The instructions had been very clear. Come to the Avengers compound at 5 pm on the 24th. Make sure you aren't followed. That last bit had been scribbled on by Tony, causing Peter to be just a little offended. But, considering his track record, he didn't really blame the man. Peter kissed May goodbye at half past four, swinging out of the window as per usual, and catching the bus upstate. Well, the Spiderman version of catching the bus which basically meant clinging onto the roof.

By ten to five, Peter was stood outside of the main entrance. He breathed in deeply, ready for any mission that might be assigned to him. Three knocks.

The door swung open, and Peter was flooded by a cacophony that overwhelmed his senses. Loud music boomed throughout the entire compound, flashing lights and various smells assaulting Peter's sensitive senses.

"Peter!" Tony greeted him thunderously, glass in hand as he welcomed the Spiderling inside. "Take your mask off." He suggested, clapping Peter on the back and leaning close to his ear. "Have some fun, kid. I'll catch up with you later." And with that, he was gone.

Peter retreated to a corner, not quite knowing what to do. It was only then that he started spotting some familiar faces. Not people he'd met before, but those who were unmistakably recognisable from, well, everywhere. Peter's eyes widened as he spotted Thor in a corner, happily conversing with Bruce Banner. Peter had to do a double take. The Bruce Banner?

Not even making the decision consciously, Peter's body carried him over to the duo who seemed to be quite intently working on something. Spiderman stood above them for a second, not being able to think of anything to say. Just say hi, he willed himself. Just say...

"Greetings, Man of Spiders!" Thor smiled widely, eyeing Peter's suit. "Stark has told us a lot about you." Glad that the lights prevented his coloured cheeks from being seen, Peter held out his hand.

"It is such an honour to meet you, Mr Thor." He managed to utter, next turning to the scientist in disbelief. Here it comes, Bruce thought, seeing the excitement in the young superhero's eyes.

"Yes, I'm the Hu-"

"You're one of the most influential scientists of this century! I can't believe I'm meeting Doctor Bruce Banner! Well, you've actually got a bunch of PhDs so it's more like Doctor Doctor Doctor Doctor Doctor Bruce Banner... Anyway what are you working on?" That entire sentence was all in one breath and Peter ran out of it at the end. Bruce looked pleasantly taken aback. Exchanging a look with Thor who simply shrugged his shoulders, he moved aside to let Peter view their project.

It was a Chitauri energy core suspended in some sort of contraption, but it seemed to be malfunctioning.

"It seems like it's been wired up incorrectly." Peter viewed the metallic mess, reaching forward to adjust the connection. Stopping himself in time, he glanced in anticipation at Bruce, then at Thor. "May I?" he asked cautiouslyl, to which the two exchanged another shrug. It's not really like he could make it any worse.

"Go ahead." Permitted Bruce, viewing Peter with newfound interest.

What they didn't know was that Peter had spent long hours studying the Chitauri core when he had first come across one.

"If this just hooks up to here, we discovered with Ned- he's my best friend by the way, he'll never believe any of this- if the wires are connected in series rather than in parallel unlike it usually would with a standard cell, and this connects to here..." After a minute, Peter handed the device back to Bruce. It was no longer sparking, instead humming with a warm purple glow and emitting a pulse of energy that flooded through the wires every few seconds.

"Good job, young spider!" Thor laughed joyfully. "Tony would be proud of his son." The expression on Peter's face changed in an instant to confusion.

"Wait, what? No, I'm not Mr Stark's son, I'm just-" What was he? It didn't really matter at that point anymore, because Thor was no longer listening. He turned to grab some drinks being brought round be one of Stark's robots, handing one to Bruce and another to Peter, keeping one to himself.

"To the spider boy!"

"No, Mr Thor, I'm not old enough to drink..." Bruce leaned over to him in order to be heard better.

"Peter, come see me in my labs sometime. I'd be interested in your opinion on a few subjects." Mouth wide open, Peter simply nodded rapidly. Bruce Banner's labs. They often walked past them with Tony, but it was one of the few places he had never been allowed inside ("He doesn't even let me in!" Tony had whined playfully, but it was obvious he was a little sulky about the fact).

"If you'll excuse me, I have to be off." He apologised, pocketing the glowing contraption with a satisfied grin and raising his voice as he walked away, "I also hear you manufacture your own webs. I'd like to see how you do that!" And he was lost in the crowd. At that moment, Peter heard a familiar voice in his ear.

"Who gave this kid gin?" The glass was lifted out of his fingers. "He's enough of a disaster as he is."

Peter opened his mouth to protest, but Tony was already gone.

"HEY! Spandex Man!" It took Peter a moment to realise that he was being addressed. He turned sharply to spot a teen, not much older than himself. He cautiously made his way over, colliding with Black Widow on the way. Wait- Black Widow? Before he could fully process this she was gone, casting him a 'watch it, kid' look before disappearing. Behind her trawled someone dressed elegantly in black, casting Peter an apologetic look.

"Sorry, she can be really grumpy sometimes. Nat, wait!" Hawkeye stole after her, and Peter had to blink a few times to process what had just happened. Remembering his goal, he reached the girl who had been calling him before. She now shook his hand, introducing herself as Shuri. She then took the opportunity to fire his web shooter across the room. Peter checked his wrists hastily.

"When did you take that?"

She handed it back to him, smirking in satisfaction. Instead of an answer, she pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket and scribbled some notes on it before handing it to Peter.

"This'll make your webs thinner but stronger- you'll run out slower." Not sure if he should thank her, Peter's mind was made up for him when his new friend grabbed someone's arm as they walked by.

"Hey, big bro- this is Spandex Man."

