A/N Thanks for all the reviews everybody! I'm glad so many people are still enjoying theses stories even though I haven't updated nearly as often as I would have liked, which I apologize for. For you wonderful people, here is a special Christmas chapter a few days early.
Because I totally forgot to mention this last chapter, has anyone else seen Thor: The Dark World? It was awesome and I loved it! If you haven't seen it (*Cough* MarvelAndDCWriter *Cough* :P), you really should. If you have seen it, feel free to leave a review or send me a PM and let me know what you thought of it, but please be considerate of others who haven't seen it yet (*Cough* MarvelAndDCWriter *Cough*) and keep your reviews as spoiler free as possible. :)
Rudolph The Red Nosed Asgardian
"Ugh, what day is it?" Tony asked, rubbing his head and sitting up on the living room couch.
"Merry Christmas," Clint said, walking into the room and tossing Tony a bottle of Aspirin.
"Hangover. The gift that keeps on giving," he mumbled around the Aspirin in his mouth. "Wait!" Tony said, his head snapping up and a panicked expression on his face. "It's Christmas?"
"Don't worry, I already checked the presents. The name tags are still on them," Clint assured.
"Good," Tony sighed. "The last thing we need is a repeat of last year."
"Yeah, why is that?" Clint asked.
"Why is what?" Tony asked, not following Clint's jump in thought at all.
"Why is it that we don't ever do the same thing twice when we're drunk?"
"Huh. I never noticed that," Tony mused. "Maybe somewhere in our subconscious we're actually learning from our mistakes."
"You think so?"
"Stranger things have happened," Tony said with a shrug. "Although, nothing's stranger than waking up hungover with nothing wrong or out of place."
"Shhh. You'll jinx it," Clint said.
"Stop being paranoid. Besides, you and I both know we did something. We always do something. Now I'm going to the lab to figure out what we did. You coming?"
Clint grumbled something about self-fulfilling prophecy but followed along behind Tony anyway.
They made their way down to the lab and walked in... and stopped dead in their tracks. Standing in the middle of the room with a green cape draped across it's back, was a reindeer.
"See? I told you, you would jinx it," Clint moaned. "Where did we get a reindeer?"
"Actually, I don't think it is a reindeer," Tony said.
"Well what do you call a deer-like animal with big antlers that looks like it should be attached to Santa's sleigh?" Clint asked sarcastically.
"Well, of course he's a reindeer now," Tony said with a roll of his eyes. "But I don't think he was a reindeer before."
"Who did you turn into an animal now?" Clint moaned.
"I think..." Tony said looking closer at the reindeer, who stared at him with an arrogant condescending expression. "It is! It's Reindeer Games!"
"Tony, now is not the time to be coming up with some nickname. We have to figure out who that is," Clint said, pointing at the reindeer.
"I just told you. It's Reindeer Games."
"What?" Clint said completely confused.
"He's a bright one, isn't he?"
Tony and Clint both jumped as the reindeer spoke.
"You can talk?" Tony exclaimed.
"Of course I can talk. I have changed my own form many times, including into that of an animal," the reindeer snapped.
"Wait. I know that tone," Clint said, staring hard at the reindeer. "Loki?"
"Very bright," Loki mumbled sarcastically.
"Watch it, Furry Butt!" Clint warned.
Loki just rolled his eyes and huffed in annoyance, eliciting uncontrollable laughter from Clint.
"What? What'd I miss?" Tony asked, having looked away for only a moment.
"Watch," Clint said to Tony before addressing Loki. "Hey Loki, you seen Santa lately?"
Not deigning the comment worth responding to, Loki gave another long-suffering sigh, causing both Tony and Clint to start laughing.
"Hey, what's so funny," Steve asked, walking into the room. "And why is there a reindeer... in the... room. What did you do this time?"
"Tony turned Loki into a reindeer," Clint said.
Steve was silent, staring at Loki for a long moment. "Well, you've done worse," he said with a shrug. "So, what's so funny?"
"Watch," Tony said. "You know, Loki, I don't think green goes with your new complexion, but red, white, and blue would be perfect."
Loki huffed in irritation yet again and Steve joined Tony and Clint in their laughter. Every time Loki huffed, he breathed through his nose, and every time he breathed through his nose, it lit up... red.
"Enough!" Loki snapped.
Unfortunately, his outrage was undermined by his nose lighting up again, which caused another chorus of laughter.
"I demand you change me back this very moment, you worthless, good for nothing-"
"Why don't you just change yourself back?" Tony asked, interrupting Loki. "You said yourself that you've changed your form plenty of times."
"Whatever you did to change me is somehow preventing me from changing back. Therefore, I must be returned to my form the same way in which I was changed."
"I don't know. I think I might actually like you better this way," Clint said.
"I will make you suffer until you beg me to-"
"All right, all right. Chill," Tony said, cutting Loki off again. "I'll change you back. We don't need any kids getting traumatized because one of Santa's reindeer tries to take over the planet."
Tony walked over to his computer and started keying in the sequence that would turn Loki back into all of his Asgardian glory. He finished the sequence and the computer began to hum as a bright light filled the room. It was only a few moments into the process, however, that something sparked and the room went dark.
"What just happened?" Steve asked.
"I think we blew a fuse," Clint said.
"Well, technically it's not a fuse but it's the same principle," Tony said. "And the feedback from the short may have also flipped a breaker causing the power in the tower to go out."
"Okay, so first things first. We need to get the power back on," Steve said.
"How are we supposed to do that? The entire tower is pitch black," Clint said.
"I have an idea," Tony said, the evil grin spreading across his face, coming through in his voice.
