Chapter Text
If Peter had to pick his least favorite board game to play with the Avengers, it would be Monopoly.
Sure it’s all fun and games at first, you even expect a little fighting, but this situation was completely out of control. “It was a six!” Clint yelled at Sam, who was calling him out for the ninth time that night on an account of cheating. “No, I saw for a fact that you rolled a two and a one. You’re just trying to manipulate us!” Sam glared while pointing an accusing finger at Clint from the floor.
“Uh duh! I’m trying to get your money, we all are! That is literally the entire point of the game!” Clint was glaring right back from his perch on the couch. Natasha sat next to him, patiently waiting her turn.
Steve, apparently thought this was a good point to jump in. “Clint just move back three spaces. I mean you’re ahead of most of us anyway.” Steve’s reassuring smile was met with the appalled, scrunched glower of Clint.
Peter began to tune the argument out at that point. He was only behind Tony and Bruce and it’s not like he wanted to win that bad anyway. His patrol had really taken a toll on him, between stopping a high-speed chase, helping a lost group of tourists, and preventing several muggers from mugging people, he was beat. He had planned on skipping game night, but the team had only recently made up and he felt bad about bailing on the commitment he made to his mentor.
Peter’s role as “personal intern” helped to ease the tension betwixt the Avengers, according to Mr. Stark. Certain relationships had gotten better, like Steve and Bucky trading pleasantries with Tony, and others weren’t getting any better. Tony and Wanda were great examples of that.
Tony was trying of course, but Wanda had zero interest in humoring him. It was a weird kind of one-sided standoff. She was nice enough to everyone else, Peter, Rhodey, and Pepper included, but she and Tony still had some issues to resolve.
“Shit!” the loud exclamation from Bruce brought Peter’s attention back to the group. Clint stared apologetically at where he had spilled a cup of lukewarm tea onto Bruce. “Sorry, I’ll go get some napkins.” Clint sprinted to the kitchen. Tony’s brows furrowed as the tea dripped onto the rug.
Bruce carefully removed himself from the couch. “I’m gonna go change. You guys can skip my next turn.” He smiled at the rest of the group before heading towards the elevator. Clint came back with a crumpled handful of paper towels and began to wipe down the tea stain.
“Just stop. You’ll only spread it further. I’ll get it cleaned later.” Tony put a hand to his face as if trying to rub away the pain of seeing a stain in his furnishings. Clint put his hands on his hips and continued to look down at the stain.
“Hey Nat, doesn’t this kind of remind-” “Don’t.” Natasha cut him off, smiling as she picked up her drink to hide her grin.
Sam leaned forward “Well, I think we can all agree that Clint definitely has to move back three spaces now.” Some nodded their heads in agreement. “No, his turn is completely invalid for what he did to my couch. Make it seven.” Tony said pointedly. Clint, of course, took great offense to this “What!? I only rolled a six!” Vision spoke up then. “No, you rolled a three.” Wanda attempted to stifle a giggle.
As the argument began to pick back up Peter felt a small tingling sensation at the base of his neck. His hair stood on end and goosebumps began to form on his skin. He turned around. Nothing. There was nothing outside the large panes of glass and nothing inside either. The tingling grew stronger still.
“Alright, I believe it’s my turn now Clint. Give it a rest.” Natasha announced while reaching for the dice on the coffee table. As Nat took her turn with a leisurely shake of the dice, Peter watched the space behind the couch with rapid focus.
As Dr. Banner entered the room again he looked around at the group surrounding the living room. His gaze stopped on Peter however as he was the only one not participating in the chaos of Monopoly. “Peter, are you alright?” Bruce spoke loud enough to catch the attention of the rest of the Avengers, they all turned to look at the kid who hadn’t heard his name being called.
“Hey, Pete, you good?” Tony tried to inquire from his young mentee, but nothing. Peter’s gaze turned into a glare as the team became more concerned with his lack of response. Just as Tony reached out to shake Peter’s shoulder, the kid grabbed his hand. “Sshhh …” Tony stayed quiet, silently watching the brunette. He figured it must have to be something Spidey related.
While Tony’s concern faded into suspicious understanding, the other Avengers continued to look more concerned. “Tony,” Steve whispered, “is he okay?” As Tony twisted back to the group to answer Steve’s question, Peter yelled. “GET DOWN!”
Just as the Avengers followed his command a hole made up of blue and pink lights opened where They had all been looking. A person came flying out not a second later before landing on Stark’s coffee table.
The man groaned on his spot on the floor, the game board and pieces of the coffee table lying beneath him. Peter peeked out of the protective ball Mr.Stark had made around him at the man.
He had a bloody lip and a bruised cheek. His eyes were a familiar chocolate brown and his hair … looked just like Peter’s. The man sat up from the floor and stared dazedly ahead of him, looking beyond the confines of the building and the city.
The Avengers must have begun to see what Peter saw because they were in quite a state of shock. All except Natasha. The redhead removed herself from her seat on the couch and pulled a knife from seemingly nowhere.
“Who are you?” She commanded while holding the blade at his throat.
The stranger with the same face as Peter slowly put his hands up near his head.
He smiled uncaringly “I’m Peter Parker.”