In celebration of the holiday season and for Lonely Hearts hitting 200K (it's long since surpassed that, thank you all) here's a Christmas themed one-shot about our girl and her dumb family.

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THE DAY WAS FAIRLY ORDINARY.

Diana woke to the sound of Christmas music and the smell of pancakes, which only meant one thing: Flash was cooking breakfast. She sighed and stretched, barely registering that it was not only Winter Break, but actually Christmas Eve.

As she stood, she remembered how, back when her parents were still alive, they would celebrate both Hanukkah and Christmas, as her father was Jewish. But when he died, so did the tradition, leaving Diana to just celebrate Christmas with the Thompsons.

Not wanting to put herself in a bad mood, she rushed into the brightly lit kitchen, the light of the snow outside giving the room an interesting glow. She grinned, seeing Flash dancing with a spatula in his hands, blissfully unaware of his newfound audience.

When he finally opened his eyes and caught her filming, he let out a high pitched shriek, nearly throwing the pancake in his hands into her face. She yelped as he shout out his arm, the pancake just barely making it back into the pan.

"Wow, Merry Christmas to you too," he scoffed as she hopped onto the counter, her legs swinging as she watched him make their breakfast.

"Mom's taking the early shift so she can be here tonight, so I'm making breakfast, you're welcome," he explained, placing the pancake onto a large stack, getting started on another, "Any plans today?"

She hummed, shrugging, trying to think if Nicky had mentioned any plans he had; she had gotten him and Rhett presents, and it would be nice to give it to them now, instead of during actual Christmas. She also had presents for her school friends, but that was something else entirely.

"We have a surprise for you tonight," Flash said, almost absentmindedly, "You'll get it with the rest of the presents."

She raised her eyebrows, intrigued; a tradition with their family was that they celebrated Christmas during Christmas Eve, opening presents at midnight. They used to do it with the Smiths when all of them were still around, but now it was just Diana, so the party group became much smaller. It was small, but they had no problem with it.

"Why isn't Mariah playing, what kind of blasphemy is this?"

The two sophomores turned to find Jesse walking into the room, her hair still a mess, dressed in her festive Christmas onesie that she only wore during this time of the year. She had gotten it when it was too large for her, and she was just starting to grow into it.

Flash motioned for her to set up the song, his phone resting next to the speaker. Jesse moved to set it up, nearly tripping over her onesie foot, Diana catching her at the last second, falling off the counter in the process, pushing Flash away from his spot by the stove, nearly causing a fire.

"This is a mess," the boy groaned, pushing them off and fixing the food, "How are we still alive?"

"Pure spite," Jesse shouted from where she was sprawled on the ground, throwing up a fist at the air, "I ain't going down, world, fuck you!"

Diana giggled, rising to her feet and looking around. She wanted to catch the two before it got dark and she had already slept most of the day away. Though Flash was making breakfast, they had all woken up past noon. She decided to wait around and eat the fruit of his labor before dashing out and making a quick round trip.

She jumped onto the counter, listening as Jesse sang along with Mariah Carey while texting Abraham, much to Flash's chagrin. Because it was Christmas Eve, he decided to leave all his spite for after Christmas, possibly after New Year, as being grouchy during the season left him with the taste of coal in his mouth.

"You want the frosting?" he asked, stacking an even amount of pancakes onto three separate plates, keeping them out of the reach of an impatient Jesse.

She nodded eagerly, so appalled by the fact that he had to ask, telling him as much. He merely snorted and elbowed her as he carried all the plates to the table, the two girls rushing to take their seats, waiting for him to come back with the frosting and cinnamon syrup.

"I'm so excited for tonight!" Jesse squealed, "It's gonna be so much fun! We should—" she whined, her knee jerking as Flash kicked her from under the table, "What?"

"It's a surprise," he hissed, giving a pointed look towards Diana who was eating her pancakes, listening intently. She frowned at that, kicking his shin and he hissed, scowling, "Look, you'll thank me for not spoiling it later."

Rolling her eyes, she shrugged, deciding to humor him, seeing as it was Christmas Eve. It was always a fun time for their families, it was one of the few times when Harrison wasn't drunk, as surprising as that was considering it was a celebration, and the three kids always did get the best of presents.

