The Hulk and the Beast: Chapter Four

November 2, 2013

"That could have gone better, right?" Tony said.

"Yeah, that could have gone way better," Steve sighed. "I thought he needed to eat at the table, you know? Who knows what they were putting him through. I didn't think we'd overwhelm him that quickly."

"You boys are a bit intense," Nat agreed.

"This is a fine feast!" Thor pouted. "He ate well, though quickly. Were this a great feast in Asgard, he would need to pace himself."

"I'm worried about him," Sam sighed. "He was eating like we could stop him at any minute and he'd never eat again. If he ate any faster, I don't think he'd have been able to keep it down."

Hulk grabbed Remus' plate and ate the left overs, "Too much food. His stomach's too tiny."

"Have you seen him? He needs more fat on him," Clint complained. "Kid's the tiniest beanpole I've ever seen. He's a twig!"

"I'm going to check on him," Nat stood up.

"Oh, because you're great with kids."

"Shut up, Clint."

Nat found Remus sniffling quietly, hiding under his bed. He was perfectly hidden, aside from the sniffles and Gwyllgi's tail sticking out of the bed, wagging back and forth. He'd need to train the dog better if he wanted to go unnoticed. And get his emotions under control. But that wasn't appropriate for a twelve year old. Not if she wanted him to have a real childhood.

"Hey, little wolf," Nat sat down on the floor, leaning on the bed.

The tiny squeak of fear made Nat rethink. Remus didn't like the wolf. Of course he didn't. It hurt him. He hurt himself. His relationship with wolves was really complicated. The last thing he needed was a reminder of that.

"Sorry, kid," Nat sighed. "You've been through a lot."

"Yeah," Remus mumbled.

"It's really hard to forget about it, isn't it?"

Remus grunted.

"I know you have no reason to trust us, but those boys…" that was unfair, "Those men out there, they're the good kind, I promise."

"I know."

"It's okay if you don't trust us. None of us blame you. It took me a long time to learn to trust again. I'm still learning. But they… us… the Avengers… we're here to help kids like you feel safe, no matter what."

"I guess. I guess I just don't… don't know what the good kind's like."

They feel into a silence. Remus was still sniffling, sadly, and his breath kept getting caught in his throat. Nat certainly hadn't been like that when she escaped her Red Room. But Remus wasn't her. Somehow, he'd managed to hold onto his childhood. At least, more if it than she had.

"You need anything, you just find one of us and ask."

"Okay."

Nat patted Gwyllgi's butt then got up to leave. On her way out, Remus asked her in the quietest voice to leave the door open. It took her years to learn to be comfortable in a room without a clear escape route. She hoped it wouldn't take him that long. He deserved his own angsty teenage phase, being dramatic, slamming doors in their faces, preferably Tony's, and not having anything real to be afraid of. They couldn't have him long enough for that, though. Could they?

Tony and Steve were sequestered in the meeting room, surrounded by coffee and donuts. The first thing they did was order a lot more clothes for Remus. Based on his request for baggy, comfortable clothes and the way he picked at the sleeves of his t-shirt, trying desperately to pull them down lower, he was not a short sleeve, low collar kind of kid.

Steve tried his very hardest to not be baffled by online shopping – Tony would tease him – but it was very boggling. And a bit worrying.

"Doesn't this put smaller shops out of business?"

Tony grumbled, but didn't answer.

"Oh."

"We can't drag him down the street looking for Mom and Pop Baby Gap. And if any of us are spotted shopping for kids clothes, the tabloids would be on us like starved piranhas," Tony sighed. "Trust me, I wish I could take him shopping for things he'd like. He's adorable and I love the look that Rhodey's niece gets when I set her lose in a toy store and tell her anything she want is hers. But Remus isn't like that, he's not a normal little kid, Steve, he'd panic."

"That's a fair point. I thought his eyes would pop out of his head when Hulk and Thor started fighting over breakfast. But it just doesn't feel right, not supporting local businesses."

"I'll donate a million to some charity for struggling family businesses, if it'll make you feel better."

"Surprisingly, it doesn't."

"Five million."

"Let's just get on with the mission."

"Everything's a mission to you."

"It's called dedication. According to the files you downloaded, Red Skull received a huge order of occult artefacts, mostly books, six months ago. We know Remus was one of the… assets he received." Steve didn't know how else to say that.

