So I just wanted to give them something domestic to do because they deserve it, okay, the family deserves to do something that only families do.

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CHRISTMAS DECORATING AT THE WALSH HOUSEHOLD WAS A BIG DEAL. They never celebrated Christmas at home, but that didn't mean they couldn't make the house look nice. Tony had been with them the last Christmas, but he hadn't joined them in decorating. But now that he was much more prevalent in their lives—they were unofficially engaged and already planning for the wedding despite Tony never having asked her to marry him—they figured he should help them decorate.

That was why Tony was standing on the doorstep of their home with a Santa hat and boxes of Christmas decorations.

The door opened then, but didn't reveal anyone that Tony recognized. Instead of seeing Birdie or Remy, or even Mark or BUDDY, he found himself looking down at a boy around Peter's age dressed in all blue save for the reindeer antlers perched on his gelled back hair.

"Holy shit, you're Tony Stark," the boy cried, moving aside to let him in as if he were royalty, and Tony was used to the treatment, but hadn't expected it when he came into the city to see his not-fiancé and not-kid.

"Who're you?" he asked, setting down the boxes next to the door, because he had never met this kid before and he didn't think he was expected to know.

"Flash Thompson," the boy explained, still rather starstruck, but he tried to control himself to some extent, "Uh, I know Peter? He's dating my sister, he asked me to tutor Remy once so now we alternate tutoring."

Tony nodded carefully. He had heard about this kid. He didn't know how to feel, because he and Peter weren't at odds, and he certainly wasn't all that nice to him, but he wasn't cruel either, and Peter often told him about their strange heart-to-hearts which were sixty percent insults, thirty percent compliments, and ten percent insecurity. Not to mention, Remy constantly went on and on about how much he loved this kid, and while Tony would have much rather'd the kid get along with Peter, Flash seemed to like him well enough.

"You've been mentioned," he said, and Flash looked as if he was bracing himself for a beating, which, unfortunately, wasn't an exaggeration on Tony's part, "What're you doing here, kid?"

"Remy invited me over," he explained, rubbing the back of his neck, "Not for the whole time, but he wanted to show me the comments his teacher put on his autobiography, he was really excited. And I helped set up the tree, but everything else is just for family."

Tony hummed, just looking down at him, and the boy looked utterly terrified, and Tony didn't know why, but he wanted the boy to stop right away; he didn't want to feel like his father this early in the morning.

"Are you okay?" he asked, because he needed to make sure he wasn't just imagining the way the boy flinched whenever Tony spoke.

"Yeah," he said, clearing his throat and trying to adjust his stance, puffing out his chest and raising his chin, only to deflate as soon as he caught his gaze, "I'm just...it's nothing."

Before Tony could try and ask what was going on—he hated seeing sad kids, and the only thing worse than a sad kid was a scared kid—Remy darted out from his room, coming to stand next to Flash, smiling up at Tony.

"Hey, Tony," he greeted, because he was more than just Tony to Remy, but that didn't mean he had to call him anything different, and Tony was more than fine with that.

"Listen, Rem, I'm probably gonna bounce, I'm helping Matt find his dad a Christmas present," Flash said, nudging the smaller boy to catch his attention.

"Okay, bye, Flash," Remy said, hugging his leg quickly before pulling away, and Flash just smiled, ruffling his hair before making a beeline to the door.

"It was nice meeting you, Mr. Stark," Flash called, before closing the door and running away; Tony knew he ran away, because he saw a blue figure dash past the window looking out towards the sidewalk.

Tony stared out the window long after he had gone, wondering what he had done, or what was said about him, to have given that boy so much to fear. He could have stood there all day if it wasn't for the tug on his jacket.

"Don't take it personally," Remy said, crossing his arms, "He freaked out when he found out that Peter actually knows you, because he was really mean to Peter before, but they're okay now, but he gets scared of adult men easily for, you know, reasons."

Tony wanted to ask what those reasons were, but one look from Remy told him he was better off not asking, instead choosing to look around the still undecorated room. "So where's mom?"

"I'm here, sorry, I've been trying to organize everything, sorry, Tony," Birdie called, stepping out of her room and into the hallway, walking down to meet him, "How was your drive over?"

"The usual," Tony said, walking over to meet her, "So what's the plan, how are we decorating? I hope it's okay, I brought some decorations too."

"Oh cool, did you bring the Jarvis stocking, I set a spot for him next to BUDDY's," Remy asked, racing over to go through the boxes, shouting for his AI in question to help him organize everything.

