"What in the hell was that!"

Tony's outraged yell was met with stunned silence from the rest of the room.

Thor was sitting with his head in his hands while his brother was tentatively patting his arm, looking more than a little shell-shocked himself. Natasha had gone completely rigid except for the fingers of one hand, which were tapping her leg repeatedly. Pepper was openly weeping into a box of tissues with Clint sitting on the other side, a dead look in his eyes. Steve appeared like he wanted to punch something, while Bucky had cold fury on his face. Bruce was three-quarters of the way to full-on green. Peter, who was sitting next to Tony on the couch, had twisted his body so much that he resembled a tiny pretzel.

"Okay," Clint said very quietly, "I realize that was less than four minutes long, but seriously, who decided this was a great suggestion for holiday cheer?"

Bucky, still looking livid, slowly raised his hand.

"And why did you choose to put us all in therapy for Christmas?" Tony asked.

"I heard it was a short, silent film set during Christmas and based on a fairy tale," Bucky said. "It sounded nice, and I thought we'd get out of your hair faster."

"Uh-huh," Tony said. "So you had no idea this was about a kid who freezes to death on the street on Christmas Eve?"

"No," Bucky said. "Did anyone else?"

"I have a vague memory of the story now that I've seen it," Bruce said, his skin still flush with olive undertones. "I think I repressed it."

"This was Andersen, wasn't it?" Natasha said, frowning. "I kind of remember this too, dimly. I think I read it around the same time I read 'The Snow Queen.'"

"The guy apparently had a thing about snow," Clint said.

"Well, living in Denmark will do that to you," Tony said. "So is she supposed to be hallucinating or are we really supposed to believe she saw all that stuff?"

"The fire, the dinner, and the tree are hallucinations," Loki said in a heavy voice. "I believe we're supposed to take the angel literally since the child is already dead at that point."

"Yes," Natasha said, nodding. "That checks out with what I remember. It's supposed to be a happy ending."

"She freezes to death," Steve said. "I'm not seeing any happiness here."

"And who was the accursed brat throwing snow at her?" Thor said loudly and so abruptly that he made half the room jump.

"He's in the original story, except I think he steals her shoes, too," Bucky said.

"In Asgard, we do not allow such things to happen," Thor said, still sounding angry. "My father's realm may have its faults, but children are not dying of cold on the street!"

"No, they just get hung out of windows, lied to, and taught to hate themselves."

Everyone turned to look at Peter, who was the one who had spoken.

"What? I've been paying attention to what everyone's been saying over the last year," Peter said, "and I don't like the way this guy Odin treated Mr. Loki when he was little. I'm glad there aren't homeless kids on the street there, though. Also, your mom's nice."

Loki's mouth dropped open in shock, then he shut it firmly and said nothing.

"That is a first," Thor said, staring at his brother. "You've struck him silent."

Loki glared at him, but looked back at the now dark screen.

"This was filmed when?" he asked.

"Back in 1902," Pepper said.

"Not so very long ago," he said.

"Maybe not for you, but there's nobody left alive from that year anymore on this planet," Bruce said, then took a long sip of mulled wine, turning slightly less green as the seconds passed.

"No," Loki said, his shoulders sagging a little. "I suppose not. I sometimes forget you lot are mortals now that I know you. This was quite the reminder."

He and Thor exchanged a brief, unhappy look.

"Okay, so, none of us is feeling holly jolly about this one," Tony said.

"It did have really good production values for the time period," Bucky said. "I always kind of liked silent films. Getting a whole story across with no spoken words is pretty impressive. They still showed them in theaters sometimes when Steve and I were kids."

"They did a great job," Pepper agreed with a sigh. "So good that I think I'll call the Stark Foundation manager in the morning and make sure they have everything they need for this year."

"We could hit the stores?" Tony suggested. "What do you guys say to a late night shopping spree? I'll foot the bill. We can go pick out food and clothes and blankets and toys and stuff and get it to whoever needs it."

"Guilty conscience?" Natasha said, raising an eyebrow but smiling.

"Perpetually," Tony said without a trace of sarcasm.

"Sounds fine to me," Bruce said, finally a normal color again.

"I can't, Mr. Stark," Peter said, checking his phone. "May wants me home."

"No problem, kid, you're with us in spirit," Tony said as Peter fished his coat out of the pile, finding it underneath Thor's voluminous cloak. "See you for the next one, which I'm picking, and which will definitely not involve anyone freezing to death."

"Hooray," Clint said in relief.

The rest of the Avengers began cleaning up the assorted snacks, plates, and napkins. As Natasha was loading the dishwasher, she felt a gentle hand on her arm.

"Are you okay?" Bruce asked quietly.

"Yeah," she said, wiping her hands on a dishtowel. "It just brought back some bad memories."

"Of when you were in the Red Room?" he asked tentatively.

Natasha seemed to consider her answer for a moment, then said, "Not so much me as my kid sister."

Bruce drew back slightly.

"I didn't know you had a sister," he said.

"That's because no one else does, except Fury and Clint," she said, "and you know how good they are at keeping secrets. I don't talk about her much."

"Well, if you ever want to," Bruce said, leaving the rest unsaid.

"Good to know," she said, looking away. "I guess we better get our coats. It's cold out there tonight."

After the Avengers rummaged through the pile and found their various cloaks, coats, or leather bomber jackets (Steve's was nearly impossible to tell apart from Bucky's), they headed towards the elevator. As they waited for it to come back up from the ground floor where it had dropped off Peter, Loki turned to Thor.

"I'm getting the boy a pony," Loki said.

"No, brother," Thor said, chuckling. "He would have nowhere to house it."

"Then I'm also getting him a barn."

"Brother…"

"What about one of Sleipnir's foals?" Loki said. "An eight-legged horse for a hero obsessed with spiders seems fitting."

"Loki…"

By this point everyone else present was quietly snorting with laughter at the conversation. As the elevator doors closed, the last words to be heard were "Do they sell horses at the pet store down the street?"