I don't own anything related to Marvel, except my DVD's.
"Okay men, listen up." Tony started as they geared up for laser tag. "This place is awesome; they have cat walks up top, and tunnels and trenches in the floor. Barton, I want you hiding somewhere down below."
"Should Eye of Hawk not be in a position of height, to afford us a bigger advantage?" asked Thor.
"No he should not, that's where the enemy will expect him to go, which is why he should go down below. Steve, start on the left side and work your way around the perimeter. Thor, you take the right side and work your way around. If you make it around and you two meet, don't shoot each other. Bruce you go up top, try to be quiet. I'll go right up the middle. We will hunt them down and take them out." He finished with a flourish.
"Okay, you're in charge." Said Clint, picking up his gun, "Let's do this."
The worker, a short brown headed college girl, lined them up and walked circles around them, making sure all their equipment was hooked up and working. After giving them a brief overview of the layout and the rules she told them her counterpart tonight was doing the same things for their opponents.
"Okay ladies, we ready to kick some testosterone fueled butts?" asked Jane.
"Always." answered Darcy tightening her vest.
"So anyone have a plan for how to do this?" Pepper asked.
"Do what we do best and take them down a peg."Maria said as the ladies started giggling.
"If no one objects, I think I have an idea." Natasha spoke up.
As she was finishing laying out the details for their plan a young guy in the staff uniform come in to give them an overview of the layout and the rules of the game. He walked around all of them and tested to make sure everything was working properly. He paused for a moment, listening to the headset he was wearing.
"Okay ladies, if you are all ready, it is time to start the game. We've set a timer for a playtime of one hour. You can shoot and be shot multiple times, but every time you get hit your vest lights up and it takes 30 seconds to reset while it resets your gun is unusable." When they all answered that they were ready to play, he opened another door and let them into a little room with a big digital clock on the wall counting down to zero.
"Okay, when it reaches zero the far door will open and you will enter the playing field, the door will close behind you. On a different side of the arena another door will open with your opponents being let out into the playing field." She finished her well rehearsed speech and backed out of the room, leaving the guys to take one last deep breath before going into battle.
"Okay guys let's prove who is the better sex." Tony said just as the timer finished and the door opened. They all walked onto the playing field and split up to start the search.
Steve had already made his way to the second wall and as he was preparing to turn up the next he heard something. Stepping away from the wall, he ducked behind a wall a few feet away. Looking around the side of the wall he stood up when he saw who it was. Thor had made his way around the other wall and upon not seeing or hearing anything had let his guard down some and wasn't trying as hard to be stealthy. Steve stepped out and started walking back along the wall shaking his head at Thor's antics.
Thor saw the good Captain, and waved, not understanding why Steve was shaking his head at him.
"The Ladies are proving to be quite adept at hiding; I have seen no sign of my Lady Jane."
"Yeah I haven't seen or heard anything either." Steve admitted.
"Well I heard Thor from halfway across the room and now with two of you making racket, I'm surprised you are still in the game." Said Tony coming out from a low wall off to their side, they all lifted their guns and looked around expecting one of the ladies to jump out at them.
Steve let out a small chuckle before lowering his weapon, "Have you seen anything Tony?"
"Nada, you two hear anything?"
"We have neither seen nor heard from the ladies." Thor replied.
While the boy's were exchanging info, they failed to notice that their position was compromised. All of a sudden, a red light shot out from 3 different directions, and 3 bodies dropped to the floor. All three had been hit, and their vests were lighting up to prove it. They laid there for a moment, listening more intently for enemy sounds than they did for one of SHIELD's mission briefings, while they waited for the timer on their vest to reset so they could continue the play.
"How did they get the drop on us?" Steve asked.
"If I had to guess, I'd say that Spider has a plan." Tony said
"A mighty plan at that." Thor said, "They are proving to be an admiral foe."
"Let's go get them boys." Said Tony moving into a crouch in preparedness to run away.
"Shall we stick to the wall Man of Iron?" asked Thor, crouching down beside him.
"You know what, just fan out and find them." Said Tony, dashing for a tunnel a little ways from their current position.
