"I think there might be a problem with Fenrir," At least a dozen scenarios went through Steve's mind when Pepper said that. Everything from 'earth food is slowly killing him' to 'messing with his gauntlets is what is making Tony act strangely'. There were a lot of possibilities that passed through his head but none of them came close to the truth.
"You think he's having trouble getting dressed?" Steve asked, feeling like he had to be missing a piece of the conversation.
"It doesn't usually take him so long to get ready," Pepper explained. "I'm just worried that he is standing in his room trying to figure out what counts as an appropriate 'Midgardian outfit' to go out in. Or worse he's wrestling with those skinny jeans that Tony made him buy."
"So you're asking me to…" Steve began.
"Just go check on him," Pepper said.
"I don't know if that's the best idea," Steve said.
"Well I can't go. Fenrir's modest enough as it is without sending a girl to watch him get dressed," Pepper explained.
"I doubt he'll be all that comfortable with me. We've barely ever talked," Steve said.
"Well it's about time that you fixed that," Pepper said, clearly deciding that the conversation was over.
"Pepper," Steve tried again.
"No," Pepper said, spinning around to face Steve. "Someone needs to go check on him and everyone else is busy. Tell Fenrir that I'll meet him in the lobby in twenty minutes." Pepper took a few steps down the hall and turned back to Steve.
"You have to talk to him eventually. So you'll do it today," Pepper said, as she continued her walk down the hall. "Remember what I said; twenty minutes." She called over her shoulder.
Steve stood in the kitchen for a while after Pepper left, unsure of what he should do. Shaking his head at his reluctance he began the walk to Fenrir's room.
It wasn't that Steve didn't like Fenrir. Any feelings of distrust he'd had for Thor's nephew had been all but blotted out in the first days after his arrival. The problem was that he couldn't get past the fact that when Thor had brought him to Earth, he'd been one of the first to vote against letting Fenrir stay. It hadn't been very easy to be around Fenrir knowing that, if he'd had his way, he wouldn't be in the Tower now.
Realizing that he was almost at Fenrir's room he began to slow down. He knew that he had to get over his issues sooner or later. It may as well be now; he thought as he knocked on Fenrir's door.
After standing awkwardly outside of Fenrir's door, he tried knocking one more time before asking Jarvis for help.
"Did Fenrir already head down?" Steve asked.
"No, Mister Lokison is still inside his room," Jarvis said.
"Well, could you tell him that Pepper is waiting for him in the lobby?" Steve asked.
"I hate to overstep, but I feel that it may be in the best interest of those involved if you were to let yourself in," Jarvis said.
"Is he okay?" Steve asked.
"While he is not physically injured, he does seem to be in some distress," Jarvis said.
Luckily the door was unlocked and Steve didn't waste another second before going inside. It didn't take him long to find Fenrir. His first thought was that Fenrir was naked and he almost spun around and went back out the door before he realized that he was at least wearing boxers. Still Steve felt like it was a good idea to keep his eyes on the ceiling from that point onward.
"Hey, Fenrir," Steve said.
"Hello," Fenrir said quietly, from where he was sitting on his bed.
Daring a glance away from the ceiling, Steve took in the sight in front of him. While, admittedly, he had never been in Fenrir's room before he had the feeling that the explosion of clothes he was seeing was not its normal state. Bags and boxes were scattered all over with their contents spilling out. In the middle of it all sat Fenrir, staring at the piles of fabric and looking lost.
"So is this what Tony got you?" Steve asked. The moment the words came out he wanted to slap himself. Of course they were the clothes that Tony had bought for him. Where else would he have gotten them?
"They arrived yesterday," Fenrir said. "I hadn't realized that he'd gotten me quite so much."
"That's the way Tony is. He probably bought anything that he thought looked good on you. And what just looked okay. And about ten of everything that he thought you might possibly wear someday," Steve said, still making a point to keep his eyes firmly planted on the ceiling. "He did the same thing to Bruce when he moved in."
"He's very generous," Fenrir said. Steve was a little disappointed. He'd been sure that mentioning Bruce would at least get some response out of him.
"Pepper's going to be ready to go soon, so you should probably finish getting dressed," Steve said.
"That is why I came in here," Fenrir said, still using the same flat, emotionless voice he'd been using since Steve had come in.
"Listen, Fenrir, I know that things are a lot more formal on Asgard and that there are rules of dress but you don't need to worry about that here. Just wear something comfortable and you'll be fine," Steve said.
"I don't know what…" Fenrir trailed off.
"Maybe that was bad advice," Steve said, realizing the problem. "I guess you wouldn't really know which of these would be comfortable. Just pick something that you like and you can figure out the rest later."
"But that's… I don't know what I like," Fenrir finally said. "It was easier pretend when I was on Asgard. I didn't know what answers to give, but I could at least remember what I'd liked before and that seemed to satisfy everyone. But now I'm here and Thor, people, keep asking me what I like; what I want. I don't want. I stopped wanting a long time ago."
