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“What do you get the man who has everything? Might I suggest a gravestone inscribed with the words: so what?”
The air in the cabin still hummed with the energy of the Christmas party. A few hours ago, all the rooms had been filled to the brim with as many superheroes and families of superheroes that could fit. The holiday season made Tony nostalgic for old friends, sue him. It had been hard to believe there was snow building up outside when everyone was surrounded by the heat of the party.
Now, however, the cabin was empty save for a few of Tony’s closest friends. Most of which were either already sleeping or heading that way. Tony himself was dozing on the couch, a natural progression from when he sat down so Pepper could put Morgan to bed.
His right arm was dangling from the armrest, the soft amber light from the lamp hitting it in a distinctly artificial way. It was a constant work in progress. Tony had just had another breakthrough with the skin color, but it still wasn’t right. It had too many yellow undertones on the inside of his wrist, and too many pink ones near his elbow. Recreating the texture of skin was a no-go as well: the wrinkling was too artificial. It was fine from a few yards away, sure, but it made people uncomfortable up close. The whirring was noticeable to anyone near when he moved it. Tony could pick it apart for hours. The whole project of making a hyper-realistic prosthesis was an entirely frustrating endeavor. Pepper had pulled him away from its blueprints in the early hours of the morning far too many times.
Tony woke up from his half-asleep state when he heard the floorboards creak from behind him. He smiled to himself, glad he offered for the Parkers to stay the night. Peter shyly came into his field of vision and hovered by the other side of the couch. He was holding a manilla folder carefully close to his chest, as if he was afraid of crushing it.
Tony’s body creaked as he raised himself into a sitting position. “I was hoping I’d get some one on one time with my favorite intern sometime today. What’d you think of the party?” That was another reason he had invited Peter to stay the night: there had been too many people at the party to have a conversation with someone specific for a meaningful amount of time. Peter barely had enough time to say a jaunty season’s greetings to him before getting swept up into something with Rhodey and Carol.
“It was really great, Mr. Stark. It was crazy to see everyone in one place that wasn’t a huge fight.” Tony huffed out a laugh at that.
“Times are a-changin,” he said as he looked out the window to watch the snow for a moment, stewing in his thoughts.
He motioned for Peter to sit next to him. He grabbed a blanket from underneath the coffee table and joined Tony on the couch. They sat in comfortable silence for a moment, both of them basking in the comfortable warmth of the room contrasting against the cool chill from outside. Tony could tell there was something on Peter’s mind. He waited for him to gather his thoughts.
“I uh… Got you something for Christmas,” he finally said.
Tony peered at him through the corner of his eye. “Is it to do with the folder you’re holding?”
“Ha ha,” Peter deadpanned. He adjusted his grip on the manilla folder. “Uh, yeah.”
Tony shifted his position so he was looking directly at Peter and nodded at him to continue.
“It’s not like I could buy you anything, because you’re already a billionaire, so I figured I had to make you something. And it took me a long time to figure out what to make, ‘cause I’m too old to just make you a card.”
“There’s plenty of free space on the fridge if you ever change your mind,” Tony quipped.
Peter just rolled his eyes and continued on. He was barely able to cover up a smile. “Thankfully I’m still young enough I don’t have to worry about getting a present for everyone I know. Trying to figure something out for everyone here would be crazy. I pretty much just got something for you, May, Ned, and MJ.”
“Well, I’m honored. Are you going to keep me in suspense?”
“It isn’t really… normal.” Peter rubbed the corner of the small manilla folder he was holding, on the verge of tearing it open before Tony could even get the chance.
“Kid, I’m a freshly-retired superhero. I’ve learned to appreciate the unusual,” Tony said as he slowly leaned forward, escaping from the fluffed-up couch cushions he was laying in. His arm clicked and whirred and the artificial skin gathered on the inside of the elbow. Peter forced himself to look elsewhere.
“Ok, well… here.” He stuck his arm that was holding the folder out towards Tony stiffly.
