Work Text:
Day 4: Gifts
It’s 3 in the morning, but there is a light burning in one of the upper windows of Avengers Tower. This is not an unusual occurrence at all, but tonight is a little bit different.
In the middle of a spacious kitchen, Clint is walking back and forth, covered in a dusty layer of flour and with pieces of dough all over his shirt. The cupboards are covered in pieces of paper with lists and recipes printed on them, some things are scribbled through, others are neatly checked off. It’s a mess, but Clint seems to know what he is doing.
On the breakfast bar, there is a row of 8 brightly colored gift boxes, layed out with baking paper and different rows of cookies already neatly placed in them. Each one has a small post-it note with a name on it.
“Hey JARVIS, how many batches of the ginger snaps are there again?” Clint asks, running a hand through his shaggy blond hair and leaving a trail of baking ingredients behind. He reaches for his coffee, only to find it has gotten cold.
“Blergh.” Despite it being cold, he downs the rest of it and moves over to the counter to start a new pot - he’ll be here for a bit, and he really doesn’t want to make any mistakes here - thank gods for JARVIS. Or, you know, thank Tony, since he built him.
“As of now, you will need one and a half more trays, Agent Barton. To be distributed between Miss Potts, Colonel Rhodes and Thor. You have already put enough for everyone else who likes them into the respective boxes.”
“Thanks, Buddy. Anything else I’ve missed?”
“Sleep, Sir.” the AI replies, with a hint of humor in his voice.
“Later. I wanna finish this tonight if I can.”
“Technically, it’s already morning. But do as you wish.”
It is remarkable how human JARVIS can sound, with all of his wit, humor and slightly irritated worry.
Clint forms a few balls of the ginger snap cookie dough, rolls them in a bowl of sugar and then puts them on the baking trays. He’s already tried one, and they’re really good- soft and chewy, and just the perfect amount of spice. No wonder that most of his teammates love them.
Truth be told, all of them love homemade stuff, because there is something very personal about it. At first, Clint had only baked at night. There are many sleepless nights for him, especially when his brain won’t shut up. He’ll seek solace in the kitchen then, getting lost in the soothing movements of creating something delicious. The good thing is, that in this household, everyone loves food. Nothing goes to waste, and it makes him happy to know that.
It also helps him now, in the middle of December and his panicked thoughts of “What the fuckl do I gift my friends?!” They love food, they love his baking. So everyone gets a personalized box of cookies. It’s a safe bet, and it gives him the time and safety if he just ends up ordering nerdy t-shirts and funny mugs online.
His main problem is, Clint doesn’t really do Christmas.
Growing up, those days were always filled with either fear and arguments, heartbreak or loneliness. He never really got into the habit of celebrating as an adult, either. While at SHIELD, he mostly volunteered the holidays to work, or later, spent them watching cheesy movies and eating too much food with Phil and Natasha, but none of it was ever traditional. It was enough for them, though.
But now, Phil is dead, which still hurts enough to leave him breathless, but Natasha and him have found a new life, a new family with the Avengers. If only Phil was still with them, it would be perfect, Clint thinks, quickly shaking his head to get rid of the dark thoughts,
If he isn’t careful, it’ll ruin his mood for days, and he won’t be able to get anything done. Which isn’t helpful now.
With a sigh, he drinks another cup of coffee, then asks JARVIS to play some music to distract him. Humming along helps.
When Clint puts the last tray into the oven - cranberry orange swirl cookies - the sun is up high, making the snow on the ground glitter beautifully. He looks like a hot mess, and so does the kitchen, but he is satisfied with himself. Happy even.
While the cookies bake, he starts wiping everything down, packing away the leftover ingredients. He is about to lead the dishwasher when the oven timer beeps, and he takes out the tray to let it cool down. As soon as he is finished, he leaves the kitchen to take a long needed shower and then crawls into bed to catch a few hours of rest, now that he is exhausted and actually finds sleep.
He drifts off with a slight smile, and then the bed dips down a bit. A cold, wet dog nose nuzzles into his ear, and it makes Clint laugh.
“Come here, boy. Let’s go to sleep.”
Lucky huffs, and then curls up next to his human, warm and breathing and soft with golden fur.
