Sorry for the wait, guys! I've been pretty busy lately. Luckily, I had enough time to update! Yay!
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That's all for now, folks. Have a MARVELous day!
The following morning, Esca awoke feeling wonderful. Without delay, she hopped up and, not bothering to change out of her sweatpants and tank top, trooped downstairs to make breakfast. When she arrived, a pleasant surprise was waiting for her.
"Steve!" shrieked Esca, and she barreled into him. She hardly noticed the two people that were sitting across the counter, she was so happy to see the captain again. "You had me worried sick! I knew you were coming back today, but you didn't say you'd be here so early!"
Steve grinned and held her close. He even swung her around once before setting her down and explaining, a large grin on his face, "I wanted to surprise you. I am sorry I worried you, Miss Esca… there was something I had to do."
Esca just grinned and exclaimed, "It's all right. Thank you for the phone call last night." Then she looked at the two people across from him—one was a young woman in her twenties with light brown hair and caramel eyes. She was smiling slightly at Esca, which made Esca smile in turn. The other was one that Esca knew.
"Soldier?" she gasped.
The man blinked before his face lit up in recognition. "Esca?!"
"Yes!" she exclaimed, grinning. "You escaped!"
"You escaped!" he retorted, and he leapt up from his chair. "Steve told me you'd be here. It's very good to see you again."
Esca laughed. "Trust me, it's a treat to see you too, after such a time… I've been worried about my friend," Esca announced, punching him in the arm. "Although at times, you were more like a dad."
"Sometimes, you made looking after you hard," muttered James, which made Esca laugh. She supposed that was true enough. "After all, you were twelve back then." Then, he turned to Steve and asked, "Is she your girlfriend?"
"Noo," exclaimed Steve, holding his hands up in surrender as Esca snickered at the expression on his face. "Miss Esca is like family, though under different circumstances, I would be honored if she were my girlfriend. But no, she's—are you two dating yet? Have I missed the official announcement?"
"Steve!" moaned Esca.
He just grinned and muttered, "Well, we're still waiting."
Esca just sighed and flipped her hair back before asking, "All right, how do you all feel about pancakes?"
Steve and James exchanged looks before nodding, their eyes wide.
"How about you, Zelda? I assume that's your name, anyway. Robbie told me."
"Robbie?!" exclaimed Zelda. "Is he all right? When did you meet him?"
"At Schwarma!" replied Esca brightly. "He was very good conversation. He came to the housewarming party that Tony threw me and the Maximoffs!"
"And that was one hell of a party," laughed Pietro. Hearing his voice, Esca turned around, but he was already gone.
Knowing what was coming, Esca's eyes widened. "Oh, no—AIGH!" The pan she'd been holding clattered to the counter as she was swept off her feet. When she was set back down, she swatted his arm and exclaimed, "A simple 'good morning' will suffice, Pietro Maximoff!"
"But that's boring," he announced before letting her return to her task.
Esca rolled her eyes, but introduced Pietro to James and Zelda. Then she and Steve, per regulations, started talking about simple things, such as where to go on a night out for the Avengers.
"We could go on a boat around the lake," suggested Steve.
The girl grinned. "I think that would be a wonderful idea. Unfortunately, I think Tony will want to do something with a little more pizzazz. Something to break Wanda and Bruce out of their shells."
"Bruce Banner?" questioned Steve; with a start, Esca realized he hadn't seen the doctor yet. So she proceeded to tell him about how Banner returned the night of the housewarming party, and that he'd come down afterward to see everyone.
At the end of her story, Steve just sighed. "That jerk," he muttered at last, which made her laugh. "We've been worried about him."
On cue, Bruce came downstairs, dressed in a suit as if ready to go to work. "Sorry for worrying you, Cap," he smirked. "At least, I assume you were talking about me."
They shared a quick bro-hug, and Steve introduced Bruce to James and Zelda.
