Chapter 33
Days later, Tony dragged the whole team with him to Clint’s house for some “Christmas-time bonding.”
“So why are we here again?” Loki asked as the quinjet landed in a field next to the farmhouse.
“I’m right here!” Clint protested.
“Clint invited us!” Natasha exclaimed, and added, “We had to drop him off for his vacation anyway.”
“Come on Loki,” Bucky said, “Have some Christmas spirit!”
“It’s not even Christmas yet,” Loki grumbled as they got out.
Already the bitterly cold wind whipped at his hair, blowing it into his face. Cold, he could stand. It was just the wind he couldn’t handle. Norns, he should’ve put his hair up.
“Not with an attitude like that, it's not,” Bucky called back.
“It’s just setting up the Christmas lights and decorating the Christmas Tree,” Steve explained, standing outside in front of the house.
“Oh. Is that all?” Loki snapped his fingers with a smirk, and twinkling lights lined every square inch of the house. An evergreen tree appeared in the window, already decorated, “May we go home now?”
Bucky laughed, and Tony’s grin matched his own, but Natasha put on an unimpressed frown.
“It’s more about the process,” Steve said ruefully.
“I was afraid you’d say that,” Loki sighed, and with another snap of his fingers, the lights and tree blinked out of existence.
“How about you guys do the lights, while Clint, me, and his family decorate the tree?” Natasha suggested.
“Fair enough.”
“Sounds good, Nat,” Clint said, already following her towards the porch.
“Of course it does,” Tony protested, “You get to stay warm!”
Clint stuck his tongue out at him, about to close the front door.
“Don’t you need a tree?”
“Oh no, we have an artificial one. Laura’s allergic.”
“Ah,” Tony said as the door clicked shut.
They decorated without much incident, though there was a lot of grumbling about how cold it was, and “Sweet Jesus, hurry up, my fingers are freezing!” going on. Not to name any names.
Tony.
By the time they finished, the sun had long set, and they were all grateful for a cup of hot cocoa while they thawed out in the living room.
In the meantime, Clint had sent the kids up to bed. Admittedly, the room became more peaceful, but a certain level of excitement had left as well. The general mood became more subdued than anything, until they, somehow, had gotten onto the topic of children, and “weren’t they just a bunch of rascals?”
If he hadn’t felt so uneasy, Loki might’ve laughed at the face Natasha made when Laura asked to touch her belly.
Natasha recovered quickly of course, so quickly that no one would see it unless they were looking for it. She nodded and grinned at whatever soft thing Laura was no doubt saying.
Steve must have caught him looking, because he nudged Loki and smiled with an expression that could only mean, “this is only possible because of you.”
And Loki went along with it, plastering on a bashful smile, before discreetly changing the subject.
“You have a horse named Lily?” Bucky exclaimed mid-conversation with Laura, and turned to Loki, “Is that where you got the name?”
“What name?” Steve asked.
“The name I used when I was out with Bucky in public,” Loki answered, “And yes, that is where that was from.”
“Lily, Skylor, Raven, God of Mischief, Liesmith . . . Man, how many different identities do you have?” Tony asked jokingly.
“37,” Loki answered sarcastically.
Finally, Stark seemed to decide that it had gotten late enough. They said their goodbyes (Clint was going on a holiday leave, so he stayed behind), and got on the jet to go back to the Avengers Tower.