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Challenges listed at the bottom.
Word Count: 416
Atop The Tree
Tony stepped out of the elevator and saw Nat sitting on the floor of the common room, surrounded by boxes and bags of overflowing decorations for the tree. She glanced up, and then blinked, clearly surprised to see him.
Smiling, Tony approached her, carefully stepping around the obstacles to lean down and press a kiss to her lips.
"What are you doing here? I thought you were planning to work through the next few weeks so you can take time over Christmas?"
Tony dropped down onto the floor beside her. "I know how important decorating the tree is to you, I didn't want to miss it."
Nat stared at him for a long moment, and then her lips tipped up in a smile. "Thank you, Tony."
"For you, my love? Anything."
…
Tony was rethinking that 'anything' an hour later, when the back of his hand was sore from being slapped. Apparently, not only was this important to Nat, but it had to be perfect.
Tony's slapdash approach wasn't cutting it, and so he sat with his back to the sofa and watched her do it, chattering away cheerfully.
Each bauble, each ribbon, each candy cane were placed just so, and she walked around the tree a thousand times with a critical eye on it, until eventually, she deemed it good enough.
"What are you putting on top?" Tony asked, arching his eyebrow. "Star or fairy?"
"Actually, I had us an ornament especially made," she replied, gently picking up one of the few remaining boxes. She unwrapped the emerald ribbon wrapped around it, and carefully shook the lid off before she turned it around to show Tony.
He stared at it for a long moment and then grinned. "It's perfect."
…
They were curled up on the sofa together when the team finally filtered in, each of them complimenting Nat on the tree, before their eyes went to the top. By the time they were all seated, there were matching smiles on everyone's faces.
"It really is perfect," Steve said, eyes still on the artistically made Avenger signia that sat atop the tree. "I can't believe you did all this yourself, Nat."
"Tony helped," Natasha replied, leaning into her boyfriend. He tightened his arm around her shoulders.
"Hardly," he said, shaking his head. "This was all Nat's genius."
She smiled at him. "Thank you for being here, and thank you for noticing that it was important to me."
He nodded and kissed her cheek. "Of course."
Written for:
12 Days of Shipmas: Day 6. Your ship is decorating a Christmas Tree
Insane: 539. Emerald