Before long, everyone else was coming down for breakfast. One by one, they were introduced to James—or Bucky, as Steve called him—and Zelda. Natasha smirked as she came close to them. She pointed first at Zelda and exclaimed, "You shot at me. And you actually shot me. Twice. You did it about seven years ago as well." That last was said to James.
James shrugged helplessly. "Sorry. I had to do it."
"No worries. You have good aim."
And, to both Esca's and Steve's relief, they were quick friends.
Once all thirteen people were gathered in the common area, Esca served breakfast. Seeing what she was serving, Tony stood up and clapped a hand on her shoulder. "Blondie, do you love all of us here?"
She grinned. "Of course."
"Then would you do us a favor? We—that is to say, the gentlemen in this group—have a little contest to enact. We need to see who can eat the most of your delicious pancakes, as all of us are rather certain that we can eat more than the other. In order for our challenge to take place, however… we will need more pancakes."
Esca blinked. "You want me to make more pancakes so you can stuff yourselves in order to prove your masculinity."
"And to designate bragging rights. Those are important too."
She sighed and put a hand to her forehead. "You're going to need to give me a few more minutes, then. How many pancakes do you think you'll need?"
"A lot," said Pietro, Thor, and Clint simultaneously.
With another exasperated sigh, she groaned, "All right, I'll make more pancakes. Pepper, do you know if there is more milk around the Tower? I think we're running a bit low."
"I'll go buy some more," said Pepper. "Anything else I should get while I'm at it?"
"Some vanilla, sugar, and bananas, perhaps?"
"Bananas?" queried Clint.
"I put bananas and chocolate chips in the pancakes, Legolas," said Esca without turning around to face him. "There's my great pancake secret."
There was a round of contented grumbling from the men as they discussed that no wonder she had the best pancakes around. Many of them started asking where she had learned to cook, what else did she know how to make, thank you for letting us have this challenge in the name of brotherly competition, and so on.
It only took another thirty minutes for Esca to have four dozen pancakes made, thanks to Steve and his invaluable help. Bruce, Pietro, Tony, Clint, Thor, and James were competing… Steve, although he would support his friends wholeheartedly, preferred to avoid getting sick. He reassured Esca that he loved her breakfasts as much as the others, however, which made her giggle.
"All right," announced Esca, placing the first round of three large chocolate-banana pancakes in front of each of the participants. "Here are my rules, as I am declaring myself the referee. Rule number one—if you puke, you're out of the competition. Rule number two—you can ask for anything you want to help you eat the pancakes. Rule number three—you are allowed to get up out of your seat, but you may not leave this room. Am I understood?"
The men nodded, their eyes on her as if they were trained dogs and she had a bone in her hand.
"Good," she mused, smirking somewhat. "If any of these rules are broken, I will disqualify you. Now go on and eat, you great pigs."
Tony and Clint roared with laughter at her halfhearted insult; then everyone tucked in. As the six opponents began to stuff their faces, the others—Steve, Natasha, Wanda, Esca, Vision, Zelda, and Pepper—watched with a horrified amusement, as if they wanted to support the activity but were somewhat repulsed by it at the same time.
Realizing that their first plates were almost gone, Esca enlisted Wanda's help in bringing out the second course. Since Esca had only prepared three courses, she quickly began making some more pancakes—Steve, having finished his normal sized breakfast, aided her again despite her futile protests.
After the second plate of pancakes, Clint groaned and stood up. He paced for a while; the others noticed. Thor chuckled and asked, through a mouthful of food, "Filling up, Barton?"
"Not likely," muttered the archer, plopping back down and eating with renewed spirit.
"Come on, Clint, I'm betting on you," supported Natasha.
It only took another ten minutes for Esca to have to serve the third round. About halfway through his eighth pancake, Clint surrendered, leaving only five remaining. But it was obvious that Tony and James were slowing down, too.
"Esca?" asked James, holding up a hand as if he were in a classroom.
Hearing that she was summoned, Esca flitted over to him. "Yes, James?"
"I may need some orange juice to help me out here."