Steve dropped his head so that he could really look at Fenrir. What he'd thought was just Fenrir feeling a little overwhelmed had clearly been off. The man in front of him seemed to have all but shut down.
"Even when I make myself pick something it's never enough. There's always more choices; more decisions to make. I thought that maybe I could just watch what everyone else was doing, mimic, get the right answers that way. People usually like it when you choose the same as them, but none of you can seem to agree on anything," Fenrir said.
Steve flashed back to that morning at breakfast. To Thor and Bruce arguing over Fenrir's choice of oatmeal and Fenrir just sitting and staring at his bowl through the whole thing.
"Have you talked to Thor about any of this?" Steve asked.
"Thor…wants me to be happy," Fenrir said, his face dropping his lost look only to gain one of sadness. "When I am unhappy he thinks that he has let me down in some way. Telling him would only cause him pain. I don't… I don't want that."
"Fenrir, point to a corner of this room," Steve said. Fenrir stared at him, but when he began to question, Steve said, "Don't think, just point."
Fenrir did as he was told and pointed at the corner nearest to him.
"Alright, that's where we're getting your clothes for today," Steve said, going to the nearest pile and grabbing the first pair of jeans he saw. "Put these on first. I can't talk to you if you're not wearing pants."
Fenrir blushed but hurried to do what Steve told him.
"For the record you're wrong," Steve said. "You have liked things since you came here. The whole reason Tony wants to give you one of his paintings is because Pepper told him that you liked hers. You might be pretending about some things but no one fools Pepper when it comes to art."
"That was once, the ones today might be different," Fenrir said.
"So say that you can't decide and let Pepper pick one. She's been doing it for Tony for years," Steve said. "You chose Pepper too. You didn't need to spend as much time with her as you have been. Or with Bruce." Fenrir stared at Steve like he wanted to argue, but let the man continue.
"It's hard to know how to make a choice when you've never seen any of the options before. I know, I've been there," Steve said.
"You?" Fenrir interrupted.
"I…lost about seventy years. I was only asleep, but when I woke up everything that I knew was gone. Things were different, and I had to figure out how different that was going to make me."
"I know that it's not the same as what you went through," Steve continued. "Losing your freedom the way you did. I understand that you had to change to survive in a place like that. But they didn't break you. Thor got you out and now you just need to figure out who you want to be now. It will take time but you'll get there."
"And in the meantime I can't even get dressed on my own," Fenrir replied.
"Do you have a favorite color?" Steve asked.
"I don't know," Fenrir admitted.
"Are there any that make you feel calm? That you like seeing?" Steve asked.
"Blue, I suppose," Fenrir said after a pause. Steve looked back into the corner where he'd gotten Fenrir's jeans and grabbed a blue sweater.
"When in doubt just grab from the top of the pile," He said, handing the shirt over to Fenrir. While Fenrir was putting the shirt on Steve went to look for some shoes. A few boxes and a discovery of sneakers later and they were done.
"Thank you," Fenrir said, clearly embarrassed to have needed help at all.
"Don't worry about it," Steve said. "You should probably go and meet Pepper before it gets too late." Fenrir nodded and was heading for the door when Steve stopped him.
"Can I ask you one thing before you go?" Steve asked, and Fenrir quickly nodded. "Why do you have a liquor cart by your bed?"
"Oh, Tony gave that to me after he decided that I was twenty-one," Fenrir said. "I don't really understand the significance but he seemed very excited to give it to me."
Three men were robbing a bank in Manhattan. This shouldn't have needed a call to the Avengers, except for the fact that the leader of the group seemed to be able to knock people unconscious when he screamed. While it wasn't yet clear if this ability was natural or some unnoticed tech under his shirt, it was safe to say that the NYPD didn't want to get too close.
"Clint, they're right under you," Steve said.
"I've got 'em," Clint said, from his position on the roof. He quickly took aim and fired, only to watch as his arrows turned into roses and floated the rest of the way to the ground.
"What the hell?" Clint said, grabbing another arrow from his quiver to figure out what had just happened.
"I hope you don't mind. But I have recently been led to believe that violence never solves anything," A voice said. Clint spun around and saw Puck sitting cross-legged and hovering a few feet behind him.
"Rogers, you're going to have to take care of them. I've got to deal with a distraction," Clint said into his com.
"Now that is hurtful after I took the time to give you such nice flowers," Puck said, smiling.
"Sorry, I'm interested in someone else," Clint said, aiming an arrow at Puck and wishing for a weapon that the man couldn't turn into a plant. "Besides I wouldn't want to make Tony jealous."
"Stark is entertaining, but I'm in the mood for something a little different this time," Puck said. Then, without another word, he threw a blast of blue light at Clint's chest.
"I think that now we can safely say that it was Puck that made Tony act the way he did," Bruce said, as the team watched Clint chase Natasha around the Tower.
