A New Beginning - Endgame Fixit

Happy Birthday Peter!

August 10th is Peter Parker's birthday. (I meant to post this then, but our WiFi was having problems.) In our world, we don't actually know how old he's turning because, as my little brother puts it, "happy birthday, pile of dust," and in their world the birthdays got screwed up by the snap, so I'm just gonna say he's turning 17.

*****

Peter woke up with Morgan sitting on him, bouncing up and down like an overexcited puppy.

"Happy Birthday!" She shouted happily as soon as he opened his eyes.

"I thought it was last year," he teased.

"You're being silly," she accused. "Birthdays happen every year!"

He grinned and brushed her hair out of her face. "You sure?"

Morgan grew thoughtful, and a tiny crease formed on her forehead.

"I'm very sure," she said. "It just wasn't very happy last year."

Crap. He hadn't meant to get into all that.

"Daddy first told me about you on your birthday, you know." She scooted forward so she was in a more comfortable position on his lap. "It was two years ago. He was sad and I asked him why, and he said he missed you. Then he told me all about you."

Peter had no idea how to respond, so he just nodded.

"And then a few months ago uncle Steve and Aunt Natasha and uncle Scott came and the next day he told me he was gonna bring you back, and we could go and eat ice cream or something together."

It somehow hit him differently than the other retellings. The others had all sounded hopeful but cautious, but Morgan had this pure confidence that her Daddy would fix everything, and it seemed like it had never wavered.

Before he could figure out something to say, Morgan interrupted his thoughts again.

"Anyway, Mommy said to keep you out of the kitchen. And Daddy said if you come in the lab he'll have Dum-E attack you with a fire extinguisher."

Just like that, the nood shifted back to cheerful and bubbly. He grinned. "Alright, Morgster."

She gave him a playful glare at the nickname and then added, "You better hurry up, or Harley's gonna eat all the waffles."

"What! There's waffles?"

Morgan slapped her hand to her mouth. "Oops...I wasn't supposed to tell you that."

A few minutes later he arrived at the kitchen. "Yummy, waffles," he said.

Harley gave him a blank stare. "Morgan told you," he said flatly.

"No, no, she didn't," said Peter a little too quickly. Morgan shook her head wildly.

"I...smelled them," he added.

Harley muttered something like "yeah, right" before shoving an entire quarter of a waffle in his mouth at once.

Peter had slept in pretty late, so he assumed that everyone else had already eaten, but when he was halfway through his first waffle Tony showed up and grabbed two of them.

"Happy birthday, kid," he said, smiling at Peter. "Gosh, I'm starving. Why didn't anyone tell me they were making waffles?"

"Daddy, you put too much syrup," Morgan interrupted.

"I'm the dad, I get all the syrup I want."

Harley rolled his eyes. Morgan gave him her signature 'you're being naughty again' face.