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chapter fourteen

     "Hey kid," Captain America greeted with a small wave, pushing himself off of the table he was leaned against.
     "H-Hi Mr Captain America," Peter replied nervously, his face flushing in embarrassment at his stutter.
     "You can call me Steve if you'd like," the man said kindly.
After a moment of awkward silence and shared glances between the Avengers, Tony Stark walked in.
     "Oh, hey kid," Tony said nonchalantly as he sipped his coffee. He set it down on a side table before clasping his hands together. "I guess you've never been to this floor. So, this is the lounge, where you might find the 'famous Avengers' being idiots and breaking expensive things." Tony's stare was directed at Clint, who put his hands up defensively. "This floor has a few obstacle courses for training, the lounge that we're in, and some other stuff. There aren't any labs, though. I don't really trust most of these guys around lab equipment."
     "This is really cool," Peter said breathlessly, at a lack for a better word.
     "Yeah," Tony chuckled, grabbing his mug again. "Any questions?" He sipped his coffee.
"Lets give him a tour," Captain America proposed.
"Alright." Tony strolled out of the room, coffee mug in hand.
The rest of them shuffled after him, chattering amongst themselves. Peter fell in step besides who he knew as the Winter Soldier, more recently deemed as the White Wolf.
     Peter had only briefly talked to everyone when he had last been there, so he had never really gotten the chance to talk with anyone one on one.
"Hi," he said shyly, giving an awkward wave.
"Hello," the man smiled.
"I like your metal arm," he pointed, and Bucky lifted his arm so it was more visible.
     "Thanks," Bucky replied.
     Their conversation was brief, but Peter decided that he enjoyed talking him.

     It was mostly Tony who led the tour, but everyone else would pitch in comments and strike conversations with Peter. He found himself getting to know everyone better, and getting less uncomfortable around them.
He was shown all the obstacle courses and upon further inspection he noticed that they were all catered to a different skill set. It was explained to him that because they were all different setups, the Avengers could build different skills using different obstacle courses. They would take turns to demonstrate the obstacle courses, which Peter found quite enjoyable.
They even offered for Peter to try, but Peter politely declined, fearing that he would end up embarrassing himself.

When they finished surveying the entire floor, they circled back to the lounge. As the rest of the cluttered group engaged into a conversation, Peter stood there awkwardly, his eyes shifting to the floor. He could feel the occasional glances pointed his way, but he still didn't look up. It was too early to feel completely comfortable around them, which resulted in Peter subconsciously inching away from the group.
     He looked up after he'd been nudged by someone standing near him, finding himself a few feet away from where he had been originally standing.
     "You feeling alright? Tony said under his breath.
     "Oh, yeah, I'm good. Why wouldn't I be? Um... H-How are you?" He replied awkwardly. Tony frowned for only a short moment before someone spoke up.
     "So, Peter, tell us more about yourself." Natasha Romanoff cocked her head.
     "Well, I like- I like science," Peter said, grasping for things to say. "I made my webs myself." He lowered his gaze nervously.
"Can we see?" Clint asked after the timid boy made no attempt to show them off.
     "Oh, yeah, sorry." Peter lifted his arms to display the bands wrapped around his wrists, and then shot at the ceiling. That struck a reaction of surprise across the Avengers as he lifted himself off the ground. He was only hovering a few feet, and he soon released the web and landed on the ground.
"Woah, you're only like fourteen right?"
"Fifteen actually," Peter corrected rather shyly.
They asked him more questions about his tech, webs, and about being Spider-Man in general. In turn, he asked questions about them as well. He slowly sank into a feeling of bliss just talking to them. They were his idols, and yet they were talking to him as if he was one of them. He supposed that himself and the Avengers were similar in the fact that they were all 'superheroes', but he still couldn't dismiss his feeling of awe when talking to them.
     Eventually, the conversation died and it came to be dinner.
     "We're just ordering pizza, if that's okay," Tony cupped his hand on Peter's shoulder. Peter just eagerly nodded in response. He loved pizza! He often got it on his patrols, and he only had it when Uncle Ben was alive. May never gave him pizza anymore.
     "Want to watch a movie?" Bucky asked him.
     "Sure!" Peter grinned in response. They all made their way over and circled around the massive television. Soon, everyone found their spots on the couch —making room for Peter, of course— and the lights dimmed. There was a quick debate on what movie to watch, but they drew a conclusion quickly. Peter sat sandwiched between Bucky and Steve. They gave him room, but he still felt very... small, next to them.

     Their pizza arrived quickly, and the movie was paused until Tony carried them all over.
     "Are you sure you can carry all that?" Steve asked, laughing as Tony struggled to carry the mountain of boxes.
     Peter only heard Tony let out a brief "Yes." in response as he dumped them all onto the counter.
     Everyone immediately stood and rushed over to the counter and grabbed the boxes, bringing them over to the couches.
     "Don't get any sauce on my couch!" Tony added as he sunk into the white sofa. Though it seemed quite inevitable that they would ruin the couch.
     They dug in. Peter hesitantly reached into one of the boxes and ate it carefully, not wanting to ruin the couch. He was sure to eat with many napkins at the ready. Bucky let out a small chuckle as he watched Peter carefully take a bite.
     "You're more focused on eating than watching the movie," Bucky whispered, laughing again. Peter blushed, shrugging and taking a large bite because he didn't know how to reply.
     After Bucky's comment, he quickly let himself become captivated by the movie. He scarfed down his pizza slices until he was satisfied, which wasn't until the end of the movie.

When the movie finished, Peter was stuffed. To everyone's surprise, he ate as much pizza as the two super-soldiers.
     "My metabolism and Spider-Manning everyday makes me pretty hungry, I guess." Peter had shrugged —slightly embarrassed that everyone had noticed— when asked about it.
     The group started talking again about random things, along with asking Peter more questions.
     "Hey, we should play a game," Clint said suddenly, interrupting the conversation. Peter excitedly perked up.
     "I'm down for that," Tony shrugged, and the rest of the group followed in agreements. "What should we play?"
     "7 minutes in he-" Natasha smacked Sam in the back of the head before he could finish. Everyone began suggesting things, though no one had mentioned a game that Peter thought would usually come up first.
     "Truth or dare?" Peter offered.
     In response, the group grew giggly and looked around at each other, poorly suppressing smiles.
     "Steve isn't allowed to play, he has no regards for his personal safety," Bucky explained at last, laughing as he clasped Steve's shoulder. The other man just huffed in annoyance. It was now Peter's turn to try and suppress his smile, though his attempts were to no avail.
And so the group returned to shouting games at the same time. It grew to the point where Peter couldn't really distinguish who was saying what. Though, the loudness of it all didn't bother Peter in the slightest, it made him smile. This was what he imagined families looked like. Everyone talking over each other, creating chaos, but eventually, they'd return to the harmony of agreement.
And they did, deciding on Charades. Which, as expected, turned the group right back into chaos.

⚠️ author's note;
hello, I'm sorry for the wait. thank you all for understanding when I took a small break. my grandpa passed away recently and so I will be able to update again.

I'm thinking that to be able to update more, my chapters might be a bit shorter like this one.