Out of all your fics, which do you think you would write a sequel for?
Hi anon!
I am currently planning to write a sequel for my Bio!dad fic "If They Knew All About You", but probably not until early winter. I've already told my beta about my plotidea who wanted me to drop everything else and just write that right now 😅
I'm also writing a "sequel" - maybe more of a continuation - for the story "The Winter Air", part of my post-Endgame Fix-it series. I left that one on a bit of a cliffhanger but always planned to go back and have a bit of a multichapter adventure planned.
But, I'll have to finish "If They Knew All About You" before I can focus on either of those.
3 more chapters to go after 2 years and 9 months. 🥳🥳🥳
Welcome! This post records the status and progress of my work expanding my Post-Endgame (MCU) series to “Like You’d Know How It Works”.
I left the cinema post-Endgame incredibly mad and disappointed. After I aired my immediate frustration with the movie in two One-Shots, I decided for my own peace of mind, I had to try and salvage the mess that was Endgame somehow, because I simply like the characters too much, not to. A week after I started writing, I published the first chapter on AO3. About a year later, I felt the need to expand on the original fix-it. I have and will continue to add to this timeline, writing different adventures that will mostly focus on Tony Stark and Peter Parker.
Genre: MCU fanfiction
The Fix-It
Like You’d Know How It Works (completed)
Setting: sets in right after the battle at the Compound is over, supersedes the concluding events of Endgame.
Premise: Straight after the battle is won - or lost, depending on your perspective - Peter tries to convince the Avengers to save Mr. Stark by going back into the Quantum Realm.
Tropes: time-travel, quantum realm, protective Peter
Mood: grief & loss, hope, family
Someone had organized this room at Metro General hospital for them to sit and talk. Sitting was not an option for Peter though. He couldn’t bear to sit. He couldn’t bear to have anyone look at his injuries either, not when there were more pressing matters to attend to.
“You said that whatever we do in the past will not change our present!” Peter’s fist hit the table with a crash. They simply weren’t listening. His face felt grimy and tight in places where the dirt from the battlefield stuck to the tears he had cried over Mr. Stark’s body. Maybe he should have thought of washing the traces off his face before confronting a few of the Avengers and Doctor Strange. It might have made him seem a little more collected. A little more rational. “That’s what you just said!”
Chapters 9/9 | 42 K | Teen and Up
Follow-up Shorts and Multi-chapters
Just Outside The Door (completed)
Setting: Days after Tony was brought back from the multiverse
Premise: Peter did it. He found his mentor and brought him back, but sometimes it all just seemed too good to be true. Sometimes, his mind played tricks on him and he just couldn’t sleep, wondering if he had really brought Mr. Stark back or if it had all just been a desperate dream.
There was only silence in his room now unless you were to count the frantic beat of his heart and the deep shaky breaths he sucked in and blew back out. It hadn’t even been a nightmare this time, not truly. He hadn’t really fallen asleep in the first place. Exhaustion was tugging at the edges of his consciousness and that’s where his thoughts had started to spiral.
Mr. Stark was okay. Peter was… he was pretty sure of that. He had succeeded, had brought him back home and now he was okay. But there was a little voice in the back of his head that kept nagging, that kept telling him that maybe… maybe he was wrong. Maybe it had all been a delusional dream, too good to be true, Peter wishing something into reality that was unobtainable. He had seen his mentor die after all. He had died right in front of him, the memory etched into his memory, right there whenever he closed his eyes. Dimensions, time travel… was that really real?
Chapters 1/1 | 4.2 K | Teen and Up
Nothing Left To Lose (in progress)
Setting: 2 weeks after Tony was brought back from the multiverse
Premise:
The reversal of the Snap added an additional 3.5 billion people back to Earth’s population. 3.5 billion more people to house somewhere, 3.5 billion mouths to be fed, 3.5 billion people who return to a world that was not expecting them to ever come back.
Tropes: food shortage, starvation, looting, blurred lines of good and evil; Whumptober 2020: No. 3
Mood: anger, desperation, conflicted who to help
Tony groaned, rolling his stiff neck from one side to the other as the gate clicked shut behind Pepper. “Remind me again… Why did we agree to this?”
Pepper didn’t bother to send him a scolding look as she wrapped the security seal around the gate’s locking mechanism. “Because we’re good neighbors?”
“We are?” He smelled like damp fur. When did wet fur and barn animals become his life? “Since when exactly? Was there a house meeting? Did I miss it?”
“Mh… do you need a reminder of the process of negotiation?” She took a step towards him, one hand twisted in his shirt pulling him close against her, their lips almost close enough to touch. “You smell like wet alpaca.”
He pulled in an affronted gasp. The hand that was still holding his shirt pushed him away from her, her lips stretched wide in amusement. “Come on, Cesar. Maybe I’ll remind you after a hot shower.”
