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The Hulk and the Beast: Chapter Five

Early November, 2013

On the second day he was awake, Remus built up the courage to start wandering the Tower. It likely had something to do with the turtle neck sweaters and corduroy pants that arrived. They made him look ten times smaller, swamped in all that knitting and soft fabric, and even more adorable. By the time the Avengers had Remus for three days, they couldn't imagine their lives without him and his constant shadow, Gwyllgi.

He wandered around the tower, followed by Billy Joel over the speakers, his nose in a book. The subject didn't matter. He'd read anything he got his scared little hands on. Tony ordered a small library for the kid, but in the meantime, Remus was reading declassified scientific essays made by Tony and Banner, since that's what they had printed. Remus was either smart as a whip or nervous as hell, because he rarely asked Tony to explain anything he didn't understand. It was probably a big heaping pile of both.

Remus bumped into things a lot, which most of them found cute. Tony wasn't sure why the kid walked around while reading, but he was glad the kid wasn't bored. The rest of the team was certain Remus was incapable of putting a book down until he'd finished it, even if he had somewhere else to be. It was an adorable compromise.

Thor had taken to following him around, moving him gently out of the way of anything he was about to bump into. Thor was experienced at this, though he had a melancholy look on his face as he did it. He was content to stick by the side of a scrawny kid wearing green, with his nose buried in a book, his towering guardian to keep him out of trouble.

Remus smiled for the first time on the third day, at 1347 hours, but who was counting? Clint attempted to pronounce Gwyllgi, but only managed Goose-Gigi. They were on their afternoon walk through Central Park when it happened. As soon as they were back, Clint bragged about it until dinner, when the rest of the team had enough and shouted at him. Clint was smug. They were jealous.

By the end of the week, Remus was more comfortable. He still did better in one on one, but he was able to talk to Steve and Tony at the same time. He was getting less afraid of the Hulk and Thor. He still got nervous when they would wrestle.

Nat was proud of herself for helping them calm down. Thor calmed down as soon as Remus started wearing more green, and the team could guess as to why. She asked the Hulk to treat Remus more like one of his glass figurines than a member of the team. Hulk took offence to that, despite being the first of them to insist Remus was small and breakable.

"Wolf-boy tiny," he complained. "Not so fragile."

But he kept it in mind and toned down the smashing when Remus was nearby.

November 12, 2013

Half way through the second week was when everything started falling apart. Sam was walking Gwyllgi with Remus while the Avengers with the unusually large stomachs fought over lunch preparations. Tony managed to wrestle his way out of the kitchen and into the meeting room, where he and Cap were tracking down Red Skull's enormous occult library collection. He bumped right into Fury.

Tony swore profusely before catching himself, "Don't you ever knock, Eyepatch?"

Fury didn't answer.

"What brings you here?"

"I have a potential mission for you," Fury said, in his usual 'do not argue with me' monotone. "We found some data at a HYDRA site. The one you inexplicably blew up, for reasons still unknown to me."

"I thought Cap here sent you a report. He likes making reports. It's a hobby of his."

"You're keeping something from me."

"Well, everyone's entitled to their secrets, my Piratey friend. What's the mission?"

Tony gave Steve a cursory look, assessing the mood of the room. Cap looked tense. Tony would have appreciated the heads up, but Steve liked playing by Fury's asinine rules, especially when they made him uncomfortable. Tony blamed the military.

"Have you heard of Project Red Wolf?"

Tony really wished he could read minds. He'd have to settle for struggling through body language, which he was notoriously bad at unless he was four drinks in and the person he was trying to read was hot, single, and ready to mingle. That was not a good description of Fury. Tony couldn't tell what angle Steve was taking, so he decided to take his own.

"Can't say I have."

Steve grimaced. Tony still didn't know what was going on and he hated it. He was the smartest man in this room, dammit, why didn't that mean anything?

"Shame, since we barely recovered any intel from HYDRA's arctic base. You know how I like my intel."

"Well, if you hear anything, be sure to let us know. Now…"

Fury grabbed the remote from in front of Steve and clicked the TV on, "Who's the kid?"

It was security and traffic light camera footage of Remus walking Gwyllgi with Sam. Because of course Sam wouldn't know where to walk to avoid the cameras like Clint or Nat did. No one could avoid a camera like those two, even if Sam did have SHIELD training.

"Sam's cousin," Tony deadpanned.

"His parents live upstate, but he got into a good school in Midtown," Steve added. "He's staying with Sam's mom."

"Is he?" Fury frowned. "I wasn't aware Darlene had any siblings or in-laws. They don't look like cousins."

"That's a bit rude, don't you think?" Tony said.

"We don't ask questions like that here," Steve agreed.

Fury sighed, "There's some new legislation passing soon. Thought you should know about it. Enhanced Registries are going live at the start of next year."

"I thought that didn't pass," Tony bristled. "Something about the ethics of putting people on a list for how they're born?"

"Not natural born, like Mutants, Inhumans, or similar," Fury clarified. "Artificially enhanced. Thought you should know, Cap."

"I'll keep it in mind."

