A/N: Hey guys! Sorry, the last chapter of the Christmas Special was late from what I said it might be out, but in fairness, I have written about fifty pages in the span of a month just to try and be on time with Christmas. So yay! (sort of).
I do have to share that I am going on vacation for a little starting on the first of January to the eighth, so I will not be updating during that time. I do try to update every 1-2 weeks, so maybe you will see a chapter out on time but don't expect it. (sorry, but this girl needs her beach time :)
Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, and this is the last Christmas Special chapter! See you guys later!
- Harper E. Pierce
The next morning, everyone, including Bucky was back at Avengers Tower. Tris had teleported them all back around two in the morning Wakandan Time, making it about six o'clock pm back home. As tired as everyone was, they all decided to stay up until about ten, just to get used to the time change. But after the gala, everyone mostly avoided each other; peace and quiet were needed.
Christmas morning rolled around and nobody was awake until about nine o'clock. Presents were under the tree for Secret Santa, and everyone decided to pitch in and get Bucky something for Christmas as well. The first person awake was surprisingly Tony. He had ordered the Chefs to make a big morning breakfast and to start making it around nine thirty. It wasn't too long before most of the tower was awake. The only four who weren't awake by ten were Bucky, Sam, Lexi and Quinn, to no one's surprise. They always slept in.
Thor found himself staring at Skylar, remembering everything from last night. Their magical dance, her eyes sparkling in the dimly lit room, her white and gold dress. She looked like true royalty that night. As he was getting up to the cupboard to get the box of strawberry pop tarts, Skylar came up behind him and stole the box right out of his hand, running out of the kitchen.
"Hey, I wanted those!"
"No pop tarts until everyone else gets one first!" Skylar said.
"I'm getting those pop tarts!" He ran after her out of the kitchen.
"NOPE!" She shouted back. He chased her around the living room until he finally caught her wrist and spun her around to face him. He quickly grabbed the box back from her and held it over his head, watching her try to jump to get it from him.
"Ha! Got 'em!" He boasted.
"Point Break! Smoochy time!" Tony shouted at him. Above Skylar and Thor's heads was the white-berried plant.
"Come on!" Loki rolled his eyes in response. Skylar laughed a little in response.
"Oh relax, it's just a kiss." Skylar shrugged it off. Loki scoffed even more at her response. Thor wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her in for the kiss. Damn, he was a good kisser. She kissed back happily, finding herself enjoying the kiss more than she thought. And probably more than Loki would've liked. She felt butterflies in her stomach as she deepened the kiss. But she got an awfully mischievous idea, a quality unsuited to her. Skylar quickly reached behind her and stole back the box of pop tarts, breaking the kiss by running away. Loki immediately burst into laughter. The team was in hysterics.
"Come on, that was low, Skylar!" Thor groaned.
"Not bad for the kind girl," Loki high fived her. Skylar smiled in response, sending a wink at Thor who rolled his eyes in response.
"That was actually genius!" said Tris.
"What'd I miss?" Sam said after coming in from the stairs. He was wearing his normal clothes, except for the Santa hat with a piece mistletoe at the front.
"Sam, what's up with the hat?" Tori asked.
"It's a Santa hat! It is Christmas after all," he exclaimed.
"With a piece of mistletoe at the front. Why?" Raven told him.
"So I can do this," he walked closer to Lorelei and smirked at her.
"Why are you like this?" Lorelei groaned.
"So I can score a kiss with the girl I like without you saying no or slapping me," Sam smirked back.
"Tony, that's cheating!" Lorelei exclaimed.
"It was never an official rule," Tony replied with a smartass tone in his voice.
"I hate you." She narrowed her eyes at him. She gave him a quick kiss, much to his dismay. She wouldn't tell him it, but he was a pretty good kisser because she knew that it would immediately go to his head. She pulled away as quickly as she could, making the damn three-second rule last as it needed to be. But it wasn't a bad kiss, despite there being no spark to it whatsoever. "Merry Christmas, Wilson." She then slapped him across the face and continued eating her breakfast as if nothing ever happened. Sam looked shocked at the sudden mood change.
"I thought there was no slapping!" He touched his face where her hand had previously made contact.
"It was never an official rule," Tony snarked. Then, Raven came up behind Sam and quickly and swiped the hat off his head.
"Hey, what was that for?!" He pouted.
"Preventing you from perving on anyone else," Raven scolded him.
"Give me that ha-,"
"Don't even think about it." Tris cut Loki off quickly. Loki raised his hands in surrender, but he quickly disappeared, proving to be his holographic self. He actually appeared behind her holding up a plant above their heads.
