Summary: You convince the team that carving pumpkins would be a good idea. You may have bitten off more than you can chew, because the Asgardians have no idea what pumpkin carving is. Get ready for an angry Bruce, a confused Thor and a jealous Loki.
“Unless you’re trying to kill someone, I don’t think all those knives will help with whatever you’re doing,” Bucky snarked as he entered the room. You had just carefully placed the last set of knives onto the plastic covered tables when the rest of the team filtered into the room.
“Oh perfect. You guys are all in time,” You said as you noticed everyone. “Can you all go over to the counter and pick a pumpkin?”
“Why?” Loki asked, pulling out a chair and sitting in it. He looked at you oddly as both he and Thor didn’t understand that you were implying that everyone was going to carve a pumpkin.
“We’re going to carve pumpkins,” You explained, picking one up from the the counter and setting it in front of your seat.
Both the Asgardians looked at you weird, but chose a pumpkin, nonetheless.
Everyone started to clean the inside of the pumpkin since they all knew what to do, but you had to explain and demonstrate how to gut the pumpkin to Thor and Loki. After you had explained what to do, both of the Gods looked at you strangely.
“I do not understand why we must cut these pumpkins,” Thor voiced his confusion aloud. He stared at the pumpkin then looked at everyone that was cutting into theirs.
“It’s a Halloween tradition,” Nat explained from her spot of the recliner couch next to Tony who was also sitting it out.
“You Midgardians have many strange traditions,” Loki noted, clearly showing signs of boredom. “There is absolutely no point to your silly ‘traditions’.”
“We could say the same thing about your traditions, Reindeer Games,” Tony responded, receiving a glare from Loki upon hearing the nickname. “Traditions are something you just do them without question,” The billionaire stated. “They’re important, especially when you get something out of it, like presents on Christmas.”
“If they are so important, then why are you not participating in them, Anthony?”
“Excuse me? I’m supervising,” Tony responded sassily, ignoring being called by his given name and instead putting his hands behind his head while kicking his feet up on the table.
Loki rolled his eyes at Tony then turned his gaze to you when you spoke. “There are lots of stories about why we carve pumpkins,” You explained, reaching into your pumpkin to pull the contents out. “I’ve heard everything from warding off evil spirits to carving deceased people’s faces into the pumpkin as a sign of respect. After a while though, the reason gets lost.” You noticed that Loki still looked bored so you added, “Although, some people would place the pumpkins in their window as a form of mischief.”
That sparked Loki’s interest as he turned to look at the orange object in front of him with new eyes; his green orbs glowing with a mischievous gleam. He smirked, loving the fact that his favorite pastime was, in a sense, worshipped as a yearly tradition. You could hardly imagine how excited he would be when you would tell him about April Fools day. Not only does April Fools day revolve around causing tricks and mischief, but the color green is also highly involved.
A small smile grew on your face as Loki started to slice the pumpkins top off, his lines completely straight and even as Loki was one of the biggest perfectionist that you knew.
Looking over at Tony you couldn’t help but feel upset that he had refused to touch the pumpkins from the very beginning. Carving pumpkins with Clint was one of your most fondest memories and it made you sad that Nat and Tony wouldn’t join in.
Bruce was intently staring down his pumpkin, trying to figure out what he was going to do. Steve was effortlessly carving into the pumpkins, his lines perfect like Loki’s. Unlike Loki however, Steve didn’t even realize he was doing a perfect job, everything just seemed to come naturally to him, an ability of his that you envied.
Next to Steve was Bucky, standing by and offering his input on how to make the face. Your brother was furiously shoving the knife into the pumpkin, almost like he was trying to murder it. Although he was an assassin, he seemed to be having a hard time handling the carving knife. Clint had been this way every year; he seemed like an 8 year old when it came to carving pumpkins.
You met eyes with Nat, pleading for her to help him and she finally nodded, getting up from her comfortable spot and stood next to Clint, trying to help him cut the pumpkin normally.
