The Tower's residents reconvened on Tony's birthday for another of their Honorary Friday Nights. It was a testament to how well they were beginning to know each other that none of them questioned the fact that they were all invited to this one but not Tony's 'official' party in a few days time. They knew by now that a lot of the parties that Tony attended were more for networking rather than any actual enjoyment on his part, and that his birthday party, in particular, was show for the sharks of the media and politicians, rather than a celebration that Tony would like.

So rather than be insulted at the lack of invitation (which they knew was actually a very generous kindness on both Tony and Pepper's part, since having someone like Steve, Rhodey, Sam, Helen or Thor show up would be a boon for what the party intended to accomplish, but also result in an entire night of being hounded) they all decided to make the most of Tony's actual birth date, and just hang out together.

Like a family.

And like all families on birthdays, they each brought Tony a present, wanting to show the genius just how well they each knew him.

It was this which lead to a night of headaches for Rhodey, Pepper, Happy and even JARVIS, and one of horror for everyone else. Except Tony, of course. No, his cackles could be heard long into the night, along with the sounds of furious debate among the others.

It sure as shit wasn't what Bruce was expecting to come of his gift.

~0~0~0~0~0~

"Helen, I'm not sure what this is, but I love it," were Tony's first words after a few bites of the... whatever it was that Helen had made for his birthday.

"This is what happens when you decide to mix different Korean, Indian and Thai styles of cooking. I am glad you like it, but to be perfectly honest, this would have turned out a lot worse without Erik and Bruce's help. I know all my mother's traditional recipes, but I've never been very good at cooking them." At the others curious looks, Helen added, "I was just trying to make japchae, but it wasn't going so well, so Bruce and Erik helped, but since they don't know many South Korean dishes, Bruce improvised by using some techniques he picked up in India and what he knew of Thai food. And this... whatever this is, was the result."

"Ugh, you guys do know that you don't have to use your PhDs in everything, right?" Darcy said with a mouth full of noodles, "I mean, I'm all for experimentation with food, but I draw the line at scientific jargon."

Erik huffed, "We aren't that bad, Darcy."

"Yeah, you kinda are."

"I must admit, I find myself pleasantly surprised by the variety and quality of food here on Midgard," Loki said after before taking another bite. "I normally have to travel far through the realms to experience just different tastes in food."

"Yes, each of the Nine Realms have their own style of food, and we have to travel to a different realm if we wish to try something different."

Loki looked at his brother, "I don't know what you're talking about, since you only ever go to the the Nine, and most of the time you, the Three and Sif just hunt for yourselves anyway."

"That is completely- OK, only partly, "Thor ammended as Loki raised a brow, "untrue. Besides, we almost always travelled together, and you never went anywhere other than the Nine either. Heimdall would have mentioned if you went elsewhere on the Bifrost."

"Oh please, brother," Loki scoffed. "You think the Bifrost is the only way to get to Asgard? Please. And I've been hiding from Heimdall's sight for centuries. I know how to shield myself, and he only sees what he looks for. Besides, you think that I only used travel with you and your friends? Or that I'd have taken you with me when I went to the less known, yet more interesting, places? When you were so culturely sensitive?" He added sarcastically.

Thor looked rather put out by the notion that he wasn't as well travelled as his younger brother. "But you must admit that travelling with me was always fun!"

"Either way, this is delicious," Pepper put in before Loki could reply. She knew the man could keep a debate like his going for hours if she wanted to.

"Definitely," Tony put in, helping himself to another large serve of... whatever it was.

"I am glad you like it, since it's your birthday and all," Helen answered with a smile.

"Wait, what?" Tony asked, surprised, "I thought that was in a few days."

"No, Tony," Pepper replied, patient and amused, "Your official 'party' is in two days. Did you really think that we wouldn't celebrate with you before then?"

Tony paused, "Actually, I thought the party was in four days. I legitimately thought that today was the... 26th? 27th? Hey, JARVIS, when is my birthday?

