Chapter Text
Sipping his herbal tea with hints of cinnamon, Stephen is enjoying the last minutes of silence of his day petting Mister Holmes. Tony is in New Asgard, since two days ago, working with Bruce on their study about using cannabis as a coronavirus blocker. The science bros joined a small group of scientists and they are doing great.
Pepper and Everett Ross are out to their offices. The CEO of Stark Industries is leading their initiative to protect families and jobs while her boyfriend is in Wakanda at a global leaders (not in person) meeting. Although, thanks to Stephen, the ex-CIA agent and now a full member of the UN secretary general's cabinet was able to be there with T’Challa.
With Kamar-Taj doing good, ruled by a council of sorcerers chosen by the Sorcerer Supreme after the defeat of Thanos, the New York Sanctum guarded by two trained sorcerers and the magic shield around Earth stronger than ever, Stephen is filling his days at the lake house mostly being a dad.
Of course, when duty calls, he still opens portals to other dimensions and fights magic beings. Right now, though, he is waiting for the timer on the oven rings to take the muffins out. Soon, he will have two young men and a little lady around the table demanding their breakfast.
Stephen smiles thinking about his routine. Sometimes, he feels bad about himself living the fullness of a life, married with Tony and taking care of three kids while the world is facing a pandemic. The master of mystic arts jumps out of his thoughts by two tiny hands on his knees.
Morgan snuggles close, so much like her daddy, until Stephen takes her on his lap and kisses her cheek.
“Morning, papa,” she mumbles with drowsy eyes.
“Morning, Miss Morgan,” Stephen straightens her messy hair and smiles.
“Oh, muffins!” She happily says hearing the oven.
“Yep! Sit here while I bring them to the table, your brothers…”
“Hi, bug. Morning, dad,” Peter greets them while Harley gives his usual growls in the morning. The older Stark kid is not an early person, indeed.
Stephen smiles with the interactions between Peter and Morgan. Harley is not that much wake to play with them, which is fine. They still love him, no matter his grumpiness right after waking up.
They have a great breakfast and then, Peter and Morgan are in charge of the dishes. Harley is the one responsible for the lunch ones. It is around 9 A.M. when they head to the big study room to start their activities. With headphones, notebooks and their study materials, plus the support of FRIDAY, the boys have their MIT classes and Morgan is able to attend her classroom from school. Mister Holmes lays on her lap and sleeps.
Stephen is with them all the time, working on his translations or studying new spells. He sits side by side with Morgan, ready to help her with some lessons or interactive tasks when her teachers demand it.
A couple of hours later, the man can sense how much unproductive are the classes for two stressed boys. Peter already had those lessons with Tony, at the lab. Harley cannot find any energy to concentrate on what his teacher is telling. Even Morgan is sullen through a boring grammar class.
They are facing a pandemic since February, their routines were drastically altered and the kids suffer most of the effects. Stephen sighs. He kisses Morgan’s temple and his heart sinks on his chest seeing his kids like that. Yes, his kids. With a brief debate with himself, Stephen uses a ficlet of a spell to cheer their mood up.
He engages himself on the lesson with Morgan and send waves of good feelings to his boys. With Stephen’s help, they manage to finish their morning classes.
“Heck, it’s been 84 years since these classes started,” Harley complains shutting down his notebook.
“My brain is just blank right now,” Peter mumbles, scratching his arms. “What I would give to a mission, a patrol, anything…”
“Classes are just boring, papa. I prefer when you teach me things,” Morgan mutters storing her school supplies.
“That bad?”
“Yeah…” The trio says very discouraged.
“Mmmm… well, then, I guess we should cook lunch together,” he says testing waters.
“What?” Peter frowns.
“Yay!” Morgan enjoys the plan.
“Are you nuts?” Harley asks.
“Meow?” Mister Holmes wakes demanding some food.
“Well, it’s not like I’m going to give you a full cooking class or something. It’s just… an opportunity to make things together, the four of us. It can’t be that boring, right?” Stephen points to their books.
The boys exchange a look. After some months living together, Harley and Peter developed a close friendship. They are a perfect match on missions and train together as much as they can.
“Guess we’ll try it,” Harley shrugs.
“What are we going to cook, papa?” Morgan carefully takes his hand and leads the way to the kitchen.
“What you all are in the mood for lunch? No, we’re not having turkey sandwiches. I mean real food, with vegetables,” he glares the boys who were ready to say pizza or some fast food.
“I like when you do roasted carrots, broccoli and eggplant. Oh tomato too,” Morgan smiles.
Stephen almost cannot contain his pride to hear the girl. Obviously, it is a result of Pepper’s and his own influence on her.
“Did you hear your young sis, guys? This is an excellent answer. Real food, not processed or fast food,” he winks to the boys.
“Hm. I like… I like chicken parmesan with smashed potatoes,” Harley admits.
“Oh, that’s very good. Maybe some fresh peas too?” Peter suggests.
“We have a menu, then! Roasted vegetables, chicken parmesan, mashed potatoes and fresh peas. Yummy, let’s clean our hands everyone, we have a lunch to cook,” Stephen says and feeds the cat.
