Sorry for the wait. There's a thing called exams and they're happening and it's awful and oh god help me.

If We Can't Celebrate Christmas, You Can Be Damn Sure We'll Avenge It.

Day 3: character: Tony Stark theme: Decorating

It was a chilly day in New York. The sun shone through the clouds but didn't do anything to hinder the gently falling snowflakes. There was already a crisp layer of white on the ground surrounding Stark Tower, marred only by several sets of footprints clustered near the main entrance to the building.

"Friend Stark, are you quite certain that ladder is of reputable solidity? It looks rather questionable to me. I fear your mortal body would not survive a plummet." Thor boomed up at Tony who was perched precariously atop a 100-foot ladder wrapping metallic red tinsel around the glowing Stark Industries logo mounted high on the wall above the main entrance.

"It's fine, buddy." Tony shot back casually. "I've survived worse."

"Thor's right, Tony. You're not even wearing your suit." Pepper added uneasily, staring up at her adventurous Iron Man.

"JARVIS is upgrading the software. It won't be done for another hour. This can't wait, Peps!"

"Of course it can't." Pepper muttered, pulling her woollen hat down around her ears. "The whole building will collapse if you don't make it flashier, right now."

"I heard that, Ms. Potts. But I don't want coal in my stocking so I'm gonna let it slide. Hey Cap, bring me up some lights. I want this visible from outer space."

"Come get them yourself, Stark. I'm busy!" the star-spangled man with a plan retorted. He was occupied by carefully arranging a life-sized Nativity scene amongst the shrubbery.

"Lights and tinsel? Really, Tony?" Pepper questioned reproachfully. "You're gonna make the building look like a joke."

"I don't think it's possible to make it look like any more of a joke, to be perfectly honest." Steve muttered under his breath. Unfortunately, Tony heard this. In his haste to scramble down and make the Supersoldier pay for his crack at Stark Tower, he accidentally kicked the ladder with a little too much vigour and it collapsed. Leaving a very surprised Tony clinging to the "K" on the massive STARK logo. Only for a moment though, because he found it impossible to maintain a grip on the ice-covered letter and he dropped like a stone.

There then came a deafening roar of "HULK CATCH!" and a giant green blur came hurtling through the air and intercepted the falling genius before he hit the ground. It all happened in the blink of an eye.

"OH MY GOD TONY." Pepper screeched, sprinting over (high heeled boots and all) to where the Hulk gently deposited his catch safely onto solid ground.

"Thanks, big guy." Tony wheezed, brushing himself off. "I owe ya one."

"Metal man safe?" Hulk grunted concernedly.

"Very." Tony confirmed with a grin, patting his friend's massive arm right before Pepper swept him into a rib-crushing hug. "Oh come on, Peps. I've fallen farther distances than that."

"YOU WEREN'T IN THE DAMN SUIT. Why do you have to be so irresponsible? Decorating that stupid sign all by yourself, what were you thinking?" she groaned with a long-suffering sigh.

"I'm thinking it was his fault." Tony shrugged, pointing at Steve who had just finished placing baby Jesus in the manger amongst the life-sized plastic animals.

"Please, Stark. If you weren't so vindictive, you wouldn't have gotten mad and fallen off the ladder." Steve snorted.

"If you didn't have such ancient taste in architecture, you wouldn't have called my building a joke. You knew perfectly well that would incur my wrath."

"If you weren't so self-absorbed, you'd respect my opinion."

"If you-"

"MORTALS!" Thor hollered, practically shaking the ground. "You have told me time upon time that this festival of Christmas is supposed to be a joyous affair, yet it seems to cause more strife than merriment. Hence I trust you will excuse my confusion." the God of Thunder cocked a thick golden eyebrow and stared around at his comrades.

"Thor, the Wikipedia description we read you was ideal Christmas. My friend, this is real Christmas in all its obnoxious glory." Tony clarified.

"Why am I not surprised at how materialistic it's become?" Steve lamented.

