After Peter's parents died he was put in Foster Care until one billionaire, Tony Stark, adopted him. Now Peter is seven years old and today is Halloween. He had been excited for months about his costume and Tony promised to take him trick or treating. Sadly Halloween is not a work holiday and Tony got roped into a bunch of SI meetings. He told Peter reluctantly that he would not be able to take him trick-or-treating tonight.
He felt awful staring at his son’s disappointed sad face, “I’m sorry munchkin, I really am. I tried to get out of them, but they need me there.” His voice was soft trying to not break under his son’s disappointed stare.
“It’s okay,” Peter said sadly, “I understand.”
Tony’s heart broke. Peter was always understanding even if he was hurt. Tony loved and hated it about him. He always put others first even ahead of himself and his own feelings. “Don’t look too glum, Uncle Happy has agreed to take you.”
Peter smiled, but it was stilted. He loved his Uncle, but no one could replace his dad. “Okay,” the word was said in a melancholy kind of tone.
“Go get dressed, he’ll be here in twenty minutes.” Peter ran to his room excited to get his costume on even with the sadness of his Dad not being the one to walk him around.
A few minutes later he came back out with the itchy bald cap that had bushy wild gray hair on the sides and a gray mustache taped to his face above. He had a lab coat and he held his trick-or-treating bad\g that was in the shape of a science beaker, which his dad had made for him. He was going as Albert Einstein this year. Tony couldn’t help but chuckle, “You look great kiddo.” Just then his phone buzzed, “Hold on one sec.” he answered the phone missing his son’s frown that had just overtaken his previous smile. “This is Stark… Yes, I’ll be there in a few… Yes, I understand…alright bye.” He looked back at his son who tried to plaster a smile on his face, but it was obviously fake, “Sorry about that Bud, come on Happy should be downstairs.” They went into the elevator after FRIDAY opened it and took it down to the garage where Happy was waiting in the black Audi.
There wasn’t much good trick or treating in the city so Tony had planned to take his son to a small neighborhood in the suburbs. Usually, it was only for residents, but he was Tony Stark, they made an exception for him. Tony squatted down so he was at eye level with his kid, “I’m really sorry again kiddo, I promise I’ll make it up to you. For now, you're going to have a really fun time with Uncle Happy and you're going to stick close to him okay?”
Peter gave a nod before going in to hug his dad. Tony hugged back tight and then led his son over to the car where he strapped him into his booster seat in the back. He kisses Peter on the forehead, “Have fun Pete, love you.” he said as he shut the door.
Happy smirked as he looked at the boy in the rearview mirror, who was kicking his legs absentmindedly. He looked half kid half old man with the costume one. “Alright, here we go.” Happy said as they drove off.
It took about thirty minutes to drive there and then they had to park. Once they did, Happy came around to unbuckle Peter and help him down out of the car. They walked hand in hand to the first house where Peter ran up the steps. “Well hello,” the woman holding the bowl of candy at the door, wearing a witches hat, greeted him, “and what do we have here?” She smiled knowingly at the little boy.
“I’m Albert Einstein ma’am.” He smiled up at her, one of his front bottom teeth missing.
“Yes you are, would you like some candy Einstein?” Peter nodded enthusiastically looking into the bowl she held out, contemplating which to take. He picked a KitKat.
“Thank you!” he yelled as he ran back to Happy.
They walked together to the next house and the next and the next. Peter took mostly KitKats as he knew they were his dad’s favorites.
Happy got a call and answered it as Peter walked down the stone path to the next house's door. There was a group of kids huddling at the bottom of the steps talking. They were older, like almost too old to be trick or treating. Although is anyone too old to be trick or treating? “Hey Skip look at the little nerd headed our way!” one laughed as he addressed his friends.
“Hey Einstein!” the aforementioned Skip said, “That’s a pretty lame costume, why didn’t you pick something cool like one of the Avengers?” He said coming up to Peter.
Peter had debated being Iron Man in honor of his dad, but he wanted to wait until he could build his own suit for his costume. “Albert Einstein is cool!” Peter defended, “he invented the Gas absorption heat pump and the Einstein refrigerator.”
“Pretty smart of a little kid Einstein!” Skip mocked and he grabbed Peter's bag. He took it and held it high in the air so Peter couldn’t reach it.
“Hey! Give it back!!” Peter yelled as he jumped up in the air over and over not coming close.
“Even your bag is lame!!” He laughed.
Peter felt tears glaze over his eyes and a lump in his throat, “Give it back! My dad made it for me!”
“Your dad made you this?” He asked in mock care. Peter nodded shyly. Skip threw it on the ground and it cracked, “Well he didn’t do a very good job!” he snickered, a chorus of laughter could be heard from the boys behind him. Peter just stared at his broken bag, candy falling out onto the grass. He felt hot tears stream down his face.
“Hey!!” Peter knew that voice, it was Happy and he was running up to them, “Leave him alone!” The kids looked wide-eyed at the man, who by the way is head of security for Tony Stark, and started scrambling and running away. Happy got to Peter who was crying still staring at his broken candy container. “Pete, are you okay?” Peter turned to him and he saw the tear tracks and the kids' red-rimmed watery eyes. “Oh, Pete,” he said wapping the kid in a tight hug. His suit was getting damp from the boy’s tears, but he didn’t care.
“I want to go home, I don’t want to be Einstein anymore.” he cried.
“Are you sure Pete? We can go to a few more houses if you want.” Peter shook his head on the man’s chest. “Ok, we can go home.” He whispered. He wasn’t about to make the kid stay in a costume he now hated. Even if it was only because of some snot-nosed teen who didn’t matter. He picked the boy up while simultaneously picking up the broken bag doing his best to keep the candy contained. Peter bawled his fists up round handfuls of Happy's suit and he hid his face between the man's shoulder and jaw, still crying. He walked back to the car and strapped the kid back into his booster seat. He then got into the front and looked into the rearview mirror. Peter had stopped crying, but he looked miserable and his eyes were puffy and red. “Tell you what, when we get home I’m going to have FRIDAY order a whole bunch of candy to the tower and were going to eat it until our tummies hurt while we watched Star Wars.”
The kid perked up at that, “Really?!” he said with wide eyes, staring into the man’s eyes in the reflection of the mirror.
“Really. Just promise not to tell your dad about the extra candy.”
He knew Tony wouldn’t mind, but Peter giggled as he said, “I promise” and that was what he was going for.
They drove back and had FRIDAY order the candy, which arrived in less than thirty minutes. The rest of the night Peter spent pressed into his Uncle's side eating candy and watching Star Wars. Even with Skip, it was a pretty Happy Haloween.