A/N: Hey guys. This one's been lingering around for a while, but I just haven't posted it. I'm not really sure why...

Thanks to ecotiger for being my beta! :)

Disclaimer: Yada, yada...still don't own it. Whatever.


The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Gamers


The Avengers are all gathered in the common room of Avengers Tower, lounging around on their favorite pieces of furniture. It's the perfect day to be outside doing something. The sun is shining, but it isn't too hot. The sky is clear blue, no clouds in sight. A nice breeze blows through one of the cracked windows every so often. The whole place is practically one big window, but only a few of them actually open. It's a beautiful day, but every one of the Avengers is wasting it.

Steve is hunched over the sketchpad that Tony had given him for his birthday. The soldier loves drawing. Any kind of drawing. Today, he seems to be having trouble, though. No matter what he draws, it doesn't look right. After a few lines he gives up and looks at the others. What he sees is slightly disappointing.

Tony and Pepper sit beside one another on the black leather love seat, their usual seating arrangement. They aren't interacting, though. They both have their noses stuck in their phones. Steve assumes that they are either texting or on Facebook, whatever that is.

Thor is oddly quiet, watching his brother's eyes flick back and forth as he reads. Loki doesn't seem to mind his adoptive brother as the blond hovers over him, looking over his shoulder. He calmly flips the pages of his book, lounging back in the recliner. He's either not bothered by the nine foot tall god or he's very good at keeping it to himself.

Bruce is also reading. He's not as relaxed as Loki, though. He stops every few minutes to clean his glasses on his shirt or shift in his seat. Steve can tell just by the title of the book that he would never be able to understand its contents.

Clint and Natasha are also sitting together. Clint keeps falling into the corner of the L sofa. He is wearing his favorite shirt. It has all of the Avengers on it. He's been wearing it every day. He keeps pointing out each person and showing Natasha. The redhead has to try very hard not to laugh as the archer repeatedly shows her the picture of himself.

Steve is just about to go back to his attempt to draw when Bruce slams his book shut. The scientist drops his college level textbook on the table and stands up. He walks to the door purposefully and announces, "I'm going outside!"

He wrenches open the door and walks out. Not even a whole second later, he comes back inside, none of his previous deliberate attitude. "I'm bored," he says as he flops back into his comfy chair.

Tony stares at his science buddy, his mouth hanging open. "Bruuuuuce?"

The man in question turns his head toward his friend. "Give me something to do," he demands.

Tony casts Pepper a glance and shrugs. "Sorry pal. I got nothin'."

Everyone slowly turns back to whatever it was they were doing. They keep this up for around five minutes. That's when Bruce pipes up, "I'm still bored."

Steve says suddenly, as if he just remembered something, "I know! We should all play those games you were telling me about!"

Clint looks up at the soldier. "You mean the Kinect games?"

Steve nods enthusiastically. "Yeah, those! I mean, it's not as if we have anything else to do."

Clint nods, looking over at Tony. "He's right."

Mr. Stark is already booting up the game system. It seems that he had already agreed with the soldier and can't wait to get playing.

Loki closes his book and watches Tony with a mildly curious expression. Thor just looks confused. He still doesn't really understand Midgardian things. Loki has nearly caught up, though. Tony's been teaching him things. The black haired god spends a lot of time in the science labs with Bruce and Tony, so he's much more educated in technology than Thor.

Pepper looks up from her phone to watch her boyfriend prepare the tournament. She has no wish to play with them, but she is certain that it will be fun to watch. It always is. She has watched Tony play before. Not the others, but she can just imagine how awkward poor Bruce will look playing these video games.

Once the Kinect is on and ready, Tony turns to the others and asks, "Just Dance or sports first?"

The vote is unanimous. Everyone wants to play sports. Tony taps the button to open the disk tray and places the game in. Once the tray slides back into the system, Natasha looks up from her phone.

"Dance!"

Tony looks at her incredulously. "Dude, sports are already in."

Natasha looks very upset. "Oh."

Clint says quickly, "Hey, um, if she wants to play that, I don't mind. I-I'm good with that."

Natasha scoots over a bit and leans on his shoulder. She has a strangely girly look on her face. "Really Clint-Muffin? You'd do that for me?"

Clint opens and closes his mouth, not sure what to say. "Uh...yesh?"

Tony looks over at Bruce and whispers, "Yesh?"

Bruce only shrugs. Clint overhears the genius and shouts, "Yesh is a word!"
Tony shakes his head furiously. "No. No it's not."

Natasha holds her right ear. She had been right beside Clint when he had yelled. "I'm deaf."

Clint pushes her gently. "No you're not."

Natasha shakes her head, grinning. "Nope."

An awkward silence fills the room. It stretches. Steve is certain that the entire world can hear how no one is saying anything. Wait. Is that even possible? Steve is deep in thought when Tony claps his hands together.

"Okay. That was weird and uncalled for. We're all done with that. We're going to play sports first. Then we can play Just Dance."

Natasha nods, agreeing. That sounds fair. Since it's Tony's house, after all. He should be able to do what he wants to when he wants to. Plus everyone else said sports.


