Chapter Text
“Mommy, look what I made.” Sam all but slammed the ballpen he was using to draw with on the tray table, lifting the paper throw-up bag he was sketching on.
Stephanie lowered the book she was reading, slipping a finger between the pages before turning to look at the stick-figure drawings her youngest son had created through the duration of their flight. “They look amazing, sweetheart. Who’re they supposed to be?” she asked inquisitively, smiling when Sam beamed up at her.
“That’s me, Harley, and Peter.” Sam started pointing at the stick-figures, describing each roughly drawn t-shirt and hair style as simple caricatures of their family. “And that one’s you — I drawed you a skirt ‘cause I know you like ‘em — and this tiny one is Daddy.”
“Hey, now. I better not have heard ‘tiny’ and ‘Daddy’ used in the same sentence,” Tony started, leaning across the aisle to teasingly glare at their son. Sam giggled into his hand, shifting in his seat to show Tony his drawing. Stephanie watched on with a grin as her five-year-old went off on a nearly unintelligible rant about height differences and lacking space on the paper bag, and her husband went to point out how Sam had egregiously forgotten to give him facial hair.
“I didn’t forget,” Sam claimed, moving to draw Tony’s signature beard and mustache anyway. “You look handsomer without it.”
“Handsomer, huh? You don’t think your old man looks handsome already?” Tony made a show of making faces at Sam, the likes of which would make even Derek Zoolander jealous.
Sam shook his head side-to-side unerringly, explaining, “You look less old without a mustache—” Tony’s jaw dropped and Steph stifled a laugh, hiding behind her book “—and more handsomer because you look like me!”
Tony continued his charade of being mock-offended, looking over his son’s head to find Steph’s gaze. “Baby! Did you just hear what your son said to me?”
“Oh, just because he offended your stylistic choices of facial hair, Sammy’s suddenly only my son?”
“Stephie, c’mon, it’s my brand, there’s no—”
The overhead speakers dinged on, and the voice of a stewardess came through to announce: “Ladies and gentlemen. Please fasten your seatbelts as we are beginning our final approach into Phuket Airport. The local time is one-thirty in the afternoon—”
Stephanie double-checked Sam’s belt before started to stow away his tray. Suddenly, a head of blond hair appeared in her peripheral vision. “Harley,” she said, “what are you doing? It’s time to sit down. We’re about to land, darling.”
“Peter won’t talk to me,” Harley complained, frowning.
She sighed, turning her head back to glance at the row her eldest son was in. “Take my seat.”
Harley’s brows furrowed together as Stephanie unbuckled and got up from her seat, swaying a bit at the turbulence. “What did I do? I didn’t do anything.”
“Okay, okay. Just sit down and stop worrying. Buckle up,” Stephanie instructed, ushering her seven-year-old into the chair and clicking the belt in place. She started down the walkway, nodding kindly to the stewardess when told to sit down, and then slipped into the empty seat beside Peter, who had his headphones placed firmly over his ears.
When Stephanie pulled the headphones off of his head, her twelve-year-old son snapped, “What?”
“You can try to be a little nicer to your brother, Pete.” Stephanie buckled herself in, adding, “It might seem annoying, but you know he’s just scared.”
“So, what’s new?” Peter retorted, frowning as he looked out of the airplane window. “Everything scares him.” The plane rumbled a bit as they hit another pocket of turbulence, and Stephanie leaned back into the seat, hands gripping tightly to the armrests. Peter didn’t bother holding back his grin as he teased her. “I wonder who he takes after.”
Stephanie shuddered as she let out a breath, turning to throw a soft glare to her son. Peter pursed his lips together in a failed attempt to hide his smirk. The two of them broke out into laughter, letting the slight tension dissipate between them. She reached out to pinch Peter’s nose between her middle and forefinger, asking with a chuckle, “Will you try to be the best big brother I know you are?”
“Yeah, yeah, I promise,” Peter responded, swatting his mom’s hand away.
~*~*~*~
The drive out to their resort was beautiful. They never got to see much of the tropical flora that places like Thailand had in spades, so it was definitely a literal breath of fresh air to see and smell all the green, and Harley and Peter bickered about New York being called the “concrete jungle” the whole time they were all holed up in their large van. After checking into the beach-side resort, one of the bellhops loaded their luggage into a cart and followed them with it as a manager gave them a brief tour of the place, explaining that the area wherein they were situated was quiet and perfect for families.
