Prompt 6: Halloween
Sorry that I'm not using a reader prompt for today, but it's a special occasion. Happy Halloween, everyone! Try not to hurt yourselves with sheer volumes of candy as I undoubtedly will...
Enjoy the story!
"Uhg, Pepper, why are you making me do this?" Tony whined.
"Oh, be quiet," she snapped. "This will be good for your PR. Besides, you love flying around and showing off in the suit."
"Yeah, but that's when I'm saving the world, or installing heavy things on the building, or, y'know, doing important things! I don't just run around in the suit willy-nilly!" he argued.
She shot him a leveling look.
"Usually," he corrected.
She continued to glare.
"Sometimes?" he tried.
"Do you even remember your birthday party?" she asked.
"That doesn't count! I thought I was gonna die! I did all sorts of stupid things that week!" he protested.
"You wore the suit to pick up Chinese food the other night," she reminded him.
"Yeah, but… okay, no, I don't have an excuse for that one, but–"
"And you were wearing it yesterday while you were watching TV," she added.
"That was a, uh, scientific experiment," he explained. "I was testing the suit's capability to, well, sit for long periods of time."
Pepper rolled her eyes. "How is that a 'scientific experiment?'"
"I learned that my left butt cheek falls asleep after about an hour. So ha, science."
Pepper shook her head. "You're not getting out of this event," she told him.
"Please!" he begged.
"No."
"Fine. But if any of those kids puke candy on me, I am out of there."
Later that night, Tony was looking out one of his window walls in the Stark Tower penthouse. Below him, the tower was swarmed with people in costumes. The crowd fanned out an entire block in every direction, and though he couldn't be sure, it didn't even look like most of the people down there were even with kids.
Stupid Halloween, he thought as he turned away from the window. He'd never enjoyed the holiday as a kid, and as he got older the only thing he liked about it was the half-naked women that threw themselves at him. Sure, he could get half-naked women at any time of year, but it was amusing to see them dressed up so ridiculously before he ripped their clothing off them. Pepper was dressed up tonight, but not in the fun way. She'd gone for witch, donning a long black dress, a big stupid hat, and a fake nose. It was a standard sort of costume, but he guessed she'd maxed out her creativity on orchestrating this whole event.
Tony was going as Iron Man, surprise surprise. His entry was timed to be any minute now. The lobby of his building had thirty-foot high ceilings, and a pane of glass had been removed from above the front doors for the night. He was going to fly off the balcony and swoop into the lobby through the ad hoc window, land next to Pepper, shoot a thing on the ceiling with his repulsers, and then spend the rest of the night giving candy to kids. Uhg.
It was five to six when his phone buzzed, and the text he received was from Pepper: 'You're up.'
He sighed. "We ready, J?"
"The suit is prepped," Jarvis replied.
"Let's do this."
The second the crowd saw blue lights at the top of Stark Tower, they began cheering. Tony spiraled down around the building, flying around more times than he needed to. Okay, maybe he did like showing off in his suit… He flew in through the missing glass pane, and immediately noticed how different the lobby was. There was a stage of sorts in the back of the rooms. Most of the lights had been replaced with ultraviolet, save for the lights on the stage, probably so everyone could see their hero. Cotton mesh was strung everywhere like spiderwebs, and all sorts of Halloween decorations, from giant spiders to skeletons to zombies, were scattered throughout the room. Pepper stood on the stage, in front of a giant pile of bite-sized candy and holding a basket filled with candy that looked like a pumpkin. God, her nose looks ridiculous, he thought. It was one of those big plastic things with a mole on it with a little string that held it to her face. How cliché. He landed next to her, surrounded by lots of high-pitched cheers. He realized that the crowd in the building, unlike outside, was mostly children and their parents. Pepper must have arranged with security to only let in the kids at first. He waved at the kids, and they screamed even louder for him. Maybe this isn't so bad… He raised one hand, slowly warming up the repulser for effect, then aimed it at the giant, spider-shaped piñata that hung from the ceiling where the chandelier usually hung. He shot the spider, and plastic toys rained down on the kids amidst orange and black confetti.
"What's in that things?" Tony asked Pepper.
"Plastic spiders, bugs, and lizards, those vampire fangs, bouncy balls that look like eyes, that sort of stuff," she answered
"Cute." Tony stepped up the mic, and retracted his facemask. An attendant handed him a big pumpkin shaped basket. "Who's ready for candy?!" He yelled to the kids.
He was answered by a chorus of screams.
"That's what I thought," he responded with his familiar, smug smile.
The night went by in a blur. Pepper and Tony handed candy to kids (many of whom were dressed as Iron Man, Tony appreciated) and assistants scurried to keep order in the crowd and make sure the pumpkin baskets were always full of candy. Tony complained to Pepper a lot between sneaking pieces of his own candy (she kept having to swat his hand, which hurt her more than him seeing as he was wearing his gauntlets all night, and remind him that the candy was for the kids), but sometimes, when he thought she couldn't see him, she caught him smiling.
The doors finally closed at ten, when the kids were gone and only teenagers and adults were left, trying to shake the hand of the great Tony Stark. Tony flew back out through the window, partially because he wanted everyone outside to know that Tony Stark was leaving the party, and they might as well go home too, partially because it was the quickest way to the disassembly runway, and partially because "Fuck you, I'm Iron Man and I'll fly when I want." Pepper took the elevator.
"The cleanup crew has already started on the lobby," Pepper reported as she tossed her phone and recently removed nose onto at table. She kicked off her heels and sat down on their living room sofa. "It should be Halloween-free by tomorrow morning."
"Thank God!" Tony fell onto the sofa with over-exaggerated exhaustion, his head landing on Pepper's lap. He looked up at her pleadingly. "Never make me do that again."
She laughed. "Come on, Tony, how hard could that possibly have been?"
"How hard?! It was horrible, Pep! My feet are killing me!"
"Then maybe your next 'scientific experiment' should be to test the suit's capability to stand for long periods of time," she suggested, running her fingers through his hair.
He closed his eyes, enjoying Pepper's fingers on his scalp. "Hmm, you may be on to something there."
"Come on, tell me you didn't enjoy tonight at all," she challenged.
"I didn't," he responded, not opening his eyes. "Except for the flying."
Pepper smiled knowingly. "I thought you might like an entrance like that."
"And, you know, it wasn't so bad when the kids would tell me I'm their hero," he admitted. He smiled before opening his eyes. "They're smart. I'm an amazing hero. Everyone should worship me like the kids in Iron Man costumes did." He thought for a moment. "Can we make a holiday? Iron Man day. It will be like Halloween, but everyone dresses up like me, and we can all drink scotch instead of eating candy."
Pepper rolled her eyes. "And for a second there, I thought you were being humble."
"Ew. Why would I do that?" he joked. He sat up and smiled, and when Pepper smiled in return, he kissed her. "Happy Halloween, Miss Potts."
"Happy Halloween, Mr. Stark."
So there's our first holiday special. I may or may not do special chapters for other holidays as they come along. We'll see...
I feel like I've seen a bunch of fics that involve Tony and children and it turns out Tony actually loves kids and he's great with them and gooey feels. However, I think that with the kind of person Tony is (and the sort of childhood I imagine he'd had as a child genius and generally feeling unloved by his father), he wouldn't really call an evening entertaining children a good night. Regardless, I still think he could appreciate it to an extent, maybe even enjoy it just a bit. Still, I don't think he'd ever go out of his way to set up some event for kids or what-not.
Anyway, rant over. Sorry about that.
Thank you to everyone who reviews! You wonderful people, you.
