Parker's birthday
Peter Parker/Sam Alexander
"What's tomorrow though?" Sam asks, flicking his eyes up from the glowing screen of the console in his hands. "Ugh, put down the game for a minute Sam", Ava groans, pinching her brows together in complete exasperation; strangely enough the other cooperates, pausing and saving before shutting the game and shoving it in his jacket. Danny smiles approvingly at him and answers his question, "Tomorrow's Spider-man's birthday." Sam gapes, trying to think of what to say but finding nothing suitable and closing his mouth. A frown tilts his lips as he tries to comprehend why he didn't remember his boyfriend's birthday. Ava crosses her arms and sighs, "You forgot, didn't you?" He sputters on an excuse or a quip but nothing comes up and he rubs the back of his neck sheepishly. Luke rolls his eyes at him, but Sam's too busy racking his brains for a decent idea of what to do about Parker's birthday. Tickets to some nerd show? Peter loved those geek convents and nerd shows even if it was just some old guy talking to a mike instead of Star Wars cosplayers. Even Sam enjoyed the Star Wars conventions, they reminded him of space, but the lectures were as bad as school, if not worse. A little trinket from space maybe? He could always shoot up right now and beg the guardians for something that looked weird enough for Parker to like. A cake perhaps? If there was one thing he could do, it was cook, but the idea seemed so generic. He huffed in frustration, tugging the silver necklace he'd been given for his last birthday by the very person he was trying to think of a gift for. Were Ava and Danny planning a party or something? He knew how much everyone on the team cared for the bug boy, he'd helped them all in his own special way so his special day deserved everything they could get him. Sam cursed again under his breath, thoroughly annoyed with himself for forgetting.
It's in this state that he's caught off guard by arms wrapping around his waist and light brown locks tickling his cheek as a weight dropped on his shoulder. Sam flushed bright red, eliciting a chuckle from Peter who just said, "What're you guys talking about?" Looking down, Sam rolled his eyes, "Not patrol clearly, unlike some people." He was met with a light scoff, "Someone needs to protect the city while its resident heroes are ordering take out." Costumed hands pluck at the sides of Sam's coat, and he promptly flicks the wrists, earning an exaggerated exclamation of pain. "We got Pizza, hope you don't mind", Danny says politely, knowing full well that Peter does not mind at all. Still, it puts them a little more at ease when he shrugs, leaning closer against Sam's neck and mumbling, "Who minds Pizza?" Luke plops down on the couch and switches the channel on the TV that had been running the Daily Bugle news, stopping at the football game. Danny and Ava smile, and proceed to sit on the couch and Sam watches in silence as Ava wrestles Luke for the remote to turn to the movie channels. Luke may be Power-man, but when Ava wants the TV she will get it, not even he can stop the feral cat and Danny's laughing. "You're unusually quiet, bucket head, what's it?" Peter asks, soft enough to be muffled into his collar and loud enough so he knows only Sam heard. The doorbell rings, and he leans back a little, replying with a quiet, "It's nothing Webs, get off me, that's the Pizza guy." Peter unwraps his arms and stretches them above his head, skipping up the stairs to change while Sam pays for the food and puts in on the coffee table in front of them with a set of plates. It's then that a brilliant idea strikes his head so hard he's running for his helmet before anyone can acknowledge the euphoric expression on his face.
When Peter descends the staircase after a warm shower, he sees Ava, Danny and Luke still sitting on the couch with their eyes glued to the TV and steaming pizza in front of them, but Sam's nowhere to be seen. He frowns, but shrugs it off, technically they were roomies for a while more so Sam had to crash through his window at some point, and he wasn't particularly worried about the human rocket. He dumps himself in front of the television and grabs a slice of pizza, smiling absently as he watches Ava and Danny arguing about what had interrupted their English class earlier in the day; Ava claims it was another teacher but Danny insists one of the boys on the football team had nearly thrown up in class and had to be dragged away. His thoughts fade back to when he'd first met his team, and at the time he would've done anything to get them away from him. Not only had he not known them, he hadn't wanted to put a group of kids his own age in any kind of danger when he was meant to deal with that danger. He wasn't overconfident, far from it, but just seeing how they were, especially Sam, made him strangely protective. He'd taken every instance to poke at the boy, just to watch his annoyingly competitive temper flare up, and the more he got attached to the group the more he was convinced he wanted to protect them. Maybe it was Nick Fury, maybe he'd changed his mind, maybe the overconfidence they held convinced him, but at a point he suddenly knew he could protect them easiest if they were right by his side along the way.
