Title: First Christmas
Author: thatpersonwhoisthatperson (A.K.A. thatperson0300, NastasiaRocks)
Prompt: Photo number 18, photo number 27, written prompt number 14, written prompt number 11, and written prompt number 6 from the its-always-been LJ Holiday challenge.
Rating: T
Words: 3,294
"Hey, Pepper?" asked Tony, bounding up the steps to their bedroom. Their bedroom. He smiled. That sounded nice.
There was a faint rustling heard behind the closed door. "Yes?" Pepper called out to him.
"I was just wondering..." he trailed off upon hearing more frantic rustling now. "What're you doing?"
"Nothing," she said quickly. Too quickly, and Tony smirked and was just turning the door handle when Pepper cried out.
"If you must know, I'm wrapping your Christmas presents, so unless you want to be spoiled I suggest you keep out for now."
"Christmas presents, you say?" Tony raised an eyebrow and smiled even wider. He wondered what Pepper could have bought him. It must have been hard, considering he was a man who could have anything in the blink of an eye. Now that the issue presented itself, Tony realized that he never really mentioned what he'd wanted for Christmas to her at all. But, this was Pepper – she was always so thoughtful. No matter what she'd gotten him, he knew he'd love and cherish it forever.
It had certainly been a hassle shopping for her. He'd called Rhodey about four times, until the Colonel finally convinced Tony that Tony knew Pepper better than he did. Tony first went into Victoria's secret and bought Pepper some incredible lingerie – the "one gift, one thousand fantasies" ad was very appealing – but when he really thought about it, that was more so for him than it was for Pepper. He'd thought about getting her jewelry, but Pepper was never the materialistic type. She preferred things a bit more...sentimental. It took Tony a while, but he finally managed to find a great gift to give her; the Snapfish website had a book-making option, and he'd put together a bunch of photos from their first (very simple and low-key, upon Pepper's request) vacation to Cape Cod. It was from the heart and it captured a bunch of wonderful memories, so he knew she'd love it.
At least, he really hoped so.
The door opened to a brightly smiling Pepper, bringing Tony out of his thoughts.
"All set, you can come in if you'd like to, now," she said, opening the door wider still.
"Hey, if you don't mind...can you show me how to wrap a present?" Tony asked genuinely.
"You don't know how?"
"Well, I do...but I want it to look...presentable."
She laughed. "Ah, I see." Reaching out and grabbing his hand, she pulled him into the room, closed the door, and took out an empty cardboard box. Tony flung himself onto the bed, watching her intently as she began to cut the wrapping paper.
Tony simply admired her as she talked him through the way she wrapped Christmas presents, switching his gaze every so often back and forth from her hands to her face. Her crystal blue eyes were intently focused on the task at hand, and her petite fingers folded and taped the paper with graceful ease.
"...and like that. There, that's pretty much it. You get it?" Pepper asked him.
"Yup. Got it," Tony responded, taking hold of Pepper's arm and pulling her onto the bed alongside him. She breathed a laugh as Tony began to trail kisses down her face and neck. After a while, she buried her head in the crook of his neck, and they were just content to lie there.
Later that night, while Pepper was finishing some work that needed to be done, Tony wrapped her gifts just the way she'd shown him earlier. A warm smile tugged at the corner of his lips as he placed them carefully under the Christmas tree.
"Where are we going?" Tony questioned yet again, looking out the car window. He noticed there were hardly any houses on the side of the street anymore – just open fields. "Feels like we're getting farther and farther from civilization."
Pepper rolled her eyes. "Just a quiet place I found where Christmas trees are sold. A family-owned business. This way the press can't get to us."
Pepper absolutely hated the press. Tony had tried everything to take it away from her, but it came as a small price to pay with their relationship. At least there hadn't been any bad rumors yet.
They pulled up into a parking space. The place looked deserted, as far as Tony could tell.
"I think they're closed," Pepper muttered. "I was really looking forward to picking out a Christmas tree. I used to do it every year."
Tony pulled her closer. "I'm sorry, sweetheart," he mumbled into her hair. Pepper glowed when he used the pet name – something only she would ever get to experience. She loved it.
Just when she was getting comfortable, he pulled away suddenly. "I have an idea. Head for home."
Pepper wasn't sure whether to be anxious, excited, or both, but drove away from the Christmas tree place nonetheless.
