It's the time of the year again and I wanted to do an Avengers Christmas one-shot this time. For the sake of the story, Loki is alive and it all takes post-Endgame. Frankly, most of the products after Endgame have been crap, Far From Home and Black Widow were an insulting disservice to Peter and Natasha, WandaVision did Wanda dirty, Falcon and the Winter Soldier ruined Sam and Sharon, Loki was weird and What-If was a weird leap of logic at best. Shang-Chi and the Legend of Ten Rings and Hawkeye were somewhat decent but nothing special, which isn't an issue but No Way Home was the first film after Endgame that I absolutely loved and enjoyed and it finally gave Peter a proper character development into his own character as Spider-Man instead of Tony's successor and there were minor things there that bugged me and the other characters could've had a bit better writing and development but overall, the film was great, since asides from good fanservice unlike how Arrowverse does it, it finally felt like the MCU Spider-Man we deserved to see and not Iron Boy Jr.

Anyway, Merry Christmas everyone.

Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel Cinematic Universe.

"Nice decorations." May said.

"Thanks. Vision and Wanda helped out." Tony said.

"What he means is he only did the music. Me and Vision had to do the decorations." Wanda said.

"Hey, kid. Glad you made it." Tony said as he greeted Peter and Aunt May.

"Hey, Mr. Stark." Peter said as he handed Tony a gift-wrapped box. "Merry Christmas, Mr. Stark."

"Thanks." Tony said appreciatively as he put the box on his desk. "I'll take a look at it later." He then picked another box before approaching Steve. "Steve."

Steve and Sharon were mingling with Rhodey, Natasha, Yelena and Bucky as Steve turned to Tony, who had in his hand a big flat object in gift wrap.

"Took a while to get it, but… I thought you might like it." Tony said as Steve ripped the wrap to reveal U.S. themed shield, in fact, it was the prop shield Steve was using during World War II in his tour days as Captain America, which still had the dent after Red Skull had punched it.

"Wow… I never thought I'd see this again." Steve said.

"Took a while to get it." Tony said.

"Well, since we're exchanging gifts, maybe you'll like this memento." Steve handed Tony his gift, which Tony unwrapped to reveal a picture of the original Avengers in the shawarma restaurant where they ate after the Battle of New York.

"Scott, give me that."

"No, I got it!"

They turned to see Scott struggling with opening the bottle of champagne as everyone laughed.

"Shouldn't I shrink and open the cork instead?" Hope asked, amused.

"I said I got it!" Scott said, unable to open the bottle before Clint picked his bow and arrow and shot the cork off, much to everyone's amusement and Scott's annoyance. "Show-off."

"I can't believe you let in him of all people." Sam muttered.

"Well, Sif was too busy and I didn't want to leave Loki unchecked but he has changed. Mostly." Thor said but Sam and Clint were skeptical.

"Well, if you vouch for him and as long as he's not brainwashing anyone or stabbing them with a spear, I'm fine with him." Clint said.

"Barton, Wilson, as a gesture of peace, would you like a drink?" Loki said, offering Clint and Sam glasses of beverage.

"No, thank you." Clint said with a forced polite tone. While he was willing to trust Thor with Loki, no way Clint would accept Loki's drink.

"I'm good." Sam declined politely.

Loki shrugged before approaching the SHIELD agents, Mack, Daisy, Hunter, Bobbi, Yo-Yo, Fitz, Jemma and Piper as only Daisy and Hunter accepted the drink, while everyone stared at them incredulously as if they were stupid. Clint couldn't really make out what were they saying but as he lipread Hunter, he was sure Hunter said something like 'Give it a chance.' and Clint sighed, sure that Hunter was going to regret it, especially, when he saw Loki smirk as Daisy also drank it.

"So your boyfriend is now the Winter Soldier?" Yelena asked, amused as she was mingling with Bucky and Natasha, who had Bucky's metallic arm around her waist, eying him and recognizing him as one of the people who had trained the Black Widows, when they were younger.

"Well, we did grow a bit… closer back then, when we were training in the Red Room." Natasha said, blushing mildly as Yelena looked amused.

"Natalia Aliana Romanova, you skanky minx." Yelena quipped as she nudged Natasha and looked at Bucky teasingly. "Perhaps we could—"

"Oh, don't get any ideas. At least not right now." Bucky quipped as all three of them laughed, while he kissed Natasha on her cheek as they drank the champagne.

