Chapter 5- Game Night

According to Tony, who probably received the statistics from Jarvis, a good way to foster good relationships between teammates is through a weekly game night. Due to some recent tension between Natasha and Thor (that Clint was quick to point out came from a disagreement over the Twilight saga), Tony had decided to implement a mandatory game night for the group.

Steve wasn't really familiar with many of the games they wanted to play, so Clint sat and explained the rules to him as they want. They had started out with cards, charades, Pictionary, the usual suspects of every game night.

Not even two months after this had been implemented, Steve had become fiercely competitive and rather than improve relationships, it had caused many an argument between him and Clint. They had been randomly selected as team leaders one week and were thus competing against each other. It was Steve, Nat, and Thor versus Clint, Tony, and Bruce, with Peter Parker as their adjudicator for the evening. Three weeks in, Tony had rendered it necessary to have some impartial assistance and the young boy was more than happy to help out.

Steve and Clint had realised it was not a good idea to let them compete against each other. It was something both assume about the other, but hadn't outright realised; that both Steve and Clint were fiercely and somewhat aggressively competitive.

Steve had a feeling that Tony knew about this fact.

It was this that kept Clint from nibbling on Steve's ear while explaining the rules to each game. Instead, he had Nat strategising whilst trying to maintain civility around Thor. Really, Steve didn't understand why they were being so hostile over a vampire series.

It all really started during Pictionary.

"That is not a porcupine!" Tony yelled, pointing at Thor's rendition of a porcupine on the whiteboard.

Thor shrugged. "Is this not what porcupines look like on Midgard?"

Bruce put a hand on Tony's arm. "This game is sort of unfair for Thor, what if they don't have porcupines on Asgard?"

While they were occupied, Thor shot a wink to Steve.

"I will admit, I have never seen one of those things before. I only have Steve's brief description to go from."

Clint rolled his eyes. "Yeah, then he was doomed from the beginning."

Steve's mouth fell open. "Clint!"

"I'm just saying, babe, you're not the best at describing things."

"What he's really saying, Rogers," Tony babbled, "is that you're not the greatest orator."

Steve pulled himself together, twisting his mouth into a smirk. "I'm sure you'd like to find out."

Clint scowled. "Steve."

Steve shrugged. "Babe, come on, it's just a game." He shot Tony a wink.

Tony licked his lips involuntarily. Clint shot him a dangerous look. "What? Have you tried resisting that?"

Clint sighed. "I don't have to. I get it whenever I want it."

Steve folded his arms. "Not if you don't attest to my oral skills."

Bruce sighed. "Might I remind you all that there's a child present."

Peter gaped. "I'm twenty!"

Nat shrugged. "You'll always be a child to us, Petey."

Peter pouted. "You might want to remind yourselves that I make the final call on the fairness of this game."

The room went quiet.

Peter nodded. "Good. Since Thor is at an obvious disadvantage during Pictionary, Steve's team is awarded double points for any round that Thor participates in directly. If someone guesses something he draws or he guesses someone else's drawing, that's double points."

Tony frowned. "That hardly makes sense."

Peter shrugged. "You got any other suggestions, Mr. Stark?"

Nat looked at him quizzically. "You still call him Mr. Stark?"

Peter's eyes shot wide. "What else should I call him? Tony?"

Bruce chuckled. "Maybe, yes."

Peter folded his arms. "Well, I'm not doing it. He's Mr. Stark."

Tony shrugged. "Doesn't make a difference to me."

"You just enjoy the power trip it sends you on," Clint pointed out.

"Your point?"

"Can we just get back to the game now?" Steve groaned.

"Didn't know you were so eager to lose, Rogers," Clint shot back.

Pictionary had quickly become a lost cause, so Peter suggested they negate any points and try Charades instead, something that Thor inexplicably knew how to play. Tony had Jarvis prepare a list of answers ready for the game. After an online coin flip (courtesy of Jarvis), Natasha stepped up for the first clue.

Steve and Thor huddled in together, leaning forward to look up at Natasha.

Natasha mimed the first part of the clue.

Steve nodded. "Movie."

Natasha pointed, holding up six fingers.

"6 words," Thor supplied.

Natasha nodded. She pointed to herself and then to Steve.

Steve frowned. "Us…we…us…oh! The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl!"

