Happy Saturday.
I hope June has been kind to you so far. If you missed it, I posted a one-shot for the series in May called Making The Most of Opportunity.
Chapter Two - Visitors
Tony was fixing himself a coffee when his daughter flew into the room, charging towards him and colliding with his waist, knocking the breath out of him.
"Where's Petey?" she demanded, taking the shine from what he thought was an exuberant greeting from his beloved daughter.
Still, he laughed at her enthusiasm. "Well, hello there, Maguna. Yes, it's lovely to see you, too. How was school? Did you learn lots?"
Morgan pulled back, her hands on her hips, and a scowl on her face. "Where's Petey?"
She looked so much like Pepper in that pose that it made him pause a moment.
Pepper herself followed Morgan into the room and said, "Are you telling Daddy about the words we learned today."
"Yes," Morgan said piously. "Mommy taught me to spell Mississippi."
"Is that right?" Tony smirked. "Wow, it sounds like you've been really busy. Maybe you should go spend some time with your brother now. He's outside with Bruce." Though he wondered if Hulk was the better noun in this instance. It definitely seemed more like Hulk than Bruce that slung Peter over his shoulder and carried him outside.
"Okay!" Morgan said cheerfully and dashed out of the room.
Pepper crossed the room to kiss Tony and asked, "Was she giving you a hard time about Pete?"
Tony schooled his face into innocence. "No, not at all…"
Pepper laughed. "You're a terrible liar."
Tony smiled. "She was, a little. She's just enthusiastic. Remember, Pep, for her it's been weeks since they were together. She'll settle down."
"True," Pepper conceded. "And it's different now, after the years you relived."
"It is," Tony agreed. "She loved him before but that was after only knowing him a matter of months, many of them they were apart, and growing up with stories of him. But she physically had him there to grow up with this time. He was there for her in a whole new way."
Morgan and Peter weren't the only ones with a deeper bond. They were all, the whole team, infinitely closer thanks to the years Tony, Steve, Bucky, and Natasha had relived, as they'd all bonded so much more, and Peter was closer to all of them because of their presence in his life for those extra years.
And Pepper and Peter… Tony had no words for how happy their relationship made him. Pepper had always been a little guarded around Peter, with good reason, of course; Morgan adored her brother and had from the moment they met, but loving Peter had sometimes meant pain for their daughter, and Pepper wanted to save her from that. But now… now she was his mother in all ways but legal, and that would change as soon as Tony chased down a court date to make it official. They'd all signed the papers, but then the world had ended, and nothing changed after Peter's Snap because Peter locked the timeline.
Tony wished he hadn't; that he'd allowed the timeline to adjust with the changed relationships. He had a hard time believing W'Kebe would try to kill him or that Thuri would torture him once they'd met and gotten to know him sooner. But Peter said it had been necessary for the future, to stop Nemesis attacking as soon as Peter snapped, intervening in the timeline to target him when he was weak. Tony couldn't argue against that, as he was terrified of Nemesis attacking again.
It was going to happen, though, sooner than any of them would like, and Tony was going to have to watch his son fight for the sake of the universe, for the people he loved and those he'd never meet.
He hoped Carol came soon. As little as he wanted Peter to go away again, it was vital that he learned how to protect himself; also, to attack, but Tony wasn't dwelling on that. It was hard enough to know Peter was going to be gone what could amount to a lifetime for him and an hour for them. He would never forget the struggle those additional years had been without Morgan, even though it had been a gift to share those times with Peter. Peter wouldn't have any of them with him. It would be him and Carol for those years… decades… could it become centuries? Tony couldn't imagine how that would feel, and yet Peter bore it stoically as he bore almost all of the struggles brought to him by the responsibility of The Infinity Stones.
"Shall we go see what the kids are doing?" Pepper asked, breaking into his thoughts.
Tony nodded and took her hand, allowing her to lead him outside to where Peter, Morgan, and Bruce were. The scene they found was both familiar and new at the same time. Familiar, because he'd seen Peter and Hulk cloud spotting before, but new because Morgan was lying on Bruce's chest like he was her own personal couch and Peter was leaning against Bruce's side.
