Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

There was something magical about the River’s End Mall at Christmas time. The largest mall in the state and ideally suited for events all year round but an absolute must see come the holiday season. A massive tree, an indoor ice rink, sleighrides outside, lights, decorations and of course Santa himself.

All of this was made possible by the efforts of the mall’s event coordinator, Melinda May, who upon meeting, wouldn’t be pegged as the festive type. It would however be assumed that she was the type to be exceptionally good at her job. Whatever that job may be. She was an excellent event coordinator because she got things done. So, when it comes to Christmas, she hires the best.

A man who brings a winter wonderland to life within the walls of the mall.

A man who believes in putting the spirit back in the holidays, even in the most commercial of locations.

A man who loves a good suit, red or otherwise.

A man by the name of Phil Coulson.

And on occasion, Santa Clause.

“If you don’t lay off the cookies, you’re not going to need the pillow to stuff your suit this year.” Phil smiles as Melinda appears next to him. He’s got a mouth full of crumbs and can’t get his own quip out before she’s taken in the hundreds of decorations they’ve brought in. “You’re out doing yourself this year.”

He swallows down the last of the cookie and grabs a few more off the tray that was set out for the workers and volunteers. “We got so much publicity last year, national news remember, can’t disappoint now.”

“I see and when does the tree arrive?”

“It’s here, they’re trying to figure out how to get it through the door.”

Her eyes snap to his, “Coulson, we’ve driven trucks into the mall, exactly how big is this tree?”

“Could be worse, Rockefeller Center already had dibs on my first pick.”

May rolls her eyes at him but he knows it’s all for show. When May first came to him twenty-five years ago, inquiring about setting up a Santa Experience at the mall he knew she’d accept nothing less than the best and every year it got a little bigger and a little better. It had been great publicity for his business, but he would be lying if he said he wasn’t trying to impress her just a little bit.

“When do my elves arrive?” His own crew of employees handled most of the setup, installing the ice rink, hanging decorations from the balcony, setting up the tree, but over time the mall had acquired a group of volunteers who came in to help hang ornaments and set up activity tables.

“Daisy and the other volunteers should be here shortly.” Phil nods and watches as May moves around the towers of boxes, inspecting the contents of each of them.

“We’ve got everything, enough ornaments to coat a forest, the undecorated ones for the activity tables arrived yesterday, we’re also on 100% low energy LED lights this year.” May nods along but clearly isn’t paying much attention.

“We’ve got an excellent wrapping paper source this year too, lots of variety, different colors.”

“Mmhmm.”

“Came up with a tag line for the print advertisements, Christmas at River’s End Mall, it’s a Magical Place.”

“Coulson.”

“I think the box you’re looking for is over here.” Finally with her attention back, he leads her over to a foldout table with a small box sitting at the edge. May peers inside to see it full of handmade ornaments and a small spark appears in her eyes. Shortly after they had started the Santa Experience at the mall May had partnered with the local orphanage to bring in the kids in to do crafts and receive gifts. It was that first year that they had met Daisy, an unlucky but optimistic little girl and accidently bonded with May. While most of the kids took their crafts home to decorate as best they could for Christmas, Daisy always gave hers to the grumpy coordinator. May would then hang the decorations on the large tree. He still remembers the look on Daisy’s face when she came back the second year and saw her messy glitter ornament front and center. Phil had watched the pair get closer every year from then on and to be honest he knows he’s gotten attached too.

“I know you’re not Santa you know.” She says, her tiny arms crossed and messy dark hair obscuring her face.

“Oh.” He doesn’t know if that means she doesn’t believe in Santa at all or just knows that he’s not the real thing.

She leans against the arm of his chair. “Yeah, but I won’t tell the other kids.”

“Well I appreciate that; do you still want to tell me what you want for Christmas?” He always played Santa with the kids from the orphanage. He handled it better than his other employees when all these kids ever asked for was a family.

“I don’t really want anything.” She’s admiring the tree they’re situated in front of, he can see the lights sparkling in her wide eyes.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, but can I hang out for a minute anyways?” She asks, still distracted.

He smiles. “Of course.”

Every year it was the same with Daisy. She wouldn’t ask for anything, just go through the line for show and sit with him and stare at the lights when it was her turn. He found himself looking forward to the few minutes they shared together but then one year she wasn’t there. He had gone to May immediately. His friend, he had thought had been in a bad mood since the start of the holiday season, but that day she seemed particularly distant. “No Daisy this year, was she adopted?” He asks. Several little kids look up at him with curious eyes.

After ensuring all the activity tables were covered, May gestures for him to follow her a few steps away. “They’ve placed her with a foster family.”

“Well that’s good, a step in the right direction.” May says nothing. “But you don’t sound convinced.” He jokes.

“Its happened a couple of times before, they always send her back.”

This shocks him. Daisy was such an easy kid. Didn’t ask for anything, helped with the younger children, “she seems like such a good kid.”

“She is, just not a good fit, that’s what Sister Anne said.”

“Maybe this time will be different.”

“Maybe.”

Coulson knows somethings up. He’s gotten pretty good a reading May over the years. “You don’t seem too thrilled about that possibility.”

“That little girl deserves some love and support in her life, if she’s with a family that will give her that then I’m ecstatic.”

Daisy was back the next year. Things hadn’t worked out well with her foster family and she had been sent back to the orphanage shortly after the new year. On the plus side May seemed merrier than she had the past year, even if it was just slightly.

When Daisy comes through the line this time she doesn’t sit on the arm of the chair and stare at the lights and she doesn’t mock him about his crush on May. Daisy was a very perceptive child. Instead she shifts uncomfortably and whispers, “I think I know what I want this year.”

“Really?” Phil perks up. Whatever this kid wants he’s prepared to make it happen for her. He’ll talk to May and they’ll make it happen. A pony, a car, whatever.

“Yeah, but I don’t think I’ll get it.”

“Oh no? Well I know you know I’m not really Santa, but I could still work a little magic.”

Daisy still doesn’t give it up but her eyes that normally stare at the sparkling lights are directed now at the activity table where May is helping some of the younger kids glue cotton balls to Santa hats.

“She’s teaching me to ice skate.”

“Yeah?” This surprises him if only just a little. He had found out not long after they first installed the indoor ice rink that she was an excellent skater but he’d yet to see her set foot on the ice.

“She’d be a good mom, I think.”

So that was it. “That is a pretty big request.”

“I didn’t say – “ She protests.

“I know, but also, I know.” Daisy gives him a small smile before it fell back to a frown. “Look,” he said softly, taking her hands, “I don’t know if I can make that happen but I do know that she cares a lot about you and so do I, it makes me really happy that you shared that with me.”

“Thank you Coul – um, Santa.”

“COULSON!” Phil is jarred from his thoughts in time to see Daisy spiriting up to him. She’s grown now into a young woman, with a passion for computer science and a close batch of misfit friends who she’s built a family out of. Its no longer just her and May and occasionally himself at the Christmas dinner table.

“Long time no see, how come you never visit anymore?” He pulls her in to a tight hug. Its been too long.

“I don’t know, maybe because I’m a busy working adult now.”

“All lies, you’re ten years old in my mind.” He steps back, “you’ve got time to help me decorate though?”

She beams back at him. “Always, but uh, where is the tree?”

Yeah he should probably check on that. He turns to May, who at some point during his reminiscing had answered her phone. “They just got it through the doors, Coulson I swear if this doesn’t fit – “

“I will personally go chop down a smaller one,” he promises. “You try to give her the best and she complains about it.”

“I’m not complaining I’m being rational; someone is going to have to take care of this tree.”

“I have been doing this for twenty-five years and never once had a tree die on me.”

“1999, 2007, 2013, last year – “

“Last years was sick, what did you want me to do put it out of the street, have you never seen a Charlie Brown Christmas.”

“Alright mom and dad," Daisy interrupts, "let’s just call this one a draw, its sounds like we’ve got a lot of work to do.” She looks eagerly at May and he knows she wants something. “And speaking of work, I brought my roommate, Jemma, you remember her, right?”

“She's the expert gift wrapper you mentioned?”

“Can she interview with you?”

“These aren’t really convenient hours, she knows that right?”

Daisy nods enthusiastically. “She does, absolutely does, her labs have her working weird hours, late nights and early mornings, so this should be perfect for her.”

May nods in agreement. “Sounds great, let’s go.” Daisy does a short victory jig and begins to lead the way. May starts to follow but stops suddenly. “Coulson - "

“Yes?”

“The Tree.”

“I’ll ready the ax, Melinda.” She smiles a genuine smile and his heart thuds like he’d a kid again. Maybe this would be the year. Maybe.

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

Daisy loved volunteering at their own little North Pole. The event at the mall had given her so much since she was a kid, she enjoyed being able to give a little back. It was kitschy but May sort of let Coulson have free range nowadays, admitting that she lost control over the whole thing a solid decade ago. That said, while Coulson could be blamed for the overly large tree, the candy cane archways, and the giant globe like ornaments hanging from the ceiling, there was one thing that had come about all on its own.

It was the mall patrons that had taken to calling the volunteers Elves.

Coulson had been delighted and she thinks it might have been an idea long since vetoed, maybe even from before she started attending as a kid.

It was an appropriate name, there was no arguing that. And because she had been there the longest of all the volunteers, she had been deemed Head Elf. If other volunteers had a question, they came to her, certainly before going to May. If there was a crisis, she was on it. She was even surprisingly good with shy and quiet kids.

Her main job though, was Elf in charge of all the messiest activities.

“Chica, you’ve got glitter all over your face.”

Daisy looks up at Elena. She is sitting opposite her at the kid’s craft table, where they’re supposed to be helping them decorate Christmas ornaments but if said ornaments could be found under the copious amounts of glitter it would be an actual Christmas miracle. She groans in frustration, checking to see which side of her hand is cleaner before she wipes at her face. She looks at Elena again, for confirmation that its’ gone, but she only shakes her head. “Damn.”

There is a chorus of childish ooo’s and one of the kids pipes up, “Miss Daisy said a bad word.” Oops. She looks around to make sure none of the parents are within earshot.

“That’s our little secret you guys.” She whispers across the table, making the kids bring fingers to their mouths to shush each other excitedly.

“Daisy.” She hears May call her name from all the way across the ‘North Pole’ and looks up to see her gesturing her over.

“Okay there is no way she heard that.”

Elena scoffs, “she’s May, she knows everything.”

Daisy jumps up and brushes the glitter off her hands as best she can. Its rains down on the kids seated at the table who screech with joy. She crosses through the crowds of families either waiting their turns at the activity tables or waiting in line for Santa. “What’s up?” Daisy asks, now attempting to wipe off the glitter on her jeans.

“Having fun?” May asks, eyeing her glitter covered daughter.

“A blast.” She answers with a hint of sarcasm. She gives up on the glitter and places her hands on her hips in defeat. “Did you need me for something?”

“We’ve got a new volunteer, I need your help getting him settled in.”

Another Head Elf duty. “I’m on it, where is he?”

May waves over her shoulder, catching the attention of a good-looking guy whose chatting with Coulson. He works his way through the crowd to meet them. Up close she can see that he’s maybe a little bit older than her, most of their new volunteers are teenagers padding their college resumes. The next thing she notices is that he really is handsome, all dark hair and dark eyes. She kind of wishes she didn’t look like she just rolled around on the craft table.

“Daisy this is Daniel Sousa, Sousa this is Daisy.”

“It’s nice to meet you.” He holds out a hand to shake hers.

“Same – Oh!” She releases his hand and sees where the glitter has transferred from her hand to his. “Sorry, this stuff spreads like a virus.”

He chuckles, "It okay."

“Sousa is new to River’s End and this is his first time here, so I need you to show him around.” Daisy nods. As volunteers they were really meant to help the kids with crafts and activities but were often used like a help desk by the parents who couldn’t find their way around or needed suggestions on where to go.

“Great, I give the best tours, I practically grew up here, so I know every corner of this place.” She hopes this makes her sound more professional; so far she’s afraid she's come off like an overgrown child.

“When you’re done, come meet back here and we will set you up with one of the activities and Daisy, a proper tour please.”

“So not the roof?”

“Or any of your back-hallway shortcuts.” She turns back to Daniel, “the main stairs are the fastest way around, despite what she might try to tell you, I know you said that wasn’t an issue but there are a lot of them, besides the large one, there are elevators in all the department stores and service elevators at each main entrance if you need them, if anyone gives you shit about using them just let me know.”

“I appreciate that.”

Daisy watches May go thinking her last words were rather odd but decides its’ really not any of her business.

“So, what’s on the roof?” He asks as soon as May is out of earshot.

She laughs and decides right away she already likes him. “Nothing much, but it’s definitely the best view for the Christmas parade and at night you can see the lights from the decorations of the neighborhood down the street.”

“Sounds nice.”

“It is, I’ll show you sometime, but we’ve got to keep this tour by the books.”

She starts off by pointing out each store but about ten stores in she realizes he is perfectly capable of reading the signs on his own and switches over to giving her own opinion on each. Several of the clothing stores are over-priced but there are three or four nice ones and a couple of boutiques. They have three toy stores, not including a fourth store dedicated entirely to puzzles and board games. Those answer the two most frequently asked questions this time of year. Electronics were next, followed by –

“Where’s the best bookstore?”

“A reader?” She asks curiously. He nods.

“Might actually be better not to tell me, I’ve already got a shelf full of paperbacks I haven’t read, I don’t exactly need more.”

Daisy can’t help but roll her eyes at him. “I hate to tell you but if your biggest vice is book buying binges, then you’re kind of a dork.”

“Noted.”

“Anyways, only one bookstore, east side, it’s three floors but the top floor is mostly for lounging, studying and book signing events and its located near the Cookie Shop so it always smells like chocolate chip cookies.” So far, they’ve only made it about halfway around the second floor. Daisy knows her rundown on some of the stores is long and he probably doesn’t need quite so much information but when she apologizes, he just shakes his head. “No, the more the better.”

Still, she feels like she’d been talking too much.

“What brings you to River’s End?”

“I’m hoping to get a teaching position at the university, I’m there now temporarily covering for a professor on maternity leave but I’m actually supposed to have an interview here later today about taking over for another professor who’s retiring, I’m meeting them at Mockingbird’s Coffee Shop, will that be on the tour?”

“Absolutely, it’s the best coffee in the mall, my friend Bobbi owns it, it’s the third floor though so were not quite there.” She makes a mental note to show him the fastest route. “What do you teach?”

“History, 20^th Century history.”

“Wow, so you’re not kind of a dork, you’re really a dork.”

“Not a fan?”

“Actually, I excelled at it, Coulson’s a history nerd too, you guys will get along great, why did you sign up to be an elf?” She asks. Sousa had been kind of quiet at first but she found that she likes his answers to her questions so she keeps tossing them his way.

“Downtime, the university is on break,” he starts, “and the spirit of it is kind of nice, how about you?”

“I’ve been coming here ever since I was a kid and I guess I didn’t exactly sign up, after May adopted me I just sort of started helping out.”

He turns to her surprise, “I didn’t realize – “

Daniel is cut off mid-sentence as alarms start blaring. They look around for the source and she can just barely hear someone shout “Hey stop!”  before she catches sight of a saleswoman watching helplessly as a man in a dark jacket, takes off running in their direction. As he gets closer he veers away from them towards the main stairs and Daisy feels her feet moving before she can tell them not too.

“STOP!” She races for the stairs. He’s fast but she's just a little bit faster. He stumbles on the last couple of steps and it gives her the extra second she needs.

“STOP!” She lunges forward and catches him around the waist, taking them both to the floor. The man struggles to get away, but her weight is on his leg and he can’t quite squirm out of her grasp. After what feels like much longer than a few seconds, a couple of mall security guards are there, hoisting the pair of them off the ground. She’s going to have a couple bruises on her arms after this and a sore shoulder for at least the next week.

May, she realizes, is there too, telling security to take the guy down to her office, before turning concerned eyes on hers. She thinks for a second it’s her soft touch on her elbow but she’s too far away.

It’s Sousa that has come up behind her. “Are you alright, that was,” he reaches for the right words, but they must not come to him, “I don’t know what that was.”

“Possibly very stupid,” May clarifies for him. “Daisy we have security staff for this sort of thing.” May scolds her and Daisy can see she’s checking her over for injury.

“I didn’t see any of them.” She reasons.

May doesn’t look impressed with her excuse. “How far did you get with the tour?”

“Second floor.”

“You’ve been gone a while, you’re only second floor?” Daisy frowns. She supposes they may have taken on a leisurely pace. And they were chatting a lot.

“We’re just being thorough.”

May nods but looks skeptical. “Try to finish it up, we’re about to get the afterschool rush.”

“I’m on it.” May leaves them again and she turns back to Sousa. He smiles reassuringly at her.

“For what it’s worth, I thought it was impressive, are all Elves trained to intercept robberies?” he jokes and she shoves his shoulder.

"Oh no, just me, it's why I'm head elf." Daisy says proudly. “Don't worry about May, she’s not angry, just a worrier and doesn’t like to show it.” Daisy explains. “Let’s do a run through of the third floor and get back here before she does get upset.”

Clean up crew was probably her favorite elf assignment. No one else wanted the job which was fine by her. Sure it meant staying late into the evening but when the sunlight was replaced with moonlight and the tree glowed from the center of their north pole, she loved it. She never could pin point the reason behind her obsession with the Christmas lights. They just seemed to draw her in. After cleaning up all the stations she takes all the left behind ornaments and adds them to the tree, tracing her finger around the light strand as she goes.

“Hey, you’re still here.” Daisy jumps and spins around to see Sousa at one of the tables. He sliding on his coat that she recalls seeing draped over one of the chairs. “Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you.”

“Don’t worry, you didn’t, how’d the interview go?”

“Can’t say for sure, I think I’m qualified, Dr. Weaver really like some of my ideas, but – “ He trails off, piquing her interest. 

“What?”

He shakes his head. “It’s nothing.”

“Seriously? Tell me.”

“It’s just, well its’ a little hard to be taken seriously when you’ve got glitter on your face.” He grins at her and tilts his head slightly. She sees it immediately, the specks of glitter along his jaw and by his ear; they sparkle in the light from the tree. She gasps, her hands jumping to cover her mouth. He holds out his hand, the one she had shaken when they met. It’s still freckled with glitter.

“I’m so sorry!”

He laughs and its’ a nice sound. “It’s not a big deal, I must have touched my face at some point, but I told her I was volunteering here and she didn’t think twice about it.”

Daisy is still horrified. “I feel awful.”

“Make it up to me then?”

“Oh yeah, how?”

He takes a moment to consider. “Show me the lights from the roof sometime?”

Daisy shrugs. “I already said I’d do that.”

“Yeah, well, now you have to promise.”

For a moment she doesn't understand. Had he not taken her word for it? But also, this did sort of set it in stone. And the more the thought about it, the more she was looking forward to it. “Alright, I promise.”

Chapter Text

“Elena! Come sit with us.”

Elena can pick out the familiar call of her name even through the rumble of dozens of chattering children. And if she couldn’t, Hope Mackenzie made it easy by standing up on her chair and waving excitedly while her father urged her to sit back down.

She grins at the pair and holds up one finger, she only needs a minute more to finish up with the families in line to meet Santa.

Elena enjoyed working as a translator. Many of the kids didn’t need her help and the Santas that worked for Coulson were all bilingual, so she finds herself most often translating the gift requests for Santa to the parents; the kids always assuming Santa spoke English.

She finishes up with her last family and the parents thank her several times before she rushes over to join Hope and Mack.

“Back again, that’s three times already.” She’s surprised, although she’s certainly not complaining.

“Well, it is tradition, we try to come as many times as we can.” Mack explains. He stands from his crouched position next to Hope and she marvels again at just how tall he is. The day she’d met the pair she had spotted them from all the way across the North Pole activity center. She knew she was torturing herself, stopping by their table to see if they needed assistance but her boldness was rewarded. Not only was he a single father with the sweetest daughter in the world but he was definitely interested.

“What’s your favorite tradition?” She asks Hope. The girl lifts the ornament she’s been carefully decorating with silver sequence, it spins, catching the light and sparkling. “Making a new ornament for our tree ever year, although that won’t be it for much longer.”

“Oh, why’s that?”

“The drone light show.” She says simply before returning to her intricate work without farther explanation.

Elena glances at Mack curiously. “It’s this big Christmas light show that’s done using drones, they fly around and flash in time with music, its actually pretty impressive stuff and River’s End is officially on the tour schedule for Christmas Eve, we’ve already got our tickets.”

“Sounds kind of cool, might have to check it out.”

“Maybe you could come with us.”

Hope’s eager suggestion is quickly followed by a warning tone in her father’s voice, “Hope – “

“Well, if you’re not –“ She starts to reply with a sassy tone.

“How about some Hot Chocolate?” Mack interrupts. But Elena puts another point in Hope’s favor. She’d already tried to ask her out three times on her father’s behalf including about five minutes after they met.  

“With Peppermint?” The young girl asks excitedly.

“Another tradition?”

“It’s the best one.”

“It sounds like all the traditions are the best one.”

“How about I go get the Hot Chocolate, I know the best place and that way you guys can finish your ornament.”

“You don’t have to.”

Mack starts to protest but she’s already up. “I’ll be back in flash.”

Elena didn’t mind taking the stairs all three flights up to Bobbi’s Coffee Shop. It was certainly faster than waiting for the elevator. She dashes into Mockingbird’s and is immediately warmed by the smell of strong coffee, festive holiday syrups and the faintest scent of tea. It’s quiet; a change of pace for the usually bustling café.  There is only a small group of teens situated by a big picture window at the back of the shop and, Elena is pleased to see, there is no one in line. She can make a quick in and out and get back downstairs.

Bobbi’s at the counter, setting aside her phone when she notices her.

“Hey Elena, what can I get you?”

“Three Hot Chocolates with Peppermint,” she orders and then after a glance at her watch she adds somewhat desperately, “and a triple shot with anything.”

“Long day?”

Elena sighs and leans heavily on the counter, “it was getting better but – “

“Mack still hasn’t asked you out yet.” Bobbi already knows. She’s an old friend of Mack’s and never hearing the end of not introducing them sooner.

“No, he is a stubborn Turtleman, I’ll be lucky if he asks me out by next Christmas.”

Bobbi laughs as she prepares the drinks, “he’s just being careful, it’s in his nature.”

“But why must he be so cautious, all I want is a date.” She thought maybe it had to do with Hope at first, but the little girl genuinely seemed to like her. And then she thought maybe she had misread his interest, but the occasional flirting was always very direct.

“You’re just impatient, it’s the caffeine, you should cut back.” Bobbi slides three paper to go cups across the counter to her. Elena looks up knowingly.

“Is that your way of telling me you haven’t fixed the espresso machine?”

“The part will be in tomorrow.” Bobbi confirms and Elena grumbles in Spanish that she knows the other woman understands.  

“Can’t you make it with that thing?” She gestures to the antique espresso machine that served only as a decoration in the café’s front window. It was an impressive piece, made in Italy more than a century ago. It was also Bobbi’s prized possession even if it didn’t work.

“I wish I could, do you know how expensive it is to refurbish one of those, and mine’s almost good to go, it’s only missing a part too, but I can’t pop online and have it here tomorrow,” Bobbi grabs the coffee pot and fills a fourth paper cup before loading them into a carrier, “here I brewed this strong just for you and Daisy.”

Elena take the drinks gratefully. “Gracias.”

“Here you go.”  Elena reaches over Hope from behind to place a hot chocolate in front of her.

“Thank you!”