Harley pulled at Steph’s hands as they passed by the large wave pool, pointing out all of the other children playing with blow-up beach balls and alligator floaties. Before she could get out more than “we’ll get into the pool when we’re settled, darling,” she realized they were being led towards one of the large beach-front buildings instead of the rooms in the main hotel like they’d originally booked. “I thought we’d reserved a different room on the third floor? The Sea View Room?”
“I know, we are so sorry. There was a mistake on our end, new system and everything.” He opened the front door to the small home-like structure, weaving in between furniture to push open the far curtain to reveal the wide expanse of the ocean. “We figured maybe you’d enjoy this one a little bit better.”
Sam and Harley shouted out in glee, running past them all to get to the windows. Tony let his laptop bag slip from his shoulder before leaving it in one of the couches. The hotel manager asked them, “So, where did you fly in from?”
“Philippines,” Tony answered, head swiveling around the place as he took in the room. He made a beeline to the sliding doors, opening it up to reveal the furnished patio.
“Funny. You don’t look Filipino.”
“Ah, yeah. I run a big tech company, so we sometimes move around. Originally from New York, though.” The brunet took in a lungful of air, placing his hands on his hips as he enjoyed the blue skies and sea-green water.
“And you?” the manager asked, looking at Stephanie. “You don’t work?”
Her brows rose up on her forehead, and it took everything in her not to look as offended as she felt. From the corner of her eye, she noticed Tony stifle a laugh. “I’m a doctor, actually. Not practicing much recently, just taking care of the kids until they’re a little older.”
“I see! So you got promoted.” He followed Tony out to the patio, folding his hands out in front of him. Stephanie watched her husband lean in slightly, muttering something along the lines of, Nice save.
“Mom?” Peter asked from the kitchen. She turned, seeing him kneeling in front of the open refrigerator. He held out a can of Coca Cola, asking, “Can I have one of these, please?”
Steph frowned, shaking her head. “Peter, if you’re still thirsty, will you just—”
“—Drink some juice or a glass of water,” Tony, Harley, and Sam all recited in unison, finishing her thought for her. Peter sighed under his breath, replacing the soda in the fridge.
“Exactly. I knew you all have been paying attention,” she teased, throwing an amused look at her husband when he grinned. The manager laughed politely, bidding their family a welcome stay and happy vacation, before making his way out of the beach-side home.
Tony called out for their sons then, ushering them out of the house and to the back patio. In front of them were bushes filled with growing tropical flowers, palm trees standing tall against the sky, and the expanse of beach and ocean for days. “Boys, come look at this. Isn’t it great?”
“I can’t see!” Sam complained, hopping up and down on the balls of his feet. Tony huffed a laugh from his nose, grabbing his son by the arms and hauling him up onto his back. Sam gasped dramatically, gripping his little fingers onto Tony’s neck when he caught sight of the view. “Wow, Daddy, can we swim in there?”
“Yeah, squirt, we’ll definitely go swimming.”
Stephanie threw an arm around Peter’s shoulders, placing a chaste kiss to the side of his head when he came close enough. “How’s it looking, Petey-Pie?”
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen this much green in my whole life,” he replied, beaming with a wide grin. “This is so cool.”
“Can we go swimming now?” Harley inquired, clambering up onto one of the bamboo chairs to get a better look over the bushes. “The water looks so clean!”
“Unpack your bags and get your trunks, then!” Steph cheered, laughing when Harley’s eyes went so wide she thought they were going to pop out of his head. “It’s Christmas Eve today, right? Let’s go celebrate, boys.”
“Yes! Come on, Sammy, get your shorts!” Harley practically flew off the chair, running back into the house with Sam right on his heels after sliding out of Tony’s hold. Peter followed behind them after acting fake-disgusted when his parents shared a short kiss.
Tony and Stephanie stood there for a moment, arms around each other’s waists, watching the waves crash onto the shore, listening to the breeze rustling the leaves of the trees, and hearing the chatter of excitement from their three sons. She angled her head up to rest her chin on Tony’s shoulder, smiling. “Merry Christmas, baby.”
“Merry Christmas, Stephie.” Tony placed a quick peck to the tip of her nose. “I promise this’ll be a trip we’ll never forget.”
“You promise, huh?”
“Oh, yeah. Do I ever break my promises?” Tony’s smirk faltered slightly. “Don’t answer that.”
Stephanie laughed, unwrapping herself from Tony’s embrace and leading him back into the house so they could get changed for the water.