Steve, as per, woke up at 6:30am, untangled himself from Evie, and went for his usual morning run. The snow went easily past his ankles but he still tried to go for his run anyway. This was only time when reporters didn't surround him. He stopped at the café, chatted with Beth and made his way home.

He made his way back to the tower by 8 and stopped a mile or so from the tower where a huge crowd seemed to be gathering looking up at the tower muttering words of amazement and shock, he followed their line of sight to see the tower.

It looked incredible, covered with lights, tinsel; a giant star sat on the top spinning around slowly, the large STARK was shining brightly with stars and tinsel surrounding it and the snow that had fallen across it made it look magical. It looked like a giant Christmas tree.

"Wow." Steve muttered in astonishment.

"Hey, your Captain America aren't you?" A voice at his right spoke up, he turned to see a young, English sounding man next to him. Steve nodded and smiled. "When did you lot do this?"

"Uh...To – Iron Man must have done it overnight."

"It's amazing."

"It is," Steve agreed easily before muttering a goodnight and continuing into the tower greeting JARVIS as he entered the elevator. He chuckled at the mistletoe placed on the roof of the elevator. He knew he should pull it down - nobody else would notice it until Tony pointed it, thus forcing them to kiss and he didn't particularly want to be trapped in the elevator having to kiss Pepper. He'd probably end up embarrassing himself too much. But when he tried to pull it down he found he couldn't, at least not without pulling the entire roof down. Knowing Tony he'd invent glue just for this. So Steve decided to take the stairs form now on, until after Christmas at least.

He was afraid of what he'll find in the common room, but also excited - they were actually going to celebrate Christmas? He hadn't even thought about the holiday since long before he became Captain America.

In far corner of the room was an absolutely huge Christmas tree; it was at least another 5 or 6 inches taller than he is and around the room were at least 8 large boxes of what he assumed were Christmas decorations. Steve found himself disappointed it wasn't decorated but he assumed Tony had planned for it to be decorated throughout the day.

Tony was fast asleep on the sofa.

Steve watched Tony for a minute, he looked so innocent when he slept, Steve knew Tony had been through a lot and had come out the other side still fun loving and carefree but - he could always see the tiredness in his eyes, the flinching whenever someone mentioned underground. When he had first met Tony, he'd seemed like a bit of a joker. He had been some rich boy clever enough to invent himself a suit of iron and stupid enough to think he could save the world. But now - Steve knew a little of what Tony had been through. Pepper had told him about the torture he received, but only in vague terms. So that he knew not to mention it.

"It's rude to stare." Tony muttered tiredly.

"Sorry," Steve blushed; he hadn't expected to be caught.

Tony just shook his head as he sat up slowly, eyes bleary, "Like it?"

"What the tower? It's incredible."

"Yeah it is." Tony grinned lazily. "If I do say so myself.", he stood up stretching and clicking his back and neck before making himself some coffee frowning at the breakfast bar, "Where's my breakfast?"

Steve rolled his eyes and started making pancakes, "What did you do before we all lived here?"

"Uh...coffee for breakfast. Take-out for lunch, take-out for dinner. Occasionally Pepper would make me food. That's if I actually knew it was time for food. Bruce tells me now."

"Of course." Steve rolled his eyes.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Evie woke up yawning and stretching, she grabbed her phone to check the time, 8:28 and climbed out of bed pulling on her dressing down.

She was becoming used to being around the Avengers now but she seemed to be the only one, except Tony and Pepper, that didn't get dressed before going down for breakfast.

She left the bedroom and walked out of the lounge into the small corridor where the elevator was sat. She pressed the button and a moment later it opened to find Bruce already heading down.

"Morning." She greeted him cheerfully.

"Hello." He chuckled softly a shy look coming onto his face as she stepped inside and the doors slid closed. Evie frowned, trying to work out his amusement.

"What?" Bruce pointed upwards and Evie looked laughing when she saw the mistletoe hanging above them.

"Ah, well I guess we have no choice then." Bruce paused; he obviously hadn't expected her to agree. As much as Evie would rather it be Steve, it is tradition, soshe couldn't exactly refuse. Laughing at his shocked expression Evie stepped forward and pressed a light chaste kiss against his lips before pulling back and winked as the elevator stopped. She stepped out.

