A/N: this fic is rather AU and only loosely follows some of the canon timelines. It is set sometime after the end of Spider-Man Homecoming. It is not compliant with Infinity War or Endgame or though it does contain a small SPOILER for Endgame. Please read all warnings and disclaimers carefully. I hope you enjoy.
Warnings: this fic will contain corporal punishment (spanking) of minors (characters under the age of 18) and possibly adults in later chapters. The Author (me) wishes to inform you that this does not reflect her personal view on the matter.
Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel, The Avengers or any of the related characters or topics/settings. I am just playing with them.
Domiciliary
Chapter One
Having some of the Earth's mightiest heroes as your family wasn't as glamorous or exciting as one might think. There was a near crippling fear that this mission might be the one, the one that they never return home from. Pepper knew this fear well as found it hard enough to deal with as a grown woman, she could only imagine what Morgan and Cassie were feeling. The two little girls were snuggled up in her bed, one on each side. Both girls made a habit of this whenever their fathers were off doing some avenging.
For Cassie the fear of losing her father was very real, he had spent much of her early childhood behind bars. She was also no stranger to losing a parent, her mother and stepfather had been tragically killed in a car crash less than a year ago. Their death had in fact been the catalyst for her and her father taking up residence at the Avengers' Base.
As she lay in bed trying not to think too hard about her partner and their friends who had long since become family. They were off fighting the good fight in a very serious way. Her cell phone suddenly vibrated, alerting her to the fact that someone was trying to contact her. Picking up the device she read the message and smiled.
Hey Pepper, I'm home. Don't worry, I'm safe and sound! And hey look I made it before curfew and everything! Is Mr. Stark back yet?
Quickly typing back she replied.
That's great Peter, school night Hun, get some sleep okay? No Tony's not back yet, I'm sure he'll be in touch when he is.
Seconds later the reply came through.
Yeah, yeah I'm off to bed. But Happy's still picking me up from school tomorrow right? He's bringing me out there even if Mr. Stark's away?
This made her smile even wider, she loved how eager the teen was to visit, how much he loved his time at the base.
Yes, Happy's bringing you, now lights out Young Man, I'll see you tomorrow. Sleep well.
The next reply was almost instantaneous.
Night Pepper!
The blonde woman put her phone down once more, hoping that the teen had indeed obeyed her and gone to bed. Being a superhero had a tendency to cut down on the amount of quality sleep one had and really it wasn't good for a growing boy but she knew that there was nothing much she could do to convince the boy to stop. She, Tony and May had come together to lay down some ground rules for the teen, one of which being the One AM curfew unless out with one of the Avengers.
Next to her one of the little girls was starting to stir. She wriggled slightly as she woke up. Her eyes fluttered open and she looked around blearily.
"Daddy?" she called out in a whisper.
"No Sweetheart, it's Pepper, your daddy is away on a mission, remember?" the woman spoke to the little girl.
"Oh yeah, Aunt Pepper?" Cassie queried.
"What is it Darling?" the blonde woman asked, turning her full attention to the child on her right. Her own child still sleeping soundly on her left.
"Daddy is coming home isn't he?"
Pepper pulled the little girl into a tight hug and kissed her forehead lovingly.
"He'll be home before you know it" she said, trying to be as reassuring as possible and without making too many promises that couldn't be kept.
"Go back to sleep baby" Pepper soothed, stroking her hands through the little girl's hair as they both drifted back off to sleep.
….
The quinjet was nearly silent as the team of superheroes flew towards home. It had been a rough mission and although none of them had sustained any severe physical injuries, the emotional toll hadn't been easy. Bruises were forming and a few weeping cuts were clear on several of the jet's occupants.
This mission had been particularly tough on those members of the team who had children. An insane Sokovian scientist, Dr. Dimka Zenyakoff has been kidnapping children and experimenting on them. Trying to turn them into psychic weapons of mass destruction. He had not been overly successful but several children had be tortured and killed in his various attempts.
Steve had made the call not to have Wanda, AKA Scarlet Witch or her twin brother Pietro, AKA Quicksilver along for this mission, the similarity to their own lives made them too dangerously unpredictable to come along for this mission. The team now had enough members that they no longer required everyone for every mission.
Scott was exhausted, thankfully it was the more natural exhaustion of having been on a mission for the past 56 hours without being able to get more than a few hours of sleep here and there and not the special kind of fatigue that went along with going giant in his Ant-Man suit. As he slowly drifted off to sleep, Scott's thoughts turned to his daughter, Cassie who would undoubtedly be worried about him.
He loved his little peanut more than he had ever loved a living soul. His heart swelled at the thought of her and ached at the same time. She was only ten years old and had been through so much. Her father had spent the first several years of her life in prison, then once he was out he had been responsible for her being kidnapped by a psycho who was after him. Then he'd been an idiot and run off to Germany to help Captain America without truly thinking things through, this had lead him to spend another two years on house arrest.