"Too late," he smiled, "guess I didn't need the hat at all."
"You both are asshats." Tris kissed him quickly, finding sparks going off in her stomach as she kissed him. It was unexpected, but she found she didn't want to pull away. The kiss lasted for several seconds, them being seconds of pure bliss for both of them. Upon hearing someone's throat clearing, Loki was actually the first one to pull away, leaving Tris wanting more.
"That was some kiss, so much for the three-second rule," Wanda smirked at them.
"You guys seriously need help." Steve and Raven groaned like mothers, Steve then going and sitting on the couch with his coffee. Suddenly, Quinn came running upstairs with a look of pure annoyance on her face.
"Guys, can you tell the old married couple in the elevator to shut the hell up?!" Quinn shouted with a look of annoyance.
"What are you talking about?" Wanda asked them.
"Probably Lexi and Bucky settling into old habits," Natasha snickered.
"I don't know what set them off this time, but all I know is that they won't stop screaming about it. I could hear them from my bedroom!" Quinn exclaimed. Suddenly the elevator doors opened, and loud screaming could be heard from both of them.
"NEWS FLASH! YOU DON'T CONTROL MY LIFE ASSHOLE!" Lexi shouted at him. The other Avengers had no idea what was going on, but Steve, Quinn and Raven ran over to help.
"ALL I DID WAS COMPLIMENT YOU, I DON'T KNOW WHY YOU'RE BEING SO CRAZY!" Bucky shot back.
"OH, NOW YOU'RE TRYING TO SAVE YOURSELF FROM WHAT YOU SAID?! I CAN DO WHATEVER I WANT, BARNES, YOU DON'T OWN ME!"
"ARE YOU ON PERIOD OR SOMETHING?!" Bucky asked, immediately regretting his question.
"THAT DOES IT!" She was about to lunge at him but was pulled back by Raven and Quinn who were now holding her arms back. Steve stood in front of Bucky so Lexi couldn't let him have it.
"WOAH! WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?!" Peter asked.
"NONE OF YOUR DAMN BUSINESS PARKER!" Lexi and Bucky both shouted at him at the same time. Peter immediately raised his hands and walked away.
"And I thought you and I fought a lot," he said to Tori.
"You have no idea," she sighed back.
"First of all, Barnes, two things you just did were the dumbest things you could've done. NEVER ask a woman if she is on her period when she is mad, and don't call a woman crazy when she is mad! At that point, you're just asking to get punched," Quinn told him.
"And second, what the hell are you two screaming about?" Raven added.
"Barnes thinks he can control what I do with my life!" Lexi growled.
"I complimented you on your dress!" Barnes shouted back.
"You told me it was sexy with that stupid underlying tone you do when hate something, you sonofabitch!"
"This is why I don't date!"
"Screw you!"
"Gladly!"
"SHUT UP!" Quinn and Steve screamed at both of them at the same time.
"Calm down! Both of you!" Raven shouted overtop of them. "Lexi, he complimented you, and you're pissed off? Are you on crack? A compliment is a compliment!"
"BOOM!" Bucky shouted. Everyone glared at him to shut up.
"Anyway, I think you took it the wrong way," Raven tried to reason with her.
"Even though you can't really take that the wrong way," Bucky grumbled.
"WILL YOU SHUT UP?!" Lorelei yelled at him.
"I think what Bucky was trying to tell you is that you looked really pretty, which I think is sweet of him," Raven told her. Lexi thought about it for a moment.
"...I guess..." Lexi finally said with a look of annoyance.
"There we go, now can you apologize?"
"Fine. I'm sorry I freaked out at you," she said to Bucky. He was savouring every moment of this.
"For no reason," he added with a smirk.
"Yeah, okay we get it."
"Apology accepted." He rolled his eyes.
"Finally, we have communication! Jesus Christ, getting you two get along is like babysitting five-year-olds!" Raven finally let her true thoughts let loose and both she and Quinn let go of Lexi while Steve stepped aside.
"Alright, now to prove your apologies are true, you two have to kiss." Tony piped up from the back with a big fat smirk on his face. Lexi and Bucky just looked straight up confused, but after a moment she got it. The stupid mistletoe in the elevator.
"Not fair!" She groaned.
"I have no idea what's going on. Why do we have to kiss?" Bucky asked.
"Guys, he wasn't here. He doesn't know of the game," Wanda said.
"You know what the mistletoe plant represents right?" Skylar spoke up.
"Of course I do," Bucky replied.
