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Tony had his socked feet up on the coffee table, leaning back on the couch and reading a comic book. Pietro and Clint were sharing a couch, feet tangled between them as they watched Yard Crashers on mute. Natasha was reading a magazine, Wanda was perched next to her reading a book, and Bruce was near them on his tablet. Thor and Steve were sitting on the same couch, arguing about their favorite movies, which Clint couldn’t help grinning at.
Days like these were common in the Avengers headquarters, now that they were all back together.
“So, Speedy, do you think you could outrun the Flash?” Tony asked, glancing over at Pietro.
“He’s the one who got struck by lightning, right?” Pietro tilted his head.
“Yeah, he got struck by lightning, became really fast like you. Do you think you could outrun him?” Tony lifted the comic book in his hands, showing off the cover with Flash emblazoned in big yellow letters.
“How can getting struck by lightning give you super speed?” Clint asked, eyeing the comic book. “If that worked, we’d all be standing outside in thunder storms instead of going to the gym.”
“My lightning would not give you abs,” Thor chimed in. “You would die.”
Clint shot him a grin.
Pietro shrugged. “My highest speed has never been calculated, unfortunately. I don’t know why, but I’ve never been in a large enough space with a high-powered enough speedometer.”
Tony’s feet came off the table as he sat forward. “You’ve never clocked yourself? What?”
“No?”
Tony threw the comic book on the table. “You’re the fastest man alive, and you haven’t timed yourself? That’s so wrong.”
“It never seemed necessary?”
Tony stood. “Come on, we’re heading out right now. I’ve got a speedometer I use to track my suits. We’ll set it up on the runway and you’ll show your stuff.”
“Right now?” Pietro asked, looking a bit startled.
“Yeah, right now.”
Clint rolled his eyes. “Tony, it’s a Sunday morning. It’s a relaxation day. Run tests on Pietro tomorrow.”
“If you don’t want me making your boyfriend out of breath, you can test him if you want,” Tony said, to which Clint stuck his middle finger up at him.
“Why do you need to know how fast I can run right now?” Pietro asked, reaching around Clint to snag a handful of barbeque chips from the bag. “I’ve lived here for nearly a year. Why now?”
“Because I just found out you don’t know.”
“Please tell me this isn’t about the Flash,” Bruce cut in. “Tony, the Flash is supposed to be able to run faster than the speed of light. I know for a fact Pietro can’t run that fast.”
“Oo-hoo, Bruce knows his comic books,” Tony said with a smirk.
“Yeah. I was the ultra-nerd, remember?”
“Bruce, you’re still the ultra-nerd,” Tony shot back. “And it doesn’t matter to me whether or not he’s faster than a comic book character. I want to know how fast he can go, period.”
Pietro stretched out on the couch, lying his head in Clint’s lap in an over-exaggerated manner. “Ask me again tomorrow,” he said, grinning up at the frowning billionaire. Clint couldn’t resist carding his fingers through white-blond hair, especially when he was purposefully irritating Tony. Stark was always irritating everybody else, so it was a blessing that Pietro was so good at turning the tables. If Pietro hadn’t already gotten into his pants, this would have been the way to do it.
“Come on. Now I need to know how fast he can run! It’s gonna kill me.”
Pietro made a show of stretching his legs so his feet rested on the arm of the couch. “My boyfriend and I are watching a show together. Isn’t it rude to interrupt?”
Tony made a face. “You’re watching a rerun of a landscaping show on mute.”
“Even more reason not to interrupt us.” He waggled his eyebrows and Clint laughed.
“Don’t be disgusting, brother,” Wanda scolded, not bothering to look up from her book.
Pietro scoffed. “I’ve seen you making googly eyes at Vision, sister. Don’t tell me I’m disgusting.”
Oh, Pietro was going to pay for that one later, Clint knew it. Wanda hadn’t even glanced up, but the temperature in the room dropped a few degrees. Wanda may have had a soft spot for her brother, but even he had to face her wrath on occasion.
