It starts as an accident.
They'd been following the somewhat unreliable source's report about a potential Hydra cell in Savannah. He'd never been there before and was unfamiliar with the territory, but Natasha and Clint were somewhere in Kazakhstan, Tony was on some business trip to Nigeria, Sam was still in D.C. Banner hadn't been heard from in months and Thor was off-world, so Steve and Wanda were up to bat. Vision would only draw attention so he was left at the Compound.
He grimaces as they squint down the street and cross when the crosswalk beeps at them.
He and Wanda are walking, hand in hand, browsing tourist shops and cafes. She'd originally blushed and refused to hold his hand when he'd offered. But he'd held it out to her without hesitation and said, "Once upon a time another red-head, who I also view as a sister, told me that public displays of affection make people very uncomfortable, so it's best to use that to our advantage when two Avengers are walking around." His eyebrow raises in challenge and she narrows her eyes at him.
He knows she can't back down from a challenge.
When she slides her cool thin fingers into his, she blushes again and he laughs at her softly.
"You think I joined this mission trying to trick you into holding my hand? Last I heard, you and Vision were looking pretty cozy, I wouldn't dare step in the way of that." He gives a mocking grin and she scrunches her nose at him. A vision of him standing on top of a nearby car and belting out the Star Spangled Man With a Plan flashes in red before his eyes and he laughs harder.
"That would be entertaining, but let's stick to hunting down crazed Hydra agents okay?"
"That would probably be wise." She says simply, smiling still. "Your hand is very warm." She comments suddenly.
"I know, sorry about that, just an effect of the serum. If it gets too warm you let me know." He chuckles and she just scrunches her nose in thought.
"No, it's nice. Comforting." She says off-handedly, looking at the menu of a nearby cafe and he can't help the warmth that seeps into his chest at the comment.
They enter, after what they deem an appropriate amount of time, the tourist shop that their source has designated as the possible headquarters. They browse slowly. Making a show of pointing things out to each other to seem like they are a normal indecisive couple. Steve is studiously going over the merits of each refrigerator magnet to her when he hears a muffled grating sound and feels a weird push of air around his feet.
He bends down, pretending to study the more ignored and dusty magnets when he feels it again. His senses tingle. Somewhere a door was opening and shutting, pushing the air around. He grabs absently at the display, something hard and plastic filing his palm. He stands up and takes in the shape of the store, while pretending to study the magnet in his hand. His peripheral vision spotted a back entrance that had a connecting hallway but his nose had not picked up fresh air. It had been stale inside air moving and that meant, somewhere, there was a hiding place here. The grating sound happens again and his heart speeds up.
He could be wrong. It could have been nothing, maybe a trick of his senses, sometimes they picked up too much, but his over heightened perception tells him that he isn't wrong.
"Hey babe?" He calls, only briefly stuttering on the term of endearment he's never used before in his life.
"Yeah honey?" She calls out smoothly, covering his hesitation.
"What do you think about maybe getting matching mugs?" The code phrase they've decided upon, dependent on whatever item was necessary works perfectly. The slight man behind the counter glances up at them with disinterest and goes back to staring at his phone.
Steve moves slowly to the mugs, which are set against the wall near the back where the hallway to the employees entrance sits. There had to be another door that led somewhere that wasn't outside.
"Oh, baby that sounds like such a cuuuute idea!" Wanda purrs as she sidles up to his side. He wants to roll his eyes at her exaggerated tone but now is not the time. Wanda stands there, describing the pros and cons of each mug as Steve pretends to listen but actually studies the store. He used his enhanced hearing, closing out every sound that isn't important. As each sound is categorized and quieted, a beeping that doesn't match the frequency of any technology he can see in the room becomes apparent. A keypad, or car reader maybe... he isn't sure.
"I think you better pick them out." Steve says ruefully, "You've got better taste than I do. Maybe something to match the new china dishes from the wedding?" Her head snaps up, confusion in her eyes for a brief second before it settles into something calm again. She hadn't been expecting him to use that code phrase, but she nods thoughtfully and plays along.