"You don't know the date of your own birthday?" Sam asked bemusedly.

"Mr Stark does have the unfortuneate tendency to forget the more 'sentimental' dates, Mr Wilson. Birthdays being a particular issue for him," Rhodey snorted and Pepper and Happy nodded in aggreement, along with Tony, who, for once, didn't try to protest. "And Sir, today is indeed the 29th of May, which is your birthday."

"Huh, how about that?" Tony said as everyone else snickered.

"And speaking of birthdays," Darcy interupted. "Time for the important part: presents!"

"Shouldn't the important part be the cake?" asked Bruce humourously.

"I thought it was the nice family celebration, where the people you cared about showed that they cared about you and acknowledged the day because you are important to them," Steve said wryly.

"No, it's definitely the presents," Clint said seriously. "This is the part where everyone gets to see who the better friends are and whoever gave the best gift is the recipient's favourite for the rest of the year."

"Damn, I didn't think of it like that," Erik muttered.

"That's because Clint reads into things too much," Natasha put in, a smile on her lips at her partner's antics.

"That, and he watches too many trashy chick-flicks," Phil said, deftly ignoring Clint's outraged squawks.

"You're just saying that because you only just realised how underprepared you are!"

While the SHIELD agents bickered, Tony looked to Pepper and they both smirked, "Well, this sounds like it will be interesting."

~0~0~0~0~0~

Half and hour and a heap of unwrapped and... interesting gifts later, and Tony was just getting to the last one left. Everyone was comfortably sitting around the lounge room, watching as Tony reached into the brown, paper bag that Bruce had given him earlier. So they were all afforded a clear view of Tony's reaction to the sudoku book he pulled out of the bag, which was a - rather frightening - wide, slow grin, and a low, maniacal chuckle, which soon built into a cackle. Pepper, Rhodey and Happy all straightened immediately, with identiacal looks of horror as soon as they saw the book.

"Oh shit," Rhodey breathed, while Pepper raised a hand to her mouth and Happy sunk his head into his hands and gave a - rather accurate - rendition of Luke discovering his father was Darth Vader. Everyone else was... decidedly creeped out and confused.

(JARVIS' "Oh dear," did not help matters.)

"Uh, why do I feel like I just made a terrible, terrible mistake?" Bruce eventually said nervously.

Rhodey, after another moment of stupefied staring (and since Pepper and Happy were still catatonic), answered him in a halting whisper, "That, Dr Banner, is because you did. Rule 3: Tony is not allowed within 3 feet of a sudoku puzzle. Tony argues that it isn't his fault that the rest of us go crazy whenever he gets one, but we weren't taking any risks, so eventually we compromised. If he's challenged to do a sudoku or offered, or - God forbid - he is given one, he's allowed, but he can't seek one out for himself," Rhodey had to pause here in his renewed horror.

"But you, Dr Banner," Pepper murmured vacantly, her eyes still focused on where Tony had just pulled out a pen, and was still laughing like a lunatic, "have just given him an entire book of sudoku puzzles."

(Evereyone decided it would be best to ignore Happy's incessant mumblings of, "Not again not again not again not again...")

"I'm not sure I understand," Loki said in a clear, steady voice, although his eyes were still on Tony, tracking his every movement.

"You will, Loki," Rhodey said with certain finality and a hint of pity. "You will."

"OK, everyone," Tony finally drew everyone's attention, "I've finally had enough of the supervillain-evil-cackle, but I expect you, Clint, to inform Doom that I do it better than him the next time we run into him," Clint nodded in agreement. "Now, I just looked at the contents page, and the book has 1000 puzzles," Happy whimpered, "and they're all diabolically hard," Rhodey closed his eyes in acceptance of his fate. "So, I'll leave it to you guys to decide whether we're doing this so I have to do a heap of them at once, or filling the blanks in a specific order, and also how many I'm doing tonight."

Everyone who had known Tony for less than five years stared.

"What the heck?" Darcy eventually said, thoroughly creeped out.

