Chapter Text
“Dude it can’t be that hard finding a present for your basically dad.” Ned said, shoving Peter lightly as they walked through the mall.
“He’s not my dad.” Peter groaned, burying his head in his hands. “And it’s hard because of the fact he’s not my dad. That makes it like 10 times harder.”
“Why don’t you just give him that old JARVIS file you found and said ‘hey this will be the perfect gift for Mr. Stark’. What happened to that being a perfect gift?”
“I don’t know.” Peter admitted with a sigh. “It just doesn’t feel right. It almost feels too important.”
“I’m sure he’ll like anything you get him, it’s coming from you after all.” Ned pointed out.
“I guess.”
Peter stopped in his tracks grabbing Ned’s arm pulling him to a stop as well. He pointed to the windows of one of the stores.
“What about that?” Peter asked, pulling Ned into the store.
“I think he’ll love it.”
Day 1
“Don’t worry, be happy.”
Peter groaned at the sound of Happy’s ringtone echoing through his ears. He blindly felt around until his hand wrapped around the phone pressing the answer button.
“Hello?” Peter answered followed by a yawn.
“Kid, what is taking you so long, I’ve been outside for 10 minutes.” Happy said with a slight tone of annoyance flowing through his voice.
Peter immediately shot up from his bed remembering that he was supposed to go to the tower today.
“I’ll be out in a minute.” He rushed out before hanging up the phone and tossing it onto his bed.
Peter was quick to get changed and throw all his stuff into his backpack before grabbing his phone from his bed and rushing out the door. As he walked down the stairs he sent a quick text to May, who was already at work, letting her know he was on his way to the tower for the day. Since May had to work on Christmas Eve, they decided it would be fun if Peter stayed with Tony at the tower and May would come over Christmas morning to celebrate with them.
Peter slid into Happy’s car when he got downstairs immediately apologizing to the man.
“Sorry, Happy, I don’t know why my alarm didn’t go off.”
“It’s fine kid, traffic is just awful this time of year so I don’t want to be in the car longer than necessary.” Happy said, pulling away from the curb.
“Understandable, sorry about that.”
The rest of the drive to the tower was mostly silent aside from Peter pointing out the abundance of holiday decorations that Happy vaguely grunted at with acknowledgement. Luckily the traffic wasn’t too bad but it still took longer than normal to get to the tower.
“Thanks, Happy!” Peter said, jumping out of the car and into the elevator giving Happy a wave as the doors closed.
Peter rocked back and forth on his heels as the elevator rose through the levels of the tower. While he was nervous about the present he got Tony, he knew that Ned was right and Tony was going to love whatever he got him. Sure was it a kinda stupid gift? Yeah, and a little cheesy but maybe that’s how it was supposed to be. It seemed to describe their relationship pretty well anyways.
He pulled his backpack off one shoulder and patted the inside to make sure the gift was in there… except as he patted the front of the bag it caved in rather than stopping at the bag he was sure he put inside. Peter ripped his backpack open only to find there was no gift bag sitting on top, only the hard drive that sat pathetically at the bottom of the bag. What happened to the gift bag? He was sure he put it in his backpack last night before sleeping. Chances were he accidentally left it sitting on his desk next to his backpack.
Peter fell against the elevator wall with a sigh. He had this whole plan, he was going to give Tony the gift and when he opened it Peter was finally going to tell Tony that he saw him as a dad. Was it a good plan? He wasn’t exactly sure, but it was a plan and he was hoping to actually go through with the plan. But now he couldn’t.
Peter groaned as the elevator doors opened and he drug himself out into the living room flopping face first onto the couch.
“Good morning to you too, kid.” Tony called out from the kitchen. “I didn’t think you hated Christmas Eve this much.”
“I don’t.” Peter stated though his tone didn’t match what he was saying. “I forgot something important, which I guess isn’t that important ‘cause I have a backup.”
“If you have a backup then why do you seem so upset over it?” Tony questioned making his way over to the living room with a bowl of food in each hand. “Alright up up kid.”
Peter sat up on the couch taking a bowl from Tony. “Thank you.” He said as Tony sat next to him on the couch. “The back up and the original are two completely different things is the problem. Like either works I just had a plan for the first one. Technically the second one is more important I guess, and means more, but the first one had a plan.”
“Is the plan possible without it?”
“I don’t know.” Peter shrugged before shoving a fork full of pasta into his mouth. He was quick to chew and swallow his food before speaking again. “It’s fine though, I’ll just do it tomorrow.”
“If you say so kid.” Tony responded, giving Peter a pat on the shoulder. “Now eat up kid I’ve got a fun day in the lab planned.”
