"Time to exchange Secret Santa gifts!" Tony yelled, skipping into the living area where everyone was relaxing. "Why are we exchanging them now? It's Christmas Eve." Sam asked, handing Natasha and Steve a beer before flopping into an armchair.

"Because some people wanted to open presents now and some wanted to open presents tomorrow. So we'll do main presents tomorrow and these now." Tony explained. They'd decided a few months ago that there were just too many of them for everyone to get everyone else a present. So they'd decided on Secret Santa and they'd decide between themselves who was getting personal presents.

"Who would want to do it today?"

"The orphanage didn't believe in Christmas, so we would always celebrate whatever we could on Christmas Eve." Clint explained, and Skye nodded along.

"Right let's get started" Natasha said, getting up to hand out the presents, grinning at Steve as he helped her. Eventually, they had handed everything out, sitting back down. Natasha tucked her feet under Steve's thighs, warming up her cold toes as everyone started opening their presents.

"Who got Nat? She hasn't got anything" Tony asked, noticing her lack of present. She was surprised he noticed, but then again, she had been watching him carefully for his reaction of her gift. "That was me, I gave it to her earlier in private." Coulson said, sending her a smile.

"That's spoiling the fun Coulson."

"Alright Stark" Coulson waved him off. It was true, Coulson had given Natasha her gift the night before…

36 Hours Ago

"Fury." Natasha said sharply into her phone. She was pissed at him. Extremely pissed.

"Romanoff?" Fury knew exactly why she was calling, and yet he still answered like he had no idea, only stoking the fire inside her. "Where's Steve?" She snapped.

"He's on a mission." He said, and she knew that. But he was supposed to be back by now. He was supposed to be back by Christmas. "A mission that would only take 5 days. It's been 9."

"There were unexpected complications. You should understand that, terrorists don't take holidays." She understood the situation, but that didn't change how she felt about it. She wanted Steve home, she wanted to be with him on Christmas. And she wanted Fury to know how annoyed she was. "I understand that sir, however it's Christmas in two days."

"Didn't take you for the sentimental type Romanoff." She could practically hear his smirk. Yes, maybe she was more sentimental than usual, but he didn't need to know that.

"You know I'm not. But Steve is. He should be at home with his family, not in Tunisia." She defended herself, and she could practically hear Fury's smirk at the word family. At one point in her life she would have laughed at her behaviour, but Steve was her family, and no one should spend Christmas without their family.

"How do you know he's in-actually don't answer that. I don't want to know. There's nothing I can do. We can't extract him, all flights in and out of Tunisia are grounded. Not even Shield can get in. The storm's too dangerous." Fury almost sounded apologetic, and if she wasn't so angry about the whole situation, she would've appreciated the gesture.

"I understand." And she did. She'd been watching the news carefully, the storm was only growing and the death toll was starting to rise. She knew Steve would be fine, but he was stuck. She knew that before she'd even made the phone call, but she couldn't help but hope that Fury had something had something up his sleeve.

"Sorry Natasha, if there was something I could do, I would. Merry Christmas."

"Merry fucking Christmas Nick." She hung up on him. She let a silent tear roll down her face, partly in anger, but mostly just acceptance of the whole situation. She hadn't realised how much she wanted to spend Christmas with him until it seemed that he wasn't going to make it. Little did she know Skye had been eavesdropping on her conversation the entire time. She felt bad for Natasha, no one should have to spend the holidays without their loved ones, that's when the idea struck her.

"Coulson! I think I figured out what you should get for Natasha for Secret Santa!" She raced into the meeting room where he was working, panting to regain her breath.

"Ever heard of knocking Skye?" Coulson asked, looking up from the table and raising his eyebrows at her. "Nope, but I know what Natasha wants for Christmas." Skye grinned proudly.

"How did you know I got Nat?" He asked, looking down at his phone to try and finish an email.

"You left your laptop open with the search 'what to get a Russian spy for Christmas'. I'm assuming it wasn't useful." She raised an eyebrow at him, and he couldn't help but chuckle. Besides, he had known it was a pointless search. "You could say that again."

"So you're stuck." Skye stated, and Coulson just sighed, locking his phone and giving her his full attention. "What do you get for the deadliest woman on earth?"

"Her boyfriend" Coulson was shocked at her words, but tried to play it cool. He couldn't believe that Skye knew about Steve ad Natasha, in fact, he wouldn't have put it past Tony to send Skye to find out if they were dating. "Natasha doesn't have a boyfriend."

"Come on Coulson, I know you know about her and Steve. You're not an idiot, and neither is May. And don't think I don't know about you two either, you're not as subtle as you think you are." He did a slight double take, but he wasn't surprised. Him and May weren't trying very hard to keep their relationship a secret, unlike Steve and Natasha, even though he was fairly sure pretty much everyone knew about them at this point.

"You were saying?" He gestured for her to continue, and she sat down on a chair, crossing her legs underneath her.

