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Peter wasn’t grumpy as aunt May liked to call it, and he certainly wasn’t jealous as Natasha had told him. He was just not in the best mood. Okay, and maybe it had to do with Morgan not willing to call him uncle Peter unlike with the avengers. You had uncle Steve, auntie Nat, uncle Rhodey and uncle Strangey, but it was never uncle Peter. Peter didn’t quite understand why Morgan refused to call him that, although he had a lot of other nicknames that she would give him like ‘Petey’ and ‘Spidey’. He sometimes tried to get her to say it, but she never would. It wasn’t that Peter was mad at her or anything, he doesn’t think he could ever get mad at that little girl, but he saw her as his family and it hurt him that she didn’t feel the same way.
Morgan and Peter were currently both seated on the floor in the living room at the compound. Morgan was keeping busy with playing with the legos that Peter had brought along for her while Peter himself was scrolling through his phone.
Peter saw how enthusiastic Morgan was building stuff and couldn’t help but smile at her. He held his phone up to take a picture of Morgan with the legos. “Hey squirt, why don’t you give uncle Peter a smile.” Who knows, maybe if he called himself that she would start calling him that as well.
Morgan looked up in confusion at his words though, staring in the camera with no smile to be seen.
Well, okay, that hadn’t worked. Peter let out a sigh before offering her a smile of his own. “Can you smile please? I wanna send your mommy and daddy a picture of how good you are at building with legos!” This did seem to work as Morgan’s entire face lit up and smiled at the camera. Peter quickly took a picture, smiling fondly at it before sending it to the groupchat he had with Pepper and Tony.
“You are really good at building these legos Morgan, especially for your age!” Peter rubbed his chin as if he was in deep thought, “How old are you again?” It wasn’t a genuine question, Peter knew exactly how old she was, but he asked anyway if only to entertain her.
“Almost three!” The response was delivered with a toothy smile and three fingers being held up. Peter gasped, acting surprised at her answer. “Almost three!? You’re getting old already!”
Morgan giggled in response, waggling over to him with her arms outstretched. She squealed in delight when Peter picked her up before standing up and swinging her through the air while holding onto her tightly. He made sure to make those weird noises with his mouth as if she was an airplane taking off into the air, resulting in her laughing echoing through the room.
Once she had calmed down he bounced her on his hip and pointed with one hand at the photo of Tony hanging on the wall. “But remember squirt, you’re not nearly as old as your dad.”
Morgan tilted her head as if she was confused and was trying to understand what he told her. “Daddy is old?”
Peter nodded somenly, “Yes. Not as old as uncle Steve, but definitely old.”
Morgan seemed to think this over before she began giggling again, clapping in her hands. “Daddy is old!”
Refraining himself from laughing was harder than it should have been, but Peter managed as he nodded at her. “Very old!” This only made her giggle even louder at which Peter couldn’t help but smile.
“Now why are you two kids making so much noise this early in the morning.” A grumpy looking Tony had walked into the room, yawning as he scratched his belly.
“It’s one PM Mister Stark.”
Tony fixed him with a stare, “Yeah, that’s what I said, early as fuck.”
Peter gasped at Tony’s words as he went to cover one of Morgan’s ears with his free hand. “Mister Stark!” he said in a scandalised voice,”Your daughter is still learning and repeating words, you can’t just say stuff like that.” Peter tried not to laugh at his own words, knowing damn well that Morgan already had a very colourful vocabulary.
Tony just shrugged, walking up to them to ruffle Morgan’s hair. “Don’t forget who teached Morguna her first swear word, champ.”
It had indeed been Peter who had made Morgan say her first ‘no-no word’ as he and Steve liked to call it, but it had been an accident! He hadn’t even been aware that she was in the same room as him at the time. Tony liked to tease him about it.
“How long have you two been up?”
Peter shrugged, “We got up at like, nine AM I think? Or at least, that’s when this little lady was standing at my bedside, whining about how she wasn’t getting any attention.” Peter knew that Tony and Pepper had been up late last night, trying to take care of the financials after a fight between the Avengers and some kind of alien had destroyed a pretty big part of the city. When Peter got woken up by small footsteps running through the hall that was situated against his bedroom, he had quickly gotten out of bed to play with Morgan before she could disturb her parents well needed rest.
Tony offered him a soft smile before ruffling his hair as well, both of them pretending that Peter was as annoyed by that as he acted to be. “Well, thanks for taking care of her kiddo. Can’t actually remember the last time I slept this well.” Tony started to rummage through the cabinets for some food until he gave up and went for coffee instead.
“No problem Mister Stark,” Peter decided to ignore the way Tony rolled his eyes at the name, “There are few things I’d rather do than hang out with this little troublemaker.” He started tickling Morgan who was still seated against his hip and she started to squirm and giggle in his grip.
The little girl was already out of breath from being tickled too much when she managed to gasp out some words said in between laughs. “Stop Petey! That- That tickles!”
