Irondad/Spiderson Post-Endgame - LYKHIW timeline

There... and Back Again? (part I)

Febuwhum2021 Day 12 - Who Are You

For decades, Tony managed to lock his childhood memories away, never to be talked about again, but with the daughter, he adored getting older and more curious, with the boy who he pulled back into his life as nothing less than a son, there were questions coming up, that Tony couldn't suppress any longer.

The Stark's drive upstate to the old Mansion where Tony grew up. To Tony's horror, the trip takes him and the kids a lot further down memory lane than anyone could have predicted.

Baseline: circa 1 year after Tony is brought back from the multiverse.

###

[author's note: Am I taking advantage of the Febuwhump prompts to post this while I still have two (or three) other stories that are ongoing? Why, yes. Oops? 😉😇]

###

"Wait, you've never been there either?" Peter's voice rang clearly surprised.

"Nope," Morgan bubbled cheerfully, then paused. "Is that weird?"

They had left New York City about an hour ago. Super conveniently, Pepper had to attend an emergency meeting and sent Tony ahead with the kids on this trip from hell, which was great. Just great. Tony was only about 45% sure that she had set it up like this, forcing him to engage. He'd had little say in the matter as the fateful trip was arranged. A trip to his ancestral home. With a hyper-active Spider-kid and a chaotic 6-year-old in the back seat, it would be his hardest part playing 'Respectable Adult' to deliver yet.

Peter - to Tony's horror - had asked to be picked up on Bleeker Street instead of the Parker's apartment in Queens. It wasn't the first time that Tony had heard the odd clue that Peter had grown interested in what they were doing in that Sanctum. He would need to have a bit of a talk with Strange when they got back. The kid dabbling in witchcraft - or whatever it was those dudes were up to in the Sanctum - that just wouldn't do.

His eyes on the road, even with the excited voices chattering in the backseat, Tony couldn't help but hold onto his gloom. He had missed his window of opportunity. In all honesty, Tony had just been a coward, hoping that if he ignored every little mention of his parents, they'd just stay in the deep hole where he had buried all those memories years ago. Decades ago.

First, it had been pain and anger that had kept him determined to keep all of it hidden there. Years, he had carried all that baggage like a ball and chain around his ankle, the weight of it dragging him down for too long, never really allowing him to just let go of the past.

There had been moments along the way, that had lit up these flames before. When Tony had found out about how his parents had really died. The Snap and the loss that followed. Morgan's birth, when he had held his baby girl, while Pepper was sleeping, recovering from labor.

What wouldn't he have given for his mom to live to see Morgan, to hold her. To just be there and tell him what to do, how to do right by this little girl. Both of his girls, really.

At the same time, there were no words for the relief he felt that his father would never get the chance to touch Morgan. Would never get the opportunity to make either of his kids feel inadequate and small. To make them hate their lives like he had always made Tony hate his.

Howard would never get the chance to do that to his kids. And that sure felt like liberation.

There was a single portrait of his mother on the wall out in the hallway of the cabin right next to the black and white wedding picture of Pepper's parents. When they brought Morgan home from the hospital, Tony added another portrait. One of his father that still sat behind the framed picture of Tony and Peter in the kitchen cupboard. It was there as an ever-present reminder for Tony just in case, so he'd remember every day what he didn't want to be.