Chapter 4 – Holiday Break
"Finally" Peter groaned flopping onto the gray sofa. The penthouse interior had been decorated the week before and was feeling as homey and Christmasy as ever. Pepper had planned for the exterior to be decorated when Peter hung out with Tony later that afternoon. That wasn't until later though.
"Peter" Friday explained. Peter jerked a bit from his slouched position on the couch. With a sigh he glanced up at the ceiling.
"Whaaaaatt" He practically whined eyes dropping, sleep, boredom, and relief weighing heavily on his shoulders.
"You have asked me to remind you on this day that you need to get a Christmas Present for, as you said, 'the old man'" she announced. This seemed to bring Peter from his stupor and into the realism of the world. Thoughts circled his mind like a whirlpool. He'd forgotten about Tony's present.
"What should I get him" He said quietly lost in thought. He hadn't done this last year. Or rather 5 years ago. Even then they hadn't spent much time together after the Civil war incident, and before Tomes. They just started to hang out more recently when he came back from the dusting.
"I don't know Peter" FRIDAY responded. Peter barely reacted, wracking his brain for something that Tony would like. He could basically just buy himself anything, but there must be something that Tony would want that he couldn't buy. What was Tony going to get him? Either way Tony would probably get something amazing, and Peter would get him something lame, and stupid and-
Get a hold of yourself Parker Peter thought to himself think about something that would make a difference in Tony's life.
After much contemplation he eventually gave up putting it off for later. He was a major procrastinator as Tony always said. Speaking of which, Tony arrived home early, apparently he had been out doing 'business related stuff.'
"Hi dad" Peter said. He'd been getting more and more used to using the term, and it fit right. He'd been thinking it in his mind and decided that saying it out loud wouldn't make a difference. Plus it made Tony smile, and Peter loved the smile on his father-figures face.
"Hey underoos, Pepper said you wanted to hang out" Tony said ruffling his kids hair. Peter nodded enthusiastically.
"I do, but since Covid is around and stuff I thought we'd rent out a movie theater like I've seen people do on Tik Tok, and do something there" Peter suggested already pulling up the video he'd seen, and held it up in front of Tony's face.
It was two boys at each end of the theatre, seemingly the only ones. They each had light sabers in their hands following along with the motions Dark Vader and Luke Skywalker were doing before running at each other and clanking the sticks together.
"looks childish" Tony said wrinkling his nose at the absurdity of it all, but one look at Peter's sad puppy dog face Tony relented. "ok fineee"
Peter beamed and hurried away to get something from his room. To be frank he didn't think it'd actually come in handy, and he didn't like to seem like too big of a dork in front of Tony, but during his internship when Tony was at some sort of business meeting but had insisted that Peter should still work on something, he'd made a lightsaber. Two to be exact, one of them was green and the other one was orange. The green one was for Peter and the Orange was for Tony in hopes that one day Tony would want to see that side of Peter. He handed the small black stick to Tony who looked at it in curiosity.
"Press this button here" Peter instructed leaning over Tony's shoulder and pointing to a button in the center of the black tube. Tony held it away from himself and pushed the button. From it, materialized a orange glowing saber. He watched it impressed, it even had sound effects.
"This is good" He praised turning it around, admiring the work that his teen son had put into the toy.
"Thanks!" Peter practically squealed before pushing Tony out the door from behind. "It also actually cuts stuff so don't go waving it around everywhere"
"WhAT!" Tony said trying to turn around despite Peter's superhuman hold on his shoulders.
"May or may not have learned that the hard way" Peter said cringing at the memory but Tony was already in the car, the suddenly two very frightening weapons rested gently on each of their laps Happy in the front watching them suspiciously.
"Where are we going, kid" Happy asked eventually drawing his attention away form the sticks and to the two people he was driving around the city. As he always did. Am I ever going to get a raise? He thought playfully disappointed.
"The movie theatre please, I have a reservation if you want to come" Peter said leaning over into Happy's ear even though the man had perfectly good hearing.
"Nah, I'm good, but you guys knock yourselves out" Happy said pulling the car into reverse and carefully, yet quickly brought the car out of the garage and onto the main road. Soon enough they melted in with the other cars and were on the way to the theatre where Peter already had the movie picked out. He got out his phone and shot a quick text to Pepper letting her know they were gone.
"Don't forget your mask, underoos" Tony reminded as they got out of the car and tossed Peter's spiderman mask over to him before putting his own iron man mask on. Peter nodded attaching it to his ears and adjusting it into a comfortable position. He knocked on Happy's window.
"Bye Happy!" Peter waved cheerfully before literally dragging Tony by the hand to the ticket booth. "Reservation for P.P"
The worker barely contained a laugh but disguised it as a well hidden cough. "Room 23" She said before going back to her phone to scroll through Instagram or whatever it was that she was doing before.
"So what movie are we going to see?" Tony asked, still holding the saber away from his body as though it was a bomb or a weapon of mass destruction.
"Empire strikes back" Peter said carelessly, his own light saber held carefully in his hand, a firm grasp on the handle.
"Cool" Tony said eyeing the button that let the sword out, and could potentially get them banned from the theatre. "Are you sure it's okay to have these here?"
Peter eyes his own saber and shrugged. "Probably, there was no sign that said no weapons."
Tony sighed, but went with it none the less, besides who was he to ruin his son's fun on the first day of holiday break.
The experience was none like any other, and probably one that would be remembered for years to come. The two fought both with good experience, Peter doing cool tricks, but Tony improvising them and blocking Peter's playful attempts at hitting him. It did go down whenever it got to close to any object something Peter failed to mention.
"You're reaction to me saying it was real was hilarious" Peter said practically falling over with bubbles of laughter. Tony paled.
"You mean, it won't slice through flesh" Tony asked lips tight.
"It's just a flesh wound, mr. Stark, and no, I wouldn't make something like that" Peter joked a smirk playing on his lips. Tony rolled his eyes but continued with the light saber none the less.
"Hey Happy" Peter said walking up to the car and waving to a very pathetic looking Happy.
"Hey grumpy" Tony teased hopping in to the back seat with Peter.
"Going home?" Happy asked ignoring both attempts at making him smile. Peter nodded silently praying that the lights were done and he'd be able to see Tony's priceless reaction.
Peter got his wish because as soon as they pulled up the Avengers theme started playing and the lights started. The Avenger's pictures scrolled through and Tony stared at it in horror as lines he said were quoted by a light up him .
"What is this?" He asked turning to the snickering teen on his right, and the once in a life time smile Happy wore at the childish light show.
"Its Christmas Decorations, Tony, and for your information, yes, it was my idea" Peter said proudly grinning from ear to ear. Tony sighed watching as Peters picture filed through and Spiderman came swooping down in an animation.
"That's pretty cool, not going to lie" Happy whispered in Peter's ear watching with a dazed expression.
"Another good idea by me" Peter boasted as Pepper came out laughing and watching the lights complete show. Tony hugged 3 of the most important people close to him, kissing Pepper's strawberry blonde hair. Having his small family here was nice, and the moment would live close to his heart for the rest of his years to come.