Tony collapsed back on the couch, groaning. “Everyone is so impossible.”
“Stark, the last time you tried testing one of us, you destroyed half your equipment,” Steve said.
Thor tilted his head. “That was me, wasn’t it? You told me your scanners could handle the might of Mjolnir. You were wrong.”
“Yeah, but Pietro doesn’t shoot lightning from his orifices. He just runs fast.”
“Not all things are meant to be known,” Thor responded. He was wearing a hoodie and jeans, which would have been really strange if Thor didn’t look like he had walked right out of a fashion magazine.
“Things I can measure are meant to be known.”
“Not on a Sunday, they aren’t,” Pietro said, his gaze moving back to the television. “Are they really putting lavender bushes in the front yard?”
“Can we at least watch something more exciting that isn’t on the home improvement channel?” Tony asked, crossing his arms. “Clint’s the only one here who even does home improvement.”
“Read your comic book,” Pietro muttered. “At least you know how fast the Flash can run.”
The next day, as soon as Pietro and Clint had wandered into the common area, Tony dragged them both outside into the cool morning air of mid-autumn. The air was crisp and clean, a perfect day for running, as Tony had said at least five times in the span of ten minutes.
Clint knew that most of Pietro’s reluctance to be clocked was put on to annoy Stark, especially since Pietro had a tendency to be on the cocky side. Knowing how fast he could actually run would feed right into his cockiness. This time of morning was also Pietro's normal morning run time, so none of Tony's crazy was actually interfering with anything.
“So you want to try and run as fast as you possibly can,” Tony was explaining as he positioned Pietro at the front of the runway, barely able to hide his excitement at getting his way. “We’ll do it a few times to make sure the readings are correct.” He moved to the equipment he had set up midway down the runway, what looked like a huge wide-mouthed machine gun, facing Pietro’s end of the tarmac.
Clint moved out of the way, standing off to the side to watch the proceedings. He told himself it was to make sure Tony and Pietro didn’t pick too much on each other but knew he also was curious about how fast Pietro could really run. He was surprised Hydra hadn’t recorded that and even more surprised SHIELD hadn’t demanded that knowledge.
“Alright, I’m set over here,” Tony said, nearly lost behind the machinery. “Run as fast as you can. Go!”
Pietro was on the other side of the runway in the blink of an eye, shooting a cocky grin at Clint.
Tony wolf-whistled. “You’re hitting Mach 5! Go on, again.”
They did it five more times, and each time was nearly the same. Pietro’s pace fluctuated minutely, and by the end of it, his face was flushed and there was a huge grin stretching his mouth.
“I may not be able to beat the Flash, but I’m probably faster than that Usain Bolt.”
Clint squinted sideways at Pietro. “Probably.”
Tony shut down all the machinery and joined them, eyes bright with excitement leftover from getting what he wanted. “Speedy, your shoes are smoking.”
Pietro stared down at his green Nike’s, and Clint couldn’t help the bark of laughter that escaped his lips at the sight of the smoking running shoes. “I think he’s got plenty of pairs to spare.”
Pietro looped an arm around the back of Clint’s shoulders and pulled him into a quick kiss. When he pulled back, he grinned and said, “How does it feel to kiss the fastest man alive?”
Clint poked him in the ribs, aware that Tony was still watching them with barely-hidden mirth. “The better question would be what it’s like to live with such utter dorks.”
“I’m cooler than all of you losers,” Tony said with a grumble, and both Pietro and Clint looked over at him.
“Says the man who was reading a comic book,” Pietro muttered, and Clint smiled.
Tony plastered a fake hurt expression on his face. “I’m going to tell the others the gay couple is harassing me.”
Clint took Pietro by the elbow and began pulling him back towards the facility. “Yeah, you do that. I’ll be inside snogging the fastest man alive.”
Pietro laughed and Tony made a fake gagging sound.