Part two, enjoy!

I wake up slightly confused at first as to where I am, but as I sit up in the insanely comfortable bed FRIDAY turns the lights on—dim at first so I can adjust— and speaks to me softly.

"Good morning Peter, it is currently 6: 45 am, 51°F and it is looking to reach 59°F. The date is the 25th of December."
(Used google for the Fahrenheit: I'm Australian lmao.)

I get out of bed and stretch. Ah, it's Christmas. "Mornin' Friday. Is everyone up?"

"Everyone is awake except Natasha, Rhodes and Bucky. Those awake are in the common room's living room and kitchen."

"Thanks Friday." I get my phone off charge and check it, seeing a few notifications. One is a merry Christmas text from Aunt May, who I text back a return message and wish her well. I send a merry Christmas to MJ and Ned too.

I make my way over to the wardrobe and pick out some jeans, a science pun shirt. I also check the drawers which happen to have underwear and socks—slightly embarrassing to think that Mr Stark got these for me. I make my way to the bathroom and grab a towel out from one of the cupboards. Wow, there's everything in this bathroom! There's shaving stuff, a first aid kit, and plenty of shampoo and conditioner. I undress and step into the shower.

***

I walk out of the—my?—room, freshly showered and curious as to how today will turn out. I make my way to the elevator, telling Friday to take me to the Avenger's common floor.
I step out to the smell of bacon, pancakes, cookies, and much much more.
"Peter!" Several voices cheer, and I make my way over to the kitchen. Miss Potts and Mr Sam are behind the counter, serving lots of food. Mr Stark, Morgan, Thor and Bruce are standing or sitting around also eating. Or drinking coffee if you count Mr Stark—who is wearing an amazing Christmas suit by the way.

"Merry Christmas everyone!" I greet happily, sitting up on a stool.

"Merry Christmas!" They cheer back. Almost immediately a plate of pancakes and bacon is pressed in front of me.
"Dig in, we have so much!" Miss Potts tells me with a grin, flipping a pancake.

"Thank you! This looks wonderful." I beam, quickly digging in to satisfy my hunger. Wow there's like eight pancakes on my plate.
"Hey. Do you think I could post a Christmas message on the Instagram?" I ask miss Potts. A few months ago she gave me control over the offical Avengers page because I'm "Funny", "relatable" and "sensible enough to not offend any of the higher ups". The last one is debatable because I post a hell of a lot of memes.

"Sure!" Miss Potts exclaims and I whip out my phone, taking a photo of the food and Sam holding a spatula, wearing a Santa hat and an apron that says "salute the chocolate missile" (an inside joke from an interview, apparently). I then get to posting.

Official Avengers Assemble
[image]
Caption: Wow, another Christmas, another Cap. This one's certainly more cocky 🙄 but he sure makes excellent food! From us to you, the Avengers wish you a safe and merry Christmas! ~ Earth's Very 🎄Christmassy🎄 Avengers.

I post it and resume eating, listening and engaging in the current conversation which is really just Sam trying to get people to see his point of view about "The Big Three". My phone goes off with notifications as the minutes past from people liking, sharing and commenting on the post.

After I finish I immediately get up to wash up, but Miss Potts tries to tell me not to. I shake my head at her, "No Miss Potts, you've been cooking! It's the least I can do!" I smile kindly, starting to wash up despite her protests. She smiles at me and shakes her he ask patting my shoulder as she walks past. As this happens, Nat walks into the kitchen and grabs a plate of pancakes before walking into the living room—not before calling a "morning" over her shoulder. Yep, she's not a morning person.

Half an hour everyone is up, and even Clint has brought his family to the tower.
"Mornin' guys!" He greets, walking through the elevator with his kids and wife.
"Hi!" I call happily. "Great to see you all again!" I've only met the family three times, after all.
"Hi Peter!!! Guess what Santa got me? Guess!" Nathaniel beams as he runs in.

"Hmm, I don't know... what?" I ask with a smile.
"He got me the ENTIRE action set of Avengers! The set that was only released last week! It's awesome!" He cheers, jumping up and down. "A-and he got me a new bike! I'm gonna be able to go sooo fast!"

