down to earth.
Like the time that Tony had accidentally used Peter’s web fluid instead of normal glue when fixing part of his computer, and then he’d been forced to attend an SI board meeting with a circuit board stuck to his hand for two hours until Peter’s school day ended and he could come by with web dissolver.
Or the time that they’d gone out for pizza, and Tony had suddenly been struck by a novel idea for an energy-efficient water filtration system, and he’d paid the owner of the restaurant an ungodly sum of money to commandeer his sink to test it out right then and there.
Plus, there’s the fact that Tony doesn’t like hero worship. He gets enough of that from the rest of the world; he doesn’t need more of it from the people who are close to him.
And Peter Parker is somehow close to Tony Stark.
So while he’s mostly over being starstruck in Tony’s presence, he’s still thoroughly intimidated by James Rhodes.
Which is why all he can really do is gape dumbly when he strolls into the Midtown parking lot one perfectly normal Tuesday morning and sees Mr. Rhodes waiting in the usual spot where Happy parks to pick him up at the end of the day.
He looks around wildly, wondering if Mr. Rhodes is here to see someone else. But the man waves Peter over. And, well — when War Machine tells you to do something, you do it.
“Hi, uh, Mr. Colonel Rhodes, sir,” Peter stammers as he approaches, fighting off the urge to smack himself in the forehead when he trips over the curb and nearly faceplants.
If Mr. Rhodes thinks he’s a complete and utter loser, he doesn’t show it. “Hey, Peter. How’s it going?”
“Good, sir. How are you? Is everything okay?”
Peter clutches the straps of his backpack anxiously.
Mr. Rhodes’ expression softens slightly. “Everything is fine, kid. I promise.”
“Oh. Okay,” Peter exhales.
“Hop in.” Mr. Rhodes pats the roof of the car, opening the driver-side door and climbing inside.
Peter glances at the school building, shrugs, then follows suit.
“Do you need my help with something, sir?” he asks, falling back on the manners May and Ben had instilled in him.
Mr. Rhodes winces. “Please don’t call me sir, kid.”
Peter frantically wracks his brain for what he could call the man besides sir.
War Machine? Iron Patriot?
No, they’re not wearing their suits and fighting crime right now.
James? Jim?
That’s what Pepper calls Mr. Rhodes, but that seems way too familiar.
Honeybear? Platypus? Some other ridiculous nickname that Tony uses?
No way.
Uncle Rhodey?
That’s what Morgan calls him. But that’s off the table for obvious reasons.
“...Okay,” Peter says, vowing to never refer to the man by anything at all after this moment.
Mr. Rhodes looks amused.
“You feel up for some pancakes, Peter?”
“Uh…technically, I’m supposed to be in calculus right now,” Peter feels obliged to point out. In fact, it’s almost 8:15, and the bell for first period will be ringing any minute.
Mr. Rhodes waves dismissively. “Please. Tony always says you could do calculus in your sleep.”
A smile tugs at Peter’s lips, although it’s weird to think about Tony and Mr. Rhodes discussing him.
“Well…I do like pancakes. It’s just…what’s the occasion?”
Mr. Rhodes turns the car on and backs out of his parking spot. “No special occasion. I do this with Morgan, actually. Every few months I give Tony and Pepper a head’s up, and then I show up at her school and surprise her. She likes to get pancakes. I figured it was high time I paid you a visit too.”
They lapse into a silence that’s probably meant to be comfortable, but Peter still feels ill at ease in Mr. Rhodes’ presence.
The man always seems so cool and self-assured, completely the opposite of how Peter feels most of the time.
And then there’s the fact that he’d been seriously injured during the fight in Germany, something that Peter feels a little bit responsible for since he’d been there, even though he knows it wasn’t his fault.
But most of all, it’s the fact that Mr. Rhodes is Tony’s oldest and closest friend. He’s been by Tony’s side for nearly forty years, and he knows him better than almost anyone else. And in the privacy of his own mind, Peter can admit that that fact makes him nervous. Because what if Mr. Rhodes looks at Peter and wonders why Peter thinks he’s good enough to hang around Tony?
Mr. Rhodes is stoic — he’s much harder to read than any of the other adults in the Starks’ inner circle. Peter is afraid of being judged and found wanting, especially now that Tony has an actual kid of his own.
He worries at a loose thread on his t-shirt as they pull into the parking lot of a small diner a few miles away from Midtown.
“So what year of high school are you in now?” Mr. Rhodes asks conversationally as they exit the car.
“Senior year, sir,” he says, only to wince when he realizes his mistake. “I mean, uh. Mr. Rhodes.”
Mr. Rhodes lets out a little laugh. “Why don’t you try Rhodey? That’s a pretty safe bet.” He holds the door of the diner open for Peter. “Senior year, huh? How’s that going?”
Peter holds off on replying as the hostess shows them to a nearby booth.
“It’s going okay. Kind of weird after the blip,” he says as he slips into his seat.
Mr. Rhodes passes Peter a menu. “I can imagine. Half of your classmates must be finishing college by now, right?”
Peter nods. “Fortunately, my two best friends blipped too, so they’re still with me. But there’s a bunch of new kids in my grade, and they have all these inside jokes that I don’t understand. Some sophomore took my locker while I was gone, and now I have to walk really far to get my books between classes. And the curriculum changed while we were dusted, so there’s all new textbooks, and some of the teachers are different.”
He’s surprised to find the words pouring honestly from his mouth. He always tries to downplay how weird school is to Tony, Pepper, May, and Happy, because he knows they all worry about him being well-adjusted and feeling comfortable. With Mr. Rhodes, holding back his real feelings doesn’t seem to matter as much. He just listens to Peter speak with a calm, attentive expression.
“That does sound strange. Well, at least you’re getting out of there next year, right? Tony told me you’re applying to MIT.”
Peter nods, the familiar nerves fluttering in his stomach whenever he thinks about college. “I’m almost done with the application; I just have to finish writing my essay.”
“I’m sure you’ll get in, if your track record is as impressive as Tony always says it is.”
“I hope so,” Peter shrugs nervously. “I made Tony promise not to interfere and pull strings to get me in, so I guess we’ll see what happens.”
The conversation comes to a brief pause as a waiter comes over to take their orders — two stacks of pancakes and a side of eggs and sausages for Peter; coffee and eggs benedict for Mr. Rhodes.
Mr. Rhodes turns back to him.
“Listen, kid. I know Tony’s been talking MIT up to you since the second you met him, but…he won’t care if you end up choosing another school — you know that, right? He just wants you to be happy.”
Peter blinks, surprised by Mr. Rhodes’ insight. He’s been telling everyone that he wants to go to MIT since he was seven years old and he first learned that Tony Stark had gone there. But what he’s never admitted to anyone is that sometimes he’s not so sure about leaving New York. Especially this past year with everything that has happened. He’d even secretly applied to NYU, just to have a back-up plan.
