It had been about year since the Avengers had last been all together in one place, but now it seemed that Fury wanted them to gather together in his flying fortress. So here they were, all sat around the table, the only people missing were Tony, Thor and Fury himself.
"So, is Thor counted to turn up?" Steve asked curiously, looking around the table.
Bruce looked up half startled that someone decided to speak. It had been so long since they had spoken to each other that an awkward presence was in the air. "…erm perhaps not?" he replied uncertain of the answer.
"But he's part of the Avengers so I would say Fury somehow reined him in." Natasha added looking at Bruce with a small smile on her lips. The awkward presence was slowly fading away.
"He's worlds away! You expect the guy to turn up for fun?" Clint exclaimed.
"20 dollars says your wrong." Natasha raised her eyebrow at Clint seeing if her team mate would accept.
"How about a date instead?" Clint raised the bet after careful consideration of his options.
Natasha looked at him to match her side of the bet, "If you win. But if I win, you are to be my slave for an entire 24 hours." She looked at him to see if he would accept terms.
"As long as it's ethical, you're on." Clint grinned at her, full of confidence, while Natasha just gave him a sly look.
Steve looked around feeling his question unanswered. "Thanks for clearing that up", clearly annoyed.
"We've been waiting over an hour and neither Tony nor Fury has even shown up. So do we even have to be here?" Bruce said impatiently finally standing up.
"Yeah but we all know why Tony's late, his very distracted by a little Pepper." Clint said amusingly looking at towards Bruce.
"Watch your mouth." Steve said sensing Clint's meaning.
"Why Cap, afraid to get it on?" Clint said meeting Steve's stare. Natasha feeling the tension decided to change topic.
"So Bruce where've you been all this time? No text, no call, just plain, old, big, fat, green nothing." She knew she shouldn't have but she couldn't just not mention it. Especially when she knew Bruce still felt that he owed her, for running at her months before.
"I was finding some peace." He said staring at her blankly, not appreciating the reference. None of them noticing who had just entered their rendezvous point.
"Yeah blending in with the rainforest." He sauntered straight into the room towards the table.
"How's Pepper coming?" Clint asked looking straight at Steve's red face. Neither of them looking away from their competition.
"She's good thanks for asking. I just left her with loads of sheets to tidy up." Tony answered, to which Clint started to laugh his head off, Natasha let out a little chuckle, Bruce releasing a big smile and Steve's face started to go red. Tony raised an eyebrow to Steve to explain making him go even redder than before while he sat down on a chair crossing his legs. But the laughter stopped due to the sudden burst of Thor's voice.
"How it is nice to see my Midgardian friends again!" Thor's deep voice boomed across the entire room. Natasha smiled at Clint wiggling her eyebrows.
"Deals a deal." His face blank to which all the things she could now make him do.
"Well now that Shakespeare's here I say we can rock the party without Fury."
"You sure as hell ain't rocking this party Stark." Fury appeared with a couple of agents behind him.
"About time you turned up. Isn't it rude to invite people to an event, then you as the host are late? Having manners got booted out of the window by the 21st century didn't it?" Steve said annoyed at Fury for if he hadn't kept them waiting, all the remarks need not have been said.
"Well you would have first-hand knowledge about it, wouldn't you capsicle?" he teased with a smile on his face.
He nodded but replied with a smile, "True but you're a fine example of my theory wouldn't you say?"
"Stop. You lot can go on for hours on end. So just stop. Play mummies and daddies later." Fury said putting an end to one of the 'discussions' he liked to call them knowing that the actual word would be childish bickering.
"I agree, let the man who summoned us, do the talking so we can all get the hell out of here." Bruce said. Fury nodded towards the doctor in slight appreciation.
"So it's been over a year since you were all together and I think it's time for you all too just spend some time together as the Avengers. You know, it is a team thing and teams do work together so that they understand each other." Fury said looking around at each of them while walking around the table.
Tony not being able to help himself, "Okay, okay jeez I get where you're going. So how about my place? I've thought about it briefly just once and you're all going to love it. I'll throw you all a party and let you experience yours truly." He pointed towards his chest with a grin on his face.
"I don't want to experience anything of yours." Clint smirked knowing Tony full well for what he meant.
"Well how do you know you won't miss out?" Tony said defending himself.
Natasha smiled and decided to join in, "No one's going to miss out when there's nothing there to see."
"Let alone something that's been used many a time before, it just gets unreliable." Bruce couldn't help but join in. He discovered early on that the saying 'if you can't beat 'em, join 'em' really did apply to The Avengers.
"Seriously guys." Steve noticing what they we're actually talking about, while Thor was completely lost.
"I don't get it. What's there to experience? I don't see anything out of the usual." Thor said, confusion written all of over his face. Their laughter started once again.
"By the time I'm done with you, you'll never be the same." Tony smiled, placing a hand on Thor's shoulder, confusing the God even more.
"So it's agreed. You are all to spend at least three months living together as well as spending time with one another."
"By the way, my house, my rules." Tony added quickly.
"We're living together for three months." Natasha said smiling on a fact she already knew.
"So?" Tony questioned her.
"So, rules are made to be broken." She finished off.
"Not in my house. I'm starting to think I've actually done something wrong by generously offering my hospitality for us to bond and here you are already threatening my threshold."
"Since when are you generous, world war 3?" Steve said, finally giving up.
"Ouch, below the belt. When are you going to let it go? I was young, naïve and ignorant – we all make mistakes." Tony said, looking down at his watch briefly.
"I'm starving. Where's the food." The God was always hungry.
"Food is dished out when it's scheduled to be." Fury said walking over to the bridge.
"When's that?" The God said standing up.
"Not till another 3 hours." Fury replied over his shoulder.
Thor looked at everyone. "How do you people live on so little? In 3 hours I should be a rotting corpse on its way to a burial ground."
"Well then before we all have to sadly say good bye to you Edwardian hero, we must dine. So Furry, mind dropping us off at my place?" Tony's excitement couldn't be hidden in his voice. He needed to know more about their preferences for a little something he was doing for them all.
Fury gave a nod to his assistant to do so.