A/N: Heya People! Its been quite a while and I apologise for that. I hope that this will satisfy you guys for my absence.
Note: I will be referring to Maria Hill as Marie or Maria Hill (Maybe Maggie in later chapters) when I am bringing in Maria Hill and Maria Stark into the scene.
The months passed by quickly since the time the Hills left their 2 year old daughter Maria, who had been staying over with them for the past 3 months due to her parent's extended mission. Tony and Nebula were immediately attracted to her, always going behind her, doting on her and playing with her. Even Quill had fallen for her charms when he met her.
The four of them were rarely seen apart. If they weren't in school, they would always go out to play together while the adults watched over them until it was time for dinner.
The came Halloween. After a lot of secret discussions between Tony, Nebula and Quill, they decided to dress up as aliens, wishing that Nebula can roam around without disguises for at least that one day. While initially sceptical, Howard and Maria agreed for the dress up, causing the lot to jump up in joy before getting their costumes ready.
"Are you ready little Phoenix?" Nebula asked as she walked out of her room without the bracelet. "Gimme a minute Nebby, just some last minute changes." He shouted as he wore his trench coat and picked up his screw driver.
"Hello there! Did anyone call for the Doctor?" Tony said as he walked out. "Doctor Who?" Nebula asked just for the sake of it.
"Oh good! You guys are ready then. Can you also take little Marie with you? We all will be busy over here and it can be quite entertaining for her as well." Maria asked as she came in, holding onto Maria Hill, who was all dolled up for the night.
"Sure mom, no problem. When are the Quills arriving?" Nebula asked. "They should be here at any moment. Do you have your baskets with you?" Howard asked.
"Yes dad, we are all ready to go out for trick or treating." Tony said as he jumped up and down. "They are soo... going to get a sugar rush in the following day and make it hell, won't they" Jarvis whispered to Ana. "They sure will but... let them enjoy the childish innocence while it lasts, you know. It will be tough for them when they are all grown up." She whispered back.
"True that. And there is the third monkey" Jarvis said as the door bell rung repeatedly. When the door was opened, all anyone could see was a pair of antennae fly past them with a exasperated Meredith coming through the door.
"That boy has been a ball of energy all day. Hopefully it will go down soon." Meredith said with a sigh as she greeted Jarvis. "But we all know it wouldn't last. The kids are going to have sugar rush for days." Maria said knowingly.
"I know, but it is worth it I guess." Meredith said as she saw the kids interacting with each other. Nebula was in her true form with the blue and purple skin, Tony was going all out Doctor Who with the white shirt, pants and a bow tie, topping it with the classic trench coat and sonic screwdriver.
Quill was wearing a antennae headband while colouring his face in a bright green colour and a matching gloves and a purple jumpsuit. Maria was dressed up as a simple fairy with tiny wings and a wand.
"Thank you for agreeing to take them for trick or treating. As much as we would love to do it, it will not be possible with our work." Howard said sincerely to Meredith, who was wearing a witch costume, with a pointy hat and fake nails.
"Oh! It's not a problem at all. It will be fun to see them running up and down, cracking all the jokes and have fun." she said with a soft smile.
And so they went, marching along the streets, shouting out non sync poems while Maria was holding onto Meredith, hopping from house to house. By the time they were back home, it was late in the night, arms almost asleep from the weight of the chocolate and the kids were exhausted.
"Alright then, time to bed! You can eat your candies tomorrow!" Maria said as she took the sleeping Marie from Meredith while sending the rest of them up to bed, for they were having a sleepover that day.
As suspected, the candy bars were exhausted in a week and they spent another week trying to make the children come down from their sugar highs. And they were difficult children when they have sugar rushes. A little child and 2 five year olds with their older sister, forget peace.
And then comes Thanksgiving, where the Quills, Starks and Carters meet up together for a family dinner as in the past few months, the Quills have grown close to the Stark family and almost have become family in all but blood.
And then came the Christmas celebrations. News spread that the Hills will be coming back around the time of Christmas, causing some downtrodden looks from the other kids but they were assured that they would be seeing Maria as often as they can once she has started school.
And Christmas was another exciting event in the household. The tree was bought, the decorations were brought down, searching for presents, all in all, a very busy affair. The kids were at a loss as to what to gift each other and were often found asking the adults about what to do discreetly, much to the amusement of said adults.
And finally, it is the week before Christmas. The Hills had arrived to pick up Maria, only to stay back at the Stark household till the end of New Year, thanks to the two puppy eyes pulled by Tony and Nebula.
They were then taken to Christmas shopping to buy gifts, the kids running around the shop to select the perfect gifts for each other while the adults picked up their own gifts along with a few more decorations and whatever they needed for the Christmas dinner.
Howard and Maria were also having a busy week, filled with Galas and all the other publicity stuff, which left them with little time to spend with their children, but they understood the circumstances and started decorating everything with the help of the Quills and the Hills.
On Christmas eve, they sat around the couch, discussing cheesy stories of their childhood and their personal adventures and all that stuff over hot chocolate until it was bedtime. The next morning, all the parents were woken up by some very overexcited children, who wanted to open their gifts as early as possible.
Amused by their excitement, the adults dressed up and assembled by the tree before handing out the numerous gifts underneath it, after which they switched on the TV for some classical movies.
The evenings were the most fun though. While Jarvis, Ana, Meredith were in the kitchen, Howard and the Hills were discussing about confidential things, Maria gathered all the children around the piano and played it along with Tony, singing along to the tune while the others tried to join in with off setting tune, sending the others into laughter.
"Maybe we should make it a tradition? The night before sharing stories, the morning filled with cheesy movies and the night will be the special secret song, each of us setting our own tune to it while mom plays the piano?" Nebula asked, greeted with enthusiastic agreements. All in all, it was a year well spent.
A/N: Hey there! Sorry for the delay again. I wanted to post it for Halloween but... since the chapter was too short and mostly narrative, I decided to club it with Christmas. (Ironically, I will be publishing it just at the end of the day, literally at 11:59 my time at the end of the day) So... yeah, hope you all liked this chapter! All comments and criticisms accepted and appreciated. A few more chapters of supped fluff and some angst before everything is on fire!
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year guys, wow, the decade is about to end, it has sped by too quickly man. Which reminds me... it has nearly been a year since I posted Old Memories and New Beginnings (Which is like... this book's somewhat predecessor, go and check it out if you like)
Also, I have been wondering... should I do something like a cook off between the Avengers - Like Nat challenges the other Avengers to cook a meal of Russian while she will be the judge or something like that? Any ideas?
Thank you all for reading!
Rasi10 signing off
Published on 25 December 2019