Nearly an hour later, the kids finally finished their food, their conversation coming to some form of a close. Diana glanced at the clock, eyes widening and curse slipping past her lips when she realized that she didn't have as much time as she expected to.

"You'll be fine, just go give your present to the shrink and his roommate, then come back so we can help mom with dinner," Flash said, waving his hand flippantly, moving to clean up the table, "Go get ready, I got this."

Bounding over to kiss his cheek, Diana ran to the bathroom, going through her routine as she got ready to go to Nicky and Rhett's. She took some time at her closet, unsure of what to wear. She wanted to be festive, but she decided to leave the outfit Jesse had bought for her for later that night.

Throwing on a Christmas sweater and layering jeans over thermal leggings, she was off, stopping quickly to throw on her necklace, bracelets, and a beanie she had stolen from Flash, presents dangling from her arms.

"See you later, Dina," Flash called, sitting in the living room with Jesse and wrapping presents.

She was so focused on leaving that she didn't register that all the gifts for the family were already underneath their Christmas tree, calling out a quick goodbye over her shoulder before grabbing her keys and stuffing them in her pocket with her wallet and phone.

As she stepped out of the building, she grinned at the snow. It was fresh and new, so there wasn't an annoyance just yet; besides, it was the holiday season, the snow added to whole effect.

She walked along, the snow crunching beneath her boots. She pulled out her phone, texting her friends as she made her way to the metro. Part of her wanted to walk all the way to Brooklyn with the snow, but another, more rational part, told her to just do what she always did.

'HEY NICKY IM DROPPING BY IS THAT COOL?'

The response was quick, but brief.

'YEAH BE CAREFUL.'

Always a worrier, he was. She continued to walk, texting her other friends as she went, nearing the station. Harry texted back with a quick, 'Sorry, I'm with my dad,' which she understood, and Gwen didn't reply, though she didn't find it too odd, as Gwen did say she was spending the entire day cooking.

She texted Peter, figuring that by this point he would have been kicked out of the kitchen until he could help make the pie, as was customary for all Thanksgiving preparations as far as she had been told.

'MAY KICK YOU OUT YET?'

'NO SURPRISINGLY NOT'

'I BET YOULL GET KICKED OUT IN TEN.'

'GUESS WELL HAVE TO SEE GTG.'

She frowned at his less than excitable text message, a jolt of fear coursing through her; ever since the events of the summer, whenever he tried to make a quick escape from conversations she was filled with a sense of guilt and uneasiness.

Forcing the phone into her pocket and her fears away, she made her way to Nicky's and Rhett's, presents in tow.

º º º

By the time Diana got home, it was dark and her face was hurting from smiling. She hadn't stayed too long as there was something going on that the two men weren't telling her, but she was able to see them open her presents and drink hot cocoa, which was a plus on her part. She was also given a present from both Nicky and Rhett, which had made her laugh.

Rhett, who worked with second graders, had a machine at their school that printed out certificates. So he had made her a certificate that declared her Queen of Pluto, and even printed up a fake document that, when signed by her, would reinstate it back as a planet.

She had laughed so hard that she didn't realize Nicky had walked into his room and back out with a box. When she finally settled down enough to open it, she found a portable ice cream machine, one of the first blueprints she had ever looked at.

She had been planning to leave once they all opened their presents, as there were plans she didn't want to interfere with, but she had to stay and eat ice cream with them. It was a nice feeling, spending time with them without looming threats hanging over her, actually happy.

So by the time she got home, she found Rosie and Flash cooking in the kitchen, Jesse putting up decorations and setting the dinner table for more than just the four of them, which she raised an eyebrow at. Jesse had odd little quirks about her, but this was a new one. Diana decided not to ask, however, as she didn't want to upset her.

"Dina, help me with this!" Flash called out from the kitchen.

Rushing over, she scoffed as she found him trying to play music on his phone, his hands covered in whatever food he was preparing. Walking over, she pressed the familiar Christmas classic, grinning when she heard Jesse cheer at the familiar sound of bells.

"Mariah!"

Diana laughed as Jesse grabbed her hands, pulling her into an impromptu dance. Diana laughed as she tried to copy Jesse's dancing, eventually giving up and just throwing herself across the kitchen as the music continued to blast, Flash eventually jumping in, all of them screaming the lyrics.