Rather to his disappointment, Sam never slams the windows open and screams about the cold, in fact he doesn't even creep in by midnight silently like the days he's been thinking somewhere too far for Peter to follow. They'd promptly finished the pizza and assured Peter that Sam would pick something up if he were hungry and he'd jokingly answered that Sam's palate probably wished for gourmet food anyway. If Peter wasn't concerned earlier, now, tossing and turning in his strangely uncomfortable bed, he's ridiculously frenzied. His eyes dart to the clock and then the window repeatedly, expecting a pale blue glow and gold metal plating to hover outside any minute but nobody comes. The clock ticks past one when a click sounds downstairs and he's out of bed in a fraction of a second, opening his door and running down the stairs as quietly as possible. Luckily, none of his team mates wake up to hear the strangled mixture of a laugh and sob that he lets out when Sam shuts the door and yawns, holding his helmet to his chest and shivering. At the sight of Peter in the hall, he quickly flips his helmet on the counter and stammers a, "Parker! I-I uh- I saw a- a thing and I had to f-follow the- the uh thing and-"
Peter doesn't care, well, he cares a little but Sam's not injured, just exhausted and somehow hiding something but the main thing is he's okay. So Peter groans and clutches his head, "Ugh, bucket head it's one in the morning, some of us don't need a headache you know?" And Sam glares, "You're the one who charged down the stairs like a mad bull when I opened the door Webs." But there isn't much bite in his words, he picks up the helmet and stuffs something in the coat as he takes it off and wraps it neatly. Peter raises his eyebrow but doesn't say a word, choosing instead to trudge up the stairs behind his boyfriend to finally sleep.
Sam's up hours before Peter, and manages to get out of the arms around him and replace himself with a pillow. Ava and Danny give him knowing smile when he gets down the stairs, and he only rolls his eyes at them before going straight to the kitchen. He thanked whatever god would hear him that Peter hadn't woken up when he'd flown through the window with various ingredients and was too tired to venture near the kitchen. Stowing his precious gift in a cupboard, wrapped in his coat, he got to work on the cake he was making. Sure, it was generic, but he'd managed to convince a friend to give him edible metal from a distant system just for this. It took almost two hours, and when he was so near finished he heard footsteps down the stairs and a sleepy call of, "Hey flashlight, why're you up earlier than me? Where are you?" And Sam has to bustle out of the kitchen with full knowledge that he's probably got flour on his apron and twist his fingers before retorting, "Everyone wakes up earlier than you on Sunday Web-for-brains." Thankfully before Peter can ask anything, Danny pulls him aside to no doubt have another rant about a new flavour of tea. He catches the subtle wink from the sandy blonde boy and grins, rushing back to the kitchen after glancing pointedly at Ava in an expression that meant, "Guard the door." He begins piping the colour once more, proud of his brilliant cake and it's perfect colours.
He nearly has a heart attack when Ava stumbles over an excuse to tell Peter, who's obviously right there, but by some stroke of luck Luke yells across the room about the game, and Peter's roped into that conversation. The last bit of icing is finally in place and Sam heaves a sigh before tossing his apron over a chair and stomping out, sinking down on the couch. He's ridiculously tired after being out half the night yesterday and waking up at an ungodly hour to make this damn cake, but it's for Peter so he isn't upset. Just tired. Peter cuts Luke off finally with an, "Alright guys, seriously, you could not be more obvious. What's Sam hiding?" Sam stiffens, but considering he's all finished it doesn't matter. Danny shrugs and gestures to the kitchen, before retreating with the others to their rooms to bring their own gifts. Peter's confused expression is replaced by curiosity as he walks past the divider to the kitchen area and casts his eyes on the cake. Sam's silently praying he likes it at least a little, and hears the flash of a camera lens multiple times before he's pushed backwards on the couch. Peter's toned arms wrap around his waist and his face presses against Sam's neck, "You're practically radiating happy, loser."