And ever since he’d started his applications last month, he’s been worrying about how Tony will react if he doesn’t even get into MIT.
Fortunately, Mr. Rhodes doesn’t press him to speak further on the topic. “Anyway, if you do end up going to MIT, there’s this study cubicle in the library that you have to visit — Tony used to pull all-nighters in the library, and one time he fell asleep in the middle of assembling a robot — which you absolutely weren’t allowed to do in the library, the idiot — and his soldering iron burned a giant hole on the side of the desk.”
Mr. Rhodes spends the rest of the meal regaling Peter with stories of his misadventures with Tony at MIT, and by the time they leave, Peter is feeling much more comfortable.
He tenses a little bit when Mr. Rhodes’ phone rings, the AC/DC ringtone indicating who’s calling.
“Uh-oh,” Mr. Rhodes grins. “I think we’ve been busted.”
“Platypus,” Tony says immediately when Mr. Rhodes answers. “Care to tell me why Midtown just called to tell me that Peter has an unexcused absence from first period? And why his phone location and your phone location are both at a diner in Manhattan?”
“That’s invasive, Tones. I’m going to trade in my Stark phone for an iPhone if you keep this up.”
“What’s going on? Is Peter okay?” Tony sounds genuinely stressed, and Peter feels a little guilty. He’d forgotten that May had added Tony to Peter’s list of contacts at Midtown.
Mr. Rhodes must feel a little bad too, because he’s quick to reassure Tony. “He’s fine. I just stopped by school to take him out for pancakes. Top secret uncle duties; you wouldn’t understand.”
The phrasing gives Peter pause, but Tony keeps talking on the line.
“Jesus, Rhodey. I’m used to the kids giving me gray hairs; I don’t need you to add to the collection by kidnapping them!”
Mr. Rhodes snorts. “That’s rich, coming from you. You’ve been giving me gray hairs since I was nineteen! I owe you decades of payback.”
Peter pipes up. “Mr. Rhodey told me about the time that you got drunk and tried to go cross-country skiing on the quad at MIT—”
“Oh, god — Peter, don’t listen to anything he tells you about me! It’s all lies and propaganda —”
Rhodey disconnects the call with a chuckle.
“Well, kid, I think I’d better return you to school before Iron Man makes an appearance. What do you say?”
So they drive back to Midtown. When Mr. Rhodes pulls into the parking lot, Peter feels…oddly happy. This was a weird way to spend first period, but he had fun, all things considered. Plus, Ned is going to freak out when he finds out why Peter is late today!
“Thanks for the pancakes,” he says with a tentative grin when they roll to a stop.
Rhodey’s expression is serious when he looks at Peter, however, and Peter’s stomach swoops nervously.
“Look, kid…this visit was long overdue. I wanted to say…I’m really happy that you’re back with us in the land of the living.”
That’s kind of him, but strange, since Peter and Rhodey had barely interacted before the blip. The man takes a deep breath before continuing.
“After you were dusted, Tony was…well, I’ve never seen him like that before, and I’ve been with him through some really bad times, kid. So…you take care of yourself, you hear me?”
Peter can only nod, his throat suddenly feeling tight.
Rhodey pats him on the shoulder. “I’ll come by the next time I’m in town, okay? We’ve got a lot of lost time to make up for, you and me.”
Peter smiles. “That sounds nice. See you around, Rhodey.”
And in the end, it doesn’t feel that weird to say Rhodey instead of sir or Mr. Rhodes.
As Rhodey pulls away, Peter considers dashing back over and asking him what he’d meant when he’d mentioned top secret uncle duties.
But surely Peter is just overthinking things as usual. So he settles for giving a final wave to the disappearing car, and then he turns to head to second period with a smile on his face.
3. Morgan: brother
Peter kicks off his shoes and settles into the hammock with a smile on his face. It’s an unseasonably warm day, probably one of the last warm days they’ll have this year, and he plans to take full advantage of the sunshine for as long as it lasts.
Midtown had an early dismissal day so that the teachers could do training this afternoon, so Peter had gotten out of school just before noon, hit the road, and made record time driving to the Starks’ cabin, completely avoiding the usual Friday afternoon gridlock.
That was a relief, because it had been one of his first times driving himself to the cabin. He’d gotten his license back in August when he turned 17, but he doesn’t need to drive much in the city.
He’d been extremely reluctant to accept a car from Tony, but Tony had made lots of logical arguments that even May couldn’t disagree with — that Peter needed to get comfortable with driving long distances now so that he felt safe driving home from college to visit next year, that he needed a car in case there was an urgent reason for him to come to the cabin and nobody was around to give him a ride, and so on.
In the end, he’d accepted one of Tony’s oldest, simplest cars, an Audi that was a few years old but in great condition. Tony had made some modifications so that it was hooked up to Karen and FRIDAY, and he’d implemented his own safety features, in typical Tony fashion. And although Peter had protested about the whole thing, he has to admit that he secretly loves the car, and that driving it is a lot of fun.
All in all, it’s shaping up to be a perfect afternoon. His teachers hadn’t given out much homework, so he has a relaxing weekend to look forward to. May and Happy are coming over for dinner tonight, and they’d promised to bring takeout with them. He’d made himself a smoothie after arriving at the house, and now he can just relax in the hammock and scroll mindlessly through his phone until Tony, Pepper, and Morgan come home.
He’s doing just that when his phone buzzes with an incoming call, showing Tony’s contact info. He frowns — he’d already texted both May and Tony to let them know he’d made it to the lake house, because they’re both safety freaks. He can’t think of another reason why Tony would be calling him.
“Hi,” he greets, curiosity and worry mixing in his stomach.
“Heya, Pete. I trust I’m not interrupting anything important?”
The casual tone sets Peter at ease. “Yes, you are,” he says seriously. “I was in the middle of watching a version of Lord of the Rings where the movie speeds up every time a character says the word ‘ring.’”
“Wow. Well, now I’m second-guessing my decision to call you. It sounds like you were on the verge of a Nobel-prize-winning scientific breakthrough. I hate to waste your time.”
“Yup. You’re setting the entire field of science back by about a decade with every second you interrupt me.”
“I’m afraid science will have to suffer for a little while longer, kiddo. Pep and I are on our way back from our meeting in the city, but traffic is horrible. Any chance you can pick Morgan up from school?”
“Oh,” Peter says, surprised by the unexpected request. “Sure. Of course. What time?”
“Well…the school day ended about thirty minutes ago, but Morgan is staying an hour late for science club. Can you be there by 4? There’s an extra booster seat in the garage that you can put in your car.”
“On it,” Peter promises.
“Just take your time getting there, okay, bud? No need to race. The most important thing is driving safely.”
