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It starts after Peter leaves from spending a long weekend up at the lake house. He’d been off school on Friday for a teacher in service day, and arrived Thursday evening, staying through Sunday. They’d spent a large chunk of the weekend ensconced in the garage aka lab, but Peter had spent an equal amount of time as Morgan’s playmate, humoring her with tea parties in her tent and her running around playing Avengers vs Aliens with her.
With all the time Morgan has been spending with Peter lately, Tony’s not sure why he’s so shocked when she sits down at dinner after Peter leaves and says, “I don’t want peas, Mr. Stark.”
Tony freezes, in the middle of dishing up the sides, and stares at her. “What did you just say?”
“I don’t want peas,” Morgan repeats.
“No no, what did you call me?”
“Mr. Stark.”
“I’m Daddy,” he says.
“I know,” Morgan says, her tone implying that Tony is stupid for clarifying this.
“Okay, so…”
“So I don’t want peas,” she says.
Pepper is hiding her mouth behind her hand, but he can tell she’s laughing.
He sighs, and lets it go. “You have to eat at least one,” he tells Morgan, placing a small spoonful of peas on her plate.
Morgan’s face screws up in disgust.
“Or no ice cream.”
“Ugh, but they’re so gross.”
“Just one pea.”
“Fine,” she says, picking one up and placing it in her mouth. She doesn’t even chew, swallowing it whole, and then starts making a gagging noise. “That was so gross, Mr. Stark!”
“Daddy,” he corrects again.
Pepper is still laughing, the traitor.
“Peter calls you Mr. Stark,” Morgan says, matter-of-factly.
“Yeah, but…” Tony hesitates, on the verge of saying that he’s not Peter’s dad. Except, he doesn’t really want to say that, because even though it’s true Peter is his kid.
Morgan is waiting for him to continue.
Tony sets down the peas. “Sweetie, Peter calls me that because when we first met, we were just… Well, we didn’t know each other at all. We were strangers.”
“You’re not strangers now though,” she says. “So why doesn’t Peter call you Daddy?”
“Well, Peter’s… Peter has a dad, who he calls that. And his daddy died a long time ago. So he doesn’t call anyone else that.”
“But you’re Peter’s dad,” Morgan says, insistently. “He’s my brother.”
Tony glances over at Pepper, looking for help.
Pepper leans closer. “Peter is part of our family,” she says, “but he didn’t grow up with us, and he has another family too. He has his Aunt May, right? You know her. And he lives with her when he’s not here with us. And none of us are his mommy and daddy, because his mommy and daddy died a long time ago. So he calls them mom and dad, and not any of us.”
Morgan’s quiet, biting her lip. “How did they die?” she asks.
“They were in an accident,” Pepper says gently. “It was a long time ago.”
“But, if they’re gone, then you can be his mommy and daddy now.”
“Aunt May is like his mommy now,” Pepper says. “And daddy is like his daddy. He just doesn’t call them that. He calls them Aunt May and Mr. Stark.”
Morgan is quiet again, thinking that over. And then decides, “So Daddy is Mr. Stark.”
Pepper sits back, and shrugs a bit at Tony.
Tony pops his lips. “Sure am, kiddo.”
Morgan smiles at him widely.
- - -
Morgan is still calling him Mr. Stark five days later.
“It’s a phase,” Pepper says. “She’ll grow tired of it soon and go back to calling you Daddy.”
“She did it at school,” he points out.
“It’ll pass,” she insists.
Tony’s not so sure.
- - -
Peter doesn’t come back to visit again for three weeks, because it’s his senior year and school is nuts and he’s still patrolling as Spider-Man. But when he does arrive, he swings Morgan up into the air in the driveway, making her squeal. Tony watches from the front porch, smiling fondly.
“Peter, Peter, come see. I built a treehouse!”
“You did?”
Morgan takes his hand, not even letting Peter take his things inside before dragging him off around the side of the house towards the new treehouse. “It’s so cool!”
Tony, still on the porch, can hear Peter exclaiming over it. “Oh wow, this is nice, Morgan! Did Mr. Stark help you with it?”
“He helped a little,” Morgan says. “But I gave him all the tools and I hammered in lots of the boards and I even used the drill.”
“Wow, that’s awesome.”
“We can play inside and it’s big enough for us both to fit because the tent was kind of small so this is lots better,” she babbles. “Wait here, I’m gonna go ask Mr. Stark for snacks!”
That seems to throw Peter for a loop, because he says, “You mean Daddy?”
“Yeah,” Morgan says, before turning and running back to the house.
Later, after an entire evening of Peter looking utterly confused every time Morgan says “Mr. Stark,” Tony finally pulls him aside and says, “Don’t worry about it, kid, Pepper says it’s just a phase.”
They’re sitting out on the porch, as dusk settles in, surrounded by the sound of frogs and crickets.
“But… why is she doing it?” Peter asks.
Tony taps the kid on the forehead. “She’s mimicking you. Monkey see, monkey do.”
Peter looks a bit stricken over that. “I didn’t… Why would she do that? I mean, sure I call you that, but that’s because you’re not… I mean…”
“It’s okay, really. I don’t care what either of you call me.” Tony wraps an arm around Peter’s shoulders then and says, “We don’t have a 1950s nuclear family and that’s perfectly fine with me. It doesn’t make us any less of a family. And the names we’re all using for each don’t really matter.” Then: “I mean, there are some names I’d prefer to avoid. Bastard, jackass, asshole…”
Peter snorts. “I mean, maybe if you piss me off I’ll teach her that.”
“You wouldn’t dare.”
- - -
The next day, at breakfast, Peter nearly gives Tony a heart attack by asking, “Hey Dad, can you pass the butter?”
Tony stares at him, in too much shock to actually fulfill the request.
Pepper hands it over, a huge grin on her face.
Peter keeps it up, calling Tony “Dad” the entire rest of the weekend. Morgan sticks with “Mr. Stark” for another day, before giving in and switching back to “Daddy.”
- - -
“Do you think it’s just a phase?” Tony asks Pepper.
“For Peter?”
“Yeah.”
Her expression is soft. “It might be.”
Tony nods. “I mean, he’s only doing it so that Morgan will stop calling me Mr. Stark. He’s a good kid.”
She nods. Her arms circle around him from behind, her chin resting on his shoulder. “Maybe it’ll last,” she says.
“Hmm, maybe.”