The sky above Peter was dark orange and purple and grey, like something from a movie, or from a famous painting people traveled across oceans to see. He wondered if, someday, artists would try to recapture the sky above this battle with paint or with words or with film reels.

Maybe all three.

Maybe there would be documentaries. Maybe, someday, Peter's present would be read about in classrooms by bored kids that just wanted to go home.

Peter wouldn't ever get to find out.

As he laid in the dent in the earth, clutching the gauntlet with the infinity stones placed inside, he knew he was about to die.

It was a decision he made as soon as a blast sent him spiraling into the dirt. He couldn't make it to that van. Nobody could. The battle kept going and going, without any side gaining any ground, but with plenty of loses.

He laid in the dirt, thinking about someday, all the days after that one Mr. Stark would get to be with his family, and everyone else would get to continue being with theirs. Someday with Thanos and his armies. Someday would be tomorrow, if Peter could unfreeze himself and slip his arm inside the gauntlet.

May was the thought that held him back. Life had been unkind to her, and it was about to get even unkinder.

Peter held the gauntlet against his chest tighter when he sensed someone approaching. He didn't care if Thanos himself popped his ugly grape head in his line of vision, Peter wasn't letting go. He was going to snap him and his army away, like they were nothing, and along with them, all the grief that had plagued the universe of the past five years.

But it wasn't Thanos who appeared over him.

It was Mr. Stark.

Peter didn't care, though. He wasn't letting go of the gauntlet for him, either.

"You did good, kid," Mr. Stark told him. He outstretched his hand and twitched his fingers. "My turn now."

Somewhere behind where Iron Man stood, there was an explosion. Chucks of dirt and pieces of metal went flying and scattered, but both he and Mr. Stark were unbothered.

"Come on, hand it over."

"No."

"Excuse me?"

Peter thought about Pepper, sitting by the lake, alone, without someone to argue with, and he thought about Morgan, blowing out the candles of her next birthday cake without Mr. Stark singing obnoxiously and holding her up so she could see over the table.

He did think about May, one last time. As he slid the gauntlet over his arm, he hoped that she would forgive him. That someday she might understand.

He was doing this for someday, after all. For everyone else's somedays.

"Peter don't you dare," Mr. Stark told him, his voice desperate and angry, but Peter couldn't really focus on his words.

The power coursing through him, the power of the very same stones that wiped out half the universe and for some reason turned him into a dog, burned through him, making it hard to focus on anything. Making it hard to even breath.

It was a struggle to get his fingers to obey, but with some effort, he brought the tip of his index finger to the tip of his thumb. He thought about Thanos and his army being wiped out, but before he could snap, Iron Man had gripped his gauntlet arm with both hands, attempting to pull the gauntlet off and away from him.

"Get off," Peter grunted out.

"No," said Mr. Stark, pulling the gauntlet closer to his chest, and Peter with it. "You're not doing this."

Peter wanted to respond with neither are you but couldn't.

He was almost burnt out, and he knew if he didn't snap then, he wouldn't snap ever.

Peter snapped his fingers, then only knew pain and shallow breaths and Tony grunting out some angry words before falling down next to him. They were shoulder to shoulder as Peter struggled for breath, as he watched the sky over him, with all its brilliant colors.

The grey was gone, and someday had come, even if it hadn't come for Peter.

"Hang in there, Pete," said Mr. Stark, struggling over his own words. "S-stay awake."

He tried. He really tried, but he so tired, so weak, and it was time to rest.

The Wakandan hospital room was dark.

Curtains had been drawn over the windows, to block out the moon and the stars, and Pepper had unplugged Morgan's Iron Man nightlight hours ago. They were both asleep in the room's living area, which was, in Tony's opinion, too far away from where he laid on the medical bed.

It was unnecessary.

The laying around in a hospital bed. The bandages around his hands. The IVs stuck into him.

Tony was absolutely and completely fine. He was alive, breathing, uninjured, or at least, not as badly injured as his idiot child. The wounds he earned from death gripping the gauntlet when Peter snapped his fingers were just cuts and scrapes compared to the near fatal injuries Peter had sustained.

The sight of his charcoaled body disappearing through a portal with Doctor Strange was something Tony couldn't get out of his mind, no matter how many times since then he'd been told Peter was okay. That he was injured badly, but recovering, healing faster than even the Wakandan doctors predicted.

Tony had been reassured by the medical staff, Pepper, Rhodey, Happy, and lastly, May, that Peter was fine, but Tony had yet to see it with his own eyes.

That was about to change.

He ripped the IVs out of his arm and swung his legs over the bed. He made his steps light and easy, careful not to wake Pepper or Morgan, but especially Morgan. She had fallen asleep crying, and would no doubt start again when she woke.