“That was quick.” Mack looks impressed as she hands him his own hot chocolate. She struggles not to roll her eyes. Quick, impatient, he can call it whatever he wants if it get it to click with him. She wants to shake him, although she suspects he may not even budge if she tried.

“What can I say, I like to move fast.”

He nods and gives her a knowing look. It’s then she realizes he really does get it, even if he is still trigger shy. “I’ve noticed, you bounce back and forth around here like a yoyo.”

“That’s would be a good nickname, Dad gives the best nicknames.” Hope says distractedly as she puts finishing touches on her ornament. She lifts it carefully to inspect it.

“Is it done?” Mack asks her.

“Its almost done, we just need a ribbon.”

“I’ll grab some for you, what color would you like?” Elena asks.

“Red, like your sweater.” She nods. Their table is scattered with rolls of green and gold ribbon but no red. She has to snag some off the table clear across the activity center. When she returns Mack and Hope are cleaning up their supplies. She cuts a length of red satin ribbon and Hope carefully ties it through the loop.

“Perfect.” Elena looks between the pair as they stand and put their jackets on. “Will I see you guys for a fourth time?” She trying to buy time.

“I’m sure we will.” Mack says certainly and for a moment Elena finds herself distracted by his smile.

“Daddy, ask her.”

Hope’s gentle prodding breaks the spell.

“Alright, alright,” Mack turns back to her. “Hope and I would like to know if you would like to join us at the Christmas parade this Saturday, if you’re not busy of course.”

Elena fights the urge to roll her eyes. It’s not exactly the invitation she had been waiting for, but it was a start. “Another tradition?” They nod. “I pretty sure I’m free.”

“YES!” Hope jumps up and flings her arms around Elena’s waist.

“Calm down Sparkplug,” he places his hands on her shoulders and pulls her against him in a calming sort of way. “We usually get there early to get a good seat.”

Elena grabs a metallic marker and scrape of paper from the craft table, “here’s my number, just text me where to find you guys and I’ll meet you.”

“Will do, thanks again for the Hot Chocolate, you helped us check another box on the holiday season list, right Hope – Hope?”

Hope is staring up at with smile on her face. Elena looks up and sees a drone from the gadget store on the second floor flying over the balcony and racing around the Christmas tree.

“Daddy can we go back to fly the drone again?” She asks and for the first time Elena things the girl sounds shy.

“We went when we got here.”

“I know, I just really want to go again.”

“Alright, but just for a bit.”

“By guys, see you Saturday.”

“Saturday.”

As soon as Mack and Hope are out of sight, she hears a whisper in her ear.

“Did he do it?” Daisy sounds giddy and over-caffeinated. Not unusual for her this time of year.

“Sort of, I’m going to the parade with them on Saturday.” Elena reports to her curious friend. “Do I have the word ‘caution’ stamped on my forehead?”

“The way you run around here maybe you should.”

“Very funny.”

“Elena!” The pair turn to see Hope running up to them waving something in her hand that sparkles. “We forgot to give this to you.” She hands Elena the ornament they had been working on.

“But this is yours, you need it for your tree.”

“Nope, flip it over.” Elena turns the ornament over in her hands. Written in swirly glitter paint letters is ‘yoyo’. “We made it for you.”

“This is beautiful, thank you.”

“You’re welcome, we’ll see you Saturday!” She disappears back into the crowd. Daisy peers over your shoulder.

“Yoyo?”

“Don’t laugh, its progress.”

Chapter Text

“Kora, I’ll be back in thirty, okay?” Bobbi glances at Kora who is carefully testing the now working espresso machine. She twists the lever to dispense the coffee and it spurts angerly at her before filling the cup. She stares back at it terrified and Bobbi has to fight back her amusement “You gonna be okay?”

She turns quickly, smiling and nodding eagerly. “Yes, I’ll be fine.”

“Call if you need me.”

The machine spurts again. “Will do.”

Bobbi smiles and picks up her carriers of coffees and tea, places them on a pushcart and heads out of the shop. Mockingbird’s doesn’t usually make deliveries, but enough mall employees had gotten together and pleaded with her to send a coffee cart around during the hours they were too busy to get away. It had worked out well enough; bringing in extra income and tips certainly didn’t hurt this time of year. She had a long list of friends and family she wanted to get gifts for and unless some of them got bumped to the naughty list, she wasn’t going to be done in time. Something Jemma points out to her every time she delivers her tea.

“I have most of them, just a few more to go.”

If most was three and a few was something like twelve.

She runs into several shops and then drops by May’s office with the second cup of tea on her cart. May gratefully accepts it and Coulson who is sitting across from her at the desk pouts over his lack of beverage. “Daisy can show you how to get the app.” Bobbi waves good-bye and continues her route.

She swings by the North Pole with two large coffee cups, having promised Elena and Daisy the first batch once the espresso machine was back up and running. Elena practically meets her at the elevator but Daisy she has to hunt down amongst the crowd. She eventually finds her and several kids huddled around a table stacked high with envelops. Daniel, a new volunteer she’d met the other day at the coffee shop was with her, helping the kids write out their names. She’s not known him long but already he is one of her favorite customers. He took his coffee black, tipped well, and looked at Daisy with hearts in his eyes. They’d even had a long conversation about her Antique Espresso machine and he thinks he has a lead on where she could get the part she needed to get it running.

“What are you guys doing?” Bobbi asks cheerfully.

“Writing letters to Santa!” The kids answered in unison making her laugh.

“Yep, and in a few hours, we get to open them all back up and reply to them.” Daisy whispers to Bobbi as she takes her beverage. “Hey if you’re heading outside, tell Hunter to set aside a nice tree for me and Simmons, we haven’t gotten one yet.”

“Seriously, you guys usual have it up by the time the turkey’s out of the oven on thanksgiving.” Bobbi had known Daisy for years, ever since May signed her up for the Big Sis Little Sis program and they’d been paired together. Never once had December rolled around without a tree already up.

“Busy.” Is the only explanation she gives.

Bobbi waves it off and hurries out to the mall’s main entrance. Set up in a sectioned off portion of the parking lot is a white tent with a small forest spread out around it. The twinkling lights were just starting to become visible as the sun arced towards the hills in the late afternoon hour.

She couldn’t even begin to fathom why Hunter took a job at the Christmas tree farm. She offered him a spot at her shop if he needed extra holiday cash but he was adamantly against the proposition. It worried her, even if she tried not to let it. She thought they were in good place, the best they’d been since the divorce but maybe she was wrong.

She slips into the tent, dunking under the low hanging lights. Hunter is just checking out a family and she waits patiently while he helps them load it into their truck.

“I’m taking ten.” He shouts through the tent before he jogs over to her. “What are you doing out here?”

“Thought you might be cold.” She hands him the last of the to-go cups and his eyes light up.

“Someone’s trying to end up on the nice list.” He pulls off his gloves before he takes the cup and holds it tightly in his hands. She raises an eyebrow at his contented sigh. “I take it all back.” He adds suddenly.

“Take what back?”

“Every time I called you a demonic hell beast, you’re just an angel with an edge.” He takes a long swig of the still piping hot tea and clutches it to his chest. “Why is it so bloody cold all the time?”

“Because you’re working outside in December, you can still have a job at the shop, I just hired Kora but were only going to get busier, oh, you could be the delivery boy.”

“No, no, nope, no,” Hunter shook his head. “We already decided that wasn’t a good idea, but I’ll walk you back.” She frowns, because he decided it wasn’t a good idea. But she doesn’t want to start an argument, so instead she lets him take her hand and they return to the warmth of the building.

They make it up to the second floor and detour so Hunter can ask Fitz again if wants to tickets to the soccer match and Bobbi tries not to visibly cringe at the reminder. She had decided that she wanted to get him a signed jersey for Christmas, something he could wear to the game but it was pricey.

They find Fitz out front fussing with the controller of a remote-control car but not actually driving it.

“Hey Fitz, what are you up to?”

“Hiding, it’s insane in there.” He gestures at the store where a line is six customers deep and both registers are manned. Bobbi can hear the impatient babble of the customers and one man’s loud exclamation.

“Hey! Can I ask where you found that? I looked all over for it.”

“It was the last one on the shelf.” The other guy looks more than a little smug about it but the first one brushes it off.  

“Could I get one of these from the back?” He shouts at the register worker.

She glances at the box and then back at him. “I’m afraid that’s are last one sir, we won’t have another shipment of them till after the holiday.”

“Sucks for them, doesn’t it, should have gotten their shopping out of the way early.”

Bobbi snorts at Hunter’s suggestion. “You’re one to talk, you’ve not bought anyone, anything.”

“Different circumstances, I don’t intend to give anyone anything.”

Bobbi rolls her eyes. She knows that’s not true or he wouldn’t be working outside in the snow.

“Gentleman, gentleman please!” There’s a crash and Bobbi looks up to see that one of the men has pushed the other, sending him into a display. The other man swings back quickly and there is a sickening thump as his fist makes contact with the man’s jaw. There are several screams and many customers run for the door while others gather around the scuffle like they’re in a high school hallway.

There is another crash as they roll into a shelf of miniature sound speakers.

“Security is on their way!” the manager who had been working the other register shouts but neither of them is listening. A mother with a screaming baby is trying to pull her older child out of the way but he only stares wide eyed at the fight until the tussle knocks over another stand that barely misses him.

“Alright, somebody’s going to get hurt.” Bobbi surges forward, grabbing the fellow who’s clearly winning the fight and hauls him off of the other guy. The second guy, instead of standing down immediately flings himself fists first at the pair and Hunter steps between them, narrowly missing getting his own lights knocked out.

“Come on gents this is ridiculous, its Christmas time, I’m sure we can work this out.” Hunter reasons as the man struggles against his hold.

“I think we’ve got a couple of names for the naughty list this year.” Bobbi’s remark doesn’t sit well with the guy she’s holding back. The man in her grasp swings his elbow back at her, trying to get free. He mumbles something crude under his breath and she tightens her grip, bringing him down to his knees. Mall security comes storming in moments later. Hunter’s detainee immediately starts to cooperate, but it takes a couple guys to restrain the man who had started the fight. As soon as he’s been hauled out of there, Bobbi finds a pair of large brown eyes staring up at her.

“Are you okay!” Jemma has rushed over from her post at the gift wrap station. She’s worriedly fussing over her while Hunter laughs it off and the manager tries to thank them both. Fitz and the other employees are attempting to right the disaster that has occurred. It takes several minutes for the pair to pull away. As exciting and adrenaline filled as the last few minutes had been, they both really needed to get back to work.

Despite this Hunter insists on walking her the rest of the way back to the coffee shop. Making her laugh the whole way about how May should fire her security staff and hire the two of them and Daisy who took down a robber the other day.

“I think she would if that was her department.”

“Oh right.” People often forgot that May didn’t run everything at the mall. “Well Love, it’s been a pleasure working with you, but I’ve got to return to the icy hell that is Kringle’s Tree Farm.” He bows dramatically and Bobbi wants to grin at his antics but instead she sighs heavily.

“So how come you won’t work with me?”

“What’s that?”

“You’re freezing your ass off out there hauling around Christmas trees, when you could be here serving up warm coffee and sweets.”

“Better tips?”

“Hunter.”

“Bob, you know what it’s like when we spend too much time together, all we do is fight.”

She shrugs. “I thought we’d been doing alright so far.”

“Yes, but were not spending every waking moment together, trust me we’re one hundred percent compatible, just fifty percent of the time, I don’t want to waste that fifty percent working with you, there’s so much better use of our time.” He steps up close to her, pressing a long kiss to her lips. Bobbi feels a smile stretching across her face. Hunter was an idiot, but most of the time he’s a well-intended idiot. “Alright that’s fair, but tell me next time, communication isn’t exactly our friend either.”

“Fair.” He agrees. “I’ll see you after work?”

“You know it.” She gives him another quick peck before stepping slowly backwards into the coffee shop. “I’m supposed to tell you to set aside a nice tree for Daisy and Simmons.”

“I’ve got commission to make, they’ll get what they get.”

Chapter Text

Jemma knows the last few boxes are just a little messier than usual and the ribbons slightly askew but she’s in a rush to finish the last of the gifts and clock out. It’s quiet in the mall. The natural day light from the skylights had been replaced with softer moonlight and the harsh fluorescent fixtures cast shadows she doesn’t recall seeing during the day. Gates have been lowered on stores, the only patrons are mall staff and most of them are on their way out too. She cleans up her space quickly; brushing the scraps of her conversations with Fitz into the bin beneath her workspace and making sure all the gifts are secure before pushing her stool under the table and rushing to the stairs.

She’s supposed to meet Daisy so they can finally get their Christmas tree. It’s the first chance they’d had even well into December. Her labs kept her busy and Daisy seemed to work non-stop this time of year. She dedicated her days to volunteering at the mall and that left her freelance cyber security work to be done at all hours of the night.

But someone was covering her labs tonight and Daisy managed to squeeze out a little time in schedule, so this evening they were going to have a Christmas themed girls’ night and decorate their tree, bake cookies, down eggnog and maybe binge a couple of holiday movies.

Jemma was hoping it would put Daisy in a good mood because she had some news that her friend was going to be less than excited about.

She hurried down the steps to the North Pole where a few volunteers were finishing clean up. Daisy is leaning against a table while Daniel, the new volunteer Daisy claims to be the biggest dork, creates neat stacks with piles and piles of envelops.

“You’ve never seen Elf?” She asks him in disbelief.

“No.” He confirms.

“What about A Christmas Carol.”

“Of course.”

“The Muppet version?”

“Um, no.”

“The Grinch?”

“The original.” He says positively.

“Okay, have you watched any movies made after 1990?”

“Not many.”

“Jemma help, he’s never seen Home Alone.”

Jemma knows that while Daisy is chipper and teasing this may truly be causing her distress. “I’m surprised she’s even speaking to you, our first Christmas as roommates I think we had a 48-hour movie marathon of every holiday movie I hadn’t seen.”

“My family only ever watched classics when I was a kid, I may have seen some of these but if I did, I don’t remember them well.” He reasons.

“So watch them again, mix it up.”

He shrugs. “I guess, I just don’t like watching movies alone.”

Daisy huffs, “Well I’m making a list – “

“and checking it twice?” He interrupts her and she shoves his shoulder.

“I’m making a list of must-see Christmas movies and you’re watching them, I’ll watch them with you if I have too, no one should be deprived of watching a grown ass adult’s belief in Santa be restored ten or twelve times in a row.”

“I do hope you’re making this list later because if we don’t get going, they’ll be all closed up soon.” Jemma hates to pull Daisy away from her fun but she’s eager to get their tree.

“Where are you guys off to?”

“We’ve got to get our Christmas tree.”

“Do you need any help?”

“Thanks but we’re good, Bobbi forced Hunter to stay late and help us, might as well put him to work.”

 “Fair enough, see you tomorrow?” Daisy nods and they wave goodbye. They walk in silence towards the front entrance of the mall, pulling on their coats and gloves. Jemma adjusts her wool hat so that it covers her ears and checks to see if Daisy is ready to go only to find her looking back in the direction they came from.

Jemma smirks and doesn’t bother to try to hide her amusement. Daisy turns back to her, preparing to pull on her own hat and jumps when she sees she has been caught. “What?” She asks, her cheeks rosy like they’ve already stepped out in the cold.

“Nothing, you’re right though, he’s kind of a dork, sweet though, it was nice of him to offer his help.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

They hurry outside and across the dark parking lot towards the tree lot. There are a few snow-covered cars nearby and Jemma spots Hunter loading a fluffy tree into the bed of a large red truck. As they get closer Jemma can see that the tree farm has been picked over and what is left seems to consist of a few unnecessarily large trees, a few puny ones and the rest look as though they are already on their last limbs.

“Oh dear.” Jemma’s heart sinks and she glances worriedly at Daisy.

“Wow.” Her friend runs her hand over a branch of the nearest tree and several bristles fall to the ground. “Not much to choose from is there, guess it’s my own fault, I should have made time sooner.”

Jemma frowns. Daisy’s attempt to brush off her disappointment is obvious, at least to her. Her friend loved Christmas and putting up the tree was one of her favorite traditions. She had several beautiful ornaments; May and Coulson and even Bobbi had taken to giving her one every year. Just recently she had started to do the same. She always took such care when hanging them.

“I’m sure we will find the perfect one, let’s look around.” Jemma loops her arm through Daisy’s and pulls her along.

The healthy little ones were too small to support Daisy’s vast collection of decorations and the large ones would eat up the small living room of their apartment, but they look and look again for the right one.

“Hello loves,” Hunter steps up behind them, throwing an arm around each of their shoulders. “Bout time you showed up.”

“Hey, you didn’t save us a decent tree, did you?” Daisy asks.

Hunter takes a step back, “you know Bobbi might have mentioned something about that.”

Jemma feels a surge of hope, “so you’ve got one for us?”

“Afraid not.”

“Hunter!”

“Hey, you ever try to deny a tree to someone this time a year, one woman nearly took my head off when I told her the one for you was off limits, this,” he gestures to the scarce lot of trees, “is all you’ve got to choose from.”

Jemma shares an unsure look with Daisy. She wasn’t about to go without a Christmas tree. “Maybe we could get a big one, we can just push the couch aside, we hardly ever use it anyways.”

“Works for me, I get better commission on the big ones and better tips by the way.” They both shoot Hunter a look and he raises hands up in defeat. “Just let me know when you’re ready.” He says and makes a hasty disappearance.

Daisy sighs. “What do you think, we can make it work right?”

Oh damn. She was hoping not to have to bring this up yet. “Actually, we will be needing the couch, very soon actually.”

“Wait why?”

“Remember my cousin Deke?”

“The one with the creepy crush on me?”

Jemma cringes. “Yes well, his parents are flying out to spend Christmas with my parents and he was going to go too, until he heard I was planning to stay here and he thought I should have some family around for Christmas so – “

“Oh, don’t say it.”

“He’s kind of going to be staying with us.”

“Jemma!”

“I’m sorry, if I didn’t take him in, I would have never heard the end of it and he’s been better right, since you had that talk with him.”

“Yeah, but it’s still awkward.”

Jemma was actually quite fond of Deke. He shared her love of science and had a good heart. He was just a bit awkward, not unlike herself. That said it was uncomfortable to be in a room with someone you knew liked you and that was unfair to ask Daisy to do. “Let me call my mom, if I explain – “

“No, it’s okay, he’s really not bad company and I can’t throw him out at Christmas that would be cruel, even for me, besides, I know he’s your favorite cousin.” Daisy stops, maybe to re consider her words, Jemma thinks. “But if I see one lemon Jemma – “

“He’s on the street I swear, favorite or not.”

Daisy laughs and Jemma feels better knowing she’s not actually mad at her. Still she wants to make it up to her. An unexpected house guest was not in their Christmas plans. “Let’s get the big tree, I think I can squeeze an air mattress into my room.”

“We don’t have too.”

“We should, we never have enough room for all the ornaments anyways, this way we will.”

“Really?” Daisy asks hopefully and she nods insistently. Her eyes light up. “Alright, which one?”

“How about this one?” Jemma points to a vibrant green one that towers over the pair.

“I like this one.” Daisy points to a slight smaller one, the bristles are a bit browner but it would be a better size for the apartment.

“Are you sure, this one looks healthier.”

“Come on, I bet you could nurse it back to health and I’m afraid no one else will take it.”

Jemma doesn’t question Daisy’s attachment to the misfit tree. It wouldn’t be the first time she picked something that was a little different or a little odd. “It will be beautiful.”

Chapter Text

Piper flinched as another child, standing way to close, shrieked with joy.

“This is taking too long.”

“I thought you wanted to see your godson meet Santa for the first time.”

“I never said that, I just felt bad that his mother had to work, so I thought his godmother should fill in,” Piper jumped back as several children ran between them. “If I knew it was going to be like this I would have reconsidered.”

Davis bounced his son, James, in his arms. “Don’t you listen to her, she’s just pretending to be grumpy, yes she is, she wouldn’t miss this for the world.”

“Don’t talk like that, you sound like an idiot.” Piper's brow wrinkles in distaste. She hates baby talk. “I should have at least come with coffee.” She wonders if she would have time before her interview to grab a cup. She glances at her watch. It was already cutting it way too close. “I’m going to be late.”

Davis looks down at her amused. “Does it matter, how are you going to get a job as head of mall security if you can’t even handle being around a bunch of kids.”

“I don’t think I’ll be carting off kids to mall jail,” Piper snarks back, “When I talked to May about the job, she said I’m supposed to help cut down on theft and brawling on mall grounds.”

“Clearly she doesn’t have any kids.” A dark-haired mother in front of them spoke up with a knowing smile.

The father nods as well, “no kidding, you want to know how to get away with stealing just about anything?" he asks the pair and Piper wants to say no but chances were they were going to be stuck behind this guy a bit longer and being rude was not really an option. “Have a baby do it, when this one was a tot he used take things off the shelf right at check out, no one even noticed.”

“Yeah and you were the only one who made a big deal of it, marching a two year old back into a shop to give it back.”

“Carla I was teaching him a life lesson.”

The man’s wife rolls her eyes and ushers her family forward.

Piper shifts back and forth impatiently. As soon as an elf walks past, Piper quickly flags her down. “Excuse me, do you know how much longer it will be before we get up there?”

She glances up at Santa’s podium. “Maybe ten minutes, Santa’s being chatty today.”

Piper tries unsuccessfully to hold in her frustration. “Go get a coffee would you, you’re bringing down the Christmas spirit.” Piper shoots him a look before stepping out of line and wading through a sea of kids. “Bring back a snack for James, no chocolate or he’ll be a mess before the picture.” She waves in acknowledgement because her first option for responding would have been frowned upon in present company.

She takes the stairs up three flights and looks back down over the balcony to see if Davis had moved ahead much farther in line. To her relief only one more family had finished up. She wouldn’t admit it out loud but she didn’t actually want to miss James meeting Santa for the first time.

She hurries over to Mockingbird’s where Bobbi and a new girl are hovering over what looks like a well worn instruction manual.

“Hey Piper, what can we get for you?” Bobbi asks, while the new girl, Kora according to her name tag waits eagerly next to her.

Piper rattles off her usual order.

“I’ll get it!” Kora offers.

“She’s new?”

Bobbi watches the younger girl affectionately. “Yeah, she's very enthusiastic and a little clumsy,” Bobbi explains, “but she can make those cute coffee art designs on the drinks, like you see in commercials, which has been great for social media promotion.”

“What about coffee, can she make coffee?” because really, what was the point of bringing in customers if your coffee sucked.

“Actually yes, she’s really getting the hang of the espresso machine, which is fantastic because I myself, am about five minutes from pushing it out the window.”

Piper raises an eyebrow at her words. “Isn’t the Christmas tree lot like right below us?”

The barista brushes it off. “He moves fast.” And with that Bobbi gestures for the next group in line to step forward and Piper slides down along the counter, taking in the selection of snacks before grabbing a couple of boxes of animal cookies. They looked the least messy.

“Can I get these as well?” She asks Kora. She glances over her shoulder in surprise.

“Oh yes!” She moves to the register in a flash, quickly adjusting her total before returning to her beverage preparation. She adds a bit of cream and gives it a quick stir. Then picks up a cup cozy and scribbles something on in before she drops the beverage in and passes it over.

Piper glances at the cozy. Bobbi had ordered kitschy ones for the shop and this one has a one to ten “Hotness” scale on the side beneath where they wrote the customer’s name. Kora had written in an eleven and underlined it.

She doesn’t think much of it.