"You're right, I do have better taste. I think these will be perfect!" She grabs two dainty mugs that are white with dark oak trees printed on them. "I'll go pay for these real quick and then can we grab a bite to eat?"
"Yeah, but no more fast food." He says with his brows comically furrowed.
The hesitation in her eyes returns briefly as she walks towards the counter. She stands on her tip toes and sets the mugs down on the counter, chatting with the bored looking attendant. She is leaning heavily on the glass counter and asking about all his favorite local restaurants. Steve waits.
The man turns to grab a bag when Steve watches Wanda send a ripple through the glass. It shatters into a million pieces, and Wanda begins screaming and shouting. Apologizing but also acting frantic as the attendant just looks shell shocked at the counter.
Steve dashes around the corner, once again listening for just the beeping he'd heard before. He lets it lead him down the small hallway and to a vending machine. For one second he thinks maybe he'd misheard— that the vending machine was the cause of the beeping, but he unplugs the machine to be sure and the beeping continues.
He can still hear Wanda carrying on and he smiles at her charade. He shoves the vending machine to the side, the grating noise he heard earlier now explained, and a small door, hidden by the machine appears. He kneels in front of it and examines the keypad. He sends a silent thanks to Natasha from afar and pulls out her device that reads keypad codes by the markings on the buttons.
After one false try, the lock clicks green and the door opens smoothly. He crawls through and stands up into a small brightly lit room. Once upon a time it could have been a closet, or a storage space or something else entirely, but now it is filled with screens, filing cabinets, and two guys who look stunned at his entrance.
"Fellas." Steve says, before charging them.
—
The clean up was easy. The two hadn't even had time to stand up before Steve had knocked them out. He left to check on Wanda who was holding the man behind the counter in a tight grasp of red as he looked on shocked and angered.
"Find something interesting?" She asks in a gleeful tone.
"Oh yeah, you?"
"Just this little man who thought it was appropriate to pull a gun on a customer!" Her mock affront draws Steve's eyes to the small pistol laying at Wanda's feet and he's glad she remembers her training.
"Good work. Let me get these two other goons and we'll call this into Fury. I'm sure he'll be happy to go through their computers for intel."
The man, who Wanda still holds, begins to shout angry threats at them and Steve picks up a stuffed animal and throws it at him. It smacks him in the face hard enough to stun him but the soft nature of the toy didn't cause any injury.
"Shut it." Steve orders. The man stays silent and Wanda browses the sticker selection as they wait for backup.
—-
"This was supposed to be a reconnaissance mission." Fury snaps at him over the phone.
"Yeah well, I'm supposed to be retired. Yet here we are." He can hear Fury sigh, but he knows he's glad for the intel and that will be the end of the argument.
"Okay, get back to the compound. Would you be willing to go out again if something important comes up in this intel before the others are back?" Steve glances at Wanda who is bouncing on her toes, excited about what they accomplished and looking at him waiting to hear how the conversation is going.
"Yeah," he thinks Fury can hear his grin over the phone, her enthusiasm catching, "I'm willing." He hangs up and Wanda looks at him expectantly. "We're wanted back at the compound." She deflates a little, so he can't help but add, "But Fury is glad for the intel, and I think we might have time for a quick brunch."
She lights up and begins showing him this french toast place that she'd been hoping to visit before they left. He's glad he can oblige since they had technically been allotted a few days to scope the place out. He'd sort of ruined that by getting the bad guys early.
So when Fury calls to complain that they missed their pickup time, he just tells him they'll find their own way back to New York if need be, and listens to Fury stew, then when he barks a new pick up time, he can't seem to keep from laughing.
—-
He steps into his room at the compound. He's happy to be home and ready to be clean. He sheds his clothes and places them in the laundry chute, walking towards the bathroom.
"Captain Rogers." FRIDAY speaks.
Even though he knows it's an AI, he still feels somewhat embarrassed as a female voice speaks to him while he's naked.