Hours later, Clint is in the kitchen again. He has distributed the last few cookies into the boxes on the breakfast bar and stands in front of his lists on the cupboard door, going through everything. He is pretty sure he’s finished it all, but he still asks.
“JARVIS?”
“Yes, Agent Barton? How can I help you?”
“Uhm, I’m pretty sure I’ve got everything according to plans. But I still have a feeling that I missed something?”
It’s most likely his anxiety talking and he knows that, but still. He’s got the luxury of being able to ask a highly advanced AI for help, so why not do just that?
“I can assure you, everything went according to plan. You have finished all the planned out recipes and distributed the baked goods into the respective boxes, according to everyone's personal preferences.” JARVIS informs him smoothly, and then adds,
“If I may say so, Agent Barton, I am certain that everybody will be very happy with what they’ll receive. There is no need to worry about that.”
“Thanks, JARVIS. You’re the best.”
Clint shoots the ceiling a smile, even though it’s silly because JARVIS doesn’t have cameras in here.
*+~
The weeks and days pass quickly, and suddenly Clint finds himself placing a stack of gifts under the christmas tree in the communal living room.
It’s the 24th of December, one day before the team will be celebrating and he’s nervous. Nobody is around to watch him, but still. Clint chose this moment on purpose, knowing that everyone else is either busy somewhere else or, in Tony’s case, asleep with his head pillowed on unfinished technology in the lab downstairs.
Carefully, he puts the gifts down on the floor.
The cookies are in their boxes, all in different colours and with plenty of bows and name tags on fancy paper hanging on them. His other gifts match the colours of the boxes, and are wrapped just as lovingly.
Clint has spent a night or two watching video tutorials to figure out how to do that, because as little “real” holiday experience as he has, he wants to do this right. He might have overdone it a bit, but honestly? He doesn’t care, as long as people are happy.
Maybe this is what the holidays are about - spending time with loved ones, having a good time.
Clint sits down on the sofa, just watching the lights in the tree for a bit. It’s warm and comfortable, and he finds himself happy - excited, even. Lucky curls up next to him, belly up and demanding scratches, which he gets plenty of. By the time the dog is snoring, Clint himself finds himself dozing off. He’s still petting the dog, but his movements are getting more and more lazy.
His guard is down, which is rare - but he knows this is a safe place. He can let go, so he doesn’t mind when the couch dips down with the weight of another person. Then, a familiar voice says,
“Hi” and he hums sleepily in response, making Bruce laugh a bit.
“Don’t let me interrupt you, I just needed a change of scenery.” he says, curling up on the other end of the couch and pulling out a book from under the living room table. When he looks up again, Clint is snoring just as much as Lucky, hugging a pillow and is fast asleep without a care in the world.
Sharing a room in silence is nice. They don’t get to do this very often, but Bruce finds himself seeking out company more and more. This though? It’s amazing.
He is not quite used to this yet, to people around him trusting him. He isn’t used to them being comfortable enough to sleep around him without looking over their shoulder constantly.
After a while, with the warmth, the company, the happy feeling and a sleeping dog arming his feet, Bruce finds himself drifting off as well. The book glides out of his hands and lands on the floor as he falls asleep with his glasses askew and a growing happiness inside.
When he wakes up next, he does so to the sight of more boxes under the tree and with Natasha and Steve sharing the loveseat, both of them holding portable gaming consoles. Both gadgets look old and clunky, especially in a modern building like the tower, even more so because the consoles are connected via a thick wire.
The conversation between Natasha and Steve is hushed, careful not to wake anyone, but they’re clearly having a blast. It’s good to see the two of them like that, happy and carefree. Seeing the Black Widow smile openly used to be a rare occurrence, but it happens more and more often now.
Steve looks just as happy, with almost childlike excitement as he explores more and more of the things he missed while being asleep under the ice. Who would have thought that retro video games of all things can get him out of his shell.
One by one, as the evening goes on, the whole team shows up in the room. Everyone is awake now, and as the time goes on, Bruce disappears into the kitchen to make a batch of hot apple cider. It’s met with great excitement, and they spend the night drinking, telling tales and overall just enjoying the company.