“Alright kid, have at it.” Tony said, opening a door on the far side of the lab gesturing inside. “Everything inside is fair game to work on.”
“Anything?” Peter questioned.
“Anything as long as it doesn’t have an explosion warning on it.” Tony clarified.
Peter grinned and quickly started looking through the unfinished projects that lined the shelves as Tony stood grinning in the doorway. After quite a bit of searching Peter decided on an old projector or something of that sort. He wasn’t exactly sure what it was but it looked similar to a projector, or a projector with random pieces attached to it and something about that seemed fun.
“I found something Mr. Stark!” Peter exclaimed emerging from the closet with the projector thing in hand. “I’m not sure what exactly it is but it looked cool.”
“I think I remember that old thing.” Tony said as Peter set the projector/scraps onto the table.
“What is it?” Peter questioned. “I personally think it looks like a projector but that could be way off.”
“If I remember correctly I was trying to modify it so it could project the stars and planets of specific times and places.”
“What that’s so cool! Why didn’t you finish it?” Peter began to inspect the projector to get a better idea of what exactly they were working with.
“I’m not exactly sure.” Tony answered with a shrug leaning back in his chair to let Peter continue messing with the projector without getting in the way. “I was pretty young when I started it so my guess is I just lost interest at some point or moved onto another project.”
“That’s fair. But it’s cool if we work on it and maybe try to finish it before I go on patrol?”
“Of course kid, and if we finish early enough we’ll stop at the deli before it closes so you don’t go on patrol hungry. God knows May is always on my case about making sure you are eating enough.”
Peter froze for a moment at Tony’s wording before shaking it off. “Yeah definitely don’t want May to worry.” He said hoping Tony couldn’t hear the disappointment in his voice.
Of course Tony wouldn’t really care about him, he just doesn’t want to piss May off, which is fair, his aunt was slightly terrifying at times, but he would’ve hoped that Tony would care about him without the worry of May’s wrath, but based on that maybe it wasn’t as likely as he thought. Maybe it was a good thing he forgot the other gift at home. He thought about running to his apartment after patrol to pick it up so he could still give it to Tony and maybe go through with his plan, but now he wasn’t so sure.
Why would he even think in the first place that Tony could possibly see him as a son? Was he reading too much into things and getting unnecessarily attached to Tony? Was he really that far off? He thought the fact that he saw Tony as a dad meant that Tony saw him as a son, but maybe he really was reading into it all too much. Maybe the signs weren’t as clear as Peter thought they were.
“Kid you okay there?” Tony asked, resting a hand on Peter’s shoulder. Peter flinched slightly at the contact. “We can go somewhere else if you don't want to go to the deli.”
“No it’s okay!” Peter rushed out. “Sorry I zoned out, the bodega sounds great.”
“No worries kid, let's get to work!”
Peter gave Tony a quick smile before turning his focus back to the projector letting the smile fall off his face. Of course Tony would just accept his excuse, the man showed no signs of worry; Peter didn’t know why he felt his heart sink at that thought.
At some point during their lab session Peter managed to get out of his funk and was wondering why he even began to question if Tony saw him as a son or not. The way they worked so in sync in the lab and bounced ideas off of one another made Peter remember why he thought Tony saw him as a son. They worked effortlessly together, but it wasn’t only that. It was the fond looks that Peter would sometimes catch Tony giving him and the pats on the back or shoulder when Peter did something right. It was the fondness in which Tony explained something to Peter that he didn’t understand. It was all those things and the fact that they always seemed to transfer out of the lab as well.
But then there were the times Tony would say something like he did earlier and it would make Peter question everything until they got back to these moments. Peter knew whatever their relationship wasn’t perfect, no relationship ever was but there was something about it that made Peter question everything sometimes.
Aside from that, they were making good progress on their project. They had managed to create a program that allowed them to enter in a set of coordinates and it would project the stars and planets of that location at the current time. The only issue they were running into was projecting the stars of a specific date.
“Okay, but what if we just hacked into NASA’s records?” Peter suggested. “Is it the most practical? No, but I think it’s the easiest way we’ll get the data we need to upload.”
“We are not hacking into NASA.” Tony repeated for what seemed like the thousandth time. “However, FRIDAY can do that no problem then both of us are in the clear.”
After typing in a few commands Tony spun his chair so he was facing Peter. “Alright kid, while FRIDAY gets that data for us let’s try this thing out. FRIDAY lights please.”
The lights in the lab turned off with exception of the light illuminating from the computer screens.
“Where are we looking first, kid?” Tony asked his fingers hovering over the keypad next to the projector.
“New York of course.” Peter said with a fake scoff.
