Nineteen

December 11, 2016 - #IronSanta

"Hello, everybody and welcome back to my channel! Today is…" Tony leaned in and looked at the time on the camera. "Damn, I'm getting old. FRIDAY, what day is it?"

"It is December 10, 2016, boss."

"Thanks FRI, you're the best." Tony grinned.

"I know."

"The sass. Anyways, I'm an engineer, blah blah blah. I have a really busy day today and you're coming along!" He pumped his fist. "So, 200 lucky viewers will win $100 Starbucks gift cards each! Rules are: leave a comment down below – I may even respond to some of them – like this video, give it a thumbs up, don't leave me hanging; make sure you're subscribed to the best YouTube channel everrr and… Was there anything else, FRI?"

"I am astonished you got all of them."

"Ugh, FRIDAY. You hang around Peter too much."

"I'd say just enough."

"Okay, Goldilocks."

"Gold Alloy-locks."

"Oho! Getting so sassy! I love it!" He grinned into the camera. "So, we are off to Best Buy first of all to get our #IronSanta on! We are going to help some people who really need it this holiday season." He pointed his finger at the camera. "I am not getting soft."

"No, he isn't getting soft." FRIDAY chimed in.

"Thank you, FRIDAY."

"He's been soft. It's kind of depressing."

"Hey! That's it. No more Tony time. I'm leaving."

"Tragic."

The camera switched to a Best Buy.

"Now, I already told the store that I'm coming in and I'm going to help some people out today with buying some things in the holiday spirit. No one was allowed to tell the public about it so this will be a genuine reaction video. So, let's go." He held his GoPro out, stuffing his hair into a MIT baseball cap and putting classic Aviators on instead of his classic orange lenses and stepped out of the cheapest car he had with an inscrutable license plate instead of reading STARK01. This was a covert operation.

"Welcome to Best Buy." A greeter chimed as he walked past. He quirked his lips and went straight to the electronics section. He walked around, eyeing up a bunch of people who looked on the richer side, when he spotted a middle age black man who was looking at two Acer computers, looking puzzled and sighing.

Bingo.

"What computer is that?" Tony roughened his voice.

"Oh, its an Acer something or other. I have to be honest, I have no idea what any of this RAM and SSD and processors even begin to mean…" He sighed again. "My wife and I really want to get computers for our kids, but everything is so expensive these days and I work in a restaurant and don't bring home a lot of money. These are about all I can afford."

"How many kids do you have?" Tony asked.

"Seven."

"Damn. You were busy."

He laughed.

"Two births were twins, but we've been very fortunate to have healthy pregnancies."

Tony took of his cap and glasses and put on his orange shades that he had stowed away.

"What's your name? I'm Tony Stark."

The man was gob smacked.

"Mr. Stark. It's so nice to meet you!" He stuck out a hand.

"No, it's great to meet a father who cares. Tell me about your kids."

"My eldest twin boys are Grayson and Blake, then we have Gunther, then the twin girls Diamond and Ebony, and then Jackie and our youngest is Zack. Our oldest is 17 and our youngest is 10."

"Lots of kids."

"Lots of them. But I had a big family and Lorraine did too, it's what we wanted."

"So, here's how this will work. You can get anything you want in the store and I'll pay for it. BUT I will only use my lowest credit card limit card. You don't know what's on there, it's a gamble."

"Mr. Stark…"

"Nuh, uh. Let's go shopping." He shoved him out of the way. "What's your name?"

"My name is Lawrence, Mr. Stark."

"Uh, huh. Where do you work, Lawrence?" Tony pointed at an employee. "You!" The new employee looked faint.

"Uh, Mr. Stark, sir."

"Go get me two shopping carts."

"Um, we don't usually have…"

"Get me two. Now."

"Yes sir."

"Uh, I work at the Buffet at the strip mall."

"Hm. And your wife."

"She's a schoolteacher."

"Noble."

"She's the strongest person I know."

"I'll see if I have any opening in my office for a chef." Tony mused.

"Mr. Stark, you don't have to do that."

"I didn't. FRIDAY already did."

Lawrence sighed.

"Come onnn, Lawrence. Shopping is like my favorite past time. So, laptops. Your kids like to play games, like computer games?"

"Yes, they watch let's plays as the computers we have at home aren't capable of playing some games."

"Well, I think we need to get some…"

"Here sir." The meek employee pushed two Target carts towards him and darted away.

"Here you are, Lawrence." He pushed one towards him.

"Thank you…" Lawrence said hesitantly.

"Let's get an employee over here." He waved down an electronics department person. She stood attentively. "How many Acer gaming laptops do you have? Updated graphics, good screens, highest RAM we can get?"

