karaoke
what was supposed to be an evening out between peter, harley, mj, ned, betty, and flash ended up becoming an 'avengers bonding session, plus family and peter's friends' (as tony had dubbed it). peter supposed that it was his fault. he probably should've told pepper that he and harley wouldn't be there for saturday dinner in a more private environment - rather than when the whole team was having a movie night. harley disagreed. he was trying to tell peter that this would be funny, and the reactions of all of his and peter's friends would be hilarious. especially if they didn't tell them that it wouldn't only be peter and harley joining them. the small group of friends had got this evening arranged a long time ago (by that, they mean a week ago, which is a long time for the group - who usually arrange this type of stuff the day before). they would go bowling, and then flash's parents had agreed to hire out a karaoke room for the evening - to be honest, flash doubted if they were even listening when he asked, but he was just glad that they agreed to do it.
peter and harley had imagined how each of their friends would react and had written it down in a checklist form. they decided that they would tick off anything that happened - just to see how well they knew their friends. they were originally going to write one each for each person and then bet on it, but once peter realised that he probably only had two dollars, they decided against doing that. besides, coming up with scenarios together was so much funnier.
they agreed straight away on how mj would react. at first, she'd be unbothered. until she noticed that nat, wanda, hope, and pepper were there. then she'd have an internal gay panic, while still having an uninterested expression on her face. the boys were unsure about what she'd do after that, but they eventually agreed that she'd ask them questions about how they felt, knowing that they were some of the most important and powerful women in the world. and the boys knew that the women being questioned would have no problem answering, and would most likely get along very well with mj. which scared them slightly, but they concluded that it would be fine - so long as no one let them interact for so long that they ended up scheming against the men in their lives.
ned would be freaking out the entire time. which both peter and harley supposed was a good thing. ned was amazing at bowling - and karaoke, for that matter - and having the literal avengers in the same room as him was likely to throw him off his game ("gotta throw him off his rhythm." harley had joked, causing peter to laugh). some people would consider that cheating, but really, it would be ned's fault for having a fanboy moment.
flash would probably try to act unbothered, before asking where spider-man was. flash was the only one of the small group of friends that didn't know that peter was spider-man - betty had figured it out in a similar way to mj - and the rest of the group placed bets on how long it would take flash to realise. so far, harley and betty had lost. the former had said that it would take him three months, and betty had proposed six months, saying that peter had far too much faith in himself if he thought that he could keep it a secret from flash for a year and a half. they'd been friends with flash for a year now, and he didn't seem to have a clue. which peter and mj often found very amusing.
betty would probably take the situation the best, striking up civilised conversations with the avengers. besides, she'd told harley before that she'd love to talk to them in a more private environment ("not in a weird way, don't look at me like that!"), so that she could see what they were really like behind their public faces.
as it stands now, tony had managed to hire the whole bowling alley for a couple of hours that evening, so that peter and harley could have a lane with their friends, but the avengers could also have lanes. tony knew that he probably could've just booked four or five extra lanes, but he had to go over the top. also - as pepper had said - the fact that no one else would be there was most likely a good thing, seeing as it completely got rid of any chance of a pr mishap. and the avengers could be themselves - rather than put on their public personas.
peter had warmed to the idea eventually and went along with harley's idea to keep it a secret from their friends.
~~~~~
"what's up flashmob-"
"god, i resent that." harley interrupted flash's intro to his new live stream.
"no one asked you, cowboy." flash glared at harley playfully, before turning back to his viewers. "to be honest, i gotta change that. anyways, i'm at the bowling alley with my friends, and then we're gonna go to a karaoke room that my parents hired out for us-"
"oi, flash, no need to flex your riches!" peter called from the stands where the different weighted bowling balls were.
"you act like you and harley aren't pretty much adopted by tony stark!"
"and you act like he just hired out this bowling alley for us." peter shared a smirk with harley - who winked in response - before continuing. "anyways, what weight do you wanna use?"
"ten or twelve." and once again, flash turned back to his viewers. "okay, so you've already met my dumbass friends, but just in case you're new, that one over there is peter, and the lanky cowboy over here is his boyfriend, harley. the scary-looking girl over by the thing where you put your names in - i have no idea what it's called - is mj, and the nerd with the star wars shirt over there is ned." flash placed his phone on the table nearby, clearly showing the alley, as well as being in view of where the people who weren't bowling would sit.
the first round went peacefully. ned got a spare, mj got a seven, betty scored a five, harley managed to get a strike, and peter got a nine. and that's when tony stark decided to make his dramatic entrance, avengers in tow.
"alright, six of you a lane, don't argue, i can't be dealing with more than two teenagers and a four-year-old." tony announced as soon as he walked in the door.
"holy shit." flash breathed out, reaching for his phone.
"first of all, peter and harley aren't your responsibility tonight, and morgan will probably pick me over you any day." natasha smirked, walking over to a lane, morgan on her shoulders.