“Oh yes, how dare I think of another place we could look at.” Tony said sarcastically before typing in a set of coordinates.
It took a couple seconds but in the blink of an eye the lab was covered in a projection of what the stars above them looked like right now. It was beautiful. Peter stood in awe slowly turning in a circle to get a good look at all the stars.
“I didn’t know the stars in New York could look this pretty.” Peter said, walking up to one of the walls.
“Yeah, once you get past all the pollution the stars are just as bright as anywhere else.” Tony stated. “And we’re lucky because this is the space view, not just what we can see here from earth.”
“Have you ever thought about making a blackout type room just for something like this?” Once Peter said it he almost regretted such a stupid question.
“Well no, but now that you mention it, it’s not a bad idea. I definitely think it could help a certain spider-child from time to time.” Tony said with a chuckle. Peter’s face burned red and he was glad his back was to Tony at the moment. But Tony did have a point. A room of almost complete darkness with the exception of the stars would definitely be helpful. “Any other places you want to see, kid?”
“How about the North Pole, you know for shits and giggles, it is Christmas Eve after all.” Peter suggested.
Tony laughed. “The North Pole it is.”
Peter watched Tony type in another set of coordinates and the scene around them changed slightly. It looked mostly the same however in some spots around the room Peter could spot where a few planets were. He walked up to them and placed his hand underneath Saturn before giving it a little spin. The planet spun a few times before settling back in its spot. Peter’s face lit up at the sight before spinning the planet again.
“Having fun there kid?” Tony asked walking up to Peter spinning one of the surrounding stars.
“I didn’t know they could move.”
Tony scoffed. “Of course they can kid, you really think we were going to build this thing in 2D, absolutely not. This thing is 4d and interactive. Obviously it’s not actually changing the planets and the stars right now, but it allows us to be able to have more fun. And you know, study them if we want to. But mostly for fun.”
“I didn’t realize that’s why we were messing with the projector part so much, like the lens angel and stuff.”
“Yeah, it’s pretty cool how just a few adjustments to that can make such a difference.” Tony said walking back over to where the projector sat on the desk, Peter following close behind. “Any other places or save them for another time?”
“We can save them for another time.” Peter answered as Tony turned off the machine. “How much longer will it take for FRIDAY to upload the rest of the data?”
Tony tapped a couple of keys on the keyboard before answering. “Looks like a few hours, which means it’s time for food then you are free to go on patrol. Meet you on the helipad in 10?”
“Meet you on the helipad in 10.” Peter confirmed.
Peter was quick to change into his suit and was on the helipad in 9 minutes and 36 seconds exactly, strolling out onto the platform only a few seconds after Tony. The swing (fly in Tony’s case) to the deli was uneventful and luckily the place was empty when they got there. They ordered their food and once they received it they made their way to the top of a local building to eat their much needed and deserved lunch.
“Any specific plans for patrol today?” Tony asked in between bites of his sandwich?
“Nah I don’t think so.” Peter answered. “I’ll probably stick to the Manhattan area though.”
Peter didn’t really see a point in going back to Queens for patrol unless necessary. Sure he could grab the gift that he forgot but he wasn’t even sure about going through with his plan at this point. It was probably a stupid idea anyways.
“If you need any help kid, I’m just a call away.” Tony said, breaking Peter out of his thoughts.
“I will, Mr. Stark.”
“Alright kid, have fun and be safe.” Tony said, lowering the mask of his suit back over his face.
Tony gave Peter a quick pat on the shoulder that lingered for a second as if he wanted to say something else, but it was gone as quick as it came and Tony took off towards the tower. Peter sat on the roof for a few more minutes letting his thoughts wander and linger before he pulled his mask down the rest of the way and shot a web towards a nearby building. And then he was swinging.
Peter was swinging around for about 10 minutes before he heard a scream. He was quick to change his path of direction to go towards it. As he got closer he saw a woman screaming and pointing towards a man who was running away with what Peter could only assume was her purse. Peter swung down and dropped in front of the man.
“Really dude on Christmas Eve?” Peter quipped.
“Shut it Spider-boy.” The man grumbled before trying to take off running again. Peter sighed before shooting a web hitting the guys back and pulling him back and to the ground in the process.
Peter walked over and shot a web so the guy's hand was stuck to the ground then grabbed the purse from his hand. “Not nice bro. Not nice.”
He walked back to the woman and handed her the purse. “Here you go ma’am, sorry about that.”
“Thank you so much Spider-Man.” The woman said graciously.
“Of course. Have a good holiday!”
Peter immediately shot a web and heard a distant “You too!” as he swung away. He wasn’t swinging for long before he heard a few loud meows coming from a nearby alleyway. Peter quickly dropped down into the alleyway and began searching for the source of the cry’s.
