Light of my Life (STONY)

Christmas Day

Steve's POV

I woke up, expecting to feel Tony pushed up against my torso, but to my shock, he wasn't there.

"JARVIS where's Tony?" I wasn't exactly worried - he knew what day it was, and he'd said he wouldn't go to the lab today.

"He's in the kitchen, sir. He is with Miss Romanoff, Dr Banner, Mr Barnes, Colonel Rhodes and Mr and Miss Maximoff. Vision is also with them, he just walked in. Mr Barton is with his family and Mr Odinson is nowhere to be found."

"Probably Asgard," I muttered. I grabbed a shirt and some jeans, got dressed and walked in.

"Merry Christmas, guys!" Everyone looked up smiling to see me stood in the doorway.

"The last of our comrades," laughed Nat.

"I was meant to bring you breakfast in bed, idiot." Tony was stood cooking something - I couldn't make out what.

"You made an AI that can do literally anything, you could've at least made him not let me out." He was facing the oven so I placed my arms around his waist and put my chin on his shoulder. "What're you making?"

"They were meant to be waffles but I can't be bothered to get out the waffle maker so they're vanilla pancakes," he muttered. He flipped the ones in the pan to make sure they were cooked on both sides and put them on a plate. "And I have to cook for everyone so it's gonna be a while." I laughed.

"I can make a start on another pan if you want a hand."

"No, it's okay, I got it. Sit down, I'll let you know if I need help." I sat down at the kitchen island and looked out of the window. New York was covered in snow and there were christmas lights everywhere you looked. Bucky, Nat, Wanda and Pietro were talking about something in Russian, Bruce, Rhodey and Vision were talking about how Vision could take control of the stone in his head. I poured myself some tea and watched Tony cook. He was getting a little flustered, but didn't say he needed anything. Wanda noticed I wasn't talking and started speaking to me and Bucky about what christmas used to be like for us.

"So you didn't put lights on the tree?"

"Nope," I smiled. Her jaw dropped.

"But that's the whole thing of christmas!"

"Our parents weren't too well off, christmas was expensive. It was like it's own hierarchy - the richer you were, the more likely you were to have lights on your christmas tree," I replied, taking a sip of tea.

"Did you have christmas lunch?"

"We did ours as a late lunch or early dinner, but yeah. We didn't do turkey, though, we usually did chicken. It was cheaper," reasoned Bucky.

"Also, turkey is gross," Wanda mused. I laughed and nodded.

"That's 100% true, turkey's disgusting," I agreed.

"Okay, breakfast is ready," said Tony. He placed a stack of plates in the middle of the table, Nat got out toppings, and he placed the pancakes next to the plates.

"Tony, do you think you cooked enough?" Bruce frowned. "It only looks enough for the entirety of the state." Tony rolled his eyes and took a pancake from the top of the stack.

"You're hilarious, Banner. You really are a piece of work." He sat down next to me and bit into his pancake. I took one and did the same. Gotta hand it to him - they were good pancakes.

After breakfast, we all went and sat in the living room. I fazed out a little, staring out of the window, thinking about last year's christmas together. We hadn't really done a lot, we'd just really stayed indoors. Nobody was home, so it was just us. Tony dragged me out of my daydream and threw an envelope onto my lap.