"Um…" She typed some stuff in her device. "We have eight."

"I'll take seven."

"Yes sir."

"So, Lawrence, let's go pick out some mice and mousepads." He ushered him towards the display. "We should get gaming mice, I'd recommend the Logitech Gaming Collection – the G903, especially."

"That's a hundred dollars each." He gaped.

"Eh." Tony shrugged. The employee dropped the laptops off in his cart and darted away.

"Weird."

"Hm?" Tony inquired.

"Usually they make you pay right away for laptops."

"When you spend as much as I do? They usually leave me alone. How about iPads?"

"They would like one but my internet isn't that…"

"New router!" Tony cheered, heading to the internet section, the camera taping their journey. He grabbed the best one and chucked it in and darted back to the electronics section. "Now, let's see how many they have in stock." Tony signaled down the Apple guy. "How many WiFi 64 full size iPad's do you have?"

"Um…Nine."

"I'll take them."

"Yes, Sir."

"Nine?!" Lawrence gasped.

"Of course, one for you and your wife."

"I can't believe this."

"We need cases, Apple pencil…Screen protectors…. I'll be sending you new phones and corresponding watches. I'm not quite on the iPad level yet. We're still working on that in R&D but soon. Apple, I'm coming for you."

Lawrence watched as the boxes starting to accumulate in Tony's cart, a range of colored cases went in, Apple pencil holders followed, screen protector boxes went in too. The employee brought out nine iPads and put them in the empty cart.

"Let's see…" Tony pondered. "Printer! Kids use those. You have one?"

"Its an older model but it'll do…"

"Nah!" He plucked up a good printer and put it in Lawrence's card followed by reams of paper and ink replacement. "Let's see… We'll need Microsoft – schools haven't caught up to the Stark word processors yet but they will. For now let's go to the kiosk." Tony and Lawrence made their way over to the little desk and Tony plucked up seven Microsoft codes and tossed them in.

"Mr. Stark."

"Nope. We will see if you have to create more work for the workers putting all this away or if it will go through. Maybe you should call your wife."

"That's a good idea." He opened his flip phone.

"I am going to pretend I did not see that scrap heap destined piece of technology."

Lawrence smiled sheepishly.

"Sorry, Mr. Stark." He heard the other line pick up. "Hi, honey. I'm still at Best Buy. You think you could pop over? You're gonna want to see this….No it's a surprise. Okay, see you soon."

"Now, are they more of a Nintendo, X-Box or Playstation kind of kids…"

"Whichever is cheapest."

"Wrong! Now most expensive."

"Mr. Stark."

"Let's see. We'll do three X-Box. One for the younger ones, one for the girls and one for the boys, need extra controllers of course – dancing games, racing games, need the Kinect thing – extra storage and gift cards for whatever games they want." Lawrence's eyes bugged out.

"Uh, Mr. Stark…"

"Oh, yeah?" Tony was distracted.

"You picked up the $500 gift cards instead of the $50."

"Oh. I grabbed the right ones. Games start at $60."

"Sixty Dollars?!" Lawrence yelled.

"Lawrence?" A feminine voice called. Lawrence whipped his head around and saw his wife coming towards him. "What are you yelling about? I swear…" She stopped dead when she saw Tony Stark there. She looked at her husband. "What in God's name…"

"Hi, Lorraine, I'm Tony Stark."

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Stark."

"It's Tony. So we're playing a little game. Lawrence here is telling me your kids need new laptops."

"We are in some need of them, yes, that is true."

"Well, I decided that if we load up all these carts with stuff your kids could use and it doesn't max out my lowest credit limit card, you guys can keep it." Lorraine looked at Lawrence.

"This isn't a joke?" Lorraine said, her voice shaky.

"No, ma'am. But if it goes over, I'll still buy the laptops. Just not anything else."

"Well, let's hope you all spent wisely. I thank you, Mr. Stark. This will be the best Christmas ever." Her phone started ringing. "Oh shoot." She answered her phone. "Grayson? What's wrong, honey? Well, I never. Yes, we're at Best Buy. Oh…you'll be right here…" She looked at Lawrence. "With everyone. Okay, see you soon."

"Well, we better wrap this up." Tony winked as he rolled up to the checkout and as they were beginning, seven kids were giggling and laughing as they entered.

"There's Mom! I have to tell her this!" One of the teenage girls ran over. "Omigosh, Mom, you wouldn't believe this but we saw an Audi out there and Ebony like swearrssss it's Tony Stark's car – she swears she saw it on his video and OMIGOD!" She squealed on the last word and spun around. "EBONY!" She shrieked. Ebony ran over and the squealed at high decibels. Lorraine slapped her hands over her ears.

