A Very Avengers Christmas

Saturday 5th December

Clint wakes early and takes the first flight from Salt Lake City to Manhattan. Bruce wakes at 10am and takes the train from New York, New York to Manhattan. They both arrive at Avenger's Towers at the same time. "Bruce," says Clint. "Great to see you!" He goes in for a hug and Bruce reluctantly hugs back. "Merry Christmas," he says in reply and rings the doorbell. A couple of seconds later the door opens automatically and Bruce steps in but Clint is momentarily confused until JARVIS says, "hello, sirs. Mr Stark is busy in his lab at the moment but Natasha Romanova and Pepper Potts are on the third floor. Alternatively, you can visit your rooms first." They step into the lift and Bruce tells JARVIS, "I think we will visit Pepper and Natasha first." The lift rises smoothly (of course it does it was designed by Tony Stark) and Bruce and Clint find themselves on the third floor with no one in sight.

Bruce notices noises coming from one of the rooms branching off the corridor and, dropping his bags, moves to open it. Inside is a living room and, sitting next to each other on the sofa watching Sherlock season two are Natasha and Pepper. Bruce doesn't say anything but moves to sit down beside them. Whenever he has any free time, which is hardly ever, he spends it watching, reading about, and looking at fan art of Sherlock. Unfortunately, Pepper notices him and pauses the episode. Natasha looks around and sees him there. "Hello," she says. "When did you arrive?"

"Just now," he replies. "By all means carry on watching. I don't want to disturb you."

"No that's fine. We've probably watched enough for today."

"How much is 'enough'?" asks Bruce.

"Um...4 episodes?" replies Natasha. "We've been watching since about 7 o'clock this morning."

At this point Clint appears in the doorway. "Nat!" says Clint and she stands so they can hug. "It's been ages since we last saw each other," he says.

"I have a theory that S.H.I.E.L.D. are deliberately coming up with ways of keeping us apart."

Pepper stands now, too. "If you want to get your stuff into your rooms, we can order some pizza for lunch or something?"

The suggestion of pizza is well received and JARVIS shows Clint and Bruce to their rooms. Clint is next door to Natasha and has target wallpaper. Bruce has a mini lab in his room, which is a nice thought but it won't stop him taking over Tony's lab at some point this month. They unpack their things and then gather to eat pizza together, being complete slobs as they do so.