Day 3

"Thank you Clint, I think I can take care of myself," it was approximately the 80th time Steve rejected Clint 's help gently since he woke, oh, of course he wasn't cold-shouldering Clint or being unreasonable, it's just the help Clint offered was a bit… Even he was just 15 cm tall it didn't mean he would be crashed by a biscuit, attacked by a mouse or not-yet-appear-but-soon-showing-up pigeons or swallow.

"No no no, you can't be careless Steve, dangers are everywhere, haven't you read 'The Wonderful Adventures of Nils'? Or 'Thumbeling'? Though she met her prince…hmmm…" by evening, Clint located Steve, crawling on the sofa reading, and he frowned solemnly: "Evil creature like mouse, they can show up anywhere anytime and kidnap you!"

Steve sighed and tried hard to stop the intention of massaging his head, 'Clint must have read too much fairy tales, maybe I should suggest this muscular and strong spy to read some more realistic and dauntless works.'

Tony, showing up in the doorway, interrupted Clint: "Hey stop insulting my building, Clint Barton!"

"I am NOT insulting it; I'm just trying to tell Steve what dangers he might encounter!" Clint compressed his lips: "He needs a bodyguard."

"MY STARK TOWER DOESN'T HAVE A MOUSE! Even if there's one, Jarvis and I won't let it get close Steve," Tony crossed his arm in front of his chest: "Bodyguard? Mouse? Oh, Clint, tell me you're not kidding, I never knew you are a pest control expert."

Clint stared at Tony, wrinkled his nose: "You are, a field mouse."

After insulting Tony, Clint grabbed the armless Steve from the window of the castle and escaped.

Clint didn't run too far away, he just sat into one of the corners of the room and put Steve on his palm, he scratched his head: "See, It's very easy to kidnap you now."

"You're not bad people, you're my friend," Steven wasn't going to tell Clint he nearly burst into laughter, especially when he saw Tony's face when he was described as a field mouse, so he didn't struggle or shout, Clint wouldn't hurt him anyway.

"Yes, we're friends," Clint grinned joyfully, soon turned to curious. He toughed Steve's hair with his fingers and his shoulder, then he used two fingers to take Steve's palm to observe: "This is mystical."

Yes, Steve also thought it was mystical finding all his friend becoming giants, he nodded and sat on the edge of Clint's palm, letting his lower leg swinging in air, in a relax way.

"Cute as hell, Steve," Clint licked his lips and finished his sentence: "Cute and adorable, no wonder Natasha couldn't help playing with you."

When Clint moved closer to Steve face, he looked as Clint's concentrated eyes approached, he suddenly started to sweat, 'Wait, why Clint looks like he has been starving for ages and looks at me like I'm some kind of tasty food? At least this is the way Clint looked when he dived into the mountain of food screaming "energy recharge" last time when they completed their mission'

"Hey Clint, I'm not…" before Steve could say anything, Clint was already so close and touching Steve's face with his nose tip muttering satisfied sound: "Awwwwwww steeeeeeeve, I'm gonna protect youuuuuuu!"

Clint's nose tip which has a lower temperature than the other parts of the body was lightly rubbing Steve's chest and neck, Steve felt like his clothes were ruined by the hot air he breathed out: "Clint! Wait, STOP THATTTTTT!"

Being pushed away by tiny hands, the mysterical feeling made Clint squeaked excitingly: "Steeeeeeeeve, you're safe with meeeeeeee!"

"He's not safe with you!"

It wasn't Steve who said that, because Clint's fingers were pushing his back and his chest was being tortured by Clint's nose tip, he couldn't even speak.

A sudden thrust made both of them fell; Clint's collar and arm were lifted by Jarvis's machine arm, Steve fell into a pair of opened palm, then he saw Bruce's warm eyes looking at him worriedly: "Are you alright?"

"Except the dizziness… I'm fine," Steve sat up and put his palm against his temple.

Tony, apparently warning and scolding Clint, heard that too: "You feel DIZZY? Gosh! This isn't a good sign! Body check, right now!"

"Yes, I agree, it's necessary and put us at ease," Bruce turned around: "Do you still remember what I told you yesterday, Steve? I've finished preparing part of the equipments; maybe we can start with that."

"Then let's get started," Tony followed, leaving the trying to escape from Jarvis hawkeye alone, as well as the huge hole on the roof.

Entering the lab, Steve was placed on the bed. The first thing he faced wasn't any medical appliances but a mini short sleeved examination purpose patient clothe, light-blue one with strings on the back.

Steve stood there for a few seconds looking at it, looked troubled: "I have to thank you two for being considerate and circumspect…"

"It's ME being considerate and circumspect, Steve," Tony didn't hesitate to boast his contribution: "There should be a 'but' afterwards right?"

