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It was three in the morning, and Tony was exhausted; he hadn’t slept in three days, and he was pretty sure his bloodstream consisted completely of caffeine, but it had been worth it; his secret Santa gift was finished.
It was now sitting there, fully wrapped, and all Tony needed to do was label it- he’d typed up a small message to attach,
Before he could give himself a chance to back out, Tony stuck the note onto the gift, and left the lab to place it under the tree in the living room.
It was early the next morning that a still-tired Tony was woken by the sounds of multiple superheroes in his lounge room and the Spider-Kid on the ceiling above him yelling “MERRY CHRISTMAS MR STARK!!!”
Tony got out of bed, muttering about how annoying Peter was, got dressed and trudged out into the living room, grabbing himself a cup of coffee as he passed through the kitchen on the way.
When he entered the living room, Tony wasn’t sure if he’d just come into a room in his house or into actual, living hell.
Smashed glass ornaments lay around on the floor, which an exasperated looking Stephen was fixing with his magic- the cause of these broken ornaments became clear when Thor knocked another from the tree as he noticed Tony, smiling widely.
“Man of Iron!” Thor swung his arms wide, knocking off more ornaments, before crushing Tony in hug, probably breaking the billionaire’s ribs.
“Hey, Thor,” Tony wheezed, and the god released him, still beaming, oblivious to any damage he’d caused.
“Are we going to do presents or not?” The bored voice of one Loki Laufeyson drifted across the room.
“Yeah, let’s do presents,” Tony agreed. “You all put your gifts under the tree when you arrived, right?”
They all gave affirmations of doing so, and Tony made his way over to the tree.
They’d all agreed that they’d have to guess who had given them the gift before the person who gave it actually revealed themselves.
“Alright, so I’ll hand them out then, since it’s my house.” Tony picked up the first gift, which was addressed to Thor.
Thor opened it, and was confronted by a real, living snake, which immediately tried to bite him.
“Loki,” Thor said, and the god of mischief smiled in return.
“Didn’t take you long, brother.”
Tony handed out more of the presents; Natasha had gotten Clint some new arrow heads, Thor had gotten Bruce a bunch of small plushies, which Bruce was now clutching to his chest like precious diamonds, and so on.
Tony found his Secret Santa to be Peter, who had gotten him a mug that said “Number 1 Iron Dad”.
Finally, the last present under the tree was Tony’s own- everyone knew already who it was for and who it was from, of course; Tony probably should have thought this through and let everyone guess at the end.
Slightly nervous but too late to back out, Tony handed his gift to Stephen.
The sorcerer gave him a curious glance at the shape of the gift, before he opened it, taking a little longer than others because of his shaking hands.
Inside lay two small nanotech housing units, very similar in appearance the housing unit Tony wore on his chest.
The other Avengers had begun to chatter amongst themselves, no longer interested, and Tony came over to Stephen’s side.
Wordlessly, he took the housing units, then pressed one gently to Stephen’s wrist; instantly nanotech expanded out, encasing Stephen’s hand.
“I don’t know if you’ll still be able to do spells with them on, but it should help with the shaking-”
Tony’s explanation was cut off as Stephen pulled him into a hug.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” he repeated quietly, and Tony relaxed into the hug, returning it after a few moments.
When he pulled away from Stephen’s hold, Tony smiled at Stephen.
“Did you read the message I attached?”
Stephen pulled the small note off the wrapping, eyes darting across the page as he read.
Then he looked up at Tony, and smiled.
“My answer is yes,” he said, before pulling Tony forward into a kiss.
The note slipped from his hand, fluttering to the ground, where it lay, face up, the words “ I made these just for you. Hope you like them. Before I’m too chicken, will you go out with me?” now able to be seen by everyone else in the room.