Spidey One-Shots

Family

This one's for you. Enjoy!

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Peter was feeling lonely.

You can't exactly blame him for it either. Christmas was in a week and he was feeling nostalgic.

If you haven't understood yet, Peter Parker didn't exactly have the most ideal childhood, with his parents' passing and later becoming a teen superhero only to lose his uncle.

The same 'Parker luck' tended to trickle into Christmas. Having been a mere toddler, Peter couldn't remember if he had ever celebrated Christmas with his parents, let alone remember how it was. After Uncle Ben's death, Aunt May had to work multiple jobs to keep up with the bills, so while she did try her best to celebrate with what little they had, Peter never really got any presents or could never really afford the ingredients needed to make delicacies.

He couldn't celebrate Christmas.

Well, this is how the Avengers made sure that changed.

***  

Pepper was heading to the kitchen, trying to decide on what to make.

Who might she be making what for, you ask? Well-

"FRIDAY, when is Peter coming?", questioned the anxious CEO.

Huh, seems like you have your answer.

"Peter will reach you in exactly three seconds, ma'am.", responded the ever reliable A.I.

Wait, three seconds?

Her thoughts were answered with Peter exiting from the elevator.

"Oh, baby!", Pepper exclaimed, pleasantly surprised, as she hugged him.

"Hey mama", said Peter, voice muffled.

She pulled back and held him by the shoulders at arms length to look him over. Satisfied that he had no injuries, she looked at his face.

Only then did she see that expression on his face. It wasn't sadness or anger, it was...nostalgia.

"Something wrong, baby?", Pepper asked slowly, so as to not rush or intrude. She gently guided him to the counter and headed opposite to make him a snack as he 'debriefed' her.

"It's nothing, really. It's almost stupid of me-"

"Darling, if there's one word that can never be used to describe you, it's that. You're not stupid, honey. Just tell me what it is. I'm sure you have a valid reason for this."

"Well, it's just that...Christmas is in a week, you know, so everybody at school was talking about what they were gonna do with their families and how they were gonna spend the break and what presents they hoped to get and then there was me, who never really had a family long enough to celebrate Christmas with to begin with.", Peter vented. 

He didn't really care much about it at this point since it had been years since he had celebrated Christmas. 

It was still shocking to Pepper how nonchalant he was about the entire thing. She was reminded just how mature beyond his years Peter really was and despite his childish excitement, standing before her was a boy whose childhood had been brutally robbed from him repeatedly.