The alleyway was full of boxes and other junk so Peter began moving them around being sure to look in the boxes before moving them aside. It wasn’t until there were only a few boxes left in the stack that Peter saw a flash of movement from behind the boxes. He moved a box to reveal a cat with big green eyes staring back at him.
“Hey there bud.” Peter said softly, kneeling down so he was closer to the cat's level.
The cat gave him a head tilt then walked out from behind the boxes to come up and start rubbing its head against Peter’s leg. He was a chonky boy but Peter thought it just made him even cuter. His chest and paws and most of his face were white while the rest of him was a mix of light and dark brown with a bit of grey mixed in.
“You are just the cutest.” Peter mewed stroking the cats back and oh my gosh was he soft.
After a few more moments of petting him, Peter pulled that cat into his arms despite the cat's initial protests.
“Shhhh it’s okay buddy,” Peter paused seeing the collar around the cats neck that was initially concealed by the amount of fluff. He grabbed the tag, however it only had a name but no contact information on it. “It’s okay Milo, we’ll find your parents in no time!”
Milo let out another loud meow and Peter took that as okay.
As it turns out, finding Milo’s parents was not as easy as Peter thought it would be. First off, there were no missing cat posters or posts about him online anywhere. Then anyone that Peter asked had never seen the cat, which was a bit understandable, but he thought that Milo was potentially from a nearby building, turns out that wasn’t the case. Which is how Peter found himself walking around the streets of Manhattan as the sun was setting with a cat in his arms and telling said cat about his current predicament.
“Like do you think I’m overreacting? Is it weird to see Mr. Stark as a dad?”
Milo meowed in response.
“Yeah I know.” Peter sighed. “But what are the chances Mr. Stark even sees me as a son? Like yeah sure, sometimes I can see it and think he does but other times I think he’s just too scared of my aunt to say no to having lab days with me.”
Milo let out another meow and Peter gave him a few head scratches in return.
“You know maybe-” Peter was cut off by accidentally running into someone. “I’m so sorry.” He rushed out, turning around so he could face the person he ran into and help them if necessary.
The person turned around as well and Peter could only chuckle as he saw the person. “Santa?”
“Merry Christmas Spider-man!” Santa exclaimed.
“Merry Christmas Santa. Shouldn’t you be asking kids what they want for Christmas at the mall or something?”
“I’m always right where I need to be, son.” Peter looked up at the word son. It shouldn’t have taken him by surprise but here he was being taken off guard just by the mention of the word son. “So what do you want for Christmas?”
Peter thought for a moment. He never really thought about what he wanted for Christmas, he really just wanted to spend time with the people close to him. And he wanted the courage to tell Tony he saw him as a dad.
“I want to tell someone how important they are to me, but I’m worried they don’t feel the same.”
“Well son, I’ll give you a bit of wisdom. During this season there is all sorts of magic around you to grant your wishes.”
Peter opened his mouth to respond but as he did Milo jumped out of his arms and took off down the sidewalk.
“No no no no, Milo wait!” Peter yelled running after the cat.
He stopped a few steps later as Milo turned down an alley but when Peter got there Milo was nowhere to be seen. Peter sighed and turned around so he could go back to finish talking with Santa, but even though Santa should have only been a few steps away, he was no longer there.
“Just my luck.” Peter muttered looking up to the now dark sky wishing he could see the stars like he saw with Tony earlier.
Peter only stayed out on patrol for about another hour before he made his way back to the tower. He was a bit upset that Milo got away and so did Santa, which was kind of weird they disappeared at the same time, but maybe it had to do with Santa saying he was always right where he needed to be. After Santa had disappeared as well, Peter did go searching for Milo a bit more, but his search was a deadend. It was as if Milo didn’t even exist at all, but he supposed that cats were notoriously good for escaping fast and looking as if they were never there.
When Peter arrived at the tower he found Tony in the kitchen. “Whatcha cooking there Mr. Stark?”
Tony looked up from what he was doing and smiled. “Manicotti, it’s tradition to make them on Christmas Eve.”
Peter pulled his mask off and walked over to the counter. “Anything I can help with?”
“Nope! I think I’ve got it pretty much covered. They are almost ready to go in the oven anyways.”
“I’m gonna go shower and change then.” Peter said, nodding in the direction of his room.
He didn’t hear if Tony responded as he walked down the hallway. He shouldn’t be upset that Tony didn’t ask him to help, it was his mom's recipe/tradition after all and it’s not like he had ever shown any interest in cooking let alone helping Tony cook. It’s not like he asked to help either, he was pretty sure if he asked Tony the man would’ve said yes. But he was overthinking everything today so of course he was going to overthink this.