"You won't have to worry, there's an extra layer of laws to protect underaged kids," Fury said.

He took his leave as quietly as he appeared. Tony did not discount Fury being a vampire of some sort. He liked shadows too much. Vampires were real, so it was a possibility.

Tony handed Cap the leftover Chinese from last night. He'd hidden it from the Hulk in a secret compartment in the fridge. It was only a matter of time before Hulk or Thor found it, even if he had done his best to insulate it to smell. No food in the tower got past the Hulk. In the meantime, they could eat their microwaved kung pao in peace.

"That was ominous."

"He's giving us a grace period. We'll have to decide what to do with Remus soon."

"Team vote to keep him?"

"Tony," Steve's voice was strained.

"You'd vote no, wouldn't you?" Tony sighed.

"A vote like that could rip the team apart. I'm the one in charge right now and…"

"It's my Tower."

"I know that…"

"And I can choose who lives in it."

"Tony, he's a little kid. He needs a stable foster family with a regular work schedule. One that doesn't get blown up by the monster of the week, every week, for the foreseeable future."

"He's special," Tony pouted.

"I know that. But this living situation is just temporary. You can place him with a Stark employee if it makes you feel better."

"Yeah, it would."

"I don't mean you."

Tony pouted harder.

"We'd put a target on his back if we kept him. We all have enemies that want to hurt us, more than just Red Skull. That's why Sam's the only one who doesn't have a public identity. He's the only one of us with family outside of the Avengers."

"Kid's already got a HYDRA shaped target on his back. Where's safer than here, surrounded by Earth's Mightiest Heroes?"

"Literally anywhere else," Steve insisted. "I like him, too, Tony. He's a bright kid. I want him to be happy and stable. I know he'll never be safe, so long as Red Skull and people like him are out there. And if anyone threatens him, we'll be there, but who's going to go his school events when we're off in space fighting moon monsters or deep in the Savage Lands tracking down a crashed passenger flight?"

"We can rotate," Tony said. "We try keeping someone in New York for backup anyway."

"It won't work, Tony."

"Trial period?"

"No."

"I'm funding this whole operation. I can end it whenever."

"We got back together because none of us could face Avengers level threats alone. Don't throw it away because you can't have what you want, again. We can't keep him long term."

Tony grumbled, "I know. I'll get him out by Christmas, promise."

Remus and Sam made it back to the Avengers Tower after the lunch fight. They stopped by a hole in the wall pizza place, the one that survived almost solely by stocking the Hulk's favorite toppings. They ordered twenty pizzas that morning for lunch. Remus didn't mean to eaves drop. He meant to help Sam set out the pizzas.

The first thing he heard was Captain Rogers saying something won't work. He didn't do his best to tune it out, because he didn't think it was important. Mr. Stark and Captain Rogers argued all the time, it didn't mean anything. His parents used to argue all the time, too, in hushed voices they didn't know he could hear. So, logically, he should be more than used to overhearing two people hissing about him and throwing insults around.

He didn't expect it to hurt so much when he realized they were talking about him. He shouldn't have expected the Avengers to keep him, really. He should never have been so stupid.

He thought, maybe because Mr. Stark kept buying him anything that caught his interest, or the way that Captain Rogers held him when he cried (which was often) or Ms. Widow patting his head when he walked past, or Clint teasing him, or the way Hulk would get quiet whenever he saw Remus, or because Thor kept putting second and third servings on his plate at dinner… or… he thought they wanted him for some other reason than another super soldier.

That was foolish.

"Sam?"

"Yeah, little buddy?"

"You trained with SHIELD, right?"

"Yup, sure did. I graduated early for outstanding performance. And because I got promoted to the Avengers when we thought Cap died. He's fine now, obviously."

"What's it like?"

Sam shrugged, "Like PE but more fun, I guess. I also intern with Tony. Director Fury wanted me to be the Iron Patriot, but Tony and I were working on the Falcon suit and I liked that more than the stuffy armor. And the name's cooler."

"What's it like for… for the enhanced kids who don't have anywhere else to go?"

"There weren't any in my group," Sam said. "But there were a few in the younger group. They were doing alright when I joined the Avengers. They're still doing their thing, last I checked."

"They don't… experiment on us, do they?"

"Of course not!" Sam said, scandalized at the thought. "Threat assessment can be pretty intense, but that's just Director Fury. He's paranoid everyone wants to kill him and take over the world. SHIELD's nothing like HYDRA. I promise."

"Okay."

"The boot camp parts are a bit intense, but it's really rewarding. Do you want to join the SHIELD trainee program? I can put in a good word for you. We all can and we'd be happy to do it."

"What other choice do I have?" Remus sighed.

It wasn't really a question. He had to accept that… if he wasn't going to be HYDRA's next Super Soldier, then he'd be SHIELD's. To be fair, he didn't know what else he wanted to be, so he may as well do what everyone told him to do. He thought he wanted to be a wizard, like Dad, but that had always been a pipe dream. Things like him weren't allowed to be wizards. It was too dangerous.

