DISCLAIMER: *grumbling* I suppose I should officially say this. I don't own anything but the story idea. The characters aren't mine. There. ARE YOU HAPPY NOW?!

Steve watched Clint and Sam playing with Kiki the parakeet. The scene was abnormally normal for the Avengers. The other Avengers were gathered around the table, waiting expectantly for Steve to start talking.

Why was Steve always the one who had to do this kind of stuff? Probably because he was a natural leader, or some other dumb reason like that. He just wanted a break from the responsibility. But alas, it was not to be.

So Steve dove right into it.

"Natasha and I believe that Merlin, the guy we kidnapped and brutalized, is who he says he is."

There was a moment of silence, then chaos. Steve ignored the noise, focusing on each of the Avengers separately. He wanted to gauge their reactions. Natasha was assisting him in this endeavor.

Bruce was nodding, looking calm and collected. No problems there. Sam was looking doubtful, but sort of excited as well. Steve was betting that he and Natasha would be able to convince him. Wanda hadn't ever been very doubtful. She would be easy to convince. Vision was on the same wavelength as Wanda.

Clint seemed to be wavering between resistant, hesitant and concerned, possibly for everyone's sanity. Tony looked like he was about to pop. "You believe this?" he stuttered. "It's lunacy! Complete and utter lunacy!"

Steve nodded. He had guessed that Tony would be hard to convince. "I believe him," Steve said, tiredly running a hand over his face. "So does Natasha. I'd also wager a guess that Wanda, Bruce and Vision believe him as well."

Tony shook his head. "I don't even…. Never mind. Guys, I'm not trying to be a jerk here, but for real, how can that be possible? I'm a man of science! Not magic. Sorry Wanda, no offense."

Wanda rolled her eyes, flicking a spark of red energy onto the tabletop. "Some day, I really will take offense. And then you'll be sorry."

Tony looked wary. "Yes, well, good thing that that's someday, and not right now, because we have other matters to deal with." Tony turned to Bruce. "Bruce, do you believe this?"

Bruce sort-of half nodded. "I think I do," he said. "Tony, I've seen a lot of weird stuff in my time. My whole life is one, big, lovely roller coaster of weird. Merlin seems to be telling the truth.

Tony gestured wildly with his hands, trying to get his point across. His frustration with his friends' blindness was building.

"Exactly! He seems to be telling the truth! What if he's lulling us into a false sense of security, just to get close to us? What if he let himself get caught? I don't know about you guys, but I am so done with crazy, terrifying adventures to save the universe and what not! Heck, I got PTSD just from one of them! Not to even mention this last one with evil robot aliens. Just saying, though."

Tony sat back, his piece said. They weren't using their brains! Tony didn't want to pick a fight with anyone, but he also didn't want to see the other Avengers, his only friends, get hurt. The visions that Wanda had forced into his mind when she had been slightly evil still haunted him. He woke up with nightmares frequently.

Somehow, this was understood among the Avengers, so further conflict was avoided. Sam nodded. "Yeah, we do need to be careful," he said, scratching his chin. "But I'm pretty sure that we could take him if we needed to, Tony. After all, it's just one guy against us."

"And we're awesome," Tony agreed, looking slightly more relaxed. At least one of the Avengers was using his brain.

Steve nodded. "We'll keep him under observation, when we bring him up."

"Wait… you plan on letting him out of his box?" Tony asked. "Back to my point! We've known this guy for like, two days!"

"Yes, but he's never given us any reason for us to treat him like we did!" Steve said. "We barged right into his house, broke his stuff, chased him down, shot him, and then locked him in a metal cube!"

Tony nodded halfheartedly. "Okay, I see your point. But I still don't believe that he's from the Middle Ages, or that we should just let him wander around!"

"And we won't, Tony," Natasha interrupted. She wanted this argument over with. She was hungry and she wanted a snack. "Just because we believe Merlin's story doesn't mean that we're stupid enough to trust him one hundred percent right off. That's why Steve said that we'll keep him under observation."

Tony sighed and looked around at the others. None of them would look Tony in the eye, except Vision, because he was Vision. Vision was just like that. But with the others… that meant they all agreed with Steve and Natasha.

"I'm going to be outvoted on this, aren't I?" Tony asked, rubbing his eyes, and wandering to the snack cabinet. He needed comfort food for what was about to come. There was a moment of silence, interrupted by Tony sulkily crunching on an Oreo.