"I'll second that," Sam said, and the rest nodded or muttered affirmatives.

In the end, it was Happy who looked up from his distraught mumbling, long enough to take a deep breath and answer Tony's question, "Twenty-five, one after the other, left-to-right numbers, 5 minutes."

Tony laughed, "Happy, my man! Terms have been set and a bet made." Tony looked at the rest of them and smirked, with an alarming twinkle in his eye, "Anyone wanna challenge that?"

Clint frowned, "Wait, wha-?"

"5 minutes, 30- no, make that 20 seconds," Rhodey adjusted quickly.

Pepper followed immediately, "2:45."

There was a slight pause before JARVIS - surprisingly - added his own bet, "3 minutes."

Tony nodded, "OK, and you guys?" He looked at everyone else expectantly.

"I think you will have to explain this further, Tony," Thor spoke slowly, somewhat unnerved by how strangely his friends were acting.

"I agree," Steve said warily.

"Oh, it's simple. Just a little competition. Easy, really," Tony's reasurance did not do its job in the face of his friends'... faces.

"Uh-huh," Helen said warily.

"Yeah! OK, so whenever I end up with a sukoku puzzle, these guys always end up betting on how quickly I can finish them. Over the years we've come up with some different variations on how I have to do the puzzles, just to keep things interesting. Like, I might have to do multiple at once, or maybe I'll only be able to fill in the blanks in a specific order, maybe I'll only be allowed to use one hand - just to add time for when I have to turn the page, or maybe I'll do a heap of those things. In this case, Hap was the one who set the terms, so I have to do 25 puzzles consecutively - bit simple if you ask me - and he also bet on me doing it in 5 minutes. You heard the others bets... You know what? JARVIS, get a holo in here to show everyone's bet," A pink hologram appeared in the air which outlined the terms and showed a photo of everyone's faces (or icon, in JARVIS' case). There were times written next to Happy, Pepper, JARVIS' and Rhodey's name, and a dash next to each one of the others. It was fantastic, glorious, professional and entirely nonsensical.

"...I cannot believe that this is a thing," Darcy said, open mouthed. "Tony, I can not believe that you programmed a hologram to show everyone's bets on this."

Tony laughed gleefully, "Oh no, Darcy, that is where you're wrong. This was entirely J and Rhodey's doing. I was being serious when I said that they others were the crazy ones in this situation, I was honestly just in it for the puzzles before these four decided to start betting on it. They did this to themselves."

The others might not have believed him, if not for the true joy they could see in his face at being able to honestly say that, and the way that Happy, Pepper and Rhodey all slumped in defeat and JARVIS made a sound that approximated a sigh through the speakers.

"So... What'd you guys bet?" Tony said eventually with a smirk.

There was a pause, before...

"6 minutes," Phil's voice said calmly, before adding in a lower tone that everyone still heard, "Why do I feel like I regret this already?"

"Because you probably will," Natasha supplied, before sighing herself, "But so will I. 7:30."

After that, it was not very long before the others had all placed their bets. Out of everyone whose first time this was, no one said anything lower than Phil's straight 6. The highest was 32 hours 47 minutes ("seriously, Clint? Ye of little faith, much. Also... oddly specific.").

"Guys, I get that he's a genius, but there's no freaking way that he's getting 25 of this things done in under 24 hours," said Sam confidently. He had bet 25 hours.

Bruce sighed, "You know, I would have agreed with you there. In fact, I still don't see how that could be done. No one is that good at sudoku, not even Tony Stark. But..." he gestured towards where Happy, Pepper and Rhodey looked like they were preparing for battle, "I've learned to not doubt these guys when it comes to Tony. I still don't get how he could do 25 of those so quick, though." Bruce had bet on 13 minutes.

"This does seem a little far fetched to me," Helen put in, and Jane nodded in agreement. They had said 30 and 29 hours, respectively.