When they finally arrived home, Tony excitedly dragged Pepper down into the workshop, where upon entering he picked up a chainsaw. She then followed him outside to the location of a small palm tree.
Realization quickly dawned on her countenance. "Tony, are you seriously going to -"
Her words were cut off by the roar of the chainsaw, as Tony had already begun to saw away at the trunk of the tree. It fell to the ground with a soft thud.
Tony shut off the chainsaw and wiped his hands on his jeans. "There. Whaddya say we take this baby inside and decorate it?" He took note of the petulant glare Pepper was giving him and he barked a laugh. "Oh, come on, admit it. It's genius."
"I'm sure you're not the first one to think of this," she said, shaking her head but slowly smiling. "Alright, what have we got to lose?"
"I knew you'd warm up to the idea," Tony said victoriously.
They managed to drag the tree into the living room and place it in the Christmas tree stand Pepper had brought over from her place. Boxes of ornaments and lights were opened up and delved into soon after.
"How are we even supposed to hang ornaments?" Pepper inquired.
"Well, worse comes to worst, we tape them on," Tony answered, succeeding to hang an ornament on a palm leaf. She sighed, and picked up another ornament, this one homemade.
"Did you make this?" Pepper asked Tony, pointing to a craft made by a five-year-old Tony Stark. He nodded. "It's so cute. They all are! These have to hang on the tree."
"You're kidding, right? I could recreate that in about two minutes." He wrinkled his nose at the "creation" consisting of a plastic green cup with blotches of red paint all over, presumably to make it resemble a Christmas wreath.
"Nope." She continued digging through the boxes of ornaments that were a combination of Tony's family's and Pepper's.
"This one has teeth marks in it," Tony remarked, viewing a small gingerbread ornament from one of Pepper's boxes. "Did your dog chew it or something?"
To his surprise, Pepper blushed a deep red. "Uh, no...I bit that."
Tony fought back a snicker, but it let loose anyway. Pepper buried her face in her hands.
"Explain," Tony demanded, leaning back on the couch.
"Well...I was four, mind you. And you've got to admit, that looks real. I guess I...misinterpreted it...and I started to bite a piece off to eat, but my mother caught me just in time. The teeth marks have been there ever since," Pepper elaborated, still very much red in the face.
Tony chuckled. "You were so cute. And you still are." He moved over to Pepper and smoothed the hair out of her eyes.
"Well...thanks. You, too," she said, locking her arms around his neck and breathing him in. Their foreheads and noses touched lightly, and they both grinned.
After a while, Pepper tugged away, albeit reluctantly. "Let's finish the Christmas tree, then. If you can even call it that."
"Sure you can! It'll be the Stark annual Christmas tree – a palm tree!" Tony spread his arms as if to accentuate this fact.
"It's unique, I have to admit." Pepper laughed. "I actually love it. It fits, you know? It's something only we would do, I think."
Eventually they finished decorating their palm tree, and flicked off the lights. Tony had Jarvis put some Christmas music on and they cuddled together on the couch. Later that night they read Tony's mother's old copy of 'Twas the Night Before Christmas in the light of their tree.
"Just smile regularly, Tony," Pepper said exasperatedly. She and Tony were seated on the long, comfortable couch in the living room, staring at the security camera in the wall where Jarvis would take a picture of them for the holidays.
"But we've been sitting here for over fifteen minutes because you insist that we haven't found a good picture yet," Tony quipped back. "Which, may I point out, is a lie. You look beautiful in all of them."
Pepper blushed. "You're just saying that to get this done faster."
"Not true! I mean it when I say it. Jarvis, display the pictures again." An array of photos appeared on the coffee table, Tony flipping through them slowly with only a finger. At one point, Pepper gripped his arm and jabbed her finger on a photo.
"Tony, my eyes are closed there."
"So? You look peaceful," he challenged.
She rolled her eyes and smiled. "Please? Just a few more, I promise. My mother is really looking forward to this."
At the mention of Mrs. Potts Tony smoothed down his shirt and ran a hand through his hair briefly. "Alright. To just how many people is this going out again?"
"Not that many, don't worry." Pepper laughed, then clapped her hands once. "Okay, Jarvis, can you please get the camera ready again? I have dinner on the stove so -"
"Wait!" Pepper raised an eyebrow at Tony's sudden outburst. "Can we try a photo with the 'bots?" he asked.
