"I swear to god, Clint," Natasha says, with all the exasperation in the world, "if you do this to me again, I'm going to strangle you."

Clint scoffs. "Hey, don't blame me; blame Rogers."

Steve scoffs, too. "Why me?" he asks, incredulous. "I'm not even in the game anymore!"

"No, but you're the one that shuffled the cards!"

Steve shakes his head to himself. "Just pick up your four, will you, Nat?"

Natasha picks up her four (officially licensed Avengers-themed) Uno cards, courtesy of the third plus-four that Clint has dropped on her this round alone, and the game continues.

Peter was the second one out this round, shortly after Steve won the game, and he's been rather contentedly watching as the group of players dwindles. He'd assumed when this began that it would get boring, waiting for nearly all the players to win before the game reset, but he's enjoying the watching just as much as he enjoys playing.

It's Sam whose turn is next, and he puts down a wild card. Usually, he'd name his color immediately; this time, he pauses, watching Loki carefully. Loki just smiles, holding his one remaining card up as if taunting him. His turn is next, and Sam has a 25-percent chance of him getting out if he picks the wrong color.

Sam lets out a low whistle. "Man, I don't know. The pressure's on right now."

"Take your pick, Wilson," Loki says. "I'm sure it won't backfire at all."

Sam narrows his eyes, and Loki narrows his back. It's a stare-down, and neither of them are willing to back down.

Without taking his eyes off the god, Sam asks, "Wanda, what color card does Loki have?"

"No magic at the Uno table," Loki says, almost tauntingly, like it's something that's been said a million times before.

"Oh, please," Sam says, rolling his eyes. "Like you're not using magic, too."

Loki scoffs, slapping a hand over his chest. "I cannot believe you would make such an accusation."

"Okay," Sam says, looking around at the others, "so we all agree he's cheating, right?"

"If I was cheating, why would I still be in the game?" Loki asks. "I would be the first person out every round."

"No, see, 'cause then it's too obvious," Sam says. "You're playing the long game, and you're cheating just enough that we don't know you're cheating–"

"I am not cheating!" Loki insists. "Do you understand how difficult it is to cheat at Uno with my powers?"

"I don't believe that for a second," Sam says.

"And I don't fault you for that," Loki replies. "I am a notorious liar."

In spite of himself, Peter finds himself cracking a smile. He hates to admit it, but the guy can be funny when he wants to be.

"Just pick a damn color, Sam," Natasha says, exasperated.

Sam looks down at his hand, then up at Loki, then down at his hand, then up at Loki. "Blue."

Loki puts down his final card: a wild card. "Green." He flashes him a smile. "Just because it's not the color that you wanted."

"God dammit!" Sam throws his hands up, exasperated.

"Are we sure he's not cheating?" Clint asks.

Loki scoffs. "Can I not celebrate my win in peace? Must you try to steal my glory?"

"I don't know about before," Steve says, "but he's definitely had the wild card since you accused him of cheating."

Loki gestures pointedly to him. "Thank you, Captain."

Sam rolls his eyes. "Oh, yeah, I accuse you of cheating and suddenly you have the one card you can put down no matter what color I choose. 'Cause that's not suspicious at all."

Wanda chimes in with, "I am almost positive he's not cheating."

In Peter's mind, that's an easy way to settle it. If the resident telepath says he's not cheating, then he's not cheating. They can move on now, all in good fun.

The way Loki's face falls at the remark makes him think that's not the case.

Sam doesn't seem to notice, instead watching Wanda suspiciously, until finally, he says, "Okay, I believe it."

Steve reaches around Bucky beside him to tap Loki's shoulder. "You okay?"

"Fine," he says tersely. To Wanda, he says, "The next time you decide to explore my mind, you'll find nothing but images of dead cats."

Peter just stares at him.

What the fuck?

"Sorry," Wanda mumbles. "I wasn't actually in your..."

Clint isn't so easily put off by this. "Have you ever even seen a dead cat?"

"No, but I've seen enough living cats that I imagine I could picture one with relative ease," Loki replies.

For some reason, that makes it a little less disturbing. (And Peter will admit, he gets a small amount of comfort out of the knowledge that Loki doesn't kill kittens for fun.)

"Oh my god," Bruce mutters, pinching the bridge of his nose.

Bucky clears his throat. "I'm just going to..." He puts his green 7 in the pile.

And then the game resumes.

"So, Peter," Sam says, "what've you got going on, outside of Spider-Manning? You got a girlfriend?"

"Uh, no, not at the moment," Peter says, and he puts down a card, which is a great excuse not to look at anybody because this is definitely one conversation his awkward self doesn't want to be having.

"Really? Guy like you?"

"Mm," Peter hums uncomfortably. 'Guy like him' is actually the reason he doesn't have a girlfriend, as anybody at school (except Ned) (probably) would attest.

"There's gotta be someone you're looking at, though," Sam says. "Some pretty girl from school?"

"Um, no," he says awkwardly, "not really." What is it with adults' obsessions with teenagers' love lives? And now he can feel himself starting to blush, which is not how he wanted this to go.

