Peter Parker... Stark?

Dinner With the Rogues

Before either Tony or Peter could ask what or who she meant, the doors opened, and she was leading them to the kitchen. Several voices could be heard laughing and talking, and Peter began to wonder who exactly was waiting for them. They came through the doorway and entered the dining room, and Peter's jaw dropped.

Sitting at the table, in regular street clothes, joking like regular people, were several of the Rogue Avengers. Pepper sat down next to the head of the table, and looked at Peter expectantly. He realized the the other empty seat between Nat and Tony was for him.

With a sigh, Tony guided Peter to the table and they both sat down. The room became quiet and Peter felt himself blushing as everybody focused their attention on him.

"Everyone, this is Tony's intern, Peter Parker," Pepper said, smiling encouragingly at Peter.

"An intern?" Sam asked Tony, "I never saw you as a 'kids' kind of guy, Stark."

"Yeah, well, join the club," Tony snapped back.

"Tony!" Pepper hissed. Hawkeye finally decided to break the awkward silence that ensued by reaching across the table to shake Peter's hand.

"Clint Barton. Nice to meet you, kid."

Peter smiled nervously. "It's nice to meet you too, Mr. Barton," he said.

"Call me Clint, kid. Please."

"Um, alright, Mr. Clint."

Pepper seemed pleased, but frowned when she saw that there was still an empty chair. "Where's Bucky?" Peter watched as Tony's glare turned stoney. "Fri, can you tell Bucky we're waiting for him down here?" Pepper said.

Tony met Pepper's unyielding stare, and finally conceded with a "we'll talk about this later."

"Natasha, are you going to introduce yourself?" Clint teased.

She smirked. "Peter and I have already met."

Peter chuckled. "Yeah, Nat knows all of my secrets already," he joked.

"How come I'm still 'Mr. Tony', but she gets to be just Nat?"

"Because she's scarier than you," Peter said with a shrug. Everyone at the table burst into laughter, except Clint, who was just nodding his agreement as though he had a first-hand reason to believe Peter's statement was true.

The laughter abated as someone stepped into the dining room and slowly walked up to the table.

"Thank you for joining us, Bucky," Pepper said. She gestured at Peter. "This is Tony's intern, Peter Parker." Peter met the eyes of the gruff-looking man standing on the other side of the table. Bucky nodded at him, and then sat down.

Dinner went by surprisingly smoothly, considering how tense Tony was throughout. He never once made eye contact with Bucky, instead preferring to talk with Peter for most of the meal.

"So Peter," Clint said as everybody cleared the last of the food from their plates, "who is your favorite Avenger?" He wiggled his eyebrows and Natasha rolled her eyes at him.

"You're such a child, Clint."

"While that may be true, my question still remains," Clint said. Peter felt his heart beating harder than normal at the excessive attention.

"Uh, I think I'm going to have to go with Ironman on this one," Peter said sheepishly.

"Ahah!" Tony shouted, standing up abruptly, "The kid gets to keep his internship!" Although clearly Pepper regarded Tony's behavior the same way Natasha did Clint's, she was smiling and laughing along with everyone else.