Peter once again stood outside the lounge with his dad's hand on his shoulder nervously trying to come up with an apology. An apology he didn't particularly mean or want to give, the last time he had at least felt bad about behaving poorly in front of everyone and being rude, but he didn't feel bad about being rude to Rogers, the man deserved it. But he also didn't want to be in even more trouble with his dad, ugh. He sighed softly as his dad propelled him back into the lounge causing everyone to look up from the huge pile of pizza boxes on the table.

"I'm sorry Captain, for being rude to you, it was wrong of me and I apologise. Sorry for being sarcastic and rude when I apologised before as well." He briefly made eye contact with the man who nodded at him accepting his apology then turned to address the room as a whole. "I'm sorry for putting everyone in an uncomfortable situation again."

Tony let out a breath of relief when Peter gave his apology, he really didn't want to have to punish the boy fully especially not when it was the first night the whole team were back together. He took a seat next to Pepper on the couch and couldn't help but grin when Peter sat between them a giant pizza on his lap.

Peter had to pinch himself, there was no way this could actually be happening, he was sitting eating pizzas with the Avengers! Sure Rogers was here so that was a bit of a damper and he had already met most of them but still. God, he wished he was able to send Ned a snapchat but noooo being grounded meant grounded from Spiderman, fun and Ned apparently. It sucked.

Clint had been watching Peter since he came back in and the boy was putting away that pizza like nobody's business, it was pretty impressive but Tony claiming two of them were for the teen had to be a ploy to keep one for himself. "Hey kid." He called across the room causing said teenager to look up. "You sure both those pizzas are for you?"

"Uh….yeah. Who else would they be for?"

"Kid, you're tiny, no way are both of those yours. Those pizzas probably weigh more than you do. I've only got one and it's a medium no chance you can eat two extra larges." He scoffed.

Peter opened his mouth to tell the archer about his metabolism but was elbowed sharply in the ribs by his dad.

"Two pizzas is nothing for the kid Barton, Why do you care so much? You think you could eat more than him? Need I remind you of the last time we had an eating competition here?"

Clint scoffed, he had tried to forget about the time he tried to eat more hot dogs than Thor to be honest. "Easy. I can definitely eat more than him."

Peter smiled and leaned forward, "How sure? How about we bet on it?"

Pepper made a noise of discontent at her son's words but he simply turned to look at her puppy dog eyes on to the max. "C'mon mom please, this is like a business transaction, it's practice." She smiled at the boy, really she should say no but those eyes….and it seemed like a good bonding experience.

"Fine."

Peter cheered before he turned to look back at Hawkeye. "If I win you have to teach me how to shoot a bow and arrow." He stated crossing his fingers in the hope his dad wouldn't stop him, it would be soooo cool to be able to shoot a bow and arrow. Admittedly it wasn't a useful skill really but still.

"Sure kid," Clint shrugged. "But when I win I want to get a go of those webs."

Peter nodded, he didn't think the man would actually be able to use the webshooters, you needed super strength for them to work but it wasn't like he'd lose so why not?

"If you spew Katniss you're on your own." Tony told the man as he stood up and made his way to the kitchen with a huge stack of boxes. "And you can't teach the kid a thing till he's off restriction.

Clint nodded as he followed the man through to the kitchen.

"I'm with my nephew." Rhodey announced as Nat, Bruce, Thor and surprisingly Sam backed him up.

When Clint turned betrayed eyes to look at Sam the man simply threw his hands up. "Hey man, he's a teenage boy, he can easily eat more than you."

"Pfft sure."

Clint sat down at the table opposite Peter and took a slice looking the kid in the eye. He would definitely win this.

Ten minutes later he realised he maybe would not be winning this. He had gotten through the first eight slices easily but was starting to struggle slightly while the teenager looked perfectly fine and was still eating with the same gusto he had been the whole time.

Tony was actually quite impressed with Barton he hadn't expected the man to eat as much as he had what with being a totally normal human…on second thoughts maybe that meant it was kind of disgusting. The man had eventually had to admit defeat however and he couldn't help but grin at his son, sure he knew Peter was going to win but he was still sort of proud despite Pepper's disapproving looks. It was only eight o'clock though and although this spontaneous competition had taken up a fair amount of time he wasn't sure what to do for the rest of the evening. It was probably rude to just send everyone away after all.

"Okay kid. You may have beaten me at this but there's no way you'll beat me at Mario Kart." Clint told the still grinning teen. How the boy could still be cheerful after eating so much was honestly a mystery. He could see everyone had relaxed somewhat during the contest though and was sure more friendly competition was the way forward. It may not be a long lasting solution to the discord within the team but if it would help everyone relax somewhat it was worth a shot.

"I'm in" Sam shouted grabbing a remote from the basket as the team headed back towards the lounge.

Peter hung back and looked up at his parents who were the only two left in the room. "Ummm…am I…I mean…" He started, he wasn't usually allowed to use electronics while grounded and Hawkeye hadn't really given him an opportunity to refuse the offer.

"You can play Pete" Tony told the boy earning a beaming smile in response, he held up a hand before Peter could run into the lounge. "It's a one off though, and if you play I don't want a single complaint out of you when you have to go to bed otherwise you'll have an early bedtime for your entire grounding."

Peter nodded at his dad, he would have agreed to almost anything to be honest. He had the opportunity to play Mario with the Avengers! So cool. Like sure he played against his dad and Uncle Rhodey occasionally but they didn't really count.

"Hey! I totally count as an Avenger Pete!"

Peter blushed at his dad's words not realising he had said that last bit aloud, he couldn't help but grin cheekily at his mom as she laughed though. "Yeah but you're dad first then an Avenger second."

Tony wasn't sure whether to be touched or offended at his son's words so settled for ruffling the kid's hair as he pushed the boy into the lounge and took the final controller for himself.

Pepper took a seat on the couch next to Natasha and simply observed as the evening wore on. She took part in the odd conversation but was content to watch as the team became more relaxed around each other. The issues from the past would not be forgotten in a single night but tonight was a good starting point for them all. Even her fiancée looked relaxed as he sat on the couch between Clint and Peter playing his sixth game of Mario, she had been worried he still felt guilty over what had happened to the team…despite having literally nothing to feel guilty over at all but still. If she had just walked in now she would have thought she had gone back in time if not for the presence of their son, coming home to see the Avengers sprawled out in the lounge surrounded by snacks while trash talking each other had been an everyday thing and she was relieved it appeared to be making a comeback.

Steve didn't know how to feel, he had been bullied into one game of Mario Kart and promptly lost badly just as he always did so now sat on a barstool as he watched the others. Although everyone appeared to be relaxed the atmosphere wasn't quite what it had been before and there was nothing he could do about it. Himself and Tony would once trade jokes but with Peter's presence he felt he shouldn't, whenever he even looked at the billionaire he could feel the teen's glare burning into him. He knew logically he shouldn't be intimidated by a child and he supposed he wasn't, he was just ashamed and burdened with guilt over his actions. He had little to no experience with teenagers other than from when he himself was one so had no idea how to get into the kid's good graces, he supposed time was the only option.