Chapter 15: 'Tis the Season
Thursday night, they got home so late that Steve had to take his meds in the car—naturally, he'd remembered to bring them—and they went straight to bed because Steve had to get up for work the next morning. Bucky finished the book while he was gone, taking a water break between each chapter. As of that afternoon, he peed normal colors, but there could still be microscopic amounts of blood.
They actually forgot about the boxes of ornaments in the trunk until a week and a half later. Bucky passed his urine test and returned to soccer. The bruising on his flank had faded to yellowish brown, and it only hurt with pressure. He found them when he opened the trunk to stick his soccer bag inside before practice. That weekend, they carried in their respective boxes of ornaments from the car to the living room, where their naked tree sat awaiting decoration. To make room, they'd temporarily relocated the chair to the second bedroom. Placing the tree behind the sofa would have required less legwork, but Steve preferred the tree in the corner, so in the corner it went. Besides, he did most of the actual legwork. Bucky was strong, but moving furniture and carrying trees often required more points of contact than he was capable of utilizing.
"Alright, let's see it," Steve prompted, nodding towards Bucky's box.
Bucky opened the box and pulled out each carefully wrapped ornament. Even the ones that weren't fragile, Mom had insisted get wrapped in bubble wrap or tissue paper before transport. First, he unveiled four baubles painted like soccer balls, two thirds of a collection that had gone on the Barnes' tree for a decade. Steve picked one up and held it up to admire it. "These are so cute," he remarked.
"I've always liked them," Bucky agreed. They put the four of them up in different spots around the tree. Next, Bucky unwrapped a UVA ornament with his graduation year (the current year, seeing as he'd only graduated last May).
"Mom wouldn't let me have the Hudson Creek one," Bucky explained.
"You're in luck." Steve reached into his own box and pulled out a Howling Commando ornament with their graduation year on it. "I had to fight her over it, but Mom let me have mine."
"Perfect. Do you have a SNHU one?" Bucky asked.
Steve shook his head. "I was only on campus for graduation, and didn't take the time to stop by the bookstore."
"Understandable."
"What else you got?"
"Just one more. Mom wouldn't let me take much, to be honest, but I don't blame her. Every memory of mine is hers too." Bucky grabbed the last ornament: a candy cane with his name on it. "My grandma got this for me when I was little, apparently," he explained. He didn't remember her, just the stories his parents told him.
"Wait a minute, this says James," Steve remarked after he took the candy cane from Bucky.
"Yeah, that's my name, silly."
"Did she call you that?"
"Nah. It's just really hard to find "Bucky" on a rack of Christmas ornaments in a gift shop."
"I suppose it is." Steve hung it up on the side facing the window.
"Okay, your turn," Bucky prompted.
Steve reopened his box and pulled out a little airplane ornament. "It's a P-47 Thunderbolt," he explained.
"Is that a World War II thing?"
"Yeah."
"Cool."
The next one he revealed, Bucky should have expected. It was the one commemorating his Breatheday, August nineteenth, the date inscribed beneath an illustration of lungs. Bucky hung it front and center. Next, Steve produced the most gorgeous and intricate ornament Bucky had ever seen. It was wire twisted and bifurcated over and over again to form a network of bronchioles in the shape of a pair of lungs.
"How did someone even make this?" Bucky asked.
"I don't know," Steve admitted. "But my parents wouldn't let me touch it until I was at least eight or nine because of how fragile it is."
"Like real lungs."
Steve nodded. "Exactly like real lungs."
"Can I hang it up?"
"Sure."
Bucky took the ornament by the string ever so carefully and found an eye-level branch to hand it on. While he did so, he heard an affronted gasp erupt from Steve. "What's wrong?"
"My mom must have snuck this one into the box," he said, holding up a paper plate cut in the shape of a reindeer's head with a red pom-pom nose and pipe cleaner antlers. It was obviously a young child's art project, but the craftsmanship matched what Bucky knew of Steve's handiwork.
"That's adorable," Bucky said. Before Steve could react, he whipped out his phone and snapped a picture of him holding it up.
"Hey!"
"This is going on next year's Christmas card."
"I wasn't even smiling," he protested. "Let me see that." He reached for the phone, but Bucky refused to let him have it. However, Steve had the advantage of two arms, so Bucky did the only thing he could. He made a run for it. The layout of their house had no dead ends. "Don't you dare," Steve growled and took off after him. Bucky lost count of how many laps he made around the house, Steve hot on his tail. Thankful for endless goalkeeper agility drills, he suddenly changed course and raced upstairs to the loft. Steve was startled enough by the break in pattern that Bucky made it through the door and braced himself against it before Steve made it up the stairs. With his feet digging into the carpet to hold Steve back, he sent the picture to the Avengers group chat with the caption, "Look what Steve made today." He laughed so hard typing that out that by the time he hit send, Steve overpowered him and the door burst open.
