Chapter 14

'There he is! Come and see an old woman, Peter, I've been hearing nothing but praise about you, young man. Let me see how much you've grown since I last saw you,' is the greeting Peter gets on Christmas Eve as he walks into the common area.

'Mama Rhodes!' he laughs, hurrying over to give the lady a kiss. 'I missed you! Merry Christmas.'

'Merry Christmas,' she replies, then holds his face so she can look at him properly. 'You're carrying a lot of worries, young man, I suggest you find a way to lose some of them. You don't need to be carrying so much at such a young age.'

He smiles at her, fighting back traitorous tears at her words. 'Don't you worry, Mama, a lot of them will be gone with a couple of conversations I'm having today.'

'Good,' she pats his cheek, a big smile on her wrinkled face. 'You're being very sensible I think.'

'Thanks, Mama, that means a lot coming from you,' he presses another kiss to her cheek. 'Now why has everyone left you here alone?'

'Oh they've all gone to get their presents to put underneath the tree. They'll be back soon. Come and sit next to an old lady and entertain her with what's really been happening here. I imagine a lot of the good stories have been kept from me.' She leans back as he sits next to her and studies him again. 'You already look better than when you walked in.'

'Nothing gets past you does it, Mama?' he smiles and relaxes back into the sofa. 'I'm just glad to be home.'

She smiles at him in understanding and pats his knee. 'Being home in itself solves a lot of problems, doesn't it?'

'Peter!' he looks over at Wanda's shout and leaps up to give her a hug as she runs over to him. 'How long have you been back?'

'Only just got in,' he answers. She pulls back, a huge grin on her face, and holds up her left hand. 'Congratulations!' he says, pulling her back into a tight hug.

'He said he asked your permission,' she says quietly.

He tightens his hold on her before pulling back. 'Yeah he did. I'm glad you're happy.'

'I am,' she says, finally pulling away to let Vision greet him.

'Congratulations, Vis,' he grins, pulling the humanoid into a hug. 'Just how nervous were you?'

'More than I care to admit,' Vision replies, which earns him a round of laughter from the other three occupants in the room.

'Oh thank the Norns you are back!' Loki says as he walks into the room. 'If that boyfriend of yours doesn't stop moping around the place I'm going to freeze him into a solid block of ice that won't melt for a year!'

'Good to see you too, Loki,' Peter laughs, and he knows from the wink and the grin the trickster has missed him just as much. Sam and Rhodes walk in behind him with Thor and he's still saying hello properly to the three of them when a pair of arms wrap around his waist and he's lifted into the air. 'Bucky! Put me down!'

'You're not allowed to leave for such a long time ever again,' the man states.

'I've been gone for three days.'

'Too long. Never again.'

'Bucky put him down before you break him in half,' Steve laughs coming in behind them. 'How's the head, kid?'

Peter groans, feeling the heat growing in his cheeks. 'It's fine. And I'm sorry about that.'

'Wait, what did we miss?' Sam asks.

'I, uh, I may have-'

'Peter got drunk whilst he was away and gave us a call,' Tony laughs, entering the conversation.

'Did you have to tell everyone?' he groans.

'Oh now I want to know what kind of a drunk he is,' Natasha says as she enters the common area. 'I imagine he's a maudlin drunk.'

'All I know is vodka sucks,' Peter grumbles. 'Next time get your country to invent something that tastes half decent.'

Everyone laughs and Natasha comes to give him a kiss on the cheek. 'Just as long as you're alright. Don't try and make it a regular thing now, not unless we're there with you.'

'Yeah, yeah, I know. And I won't climb on any roofs whilst drunk again either,' he rolls his eyes, but gives her a hug. 'Missed you guys.'

'We missed you too,' she returns the hug.

'Oh good, he's back. I was starting to regret agreeing to stay here while I recovered with you gone. The team are much more irritating without you,' Strange says, coming in with Bruce. 'Only Doctor Banner was a solace to me.'

'Oh shove it, Doc,' Bucky rolls his eyes. 'You've just been annoyed we've been helping Loki impose the no magic rule. You've had loads of fun.'

'Talking science, yes.'

'Alright children that's enough,' Steve rolls his eyes. 'Let's make sure everyone's presents are under the tree.'

'I'll go get mine and drop my stuff off. Where's Wade?' he asks.

'Probably still down in your room,' Tony answers, following him out into the corridor. 'You alright?'

Peter nods. 'Yeah course I am. It'll be good to be able to see him without everyone anyway.' Then he turns and gives Tony a hug.

'You alright, champ?'

'Yeah,' he says, 'just glad to be back home, Dad. I missed everyone.' He feels Tony's surprise and wonders if maybe he shouldn't have said that. 'Sorry, I mean- do you mind if I call you that? I know I have done a couple of times but never like this and I just-'

'Pete,' Tony cuts him off, voice a little hoarse, 'of course I don't mind. I…I'm not going to lie, kid, it sounds really awesome.'

Peter smiles. 'Good, because I've wanted to call you that for a long time. You're basically the dad I never even knew I wanted but you just came and filled this space I didn't even realise was there. And with Thanos…with nearly losing you,' he tightens his hold on Tony, 'I just wanted you to know that.'

'I love you, Pete.'

