'Tis the Season

“I can’t believe I let them talk me into this.” Tony muttered, arms crossed against his chest, as he watched Grace and Noelle dance around the common room of the Tower, decorating for the holidays. “I hate Christmas.”

“Oh, shut it.” Natasha muttered, driving her elbow into his ribs, making him glare at her, “No one hates Christmas.”

“Whatever,” Tony scoffed, pulling himself off of the couch and brushing nonexistent wrinkles from his shirt, “I’ll be in the lab if you need me.”

Natasha shook her head, leaning forward to swipe her hot chocolate off of the coffee table, and then tucking her feet underneath her as she picked up the book she had been reading.

“A little to the left,” Grace murmured, giggling when Noelle let out a huff of frustration, “little more.”

“Bitch, I’m going to strangle you.” Noelle snapped, arms starting to ache from how long she had been holding the garland above the window.

“Hm, maybe back to the right a little.”

“GraceLynn Linda! I’m going to make your short ass get up on a chair and do this yourself if you don’t choose a spot soon!”

“Okay, okay, I guess it’s fine.” Grace laughed, dodging Noelle’s foot as it came swinging up towards her. Leaning over to dig into the box next to her feet, so spotted some cute window clings and pulled them from the box, “Nat, are you sure you don’t want to help?”

“Oh no,” Natasha shook her head, “I’m perfectly fine right here.” Amusement sparkled in her eyes as she looked at the duo over the top of her book.

“C’mon we could really use some of those ninja skills to get some of this shit up!” Grace teased, swinging her arms around in a wild manner and letting out a high-pitched ‘hiiii-ya!’ as she chopped through the air, just as Sam Wilson decided to walk into the door.

“I don’t even want to know.” He snorted, all of the girls laughing as well.

“Sam!” Grace chirped, smiling slyly at him, “Perfect timing!”

“Oh no,” He groaned, slowly backing up as she nearly skipped towards him, putting his hands up as she went behind him and started pushing him forward from behind, “This never turns out well.”

Bucky and Steve were making their way to the common room of the tower, when they heard laughter flowing from it. Steve looked to Bucky,

“I wonder what kind of trouble they managed to get into today.”

“Lord knows…” Bucky snorted, shaking his head as he stuffed his hands into the pocket of his jeans, following a step behind Steve. He was watching his feet, glad he had stopped when he did as Steve had stopped short and Bucky nearly walked into his back, “Wow…it looks…”

“Like Santa threw up.” Sam laughed, fighting Grace off as she tired to wrap him in garland, the shiny foil wrapped around her own neck like a scarf, she looked over when Sam looked over her shoulder, and a grin broke out on her face as she honed in on her next victims.

“Boys!” She grinned, forgetting Sam and heading their way, “How was your Christmas shopping?”

“Good,” Steve smiled softly, not even bothering to try to fight her as she wrapped him in garland, merely shaking his head before pressing a kiss to her cheek.

“Merry Christmas, Noelle! Have fun unwrapping him!” Grace snorted, pushing Steve lightly towards girlfriend, who giggled and started to unwind the garland from Steve’s broad shoulders, stepping up on the tips of her toes to press a kiss to his cheek.

“Hey Doll,” Bucky smiled, pulling his hands from his pockets to wrap Grace up in a hug, lifting her from the ground for a moment before kissing her forehead, “Looks like you’re having fun.”

“Loads.” Grace murmured, resting her forehead against Bucky’s collarbone for a moment, “Did you get all of your shopping done?”

“Sure did, you better not go snooping either, you hear me?”

“I promise! You’d be able to tell if I did anyway, Mr. Super Solider with unbelievable skill.”

Bucky snorted, rolling his eyes when Grace stepped back from him and then plopped a Santa hat onto his head. “You’ve certainly gotten into the Christmas spirit today.”

“We’re not done!” Noelle chirped, handing Steve the picture frame they’d just finished wrapping to look a present so he could hang it back up. She laughed at the collective, playful, groan that filled the room.

After finishing the decorating, and making dinner most of those in tower returned to their respective rooms to relax for the night. Grace, on the other hand was picking up the living area. Bucky leaned against the doorway, listening to her hum softly to herself for a moment before clearing his throat. Grace startled, eyes widening as she gasped softly,

“Jesus.” She shook her head; “You would think that after almost two years together that I would be used to that by now.

“Need any help?” He asked, shoving away from the doorway and moving towards her, blue eyes sparkling against the soft glow of the Christmas lights strung around the room.

“No,” Grace murmured softly, smiling as she dropped what was in her hand into the Christmas tote before stepping around it to get to Bucky. He kissed her forehead, wrapping her up in his arms before backing up to the couch and falling into it softly. “I love you, James.”

His chest tightened as he wondered if he would ever be able to get use to hearing those words from her.

“I love you, Doll.” He whispered back, nuzzling his nose into her temple. His eyes trailed over the living room, taking in all of the decorations that she had Noelle had spent their afternoon putting up. “It looks nice in here.”

“Yeah? Not too much?”

“No, I don’t think so.” He answered, “It’s certainly different than from when Steve and I, well, you know…back then.” Bucky paused, “I remember the first winter we were out on our own, we didn’t have any extra money for decorations so we just made them out of newspaper.” He chuckled, “Wasn’t much, but it was better than nothing.”

“Certainly,” Grace agreed, she enjoyed when Bucky or Steve would share their stories of their times growing up. She never pushed though, as she knew it was difficult for them both to talk about. “Now all we need is a Christmas tree, and we’ll be all set.”

“I’m sure we can get that taken care of quite easily.”

“I think so, as well.” She agreed, with a nod of her head. “Christmas cookies, we need to make Christmas cookies too…”

Bucky laughed, shaking his head, “Whatever you want to do, Dear.” Listening to the yawn that escaped Grace, he looked to the clock and realized it was starting to get late. “Ready for bed?”

“I am if you are.”

Bucky nodded, standing and gently pulling Grace to her feet. “You forgot something, you know?”

“What?” Her eyebrows furrowed as she racked her brain and tried to figure out what she’d forgotten as she followed Bucky towards their bedroom. She let out a huff when she walked right into him, “Why did you…” She trailed off, looking up to where Bucky was pointing.

“Mistletoe.” He murmured, smiling at her before he took her face gently in his hands and kissed her, letting his lips linger against hers for a moment. “Tis the season, and all that shit right?”

“Oh, James Buchanan Barnes,” Grace laughed, “What am I going to do with you?”

“Keep me, hopefully.”

The next morning, when everyone had started to stir and trickle into the kitchen rubbing eyes and reaching for coffee or food, everyone startled when there was a loud, ‘Oh, hell no!’ Nearly shouted from the doorway. Grace looked up from her coffee to see Tony and Sam wedged shoulder to shoulder in the doorway, looks of absolute disgust painted on their faces as they struggled to get through.

“I am NOT kissing him.” Tony stated firmly, nearly falling, as he finally got unstuck, “That is where I draw the line!”

“What are you trying to say?” Sam scoffed, clearly offended. “Everyone loves some dark chocolate!”

“Jesus Christ.” Tony whispered, ignoring the fact that everyone was snickering. Grabbing the coffee pot, he poured his coffee and turned around to face everyone, ignoring the jousts coming from the motely crew completely, “So…what’s for breakfast?”

Steve nearly choked on his coffee when Grace muttered, “Dark chocolate, I guess.”