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They always knew that their son would be smart, they never doubted that. Considering who his parents were there was no question that the kid would be one smart cookie, and while Steve and Tony are endlessly proud of him and every achievement he has made in his few trips around the sun, they sometimes wish that big brain of his wouldn’t get in the way as much as it does now.
Tony can do all he wants to create the magic of the holidays, like last year when he assembled some old suits of his to resemble Santa’s sleigh and reindeer just so that they could fly past his window, there isn’t much he can do to prevent Peter from doubting the logistics of the man in red.
It's a cold December night when Steve comes up with a last resort idea as to how they can protect the magic of believing for Peter.
It’s long after they had put Peter to sleep when they drag out that old Santa suit Tony had worn for a charity event a few years back, back before they even planned on having a Peter, let alone baby number two that was on the way.
“Something tells me I wouldn’t fit this anymore,” Steve says as he drapes an elf costume in front of him. The costume had fit him at one point in time, but given the large baby bump that now obstructs the way the costume lays it can be assumed that it most certainly would not be able to zip up all the way anymore.
Tony is crouched and looking through a storage container when he pauses and looks up to Steve. He can’t help the small snort that escapes him out of amusement. “I know you wanted me in the suit, but it was always a little too big on me…”
“And what are you suggesting?” Steve quirks a brow.
“What if you put on the suit?” Tony raises his brows optimistically. He pulls the Santa suit from the tote and holds it up for Steve to take.
Steve laughs and places his hands on his hips.
“No, I’m serious. The kid has seen pictures of me online dressed as Santa, he’ll call bullshit immediately if he sees me in the suit. Plus,” Tony rises to his feet. “You’ve already got the bowl full of jelly,” he smiles and places both hands on the bump, rubbing slowly.
Steve only sighs and looks away.
“C’mon, Steve. Nobody likes a fit Santa, he's gotta have a little belly, and that I just lack.”
“Tony, I don’t know.”
“Remember, it's for him,” Tony offers a sympathetic smile.
Steve closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. Would he feel ridiculous? Absolutely. But, it was for his son, and he would do just about anything to put a smile on the kid's face.
“Fine, but no pictures. I don’t want this documented, and none of our friends find out about this, got it?”
“Got it,” Tony beams.
Once they’re back upstairs Steve goes ahead and tries on the Santa suit, just to make sure it does, in fact, fit alright.
Tony waits in the living room with two cups of hot tea while Steve gets dressed. “You heard him, J. Go ahead and turn off surveillance for a few minutes, I’ll tell you when the coast is clear.”
Just as JARVIS responds, Steve tiptoes down the hall dressed in red and white. If Tony hadn’t known any better he would have assumed that the real Saint Nicholas was making his way toward him.
“Well, look at you,” Tony whistles and smirks. “The milk and cookies at my place taste good for breakfast, too,” he bites his lip.
Steve smiles and shakes his head. He’s thankful for the white beard that is currently concealing his flushed cheeks. “You know, I’ve checked my list, I’ve even checked it twice…”
“Uh huh,” Tony nods and throws his arms over Steve’s shoulders.
“And I’m pretty sure you’re on my naughty list.”
Tony playfully gasps. “Say it ain’t so,” Tony removes the hat from Steve’s head and runs his fingers through the white locks of the wig. “Are you looking for a tree topper? Because I’ve been told I’m a star on top.”
Steve can’t keep up the act anymore and recoils in response to Tony’s words. “I’m starting to think that's not a candy cane in your pocket,” Steve chuckles and starts to pull away.
“Wait wait wait,” Tony says pulling him back in. He grins and points toward the ceiling and Steve’s gaze follows. They had hung the mistletoe there jokingly and Steve had forgotten all about it, but clearly Tony hadn’t. “Let me show you how excited I am to see you.”
Steve rolls his eyes as Tony pulls down the faux beard and crashes their lips together.
A few moments later they pull apart when they hear a small crash at the top of the steps.
“Shit, Peter,” Steve says as he frantically pulls the beard back up. “Go check on him and I’m going to change.”
“Right, but I’ll be back to make like Frosty and thumpety thump thump with you,” Tony winks.
“Tony, seriously, go check on him, now. God, he can’t have seen us like this.”
“Relax sweetheart, I’m sure it was just the garland coming undone again,” Tony says before he turns to jog up the stairs.
