Archive of Our Own

Peter doesn't do well in the cold, and hasn't since the spider bite, but there's no way he'll skip out on a snowball fight when he sees one.  Peter loves Christmas, and by proxy he loves all things Christmas related, such as winter, snow, building snowmen, and snowball fights.  Despite not being dressed for the snow, there's no way he's going to skip out when he looks out a window at lunch and sees an impromptu snowball fight happening out in front of the school.

Peter races outside, lucky that he has a hoodie on.  His gloves, coat and hat are in his locker, but there's no time to waste.  Somehow Ned is already out here along with more than a dozen other students hurling snowballs through the air.  Peter doesn't know most of these kids, but then again, he doesn't need to.  Snowball fights are one of those universal things that all kids are allowed to join in on, or at least, Peter thinks so.

He crouches in the foot deep snow off to the side of the steps leading up to Midtown's front door and scoops up a handful of cold, wet snow.  He packs it down to form a ball, adds some more, and then stands up to pick a target.  Ned is a little far away, but that's all right.  This is one time when he figures it's ok to use his powers for something sports related.  He lobs the snowball and sends it sailing towards his best friend's back.  It hits him, and Ned turns, looking surprised.  He spies Peter with a grin on his face and points at him.  "Not fair!" he calls.

Peter stoops to make another snowball.  Ned is already hurrying towards him so he can get close enough to throw one of his own.  Peter throws his snowball and then moves closer, into the center of the group of kids that are laughing, shouting, and enjoying themselves.  There's only a few days left until Christmas break, and just like every year, the teachers have grown a little more relaxed in the last few days of school.  After lunch, he and Ned are supposed to head to science class, where Mr. Harrington will be showing a Christmas movie instead of teaching.  They all worked hard and took their final at the start of the week, so for the next few days it's just supposed to be easy, fun stuff in Mr. Harrington's class.

Peter could dodge the snowballs his friend is throwing at him, but what would be the fun in that?  Yes he's cold, and yes his hands hurt from playing in the snow without gloves, but this is a snowball fight, and sometimes that means a little bit of pain for a little bit of fun.  Ned hits him with three or four snowballs over the course of a few minutes, and Peter throws one that somehow makes it down the back of Ned's hoodie and coat, which has his friend dancing around as he tries to get the snow out of his shirt.  Peter watches and laughs, dancing around himself a little as he tries to stay warm.  His sneakers are already soaked through, and his hoodie has wet spots all over it.

He's thinking about going back into the school when something unexpected happens.  Because Peter had already decided to let all of Ned's snowballs hit him, and because so many have been flying through the air as kids lob them at each other, Peter's Spidey sense stays silent as a hard packed ball of ice comes sailing at his face and hits his lips.

At first he's not sure what happened.  All of his senses white out for a second and then are replaced with pain.  He doesn't know how, but somehow he's on his back on the ground, confused, with Ned standing over him.

"Peter!  Oh my gosh, Peter, are you ok?"

Peter blinks up at him, dazed.  "Huh?"

"You're bleeding.  A lot."  Peter looks down at himself but can't see any blood.  The panic in Ned's voice cuts through his confusion as he says, "A lot, a lot… like… dude.  Your lip is split really bad."

Peter reaches up to his lip and his fingers come away red.  He blinks down at his fingers and tries to figure out what's going on, because he's still not sure why he's bleeding, why his face hurts so bad, and why he's on the ground in the snow.

While he's trying to figure it out, Flash comes running up to them, huffing and puffing.  He puts his hands on his knees, out of breath as he leans over Peter.  "Holy shit, Parker… crap, I mean… I'm sorry.  I didn't mean to hit you with that!"

Ned stands up and glares at him.  "Yes you did!  Look at him!"

Peter looks back and forth between them, from Ned's angry face, to Flash's panicked one.

"No, I swear!  I didn't!"

"You packed it tight with ice!"

Peter is aware now that other students have stopped their game and are watching, listening, because Ned is yelling, and he never does.

"Yeah, I- I did!" Flash stammers.  Peter is even more confused, because Ned doesn't yell, and Flash doesn't stammer, and his face hurts way worse than it ever should.  "But I wasn't aiming it at him!"  Even though no one else is near enough to hear if he speaks normally, Flash leans in and whispers, eyes flashing around them from person to person in the distance, "I was aiming for Heitmeyer.  I suck at throwing.  I swear, I'd never pack it that tight and throw it at Peter!"   Flash looks down at Peter's face and winces.  "Crap, just- I'm really sorry.  I would never."

Peter works over what was said, and finally, finally, his foggy confusion starts to clear.  He's hurt and bleeding because Flash picked up some icy snow and really worked on packing it tight like a rock, threw it at the worst bully in school, and accidentally hit Peter in the face with it.  Peter must have been stunned when it hit his lip and stumbled over backwards into the snow.

"I believe you," Peter says.  Flash is a loud mouth, and sometimes he makes fun of Peter.  For the most part he's just noise though… static in the background of Peter's day to day life at school.  He has never once pushed Peter down, or tried to hit him, or made physical threats.  Peter wonders now if Flash is being bullied by Brad Heitmeyer, and if that's why he did what he did with the snowball.

Ned mutters, "Whatever," and reaches down to help Peter up.  Flash grabs Peter from his other side, and together they get him on his feet.  He's definitely freezing and soaking wet now after lying on his back in the snow for several minutes.  His hands are numb, like he wishes his face would be, and so are his legs and arms.

"Put pressure on it," Ned snaps.  Peter isn't used to him being so bossy, and thinks that his friend is flustered to see him injured.  In the grand scheme of things a split lip is nothing when Peter is out after school several days a week fighting muggers, carjackers, and occasionally people like the Vulture and Captain America.

Peter reaches up and presses his hand to his lip, though he thinks twice about doing so as fresh pain blossoms there.

