HO HO HO, EVERYBODY!
So I bet you guys are really pissed at me for abandoning two projects and then starting off a new one (I'm looking at you, HopeIsTheWorld).
I'm sorry guys, I guess once I start a full-length story, I will never finish. I guess I'm more of the one-shot sorta author.
Anyhoo, anyhow, I'm gonna explain what this whole thing is with more details (the one at the description thingy is just a short summary). So everyday until December 30, I'm gonna post one Avengers Christmas-themed one-shot per day cause' why not.
Although, I'm pretty sure at least one author has already done something like this. If so, I'm sorry, I guess.
Anyway, this is a Pepperony centered chapter. Why Pepperony for the first chapter? I dunno, I guess it's cause' of the fact that I was eating pizza with pepperoni on top (my favorite topping) when I was thinking of a chapter... And no, I'm not saying I like pepperoni (the topping) because I ship Pepperony (the, uh, ship). I just naturally like it.
Okay, enough babbling. ENJOY ZIS AMAZING (lol as if) STORY!
[DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN MARVEL. I'M NOT THAT RICH OKAY?! I'M BROKE, GEEZ!]
Pepper woke up earlier than usual. And happier, too. Today was a day different from others. It may have sounded cliché, but it was true. Today marked the day Tony and her would celebrate Christmas alone together. They both went back to the Malibu house from the Avengers Tower three days ago to have a peaceful celebration.
Although she wasn't too surprised to find out Tony wasn't on bed anymore (he rarely slept), she became a bit worried when she arrived at his workshop, where she suspected he'd be. She checked the living room, the main entrance, the guest rooms, and finally, the kitchen.
There, she found, on the fridge, a sticky-note she never saw placed there before. She got it off and read it:
"Gone on a mission w/ the Avengers. Be back before Christmas ends.
-Tony"
Meanwhile, on a small street in Paris, a loud commotion was happening at a building no one usually notices, or even cares about. Although one would point out that it was out-of-place, since it was snowing faintly at that area.
Inside said building, a huge fight was happening, unfitting with the holiday—Christmas—that was supposed to be celebrated. The famous Avengers and a bunch of French Hydra agents were the participants of the ongoing battle.
The Black Widow, a.k.a. Natasha Romanoff, was in the main hallway, just finishing off the last two Hydra men she was supposed to knock-out with a simple roundhouse kick and two left hooks and two right hooks respectively. The two men went unconscious, fainting along the pile of Hydra men the Widow had KO-ed earlier.
"Merry Christmas, fellas." She greeted with a smirk, victory written all over her face.
Tony Stark, in his Iron Man suit, flew into the scene, blasting three more Hydra men towards the pile of unconscious men. "Wait, Nat knows what Christmas is? Mind. Blown." Tony commented, landing onto the ground as his faceplate opened, revealing a fake surprised face.
The spy rolled her eyes, a hand on her hip. "Ha, ha, ha." She laughed sarcastically.
"Yo, Cap, how's it doing there, at the lab? Find any secret passageways?" Tony asked via comms. The Captain was at the lab, searching for secret entrances, the Hulk tagging along.
"You'd love it here." Steve Roger's voice rang through the comms after a while. "Well, if the blood steins were cleaned up."
The Hulk suddenly roared. And glass shattered from the background, mixed with the pained groans of defeated men. "Oops, he did it again..." Steve added.
"Did you just make a Britney Spears reference?" Natasha asked, half-amused.
"Isn't that what people do these days? Reference pop culture?" Steve asked in reply.
Tony blinked. "Okay. Let me get this straight, Natalie knows what Christmas is, despite not being religious and stuff, and Capsicle knows who the hell Britney Spears is, despite having the knowledge of a dinosaur when it comes to current pop culture. What's next? We find out Thor apparently knows what Football is, despite being a freaking god from another realm?!"
Natasha gave the billionaire a cold stare and Steve muttered something inaudible (whatever he muttered, Tony didn't want to hear it either way).
"Man of Iron," Thor's voice suddenly boomed through the comms, startling Tony, "I actually am aware of the Midgardian ritual known as "Football". In fact, Lady Darcy, Lady Jane, and I pla-"
"*sigh*, of course he does," Tony muttered.
"Enough of the Stark talk." Natasha interrupted impatiently. "Thor, Clint, status?"