Peter grins. “If you’re so worried about me making it there safely, I could always borrow one of your Iron Man suits to pick Morgan up.”
“Keep those feet firmly planted on the ground until I get home, Parker, or I’m going to eat the cupcake I picked up for you in the city.”
“No!” Peter gasps dramatically. “Spare my cupcake’s life. I will remain earthbound, scout’s honor.”
Tony chuckles. “Alright, bud. Be safe. And you might want to bring a snack for Morgan — she gets feral when her blood sugar is low.”
After bidding Tony farewell, Peter swings his legs over the hammock and slips his shoes on. Then he heads into the house to grab his keys and to prepare some crackers and apple slices for Morgan. He heads to the garage to grab the booster seat, and as he fiddles with the various straps to install it in the backseat of his car, he starts feeling a little nervous.
He’d been completely confident on the phone when he’d assured Tony that he’d have no trouble picking Morgan up. But now the weight of his task strikes him for the first time. Tony and Pepper are trusting him to get their daughter from school and drive her twenty minutes down country roads with high speed limits.
He knows he’s a safe driver, especially with his enhanced reflexes. But it’s still a big responsibility, and he doesn’t want to let Pepper and Tony down. So he carefully maneuvers down the long driveway and out onto the highway, suddenly overthinking every aspect of his driving — is he going too fast? Is he driving too far over to one side of the road?
Another problem occurs to him as he makes his way toward Morgan’s school. Is he even going to be allowed to pick Morgan up? Surely the school has some kind of system in place to make sure random strangers don’t try to abduct the students — especially Morgan Stark, of all people!
He considers calling Tony back to ask, but he doesn’t want to be distracted from the road. And by the time he makes it to the school, he’s already a few minutes late because he’d driven so slowly. He doesn’t want Morgan to think she’s been abandoned, so he hurriedly parks and unbuckles.
He takes a deep breath as he steps out of the car. Somehow he can take down a whole ring of bank robbers without breaking a sweat, but new situations like this always throw him for a loop.
He heads up the front steps of the school, not quite sure where he’s supposed to be going. Most of the students are gone for the day, so that makes it a little easier to navigate to the front office.
“Hi, uh, I’m here to pick up Morgan Stark from science club?” Peter says to the woman sitting at the desk. According to the sign on the door, her name is Vicky. “Can you please point me in the right direction?”
Vicky smiles at him. “Sure, honey. You must be Morgan’s older brother. Peter, is that right?”
Peter blinks, surprised. Maybe Tony had called the school to let them know he’d be coming? But…Morgan’s brother? On the one hand, he doesn’t want to lie to Vicky. On the other hand, he doesn’t want to act suspicious.
“Oh, I’m not — I mean — yeah, I’m Peter.”
“Great — since it’s your first time here, I’ll just need to see your ID and verify that you’re on the approved list of people who can pick her up.”
So he hands over his driver’s license, and she rummages around through some files, eventually pulling out a manila envelope with Morgan’s name on it. Peter bites his lip nervously, peeking over the desk. He can see a form that Pepper had filled out with her neat handwriting. Under the section titled “Approved people who can pick my child up from school,” he’s surprised to find his own name written between Tony’s and Happy’s.
“Right, you’re all set, then. The science club is down this hallway, third classroom on the left.”
“Thanks for your help!” Peter says, relieved that he’d gotten over this particular hurdle easily.
“Not a problem, dear. It’s nice to meet you. Ms. Potts sometimes drops Morgan off a few minutes early on her way to work, and she waits in the office with me. She likes to tell me about the things you two do over the weekend.”
This is news to Peter, and he thinks it over as he walks to Morgan’s classroom. How had Vicky gotten the idea that Peter is Morgan’s brother? Had she simply assumed based on Morgan’s stories? Had Morgan said it herself?
Familial relationships can be confusing to kids, and his role in the Starks’ life is unusual and nebulous. He’s been splitting his time pretty evenly between May and Tony since the battle against Thanos, which means he’s around Morgan all the time. Maybe Tony and Pepper hadn’t explained the details of the situation to her clearly, and she’d drawn her own conclusions.
Morgan’s face lights up as soon as she sees him hovering near the threshold of the classroom.
“Peter!” She shouts, abandoning her project and running over to hug him.
“Hi, Mo,” he says, smiling, catching her and swinging her around.
“I didn’t know you were coming to get me! I have to show you everything!”
So they collect her backpack and her science project, say goodbye to the science club teacher, and then Morgan insists on bringing him to her classroom. The door is locked, but they peek through the window, and Morgan points out where her desk is. Then she takes him to see her locker.
“A lot of the other kids forget their combination to open the locker, but I never do,” she brags, typing a code into the lock and popping the door open. “Oh, look! I forgot that I need to bring this home.”
Morgan pulls a large paper out of her locker and unfurls it proudly. “I was student of the week last week, and I made this poster.”
Peter remembers doing something similar when he was around Morgan’s age — filling out his favorite subject, favorite color, and some basic information about his family to share with the class. It had been a painful exercise, since his parents had only been gone for a few months at that point.
“I filled out the short questions, and then I told Mommy what to write for the long ones. And Daddy found the pictures for me.”
Peter skims through the information, startled when he catches sight of his own name.
Under the prompt “I live with ___,” Pepper had written the following.
I live with my mom, my dad, and my brother Peter. We have an alpaca named Gerald for our pet.
Peter swallows. His eyes drift to one of the photos taped to the paper. Under a section called “My family,” Morgan had glued a picture of herself, Pepper, Tony…and Peter.
He recognizes the image immediately — it’s from his seventeenth birthday dinner a few months ago, a pizza party hosted at May and Happy’s apartment. Peter had posed for one photo with May and Happy, another one with the Starks, a third with Ned and MJ, and a final shot of the whole group. In this particular photo, Peter and Morgan are sitting next to each other at the kitchen table in front of Peter’s birthday cake, and Tony and Pepper are grinning in the background.
“Morgan,” he says slowly. “This is really nice. But, uh…why did you say that I’m your brother?”
Morgan frowns at him like she doesn’t understand the question. “Huh? Oh, look! My froggie!”
Peter’s attention is diverted from the matter at hand as a frog suddenly leaps out of Morgan’s locker and begins hopping around near their feet.
“What the —”
Morgan beams, scooping him up in one hand. “His name is Juniper! I found him at recess, and then I snuck him inside so he can live in my locker.”
Peter supposes he really shouldn’t be surprised. This is Tony Stark’s kid, after all — she has chaos baked into her DNA.
“Uh, listen, Morgan, frogs don’t really like to live in human buildings. He’d be much happier outside where you found him.”
Morgan looks crestfallen, her eyes wide and pleading. “But I love him! And Isabelle said he was gross and that she wanted to stomp on him, so I had to save him.”
