Variation - W.M.

Chapter 58 - December 30, 2016

"Pietro, stop hitting me!" I screeched, watching as my poor Yoshi spun out due to yet another red shell thrown by my absolute enemy at the moment.

"I'm just playing the game" he shot back smugly and I growled, my grip tightening around my remote.

"You're losing the game" Wanda pointed out, glancing at the orangish-yellow colored number that declared him in seventh place. I ignored the silver haired man's response as I pumped my first, wincing a little at the pain in my ribs before brushing it off. I just got a bullet, Pietro better watch out.

"What is this?" A voice questioned and I immediately recognized it as Steve's voice.

"Some game called Mario Kart" Yelena answered, already relaxing since she had finished in first, far ahead of everyone else. It was honestly pissing me off how she was so good at every game we played.

"It's more surprising how bad you are at every game" Wanda commented, apparently feeling free to skim my thoughts and share them with the group. I scowled, tossing my remote onto the couch and getting up.

"I'm getting a snack."

I stalked out of the main room and into the kitchen, throwing open the pantry and grabbing a pack of oreos aggressively. I knew I was overreacting about a stupid game, that I really shouldn't care if I win seeing as this was for Yelena, but anger worked well to covered the other emotions I didn't want to feel. The ones that popped up whenever my shortcuts in Mario Kart didn't work or when the colors of Twister included purple instead of blue.

"Hey, are you okay?"

I jumped a little at the voice before turning around with a pout. "Don't scare me like that Peter" I scolded the boy.

"Sorry! I came to ask if I could play with you guys and you were just standing there" he stammered and I smiled at how adorable the teen was.

"Of course you can play, you didn't have to ask me. Honestly if you had to ask anyone it'd be Yelena since it's her game night."

"I know but she kind of scares me" he mumbled and I snickered, nodding my head.

"Well help me grab some snacks and then let's go. Maybe you can beat Lena, she's getting too good" I prompted, starting to pull bags of chips out of the pantry and piling them into the boy's arms.

Once we had enough, at least in Peter's opinion, we headed back out to the room. I was immediately taken aback, rubbing my eyes to make sure I wasn't hallucinating.

"Did I just enter another timeline?" I asked, glancing around at the numerous Avengers who had seemed to appear in the room in my absence. Tony was standing behind the couch, obviously trying not to look as invested as he was while Steve, Nat, and Wanda all struggled to beat Yelena.

"I got kicked out because I lost" Pietro grumbled, appearing next to me and grabbing a bag of chips from Peter.

"Is Nat playing a video game?" I asked incredulously, eyes narrowing at the redhead.

"She says that Yelena convinced her but I think she just wanted to play" he said under his breath and I watched as Nat came in second place, behind Yelena of course.

"Kid! Perfect! Beat the Russians and I'll buy you all the legos you want" Tony told Peter and I raised my brows at the billionaire.

"He lost twice and got kicked off by Nat" Pietro explained.

"Ah" I breathed, confused on how long exactly I had been trapped in my thoughts. I was about to ask the man beside me but he lunged forward for the remote Steve was about to give up, declaring it was his turn. I shook my head at the bickering that began between many fully grown adults that were currently in charge of the safety of the earth.

They really were like a family having a game night.

"Everyone, listen up" I shouted, causing the noise to cease as everyone turned to look at me. "Alright, we're going to set up a system. One race and the three people who lost will give up their remotes to the next three people in line."

"She's won all of them though" Pietro whined and I shot him a look.

"If you have a problem then get better at the game."

He huffed but kept his mouth shut, everyone else agreeing to the rules set in place as they settled on an order that worked. I set myself in last, okay with watching everyone else play.

Peter ended up beating Yelena by a decent amount using shortcuts that greatly varied from the ones in my timeline. Upon further inspection, many of the courses and even some of the characters differed as well.

"You've been pretty quiet, are you that mad about losing?" Yelena asked, coming to sit next to me on the couch. I chuckled and shook my head, leaning back against the deep blue fabric of the furniture.

"Just tired. I'm still healing" I lied, not wanting to plunge deep into a topic when I wasn't sure how it would end.

"Thank you for this" she said genuinely and I smiled, nodding a little.

"Everyone deserves a family game night, even this dysfunctional group. There are other games that I'll get too just in case we do this again" I grinned, although I couldn't help but wonder if those games would be different too.

And if small things in games were different, how many more things had I overlooked?