Chapter Text
Spiderman was silent as he swung through Queens, the only sign he had been there at all were lines in the snow whenever he was skim his feet. Around him were lights, decorations for each and every type of winter holiday, and new Spiderman murals, in each he was celebrating the holidays in various ways, various holidays too, he smiled beneath his mask, no one would have guess this was how he was choosing to celebrate the very earliest hours of Christmas morning, he wouldn’t have it any other way.
His body was aching, he was cold, he was tired down to his very bones, but he continued to smile, shifting as he swung to adjust the heavy red and blue sack on his back.
“Peter,” Karen’s voice was full of warning, “Boss said twenty minutes ten minutes ago, we still have to get back to-”
“I know, I know, I do, I just… I have one more lot, it’s an important one,” he could swear that he could feel the judgement in Karen’s silence.
He came to a stop on the roof of the Orphanage moving the sack of gifts he had bought with any money he had saved to his hands, and tried not to think about the time limit he was under, he climbed down the chimney, relieved about the dry cleaning feature the suit now possessed.
“Wow, Santa, a whole three minutes before your legally mandated ‘if you’re eight seconds late I’m gonna sic the whole ass avengers on your ass’, time.”
“Like you weren’t tracking me the entire time,” Peter pulled off his mask, beaming at Tony, seeing the sparkle in the man’s eyes, “And the name could need a little…”
“Yeah, we’re gonna have to workshop it.” he nodded his head towards the general direction of the bedrooms, “Go change, then get back here, you need to replace all the calories you just lost.”
Peter didn’t both arguing, when he got back, this time in his actual pyjamas, and dug into the grilled cheese Tony made, as he ate his eyes scanned the room, trying to figure out if any more gifts had been added to the winter wonderland which was the Starks’ home during the holidays.
Tony blew gently on the mug of coffee in his hands, trying to hide his amused smile as his kid looked oh so subtly around for any more presents: The same amused smile he and Pepper had shared every time Morgan or Peter would sneak a shake of the presents labelled as theirs underneath their Christmas tree, one of several in their apartment, all decorated by the Starks and their family.
“Santa doesn’t deliver presents until all the little kiddies are in bed,” he teased, watching Peter’s cheeks turn a light shade of pink and his mouth twisting into a grin which is both bright and mischievous, “but I guess you know a thing or two about that,” Peter hadn’t allowed any of them to help much, insisting on buying anything and everything himself, in building or fixing anything that was needed, he had only accepted some help with the donation of things which would other have been sent to be recycled. Peter met his proud remark with a half shrug.
As soon as Peter had finished and Tony had insisted on him drinking nearly an entire bottle of water, Tony giving him a mini lecture on hydration and skin care until Peter gave a snort of laughter and was hurried to bed.
Tony led Peter to his bedroom, as he or Pepper had done every night since they had begun to do it at the cabin, giving him an extra opportunity to talk or mention anything, good or bad. Once he knew that Peter was safe in his room, looking sleepy but forcing himself to shower before bed, washing away the smell of New York from his skin.
Tony gave Friday a command to let him know if Peter left his bedroom area, the same as he had commanded for Morgan, when he had put his younger kid to bed, then he walked away to go and join his wife in their bedroom, to finish the last of the wrapping of presents.
Peter was being attacked, a fist, a bomb, one of Thanos’ hands straight into his stomach, that was his first thoughts as he snapped his eyes opened, it was none of those things, it was Morgan, her dark hair wild and messy as she pushed it out of her eyes and over her head in a way which would make it fall back over her eyes any second.
“Mo?” He murmured, his voice thick with sleep.
“Happy Christmas, Petey!”
Her voice was so loud as she shouted that Peter’s ears rang, but a smile came onto his face as he sat up, tipping her onto the bed beside him as he did, his smile widened as he heard her giggle. He rubbed his eyes a couple of times and was suddenly filled with a tingle of excitement in his stomach, “Merry Christmas Mo.”
“Let’s go wake mommy and daddy up,” she encouraged, the two having already talked about it, Peter had agreed only because he knew that both Pepper and Tony had heard and smiled about the ‘plan’.
After checking with Friday for what time it was and deciding that six thirty was good enough for them, Morgan and Peter walked down the hallway to Pepper and Tony’s room, Peter placed his finger to his lip, hushing her but grinning as she copied him and giggled, as he did he used his Spider hearing to listen to Pepper and Tony mumbling as both confirming to each other that it was ‘Peter and Morgan awake’, and that they should pretend to be asleep, he didn’t know if it was for each other, or in the hopes that Peter would hear.