He'd been off of house arrest for a mere month when tragedy had really had a go at his girl. Her mother and stepfather had been taken from her in a horrible car accident. Scott had decided to take the offer of joining the Avengers as a permanent member after that. He had packed up his daughter and their lives and moved to the Avengers Base in upstate New York. He hadn't regretted this decision for even a minute. Being around Morgan Stark had helped his girl heal her heart a lot faster than he would have ever thought possible.
Tony Stark had people in his life now who meant more to him than he'd ever thought possible. He had a ragtag version of a family that was made up of a bunch of superheroes, including an overgrown teenaged spider, his former bodyguard, the woman he loved, a daughter he cherished and the daughter of one of the aforementioned superheroes. It might not be the norm but it was comfortable.
He couldn't help but to allow his thoughts to wonder from the lovely ladies he cared for so dearly to his teenaged Spiderling. He wondered how the boy was doing and truly hoped that the kid was being safe and not taking stupid risks that were not exactly unheard of for the teenager.
Clint was leaning back in one of the jet's comfortable seats. Trying to relax a little, needing desperately to decompress after everything they had seen and done over the past couple of days. The atrocities that those children had been forced to endure were heartbreaking. There had been a body of a young boy who couldn't have been more than eleven or twelve, close in age to his own eldest. Only this child wasn't having to concern himself with schoolwork or comic books like Cooper, but instead he had met an untimely death when his own brain had imploded from being unethically and cruelly experimented on.
He was burning with the urge to see his family, to kiss his wife and to hold his children in his arms. It had been months since he had been home. Months since he'd been intimate with his wife or played with his kids. He planned to visit them as soon as feasibly possible, but the reality was that it would likely not happen for another few weeks. He would have to settle for seeing them over video chat later that day after some food and a bit of sleep.
Looking around the jet at his teammates, his other family. He couldn't help but notice the pained look the briefly flashed across his best friend's face, although she was likely trying to hide it.
"Whoa there Nat, did you just wince?" Clint asked the woman he considered to be his little sister after seeing the slight change to her facial features as she shifted in her seat.
Natasha glared at the archer, hating that the man had been able to read her so easily, she was after all a master spy.
"Point that glare someone else" Clint said with a barely concealed smirk, correctly guessing what the woman was thinking.
Bruce came over to the redhead,concern evident on his face as he asked.
"Are you injured?"
"It's nothing Bruce" Natasha tried to brush off his concern.
By now Tony and Steve had become aware of the conversation going on around them.
"Come on Natashalie, if you have a boo-boo you should let Brucie kiss it all better" Tony teased, trying to use his customary humour to break the tension.
Natasha shot him a glare that would have sent most running for the hills but Tony knew that Natasha would never truly hurt him, at least not over something as trivial as a teasing remark.
Steve spoke up then, speaking as her team leader rather than as a friend knowing that being ordered to do something would make it easier on the woman.
"Agent Romanoff, if you're injured you are required to allow Dr. Banner to assess you".
"Fine" she snapped, muttering an annoyed Russian diatrab, pulling her pants down slightly to reveal a rather large gash on her left hip, it was bleeding quite a bit.
"It doesn't look too deep" Bruce said, his skilled hands gently poking and prodding the tender flesh around the wound, trying to assess whether or not stitches would be required.
"Looks like you'll need a few stitches and it definitely needs to be cleaned and dressed" the doctor concluded.
"I can clean it now and put a temporary dressing on it for now, the stitches can wait until we get home" the decision was made.
Bruce moved over to a cabinet nearby and grabbed out some supplies including surgical gloves, swabs and medical disinfectant. He thoroughly washed his hands before adorning the gloves and setting to work cleaning and dressing the wound.
….
The room was still dark although the morning light could almost be felt although not quite seen hrough the tightly shut blinds. A heavy feeling had begun to build up in the bladder of the bed's smallest occupant. The dark haired little girl wiggled around as she started to wake. Unable to ignore it anymore the five year old climbs out of the bed and scampers across the room towards the adjoining bathroom to empty her bladder and get back to the comfort of her parents' bed.
Noticing movement from over by the bedroom door, Morgan opened her eyes more widely. Her mouth split into an excited grin as she spotted her father.
"Daddy!" she shouted as she sped across the room into his waiting arms, forgetting her mother and friend were still sleeping.
"Hey Squirt, you miss me or something?" Tony asked as he held his daughter close. Breathing in her unique Morgan scent, finding himself starting to truly relax for the first time since the mission had begun.
"Of course I missed ya, did ya miss me too?" Morgan asked from her spot snuggled in his arms, her face close to his.
"More than anything Squirt, more than anything" he assured her.
Sitting up in bed, Cassie looked around, her brain taking a moment to come into focus. She took note of who her younger friend was talking to and with a sudden jolt of realisation she put together the fact that if Morgan's dad was home that her's had to be too.
"Hi Uncle Tony" she greeted hurriedly before asking "us my Daddy home?".
"Hey kiddo, yeah he sure is" Tony replied but before he could say anything else Cassie had shot out of the bed and out of the bedroom in search of her father.
Carrying Morgan over to the bed Tony bounces her slightly as he goes to elicit happy giggles from the five year old, it was one of his utmost favourite sounds.
