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"Steve!" Natasha rushes to give Steve a folded piece of paper before he enters his classroom. The both of them haven't spoken to each other since she picked Tony's side. The rules were clear: opponents don't talk to each other, first team to get the red star flag on top of the snow fortress wins the war.
'Tony built a secret weapon; attack planned tonight.' He smiles; he knew Natasha liked them both too much to pick a side.
"Clint!" Steve taps gently on his friend's shoulder who’s adjusting one of his hearing aids but finally takes it off, frowning at it. Steve hands him Nat's written note. "Think we should ask him?" Clint asks louder than he should. Steve glances at his new classmate. He knows his name is James, but he never speaks to anyone. Rumor is that he should be in 7th grade but missed a whole year after he got injured in a car accident and lost his left arm. Steve grabs his pen and tears a page from his agenda.
"Psst..." Clint throws a small ball of paper on James' desk.
The boy stares at Clint, who's beckoning him to unfold the paper.
'Need help, snow fortress under siege. Join our team! Hot chocolate and cookies, movie night at Bruce's place after :-)'
James pulls another wrinkled piece of paper out of his pocket.
'Need back up, Ps4 night at my place to celebrate victory - Tony Stark.'
The battle starts right after school. The position of the snow fortress is supposed to give them a tactical advantage, but things aren't going well. Steve's feet are cold and his mittens all wet so is his hair since he lost his hat somewhere. He can't feel his frostbitten ears anymore. He’s wheezing but ignores where his inhaler is. Bruce is in charge of supplying the team with more ammunition while Clint keeps firing off snowballs but his dog Lucky chases them down, playing fetch instead of remaining still.
James Rhodes had the brilliant idea to soak his snowballs in purple food colorant, and Clint's gray coat is all stained by now. Steve tries to push Peter Parker off the wall that he climbed when his eyes catch Natasha playing alone in the park. Tony takes advantage of his distraction and hits him in the face with an icy snowball, making his nose bleed and his eyes watering. Through his tears, Steve sees Tony's secret weapon: a catapult.
"They are throwing ice blocks! That's not fair!" Scott Lang shouts before jumping down the fort. "He's going to destroy everything!" he cries, grabbing his head.
"You declared the war first!" Tony shouts.
"The war, the war.... Not a reason to get ourselves hurt!"
Steve jumps off the remaining wall just in time to catch Clint by the arm and stop him from punching Rhodes. Everyone has forgotten that it was supposed to be a game. He turns to look at the demolished fortress, and notices that the flag is missing.
"Cease fire! Tony! Stop! You win, ok? Stop before someone gets hurt!" Steve wipes his bloody nose with his mitten.
They all stand wordlessly in front of the snow pile when a dark-haired boy comes out from behind it, wearing a black snowsuit, his empty left sleeve pinned to his shoulder. He's holding the little red star flag in his hand. He waves it.
"So, you guys were fighting for this..." he says when he’s close enough, looking directly at Clint, somehow knowing that he mostly relies on lip-reading. He stands bravely alone in front of the boys and Nat, who joined them. "I'm not sure this is worth losing a friend for..." He throws the flag at Steve and Tony's feet, both ashamed.
Tony breaks the silence first. "Rogers, watch your face!" He shoves snow in his hand and throws it to Steve who ducks quickly to avoid it, leaving Natasha as the perfect target.
"How dare you?" she laughs and runs after Tony. She jumps on his back, both rolling and laughing in the snow.
Steve gets up and sees James walking away. "Wait! What about the 'hot chocolate and cookies' deal?" James stops and looks at Steve, unsure.
"Did you really try to buy him with cookies?" Tony jokes, walking toward them, all snow covered. "Let's all go to my place, PS4, movies, and snacks! Steve, keep the cookies for Barton, he looks like he's about to eat his mittens." They all laugh and start walking to Tony’s house.
James follows them, smiling. When he passes by Natasha, she takes his empty sleeve in her hand and examines it carefully. She suddenly gasps and looks at him with bright eyes. "I have an idea!" she says as she takes out of her pocket the crumpled flag."This red star should go there," she says, pointing at his left shoulder.