The Hulk and the Beast: Chapter Fourteen

February 14, 2014

Valentine's Day was a full moon. Remus didn't have to be a werewolf with a moon sense to know this because he went to a school full of hormonal, hopeless, and quite hapless romantic teenagers. He was the only one who had barely started puberty, and therefore the only one happily unaffected by all the nonsense of a romantic Singles Awareness Day. That was unusual, him being a werewolf and it being the full moon.

He tried looking into the Grimoire more, but as soon as he did, JARVIS altered Mr. Stark and he came running. That was a fun confrontation. Remus tried to weasel out of it, but he got grounded, which was bizarre. It didn't actually do anything since, aside from talking to MJ, Peter, and Harry during lunch, Remus didn't have many friends and he spent most of his time in his room anyway. It was more the spirit of the thing than the actual punishment. Mr. Stark didn't hit him, he barely raised his voice, despite how panicked he looked at the thought of Remus getting hurt, so as far as Remus was concerned, he'd gotten off easy.

Apparently there used to be quests to find the Grimoire but few brave adventurers returned and the ones that did came back with broken bodies and broken minds. That was fun to worry about and more than explained why Mr. Stark panicked as soon as he thought Remus was trying to find it.

When he told his friends that night that the book had potentially ripped people's minds apart, they assured him they knew that already, since it had been giving Peter migraines if he tried to open it. That didn't make Remus feel any better, even if they assured him that the book wouldn't hurt them.

March 10, 2014

Remus' first Avengers birthday was pretty subdued. He overheard Mr. Stark planning a huge surprise party with Ms. Widow – her name might be Natasha, but Remus wasn't sure – and he put a stop to it immediately. Mr. Stark was very sad. He'd been trying to get closer to Remus recently and it wasn't going over as well as he hoped. He went from nervous and distant to a bit clingy, hence the giant birthday party. After all, Remus would only turn thirteen once, and being a teenager was a big deal to most people. Remus didn't feel any different, really.

In the end, Remus managed to convince them to let him have movie night at Harry's penthouse with MJ and Peter. He assured them Spider-man would be nearby, but since they didn't know Peter's secret identity, he didn't explain why he knew that or why Spider-man was interested in the Osborn's penthouse. He was fairly certain Mr. Stark hacked into the Osborn's security system and watched them the entire time because he thought they must be in danger if Spider-man was patrolling the area that night.

They got through most of the movie before the penthouse got attacked by Doctor Octopus trying to take Harry hostage to get at Mr. Osborn. Remus felt like he jinxed it. Spider-man showed up quickly, much to Remus' fake surprise. The Avengers showed up, much to Remus' real annoyance, and Doctor Octopus was in SHIELD custody withing twenty-three minutes.

They didn't get to finish the movie, but no one was hurt and Remus already had his triple-chocolate-fudge and chocolate frosting cake, so he didn't mind. It wasn't a movie he was looking forward to like Princess Bride or Lord of the Rings. Clint told him how it ended on the way back home. Captain Rogers was weirdly quiet the whole day.

March 16, 2014

That full moon, he happily endured a three way combination birthday party between him, James, and Meriam. Him in his room with leftover cake – a miracle it had survived the Hulk, Thor, and Clint – and his friends in their clearing with stolen pastries from the Great Hall. They sang For He's a Jolly Good Fellow until the Scottish sun rose over the trees. They ended with promises to get each other gifts when they saw each other in person.

Remus wasn't worrying as much about them as he thought he would. They were brilliant, all four of them. And James, Sirius, and Meriam had Lily to reign them in when they got too crazy or too ambitious. James could grow antlers on command, which was cool and not as dangerous as Remus thought it would be.

April 15, 2014

Something about the Spring Quarter made it go by faster than usual. Remus felt like he blinked and all of a sudden midterms were over and he was studying for finals, which were only a month away. His friends caught him on the April moon, studying World History. Not only was it obscenely American-centric, being World History, but it was just different enough from his own Muggle History that it tripped him up.