“Well…maybe we can take him back to the cabin with us and set him free near the lake. That way he can live outside safely, but you can still visit him.”
Morgan considers this idea. “Deal,” she says solemnly, and they shake on it.
They tuck Juniper in Morgan’s empty lunch box, leaving it unzipped a tiny bit so that he can get fresh air.
The frog certainly adds an element of excitement to their car ride home, because it manages to escape from the lunch box no less than four times, hopping wildly around the car. Peter keeps his eyes on the road, but it’s rather distracting to have a frog jumping on his lap and Morgan wildly trying to grab it whenever it jumps to the backseat.
Fortunately, she finally manages to catch Juniper’s interest with one of her apple slices, but by the time they make it home, Peter has a death grip on the steering wheel, and he’s sweating bullets from the stress. It’s a relief to pull in the driveway, and an even bigger relief to see May’s car parked on the driveway. Happy waves from the porch, heading their way.
“Listen, Mo, if we talk about Juniper, I don’t think we should tell the grown-ups about him escaping while I was driving, okay?” Peter says quickly.
Morgan nods and mimes zipping her lips and throwing the key away. In fact, she looks thrilled by the prospect of making the whole thing a secret mission.
“I’ll take Junie down to the lake — distract Uncle Happy and meet me there as soon as possible, Petey! We can find him a home before we release him.”
She hops out of the car, clutching her lunch box.
“Hey, guys!” Happy calls in greeting.
“Sorry, can’t talk, Uncle Happy! Secret frog business!” She shouts, sprinting past him in the direction of the lake.
Happy stares after Morgan’s disappearing form. “Do I want to know?” He asks Peter with a sigh.
Peter snorts, shaking his head. “Nah.”
“Thanks for picking her up, kid. Your aunt is changing out of her work clothes inside, and Tony and Pep should be here soon. Everything go okay at the school?”
Peter nods.
So…I saw Morgan’s “about me” poster, he considers saying. And I couldn’t help but notice that I was listed as her brother. And the lady at the school’s front office said the same thing. Do you know what that was all about?
He’d been willing to believe that it was just a misunderstanding of some kind…until he saw the poster. Pepper had been the one to write the words, not Morgan…which meant that Morgan had said it, and Pepper hadn’t corrected her.
“When I was at the school—” Peter begins, fumbling to formulate a coherent question.
“PETER!” Morgan bellows, her voice distant. “HURRY UP!”
Happy chuckles, clapping Peter on the shoulder. “You’d better not keep your sister waiting, kid. That secret frog business sounds urgent.”
Then he grabs Morgan’s backpack and disappears in the direction of the house, leaving Peter standing there, gaping.
Happy too?
What was going on with everyone?!
4. May: family
Unfortunately, Peter has woken up in the hospital a fair number of times in his life.
As a kid, he’d been hospitalized once with pneumonia, and two or three times after really bad asthma attacks. As Spider-Man, it had become almost rote, due to broken bones, lacerations, and a concussion every now and then.
Despite May and Tony referring to him as a “walking danger magnet,” he really does try his best to stay safe and avoid med bay. But still, he’s been there enough to learn the signs over the years — waking up and feeling unusually drowsy, hearing steady beeping sounds around him, the smell of antiseptic products, and the starched material of hospital sheets.
As he crawls back to wakefulness this particular day (or is it night?), he recognizes the familiar sensations of a hospital bed. He’s lying on his side, and he can feel a nasal cannula tucked behind his ears and under his nose. There’s a loud beeping noise near his left ear, and his head is aching.
But something is different this time. For one, he’s pretty sure he can hear May’s heartbeat next to him, not Tony’s. For another, he can hear voices outside in the hallway — a kid crying a few rooms down, and a woman coughing somewhere nearby. The med bays at Stark Tower and the compound are usually blissfully silent.
He pushes himself into a sitting position with a groan. He feels alright, courtesy of his super healing, but his right side is sore, and moving makes his headache worse.
“May?” He mumbles. “What’s going on?”
May looks up from her phone, relief filling her eyes when she sees him awake. It instantly makes him feel guilty.
“Peter! How are you feeling, honey?”
“I’m okay. Where are we? What happened?”
He wracks his brain, frantically trying to remember what had landed him here. He’d been walking to school — he remembers that much. He’d been freezing — it had snowed two days ago, and the sidewalks and streets were iced over. There’d been a woman crossing the street, and she’d slipped on the ice and fallen in the crosswalk just as a car rounded the corner, going a little too fast —
“The lady!” He gasps. “Is she okay? Did she get hit?”
“She’s fine, thanks to you. You took the full impact,” May assures him, but her face is creased with stress. “Look, not that I fault you for helping her, but do you think you can restrict your heroics to when you’re wearing a suit that can report to Tony if you’re injured?”
Peter winces. They both know that he would never stand by and let someone get hurt if he could stop it, but he hates that he causes May so much anxiety. “Sorry, May. What happened after I got hit?”
“The driver called 911, and they transported you to the closest hospital. Someone checked your backpack to get your name, and then they called the school, who called me.”
He feels even worse when he notices that May is wearing her scrubs. She must’ve left her shift to hurry over here.
“Sorry to make you worry. I feel fine, honest. Can we go now?” He asks hopefully. He swings his legs over the side of the bed. He aches all over, but he knows from experience that none of his injuries are severe, and he’ll feel much better by tomorrow.
“Whoa, not so fast, buster. You did the crime, you do the time. We’re waiting for the results of your CT scan, so lay your butt back down.”
Peter huffs irritably but obeys. He’s about to ask more questions about what had happened when he hears voices in the hallway.
“Who’s that?” He asks.
May snorts. “Who do you think it is?”
His senses are a little off due to his injuries, so it takes him a few more seconds to recognize the familiar voice outside his room.
“May!” He whines. “You didn’t have to call Tony. I’m fine!”
“Nonsense. I need back-up for the safety lecture I’m about to deliver to you. Tony is even more stubborn than I am; maybe the two of us can get it through your thick skull that you need to take better care of yourself.”
Peter rolls his eyes.
The voices in the hallway are rising in pitch and tone, beginning to sound angry, and May stands. “I better go see what that’s about. Be right back.”
Using his enhanced hearing increases his headache, but he wants to know what’s happening, so he closes his eyes and focuses on the conversation outside his door, trying to filter out all the other extraneous hospital noise.
“... sorry, sir. Just because you’re Tony Stark doesn’t mean that you can break our rules.”
“That’s my kid in there!” Tony retorts. Peter flushes.
“The rule is the rule. This is a busy hospital; only immediate family is allowed to visit, especially for minors.”
May’s voice joins the fray.
“Can you two please keep it down? There’s an injured kid resting in there.”
“I’m sorry, ma’am, but Mr. Stark is the one who’s being disruptive.”