"Oh, no," Clint says teasingly, "there's definitely someone."

"Mm-mm." Peter shakes his head, eyes glued to his cards and pointedly not looking at anyone at this table.

"What's her name?" Natasha asks. "Is she cute?"

Peter sighs. Well, at least he's not talking to anybody from school."Well, there is this one girl," he admits.

Sam and Natasha both go "Ooh!" at the same time, and Peter can't help the smile that creeps up on his lips. He doesn't know what he expected the Avengers to be like, but this fun and playful was not it.

"Well, don't leave us in suspense," Natasha says. "Who is she?"

"Is this one of those 'she's my best friend and I know everything about her' deals, or one of the 'I saw her on the other side of the cafeteria once and now I'm in love' things?" Clint adds.

"Uh, neither, actually," Peter says. "She's on my academic decathlon team?"

Sam huffs. "Of course you're on the academic decathlon team."

Peter furrows his brows, head cocked slightly to the side. What is he...?

"It's not enough that you're super strong," Sam continues. "You're gotta be super smart, too. God forbid you leave some talent for the rest of us."

Peter chuckles. He was definitely not expecting that to be a compliment, but he will gladly accept any and all nice things the world's superheroes have to say about him – and he will quite literally never forget it.

"I have a question," Pietro declares.

Peter looks at him expectantly.

"What is this 'academic decathlon'?"

"Oh!" It hadn't even occurred to him that it might not be common knowledge to anyone who's not actually on an academic decathlon team. "It's kind of like a trivia team? We compete against other schools to answer questions about math and science and all that."

Pietro furrows his brows. "Like Jeopardy!, but without the money."

"Um... Kind of?" In a very loose sense, maybe?

"Or is there money?" Pietro asks. "What do you get if you win?"

"Just a trophy for the school and a sense of accomplishment," Peter replies – not that he'd know; they didn't even make it to nationals this year, but he has a good feeling about it next year. He knows more of what to expect now that he's done this once – as do the rest of the soon-to-be sophomores: Ned, MJ; all of them. And, more importantly, Liz is in her senior year. This is the last time she'll get to do this, and he wants to win his captain her trophy. It's what she deserves.

"Sounds boring," Pietro remarks.

"Agreed," Yelena deadpans.

"I think it sounds fun," Wanda says. "Is this something we can come watch and support?"

Peter hesitates. "Maybe?" On one hand, he would love to have the Avengers show up in the audience and cheer him on. On the other hand, that would definitely raise some eyebrows (and he's fairly sure he'd forget every single thing he's ever learned if he had that much pressure on him).

"Let us know when it gets closer," Bruce says.

"And let us know if we can bring giant signs to hold up in the audience," Clint adds. "We will be the most annoying people anyone has ever met."

"Hey!" Natasha smacks him on the shoulder. "Stop that! Now he's not gonna let us go!"

"Barton, don't stop that," Pietro says. "I do not want to go."

Wanda then slaps him on the shoulder. "Pietro!"

"I'm kidding! I'm kidding!" he says. "I would like to go. I want to see an American school function. It sounds like it will either be very exciting or very boring."

Before Peter can respond (which he would do by telling him that it will, in fact, be very boring from the audience), someone else walks into the room – someone that he's not quite sure he knows, though she looks vaguely familiar enough that she must be a somebody.

"Pepper?" Natasha gives her a weird look. "I didn't even know you were here."

"Oh, yeah, I snuck in a few hours ago," Pepper tells her. "I've been hanging out with Tony, but I heard there was a new Avenger in town and I figured I'd come say 'hi.'"

Peter stares at her. Did she just say 'new Avenger'? As in, he is the new Avenger? As in, he is an Avenger?

Loki literally jumps out of his seat, and he crouches down beside it, holding his hand out. "Oh, hello, beautiful," he coos. "When did you finally wake up?"

From behind Pepper's legs, a small, black cat appears, and it trots right up to him. He scratches her head, and she rubs herself against him, purring loudly enough that even Peter can hear it from where he's sitting.

Pepper shakes her head to herself, amused, before turning her attention back to Peter. "I'm Pepper Potts; I'm Tony's partner."

"I'm Peter," he says. "Parker. Peter Parker." Does she know that? She probably knows that, right? She definitely knows he's Spider-Man. He doesn't have to introduce himself like that. Right? Because she called him an Avenger? So she must have been referring to Spider-Man? Unless she wasn't referring to Spider-Man, and she actually has no idea–

"It's nice to meet you, Peter," she says. "Tony's told me great things about you."

Peter beams. He can't say he expected that – until today, they'd only met once, originally on opposing teams until that changed and put him in a really bad mood the entire rest of the time they worked together – but he chooses to believe she's telling the truth and that she's not just saying it to make him feel good about himself.

Pepper turns to the next stranger (stranger? He assumes, given the context?) and offers him a friendly smile. "And you're Bucky?"

"Yes, ma'am," Bucky says. (He doesn't seem to talk very much, Peter's noticed, but for some reason, hearing the word "ma'am" leave his mouth just feels weird. He comes off as too dramatic and moody for that.)

