imaginatus | endgame open post

endgame open post

stark

aequitatis

pottspepper

starklegacy for au time hopping shenanigans ~~because of course she would. and of course i would.~~

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It takes six weeks for Tony’s health to finally be deemed well enough for him to not be under strict medical supervision. It’s not ideal, but it’s not like he can actually argue it; Tony knows damn well how much radiation the gauntlet caused. He knows him surviving is a miracle in its own. There’s still nerve damage along the right side of his body, and it’s only a matter of time before they call it and have to make a choice on whether or not his arm is salvageable, but he’s breathing. He’s eating. He’s walking, and he can go home. That’s plenty for now.

Strange helps to transport him back to New York after his lengthy stay in Wakanda, but while he’s urged to go home and take it easy, the first thing he asks Happy is to take him to the city. There’s someone he needs to see, after all. He has been keeping in touch with Peter over text and email, checking in on him and making sure he’s okay as he settles back in to normal after being gone for five years, but he wants to see him in person.

Even now, even after everything, he still has moments where he’s afraid the kid being back isn’t real. That he’s dreaming all this and soon he’ll wake up.

Happy pulls over outside of Peter’s school, and Tony waits for a whole two seconds before he gets out of the car. He looks better than he had the last time he and Peter had seen each other; the redness that remained on the right side of his face has lessened to faint scars from the blast. His arm is in a sling, and he has lost some weight in this whole ordeal, but he’s healthy enough to be moving about and arguing with Happy about whether or not he should be waiting in the car or leaning against it.

Tony, of course, opts for leaning against it.

The bell rings, and Tony pulls out his phone so he can text Peter. He hadn’t told him he was springing out of Wakanda for this reason - he had wanted to surprise him.

Hey. You doing anything after school today?

It's weird being back. Most of his friends are still in his grade and Peter is pretty sure that means they got dusted, too, but some of them are gone. Graduated. A year or two into college. It's so weird to think about that, so sometimes Peter just tries not to. He clings to the fact that Ned is still his age. He clings to the fact that MJ is still his age.

And he clings to the fact that Mr. Stark is still okay and all he has to do when he wakes up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night from a nightmare of watching what he was pretty sure was Mr. Stark dying, is turn on his phone and scroll through his text messages. Mr. Stark is fine. He'll be home as soon as he can. Wakanda is great, stop worrying so much, kid.

The bell rings at the end of another school day and it's so weird trying to pretend like nothing's changed and everything is totally normal; that he's just a high school junior and doesn't everyone fight bad guys in space? He's forever being snapped out of his thoughts by the bell ringing to signify the end of a period and since this is the last one of the day, it's actually a huge relief to get to his locker and put away his books.

Peter's making plans with Ned for later when his phone goes off and he tells Ned to hold on a sec so that he can look.

Not really. Ned and I were going to rebuild the Lego Deathstar, but nothing set in stone. Why?

Peter slams his locker shut and pushes his phone into his back pocket, before heading toward and then out the front doors of the school with Ned at his side. He stops abruptly midway down the stairs when he catches the glimpse of Mr. Stark leaning against the car.

"I'll see you later," Ned's saying and Peter thinks Ned must've noticed a few seconds before Peter did.

"Yeah. Yeah, totally," he agrees, but he's already starting to move forward toward Mr. Stark. "Hey, I thought...I mean, when did they let you leave?"

While he waits for the bell to ring, Tony just lets himself take in the noises of the city. It's something he hasn't done a whole lot of in the last five years, considering his fleeing to the lake house after Thanos and the fact that he hadn't quite been able to come back since. Now, the world is trying to get back to normal, and it's almost easy to believe that it's just another day. Kids are back in school, people are getting back to their usual routines, and...it's business as usual.

As much as half the world suddenly being back after being dusted is considered normal.

It's one of the reasons why Tony wants to check in on Peter. Sure, he has been doing what he can from a distance, but he wants to do more than that now. For five years he had struggled with a sense of guilt that was crushing, one that made it hard to even breathe at times, but now he's just glad that Peter is back. That he's alive again. That Peter gets a chance to live his life again.

As he watches him walk out of the building, he stays where he's at even if there's a smile that he can't exactly hide as he approaches the car.

"Hey. About...twenty minutes ago or so? Our magician friend gave me a ride. Kind of."

He pushes off the car and, when Peter is within distance, he uses his good arm to pull him in for a hug in greeting. Five years of fearing he had lost him, plus Morgan, have all made Tony a little bit more affectionate than how he had been when they had first met.

“Good to see you, kiddo.”