Gastronomy was a secret passion of the former surgeon. Cooking or baking helped him to relax before and after big surgeries, for example. He was very private about it before. Christine was the first person to know he was talented in the kitchen. However, it changed when Stephen started dating Tony and living with the kids as a family.
Morgan is the most excited about cooking with Stephen, her vivid eyes are sparkling. Peter is curious and Harley is not much into the thing.
“Peter and Harley, can you please take the vegetables from the fridge? I will need them chopped. Peeled carrots and potatoes. Can you do that for me?”
Harley chooses to peel the vegetables while Peter is chopping the eggplants, tomatoes and dismantling the broccoli.
“What I will do, papa?”
“For now, you’ll watch what I’m doing. I’ll start to prepare the chicken and you’ll bring me the things I’ll ask you, the cloak will help. After, you’ll smash the potatoes. Okay?”
She nods and they start the preparations. Stephen asks FRIDAY to play some music to them and soon they are singing and dancing around the kitchen. Even the boys. Together, they cook lunch. Pepper joins them when the food is served. Everett will stay in Wakanda for a private meeting with T’Challa and some allies.
The blonde congratulate them for the food, she is all smiles listening to Morgan tell all the process and what she helped with.
“Thank you, Stephen, you’re amazing with them,” she tells him before going back to her office.
When the kitchen is clean, the sorcerer looks at those expectant faces waiting for something they do not even know what it is.
“What about a game afternoon?” Stephen asks.
“What kind of game?” Harley responds. He is an addicted to some sort of games.
“I was thinking… we could go to the pink and purple dimension and turn that place into a big and challenging maze. You’ll have to work together to get out of there. Suits are allowed. I promise some magic tricks too,” he proposes.
“Yas, I’m in,” Harley smiles wide.
“Dude, me too,” Peter shakes hand with his brother.
“Morgan?” Stephen asks and the girl looks very sad.
“Hm, what?” She is almost crying.
“Hey, don’t you like to go to that dimension? I thought you liked there,” Stephen crouches down and caresses her face.
“Yeah, I did enjoy there, but I have no suit, papa,” she whispers.
“No, not yet. I guess your daddy is waiting for you to become a bit older to make you a suit. You have the Cloak of Levitation, though. So, you can go and help your brothers. They’ll not be able to solve the maze puzzle without their super sis,” Stephen pecks her nose and Morgan smiles.
“Ready to go, Morgs?” Harley takes her in his arms and the girl squeaks happily when Peter attacks her with tickles.
“Wait here, I’ll need five minutes to prepare everything, okay?”
It takes almost ten minutes and when he is back, Stephen faces three over excited kids. He instructs them to go through the portal. The game is on. Before joining them, he checks Mister Holmes’ supplies, food and water, and asks FRIDAY to send a message to Tony and Pepper, letting them know where he is taking the kids.
In the pink and purple dimension, created by Stephen’s magic, the sorcerer hides himself, connecting with his kids’ auras and the place. Thus, he is able to change scenarios, to move things, to play tricks, to bend that world to his will.
It is a fascinating experience to him. More than hearing, Stephen feels when they laugh, when they get scared, when they bond to the best of their skills to solve the challenge in front of them. He could not be a prouder dad watching Harley and Peter always protecting and including Morgan on their journey.
When they finally step back to the lake house, it is almost evening. The sorcerer receives a cup of tea from Pepper, who send the kids to take a shower before dinner.
“How was the trip?” She asks sitting on her armchair with Mister Holmes.
“Interesting, funny, relaxing. I bet they’ll sleep better tonight”, he smiles.
“Thank god, I was expecting some explosions from the lab. They were so active before this quarantine thing, especially the boys. Morgan had her activities too…”
“They are going to be fine…”
“Of course they will, they have you, we have you. You may not realize how much important you are, Stephen, but allow me to say that you are a great part of their lives, of this family. Tony and I just can go to work without panicking because we know the kids have you. Now go there to take your shower, dinner will be ready soon,” she sips her tea.
“Are you cooking?” He raises an eyebrow. Usually, Pepper cooks only on weekends.
“Just used some leftover from lunch. Tomatoes stuffed with crispy chicken and cream cheese are on the oven, also, we have potato soup with peas and bacon. Sounds good?”
“Delicious.”
Later that night, on their bedroom, after checking the boys, Tony tells Stephen how much he loved the videos FRIDAY sent to him from his activities with the kids. The sorcerer giggles remembering some of his tricks.
“Promise you’ll do that again allowing me to join them,” Tony asks. He could not be more thankful for a magic husband able to portal him back to their home.
“Oh, I’ll think about some very good tricks to Iron Man,” Stephen winks and Tony laughs, already excited.
“I love you, sunshine,” Tony kisses him and yawns.
“And I love you, honey cake,” Stephen wraps his arms around his husband and they snuggle close, until find a comfortable position to sleep.
In the morning, Tony will be leaving to New Asgard again and Pepper will master her command on IS again while Stephen will stay at home cooking, studying and playing one of his favorite roles in life: being a dad.