“Miss [Name]?” Thor groaned from across the room. “Can I have your assistance? My hands seem to be too big to cut into the pumpkin. I don’t think that I will be able to participate in this tradition.”
“Don’t be silly, Thor,” You said, walking around the table so you could stand next to him. “You just need to hold the knife right. Here like this,” You demonstrated how to hold it then handed it to him but ended up laughing along with him when he held it completely wrong. “No no, like this,” You laughed then guided his hands around the knife before helping him poke the knife into the pumpkin. While you helped him carve, you both joked together, laughing at both of your failed attempts of carving.
Tony, who seemed to be rapidly falling asleep, opened an eye at the laughter. He glanced over at Loki, who was glaring at Thor with a murderous look clearly plastered across his features. Tony smirked, it was so obvious that Loki had a thing for you, and you undoubtedly had a crush on him.
As you continued to giggle with Thor, Loki felt his anger bubbling inside, threatening to boil over. Thor had Jane, couldn’t his brother focus on his own Midgardian? His anger subsided into panic as he looked over at the super soldier’s perfect pumpkin. There was no way Steve was going to win the non-existent contest. Loki turned his attention back to his pumpkin, deciding that his carving would surely win your affections.
“I can’t do this anymore!” Bruce yelled, throwing his knife to the table. He shoved the chair back from the table and stood up, staring to pace back and forth, his skin turning slightly green from his frustration.
“Woah, Bruce calm down,” Steve advised. “What’s wrong?”
“This pumpkin thing is too hard!” He exclaimed. “I’ve gone through 5 pumpkins already! I keep messing up!”
“Uh..Bruce…?” Bucky said looking over at his ‘messed up’ pumpkins that all looked better than the one that you did yourself. “They look great.”
“No they don’t! You see right here?” He yelled, pointing to a detail that you wouldn’t have even realized was there until he pointed it out. “It looks horrible!”
Everyone noticed the green becoming darker on his face so Steve walked up to him. “Bruce, lets take a break really fast and calm down.”
Bruce nodded harshly, running his hand through his hair one last time before walking to the couches with Steve.
You shook your head at Bruce, seeing that Bruce was, once again, making a mountain out of a molehill.
“Clint, seriously!” Tasha yelled, trying to get Clint’s attention, but instead getting everyone elses. Clint had continued to carve designs into his pumpkin when there was hardly any orange left. It had looked great on his first design, but he kept adding things to it and it looked like a 6 year old had done it. “You need to stop carving stuff into it! It looks fine!”
“No, Nat!” He growled, continuing to stab the knife into the pumpkin, “It needs to be perfect!”
Tasha finally gave up, walking away and muttering,“It’s not going to be better than Steve’s.”
Everyone’s pumpkins were starting to look amazing, Steve and Bucky had done a really good Frankenstein’s Monster and put little nails on the side of it. Clint’s design wasn’t even recognizable because of how much he had put onto it. You had decided to do a Mickey Mouse face because of your obsession with Disney. Bruce had finally calmed down enough to come back to the table. He sat down and continued to work on his pumpkin, he couldn’t present it quite yet, but you had a feeling he was close. Both Loki and Thor had refused to let anyone see their pumpkins until they were finished, so you were still waiting to look at them. You glanced over at Tony, who had fallen fast asleep on a comfortable chair.
“Can’t we just see them already?” Clint whined.
“I am almost finished, Brother Barton,” Thor bellowed, carving one last detail into his pumpkin before spinning around to show everyone, his face beaming proudly. “What does everyone think?”
“Uhh…?” Your brother looked over at Natasha, pausing in his mutilating of the pumpkin. “It’s...uh...great Thor.”
“Are you kidding me?” Bucky asked after he had seen Thor’s pumpkin, “Why on Earth would you carve that?”
Thor, still apparently not understanding the whole concept, had carved a pumpkin onto his pumpkin, confusing everyone.