The two kids ‘snuck’ into the large bedroom and over to the bed, Morgan headed to Pepper’s side and Peter to Tony’s, Peter could see the smiles tugging at their lips, and Tony tensing in preparation.
Morgan threw herself at Pepper, as she had to Peter five minutes earlier, he hesitated for a second before throwing himself at the bed, the gap between Tony and the edge of the bed, joining in with Morgan’s shouting for them to wake up, and what day it was.
“Ugh,” Tony ‘grumbled’ as he ‘woke’ up, playfully glaring at Peter but he also wrapped his arm around Peter, making sure that he wouldn’t fall off of the bed, “Pep, is it too late to swap the kids for a dog?”
“You’d have to get up every single morning at this time to walk a dog.”
Tony look like he debated it for a second, “I guess we’ll keep the kids then.”
Peter rolled his eyes but was still grinning, in fact Tony’s teasing made his smile widen, “Merry Christmas.”
An easy smile slid onto Tony’s face, “Merry Christmas, Bambi,” he pulled his kid into a hug, a one armed one as he hadn’t yet put on his prosthetic, Peter wrapped his arms around him in response, for once he felt the stump of Tony’s arm and didn’t remember the snap of Tony’s finger and thumb.
It was two hours later that Morgan and Peter were finally done opening presents, from Tony and Pepper.
Peggy and Angie who had given them their gifts and left to join the avengers for breakfast, and Rhodey and Happy had also handed over gifts and were now drinking litres of coffee in Starks’ kitchen, grumbling about the kids being the reason why they woke up, even though Friday announced that they had both asked for her to set an alarm to wake them up when the kids were awake.
Peter hadn’t stopped grinning, their home had already resembled a winter wonderland, but when they left Tony and Pepper’s room they were met with a sight of more presents than Peter had had in his life time, he had been in shock even before Pepper had pointed out that half of them were his, and that he should get started or they’d never be ready for Christmas dinner.
So Peter unwrapped all different gifts, from ‘Santa’, a new laptop for school, a box full of parts for him to build his own desktop, with Tony’s help, clothes of various types, sneakers, all his style, funko pops, figurines, comics, Lego, a new tool kit, everything under the sun and then some.
He beamed at Morgan’s face when she opened the robot dog he had made her, changing her name for it about fifty times a second, she had clearly wrapped up her present for him, and when he unwrapped it he found a New York city Lego set, a not yet released set, a Spiderman New York City Lego set. He managed not to swear in shock… barely.
Eventually they were done, and Peter was starting to feel carpal tunnel or something coming on, but he was also beaming, slightly blushing from all of the attention, and about to go and find his present for them he had hidden, when another was presented to him… well it was out thrust so vigorously that an Iron Man Christmas wrapping paper wrapped gift flicked his nose.
He looked up and saw a smirking Tony, “Ow.”
“Oh c’mon, I know that didn’t hurt you, Petey.” Tony rolled his eyes but checked his kid over with his eyes anyway, “Will one last present easy your pain and strife?”
Peter’s face crumpled into what Tony had dubbed his ‘confused puppy’ face, “But I already… I already got loads…”
“Those were from Santa, this is from me and Pep.” His eyes flickered to Morgan and back, glad that they had Morgan to use as an excuse, and to add to the magic of Christmas, “I refuse to be outdone by some old guy, why do you think I refuse to race Cap?”
Peter let out a small laugh, and seeing both Pepper and Tony watching him he accepted it, unwrapping it as Morgan unwrapped her own from them. He slowly unwrapped his own, careful not to rip it open. He pulled out a lanyard, black but the very sides were golden… it was nice, you know if you liked lanyards, he guessed he needed one, there had been news of new card readers being added into the school, no doubt financed by Tony and Pepper, the last lanyard he had was from the Stark Expo, he wasn’t sure where that was though.
“Thanks, guy, this is a… this is a really nice lanyard, thank you.”
Pepper sent him a look, “You really think we’d just give you a lanyard?”
“Look at the card at the end, Pete.”
Peter’s confused puppy look returned in full force, but he did as he was told. There was a photo of him, a recent one at that, one Happy insisted on taking as part of his head of security job, looking troubled when Peter asked his special measures for an evil twin scenario. Peter’s mouth fell open.
Peter Benjamin Parker Stark.
Stark Industries Intern.
Research and Development Department.
Gold Level Access.
