Christmas!
Steve and Bucky found their way to the communal floor at around nine, but they’d been beaten by Sage, Pietro, and Wanda, who were sat playing Mario Kart. Wanda was the only one of the three who was truly dressed, with Pietro in sweatpants, a Santa hat atop his head, and Sage in candy cane striped footie pajamas. Sage looked up as they walked in, smiling in greeting and taking a bowl of chips, vaulting the back of the couch, sliding between Wanda and Pietro just as the former won. The girls cheered and Pietro groaned loudly, dropping his controller in Sage’s lap and taking the bowl of chips.
“It’s your turn.” He ate a chip mournfully and made a face. “I”m sick of losing to her.”
“Ohhh.” Wanda pouted at him, a wicked glint in her eye. “I guess it’s that oldest child superiority. I’m just better than you, брат.”
Pietro scowled and sped over to switch our the chips for her controller, glowering at her as he sat back down and she laughed. “At least I can still beat Sage.”
“Hey! Rude.”
Steve chuckled at their antics, taking Bucky by the hand and practically dragging him to the kitchen, lifting the lid of one of the crock pots he had prepared the night before. The smell of chocolate wafted out, and over to the kids, and Wanda perked up immediately, turning her head to send a pleading look Steve’s way.
Sage whined, eyes glued to the screen and unable to do the same. “No fair! This is distracting me! Now Pietro’s definitely gonna win.” She glanced to look at the boy in question, only to see that he’d already sped over and stolen some of the hot chocolate, which was steaming in a mug in front of him. “Bucky!”
The brunet laughed, walking over with full mugs for both her and Wanda, the other girl taking one and setting it down in front of Sage.
The next thing anyone knew, Sage was winning, and screaming victoriously, turning happily to her mug of hot chocolate.
Pietro pouted, his character turned into a wall from when he’d gotten his own hot chocolate.
“Hah!” Sage pointed a finger at him, cradling her mug to her chest, a small mustache on her top lip from her victory swig. “I beat you! Fight me!”
“Alright, kids, settle down.”
The three turned to look, surprised to hear Bruce’s voice, and seeing that while they’d been distracted he’d arrived and already began making the batter for the waffles.
“So, are we having blueberry or chocolate chip waffles first?” He asked, a mischievous twinkle in his eye, Thor sitting at one of the island stools beside, slurping down a huge mug of hot chocolate with vigour.
They all shared a glance and cried in unison, “Chocolate chip!”
---
When Tony and Loki wandered down to the common floor at around noon, they discovered that they were the last ones to arrive. The kids had already eaten as many waffles as they were going to, and the super soldiers were eating at the island with the spy trio, Thor, and Bruce, one of the group occasionally throwing a comment over their shoulder to one of the younger group. Pietro, Sage and Wanda were currently playing Dutch Blitz around the coffee table, and someone had queued up their shared Pandora account on the tv to play a Michael Bublé holiday station. Tony smiled at Loki, and left his side to get some waffles of his own, delighted to see that there were both chocolate chip and blueberry ones left. Loki decided to join the kids for a game before getting breakfast, wanting to spend some more time with the twins.
They all broke for presents at around one. It was an ordeal the likes of which Sage had never seen. Quite frankly, it was a mess. She’d made the mistake of giving Clint and Bucky their presents one after the other, which had resulting in them throwing the wrapping paper at each other, nearly starting an all out war when Bucky accidentally clocked Natasha in the head because Clint ducked unexpectedly.
Sage had so many presents that she didn’t know what to do with herself. Every time she went to open one, someone else would hand her a package or a gift bag of some sort until she felt nearly walled in there were so many. Peter swung by before she could open a single one, giving her the opportunity to hop up and hand him his present, which she was rather proud of, frankly. It was Milk and Vine, a book that parodied Rupi Kaur’s work, Milk and Honey with vines instead of true poetry. He’d loved it.
When she returned to her little barricade, admittedly she was a little overwhelmed. She didn’t know where to start. She saw Natasha opening her gift, and her attention was immediately shifted. It was a boxed set of The Three Investigators series, books one through ten. She’d made sure to find a set that included book eight, The Mystery of the Silver Spider. Nat unwrapped it, and laughed happily, looking up to meet Sage’s eyes and mouthing Thank you. She nodded back in acknowledgement, glad that she’d liked the gift.