Bruce and Evie walked in at the same time and both stopped to stare at the tree. "There's a giant tree in here." Bruce announced simply.

"Yes there is." Steve answered matter-of-fact. "You should go outside later. The entire tower looks like an extensively decorated Christmas tree."

"Why am I not surprised?" Evie muttered with a grin towards Tony, "You spent all night on it?"

"And most of the morning." Tony nodded.

When Clint and Natasha stepped out, often waking up at the same time due to living on S.H.I.E.L.D base for so long. Clint walked out of the elevator first and Natasha almost bumped into him as Clint had just stopped.

"Whoa." Clint murmured.

"Clint! Why have you- Oh..." Natasha murmured staring at the tree.

"Tony." Steve, Evie and Bruce explained simultaneously, Tony just grinned.

"Did you kiss?" Evie asked and the two assassins just looked at each other and then back at Evie in bafflement.

"Mistletoe." Bruce explained, "On the roof of the elevator." The two assassins turned to look but the doors had already closed.

Steve glanced between Evie and Bruce who had come out of the elevator together. He chose not to comment on it. It is just an old tradition.

"Mistletoe...?" Natasha repeated looking confused, Clint just looked amused.

"It's a tradition. If two people step under the mistletoe they have to kiss." Evie explained encase they didn't understand.

"It's an old tradition." Steve had to agree.

The assassins looked at each other again before Clint smirked confidently and stepped closer to Natasha placing a light kiss on her lips before stepping back and making himself some coffee and taking his share of the pancakes.

Pepper almost walked into Natasha as she stepped out of the elevator a moment later as Natasha was still standing completely still staring at the tree and Clint a looking perplexed.

"How the hell did you get that in here?" Pepper exclaimed.

"Uh...flew it up the elevator shaft..." Tony admitted sheepishly.

"You flew a tree that's taller than Thor up the bloody elevator shaft?" Pepper yelled at Tony - who just shrugged.

"Well, there are no accessible windows to this room, at least none that are big enough. So yes. I flew a giant Christmas tree up the elevator shaft." Tony's sheepish smile switched to a full out grin, "We'll all taking the day off and decorating today" He announced, his voice giving no argument.

"Decorate?" Clint repeated his words in apparent surprise.

"Yes, you know that thing when you put decorations up and make the house Christmas-y?"

Clint rolled his eyes, "Yes, I know what decorate means. Just...does this mean we're doing Christmas?" Clint asked carefully, an unreadable expression on his face.

"We, Legolas, are most definitely doing Christmas." Tony said brightly, turning to look at the assassin giving him a wide grin which, he was surprised to see, was returned brightly.

"Awesome."

"How are we gonna do this?" Bruce asked.

"First, finish the lovely breakfast Rogers made us. Then we do whatever the hell we like, I bought boxes of different decorations and got some sent from L.A."

"L.A?" Evie asked confused.

"I've got a house there."

Everyone nodded at Tony's plan, deciding not to argue with him. They fell into quiet conversation as they ate they breakfast, once Thor made his way into the kitchen they were all actually together for the first morning in a while.

Soon after they finished they went straight to the boxes ready to unpack and decorate. "Any kinda system?" Evie asked.

"Whatever works for you." Tony shrugged moving to pick up the box of baubles and moved to the tree.

Natasha followed him standing beside him as they put the baubles on the tree. "Why are we doing this, Stark?" Natasha asked him quietly.

Tony glanced back to the rest of the group who were slowly pulling various decorations out of boxes: Pepper and Bruce were laughing as they wrapped tinsel around each other. Thor was smelling the tinsel and touching it as if it was the weirdest thing he'd ever seen. Evie was frowning at the lights as she tried to untangle them. Steve watching her laughing and attempting to help her but just ended up getting his hands tangled up and Clint was staring at the ceiling as if mentally mapping out where to put the decorations. They all had bright eyes as they laughed and actually seemed to be enjoying decorating with innocent excitement in their eyes.