"It's... Spiderman." Peter exhaled in disbelief.

"Good to meet you... Spider Man."

As he walked away, Peter turned to Shuri.

"Was that the king of Wakanda?"

"Yup. Nice talking to ya, follow me on Instagram. I've written my account name on the paper as well." Peter looked up, and she was gone. Why did everyone keep disappearing on him?

He physically couldn't process everything going on anymore. Swinging up onto the ceiling, Peter scuttled over to the nearest window and clambered onto the roof. There, he breathed a sigh of relief in the cool, fresh air. His senses tingled. He wasn't alone.

He spun around swiftly, web shooters pointed at the threat. He squeezed down, the web making its way to the new arrival's face... Before going through it completely and disappearing into the night. Peter frowned in confusion, before the hologram disappeared and someone stepped out from behind.

"How did you do that?" Peter gasped in disbelief. He quickly shot another web, which collided with the man's face and sent him sprawling gracefully onto the floor.

"I'm so sorry, I thought it was another hologram!" Peter yelped, scooping down to help remove the web. Surprisingly, the face underneath was laughing. The man gratefully accepted Peter's hand when getting up, now towering over the teenager.

"What are you doing up here, kid?" But Peter wasn't listening. He had just had a profound realisation and was not interested in anything else.

"I saw you on the news... You're Loki, aren't you a God or something? Some people say you're a bad guy and yeah, maybe you tried to take over New York but it was so awesome!" Loki frowned slightly, not sure what to make of the kid. He seemed harmless enough.

"But Mr Stark says you're alright now, that you helped to defeat Thanos? Did you use your hologram thingy?" Then, in a super thin voice he whispered, "Ned and I both secretly think you're cooler than your brother!"

Loki's mouth opened in surprise and was about to say something, before hearing a voice behind him.

"You better not be corrupting my kid." Tony had his armour on, without helmet but looking especially threatening.

"Relax, Stark. He just came up here to see how his favourite superhero was doing." He cast Peter a mischievous wink before the Avenger rolled his eyes subtly and turned to Peter.

"Hey, kid, follow me. I want to show you something."

Peter cast the demigod an apologetic expression before pulling his mask on and uttering quietly, "Goodbye Mr Loki Sir it was so great to meet you could I maybe have a picture or something later otherwise Ned will never believe me that I met you..." He swung off, leaving Loki to wonder what exactly a 'Ned' was.

Both red-clad heroes landed on the roof of the tallest tower of the compound, Tony taking his helmet off and Peter following suit by grabbing his mask off and sitting down next to his mentor.

"Enjoyed yourself tonight?" Tony glanced at him. Peter's mouth opened and closed a few times soundlessly, resembling a startled fish before he turned to Tony and breathed out excitedly.

"Best. Night. Ever, Mr Stark!"

"Okay okay, but don't you forget who's your favourite, you hear?" Peter proceeded to hug him from the side. Tony returned it, but couldn't do so without a sarcastic remark.

"How much did you have to drink tonight?"

"I smelled some gin." Peter admitted sheepishly, to Tony's great amusement. They sat in silence for a while, gazing up at the sky and at the distant lights of bustling city night life in the distance. Tony ruffled Peter's hair playfully, the spider laughing and nudging his mentor with his shoulder.

"So, kid, I've got something for you." Tony revealed why they were up there, pulling out a badly-wrapped present Peter suspected he had taken care of himself. "Merry Christmas, Spiderman."

Eyes wide, Peter began unwrapping the gift and found a glasses case at the centre. Confused, he gently opened it to find a pair of glasses very similar to the ones Tony often wore.

"I made a replica." Tony explained, without really making it any clearer. "Put em on." He prompted, smiling when Peter slid them onto his nose.

"I may be here now, kid, but I won't be around forever. When I'm gone... For the next Tony Stark, I trust you." Peter felt his eyes water but pushed it away, sniffling gently.

"Thank you, Mr Stark." The older man grinned.

"Say 'EDITH'."

Peter complied, the lenses of the glasses lighting up and a voice speaking into his ear. His eyes widened with every word.

"Now, you don't quite have full access to everything yet, I'm gonna teach you how to use it first so you don't accidentally authorise a drone strike on someone."

"You can do that?" Peter's excitement grew before he noticed Tony's stern gaze.

"Yeah, you can." Tony's expression changed for a moment and he winked at Peter subtly. Messy curls, the glasses, that excited look in his eye... Tony could have been looking into a mirror (well, a mirror which took a few years off).

"Mr Stark..." Peter suddenly began, taking off the glasses and eyeing them suspiciously.

"What does EDITH stand for?"

A beat. Tony thought for a moment, before pulling the kid into his side again and placing his head into the curls.

"Not important, kid."

"Mr Stark, do you mind if I head down to the party for a little longer? I'm pretty sure I saw Captain America around!"

"Sure, go ahead kid." Tony grinned fondly, before stopping him. "Leave the glasses with me, though. I don't trust you not to lose them." Peter opened his mouth to protest, before realising that Tony was probably right.

"Merry Christmas, Mr Stark." One more tight hug, and it was finally the Spiderling's turn to disappear. Tony sat on the edge of the roof before flying down to where Loki was still stood.

"You gonna come and join the party, or what?" Loki's surprise gaze met his. "Go on down, the kid likes you. I'm sure he'd be delighted." A rare smile crept to Loki's lips, his head nodding slightly before Stark went to discard his suit and go to rejoin the festivities, feeling strangely fulfilled. He was just grateful he had gotten to hand Peter the glasses in person. Or who knows what might have happened?

Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed it and, for those still following, I'll probably add one more chapter to my other Marvel fic before the holidays are over. *Sighs happily, I love these idiots.