Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel or any of its characters and lines from the movie used in this story. What is written here is for entertainment purposes only. I do not make any profits from it.

The room was painted red. He had read something about babies being attracted to the color red and decided the nursery should be red with a splash of gold in between.

But he did not remember it looking this red.

Tony slowly walked in the room, his skin tingling with unease at how foreign he felt in his own child's nursery.

Something was wrong.

The walls were taking on an orangey glow, like it was going to burn from the outside. But if he looked out the window, there was nothing but the sun's warmth streaming in.

There was a crib by the windowsill, a crib Tony didn't remember assembling.

What was it doing here?

He walked closer and looked in.

It was empty.

Tony leaned against the rails, closing his eyes in relief. He didn't know why, but this room was giving him the creeps.

There was a small creaking sound from behind him and Tony turned quickly.

A boy stood there looking incredibly small in his superhero pajamas. His auburn hair all askew like he had just gotten out of bed.

"Daddy, I don't feel so good," the boy said in a small shaky voice, arms wrapped around himself.

Daddy? Tony studied the boy. That wasn't his son. His son was safe. His son wasn't born yet. His son was—

The boy took a step but lost his footing, and Tony had to catch him. But when he looked at him, the boy was gone… and in his place was Peter.

"I don't know what's happening," said Peter in barely controlled panic.

Tony was minutely aware of the short breaths coming out of him and he felt a strange, awful sensation that he had lived this moment before… where Peter was shaking in his arms, hugging him tightly, afraid that Tony would let go of him.

"I don't want to go. I don't want to go, Mr. Stark, please. Please! I don't want to go!"

Tony did nothing but hug him tighter, he wasn't letting go of Peter either. But the tighter he held on, the more Peter began to fade until Tony is left with nothing but empty space.

Space.

Tony stumbled to his feet, gaping at his surroundings. He was no longer in the nursery. He was in space.

In Titan.

"Stark," came a deep voice.

Tony woke up with a sharp gasp. He took stock of his surroundings.

He was in his bedroom. Home. Not in space.

Good.

As he gathered his bearings, regulated his breathing, he became aware of how damp his whole body was with sweat, like it was on fire from the inside.

Tony got out of bed, slowly, still taking deep breaths. Shortly after he emerged from the bathroom with a fresh pair of pajamas and climbed back into bed.

He tucked himself by Pepper's side, resting a hand on her round belly. They had agreed no more surprises but the universe managed to give them one more.

She must have been woken by his movements because she turned sleepily to him.

"Bad dream?" she asked in a whisper.

Tony nodded against her arm. His eyes were still open, refusing to close because he'd see the living nightmare on the back of his eyelids.

His son—no, Peter, had been plaguing him ever since Titan, ever since the universe lost half of its occupants.

"Is it the same dream?"

Peter ceasing to exist, sometimes it's his son, Pepper, Happy, Rhodey, Bruce, Rogers, Vision, the team…

He nodded again and snuggled closer, his whole arm now cradling her stomach. It shouldn't be this way but it was. They shouldn't be expecting a baby while Earth geared up for war. They shouldn't be delaying their wedding. They shouldn't be manufacturing weapons again but here they were.

He didn't know how long he lay there beside her, rubbing circles on her stomach.

"He never should have come," Tony decided to say. He said this almost every night. "I should have stopped him. Tried harder."

Pepper touched the arm on her stomach. "Even if he stayed behind, he would still disappear. There was nothing you could have done, Tony."

"I could've killed Thanos."

Pepper turned her body completely to look at him.

"But it wasn't the way. You said Dr. Strange had one in million plan. The one plan where we win."

"And look where we are. Months in and we're nowhere to fixing this. I have no idea what plan Strange had in mind. He never revealed anything. Resurrecting SHIELD, building weapons, everybody scared to go out to the streets… this isn't what I wanted for us. For the baby."

"What did you want?"

"I wanted a simple life… or as simple as it could get for us. You know, retire the suit, leave the superhero business to Rhodey, maybe Parker if he… if he had lived to be old enough. Be a househusband while you rake in the dough. Look after Morgan."

"We are not naming him after my uncle."

"Too late. I got attached."

"You know, we still have that future to strive for." She sighed. "Are you going into work early today?"

"FitzSimmons want to show me something. Honestly, with a team composed of scientists, a Queen, and a raccoon, they better have developed something that can turn back time… or something to match an Infinity Stone." Wanda was the only one who was able to hold Thanos off, to destroy a stone, and with her part of the body count (or was it ash count?), they were all just grasping at straws… desperately. He shuddered. "I'm one alien away from losing my mind."

"Sleep," she suggested. "You won't help anyone if you're cranky and a little bit crazy."

Tony marveled at this woman beside him. Half the universe was gone and she still took care of him. It was only because her grounding him, having her to come home to that he was still sane.

"I love you."

"I love you too."

…

"Director Stark," greeted the ragtag team of scientists he had assembled.

If someone had told him that he be would leading SHIELD, taking the place his own father once stood, he would have scoffed and laughed a great deal.

"What do we got?"

"We have the beginnings of a plan."

A/N: like always, Idk what this is.