I smile at his happiness, remembering the times when I was that young. "That's awesome buddy! What colour is your bike?"
"Red! It's so cool!" Nathaniel cheers. "Daddy says I don't even need training wheels anymore!"
I gasp dramatically, "Wow!"

"So, who are we waiting on?" Mr Clint asks, ruffling his son's hair.
"Loki, Wanda and Vision, Steve, Dr Strange, and I believe Scott might be coming with Cassie around lunch time." Miss Potts responds.
"Do you think Mr Doctor Strange do some magic?" I ask eagerly. They look at me. "...f-for the kids." I add, playing it off like I myself am not eager to see magic.

"Hmm, maybe if you can convince him." Miss Potts shrugs, seeming doubtful.
"We'll bribe him with cookies!" I smirk, gesturing to the cookies currently in the oven. All the kids' faces light up and I chuckle. "We can't have them yet."

A while later all the washing up is done and everyone has moved to the living room, where The Polar Express is playing on the tv. Most people are sitting or standing around talking, but Bucky is playing UNO with Sam, Rhodey and Nat. I walk over to them just in time to see Nat put down a plus 4 card and call UNO, causing Rhodey to complain, Sam to mime flipping the table, and Bucky to wordlessly pick up four cards with a murderous look in his eyes. I chuckle in amusement and join in on the next game, where I end up causing Nat to draw 8 and immediately regret it.

"Brother!" I hear a while later from Thor, and look up to see Thor furiously hugging someone. Thor eventually lets go and steps back, just for Loki to step into view with a roll of his eyes and a whispered threat to Thor, whom ignores him and claps him happily on the back.

"Ah, Reindeer games is here, hide the tesseract!" Mr Stark calls teasingly. Mr Loki wordlessly uses his magic and makes a pillow float from the couch and hit Mr Stark in the head, before returning it to its place. The kids squeal in delight and I laugh at Mr Stark's face. He'd nearly spilt the coffee from his mug. Mr Stark glares at him.

"Oh, come on! What would you expect?" Mr Loki smugly exclaims as he spreads his arms in amusement.

"Ok, ok, before people start brawling I'm taking the kids for a walk," Mr Clint chuckles, "they wanna see the training room."

"I wanna do archery!" Lila exclaims, determined. "I bet one day I'll be better than Dad!"
"Sure, kiddo, you can dream." Mr Clint chuckles.
"Peter could you come? I wanna see you climb the ropes again!" Cooper asks.
"Yeah!" Nathaniel beams. I shrug. "Sure, I'll meet you down there though."

"Ok, don't be long!" They exclaim, I smile and shake my head as I head to the private elevator and go back up to the penthouse, quickly changing into something better for gym—I find some shirts and a loose tank top (which has a Star Wars quote on the back)— and head down to the avengers gym.

Walking in, I see Clint and his kids at the archery section (which is next to the obstacle section) but also see someone else hitting a punching bag. Getting a closer look, my eyes widen in sunrise when I realise it's the Steve Rogers!

I give an impressed head tilt when he breaks the bag clean off its chain, then simply hang another one up.

"Peter!" I hear, and look over to see Cooper waving me over. Steve looks up at the voice and notices me, I give a sheepish wave and a "hi mr Steve, sir! Good to see you again!" Before jogging over to the Barton's.

"Hey guys," I greet them. Clint nods in acknowledgment and turns back to helping Lila fix her posture.
"Watch this!" Lila exclaims and I watch her draw the bow she's holding and let the arrow go. It strikes the target, certainly not centre, but she does hit it!
"Whoa, good job!" I praise and she jumps up and down in excitement.
"Can you show us how you go on the ropes?" Cooper asks me. I pretend to the kid about it.

"Pleeeasse? You're really good!" Nathanial begs. How can I say no to that?
"Oh, okay then." I chuckle, walking over to the ropes hanging from the ceiling.