"Girls! They're regular people too! Stop this fan…girling."

"Okay, Mom. Sorry, Mr. Stark. We've never seen anyone famous before." Diamond apologized. "My adrenaline did that."

Tony laughed. The rest of the kids joined their sister in gaping at the celebrity.

"So, your dad and I played a little game. If all these items go through, you get to keep them all." The kids' eyes went huge, their brown eyes roving over all of the items.

"Is that an X-Box?" One asked.

"Sure is."

"Sweet…"

"Okay, sir." The cashier stated. "Your total is… $17,983.38 with the added game gift cards." The kids' eyes popped out and their parents looked feint. He pulled out his card.

"Moment of truth." The bystanders were watching as he swiped his card.

The cashier grinned. "Approved."

The kids started cheering and started to cry.

"Thank you so much, Mr. Stark." Diamond wiped some tears away. "Our parents work so hard so we try not to ask for anything. They deserve some stuff too."

"Don't worry. I snuck in some stuff for your Mom too." Diamond smiled gratefully. "Let's load it up!" The kids started loading them back into the carts and made their way to their parent's Tahoe.

"We'll take the subway. See you at home!" The kids jogged to the subway terminal close by.

"Do they often take the subway?" Tony asked as he helped them load their car.

"Yeah, we don't have a lot of parking in Manhattan and we only have this car for food runs and things to get that are bigger. We usually only use the subway too unless we are getting more stuff than we can carry. It is cheaper that way too. We make them travel together. Especially the girls."

Tony nodded. New York was sketchy.

"Well, you've been #IronSanta'd! Have a good Christmas!" He chirped as he ran away. He stayed in sight of the truck until they had driven away safely. There was not telling what people would try to take away from those lovely people.

"Well, part one of my day is complete. Now…" He looked at his watch. "Oop- Gotta get to…not saying Peter's school name for confidentiality. We're going to his Science Fair."

Tony soon arrived at the school and opened his car door and sauntered inside.

"Mr. Stark!" A teacher was shocked.

"Yeah, I'm looking for the gym? Science fair? Gotta be proud of my intern."

"Oh! Yes! Peter! Um, down the hall take a left. There should be double doors."

"Roger!"

Tony opened the double doors to an intense Science Fair going on. The atmosphere was buzzing and there were a million conversations going on and no one seemed to notice him and he was stalking through until he saw a familiar brunette's head. He was talking to a ethnic girl and an Asian kid.

"Um, Peter…" The Asian guy pointed behind him. Peter whirled around and groaned.

"Um, rude, Peter. I drive all the way out to an undisclosed location to maintain Peter's identity and this is the thanks I get? A groan?"

"Sorry, Mr. Stark…But…"

"Tony."

"Fine, Tony, but you're just going to embarrass m…"

"ME?" Tony all but screamed, getting everyone's attention. Peter put his face in his hands. "I would never!" He kept the same tone.

The girl was hiding her laughs in her hands.

"And who is this young lady?"

"My name is MJ – Michelle Jones. What do you have to say for yourself in regards to your contribution to capitalism slowly destroying our democracy?" She folded her arms.

"I'm better than most of the others?" Tony asked. MJ smirked.

"I'll accept that answer."

"Phew." Tony wiped his forehead. MJ smiled.

"You're not that bad, Stark. Nice to know. I see my parents. Gotta bounce." She flashed a peace sign and went over to a couple that looked very straight laced.

"That's like the nicest MJ has ever been. What's your secret?" Peter pressed.

"I have no idea."

"You're no help."

"You need to get your own girls, can't rely on the ole Stark charm." Peter gaped at him.

"She's my friend."

"That'll change."

"Just because I think she's really pretty and smart and capable, doesn't mean…"

"Peter, stop talking." Asian friend commanded. Peter shut his mouth.

"Nice. Who are you?"

"I'm Ned. Ned Leeds."

"Nice to meet you Fred. Now here's what we're gonna do. I just want to see my intern's project and then leave but I have a secret missing just for you, Ted. I just gotta get your phone number."

"Awesome!" Ned cheered.

"It's Ned." Peter defended.

"You can call me whatever you want, man! You're Tony Stark!" Ned beamed. "Here's my number." He rattled off his digits.

"If I find my number on the internet, I will hunt you down."

"I would never!" Ned cried out, offended.

"Great. Let's see, Pete." Peter sighed but dutifully showed Tony his science project and his mentor was very impressed. Peter didn't want to admit it but it warmed him to see him there, supporting him. Tony was attentively listening to Peter's explanation and ruffled his hair when he was finished. "Good job, Pete."

"Thanks." Peter blushed, feeling the eyes of the school on him.

"Ignore them. You get used to it."

