Chapter Text
“Wake up, Pete. Rise and shine.”
Peter groaned, noting the light behind his eyelids but refusing to acknowledge it. He turned over in bed so his back faced Tony who was no doubt standing in the middle of his slightly messy room with his hands on his hips.
“Come on, kid. The moody teenager act only works for so long.”
“Leave me alone,” he mumbled, eyes still closed in a last-ditch attempt to go back to sleep. It was the first day of spring break and he refused to get up before nine am. Not happening.
“No can do, I’ve gotta get to work in ten minutes and I need to make sure you and Morgan are ready to seize the day,” Tony countered and items that were probably his clothes fell on top of his bed-cocoon.
Peter blinked, throwing back the sheets and bolting upright. “Wait, you’re going to work? But Peppers away.”
Tony smiled, but not the usual fond one that greeted him, it was more of the cunning kind, like he had a plan that was finally coming to fruition. It put Peter on edge.
“You’re perfectly capable of looking after your sister aren’t you?”
“And do what? I can’t- I don’t know what to do all day.”
“Take her to the park to see the ducks or something, you can drive now, Pete. World's your oyster.”
“Unless I want to go out as Spider-Man,” he grumbled with a small pout.
Tony sighed, dropping onto his bed next to the teen. “We’ve talked about this. The medication you’re on to fight the infection is a blood thinner. One cut on patrol and you could bleed out. It’s not safe.”
“I know, I know,” he said quickly, not wanting a redo of their argument. It happened three days ago when he came home from Medbay. He’d been stabbed by some sleaze on patrol, but instead of healing like these things usually did, it got infected. Tony informed him he was confiscating the suit until it was safe for him to go out again and all hell broke loose until Peter had flashbacks to the ferry incident. The rest of it he'd rather not relive, but there was lots of crying and hugging involved. He cried for May which he knew hurt Tony more than he’d ever admit.
Tony had been nothing but amazing since taking him in after escaping the soul stone. Peter had returned to a whole new world only to learn his aunt had died two years into the blip. It still hurt and he was sure it always would. One of the worst parts was he’d always dreamed of what it would be like to live with his mentor, but now it was his reality and those dreams filled him with guilt. When he signed the guardianship papers it felt like a betrayal. That was over a year ago now.
“Pep’s only gone for a week, kiddo. You’ll be fine,” Tony insisted, squeezing his shoulder.
Peter nodded glumly, leaning in to give Tony a better angle to ruffle his hair.
“Come on, Morgans already had breakfast and is ready and raring to spend the day with her favourite brother.”
“Only brother,” Peter corrected, pushing himself out of bed. He followed Tony into the kitchen only to be greeted by a very excited five-year-old.
“Petey!” Morgan’s high-pitched voice came from behind the counter and soon enough he had a small child head-butting his leg and wrapping their arms around him.
“Morning Morgs,” Peter said, already feeling lighter.
“Daddy said we get to spend all day together! What do you want to do first? I want to paint and play house and find fishies!”
On a normal day, Peter would be all for a fun-packed day with his bundle of energy sister, but weirdly the medication he was on was wiping him out. “Are you sure we can’t swap?” He muttered to Tony who was packing his bag.
“Sorry, bud. Gotta’ go,” he said leaning over the kitchen island to press a kiss into his hair. He slid his bag onto his shoulder and kicked his shoes on. “I’ll be back around six.”
“Six?” Peter parroted, gawking at Tony who chuckled.
“I’m leaving, Maguna!”
“Bye Daddy!” She cried, jumping onto him for a hug goodbye.
Tony kissed her on the forehead, beaming down at her in his arms. “Be good for Petey, okay?”
“I will.”
He gave her one last kiss before setting her down and she immediately ran back to finding her toys. He headed for the door, turning to Peter before he opened it.“Don’t break anything whilst I’m gone and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do. And-“
“Don’t do anything you would do, yeah I know.”
“Little grey area,” Tony finished with one last smile before disappearing out the door.
Peter sighed, grabbing a bowl and cereal out of the cupboard. He closed the cupboard to Morgan suddenly in front of him.
“Can I paint? Can I?”
”Sure, just make sure you put the cover on the table first.”
“I will!” She squealed and ran off.
He’d almost forgotten just how excitable she could be at 8 am. For the past few days, no one had bothered him. Once he returned from medbay he holed himself up in his room, partly because he was still recovering, but mostly because Tony had taken Spider-Man away again. He was tired of Tony babying him so much when he was perfectly capable of getting back out there and helping people. He’d been so excited to spend all of the summer hanging out with friends and patrolling and now he couldn’t do the latter for over a week, longer if Tony got his wish.
He knew that Tony must have scheduled a meeting to give him an excuse to lumber Morgan on him. She was his bad mood kryptonite and everyone knew it. One hour of playing with her and he couldn’t wipe the smile off of his face for the rest of the day. It was a dirty tactic.
“Petey, paint with me!” She called from the lounge, giggling as she failed to cover the coffee table with the protector.
He smiled fondly, disregarding his breakfast and walking over to help. “It’s a two-man job, huh?”
“I can do it by myself,” she insisted, but every time she tried to cover a corner of the table, the cloth would pull away from the others.
“I know, but isn’t being part of a team more fun?”
She nodded, allowing him to take the other end and secure it on the table.
“So what are you going to paint first?”
“A mermaid. And you’re going to draw a unicorn!” She slapped a blank piece of paper down in front of him.
“I am, am I?”
“You said you have to be a team, remember? And in my team, there are mermaids and unicorns.”
Peter chuckled, shaking his head as he pulled out a paintbrush. “Unicorn coming right up.”
“Petey, that's not a unicorn! That's- that's… a weird donkey.”
