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Peter stood in the front of the living room, bouncing on his toes as he glanced around the Avengers staring at him.
“Okay. Thank you all for gathering here-”
“Peter, it’s our weekly movie night. We were gonna be here anyway.”
“Yeah, you didn’t actually call this meeting either, you just kinda got up and started talking.”
Peter shot Clint and Sam a glare, though it had no weight behind it because he knew they were right.
Over the past few months after accidentally meeting the Avengers, Peter had grown close to all of them. They had initially been suspicious of him being Tony’s intern considering how often he was around, his weirdly high clearance, and the fact that he was a child, which Tony Stark famously did not get along with, but after spending time with him they realized he was so loveable that they could actually see the situation as plausible. The kid had the entire team wrapped around his finger. Eventually, Tony had admitted that Peter actually lived there most nights because of his Aunt’s late shifts, and the team had simply accepted it. It did explain how he was there so often and at such odd times. So far, only Nat had caught on to Peter’s vigilante identity, the rest too blinded by their adoration to question it, luckily for Peter. So, he was able to relax enough to actually enjoy this odd, super-powered family he had fallen into.
“Anyway, as I was saying,” Peter stressed with a wave of his hand, ignoring their points, “I would like to propose something a little different!”
He paused, taking in the confused and intrigued gazes of the Avengers in front of him. If it were someone else they would probably be irritated by him skating around the topic, but none of them could really be annoyed by the boy standing before them.
“So, I was thinking… we should also have game nights! Maybe like alternating every week between movies and games! It’d be fun!”
Tony tilted his head, pondering the suggestion. “What kind of games? Like Chutes and Ladders?”
“Well that too. But I had a… different suggestion for tonight.” His smile grew into a wide mischievous grin that had Tony and Bruce’s eyes narrowing at him.
“...what might this suggestion be?” his mentor questioned, voice now wary.
“Wall I wanted to introduce you to the game that all cultured people know and love on my mission to educate you guys. But because Mr. Stark is super rich and insisted on buying the more expensive version for Ned and I a few months ago, we’re playing it a bit different than normal.”
“Ok but what is it?” Sam insisted, ignoring the jab.
“May I introduce you to… VR FNAF!” Peter held up the VR set he had been hiding behind his back with a wide grin, bouncing on his feet.
The rest of the group just looked at him confused. “What was that noise that just left your mouth?”
“FNAF! It’s the abbreviated version of Five Nights At Freddy’s, a horror survival game!”
Nat, Sam, and Tony looked intrigued, Clint and Wanda seemed amused (he knew Wanda knew the game because he had introduced it to her a few months prior, and Clint had heard mentions of it from his kids but had never seen it actually played), Bucky, Steve and Vision were, as per usual when it came to modern culture, confused, but Bruce and Rhodey paled slightly, trying to shrink back from the proposed game.
“Ok, kid. How do you play?” Tony leaned forward, a smug smirk on his face.
“Ok well, I’m not gonna explain the lore because there’s a lot and even I don’t really know all of it, Ned is more knowledgeable on that part. But basically, normally it’s a computer game but the VR version makes it so you’re in the game which is so much more awesome!”
The Avengers couldn’t help but smile and chuckle quietly at Peter’s excitement.
“So for the game, you play as a body guard at a pizzeria and it has some animatronics that went crazy and became sentient and wander around and try to kill you! So you have to survive five nights in the pizzeria with the animatronics coming after you! It’s fun!”
Peter ignored Bruce’s mutter to Rhodey of How is that fun? And the returning I have no idea.
He also saw Steve lean over and whisper to Bucky What the hell is an animatronic. Which was responded to with a shrug and I’m still trying to figure out what VR is. Peter simply smirked. Even if he could respond to that without exposing his enhanced hearing, he realized it would be more fun not to tell them. The most fun, actually, to make them go first. Well, first after Peter. He would at least show them how the game worked, he wasn’t a monster after all.
He settled the headset on his head with a smile and turned towards the screen that was displaying what he saw.
“Ok, so the screen is showing you what I’m seeing. I’ll show you guys first how to play and then I’ll hand it over. Wanda, can you answer any questions I don’t catch?”
He huffed a laugh as he heard them all shift to stare at Wanda.
“You know about this?”
Peter heard her shrug. “Peter showed me. I’ve only played the computer version though. I broke the computer the first three times I played it and Peter had to keep putting it back together so I figured VR wasn’t the best idea until I got more used to it.”
“You broke the computer? How?” Sam sounded incredulous.
“You’ll see.” Peter smiled at the mischievous amusement in her voice.
He started the game, bringing their attention back to him as the “Night 1” screen faded away and he was surrounded by the FNAF camera room. He had a feeling that very few animatronics were going to come after him this round, having discovered that while his spidey-senses don’t apply to computer games, they do actually somehow work when he goes into VR, and they were very quiet at the moment.
“So when you play, you have the cameras here,” he clicked through the various cameras, “and then on each side,” he turned to show the two doors and the buttons on his right and left, “you have a door and two buttons, one for the lights and one to close and open the door. You have to close the door if one of them is coming for you or they can kill you.”
“Why don’t you just keep the doors closed then?” Bruce asked, a sliver of hope in his voice that he could just hole up with the doors closed when his turn came.
“Sorry but no can do. This,” he turned to the other screen “shows your battery which you have to conserve. If you keep the doors closed and/or the lights on it wastes the battery and then you have no defense, so you have to be smart about it.”
He smirked at Tony’s well that won’t be a problem. Man was this going to be great.
