Thank you for all the great feedback, and here is Chapter 2 , enjoy
"Do we begin our exchanging of the gifts now?" Thor was practically bouncing in his seat with excitement.
"Chill out Asterisk," Tony grinned, pausing a moment to savour the looks of despair on the faces of everyone who understood the pun, and confusion on those who didn't, before reaching down beside the arm of the sofa he was sat on and placing Thor's winged helmet on his lap; before sipping his drink, "it's all under control".
The others looked at him confused, particularly Thor,
"At what point Iron friend did you acquire my helmet?"
"You meant to tell me you didn't leave it here at a memento of our time together?" Tony cooed, causing even more confusion for the demi-god.
"Stark, is there a point to this?" Clint asked, raising one eyebrow quizzically.
Tony rolled in eyes in a mocking action,
"No Barton, I just thought that this would be a wonderful time for 'show and tell'. Look, just follow my lead," Tony reached into the helmet and plucked out a folded piece of paper. He placed the small square of paper onto his lap, and passed the helmet to Bruce, who was sat next to him.
Bruce scanned the group quickly, before raising an eyebrow at Tony, who only smiled in response. Shrugging his shoulders slightly, the doctor reached into the helmet apprehensively and similarly grabbed one piece of paper, before passing the helmet to the next member of the team.
Clint was next, still confused as to what the pieces of paper were for, but never the less he continued the pattern of selecting a piece of paper and handed the helmet over to Natasha.
"No!"
Natasha froze in mid-air, her hand poised just ready to dive into the helmet, and stared at Tony, waiting for an explanation. He shook his head at her,
"No, sorry I didn't mean you, I was yelling at Bird-Brain here not to open his slip of paper until everyone else has one," he jerked his thumb in Clint's direction, who stuck his tongue out in response. Directing a small glare at Tony, Natasha continued with her selection of the paper, before offering the helmet to Steve. After Thor had selected the last piece of paper from the helmet, everybody opened up their choice, but they only looked more puzzled, except for Tony of course. The gang turned to stare at him expectantly,
"What?" He feigned surprise with a grin, clearly milking the confusion of everyone else at his game.
"You mind telling us what the point of all this is Stark?" Natasha sighed, "You better not be rearranging the 'Secret Santa' selections, you already made us do that and we've all bought our presents now?" she glowered at the playboy.
Clearing his throat slightly under her glare, Tony cleared his throat and set his empty tumbler on the table,
"Okay sourpuss I'll tell, but only because you asked so nicely," he blew Natasha a mocking kiss, and Clint quickly put his hand on her leg to stop her from rising to Tony's jest, "Yes, we already have randomly picked out 'Secret Santa's', you should all have a number on your slips of paper. I thought we'd make present opening a bit more fun and go in a random order. So, who has numero uno?"
Thor grinned, eagerly waving his ticket of paper above his head.
"Well MC Hammer, you get to go first then."
Thor rose from his seat and strode over to the tree, carefully examining the names on each gift before grabbing the smallest wrapped box and returning to his seat. The present looked tiny in Thor's large hands, and he took care not to crush it.
"What am I to do with this offering now?" he paused, his brow creasing as he examined the haphazardly wrapping.
"You unwrap it Thor," Bruce said kindly with a chuckle.
The demi-god's face lit up with excitement as he ripped away the paper, revealing a small rectangular object. Puzzled he gazed round at the others as to what he should do next,
"Why don't you try touching it?" Steve encouraged, curious as to what Thor's gift actually was.
Thor pressed his thumb to the surface of the rectangle, and immediately it sprung to life. A holographic projection appeared from what had now become a screen, and displayed the images of Jane Foster and the other Avengers except Thor.
"This is some kind of…communication device?" this time the question was clearly directed at Tony, who nodded his head, grinning at the opportunity to talk about his creations,
"Sure is, it's programmed to link straight with your doctor friend," he winked at Thor, before smiling at Bruce, "well both of them technically, along with the rest of us. I figured this way you get to chat to Jane even when you can't see her."
Thor's grin went from ear to ear, as he got up to hug Tony in appreciation for his present.
"Uh, how about we try a hand shake this time, my ribs are still reattaching themselves after your squeeze earlier," Tony held his hand out to Thor, who shook it vigorously.
"Many thanks Stark-son! This device is greatly appreciated!"
"You're welcome, big guy," Tony grinned as he watched Thor return to his seat, "Who's got the next golden ticket kids?"
It was Steve's turn to raise his piece of paper this time, the number two clearly scribbled on it in black marker. Tony made a flamboyant gesture towards the tree with both his arms, and Steve got up, shaking his head slightly in laughter at how serious their host was taking his duties. He surveyed the five parcel remaining under the tree, and found his to be a large rectangle shape, covered in gold embossed paper and complete with a bow ribbon on the top. It was reasonably heavy too, he found as he carried it back to his spot on the couch. Slower than Thor had, but still with the same effect to the wrapping paper, Steve tore away until there was none left. His face brightened instantly as he discovered encyclopaedias and numerous history journals on his lap, and eagerly studied the blurbs for each. He lifted his gaze, and it wandered between Bruce and Natasha, the only two he presumed would have given him these gifts,
"Thank you…." He paused unsure of who to direct the comment at, until Natasha raised one hand slightly with a smile,
"I hope you like them," she absent-mindedly curled a stray lock of hair around her finger as she spoke, "I thought they'd help get you back up to speed with everything you missed."
