AN: Sorry for the long delay in posting this. I had a lot of trouble getting this chapter to do what I wanted it to do.

It took a moment after Fenrir had grabbed him for Bruce to process what the arms around him meant.

"Okay so, we're hugging now?" Bruce said. Fenrir pulled away and Bruce turned around to face him.

"Is that wrong?" Fenrir asked, taking a step away. "I just thought that… I mean, we're friends. That's what friends do right?"

"Sometimes," Bruce said as he tried to remember the last time one of his friends had randomly hugged him. He had a feeling that it hadn't happened since he was in elementary school. He also had a feeling that Fenrir hadn't been much older when he'd had his last friend.

"You just surprised me. You didn't seem like the hug type."

"I'm not. I mean, I don't really like people touching me," Fenrir admitted, shifting farther away. "I just didn't know what else to do. I haven't had friends in a while."

Bruce was still trying to wrap his mind around the fact that Fenrir thought they were friends. When had that happened? So far their entire relationship had consisted of him using Fenrir as a science experiment. Fenrir never talked to him if he didn't have to and now he had, unintentionally, just gotten Fenrir attacked. Where in all of that had Fenrir decided that this is a person that I can trust.

"Well I'm honored that you chose me," Bruce said, completely at a loss. He and Thor needed to have a serious talk when he got back. Why, today of all days, did Thor have to be out visiting Jane?

Bruce mentally kicked himself for the thought. Of course Thor would be out today. S.H.I.E.L.D wouldn't have wanted to risk having him around when they blindsided Fenrir. Bruce shook off his disgust with S.H.I.E.L.D and focused back on the matter at hand. Namely, that Fenrir had chosen him as his first friend on Earth.

"Listen, why don't I walk you back to your room? We can hang out until Thor gets back," Bruce offered. He immediately knew that he'd made a mistake when Fenrir's face went blank.

"Hey, it's your room. If you don't want me in there that's fine," Bruce offered.

"You're not really going to tell Thor about this, are you?" Fenrir asked, looking like he was about to be sick.

"I was planning to," Bruce said.

"You you can't tell Thor about this," Fenrir said.

"Fenrir, you-"

"You can't tell Thor," Fenrir insisted.

"I have to tell Thor about what happened here. What they did to you was wrong," Bruce studied Fenrir and tried to figure out what was happening.

"You don't understand," Fenrir said. "If you tell Thor about this then he'll make us leave." Bruce stared at him for a moment before he continued.

"He almost left before, when we first got here and you all said I couldn't stay unless I agreed to be studied. He was ready to go. He was packing; I had to talk him out of it. I had to convince him that I wouldn't mind."

"I've got to say that I'm surprised that you would want to stay here so badly," Bruce said. "Honestly, given everything that we've put you through here, I'd think you'd be more than ready to go."

"When I was in Asgard with Thor he was always telling me stories about Earth. Of your team, of his adventures, and his feelings for Jane. This is his life now and he loves it here. If he has to leave because of me then he will be giving up everything that he cares about on this planet. Then he'll hate me for it."

"Thor would never hate you."

"Thor is the only family that I have left. Odin wishes me dead, Frigga is barred from seeing me and my father, well, my father has clearly moved on with his life. If I lose Thor then I have nothing. Maybe he wouldn't hate me if I made him leave, but I can't take the chance," Fenrir said. "I am begging you, please, please don't tell Thor about this."

"Alright. If you really don't want me to tell him then I won't," Bruce finally agreed.

"Thank you," Fenrir said, color slowly returning to his face.

"It might help if he thought that you liked it here." Bruce offered.

"What do you mean?"

"If you're always in your room then Thor might start to think that you're unhappy here, and he might leave anyway," Fenrir was beginning to go pale again so Bruce knew he had to work fast. "But if he thought you were happy here then he'd want to make sure that you could stay. Even if something else happened."

"What exactly are you telling me to do?" Fenrir asked, eyeing Bruce nervously.

"Just come out of your room. Get to know the tower. Try talking to people," Bruce said. "You don't need to do it alone. Thor can be with you, or I could take you but you need to try." Fenrir was quiet for a minute before speaking.

"Where do I start?"

"It's lunchtime, come to the kitchen with me." Bruce said. "I'll even make you lunch." Fenrir's lips twitched into a faltering smile as he nodded.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Thor was so thrilled to see Fenrir moving around the tower when he returned that he barely noticed the quickly fading bruises on his neck. When he found out that Fenrir was finally up for a tour it was all Bruce could do to keep Thor from hefting him over his shoulder and running around the tower. Eventually he was able to calm Thor down enough that Fenrir was able to walk on his own; mostly.

