The Present Conundrum
Once Sage was up and ready for the day, she got on her laptop to do some Christmast shopping.
She’d already bought an old Woody Guthrie vinyl for Sam, a collection of the world’s most loved poetry for Loki, a classic rock pump up mixtape for Tony. She’d trolled Etsy and found a little Hulk tea infuser for Bruce, and she’d gotten him some loose leaf white jasmine and earl grey tea to make up for it if he didn’t appreciate the joke. She’d found a rare, mint condition Howling Commandoes metal lunchbox for Coulson in an online estate sale. For Wanda and Pietro, she’d gotten a Chronicles of Narnia box set and both seasons of Sonic the Hedgehog respectively. She was seriously considering giving Clint Deep Space Nine as a gag gift, but she’d determined that she would only do that if she could get him all of The Original Series. She was stuck on Thor, Natasha, Steve and Bucky, though. She’d thought about throwing knives or something, but that felt impersonal. She kind of wanted to get Steve some of the Greatest American Hero series, maybe the first season, but she wanted Tony’s opinion on that idea first. Thor himself had given her the idea of getting him coffee from his stories of his first visit to earth. The thing was, JARVIS honestly brewed most of the coffee in the tower. Sage wasn’t actually sure if there was a normal coffee pot in the place. That was probably another question for Tony. She sighed, scrolling through eBay. Shopping for people was hard. She supposed she should probably ask about how they were doing Christmas too. Oh, shit. She froze suddenly.
Somehow, it had slipped Sage’s mind that Stark Industries held a charity gala every year around Christmastime, and the Avengers were usually in attendance.
“Hey, JARVIS?”
“Yes, Miss Ahlers?”
“Will I have to go to the charity gala?”
“I cannot imagine that Sir would insist on your attendance.”
“You can’t imagine, JARVIS.”
“While this is true, the point I was making is that Sir as of yet has no inention of introducing you to the public, to protect you while giving you time to adjust to living here in the tower.”
“But I’ve adjusted to living in the tower.”
“Miss Ahlers, Sir grew up in the public eye. He knows the stress it puts on an individual. He would not willingly expose you to that unless you insisted or he was forced.”
“Oh.” She bit her lip and looked down. “Thanks, JARVIS.”
“Anytime.”
She scrolled through eBay a bit more, thinking that maybe she should get Tony one more thing.
---
“So, I was wondering how you guys normally do Christmas? We all celebrate it, right?”
Tony laughed. “Yeah, we do. Usually we do something fairly lowkey. The spy trio always wears matching footie pajamas, which I think is Clint’s doing, and-”
“‘Spy trio?’ Is that what we’re calling them now?”
“Yes. Anyway, Cap usually makes his amazing hot chocolate and Bruce is on waffles. Pietro and Wanda usually wander in an hour after everyone else, then we do presents.”
“Oh. Okay, cool. Do you have people’s presents already, or…?”
“Oh, yeah. I’m never not Christmas or birthday shopping throughout the year. I learned my lesson when I was dating Pepper.” He winked at her. “Oh, and Peter may drop by, but don’t worry about getting him a present. You two don’t know each other super well yet, so it isn’t a big thing, but he might get you something.”
Sage groaned. “Then I’d feel bad! Okay, so that’s another person that I’ll need your help shopping for.”
“Oh yeah? Who are you stuck on?”
“Steve, Natasha, Bucky, Thor, and now Peter. I mean, I’ve got… ideas for a couple of them, but I feel like they aren’t great, and-”
“There are no bad ideas. Just really, really stupid ones. Come on, kid, lay it on me.”
Sage laughed. “Yeah, okay.” She detailed all the presents that she’d already bought, excluding Tony’s and was delighted when he vehemently approved of her choices. Then, she outlined her thoughts for Steve and Thor to him, and waited for his response.
“I think you’re doing good with the coffee thing. Bruce and Thor have their own electric kettle, and Bruce gave the big guy a french press a couple years ago because he wanted to teach him to make his own coffee. Yeah, that’s great. As for Capsicle… I think he’d like Greatest American Hero. That’s smart to just do the first season too, just to gauge what he thinks of it. Also, it’s kind of hilarious. I see what you’re doing there, and I like it. You’re learning well. Alright, so the super spies and Peter.” He pulled up a blank hologram, and nodded toward it. “You wanna brainstorm?”
“You mean…”
“Write on it with your finger.” He smiled at her kindly.
“Oh. Right.” She listened as he started listing off things he knew about the three, writing down any ideas that sparked from his ramblings.
When Loki came down to fetch them several hours later, the hologram had expanded quite a bit and was filled with scribbles, some of it words, some of it underlines or strikethroughs, all in all, it was a mess. He smiled at the sight. His little geniuses plugging away at a problem together. It warmed his cold, Jotunn heart.
“Tony, love. Sage, darling. It’s time for dinner.”
Tony grunted in response, eyes darting all over the hologram as if searching for something. “Lokes, come help. We’re trying to figure out Christmas gifts from Sage to Nat, Bucky, and Peter.”
The god sighed heavily, but walked over just the same, and circled one in each of the categories Sage had created. “These. You’re clearly leaning toward them anyway, but you’re both indecisive.”
Sage grinned brightly at him, eyes bright with a bit of a frenzy. She threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly, exhausted and brain dead and so, so, so thankful that he’d come along when he did. “Thank you, Papa.” She turned and gave Tony a kiss on the cheek. “Thank you for helping me come up with ideas.”
Tony caught her in a hug as soon as she released Loki. “Always, sweet pea.”