Rosie laughed as she finished up dinner by herself, letting her kids have fun.

When dinner was ready and the food was getting set out, the three teenagers were tired and sweaty and in desperate need of a change. Despite their insistence to help get everything set up, Rosie ushered them into the bathroom with a surprising amount of urgency, telling Diana to take the master bathroom and for Flash not to take too long as his sister needed to as well.

By the time they were all finished, dressed in their nice Christmas sweaters, and Jesse having made Diana's hair a home for intricately placed red ribbons, all the food was set out and Rosie was drinking a large coffee.

Diana was about to go sit, but was stopped by Flash who shot out his hand, grabbing her lightly and tugging her back. He raised a finger, shaking his head.

"Give it...two minutes?"

After a long pause, Flash periodically checking watch and tapping his foot, Diana was just about ready to throw up her arms and demand answers when there was a knock on the door.

"There could be at least five different groups of people she's expecting behind that door, open it before she passes out!" Jesse shouted, shoving her brother towards the door while Diana just stared at it, her heart racing as she listed off all the people she expected to be behind it.

The door opened to reveal a familiar boy wearing a Christmas sweater with a suit jacket thrown over it.

And it wasn't Danny.

"Harry!" Jesse cheered, rushing over to hug the boy, only to coming to a teetering halt when she caught sight of the man standing behind him. "M-Mr. Osborn."

Rosie took that as her cue, standing up and walking over to greet the two, welcoming them inside and introducing herself to the charismatic duo. Diana, after recovering from her initial shock of having guests, eyed Norman carefully; she had never formally met him, but didn't have the best opinion of him considering how Harry felt.

"Hey, Dina," he greeted, carrying four large bags filled with presents, his father carrying two of his own, "Where should we put these?"

Hugging him briefly, she motioned for him to place the presents under the tree. After arranging them, she jumped into his arms, laughing as he spun her around, hugging her tightly. Just as he set her down, there was another knock, this time being answered immediately.

"Diana!"

Diana and Harry turned to see Gwen rushing towards them, completely ignoring her boyfriend as she went to greet the others, pulling Diana into a tight hug and letting herself be spun around by Harry. She had a special hug and handshake for Jesse, laughing, before greeting Norman and Rosie who were chatting in the corner, much more sobered.

"Captain Stacy," Rosie greeted with a large smile, "It's so nice to see you again."

"I'm off duty, Rosie, it's George," the man said with a large smile, "How're you doing, Flash?"

"Good, sir," he replied, very formal and almost afraid.

At the sight of his fear, the man placed a hand on his shoulder. "It's okay, Flash. I'm not like the others, I'm actually a good guy."

The boy relaxed slightly, though it was mainly due to Gwen now clinging onto his arm. "Thank you." Turning away, he pulled Gwen into a hug, burying his face in the crook of her neck, hiding his face from the police captain who was making face at his daughter behind her boyfriend's back.

Diana glanced around the room, still trying to comprehend the fact that they had guests over for Christmas. Actual guests. People. People who, though unplanned, weren't going to make her cry and run out of the house and find a beaten up superhero in an alleyway and kickstart a chain reaction of events.

She could actually eat dinner now.

At the mention of dinner, Flash shook his head, an arm around Gwen's waist as he sighed, though he tried to stifle it. "We're waiting on two more people, just hang tight."

Diana's first thoughts immediately went to Nicky and Rhett, as one was never found without the other, and thought back to her ice cream machine which was now in her room; best not show it off with all these people around, but it did beg the question if she had gone all the way to Brooklyn for nothing.

It was nearly ten minutes later when there finally came another knock on the door.

Flash stood and took a steadying breath, staring Diana dead in the eye from her position next to Harry, the two playing Go Fish with Jesse. "You are so lucky I love you."

She threw up her arms, demanding to know what she had done, but received no answer. It wasn't until she heard the door open and a familiar voice that she realized who they had been waiting for.

"Hi, Flash! Aw, that sweater looks so good on you, look, we're almost matching. Oh gosh, you don't have to carry these for me, we're fine—gosh, you're so sweet, thank you."

