Title: The Avengers Holiday Specials
Author: Sgt. Pepperony
Fandom: Avengers (MCU)
Pairings: Steve/Wanda, Tony/Pepper, Sam/Darcy, Pietro/Daisy, Clint/Laura
Rating: T
Disclaimer: I do not own the Avengers, characters. Property of Marvel and Disney.

A year in the life of the Avengers as they go through the holidays from Halloween to Christmas.

Firstly, a Halloween powercut leaves the group looking for things to do, while Pietro and Bucky are stuck babysitting.

The One with the Halloween Blackout

"Pietro, are you sure you and Bucky are cool taking Joey out for trick-or-treat?" Wanda asked as she coated her lips in a light pink lipstick. She turned to her twin to see him dressed as Frankenstein's monster holding his toddler nephew, who was dressed like a mini Igor.

"Look, you more than ever are going to need some time away from babies before you have no life," Pietro commented. Wanda gave a glare. "I'm just saying three babies are going to be a lot."

"No kidding." Wanda looked down at her slightly protruding stomach. She had come up with the genius costume of a moon and stars, with her stomach acting as the moon. It was at least more comfortable than any of the store maternity costumes she saw. "Anyway, you know his bedtime is seven thirty, so he has to go down then, or he will be awake the whole night."

"I know. I know. Just relax. We'll be back before Joey's evening bottle."

"Good. So what are your plans?"

"Sharknado 6." Wanda shook her head. "What would you recommend then?"

"I just can't believe they made six movies out of this."

"Well, it is so stupid that it works."

"Can't we watch that IT film that came out last year?" Bucky asked as he came out his room dressed as Doctor Frankenstein.

"No," Pietro snapped.

"He hates clowns," Wanda explained.

"I don't hate clowns."

"Ronald McDonald gives you the creeps."

"That's just common sense."

"Hey, we ready Wanda?" Steve asked walking down the stairs dressed in a suit.

"Who are you meant to be?" Bucky asked. Steve grabbed some fake vampire teeth. "Really?"

"I have not had time. I just got back from London."

"You could have at least added some fake blood around your mouth," Pietro added.

"Oh, here." Wanda grabbed a tub of fake blood and dabbed a little around Steve's mouth. "There better."

"Thanks, doll. You ready to go?"

"Yes. Okay, boys behave. No clown movies."

"I have no protests," Pietro commented.

-o-

"Peeled grapes?" Tony asked as he looked at the punch that Pepper had just put in front of him.

"Meant to be a good sub for eyeballs," Pepper explained. "I also had to put black food colouring into chocolate pudding to make it look like earth for those zombie pudding pots."

"Is there anything that sounds appealing?"

"Halloween coloured peanut M&Ms?"

"That'll do." Tony then stole the bowl of green, orange and brown peanut candies and moved away from the snack table.

Pepper snorted, and she put the alcohol-free jello-shots down. She looked up and saw Natasha only wearing cat ears. "I take it that you just found whatever was laying around."

"Pepper, I have only had four hours of sleep. I would have had more if Wilson did not sound like a fog horn on the plane back from London."

"Don't you usually play Russian ballet music?"

"I left my phone in the hotel. They are sending it over."

"Why don't you get some sleep before the party."

"I've functioned on seventy-two hours without sleep before. Have to when you are a trained assassin. So is the sexy nurse for everyone's benefit?"

Pepper looked down at her costume and shrugged. "It was either this or trying to dress like you."

"Yeah. Only I can pull off those industry standard fake leather costumes that pinch in all the wrong areas."

"Punch?"

"Yes please." After a taste, Natasha asked, "No vodka?"

"Given that half of us are not drinking, it seemed pointless doing two batches."

"Ooh sugar," someone commented behind Natasha. Before Natasha could comment, Wanda was stuffing her face with chocolate pudding. "I take it that the healthy pregnancy thing is off."

