Chapter 3
It was finally Christmas day.
Dean woke up with a protesting back, since he fell asleep half on Castiel on the coach last night while the whole team was watching classic Christmas movies. Of course, they were all drunk from the eggnog spiked by Thor’s Asgardian booze that made them gloriously drunk, even Steve and Castiel. Which what made them all fell asleep in the communal living room in front of the TV.
Dean straightened up from where he was leaning on Castiel’s shoulder all night and felt his back and neck crack painfully. Maybe it wasn’t very smart to fall asleep in here. He looked around the room at the rest of the team.
Castiel was leaning on the arm of the coach beside him his head thrown back in an uncomfortable way, Sam was on the other side of the couch pretty much in the same position as Cas with Nat sleeping on his lap with her lower back on Dean’s lap and her legs on Castiel’s. Steve was sitting on the floor in front of Dean, his back leaning against Dean’s knees with Tony’s head in his lap and rest of his body sprawled on the floor. Rhodey was using Tony’s legs as a pillow, Charlie’s head was on Rhodey’s stomach while her legs thrown on Steve’s own legs. Thor and Bruce were on another coach with Thor pretty much crushing Bruce with Clint leaning against the scientist’s knees on the floor. They were all still sleeping deeply with the occasional snore coming from someone.
Dean couldn’t help but grin at the sight, despite the raging headache he felt and the aching of his body. The way they were all comfortable with each other was so nice and made Dean feel warm all over. He found himself reaching for his phone and snapping pictures.
Rhodey and Charlie arrived the day before. It was nice to have them. He really liked Rhodey, he was cool and one of the few people who won’t take Tony’s bullshit which was something they bonded over much to Tony’s chagrin. Charlie had fit right in, she got closer to Nat who would spend the whole day with doing ‘Girls talk’ whatever that was, and of course the fact that Charlie was elated to be around her favorite ‘ships’ and now was also ‘shipping’ Sam and Natasha was making her extra cheerful and fangirly sometimes. Dean didn’t understand a word she said and he really didn’t want to.
He accidentally jostled Steve awake when he moved his legs a little, which in turn woke Tony who when he moved awoke Rhodey and Charlie too. While they were blinking blearily, unsure where they were, their movements awakened the rest of the room.
“Whoever is knocking in my head seriously needs to stop.” Tony groaned while he held his head in his hands.
“God, don’t speak too loudly.” Steve moaned while holding his own head.
The whole room was filled with groans of pain from the hangover. Meanwhile, Castiel just stretched and looked around the room with a bright smile that earned him glares from around the room.
“What?” he asked head tilted in confusion.
“Why aren’t you having a hangover?” Steve narrowed his eyes at him.
“Because I am an angel?” he answered with a raised eyebrow, like that explained everything. Which kinda did.
“In that case, you are officially on coffee duty.” Tony muttered while resting his aching head on Steve’s shoulder.
Castiel just rolled his eyes but made to get up anyway. Just before he did, he saw Dean rubbing his head and eyes tiredly. He cupped Dean’s face in his hands and kissed him gently on the forehead, taking Dean’s hangover away with a small amount of his grace and Dean marveled at the relief that spread through him and found himself grinning at his husband.
“Can I have one of those healing touches? I am dying here.” Natasha groaned as she scowled at them. Sam looked like he was about to ask the same thing but too tired to say it.
“Sorry, Red. All mine.” Dean grinned cheekily at her while wrapping an arm around his angel who was chuckling next to him. Natasha scowled even more.
“I really hate you right now.” Steve murmured into his hands. “In fact, I hate you all and I hate Asgard and everything that comes from it. Yes, Thor that includes you too.”
“I am also hating myself currently, Captain.” Thor responded with his face smushed into the couch’s cushions.
Dean just chuckled and got up with Cas to make the miserable team some coffee.
Two hours later, after everyone refilled their mugs three times (Tony six times, much to Steve’s annoyance) and ate breakfast, they felt close to being humans again.
“Alright, now that we feel almost normal again, let’s go open the gifts before someone passes out.” Steve announced, while getting up from the table. They all followed suit to where the Christmas tree was, under it was a huge pile of gifts that made Dean stare at it with wide eyes.
“That probably will take all day.” Clint muttered as he also stared.
Natasha sat on the floor next to the tree so she could hand over each gift. They followed her lead, ignoring the couches and sat cross-legged on the floor.