Rosie walked away from where she was talking to the two men to greet May, laughing as the woman rushed over to her and hugged her, greeting her enthusiastically, moving to introduce herself to the other adults while she waved at the teenagers.

Diana, who had been trying to rise to her feet, tripped over her legs the moment she caught sight of Peter, falling face first onto the ground, groaning. Harry helped her up, laughing, and walked over to Peter, giving him a hug, Gwen close behind.

Diana waited patiently in line to hug her boyfriend, jumping into his arms the minute she was able to. She laughed as she ran a hand through his newly cut hair, much shorter than it had been before. He had told her that he had plans to cut his hair, to which she had calmly explained that she would break up with him if it looked bad, and she was glad to see that it actually looked really good.

"You look older," Jesse commented, waving from where she was shuffling the cards to include May and a confused, but intrigued Norman.

"He was so afraid to get it," May said, taking the cards she was given and looking through them, "We were waiting there and the entire time he was just all 'what if she doesn't like it, she said she'd break up with me,' and, 'May, are you sure that this will look good on me,' like," she laughed, pointing towards Diana who had both her feet firmly on the ground, "You are everything to him by this point."

Peter who had hidden his face in Diana's shoulder, groaned loudly. "May! Are you serious right now?"

Flash laughed, waving his phone. "I got that entire thing on camera."

Peter lifted his head to point at him. "I found the pictures of you and me on Halloween." It was possibly the most outright threat Peter had ever given the boy in his life, and the only one that seemed to actually work.

"Okay," Rosie said, stopping the scene before it started, "How about we eat, huh?"

Diana couldn't have been happier.

º º º

Dinner was finished and everyone had been talking in the living room for quite some time. The kids were playing charades, drawing their characters from the large array of names they had placed in a Santa hat.

Flash, who was about to go, opened his and immediately sighed. "Parker, do you even know Spider-Man?"

Peter, who had his head in Diana's lap, holding Harry's hand, raised an eyebrow, heart racing. "Uh, yeah? We're friends?" He looked over at May who didn't even stop her conversation with Norman.

"Then why don't you spell his name right?" Flash asked, showing him the paper with his handwriting; Diana decided not to ask how he knew it was Peter's.

"I spelled it right," Peter said, frowning.

"No, there's a hyphen, that's how he wrote it on the notes he left when stopping all those criminals, like," Flash sighed, "Come on, Parker."

Diana had to commend him, he hadn't called Peter an idiot or anything else particularly harsh the entire night. She watched as he handed Peter his slip of paper before going back to pick a new character.

"I added the hyphen because there wasn't enough room," he mumbled, resting his head on her shoulder and she burst out laughing, doubling over before falling, shoulders shaking.

It was after a few more rounds—the last person was Gwen who had gotten Flash and had just started to breakdance—that it was finally time to open presents.

Jesse's present had been a combined effort of the two other Thompsons and the Smith, all of them agreeing to buy certain products from certain lines they knew she wanted. Unbeknownst to her, though, is that Flash had also told the plan to Gwen and Harry who had asked what Jesse had wanted for Christmas.

She had already been blown away from all the palletes from everyone else, but had started crying when Harry presented her the large, pink makeup box organizer that was filled with new, unopened products arranged inside.

"You're so—Why did you—This is so nice, thank you guys so much!" she cried, hugging Harry tightly.

Flash's presents were much more diverse, but in the sense that all his friends had such different experiences with him. Gwen had gotten him a toy car to replace the one Spider-Man had destroyed, laughing and saying that her present for him was still on its way, though her father couldn't help but narrow his eyes at his daughter, distrusting.

Harry had gotten Flash new DJ-ing equipment and the boy hadn't even wanted to touch it, just staring at it reverently, shaking his head, almost refusing to accept it before remembering that Harry Osborn did not take well to rejected gifts, as it was as if they were rejecting his attempt at showing love.

Diana hadn't been sure what to get him so, in a fit of panic, she gone into her parents' storage unit and dug around for hours, searching for her mother's special hot chocolate recipe, coming out with that, as well as the cookbook her father had received as a present from his grandmother which had some of the foods that he always cooked for Flash whenever the boy was over and distraught.