Piper picks up one of the lids from the dispenser and prepares to place it over the to go cup when she sees the design of a little heart on the top of her beverage and stops. Had she meant to do that? Maybe it was just a gimmicky thing Bobbi asked her to do.

“Is it okay?” Kora asks nervously.

“No, no its fine, but um,” Piper falters. Why wouldn’t it be okay? Had she done something she wasn't supposed too? “Do you make these for everyone?”

“No of course not,” she answers, puzzled by the suggestion.

Oh.

Okay.

She glances back at the little heart that is starting to swirl away into an indistinguishable blob. It was a little cutesy for her taste but… she looks back at Kora who is fidgeting uncomfortably.

“Thanks.” Piper places the lid on the cup with a smile on her face. “I’ll see you around?”

“As long as Bobbi doesn’t fire me.”

“Well hey, fingers crossed.”

Piper gets back just in time. The family ahead of them had just stepped up to meet Santa and she still has fifteen minutes before she was supposed to be at her interview.

“Here, one animal crackers for the whiney baby and here is one for James.” Piper teases as she hands the first box to Davis and then holds the second in front of baby James who reaches excitedly for them.

“You’re in a better mood.”

Piper shrugs and takes a sip of her coffee. “I guess.”

“Okay you guys are up.” The elf from before waves them forward. They step up to Santa’s chair. She man in the suit makes a believable Santa, with his pale blue eyes and kind smile. Unfortunately for them, James does not think so and when handed over to the Santa he immediately bursts into tears.

“He takes after you!” Davis doesn’t find her jest funny. He steps forwards to try and cheer up his son.

“No worries I’m great with kids.” Santa exclaims in a jolly voice. “What’s your name buddy?” He bounces the little boy on his knee and James momentarily stops to look at him. Suddenly, he reaches forwards, yanks on Santa’s fake beard and then screams even louder than before.

“Come on James, please don’t cry.” Davis pleads and attempts to apologize to Santa while she and the elf both try not to laugh.

“Alright you both suck at this, give him here.” Piper hands her coffee to Davis, scoops up James and looks him dead in the eye. “Look kid, you and I both know this is a little ridiculous, I mean you’re not even going to remember this except for maybe as your first childhood trauma but it means a lot to your doofy dad so let’s give him one little smile and get the heck up out of here.”

James stares back at her curiously and no longer crying. His large brown eyes blink at her several times from his tear-stained cheeks before a little giggle escapes him and she can’t help but grin back. “See you just have to talk to him like a person, not with that ridiculous baby talk, right kid?”

She passes James back to Santa who takes on a very professional tone as well, asking him what he wants for Christmas while the photographer snaps a photo.

“Not bad Piper, I’m truly impressed.”

“Thank you, I guess I’m just having a good day.”

“Oh yeah, why to you say that?”

Before she can respond the photographer asks Davis if he wants to be in the picture as well. In a couple long strides he’s at Santa’s side and looking back at the camera. The photographer snaps a couple of pictures and Piper peeks at the computer where the images immediately pop up on screen.

“Geez Davis, try smiling, you look like a damn robot.”

Chapter Text

Daniel was good with words and tactful answers. He could come up with kind replies that were reassuring but vague about what kids might get for Christmas. So who better to write replies from Santa?

Maybe the guy with an old typewriter that gives the letters from Santa an authentic look and feel?

But that was still him.

Daniel had quickly been promoted from Elf who didn’t have a clue what was going on, to Elf in charge of answering all of Santa’s mail. It’s not such a bad assignment, Daniel thinks, deciphering the scribbled requests for ponies and play stations. It certainly beats reading half-assed essays from his students. And the company wasn’t bad either. Although it was a solo gig most of the time, every slow moment she had, when the lines had dwindled and the chairs sat empty, Daisy would plop down in the seat next to him, ready to help with her laptop open and a software program that replicated the look of a typewriter.

While she knocked out two or three letters, she would tease him about his lack of Christmas knowledge. His library of holiday music had already received an overhaul. Daisy programmed the radio this time of year for the best mix of old and new and anytime he didn’t recognize one she would give him the title and artist and request a rating in return. He liked the jazzy ones best. And he still hummed along to the classics, but he would admit some of the remakes were good too.

Movies were still on hold.

Though not said in so many words it had been agreed they would watch the ever-growing list of Christmas flicks together. She warned him of her snack hogging and commentary but he assured her that was part of the reason he preferred to watch with others. The only problem was, she simply didn’t have the time.

It often seemed like just as quickly as she would sit down, Daisy would have to jump back up. She kept the kids in line to meet Santa happy, ran around fetching supplies for the craft tables, he had even watched anxiously as she eyed an altercation at a nearby clothing store but before she could react, mall security had arrived.

They’d gotten faster in the last few days.

“How are you holding up?” Daisy asks, not even bothering to sit this time, just leaning against the table he worked at.

Daniel shook his head in disbelief. “You haven’t sat down since you got here and you’re asking me?”

“My coffee is wearing off, if I sit I might not get back up again.” He understands, his students walked around in the same caffeine driven frenzy around finals. Daisy managed to look more put together but he could see the exhaustion in her eyes. “Seriously though, I’ve been on this job before, how many kids asked for cell phones?”

Its like she read his mind. “Fifteen just today and some of them were very specific, not to sound like an old man but I looked up this smart watch and it cost more than my first car.”

She grins back at him, “You’re not wrong, but you definitely sound like a ‘back in my day’ old man.”

“Daisy! We need help!”

Across the North Pole a group of teen volunteers were working on a banner for their parade float, the tallest of them is waving her over.

“I’m coming!” She calls back and quickly turns to him. “Coffee break in a little while?”

“Sure.”

As she goes, she crosses paths with Elena who is making her way towards the table. “The brilliant honor students over there spelled Christmas wrong and are arguing about how to fix it.”

“I’m on it.”

Daniel prepares the small pile of Santa’s Letters that had been written in Spanish and slides them over to her as she takes a seat.

“Does she ever slow down?” Daniel asks, nodding at Daisy’s retreating back.

Elena laughs clearly amused by the suggestion. “This time of year, no, and that’s saying something coming from me.”

“Why do you say this time of year?”

“Daisy already throws her whole self into whatever she’s doing, but in case you haven’t noticed she’s a little loco about Christmas.”

“No kidding.” Her knowledge of all things Christmas was extensive and he joked that she should teach a class on it. She didn't look like a typical Christmas crazy person, with a wardrobe of ugly Christmas sweaters and headbands with reindeer ears. Although she did dutifully wear the elf hat that distinguished the volunteers. She was the first to arrive and the the last to leave and always had a smile on her face when working with guests. 

“She met May here,” Elena tells him, “when she was still just a kid at the orphanage and they bonded, I should probably let her tell you but that’s why she so invested in this event and in Christmas.”

That did explain her dedication.

Daisy places her coffee down on the table in between them and he is so distracted by the way she has pulled her sweater sleeves down over her hands that he almost misses her question.

“So what would be on your list for Santa?”

“What?”

“Your list?” She asks again, “If you wrote one today, what would be on it?”

He has to take a moment to think about it. He hadn’t asked Santa for anything since he was a little kid and his parents hadn’t asked him what he wanted in at least a decade. He tended to be very practical and, aside from purchasing books he didn’t have time to read, he didn’t have frivolous wants. There were always things to ask for of course but the number one thing would certainly bring down the mood. “Do you want the honest answer or the one that can go under the tree?”

Her smile softens. “Either.”

He laughs quietly. One of the jazzy Christmas songs he enjoys comes on over the radio and it hits him what he’d really like to do. “When I was a kid my parents taught me and my sisters how to dance, like really dance, my mom is an instructor and my dad learned how so he could impress her, used to be a lot of fun.”

Daisy looks back at him in surprise, “I wasn’t expecting that, but also I’m not completely shocked.” Her expression becomes curious, “can’t you? you seem to get around okay but I guess dancing is a little different?”

He shifts his leg, stretching it out under the table. “I haven’t since, I’m guessing I’m a bit clumsier than I used to be, might be tricky to find a partner.”

Daisy rolls her eyes. “Oh yeah, I'm sure it would be a real struggle being all handsome and funny and smart.”

“So what about you?” He asks quickly, to redirect their conversation off of him. 

“Sorry?”

“What would you put on your list?” He clarifies.

“Oh,” she leans back in her chair, “I don’t know, everyone usually gives me Christmas ornaments, which I love but I don’t have to ask for them.”

“But from Santa? the magical being who can grant any request, be honest.” He encourages because he really wants to know, even if its not something that you can just stick a bow on.

“Honestly?" She paused and then lets out a little laugh. "I want, like eight more hours in my day.”

“Elena did say you’re always on the go this time of year.”

“I don’t want to miss a second of it.”

“No but are you really enjoying it?” He asks because as busy as she is he can't imagine she has time to actually time to relish in the time of year that means so much to her. She sighs heavily and he watches her shoulders sag slightly in uncertainty. She glances down at the coffee cup that’s probably empty by now. 

“Do you still want to see the lights from the roof?” She asks suddenly.

“If you’re not busy.”

“I mean you’re right, the lights are my favorite part of Christmas and I haven’t even been up to see them, I'll just have to make the time, tonight?” He thinks maybe there is a way he can help with that. “Let’s get some refills and get back.”

They step up to the counter and Bobbi grabs the pot of coffee off the machine. “What do you want for Christmas?” Daisy asks and Bobbi rolls her eyes.

“That’s not how secret santa works.”

“No one said I got you.”

“Dais – “

“Seriously, we were just talking about Christmas lists, Bobbi, Elena, Jemma and I do a gift exchange every year.” Daisy explains.

“Unavoidable, we started the year I opened the coffee shop, it was that or everyone was getting coupons.”

“That reminds me, my friend, the one who can get you the part for your espresso machine, he’ll be here tomorrow for the parade, I asked him to come by if you’ve got the time?”

“You’re serious?” Bobbi lights up.

“His name’s Antoine Triplett, should be by around three.”

“Great, I’ll be here.”

Daniel spends the rest of the day trying to save Daisy as much time as possible. He finishes up the last of Santa’s letters and proceeds to help her with every mundane task assigned to her. Supply runs, glitter spills, crying kids, anything that can be considered more work than fun, he’s there to lighten the load.

He thinks it startles her a few times, when she goes to collect the broom and he’s already there with it in his hands. 

At the end of the day they get everything cleaned up in record time. They’re just pulling on their coats and she’s explaining the back stairs they have to take up to the roof when Daisy’s best friend Jemma comes running up to them.

“Daisy, you’re here still here,” she chokes out, trying to catch her breath.

“What’s wrong?”

“I need your help, I took this huge order, I’m wrapping all of this woman’s Christmas gifts, there are at least a hundred of them.”

“That’s great!” But Jemma’s already shaking her head, still holding a stitch in her side.

“I might have accidently used a bit of paper with some writing on it to wrap one of the gifts.”

“Writing?” Daniel asks.

Jemma's blushes. “I use the scrap paper to write notes to Fitz and when I was cleaning up and I realized one of the notes was gone, I think I used it on one of the smaller gifts.”

“Okay, okay calm down, we can fix this, we’ll just unwrap the gifts and rewrap them.”

This doesn't calm her down. "She’s picking them up tomorrow after the parade, I’ve spent all day on them, she requested very specific papers and I have to be at the lab in less than an hour!”

Daniel watches as the gears turn in Daisy's mind, searching for a solution. She looks from the stairwell, to him and back to Jemma. “Okay, you go to your lab, I’ll get started unwrapping them, find the damn note and just come back when you done and help me finish rewrapping them.”

Jemma looks near tears. She throws her arms around Daisy in a tight hug before backing away. “I’ll be back as soon as I can, look for all the gifts under the name Samuels”

Daisy turns back to him. “I’m sorry, I guess this postpones our plans again.”

“Its okay, do you want some help?”

“You don’t have to.”

“We’ll get it done in half the time with two of us, just until Jemma gets back and she can take over.”

“Alright, um, the parade, its in the morning, were you going to come watch?”

“I was probably just going to watch it on the TV but I can make a change of plans.”

“Its not the same as the lights, but we can watch it from the roof, you can see it go on for miles.”

“Sounds great.”

Chapter Text

Mack wonders if they should have brought chairs with them. Unless there was snow on the ground, they’ve always just watched the parade from the curb with a blanket folded up underneath them and another one pulled around them for warmth. But considering they invited Elena to join them, maybe a chair would have been nice to offer her.

“Dad I don’t see her!”

“Calm down Sparkplug, I just texted her a minute ago.”

“Well, that’s all some of us need.” His heart does a skip at the sound of her voice behind them. Her hands land on his shoulders, her long hair and festive red scarf falling over his shoulder and she leans down to say hello.

“Yoyo, you made it!”

“Of course, the parade is a tradition right?”

Hope nods. They have a few minutes before the parade arrives, although he thinks he can hear the first of the sirens that lead the parade in the distance. The parade, which sets up in the mall parking lot, would makes its way down the main road just outside the mall and then head down towards the small downtown area. They always stayed close by the start so they could head inside after for more activities.

Elena sets her own blanket on the ground next to theirs, sitting close although there wasn’t much other option as the street became more and more crowded. As they wait for the parade to come around the corner they talk about work and weather and other mundane topics.

“So what are we up to after the parade?”

“We’re going to go see the drones, dad finally decided on the right one which is the same one I wanted from the start.” Hope turns her eyes back on him. “Do you think Fitz will be there?”

“I’m sure he will be kid, he’s probably starting to think you’re after his job you ask him so many questions.”

“CANDY!” Several kids scream in excitement as a float from the public library drifts by and the riders dressed as reindeer toss candy canes and chocolate kisses from the sleigh. Hope and the other kids surge forward to collect them.

“I have to buy that damn drone today, I’m afraid if we go back again without buying anything their going to think we’re casing the place.”

“I’m sure they’re used to it, kids are obsessed with those gadget demonstrations.”

“That’s true and half the time we don’t even go in, she just talks with Fitz, the guy who demos them, goes well beyond what I know about them.” Elena looks at him curiously. “What?”

“Nothing.” She shakes her head but she’s grinning like she knows something he  doesn’t.

“What, tell me.”

Still looking far too amused she gives in. “It’s just, it sounds like Hope has a crush on him.”

“What?” Mack laughs. “That’s ridiculous.”

“Is it?”

“Oh come on, she’s only eleven, she’s not old enough to be having crushes yet.” Was she? No she was just a kid, it was ridiculous.

“Oh please, what do you know about it?” Elena laughing now at his utter disbelief.. “I was eleven when I had my first crush, and that was well after all my friends started too.”

“That’s just not like Hope, she still thinks all the boys in her class are stupid.”

She just shrugs. “Maybe that’s part of it, look I bet Hope is the smartest kid in her class right?”

“In the whole grade, maybe the whole school.” He answers proudly.

“Exactly and all her friends are starting to get crushes on these boys who are probably so boring to her, she starts to feel left out.”

That was reasonably to assume but he still only agrees with a hesitant, “I guess.”

“Then she meets Fitz, and Daisy’s told me about him, a brilliant engineer, someone who can have a conversation on her level who’s also nice to her and let’s her test all these drones and gadgets she’s preoccupied with.”

“But he’s– “

She cuts him off. “But he’s what, a grown up, you never had a crush on a teacher before?”

“Alright, I get it.” Mack contemplates this new revelation. When exactly had Hope gotten old enough to have crushes. Was he supposed to do anything about it. He had promised they would go there to get the drone after the parade. “Should I take her back there?”

“I don’t see why not, if you don’t and she finds out why she might think she’s done something wrong,” Elena advises. “But maybe give Fitz a heads up, it’s hard having your first crush at eleven but having your first heartbreak at eleven is ten times worse.”

Mack nods, making a mental note to pull Fitz aside and explain. Then he looks back at Elena a little in awe. “How did you get so good with kids?”

“I’m not, but I was a little girl once, it’s a tough life.”

She’s so pleased with herself. That was one of the first things he realized about her that he really liked; she was confident. Determined and straight forward.

And now they’re exceptionally close together. Forced into each other’s personal space as kids return to the sidewalk, arms full of treats. He blinks and she’s closer again, leaning in towards him.

There’s a deafening screech and they snap apart. The parade has rolled to a stop and a horrible grinding noise is emitting from the truck hauling the River’s End High School’s float. It rolls to a stop and cuts off. The crowd around them chatters in concern while the students frantically dismount the float and the truck bed.

“What’s going on?” One girl yells from the float.

“The truck must have stalled.” Another answers.

“Flint, what’s going on up there!”

The skinny young boy driving the truck leans out the window and shouts back at them. “It won’t turn back on.”

“Gabe, I thought your brother fixed up this thing.” A girl with white-blonde hair storms around the float, frustration evident as she addresses a boy still sitting in the bed of the truck.

“He had the guys at the shop take a look at it.”

“Well can you fix it?”

“Yeah Ruby, let me just jump right down from here and look under the hood.” The boy snapped back sarcastically.

The boy driving the truck jumps out and runs around to the front to lift the hood. “Yeah, I don’t exactly know what I’m looking for here.”

“This is going well.” Elena whispers to him as he watches them concerned.

“Old model, bad engine, probably something one of the kids picked up for cheap.” Maybe it was the mechanic in him but he was already assessing everything wrong with the truck. Even if it hadn’t stalled making it to the end of the parade would be a Christmas miracle.

“Dad, do you think you can help them?” Hopes asks.

“I haven’t got my tools, not sure there is much I could do.”

“I don’t think it could hurt.” Elena says, her eyes wide a the boy at the hood yanks his arm back as it crashes down. He’s joined by a girl with lots of dark curly hair and they open the hood again, steading it on the support.

“Alright.” He pushes himself off the ground “before someone loses a hand.”

Mack jogs out into the parade chaos. He has to clear a path through the crowd of students now converging at the front of the truck.

“This truck belong to one of you?” He shouts.

“It’s mine sir.” The girl with the dark curly hair speaks up.

“You have this problem before?” He asks. A glance over the engine and its not as bad as he anticipated, it’d clearly already had some decent work done on it but unfortunately it doesn’t show any obvious cause to the problem.

“Yes, but someone was supposed to have it checked out for me.” She glares at the boy now wheeling his way towards them.

“Shut it Tess, I’m trying to get Robbie on the phone.”

Mack tries hard not to groan. He’s so not ready for Hope to be on the verge of her teenage years.

He needs to check the radiator and fuel but its too hot to reach for anything with his bare hands. “Have any of you got an old rag or t-shirt?”

“There’s probably one in the truck.”

“Grab if for me, what about a flashlight.”

“I’ve got my phone.” Flint grabs the phone from his pocket and holds it out over the engine.

“Thanks kid.”

“Here.” The girl hands him a stained t-shirt. He manages to get the cap off the radiator but it doesn’t appear to be the issue.

“Was there any odds smells when you were driving?”

Flint shakes his head. “No, I don’t think so.”

Alright, that rules out a few possibilities.

“No, Robbie its fine, someone else is here already,” Gabe listened for a second, nodding along unimpressed before holding the phone out to him. “He wants to talk to you.”

Mack begrudgingly accepts the phone. “This is Mack.”

“Hey,” a voice with an accent like the boy’s greets him shortly, “the truck stalls on inclines and my brother won’t tell me where you are.”

That explains a lot. “They didn’t make it far, we’re on the main road outside the mall.”

“Dammit, my crew was supposed to fix the problem.”

“No worries, I think it’ll start again, its been down for a few minutes, doesn’t seem to have any other issues unless it’s the extra weight.”

“Give it a try, if they can get off that hill the parade levels out, should make it to the end.” Mack nods at Flint who jumps back in the truck.

“Easy.” He calls. Flint starts the engine which, after a long moment, stubbornly springs to life and relief washes over the students. “Alright its going.”

Robbie sighs. “I’ll get a backup truck over there just in case, first I gotta go fire somebody.” Mack chuckles, he doesn’t know this Robbie fellow, but he thinks they’d probably get along.

“I’ll follow along behind them down the hill.”

“Appreciate that.” Mack hands the phone back to Gabe.

“Alright everyone back on board, if you can make it down the hill you should be in the clear.” If there wasn’t a damn marching band in front of them, they could just throw it in neutral and roll. It takes everyone a minute to get back in place so he hurries over to Elena and Hope who are still watching from the curb.

“Everything alright?”

“Should be fine but I’m going to follow them for a bit make sure they don’t get stuck again.” Mack explains. “Do you mind hanging here with Hope?”

“Can’t we walk with you?” Hope asks.

“She can ride with us if she wants.” Tess, the curly haired girl offers. Hope’s eyes light up and she looks pleadingly up at him. Personally, he doesn’t want her anywhere near that truck but at two miles an hour she’d probably be safe.

“Alright, let’s go.” Mack lifts Hope up onto the float. Tess takes her hand and backs her away from the edge.

“Let’s go Flint!” Gabe shouts and the other boy waves his hand out the window. They being to roll and the crowd bursts into applause.

“You saved the day.” Elena nudges his shoulder as they begin to walk along side the float.

“I didn’t really have to do anything.”

“Well, you get credit for trying, I didn’t see anyone else run out there to help, just heard a bunch of moaning and complaining.”

“Yeah well, they’re good kids, but now all I can think about is how that’s going to be Hope in a few years.”

“Don’t worry about that, she’ll be just fine, she’s got an excellent role model to look up to.” She nudges his arm again, this time slipping her hand into his as they walk.

Chapter Text

May is not a mall person. Which is ironic, given that she has worked for this one for the majority of her adult life. Malls were too busy, to loud and too commercial. Its why she strived to make the mall an experience for people and not just a money pit. It was also why the mall had more boutiques and small businesses then nearly any other in the country. Still, she preferred the quiet of her office and only ventured out to supervise major events.

But an empty mall, before the crowds and the clatter of the day, well she didn’t mind that at all.

The day of the parade they always opened late. The parking lot was used for the float set up so until the last band marched its way out and on to the main road the mall was locked up tight to anyone who didn’t have a key.

Thankfully, she had one of those.

May doesn’t even check in at her office when she arrives that morning. She turns on the main lights, usually the work of the janitorial staff but they would be in late today as well. She makes her way down to the far end of the mall where the kids’ playground has been temporarily removed and replaced with the more favorable indoor ice rink.

It’s not much. The ice isn’t even real ice, but some ice substitute. Jemma had attempted to explain the science behind it, but it doesn’t matter much to her. It’s an improvement on the original. The second year she arranged the Santa experience Coulson suggested this new product. Slates that could be pieced together to create an indoor ice rink. At first she thought it was kind of ridiculous but he really wanted it so she let him have at it. It wasn’t like she would have to skate on it.

Until she did.

Daisy clung to the ice rink wall with her small gloved hands. “You’ll never learn if you don’t let go.” May warned her as she walked along from the outside.

“If I let go, I’ll fall.”

“Everyone falls down Daisy,”

“That’s not very reassuring.”

May shakes her head. “The most impressive thing you can do when you fall down on the ice, is get back up and keep going like it never happen,” Daisy looks up at her, wide eyed with realization before looking across the rink. She sets her eyes determinedly on a spot directly opposite her and pushes off the wall. She stumbles about halfway there before gliding a few feet and falling forward on her hands and knees.

She turns around so she’s sitting on her bottom instead and looks back at May like she waiting for something to happen. “What did I just say.” May calls out to her.

“I know what you just said but you didn’t teach me how to get up.”

May rolls her eyes. She is awfully snarky for a child.

“Alright, one minute.”

