"Hey, Hawkguy, little help over here?" Nat managed to smirk at Clint even while she was tangled up in Christmas lights and tinsel. Clint came down off the ladder from where he was hanging mistletoe and unwound her carefully.
"Is that my jacket?" he asked, squinting at her top half.
"Yeah," she answered without remorse. "I was cold."
Clint sighed. "Why did we volunteer to decorate the Tower again?"
Nat ticked off the reasons on her fingers. "Tony's out, Pepper's off trying to make sure he doesn't kill himself, Cap's visiting Peggy and pining after Bucky, Bucky's probably pining after Cap and seeing what metal things stick to his arm somewhere, Bruce is playing around in Tony's lab, and Thor's visiting Asgard. Plus, it's Christmas. This is fun."
Clint eyed the trail of tinsel, glitter, bits of broken lights, and holly that Natasha had left behind her. Fun wasn't exactly the way he'd describe it.
"Come on, Clint. I know I haven't had a whole lot of good Christmases, and I doubt that you have either, but that's why it's so important to make this one special." She grinned and sneakily draped a crown of tinsel over his messy hair. "Go get the ornaments for this tree." They were in the living room/den area where they spent movie nights and had meetings putting up the third tree so far. Despite the rest of the team's complaints, Nat had insisted on real trees. Eventually, Tony gave in and bought her six of them, and she and Clint had been spending the day decking the halls of Avengers Tower.
Clint groaned and went to lug the huge box of Christmas ornaments from the closet where Natasha stored them during the off season. By the time he got back, Nat had plugged her phone into Tony's sound system and was blaring Christmas carols through half of the Tower.
Clint glanced at her phone. "'White Christmas?' Really?"
"What, do you have a better suggestion, Katniss?"
Clint huffed. "Yeah, Nat, I do." He pulled out his own phone and opened up iTunes, selecting his enormous Christmas playlist and hooking up his phone. "There we go. One hundred and forty two Christmas songs, from Mariah Carey to classic German carols."
Natasha looked impressed, but snarked, "Wow, Clint, I had no idea you were such a big fan of holiday music. When'd you put that together?"
Clint shot her a glare as he began unboxing ornaments. "While you were off buying tinsel and lights from the tree."
Natasha grinned and settled herself beside him and pulled the box closer to herself, removing a couple of ornaments and unwrapping them. "Point to Hawkguy."
Clint held up a knockoff Sleeping Beauty figurine. "Look, it's you!"
Natasha scrambled toward him and grabbed the ornament. "Be careful with that. It was my favorite when I was younger."
"Seriously?" Clint asked, a smirk playing across his features.
"Yeah. She was kickass in her own way, okay?" Natasha carefully attached a hanger to the ornament and put it on one of the tree's branches. She dug through the box again and came up with a Winnie the Pooh decoration with "Clint" written in shaky letters along the bottom. "Oh my God," she said, laughing hard. "Is this-" she paused for breath "-is this one of yours?"
"Okay, you got me," Clint sighed. "I was obsessed with Winnie the Pooh until third grade."
When Nat could speak again, she said, "Pact to never tell the rest of the team about our Winnie the Pooh and Disney princess obsessions?", face still flushed from laughter.
"Deal," Clint said solemnly, shaking her hand before cracking up himself. "Come on, Aurora, we've got to get this tree done." He grabbed the tinsel from the floor and began draping the branches of the tree while Natasha wound the Christmas lights around it. For a few minutes, it was quiet except for "Jingle Bell Rock", then Natasha giggled from around the back of the tree and said, "Winnie the Pooh."
Clint carried on obliviously, so Natasha grabbed his arm, signed, "Winnie the Pooh," and laughed again. This time, Clint got it, and he signed back, "Fuck you, Sleeping Beauty," and began chasing her through the den with a hammer ornament (Thor's favorite), jabbing her with it occasionally. Finally they collapsed under the half-decorated tree, and Nat smiled.
"We're never going to get this done."
The rest of the team filtered in around dinner time to find a beautifully decorated Avengers Tower. Natasha and Clint, who were covered in pine sap and both wearing tinsel crowns, provided PB&Js. As they ate, Thor looked around happily. "Good job," he rumbled. "I doubt even Sleeping Beauty's fairy godmother could decorate the Tower half as well."
Natasha and Clint looked at each other and collapsed into giggles.