Tony loved being a dad. He really did. There was nothing quite like the joy of seeing your child take her first steps, say her first word, or just smile at you with such complete adoration you know that you would do anything to preserve her happiness.

However, there were definitely some major downsides to parenthood as well.

"Morgan,.Morgan, you gotta calm down honey. It's alright," Tony cooed to his squalling eighteen-month-old daughter. She only cried louder in response, blubbering something into his shoulder.

"You don't think that she's just that upset about the Easter Bunny do you?" Pepper asked as she rubbed soothing circles on Morgan's back. They were currently sequestered in a corner of the bustling mall they had taken their daughter to for her first experience with the Easter Bunny. Tony hadn't been a big fan of the idea—malls weren't exactly his idea of a fun place to take your family, considering the lack of security and plethora of other screaming children, but Pepper had insisted that this was a tradition that she intended to share with their baby.

It would seem, Tony thought as he glanced over his shoulder to see the bright pink, admittedly creepy man-sized rabbit pose for a photo with another child, that he was actually right for once.

"Yeah, Pep, if I had to guess, I would say it was the bunny with the manic smile and glazed eyes that scared her, not the pretzel stand."

Pepper gave him a reproachful look. "Not helping Tony."

Tony grimaced when Morgan screeched again, as if proving her mother right. As if he needed the reminder.

"I don't know what will help! She just won't stop crying," Tony said, consciously trying to keep his tone level despite his rising stress level. After a year and a half of being a parent, Tony was well-accustomed to crying infants, but it didn't make it any easier to deal with said infant having a meltdown in public.

"Brudda!" Morgan blubbered, raising her head up to look at him with tear-filled green eyes. "Brudda! Brudda!"

"What?" Pepper asked, smoothing Morgan's curly brown hair back from her face. "What do you want sweetie?"

"Bru…tha! Where… my… brutha?!" Morgan gasped out, emphasizing each word. Unfortunately, both Tony and Pepper were still at a loss.

"Brother?" Tony said, confusion only increasing as he realized that had to be what she was trying to say.

Morgan nodded exuberantly, burring her curly head back into his chest as she let out another shuddering cry.

"Brother?" Pepper asked, looking up at Tony before returning her gaze back down to her daughter. "But sweetie… you don't have a brother. You need to tell us what you want so we can help you."

That, as it turned out, was precisely the wrong thing to say to the distraught girl, as her crying only increased and she rapidly approached full-on tantrum mode. Morgan was quickly approaching her terrible twos, as evidenced by this going on fifteen-minute freak out.

Tony knew that she was upset and scared, and that she clearly wanted something to make her feel better. Usually either him or Pepper were able to calm her down and make her laugh long enough to get them out of Dodge, but not this time. The only thing they hadn't tried yet…

"Pete," Tony said, realization dawning on him a little slower than it should have. "You want Peter, right Morgan?"

Morgan only nodded as her chubby hands grasped his now soaked shirt.

Pepper's eyes softened as she looked from her daughter up to Tony. They had certainly never referred to Peter as Morgan's brother, but he may as well be. It was more surprising that Morgan had picked up the term and attributed it to the kid without prompting.

"Baby, you can't see Peter right now. He's in school," Pepper tried to explain, rubbing her daughter's back once more.

"But I wanna see him now!" Morgan cried, glaring up at her parents for daring to keep her away from her favorite genetically enhanced teenager.

"Okay," Tony said, shifting Morgan so that he was holding her in front of him as he said, "Here's the deal, kid. If you can calm down, we will head to Peter's school so that you can see him as soon as he gets out. It's only two more hours away. Can you do that for me?"

It took a few more minutes of cajoling and coaxing, but Morgan finally settled in to hiccupping cries instead of her previous shrieking and the Stark family quietly left the mall to fulfill their promise.

"Peter," Mr. Bitner stopped him on his way to the door of the classroom, instantly making him nervous.

"Uh, yeah, Mr. B?" Peter asked, nodding at Ned to go on without him. If he was about to get in trouble for something he didn't even know about, he didn't want an audience.