Tony had never seen them all with such joy in their eyes.

"Jolly green giant," Tony had gotten obsessed with that nick-name since Evie used it last week, "When was the last time you celebrated Christmas?"

"Uh...not since before the incident, Tony." the scientist answered, confused by the question as he helped Pepper untangle herself from the tinsel.

"Gramps, same question." Tony yelled across the room.

"What, had a tree and the whole thing? Uh...long before the serum at least. I mean we stopped and had a drink on Christmas day but yeah..." Steve answered confused by the question.

Tony nodded, "Legolas, what about you?"

"Far too many years." he said distractedly not looking away from the ceiling.

"Thor didn't even know what Christmas is, and you? Have you ever had a nice, calm, holiday Romanov?" he asked, and she sighed but shook her head, not bothering to hide her surprise at the depth of Tony's reasoning. "That's, Natasha, is why." Tony stared at her for a moment, searching her eyes before grinning and turning away to do the other side of the tree.

Natasha smiled softly scared to find herself looking forward to this Christmas; she's never even noticed when this date had come about ever before but now...she didn't let herself dare hope.

Nobody noticed as Clint slipped away, returning a few minutes later with his bow and quiver full of simple wooden arrows.

He grabbed a reel of lights before climbing silently onto the top of the large fridge and looked at the ceiling.

He affixed the end of the strand of lights where the wall met the ceiling before he unravelled a long length of the lights wrapping it twice around the shaft of an arrow. He checked that he had enough slack so that the entire reel didn't go flying with the strain, then nocked the arrow into his bow and took aim for where he wanted the next point to be and released. The arrow going flying right into the spot it wanted.

Everyone stopped in what they were doing and turned to look at where the arrow had come from to find Clint sat on the fridge nocking another arrow and taking aim.

"Clint, what in the hell are you doing?" Tony exclaimed in complete wonder.

"Hanging lights." He answered simply before letting go of another arrow with a strand connected.

"How else should a bow-wielding assassin hang Christmas lights?" Bruce asked Tony sarcastically making everyone chuckle.

"You are the one that gave him the job Stark." Natasha added as another arrow went flying.

"That had better look awesome, featherhead."

"Oh, it will Tony. It will." There was absolutely no doubt in Clint's voice making the team laugh lightly.

"You better fix those holes when we take them down Barton." Pepper threatened.

Clint shrugged, "Why don't I just hit the same ones next year?"

Everyone paused at that statement.

Next year.

He had already assumed there was going to be a next year with the team.

But nobody was going to correct him. Everyone wanted this to last. The companionable fun banter between them, they wanted this next year.

"So, who wants to put the Angel on the top?" Tony asked a moment later a grin on his face.

Everyone looked around at each other before Steve stepped forward reaching out to grab Evie's hand. "Evelyn should do it."

"Me? Why me?"

"No, he's right." Tony agreed looking around as everyone nodded, "You were the one that worked out Steve's message to save us, and you'll be spending Christmas here anyway so why not."

"I'm spending Christmas here?" Evie repeated Tony's words with surprise.

"Well yeah." Tony sent her a questioning glance, "Did you have somewhere else in plan?"

Evie shook her head, "No...I uh...I normally spend it with Maggie but I obviously can't, so I didn't have plans. I just didn't realise you had assumed I was spending it here."

"Well dur. You live here so why the hell not?" Tony rolled his eyes, "So, Angel?"

"I won't be able to reach it."

"I can help." Thor offered, before anyone could say anything else Evie yelped as she was suddenly lifted into the air, strong hands gripping her waist. Steve, being the only one that could reach, gave her the Angel and she put it onto the tree. Once it was placed everyone cheered before doing back to what they had been doing.

It took exactly 37 arrows for Clint to string lights the way he had imagined and the moment he finished he jumped from the fridge, "JARVIS, blackout the windows and switch these lights on." He murmured quietly. Everyone fell silent as the room went dark from the windows followed by murmurs of confusion.

Until the lights switched on and they gasped.

On the ceiling Clint had put the Avengers 'A' out of the white lights with mini star in the middle and a circle of red, blue and green lights to go around the 'A'.

