Morgan, you can let me go now," I say as Peter and Harley both release me. She shakes her head so I pick her up and set her in my lap. She buries her face in my neck and I smile.
"Missed you too kid," I chuckle as I shift my grip on her in order to grab my fork.
As I put the fork in my mouth, I glance over to Peter and the shocked look on his face made me spit out my bite in a fit of laughter.
"You guys should see your faces," I say laughing.
Harley glares, "Yeah well you try having your little brother disappear for six months. Speaking of which, when did you get here?"
"And how?" Peter adds.
May looks at him to stop asking questions but I say, "Last night, well technically afternoon since I brought Morgan back,"
Both Harley and Peter quickly look over at her and she lifts her head off my shoulder to give them a guilty smile and a shrug, "AJ and Kayla told me not to tell!"
"Who's Kayla?" Harley asked,
"Morgan!" Peter shouted at the same time.
"I'm sorry!" Morgan says apologetically.
"She's my friend from the group home. She's staying with Rhodey," I answer.
"Rhodey?" Happy asks surprised.
Tony nods, "Yep. She's a sweet kid. Morgan, are you going to eat breakfast or stick to AJ all day?"
She gives her father her serious face before saying, "Both."
Pepper snorts behind her hand at Tony's surprised facial expression.
I look down at her, "You have to finish eating before we can do anything today."
She reluctantly climbs off my lap and mumbles, "Fine."
As Morgan walks back to her seat, I ask, "What are we doing today?"
"Well most of the day, it's up to you guys what we do but this evening we're having a family dinner."
I nod and Peter looks over at me, "By the way, when he says family, he means all of the Avengers."
I start to cough up the orange juice I had swallowed, "All of the Avengers?!"
Tony shrugs, "Well the one's Morgan knows. Before you came back, we were throwing a get together anyways so they could see she's alright. Plus, you were going to eventually meet them."
"Um...who exactly is them?"
Morgan chimes, "Uncle Thor, Uncle Bruce, Uncle Clint, Aunt Laura, Cooper, Lila, Nathaniel, Auntie Tasha, Scott, Hope, Cassie, Uncle Bucky and Uncle Sam."
Harley looks over, "AKA Thor, Hulk, Hawkeye and his family, Black Widow, Ant-man and his daughter, The Wasp, the Winter Soldier, and Captain America."
Peter looks over at me sympathetically, "At least you've met Bruce."
I nod, "I've actually met Sam too. We went running together."
Tony looks over at me and smirks, "Did you tell him you were on his left?"
I give him a confused look as Pepper and Happy chuckle.
He waves it off and says, "Anyways, it'll be fine. They're all nice and none of the bite. It'll be fun."
I nod slowly, not really believing him. I don't like parties, especially ones I know I'm going to end up being the center of attention.
Pepper thankfully decides to change the subject, "So, until then we have nothing plans. What do you guys want to do?"
I shrug. I figured Tony, Peter, Harley, and I would end up in the lab later, but Morgan doesn't really do that type of stuff.
Morgan's face splits into a grin as she gets an idea, "Can we have a family art contest?"
Happy's eyebrows automatically raise, "Um...who would be competing? Would your Dad?"
Tony shoots Happy a withering look over Morgan's head as she nods, "Yep! Daddy, Petey, Harley, AJ, and you. Me, Mommy, and Anutie May will be the judges."
Tony snickers as Happy's face drops and May smirks.
"Oh," Morgan says suddenly looking at me, "AJ, you're only allowed to finger paint. To make it fair."
Tony smirks at that, "I knew Morgan loved, me."
I push back my chair to start clearing the table, "Doesn't matter, I'll still win."
After everyone got dressed, we set up the competition area. One table had three chairs and name tags for each of the judges. The other table had all the acrylic paint in the building on it. Across from the judges table, there were four easels with white canvases on them.
Peter, Harley, Tony, Happy, and I all stood at each other canvases waiting for our instructions.
