A.N. Wow, would you believe that I get new alerts and favorites EVERY chapter? You guys are amazing!
You all are so nice, all my reviewers who've been reviewing since the beginning and all the new ones. :D
Here's the next chapter!
Chapter 14
Pepper had just finished setting up all the decorations when the guests began to arrive.
Practically everyone was there. She spotted Bruce soon after the first few guests arrived. He was dressed as a doctor. Pepper wasn't surprised.
Soon after, he was followed by Natasha and... Was that Thor's little brother? It was. Natasha and Loki.
She spotted Clint and Thor arrive ten minutes later. Clint was dressed as Robin Hood. That made sense. Thor was himself. Not surprising. She did say to bring a costume, but he apparently didn't care.
Steve arrived with them, he was a soldier. She was definitely not his biggest fan, so she ignored him and waited for Tony.
She wasn't the only one.
Steve talked with his friends, but he looked back towards the door repeatedly. Peggy arrived moments later, dressed as a medieval princess. He admitted it was a lovely costume, she always did know how to sew very well. She made her way over to them as Thor decided to raid the food table with Clint.
Then, in walked the strangest- albeit the coolest- thing Steve had ever seen.
It made its way to Pepper and Steve saw the red and gold mask slide up. Underneath was Tony. Tony was inside that weird metal suit that looked like something out of a movie.
"Tony? What the heck are you supposed to be?" Pepper asked, looking impressed.
"Nothing in particular. To be honest, I found this in my dad's workshop. He'd given up on it a year ago, so I finished it. Minus the whole weapons thing he was planning on putting in." He grinned.
"Wow, you built that?" Steve couldn't resist coming over and joining the conversation.
"Yeah. Well, I didn't exactly do it all myself, he designed most of it. I worked all summer and longer on it." Tony explained.
"What does it do?" Pepper asked.
"Nothing important, it was mostly a sort of flying weapon suit thing. I changed it, I didn't think my dad would be very happy if I was walking around New York in a high-tech military suit." Tony said.
"Is it hot in there?" Steve spoke up.
"No, built in ventilation system. Pretty cool, huh? I even stuck the prototype of JARVIS in it." Steve wondered if anyone had ever invented something that ingenious. The Starks were brilliant, his uncle wasn't lying.
"I gotta go back to my friends. See you later." Steve left when he noticed Pepper eyeing him suspiciously.
"See you." Tony turned back to Pepper.
"What the heck's your problem? Why is he always here?**" is all Pepper wanted to say, but she held her tongue because she could almost guarantee what the answer would be. Instead, she simply started a friendly conversation with Tony and attempted to ignore the whole thing.
-/-/-/-/-/
"You don't have to hang around me if you don't want to." Loki said to Natasha as he noticed her watching her other friends.
"I never said I wanted to, I feel obliged to. Thor's my friend and I should help him out." Natasha replied.
"You know as well as I do that you don't owe him anything. You're simply staying with me because you want to."
"Am not." She abruptly got up from where they were sitting and began leading him towards Thor and the others.
"No, I refuse. I'm sure my brother does *not* want to see me." Loki stated.
"Yeah, try explaining." Natasha smiled as they arrived. Loki just stood there looking miserable.
"Loki-" Thor began but was cut off by Natasha.
"Thor, it wasn't him who sent the text. Somebody stole his phone and framed him for it, it was all a stupid prank." She said. Loki was surprised how assured she sounded, he didn't think that she cared about him at all, guess she did.
"Oh, very well." Thor smiled at his brother. "Then let's go get some chocolate fondue." He pulled a still miserable looking Loki away.
"I hate fondue." Steve muttered.
Clint was silent for a moment. "What text? The gay text? And why do you hate fondue?"
"Oh, you didn't know that we thought Loki sent the text? Oh well. Yes, that text. And he hates fondue because of an incident back in Brooklyn. I'm sure he'll explain it eventually." Peggy said.
"Eventually being the key word." Steve said, finding his focus drift to Tony, who was conversing with his friends, but still found time to send a quick smile to Steve.
-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/
About an hour and a half into the party, Tony got bored. He thought about showing off his little surprise he'd been planning, but decided against it. Instead, he rallied up Steve and his friends plus Bruce and Pepper, and decided to rope them all into a game of Truth or Dare.
They all went upstairs, away from the rest of the group, and sat down in a circle.
"So everyone knows each other, right?" Pepper asked. They all nodded.
"And I know who everyone is, so let's start." She glanced around the room before deciding on choosing Natasha.
"Natasha, truth or dare?" Pepper asked.
"Truth, I guess." Nat answered.
"Have you ever kissed anyone?" Pepper asked.
For the first time anyone in the room had seen, Natasha's cheeks flushed red.
"No." She answered.
Clint looked surprised. "You seriously haven't been kissed yet?"
"No, *I* haven't kissed anyone. They've tried to kiss me, but they were a bunch of idiots so I declined in a not-so-polite way." She said, annoyed.
"Oh. Wasn't expecting that. Your turn." Pepper said.
"Fine. Uh, Bruce, truth or dare?" Natasha asked.
"I don't want anything really bad, so truth." Bruce answered.
Nat thought for a moment. "You mentioned that you had a crush in someone a while back. Who was it?"
Bruce looked like he wanted to turn invisible. Pepper and Tony both looked at him.
"You had a crush on someone?" Pepper asked, surprised.
"My best friend didn't tell me about his crush?" Tony shook his head in disbelief and slid his faceplate back down.
"Seriously..." Bruce stayed silent for a moment. "Fine, it was an old crush anyway." He cleared his throat. "Tony."