"Your dad was the best," he whispered softly, cradling the book in his hands like he was afraid it would break. Diana bit her lip, swallowing thickly, silently agreeing.

Rosie took the cake however, simply walking to the fake fireplace, reaching inside, and pulling out a set of car keys with a bow on top.

After Flash had calmed down enough, they moved on to the presents for the guests. Taken aback, all of them took the gifts with shock and gratitude, May ecstatic at the KitchenAid that Rosie bought her, hugging her tightly while laughing because she had bought Rosie a Keurig.

Captain Stacy received a large supply of coffee, as well as tea and various other items to help him both stay awake and fall asleep, which he had appreciated more than they were expecting him to.

Norman laughed at the set of themed ties he had been gifted from every family group, handing his son a picture of him and his mother when he was young, causing Harry to have to leave for a few minutes, telling them to go on without him, already having opened his other gifts from his friends, which he had loved.

Gwen had gotten science equipment, much to her delight, and had squealed with delight multicolored headband set that Jesse had bought for her, going through so many shades it was hard to keep straight.

Peter had gotten various sweaters and shirts with puns on them, laughing his head off at all of them. Diana had, in addition to the biology pick up line shirt—"If I were an enzyme, I would be DNA helicase, so I could unzip your genes"—had gotten him a shirt that read 'LEAVE PLUTO ALONE' and she had her phone out, immortalizing his initial reaction, then his follow up.

"Ha ha," he deadpanned, setting the shirt aside on top of the pile nevertheless, "You're so funny."

At the end of it, all that was left was Diana which they had all planned to do on purpose as Peter told them he had something important and meaningful for her, but what it was specifically no one but him and May knew.

Gwen and Harry went first, Gwen giving Diana a large rolled up poster of various cut outs of Ryan Gosling, mostly dominated by pictures of his abs, and she didn't stop laughing until roughly twenty minutes after the families had gone home after midnight.

Harry's gift was a small plaque that read 'GETTING BETTER' and though its significance was lost on a few people in the room, it meant the world to her. He also showed her that, in the bag, was another plaque that read 'SCIENTIFIC MARTYR' and she didn't bother pretending not to know what it meant.

Jesse had given her a large jar, similar to a jug used to hold licorice, filled with small paper cranes that, when unfolded, had little things about Diana that Jesse loved, as well as inside jokes and memories and song lyrics that the two had bonded over. The cranes were small, about the size of half of Diana's thumb, and they filled the jar to the very brim.

"It'll take you a while," Jesse said proudly, "So if you ever think I hate you, you can always just look at a few and remember that I never could. I could be really mad, but I couldn't hate you."

Once Diana was finished hugging Jesse and was okay enough to be sure she wasn't going to cry, she opened Flash's present, which had brought her close to tears. It was a flag that read 'PLANET DIANA.' with a drawing of a planet so intricate and detailed that it could have only been drawn by Michelle.

"Figured you could put it next to your Viva La Pluto flag," he said, shrugging as he hugged her back, "Look, it's got a little population counter. It says two because that's what it had been a while back, I don't know if it still is now." She had just nodded because she couldn't risk crying.

Then Rosie's gift. Rosie's gift was an adoption form.

Diana had burst into tears and rushed into godmother's arms, wracked with sobs because she had always been told that they just had custody over her, but they hadn't adopted her. They hadn't, but they could, and now they wanted to and just couldn't stop crying.

"Are you okay, honey?" May asked, placing a hand on her arm when she finally pulled away, wiping at her eyes, still hiccuping.

She took the proffered water gratefully, trying to brush off her scene, summing it up as to her being overwhelmed. Very, very overwhelmed.

May glanced over at Peter who seemed ready to run out of the room, fidgeting and sweating, struggling to breathe as he stared at everything but Diana. "Maybe we shouldn't do this tonight, sweetie."

She raised an eyebrow, glancing between her boyfriend and his aunt, asking what they shouldn't do. Flash did the same, warily pulling out his phone to record whatever was about to happen.

Peter, taking a few deep breaths and mumbling to himself, rose to his feet, looking Diana in the eye, slowly reaching into his pocket. "Don't freak out. I will explain."

Then he slowly moved back down, ending up on one knee, pulling out a small white box from his pocket.

