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For iamgryffindork
It’s Tony’s first Christmas with a large group of friends and Steve can really tell when the first time Steve gathers them all for what’s to become their annual holiday decorating, Tony makes a flimsy excuse and a hasty exit to his workshop. Steve assumes the worst of Tony - that he’s afraid of a little hard work when there’s not technology or explosions involved - but when he confronts the mechanic about it he finds Tony watching them wistfully on six big screens and Steve’s heart melts a little.
He gently confronts Tony about decorations the next day (because there are eight inhabited floors, and it took all day to even get one done, Tony, we could really use your help) and Tony hesitantly agrees to help. Pepper shows up about an hour later and Tony finally comes out of his holiday shell, making a show of complaining about glitter and tinsel but making sure to keep the eggnog flowing and the music playing.
Four hours later finds the brunet laughing over a punch bowl whose contents are now more bourbon than eggnog and standing closer to Steve than he’s ever been, not counting the times they argue nose-to-nose. Steve’s glad, because it creates a warmth in him that he didn’t think he’d feel again, and when Tony’s eyes catch his, his heart flutters and he knows that this could be the best Christmas yet.
-
For partytimexelent
There’s mistletoe, because of course there’s mistletoe at the Avengers Annual Christmas Party. If there wasn’t, Tony would know something was definitely amiss, and then where would they all be for Christmas? Still, as the owner of their current residence and financial host for this particular shindig, Tony feels like he might deserve a say in the choice of decorations.
Which means he’s too busy pouting over his lack of authority to realize he’s been parked in the very same doorway for the entirety of their little party and has only missed being kissed by every Avenger through sheer awesome luck. It’s Steve who finally notices both Tony and the mistletoe, and Steve who finally decides to plant a large kiss right on Tony’s lips. To the billionaire’s credit, he’s far too shocked by Steve’s actions to properly react, but it only takes a moment for the room to erupt into a sea of cheers and laughter. Tony feels himself flush as Steve offers him a smirk, and he tries to hide it with a palm over his face.
“Tradition, right?” Steve offers, and his grin is just too warm for Tony to resist. Instead of replying, Tony seizes the blond by the collar of his tacky Christmas sweater and hauls him in for a proper kiss, and anything Steve might say in response is drowned out by Tony’s insistent lips and by the growing calls of their teammates. Steve eventually just shrugs under Tony’s grasp and returns the kiss with equal fervor.
Next year, Tony decides, he’s definitely making sure there’s more mistletoe.
-
For agentpaxieamor
She’s got the perfect Christmas present this year. It’s small, and doesn’t cost a lot of money - she would never hear the end of it if he found out she had spent a small fortune on him again, not that he doesn’t deserve it - and it comes straight from the heart, or at least something like that. The important thing is that this year her gift is perfect.
Steve comes in close to midnight, after putting the finishing touches in the main party hall - why he insists on doing it himself, Tony will never know but it sure makes tonight convenient - and almost overlooks her where she is waiting on the bed. His double take is almost comical however, and Toni can see the way Steve’s eyes zoom in on her and focus with a clarity he usually reserves for the battlefield.
“Merry Christmas, Captain,” Toni purrs, knowing that she has Steve’s full attention as his eyes draw up her body and lock on with her own. And she should, considering the lacy red lingerie she’s sporting. It’s all brand new, and custom fitted to make sure all her curves are accentuated in addition to perfectly framing the glowing blue of her arc reactor. She’s even finished the look with a bit of holly in her carefully teased hair, and a sprig of mistletoe dangling between two delicate fingers over her head.
He clearly agrees with her decision for a present this year, because he barely manages a sound before he’s at the bed and falling before her.
-
It’s an accident, really: somebody was looking for extra tumblers or spoons or alcohol or something and inevitably they end up in his dad’s old office, far enough away that Tony doesn’t usually have to think about it but close enough that it’s a potential source of extra booze when he needs the peace and quiet. Steve and Tony are in there now, and Steve manages to find his way to the bookshelves despite the extra tumblers being over by the small bar. Tony should have known something was up when Steve grabs one of the books and pulls it out, letting it fall open with a puff of dust.
Steve lets out a proprietary cough, but the noise that follows isn’t one Tony’s familiar with. He stands from where he’s ACTUALLY looking for the tumblers to see that Steve’s got one hand over his mouth and a look of shock on his face. Tony wanders over cautiously, letting out a noise of frustration when he finds the source of Steve’s shock.