A gift after gift were handed over. Some were really nice gifts, others were gag gifts courtesy of Clint. It was hilarious to see Tony opening a gift from Clint, to find that it was a footstool with a note said ‘So you can reach his lips’. It took both him and Steve to hold Tony down from murdering Clint while the others were rolling around in laughter at Tony’s red face and shouts of ‘I am not short!’. Clint’s gift to Steve and Cas and Nat were two different sized gag shirts, Steve’s were one said ‘I am the Captain of this Ship’ with his size while the other said ‘I am fucking the Captain of this ship’ with Tony’s size. Castiel’s were ‘I am a fucking angel’ while the other ‘I am fucking an angel’, Nat’s were ‘I am a spy’ the other ‘I am fucking a spy’. The rest of the team had to interfere since the three couples were two seconds away from murdering him.
Steve was elated by Dean’s gift for him, which was a nice black leather jacket that Dean thought would look nice on him. From Tony’s grin, Dean could tell he thought the same thing.
Charlie’s gifts were all Harry Potter themed much to her excitement, except for Tony’s gift to her. Which turned out to be a high Starktech laptop that made Charlie bounce on Tony and shouting thank yous into his ears.
Natasha’s gift from Tony earned him a very impressive scowl and a very red faced Sam Winchester, since the gift turned out to be a very expensive Victoria Secret lingerie. Tony just grinned while Steve face palmed. Meanwhile, Dean’s gift for her were a photo album of all Sam’s photos he managed to gather, from he was a baby till now, with some embarrassing ones in between. She was excited about it while Sam glared daggers at him. Sam’s gift to her was a beautiful crimson flower necklace that Natasha insisted he wrap around her neck himself. It looked beautiful on her. She was, however, genuinely shocked by Castiel’s gift for her, which turned out to be an Angel blade.
“You are giving me a weapon that could actually kill you?” she asked, eyes wide in shock.
“I trust you with it.” Castiel just shrugged like it was not a big deal. Natasha just kept staring at him in shock but a genuine smile played on her lips.
Castiel was surprised to get gifts from everyone as well, like he expected that no one would bother which saddened Dean that Castiel would still think that. He got a very nice black pea coat from Natasha that would look absolutely heavenly on him. Classic clothing always looked amazing on him, but Dean totally preferred him in plaid, which he started to wear more frequently. From Steve, he got the peanut butter maker he saw at the store, which made him glare at Tony who just shrugged while Steve smiled innocently, Dean didn’t care since it made Castiel smile excitedly. Dean held his breath while Castiel opened the hunter’s gift for him.
Castiel pulled out the silver locket and rolled it around in his hand in confusion for a second, before figuring out that it can be opened. He smiled softly then at the picture that was inside, it was from their wedding day, Dean was grinning at the camera while Castiel was smiling his warm smile with his eyes trained on Dean. He loved that picture so much he got it printed and placed on his nightstand. Castiel looked up at him with that exact smile, Dean pulled out an identical locket from his own pocket with the same picture and put it around his own neck, without taking his eyes off Castiel. The angel’s smile widened and he put his own locket around his neck. No words were exchanged between them. Just soft smiles and meaningful looks.
“That was so sappy, I think I am starting to have cavities.” Tony broke their intense staring with a smirk on his face.
They glared at him while Steve rolled his eyes with a smirk as he handed Tony his gift from him.
Tony looked at him suspiciously as he opened it, only for his eyes to widen in awe after he saw what it was.
“Is that your-“
“Yes. Yes, it is.”
Tony pulled out the dog tags from the small box, still staring at Steve with wide, unbelieving eyes.
“You are giving me your dog tags?” he asked, like he still couldn’t believe it.
Steve took them from his hand and put them himself around Tony’s neck.
“Now do you believe it?” Steve smiled sweetly at him with loving eyes.
Tony fisted the tags in his hand as he kept staring at Steve with wide eyes.
“That was so sappy, I think I am starting to have cavities.” Dean repeated Tony’s earlier sentence while imitating the genius’ voice making everyone chuckle while Tony just looked around like he forgot they were still there.
“I think you broke him.” Rhodey commented to Steve with a smirk. “I never saw him this speechless. I thought it was impossible.”
“Shut up. Both of you.” Tony just glared at Dean then at Rhodey but there was no heat in it and the happy smile on his face didn’t really help much. He just leaned his head on Steve’s shoulder as his smile widened, still fisting the tags in his hand.
“Well, another one for you, Tony. From Dean.” Natasha announced handing over the gift for Tony.
The genius opened it excitedly while Dean fidgeted, expecting him to hate it.
Tony grinned as he pulled out the magnetic wrist band Dean had improved.
