Shine Again (An Avengers: Infinity War/Endgame Story)

Chapter 9: Christmas

Thor had come to the conclusion that Midgardians had some interesting customs. In his time amongst his friends, he had seen many odd traditions and holidays, but this Christmas they were celebrating today may have been the most strange yet. His human friends had woken them all up at sunrise, and they had gathered around the evergreen tree that had been adorned with lights and various red and gold ornaments. All of them had dressed in fancy sweaters and other festive attire as opposed to their usual Midgardian clothes. The gifts they had bought the day before had all been wrapped in colorful paper and labeled with their recipients' names, and then placed elaborately about the tree's bottom. Tony had lined the fireplace with large, fluffy socks- one for each of them, and they appeared to be stuffed with sweets.

Honestly, it was all quite strange.

Layla had just finished passing out the hot chocolate she had made for everyone, and had sat down cross-legged between him and Anja on the floor. Her knee bumped up against his, and instinctively Thor moved over a bit to give her more room. He wasn't quite sure why they were all gathered on the floor, but he was sure he was about to find out.

"Alright, now that we all have our traditional cocoa, thanks to my lovely Layla, let's get this party started," Tony declared, looking at the semi-circle of "friends" before he plopped down in front of the base of the tree a few feet away. Almost immediately he started to rummage through all of the brightly wrapped boxes under the tree, passing out seven presents to each person.

Thor looked at the seven boxes in front of him curiously. What was he supposed to do with them? He glanced around the room at his friends, trying to figure out what he was supposed to do now that he was in possession of the packages. It was Anja who finally broke the silence.

"Can we open them now, Tones?" she pleaded, hardly hiding her excitement.

"Hmmm... I don't know if you've behaved enough to deserve presents, little Anja," Tony replied, leaning forward towards her to grab a present off her pile, but the girl moved her stack of gifts from in front of her to between her and Loki, well out of Tony's reach.

"I have been perfectly behaved," she muttered, frowning slightly.

"Oh I don't know about that," Layla joined in, a smirk on her face.

"Do we have to bring up yesterday?" Spencer chimed in from the other side of the circle, pushing some of her hair over her shoulder. "Because that alone I think is enough to disqualify you from presents."

Thor was curious. It was obvious something had happened during their shopping trip yesterday, but none of them had mentioned anything in detail. Just that the girls had a little altercation and that it was resolved with some weird alcohol called a mimosa. Whatever it was, Anja had seemed more on edge than she had been previously, and it hadn't been taking much to make her blush. Of course her friends- or at least those who were aware of whatever was revealed at the mall- kept pestering her, so he was sure that was a contributing factor.

"Do the rest of us get to know what happened yesterday?" he decided to ask. "It seems like it must have been of importance since it has been brought up several times now."

"Oh it was, but for now, it must remain between us girls; you know, girl code and all," Layla answered, gently touching his leg, shooting a quick glance over her shoulder at Anja. "I'm sure it will all be revealed soon enough anyway."

Thor raised an eyebrow. Whatever this girl code was, it seemed to be powerful enough to keep this secret from the entire group.

"Believe her," Brunnhilde added from between Spencer and Bruce, hardly hiding a smirk. "Honestly... I wouldn't be surprised if it comes out by the time we finish our time in the first realm."