"Coming right up," she laughed, sprinting to get James his beverage. When she gave it to him, he smiled gratefully and nodded. "Thanks."
"No problem." With that, Esca moved back next to Zelda and Natasha, both of whom were shaking their heads in disbelief.
"Don't strain yourself, Buck," said Steve calmly, but Esca could see the concern in his eyes. "Everyone here has proved they can eat."
James just laughed and retorted, "It's all right, Steve. Being served an excessive amount of Esca's pancakes is the opposite of a problem."
After another ten minutes, Esca could contain the bubbling question no longer. "How are you four doing this?" It was four because Tony had finally admitted that he'd had enough, and that if he kept eating, he probably wouldn't fit into his Iron Man suit.
"Thor is a god, James is a super-soldier, Bruce has a giant friend to feed, and I have an incredibly rapid metabolism," answered Pietro, shoving yet another forkful of chocolate chips in his mouth.
Wanda snorted and announced, "I am going to pretend I do not know you."
"Oh, come on, you love me."
"I do, but sometimes you are such an idiot."
Pietro just chuckled and returned his attention to the food.
It took a half-hour for James to give—Zelda seemed glad that he did. Then Thor started to slow, which made Clint exclaim, "Come on, Thor, don't give up! I have five dollars on you!"
"I am sorry, my friend," sighed Thor, pushing his chair back and standing up. "But I must yield. I do, however, eagerly give Esca many thanks for making this one of the most delicious challenges known to mankind."
Hearing this very pretty form of gratitude, Esca grinned and reached to shake the god's hand—but then she figured a hug would be better suited. He smiled widely at her before leaning back to watch the two finalists.
Before long, cheers and shouts of encouragement were ringing throughout the room. Both Pietro and Bruce were starting to slow down, at almost the exact same time. Despite that, Esca grabbed the fifth plate of pancakes for them—this would be their thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth pancake, if either of them made it that far.
"Come on, Bruce!" bellowed Tony. "Show that little punk who's boss!"
"Let's go, Pietro!" exclaimed James. "Do it for Russia!" Zelda shook her head hopelessly, but supported Pietro with an encouraging grin as well.
Esca and Natasha simply exchanged looks and sighed, wondering why they tolerated those two idiots.
Within the next two minutes, however, Pietro and Bruce exchanged looks. Then, as one, they simultaneously shook their heads and exclaimed, "Nope," and walked away from the table, their hands in the air.
While James and Clint clucked in disappointment, Esca and Nat were rather relieved. Pietro and Bruce walked over to the nearest couches and flopped face-first upon them.
Esca laughed and sat next to Pietro as he groaned into the couch. "Perhaps this was a mistake," he mumbled, which made her shake her head and rub his shoulders.
"Perhaps. There comes a time when you have to relinquish your pride, you know."
"No. I do not surrender unless everyone else does too."
She simply sighed and looked at Wanda, as if to ask if Pietro was always this competitive.
Wanda nodded in affirmation.
Tony just laughed as he saw his friends sprawled across his furniture. "Well, you two better be ready to go out by Friday night, because we're going to go to karaoke night at the pub down the street!"
Steve raised an eyebrow. "A pub, Stark?"
"A very decent pub, I promise," assured Tony. "Although, now that I think about it, it's more like a club. It has karaoke, a dance floor, and excellent margaritas. You should loosen up and try one, Capsicle, it'll do you a world of good."
Steve sighed. "You know I can't get drunk." He looked around as if to continue protesting the idea of visiting a pub, but at the words "karaoke" and "club," both Pepper and Natasha perked up. Seeing that the two were quite excited, he only shook his head, a small smile on his face, and said, "All right. Today is Tuesday, so you two have three days to digest."
"I'll need more time," groaned Bruce from the pillow his face was buried in.
"I second that."
Everyone laughed before heading their own ways, figuring that the two would probably skip eating the rest of the day—but by dinnertime, both Pietro and Bruce were devouring the food as eagerly as always.