#santabuck

"Hey, Nat, I made you something. It has my blood on it, see, on account of I cut myself while I was making it."

"What the fuck, Bucky. Did you go scouting in Central Park just for this? Jesus... I should never have told you to watch Bad Santa. Oh, god, is that ketchup?"

Steve half-turns to where the two of them are seated on the couch. Bucky's grinning his old Cheshire-Cat grin, and Nat's got her arms crossed but she's clearly entertained. The lump of wood sits on the cushion between them, and -- yes, Steve can tell from here, it's definitely drizzled in ketchup.

He shakes his head, smiling softly, and turns back to the work at hand. He's on a stepladder in front of the Christmas tree (Sam got one that was too tall even for Steve to reach the top), and he's just stretching to place the star on top. It's the gaudiest thing Steve's ever seen -- stars and stripes, with mounds of silver tinsel and red and blue lights, because Tony thinks he's funny.

"I'm sorry, Nat. Would you prefer the ketchup on a sandwich instead?"

"Shut the fuck up, Barnes. I hate you."

"Natasha," Sam chides, hidden somewhere behind the (truly, ridiculously huge) tree. "Be nice."

Steve steps down and away, surveying their handiwork. After a few seconds, he's joined by Sam.

Steve hums. "Do you think the star looks..."

"Like crap? Yeah, I do."

"Shoulda put you on top of the tree instead!" says Bucky, because he's a shit.

"Yeah, I'm a perfect angel, I know," says Sam distractedly.

"I mean, it is awful," Steve concedes, "but that's not what I meant. Do you think it looks -- "

"Crooked? Yeah, a little."

"Damn. I think it's too heavy."

"Nah, you just did it wrong. Here, let me -- "

"No!" Steve says quickly. "I can do it!"

"Careful, Steve," says Natasha. "Your competitive streak is showing."

Bucky laughs. "'Streak'? He's nothing but competitive."

Steve just rolls his eyes and climbs back up the stepladder. He spends a couple minutes struggling with the ridiculous star, twisting the wire at the base around the branch this way and that way, but nothing works.

"Hey, I get it," Bucky says, suddenly right next to him, and Steve jumps. "It's a shield."

"Oh, shit," Sam laughs.

Steve just grumbles and keeps fighting with it. Before long, he feels Bucky's hand sliding, warm and slow, over his ass. He sends Bucky a look that he hopes is at least somewhat disapproving, but he can't quite stop himself from smiling.

"I knew that movie'd give you ideas," Steve murmurs.

Bucky widens his eyes comically. "This was a great idea," he replies, massaging Steve's ass through his jeans.

"Oh, god," Natasha chokes. "What have I done."

"Let's be honest, he probably would have done it anyway." Sam sounds resigned.

Steve chuckles to himself, but he doesn't move Bucky's hand. Just turns back to the star and keeps tweaking it.

"I think... I got it." He takes backs off and starts stepping down.

Bucky's hand tightens on his ass. "Need a little help gettin' down, there, huh Stevie?" he says, and when Steve reaches Bucky's eye level, he's grinning ear-to-ear.

"Always lookin' out for me. Such a good friend." And, because he can't help himself, Steve slips his hand around Bucky's neck and pulls him in for a kiss.

"Agh, guys, come on," Sam complains when things heat up a little, and Steve tears himself away from Bucky, laughing.

"Sorry," Steve says, but Bucky's smiling at him all moony and twitterpated, and he's really not sorry at all. "Thought I saw some mistletoe."

"Yeah, whatever. Just keep it in your pants for a few minutes, okay guys?"

Steve just looks at Bucky for a moment, swipes a thumb over his cheekbone, takes in the incredible blue of his eyes. Then he drops his hand and scoops up a few presents from under the tree.

"Christmas Eve," he says, crossing to the couch, and Sam and Nat. "Everybody gets to open one, right?"

"Ooh, Nat first, Nat first!" Bucky positively bounces across the room, planting himself right next to Natasha.

"Oh god." Natasha accepts the gift Steve hands her and rips it open with a frightening precision. She's wincing as she opens the box, and when she looks inside, she groans.

"Steve, this is gross," she says, leaning away from the box.

"What? What is it?" Sam's standing behind Nat, craning his neck.

With two fingers, Nat lifts the pink elephant out of the box. It has spots of something dark on its trunk.

Bucky laughs out loud. "Aw, Stevie! That's amazing! What'd you use for blood?"

Steve deadpans. "What do you mean, Buck? That blood's real."

Bucky just looks at Steve, completely unconvinced. Steve cracks pretty quick.

"It's chocolate syrup," he says, grinning.

"Oh, ew, that's pretty gross," says Sam.

Bucky wraps his arm tight around Steve's neck and plants a big, wet kiss on the side of his head. "Birds of a feather," he says happily.

"Yeah, you guys fuckin' deserve each other," Nat grumbles.

"Would you feel better if I made you a sandwich?"

the time has come for me to announce who my beautiful blog of the month will be...

winner: 

☆ achillehs​​ ☆

runners up:

mythohs ♥

santabuck ♥

michaelapraht ♥

woolcas ♥

bhrnes ♥

so many incredible blogs entered and it was so hard to pick just one winner and a five runners up (i made myself stop after 5, although all of you deserve recognition for running such kick ass blogs.) i'll be doing this again next month, so make sure to keep your eyes open for my next botm post!

to both the winner and runners up, you all can view your prizes here.

feel free to shoot me a message anytime throughout january telling me whether you want a poem, graphic, or ficlet based on your url.