"I overheard her talking to Fury, apparently Steve's not going to be back for Christmas. She seemed pretty upset." Skye's heart sank just thinking about Natasha's conversation. "And you've met Natasha, she never gets upset about anything, ever. She cried Coulson. Like an actual tear."

"I don't see how I can help." He knew Skye had a point. He'd known Natasha for a very long time, and not once had he ever seen her cry. But if Fury couldn't help, there wasn't anything he could do.

"Fury loves you, you must be able to do something." Coulson wasn't convinced, but he let out a resigned sigh, giving in to whatever Skye had planned. "Find his mission details."

"Already done" She said, passing him a tablet with all the relevant information on. He read through it, frowning. "They can't get an extraction into Tunisia. There's a storm and all flight paths are blocked. All planes in and out of Tunisia are grounded. Shield couldn't even get a plane in if they wanted to.

"So what do we do?" She asked, resting her hand on her hands, peering at him curiously.

"There's not much we can do Skye. We'd need to get his location and find a way into the country, neither of which is going to happen." He'd reviewed the information multiple times, and as much as it hurt him to admit, there was nothing anyone could do but wait the weather out.

"Finding his location is easy, and the god of thunder is literally sitting downstairs." Skye pointed out, and he couldn't help but laugh at her determination.

"You're really want to get him home don't you?"

"No one should be alone on Christmas." Her tone briefly changed, and now he understood why she was so passionate about this. She'd been alone for so much of her life, and she knew Natasha had too, she didn't want that to continue if she could help it.

"We're gonna need a pilot." He conceded, and her face broke out into a grin. "What's this about needing a pilot?" Clint asked, walking into the room. Skye sent a smug smirk in Coulson's direction.

"Alright. Let's do this"

6 hours later the three of them and Thor were on a quinjet and near Tunisia. "Skye, you got a location yet?" Coulson asked as he looked through all the files they had compounded about his mission.

"Uh yeah. Mission files says he's located in the capital." Skye tossed him a file, letting him read through the information. It was as vague as you could get, even in Shield, where their specialty were vague files.

"And you can't be more specific?" Coulson almost snapped at her, because the capital was a large place, but she was doing her best. They couldn't find out much from social media either because the storm had knocked out all communication lines throughout most of North Africa. "Someone tweeted out 4 days ago that they thought they saw Captain America. Tagged near Belvedere Park."

"Natasha has a safehouse near there. It's probably where he's hiding out." Clint threw his own information into the mix, pointing where Natasha's safe house was on the map.

"Great. Clint, keep the plane in the air as long as you can, avoiding having to land if possible. Skye and I will go get the Captain. Thor, keep the skies clear." Coulson ordered, and Clint mock saluted him, his face split into a grin.

"Copy that Coulson. Coming into land now" He hovered a few feet above the ground, letting Skye and Coulson jump out the plane before he raised the cargo ramp again, leaving Skye and Coulson outside.

"God it's cold." Skye complained, wrapping her arms around her to try and keep warm.

"Come on, this way." Coulson took off, moving through the muddy grass. She jogged to catch up with him, falling into step beside him. "So you know where this safehouse is right?" She asked, looking over to him. "Right?" She asked again after getting no answer.

"Vaguely."

"Great." She moaned, pulling her coat tighter around herself. "Quit complaining. This was your idea."

"Ma'am you need to get inside." They heard Steve's voice over the wind and rain across the park, helping out a young woman get to shelter.

"Rogers!" Skye yelled, drawing his attention as he jogged over to them.

"Skye? Coulson? What are you doing here? It's not safe." He had so many questions, he knew nothing was coming in or out of Tunisia, so how were they here? And why were they even here? He'd completed the mission, but Fury had called saying they couldn't get in any extraction. That was 5 days ago and the storm had only gotten worse.

"We came to get you. It's Christmas, we should all be together." Coulson explained, having to shout over the wind. "Plus, a certain Russian spy was pretty upset you weren't going to be back in time."

Steve's heart broke slightly, he missed Natasha and he wanted nothing more than to spend the holiday with her, but hearing that she wanted that just as much made him miss her even more. "How'd you even get in here? It's a pretty bad storm, no planes could possibly get in." Steve finally asked his main question. They started walking back to where the plane was hovering above the ground. "We have the best pilot in the world and a god. We managed"

"Thank you." He said sincerely. They made it back to the jet and immediately he was crushed in a hug from Thor.

"Brother, I have missed you." Thor's booming voice was audible over the wind even as the ramp closed behind them. He chuckled, wriggling his way out of his tight grip and sitting down on one of the benches. "I missed you too Thor."

"Lady Natasha has missed you more I think." Steve let out a small laugh seeing Thor's sincere face. He wasn't sure how much he actually knew about their relationship, but this seemed to be his way of saying he approved of it.

"Quit chatting boys, let's get this bird in the air."

She was sat on the floor in front of the Christmas tree, staring at the lights flash and twinkle. Her eyes were puffy from crying, but she had long run out of tears. She had some files on the floor around her, desperately trying to keep her mind off Steve, but she'd given up with them a long time ago. She played with the bottle of scotch, taking a swig from it, her glass long forgotten.