I jump up onto the rope and start climbing, very easily thanks to my abilities. I start mucking about, going upside down and doing flips as I jump from rope to rope. The kids cheer me on by below so I start showing off even more, doing back flips and more as I make large leaps. Eventually, though, I release the rope and drop down to land in one of my Spidey poses. The kids clap and I chuckle, waving them off. Only now do I notice that Steve has decided to come over and watch, which is exactly when I start blushing in embarrassment. I was just showing off in front of Steve Rogers, goddamnit.

"Queens." He greets me kindly. "I wondered when I'd see you again." Yeah, I haven't really seen him since the civil war. Thank god that was resolved— though it took a lot of work and a lot of forgiveness from all parties.

"Brooklyn." I greet back, "yeah, I've just been hanging around." I try not to face palm at my pun. Yeah, puns are my biggest weakness.

"I can see that," he nods, amused. Then, he gets swamped by Clint's kids.
"You're the old cap!"
"I thought you were reallly old?"
"My mummy says you have impulse issues,"
"Is it true you jumped on a grenade?"
"I got an active figure of you for Christmas! But I also got the Sam captain America, which is waaaay cooler because he has wings! You're still cool though,"

I chuckle quietly as I slip away, instead returning to the obstacle section. I stay on the ropes, practising flips and twists as I mime fighting people. I eventually end up in the roof rafters where I jump all over the place and practice what I can do without using webs. After that I simply start working out—lifting weights and things like that.

***

Soon enough I make my way back up to the common floor. It's about 12o'clock so I know it's not for until lunch. After I change back into the jeans and shirt I offer to help prepare the absolute mountain of food, but am kindly rejected. Instead I start playing Mario cart with Rhodey and Nat in the living room. Wanda and Vision are here now, which is good. It's also becoming much more crowded which isn't great for my senses to be completely honest.

"Oh come on!" Rhodey complains as I blue shell him not far from the finish line. I smirk and high five Nat as I slide into second place.

"Rematch!" He declares for the fifth time,
"Not now! Lunch is nearly ready so everyone needs to take a seat." Wanda calls cheerfully.

Everyone gets up and makes their way to dining area. Thank gods it's big! Because now, I note as I sit down between Mr Stark and Yelena, there are, I believe, twenty two of us. It's a good thing we have so much food. They let the kids get their food first, knowing how hungry they'd be, before slowly everyone else gets food. Conversation soon sparks around the table between everyone, with people enjoying the fantastic food and popping the bon bons. (America has bon-bons, right? In Australia we call them crackers... if not then oops, lmao.)

About an hour later everyone has finished their food, and I insist on washing up. I'm joined by Laura and Steve so between us it doesn't take too long to take care of the dishes.
"Do you think I'd need to make an appointment to visit the children's hospital? I've gone twice now but I've never bothered to call ahead, I just slip in and out of the rooms." I ask them curiously as we put the clean dishes away.
"It's probably wise to call," Laura nods at me. "...but you're not going to, are you?" She observes. I chuckle.
"No, I'm Spider-man, after all! I'm all about the spontaneity. I'll go sometime after lunch, maybe sneak some toys in."
"I wanna come!" I hear Scott exclaim.
"Me too!" Thor adds.
"Count me in." Steve nods.
"But no one knows you're alive." I mumble.
"Well they will after today!" He chuckles.
"Can't argue with that logic." I shrug.
Soon enough I've got a list of people coming, which consist of Scott, Thor, Steve, Wanda, Nat, Mr Stark and myself. We'll all be going in our suits, it's gonna be so fun. I might even video some of it and post it on the offical instagram. Miss Potts insisted on calling and organising it for us, only because she knew we'd be going either way.

"Alright," I say when it's around 2 o'clock and those of us coming are ready and in our suits. "We'll head over to the children's hospital and try to get around to every kid, spend at least fifteen minutes at each. We should be back by dinner that way. I'm going to be filming some of it so please don't say my name."

Everyone agrees, and we all head down to the tower's garage, where we pick two cars and pile in. I'm in a car with Nat, Steve, and Scott while Thor, Mr Stark, and Wanda take the other. We drive though the dirt fairly quickly and arrive at the children's hospital.

