Spiderman Oneshots

Secret Santa

"Spend Christmas with me and the family," Tony had said. "It'll be fun," he'd said.

So Peter and May had driven to Tony Stark's lake house on the 23rd December, expecting a quiet holiday with Tony, Pepper, Morgan and maybe Happy or Rhodey. Instead Peter opened the door to announce his arrival, still bundled up in a warm hat and mittens, only to be faced by almost all of the Avengers. "Oh," came out of his mouth instead of the cheerful greeting he'd prepared.

"Peter!" Came Tony's happy voice as he appeared through a doorway. "May, lovely to see you! Come in, almost everyone's here now. We're expecting Bruce later today, and Thor won't be arriving until tomorrow."

"How wonderful," May smiled as Happy took her coat and led her towards a seat near Wanda, who smiled welcomingly.

"Come on in, underoos, take a seat."

"Right, yeah, sorry," Peter closed the door and unwound his scarf. "Hi, everyone! Great to see you all. Merry Christmas!

There was a return chorus of well wishes. Peter was handed a warm drink and mince pie, and found himself easily pulled into a teasing conversation with Sam and Bucky. The two had clearly been through several drinks already, and while Sam was a little tipsy Bucky had remained entirely sober and was making fun of Sam while Steve watched in bemusement.

A few hours passed, full of jokes and applause as Morgan performed an elaborate storytelling in which she went through several flouncy outfits and an Iron Man helmet that Pepper quickly confiscated. They were all watching Tony tell Morgan that no, she could not take Captain America's shield tobogganing, really no, he meant it, put those puppy eyes away, when there was another knock.

Pepper answered the door while Tony did his best to distract Morgan with gingerbread men. It was Bruce, smiling sheepishly behind a bunch of flowers while the first flakes of snow started to fall. "Thank you for having me," he said as he stepped over the threshold, handing the flowers to Pepper. She thanked him and welcomed him inside. He smiled and picked up Morgan when she ran over and hugged him, exclaiming excitedly at the snow outside.

Peter was almost too busy watching May look awkwardly at her hands entwined in her lap - they hadn't brought flowers for the hostess - to notice several others in the room doing the same. When he thought about it, though, it made sense. Despite all being varying degrees of famous, and powerful heroes, not many of them actually earned much. Tony was a billionaire of course, and Pepper too. Bruce was a very talented scientist and therefore quite affluent, and Steve was often paid to make special appearances or give speeches at events. Sam, however, was a volunteer. Wanda was still trying to get a degree. Bucky had a minimum wage job helping with a self defence class. Clint and Natasha were employed by SHIELD but that didn't pay nearly as much as being an assassin. None of them had brought any real presents other than some toys for Morgan to unwrap on Christmas morning. After all, what could you buy the man who had everything?

Sam cleared his throat. "Just on time, Bruce. I was about to suggest - well, if anyone else thinks it's a good idea - has anyone ever done a secret Santa before?"

Clint clapped. "Yes! A great idea!"

Tony leaned into the conversation, intrigued. "Secret Santa?"

Morgan squealed. "Yes! We did one at school, everyone gets a present for someone else. It was very fun, Louisa gave me a rabbit plushie and Mommy helped me buy Tommy his favourite sweets."

Wanda nodded. "I did one last year for the first time. It's a game, of sorts. Everyone in a group chooses a name and gets that person a gift, so everyone gives and receives one present."

"Sounds good," Steve was smiling brightly. "I must admit I haven't had a chance to buy gifts for people yet - I was hoping to do it when we go into the city tomorrow."