Chapter Text
When Morgan was two-and-a-half, she did something what she knew she wasn’t allowed to do. She knew what she did was against her dads rules, because she had been caught trying to do it before. Her dad had not been impressed.
At two-and-a-half, Morgan was inquiring and curious. She wanted to know everything about anything. She constantly bombarded her parents with questions, to which she always got answers to — her parents both being extremely smart, and all.
But neither of them would answer her biggest question.
What was behind the blue door?
The first time that she tried to open the door, into what she had dubbed ‘the blue room’, it was Tony that caught her. When he saw his daughter, dark hair tied back, face scrunched up in concentration, trying to twist the handle above her head, his blood had ran cold.
Because that room was not meant to be seen by Morgan. If she went in there... Tony knew that she would ask lots of questions, and he didn’t think that he could handle that — it was hard enough already.
Morgan had been surprised when her dad had pried her away from the door. He had lifted her up onto his hip, a sad look in his eyes, and told her that “You can’t go in there, Maguna. Only Mommy and Daddy can go in there.”
She had nodded, told him that she understood, and wouldn’t try go in there again, and told him that she was sorry and she loved him, and he had left it after that. She never let on that she only became more curious after that.
The second time, it had been her mom that found her. Last time she tried to open it, she had trouble because of her height, and so this time, she came prepared, with a small stool that she could stand on.
Pepper had left their bedroom at just the right moment. A second later and Morgan would’ve been in there. She had quietly closed the door behind her, knowing that Tony was finally asleep, and turned around to see Morgan, stepping onto a stool in front of the room . And she only just managed to contain her terror.
Her and Tony were trying to protect their young daughter from the knowledge of the snap, and they both knew that if she got into that room, they would have to tell her everything — and they knew that neither of them were up to that.
“Morgan.” Pepper has said, walking over and lifting the toddler up, taking her back to her own bedroom, “You know you’re not allowed in there, sweetie, and you should be asleep, alright? You’re not allowed in that room.”
Once again, Morgan had stated her sleepy apology, snuggling into the crook of her moms neck as she told her that she loved her and wouldn’t do it again.
Morgan knew the saying, ‘ thirds times the charm. ’ Her parents always said it jokingly, in an offhand matter, when things only worked on the third time. And she knew that she had tried to enter the blue room twice, unsuccessfully.
And that’s what brought her to the door of the blue room the third time. She could hear her parents talking quietly downstairs, having put her to bed some time ago. She tiptoed from her own bedroom to the blue room next door, carrying the stool.
Morgan had easily opened the door while on the stool, and only just stopped herself from squealing in excitement when it swung open, revealing a dark room no larger than her own. She turned the light on quickly, before pulling the door so that it was almost shut, and started looking around.
The first thing that Morgan noticed about the room were the walls. Three of them were white — the wall the door was on, the wall the window was on, and the wall on the right (which also had a bunk bed against it). The wall on the left was different, though. It was the same bright blue as the door, but it had some red patterns that looked like spiderwebs painted across it.
The next thing that Morgan noticed was that the window was shuttered, blocking it from seeing the veiw of the lake that she knew it would have. What she didn’t realise, at that point, was that it also made sure that you couldn’t see inside the room from the outside.
Then she began to notice other things.
She noticed the piles of moving boxes stacked in the dark spaces next to the bunk bed, and under the desk — Morgan counted about fifteen of them all up. It looked as though whoever put the boxes there was trying to make them as unnoticeable as they possibly could.
She noticed the piles of framed photos sitting on the bottom bunk of the bed, as though they had been put down with a means of putting them up on the walls. She noticed the old computers on the desk, and she noticed the incomplete lego sets. She noticed the way that not all of the boxes were full, and how some of them were open. She noticed the silence, and the stillness of the air, and the thick layer of dust that seemed to cover a large amount of the room.
She noticed that it made her sad.
Morgan quietly made her way across the room, to the dresser, and pulled open the lowest drawer, curious as to what she would find — and she was not disappointed.