May looked down at the rink. She didn’t have skates with her but this wasn’t real ice anyways. She takes a careful step forward. Seemed safe enough. She walks along the wall till she was level with Daisy and cautiously walks her way to the center of the rink. With less grace than she would have liked she lowers herself on to the ice next to her.

Daisy smiles at her cheekily. “Okay, but now we’re both stuck in the middle of the rink.”

Oh yeah, she would be a handful.

May shows her where to position her skates and tells her how to distribute her weight and push herself back up on to her feet. She wobbles dangerously and May instinctively grabs her flailing hand before she can fall again. She would have to fall again eventually. But falling on the ice hurt like hell. She could save her that just once.

Daisy steadies herself and May releases her hand. Once more, she tries for the other side of the rink but this time she makes it successfully. Elation written across her face she pushes off again, back towards where she started, and May can’t fight back her own smile.  

She does realize quite suddenly that there is no graceful way for herself to jump back up on her feet without her skates. She struggles to stand, slipping several times in the process before hurrying off the rink. She smiles to herself when she sees Phil seated at a nearby bench watching them.

“Nice form out there.” He teases.

“I nearly fell three times.”

He shrugs. “Who said I was talking about the skating.”

Again, May struggles not to smile. “What are you doing here Phil?”

“She told me you were teaching her to skate.” Phil explains as they watch Daisy dart excitedly back and forth across the rink. “You’re doing a great job so far.”

“It would be easier if this was real ice.”

“Say the word and I’ll convert the old bookstore into a permanent rink for you.”

“The malls insurance policy will never cover that.” He brushes that off, offering to look into it and she can’t help but smile. He would find a way if she asked. He hadn’t disappointed her yet.

They’d become good friends since the start of it all. Coulson offered his services outside of the holiday season, his vast resources covering whatever project she took on. They often spent a lot of time together and eventually begin to match that work time with personal time together. They weren’t dates exactly but coffees here and there, lunches and more frequently, dinner and drinks.

“May watch.” Daisy skates past them and does a little hop. It’s not much but considering she was on the ground a minute ago she knows it feels like the greatest victory.

“She finally told me what she wants for Christmas.”

“Yeah, what’s that?”

“Pretty sure you already know.”

May does. Ever since Daisy had missed the event last year the idea had been nagging at the back of her mind, and Coulson had been nagging at her ear. At first it was a feeling of loss. She had been placed with a family, she might not even see the girl again. But knowing her history she had checked in with the orphanage a bit later and sure enough she was back.

It wasn’t exactly the order one usually did things in, but she knew she had a connection with Daisy. There was a balance of their differences and a harmony of their similarities. It would be a change but not an unwelcome one.

“You know if I do this,” she gestures to Daisy who has just skated past waving eagerly at the pair of them, “then this,” she gestures between them, “is on hold, I can’t take on a you and a her at the same time.”

“That’s okay, I can wait, for her sake, I can wait.”

And wait they did, maybe too long? May thought as she drifted across the ice rink. While neither had found the one for the long haul they had found other relationships. Her first and only major one since adopting Daisy had been with Andrew, a good man and a good psychiatrist. A balance to her but with a few too many differences. Phil too had found someone he cared for, a lovely woman named Audrey who she had liked and felt suited him well. But she had moved across the country to pursue her dreams and when she questioned why he didn’t go with her he just claimed that his home was here.

May tests her rusty skills and does a spin. There isn’t room to build up speed for any jumps but the urge is there. The feeling is still not quite the same as real ice but it’s pretty close.

“Excellent form.” She hears a voice call out. She opens her eyes that had fallen closed and spots Phil leaning against the wall.

“Mmhmm, are you talking about the skating this time?”                                                                                            

“I could be, I’m not, but the skating is impressive.”

“What are you doing here Phil?” She slides to a stop in front of him.

“I knew you’d be here, thought we could enjoy the quiet together.”

“Because you’re so good with the quiet.”

“Harsh, you’ve been spending too much time with Daisy.”

“Well, maybe we should fix that.” May glides back to the break in the wall and steps out on the carpet. As she switches out of her skates, back into her boots Coulson comes to stand at her side.

“Got any plans for the day?” She shakes her head. There was nothing going on that she couldn’t leave Daisy in charge of. She was more than capable of handing anything and would be thrilled to take over if it meant she was taking the day off. “We could spend the day down by the water, maybe go for drinks later.”

“Sounds nice.” He holds out a hand to her and helps her off the ground. “Come on, I should run by the office first and check in.

As they walk through the mall, she can hear the last of the marching bands as they leave the parking lot. Janitorial staff is pattering about getting doors unlocked and gates are starting to go up on the shops. They make it down to the mall’s main entrance and are about to take the hallway down to the administrative offices when May stops.

Daniel Sousa is seated on a bench not far from the entrance. He jumps up when he sees her, hurrying over with a look of concern on his face.

“You’re here early, activities won’t start for a bit.” Coulson tells him.

“I know, I, actually I was supposed to meet Daisy here, we were going to watch the parade, but she never showed up.”

May tenses. “That’s not like her, Daisy has never missed the parade.”

“Are you sure she’s not here, I thought I saw her van outside, maybe she went down to join the crowd, did you call her?” Coulson suggests.

“I tried but it went to voicemail.”

May pulls her phone from her pocket, no longer listening to the pair exchange thoughts on where Daisy had disappeared to. She dials Daisy’s phone and it does jump straight to voicemail. “You’re sure you saw her car?” Coulson nods.

She could try Jemma. Maybe Daisy got a ride home with her last night. She doesn’t have her number saved but it would be on her employee file. She rushes down the hallway to her office, the door she finds in already unlocked and her heart skips.

“Daisy are you – in here.” Relief falls over her as she enters the office and finds Daisy asleep curled up in a tight ball on the small sofa in the corner. Daniel and Coulson stumble into the office behind her, she misses the relief on their own faces as she kneels next to the young woman. Her laptop is set up on the table and her phone has fallen to the floor. She gives her a gentle shake.

“Daisy, Daisy what are you doing in here?”

Daisy struggles to come around. May doesn’t think she’s aware of where she is even after she sits and takes in her surroundings. She brushes the hair out of her face and starts to look for her phone. “What’s going on.”

“I was going to ask you, why are you in the office?”

“I, I was here late last night, I – oh!” Daisy catches sight of Daniel and Phil and it seems to jolt her awake. “The parade, oh no, what time is it, are we late?” She asks, her search for the phone now frantic. May snatches it up off the ground and hands it to her but its not of any use, the battery is dead.

“Daisy the parade is over.”

“What?”

“Yeah, we’re getting ready to open everything up its nearly noon.” Coulson explains.

Daisy jumps up from the sofa and everyone lurches forwards as she sways and drops back down, sitting carefully at the edge of the couch. “Whoa, whoa.”

“Daisy?”

“I’m okay, just stood up too fast.” She insists. “I was here late, helping Jemma and then I had to get some work done and I thought it would be easier to just work here and then I was going to go home but I must have fallen asleep.”

“Have you been getting much sleep lately or at all?”

Daisy actually looks like she has to think about it. “Um, yes.”

“Daisy I swear I will go call Simmons right now.”

 Daisy cringes. “Then no, not much.” She sighs heavily and sinks back into the cushions. “I can’t believe I missed it, I’m so sorry, I don’t usually break plans like this.” She says to Daniel.

“No worries, you should be getting some rest.” He reassures her.

“But the roof and the lights and the parade,”

“Its okay, its not Christmas yet, we’ll get there eventually.”

May takes a step back and waves Coulson over. “I have a feeling theirs aren’t the only plans on hold.” He says but gives her the same soft understanding smile Daniel gave Daisy.

“I’m going to take her home and make sure she rests for the rest of the day, can you – “

“I’ll stay here and cover for you guys.”

“Thank you Phil.”

“Anytime, but I’m holding you to it, the shore, the drinks.”

“I’ll be there, we've waited long enough."

Chapter Text

Hope waits impatiently while her dad and Elena say goodbye. He wants to ask her out. Like really out. He’d asked Hope already if it would bother her if he went out on a date with Elena and she had taken him by the shoulders, looked him straight in the eyes and said as calmly as she could ‘ask her out dad, before she changes her mind.’

Despite this he was still hesitating. She wanted to go see Fitz and this was taking forever. Even Elena was getting antsy.

“So will you be working tomorrow?” He asks her and Hope can’t stand it anymore.

“Dad wants to ask you on a date.” She says quickly.

“Hope.” Her dad scolds her, but Elena is smiling back at them looking pleased.

“Oh, he does, does he?”

“Yes.” She says certainly.

“Hope maybe you can let me take from here.” She smiles innocently back at him. If he ended up with a date she probably wouldn’t get in trouble. “Why don’t you head over to the store and I’ll catch up in just a minute okay.”

Finally! “Okay, by Yoyo! Please say yes to my dad.” She shouts, already halfway to the stairs.

“Bye Hope!” Elena calls back but she barely hears her, she’s weaving through the customers going down as she climbs up. She wonders again as she runs around the corner if Fitz will be there today. She wants to tell him about riding on the float in the parade. The students from the high school had built a device for the float that would fling candy into the crowd and she thought he might like it. She knows he likes sweets.

To her delight Fitz is there. He’s tinkering with an electronic toy dog.

“Hi Fitz!”

She startles him. He looks up surprised to see her but smiles anyways. “Hi Hope, is today the day?”

“Yeah, Dad will be here in just a minute.” She answers. “What’s that?”

He picks up the robot dog to inspect it. “New toy, we’ve been sold out since October, but we just got a new shipment.”

“He’s cute.”

“I guess so, kind of wish he was a monkey instead.” Hope giggles at the suggestion. “I always wanted one you know, make a good lab assistant.”

“I could be your assistant if you need one.” She offers.

“Might have to take you up on that, hey Mack.”

“Hey man, Hope, you know you have to let Fitz work, right?”

“I know, I am.”

“Well, hey you can help me out actually,” Fitz says and holds out the controller to her. “Can you demonstrate this while I help your dad with the drone?”

“Sure!”

He hands the controls and he and her dad head inside. She examines the controls carefully. She doesn’t have an instruction book but if she can figure out how to do a trick maybe she can impress Fitz.

She manages to get the little guy walking and very quickly figures out how to make him roll over, stand back on its hind legs and flip. It’s clearly a toy meant for a younger kid and wouldn’t be very exciting for Fitz at all.

Hope picks up the toy and tries to figure out how she could make it better instead.

“Hello.” Hope turns around to see a pretty woman standing next to her, she’s got a bright smile and is wearing a Christmas bell. Hope remembers seeing her before, she works at the gift-wrapping stand just across from the shop.

“Hi, can I help you?”

“Oh, well I don’t know, you look like you might be new, but I bet you know your stuff.” Hope nods eagerly. “I was actually looking for my friend Fitz, have you seen him?”

Hope’s eyes widen in surprise. “Oh, yes, he’s helping my dad, he’s buying me a drone for Christmas.” She points over to where her dad and Fitz are still talking, every couple of moments they glance over at her.

Oh, she really hopes they’re not talking about her. Why did he have to tell such embarrassing stories?

“So, you must be Hope, my name is Jemma.” Jemma holds out her hand to shake hers. “Fitz has told me all about you, he says you’re brilliant.” Jemma tells her and Hope can’t help but absolutely beam at the thought. “You want to be an engineer, right?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s really cool, I like science too, but I like biochemistry.” Jemma tells her.

“My teacher gave me a book on biotechnology, it was so cool.”

“It is isn’t it, how they can work together like that even though they are so different, Biology and Technology, that’s why I’m so excited to work with Fitz, I think we could work together really well too.”

“Do you guys work together?”

“No, but we were talking about entering the gingerbread building contest.”

“Oh that’s cool.” Hope frowns. She doesn’t know why. Jemma has been super nice to her, but she suddenly doesn’t feel like talking anymore. Thankfully, her dad returns.

“Bad news Hope, it looks like they ran out of the one we picked.”

“Oh no!”

“Fitz is checking to see, they might get some more before Christmas.” He reassures her.

“So, we can come back again?” She asks optimistically.

He smiles knowingly at her. “Yeah, kid, at least one more trip.”

“Mack, we’ve got a shipment arriving Christmas Eve but they need some info for the wait list – Jemma – “ Fitz shifts awkwardly, “hi.”

“Hi.” Jemma grins back at him.

“I’ll be right back Hope.”

Hope doesn’t hear her dad. She just looks between Fitz and Jemma. She recognizes that behavior. It’s the same way her dad acts around Yoyo and Hope can feel her disappointment growing.

“What are you doing here?” Fitz asks.

“I just wanted to let you know I found someone to cover my shift, so we enter the gingerbread contest after all.”

“Oh that’s great, did you find the schematics?”

“Yeah, we had to unwrap nearly all the gifts but we found it.” Jemma is blushing now and Hope doesn’t think they remember that she’s there. “We’re going to do great, I was just saying to Hope what a good balance our fields make.”

“Oh absolutely, hey maybe you could look at some of the schematics we’ve drawn up.” Fitz suggests and now she feels her face getting warm, delighted that he would want her input.

“I’ll go get them, we could definitely use a whimsical eye.” Jemma hurries off to the gift wrap station and starts to put her things away. Fitz watches her the whole time with a goofy smile on his face.

“You like her a lot, don’t you?” Hope asks quietly.

He looks down at her, shocked at first by her bold assumption but it fades into a sympathetic smile.

“Yeah, I really do.”

“You should tell her, I think she’d like to know.”

“Yeah?” He glances over at Jemma uncertainly.

“Trust me.” Hope insists and there’s a new tingle in her stomach. She’s upset but he can’t hide his excitement at the thought that Jemma might like him back and it makes her feel better. “She’s really lucky.”

“You think so.” She nods. “Well, that’s very sweet of you to say.”

“Alright Hope, we’re all set.” Her dad is back. He places a gentle hand on her shoulder.

“Can I come watch you guys compete in the gingerbread contest?”

“Of course, if its okay with your dad."

“Can we?”

“I don’t see why not, but we have to get going now okay.”

“Okay, tell Jemma bye for me.”

“I will do that.”

She follows behind her dad, dragging her feet a little bit. She bumps into him not realizing he had stopped. “You okay Sparkplug?”

“You know, don’t you?”

“Yeah, Yoyo sort of filled me in.”

“I’m okay, can we get hot chocolate before we go?”

“Anything you want kid.” He pulls her into a tight side hug. She rolls her eyes at him but sinks into the embrace anyways.

“Love you Dad.”

“Love you too Hope.”

Chapter Text

As soon as it was time for his break, Fitz clocks out and joins Jemma at her gift wrap kiosk. Over the past couple of days they had been working on the schematics of what was quite possibly the greatest gingerbread house design in existence. Impressive given that it had started with a doodle on the back of a piece of wrapping paper. He had caught sight of the cottage-like sketch when he was demoing the camera drone again.

When he asked her about it, she sheepishly explained that she was thinking about entering the gingerbread house contest that was held at the mall every year but didn’t think she could create anything remarkable enough to win. According to her, she didn’t really have an eye for that sort of thing.

But he did.

In seconds he had whipped up a design for her that would have made modern architects jealous. The concept was of an academy for STEM students. Contemporary but with nods to classic architecture. He remembered, after their sketch became more and more intricate, that their building materials consisted of cookie and icing, not steal beams and concreate but she didn’t seem concerned. With proper weight baring calculations and an edible icing that would hold like glue, they could make it happen.

So, it was decided that if they, by some miracle, could get off work they would enter.

Of course, all of this happened before Hope called him out on his crush on Jemma. Hunter did the same thing every damn day but something about it coming from the wise little girl, who apparently had a crush on him – he still had trouble believing that – it just held more merit.

And not only had she pointed out that he liked her, she actually suggested he tell Jemma.

It was advice he would love to take but couldn’t. He and Jemma had become friends, even if up until recently their conversations mostly took place through handwritten notes and text messages via drone. She was the only bright spot in his miserable retail workday and he didn’t want to make her uncomfortable. But Hope was so certain his confession would be well received.

He’s pulled from his thoughts by the rustle of paper.

“It’s gotten a bit crumpled I’m afraid.” Jemma says as she spreads their designs out for another look.

“That’s alright, its barely legible anyways.” Fitz assures her. He’s become too used to his tablet, sketching on paper, wrapping paper no less, was messy work. “I did run some numbers though and I think we will have time to complete everything in the allotted time, depends how fast your icing will set up.”

She grins confidently. “I modified my original recipe and based on my practice run we have just enough time once it hits the open air to place it and it should go solid in seconds.”

“How did you even come across it?” Apparently this icing of hers was the edible equivalent of super glue.

“A cookie decorating mishap, mixed up a couple of recipes and Daisy nearly chipped a tooth.”

“Ouch.”

Jemma shrugs it off. “Oh she was alright, but she almost stepped down as one of the judges when she found out we were entering.”

Fitz chuckles. She’s one of the few people that makes him smile like this. Hunter teases him for being a grinch at Christmas time but honestly she had cured him of much of his grouchiness. Daisy no longer had to stop by and call him out for frowning at the mall patrons. And to be honest, it would be nice if that continued past the holiday season.

But that meant keeping Jemma in his life. And considering they were both seasonal workers that meant solidifying whatever their relationship was. Whether it be friends or collaborators or something more.

He’d be okay with any of those but option three certainly held a lot of appeal.

She’s explaining the chemistry behind her icing and he feels bad for interrupting, but it just tumbles out.

“So I was wondering,” she glances at him curiously, “if maybe, after the contest, if you’re not busy, maybe we could go get something to eat?” He asks tentatively.

“Oh, sure, I mean it’s a little early to be planning our victory celebration, we should at least check out the competition first.” Jemma answers distractedly as she returns her focus to the designs. Fitz cringes. There is no subtle way to do this. Still he tried again.

“Well even if we lose, we could still go out, maybe somewhere nice.”

“Oh, I don’t know that I would make very good company, we’ve worked so hard, I might be unbearably to be around if we lose.”

Was this her way of turning him down? She seemed completely oblivious to what he was trying to ask.

“Maybe a different night then?”

Finally, she looks up at him with her full, if slightly puzzled, attention. “Well, that doesn’t make any sense for celebrating or wallowing, that would just be the two of us going out to – oh.”

Dread fills his stomach when he sees the dots start to connect for her. He’s about to take it back, insist that she forget he even asked but then she smiles. She still looks surprised but when she opens her mouth to speak he feels a surge of optimism. Highly unusual for him.

“That would be – “

“Jemma! Hey, Jemma I found you!”

Before she can finish, a guy about their age comes bounding up to them. Jemma’s expression quickly fades to worry.

“Deke, what are you doing here?”

Whoever he is, he’s fine. He grins back at Jemma with a childlike smile. “I thought I’d come see you at work, when I said I’d stay with you for Christmas kind of forgot you’d be busy.” He explains. “I also thought maybe I could find something to fill my time.”

“Oh, are you going to volunteer downstairs at the North Pole?”

“Thought about it, didn’t want Daisy to think I was stalking her so I thought maybe seasonal work somewhere else would be better.”

“You could try Mockingbird’s Café, you remember my friend Bobbi, she’s the owner and they’re always looking for help.”

“Noted, not my area of expertise but hey I’m adaptable.”

Fitz watches the exchange somewhat uncomfortably. He doesn’t know who this guy is or if he should introduce himself but clearly he is a significant person in Jemma’s life if they’re spending Christmas together.

He decides not to draw attention to himself. He picks up Jemma’s pen thinking he’ll make some modifications to their design while she finishes her conversation. Unfortunately he knocks over the cup of pens and in his attempt to correct it bumps a stack of gifts which crash to the floor.

The startled pair turn to him.

“Oh, Fitz! Fitz this is my cousin Deke, Deke this is my, um, my friend Fitz.” She introduces as she rights the pile of presents.

“Nice to meet you man.”

“Uh, yeah, likewise.”  Fitz says although he’s not certain he means it. Perhaps the sentiment would have been true had Deke not had the worst timing of any human being in the world.

“What have you got here?” Deke picks up the scrap of paper with their gingerbread designs on it. “Future dream house?” He asks looking between them.

Fitz feels his face go warm at the implication. Jemma, also blushing, snatches back the paper and places it gently back on the workstation. “No no, Fitz and I are entering the gingerbread contest, and this is our design.”

“Sounds like fun, hey maybe I could enter with you guys?”

“Oh well – “ Jemma starts to protest.

“Yeah, this would be the perfect way for us to spend some time together.” He adds, excitement bright in his eyes.

“Well Fitz and I were going to – “

“You wouldn’t mind, right, I mean this looks like some intense design work here, an extra set of hands might be good to have.” He’s not wrong. The work was going to be a lot for just the two of them to complete and he really did want it to be perfect. Jemma was so attached to it at this point, it had to be perfect.

“It’s not a bad idea.” Jemma looks at him in surprise.

“Really?”

“Yeah, yeah it’ll be great.” Fitz assures her.

Jemma shoots him a brilliant smile and the building feeling of regret is washed away. “Thank you.” She mouths.

“Great, I’ll go get signed up.” Deke rushes off and as soon as he is out of sight Jemma places a hand on his arm.

“Thank you so much, you did not have to do that.”

He shrugs of her gratitude. “I don’t want you to miss out on time with your family.”

“I appreciate that.” She leans in a little closer. “But dinner will be just us, okay?”

His heart skips a beat. “Deal.”

Chapter Text

Trip and Sousa had become fast friends when Sousa had stepped in to cover a fellow professor’s classes while she was on maternity leave. Daisy would later claim it was because they were both so inherently good, but they will always chalk it up to a shared love of history and a ridiculous amount of knowledge on WWII.

Trip’s love of history had started young. His mother owns an antique shop that he’d practically grown up in. He played with toys from decades before he was born, read personal journals that were found in drawers of antiques desks and wardrobes. Disassembled and reassembled old gadgets and gizmos. It had been fascinating.

When Sousa asked him what the chances were of finding a part for an antique espresso machine, he though probably pretty good. His mother knew everyone in the antiques world, including a few people who refurbished everything from old cars and tv’s to upholstery and quilts. She’d put out a request and report back.

Once he hears back, with both good news and bad he agrees to meet Sousa at the mall’s Christmas set up. Sousa had offered to just meet him at the coffee shop but Trip was eager to meet the girl his friend had been going on and on about over the past couple of weeks.

He had not made it to the mall yet this year but he’s not disappointed when he arrives to the North Pole. It looks like something out a movie with its grand sparkling tree, Santa’s work shop bustling with elves and everyone in a good mood.

Mostly.

As he approaches the festivities, he can see things are a bit chaotic. Craft tables are in disarray, Sousa and another man are usuring some run away kids back into the line for Santa, the volume level is off the charts.

“Hey man.” He shouts over the din of children’s screams. Sousa, looking rattled, waves at the other man who nods and waves him off. He joins him, pulling him back from the crowds so he can hear him. “Busy day?” Trip asks, trying not to laugh at his disheveled colleague.

“Crowds from the parade and we’re short-staffed.”

“Do you need to get back, I know where the café is.”

Sousa shakes his head. “I’ve got a few minutes, more if I come back with coffee for the crew.”

With that they make their way up to Mockingbird’s. The little café is quiet but that was fair considering the later hour of the day. In the front window is the espresso machine and Trip is impressed; its easily as old and in as good of condition as he’d been told.  Behind the counter is a tall blonde woman who is chatting with a guy at the counter. Next to her is another woman with dark hair and a pretty face. She’s got a line of to-go cups in front of her and is writing out orders on their cozies.