Tony walked across the hall to Peter's room and nudged the door open with the back of his hand, opting to stand in the doorway and watch as the boy's chest moved up and down, rather than get any closer. His body was bandaged and broken, but he was alive, and he was awake.

"You're supposed to stay in bed, Mr. Stark," Peter informed him, shifting around in his bed, and wincing uncomfortably at his own movement. "You need your rest."

"So do you."

"Maybe," he said. "But you're old."

Tony narrowed his eyes and crept further into the room. "And you're a moron. What were you thinking? You almost got yourself killed."

"I was thinking…" started Peter. He paused. Blinked. "That it wasn't fair for Morgan to grow up without her father. You were going to make the sacrifice play, but you have too much to lose and too many people who would lose you."

"Yeah, back at cha."

Peter gave him a small smile, then shrugged. "Doesn't matter anymore, Mr. Stark. We won, and we're both here."

He sighed and sat on the edge of Peter's bed. He supposed Peter was right. It was said and done, over. Thanos was dust. The universe celebrated loved ones returning, all thanks to Peter, who truly didn't seem to grasp the magnitude of what he had done. That Spider-Man had saved the universe, and no one knew who Spider-Man even was.

"I forgive you I guess," said Tony. "Just promise me you won't do it again."

"I doubt I'll have another chance."

"You'd be surprised how often the world needs saving, kid."

Peter laughed. "Fine, I promise."

"Good, now scoot over," said Tony, and when Peter looked at him confused, added, "I'm old, remember?"

Peter, slowly and carefully, made room for Tony to lay down on the bed next to him. He winced as they got situated, with both their heads against the pillows, and with Tony's arm around Peter.

"How's Morgan?" asked Peter, into the quiet of the hospital room.

Tony wondered if Peter had heard the crying through the walls. "Scared, sad. She doesn't understand all this. She misses her dog. He ran off somewhere when we were all fighting and she doesn't think he's going to come back."

Peter shifted around under his arm.

"That mutt better come back. You two need to be reunited. He… Buddy, I think he missed you as much as I did."

"Uh, Mr. Stark," said Peter. "I have some news."

"Yeah?"

"You can't laugh."

"No promises."

Peter titled his head at him and looked at Tony with familiar brown eyes that cut at him, that made him even more aware that Buddy was missing and they may never find him again.

"I'm Buddy," Peter told him, a clear sincerity in his voice.

"What?"

"I was the dog."

"Come again?"

"It's weird," said Peter. "Sometimes it was really fuzzy, and I didn't even remember that I was…well that I was me, but you'd always remind me with your bedtime stories."

Tony wanted to say it was ridiculous. That it was impossible and insane, but his heart knew it was true. He'd always known it was true, like his spirit knew what his brain refused to acknowledge. That Buddy was Peter and Peter was Buddy. That they were the same, but different, at the exact same time.

"Are you going to say anything or…?"

"Thanos really was a loon, wasn't he?" Tony brought Peter closer to him. He couldn't believe he missed it. That he actually allowed himself to grief over someone he had that entire time, or at least, had in a sense. Tony supposed he couldn't be angry with himself. He'd grieve for Buddy, too, even though he was technically right there. "Everyone else gets killed and you get a tail."

"Maybe I wasn't the only one," said Peter. "Do you think Director Fury got changed into a cat?"

"Hmm, maybe," said Tony. "Maybe the wizard got turned into a rabbit."

Peter's laugh lit up the room and made Tony's heart soar. It'd been way too long since he heard, and Tony looked forward to all the days that stretched ahead.

Tony sat with his kids at the end of the dock on the lake. Morgan was sandwiched between him and Peter as they all stared down at the water beneath their feet. It was a dark, sparkling blue that night, but Tony knew Morgan wasn't able to see any of the sparkle through her tears.

Looking back now, it hadn't been his best parenting decision. Trying to keep the secret that her dog Buddy and her brother Peter were one and the same had started out with good intentions. Tony and Pepper had agreed they didn't want to confuse her, but the lie they told her was worse.

That Buddy had died.

Out of all the things Tony protected her from, he couldn't protect her from grief. It was a fact of life. It would happen to her, one day, but after listening to her cry day after day, and watching Peter try and fail to cheer her up, Tony decided grief could wait until she was a little bit older.

Morgan sniffled and moved her legs back and forward. "I just still really miss Buddy."

"I know, Mo," said Tony, giving Peter a look behind her back.

Peter's mouth moved up and down without any words coming out. He looked at Tony, his eyes hopeful, searching for help, but Tony wasn't sure he could provide any. He couldn't say he had experience explaining that he used to be a dog.

