Morgan liked it when Mommy and Daddy got mad at each other.
Well, pretended to be mad at each other.
Mommy would talk very fast while Daddy would talk even faster. And Morgan, hidden at a corner, would watch them with a smile on her face because her parents were so funny pretending to fight.
Morgan was sure Mommy and Daddy didn't even understand each other because they always talked at the same time. Sort of like those seagulls in Finding Nemo.
They didn't fight like the kids at school did too. They were never truly angry because their voices didn't sound mad. They never bite each other or hit each other because mouths and hands weren't supposed to do that.
Instead, Daddy's face would get all twitchy. His eyebrows would come together in one straight line as he tried to talk to Mommy. And he would hold Mommy's hand to stop her from walking away and Mommy's cheeks would get a little bit redder when she saw Daddy looking at her in the eyes.
And then one of them, usually Mommy but sometimes Daddy, would kiss the other and then the house would be quiet again.
Like what was happening right now.
Morgan peered out from her spot in the staircase, making sure she didn't get caught because Mommy and Daddy always stopped pretending to fight when she was around.
"I have a PhD in engineering—"
"Which you make perfectly good use of in the garage, but Earl—"
"—always complains!" Daddy threw his hands in the air and Morgan giggled silently. Dad sure looked funny. "He complains about the problem and then he gives me that look, you know the one!"
Daddy tried making the face and Morgan pressed her hands to her mouth to stop herself from laughing loudly.
Mommy laughed too. "The one where his one eye gets smaller as he judges you?"
"That's the one! And then afterwards he acts like the whole house is gonna fall apart and he talks about how he can't possibly fix the problem—"
"But in the end, he fixes it!" Mommy pointed out.
"Exactly! After a whole day of complaints. And it doesn't help that he always blames me for—"
"Well, if you hadn't tossed that gunk in the sink last time, Earl wouldn't—
"That was Dum-E, not me!"
"The point is, Earl is good at what he does."
Daddy stared at Mommy with his mouth open. "And what am I? Chopped liver? I can fix the—"
"The last time I let you fix the plumbing, water came out in places it wasn't to be coming out of."
"I adjusted the—"
Mommy held Daddy by his arms and gave him a look. "Look, it's not a competition. It's just that Earl is good at this. He's a professional plumber while you are… good in other stuff."
"You hesitated." Daddy raised a brow at Mommy. "Why did you hesitate?"
Mommy shook her head and avoided Daddy's face. "I didn't."
Daddy folded his arms and looked at Mommy with a smirk on his face. "You totally hesitated."
Mommy's face began to flush. "I didn't. I was just thinking of the best word to describe your skills because you know, you're… you and—"
"You just hesitated again." Daddy started to laugh. "I can't believe this. If you think for a minute that I'm gonna let Earl—" But Daddy didn't get to finish because Mommy pressed her mouth to his in a kiss.
This was always Morgan's favorite part because Daddy always smiled right after. And it wasn't the smile he had whenever the camera people started taking pictures. It was always a different smile for Mommy.
Mommy and Daddy pulled apart and sure enough, Daddy was smiling and he seemed to have forgotten what it was he was going to say.
Finally, he said, "You have to stop doing that. You can't just kiss me and expect—"
Mommy kissed Daddy again.
"Fine. Fine," said Daddy afterwards. "Professional Earl can work on the plumbing."
"Thank you."
And then just like that, the pretend-fight was over and Morgan rose to her feet, going up the stairs and back to her room.
Maybe she should kiss Daddy too when she breaks something in the garage.
…
Tony had to jump to avoid stepping on his daughter. She was lying on her stomach right in the doorway of the kitchen as she worked on a coloring book.
"Morgan, what are you doing lying on the—? Are you eating?" Right beside Morgan's coloring book was a bag of chips.
"Morgan H. Stark, what did Mommy say about eating?"
Pepper had been clear about that. Morgan and Tony weren't allowed to eat outside the kitchen because they always made a lot of spills. But just because Tony occasionally broke it when Pepper wasn't looking didn't mean Morgan could too.
Morgan gave her dad an innocent smile. "I'm following the rule! See?" She pointed at the bowl of chips which was situated right in the defined territory of the kitchen. "I'm inside the kitchen."
True enough, her upper body was right in the kitchen's borders while her lower half wasn't.
Tony didn't know whether to be proud or disappointed that at the age of 4 she was able to circumvent the system.
Pepper wasn't going to be pleased.
She was gonna blame him, Tony was sure of it.
Tony sat himself down beside Morgan who straightened up and sat on her knees.
"Technically, you're right. You are in the kitchen. But when Mommy made that rule, she meant you had to be sitting on the chair in the kitchen. That's how you eat properly. You don't lie down on the floor."
Morgan pouted and partly rose, her knees still on the ground. She put a hand on her Tony's shoulder to balance herself. "But we sit on the grass in the park.
Tony had to stop himself from nodding because technically that was true too.
"We're allowed to do that in the park, honey," Tony brushed Morgan's hair out of her face, "But in the house we—" Tony stopped midsentence because his daughter had just given him a kiss on the cheek… while he was still talking.
Now, why was that so familiar?
Tony gave Morgan a baffled look. "Did you just kiss Daddy to shut him up?"
Morgan's eyebrows danced up and down. "Mommy does it too."
"I know!" said Tony, feeling a mixture of amusement and mild-exasperation. This kid was way too smart and observant for her own good.
"You know what, gimme some of that," Tony held his hand out for the bag of chips. Morgan smiled and passed it to him. "I can never win with you Stark women."
Tony tossed a piece in his mouth. "This is good. What is this?"
"Animal crackers."
"Hmm," Tony glanced at his daughter. "You're not gonna tell mom about this, are you?"
"No. Are you?"
"Absolutely!" Morgan gave her dad a bewildered look at that, her head slanted and lips quirked.
Tony matched her expression. "You're not the boss of me."
"What if I kiss you again?" Morgan batted her eyes and Tony cocked his head, pretending to consider it.
"I'm gonna need at least ten kisses for my silence."
Morgan wrapped her arms around her dad and started peppering kisses on his cheek. Once, twice, three times…
"I feel like I'm getting more saliva than kisses here."
Morgan laughed and tried again.