"I got this note for you during the quiz," Mr. Bitner explained, handing him what looked like a yellow detention slip, increasing Peter's nerves. Peter unfolded the note with trepidation as his chemistry teacher moved back to his desk.

Student: Peter Parker

Reason for detention: Please report to the main office after seventh period.

S. Morita

And that was it. A detention note that wasn't really a detention note, signed by his principal. Peter wasn't sure what he had done, but he knew that this couldn't mean anything good.

He took as much time as possible as he walked to his locker and collected his books and homework for the night, shoving them into his backpack before slinging it onto his shoulder. He contemplated several different outcomes as he made the trek to the main office of Midtown High. He only had a month left of school, and he couldn't imagine a meeting called at the end of the day on a detention slip could signify anything good.

Which was why he was extremely surprised to walk into the office with apologies already on his lips to see the school's receptionist cooing over a baby with the Spanish teacher. Wait… he knew that baby.

"Morgan?" Peter asked in shock, causing said baby to look at him with wide, expectant eyes and grasping hands.

"Petta! Petta!"

"Hey, Iron Baby," Peter smiled at her cautiously as he moved to the counter where she was currently sitting, only now realizing that Pepper was standing beside her, one hand on her back to keep her steady as she smiled at Peter. "What's going on?"

"Oh," Pepper said, looking only a little less put together than usual—something that tended to happen when dealing with cranky infants—and passed her daughter off into Peter's hands. "Someone had a traumatic experience and demanded that we bring her to see you as soon as possible."

"Awh," Peter cooed, grinning down at the suddenly much happier baby. "Is that true Morgan?"

Morgan grinned back before beginning to babble at him. "There was big, pink monsta, Petta. Monsta scary, so needed Brutha to scare monsta away. You good at that, Petta!"

Peter blinked down at her, trying to piece together her somewhat nonsensical story. "Uh, what?"

"You heard her, kid," Mr. Stark said, striding out of the principal's office with Principal Morita at his side, sending Peter a wink. "She's apparently scared of the big ol' Easter Bunny and needed her big brother to comfort her."

Peter felt himself go red, unable to formulate a response, and was luckily saved by Miss Becht smiling at him from behind her computer and saying, "I didn't realize you had a sister, Peter."

So much for saving him.

"Oh, I don't," Peter rushed to explain, pulling the collar of his shirt out of Morgan's mouth, much to her dismay, and shifting her to his other hip. "This is Mister and Missus Starks' daughter, Morgan."

"Yes, yes," Pepper said, having mercy on Peter. "We already introduced Morgan to everyone, didn't we sweetie?"

Morgan giggled happily, before going back to chattering at Peter, though he was still to confused by, well… everything to pay much attention. Not that Morgan minded.

"Peter just spends so much time with us for the internship and Morgan has taken quite the liking to him," Tony explained, coming back around the desk to throw an arm around his wife and smile at his daughter lovingly.

"Oh," Mrs. Cortez chuckled, clapping her hands together. "That is just so cute."

"Yeah, it's really cute," Principal Morita sighed, looking at Peter with thinly veiled annoyance. "Parker, is it okay if you leave here with Mr. Stark? You're eighteen, so you can leave with whoever you want, but I still need to check with you before I let you leave here with them. School policy for anyone that comes in asking for students."

"Uh," Peter said, confusion only increasing by the second. "Yeah, I'm cool with leaving with them."

"Great," Principal Morita said, turning away. "Have a great weekend."

And with that, the Starks and Peter moved as one out of the school.

"What is all of this about, Mr. Stark?" Peter asked as they left the school, still holding onto the now much happier Morgan.

"We took the kid to the mall to see the Easter Bunny—a terrible idea, really, but anyway, she had a total meltdown and demanded we bring her to her 'brother.' So here we are," Tony reexplained, leading Peter to his parked car.

"But… I'm not—"

"Peter," Pepper interrupted gently with a pointed look at her dozing daughter, truly calm for the first time in two hours. "Are you so sure about that?"

Peter wasn't sure how to respond to that—he could admit that sometimes, including that precise moment, felt something like a big brother to the youngest Stark, but he wasn't sure that he could really call himself that. "I don't kn—"

"Petta," Morgan cut him off, perking up just enough to tug at his shirt to get his attention. "We go to park now?"