Chapters 1/2 | 3.4 K | Teen and Up
Unnamed WIP (unpublished)
Setting: 4 months after Tony was brought back from the multiverse
Premise:
For months, Peter has been commuting between the city and the Stark’s remote cabin in the woods. But now that life in NYC has regained some normalcy, he really wants to show Morgan what the greatest city in the world has to offer.
Tropes: power outage, panic attack, PTSD; Whumptober 2020: No. 27
Nope. “Not going down that rabbit-hole, Parker,” he muttered to himself.
“What rabbit-hole?” Morgan was sitting opposite him, munching on the cookies Pepper had put out.
“Nevermind.” Peter scooped two tea spoons of sugar into his coffee, then added another one just to be safe.
“Mommy says coffee corrupts the soul.”
“Please, like you even know what ‘corrupt’ means….”
Morgan tilted her head to the side, just like her mom would do. “I know it’s not nice.”
Peter gave her a look. “Well, your dad says it’s the elixir of life.” And Mr. Stark would know. Peter gave his head one hard shake. Tony. Tony would know. One sip of the black brew and Peter’s teeth hurt. Definitely too much sugar. “Okay, remember what we talked about?”
Morgan sat up straight, her eyes wide. “Ask mommy first!”
“That’s right! Make sure you use those puppy eyes, too.” Morgan nodded along enthusiastically while he quickly nicked her glass of milk and poured a generous potion of it into his mug. “We wait till, you know, till Tony’s gone downstairs or something and then—”
“And then you’ll ask me what?”
Chapters -/2 | - K | Teen and Up
Christmas Eve - At Peace (completed)
Setting: 5 months after Tony was brought back from the multiverse
Premise:
Just a couple of months after they defeated Thanos, Tony and Pepper throw a Christmas party. Instead of a partying kid, Tony finds his Spiderling outside in the snow at the grave he has been trying to ignore ever exists.
Tropes: anger and grief, blame and fear, no prompt
Mood: wholesome, family, frustration
Tony narrowed his eyes at him. "I mean it!" For good measure, he took a healthy gulp from the cup, positively burning his throat in the process. But it wasn't until Harley threw his hands in the air and turned his back in defeat - for now - that Tony allowed his face to cringe at the sting. Those little trouble makers were not helping with his heart condition. Speaking of trouble... "Where is Peter?"
Harley crossed his arms in front of himself, his mind clearly brooding on a new strategy. "No clue."
Tony's next sip of the hot wine was a lot smoother than the first. "What do you mean, no clue?"
"It generally means that the person doesn't have any information about the subject that you are—"
"Alright, short stuff..." Tony's eyes were searching the room but the little spider was nowhere to be seen. "A bit less of the asshole routine please?"
"Listen, if you want me to babysit, same rules apply as they do for Morgan." Brazen in his brattiness, the little shit ladled a good helping of mulled wine into a new cup. "I'll need a heads-up and generous compensation that I'm happy to re-negoti— Hey!"
Harley tried to hold on to the cup that Tony once again just plucked from his hands. "You've had enough of this!"
"That one is for Rhodey," the boy scowled.
Chapters 1/1 | 3.8 K | Teen and Up
The Winter Air (completed)
Setting: 6 months after Tony was brought back from the multiverse
Premise:
Tony, Peter, and Morgan spent a winter day outside the Stark residence.
Well, it wasn’t that easy. Because things were apparently never just easy in the life of one Peter Parker. Turned out, there were still some assholes out there. Not the Thanos-kind. Not for now at least. The regular kind though and Peter for one saw absolutely no reason as to why anything should have changed in his responsibility to stop them from being assholes.
His aunt somehow disagreed more often than she didn’t. Annoyingly now though, she managed to drag Mr. Stark to her side a lot more than she used to, too.
Peter shook his head at himself. Tony. T-O-N-Y. It wasn’t that hard, was it? He still slipped up every so often. But as much as that bugged him, it was the others who bugged him even more. Colonel Rhodes and Hawkeye among them the most willing to tease Peter about it. Him, and Tony too, for his mentor never commented on it with more than a crooked smile. When it was just the two of them, that was often the only indication for Peter, that he had said it again.
It made the times when it really was just them so enjoyable. A new ease between them. They had never had this, this kind of bonding. Sure, they’d spent time together before everything had gone downhill on their little space adventure, in the lab or on a normal earth-bound mission. Not like this though, not like Peter staying over at the Stark residence for a few days at a time. Not like him sliding along-side Morgan on the ice on the lake, trying to catch Tony. Not like Morgan falling over and taking Tony right with her and the way Peter’s stomach hurt from laughing so hard when Mr. Stark’s sweet little Morguna drowsed him with two full hands of snow and he just hadn’t seen it coming.
