Lost

A Very Swarkton Christmas

A heavily decorated Christmas tree sat by the window, several gifts laid below basking in the warm yellow light coming from the tree. 

In just a few days, Emilia had gotten Bella to make progress. She was still plagued with nightmares, but she was beginning to socialize more, like she had a choice in the matter.

Emilia passed a mug of coffee over to Clint as he entered the kitchen. "Merry Christmas, Barton." 
She said, bringing her own mug up to her lips. "Yeah, Merry Christmas."

Bella's door creaked open and moments later the bathroom door closed. 
Charlie sat in his recliner, nursing his own mug of coffee as cartoons played on the TV. 

Soon, the four were gathered around the tree, passing presents around. They got clothes and a few other essential things, like apartment necessities that Emilia and Clint never thought to get in the six months of living together. 

Like laundry baskets and throw pillows. 

As per tradition, Renée sent money and socks. Even Clint got a pair. He graciously took the $200 that was in the card. 
"This is gonna come in handy at work." He said to Emilia. She laughed, knowing he was right. With all those vending machines near the break rooms at S.H.I.E.L.D. — the money was bound to come in handy. 

Emilia learned fast; eat when you can, because you don't know when you'll be able to eat again.

The moment the presents were finished, Emilia got up to go work on dinner. 
Not even five minutes later, Clint sat at the table with a bowl of cereal. 

"Why don't you cook like this at the apartment?" He questioned. 

"Because our work schedule is always undetermined. Sometimes it's a ten hour shift and sometimes we're not home for almost a month because we're stuck at some hotel in France, waiting for the right moment to infiltrate an arms dealer's inner circle. 
When we're not working, we're sleeping or too tired to make a big meal like this."

Clint nodded slowly. "Fair point. . . are we taking leftovers?"
"If there's any left, yeah. It's gonna be more than the four of us here in a couple hours."

-

Sure enough, by 1 pm the living room was filled with Charlie's closest friends and their families, which included the Black's and the Clearwater's.

Food lined the counters as Clint, Emilia, and Sue went around in perfect sync.
Clint was in charge of peeling and boiling the potatoes while the women dealt with a last-minute casserole. 

"So, six months being away and you bring home a boy?" Sue questioned in a low whisper. 

"It's not what you think it is, aunt Sue." Emilia sighed. "We work together, we're roommates, he's my best friend. . . I'm younger than him anyway. Highly doubt he'd be interested in me." Emilia responded in the same tone of voice. 

Sue mulled over the info for a moment. "Are you interested in him?"
"I don't know."
"You'll know one day, I promise you."

-

Within the hour, ten people were sitting around the dining room table with various meats and sides on their plates. 
Charlie looked happy to have his closest family and friends at the table. He sat at the head. To his left was Bella, Leah, Seth, and Jacob. Billy was at the other head of the table; to his left was Harry, Sue, Clint, and Emilia.

Bella and Leah talked to each other, much to the surprise of everyone else at the table. Nobody said anything though, not wanting the teenagers to go back into this sort of depression they had going on.

It overall ended up being a good day.

Happy Valentines Day, with a Christmas chapter!

If you don't have a Valentine, now you do! I love all of you.