"You guys wanna play a game?" Natasha asks from the doorway with one of her infamous wicked grins.
Bruce pauses our movie. "What game?"
Nat holds up a black box. "It's called Bite the Bullet. Everyone rolls a die and you eat the corresponding chocolate bullet. Only catch is that one of them has a hot pepper inside."
Bruce and I look at each other and shrug. "Could be entertaining," I comment.
Bruce smirks, "We're in!"
We follow Natasha to the elevator and down a couple of floors of Stark's Tower, before walking to one of the many TV rooms. Everyone else is already gathered around the coffee table. Natasha takes the empty space on the couch between Thor and Clint—Bruce sits on the floor pillow in the only empty space and while there's room for me to sit next to him, I opt for his lap instead.
Natasha opens the box and lines up the chocolate bullets. "To keep it fair, we'll just go clockwise. Clint, you're first."
"Why don't you start, Nat?"
Natasha rolls her eyes, "Because this was your idea. Now roll the die you big baby."
Clint snatches the die from the palm of her outstretched hand. "Fine. Better odds I guess."
Clint throws the die on the table—4. Natasha hands him the fourth bullet. He stares at the bullet and I can see the fear in his eyes. He takes a deep breath and takes a bite. "Oh thank god!" He exclaims and pops the rest of the chocolate in his mouth. "Your turn."
He hands me the die and I give it a quick shake in my hand before tossing on the table. 2—my lucky number. I take the chocolate Nat hands me and take a bite before I can chicken out. Plain chocolate. I exhale the breath I hadn't realized I was holding. "Your turn, Bruce," I say handing him the die.
He shakes it and tosses the die quickly as well—7. Natasha hands him the chocolate bullet. I notice everyone tense up and lean slightly further away from us. They're all afraid of him getting the pepper and losing control, but I know he can control it better than that. Bruce bites the chocolate. "Hmm, good chocolate," he remarks casually. There is a collective sigh of relief.
Bruce passes off the die and the game continues. Steve, Bucky, Sam, Rhodey, and Pepper all go without incident.
"Doesn't look like the best odds anymore. Good luck, Tony," Pepper says with a smirk as she hands off the die.
Tony rolls the die—1. "Fitting," he comments as Natasha hands him the first chocolate. "I am after all number one." He bites the bullet in half with arrogance. Almost immediately, Tony's face goes bright red and his eyes start watering. He spits out the half chewed chocolate and starts coughing as tears roll down his cheeks.
"Tony, are you okay?" Pepper asks. He furiously shakes his head. "Hang on!" Pepper exclaims as she gets up and runs out of the room. Everyone freezes, staring at Tony. Pepper returns moments later with a pint of vanilla ice cream and a spoon. She rips the lid off and starts force feeding the ice cream to Tony.
After a few spoonfuls, his breathing returns to normal. He waves away the next spoonful and works to regain his composure. Tony wipes the tears from his face with his sleeve. "That wasn't that hot," he says casually.
The rest of us burst into a chorus of laughter. "Sure, Honey. And I didn't just feed you like a baby," Pepper laughs.