Chapters 3/3 | 14 K | Teen and Up
Unnamed Multichapter WIP (unpublished)
Setting: picks up where The Winter Air ended, 6 months after Tony was brought back from the multiverse
Premise:
First time all of the Avengers come together after the Snap was reversed. With Tony retired, Peter has to find his place in the team and learn to work with the other Avengers without Tony. Tensions are running high with the events of Civil War still largely unresolved and lingering resentments stemming from Peter’s multidimensional rescue mission to save Tony.
Tropes: Avengers mission, mistrust, growing as a team; Whumptober 2020: No.7
Tony’s eyes went wide. Was it possible that…
“Hey, FRI?”
“Good morning, boss. It’s 10:16 am on February 5th, 2024. The temperature outside is—”
“Yeah, just… can you stop for a moment?” He waved her off. “Send Dory out to the lake, would you. There’s some stuff still lying out there on the ice.”
“Right away, Sir.”
Tony watched as the little blue drone circled the lake, getting closer and closer to what he was sure were the Spiderling’s clothes still lying out there, where he had taken them off to—
“Hey, what are you doing out of bed!”
Despite himself, he twitched as Pepper made her way into the room. She had pushed the door open with her hip, balancing his breakfast on a large wooden tablet.
“Here, let me—” Tony stepped towards her, arms at the ready to take the tablet but she held it out of his reach.
“What do you think you’re doing? Get back in that bed!”
Chapters -/- | - K | Teen and Up
There... And Back Again (in progress)
Setting: about a year after Tony was brought back to life
Premise: The Starks drive upstate to the old Mansion where Tony grew up. To Tony’s horror, the trip takes him and the kids a lot further down memory lane than anyone could have predicted.
Tropes: time travel, Howard Stark’s A++ parenting; Febuwhum2021 Day 12 - Who Are You
“Pete, seriously…” Tony looked up into the review mirror trying to catch his eye. “Can you not? I don’t want Morgan up all night, terrified of some dumb ghosts.”
“Come on, it’s just a story, Tony. Morgan knows I made it all up, right?” Peter winked at her, then wiggled his eyebrows in a way that seemed kind of familiar.
“Yeah, daddy.” But Morgan was full-on ignoring Tony, her eyes on Peter trying to imitate the wink and wiggly eyebrows he had just sent her way. “It’s just a story.”
He could do little more than groan as Peter continued to spin a tale of spirits and witches, ancient pacts and promises that had to be kept, ransoms that the spirits had vowed to retrieve.
“It was a night very much like tonight,” Peter continued, his voice low and full of dreadful foreboding, “that the witches broke that pact they had signed with the blood of the innocent…”
“Morgan’s gasp morphed into a giddy giggle while Tony could only rub a hand across his brow and mumbled, "Blood of the innocent, give me a fucking break…”
Chapters 1/3 | 4,4 K | Teen and Up
Are We Out Of The Woods Yet?, (completed)
Setting: 4 years after Tony was brought back from the multiverse
Premise:
Peter takes Morgan into the depths of a National Park so she can collect samples for a biology project.
“There are so many reasons why online classes are better than going to school.”
Peter shook his head. “And there are plenty of reasons why learning in school with other students is preferable. How it helps retain the material better than—”
Morgan groaned without even looking at him, her nose in the air, eyes on the leafy trees above them. “You can learn the same things at home, only then you could have dinner at night with us instead of in your stinky room in Boston.”
“Hey,” he craned his neck to see where she went, then walked after her. “My room doesn’t stink.”
“It’s a boy’s room.” She said it like that alone was a valid argument, when it couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, the girl’s dorms he had been in—
That holiday-themed story that I will totally blame @superherotiger for making me procrastinate with ;)
###
Just a couple of months after they defeated Thanos, Tony and Pepper throw a Christmas party. Instead of a partying kid, Tony finds his Spiderling outside in the snow at the grave he has been trying to ignore ever exists.
I'm using my own Fix-it to Endgame "Like You'd know how it works" as a basis for the timeline, though the prompt will work fine without having read that story. The important part is, that Tony's not dead.
Baseline: circa 5 months after Tony is brought back from the multiverse.
###
The sky above him was clear. No clouds. No moon. Above him only the stars. The stars, he still avoided looking at too much. It made the night a little colder, a little darker despite the white snowy blanket covering the hills and trees.
It wasn't that Tony minded the solitude, quite the opposite. That had been the idea behind moving out to the cabin after all. Peace and quiet. Less exposure. Privacy. But of all the places on their property, why did the kid have to go there?
In all fairness, there was nothing quiet or peaceful about what was going on at Tony's house right now. There were 13 people gathered in his living room and kitchen, one of them a black-eyed alien who didn't quite understand the concept of Christmas but had been positively eager to experience all the "merriment and joy" that the little Madame Secretary had been promising from afar. Leave it to Tony to have to explain a spaceship landing in his backyard on Christmas Eve and talk down an international response.
"Morgan said it's an important gathering that every family member is obligated to attend." Nebula's eyes were on Tony, unblinking. "You should have told me sooner. I could have been here last year and the year before but I didn't know."
