*Part of The Inspired By Taylor Swift Series
"In my heart is a Christmas Tree Farm," you quietly hum to yourself from the passenger seat.
"You've never even been to a Christmas Tree Farm," Sam grumbles under his breath from the back seat.
You whirl around to face Sam with an arched eyebrow and challenging expression. "And?"
"So how can a Christmas Tree Farm be in your heart if- "
"We're here," Bucky announces to you both, purposefully cutting off your bickering before it spirals out of control.
"Great!" you beam, quickly opening the door and stepping onto the lot filled with the most beautiful Christmas tree farm you've ever seen. Even if it was the only one you'd ever seen.
Lights are strung above the extensive lot of trees, each one lined up row by row. Snow lightly dusts the ground as the chilly winter air bites at your cheeks.
You hear the sound of the car door slam behind you as Sam steps out of the car, not entirely enthused to being tasked with picking the tree.
You roll your eyes at him as Bucky sidles up on the right side of you, Sam on your left. "Will you lighten up? This is gonna be fun!"
"Sure," Sam agrees, crossing his arms over his chest in a huff. "But you know they only gave us tree duty because no one else wanted to do it."
"You know, I don't really get why. You guys make it sound terrible, but this isn't so bad," you offer, nonchalantly shrugging your shoulders as you three amble through the parking lot and to the wooden fence with a faded entrance sign.
"Why?" Sam guffaws. "Do you know how hard it is to impress a room full of superheroes? They're mean, they're picky, and last year they made fun of the tree that I picked out!"
"Because it was a terrible tree," Bucky mumbles under his breath.
What followed were hours of Bucky and Sam picking trees that for one reason or another were terrible choices: too small, too big, too many branches, too sparse, didn't have the right Christmas feel.
Each time, you sighed and nestled closer into the crook of Bucky's arm for warmth.
"Guys, it's been three hours. We still have to get back and actually put the tree up," you point out, practically zipped up in Bucky's coat with him at this point.
"What about this one?" Bucky asks, grabbing one of the branches of an already browning tree.
"Because you want a tree for the ghost of Christmas past?" Sam sarcastically asks.
"So what? It gives it character!"
"Yeah, that'll be fun, watching the team Christmas tree die before we even make it to Christmas," Sam sarcastically remarks. "I'm sure that'll put everyone in the holiday spirit."
"Like you could do any better," Bucky scoffs, letting the tree branch go.
"This one," Sam decides, gesturing to a tree down the aisle. "This one's perfect."
You tilt your head at the crooked tree Sam just chose. "Um... it's a tree?"
"Are you joking?" Bucky grimaces.
"What? What's wrong with it?"
"It leans about 30 degrees too far to the right is what's wrong with it!"
"No, it doesn't!"
"Yes, it does!"
"You're just jealous that you keep picking bad trees."
"You keep picking bad trees!"
"There's no such thing as bad trees, guys, only unique trees," you placatingly offer. "And maybe we shouldn't be insulting the trees in front of the tree farm people?"
"Okay, Linus," Sam snorts, rolling his eyes. "Tell us about the true meaning of Christmas too, why don't you?"
"I mean, I can try if you want, alright the true meaning-"
"It was a joke," Sam cuts you off. "Remind me to add Charlie Brown to your movie list."
"Hey, you were the one that asked," you remind him.
"And I regret it already," Sam quips.
"What about this one?" you ask the two of them, pointing to the tree just to the side of you, tucked in the very corner of the aisle, a large evergreen that didn't look like it was browning, nor had large bald spots, and didn't look like it was going to tip over at any given moment.
"You know for a man that claims not to trust us, he sure is putting a lot of faith in us with this tree," Sam bitterly remarks.
"Didn't Tony tell you? We're only picking the tree for the common room."
Sam's lips purse as he begins his through examination of your choice. He nods slowly like it all makes sense to him now, "Ohhh... see? That makes so much more sense."
"Yeah, Pepper's already got people to decorate the big one in the Compound," you explain as he continues his inspection by slowly circling the tree.
"There's people for that?" Bucky asks you.
"There's people for everything," Sam replies, though you can't see him from the other side of the dense tree.
"So then why did we need to pick the tree?"
"No idea." You blithely shrug, still looking up at the tree. "Before we get this one, don't you think this one'll be too big?"
Sam cranes his neck up to look at the top of the tree. His mouth twists as he mulls over your words. After a very short second, he definitively shakes his head, dismissively waving his hand at you. "Nah, it'll be fine."