Flash lost it.

"Parker, what the hell do you think you're doing, is that a fucking ring, are you proposing, is anyone else seeing this—?"

"Flash, just be quiet, I'm gonna explain!" Peter shouted, never once taking his eyes off Diana who was shaking by that point, covering her mouth with her hands as she struggled not to scream the same questions Flash had asked.

"You put that ring back where it came from or so help me—"

"Flash, listen, this is symbolic, I have a speech," he called out, reaching into his other pocket and pulling out a folded up piece of paper.

"You wrote it on binder paper, what kind of proposal is this?"

"Eugene Thompson, shut your mouth!" Jesse shouted, throwing her shoe at him, effectively shutting him up.

"Okay," Peter said, trying to stay calm, glancing briefly at the paper before throwing it to the side, "So listen. Back—" he choked, clearing his throat and swallowing the lump in his throat, "Back when May and Ben were in high school, they were dating, same as us. When they were in sophomore year, Uncle Ben gave her a promise ring, saying that even if he screwed up and left and made all these awful mistakes, even if she didn't love him anymore the ring was always there to remind her that he would always love her and support her. He wasn't proposing, he just wanted her to know that he would always care.

"May just told me the story recently and I'm not saying that we're gonna break up in college and I'm gonna date some girl named Chrissy Miller who majored in the humanities, but I just thought about them and I figured that I've already screwed up once because we didn't talk about this, and since I'm bad at talking, I'd rather let a ring do the talking if I ever screw up again.

"And-and it worked out for Ben, so I figured I'd try too. If you want."

Diana was hyperaware of May softly crying next to her, fiddling with the ring she wore on a chain around her neck, and took a deep breath, not realizing that she was biting her hand to keep from screaming.

She shook her head, laughing as she wiped away her tears, rubbing at her eyes and groaning. It was almost ridiculous how overwhelmed she was feeling.

When she looked back down at Peter, he was still looking at her, but with an expression of fear. She laughed at that moment, shaking her head at the absurdity of it all; he was afraid she would say no.

"Bugs, of course I do."

Everyone cheered and Peter fell back against the ground, relief crashing upon him like a wave. She laughed and crouched down, bending over to kiss him and he sat up, kissing her once more before pulling away, embarrassed by the number of people watching.

Plucking the ring out of the box, he handed it to her, but, after a look from May, took her hand and slipped the ring on himself. When he was slipping it on, she caught sight of something engraved on the inside.

Tugging it off, she tried to read it, biting her lip to keep from letting out an embarrassing mix between a sob and a squeal. On the inside, he had gotten 'DOC' etched into the metal. Turning towards him, she saw him take out the cushion in the ring box, revealing a matching ring for himself. He leaned forward and held it out, showing that his read 'BUGS.'

She laughed, wiping at her eyes, shaking her head as she just looked at him. "You know? I think I might really love you, Peter Parker."

She nodded to herself, slipping the ring onto her finger, a reminder that no matter how many mistakes were made, there were always people to love you. It didn't matter what kind of love, just that it was.

"Yeah. This time, I think it really is love."

Peter kissed her then, just because he could, and she kissed him back because they were surrounded by people who loved them and, in the end, that was all that really mattered.

Didn't matter what kind of love, just that it was.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Do we like how Diana didn't speak until the very end? I wasn't sure if I wanted to do that (it was very hard and a completely different way of writing than I'm used to, though my style has changed a bit since Lonely Hearts) but it just felt right, so I kept it and I'm honestly very happy with it.

I'm sorry this was so long you guys, this was supposed to be a one-shot Tisha smh, but I got a little too carried away (again, I was actually afraid that this wasn't going to be long enough but look, here we are)

Credits to merryspidermas because she pointed out to me that "what if he's called Spider-Man with a hyphen because he had overestimated the room on the paper when he wrote his notes, so he added the hyphen to let them know it was one word, but it was taken the wrong way," which I find incredible and I accept it as fact, so here it is.

And do we like that I finally show when Diana is pretty sure she's in love with Peter, because by the end of Lonely Hearts, they're not sure if it's love, but they're willing to try again, and here it is and she's pretty sure. It's just like...yeah.

That's really all I have to say, I'm pretty sure, so thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!