Chapter 2
Steve and Tony were in their room, arranging the gifts they got to place it under the tree.
“I thought you were going out today to meet Fury or something?” Tony inquired looking over at his husband.
“I was. But not going to. Hopefully will tomorrow.” Steve murmured looking distant and unsettled.
Tony really looked at him then, and saw that his shoulders were tense, his hands shook a little every few minutes and was avoiding looking out of the floor to ceiling windows in their room. Tony looked over at the windows and immediately understood what was going on.
It was snowing. Heavily. Everything was covered in snow and obviously looked very cold outside.
Tony’s heart clinched painfully in his chest. Winter was always a very hard time for Steve every year. His mother died in winter. He lost Bucky in winter. His plane crash was in winter. Not to mention being frozen for seventy years.
So you could say that Steve didn’t deal with winters very well. Always plagued by nightmares that made him wake up screaming and panic attacks that left him frozen in place, unable to breathe probably and body shaking violently.
Captain America might be invincible. But Steve wasn’t. And that’s a fact that shook Tony every time he remembers it.
He gently took Steve’s shaking hands in his and kissed them sweetly before looking up at his husband’s exhausted eyes. His eyes would almost look heavy all the time. Heavy from everything he had seen. A certain sadness always lingering there.
“Come on, let’s take these gifts to the large pile under the tree and make some hot cocoa. What do you say?” he murmured while softly kissing all over the Soldier’s face.
He saw Steve’s shoulders relax a little and he gave him a sweet smile as his eyes brightened.
“I’d love that.”
***
“This is bizarre.” Dean murmured as he finished wrapping the small gift in his hands. It was Castiel’s gift, so he made sure to wrap it probably. Not that Cas would care anyway, he won’t care even if Dean wrapped it in a newspaper. But Dean wanted to do it right for once.
“What’s bizarre?” Castiel asked not taking his eyes from his task. Dean insisted that Cas would write the names on the gifts, partially because Castiel’s handwriting was so damn elegant it was surreal and partially because he was too lazy to do it himself. Which Castiel probably know it but he indulge him anyway. Like always.
“This. All of this. The gifts. The wrapping paper. The domestic, homely feel about it all. It is just… weird. Good weird. Definitely good weird. But I just-“ He cut himself off when he didn’t know how to voice how he felt about all of this and he just stared at Cas looking lost.
Castiel looked up then and gazed at him with a small frown. He searched Dean’s face for a few seconds before he seemed to understand what’s going on in Dean’s brain. Of course he understands, he was Cas. He can read Dean like an open book and understood what Dean feels and think better than Dean himself.
“You think this is too good to be true.” Castiel announced looking at him intensely. “You feel everything will go to shit eventually since you think that the universe hates us and will somehow smack us on our faces in some way.”
“Yeah, pretty much.” He sighed not denying anything. What’s the point? Cas will know he was lying anyway.
“Well, I can’t really tell you that you don’t need to worry and that everything will be fine. Because things will never be always fine. With the life we lead, it can’t be possible.” he started, firmly but gently and gave him a small smile. “But what I can tell you is that we are not alone in this anymore. The three of us don’t need to face everything on our own anymore. Our family is bigger and stronger now. Whatever the universe throw our way, we will face it. Together.” He reached out and took Dean’s hand in his and squeezed it gently. “But for now, let’s enjoy these quiet moments we have.”
Dean just stared at his husband’s eyes and felt himself relax immediately and squeezed Cas’ hand back while giving him a small smile and a nod. How did he manage to survive without this man in his life?
Castiel nodded back, the smile still on his face, then reached to the gift Dean just finished wrapping.
“Now, whose name should I write on this one?” he asked looking expectantly at Dean.
“Uh…”
“…this is mine, isn’t it?”
“Maybe? Don’t you dare to open it!” he exclaimed when Castiel made a move to do just that.
“Fine.” The angel just rolled his eyes, then brought it up to write his own name on it and made sure to write in his most elegant way possible.
“Show off.” Dean muttered as he snatched the gift from a smirking Castiel’s hand.
***
“Hey, Steve. Tony” Natasha greeted as she took a seat in front of them on the kitchen table where he was setting, hunched over his large mug of cocoa while Tony drank from his own mug next to him. “I went to Fury today.”
“Yeah, sorry I didn’t go with you.” he apologized but didn’t elaborate on why he didn’t go. She just shrugged and dismissed his apology.
“Don’t worry about it. You didn’t need to go anyway. I finished everything already.”
“So everything is set?”
“Absolutely.”
“Are you guys going to tell me what the fuck are you talking about?” Tony interjected with a frown, not liking the fact that he didn’t understand a word they were saying.
Steve wordlessly pulled out the swear jar from his pocket, placing it in front of Tony, who muttered another curse but pulled out the dollars without protest.
The swear jar became a constant thing in the past months. Steve would always keep it in his pocket at all times. And when his super hearing catch anyone swearing, he would just pull it out and held it in front of the culprit to pay up. Everyone stopped protesting and complaining about it, they would just sigh and pay knowing that it was no use anyway since Steve was ready to stand there forever until they pay up.
“You will know soon, Tony. Christmas is in two days anyway.” Natasha answered with a smug smirk.
“What bugs me even more is the fact that you and Clint know about it and I don’t.” he glared accusingly at Steve with a scowl.
“I needed their help to do it, Tony. So I had to tell them.” Steve rolled his eyes at him with a smile.
“I still feel betrayed.”
“I will make it up to you tonight.” Steve gave him a sly smile and a raise eyebrow.
“That’s more like it.” Tony grinned at him and leaned closer to him. “Why wait till night?”
“Partially because I am still setting right here.” Natasha interrupted with a dry look.
“Why are you still setting here anyway? Usually you are off doing things I don’t want to know about with the too-tall-to-be-true Winchester.”
“Thor took him away. He insisted that Sam teaches him how to use a laptop and e-mails. Didn’t say why.”
“I really don’t envy Sam right now.” Tony winced in sympathy.
Just then, Sam entered the room, hair wild like he was running his hands in it for hours in frustration, and dropped himself on a chair next to Nat and slammed his face on the table.
“I officially hate laptops.” Sam muttered into the table while Nat rubbed his shoulders in sympathy. “I taught Castiel how to use them, and he is over billions of years old but it wasn’t that hard.”
Steve and Tony couldn’t help the snorts they let out, and when Sam looked up at them with a frown they burst out laughing, Natasha soon following them while Sam just kept glaring and slamming his head on the table.