Prompt: Me, answering my own 6-year-old's incessant questions, when I forgot that my phone doesn't turn the microphone off automatically anymore: ("no, no Antarctica is the bottom of the world and north pole is the top of the world south pole people don't live right at the south pole they live I don't know if anyone actually lives there, actually I think just penguins. Yeah I don't know sweetie I have never been. It's not six jackets. It's like a certain kind of jacket probably that has layers.") It's primarily dialog.

And written for happyaspie, who said I should turn it into a winter IronFam fic. Because I haven't written anything like this (in this time period) until now, and because she's the queen of fluffy-family-love-fest holiday stories. :) Also, this was supposed to be a lot shorter, but my fics rarely turn out that way...

Magic Makers

Morgan Stark was the cutest, most intelligent, most persistent, sweetest, most wonderful 6-year-old in the world. And she was slowly killing her father with questions.

"Daddy, is Antarctica where the north pole is?"

"Uh, no. Antarctica is at the bottom of the globe and the north pole is at the top."

"When they see the north pole, is that how they know that's where Santa's workshop is?

"There's not an actual pole, baby, it's talking about a magnetic pole."

The looks that child could give, even via the rearview mirror. Obviously Tony was an idiot, because in the same sentence he just told her there was no pole, he also said the pole was magnetic.

"What about at the south pole? How do the people there know where it is if there isn't a real pole?"

"Um, I don't think people actually live in Antarctica, honey. Pretty sure it's just penguins. At least down where the south pole, which isn't an actual pole, would be."

"I bet it's so, so cold there, cause there's snow all the time, and I bet they have to wear like six coats all the time."

"They wouldn't wear six coats. More like a special coat, with lots of special layers. Like your ski jacket, but more intense. But people don't live there."

"What does 'intense' mean?"

"Um… when you take something and make it even more that way?"

"Hmm. I think how they do the North Pole is they stick the pole down in the ice and they use screws to attach it."

Apparently the concept of the north pole not being an actual pole wasn't coming through. This was all just on the way home from school. Other topics covered were if the magnetic north pole could pull down metal airplanes that flew over it, which flavor of Starburst Morgan's best friend had hoarded at lunch, if penguins hibernated, and why bears did hibernate, but birds didn't. Then, of course, migration came up, and Morgan had another road of information to explore.

Once they got home, Tony chugged a cup of coffee, because his energy had just been sucked out by his very inquisitive daughter. Morgan did her little homework sheets with ease, and started singing "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer," word perfect, and with decent pitch while she finished up.

"Good job on the song sweetie; I didn't even know you knew that one."

The look she gave him was pure incredulity. " Daddy . You were literally in the car with us when it was playing and I was singing it last time."

Tony had turned his head away at the look his child was giving him, trying not to laugh in her face, but her "literally" just pushed him over the edge. Now they were both laughing, but she didn't know why they were laughing. She just thought it was funny any time he was laughing like that. Moments like this gave him so much joy.

But then when they headed down to the lab (mostly Morgan-proofed, and FRIDAY was always on duty) the questions started up again, and his brain misfired just a little bit. Where was Pepper when he needed her? Morgan really needed two full-time adults just to assuage her curiosity about the world.

"Daddy, I saw Santa at the store and then I saw him walking down the sidewalk, and then he was at a different store in a different suit. How did he do that? Is there more than one Santa?"

Tony's hands went slack around the small circuit board he was assembling. He felt like a deer in the headlights. He absolutely hated lying to his daughter about anything, but he also enjoyed her delight in the magic at Christmastime, and her wide, excited eyes as she spoke about Santa, and reindeer, and elves. Plus, Pepper would kill him if he gave away Santa just because his genius brain couldn't come up with a few vague explanations.

So he talked about how most of the "Santas" they saw were actually "Santa's helpers" and how they all helped Santa do his job.

"But how do Santa's reindeer fly? They don't even have suits or wings or anything. Are they really real and do they really fly?"

Scrambling, he pulled another tool out of his parenting collection. "Well, what do you think?"

She came up with a few implausible explanations, and he thought maybe he was in the clear, until she came over and tugged on his hand (the bionic one) until he crouched down next to her and gave her his full attention. She looked at him very seriously and said, "Daddy, how do you know Santa is real? Have you seen him?"