Peter bites back a laugh, admiring the nurse’s bravery.
“Listen, Lisa—” Tony says hotly. Fortunately, May cuts him off.
“I’m Peter’s legal guardian, and I will vouch that this man is an immediate family member. I suggest you agree, unless you want to find yourself facing down Tony Stark’s entire legal team.”
There’s a beat of silence, and then some quiet grumbling, and then Tony flings open the door to Peter’s room. He pauses for a moment, looking Peter over from head to toe. Then he seems to sag a little, his tense posture growing relaxed.
“Grounded!” He proclaims, pointing dramatically at Peter. “For the next — six months, what do you think, May?”
“You can’t ground me!” Peter protests. “I saved a woman’s life.”
“You’re not grounded for saving her life; you’re grounded for giving me more gray hairs. You’ve already used up your lifetime supply.” Tony takes the empty chair on Peter’s left, and May sits on his right.
“Pretty hard to give someone more gray hairs when their hair is already entirely gray,” Peter snarks.
Tony shakes his head in mock offense, but he takes one of Peter’s hands in his own.
“Unbelievable. Where does he get the sass from, May? Certainly not from you or I.”
May raises an eyebrow. “Maybe he gets it from Morgan, who gets it from you?”
“And the urge to jump in front of cars? Am I to blame for that, too?”
May smiles thoughtfully. “No, actually…I think he gets that from his mom. Mary was a bit of an adrenaline junky. She loved roller coasters and go-karting. I went for a bike ride with her one time in the city, and I called Ben on the verge of a panic attack after the first mile. With the way she was weaving in and out of traffic, I was sure she was going to get us both killed. She was a speed demon, that one.”
She squeezes Peter’s hand fondly, before turning back to Tony and leveling a flat stare at him.
“Now the reckless, self-sacrificial heroics thing — I think he gets that from you, Stark.”
Tony winces. “Well, I think that’s my cue to go call Pepper and give her an update on your condition, Pete.”
Peter hums in acknowledgement. He’s starting to feel a little sleepy again, but he doesn’t want May or Tony to notice and try to force him to stay here longer.
Tony stands, but before he leaves the room, he takes off his customary pair of sunglasses. Then, to Peter’s surprise, he sits on the edge of the bed, carefully lifting the glasses up to Peter’s face and settling them on the bridge of Peter’s nose. His hands are gentle as he tucks the glasses behind Peter’s ears, mindful of the tubing from the nasal cannula.
“That better, bud?” He asks. “You were squinting like you had a headache.”
Peter nods. It’s way better. He hadn’t even realized that the fluorescent lights were hurting his eyes until Tony had fixed it for him.
“I’m glad you’re okay, bambino. I’ll be back soon, okay?” Tony’s voice is soft, and he unexpectedly leans forward to give Peter a quick kiss on the forehead before leaving the room.
Peter clears his throat awkwardly once he’s left alone with May, averting his eyes, not sure he wants to meet her gaze and see what she’s thinking. She’d hated Tony after the Homecoming incident, and while she’d warmed up to him in the ensuing year and half, they hadn’t been close before Peter was dusted.
Now, five years later, the dynamic between the two of them has noticeably shifted, but Peter still doesn’t quite know how or why. He’d been surprised to discover that May and Happy regularly visit the Starks’ lake house for dinner, and that Morgan knows May well and actually refers to her as “Aunt May.”
“Care to share your thoughts with the class, hon?” May asks. She sounds amused. “That’s something you get from the Parker side of the family — wearing your heart on your sleeve. Richard and Ben couldn’t keep a secret if their lives depended on it.”
Peter looks up, biting his lip before he speaks.
“That’s exactly what I’m thinking about, actually. How weird it is for you and Tony to be sitting here, talking about my parents together. Or you telling the nurse that he’s family.” He gives a half-smile and a shrug. “It’s just unexpected. I thought you didn’t like him.”
May appears pensive. “I suppose it happened gradually, and you weren’t here to see it, so it must feel jarring to you. Obviously, I’m still not happy that he brought you to that airport in Germany and kept Spider-Man a secret from me…but that was nearly eight years ago for me, honey.”
Peter usually tries not to dwell on it — the fact that he’d been gone for five years. That’s a long time. Five years ago — according to his sense of time, at least — he was twelve years old. He’d been a completely different person — scrawny, lacking self-confidence, and in poor health. Ben had been alive then, and Peter wasn’t Spider-Man.
So much had changed in the last five years, and he’d missed all of it.
May’s smile is bittersweet. “I was completely alone when you were dusted, Peter. Every single person I knew and loved was gone. I didn’t even know what to do — I couldn’t see what the point of carrying on was, after losing everyone. But you know what? Tony and Pepper were there from day one. They didn’t let me slip away or leave me by myself. They invited me over for all the holidays. They included me in all of Morgan’s milestones. Hell, half the reason why I got together with Happy is because I saw him so often through the Starks. I guess…they became family somewhere along the way.”
Peter worries at a loose thread on the thin hospital blanket. “Do you think…do you think Ben would mind? Or my parents?”
It’s a question that has troubled him since he first met Tony. He’d never been brave enough to actually ask it until now, though.
“Oh, honey. I know they wouldn’t mind,” May says, sounding utterly confident in her words. “They would want us to be happy and to have people in our lives who care for us. It doesn’t mean that we’re replacing them or forgetting about them.”
Peter has to lift the sunglasses to wipe his eyes. When he opens them again, May is sitting on the edge of the bed with her arms open. He falls into her embrace.
“He brought you back to me, Peter. I can’t dislike him after that,” May murmurs, squeezing him tight.
“Love you, May,” Peter sniffs, tucking his head against her shoulder like he used to do when he was younger.
“Love you, too, honey. But if you tell Stark I said all of that sappy stuff about him, you’re going to be grounded for real.”
Peter laughs wetly, drawing back and accepting a tissue to wipe his face. “As long as you don’t pull out my childhood photo albums and show him pictures of me dressed up as Iron Man.” That had been her old blackmail threat against him.
“Ah, Peter. Bold of you to assume that we didn’t already look through those photo albums many times over the past five years.”
“Ugh, May! How could you?” Peter groans, burying his face in his hands.
“How could she what?” Tony asks, rejoining them.
“Nothing!” Peter exclaims quickly. Tony looks at him suspiciously but lets it slide.
“Well, I come bearing good news. The doc stopped by to say that your CT scan looks clear, and they’re discharging you.”
Peter immediately hops out of bed. “Perfect! Let’s go.”
May frowns, crossing her arms over her chest. “Just because they’re discharging you doesn’t mean that you should go running around the city. I have to go back to work.”
“He can come back to the Tower with me,” Tony offers. “I’ll keep an eye on him. What do you say, Pete? There’s a comfy couch and a Star Wars marathon calling your name.”
