It was quiet, too quiet. Phil glanced over and noted that he was alone in the bed before glancing over at the clock, it was past ten o'clock on Christmas morning and he was just waking up. Getting out of bed, Phil walked over to the dresser and pulled on a pair of sweatpants and a shirt before heading out of the bedroom. Seeing that the kitchen door was closed he headed in that direction. He opened the door and just stood there, a smile crossed his face at the scene before him. Clint stood at the counter with Tasha on his hip and was softly singing to her as he poured batter onto the waffle maker. A light coating of flour covered the kitchen cupboard and floor around them and Phil noted that both had flour in their hair. "So did any of the flour make it into the batter?"
Clint turned around and shifted Tasha in his arms; both had flour on their faces as well. "Good morning Daddy. Tasha wanted to help make breakfast and we had a small incident with the flour but we got what we needed."
"It smells very good." Phil replied as he walked up to them, he kissed Clint's cheek before taking Tasha into his arms and kissed her cheek as well. "Did she wake up at all last night?"
"Do you mean after you passed out when I finished thoroughly using your body?" Clint asked with a cheeky smirk on his face.
"Yes." Phil replied, a light blush crossed his face. "In my defence it had been awhile."
"I'm teasing you Phil and she did wake up briefly but went back to sleep after she had a bottle." Clint replied as he placed a plate full of waffles down on the kitchen table. "Then she slept until seven and you were sleeping so peacefully I didn't want to wake you up."
"Well next time it will be your turn to sleep in." Phil responded. "Besides breakfast what else did you two do this morning?"
"We were trying to figure out what Tasha wanted to wear for dinner tonight, but since I wasn't really sure where your planning on taking us I just picked out a couple of dresses and you can pick the one that will work best."
"Did you happen to pull the adorable white dress that Natasha brought last time she was here?" Phil asked as he set Tasha in her high chair. "That dress would be perfect."
"The white one it is." Clint replied as wiped the flour hand print off Phil's cheek before he bent down to try and wipe the flour of Tasha's face and arms. Tasha protested for half a moment before getting distracted by her new vantage point. "It's hard to believe she's four months old today."
"Time flies by too fast sometimes." Phil replied as he quickly snapped a picture of Tasha sitting in her high chair for the first time. "Who's a big girl?" Tasha giggled back and held out one of her hands. "That's right you are."
Clint put the coffee down and grabbed the camera to take the picture. "This one is going on the fridge." Clint smiled as he sat down.
Phil smiled as looked at the picture. "She's looking more like you every day."
Clint looked back down at the camera. "Yeah, but she has your eyes. Now eat up before your breakfast gets cold."
After they were done breakfast, Phil went about cleaning up while Clint put Tasha down for her mid-day nap.
Several hours later the three of them were sitting in the living room opening the last of the gifts under the tree.
"Last one's for you Phil." Clint said as he passed the other man a small package.
"You spoiled me." Phil smiled as he saw that it was another gift from Clint.
"It's my first official Christmas, so I might have gone a little crazy." Clint smiled as picked up the new rattle Tasha had dropped. "Here you go sweetie."
Phil smiled as he watched the two of them play with the rattle, matching smiles on their faces. "Her laughter is my new favorite sound." Phil said as he began opening the gift.
"Mine as well." Clint agreed as he glanced over at Phil who was staring down at the open gift with an un-readable expression on his face. "I know it's been a few years since I've seen your collection and the guy I got it off of said it was extremely rare so hopefully it's not one you already own."
Phil turned the Captain America trading card over in his hands and let out a gasp when he caught sight of what was on the back. "It's signed."
"I didn't ask too much about it but the guy told me something about a warehouse fire." Clint replied.
"Yes, the warehouse these cards were made in caught fire and burned to the ground. Everyone got out safely and one man even managed to save ten of the cards." Phil said as he ran his hand over the signature. "As it turns out Captain America was set to make an appearance in town that night so he came over to make sure everyone was alright and before he left he signed the ten cards that had been saved and because he did they decided to stop making this particular card." Phil was stunned. "Clint, how on earth did you find this card?"
Clint shrugged as he set Tasha down. "I used one of my connections from my pre SHIELD days and he was able to track down someone who knew someone who had gotten their hands on the card and then it was just a matter of charming the guy to let me buy it off of him."
"No one's ever gotten me a Captain America trading card before." Phil said as he stood up and gently set the card down on the coffee table before turning and pulling Clint up into a heated kiss. "I'll give you a proper thank you tonight when Tasha has gone to bed."
"I look forward to it."
"Well you managed to give me the best Christmas present ever and I do have one last one for you but you'll have to wait until dinner."
"Am I allowed any hints?"
"None what so ever, but trust me you'll like it."
"Another surprise then, fine I can be patient this one time." Clint replied before bending down to pick up Tasha. "Speaking of dinner, I guess we should start getting ready for it. What time is our reservation?"
"It's for five." Phil replied as he glanced at his watch. "With weather like this we might be a bit late but the place won't be very busy tonight."
"Are you sure we don't want to just stay in? I'm sure I can put something nice together." Clint asked as he glanced at the snow coming down.
"Don't worry the roads will be fine. Besides I've driven in worse weather, remember our mission in Alaska and the huge storm I had to drive us out of?"
"You mean the mission where you rolled and totalled our SUV? Then yes I remember that mission well."
"Okay to be fair, we were being gunned down and I was not expecting them to blow up the road. But before that I was doing just fine."
"I'm just teasing you love, I know that you'll always get us where were going safely." Clint kissed Phil's cheek before heading towards Tasha's room.
A/N: Thanks to everyone who read the last chapter! Sorry I wasn't able to update sooner, spent my one free day outside trying to shovel the snow off my deck and driveway and then had to spend time trying to find my brother-in-law's wedding ring which he somehow lost while helping me clear the driveway. Thankfully with the help of a metal detector the ring was found and he's out of the dog house!