"Is everyone ready?"
Stark shuffled the names in the hat, tossing the slips of paper several times before holding it out to Banner on his right. Bruce reached in a pulled out a name, glancing at it before hiding it in his hand again. Tony passed the hat around to Cap, who drew a paper and passed it on to Natasha and Clint. The black top hat continued its way around the circle until it came back to Tony, who drew the final slip of paper and smirked at the name before flipping the black top hat back onto his head.
Wanda, still looking at the name on her paper with her eyebrows raised, put her hand in the air. "Does anyone want to trade?"
"There will be no trading," Stark deadpanned as he stood up. "Fair is fair, and you have six hours to get your Secret Santa gift under the tree before we open them tonight. Now get to it!" With that, the group broke apart as they all left to brainstorm ideas for their chosen person.
Natasha, striking out on her own, strapped Hamlet into her specially-made carrier backpack and walked the five blocks to the nearest office supply store, stepping carefully to avoid the patches of ice still scattered around. She barely broke her stride when the automatic doors opened, and only paused for a moment when the cashier stared at her backpack (or more specifically, the pink-and-black animal poking out of it).
"Therapy animal," she stated, and kept walking – she had some serious color-coded sticky-note searching to do.
Banner was stuck – and not just any kind of stuck, but truly and completely and totally trapped.
Literally.
Grumbling about the narrow aisles and tight turns of hardware stores, he finally managed to wiggle out of the corner that he had gotten wedged in in his search for nails and screws. He stood in front of the huge wall of silver metal, then shrugged and pulled pretty much one of everything, dropping them into his basket until it got too heavy to add any more. Sighing, he turned back toward the maze of aisles, beginning his long and careful trek to the check-out.
Steve, unsure of where to start, went down to the warehouse for inspiration. He, Stark, and Pepper were the only ones who could open the door (and he could only get in because Pepper had programmed him into the security system without telling Tony). He stood in the doorway and scanned the room, taking in the Tower's massive (and supposedly organized) array of tools, scrap metals, and dirty coffee mugs in desperate need of a good cleaning. Suddenly, Steve knew exactly what to get his person, and he quickly locked the door and headed back up the stairs – he had no time to waste.
Wanda had no idea what to do.
Absolutely none.
So, she did the only thing she could think of – she went to the wisest woman she knew for advice.
Pepper Potts, who had orchestrated the game, had chosen to keep her name out of it so that she could help someone find something for someone else if need be. "Besides," she had said as she left to go find a hat to draw out of, "it's more fun to watch from the sideline anyway, because then I know things that you don't." So, when Wanda Maximoff came to her for advice, she exactly what to do.
Wanda found her in the large central office with papers scattered around on every surface in the room. Pepper, highlighter in hand and a focused expression on her face, looked up at the sound of the door opening, and reached down to cap her marker before she could forget (she had dried out too many ink-based products to take the chance on another one).
"What can I help you with there, Wan?"
Wanda, eyebrows raised, held up the small slip of paper with the name of a mechanic written on it in his familiar messy scrawl.
"Tony Stark."
Pepper immediately cleared a spot on the table in front of them and pulled up a chair. "Now let's see…"
Maximoff, who was the newest to Tower living, had only come at Steve's urging, who promised that there was plenty of room (there was – she got an entire wing to herself), they would all love to have her (Natasha especially, who insisted on a movie night at least one a week), and that she would never have to clean a bathroom (Stark had robots for that). The one thing that neither of them said (but both of them knew was true) was that she had nowhere else to go. So, she stayed.
It was moments like now that she was starting to regret it.
"What am I supposed to get a man who hates me?"
"He does not hate you Wanda, trust me. He once said that I'm like 90% of his impulse control, which we both know is wrong."
Wanda looked at her, trying to tell whether or not she was joking. Pepper leaned over the table as though she was about to share an incredible secret.
"I am 100% of his impulse control, darling, and don't ever let him tell you otherwise."
Wanda snorted, then looked startled and covered her mouth with her hand. Her next words came out muffled through her fingers: "Please don't tell him I did that."
Pepper grinned and reached for a pen and paper, clicking the cap onto the back of the pen and starting to write.
"Honey, I am his wife – I don't have to tell him anything."
