The Shadow [a marvel fanfiction]

A Very Avenger Christmas: Chapter Four

"JARVIS, how do I-how do I wrap presents?"

Marie sat in her room, staring at the pile of gifts in front of her. She had, admittedly, put off wrapping them. Instead, she organized them by person and if the gift was for their stocking or to go under the tree. And now it was Christmas Eve and she had accomplished nothing.

"Good evening, Miss Devnner. Here is a video showing various methods for wrapping presents."

She watched the whole video before realizing she had nothing to wrap the presents with. Shit. Maybe she could use toilet paper? Pretend it was a joke? No. That was a horrible idea.

"Marie? Are you in there?" Pepper knocked on her door.

"Coming!" She scrambled up and ran to the door. She opened it enough to stick her head through and tried to hide her panicked expression. "Hi Pepper. What can I-I-I do for you?"

The woman grinned. "Let me guess—you haven't finished wrapping presents?"

"No," Marie dragged out the word, smiling sheepishly, "but I haven't start-start-started either."

"You're exactly like Tony." Pepper rolled her eyes and gestured for Marie to follow her. She slunk behind the woman, trailing her to the elevator and down several floors until they reached the aptly labeled Gift Room. Marie was instantly overwhelmed. There were shelves full of wrapping paper and stickers and giftbags and tags and bows and ribbons.

"Wh—I just—" Marie breathed "—Where do I even start?"

"Don't worry, I'll help you. Gift bags are your best bet."

Pepper gave Marie a crash course in gift wrapping, putting together mock-giftbags and showing her how to artfully stuff them with tissue paper. Marie left The Gift Room with everything she needed to start (and finish) wrapping.

Except, when she got to her room, there was a giftbag in front of her door.

Frowning, Marie opened her door and dumped her gift-wrapping materials. She put wrapping off this long, it could wait another ten minutes. She picked up the bag and carried it into her room. She recognized Tony's scrawl instantly. Wear tonight. No returns.

Marie pulled out the tissue paper and tossed it away. She reached inside and pulled out a large jumble of fabric. Her frown deepened and her horror grew as she unfurled the "present."

It was the ugliest thing she had ever seen. Ever.

Tony picked the most hideous—borderline heinous—Christmukkah sweater he could find. She knew he did. There was no other excuse for the thing in her hands.

The sweater was bright red and said "Happy Holidays" in a cheery font on the top—with a huge reindeer stuffed animal sewn into the front. Three-dimensional. Heavy. Surrounded by a prickly green garland. With blinking lights. And, hanging from the reindeer's antlers, were small dreidels and mini-chanukiahs.

It was revolting.

Marie refused to look at it any longer. She kicked the offending sweater under her bed. No way was she wearing that. She would wrap a million gifts before she wore that sweater.

"Miss Devnner, Mr. Stark would like me to remind you that you have no choice but to wear your ugly Christmukkah sweater," JARVIS announced.

Marie scowled at the ceiling.

"Also, Mr. Stark requests you join everyone in the main kitchen in five minutes."

Marie cursed Tony to hell and back as she forced herself into his sweater monstrosity. She didn't dare look in the mirror. She knew exactly how awful it looked. She spat more colorful curses as she pulled on her fuzzy socks and stomped out of the room.