When the blonde woman notices them, she shifts from a more relaxed state to one buzzing with anticipation. That, he realizes, must be Bobbi but before addressing him she acknowledges Sousa.

“Hey, I heard from Daisy, she’s really wearing herself out this year, I’ve never seen her miss the parade.”

“My impression is that she doesn’t do anything halfway, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen her sit down for more than five minutes.” Trip has not met this Daisy girl yet, but she sounds remarkable. Like the kind of person who makes an impact within minutes of meeting her.

“Just try to get her up to the roof to see the lights before Christmas, as soon as the 26^th hits, people start tearing them down and its not nearly as exciting.”

“Will do.” Sousa assures her and he take the break in conversation to clear his throat. “Bobbi this is Antione Triplett, or Trip.”

“Nice to meet you.”

“Absolutely,” she shakes his hand, “so you can get it?” No beating around the bush, that was cool with him.

“Geez Bob, why bother with formalities at all.” The guy at the counter shoots back at her.

“Sorry, Trip this is Hunter.” Bobbi introduces, “the ex and the current boyfriend but if he keeps this up, we might circle back around.”

“Its cool, Sousa mentioned how important it is to you.”

“And you can get it, the part?”

“I can but its not cheap.”

“How many digits are we talking about?” Hunter asks skeptically.

Trip hesitates to say and cringes at the thought alone. “Three.”

“You’re kidding, for a part to a hundred-year-old espresso machine?”

“Shut up Hunter,” Bobbi snaps and looks back at him with optimistic eyes, “how much?”

“$700.”

“That’s insane.” Hunter balks and even Sousa looks taken back by the news.

“Trust me, I’m not disagreeing, but it’s an original part, he’d have to take it off one he’s got mostly reconstructed, so he’d pretty much be taking it at a loss.”

“And that’s the only one?” She asks desperately.

“Not many machines are as old as yours, you could probably have the part reproduced for less but – “

“But then it wouldn’t be original.”

“I’m kind of sorry I even suggested now, I feel like I’ve let you down.” Sousa apologizes.

Bobbi lowers her head to her hands in defeat and Trip shares a look with Sousa and Hunter. “It’s still a beautiful piece, even if it doesn’t function, my mom would be busting down your door right now if she thought you’d ever part with it.”

“Yeah, Bob, and it’s still a nice window decoration for the shop.”

“I know, I know.” She mumbles before she let’s out a strangled frustrated noise. She picks herself back up from her slumped posture on the counter and in a bright tone asks, “you want anything? It’s on the house.”

“I bring you bad news and I get free coffee?”

“You gave me a lot to think about, so yes.”

“Fair enough.” He orders his beverage and joins Sousa who has collected a couple of caddies of coffees for the volunteers downstairs. He steps aside, explaining he needs to check them over because if he goes back with the wrong thing there could be a riot. Trip turns his attention instead to the girl behind the counter preparing his drink. She seems a bit frantic. Probably trying to catch up and find her bearings after prepping the last massive order.

She glances at him over her shoulder and he does his best to give her a reassuring smile. “Take your time.” He laughs when she sighs in relief. She still has a sort of nervous energy about her and bounces around behind the counter as she finishes the drink. She riffles around in the coffee cozies for a minute. She reads the writing on a couple of them before selecting one, writing out something on it and slipping it over the paper cup.

“Here you go.”

He thanks her but before he can walk away his curiosity gets the better of him. He glances at the cup to see what the cozy says. Beneath his name that is scribbled on in her handwriting are printed words:

TOO HOT, HOT DAMN

He laughs out loud and the girl grins cheerily back at him. “Same to you,” he glances at her name tag, “same to you, Kora.”

She looks back at him quizzically but continues to smile. A family has come in and Bobbi is calling out more orders before he can turn up his charm or even ask for her number.

“So where is this Daisy girl, I’m dying to meet her.” Trip asks as they return to the mall’s epicenter.

“Home.”

“I though you said she basically lives here.”

“She does, that’s the problem,” Sousa frowns, “she’s been over working herself, we were supposed to meet for the parade today but she slept right through it.”

“You sure that wasn’t just an excuse to get out of it?” He teases but he doesn’t really mean it.

“We found her this morning fast asleep in her mom’s office, on top of working a full day here, she stayed late to help her roommate Jemma rewrap something like forty Christmas gifts and then stayed up the rest of the night working her day job.”

“Damn.”

“Yeah, I don’t even care that she missed our plans, Christmas is just so important to her and I don’t think she’s enjoying the way she’d like too.”

“What do you mean?”

“All she wants to do is look at the lights from the roof of the mall and watch her favorite Christmas movies and she doesn’t have time, I just wish I could help her do that.”

“I’m sure you’ll figure it out and do what you can do to for her, there’s still time left.” Trip glances at his watch. “I’ve got to get going though, I’m going to see if there’s anything left at the tree lot, mom’s gone crazy decorating her shop, but I don’t even think she has a tree up at home.”

The tree lot outside the mall is looking pretty bare. There are plenty of trees left but they’re all too big or too small. Hunter from the café is talking with another guy at a table weighed down with rope and a money box.  

“Hey, Hunter right?”

He looks up startled, “yeah, what are you doing here?” he asks casually, his hostility from the shop is gone. Probably a product of Trip given his girlfriend disappointing news.

“I was going to get my mom a wreath, she decorates her shop top to bottom but her place takes a back seat.”

“Sure, we’ve got a few left over here.” Hunter leads him over to a wall of wreaths. Trip picks the best looking of the group and they move to the counter so he can ring him up.

“So this part for Bobbi’s machine, anyone else out there looking for one?” Hunter’s tone is a disinterested one but it doesn’t fool him.

“I don’t think so, like I said, most of them, even the antiques, aren’t as old as the one she’s got.”

“You think your mum’s friend can hold it for a bit?”

Trip smiles. “I thought anyone who’d pay that much was crazy.”

“They are, but you know, she makes me crazy so,” he shrugs, “I just need a bit longer to acquire the funds.”

“I like how you say that, like you’re going to knock off a gas station.”

“You do what you gotta do, right?”

“Yeah, you do,” Trip nods as the familiar words echo in his head, and a vague idea starts to form, “what’ll happen to the trees that don’t get sold?”

“Christmas Eve a truck comes by, takes them to the chipper, they make good mulch.”

“I’ll make you a deal, I’ll get a hold of the part for you, try to shake him down on the price, but I need you to do something for me in return.”

“You get him down on that price and I’ll give you everything I got left.” Trip looks around at the remaining trees, it’s not what Hunter had meant but –

“That’s the idea.”

Chapter Text

The whole mall smells of gingerbread. It’s warm and inviting and a welcome alternative to wet bitterness of outside. The cloudy stormy sky meant that they lacked the natural light from the skylights but the gloom meant that the tree was shining brightly. Glittering over the craft tables that had been cleared away of ribbon and scissors for space to build.

Jemma is humming with anticipation. It seems a bit silly to be so excited over a gingerbread house contest, but she likes a little friendly competition. A twist in her day to day schedule. And she also likes Fitz’s company.

“Oh, check it out!”

And Deke’s company too, she thinks, as her cousin gives her shoulders a quick shake from behind before jogging ahead of her and Daisy like an excited child. She shares a look with Daisy who is trying to hide her smile. They’ve gotten along surprising well with their temporary living arrangements. Of course, Daisy is always busy so that probably helps. They were even joking about something over breakfast this morning, she thinks it may have been about her, but that was okay so long as they weren’t arguing at each other.

She only hopes he and Fitz will get along just as well.

It had been very kind of Fitz to not object to Deke joining them. She knew he wasn’t quickly taken with new people. Hunter had called her a rarity when he came by to chat with them one day. That, on top of Deke being perhaps overly friendly didn’t bode well for their compatibility.

But that was okay because she had a plan.

“Hey Jemma, I found our table!” Deke waves at her to hurry up but she maintains her pace next to Daisy.

“You know I have to be objective as a judge right?” Daisy teases.

Jemma rolls her eyes. “I would expect nothing less than a completely fair competition.”

“You’re teamed up with two highly skilled engineers, how is that fair?”

“There is nothing against it in the rules.”

“Whatever you have to tell yourself, good luck.” Daisy says as the part ways. She’ll be sitting with Coulson and May who also judge the contest every year.  

When Jemma joins Deke at their station he’s inspecting all of the supplies that each team is given to work with. She already knows what they are, having been over the rule guide several times. From her bag she extracts a step-by-step breakdown of exactly what needs to be done to complete their Gingerbread Academy in the allotted time. Part of her plan to keep the peace involves keeping Fitz to the actual construction and Deke on cutting the gingerbread down to the size. She would be the buffer in the middle decorating and applying the icing for adhesion.

“Morning.”

Jemma can’t help but smile at Fitz’s quiet greeting. Ever since they made their dinner plans for after the contest there was an eagerness in the air around them. She shares her own good morning and busies herself with rereading her list. When she finishes she offers it to them to review.

“I know I emailed you both a copy and I’ve got the printed one but it’ll be good to have it fresh in your head.” She hands the papers to Deke who looks at them incredulously.

“I’m not going to lie to you Jem, kind of thought this was joke.” Deke says as he flips through the pages.

“Why would it be a joke, when taking on a task like this it is best to be prepared so we don’t forget anything.”

“Jemma were building a Gingerbread house, its supposed to be fun.”

“It will still be fun, just organized fun, right Fitz?”

“Yeah, of course.” He answers but shares a look of amusement with Deke and they both try not to laugh.

“Oh fine, share a laugh at my expense.” Jemma scolds but she is thrilled to see they’re getting along. Maybe it wouldn’t be as bad as she thought. “You’ll see when we’re all done that having this is a good idea.”

Over the next thirty minutes everyone else begins to arrive. Bobbi has wheeled a cart of coffee and hot chocolate down from her shop. Hunter is lingering nearby under the guise of helping her. Jemma sees Hope and her father standing amongst the crowd of spectators. She elbows Fitz and points out the little girl. He waves her over and she bounds excitedly up to their table.

“Hey, I’m glad you made it.”

“I hope I can stay the whole time, I’m supposed to spend the day with my grandparents so Dad can go on his date with Yo-yo.”

Jemma smiles at the nickname that had been gifted to her friend.

Hope then glances at her subtly before waving Fitz closer. “Did you ask her?”

“Yes, I asked her.” He whispers back.

“And?”

“Let’s just say you are a very smart kid.” She grins triumphantly and rushes back over to Mack when the microphone squeals over the chatter.

“Good Morning Everyone!” Coulson announces. “Welcome to the eleventh annual gingerbread house contest. Competitors will have two hours to complete their designs, gingerbread and a variety of candy, cookies and icing have been provided or you may use your own, remember, be creative and have fun.” The sound of sleigh bells rings over the crowd to kick off the event.”

It all goes much smoother than she expects. That should have been the first sign that trouble was brewing.

“It looks amazing.” Jemma walks around the table, inspecting their gingerbread masterpiece from every angle. It’s spectacular. She loves the way the sugared candies and sprinkles shimmer like sunlight on windows.

“It does but I though you said you timed everything out to the very last minute?” Fitz double checks her list, thinking they forgot something.

“I did.” Jemma says as she begins to clean up the supplies.

“Jemma, we’ve got ten minutes left.”

“I scheduled in double the time needed for the most difficult parts in the event that something went wrong.” Again Deke and Fitz share that look, the one that clearly says they find her antics entertaining and unnecessary. “It worked out for the best didn’t it?”

“I guess, got plenty of time now to snack on the rest of our supplies.” Fitz agrees as he selects the bowl of pretzels as his celebratory treat.  

“Hey, why don’t we add a few trees out front.” Deke takes a pretzel stick from the bowl and twirls it between his fingers. “We can use these for the trunks and these for the branches.” He picks up a twisty pretzel and holds the two together.

“Oh, well that’s cute but I don’t know that we need to.” Jemma says thoughtfully.

“Well no we don’t need too, but come on it’ll be fun, might make it more Christmassy ours is looking a little blah.”

Jemma looks over their work again. It’s not that its blah. Deceptively simple maybe. They had used almost all their supplies but in a way that was clean and neat. He’s not wrong though. Its not very Christmassy. A couple of trees would probably help with that.

But then again it looks just like her and Fitz’s design.

“I think its fine the way it is, maybe next year we’ll add trees.” Fitz suggests.

There that was a good diplomatic answer.

“Oh come on, we’ve still got time now.” Before they can stop him Deke drops a dollop of icing into the “courtyard” of their academy and balances the pretzel stick on it. “Here hold this here.” He instructs Fitz who instinctively reaches to hold it in place. He looks at Jemma, unsure what to do.

“Deke.”

“Yeah?” He asks distractedly as he snaps the pretzel and balances it on the other. It actually does look like a little tree. He claps his hands together in success when he pulls his hand back and it stands. Oh, he was so excited, what harm was a few trees.

“Just be careful, the icing is sticky.”

“Relax, Jemma, you sound just like Nana when you worry.”

She watches as he adds tree after tree, handing him little red candies to make them more festive. Fitz submits to holding each pretzel stick in place until finally he snaps. “Ok, I think that’s enough.”

“Just this last one.” He places in the last tree and Fitz sighs in relief. “Actually, you’re right, I think that’s one too many, let me just – “

“No Deke it’s already stu-“ Deke pulls up on the tree and Jemma watches horrified as the whole gingerbread house lifts along with it, slides dangerously close to the edge of the table and both boys make a dive to catch it. They knock their heads together and stumble backwards. Fitz manages to bump their table and their gingerbread academy tumbles from its precarious spot, shattering across the floor and sending candy scattering.

Deke trips backwards and knocks into the next table and like a chain reaction everything starts to fall. He makes a valiant effort to catch their competitors creation but in their haste to move out of his way they crash into their neighbor who falls forward on top of their own. Someone slips on the gumballs that were used in their planetarium wing, grabs onto their table for balance and the hole thing collapses.

When the crumbs settle Deke looks around sheepishly at the crowd. Fitz is pinching the bridge of his nose. Hope looks scandalized and Mack and Elena are trying desperately not to laugh. Daisy, Coulson and May look around uncertain how to proceed with just the remnants of a gingerbread village left to judge. 

“Um, sorry everyone.” Deke looks at their neighbors table. “I can fix this.” He attempts to stand up the walls of their gingerbread castle. For a moment they stay balanced before tipping back over. “No really, I can – Jemma, can I get some of the icing.

“Deke, Deke just let it go.” Jemma hurried around the table. “Its alright, just don’t worry about it.”

“Jemma I can fix it – “

“Deke.” She says more firmly. All eyes are on them and most look less than pleased.

“I’m sorry Jemma – I didn’t mean to – “

“Why don’t you go get cleaned up and we’ll get this all cleaned up.”

“I should help.”

“I think you’ve helped enough.” Fitz says a bit sourly. Jemma glares at him and he shifts uncomfortably. “We’ll take care of it man, it was just an accident.”

“It’ll be fine, I’ll come find you in a bit.” She assures him. Deke nods and carefully steps his way out of the mess. The silence that had fallen after the chaos is slowly replaced by the low rumble of what do we do nows.

“Alright everyone, nothing to worry about.” Coulson smiles his calming smile and everyone starts to relax. “We’re going to put thirty more minutes on the clock and the big prize goes to whoever creates the most interesting sculpture with the remnants of their houses and whatever snacks are left.” He rings the sleigh bells again and everyone jumps into action except her and Fitz.

“I’m sorry for snapping at Deke.”

“Its okay, he can get a little enthusiastic.”

“Still, I’ll apologize to him, next time I see him.” She nods. They silently agree to bow out of the contest and start to collect their fallen masterpiece. “I’m sorry about this too, you were so excited about it and its all ruined.”

Jemma looks and the ruins of their academy. She should feel heartbroken, all the work they had put into it, but she doesn’t. “Can I tell you the truth Fitz?”

He looks at her confused. “Yeah, of course.”

“I never intended to join this contest.” She says honestly.

“What, but what about your sketch, the very first one?”

She blushes. “I doodled it when I was daydreaming,” she admits as she dumps the mess of cookie and icing into the nearest trash bin. “Daisy and I had been talking about the contest and I started thinking about this cute little cottage I saw once when my family was on vacation, not sure what brought it to mind but um, I thought it would make a cute gingerbread house.”

“Why didn’t you just tell me that before?”

“I guess I was embarrassed for getting caught.” She thinks he must understand that because he doesn’t question it. “I’m glad we did the contest though, I like spending time with you.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“We we’re still on for dinner?”

“Of course, why wouldn’t we be?”

He just shrugs. “So where was this cottage you liked so much?”

“Perthshire.”

Her answer makes him smile. “That’s in Scotland.”

“I know where it is Fitz.”

Chapter Text

Before their date can begin, she meets Mack and Hope at the gingerbread house contest. Her grandparents are supposed to pick her up after so they can have the rest of the day to themselves. At first she was a little bummed about having to go into work on her day off but the contest turned out to be far more entertaining then she had imagined, with Jemma’s cousin, Deke, unintentionally taking out almost every house in the competition.

Coulson managed to save the day by calling for a twist on the rules, but they didn’t stay to watch what she honestly thinks would have been the more interesting contest. Mack’s parents had already arrived and she’s eager to get some alone time with him. There is a very awkward moment in which he’s not sure how to introduce her but in her usually fashion Hope handles it for him.

“This is Elena, she’s dad’s almost girlfriend.” Hope explains.

“Almost girlfriend?” His mother asks.

“Yeah, this is their first actual date, but as long as dad isn’t a huge dork there might be more.”

Mack, looking playfully offended, pokes her on her shoulder. “You know if you let me get a word in everyone once in a while –“

“You may not even have this date?” Elena finishes for him. His parents laugh and wish them a good day. Mack smiles at her before saying goodbye to Hope who happily joins her grandparents, telling them all about what happened at the contest.

“She’s got a lot of sass, can’t imagine where she gets it from.” He mutters.

“Side effect of being a preteen.” Elena says with a shrug. "Better get used to it."

It had become a sort of tradition for them to share their traditions when the hung out. The ornaments. The Christmas parade. She remembers Mack telling her that his parents used to take him and his brother on sleigh rides when they were kids. She’s never gone on one, in all the years the mall had hosted them but she suspects that’s why he wanted her to meet him for their date here to begin with.

Sometimes she can’t figure out how Coulson does it. The true wonderland he creates at the mall. The inside often looks like a snow globe and their little town already looks like a post card all year around. When he found out the building not only backed up to the local park but was connected by a series of overgrown trails, by the next winter they were cleared away for a proper greenway large enough for sleighs and the grand majestic horses that pulled them along.

She often came here for her morning runs but never actually took the time to appreciate the surroundings. The trees were tall and in the summer it was hard to see the sky but with the leaves all fallen she can see the little bits of blue sky peeping through the clouds from the morning’s storm.

It really is beautiful, the fresh snow, the Clydesdale horses and the cacophony of the sleigh bells. She didn’t even mind so much that they were trotting along so very slowly. No that wasn’t so bad at all. This was the longest conversation they’d had since they met that didn’t have an eleven-year-old third-party giving commentary. Not that she didn’t like talking to Hope, the young girl was better conversation than most adults she knew. It was just nice to talk a little less guarded.

But if there was one downside to their sleigh ride it was the bitter biting cold.

“You okay, you’re shaking.” He points out.

Elena pulls her blanket tighter around her shoulders. She doesn’t even feel the cold when she goes for her runs, but this chill is cutting through her layers of sweaters and as happy as she is to be here, she briefly longs for the warmer climate of Colombia.

“When I moved here it was for school, definitely not for the weather.” She shivers.

Mack visibly cringes. “Sorry, guess I should have picked an indoor activity, didn’t realize it was going to be this cold.”

“It’s okay, gives me an excuse to be forward and do this,” she inches her way over as close as she can to his side. He drapes his large arm around her so now she’s wrapped in both her own blanket and his.

“Better?” He asks.

She looks up at him, now at an awkward but welcome angle. “Much better.”

Mack leans down and her heartbeat races. She meets him halfway for a kiss. Any bit of her that still felt cold definitely didn’t anymore. Even the tips of her ears that she thought were starting to succumb to frost bite. They must not have, she thinks, because she can hear the distant sound of joyous screaming. Its not unlike the screaming of the kids at the North Pole but they were too far from the mall to be able to hear them. This sounds like its coming closer. “Do you hear that?” She asks as they pull apart.

“Yeah, actually I do.” Even the sleigh driver seems curious about the approaching noise and calls for the horses to slow down. A moment later their sleigh is cut off by what Elena thinks might have been a sled or snowmobile loaded down with several kids. She doesn’t get a good look as the dart past. They startle the horses that take off at a gallop. It throws her and Mack back against the bench and she’s thankful for the firm hold he’s got on her. The trees blur past for just a minute and its enough to get her adrenaline up but quickly enough they slow down again. The driver has the horses calmed and worriedly checks on them.

“Sorry about that folks, trail is supposed to be cleared of pedestrians before we begin our routes.”

“I don’t know that they qualified as pedestrians, I’ve passed cars on the highway going slower than them.”

Elena smiles and grabs up the opportunity to tease. “You’ve passed cars on the highway, here I thought you were the one causing all that back up.”

“Funny, but seriously, when it gets a little warmer I’ll take you out on my bike.”

“Now that sounds like fun.” Elena snuggles back into his side ready to day dream about spring coming early. “Not that this isn’t but that’s a little more my speed.”

“Yeah, I thought it might be.”

Chapter Text

This was such a bad idea.

Forget the fact that they made this thing as a school project and the fact that it was only designed for one and modified on the fly with parts from Gabe’s brother’s garage. They were about to drop themselves off the steepest hill in town. One that would send them crashing through trees and past pedestrians and if they were lucky enough to make it to the bottom it would torpedo them through the mall parking lot.

“You got it Flint, its coming down.” Tess calls as she gives the sled a shove and it slides off the bed of the truck, down the makeshift ramp and into the fresh snow. Flint stops it from continuing to slide and going down the hill unmanned.

“You guys I’m really starting to have second thoughts about this.” Its maybe the fifth time today he has repeated these words but both Gabe and Tess remain unfazed.

“You worry too much, its just sledding.” Tess reassures as she jumps down from her truck.

“Yeah, but on this monstrosity.” Flint slides the amateur-engineered sled around to the passenger side of the truck where Gabe is waiting. They had built it in class under the concept of a sled that accommodated for Gabe’s needs. The teacher had loved the idea and allowed them access to whatever they needed. Had she known that the intention was to later modify it for the three of them and then ride it down the trail behind the mall, a seriously frowned upon activity, she may have had some objections.

“Is he panicking again?” Gabe asks.

“Yep.”

“Look man, we already promised you tacos are on us, but you can’t bail out now, we need you to help steer.”

“Oh trust me, I’m in, I can’t let the two of you do this alone.” Flint explains as he helps Gabe down into the sled. “I just want it on record that I’m fully against this idea.”

“Noted, now get on.”

Tess and Flint position the sled at the best angle to hit the path. Going straight down the bank would be impossible but the hiking path was still steep enough for a speedy ride and with large arcing turns that they could hit with the sleds limited steering.

With one last prayer Flint pushes the sled forward, briefly getting up to a run before jumping up onto the small platform at the back of the sled. As they hit the incline their speed picks up and suddenly they’re hurtling down hill.

The freshly fallen snow means its hard to see the path markers. Several times a turn comes up too fast on them and Tess only last minute yells out left or right sending both him and her to one side or the other in an attempt to swing the sled around.