"Whoa." Steve murmured followed by sounds of amazement and appreciation from the others.

"Awesome enough for you?" Clint asked lightly.

"Yeah." Tony swallowed. "That's...pretty awesome."

Message from: Go-Fondue-With-Evie
I Luuuove you, Evie! Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Are you drunk? Please don't kiss Steve! Kiss Bruce instead, I'm sure he'd be willing!
513 Notes. [Dec 4, 2012]

Message from: Go-Fondue-With-Evie
Ahaha I bet Brrce is questioning his sexuality as we speak!
TONY NOOOOO!
720 Notes. [Dec 4, 2012]

Message from: Go-Fondue-With-Evie
SHHHHHIT DELETE THOSE MESSAGES PLEASE EVIE I'LL BUY YOU A FERRARI!
Nah, I think it's funner watching you suffer. I shall leave it here, for the whole of the internet to see.
1003 Notes. [Dec 5, 2012]

Message from: Go-Fondue-With-Evie
'Funner' is not a word.
So you've retorted to correcting me? Never thought you'd sink that low.
918 Notes. [Dec 5, 2012]

Message from: Go-Fondue-With-Evie
You do not want to know how low I'll go.
Tony, threatening doesn't work with you. If I were you, I'd just stick to inventing.
1102 Notes. [Dec 5, 2012]

Message from: Go-Fondue-With-Evie
Clint just blamed me for stealing Natasha's éclair. Currently hiding in the bathroom
Just told her.
1261 Notes. [Dec 6, 2012]

Message from: Go-Fondue-With-Evie
Those bruises are going to take ages to fade! Until AFTER Christmas at least!
I'm so sympathetic.
989 Notes. [Dec 6, 2012]

Message from: Go-Fondue-With-Evie
I let you live in MY tower and you respond with sarcasm!
I don't live with you.
893 Notes [Dec 6, 2012]

Message from: Go-Fondue-With-Evie
And the last time you slept in your own apartment was...?
No comment.
2407 Notes [Dec 7, 2012]

Message from: Go-Fondue-With-Evie
Exactly. You live with me!
Technically I live with Steve cause he has his own floor.
493 Notes [Dec 7, 2012]

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Captain! Were you aware of your girlfriends exploits?"
"Mr Stark! How do you feel that your girlfriend is cheating on you with a woman?"
"How do you feel that these two woman were having an affair right under your nose?"
"What are you going to do about it?"

Steve finally sighed and spun around to the many reporters yelling questions at him and Steve, "What?" he barked out shocking the reporters that were so used to him either ignoring them or being polite. Not angry.

Steve had just had enough, he, Tony and Thor had gone out with Darcy who offered to help them with Christmas shopping for their respective girlfriends. "Are you aware that your girlfriend is cheating on you?"

Steve sighed, "She's not."

"There's proof. A picture was taken of her and Pepper."

"Yeah. They did that to piss you off." Tony admitted laughing, "Now can you leave us the hell alone to shop?"

But of course that just caused the reports to ask even more questions of why and how they're certain. The reporters sounded angry which just served to amuse Tony more, Steve chuckled seeing the reporters annoyance, Darcy looked confused but was more than happy to annoy the reporters.

Thor being the biggest of the four of them moved in front of the reporters, "Leave. Now." he ordered using his 'King' voice that he had learnt from his father, "Leave us in peace."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Merry Christmas!" Tony yelled bursting into the room wearing Iron Man Pyjamas and a large grin. He stood at the end of the bed staring at them expectantly.

Evie and Steve stared sitting up blearily, the comforter slid off Steve's naked chest. He looked at the clock beside his bed. "Tony, its 6am!"

"You normally wake at anyway 6!"

"Not after going to bed at 3!"

"What were you two doing?" Tony asked in a suggestive voice.

Steve blushed and glared at Tony, "Dancing at your Christmas Eve/Thank-God-the-world-didn't-end-on-the-21st party."

"Oh yeah." Tony frowned and put his hand against his head as if he had forgotten he had a hangover.

"Have you even gone to bed?" Evie asked knowingly.

"Sleep's for losers."