Peter flew through the level, calmly keeping an eye on the cameras and pointing out and naming each animatronic that came up. He only occasionally would test the lights and doors to show them what to do, but his spidey-senses stayed quiet, allowing him to stay calm until right before the end when they started to buzz. So, he calmly closed the doors and turned the lights on, staying quiet when he saw a massive Bonnie walk by, smiling at the horrified gasps from behind him. He turned the light off and, when his senses kept buzzing, he turned it back on, cackling at the soft screams from behind him when Bonnie was staring at him through the window. After a few more moments with the lights off, his senses went quiet and the screen went black, with a white “6:00” shining, confirming that he survived the night.
He pulled off the headset, grinning wide as he fixed his tousled hair. “All right, who wants to try it? Mr. Rogers?” He didn’t allow anyone else to volunteer, immediately turning and holding the headset out to the super soldier who looked startled. “Oh- uh…”
“Please, Mr. Rogers! I think you should try it! You’ve got this!” Peter smiled innocently at him while Wanda covered a laugh, seeing right through him.
Steve sighed and accepted the tech with a mildly stressed smile, standing where Peter had been while Peter sat on the floor, cross-legged.
He hesitated before pulling it on, at which Tony quipped “What, you scared, Rogers?”
“No, Tony. I’m just trying to remember what Peter showed us.”
Peter turned to Clint who was sitting on the chair furthest to the front and subtly waved for his attention before, out of the view of everyone else, signing bullshit, making Clint slump down in his chair and cover his mouth as he tried desperately not to laugh.
Steve slipped on the headset and immediately stepped back a step. “Woah what the fu-”
“Language!” they all chimed, prompting an exasperated sigh from Steve.
Peter noticed Sam subtly recording on his phone as Steve swiveled around, waving his arms at nothing for a few moments, baffled by the technology. “How… I’m in the game. This is so weird,” he breathed.
Steve, the good rule-follower he is, actually did decently well at first, having paid attention to Peter’s instructions. He, however, did not have the benefit of a sixth sense comforting and warning him, so the further he got without an attack, the more stressed he got. Peter watched, amused as the super-soldier’s breathing quickened and his commentary got progressively squeakier.
Suddenly, as Steve was watching one closed door, Foxy jumped out at him. Peter saw several of the Avengers flinch violently a the jump scare, some even letting out a loud yelp, but the best part by far was Steve, who immediately dropped to the floor with a shriek and start furiously punching at nothing for a few moments before he composed himself, panting and flushed bright red. The entire group was cackling at him, including Sam who was still, in fact, recording and got the entire thing on video. Peter mouthed to him send that to me and Sam nodded with a wink.
“Ok fine!” Steve exclaimed, whirling on Bucky who was on the floor wheezing from laughing so hard. “You want to try it?” he shoved the equipment at Bucky, pretending to be exasperated, though he was smothering a laugh and his lips were twitching up slightly.
Bucky grinned and grabbed it from him. “Sure! I’ll show you how it’s done.” he claimed confidently.
He did not, in fact, show him how it was done.
Bucky ended up making it through 2 of the hours before Chica got him, resulting in a high pitched scream and, unfortunately, a crack in the wall from where Bucky tried to kick her.
After that, they pushed the couches and chairs back to give the players more room.
After Bucky, Tony sauntered up, claiming that, as the “resident genius,” he was clearly going to wipe the floor with them, even insisting he try FNAF 2 instead for more of a challenge. Instead, after showing him how to play, Peter ended up on his knees crying laughing after Tony nearly fell over at the appearance of the balloon kid in the vents and, a little later, ended up screaming on his knees as he failed to grab the mask, falling over when Freddy jumpscared him.
When Tony insisted on a retry, Peter had quietly shuffled over to sit near his feet and waited until he was a good portion through the night, heart beating rapidly and shoulders tense as he was desperately trying to charge the music box. Then, Peter grabbed his ankle, giggling maniacally as Tony tried to kick him shrieking “GET IT OFF GET IT OFF GET IT OFF” until he heard Peter’s giggling and ripped the headset off, glaring at the wheezing boy.
“And what if you gave me a heart attack?” He tried lecturing, but Peter simply grinned up at him.
“Eh, you have practice getting scared by me, you’re fine.” He stood and gave Tony a patronizing pat on his cheek, earning another glare and more laughter from the room.
When Tony gave Clint the headset next, he tried to feign disappointment as he said “oh sorry but I can’t play. You guys are relying on hearing so I’m afraid I’d be at a disadvantage. So sad, oh well-.” but Peter cut him off.
“Actually, Mr. Barton, I made some tweaks to the headset so there’s a setting that buzzes to indicate the sounds so you can play too!”
Clint shot a glare at him for blowing his excuse, but Peter noticed a glimmer of appreciation in his gaze at the kid’s thoughtful consideration. The game ended in Clint screaming as well though, so the appreciation didn’t last all too long.
Sam and Rhodey ended up having very similar experiences, though they were wise enough to not go in as over-confident as they finally caught on that they would very likely end up screaming like the rest of them but comforted by not being the first ones. Bruce opted out on account of “It’s best we not risk me getting scared and the other guy coming out”. Vision also politely declined. Wanda went last and maneuvered the game with the expertise of her last few months of playing, making it through 4 nights before Foxy got her. She did jump back with a yell, red glow encompassing her hands, but she had enough control to reel it back in and ended up simply chuckling with the rest of them, pleased with her progress.
Ultimately — despite Steve and Clint’s mock protests that they were “traumatized” and would “never play again.” — they all agreed that it was great fun and incredibly funny,
“So, what do you think about game nights?” Peter asked, hopefully bouncing on his toes.
“I think we could get behind them. Do you have an idea in mind for the next game in two weeks?”
Peter grinned wide at their approval. “I do! It’s not a horror game,” Bruce and Rhodey sighed in relief but Sam pouted in disappointment.
“Have you guys ever played mariokart before?”