"Anyone going to tell me what Christmas is?"

Stark gasped loudly. "Nova, you poor, poor girl." He placed his hands on her shoulders, shaking his head in mock disappointment. "Alright team, we have a new mission. We must teach this poor uneducated girl the wonders of the most Amazing Holiday Ever."

Romanoff rolled her eyes. "Here we go."

Everyone seemed to have suggestions for things to do, or just comments on the holiday. "We should do a Secret Santa this year!"

"We have to get Nova involved in Christmas decorations."

"We're going to have a Christmas party right?"

"Do we have to work on Christmas? I don't want to have to patrol . . . "

"I can't wait for Christmas!"

"Tony, I thought you were an atheist."

"I can celebrate Christmas nonreligiously, you know."

"You know, none of that helps explain what Christmas is," Nova said, feigning annoyance. "Or why it happens on December 25 but you're preparing for it in November."

"Christmas is a big deal. We should have started preparing weeks ago but you showed up and . . . " Rogers made a vague gesture with his hand. "Someone will have to teach you all the Christmas songs! And you have to try gingerbread . . . and learn how to put up a tree and . . . -"

"Yeah okay, we get it," Barnes said, shoving him. "Nova, Christmas is a traditional Christian holiday where Christians celebrate the Lord and Savior's birth and pretty much everyone else just celebrates having a lot of presents-"

"No it's a holiday where we celebrate giving. It's called the season of giving for a reason-"

"No it's a time where people buy extravagant useless gifts for each other for no real reason other than tradi-"

Nova looked extremely confused. "Uh, okay, that's nice."

It took everyone a few minutes to settle down and stop arguing about what exactly Christmas was about, and longer for them to explain the many many Christmas traditions that they took part in. It took even longer for Stark to convince everyone to participate in a Secret Santa a month before Christmas, and even longer for Nova to convince everyone that Loki should be allowed to participate.

He thought it was nice of Nova to remember that he existed when the rest of the Avengers seemed intent on forgetting the existed. It had only been a week, after all, since he. . .

Almost killed and or permanently maimed your only friend?

He winced internally. His consciousness was brutally honest.

Why do you think? Some part of you has to tell the truth sometimes.

"Okay, Loki, your turn." Rogers held out a hat filled with a few slips of paper. "You pick one, and you have to give them a thoughtful and considerate gift."

Loki refrained from rolling his eyes. "Whatever you say." Who would he get? Someone he didn't care about, someone he could just buy clothes for or some random book and get it over with. He stuck his hand in the hat and made a big show of feeling around for a slip of paper.

"For goodness sake, just pick a piece of paper, please."

He would not point out the hilarious alliteration of that sentence. He would not. Loki was about to unfold the slip of paper he had chosen when Nova stopped him.

"No, you have to wait until we aren't around. It has to be secret. Didn't you just hear Tony say that?"

No, he hadn't, and why would he care what 'Tony' had just said?

Jealous.

Perhaps he would consult Nova on what to get. She would know what to do, or at the very least, she would know what not to do. He could already imagine all the possible scenarios. If he got Romanoff, she'd be happy with any kind of weapon. Stark would be fine with a textbook . . . probably. Whatever, he didn't care about them. Maybe he should get them a snake and watch their look of alarm when it lunged at their face. . .

Straying a bit off topic, aren't we.

Shut up.

"Okay everyone, remember, if you got yourself, feel free to switch with someone else okay? And make sure your gifts are thoughtful and appropriate." The last part was definitely addressed to Loki. Snakes were both thoughtful and appropriate, weren't they? "You have a week to think of a gift." There were a couple of groans at this, from people who wanted to invest actual time and effort into their gifts and felt that a week wasn't enough time. What a waste.

Everyone else left the room, eager to learn who they were getting gifts for, and start planning. Loki didn't really care who he got, but he went to his room anyway. Once he had shut the door, he sat down on his bed and carefully unfolded the small slip of paper. Who would be the unfortunate person to get a snake?

He read the name, paused, and did a double take. Written on the slip, in Rogers' annoyingly neat handwriting, was Nova's name. Great, there was no way he was getting her a snake.

There was a knock on the door. Loki shoved the paper into his pocket. "Come in, the door is unlocked."

Nova opened the door and stuck her head in. "Who did you get?"

"I thought you said it had to be a secret?"

"Right. I was wondering if you . . . wanted to go shopping," she asked hesitantly.

"I thought you weren't allowed to leave the Tower."

She sighed and leaned against the door. "Do you honestly think I would be here asking you if I hadn't already asked for permission to go?" She probably had. She wasn't the kind of person to go through with something unless she had gotten it all arranged and had thought every step of it through.

"Look, I don't think I should go out. I'm not exactly popular with the general Midgardian population."

Well, that was an underestimate. There were quite a few people who would kill him on the spot, not that a puny Midgardian would have any chance against him. It would be a shame to kill someone when he had just barely secured a spot with the Avengers. Most people tolerated him, or contented themselves with glaring at him and generally making his life as miserable as they possibly could. It wasn't like he went out a lot, but when he did, he would always get the most unnerving glares.

