A Puzzling Thing

Chapter 7

Peter left the hospital wing wearing their new suit. Bruce had assured him that it was common to see people wearing their suits in Stark tower, and that he wouldn't stand out too much. He headed to the meeting room (he was told that this was where everyone liked to hang out).
Peter opened the door that was labeled "Meeting Room" to find something that didn't really resemble a meeting room. Instead of a table with chairs around it, there were black couches spread around the room, all vaguely facing one screen up front. There were five people in the room, not including Peter. Steve and Bucky sat on a couch, talking. Peter noticed that they were sitting abnormally close, almost touching. And then in the corner of the room stood Natasha, Thor and a woman with black hair that Peter didn't quite recognize. They thought that she looked familiar, but couldn't exactly identify who she was. Steve noticed that Peter was standing in the doorway and waved him over to where he and Bucky were sitting. Bucky almost instinctively moved away from Steve. Peter took a seat on the couch next to them.
"Peter, I don't think you've been properly introduced to Bucky," Steve said, signaling to Peter to introduce himself.
"Hey, I'm Peter, and my pronouns are he/they," Peter said, immediately regretting including the part about his pronouns.
"I'm Bucky," Bucky said, "and what pronouns are you talking about?"
"Well, pronouns are words that describe how you'd like to be referred to, like he, she and they." Peter explained, "And because I like to be referred to as a he and a they, my pronouns are he/they." They knew that he, she and they weren't the only pronouns, but didn't mention the others, so as not to overload Bucky's brain just yet.
"Oh, well," Bucky started, clearly confused, "I guess my pronouns are he/him then."
"And Cap," Peter moved on, as to not confuse Bucky more, "I never asked, so what are your pronouns?"
"My pronouns are he/him," Steve said with much more confidence than Bucky, which wasn't saying much.
"Well, it was nice meeting you," Peter said as he stood up, "but I've got to go meet some other people now, so I guess I'll see you around."
"See you around," Steve said, as Bucky, who appeared to be deep in thought, merely waved to Peter.
Peter walked over to the other group of people in the room, Thor, Nat and the unknown woman.
"Greetings, spider-boy," Thor said as he saw Peter approaching.
"Hey!" Peter said as he walked over and stood next to the group. "If you don't remember me, I'm Peter, and my pronouns are he/they."
"I'm Natasha, and my pronouns are they/she," Nat said.
"I am Thor of Asgard, son of Odin and user of he/him pronouns," Thor proudly declared.
"And I'm Loki, right now my pronouns are she/her," the woman Peter now knew to be Loki said.
Loki's introduction took Peter back a bit. He only knew Loki as a guy, and a dangerous one at that. "I-I," Peter stammered, "I thought you were-" Peter started.
"A guy and a threat?" Loki cut him off.
"Um, yeah," Peter said cautiously.
"Both of those things can vary from moment to moment," Loki said, sounding uninterested in the conversation, "and right now I happen to be a woman who's not particularly interested in murdering people."
"That's good to know," Peter said, as he heard a notification from his phone from his pocket.
"Spider-boy, your pants made a sound," Thor declared as Peter looked at his phone screen to see a text from Bruce: "Meet me at the hospital wing".
"Well, I've gotta go, but it was nice talking to you all!" Peter said as they walked toward the door. On his way out, Peter looked over at where Steve and Bucky were sitting. They were still there, but now, Steve had his arm around Bucky. To avoid being seen by the pair, Peter quickly and quietly exited the room and made his way down to the hospital wing.