"Not to worry, Smurfette." There was a sense of genuine joy at seeing her again, that let the smile on his lips come quite easily. "You're here now, so that's that."
It was a sight to be seen how willingly the blue meanie allowed Morgan to put a party hat on her before she was sent off to mingle with the rest of them, studying the mini hot dogs on her plate. That hadn't been the only surprising sight of the evening though. Tony's jaw had equally popped with stunned surprise as he opened the door to a paler and distinctly shorter human version of Bruce Banner. A face Tony hadn't seen on him in years, as he showed up on his doorstep accompanied by a certain master spy that Tony had frankly not been expecting either.
"Making things work then," Tony mused out loud as he hovered next to them while Pepper fetched a welcoming drink.
Bruce cleared his throat. "Just... you know... happy to... to have her back."
"Of course." His head bobbed a short nod with a sincere smile in Natasha's direction. There was no denying that Tony, too, was glad to have her back. Retired or not, he had no illusions that the Avengers would remain anything but a constant in his life one way or another and while Natasha might never be a definite number on his side, she was an ally. Of sorts.
"Well, it's good to see you guys. I know it's quite a drive out here and we had suspected things might be a little more entertaining at the Compound." His thoughts still trailing a little behind, the words had slipped off his tongue before his brain could catch up with what he was saying. He hadn't meant to just straight up mention the Compound, the rest of the team by extension who hadn't received an invite to this particular gathering.
Pepper had wanted to discuss the guest list more than once. Had asked him repeatedly if he wanted to extend an invitation to the others, the team... but Rogers... Steve... no. Christmas was for family and while Bruce and his plus one did count - because Tony wanted him to count - Steve... Steve was not family. When it came down to it, they were hardly even friends. Natasha's eyes were on him and Tony was painfully aware that he was spacing out. No glasses to hide his face, all of a sudden he felt almost too exposed in his own house.
"Oh, we're just splitting the time equally over the holidays." Natasha smiled brightly. "Christmas Eve with one side of the family and then Christmas Day with the other."
Bruce's face fell a little, looking back and forth between them. "It's not sides as much as... just..."
They were saved from more awkwardness as Pepper arrived with the drinks and ushered them further into the house. Bruce was happy to follow along but Natasha hung back, her eyes still on Tony.
"There don't have to be any sides in this." She linked their arms, pushing Tony along, as Bruce shot a glance back at them, just out of earshot. "You can just decide to let it go, Tony."
"I did." It wasn't all that easy to keep the tone light but he was determined not to let this get to him. "I told him, I moved on from all of this years ago."
"We both know that's not the same as solving the real problem." Her voice was low but not unkind. "We both know you never forgave or forget, that he has never earned back your trust."
It didn't matter. He didn't even want to think about how much of that was or wasn't true. Rogers had no place in his thoughts tonight. So the timing was perfect when his eyes came to rest on a brown-haired boy who was creeping closer and closer to the pot of mulled wine. With a lame excuse, he pulled away from Natasha, away from the world he had officially retired from towards the buffet.
"And what do you think you're doing?"
"Me?" The boy's eyes were wide, the cup in his hand already filled to the brim.
"Listen here, squirrel!" His finger poking against Harley's chest, Tony could at least pretend that this was a situation he could actually control. "You take your grabby hands off that mulled wine or so help me..." He snatched the hot drink out of the boy's hands.
"Oh, come on..." His long lashes were blinking at Tony with feigned innocence. "It's not for me."
"That routine might work on some indifferent cater waiter at those benefits but if you think I can't see past your ridiculously lazy—"
"Yeah, yeah..." Harley just waved him off. "Don't be such a killjoy!"
Tony narrowed his eyes at him. "I mean it!" For good measure, he took a healthy gulp from the cup, positively burning his throat in the process. But it wasn't until Harley threw his hands in the air and turned his back in defeat - for now - that Tony allowed his face to cringe at the sting. Those little trouble makers were not helping with his heart condition. Speaking of trouble... "Where is Peter?"
Harley crossed his arms in front of himself, his mind clearly brooding on a new strategy. "No clue."
Tony's next sip of the hot wine was a lot smoother than the first. "What do you mean, no clue?"
"It generally means that the person doesn't have any information about the subject that you are—"
"Alright, short stuff..." Tony's eyes were searching the room but the little spider was nowhere to be seen. "A bit less of the asshole routine please?"
"Listen, if you want me to babysit, same rules apply as they do for Morgan." Brazen in his brattiness, the little shit ladled a good helping of mulled wine into a new cup. "I'll need a heads-up and generous compensation that I'm happy to re-negoti— Hey!"
Harley tried to hold on to the cup that Tony once again just plucked from his hands. "You've had enough of this!"
"That one is for Rhodey," the boy scowled.