"Well, for the entire month of December, Tony's been putting up mistletoe all over the floor. You two got caught under the one in the elevator," Natasha explained to the brown-haired man.
"Yeah, I agree. Tony's an asshole. He's been catching people under the mistletoe all-" Lexi was cut off by Bucky's lips crashing onto hers. His movement was sudden, with Lexi not expecting a thing, but fireworks exploded in her stomach. It even took her a second to kiss back, which wasn't common for her. His metal arm snaked around her waist, pulling her closer to him, while her hand ran through his messy hair. After several seconds had passed, they finally broke the kiss, still wrapped in each other's grasp for a moment and looking into each other's eyes for only a second, before someone spoke up.
"Guys, it's called a mistletoe KISS, not a mistletoe MAKE OUT session. You lasted almost twenty seconds!" Quinn snickered. Twenty seconds? The team then burst out into laughter. Lexi and Bucky quickly and awkwardly let go of each other, refusing to make eye contact.
"Why were you timing a kiss?" Bucky questioned them.
"So you followed the three-second rule, it's like that for everyone. But SOME people in this room didn't even need a reminder." Tony snickered, gesturing to Tris.
"Stop being creepy, Stark," Bruce told him. "Can we get to the gift giving now?"
"Right! I almost forgot about that!" Lorelei jumped to her feet and went immediately to sit down near the Christmas Tree in the living room. "Well, what are you guys waiting for? Sit your asses down so we can open presents!" Everyone looked at each before standing up to go to the living room. She began handing them each of their gifts to open. Everyone slowly began opening their gifts.
"OH MY GOD! SWAROVSKI CRYSTAL STILETTOS?! HOW DID YOU KNOW?" Quinn shouted with glee, startling everyone else in the room. Sam giggled.
"Only that you've been mentioning them for the past month and a half," Sam replied with a smile.
"Ooh, Fireball. And... Hennessy Ellipse? Tony, that's like fourteen grand a bottle!" Lexi immediately knew who had gotten her gift.
"Yes, but I know how much you like it. Now, what did I get?" He replied, opening his gift and his card. He started with the card. "A full day of testing on you, Lexi? Of whatever I want?"
"Yes, now open the other gift, you nitwit." He did so, seeing what it was. Now the Avengers were going to scold her for her idiocy. "HYDRA super soldier serum? How the hell did you get this?"
"I stole it from a HYDRA base in Germany. It took a little bit to get and a few scratches here and there, but I stole the entire cased and then burned the case. It was a fun time," Lexi told them.
"That was dangerously stupid of you," Bucky growled at her. Lexi rolled her eyes.
"Ooh, boif is getting all protective," Quinn teased them. Lexi sighed and facepalmed, knowing exactly what she meant.
"Boif?" Bucky looked at her with confusion.
"Boif. You know, not totally your boyfriend yet, but still a kind of a thing." Quinn explained.
"I'm going to punch you, Atkinbitch." Lexi threatened her.
"We're not together!" Bucky fought, still refusing to make eye contact.
"That's why I said boif because you're not together. But you're still a thing," Quinn smirked at them. Lexi and Bucky groaned at Quinn's ways while Steve just rolled his eyes.
"As I was saying, It could give us more information on what happened to all of us, including you. How we got our powers and shit," Lexi said to the rest of them.
"It was dangerous, but thank you. Bruce and I will be keeping ourselves busy for a few weeks now," Tony smiled at her.
"Speaking of, I get a testing day too. But... how did you manage to get your hands on this, Quinn?" Bruce held up a container of what looked a reddish energy source moving around. It looked much like Wanda's energy when she used her powers.
"I joined Lexi's road trip. Thanks, Tris, for getting us there by the way," Quinn ratted out the other girl.
"Thanks." Tris's eyes widened at the reveal. She then opened her gift. "A brand new viola? How did you know?!" She turned to Loki.
"I just know these things," he smiled at her. Tris blushed a little but quickly recovered from it. What was happening to her? When had Loki become so sweet all of a sudden? Quinn quietly scoffed at him. "If you say anything about this, that secret of yours is out faster than you wipe her memory of it."
"Oh I know, you've reminded me every day." Quinn thought.
"Lorelei, you got me my first shield?" Steve asked, cutting off their thoughts.
"Yes, I figured you would want it. It took a little convincing, but I got it from Ross. It's a reminder of how far you've come since then," Lorelei smiled at him.
"Thank you," he said, then turning to Skylar, "holy shit!"
"Language!" Everyone else shouted back at him in mockery.
"How did you get that?" Loki asked darkly, pointing to a familiar blue object glowing object; the tesseract.
