Chapter 14

Christmas Part 2

It was the same for a while.

Sam, Bruce, and Steve came back in a few minutes later, carrying at least thirty different dishes, which they cluttered on the table in the center of the room. Bruce brought in plates, passing them out with a smile, and we all helped ourselves. I was getting better about how much I ate, and I'd put on a few pounds. I was up to 110 pounds, now, which made Bruce a lot happier.

I devoured everything I got, laughing along as the Avengers reminisced about old missions. Natasha told a story of how with one villain, Clint was supposed to be undercover seducing her, keeping her away while the other Avengers snuck into her lair and destroyed all the biological weapons she'd created, but as they were getting to the—ah, the good part of the night—apparently Laura chose to call.

She blasted him for not calling, as it was her mother's birthday and the whole family was visiting. She understood if he couldn't make it in person, but still, his mother-in-law's birthday warranted a phone call, at least.

Clint had been simultaneously trying to explain to his wife that he was on an undercover secret mission, and no of course he hadn't forgotten Julia's birthday, and yes he would make it up to her as soon as he was physically able, and he loved her, but he had to go stop the psychotic biological terrorist from killing him with chemically improved smallpox, and yes, tell the kids he loved them.

Apparently, the terrorist hadn't taken too kindly to him being married and having children and tried to lock him in her testing chamber for a slow and painful death.

Natasha swooped in and saved the damsel just in time. Tasha said these words exactly, and Clint almost choked on his ham.

Stories like that filled the room as we ate, and the laughing never seemed to stop.

Then we got to the presents.

Everyone had gotten everyone else one thing, which kind of explained the number of presents. There were ten of us, after all, and each person was getting nine gifts, so that made ninety presents under the tree. We all sifted through them, collecting ours and then going back to our respective seats with our armfuls.

"We go oldest to youngest," Natasha proclaimed as she organized her stack of gifts, winking at me. "At least this year I don't have to go last."

Thor went first. He really was a giant puppy; he loved everything he got. Most of them just got him some clothes that actually fit him. Tony made him a new eyepatch that doubled as a communicator near his ear and wasn't fried by lightning, which was actually amazing. When he opened mine, he looked confused, so I went on to explain.

"It's a toaster, but specifically for Pop-Tarts," I said, smiling as his eyes lit up. "You can program the flavor into the screen—yeah, just like that—and then select how many pop tarts you're putting in, and it'll toast it just right based on the flavor and stuff. I used all those articles you made me read." I never actually thought I'd use them, but apparently, wishes can't all come true.

Thor was beside himself with joy. He almost cried. I scrambled to make that not happen, because as previously stated, I was not going to make Thor the god of thunder cry, from joy or otherwise. It was touch and go for a while, but I managed to keep his eyes dry, much to the amusement of the others.

Next was Bucky. There was argument about that. Biologically, Bucky was only 33—younger than most of the others—but technically, he was 101. Tony gave some long-winded logical argument about it, and eventually, Bucky agreed to go just to shut him up, which made Steve next, lest we suffer another of Tony's rants. Bucky mostly got weapons upgrades, as well as some new cooking supplies. He liked cooking. He was good at it, too.

I'd grown closest to Bucky, and I wanted to give him something different.

I'd made him a huge picture frame. It was elementary, yeah, but if I do say so myself, it was pretty well done. I'd used some of Tony's tools and sanded the wood, then polished it until it was gleaming oak, a rich brown that matched the color of the trees behind the Compound. I'd tempered the glass, too, and made it bulletproof and shatterproof. Inside the frame was a collage of pictures I'd ask FRIDAY to take over the weeks. Among them were Sam and Steve cooking, Natasha crocheting or sparring with Clint, Tony and Bruce in the workshop, Rhodey and Tony messing with each other, Thor and Tony having a drinking contest (that had been interesting), and Bucky and I playing Mario Kart.

Bucky stared at it for a long time. He stared at for so long, in fact, I started shifting uncomfortably. Did he not like it? I mean, I'd worked hard on it, but it also wasn't like what everyone else had gotten him. Maybe he hadn't wanted something so mushy. I'd debated just working on some upgrades for his arm, but I'd wanted to do something special. Maybe that had been the wrong decision…

Oh. Wait. He was blinking really fast. Was he crying?

God, why did I make everyone cry?

I tried to fix it. I really did. "What? No, nonono, don't cry, that's not—"

He shut me up by yanking me in for a hug. Reflexively, I hugged him back, though I was in an awkward position. "Bucky?"

