Work Text:
Halloween was always Mary’s favorite holiday. May remembers all the years they dressed alike when they were teenagers—two witches, two pirates, when they were Charlie’s Angels with their friend Allison. Mary would always go ham on decorating the house—she loved her bats and spiders—but her last Halloween, she just stayed in with Peter. She put a little pumpkin hat on his head, and all of them watched The Sixth Sense and gave out candy.
It doesn’t feel like a year ago. Every second without her sister feels like the world caving in on itself, and May still doesn’t understand what the hell happened. None of it makes sense. It never will.
“Hey,” Ben says, hovering over her.
“Hm?”
“You okay?” he asks, gently. He’s always so gentle, and it sends waves of calm through her.
“Fine,” she lies, smiling, and she knows he knows, because he can read every line of her face, but he also knows it’d be better if he didn’t ask.
“Mini corn dogs are done,” Ben says, giving her a look like he’s trying to get into her head. “Gonna whip out the salsa and chips—you think he’s close?”
“Not sure,” May says, rubbing the back of her neck. “He’s always later when he’s not with Pepper.”
“She have her own Halloween plans?” Ben asks, brushing her shoulder and walking back into the kitchen, all his questions going unasked.
She sits up a little bit, smiling to herself. “Supposedly busy, but who’s busy on Halloween if they’re not doing Halloween things?”
“What are you implying?” Ben asks, looking inside the fridge.
“Oh, I don’t know,” May says, chewing on her lower lip. She wonders what’s going on between Pepper and Tony. They’re so strange, sometimes, with the way they behave. She needs to become girlfriends with Pepper. They’ve only spent time together alone a couple of times. May needs to get the gossip out of her. She thinks she can crack her.
She doesn’t say anything to Ben about it yet, because he’ll just tsk at her and tell her to stay out of their personal business. But May likes Pepper, and Tony gets all googly-eyed when he’s around her. Something’s gotta be going on.
May likes thinking about these things so she doesn’t think about other things.
“What’s Petey gonna be for Halloween, do we know yet?” Ben calls, shutting the fridge and taking a plate out of the cabinet.
May turns the TV to the kids channel and gets up to go help him, trying to clear the cloud in her head. She’s already got her raggedy Anne outfit on, and Ben never does anything too crazy, and this year is no exception. He’s a cat. With ears, and a black spot on his nose, and that’s it. She couldn’t get much more out of him. “No idea,” she says, but she barely gets the words out before there’s a knock at the door. “Oh, there we go,” May says, and Ben grins at her, dumping the tortilla chips on a plate, shoving the container of salsa in the middle.
May walks over and opens the door, revealing Tony standing there. He’s got a very excited-looking Peter in the papoose, and there are what looks like seven or eight shopping bags from the Halloween store hanging on his arms.
“Alright,” he says, walking right inside, and Peter shrieks in happiness. “I’m late.”
“You’re not too late,” May says.
“Happy Halloween, Tony,” Ben says, carrying the food in and putting it on the table. “Petey muffin pie.”
“You too, Ben Cat. And thank God, I haven’t eaten all day,” Tony says, immediately grabbing a mini corn dog.
“I hope that’s not true,” May says, walking over to him. Peter is grinning from ear to ear and he laughs again, kicking his feet and clapping his hands. May unclips the papoose and lifts Peter out of there, and gets a good look at his adorable outfit. He’s definitely not wearing a costume, which May figures she’s about to hear about, considering the shopping bags. But he’s got a little shirt on with a bunch of cartoon spiders, and the baby jeans Tony got on their last shopping trip.
May loves the baby jeans.
“Ween, ween!” Peter yells, hugging her shoulder when she pulls him close. “Hall ween!”
“Oh my goodness, little genius,” May says, kissing the top of his head. “Little genius in his adorable little jeans.” She knows Mary would be absolutely losing it right now. Mary would love everything about him to the moon and back. She already did, in the time she got to know him. But what he’s growing up to be? May can always see it. A future they didn’t get to have together.