Tony took it and slid his hand over the surface for a second before opening it and sliding out the few pieces of paper that are inside.
“Kid…” His voice was thick, but Tony couldn’t decipher which emotion was at the forefront of his own mind.
“I don’t want to offend you, but I had some ideas for your arm.” Peter rubbed the back of his neck as he talks.
“You being smarter than me is never going to offend me.” Tony offered him a warm smile as he flipped through the papers in front of him. There were a few beats of silence as Peter let him look over the designs.
“Hit me, kid. What’re you thinking?” He put the papers on his lap and looked to Peter.
“I- uh, I wrote it all out in the papers.”
“Yeah, I prefer to hear it from the source.”
“Well… I think you want your arm to look like a normal arm, which is great!” He took a deep breath and looked at Tony. “But your main issue is always going to be the uncanny valley. It looks so much like a human arm, but there’s an artificial element to it that will make it seem… weird.” Peter’s voice fell flat when he reached the end of his train of thought. He looked over to see Tony scratching his jawline with his left hand, pointedly keeping his prosthesis still so it wouldn’t make noise.
“Then let’s say I’m one of the most renowned tech geniuses in the world with any materials I need at my disposal, who’s to say I can’t get over the uncanny valley?”
Tony’s tone was challenging without any heat behind it. He was just testing to see how much Peter thought about this. It was like before the Blip, hours spent in the lab going back and forth at a mile a minute trying to work out some bug in the suits. Back when all of their issues could be broken into two parts- finding out what the problem was and solving it.
“I’m sure you could, but at some point…” Peter trailed off.
Tony met Peter’s eyes. He still looked intimidated. If he had a hero complex before the Blip, Tony saving the entire universe only worsened it. He nodded at Peter, hoping his eyes looked kind enough.
Peter cleared his throat. When he spoke again, it was more confident. “Is it worth it?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean… You can make the most human-like prosthetic, but at the end of the day, you just take it off and go to bed.” Peter’s eyes gained a competitive spark. “Why not lean into the skid?”
Tony looked back down at the blueprints. Maybe he was right. Besides, the kid had style. The arm he designed was clearly based on his suits. It had a red base with gold tracing the joints and a silver stripe from shoulder to wrist. Pretty good for a first draft. In fact, it was a bit too good for a first draft.
“Kid, have you designed Iron Man suits before?”
Tony was half joking, but the way Peter quickly looked away made him bark out a laugh.
“Ned and I were really big fans--” Peter’s explanation was cut off by Tony’s laugh deteriorating into sounding like a tire losing air.
“Lord, kid, that was better than any present you could’ve given me.”
Peter put his head in his hands and Tony leaned over and nudged him with his shoulder. His movement caused his arm to whir and both men flinched. Tony felt the mood shift.
“Can I say something?” Peter asked.
“What’ve we been doing so far?” Tony’s voice was still tinged with playfulness.
“No, I mean…” Peter looked over, the soft light making his face seem even younger. “Can I say something real?”
“Of course, kid.”
“I think the realistic arm is something… normal. But you’re not normal, Mr. Stark.”
Tony laughed and rubbed the palm of his right hand with the thumb of his left. “Now I see why Rhodes likes you so much.”
“No I don’t mean--”
He waved Peter off. “I’m messing with you, kid. I know what you mean.”
“Like… You saved the whole universe, so it’s not like you can ever blend in, no matter how many hyper-realistic pores you put on a prosthetic.” Some idle part of Tony’s mind made a note of adding pores to the next design. “You need something new, something that shows how you’ve changed. Not just trying to stay the same as you were before the Blip.”
Tony huffed and stretched his prosthetic out in front of him. Kids Say the Darndest Things, eat your heart out. “Wow, and I thought Brucie was my therapist.”
“What can I say,” Peter said. He looked wryly at Tony. “Dying made me more introspective, I guess.”
Tony groaned. “Maybe wait another couple of years before making jokes, Pete.” He paused, then added, “I appreciate this, kid. Takes a lot of guts to call me out, but it should happen more often.”