A lopsided grin creeps over Peter's lips at that response. Dr. Strange, aptly named if you asked Peter, certainly comes in handy, he finds himself thinking. "Cool, uh, have you been home yet, or...?" he asks, lifting his eyebrows and shifting his backpack a little on his shoulders to redistribute the weight. "Did you eat or anything? I could eat," he points out.

Peter can always eat. May sometimes says he's going to eat them out of house and home and he always comes back with "I'm a growing boy, Aunt May, I can't help it," and then they laugh and he stuffs his face and she complains that he never gains an ounce even though he eats like he's perpetually starving.

Mr. Stark draws Peter into a hug with his good arm and that still feels weird. Good weird, but weird. He's still getting used to that. "This is still nice," he points out quickly with a smirk as he hugs Mr. Stark back in earnest, with both arms since he's got 'em.

"How are you feeling?" he asks. There's concern in his face but he's at least careful to keep it out of his words. Eh, you win some, you lose some.

"No, not yet. Want to go grab something to eat? I feel like I haven't had good pizza in way too long."

Although he knows Happy might be tempted to protest about how he needs to get him home before Pepper kills him for taking such a long detour, at the same time he knows that Tony getting something to eat is good. And seeing Peter is definitely good for his spirits, so obviously this is a good kind of detour.

Besides, he has a surprise for Peter in terms of where he's staying at least for the next few weeks while he goes through therapy sessions and follow up appointments. If he needs to go home, the Starks are staying at a loft in Manhattan so the trek to get home wouldn't be as long as it would be if they had to go back to the lake house.

Peter's comment about how the hug is still nice makes him chuckle under his breath. "Yeah, it's not bad."

There's an affectionate tone in his voice that makes it clear that this is more than just not bad. It really is nice, and he's just glad that he actually gets to do this now.

"I'm good. Better, at least." He smiles, as if to assure him that it's okay. He's okay, at least he's no longer in danger of dying how he had been during those first few weeks when he couldn't even wake up.

"How about you?" There's concern in his expression, too. It may not be the same as Peter's, but he is still worried about him and the adjusting he must be going through as he tries to make up lost time. "Easing back into things okay?"

"Oh man, pizza sounds awesome," Peter realizes aloud. He hasn't had any since he got back, so it's been a little while for him, too. Not nearly as long, but all the same. In teen years, it's been a millennium since his last slice of pizza. Luckily, they live in New York City, home of the best pizza in America. He would say in the world, but he's betting Italy has them beat. He'll have to find out someday.

It's kind of a lot for Peter to wrap his head around this new Mr. Stark. He's more affectionate and open, for one thing, but Peter learned that Mr. Stark is a dad now. He'd steadfastly ignored the little pang of jealousy that had come with that news because it's not like he had any right to feel it. It's just that in the wake of Uncle Ben's death, Mr. Stark is as close as he's got and he came back and now he has to suddenly share. That sounds so childish in his head...

Peter smiles a little and nods, glad to hear that things are getting better for his mentor. "You'll be back at a hundred percent in no time, I bet," he says confidently. It's hard to imagine Mr. Stark not at one hundred percent and if he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he wouldn't have believed it in a million years.

He shifts his bag again and looks away for a second before looking back. That question is loaded. "At least Ned is still my age," he offers with a weak smile. Half of his class has moved on. It's weird now. He's not sure how he's ever really going to adjust to that, or even if he'll ever adjust to it before graduation. He sure hopes he doesn't feel this uncomfortable about it for that long...

"How's Ms. Potts?" he asks. "I mean, after all the..." his voice trails off and he shrugs a little. Mr. Stark probably knows what he means. Titan. Everything.

Tony grins. "Good. Pizza it is, then."

Peter Parker may not share his name, or his blood, but in Tony's eyes that doesn't matter. Not that he has explicitly said that, but if there's one thing that Thanos made him realize is that the kid means more to him than he had ever been ready to admit to himself. He knew he cared, of course, but the level at which he does isn't the same as it is with the rest of the team. That had been why, when he had seen him alive, and breathing, and rambling a thousand words a minute on the battlefield, all he could do was stare in amazement that he was back. That he was okay. That alone had made the time heist absolutely worth it and, even with everything that happened, he would do it again in a heartbeat.

"Yeah. Just need some more time, but I'll get there."

At Peter's response, he nods slightly, sympathetically. It was probably selfish, to ask for the last five years to remain as thy were because otherwise it would have meant that his daughter wouldn't have been born, but he couldn't help it. He feels awful for Peter, and how he must feel with those years lost, but at the same time he couldn't just erase Morgan, either.