Morgan clapped her hands together, "Ok! Welcome to the Stark Family Art Competition. I'm your host and first judge, Morgan Stark. The next judge is Pepper Potts Stark and the last judge is May Parker."
Pepper steps forward, "Our theme today will be family, since this is a family competition."
May steps forward, "You will be judged on creativity, tear-factor, and quality. Are there any questions?"
"What is the tear-factor?" Tony asks.
Pepper rolled her eyes, "Is it sentimental or does it have an emotional meaning. Honesty, don't worry about it Tony."
He glares, "I can be sentimental!"
She raises an eyebrow and Morgan clears her throat to get her parents to stop arguing.
"Anyways," Morgan says with a slight glare at Pepper and Tony, "you guys will have one hour to complete your paintings. Everyone's allowed to uses brushes and pencils to sketch, except AJ. Ready, your time starts now!"
FRIDAY pulls up a time and Peter and Harley scramble immediately too the table for paint.
Happy and I both casually walk over, while Tony just stares.
I grab a few colors and head back to my seat. The image I had in my head wasn't that complicated and was something I hadn't thought about in a while. I dip my finger into the orange and begin painting.
About twenty minutes in, the judges walked around to ask each of us what we were doing.
"So, Petey, what are you painting?"
Peter, who had somehow managed to get paint all over himself, said, "I'm trying to paint that scene in Star Wars where they take down the big brown thingies, with the rope."
"And how does that have to do with family?" May asks, pretending to be critical.
"Well, this was Uncle Ben's favorite movie and we used to watch all the time. And then, on one of my first interactions with Tony, I refrenced it. Also, we watched it as a movie night after I came back and it was the first thing I did with Morgan."
Pepper smiled at that, as well as May and Morgan, and said, "Well that qualifies. Keep up the good work Peter."
They moved on to Harley.
A look of confusion passes across Morgan's face as Pepper starts to laugh, "Harley, why are you painting Dora?"
"Because the reason your Dad and I stayed in contact was because he broke my sister's vintage Dora watch."
"And you guilt-tripping me," Tony adds from the other side of the room, "that and you were a cool kid. Speaking of the watch, does Lizzie still have it?"
Harley nods as Morgan asks, "Is she coming to visit soon?"
"Maybe when she's on break."
Morgan nods, "Ok. Moving on," she says with a wave of her hand.
They get to Happy, who was painting boxing gloves.
May looks over at her boyfriend, "What's with the boxing gloves Hap?"
He shrugs, "I used to box and that's how I became Tony's body guard. Changed my life."
Morgan nods, "Very few words but I'll count it."
I glance up as Morgan, Pepper, and May move towards me. I smirk as I see Morgan's jaw drop.
I smirk, "Mo, I'm not done yet."
She just shakes her head in shock as May and Pepper arrive.
"Wow," May says just as surprised as Morgan.
Pepper gives me a smile, "Good job."
Tony tries to look over, "What'd he paint?"
"Let him explain, Tony. Although, I don't think you're going to win," Pepper says with a smirk.
He glares, "You haven't even seen mine yet!"
Morgan clears her throat, finally out of her stupor, "What have you painted, AJ?"
"The alleyway where I first met Morgan, but at sunset," I say as I add details to the surrounding buildings. The sunset was the center of the piece really. They building and the alley were just details added to the painting. It was an abstract painting for sure, but you could tell what it was. The oranges and yellows of the sunset really brightened the painting and it blended nicely with the darkness at the top of the painting. I had also managed to paint in some of the taller skyscrapers with their classic twinkling New York lights. It's a good painting, if I do say so myself.
"It's gorgeous," she states matter of factly.
"Thanks," I mumble as I add some details.
"Why at sunset?" May asks.
"My sister's favorite time of day was sunset, especially in the alleyway. It always reflected off the buildings nicely. She used to say it was a little piece of heaven made for only us to see."
I glance up to see Pepper giving me a genuine smile and she says, "Well I think she was right."
It's silent for a moment before Pepper claps her hands together and says, "Well we still have one more potential second place winner to judge."