"Uh-huh. Sure. I'll get it to him and you can enjoy your night without any errands, hm?"
Tony made a point to stare at the kid until he huffed and finally skedaddled away from the wine pot, possibly in search of his sister, or maybe more likely trying to stay out of her and Morgan's way. Careful not to spill either of the two cups, Tony made his way across the room towards Rhodey who had brought a "friend", a development Tony had been mindful not to comment on all night.
The Colonel's eyes looked him up and down as he made a beeline towards them. "Because one is never enough with you, is it, Tones?"
"You..." he hissed, his lips pursed. "You better not try to quip with me, you enabler!" Tony pushed the second cup he was holding into Carol Danvers' hands instead of Rhodey's. "Are you seriously letting my boy use you as an exit strategy to score a buzz?"
Rhodey's eyes shifted to the cup in his "friend" Carol's hands before he nipped on what was left in his own cup and then gave a shrug. "Which one?"
"That's not funny!"
With a deep sigh, Rhodey exchanged his empty cup with Carol's hot one. "Tony, you need to lay off the mother-hen vibes. The boy is 21 years old, as for Peter—."
"No, he's not," Tony growled. "Not for another 6 days!"
"Geez, daddy, do I really have to remind you how old you were when I 'enabled'," Rhodey air-quoted, "your ass in college?"
He said it like he had a point when that was exactly what Tony was afraid of. "And how did that turn out?"
His eyebrows pulled up, Rhodey made a gesture like that would somehow prove something, but Tony was not in the mood for semantics. His eyes roamed across the room - pointedly ignoring Harley who tried to usher Nebula closer and closer to the pot of hot wine - in search of the other little trouble maker.
Where was the kid? He hadn't seen him since... since he had ducked away from awkwardly shuffling his feet back and forth between May and Happy. Without another word, Tony strode past his friend, checking the kitchen but there was no Peter in there either. Everyone else was happily chatting, eating, enjoying themselves exactly like they were supposed to. Not so the Spiderling.
For a few more minutes, Tony quietly, discreetly wandered around the house. He had a feeling, a feeling that something was up. It didn't take long for him to give up the pretense and outright mutter to FRIDAY, asking in which room Peter was hiding.
"He's not in the house, boss."
That was how Tony found himself outside, stalking up a snowy hill in the dark. The wind was icy, but it wasn't the cold that made the hair on the back of his neck stand tall. He had avoided this for months. Had avoided even thinking about that spot on the hill where his other-dimensional self had been buried before he ever made it to this timeline. With how loudly his brain was rattling, there was a part of him that couldn't deny that right about now, he appreciated the silence in the dark. They were so far away from what people would call the 'civilized' world out here. Surely, with Peter's senses constantly strained in the city, that was the basic appeal to him as well.
It was also how Peter had heard him coming before Tony even had the chance to call out to him.
"How did you find me?"
A little winded from the slippery ascend to the hilltop, Tony paused a couple of steps behind where the boy was sitting in the snow. "Oh, come on... It's me."
Peter pursed his lips, refusing to turn his head. "So, you questioned every single person at the house about when they had seen me last and then calculated the radius of how far I might have come?"
Tony only blew out a huff.
"Ah," Peter exclaimed and pulled his phone out of his pocket. "Tracking me after all, aren't you."
"Well, duh." Slowly, Tony came closer until he sank to the ground right next to the boy. "Not that I needed it. You're a Spiderling, not an Elf, kid."
"Right." Peter grimaced to himself. "Footprints."
"I keep telling you. Gotta learn how to fly."
The smile that tucked on Peter's lips seemed genuine this time. "You didn't have to come out here."
All of a sudden, Tony contemplated that the boy may have picked this particular spot not because of what it meant to him, but because he had been sure that of all the places, few of the people staying at the house that night would voluntarily wander up here. Tony least of all. There was no denying that the kid had picked up on how much this all freaked Tony out, the fact that there was a dead version of himself buried so close to where he still lived. Silence hung heavy between them before Tony's voice echoed a little quieter, a little hesitant.
"I wasn't sure if I should, but..." He swallowed hard. "I can leave if you want to be alone."
There was another pause. Wanting to give him room to speak if that was what he wanted, Tony waited but the kid didn't say a thing.
With a shaky exhale, Tony kept his eyes on him. "But then I thought, I'd rather have you send me back than not be here if... if you would need me."
The kid's eyes were still staring straight ahead at the headstone in front of them.
"I know, I'm not him—"
"Of course you are," Peter breathed quietly.
Tony lowered his gaze, faltering. Maybe. "Not really though."
The kid's lip was caught between his teeth, refusing to look over at him. "In... in every way that matters."
"If you want to talk about it—"
"I don't," Peter mumbled.
It had been weeks after he had come back when Tony's curiosity had won out against his anxiety. Late at night on his own in the basement, he had asked FRIDAY to play him the footage of what had happened that day. That day he had died. Pepper, the kid, Rhodey... seeing their agony in the face of what he had done to protect them... it was a memory he just couldn't shake.