Evie and Steve shared an exasperated glance, "We'll be down soon."

"But it's Christmas!" Tony stated childishly.

"You're a zombie at nine every other morning." Evie sighed but sat up untangling herself from the comforter.

"It's Christmas!" Tony repeated excitedly, he threw them both a pair of PJ's landing on the bed beside them both, "Get changed be down in 5." with that he ran out leaving the door open.

Steve sighed and sat up, "Pepper did warn us." he murmured with a yawn climbing out of bed and looking at the pyjamas Tony had thrown him. "Captain America Pyjamas." Steve muttered.

"Of course." Evie agreed looking at her own. He had given Evie the same in a smaller size. The couple glanced at each other with another exasperated look and Evie went into the bathroom to get changed and do her teeth.

Steve did his next and when he came out he grinned at Evie in her Captain America pyjamas. "We should get down before he sends Butterfingers to drags us."

Evie laughed at that image and nodded letting Steve led her out of the room, she couldn't help but stare appreciatively at the one size too small pyjamas and wonder if Tony did that on purpose just for her. She wouldn't put it past him.

They all met in the extensively decorated common room, which they had gotten used to seeing sitting in every day. Evie and Steve walked into together to see an Iron Man PJ clad Tony and Pepper stood together by the tree, Tony looked overly excited grinning from ear to ear, Pepper looked exasperated but amused.

The others were sat on the floor around them, in PJ's of their Superhero. Natasha didn't look very happy in them, Clint seemed in-different, Bruce looked amused and Thor was grinning ear to ear. He didn't have Christmas on Asgard and hadn't understood it until it had been explained to him, Steve included telling him the basics about Christianity. Of course that took him a while to make sense of it, being a Demi-God himself. Steve had found a Bible and had shown him the Nativity. It was odd to see Thor reading the Bible (Thor had said that his he was on Asgard he hadn't actually read many books and "that was Loki's job whenever a book needed reading" and thus wasn't a very good reader, but he did enjoy reading when the story was good and got there in the end).

Steve and Evie sat down beside the cheerful Thor.

"Can we at least have some breakfast?" Clint was complaining to Tony.

"No. I let you make coffee. Isn't that enough?"

"At 6 in the morning? No."

"Man up!"

"Says the excited Christmas Child."

"Christmas time is best!" Tony argued back looking as if Clint had insulted his Iron Man suit. "Alright, I separated all the presents for everyone; open them one person at a time." Everyone stared at Tony for a moment before he sighed exasperated at their unimpressed reactions, "I'll start shall I?"

"Hold on," Thor and Clint spoke up at the same time before turning to look at each other and Clint gestured for Thor to go first, Thor stood up and picked up the biggest box, it wasn't wrapped, it was just simple cardboard and opened it up, pulling out 7 teardrop shaped crystals about the size of Thor's hand, all different colours. He handed them to each avenger (Putting it beside Tony knowing he didn't like to be handed things) and Evie and Pepper.

Tony had a red and gold stone, the colours swirling around each other - but the stone itself was dull and smooth, but rounded into a squashed sphere. He grinned at it, and ran a finger over the edge.

Bruce had a purple stone - it was smooth looking but when it landed in hand it felt smooth. It had large juts of crystal sticking out - like a city skyline. He ran his fingers over the edge of one piece that was sticking out - it felt sharp.

Clint had purple and black for his stone - the black was in speckles and large swipes, like it had burst through. It was semi-transparent and shiny, and almost flat.

Natasha had black and red - the colours merged into each other, making it difficult to find when one colour ended and another began. It was smooth but dull but shaped so it fit snugly into her palm - it felt warm to touch.

Steve's was red, blue and white - the colours of the American flag. (Steve later reckoned Tony had helped a little with the colours of it). The colours ripped through each other, all somehow fighting for dominance. The stone was a smoothly rounded and reminded him of the sort of pebble you found on a beach.

Pepper had an orange crystal. It was different shards of crystal pressed together in a small rectangle. It was smooth but had small chips on all sides where whatever had smoothed it had missed out where that was on purpose or not Pepper didn't know.

