A Failed Experiment

Chapter 8

I sat, curled up in a hoodie and countless blankets with a grumpy, overtired Stephen in front of me, who had agreed to pull an all-nighter with me. I noticed how tired he was, he kept yawning and staring at nothing, and got an idea. I leaned forward, wrapped my arms around his neck and lay down again, pulling him down with me. He looked up at me, a hint of confusion on his features,  " Go to sleep, Stephen." I whispered, he muttered something inaudible in reply and put his head down again. The excitement I'd felt surrounding this night disapparated and was replaced with tranquility, for I knew, for the first time in my life, in this very moment, nothing could hurt me or the people I'd grown to love, and that's all I could ever really ask for.

I woke up with a start. I looked down, Stephen hadn't moved, " Amore ? Wake up." I whispered in his ear,
" Mh ?" He mumbled , opening one clear, blue eye against the morning sun,
" Merry Christmas. " He smiled softly,
" Merry Christmas, Astor, and mind telling me what Amore means ?"  I flushed,
" Yes, yes I do, now, as much as I'd like to lie here all morning, we have gifts to give. " He nodded and got up from my bed. I quickly trailed after him, pulling my hair into a bun, " Wait !" Stephen looked back. I ran into my room and scooped up my gifts and a few handmade cards I'd made and rushed back out. Stephen let out a chuckle and carried on walking, " Where are your gifts ?" I asked,
" Knowing me is the gift ." He boasted, making me laugh louder than I initially intended to, " No, their under the tree in the main hall , where most put their gifts ." He looked at me accusingly but said nothing more on the subject

When we got to the main hall, I understood Kamar-Taj's system when it comes to gifts at Christmas, as there are so many people here, there was one, giant Christmas tree in the middle of this great hall, and, I assume , every single person in Kamar-Taj who celebrates Christmas has a basket of sorts under it. Before anyone noticed my presence, I dropped my gifts into it's respective basket, and noticed I had one too. It was a simply made thing, made of what I want to say was Japanize maple wood, and the rim had stars and a little moon etched into it. I noticed people picking the baskets up and bringing them over to their groups, so I lifted mine, and proceeded to drop it again as a figure had come up behind me and hugged me.

Aideen had attempted to scare me. I turned. Her hair, which had grown longer still, though it didn't need to, was contained in a large bun on top of her head, small tendrils escaping here and there. Bucky wandered up behind her, his own hair a tangled mess,
" Merry Christmas, Astor !" Bucky nodded in tired agreement,
" Yeah, Merry Christmas." They both pulled me into a hug which I gratefully accepted. I glanced over at Stephen, he was watching over the tree of us, fiddling with his sleeve. I opened my arm to him,
"Come on, you dummy." I muttered, he obliged, and I think I caught him smiling.

I waited for everyone to open their gifts before I opened mine, Stephen had already scribbled something in his notebook in that cliché doctors handwriting that gave away his previous career. Bucky put his jacket on over his pajamas and Aideen was curled up in a blanket Bucky got her reading king leer,
" Go on Astor, open yours !" Bucky urged. I dipped my hand in and pulled out a medium sized package, apparently from Stephen. I teared it open , it was a green set of a scarf, mittens and a hat. I hugged him and kissed his cheek ,
" Thank you so much, Stephen !" He grinned, seemingly proud of himself. I dipped into the basket again and pulled out a very strangely shaped present from Mordu,
" Oh, I didn't get him anything  !" I realized guiltily ,
" Believe me, you won't want to once you open it." I ripped it open to find a box of elbow and knee pads with a helmet sitting on top of it. I couldn't help giggling,
" You can't imagine how long it took him to wrap that." Yet again, I pulled out a weird shape, pointy this time, from Bucky . I opened it by pushing the point up. It was a plain silver dagger I vaguely recognized. I looked up at Bucky, looking for an answer,
" It was your signature weapon from H.Y.D.R.A, remember ?" I nodded, things coming back to me, fights and duels with this thing,
" Yeah, I do, thank you Bucky, but how did you find this ?" He chuckled,
 " I found it in one of the rooms in there, I kept ahold of it." I smiled at him and reached for the last two presents, one from Aideen and the other from Wong. I opened Aideen's, it was a book called Sun Zu's art of war. I went over to where she'd curled up and kicked her gently ,
" Oi! thank you." She glared up at me and went back to her book. I finally opened Wong's present , it was a pair of earrings, copper I think, that looked like leaves,
" Oh, that was sweet of him. " I commented, removing a piece of card that read, " there is always a place for you here" It felt good to finally belong somewhere.