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“Hey, Tony. It’s May.”
“As if I wouldn’t have my favorite aunt as a contact already.”
“Whatever. I am so sorry to call so close to the holidays, but I… Well, I kinda need a favor. And you still haven’t made up for the fact that you hid Peter’s Spider-Manning from me for such a long time, so you can’t say no unless you want to be seen as a real douche.”
“May, that was when he was fifteen. How many years ago? Four?”
“Tony.”
“Fine. What do you need?”
--
MIT and May’s apartment in Queens was an exact 3 hours and 17 minute drive.
As Tony pulled up outside the dorm building May informed him that Peter was in, Tony sighed, glancing at the clock and back at the door. Christmas Eve, and traffic was going to be a bitch. Tony was on the road from his own home at almost seven in the morning, and just arrived then, at almost noon. Which meant a stop for lunch before they even started going, and by one PM, the road was going to be awful.
But Tony couldn’t complain when he saw Peter Parker himself emerge from the dorm, inter coat wrapped tightly around him, timbs crunching snow beneath them, waving goodbye to someone else who had left the dorm. Tony was surprised to find people still at the dorms on Christmas Eve despite Peter.
Peter was supposed to get a flight out from Massachusetts the day before, but since the bad snow storm caused planes to be cancelled, couldn’t get onto another flight. And, May had to work until six that night, thus Tony Stark was picking Peter up for a mini road trip back to Queens, and back to Christmas.
“Hi!” Peter said as he opened the backseat and threw his duffel bag and backpack back there, before scurrying to get into the front seat. It had been a long time since the awkward teenager Peter Parker sat in the backseat while Happy or Tony was driving him. Now he shimmied down into the heated seat and smiled widely at Tony. “Thanks so much for driving all the way out here. I know it was probably really annoying and—”
“And completely worth it since I haven’t seen your chubby little college face since, what, October?”
“You literally saw me, like, two weeks ago, Mr. Stark.”
“But I didn’t see you, see you. Saying hi backstage for five minutes after a lecture? Not seeing you, kid.”
The kid smiled smally, buckling his seatbelt as they started driving, and instantly Tony broke the silence by saying, “I used to live there, in Next House when I was a kid here.”
They chatted aimlessly (Tony’s projects, Peter’s schoolwork, how much he misses Spider-Man patrol every night, etc.) until it was fifteen minutes later and Tony makes a sharp turn into McDonalds, which he would only allow on roadtrips.
Tony got a burger, fries, and a diet coke. Peter got an eight piece chicken nugget with a large fry and a kiddie meal cheeseburger and fries. And a vanilla milkshake.
“Look!” Peter held up the little toy that had come with it. Tony laughed openly, and Peter looked pleased with himself.
“So, besides schoolwork being a pain and missing Spider-Man, how are you adjusting to college?”
“Good. Boston is a lot slower than New York, but it’s still fun. My roommates are nice and all, but I still mostly hang out with Ned.”
“How’s Fred doing?” Tony asked, merging onto the highway.
“ Ned is doing great, thanks.” Peter turned, looking out the window. From the major storm almost two days ago now, there were still piles of dirty snow piled on the side of the road. Some small snowflakes still fell softly around them, causing a gloomy grey atmosphere to surround them. Peter smiled to himself, breathing in deeply. The car smelled like Tony. He wasn’t sure what that exactly meant, it just did. It reminded him of his high school days, where he would spend days at a time with Tony, tagging along to science conferences, working in the lab, those few times he even stayed with Pepper and Tony. “How’s Morgan been?”
The three year old had a liking to Peter. Peter always babysat her when she was younger and he still lived near. She asked Tony on too many occasions if Peter was her brother.
“She’s good. Missing you a lot. Especially when you used to play with her upside down.”
Peter laughed, and nodded. “I miss her, too. Can I visit while I’m in New York?”
“I think Mor would be honestly offended if you didn’t, kid.”
Peter sipped his milkshake, still fiddling with the toy in his hand. Tony noticed his fingers had red nail polish chipping off them.
“When did you do that?” Tony reached over and grabbed his hand, examining the maroon. Peter pulled his hand back, self conscience.
“My roommates girlfriend did it one day while she waited for him to get back to the dorm. I didn’t really have a choice in the matter. Also nail polish remover smells super bad, especially someone who has intense smell.”
“It looks good.” Tony nodded.
“Thanks.”
The first hour was fine. A bit of traffic as they left the city, which was reasonable, but nevertheless okay.
Peter had, at some point in that first hour, plugged in his phone to charge and in doing so realized he could play music. So they were contentedly listening to Hamilton.
“How do you know all the words?” Tony asked, laughing as he watched Peter try to dance along (key word try ) to the upbeat parts (it was him moving his head around and bouncing a little in his seat).
“Jus’ do. Listen to it too much, I guess.”
Two songs later, they were in a brief bumper to bumper traffic stop due to a crash, and Peter was furiously texting someone.
Tony suddenly felt like he couldn’t talk to the kid. It had been so long, and the kid had a new life in Massachusetts. The kid doesn’t need Tony anymore. Well, he never needed Tony in the first place, but it was nice for Tony to spoil him when he was in high school.
One hour, then two, and even after driving for almost three hours, they hadn’t even gotten halfway home. The snow was getting heavier, though not intense, and though there weren’t that many cars on the road, everyone was driving slowly, scared to spin off the road on ice or a frozen engine or brake.
“...Then, Ned completely downed the water, and made the face pretending it was really awful. It was so funny.”
“Sounds hilarious,” Tony smiled contently at the road, then glanced over at the boy, unsure. “Have you… Have you been drinking? Not water shots, but real shots?”
