So, I am planning for even more WIP's (I know, I have no self-preservation instincts apparently), so I am writing this while I can. Hopefully, I will also finish some stories soon, so updates should not be slowed down.

I do not claim to own Tony Stark. Nobody could own Tony Stark.

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There were a number of words someone eloquent, Claire reckoned, could have thought of to describe this situation. Herself, she could only really sum it up with one. Shit.

The day had started normally enough; Steve had been drawing in the workshop to be close at hand to help if necessary as Tony and her worked with some unusually heavy prototypes, and Bucky had dropped by with lunch. Her bruises had healed since the accident three weeks earlier, but Tony had only just stopped fretting. Pepper and Natasha both seemed deeply reassured by this blatant display of fatherly instincts, so no one really teased him even half as much as they could have. Not that Tony would have noticed. He was pretty distracted by his baby preparations.

After lunch, Tony had reluctantly been dragged to work, and after working on paperwork for a while, his apprentice had gone off in search of new adventures. She might have gotten more of those than she had meant to.

There had been a call to assemble. It was just something minor, and they didn't require the Hulk, and Claire had been helping Bruce construct a new puzzle for his green self in what Tony had, not surprisingly, nicknamed the green-room, and which was basically a great Hulk-containment space. It held a sort of puzzle for geniuses which opened the door when solved, and which Bruce could use to let himself out when he came back to himself. Or which might come in handy in case Tony locked himself in during programming.

Bruce had refused to let Tony work alongside him in there without an escape option, in case the door should close, but this escape hatch was not only due to practicality. Somehow, for all of his limited thinking abilities; the Hulk seemed to have an eerie ability to spot if not only he was in danger of captivity, but also Bruce. The fact that Bruce could get out - even if the Hulk himself could not - apparently made a lot of difference, if the Hulk's behaviour was to be believed. Claire herself suspected that it was also about that the Hulk knew where he was, and understood that it was Tony who had built this, "Not a cage." The Hulk trusted Tony, that much was obvious.

For all of the uses of the escape puzzle, though, it had one weakness - it took a genius to solve. It also opened a door not really big enough for the Hulk, just to be safe, but though it was designed to be unsolvable for a being with a rather basic - though still insightful - understanding, the puzzle was turned up to eleven for no real reason, and only Tony and Bruce had ever managed to solve it. They could do it within less than a minute, though it changed from every use, but no one else managed it. Hence Claire's current obsession with poor swear words.

Biting her lip, she looked around the room. It was securely locked - a mistake, of course, neither she nor Bruce had meant for the door to shut - and the alarm to assemble had rung a second time (programmed to do so in case of situations where the team was split up and arrived at the tower at different times) naturally setting off the Hulk, now that no other Avengers were there to assure him Bruce was correct when he tried to persuade his other self that he was not needed at this time.

So now she had about twenty seconds before the Hulk made his appearance, at most, and she was locked into a secure room not even a rage monster could get out of - with a puzzle it took even Tony Stark an absolute minimum of fifteen seconds to solve - between her and freedom. She might need an entirely new assortment of curse words just for this situation.

As it was the only action she could think of, she stepped up to the screen with the puzzle, but it was programmed to reset every two minutes and she couldn't even understand the question. She strongly suspected that she couldn't have ever solved it even given unlimited amounts of time, and she had only moments left.

Biting her lip again, Claire considered other options. She couldn't get out. There was no way Tony or Bruce would have made such mistakes in the containment, and while she could hide somewhere, her instinct told her that that would be even more dangerous, while her head told her the Hulk could smell her anyway.

So, what would she do? What did she know about the Hulk?

When Hulk came to, ready to help the Tinman and all the other small family members of Bruce and him, he was surprised to note that he was in the not-cage Tinman had made for him to be able to smash all he liked when there was nothing dangerous about that he needed to smash for them.

The strange game Bruce could use to let himself out of the, "Not a cage, I promise," in the Tinman's words, was glowing faintly, and there was a small person in there with him. A girl. Why was she in his room? Did she not know that it was dangerous? They could move so quickly sometimes, the tiny people, and he might step on her. Had the Tinman taken her here? Why would he do that?

She was sitting peacefully on the floor, though, and wishing her to stay there so he knew where she was and she wouldn't get smashed by accident - she was clearly not dangerous and should therefore not be smashed, Tinman had explained - he tried talking to her. "Stay!" He articulated, hoping this human wouldn't be like Bruce, but do what she was told. He liked Bruce a lot, but he never listened to Hulk.

"Hello," she replied, her voice low and soft, vaguely reminding him of someone else. "I cannot get out. Can I stay in here with you for a while?" Sitting down, so that he could hear her tiny voice better, the Hulk nodded. Now that she was closer, he recognised her from Bruce's vague memories: she was the Mini-Tinman, the one who built him the amusing games which changed colour. She belonged with the Tinman, too, and Hulk liked the Tinman.

He explained things so much better than Bruce ever did. To both him and to Bruce. The Tinman was why Bruce wasn't afraid of him any longer. That had made Hulk very happy. He wanted Bruce to like him back. He pointed to the bit of the room where the Mini-Tinman's games were. He thought the human smiled, but it was so hard to tell on their tiny faces.

"Yes," the girl replied in her soft way, "I built them. For you. Do you like them?" The Hulk's enthusiastic nod made her laugh, and he found he liked the sound. He knew he'd like anyone the Tinman liked so much - they both liked Bruce, didn't they - and he was right. Mini-Tin was fun!

Only Claire! She'll be in so much trouble when Bruce wakes back up!

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