Avengers Family

Christmas Spirit (Spidermom)

"I don't know if I should give any to a traitor." Clint pretended to think deeply, one hand on his chin, the other holding a pitcher of hot chocolate. "It may be against my principles."

"But you're such a kind and merciful person, wouldn't not feeding him go against your principles?" Bucky countered and then winked at Peter.

"You're right. I'm just such a wonderful person, I couldn't let a child go without." Clint shamelessly complimented himself more as he poured some of the brown liquid into Peter's cup.

"Thank you! Your hot chocolate is the best!" Peter exclaimed as he excitedly raised the Santa-shaped mug to his lips. "It makes me want to watch The Polar Express."

"That's because he just uses melted chocolate bars and heavy whipping cream. You all are going to have diabetes by January." Bruce chimed in, still grabbing a mug for himself.

"Worth it." Peter grinned, sporting a liquid mustache.

"I don't think Buck has seen The Polar Express movie. Should we watch it now?" Steve asked, wiping Peter's mouth with a napkin for him.

"That sounds like a great idea." Tony announced, going to grab a giant handful of blankets. "JARVIS?"

Within seconds, everyone was cuddled up with blankets and hot chocolate and the movie was starting up.

About half way through, the door to the room opened, and the super soliders could hear footsteps behind them.

"Natasha!" Peter exclaimed while Bruce grabbed the remote to pause the movie. "Do you want to join us? We're watching a Christmas movie."

Natasha just shook her head. "I just want to go get some rest." With that, she left.

The Avengers looked at each other, concerned. "Should one of us follow her up?" Steve made a move to get up.

"No, if the mission went wrong she'll want some alone time." Clint informed them, still looking at the doorway Natasha left from. Everyone nodded and agreed to give her some space.

Her bad mood didn't seem to wear off, and from the reports, her mission only had a slight hiccup, but it was nothing drastic so the mission was still successful.

"Did it involve kids?" Tony wondered aloud. If something happened to kids, no matter how many times each of them had seen the situation, they still fell into a melancholy mood.

"Nope." Steve flipped the page in the file. "From what I can tell, she just had to go to a Christmas party at a rich man's house and determine where his storehouse or black market weapons was located. Her cover was almost blown, but she covered it up smoothly."

From then on, the Avengers made more of an effort to talk to her and invite her out. She wasn't nearly as upset as the first day, but there was still something off about her.

—————

Peter noticed immediately when he came over for the next weekend with Tony. He had chosen to go with Natasha to pick up some food items that the ravenous heroes had already plowed through.

"Can we get stuff for Christmas cookies?" Peter's attention was grabbed by the festive section of the baking aisle. He excited grabbed a container of snowflake sprinkles.

"I'm sure Tony won't mind." Natasha said absent-mindedly, shifting the cart toward Peter so he could easily pile in his goods. She tried to smile, but even though it looked genuine, Peter could tell when she was putting up a mask.

"Is it Christmas?"

"What?"

"Well, you've just seemed down lately, and it seems like you don't like Christmas stuff."