Thankfully, there’s Tony. Who fell into this headfirst and came up with a clingy, adorable munchkin. The same one who bops up and down in her arms and makes grabby hands for his father just now.
Ben eats a chip and stares down at the bags like he isn’t putting two and two together. “What’s all this?”
“I just couldn’t pick a costume,” Tony says, shaking his head. “They were all just. So much. They were so good, they were so—it was too much, I had multiple heart attacks and took about a hundred pictures and tipped the guys working in there because I was making such a goddamn mess.” He eats another corn dog. “We have to pick one. We gotta make it snappy too, I already saw kids out there and I wanna get the good candy. Not that he’ll be eating most of it, but it’s the principle. Don’t take his reactions as any indicator of what to choose, either, because he loved every single option we tried, unlike this other baby that was there.”
“Why did you wait til the last minute to shop for his costume?” Ben asks, trying not to laugh.
“Cheese?” Peter asks, nearly his favorite word, after dada. May gives him another kiss and puts him down, and he toddles over to Ben, hugging his leg.
May scoffs. “Uh, he didn’t wait, he’s been in there nearly every day since they put the stuff out in August.”
“Do not exaggerate,” Tony says, narrowing his eyes at her. “Okay, let’s go, grab that baby, we’ve got at least ten options. And matching options for me because yes that’s what we’re doing.”
May grins, rubbing her hands together.
Whenever the baby is around her mood lifts, and Peter grins at her when Ben picks him up, like he knows what she’s thinking.
~
Tony’s costume options for Peter are enough to give May an absolute coronary, and it doesn’t help that the baby truly loves being dressed up and toddles around, showing off, in each outfit they put him in. He’s a peacock, a little monster, a penguin, a cowboy, a duckling, the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, an avocado, for some reason, a bear, a pineapple, a sushi roll, and finally, once nearly an hour has gone by and all the snacks have been eaten, they land on the monkey, because it feels most apt.
“Petey monkey!” Peter yells, his little tail flopping as he runs.
“Oh, look, they’ve got a little banana for him to carry,” Ben says, pulling it out of the bag. He kneels down, holds it out for Peter, and Peter immediately rushes over and grabs it.
“Are you gonna return all these others?” May asks, trying to pack them back up properly.
“Uh, maybe,” Tony calls, from just around the corner where he’s changing into his matching monkey outfit. “Maybe I’ll keep them, so I can dress him up all the time. Since he likes it so much.”
May snorts, and she turns around when she hears him coming. “Oh my God,” she laughs, covering her mouth with her hand.
“Well, look at that,” Ben says, beaming.
Tony’s outfit is similar to Peter’s, except it doesn’t have a hood, and he puts on ears that sit on top of his head like Ben’s do.
Peter screams when he sees him, and topples over, the banana squeaking. “Dada!” Peter yells, struggling to pick himself back up because of how big the monkey feet are. But he manages it and races over to where Tony is standing, reaching up for him, bouncing up and down in excitement.
“I know, I know, I look better this way,” Tony says, pulling Peter up and into his arms.
“It’s a good look,” May says, grinning, watching Peter grab for Tony’s new ears.
“We ready to skate?” Ben asks, grabbing the baby bag.
“Wait, wait,” May says, putting the other costumes back down on the couch. “I need my camera. It’s not a want, it’s a need.”
~
May still feels like she’s in an alternate reality, sometimes. She looks at Tony and expects to see Richard, but then she remembers when she is, who’s here and who’s not. She has to admit to herself that she likes Tony, that he’s better than she thought he was, and she likes what he brings out in Ben. Ben never really seemed to mesh with Richard, but Tony, despite being multiple tax brackets above them, gets Ben talking like May used to see him do in high school. It’s nice to see. It’s really, really nice for him to have a friend.
