a/n: lmfao wattpad is broken so if i stop uploading randomly that is why

Spooktober 08: Shock

The car ride to Mr. Stark's cabin in the woods (the home, not the horror movie) was a long ways away from the hospital. Despite the doctors clearing him for his release, Peter kept making glances over to him the entire way there to make sure he was still doing okay.

He sees Mr. Stark now; lacking an arm but healing, getting stronger every day, the light in his eyes shone like normal. But sometimes—Sometimes he couldn't get the image out of his head. If he squinted hard enough, or looked for too long, all he could see was the man half-dead and unresponsive, in the ruins of a place Peter could have called a second home.

Peter shakes his head. Mr. Stark was fine, now. He was breathing. Peter could hear the gentle continuous thrum of his heart as his most-comforting background noise.

"I can't wait for you to meet her," Tony smiles. There was something so different about this Tony Stark compared to the one Peter knew... before. Something beyond the greying hair and smile lines. Something kinder, from the way he smiles to the way his shoulders relax back in the seat, as if Tony had allowed his soul to patch itself together while Peter had been gone.

It's refreshing, but alien, and Peter feels like he needs to remind himself every moment that this is still the Mr. Stark who recruited him to fight Captain America, who fished him out of a lake, who held him on Titan.

"How old is she again?" Peter asks quietly.

"Four. Just nearly five." Tony tilts his head in a so-so motion. "Pretty sure she's a super genius though."

A smile finds its way on Peter's face. "I don't doubt it."

Pepper parks the car in gravel outside of the cabin. "Home sweet home."

Peter opens the passenger door and is assaulted immediately with the deep smell of pine and cedar. It was a beautiful cabin, nothing like Peter would ever expect his mentor to pick. He sort of hoped Pepper was the one to pick it, because it starkly (hah) contrasted everything that he thought he knew about what Tony liked.

Did he even really know the man at all?

"What're you thinking?" Tony asks from beside him, standing on crutches and leaning to the right side for obvious reasons.

Peter whips his head around. "I'm thinking that I should help you walk up the steps, old man."

"The sass out of you," Tony clicks his tongue. "C'mon, let's go."

Peter does help Tony up the steps of the cabin, and winds around the side when Mr. Stark says that's where to find the front door. He feels his heart jolt once he spots it, as if this was going to be something monumental, something that needed to be documented to his memory.

Tony nudges his shoulder, gently urging him forward.

Peter opens the door and walks in.

Happy, who was sitting on the living room floor, turns his head up at the three of them entering. Peter sees a crayon in his hand, and he's wearing a very small plastic tiara on his curly (also greying) black hair. "You're back!"

The interior of the house was very homey at first glance, nice decorative pillows, a fireplace, wooden furniture, framed photographs— The thing that stuck out the most was a homemade tent of pillows and blankets set up to the side of the couch that Happy sat in front of.

Peter tries not to look around too much, tries not to stare for too long at anything, as if it would disturb the peace that had overwhelmed the home in its entirety. Peter Parker didn't belong in cozy little cabins like this. He's so far out of his element here that he almost couldn't believe it himself. He feels so homesick until he realizes the most home he has to go back to is May's new apartment that was half-empty.

"Where's Little Miss?" Tony asks with a grin. "I wanted Peter to meet her."

A little girl pokes her head out from the tent and her face lights up. She crawls out of her hidey-hole and scrambles over to Tony, hugging his legs tightly.

Peter can't seem to catch his breath.

She's got Mr. Stark's eyes, he noticed right away. Dark brown and long eyelashes. She looks nearly identical to young photos of Tony that exist in history books or the Internet. But she's got Pepper's facial expressions, and a specific brand of Stark-Potts sass to her that couldn't be denied.

"Hey, Maguna." Tony leans down carefully and sets the crutches aside. "I've got someone for you to meet."

Peter shifts on his feet anxiously. When a moment ago his mind was blank, now he had a thousand thoughts racing through his head about whether or not Morgan would like him.

Morgan turns to stare directly at Peter, and he really shouldn't be as terrified as he is, she's only four. "Who're you?"

Peter crouches down to meet her level. "Hi, Morgan. I'm Peter Parker."

"This is your pseudo-brother," Tony jokes.

It suddenly hits Peter directly in the gut.

Morgan was the closest thing he was probably ever going to get to a little sister. He's never really wanted a younger sibling. It never crossed his mind because the possibility was never open.

But it was here, right in front of him, and Peter doesn't think he would change it for the world.

"What does that mean?" Morgan asks, tilting her head to the side and scrunching her nose.

"It means kinda," Peter explains carefully. "You can call me a brother, if you want."

"Okay!" Morgan smiles. "Do you want to draw with me?"

The pressure eases on Peter's chest. Not all the way, but a lot of it. He slowly nods, looking at Tony and then back to Morgan. He gives her an affirming smile. "Of course."

Later that night, the fridge gets two new drawings of Iron Man pinned to the side with a magnet. On the bottom right, it's signed "MORGAN" in big crayon letters, and smaller, right under it, "+big bro peter!"

If Tony saw him quickly wipe away tears while Morgan wasn't looking, then he had the decency not to point it out. He was too busy wiping away his own.