"Yes, FRIDAY?" He says a bit nervously.
"There is something in one of your pockets. Would you like to remove it before I send your clothes to the laundry room?"
Steve's eyebrows furrow. He's never left anything in his pockets before. His ma would have smacked his head to leave anything in his pockets to get ruined back in the day, that's not a lesson he'd forgotten.
He looks around and sees his phone, keys, and wallet sitting on his nightstand.
"My pants pockets?"
"No, your jacket pocket." This confuses him even further. He doesn't remember putting anything in his jacket to begin with. He gets worried about someone dropping something into his pockets without his knowledge, which he thinks unlikely but he strides quickly over to the chute, pulling out the thin blue jacket. He reaches in the right side pocket and his hand closes over something hard and plastic.
He pulls it out and stares at the small magnet. A 3D plastic form of an old historic building and an oak tree stare back at him. The words Savannah, Georgie are written in flowy script.
His eyes widen in realization, "I think I stole this." He says out loud. He half expects FRIDAY to admonish him, but she stays quiet.
He must have shoved it in his pocket when he walked over to the mugs. He starts to feel guilty but then remembers the thugs running the place. The little sticker on the back says $2.99. And while he'd never do it again... he can't imagine it would be too terrible if he kept it. Just this once.
He showers and towels off. He runs a towel over his hair absentmindedly as he stares at the magnet on the nightstand.
He thinks of Tony's pristine and modern kitchen. A smile grows wide on his face.
—
He's sitting in a chair, facing the kitchen. A cup of coffee in one hand, and a book in the other. He hears Wanda come in but doesn't look up. She opens the fridge taking out a bottle of orange juice, and he thinks for a second that maybe it was dumb idea when he hears her gasp.
He looks up and she's staring at the fridge, an orange juice bottle gripped tightly in her hand. Her eyes trained on the magnet.
She turns to him, eyes wide and he smiles, eyebrows raising, at her. The smile that lights up her entire face makes whatever harping he's going to get from Tony later worth it. Orange juice forgotten, she turns back to the fridge ripping it off the door. She studies it and holds it to her chest. She reverently puts it back and looks at him with the most mischievous smile he'd ever seen.
"Tony is going to hate it." She says gleefully.
"I know." Steve responds, his own tone bright and cheery. She claps her hands and then takes the orange juice and a glass over to the chair next to him.
She fills her glass and then holds it up to him. For a split second he thinks she's offering him her cup, then he realizes what she wants. He lifts his mug and clinks it gently against hers.
"To missions accomplished and memories made." She says happily, her chin resting on her knees. He nods in agreement and then she adds, "and to pissing off Tony."
He snorts into his coffee. "Yeah, that too."
—
Two Weeks Later
Tony stretches as he walks off the jet. He settles into his room and catches up on some emails and phone calls that had been hard to deal with in Nigeria. He gets cleaned up and takes the night to catch up on sleep to hopefully help prevent jet lag.
He ventures out the next morning, in search of something to eat, but mostly in need of coffee.
He walks into the common area and smells the beautiful aroma.
"Oh, that smells like Colombian." He comments out loud as he nears the kitchen.
"It is." Says Natasha with a look on her face that he can't quite understand. He needs coffee before he can decipher a Russian spy.
He walks over to the coffee maker and pours a cup. He turns to leave.
"There's a new creamer in the fridge." Natasha says casually, not looking up from her tablet.
Something about her tone, and also the fact that she knows he hasn't taken his coffee anyway but black since highschool has him pausing in place.
He turns slowly towards the fridge and his eyes lock on them.
He whips back to Natasha. "Who?"
She still doesn't look up but a very amused smile crosses her face. "Your guess is as good as mine."
His eyes train back to the three hideous magnets attached to the pristine fridge.
He steps forward and reads them. Savannah, Georgia; Bogota, Columbia; and Trenton, New Jersey.
His eyes narrow and he sends a text:
Meeting in the briefing room, 15 minutes.
—
Steve hears his phone beep. He looks at the message and he grins.