We meet in the lobby, signing in, before we split off into groups of two. I go with Scott so we can be "bug boys", Nat goes with Wanda, Mr Stark goes alone because he's iron man, and Thor and Steve go together. We set off.

***

"Hello!" I wave to the little girl as I walk into her room with Scott not far behind me. "Merry Christmas!" Her parents smile and greet us kindly. I hand the girl a teddy bear and give her a soft hug.
"Are you the real Spider-man?" She asks me. I beam, knowing I'm about to make her day.

"Yeah! Would you like me to prove it?" I ask eagerly. She nods enthusiastically and so I jump up on the ceiling and crawl around. She giggles in excitement. Scott gives her a high five, then grows small and plays with the dolls she'd had on her bed. Between us we entertain her for about ten minutes before we know we have to move on, so we take several selfies and photos with her, promising to send them to her parents, before saying goodbye and moving on.

This process happens several times until we've seen over twenty kids and it's coming onto four pm. After this everyone meets in the lobby, but I notice and Stark isn't there and so I set off to find him.

I search almost everywhere until I come to the infant section, where I find him cuddling a baby as he speaks softly with the parents. I take a little video and watch in awe. This is so damn cute! I'm gonna send this to Miss Potts.
"Do you have kids of your own?" One of the parents asks.
"Yeah, I do," Mr Stark smiles as he rocks the baby back in forth. He looks down at the baby. "I would do anything for 'em."
"You're really a big softy," the other parent laughs softly. "No one ever says that."

Mr Stark smiles and carefully hands the baby back to the parents. "Shh, don't break the reputation." He jokes as he stands up and I duck out of view, flicking the camera to me and widening my eye lenses as I bring my hand up to the side of my mask, expressing how adorable this was. I jump up to the ceiling as Mr Stark walks out, and see him whisper to FRIDAY to send a reoccurring monthly hundred thousand dollar donation to the children's hospital. I smile and sneak away, making my way back to the lobby. A few minutes later Mr Stark shows up.

"This was amazing guys, thanks for doing this with me!" I tell them as we all walk out of the hospital.
"I come here like once a month, it was nice to come again." Mr Stark says which surprises me because I wasn't aware he did.
On the car ride home I edit the video and photo before posting to the offical Instagram.

Official Avengers Assemble
[Video, consisting of a photo montage of the heroes with the children, and ending with a tiny video snippet of Tony holding the little baby, ending with the name of the children's hospital and a heart.]
Caption: Today we had the pleasure of visiting some of the children in the Children's Hospital. It was fantastic to be able to bring joy to these wonderful, strong kids this Christmas. Today reminds us of how important our time with our loved ones is and how much "I love you" can really impact us. Stay safe everyone and show your loved ones how much you appreciate them this Christmas. If you wish to donate to the children's hospital, there is a link in our bio. Merry Christmas!

By the time we get back to the tower it has over a million views—which is saying something cause we were only in the car for like ten minutes. When we get back to the common floor it's 5 o'clock and all the kids are eager to open presents.

So we gather around the tree and let the kids open their presents first. I had decided to go all out this year and get everyone something, no matter how hard they are to shop for. So I gave Morgan a toy repulsor that I made myself—it sprays water which she immediately loved and started to chase Mr Stark with. I got Lila an archery target, Cooper a whole stack of novels, and Nathaniel an Avengers LEGO set. I gave Cassie some pencils and an advanced colouring book that consisted only of weird animals.

After that it was all for all, with people opening presents everywhere. I couldn't help but laugh as I saw that Sam got Bucky a pair of oven mits, and that Bucky got Sam swimming goggles stating that "they look just like the ones you're wearing!". If you're wondering, I ended up getting Bucky some fridge magnets (one says "this is not a place to stick your shopping list!" and a new note book, while I got Sam a book of pigeons (it's fun to pick on him) and I built him so new wings cause his current ones kind of suck. I haven't given them their presents yet though.