He let go and pushed me back fondly, sniffing suspiciously. "Thanks, kid."

"Uh," I said, readjusting myself to lean against the corner of the couch. "You're welcome. It's bulletproof." I kind of just blurted that out to fill the silence.

Bucky laughed. "Of course it's bulletproof. You don't do anything half-way, do you?"

I blushed.

Steve was next. He got a lot of workout equipment, considering that's what he spent 95% of his time doing. I got him something a little off the mark. I'd enlisted FRIDAY's help in compiling all of Steve's favorite old songs from the thirties and forties, and I'd built him a new phonograph and put them all on the same vinyl record. It was basically a vinyl playlist. His eyes lit up. He was blown away by the concept of multiple songs on one vinyl record.

Next was Rhodey. I'd struggled on what to get Rhodey; he didn't do much other than game and lounge around with everybody, because his braces hurt him after too long. He never said anything about it, and he never would, but I could tell that he didn't like the braces. Who would? They reminded him of the fact that he'd probably never be able to walk on his own again. He got a lot of technology from everybody else, like entertainment stuff. Steve gave him a pair of boxing gloves and said that when Rhodey was up to it, he'd be waiting in the ring. Rhodey gave a small smile and set them aside.

With FRIDAY's help (FRIDAY and I became best buds after this whole ordeal, because she helped me with everything) I stole Tony's plans for them and them made a smaller version of the cloaking technology used on their Quinjets and Helicarriers (I had no clue what those were, but I figured I'd find out eventually) and essentially gave Rhodey invisible braces. They functioned the exact same, and he still walked a little jerkily, but he could almost pass as walking by himself.

He was…really touched. I hadn't expected him to be that touched, honestly. I was making everybody mushy, and that had not been my intention. I'd just…wanted to thank them, for everything they'd done for me. Instead, I was making this feel like a Hallmark movie happy ending, which was weird and a little too chick-flick for me. I mean, okay, I was really happy that they appreciated what I'd gotten them so much, but for real, I'm a teenage boy. I don't need to be hugged every two minutes.

…

Okay, maybe it's not that bad.

After Rhodey came Bruce. I didn't really know what to do for Bruce, either. He never asked for anything. Everybody else got him books he'd been asking for. Tony even managed to get a signed copy of one of the original manuscripts of Darwin's evolution books. I didn't get him a book. I made him glorified sweatpants.

He was really, really confused until I finally put him out of his misery and explained it. "You're the Hulk, right?" I said. I'd never seen the Other Guy, but I'd seen Bruce almost Hulk out a couple times. "Those are pants you can wear on missions. They're kind of baggy like sweatpants, but you can press the button here—" I pointed to the hip of the pants, "—and they'll become tight enough to not get in the way, but loose enough to move around easily. And if you Hulk Out, they're made of ultra-stretchy material, and they'll grow with you and shrink with you when you de-Hulk."

Tony actually spat out his coffee. "How on Earth did you make those?" He asked incredulously. "How smart are you?"

I blushed. Bright. Red. "Um."

Steve leaned over and smacked Tony on the back of the head. "Quiet," he said, ignoring Tony's spluttering.

Bruce smiled, ignoring them, and gave me a quick hug. "Thank you, Peter," he said genuinely. "I'm sure I'll use these all the time. These will solve a lot of problems."

I grinned.

Next came Tony. Tony was easy for everybody. Mostly, everybody just got him joke gifts, because honestly, what do you get a billionaire? The stories that came with the gag gifts were probably the best presents Tony could have gotten. I got him a gag gift and a serious gift. The gag gift was me taking one of his blank white coffee mugs and writing the string of Russian curse words I'd used on him when he told me I couldn't have anymore spare parts, commemorating my ingenuity, the first time I made Tasha laugh, and Tony's general personality. When Tony was confused, he asked FRIDAY to translate—he didn't trust Natasha not to make fun of him or give him the wrong answer—and FRIDAY proceeded to translate it.

Tony laughed. Steve didn't. At Steve's reaction, everyone else laughed, including me and Tasha.

His serious gift, I was hesitant to give. He opened it, scanned it, looked at me with a blank expression, scanned it again. And again.

"Are you gonna say anything?" I asked after a solid two minutes of him leafing through the Iron Man blueprints I'd changed.