She trails behind them and takes pictures, and doesn’t let her mind wander. Instead, she just admires how Tony is out here in a monkey costume—one of the most famous men in the world, walking the streets in a monkey costume, purely because his son enjoys it.
And oh, does Peter enjoy it. He takes turns walking and wanting to be held, and Tony got a little add-on brown back papoose for when Peter gets tired. But May can see right through him, and knows he got it because Peter looks like a little monkey on his back.
It’s too much, sometimes. But never enough.
“Dada!” Peter yells, as a display of ghosts howls at one of the apartments down the way. “Big big spiders! Big big spiders!”
“Yeah,” Tony says, watching as Peter approaches the next place, where the people are set up on the stairs waiting for trick or treaters. They’ve got spiders and webs arranged along the railings, and Peter toddles over and starts squeezing one of the spider legs.
“Haven’t heard him say that one,” Ben says.
“That’s from swimming,” May says, glancing at him. “When he does the strokes. Tony sings itsy bitsy at home, too, he’s got a little book.”
“Say what we said, Petey monkey,” Tony says, kneeling next to him, trying to steer him towards the family sitting on the steps. “What are we saying, huh? What d’you say?”
Peter laughs and squeezes the spider’s leg again, and he glances over where Tony is leading him. He takes a couple steps, still reaching for the spider, and he holds up his pumpkin, the candy inside rustling.
“Treat!” Peter yells. “Treat!”
May laughs and then she notices the looks on the mother’s and father’s faces, like they know exactly who this is, but they don't want to say. But there’s a little kid in a pirate outfit sitting there, and they urge him ahead to put the candy in Peter’s pumpkin.
“Go ahead, Daniel,” the mother whispers. “Give the monkey his treat, he’s not in the mood for tricks.”
The pirate Daniel jumps down and walks over, dumping too many pieces of candy into the pumpkin. Peter jumps and laughs like he’s won a game, and Tony picks him up.
“Thanks, Captain,” Tony says.
The kid stares up at him, and Ben clears his throat. A group of teenagers rush by blaring the Power Rangers theme, and Peter screams and throws his hands around. The kid keeps staring at Tony. “You’re Tony Stark,” Daniel says.
“Daniel—” the father hisses.
“That I am,” Tony says, fishing a lollipop out of the pumpkin. “Happy Halloween, kid.”
“Spiders,” Peter yells, as Tony starts to head away. “Spiders!”
“Look over here,” Tony says, pointing at the ghost display. “Oh my God, Petey, look at all that.”
May and Ben are about to follow when May hears the woman on the stairs say something.
“We’ve been keeping up with the press, even though we feel bad that they’re following him,” she says, gently.
Ben gives May a look, squeezing her hand.
“I’ll catch up,” she says, nodding at him, and he nods back, following after Tony. May looks at the woman. “The press are a mess. They almost surrounded our car.”
“We saw that,” the woman says, as Daniel hands out some candy to the next batch of kids. “But that baby is precious. Precious. We wanna see as much of him as we can. And Mr. Stark seems like a very good father. We’ve always liked him, long before his parents passed in that accident. He lost his way, for a while there, but little Peter seems to have given him a new perspective.”
“He’s a wonderful person,” May says. “Tony. And Peter is, like you said, the most precious thing.”
“Little monkey,” the woman says, watching down the street, the way they went.
“Thanks for the candy,” May says, winking at them.
She starts heading for the next batch of places, and notices Peter babbling at another baby around his age, dressed like a fried egg. She laughs to herself and takes a picture, and then she looks up at the starry sky, trying to imagine Mary watching.
“Yeah,” May whispers. “I bet you like this.”
~
They go from apartment to apartment for the next hour, and then to the youth center, where Tony gets caught up asking about making a big donation. May takes pictures until she’s out of film, and then they work their way back to the house. Peter isn’t sleeping yet but he’s laying on Tony’s back, smiling and content and holding onto his pumpkin bucket like he thinks someone is gonna take it from him.
Which they do, as soon as they get in the door.