"He's right," Flash says.  "Put pressure on it.  It looks bad."

"I'll be ok, don't worry about it," Peter says.  Ned and Flash only exchange a worried glance at his words.

Both of them walk with Peter up the front steps and into the building.  They go with him to the nurse's office.  As soon as the nurse catches sight of Peter's face, she points at one of two uncomfortable looking beds and says, "Sit down and let me have a look."  She puts on some gloves and pulls Peter's hand away gently, and then gives him some gauze to press against it.

"That's not something I can take care of here.  I'll have to call your emergency contact to come get you.  You'll have to go to the hospital."

"No, it's ok, really," Peter says, trying to stand up, but Ned blocks him from going anywhere.  Peter huffs at him.  This will be healed by the time school is out for the day, or at least closed up.  When he's getting enough to eat (and he is), then he heals quickly.  More than the super strength, or his enhanced senses, or half a dozen other changes the spider bite made to his body, he's always been the most grateful for his enhanced healing factor.

The bell rings to signal the end of lunch, and the nurse turns from the phone to tell Ned and Flash to head to class.

"Sorry," Flash mumbles again as he leaves.

"You want me to stay?" Ned whispers.

"No.  I doubt May will be able to come get me.  I'll probably be in class before too long."  Each thing he says hurts his lip, so he closes his mouth after that.

Ned nods, gives him another worried look, and then says, "See you later."  He goes out into the crowded hall full of students and leaves Peter with the school nurse.

Peter is right.  The nurse can't reach May.  She calls down to the office to let them know that, and then cleans up Peter's face and lip, instructing him afterwards to hold fresh gauze to it.  He's really hoping that she'll send him back to class so he can watch the Christmas movie with Ned, but she tells him to stay put.

"But- my aunt can't come get me.  She's working right now."

"The office is looking up your other emergency contacts."

"I don't have any."

"We'll see.  Just hang tight here for a little while."

He shivers in his wet clothes while he waits, and she wraps a scratchy gray blanket around his shoulders.  It both helps and doesn't help.  With his enhanced senses, he can't handle the scratchiness of it, but he's enjoying the warmth it provides at the same time.

Peter thinks he'll end up stuck in the nurse's office for the last four periods of the day.  He waits for almost an hour before his ears pick up the sound of a familiar heartbeat somewhere down the hall, and he straightens up.  What is Mr. Stark doing here?

"Uh… who did you guys call aside from my aunt?"

"The front office seemed to think you had a second emergency contact.  They were going to contact him."

Peter lets his mouth hang open a little.  There's no way that Mr. Stark is his second emergency contact, though evidence would seem to contradict that when the man appears in the open doorway to the nurse's office a moment later.  The man gives Peter a dark, wary sort of look for a moment before he turns to the nurse.  Peter is worried he's angry that he's been called.  He has no idea how the school even got the man's number.

"I'm here for Peter Parker."

The nurse seems just as startled as Peter to see Tony Stark standing in her doorway.  "Uh… yes, yes.  You're his emergency contact?"

"Yeah, in case his aunt can't come get him.  I was added a few months ago."

The nurse's eyes flit from Tony's face, to Peter's and back again.  She seems like she wants to ask something, but doesn't.

"He has a pretty bad split lip.  It needs to be seen to at a doctor's office.  He's excused from school for the rest of the day."

Tony turns and eyes Peter's face again with a wary look.  Peter holds his breath, ready for whatever angry words are about to come his way.  The only words that come though sound worried.  "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine," Peter is quick to say, though he winces as he does so.

"You don't look fine."  Tony turns back to the nurse.  "What happened?"

She doesn't have an answer for him though because she never asked.  She looks to Peter, and Peter says, "A big group of us were having a snowball fight at school.  I guess someone packed a snowball too tight and I got hit in the face with it."

"You make that sound like an accident."  Tony definitely sounds angry now.

"It was?"

"Psh."  Tony scoffs, but motions for Peter to get up.  "Do I have to sign anything?" he asks the nurse.  "I already signed something at the front office."

"No, just make sure he gets that lip taken care of right away.  His clothes are also soaked through and he needs to get into something warm."

Tony nods, holds out his hand towards Peter, and lets Peter lead the way out of the office and into the empty hallway.  Peter is glad that it's not passing time yet.

"Uh… I have to get my stuff out of my locker, Mr. Stark."

"Ok."

He feels strange and awkward having Mr. Stark following him around the school like this.  Up until now, his regular everyday life, his life as Spider Man, and his life as Mr. Stark's personal intern have stayed separate.  He goes to school, he goes out as Spider Man, and three days a week after school he heads to Stark Tower to work in Mr. Stark's lab.  He's only been interning for a few months though, so he doesn't know Mr. Stark that well yet.  He still can't believe that May apparently put the man on his emergency contact list.

Peter gets his bag, coat, gloves and snowcap from his locker, and then follows Mr. Stark out of the school and back out into the wintery air.

Tony managed to snag a parking space right out front.  Unlike when he rides with Happy, Tony seems to want him to sit in the front seat.  As soon as they're inside, Tony starts up the car and puts the heater on full blast.  Before they pull away, he looks at Peter and says, "What the hell, kid?"

"I'm so sorry they called you, Mr. Stark.  I had no idea you were on my emergency contact list.  I didn't mean to bother you, I swear, I know you're busy and I respect your time and-"

Tony holds up a hand to stop him, and Peter closes his mouth.  "That's not what I'm talking about.  May was worried that you might go to school injured after a night on patrol and need more help than she could give, or that something might happen that only I could help with.  I agreed.  I'm not angry that they called me.  I'm asking about the bullshit story you fed to us in the nurse's office."

Peter blinks at him and remains quiet for several seconds, trying to take in everything that what said.  "I wasn't lying though."

"Someone just happened to accidentally pack an iceball and send it at your face?"