"Yup. You totally just got outvoted. Sorry Tony."

Merlin was singing as loud as he could. He had been locked in a magic-sucking vibranium box for close to forty hours. He was absolutely, one hundred percent, no-going-back-bored-out-of-his-skull. He could've used magic to entertain himself, but with the constant strain of the vibranium, it was too tiring. So he was singing.

Merlin was quite particular to '80s music.

Things had been quiet since Captain America and Black Widow had visited his cell, so, needless to say, Merlin was quite surprised when a high, sweet voice joined him during the chorus to Sweet Dreams (Are made of This). (Merlin didn't care that it was sung by a girl. It seemed to fit his life. Whatever.)

It was Natasha Romanoff. Somehow, it was strange to hear such a nice voice come from an alien/robot killing super assassin. Natasha seemed amused at the surprised look on Merlin's face. They finished the chorus. Merlin smiled at Natasha. "Nice voice," he said. "We'll have to do it again sometime."

Natasha laughed. "Yeah. Later. Right now, though, we're going upstairs to get you situated in your new room. Lucky you. Everyone seems to like you. Except Clint, but that's probably only because you knocked him out cold. He'll get over it. Oh, and Tony, but he's always just difficult. He should come around too, given enough time."

"I see." Merlin stood, stretching his stiff ribs. They were mostly healed by now. The magic had patched him up extremely quickly. Which gave Merlin chills. It either meant that the Old Religion now cared about how he felt (which he doubted) or something bad was coming, and soon. Merlin rather thought that the latter was the much more likely option.

Natasha motioned to the open door of the cell. "Come on," she said impatiently. "You look pale. A little fresh air will do you good."

"You aren't going to slap the magic bubble-cuffs on me?" Merlin asked, wondering what exactly the Avengers had decided to do with him. It didn't sound bad, but Merlin had learned caution over the years. He didn't enjoy being untrusting but it came with the territory of having lived through thousands of different insane and dangerous situations.

Natasha shook her head. She didn't blame the guy for being wary. Being wary was a huge part of her life. "No, we're not going to slap the magic bubble-cuffs on you," she said. "We're going to apologize for how we treated you, give you everything that you need, and send you to get a good night's sleep on an actual bed, not that slab of steel torture that somehow manages to pass for a cot."

When Merlin didn't move, Natasha spoke again. "Look, unless you like sleeping on that thing," Natasha said, gesturing to the steel cot bolted to the floor, "come with me."

Merlin shrugged. If they weren't going to make him wear vibranium, then he could escape any time he wanted to. It sounded like a sweet deal.

Merlin followed Natasha through a large room full of metal cube cells. "You were a special prisoner," Natasha tossed over her shoulder as they wound their way through the cubes. "You got the vibranium box. Most people just get steel or titanium."

"Wonderful," Merlin said snarkily. "I felt so lucky while I was in there."

Natasha chuckled. Merlin had attitude. His sarcastic comments kind of reminded her of Tony. And Clint.

Natasha and Merlin entered the elevator. It was pleasantly cool inside. The doors closed. Natasha pushed a button, and with a ding, the elevator began to move upward. Merlin felt the floor rumbling beneath his feet.

Natasha and Merlin rode in silence until the doors opened. The room that was revealed was furnished lavishly. In a corner of the room was a large birdcage. Inside, a solitary green parakeet twittered happily. Merlin grinned.

The Avengers were all lounging around a central coffee table. Merlin smiled broadly, waved, and plopped himself comfortably onto a chair, sighing with pleasure as he sank into it. Modern day furniture was a thousand-million times better than medieval furniture had ever been.

Merlin glanced expectantly around at the Avengers. "Miss Romanoff tells me that you all were going to apologize. Who's going to go first?"

Tony glared at Natasha, folding his arms and scowling. "It was supposed to be a surprise, Tasha," he said. "You were supposed to act all intimidating and scary—you know, like you always act—and scare the crap out of this guy. And then we would all pretend to be scary, and then we would say stuff like we're sorry we beat you up and barged into your house. We went over this. Come on, FRIDAY, back me up. Did we go over this?"

An accented female voice came from nowhere and everywhere. "Yes, Boss. You did go over this, but I doubt that anyone was listening to you rant. Everyone tends to tune you out when you go on like that."

Merlin smiled. This was going to be entertaining, he could tell.

Tony is slightly more mature than he lets on. He had legitimate concerns about Merlin. He wasn't just being a stubborn little doofus.