When Steve wandered into the common room the next morning, he got just a glimpse of a large cat-like animal stretched out on the couch before it leapt to its feet and dashed off into hiding. Loki was apparently in an anti-social mood, though he did appear again mid-way through breakfast, sidling into the kitchen the moment Tony started cutting up some of the meat leftover from yesterday's bulk purchase. Loki was definitely some sort of cat, a couple of feet tall at the shoulders, with thick fuzzy fur in a dappled greish-beige colour, a white ruff around his face and long black hairs at the tips of his ears. He watched from the floor at first, then jumped up onto the counter, hooking a lump of beef right off of the cutting board with one sharp-clawed paw, displaying an impressive mouthful of sharp teeth as he hunkered down and started tearing at the meat.
Tony yelped, flinching away from the sudden movement, then scowled at Loki. "Are we going to need a rule about you not being allowed on counters?" he asked. Loki growled at him, and continued gnawing apart the meat he was holding down with one forepaw.
"I don't think that would be entirely fair, considering we let Clint up on them," Steve pointed out.
"We don't let him, we just can't stop him," Tony said. "There's a difference. Down, Loki – no cats on the counters."
Loki made a spitting sound, but picked up what remained of his meat in his mouth and dropped back to the floor, crouching down and resuming eating it right beside Tony's feet, then when that was all eaten sat and stared fixedly at the bowl as Tony finished filling it with enough meat for Loki's breakfast. Steve had to hold back a laugh at the way Loki ahead-behinded around Tony's feet as he walked over to set the bowl down to one side of the room, out of the way of foot traffic; it was so very much like the way a house cat would have done the same. Nor was he the only one amused by the resemblance, judging by the way Bruce was smiling down at his bowl of granola and Natasha's carefully blank expression.
Clint walked into the room, late for breakfast, and stopped to stare for a moment at Loki. "So do we know what this one is?" he asked after a moment, continuing on to grab his share of the stuffed omelets that Steve had cooked for breakfast.
"Lynx canadensis, at a guess," Bruce said. "Also known as the Canadian lynx. Note the large paws and powerful back legs."
"He looks like a jackrabbit crossed with a Maine coon," Clint observed, which earned him a flat-eared glare from Loki. Clint just grinned right back at him; aggressively, not humorously. Loki made a grumbling sound, then turned his back on Clint and continued eating his breakfast, back hunched with annoyance.
Clint laughed, and crammed another forkful of omelet into his mouth. Natasha shook her head slightly, then frowned as her phone beeped. She pulled it out and checked the screen, then sighed and pushed aside her already-empty plate. "Clint, Coulson wants us," she said as she slid off the stool and rose to her feet.
Clint looked up, eyes widening in surprise, fork full of food paused halfway to his mouth. "Now?"
"Yes."
"But I'm not finished breakfast!"
"You are now," Natasha said remorselessly, and tugged on his arm. Clint dropped his fork to his plate, and grabbed his remaining piece of toast before following her out, muttering unhappily over having to abandon the rest of his half-eaten breakfast.
Steve sighed and leaned over to snag Clint's plate, transferring the leftovers onto his own, ignoring the look Tony gave him when he did. Old habits die hard, and he really hated seeing good food go to waste, especially when it was something he himself had cooked. Anyway, with his metabolism the concept of 'extra calories' was pretty much a non-issue.
"Good breakfast, Cap," Tony said.
"Thanks. Listen, I've been thinking..."
"About?"
"Loki," Steve said, nodding to where the lynx was busy licking his bowl clean. Loki looked up at them for a moment, end of his tongue still sticking out, then snorted and turned away to lap thirstily at his water. "He should have a proper place to sleep, instead of having to sleep on the floor or the couch."
"What, you want me to give him his own bedroom? I don't know how well that's going to work out, if he's going to make a habit of changing into... what did you call them, Bruce... megafauna? Great big heavy animals, anyway."
"Well, maybe not an actual bed, but at least a room of his own, and some sort of pad or mattress on the floor for him to sleep on," Steve suggested. "You promised Thor you'd look after him."
"I did," Tony agreed. "All right, I suppose a room of his own is reasonable. I suppose I can clear out my office and let him use that one."
"You have an office here?" Bruce asked, surprised.
"Yeah, which I never use, which is why it's no loss to let Loki have the space instead. I'll call Pepper and have her send some people up to sort and haul everything away," Tony said as he poured himself a final mug of coffee, then wandered off, pulling his phone out of his pocket as he left, already scrolling to Pepper's number.
Bruce looked amused, which he often seemed to be, and after finishing his granola and tea wandered off as well, leaving Steve and Loki in possession of the kitchen. Loki leaped up up on one of the stools at the breakfast counter, sniffing interestedly at the plates. Steve smiled. "Want some?" he asked.
