Christmas is coming! And our gang is preparing to celebrate it.
I didn't have much time to write and I kind of had a writer's block so the chapter's a bit shorter. Enjoy and stay tuned for the next chapters The Grand Opening and New Year's with the Avengers.
Of course I would like to thank those people who are still reading this. THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! It means a lot to me.
Chapter 28- An Avengers Christmas
The Christmas tree
Tony's POV
"Tony, I really think Emily's gonna get our asses for this."
"Nah, she won't, she loves Christmas and hates it at the same time, but she still loves it… Bruce, say something!"
"I'm with Rhodey here, Tony. That tree is just too big and just imagine the needles that are going to fall from it, Emily's gonna flip. But if you want it, then take it, but it's on you."
"Yeah, yeah, I think she'll like it." "I don't think so. Ms. Emily is not into materialistic things, I think she'd appreciate a smaller tree." "You too, Vision? Ah, come on." They didn't seem to share my idea. "Alright, you won, we pick a smaller one." "Thank god." the three said with a sigh of relief. What do they have against a big tree?
"I'm not going under 10 feet." "Ok, this one is about 10, can we please take it and go, it's freezing out here." Rhodey was right, it was really cold. Next year I'll just order the tree in advance. "I'll go pay and you load that thing on the car." "Thank god…"
Once the tree was secured on the roof we headed back home from the Christmas tree farm.
Emily's POV
I'm starting to worry; it's been two hours since the boys left to get the tree. And we have yet to decide about the ornaments, which are at GNC because I didn't know how big the tree would be and which color to pick so that everyone is happy. At least the cookies are finally done. Now all I have to do is finish cleaning up this mess and prepare the guest rooms for Laura and the kids.
About the time I finished I heard the car coming up the road. That would be the boys, the Bartons I am supposed to pick up later and Peter and his Aunt are coming tomorrow. I ran down the stairs to meet them in the garage. "Hey, what took you so long?" "Mr. Big-tree here is to blame." "Why is that?" "Yeah, why me?" Rhodey and Bruce threw a glare at Tony. "Remind us then. Who was so stubborn that he wouldn't go away without the biggest tree they got there?" Yep, sounds lot like Tony. I looked at the tree. "It does seem to have the ideal size to me. What was the problem?" "Well this wasn't the one he picked; his was three times this size. We argued with him for so long he actually gave up and gave in on this one." "Good job guys, I don't know where we'd put a bigger one anyway. And all those dry needles underneath, imagine it, they'd be all over the house." "See, we told you Tony." "Yeah whatever, let's get this thing upstairs."
The tree was all set up in the living room, the colors picked so I headed to GNC to pick up the ornaments and the jet. "Do not eat up all the cookies boys…"
Just like every year the company is closed. Most teams are on stand down, those who don't have plans on Christmas can volunteer to be on watch. This year it'll be the Avengers. The ornaments I was talking about earlier, they are in the storage room. Each year GNC is decorated for Christmas in different colors. This year it's purple and pink? I have no idea who picked this. The boys let Tony choose the colors. So you can probably guess I was loading up red and gold decorations. The next stop was my house; I loaded the presents I hid there into the car and noticed I had company. It was Mia, my pet wolf. How come I have a wolf? Well, there was this time about 4 years ago when Tony and I spent our Christmas in our cabin in Minnesota. I went in advance to prepare everything while Tony had another party to attend before coming up there into the Wi-Fi less place. Anyway, I was chopping the wood outside when I heard shooting. I dropped the wood and followed the noise. When I came to the crime scene, a body, no two bodies, headless bodies of wolves were lying there in a pool of blood. Who can do such a thing? There was something else I noticed; the female wolf had milk, so she obviously had pups not so long ago. They weren't here, so whoever did this took them, too. A faint whine from behind the bush broke my trance. It was a baby wolf, shaking and crying. Calling the rangers, I tried to calm the little one down. By the time they arrived I had the shaking puppy in my arms. After a long talk with the rangers, they let me keep her as I had experience with wolves (we have a pack of wolves living in the forest on GNC, legally, but they were there before us) and her parents were killed. So to cut the long story short, after going over some paperwork Mia, as I named the little one, was mine. A vet told me she was about two weeks old at the time, but due to some trauma she suffered she'd never have puppies. I raised her ever since and I'm grateful the pack here accepted her. She spends most of her time with them, but still comes around if she wants to cuddle.
"So what little miss, do you want to come with me?" A happy gesture was the answer I needed. I placed her food bowls, favorite blanket, some toys and the dog bed in the car. Mia jumped on the front seat, so I buckled her up.
The tree was already standing in the corner when I returned with music blasting through the entire house. Tony turned it down a bit when he saw me. "So boys, ready for decorating?" "Yeah, is that a wolf?" Bruce asked as Mia peeked from behind my legs. She's always shy. "Yes, boys, meet Mia, she's my buddy and she'll be spending Christmas with us." Soon the tree was covered in red and gold deco. The only thing missing was the star on the top. "I have an idea! Wait for me and don't put the star up." Tony exclaimed and ran off. Shortly afterwards he came back with a camera. "Ok, Bruce turn into Hulk and then lift Emily so she can put the star on top. It's going to make awesome pictures for our gallery." We did as we got told. The pictures really turned out to be cool, as did the other ones where we all posed in front of the tree. One was just us, like normal people, the other was all suited up.
Now this is gonna make a nice holiday greeting.
The big Family gathering
The boys promised Elsa to Lila, so I am standing in a blue dress in the middle of the living room. And I have yet to make an ice castle. I am so gonna kick their collective ass for this later. Yeah, well, I might have an idea about revenge… But first, I have to make this castle before she's up.
It was a big success and Lila was overjoyed. The boys on the other hand, not so much. If the girl wanted Frozen for Christmas, she might as well get the whole package. Rhodey got to be Kristoff, Vision was Anna, Tony got Olaf and Hulk I somehow talked him into Marshmallow and painted him all white. He seemed to be most comfortable with it out of everyone else. Laura almost fell from the couch laughing when the grumpy looking boys walked into the living room. Pictures were taken once again and placed into the Gallery. Hopefully they learned their lesson and will never do something like this ever again.
The day was wonderful. After lunch we had a big snowball fight, build a slide from the roof down, built snowmen and played with the kids in the ice castle until dark. In the evening we watched movies on TV with the flickering lights of the Christmas tree in the background. Mia was spread under the tree. Pepper and Happy apologized themselves and stayed in the warmer California, Fury and Hill on the other hand joined us for the celebrations. Logan stopped by, too. He was actually running away from the too loud mansion, so we talked him into staying for dinner.
Tony's POV
After dinner I sat down by the piano. Emily and Laura were cleaning dishes, the kids were playing with their toys and the men were chatting. Later we all sang Christmas carols and it was, well, listenable. Most of the singers were completely off tune. Logan stayed until the next day. Or better said he wasn't allowed to leave since a heavy snowstorm began. I have to admit he's a funny guy, very much like me and that means Emily has a horrible taste in men to be honest.
Anyway, it was one great Christmas this year. And there's so much more I'd like to tell you. There was this one time that…