The next few days were packed as Thor and Bruce took turns showing Fenrir the tower and all it had to offer. Meanwhile Bruce, who still couldn't figure out when or why Fenrir had decided they were friends, was finding that besides just being harmless Fenrir was actually pretty likable.

Fenrir was still cripplingly shy and quiet, it was true, and Bruce often found himself wondering if Fenrir was even hearing what he was saying when he would go on a silent streak. But when he did talk he was nice, and much more curious about Earth than Bruce had originally thought. While Fenrir still spent most of his time alone, in his room or with Thor, he now also spent time with Bruce.

"Why did I see Fenrir in your lab this morning?" Clint asked, surprising Bruce one night at dinner.

"Because he was in the lab with me," Bruce said.

"Why are you letting him in there?"

"He gets bored when Thor's not around so he came to hang out for a while," Bruce said, wishing that Clint would just let it drop.

"And you don't see a problem with letting him get close to the equipment?" Clint asked. "That's funny, because last time I checked, you were doing weapons research for Tony."

"Fenris doesn't even know what most of that equipment does. He's still having trouble figuring out how to work my kindle."

"I'm with Bruce on this," Tony said, from across the table. "Even Cap's got more technical skill than Toto."

"Did you know that he's been going down there?" Clint demanded.

"I've bumped into him a few times," Tony said. "Hard not to now that he follows Bruce around like a p-"

"Please don't say it," Bruce said with a groan.

"Like a shadow," Tony said. "A six foot tall shadow."

"Suddenly this is okay, having him wandering the tower?" Clint asked. "I thought you didn't trust him." Clint demanded of Tony.

"For the first two weeks he was here I had Jarvis give me an hourly video report on everything that Fenrir did. Do you know what I got from all of that?" Tony asked. "Absolutely nothing. And I don't mean he wasn't doing anything suspicious. I mean that he does nothing. When Thor isn't in the room, he sits. Sometimes on one side of the room, sometimes on the other, and every once in a while he'll lie on the floor and stare at the ceiling. I eventually just had Jarvis give me a heads up when he did something out of the ordinary like read a book."

"I can't believe this."

"I know; children of teen parents usually fall short in academics but he seems to really like reading," Tony replied.

"He wasn't a teenager, you know," Bruce said, trying to distract them both before Clint started swinging.

"What?" Tony and Clint asked.

"Loki, when Fenrir was born Loki was probably in his early twenties. Or, the Asgardian equivalent anyway."

"Explain." Tony said.

"Asgardians slow down the longer they are alive. It takes you one year to turn one, five to hit two, 10 more to hit three and so on. So a thirtysometing guy having a twenty year old son isn't that hard to believe."

"So you did the math?" Tony asked.

"No. Figuring out Thor's age was enough of a headache. I'm never doing that again." Bruce said with a shudder.

"Why, seems like a pretty simple formula?"

"Until you average in that years on Asgard aren't always the same length. Some are longer than others and depending on when you're born, you age accordingly."

"And does an elephant occasionally have to lift a leg so a moon can go by?" Tony asked.

"What?" Bruce said.

"You obviously aren't reading the right books. Anyway, I'm figuring out the age," Tony declared.

"Wonderful as all this is, I really don't see how finding out if he can legally get drunk makes any difference to whether or not he's dangerous," Clint said.

"Clint, he's not dangerous," Bruce repeated for what felt like the 80th time that week.

"Then why isn't Pepper here?" Clint asked, redirecting his attention at Tony "A few weeks ago you were ready for Pepper to move in here for good. Her floor's been ready. So if everything here's so safe then why'd you push back the move in?"

"Pepper is the one who pushed it back. CEO's get busy. She's moving in, Barton, date's been set," Tony insisted.

"And you told her about him?" Clint asked.

"Of course," Tony said.

"You're all making a mistake." Clint said, as he left the room.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Thor really could have stayed behind during their next battle but Tony had a mission and he knew that there was no way he was going to get alone with Fenrir when anyone else was in the tower. So the next time there was a call to assemble Tony's armor was, unfortunately, in the middle of updates. "Guess I'll have to stay behind, so sorry."

To give Tony credit he did manage to resist the impulse to run to Fenrir's room the second the Avengers assembled. He was able to wait a full seven minutes before he was knocking on Fenrir's door. "Alright, Lone Wolf, let's go," Tony said, grabbing Fenrir's arm the second the door was open.

"Wait. I don't, where are we going?" Fenrir asked as Tony dragged him down the hallway.

"Library," Tony said. "If we're going to figure this out we'll need star charts and I never got around to having Jarvis scan them all." Tony let go of Fenrir's arm once they were in the library and left to search the shelves.

