Slowly, the trees became thinner and scattered and the river became wider leading out into a meadow full of wild flowers. Specks of red and blue stood out among knee high grass that itched when you walked through it.
It looked like a giant moon shape full of it with a small field of normal grass in the centre, and a wooded area attached to that, which held the treehouse just on the edge.
Everyone made their way to the middle so Bruce and Wanda could put the picnic blankets down to sit on. Which is when you noticed the small new goalposts standing on either end. "Woah Pete look at these! We can have a proper game now and not fight about whether it was in or not!"
"Awesome!" He responded as you both ran over to the goal nearest the trees dropping your bags by the post. At the same time you both jumped up and grabbed the top bar pulling yourselves up. Neither of you could sit on the top so he jumped down and pushed you up before you pulled him up.
Smiling, you sat on top of the goal for a minute looking around at yours and Petes special place. Tony started building stuff here when you were only three years old. Of course you didn't know Peter yet, he got bit by the spider when he was seven. You still remember the day you showed him your favourite place in the world. You hadn't talked about it with anyone else before, but the day he gave you one of his web shooters that Tony had just made him, you knew you could trust him.
You were five years old, sat on the floor of the compound eating M and M's when Tony walked in followed by a young boy with messy chestnut brown hair. Due to hydra you were still bad at meeting new people, no longer scared but you instead acted as if they weren't there. And that's exactly what you did with Peter when he was introduced, you ignored him.
He was shy and hid behind Tony not knowing what to do next and Tony being Tony decided the best way to learn to get along was to leave you to it. So he left you and a scared Peter alone in the living room.
You still ignored him so he walked over and sat on the sofa turning on the tv which happened to be playing Jurassic park. "I love this film" he said to himself.
After what seemed like forever you turned to face the telly watching the dinosaurs in awe. "Do you like this film?" He asked.
You shrugged before finally speaking, "never seen it. I don't really watch tv. it's boring".
"Boring!" He exclaimed "you just haven't seen the right films, I can show you all the best ones". he smiled at you causing you to walk over and sit next to him.
He smiled to himself not wanting to scare you off. You watched some more before you noticed the small bits of metal on either one of his wrists. "What are those?" You asked.
"Oh these!" He held up his hands. "They help me become a real spider! After the other one bit me I can do cool things but Tony thought it would be really cool if I had webs!" He pointed to a glass on the other side of the room when a small web shot out and knocked it causing it to smash.
You stared at the broken cup before turning back, "that IS really cool! You should make it like a long string instead so you can swing on things!"
"That's a good idea! I'll ask Tony next time..... here, you can have one I'll just say I lost it" he grinned placing the metal into your palm. "My names Peter"
You were so excited with your new present. "Thank you! Here I have some more of these" you said pulling another packet of M and M's from your pocket and handing them over. "My names y/n".
You smiled at each other and watched the rest of the film, both munching on your chocolate.
Steve and Tony spying from the hallway, "I told you it would work" said Tony. "I can't believe it" replied your dad, "she's never connected with anyone but us before, that's why she isn't in school".
"The new kids smart to, we could try sending them to the same place?" Asked Tony as they walked away.
Back on the goal post you and Pete were having a competition on who could hold on the longest. Dangling from the bar, you had been holding on for ten minutes already seeing as he had spider strength and you were part super soldier.
Getting bored you both decided to try and kick each other off instead but when that didn't work you settled on a different contest. Who could hang upside down the longest, though Pete clearly had an advantage here.
You got your feet into position and let go. His hair stood straight and his cheeks looked slightly flushed. You laughed at how silly it was and he laughed because you were.
"Y/n get down!" You heard Bucky shout.
You reluctantly unhooked your legs and dropped carefully to the floor. "Ha I win!" Celebrated Peter.
"You did not! I was forced to forefeit! Let's go to the treehouse I've got some cool stuff with me".
"Me to!" He replied grabbing his bags and running off through the trees.
It looked like two small sheds had been impaled by giant branches, with a long walkway between them and a zip line that lead out into the meadow.
You climbed up the ladder whilst Pete ran up the spiral staircase going around the trunk as his hands were full meeting at the top. It looked old from the outside but inside it was completely rainproof and the walls were covered in little paintings and handprints you'd both done over the years.
You both sat on beanbags either side a very short table took, off the helmet and started pulling stuff out your bags. Pete placed a toy helicopter he'd been carrying and then pulled out a camera to attach to it.
"We can spy on everyone!" He said excitedly and went back to pulling a frisbee and small black box out. Holding it at arms reach he pressed a button and it flicked open, turning into a bow.