A short while later, Pepper had written a small list of potential gifts and Wanda had decided that Pepper might just be her new favorite person (regardless of what Barton claimed).
Natasha, getting home from the store late that afternoon (she had run back for a pen set for Pepper, who had opted out of the game but deserved a gift nonetheless), ran into Steve in the stairwell. He was going to the basement, for what she neither knew nor cared. What she cared about, however, was the enormous box wrapped in his arms.
"Watcha got there, Tiger?"
"Stuff," he mumbled, then trotted past her on his way to the workshop in the basement (he had shelves to set up). She shook her head and continued up the stairs, knowing that he would tell her eventually. She ran into Wanda in the upper-level kitchen (which was smaller than the massive main level one, but still pretty big) as the woman in red and black finished tucking tissue paper in a red and green gift bag. Spotting Natasha, Wanda smiled and pushed the present toward the center of the table, where it wasn't in danger of falling off.
"You've wrapped it and everything? Now I feel underachieved," Nat joked, sticking her head in the fridge in search of orange juice. "How'd you get that done so fast?"
"Pepper helped?" A squeak at the end of her answer turned it into more of a question, and Wanda grimaced.
"Ooo, good one! Maybe I should have gone to her." Romanoff, locating the juice, grabbed a cup from the nearby cabinet. "Who'd you have?"
"Stark." Wanda rolled her eyes and missed the way that Natasha suddenly froze. "It's ridiculous, like, how am I supposed to get something for someone who doesn't like me, and then-"
"Hold up." Natasha waved her hand to cut her off. "You had Tony?"
"Yes?" Now Wanda was really confused.
"I had Tony." Natasha paused. "Wait here."
10 minutes later, the population of the Tower (minus a certain metal man) was gathered in the kitchen, all of whom looked very confused and slightly concerned. Natasha stood in front of the group, hands on her hips and looking much taller than normal.
"Who had Tony Stark for their Secret Santa?"
Slowly but surely, every hand in the room (minus Pepper, who looked incredibly amused) raised into the air. They all looked around at each other, seeming startled at this development.
"Excuse me," said Rhodey, standing up to face them. (A/N For the sake of the story, Rhodes healed completely after his fall from the sky, as per creative license – thanks!) "No one is allowed to have my best friend but me. I have been planning this for months, people!"
Sam stood up beside him. "Um, I never wanted him anyway – can I trade with Pepper?" This got the room to laugh, and Sam sat back down, looking highly satisfied with himself.
"Alright," said Wanda, taking her place beside Natasha and nodding at the woman in black. "Here is was we'll do."
Several hours later, the group was full to bursting with most every Christmas food imaginable, and gathered in the main floor living room around the tree. Stark sat on the couch looking very smug, and missed the look mirrored on the face of Pepper behind him, who couldn't wait for what was about to happen. The plethora of bags and boxes each had a name on them, and Clint, sitting closest to the tree, started to pass them out to the team around him. To Tony's surprise, there was a present for everyone (including at least five for Pepper, much to her dismay), and only one for him.
Wanda, unwrapping a new pair of boots (hers were falling apart at the seams), let out a squeal that was very unlike her, and pulled them on over her fuzzy Christmas socks at once (they fit perfectly).
Steve, smiling at her from across the room, unwrapped his own bag to find the biggest box of granola bars that he had ever seen. Banner, gaging his reaction out of the corner of his eye, laughed out loud as Rogers immediately tore open the box and pulled out a chocolate-chip bar.
Minutes later, paper, bags, and empty boxes covered the floor, and Tony, holding a new set of wrenches, was looking bewildered. As the others marveled over their gifts, Stark pulled Pepper into the adjoining dining room.
"Can I tell you something?"
Pepper smirked. "You rigged the game and gave everyone you, including yourself?"
Stark opened his mouth, then gave up and agreed. "How did you figure it out?"
"Did you honestly think they wouldn't talk to each other?" She turned his head to look through the open door into the next room. "They did a re-draw without you."
Stark tried and failed to hide his smile as Sam, brand-new silly string in hand, opened fire on the room.
"Besides," whispered Pepper, leaning up against her mechanic, "this might just be the best present of all."
A minute later when she kissed him, Tony Stark wholeheartedly agreed.