Somehow, autumn had already come and nearly gone, and Tony and Pepper's penthouse was now filled with the scent of roast turkey, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, cranberries, and something Tony couldn't identify that he kept experimentally poking with his pinky.

"Will you stop that?" Pepper said, carefully checking that a complete place setting was in front of each chair at the long dining room table.

"I can't. I still don't know what it is, and it's bugging me," Tony said, glancing up at her.

"I'm not completely sure either," Pepper admitted. "It showed up on the helipad this morning via the Bifrost with a note from Frigga."

Tony very cautiously took two steps back from the dish, giving it an uncertain look.

"What'd the note say?" Tony asked.

"It's on the fridge," Pepper said, running back to the kitchen to grab another serving spoon for the cheddar broccoli rice casserole. "Hang on, I'll get it."

A few seconds later she returned with a lovely piece of pale yellow parchment decorated with delicate writing that looked like it had been done with a quill pen. She handed it to Tony and stuck the spoon in the casserole before striding quickly towards the living room. He handled it nervously. Even though he had previously met Frigga during one of the Avengers' Christmas movie nights and she had been nothing but charming and gracious, the idea of a queen-slash-goddess in his house freaked him out a lot more than Thor or Loki did for some reason, even if she did get weepy over A Christmas Story. He got the distinct impression if she wanted to, she could unleash a lot more fire power than her sons could combined, though why he thought that he couldn't say exactly. Gingerly, he unfolded the paper and read the note.

My dear Pepper,

I hope this note finds you and your Tony well. My sons have informed me of the game nights you have been so kindly hosting and that this one coincides with the Midgardian festival of Thanksgiving. I have been told it is not unusual for those attending such a gathering to bring a dish to be shared, and as neither of my sons is particularly culinarily inclined, I hoped if I sent something it would be in the spirit of the holiday.

With very best regards,

Frigga, Queen of Asgard

P.S. It pairs particularly well with whipped cream. I would have sent some along but the Bifrost makes it rather lumpy.

"Frigga sent a dish to pass?" Tony yelled to Pepper in the next room, gaping.

"Yes," Pepper said. "It's really nice of her, isn't it?"

"That's like the Queen of England showing up on the doorstep with a Corningware casserole filled with mashed potatoes," Tony said, then paused as a thought occurred to him. "Wait, is Frigga coming today?"

"No," Pepper said as she added a cup of water to the chrysanthemum centerpieces. "I shouted an invitation upwards, figuring Heimdall might be watching and hoping he could lipread, and the Bifrost came back a few seconds later with a little sheet of paper that said, 'Thank you, but I have other responsibilities today. Have a lovely party, F.'"

"You… shouted an invitation towards Asgard and got a response?" Tony said, flopping into a chair. "We lead very weird lives."

"We really do," Pepper agreed. "Anyway, I think it's some kind of cobbler."

"Alien cobbler," Tony said with a nervous laugh. "Exactly like the pilgrims had."

Pepper rolled her eyes at him, but the moment she opened her mouth to respond, the familiar sound of the elevator doors opening made her forget what she was going to say. In another few moments, the living room was swarming with Avengers, most of them, Tony noted, wearing pants with elastic waistbands. Considering how much they ate at an average get-together, that was a little intimidating.

"This place smells amazing," Clint said, taking a deep breath.

"I figured your house smelled like this on your typical Tuesday," Tony said.

"Nope," Clint said. "All of us cook, but usually nothing this elaborate."

"I'm just glad you let Bruce and me postpone providing the food until next time," Natasha said, giving Pepper a hug.

"Yeah, I wouldn't even know where to begin to do something like this," Bruce said. "I did bring a box of mints, though."

"Which we'll probably need after all the onions in the stuffing," Tony said.

"Did you and Lady Pepper actually prepare all of this?" Thor said, looking amazed. "The kitchens of the palace might be outdone by this bountiful table."

"Nope," Tony admitted. "It's catered. I wanted to do the turkey myself, but Pepper was against some of my more brilliant ideas."