November 14, 2013

The next Avengers' meeting was pretty tense. It was obvious Steve and Tony were arguing again, and not their usual banter. Sam wasn't there for the last big fight, but it had ended with Steve and Tony disbanding the Avengers, so everyone else was getting tense as well. Clint jokingly called their argument's their Lover's Quarrels. Luckily, Cap hadn't heard him call them that yet. They didn't want to put undue stress on his 40s sensibilities.

"I'm worried about Remus," Sam said, trying to break the awkward silence.

That made it worse. Of course, Sam realized as soon as he said it that the two were having a fight over Remus. Sam should have guessed that. Nothing else was new and Steve and Tony bickered, but they rarely fought.

"Fury knows about him," Tony sighed.

"Well, I mean, that's good, isn't it?" Sam asked quietly. "Remus asked me about the SHIELD Trainee program, so…" He winced. "I mean, he didn't sound thrilled about it, but…"

"SHIELD can't take Wolf-boy," Hulk snarled. "He belongs with us."

"I agree, big guy," Clint sighed. "But we're not exactly the best with kids, remember Molecule Boy? We nearly killed that kid trying to help him. And Tony made Spidey that Iron Spider thing and it nearly got several people killed. Multiple times."

"He was fine," Tony shrugged. "No one was seriously injured. I paid the damages. He's better with it now, it just needed adjusting."

"I read the files," Steve snapped. "He was not fine and the damages were well past seven digits."

"Those kids are terrible with damage control without my help. It wasn't any worse than usual," Tony scoffed. "Besides, I paid for it."

"We're not suited to being the primary caregivers for a little kid! We can barely handle mentoring the younger heroes without nearly blowing them up!" Steve said.

"That's not on us. Heroes are really combustible. We should come with a warning label," Tony quipped back. "We've been doing great so far!"

"Have we?" Nat asked. "You can't buy a good childhood, Stark."

"Watch me. Everything has a price, I just have too…"

"Yes, everything does have a price," Steve interrupted. "But not everything can be bought or sold with money. Some things take sacrifices. Sacrifices we can't make. We're Avengers we don't have civilian lives and that's what he needs. He needs to be normal."

"At least until Christmas," Tony pleaded.

"Yeah!" Hulk agreed. "I like Christmas!"

"Come on, you don't really want to ship him off to the Tricarrier for the holidays, do you? I've seen Fury's decorating skills. They have Sad Christmas. Where do you put the tree on that thing?"

"Does the kid even celebrate Christmas?" Clint asked.

"If he didn't he does now," Tony said, then realized how that sounded and backpedaled. "Unless he's Jewish. Is he Jewish? He's got to have a holiday we can celebrate with him."

"Our lives are too public. I'm not saying life on the Tricarrier would make for the perfect childhood, but it's leagues better than what we can provide. SHIELD had resources we don't have access too, even with your wealth. If he doesn't want to be an agent in training, I'm sure Fury will find him a foster family that can handle enhanced kids. They won't force him to do anything he isn't comfortable doing."

"Yeah, with Mommy and Daddy Agent reporting back to Fury like he's on parole," Tony grumbled. "We're not telling Fury."

"He's not that bad," Sam insisted. "Sure, he's paranoid, but Director Fury…"

"He's been through enough poking, prodding, and jabbing to last him a life time…!"

"The threat assessment isn't some horrible torture chamber…" Sam interrupted.

"You're not enhanced, you don't know what it would be like for him!"

"Look, I know a lot of us want a lot of things, but not all of them are legal or right. Just because we want something, doesn't mean it's the best course of action."

"What could you possibly want that's illegal, Spangles?" Tony scoffed.

Steve tried to clear his throat, but Tony raised an eyebrow skeptically at him.

"Cap, sunshine, please tell me you are aware that it's not illegal to be gay anymore, right?"

"Moving on!" Steve stood up. "We're putting this conversation on the back burner. This meeting is supposed to be about the AIM's latest movements."

"I'm not done unpacking this," Tony interrupted.

"You're never done," Steve grabbed the remote and turned the screen on. "So they were last spotted committing crimes in Canada…"

"Committing crimes in Canada! Concerning! We could confront them."

"Shut up, Tony."

"Condolences, continue Captain."

This meeting was going to go long. Again.

Remus was curled up on his bed, holding his pillow to his ears, trying not to listen in on the Avengers meeting. It didn't help much. Ever since Red Skull enhanced him, everything was getting louder and more intense. It used to only be like this on the full moons, but now he had his werewolf powers full time.

He was a hassle ('Can't keep him!'), he didn't belong here (Enhanced), and he hated how he felt about the Avengers arguing about him. He wanted to go home, he wanted Mam and Dad, he wanted to get back the summer and the life he lost. But that would never happen.

"You'll always want me, won't you, Gwyllgi," Remus picked up his puppy and held her close.

He looked numbly at the room Mr. Stark had filled with decorations. Earth tones, like Remus said he liked. He even got him a fourposter bedframe with red and gold curtains and sheets. He could draw them closed and pretend he was still at Hogwarts with his best friends. If Hawkeye had his door open, he could even smell the week old socks that reminded him of the always stinky dorm room. He never thought he'd miss rank socks.

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