They had moved Peter to a medical room, probably a better idea than in a high loft where it was hard to reach him. He had unconsciously responded to people he was close to, proving that his "spidey sense" worked even while he was asleep. Shuri and Bruce had met only once before when T'challa had come to negotiate the vibranium supplies and Shuri had insisted on coming with.

Back then, she and Tony had only spoken through a hologram, but she preferred the man face to face. You simply couldn't catch all of the gestures in a screen. Most other adults she was surrounded by were so uptight. They didn't even watch vines.

Idiots.

Bruce was checking Peter's vitals, and from his expression, they had gotten better. Shuri pursed her lips, staring at the hyper-reflective nail polish she had worn today. She decided that she thoroughly liked Pepper. She remembered when they had all met, her, Pepper and Peter's aunt, May.

Miss Pepper Potts, soon to be Mrs, had called Shuri to a comfortable room with a few armchairs and couches. She sat with freshly poured tea, Nana flavor judging by the potent mint in the air. Jaggery powder and classic sugar cubes rested next to the navy porcelain pot, matched with three teacups.

Just as Shuri sat down, another woman came in. She had reddish-brown hair down to her shoulders, and a pair of clear glasses on her face. She took her seat across from Pepper and took the cup that was offered to her.

"Well, I'm glad to see you all came to this little tea party, even if it does make me feel like a small girl. I'm Pepper Potts. May, this is Princess Shuri, King T'challa's sister. Shuri, this is May Parker. "

"Please, just call me Shuri, none of that princess stuff here. it's lovely to meet you ." Shuri made it a rule to always use Mz. When you weren't sure if someone's marital status. It was generally polite.

"The pleasure is all mine. I'm May, Peter's aunt. I've heard you'll be helping to speed his recovery? "

"I'll try," Shuri replied, a small smile creeping across her face. This May had steel in her eyes, like she and T'challa's mother, and Pepper herself. "These superheroes are always getting in trouble, they're so reckless."

"Ah, yes they are." May smiled. Success! "Have you heard this story? Well, I suppose not, but when Peter was little he refused to eat any bologna..."

Needless to say, they had gotten along.

And now the only thing Shuri needed to do was to wake up this boy. She nodded to Bruce, wrapping the quilt tighter around Peter. They were going to send a small electric pulse through him to see if they could evoke the feeling of wakefulness.

3... 2... 1...

Unfortunately, it didn't make a beeping noise or some other sci-fi thing, but Peter did twitch, eyelids fluttering before settling shut again. They had laid him on his back, but he began to curl up in his side again.

Ah, habits.

Shuri grinned up at Bruce.

It was going to work.

Wanda only felt frustration. At the world, at herself, at Steve, at Tony, the list went on. There were more important things to do than to sit and do nothing, like, she didn't know, but something was bound to come up. Right now, however, the ceiling was the only thing on her list. More specifically, staring blankly at it.

Sometimes she wished that she hadn't gotten her powers at all.

Not to say she didn't like having the ability to slam someone into a wall with a flick of the wrist or change their minds when they were wrong, but she couldn't have lived a normal life if she wanted to.

And now she was supposed to be a grand superhero and save the world every Sunday.

The ceiling was white and clinical like everything else in the tower. She had never been there before and had felt strangely awed at the advances Stark had made over SHIELD, and what she now knew was HYDRA.

Damn, she needed to stop thinking about that, she couldn't believe she and her brother had been tricked.

"Can I come in?" Said a voice beyond the door. A playful knock came in an unfamiliar pattern, but she recognized the voice.

Wanda nodded, hoping Stark would be told through FRIDAY. She didn't trust her voice to speak right now.

"Are you alright?" Stark said, softer than she expected. The man was usually loud and annoying. "Stupid question. Can I sit down?"

He gestured to the bed. Wanda nodded. As he took his seat she felt sure enough to speak again. "Why are you here?"

"To apologize." Wanda looked at him. The man's face was worn and tired, filled with a strange sort of compassion and pity, but not for her. He was feeling worried and worn raw at the sight of Rogers, but didn't hold a grudge except against anyone else.

She didn't realize her fingertips were glowing red until he said her name for what she suspected wasn't the first time, trying to get her attention. "Ah, yes?"

"Does that happen often?"

"Not usually, but sometimes they're hard to control."

"Ah." They sat in silence, something not quite awkward but with the tension of a conversation needed. "I can get someone to help you with that."

"Who?" She was curious, were there others like her and her brother? HYDRA experiments?

"Dr. Steven Strange. He's a sort of wizard-y type, knows some sort of magic. Don't let him know I said that, the prick would never let me live it down."

"Don't let him know you called him a prick?" She raised an eyebrow slightly.

"Oh no, I don't care about that part, just don't let him know about the whole believing in magic thing."

"Oh."

"I'm sorry."

"For what?" She didn't think Stark would have anything to atone to.