“Is this you?” Steve asks, gesturing down to the small collection of photos in the album he’s holding. Tony doesn’t even have to get a good look at the photos, because he can still remember the day clearly: he had been ten, and Captain America had been his biggest hero. So his mother had bought him anything he could ask for - Captain America pajamas, a Captain America shield, and on Christmas Day that year, he’d finally received his official merchandise Captain America action figure. The pictures all contained him sporting every piece of Captain America memorabilia he had been able to muster that morning, showing it off proudly for the camera.
“Yeah,” Tony finally forced himself to say, and glanced at Steve to gauge his reaction. Steve just let out another of those noises, and gave Tony a bewildered look before setting the book down gently on the bookshelf and enveloping Tony in a large hug. They stood there, together, until they both completely forgot about the tumblers.
-
For onelovelykat
When Steve agreed to take a Christmas vacation in the tropics, he hadn’t exactly counted on anything being too different than Christmas at home. They were all going to be together, after all, and this time it was less likely they’d even be interrupted by the villain du jour. Really, Tony’s suggestion had been brilliant considering how badly all of the Avengers were in need of a vacation.
Still, as Steve stared longingly at their decorated palm tree, there was something distinctly different about wearing shorts and decorating around coconuts rather than the usual sweaters and firs. Even surrounded by his makeshift family, Steve felt a little homesick. Which made it all the worse when Tony disappeared on Christmas Eve for six hours.
Steve was just starting to get nervous when he did finally return, carrying a pine tree tied to Iron Man’s back that sparkled with lights. “Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a tree in New York on Christmas Eve?” Tony practically shrieked as his armor disassembled, “I ended up having to cut one down! And I’m pretty sure that’s not legal!”
Now that Steve was looking at it, the tree did look just like those he often passed in Central Park. Still, with the tree covered in the slowly melting snow and glistening with arc reactor-powered lights, Steve felt right at home.
-
Steve’s tiny apartment is cozy. And he thinks that’s perfect, even if Tony swears cozy means you can lay on the floor and touch both walls and that these kinds of apartments should be avoided. It works for Steve, anyway, and it keeps him active and involved. He likes spending time there, too, huddled with a blanket and enjoying the heat of a fire (he has a fireplace!) and a warm bowl of soup. It’s quiet, and it’s cozy.
So it’s a little bit of a surprise when on Christmas Day there’s a knock on his door and he’s barely stood from the couch before there are people pouring into his living room-slash-dining room, making a general ruckus and filling the space easily. Steve’s a little startled but immediately recognizes the faces of his friends, who are looking for places to set their coats and the containers they’re carrying.
“Thought you might want some company, Cap,” Clint calls from somewhere in the back, and Steve suspects the man is hunting for a beer in Steve’s small kitchen. Natasha, standing nearest Steve, offers a very small smile that’s both warm and apologetic, and Steve smiles back at her in return. His eyes catch the last person finally coming in the door, and he makes eye contact with Tony and maneuvers his way over to him.
“We might have missed you at the Tower,” Tony confesses, quietly so that only Steve can hear him. He glances up through his lashes at Steve, who smiles broadly and leads Tony further into the apartment with a hand on his back.
“I might have missed you guys, too.”
-
Honestly, whoever had told Tony that getting Steve a puppy for Christmas was a good idea had clearly been out of their mind. What was wrong with lizards or rocks? Dogs were noisy, and hyper, and destructive, and Tony had not been of sound mind when Steve had mentioned he might like a dog and had used those damn puppy eyes on him. It honestly wasn’t Tony’s fault he was completely susceptible to Steve’s wiley ways.
And this particular dog was the worst. It snorted and panted and snuffed everything, especially the dirty stuff around Tony’s garage where it SPECIFICALLY WASN’T ALLOWED but still managed to get into. And Steve had named him MAX, which definitely, by no account, do not write this down JARVIS, was not the cutest thing ever to watch after Steve had pulled the little puppy from its box and cuddled it and cooed its new name.
So when it came down shortly after Christmas and gave Tony the exact same pitiful look Steve always managed to pull off, Tony was definitely not going to fall for it. Except that he totally did, and the little bastard managed to get six treats out of him in the course of an hour. And when Steve joined them a few hours later, Tony did not fall for his puppy eyes to join them both in the bed upstairs. Except that he totally did, again, and with a heaving sigh of resignation admitted that he might sort of like them both a lot better than he cared to admit.