—-
Steve had already prepared for this. He'd classified the last three weeks of missions and erased the footage in the tower showing the kitchen fridge. He knew Tony would try to find out before the meeting so he eliminated that possibility.
Sitting in a rolling leather chair at the head of the table, waiting for the others to join him makes him second guess whether he can pull this off. Then he remembers all the pranks Tony has pulled on him over the years and his shoulders settle into confidence.
Clint is the last to enter and this makes Tony narrow his eyes in suspicion.
"Who was it?" Tony asks. His gaze resting heavily on Clint, briefly on Natasha, skipping over Steve and Vision entirely and only glancing at Wanda before laying his palms flat on the glass table.
"You're going to need to be more specific, Tony." Vision states flatly, "I have no idea why this meeting was called."
"I've already tried looking into the footage and checking who went where on what missions. And I'm annoyed to say that this particular miscreant has covered their tracks surprisingly well, and even has FRIDAY aiding and abetting their nonsense."
Tony's eyes briefly land on Natasha before settling on Clint.
"You still haven't said what this is about Tony." Steve says calmly, letting some confusion color his voice.
"Don't pretend you all haven't seen them!" Without turning his hand flails behind him towards the direction of the kitchen. "The magnets. Those plastic atrocities marring the look of my beautiful modern kitchen."
"They're just magnets, Tony." Natasha says with a grin, "what's the big deal."
"It may not have been a big deal if the person responsible wasn't being such a sneak about it."
Steve keeps his face clear of any expression. Wanda's eyes only briefly touch his and an understanding to keep quiet passes between them. He'd brought back the Columbia one, and she'd whispered that the New Jersey one had been her. This was now a team mission: Piss off Tony as much as possible because Tony hated not knowing things. They'd never failed a mission before, and they weren't about to start now.
Natasha was studying each person around the table. Steve knew she didn't like being out of the loop, however she enjoyed Tony's squirming enough to not ruin the game, by announcing her innocence. But he could see she intended to figure it out as soon as possible, and preferably before the man whose face was turning redder by the second.
Clint finally spoke up. "Well it wasn't me, can I go now? There's some new arrows I'm itching to try." He stands up and begins to leave when Tony points an accusing finger at him.
"We're not done here Barton! You're number 1 on my suspect list with all the ridiculous crap you usually pull."
The accusation causes Clint's face to pull back in a shocked smile, which has the exact effect that Steve could hope for.
"SO it WAS YOU." Tony basically screeches.
"It wasn't!" Clint huffs, throwing his hands in the hair.
"You're smiling!"
"I'm a smiley guy, Stark! And I'm leaving." He turns to go but Stark puts a hand out to stop them. "Take them down."
"Stark it's your own damn fridge, take them down yourself."
Stark glares at him and then sits heavily in a chair, glowering at all of them. Steve wants to smile so bad, to laugh at the predictability of it all, but he keeps his eyes steady and his eyebrows in a 'I can't believe we're arguing about this' state.
Somewhere, when the back of his mind was hatching this ridiculous scheme, he knew Tony would not be able to just get rid of them and move on. He'd have to figure out who was toying with him first.
"I'm going to figure this out." Tony states, eyeing each of them with a deadly stare. "And whoever is messing with me will rue the day." He stands up dramatically and breezes out of the room.
No one speaks. He can tell Natasha is hoping someone will confess, but he knows Tony is still listening through FRIDAY, and he'd already had to plead with her not to tell Tony anything. He knew that AIs couldn't really do emotions, but something in her voice had displayed some level of mirth at the game he was playing.
"So." Clint accuses, hands on his hips. "Which one of you is responsible for the fact that Tony is yelling at me?" His eyebrow raises, and it lands on Natasha, but she stays quiet, just eyeing them around the room.
"It was not I." Vision states, standing. Wanda chuckles at this, because not even Tony would think of accusing Vision of such a thing. He was growing more humanlike by the week, but pulling pranks really wasn't in his wheelhouse.