Peter did stop the tickling, but he just lifted her up in the air instead, high enough for him to blow a raspberry into her belly. This resulted in Morgan being unable to stop laughing, struggling in his grasp while kicking him in the face in the process. Yeah, well okay, he probably deserved that. He held her up into the air until the giggling and thrashing around had calmed down before placing her on his shoulders. She immediately took hold of his curls, fisting them in her tiny hands.
“Look at how tall you are Morgan! You can almost reach the ceiling!” Peter exclaimed loudly, ignoring the disapproving look Tony gave him.
“Even taller than daddy!"
Peter tried to muffle his laughter as he shot Tony a mischievous grin. “Yeah, well, that’s not so hard to achieve.”
Tony threw his hands in the air, careful of the cup of coffee in his hands. “I’m getting harassed in my own home by my own two kids. What has become of my life?”
His response only managed to make Morgan clap her hands in delight before taking hold of Peter’s hair again. “I’m taller and younger than daddy!”
Bouncing on the balls of his feet Peter hummed at her words, a smile spreading over his face.“That’s right squirt. How old was daddy again?”
“Very old!”
“Hey! ”
But Peter had already escaped the living room, running away laughing with a giggling Morgan on his shoulders.
Tony shook his head in exasperation, what was he going to do with those two?
Peter had been tasked with taking Morgan to bed. That’s to say, he wasn’t really tasked. He himself proposed to take her to bed as it wasn’t often that he could stay over and sleep at the compound, and he always loved telling Morgan her bedtime stories.
“So the dragon ate the mean prince who was trying to kill him, and he and the princess lived happily ever after as a power duo!” He closed the storybook with a loud bang, having ignored most of its storyline and making up the story himself. Morgan really didn’t seem to mind though, smiling at him as she was buried under a big pile of blankets. Something did seem to bother her though.
“What is a power duo?”
Peter frowned, thinking of the best way to explain it to her. “Well, you see, it’s kind of like your mom and dad. They are very cool and powerful people while apart from each other, but together they are unstoppable. They make each other better, stronger and happier.”
Morgan nodded at his words and her face lit up when he was done talking. “Just like you and me!”
Peter could feel himself freeze up as he looked at her, not quite sure what to say, but Morgan had already continued talking.
“We are a power duo too! You make me happy and taller! You’re very cool without me, but I make you way cooler!”
Peter snorted at her words, feeling himself relax. He didn’t know what made him so tense all of a sudden, he only knew that he was now trying his hardest not to tear up at Morgan’s words.
“Y-yeah, just like us. You don’t need me to make you cool though, you are already the coolest person walking around on this planet.” He ruffled her hair and offered her a smile. “But even the coolest person on earth has to get enough sleep. It’s bedtime squirt.”
Morgan let out a small whine, but didn’t complain any further which Peter saw as a win. He tucked her in, making sure all of her stuffed animals were laying with their heads above the blankets. If this wasn’t the case then Morgan would get worried that they weren’t getting enough air, and would end up crying in the middle of the night. It was kind of adorable.
Morgan was looking up at him with big eyes, clearly not that sleepy yet, but she didn’t make a big deal out of it. “Goodnight Petey.”
Peter was about to say it back but started worrying his bottom lip between his teeth, muling over his next few words. Ultimately he decided to just spit it out. “Morgan, why do you never call me uncle Peter?”
Morgan’s eyebrows scrunched up at that and she tilted her head in confusion. “Why would I call you uncle?”
Oh.
Okay. Right. Peter waved her question away with his hands, plastering on a big fake smile. “No, I don’t know. I was just wondering I guess, but it’s no big deal! Sleep well, sweet dreams! Good night!” He was aware that he was now rambling so he made to turn off the lights and leave the room when Morgan’s words made him stop right in his tracks.
“Why would I call my big brother uncle? That doesn’t make any sense!”
Peter froze with his back still turned to her, not sure what to do or say next as he was still processing what she had just said. So he ended up saying the only thing that was going through his head at that moment. “Oh.” He wasn’t sure how long he had been standing there until Morgan spoke up again.
“Petey, are you okay?”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m-” Peter cleared his throat, willing the tears that were threatening to spill to go away, “I’m fine.” He turned around and faced Morgan who was giving him a concerned look from underneath her blankets. He made his way over to her bed and squatted right next to it so that they were on the same eye level. “I’m fine Morgan, really.”
Morgan eyed his watery eyes with suspicion, but ultimately decided not to comment on it. Her face softened when he leaned over to kiss her forehead and smile at her.
“I love you squirt.”
She made a face at him, sticking out her tongue. “You’re weird.”
“That’s fair.”
After ruffling her hair one more time Peter got up again and turned off the lights in the room. He had almost closed the door when he heard a small voice coming out of the darkness of the room behind him.
“I love you too.”
Peter smiled.