"They're wonderful," he smiled back at her, "Honestly thank you."
"You're welcome Cap," she grinned, and only Clint could tell she was slightly relieved.
Bruce stood up from his seat next, waving his ticket in Tony's face as he walked over to the overbearing tree. He had been able to identify his present from where he was sat, and quickly retrieved the small circular green parcel. Sitting back down, he took care when opening his present, the only one who had displayed any real restraint so far. He let out a small chuckle as he held up a small, green stress ball, with an angry face drawn on it,
"Now, I would have suspected Tony," Bruce adjusted his glasses as he inspected the squeezable object, "but since he's already given a gift, I'm going to have to guess this is from you Clint?" he grinned at the archer to his left, who was clearly attempting and failing to stifle laughter.
"I couldn't resist," Clint nodded, giggling away to himself, as he reached under the cushion he was sat on and handed Bruce a bigger, squarer present, "Merry Christmas Dr. B."
Bruce opened the new, also green wrapped present and wide eyed inspected the bundle of clothes that were now in his hands. The colours were perfect, a couple of purple shirts, some khaki pants; Clint had clearly been paying attention to Bruce's favourite style and colours of clothing. Checking the label, Bruce grinned at Clint once more,
"I suppose it shouldn't surprise me that you know my clothing sizes, but thank you Clint, I always seem to be running out of clothes for some reason…"
Clint winked back at him,
"Had a feeling that could have been the case."
Everyone paused, waiting for the next person to stand up and claim their present. Natasha and Clint exchanged a look, before turning to stare at Tony. Jumping out of his seat, Tony pointed at himself in a completely over the top manner,
"Oh, it's my turn!"
Racing over to the tree, Tony selected the tallest of the three gifts left, and staggered back over to where he had been sat. Settling the parcel on his lap, Tony disappeared, popping his head round the side of the towering gift to be seen,
"Well, somebody definitely loves me," he grinned at Natasha, before realising she had already given a gift, and switched his vision between Bruce, Steve and Thor, "And who said 'Bromance' was dead?"
He began to attempt unwrapping his gift while on his lap, but eventually was forced to put the colourful tower on the floor.
"And someone clearly loves cello tape too…" he muttered as he struggled to find an entry point into the present. Finally ripping a way through the covered gift, Tony's face filled up with a mega-watt smile. At his feet, was a stack of comic books, reaching up to around his knees, all of which were written about Iron Man. Thor grinned as Tony reached for the first book excitedly and began flipping through the pages,
"It would seem some Midguardians have a fascination with the adventures of you and your suit of Iron."
"Well, I don't know if you've noticed, but I can lead a pretty exciting life at times," Tony chuckled, "but thanks big guy, this is awesome!"
"And then there were two," Clint winked at Natasha as he rose to stand up, but Bruce and Steve quickly stood before he did, and signalled for him to sit back down. Clint did so, but not before sharing a quizzical look with Natasha. Steve cleared his throat, as Bruce walked over to stand beside him,
"As you two were quite hard to buy for…"
"Y'know, with your actual lives and hobbies a mystery to us," Bruce cut in, retrieving the last two presents from under the tree and smiling at the two agents.
"…we decided to team up to get your gifts," Steve continued, as Bruce passed the smaller of the presents to him, "So, Merry Christmas!"
Both men held out their presents simultaneously, Steve handing his to Natasha, and Bruce handing his to Clint. The spies both accepted the gifts with a smile and thanks, before opening them. Although they both opened their presents in about three seconds flat, the others had to laugh at how Clint had shredded his wrapping paper, while Natasha had nimbly prised hers off, the wrapping paper completely intact. The pair looked at each other, wide grins on their faces, before turning to their respective Secret Santa and thanking them. Clint held up his new toy bow, and expertly aimed a foam arrow at the fairy on the top of the tree, madly grinning like a child on Christmas morning as the decoration leant heavily to one side from the blow. Natasha then held up her matching toy pistols, one in each hand, and expertly shot a foam dart from each, causing the decoration to flutter down to the floor.
"Fantastic idea," muttered Tony as he jumped up to retrieve the fallen angel, " let's give the two assassins more weapons to torment me with," he paused, staring up at the tree, and then turned round with a slightly defeated look on his face, holding the small angel out in front of him,
"And how on earth am I going to get Pep back on the tree?"
Hey, so that was the gift giving section of the festivities done, I'm considering including another chapter with a little bit about how good (or bad) Tony's cooking is going to end up? What do you guys think?