Tony sits down on the edge of the large king sized bed and kisses Pepper in greeting.
"Hey Pep, miss me?" he asks with a cocky grin as they pull out of the kiss.
Morgan makes a face at the sight of her parents kissing, the look is priceless and Tony can't help but chuckle and kiss the girl on the forehead.
"Plenty of kisses to go around Mini-Me" he informed her.
"Are you okay?" Pepper asks, looking her partner up and down as if trying to X-ray him with her eyes.
"I'm fine Pep, a little bruised but otherwise uninjured" he said, his tone as reassuring as possible.
"And the others?" Pepper pushed on although not pressing for too many details owing to the fact that their five year old daughter was still present.
"All fine too, a few boo-boos but nothing Bruce can't fix right up" Tony assured her, pulling her into a somewhat awkward hug due to the smaller human still in his arms.
…
Running from the bedroom Cassie went in search of her father. It didn't take long to find him. He was after all just standing there in the main living area just waiting for her to come to him.
"Daddy!" Cassie yelled, echoing her younger friend in excitement and enthusiasm as she too jumped into her father's waiting embrace.
"God I missed you Peanut!" exclaimed Scott as he hugged his daughter tight and spun her around.
"I missed you too Daddy, this is why I've decided you're grounded okay? You have to stay home with me for at least a week" the ten year old informed him very seriously.
Grinning at her Scott agreed with a "you got it Peanut".
Bruce walks by at this moment having finished stitching up and dressing Natasha's hip wound. He smiles at the sight of Cassie in Scott's arms. Grateful that the teams children were safe and loved, even if there were children out there who weren't.
"Good morning Cassie" Bruce said by way of greeting.
"Morning Uncle Bruce" the brunette child replied.
"How were things here while we were away?" the doctor asked.
"They were fine, Morgan and I played lots and Uncle Happy got us like a ton of cheeseburgers and chocolate shakes" Cassie informed the men.
Rolling his eyes at the news of Happy's indulgence of the girls' addiction to junk food, something he had been trying hard to discourage. They were five and ten after all, the certainly didn't need so much fast food and other junk in their diets.
"And what about your schoolwork? Did you get it all finished?" Bruce asked, slipping into the role of teacher for a moment.
"Well I did my reading every night before bed" Cassie told him somewhat evasively, trying to dodge answering the question completely.
"That's wonderful, what about your science report? The one that is due in today?" Bruce pushed, although he could tell by the lack of eye-contact and the fact she was now shifting slightly in her dad's arms that it was unlikely she'd finished it, he hoped she'd at least started it.
"Um well no" she replied before launching herself out of Scott's arms and at the other man who caught her easily.
"I missed you Uncle Brucie" Cassie said sweetly, planting a big kiss on his cheek.
"I missed you too" he told the girl, momentarily distracted by the affection.
"But we will be discussing the importance of schoolwork more later" he scolded slightly.
Cassie and Scott rolled their eyes in unison at the statement. Tony walked passed with Morgan still in his arms, informing them that Happy would be arriving soon with some breakfast from their favourite diner. The five of them continue on to the dining room together. Cassie and Morgan chatting excitedly about whether or not their Uncle Happy would have remembered to get them chocolate chip pancakes or not.
The elevator dings a moment later, altering to the fact that someone had just arrived. The doors slide open to reveal one Happy Hogan surrounded by bags of styrofoam boxes filled with delicious foods and his hands full of cup holders containing various hot beverages. Steve and Sam spot him on their way to the dining room.
"Need a hand Happy?" Steve asks.
"Yeah, thanks" came the former bodyguard's reply.
The two men grab the bags of food from the elevator floor and the three of them walk together to join the others.
Ten minutes later all of the family present are gathered around the large wooden dining table. Happily chowing down on an assortment of breakfast foods, including chocolate chip pancakes and waffles much to the joy of the two youngests.
The atmosphere is one of comfortable camaraderie and the conversation is kept light as it usually was at meal times owing to the fact that the children were almost always with them during meals.
Tony's phone vibrated in his pocket, letting him know that he'd received a text message. Pulling the phone out and checking he noted that it was from Peter, wondering what his Spiderling wanted he read the message quickly, hoping that Pepper wouldn't notice and scold him for his use of a phone during meal times.
Hey Mr. Stark! Hope everything went okay with the mission. Patrol last night was fine. Not much happening. Stopped a mugging and webbed some lowlife who was hitting his girlfriend and called the cops. Hopefully I'll see you tomorrow! Have a great day Mr. Stark.
Tony couldn't help but smile at the message. He wasn't sure when it had happened but somewhere along the line that little spider had crept his way into his heart. A simple text from the teen could brighten up his day almost as much as a hug from his
"Everything alright Boss?" Happy asked, taking note of the genuine smile that now graced the man's usually weary face.
"Yeah Hap, is great to be home" came Tony's reply.
A/N: I hope you enjoyed the first chapter, please leave a review. Constructive criticism is more than welcome but flames will be deleted so please keep any and all reviews respectful.
Definition of Domiciliary: concerned with or occurring in someone's home.