Tony opened his mouth, but nothing came out. Thankfully, right then, he was saved by an angel of the back-from-the-dead-teenager variety.

"Tony? You in here?"

"Peter!" Morgan bounced over, leaping up towards the boy with full faith that he'd catch her, which he did.

"Hey, Mo!" he said, laughing happily. "How are you ? Ugh, I think you're heavier than last time I saw you."

"You're so silly!" Morgan giggled. "That was like three days ago!"

"Well, did you eat a lot of candy since then? Or maybe a whole watermelon?"

"No-o-o-o!" She shrieked now upside down, as Peter pretended to shake her so the watermelon would fall out.

"It's gotta be in there somewhere…"

Tony sat back on his stool, watching his two kids with supreme contentment. He had dreamed of this sight for years, but never thought it would actually happen. But Tony, being Tony, couldn't help but mess with them.

"Hey Morgan, why don't you ask Peter all those questions you were just asking me?"

Obediently (for once), Morgan immediately piped up from behind Peter's head where she was now hugging his neck tightly, trying to prevent him from turning her upside down again.

"Petey, have you ever seen Santa? Do you know if he's real?"

Peter's eyes widened comically, then narrowed to glare slightly at Tony.

"Um."

She pulled back, hooking her hands on his shoulders, and stared into his face expectantly.

"I… would love to answer that question. Can you do me a favor, please?"

"Yeah…"

"Go up to the hall closet and get that big blue picnic blanket. The one that's made out of jean material?"

"What's jean material?"

He set her down and patted his knee, letting her feel it too. "These are jeans."

"Oh, yeah. I know what you mean." She scurried away.

Tony cocked his head to the side. What was the spider-kid up to? He'd have to wait to find out, because right now his arms were full of said kid, who had gotten very touchy-feely in the last six months since he'd been been snapped back. Tony had zero complaints.

Peter buried his nose in Tony's neck as he hugged him for a moment, breathing in deeply, before pulling back and murmuring cheerfully in his ear, "You're the worst."

Tony laughed and released the teenager. Barely a teenager. He'd be eighteen that summer, and Tony wasn't okay with it.

"I just know how much you love answering her questions, so I thought I'd pass that one on to you."

"What, so Pepper kills me if I mess it up?" he yelped.

"Smart boy," Tony said, swiping affectionately at Peter's hair before turning back to the circuit he was working on."Good luck."

Behind him, he heard Morgan re-entering the lab.

"Mmph. Peter, help me! This is so heavy!" The funny little struggle-noises she was making as she lugged the big blanket into the room made her sound more like a little old man than a 6-year-old.

As Tony watched with amusement, Peter made quick work of attaching the big blanket to support pillars in the workshop from its corners, making a giant hammock that took up a large chunk of the room.

Confident in the strength of his web fluid, he tossed Morgan bodily into the middle, prompting a happy squeal, and he followed her immediately. They shuffled and giggled for a few minutes before Morgan remembered why they were there, and Tony heard her resume her holiday interrogation.

"Petey, is Santa real?"

"What do you think, Mo?"

"I don't know. Probably? I get presents. But Petey, I don't think reindeer can fly. Or how can Santa visit every house in the world in one night? I just doesn't seem pratical."

"You mean practical?"

"Yeah, that." Tony chuckled under his breath. She had been trying out a lot of new words lately, with mixed levels of success.

"Have you met Santa, Petey? Do you know he's real? Or is he just a story, like Nemo, and Frozen, and Moana?"

"Let me tell you what I do know, Mo," Peter said slowly, obviously thinking on his feet. "When I was your age, lots of the things that have happened now were just stories. There weren't really any super heroes going around saving and protecting people. I'd heard about Captain America, but those stories were from so long ago, and I'd never seen him. Does that mean he wasn't real?"

The girl was a bit condescending. "Uncle Steve was here like a week ago. Of course he's real."

"But when I was your age, I wasn't sure. The things he can do didn't sound very possible. And Thor?"

"Is he coming soon?" Tony's brow creased at the excitement in her voice. Why was he always the favorite?

"I dunno, kiddo. But he was just a story when I was a kid, too. An old one. And he's pretty real, isn't he?"