"No, Flash packed down an ice ball like a rock on purpose, but he didn't mean to hit me with it.  It was kind of chaotic out there.  There were a bunch of us having a snowball fight at lunch.  There's this big guy that bullies everybody and Flash was trying to hit him, but I was standing between the two.  He was really upset when he saw that he'd hit me and that I was hurt.  He and Ned helped me into the nurse's office, and Flash kept apologizing."  Now that Peter thinks about the look on Flash's face and the way he stuttered out apologies, he thinks that Flash might have been ready to cry.

"That's the truth?" Tony asks.

Peter nods.  "Yeah, Mr. Stark."

Tony pulls in a deep breath, stares out the windshield for a moment, and then lets his breath out.  "Ok."  He turns back to Peter.  "Let me see your lip.  Is it still bleeding?"

Peter pulls the gauze away and Tony scrutinizes his face for a moment.  "It looks like it's already closing up.  It's not still bleeding.  Hell of a bruise though."

Peter nods.  He pulls down the visor above him and looks in the little mirror.  Mr. Stark is right.  His lip looks bad, but not as bad as it probably did an hour ago.  He also has a bruise under and around his bottom lip.  It looks like he got punched in the face.

"I'm assuming aunt hottie is busy at work if she didn't pick up."

"She's not allowed to have her phone turned up.  She only gets to check it on break."

He points at Peter.  "Text her and tell her that you're ok and that I'm taking you back to your apartment."

Peter buckles up and then does as he's told.  He doubts she'll get the text anytime soon, but does his best to explain what happened as Tony drives him home.

* * *

Some people choose to blast rock music as they drive, or hip hop or rap.  Some put massive subwoofers in their car to get the best bass, others to feel what they're listening to, or maybe just for bragging rights.  Tony thinks all of that is fine if you're going to drown out the noise of the city around you with rock music.  Rock music, he thinks, is a decent reason to wake the neighborhood up as you drive down the street, music pumping out of your car into the dark recesses of every alleyway and corner you pass.  Christmas music not so much.  Christmas music, he thinks, is a terrible thing to blast from what is probably thousands of dollars worth of audio equipment.

He holds in a groan as they sit next to the offending vehicle at a stoplight.  He would roll up the windows to drown out the noise, but they're already up.  He glances over to see what kind of wacko is blasting 'Deck The Halls' like this, and finds a twenty something year old guy in an eyesore of a car.  Actually, the car isn't so bad, but the fact that the interior and underneath the car are decked out with LED lights that are currently red and green is a terrible waste of time and money, and that's really saying something coming from a guy that blows through money like it's nothing.

When the light turns green, Tony doesn't move.  He lets the guy next to him go and move down a full block before he pulls forward.  People honk behind him, and two impatient drivers pull around him and flip him off.  Tony doesn't care.  He finally has blissful, Christmas music-free, silence.

"Uh… Mr. Stark?  Is everything ok?"

"Yup."  Tony smiles to himself a little, glad that Christmas music isn't blasting into his car anymore, and pulls forward.  For as much as Tony loves giving gifts to people like Pepper, Rhodey, and Happy, he's widely considered a real Grinch during Christmas by the same people.  He hates Christmas, and prefers not to celebrate it, let alone think about it.

A few minutes later, they pull up in front of Peter's apartment building.  Peter pauses with his door halfway open when he realizes that Tony is getting out of the car too.

"Are- did you want to come up?" he asks, uncertain.

"I picked you up, so I'm technically responsible for you, at least until you make it into your apartment."

"Oh," Peter says.  "Ok."  He climbs the rest of the way out of his seat, and then heads for the lobby door of the brick apartment building.

Tony follows at a leisurely pace.  He intends to make sure that Peter gets inside and changes out of his wet clothes.  After that he's going to go back to the tower and finish working on the newest model of the Stark Tablet that's supposed to launch in March.  Pepper has been on him to get it done in the next few days so the design specs can be handed off to another team, and then sent off for production.

Up two flights of stairs, Peter digs around in his backpack for his key, and then opens up his apartment door.  Tony is expecting… something, he decides as he follows Peter inside, but that something is decidedly not a plain, empty, Christmas-less apartment.

Tony's eyes sweep the dark living space, the kitchen, and then follow Peter as he disappears into his bedroom door, probably to change into dry clothes.  There's no tree, no Christmas lights, nothing.  He's been listening to Peter go on for weeks now about how much he loves Christmas, and decorations, baking cookies, Christmas movies… the whole lot.  As far as he can tell from the kid's constant rambling about the holidays, Christmas is Peter's favorite.  So he'd expected to walk in and find the apartment decorated, even if sparsely.

"What's up with your apartment, Pete?" he calls.

Peter opens his bedroom door and sticks his head out.  Tony grimaces at the sight of the purple bruise on his face and still split lip.  At least he looks warm and dry now.  He's got on a threadbare hoodie that Tony hasn't ever seen him wear, and black sweatpants.  "Huh?"

Tony motions around the living room.  "I thought with how much you've been talking up Christmas that this would have been decorated already."

"Oh, uh… we were late on our storage unit payment and all the decorations and everything in there got sold off or thrown out before we could make the payment.  We don't have any decorations this year, and May is working really hard just trying to pay the rent and put food on the table.  She's been working double shifts."

Tony stares at him open mouthed for a moment.  That's not what he was expecting to hear.  His gut churns at the thought that a kid that loves Christmas so much can't celebrate it this year because they can't afford decorations.  He wonders if Peter will even get presents this year.  He hadn't realized just how much May is struggling to pay bills.  He only ever talks to her if there's a problem with Peter, like the kid getting hurt out on patrol.  Occasionally May calls him late at night to ask him to track Peter's suit because he's missed curfew, and there had been the one call just before the new school year had started asking if he would be willing to be another contact on Peter's emergency contact list.

