Chapter 67
The weeks following the grand opening of Lily's were a blur as Harry and the rest of the team settled into a routine.
For the first week or so, Harry was so busy with the bakery that he barely had any time for anything other than sleep. Unfortunately, this had meant that his personal time with Peter had dwindled down to the few minutes between Peter's arrival afterschool and when his shift began.
However, things had begun to settle down and Harry found himself with enough bakers and employees that he could trust to run things when he wasn't there, which opened up time again for him to the spend with his family and Peter.
Thanksgiving had come and gone without a big ordeal. Harry had made insisted on keeping the bakery open until noon, making a wide variety of pumpkin and apple flavored items in preparation of panicked customers who's baking had gone awry.
Despite the fact that it had been the first major holiday that they had all spent together, the Avengers had hosted just a small dinner with the team, Peter and May. Harry had insisted on cooking, but the spread hadn't been as grand as Harry had planned. Instead, only the basics were made, and everyone enjoyed an evening of laughter and time spent in one another's company.
Now, Harry found himself curled up on the sofa in the living room, sharing a knitted afghan blanket with Peter. Snow fell peacefully beyond the penthouse windows, and Harry shifted closer into Peter for warmth. Lucy laid atop his feet, making sure that even fast asleep, she was fulfilling her duties of making Harry as comfortable as possible.
"Tony, would you just tell me where to put it?" Bucky sighed, awkwardly shifting the large Christmas tree that he was carrying.
"I can't decide," Tony frowned from his seat in the armchair. "I think I liked it better where you just had it.
"Tony!" Bucky growled in a warning tone.
"What?" Tony cried innocently, turning to Harry and Peter with a wink. The two teenagers held back their laughter as Bucky squirmed uncomfortably away from the shower of pine needles that had just rained down on him.
"Tony, what are you making the poor man do?" Pepper asked with a sigh as she entered the room.
"He's setting up the Christmas tree, and I'm just telling him where it looks best!" Tony answered defensively, still maintaining the mock-innocence.
Running her fingers through Tony's peppering hair lovingly, Pepper chuckled lightly. Harry noted that this was the most relaxed he had seen her, probably since opening day of the bakery.
She was wearing leggings and one of Tony's old MIT sweatshirts, and a pair of socks that Peter had bought her for Christmas last year. Her hair was up in a loose ponytail, and she wore an eased expression on her face as she rounded the chair and took a seat upon Tony's lap.
The billionaire wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her closer into him, making Harry smile at the small motion. It was obvious to see the love that his parents had for one another, even when they weren't making grand gestures.
"I'm going to ask you one more time-- and I'll probably regret doing so-- but is this where you want it?" Bucky questioned, setting the tree down in the corner next to the windows overlooking the city.
"Yes," Harry answered, before his dad could give Bucky any harder of a time than he already was. "That's perfect."
Bucky gave Harry a relieve smile, and took a tentative step away from the tree as if daring Tony to say anything.
"I think Steve's got a few old Christmas decorations somewhere in a closet, I'm going to go find them," Bucky announced, retreating out of the living room before anyone could change their mind on the placement of the tree.
"Do you boys want to help decorate the tree?" Tony asked as Pepper rose from his lap and extended a hand to help him to his feet.
He had already known the answer that he'd receive, but hearing the excitement in both Harry and Peter's voice as they gave a resounding "yes!" was well worth the question.
Tony cladded over to the where some boxes of decorations sat up against an adjacent wall, and began carefully rummaging through an assortment of ribbons, lights, ornaments, and other knick-knacks and trinkets.
"Can I do the ribbon and lights?" Harry asked excitedly as Peter helped him to his feet. While winter hadn't officially begun, the New York weather forecast predicted that the snowfall reach nearly twelve inches in the next 24 hours, and the chill had set into Harry's young bones.
Tony looked perplexed at his son's question, as he often found the ribbon and lights to be the most frustrating part of decorating. If the tree hadn't been his mother's, he would have already tossed it and bought a new, pre-lit one by now.
"If you want to, of course you can," Tony answered wistfully, thinking back to all of the Christmases of his childhood.
This 12-foot tree with frosted branches held a special place in Tony's heart. He couldn't recall many moments of his early childhood that he had shared with his father, but he had memories of decorating the tree, just the three of them. His mother would fuss over the positioning of the ribbon and the spacing of the lights, while his father would joke about how she was going to need a bigger ladder to reach the top. And it the honor of bestowing the star upon the tree was always given to Tony, no matter what age he was.
"Man, magic is so cool," Peter exclaimed, pulling Tony out of his memories.
The genius watched as Harry lazily directed ribbon, which was floating in midair, around the tree in the perfect spiral. Next, he strung the lights with ease, as if it were the simplest task in the world.
"Wish it always went that fast. That's the worst part of decorating," Steve's voice declared as he entered the living room, trailing Bucky with a box in his hands.
"I could argue that," Bucky muttered, brushing a stray pine needle from his shirt as he set a box down on the sofa.
"Oh come on, you've got a bionic arm and superhuman strength. It couldn't have been that bad," Tony teased, slapping Bucky heartily on the back.
"I hope you find pine needles in your bed," Bucky grumbled under his breath, squirming again as though one had made its way down his shirt.
Harry waved his hand at the floor, vanishing all the stray needles that had fallen from the tree, and then turned to Bucky and cast the same spell. An odd scrubbing sensation washed over him, but was over in a matter of seconds.
"Thanks," he breathed a sigh of relief. As bizarre as the spell had felt, Bucky immediately felt better as the sensation of pine needles beneath his clothes disappeared.
