Believer

12. Gratitude

"A grateful heart is a magnet for miracles."

Ned made the best of his makeshift bullet-proof suit and trained with Natasha. She didn't spar with him, afraid of hurting the sweetie, instead showing him some easy moves she learned in her Red Room days. Wanda and Peter were in the ring, pretty much play fighting. Peter didn't have his spider suit, so he was in sweat pants and a tee shirt and very jealoud of Wanda's cool fire-proof jacket. It felt like a piece of him was missing when he wasn't allowed to be Spiderman.

After a few more minutes of good-natured fighting, the teams broke apart and the four walked down the hallways chatting. Even Natasha seemed more relaxed.

"Hey, have you guys ever played monopoly?" Ned suggested as they walked past the common room. Surely Tony Stark had board games, right? "I used to play with... uh..." Wanda trailed off and looked away. "My brother. Pietro." She mumbled, and Peter put and arm on her shoulder to console her. She quickly smiled again.

"But I haven't played in so long! What a great idea!"

"I've played a few times with Clint's little gremlins." Natasha offered. "But I don't think Bucky even knows what monopoly is."

Ned and Peter spun to each other at the same time with big grins. "Avengers game night!" They yelled at the same time, proceeding to run around the compound shouting about a game night and playing monopoly. Tony knew it would end badly, but he'd humour the kid anyways. Bucky did know what monopoly was, but hadn't played it since... before... everything. He grinned at the memories of little Steve and him and their makeshift board. The memory was fuzzy, so maybe playing again would bring it back more.

Steve had the same memories as Bucky, and also remembered that monopoly never ended well, but decided to play anyways. Clint popped out of the vents in the common room while they were all gathering and only scared Sam and Ned - the others were pretty much used to it now, and Peter had spidey senses.

Tony pulled out the giant monopoly board, and Peter and Ned squealed that it was the Star Wars version. Natasha quickly grabbed Princess Leia, to no one's real surprise.

All was going well, at the beginning. It only took about ten minutes for it all to descend into chaos.

"I own that!" Tony insisted, pointing at Bukcy's R2D2 or the Death Star. Bucky raised an eyebrow. "Um... no, no one does yet...?" Bucky grumbled, sifting through his monopomoney. "Uh, I'm Darth Vader? I own that!" Tony insisted again. "Hey, wait, I'm Anakin, so you can't claim that." Wanda scoffed, shoving her little brass figure at Tony. "And, we're Luke and Leia, so we own part of it too." Clint stated, gesturing between him and Natasha. "Hello? Padme here?" Sam cut in, until they were all arguing and Bucky was sharing looks with Ned, Peter and Vision.

Vision, C3P0, cut in half way through. "Can we not move on to the next turn?" He inquired. "No, I want to buy the Death Star!" Bucky insisted. "Ok, we'll just get Bucky to pay for the Death Star, and maybe you can buy it back from him on your next turn, Mr. Stark." Ned suggested, taking Bucky's money and putting it in the bank. Peter rolled his eyes, and then the dice, moving Obi-Wan three spaces.

"Ok, I actually own that." Tony piped up, flashing the card. "Right, what's the rent?" Peter asked, fishing out his monopomoney. "Uh, 100." Tony grinned. "Is not! That's way too high without any rebel bases!" Peter yelped, trying to see the card around Tony's hand. "Uh, uh this is business, kid." Tony laughed maniacally.

Natasha looked over his shoulder as he tried to hide the card from Peter. "It's 20 bucks." She and Peter exchanged smug expressions.

Tony ended up being That Player who landed on everyone else's spaces but no one ever landed on theirs. He was going broke quickly, and kept trying to negotiate with Ned - the bank - to give him more than 200 every time he passed Go.

Natasha and Clint teamed up quickly, pooling their resources. Peter wasn't sure if that was allowed, but let it pass since Tony had actually managed to negotiate 500 dollars out of Ned in one pass. Of course, 500 monopoly dollars were easy to give up when Tony offered Ned his own full-access card to the lab. Peter would make sure he didn't forget about that.

Since Nat and Clint had teamed up - and were winning - Steve and Bucky did too. Peter and Ned, Wanda and Sam, and even Tony and Vision followed suit. Everyone laughed at Tony's misfortune for getting Vision - until he pulled out thousands of hidden funds. Vision had only bought Jabba's hut but had loaded it with bases and saved the money.

He was rich.

Tony laughed hysterically and bought the Death Star back from Bucky when him and Steve fell on hard times.

Wanda and Sam were quietly strategizing, one rent-pay away from using Wanda's powers to find out the other's strategies. Meanwhile, Tony bought everything in sight. Oh, you own this plot? I'll buy it from you for double.

Finally, Tony owned everything but Tatooine, which Ned and Peter were holding onto desperately. The whole game ended in a bidding war between the teeagers, the billionare and the robot. Well, Vision mainly counted out however much monopomoney Tony promised to make sure they had that much.

Finally, Tony offered them both full access to his lab, full-ride scholarships, free rides in the limo - complete with Happy as the driver - and any intern hours they wanted when school started again. He took Tatooine with a triumphant battle-cry and not a second thought at what he'd just done. But Tony was a man of his word, especially when Sam had recorded the whole thing.

And so, while Tony won monopoly, who was the real winner?

Well, Sam obviously, who also video-taped Tony's victory dance which was mainly fist-pumping and hilariously horrifying attempts at twerking.

Thought I'd give you guys a niiiiice fluuuuuffy chapter and lull you into a false sense of security so I can VIOLENTLY RIP OUT YOUR HEARTS WITH ALL THE DRAMA AND ANGST THAT IS TO COME MOOHOOHAWHAWHAWHAWHAWHAWHAW

Woah, it's amazing how much writing makes you realize you are an evil mastermind. After all, you can't write a good plot without a good villain! And the desire to make your readers suffer!

Hope you all enjoyed the chappie!

Toodles!!!

~Meow