It was their first Christmas like this. The Avengers sat still as the clock struck midnight. It was Christmas Day, but none of them quite felt like celebrating. Natasha had mentioned it a few hours ago. It was their first Christmas as a part of SHIELD. Every member they had met had come to celebrate. All, but one. Agent Coulson was dead. They would never know what it would be like to celebrate Christmas with him.

They held a moment of silence as the clock chimed on the wall. It was all they could give Coulson right now. All of the Avengers missed him sorely. Steve missed how Coulson was always talking about the "old days" with the Red Skull and how Coulson used to try and get Steve to tell him stories. Tony missed how Coulson would always be the first to stop them all from arguing, now it was too silent. Clint missed hearing Coulson's voice in his earpiece telling him that "Hawkeye" was being too conspicuous. Thor regretted the fact that he was unable to prevent Coulson's death at the hands of his brother and wished that he could apologize to the agent. Even Bruce and Natasha missed the way Coulson kept on trying to shove them into conversations. It was just lonely without him.

Fury looked over the dower agents and cleared his throat. "I'll be right back. I left my gift for you all elsewhere." The agents in the room all gave mumbled sounds of acknowledgement as Fury left the room. He strode down the hallway to his office and knocked soundly on the door. "Are you ready yet? It's time."

-The Best Christmas Gift-

Tony rapped his fingers on the table. Fury had been gone for ten minutes already and the excitement had worn off. Where was he anyways? Tony doubted that Fury had some great big gift to haul in. The Avengers had caused Fury enough grief to prevent that. So what could he be doing? Could he have forgotten where he was going?

That was when everyone in the room heard a high pitched squeak. Maria looked towards the door which was slowly being pushed open. Her heart clenched when she saw who was in the doorway. "Phil?"

And there he was. Philip Coulson stood in the doorway as if nothing had changed. He was in his customary black suit with perfectly shined shoes. His hair was groomed to perfection and it seemed as if time had turned backwards. He was there. He was alive. It took a few minutes for it to sink in before they all reacted. "Son of Coul! You are alive!" Thor boomed out as he rushed to wrap Coulson up in a hug.

"Thor! THOR!" Coulson was lifted up into the air as he struggled to get away. "Drop me, Thor!" Thor put Coulson back onto the ground, but beamed at the other man. "I'm glad to see you again too, but please don't do that," Coulson said with a cough. The rest of the Avengers rushed up to Coulson, welcoming him back from wherever he had gone.

"How are you alive?" Bruce asked softly. He was still in shock from seeing the SHIELD agent back from the apparent dead. "I thought you had died on the Helicarrier?"

Coulson sheepishly scratched the back of his head. "Well, that was the official story. What really happened was I entered a blood loss induced coma. I was brought into surgery soon afterwards, but my chances of survival were slim. They didn't want to get your hopes up if I did happen to die. I can understand why they did it, so don't harass Commander Fury over it." Coulson gave a small smile and shook his head. "I know you are all thinking about it, but try not to."

Natasha raised an eyebrow. Coulson shouldn't have even mentioned it. She just knew that Clint would take it as a challenge. She glanced over towards the SHIELD agent who was looking innocently off to the side. "Oh no..." She grumbled, rubbing her forehead. It was too late.

Tony felt a nudge and looked over to see Clint looking at him mischievously. It took Tony a few moments before he caught on to what Clint was trying to say. "I like how you think, Clint. How long do you think we should do it?"

"Ohhh... A day is too short. For our dear Commander Fury, we need to give him a bit longer than that. How about three days? No, a week!" Maria nudged Fury, causing him to look towards the two pranksters in the corner. Dread filled Fury's chest as he heard the two talk.

"That sounds just about right. What a great Christmas gift. Only the best for our Commander after all! He gets a full week of fun for his Christmas. Not everyone is so lucky to be in our presence for a full week after all." Tony said, his head bobbing up and down. A cruel smirk sat on his face as he turned towards Fury. The smirk vanished into a deceptively innocent smile as Tony met Fury's eyes. "Why, Fury! We were just talking about you, angry man!"

"I don't think I even want to know," Fury said. He tried to walk away, but a hand grasped him by the shoulder.

"Oh, you can't go yet, Commander! We have to tell you something important! It's about your Christmas gift since we didn't get it to you on time," Clint said with a cruel smile.

"I don't need a gift. You don't have to bother," Fury said worriedly. He really did not like the way that Tony and Clint were looking at him.

"We'll give you the joy of our presence for a full week for this wonderful Christmas gift. We can't just give you nothing after you brought back Coulson for our gift," Tony said with a smile. "Really Fury, you need something special for giving us the best Christmas gift." Fury swallowed. The next week would really be painful.

Inspired by: TXJ's prompt.
It isn't exactly what you had requested, but the idea came from some parts of the prompt, so it kinda counts. XD

And sorry for the late update. I'm slightly depressed right now, so I wasn't in the mood. ;-; Unfortunately, I have quite a bit to be working on at the same time so my mood isn't helping at all. -sigh- Oh well. I hope you enjoyed the one-shot!