This is for one of my dearest friends, Whispy, who pushed me to actually work on this instead of crying over the idea. This fic takes place in the same verse as Dance History 10, but it doesn't follow the most clear and linear format.

One of the first times everyone gets together, besides the introductory floor meeting, is for floor Cards Against Humanity.

"There's nothing like being as horrible as possible, in front of other people," Sam tells them. Pepper just says it's a "good relationship-building activity," but Clint can't really tell if she's being serious or not. He's not sure if he wants to go at first, at least until Sam reminds him that it's a good way to tell who to avoid, based on their reactions.

Since they all live in the dorms, there's no alcohol involved, either. Bucky makes disappointed noises when Sam stresses that point, until Sam tells him that there will be lots of coffee and sweets to make up for it - what's a little floor party without people hyped up on caffeine and sugar, after all? It's legal, and none of them will get in trouble, Pepper adds, with a stern look at Tony. He's older than everyone, on account of years of traveling, but the allure of alcohol hasn't rubbed off yet, and everyone knows it. Not that he usually gets raging drunk, no, but Clint's definitely seen it happen more than once.

It wouldn't be that concerning if it wasn't still the first quarter. But it is, so Pepper, at least, is worried. No one else seems to care as much, Clint notices, but then again, Pepper and Tony seem to have some strange sort of relationship. They're very close, and if not for the way that Pepper seems to really value Tony (what for, Clint can't say, and no one else can either), it would seem like a friendly teacher-student relationship. Pepper seems to help Tony a lot more than he helps her, especially with his whines and demands for coddling. She rarely gives in to him, of course, but that doesn't stop him. She's so often exasperated with him, it doesn't really seem like their friendship is ideal, or even a good one. But there has to be something that binds them together, Clint tells Nat when she wonders aloud how Tony and Pepper are even friends, because you don't just become friends with someone who offers you nothing.

It sounds crude, and Clint feels horrible the moment he says it. He doesn't want Natasha to think that he expects or wants anything from her other than friendship, and he knows that he's messed up the moment she flinches away from him. And, well, fuck, Clint thinks. Luckily, they're early for tonight's activity and no one is in the lounge to notice his misstep.

"I didn't… Natasha, I don't mean it like that, I swear!" She won't look at him still, but he wouldn't look at himself either if he was her.

"I mean… Friendships work like this. You give someone your time and, and, and… fuck. and your presence, that's it. And your words and your feelings, and they give you theirs in return. Like, you can't be friends with someone when they don't…. when they don't want to help you, too. Friends have to help each other, and be there for each other. It can't be one friend always being there for the other, y'know? It's a two-way street."

He hopes that his little speech makes sense, and he opens his eyes to find her back ramrod-straight while she looks at him strangely. She's silent for a bit longer, and he can hear his heart pounding wildly - he just wants to know that things are going to stay okay for them - and then she swallows loudly.

"I don't know. But thank you for explaining." And it's unbelievably cliche but Clint swears that his heart breaks. They're not the best of friends because it's hard to make nice with strangers you've only see in passing for two weeks, but Clint knows that he wants her to be his. Friend, that way that Phil is probably his friend now, especially after they bonded over watching crappy kids cartoons like Yu-Gi-Oh and Digimon (although Phil will never admit it, since it'll ruin his image of a serious student), and the way Tony and Rhodey are friends. The way Steve and Bucky will go to the end of the line for each other, Clint wants a friendship like that. Even now, just a weeks in, he's pretty sure that Natasha is one of his closest friends. They see each other often, they hang out both in and out of class, and even though they don't really know that much about each other (it's only been two weeks, after all), Clint wants to be really good friends with her.

It's a bit too early to be thinking about friends like that, but Clint hadn't made many friends his freshman year. He had been too aloof, too afraid to have people hurt him again, and just too uncomfortable with school to put any effort into friendships. This year, things will be different.

At least, he'd like for things to be different. In reality, though, there's a shitton of work to be done before he can really say he likes anyone on this floor, other than Nat and Phil. Steve's a good guy, sure, and he respects Bucky too, but there's… it's just tense. Everyone's personalities are clashing as they try to catch up with the quarter system and mesh with their roommates and floormates.

And then there's those guys from the other floor, who they're supposed to make nice with. Sam and Pepper had made this activity night open to everyone, posting it in the building's facebook group and plastering flyers on everyone's floor. So of course, who else would show up but the douchebags from the floor below.

As the room begins to fill with more and more people, it's clear that just about no one gets along. Tony and Steve sort of glare at each other, or at least avoid each other's eyes, while Maria zeros in on a kid from the other floor, Brock Rumlow, whose shirt has some kind of pro-life saying on looks pissed, and she's not the only one angry. Another guy from the other floor - and it's kind of weird, that they're all white guys - alternates between eyeing Sam distastefully and glaring at Bucky's rainbow colored t-shirt.