Evie had red and blue. It was angular - so the colours appeared to be one for each side but when tilted into light they all changed onto the other colour. It was smooth and transparent.

"Beautiful." Evie murmured.

"Wow, these are incredible, what are they?" Clint asked.

"It is similar to what you would know as a diamond. It is from the country side of Asgard, from a mine, called Irvinal. I can design them in colours of my choosing, I have one similar to yours man of iron."

"Awesome." Tony murmured inspecting his at every angle.

"They are almost indestructible, only my hammer and my father's staff can break them."

"Thank you Thor." Pepper smiled surprised at the beautiful gift.

Thor nodded before turning to Clint who did a similar thing getting them ornate bows, "They all have your names engraved on the side."

"Wow, thanks Clint." Steve looked at the side of his which had 'Steve Rodgers AKA Captain America' written there.

Clint shrugged looking quite embarrassed having thought this through so efficiently, he didn't want praise for something so simple, "Alright, Stark you can open the rest."

Everyone made noises of agreement as Tony sat down beside his pile of presents and ripped into them.

He opened the small pen shaped one, holding up a replica of the sonic screwdriver, "You managed to finish it?!" Tony exclaimed staring at Bruce in wonder.

"I worked it out a few weeks ago and decided that'd be a great present. There are still a couple of faults - mainly I can't get it to work anything... wood." Tony laughed at the reference then pointed it at the elevator, laughing when it opened.

"It works!"

Evie moved straight to Tony's side looking more excited than Tony did (if that was even possible), "Can I try it?"

Tony nodded and handed it to Evie; she pointed it at door into the bathroom and it locked and then unlocked, "That is the most awesome thing ever!" Evie laughed. "Sorry Stark, you're not getting it back."

"I let you live here and you steal my stuff. Disgraceful Rae. Absolutely disgraceful." Tony took the sonic off her and grinned, "Thank you, Bruce!"

Bruce nodded with an amused smile still on his face, as Tony tucked the sonic in the pocket for his pyjama shirt and moved to the next present from Natasha, a toy Iron Man helmet. He muttered a thank you as he put it on his head. Unsurprisingly it didn't look strange to see him with just the helmet on.

He then picked up a mini box from Steve, "Steve if you've bought me a ring..." his voice was less audible from behind the helmet but they could easily hear the amusement in his voice.

Steve rolled his eyes, "Shut up and open it Stark." Steve muttered laughing.

Tony laughed and opened to box to find two small cufflinks with the American flag in them, he frowned in confusion at them, he took the helmet off to see them better. Steve stepped forward and took the left one off him turning it upside down, on the back had 2 letters engraved on each side, RS & HS, he then motioned for Tony to do the same on the right one which had TS on the back.

"R S - Robert Stark your Grandfather and H S – Howard Stark, were already done. I got the T S done for you, I know it could have been an A but Tony makes more sense since as far as I know, nobody calls you Anthony. I left space for your kids. They must have gotten mixed up with all my stuff, which I found in storage."

"Wow, Steve. Thank you." Steve shrugged as Tony put them back in the box and reached for the next present after making sure the cufflinks were safe.

Tony laughed and then reached for the last one, from Evie. Plastic toy dinosaurs. Tony started laughing, "You didn't?"

"How could I not?" Evie laughed.

"I don't understand?" Thor asked.

"Uh, Firefly. We need to have an afternoon where we just watch Firefly, all of us."

"Agreed." Bruce nodded.

Tony grinned, "Alright, Bruce-y you next."

Bruce moved closer to his own pile, opening the largest one first from Natasha which turned out to be a giant Hulk teddy, and then he got a stress ball with mini hulks across it from Tony.

Steve got him blue-and-white porcelain tea cups from China that were extremely breakable but preserved for the moment, "Steve...wow thank you." Steve nodded, and gestured for Bruce to open the last one, which was a leather boundjournal from Evie.

"I figured since you go travelling quite a bit you might want to start documenting some of it." Evie shrugged suddenly self-conscious.

"Thank you Evie." Evie grinned as Bruce placed the journal onto his pile of things and Tony gestured for Clint to open his.