The minutes passed by quickly and I watch everyone opening their presents with a grin, the floor soon becoming swamped in wrapping paper. After a little while I start distributing my presents around. As I mentioned earlier, it is insanely hard to shop for literal gods, spies, super humans and geniuses. But I think I did ok. Everyone thanks me, although when Sam saw the pigeon book his eye twitched and Bucky bursted out laughing.

"Mr Stark!" I exclaim, bouncing up to him with a grin. He's wearing a Santa hat now to go with his christmassy three piece suit and is holding a glass of wine.

"Hey kiddo," he smiles at me and raises his wine, "having fun? There's some juice boxes in the kitchen if you're thirsty," he smirks.
"I'm gonna ignore that," I say, well aware of the fact that I will most definitely be having some. "T-thank you for having me Mr Stark!" I beam, nervous. I present him his gift. "I know you're a billionaire and all, which means you are insanely hard to shop for cause you have practically everything, but I uh, I made you this sir and...yeah." I trail off, sheepishly rubbing my neck. He raises an eyebrow and places the wine to the side before taking the wrapped gift from me.

"I know it's nothing too special," I ramble nervously as he unwraps the colourful paper and examines the coffee mug. I has a photo of us printed (from the "September foundation") and the words "best mentor" on the other side. I grow more nervous as he doesn't react outwardly, "I-if you don't want it I could totally just take it back—"
"Hey, back off! I'm using this forever." He exclaims as I almost reach for it, taking his sunglasses off and looking me in the eye, giving me a small grin.

I sigh in relief and return the smile. He ruffles my hair, "Mr Stark!" I whine and he chuckles.
"Tony," Rhodey calls from somewhere in the room, "C'mon over here, I wanna show you something!"
"Ah, honey-bear is summoning me," Mr Stark notes. He gives me another smile as he slides his glasses back on, "good job kid." He walks off, with the mug and all.

***

"...I knew he was a fan but I didn't know he ran a verified fan account," I chuckle, recounting how I found out Flash runs a Spider-man fan account and a blog. I'm talking with Loki and Dr Strange by the kitchen. Everyone has spread out and there's even music playing. Every now and then a stampede of kids rush by us, but after the eighth time we've elected to ignore them. It's pretty loud, but I'm doing ok so far.

"I could still stab him, you know? Or turn him into a frog." Loki tells me with a sly smirk, "it's always fun when I blow off steam on Thor."
"Oh, here's an idea, we could use those webs of yours and web him upside down to the Washington monument." Dr Strange adds, before taking a sip of coffee from the "what the fox 🦊" mug I got him for Christmas. Loki nods in acknowledgement. The two get along better now, ever since Loki apparently got revenge and had Dr Strange fall through portals for half an hour.

"No," I rush to shut them down on the idea, "that—that won't be necessary, sirs."
"Oh come on, we all know he deserves it. I could put him in a time loop?" Loki suggests again, holding up some kind of device with the letters "T", "V" and "A" printed on them. Interesting.

"Wha—Where did you get that?" Dr Strange asks him, taken aback. Loki waves him off and vanishes the device with a conspicuous smirk.

"Oh there you are," I hear and turn to see Mr Stark walking over to us, with his outfit now having an additional christmassy scarf over his neck. I love how his outfit has been growing ever since this morning. He's still holding the mug I got him, but it's filled with something suspiciously smelling like eggnog. "Don't go hanging out with the Wizard and Reindeer Games too much, you'll be sprouting magic and weird hair styles."

"But...Mr Doctor Strange sir, isn't a wizard. He's a sorcerer." I correct.
"THANK YOU!" Bucky yells from nearby, which earns him a slap on the head by Sam.
"That was like four different titles..." Dr Strange notes, looking confused and amused.
"Heads," Mr Stark notes before tossing me a juice box from his pocket.
"Ooh, apple. Thanks." I note happily, drinking it.
"You like your gifts?" Mr Stark asks and I look at him confused.
"What gifts?"
"You didn't check for your own presents, did you." Mr Stark sighs, I look at him in shock.
Loki facepalms in the background. "Arachnid, were you really thinking no one would get you anything?"