"I know, me being here doesn't change what happened. Kid, I know you were there when he..." Tony glanced to the side, searching the kid's face for a reaction. "...when I died."
Peter's head moved in a mixture of a shake and a shrug. "It... it doesn't matter..." His voice shook, possibly trying to convince himself as much as Tony. "You're back. You're... here. It... it's fine..."
"You're sitting at my grave in the freezing cold in the middle of my Christmas Eve party, buddy."
It was as bluntly as he could put it. He could see no benefit in tiptoeing around the demons the kid was battling.
But Peter shook his head more distinctly this time, still denying him. "It was just because... so many people and my senses, they... I just needed a little quiet to... calm down."
"Right. We have about 60 hectares of land out here and still..." Tony blew out a breath and leaned a little closer to the kid. "Still, this is the spot you picked to go." There was no answer from the Spiderling. "It's okay, if it still hurts, buddy."
The humorless chuckle that bubbled out of the kid didn't make things better for either of them.
"Pete, can you look at me?"
He didn't though. His eyes didn't stray from the inscription on the stone. 'A.E.S. - At peace.' A shudder went through Tony at the thought of how his wife had decided on that particular inscription.
"You're here." Peter's eyes dropped further, away from the stone, down to the snowy ground. "You're okay. It... it shouldn't matter..."
Tony grit his teeth then threw caution to the wind. "It's been 5 years and a little more than 8 months since you dusted in my arms, Pete."
The kid visibly shook next, his hands braced against the cold ground as he finally turned to look at Tony.
"5 years, 8 months, and some odd days." Tony's lower lip was caught between his teeth, his cheeks flushed. The images in his mind were as vivid as they had been on that fateful day on Titan. "You're here now. You're back. You have been back for 6 months and I can still hear your voice in my head pleading how you don't—"
"I'm sorry..." the kid whispered.
Tony huffed out a low chuckle. "Yeah. You said that too."
"I'm sorry that... that you felt responsible," the kid started and Tony had just wanted to protest when the boy stopped him with a wave of his hand. "I am, but it's not the same."
For a brief moment, Tony closed his eyes, trying his best to calm himself and keep the dry bite from his tone. "No. It really isn't the same."
The breath Peter blew out was harsher, angrier. "It's not, because I didn't choose to get dusted," he growled, refusing to look away from Tony now. "I didn't want to die!"
"I know, Pete. I remember." The beat of his heart hurt in his chest. "You think I would have wanted to die?"
Peter shook his head, tearing his gaze away again. "It doesn't matter."
"Kid—"
"Can we just... I don't want to argue about this."
Peter pulled his knees close to his chest and the way his hands were shaking made Tony want to drag him back inside so he could focus on giving him a proper lecture without having to worry about the cold the kid might catch out here.
Instead, he filed that back for later, deep breaths keeping his own frustration in check. "Maybe we do need to argue about this."
"I just want to move on!"
"And I..." Tony couldn't stop his voice from shaking. "...would really appreciate a chance to argue my side here."
"You don't need to argue your side," the kid hissed at him. "It's not you, I'm mad at, okay?"
Tony studied his boy. He was becoming painfully aware, how strung up the kid really was, how agitated. "It's not a choice anyone wants to make, kid. Sometimes, there is just no other way to —"
"There were like 10 people close by who could have done it." Peter shot him an angry glance. "It didn't have to be you! What about Morgan and Pepper, huh? What about—" He shook his head, eyes back on the snow-covered grave. "Captain Danvers. Thor. King T'Challa. The lady with the flying horse. Strange. Rogers. Barnes. Wanda Maximoff. Me." His head spun back towards Tony. "I could have tried."
Tony's stomach turned at the mere thought of that. "Yeah, there's no way in hell, Pete."
"Why not?" Peter's eyes burned with tears. "Why not! I could have taken it!"
"You have no idea if that's true." His heart was racing, his throat dry. "You might have died."
"So it's fine for you to sacrifice yourself on a whim but for me it—"
"Stop!" The way his hand hit the ground didn't have the grand effect he wanted. "That's not how this will work, kid. Ever. I will always try to keep you safe."
"And what about what I want?" Peter spat at him.
Tony shook his head, his eyebrows knitted close, desperately grasping for control. "I'm here now, am I not?"
"Yeah, for now..."
Any frustrated retort that might have been building up on his tongue died instantly as he watched the boy rub a hand across his face, the way his lower lip was quivering.
"Kid... come here..." His agitation evaporated and without another beat of hesitation, Tony pulled him close, his arms tightly wrapped around the boy's small frame. "Shh, it'll... it'll be alright."
There was nothing he could say, nothing he could do that would take away the pain of the days when he had seemed lost forever to the people who loved him most. Just like Tony would never be able to quite shake the deep sense of loss he had carried for years when the kid had been dead and gone.