"He wanted to try roasting it using a controlled nuclear meltdown," Pepper said as she took a plastic container from Peter. "I exercised by power of veto. What's this?"

"Oh, May said she's never been to a Thanksgiving dinner that didn't run out of stuffing, so she made some," he said, but he looked a little uncertain. "It's vegan, gluten free, organic, free trade, and contains no soy, nuts, or sesame."

Loki regarded the Tupperware with a raised eyebrow before asking, "Child, you do occasionally have something palatable to eat at home, don't you?"

"Oh, May's a good cook," Peter said, though Loki gave him a disbelieving look. "No, really! You just have to kind of get used to it is all. I'm trying to learn how to do it myself. I actually attempted making a chicken last week, but it kind of, um, well, exploded. Part of it's still hanging from the apartment ceiling over the dining room table."

"That's my boy," Tony said, slapping him on the back. "If you're going to have a culinary disaster, at least make it a showstopper."

"Wait, is that—" Loki drifted towards the dish Frigga had provided. "Did Mother send this?"

"She very kindly did, and please thank her again for us," Pepper said, smiling.

"Oh, you're in for a treat," Loki said, smiling brightly. "Thor, look! Frambrosen custard puff!"

"I haven't had that since I was a boy of three hundred," he said, grinning wistfully.

"Uh, I brought bread," Bucky said almost apologetically, handing Pepper three loaves as he stared at the shimmering dessert. "I figure most people have sandwiches the next day, so even if we don't use it at dinner, it'll still be useful."

"Thank you," Pepper said. "That's extremely kind."

"And I got you this," Steve said, adding three cans of whipped cream. "Like May said, some stuff there's just never too much of on Thanksgiving."

"Wonderful!" Pepper said, looking relieved. "Frigga said that'll go with the… uh, other thing."

"Yeah, well, Nat and I will do the dishes afterwards," Clint volunteered.

"I'll hold you to that, but for now let's chow down," Tony said.

A minute later, all of them were seated around the table, and plates were quickly piled high with a truly stunning amount of food. Clint and Pepper exchanged slightly horrified looks at the sheer volume of food on everyone else's plates, but the meal progressed at a friendly, leisurely pace with a good amount of laughter and everything, even, surprisingly, May's stuffing, being absolutely delectable. When they had worked their way through five turkeys and were slowing down on the fifth, everyone took a deep breath and let the traditional tryptophan coma start to take effect.

"Should we have dessert now or during the game?" Pepper asked.

"I think I need a few minutes before the second stomach I reserve entirely for dessert comes online," Tony said, stretching. "Oof. Good food."

Bucky looked like he was on the verge of falling asleep on the table to the point that Steve carefully moved the gravy boat out of his way. When Steve turned to talk to Natasha, Loki quietly moved it back into position, teetering dangerously close to his metal arm. Peter gave him a concerned expression and minutely shook his head. Sighing, Loki rolled his eyes but moved the gravy boat back to the center of the table.

"I am full," Bruce said. "So full."

"It was indeed a mighty repast, my friends," Thor said to Tony and Pepper, then belched so loudly the lighting fixture began gently swinging. "Pardon me."

"Which reminds me, Pep, do we still have that antacid hanging around?" Tony asked.

"Bathroom medicine cabinet, second shelf from the bottom, against the left wall, next to the Band-Aids," she said, waving at him. "Bring back the whole box, okay?"

By the time Tony got back, the rest of the Avengers looked like they were ready for nap time. Everyone, even Thor and Loki, took one of the tablets, but they all seemed very content, if bloated.

"Okay," Clint said, "since none of us are ready for that gorgeous dessert buffet yet, does anyone want to watch the Lions?"

"What's the point? They lose practically every year," Tony said.

"It's a holiday tradition," Clint said, shrugging. "Granted, not a great one, but still."

"How about watching A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving?" Bruce said. "Fewer cheerleaders, but you do get to watch Snoopy make toast."