There was a chorus of "Heys!" from the other competitors as the judges waked over to Tony.
Morgan looks at them, "Sorry guys. There's no way you're going to beat that."
I snicker at Peter and Harley's faces at being told off by a five year old.
Pepper gestures towards Tony, "Anyways, what have you made for us today?"
Tony stands up dramatically, "I think it speaks for itself."
Pepper, May, and Morgan glance at the canvas. May rolls her eyes, Pepper glares at her husband, and Morgan giggles.
"Daddy, that's just your Ironman blueprint!"
I roll my eyes after hearing that.
"Hang on, before you all shoot me down because-"
"You're an egotistical maniac?" Pepper suggests.
"No. The reason I choose to draw the suit, besides the fact it's literally the only thing I can draw, it because it's the reason I have all of you my life. Yes, Pep, I know you and Happy were in my life already but I doubt you would have dated the old me and Happy, we've become extraordinarily closer because of all the near death experiences. Without Pep getting with me, I would never have Morgan. Without the suit, I would've never crashed landed in Tennessee or needed to find a side kick or had my DNA stolen. So, in conclusion, Ironman is kind of the reason we're all here together."
He lets out a breath and glances around the room nervously.
Us kids give him a smile and Pepper kisses his cheek, "Ok, you may have gotten the sentimental points."
He fist pumps, "Yes!"
Morgan runs over to give her dad a hug, "We love you to Daddy. You just said it with a lot more words."
Everyone laughs at that.
May glances around the room, "Is everyone done with their paintings?"
We all nod.
Morgan claps her hands excitedly, "Ok. Petey, you show yours first. Everyone will be rated on a scale of one to ten."
Peter nods and flips the canvas around. Honestly, it wasn't terrible. It kind of looked like a crayon version of the scene.
Morgan directs the other judges to flip up their score cards. Pepper gives Peter a 7, May an 8, and Morgan a 6.
"Morgan!" Peter shouts, outraged.
She shrugs, "Next!"
Who knew the five year old would be the harshest critic. Harley and Happy got pretty similar scores to Peter.
Morgan turns to Tony, "Ok Daddy, show us!"
He turns the canvas around and I stare at it in shock. It is a surprisingly decent painting.
"Wow Tony, I didn't know you had it in you," Harley comments.
"Thanks Harls, " he says with a smirk.
Peter nudges me, "You might actually have some competition."
I smirk, "Nope. Judges, what are your rankings?"
Pepper flips around a 6 while Morgan and May both give him 9s.
Tony's jaw drops at Pepper's ranking, "Are you serious?"
She nods, "You literally can only draw Iron man or machines, which you picked so you could win."
Tony shuts his mouth because his wife had him pinned.
Pepper turns to me, "Go ahead AJ."
I flip my canvas around and blush slightly at the amount of compliments thrown my way. I can help but laugh at Tony's face when everyone agrees that I've won. He stays pouting as we begin to clean up the mess. While everyone is distracted cleaning I go and sit by Tony.
"You didn't honestly think you were going to win, did you?"
"That's so arrogant," he mumbles under his breath.
I shrug as I walk away to go help Morgan, "Where do you think I got it from, Dad?"
Pepper glances at her pouting husband, amount to yell at him to start helping when she sees his face break out into a silly grin as AJ walks away from.
She walks over to him, "What'd did AJ say to get you to stop sulking?"
He stands and wraps her in a hug, "He called me Dad. I don't know if it was conciously or not but he still said it."
She smiled at that, "Congrats, Tony. You know, all the kids have called you Dad first before they call me Mom."
He shrugs, "Jealous, Potts?"
She smiles, "Nope."
They watch the kids interact before she turns to Tony, "Tell you what. I'll give you another one if you promise you'll get them to say Mom first."
"Square deal. They'll be distracted for at least fifteen minutes," he says as he kisses her cheek.
She laughs and turns to him, "Not likely. If only you didn't have a secret club at night…: she says walking away.
Tony stares back at her in shock.