Peter's hands were clasping the thick fabric of Tony's coat, his face pressed against his chest.
There was nothing he could say, no promises he would make, not the ones the kid wanted to hear right now cause he could never keep any of them. When it came to the kid's safety, his life, he would always put it above his own. No matter how much it might hurt him again, at least the kid would be breathing, would get to live.
"I'm sorry, buddy."
"But... but you're not," he mumbled against Tony's jacket.
He had a hand on the back of the kid's head, holding him tight. "I hate that I hurt you, Pete. I do." He pressed his eyes close, ignoring how the cold was creeping up from underneath him. "But I'll never apologize for trying to keep you safe." The boy shook in his arms, but Tony didn't let him pull away. "I sure as hell won't apologize for succeeding." There was a low tremor in the kid's body that was definitely more than emotions. "You're shaking, buddy. Let's get you back inside."
"I'm not c-cold," Peter hiccoughed.
"Alright, then..." Tony ruffled a hand through the boy's hair, his own digits frozen stiff. "Well, I'm going to get pneumonia and you seem to be very invested in—" He groaned as Peter slapped a hand against his chest.
"It's not f-funny!"
"No, at my age it really isn't something—"
This time, he caught the kid's hand just in time to soften the blow. In the process, Peter sat up straight enough for Tony to squint at his red-rimmed eyes.
"In there, you could watch me bust Harley for sneaking around the mulled wine?" There was a sparkle in the kid's eyes at that. A real sparkle he couldn't quite hide. "Ha! Knew I'd get you with that one."
Peter moved back a bit, shaky fingers rubbing his face. Squinting at the boy, Tony was weighing his words, wondering how many hornet's nest he should be poking at.
"You should get over this, buddy." Tony cringed at the look of utter discomfort on his boy's face. "I mean it. That little power struggle the two of you are going through..?"
"There's no power struggle."
Tony crocked his head at him. "You know what I mean... Kid, I know you want to keep your secrets but Harley can be a great ally to you."
"Right," Peter mumbled. "Can we just like... do this another time?"
He nodded before the kid had even finished the sentence. "Course, buddy." For a moment, Tony held in, his focus never anywhere else but Peter, as he tried to control the tremor in his voice. "So, we should get back inside, right?"
"Yeah. Right." The kid leaned back against him, his voice muffled. "Just... just a couple more minutes?"
Tony swallowed hard, nodding soundlessly. He'd never refuse the kid. Never. How could he ever?
###
Merry Christmas and happy holidays wherever and however you guys are celebrating!
Thank you for reading. And thank you even more if you take the time to let me know in the comments what you think about the story and reblog it!
This story is part of my Post-Endgame timeline. More about my Endgame Fix-it and the connected series of stories: “Like You’d Know How It Works” timeline
What if... there were 3.5 billion more mouths to feed?
One of the things that bothered me about Far From Home was how they went from this existential crisis humanity had to live though (crumbling stadiums & support groups trying to get by in Endgame) to a fun school trip to a seemingly unaffected Europe.
Yes, the Snap in Infinity War was dramatic and scaring, but what about the *real* consequences that bringing all those people back all at once would have? What if after the snap of a finger, our planet - or rather our economy and infrastructure - would have to care for twice as many people that it wasn’t at all prepared to sustain?
WIP Update - LYKHIW timeline
This fic is about a conflicted Spider-Man who is unsure who to side with, when the “little guys” he swore to protect are the once taking by force what is technically not their’s to take, and a certain billionaire philanthropist who is only two weeks into his retirement.
Chapters 1/2 | 3.4 K | Teen and Up
Tony froze where he stood, still hidden in the shadows of the entryway.
"...and I get that." Peter's arms were stretched wide. One in front of him at the crowd of people, the other towards Rogers and Barnes like he was urging them to stay back. "This is just not the way to do it, okay?"
With a pressing need for more information, Tony's eyes roamed across the warehouse. Besides the guy on his knees with the gun to his head, a few more people - he counted 10 of them - had been cuffed to three of the large storage shelves. Only a couple of people were standing guard over them. Most of the other intruders were busy stuffing their bags with everything they could— Food. It had just dawned on Tony what was stored within this facility. Canned goods and boxes of what looked like pasta, beans, or rice. These people were stealing food.
"You get it? You don't get anything!" It wasn't the guy screaming those words, just someone else in the crowd, a young woman. "When's the last time you had a warm meal, huh? We came back to nothing!"
"You have every right to be angry." The kid had turned a little away from the hostage, his arm still signaling for calmness. "Coming back to this was a shock. For me too, okay? But this... you don't want to do this. Just... just take the food and you can let him go, okay? This isn't you!" Tony's eyes shot back towards his Spiderling, frowning. "This is— hey... stop! Don't!"