"How do we know it's not you?" Natasha asked, grinning like a wildcat, "You could be just acting innocent."
"Maybe it's just Tony trying to trip us up." Wanda adds, musing.
The group thinks on this, it wouldn't be terribly unlike him to pull a prank to mix it up and add some tension to the team, but Steve knew that explanation wouldn't hold up.
"Well, whoever it is needs to stop messing around. We don't have time for immaturity like this." Steve says flatly, in a bare imitation of his Captain's voice. He stands up and leaves the room as if the whole thing was a waste of his time.
He feels all of their eyes follow him for a second before turning back to each other.
How unlike the usual stoic, 'out-dated' man he was to do something like this.
"Okay, so not Cap." He hears Clint say as the elevator doors close and he descends to his floor, a smile spread wide on his face.
—-
During the next month nothing happens. Tony is watching them all too closely and the few missions are solo or duo missions and would narrow the field too much. So Steve and Wanda do nothing to draw suspicion to themselves.
He hears the elevator door ding on his floor and he looks up from his sketch pad.
Wanda slips into his common room and pads softly across the floor. She sits next to him and brings her knees up under her chin.
She stares at the sketch pad, a drawing of the fireplace in his old apartment with Bucky half finished.
"The mission tomorrow." She says idly, brushing her hair back with the tips of her fingers.
"Yes?"
"It's a group mission." It wasn't a question and he doesn't respond.
She smoothly grabs the pencil and pad from his hands, her cool fingers grazing his warm ones. His eyebrows quirk and she looks up towards the ceiling.
She flips to the back of the cover, being thoughtful not to waste a page and scrawls something in neat tiny letters.
Are you planning on continuing the mission tomorrow?
The half smile he throws her makes her squeal and giddily clutch the sketch pad to her chest.
She then starts writing again quickly.
If you can't get away, I will do my part.
He nods in agreement and she places the sketch pad back in his hands and stands to leave.
She takes a step before pausing.
"Wanda?" He questions, her face has shifted from joy to melancholy. "What's wrong?"
She reaches out and brushes the longer section of his hair that tends to fall on his forehead out of his face. He doesn't recoil but is surprised at the physical affection. "My brother, Pietro?" She looks at him and her eyes are far away, "This is something he would do." She gestures to his fridge, even though the magnets are upstairs. "And I can't explain how—" She swallows roughly and runs her fingers through his hair one more time before pulling away. "You remind me of him, even though you hide your silly side from the others." She smiles softly at him and he resists the urge to inform her that he doesn't have a silly side. Captain America isn't silly. "Thank you for allowing me to see it."
She walks away as quietly as she came and it isn't until a few minutes later that he acknowledges that Captain America might not be silly, but Steve Rogers can be.
—-
The mission is a success and the team returns to the Compound without incident.
It's early in the morning, 2:30 a.m. when Steve finds himself tiptoeing through the common room to the fridge. He quietly adds his 'Someone in Boise loves you!' Magnet to the three already on the fridge and stares at with appreciation. He then turns slyly to where he knows the camera is in the corner.
While Tony wouldn't be able to access this footage now, he knows that sometime, down the road, he would let FRIDAY show him and he can't resist poking fun.
He turns to the camera and gives a mock salute, before creeping back to his room.
—
The guttural roar he hears from his room, two floors below the common room, makes him smile so much his cheeks hurt.
—
It continues like this for the next two months. Only magnets from group missions appear. Making Tony furious as he can't seem to narrow it down.
Although Steve knows Tony doesn't really suspect him, he also doesn't count him out entirely and therefore Steve is constantly on guard with how he acts or what he says in regards to the magnet situation.
—-
It isn't until a magnet, that neither he nor Wanda brought, appears on the fridge, that it becomes an all out war.
He and Wanda share brief and vague conversations late at night in either of their common rooms trying to figure out who has joined their cause. They suspect Natasha or Clint, but Vision isn't to be ignored as he can seem completely socially inept, but in reality understands just fine.
