The teams were all back in the banquet room where they'd been served their buffet lunch when Peter joined them. They were seated at the same round tables and the buffet was once more set up – although the meal wasn't even close to as fancy or high quality as their lunch had been.
His team wasn't the only one to look over when he opened the door and walked into the room, and Peter gave a slightly embarrassed smile at the round of applause that marked his entrance. Obviously it wasn't a secret where he had spent his afternoon.
He gave a wry wave as he walked over to where he saw Ned sitting with most of the rest of the team. Peter could see the others in various lines at the buffet tables and the drink station.
"Are you okay?" MJ asked before Ned could speak up.
She looked slightly worried, but he wasn't annoyed for a change. He'd been stuck in the elevator, after all. It was something to be a little worried about. Or she'd been worried that he'd be stuck longer and they'd have had to do without him in the semi final rounds, the next day.
"Yeah." He sat down at the table beside Ned. "It wasn't scary, or anything. It just got stuck."
"Why didn't you go out the trapdoor in the roof?" Flash asked, trying to pretend to be uninterested but not hiding it completely.
It was exciting – as long as the thing wasn't trying to kill them by crashing to the ground floor.
"There wasn't one," Peter replied. He took an appreciative sniff of the air – they were close enough to the food that he could smell something savory and mouthwatering. "Let me get something to eat and I'll tell you all about it."
"Not everything," Alec reminded him.
"Yeah. I know."
He could tell Ned, later, but none of the others – especially MJ.
"Probably should make sure that she doesn't see any footage recorded while you were in the elevator," Alec added.
"Why?"
"Because she'd recognize King, if she saw him. It might upset her – or frighten her."
Peter hadn't considered that – obviously.
"You're right." MJ and he were doing pretty well, recently. He wasn't getting the worried looks from her, and he wanted to keep it that way. If she knew about King, she'd probably start worrying all over. He liked her and didn't want her to be upset. "I'll see what Tony thinks."
If anyone would be able to keep the footage suppressed, it would be him.
"Too bad you missed lunch," Ned told him as he and Peter walked over to join one of the lines at the buffet tables. "The food was amazing." He rolled his eyes, good-naturedly, when a couple of members of other teams greeted Peter. "We didn't have as much to choose from as we do, now, but they actually had lobster – it was in this pasta salad. It was so good."
"How was the match?" Peter asked, picking up a plate and looking at the options that were in the warming trays. There was some kind of pasta, then, too, with red sauce and what smelled like Italian sausage. It smelled amazing. "Was it hard?"
They'd been warned that the questions were going to get tougher as they progressed in the rounds, and Peter believed it.
"Nah." Ned waved a hand, dismissively, as he reached for a plate, too. "Flash took your spot. We managed to win, anyway."
OOOOOOOOOOOOO
Barnes was back in the spot that he was almost beginning to think of as his spot when he was approached by the man he now knew was Alex Zhihov. The man didn't walk directly up to the table that Bucky was seated at; he was more circumspect than that, but there was no doubt who he was heading toward, even though he stopped to nod a greeting to the woman at the information desk.
Recognizing that he might not want to be seen talking to him – again – Bucky moved toward an alcove off the main lobby and where things weren't as busy, and wasn't surprised when Zhihov followed him.
"I need to get word to Romanoff," Zhihov said.
"Want me to set up a meet?"
"No. Just pass some information on to her, will you?"
"Sure."
OOOOOOOOOO
Natasha frowned.
"What?"
"The mob guys are staying over another night."
"Why?"
"Because they didn't have time to finish their meeting. The convention center is comping them the penthouse, again, tomorrow. Apparently, they're staying at the hotel since King doesn't have room for all of them at his place."
"Or he doesn't want them there," Romanoff said.
"I wouldn't," Steve agreed.
"They're taking the penthouse suite,"
"What do we do, Nat?" Clint asked. "Tony's not going to be happy."
"What worked today will work, tomorrow," she said, shrugging. "It can't be helped. I'll go brief Tony." She looked at Barnes. "Are they taking over the penthouse in the hotel, as well?"
He shrugged, looking at Steve.
"I didn't actually look at their reservations, or anything."
He could have hacked the hotel most likely, but why should he? He wasn't the computer tech person. SHIELD had people for that, and none of them were named James Barnes.
"I'll have it checked out," Clint told them. They'd definitely want to make sure they knew where the mob was. He smirked. "I'll leave it to you guys to talk to Tony."
OOOOOOOOOO
By the time Peter was finished telling the others about his experience in the elevator, there were more than just his teammates around the table. It was an interesting story, after all, and the other kids were all interested in listening in on the story. Some were munching on rolls or other finger foods while they listened, but they were all watching Peter as they did.
"Weren't you scared?" one of the Australian kids asked.
Peter shook his head.
"No. Why?"
"Ned told us about the last elevator."
He looked over at his friend, and Ned shrugged.
"What? It was scary."
And it was an interesting story, of course. Ned told it every chance he got, really.
"It was scary," Abe agreed.
"I wasn't scared," Flash said, dismissively. "Spider-Man saved us."
"It wasn't scary," Peter told them before that particular part of the story could be hashed over, repeatedly. "The elevator just stopped, it didn't even give a hint of dropping, or anything."
"What were the guys you stuck with like?" Nico asked, curiously. "Ned said they were salesmen."
"Did any of them freak out? Get claustrophobia or something?"
Peter smiled.
"No. They were okay."
"What did you talk about?"
"The decathlon," Peter replied, honestly. "I read them some of the practice questions to make things less boring."
MJ smirked.
"Did they know the answers?"
Peter smiled, too.
"Not too many."
The kids listening in all chuckled. They were smart and they knew it, and they were proud of it. Before any of them could respond, though, Peter's watch chimed, softly. He tapped it, while Ned looked excited, even though the watch was old hat to him, by then. It was still exciting to him that Tony Stark was so accessible.
"Hey, Tony…"
All of the kids close enough to hear were excited, too.
"Hey, son." That made Peter smile. "What are you doing?"
"Eating."
"Alone?"
"Nope."
"Hi, Tony," Ned said, gesturing for the others to chime in.
There were assorted greetings from the kids and now MJ wasn't the only one to grin, wishing that they could see Tony's reaction to them.
"Hey, kids." Peter could hear the amusement in his voice, even if he couldn't see him, just then. "Peter, call me when you're done for the evening, will you?"
"Yeah."
The conversation ended, and Ned grinned.
"You talked to him about the elevator, already?"
"Yeah. As soon as I got out."
"Then he isn't checking up on you."
"Nope."
"Then it's probably secret Avenger things," Ned said, cheerfully. "They probably need my help with something, and are just embarrassed to ask me, directly."
Peter rolled his eyes, and MJ tossed her napkin at Ned, amused.
"You dork."
Ned grinned.