Actually, she was delighted.
The drawer was full of stuff — mainly shirts, along with some school books, and a couple of packages that looked like christmas presents to Morgan. The contents excited her greatly.
Morgan started raking through the drawer, pulling out a few of the things that intrigued her the most — something wrapped in brown paper with green ribbon tied around it, a red mask with weird eyes, and three t-shirts.
She wasn’t really sure why these five thing stood out to her the most, but, despite this, she started inspecting them. Somehow, she managed to pull one of the shirts (what she would later understand to be a science pun shirt) over her head, and found that the bottom of it pooled around her feet even when standing up.
Happily wearing the shirt, she tore open the present as quietly as she could, and a small sound of confusion left her as she pulled another shirt out of it. It was pretty plain, like the others, with some writing on it, and Morgan, in all of her daughter-of-a-literal-genius-and-a-super-successful-CEO glory, read the words, though with some difficulty. ‘ Peter has been Promoted to Big Brother.’
Morgan didn’t know what promoted meant, but she knew what a brother was, and that’s what confused her. Morgan, as far as she knew, did not have a brother, and wondering if she did made the sad feeling she felt upon seeing the neglect of the room return.
She picked up the big brother shirt, draping it across her shoulders, and also the red mask, and made her way to sit dramatically on the bottom bunk, jumping as it creaked loudly. She considered the fabric of the mask that she held, looking at the strange, chunky eye pieces, before pulling it over her head, and blinking in surprise when she found that she could now barely see or hear.
And, apparently, the only way to test that she really couldn’t hear was to scream at the top of her lungs, alerting her parents downstairs.
Downstairs, in the living room, Pepper and Tony heard their daughters scream, and in a split second they both became overcome with fear.
“Morgan!” Tony yelled, already running up the stairs towards his daughters room, turning once he reached the landing —
— Tony froze. The door to the room was ajar. There was a light on in the room. There was a stool in front of the door.
Morgan was in the room.
In the kids’ room.
In his kids’ room.
Tony took a shaky breath, and made his way slowly to the door. “Maguna?” He murmured, pushing the door open. “Maguna you in here?”
When he saw Morgan it took a second for his brain to register what was going on. She was wearing a t-shirt that said ‘ i’ve lost an electron/are you positive?’, it was the one that Peter was wearing when he first offered him the spot on the team — when he declined the offer. The shirt was huge on Morgan, and Tony almost laughed at how ridiculously giant it looked.
But then he saw the mask that she was wearing. It was the original Spider-man mask, and he realised that she mustn’t be able to see — or hear .
Slowly, he reached of for it, pulling it off her face gently, to find her face scrunched up in what Tony could only assume was confusion. “You okay, Maguna?”
Morgan, suddenly able to see and hear again, un-scrunched her face, and stared at her dad questioningly. She opened her mouth a few times uselessly, before words came out. “Do I have a big brother, Daddy?”
She could see her dad tense at the question, and she showed him the shirt that was wrapped around her shoulders.
Tony’s face fell, and he wrapped the little girl in a hug, running a hand through her hair, and letting his tears fall in front of his daughter. “Yes, Maguna. You have a big brother. His name is... His name was Peter, and he was Spider-man, but you can’t tell anybody that.”
Morgan was surprised, to say the least, but she hugged her dad back, and buried her head in his shoulder, before mumbling, “Can I meet him, Daddy? Where is he?”
Tony closed his eyes, as tears continued to fall down his face, and he continued shakily. “Pete... You’re brother went somewhere, and he’s not coming home... but he loves you very much, and one day — one day a very long time from now, Pete and Mommy and you and I will all be together again... okay Maguna?”
She smiled into her dads embrace, nodding. “I love you daddy, and I love Mommy and I love Petey, even though I can’t see him!”
At two-and-a-half, Morgan Stark found out that she had a brother.
Petey . The word warmed his heart — especially since Morgan was saying it. Tony looked toward the ceiling, and mouthed, ‘ We love you kid.’
And they did.