~Iron Family~

He Who Shall Not Be Named 🦇

The compound was so much nicer than the tower.

There was more privacy, not to mention the Hudson River right outside their windows. In the first few days, Morgan had been swimming ten times.

He and Harley had played baseball in the yard, and Tony did pretty well, if he did say so himself. For an old man cooped up in a lab all day, he sure slayed. He managed to hit the ball three times!

"Not bad for an old-timer," Harley had laughed. Tony made sure he hadn't gotten dessert that night.

After two weeks of settling in, Tony thought it might be time to get Peter Parker in for some 'intern stuff.' He'd planned on keeping it quiet, because of Harley's whole sour attitude and jealously thing, but that didn't go too well after he'd told Morgan about it.

"I can't wait to see Petey today!" Morgan cheered as they were eating dinner that evening. Tony choked on his cranberry juice and spent the next sixty seconds coughing, mostly to avoid talking to anyone or making direct eye contact.

When he came back up for air, Pepper was giving him stink-eye.

"Tony."

"What?" Tony snapped. "What do you all have against that boy? Have you seen him lately? Something's up with that family, I can tell. They're not treating him well."

"What's upsetting," Pepper continued, clearing her throat, "is that you simply don't tell us these things. And you leave the coffee pot on and the toilet seat up, but that's another conversation for another time... We want to be prepared, we have a right to know."

"'Be prepared' oh, what's the kid gonna do, huh? We stay cooped up in my lab the whole time."

"You only met with him a few other times."

Tony rubbed his face and sighed. "What is it you have against him? Hm? What did he do to you that's so bad?"

Pepper rubbed her face in frustration the same way Tony was. Tony immediately felt bad for Harley and Morgan, who were still trying to snarf down their dinner. He bit his lip and traced his finger along the brand new table edge.

"You guys won't even know he's here. I promise."

"Okay," Harley piped up, smiling.

"But what about playing?" Morgan whined. Tony made eye contact with Pepper, who gave him a stern look and a barely distinguishable shake of her head. Tony sighed.

"Sorry, sugar plum, but Petey's gotta do some work with me. Maybe next time."

Morgan instantly burst into tears.

It had taken three hours to get her to calm down and go to bed, but she was still angry in the morning.

"I wanted to play with Big Brother," she growled dangerously, furrowing her tiny little eyebrows.

"Your big brother is still sleeping," Tony said as he poured milk in her breakfast cereal. Pepper had a meeting this morning, so breakfast was up to Tony.

"I was talking about Petey."

Tony knelt down and brushed the hair from her round little face. "Sweetie, Peter isn't your brother."

"But he can be," Morgan said innocently. Tony gave a nervous laugh.

"Oh, no, Maguna, I don't think--"

"Why not?" She shrugged her shoulders calmly and started spooning cereal into her mouth. "Just do what you did with Harley."

Happy laughed amusedly and Tony sent him a death glare. He slowly bent down to kiss the top of Morgan's head.