"YES!" Natasha crowed, hugging Steve as she sat down.

Tony threw his hands up. "Okay, what?"

Natasha doubled over in laughter. "I promise you, you don't want to know. And if I explained, you'd only be more confused than you are right now."

Clint looked to Steve. "Tell me later?"

"If you earn it."

Clint huffed and stood up to take his turn.

Jarvis secretly showed him the clue and he nodded, miming the opening.

"TV show," Tony chirped.

Clint nodded, holding up one finger.

"One word," Bruce said.

Clint nodded, raising his hands arms up enthusiastically in the air, a huge grin on his face.

Bruce bit his lip. "Cheers. Smash. Friends."

Clint shook his head, emphasising the smile on his face.

Tony grunted. "Happy…Smiling…Idiot…"

Steve's eyes lit up and whispered the answer to Natasha and Thor. They nodded, smirking.

Clint settled for acting out a rhyming word. He put his hands to his crotch and gripped an imaginary penis, moving his hips from side to side.

"Oh my god," Steve gaped in horror, a little turned on.

Bruce frowned. "Dick? Piss?"

Tony smirked. "Hung?"

Clint shrugged, winking, but shook his head.

"He's not wrong," Steve muttered.

Clint continued the motion until Peter called time's up.

Tony and Bruce groaned, turning to Clint.

"Glee, you idiots!"

Tony slapped his leg.

Bruce, silently, was a little ashamed that he didn't get his guilty pleasure show.

"Hard loss, guys," Thor crowed as Clint sat down.

Clint shot him the bird and huffed.

By the end of the game night, Steve, Nat, and Thor were trailing by a few points as Tony, Clint, and Bruce had been leading by several points until the arm-wrestling tournament that had come about from the random game selector Jarvis had devised.

Natasha had gone up against Bruce and had easily bested the man. Bruce suggested he Hulk out and have a rematch, only half-jokingly, but Peter had ruled that one as a non-starter.

Thor had dominated Tony in very quick time, causing the latter to mutter about unfair matchups and all that nonsense. Peter explained that since Tony's own AI had randomised that also, he didn't have much room to call it a scam.

It had all come down to Steve and Clint. Peter had made it exciting, saying that if Clint managed to beat Steve, they would win the whole game. If Steve won, same thing.

Steve had gotten to his knees opposite Clint, elbow ready on the table. Thor had made a joke about substituting Steve for Mjolnir instead. Clint readied himself and they locked hands, staring each other dead in the eyes. At Peter's signal, they began to push against each other, using their grip as leverage Clint gritted his teeth, a pure sign of struggle, as Steve tightened his mouth in fierce determination. Both sides' spectators were chanting words of encouragement to their team.

It had lasted about five minutes and Clint had somehow managed to slam Steve's hand against the table, jumping up in victory. He ran over to celebrate with Tony and Bruce, while Thor turned to Steve.

"You're genetically modified, Captain. You should have taken him."

Natasha recognised the look in Steve's eye. "Clint's pretty strong when he needs to be. Competitive adrenaline."

Steve rubbed his arm, smiling. "Having an off day I suppose."

Tony made quick work of rubbing their victory in the other team's face. Thor and Bruce had excused themselves, while Natasha escorted a gloating Tony out of the room.

Steve stretched out on the sofa and Clint turned to him, hand on his hip.

"Why did you let me win?"

Steve opened his mouth to speak.

"Please, Steve, don't lie to me. I know you let me win, I just want to know why."

Steve stood up, smiling. "I just wanted you to feel good. I would be nothing if not for this serum and it was a little bit of an unfair advantage."

Clint huffed playfully. "I could've taken you, you know."

Steve eyed him. "Clint…come on."

"Okay, you're right, but I don't want to be coddled."

"Not my intention," Steve chuckled. "I know how you feel about being in this group, Clint. I know you think of yourself as the weakest which is not true at all by the way. I wanted to give you that moment to feel special and valued, because I love you so much and I want you to feel about yourself the way I see you."

Clint gaped. "How did you letting me win arm-wrestling turn into a sap fest?"

"That's how I roll, baby."

"I love you," Clint muttered, leaning up slightly to kiss Steve.

"I love you," Steve replied, sweeping Clint off his feet and carrying him to bed.