"Drinking at 4 in the morning. Either you've had a long night, or you're starting very early." Steve's voice rang out from behind her.

"Long night." She said on auto pilot, not even thinking about the fact it was Steve, and that he was home. "Well don't let me stop you." He laughed. She twisted around, eyes widening as she looked at him, her face morphing into an ear-splitting grin.

"Steve!" She laughed, stumbling off the floor and jumping into his waiting arms, wrapping her legs tightly around him. She clung onto him tightly, afraid to let go as she buried her face in his neck.

"D'you miss me?" He laughed, kissing her gently. She pulled her head away from him slightly, looking into his eyes deeply. "I thought you weren't going to make it home for Christmas." She choked up somewhat, land only then did he realise how much this had affected her.

"Me? Never. I wouldn't dare miss Christmas." He smirked, pressing kisses to every inch of her face, holding her tight in his arms. She let out a small chuckle, burying her face in his neck to hide the tear slipping out of her eye. "How'd you get back. Fury said-"

"Coulson, Clint, Skye and Thor came and got me." He explained, brushing her hair with his nose, prompting her to look at him. "Really?" She looked so young as he brought one hand up to brush away her tears.

"Actually, I forgot about this." He pulled out a Santa hat and loosely placed it on his head, still holding her in his arms before handing her a card.
"What is this?" She raised an eyebrow at him questioningly, dropping out of his arms to open the card. A smile graced her features as she read it.

"Coulson gave it to me. Merry Christmas Tash."

"You're seriously not going to tell us what you got?" Tony bugged her, sighing in exasperation when he got nothing in return. "It's none of your business."

"Was it a weird sex thing? I bet it was a weird sex thing."

"It wasn't a weird sex thing." Tony continued asking questions, but she tuned him out, instead looking at her phone, noticing that it was getting close to midnight. "We need to go." She whispered into Steve's ear, showing him the time. It was only 11, but it would take them at least half an hour to get to Brooklyn. Steve wanted to go to a midnight mass like he had as a kid, and whilst she had no interest in religion, she had an interest in Steve, so she agreed to go with him.

"I'll meet you downstairs in 10 minutes." He left the room unnoticed by anyone as they argued about something she wasn't paying attention to.

"Where'd he go?" Clint asked quietly, scooting into the space Steve had left behind. "Midnight mass. Cover for us?" She looked at him with pleading eyes to which he rolled his in return.

"What would you do without me?" He smirked, hitting her on the arm and taking her beer. "Thank you."

She got up, escaping without drawing any attention to herself before meeting Steve downstairs in the lobby. He handed her a coat, pressing a soft kiss onto her lips before they headed to his bike. "There's no way I'm gonna get you to wear a helmet is there?"

"Nope."

"Thank you for coming with me." He said, slipping his hand into hers as they walked around Brooklyn. He knew she'd felt awkward during the mass, but he was so grateful that she came with him.

"There's nowhere else I'd rather be." She flashed him a smile, adjusting the beanie on her head, covering her bright red hair. "I know that's not true Nat. You're not exactly religious."

"Not in that way, but religion is just believing in something, and having faith that everything is happening for a reason. I have that." She blushed slightly, but being around Steve made her be annoyingly honest.

"Yeah?" He wrapped his arm around her shoulders, letting her slip her arm around her waist. "I have you. You're my reason." She smiled at him before burying her face in his side out of embarrassment.

"I love you." He chuckled, placing a kiss on her head. "я тоже тебя люблю." Her voice was muffled by his side before he titled her head to give her a proper kiss. As he did, he noticed a snowflake land on her nose, and he looked up to the sky to see them starting to fall.

"It's snowing." He commented, sticking out his tongue to catch a snowflake. Natasha couldn't help but laugh at the childlike joy on his face. He stuck his tongue back in, looking down at her. "It's pretty romantic, snowing on Christmas Eve."
"Technically, it's Christmas Day." She smirked at him, causing him to roll his eyes and kiss her fondly.

"In the movies, this is about the time the guy asks the girl to marry her." She'd forced him to watch enough romantic Christmas films in the past month to know this, and frankly, he hated that he knew this now.

"Are you asking?" Her face was somewhere between taken aback and amused. She couldn't entirely tell if he was being serious or not, and that terrified her. "Only if you want me to." He said genuinely, seeing the look on her face.

"I don't think we're ready for that." She said nervously, trying to gauge his reaction. He breathed out a sigh of relief, and she let out a laugh. "Thank god, me either."

"You ready to go back home?" She asked, pressing a kiss to his cheek before relaxing back into his side.

"Can we just walk around for a while?"

"Anything you want."

AN: If you have any ideas that you desperately, or not so desperately want incorporated into this story, please let me know and I'll try to write them in. I hope you enjoyed, please follow, favourite and review. Constructive criticism is always welcome and appreciated.