Summary: Natasha accidentally texts the group chat instead of just Steve and Maria about her upcoming ballet recital. As it turns out, everyone wants to come.

In Natasha's defence, she had plenty of good reasons why she didn't want her entire apartment of friends to come to her recital.

Reason one: they tended to take up a lot of space and were generally very loud. Reason two: where one of more are gathered, literally thousands more will arrive (they tended to reach out to other friends and invite them as well; hence why Sam, Pepper, someone named Valkyrie, a dude named Korg (?), and some small guy Thor called Meek were here). And reason number three: Tony. Enough said.

She loved all her friends, but ballet recitals were one of the few things she liked to keep separate from them. Unfortunately, her phone hadn't been her friend this time around and now they were all sitting in the front row, loudly and anxiously waiting for the program to begin.

"Tony, sit down, for god's sake," Steve said for the third time.

He and Maria had agreed to be on "damage control", as Natasha called it. Considering neither of them had been particularly against the entire group coming, they had volunteered to keep the group under control.

"I want it to start," Tony grumbled, slouching in his seat next to Pepper.

She patted his hand, not pausing in her conversation with Thor and Bruce's new friend Val. The two had hit it off immediately, leaving Maria to take care of Bruce, Thor, Korg, and Meek. She'd given up and left to get coffee ten minutes ago.

"It starts in two minutes," Clint told him, not looking up from his phone game. "I bet you twenty dollars you can't keep your mouth shut that long."

Steve was torn between telling Clint to be mature or thank him for getting Tony to stop. He wasn't left with too long to think about it as the lights began to dim a minute early and everyone quieted down. Tony turned to Clint and demanded he pay up only to be reminded it had only been a minute and a half, leaving Tony to pay Clint instead.

"Alright, now shut up," Steve hissed at them, swatting at them as the music began and dancers filed onstage.

* * * * *

The second the recital was finished and the music stopped, the entire front row stood up and erupted into a frenzy of cheering and clapping. If Steve didn't know better, he would have thought they'd rehearsed it. However, he supposed watching their best friend dance the lead role perfectly would do that to a bunch of overworked college kids, so instead of laughing at them, he found himself joining them in hollering out happily.

"And to think," Tony mused, "she almost didn't let us come."

"Well, you were pretty obnoxious," Clint reminded him.

Tony frowned and turned to swat at Clint. Steve rolled his eyes and moved to go talk with Sam and Maria, but he was stopped by someone jumping on his back.

"Hello!" Natasha exclaimed, wrapping her arms and legs around him tightly.

Steve smiled and patted her arms, causing her to let go of him.

"What did you think?" she asked excitedly.

"Hmm," Steve stalled, turning around to look at Natasha.

She was still covered in glitter and had her pointe shoes draped around her neck. Her black leotard was partially covered by the grey sweatpants she wore over her tights. She was no longer wearing the black tutu she'd had during the last performance and the matching headdress was gone as well, but her face was still sparkling with silver and black glitter just like her arms and neck.

"He loved it," Clint offered, grinning as Steve was still distracted by all the glitter. "Couldn't take his eyes off the lead ballerina, though. Maybe you should be worried about competition."

"Yeah?" Natasha teased, poking Steve's side.

He grabbed her hand and pulled her arms around his waist. She happily hugged him and he kissed her temple, resigning himself to have glitter on his face as well.

"You definitely should be worried," he hummed, peppering her face with small kisses. "The lead ballerina was quite something."

"Really?" Natasha prodded, hugging him tighter when he kissed a particularly ticklish spot.

Steve grinned and kissed behind her ear again, getting the same reaction.

"Oh yes," he continued, pulling back to look at her. "She was stunning. Of course, she was covered in glitter and wearing a tutu, but I'm sure she looks just as wonderful in sweatpants and her boyfriend's sweater. She was absolutely perfect, too. The best ballerina to ever dance in the country."

"That's an exaggeration," Natasha laughed.

Steve frowned and shook his head.

"Nope, don't think it is," he replied.

Before he could continue to tease Natasha, she was pulled out of his arms and into Maria and Pepper's. Both girls praised her recital as Tony handed Natasha a bouquet of roses Steve hadn't noticed him bring in.

"It was great, Red," Tony admitted, kissing her cheek before returning to his argument about some physics thing with Bruce and Thor that Steve didn't understand.

"How about we go get some food?" Val suggested.

She'd only just met Natasha the other day, but just like with Pepper, she'd hit it off with Maria and Natasha right away.

"I'm starving!" Natasha exclaimed. Val snorted and Pepper smiled. "I'll go get my bag then we can head out."

While Natasha disappeared to gather her things, the group packed up and walked out of the theatre. They stepped into the lobby and waited for Natasha, talking amongst themselves until she reappeared.

"Let's get food!" she cheered, jumping on Steve's back again.

Her pointe shoes were no longer around her neck but she had a small drawstring bag on her back.

"I was thinking shwarma," Tony announced, opening the front doors for them.

As they stepped out, they suddenly became aware of the fact is was pouring outside. They paused under the roof, creating a rather large line-up of people.

"We'll get the cars," Steve said, setting Natasha down.

He looked at Sam, Tony, and Thor then nodded out at the rain.

"Let's go."

"But it's storming!" Tony whined, pulling his jacket over his head.

Thor happily stepped into the downpour and was soaked in an instant.

"It's just a storm," he said. Thunder roared overhead and the lights in the theatre flickered. "It's wonderful!"

"Yeah, tell us that after you get the cars," Val said, waving the three of them off to get the cars.

"You owe us!" Tony yelled, running into the rain and squawking as he did.

They could hear Thor's laugh from outside the theatre and only a few minutes later, three cars pulled up outside. They piled into the various cars, shaking off the water they'd managed to accumulate in their short trip then headed off to the nearest shwarma joint.