Dates he memorized with his mother were slightly off, some names were different, the geography was very different, especially in Africa and eastern Europe, he was positive Wakanda and Latveria were not countries back home. Plus magic was moderately known and not incredibly secret. Most people were content to ignore it, and Remus wanted to send that back home for the Ministry to suck on like a particularly sour lemon.

Everything he learned about WWII was wrong, but that was an easy fix when you lived with the Avengers. His teacher gushed over his essay on Captain America. It was actually an interview, but he didn't correct her. Mr. Stark teased Captain Rogers for being a World History Essay. Remus promised to interview him on the sixties next, and he fish mouthed at him, properly offended, while Captain Rogers had the last laugh. That was fun. Remus knew perfectly well that Mr. Stark was born in the late 70s.

May 14, 2014

Remus fell asleep half way through Meriam showing off her big fluffy fox ears and Lily displaying the iridescent feathers that had been appearing in her bed at night. It was finals week and the combination over studying and exam stress meant he was unable to pull an all-nighter.

When he slept, he dreamt he was there in the clearing with them, only they were animals. James an impressive red stag, Meriam a beautiful red fox, Lily an elegant magpie, and Sirius a dark shadow in the corner with big, silver eyes the same shape as Gwyllgi. He was the only one still shaped like a human. Above them were two giant, cosmic wolves, painted with stars across the sky, watching them with an expression he could barely read.

June 8, 2014

One year.

One year had passed in this world. Remus' life was so insanely different than he ever imagined it could be. He was barely a werewolf anymore. He had a good handle on his anxiety, Gwyllgi and his therapist helped more than anything. Two years ago, he could barely comprehend he was going to Hogwarts. A year ago, he lost his parents and his freedom to a terrorist group that kept him as a pet super solider in training.

Today, he was holed up in his room, holding Gwyllgi to his chest and crying harder than he ever had. Not since Captain Rogers held him and told him he was a person, no matter what HYDRA or Dad made him feel. He missed Dad. His therapist helped him talk through the feeling of walking on eggshells, understanding Dad's anger and how it affected him, and how under all of that, there was love and caring and he could forgive if he wanted and, more importantly, move on. He was still struggling with trust, which wasn't even a thing he realized until a therapy session last week.

He missed Mam, too. When he described how she treated him like a little kid all the time and pretended like he was an extension of her, his therapist taught him a new word. Codependency. Remus didn't understand it very well.

Right now, the only thing he felt was grief. And like a horrible son for all the complaining he was doing about his parents in therapy. They'd been dead for a year and all he could do was complain. He loved his parents more than anything. It wasn't fair. He was so caught up in dissecting all they did wrong they hadn't even gotten to open the HYDRA can of worms.

The rest of the team was out. Thor sat outside Remus' room all day, singing Asgardian lullabies. It helped just enough that when Remus finally passed out from exhaustion, he woke the next day not feeling completely horrible. The grief was still there.

June 12, 2014

Remus spent most of that week loafing around and crying himself to sleep. Most of the Avengers reverted to worriedly glancing at him and piling food on his plate at meal times. He barely ate it and always passed it off to the Hulk, who was getting better at not eating the plate with the rest of the meal. It wasn't good to get attached to anything public property in the Tower. Especially game controllers, the remote, and mugs. The last one was on Thor, who still wasn't used to any cups not made to withstand Asgardian mirth.

Remus was laying on his back on his bed, staring at the ceiling. He'd been going to bed by six and waking up at ten since the anniversary, but he had to at least stay up this time for the monthly meeting. James wanted to come up with a name. He was enamored by the idea of superhero teams, and had also been working on code names for them. He was Prongs, but no one else had agreed to any of his ideas.

No one called Remus. For a moment, he got very angry that they would ignore him, but then he remembered that Hogwarts was out for the summer. Sirius was in London, Lily in Cokeworth, and James and Meriam in Stinchcombe. He likely wouldn't hear from them until September.

James and Meriam could have at least called. He felt abandoned.