Peter wants to protest — he doesn’t need to be coddled or looked after. He can go to school and patrol after, just like he’d been originally planning.
But…he is kind of tired from tapping into his enhanced healing. And May had been so worried, and he knows that this will set her at ease.
“Okay,” he agrees with a sigh, accepting a final hug goodbye and a kiss on the cheek from May.
“Take care of our boy, Stark,” May nods at Tony from the doorway.
Tony’s arm encircles Peter’s shoulders, pulling him close.
“It’s my honor, Parker,” he tells her seriously.
5. Tony: son
“Be with you in five, Pete. I promised the R&D team that I’d send feedback on this prototype by…yesterday,” Tony says, his head bent over the prototype in question, a solar-powered drone.
Peter hums in acknowledgement, choosing a seat at the lab bench next to Tony and taking a bite of the toast he’d brought with him for breakfast.
It’s the first day of his spring break, and he’s looking forward to a week spent sleeping in, watching daytime TV with May on her days off, and working in the lab with Tony.
“What do you think of this footage that the drone captured, Pete?” Tony asks. “Pretty impressive, huh?”
He passes his laptop over so that Peter can see the video in question, which shows a sweeping view of the Grand Canyon.
“Wow,” Peter remarks, “Impressive. Is the drop-off that steep in real life?”
Tony shrugs. “Dunno. I’ve never been.”
Peter’s mouth falls open.
“Tony! How have you never seen the Grand Canyon? You’ve traveled to, like, every country ever! And other planets!” He exclaims incredulously.
“Well, we don’t have an SI facility in the Grand Canyon. And HYDRA hasn’t taken up residence there, unless I missed it somehow. So I haven’t had a reason to go.”
“No reason? Didn’t you used to spend half your time partying in Vegas? It’s not far from there!”
Tony shrugs. “Oh, I certainly did spend time in Vegas — I just never saw the point in driving my hungover ass three hours into the desert to look at a hole in the ground.”
Peter gapes, offended on behalf of the world’s geologists. “A hole in the ground?”
“Sheesh, Pete. Don’t pop a blood vessel over there. If you’re that passionate about it, then…I guess we’ll just have to go visit.”
He straightens, grabbing a rag to wipe oil off his hands.
“What — like, this summer? That would be cool.”
“No, that would be hot. Extremely hot. I’m not visiting Arizona in the summertime,” Tony scoffs, beginning to scrub his hands clean with soap at the sink. “FRIDAY, save my files.”
Peter frowns. “What are you doing? I thought we were going to work on my suit today.”
Tony smirks at him. “We were. But now we’re going to visit the Grand Canyon.”
Peter’s mouth drops. “What — right now?”
Tony begins packing away his project. “Yup. Spring break, remember, kiddo? Your suit will still be here when we get back. What do you say to a road trip?”
***
So that’s how they find themselves heading west out of New York City two hours later. May had been surprisingly amenable to the idea, telling him to enjoy himself and take lots of pictures. Morgan, who’d been getting ready for school, had been bummed out that she couldn’t come with them, but she’d already had her spring break last week. She made them promise to get her a stuffed animal as a souvenir.
“You sure this is the best car for a cross-country road trip?” Peter asks for the third time, running a finger over the upholstery of the Lamborghini. This car probably costs more than four years of tuition at MIT.
“C’mon, Parker. If I’m going to do a cross-country road trip, I’m going to do it in style. You got a problem with that?”
“It’s not very comfy,” Peter says, watching scenery flash by outside his window. “If it were up to me, I would’ve brought a van or something so we could take turns napping in the backseat. It’s a long drive to Arizona.”
“A van?” Tony squints at him disapprovingly. “And have it break down in the middle of the drive?”
“Just saying,” Peter shrugs, popping a Twizzler into his mouth.
***
“I told y—”
“Nope. Nope. Don’t say it, Pete. I’m begging you. Spare an old man his dignity.”
Peter snorts. They’re stranded by the side of the road somewhere in rural Indiana. The car had started making an ominous noise in Ohio, and Tony had pulled over when the hood started smoking slightly. There’s no reception here, so Tony is currently attempting to contact a local tow truck via the spare gauntlet that he’d brought with him in case of emergencies.
After a quarter of an hour, they hear the loud rumble of a truck drawing nearer.
“Uh — Iron Man? You called for help?” The truck driver asks, staring between them and the car with a bewildered expression.
“Why, yes, Ray — is it? Thanks for your prompt response. The kid and I could use a hitch to the closest luxury car dealership.”
Ray scratches his head. “I — I don’t think we have any of those around here.”
“According to my AI, there should be one in St. Louis,” Tony replies brightly.
“That’s four hours away from here,” Ray says blankly.
“Perfect! If we leave now, we’ll get there before the kid’s bedtime.”
Peter rolls his eyes. Tony shoves a sizeable wad of cash in Ray’s direction, and Ray suddenly looks much more eager to help them out.
***
They get dinner in St. Louis, followed by a quick ride up the Arch to sightsee. Then Tony demands a refund on the car from the dumbfounded Lamborghini employees, who practically fall over themselves, offering amazing deals on replacement cars. Tony turns down every offer, and then he and Peter walk two blocks south to a used car dealership (slash junkyard) and buy a 2006 Honda Odyssey.
“Now this is more like it,” Peter sighs happily, leaning his seat back and propping his feet up on the dashboard.
Tony frowns dubiously as he pulls a melted Skittle out of the cupholder.
But he can’t really complain, because the thing runs smoother than any luxury car, and it seems totally unphased by the numerous potholes they encounter in rural Missouri.
“Ooh, a CD player. It’s been ages since I used one of these,” Peter says, fiddling around with the buttons. The track Life Is a Highway begins blasting. “Wow, this thing is ancient!”
Tony looks offended. “Excuse you? Ancient ? I can’t wait until Morgan becomes a teenager and starts making you feel like an irrelevant old man.”
Peter cranks the music up with a smirk.
“Ugh, can’t we at least play something decent?” Tony complains.
“What, like the even older music you always listen to?”
Tony glares at him, pressing the eject button. Life Is a Highway restarts. They both look at each other.
Tony presses the next button, and Life Is a Highway restarts.
Then he presses the back button.
Life Is a Highway restarts.
“I think it heard us call it ancient. Now we’re cursed,” Peter stage-whispers.
Tony scrubs a hand over his face. “Maybe we should’ve just flown to the Grand Canyon with an Iron Man suit.”
“No way!” Peter exclaims. “It’s about the journey to get there — the drive — the open road. In fact, one could almost say that life itself…is like a highway.”
Tony flicks another melted Skittle at his head.
***
“I never want to hear that song again,” Peter shudders as he climbs out of the minivan, two days, two motels, and several questionable gas station hot dogs later.
