Imagine If You Assembled the Avengers: Volume 1

Christmas Compilation (multiple short vignettes)

"You did that on purpose!"

"I did not! You're the one who's too dumb to watch your hat when you lean into the oven!"

"What the hell happened?" you shouted over the commotion, grabbing Natasha and Clint before their argument turned to a real fight. "Oh, Clint, I think you singed some of your hair," you said quietly and almost apologetically, smoothing out his hair with your hand.

"I told you, this wasn't going to work, (Y/N)," Steve groaned, rubbing his eyes in frustration. "Tony, can you please shut that damn noise off?" When the alarms finally silenced, he opened his eyes again so he could try to talk some sense into you, but you had already left the room, leaving them to their own mess and continuing arguments.

"Guys," he called out, but too quietly to be heard. "Guys!"

When he had the team's attention he looked around the room at the ridiculous aprons and hats covered in dirty handprints and one still maybe a little bit on fire. He took a slow, deep breath and put his hands on his hips, doing his best to take control of an out-of-control situation.

"We really screwed this up. You know she was just trying to make a family Christmas for us, right?" His answer came in silence, looking at the group who was avoiding his eyes as they thought about how difficult they had made everything. "So, now we fix it. I'm open to suggestions."

~~~

You had retreated to your room, not because you were trying to run away from the situation in the kitchen, but because you were exhausted and the headache wasn't helping. Sure, it didn't hurt to get away from the chaos and arguments, but you just thought that was a part of the family Christmas experience. Holiday drama was inevitable.

When you opened your eyes your room was dark and you had no idea how long you had been asleep. You frantically rolled over to look at your clock and gasped to see that it was almost time for dinner, but relaxed when you realized that there probably wasn't any food done anyway. When you left the kitchen, the outlook was pretty hopeless.

"(Y/N)?"

"It's your room too, Steve. You can come in," you yawned, sitting up on the edge of the bed to wake your body and force it to move. "Sorry, I fell asleep. I had a headache and just couldn't stay in that noise anymore."

Steve sat next to you and tucked a stray strand of hair behind your ear, then gently rubbed your back as you yawned again and finally stood. "Are you feeling better now? Because dinner is ready and waiting for you downstairs."

"What?"

"What part of that didn't you get?" he chuckled. "Yes, we have dinner ready, and I think we should all be pretty safe." He stood next to you and took your hand, turning you to pull you in for a hug, with your head resting on his warm chest. "We're all sorry, doll. You were just trying to do something good for us, and we just...well, we just behaved like we always do. But, we have a surprise for you if you care to join us?"

You pushed back from him with a skeptical look, but took his hand so he could lead you downstairs to see what they had been up to. When you neared the dining room it was so quiet that you wondered if the two of you were going to be the only ones there, but as you entered you couldn't help but smile at a team on their best behavior, cleaned up and sitting around a table full of everything you had planned for them to make.

"Okay," you began, feeling a little suspicious, "there's no way that you could have done all this in the amount of time that I was gone. How did you do it?"

Tony cleared his throat and grabbed his wine glass, holding it as his lips so he could mumble a reply before taking a drink. "We may have ordered out."