"The facility they were keeping him in was pretty thoroughly destroyed," Tony sighed. "I'm not comfortable with it, but SHIELD is doing clean up. They'll alert us if any HYDRA come sniffing around to collect their leftovers. In the meantime, JARVIS has been cataloguing the occult artefacts and trying to determine their last known location."

"How does Red Skull have this many hideouts?"

"Most of them are defunct, shells, decoys, or storage space. HYDRA's almost as old you are, you fossil. What we're looking for is anything and everything he received with Remus from his home dimension. If I can isolate Remus' dimensional radiation, I could make a machine that gets him back there. No Tesseract required."

"If you have to run any tests with him, that'll take longer."

"I know. After everything he's been through, the last thing I want to do is hook him up to another machine, even if it's to help."

"So if you can get your hands on some other things from his world, then you can use that instead."

"Sweet kid like that's got to have people who miss him."

"They killed his parents, Tony."

"I… I know. Aunts and uncles, cousins, neighbors, family friends. Someone. Right?"

"We don't know anything about his home dimension. For all we know, werewolves could be hunted down for sport and the only thing keeping him alive this long was his parents. He doesn't think he's a person. It takes a lot longer than six months to convince someone of something horrible like that."

"Someone will go with him. We're not just going to send him back unattended. He could land in the ocean, for all we know. Not that I'd ever invent anything so unwieldly. Stop looking at me like that."

"I'm not looking at you."

"You are. You're giving me a look. I don't appreciate it. You don't think I could invent something that'll get him home, do you?"

"I never said that."

"You were thinking it."

"Sir, you asked me to remind you to bring young Master Remus lunch," JARVIS announced.

"Perfect Segway, thank you JARVIS. You keep looking, I'll make him… five sandwiches. Five is good number. Clint's right, he's too small."

Tony had his routine, but he wasn't committed to it. When a giant energy monster or a horde of demons could swoop down on the city at any second, he tried to take it one moment at a time. That made for a very horrible circadian rhythm, but it kept the city safe and him sane enough to function.

Tony usually waited until after the lunch rush before he slipped a snack and several beers, for example. The 'lunch rush' in particular was a three way fight for the fridge. Thor wanted the peanut butter and Clint wanted the pickles. Hulk was in possession of both.

"Hulk, bud, making a PB & J for the kid. Need the PB."

Surprisingly, Hulk handed Tony the peanut butter with no complaint and patiently watched him make five sandwiches while playing keep away with the pickle jar. Thor was also waiting patiently.

"We should have had a kid sooner," Tony joked. "All yours, guys."

He handed Hulk back the peanut butter. Hulk and Thor immediately went back to wrestling over it like nothing had happened. Tony shook his head in amusement.

He prepared a lunch for Gwyllgi as well. Only the finest wet food for the puppy. It was clearly labeled dog food and JARVIS had planned out Gwyllgi's meal plan for the next three months. If anyone ate all of the dog food, that would be very bad for the puppy and it would probably make Remus cry. So far, everyone – Hulk and Thor – were respecting the dogfood more than they'd ever respected the fridge rules.

He ducked out of the kitchen just as Thor broke all the glass on the cabinets for the second time that week. Tony would need to invest in either cheaper furniture or adamantium furniture, and he still wasn't sure which. They had the same problem at the mansion before Doom blew that up.

They couldn't have broken glass everywhere with a kid around. Someone would have to organize a team meeting and talk about child safety with their big swingers and more reckless members. Too bad Tony fell into the latter category. It looked like it would be up to Cap, who fell into the former.

"Knock, knock," Tony knocked on the door frame.

Remus' door was wide open. He was still curled up under the bed, like he had after breakfast. Maybe he liked the den feeling. Tony should consider a canopy bed, more cozy. He needed to personalize the room. Tony was positive he shouldn't be planning for the kid to be around long term, but he couldn't imagine letting the little boy out of his or JARVIS' sight.

"I've got PB & J. I wasn't sure how much you eat so I may have over done it, just to be safe, you know."

Remus clambered out from under the bed. He stood there, wringing his hands and trying to hide his arms. Tony scolded himself for ordering t-shirts without considering that the kid was self-conscious of his many, many scars. He had too many scars for a twelve year old kid.

"I thought that was part of the armor," Remus whispered, pointing at the arc reactor glowing on Tony's chest.

"Nope, part of me," Tony said, giving his metal heart a good wrap with his knuckles. "Mind if I eat with you?"

Remus shook his head, "I don't mind…"

"Sorry about earlier. We can be rowdy when food is involved. Especially the Green Giant and Goldilocks. They'll never hurt you, promise."