“Well, good thing we only have another 35 hours of driving to get back,” Tony remarks sarcastically, stretching his back and neck.
“Hopefully this is worth it,” Peter muses as they start following the crowd of fellow tourists down a rather nondescript trail. “MJ always says that places like this are overrated, because they get so overcrowded by humans, and then it undermines the natural beauty of — oh.”
Peter stops walking, his mouth falling open. “Oh,” he repeats dumbly as he gets his first look at the Grand Canyon. It’s — vast doesn’t even begin to describe it. He’s used to dramatic scenery from growing up in New York City, but this is massive on a whole different level.
He can only stare silently for a few minutes, drinking it all in, gaping in awe. When he finally turns to look at Tony, Tony is looking at him rather than at the Canyon.
“May is going to love the picture I took of you,” Tony tells him. “I think your eyes were bigger than the moon.” His tone is teasing, but there’s something sentimental in his expression.
They walk along the rim of the Canyon, following the trail and stopping frequently so that Peter can snap pictures and point out interesting rock formations. Peter proposes coming back at night and seeing if he could use his webshooters to swing from one side of the Canyon to the other, but Tony promptly nixes the idea.
They stop for a rest after walking for an hour.
“Drink this,” Tony says, pulling a water bottle out of his backpack and shoving it in Peter’s direction. “I don’t want you getting heat stroke.”
“It’s 50 degrees,” Peter complains. “I’m wearing a jacket. I don’t think heat stroke is a concern.”
“Yeah, well — it’s the desert, Parker, and you have a delicate physique —”
“Delicate! Which one of us can lift a car without a super suit?”
Tony doesn’t reply, waving to catch the attention of a woman who’s walking past.
“Excuse me,” he calls. “Can you take a picture of my son and me?”
Peter chokes on his water.
“Oh — of course!” The woman replies. Tony hands her his phone, and then he comes to stand next to Peter, wrapping an arm around his shoulders.
“Sorry,” he mutters in a low voice, looking uncharacteristically nervous. “Was that — was that overstepping? It kind of just came out.”
“N-no,” Peter stammers. “That’s — it’s fine. Good.”
He feels Tony exhale next to him. “Good,” he replies, squeezing Peter’s shoulder and grinning for the photo.
***
They stay long enough for the sun to set and the stars to come out. Then they point out constellations until Peter has to admit that he’s cold and hungry. They pile back into the minivan, determined to find a warm meal and a comfy motel room for the night.
“Thanks for taking me, Tony,” Peter murmurs as the car rolls down a dark desert road. “It was lots of fun.”
“Anytime, kiddo. Except for summertime.”
Peter smiles.
“Hey, bud?” Tony asks, the tone of his voice shifting to something a little softer. He’s looking at Peter in a way that he never did before the blip — like he can’t quite believe that Peter is really here with him.
“Hm?”
“You know that I love you, right? So much.”
Peter feels a starburst of warmth in his chest. This moment has been building between them for some time — ever since before the blip, although neither of them ever would’ve been bold enough to say it back then.
It feels so easy to smile back and reply now.
“Yeah, Tony. Love you too.”
Tony reaches over and ruffles his hair.
“Good,” he says gruffly. “Now that we’ve got that straight —” He fiddles with the dials on the radio. “I have the perfect song for this touching occasion.”
The familiar opening bars of Life Is a Highway blare from the tinny speakers. Peter buries his head in his hands and groans.
***
(The picture of the two of them at the Grand Canyon eventually comes to sit on a shelf in the Starks’ kitchen, next to an old photo of them posing with Peter’s internship certificate. In the more recent photo, they’re both windswept and slightly sunburned. Tony looks a little embarrassed and Peter seems slightly dazed, but their smiles are identically blinding.)
+1 Peter
Peter checks the clock in the corner of his laptop. 10:03 p.m.
He’d promised himself that he would start writing his essay at 10 p.m.
“Oh, darn,” he mutters under his breath. “Missed it. Guess I have to wait until 11 now to start working.”
Not for the first time, he wishes that either May or Tony were here. They would both give him a raised eyebrow and a lecture on time management if they heard him say that.
But he’s alone on the second floor of the MIT library. Even at one of the nerdiest colleges in the country, everyone else had evidently found something better to do on Friday night. Everyone but him, it seems.
He sighs, scrubbing a hand over his face and navigating to his blank Word document. He has a five-page essay about Plato’s Republic due next week for his philosophy class.
Distracted by a buzz in his pocket, Peter pulls his phone out, smiling when he sees a text from Ned. He’d messaged Ned around dinnertime to see what he was up to tonight. Even though they attend the same school, it’s been surprisingly hard to spend time together since classes began a month ago. Ned is majoring in computer science while Peter is studying chemical engineering, so none of their classes overlap.
Ned: 10:04 p.m.
Sorry I missed this text, dude! Got dinner with some classmates and we’re going to be coding for our midterm project all weekend. Maybe we can grab lunch together on Monday?
Peter sighs. He has a bio lab over lunchtime on Mondays.
Peter: 10:05 p.m.
No worries, dude! Good luck with the project.
Ned had easily befriended his cohort, and they spend a lot of time studying and hanging out together. It’s not that Peter feels excluded or anything — Ned invites him to hang out when they’re doing things outside of classwork, like going bowling or grabbing dinner. But everyone in the group is a friend of Ned’s, not Peter’s, and he feels like an interloper sometimes.
He knows that it’s good for the two of them to get some space — that college is supposed to be about growing as an individual and meeting new people.
The adjustment period has just been a bit more difficult than he’d been anticipating.
MJ isn’t far away geographically — she’d decided to study English at Harvard rather than attending MIT. But they’d both agreed to give each other some space too, at least for the first semester so they could both find friends and get settled at school.
So that leaves Peter…kind of on his own, most of the time. The students in his classes are nice, but they’re from all different kinds of engineering majors, so there’s no cohesive study group or friend group yet. He’d joined the robotics club, but it’s a competitive environment, and people seem more interested in intellectual rivalry than friendship so far.
His roommate, Matteo, is nice enough, but he’s a morning person, while Peter is more of a night owl. Their time in the dorm rarely overlaps.
It’s not…bad, exactly. He knows that he can always turn to Ned and MJ, and he’s made a few acquaintances that are edging closer to friendships. Everything he’s studying is fascinating, and he loves the rigor and intensity of his classes.
It’s just…a little lonely sometimes.
His phone buzzes again. This time, it’s a message from Tony.
Tony 10:07 p.m.
Hey bud!
I promised your sister that I’d send this video to you.
[Attachment_video.mp4]
Peter leans back in his chair as he hits ‘play’ on the video. The footage shows a gaggle of kindergarteners running around on a soccer field. In the middle of the crowd, Morgan emerges, wearing a yellow jersey. She kicks with a surprising amount of power, and the soccer ball rolls right past the goalie (who is doing cartwheels) and into the goal.