Peter chuckled. "I don't know, Mo. What did your mom and dad say?"

"Mom and dad said that we could do whatever she wanted as long as she stopped crying," Tony joked, nudging Peter as they walked across the parking lot. "As long as that's okay with you, Pete. If you have other plans, we're happy to drop you off on the way."

Peter shook his head, smiling at his mentor before looking back down at Morgan and saying, "Of course I'd love to go to the park with you."

Morgan's excited chattering about parks and Peter and monsters was cut off by possibly the worse person Peter could think of at the moment.

"Penis Parker!" Flash called, jogging over to him from the school doors, apparently getting out of class late. "I didn't realize you had a kid. Moving kind of fast, don't you think? We don't even graduate for another month!"

"Excuse me?"

Peter had temporarily forgotten that Mr. Stark was with him, and his mild annoyance at Flash's taunting became mild panic.

"Oh my god," Flash said, coming to a sudden, jerking halt in front of where they stood beside Mr. Stark's SUV (still stylish, but with all the safety and space that a baby required, or so he claimed). "You, you're—"

"Still waiting for an explanation," Mr. Stark replied in his Dad VoiceTM, crossing his arms and looking at Flash expectantly. Pepper only chuckled and shook her head, taking her daughter from Peter's arms and starting to buckle her into her car seat, leaving the confrontation to her overprotective husband.

Peter wished he could join her inside the safety of the car, but instead said, "Mr. Stark, this is Flash. Flash, this is Tony Stark."

"Yeah," Flash splutter, still looking at him with wide, disbelieving eyes. "I freakin' know who this is Parker. How do you know him?"

"I told you," Peter muttered, crossing his arms and hugging them to his chest as he looked at the ground. "I've got that internship with Stark Industries."

"Yeah, but no one believed you!" Flash argued, though it was clearly pointless now.

"And how is that his problem, exactly, Flash? And I'm still waiting for you to explain to me what you just called Peter. In front of my infant daughter, by the way."

"Wh—I didn't—I mean…" Flash floundered, unprepared for a confrontation, especially with an Avenger that drove a glorified minivan and apparently knew Peter freakin' Parker.

"Come on, Mr. Stark," Peter interrupted, turning around to put his bag into the car where Pepper and Morgan were still waiting. "We need to get to that thing."

"Right," Mr. Stark nodded, still sizing Flash up. "Great meeting you, Speedy. But next time you try to insult my kid, try to be a bit more creative. Or better yet, just stay away from him. I'd hate to have to come back here and explain simple civility to a punk teenager."

Peter watched with a gaping mouth as Tony patted Flash on the shoulder as he passed, getting into the driver's seat and waiting for Peter to get in before pulling out of the parking lot.

They spent several quite minutes on the road with Morgan snoozing in her car seat, exhausted after her tiring tantrum, and Peter incredibly awkward after that confrontation.

Had Mr. Stark really just called him his kid? His kid?

"You didn't tell me you were having problems like that at school, Pete," Mr. Stark said, glancing at him in the rearview mirror as he drove.

Peter shrugged, unsure of how else to respond. "It's not a big deal, sir. You didn't have to do all of that."

"If people are bothering you, it's a big deal to me, kid. And I know I didn't have to. I also don't have to follow up on my promise to teach him some manners if he doesn't figure out how to behave like a civilized human being, but all you have to do is give me the word, Pete." Mr. Stark met his gaze in the mirror again, trying to convey his sincerity. "And I'll be there."

Peter smiled, unable to prevent the warm feeling that came with Mr. Stark's words. "You know, Mr. Stark, I think being a dad has made you kind of soft," he teased.

Mr. Stark scoffed and rolled his eyes while Pepper started laughing in the passenger seat. "You have no idea, kid."

A/N: The credit for the idea behind this chapter goes to Burt_Macklin_FBI_49 on AO3, who suggested this in a comment. Any prompts or ideas are always welcome (i.e. extremely encouraged, I'm not creative enough for this!), so please send me a message or ask if you feel so inclined!