Bruce was walking along the cat walk when he saw some green flashing lights and a big thud.
"Well that can't be good." He muttered, starting to walk that way.
"No Doc, I'm afraid it's not." Said a voice from behind him. He turned to find Darcy behind him. They stood there with guns raised watching each other for a short moment. Darcy made the first move, not by shooting him but by stepping closer to him. She walked right up to him, causally side stepping his still lifted gun, until he had to look down to see her face. She stood in his bubble and watched his face for any sign of a reaction, before lifting herself up on her toes and just barely grazing his jaw with her mouth. She pulled the trigger and stepped back while his vest lit up.
"Sorry Doc." Darcy said turning and running off before his vest could reset and let him retaliate.
"Sneaky Natasha." He said knowing she would have been the one to come up with a plan of action for them.
From her vantage point Natasha saw Darcy take out Banner.
"Not what I meant when I said distract him, but hey it worked." She said dropping down next to Darcy.
"Any sign of Clint?"
"None, I guess Tony sent him to the lower section, he knew we would look for him up here."
"Well good luck finding him; we have 25 minutes left in the game."
Splitting up they went their separate ways, Natasha headed down a ladder to find Clint. As soon as her feet touched the bottom she felt a gun in her back. It's rare for someone to get the drop on her so she knew it could only be one person. She dropped her shoulders and sighed as she turned around.
"Hey Clint, where ya been?"
"Around." He pulled the trigger watching her vest light up. "Sorry, didn't want you to distract me like Darcy did Banner." He lowered his gun.
"Like it would work, you know my tricks." She stepped into his space.
"Oh I doubt that." He said reaching his arms around her and pulling her even closer.
She gave him a full grin, before pulling his face down to hers.
He backed her into the ladder she had previously descended from. She arched into him as he trailed kisses down her throat. Running her hands through his hair she tossed a glance behind him when she saw movement. Next thing she saw was Clint's surprised look while his vest lit up between them. She placed one last kiss on his lips before turning and disappearing into the semi darkness.
"Well damn." He muttered.
Tony had just stuck his head out around a wall when he saw a flash of familiar strawberry blonde hair. He followed her around two more walls before he got his shot, taking it he couldn't help but laugh at the expression on her face when she whipped around to see who had gotten her.
"Mr. Stark." She only called him that when he was in trouble now that they were together.
When she took a step towards him, he called out "It's only a game Pep." as he turned and fled, but he ran right into Jane who didn't hesitate to pull the trigger.
"Thanks Jane." Pepper said as the two ladies walked away, but what they didn't see was the figure lying on top of a wall waiting for them to get closer.
Both of their vests lit up and they looked around for the culprit but to no avail, the shooter was gone.
When Steve hit the ground on the other side of the wall, he turned a corner and his vest lit up enough for him to see Maria standing there.
"Payback Captain." She turned and ran off.
At that point a voice rang through some loud speakers letting them know they only had 10 minutes left in this round.
In the last 10 minutes, Clint came out of hiding looking for Natasha, but only found himself hitting Pepper while Pepper shot Steve. Thor found Jane, but said he couldn't shoot her so she shot him instead. She was hit by Tony who was hit by Darcy, when Bruce stepped out to hit Darcy he was stopped by Maria shooting him. Clint shot Maria and with only a couple of minutes left Natasha stood up on a wall, shot Clint and then proceeded to jump down right next to him. Everyone was standing in a group laughing when the lights came fully up and the doors opened back up.
Leaving the arena, they turned in their guns and learned that the girls won the first round before they decided to eat and then play some more.
The played four more rounds that night before calling it quits and going back to the tower.
"Well I have to say that was fun." Spoke up Bruce as they settled into the communal living room.
"Yeah," agreed Steve, "good choice Tony."
"You say that like I never have good ideas." Tony was cut off by Pepper leaning into him and whispering in his ear. His faced changed into a smirk and he dropped a kiss on her lips when she pulled back.
"Well, it's been a pleasant evening, but we're going to head to bed."Tony said pulling Pepper up with him when he stood.