"It was never on," Wanda replied, though slightly muffled since she had a mouth full of pudding. "I can't help it. Yoghurt covered pretzels, chocolate, ice cream, salted caramel popcorn. I have to have something sweet."

"I swear we had a whole tub of cookie dough ice cream yesterday," Steve commented behind Wanda.

"To be fair, Joey helped. I thought you were putting out Halloween peanut M&Ms."

"Tony has them," Pepper replied. Wanda went to find Tony at once. "Hi, by the way."

Pepper was then interrupted when Sam came walking up dressed as The Mad Hatter. Beside him was Darcy dressed as Alice. Sam did not seem too impressed.

"Nice hat," Steve commented.

"He at least put in some effort," Darcy retorted.

"He had no choice by the looks of it," Natasha murmured into her punch. "What are you supposed to be anyway Rogers?" Steve pulled out the fake teeth. "Ah."

"When is everyone getting here?" Darcy asked.

"Soon. Banner is in the lift."

"Well, there is no alcohol in the punch so at least we won't get sued," Natasha commented.

"Cheers to that," Steve added as he sipped the punch, only to nearly choke on a peeled grape.

-o-

"Right, the ankle-biter is asleep. Ready for the film?" Pietro asked Bucky as they convened in the living room, Bucky holding a bowl of popcorn.

"When you are." Both sat down on the couch, Pietro put the television on, only it was not quite Sharknado 6. "What?"

"IT? Really?"

"What is it with you and clowns?"

"It's nothing. Clowns are just creepy."

"Creepy is one thing. You seem to have a pathological fear of clowns."

"Look at that thing!" Pietro exclaimed as he pointed at Pennywise the Dancing Clown. "Would you not find clowns unsettling after seeing this?"

"It's a movie. This is exactly what happened when I took Steve to see Dracula when we were thirteen. He at least got over it." Just as it got a particularly frightening, the TV and the lights went out, and then a cry could be heard from upstairs. "God I hope that is just a fuse."

-o-

"Not a fuse," Tony explained as he got back from the fuse box. "The whole city seems to be out."

"I know, Pietro just called asking about the fuse box," Steve answered. "Bit spooky."

"That a blackout happens on Halloween? That's just a coincidence."

"What do we do now?"

"Entertain ourselves. It used to be more fun when I drank. Why do I feel like we have forgotten something?"

Steve thought about it and raised his eyebrows sharply. "Natasha said that Banner was in the lift." Immediately, the two ran towards the lifts to see what number floor Bruce could be on.

"I need to get into shape," Tony commented as he held his stomach.

"Is there a way to trick the elevator into working?"

"No. We have to pull the doors open."

"What's going on?" Pepper asked.

"Banner's stuck in the elevator," Tony answered. "And we have no idea how to get it working again."

"He's also on the ninety-second floor," Steve added.

"That's not so bad."

"Says the guy who said he needed to get back into shape."

"How we going to do this? Open this door and pull it up."

"Or you could just go down to the ninety-second floor, pull the doors open and let Bruce out," Pepper chastised.

Tony grumbled something about Pepper sucking the fun out of it before she glared at him. It took fifteen minutes, but the two emerged with Bruce, who seemed confused more than anything. Wanda was about to comment about how pale Bruce looked before she realised it was makeup.

"Thought I could try to pull off the Adams Family look," he explained. "Looks like the whole of Manhattan is out."

"And Brooklyn," Wanda added. "Pietro and Bucky are stuck without power. Which means Joey's Elmo nightlight has gone out."

"That's a bad thing?" Bruce asked.

"He's going through a bit of a phase."

"What does a one-year-old have to be scared of?" Sam questioned.

"Well, in his own words: 'Munts'. I think it is meant to be monsters. I blame Pietro for leaving Monster Squad on when Joey was in the room."

"And yet he can't sit through IT?" Natasha asked.

"When we were kids, there was a funfair that came to Novi Grad, and there was a House of Mirrors. Pietro got trapped in there with a clown. He has had a pathological fear of clowns since."