"You know, on my way here, I met this… strange fat man in red pajamas on sleighs ridden by flying horses. You know, the dwarf that sends presents all over the world in one night." Thor said.

"You saw Santa Claus?" Cassie asked.

"What was he like?" Lila asked.

"Oh, he was… nice." Thor said. "He had longer beard than me and father."

"Is he gonna bring us presents too?" Cooper asked.

"Oh, he might bring you… this!" Loki formed a glamour of a snake in his hand as Cassie, Lila, Cooper and Nate jumped away, yelping as Loki laughed, while Thor smacked him on his shoulder.

"Hulk smash puny god!"

Loki screamed and jumped away before turning around to see Bruce, while everyone laughed hysterically at Loki's expense.

"He got scared!" Tony said as he high-fived with Steve.

"OK, I'm paying up!" Rhodey said as he and Wanda handed Tony some dollar bills.

"Loki too jumpy." Bruce said, mimicking Hulk's tone as Loki glared, pulling out daggers but then a portal formed beneath his feet and above as Loki yelped, as he started falling and falling from the upper to the lower portal for about a minute until Doctor Strange closed both portals.

"I. Hate. Falling!" Loki snapped as he got up, glaring at Strange. "Did you really have to invite him?"

Tony and Steve shrugged, while Natasha turned off the camera on her phone.

"Send me a copy." Clint whispered, wanting to see the video again as Natasha smirked.

Loki glared, seething before he readjusted his suit and approached Bruce and Scott with glasses of drink. "Consider this a gesture of peace. To new start."

"How do we know this isn't a trick?" Bruce asked, skeptical.

"Oh, come on, I know it's Loki but he's not gonna poison us in front of dozens of people on Christmas, right?" Scott pointed out and Bruce considered. Hulk's physique would probably survive it anyway.

"I guess it can't hurt." Bruce admitted as he drank with Scott.

Tony, Steve, Natasha and Bucky were at the balcony, staring at the horizon of New York City.

"Never thought we'd be here, did you?" Tony said.

"We sure have come a long way." Steve said.

"And we wouldn't trade it for anything." Natasha said.

"We've made mistakes and we've hurt each other but we've learned. And we still got many adventures ahead of us." Bucky said as he held Natasha's hand as they kissed, while Tony and Steve turned back to Pepper and Sharon.

"Are you two happy?" Tony asked, turning to Steve.

"Peggy wasn't the right one for me and Nat and I have grown close but… with Sharon I have more of the semblance of normalcy I've been looking for. And it's not because she's Peggy's niece, I mean, that's not the only reason. What I mean is… she hasn't gone through as much of a baggage as me and Nat. And I want to protect her from it." Steve said.

"Well, if you two are making it work, we're happy for you." Natasha said.

Suddenly, there was a gaseous sound as everyone wrinkled their noses, while turning to Scott and Bruce, who both looked sheepish. Then, another gaseous sound went off as Daisy and Hunter blushed in embarrassment and Mack, May, Bobbi, Fitz, Jemma and Piper backed away.

"Loki…" Thor said with a forced polite tone as everyone, now glaring, saw Loki making his way towards the Quinjet landed on the platform, while smiling nervously.

"Oh, come on. Don't tell me you didn't find this at least a little hilari—"

"Come back here, right this instant, you mischievous marauder!" Thor yelled, chasing Loki off as Clint quickly picked his bow and arrow, pinning Loki's cloak to the doorframe.

Thor was about to grab Loki but then stopped, realizing that Loki had let himself get caught too easily. Thor reached out and cautiously touched Loki to reveal a glamour, which was fading away already, while the real Loki was entering the Quinjet.

"Loki!" Thor shouted.

"I'll send you a postcard from Vienna, have a merry Christmas, bye!" Loki said quickly, while the Quinjet was taking off.

"You're not going anywhere!" Thor yelled as the Quinjet flew away and Thor was about to fly after him before Tony grabbed him by his shoulder.

"Forget about him, Point Break. It's Christmas." Tony said as he patted Thor on his shoulder.

"He's right, you can't let this get to you. I'm not, even though we could use some fresh air right now." Natasha said.

"You know what, you're right." Thor said, smiling as he turned back to Stark Tower. "I'll give him a five minute head start."

Merry Christmas everyone.

And Loki would absolutely do something like this, LOL!

Please review and let me know if you have enjoyed this one-shot.

With regards

Bl4ckHunter