"What are we figuring out?" Fenrir asked, still confused and a little nervous about what Tony had planned.

"Your age," Tony said, letting out a laugh when he found what he was looking for. "Ha, Asgardian star charts. Thank you, Thor." Tony looked over to where Fenrir was standing and motioned him over to a chair. "Sit, I'm going to need your help on these years."

It took forty minutes of solving the most absurd and nonsensical math of his life, but finally Tony had his answer.

"Twenty-one!" Tony yelled, when he finally figured it out. "This calls for celebration." Fenrir sat stiffly in his chair for a few minutes after Tony left. Was he supposed to have followed him? And what exactly was it that they were celebrating?

Before Fenrir could give the situation any more though, Tony reappeared.

"Congrats, you're officially legal," Tony said, sitting back down and pouring Fenrir a drink from the bottle he'd just brought back. Fenrir considered not drinking it but then Tony poured a glass for himself. While Fenrir still had no idea what it was they were celebrating, he decided that it was probably best to just go along with what Tony wanted.

"Well it looks like we've still got some time before everyone gets back. May as well not waste it," Tony said, grabbing a book from under his chair. "Norse Myths. I bought this after your dad threw me off of a tower a few years back. Thought I might learn something useful that we could use later." Fenrir slumped down in his chair at the mention of his father but Tony kept talking. "Now Thor insists that these stories are all wrong but the fact that he smashes every copy of this book that he sees makes me think that some truth might have slipped through."

"You want to know about the horse, don't you?" Fenrir asked, before Tony could go on.

"Loki is one of my greatest enemies. Maybe the greatest after Justin Hammer and that guy who refuses to let me have a star on the Hollywood walk of fame," Tony said. "He tries to kill us all on a regular basis and has come pretty close to succeeding more than once. So out of all the things that I could ask, why would you think that my first question would be about a horse?"

"Because everyone always wants to know about the horse." Fenrir said, simply.

"Well, who am I to break with tradition. So-"

"No, my father did not sleep with and give birth to a horse," Fenrir said with a sigh. "There was a time when my father was very interested in how animals could interact with magic and tried his hand at breeding enchanted animals. Sleipnir was his greatest success in that area."

"Well that's disappointing," Tony said. "So how'd it go from Farmer John to bestiality?"

"There was… a bet," Fenrir began, recapturing Tony's interest immediately. "Back in the days when Asgardians were worshiped on Midgard, my uncle and a few of his companions decided to see who could make humans believe the most ridiculous legend. I believe the story about my father turning into a female horse won."

Tony used every ounce of control he had, admittedly that was only enough to last him five seconds, but he was unable to stop himself from laughing hysterically. The idea of Loki being labeled as the mother of a horse for thousands of years because of a bar bet gone far too well. It was just too good not to savor.

"So how about when Thor dressed up like a bride to steal back Mjolnir?" Tony asked when he'd finally calmed down. "Any truth to that one, or is this where I find out that Thor actually used to make dresses."

Fenrir knew that it wasn't right to expose his uncle to ridicule. Thor had done nothing but take care of him since he'd found him and this story was not one that he liked to share. However he had just listened to Tony laugh at his father for almost ten minutes so it seemed only right that he try and put them on even ground. "That story is true. Thor was furious when he found out they'd never even had the hammer," Fenrir said.

"I thought the whole reason he put on the dress was because someone stole his hammer."

"Thor thought so too," Fenrir said. "But the hammer was never stolen. Thor hadn't had Mjolnir long and he wasn't very experienced in summoning it. Sometimes it came to him and sometimes it didn't. One day he was training and he left it behind. Thor couldn't remember where he'd left it and spent an entire day looking for it, but it was my father who found it.

"There was a man from a highborn family named Kellen. And he was madly in love with Freya. He'd sent her five marriage proposals that year alone. The day that Thor lost his hammer a letter came from Kellen and my father may have… intercepted it. He left the proposal alone but at the bottom he added that he had the hammer and was keeping it until she said yes."

"So how does that end with Thor in a dress?" Tony prompted.

"My father convinced Thor that he should go in Freya's place and steal the hammer back."

"He didn't really think he was going to fool anyone like that, did he?" Tony asked, wondering if Thor had even thought to shave his beard.

"Thor might have been under the impression that my father was going to put an illusion over him to change his appearance."

"I'm guessing that the story doesn't really end with Thor reclaiming the hammer and killing everyone either."

"Can you imagine my uncle in a wedding dress?" Fenrir asked.

"Right now I'm having trouble not imagining it."