Steve nodded groggily, and Peter looked gleeful. The rest of them slowly managed to heave themselves up from the table and plodded into the living room, slumping onto the couches with all the energy of particularly lethargic slugs. Pepper grabbed the remote and, despite looking completely worn out, somehow made the title card pop up on the screen immediately. They settled back and let the turkey absorb into their metabolism.

About half an hour later, the ending credits rolled as the Avengers looked only slightly less exhausted. Thor had fallen asleep almost as soon as he sat down, and Clint was also snoring away, using Thor's shoulder as a very large pillow. Natasha was sipping a glass of water and looking thoughtful, and Bruce, sitting next to her, had a smile on his face but still seemed a little bleary. Steve had completely recovered, as had Bucky, both of them looking confused but amused by the cartoon. Pepper was sitting on the couch, still holding the remote, but Tony had laid down with his head in her lap and she was absently stroking his hair while smiling. Peter had decided the spot with the best view was the ceiling, and he was currently hanging from a swing made out of webs, dangling eight feet above the couch. Loki, tucked into a corner of the cushions, looked intrigued.

"Who is the charming little girl with the black hair and blue dress?" he finally asked.

"That's Lucy," Peter said, swinging a little. "She's Linus's sister."

"And why wasn't she at the dinner party?" he asked.

"I… never noticed that before," Peter said. "Huh. I don't know."

"Possibly because she's crabby, cranky, and annoying?" Tony suggested, stretching as he started to sit up.

Loki hummed thoughtfully, then said, "And I take it the football sequence is common in this cartoon?"

"Yeah, she does that all the time," Bruce said. "Charlie Brown always fall for it."

"What football thing?" Thor asked, starting to wake up. "I believe I may have drifted a bit."

"You were snoring so loud that the windows were rattling, M.C. Hammer," Tony said, grinning.

"I feel sort of bad for Patty," Bucky said. "Her father left his kid all alone on Thanksgiving? Doesn't she have any other family? No wonder she invited herself over to this kid's house."

"Adults kind of don't exist in any meaningful way in Charlie Brown," Pepper explained. "You just get a muted trumpet noise in the background occasionally when they're supposed to be talking."

"Yeah, they're oblivious," Tony said. "These kids do just about everything with no supervision at all. When they go to France in one of these, the dog chaperones them."

"Still," Bucky said, his expression wistful, "it's kind of sad."

"It's Peanuts," Natasha said. "There's a lingering sense of depression in just about everything in it. They used to show us parts of these when I was training to prove that American ideals really only resulted in feelings of intense isolation, abandonment, and hopelessness. It sort of backfired, though. Most of us liked Snoopy, so they started editing out the parts he was in."

"Which, by the why, did everybody else notice Snoopy was holding out on them?" Bruce asked. "He had a whole turkey bigger than he is in his just sitting in his doghouse, all ready to go, but the kids were stuck with toast, pretzels, and popcorn."

"Don't forget what appeared to be jellybeans," Clint said. "In November. Somebody had those things laying around for months."

"And the strange pink pudding things with whipped cream and a cherry on top," Pepper added. "I always wondered what those were supposed to be."

"Sundaes?" Steve ventured.

"Jell-o?" Bucky asked.

"Strawberry ice cream?" Bruce said.

"I like thinking it's cartoon people food," Clint said. "You know how in cartoons the characters are eating something, and it just looks like nothing that makes any kind of sense in the real world? That's what it is. Food for cartoon people."

"And Woodstock commits a form of cannibalism at the end by eating the turkey," Tony said, tipping his head to one side. "Natasha, your trainers might have had a point. That's kind of grim."

"I did enjoy the musical interlude as they were setting up the table, though," Thor said. "I was conscious for that."

"Yeah, they always had good music," Tony agreed.

"I always thought that has to be the nicest grandma in the world, inviting all these random kids to her house for Thanksgiving at the drop of a hat," said Peter. "I hope she had enough food."