That is, until Max’s cold wet nose managed to find Tony’s bare feet in the middle of the night.
-
For omano-chan
It’s less than a week before Christmas and everybody is out of town for some important reason or another with the exception of Tony and Steve, who honestly can’t find it in themselves to be upset. Everybody’s supposed to be back before Christmas, and Steve almost suspects the conspicuous plans to have the Tower to themselves might have been on purpose, but he’s not really sure who to approach about it. Still, it’s a good chance for him and Tony to spend some quality time together, just the two of them, in front of the fire with some eggnog and cheesy Christmas movies.
It’s a little bit of a surprise, then, when in the middle of Elf there’s a knocking on the door to the outside balcony. It’s pitch black outside, for starters, and they’re ninety stories up, besides. Steve and Tony share a bewildered look before Steve stands to see who’s there. There are are only a handful of people who even could use this door, and none of them would ever knock.
He opens the door cautiously to find Loki standing just outside, not looking cold in the foot-deep snow but look extremely uncomfortable.
“I was hoping Thor might be here,” Loki says quietly, and Steve relaxes from his defensive stance.
“He’s been with Jane this week,” Steve replies, slowly, as Tony joins him in the doorway.
“I see,” Loki says just as quietly, and something downturns on his face, “I was hoping to catch him for the Yule celebration.”
“We were going to watch A Christmas Story next,” Tony offers instead, and Loki’s face lights up despite his efforts to appear unphased while Steve considers the invitation.
“And we can make an extra mug of eggnog if you want,” the blond adds, and Loki nods through a growing grin.
-
For royswordsman
Tony’s a fireman for the local volunteer services, and a damn good one at that, but there’s something about the blond that comes to put out his tree three days before Christmas that has him feeling like he might forget some of his fire safety.
The original accident is just that: a careless accident that involves a lot of modified Christmas lights and an apparently dry tree. Tony is a bit zoned out from a mechanics binge, so when the tree spontaneously combusts into a raging sprucey inferno, Tony belatedly moves to put out the fire but is far too slow to react. The alarms in his home blare until there’s three firetrucks outside his door and a number of his coworkers watching him amusedly as he fumbles to explain the situation. The fireman Tony finally notices, however, is one he’s never seen at work before: a hunky blond that looks like they’ve borrowed him right out of the yearly calendar, easily lifting the remains of what was Tony’s tree to haul it to the dumpster outside.
“I’ll have to be even less careful if you’re going to come put out all my fires,” Tony says to the man, quite smoothly, and watches at the blond’s face goes totally red before he gives Tony an exasperated look.
“I feel like that might mean we lose the whole block next time,” the man replies. “Listen, I’m new here. Why don’t you just take me to dinner and show me around the station instead of turning your outdoor decorations into a safety hazard?”
Tony opens his mouth a few times before finally just crossing his arms and nodding.
“I think… Yeah, I think I can do that.”
-
For sirdef
It’s been an unspoken agreement for the longest time, that villains tend to leave well enough alone for the holidays, especially the ones where everybody has off and just wants to be at home. Tony has long suspected that even supervillains have somebody to spend time with, and it’s no skin off his back to have the holidays off. So it’s a real surprise when, at 5am on Christmas Day, the alarms in Stark Tower start blaring and he finds himself face to face with Captain America in his living room.
“I don’t mean any harm,” the villain claims, which is rich coming from the man who three days ago tried to take off Tony’s head with his damned shield, but Tony likes to think himself a magnanimous man and doesn’t move to speak or fight.
“I just…” and Captain America hesitates, looking around Tony’s lush penthouse with obvious appreciation, “I just didn’t have anybody for the holidays and thought you might be lonely, too.”
And that’s definitely going on the list of strangest things ever said to him, but if Iron Man’s arch nemesis is one thing it’s observant. Tony is totally alone this Christmas and has long since resigned himself to blaring loud music and working in the garage for the next week while trying to stay drunk on eggnog. But then Captain America sets down the shield he never parts with and slowly removes his helmet, and the clearly nervous blond underneath the helmet is slowly revealed. Tony is shocked to find how good looking Captain America actually is - there were rumors, but who’s ever going to stop the man to ask? He’s even more shocked to find himself considering the possibility. It would be nice to have some company for Christmas, he thinks, and he supposes they could go back to fighting for Boxing Day.