"It's okay. I believe you," Remus' voice was shaking. He did not believe that yet. He would, Tony would make sure of it.

Tony put the bowl of food down for Gwyllgi and the tray of sandwiches and milk on the bed.

"You're not lactose intolerant, are you?"

Remus shook his head.

"Alright, that's good. Any allergies I should know about? Aside from silver," Tony joked.

Remus turned very pale and started shaking.

"No, no, I didn't mean it like that," Tony course corrected. Stupid. He was stupid. How could someone so smart be so dumb?

"I'm not… actually… silver's fine… it's just… if it gets in my blood it gives me a rash and blocks my healing factor. I can touch it, it doesn't kill me. I don't melt or anything."

"Good thing I prefer gold anyway. You know, my suit's actually a gold-titanium alloy. The hotrod red's to break up the gold, give it a bit of interest."

"Red and gold are my friends' favorite colors," Remus said.

"Not yours?" Tony mocked hurt.

"I like it!" Remus assured him. "I just prefer… earth tones, I guess? They make me feel safe. I don't really think about favorite colors. But red and gold reminds me of them."

"Now, come on, these room temperature sandwiches are getting cold," Tony motioned for Remus to join him.

"I got blood on the bed," Remus whispered.

"That's alright," Tony shrugged. "We'll put the sheets in the wash and change them after this."

"It's really okay?"

"Kid, you were shot. You know, with a gun."

"I was!?" Remus gasped. "I don't remember that!"

"That's probably for the best. I don't recommend remembering stuff like that if you can help it." Tony drank to forget. No he didn't. He didn't have a problem. Where was he? Oh, right, "That may be bad advice. I'm not a therapist."

Remus climbed onto the bed, pressing against the headboard. Tony had intentionally sat at the foot of the bed instead of the middle. He wanted to let Remus dictate how close they sat. That was probably one of the things that put him over the edge at breakfast. He wanted space and they surrounded him. He was just so small it was hard not to want to shield him from danger.

"So, you go to school, don't you?"

"Not supposed to talk about it," Remus mumbled through a mouthful of sandwich. "Sorry."

"Why not?"

"Um… I don't know?" Remus sat there, thinking for a bit. "I'm not from here, am I?" He finally asked.

"I'm afraid not. I don't know which dimension you're from, but I promise I'll find it. I'll get you home, kid."

"Oh," Remus frowned. "I don't… I mean… I miss my friends but I don't… I don't know if I want to go back. My parents… there's nothing really there for me anymore."

"No other family or friends?"

"No, just… some school friends," his words were filled with suppressed grief. "But they've probably already forgotten about me, anyway. And I haven't got any aunts or uncles or grandparents. They wouldn't want me if I did."

"Why not?"

"I… you are aware I'm a werewolf, right?" Remus was trying to look incredulous, but he was just too cute.

"I figured as much when you turned into a little wolf monster and tried eating yourself."

"I did?" Remus curled up into a ball.

"You didn't hurt anyone," Tony assured him. He probably shouldn't have called him a monster. He never meant it like that, no when talking about the Hulk and not when talking about Remus. Foot, meet mouth. "You don't remember when you change?"

"No, not really, just bits and pieces… the last few days are really hazy. I just remember that HYDRA hooked me up to this bag of golden syrup and it hurt a lot and then I was on a jet, but I thought I was dreaming. The wolf is louder than it was before," the last part was a fearful whisper. Remus curled up tighter.

"I take it people don't like werewolves back home?"

Remus shook his head. "If they found me, they'd kill me."

"But you went to school and made friends?"

"That's why they'd kill me outright instead of putting me in the middle of a forest somewhere to die of starvation or exposure. Not supposed to go to school. Not supposed to go near humans, especially kids."

"That's really messed up, kid."

Remus shrugged, "I'm messed up."

"I don't believe that."

"Okay."

"You seem bored cooped up in here. You have free reign of the Tower if you want it. Well, the residential levels. Don't want you wandering around Stark Industries, someone might try and adopt you out from under me."

Remus gave him a funny look of confusion. Tony found it very amusing and it was very difficult not to reach out and pinch his cheeks or mess his hair. He was so fluffy.

"You need a sense of humor, kid," Tony sighed. To be fair, he was seriously considering adopting Remus, if only to protect him from getting whisked off by SHIELD or some other shadier organization.