By the time Peter showered, changed, and made it back to the kitchen Tony was pulling the food out of the oven. He debated for a couple minutes before leaving his room if he should bring out the one present he had for Tony now or wait until after dinner. And then that came with the decision of if he should still go through with his plan of telling Tony that he saw him as a dad even without the other present. That part he still wasn’t sure about, but he was going to bring out the other present and give it to Tony after dinner.
“You’re just in time kid, food just came out of the oven.” Tony said, placing a pot holder down on the table followed by the pan full of manicotti.
“Thanks for dinner, Mr. Stark.” Peter said, pulling the plates out of the cabinet and silverware out of the drawing and bringing them to the table.
“You’re welcome kid. It’s nice to have more people to share this tradition with.”
That made Peter feel warm inside as he sat down at the table. Tony was happy to share a family tradition with him. He knew that Tony didn’t share his personal life with a lot of people outside of Pepper, Rhodey, and Happy, so it felt nice to be included in Tony’s circle of people, dare he say part of the family.
“Thank you for sharing it with me Mr. Stark.”
“Buon appetito ragazzo!”
Dinner was nice. The food was absolutely amazing, Peter knew that Tony could cook, contrary to popular belief, but this was on another level. Tony had mentioned something about how making the crepes for the manicotti homemade was such a game changer, but Peter was too busy stuffing his face (respectfully of course) to fully hear what Tony was saying. He told Tony about patrol and how he found Milo, but then he ran away when he was talking with Santa.
“It was really weird.” Peter said with a shrug as he cleared his and Tony’s plates from the table. “He was fine one second then bolted the next.”
“Maybe something spooked him.” Tony suggested bringing the leftover food into the kitchen.
“Yeah maybe. I’m just not sure what could’ve spooked him though.”
“It’s hard to ever know with a cat, kid.” Tony gave Peter a pat on the shoulder. “But I’m sure he’s okay and hopefully his family found him.”
“Yeah I hope so. Maybe that’s why he left, ‘cause he knew we were close to his home.”
Tony smiled and ruffled Peter’s hair. “I’m sure that’s exactly it, kid.”
The rest of kitchen clean up was easy and honestly a lot of fun. FRIDAY had put on some upbeat Christmas music, which led to less clean up and more Peter and Tony dramatically singing said songs. If anyone asked, Peter can hit Mariah Carey’s high note. And because of that, kitchen clean up took a bit longer than expected but neither Peter or Tony cared, they were having fun after all.
When they finally finished and the Christmas music had died down leaving Peter and Tony to catch their breaths, Peter grabbed his poorly wrapped gift (but not that poorly wrapped considering the gift) and handed it to Tony.
“I know it’s not much, but here.” Peter said, holding out the gift wrapped in a small blanket to Tony.
“Kid…” Tony trailed off unwrapping the blanket. “You didn’t have to get me anything… but what is it.”
“I know I didn’t need to get you anything, but I wanted to.” Peter said breaking eye contact every few seconds. “And it's a hard drive I found with an old version of JARVIS on it. I know you didn’t have one, and I found the hard drive one day and I wasn’t expecting much on it let alone a JARVIS file bu-”
Peter was cut off by Tony pulling him into a hug.
“Thanks kid.” Tony whispered before pulling back from the hug but wrapped one arm around Peter pulling him into a side hug.
“You’re welcome. I know it’s not much and it looked like there was a lot of damage to the file, but I thought that maybe we could work on it together to try and fix it?”
“Of course kid, I’d love to work on it with you. How about we start right now.”
Peter smiled and nodded, he wasn’t really sure what else there was to say as they started making their way down to the lab.
Peter and Tony were working in the lab for quite a few hours. To be honest Peter wasn’t sure how long it had really been let alone what time it was, but he knew it had to be getting close to midnight. The JARVIS file ended up being even more of a mess than either of them initially thought. Even though it had been hours, they had made little to no progress on making the file usable again.
To be honest, Peter was slightly upset that he didn’t go through with his plan of telling Tony he saw him as a dad, it was still overall a great day and based on Tony’s reaction, he had a feeling that maybe, just maybe Tony saw him as a son. He wasn’t certain by any means, but he felt okay waiting a little longer to tell Tony, maybe it really wasn’t the right time to say anything.
His eyes started to blur as he stared at the screen in front of him. Tony looked to still be very awake but Peter was fading fast. He laid his head down on the desk to rest his eyes, it would only be for a few seconds anyway… maybe he could tell Tony in the morning.
“Don’t worry, be happy.”