Chapter 15

The common area is a mess of discarded wrapping paper, and Loki nimbly navigates it to sit next to his brother.

'I didn't want to put this under the tree in case it got accidently damaged,' he says in way of explanation. 'Merry Christmas, Thor.' He hands over the small, impeccably wrapped present.

'Thank you, brother,' Thor smiles at him and gently unwraps the box. When he opens it, Loki sees his eyes fill with tears. 'Loki, is this...?'

'I made it whilst I was experimenting with my Jotun abilities,' he explains as Thor takes the ice figurine out of the box. 'I've placed a spell on it so it will never melt and, well I thought it would be an ideal gift for you.'

The two of them look at the image of their mother, her soft, warm smile looking back at them from the cocoon of Thor's palm. 'Thank you, brother, I can't tell you how much this means to me,' Thor's voice is thick with emotion.

'I have missed you,' Loki admits, not taking his eyes from the figurine, 'I didn't want to admit it at first, but fighting together against Thanos, and spending time with this team of misfits made me realise how much I did miss you whilst I was travelling.'

'I hope you will allow me to be a better brother to you now than I was before,' Thor replies.

'And I shall endeavour to do the same,' he responds.

Tony calls over to them with a question from where he is sitting with Strange and Bruce, and Loki goes over to join their conversation. As they talk he notices Thor heading towards his bedroom, the figurine in his hand, and hopes that this time things can continue to be better between them.

'Nat what's…is this what I think it is?' Peter looks up from the envelope with his name written on it in Natasha's elegant writing.

She sits next to him with a smile. 'When we first started doing ballet you said you'd always wanted to do dance classes but hadn't been able to afford it, so I looked around for a good dance school that did a variety of styles. This was the best one I could find so I got you three months' worth of lessons; you can go to up to three classes a week and you can go to any combination of styles you want until you've worked out what it is you want to focus on. Then after that we can look at sorting out a proper schedule for you.'

He takes out the brochure for the dance school, which is only about a fifteen minute walk from his school, and starts going through the pages. 'I can't believe it. How did you remember something like that?'

Natasha laughs and ruffles his hair. 'I'm a spy, kid, I've been taught to remember stuff like that remember? Besides,' he arm comes to rest across his shoulders, 'of course I'm going to remember when you tell me about something you enjoy or want to do.'

'I don't know what to say,' he says quietly, 'thank you so much.' He turns to hug her properly, and her arms fall around him to return it.

'You're welcome, Baby Spider.'

'Hey Cap? Why'd you give me a load of reading for Christmas?'

Steve laughs and goes to sit next to Wade on the sofa. 'Why don't you take a look at the first page? That might make things a bit clearer.'

He tries not to grin at the confused look on the mercenary's scarred face as he opens the pack of paper. 'Well I mean it might but you know I'm not the best at focussing and there's a lot of pages here, Cap-e-tan, and not that I'm not grateful for a present or anything but- what the fuc-fudge?'

'I thought you weren't really getting it so I thought I'd make it official for you at Christmas,' Steve smiles as the shock registers on Wade's face. 'That,' he points to the papers in Wade's hand, 'is your official paperwork as a member of the Avengers. It's not a contract as such in that we don't need a signature and you're free to leave the team at any time you choose, what it does outline is what we'd expect or ask of you as part of the team, who you report to in what situation, and also what you can expect from us.'

'I-you-I..' Wade struggles to form a sentence, still looking at the paper in disbelief. 'You want me to be a part of the team? Officially?' he asks, voice quiet.

'We've seen you as part of the team for a long time now, Wade,' Steve replies, 'you just didn't seem to be accepting that. So I figured I'd make it official so you'd believe us. Merry Christmas, Avenger.'

'I…thanks, Cap.'

Steve puts a hand on Wade's shoulder and squeezes it. 'Thank you, Wade. There'd be less of us sat here if it wasn't for you. Do you accept the position on the team?'

'I know I'm crazy, Cap, but I'm not crazy enough to turn this down.'

Steve laughs. 'I'm glad. Welcome to the team, Wade, officially this time.'

'Merry Christmas, Rhodey.'

'Merry Christmas, Sam,' Rhodes raises his glass in a cheers as the other man joins him at the counter. 'And thanks for my present, man, those warmers are going to be a godsend for my back after missions.'

'Ah don't mention it. I realised after the last one that it was getting hard for you travelling back after a long mission so thought it might help a bit.'

'Too damn right,' the two of them look out over the sea of faces and wrapping paper in front of them. 'I think this has been out best Christmas yet.'

'Me too,' Sam agrees, 'I think it's been made better because we've got more people as well. Though if you'd asked me before I'd have said more people would have been too much craziness.'

Rhodes laughs in agreement. 'I hear you there. But after the fight with Thanos, after nearly losing Tony and Wade and Vision, it's just nice to see everyone together.'

'Shame the Guardians couldn't be here, or Carol.'