Ten minutes later, Bruce is panting and waving his hands around like a madman, running in place in the middle of the common room. Cheers of encouragement surround him. His curly hair is sticking to the sweat on his forehead. The other Avengers can see the salty liquid running down his nose in droplets and dripping down. He's almost finished with his third round of Track and Field. Not just the third sport, but his third time going through all of the Track and Field sports. He's understandably tired. So tired, in fact, that he falls on his face when he tries to make a jump. Steve hears a crunch. That can't be good.

"Bruce, are you alright?"

"No," is Bruce's muffled reply.

Tony can't stop laughing at the impossible things that Bruce's avatar is doing on the screen to even care about his science buddy. The inventor rolls all over the couch, out of breath. He lands on Loki, who seems to jump a foot in the air, his hands held up to his chest and knees together. Tony falls onto the floor, still laughing. He ends up beside Bruce.

"Dude, look at yourself!" he gets out between snorts.

Bruce lets out a long wail.


Five minutes after that, Bruce is throwing a javelin. Not a real one, but an on-screen javelin. He flings his arm forward, pretending to throw it. The first two go well, but the third...not so much. Since Bruce is already sore, his arm doesn't want to do what he's telling it to. Instead, it seems that it wants to hurt him in every way possible. His arm flops down at his side. It looks a little weird, like it's out of place. Natasha moves over to him.

"Bruce, you okay?"

Bruce shakes his head slightly. "No."

Tony stares. He knows that something might be wrong this time. Apparently Clint doesn't, though. Either that or he doesn't care. Tony is leaning more towards the latter. He's sure that Clint, with all his training, knows that something is wrong. So it's just a matter of 'he doesn't care because it's not him'.

Natasha asks, "Can I help?"

Bruce nods. He answers gratefully, "Please do. It hurts."

Natasha nods. She takes Bruce's shoulder in her hands and twists it slightly. The scientist gasps, but doesn't complain. Natasha nods in satisfaction.

"You threw your shoulder out of socket. Just be more careful, okay?"

Bruce nods. Oh, he will. He will definitely be more careful. At least he hopes he'll be able to be more careful. He isn't sure, though. These people expect a lot of him. Quite a lot. They expect him to be able to do all this stuff without hurting himself. They haven't even done anything! They've just been sitting there watching him. The nerve!


Bruce is so sick of being the only one to do anything that he insists that Tony play the next game. He does so, but not willingly. Bruce has to convince him. And it takes a lot to convince a man who is completely set on not doing something. At least Bruce is pretty good with words. He doesn't know how he would be able to get his friend off the couch otherwise.

Tony trudges to the middle of the room and raises his hand. Once the game starts, it is obvious that he is a pro. Bruce should have known better than to let Tony pick his own game. It wasn't even active. Not really. All he's doing is standing there and moving his arm every now and then. Pah. Bowling. Anyone can bowl.

It turns out that not everyone can bowl. It takes a very well trained person to be able to bowl. Bruce's first throw went into the gutter. Steve and Clint's followed suit. Natasha's first throw almost hit the pins, then did a stupendously not fair turn and ended up in the gutter. Pepper wouldn't roll. Tony's first roll went straight down the lane and earned him a strike.

Bruce huffs and turns away. Tony laughs and says, "It takes a man to bowl, Brucey."

Natasha rolls her eyes and Pepper purses her lips. Neither woman looks very happy. Actually, they look very unhappy.

Tony holds his hands up and says, "I didn't mean that literally. I meant that it takes someone who is very skilled and trained to bowl."

Pepper nods and smiles. "That's better."

Natasha stands again and moves over to Tony. She bumps him with her hip and knocks him out of the way. When she takes her turn, she mimics what the billionaire did, sticking up her left foot and slinging her arm forward, and her ball follows his course perfectly. It ends just how his did, too; In a strike.

Tony looks impressed, to say the least. Steve looks amazed, while Bruce looks annoyed. Pepper looks very pleased and Clint just turns white. He knows that once Natasha learns how to do something, there isn't any going back. She knows how to use her weapons, and use them she will.

As the game goes on, Bruce finds himself to be having less and less fun. With every one of Natasha and Tony's strikes, he falls farther and farther behind. Even Steve gets better, and his ball gives him a few strikes, as well. Clint does okay, but not quite as well as Steve. He even invents some new ways to throw the ball. When he gets the 'Wood Chipper' award, he bursts into laughter. At least he's having fun losing.

When the scores come up, Natasha and Tony let out sounds of happiness. They're all grins when they lean back against the couch. Steve smiles slightly and sighs. He looks pleased with himself, though it seems like he's trying to hide it. Clint grins even though he came in fourth place. He really is easy going. Bruce scowls when he sees his score. He crosses his arms and burrows deeper into the cushions. This of course makes everyone laugh at him. Loki even lets a laugh slip past his lips.


After everyone is done with the sports, Natasha asks, "Can we play Just Dance now?"

Tony jumps up, looking ready to have more fun. He nearly skips over to the Xbox and taps the sensor. His Xbox has a sensor instead of a button to open the disc tray. He's just techie like that. When the tray comes out, he removes the sport disc and puts it back in the case. He puts Just Dance in after that.

