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Clint paced his dorm wondering what the hell he'd get for Phil for Christmas. They'd been together for almost two months. Phil had already said that he was going home for Christmas meaning that he had even less time to figure out what to get him. Classes end two weeks from now and he had to have something for his boyfriend by then. He could get something from one of the geek stores around town, but he didn’t know what to get once there. He was sure that Phil already had something picked out.
Clint continued to pace until the door opened and Bruce and Natasha walked into the dorm. "Barton, what’s got you all wound up?"
"I don't know what to get Phil for Christmas."
They all sat down and started to brainstorm. The problem was that Clint, who was on scholarship and had a job, didn’t have a lot of money left over afterward because of doctor's appointments. So they had to stick to cheaper things. Bruce then brought up that Phil drank an unholy amount of coffee.
That made Clint remember that the coffee shop in the lab sciences building had reusable cups that got you half off of any refills. Clint knew that Phil didn't have one of them. That left him with a bit more cash to get something else. He'd think about it.
As they were talking Clint's phone started to yell, "Barton it's time for work!" in Natasha’s voice. Said person glared at him but all he could do was shrug.
"You were the one to suggest the alarms in the first place." He picked up his phone and bag and headed out of the dorm. He headed to the library and worked on his homework during his shift. After his shift, he went over to the lab building and bought the coffee mug. As he was leaving the building he saw a flier for a geek convention right before spring break.
Clint stopped and looked over it. It was going over all of the information and saw that they would be selling premium tickets starting that day. The premium tickets would get the buyer into the event halls early and would allow them to go through the sales floor the day before. They weren’t a lot and it would allow Phil to pick the things he liked instead of whatever Clint could find.
So Clint headed over to the math building to buy the tickets. After that, he headed back to the dorms while texting if anyone needed to be knocked out of the gyms. Phil was the only one to reply and he was in the dorm hall’s gym. Clint did so but didn’t place a Pokemon in the gym. He asked for someone to go ahead and take him out of the library.
He spent the next little bit wrapping up his gift and hiding it away. He headed out to the caf when he saw what time it was. When he got there he saw Phil and Natasha at a table in the corner. He got his plate and sat down with them.
“Hey there, my dear.” Phil grabbed Clint’s hand and dragged him over close enough to kiss his cheek. Clint blushed scarlet and scooted his chair and plate over so that he could hold hands while they ate.
It wasn’t long before they were headed back to the dorms. Phil had to split off to his dorm building before the rest. He was muttering about some nutrition exam coming up. It reminds Clint that he should make sure that he knows his exam schedule.
Two weeks later it was the end of the semester and everyone was getting ready to go home for Christmas break. Clint was fidgeting as Stark gathered them in one of the disused engineering labs. Where the hell he’d gotten the ability to get into the room was under question, but it didn’t matter at this point. Everybody had placed their presents to each other under the little fake tree and Natasha was going down the list of those who wouldn’t be there over break and found their gifts and the gifts that were from them.
Clint realized that there were going to be a lot less of them staying over break than normal, then again you had to get special permission and it was hard for even Stark to get it, and his father made huge donations to the school each year. Clint knew the only reason that he got to stay behind was that he was a student worker and the main librarian had vouched for the fact that he would be working.
By the piles of gifts that each person had, it looked like only a handful of them were staying. Of course, not everyone had the money to get gifts for everyone else, but most of the time you could tell by who had the ridiculously large presents from Stark. Most of the main group that had been together when classes started his freshman year had them, and only he, Steve, and Bucky didn’t.
“Alright! Let’s get started!” Tony yelled as Natasha sat down with her gifts. They started to tear into the gifts one by one. Clint had gotten a new backpack from Thor and Loki, this one claimed to be waterproof and hopefully was better than his last one that had the same claim. He got a new winter coat from Natasha which was of no surprise, he’d been whining about being cold for the last three weeks wherever they went to play Pokemon Go together. Tony’s gift was a very large hooded purple raincoat. “You won’t let me upgrade your hearing aids so got you a much better raincoat,” Tony commented.
His last gift was from Phil. It was a small bag that held two items, first was a twenty-dollar card for Google Play, and the other was a purplish rock that had been made into the shape of an arrowhead. The arrowhead had been put on a wooden bead necklace that made the arrowhead stand out. Clint looked over at Phil with wide eyes.
Phil didn’t notice at first because he was too busy opening Clint’s present to him. He smiled as he pulled out the refillable cup with the con passes sticking out the top. Phil looked through the items and looked over at Clint. “Thank you,” Phil signed, but when he didn’t get a response from Clint he stood and walked over to him.
“Clint, what’s up? Do you not like it?” Phil crouched in front of Clint.
Clint shook his head, “You spent so much more on me than I did you though.”
Phil grabbed Clint’s chin and made him look at him, “And I love your present, Clint. It’s wonderful. I was going to go try and get myself those same tickets to the con when I got back. So you’ve done a great job.” Phil wrapped Clint in his arms. “I got you what I got you because I’ve heard you complain enough times that you can’t participate in PoGo events with the others because you don’t have any money. The iolite arrowhead was something that I saw that someone would do. I sent him the piece of iolite that I found at an antique store. It really probably wasn’t much more than what you spent.” Phil paused and made sure Clint was listing, “But Clint price doesn’t matter when it comes to gifts, the thought behind them does. You got that?”
Clint nodded and Phil pulled back and kissed him. They gathered up their gifts and headed back to the dorm, they cuddled up on Phil’s bed and fell asleep together.