After some time Flint starts to feel the rush the others were craving from this excursion. The freezing wind wiping past them, the trees nothing but a blur, its invigorating, its exciting and, assuming they live to see the bottom, it would certainly be memorable.

“Oh come on, we graduate in the spring, I’m not going to let you be the only one in our class who can look back on their senior year and say he didn’t do anything dangerous or stupid or the slightest bit memorable.” Gabe complains to him across the table at the coffee shop.

“My year has been just fine.” Flint insists.  

“That’s the problem.” Gabe shot back. “Fine is not how you want to remember your last year of high school.”

“Alright what do you suggest then?”

Gabe considers this, his eyes drifting to the large window in the café. A scheming smile inches its way across his face. “Let’s sled down the greenway path by the mall.”

Flint shakes his head in objection. “Are you crazy, that hill is like a cliff, I actually want to see the end of senior year, don’t you?”

“Come on, with the proper equipment we could do it and it would definitely be memorable, no one else ever has, at least no one who didn’t end up in the hospital.”

“Even if we could, where do we get the equipment, a normal sled is not going to make it down that hill?.

“I can get the parts from my brother’s garage.”

“And the time?”

“We can make a project out of it, Tess will help us.”

“I still don’t know.”

“You come up with a better idea and I’ll hear you out.”

He hadn’t had a better idea. And while he remembers his hesitance vividly, at the moment he can’t remember half the reasons for it. Right now they’re going so fast if feels like their flying and its incredibly.

“Tess, Tess we gotta turn,” Gabe warns, “Tess, TESS!”

Flint’s eyes snap open. He hadn’t even realized he closed them. It takes him a moment to focus in and realizes exactly what Gabe is panicked about. They’re barreling towards one of the sleighs that use this route to get to the park from the mall.

He hears a surprised yelp and realizes Tess too may have let her eyes fall closed. Gabe reaches forward giving Tess a push to get her to turn. In his own attempt to avoid running into the massive horses pulling the sleigh Flint also swings them left. The overcorrection takes them spinning off the path. Next thing he knows they’re dunking low under tree branches and bumping over their roots. The three cling to the sled, Flint hoping none of them are thrown from it. Gabe still has a hold on Tess, and he reaches forward to grab his jacket and insure he’s not unseated either.

They crash back over the main path, narrowly missing another sleigh and sending the horses wild. 

“How do we stop!” Flint shouts.

“We don’t, the sleigh has to level out!” Gabe shouts back.

“We’re going to crash.”

They had to be getting to the bottom of the hill. Soon they would hit level ground unless they ended up in a tree first.

The woods start to clear but they haven’t slowed down yet. The mall parking lot opens up before them and Flint can feel when the sled switches from the snow-covered ground to the ice covered parking lot. If anything they’ve picked up speed.

“We’re not stopping.”

“Its too slick.”

“We’re going to hit the cars!”

“That’s it, Tess get ready to jump, Gabe hold on man.” Flint grabs his friend around his chest, Tess turns the sleigh in an attempt to slow it down before they make a jump for it.

They hit the ground hard. The sleigh, thrown off balance, flips and rolls. Flint looks up just in time to see it miss a row of cars and slide dangerously towards the mall’s main entrance. It finally comes to a halt, as it slows and a man waiting by the main entrance carefully places his foot on it, bringing it to a complete stop.

“Oh shit.” He hears Gabe mutter as he tries to sit up.

“What?”

“That’s my brother.”

Now, as his heart rate slows, Flint realizes the man who stopped the sled was in fact Gabe’s brother Robbie and standing next to him the mall’s event coordinator May.

Flint’s instincts said run but that’s wasn’t an option. He and Tess quickly leap up and help Gabe so that the three of them can get out from the middle of the parking lot. By the time they’ve settled on a median Robbie and May have made their way over.

“Thought you three were hanging out at the mall today.” Robbie says.

“We were just on our way there.” Gabe responds innocently.

May looks back at the discarded sled. “You three make quite the entrance.”

Chapter Text

Kora couldn’t thank Daisy enough for getting her a job at the coffee shop. The atmosphere is warm and welcoming, she has the best boss and for the most part her customers are pleasant and courteous. Daisy had warned her before she started that people could be rude, especially before they got their morning coffee, but so far, she’s been lucky.

“She’s great with them.” Bobbi had told Daisy one day while she waited for her coffee. “Its crazy, she’s been here a week and she already has regulars.”

“That’s great, did you tell Jiaying?”

“Yeah, mom’s really excited about it.” Her mom had been getting quite worried over her. She was a very shy child, and continued to be all through school. That’s what had prompted her to sign Kora up for the Big Sister program and Daisy had been assigned to her. To find out years later that they were also biological sisters had been surprising at first but in the long run it had changed things much.

Working at Mockingbird’s was the ultimate show of how much more comfortable she had become in social situations. She still hesitates a bit to strike up conversation with the customers but could easily chat with them when one was started up on their side first.

It’s a quite morning when she encounters a customer who needs her to be the one to initiate the conversation. 

Kora is manning the counter alone while Bobbi has taken the coffee cart down to the gingerbread house contest. She’d been worried at first, before she realized that the shop would be completely dead while everyone was downstairs. She takes the time to practice her coffee art and tried to get some pictures for the store’s new social media accounts.

She’s just managed a pretty flower in the mug of cappuccino when she hears someone enter. She recognizes him from when he’s come in a few mornings with Daisy and her roommate Jemma. Derek, maybe? Or Deke? He’s usually in a good spirits. A spark in his eyes even first thing in the morning. Although at the moment that doesn’t seem to be the case.

“Welcome in!” She greets him cheerily. He glances at her, manages to give her a weak smile and she frowns in return. “Deke, right?” She asks kindly.

This takes him by surprise. “You know – how’d you know my name?”

“You’re Jemma’s cousin, Daisy’s my sister.” She explains hastily. “I promise I’m not like a creepy stalker.”

“Oh right.” He spends the next full minute staring silently up at the menu board.

“You okay?”

He looks back to her and shrugs. “I could be having a better day.”

“I’ve been told our hot chocolate is the cure to all problems, can I get you one?” Kora suggests because his silence is making her antsy.

“Um, sure.”

Kora takes extra care when prepping the hot chocolate, careful to add just the right amount of peppermint and milk. “So what happened, it’s pretty early, maybe your day could still take a turn for the better?”

“I don’t think so,” he says hesitantly, “I sort of, accidentally, crushed all of the gingerbread houses at the contest, minutes before it ended.”

Kora stares back at him in shock, “how do you – “ No, Kora stops herself, that would be rude to ask. “I’m sorry to hear that, was it really that bad?”

“I don’t know, I think they were trying to salvage what they could but Jemma suggested I not, um, stick around for that.”  He answers. He looks so rejected; she hopes the hot chocolate can make him feel even just the slightest bit better. She swirls the whipped cream on to the top and shakes the red and white sprinkles over before carefully scanning the cup cozies. She loves these ones that Bobbi found with the puns on them and always tries to grab the most appropriate one for the drink. It takes a minutes but she finally finds the one she’s looking for:

Caution:
HOT & SWEET

Perfect. She underlines the HOT and draws a smiley next to the SWEET before she slips the cozy over the drink cup and places it in front of Deke.

“Here you go.”

Deke takes the cup confused. She thinks he may have forgotten he even agreed to the beverage. “How much do I owe you?”

“Its on me.” Kora says. Bobbi wouldn’t mind, she usually had to make a couple drinks for photos anyways. Maybe she could bother him for a picture? If it actually cheered him up of course, otherwise she wouldn’t ask. He takes a sip of the hot chocolate and sure enough when he lowers the cup he’s smiling. “Good right?”

“The best.” He agrees. He looks down at the cup, reading the cozy for the first time and suddenly the spark she recalls seeing before brightens his eyes again.

His demeanor entirely changes and with a clumsy little swagger in his step he moves forward to lean against the counter. “Hey.”

Kora’s eyes narrow in confusion and she leans forward as well. “Hey?”

“So, have you been working here long?”

She shakes her head. “No, only about a month,” she answers, puzzled by the change in conversation.

“Well this is amazing, clearly you’re a natural coffee shop, um café, uh –“ Kora giggles as he struggles for the word, “Barista!” Deke shouts successfully before lowering his tone back to a cool casual one. “Maybe its because you’re so sweet like the drinks.”

“Wait.” Kora says as it hits her. Was he, he was, wasn’t he? “Are you flirting with me?”

Deke continues to smile charmingly back at her for a moment until he realizes her question is, in fact, serious and his eyes go wide in panic.

“Wait, were you not flirting with me?”

“No.”

“But what about the cute coffee cozy with the hot and the sweet?” He asks, gesturing widely with the cup in question.

Kora stares back at him baffled. “I promise I wasn’t trying to flirt, I like to pick the cozy that best matches the situation, see its hot chocolate, its hot and sweet - ” She trails off embarrassed by how silly that sounds.

“What about underlining the hot?”

“My first day someone spilled coffee over their hand a yelled at Bobbi for like ten minutes straight and ever since I’ve been terrified it was going to happen to me so I always uh, emphasize the HOT.” She blushes. What if he wasn’t the only one who didn’t realizes that?

“Who doesn’t know that coffee is hot?”

“I don’t know but I just thought better safe than sorry.”

Deke shifts. He looks between her and the drink a couple times before speaking again. “Sorry, I guess that actually makes since, I really didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable, wow it really is just that kind of that kind of day, isn’t it.”

“No, its okay,” Kora assures him as her mind races. She had only meant her drinks to be cheerful and cautious. Was something as simple as her picking special coffee cozies and adding smiles and hearts to the cups really considered flirting?

Kora closes her eyes in embarrassment as the words process again. “Oh my god this is actually flirting isn’t it.”

“I’ll admit that I’m not the expert, but I thought so.”

“Oh no.” How many of her customers had thought she was flirting with them? Oh god! Was that why everyone was so nice to her? Because they were flirting back? Or worse, they were taking pity on her poor flirting abilities. “Oh, this is bad.”

“Could be worse,” Deke says, taking the words right out of her head, “if you didn’t know you were flirting than you probably didn’t know if you were being rejected.”

She can’t help but laugh at his logic, even if the embarrassment is eating her up inside.

“Deke, there you are!”

Kora hadn’t heard Daisy and Bobbi comes it in. Bobbi pushes the coffee cart out of the way before joining her behind the counter and Daisy bounds over to greet her. “Hey, how was the contest?” Kora asks and grimaces as she realizes she knows already. “Sorry.” She apologizes but Deke brushes it off.

“Actually, it turned out pretty cool, you should have seen some of the stuff people came up with when they were put on the spot like that.” Daisy places a hand on Deke’s shoulder, “seriously everyone had a blast, try not to feel bad okay.”

“Really?”

“It was insane.” Bobbi confirms. “One group built a tower from the chucks of theirs that nearly reached the second floor and another created a mosaic that looked just like Coulson’s convertible, needless to say, they won.”

Kora is pleased to see this news puts Deke in better spirits.

“Jemma is looking for you though, she wants to check if you’re okay.”

“I’ll go find her,” Deke turns back to her, “it was nice to meet you, friends?” He asks, hold out his hand.

“Friends?”

Deke waves goodbye and with the distraction gone her panic starts to return.

“What was that about?” Daisy asks.

Kora lowers her head into her hands. “All of my customers think I’ve been flirting with them.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I draw hearts and smiles on their drinks and underline the word HOT because I’m afraid of getting yelled at and I didn’t mean for it to come out like flirting but it so does doesn’t it?”

She can’t see them but she can hear Bobbi and Daisy giggling. “It definitely does but I thought you were in it for the tips.” Bobbi admits.

“I was just trying to be cheerful.” She couldn’t flirt intentionally, how did she manage to do it accidently? “What do I do?”

Bobbi and Daisy exchange a look. “You could always stop with the doodles.”

“Or you know, since you know it works you could utilize it.”

“What do you mean?”

Daisy supportively places her hands over her wrists and looks her in the eyes. “Pick your favorite, focus your energy and you might just end up with a date.”

Well, that was a mildly terrifying but intriguing thought. “I wouldn’t even know, I mean what if I’m wrong and they didn’t think I was flirting with them?”

“Pick one you know was flirting back.” Bobbi suggests.

“I didn’t even know I was flirting how do I know if they –“

“Oh, the cute girl who May hired as head of security, Piper, she comes in all the time, always when you’re here.” Bobbi recalls and before Kora can even consider, Daisy jumps in.

“Or Daniel’s friend Trip, Daniel said he was really smitten with you.”

“Smitten with?” Bobbi asks, amused.

“I know he’s a dork.” Daisy says with an affectionate roll of her eyes. As the pair began to debate who would be the better pick, Kora finds herself at a loss for words. Piper, the pretty girl with the tough attitude? Trip, who had the world’s most incredible smile? There was no way anyone like them could every like someone like her.

Was there?

Chapter Text

“It’s Christmas Eve,” Fitz stresses.

“I’m aware of that.”

“And you’ve bought nothing.”

“Look man, if I wanted to be nagged about this, I would have stayed married to Bob.” Hunter jokes as he and Fitz make their way through the empty mall. He knows it’s the calm before the storm. Christmas Eve was chaos once the doors officially opened. The last of the mall’s North Pole festivities before the decorations started to come down, last minute gifts to be purchased and wrapped, and of course the patrons were dressed in gaudy Christmas sweaters, reindeer antlers and Santa hats making the crowd appear busier and more insufferable.

“How are you going to even manage this.”

Hunter brushes off Fitz’s concern. “Simple, I’ve got my list of people, I’ve got my cash and I’ve got a mall’s worth of gifts.”

“But you still don’t know what you’re buying.”

“Doesn’t matter what you buy, you just include the gift receipt, claim that it’s the thought that counts and you’re golden.”

“What about Bobbi, I thought the whole point of the tree lot job was so you could get her something nice.”

“I’ve got her gift all worked out.”

“What is it?”

“You’ll see later.” Is the only answer he gives. He knows Fitz will give him a hard time about buying the original part for Bob’s machine when he knows Fitz could recreate it for a fraction of the cost.  “When’s your plane leave?”

“Late, but I’ll be home by morning and that’s all that matters to mum.” Fitz explains. “You heading up to see Bobbi?”

“Yeah, need fuel before I take on the mobs, catch you on your lunch break?” He asks as the elevator stops on the second floor.

“Um – “

Hunter shakes his head. “You’re having lunch with Jemma again?”

“Kind of,” Fitz admits, “I won’t get to see her for a whole week, but hey come by anyways, she won’t mind.”

“I’ll see if I’ve got time.” He answers as the elevator doors slide closed. Because he absolutely wanted to spend lunch with the two turtledoves making kissy faces at each other.

Hunter makes his way up to the coffee shop. Something seems off when he enters but he can’t figure out what except for the obvious exception of Bobbi not standing behind the counter. “She had an errand to run this morning, but she should be back soon.” Kora explains as she pours him a large cup of coffee. “Anything else?” She asks pleasantly.

“Let me get a second one of these, I’m going to need it.” Kora laughs before she hurries to pour him a second to go cup. As she reaches for the lids the door opens and Daniel and Trip enter. There’s a clatter and Hunter turns to see Kora fumbling to right several things that had been knocked over on the counter.

“You okay?” He asks.

“Fine, fine – Good Morning!” She greets as she hastily corrects the tumbled stacks of cups.

“Morning,” they call back. Daniel steps up to the counter to order while Trip turns to him instead.

“Hey man, I got the -” Trip pauses, casting a glance at Kora, “the thing you needed.” He finishes, clearly trying to keep the surprise for Bobbi from getting out. “You hold up your end of the deal?”

“Tree pick up has been pushed back to the 26^th, they’re all yours now.” Hunter assures him although he still doesn’t know what plans Trip and Daniel had for the small forest worth of trees. “You going to be here for a bit?”

Trip nods.

“Can you hang on to it for me, rather not carry it around all day.”

“Just give me a call when you’re ready, we’ll be busy for a while.”

Hunter heads out and starts his loop of the mall. He really hasn’t got much he has to get. Very few people made the cut when it came to who he was handing out gifts to. Bobbi of course and he always sent something off to his mum. He usually got something small for his work pals, Izzy and Idaho, and he may or may not pick up something for Fitz. Always depended on whose team did better that year.

The first floor doesn’t provide him much but he decides to swing by the kids activities and bother Daisy and Elena for kicks. The pair is situated at a table of craft supplies, it looks like they’re painting today. Sat next to Elena is Mack’s daughter Hope, excitedly chatting away about the drone show she would be attending later.

“Ladies, how are we today?” He asks.

“Better than you, we’ve already got our Christmas shopping done.”

“Got all the ones that matter right here,” he lies, holding up his one shopping bag. “Where’s your Dad kid?”

“He went to pick up my present and I think a couple others, he said he might be a while.”

“Hey what are you getting Bobbi, I pulled her for secret santa but I want to make sure we didn’t get her the same thing, I know she’s been asking for one.” Elena asks.

Hunter deflects the question, wanting to maintain the surprise but they continue to press him despite his assurances that they couldn’t possibly have gotten her the same thing. “Alright don’t tell anyone but I got her the part she needs to get that ancient espresso machine of hers up and running.”

Daisy and Elena share a look of surprise. “You’re kidding right?” Daisy asks.

“Your boyfriend’s buddy, Trip, was able to get his hands on it for me.”

Daisy starts to object. “He’s not – never mind – I thought it was too expensive?”

“An understatement.” Hunter confirms. “But I nearly froze to death hauling trees around to get her something nice, might as well be the thing she really wants.” He watches Daisy and Elena share another look but he can’t pin point what’s up, they still look shocked or maybe panicked. Certainly, whatever Elena got Bobbi as a gift would pale in comparison. They start whispering and he can’t quite make out what’s being said until Daisy turns and snaps at him.

“Don’t you have shopping to finish.”

He holds up his hands and starts to retreat. He just barely catches part of their next exchange.

“I can go, I think I can make it in time, but can you watch Hope, I’ll let Mack know what’s going on.”

“Go but be careful, the snow was starting to come down when I got here.”

Let them try. There was no way they could find anything better than his gift.

On his loop of the second floor, he drops what gifts he does have off with a very busy Jemma. “I’ll try but its going to be tough to finish all these before closing.” She tells him. “And right now, you’re at the bottom of the pile.”

“You could shove it all in gift bags if you like, I’m mostly handing them off so I haven’t got to carry them around.” Jemma rolls her eyes but then becomes distracted as another group enters Fitz’s store across from them. She lets out a heavy sigh.

“What’s going on over there?” The crowd is insane. Not an unusual sight before Christmas but the customers walking in already have their shopping bags with them and the irritated scowls of those who’d already spent their money.

“Fitz texted me, apparently there was a recall on one of their most popular drone models, people have been bringing them back in all day, it’s been non-stop angry customers.”

“Damn, is Fitz going to make it out in time to catch his plane?”

“I hope so, but he’s already had to skip lunch.”

“Maybe I’ll check back later, see if things calmed down.”

By the time he makes it back up to the third floor of the mall he’s had it with shopping, he’s had it with people and lines and he’s had it with the Christmas music. He’d been humming the 12 days of Christmas since this morning and he couldn’t for the life of him figure out why but it was driving him mad.

He enters the last store on his list and couldn’t be more thankful for the near silence of what he thinks is elevator music. It’s a store full of trinkets and bric-a-brac, sparkly and engraved and just the sort of useless thing you see on a shelf at your grandmother’s house. His mother loved these things. She had skipped to the grandmother stage of her life even though she wasn’t one yet.

He looks around, assessing his options. There is a table of glass Christmas ornaments on display right inside the shop.  Not a bad option but was likely to break before it ever reached home. He passes rows of decorative boxes that wouldn’t hold much, if anything at all. The next is a row of vases, also likely to shatter in shipping.

He takes back his earlier thoughts. He would take the Christmas music over the anxiety that something was going to break if he so much as looked at it in the wrong way.

Finally, he comes up on a row of picture frames. That would work. Breakable, yes, but with enough wrappings it should make the journey. He selects a fairly basic one so he wouldn’t have to hear about how it doesn’t match anything and makes his way to the counter.

“Excuse me young man.” An older woman, a grandmother herself probably a few times over, stops him. “I hate to bother you dear, but could you reach that snow globe for me, the one there with the snowman.”

The one on the top shelf? Of course, why wouldn’t it be.

“Course Love, this one here?” He points at the one she referred to and she nods eagerly. With a little more reach than he cares to admit is needed he removes it carefully from the shelf and passes it over to her.

“Thank you dea – Oh, oh no, this won’t do, I think she already has this one.”

“Devastating.” Hunter takes the globe as she hands it back to him. “I think there are more over on that back wall.”

She thanks him again and hurries off with more hustle than he expects for one so old. He replaces the snow globe on its shelf, pulling his hand back slowly in case its not secure.  When he is certain that it is, he picks up his bags and turns back for the check out.

He feels the bump and jumps at the startled yelp. He spins around, certain he’s knocked over the tiny old lady but then he hears the shatter. Sprawled across the ground are thousands of glittering shards of glass from a tipped over display of ornaments. The little old lady is standing several feet away, hands over her mouth in shock while the girl at the check out counter is glaring at him, making it clear he was the guilty party.

“I can clean that up.”

The woman points to the sign on the counter.

You break it, you buy it.

Hunter sighs and his eyes fall close in defeat as he does the math on just how much that shelf of ornaments had been worth.

No good deeds, right?

Chapter Text

Christmas Eve sneaks up on Daisy. After falling asleep in May’s office, after pulling an all-nighter, she’s been watched like a hawk by everyone. Jemma and Deke worried over her sleep habits at home while Coulson and May made sure she took breaks and left early enough to commit time to her actual job. That usually just meant taking her laptop over to the bookstore to work so she could wander back down when she got bored and wanted to bother Daniel.

He often made the most fuss of all of them. Offering her a seat or scolding her for sneaking away from her work. It should have driven her crazy but it didn’t. His genuine concern for her was nice. He was the first one to pick up on the fact that she was maybe pushing herself a little too far but he didn’t usually try to slow her down. Instead, she would just find a cup of coffee pressed into her hands or an empty chair near enough for her to take a seat when she needed one.

“He’s like a boyfriend.”

“He’s not my boyfriend.”

“You’re right, he’s better than a boyfriend.”

She had rolled her eyes at Elena. ‘He’s not my boyfriend’ had become a mantra. It wasn’t that she didn’t want him to be her boyfriend. That was definitely not it and she was pretty sure he was aware of it. But when exactly was she supposed to have time for a boyfriend? She hadn’t even had the chance to take him to the see the lights and it was already the 24^th. Maybe once the holiday had passed but in the meanwhile he was her smart, sweet, cute friend Daniel.

Who apparently came with a collection of his own smart, sweet, cute friends.

“So let me get this straight, you’re both History professors at the university?” Daisy asks when she learns how Daniel and Trip met.

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

“By chance, does this school have a particularly high number of History majors?”

Daniel glances at Trip for confirmation. “Relatively speaking, yes.”

“Uh huh.” She smiles and shakes her head because between Trip, Daniel and the picture Daisy had seen of Daniel’s ex who recommended him for the job at the school, she’s not surprised and honestly she probably would have switched majors too if her history professors had looked like them.

“Well I’m glad we finally got to meet.” Daisy says, changing the subject. “Are you hanging around today for the festivities?”

“I’ll be here for a bit.” He confirms and Daisy thinks Kora’s right, he does have an impressive smile.

“Let’s all get coffee later.” Was it mean or just sisterly of her to try to play match maker for Kora?

