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After seeing Morgan dressed in a pair of tractor embroidered dungarees and a yellow lion patterned t-shirt underneath, Peter had figured that she was a tomboy. Peter didn't see Morgan particularly often; their run-ins were often brief or with long periods of time in between them, but during summer break Peter was spending a lot more time in the labs at SI and eventually spent stints of time sleeping over on the sofa bed shoved in the corner of the lab.
Peter had decided that the sofa bed was too uncomfortable, and was currently working on an air mattress prototype that would replace the trampoline-like base topped with a thin mattress cover which he could feel every structural bar through from underneath. His name was called from the doorway, and Peter knew instantly that it was Tony.
"Hmm?" He non-committedly hummed trying to perfect the blueprint for the automatic air pump which was supposed to start up as the bed was pulled out from its folding position. The first prototype was a mess in the corner. It had a long slash down the side where the mattress had snagged one of the legs as it expanded prematurely.
Mr Stark took another step into the room and cast his gaze over to the broken air mattress. "Well I was gonna tell you to get ready for the barbeque, but now I'm interested in whatever you're doing." Peter glanced up and watched as Mr Stark inspected the prototype.
Peter jumped to explain, his ever-present enthusiasm for science becoming clear. Mr Stark just sighed. "You know, I could just give you a bedroom," He mused, and decided that he probably would regardless of whether Peter wanted one or not. "But this seems more fun." Mr Stark took a stool next to Peter, who sat swinging his legs as he continued to explain the failed prototype and the new one he was making now.
They got lost in their 'sciencing bubble' as Pepper called it- a space where they would let barely anything distract them from whatever task was at hand when Morgan arrived at the door. She slinked in shyly, lingering by the door, and in a small voice called out "Uh, Daddy?" Which was too quiet for Tony to notice, but got picked up by Peter's enhanced hearing.
He patted his mentor on the shoulder and pointed a thumb towards the door without looking up from the blueprint that Tony had shoved his way. At this point, they were trying to figure out how to get the bed to unfold and refold by the click of a button.
Morgan came closer at her father's beckoning hand, and Friday decreased the volume of the music that was blasting through the room. "Mommy says that you and Peter have to come up now." She said, tugging on the sleeve of his suit jacket which Pepper is not going to be happy that he wore whilst in the lab, even if it was just to look over and adjust blueprints.
Tony sighed and looked at his watch. "Alright Munchkin." He said and stood up, Peter following him, as to not get on Pepper's bad side. There was a reason she had earned the nickname Pepper, after all.
Morgan skipped happily into the elevator, and Mr Stark watched her two braids swing with fond affection. Peter noted that today she was wearing a pair of grey cotton shorts that came up just above the knee and an avenger's tank top. Her toenails were also painted a hot pink colour which Peter swore he had seen on Bucky after he had fallen asleep in front of the TV, and a pair of white sandals with pink flowers and butterflies decorating them. Huh, Peter though. Maybe not so much of a tomboy after all.
Peter didn't stop to ponder this much longer, as the elevator doors opened onto the rooftop garden and they stepped out. People were milling around the bar and garden areas, taking seats on the edges of blossoming planter boxes when all the chairs became full.
There were a lot of people that Peter didn’t recognise, as was usual at the events that Tony held, but this time it was a company party, so the people he didn’t know were mainly spouses or new hires.
Approaching the bar, Peter asked for a coke and looked around to try and locate someone he was fairly friendly with so he didn’t have to mingle. Unfortunately, luck seemed to not be on his side today as he was approached by a woman with greying brown hair as he took the first sip of his drink.
“Peter Parker right? I love your new clothing brand…” Peter put on a smile and nodded along to her conversations, answering her questions politely whilst looking for an escape, to no avail. He hated small talk and was actively wishing to go back to the time where he was just the unknown intern who was sometimes accidentally mistaken for one of the wait staff.
Just as he was about to fake a text message and a family emergency, he felt a small tug on his pant leg. He looked down to the brown eyes staring up at him. “Hi?” Morgan said shyly. Peter excused himself from the conversation and bent towards Morgan. “Peter I can’t find Mommy or Daddy and I really need to use the bathroom.” She said, and it was then that Peter realized that the small girl was jumping up and down slightly with her hand over her crotch.
“Okay, come on. Why can’t you go by yourself?” Peter said, grasping her hand and walking her to the stairwell, deciding that it would be faster than the elevator, and wasn’t sure if Morgan could hold on for that long.
