Metal Birds?

9: Happy Holidays

**WARNING: HELLA LONG CHAPTER AHEAD. NOT KIDDING**

The three of them, Clint, Natasha, and Pietro, had a nice time at the farm house with the kids, but were definitely ready to retire and go back to the Avengers facility when Laura returned the next afternoon.

Natasha spent her time at the facility training young recruits as well as the new Avengers team. Clint loved to hang out by the archery range and even made some new friends with a few of the guys who were practicing the skill. Pietro absolutely adored the huge track and loved running circles around Steve, who also enjoyed running, typically circles around Sam. Sam actually gave Pietro twenty dollars to run past Steve for ten minutes and yell "On your left!" each time.

Every birthday that year was celebrated with small parties that were actually more like get-togethers than parties. All but Tony's, of course. Tony's birthday was right after the battle with Ultron, on May 29th. He had repaired the tower by then and invited everyone he knew to come and celebrate. It was one of the most extravagant birthday parties Steve had ever been to. Steve's own birthday party that year had also been a bit over-the-top, and he didn't even plan it!

Tony Stark had everything set up over at his tower and Steve was the only one who was completely oblivious. He had been out all day with Natasha and didn't expect almost every single person he had ever met to jump out of nowhere and scream "HAPPY BIRTHDAY STEVE" in his face when he returned. He was also not expecting the amazing fireworks to shoot from the roof of the tower at midnight and he didn't expect to get drunk off of loads of Thor's special Asgardian alcohol. He didn't expect a badly played drunken game of spin the bottle and he didn't expect to land on Tony and he didn't expect to wake up (fully clothed) draped over the brunet with his first hangover.

To say the least, it was Steve's favorite birthday party of his entire life.

But enough about birthdays. There was only one celebration Clint genuinely cared about; Christmas. It came at the end of the year, like always, and he was granted permission to go home to his sister, his neice, and his nephews. Clint, per usual, dragged Natasha along with him and they stayed for the week from Christmas to New Years. This time, it was a little different. This time he also brought along Pietro and Wanda Maximoff.

~

They arrived at the farm on December 23rd. The Quinjet landed in the snow and the four of them piled out with their bags and headed to the house. When they got inside, Clint gave Wanda the tour while Pietro and Natasha went to put their stuff in the rooms they had before. Wanda decided to stay in the guest room downstairs and brought her stuff in there, leaving Clint alone in the living room. He stretched out on the couch and fell asleep.

Laura and the kids were out most of the day and they didn't even know Clint was coming. Yes, they did know he was coming home for Christmas, but they didn't know he was coming yet. They were excited to see the jet in the yard, but they were super excited when they saw Clint asleep on the couch.

Pietro had showered and gotten dressed in clean clothes and was walking downstairs when the door opened. He saw Cooper run into the house followed closely by Lila and ran down the meet them. He was about to speak and they hushed him, pointing to their sleeping uncle on the couch with mischievous looks.

"What about him?" Pietro asked in a whisper.

"Guys, he's deaf," Natasha reminded them, walking through the room. "He takes out his hearing aids when he's asleep, you know that. He can't hear you." Lila ran over and jumped into Natasha's arms, giggling. "Hey, you little nugget. How are you doing?"

"Auntie Nat, I can't believe you came!" Cooper exclaimed, coming over to hug her as well. She ruffled his hair and grinned.

"I always come for Christmas. You think I would just leave you guys hanging? Huh, Coop?" she teased, poking his cheek. He laughed and Natasha put Lila back on the floor. "Now, do you guys want to have a little fun with uncle Clint?"