"I stole it from you. Thanks for keeping it from us, but I figured I'd gift it to Skylar to do some tests." Tris smirked at him. Quinn's usual mischievous smirk also formed on her face.
"How the hell are you holding that?" Tony asked in awe. Skylar was just casually holding it with her hand as if it was your everyday Rubix Cube, rather than something powerful enough to be kept in a container so it didn't rip your everyday person apart due to humans not being powerful enough to wield it. "Only Loki and Thor have been able to hold it with their bare hands like that,"
"I picked it up, it's not that hard. Here, Raven, catch!" She threw the tesseract at Raven who caught it with her one hand. Everyone else except for the girls and the gods ducked to the ground. Raven could hold it too.
"What the hell is wrong with you? You could've killed us all!" Bruce exclaimed.
"How? It's a glowing cube, it's not like it's a bomb or anything," Tori said. suddenly, Loki destroyed the tesseract with his fist.
"LOKI! You've just destroyed all of our possible research!" Tris shouted at him.
"Relax, I can put it back together," Skylar said. She raised her hand to broken pieces and with her powers, she put them all back together as if the tesseract was never broken.
"How did you do that? I thought your powers were just healing living things," Peter asked looked a little scared of her.
"I learned a bit ago. I accidentally broke the mirror in my room, and I just felt the urge to use my powers to fix it, so I did it. I can also refill your drinks as if you hadn't drunk them." She said.
"Did your eyes also glow green like they do now?" Thor asked her.
"What?" Skylar asked in disbelief. Tori pulled out her pocket mirror from the pocket of her pyjamas and gave it to Skylar. She opened to see her unnaturally glowing green irises. "That's never happened before." Suddenly, another smash was heard.
"LOKI!" Skylar and Tris shouted at him.
"I didn't destroy your precious research. The tesseract is not the power source here, the tesseract only contains the power source." They all looked down at the broken pieces of the tesseract, to see the glowing blue stone-like piece on the coffee table. It looked much like the stone in Vision's head, only it glowed blue instead of a golden-yellow. Raven went to go and pick it up.
"OUCH! SHIT!" The stone had sent a huge electric shock through her body and burned her fingers a little. "I was able to pick this up a few minutes ago, why not now?"
"Good question, maybe because you're not supposed to without a conduit," Lexi said sarcastically.
"Let me try," Tris said. She picked up the stone, holding it in her hand like it was a piece of glass.
"Okay, neither Loki nor I can even do that," Thor exclaimed.
"How come you can hold it, but I can't?" Raven asked.
"Vision, get over here," Wanda said, motioning for Vision to stand up. He knew immediately what they were going to do.
"Miss Spencer, I think you should try touching this stone," Vision said. Tris immediately put the stone on the table and walked over to Vision. She took her finger and put it to the stone in Vision's forehead, but quickly pulled away when the stone did the same thing to Raven as it did to her.
"Jesus, that hurts!" She shook her hand from the pain.
"Okay, that's it. I need to see if I can touch either of these," Quinn impatiently said. She touched the blue stone, which shocked her as it did to Raven. But then she put her finger to Vision's stone. She could touch it.
"How is this possible?" Natasha exclaimed.
"I don't know but I think we should all try to touch the stones," Lorelei suggested, "Maybe it'll help us find out more about our powers."
"Maybe. So far, Quinn can touch the yellow stone, but not the blue stone. And Tris is the opposite. Skylar, Lexi and Raven's eyes glow. And I think we may have mislabeled Skylar's powers. I think your powers are closer to regeneration," Bruce said, writing it all down in his notepad he carried with him everywhere.
"Skylar, do you mind fixing the tesseract so it can actually be picked up by someone other than Tris?" Tori asked them.
"Yeah, sure." She did so, her eyes turning that same glowing green like before. The tesseract was fixed.
"Now can we actually continue with our gift opening?" Sam asked them. The Avengers let out a chuckle and continued with their gift opening.
The rest of Christmas was spent with laughs, friendship, gifts, and even a little arguing. What's a Christmas get together without someone getting pissed off, right? But even still, the Avengers had Chinese takeout for Christmas dinner, as everyone was too lazy to cook. But it was still one of the best Christmases any of them could've asked for.
Although there was a cheerful and happy air to the tower now, it wasn't going to last long. Despite almost everyone being safely back at the tower, the days ahead were ones that were going to test every single relationship there. Some would find light in their darkest hour, while others would watch their flame burn out right before their eyes, and have to recover from it. They savoured the moments of happiness they had left, because being an Avenger, you never knew when your days in the sun were over.