Pepper's eyebrows shot up even more.
"I think it would be interesting," Tony said, and Pepper sighed.
"Okay -"
"Hey, Dummy! Get up here!" he called, not waiting for Pepper to finish.
The whirring of the machine came closer and closer until it halted in front of the couch. Tony grabbed an extra Santa hat from the bin Pepper had pulled out before and placed it on top of Dummy. He chirped in response.
"There." Tony put his arm around Pepper and pulled her closer, kissing her temple. "Ready?"
"Yes," Pepper replied, laughing...but her smile fell in an instant. "Hey, do you smell smoke?"
"Uh...yeah, yeah I do." Tony pondered where it would have come from, until Pepper gasped.
"The rice! Oh no, it's on fire..." she cried, and would have gotten up to go into the kitchen had Dummy not perked up at the word "fire". The familiar cloud of white foam erupted out of Dummy's spout, and covered almost everything in the kitchen and living room. Including Tony and Pepper.
Pepper shrieked, and Tony tried pushing some of the foam away with his hands and failing miserably.
"The camera has been ready to go, Miss Potts," Jarvis said, and snapped a picture, completely unperturbed by the recent events.
"DUMMY!" Tony roared, obviously ticked. Pepper began laughing, and soon, so did he.
"Okay," Pepper began while laughing, "it looks like we're going to have to try this again later."
Pepper peered at the instructions to the Spritz cookie maker that she used every year. "It says, 'Place the dough in the cylinder. Fasten the desired cutter onto the bottom of the cylinder, and place the pump on top. Push the lever down while the cylinder rests on the cookie sheet, and release. Repeat as necessary.' Did you get all of that?"
"Uh huh," Tony said, nodding. "Here, hand me the cutter."
Pepper rummaged through the assortment of cutters. "Is the Christmas tree one okay with you?"
"Of course, anything you want." They smiled for a second at each other. "I'll take that." Tony took the tree cutter Pepper was handing him and fastened it to the bottom of the cylinder, and then he took the pump and screwed it onto the top.
"All done." Tony was about to push down on the pump, but hesitated at the last second. "You wanna do the first one?"
She smiled, touched by something as simple as his offer. "No, that's fine, go right ahead." Then she added, "I'm looking forward to seeing the great Tony Stark bake some cookies."
He scowled just to humor her. "Oh, ha-ha. I'm sure they'll turn out great, you watch."
"I never said I doubted your abilities. I've just never seen you bake anything before. Heck, I've hardly seen you use any kitchen appliances besides the coffee maker," Pepper said, smirking playfully. "Now hurry up and get the cookies onto the tray."
Tony laughed, but pushed the lever anyway. "You can't rush these things, you know, Pep." He pulled the cylinder away from the tray and saw that the Christmas tree-shaped dough didn't completely make it onto the tray.
"It's not working, I guess. I wonder what's wrong...here, maybe you're not pushing hard enough," Pepper chastised. She took the cylinder in her own hands and pushed down on the lever. All the little dots that make up the Spritz cookie were separated. "Huh."
"Why don't we soften the dough?" Tony asked. "That way it'd be easier to get out of the cutter."
"You can't, though," Pepper replied. Suddenly, her Blackberry rang. "Hang on, I'll have to take this...Hello?" she began as she walked out of the room.
However, there was no such word as "can't" in Tony Stark's vocabulary.
He carried the bowl of dough over to the sink and doused it in water. After quickly kneading it with his hands, he dug through the cabinets until he found a blender. This'll make the process easier, he thought as he set up the blender.
Pepper thought she heard some noise in the other room, but she disregarded it and continued talking on the phone.
The top unconsciously left off, Tony pressed 'blend' after loading the dough into the blender.
Coincidentally, as soon as Pepper hung up the phone, a horrendous whirring noise was heard coming from the kitchen. She ran in, only to find what looked like...liquid dough scattered on the walls.
Pepper stood, mouth agape, at the entryway to the kitchen in disbelief. Tony smiled weakly.
"It would help if I could get some type of reaction from you," Tony told her.
It was about a minute before she found her voice. "What. Were. You. Thinking?" He was about to respond before she cut him off. "Lord only knows. You'll be spending the rest of the day cleaning this up."
"I'm sorry," sighed Tony.
