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"Can we please play a different game? Something we're all good at?" Sam whines for the dozenth time.
Peter gets momentarily distracted by Sam's poorly timed complaint, putting his foot on the space where you hand occupied.
"Ow." You instinctively flinch back, your elbow pushing in Nat's knee.
No one is able to catch themselves and like the domino effect, the intricate tangle of limbs all come crashing down.
"Thanks a lot, Sam," Wanda sarcastically quips, picking herself up off of Peter.
"You four are the only ones playing. The rest of us are just sitting here," Sam says, gesturing to the men sitting around him.
"Aww..." Nat mockingly coos, holding her hand out to help you stand up off the mat. "Are the middle aged men not good at Twister?"
"I am not middle aged!" Sam seethes, crossing his arms as he sits further back into the couch.
Nat condescendingly pats his shoulder. "If your joints click when you try to reach for a different color, you're middle aged."
Sam huffs, but doesn't offer another rebuttal, instead turning to the room, asking, "Doesn't anyone want to play anything else?"
"I'm good right here," Bucky says, sitting on the couch content to be a spectator to you playing Twister. "Don't mind one bit."
"Because you've been staring at your girlfriend's ass for the last hour!" Sam accuses. "What about the rest of us? The ones without pretty people to stare at?"
You playfully roll your eyes, sitting on the arm rest next to Bucky only to have him pull you down in his lap. Bucky shrugs, barely even paying attention to Sam anymore, "Sucks to be you."
"Maybe instead of your morning runs, you try some yoga once in a while?" Wanda teases, folding up the Twister mat. "Maybe your joints would stop clicking."
"Leave me and my joints alone," Sam grumbles, absentmindedly rubbing his shoulder.
"You should try it, it's really fun," Peter interjects.
"Peter does yoga with you and Wanda?" Bucky asks you, a conflicted expression on his face.
"Sometimes," you shrug, turning back to the room before Bucky can say anything else, "We could play Uno?"
"No!' Tony firmly objects. "The last time we played Uno, I had to buy a new table."
"Well, maybe Sam'll think before plus-fouring me four times in a row," Bucky fumes.
"Or maybe you should stop being a sore loser?"
"Or stop being a cheater!" Bucky accuses.
"How about Monopoly?" Steve quickly suggests before Sam and Bucky get into another heated argument about the last game night.
The epic fights and meltdowns during the last game night really shouldn't have been all that surprising considering the room was filled with a bunch of superheroes all with egos as incredible as their abilities. You weren't really sure who talked Tony into having another game night or how exactly they talked him into it, but here you all were.
"Sure, the financial crime game!" Tony sarcastically remarks, standing up off the couch. "They should make more of them, the Ponzi Scheme board game sounds like it'd be a hit!"
"Great, it's decided then!" you exclaim, standing up to retrieve the game.
"Sarcasm, pinkie pie," Tony sighs. "That was sarcasm."
"We could always go back to Twister?" Bucky smugly suggests.
"No," Sam barks.
"Truth or dare?"
"What are we in high school?" Tony remarks, rolling his eyes. "No offense, Peter."
"None taken," Peter replies.
"Poker?" Sam suggests.
"How many people in this room know how to play poker?" Tony scoffs.
You, Nat, Tony, and Sam are the only ones that raise your hands.
Bucky raises an eyebrow at you. "You know how to play poker?"
"You don't?" you teasingly counter.
"She's pretty good too," Sam comments. "We played once and I thought I was going to win the hand, then she swooped in and robbed me blind."
"Yeah, I don't feel like spending the night teaching a bunch of amateurs to play poker. Pick something else," Tony sighs.
"Well, since you keep shooting down our ideas why don't you pick something?" Sam retorts.
After another 10 minutes of intense deliberation, you ended on a game that everyone had equal chances of success at. And for a room like this, that was an incredibly difficult task. Trivia wasn't a fair option to those of you separated from society for long periods of time. Any games with physical demands favored the super soldiers. Nat and Tony were eerily good at card games and anything with probability.
With all that into consideration, you ended up on a game that seemed to be the most fair: Pictionary.