"Because-" Tony had some Stark-worthy comeback at the ready but he was interrupted by Clint yelling from across the parking lot:

"Hey, Jolly Green!" Are you gonna come back and pick this up where you left it, or are you gonna leave the puny humans to do your heavy lifting?"

Just visible was Clint and Natasha, struggling with a humungous evergreen tree. However, Bruce had de-Hulked so Steve and Thor rushed over to assist them and in no time at all the tree had made it to the building. Closer inspection revealed that it was an 11-foot-tall 5-foot-wide Douglas Fir, complete with soil-encrusted roots although it had been ripped right up out of the ground. This was not lost on Tony.

"Umm, guys? Roots? Unless you intend to re-plant it in my hot tub, I fail to see how we'll fit this in the tree stand."

"Yeah… there was an… issue." Clint mumbled, scratching his head (h)awkwardly.

"We got to the tree farm in one piece. Everything was going fine till we picked out a tree that met all your specifications, and Bruce looked at the price… then we had a bit of a big green situation on our hands." Natasha explained. "He took off and we followed him in the Hummer…"

"We had to take a few creative shortcuts to keep up with him, and the truck has SHIELD plastered across the sides so we'll probably get billed for damages. Just sayin'." Clint sighed.

"We finally caught up with Bruce in Central Park, but he'd already uprooted… that. Then we heard the sirens coming, and he took off. We ran back to the Hummer and followed him here." Tasha smirked.

"Sorry, sorry, I'm so sorry!" Bruce groaned in anguish, covering his face with his hands.

"No worries, you saved me. The general public owes you a big dirty tree at the very least." Tony grinned.

"Yeah, he dropped the tree like a hot potato as soon as he saw you dangling." Clint contributed,

"Well he's got his priorities right." Pepper smiled and hugged the worn-out looking scientist. "Thanks, Bruce."

"This is why I hate Christmas. I don't do stress well." Bruce mumbled.

"Come on, let's get the tree inside and take a hot chocolate break. Then we can start decorating." Pepper urged. Thor and Steve obliged, each grabbing an end of the tree and making their way to the door.

"Where has my brother disappeared to?" Thor inquired, pausing in the doorway.

"I sent him to the East lawn to work on a special project." Pepper replied inconspicuously. Let's go fetch him, shall we?"

The Avengers filed around the side of the building. As they reached the East lawn, their jaws dropped one by one.

"Holy shit!" Clint yelped. "What'd he do?!"

"Tapped into his long-lost Frost Giant powers, apparently." Bruce noted.

"Son of a bitch." Tasha breathed in awe.

"Damn, Loki." Steve muttered appreciatively.

"That is my brother!" Thor boomed proudly.

"Mine needs to be taller!" Tony whined.

The East entrance of Stark Tower was now flanked by 7 ice sculptures… life-sized, glistening representations of each of the Avengers who were posed as though charging towards Loki himself, whose crystalline statue was standing in a rather menacing pose at the top of the stairs. However, the flesh-and-bones Loki was nowhere to be seen.

"How did he do that?" Steve gasped. "This should've taken him all year!"

"He has… what is it you mortals say? Skills." Thor replied, beaming with delight over his little brother'c creation.

"Wow, that one's a sexy beast." Clint noted critically, striding over to the nearest sculpture. "Oh, would you look at that! It's me!"

"I'm not that short. There's no way. We need to make some emergency modifications before anyone sees this. Hey, Reindeer Games! …Loki? Where is he?!" Tony demanded. "As if throwing me out a window wasn't bad enough... is this because of the whole Shawarma thing? I thought we were past this!"

Sorry for the sudden ending. I had a bunch more but I split it in half so the next part will be chapter 4.

This story is so much less organized than I planned THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I RUSH STUFF AT CHRISTMAS, I ALWAYS OVERCOMMIT AND THINGS GET UGLY ugh why didn't I just write a oneshot.

You'll have to excuse me, I'm not at my best. University has turned my happy little life into a veritable hell hole so every little review helps.

RXP