Peter looked to his lap, and before he responded, Tony quickly added, “It’s not a big deal if you are. I just… I want to make sure you are doing it responsibly. When I went to college, not that our experiences are in anyway the same, of course, I drank a lot. Too much. It was… I wish I had someone, an adult I mean, not just Rhodey, to tell me to hold it a little bit, and that the soft buzz from one was enough and the lifelong regret wasn’t worth the blackout.”
“I’m not drinking, Mr. Stark. I mean, at the start of the year I went to this party and decided to have one, but… it was disgusting,” Peter said, looking at Tony earnestly, then cracking a smile. “Alcohol isn’t for me.”
“Okay. That’s… alright. That’s good,” Tony smiled, glad his Peter wasn’t continuing down the same destructive blackout alcoholic path he had been on for so long. “That’s really okay. A lotta people don’t drink. I barely do anymore.”
“Do you think Morgan is going to like alcohol?”
“That girl is hyperactive enough, kid. And… Pep is most likely already preaching the badness of alcohol to her. I doubt she will, what with having to grow up with my past haunting her.”
It was a deep seeded fear of Tony’s, one that he rarely expressed to anyone other than Pepper, but also one that was no doubt going to come true at least a bit. Hell, it already had begun. When Morgan was born, it was almost instantaneously that Morgan was thrown into the spotlight, with articles and online news sites writing about the newest Stark, and how she will have to inherit the company, etcetera. Which wasn’t true in the slightest. If she went down the same path as Tony with mechanical engineering and showed an interest in wanting to run the company, then she would inherit it. If not, Tony would find someone else. He would never force her to inherit if she didn’t want to. Maybe Peter would be able to take it over. Or he could leave it to Harley. Who knows yet.
“That’s also kinda why I’m not gonna drink,” Peter said softly, suddenly looking sheepish and a bit nervous. “I mean, I get that it’s my choice and beer is honestly disgusting. But even if it wasn’t… I don’t want to let you down.”
“Peter…” Tony clapped his shoulder in a fatherly manor, then ruffled the boy’s curly hair. “You could never let me down.”
--
They finally arrived at the apartment at half past six.
“Thank you so much, Mr. Stark.” Peter had said this about four times on the road, but apparently felt the need to say it once more as they pulled up. Tony put the car in park, and smirked.
“Like I said, no issue. Lemme come up and say hi to May.”
Tony carried Peter’s backpack for him (“God, kid. How much does this weigh?”), and followed him to the stairs then to the apartment. He waved at someone outside a different apartment, who smiled back.
“Merry Christmas, Parker! Dile tu tia feliz navidad, yeah?”
“I will! Tell Alberto for me!” Peter held up a hand in respect, then knocked on his own apartment. He turned to Tony and sighed, “I think my key is buried in my bag.”
Tony just chuckled.
The door swung open, and May smiled widely, opening her arms widely. “Hello!”
Peter hugged her tightly, dropping his duffel ont he ground. Tony picked it up, and stepped inside past them.
“Hey, good you came up!”
Tony raised an eyebrow and turned to find Pepper sitting on the couch in the Parker’s living room, Morgan sitting on her lap chewing on something.
“Why are you here?”
“May’s car broke down at work. Wouldn’t start when she went on her lunch break. She called to ask if I could call a tow truck for her, and then I, sorry we…” She gestured to Morgan, who had perked up at Tony’s voice and was trying to climb off the sofa to get to him. “Picked her up. Just got here like, ten minutes ago. I decided to stay to see Peter!”
Peter had looked over at this point, and beamed.
“Hi, Pepper!” He said, jogging over quickly to give a tight hug. “And hi Morgan!”
“Petey!” Morgan screeched, now sidetracked from her quest to get to Tony and instead waddling her way over to Peter, grabby hands in his direction. “Up, up!”
Peter scooped her up, and planted a kiss on her cheek, which she giggled to. “Hi, Mor. Merry Christmas!”
“Merry Christmas!” She yelled, but it sounded roughly like, “mewwy chrimmas”. Still adorable.
“Good to see you, Tony,” May said, also giving Tony a quick and light hug.
--
Pepper, Morgan, and Tony left two hours later, after eating dinner in the apartment and Pepper and Tony getting to watch Peter and May open the presents they had gotten them (an Apple watch for each of them, because that is a good gift even if not StarkTech goddammit).
Before they left, however, Tony made Peter come all the way downstairs to the car to get one other present he had for Peter.
Tony retrieved it from the trunk, and held it out to the boy. It was a faded red sweatshirt, with grey block letters of MIT on the front, outlined in black.
“This was a sweatshirt that Rhodey actually got for me the first Christmas I knew him. It doesn’t really fit me anymore, but… I thought you might want to have it. You know, since you go to the school and all. Plus, it could be like a sorta tradition. I got it my first Christmas at MIT, now you got it your first—”
Peter almost tackled Tony to the snow covered ground in a bone crushing hug.
“Thank you, Tony. I love it,” He said, holding it to his chest when they broke apart.
“Yeah, yeah,” Tony waved off the kid with a smile. He saw Pepper emerging from the apartment building with Morgan behind Peter. “You can wear it over your Spider-Man suit when you go patrolling in a few days. In case you get cold.”
Peter gave one last hug to Tony, then another one to Pepper and Morgan, and with one last wave darted inside.
Tony smiled softly, picking up Morgan, who was staring at the door Peter just went in.
“Where’s brother going?” She asked sadly.
“Don’t worry, Mor,” Tony said quietly, grabbing Pepper’s hand with his free one. “You will see him soon.”