He wraps an arm around his shoulders to guide him to the car as he speaks. "She's good. I think she's just glad all this mess is over. She and Morgan are settling in at our new place, actually." He opens the door for Peter with a smile as he explains. "We're moving back to the city for a while. I've got some follow up stuff to do with all this," he motions to his arm, "so...you'll be seeing us around a lot more, I think."

It's at least comforting to know that Mr. Stark also has confidence in the fact that he'll be better soon. It's weird to think about anything other than Mr. Stark getting better and continuing on with his life as normal. ...it's weird to think about the fact that what's normal for Mr. Stark is very much the opposite, now, for Peter. He'll adjust and that will change, but for now, it's a lot.

Peter lets himself be guided into the car and he ignores that pang of jealousy again when he hears Morgan's name, because it's still mostly foreign and he needs to get over that. He really needs to get over that. "Good, I'm glad," he replies. He likes Ms. Potts a lot, actually. He wonders if she'd get along with Aunt May if they'd met under different circumstances; if they'd be friends. Maybe they do get along and maybe they are friends and that's just more to add to the list of things he's missed in the time he was gone.

But when Mr. Stark goes on to say that they're moving back to the city for a while, Peter's face lights up. "Really?" he asks before he can stop himself. It sounds overzealous and, honestly, very Peter Parker of him. It's exciting to think that he'll get to see them more often. It's hard to miss the people around you when you don't actually exist, but when he looks around and sees the signs of the missing years, even if he doesn't remember them passing him by, he still feels like he misses the way things were and the people he loves being the way they used to be before everything went crazy and so many people got hurt.

Forcing composure on himself, Peter grins a little too widely and squirms a little in his seat with excitement as the car starts moving. "For how long, do you think?" And, before he can stop himself, partially because he wants a reason to spend more time with Mr. Stark and partially because he knows he really should and he's always wanted siblings, even if she wouldn't technically be his sister, he tacks on, "I gotta know how much time I have to show Morgan all kinds of cool stuff. Top Secret cool stuff, obviously."

Once in the car, Tony asks Happy to drive them to his usual pizza place, and after Happy greets the kid they’re on their way.

Peter’s reaction to the news that they’re going to be in the city again makes him chuckle, one more thing he’s glad to see again, and he nods.

“Yeah, really. Commuting is a pain, and it would have been hard for you to swing by when the other house is now so far out into the country, so...”

He says it casually, but he specifically mentions the part about Peter being able to now swing by the loft easier, because he hopes he knows that’s something he hopes he’ll do. Just because five years passed, it doesn’t mean that he doesn’t count Peter as part of his life anymore. Being an Avenger for Tony is now something he can’t do - something he’ll have to break the news to Peter soon - but Peter will always have a spot in his life.

When he mentions he has to teach Morgan ‘top secret cool stuff,’ Tony’s smile grows. He can’t help it.

“As of right now, indefinitely. So you should be good on time. She’s never lived in the city, so you’ll definitely need to show her what she’s missed.” He pauses but it’s brief. “She’s really excited to meet you, you know. She’s...heard a lot about you already.”

And not even just recently. He says it now so that Morgan won’t take him by surprise when she starts rambling to him and asking him to show her how he can swing around, because knowing his daughter, that’s exactly what she’ll do.

The hint in that statement is sort of lost to Peter, mostly because he's more focused on the fact that they'll be in the city and not out in the country where he'll be out of sight and out of mind. A logical part of his brain tells Peter that there's no out of sight, out of mind, not with Mr. Stark, otherwise they wouldn't be having this conversation right now. Peter was out of sight for five years. But the normal, teenage, emotional part of his brain just wants to focus on the part where maybe if Mr. Stark is in the city, then he won't forget that Peter's around, now.

His eyebrows lift a little with surprise at the comment that Morgan has heard a lot about him. "Really?" he asks. Peter is genuinely surprised about that even though if he thought about it for a moment, he wouldn't be. For all intents and purposes, Peter had been dead to them. People always tell their children about those they've lost and they always paint a rosy glow.

But then he's thinking about all the things he could show Mr. Stark's kid because it sounds like Mr. Stark is giving his blessing and he's wondering how much trouble he would be in with Ms. Potts if he scooped their kid up and swung around Queens to show her all the cool places she won't get to see when she's in Manhattan. Or if he'll be allowed to take her to a bodega or on the ferry or half a million other things that a kid who grew up in the country wouldn't have ever experienced.

Maybe if Morgan is a part of Peter's life, too, and he hers, then the sharing won't feel so bad.

"Does she know about Iron Man and Spider-Man and the Avengers and everything or is she too little...?" he finds himself asking.

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endgame open post

For Peter @yeahspiderman

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