Tony's eyes sweep the dark living room one more time.  He never helps Pepper put up and decorate their tree, because he'd rather not celebrate Christmas at all.  He would rather skip Christmas altogether, and Pepper understands that he has his reasons.  He thinks about the image he'd had in mind in the past few weeks as Peter spoke about Christmas decorations, of what he thought the kid's apartment would look like all decorated, and eyes the empty walls and living room again.  He might be a Grinch about Christmas, or a Scrooge, but this just won't do.  He hates Christmas, but Peter doesn't, and he can't let the kid go without a Christmas tree and some decorations.

He claps his hands together once, a wave of nervous energy washing over him at the thought of what he's about to do.  "Ok, change of plans, kid, put your coat back on, we're going out."

Peter blinks at him in surprise.  "What?  Where?"

"We're going to go get a Christmas tree."

"But- I don't have money for that."

"Who do you think you're talking to?  Huh?  I'm standing right here, kid, and you need a tree.  What's a tree cost, five hundred bucks?  Six?"

"Uh…" Peter trails off for long moments.  "Thirty?  Or- or forty maybe?"

"Ok then."  Tony shifts, uncomfortable for a moment.  He's frequently told by Rhodey that he has no idea what things actually cost.  Usually he doesn't pay attention.  Half the time he just tells FRIDAY that he wants something, and to find and order it.  It shows up on his doorstep a few days later and he's none the wiser about the cost of the item or of shipping.

"You coming?" Tony asks.  "Don't make me pick out a tree without you, or it'll end up looking like that sad one from Charlie Brown."

Peter's face lights up at the reference to the beloved Christmas cartoon.  He reaches around his bedroom door and grabs a coat, which he pulls on, and then goes for a pair of shoes.  "You know that cartoon, Mr. Stark?"

"It came out before I was born," Tony says.  He knows about Christmas things, because of course he does.  He doesn't have to like the holiday season to know about what all Christmas entails.  As a child, every December he'd watch A Charlie Brown Christmas, Frosty the Snowman, and Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and every year he'd hope that just maybe, his parents would stick around so they could celebrate Christmas together.  Tony would get into the holiday spirit and ask his parents if they could get a Christmas tree, or put up Christmas lights, or go Christmas shopping together.  Every year, Howard and Maria flew off to Spain, or France, or Scotland for a private holiday without their son.  It wasn't that Tony never got to celebrate Christmas as a kid.  Jarvis and Ana watched him when his parents were away on business trips or vacation, and they had a little Christmas tree and always did their best to get Tony a little gift.  But it wasn't the same as time spent with his parents would have been, he thinks.  As far as he's concerned, Christmas is just a day full of empty wishes and promises, and he'd rather not participate in that age old tradition his younger self had been so invested in of hoping things would be different and then being disappointed.

While Tony has been thinking about Jarvis, Ana, and Charlie Brown, Peter has been pulling his coat and shoes on.  When Tony looks up at him next, the kid is grinning at him with a hopeful, excited look on his face.  Tony had promised him a tree and decorations, so that's what he's going to get.

"Come on, bring your key so you can get back in."

Peter nods and reaches into his coat pocket.  "I've got it, Mr. Stark."

They leave and Peter locks the apartment up.  A minute later, they're back out in the cold December air and climbing back into Tony's car.  While Peter buckles up, Tony taps out questions into his phone for FRIDAY to research and answer.  She pinpoints several open Christmas tree lots on a map, and then details a plan of attack for the next hour or two, which starts with them heading to a nearby Target to buy decorations and a rope so they can get the tree home after they buy it.

"Where are we going?" Peter asks as Tony pulls away from the curb.  He's a little disturbed to find out that somewhere nearby he can hear that damned car with the too-big audio system pumping out 'Jingle Bells' and spreading holiday cheer that Tony doesn't want any part of.

"Target.  That's where they sell Christmas decorations isn't it?"

"Yeah!" Peter says brightly.  "They should have one.  What are we gonna get?"

"I don't know, whatever you decorate a tree with."

"You haven't ever decorated a Christmas tree before?"

Tony usually enjoys Peter's company, far more than he thought he would in fact when he had invited the kid to start an internship, but sometimes he thinks Peter asks questions just to be difficult.  He doesn't, but sometimes it feels that way.  "Of course I have," he says.  And he has a few times.  He used to help Ana and Jarvis with their tree, and once right after Howard and Maria had jet set off to who knows where, Jarvis had brought in a little tree just for Tony to keep in his room and they had decorated that together.

The drive is quiet after that.  They get away from the horrendous cheer-spreading car and it's too loud music, and neither of them talk until they make it into Target.  Peter leads the way to the section of the store with Christmas decor like he knows the way by heart.  He probably does, Tony thinks, as this store is close enough to his apartment that he and May might come here sometimes.

"Oh wow, look at this one, Mr. Stark!" Peter says, eying a towering fake Christmas tree already decorated in frosty blue and white ornaments with white Christmas lights.

"That how you want to decorate yours?" Tony asks.  He thinks it's too plain looking and mono-colored.  Pepper always decorates their tree this way.  Tony tries not to look at it for the month of December.  She can decorate it however she wants, and it's not her fault, he thinks, that she doesn't know that he thinks Christmas trees should be colorful, because he's never said a word to her about it.

"No, can we get colored lights?" Peter asks.  He says it as he stares up at another fake Christmas tree.  Before Tony can answer, Peter dances around a little on the balls of his heels, and then hurries to look at yet another decorated tree.  He's smiling.  Tony thinks it must hurt with his injured lip and the big bruise, but if it does, Peter's joy at viewing Christmas decorations seems to be overriding any pain he's in.