"It's hard to ignore them."

"You get used to it, eventually."

"Yeah…"

"Can we gather round for the awards ceremony. Please gather in the stadium seating." A teacher spoke into the microphone.

"Good luck, Pete." Tony ruffled his hair. Peter smiled bracingly, nervous to his core.

"Thanks, Mr. Stark."

"It's Tony."

Ned dutifully followed Tony to the stadium seats, snagging two seats in the back.

"Yo, Dweeb. Move."

"No." Ned said firmly, getting to his feet. Tony saw some gaping students which made him think this wasn't normal. Tony pressed a finger to his earpiece, reading FRIDAY.

"You better step off, Nerd. You don't want to go there."

"You better back off, Flash."

Flash. That bully that Peter mentioned under his breath once. He viewed the teen in a different light.

"Fuck off, Geek. I just want to talk to Mr. Stark. He can't be thinking Penis Parker is the only good student here."

"What did you just…" Tony growled.

"You are not getting one step closer, Thompson." Ned said firmly. "You have been bullying Peter for far too long. He's too nice to say anything but I won't let you ruin his internship for your ego."

Flash moved like a light, his fist flying through the air and was stopped by a red and gold encased hand. Tony glared at the kid, who turned white at who had his fist in a lock and the pain.

"Stay away from him and Peter." Tony growled. Flash gulped but nodded. Tony let go of his wrist.

"You'll hear from my parent's lawyer."

"Can't wait. I have all this conversation on record." Tony folded his hands as Flash stomped away.

Tony turned his attention to the award ceremony, keeping his eyes on Peter who was visibly nervous, sitting with the other students in two rows in front of the stage.

Tony saw May make her way through the stadium.

"Hey, that's Aunt May!" Ned pointed.

"May!" Tony yelled, waving his hands. She saw him and made her way next to him.

"Did I miss it?" She asked, out of breath.

"No, they just started."

"Thank God." She got her phone out and had the camera taping the award ceremony.

They went through the third-place winner and the second and finally, it was time for the first-place winner.

Tony held his breath and May placed her hand on his leg, holding her breath too.

"First place goes to… Peter Benjamin Parker!" Tony and May got to their feet and cheered obnoxiously for Peter. He looked embarrassed but pleased, hiding a smile as he accepted his trophy.

"Now, for the final part of the day, I have convinced Ned to take this vlogging camera now. He's going to go into this Starbucks and reveal the surprise that I have concocted for Peter."

"Hey, YouTube!" Ned beamed at the camera as he jogged to the Starbucks. "I was…" He huffed. "Running late and Mr. Stark's depending on me." He huffed again. "Okay, here's Peter."

"Where'd you get that camera?" Peter tilted his head.

"It's my…mom's?" Ned tried. Peter hid a smile.

"Okay…" He trailed off.

"So, let's go this way." He guided Peter down the street from the school to a construction site that recently finished.

"Starbucks? So close to school? Sweet!" Peter cheered. He opened the door and went in, Ned following. Peter looked at the menu. He went to the counter and the girl gasped.

"Omigod. You're like…Peter from Tony Stark's YouTube channel?!" She squealed. "Monica, Peter's here."

"Well, you know what to do. We went over it."

Peter was confused and his eyes were big. He turned to Ned, who unhelpfully shrugged back at him.

The girl pressed a button and a bucket of confetti fell on him, Peter jumping at the sudden motion. He looked at the confetti he was covered in.

"What the…"

"Sorry. Rules are rules." She stated. She handed him a gold card.

"What is this?" He asked.

"Well, that is a Starbucks Owner Employee Card." She said.

"Owner?"

"Yes. You are the owner of this Starbucks. You get free drinks, food and merch for life. Only you though so don't go crazy."

"What?" Peter's eyes went wide. "I can't be the owner, I don't know anything about owning a shop!"

"Oh, you don't have to. You're just the financial owner. You helped make this location open."

"But I don't have any money! I'm just a student."

"Oh right. Duh." She bopped herself on the forehead. She brought out a card.

Peter read it aloud. "Dear Peter, No takebacks. Love Tony." He dropped his head back and groaned. The girl smiled unrepentant.

"What will it be?"

"Can I pay for things other than the Owner's card?

"Nope!" She chirped.

"I'll have a venti iced green tea latte." Peter sighed. "And a lemon loaf slice. I'll need it." Even if the sugar doesn't affect him, he liked the flavor of lemon.

"Coming right up!" She moved to make his drink.

"Freaking Stark." Peter mumbled. Ned clicked off the recording, starting to laugh harder and harder, the more Ned thought about it.

Peter glared at him but didn't say anything.

Lerya – science fair idea.