"Doctor! Doctor! Let me hide!"
Peter Parker's young, vocal, and even thunderous cries echoed from the doorway; the gusting wind he brought in buffetted the fireplace flames, swaying as if to die out.
The young man squeezed in through the doorway, deftly reaching into the adjacent shoe cabinet for a "Not Receiving" sign which he hung on the outer door hook, then he extended his arm to press the most left button near the door, triggering the outer metal shutter door to slowly close.
The room was dim, only lit by the fireplace's glow. Suddenly, it was as if night had fallen. Peter's movements so swift that the other three didn't have time to stop him. What followed was even more baffling for them.
Peter hurried through the living room and into the deep kitchen. From the bottom of the leftmost cabinet, he fished out a bottle of Scotch whisky. Using a crystal glass nearby, he poured himself a shot, then raised his head to gulp it down like medicine.
Only then did he sigh, standing next to the island counter. The three others sitting by the fireplace were all staring in wide-eyed surprise, as if they were witnessing a life running away and barely breathing. They looked stunned and curious yet hesitant.
What kind of troubles could drive Spider Man to drown his sorrows in alcohol? No one dared to ask this question. It sounded like the ringing of the doomsday bell, the warning alarm of a world-ending flood.
"Sorry, but I need some courage."
Peter said between breathes. He encouraged himself to face the alcohol, not used to it, his mouth distorted, followed by a dazed expression.
"Shocking." Shiller remarked, with one leg over the other and his hands on his knees.
"You're going to say you are of legal age." Steve cut in before Peter could answer. "But no one here would tell you that you can't drink. We just want to know why you are drinking."
Peter slumped against the island counter as if all his strength had drained away. He groaned, throwing himself onto the counter's surface, like a bird that had fallen into the wheat fields.
"My recklessness revealed Gwen's secret identity to another version of her to George, so I have to go explain everything to him instead of letting Gwen deal with it alone."
"Gwen Spiderman chased me around wanting to smack me, but she's not even the issue. How am I supposed to talk to George about this? He's going to say I'm a bad influence on Gwen."
"I think you can try..."
"The problem is I am! If she hadn't dated me, she wouldn't have known about the other Spider Men, and she wouldn't have risked helping Gwen Spiderman earn credits!"
Peter threw himself face down onto the countertop, pressing half of his face against the cold marble, soothing the burning sensation from the alcohol.
"Why don't you say the dinosaurs went extinct because you weren't alive 66 million years ago?" Stark sarcastically said.
However, Peter suddenly paused, gave out a louder moan, and said, "Why wasn't I born 66 million years ago? That way, I would have been able to handle both the dinosaurs' extinction and the problem I'm facing now!"
Shiller found it amusing. Spider Man often found himself tangled in similar troubles due to his high moral standards. At its root, it was because Peter Parker couldn't grasp the concept of shirking responsibility.
"Turning into a dinosaur isn't likely to solve your problems, Peter," Shiller diplomatically replied, figuring Peter didn't need yet another reminder of reality.
"But it could allow me to..."
"It could allow you to temporarily evade, 'temporarily'." Shiller emphasized the last word, leaning back on the sofa armrest and watching Peter.
Peter reluctantly got up from the countertop and took three steps before taking another look back, eventually he plodded toward the fireplace. He didn't bother to bring a chair for himself and instead sat directly on the floor between Shiller and Stark's sofas, ruffling his own hair with frustration.
"I suggest you reconsider my previous suggestion, Peter." Shiller once again brought up the topic, adding: "I stick by my opinion. If a more shocking fact is presented to George, you'd get through this crisis smoothly."
"But George already knows Gwen is..."
"But he doesn't know the rumors between you and Tony, or Gwen and Tony, or Tony and Steve, or you and Tony, or Gwen and...well, there could be rumors between any of you. Trust me, these rumors would be far more shocking than anything related to Spider Man."
"Good Lord!"
Stark pushed his back against the chair, as if he wanted to vanish into it. However, he couldn't leave, so he kept his gaze fixated on Shiller and asked.
"Swear to me that this is the first time you've thought of this, out of a sudden burst of inspiration, as well as a joke, it was never part of any feasible plan that could have possibly been put into practice, and it won't be in the future either..."
"Sorry to disappoint you," Shiller said, handing Peter a biscuit. "It's a premeditated, well-thought-out part of a plan that should have been put into practice long ago - if you still don't have a spouse in the legal sense"
"What's wrong with this world?" Stark began to roll his eyes again, poking his fingers into his cheek, mumbling: "Why can't a lonely playboy still be given his own space?"