"Well... it was just so late minute, and I don't want to be a bother to anyone cause, y'know, I'm just happy to be here and today has been nice enough—"
"I'm gonna stop you there," Mr Stark holds a hand up. "Let's just go get you your presents, kid."

"For a genius he's not all that bright." Rhodey jokes as he walks pass, "kinda like you Tones."
"You know I'm offended," Tony shoots back, "I thought we had a connection."

Together we make our way to the tree, and I note all the loose wrapping paper has been cleared away. About a dozen presents still stand. "Hey, there's some unwrapped presents here—some of you must have missed your presents."

"They're all yours!" Nathaniel exclaims from the floor, where he's playing with some hotwheels cars. "We checked!"

"A-all...?!" I trail off, looking at the presents, feeling other whelmed.
"Well are you gonna start or do we have to open them for you?" Mr Stark asks with a smirk. "Seriously kid, they're yours. Open em."

I give him a shy smile as I get down on my knees and grab the closest present. I pull it to me, it's wrapped really nice and red and gold wrapping. "Hey, you're trying to win me over with your colours, are you?" I joke to Mr Stark. Little does he know he's literally already my favourite. He roles his eyes and gestures for me to hurry up. Which is what I do. I even let Nathaniel come and help pull the wrapping apart.

"Whoaaa, that's awesome!" I exclaim, pulling out a red, black and blue hoodie. "I am totally going to wear this over my suit next time I'm patrolling." I hold it up, admiring the detailed web design. I hear cameras go off in the background but elect to ignore them.

"Look, there's a box!" Nathaniel exclaims and I look down to see a small metal box on the bottom, small enough to fit in my palm or women's jean pockets. It has blue Spidey eyes in the centre. I pick it up, surprised, and when I run my hand over the eyes the top retracts. "Whoa, nano tech", I beam, then look inside the box. Some wireless earphones sit there, like AirPods but smaller and cooler. I pick them up, a small Stark industries can be seen on the side.

"Try them on, Karen's connected." Mr Stark tells me, and so I do.
I put them in my ears and hear a, "hello Peter," from them. "They can take calls, play music. Regular earphone stuff." Mr Stark waves dismissively. "I added something else though. Tell her to activate S.O mode," He advises, and so I do. Suddenly everything becomes quiet, and the earphones have expanded into headphones. I look around in awe, barely able to hear all the conversations going on. These are going to be so useful for when I get on the verge of sensory overloads, which is what the "S.O" must stand for. This is amazing.

"Deactivate S.O." I mumble, and the noise comes flooding back in.
"This is...this is amazing, Mr Stark. Thank you so much!" I exclaim, fighting back tears.
"No problem kid, it's what I do." He responds, patting me on my shoulder a little awkwardly. I lean into it, a huge smile on my face.

"Now the charge can last about ten hours. They take an hour to charge up completely, they charge automatically in the case which can be attached to any power source." Mr Stark tells me. "They're also water proof. They might come in handy, we're having a New Years party and you and your Hot aunt are coming. No isn't an option."
Holy crap Ned is going to freak out when I tell him! And a party? Wow.

"Open ours next," I hear and turn to see Cooper pressing a present into my hands. I place the earphones back in their case carefully, vowing to self delete if I ever damage them.
"I picked out the wrapping!" Nathaniel beams and I ruffle his hair and praise his choice—Santa hats and candy canes.

(One of my headcanons is that Peter is really good with kids, so I've included a lot of interaction between them)

After I've opened their present— some new shoes— Natasha and Yelena give me theirs, which turns out to be some easy Mac and cheese (Yelena) as well as a microwaveable bowl that has spiders designed all over it (Natasha) There reasoning is that I couldn't possibly burn max and cheese. Mr Stark tells them that it's debatable. Pretty soon everyone is shoving gifts in my face and I'm almost tempted to put the earphones back in to calm myself down.