He scampers back to his seat and says, "You first, Tashie!"

Natasha bounces out of her seat and turns to Clint. "You comin'?"

Clint nods and hauls himself off of the couch. It was a quite comfortable place to sit. The cushions were just soft enough without being overly smooshy. Just right to relax on without falling asleep.

Natasha grins and takes his hand. She leads him out to the middle of the room. She then turns to Loki and asks, "Do you want to play, too?"

Clint is extremely surprised when Loki rises from his seat. There is a faint blush on his cheeks. He had actually been looking forward to playing this game. He had enjoyed the other, but he wasn't a very sporty person. He prefers the more artistic things to displays of strength.

Thor jumps up after him. "I want to play this game!" He just likes everything. He really does.

Natasha grins and shows him where to stand and moves to the commanding position. That is, in front of the others. She won't stay here, but she has to make sure that the sensor can see her and doesn't try and pick up on the others' movements as they get ready.

When she gets to the menu screen, she is amazed. The only Just Dance game she has ever played only has the songs from that disc. Somehow Tony has managed to find one that has all of the songs. The menu is asking her which collection of songs she wants to dance to. As she looks at all of the options, she finds that the last one is 'All Discs'. That sounds good, so she picks that one.

When she does so, she is given the biggest list of songs she has ever seen. She's not sure how many there are, but she knows that she has never seen so many in one place. Not even on her iPod. At least everyone will have their favorite songs.

Natasha turns to Clint and asks, "Which one do you want to do first?"

Clint shrugs. "I don't know. You pick first. You're the one who wanted to play."

Natasha looks at Loki. He waves toward the screen and accidentally picks a song. They jump into place as the song starts. They didn't expect it, so they're not doing as well as they usually would. It isn't exactly the easiest song to dance to, anyway. It's actually one of the hardest ones. Their arms and legs don't want to do what the people on the screen are doing. Not at all. They flail around hopelessly, crossing their legs and trying to dance with one another. Loki got stuck as a woman and he has to dance with Thor. Natasha and Clint have reversed roles, so Natasha is pinned with the task of lifting Clint, which is impossible for her. Thor lifts Loki easily.

By the end of the song, all four of them are laughing. Clint's score is the best, with Thor's closely following. Natasha got third, leaving Loki in last place. Thor looks over at Loki, scared that his brother will be upset, or even angry. It turns out that he doesn't mind. The black haired god is laughing quietly, a smile on his face. Thor immediately relaxes.

They continue to play and Loki's scores gradually get higher and higher. On the fifth song, he is in second place with Thor in first. The larger god has gotten first on every song except the one that was accidentally picked. Clint keeps getting third, with Natasha in fourth. She isn't as okay with that as Loki was when he lost. She's not complaining, but she still doesn't look happy. Her smile has all but disappeared.

After more songs, Natasha's score climbs up to Loki's. Thor is getting tired, and his score is falling a bit. He has taken Clint's place, pushing the archer to the fourth spot. Loki is in the lead now with Natasha close behind. Both of them look very relaxed, like dancing is something they do every day. Like they were born dancing and they've been dancing ever since.

When the song is over, Natasha and Loki have the same score. When they look down to see their dance styles, they see that they both have the 'Twins' dance style. They look at one another and smile.


When the gaming is all done, and it's hard for anyone to stand, Tony gets JARVIS to take out the disc. The AI can't do any more than get the tray out, though. It's not like he has a hand or anything like that to put the disc back in the case.

Steve murmurs, "We were active."

Tony nods. "Yep."

Steve murmurs, "And now we're lazy again."

Tony nods. "Yep."

Clint lets out a long moan from the floor. He was the first person to get tired of dancing. Bruce is asleep on the sofa. He had to do the most, so he's pretty tired. Especially since he isn't the most active person normally. Natasha and Loki sit together, still laughing about their dance scores. The more they played, the lower their scores got. It was proof of how much they needed to take a break. Tony and Steve are on the second couch, stretching their feet out onto the coffee table. Everyone looks pretty pooped.

Pepper comes in a few minutes later, carrying glasses of cool refreshments. Tony looks up at her and asks, "Is that what I think it is?"

Pepper rolls her eyes and slips one of the glasses into his hand. "It's lemonade, Tony. I would have gotten you something else, but seeing as you have a lock of your liquor cabinet, I couldn't. JARVIS wouldn't tell me the code."

"Good boy, JARVIS. I'll find some way to give you an update."

"That won't be necessary, sir."

Tony chuckles and takes a sip, closing his eyes as the cool lemonade washes down his throat. He watches as Pepper hands out the glasses to everyone. Thor receives his gratefully and takes a huge gulp, where everybody else takes theirs politely and drinks like regular human beings.

Everyone likes it. Pepper turns on the fan and points it to the tired out super heroes. Bruce sighs in his sleep, smiling faintly. Pepper just puts his glass on the table beside him, smiling softly.

Pepper takes a seat on the arm of the couch beside Tony and sips her own lemonade. It had definitely been fun to watch the Avengers play Kinect games.


A/N: Hope you liked it! I'm not even going to beg for reviews, because I know that you kind people will write me some. :)