"Is that why he can't watch The Dark Knight?" Sam queried.

"You have to admit that The Joker was unsettling," Pepper pointed out. Sam nodded in a way that told Pepper she had a point. "So what now?"

"We can't do much until the power comes back on," Tony replied. "No way anyone can leave if the streetlights have gone."

"Right, let's go find some candles," Darcy instructed. "You know this is sort of perfect."

"Yeah, nothing like a party with no power."

-o-

"I told you it was a bad idea to sit him in front of that movie," Bucky commented as he handed Pietro a rusk.

"I thought he was napping," Pietro responded as he gave his nephew the rusk.

"There has to be something that we can substitute for a nightlight."

"No. It does not sing 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star'. He may be one, but he is not stupid."

"So what now? We can't exactly stick the television on for him."

"I admire how your solution is to stick him in front of the screen. Though my mother always said that Baywatch soothed me." Bucky looked blank. "I'll get Sam to explain it to you."

"I just think that television really benefitted you."

"Are you trying to insult me?"

"I was not the one who scarred Joey for life."

"He's one. He'll forget about it in a week."

"You're a walking example –"

"I was seven!"

"Teven," Joey repeated.

"See, even Joey understands." All of a sudden, there was knock at the door. "What was that?"

"Where does Steve keep the baseball bat?"

"By the stairs." The two crept towards the door, Bucky holding the bat while Pietro had a protective hold over Joey. "On the count of three: one, two, three." Bucky swung the door open, only for Pietro to exclaim, "Daisy?"

"I did not realise I knocked so hard," she commented as Bucky lowered the bat. "Lights out here too?"

"Across Brooklyn and Manhattan," Bucky answered. "Steve and Wanda are at a party in the tower."

"Queens is out too," Daisy added. "Sounds like someone has drilled through the electrical mains."

"You drove all the way from Queens?" Pietro asked.

"I was heading for a Halloween party with Fitz and Simmons when my power went out."

"Again, you drove from Queens?"

"It's only fifteen minutes. Luckily, most people have more common sense than I do."

"So what now? It's not like we can put the television on," Bucky commented.

"Sing. Charades. Retell the story of Star Wars, but with all of our friends as characters."

"Can I be Luke then?" Pietro asked.

-o-

"You know, there are some benefits of a blackout," Steve commented as he handed a plate of food to Wanda. "No one can see you grab the good stuff."

Wanda smiled as she took a bite of the brownie, "What happened to the shoving healthy crap down my throat?"

"It's a holiday. You feeling okay?"

"Me? Not too bad. Twins are not being too rambunctious."

"You can feel them?"

"A little. It's not kicks, but I get the odd butterflies like I had with Joey."

"You'd think with it being twins, you would feel them moving around like fish all the time." Wanda chuckled a little. "Maybe next year we should skip the Halloween party and watch movies."

"Deal, because I will more than likely be too exhausted to do anything else. Babies will be teething by this time next year, and if Joey was bad enough, imagine two of him."

"Maybe they will be blonde and with blue eyes."

"Blonde hair is a recessive gene Steve, and all babies have blue eyes. Pietro's used to be so blue that people wondered if we were actually related. I always had green. Green is also a dominant gene, so essentially, my genes trump yours."

"I knew I should not have let you take a GED."

"You find me sexy when I say smart things though," Wanda smirked and leaned in for a kiss. Steve met her halfway. "That said, we still have the anomaly test next week. As if the potential twin-to-twin transfusion wasn't scary enough."

"They'll be fine. With our abilities, I don't think there are any medical issues."

"You can't know that for certain."

"And even if they do, would you love them any less?"

"No."

"Exactly, so relax. Can't get your blood pressure spiking."

"Well, last week it was normal. The doctors have my notes, so they know what to look out for. I can't deal with two more weeks of bed rest. Is there still some of those spider cookies?"