"Yeah, I did," Tony said, his voice caught in his throat, and he turned back to look at Birdie, trying to distract himself, "I hope it's okay, you said to just bring stuff that I usually decorate my place with."

"It's more than okay, Tony," she said, smiling as she leaned forward to kiss him, and he smiled as he tilted his head, wrapping his arms loosely around her waist.

"Ew, no, we're not having that, stop it!" Remy cried, throwing an ornament at Tony's back, "BUDDY, do something!"

The robot, who had just stepped out of what Tony figured was Remy's immensely cluttered room, reaching over and picked up the man in question, waddling a short distance before depositing him onto the couch, Tony too shocked to protest.

Then he was shocked back to reality, pointing a finger towards the blue robot as it waddled back over to help Remy go through the decorations. "Excuse me, for all intents and purposes, I am your father!"

"I read an article that adolescents typically rebel against their parental figures, and once they reach an age to which they no longer need to be in said guardians' custody, they no longer have to obey every order. I'm about twenty in relation to Remy, so you're not the boss of me," BUDDY said, and Tony narrowed his eyes, pointing sharply towards BUDDY.

"You heard that!" Tony cried, looking over towards Birdie who was just laughing, covering her face with her hands, "I'm telling you, he's evolved past formal language, he's just doing it to spite me."

"Well, he is at the rebellious stage," Birdie offered, laughing as she moved to help Remy pull out the large snow globe with the original Avengers waving from inside a scaled down replica of Avengers Tower.

"He's passed the rebellious stage, remember, he's twenty," he pointed out, though he did realize that irony of that statement as he himself hadn't passed the rebellious stage when he was well into his twenties. And older.

"Actually, Mr. Stark, I'm turning one year old on Christmas Eve, that was when you finished making me," BUDDY pointed out, and Tony had to smile then, because that was true.

He remember scrambling to finish him in the morning because Rhodey had switched out his coffee for decaf to get him to sleep the night before, and he had tried multiple times to make sure that everything was perfect before packing him and the rest of the presents up and racing downstate. That was why he wasn't perfectly on time, but he never did tell the others.

But it seemed that both Walsh's had pieced everything together, what with the way they were smiling at him, though, if Tony would allow himself to face the truth, the two often just liked to smile at him because, frankly, he made them happy.

But Tony would never accept that, so he never acknowledged it in full.

Instead, he clasped his hands together and looked around the room. "So, are we gonna start decorating or what?"

Remy grinned, looking towards his robot. "BUDDY, play the Christmas playlist."

"Sure thing, Remy," BUDDY replied, though it didn't come from the robot, but rather the black disk that he used to inhabit, the various ones still placed throughout the house from back before they had met Tony.

He turned to look towards the blue robot version of BUDDY who simply waved, and Tony really wished he could call Bruce, because this was getting scary.

But the Christmas music was playing and everyone was already starting to work, so Tony just sucked it up and helping Remy take out all the decorations he brought with him. He left most of the personalized ones in storage—the snow globe as the only Avengers themed item he could stomach to look at—bringing only the ones he used to decorate the tower, including the ornaments that could sing and dance, often moving around the tree in a pattern to entertain guests.

"Here, we can put these on the tree, we have ornaments of our own, we can find a theme," Birdie said, scrutinizing the color scheme of his ornaments—metallic red and silver—then towards her own red ornaments in their own box, "Yeah, this'll be fine"

Tony smiled, tilting his head as he looked at her. Birdie always wanted things to work perfectly and, if they didn't, she'd find some way to make sure they did. Tony always needed to be the one behind the wheel when it came to cars, but Birdie needed to be behind the wheel at all times. They were both trying to come to terms with these semi-problems, but they fit nicely together all things considered.

"What?" she whispered, catching him looking at her, and Tony felt his stomach twist at her growing smile and short laugh as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, "Tony, what?"

He just smiled and continued to look at her, because the longer he did the more she laughed, and he would do anything to keep her laughing, so they just stood there while Remy rolled his eyes and started decorating without them. 

"Tony," Birdie hissed as the man took a step forward and pressed a kiss to the side of her neck, and she tried to push is face away, laughing as he pressed more kisses along her cheek and jaw, "Tony, please, Remy and BUDDY are here."

"I'm not looking," BUDDY said, covering his eyes, only to bump right into the counter, "Ouch."

"See? The robot's not looking," Tony teased, reaching out to pull her into his arms, and Birdie shrieked with laughter, Tony's beard tickling her as he continued to kiss her.