"I think we need to go further." She whispers, watching him sketch out a portrait of one of his commandos, Morita.
"Further how?"
"I don't know." She pouts slightly. While she enjoyed the surprise of the new magnet, she doesn't want to be topped and Steve chuckles at her dark expression. He thinks as he sketches and it isn't until he's sketching the lucky dice that always hung from Morita's medical bag that he gets an idea.
—-
The new plan they hatched was already in effect. Now they were just lying in wait for it to come to light.
It only took about 12 hours.
The elevator dings and Tony comes storming into the common room, bypassing all pleasantries and shoving something metal into Clint's face.
"What is this!" He shouts, red and flustered.
"I'm deaf, I'm not blind Tony. No need to hold it so close to my face." He reaches and takes the object out of his hands. He looks at it and a smile spreads over his face as he laughs.
"Oh-ho-ho they got you good." Steve barely glances up, feigning uninterest in the conversation.
"Not they," Tony hisses, "you, you little preening peacock! Don't pretend you aren't pleased as peaches to have snuck this on here."
"What is it?" Wanda asks.
Tony snatches it back from Clint and throws it at her. She catches and examines it, a smile crossing her features as well. Tony's car keys, for his Audi R8, now sport a tiny plastic license plate with the name 'Anthony" written as the license code.
"Where's it from?" She asks innocently.
"From whichever of you is pretending that you know nothing about this." He snarls, crossing his hands over his AC/DC shirt.
"No, I mean where is it from? What mission?"
"Oh," he huffs. He takes it back and looks it over, examining it. "It doesn't say."
A quiet creeps over the group as they realize the implications of what this means.
Tony stares at all of them, eyeing Clint with venom as he threatens them all, "Don't any of you freaking dare."
Clint's eyes narrow as a nasty smile crosses his lips. "I wouldn't dream of it."
—
There was no guessing anymore. Everyone is a victim and a perpetrator as the missions continue.
Steve enjoys seeing everyone's reactions to finding whatever cheap, ridiculous, or ugly souvenir would show up next. Now since no one was limited to location based items, any mission was fair game.
The left side of the fridge was fully covered and now the right side was slowly filling up. But it was the other souvenirs that would catch them most off guard.
A keychain on a ring that Tony could have sworn never left his coat pocket.
A pair of unicorn socks in Natasha's drawers that she knew weren't there the day before.
Clint's quiver had multiple charms hanging off of it.
Vision was frequently seen wearing a different pair of sunglasses, each more ridiculous colored or themed than the last.
Wanda's favorite jean jacket now had multiple tourist patches.
Stickers placed aesthetically on the backside of Steve's shield that he knew must have started with Wanda (the first one was from Savannah) but that had quickly been added too after Clint had watched the stickered shield go flying over his head and had almost gotten shot laughing so hard.
Magnets appear on their own fridges in their own kitchens and on Tony's robots in his lab, much to his annoyance and chagrin.
Then shot glasses, mugs, tiny plastic dolls and ceramic figurines get placed on shelves and inside cabinets to be found by whatever unsuspecting victim opens spots it first.
The compound goes from clean cut and modern, to dissolving into comical and colorful.
Tony constantly nags and complains, but Steve watches as he slowly lets himself get pulled into the fun.
And when Steve opens his closet to find an "I survived my trip to the Arctic" t-shirt that has him gasping on his knees from laughter. He knows Tony has officially joined the game.
He wears it to the common room the next day where the soda that goes spraying out of Clint's nose is a memory he will cherish forever.
—-
The first postcard arrives and Tony goes ballistic.
"Dear Anthony,
I am sending you this card to let you know that I think you did a great job today. Really kicked that guy's butt when he tried to terrorize the city with those fake tornados. Keep it up.
Sincerely,
An Avenger."
The front of the postcard shows the skyline of St. Louis (the last group mission) and the postage markings show that it was sent from that city.
"That means," Tony huffs, "that one of you sent this while we were fighting in the city. I never saw any of you leave!" He's pacing in his sweatpants, having run up here once he'd found it in his stack of mail. "This is just too much. It's irresponsible."