"It's nice to meet you, too," Pepper tells him. Her eyes scan the table, rather casually, not looking too closely, which is why it's incredibly easy to pinpoint the moment she sees Yelena, and she has to do a double-take.

She doesn't wait for the cue to introduce herself; she just says, rather bluntly and unhelpfully, "I'm Yelena."

Natasha steps in with, "She's my sister."

Pepper furrows her brows. "She's your...?"

Natasha waves that off.."It's a whole thing," she says. "I'll tell you later – or Tony will tell you later, because he'll probably beat me to it."

Pepper cracks a smile. "Probably," she agrees. To the rest of them, she asks, "And what're you guys up to?"

"Uno," Steve replies. "You're welcome to join. There's always space for another."

"We're playing with four decks," Natasha adds. "It's very intense."

Pietro picks up a red four from the discard pile and holds it up to her. "Some of them have Iron Man on them," he says, as if that will convince her to play.

Pepper huffs a laugh. "Thanks, but I was really just coming to say 'hi,'" she says. "I'm gonna head back and pester Tony in a minute."

"Does this mean I have to relinquish the cat?" Loki asks with an exaggerated frown.

Pepper shakes her head. "She's all yours."

"Yes," he cheers quietly. He scoops her up and holds her to his chest, and he presses a kiss to the top of her head. "Good morning, beautiful. I've missed you."

Peter furrows his brows, and he looks around at the Avengers to see if anybody else thinks this is weird. Nobody seems to be at all confused by his obsessive love for this cat, so Peter does his best to ignore it.

"Where's Thor?" Pepper asks. "Back in Asgard for the weekend?"

"Is he ever not in Asgard?" Sam asks. "I swear, it feels like every time I come over, he's not here."

"Should probably take the hint, then," Clint quips.

Before Sam can retaliate with a remark of his own, Loki speaks up from his spot on the floor. "He's in London, actually – or was when I spoke to him this morning."

That takes Peter by surprise, so much so that he accidentally finds himself speaking to Loki before he can remember how much he doesn't want to do that. "What's he doing in London?"

Loki looks up at him from his spot on the floor. "His girlfriend lives there," he says, and he says it so... normally. Like he's a normal person. Which he's not. Because he's not normal or a person. But, at least right now, he sounds so... normal. "Part of the time, at least; she spends a lot of time in New Mexico, too, and does a lot of traveling for work. I don't pretend to know the details."

Peter's not sure what to say to that, so he just says, "Huh." He forgot Thor had a girlfriend. (And, in his defense, he only knows about her because he'll see the occasional headline on a gossip site or photo on the cover of a tabloid in the checkout line at the grocery store. It's not like he follows the guy's love life.)

"She's a wonderful woman," Loki tells him. "Her name is Jane. I imagine you'll meet her eventually."

Clint makes a face at that. "How would you know if she's wonderful? She doesn't even talk to you."

Loki rolls his eyes. "Because my brother will not shut up about her; that's how."

"But they're cute together," Pepper adds. "And I like Jane. I think she's really sweet – and really smart, too."

"Loathe as I am to speak kindly of my brother," Loki says, a slight smile on his lips showing that he doesn't quite mean it, "I must agree: they make a nice couple."

"Is he gonna make it to Tony's retirement party next weekend, do you think?" Pepper asks. "It'd be nice to see him again."

"I assume so," Loki says. "I'd ask him now, but I believe it's the middle of the night in London?" He glances up at the clock to verify. "I'll ask him in the morning. I assume you'll still be here?"

"Oh, yeah, definitely," Pepper says. "Let me know what he says, will you?"

"Of course."

Pepper claps her hands together once. "Alright, well, I'm gonna head back and see Tony. It was nice to see you guys again."

She's met with a wave of "You too"s and "Goodbye"s, and Peter chimes in with, "It was nice to meet you!"

"There's pizza in the fridge if you want some," Natasha tells her. "We texted Tony about it; I don't know if he...?"

Pepper shakes her head. "I don't think he saw," she says. "I'll let him know, thank you."

"Is he okay?" Bruce asks her. "He seemed a little..."

"He's fine," Pepper assures him. "He's just having an off day."

"Which was not my fault," Loki adds. "I would like to reiterate that."

Pepper shakes her head to herself, a fond smile on her lips. "No, it was not your fault."

"This time," Clint adds

"This time," Lok agrees. "I cannot speak for the next time."

Peter looks up at Bruce, confused – didn't Tony say it was his fault? Isn't that what they established? – but he's looking at Steve, who looks back at him with the same confused look on his own face. At least they're all equally as confused. At least it's not just him.

Pepper rolls her eyes lightheartedly. "I'll see you guys later – and it was nice to meet the new recruits. I'm sure I'll see you around."

They all bid her farewell again, and then she's gone, headed right back down the hall she just came out of only minutes earlier.

She really came here just to say hello. That was nice of her. He likes her, Peter decides. He's just met her, but he likes her.