"No one would believe that he was a woman, let alone the most beautiful woman in the nine realms. They saw through the trick the second Thor came through the door.

"They laughed, the trick was revealed and Thor went home embarrassed. In truth, most people believe that he was the one who began the stories about Frost Giants and the epic battle with Thrym that followed."

"That's admittedly a pretty epic prank." Tony said.

"It was just a bit of fun." Fenrir said with a smile.

AAAAAAAAAAAAA

It was the first time that Fenrir had been in the library by himself, the first time that he'd gone anywhere in the tower without an escort, but Thor was out and he had been bored. It was true that he could have gone to look for Bruce, all his instincts were telling him to go find him now, but sometimes he worried that he bothered him too much. That was all really beside the point though because what he'd truly wanted was something new to read.

Since leaving Asgard he'd read the books in his father's trunk at least a dozen times over. He knew that stories by heart and, as much as he loved them, he was itching for something new. Something different. Something like the book that Tony had offered him earlier in the week.

It was true that there was a lot in the story he hadn't understood, in regards to Earth culture, but he'd loved it anyway. Thor and Bruce were frequently telling him that he should consider the tower his home and that he could go where he wanted. Tony had even given him permission to use the library anytime, when he'd given him the book. Even so, as Fenrir made his trip to the library all he could think was that he needed to hurry so he could get back to his room. He was considering a book called The Bourne Supremacy when he heard someone come up behind him.

"You've got to be kidding me." Fenrir turned around and realized that the voice belonged to the man his uncle had called Barton. Fenrir tightened his grasp on the book. Out of everyone who lived in the tower, Barton was the one who scared him the most. It no secret that he was disliked by most of the Avengers, but when Barton looked at him he could feel the absolute hate that the man had for him.

"Get out." Barton growled.

Fenrir immediately crossed the room to leave. As he reached the hallway he looked down and saw that he was still holding the last book he'd looked at. Suddenly he didn't want to leave anymore. This wasn't fair. It was one thing for the people on Asgard and Svartalfheim to hate him. But he'd never done anything to anyone on Earth and he was still treated like a criminal. Like a monster.

"I wasn't doing anything wrong." Fenrir said, turning back into the library.

"I didn't ask."

"Why do you hate me so much?" Fenrir couldn't believe what he was saying. All he wanted to do was run back to his room and slam the door. Lock himself inside and wait for Thor to come back. Every impulse was telling him to bolt but somehow he found that he was still standing in the library, waiting for an answer.

"There's the fact that your father has spent the last three years trying to either destroy or enslave the planet. Or maybe it's that he once used his magic to control me into murdering innocent people, committing treason and almost killing the people that I care about the most. A fact that he loves to remind me of, by the way. Is that enough of a reason?"

"I'm not my father." Fenrir said. "I haven't even seen him since I was a child."

"Alright then, how about this? You look like him." He said, moving closer to Fenrir. "Every time I see you I have to remember him and the things he made me do. Every time I see those eyes all I want to do is hurt you."

"Would that change anything?"

"It would certainly make me feel better." Barton said with a sardonic smile. Fenrir looked at him for a moment and then made his decision.

"Go ahead." Fenrir said.

"Go ahead and what?"

"If hurting me will give you some level of restitution for what my father did to you then, by all means, do it." Fenrir said.

"I'm sure you'd love that. The second I take one punch you'll call Thor and tell him I tried to kill you."

"Jarvis, are you there?" Fenrir asked.

"Always, sir." Jarvis said.

"You can record things right?"

"Indeed."

"I want you to record what I'm saying now. I am offering Barton this chance to gain justice for wrongs done by my father. I'm giving him permission to hurt me with no repercussions from me or my uncle."

"I'm not sure that Master Odinson will find this arrangement acceptable." Jarvis said.

"I'm swearing an oath. Thor doesn't have a choice." Fenrir insisted.

"And what makes you so sure that I won't just kill you?" Barton asked, eyeing Fenrir up and down and wondering what the trick was in all of this.

"You won't kill me. You've remained teammates with my uncle despite the fact that I'm here. You have too much respect for him to go that far."

"What makes you so willing to take a punch?"

"I'm tired of people hating me for things I have no control over. I'm tired of having to be reminded daily of all the horrible things that my father has done. You say that this will make you feel better, and if it will get you to stop looking at me the way you do then stop talking and just do it." Fenrir commanded. He would have gone on longer, now that he'd started there was so much more he wanted to say, but he was interrupted by a fist flying at his head.

AN: Well that seems a fun place to leave you. As always, I live for reviews.

P.S. Three guesses as to what book Tony lent Fenrir.