She didn't say a word, just gave him a pleading look.

He hesitated for a second, and then relented. "Fine, let's go."

That was how he found himself on a bus, surrounded by people staring daggers at him while Nova hummed obliviously. "Why couldn't we just have taken a taxi?" he hissed to her.

"Public transportation is good for the environment."

"What? Why should we care about the environment?"

"The article Wanda showed me said 'take care of the Earth because there is no planet B."

Loki groaned. "You're telling me that we, aliens, are taking a crowded bus instead of a nice taxi because Midgardians can't take care of their own planet?"

"Yep." She looked outside. "Oh, I think this is our bus stop."

As he exited the bus, he was completely sure that someone tried to trip him, but he held his tongue. Nothing like getting in a fight to get him kicked out of Stark Tower. He was so preoccupied imagining the ways he would have punished that person if he had been on Asgard (a spell to turn them into a snake, a spell that bound their legs together so they had to hop around all the time, a spell that made them meow like a cat; the options were endless) that he almost ran into Nova. She had paused outside of a bookstore.

"Let's go into this one." She opened the door and held it for Loki.

"Why would you bother buying a book for someone? Stark Tower has an entire library."

"Shush. The person I got likes books and I'm going to get them one. What about you?"

"I've got a bit of an idea of something to get them."

Liar.

"Oh that's nice. So . . ." She drew out the 'so', her eyebrows drawn. "I don't know very much about Midgardian books. Where are the best books?"

"My personal favorite would be the fantasy books," he said, pointing at the 'fantasy / sci-fi' section of the bookstore. It was funny how similar fantasy was to the real world, although the authors certainly didn't know that when they wrote their books. He found it fascinating how creative Midgardians could get in imagining whole worlds, and yet skip over some things that were no less fantasy than a rock was.

"Okay, I guess that's as good a place as any to find a book. Any particular ones that you've read that were really good?" She walked over to the fantasy shelf, her eyes darting back and forth as she scanned the shelves.

She was wearing a blue shirt under the long coat that she had reclaimed from the Avengers. Apparently Stark had attempted to take away all her clothes to study, but Nova had managed to at least keep her coat. She had explained that it had 'sentimental value', and that was more than enough of a reason for the Avengers. He couldn't help but feel like she looked awfully pretty in it.

If that's not a declaration of love, I don't know what is.

Just because he wasn't interested in her didn't mean he couldn't point out how nice she looked. . .right?

"Hello? Loki? Book suggestions?" Nova called over her shoulder.

That snapped Loki out of his thoughts.

"Oh right. I read the Hunger Games once. If you've ever read the Grishaverse series, that was pretty good. . .also, Shakespeare is great." He listed the many other good books he had read in his stay on Midgard.

His tastes in books varied, of course, but he was always drawn back to the magic and myth of fantasy. Speaking of myth, the so-called 'Norse myths' were inaccurate to the point of being almost amusing, almost because it was hard reading about yourself giving birth to an eight-legged horse no matter the circumstances. Also, the whole part about his actions causing Ragnarok rang a little bit too close to home.

She looked thoughtfully at the books. "Okay. Well, I'm going to go browse around." She paused for a second, and then hesitantly added, "I guess I'll leave you here?"

He couldn't help but notice the tone of her voice, but that could mean anything.

Are you deaf? She clearly doesn't want you around anymore. I wonder what you did to annoy her.

He ignored the voice in his head and started studying the various books on the shelves. He took down a few that looked interesting enough, flipped through them, and then put them back. The voice in his head seemed to be waiting for him to answer. Finally, he couldn't take it any longer.

Do you really think she's annoyed with me?

Why do you care so much?

Stop mocking me. You clearly want to explain yourself, so tell me.

She took you all the way out here to go to the bookstore, and then she basically tells you to go away while she goes shopping? Obviously you did something to annoy her.

He leaned his forehead against the bookshelf.

While you're actually listening to me, why don't we talk about what you're getting her? It can't be something second-rate. It can't show just how little you actually know about her. Basically, it can't show what a terrible friend you are-

"I'm pretty sure that's not how you read a book. Unless you can absorb all the words through your skull, that is."

He looked up at her in surprise. "That was fast. Did you find what you were looking for?"

She nodded excitedly, holding up a bag with the name of the bookstore emblazoned on it. Whatever she had got, they looked heavy. Whoever she had gotten was very lucky. He was sure she had picked something that they would enjoy.

Is that jealousy I hear?

Just shut up.

Why should I, when it's just so fun to push your buttons? Don't get upset. After all, this is the same thing you do to other people.

Loki ignored the voice in his head. "Can I see the books you got?"

"What? No! It's a surprise. I can't have you accidentally telling anyone what I got. Are you done, um," she waved her hand at him. "Browsing?"

He nodded, the corners of his mouth quirking upwards. "Let's go. And this time, can we please take a taxi?"

ENDNOTES: Hello again! I'm not super happy with this chapter, and it's a bit on the short side, but I still hope you enjoyed it!