Tony put the blueprints back in the folder and set them on the coffee table, mentally making a note to pick them up and move them to the lab in the morning. If he woke up early enough, he could probably get it fitted and put on before breakfast.
“Well, you’re not the only one with surprises tonight, kid,” he said as he grabbed a box from underneath the couch. “Had to keep it safe from prying eyes.”
“Oh, Mr. Stark, you didn’t have to get me anything.”
“Don’t worry, it’s nothing big.” He waved a hand non-committedly. “I talked your aunt’s ear off trying to figure out what you wanted. She thought I was joking about getting you an Audi.”
“You didn’t--”
“I didn’t,” he assured. Then he tilted his head and said, “Though all you have to do is ask--”
“Mr. Stark!”
“Hey, I’m kidding.” He mentally switched gears and handed Peter the box. “I didn’t want to embarrass you in front of all the superheroes, so here.”
Peter took his time with unwrapping the gift, making sure to untie the bow and not tear any of the paper. Tony briefly considered poking fun at him, but the moment was too fragile.
Once he finished unwrapping the paper, there was a photo album left behind. It was bound in a black hardcover and didn’t have any defining characteristics besides a stylized spider design embossed in gold foil onto the lower right corner of the cover. For such an ostentatious guy, Tony was glad he reeled it in for this one.
Peter flipped through its pages and saw pictures of the Blip. Pictures of Tony and Pepper, of Morgan learning to walk, of everything. Eventually he landed on the first page, which was a large print of Tony’s favorite picture of the album.
It was taken only a few months after Thanos snapped. There had been a memorial set up for Spider-Man in Queens. Tony had been walking numbly through old haunts when he saw it. He didn’t know how, but it had been only a few blocks from Peter’s apartment.
The memorial was surrounded by flowers of all types and colors. Drawings of Spider-Man, from childhood scrawls to professional portraits, were taped on the wall surrounding it. Candles were set on every available surface. Where there was no space for more, nightstands had been brought out. There were Sharpies of all colors strewn on the ground around it.
The focal point of the memorial, though, was the wall itself. Someone had written over the white paint of the building in large block letters, “Spider-Man saved me.” Surrounding that, were hundreds of other messages. All from people Spider-Man had affected, describing how he saved them. Tony may have been one of the few left to grieve for Peter Parker, but he was far from the only one grieving for Spider-Man.
“They uh--” Tony tapped the picture of the colorful wall. “They painted over this after a year or so. Figured you should see it.”
Peter traced his finger over some of the writing. “Wow, this is…”
He looked over to Tony. Neither man was crying, but they were both getting dangerously close to being emotional. Thankfully, it was late enough in the night they could blame it on being tired.
“I figured you probably felt a little behind,” Tony started. “Five years behind, really. So I enlisted FRIDAY, along with everyone who wasn’t dusted’s phones, and raided their pictures. There aren’t many good ones early on, but y’know. They get better. We never forgot about you. Any of you, really, but you were… the kid.”
He cleared his throat and pointed at the rest of the photo album. “If you look in the back, there’s a little flash drive that has a rundown of all the tech changes in the past five years, if you’re interested. Knowing you, I’m sure you’ll be all caught up by morning.”
Peter flipped through a few more pages and then leaned back into the couch, staring upwards.
“How’re you feeling, kid?”
“I can’t look at it for too long. I will cry,” he said to the ceiling.
“Glad you like it.” Tony sighed and leaned back next to Peter. “I was the brains, Pep and Morgan helped me out with the actual ‘asking other people for pictures’ part. You’ll have to include them in any thank you card correspondence.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever written a thank you card in my life.” Peter twisted to his side to look at Tony. “Is that bad?”
“Well, it’s not kill half the universe bad,” Tony admitted.
“I thought no jokes?”
“Eh.” Tony turned his head to meet Peter’s eyes with a smirk. “They’re funnier when I do them.”
“A man who has everything has nothing if he doesn’t have love.”