"You're welcome. Now, that's all the magic I want to use while decorating. I've never done it before, and I want to do it the right way," Harry declared matter-of-factly. His tone was cheerful, but the words struck a chord within Tony and made his heart ache at the idea that his kid had never had the opportunity to decorate a Christmas tree.
"So, Harry, can I ask what Christmas was like at Hogwarts?" Peter asked, obviously feeling the same way as Tony. He seemed to hold his breath as he watched Harry's face, hoping that it didn't fall with bad memories.
Instead, Harry's face lit up.
"Christmas at Hogwarts was one of my favorite times of the year. Fourth year, especially, because even though we were between tasks for the Tournament and everyone expected us to hate one another's guts, Cedric took me to Hogsmeade, the small village nearby, and we went Christmas shopping and got butterbeer and sweets from Honeydukes," Harry's face shone brightly as he reminisced, and Tony was glad to see that, for once, Harry wasn't letting the memories of Cedric or the Tournament upset him.
"And the castle was always decorated beautifully. Hagrid, our gamekeeper, would always go get trees from the forest and they'd be lit up and decorated in almost every single corner of the castle. And I got to stay there over winter break, and the house elves would make a small feast for the few of us that stayed. The Great Hall was beautiful, with 12, great big trees..."
His eyes grew misty as he thought about his first year and how Ron had stayed with him over break, and how over their third year, he had snuck to Hogsmeade with Ron and Hermione both and the cottages had been decorated with wreaths and candles. That had been the Christmas that he had received his Firebolt and Professor McGonagall had confiscated it. He wondered now what would happen to it, as it was still sitting in a broom cupboard next to the Quidditch pitch.
"That sounds great," Pepper spoke softly with a smile. She was glad that Harry had at least a few fond memories of Christmas. She couldn't bear the thought of his monster relatives taking even the most joyous of times from her son.
"It was," Harry smiled as he carefully pulled an ornament from the box. "Aw, look at this one."
Bucky snorted, and Steve bit back a smile. Peter didn't even try to hide his shock or laughter as he looked at the ornament and back at his mentor.
"Mister Stark, is that you?"
Harry held up the 'baby's first Christmas' ornament that had a picture of baby Tony Stark, donning a santa hat and wearing the most 'deer-in-the-headlights' look that he had ever seen. The baby's eyes were wide, and his cheeks were chubby, but the best part about the photo was that baby Tony was completely naked. Why anyone would use the photo on an ornament that would be displayed for all to see, was completely beyond Harry.
"Heyyyyy now," Tony reached over and plucked the ornament from his son's hands. "I thought I burned this thing when I was a teenager."
"I'm so glad that there are no pictures of us like that out there," Bucky laughed hysterically, clutching his sides.
"I'm just glad the super spies aren't here to use this as blackmail," Tony tossed the ornament back into the box and quickly covered it up. "My mom thought that was the funniest picture, and printed it on everything. I think that was one side of our Christmas card to close friends and family that year."
"That's even better," Peter snickered, watching his mentor's face grow red with embarrassment.
"Did you call for us?" Natasha asked smoothly, entering the living room with Clint close behind. Lucy awoke from her nap and quickly ran over to greet the archer, and Harry narrowed his eyes at the man. He had been suspected that Clint was carrying treats with him at all times, because Lucy always grew very excited to see him, but had never had any proof.
Tony's eyes found his way to the box where he had just tucked the ornament, and his face grew uncharacteristically red with embarrassment.
Natasha smirked, and Harry knew that she would be going through the box later.
"Now the only person missing is Bruce-- where is he?" Harry asked, trying to help his dad deflect any further questions that were sure to come. He wanted to make sure that the entire team was there to help decorate, and that nobody was being left out.
Because he knew how bad it felt to be left out.
Clint shot a look at Natasha and grinned, puzzling everyone else in the room.
"What was that?" Peter asked, narrowing his eyes at the spies.
"What was what?" Natasha asked casually, plopping down in an armchair and lazily draping her legs over the side of it.
"That look. The look Clint just gave you. What was that about?" Tony pressed, growing as equally curious as Peter. Harry and Pepper glanced at each other and rolled their eyes. The two could be relentlessly stubborn.
"I don't know what you're talking abou-" Natasha began, but Clint interrupted, bursting with excitement.
"We saw Bruce downstairs talking to Caroline!" He exclaimed, and Natasha turned slowly on him.
"Seriously, I sometimes wonder how you even became a spy," she slapped his arm playfully.
"You think there's something going on between Bruce and Caroline?" Bucky questioned, trying to follow the chaos that was going on.
"We're not certain, but I think that the two might have hit it off at the bakery and have been having some secret rendezvous," Clint waggled his eyebrows suggestively, earning an eyeroll from everyone in the room.
"I could see it," Steve interjected, causing everyone to turn and look at him. "They have very similar personalities once you get to know them."
Pepper smiled and nodded. She hadn't known Caroline for very long, just since the bakery had opened, but she could tell that she would get along with the scientist. Plus, she had always been saying they needed more girls around the team.
"Well I'm happy for him, regardless of what they are," Harry announced, placing an ornament on a hook.
"I agree," Pepper added, smiling and placing a hand on her son's shoulder.
Tony watched as his fiancé lovingly looked at their son, and his heart filled with love. Beside him, he pulled Peter in close to his chest and gave him a squeeze. Looking around the room at the rest of the team members chatting and laughing together, he couldn't help the big grin that spread across his face.
They were more than a team. They were a family. He had known it before, but it seemed so glaringly obvious now. He wondered if it was because of Harry that they had all grown closer, or the events that had transpired over the past several months, or if it had always been this way and he just had the perspective of a parent now.
Whatever it was, he was glad he was a part of it.
"Alright Harry," he spoke, pulling an ornament out of a box and placing it on a hook. "Where do you think this should go?"