Loki Misses the Asgardian Prison System

Chapter 48

"Laura!" Clint whines, his voice barely above a whisper. "It won't fit!"

Laura heaves a sigh. "Give me a minute."

Natasha snickers. "Nice going, Hawkeye."

"It won't fit!" Clint insists. He holds up Cooper's stocking helplessly. Laura bought way too many stocking stuffers for him. Barely half of them actually fit inside.

"Just put it down and help Nat get the gifts under the tree," Laura says. "I'll get the stocking in a minute."

"Okay, but it's not gonna fit," Clint tells her. Still, he puts the stocking back down on the floor and follows Natasha out of the room.

Clint hasn't been home for Christmas in a few years. Fury always pulls him out for some mission. He's not sure how he managed to get the day off this year — and to share that day off with his best friend, for that matter — but he's damn glad he did.

Still, carrying these gifts from the attic to the living room is a pain in the ass. He's not sure how Laura does this every year. Even with three of them delivering Santa's gifts, it's taking forever.

Natasha picks up a box, and it rattles in her hands. She cracks a smile. "I take it Cooper asked for Legos again this year?"

"As always," Clint says with a fond smile.

Natasha stacks a few boxes in her arms, and Clint quickly does the same before he follows her back down the stairs and to the living room.

"So, this is a Barton Christmas, huh?" Natasha says. "I don't think I've seen one since Lila was a baby."

Clint furrows his brows. "Really?" It doesn't feel like it's been that long.

"Yeah, I'm always working," she says. "I think I came up for Christmas Eve once when you weren't around, but SHIELD called me in overnight."

"Wow." Clint shakes his head to himself. "If Fury tries to call us in tonight, I'm telling him I broke my phone."

"I'll actually break it," Natasha volunteers. "Tell him it was a training exercise gone wrong."

Clint snorts. "Yeah, that'll work." It's the excuse SHIELD always uses when they're lying, because that won't give it away.

When they return to the living room, Laura is packing Cooper's stocking — and doing much better at it than Clint had been. Clint and Natasha both put their stacks of gifts on the floor, and together, they begin sorting through them, separating them by whose name is on the tag. Unsurprisingly, the majority go to the kids, but "Santa" brought the adults a few gifts, too.

"Almost done?" Laura asks as they work.

"Uh..." Clint looks to Natasha for an answer. How many were left?

"One more trip, maybe?" she says. To Clint, she adds, "I'll organize 'em if you wanna bring the rest in."

"On it," Clint says, but instead of going to the attic, he heads to the fireplace and grabs a bite from one of Santa's cookies. "Mm," he hums. "Lila's a great baker."

Natasha scoffs. "What, I don't get any credit?"

"Of course not," Clint says teasingly. "Lila did all the heavy lifting."

Before Natasha can respond with a retort of her own, Loki appears in the middle of the room. Clint steps away, his gaze immediately falling on Laura. Natasha seems to have the same idea. When instinctively reaching for her gun doesn't help — she doesn't have her gun with her; it's locked in the safe, as it always is at the cabin — she steps in front of Laura protectively.