Morgan hurried along, pushing the door open with her shoulder. “ ‘M not allowed to go by myself so they know I’m safe.” Right. That makes sense. Peter thought, pulling out his phone and dialling Pepper, Informing her that Morgan was with him and safe.
They didn’t reach the bathroom in time. Morgan let out a small “Oh dear.” and Peter realised that the grey fabric was now dark and wet. “M sorry.” She muttered.
Peter shook his head. “Hey now, It’s okay. There’s nothing to apologise for.” He said, squeezing her hand reassuringly. Let’s go and find you a change of clothes.” Morgan led him to her bedroom, pulling open the door to a walk-in closet that was too big for a seven-year-old to ever need. “Go and finish off in the bathroom and wipe the pee off of your legs okay? I’ll bring you some clean shorts and underwear.” Morgan nodded at the instructions before running off.
Looking at the contents at first glance, Peter would have believed that it was a boy’s closet if it wasn’t for the countless pairs of glittery shoes and princess dress-up costumes on shelves and racks.
Peter didn’t really have time to think about this as he searched through, pulling out the clothes that Morgan would need, before handing them through the bathroom door and taking Morgan’s wet clothes to put in the wash.
Peter led Morgan back up to the rooftop after she was done, and quickly joined a group of interns before he could be bombarded with another line of questioning from a stranger.
//-//
After the incident, Morgan seemed to gain more trust in Peter and ended up coming to find him in the lab on a regular basis, and Tony had decided that setting up Morgan her own workbench would be a great idea.
Today, Peter had a date and was dressed in his favourite skirt- light blue and pleated, a black striped t-shirt and denim jacket. He was pulling on his converse, and going to find where he had left his phone when a familiar voice came from behind him. He turned around to see Morgan. “Your skirt is very pretty,” She complimented. Peter blushed.
“Thank you,” He smiled. “I like your hair.” Peter returned. Her hair in question was styled in multiple intricate braids which weaved in and out of each other.
Morgan Stroked the end of one of them, her fingers brushing over the sequined bow. “Thank you! Auntie Nat did it.” There was a few seconds of silence before she spoke again. “When I’m older, I’m going to wear pretty clothes like yours.”
Peter Furrowed his brow in confusion and began to realise that despite Morgan’s attire, she wasn’t in fact a tomboy. Before he could ask why she didn’t wear ‘pretty clothes,’ Morgan’s name was being called, and she skipped away.
Peter found his phone and grabbed it before rushing out of the door. He shoved his thoughts away for later. He had somebody waiting for him downstairs.
//-//
Pepper was very clearly stressed. She was walking around even faster than usual on her four-inch heels,(As opposed to her usual five inches) and a few wisps of hair were out of place on her head. This wouldn’t be noticeable to anybody who wasn’t close to her. Peter really didn’t like seeing Pepper like this.
He followed her down the hallway and into her office, at a pace that was on the verge of a jog and probably made him look like an idiot. Slipping in behind her, Pepper raised an eyebrow at his Presence. “You are obviously really stressed,” Peter explained. “I’ll be your assistant today.” Peter could almost see her sigh of relief.
“Thank you, Peter.” She said, I've got a lot on my plate today- we have two launches this week and I have tonnes of things to approve, and the marketing team is on my ass- Oh! That’s something you can do. Approve the marketing for me. It’s supposed to be aimed at your age range anyways. If the jokes don’t work, give them some more Ideas.”
Peter nodded, soaking up the new information and walked out. He wanted to comment on how he may not be a good choice, considering that he wasn’t really an average teenager, and his favourite types of jokes were science puns which the majority of the population wouldn’t understand- let alone teenagers, but he kept his mouth firmly sealed, hoping it was just memes. He could do memes.
It was only when Peter stepped into the elevator, He realised that he hadn’t ever been to the marketing department and didn’t know where it was. He was about to start panicking, but then he remembered: Friday.
Taking a relieved breath, Peter calmed himself. “Friday, where is marketing?” He asked. “The Public Relations and Marketing departments are located on floor 34.” The AI responded. “Miss Potts has already informed them of your arrival. The doors closed and the elevator began moving.
He was pulled aside as soon as the elevator opened, by an eager looking intern who led him to her superior who was very eager to get the advertisements looked over.
