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."

"It's obvious, Point Break," Tony replied, shrugging nonchalantly. "Anja has a little infatuation going on; possibly some hybristophilia. You know, totally normal things for a girl her age."

Infatuation? Thor had no idea what hybristophilia was, but he definitely knew what infatuation was. Thor looked to Anja, who was completely red in the face. He wasn't sure if it was out of anger or embarrassment at that point. It was likely both, from what he knew of humans. This couldn't have been a comfortable situation for her, after all.

"Shut the hell up, Tony," she hissed. "It's no one's business but my own, and it better stay that way or I will personally slit the throat of anyone who speaks a word of it."

By that point, everyone was looking at Anja as if she had grown a second head. Even Loki was looking at her with wide eyes. Obviously trying to diffuse the tension in the room, Thor watched as his adopted brother reached down and picked up one of Anja's presents, easing it into her hands.

"Here; open this," Loki said calmly. "I assure you, it will make you feel better."

Thor watched Anja's face slowly relax as she held the box in her hands, her eyes staring into Loki's. Thor was going to divert his attention back to his own presents until he saw Tony nodding slightly towards Anja and Loki and giving Thor a wide eyed look. It took a couple of seconds, but he caught on. Now that Tony had mentioned it, it was rather apparent. Honestly, it was rather cute to see first hand.

He chose to say nothing on the matter as the rest of the group took this as their cue to start opening up their presents. Thor took a few moments to glance around the semi-circle, watching all of his friends tear off the brightly colored paper, before he started to do the same to his own. He only got through the first gift when a high pitched squeal echoed through the room. Thor brought a hand up to cover his ear as he glanced to his right just in time to see Anja smothering Loki in a tight hug.

"This is perfect!" she continued a little more quietly, still hugging her friend tightly. "I definitely needed more Earl Grey tea. And I love this cup! It's so shiny! I needed a new one because someone- Layla!- broke my old one."

Loki hesitantly hugged her back, his face flushed pink from the unexpected affection. Thor wasn't sure he had ever seen his brother blush like that before. Or hug someone without stabbing them for that matter. "I thought you would appreciate having a fresh tin and a new mug for the trip to space," he mused. "Plus I've heard this tea substance can help one relax. I figured you could use some relaxation."

Anja pulled away from her friend and looked back at the small box on the floor next to her, before looking back at him. "Thank you so much, Loki. Truly, it's perfect. I don't know how you knew Earl Grey was my favorite, but thank you."

Loki smiled, and glanced over Anja's shoulder at Layla. The blonde winked at him, but since Anja was too busy looking at him, she missed it. "Oh, just a lucky guess I suppose," he answered slyly.

Thor shook his head at the display. The three of them were going to be the death of him, he just knew it. It was nice to see Loki making attempts to get along with at least some of their new group, and it was progress Thor hoped continued. His brother hadn't made many friends in his lifetime for multiple reasons, and it was nice to see that at least one person had managed to break through that icy exterior of his even just a little bit.

"Alright so now that we all need new eardrums, can we finish opening the rest of these gifts?" Tony sassed. "We kinda have a schedule to uphold, you know."

"What schedule? All that's left for us to do today is eat dinner and start packing for our departure tomorrow," Bruce pointed out. "And most of us don't even have to really pack since we never bothered unpacking. It's just you, Anja, and Layla who need to."

"Please do not remind me," Layla muttered. "I don't mind cooking dinner, for obvious reasons, but I am not looking forward to packing all my shit. There's just too much of it."

"Don't worry about how much you pack, Lady Layla," Thor assured. "The ship we will be traveling on has plenty of cargo space. We will have more than enough room for whatever you choose to pack."

"Good to know," Layla replied, setting aside a sweater she had just unwrapped. "Cuz lord knows the three of us will have a hard time narrowing down what we're bringing. None of us exactly travel lightly."

"Speak for yourself," Anja retorted. "Last time we flew to Vegas to visit Spencer I packed a week's worth of stuff in that tiny suitcase."

"Please note, however, Lady Anja, we will be gone for much longer than a week," Loki added, his voice more solemn than it was the last time he spoke. "We could possibly be gone months, maybe even years. And as my brother said, we have plenty of room so don't worry about packing too much."

Thor saw a strange expression cross Anja's face, something between sadness and excitement. "Are you alright?" he asked.

Anja shrugged, her right shoulder brushing up against Loki slightly. "All the family I have left other than Rhodey and Pepper will be on the ship with me, so I will be fine... eventually. No one will even notice I'm gone."

