The characters belong to Marvel/Disney and I don't get any profit from this writing.
BRAIDING MISS STARK
Stark House 08:30 am
"Sit still, please."
"I'm trying, Daddy!" Morgan shouts annoyed. "It's not my fault you're less skilled than Mommy at this…"
Pepper enters the room then, perfect timing, and smiles at the two loves of her life.
"What are you doing?"
Morgan giggles and covers her mouth with her tiny hand, amused.
"Isn't it obvious, Pep? I'm braiding our daughter's hair."
"He's trying to." Their little girl clarifies, all toothless smile.
"Not succeeding." Tony ads, hands up, dropping slightly against the back of the couch, defeated.
"He never does." The six year old ads, determined.
"Yeah, I can see it, but Tony… WHY? I'm the one who usually does it. You don't have patience for this. You've been trying for years now, and I always end doing it myself. Braiding hair is just not in your list of multiple talents, Honey."
Tony looks down again, into her daughter's head and tries to bind together another strand of rebel brown hair, to no avail. Mom and daughter start laughing hard at his failed attempts.
"It's impossible. I mean it. Don't laugh at me, you two. This is worse than mechanical engineering, I tell you."
Morgan laughs at her father's antics and bounces back and forth in her chair.
"Just let Mom do it, like every morning."
Tony finally gives up and allows Pepper to sit down next to him, the redhead kisses her daughter's cheek and pets his husband's hair sweetly. "Come on, Tony. Let me finish this or Morgan will be late for school and I will be late for work. And you know how much I hate to be late. I'm the boss."
"Yeah, okay. It's all yours now, Mom." Tony teases her. "Have fun."
He reluctantly gives up and lets her daughter's hair land free all over her navy blue shirt.
"It's okay, Daddy. You tried so hard. I still love you." She gets up in a whim and gives her father a sounding kiss in the cheek and a big warm hug.
"Good to know. I love you too." Tony adds nonchalantly, but secretly melting inside.
Once father and daughter are done hugging each other, Morgan turns back and sits again in the chair, letting her Mom end styling her hair in a single braid.
Tony stares at them astonished, trying to grasp the magic in Pepper's hands at doing this. To no avail he sadly thinks to himself. He was never destined to become a hairdresser, it seems.
Later that same week, Pepper and Tony greet Peter Parker at their home, he's here to babysit Morgan as they head towards a very important fundraising gala held by the September Foundation in Memory of Maria Stark. It's a very special event for the couple. The sort of thing they don't want to miss even now, that they have reduced their public appearances.
"Don't worry, Mr. Stark, Mrs. Stark I'll take very good care of Morgan, I promise." Parker starts babbling once he's put a single feet in their living room.
"We know, Pete, you always do." Tony reassures the young adult. This kid will never change, he thinks amused. Peter is twenty three years old now. So soon? Where the hell went all that time, uh?
"Morgan loves you, honey." Pepper says entering the living room, stunning in her silver ball gown dress.
But the engineer can't stop himself and ads "Don't forget I'm trusting you with my most appreciated person. My beloved daughter."
"I… I know Mr. Stark." The boy answers quickly.
"It's been awhile treating each other Pete. We even hug a lot nowadays. Can you drop the Mr. Stark once and for all, please? It makes me feel old."
"I'm sorry… Mr… Tony!"
"Better."
"You're an old man." Pepper teases him as she puts her earrings on.
He frowns.
"You know what? You're lucky I love you so fucking much Mrs. Stark."
She starts walking towards him then, and straightens the Armani suit over his shoulders, then puts his tie in place, staring into his eyes.
"A very attractive and sexy silver fox grey old man." She retorts kissing him lightly in the lips.
Parker looks away from the kissing couple, staring into the corridor. When the couple part, Pepper starts talking to him again.
"I feel calm when I know it's you looking after Morgan, Peter. She's always happy and in her best behaviour when you are around. I love that she thinks about you like a big brother. It warms my heart, honey."
"Thank you, Pepper." Peter smiles. He loves young Miss Stark so much. It's the little sister he never had. They have each other now. It's a good feeling.
"Take good care of her." Tony adds. "There's a pepperoni pizza in the kitchen counter. They just delivered it before you came in. It's for dinner so you don't have to worry about cooking stuff."
"Yeah, he says that because HE's a horrible cook." Pepper adds. "But that doesn't mean everyone is, Honey."
"Hey!"
Peter is going to add that he's very good at cooking, in fact, and that he wouldn't have minded to roast some vegetables and add a pair of cheese omelettes for the both of them, but he can't say a word, because a haze of brown hair suddenly enters the living room in a hurricane, screaming at the top of her lungs.
"Someone said pepperoni pizza? It's my favourite! I'm starving!" A very excited Morgan Stark shouts while throwing herself in Peter's arms, engulfing him in a big, warm hug. "Peter, you're here! We're going to have a blast!"
Peter Parker kisses the hair of the six year old and hugs her back.
"Wow! That's a good welcome. I love you too, Morgan."
"It's the best Friday evening EVEEEERRRR!" The little girl screams again, excited of having her favourite babysitter with her tonight. She's even wearing her Spiderman pyjamas.
"So… Paraphrasing Tangled again, um Little Mouse?" Her father teases her. "I'll kill that lizard personally if I have to see that movie again." He starts tickling Morgan in the belly now and she laughs uncontrollably.