"Yeah, and the kid had to make the call that they were going to be late and to beg extra spots for his friends because his parents are completely inept idiots," Tony said, "which begs the question, who was driving that car that had six kids riding in the back with no seat belts?"

"Lucy?" Loki suggested with a raised eyebrow.

"She's a kid too," Peter said.

"And? The children in this seem entirely autonomous," Loki said. "If she were real, I believe I might adopt the girl. She has fabulous potential as a trickster."

"I'm picturing Lucy raised by Loki, and I am now aware of what my turkey-induced nightmares tonight are going to be about," Clint said with a shudder. "So, are we doing a board game, Tony?"

"I'd originally thought about Twister," he said, and a total of nine pillows were thrown at him simultaneously. "Yeah, not one of my better ideas, I grant you."

"If I put a right foot on blue and a left hand on yellow, I'm throwing up all over your carpet," Clint warned him.

"Same," said practically everyone else.

"Besides, we all know Twister always ends up with somebody spraining something," Bruce said.

"Or with everyone naked," Loki said, "at least in my experience."

Bucky elbowed him in the arm and jerked his head towards Peter.

"Ehm," Loki said, looking uncomfortable, "yes, well, let's all forget I said that and come up with something much less prone to pulled hamstrings."

Natasha rolled her eyes but suggested, "How about an impromptu game of Pictionary? Break into two teams of five, each team comes up with five things for the other team to draw, team that guesses the most right wins?"

"Great," Tony said. "We sit, eat dessert, and draw. Pep, do we have paper?"

"I think so, and there are markers in the junk drawer in the kitchen," she said, getting up. "Okay, everyone grab dessert, and I'll get what we need."

Somehow, almost magically, the half hour or so had allowed the tiniest bit of room in everyone's stomach, and the usual wide array of sweets on the dessert table at the Tower was now absolutely enormous. The oddest one, though, was the strange thing Frigga had sent. Though it was only the size of a usual pie or cake, it never seemed to get any smaller regardless of how many people took a slice, and that turned out to be everybody.

"This tastes like the first real day of springtime," Pepper said, licking her spoon. "It's incredible."

"Yeah, that's a good way of putting it," Tony said, eyeing it critically. "Okay, putting aside the fact this thing obeys no known laws of basic science, what's in it?"

"Custard?" Thor ventured. "Frambrosen berries? I've no real idea beyond that."

"There's also a pinch of Alfheim coriamon, honey from the bees of Vanaheim that feed on sugarlilies, and, of course, magic," Loki said, winking at Tony. "Oh, and the milk for the custard is from the udder of Audhumbla, the cosmic cow."

"Well, thank that cow for me," Clint said, smacking his lips, "because this is seriously good."

"Okay, so while we're all finishing off whatever we're eating, here's the teams," Bruce said, wiping his fingers on a napkin. "Thor, Tony, Natasha, Steve, and I are one team. Loki, Pepper, Clint, Bucky, and Peter are on the other."

"That should get interesting real fast," Tony said.

"Oh, it's nothing but friendly sport!" Thor said with a laugh.

Loki, meanwhile, had already turned to his teammates and was murmuring, "We beat my brother at any cost, even if I have to forfeit your lives. Well, not Peter, perhaps."

"So, each team, write down on five slips of paper possible things to draw. Then you'll swap papers, and the artist picks a paper without looking. They get three minutes to draw, but no saying how many words, no spelling things out. Just say the category, then draw it," Bruce said. "We'll do three rounds, so two of the suggestions won't be used. Whatever team wins the most rounds is the winner. If there's tie, we break out another artist and the unused suggestions for each team for a run-off. Okay?"

"And no magic," Thor said warningly at Loki.

Loki glared at him but nodded.

Each group went off to a separate section of the room and huddled up to make the slips of paper, eyeing the other group suspiciously. Occasional mutterings of "that's ridiculous," "no," "good one," "too easy," "I have no idea what that means," and "are you sure that's spelled right" could be heard, but nothing else. At long last, they returned to the couches.