'Yeah but Carol has her friends on other planets to be with, and she did say she'd try and get here for New Year. Besides I think she would have only been comfortable here if Fury had been here as well; she's still trying to navigate everyone properly and getting used to being around humans again.'

'True,' Sam nods, 'must have been hard trying to combine two completely different lives in her head.'

Rhodes nods. 'And I can understand the Guardians wanting to keep on Gamora's trail.'

'You think she'll ever agree to be part of the team? I mean she is technically from the past and doesn't have any of the memories of them forming. It'd be like one of us being killed and then us going and getting them from the past from a time before they knew any of us.'

Rhodes laughs. 'I can imagine trying to do that with a younger Tony, as entertaining as it would be it'd also be one hell of a headache.'

'Well,' Sam says, reaching for the bottle to pour them both another drink, 'I'm glad we're not in that situation, because I'm not sure we could have had a Christmas if any of us hadn't made it.'

'To defying the odds,' Rhodes raises his glass.

'Screwing the odds,' Sam grins and chinks his own against Rhodes'.

'Alright who's going to help me finish off the dinner this year?' Mama Rhodes asks as she stands up from the sofa.

'Me!' Peter and Wanda both volunteer at the same time.

'I'll come too, Mama,' Tony smiles and the four of them head to the kitchen.

'Well that was one interesting day,' Tony laughs as he collapses backwards on their bed.

'It was certainly tiring I'll say that for it,' Steve agrees, staying where he is at the door and watching the dark haired man.

'You going to join me any time today?' the inventor asks, raising an eyebrow.

'In a second, there's just something I need to give you first,' he says, opening the drawer that holds his art supplies. He hid this in there as he knows Tony doesn't go into that drawer; just as Tony doesn't like people moving things in his workshop, Steve doesn't like people messing with his art supplies so he knows the genius wouldn't have looked in there.

'But you already gave me a present, Steve,' Tony sits up from his place on the bed, 'I thought we agreed not to go overboard?'

'This…it's not really a Christmas present,' he admits, holding the small box in his hand and moving towards the bed.

'Then what-'

'I was intending to save this for a bit, had a whole plan to take you out for dinner and spoil you before doing this, and I didn't want to take away from Wanda and Vision but…I can't really wait much longer so…' he goes down on one knee in front of the bed and sees Tony's eyes widen and the genius sit up straighter.

'Steve-'

'Tony I know I don't deserve to have such an incredible man in my life,' Steve cuts him off before he can properly start his sentence, 'not after every reason that I've given you to run in the opposite direction. You've proven again and again how incredibly strong you are, and you show every day just how much you care about those around you; you are the most intelligent, creative, amusing man I know and it is an honour to know you and to have you in my life. I'll never be alive long enough to do enough to be worthy of your love but I'm willing to do everything I can to come close if you'd let me. Tony Stark, I love you, will you marry me?'

Tony's smile is blinding, and there's unshed tears in his eyes, as he reaches forwards to press a kiss to Steve's lips. 'Captain Rogers,' he responds, 'the honour would be all mine.'

Steve laughs, standing up and bringing the inventor into a hug, pressing sloppy kisses all over the other man's face. 'I love you.'

'I love you too, Steve,' Tony says, pulling away to look at him, his brown eyes sparkling. 'We should probably keep this on the down low until the new year right?'

Steve smiles and nods. 'Yeah, we'll wait until the excitement of Wanda and Vision's engagement has gone down a bit. I just…we nearly lost you, Tony, I couldn't wait to ask you-'

Tony presses a soft kiss to his lips to shut him up. 'I know, Steve.'

'I should probably put your ring on your finger,' he laughs; it's a simple dark grey band, with a small sapphire set in the middle flanked by two rubies. It's small and fairly simple, but when Steve slides it onto Tony's finger he thinks it looks perfect on the genius.

A/N: Oh my life I did not think I was going to get this posted before the end of year, but I've made it by the skin of my teeth! I'm sorry it feels rushed, in truth it was a little as I wanted to get it up before New Year. Also I originally planned for another two chapters and no Stony proposal, but Steve just sneaked it in there and I felt like it was the perfect way to end the story. I may post a chapter in the future that has what everyone created out of their clay figurines in it, but for now this is the end of the Christmas special.

I hope you've enjoyed it and thank you so much to everyone who has left reviews. I will be sitting down and responding to everything in the next few days, I thought it was best to get all the chapters written and up first.

As I've said in the final chapter of Tales From The Training Room I'll be taking a very short break from the Another Chance series just so I can write some other things and stop the series from getting stale. I've had so many lovely messages from people saying they hope I'm not leaving this series and I promise you I'm not. I've already written a separate IronStrange one-shot I shall post in the next few weeks, then I have a request I'm going to write, and then I'll be back on the next instalment of Another Chance. Basically I'll just be taking longer breaks before starting each new instalment of the series whilst I write something non related. If you do have any requests for any pairings or scenarios with any of the characters please do let me know. There's already a list on Tales From The Training Room so head on over there and see what might be coming up!

Thank you so much for all the support for this story. I hope you continue to enjoy my writing.

Love always,

L x