“Dude! This is awesome!” Tony exclaimed as he saw the band attach to the closest iron item next Tony. “Why didn’t I think about making an improved one too? This is so cool!”
Dean relaxed as he watched Tony attach the band around his wrist with a grin.
Dean’s gifts were… nicer than he expected. Like really, really nice. For example, Nat got him a pop up hotdog toaster, which was so cool. Steve’s gift, however, was something else.
“Holy shit!”
Steve just grinned, placing the swear jar in front of the still awed Dean who was holding the record album in his hands like someone had just handed him baby Jesus fresh from manger.
“Led Zeppelin IV autographed?!” Dean handled it carefully, turning the album left and right, up and over, noting the cover was in pristine condition and signed by every member of the band.
“I’m told it’s authentic. Tony helped me locate one that was satisfactory.” Steve explained, his grin seeming to be permanent on his face as he watched Dean.
“Dude! This is… awesome! More than awesome! It is just… awesome.” Dean exclaimed, gaze rapt on the cover as he looked over the signatures.
“Glad that you love it.” Steve chuckled as Dean looked up at him with a huge grin on his face.
From Castiel, he got a plaited leather bracelet that seemed to be made by him, his suspicion was confirmed when he looked at the writing on the small metallic circle dangling from it and the saw the words ‘Always with you’ carved by Castiel’s very elegant handwriting.
Dean looked up at Castiel with a fond smile as he traced the words with his thumbs while wrapping the band around his wrist. Castiel returned his smile and Dean could literally see love shining through his eyes.
Dean was pulled rudely from the beautiful moment by Natasha grapping his wrist and pulling him towards her harshly so she can read the words on the band.
“Hey!”
“So that’s your handwriting!” Natasha exclaimed while staring at Cas, completely ignoring Dean’s protests. “I was wondering whose handwriting on the Winchesters’ gifts. That’s it, you are writing everything for me from now on.”
Castiel just chuckled, while Dean pulled his hand back with a glare at her.
“Alright! I told Nat to keep my gifts for you and Steve last since they are awesome.” Tony grinned excitedly after everyone finished opening their gifts and only four remained under the tree.
“Please tell me nothing will go boom into our faces.” Bruce muttered, scooting away just in case.
“Oh, come on, Brucie! Have some little faith in me.” Tony just rolled his eyes and moved to get the four gifts in front of him and handed Steve his first. Then, bounced excitedly as he grinned at him. “Come on, babe! Open it!”
Steve eyed him and the gift suspiciously, but he opened it anyway carefully, in case it did go boom.
When Steve finally saw what it was, he froze and just stared at it with huge eyes.
Dean knew what it was, since him and Castiel helped Tony with it. It was a large frame, separated into several smaller frames with different sizes. Each frame held a picture from Steve’s past. One held his mother’s photo, another his father, little Steve with his parents, Steve with his father, young Steve and Bucky grinning from the orphanage, Steve from his first year as Captain America with his old friends, Tony and Steve on their first date, on their wedding, on their first and second anniversaries, several ones with each one of their team, With Dean and Castiel from one of their double dates and finally with their whole team and the Winchesters.
Almost all of Steve’s life in one frame.
Steve trailed his fingers on some pictures, especially the ones of his parents, tears slowly falling from his eyes.
“H-how?” he asked in awed voice as he looked up at Tony with tear filled eyes.
“Well, Dean, Cas, and I went to every place from your past, your old apartment, the orphanage, where your mother worked and so on. And every photo we find, if it was in a bad shape, Cas would restore it with his grace and voila! Here it is.” Tony rambled as he nervously looked at Steve, worried that he might have upset him by bringing back painful memories.
Steve shakily placed the framed on the floor in front of him, before throwing himself at Tony to wrap him in a tight hug and hid his face in his neck.
“Thank you. God, thank you! I needed that. So much.” Steve whispered into Tony’s skin. Tony just smiled and wrapped his arms around him with a kiss to Steve’s temple.
Steve moved back, Dean and Castiel were startled when Steve wrapped his arms around both of them at the same time to crush them in a bear hug.
“Thanks, guys.” he whispered and they smiled while patting his back gently.
“Dude, your mom was hot!” Clint commented while he and the others were looking at the photos. “Now we know where you got your looks from.”
“Clint!” Natasha shouted while hitting him at the back of his head while the others just laughed loudly at his pout.
Steve moved back, so he could stare at the frame while leaning against Tony with a soft smile.
