A few members of the team decided to drink last night. Surprisingly, Tony was not one of them. Even more surprising was the fact that Stephen was. He got really drunk too, and Tony was willing to bet he got as far as blackout drunk if the way he found the drinking team the next morning was anything to go by. They were all sleeping on the floor. Clint laying on his stomach, Stephen was as well but he was using the archers back as a pillow, Scott of course had to touch the sorcerer in some way so his legs were thrown over Stephen's, and his head on a throw pillow from one of the couches. Sam wasn't part of the pile but he was nearby with his own pillow being strangled in his arms under his head, and Nat was using Stephen's back as a pillow, but she was awake and filing her nails while watching tv. Thor was the only one on a couch and looked completely unfazed aside from Natasha. Tony was pretty sure they weren't part of the drinking squad last night.
"Sooo..." Tony starts and Nat looks over at him. "Any idea why my husband's shirt is missing?"
"Thor and I just got here, but his bare back looked inviting." Natasha says.
"We made sure they were still breathing." Thor gently kicks one of Clint's legs but gets nothing for his effort. "They will not wake up though."
"At least it's not his pants." The engineer shrugs. "How much you wanna bet Mama Bear will wake up for his cub?"
Nat smiles. "I'm not taking that bet because I know he will. It will be a matter of urgency though. If the baby spider doesn't sound alarmed, he will continue to sleep."
Tony raises an eyebrow. "A hundred says that Pete just needs to say Mom."
"Now that is a bet I'm willing to take." Natasha says as she moves to her feet and joins Tony.
"Whoever wins, I want part of the winnings." Peter says as he comes out of his room yawning.
"Fair." Both Tony and Nat say.
Peter stretches as he moves to the entrance to the living room. Thor only seemed mildly interested in the outcome of the bet but mostly kept his attention on the television. When the teen opens his mouth, he only snaps it shut again when the elevator whooshes open and Nick Fury steps out onto the floor. Tony lets out a dramatic sigh.
"FRIDAY, thanks for the heads up." When she doesn't respond the engineer glances at Fury. "You screwing with my tech?"
"I wanted to surprise you."
Tony rolls his eyes. "You visiting is surprise enough. What do you want?"
"Have space to put up a couple of people for a few days?"
Tony scoffs and walks into the kitchen, grabbing some blueberries from the fridge and tossing some in his mouth. Did he have space? He had all the space in the world. It just depended on who the director wanted space for.
"Depends."
Fury rolls his uncovered eye. "You're as charming as ever Stark. When I heard you were married, I felt sorry for the poor woman."
Peter barks out a laugh and Tony throws a blueberry at his son. The teen only caught it in his mouth and munched happily. "Have you been hiding under a rock? I'm not married to a woman. I thought you if all people would know that." The mechanic explains when Fury looks at Peter curiously.
"I tend to tune out the news when you're the subject, but I managed to process that you adopted Mr. Parker over there." Nick points toward Peter and ignores the teen's correction of Stark. "So a man then? Still feel sorry that the poor bastard has to deal with you. So where is he?"
Tony motions toward the living room. "Somehwere in that pile of bodies on the floor. Now back to why you're here in the first place. Who am I babysitting?"
Fury says nothing when the elevator opens and instead steps aside to show T'Challa and Shuri stepping onto the floor. Tony grins and walks up to the Wakandan king and claps him on the shoulder with his free hand.
"Hey Kitty-cat! To what do I owe the honor?"
"Director Fury wanted our help with some of their equipment...Shuri and I wanted to sight-see."
"I'll show you myself! It's handy being married to a wizard. Wherever you want to go, we can be there instantly. Hope you don't mind waiting though. Stephen is currently dead to the world."
T'Challa raises an eyebrow. "You married the captain?"
"Nope. Actually, Nat and I made a bet so you might be able to meet him in a second."
"What kind of bet?" Fury asks suspiciously.
Tony nods to Peter who turns from their visitors and back to the living room. "Mom."
The billionaire had to keep himself from laughing at the incredulous look on Director Fury's face.
Peter huffs and allows a tone of fear drip into his next words. "Mom!"
The reaction was instantaneous. Stephen's eyes snapped open and he got up so quickly that any hangover effect that he might have to suffer through didn't have time to bother him. He was on his feet and in front of Peter before anyone could blink and immediately started looking for injuries. When he found none and there was no immediate threat to be found, he slumped down against the teen who uses his strength to keep him up. Stephen was definitely feeling the effects from his hangover now.
"Don't do that."
Fury glances at Stephen and Peter. "I don't want to know. You people are crazy enough."
Tony watches the man leave with a smirk and then motions toward his pale husband. "T'Challa, meet Doctor Stephen Strange." Stephen slowly lifts his head from his cub's shoulder to glance at the king. "Babe, this is the king of Wakanda and his sister Shuri."
"I apologize for my state." The sorcerer mumbles.
"You look like you had a fun night." T'Challa says with a grin.
"Clint's idea. I feel like I've been hit by a truck at least three times and I don't remember everything that happened."
The king laughs as Natasha turns to Tony with her hand out. "I believe I won that bet."
Tony pulls out his wallet and gives fifty to the Russian and the other fifty to Peter, who pockets it into his sweatpants before leading the sorcerer back into the living room to lay on one of the vacant couches. Tony collects a glass of water and some painkillers, passes them down to Stephen when he walks into the living room, and then turns back to the visiting royal party.