“Sounds good, you ready to go?” He asks Daniel.

“Wait, where are you going?” 

Daniel shifts. “Um, May has me working on something for her.”

“Oh.” She waits for him expand on his statement. “Is it a secret?”

“What?”

“Is it like some secret assignment, you can’t tell me about, cause I know everything that goes on around here and I will find out.”

“Yes it’s a secret but yes you will also find out.” And now she's even more confused.

“When?”

“Soon.”

“But – “ She's cut off by a chorus of screaming children. A glitter war has broken out at one of the activity tables.

“Duty calls, Queen Elf – “

“Its Head Elf.” She corrects stubbornly. 

She wants to press him more for what he’s up to but she really should get back to the kids. By the time the morning rush starts to slow down she’s got slightly bigger worries and can only wait impatiently for sporadic updates from Elena on the status of Bobbi’s gift. Its late afternoon when she sees him again. Trip has disappeared to find them some food.

“You look half frozen.”

“I’m fine.” Daniel assures her as he tugs off his gloves and shakes off his snow-covered scarf and hat. “It’s really starting to come down out there, I hope I remember how to drive on icy roads, we don’t exactly see much snow in LA.”

“You’ll be alright,” Daisy says but rather than tease him about his careful nature, her curiosity win out and she asks again about his secret task. “So are you going to tell me now what you’ve been up to all day?”

For a moment he genuinely seems to consider it. “No, not yet.”

“Okay,” she pouts, “are we still on to go look at the lights later?”

“Absolutely.”

It is even more distracting waiting for the end of the day now that Daniel is back. Daisy does her best to get in as much time with the kids as she can, enjoying the last bit of time with the Christmas activities before it all starts to get taken down. She’s always bummed when Christmas passes and this year its gone by far too fast; she’s hardly got to enjoy it for herself. She had wrapped her Christmas presents in the dead of night, instead of with a good Christmas movie on in the background, had to rely on cookies from the coffee shop after the batch they made burnt while they were decorating their tree and a shortage of volunteers or maybe an increase in guests had made working at the North Pole more chaotic than usual leaving her exhausted at the end of the day.

The constant presence of joy made it worth it though. Getting to see the lights and the smiling faces every day. Getting to see Coulson and May interact on a daily basis, hoping they’d finally get it together.

“You ready to go?” Daniel asks as he pulls his jacket back on.

“Yeah, I think so.” Daisy drags her eyes away from the Christmas tree. She was being a little silly. It would still be up until New Years. Its not like she had to say goodbye to it yet. She pulls on her own coat, gloves and hat and follows Daniel who’s already heading towards the elevator. They run by Mockingbird’s to grab some hot chocolate. Daisy is pleased to see Trip at the counter and Kora doing her best to maintain a conversation even if she’s pink to the tips of her ears. They wave a quick goodbye to the pair before taking the service steps up to the roof.

“Shouldn’t I be leading the way?” Daisy asks as she trails along behind him.

“I may have snuck up here to see what all of the talk was about.” He admits. She’s a little disappointed. She had wanted to see his expression when he first saw the lights but the constant postponing was on her so she’d have to let it slide.

The door to the roof opens up to a view of the trees and trails leading over to the park. The wind and snow hits her face as she passes Daniel who’s holding the door open for her. It’s falling heavily and she thinks that the roof of any building is probably the worst place to be in this kind of weather but she doesn’t care. It would only serve to make everything more beautiful.

She admires the snow-covered banks for a moment before turning her eyes on the towns lights instead. She gasps, the icy air filling her lungs and leaving her unable to speak. Her cold concrete roof, a perfect perch for the best view but itself nothing special, has been decked out with trees, more than she can count in her shocked state but she guesses dozens. They are wrapped in Christmas lights of every color, some flashing, some twinkling, and in every shape imaginable from stars to chili peppers. They create a winding path of sorts to the edge of the roof where they frame out the picturesque view of the town.

“What – what did you do?” She chokes out. It’s so pretty she feels close to tears but holds them back.

“I just thought if you were only going to see the lights once, it might as well be the best damn light display we could make.”

“It’s amazing.” Daisy inspects the trees in awe; there is something familiar about them. “Where did this all come from?”

“A few favors, Trip got the trees from Hunter and then him and Mack helped me haul them up here.” Daniel explains and now she knows where he’d been all day, “and Coulson got the lights for us, apparently he has a warehouse full, some of these are quite old, Jemma and Kora came up on their lunch breaks to help me wrap them,” he points to the lights on the nearest tree and she recognizes them from Christmases past. “And May,” he adds slowly, “May promised to look the other way so long as we had all of this gone on the 26^th which might be a problem because everyone was happy to volunteer to set it up but I’m not sure how many are going to want to tear it down.” He finishes sheepishly and even though she thought she couldn’t smile any more, she did.

“Why?” She asks in disbelief. “Why go through all this trouble?” She loved the lights and the trees were beautiful but she would have been happy with a few minutes to stare at the lights in the distance, why would he do all this?

“Because, you’re the type to put everyone else first and yourself last, for a month I’ve watched you run yourself ragged trying to make sure everyone else had this incredible holiday and that’s amazing of you to do, but,” he trails off.

“But – “

“But people like you should have someone who will do the same for them.”

“And you – you’d like to be that person?”

“Is it that obvious?” He doesn’t shy away when he gives his answer and doesn’t miss her little shiver that could have been from the cold but definitely wasn’t.

“Thank you, this really is so beautiful.”

“I’m glad you like it, the snow has been coming down so hard today, I thought our plans might get postponed again.” He leans against the wall and looks out over the twinkling town. The snow is starting to get heavier and heavier, coating the trees and giving the lights an even more spectacular glow.  

She moves to lean against the concrete wall next to him. “Is the view as good as I hyped it up to be?”

He nods. “Better, probably didn’t need all this.” He turns and gestures to the trees.

“Too late, secret's out now.”

“Guess so.” He shrugs and Daisy simply can’t take it anymore. He’s too sweet and too handsome bundled up in his scarf and hat and he froze his butt off out here setting this up for her. All that and he’s still waiting for her to make a move because he’s got to know by now that she likes him too but he also knows she’s too busy to fit everything she’s got to do into day, can she really take on something else?

But you know what? For this? She’ll make the time. And she kisses him.

Chapter Text

If there was one thing Coulson prided himself on it was the ability to adapt in a crisis. He would make no claims to having remained calm in the moment because that would be an outright lie. But at least no one would ever be able to say he froze. When the gingerbread house contest had started to spiral and everyone began to panic he had just started babbling out words and their impromptu gingerbread “art” contest had been a hit. And that certainly wasn’t the first crisis thrown his way. The tree topple of 98’, the glitter shortage in 07’, and at least once a year some kid would look skeptically up at him before yanking off his fake beard and running through the crowd screaming about how Santa was a fake.

He could handle all of that, gotten good at spotting the warning signs of trouble or at least trusting his gut in the aftermath.

But that was the thing about snow. When the warning signs were everywhere, nobody even flinched. It snowed all the time and a dozen or more inches of the stuff is completely normal.  It’s only when you click on the news and you hear freak blizzard and 30 inches - still falling, do you panic because your gut, even his gut, could do nothing about the three feet of snow and mall full of people trying to get home on Christmas Eve.

“Did we know this was coming?” He asks as he tears his eyes away from May’s phone.

“I didn’t, some shift from the North, they weren’t expecting it to hit us.” She pockets her phone and starts for the nearest mall entrance.

“Maybe it’s not so bad yet, they could just be blowing it out of proportion.” He says optimistically as he hurries after her. A small crowd is huddled at the door staring anxiously out into the parking lot. The sun has long since set but you can see the light from the streetlamps glimmering on what is easily two feet of snow coating the parking lot. “Or not.”

May glares at him but in the moment he’s only thinking how thankful he is parked Lola in the deck that morning.

Next to him May shakes her head. Coulson can feel the frustration radiating off of her. She hadn’t had a day off in ages and it was starting to show. But like mother like daughter. And now even if May could work in a day off, she wouldn’t because she had to make sure Daisy wasn’t also working herself to death.  As soon as Christmas passed he was taking them both out for lunch and then he was dropping Daisy off with Sousa and with any luck stealing May away for the weekend.

Speaking of, Coulson catches sight of Daisy jogging up to them, snow covered and an enormous smile on her face.

“Hey, did you guys see what’s going on out there?”

“Yeah, Santa’s in for a rough ride tonight.”

Daisy smiles and shakes her head. “No seriously, Daniel and I just saw a truck with hazard lights pull up at the bottom of the hill, I think they put up barricades to stop people coming up this way.”

“Shit.” May was gone in a flash, phone already pressed to her ear. They often had to close the road outside during storms to prevent cars sliding down the hill and causing accidents. Of course, they usually got a call before it happened, so they didn’t have a crowd of people trapped in the mall.

“Come on, let’s go check out the news,” Coulson suggests, leading Daisy back towards the center of the mall. She’s got a little skip in her step and doesn’t seem at all bothered by the possibility of them being snowed in. He was in on Sousa’s plan and he knew Daisy would love it but she’s downright giddy.  “So, did you like your surprise?” He asks knowingly.

Daisy glances at him from the corner of her eyes. “Thank you.”

“Hey, I only provided the lights, this was all your ‘not my boyfriend’s’ idea.”

“He’s not exactly ‘not my boyfriend’ anymore.”

Coulson smiles. “I’m glad to hear that.”

They reach the small lounge area just outside the North Pole display. A small group has gathered around the big screen TV which has been tuned into the local weather. Daisy gravitates to Sousa’s side. He’s talking with Elena and Mack while Hope stares impatiently at the screen.

“Hey what are they saying?”  

“Everything is shut down, roads, airport, everyone is supposed to stay put until it passes and they can get the plows through.” Mack informs them and glances at his phone for the third time since they arrived.

“Daddy, what about the drone show?”

“It’s not looking good Sparkplug, they’ll probably have to reschedule it.”

“If you’re lucky, they didn’t even try to postpone my flight, just cancelled it.” Fitz announces as he and Hunter join the growing crowd.

“No! You’re not going to make it home for Christmas?” Jemma’s distraught cry comes from behind them.

“Not unless Mr. Clause can pick me up on his rounds.”

“Oh no, I’m so sorry.” Jemma hurries around and attempts to give him a hug but struggles as her arms are laden down with several large gift bags.

“What have you got there?” Coulson aks. Jemma looks down as though she’d forgotten the bags altogether.

“Oh, these are everyone’s gifts,” she says cheerily.

“You bought all those?” Daisy asks in disbelief.

“No, not my gifts to everyone, everyone else gifts to each other.” She corrects and Coulson notices that her cheer might be just the slightest bit sarcastic if the way she drops a bag into each of her friends’ hands is any indication. “Perhaps by next year the lot of you can learn to wrap a box yourselves?”

Definitely a little bitter.

“Hey there’s May.”

“Its official, we’re not going anywhere, not tonight at least.” She whispers so only just the few of them could hear. “They can’t get the hill plowed until morning, I told them we have people here and they said its too risky, unless there’s an emergency no one is supposed to leave.”

“So were going to be here all night, are we just supposed to kip under the tree?” Hunter asks and Fitz elbows him and nods at Hope who looks devastated. “Just looking for clarification.”

“We’re really not going to go home tonight?” The girl asks and Coulson can feel his heart sink.

Daisy quickly jumps in. “Hey, it’ll be alright, you know I always wanted to have a slumber party here when I was a kid but May said it would be inappropriate, now maybe since we have to stay here anyways – ”

A little light returns to her eyes. “That does sound kind of cool.”

“Daisy this is not the time for a slumber party, we’re under a severe weather alert, this is a serious situation.”

“But there is nothing we can do about it and we’re perfectly safe here,” Daisy reasons, “we’ve got food and heat and the backup generator in case the power goes out.”

“I have to tell all the people still trapped here that they’re not going home to their families on Christmas Eve and they’re not going to wake up with them on Christmas morning.”

“You know May, that might be all the more reason to embrace this.” Coulson can feel the gears start to turn. Or maybe its just his gut talking for him again.

“What?”

“Well Daisy’s right, we’re here and were safe, we might as well make the best of this,” May stares back at him skeptically, “look, security has keys to the department stores, we can snag the pillows and blankets from the display rooms in homewares, Bobbi and Kora are still here, we can whip up a big batch of hot chocolate,” he pauses to consider what else, “we’ve got the TV to play movies on, we’ve got the music, we could sing carols and anyone whose not in the spirit can lodge up in the bookstore.”

May still looks unsure.

“Please May?”

“We can all pitch in too, just tell us what to do.”

“Fine,” Coulson’s not sure if Hope or Daisy is more thrilled, “but I’m not in charge of this Phil, I’ll have security start filling people in and see about finding some food but the rest of this Christmas slumber party is your area of expertise.”

“Its why you keep me around.” He returns softly.

“Yeah, that’s why she keeps you around.” Daisy mutters. He turns to Daisy who tucks herself sheepishly behind Sousa. 

"Alright everyone, let's get to work."

Chapter Text

In hindsight Deke should have known that rushing to the mall when the snow started to come down heavy was a bad idea. He had been worried over Jemma and Daisy making it home safely which they appreciated even if they had far more experience driving in the snow than he ever would. Now instead of coming to the rescue he was trapped at the mall, alongside his friends and several patrons who had attended the gingerbread house contest and were still a little cross with him over how it ended.

He had hoped he could stay out of their way, gravitating instead towards Jemma and Daisy who had forgiven him. But Daisy was occupied with Sousa, who he wants to be jealous of but Daisy’s constant smile pushes those feeling away. Jemma is busy too, lending a comforting ear to Fitz who won’t make it home for the holidays, although Deke does call her out on her delighted little grin.

“Oh shush,” she whispers, “he’s devastated right now but its not all bad that he has to stay here.”

After she shoos him away, he wanders upstairs to see if Kora is free to chat. After the awkward flirting-not flirting mishap he had found that he enjoyed talking to her and he’d dare to say they’d even become friends. Unfortunately, she as the busiest of all, helping Bobbi brew up enough hot chocolate and coffee for everyone snowed in for the night. She promises to come find him when she’s done, which is nice of her to say but he’s not sure if she'll have the time.

He decides to just tuck in with everyone else in front of the movies for the rest of the night, ideally with Daisy and Sousa not in plain view. He settles down towards the back, not far from a group of teens discussing their upcoming semester of classes. He slides on his headphones, tuning everything out in favor of a Christmas playlist consisting mostly of covers by 80's rock bands and the trans siberian orchestra.

About halfway through the movie he sees a young girl stand up from where she was leaning against her father’s broad arm and point towards the restrooms. He doesn’t think much of it until she’s on her way back, passing by them to the empty North Pole activity center. She plops down at one of the tables and Deke thinks he may have found someone having a more miserable Christmas Eve then himself.  

He stands up and removes his headphones, considers sitting back down because a single man approaching a young girl was probably a bad idea, but comes to the decision that someone really should check on her. He walks over, making sure to stay where she could see him, so he doesn’t startle her. When she catches his eye, she gives a small smile.

“You okay over here?”

She shrugs. “I’m fine, I just didn’t want to watch the movie.”

“Does your dad know you’re over here?”

She shakes her head. “I should go back.”

“Probably, in case he starts to worry.”

“He worries a lot.” She confirms.

Deke laughs and thinks of Jemma who is also a constant worrier. “Yeah, family does that, I understand if you don’t want to watch the movie though, it’s not one of my favorites either.”

“It’s not that, I’m just – “ she must not be able to come up with the word because she trails off before sighing in a dramatic sort of preteen way. “I really wanted to see the drone show and now I won’t get too.”

He’d forgotten the drone show was even coming to the area, though he was sure it was in a handout somewhere on his desk.  “That is a bummer, it’s a great show, you know the company I work for designs those drones.”

This news definitely makes her to perk up. “Yeah?”

“Yeah, it’s cool stuff,” he holds out his hand to her, “I’m Deke by the way.”

She shakes his hand in return. “I know who you are.”

“You do?”

“Yep, your Jemma’s cousin who knocked down all the gingerbread houses.”

Right. “Not my finest moment.”

“That’s okay, Dad says accidents happen sometimes and it turned out okay, Daisy said everyone still had a really good time.”

Deke feels a little bit of relief; that was at least one more person who wasn’t mad at him about what had happened. He wishes he could turn this situation around the same way they had done with the contest. The Christmas themed slumber party that had been thrown together was great, but he’d helped program the drones for the show and this really didn’t compare. The lights, the music, actually - “Hey I’ve got an idea - ”

“There you are Hope.”

“Sorry Dad, I was just talking to Deke.”

“That’s okay just let me know where you are next time.” He reminds her. “What were you guys talking about?”

“Deke works with drones.”

Any concerns Mack may have had disappear with this information. “Ah, of course, sorry about that," he says to him, "she’ll go on for hours about them if you let her.”

“It’s no problem, she just mentioned how disappointed she was about the show tonight but it gave me a great idea – ”

“What’s everyone doing over here?” Jemma interrupts as she joins them with Fitz trailing behind her.

“Fitz didn’t you say that you had a bunch of drones returned today.” He asks before he can be cut off again.

“Yeah, a recall, minor issue with the cameras but we’ve got a fleet of them sitting up stairs and a long list of pissed off customers.” Just the cameras, that was fine, they could still fly them. Deke thinks as the idea continues to form.

“What’s supposed to happen to them?”

“Company will probably just send replacements, tell us to trash those, they’re not exactly top quality.”

“You think we can use them?” Deke asks distractedly as he turns his attention towards the ceiling. They had plenty of clearance.

“I don’t see why not, most of them have already been opened, company won’t know the difference.”

“Deke what are you thinking?” Jemma asks.

“I think maybe we can create our own small scale drone show right here.”

“REALLY?!” Hope jumps from the table and Mack quickly places a calming hand on her back.

“You’re not serious.”

“I just need to program the drones to sync up with some music and maybe we can do something to change the color of the lights on them, it’ll take a bit to set them up but its not like we’re going anywhere.”

“It could still take hours to put it all together.” Jemma points out.

“I could help.” Fitz’s offer takes him by surprise. Up until this point he didn’t really get the impression that Jemma’s boyfriend liked him very much despite having a good bit in common. Fitz only shrugs off their surprised looks. “It’s better than sitting around doing nothing.”

“I could probably help too, it’s not my area of expertise but I’ve done enough research on them this past month I think I could build one from scratch at this point.” Mack says and then glances back at the group still watching movies. “And I think I know some others who could help too.”

With Mack enlisting the help of the teens from the local high school they manage to reprogram the drones in just a couple of hours. Its quite late but the kids are too anxious to sleep anyways, between it being Christmas Eve and being stuck in the mall all night. May and Coulson help wrangle all of them in front of the Christmas tree where sleeping bags, blankets, pillows and a few cots had been gathered for sleeping. The bright florescent lights are turned off and chatter and squeaks of delight echo through the mall.

Deke glances over the railing from the second floor, waiting for the thumbs up from Daisy who’s tapped into the mall’s radio from her laptop. She give him a thumbs up and he starts to countdown as he rejoins Fitz and Hope who are manning the main controls.

“There’s a possibility that this is going to end in disaster.” He warns them. They didn’t even have time to do a test run.

“Too late to go back now.” Fitz raises his hand to signal Flint, Tess and Gabe who are set up around the third floor balcony. The music begins to play and the drones take off.

The overall effect is magical. The lights flash and fade in time to the intense Christmas music that plays through the speakers. That had been easy enough to create by stealing colorful bulbs off the Christmas trees to replace the bright white ones that came on the drones. The maneuvering had been more difficult. He and Fitz programmed them to move in groups and each group synced to a different remote. They swirl and drop and spin. The lights dance and while they didn't have the capacity to create shapes like the actual drone show is still impressive.

“So, I heard this was your idea.” Deke startles as Kora steps up next to him.

“Yeah, just trying to make everyone forget the gingerbread disaster.”

They watch the lights twirl around for a couple of songs. Oohs and ahhs and cheers float up from below with each tricky bit of flying and at the end of each song.

“I don’t think anyone’s going to remember the contest after this.” Kora assures him and Deke thinks she probably right. And even if she’s not, the look of joy on Hope’s face is enough that it doesn’t matter. He was able to help give one person a good Christmas and that was really enough.

Chapter Text

Bobbi couldn’t be happier to see the end of the day nearing. The shop was a mess and she’d been on her feet for the better part of the last 12 hours. She’d driven halfway across town that morning and made three stops on the way back to the mall. They were slammed for most of the day with last minute shoppers needing a jolt of caffeine to finish off their to do lists and her mood only got worse and worse with each shot of espresso they served.

Finding out they’d be stuck at the mall all night actually eased up some of her frustration. She had all her Christmas gifts with her and she didn’t have to drive in the snow? That wasn’t a bad trade off.

She and Kora stayed busy serving up hot chocolate and coffee for the impromptu Christmas Eve slumber party and eventually Jemma had come by to let her know about the light show that was in the works and their plan for them and the others to get together later to exchange their secret santa gifts.

Things settle down when the light show begins and Bobbi lets Kora go so she can enjoy it as well. Not long after the younger girl leaves Hunter pops in, a gift box in hand.

“Hey.”

“Hey what are you doing here, you’re missing the show.”

“I saw Kora downstairs, thought maybe you could use some help with the cleanup.”

“I thought it was best if we didn’t work together.”

“Normally yes, but your boyfriend just got you the best Christmas present ever so I think we can risk it.”

Bobbi looks up in surprise. “Really? I thought you had to return all your gifts to pay for everything you broke at the keepsakes shop.”

“I found a way to salvage some of the more important ones.”

“Well, that’s good, now it won’t be so awkward when I give you your super amazing gift.”

“I sense a little competition coming on, shall we?” He asks as he fiddles with the bow that she knows Jemma had decorated the box with. He couldn’t tie anything that neat to save his life.

“Clean first.” She tosses a dish towel at him. “Open gifts later.”

“Have I ever told you how much fun you are?”

Bobbi doesn’t give into his taunts, just points him towards the back counter. With his help they’ve got everything wiped down and put away quickly enough. She pours them both a cup of coffee from the last batch she brewed and they take a seat at one of the tables. “Isn’t it a little late for coffee?”

“I’ll be happy to never see a cup of hot chocolate again,” Bobbi retorts. She’d served so many mugs of it to the stranded mall goers that she’s sick of the smell of peppermint and even the chocolate was starting to make her nauseous.

“Fair enough.

Bobbi places her gift box on the table between them. It’s obviously clothes, you can tell by the shape of the box but he hopes he’s still a little surprised when he opens it. She slides it to his side and he slides his own gift to her. It’s a smaller box than hers. Not small enough to be jewelry or even something like perfume. One year when they were still married and both short on cash he had gotten her a little ceramic bird that she kept on a shelf here at the shop and it had come in a similar size box. But he had made claims to the best gift ever and as much as she did like that silly little bird she didn’t think this was another one.

“So,” he starts, and gives the box a shake, “should we argue over who goes first or just open them at the same time.”

“Same time?”

“Go.”

They both tear into their packages. An unspoken challenge to see who can get theirs open first. Of course, Jemma was a much better gift wrapper than herself and while the paper fell quickly from her gift to Hunter she struggles with the intricately tied ribbon and complex wrappings on her own. She’s barely got the paper off when Hunter removes the jersey from the gift box.

“Ah, its beautiful!”