"stop kidnapping my kids!"
"nah, i've only kidnapped morgan. pete would choose you over any of us. not sure about harley, though."
"i'd choose sam or bucky over the old man." harley piped up, gaining the attention of the avengers.
"it's because we're more fun." sam said, smiling proudly. "even though i hate the metal man."
"you love me." bucky replied.
"nah, steve's the only one willing enough to go near that god damn metal arm." and sam turned his back to bucky, which was a mistake really, because the latter put his metal arm against sam's neck, causing the actual falcon to yelp like a girl being scared by someone turning the lights off in a classroom.
"alright, that's enough, pick your lanes." pepper said, eyeing the phone that flash currently had facing the avengers. everyone immediately chose their lanes - no arguments needed. "also, i'm sorry, but i'm gonna need you to turn that off if it's a live stream. i don't want pr nightmares to deal with. not your fault, but this lot can't open their mouths in a public place without causing a lot of paperwork."
"yes, ma'am." flash said, ending the live stream and putting his phone away.
~~~~~
"you didn't tell us this was gonna happen!" flash whisper-yelled to peter and harley, once the avengers had started their games.
"well, peter accidentally mentioned it during movie night." harley shrugged, dumping peter in it.
"wow, okay. first of all, i was just telling pepper that harley and i wouldn't be there for dinner tonight. the team overheard. tony hired this out for the night. and now they're here." peter explained, glaring playfully at his boyfriend.
"wait, if this is all the avengers, where's spider-man?" flash asked. harley and peter grinned at each other, and the latter could hear betty, ned, and mj laughing behind them.
"flash, his identity is a secret. he's not just gonna turn up to a bowling night when there are normal teenagers here. plus, spider-man isn't even an avenger." peter said.
"okay, but you and harley already know his identity. it's only mj, ned, betty, and me who don't know who he is."
"it's only you."
"what?"
"ned accidentally found out. he climbed through my lab window and took his mask off, before realising that ned was in the room with me. mj and betty worked it out."
"am i that stupid?"
"yes." the whole group chorused.
"aw, man. give me a clue?"
"we have a game of bowling to finish." harley said, picking up a ball and passing it to betty.
"i hate you guys."
"no you don't." betty smirked, continuing with her go.
the rest of the game went on like that. flash kept asking for clues as to who spider-man was behind the mask, and someone would change the subject. once they'd finished two rounds, the group of teenagers decided to order some food. originally, they'd planned to eat at the diner down the road but ended up feeling too lazy to walk over there. betty had been nominated to go and order the food, so everyone handed her money and gave her their order.
~~~~~
"so, please give me a clue as to who spider-man is!" flash pleaded, once everyone had sat down and begun eating their food.
"you've met him, like, hundreds of times." peter gave in to flash's persistent asking.
"i've- what? did i act like an idiot around him?"
"mhm. you're always an idiot, so i wouldn't worry about it."
"i know, but hey!" flash complained, kicking peter lightly under the table.
"ouch. maybe i won't give you any more clues then." peter had a sly smile on his face.
"wow."
"spider-man has abs." harley chipped in.
"that was unnecessary, harls." peter said, lightly punching his boyfriend's arm. everyone laughed at that, aside from flash, who currently looked like the gif of the woman with equations everywhere. peter made a mental note to make an edit of that later.
"alright, kids. finish your food up. what's the address of that karaoke place? we're joining you there, too. sam insisted on it." tony walked up to their table, stopping flash from questioning anything else.
"sam is suddenly not my favourite. bucky's my favourite avenger on his own. fuck sam." harley muttered.
"you said you were only joining us bowling!" peter pouted. "now i'm gonna embarrass myself."
"you embarrassed yourself the moment you met all of us, kid. it's not like we haven't heard you and harley sing along to the songs you do on just dance."
"rude. scott's my favourite, seeming as harley took bucky, and morgan seems to have claimed natasha."
"ouch, kid. whatever you say, we're still coming along to the karaoke. now, what's the address for this place?"
flash gave the address to tony, still not saying a word.
"right, see you lot there, then." tony finished, sauntering away, following the avengers out of the building. peter put his head down on the table.
"hey, do you reckon they heard our brilliant rendition to rasputin?" harley said, laughing at his boyfriend's distress.
"tony probably got friday, karen, or sofia to record it."
"good point."