It then took another ten minutes of arguing to decide on how to pick teams. Tony argued the most fair way was to have FRIDAY do it. Sam argued that team captains should be picked and have them choose. Both your's and Peter's eyes volleyed back and forth as you watched the entire room descend into chaotic bickering. Bucky offered only non-committal grunts and one syllable responses. In the end, everyone ended up drawing numbers from a basket.
There were three teams. Team 1 consisted of Tony, Bruce, and Peter. Team 2 consisted of Steve, Wanda, and Nat. And Team 3 was you, Bucky, and Sam - as luck would have it.
"Oh, because they've never worked together before," Tony sarcastically mutters about your team. "I thought the point of this was team building."
"Are we not all on the same team?" Bucky counters, an arm wrapped around your waist to keep you seated on his lap.
"The golden trio - reunited again," Sam cheekily comments as he moves from his stool to take a seat next to you and Bucky.
"I thought we were the golden trio," Steve scoffs in indignation, gesturing to himself, Sam, and Bucky.
"Well... this is awkward," you mumble to Bucky. "Maybe we can be the silver trio?"
"Doesn't have the same ring to it," Sam objects.
"Why can't we have more than one golden trio?" you ask.
"As thrilling as this dispute is," Tony interjects. "Can we please get back to the game?"
"Right," you nod. "James, you're up."
"Alright," Bucky nods, pulling a card from the little stack. He looks up at you and Sam, nodding with confidence, "We've got this one- piece of cake."
You give him a thumbs up for assurance as he walks up to the white board.
"Your time starts....now," Steve declares, flipping the little plastic hourglass over.
Immediately, Bucky begins scribbling on the white board, you and Sam follow his animation. Your lips pull in as he puts the marker down and steps aside to show you the full illustration. He holds up one finger.
"One word?" you ask.
He eagerly nods, then starts making a film reel motion.
"A movie?" Sam adds.
Bucky nods again, this time with even more enthusiasm. You and Sam stare at the strange drawing. You both simultaneously angle your heads to try to figure out what exactly Bucky drew. "Is that a sideways moon?"
"A banana?" Sam wonders, his head completely twisted to one side. "What kind of movie is about a banana?"
Bucky frantically shakes his head, tapping the board with the marker, only to haphazardly add a sail to his drawing.
"A boat?" you ask, to which he impatiently nods.
"And time is up!" Steve calls, a little too happy that your team failed epically.
"Titanic!" Bucky shouts, almost snapping the dry erase marker. "How did you not get that?"
"Maybe if you were better at drawing we would've gotten that," Sam accuses, almost bursting out of his seat.
"Why would I draw a banana? What movie is about a banana?" Bucky rants, pacing in front of the white board.
"That was my question!"
"Hold on, this is what they want," you abruptly interject, pointing to Steve's smug expression. "They want us to start fighting. We can't let them get to us, guys."
Steve scoffs, rolling his eyes to feign innocence. "Okay, Sun Tzu, whatever you say. Who's next?"
Despite picking a game that seemed to be the most fair, ironically, no one on the team is all that good at Pictionary. In fact, in your own ways, you're all equally terrible.
Steve, ever the artistic perfectionist, carefully illustrates an image that probably would've perfectly captured the movie. But he takes too long to draw a single image and leaves his team no time guess what movie he's trying to illustrate. He tries to convince the room to restart the timer, and slinks back to his seat to sulk when no one allows him to.
When it's Peter's turn, he's giddy with his chosen movie. He excitedly walks up to the white board and finishes his drawing with an incredible time. His fault was the illustration was too obscure for Tony or Bruce to even remotely understand. Tony tries to talk everyone into giving Peter another chance on the premise of being the only kid here. Sam simply guffaws in response. No one ever figured out the reference.
With each team having been equally terrible, you all agree to another round - if only so at least one team can be a clear winner, or so one team can at least have one point to their name.
Sam refuses to stand up and face Bucky's wrath if they lose the round again, so you eagerly stand up off of Bucky's lap and pick a card from the stack. At the front of the room, you look at the card and you do your best to contain your cheeky grin at your lucky pick.
"Time starts...now," Steve grumbles, still upset about his painful loss from the previous round.
You haphazardly draw a single circle. You place the marker back down and turn to Bucky and Sam holding up four fingers.
"Lord of the Rings!" Sam blurts instantly.
"Yes!" you cheer.
"That you get?" Bucky bellows.