Peter approved them without too much questioning, which the team was very relieved about. They had apparently consulted some of the younger interns from various departments on the jokes used, and Peter decided that they were funny.
When he arrived back at Pepper’s office, she was on a call. She raised a finger to her lips, whilst nodding and humming along to the other end of the line. Peter leaned his back against the wall.
“Are you absolutely sure… Yes, I know… This is really important… The event is tomorrow… You can’t do anything? Nothing at all… Okay… Yes, Goodbye.” Pepper let out a groan and buried her head in her hands as she put the phone down, before taking a deep breath, recomposing herself as if nothing had happened. “I have a special task for you now, Peter.” She said. Peter hummed in acknowledgement.
Pepper continued. “There is an event tomorrow, a last-minute thing and Morgan needs a gown. The designer we usually use for her seems to be having an…” She paused slightly trying to find the right words. “Emergency of sorts.” She said finally. “I need you to make her a dress to match what Tony and I are wearing. I have some pictures that I will send you, but I think she has grown since the last time we took her measurements.” Peter nodded along to what Pepper was saying.
“Okay, I can do that.” He said. On the way back to the penthouse, Peter was running through the different designs for the skirt and bodice in his mind and had a semi-formulated plan before he got to his Starkpad and drew it up. Next, Peter went looking for Morgan, who he found playing some kind of pirate game with her barbie dolls. (There may have also been aliens but Peter wasn’t 100% sure that they weren’t horses either)
Morgan had apparently had her measurements taken before, and knew exactly what to do when Peter came in. Morgan also asked to help choose fabrics with Peter, and after getting permission to borrow her, went to the haberdashery. The fabrics were all ordered by colours, so Peter took her to the section of light pinks that would work well with Pepper’s mint green accented with pink and Tony’s grey. Tony had ties that would go with anything and everything, so that wasn’t a consideration that he needed to worry about.
“Okay, you can choose anything in this section,” Peter said, gesturing to the rack of pink silks. Morgan hummed as she looked, running fingers across each roll of fabric before finally stopping on a glitter-covered one.
Peter internally sighed, realising that Morgan was always going to pick the glittery option. “Right, I am going to have to say no,” Peter admitted, picturing how awful the design would feel and, most likely look with this fabric.
Morgan relinquished her grip looking dejected. It reminded Peter of a sad puppy, and now he knew why Tony could never give into that face. “However,” He compromised, “If you choose a different one, I’ll add rhinestones to it, and you will still be all sparkly.” Morgan lit up again at the mention of rhinestones.
Peter still had a lot of rhinestones leftover from his bedazzling phase which harboured the creation of his gangsta hello kitty phone case, which he was still very proud of, so sourcing them would not be an issue. “Okay!” Morgan said, looking through the rolls of fabric again. “Can they be pink too?”
“Maybe,” Peter said.
“Pink is my favourite colour,” Morgan told him. She pulled out a simpler fabric, covered in a leafy print. “This one?” She asked.
“Good pick,” Peter complimented.
It took three hours to make Morgan’s dress, and another one on top of that, to do adjustments, however, most of the time was used in sticking the rhinestones onto the fabric, and Peter had to admit, he loved seeing Morgan look so enthralled at being able to wear a pretty dress.
He realised then that Morgan only wore clothes that really showed her true love of girly things when she went to events that were sure to include some form of publicity. It left Peter wondering why Tony and Pepper were raising Morgan like this.
He pondered, shocked for a moment, that maybe they were dressing her in boy’s clothes because they longed for a male heir to the company, before laying at himself- the CEO was clearly female and there was no way Tony let alone Pepper would stand for views like this. It sounded like something Howard would do, and Peter knew that Tony was trying to be everything that his father wasn’t for the little girl. It didn’t mean that he doesn’t mess up sometimes, but Peter would be truly surprised if it was something he did.
Tony and Pepper must have an ulterior motive, he decided.
//-//
Peter and Tony had now finished their new air mattress fold away bed, and had decided on the name ‘The Fold-Air-Way’ and were sending necessary emails to departments who were going to get the project patented, produced and on the market.
When Tony checked the time on his Phone, Peter glanced at it too, taking in the sight of Mr Starks wallpaper. It was a Picture of when Happy took Peter and Morgan to the zoo. Peter smiled as he remembered the moment. Happy had requested to take a picture of them in front of the aquarium, and a passer-by insisted that Happy should be in the picture as well, and took it for them. Happy wasn’t smiling in the photo, but it was clear to anybody who knew him that he was enjoying it.