Peter laughed, it wasn’t a secret that art was never his strong suit, unlike Morgan whose mermaid almost looked like one apart from the girl’s smile was wider than her face and the fins looked like the end of Thor's hammer. “We can’t all be great artists like you, Morgs.”
“Can we get food now? I’m hungry.”
“Sure we can, Morgs. What kind of food would you like?” He asked, getting up only to realise his legs had lost feeling from kneeling for so long. Luckily he managed to lean on the sofa before he could face plant.
She jumped up, humming in thought as she walked over to the kitchen. “Cotton candy.”
“Cotton candy isn't food.”
“Is too!”
“It’s literally sugar,” Peter pointed out. The last thing he needed right now was Morgan on E-numbers.
“Can I have it for a treat?” She asked, batting her eyelids up at him.
He sighed, entertaining her idea somewhat. “Where are we going to get cotton candy from, Morgs?”
“Coney Island.”
Peter raised an eyebrow. “Coney Island?”
“I haven’t been in ages! Daddy gets scared on the rides now.”
No, Daddy has nerve damage in 20% of his right side, Peter corrected internally, but Morgan didn’t need to know that. All she knew was Tony’s right arm didn’t work very well anymore.
“I guess we could go, but you can’t have cotton candy for lunch.”
“We can get hot dogs first!” She cried, clapping her hands.
Peter sighed. He did like Coney Island. “Fine, but only if you promise to behave.”
“I will!” She called, already disappearing up the stairs to find her shoes.
“I’d leave her in the car if I were you, Morgs. You don’t wanna lose it,” Peter warned, glancing at the small stuffed unicorn in her hands. It had followed her everywhere for almost a month now after Pepper had brought it back from a trip to Europe. The only time she didn’t have it with her was when Pepper stole it in her sleep so she could wash it.
“I won’t lose it if it’s in my hands!”
“But Morgs-“
“Pinkie stays!” She cried, holding it in a vice grip to her chest.
Peter sighed, taking his seatbelt off. “Fine.”
“Come on, Petey, I wanna go on the Ferris wheel.” She pulled at the door handle which didn’t budge. God bless child locks.
He glanced down at the spare web shooters in the driver's compartment, contemplating for a second before shaking the thought out of their head. They were at an amusement park. If aliens were to invade, they’d have to be someone else’s problem for a few more days.
He rounded the car to Morgan’s door, letting her out and locking it behind her. “Let’s go find some cotton candy.”
“Can we go and look at the sea?” Morgan asked, already pulling him towards the pier with her sticky cotton candy hand. He cringed, finding Pinkie was undergoing the same treatment in her other hand. She was going to need a wash again. As did her pink leggings and pale blue t-shirt. If the day's success was calculated by how clean Morgan was, he’d fail.
“I don’t have much choice, do I?”
“Pinkie loves the sea,” she said and spiralled into another very detailed story about how Pinkie used to live by the sea with their unicorn friends.
Peter listened intently, indulging her with questions and a gasp here and there.
They’d been at Coney Island for almost two hours. Tony had texted to ask how the day was going whilst Morgan was on the small dragon roller coaster around an hour in. When Peter told him what they were up to, his guardian acted like a grandmaster whose plot had unfolded perfectly. Peter had rolled his eyes and shoved his phone away.
Morgan had made Peter go on at least five different rides with her, including the teacups which honestly made him feel light-headed. His sister laughed and shrieked the whole time though and that made it all worth it. He’d stay dizzy forever to keep Morgan as happy as she was at that moment.
On the pier a clown was handing out animals in the shapes of balloons. Morgan found his shoes funny.
“Petey?” She asked, tugging at his hand in hers.
He smiled, looking down at her. “Yeah?”
”What do you want to be when you grow up?”
Peter blinked. He would never get used to her coming out with the most profound questions out of the blue. “Uh, I guess I haven’t thought about it much.” It was a crappy answer and he knew he was in it for the long haul until she was satisfied. This wasn’t his first rodeo.
”Will you be the same as Daddy?”
”I don’t know, maybe. I know I want to go to MIT like Daddy did, though.”
“What’s MIT?” She asked mid-walk, coming to a jolting stop when Peter froze.
His spidey senses were suddenly going haywire. He’d never felt them so strong like his muscles were telling him to run. Was this a side effect of the medication?
“Petey?”
He looked down, worried he’d scared her, but she wasn’t looking at him. She was looking at the sea.
“Where did all the water go?”
He followed her gaze. The sea floor was bare.
His heart stopped.
He didn’t know much about tsunamis, they’d only studied it in geography once in freshman year, but there was only one thing that could do this to a shoreline. He looked back up and gasped. In the distance, the wave had already formed.
“Run!” He shouted, grabbing Morgan.
“Petey?!” She cried, wrapping her legs around his sides.
He was scaring her, but there was no time. He couldn’t afford to comfort her or try to help anyone else like his senses were screaming for him to do. He had to get Morgan to safety. That was his priority.
On the pier, everyone was shouting and running to land. It was ear-splitting for his heightened sense and it made it difficult to run fast when people kept getting in his way, but he had to keep going.
He had to get Morgan out of here. Nothing else mattered.
In a clearing, he saw an arcade stand at the end of the pier, somewhere that could hopefully give them some protection. It was their only option.
“It’s okay, Morgs,” he shouted over everyone. He was sprinting now and his heart was hammering in his chest.
When he was close enough to the stand, he risked a glance over his shoulder.
He was out of time.
The tidal wave was seconds from hitting the beach. Seconds from destroying the pier.
In the last moment, he dived into the stand and cocooned Morgan into him beneath the counter.
“I’ve got you, Morgs. I’ve-“
Peter wasn't able to finish the sentence.