Clint caught her eyes next, holding up season one of The Original Series of Star Trek and winking at her. Yes. She’d been almost positive about that one. She’d ended up getting Bucky a couple Rat Pack albums on 45 rpm vinyls, knowing that he and Steve were really nostalgic, so they had a record player in their room.
Thor was ecstatic about the coffee, and ridiculously vocal about it, but Sage couldn’t help but grin. Eventually, the present opening slowed to a trickle, and Sage began to realise that she was still sitting cross legged behind her little wall of presents, not having touched a singled one. She blushed furiously as others on the team started to take notice. She just didn’t know where to start, she- there were so many, and-
Loki picked up a small package from the top of the pile and handed it to her, smiling at her gently, and Pietro, also recognising, or perhaps empathising with her predicament, sped over to sit beside her. “Would you like some help?” He asked quietly, careful to not sound judgemental or pushy.
She shyly took the present from Loki, and nodded to Pietro, wondering quietly, “Would you mind, just… handing them to me? I don’t- there’s a lot.”
The boy grinned. “Of course.” He reached for one to hand her next, scowling when Wanda lifted one up with her powers and floated it toward Sage, the present bobbing in the air patiently as Sage opened the gift from Bruce.
Wanda smirked at him smugly. “I’m helping too.” She stated, ignoring him sticking out his tongue at her.
Saged laughed as she finished unwrapping Bruce’s gift. It was a few pairs of aloe infused fuzzy socks, because she always complained about how cold her damn feet were. She looked up, and saw him watching with twinkling eyes. “Thanks.” She took the box that floated in front of her face and nudged her gently, side eyeing Wanda. “Pushy.”
The other girl grinned and focused her powers on another gift.
This one was from Peter, and she had a pretty good idea what the flat package was.
---
Eventually, all the presents had been unwrapped, they’d stuffed all the wrapping paper into several trash bags (the green side of Sage was protesting), and they were watching White Christmas, slumped on or against the couches, each person surrounded by a veritable mountain of gifts.
Everyone had loved Sage’s gifts. From Bruce’s little Hulk tea diffuser - which he was going to use every day, thank you very much, Clint - to the mixtape and the little picture collage she’d made Tony, no one had anything to say but good things.
Her own haul was quite impressive. She was still a little overwhelmed, but at the moment she was slightly distracted from the movie, wonderin how she’d get all of this into her room. Loki had given her a few journals, and a sketchpad, along with a set of watercolour coloured pencils. At her questioning glance, he’d told her, “Just in case you ever want to draw those stars you can’t stop admiring.” She’d flushed lightly at that. Tony had given her a t-shirt that she’d immediately put on over her onesie. It read, “Books are like people, except interesting.” and it had a little bunny with glasses reading a book behind the text. She loved it.
Thor had given her four, Gordon Food Service, sized boxes of Pop Tarts, and honestly she was living. Steve had, bashfully, given her a folder of sketches he’d done of her, surrounded by varying weather conditions. She loved it, and resolved to actually show him what she could do with her powers one day. Bucky had given her a huge teddy bear, nearly as big as Thor, and so far that was the one thing she wasn’t sure she could carry to the elevator. It might need its own damn elevator. Phil had given her movie tickets, and a promise to take her to see The Greatest Showman, which she’d been looking forward to for months. She may or may not have squealed upon opening that gift. Natasha’s present had been a panda onesie, and if she wasn’t already wearing one and a t-shirt over top of that, she would have worn that, too. It was so soft. Clint’s gift was a mini crossbow, which she wasn’t exactly sure she would ever have need for, but the knowing looks the team had given each other when that gift was revealed, made her wonder if maybe she’d need it more than she thought.
Wanda had given her a photo album full of all the selfies and ridiculous pictures they’d taken together since Sage had moved into the tower. She wished she could say she hadn’t realised they’d taken this many pictures, but truth be told, she was astonished that there weren’t more. She loved it. Pietro gave her a fuzzy blanket, which she’d immediately cocooned herself in unapologetically. Peter’s gift was, as she suspected, The Holy Meme Bible colouring book, and she was delighted. She was glad that she and Peter had a mutual, healthy respect for each other’s love of memes, and that both recognized how ridiculous they could get with presents for each other. When she’d unwrapped it, she made eye contact with him, and they both cracked up, unable to keep straight faces at their own ludicrosity.
All in all, the day had gone very well, she decided, and it was only around two o’clock. Next she was going to Christmas at Sam’s apartment and meeting his new boyfriend. She couldn’t wait.