He yells, scandalized. “Treat! Treat! Dada, big treat. Please.”
May gasps, putting the bucket on the table. “Tony, he did not just say please.”
Tony snorts, getting Peter out of the papoose. “He does that on purpose, doesn’t he?” Tony asks, kissing Peter’s cheek as he continues to reach out for the bucket. “To make us feel bad. On purpose.”
“Well, it’s working,” May says.
“I’ll get the cheese plate,” Ben says. “That’ll smooth it over.”
And thankfully, Peter loves cheese enough that the little cubes are much more enticing than the candy is, and May hopes he’ll just forget about it. It kills her, but she knows a baby his age isn’t quite ready for candy yet, and they sort it out together to bring to their respective jobs. He’ll be able to have a few pieces next year, and she’s already looking forward to it.
“You still good to have us stay tonight?” Tony asks, another lollipop in his mouth. He puts all the Snickers bars in piles.
“Of course,” May says. “I washed the sheets this morning for the pullout and the crib is ready to be pulled in here.” She glances up at him, considers asking about Pepper, but she stops herself. She grabs a jolly rancher and starts unrolling it, and Tony knocks the ears off his head. Ben is sitting on the couch behind them, holding Peter and half falling asleep to the dulcet tones of The Exorcist. Peter eats his cheese, unbothered. “I’m glad that dinosaur took a photo of all four of us without stealing the camera,” May says.
Tony snorts. “Me too,” he says. “I’m glad we settled on monkey for Petey. Now he matches Mary in that old photo on the wall.”
May starts, a cold shudder running through her that doesn’t have anything to do with how hard the fan is running.
Tony notices immediately and narrows his eyes. “The one in the hallway. She’s a monkey and you’re a lady bug. You look like you’re about...three? If I’m guessing?”
May closes her eyes and laughs, feeling strangely present and very, very far away at the same time. “Honestly, I—half the photos on the wall, I’m blind to at this point, but God, uh—yeah, yes, that’s—I, uh—” Her heart is beating faster and she feels strangely guilty for not immediately remembering, and she’s constantly torn between trying to live her life and wanting to languish in her agony, wanting to elongate her mourning to every single day until she doesn’t miss her anymore.
And she’ll never not miss her.
Tony pushes a Snickers bar towards her. “We’ll print out the picture I took of you and Peter,” he says, gently. “Frame it. Put it up alongside the other.”
A small sob nearly rips itself from her chest and she nods, squeezing her eyes shut tight. Tony grips her shoulder tight, and it’s strangely reassuring.
“My!” Peter says, behind her. “My!” She can feel his hands on the back of her head.
She opens her eyes and sees Tony grinning, raising his eyebrows and letting go of her. “Sounds like someone is trying to say—”
“M—Mm—My! Mm—May! May!”
“Now, listen to that,” Ben laughs, waking back up, just in time. “That your Aunt May, Petey?”
May feels like she’s moving in slow motion. This baby has always been strangely intuitive, as if he can sense what’s in someone’s heart, and she turns, trying to keep a straight face because she knows he doesn’t like adults crying.
Peter laughs, leaning down from Ben’s lap and pressing his little costumed hands to her face.
“Well, who’s the sweetest little monkey?” May says, as Ben transfers him over to her. “You’re finally saying my name, huh? Not that I was waiting.”
He giggles, and leans in, hugging her. She feels like she’s gonna cry again, and she kisses the top of his head, in between the ears. She sees Tony and Ben sharing a look, and then Ben tosses a cheese cube directly into Tony’s mouth.
“Cheesy family of cheese lovers,” Ben says, grinning.
“May,” Peter says, again. He seems to really be trying it, and he pronounces it more like ma-eye, but she’ll take it. She’ll take it and then some.
“Happy Halloween,” she says, to herself, to Peter, to Mary.
“Happy Halloween,” Tony says back, smiling like the sweet man he is.
Jesus. How things change.