"Lights, Underoos," Tony says to get him back on track.  Usually Peter complains about the nickname, but not today it seems.  He turns and searches the shelves nearby, and then heads off to another aisle, Tony following behind with his hands in his pockets.  He finds Peter, two aisle down with a single, small box of Christmas lights in hand.

Tony frowns.  "Lemme see that."  Peter hands it over, and Tony scans the box for information.  100 count, mini lights, 21 feet.  "That's not long enough.  Put this one back.

Peter bites his lip, but takes the box back and puts it back in place on the shelf where he got it.  He opens his mouth to ask Tony a question, but Tony already has a larger box of colorful mini Christmas lights in hand. 300 count, 62 feet.

"Whoa Mr. Stark, that's way too long."

"Not nearly."  He grabs a second box, and then a third and fourth.

"But- but there's only gonna be one tree?"

"Yeah, and that tree needs at least two strings of lights, right?"  It's not a question.

"But you have four boxes."

"So, you can string some up around your room or the living room and kitchen.  Do what you want with them."  He thinks that Peter will object, but he only smiles, and damn it if the kid's eyes aren't twinkling now with Christmas spirit.  Usually Tony hates to see it, but not in Peter's eyes, not now or ever, especially after the crappy day the kid has had.

"Can we get some ornaments too?"

"Only if you promise not to complain when we get enough to cover the whole tree," Tony gruffs.  "Hey, go steal that shopping cart."  He points to an abandoned red shopping cart down at the far end of the aisle.  He hasn't seen anybody else around it since they got here.

Peter goes and gets it and Tony offloads his haul of Christmas lights.  "Lead the way," he says.  Peter walks off and Tony follows him, pushing the cart.  He spies a red light up tree-topper in a star shape and snags it as he walks by, dropping it into the cart on top of the light boxes.

In one of the two ornament aisles, Peter considers the various boxes with too much effort.  Tony wants to tell the kid to hurry up, but can't bring himself to.  It's Peter's Christmas tree, and he should get to decorate it how he wants.

"Wow, look at these ones, Mr. Stark!" He holds up a box for Tony to see, but has it back on the shelf before Tony can get a good look.  "And these ones are pretty!  Ooh, look at these!"

Tony tries to tune him out, but a moment later Peter says, "They have Iron Man ornaments!"

"What?"  Tony's eyes come over to him and find him holding up a box with six Iron Man ornaments.  They're red with a gold, glittery Iron Man faceplate on the front.

"They're cool, right?"

"Anything with my likeness is cool," Tony says.  He says it like he doesn't care, but the ornaments do look nice, and he's surprised that people would decorate their tree with him, a man that they don't even realize hates Christmas.  A moment before Peter spots them, Tony says, "Looks like they have Spider Man ornaments too."

"What?!" Peter almost drops the box of Iron Man ornaments, but manages to deposit it into the cart without breaking them.  He grabs a box with six dark blue ornaments with a red Spider Man mask on the front.  He studies every detail of the design, practically vibrating with excitement.  This box too, he puts into the cart.

"Really, you want Iron Man ornaments?" Tony asks.

"Yeah, Iron Man's my favorite Avenger."  He says it like it's nothing, not even looking up at Tony.  At first he thinks the kid is joking.  He's known for a while that Peter was a little in awe of him, but that's faded somewhat since Germany, the ferry incident, the crashed plane, and the last three months of working in the lab together.

Tony stares down into the cart at the two boxes of ornaments side by side.  He doesn't know what to say.  Luckily he doesn't have to say anything, because Peter asks him a question a moment later.

"Can we get these ones too, Mr. Stark?"

Tony looks up and finds a much larger box of round ornaments with various colors.

"Yeah, put them in the cart."

They go to the next aisle, this one full of single ornaments hanging on little hooks.  Peter looks like he wants to yelp in excitement when he spots a Spider Man ornament.  The little figure is in a dynamic pose, shooting a little web out of its hand.

"It's so cool!" he enthuses.

"They got the web placement wrong."

"Yeah, but-" he trails away, and his eyes come up to Tony, asking for permission to put this one into the cart too.

"Kid, this will go a lot faster if you stop asking for permission and just put what you want into the cart.  I told you, money isn't an issue."  He thinks it's not something Peter hears very often, and despite not liking Christmas, he's happy to give Peter the experience of getting to pick out pretty much anything he wants.  The kid could ask him for a Playstation to 'decorate with' and Tony would say yes at this point.

Peter puts the Spider Man ornament into the cart, and then reaches for a figurine of Iron Man.  Apparently they'll be fighting imaginary bad guys on Peter's Christmas tree side by side this year.

Peter also picks out a Sponge Bob Square Pants ornament, a Stitch ornament, and several other funny looking ornaments to adorn the tree that they haven't yet picked out.

"You have a gift for May, right?" Tony asks as they head to another aisle.

"Oh yeah, I got her a soft scarf and gloves.  I don't have any wrapping paper yet but-"

Tony reaches over and grabs several rolls of wrapping paper as they push the cart through the aisle, and drops them into the cart, not paying attention to the pattern.  "These good?  Great."

"Mr. Stark, you really don't have to do this."

"I do what I want."  What he wants, includes a box of thumbtacks so Peter can hang Christmas lights up around his room and the rest of the house, so those go into the cart too.

Peter picks out a long red and silver garland, along with a blue and silver garland.  Tony adds some tacky Christmas window clings featuring Santa to their ever growing pile of decorations.  Soon a red tree-skirt, a red Christmas stocking and a dark blue Christmas stocking, a fake wreath, and several tabletop Christmas decorations are added to the cart as well.

Tony turns the overful cart towards the checkout lanes, and Peter eyes the cart warily.  "That's a lot of decorations."

"More than you had before?"

"No…"

"What's the problem then?"

"It's gonna be expensive."

"This again?"

"Are you sure it's ok?"