When there's about 15 people in the room from each floor, Pepper starts discussing the rules, and how they're going to break it down. There'll be five groups, she says, of six people each. In order to let people to make new friends and get out of their comfort zones, they'll decide groups by counting off from one to six, and then finding the people with the same numbers. Clint, a 5, ends up with Sam, Loki, and Sharon from his floor, and then some guys from the other floor who don't even offer their names.

So of course, the game doesn't get off to the best start. First, Sam, as Card Czar, chooses "The Violation of Our Basic Human Rights" as the best answer for "War! What is it Good For?" The other-floor strangers are not impressed, or amused. Instead, they give him a huge stink face, and one of them even mumbles something about Sam having "no understanding of humans and international politics." As much as Sam and Sharon try to foster a conversation, since Clint and especially Loki don't seem that good at keeping up small talk, the other two don't really seem to care for making new friends. Mostly, they whisper with each other, moving their lips too quickly for Clint to lip-read. But with the way one of them keeps glancing with obvious disdain at his hearing aids, Clint's pretty sure he doesn't really need to know. After all, if they're that douchey then it's not worth the effort.

The tension just gets worse and worse, as the other-floor people keep getting upset basically every time societal conventions get challenged. They use their cards to make racist or sexist jokes, which Clint can tell makes Sam and Sharon uneasy. Of course, this makes them enjoy it even more.

During one of his turns as Card Czar, Clint looks around the room to see how the other games are going. Tony and Natasha are grouped with three guys from the other floor, and both of them look almost comically pissed off. Thor, Steve, and Pepper are all carefully losing their poker faces as the guys they're playing with laugh their asses off. Honestly, it doesn't look like anyone's having any fun. And it's only about 20 minutes into the activity.

Admittedly, not all of the guys from the other floor look that happy. Rumlow looks like he's getting a solid talking-to from Maria and…. Loki? Huh, that doesn't seem like Loki. Admittedly, Clint doesn't really know Loki all that well, but he hasn't even tried to be very friendly so much as he's snarked everyone he's come across. And not even in a friendly, funny way, but more a jerkface way. Actually, Clint would have figured he would get along pretty well with these guys, knowing what he does now of how much everyone seems to hate them.

But you can't be right all the time, he guesses. He turns back to his game, determined to make sure that none of the bigots will win.

Eventually Sam wins, making all the HYDRA guys (which is not even a shitty name Clint gives them, but something they sort of mumble about, and Clint wouldn't know this if not for Sam carefully mouthing it over to him) really annoyed. Or angry, maybe even a mix of the two.

The next game is better, in Clint's opinion, since he gets to play with Tony Stark (who, even though it's early in the quarter, has a notoriously dirty sense of humor that makes this game fun) and Peter Quill, a cheerful student from the eighth floor with what Cint thinks is possibly the silliest sense of humor in the building. Combined, they have the most sexual and nonsensical responses you can possibly get, and even one of the HYDRA guys seems to think it's funny, although the other one - Clint can't remember his name, but it's definitely something foreign, if his accent is anything to go by - doesn't look amused. Maybe, Clint will tell Phil later, none of these guys have a sense of humor.

In the game closest to him, Natasha is sitting with Bucky and Pepper, all of them with strange facial expressions. Brock Rumlow, he thinks it is, keeps gesturing to Bucky's prosthetic arm and contorting his face, which his friend seems to think is hilarious. Nat, Bucky, and Pepper, not so much. To be honest, they look like they either want to run away, or jump him.

Actually, the more Clint looks around, the more he notices how angry his floormates look. Even Jane Foster, a contender for "nicest person ever," looks super grossed out. A number of them have disappeared, too, ostensibly for the bathroom, but Clint suspects they've run off to hide in their rooms. Sam and Pepper, unfortunately, have to stay, as the resident RAs and the coordinators of the event.

Bucky catches his eye and keeps looking toward the door, indicating that they should book it. Clint, for his part, makes a guilty face as he stares at Sam, hoping that Bucky will get the message. It'll look badly on their RAs if everyone just decides to jump ship. But Bucky, evidently, doesn't give any fucks about it. He smoothly excuses himself from his game with a loud yawn and almost shouts about how he has a calc test in the morning, and then leaves to go "study before bedtime."

Steve glares at him, instantly seeing through his lie. Bucky isn't phased on bit, which Clint admires. (When Steve had glared at Phil in the morning, mostly because Phil had beat him to some dining hall coffee, Phil had looked more cowed that ever. That is to say, he look marginally ashamed and kind of flustered.)

Bucky, on the other hand, sort of rolls his eyes, and then speaks in an even louder voice. "Steve, Clint, do you think you could help me out? I'm having some trouble visualizing how to do washer method."

Steve, who's an art and political science double major, if Clint remembers correctly, looks a bit confused. But Clint knows exactly what he's talking about. He nods, and gets up with a pseudo-apologetic face towards the other players. Tony frowns the shit out of him (he looks pretty upset about getting abandoned, but so would Clint if he was in his shoes), but he really can't be bothered to care. Steve catches on a second later, and gets up, too. Together, the three of them head down the hallway and escape into their rooms.