First Time Bowling
“Team bonding, Steph said. It’ll be fun, Steph said,” The rain was absolutely pouring down as the team huddled under an alcove between buildings somewhere in Brooklyn. While the Avengers did spend a lot of time together, they rarely went out as a group. Toni frequently brought one or two of them to a fundraiser, Steph and Becca went to baseball games, but the problem had arisen when Claire noticed she hadn’t left the Tower for anything other than battles in over two weeks.
“It will be fun, Toni, as soon as we get there.” But Stephanie sounded just as annoyed as Toni did. She had said no to taking one of Toni’s cars to the bowling alley, wanting to spend time out and about in the city with her team when the world wasn’t ending.
Toni huffed a sigh. Her arms uncrossed and she shoved her fists into the pocket of her bomber jacket. She leaned just a little closer between Briana and Becca, since the two radiated warmth. Perks of being genetic experiments, Bri supposed.
Honestly, the physicist had been surprised at how amenable Toni was to the idea of going bowling. Her friend (partner, lover? They still couldn’t seem to find a label, but they never stopped being friends) was no snob, but neon lights, cheap beer, and bad shoes didn’t really seem like her style. Dressed in ripped jeans, an vintage print tee, and a jacket with rocket ships along the arms, Toni perfectly looked the part. As they were walking, before the rain, she’d almost timidly asked Briana what the odds of wrist or dexterity damage was with this sport. It was hard not to laugh, since Bri hardly considered bowling a sport, but it dawned on her that maybe this was Toni’s first time even setting foot in a bowling ally. If her 80s space jacket was anything to go by, she was dressing based off what she saw in movies. Not that she was wrong, of course, bowling alleys never seemed to lose that decades old charm.
“Why didn’t anyone bring an umbrella?” Claire had joined the huddle that was forming, weaseling her way into the middle. At least the archer brought a little bit of her own body heat.
“Wait, is that why we are not continuing onward?” Thor stepped into the rain, unbothered, and held Mjolnir to the sky. Bria squeezed her eyes shut and curled into the huddle, already dreading the sound of thunder. Instead, there was no sound. And the hammer had transformed into an umbrella.
“What?” was all the scientist could say.
“Who cares, let’s go.” Toni grabbed her hand, pulling her along with the rest of the team. Her open jacket flew out like wings behind her as they ran through the rain, dancing around puddles as they shared one tiny umbrella.