Morgan and Bruce had never really had a relationship before; in fact, Tony wasn't even sure they'd spoken more than a few words together. Now, thanks to Peter's bond with Bruce, Morgan had a chance to grow close to him, too. It pleased Tony as he'd always shared a certain affinity with Bruce, both of them being scientifically minded. Seeing his son form a bond with him had been a pleasure, and now seeing it happen with his daughter was even more special.
"Hey, kids," Pepper called. "You having fun?"
Morgan sat up, almost toppling off Bruce's chest until he caught her with a huge hand and steadied her.
"Yep," Morgan said. "We're looking for animals in the sky." Her brow furrowed. "There's no bunnies."
"Not this time," Peter said. "Remember what we said last time."
Morgan nodded solemnly. "Crazy juice."
"Exactly," Peter said. "But I don't see why we can't have some butterflies, too."
"Yes!" Morgan clapped her hands. "Can we have all the colors?"
Peter flicked his fingers and a stream of butterflies appeared of varying colors and sizes. It seemed he really had given Morgan all the colors.
Morgan laughed and lay down on Bruce's chest again, staring up at the butterflies swooping around her head.
Peter's butterflies had always been a favorite of Morgan's, from the very first time she'd met him at the Tool Shed to the ones Peter would create to soothe her when she was being fussy as a baby.
Bruce watched them too, and he chuckled when one landed on the tip of his nose. Tony took his phone from his pocket and snapped a few pictures of them, planning to print them and add them to the family albums they'd created both before and with Morgan. The ones from the very beginning had been created by Pepper while Tony was otherwise consumed with Peter's fate with The Stones being threatened by Nemesis. The early albums had Peter at fourteen and built to the birthday party they'd had for Tony before the world ended. May featured in a lot of those albums.
Though May had been dead almost six years now, Tony still sometimes struggled to accept that he was never going to see her again. The one comfort Tony had was that Peter could now see both May and Ben whenever he wanted, to tell them about his life and the people that loved him and her.
xXx
Though Tony stayed in shape, jogged most days, lifted weights, he was nowhere near fast nor strong enough to train with Peter, Steve, and Bucky. So while they did their morning run around the track, Tony relaxed on the deck and sipped his smoothie, enjoying the cool morning air and knowing the day was going to be scorching soon.
He had a StarkPad on his lap on which he was scrolling the list of things to do for Peter's surprise birthday party. Most things were purchased or delivered already and hidden in a storage room off Bruce's lab, but there were still a few things to buy nearer the time—and Morgan's final decision on the catering needed; she'd been vacillating between pizza delivery and burgers cooked on the grill. Steve was advocating for a sushi table, but Morgan's opinion on it was the same as Steve's had been before his first salmon roll.
He quickly set the tablet down as Peter ran over to him, beaming from ear to ear and being followed by Steve and Bucky. They were disgustingly serene considering the number of laps they'd done, as if they'd just stepped out of the pages of an exercise-wear catalogue; none of them were gasping for breath or dripping with sweat as any normal person would be.
"Nice run?" Tony asked.
Peter flopped down on the chair beside him and said, "Yep. It was good. Nice… uh… sit?"
Tony snorted. "Yes, Peter, it was a nice sit while I checked my emails."
Peter stretched. "That's good. I should probably do the same. Ugh. As awesome as it is to have everyone together and to be alive, which it really is, things like being present for emails and phone calls is a pain. It's been seven years since I had to worry about anything like that, and Pepper said there's some merchandise stuff that I've got to do, too. And I want to see Ned. It's been a long time—and MJ. But…" His watch beeped and he glanced at it, then his eyes bugged and he jumped to his feet, shouting. "She's here! Bucky, she's here!"
Tony was momentarily worried, thinking Nemesis were attacking, and then Tony noted the pronoun and the fact Peter was beaming from ear to ear, and he realized it was Shuri that was arriving.
Tony was looking forward to seeing Peter with Shuri. Though he'd had all that additional time with Peter during The Blip, time he never could have imagined having, even when he chose to stay to relive Morgan's early years, he was unwillingly jealous that he'd missed out on what Bucky, Sam, Wanda, and Vision had with him in the Soul Plane. There were new relationships formed there that he had no part of.
There was a chuckle behind them, and Tony turned to see Vision and Wanda coming out. It was Vision that had laughed, which was strange in and of itself.