-o-

"Don't tell Wanda, but I have a secret stash of ice cream," Pietro commented as he went into the back of the frozen vegetable drawer and pulled out a tub of salted caramel cookie ice cream. "Her insane sugar cravings have made it impossible to get a share of ice cream."

"Hey, she's carrying twins. She's allowed to be a sugar monster," Daisy retorted.

"There is a line though."

"She devoured a load of waffles when we were watching Cabin in the Woods the other night," Bucky added. "Granted Steve has tried to push her on the healthy side."

"She does not need to be a diabetic risk as well as a pre-eclampsia risk."

"I suppose you guys have a point," Daisy nodded as she took a bite of ice cream. "She's lucky to have the three of you look out for her."

"We all look out for each other. Have done since we were kids."

-o-

With nothing else to do but wait until the power came back on, the only activity that anyone in the tower could come up with was spooky stories. 'Never Have I Ever' only really worked with alcohol according to Natasha, at which Pepper, Darcy and Wanda agreed. Sam told his story first since he had the more overactive imagination. "But when she produced a knife from her tattered garments—the knife with a silver blade that they had last seen in the hands of Mad Henry— the gleam of satisfaction in Rachel's eyes told them that the streaks of blood that coated the knife were those of Mad Henry. That night, Rachel died in her sleep with a peaceful smile upon her ravaged face." Sam looked around at everyone's face, which rather than terror, looked more confused. "Really?"*

"It was the last sentence," Bruce explained. "If You left it at 'coated the knife were those of Mad Henry' then we'd get it."

"You guys take things way too seriously for people who have seen some weird shit."

"I think the weird shit has desensitised us to anything spooky," Tony commented.

"Game over then," Darcy muttered. "You know we could play hide and seek."

"What are we five?"

"Actually, it is not a bad idea," Pepper interrupted. "It passes the time at least and the dark makes it more interesting."

"And there are loads of places to hide," Wanda added.

"Fine, I'll go first to count. One hundred elephants," Natasha volunteered. "And don't you all go and hide on the ground floor."

"You kidding? Walking down all those stairs will probably send me into premature labour."

Natasha covered her eyes and began counting, "One elephant. Two elephants. Three elephants."

The rest of the group scampered to get up and find a hiding spot. Wanda found a spot behind the bar while Steve shut himself in the closet. Bruce crawled under one of the sofas, realising that it probably was not the most comfortable place to hide. Darcy elected for the door leading to the stairs, whereas Sam took the risk of hiding in the toilet. Tony and Pepper made the smart decision to go onto the floor below and hide on Clint's floor, Tony hiding in a laundry basket (thankfully free of any dirty clothes) while Pepper took the en-suite bathroom.

After a minute and a half, Natasha was down to her last three elephants, "Ninety-seven elephants. Ninety-eight elephants. Ninety-nine elephants. One hundred elephants. Ready or not, here I come." She walked around the coffee table before shouting: "Wanda, you're behind the bar. Rogers, come out of the closet. Banner, I can feel you breathing on my leg. Sam, out of the bathroom and Darcy, that door was wide open a minute ago." Sam and Darcy grumbled as they walked back towards the couch. Steve helped Wanda up from behind the bar before helping Bruce from under the couch. "I never thought I would say this, but Stark and Pepper can at least be quiet."

"Clint's laundry basket and his en-suite bathroom," Wanda told her bitterly. Natasha came back five minutes later with the Starks muttering something about mind-reading abilities. "Twenty questions anyone?"

"You'll only read our minds," Pepper responded.

"I did not read your minds. You two are just a little predictable."

Wanda's point was proven later when she guessed it was Genie from Aladdin on the sticky note. It was then Bruce's turn.

"Am I a man?" he asked.

"Yes," Sam answered.

"Am I the Jolly Green Giant?"

"No," Tony responded, sounding quite offended.

"Am I Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde?"