The faceplate slid back up to reveal the shocked face of said teenager.
"You had a crush on *me*?"
"No, I'm not gay, I know you were going to ask, and yes I did. I tried to ask you for advice but you never listened." Bruce answered.
"Oh. Uh, sorry about that. I'll try to listen better," Tony said, looking a bit sheepish.
"It was over a year ago, it's fine." Bruce wanted to drop the subject.
"I'm so awesome that my best friend had a crush on me." Tony said to himself.
"It lasted exactly one month and six days. So ha ha." Bruce turned to face Clint.
"So 'Robin Hood', truth or dare?" Bruce asked.
"Dare." Clint grinned.
"Drink a gallon of milk." Bruce said.
"Uh, okay." He ran downstairs and returned with a full gallon of milk in his hand.
"Clint, you do know what might-" Natasha tried to warn him.
"I'm not going to chicken on drinking a gallon of milk." He scoffed and began to drink it quickly.
"Dude, aren't you partly lactose intolerant?" Thor whispered to him as he finished off the milk with a sick expression on his face.
Clint fled the room and left them all laughing. He returned five minutes later.
"I can eat cheese and ice cream, I didn't think it would matter." Clint said, looking sick.
"Yeah, a cheeseburger and an ice cream shake are completely different from chugging a gallon of milk in under thirty minutes." Steve said as Natasha left the room to find some breath mints for Clint.
"So, uh, Thor, truth or dare?" Clint asked, not bothering to wait for Nat to return.
"Truth." Thor said.
"Wow, you all are so boring." Clint made a face, but thought for a moment and got an evil grin. "So, who do you have a crush on?"
"Um, what?" He faked confusion.
"You heard me." Clint answered.
"Nope. I refuse." Thor stated adamantly.
"Oh Brother, you're a horrible coward." Loki rolled his eyes.
"Shut up."
"What was the question?" Natasha re-entered the room.
"Nothing." Thor spoke quickly.
"I asked him who he had a crush on." Clint answered, taking the five mints from her with a grateful smile.
"Come on Thor, I didn't even think you had a crush on anyone. You can tell us." Natasha encouraged.
"Ha ha, no. I use my chicken." Thor shook his head and turned his attention to his younger brother. "Truth or dare, Loki."
"Dare." Loki looked bored.
"One second," Thor thought to himself. "I dare you to kiss the girl closest to you."
"Fine." Loki looked around before sending an amused glance to his brother. Natasha was the nearest one.
"Uh, sorry Nat." Thor looked mortified.
Loki moved to her and gave her a quick kiss. On her cheek.
"Dude, that should be illegal!" Tony said in annoyance.
"You didn't specify." Loki said to his older brother, who looked a bit grateful that he hadn't. Natasha just sat there.
"Steve, truth or dare?" Loki asked.
"Uh, truth." Steve replied.
"Alright, do you have a crush on someone in this room, other than Peggy?" He added the last part quickly, which made Steve's face fall somewhat.
"Yeah, I do." Steve answered before turning to Tony. "Truth or dare?"
"Dare." Tony decided.
"I dare you to go next door, knock, and profess your undying love to whoever answers before asking them for a roll of toilet paper." Steve replied.
"Oh, this'll be hilarious." Tony disappeared and then came back in ten minutes, looking scandalized.
"Your neighbor is a creepy middle-schooler who promptly smashed her lips onto mine after I told her." He stated.
"Yeah, I didn't mention that." Pepper shrugged, with a smile on her face.
"I sort of slammed the faceplate on the suit shut seconds after, and didn't really get the chance to ask for the toilet paper." He muttered.
"That counts as a chicken since you didn't finish it." Pepper pointed out.
"Crap. Thor, truth or dare?" Tony changed the subject.
"Dare." Thor shuddered slightly, not wanting to repeat what happened last time he chose truth.
"I dare you to tell the person you like that you like them." Tony said, satisfied with his dare.
"What?" Thor sunk into the floor. "Don't hate me." He said to no one in particular, and the usually happy jock looked miserable.
"Uh, Nat, I've been attracted to you ever since we became friends." He announced.
Natasha blinked.
"Man, you can't have a crush on Nat! I have a crush on Nat!" Clint said, looking angry with his best friend.
"My, everyone loves you as much as Tony Stark." Loki whispered to Natasha, who was currently shocked.
"You know what, I'm not talking to you now." Clint said defiantly.
"No, *I'm* not talking to *you*!" Thor announced.
"Fine!" Clint rose from the floor.
"I don't care!" Thor rose and they both stormed out of the room, and then left the party.
"Wow." Steve rose his eyebrows.
"Yeah." Tony motioned for him to follow before leaving the room.
"I better get back to my guests." Pepper decided and left as well. "I'll go join you. Bye, Nat." Bruce said and followed her.
"Guess it's just you and me." Loki said quietly.
"We should probably go home." She answered.
"Very well." He trailed her close behind.
-/-/-/-/-/-/
"Some party, isn't it." Steve asked rhetorically as he joined Tony on the balcony outside the master bedroom.
"I wanted to show you something." Tony replied.
"Oh, what?" Steve said, curious.
"Grab onto my shoulders and don't let go." Tony responded.
"Uh, okay?" Steve held on as Tony's faceplate shut. "Tony, what are you doing?" He asked, somewhat nervous.
"I didn't take every cool thing off this suit." Tony grinned to himself before blasting off into the air.
A.N. Hope this chapter made you guys happy! I am actually happy with it, so that's always good!
Your reviews are very appreciated, very very much so! :)