Clint laughed and immediately put on the Green Arrow hood from Tony, over his Hawkeye Pyjama's.

When he opened the women's perfume and Winnie the Pooh teddy from Natasha he started laughing making everyone completely confused, "Inside joke." Natasha murmured in explanation. Clint grinned at her and Natasha allowed herself to grin back feeling more relaxed than ever and despite Tony making this the cheesiest Christmas ever, she was enjoying it. Clint pulled open the next present from Steve: a new quiver.

"Bruce and Tony helped me with it." Steve admitted but Clint shook his head pulling at the string to test it with a grin.

"Thanks Cap." Lastly Clint opened up the last present from Evie which was a model of Serenity. "Oh this is quite cool." He laughed as he placed it beside the rest.

Natasha took hers next, getting a plastic black widow spider from Tony which she actually laughed at it making everyone start slightly at the unusual but nice sound. Natasha threw the toy spider at Tony who laughed and added it to the tree. She then opened up the gun shaped packet frowning at the simple slim black gun that fit perfectly in her hand.

"It has a flame thrower included." Bruce thought to tell her explaining who it was from, "I wouldn't practise in here if I were you."

"Thanks." Natasha grinned flipping the gun in her hand testing it before checking the safety was on and tucking it into her trousers.

She opened the next one from Steve grinning when she saw the knife sheath for her wrist along with a long jiggered dagger with flower like patterns around the sides and a dragon handle. It fit perfectly under her sleeve and around her wrist, "Oh this is gorgeous, thank you Steve."

"Only for you could we get a dagger and think it gorgeous." Tony muttered, Natasha pulled the dagger out gracefully and threw it towards Tony who scampered away - his legs spreading. She laughed and it dug into the floor between his outstretched legs, whilehe froze and started at it with extremely wide eyes before glaring at Natasha who just smirked standing up to pull the dagger out of the floor and replace it into the sheath. "That was close." Tony muttered.

"Yeah, lucky shot." Natasha smirked as everyone laughed.

Before anyone could say anything else Evie spoke up, "My present for you extends to Pepper as well. A girls day out at a spa, just us girls."

Both Pepper and Natasha smiled, "That sounds like fun." Natasha nodded, "I've never been to a spa."

"Seriously? Sooner the better then." Evie grinned.

Thor opened his next, frowning at what looked like his own hammer but miniaturised, "DIY." Tony explained grinning.

"Thank you man of Iron." Thor rolled his eyes before opening the next one, "Is this a...?"

"Pop-tart maker." Bruce confirmed grinning, "But...altered."

Thor nodded with a grin, before opening the label maker from Natasha and immediately labelled his DIY Hammer and then opened the bright orange beanie hat with an orange ball-ball on top from Steve. Thor grinned and immediately pulled it onto his head.

"How does it look?"

"Pretty cunning." Bruce grinned making Evie laughed.

"Man walks down the street in that hat; people know he's not afraid of anything." Tony added grinned. Lastly he got a long scarf from Evie.

Steve reached for his first present, laughing at the Captain America comic book from Tony; he remembered it being sold when he first started fighting in the war. "Found it in my dad's stuff." Tony explained and Steve just grinned.

He opened the next to find and old looking box with an even older journal from Bruce, he opened the box to find medals inside, he looked at them and slowly opened the journal before turning to look at Bruce with a shell-shocked face.

"Is this...I mean...who uh...?" Steve stammered.

"My great grandfathers." Bruce explained, "I went through all my stuff that was put in storage during my years of running. Found them and thought you'd appreciate it more than I would."

Evie moved closer to Steve's side to look at them and Steve picked up the war journal. It was obviously old and breakable, so Steve was extremely careful.

"Wow. Are you sure?" Bruce nodded, "Thank you Bruce."

Bruce shrugged, "It's nothing."

Steve carefully put them down before grabbing the next present from Natasha, a large square box. When he opened it, it was a large square wooden box; he lifted the lid off and gasped at what was inside. A typewriter - the keys looked a little worn and the whole thing looked like one his friend (who wanted to be a writer, who he later found out had published a few) had owned - so it was obviously an antique. "Tasha, where'd you find this?"