"Ooh I've got mine to!" You said pulling out an identical black box. They had been a present from Clint last Christmas. "And we've already got some arrows on the other side! I'll go get them". You ran out the door and over the slightly wobbly bridge before entering a nearly identical room. Only this one was filled with books and a ginormous trunk. You opened it moving away the blankets to see it full of toys and rocks, or anything else you had found out here, before finding a handful of arrows hidden away.
You found Pete waiting on the bridge, "hey! Let's see how many we can hit before we run out. I'll get the ones on the left you get the ones on the right". You nodded and turned to face the targets scattered around, nailed to trees.
You pulled the string back narrowing your eyes and looking straight down the middle of the bow. With an exhale an arrow shot and landed in the tree right above a target. You did the same with the rest hitting some and completely missing others, as did Peter.
"That looks like a combined total of 37 points" you said. "Hey let's do it again but time ourselves to do it as fast as we can but with as many points as possible".
"Good idea! ok you get the arrows on the floor I'll get the ones in the trees" said Peter as he attached his webs and dislodged the first arrow.
You and Peter kept shooting arrows, "that's the best one yet" he jumped around excitedly, "20 arrows shot in 11 seconds with 52 points!" You jumped up to high five him.
Everyone else was sat chatting in the field. Tony laying on his side propped up on his arm wearing his signature sunglasses drinking from a cup through a straw, clearly very relaxed. Nat didn't look much different with her sun hat and drink laughing at the conversation.
"Last day before everyone goes home this week then" said Clint, starting a new conversation.
"That's right legolas" joked Tony, "no missions planned for next week so hopefully we won't get an emergency one".
It was music to everyone's ears, they loved a mission free week. After a few moments of peace a large cloud appeared out of now where. "What the hell" exclaimed Tony taking off his sunglasses.
A sudden bolt of lightening shot through the sky and into the ground, and with it appeared Thor. "Dammit point break!" Tony shouted "watch the Begonias!" He joked pointing to the slightly frazzled flowers.
"Sorry" Thor replied in a very cheery tone. "I heard you were having a picnic and I never miss a picnic"
And with that a duffel bag full of crisps was thrown at his head.
Ignoring the slightly aggressive act, he sat down with everyone and started eating.
You and Pete were still firing at targets but you'd started to have enough of this now. You put your stuff back in your bags and climbed down, remembering to put the helmet back on.
You walked over to everyone sat in the middle of the field on some blankets and saw Thor was there. "Thor, Thor!" You both shouted practically skipping over to him.
"Tiny Midguardians!" He jumped up embracing you both in a giant hug and threw you high in the air.
"Hey what's with the fancy hat? A big iron man fan are we?"
"No Tony's a big iron man fan" you said taking it off , "I jumped off the roof, fell through it, cracked my skull, had to have a metal plate put in and now I have to wear this Incase I fall again".
Thor admired it for a second before saying, "very brave! I like it, a true warrior". Everyone just gave an exasperated sigh and threw their arms up at the statement not wanting him to encourage you.
After being put down you asked, "Can we have lunch now I'm starving and it's basically twelve already? That counts as lunch".
"I agree" spoke Thor in his god voice making you chuckle.
Surprisingly everyone else agreed and started opening the bags. The crisps were emptied into a giant pile along with the other snacks and buck opened the sandwich box.
Steve was the first to get one, he put his hand in and paused. "Um.... Why is there jam on both sides of the bread".
Clint chuckled eating his secret packed lunch, "y/n and Pete made the lunch this morning, I also added some rolls in there too Incase we're still hungry".
"Well good job" said Steve, "next time the jam goes inside the bread so our hands won't get sticky". Everyone laughed but still grabbed some for themselves, Thor picked up lots completely unaffected.
For a while all that could be heard was the smacking of lips and the crinkle of crisp packets. Tony finished his food washing it down with his drink before talking, "despite the fact my hands are coated in jam they were actually very nice, thanks guys".
You and Pete smiled with mouths still full.
As everyone finished eating no one wanted to move. The sun shone bright, added with the full stomachs, it was nice to just relax. You looked over at Pete who had definitely fallen asleep judging by the open mouth.
After ten minutes of trying to throw leaves in his mouth you got up and walked over to the edge of the long grass.
The sound of crickets got stronger the closer you got, yet it's almost impossible to see any. There must be thousands but they hide in plain sight.
You stepped closer ignoring the itching on your legs, and sat down with green coming up to your shoulders.
The crickets stopped their noise for a moment until you stilled and they carried on their talk. The best thing about these fields are the butterflies that come to pollinate on the flowers. You'll never see this many colours flying around anywhere else.
Laying down flat you looked up to see mostly clear blue skies, with small clouds so thin you could barely see they were there.
The edges of your vision were filled with grass and flowers, and occasionally white and yellow flapping wings would fly over.