"He was my best friend," said Morgan. "And now he's gone."

Tony put his arm around her, and gave Peter yet another pointed look, hoping the boy would hurry "You know, sometimes I feel like he's still here with us."

"Umm, Uh, hey Morgan," said Peter. She looked up at him, and he looked down at her, with the classic tilt of his head and his familiar brown eyes telling Morgan everything she needed to know. "Wanna play princess dragon with me?"

"W-what?" she asked, stunned, and looking up at Peter with hopeful eyes.

"It's always been my favorite game," he told her. "You gotta be the dragon, though. Like always."

Everything stopped. Even the wind through the trees, and the water below them, stopped as the gears turned behind Morgan's eyes. Tony was just about to tell Peter he needed to be more obvious. That Morgan was four, and vague explanations just wouldn't work, but before he could get the words out, Morgan threw her tiny arms around Peter and buried her head into his stomach.

"I knew you were with us," Morgan mumbled, into Peter's shirt.

Tony crinkled up his face and watched them, wondering, not for the first time, if he'd ever learn how to decipher the mysterious way which they communicated, the secret language that seemed to only exist between siblings.

Pepper and Tony renewed their vows at dawn. They held hands and kissed under a purple and orange sky, as the sun disappeared, and as Morgan threw flower petals at them. She put her own spin on the role of flower girl, and Tony loved it. Loved as much as the blue shade of Pepper's dress, or the way Peter clapped and cheered as he stood between Rhodey and Happy.

It was the way he'd wanted his first wedding to be. Filled with all the people he loved, every single one of them, and it cancelled out the happy, but dim memory of his and Pepper's first wedding, the one in a court building with only Rhodey and Happy to witness.

There was a photographer at this wedding, and the after-ceremony photos were predictably chaotic.

Somehow, between the ceremony and the short walk over to where the photos were set to be taken, Morgan had spilled juice all over her dress and Peter had messed up his tie.

"You just couldn't leave it alone," said Tony, fixing it as Peter bounced from foot to foot, and as Pepper worked to get the juice stain out of Morgan's dress.

"It was choking me," whined Peter. He wore a face that reminded Tony of Buddy all those times he tried to get the poor dog to wear reindeer ears.

"I liked you better as a dog," Tony told him. "Change back."

"Speak for yourself, Tony," Happy chimed in, marching over to where they stood. "I'm glad we have the real Peter back."

"Thanks, Happy," said Peter.

Happy sneezed and looked at Peter suspiciously through the fingers of the hand he'd used to catch his germs. He narrowed his eyes, then marched back off, to rejoin May. The both of them were smiley and giggly, so much so Tony was afraid he might have to think up a new ironic nickname for Happy.

"Told you that wasn't a dog," said Rhodey, as Tony finished up fixing Peter's tie and let go of his collar. "How many times do I have to be right before any of you morons start listening to me?"

Tony rolled his eyes. "Maybe when you start actually being right. Never did I hear you say oh by the way the dog is actually your spider-kid."

"Can we do something about that?" asked Peter, cutting off the impending argument, and gesturing over to Happy and May. Their faces were closer, almost touching.

"Sure," said Tony, clapping a hand on Peter's shoulder. "You can change back into a dog. May would never be able to cope with Happy's sneezing."

Peter frowned and grumbled something under his breath, but by the time the pictures were being taken, his smile returned, even though Happy and May continued to be disgustingly happy.

The night was filled with dances, and with watching other people dance. Time stood still as Tony watched Morgan dance with Peter, her feet on top of his, and then sped up as he watched Peter and a girl named Michelle share an awkward, slow dance alongside him and Pepper, as he imagined their future.

Tony hoped that their stories, whether or not they had one together, ended as happily as his and Pepper's.

"It's not fair," said May. She sat at the dining room table at the Stark's cabin, flipping through five-year's worth of photos that featured Buddy. "You got to come back as a dog, the rest of us were just dead." She started on a new stack of photos, then smiled. "You were adorable, though, Pete."

Peter flashed her a weak smile back, then drifted back to his thoughts, where Tony noticed he'd been living most of the night.

Tony thought he understood what was bothering him, but he wasn't confirmed to be correct until he walked into Morgan's bedroom after she'd been put to sleep by one of Peter's stories. He crouched down in the corner of the room, with his palm against the wall, covering one of the pawprints Buddy had put there years before.

"Reliving old memories?" asked Tony, from the doorway.

"Something like that," said Peter. He stood up, straightened out, and turned to face Tony. "I don't really have any left, though. I forget more and more every day."

As strange as it was to be worried about forgetting days spent as a dog, Tony thought he understood, or at least, he understood what was really behind Peter's anxieties. He shared them, after all.