Clint snorts and Tony glares at him. "What? I'm just laughing at you calling someone else irresponsible."
"Cram it, Barton."
"Tony, you know none of us know except the person who did it, and I doubt they're going to give it up."
The calm but amused look on Natasha's face makes Steve wonder if she knows it was him. Being an artist meant it was easy to disguise his handwriting, but she was the only one he'd been in the same section of the city with fighting, so she could have seen him slip away.
Two weeks later when a third postcard for Tony arrives, that isn't from him, he smiles and lets the ranting pass over his head without really listening.
—
It's been almost 6 months and Steve calls Wanda down to his floor. She enters cautiously and he smiles seeing her wear the earrings he'd left for her from his last mission. A star, split in two, one half dangling on each side.
She perches in her usual spot, knees tucked under her chin and waits patiently for him to tell her why he'd called her down.
"I think.. It's time."
Her head tilts and he continues.
"To finish it." Her eyes widen and she starts to protest but he holds up his hand to stop her. "It's Christina's soon and I think I have a way to put it to rest." She studies him and thinks about it, nodding her agreement after a while.
"How will you finish it?"
"You'll find out on Christmas." His smile sets her at ease and she leaves soon after.
—
Christmas Day
The presents were winding down, and Steve could tell Wanda was on full alert. But he'd planned this out and he wasn't going to rush it.
The final gift was opened (a mini fire extinguisher for Clint because he always seemed to set things on fire accidentally) Tony claps his hands and stands.
"Well, it's been a great Christmas, thanks for everything, and Clint I know you need to get going home to the fam, so I had FRIDAY make us just a quick grab and go brunch—"
Wanda is staring at him in confusion and he clears his throat and he cuts Tony off.
"Actually…" They turn to stare at him and he smiles a bit nervously. He hopes this doesn't backfire on him. "Stay here. I'll be right back."
The questioning eyes follow him, and he can practically feel Wanda's excitement. He runs down the two flights of stairs, snags the small box that holds the 7 small packages and races back up the stairs. No one has moved a muscle and he sets the box down on the coffee table.
"I have one last gift, for each of you." He hands out the packages, leaving the two meant for Bruce and Thor, whenever they return, in the box.
They all hold the packages, waiting for instructions to open. He points to Tony and says, "You first."
Tony's eyebrows go up and he starts ripping into the package. Something clunks to the ground and Tony is left holding a piece of paper with something attached.
Tony reads the words and the color of red his face turns matches the Santa hat perched sideways on his head. He stands up so fast that his chair topples backwards.
"What!"
"What is it?"
"Tony, breathe!"
The commotion calms for a second as Tony holds the paper out so they can read the clear block letters that Steve has written:
IT WAS ME.
A small signature under the words has an arrow pointing to the Savannah, Georgia magnet that is taped to the page.
Silence for one second and then chaos breaks loose.
"You're kidding me."
"This is a prank right?"
"Cap, you? It was you all along?"
"How did you even—"
"Steven Grant Rogers." Comes Tony's annoyed voice rising above the din. "Explain yourself!"
The group settles and 3 pairs of wondrous eyes, 1 pair of annoyed, and 1 pair of smiling eyes listen as he tells them what happened.
"Well, Wanda and I were on a mission in Savannah, and somehow during the fight I stuffed that into my pocket. After I found it, I just decided to put it on the fridge. When Wanda saw it, she knew it would piss off Tony," he gestures to the man who huffs in indignation, "so we decided to keep it there. It was too good of a temptation to resist. Not to mention you immediately disregarded me as a contender and began accusing Clint."
He chuckles and Natasha is glaring at him, annoyed she never figured out the original source.
"How am I supposed to suspect the old grandpa in the group!" Tony jeers back, but there's no real anger in it, almost a glimmer of deference.
"And you knew this whole time?" Natasha questions, Wanda nods mischievously and Tony groans in disbelief.
