Work Text:
“Oh. My. God.” Pepper gasped as she watched Peter and Morgan walk down the stairs, Tony’s camera at the ready next to her. Peter descended, dressed as Luke Skywalker. Following closely behind was a tiny Princess Leia, trying her best to avoid tripping on her dress and dragging a lightsaber behind her, bumping on each step. As soon as she hit the ground, she ran towards her parents in excitement.
“Can we go trick-or-treating now?” Morgan asked, unable to stand still.
“Hold on, princess,” Tony replied, “pictures first, candy later.” The girl groaned in protest but complied. May came down the stairs, grinning, “So what do you think?” She gestured towards Morgan’s hair buns, “It took twenty minutes and a liberal amount of hairspray but I think they turned out alright.”
“They look really good, May,” said Peter.
“Oh, it’s so adorable! Peter, get in the frame,” Pepper stood behind Tony as he snapped several photos, May joining the clump of parents. Peter held his sister close to him before she managed to wiggle out of his grasp, running for the door. “To the neighborhood!” She declared. Tony clicked his tongue as he followed her, “So impatient. Who raised that kid?”
“You did, Tony,” Peter snarked.
“Who taught you to talk like that?”
“You did.”
“Impossible. You never listen to a word I say, so how could you have picked up on a behavior like that?”
“It’s a mystery,” the teenager grinned at him before following Morgan to the car.
“Be back no later than ten, okay?” Pepper said, following Tony onto the porch.
He pecked her on the lips. “Of course.”
“You have your key to the apartment, Tony?” May questioned.
Tony raised an eyebrow, “Sure I do, but you’re coming with, right?”
She shook her head. “Pepper and I have a bottle of wine with our names on it. You guys go on ahead. Just don’t eat the lasagna in the fridge, Peter knows it.”
“Both of you? Abandoning me for a bottle of wine and a bonfire and a gorgeous fall view of the lake?”
“Yes.”
“Absolutely.”
“Betrayal,” Tony huffed, walking to the car, “Front seat, kid.”
-------
“So you didn’t go treat-or-treating? Ever?”
“Not ever, that’s a gross exaggeration,” Tony explained, “Just a few times when I was little. Jarvis would bring me, sometimes my mom. But I went off to school pretty early, and the dorm’s door-to-door treats are a bit more. . .” He glanced in the rearview mirror at Morgan in her car seat, “. . .adult.”
“Wow. Sorry that happened to you,” Peter said.
Tony shrugged. “It’s alright, bud. I get to spend it with you guys instead.” He threw him a side glance and a grin.
“When are we gonna be there?” Morgan asked, a little bit too loudly, her face pressed against the window as she watched the cars on the highway pass by.
“Relax, Mo, it’s only been ten minutes,” Peter said, “We’ll be there in fifteen minutes, max. In the meantime, wanna play the alphabet game?”
That cheered her right up. “Yeah!”
“Okay, you start.”
“A stands for apple. . .”
--------
“Okay, so, we’ve only got a few hours before all of the best candy is gone on these two streets,” Ned pointed to a location on his phone’s map as they stood on the sidewalk outside his house, “But I feel like we might have a lot more luck if it isn’t crowded, so it’s really kind of in the balance here. Maybe if we got a head start, but my costume was being difficult.” Ned was dressed as Hunk from ‘Voltron,’ sporting an orange bandana and a green vest he and Peter had scored after hours of thrift shopping, but eventually gave up and bought a costume package off of Amazon instead.
“What are you dressed as, Ted? Someone from Duck Dynasty?”
“No, sir,” he stuttered, “I’m Hunk from Voltron. He’s my favorite.”
“Voltron? Isn’t that show, like, way too old for you kids?”
“There was a series revival,” Peter chimed in, “I watch it all the time. You’ve probably seen it.”
Ned looked Tony up and down nervously, “Uh, what are you dressed as, Mr. Stark sir?”
“Me?” Tony flexed his metal arm, “Well, Iron Man, of course.”
“That’s dumb,” remarked Peter.
“You’re dumb,” Tony spat back jokingly.
A female voice joined them from behind, “With all due respect, sir, you can’t dress up as yourself.” They all turned to look at the source, finding MJ standing there, wearing her usual dull expression.
“Oh, hey MJ,” Peter tinged slightly pink, and Tony did his best not to grin at his bashful greeting. Dork.
“Why not?” Tony replied coolly, “I think I earned it. Besides, no one can play a better Iron Man than me. Except maybe an eight-year-old Peter Parker.” The boy’s blush spread to his ears and he looked away from MJ’s puzzled gaze. She shrugged it off in favor of joining their circle.
“Sup dorks,” she swung a sign by a string from her fingertips, “Are we going trick-or-treating or not? Because I have absolutely zero plans but very little patience.”
“Sorry, but you need a costume to go,” Tony caught Morgan’s hand as she ran towards them.
MJ smirked, “Oh, I’ve got one.” She put the string over her head, the sign covering her torso. On it, it read ‘Student Loans.’ “I’m the scariest thing of all,” she explained, “financial commitment in a society that built a cash cow around higher education.”
Tony narrowed his eyes. “You win this round, Jones.”
---------
“Here, I got you this mask,” Peter handed Tony a Darth Vader Halloween mask.