"When people attribute beauty to a certain link in social life, if you don't appreciate it, they'll kick you out. Seems fair to me," Shiller said, laughing.
Stark turned his eyeballs to look at him and said, "It's been a while since you made such a philosophical statement, but it's still all nonsense, and you're always trying to contaminate my brain."
"Peter, I think you should go now, because George will be getting off work soon, and you still don't have the possibility of turning into a dinosaur," Steve glanced at Peter, then pointed to the bottle of liquor on the island counter's tabletop, saying, "But before you leave, you can have a bit more courage, just don't drink too much."
"No thanks." Peter crawled up from the ground using his hands and feet, holding his head, saying, "That was just a joke, courage doesn't come from industrial spirits. If I leave George with the impression of a drunk, George will kill me faster than the Cretaceous asteroid."
Peter heaved a deep sigh. On his young face, with deep worries, it added a touch of mature charm to his ever-cheerful and energetic youthful demeanor. Stark encouraged, "Keep the state you're in, George will understand."
"God bless, I hope so," Peter said, walking towards the doorway. But he got up too quickly, the undigested alcohol rushed to his forehead all at once, that when another dark figure fell through the portal, his faintly resonating Spider-sense didn't stop him from walking forward.
The two bumped head on, "Bang", Peter was fine, the other figure sat on the ground holding their nose. Hearing the cries of pain, Peter nearly jumped as if pricked by a thorn under his foot.
"Oh, I'm sorry, sorry, sorry! I didn't watch where I was going, are you okay, Loki?"
Loki stood up from the ground, rubbing his nose and forehead vigorously, and said, "Why is it that every time I appear in front of Tony Stark, I always bump into something, but he just sits there from afar, laughing at everything with his stupid laugh?"
Then, he waved at Peter indicating he was fine and that Peter should go back to what he was doing. Once Peter left, Loki walked to the fireplace and put his elbow on top of it, asking, "Do you have any booze?"
Shiller put down his coffee cup and stood up, took a bottle of tequila from the wine rack below the cupboard, poured a little, then turned to find the ice. He said while shoveling ice, "It seems like every time you visit me, you always look worried."
"Who walks into a therapist's office laughing?" Loki scoffed, "They should see a psychiatrist then."
"What's wrong? Who's wronged you this time? Thor, your brother, or the Divine King of Asgard?"
"Coincidentally, it's not him this time," Loki sneered, then the same sort of worry crawled onto his face, similarly to Peter's earlier, and said, "But he's not entirely innocent, it's Frigga."
But at this time Steve suddenly laughed, Loki and Stark both looked at him, Steve covered his mouth and said, "I guess neither of you have been keeping tabs on our animal friends lately, Spider-Pig, Pikachu, and that raccoon are all playing together, and they've also brought along Crocodile Loki."
"I guess your rushed hideaway to Earth must be for the same reason as Crocodile Loki," Steve looked up at Loki and said, "Frigga is trying to get you married."
"Perfect deduction," Loki sincerely praised, then with a sense of despair said, "Frigga surpassed Odin, of course, this is my planned result, I thought she would always be a bit better than the Father of All Gods, but I overlooked a fact, a very important fact."
"Now there are several Lokis in Asgard, and after Frigga questioned each of them, she found out that the marital rate among Lokis is pitiful, especially when compared to Thor, most Lokis don't even date, let alone get married."
"This fact made Frigga very panicked. She thinks if I can't get enough love from the great family of the Father of All Gods, then I should at least build a small family of my own, to receive love from enough family members."
"Then, she adopted a very old and traditional way to pick a suitable match for me - blind dating."
Stark covered his eyes, but Steve said, "You mean like a mixer? That's pretty normal, right. For young people with a narrow social circle, mixers are a great way to meet the opposite gender. Peggy and I met at a military mixer."
"No, not that kind of party where a bunch of people sit around drinking, chatting, and playing games. It's even older than that," Loki shook his head.
"You mean one on one? That can be a bit awkward," Stark said, clearly gloating, then he raised his voice a little and said, "You must have used your sharp words and clever mind to deter every blind date, haven't you?"
But who knew, Loki shook his head again, held two fingers together and said, "Just a little bit older than that."
Now, both sitting by the sofa didn't know what Loki was talking about. Loki heaved a deep sigh, then said.
"To put it simply - I hide, whoever can defeat the other hunters and find me, wins."