"You here for the reunion, too?" he asked.
"We're here to witness," Vision said.
"Shuri isn't even going to notice us here," Wanda added.
"That's if she remembers," Peter said, not taking his eyes from the sky. "She wasn't under my protection when she came back like everyone else was, so she might not."
"But she'll still remember you from Wakanda," Tony reminded him.
"That's not the same," Peter said.
"But…"
"He's right," Wanda said. "That's not the same."
Tony sighed. Either way, however much she remembered, Shuri was going to love Peter, because he could charm anyone."
"I see it!" Peter shouted, jumping up and down.
"Yes," Tony said fondly. "And now the whole state knows you see it."
Peter dug his fingers into Tony's ribs, making him swerve away, and then Peter lost interest and began to bounce again as the jet landed and the door lowered. Tony watched Peter's face, expectant and a little anxious, which burst into a splitting smile as Shuri ran off, tailed by a more dignified T'Challa, and ran at Peter.
Tony expected them to embrace, but they didn't. Instead, Shuri poked him in the chest and said, "You didn't come."
Peter's smile faltered. "Uh… sorry?"
She shook her head. "No, no, no. The last thing you said to me was that you'd come see me soon, and it's been a full day since you said we'd reset to, and you didn't come!"
Peter laughed. "I had things to do, Shuri."
"He did," Tony said. "That's probably on us. We made the reunion a family thing. My daughter pretty much monopolized his time."
"Morgan," Shuri said with a smile. "I've heard all about her, you know. Talk about Big Brother pride."
Tony wrapped an arm around Peter's shoulders and hugged him closer. "She adores him just as much."
"So, you remember?" Peter asked hopefully.
"Sure I do, Crazy Eyes."
Peter punched the air and then poked Shuri. "And you couldn't have told me? I was here thinking, yes, no, does she remember?"
Shuri grinned. "I didn't want to make things too easy on you."
Peter looked past her to an amused looking T'Challa and said, "Hey, T'Challa! Thanks for coming!"
T'Challa smiled. "It's good to see you again, Peter."
"You've got to meet Morgan!" Peter exclaimed. "You're going to love her. Everyone loves her." He raced inside calling, "Be right back," over his shoulder.
"I forgot how exuberant he is," T'Challa said. "He was not like that when I last saw him."
"You mean when you left the Soul Plane?" Tony asked.
"No, when we rescued him from The Raft," T'Challa corrected. "Nothing big changed. I know he said it wouldn't, but I hoped…" He shook his head. "I found it hard to believe W'Kebe and Thuri would hurt him when they knew him, but they did."
"They couldn't change it," Tony reminded him. "Peter had to lock time between his Snap and the moment he left us off here. Just because we felt differently and had those new memories, certain things had to happen in a certain way. It wasn't good, I know, I still had to see my son suffer, but it's over now. Everything we do now is for the first time."
T'Challa started to answer, and then cut off and smiled as Peter came out beaming, towing a reluctant looking Morgan, and said, "Shuri, this is Morgan. Morgan, this is one of my best friends, Shuri."
"I am Peter's sister," Morgan said, bottom lip pooching out.
Shuri smiled and knelt with a hand extended to shake. Morgan stared at it, and then took it. Shuri pumped her hand up and down and said, "I've heard so much about you, Morgan. Peter, your big brother, talks about you all the time. He loves you so much. I think you're his favorite person in the whole world."
Morgan looked uncertain for a moment and then she beamed. "That's because I love him."
"I bet you do," Shuri said. "Peter's awesome."
Morgan nodded, then looked past Shuri to the jet they'd arrived on. "Is that your airy-plane?" she asked.
Shuri nodded. "It is. Would you like to see it?"
"Yes, please."
Morgan took Shuri's hand then grabbed Peter and pulled him after her onto the jet to examine.
Wanda laughed. "Wow, that was way less chaotic than I thought."
"Morgan was a little jealous, though," Sam added, having joined them during the reunion.
Tony smiled. "She got over it, though. She's just never really had to share Peter before. It's good to see him with someone his own age for a change. It's been a while."