"Okay, who draws first?" Tony asked

"Flip for it?" Clint suggested.

"All I've got is a fifty dollar bill," Tony said, pulling it out. "Peter, call it, Grant or the Capitol?"

"Grant," Peter said as Tony threw the bill in the air.

"And it's Grant," Tony said, scowling. "Lousy president anyway. So, the artist picks one of our papers."

"Ladies first," Bucky said, grinning, and Pepper groaned but stuck her hand into the pile of folded papers and grabbed one.

"Oh boy," she said, glaring at the other group. "I don't know who came up with this one, but I hate you right now a little bit."

"What's the category?" Peter asked.

"Movie," she said, uncapping a marker and picking up a piece of paper. "JARVIS, put three minutes on the clock."

As soon as a quiet ding sounded, Pepper drew a sun in the corner of the paper followed by a sideways number eight.

"Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind!" Loki yelled immediately.

Pepper stared at him with her mouth dropped open and nodded.

"How in blazes did you get that off of that?" Tony said.

"Infinity symbol, sun, eternal sun, movie, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," Loki said, grinning. "Child's play."

"Or you cheated," Tony said, wrinkling his nose. "Thor, can your brother read minds?"

Thor squinted a little before answering, "No. He can bring up old memories, but he can't just read minds."

"Fine, okay, it was a pretty good drawing on Pepper's part, so now it's our turn," Tony said, grabbing a marker and a paper. He read it then gave the other team a grin. "I've got this. It's an album. JARVIS, start it up!"

Tony proceeded to draw a circle, then an arrow, followed by a large square that he colored in black.

"There!" he said.

"Uh, In Square Circle?" Bruce attempted.

"What? No, not Stevie Wonder!" Tony said, and pointed at the same three pictures again, yelling, "There!"

"Black Hole Sun?" Natasha said uncertainly.

"No!" Tony yelled, pointing at the paper.

"Led Zeppelin's Three?" Thor attempted.

"How are you getting Three out of this?!" Tony asked, possibly on the verge of an aneurysm.

"There are three things, are there not?" Thor said.

"I—" Tony made a noise of frustration. "Forget it! Try this!"

Tony then drew what was unmistakably a gigantic butt.

"Why are you mooning us?" Bruce asked, looking lost.

"Wait, moon…. Dark Side of the Moon!" Steve yelled triumphantly.

"Yes!" Tony said, pumping his fist in the air. "How, of all people, did Rogers get that?"

"I'm still wondering how Thor knew about Led Zeppelin," Clint said.

"Well, I know what you're thinking: how did this happen," Thor said.

"Not especially," Loki interrupted him.

"It was on my list," Steve answered Tony. "Natasha suggested it. It's a good album. Little weird, but still good."

"So, we're tied," Bruce said, looking between Nat and Steve as she patted him on the arm to congratulate him on their victory. "You guys are up."

Bucky took up the marker and picked a slip of paper. He read it and frowned.

"It's a country," Bucky said, his lip curling up. "Okay, go."

He started to draw something, then crossed it out and started over again, then crossed it out, then stared blankly at the paper. Then, he drew a single, tiny dot.

"Okay?" he said, smiling weakly.

"Dotland?" Peter said blankly. "Did I miss that one in geography?"

"It's either Monaco or Vatican City," Loki said speculatively, tipping his head. "Possibly San Marino."

Bucky looked taken aback but said, "Yeah, Monaco."

"I thought so. With Vatican City, you would have drawn it inside a boot," Loki said.

"How do you get Monaco out of a dot?" Tony said, staring at him.

"It's a country that's obviously difficult to draw because he didn't know what it looked like, hence the two false starts, and the only thing he could come up with was it is tiny. Monaco," Loki said, shoving a forkful of custard puff in his mouth and grinning.

"Why not Fiji or something?" Bruce said.

"If it were an island, he would have put waves around it," Loki said, waving his hand dismissively.

"Do I want to know why you know so much about Earth geography?" Tony asked.