"Hahahahaha Stop, Daddy… Stop!" The girl giggles. "Pascal is not a lizard… Hahaha It's a chameleon!"
"Whatever, I hate him." Tony states, finally releasing her daughter. "And let me tell you that what I hate most in this entire world is Rapunzel's braid. It's not even fair, that princess has a whole lot of little girls to do that braid for her. I only have two hands!"
"Hahahahaha Too bad, Daddy. Because Peter absolutely LOVES Tangled. You do, you do, you do… Right?"
"Eh? Yeah? I guess…"
Both her parents and Peter smile at each other knowingly. Morgan is the one who loves this movie, and the TV series. It's her favourite, she never gets tired of seeing it, over and over again. He instantly knows what they are going to see tonight for the twentieth time.
"Well, Peter have fun with Rapunzel!" Tony teases. "And you, Little Mouse, behave. I'll have an eye on you even when I'm gone." He says while kissing her goodbye in the cheek.
"If you need anything, Peter, you already know my phone number, just call us and we'll be here in no time. Thanks for taking care of her." Pepper says to him. "Bye, Sweetie." She kisses her daughter goodbye too.
And with that, they leave for the gala.
Two hours later, Morgan and Peter are alone in the big house, having dinner in the living room, both spread all over the couch. When the movie ends, they try to play with some Lego Star Wars and Disney blocks. Peter is helping her to build Disneyland's castle and it's huge, so many pieces. He'll definitely need Ned's help to finish this thing, he sends him a message with his phone. Later, they burn some more time at that until the small child starts to feel bored. At some point, the girl turns towards him, all big blue puppy eyes fixed on him.
"I was thinking… Peter, do you know how to braid long hair like mine?"
She seems way too innocent, making Peter immediately worried that she's plotting something. He smiles to himself and then answers, amused "I've never tried to braid anyone's hair before, Morgan. So I don't know… Do you want me to try?"
The little girl nods in a single yes. "I want to know if you are better at it than Daddy. He's tried for years to do it right because I love to wear my hair like that. I love it! And he wants to do it right for me, you know? Last time he tried was last Monday. But Mom always has to step in and finish the braid. Always. So, what do you say? You want to try?" She excitedly asks as she starts to bring her brown locks closer to Peter.
Peter stares at the child, amused. They are bored as hell, so why not?
"Sure, come here next to me. Sit down."
Morgan does without hesitation. She sits herself comfortable in the coach, her back towards Peter, all her hair cascading around her shoulders.
Parker starts braiding it as he tells her some stories about his new life at the University. Once he gets it, he realizes, is the easiest thing he's done in his entire life. The little girl's silky hair just rivets between his fingers so easily. He just got one perfect braid. But why stop there? They think as Morgan babbles about how much she misses Peter when he's away on MIT. Then he undoes it and makes two more, three as Morgan giggles and asks him for more different hairstyles every time. They stay right there braiding and unbraiding her long brown locks for more than an hour, until he's styled little Miss Stark's hair in a dozen different hair styles.
Morgan is delighted and Peter is truly having the time of his life. This must be another side effect of his special spider powers, he's so good with this kind of manual work it can't be a coincidence. At some moment in their hairstyling haze, Morgan has brought two mirrors into the living room, in order to stare at her brand new looks in awe for some minutes, one after the other. She decides then to keep the two matching twin brides that engage into one on the back of her head, amusingly happy.
Peter looks back at her and stares proudly at his handwork, his fingers a little tired, beaming at his brand new discovered talent.
When the Starks arrive home later that night, their little daughter jumps happily into her mother's embrace, telling them everything about her big brother skilled hands and the perfect braid he made for her.
"I only want Peter to style my hair from now on. You can't go to Boston anymore, Pete. I need you here every morning at 8:00 am."
Pepper laughs so hard at her daughter's antics, she thinks she's going to fall down and Tony snaps into a confused "What the hell, Parker?" as Peter just shrugs his shoulders. "It's the spider power! I'm super good at manual craft."
Tony Stark looks in disbelief. "I can't let you alone for five minutes, Little Mouse. You just turned a promising scientist and brilliant superhero into your own personal hairdresser… And now you're telling me that you prefer him? Over me? Your beloved Dad?"
"But Daddy… He's the best at the job!" Morgan pouts sporting her trademark big blue puppy eyes. "From now on you'll be the only one touching my hair, Peter. Pinkie promise?" The little girl asks offering his hand to him.
The boy interlaces his little finger with hers. "I promise you I'll bride your hair when I'm around ok? I don't live here, Morgan, you know it."
"I had to try…" She naughtily states. "It's Okay." Morgan agrees, all toothless smile. "But you'll have to style my hair every day that we see each other. Deal?" She demands, doing her best impression of her mother's negotiation voice.
"Deal." Peter says. "You are a though business woman, Morgan Maria Stark."
Tony's amused at her daughter's awesome bargaining skills, Pepper nods knowingly at him, pleased.
"She learned from the best." He adds, looking lovingly and proudly at his wife. He throws an arm around her shoulders and brings her closer to him.
"Tony!" Pepper blushes, hitting his husband's chest playfully.
"Peter Parker, you're the best big brother ever!" Shouts Morgan, clapping and jumping in her spot repeatedly.
Everyone laughs.
END
Unbetaed. I did my best. If there's some mistakes I'm sorry.
This is based on a prompt I found on the #Pepperony tag on tumbrl. It was so cute, I just HAD to write a story about it.