"Keeping you on the compound without telling you. Treating you like you're some... I don't know." He paused, looking at the wall. "Anyway, I'm sorry."

"Apology accepted." That was something you were supposed to say, but this time she felt it was needed.

"Thanks." Stark looked around at her with a small smile, different from the other ones she had seen so far. "And I can call up Strange of you want, for your magic wizard training."

Wanda smiled back, and in her mind, Stark was upgraded to Tony. "Sure."

And then they talked. It was nice.

Bucky couldn't sleep. It seemed many troubling situations (and chapters) started with this one line. This wasn't supposed to be a troubling situation, and so doing what any person would do when they couldn't sleep but were too comfortable to move, he stared at the ceiling contemplating his life choices thus far. His arm, the new one with vibranium that Tony had reworked so he could feel, sat on the bedside table, and his boyfriend was on the other side, still asleep.

Years of being the Winter Soldier had given him the ingrained instinct to need less sleep, more of a gesture to avoid punishment and pain than ability, but still something he possessed. The leftovers from a really shitty TV dinner that seemed like something a HYDRA handler would eat in prison. Years of being the Winter Soldier also gave him a sense of when something was wrong, and something felt off.

Silently slipping out from under the covers, he let his feet roll across the carpet in case there was something to creak. He fastened his arm back on smoothly, thanking someone that Tony had managed to make it as beautifully feeling the same as his flesh one. Not stopping for a moment, the rhythm of sneaking around came comfortingly to him.

The hallway was dark and the curtains drawn. This was his and Steve's floor, and he wasn't expecting any packages at 2 in the morning either, so why in God's name was the elevator open? The gaping maw of the door had long since settled on its perch on the 30th floor, so why would it be... Well, there?

a scuttling noise, similar to an absurdly bad monster movie except the number of human centipedes was kept to a minimum. A shadow lay itself across the floor from the blinking green light of the elevator.

Dink. Dink. Dink.

The green speck vanished, something blocking it from view. Something was on the ceiling. Dark and with heavy huffing of breath. It mumbled indiscernably.

"I... Smell cereal." It spoke quietly, hesitantly.

Bucky couldn't help it.

He screeched.

Peter heard a scream.

Was that him, or the scary looking fellow on the ceiling? Or was it him on the ceiling?

And where was that cereal, anyway?

Abruptly deciding that these dear chaps were not useful, as they didn't have any cereal, Peter left. It occurred to him that he couldn't remember being this hungry for years. Cereal, Oh, that beautiful soup. did cereal count as a soup?

He found himself on a different floor, and from the roaring bass, it was 's. Maybe if he could find a way to get everyone off the ceiling, he could work on some stuff in the lab. Deciding for himself that yes, this was a logical decision, Peter opened the door.

sat, humming along to what Peter recognized as "Inject the Venom," working on something that looked suspiciously like a ring. Peter crept along the beams, jumping to the ceiling - Ah so it was the floor- and landing somewhere behind . Vision was standing in the back of the room in a state somewhat like sleep, but not quite. Vision often was speaking with FRIDAY.

"Pete?" He said, shocked. "What are you doing awake?"

seemed to remember something and smiled slightly before pulling out a box of granola bars. He handed these to Peter and watched carefully as he unwrapped and ate them.

Suddenly the room seemed warmer, luring him back into the comforting quiet of darkness. He went to sit on the couch and felt his eyelids slipping shut.

A quiet murmuring of "Oh Pete," and a soft chuckle were the last things he heard, and the firmness of a blanket wrapped around him and strong arms lifting him up were the last things he felt.

Peter, the little idiot, had moved to stage 2 of "Wake my Stupid Spider Intern up." Bruce had said something like this would happen, animals often making trips to get food or water. Now, wrapped in a bundle of blankets and snoring softly, he just had to get the kid back to the medbay.

Unfortunately, life hated him: Both Clint and Natasha were outside the doors to the room he needed Peter to be in.

"Clint." His voice was burning cold. had he told Natasha?

"Tony, Natasha had figured it out and came to me. I swear the kid isn't in any danger. Besides, FRIDAY kept hinting at us. "

Tony exhaled slowly, pulling the ice out of his veins to melt in puddles of warning. "Well, anyway, Natasha and I have already had a talk, haven't we? Looks like none of you are going to die today."

His joking was partially an apology and partially to remind them of why they weren't going to say anything. He walked past them and set Peter down in his nest of pillows and comforters, arranging him in his blanket burrito.

Clint and Natasha had followed him inside, although they lingered at the door, wondering who on earth this kid was that could get such gentleness out of the famous Tony Stark.

He must be pretty great.

-(extra)-

Bucky slowly crept back to his side of the bed beside Steve. He was grateful for once that Steve slept like a log.

If he heard his manly scream that may have been embarrassing.

He told nobody of what transpired that night.