"It's fine.  It's not a big deal."  He wishes the kid would just take it for what it is: a gift.  Tony doesn't really do Christmas gifts.  The one time he'd tried to give Pepper a Christmas gift, she'd laughed at it.  He'd thought a gigantic stuffed bunny was cute, but she'd thought it was a pain to deal with.  So he doesn't buy Christmas gifts anymore.  Instead, usually in November, he buys her something he's heard her talking about wanting.  He does the same for Rhodey and Happy.  He doesn't call them Christmas gifts, because they're not, and they don't mention not getting a gift on December 25th.

The lady at the checkout register seems a little flustered to be ringing up Tony Stark and some mysterious kid that he's with, but the three of them make it through the awkward encounter with minimal words.

Back out in the car again, the back seat loaded with white plastic Target bags full of decorations, Tony checks the list of things FRIDAY told him needed to be done.  She has 'Tree Lot' listed next, but Tony can hear Peter's stomach grumbling, so he turns the car instead towards a McDonalds when he exits the parking lot.

"Are we getting a tree next?"

"Food first, Roo."

Peter stares at him at the nickname, but Tony doesn't notice.  He doesn't notice that he called him 'Roo' either instead of Underoos.  He's never used that nickname before.  Peter takes it in stride though, and simply says, "Cool."

Tony buys him two cheeseburgers and a chocolate shake.  It's four PM, not quite time for dinner, but he has no doubt with the kid's metabolism that he'll be starving in a couple of hours again.

"What time does May get home tonight?"

"Not until late.  After eleven I think."

It appears that Tony will be the one to help Peter decorate then.  It wouldn't be very fair for him to leave it all to Peter, or to buy the items and then leave it to May after a long day of work.  If she's working as long of hours as Peter says she is, then he doubts she's even getting days off.  He doesn't want to burden her with decorating, so he'll just grit his teeth through helping Peter do it.  But as they make it to the tree lot twenty minutes later, he finds that he's not dreading the thought of helping the kid put the tree up as much as he would have that morning, or at any other time of the year.

The tree lot sits in an eroded parking lot, half full of gravel beside a run down laundromat.  It's not in a great neighborhood, but despite the run down buildings and half maintained streets around it, the tree-lot is festive.  Several people are there picking out trees, including a father with two young children, who are begging him for the biggest tree he can afford.

A few strings of warm white Christmas lights are strung up between wooden poles at the edges of the tree-lot, and someone is selling hot cocoa for a few dollars a cup.  Tony thinks that Peter will make a bee-line for the trees, but instead he points to the cocoa stand and looks up at Tony, asking for permission again with his eyes.

"Yeah, go ahead."  He motions with his hand and then follows Peter over.  They buy two cups, because it's cold out and Tony would like something warm to wrap his hands around too.  He hadn't been planning on being out of the car and in the cold so much today when he'd left the tower to pick Peter up from school, so he hadn't thought to bring gloves.

Tony and Peter sip hot chocolate as they walk up and down the few makeshift aisles of green Christmas trees.

"What about this one?" Tony asks, pointing at a tall tree.

"That's too tall, I don't think it will fit."

"This one?" Tony asks.

"Mmm…" Peter gives it careful consideration before saying, "I don't think we've ever had that kind before."  It has rings of branches rather than the typical cone shape Tony thinks of when imagining a Christmas tree.  Peter moves on, even though he thinks that that particular tree smells good and looks interesting.

"This one looks good," Tony says, but Peter vetoes that one too.  Tony isn't quite sure why.  He seems to be looking for just the right one, and at this point, who is Tony to stop him?  Tony wouldn't settle for less than the best either.

They wind through the tree aisles twice before Peter stops in front of one and says, "I think this is it."

"You think?"

"I know," Peter says.  "Yeah, I know this is the one.  It's perfect."

Tony isn't sure how it's perfect, because he's never been to pick out a Christmas tree before.  "How is this one perfect?" Tony asks.

"I like the shape," Peter says, "and it smells good.  And some of the other ones have bug sacs.  This one doesn't."

"Bug sacs," Tony deadpans.

"Spiders," Peter whispers, aware that others might be listening to them.  "I could hear all the tiny heartbeats."  He points at the tree and says, "This is a good one.  It looks really fresh, right?"

Tony shrugs.  "Sure."  He doesn't disagree with the kid, he'd just been curious what had made him pick this one over the others.

Tony walks away and finds the guy running the tree lot.  The guy rings them up and Tony pays the sixty four dollars for the tree, and another twenty for a tree stand, because he and Peter had forgotten to buy one at Target.

"You need help tying this to your car?" the guy asks.  Before Tony can answer, he says, "You kind of look like you do."

Tony wants to tell him that he's an engineer and that he can figure anything out, but he can also see that Peter looks cold, so he nods.  "Sure.  Thanks."

He and the guy lift the tree on top of Tony's black sedan and then the guy starts tying it down with the rope Tony bought at Target.  Peter is instructed to roll the back windows down a few inches so the rope can be threaded right through the interior of the car, and soon the tree is secure and Tony and Peter are on their way back to Peter's apartment, Peter rambling about how he and Ben used to decorate the apartment together, and the tree, and bake cookies.  Apparently it had been Ben's old storage unit that they hadn't been able to pay the rent on, and Ben's Christmas decorations.

As they near Peter's neighborhood, Tony listens for the car blasting Christmas music, but it seems to have moved on.  Without realizing he's doing it, he reaches forward and turns on the radio.  He flips through a few stations and settles on one playing soft Christmas music.  It's been a long time since he's listened to Christmas music voluntarily.

When they reach Peter's apartment building, Tony complains about the lack of a working elevator, and they carry the tree up to the third floor.  He and Peter have to make two more trips to get all of the items they bought from Target out of the back seat of the car.  Tony notes that even with the tree inside Peter's apartment, the interior of his car still smells like fresh pine needles.  He doesn't mind that it does.

