A/N I'm back! I wrote this for my irondad secret santa on Instagram.
Sorry for not posting much hehe, I've kind of transitioned to ao3, but if I write something I'll always post it on here as well.
Morgan Stark was 5 years old. Her birthday was a month ago, and the daughter of Tony Stark was very proud of her age.
She was also very mature - for a four year old.
She was already learning basic maths such as dividision and multiplication, and Pepper was certain that she would take after her father and do something science-y for university.
But Morgan Stark also knew when to comfort her father - and when to give him some time to himself.
She didn't know what happened before she was born, but it had to be something bad.
Otherwise her father wouldn't sit in the same place for hours, clutching an empty mug of coffee, staring into space.
He would spend entire days in bed, and Morgan would often see him tearing up, looking at a photograph.
The photograph in question was off limits to Morgan, but once when her father was asleep upstairs and her mother wasn't home, she stood on the countertop and reached for the photograph.
It was of her Dad - and a boy. He looked young, they were holding a certificate, Morgan traced the word stark with her finger. It was the only word she could make out, the other saying something around the lines of in-ts-ip.
Despite being a little genius, she wasn't in school yet, and nobody would teach her to read. She had figured out what little words she could by herself.
Her dad looked happy in the picture. The kind of happy that she didn't see him displaying very often.
Morgan didn't need to guess that he was gone. Her dad's behaviour had already proven that.
Sighing, she placed the photograph back where it belonged and climbed down from the countertop. She never inquired about who the boy was, however much she was tempted. She just made sure to give her dad lots of extra hugs and kisses.
+
Morgan was climbing a tree. She was getting good at it, being in the middle of a forest and all.
She reached for the top branch, briefly letting go of the tree, lunging up to grab it -
And she did.
Giggling, she started to move her feet upwards.
And then the top branch snapped.
Before she could breathe, blink, gasp or scream - she was tumbling towards the ground.
As the grass got closer and closer, Morgan shut her eyes and shrieked.
And then everything went black.
+
"Hey, kiddo. Are you alright?"
Morgan slowly regained consciousness, blinking several times as a strange orange light assaulted her senses.
"You with us? Well, it's just me actually. You with me? I don't know your name so I'm just gonna call you kiddo for the moment. Don't try to speak, just let yourself adjust for a minute. Or five minutes. Or ten, it's not like we're going anywhere."
Morgan frowned, the voice belonged to a boy, his voice hadn't broken yet so he must be young. She gave a small smile when he called her 'kiddo'. That was what her daddy called her.
Suddenly her eyes shot open.
It couldn't be - him could it? Maybe a younger version of her father had been teleported in this strange orange land with her.
"Woah there! Careful! You'll make yourself sick if you get up so quickly!"
Morgan did feel a tiny bit sick, but that was beside the point. She let her eyes focus on the boy in front of her, and let out a sigh of relief. It wasn't her dad. The baby-faced boy did give her a pang of familiarity though, she just couldn't place it.
"W-who are you?"
He made a face.
"I should be asking you the same thing. I was enjoying my eternal rest in the land of orange."
"It looks boring."
The boy made a shocked face and pouted.
"You mean you don't like endless land that doesn't lead anywhere, with barely anything, where you just sit around all day doing nothing? Honestly, you should be ashamed of yourself."
Morgan giggled, momentarily forgetting about the problem she was facing.
But they soon stopped joking, and the boy's eyes went sad. He gave a small, strained smile.
And then it struck her.
Morgan springend back in shock, the boy had to quickly catch her before she tripped.
"Y-you're the boy from the photo!"
His face contorted into confusion.
"What?"
"My Daddy has a photo of you. In the kitchen. He looks at it alot."
"That's - kinda creepy to be honest. Who is your dad?"
Morgan is ashamed to say that she had to think for a moment before remembering her Dad's name - she normally just called him Daddy.
"Tony."
That got his attention.
"Stark? Tony Stark?"
Morgan nodded.
"O-oh my God. Tony Stark is your Dad. That is so weird! My name is Peter - I was his intern and um...stuff. Who is your mom? Pepper, right? Oh my God Mr Stark had a kid! This is crazy!"
Morgan stood there, rather impatiently.
"Anyways..." she started. "Can we figure out how to get me back?"
"This," Peter gestured towards the tree. "Is what I call 'The living tree' because it's the only thing that's actually alive here, besides from me."
Morgan squinted at him, unamused.
"Whatever. Anyways. Today, right before you -" he poked her - "Showed up, I noticed that there was an apple growing on it."
"Which is unusual because?"