I'd noticed some things about his suit and had FRIDAY get me the blueprints, with the express promise that I didn't photocopy them, give them to anyone, yada, yada. I promised, and she agreed. I spent hours poring over them, and finally came up with a way to make the suit use 50% less power and still operate the same, as well as how to make the design sleeker, making it roughly 32% more aerodynamic, therefore making it about 26% faster.

"Oh, I want to say a lot of things," he said, still looking over the blueprints in something akin to disbelief. "I want to ask how you got these, why FRIDAY let you look at these, and how smart are you, kid? Because I never would have seen any of this."

I perked up a little and continued, a little embarrassed. "It was just little things I noticed. They weren't obvious or anything."

"Well," he said, folding the blueprints carefully and putting them on his stack of opened gifts. "They're going to help make the suit a lot better, kid. Thanks. You wanna work on it with me?"

My jaw dropped open. "Hell yeah, I do!"

"Language!" Steve snapped, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I swear, they're ruining you!"

Everybody laughed at him. Eventually, he laughed too, much to his chagrin.

Clint came after Tony. He was easy, too. Tasha got him a Hunger Games mug, with Clint's face photoshopped in for Katniss's. Everybody else got him little things, as well as a couple of things for Laura and his kids. Tony made him a new bow, with the string easier to pull with the same force, and this one collapsed into a small case the size of a large wallet that would pass through metal detectors, so he could carry it anywhere. Clint looked like a kid in a candy story as soon as he saw it.

Tony and I had collaborated on Clint's present. Tony had taken care of the bow, and I had drawn up some designs for some new specialized arrows. There was one design that released a sonic wave on impact; it wouldn't damage people or buildings, but it knocked out communication devices within a thousand-foot radius of the target, and we'd configured the wave to leave the Avengers' coms alone, if set to the right frequency. There was another with something almost like spider's webbing. He could fire the arrow, use a small remote to activate the webbing, and it would form a net around the target, if they needed to catch someone alive and unharmed. He ruffled my hair and grinned, ecstatic. He really liked all the designs, and promised me I could come watch him the next time he practiced, to see if he wanted to tweak anything.

Sam came next. Honestly, I hadn't known that Sam was only thirty-nine. He acted a lot older. He got a lot of cooking stuff, too, including a FRIDAY-infused blender (cough cough Tony) that would critique what he made as he made it. He liked that. I pulled the blueprints for the drone of his suit and configured a way to fly 30% faster, as well as increase the area around Sam's suit the drone could go by a couple miles. It would be really useful for reconnaissance missions. He really liked the idea, and said I had free reign to improve anything else I saw if Tony supervised. I hastily agreed.

Geez, lab time for the next few weeks was going to be awesome.

Natasha was last, before me. She got a bunch of spy gadgets from everybody. Poisonous lipstick (plus the antidote for herself) to incapacitate people she kissed on missions, heels with knives in the soles, the list goes on. Tony and I collaborated again, drawing up plans for a bulletproof, body-armor evening gown she could wear on undercover formal missions. She gave a soft smile and thanked us both, which was actually the most Natasha thing she could do.

Then it was my turn.

I got a lot of little stuff. Rhodey got me some books I'd been asking for, which I was definitely going to binge read later. Sam set me up my own Netflix account on the living room TV. That made me happy; it made me feel more like this was home. Steve and Bucky got me some workout gear and some boxing gloves and tape, and a standing invitation to join them in the gym whenever I wanted. Thor (unsurprisingly) got me an entire crate of S'mores flavored Pop-Tarts. At least that was my favorite flavor.

Clint and Natasha also worked together on their gift. They gave me a Taser and a textbook on martial arts, and said they'd work together to teach me how to defend myself without using guns or knives. They said I'd be wiping the floor with them in no time.

That meant…a lot. It meant a lot to me.

Tony scoffed and said, "You already have unlimited lab time; how much more do you want, freeloader?" But there was a twinkle in his eye. He didn't get me anything big—just a soft, fluffy blanket with all the Avengers on it, which I fell instantly in love with—but he got me like a six-month supply of everything Stella would need, including some new high-tech cat toys and a self-emptying litter box. That actually may have been my favorite, because I adored Stella, but God. Cleaning her litter box was a nightmare. Stella immediately started playing with this electronic mouse that reacted like a real mouse would, chasing it around the room and pouncing every so often. Bruce gave me an encyclopedia set on organic chemistry and the application to modern medicine. I'd mentioned once that I was interested in the science behind pharmaceutical studies. I appreciated a lot that he'd remembered.