Together, the two of them figure out how to get the tree standing upright in the tree stand and secure.  Peter remembers that they need to put water in it to keep it fresh and hydrated.  After that, Peter swears that he's an expert on putting Christmas lights on the tree, but after his first attempt, they both agree that the lights need to be pulled off and re-strung more evenly.  They add two long strings of the colorful Christmas lights, just like Tony said they should, and as a result, the tree already looks full and glowing, even without any ornaments.

Peter rummages through five or six Target bags before he comes up with ornament hooks and he and Tony sit on the couch to add them to all of the new ornaments.  Tony adds the Iron Man ornaments to the tree, and Peter adds all the ornaments for Spider Man.  They split the rest of them up evenly, and at some point as the two of them laugh and joke, hanging up ornaments, a smile creeps over Tony's face.  He remembers again decorating Christmas trees with Jarvis and Ana, not just a vague recollection this time, but a full on memory with Christmas music playing softly in the background, Ana humming a tune while Jarvis praises him for being so careful with their glass ornaments.  He thinks later that night, that it was the smell of the fresh pine needles that took him back to those moments.  Home has been a lot of places for Tony over the years, most recently Stark Tower, but Christmas, is a feeling too far back, too far gone, and Tony hadn't expected to feel it again here with Peter, or the sudden sense of home that he feels as he stands back and admires their handiwork, the tree fully decorated and twinkling with colorful lights.  He can't define the sudden ache in his chest, though he knows it's not a bad feeling… its not sadness or anxiety, nor is it the disappointment he always felt watching his parents fly away two weeks until Christmas after telling him that they needed a 'child-free' vacation at least once per year.  He can't define the feeling, though he does suddenly wish that Pepper was here decorating with them.

"You ok, Mr. Stark?"

Tony turns to him and wonders then if he spent too long staring at the decorated tree.  "Yeah.  You ready to put up the rest of the decorations?"

Peter grins at him, because of course he does.  He's a kid, and it's only a few weeks until Christmas, and decorating for him is fun.

As he and Tony put push pins around Peter's room near the ceiling and hang Christmas lights there, and then again in the kitchen, Tony thinks that just maybe, decorating feels fun for him too.

* * *

May stands stock still in her open apartment door, key in hand.  She's not quite sure what she's looking at at first.  She thinks at first that somehow, she got mixed up and her key opened up the door to somebody else's apartment.  She spies Peter asleep on the couch though, covered in the blanket from his bed and snoring softly, so she knows that this is her apartment.  She doesn't know how it can be hers, but it is.

She steps inside and closes the door gently so she doesn't wake him up.  She'd gone to work that morning, stressed out about how she was going to scrape together forty or fifty dollars for a Christmas tree for Peter. She'd thought about what supplies they might have around the house to make paper ornaments with.  But somehow there's a tall, fully decorated tree (packed to the brim with lights and ornaments) sitting in her living room, with a single present wrapped underneath.  She thinks maybe Peter could somehow pull off a tree like this as a surprise, but it's not just the Christmas tree.  There's colorful Christmas lights strung up around the kitchen and living room ceiling.  There's two brand new stockings hanging on a hook on the wall underneath their favorite photos of Ben, and several colorful garlands strung up around the glowing living space.  She can see a soft glow spilling out from Peter's open bedroom door, and somehow she knows there are Christmas lights strung up there too.

There's a glittery silver reindeer sitting on their little kitchen table, a snowglobe on the coffee table, and random other Christmas decorations here and there.  The apartment is so decked out in Christmas decor that it sort of looks like Santa threw up in there.  It's a welcome surprise, but curiosity has her walking to the couch, sitting on the coffee table, and gently shaking her nephew awake.

"Peter.  Hey honey, wake up for a moment."

Peter's eyes crack open, but when he sees her questioning face, he smiles softly.  "Hey, May."

She smiles back at him.  "Do I need to hide you from the police?  Do we have to move to another state?"

"What?"

"Did you rob a bank to pay for all of these decorations?"

Peter shifts and sits up, a grin across his face.  "Mr. Stark bought it all after he picked me up from school!  Then he helped me decorate.  I told him he didn't have to, but he insisted.  I swear, I didn't ask him for any of this stuff."

She's surprised by that.  She looks around at the decorations again.  They're not the kind of decorations she envisioned a multibillionaire buying.  They're entirely ordinary Christmas decorations–colorful, warm, and inviting.

"Tony did all of this?" she asks for confirmation.

Peter nods.  "Yeah.  We went to Target and filled up the cart.  You should have seen the cheker's face.  And- oh yeah, look at the tree!"  He points at the tree, excited.  "We found Spider Man ornaments!  Lots of them!"

She turns to look, and spots several of the ornaments, along with Iron Man ornaments, many of them side by side.

When she turns back to Peter, she eyes the fading bruise on his face.  She'd gotten a message from Midtown hours after they had left it, and read the text that Peter had sent her.  His lip looks almost completely healed now, and there's only a lingering bruise.  She wonders what he'll tell his friends the next day about how the bruise and split lip healed so fast.

"How's your face feeling?"

"Good!" he says brightly.

"Are you going to sleep out here by the tree?"

He nods.  "Yeah, that's ok, right?"

"It's ok.  Go ahead and get some sleep.  It's almost midnight, and you have school tomorrow."

"Ok, I will.   Oh yeah, there's leftovers in the fridge.  Mr. Stark ordered pizza, and we saved you three slices."

"Thank you," she tells him.  She leans over, kisses him gently on the forehead, and then stands up.  She wants to make a call, but can't without Peter overhearing, so it will have to wait until morning.  She has someone she needs to say thank you to.  Tony didn't have to do any of this, and she doesn't know why he did, but she appreciates it more than she thinks he'll ever know.