"It's too late," Bucky called as Steve tackled him to the floor and wrestled for the phone. He could hear it already buzzing with responses. Steve pinned him at the wrist and finally snatched it from his grip. Bucky watched his face as he saw the picture and the responses. Steve tried valiantly to keep fuming, but whatever their friends were saying was enough to crack his composure.
"What's so funny? Give it back!" Bucky squirmed, but Steve wouldn't let him up. He typed out a message, and only after it sent did he finally release him. Bucky scrambled to his knees and snatched the phone back. The conversation he found looked something like this:
Bucky: Look what Steve made today
Parker: Aww, how cute
Wanda: I love it
Wanda: Was this for a craft thing he did with the kids at work?
Tony: I hate to break it to you Steve, but this is not your best work
Steve, writing as Bucky: I made one too, but it was so ugly that Steve burned it
"You little shit!" Bucky shouted. He quickly typed out, "I did not make one, that was Steve stealing my phone and DEFAMING me"
Tony: Uh oh, discourse
Tony: Is this your first marital spat?
Parker: Tony, be nice
Bucky: This is not a marital spat
Bucky: It's identity theft
Parker: I think you're overreacting
Steve: Just to be clear, I made that reindeer in preschool. Not today.
While Bucky was busy reading texts, he must've grabbed his own phone from his pocket and joined the conversation.
Tony: Stevie, we know
Wanda: We were just humoring Bucky
Parker: The year is written on the reindeer's ear
Bucky watched Steve's ears turn red in real time, then saw his message pop up beneath Parker's.
Steve: Shit.
Parker: Are you guys decorating your tree?
Bucky: Yeah. But the only ornaments we have are ones we took from our childhood homes
Steve: The tree's looking a little naked
Tony: You should get some more ornaments
Bucky: Yeah, that's a good idea. Steve?
Steve: I'm down
Parker: You should each buy a few for each other and make it a surprise
Steve: That's a great idea
Bucky: I agree
Steve: Talk to you later, we have some shopping to do!
He thrust his phone back into his pocket and offered a hand to help Bucky to his feet. Bucky accepted, and together they went back downstairs and opened Steve's laptop to browse for ornaments. "What if we pick out a few together, and then a few surprises for each other?"
"Sounds perfect."
"Any ideas?"
"What if we got one that looks like our tattoos?" Bucky suggested. "I'm sure there's someone who does custom ones."
"I love that idea. Maybe we could even get our initials with it like Nat's blanket."
"Okay. Do you want some pride flag ornaments? One for each of us?"
"Sure, why not."
"Let's go for four together, and then we can each pick out two or three surprise ones."
"Okay. What should the third one be?"
"Do you want one of those cheesy groom and groom ones? Like a cake topper but as a Christmas ornament?"
"Not really. What about a little frame we can hang on the tree? And then we can choose a wedding picture to put in it."
"Perfect."
They spent the next half an hour browsing the internet for the exact ornaments they'd just specified. Afterwards, Steve confiscated the laptop and hid away in the second bedroom to order the ones for Bucky. Bucky grabbed his own computer and started brainstorming at the kitchen table. Ultimately, he chose three for Steve. He couldn't wait to see his reaction to them.
~0~
Steve expected the holiday season to be busy, but not this busy. He and his colleagues were put in charge of decorating the entire floor of the hospital and, because of his perfectionistic tendencies, he ended up staying late every day for a week at the beginning of December. Seeing the looks on both the kids' and parents' faces made it well worth the extra effort. Many of his families new to the world of illness were contemplating a first Christmas in the hospital. He'd just gone through the same thing with Thanksgiving mere weeks ago. Steve was lucky enough to never have been inpatient on Christmas Day, and even Bucky escaped an inpatient Christmas during chemo, but he could imagine how difficult it would be for everyone in the family. He offered his best tips and tricks for making a holiday in a hospital as magical as possible.
With that simmering on the work front, he also had his and Bucky's own Christmas to plan. All the Avengers were spending the holiday with their families, so it was just going to be him, Bucky and their parents. Natasha had gone home to Russia to see her parents, Wanda was in London with Victor's family since her own didn't celebrate Christmas, and Tony was having the Weavers over.
Steve had already gotten most of his shopping done, including his ornaments for Bucky, so there wasn't much more to do besides wrapping and meal prepping. His dad and Winnifred insisted on cooking Christmas Eve dinner, but they'd be using Steve and Bucky's kitchen, so he had to get all the ingredients. And Bucky was hell-bent on baking gingerbread from scratch the weekend before the holiday. Steve didn't even know he liked gingerbread.
"It's more for the experience than the product," he explained.
"Then you can have the experience of going to the grocery store to get everything we'll need."
Bucky did so without complaint, which is how Steve found himself elbow deep in flour on a Sunday afternoon. He'd expected to have these in and out of the oven that morning, but the recipe Bucky chose insisted the dough chill for three hours before shaping. Steve put Bucky in charge of rolling it out to the proper thickness and cutting the shapes. "Decorating's the fun part. I'll help with that. And eating them."