June 20, 2014

Remus only withdrew harder after that. He knew he was being petty and ridiculous. But honestly, it wasn't like the Avengers cared about him. They just kept him around because at this point it would be too awkward to hand him off to SHIELD, probably. He stopped going to his therapist on account that he rarely left his room. She'd have told him he was being silly. He didn't like being told he was silly unless he had just told a joke.

"Moony!"

Remus jumped clean out of his skin. He had to bat back the fur growing on his arms. Gwyllgi jumped into his lap, which wasn't as helpful as it had been when she was a puppy and not sixty pounds of retriever.

"Moony, Moony, are you alive!"

James sounded panicked.

"I'm here, what's wrong?" Remus shoved the wriggling Gwyllgi to the floor and leapt for the mirror across the room

"Oh, thank Merlin, you're alright," James was in a dark room. "Greyback's after you!"

"What?" Remus said.

"We broke into your house. Sirius ran away and Meriam's got Evans over as her friend. Did you know your house is a twenty-minute train ride from Stinchcombe? We had to walk quite a ways from the station…"

"Isn't that an active crime scene?" Remus wailed.

"Greyback was waiting for us."

"What?" Remus said. "Oh, Merlin, were you hurt? Are you hurt? Did he bite you or… no, it's not the full moon… why was he there?"

"He was waiting for us," James said. "He wanted the Book."

"You stole the Book from Hogwarts!?"

"No! We put it back, but it was on Evans' bed when she got home."

"That's worse somehow! How are you even calling me? I thought it only worked on the full moon at the witching hour?"

"It swallowed us," James said.

"What? What swallowed you?"

"The Book. Twenty minutes ago."

"What!?"

"The others are scouting around. I didn't think it would work, I was just calling out to you in case it did. Apparently the mirror works here."

"Here? Where is here, are you alright?"

"Sirius got slapped pretty hard and he pulled Evans' hair a bit, but Meriam turned fully into a fox and bit him on the ass and he let them go. Then we grabbed the book and it asked if we needed an evacuation. Obviously we said yes, and it swallowed us."

"You successfully transformed?"

"Yeah. Well, Meriam did. I can still only manage the antlers and the ears. Got the tail last week."

"Where are you? Describe it, it looks dark on my end."

"It is dark. Not much else. We think it's nighttime."

"Are they still within earshot of you?"

"Sirius!" James bellowed.

"What!" Sirius shouted back.

"Potter, what are you doing!"

"James!" Meriam called as well, for good measure.

"Oh, thank Merlin you're actually being sensible about this. Okay, it's late and I don't think anyone's in the lab right now and Mr. Stark has interdimensional tech…"

"What, really?"

"He doesn't let me near it, but I bet I can break in. I've been getting good at a wandless alohomora. This kid at school keeps locking me in the supply closest and it's annoying waiting for Peter or the weird Janitor, Stan, to find me. Different Peter. Cooler Peter who doesn't snitch."

"Are you talking to stop yourself from panicking?"

"Obviously," Remus said.

"Is that Moony?" Sirius asked.

"Yeah, the mirror works here."

"Oh, that's a relief," Meriam said.

"What were you doing there?"

"The real question is what was Fenrir Greyback doing there and why is he so interested in you?" Sirius said.

"He bit me, Sirius."

"Oh."

"But you have a point. Doesn't everyone but the four of you and probably Pettigrew think I'm dead?"

"He said he had it from a good source you weren't dead."

"That's not good, considering the only people who could tell him that is you four or HYDRA."

Remus stopped just outside the lab, mirror clutched to his chest. It was late, nearly eleven at night. That was like two in the afternoon for Mr. Stark. Why did he think the lab would be empty?

To make matters worse, he was in there with Captain Rogers and they were kissing!? That wasn't a thing Remus thought could happen. Sure, he knew that it was cool for men to like each other, they didn't get arrested for indecency anymore. There were several clubs at school based on how okay it was to be queer now. They had a lot of flags and pins. Remus had a bisexual one in a pocket of his bag but he hadn't gotten up the courage to pin it where anyone could see. He was still worried he'd get arrested.