Peter was lost for words, only able to pull his eyes off of the lanyard’s card when he heard Tony’s nervous voice asking him if he liked it, if it was okay, Pepper telling him they weren’t sure what to get him, but if he came up with a different idea he could have it.
He stood up wordlessly, and wrapped his arms around both Tony and Pepper. “This is perfect, beyond perfect… I… thank you… thank you both so much,” he felt them hold him closer, and soon Morgan had abandoned her gift and had joined the rest of her family in the hug.
When Peter had finally pulled himself away from Tony and Pepper he grabbed the neatly wrapped present from a hidden cranny, he handed it over, shifting from foot to foot as he watched them unwrap it.
“It’s not much, but I didn’t know what to get you, you guys have everything, I didn’t know, so I, I decided to make this…” He watched them staring down at the handmade with wood from the cabin photo frame, inside was a photograph from Peter’s first day back at school; one of the ones taken from inside their slightly messy home, not the one taken downstairs with a background superimposed behind them, the second set of photos had been happy, but these ones, when he had seen them… they radiated happiness, he had asked Peggy to keep the photograph for him, planning then and there to add that photo to the frame.
This time he was the one to find himself pulled into the joint tight hug, their hands resting on his back, where the scars from Charles were, they didn’t cringe away from them, they embraced it, they embraced every part of him, scars and all. He could feel tears forming in his eyes, and he was almost one hundred percent certain that the two of them were crying too, happy tears, from all of them.
“So… it’s okay?”
Pepper let out a wet laugh, “This is the best gift we’ve ever been given, other than you and Morgan.”
“I mean, I wouldn’t call those gifts, we put a lot of work into becoming parents to both of them.”
Peter could feel Tony tense, uncertainty filling every inch of him, but Peter kept hold of them both, “Merry Christmas Mom, Merry Christmas Dad.” He whispered, and soon they were holding him even tighter, kisses repeatedly pressed into his hair, from both of them.
“Children and families across Queens have received a little extra holiday gift this year, a mere week since Queens’ favourite superhero, Spiderman, returned to the city. Toys were wrapped for children, refurbished Stark pads and laptops were delivered to teenagers, and groceries and gifts were left for the needy, for the homeless, and for shelters across the neighbourhood.
Our reporters reached out to Stark Industries, who deny any involvement in this extra holiday gift, however in a tweet Tony Stark himself sent this morning in the early hours he hinted that a ‘certain guy in red’ left the gifts, and that Stark Industries would be sending any and all refurbished Stark Pads or laptops given to them as part of the Stark recycling program to disadvantaged people across any country they have stores.
Charities around the world have also released statements thanking Stark Industries for donations, large ones seeming to go to children's’ charities, possibly due to the Stark family recently being joined by their new foster son, Peter, a New York native.
Other Avengers, such as Brooklyn’s own Steve Rogers, have also been thanked for their individual donations, and their various social media accounts have hinted that Spiderman is the one who is responsible for every single one of the Queens gifts.
Black Widow, Natasha Romanoff’s hint is quite simply “
Spiderman refurbished, bought, and delivered all those gifts, you really think @StevePunchNazisRogers would step foot in Queens?
”.
Although this is a seemingly blatant statement, Ms Romanoff is fairly well known for her dry humour, and Captain America has released statements reassuring all that he would ‘
possibly step foot in Queens, if [he] ever really, really, had to
’.
However it appears that neither Stark Industries or Spiderman will be taking any credit for this act of kindness, needless to say, Queens, for one reason or another, is very happy to see that Spiderman is back, this time for good.”
Peter couldn’t help but agree, it was good to have Spiderman back, for good.
Peter sat on the couch in a food coma, comfortable, so long as he didn’t have to move. The Starks had spent noon onwards on the Avengers floor, receiving yet more gifts, and eating various food individual members of the team had insisted were important to eat at Christmas.
He watched as Tony and Bucky competed in the forth and final race in the ‘One Armed Mario Kart championship’, the sound of Pepper, Rhodey, and Steve, laughing at the stubborn competitiveness of the men. Angie, Bruce, Happy, and Wanda had been roped into playing one of Morgan’s new board games, all of the adults, bar Bruce, playing way too competitively. Nat and Peggy were talking quietly in Russian and laughing every now and again, Peter caught enough random words that he knew the two were recounting old missions.
Clint caught Peter’s eyes, his hands moved in American Sign, “Are you okay?”
Peter smiled and nodded his head once. He was. He really, really, was.
Fin.