"How many superheroes get cakes that look like actual metal replicas of their weapons?" Which means he's liked the Iron Spider structure, Sam breathes easier. "You're going to crush me, and it is metal you know", he manages, before Peter's warm lips are on his and he can taste the strange flavour of tea that he can't decide if he likes. He hears footsteps on the staircase and shoves Peter off him hard enough that he's a good three feet away and drops his head back to see the others' heads appear from the awning. "Did you know Sam made me an Iron Spider cake from- hold on, Lightbulb did you say actual metal?" Sam shrugs, "It's edible, I managed to get it off an alien baking store." He doesn't mention it costed a bomb. Ava's the first to drop her gift and run for the kitchen, and again the shutter of a camera reaches Sam's smug ears, and he smirks, "Bet you can't cook that well." But Peter isn't even taking the bait, he takes Sam's hand and laces their fingers, murmuring a breathless, "I can't even cook." Sam feels a flush creep up his neck so he turns his head and shoot a, "Don't get so excited Parker, I haven't even given you your real present." Luke groans, "If you're going to wrap yourself with ribbon-"
"No!" Now there's definitely a flush on his neck as he grabs his hand away and sulks at the corner of the couch. Peter scoffs, "As if Sam would ever have that kind of nerve." This, Sam doesn't debate.
It's evening, and Peter is fidgety as hell because Sam had refused to show him his gift until everything else was over. Of course MJ had organised a party, and Harry had decorated his entire living room with her help. Instead of loud music and crowds, they put on his favourite movie and watched it with him, ordered his favourite food and smiled warmly at him and he hears it from Danny, "Birthdays are like an excuse to show all the affection you can't normally, because you're shy." He finds this incredulous, that somebody, let alone his best friends would be shy about showing their affection all the time. But he realises he loves things the way they are, the banter and quick insults, chatting and spacing out and dodging questions about Spider-Man efficiently. It's part of his life now and he wouldn't change that for anything, though his birthday is always welcome. After an amazing day and tons of gifts that he had no idea where to even put, he's unbelievably happy, but something's still missing. It's been clawing at him all day, and finally, finally he can ask about it.
He comes back to his room at somewhere around eleven, fully expecting to have to have to pry Sam away from some video game to get his present. But Sam, adorable, precious Sam, is sitting on the bed hugging his knees with the little box by his side, scrolling absently on his phone. His green eyes flick up as soon as he opens the door and a voice full of nervousness asks him, "What took you so long?" It's meant to sound joking, but comes off incredibly shaky. Peter smiles sweetly, and dumps his coat before dropping on the bed, with his head leaning back against Sam's shoulder, "So spark boy? Can I open it now?"
"Y-yeah, obviously." Though Sam sounds like he's trying to be confident, it doesn't take a genius to figure 'trying' is the key word. He pulls away the ribbon, to reveal a grey-silver little rock in the shape of a carved spider. Curious, he picks it up to run his fingers over it, but the thing curls up his arm like a bracelet and forms another little spider clasp. He jolts, letting out a half scream and looking at Sam with a somewhat-scared expression. The ravenette isn't even looking at him when he speaks up, "So uh- th-there's this planet that only weird giant space spiders live on, and the surface is made of their webs of like, ages so I asked a uh- a friend to get me some because it reacts weirdly to spiders apparently. If you don't like it I could go give it back I mean-"
"You are amazing, I have no words except you are amazing", Peter manages to cut him off breathlessly, watching the strange thing react to his skin. Not a single other person could cause this spider rock to turn into half liquid or curl up their arms, and that Sam had known that makes this gift the most special thing he's received all day. He catches the boy's flush, and reaches out to touch his hair, "I want one more thing."
"I do have bug spray."
"Why would I want- Sam!" He sighs, "I want a birthday kiss." Sam flushes darker, but shrugs and cups Peter's cheek, leaning closer and kissing him with a hundred emotions that mean one thing and he knows it. Forest green eyes meet his own and Sam says between breaths, "Happy birthday Peter."