"Nothing much. Just knocked down three noobs over here who cant hold a gun properly." Clint Barton reported through the comms. He and Thor were assigned to attack the men at the Weapon Room.
"Ah, yes. They do not stand a chance against the Hawkeye and the mighty Thor!" The God of Thunder added/exclaimed.
Clint made a wheezing sound that sounded like he was being squished.
"Uh, Clint? You okay?" Natasha asked.
"Oof, I'm fine. Thor just squished me with his beefy arms in an attempt to man hug me." The archer replied.
"I am truly sorry, Hawkeye. I did not mean to have hurt you. I was just ecstatic to have defeated the men of Hydra with you." Thor apologized throughly.
"It's fine, big guy. We're cool."
"Hey, guys. I think the Hulk just found a secret passageway." Steve informed through the comms.
"Good " Tony said, flying in his suit. Natasha followed afterwards.
"Need a lift, Natalie? It's a loooong way to the lab from here, FYI." Tony asked, who was way ahead of the spy.
"I could manage. Besides, I need to keep the record of being the 'more fit one' between the both of us." Natasha replied, slowly catching up.
"Whatever," Tony muttered, zooming off even faster. They soon reunited with everyone else at the lab.
"So where's the secret entrance?" Clint asked.
Steve pointed at a large, dark hole at the near-corner part of the wall to his left. Beside it stood, not the Hulk, but his alter-ego, Dr. Bruce Banner, who was wearing a shirt he didn't own (probably borrowed from the lab). He smiled awkwardly.
Tony, although he won't admit it out loud, has developed a fear of holes ever since getting sucked into a hole himself during the Battle of New York. To make matters worse, everyone was facing him, as if telling him to go first. He raised his hands in protest. "Um... Ladies first?" He looked at Natasha, who gave a massive eye roll.
"Chicken," she muttered, entering the entrance. Steve followed suit. And then came Clint, Thor, and Bruce. Only Tony was left.
"Yo, Tony, come on. Don't be the Grinch and ruin Christmas for us. We have some people to celebrate Christmas with, too, y'know?" Clint said.
"Actually, Clint, we don't have any people to celebrate Christmas with..." Natasha stated.
"Tony does," Steve reminded.
Pepper... Oh, shoot. She'd kill him once she finds out he's on a mission and not at their house in Malibu during Christmas, which probably happened hours ago.
"Fiiiiiine," Tony sighed, entering the passageway. His Arc Reactor immediately lit up, providing some light.
They looked around, hoping to find something important. But suspiciously, there wasn't. All they saw were stone walls and a dark trail in front of them. They eventually came to a dead end.
"Wait, that's it?! No hidden treasure or stolen stuff or something?!" Tony exclaimed, unsatisfied.
"Oh, come on!" Clint groaned, slamming his left fist on the wall at side. His fist cracked (as expected) as it met the cold, hard wall. "Ye-ouch!" He exclaimed, shaking his left hand as the right hand wrapped itself around the wrist of the other.
Suddenly, the stone Clint hit moved backwards. And the whole area started shaking.
"Uh, what the hell?!" Natasha exclaimed, confused.
"Oh no! It is the quake of the earth! Lady Darcy has informed me to "stop, drop, and roll" in situations like this! Let us do it together, friends!" Thor boomed, already on the floor.
"Actually, Thor. That's what you're suppose to do when your shirt is on fire..." Bruce corrected.
Thor stopped rolling. He got up, dusting of the dirt that got caught on his armor. "Oh,"
Suddenly, the wall that caused their dead end slid to the side, revealing a spiraling staircase that would lead them downwards.
"A secret staircase within a secret passageway? Hydra, I don't know what to say..." Steve commented, bewildered.
"S.H.I.E.L.D. should totes have one of these, just saying," Tony said, going down the staircase first.
The rest followed him on the flight of stairs. After being only a quarter away to the bottom, Tony suddenly came to a stop. The others were worried.
"Tony? What do you see?" Steve asked, peeking through Tony's shoulder.
Tony looked at Steve with a huge grin. "What if I made some secret passageways with secret staircases at the Avengers tower instead?!" Tony thought out-loud.
Everyone else looked at him like he needed to be taken to the mental hospital. Except Natasha, who face-palmed.
"You got us freakin worried, Stark! And all because you got a "mind blowing" idea!" Clint exclaimed, making air quotation marks during the third-and-second-to-the-last words.