When Christmas Morning rolls around, Pepper arrives with Rhodey and Happy just in time for a big brunch in the common area kitchen. They’re all greeted with enthusiasm and open arms.
The day starts out festive and loud, and although neither of them has much experience with it: this feels just like a day with family is supposed to feel.
By the time they have gathered around the tree in the living room, lounging around in sweatpants and pyjamas, Clint catches himself getting giddy with excitement. He’s spent so many hours working on these gifts, he is looking forward to seeing the reactions to it.
When he looks around the room, looks at everyone else gathered around, he can’t think of a better way to spend this day, and it looks like this sentiment is very much mutual.
One by one, they open the presents. All around the room, faces light up at the sight of little personal gifts, funny mugs and all sorts of cookies and chocolate.
Clint himself receives just as much as he handed out, and it is just a bit overwhelming - not only this, but he’s probably gotten more hugs just that day than ever in his life. This may or may not be true for most of them, but it’s not like anyone is going to point it out, let alone wanting to stop.
But Clint is not used to this kind of thing at all and if he thinks too much about everything that it implies, he’s probably going to lose it and start crying in front of everyone, which is not something he wants to happen.
So, he pulls himself together and puts on a smile, reacting just in time to return the bear hug that Thor pulls him into. As always, he pulls him off of his feet and into the air, but Thor is Thor, and he is allowed to do so.
The thundergod is visibly happy at that sight of the large box of baked goods and the punny T-shirt (“Nice to MEAD you”, written in a rune-style script over a drinking horn) that he quickly pulled on, giving everyone a gun show in the process.
Damned viking gods and their glorious physique.
The cookie boxes are a huge hit - rows and rows of butter cookies covered in chocolate and sprinkles, pumpkin snickerdoodles (because pumpkin spice is always appreciated), Heidesand biscuits, which are always perfectly crumbly and delicious, chocolate chip cookies, because classics are classics for a reason and neatly decorated gingerbread people. There are several varieties of thumbprint cookies, hot cocoa cookies with tiny marshmallows, maple sugar cookies, little round shortbreads that are decorated with icing that looks like christmas lights and of course, the cranberry orange swirls and the rows and rows of ginger snaps.
They all look so good and professional, it doesn’t register that they are homemade until Tony asks, around a mouthful of maple sugar cookie, where he got those, because they’re amazing and he’d love to buy more in the future, and Clint just shrugs and replies,
“Didn’t buy them, I made ‘em. Just ask next time you want any. Or I can give you the recipes.”
Clint is aware that everyone is looking at him now. He can feel the heat creeping up the back of his neck, little hair prickling as they stand up straight.
“You made them? Holy shit! That must have been hours of work!”
The blush only deepens.
“A few. No big deal though.”
Liar, liar, pants on fire. He’d spent more than one sleepless night baking, let alone planning out who would get what, figuring out everyone's favourites from memory and with the help of JARVIS. But Clint not about to tell the team that.
He doesn’t know why, but he’s kinda bad with feelings so he tries to deflect. Clint doesn’t get far though, because there are more hugs and goddamnit, he really does love these people.
They spend most of the day together. They don’t get to do this nearly often enough, especially not with Rhodey in town, which is rare enough, much to Tony’s dismay.
But it’s christmas and they get to do this, and it leaves everyone with a warm and happy feeling.
Clint is curled up with Natasha and Lucky, full with too much food and ridiculously happy about it all. Nat shoots him a knowing smile as she keeps nibbling away at the butter cookies - as simple as they are, she adores them and Clint knows it. And she knows that he knows.
They don’t talk much, but it’s not like they need a lot of words. Being together is enough, surrounded by their chosen family and receiving dog-snuggles from Lucky, who is wandering around the room every few hours to let someone else pet him, as if he’s deprived of love - spoiled Good Boy that he is.
Happiness.
He might be able to find it, Clint thinks, possibly has found it already.
Huh. Who would have thought.
*+~
Similar to my other baking related story, I’ve made a pinterest board with recipes I imagined Clint using here. I may or may not have gotten hungry while writing this.
Enjoy
https://www.pinterest.de/annibanashee2/clint-barton-xmas-story/
*+~