"I've got a sense of humor," Remus pouted. "I'm just… I guess I'm in shock."

"You want anything to spice up your room? Any video games you never finished?" Nothing like a good distraction to get over the shock of being trapped underground for several months, in Tony's expert opinion.

"Video games?" Remus tilted his head in confusion.

Tony closed his eyes. Shit, of course they'd have to ask more questions about the kid, "You do know what video games are?"

Remus shook his head, "I'm from 1972. I heard about Pong, though. Mam was a mathematician before she married my Dad. She had a lot of science mags."

"Ah," Tony said. "You're a little Captain America Junior, aren't you?"

"I'm Welsh," Remus bristled.

Tony laughed, "No. I mean out of time. Cap's from 1945."

"Oh," Remus turned red. "I knew that."

"Any books you didn't finish?"

"Not really. I read books pretty fast."

"Ah, a nerd," Tony smiled.

Remus turned red. Tony was starting to understand all those elderly women who pinched his cheeks when Mother dragged him off to one of her charity galas. He was grown now, but some of them still did that.

"Think of it this way, kid. You've got forty years of books, movies, and entertainment to catch up on."

"That does sound fun," Remus admitted.

"I'm guessing you'll want paper copies for books," Tony smiled.

"Are there books that read themselves yet?" Remus asked. "I don't want any, I prefer regular reading, hard to focus on the talking if it's not in front of me. I'm just curious."

"Yeah, we call them audio books."

"I know about audio books," Remus pouted. "I'm not that old. I listened to a few book on vinyl at the library with my Mam. They didn't have a wide selection, but it was getting bigger."

"Vinyl," Tony whistled. This kid was old school. "What's your favorite band, kid?"

"Billy Joel? I like the Falling of the Rain. Mam got me Cold Spring Harbor for Christmas last year. She saved up her tips from the pub."

"You said you were from 1972, right?"

"It was June," Remus said. "When they took me. One week after school ended. If I had known… that was the last week… the last Christmas… I was at a boarding school. School got out on the first of June."

Oh, crap, he said the wrong thing. Now the kid was on the verge of tears. The way the kid's face twisted looked too familiar. How many times had Tony asked himself, if he'd only known. Maybe he wouldn't have started that argument, maybe he wouldn't have drunk so much, maybe, maybe, maybe.

"It's okay," Tony sighed, reaching out to gently pat the kid on the shoulder. He didn't flinch, so Tony counted that as a small victory. "It doesn't get better but… it gets more bearable, more familiar. I was nineteen when my parents were killed. They died in a car accident."

"I'm sorry."

"Me too."

They sat there in silence for a bit, eating their sandwiches. Tony made sure that Remus ate three. He kept looking at Tony after each bite, waiting for something bad to happen. Remus was so incredibly skinny and tiny. They'd get him at least to a healthy weight for his size, if not a normal size for his age.

"What I was getting at with the Billy Joel angle," Tony finally said as soon as Remus started on the third sandwich. "JARVIS, play Piano Man."

"Piano Man, by Billy Joel. This song was released in 1973."

Remus' eyes went wide when he heard the disembodied voice. They went even wider when the piano started. He whipped his head around, looking for the source of the sound.

"There's speakers in every room. Microphones, too, so you can talk to JARVIS and he can talk back. I'm the only one that does, but you can if you want. The others think he's creepy."

"Dad always said never to trust something if you can't see where it keeps it's brain. It's a saying, apparently, where I'm from, but I only ever heard him say it."

"That is incredibly sound advice," Tony laughed. "I can take you to the JARVIS server room after this if you want, so you can see his brain. You can walk right through it."

"Really?"

"Just listen to the song, kid. You've waited forty years."

"Yeah."

Remus leaned back and Tony found himself lying next to him, humming along to a song he'd always deemed not rock enough. Wait until he introduced the kid to Bon Jovi. And the new age Beatles. Maybe he'd wait to tell the kid about Lennon.

When the song was over, Remus looked like he'd been reborn, his eyes wide and his body still. Tony wanted to make Remus feel this happy as much as humanly possible. Tony couldn't fathom how anyone, even someone as undeniably evil as Red Skull, could hurt such a precious little boy.

"You want to meet Billy Joel?"

"Truly?"

"Yeah, kid. I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm kind of rich and famous. I can make anything happen."

"Anything," Remus whispered reverently. "Can we listen to Piano Man again?"

Tony laughed.

And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar

And say man what are you doin' here?

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