The billionaire smiled sheepishly. "Sorry,"
And then they moved on towards the last few steps. Upon arriving at the bottom, the team saw three more entrances. So they split into three groups again. But this time, Steve went with Natasha to the left side, Thor went with Bruce to the right, and Clint went with Tony to the one in front.
Tony and Clint walked in silence. It's been minutes, and surprisingly, they haven't come into a dead end. And if silence could make one sick, that's how Tony would describe his current status. He was bored to the bone. And the silence was killing him.
"Soooo, Clint, my man, what do you have to say about my awesome idea of passageways?" Tony asked, breaking the silence.
Clint shrugged. "Don't the air vents count as secret passageways?"
"Meh, air vents are boring. These stuff," Tony gestured towards everywhere, "is legit cool." Tony's fear of entering the hole slowly disappeared. This was pretty cool, coming to think of it.
Clint rolled his eyes. That's when Clint, this time, came to a stop.
"What? Came to a realization that Clint was wrong and Tony is right?" Tony joked.
"No! I see something shiny." Clint sneered. Tony peeked through Clint's shoulder, and, indeed, saw something shining. It had pinkish glow to it.
"So, the point here is..." Tony trailed off.
"The point is that this "thing" might be a threat." Clint said, preparing his bow and getting an arrow from his quiver.
Tony nodded, as his faceplate went down, hiding Tony's face. He charged up his repulser beams.
They moved slowly, carefully, so that they won't attract the attention of the so-called threat. They hid behind a wall. Clint sneaked a peak, hoping that he could make out the shape of the threat.
"What do you see, Agent Katniss?" Tony asked.
"I see..." Clint paused. "A... treasure chest." Clint informed with a sigh of relief.
"Thank God. Now, let's check it out."
The two heroes walked towards the chest. They kneeled down so that they could see the stuff with ease. Inside the chest were dozens of golden coins.
"Man, I feel like Captain Jack Sparrow," Clint exclaimed, despite having not seen any Pirates of the Caribbean movies (he only knew it was about pirates).
But one item stood out among all the coins. A necklace studded with an unfamiliar pink gem.
"J.A.R.V.I.S., scan." Tony said.
After a while, results popped up in front of Tony's face (literally).
"This is a Rose Quartz necklace made by one of the former Hydra agents. That is all the information I could get, sir." The A.I. informed.
"Thanks, J."
Tony picked up the necklace. It was, indeed, beautiful. Something Pepper would appreciate, perhaps. That's when yet another idea popped into Tony's head.
"Wait, J.A.R.V.I.S., tell me more about this "former Hydra agent"..."
"I can't believe you dragged us into this, Stark." Natasha said, clearly tired.
The team of six were already back at the Quinjet, ready to go back home. Since everyone was exhausted, the Jet was on auto-pilot mode.
"Hey, it was for Pepper." Tony defended, struggling to wrap the item on his lap with spare paper he found on the Quinjet.
They had went to the workshop of the former Hydra agent, who was now a reformed jeweler, that made the Rose Quartz necklace. At first, the jeweler didn't want to give the necklace away, since it had been originally intended as a gift for his daughter's wedding. But when Tony offered him a lot of money and bag of emeralds (yup, he had a bag of spare emeralds. Just in case), the deal was sealed.
"All I wanna do now is sleep." Clint said, stretching his arms and legs. Soon enough, he fell asleep.
"You said it, Clint. *yawn*." Bruce yawned, although he didn't immediately fall asleep like Clint. He just sat there, beside Clint, reading a book to get himself to sleep.
"So are we still gonna celebrate Christmas in some way, guys?" Steve asked. Since Tony wasn't gonna celebrate Christmas with the rest, they decided that they'll just have a small celebration. Nothing too grand. Although they haven't decided on how to celebrate it.
"Maybe we'll just have a huge feast with whatever we have in the fridge." Natasha suggested, resting her head on the shoulder of Steve, who was beside her, sleepily. Steve didn't flinch and let her be.
"Awwww, Natalie's getting real cozy with Capsicle. How sweet!" Tony gushed. Normally, his deadly assassin friend would be caught dead showing any signs of closeness. But it seemed that she was pretty worn out. So he couldn't really blame her.
Natasha managed to glare at him as her eyes drooped. "Shut up, Stark." She mumbled before drifting off.
"Sir, we are about to land at your house in Malibu." J.A.R.V.I.S. informed.
Tony looked at the gift he managed to wrap. It was terrible. But he didn't care. Tony stood up, excited.