"The Columbia one was Steve too, but I brought the New Jersey one." She stands up and carefully pulls the magnet off the paper, walking to the fridge and replacing it in the little spot it was taken from.
They each begin trading stories of which missions led to which souvenirs and how they decided with who or where it would end up.
Steve requests FRIDAY to relay all the previous hidden footage and the group laughs as Steve in the video mock salutes the camera and creeps off after placing the Boise magnet.
Each reveal leads to laughter and a story about how it was accomplished. Wanda sneaks into his room while he wasn't there and has him cracking up as she apologizes to the camera for dropping an almost unbreakable shield.
Tony gripes over each one but the smile in his eyes makes it clear that he's enjoyed it as much as the rest of them.
The third postcard, which turned out to be from Vision, surprises everyone and he laughs lightly as they praise his sneakiness.
The last footage is watched and the last story told as the group settles back.
"You guys haven't opened your packages." Steve reminds them, smiling. Ripping paper quickly fills the silence and each package is laid open revealing the same item in each.
"Tony, yours fell." The man reaches down to what had fallen out of his package after the initial realization, and brings it up to the light.
He hears a soft gasp from Natasha and a squeal from Wanda. A small silver key ring holds 10 tiny chains, and a charm at the end of each one, representing them. A shield, Iron Man's helmet, Mjolnir, a green fist, an arrow, Black Widow's symbol, Vision's head stone, Falcon's wings, a small red orb with red wiggly-woos coming out of it, and a blue lightning bolt.
They all stare at it, inspecting each piece.
No one speaks.
Nervousness that they may not like it seeps into his voice unbidden. "Wanda, I hope it's okay that I added the bolt— for Pietro. I know he isn't here but he was still part of the te-"
He's cut off as Wanda launches herself at him and he finds her arms wrapped around his waist squeezing tightly. Clint swiftly follows and Natasha wastes no time after him. Vision stands looking content and the group turns to Tony who just stares at them eyes narrowed in mock annoyance.
Steve pulls his arm out, making space for him to join, leaving the offer open ended.
Tony rolls his eyes, huffs at them, but then steps forward, letting himself be yanked into the circle and hugged with a chorus of cheers.
They break apart soon after and begin to clean up the mess from Christmas morning.
"Hey Cap?" Clint calls, shoving wrapping paper into a big black trash bag.
"Yeah?"
"What souvenir shop did you find these in?"
A blush rises from his collar and he clears his throat. "Uh, does it matter?"
Natasha eyes him curiously as Clint continues. "Well I've just never seen anything like this before, looks pretty high quality."
The accusation is there so he gives up the ghost.
'I had them made."
'I knew it!" Clint crows, "these were way too good to be souvenirs!"
"Steve this must have cost a good amount, you didn't have to." Natasha says, staring at him sternly.
"It wasn't too much at all, and I've got money to spare, okay? I wanted to do something nice after all the ruckus I caused these last six months." His cheeky grin at Tony causes a pillow to hit him squarely on the head and he laughs as they continue to clean up.
Eventually, Clint heads out to his family with Natasha, and Tony heads out for an evening with Rhodes and Pepper.
The night outlines Vision as he sits quietly at the window. Steve and Natasha sit on the couch, watching Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, commenting that it is very unrealistic for Kevin to have been able to walk around New York in that short amount of time.
He is laughing at the scene where Marv says "Wow, what a hole" when he notices that Wanda has something in her hands. He looks over and watches her, gently turning over and inspecting each charm.
"You really like it?" He asks teasingly, and she looks up, her nose scrunching.
'Steve… I know I have been part of this—" she gestures in the air at the compound, "for a while now, but not until you and I teamed up on this 'mission', did I really feel like I was part of this team. And seeing this—" she points to her charm. "Seeing myself included in something so special? It truly feels like I am part of this family." Her fingers catch on Pietro's charm. "And you included him, it means the world to me."
The soft smile that plays on her face as she looks at her and Pietro's charms makes it really feel like Christmas.
—-