Beautiful was not the word she would use to describe the smelly old shirt but the sentiment was appreciated. “It’s a authentic team jersey and the signatures are real too.” Bobbi explains as he inspects all the autographs inked on to the shirt. “I bought it from a widow who was trying to part with all her husband’s old things, she wanted to make sure it went to a true fan, apparently he dedicated a good bit of his adult life to stalking these players and making them sign it.”

“Stalking makes it sound so creepy.”

“I thought you could wear it for the big game when it comes around.” 

“Oh yeah,” she watches his expression of delight fall as he folds the jersey and places it back in the box. “Didn’t even think of that, go ahead, finish opening yours.”

She’ll admit she’d thought he’d show a bit more enthusiasm at the idea but as long as he liked it, she didn’t care if he wore it or framed it or bunched it up in his the bottom of his underwear drawer. She turns her attention back to the box in her own hands. She gives it a shake and something thumps around inside. Hunter tenses up. “Maybe don’t do that.” He suggests urgently.

“Why?” She asks, peeling back the tape.

“It could be fragile.”

She raises an eyebrow at him. “You don’t know?”

“Just open the bloody thing.”

She finally does, pouring the contents out into her hand. Even upon seeing it she still doesn’t know what it is. A small piece of metal that fits in the palm of her hand. It looks like it maybe has gears inside it but she was still at a loss. She turns it over a couple of times before looking at him skeptically. “Okay I know this must be something because you’re grinning like an idiot but to me it looks like you just ripped a part out of the coffee machi – oh!”

No. It couldn’t be. It was much too expensive and he thought it was so ridiculous, he said it himself. But then what else could it be. It looked ancient in comparison to the parts she’d seen while trying to fix the modern espresso machine but the idea was certainly the same.

“Why did you – “

“I knew how important it was to you and I already talked to Fitz, he’s pretty sure he can install it.”

She shakes her head. “But how did you pay for it – I mean I know you worked your ass off at tree lot but that wouldn’t cover this and all those ornaments.”

“Well I hate to be a downer but short story is I’ll be wearing this,” he holds up the jersey, “and watching the game from my couch.”

“You sold your ticket?”

“Yeah, to Fitz, he got a bonus for highest total sales, guess it pays not to stoop to selling junkie drones instead of the quality ones.”

“You really shouldn’t have.”

“Why?” He crosses his arms stubbornly, “this was a pretty incredible gift you gave me, I can’t do the same for you.”

“Hunter, you didn’t notice something when you got here today?”

“Something felt off but I figured it was because you weren’t here.”

“I wasn’t the only thing missing,” he narrows his eyes at her, still not following. She shifts slightly so her back is no longer to the door and he has a clear view of the empty window where her espresso machine usually sits.

“No!” Hunter cries when he realizes the machine isn’t there anymore. “Where is it?”

“I took it to Mrs. Triplett’s shop this morning.”

“WHY!”

“Because I needed the money to pay for your gift and to repair the supposedly functional expresso machine again but mostly for your gift.”

“But you love that damn thing.”

“Yeah, but as much I love you?”

“MORE!” He exclaims, completely exasperated. “More than you love me, I’m pretty sure.” She balls up the wrapping paper and tosses it at him.

“Look, you weren’t wrong, it was really just a fancy window decoration.”

“But the part.” He gestures desperately at the now worthless piece of metal.

“Hunter I appreciate this so much, really it’s the nicest gift you’ve ever given me and I swear I’ll put it on a chain and wear it as a necklace if I have too.”

“Well if anyone could pull off a chunk of hardware strung around their neck – “ she laughs at his teasing but after a moment they both sigh heavily. She had the part to fix the espresso machine she no longer had and he had a jersey and nowhere to wear it. Hunter leans over the table towards her. “So what do you say next year if we’re both broke again we skip the gifts altogether and just agree to stay in for the night and do that thing that we’re really good at that doesn’t cost us anything.”

She leans in as well, placing a quick kiss against his smirky smile. “It’s a date.”

Chapter Text

Secret Santa is a tradition that Jemma looks forward to every year. Her and the girls had set it up the year her student loan payments kicked in; the same year Bobbi opened the café, Daisy invested in a new computer for her freelance work and Elena had to fly home for three different weddings. Needless to say, they were all a little short on cash that year so the idea of buying just one gift held some appeal.

She was happy they had kept it up all these years and she is especially glad that despite the current predicament of being trapped in the mall on Christmas Eve that they would be able to have their exchange anyways.

It took some time for things to calm down after the light show. She ended up busy helping Fitz pack the drones back up while Daisy and Elena worked to get the families settled in for the night. But Mack and Daniel had claimed a small area by the television for them to set up camp and by the time she and Fitz join them Daisy and Elena are settled onto a pile of blankets and coats that are spread across the floor. Both have their gifts ready. Daisy has a small box in her hands while two, a very large box and a much smaller one, sat behind Elena.

“Jemma, come sit by me.” Daisy calls and as soon as she is close enough Daisy tugs her down into the blanket nest.

“Are we just waiting on Bobbi?”

“She’s on her way, I just got the text.” Elena sets her phone down next to a shimmery gift bag.

“Oh what’s that?” Jemma asks curiously.

“Just a little gift from Mack and Hope.” She reaches in and removes a large fluffy blanket that she proceeds to wrap around her shoulders.

“They’ve gotten to know you well.” Jemma teases. She turns to Daisy next who fussing with her own phone. “How are you feeling, I know this is not your ideal Christmas.”

“Its not ordinary, but I’d list it in the top three for sure.” Daisy assures her and Jemma doesn’t miss the glance she sends in Daniel’s direction. Jemma smiles knowingly and asks her what she’s doing on her phone. “We can fit in three or four more movies tonight, I’m just picking the top ones.”

“She’ll be lucky if any of us make it through even one.” Elena groans.

“It has been a long day, I guess driving out in the snow didn’t make it any better.”

“Yeah, I almost didn’t make it back, I didn’t realize how far away this place was.” She says as she gestures to the large box behind her.

“It’ll be worth it though.”

“It better, remember it’s taking a chunk out of all of our savings.” Daisy reminds her then quickly shushes them.

“Is this camp for the night?” Jemma jumps at Bobbi’s voice behind them. She hopes she didn’t hear too much of their conversation. Bobbi lowers herself to the ground and stretches her long legs out to the side; Hunter greets them and takes a seat in the of the armchairs. “What did I miss?”

“Nothing yet, we waited for you.”

“Yeah and I think Daisy’s reached her breaking point so let’s get this started.”

“Okay, I can start – “

“No you first!” Daisy and Elena slide the large box in front of them and Bobbi looks back startled.

“Okay, but I made you guys wait, someone else should get to go first.”

“Just open it, I don’t think they can wait any longer.” Mack cuts in. Bobbi shoots him a confused look before glancing back at them.

“You’ve probably worked the hardest today, it’s only fair.” Jemma adds. Bobbi still looks skeptical but reaches out for the box anyways. When it doesn’t budge her eyes narrow and she gives it a harder tug.

“What the hell is in here?” She asks as she undoes the ribbon. Jemma’s pretty sure she can feel the anticipation buzzing around her. Elena is practically bouncing on the spot and Daisy gone antsy as well. Bobbi removes the lid slowly and Jemma’s ready to tear the thing open herself. Finally there is the little gasp they’ve been waiting for. ”NO! You didn’t!”

“We did.”

Sitting in front of Bobbi, still mostly buried in the wrappings, is Bobbi’s antique espresso machine.

“But I specifically told you not too!” Bobbi complains although they can’t take her seriously with the smile still stubbornly on her face and her eyes glimmering as she tries not to cry. “It’s too expensive.”

“Consider it back payment for all the free coffee and tea.” Daisy jokes.

“You still shouldn’t have.”

“We had too, when we found out that Hunter got you the part to fix it, what were we supposed to do.”

“Wait a minute!” Hunter jumps in, “you knew when I told you that, that she’d pawned off the damn thing, why didn’t you say something!”

Daisy crosses her arms and stares back at him sternly. “And prevent you from following through on giving possibly the most considerate and generous gift of your life?”

“And selfless, don’t forget selfless.” Bobbi adds.

“What?”

“He sold his ticket to the big match to me so he could pay for the part.” Fitz clarifies and this takes Jemma by surprise. She turns to him curiously.

“Didn’t you just buy a ticket to the game when they refunded you your plane ticket?”

Fitz eyes go wide and Jemma covers her mouth realizing she’s made a mistake.

“Wait you bought a second ticket?” Hunter asks.

“Oops.” Fitz glares at her but after just a moment his frown softens and he sighs heavily.

“I was going to give you yours back, I mean not at first but when they cancelled the flight and refunded my money I thought why not, everyone else was being annoyingly generous with their Christmas gifts.”

“You’re not just going to reschedule?”

“No, mum’s decided she’s coming to visit me instead, I offered to buy her ticket but she refused.”

“So we’re both going to the game?”

“Yeah, we’re both going.” Fitz confirms somewhat reluctantly. Hunter jumps up and attempts to pull his best friend into a hug only to be held back at arms-length. Jemma tries not to laugh as Hunter continues his efforts to show affection just to annoy Fitz who is struggling to fend him off.

“Fitz that’s really sweet of you but you’re kind of showing us up here.” Daisy complains.

“Yeah, I nearly lost control of my car twice chasing after that machine, all you did was - make what a phone call.”

“Hey I wasn’t the one who brought it up.”

“You guys don’t have to worry,” Bobbi says as she shuffles through the blankets closer to them and pulls them into a group hug. “It’s the best gift ever.”

“HEY!”

“They second best gift ever.” She amends.

They exchange the rest of their gifts, a book on stars for her from Bobbi, a sweater from her to Daisy that she’d seen her admire from the window of a shop. Daisy gives Elena a new set of paint brushes and Elena gives Bobbi a hand painted mug from one of her visits home.

When they finish they rearrange themselves and settle in for a movie as the lights are dimmed around them. She finds herself sunk into an armchair while Fitz sits on the floor, leaning against it. She’s a little surprised when he turns to her and hands her a small gift bag.

“Its not much, I actually wanted to bring you back some treats from my trip home but since that’s no longer happening, I just thought you might like these.” She gives the bag a little shake and smiles when she hears a little jingle form inside. She reaches in a pulls out a pair of earrings shaped like sleigh bells. They’re not fancy or expensive but they’re very pretty. “They match you’re necklace, at least I thought so.”

“They’re lovely.” Jemma sits up and leans forward to give him a quick kiss. “Thank you.”

“You really like them?”

“Of course, much better than my last-minute gift I think.” She reaches into the large gift bag she’s been toting gifts around in all day and pulls out a hastily wrapped package. “I’m sorry its so messy, I was out of paper and couldn’t get the ribbon to curl nicely.

Fitz shakes his head in amusement and its clear her messy wrapping job is not what he would consider ‘messy.’ He undoes the ribbon and tape and under the wrappings finds a few pairs of novelty socks. A pair with drones stitched on them, a pair with Christmas presents and finally a pair with gingerbread houses.

“I told you yours was better.”

“You’re right.” He says and she pushes his shoulder. “I still think they’re great.” He pulls off his shoes and socks so he can pull a pair of the new ones on. She watches him debate between the pairs before deciding on the gingerbread houses. He wiggles his toes and smiles up at her. She has to agree with Daisy. This Christmas was definitelyin the top three. It might even be her very favorite.

Chapter Text

Daniel’s arm is going numb but he’s not about to complain about it. Daisy had made a valiant attempt to stay awake and watch the last of the movie with him but the day had caught up with her and she kept dozing off on his shoulder.

“Sleep.”

“You don’t like to watch movies alone.”

“I promise I’ll watch to the end, just go to sleep.”

“It’s only a little longer.”

She was out cold five minutes later and a full hour before the movie actually ended but true to his word, he stayed awake until the movie’s credits begin to roll. When they had agreed to marathon Christmas movies, way back when Christmas was still weeks away, he didn’t imagine it would be under these circumstances. Stuck at the mall, surrounded by sleeping strangers and a few people whom he’d grown quite fond of.

He and Daisy had moved closer to the TV so they could continue to binge the movies without disturbing everyone else. Behind them Jemma was curled up in one of the armchairs with Fitz asleep sitting up against the chair, his arm awkwardly propped against the seat, cushioning his head. The pair had only just fallen asleep awhile ago, talking to the very end about some science thing he didn’t understand.

Hope had wandered back over to them after her new friends had fallen asleep and stretched out on the couch, her head resting on her father’s leg and her feet tucked behind Elena who could barely be seen under the pile of blankets she had stolen from the others. “She hates the cold.” Daisy had whispered.

Daniel had laughed but he understood. He keeps pulling his own blanket more tightly around him, having been in LA for so long he’d forgotten what a real winter storm felt like.

Trip had joined them after a long conversation assuring his mother that yes he was absolutely fine and yes Bobbi loved her Christmas gift and yes just as soon as they had the roads clear he’d be over for Christmas and yes he’d bring everyone along who didn’t have anywhere else to go.

Hunter and Bobbi occupy the last of the armchairs that just barely fits the both of them, but they had little objection to sharing the space. Although he heard the occasional groan as one of them kicked the other in their sleep.

The only people who might still be awake are Kora and Deke who were laying on the floor with their pillows together so they can babble on and on like kids at a sleepover. Though he hadn’t heard any giggles from their direction in a while.

Daisy starts to stir next to him. “Oh no is it over.”

“Go back to sleep.”

“But I missed it.” She sounds delirious and it he has to stifle a laugh.

“We can watch it again tomorrow.”

“You should lay down.”

“I will in a bit.” She’s asleep again before she can object.

“Daniel.” He turns toward the whisper of his name. Kora is sitting up, holding a couple of pillows out to him. He takes them grateful and with some careful maneuvering he lowers Daisy down on to a pillow. He shifts to put a little bit of space between them before lying down himself.

Its very late. Christmas has already technically arrived. He’s starting to feel sleep taking over him but he still lays awake fore several more minutes. He stares up at the skylights high above them. They’re mostly covered in a blanket of heavy snow but one of them still offers a glimpse of the sky. Its still too snowy and cloudy to see the stars but that was okay. After seeing the Christmas lights, the way Daisy liked to see them, he didn’t think the stars would compare, at least not tonight.

He finally closes his eyes. Daisy is near enough and the mall quiet enough that he can hear her even breathing. Its starting to lull him into sleep when a faint jingle stirs him.

Its probably only Jemma’s earrings.

The sound comes louder this time and his eyes blink open.

That was much louder a sound than those little bells could ever make.

He sits up slowly. Its probably just one of the kids or mall security doing rounds.

Kora is sitting up too. They both glance at Jemma who’s not moved an inch. In fact no one appears to have budged.

Another round of bells chiming takes their attention to the tree in the center of the mall, towering up over them, lights still sparkling and – swaying – like a breeze had shaken the bristles of the tree. But no that wasn’t right, they were inside. There was no breeze. No maybe a heating vent was blowing on it.

But where had the sound come from? There were no bells on the tree.

“Daniel look.” Kora points at the bottom of the tree. It’s been stacked high with gifts. Boxes and bags of all sizes and colors. Presents that hadn’t been there before. Daniel feels a shiver run down his spine and glances back at Kora. The pair share an uncertain look before he squeezes his eyes closed and shakes his head.

“No, its – it was probably Coulson and May, something they arranged for the kids.” He whispers.

“You’re right.” She smiles like she’s laughing at herself.

There’s a clatter above them. More jangle then jingle this time and they turn their eyes up towards the ceiling. His eyes shoot to the clear window, a response he’ll later blame on sleep deprivation, but snow has coated it and it no longer offers a view of the sky.

Daniel looks back at Kora one last time. Her eyes are wide and he’s sure his are too. She finally shakes her head and shifts to lie back down. “Good Night.” She mumbles.

“Good night,” he replies as he lies back down on his pillow. “Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas.”

Chapter Text

The sound of the snowplows wakes May before her internal clock has the chance to. The little old sofa in her office is not much but at least she didn’t have to set up camp on floor for the night. She had a crick in her neck but it’s nothing a good stretch wouldn’t shake. She sits up and takes a quick assessment of the room. Its early, the sun’s not up but the snow has stopped. It’s warm in her office, so the heat hadn’t given up overnight like she worried it might. Crashed out across her desk, barely propped up by her chair, is Phil.

He’s exhausted. Not that she’s surprised, he’d worked himself to death yesterday trying to keep everyone in positive spirits despite the circumstances. She was impressed. While her brain activated emergency procedures and barely acknowledged that it was holiday, Phil led the trapped mall patrons in Christmas carols, served up hot chocolate, helped orchestrate a light show and arranged virtual meet ups for the separated families.

She had offered him the couch but that had led to a long lecture that had only accomplished tiring her enough to actually sleep despite her stress.

She already on her feet when the office door crashes open. Daisy bounds into the room, startling Phil awake, and pulls her into a tight hug like an excited child. Christmas was the only day of year Daisy was voluntarily awake before she was. “Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas, Dais.” May gives her a firm hug in return, hiding her amused smile in her hair. Phil, now groggily on his feet, stumbles out of his chair and over to them.

“Kids are starting to get up,” she warns.

Phil shakes away the last of sleep’s hold on him. “Breakfast should already be in the works, keep everyone where they are though, I’ve worked up a little surprise.” With that, he’s out the door.

“What’s all that about?” Daisy asks.

May shakes her head. “He refuses to tell me, probably wouldn’t approve anyways.”

May leads Daisy out of the office and to the food court. Yesterday they had scraped together pizzas and salads for everyone. Breakfast had proved trickier but between the supplies from the smoothie kiosk and hundreds of frozen pancakes from one of the fast food places no one was going to starve before the plows finished their work. Several volunteers that she had pulled together last night are already waiting to help prep. They start a service line. Heat, plate, top and serve.

Five minutes in May has to pull Daisy from chocolate chip duty for eating more than she’s decorating and the pair each grab a stack of to-go containers instead.

“So what would you like to do later?” May asks as they head for the mall’s center. Christmas had always been Daisy’s day. Whatever she wanted to do, that’s what they did. Ice skating, movies, baking; one year, when she was still pretty young, they attempted an igloo. It had been a blessing that Phil had joined them that Christmas. How many people actually had obscure knowledge of ancient ice structures?

“I promised Daniel I’d help him undo the display on the roof and we have to rewatch the last half of The Christmas Chronicles since I passed out before it ended last night.”

“Oh.” May wasn’t really sure what else to say. She was usually quick with a response but she and Daisy always spent Christmas together. Even in recent years rather than going out Daisy brought her friends who couldn’t be with their own families over.

“But what time do we want to have dinner?” She asks. “Jemma probably won’t be able to come, unless Fitz and Deke come too, do we have enough for everyone?”

“The usual time, bring whomever you like, I’m sure we can make do, does Daniel have anywhere to go?”

“Trip invited him over already,” she answers with tiniest pout. “I’ll ask Jemma is the guys want to come but it might be just us.”

“And Coulson, he’s not getting out of all the paperwork this is going to result in.” She indicates the stack of to-go boxes and then the crowd as they approach them.

Daisy shoots her a knowing smile before jogging ahead to start passing out the pancakes. She’s more than happy to acknowledge the screaming children, demanding chocolate chips and syrup. May hands hers to the parents instead then steps off to the side.

The boxes are barely open when she hears a car horn blaring through the mall. She and Daisy share a quick look. Maybe from outside? But then she hears the softer sound of sleigh bells and Christmas music starts to pour in from the speakers.

The horn beeps again and everyone not already paying attention looks up form their food.

It hits her fast. “Oh he didn’t.” She says aloud and Daisy bursts into laughter.

“He did!”

May shakes her head, maybe in disbelief, maybe in shock, maybe in frustration for not seeing it coming. Because really she should have seen it coming. How could he pass up the opportunity, she thinks as she hurries to usher several bystanders out of the way. Because Coulson, dressed in his full Santa get up is now driving his classic red convertible, Lola, through the mall, a sack of presents riding shotgun.

People are cheering and whooping, kids are screeching in excitement and next to her Daisy has dissolved into uncontrollable laughter. She extracts herself from the crowd and hurries over to the car, walking along side it as it rolls slowly through the walkway.

“Well, hello young lady,” Phil says in his jolly St. Nicholas voice, “perhaps you can tell me where to park?”

May frowns. “Was the roof not an option?”

“Afraid it wasn’t clear for landing.”

“Santa, Santa!” A child calls out. “Where are your sleigh and reindeer?”

“They had a long night you see, this is my back up.” He explains kindly.

“Santa, don’t you think this is maybe a little dangerous?” May asks.

“You’re walking faster than I’m driving.” He points out and she rolls her eyes but she can’t seem to stay mad at the moment. Children are dancing with anticipation; the parents look delighted and even some of the more irritated folks who had been stranded for the night seemed to be taken with the spirit of the Christmas surprise. Coulson inches his way through the crowd before coming to a stop in front of the tree.

“Are there any elves here who can help old Santa with handing these out.” Coulson calls and Daisy and her group of friends hurry forward. May steps away from the chaos, finding a free bench to take a seat and wait for things to die down. At some point, Piper comes by with a cup of tea for her and an update on the roads outside. Should be clear within the hour.

She should make an announcement but everyone, at the moment, is content, ripping into the gifts Coulson had managed to pull together last night. Eventually everything is unwrapped and through the mountains of wrapping paper Coulson approaches her with his smile as wide as ever.

“Where did you get all those gifts?” She asks as she stands.

“Here and there, lot of people were last minute shopping anyways so we wrapped the gifts they had with them.” He explains. “Few people donated things and there’s all the gifts that were never picked up from the gift wrap stations, it added up quickly.”

May nods along as he talks and they walk, listening but not saying anything herself until he looks at her expectantly and she realizes she’s missed the question. “Sorry, what?”

“I asked what you and Daisy were up to later?”

“She has plans with her friends, but dinner is still on.”

He looks devastated. “No gift wrap crafts, no snowman in the front yard, she’s really growing up isn’t she.”

“She already grownup Phil.” May points out as they come to a stop.

He sighs heavily, coming to terms with that reality. “Maybe I didn’t realize because we never seem to change.”

“Maybe it’s time that changes.” May suggests.

“You think so?” The surprise is evident in his voice but she doesn’t take back her sudden proposal.

“I’d say that’s a good sign.” She points above them at the mistletoe sprig. There is one in almost every door or archway. Mostly ignored except by those looking to steal kisses from significant others or torment their friends with affection.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, but the beard has to go first.” Phil laughs, tugging down the fake beard. May rolls her eyes, lifting her hand to untangle the elastic that held it in place before lowering it to the junction of his neck and shoulder and pulling him forward. He comes willingly happy to finally place a long awaited kiss to her lips. Just as it starts to deepen, Phil’s arm coming up to circle her waist and pull her closer, May hears a long drawn out ‘oooh.’

“I saw mommy kissing Santa Clause.” May’s eyes snap open at Daisy’s little sing song taunt. The girl is leaning cheerily against the corner she had just come around, a ridiculous grin on her face. “The roads are officially clear, thought you might like to know.”

She disappears right after, probably hurrying away to gossip to her friends. May steps back, a swell of happiness fighting back the dread of directing everyone safely out of the mall.

“Another Christmas on the books.” Phil says, instead of addressing more significant matters. “What do you think, better than last?”

“Absolutely, I don’t know how you’ll top yourself next year.” She teases as she starts to walk away. He jogs to catch up with her stride.

“Actually, you gave me a great idea before.”

“Mmhmm?”

“Yep, Lola, on the roof, I know we’re still a few years away from widely available flying cars but I think between Fitz and Mack we can make it happen, now we don’t have a chimney but I can get started tomorrow on the permits when everything reopens.”