Tonight was Peter and May's final night living with the Stark's at their cabin. The city was stabilizing, May had found a job and an apartment, and it was time for Pete to return to school. It was for the best, but it didn't mean either of them had to like it.

Tony walked further into Morgan's bedroom and wrapped his arms around Peter. "You're gonna be okay."

"This has been my home for five years," said Peter. "I just, I'm really gonna miss you guys."

"I know, we're gonna miss you too, but there's holidays and weekends, and if you don't stop by you know Morgan will come hunt you down."

Peter forced out a chuckled and nodded his head into his shoulder.

"I don't think either of us will be sleeping tonight," said Tony. "Star Wars night? In the living room?"

Twenty minutes later they were both down in the living room, on the couch, with a giant bowl on popcorn sitting between them and the Star Wars theme song playing. Peter fell asleep first, and Tony, who'd grown to love Star Wars the same way he loved AC/CD, stayed awake to watch, slowly working his fingers through Peter's curls.

"No, nope," said Tony. He shook his head and wagged his finger at Peter. "Absolutely not."

"But Tony – "

"-Nope."

The bundle of white fur in Peter's arms gave a pathetic bark. It sounded a lot more like a yelp, and if Tony didn't know any better, he'd say it was planned to appeal to his sympathies.

"But she needs a home," Peter told him. "Somewhere out of the city where she can run around and chase squirrels, and you're going to need a buddy when I'm off at MIT and Morgan goes to school."

"Forget college."

"Tony- "

"-Seriously, education is overrated and over-priced. I could teach you more in two hours than any of the sleepy professors at MIT."

He hadn't meant to be serious, but his comment sparked an idea. With both his kids locked up at school, retired life would start to get boring, and Tony was sure MIT would leap at the opportunity to have him as a professor. As soon as Peter and his freakishly sensitive hearing left the cabin, he'd make a call.

"You're going to tell Morgan to forget kindergarten, too?"

"Yep," said Tony. "Homeschooling is real, you know."

Peter rolled his eyes and continued petting the pit bull puppy in his arms.

The truth was Tony knew he'd never be able to homeschool Morgan, even if Pepper would allow it. She was too clever for him, too smart and too cunning. She had weapons in the form of puppy dog eyes and her stuck out lower lip.

Of course, Peter had his tactics, too.

"I found her when I was breaking up one of those dog fighting rings," said Peter. "She was all alone."

Tony let out a breath. "Stop."

"Stop what?"

"Stop giving that thing a tragic back story thinking it'll change my mind."

"She's a pup, not a thing," said Peter. "And I know you love dogs, you just pretend you don't."

Before Tony could correct him, before he could tell him that he'd only ever loved one dog, there was a high-pitched squeal of delight. Morgan raced off the porch and across the yard. She had the puppy cradled in her arms in seconds. The pit bull licked at her face and barked happily.

They were fast friends.

"Damnit, Parker," said Tony. His daughter looked so happy, he couldn't possibly steal that away. He was doing this for Morgan. He kept telling himself that, because it was easier than admitting to Peter that he was right.

Peter's grinned stretched across his entire face.

"When Pepper asks, I'm blaming you."

"I already asked her," said Peter, with a shrug. "She agrees. You're gonna need another pal when the house gets quiet during the day."

"What's her name?" asked Morgan. Her and the puppy were already sitting in the dirt together, playing together with a tree branch.

"You're the overlord-in-training, Mo," Pete told her. "It's up to you."

Morgan didn't hesitate one second before yelling out, "Popcorn!"

"Popcorn?" asked Tony, with skepticism. "That's not – "

The puppy barked happily a few times, as if to tell them all that was her name, and Morgan had guessed it right.

Tony heaved a sigh, before allowing a small smile and scratching Popcorn on the top of her head.

That night, they waited for the sun to go down and then the four of them, Peter, Morgan, Tony and Popcorn, piled into the car and took off down the highway towards the twenty-four diner, the one where Tony was known and bringing a dog with him was expected.

They sat Popcorn up on the table of Tony's usual booth by the window and let her have her first cheeseburger. She sniffed at it carefully before devouring it completely. It was official. She was a Stark through and through.

"She's a cutie," the waitress told them, when she came back with the shakes Morgan had talked Tony into getting for her and Peter. "I'll always miss Buddy, though."

"He's still with us," said Morgan, looking straight at Peter, and smiling.

The waitress gave Morgan a sad sort of smile as she left them, but before disappearing into the kitchen, Tony swore he saw her do a double take in Peter's direction. He supposed he shouldn't be surprised. There was no difference between Peter and Buddy, the boy and the dog that he never truly lost.