Just as he had suspected, Tony finds Peter curled up in bed and fast asleep. So, he heads back downstairs to be with Steve for a little while before heading to bed.
While getting up early in the morning is nothing new for Steve, it's unusual for his partner and son to be awake with him. However, the contractions that started not long after they had headed to bed and only progressed through the night were valid enough reason for them to sit down for breakfast at such an ungodly hour.
Peter and Tony are sitting at the table working on their breakfast while Steve paces back and forth by the kitchen island. Tony can’t help but notice the scowl that is on Peter’s face. The kid was rarely angry, he was practically sunshine personified, so the sight of him so visibly furious was a little unsettling for Tony, especially since Peter hadn’t looked away from him once.
“You okay, Petey?” Tony asks cautiously.
Peter doesn’t respond. He scrunches his face into an even more furious expression and aggressively stabs one of the bite-sized pieces of waffle on his plate.
“Dad asked you a question, babe,” Steve huffs with a quick glance at the two at the table.
“I’m okay, Papa,” Peter looks over to Steve and smiles. He then looks back to his other father with that same sour expression.
“Okay,” Tony says dragging out each vowel confusedly and sips his coffee.
Uncle Bucky and Daddy are the only two people allowed to see his Papa while they wait for his new sibling to get here, so Peter sits with the rest of his family in the private waiting room. He sits with his little arms folded over his chest and has refused the toys and ice cream that have been offered to him.
“What's wrong with the kid?” Happy leans over and whispers to Pepper.
“I’m not sure. Maybe he's not ready for a new baby?” Pepper frowns. “I think I’m going to ask him.”
“Should we ask Steve or Tony?” Happy asks.
“Oh, no, we don’t need to bother them right now,” Pepper says as she rises from her seat. “We can handle this.”
Pepper approaches Peter’s seat and lowers herself to be at eye level with him. “Hi, Peter,” she says with a warm smile.
“Hi, Aunty Pepper,” he says without meeting her gaze.
“Wanna go for a walk?” Pepper rises and extends her hand for the boy to take.
“Yeah, I guess,” Peter responds.
Pepper brings Peter to the hospital cafeteria where they each get a cup of hot chocolate. Peter loads his hot chocolate with peppermints and marshmallows to the point where it is a struggle to get the lid back on the cup.
The two of them sit by the large fireplace near the windows and watch as snow falls outside.
“So,” Pepper breaks the silence now that the boy appears to be less upset. “Are you excited to be a big brother?”
“Yes!” Peter excitedly exclaims and Pepper feels a newfound sense of ease. “I’m sad for my Papa, though,” Peter says and sinks back down in his seat and frowns.
“Your Papa will be okay, I promise,” Pepper rubs Peter’s back to offer him some comfort. “Having a baby hurts, but the hurting won’t last long, I promise.”
“That's not what I’m mad about.” Peter furrows his brows.
“Oh yeah?” Pepper begins to sip her hot chocolate.
“I’m mad that Daddy kissed another man last night while my Papa was sleeping.”
Pepper spits out her drink and chokes which captures the attention of the people around them. “Your Daddy did what!”
“What happened to you?” Happy asks as Pepper stomps back into the waiting room covered in hot chocolate.
“I don’t even know how to explain,” Pepper huffs as she continues to pat the stains on her blouse with brown paper towels. “Why don’t you tell Happy what you told me, Peter.”
“Last night I thought I heard Papa and Daddy laughing without me while I was sleeping so I went to see what was going on and I saw Daddy downstairs kissing a stranger while Papa was in bed sleeping,” Peter says with tears in his eyes.
“You’re kidding,” Natasha drops her magazine.
“I don’t think he's kidding,” Rhodey says with wide eyes. “He wouldn’t just make something like that up, that's not like Peter.”
“Are you mad at me?” Peter asks as he cowers.
“Course not, tater chip. Come here,” Sam says and pulls Peter into a hug. With Peter tucked into his chest, Sam whispers “What are we going to do? Steve needs to know.”
“He doesn’t need to know just yet, that wouldn’t be good for him or baby,” Pepper pinches the bridge of her nose. “I’ll go see if I can talk to Tony.”
Pepper pushes past hospital staff who alert her that she cannot be back there but she doesn’t care. She needs to speak with Tony.