Layla leaned over and hugged her friend tightly, per her usual protocol. Thor had noticed during this extended visit with his human friends how motherly Layla had become since he had last seen them. She always was like that, but the last few days she seemed even more so. Perhaps it was because the last time he visited Earth, Anja hadn't been so stressed. The younger girl had been perfectly content and happy a few years ago; now it was more than apparent she had seen better days. Something definitely happened to Anja between the Avengers' battle with Ultron and now; Thor wasn't sure what, but it was troubling, at best. It was upsetting to see his friend this way, but he knew that she was in safe hands with Layla around. Layla would make a fine mother one day, he was certain.

"It will be fine, love," Layla assured, pulling away from her younger friend, leaving a hand on her shoulder. "Stop worrying so much. You have all these awesome people around you. Things are going to work out one way or another."

"Well until we actually face Thanos that is," Tony chimed in, taking a long sip from his cocoa. "Then all bets are off because people are definitely going to die."

Layla shot him a glare. "You shut your damn mouth. You're not helping!"

Tony looked at her looking completely unabashed. "I'm just being honest. It would be foolish to assume everyone is going to come out of this alive, let alone everyone in this room."

"Stop being honest and be helpful!" Layla countered.

"She is right, Anthony," Thor added. "Lady Anja needs reassurance, not blatant honesty right now. None of us need reminding of the terrors we will face during this venture." He paused for a moment, trying to figure out exactly what to say. "I was told this is a Midgardian holiday of cheer and joy; let us try to enjoy this time we have together before we have to focus on work again."

No one else spoke a word and resumed opening their presents. However, that didn't last long. About fifteen minutes later, seemingly everyone opened their presents from Layla at the same time. The other seven members of the group made varying sounds of intrigue and disgust. It seemed Layla had bought them all- even her new acquaintances- varying things from the local adult store.

"Uh, I think I speak for all of us when I say this... what the actual hell, Layla?" Tony questioned, setting down a small vial of something next to his other gifts.

"Yeah," Bruce muttered in agreement, smiling only a little and tucking whatever his gift was under some of his other presents. "Why?"

Anja and Spencer on the other hand were not even remotely shocked by their gifts. This was not the first time Layla had done this, and surely not the last. Their friend had gotten each of them essentially a care package full of all sorts of provocative things.

Anja blushed profusely, and quickly hid it under a shirt Spencer had bought her. "Thanks for that," she mumbled. "But I agree. Why?"

"Too much stress? I got you. Lonely nights? I got you. Just wanting to have a good time? I got you. Unresolved sexual tension with someone else on the spaceship that you don't want to address? I got you!" Layla exclaimed, excitedly. "Everybody's gonna have a good time!"

"That last one seemed a little too specific," Bruce pointed out.

"Oh because it was!" Layla assured. "There is a lot of unresolved sexual tension in this room between certain individuals and I hope this helps on the quest to resolve it. That's all. I'm just trying to be helpful."

Thor noticed Anja looked both irate and embarrassed again, but she said nothing more on the situation, and resumed opening up her presents, disregarding anything else going on. Spencer shook her head, but didn't speak up either.

"Hey, despite what everyone else thinks, this is some cool ass shit," Brunnhilde commented, leaning over to give Layla a high five.

"Well, hey. I am glad at least one person appreciates it!" Layla exclaimed happily.

Thor nodded, thoroughly embarrassed by the whole ordeal. There was a lot to adjust to with so many new friends around- things like this especially. "Well thanks for that. Moving on," he stated plainly before resuming opening more of his gifts.

Thor wasn't sure if this is how all Midgardian Christmases were, but he was sure his first would be one he would never forget.

*****

Hi again! I hope all of you had a nice weekend, and those of you who celebrated the Thanksgiving holiday enjoyed yourselves as well! It was a strange holiday for me, as for once I wasn't completely annoyed by my family by the end of the night. I think it was because it was only our unproblematic family members who were invited, but at any rate it was still nice. We spent the weekend putting up our Christmas decorations and preparing for the snowstorm we got last night/this morning.

Hard to believe I wrote this chapter almost a year ago now! This one was written around Christmas 2017, and it seems like only yesterday. That being said... we are approaching the one year anniversary for when I started writing this story (although I didn't start posting it until much later). December 5th is coming soon, and I think I may want to do something special to commemorate that. My dear friend thirdwheelchurchill  suggested I could do a deleted scene, a Q & A, or a flashback chapter. I think all of them are fantastic ideas, so if there is something any of you would like to see or ask (maybe I'll end up doing multiple of these things) feel free to drop a comment or send me a message!

Also, special shout out to my friend, Always_Hufflepuff , as it was her birthday yesterday! :)

Anyways, now that this chapter is done, the real fun begins. ;)

~arty_writes