"I had no intention of invading Monaco," Loki said, giving him a withering look. "I did, however, rather fancy Grace Kelly during the 1950s. Hence."

"Can't fault you on that one," Tony admitted. "Good taste. Anyway, we're up. Rogers, you're drawing."

"Fine, okay," Steve said, pulling a paper from the few remaining. He frowned. "Uh… I don't know what this is?"

"Great," Tony said. "Now what?"

"Ask JARVIS," Pepper suggested.

"I am aware of what your selection is, Captain Rogers, and it is both a book and a film," JARVIS said gently.

"Right," Steve said, not looking much more confident. "Okay. Start, please."

Steve picked up a marker and started drawing. In a surprisingly short time, he had created a fairly accurate recreation of…

"The Mona Lisa?" Natasha said. "Wait, is it The DaVinci Code?"

"Yes!" Steve said, grinning. "If that didn't work, I was going to start doing lines of dots and dashes for Morse code."

"You drew this in, what, forty seconds?" Tony said, staring at the semi-smiling woman in front of him.

"Thirty-nine, Sir," JARVIS corrected him.

"Huh," Tony said, tipping his head to one side. "Not bad. Not good either, but not bad."

"Steve's amazing at art," Bucky said, smiling at him. "Always has been, even when we were kids."

"Yeah, I know. I went through most of his drawings before I wrapped them up last Christmas," Tony said, "but it's different actually seeing somebody rattle off a decent imitation of a DaVinci in under a minute. This deserves a place of honor."

Tony picked up the drawing, then walked into the kitchen and stuck it on the fridge with a magnet, then nodded.

"Fine," he said, coming back again. "Who draws next?"

"I'll give it a shot," Clint said, pulling another paper. As soon as he read it, he rolled his eyes. "Real cute. Tony did this, didn't he?"

"Probably," Bruce agreed.

"Okay, it's a TV show," Clint said, shaking his head. "JARVIS, let'er rip!"

Clint began drawing, but while his aim might be deadly accurate, everyone quickly realized he couldn't draw very well.

"It's a… hat?" Peter asked.

Clint looked at him like he'd gone crazy, then stepped back and realized Peter had a point and crossed it out, starting over again.

"It's the Capitol?" Pepper said. "Some kind of political talking head show?"

"No!" Clint yelled, drawing circles under what certainly looked like some kind of building.

"That's the Lincoln Memorial," Peter said. "Was there a TV show about Lincoln?"

"The Linco…. NO!" Clint yelled again, crossing it out. "Okay, you can't mess this up!"

He drew a stick figure.

"Man? The Six Million Dollar Man?" Bucky asked.

"No," Clint said, shaking his head and starting to laugh. "How do you even know that?"

"Sometimes he tries to imitate the sound effect from the show when he's putting his arm on," Steve said, grinning.

Clint, however, was now tracing around the stick figure's torso.

"A shirt?" Loki said uncertainly, and Clint gave him a hopeful look. "Coat? Sweater?"

Clint nodded frantically and then drew a line up and down the center of the sweater.

"Wait— Mr. Roger's Neighborhood?" Peter asked.

"You got it!" Clint said ecstatically. "I was trying to draw the trolley."

"To be honest, when I was about four, I actually thought the building on the back of the penny was the trolley," Bruce said.

"I kept waiting for you to draw a picture of Steve," Tony said, snickering. "Or did you? Is he the stick man? It does look a little like his pre-serum physique."

Steve rolled his eyes.

"What in the nine is a Mr. Roger's Neighborhood?" Loki asked.

"And why does it involve a sweater and a trolley?" Thor asked.

"You've never seen it?" Peter said, looking a little sad at their loss. "It's this really old show for kids with this really, really nice man in it."

"Yeah, everyone loved Mr. Rogers," Bruce said, smiling a little. "He used to change into his zip-up cardigan sweater when the show started, and there was a model trolley they used to switch over to the Neighborhood of Make-Believe sequences."