Steve nodded: "But I think it's not necessary, the strings are behind and it's difficult for me to tie it on my own, plus I can't ask for help from you two, since this is too tiny."

"Oh Steve, it's okay, my miracle hands have handled stuff even tinier than these strings, I will tie them into perfect ribbons for you," Tony shifted his fingers confidently and looked eager to try. He had been practicing with the spare mini patient clothes on the mini model; he didn't want to fail when he had to do it on Steve.

"Try it on Steve," Bruce was supportive: "You're now tiny, we are not sure whether the temperature does the same on you as usual, you'd better have something to cover your body."

At last Steve wore the clothes unwillingly. He tied three of the strings and left the other three for Tony. He couldn't deny that his friend were super considerate, it was cooler than he expected in the lab, and this typical patient clothe had a soft and comfortable texture.

Bruce put on his observation goggles and traditional stethoscope and went near, using a moderate voice he said: "I must admit I've never performed any examination in situation similar to you, so you must tell me if you feel uncomfortable."

Steve nodded and looked as Bruce warmed the head of the stethoscope with his hands before reaching it to Steve, Steve immediately pulled up his clothes.

Tony, standing beside whole time long, produced a tiny sound like he was strangled, so Steve looked at him curiously, and looked back to Bruce when Bruce reminded him to relax.

Tongue depressor similar to the size of a toothpick to normal people, minified sphygmomanometer and other special scanning system, the whole examination procedure was smooth and well-prepared, except the doctors looked like giants, Steve didn't think there were any differences from the one he had.

"Looks normal, no excessive energy remain or variation," Bruce lifted his eyeglasses: "Everything was just reduced proportionally."

"So?" Steve looked at his examination record and Bruce, full of hope. He was standing on the table beside Bruce's hands.

"I didn't have enough time to alter all the appliances, so we need to perform further scanning later. I don't want the radiation to hurt you accidentally."

"Oh," Steve compressed his lips, so that means he would have to wait for Thor to find Loki, of course, he could at the same time wait for Bruce to alter the machines and prepare for everything. Having two solutions is always better than having only one, he was very confident in his genius friends.

But a genius like Tony didn't share the same opinion, as he could only be an observer in the whole process of examination: "Wait, that's all?"

"What have I forgot?" Bruce turned to look at Tony, Steve couldn't read his face.

Tony instantly changed his attitude: "Um… I mean, I thought there were more, but it's alright, you said there would be a second examination, we can leave some for next time. I think Steve's tired, I should bring him back to his room."

"Wai…" Steve couldn't finish the word before Tony lifted him, he didn't even change! Steve turned his body around in Tony's palm and used his knee and elbow to maintain balance. He felt a hint of coolness on his back when he tried to stood up.

"God!" Tony murmured.

The light-blue clothe slip down from his shoulder, Steve got the reason at once. Apparently a few strings were untied when he was in a rush: "Tony! The ones you tied!?"

Steve use the clothe to cover his back with his hands on the spur of the moment, but using a single hand to maintain balance and another one to dress up was a challenge, so he decided to turn around and face Tony so it seemed like he was dressed tidily. Tony stood still: "I remember telling you I was gonna tie some gorgeous ribbons, who's gonna tie a fast knot for clothes?"

"Sorry," maybe he overreacted, Steve agreed, Tony sounded reasonable. 'Ribbons are for convenience, easier to undress myself after the body check. Just that I've forgotten to change back to T-shirt and pants which made all this fuss, so it wasn't Tony fault,' thought innocent Steve.

After delivering Steve back to his little house, Tony went back to his studio. He stared at his palm which Steve laid on: "Jarvis, did you camcord that?"

"As always, Sir."

Hesitated for sometimes, finally decided not to stick his palm on his face, Tony coughed softly and stuck his hand into his pocket: "Do you think he discovered that he was almost naked on my palms?" Nothing special on the front side and the whole back side was naked, Tony's palm could directly touched Steve's whole back and skin of his long legs, except his butt wrapped by his unddies.

"Sir, analyze shows that your heartbeat and blood pressure are close to threshold limit value."

"I know! What the hell! I'm just a bit overexcited!"

"Sir, I am scared that you're always overexcited recently, this is bad or your health," Jarvis paused: "Oh and agent Coulson has been trying to contact you, he threatened that if you continue ignoring him, he would revoke your sponsorship for the Avengers, plus he would hack into the system once again."

"I think you're stimulating me too, though in other sense," Tony pouted: "He wants to revoke my right of spending the money I earned? I won't allow him to do so!"

"I believe this sentence is logically wrong, Sir," said Jarvis: "So do you want me to reach agent Coulson?"

"I wanna invite him to a candlelit dinner," Tony rolled his eyes: "No of course not Jarvis! I'm not stupid! I am not letting that dangerous folk to get close to Steve, especially under a such unique situation!"