Loki stared at him for a long moment, then looked at the omelet still left on Steve's plate, and licked his lips hungrily. Steve slid the plate over in front of him, then rose to his feet and began gathering up dishes and cutlery, putting everything in the dishwasher. When he was done, he rinsed and refilled the water bowl. Loki had disappeared by then, gone into hiding somewhere in the common room. With nothing better to do, Steve headed down to his own floor for a while.
"What do you think? This do?" Tony asked Steve.
Steve looked around the room. No sign remained that it had been an office until just a couple of hours before. Now it was pretty much an empty room, the floor bare hardwood, filled with light from the floor-to-ceiling windows at one side, a small private balcony the only thing blocking what was otherwise a spectacular view of Manhattan. A bare king-sized futon mattress lay along one wall, and apart from that there wasn't anything in the place.
"I dunno," Steve said. "It seems a little... spartan."
"Spartan?" Tony asked, surprised.
"Yeah. Bare. Empty. I mean, apart from the mattress it is empty. Shouldn't it have more stuff in it?"
"He's got a point," Bruce agreed, looking around. "Even most zoo animals get enrichment objects in their pens these days."
"Enrichment objects?" Tony asked, puzzled.
"Yeah... toys," Bruce clarified. "Sometimes special foods. Things to keep them entertained and occupied, basically. And those are just actual animals; as far as I can tell, Loki still has a human intellect inside whatever animal head he's currently wearing. A room like this has nothing in it to interest him."
"Ah, right," Tony said, and thought for a moment. "I suppose having a bored God of Mischief on hand isn't a great idea. Okay, so what kind of toys are we talking here?"
Bruce shrugged. "I can't really say. I think maybe a mix of things that would interest whatever animal forms he happens to take, and things to occupy his human mind."
"The physical side shouldn't be too hard, though we might need to mix it up as he changes forms," Steve pointed out. "Things like scratching posts, assorted sizes of balls, a cardboard box or two..."
Tony laughed. "A lynx-sized cat dangler and some assorted perches, maybe? All right. Why don't you two see what you can do about animal toys, I think Jarvis and I can set up something to entertain his people-brain. You two have the credit cards Pepper arranged for everyone? Great, put any purchases on those," he said, and headed off down to his lab to do some quick programming work and gather up a few things he'd need.
On his way back up, he paused in the common room long enough to call out for Loki to follow him, then headed back to the room. Loki looked around it with some disdain, then went and flopped on his side on the mattress, lifting his head and watching through narrowed eyes as Tony set to work.
The first step was to install additional sensors around the room, so Jarvis could see Loki more clearly, and the second was to install several sets of the projectors that would allow the AI to display the same sort of hologram-based interfaces here as Tony liked to use in his lab. By the time he had those set up, there was already a delivery of some extra components he'd rush-ordered while down in his lab earlier, including a state of the art sound system and a large flat-screen TV.
Steve showed up with a bunch of items he'd bought for Loki just in time to help Tony install the electronics, or at least to supply the muscle to hold them in place while Tony did all the attaching to supports and wiring. Loki wandered around for a little, thankfully staying out from underfoot as he investigated the selection of balls and toys and rawhide chews and so forth that Steve had picked up, eventually returning to his mattress dragging a rawhide bone clearly sized for something like a great dane, and settling down to gnaw on it while watching them attentively.
"Fire it up, Jarvis," Tony eventually said, and watched as a hologram panel opened up in the middle of the room, blank except for the outline marking its limits and a few large buttons inside the frame. "Adjust to a size and height appropriate for Loki to use," he added, and the panel's image dropped down to just above floor level, and drifted closer to one of the walls. Loki stared, then dropped his chew and stalked closer, staring at the hologram. Steve watched Loki almost as intently as the lynx was looking at the panel.
"Okay, since you're currently unable to use a voice interface with Jarvis, I've set this up; it functions sort of like a touch panel, even though there's nothing there to actually touch. Jarvis has a bunch of extra sensors in the room so he can track your position relative to the panel, and determine if you've touched a button. He should be able to adjust the size, position and orientation of the panel so that almost any form you take can work with it. All you have to do is..."
Loki leapt forward, batting with one paw at the floating display, hitting one of the buttons, then when that opened an additional menu of buttons, began rapidly batting at those too. Music started playing, loud rock that Tony only had time to recognize as something from one of his own playlists before it changed in rapid succession to a pop song, some big band jazz, a techno piece, and then settled on something being sung in something that definitely wasn't English. Loki settled back down, sitting there with a smug look on his furry face.
"Wow. Okay, adapts quickly to new technology," Tony said, eyeing him. "And I suppose that answers the question of whether or not you can read the menus for yourself. There's also movies and some games you can play. Jarvis, what the hell are we listening to?"
"Björk, sir."
"Right. Anyway, I'll see about giving you internet access in a day or two, for now this should be enough to start you off with. Your room access is now the common room, kitchen, hallways, hall bathroom, and this room. Understand?"
Loki made a sneezing noise, then rose to his feet and walked back over to the futon mattress, settling back down with the chew toy.
