Pepper tried to calm down, slowing her breaths and closing her eyes. Relax, she told herself, they can't have left the room. She tried to think logically.
It was more than likely that Clint was with Natasha- or at least, they hid close together. Of she found one, she would probably find the other- two birds with one stone, so to speak. She allowed herself a grin as she remembered his code name.
She was also willing to bet that they weren't somewhere dark, so she could rule out any enclosed or mostly covered spaces. That meant they were probably behind or on top of something. She glanced around the room, and the curtains caught her eye.
She hurried over to the drapes and yanked them aside. She let out an upset puff of air. They weren't there.
She quashed the panic that was threatening to bubble up again and examined the curtains. They seemed to have been dragged down; the stitching was loose and there were unusual crease marks in it. There was also a footprint in the middle.
She looked upwards at the top of the cupboard, which was next to the window. A flash of red hair!
She fetched a chair and clambered on top of it, breathing a sigh of relief as she looked over to the wall. Clint and Natasha sat atop the cupboard, grinning at her.
"Found you! C'mon then, down you come!" Pepper grabbed Natasha and lifted her down, before scooping Clint up as well. "You two, just go sit quietly on the beds."
"Can we read?" asked Natasha.
"Please?" added Clint.
Pepper smiled. "Yeah. Yeah, okay."
Natasha and Clint whooped and ran off. Pepper didn't give much thought to the fact that they could now read, instead concentrating on finding the other five.
"Now for the others..." She scanned the room again. She would look for Bruce next, she decided. Bruce tended to avoid tightly contained spaces, so he probably hadn't hidden inside an enclosed area, either. He was a very smart cookie, so chances were his hiding place wouldn't be quite as simple as under the table. Most likely he had crawled into a shadow or somewhere hard to see. Perhaps he'd wedged himself between the sofa and the beds?
Pepper made her way over to the plush chair and peered into the gap between it and Tony's bed. Sure enough, a little figure blinked up at her.
"Out you come, Brucie," she coaxed, and he hopped up.
"Was it that easy?" he asked, sounding slightly crestfallen.
She smiled. "No, it was very clever."
"Yay!" he chirped. "Can I go read, too?"
"Yeah, go," she encouraged, and he ran off.
She wondered where Loki had hidden. Wherever he was, Thor probably wasn't too far away- the older brother had displayed a tendency to stick fairly close to his step-sibling. Thor followed Loki, instead of the other way around, because although he had been shrunk down, Loki still remained fairly hostile to the six heroes. This meant that Pepper had to locate Loki to find Thor, a feat she would find difficult. He was very unpredictable. Not to mention he had the advantage of magic. She decided to leave the brothers until last.
Steve, then. He was a straightforward boy, preferring to rely on direct strategies rather than cunning plans. She had to admit that while he certainly wasn't stupid (he was fairly intelligent), he wasn't exactly known for his brains. He was probably in a simple, typical hiding place. Unfortunately, this wasn't particularly good news, as there were plenty of these all around the room.
She sighed. She had to start somewhere. Walking over to the beds, she got down on her hands and knees and crawled across the line, her head straining sideways to see underneath. Nope, not there. She spared a quick look under the table, but he wasn't there either. He wasn't behind the sofa, or inside a pillow fort, or under the rug. She was starting to get worried when she realised that she hadn't checked the cupboard.
Clinging to this last, desperate hope, she flung open the cupboard door. There, sitting covered in dust amongst the various cloths on the cupboard floor, was Steve.
"Hi!" he greeted her brightly.
She pursed her lips, her eyes twinkling good-naturedly. "Alright, little monster, out."
He clambered out. "Gotcha," he said.
"You certainly did. Go sit quietly with the others."
"Okay," he agreed amiably, and off he went.
And now for Tony. Anybody else would have been nervous, but Pepper knew him better than anybody else in the world. She marched straight over to her underwear drawer and pulled it open. There, curled up comfortably in a pair of long-johns, was Tony. He looked up at her sheepishly. "Surprise?"
"Not at all," she answered drily. "Out."
He climbed out, a singlet tangled in his hair. She lifted it out and dropped it back into the drawer, closing it firmly. At least he looked embarrassed, she thought, as he trotted off to the others.
With a sigh, she realised that she had to look for Thor and Loki, admitting that she couldn't put it off any longer.
Glancing around the room, she also realised that she had utterly no idea where to look.
Perhaps it was time for a different strategy.
"Thor, if you come out now, I'll give you some coffee," she called.
Was that a twitch of the rug? The thing was so bunched up these days that Pepper didn't bother straightening it any more. Clint just kept barreling into it. It would be a good hiding place. She snuck over to the rug and yanked it away. Nope, it had just been a bug.
"Okay, forget the coffee. Pop Tarts?" she offered.
That time, she heard a distinct creak above her. She looked up to see Loki perched on the fan, glaring at the potted plant warningly.
She grinned. "Down you come, Loki."
Loki pouted and jumped off the fan. Pepper tensed, bracing herself to catch him, but he merely floated down, landing with a soft plop on the carpet.
"And Thor, out you come, too," she ordered, and the leaves of the plant ruffled as Thor clambered out. "You two, go read quietly for a bit. I need a coffee break."
Thor tugged at her shoe. "May I indulge in Pop Tarts?"
Pepper grinned. "Yeah, I'll get some and you can share with everyone." She made a cup of coffee and toasted a few Pop Tarts while Thor waited impatiently. "Don't forget to share," she reminded him as he bounded off, Loki trailing behind.
Pepper collapsed onto the sofa with a hearty sigh, her coffee spilling slightly. She closed her eyes.
A knock on the door. Fury walked in, his long coat swinging behind him. "Pepper, we have some bad news."