“Hey, um I have a question.” Peter posed. Mr Stark hummed, raising an eyebrow. “So, I know Morgan is a girly girl, so why does she never wear girly clothes?”
Mr Stark dropped his hands from the keyboard and into his lap. “There are a few reasons, but they all lead back to the same thing” He began. “I’ll start with shorts. Have you ever seen a pair of kids shorts for girls?” He questioned. Peter nodded. It wasn’t like he had never been around girls before. “Well, then you’ll notice how much shorter they are in the legs compared to boys shorts, to the point that if you wear a pair of boxers underneath them the boxers will be longer than the damn shorts. I don’t want my child to walk around in shorts that are practically the same size as underwear.” Peter nodded. Tony’s reasoning was clear and made a lot of sense.
“Also, generally the thickness of girls' clothing is less than boys, making them more see-through, as well as that they tend to be more clingy and have less fabric. I don’t want people, especially the press commenting on my kid’s body.” He paused for a second, running a hand through his hair. “She is growing up in the spotlight. I know that people are going to have things to say about her, but it doesn’t give them the right to comment on her body. I have such little control over that, so I feel like this is how I can protect her.”
“The media industry is extremely bigoted and overrun by men who constantly sexualise women and teenagers to the point where young kids don’t have the chance to grow up and be ‘tweens’ because they are worried about being trendy and sexy like the role models and celebrities they have grown up with on Tv. I know that Morgan isn’t that age just yet, but I want to protect her from that.”
“I feel bad saying this to you Peter, so please know It doesn’t apply to you, but most people in the fashion industries promote corporate paedophilia with the way that they make and advertise their clothing. I don’t want Morgan to feel like she has to live up to some unrealistic standard of beauty. I just want her to be a child.”
Peter nodded along. He understood clearly everything Mr Stark had said, and as he watched advertisements and paid more attention to the children he could see out and about, he noticed more and more just how correct he was.
//-//
An idea started blooming in Peter's mind for the next stage of his clothing line. He talked it over with marketing and Morgan’s parents before borrowing her one day.
“Where are we going?” Morgan asked, skipping along as she held Peter’s hand.
Peter smiled and squeezed it slightly. “You’re going to help design some pretty clothes for us.”
Morgan’s eyes lit up. “We’re going to a hab-dash-ily?” She asked. Peter huffed a laugh at her mispronunciation.
“Yeah kid, we’re going to the haberdashery.” Morgan had decided after the day Peter had taken her to make her ballgown that this was the best way to get new clothes. She loved having input on the patterns and designs that they chose, and she loved spending time with Peter, (Especially because going with him guaranteed ice cream at some point.) plus when she was out without her parents, they were less likely to be recognised. Peter could sympathise; no child deserved to hide from the paparazzi when they went out.
After collecting a variety of different colours and patterns -Including one with dancing sheep that Morgan was adamant about getting- and getting an ice cream sundae and a banana split from the gelato shop that they both adored, the pair arrived back at the tower.
Peter spent the next week sewing different skirts, shorts, dresses, trousers and shirts for Morgan, as well as making himself a matching skirt out of the sheep fabric that he had made Morgan a dress out of.
As he was thinking about the cute pictures of matching clothes that they could use to promote the new children’s line, a new idea hit Peter, which he started working on immediately. Using scraps of fabric, Peter made matching doll-sized outfits to go with each fabric design.
When he presented the finished clothes to Morgan, she squealed, jumping up and down the balls of her feet, before barreling into Peter’s chest and wrapping her arms around him. “I love them!” She proclaimed. Peter wrapped his arms around her, his mouth stretching into a smile.
“You do, huh?” He asked softly. Morgan nodded seriously, before breaking away and running off to dress one of the dolls in a little outfit Peter had made.
The marketing team loved the idea as well. They marketed the new clothing line by focusing on youth and play and photographed the children with their dolls having tea parties or going to the park or the beach, and it was made sure that the photos or branding were in no way hypersexualising the children.
Just like Peter’s other projects with his clothing line, it was perceived well by the public. Peter knew that he couldn’t change much just by making clothes, but by doing this, and adding an ‘about’ section on the website that Ned was running for him, he was able to make people aware of these issues in the fashion industry.
The more people who are aware of issues, the more change will come and Peter and Mr Stark were happy that more people were hearing the message.