Natasha shrugged, "Bit of searching. JARVIS helped."

"Wow. Thank you."

Lastly he opened the present from Evie which was a simple gold cross on a gold chain. "Thank You Evie." he kissed her cheek as he put it on and tucked it under his shirt.

Evie then dug into hers. Tony got her a plastic Captain America Shield. Bruce got her:

"A napkin?" Evie rose her eyebrow in confusion at Bruce.

Bruce grinned, "Open it. Sorry it's a bit dirty."

"Uh..." Evie opened the napkin and almost dropped it. After a moment she slowly read it out, "Aim to misbehave Evie. Love Nathan Fillion AKA Captain Mal Reynolds." Evie swallowed staring at it for a moment before looking at Bruce, "Bruce, Bruce, Bruce! Is this, is this actually him?"

"Yeah, I was out with Thor, Tony and Darcy a few weeks ago and saw him, tried to call you but you didn't answer so I got the autograph for you."

Evie squealed and climbed over Steve to reach Bruce and pulled him into a tight hug. "I have Mal Reynolds' Autograph!" she squealed loudly making Tony cover his ears. Everyone else grinned and laughed.

Bruce laughed as he hugged Evie back, which was one thing that seemed to surprise him how casually Evie was to touch him. Most people were terrified of the Hulk, she was at first hesitant understandably but after only a few weeks she was more than happy to just casually hug him at random points.

Once they separated Evie was still grinning and she put the napkin down before reaching for the long stick like present from Natasha, she opened it and found a long brown sheath with a perfect simple looking medieval sword with a George Cross on the end.

"Whoa Tasha..."

"You said you can use a sword." Natasha shrugged in answer and Evie grinned moving to the other side of the room, everyone watched her and Evie held up the sword an begun to swing it back and forth, in a full circle for a few minutes before grinning. "Awesome!"

"After this, we are having a swordfight." Clint decided.

"You can use a sword?"

"Yep. Not as good as bow and arrow but my trainer was a swordsman so he taught me that as well."

Evie pointed the sword at him and grinned, "I'll hold you to that Barton." Clint chuckled as she sheathed the sword and re-joined them.

"Just don't kill each other." Tony chuckled as Evie opened a present from Steve, it was a gold chain with a simple small heart on the end, "It was my mothers." he explained carefully.

"Wow...thank you...can you?" Evie took her 'E' necklace off and turned around, Steve clipped the necklace together. "Thank You Steve." Steve shrugged.

Lastly Pepper opened her presents, from Tony; she got a pepper pot necklace. From Bruce she got a bag from Rome when he went a few weeks prior. From Natasha she got a beauty set.

"The lipstick is hallucinogenic, not for you but anyone that tries to kiss you."

"Why did you get her that?" Tony exclaimed eyes wide and worried, making everyone laugh.

"Ah Tony, you may have been in mind when I got it." Natasha smirked leaning back against the side of the nearest sofa.

Pepper smirked and put the lipstick in her bra for safe keeping, "Thank you Natasha."

From Steve she got new gloves and the spa day from Evie.

The rest of the day went by almost too quickly, with the group laughing and relaxing. Even Natasha let her shield down for the day and smiled and laughed with them.

Evie and Clint had a sword fight in the training room, everyone watched them gasping when the two looked as if they were about to kill each other. It looked so practised even though it wasn't.

Evie Skyped all her roommates speaking on a group video chat for a few hours.

After that they attempted to cook Christmas dinner together but that just ended up in Pepper, Bruce,Steve and Clint throwing the others out the kitchen (Tony had somehow managed to spill flour all over the flour - they didn't even need flour).

They at the dinner together and without any mishaps or arguments, only when they were playing Charades and Clint thought Tony's impression of a wolf looked more like a polar bear and he guessed 'Golden Compass'.

Natasha felt more relaxed after letting her shield down, it didn't mean she completely trusted everyone but she trusted them more than she ever thought she would, she could relax and laugh with them, it was the most emotion she had shown in too many years.

They went to be early Boxing Day morning all with elevated moods feeling closer than they ever had before.

All they were waiting for was it to go wrong.