"Mind waiting until tomorrow for sight-seeing? I can get you two settled on the guest floor in the meantime."
T'Challa opens his mouth but is interrupted by a thud. " Mothertrucker, dude, that hurt like a buttcheek on a stick!" Peter exclaims and Stephen groans.
"Please cub...I already have an excruciating headache."
"AHH! Stahhp. I coulda dropped mah croissant!" Shuri says and Peter looks over at her with an excited gasp.
"How much money do you have?" He asks.
Shuri grins. "Sixty-nine cents."
"You know what that means?"
" I don't have enough money for chicken nuggets!"
Stephen almost sobs from his place on the couch and Tony and T'Challa stare at the two teens.
"Oh my god...there are two of them." Tony groans loudly.
"At least someone understands her." The king says.
Peter and Shuri hung out the entirety of the three days that the royal siblings were in New York. Tony made true to his promise of showing them the sights with the help of Stephen's portals, but it was a bit of a chore when the teens spoke mostly in vine references. The three adults just let Peter and Shuri do their thing. Tony and T'Challa were a little more used to it so they knew how to tune it out, but Stephen tended to look into his cup of tea with a look like the gods had forsaken him. They found it hilarious.
When their royal visitors finally left, with the promise that the New York family would visit Wakandan next time, Peter finally spoke sense and Tony could visibly see the relief loosen tight muscles in the doctor's shoulders. Peter was more than enough, but having Shuri around to encourage the boy was borderline insanity. She and T'Challa made it up to Tony at least by giving him some vibranium and the princess helped the engineer upgrade his and his family's nanotech suits.
"Woah! That was awesome!" Peter had just tried out unleashing the energy his suit absorbed from his father's hits. Much like T'Challa's did.
Tony coughs and extracts himself from the wall. "Ow."
"Oh crap! I'm sorry Dad! Are you okay?" Peter asks as he rushes over to the billionaire and brushes glass and pieces of metal off of him.
Tony waves him off and both let their suits retract into their respective cores and then look at the Tony sized dent in the wall.
"Let's keep that little perk for aliens and enhanced enemies, okay?"
Peter nods in agreement. "Yeah."
"We've been down here long enough anyway. Let's go make some lunch and have a movie night or something."
Tony leads the way to the elevator and back up to the family floor and they find Stephen sitting in the living room with a book and a plate full of sandwiches waiting on the coffee table. Scott, Clint, and Sam looked to have already helped themselves. Their presence only reminded Tony that he had meant to ask if they remembered anything from their night of drinking a few nights ago.
Peter rushes forward and jumps onto the couch after grabbing a sandwich, and curls into the sorcerer's side as he takes a bite. Tony takes the empty spot on the other side and picks up his own.
"What happened the other night? I've been meaning to ask." Tony wonders.
"You just want to know how we got Mama Bear shirtless." Clint snickers around his turkey sandwich.
"Actually, I'm surprised you got him blackout drunk let alone to actually drink."
Stephen peers over his book. "I would like to know where my shirt went as well. I don't remember anything past the jello shots."
Peter looks up at the doctor with a scrunched nose. "How much did you drink?"
"A lot...and that was before the jello."
"He technically drank us under the table." Sam admits.
Tony raises an eyebrow and looks at his husband. "That's really arousing...but none of you told me about the shirt."
"Why don't you just ask FRIDAY to show you the footage?" Scott asks.
"Watching it isn't the same as hearing you guys tell the story." Tony responds.
Clint finishes his sandwich. "We've only seen Stephen shirtless one time and that was when Peter almost froze to death so we couldn't see anything. We wanted to know how fit he was."
"Man, he did not disappoint." Scott practically drools and he curses when a portal opens up under him and he falls through.
"Anything crazy?" Tony asks.
"Stephen made himself a sandwich. He used wheat bread." Sam says.
"That's not crazy."
Sam snickers. "No, but it's hilarious when he called the white bread racist."
Stephen moans and covers his face. It was kind of funny. Not necessarily something to be embarrassed about, but then they kept going. After the jello shots, Stephen apparently decided that he had to practice neurology again, had opened a portal to the hospital, but Sam and Scott had tackled him to the ground and taken away his sling ring. They also distracted him with a teddy bear, saying it was Peter, and he had sat on the floor for a good thirty minutes staring at the toy. Scott at one point wanted to see how far gone the sorcerer was, but was quickly thwarted by red bands and a yell that Stephen was married thank you very much.
Both Tony and Peter were in tears from laughing so hard at the stories, and Stephen was just mortified. He was never going to drink again. They all had their idiotic moments that night, but Stephen was the only one that got blackout drunk. The others got close but they were still aware enough to babysit the sorcerer's dumb ass.
"Next time you guys drink, I'm sending Peter to Ned's and joining you." Tony laughs out.
"That will never happen because I am never drinking again." Stephen glowers.
Peter smiles. "Either way I'm glad you were able to relax enough to do that."
The teen grabs his third sandwich and Stephen ignores Tony when the man waggles his eyebrows at him, and ponders the teens words.
Maybe he needed to find a healthier alternative to relax and have fun with the team. While the night of drinking was fun (what he remembered of it at least), the hangover was not. That had taken him a full day to recover from and Stephen allegedly drank like a college frat boy after blacking out.
Then again, this was the Avengers. They would find a way to get him to drink again.