* * *

It's after eight in the morning, but Pepper is still laying in bed.  She has to work on Saturday, so she's taking a day off in the middle of the week, something that she doesn't get to do often as CEO.

She would stay in bed for a while longer too, warm and comfortable under the covers, but Tony's phone is ringing on his nightstand, and he's unable to answer since he's in the shower.

"Mrs. Boss, you may want to answer the phone," FRIDAY says.

"It's Tony's phone."

"May Parker is calling."

Pepper rolls across the bed a little and stretches to pull the cell phone off of his nightstand.  Normally she would let Tony get it after he gets out of the shower, but if May is calling, it must be important.  She and Tony usually only communicate when Peter is hurt or needs help.

"Hello?"

"Oh… hello," May says.  She was clearly expecting Tony to pick up.  "I was trying to reach Tony."

"He's in the shower.  Is Peter ok?"

"He's fine.  Better than fine actually.  I just wanted to call and tell Tony thank you for everything he did yesterday.  He really didn't have to do any of it, but I really appreciate it."

Pepper knows that Tony went out to get Peter from school because he'd been hurt, but what May said makes it sound like something else went on after that.  "What did he do?"  Usually when she asks that, it's with a wary tone because she's wondering what kind of PR fire she'll have to put out.  He's done some pretty outrageous things over the years.  It can't be too bad though, because Peter's aunt sounds happy.

"Yesterday after he picked Peter up, he took him out Christmas shopping.  They bought Christmas decorations and a tree.  Then he helped Peter decorate the tree and our apartment and bought him dinner.  I came home last night and found Peter asleep on the couch in front of the tree.  He loved it so much that he wanted to fall asleep looking at it."

"Tony-" she clears her throat and lets her eyes flit up to the open bathroom door where she can still hear the shower running.  "Tony did that?"

"That's what Peter said. It looks like Christmas exploded inside our apartment.  It's- well, Christmas has always been Ben and Peter's thing.  After Ben died, I tried to keep up with it, but we lost all of our decorations this summer when we were late on our storage unit payment.  I didn't have money to replace any of it.  Peter lives for Christmas and… well… just, thank you.  This will mean more to Peter than you can ever know, and to me.  I haven't seen Peter smile like this in a while.  That's the best gift I could ask for.  Could you tell Tony that?"

Pepper nods even though no one can see her.  She smiles and says, "I'll tell him."

"Thank you."

They say their goodbyes, and hang up.  Pepper hears the shower turn off in the bathroom, and sets Tony's phone down beside her on the bed.  She thinks twice about it though and says, "FRIDAY?  Did Tony take any photos from his time with Peter yesterday?"

"One."

Pepper opens up Tony's phone again and opens up the camera roll.  She rarely ever has a need to use his phone and usually never looks through it without his permission.  She hopes he won't mind now.  The most recent photo is one of the decorated Christmas tree in Peter's apartment, colorful lights turned on.  At the edge of the frame she can see a red and silver garland and the edge of a bright red Christmas stocking hanging on the wall under several photos.  She thinks that he and Peter did a remarkably good job decorating.  Peter must have practice, she thinks, because Tony has never once decorated a Christmas tree in the time she's known him.  He prefers not to celebrate Christmas at all.  She knows his reasons, and never pressures him to celebrate.

Tony comes out of the bathroom a few minutes later, hair damp and dressed in a fresh t-shirt and pair of comfortable sweatpants.  She knows that he's planning on spending the day with her since it's her day off.

He sits down on the bed to put his watch on, and with a small smile she says, "I know what you did."

He turns a little and flashes her a smile and one raised brow.  "Oh yeah?  What did I do?  I don't want to cop to anything you haven't already figured out yet."

"May called.  She wanted to tell you how grateful she is that you took care of decorations this year.  She said that Ben used to take care of all of that with Peter.  Christmas was their thing."

Tony frowns lightly at that as he finishes putting his watch on.

"I thought you hated Christmas," she says.

"Yeah… well… it's not so bad."  Then he informs her, like it's a significant detail, "Small Christmas trees cost $64.85."

"I see.  Well, your $64.85 went a long way towards making Peter smile.  Did you know that?"

"Yeah.  I know.  Kid was grinning like an idiot all day."  Tony smiles at the thought of it.

"And were you?" she asks.

"Psh."  He'll never admit that he was smiling too, but that's ok, because Pepper already knows the answer to her question.

"Is May working on Christmas?" she asks.

"I think that's what Peter said."

"Do you want to invite him over here for the day?"

"Do you really think he wants to spend the day over here?" Tony's really not sure.  He thinks Peter would rather not be alone, but he's not certain that the kid will want to spend any time with him on Christmas day.  Christmas is for family, and they're not family.  It's the primary reason Tony has always hated Christmas.  Even when his parents were still alive, Tony spent the holidays without them.  Christmas, or Tony's need or desire to celebrate it with his family was never a factor for Howard and Maria.

"Yes, I think he'd like that," she says.  "Why don't you ask?"

"Yeah," Tony mutters.  Yeah, he'll ask.  He's a Grinch, and he hates Christmas (maybe), but for Peter, he's willing to celebrate it just this once.  Suddenly his mind's eye is filled with the image of sitting in front of the gas fireplace with Peter, drinking hot chocolate or eggnog and eating Christmas cookies with soft Christmas music playing in the background.  He would have given anything to do that just once with his parents.  He's not Peter's parent, but May will be at work, and Peter will be alone.  If Tony invites him over, they can both celebrate together with Pepper.

"I'll ask, but we need hot chocolate, cookies, fudge, the works."

Pepper smiles to herself.  Tony puts up with her putting up and decorating a tree in the penthouse each year, but this year she wonders if their home will soon look like what May described… like an explosion of colorful Christmas decor and twinkling lights.  She runs her fingers up through Tony's hair from behind.  He smiles, mentally planning out the upcoming holiday in his head.