Both Steve and Bucky looked equally confused.

"None of you ever saw this? I mean, the alien Viking weirdos, I understand, but neither of you?" Tony said.

"Add the Commie to the group," Natasha said. "I've heard of him, never seen him."

"This is what is wrong with all of you people," Tony said, sitting down again, then pointing at Loki, "especially you. You all need a good chorus of 'It's You I Like.'"

Loki rolled his eyes and took another bite of custard puff.

"Okay, it's 3 to 2," Bruce said. "Who's drawing this time?"

"Meat Slab, you're up," Tony, thumping Thor on the back.

"Oh, this should be amusing," Loki said quietly to Peter.

"I shall endeavor to prevail," Thor said lustily as he drew a paper out and stared at it. Then he slumped. "I have no idea what this."

"I thought not," Loki said, grinning.

"It's a book, your highness," JARVIS politely informed him.

"Very good, but I can't even pronounce it," Thor said, squinting.

Pepper smiled and took pity on him, taking Thor off to the side, looking at the paper, and whispering in his ear.

"Thank you, Lady Pepper," he said, kissing her hand. "You are a model of kindness and hospitality. No wonder Mother likes you. JARVIS, if you please."

Thor opened the pen and began drawing the general outline of a woman with long, dark hair.

"You need to narrow it down from about half the population of the planet, Thor," Natasha said.

Thor knitted his brows together, then drew little hearts around her.

"Venus?" Tony asked. "Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus?"

"A good guess, though incorrect in both senses as there are no living things on either planet," Thor said, then added, "well, not anymore."

"Cathy?" Bruce ventured.

"Cathy who?" Steve asked.

"The cartoon character who used to wear the sweater with the heart," Bruce said. "There must have been a book about her."

"You read Cathy?" Tony said, looking striken.

Thor shook his head and sighed. Then he drew several wavy lines, all going in the same direction.

"Waves? Wind?" Tony asked.

Thor brightened at wind, but it was Natasha who said, "Air?"

Thor grinned, then pointed back to the other drawing.

"Wait… Jane Eyre?" Steve said uncertainly.

"Exactly, my shield-brother!" Thor said, slapping him so hard on the back that Steve wiggled a little.

Loki looked stunned, but then shrugged.

"All told, drawing his ladylove and an invisible air current was a fairly good plan," Loki admitted. "Perhaps Mother's dessert is softening my usually charming acerbic nature, but well done."

"Thank you, brother!" Thor said. "I believe we remain tied."

"Why don't we just leave it that way?" Pepper asked hopefully.

Tony looked at her like she'd gone crazy.

"Nope," he said, popping the p. "But in the interest of getting this over with, I say we have both teams draw their final clue at the same time. Whoever gets it first, wins."

The other side looked at one another, then shrugged.

"Okay, who's it going to be?" Tony said, looking between Bruce and Natasha.

"You go," Natasha said, giving him a smile. "I'm still eating pie."

"Okay," Bruce said, but he sounded very uncertain.

"Peter, why don't you draw?" Clint said.

"Okay," he said, sticking his dessert plate to the ceiling with a web, out of anyone else's reach, before dropping to the floor.

"You're learning," Loki said approvingly.

"Grab your papers," JARVIS said, prompting both of them to open one of a slip and read it.

"Wow, I've actually read this," Peter said. "Mine's a book."

"Movie," Bruce said.

"And, begin," Jarvis said.

Bruce began drawing a cup, and Peter drew a loaf of bread. The guesses became fast and furious.

Natasha yelled, "Like Water for Chocolate?"

Pepper tried, "Eat Pray Love?"

Steve said, "Alice in Wonderland?" as Bruce started drawing a castle.

"The Adventures of Dagmar the Uncouth?" Thor said, which earned him some strange looks from everyone but Loki, who tipped his head to the side and said, "I can see that."

Peter had now begun to draw a baseball falling into a mitt.

"Baseball and bread?" Clint said. "Is there a book about overpriced stadium snacks?"