Pepper stared blankly at him for a moment; then, she started laughing. "It's fine," she reassured him. "I guess I just don't know what would possess you to put cookie dough in a blender!" She laughed harder, despite the headache that was threatening to break through from all the mess he'd made.
"Well, I thought that since the dough was sticking to the cutter, if I wet the dough and placed it in the blender, it would come out of the cutter easier. ...You don't understand my reasoning, do you?"
Pepper grinned at him. "Nope, not really. I'll help you clean this up after I answer some more e-mails. It'll be a nice Christmas bonding project."
Tony kissed her full on the lips. "You're the best."
Tony awoke to a hand softly stroking along his jaw. He opened his eyes, casting his gaze towards the woman in bed next to him. They were in close enough proximity that their body heat brought extreme warmth to the entire bed. Skin against skin. He sighed contentedly against Pepper's mouth as she gave him a chaste kiss good morning.
"Merry Christmas," she said, beaming at him. He smiled, too, a completely genuine smile, unable to hide his joy at the fact that they were spending Christmas together, as a couple. As it should be.
"Merry Christmas to you too, Pep." He moved over her in order to kiss her at a more compromising angle. Pepper gave a little moan and tangled her hands in his thick, dark hair. This was how most mornings usually went, besides the ones where Pepper was already up and working the day away.
"Let's go downstairs," she announced eventually, sliding out of bed and tying her bathrobe around her. Tony put on some miscellaneous pajama bottoms and followed Pepper into the living room, where their presents lay under the tree.
The fire was still going from the night before as the duo entered, but seemed to be on its last legs. Tony had Jarvis get it up and running again before he sat down next to Pepper and took the mug of coffee she offered.
"Should I get your present?" asked Pepper anxiously. Tony made a noise of approval while drinking his coffee.
Pepper dug under the tiny palm tree for all her presents to Tony, and set them down beside him. Tony had already begun ripping open the first one by the time she sat back with her presents from him.
Tony brought out of the box a sign, personalized with his name and birth date, and Pepper explained to him that it was to be hung outside of the workshop.
"It's nothing big," she said, simpering, "but I just thought it might be nice, you know, as a kind of symbol or something. I hope you like it, I -"
Tony placed a finger on her lips to silence her rambling. "I love it. It's going up, definitely." At this, Pepper smiled. "Thank you, dear," he continued, smiling.
"You're welcome," Pepper replied. "There are more, you know."
Tony opened some shirts, a framed photo of one of his favorite pictures with Pepper, and some stuff that he would have a lot of fun tinkering with down in the shop.
He handed Pepper one of her gifts, shooting one of his famous charming smiles her way. She found herself a bit worried to open it because of this.
Pepper pulled out a skimpy piece of lingerie with angel wings attached to the back. She flushed heavily, and would have gladly smacked Tony had it not been Christmas Day.
"Just so we can...have some fun in the new year," he half-whispered, his eyes darkening ever so slightly. Pepper felt herself go weak, but she just laughed and cleared her throat.
"Oh, we will." This statement got Tony rather excited. "I've still got presents to open, you know."
"Right." Tony handed her the next gift. Pepper unwrapped the paper carefully, and out from the box she pulled the homemade book filled with photos.
Her smile grew wider each time she flipped the page, and when she was through reading, she placed the book on the coffee table, reached out and hugged Tony, tightly.
"This is one of the sweetest, most thoughtful gifts anyone has ever given to me," she whispered, holding him even tighter. Tony returned the gesture whole-heartedly. "Thank you so much."
"You're always welcome. I love you," he said softly, and kissed the top of her head gently.
"I love you, too." She smiled broadly into his shoulder.
They held each other there for a while, with Tony stroking Pepper's hair. Pepper eventually spread a blanket around them, and Christmas carols played softly in the background.
FIN
MERRY CHRISTMAS, HAPPY HANUKKAH, MERRY KWANZA, AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS! ...And a Happy New Year, too!
This was a long story, so sorry about that! I just wanted to include a bunch of scenes from Tony and Pepper's first Christmas as a couple – or at least, that was my goal. How did I do? I hope you enjoyed. It was honestly strictly fluff! But my next project is an angsty fic...so enjoy the fluff while it's here, my dears!
And I hope this story wasn't confusing at all. I didn't necessarily go in any order, so yes, I'm aware. :P
DISCLAIMER: Not mine. Except the story scenarios, those are mine... I love writing Pepperony :)
Please review!