“Lady [Name] said to carve a pumpkin,” Thor explained, looking slightly upset that no one was pleased with his work.
Bruce spoke, trying to let Thor down easy. “[Name] meant that you carve a shape into the pumpkin. You don’t carve a pumpkin on the pumpkin.”
“Oh,” Thor said sounding crestfallen as he slowly set down his pumpkin on the table.
“You know what,” You said walking up to Thor with a smile before setting your hand on his large shoulder. “I think it’s great! I’m impressed for your first Halloween.”
Thor’s face brightened. “Thank you!”
Impressed? With that? Thor didn’t even understand her simple directions, how could she be impressed? Loki thought, narrowing his eyes at his brother. Adding two more strokes to his pumpkin, he spoke up, “[Name], darling, what do you think of mine?”
You blushed slightly when you heard Loki call you darling. Clearing your throat, you turned from Thor to look at Loki’s and did a double take. Loki had carved an intricate image of a cat, complete with a looming forest and full moon in the background.
“Woah, that’s amazing! You really captured the Halloween spirit!” You grinned, holding up your hand for a high five.
Loki stared at your hand for a second before realizing what you wanted. He completed the high five, confusedly muttering under his breath, “I’ll never understand your ‘high fives’ or ‘knuckles’.”
However, you were interrupted when Bruce suddenly flung his pumpkin into the wall. His skin was tinted green, and he was breathing heavily. “How in the living hell did you do that? That’s ridiculously perfect, and completely impossible!”
Everyone’s eyes widened and those closest to Bruce took a few steps back, seeing that the green on his skin was becoming more visible.
“Bruce…” You said softly, taking on a soothing tone as you walked forward and placed your hand on his shoulder.
You didn’t notice Loki tense in fear as you touched Bruce, the God worried that Bruce could Hulk Out and somehow hurt you, but he relaxed when he saw the green fading from Bruce’s skin as you rubbed his shoulders. Although, Loki felt rather upset that Bruce had stolen your attention.
“Sorry,” Bruce apologized when he was finally feeling back to normal. He took deep breaths, trying to slow his heart rate down. You rubbed his shoulder once again, telling him that it was alright. His eyes met the ‘messed up’ pumpkins and the anger started to increase again.
“I’m going to go take Bruce to his room,” You whispered to everyone. “I’ll go help him calm down.” Everyone nodded, thankful for you offering. You seemed to be the only one, besides Tony (On some occasions Tony only made it worse), and Steve that was able to calm Bruce down.
Guiding the doctor out of the room, you both got into the elevator and you walked Bruce to his room. He apologized profusely, feeling terrible, but you told him it was fine. You stuck around, offering to listen to him rant, if he wanted. He reluctantly agreed, and you followed him to the two black chairs and a table in his room.
After an hour or so of helping Bruce sort out his anger issues, Bruce decided he needed to go clean up his pumpkin on the wall. You walked into the elevator, as you had offered to help him with it. The elevator doors slid open quietly, but not quietly enough because Tony suddenly woke up. The other Avengers had already left the room, after cleaning up their respective messes, and turning the lights off.
You held up your hand to stop Bruce from walking out, holding a finger to your lips. You both watched as Tony stood up and asked Jarvis to turn on the lights. The lights flickered on, and Tony yawned. His eyes landed on the smashed pumpkin on the wall, and he froze. A strangled scream left his lips, followed by a more distinct: “WHO THREW A PUMPKIN ON MY WALL?”
Bruce looked at you, and you nodded in understanding. You pressed the button to return to Bruce’s floor. Silence filled the lift the whole way down; but as soon as the doors opened to Bruce’s floor, both of you burst out laughing.
You tried to hold in your laugher as you said, “Tony can clean that up himself.”
A/N: Sorry for such crappy writing everyone. We (meaning the co-author and i) were tryiing to finish this up ASAP. We finished it in an hour so that's why it sucks so bad! Please keep reading!
-WriterManiac1 and LondynEngland