Twas the night before Christmas, and Laynie was on the stairs, crying.
After receiving her extra week of being grounded, Tony had sent her up to her room. But she didn't want to bring down any Christmas spirit Carter might have had leftover, so she sat on the staircase outside her apartment for hours.
Near eleven, she went down to the landing and sat against the wall, texting Peter to make sure he'd known what happened. He was angry beyond words at being denied a last goodbye to Wade, but Laynie assured him it wasn't worth being angry over. Wade wasn't really there anyway.
Laynie jolted awake when the elevator let out a cheery ding! and Tony stepped out of the elevator just above her. He knocked on the door, and she considered letting him knock all night if he wanted to. Instead, she decided to be the bigger person and said, "I'm down here."
He turned around, and sighed when he saw her. "I told you to go to your room, you know." He sat down beside her with a little groan. There were two thin bandages across a cut on his forehead, and he'd obviously pulled a muscle in his back. She wished he hadn't had to go right before Christmas.
"I didn't want to disturb Carter."
He leaned forward and examined her face, then leaned into the wall again. "I wish you hadn't gone out today, but I understand why you did. I get myself, have always in the past, gotten myself into tight corners through lying and disobeying orders. I just don't want that for you."
"I understand. I know what I've done is wrong."
"Yeah, and it scares me how ridiculously indifferent you are. It makes me glad I'm your parent instead of a bad guy, otherwise I'd fear for my life."
Laynie smiled a little. "Natasha taught me well."
"Yeah, too well. I'm gonna have a talk with that woman."
They fell silent for a while.
"I don't want to be mad at you on Christmas," Laynie sighed. "Can we pretend I didn't do anything wrong just for tomorrow? Then you can yell at me as much as you want."
He snickered. "Sounds like a deal. I really don't want to be mad at you either. And in the interest of peace on earth and all that stuff, I won't mention how Peter's Spider-Man."
"That would be nice."
"But we will be talking about that."
Laynie leaned against her dad's shoulder with a sigh. "Of course. Merry Christmas."
"Merry Christmas, brat."
"So, today was fun." Carter sighed.
Bruce chuckled. "Oh, I'm sure it was. You two always seem to be in some trouble at one point or another."
"To be fair, it's been like this with Laynie and I since we were little, though usually I was the one talking her into doing something stupid." Carter shrugged.
He groaned. "I'm not sure I like it the other way around. It's Costco rafters versus jailbreak."
"Yeah, but at least the trip to the rafters wasn't illegal." Carter pointed out.
"But you did get shot at and Laynie fell from at least twenty feet off the ground." Bruce answered. "Your little excursion in Costco was no better than the jailbreak."
Carter rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah."
"So," he said slowly "what do you want for Christmas?"
"At this point, I'd be happy just sleeping all day. Like these past few weeks have been crazy." Carter joked.
"I'm being serious, Carter."
"I don't know. Gift cards, clothes. A car maybe." Carter shrugged. "You get me something, I'll act happy and all will go back to normal."
"That's... not the answer I was hoping for."
Carter groaned and fell back onto the couch next to Bruce, "Honestly, I'm just happy I'm not in a foster home for Christmas this year." She admitted.
Bruce nodded, combing his fingers through Carter's hair. "That's definitely a good thing. I'm glad we're getting along now."
Carter hummed in agreement. "Give it a couple of days."
He laughed. "Okay, in that case, what I want for Christmas is for you to get along with both me and Laynie tomorrow. Do you think you can handle that?"
"Well, I'm sure Laynie and I can handle ourselves, but you? I don't know man. That might be asking too much of me."
"You're right, that is a pretty tall order. I'll make an exception for any time before noon."
"Before noon?" she asked, disgusted.
"Oh come on, I fully expect Laynie to be up at eight."
"Oh, I'm sorry. You're right. I'll make sure to come wake you up at six."
He was silent for a moment, unsure of whether or not she was joking. "Please don't. I changed my mind, I wish for you to definitely not do that."
"Too late, I've made up my mind. You're screwed. Y'know, my dad used to wake me up at dawn dressed as Santa. Top that."
"Even last year?"
"You can't even begin to comprehend my dad's love of Christmas. It only got worse as the years went on. Sometimes I wondered whether or not he'd just dye his hair white and grow a beard."
Bruce's eyebrows raised. "Yeah, you're right. I can never top that level of devotion."
Carter snuggled in closer to him. "That's okay. You're a pretty good dad so far."
He smiled gently. "I can deal with that." He wrapped his arms tight around her. "You're a pretty awesome kid, you know that?"
"Yeah, I know." Carter yawned.
"So you also know that you're a pain the other fifty percent of the time?"
"Well, that was rude," she mumbled.
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
Bruce was waiting for a snarky comeback, but it never came. He looked down and saw that she had fallen asleep on top of him again.
He brushed the hair away from her face with a smile. "What am I going to do with you?"