The Quinjet landed a few feet away from the house. The door of Quinjet opened. Before exiting, Tony gave a quick glance at his teammates. "Um, thanks guys for accompanying me, I guess. You all have gifts from me by the Christmas tree at the main room in the tower. So, um, yeah. Merry Christmas!" He greeted before exiting.
Everyone who was still awake greeted him back, and then the door closed. And the Quinjet took off again.
Tony fixed his hair, and went into the house. He dropped off his Iron Man suit at the living room. He was only wearing a t-shirt and jeans. Casual, but appropriate.
"Pepper! I'm home!" Tony shouted.
No reply. He went to the bedroom to check if she was there. His guess was correct. She was on the bed, still in her pajamas, staring at the TV, which was the only source of light. There was an empty bowl lying on the floor. Probably filled with popcorn earlier.
"Um, Pepper..." Tony slowly said.
Pepper stared at him for about five seconds. And then she ran towards him giving him a tight hug.
"You're back!" She mumbled against his chest.
"No, I'm Tony." Tony teased light-heartedly, hugging her back.
That's when she let go of him, looked up at him, paused, and slapped him.
"Ouch! What gives, Pep?!" Tony rubbed his cheek.
"Do you have any idea how worried I was?! How-how disappointed I was to find out you were gonna spend majority of your Christmas on some mission?!" Pepper exclaimed. Now Tony could see that Pepper had been crying, since her eyes were red.
"I'm sorry, Pep. I really am. On the bright side, I got you a gift..." Tony tried to reason.
Pepper didn't reply. She looked away. "I just want to celebrate Christmas with the love of my life. Is that too much to ask for?" She whispered.
Tony was guilty. She spent the whole day without him, the closest person to her. And it was Christmas, for goodness sake!
"How about we forget the fact that I was gone for hours and just open our gifts, eh?" Tony tried to suggest.
Pepper looked at him this time. He wiped the tears on Pepper's face with his thumb. "Okay," she said in a voice lower than a whisper. She gave him a small smile. Maybe she wasn't that mad at him anymore.
Pepper went out of the room, probably to get Tony's gift. She came back with a neatly-wrapped gift. They both plopped onto the bed. They both exchanged gifts.
"Okay, on the count of three, we open our gifts." Tony instructed. Pepper nodded.
"Three... Two... One!" They both opened their gift excitedly.
They both gasped in unison at what they received.
"A limited edition toy Purple Lambourghini?!" Tony exclaimed. And at the same time, Pepper exclaimed "A Rose Quartz necklace?!" They looked at each other for a moment. Then they laughed.
"You really do know me the most, Pepper!" Tony exclaimed, hugging the box with the toy car still inside.
"Not as much as you know me!" Pepper argued lightly, staring at the necklace.
They soon put their stuff aside and gave each other another hug, muttering a "thanks" to each other.
"Help me put it on, please?" Pepper asked, giving the necklace to Tony. He nodded as he wrapped it around Pepper's neck and locked it.
"Now let's give this baby a test drive!" Tony roared, standing on the bed. Pepper chuckled.
"Tony! It's gonna hit the desk of important papers!" Pepper cried as her boyfriend controlled the toy car with the controller crazily. But it was too late. Fortunately, it had no effect to either thing.
Pepper made a sigh of relief, then she laughed. Tony smiled. Whatever made her happy made him happy. He sneaked a peck on her cheek, causing her to smirk. She leaned onto his shoulder as he played with the car all night long.
He had no idea what he'd do without her.
And that brings us to the end of this chapter (It's sucky. I know).
Now you're probably wondering "Why a Rose Quartz necklace? Rose Quartz are cheapy cheapy!" Yes, I'm aware that Rose Quartz are cheap compared to other gems. And yes, I'm also aware that Tony is a frickin' billionaire (playboy, philanthropist (I'm sorry I had to)).
But I'm a big—no, HUGE—fan of Steven Universe, too. And as you SU fans know, Rose is a loving character in that show. So I thought "hey. How about Tony gives a gem-studded necklace to Pepper with a gem that symbolizes love?" So BAM that's how it became a Rose Quartz necklace.
Also, be a generous person this Christmas season and gimme a Review, please? Or maybe a Favorite or Follow while we're at it? If you do any of these, THANK YOU!
So yeah. That's it, I guess.
Ruby out. PEACE.