The guy with the gun was pulling on the hostage's shirt, forcing him to balance himself a little more upright on his knees, squirming in his hold.
Rogers had shuffled a little closer. "You don't want to do anything rash now, son."
"Fuck off, traitor," the man spat back at the Captain.
"Stop, just..." Peter's eyes were still on the hostage and his abductor. "I told you to leave, Captain! You're not helping!"
"Spider-Man—" Rogers was interrupted, Peter's voice echoing off the warehouse walls.
"I said, leave!" The boy almost seemed to be panting.
###
Read Part I of Nothing Left To Lose on AO3 or tumblr
Happy Fanfic Writer Friday!!! How long does it typically take you to write a fic?
Happy FFWF!!
(I’ve been so crappy with answering these in a timely manner recently XD)
That’s a difficult question. It really depends on the story. I generally suck when it comes to shorts and one-shots. The more complex the story, the longer it takes to write of course. Some scenes are super easy and I’ll put down 1000 words in an hour with no hesitation at all, sometimes it takes me a couple of days pushing the pieces around to make it work.
“If They Knew All About You”, the first Irondad fic I ever posted went online in November 2018. It’s still unfinished, but then I’m also at 425.000 words and that includes the 3-4 month hiatus I took after Endgame. My post-Endgame Fix-it “Like You’d Know How It Works” is 42.000 words took me 3 months, though the first 5 of 8 chapters were up within a couple of weeks, because I couldn’t put it down and there was certainly an Endgame-catharsis element to it.
The fastest fic I ever wrote was “I’ve been gone... for a bit”, one of my few shorts about old-Steve visiting Pepper after Endgame. I wrote that the day I watched Endgame within a couple of hours, still steaming with hate for that movie.
(Well, I’ll always be steaming with hate for that movie, but steaming with a lot of raw emotions at the time.)
The Brother Connection and If They Knew All About You for the WIP game!
Both of them?!? 😅
"The Brother Connection" is part of my post Endgame timeline and all about Peter and Harley. My premise for this one is, that Tony spent a lot of time with Harley in the five years Peter was gone. Peter would have been a looming shadow for Harley all that time, with Tony griefing for him. When the Snap is undone and Peter is back in Tony's life, with Harley off at College (MIT, like Tony had always wanted for Peter, too), he would worry if he is being replaced now that Tony has his favorit intern back, unaware of Peter's secret superhero identity. Peter on the other hand is struggling how the boy that used to be younger than him and just a distant aquaintance of Tony's is now older (and taller) than him and a lot more familiar with his mentor's life than he is. They manage to stay out of each other's way until they end up in a precarious situation and are forced to deal with each other head on.
As for "If They Knew All About You", how about the firsr couple of paragraphs of the next chapter? 😉
Tag game: post the last seven sentences you wrote and tag seven people.
Thanks first of all, to @polaroid15 & @starryknight09 for the tag!
This excerpt is part of chapter 2 of my recent time travel - Febuwhump story “There... And Back Again?”, I’m working on for my post-Endgame timeline.
"They are gone, darling. They died a long time ago," Pepper had said, her face soft, as she pushed Morgan's hair out of her face and tugged it behind her ear.
"Oh." A cute little frown had appeared on Morgan's forehead like she was thinking really hard. "But that's your mommy and daddy?"
"Yeah, baby." Pepper's hand was still on her face, cupping her cheek. "Mommy and Daddy's parents." Tony pretended to have his eyes on his book, but didn't miss how her thumb slowly stroked Morgan's cheek. "That was a long time ago."
The frown on his little girl's face didn't lift though. Instead, she leaned towards Pepper and threw her arms around her neck. "I'm so sorry, Mommy."
"Oh, honey, that's..." Pepper pulled her close, eyes searching for Tony's. "Thank you, darling. That's very sweet."
Before Tony could go back to pretend-reading, Morgan had jumped up and headed right for him. Just in time, he managed to pull his book out of the way before Morgan was in his arms.
"I'm sorry about your mommy and daddy, Daddy," she said, like she understood what it meant to lose someone.
Tony's eyes fluttered shut, as her tiny arms pulled herself close against him.
"Thank you, bambina," he mumbled, this time pointedly avoiding Pepper's eyes.
I need to start following more people so I can tag other people for these kind of things who weren’t tagged already XD: @spagbol99 @baloobird @tytythepilot @ninjazzz3 @irondadbxtch @lbigreyhound13 @superherotiger
It’s that time of the week again, folks and let me just say, I’m successfully ignoring any real-life MCU developments of the last couple of days and instead was thrilled that I woke up to some asks from the ask game to geek out to. (Feel free to send me some or your own.)
Also in a pretty good place with my next chapter for “If They Knew All About You” - and feeling only slightly guilty that’s I’m absolutely neglecting my Post-Endgame timeline.
But, doesn’t seem like there’ll be any rush with real life not returning any time soon.