"Yeah, but the kid doesn't wanna throw up today, come on, I'm supposed to hang out with Marc later," Remy called, reminding them of his Jewish friend who wasn't doing any tree decorating that year, while trying and failing to drag the ornament boxes over towards the tree, huffing and puffing.

Birdie felt her face heat up as she apologized, rushing to help her son, and Tony pulled away from her without any fuss, though he did race to press one more kiss on the underside of her jaw which made her laugh, as it always did, before he picked up one of the boxes and carried it towards the tree.

That was when they really got to work. 

Tony didn't recognize half of the music that was on the playlist but they did fit the Christmas theme so he just partly listened while making sure Remy didn't fall as the boy balanced on a step ladder, trying to hang the metal ornaments that Tony had brought. They were light so they didn't weigh down the tree, which was something Birdie had been hesitant about.

While there was great focus on the tree, there were other things to focus on, such as the lights and the statues there were going to replace the vases and other figures that were typically placed around the house.

"My family used to go all out when I was younger, so my mom just gave me some of our old stuff to make sure that I continued on the tradition, and I wound up buying more, Wilma did the same," Birdie explained, watching as Tony pulled out a Santa statue, turning it around in his hands.

"That's really nice," he murmured, thinking about the decorations in his own house when he would come home to visit.

His parents never decorated with him, it wasn't a family thing, it was mostly up to Jarvis to put it all up so guests could come and compliment Maria on what a wonderful home she had, and she would laugh and point out certain things that Howard made especially for her, and she would always say she had such a thoughtful husband, all while Tony stood in the corner, either talking to some of his father's employees or following Jarvis around. Rhodey could never come stay with him because his family had their own traditions, but he would always call and make sure he was okay.

"Tony," Remy called, tugging on his pants leg and catching his attention, "Tony, are you okay?"

"Yeah, kid, I'm good," he said, trying to smile as he smoothed down Remy's hair which was still messy from where Flash had ruffled it, "Where do you want these to go?"

Birdie smiled from where she was continuing to hang up ornaments, watching as Tony and Remy went about switching the vases and figurines to Christmas decorations. She usually was in charge of that, as she liked to make sure things were orderly, but she forced herself to hold back and let Remy do it, reminding herself not to change them even if she wanted.

Remy was very similar to her and didn't like it when he wasn't aware of plans or when plans changed, so when she told him that he could be the one to decide where everything went, he was ecstatic, and no matter what, she wouldn't allow herself to change them.

This would be good for her, it would relinquishing some of her control, and she would be okay with that. She would.

"Remy looked up interior decorating last night, mom, and he has a thing about making sure everything works well together with numbers, height, and colors, he's wired for this," BUDDY said, and he spoke so casually that she could hardly remember a time when he didn't, but that relaxed her, though also made her wonder.

"I didn't make him feel like he had to make things perfect, right?" she asked, fixating on the part where her son stayed up that night to research interior decorating.

"No, he makes himself feel like he has to, but he likes doing that," BUDDY explained, and Birdie didn't know what it meant that she was asking a robot about what her son was like.

She tried to push it out of her mind in favor of continuing to decorate. Despite Tony telling her that they weren't fragile by any means, she still handled his ornaments with care. She tried to tell herself it was because they weren't hers and she didn't want to come off as rude, but she knew that she was scared that Tony would leave her if she ruined something of his.

She knew he wouldn't, she knew for a fact, but that didn't erase her fear that he would.

As if he had sensed her struggling, Tony walked away from Remy for a bit—the boy couldn't stop adjusting the three Santa statues to make sure they were evenly spaced apart—coming to stand right next to her, resting his chin on her shoulder as he stood behind her.

"What's wrong?" he asked, and she shook her head, leaning back against him, but he pressed the issue, "No, come on, tell me. I won't get mad."

"It's stupid," she mumbled, and Tony touched her waist lightly, signaling for her to turn around.

She sighed as she did, looking at him with tired eyes and he tilted her head up so he could catch his gaze and she sighed, rolling her eyes for a moment before holding it, because there wasn't much else for her to do. 

"Birdie," he whispered, "You can tell me."

She sighed, rolling her shoulders as she rubbed the back of her neck, feeling her chest constrict as she got more than little frustrated. Not at Tony, but at the situation, because this was something she didn't want to have to tell him, but it was clear she wasn't going to give it up.

"I'm just, you know, I'm really happy that you're here," she offered, silently pleading for him to just drop it.

His shoulders slumped slightly, and he leaned forward to kiss her, mumbling against her lips, "We'll talk about this later."