"Yeah, he's awesome!"

"Anyway, all that stuff, I always thought was just in stories, and didn't know if any of it was real. And it is."

"Huh. So some of the stories that I don't think are real might be real?"

"Yeah, maybe."

"Are there really unicorns?"

Peter laughed. "I dunno; it's possible, right? We can't for sure say that anything isn't real, just because we haven't seen it or because someone tells us it's not."

"So you don't know if Santa is real?"

"Me? I don't know for sure. But it's pretty fun to believe in him, isn't it? I figure with as much crazy stuff as has happened, he's as likely to be real as any of the rest."

"But Peter, what about visiting every house in one night? How can that happen? It doesn't sound like it could really happen."

"Mo, do you remember how I was gone for five years? And how your dad figured out how to do time travel? To bring everyone back?"

"Yeah," she said, not sounding like she really understood.

"Well, to some people that would seem impossible. But he did it."

"Are you saying that Daddy's like Santa Claus?"

Peter laughed, a pleasant ringing sound. "Maybe, yeah. Sure. Except the jolly part," he snarked.

"Hey, I'm jolly," Tony protested from the edge of the blanket-hammock. Both of his kids dissolved into giggles. So impertinent. "Mind if I join you guys?"

Peter's head popped up from where it had sunk down in the sway of the blanket. "You wanna come up here with us?"

"You think I can't get up there?"

"Noooo," he said slowly, his tone agreeing that he did not think Tony could climb up there. And he wasn't graceful , dang it, but he did make it up after a minute or two.

"Scooch over, Spiderling."

"I wanna lay by you too, Daddy!"

"Come on over!"

"Oof," Peter wheezed. "Mo, your knee doesn't go in my stomach."

"Sorry!"

Once they were all settled, relatively comfortably, Tony said, "Petey get you all lined out, Morgan-my-love?"

"He said Santa's magic is like you inventing time travel," Morgan said doubtfully.

"I think I could agree with that," Tony said with a lazy smile at the ceiling. "You know what makes both of those things possible don't you?"

"No."

"Well, the same thing fueled both of those. Santa loves the children of the world, and they love him back, and that's what makes his magic work. It may not make sense to us, but somehow it still happens." Morgan made a considering noise. Tony continued. "So knowing that, why do you think I finally managed to invent time travel, even though everyone said it was impossible, to bring your brother and all the other people back?"

"That one's easy. Because you love Peter, and you needed him to come back."

"That's right, Maguna." Tony felt Peter's soft curls push against the side of his head as the boy leaned (even more , because hammock) into him. His own eyes felt suspiciously misty. "So don't listen to the doubters. Love is what makes the magic happen."

Morgan turned and wiggled until her head was pillowed on his shoulder, his arm wrapped around her.

"How're you feeling now, sweetheart?"

"Better. I think I'm gonna go ahead an' believe in Santa, because if all that other stuff turned out to be real, he could be real, too." She yawned loudly.

"Good idea, baby. How about you, kiddo, how are you feeling?" Tony asked quietly, his head turning to the other dark head of hair on his right.

"Feeling pretty loved," Peter said, barely audibly, as he ducked his head against Tony's shoulder."

Tony didn't answer, but raised his other arm up for Peter to slide under.

They lay there for a few minutes until Peter quietly said, "You know she's asleep, right?"

"Yeah, I was guessing that. That means you and I are effectively stuck here for a while. There's no way to get out of this death trap without waking her."

Petter chuckled, then hummed thoughtfully. "That's okay. You and I could probably use a nap, too," he said with his own yawn.

"Who are you, and what have you done with my teenager?"

"Your teenager has had a long week," the boy said drowsily, a hand settling lightly against Tony's side.

Tony brought his arm up to cup the back of Peter's head. "Mmm, you're probably right. Just a little cat nap, huh?" Then just as quietly, "FRIDAY, what's the ETA on when these webs will dissolve and dump us on the floor?"

"Approximately sixty minutes, Boss."

"Okay then. Please wake us in forty-five minutes then. Pretty sure even all the love in this room can't turn this thing into a flying carpet."

"Not so sure about that," Peter mumbled, before drifting off.