Epilogue

"Where's Dum-E with the fire extinguisher when you need him?" grumbled Tony as he released the latch on the fire extinguisher and letting the foam put out the growing fire in his living room.

The sofa couldn't be saved now and that was an antique!

"Jarvis, remind Peter to get me another sofa."

"May I remind you that Mr. Parker no longer works for you, Sir."

Right. Tony had let Peter go. The kid's talents was wasted on giving Tony unsolicited life advice. He worked for SHIELD's Science Division now and occasionally dropped by.

Tony put the fire extinguisher down on the floor and fixed a wide eyed glare at the source of the flame—an infant currently crawling away from him.

"Nuh-uh," he said, picking her up and showing her the charred remains of the couch. "See that? Look at what you did."

The baby looked at him with what could only be puppy-dog eyes and Tony sighed. "Yeah, I know. Wasn't your fault the couch was in the way." He put his daughter back down and stared forlornly at the couch.

"At least you get to live the simple life now," came a voice behind him.

He chuckled despite the situation and turned to his wife, "Our baby coughs out fireballs, our lives have never and will never be simple." But he supposed he did ask for this.

Tony thought back to that incident in the laboratory. He had really died then, but the Ancient One came to him. "You have done well, Antonius," she said. "Time is most pleased. As your reward, she is offering you a choice. You can move on and join your fathers' souls or you can live one last life. A mortal one. What will it be?"

Looking at his daughter and wife now, Tony did not regret the choice he made. He had all he wanted—no, not wanted. He had all he needed.

Virginia giggled. "I think it's a little adorable."

"She can burn down the house, Pep."

She wrinkled her nose at the nickname, but didn't scold him. He would continue calling her Pepper whether she asked him to stop or not.

"That was never a problem in Ignis."

"Well houses were made of stone before, honey."

"That's true."

Tony sighed. "Sometimes I wish the Ancient One didn't take away Extremis. Then I could actually fight her fire with my fire."

"That'll only make a bigger fire," Virginia pointed out. "Ice would be better."

"We gotta redecorate. Buy non-flammable stuff. Use non-flammable paint. Cotton? Gotta go."

Virginia rubbed his arm. "Relax. She'll get a handle on it. And so will we."

"In the meantime, I'll have Dum-E follow her around with a fire extinguisher."

Virginia rolled her eyes. "At least she doesn't have a runny nose."

"You don't think lava's gonna come out of her, do you?"

"I don't know! My other kids didn't stick around long enough for me to find out. Between the both of us, you're the one who actually got to raise a kid."

Tony had told her about his first wife and son, about Yinsen, about everything he lost and Virginia had mourned them with him, let him grieve properly for the first time.

"Right. My kid didn't have Extremis though. But if lava is gonna come out of Morgan's nose, we really need to talk about how to suppress her powers temporarily for her own good. And also because, I mean, we're running out of fire extinguishers."

"I already ordered some more."

Tony smiled and kissed her. She made a small surprised sound because she would never get tired of this and Tony hummed his agreement despite not being able to read her mind.

"Thank you," Tony said against her mouth.

"For what?" Virginia asked, pulling away slightly.

Tony bumped his nose to hers. "For this. For saving me."

Virginia wrapped her arms around his waist. "I got you."

"I got you first."

A/N: The End. Thank you for reading!