~~~~~
by the end of the evening, peter's phone was full of photos and videos of his friends and the avengers, singing their hearts out to whatever stupid song they'd picked.
sam desperately wanted to go first, wanting to show off his go-to karaoke song, which peter confirmed that sam practiced said song every day (peter could hear it from his room next door). sam had decided to sing to uptown funk because that's just sam all over.
pepper forced her husband to have a go next, seeing as it was his idea to hijack the teenagers' evening out. tony had sung to everybody loves me by onerepublic, and really, the name says it all.
steve had been forced to chose the last of the real ones by fall out boy, because betty had said that it was a good song, but it also fit steve's patriotism.
bruce hadn't wanted to join in, but eventually, tony had picked a song for him. basket case by green day 'radiates bruce energy, to put it in harley and peter's terms'. the two teenagers whole-heartedly agreed and joined in with bruce for moral support.
natasha - just like bruce - had tried to refuse, but she knew that having a go was inevitable. and of course, she had picked black widow by iggy azalea and rita ora. again, self-explanatory.
clint was pretty much jumping at the chance to do karaoke after that, so he chose budapest by george ezra, which caused everyone to yell at clint. except for natasha - who sat in the corner with morgan on her lap, the both of them smirking (morgan knew something). betty, ned, mj, and flash looked confused, not knowing what the whole deal with budapest was, but they recorded the whole thing nonetheless.
bucky wanted to do mr. brightside, but that had ended up with everyone joining in because it was one of those songs that got everyone going. after that, peter had managed to convince the super soldier to chose another song, and bucky decided to sing along to hysteria by muse.
wanda had no problem choosing what song she wanted to do. she already had castle by halsey lined up, and was super enthusiastic about singing it.
stephen had come away from guarding the sanctuary - leaving wong in charge - for that evening. he had planned to stay in the shadows during this part so that no one would realise that he hadn't had a go, but of course, harley had to go and ruin his well thought out plans. stephen kept refusing to have a go, and in the end, peter had to push him onto the platform, and harley chose clocks by coldplay. and even though this was one hundred percent peer pressure, the doctor went along with it anyway.
rhodey didn't want to do this, but when he remembered that black sabbath had a song called iron man, he volunteered to go next. anything to wind tony up.
scott was called on to go next, and he chose so what by p!nk. it was one of his favourite songs, and he wasn't afraid to admit that.
and suddenly, people weren't as afraid of pepper's wrath and pressured her into singing malibu by miley cyrus. surprisingly, she went along with it. peter and harley decided that they would use this as blackmail material the next time that they wanted to go into the lab without tony's permission. pepper was strict on not letting that happen, but they were convinced that if they told her that they would project that video onto the empire state building, she'd let them in just once. it was a foolproof plan because the boys knew that they could make that happen.
happy had managed to sneak off back to the car, but as revenge, tony hacked into his phone and found happy's spotify playlist. which had bop to the top from high school musical. everyone decided to sing to that. tony, peter, and harley would be sure to pester happy about that one later.
scott had convinced hope to sing, and she decided to sing salute by little mix. no one was really surprised at the song choice, but they were surprised about the fact that scott had managed to persuade her to join in.
then it was betty's turn. she chose car radio by twenty one pilots. no reason, in particular, it was just the first song that came on when she shuffled her playlist.
ned chose to sing along to teachers by daft punk, after doing the same thing as betty. ned's music taste was all over the place, so he'd struggled to pick a song from the top of his head.
peter went next, scrolling through his music to find the song that he wanted. he grinned when he saw the sound by the 1975, knowing that tony hated that song ("pete, it sounds so creepy!"), and straight away, peter knew that was the song he was doing.
mj went next, choosing my my my! by troye sivan, which was one of her favourite songs at the moment. to start with, she was a little embarrassed, singing in front of the avengers was something that five-year-old mj would never dream of doing. but she soon shook the nervousness off, realising that the team of superheroes had made fools of themselves more than mj was going to do herself.
flash didn't want to go last, so harley let him go next. flash's song choice was don't threaten me with a good time by panic! at the disco, because let's be real, it's one of the best songs to be written.
harley went last, deciding on singing to whatever it takes by imagine dragons. it was probably his all-time favourite song, and although it wasn't his go-to karaoke song, he knew that that song could be saved for later when everyone was singing songs together.
~~~~~
eventually, after an evening of singing high school musical songs, meme songs, tiktok songs, minecraft parodies, and songs that were inside jokes for the group of teenagers, they all decided to crash at the tower - with tony's permission, of course. they spent the rest of the night re-watching the videos each of them had taken that night, and saving them all to friday's database.
peter was lying on harley's chest on the sofa, mj was lying across the armchair, flash was sprawled out on the floor, and ned and betty were cuddling each other on the other side of the sofa to peter and harley. it was peaceful really, and the teens couldn't have asked for a better evening - even if the avengers decided to join them without warning.
"okay, i'm tired, i'm gonna try and sleep. i've gotta be out all day tomorrow. do you guys wanna help by tracking stuff?" peter asked. after receiving nods from everyone - except from flash, who gave peter a confused look (peter didn't explain what he meant to flash any further), peter smiled, leaning up to kiss harley, and then dozing off on harley's chest.
peter was about to fall into a deeper sleep when flash spoke up.
"wait, is peter spider-man?"
and the group found the energy to sarcastically applaud flash.