I'd thought that was it, but then Bucky shifted, bringing out an envelope. He handed it to me with a small smile. "This is something from all of us, kiddo."

Clint coughed. "Incorrect. Something from Bucky."

Everyone nodded, smiles on their faces, and Bucky just glared at Clint. I could tell, though, that there was no heat to it.

Confused, and a little apprehensive, I took the envelope and tore the seal. With slightly shaking fingers, I took the thick papers out of the envelope and unfolded them.

I almost dropped them, but I just managed to tighten my shaking hands, crinkling the pristine white papers on the edges a bit.

Notice for Temporary Guardianship of Peter Benjamin Parker given to Sergeant James Buchannan Barnes as of December 19, 20**

My lips parted and my eyes widened in shock. I could barely breathe. My heart was trying to burst out of my chest. I couldn't…My eyes were blurring, and I could barely read the words on the page anymore. But I remembered what they said.

"Is…" my voice came out rough and choked, and I cleared my throat and tried again, with little more success. "Is this real?"

I could barely see Bucky smile from the corner of my eye. "Yeah, kid, it's real. Tony pulled some strings with his lawyers to get the process sped up. It's not an official adoption, but it means that nobody can just take you from us without a fight." He leaned in and put a hand on my shoulder. "It's a start."

A start. If only they knew. To me, it was so much more than a start.

"Thank you," I managed, my voice small, and rough. "I…thank you."

Bucky scooted a little closer to me and put his arm around my shoulders as they started shaking. I put a hand over my face as I tried to suppress the sobs of relief, leaning into him as he rubbed my back.

"Deep breaths," he soothed. "You're okay."

"I know," I choked out, because I was better than okay. This was…this was amazing. I hadn't actually…I hadn't expected this so soon. "I'm…I…I can't even s-say anything. It's…th-thank you."

I cried for a little bit. They waited patiently until I'd finished, Bucky whispering words of encouragement and rubbing my back as I hiccupped. God, this was embarrassing. I couldn't bring myself to care all that much.

Stella had noticed my distress and abandoned her mouse, hopping up onto Bucky's lap beside me and pawing at my leg, climbing onto my lap and settling down. I scratched her ears.

Swallowing, clearing my throat, and wiping my eyes on my sleeve, I looked around and gave a shaky smile. "I can't thank you enough for this. Ever. I just…thank you. Thanks."

"It was about damn time," Steve muttered quietly, where he thought no one could hear. We did.

"Steve!" Tony gasped dramatically, putting a hand over his heart and sinking forlornly in his chair. "Oh, fearless leader, thou hast dealt us a grave insult by using such profane, blasphemous language in the presence of a child!"

Steve, beet red, tried to defend himself. "What?! I—I didn't mean to, it just slipped out! It's your fault, Tony, and you, Clint; it's rubbing off on all of us!"

"Alas, your purity!" Clint orated, falling out of his chair in a fake faint.

I couldn't help the wet laugh that bubbled up inside my throat. Clint and Tony went back and forth over Steve's head, and Steve's head was whipping between them as he frantically tried to defend his honor. It was like watching a tennis match, Steve being the unfortunate ball.

That went on for a few minutes, the banter never ceasing. I leaned into Bucky and he pulled me against him, his metal arm firm and reassuring, just like the Avengers and their presence in my life.

As far as my Christmases go…I can't rate it against Christmases with May and Ben; they were just too different. However, it was new, and fun, and every bit of what I wanted with the Avengers.

It was the start of something new and different from May and Ben. I wouldn't have had it any other way.

A/N: So…there it is! The big moment!

BIG thanks to everyone who followed and favorited, and a huge shout-out to all my reviewers for Chapter 13: Melancholy's Sunshine, Spawn Hades, Jasmine-N-Leaves, RosettaQueen20, lupinsnapemalfoy, MerlinofGryffindor, BabyPinkPuppy, DemonSkitty, Ammy of Asgard, monkeybaby, cal numbers, kittymyth96, OneOfYourFans, Ruby, Andipandi5, JaneGriffin, WordsAblaze, and the guest! Thanks so much you guys!

Also, Ruby: In response to your review, yes…but not for a while ;)

Also, about the Spiderman Allusion in the last chapter, it was the blueberries and strawberries in his pancakes...the blue and red. Yeah now that I tell you guys about it it seems super vague and unrealistic that anyone would actually see it, so sorry! It was intentional though XD Sorry again!

Love you guys! Next time, Peter interrogates the HYDRA agent…what could go wrong?