"Yes." Bruce rolled his eyes as he took the post-it off his forehead. "Cap, your turn."

"Am I the Yeti?"

"Right, Tony, you are not allowed to give people characters anymore," Natasha instructed. She took hers off her head and looked at the note. "Anastasia really?"

"She had a good Disney movie."

"For the last time Tony, Anastasia was not a Disney movie. It was a Don Bluth film," Pepper told him firmly.

"Let me guess, Jessica Rabbit?" Darcy asked taking her note off, which confirmed her suspicion

"At least you did not get Flight of the Concordes," Sam responded. All of a sudden, the lights flashed on, startling the group. "At last, light."

-o-

"Wanda usually has a trick to get him to sleep. Unfortunately, I have not got that trick," Pietro commented as he tried to bounce Joey back to sleep for the fifth time that night.

"Magic?" Daisy asked.

"No. Pacifier. She's trying to wean him off them. He's nearly two after all."

"How does he feel about the new babies?"

"No sure. He's interested in Wanda's stomach, though he's not quite sure why it's getting bigger."

"That sounds so cute."

"It does look a little cute I guess."

"Do you ever want kids?"

"One day I guess. I haven't really had much chance to get out and meet women since I started walking again. I guess I just get worried that a woman would freak out when she sees the legs." Pietro lifted up the hem of his jeans, exposing the Stark Industries robotic exoskeleton that helped him walk. "They have suggested surgery to replace all the bones including my pelvis with this sort of technology, but it's far too risky."

"I think if you can survive having bullets shot through most of your major organs then you could survive that."

"Maybe, but I used to have nightmares about having my whole body being torn open and everything being ripped out."

"What sort of cheese were you eating?"

"No cheese. I just have bizarre dreams. We had a tortoise when we were kids, and I once had a dream that his shell smashed open and he turned into a snake. He died not long after."

"Have you ever considered therapy?" Pietro chuckled until he noticed the drool on his shoulder. Joey had finally fallen asleep. "There we go. You have the magic touch."

"I think he's just exhausted himself out." Pietro put Joey in the toddler bed. "All we have to do is wait for the lights to come back on."

"No, I think you got him to sleep."

"Well, thanks for having some faith in my abilities. I can run faster than the speed of light and get toddlers to fall asleep."

"There you go. An extra role for you in the Avengers. I'll tell Coulson tomorrow."

Pietro chuckled. Daisy gave a faint smile in response. There was an air of silence for a moment before Pietro took the plunge. Only before he could kiss her, the lights came back on, startling Joey awake. Pietro grumbled as he proceeded to use his second most significant power.

Half an hour later, Wanda and Steve arrived home just as Pietro came down. He complained, "I can't believe it has taken me the best part of three and a half hours to put him back to sleep. Next time, leave the pacifier."

"I did not know that the power would cut," Wanda replied. "Did you at least keep yourselves entertained?"

"Daisy came over," Bucky answered with a smirk on his face. Pietro gave him a look that questioned why he was smirking.

"She drove over from Queens?" Steve asked. "In the dark?"

"Adrenaline junkie?"

"Anyway, I am going to bed," Wanda announced as she began to climb the stairs.

"So, anything interesting happened tonight?"

"Nothing that Pietro can't tell you," Bucky answered.

Steve looked very confused before shaking his head. "I'm heading up as well. Night guys."

"Night," they both responded simultaneously.

Pietro looked back at Bucky and asked, "How much did you see?"

"I saw you leaning in. Romantic. In a blackout and in a toddler's bedroom."

"Shut up," Pietro muttered.

"Well, I'm finishing It. Joining in?" Pietro threw a pillow at Bucky. "Hey."

Sam's story copyright of Spooky Massachusetts: Tales Of Hauntings, Strange Happenings, And Other Local Lore.

Next time: Pepper wants everyone out of the way while she and Laura cook Thanksgiving dinner, so Wanda comes up with a scavenger hunt for everyone to do for a couple hours.