'Love you too, Dad.'

'Go on, enough mushy stuff, you need to go see your boyfriend.'

Peter just laughs and releases Tony, then heads towards the elevators, leaving the older man with a matching grin on his face at the other end of the corridor.

'For the last fucking time, Tin Can, I'll be there in a second you don't need to come and nag me.'

'Wow, if you're confusing me and Tony then we need to have a serious conversation,' Peter laughs.

'Baby Boy?' Wade looks up from where he's sat on the bed, back to the door, and scrambles to his feet. Peter doesn't give him time to say anything else as he runs across the room and throws himself into his boyfriend's arms.

'I missed you,' he says, reaching up to kiss him.

'Missed you too,' Wade says when he pulls away. 'I wasn't sure if…I wasn't sure whether you'd be happy to see me when you got back.'

Peter feels his heart break at the words, seeing the vulnerability in the brown eyes. 'Oh Wade. I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have made you feel like that.'

'No, I know it's not been easy for you, Pete, with me not letting us-'

'Wade stop. Please,' he presses a finger to his boyfriend's mouth and, for once, the other man is quiet. 'You don't need to apologise for anything, I'm the one whose been acting like a real brat and was more focussed on the nagging doubts in my head instead of listening to what you were telling me. I'm sorry I've been pushing for something that you aren't ready for, I've been thinking so much that it's all about me I didn't even stop to think what you wanted. And all this time you've been wanting to wait because you've been trying to show me how much you actually care about me. I'm sorry. Can you forgive me?'

'Nothing to forgive, Baby Boy, as long as you stay with me.'

'Who else is going to put up with my brattish tendencies?'

'Good point. I'm an angel really. I deserve a medal.'

'Hey!' Peter's protests are cut off by Wade kissing him. 'I love you, Wade.'

'Love you too, Petey Pie. Now let's go take our presents upstairs.'

'Are you going to carry all the presents for the both of us?'

'You've got super strength you carry your own.'

'But I've been travelling and I've been away for days looking after a baby!'

'You're such a brat.'

'Yep,' Peter presses a kiss to Wade's lips again before moving out of his arms. 'But I'm your brat.'

'Too damn fucking right you are,' he replies with a light smack on Peter's ass.

'Finally! We were starting to think we'd have to send out a search party,' Bucky greets them as they walk back into the common area.

'Sorry, Frosty, but there are a lot of presents here. I sent yours back though,' Wade says, putting his armful of presents down by the tree.

'Yeah right, Nutjob, course you did,' the dark haired man rolls his eyes.

'Can we eat now? I'm starving!' Peter complains. 'I know I definitely had bigger portions than May and Stewart, but I've definitely got used to eating more here.'

'Still a brat,' Wade teases him.

'Shut up,' he rolls his eyes.

'Don't you worry, Peter, I made sure there's plenty of food made for tonight's dinner,' Mama Rhodes reassures him.

'Plus we'll still be eating all the Yule food for a month!' Thor adds.

'Not with the way you're eating it, it won't last a week,' Valkyrie huffs.

'I'm showing my appreciation to the chefs,' he argues as they all start to make their way to the dining room.

'Whilst the chefs appreciate the sentiment,' Loki interrupts, 'they would like some of their labours to be left for them to sample as well.'

'But there is still plenty!'

'Has he left some of that sliced fruit with the syrup? I didn't get much at Yule,' Peter asks, helping Mama Rhodes into her seat.

'We saved you some,' Wanda laughs, 'because he was going to eat his way through the whole lot.'

'I was not!'

'Thor you're already looking rounder and rounder each day. Soon we shall be calling you fat!' Loki snaps.

'Brother! You wound me!'

'I'll wound you properly if you don't stop eating all the sliced fruit,' Valkyrie mutters. 'And leave my mead alone!'

'This is the mead we can share-'

'That's the mead Stark gave me as a Yule gift!' Valkyrie snaps.

'My apologies,' Thor looks sheepish. 'Is there any of the sharing mead left?'

'Thor you are drinking too much, you need to cut back,' Loki sighs.

'Have they been like this the whole time I was away?' Peter groans.

'Yep. Be glad you had a break from it,' Sam rolls his eyes.

The Avengers Christmas Eve dinner is a noisy affair, which includes a lot of mock-arguments, teasing, shouting, name calling, food throwing, laughter, and even at one point a full table drum roll during one of Thor's stories. Valkyrie, Natasha and Loki had a knife throwing competition, that Natasha won, and was only stopped going on to a second round by Steve complaining that they'd have to re-plaster another wall and told them to stop. There were a couple of arm wrestles including Wade, Thor, Bucky and Valkyrie, and Steve joined in towards the end, but Thor still came away the victor.

Really it was a thoroughly chaotic couple of hours, with noise levels higher than those Peter had experienced dealing with a baby.

'Sure you wouldn't rather be somewhere less chaotic for Christmas?' Tony laughs as they start heading down towards bed.

'Nope,' Peter grins at him. 'Nowhere I'd rather be than home with my family. No matter how crazy they might be.'

'Merry Christmas, Pete,' Tony gives him a hug, and Peter feels a kiss pressed into his hair.

'Merry Christmas, Dad,' he replies, then allows himself to be dragged away by Wade.