Chapter Text
"Family meeting!" Laura announced lightly at dinner one night in October. "Who are we going to invite for Thanksgiving this year?"
Cooper perked up at the idea of visitors. "All the avengers!" he suggested.
Clint raised his eyebrows at his oldest son. "All the avengers?"
"And Uncle Nick," Lila chimed in.
"Well of course Uncle Nick," Laura replied, laughing.
Natasha looked at Bruce. "I'm guessing Iron Man's a big 'yes' on the invite list. But we don't have to have a big crowd, right? Bruce, how are you and Wanda these days?"
"We're okay," Bruce said, nodding a little. "Last time she was here, we talked... set some boundaries. It would be great to see her, and Steve. Especially since neither of them really has anywhere else to go."
"Well, Steve and I've both got a standing invitation with Sam's folks, actually. But if you're okay with having a big group?"
Bruce shook his head. "I don't want to be the guy who stops the rest of you from doing what you want to do. I handled Tony's parties, I'm sure I can handle this."
Natasha just looked at him sadly, a little appraisingly, biting her lip.
"We want you to feel safe here," Laura said from his other side. "This is your home."
"And you're a flight risk," Natasha said when she made up her mind to speak. "You don't always speak up when you're starting to be uncomfortable."
"Sometimes I do," he countered.
They looked at each other sadly.
"I'm still new to this dance," she murmured, smoothing down the corner of her napkin absently, "so please let me know if I'm stepping on your toes."
"The Avengers are... they're family," he said. "Putting up with family on Thanksgiving, it's what you do."
Breaking the somewhat tense silence, Nate made a worried noise from his high chair, pushing cheerios away to the edges of the tray and reaching for Clint. "Dada," he said pleadingly.
Clint picked Nathaniel up out of his chair, bouncing him on his knee. "Yeah, Sprout, we're cool," he murmured reassuringly. "So I'm guessing Sam and Rhodey'll be busy with Sam's folks?" he asked in Natasha's direction.
"They will be if we don't ask them," she said, inclining her head slightly.
"We should," Lila said. "All the Avengers."
"I haven't seen Falcon's wings up close yet," Cooper commented, looking excited.
"Let's see," said Laura. "All the Avengers, all of us, Uncle Nick, Tony and Pepper - what is that, fifteen? That's more than a houseful. But I'd be happy to have them."
Natasha shot Clint a sidelong glance. "Good thing you still have a dining room," she said, smirking.
Clint rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, yeah," he responded, then returned his attention to Nate, booping him on the nose and watching him giggle.
Laura frowned, looking at Bruce. "Does the Vision even eat?" she asked him.
He frowned back at her, amused. "You know, I'm not actually sure."
People started arriving the day before. Laura had warned them that there wouldn't be enough room for everyone, but they were undeterred. It helped that this time, Tony brought one of his private jets, Rhodey landing it neatly next to the quinjet on the lawn with the help of its recently installed repulsor-assisted landing gear.
"Pep and I have roughed it sleeping in the back of that thing plenty of times," Tony said. "And Rhodey and Sam can take the main cabin."
Bruce frowned at the two men in question, knowing that they made no secret of their relationship. "Are you sure you guys are okay on the benches in the plane?" he asked. "You could have my room if you want more privacy."
Rhodey and Sam glanced at each other, but Tony was the one who answered, saying, "Nah, they're fine, they get free run of the cockpit, which locks, and hey, all those flight controls? Gets 'em both hot anyway."
Rhodey glared and muttered, "Really?" and Sam rubbed his nose in embarrassed amusement, but neither of them actually bothered to contradict Tony, so Bruce let it stand.
Fury threw his bag into his usual guest room, which left the pullout sofa in the den for Laura to offer to the others, but Steve and Wanda told her that they'd be more comfortable slinging up hammocks in the Quinjet, and Vision responded only, "I do not require rest... but you have my thanks for the offer."
Tony pulled Bruce a little aside, while that was being sorted out, to ask, "So, hey, you and Nat. You've seemed... pretty okay, I guess? But I realized I've never asked. Work always seems more interesting. Things working out?"
Bruce sighed. "Yeah? I mean, it's complicated, it's not always... straightforward. I'm guessing this is because you noticed the part where we're sleeping in separate rooms?"
"Always a pretty good sign for me and Pep, if things aren't going right. She'll sleep somewhere else, or I won't... sleep. So yeah. I noticed."
"That's not what this is. We decided, right from the beginning, that we weren't going to try to be a conventional couple. Weren't going to do things any certain way just because it's the way they're done. So we're taking things... really slow. One step at a time." Bruce looked over at where Natasha was holding Nate on her hip to keep him out from underfoot in the now-crowded living room, and he smiled, eyes crinkling. "But yeah. It's going well."
Tony slapped Bruce on the back. "Well, hey, that's great," he said, taking a big relieved breath. "Now that that's done, wanna talk shop?"
"Maybe," Bruce replied. "Or... you could help me with something?"
Tony's eyes were wary but intrigued. "I feel like this is a trick. Is this a trick?"
"I was hoping you could help me explain non-Euclidian spaces to Lila? I mentioned something about them to her and she's been intrigued ever since, but there's only so much you can do with words and paper. Maybe some holographic visualizations?"
"This sounds like a trick," Tony said, but Bruce could see the wheels in his head turning, and he reached for his phone, muttering to himself. "...Cute kids. Connected. Marshmallow guns...."
Bruce smiled to himself and began towing Tony to the art corner by an elbow, where Lila was showing her latest work to a very impressed Uncle Nick.
Everyone here really was family, enough that they knew how to respect Bruce's space while making it easy to reach out to them.
It was pretty incredible.