***

"This is insane, insane!" I rant quietly as I point the camera over the mountain of gifts. "Look, Dr Bruce got me a signed copy of his latest book!" I exclaim, zooming in. Everyone is currently in the kitchen so I'm using the opportunity to talk with May.

"My god Peter, you're vibrating." Aunt May chuckles from the phone. "We'll have to clear a spot on your shelf."

"I don't know how we will find the room May, but we'll figure it out. Holy crap May, I wasn't expecting anything when I came here."

"Tony even sent me flowers and chocolates at work, kiddo. He's a good man." She pauses to chuckle. "Happy got jealous."
"Just propose to him already, I doubt he's game enough to do it." I tease. "But I better be the best man."
She blushes and shakes her head, "w-were not there in our relationship... we've only officially been dating for five months. Six next week."

"Oh come on, you're adorable."
"When are you gonna proper to MJ, then? Hmm?" May teases and I go red.
"May!" I squeak. "We're no way ready for that!" I pause and smile. "Besides, I am pretty sure she'll propose. Something about breaking the stereotypes and not conforming to society."
"She's a keeper, kiddo." Someone calls Mays name in the background. She waves at them. "Coming! Alright Pete, I have to go. I'll see you tonight, Larb you!"
"Bye, Larb you may!" I respond, smiling, before I hand up. After that I pocket the phone.

Loki runs into the room and beckons for me to stand, "come on, we're going to have a movie marathon down in the theatre. The first people there pick the first movie!" He is unusually excited, which makes me think he has had a few dozen pitches of Asgardian Ale.

My eyes light up, "I need to show you and Dr Strange Harry Potter, you're gonna love it!" I beam. And so we sprint out of the room.

***

It's currently about 11 pm and I'm standing out on the common floor balcony, enjoying the fresh air. We're taking a small break in the movie marathon. I'm going to be heading back to May soon, but I'll have to do the round of goodbyes first and get into my suit. After a few minutes of staring at the starry sky, Mr Stark joins me with a small, "Underoos" as a greeting.

"Wow, today was amazing." I exhale. "It's one of the best Christmases I have had in a long while." I pause, smiling. "So, thank you. It's been great."

Mr Stark turns to look at me, taking his glasses off. "I'm not great at the whole emotions display thing, as you know, but I'm trying to—" he breathes, seemingly frustrated. "I'm trying to break the cycle my father started. He never, y'know—I never really knew him. Never told me he liked my presence. But I don't wanna be the same as him. I like having you around, underoos." He gives me a sincere smile. "You're a good kid."

He opens his arms. I look at him carefully, wondering if it's a hug and whether should just go for it. Eventually I decide to. I hug him tightly, and to my relief he hugs me back.
"We're there now?" I ask him.
"That's right, kiddo." He responds.
"Oh. This is nice." I whisper—on the other hand I'm cheering loudly in my head, excited that our relationship is at this point. We stay in the hug for a few more seconds before we pull back. We then head back inside so I can say goodbye to everyone.

***

"You wanna come by tomorrow? Most of us will be here until after New Years." Nat asks me. "I really wanna spar with you again."
"Sure, Miss Nat! I'll even bring May if she's not busy." I reply as I pull on my mask and perch on the now open window. She gives me a satisfied nod.
"I'll send happy to come pick you up tomorrow." Mr Stark says, leaning against the door to my (! I'm still so happy) room. I give a salute, before falling backwards out of the window.
"Hey, that's my move!" I hear Yelena complain.

I shout out in joy, twisting my body over and free falling face first through the crisp air. My new hoodie is warm over my body and it blends in well with my suit. After falling for a little while longer, I turn and shoot a web.

"Woo-hoo!" I scream as I swing through the city towards Queens. "Merry Christmas!" I yell to the people out late at night, even flipping upside down to high five a heap of them before I swing off into the night.

————————————————

Aaand there's the end of the sappy one shot. Once again I wish everyone a merry Christmas. This has not been proofread at all and I haven't completely kept the characters in-character because I couldn't be bothered. It's also been a long time since I've seen Ant-man etc so yeah, sorry if the characters aren't quite right.

See ya next time 👋