“I told you, I’m going as myself.”
Peter sighs, “That’s not a costume, Tony.”
--------
“You take the Reece’s, I don’t like peanut butter,” MJ handed Ned some candy from her pillowcase.
“I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who hates peanut butter,” Tony mused as he picked at Peter’s stash.
“Well, less hate, more of an allergy,” she deadpanned.
They were sitting on the curb, somewhere in Queens. A man with his young daughter walked by and spotted Tony. “Hey, man, that’s a great Tony Stark costume!”
“Yeah, I get that a lot,” Tony chuckled.
The man squinted in the dusk. “Wait a minute, are you--”
“Dad!” Morgan ran down from the apartment door they were in front of, “This house had these huge bars of chocolate! Look!” She held up a Hershey’s bar in triumph.
“That’s great, Mo,” Tony praised, “Go show Peter.” The girl ran to show her brother her prize and Tony outstretched his metal hand in greeting. “Nice to meet you, name’s Tony.”
The man shook his hand, in awe, “Dan. Dan Fitzgerald.”
--------
“So what brings you guys to Queens?” Dan asks as they walk along the sidewalk, Morgan and her new friend, Natalie, skipping along. The two girls had been introduced and clicked almost instantly, bonding over their love of Star Wars. (Peter and Ned had been ecstatic when yet another pair of life-long best friends, “Probably,” Peter had said, had been brought together by sci-fi movies.)
“This one,” he gestured to Peter, “Lives here with his Aunt part of the week. Said it was the best neighborhood to score the best candy, and who am I to say otherwise?”
Dan nodded in understanding. “Ah, sounds like the arrangement I have with my wife.” He chuckled, eyes on his daughter.
--------
“Peter.”
“Huh?”
“Wanna explain to me why your hair is singed?”
Peter hastily looks around. “Uhm--”
Tony pinched the bridge of his nose, “That’s where you were, huh?” He recalled the distant sirens and the sudden and suspicious-- but not at all surprising-- disappearance of his oldest child.
Peter grinned sheepishly. “Everyone’s okay, though.”
Tony shook his head fondly, MJ eyeing them suspiciously from a few feet away.
-------
An older kid screamed and jumped out of the way when he saw MJ, laughing, “Yo, that’s the scariest costume I’ve seen all night!”
MJ smirked, “Thanks.”
-------
“Oh my god!” Ned jumped when he saw a girl around their age dressed as Pidge.
“Oh my god--” she parroted in a similar fashion.
“I love your costume!!” They burst simultaneously.
Ned was still beaming, even after they had exchanged snapchats and they were walking away.
“Leaving Betty in the dust, huh?” Peter remarked.
Ned scoffed. “First love will always hold a special place in my heart,” he held up his phone, “But that doesn’t mean that I can’t progress.”
-------
“Morguna-- be careful-- hun, that’s dangerous!” Tony hurried after Morgan as she began walking into the street, scooping her up before she could cross paths with a moving car. “Don’t ever scare me like that!” He looked down at the girl, who’s eyes were filled with tears, and he decided that there were way worse things than horror films or haunted houses.
Peter picked up on it immediately, “Hey, Mo, wanna go hit a couple more houses? There’s a few up this way,” he gestured towards the path they were on, in a nicer, more suburban-like part of the city. Morgan nodded and took her brother’s hand. Tony looked at him gratefully. As they were walking, she mumbled, looking down at the concrete, loud enough for Peter to pick up on. “Is dad mad at me?”
Peter’s heart leapt to his throat, “No, I think he was just scared. Parents do that sometimes, you know.” He glanced back at Tony, who was obviously shaken up.
“Are you sure?”
Peter recalled all of the times he’d gotten chastised for getting injured on later-night patrols, “Yeah, I’m sure.”
--------
“It was nice meeting you guys,” Dan said as they stood by the parking garage where Tony’s audi was parked, “It’s a date, then?” He watched the two girls exchange candies.
“It’s a date.” Tony echoed, “Come on, Mo, time to say goodbye.”
“Awww, do we have to?”
“Yes, your mother will have my head if I keep you out any later, and besides, you’ll see Natalie this weekend. Come on.” He ushered her forward, Peter following closely behind as he bid Ned and MJ goodbye.
As they drove away, Morgan instantly began to drift off, exhausted from a day’s work of candy-collecting.
“Huh,” Tony said, “Easier than expected.”
--------
“How was your night?” May asked Peter as he and Tony joined Pepper, May and Happy in the yard.
“It was really good,” He recounted, “We hit a lot of houses this year.”
“Do you have my rent, then?”
Peter looked at her nervously. “Um--”
“Wait, rent?” Tony questioned, “Now I need to get in on this. What are we charging? Reece’s Peanut Butter Cups? Almond Joy? Take 5?”
“Anything you choose, Tony,” May replied.
“What-- no-- May!” The boy looked at her in betrayal.
“Kit-kats, then.”
“I expect no less than three Hershey’s bars,” Happy chimed in. Pepper looked amused, “Don’t worry, sweetie, I’m not going to ask you for anything,” she grinned maliciously, “I know where Morgan hides her stash.”
Peter hangs his head in defeat. No one’s candy was safe. “You’re all the worst.”
They laughed as Peter slinked back to the house, planning to hide away his stash until March.