Can We Keep Her?

A First Family Christmas: Part 1

Hand in hand in hand, you made your way through the crowds that threatened to split you up. It hadn't really snowed yet, just the occasional stray flake that melted as soon as it hit the cobblestones. You let yourself get pulled along by the crowd, veering off to buy hot glow wine with rum, meats cooked on skewers, sandwiches made with sheep's cheese and tomato, and warm jam-filled donuts.

It was your first Christmas since the wedding. The first holiday you had spent together had just involved working up until Christmas day because it was a busy period for the store and then the actual day was spent with your parents.

This year the boys had wanted to make it special. When the words German Christmas Markets were mentioned it didn't take much more convincing for you to go along with their plans. The plan was to take a Quinjet to Hannover in Germany. Stay for a week. Head back and spend Christmas Day in the Tower with the others. Hopefully, you'd all be stocked up on cute Christmas gifts for everyone.

It had been like you'd stepped into a fairy tale. You were staying in the middle of the Altstadt in one of the many half-timbered buildings crammed together in on cobbled streets. In the center of the Marktplatz stood the large Lutheran Church that chimed out the hours of the day. Market stalls lined the streets and filled the square selling hot food, crafts, gifts, and even artisan chocolate. You particularly liked the people who made the chocolates look like tools. Something you'd seen before, but never perfected to the point that it was hard to tell if they were chocolate or rusted metal.

"Let's go into the Wishing Well Forest. Get some punch," Steve suggested as the crowd started to swarm around you.

You ducked into the forest made up of around fifty, ten-foot fir trees that have been brought in and assembled around the square. Inside the cover of the temporary forest, a bar had been set up. Bucky went to order the drinks while you and Steve found a table to stand around.

"Have we got everyone something now?" Steve asked.

"I think we might have it covered. Not sure how well we're going to fit it all in the suitcases but we have it," you said. "I just hope they all like them. You guys don't seem to be about gifts really."

Steve laughed. "No. Not really. Tony is. But despite the fact he puts a hell of a lot of thought into them, he's remarkably bad at choosing things. One year he got Pepper a stuffed Rabbit that was over a story high."

You started laughing. "Why is that not surprising at all?"

Steve snaked an arm around your waist and kissed you on the crown of the head. "So you can only really go up from Tony. Don't worry at all."

Bucky appeared behind you, stepping out from behind a group of revelers and putting the drinks down in front of you, making you jump. "You have got to stop doing that," you yelped as he wrapped his arms around you laughing.

"Sorry. I'll blow a whistle anytime I approach," he teased.

The three of you stood at the table, sipping the warm eierpunsch. It was creamy and spiced and made with eggs, similar to eggnog. It tasted exactly like Christmas, and you looked up into the fairy lights, letting the rum, brandy, cinnamon, and vanilla warm you from the inside out, and make your head feel a little floaty.

Bucky's hand tightened on your waist and you looked up at him. "Maybe we should finish up and head back to the apartment."

You looked around at the people near you. The place was as full as outside with a mixture of friends out drinking, and families just enjoying the markets. A group of men was looking over at you whispering while they scowled at you.

"What did they say?" you asked, knowing that Bucky could not only hear them but his German was fluent enough to understand what they were saying.

"I don't really want to say it, honey. But it's late anyway. We have to get up and catch a plane," he said, looking to Steve to back him up.