Peter 10:09 p.m.
That’s amazing! Tell her that was the best goal I’ve ever seen.
Tony 10:10 p.m.
It was her first goal! To be fair, she scored on her own team, but we’re not focusing on that part.
Peter laughs to himself, cracking his first genuine smile of the day.
Tony 10:11 p.m.
Anyway, sorry to interrupt. I’m sure you’re out doing something fun with your Friday night!
Peter’s smile falls as he looks at the empty study cubicles surrounding him.
Peter 10:15 p.m.
Yep! Having lots of fun here.
***
It’s another quiet Friday night in the library. Tonight, Peter is finishing up his chem lab report. He’d asked his lab partner, Sara, if she wanted to meet up with him to work on it together, but she’d suggested dividing up the sections and working on it separately.
He pauses his work when he realizes that he’s been muttering to himself under his breath as he types. He misses talking to people.
His laptop chimes with a new email alert. He navigates to his school email, clicking on the new message. It’s from the school activities office.
REMINDER: Family weekend kicks off tomorrow!
Peter skims through the itinerary, reading the list of activities. There’s going to be a concert on the quad with a barbeque tomorrow, and a football game and open house in the labs on Sunday.
He imagines himself sitting in his dorm room and listening to all the families spending time together outside his window, and he suddenly feels such a deep stab of homesickness that he can barely breathe.
But it’s short notice, and it would be such a long drive for May and Happy. Morgan probably has weekend soccer games, and Pepper is always so busy with work. It’s presumptuous for him to assume that they can just drop everything to come visit him, all because he’s lonely and he wants a hug.
With a sigh, Peter closes his email and pulls the lab report up again.
***
He sleeps in the next morning since it’s Saturday, and Matteo is typing away on his laptop when Peter wakes up. This is normal.
What’s not normal is Matteo taking his headphones off and turning to speak to Peter.
“Hey, I heard there’s a family weekend thing going on. You got plans? My whole family lives in Colombia, so they can’t exactly make it.”
“Oh — no, my family isn’t coming. You want to go together?”
“Sure,” Matteo shrugs. Peter wonders if Matteo is secretly as relieved as Peter is that he doesn’t have to spend the day alone.
They get dressed and head out of the dorm around noon.
“Peter!” He hears a voice shout. Ned is waving to him eagerly through the massive throngs of people in the quad.
Peter waves back. “That’s my friend from back home — come on, I’ll introduce you,” Peter says, motioning for Matteo to follow him.
Peter feels his heart clench when he spots two familiar faces standing next to Ned — Mr. and Mrs. Leeds, who he’s known since fourth grade. It’s not the same thing as seeing May or Tony, but it feels amazing when Ned’s mom gives him a long, warm hug, remarking on how grown-up he and Ned look and asking if he’s eating enough, just like old times.
Ned and Matteo quickly hit it off, and Peter finds himself in a relatively good mood as they wait in line for burgers and fries.
“I’m thinking about starting a D&D group with a girl from my mechanical engineering class,” Matteo tells them. “Would either of you be interested in joining?”
Ned and Peter grin as they meet each other’s eyes.
“Hell yeah!” Peter exclaims.
“Ahem — language,” A familiar voice says from behind him. Peter’s mouth drops open as he slowly wheels around.
Tony is standing there, wearing a baseball cap and a more subtle pair of sunglasses than usual, and May is right next to him, carrying two folding chairs on her arm. Peter doesn’t think beyond that — he barrels forward into both of their arms, almost knocking them off balance with his enthusiasm.
May’s chairs clatter to the ground.
“You know, May,” Tony says, his voice slightly strained from how tightly Peter is squeezing him, “I think he might’ve missed us.”
Peter feels a little childish and silly clinging to them, but he gives himself a few seconds to enjoy the moment before breaking away — only to promptly have Morgan leap into his arms. He’s startled to notice that Pepper and Happy and Rhodey are also here, all dressed in casual clothes and looking ready to settle in for the day.
“What — I didn’t think — I didn’t know you guys were coming!” Peter remarks as he sets Morgan down, staring at all of them, still feeling stunned by this turn of events.
May rolls her eyes. “Please, honey — did you actually think we’d miss this? Tony has been talking about it for months. He’s threatened to take us on a very boring tour of all the labs here.”
“They mentioned it during your orientation, remember?” Happy asks.
“And it’s been on the school website for weeks,” Pepper adds.
“I want to see your dorm room! I’m going to go here one day and study to become a mad scientist!” Morgan pipes up, grabbing his hand and tugging on it.
Peter feels a bit overwhelmed as he looks around at all of their faces.
“Whoa,” Matteo says next to him, his eyes wide in disbelief as his gaze flickers between Tony, Pepper, and Rhodey. “Dude. This is your family?”
A few years ago, Peter would’ve said that May was his only remaining family member.
But that’s not true anymore, he realizes. It’s not a connection that’s forged in blood. It’s something that had started with him and Tony, but had grown so much beyond that, a rich tapestry encompassing Pepper and Morgan and Rhodey and Happy and May, complex in its variations and threads tying them all together.
“Yes,” he replies, squeezing Morgan's hand in his own. “This is my family.”
***
Ned rejoins his parents but promises to sit with them tomorrow at the football game.
The rest of them get their lunches and find a space to sit, setting up folding chairs and a picnic blanket on the grass while they wait for the band to start playing.
Peter ends up sandwiched between May and Tony.
“So, kid — how’s it been going so far?” Tony asks him. His tone is casual, but Peter detects a hint of worry. “Think you’re going to come back for another semester?”
Peter fights the deeply ingrained urge to insist that everything is perfect.
“It’s been a bit tough,” he admits. “But I’m starting to feel more settled in now. We have a robotics tournament next semester, and Matteo is starting a D&D group. I want to stick around and see how it goes.”
May pats him on the back. “That’s great, honey. I’m proud of you.”
“But your aunt really misses you, so if you ever want to switch to a school in New York —”
“His aunt? Excuse me? Who’s the one that called me in a panic every single night the first week Peter was gone —”
“I wasn’t panicking; I was checking that you weren’t panicking.”
“Did I ever tell you guys,” Rhodey says, interrupting Tony and May’s bickering, “about the time that Tony had a crush on one of our professors? It was for our mandatory writing class, and we were doing a poetry unit —”
Matteo looks on with great interest, and Tony slaps a hand over Rhodey’s mouth.
“Blasphemy! Nobody listen to a word he says.”
“I don’t know, honey, I think I want to hear this. You’ve never written me poetry,” Pepper interjects, her eyes bright with amusement.
“I’m disowning all of you,” Tony grumbles, flopping back on the blanket and pulling his hat over his face.
Peter smiles as he looks around him. Life is good.