She pokes her head into the room just as Steve is at the peak of a contraction. “Tony, can I borrow you for a second?” she says with a forced smile, her eye twitching slightly.
“Um, a little busy, here,” Tony says confused with his fist joined with Steve’s.
“I can see that. So happy for you, but I need to see you for a second,” she says through grit teeth.
Tony blinks at her before looking to Bucky to make sure he has things under control.
He slowly walks across the room and looks back at Steve when Pepper grabs him by the arm and pulls him out of the room and into the hall.
“Ouch, okay, I’m coming! What is the problem!”
“You! You are the problem! I cannot believe you would do this to him, Tony! That man is the best thing to ever happen to you!” Pepper smacks Tony’s arm.
“What are you talking about?” Tony winces and holds his arm in pain.
“Hey, we need you back, like, now,” Bucky pokes his head out of the room and says frantically with an excited grin.
“We’re talking about this later. You are such an idiot,” Pepper shoves past Tony and walks away.
“What was her issue?” Bucky asks Tony as they speed walk back into the room.
“I honestly have no idea,” Tony says with a lost expression.
“Babys here,” Bucky says rushing into the private waiting room while grinning ear to ear.
Everyone rises from their seats to hug and cheer excitedly. It isn’t long before Tony also enters the room, and the room falls silent.
“It’s um…” Tony cowers when he is met with the same sour expression from everyone in the room that his son had given him that morning. “It’s a girl?”
Nobody flinches. They only glare at Tony at a loss for words.
“You guys feeling okay?” Bucky laughs awkwardly in the silence.
“Cheater,” Natasha says under her breath as she stares daggers at Tony.
“What?” Bucky says.
“Tony is cheating on Steve,” Sam explains to Bucky. “That’s sick, man.”
“I what?--” Tony quirks his head.
“Peter told us about your special friend that came over last night while Steve was in bed. Tony, seriously?” Pepper shakes her head.
“I– wait do you mean,” Tony begins to say flabbergasted. He moves to cover Peter’s ears. “You mean Santa? He must’ve woken up and seen me and Steve…”
“Santa? Are you serious? You think that's going to work on a group of adults, Tony?” Happy says with annoyance thick in his voice.
“Yes, Steve tried on my old Santa suit last night so that we could trick someone,” Tony motions to the boy beneath him. “Into believing that Santa is still real. Besides Santa Steve and my not even an hour old daughter those are the only two people I have kissed in the past twenty-four hours.”
The room is silent as they all evaluate whether or not to believe what Tony has said.
“Have JARVIS pull up the surveillance footage then,” Happy says.
Tony cringes. “Yeah, um, that's the thing; Steve requested absolutely no pictures or videos, so I, uh…turned off surveillance footage during that time.”
“How are we supposed to believe you then, Tones,” Rhodey sighs.
Tony hangs his head. “I– I don’t know. Steve and I went to bed at the same time last night.”
“Wait, Peter never mentioned anyone dressed as Santa,” Pepper says.
Tony uncovers Peter’s ears and turns him around to face him. “Petey, tell me what you saw last night.”
“I saw you and a stranger kissing in the living room,” Peter sniffles.
“Okay. What was the stranger wearing and what did they look like?”
“They were dressed like Santa but I could tell it wasn’t the real Santa because his beard was fake. And he was wearing a wig, Daddy. I could see his real hair underneath.”
“And what color was his real hair?”
“It was like Papa’s hair. And he was really fat, too.”
Tony smiles and nods his head. “Thank you, baby.”
“So just like that we’re supposed to be cool?” Sam says.
“If I had to guess, Peter stumbled into our room last night and saw Steve’s God-awful pregnancy pillow under the covers and thought it was Steve lying there. He’s done it before. And as for my proof…don’t you tell him I’m doing this,” Tony pulls out his phone and loads security video of Steve heading to the bathroom with the Santa suit in hand. “There’s him with the suit,” he turns the phone so that everyone in the room can see the screen. Everyone visibly relaxes at the footage and spirits appear to be lifted. “Now can I please take you people back to meet our child?”
With a collective yes from everyone in the room, they march back to meet the newest member of the family. Tony makes everyone promise to not ever tell Steve that any of this ever happened, and everyone agrees, even Peter who now believes that Santa sent his Papa a suit just like his just to bring his baby sister into the world.