"It never grows apples. How long have I been here again?"
"I was born right after the blip, so five years."
Peter breathed an unsteady breath.
"Wow. That's um - long time. So you're five?"
"Mhm! I turned five last month. Daddy says I'm growing up very fast."
Peter gave a small smile, before clearing his throat and turning back to the tree.
"I have this feeling - my Peter tingle. I think if we eat this apple, we could both go back!"
"Really? An apple? That's so dumb."
"Just trust me, okay? If I'm wrong we're just the same as before."
Finally, Morgan gave in.
"Fine. But if it doesn't work I'm blaming you."
Peter grinned, and turned around so Morgan could climb on his back.
"Hang on!" He yelled, and began to scale the tree at an inhuman pace.
Soon they reached the top, and Morgan reached out and plucked the apple from the branch.
When they were on the ground, Morgan handed Peter the apple.
"Okay, so you have a bite,and then I'll bite the other side."
"That's unsanitary."
"It's what's gonna get us out of here. Suck it up buttercup."
"Whatever." Morgan rolled her eyes. "I wanna know how you got up that tree so fast."
"When we get back to the world of the living I'll show you."
"Promise?"
"I promise. And I'll give you piggy backs all day long."
"That sounds fun." Morgan replied, her voice quiet.
"Okay, you ready?"
Morgan nodded, taking the apple.
She locked eyes with Peter, and took a bite.
Peter looked at her hands and gasped.
"Look! Look at your hands! They're dissappearing!"
Sure enough, her hands were looking strangely see through, and the rest of her was following.
"Take another bite!"
Morgan bit the apple again, and the see through-ness spread to her arms.
"Another!"
Morgan kept eating the apple, more of her body dissappearing every time.
She was so caught up in the excitement that she didn't realize she had already eaten more than half of the apple.
Peter had noticed though, and his face fell. Morgan looked up, confused as to why he had stopped cheering her on.
Then she realized.
There was barely one bite left.
"Peter..."
"It's okay." he whispered, smiling softly. "You need to get back to your family. I'll be fine."
"But -"
"Tell your Dad it's okay, it wasn't his fault and there was nothing he could have done, okay?"
"O-okay." she sniffed.
"Go on, take the last bite."
Tears swam across Morgan's vision, streams had already made their way down Peter's face.
She hugged him, her translucent arms wrapped around his neck as they sobbed together.
"You can do this." He whispered.
She nodded slowly, taking the apple in her hand once more.
And she ate the last bite.
The last thing she saw before her world descended into darkness once more, was Peter, mouthing 'goodbye'.
+
"Mo?"
"Morgan?"
"Sweetie!"
Morgan's eyes slowly fluttered open, and she was immediately flooded with hospital lights.
"M-mom? Daddy?"
Pepper and Tony were sat at her bedside, fussing over the little 5 year old.
"We were so worried!"
"You really scared me, kiddo."
Kiddo.
"PETER!"
The couple went silent.
"What?" Tony whispered.
"The boy from your photo! He is Peter Parker!"
"How do you know about Pete, Momo?"
"I met him! When I was unconscious! He told me to tell you that it's not your fault, and there was nothing you could have done. I don't really know what he was talking about though."
Tony and Pepper looked more than shocked.
"Did you ever tell Morgan about Peter?" Pepper asked Tony.
He shook his head wordlessly.
"Morgan, I need you to tell the truth. How did you find out about Peter?"
"When I fell. I woke up in a weird orange land. And then I met Peter. And we found an apple that we had to eat in order to go home, but it only worked for one person, so he let me go home."
Needless to say, the couple was Baffled.
+
1 year later
Tony gasped as the portals opened, barely believing his eyes. They all came back. Sam, Bucky, Quill, the whole lot. But there was one face he had yet to see.
"Mr Stark! Oh my God, hi!"
The puppy dog brown eyes that were so familiar twinkled at him, full of life.
Tony couldn't speak, all the words that he needed to say got stuck in his throat. So he pulled the kid in for a tight hug, one that he had never gotten.
"Did Morgan get back?"
He stopped.
"What?"
"Oh. It was probably my imagination then. I could swear I met a kid called Morgan heh."
"N-no. Kid, Morgan fell out of a tree a year ago. When she woke up she talked about meeting you, something about a magic apple."
Peter's face lit up.
"So it was real! Man would I like to see her again! I missed her when she left."
"She's gonna love you, Pete."
And Tony just held him tighter.
Somebody told me that they preferred it being in Morgan's imagination, so if you do, just ignore the last section, I just wanted to add in some actual irondad.