"Thank you for letting me come tonight, it was nice to relax for a bit." She said, "Goodnight."
They left for the elevator to a chorus of goodbyes from the group.
"Bed sounds nice," spoke up Jane standing up next. Everyone told her goodnight too. She paused when she got to the doorway, "Coming Thor?"
"Goodnight my fellow brothers and sisters." He obediently got up to follow his Lady Jane to their shared room two floors up.
"I've got a simulation running in the lab I need to check on before I get to go to sleep." said Bruce, heading out of the room too.
"Hey Darcy, why don't you follow him and make sure he actually leaves the lab tonight."
"Took the words right from my head Natasha." said Maria with a grin at the younger woman.
"You two think you're being sneaky, stop it." Darcy said standing up to leave.
"Good night." called Clint, dragging out the words as she left the room.
Since it was down to just the Shield agents and Steve, Clint and Natasha dropped their guard a little by Clint wrapping his arm around her shoulders and Natasha repositioning on the couch to snuggle into his side.
They talked about nothing for several minutes, rehashing some funnier moments from the games earlier that evening. A beep went off and Maria fished her phone out of her purse.
"Sorry guys, my ride is here." She stood up to leave and everyone else stood up too.
"Yeah, I guess we're gonna head to bed too." Clint said as him and Natasha started walking for the elevator with Maria.
All four climb on the elevator and Steve pushed the button for the ground floor.
"You can head to bed, I can show myself out." She protested.
"I just want to make sure you get to your ride safely."
"Thanks, but I can take care of myself, besides he should be right at the curb."
"Guys we're half way down anyways." Spoke up Natasha from where she had sat down and dragged Clint to sit next to her so she would have a warm point to lean against.
"Okay, but try not to stare and I don't want it ever mentioned who is picking me up."
"Maria," started Clint, startling Maria since he always called her by her surname. "Next time you should try to get him to come, he needs to have fun." He surprised her with that statement, she had no idea anyone knew. Seeing Natasha nodding, she glared at her.
"You knew and never said anything?" she asked her friend.
"It's none of our business, besides you've never mentioned Clint or me even though I know you've known about us for a while." Natasha responded.
"Well, I'm out of the loop." Said Steve with a familiar, confused look on his face.
They reached the ground floor at that moment, and the doors opened. As they walked across the lobby, they could see a SVU had pulled up on the curb and a very familiar figure was waiting against the passenger side door. When they reached the door they had to have Jarvis unlock it to let her out, the three Avengers watched as she walked right up to the man who opened the door for her. She stopped and pulled him in for a hug, she must have said something in his ear because he gave an uncharacteristic grin and dropped a kiss on her check as he straightened back up.
When he shut the door firmly behind her, he turned toward the group still standing at the now relocked door. He nodded at the trio before walking around and getting in the SVU.
"Well, that was unexpected." Said Steve as they drove off, he was still standing at the door when he heard the other two tell him the elevator was waiting. "Coming." He called walking their way.
"Remember Steve, not a word to anyone, not even to them." said Natasha.
"What about you two?" he asked.
"What about us?" asked Clint.
"We're just partners." said Natasha.
"Really? That's what you're going with?"
"No, but that's the line we give Shield if anyone bothers asking directly." responded Clint.
"Clint, we can trust him." said Natasha.
He knew then that Steve was going to get the truth. It was a major event for Natasha to trust someone after just the few weeks they've spent together, or just to trust someone period.
He took a breath before giving in, "we're married. Have been for two years now." He said with a smile at his wife.
"Okay, good to know." Steve said as the elevator stopped at his floor.
"Hey Steve," called Natasha as he stepped off, "same rules apply."
"Of course, good night." He turned and headed to his room without looking back.
"Come on Spider, let's go to bed." Clint said as the elevator headed up to their floor.
"I love you babe." He grinned despite rolling his eyes at her.
"I love you too dear."
A/N I know this one was long, and although I've already started on Bruce's night out I don't think It will be as long as this one.
If you have an suggestions, please review and let me know.