"I am very interested in seeing how this is going to play out," Loki said with a smirk, already anticipating a delightfully fun outcome. He suspected that 24 minutes would be the closest, since it was just under 25 minutes, meaning that there would be one puzzle completed each minute.

"As am I!" Thor said happily, enjoying watching the others as they debated. He chose 7 minutes, because it was a lucky number, and also because 6 had already been taken by Phil.

Steve shook his head in mock sadness, "I think that we're going to get bored of this after the first half hour."

"Hey, just because you think I can't do it in under 10 minutes, Capsicle!" Tony ribbed goodnaturedly. "I mean, 20 hours?! And Erik, why 21 hours?"

"Because Steve said 20 before I could," was Erik's muttered response.

"Hey guys, are we going to start this or what?" Darcy eventually called out, impatient to see whether her guess of 50 minutes was going to beat Jane, Clint, Phil, Erik, Loki and Sam (it was that moment that she realised that she was a very competitive person).

"Yeah, OK," said Tony, before he pulled out a pen and sat, kneeling, on the carpet in front of the coffee table. The book was opened to a near blank page before the puzzles began in front of him. Everyone surrounded him subconsciously, intrigued.

"You guys ready?"

"As we can be," Rhodey responded solemnly.

"Alright. J?"

"Sir," the AI responded. "The time starts on 0. 3, 2, 1, 0."

"Go! Go! Go, Tony!" Everyone who had never seen this before, stared, shocked, as Pepper immediate;y began yelling encouragements, which were followed by Happy and Rhodey's. It was almost enough to distract from the way that Tony had flicked over the page, glanced at the puzzle for a second, and then began to fill in all the blank spaces, going from left-to-right, which was amazing and... impossible.

"How the hell is he doing that?!" Bruce asked in wonderment. "No, seriously, that should be impossible. That's not how these puzzles work!"

"It is how they work for Mr Stark, Dr Banner," JARVIS' voice was filled with fondness for his father. He was paying avid attention to the clock and hoping that Tony would make it to the 3 minute mark, but he was much too civilised to yell out encouragements the way that his older friends were, so he was able to answer the doctor's question.

"But... how!? How come he can do this out of order!?"

"It's easy, Brucie," Tony answered calmy without looking up, seemingly oblivious to his friends who were all yelling at him in encouragement - or to slow down - as he finished with his 9th puzzle. "Just look at the numbers available, see where they 'burn the path', memorise the map and fill it in. It's just a matrix."

"Go Tony!"

"No- shit! Slow down a little, Tones!"

"Slow down, Boss!"

"C'mon!"

"Go Tony! I know I lost this bet, but try and make sure Tasha doesn't win!"

"Slow down, Metal-Man!"

"Faster!"

"GO GO GO GO GOOO!"

"This is awesome!"

Tony slammed his pen on the table, and said "Done," in a parody of what exams were like.

Sam shook his head disbelievingly, "I cannot believe that that just happened."

"Don't worry, thats a common phrase used around Tony to start out with, but you get used to it eventually," Happy revealed with a smile.

"JARVIS, time?" Pepper and Rhodey both asked at the same time.

"It is my duty to inform you that the time of completion was 2 minutes and 40 seconds-"

"Yes!" Pepper yelled in uncharacteristic triumph, while everyone else let out a variation of "Dammit!" or "Shit!"

"-making Miss Potts the winner as she was the closestand only 5 seconds off," JARVIS finished, professionally.

"Crap! OK, let's do it again," Erik said eagerly, as he, Thor, Darcy, Jane, Clint, Loki, and pretty much everyone else jumped at the opportunity to try again.

Tony shook his head in bewilderment, "I swear; every time. It's like I'm a pokey machine, you all seem so addicted to gambling on my abilities."

"Tony?"

"Yeah, Steve?"

"Shut up and get ready for round 2."

~0~0~0~0~0~

3 and a half hours later

"That was a great birthday, thank you guys."

Tony's bright tone was met with a chorus of groans. The memory kept the smile on his face, when he went to his official party a few days later.