They'd not seen Ned at all since Peter's Snap, nor MJ. Peter had spent a little time with them, but not enough. Though Tony reminded himself that it was to be expected. This wasn't the same Peter with the same freedoms as he had been for those two years of repeated time. It was a little sad, though, as they'd been quite the trio before. Tony planned to get them here for Peter's birthday party, which was only a few weeks away now.
"Daddy! Come see!" Morgan called from inside the plane, and Tony chuckled and followed his children on, wondering what Morgan thought he needed to see.
Whatever it was, he was going to enjoy it because, at last, they were all together again in the right time and place.
xXx
Two hours after their arrival, after Morgan's yawns became too much for even her to ignore and so had been settled for a nap, Peter and Shuri swung from the web hammocks he'd created for them.
They were alone outside, T'Challa having joined Tony and the others to discuss the new situation and threat of Nemesis. Peter wasn't joining the conversation this time around, because he knew there was no news. Until Carol arrived to go away with him, there was nothing to do apart from be prepared in case Nemesis struck and to hope he wasn't trashed again.
Not a lot of comfort there.
"What are you thinking, Crazy Eyes?" Shuri asked.
"You know, you could call me Peter, Princess."
She tried to thump his shoulder, almost upsetting her hammock at the same time. Peter steadied her, laughing.
"Call me Princess again, Nemesis will be the least of your troubles."
Peter chuckled. "If only."
"It's that bad?" she asked.
"It's exactly that bad." Peter sighed. "Like, they're coming, sooner or later, they'll come and attack, and I'll have to fight them and trap them back in the Ultraverse. I'm not exaggerating when I say the universe's safety depends on it, and that's all kinda…"
"Huge?" she suggested.
"Exactly. I've done almost everything I can think of to protect the people I love, but there's a world of people that aren't protected, and what do I do if they decide to attack them instead of me? I'm the obvious choice because it's The Infinity Stones they want, and I have them. I put my whole family through so much when I sent Tony and the others back to 2016, some really bad stuff, and they did it, we won, but Nemesis aren't going to just pack up and head back to Gryn Fylds because they lost once."
"So how are you going to win?"
"I guess I fight."
She rolled her eyes. "No, dumbass, how are you going to win? Do you kill Nemesis?" Peter opened his mouth to answer, and she spoke over him. "I know you've got the whole non-violence thing going on, but this is bigger than your morality."
"It's not that. I can't kill them. The Stones say it's impossible. But… I would. I never wanted to kill anyone; even after what Ross did to me, I didn't kill him. But now he's Nemesis, I would. I mean, I've killed aliens, in New York and here when Thanos attacked, and though that was my suit not me, I would do it again. But I don't have that option with Nemesis. I've got to trap them back in the Ultraverse, and I'm pretty sure that's going to be a lot harder."
"Why? You go away with Captain Great Hair and learn to fight from your glowy rock friends and come back and kick their ass."
"Captain Great Hair?"
"Carol—you can't deny she has amazing hair."
"She does," Peter agreed.
"And she's awesome."
"She is. And she's kinda giving up a lot to help me. We'll be gone for… a long time." He quickly diverted from the true length of time. "I couldn't do it without her."
"So, you go learn how to fight and come back to kick ass. It's not that complicated, Pete."
"Feels like it is."
"Yeah, because you overthink everything, but you've already done the tough part, right? You sat through the repeat of 2016-2018, letting yourself suffer through all kinds of crap all over again. And then you locked time, so you had to go through even more crap to stop Nemesis attacking you too early. Peter, you can do this and it's time to do this. Get it?"
Peter stared up at the blue sky with its puffy clouds and nodded. "It is time."
"And you can do it?"
"I can."
"Good. Now, tell me some more about The Infinity Stones. I know the Power Stone is an asshole—according to Bucky—and that the Mind Stone talks in riddles—according to Sam, but I want to know everything."
"Okay, well, they're all very different from how you'd expect them to be, like, they have their own personalities, which are kinda like the people they look like. Mind is a little cryptic, and Power can be an asshole, but they're also amazing…"
So… Some Shuri and Peter time. I avoided writing Shuri when we were in Wakanda in With Great Power because she's an iconic character with a particular voice, like Thor was, but this time around I had fun with her.
Until next time…
Jadey xxx