“Alright, guys. Your turn.” Tony said with a grin, handing the Winchesters their own gifts.
The three of them look at each other warily before opening them. Castiel blinked in confusion at the two, metallic wrist bands in the box.
“Uhm…”
Tony rolled his eyes, and scooted over so he was sitting directly in front of Castiel.
He took the wrist bands from the box and attached both of them around the angel’s wrists.
“I got this idea from Assassin’s Creed, and couldn’t help but think it will absolutely suite you.” Tony babbled as he pressed a hidden button on the bands, while Castiel just blinked at him. “I borrowed two angel blades from Dean to make it perfect, now close your fists and imagine you are in a fight.”
Castiel obliged and his eyes widened like everyone’s in the room, when the bands stretched suddenly on his forearms and two blades sprouted out of them.
“That’s amazing.” Castiel murmured in wonder as he watched the blades attached to his wrists.
“That’s not all! They also will help you use the perfect amount of grace. Not too much and not too little, just the perfect amount needed for the situation. And it will store an amount of grace that will charge you enough if needed when you use too much in a battle. So you won’t black out or pass out ever again from lack of grace.”
Dean and Sam stared at Tony in awe at that. This was perfect!
“I-I don’t know what to say.” Castiel murmured, overwhelmed. “Thank you, Tony.”
Tony just grinned proudly as the others stared at the bands in awe.
“So I am guessing this is not just a watch?” Dean inquired, holding up the box with weird looking watch inside it.
Tony moved over to Dean next and gestured to him to wear it.
Tony pressed a button on it and suddenly the watch morphed into a fingerless, black gauntlet around Dean’s hand with a repulsor in his palm.
“No way.” Dean murmured with wide eyes as he stared at his covered hand. “No freaking way! That’s like your suit!”
“Yup! It will also shoot laser and will electrify anyone who will try to remove it from your hand. Also, if you pressed the other button it will make a protective electromagnetic field around you and whoever close to you.”
“Dude! Seriously?!” Dean gaped at him in awe. “No way!”
“Yes way.” Tony grinned at him proudly.
Sam, meanwhile, got two small hand guns. With special explosive bullets that pretty much could rip anything to pieces. It made him almost close to tears.
“Tony, God, all of this is awesome! Seriously I have no idea what to say.” Dean beamed at him while Cas and Sam were still staring at him with awe.
“What can I say? I don’t want you guys dead.” Tony just shrugged casually like it was not a big deal.
“Actually, we have another gift for you guys.” Steve announced and shared a grin with Nat and Clint.
“Come on, guys. This too much, you don’t need to-“ Sam started but Steve interrupted.
“Nonsense. And it is not a Christmas thing, it is more important and concerns your lives.”
That made the Winchesters straighten and look at him seriously.
“As Dean pointed out a few days ago about why no one was asking questions about you guys and the fact that you are supposedly dead criminals and Cas doesn’t even exist. Well, it’s because of this.” Steve handed Dean a stack of official looking papers.
Dean took a fast look at them with Sam and Cas looking over his shoulders. Their eyes widened and looked up at Steve again.
“After talking to Nick Fury, director of SHIELD, about you guys, he agreed to help sorting this out.”
“SHIELD? I thought it was ruined a few years ago.” Sam pointed out in confusion.
“Fury managed to rebuild everything back and they are almost as before. So by their help, we cleaned your criminal records, the fact that everyone that ever arrested you were either dead or claimed that they never saw you helped. Then, we brought you guys back to life officially with clean records. And made a birth certificate for Castiel and a life story. Also a marriage license for you guys.” Natasha explained, gesturing to Cas and Dean with a smile.
The Winchesters just sat there in pure shock, staring at them.
“So, officially, you guys are alive and clean, Cas is a citizen in the Unites States and you guys are legally and officially married.” Clint continued cheekily.
Dean let out a shocked chuckle while shaking his head, Sam raked his fingers through his hair with a laugh while Castiel still looking awed.
“Now, according to SHIELD and the whole world, you guys are Avengers.” Steve finished with a bright smile.
Suddenly, the room was filled with laughter and cheering as the Winchesters were attacked with hugs and smiles.
“Welcome back to the land of the living, my friends!” Thor hollered loudly, crushing all of them in a hug.
Dean barley registered the sounds of cheering, laughing and celebrations. He was distracted by the fact that finally, the Winchesters belonged somewhere. Needed. And loved. He couldn’t help the grin that spread wide on his face as he saw Sam and Cas laugh and smile in true happiness.
But he couldn’t help but feel trouble coming their way. And fast.