While Bucky worked, Steve sat at the kitchen table and sketched him, including the dusting of flour that had somehow found its way to his cheekbone. He was focused so intently on his drawing that it took him a while to notice Bucky modifying the shapes after using the cookie cutter. He stood up and walked over to take a look. Bucky had cut the left arm off of a few gingerbread men and returned the dough to the pile.
"So God created man in his own image," Steve quoted.
"This is just a strategy to get more cookies. Them looking like me is just a bonus," Bucky insisted.
"Sure. Are you gonna make one that looks like me?"
Bucky slapped lumps of dough onto the shoulders of one of the gingerbread. "There."
"What's that supposed to be?
Bucky turned around and squeezed his bicep with a flour-coated hand. "Muscles."
"If that's the case, then you need to beef up all these northpaws," Steve said, gesturing to the one-armed cookies laid out on the baking sheet. Instead, Bucky smashed the one he'd just done and re-rolled out the dough to cut another cookie from it. This one he let keep both its arms.
"This one can be you."
"I'll take it."
By the time Bucky ran out of dough, they had two dozen gingerbread men, several of which lacked a left arm, and a few missing legs. He had a tiny ball of dough left, but it wasn't big enough for the cookie cutter without rolling it too thin. "Want to split it?" he asked, offering Steve a pinch of dough.
"Can't. Raw egg."
"Fuck, sorry."
"It's okay. But I get dibs on sucking the frosting bag."
"I won't fight you over it. I'd rather suck—"
"Don't you dare finish that sentence," Steve warned.
"—er punch a brick wall. I don't like plain frosting," he finished anyway. Steve pretended to believe that was what he'd intended to say all along. Ten minutes later, they took the cookies out of the oven to let them cool.
"Uh oh," Bucky said. "Those two melted together." Sure enough, two of the cookies had been placed close enough together that when they expanded in the oven, their heads connected and baked together. That gave Steve an idea.
"You already cut some to look like you, I think we should decorate the rest of them to look like our friends. These connected ones can be Wanda and Pietra," he suggested.
"Definitely. Who do you want to do?"
"Who do you want?"
"I want to make a Steve gingerbread man."
"Then I get to do you."
"Okay."
"I also want Nat and Tony."
"Can I do Bruce and Parker? And Nick?"
"Sure. I'll do Wanda and Pietra."
"I'll do Thor."
"Can I do a Carol one?" Steve asked.
"Of course! And I'll do Clint. I also made one missing a leg; he can be Josiah."
"I'll do a Monica one."
"We have so many friends that I don't know if we'll have enough cookies to make any traditional ones."
"That makes…" Steve counted the names they'd already said. "Fourteen. We'll have ten leftover. Anybody else you want to put on there?"
"No, I think that about covers it."
"We only bought white frosting and food coloring, how many dishes is this going to dirty?"
"All of them," Bucky said solemnly. "But it'll be worth it."
"I sure hope you're right."
"While we wait for these to cool, we can start setting up to decorate."
"Okay. Bowls for separating icing colors, bags and tips, and toothpicks for touch-ups," Steve said, gathering tools as he listed them off.
"Wait a minute, this isn't a competition, is it? Because you're basically a professional artist and I'm in way over my head."
"This is totally different than drawing."
"Sure it is."
"It's not a competition."
"You say that now, but I can tell it's going to turn into one as soon as we get started."
"Only if you want it to. It kinda sounds like you want it to be a competition."
"I don't."
"Okay." Steve gave up. Instead of perpetuating the argument, he just continued setting up. He even fetched a pair of tweezers in case either of them wanted to get particular with their sprinkles like Parker did. It took the cookies forty minutes to cool enough to be frosted.
Steve, naturally, made a Bucky cookie first. Even working with twice as many hands as Bucky, he took the same amount of time because he wanted everything to be perfect. Bucky had finished his first one before Steve even finished Bucky's hair. When it came time to do the hair on the Monica cookie, he took even longer because he wanted to get it just right.
After two hours, they had an impressive array of gingerbread people. Bucky decorated the Bruce cookie with a lab coat and an Erlenmeyer flask in one hand, the Nick one with shades. The Steve cookie, however, was decked out in red, white, and blue.
"That looks nothing like me," Steve stated.
"What? It totally does."
"No it doesn't. You're the only one who sees me like that."
"Your Tony looks amazing."
"Thank you." Steve had created a band T-shirt in as much detail as possible for frosting. He'd done the same for Carol, just a different band. The most impressive, however, was how Bucky used a knife to carve a cookie from a person shape into a dog shape for Valkyrie to go with the Thor cookie. They arranged them all on the same platter and sent a picture to the Avengers chat. Everyone agreed that the Wanda and Pietra cookie was the best, followed closely by Bucky's rendition of Steve. As promised, Steve sucked the frosting bags dry.
Not quite every dish in the house got dirtied, but it took them right up until dinnertime to clean and dry them all. But listening to Christmas music (and singing along) helped it go by faster.