"Okay," she relented, reaching out to place a hand on his cheek before turning back towards the tree, "Help me finish the ornaments, we still need to string up the lights."

"I can do that, mom," BUDDY called, catching the attention of the others as he reached into the box, uncoiling the lights, "You and Mr. Stark can just keep whispering."

Remy peered out from where he had just finished organizing the Santa statues. "Why are we whispering?"

"Mom and I are just figuring something out," Tony said, and Birdie's heart warmed; whenever Tony referred to her as 'mom' when talking to Remy, it just solidified his place in her home even more.

Thankfully, Remy didn't comment, just narrowed his eyes and slowly went back to what he was doing, and Birdie loved her son, she really did, but his letting it go took a great weight off her shoulders.

The family continued to decorate the house, Remy taking his job very seriously, often switching out statues and needing to jump all around the house to take in his work at all angles. Birdie, who had taken a pause to make cookies and hot chocolate for the rest of them once they were finished, called out to tell him that it didn't need to look like a magazine, but the look Remy gave her was so strong she might as well have suggested they donate BUDDY to the Goodwill.

"He likes things to be perfect, he takes after you, doesn't want to leave anything to chance," Tony called, picking up Remy and spinning him, the young boy shouting to be put down despite now clinging onto the man tightly, not wanting to be let go.

Birdie smiled, thinking to herself that the description didn't just show Remy took after her, but that he took after Tony as well.

When the lights were all strung up, courtesy of BUDDY, and the statues in place thanks to Remy—it took much longer with him than it would have with Birdie, but that just showed he cared so much more, so who was she to complain—the family took a short break to eat the cookies and drink the hot chocolate, saving the lighting of the tree to the very end.

"Come on, let's put the star on," Remy whined, seated between Tony and Birdie on the couch.

"Oh, here, I forgot something," Tony said, standing up and making his way towards his box, pulling out one last ornament that he hadn't taken out with the others, "I hope you don't mind, but I made a star for you."

The two Walsh's looked towards each other, wondering if the star was going to light up and sparkle and, to an extent they were right. Tony had brought out a sleek silver star that, when he pushed a button on the back, opened up to show a picture of the lot of them from their last Christmas party, all smiling in front of the camera.

"You don't have to use it, but I figured I'd bring it over," he said, scratching the side of his head as he realized that this might be a little much.

"I wanna put it on!" Remy shouted, grabbing the star from his hands, trying and failing to reach the top of the tree on his tiptoes.

Tony laughed, feeling rather overwhelmed at the jump to acceptance over a star he wasn't sure they would like. He looked to Birdie for answers and the woman just rose to her feet, smiling as she reached over and kissed Tony on the cheek.

"It's wonderful, Tony, thank you," she whispered, clinging onto his right arm.

Tony just smiled, walking over and picking up Remy, the boy laughing as he was lifted up towards the top of the tree, not quite able to reach it because Tony, unfortunately wasn't that tall. But BUDDY saved the day, picking up Tony and lifting him up just enough so Remy could reach the top of the tree.

"Teamwork, Mr. Stark," was all BUDDY had to say about it.

"It's on!" Remy called, once the tree was secure, and Tony was, thankfully, set down back onto the ground, but Remy didn't want the same treatment, "No, keep carrying me."

Tony laughed as he moved back to stand with Birdie, admiring their unlit tree. Glancing towards BUDDY, he motioned towards the plug that, when inserted, would turn on the lights for the tree, thus activating the singing ornaments and the star.

"Why don't you do it, Tony?" Birdie offered, holding onto his right arm again, smiling up at him, "Since you are the newest addition to the family and all. Though, maybe BUDDY is too."

Tony wasn't going to cry, not then, not when things were going so great, and that was why he wanted to cry, but he wasn't about to. He didn't want to ruin the moment.

"BUDDY," Tony said, because teamwork, "Lights."

With that, the lights in the living room turned off and BUDDY reached over, plugging in the tree which illuminated the entire room. The robot came to stand behind the Walsh's and Stark who all smiled up at the star which had begun a slideshow of pictures of the family together, the ornaments beginning to harmonize as they went through a playlist of Christmas songs.

Tony smiled as he looked on at the Christmas tree, then towards Remy, his not-son, and Birdie, his not-wife, then back towards BUDDY his not-not-son.

"Well, this'll be a nice Christmas."

AUTHOR'S NOTE

So I'm not good with endings, but I just really wanted to give them something nice, and I don't think I did too terribly bad, so let's be kind.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!