Spiderman Oneshots

Secret Santa

"Sorry," Peter apologised as they left yet another shop with nothing to show for it. "I'll think of something eventually, I promise."

"Don't worry, kiddo," Clint patted his back. "You'll find something."

They stopped for coffee to warm up, and Peter texted MJ a string of crying emojis. She replied a few minutes later with laughing ones.

"Okay, last one before I'm giving up and buying chocolate," Peter told them as they went into another shop. It was one of those bookstores that also stocked games and models and stuffed animals. Peter spent a while browsing the shelves (May bought a novel for herself) then gravitated towards the stand of plushies. There was a pile of jellycats, a brand that he'd heard Ned raving about. He ran his fingers over the large octopus on top of the pile and revelled in its softness. It shifted, and a pile of soft toys tumbled to the ground. Peter winced, scrambling to gather and replace the fallen animals, but paused. Lying between a cactus and a lobster was the perfect gift - an eight legged spider toy the size of his head. When he lifted it, the creature was just as soft as the other jellycat plushies, and he held it in one hand while he picked up the last of the fallen animals.

He paid for the spider at the till and hid it in a gift bag before rejoining the others. They texted Tony, and he told them his team had gotten caught by paparazzi so should probably avoid being seen with them unless they wanted their cover blown. Pepper's group had remained unnoticed but weren't finished gift hunting yet. They all agreed to meet back at the lake house.

Peter wrapped the spider (a true mathematical conundrum) and stuck a bow onto it before placing it sneakily under the tree. There were only two others there, and he couldn't wait to see the space filled. The others returned and Natasha made hot chocolate. More and more wrapped parcels appeared under the branches.

"Peter," a loud whisper came from his elbow. Morgan tugged at his sleeve. "Do you want to build a snowman?"

Grinning, Peter let Tony's daughter pull him out into the crisp snow of the garden. They rolled balls of snow and stacked them, then Morgan explained how they were going to sculpt it into a snow sculpture of Iron-Woman. She even produced a crayon drawing on blueprint paper. The end result was going to haunt Peter's nightmares but Morgan seemed pleased so that was a win in his books. After a while the Avengers emerged and they had a truly spectacular snowball fight.

"You can't use super strength!" Clint yelled in complaint as one of Peter's snowballs flew right over their defences and nailed him on his beanie-clad head. Bucky retaliated immediately, and Peter ducked so the high-speed snowball hit Sam instead. The two started yelling at each other across the snowy no-man's-land.

It was beginning to get dark and Clint and Tony had already gone inside to warm up when the grey snow clouds suddenly flashed with lightning and a technicolour beam struck the flowerbeds, revealing Thor with his red cape, hammer, and a Christmas jumper.

"Yuletide greetings, friends!" He strode towards them, effectively ending the snowball war.

"Are you wearing a Christmas sweater?" Morgan asked with typical child boldness.

"Indeed, young Stark! It is a wonderful tradition that Jane introduced to me. Is this one of the snow warriors she also spoke of?"

"Yes!" Morgan dragged Thor over to the snowman and began explaining how it was a sculpture of the hero she was going to be one day and describing all the powers she was going to have (including ice powers).

The evening passed in a similar fashion to the previous, except Morgan was far more resistant to the idea of going to bed when she wanted to stay awake and watch for Santa. They introduced Thor to mulled wine and scrabble while Die Hard played in the background, then all went to bed themselves.

Again, it was Morgan that woke them all, this time far earlier and with much more excitement. "Santa's been! Santa's been!"

She wouldn't stop bouncing and tugging people's hands until they were all congregated in the lounge to watch her unwrapping items from her stocking. Once she had a pile of toys gathered and was happily building a lego landrover, they handed out the secret Santa gifts.

The set of pale blue, purple and deep indigo nail polish May had bought went to Pepper. Clint got a small Harry Potter lego set for Wanda that she laughed over. Sam was pleased to receive the band tee Wanda had found for him. Peter couldn't guess at who had bought the rest of the gifts, until it was his turn to open the box in his lap. He hadn't really known what to expect, but it wasn't the small plastic figurine of red and blue.

Gently, Peter lifted the action figure and examined it. It was a Spider-Man figure. A real one, not the knock-off versions he'd seen before. Spider-Man merchandise just... didn't exist. It couldn't - Tony had copyrighted his brand on Peter's behalf but there was nowhere for the royalties to go so they hadn't sold the rights and nobody was allowed to produce official merch.

"I don't understand," Peter murmured even as he saw the folded paper that had been below the figure. He lifted it, unfolding it and scanning the text. Then he read it again, more carefully, and glanced at Tony, with his hand over his mouth. His eyes felt damp.

Tony shook his head. "Don't look at me. I only helped." Instead Peter's gaze shifted to Pepper, who was smiling softly. She nodded.

"Thank you so much," Peter whispered, choked up. "I don't- I don't know what to say."

"What is it?" Clint asked, peering over his shoulder.

"Spider-Man merch," Peter managed to explain. "It's been given the go-ahead, this is a prototype. All the royalties from the copyright go into a registered charity account. I can choose where the money goes, give it to the people who need it most. This is... this is amazing."

"Well, none of us are going to be able to top this, are we?" Sam complained jokingly.

"To be fair, we were planning to give it to him anyway," Tony defended. "It was just luck that Pepper drew Peter's name."

"Thank you. Thank you, both of you." Peter got up from the floor to hug Pepper and Tony, then Morgan and May for good measure.

Once the hugs were done and they were settled again, the presents continued and the moment Peter had been waiting for came. Natasha lifted her present, giving a bemused smile at its unusual shape. Peter had managed to wrap it into a wonky octagon which Natasha tore open with precision. When met with soft brown fur, she paused, then lifted the stuffed animal from its packaging.

"It's a spider," Clint said helpfully.

"Yes," Natasha's lips twitched. "Are you responsible for this?"

"Nope," Clint told her. She looked back at the spider, biting back a warm smile.

"It's very... soft," she stated, but there was something equally soft in her eyes and the spider remained in her lap, being idly stroked, for the rest of the day.

Clint's family and Rhodey arrived in time for Christmas dinner. They pulled crackers, ate more than seemed possible, and played several rounds of various party and board games. Afterwards they sat around the TV, still snacking on cheese and either making a jigsaw or quietly reading while Morgan watched Frozen.

"Thank you," Natasha said to Peter when May stepped away to try a mince pie.

"It's meant to be a secret Santa," Peter reminded her. She shrugged smoothly.

"Old habits die hard. And I want to thank you. I've never had- nobody's ever given me something like this before."

"What, a spider?"

She laughed. "Something that's only purpose is to be loved. And soft."

Peter considered that. "I think everyone needs things in their life to love. And be soft."

A nod. May came out of the kitchen, tucking hair behind her ear as she laughed at something Pepper had said. Natasha stepped away.

"Merry Christmas, Peter."

"Merry Christmas."