)()()(
"Rudolph with your nose so bright, won't you guide my sleigh tonight," Tony and Clint sang as they followed the red nosed Loki through the darkened hallways, while the Asgardian mentally planed elaborate forms of torture for the men.
They were about halfway to the room that housed the breaker box when they ran into the rest of the team.
"What did you do? And why is there a red nosed reindeer in the hallway?" Pepper asked.
"Haven't you heard? It's Christmas. And Rudolph decided to give us a little visit," Tony said.
"Your death will be very slow," Loki said.
"You turned Loki into a reindeer?" Natasha asked.
Tony shrugged.
"You've done worse," Bruce said.
"Brother, why don't you change yourself back?" Thor asked.
"Because whatever Tony did, Loki can't undo himself. Tony has to undo it," Clint said. "That's how we blew out the power."
"Merry Christmas," Pepper grumbled.
"Now, we're using our Loki-light to find our way to the breaker box," Tony said.
"Very, very slow," Loki mumbled.
"Okay," Pepper said. "You two," she pointed at Tony and Clint, "go with Loki and get the power back on."
"I will accompany you," Thor said.
"Right, so what are the rest of you going to do?" Tony asked.
"I don't know about anyone else, but I'm hungry. I'm going to get breakfast," Pepper said.
"I heard that," Natasha said.
The two of them turned and walked back up the hall, followed by Steve and Bruce.
"Hey! What about us?" Clint asked. "And what about presents?"
"You get your mess cleaned up. Then you can eat and open presents," Natasha tossed over her shoulder as the four of them disappeared around the corner.
"We'd better get to it then," Tony said.
Ten minutes later, they finally got to the breaker box and restored the power.
"Now, return me to my natural form," Loki said, putting out his nose.
"Sure, as soon as I get the part," Tony said.
"What part?"
"The part that burned out and caused the breaker to flip," Tony answered. "I have to replace the part before I can turn you back."
"Then let us go retrieve it," Loki said.
"I've got to go buy a new one," Tony said.
"I gathered that. Stop wasting time talking and let's go."
"You should probably wait here," Tony said. "It's not exactly normal to see a reindeer walking on the sidewalk in the middle of New York."
"You truly are a simpleton if you think for a moment I will allow you to go off on your own while I stay behind and wait for you. Knowing you, you will get distracted by something shiny and it will be hours before you return," Loki said.
"We might as well all just go," Tony said throwing his hands up in the air.
"Excellent idea!" Thor said.
"He still hasn't mastered sarcasm I see," Loki said.
"We're working on it," Tony said.
"Let's go if we're going. I want to get this finished so I can eat. I'm starving," Clint said.
Fifteen minutes later, the four of them had the needed part, and were walking back to the tower. Tony and Clint we're steadfastly ignoring the gape-mouthed stares, the camera phones, and the swerving cars as people looked at the reindeer walking beside them. Loki was reveling in the attention and Thor was oblivious to it all, too entranced with a revolving door in a building they were walking past.
"What is that contraption?" Thor asked.
"It's a revolving door," Clint said. "You step inside and push it around then you get out on the other side."
"That is a wonderful invention. Brother, we should have those on Asgard," Thor said.
"You would tire of them quickly, with your love of slamming doors," Loki said.
"I fail to see the connection, Brother" Thor said.
"It is impossible to slam a revolving door, Brother," Loki said.
"Nonsense, I will close this spinning entryway," Thor said, stalking toward the revolving door.
"You did that on purpose," Tony said.
"But of course," Loki said.
"Eh, you've done worse," Tony said.
They watched in amusement as Thor reached the door and they continued watching... right up until Thor destroyed the door in his effort to slam it. As bystanders began calling the police for destruction of property. Tony, Clint, and Loki bailed.
"Yes, let's just let Loki manipulate Thor into doing something stupid," Clint said as they ran back toward the tower.
"It seemed like a good idea at the time," Tony said.
They were almost home free when Loki slammed into a little old lady, knocking her to the ground.
Clint immediately stopped and made sure she was okay. Upon finding her uninjured, he helped her back to her feet before Tony grabbed his shoulder.
"Run!" Tony said.
"Why?" Clint asked.
"Because somehow I don't think the cops will buy the 'Grandma got run over by a reindeer' story," Tony said.
With that, the two men sprinted the rest of the way to the tower, following closely behind the leaping reindeer in front of them.
They finally reached the tower and paused inside to catch their breaths.
"You think maybe we shouldn't have left Thor like that?" Clint asked.
"Ah, he'll be fine," Tony said.
"Thor has faced the punishment of the Allfather. Your law keepers are no comparison," Loki assured. "Thor might actually enjoy the experience."
"Works for me. Now lets get you changed back so I can finally eat and so we can finally open our presents," Clint said.
The second attempt to return Loki to his correct form was a success and the three men walked into the living room just in time to catch the tail end of a special Christmas news story about an avenger destroying a revolving door and two other avengers running down a poor defenseless old lady.
"Hey! That's not true!" Tony said. "We didn't hit that lady. It was Loki."
"Really, you expect us to buy that?" Natasha asked.
"Why not?" Clint asked.
"'Grandma got run over by a reindeer?'" Bruce asked. "I thought you two were more original than that."
"I told you no one would believe it," Tony said.
"Who would believe that?" Pepper asked.
Tony glanced at Clint before pointing at the archer.
"Me and Grandpa, we believe."
"I am going to hurt you," Clint said.
"Get in line," Loki said.
"Eh, I've had worse," Tony said.
Merry Christmas Everybody! :)