Bruce began scribbling wildly in one corner of the paper, and Natasha suddenly laughed.

"It's Monty Python and the Holy Grail!" she said triumphantly.

"Yes!" Bruce said, yelling excitedly and lifting her off the couch in a bear hug.

"What's the scribble?" Tony asked, staring at it.

"A shrubbery," Natasha said, still held in the air by Bruce. "Obviously. It's what gave it away."

"Okay, Peter, what was it?" Bucky asked.

"Catcher in the Rye," he said apologetically.

"No," Pepper said, "no, I get it. Rye bread. Catcher's mitt. It was all there."

"Oh, that thing," Loki said, grimacing. "I hated that drivel so much I nearly succeeded in forgetting it."

"It wasn't one of my favorites, either," Peter admitted. "I liked Jane Eyre better."

"Because she actually does something rather than wandering about New York nearly doing things all night," Loki said. "Plus, any book that has a horrible house fire started by a potential madwoman is usually at least mildly interesting."

"Name one other book with that in the plot," Tony dared him.

"Rebecca," Loki said at once. "Also Wide Sargasso Sea, though perhaps that's cheating."

Pepper eyed him curiously, then said, "You read a lot of Earth books?"

"I read a lot of everything," Loki said, popping the last bite of dessert in his mouth with obvious relish. "Well, my brother defeated me, so I must hang my head in shame, but the dinner was spectacular. I thank you."

"As do I," Thor said, getting up and stretching. "We did enjoy a most wonderful evening."

"The holidays are upon us again," Steve said. "Are we going to stick with games or do something else?"

"I kind of liked watching Snoopy," Bucky said.

"Christmas specials," Tony said, nodding. "That's doable. I like it. Okay, we'll break out the classics, maybe some newer ones."

"Fine by me," Clint said. "I can probably recite them all at this point with three kids, but it sounds jolly and merry and stuff."

"Okay then," Pepper said, grinning. "This should be fun."

"Or possibly torture," Loki said, though he didn't necessarily look unhappy about that.

Slowly, everyone started rounding up stray dishes and putting them back in the kitchen. Nat and Clint, who had agreed to wash up, were already loading the dishwasher and filling the sink with suds.

"Clint, I've got this," Natasha said to him. "You need to go home and somehow magically expand you stomach so you can eat Thanksgiving Dinner Number 2 with your wife and kids."

"Nope, I promised I was doing the dishes, and I'm not leaving you in a lurch," Clint said, grabbing a towel. "You wash, I dry."

Bruce, who had quietly hung back from the rest of the group, tapped him on the shoulder, "I can substitute, if you want. You go home to Laura. It's a holiday, after all."

"I can't do that," Clint said.

"Really, it's no big deal," Bruce assured him. "Natasha, back me up?"

"He's right," she said, not quite looking at Bruce. "Go home, Clint. We've got this."

Clint looked between the two of them, frowning a little.

"Okay," he finally said. "You guys deal with the dishpan hands, then, while I try to figure out how to eat more pie without exploding."

The rest of the group had wandered back into the living room and towards the elevator, except for Thor, who was waiting for his brother. Loki shot a quick look over his shoulder at the pair by the sink but said nothing, only smiling slightly as he picked up the now-empty dish that had held the custard puff and tucked it under his arm.

"See you soon," Pepper said as most of them wandered into the elevator while Thor and Loki walked towards the helipad.

As the door was closing on them, Loki's voice could just barely be heard saying, "Thor, we really should try playing Midgardian football. It looked like such fun! I'll hold the football for you, and you come running up and kick it."

As the Bifrost engulfed them in light, Pepper and Tony exchanged looks.

"Yeah, that's gonna end well," Tony said, shaking his head as he headed towards the stairs. "Night, Brucey and Commie. I'm hitting the lab. Don't wait up, babe."

Pepper watched him go with a smile and left Bruce and Natasha talking and laughing in the kitchen, peeling her high heels off her feet and groaning as she finally relaxed for the first time in two days.