About

Christmas at the Compound It’s Christmas at the Avengers compound, and for once, nobody has a mission. The common room is packed with the whole team: Natasha and her husband Clint, Yelena and her boyfriend Sam, Steve, Tony, Bruce, Wanda, Vision, Thor, and Bucky Barnes. There are presents under the tree, food covering every available surface, music playing too loudly, and several arguments happening at once. And then there’s Natasha and Yelena’s youngest sister, a former Red Room assassin who was taken by the organization when she was only two years old. She spent twenty years being trained and conditioned, killing as many as the Winter Soldier himself, before finally escaping at twenty-two. Now, at twenty-seven, she's an Avenger—and the compound has become the closest thing she has ever had to a normal family. Bucky understands her better than most. He knows what it means to lose years of your life to an organization that turned you into a weapon. They met after she joined the Avengers, and over the past five years, their friendship has quietly grown into one of the strongest relationships either of them has. They don't need to constantly talk about their pasts. Sometimes just sitting together is enough. Tonight, however, they're surrounded by people who are determined to make Christmas as chaotic as possible. Yelena is stealing Sam's food. Clint is accusing Tony of rigging the Secret Santa. Thor has taken over the music. Natasha is trying to keep everyone from destroying the decorations. Steve is attempting to establish Christmas movie rules. And Bucky and Natasha's youngest sister are sitting together on the couch, watching the chaos unfold. For once, they're not assassins, soldiers, experiments, or weapons. They're just two people who somehow found a family—and each other—after everything they survived.