The thing that freaked him out in this situation was that he didn't know dating was permitted between Avengers. Something about fraternizing.

He felt very weird seeing what looked like a first kiss, especially for Captain Rogers, who was very clumsy. Remus couldn't look away. He knew he shouldn't stare, this was a private moment. Mr. Stark was kissing Captain Rogers. He looked like he'd wanted to do that for a while.

"Moony, how big is this place that you haven't reached the lab yet?"

"What?" Remus jumped.

They saw him. Both of them turned as red as Remus was. Red Skull would be jealous of the shade the three of them managed to turn. Three very ripe tomatoes. Like a broken traffic light.

"What are you doing out of bed?" Mr. Stark rushed to the door.

"I… I… I…" Remus stammered. "I didn't see anything!"

"Nothing to see," Mr. Stark snapped right back. "Go to bed, young man." He was alarmingly good at the Dad Voice, even with his face so flushed.

"But… I… uh…"

"Help!" James shouted from the mirror.

Sirius, Meriam, and Lily joined in. Remus angel the mirror so that Mr. Stark and Captain Rogers could see the situation.

"They got stuck in another dimension but the mirror works," Remus said, holding out the mirror. "I don't know what to do!"

"We don't know how we got here and we don't know how to get back!" Lily panicked. "We haven't got food or water and everything's dark and…"

"They're not in the mirror," Remus explained, over Lily talking. He figured that was an important distinction. "It's a communication device and…"

"It was only a little bit of breaking and entering and we know it's a crime scene but it's Moony's house and we thought…"

"I had no idea the book meant this when I…"

"We may have actually gotten in over our heads this time and Remus wasn't actually exaggerating like he likes to do…"

"Enough!" Captain Rogers barked in his best military voice. It was a very good military voice. Remus didn't know why that surprised him. "One at a time. Remus, you first."

Remus explained the situation as best as he could without hyperventilating, which was difficult. His friends from back home found a way to send him a two way mirror, they used a ritual they found in a book to open communications on the full moon, they were planning on using the book to travel dimensions and run away because home sucked, and they thought it would be a nice summer activity to break into Remus' old house to bring him some things that were left behind.

"The werewolf that bit him was waiting for someone to go there," Sirius explained when Remus' voice finally gave way to panic.

"He's very violent," Lily assured. "And very big."

"I bit him on the arse!" Meriam chirped proudly.

"I feel it's important that you know she was a fox at the time," James interjected. "It's different if you bite someone in the arse as a human…"

"At least I managed the full transformation all you can manage is antlers and you dropped them the first time…"

"It was February! Antlers drop between December and March, it's perfectly natural for them to fall off…"

"One at a time," Captain Rogers repeated.

"We have this book," Lily held up the Grimoire. "It's really smart and it recognized we were in danger and asked if we wanted an evac. Since we were fighting a fully grown, very angry wizard with werewolf powers, we figured anywhere was better than there."

"We may have been wrong," Meriam said. "But you didn't see him. He was nearly seven feet tall and really hairy."

Mr. Stark and Captain Rogers took one look at the book and let out nearly identical sighs of exasperation.

"Is that why you were asking about the Grimoire of the Cosmic Wolves?" Mr. Stark asked.

Remus nodded. If the other boot was going to fall, it'd be right about now, he suspected.

"How long has this been going on?"

"Since December," Remus said. "I didn't get the mirror at a thrift shop with Sam."

"We knew that," Mr. Stark said.

"I tried to tell you but it was too hard!" Remus squeaked. "I'm really sorry and then school started and then it was the anniversary and…"

"It's alright, we're not mad," Captain Rogers said. "We're just glad you came to us for help."

Remus figured he probably shouldn't mention that he hadn't come to them for help, they were just in the lab he was going to break into to help himself. Either way, the second boot never dropped. They weren't mad. He was safe.

"Do we know if the air is long term breathable here?" Sirius asked.

Remus whimpered, "They're my best friends."

Thank you for your time. Please favorite, follow, and review!