Just like with Tony, Clint had been perfectly normal for the first few hours after his run in with Puck. That had all changed when Natasha went to go finish gathering the last few things she was going to need for her undercover mission. Suddenly Clint had been by her side begging her not to go. Pledging his love to her and insisting that she quit S.H.I.E.L.D.
"Tasha, come on. You know how I feel about you. Let's just take the day tomorrow, go to the courthouse, and get married," Clint said.
"Are you insane?" Natasha demanded.
"No. Let everyone else take care of the world for a while. We could even leave the city, buy a farm, it would be great!" Clint insisted.
"One of you get him away from me or I'm getting the tazer," Natasha growled at the other Avengers.
Realizing that this was probably not an idle threat, Steve and Tony hurried to grab Clint and pull him away as the object of his affection left the room.
"I don't want her to go," Clint said, looking up at Steve. "People are always trying to kill her when she goes undercover."
"Got to tell you, Katniss, I did not picture you as being so old fashioned," Tony said, as he and Steve pushed Clint down into a chair. "I mean seriously, marriage is one thing but a farm?"
"I've always liked horses," Clint said, as if that explained everything.
"Well I'm sure that the horses will still be there waiting when she gets back from her mission," Steve said, wondering how long it would be before the spell wore off.
"I should have tried to get her to marry me years ago," Clint said. "A few years ago I was still pretty impressive. Now I'm surrounded by superheroes. How am I supposed to compete with that?"
"Clint," Bruce said. "We're on the same team."
"I shoot a bow," Clint pouted. "I may as well wait in the jet half the time."
"Clint, I know that you're feeling emotional right now but this is just a spell," Steve said.
"Okay," Clint said, slumping down on his chair. "Can we stop talking now? I'm tired."
"Did this happen to you?" Steve asked Tony, catching Clint as he began to slide off of his chair.
"I don't know, that whole nights a blur," Tony said, helping Steve and Bruce to pull up Clint.
"Well let's put him to bed and hopefully he'll sleep this one off," Bruce said.
Fifteen minutes later they all realized their mistake when Jarvis informed them that Clint had gone out the window and was making a beeline for Natasha.
"He played us," Tony said, feeling stunned and, frankly, a little impressed.
"Let's just stop him before Natasha does," Bruce said hurrying down the hall.
"How you feeling, Romeo?" Tony asked, the next morning when Clint came down to breakfast.
"Did someone taze me?" Clint asked, rubbing the back of his head.
"Natasha did, after you broke into her room last night," Tony replied.
"That makes sense," Clint said, sitting down at the table and grabbing a plate. "She leave already?"
"A few hours ago," Steve said.
"Any chance I'm remembering it worse than it was?" Clint asked.
"Do you remember proposing?" Tony asked.
"Yes," Clint said with a groan.
"Then no, it was that bad," Tony said. "And next time you propose you could at least get the girl a ring."
"She's never coming back," Clint said, looking like he wanted to crawl under the table and die.
"Yes she will," Steve said.
"If it makes you feel any better, at least now we know for sure what happens when Puck attacks," Bruce offered.
"We confess all of our embarrassing secrets," Tony said.
"Actually, I don't think that's quite what I did," Clint said. Everyone at the breakfast table looked up at him.
"I mean, you all know how I feel about Natasha and, yeah, I worry about her when she goes undercover. But I have never wanted her to quit S.H.I.E.L.D. The fact that she's an assassin, one of the most deadly people alive, is one of the things I like most about her."
"I'm genuinely worried about what that says about you as a person," Tony said.
"My point is that I may think about marrying her and all that, but I don't really want it. It wouldn't be her. So what I did last night was not a confession," Clint said.
"So what the hell is Puck doing?" Tony asked.
"I'm just saying that it would be good for PR," Tony said to Bruce. Meanwhile Bruce was trying to figure out why he kept letting Tony into his rooms at all.
"I don't think that it would work out as well as you think it would," Bruce said, hoping that Tony would let the idea go.
"I don't see why. You've gotten a lot more control over the other guy in the past few years. And think of how happy it would make kids across America," Tony said. "Bruce, think of the children."
"How did you even get anyone to consider this?" Bruce asked.
"Are you kidding? They contacted me," Tony insisted, trying, and failing, to look shocked.
"You expect me to believe that the producers of Sesame Street contacted you and asked if you could get a giant green rage monster to guest on their show?" Bruce asked.
"I may have written them a letter, but the phone call was completely instigated by them," Tony insisted. "Just think, you and Oscar the Grouch, it's a classic in the making."
Bruce was saved from further argument when he and Tony heard a knock at the door.
"Come in," Bruce called, at the same time that Thor came through the door. They'd made a lot of progress with Thor since he had moved into the Tower but he still had trouble not just bursting into wherever he wanted to be.
"Stark," Thro said, nodding his head at Tony before redirecting his attention towards Bruce. "I had wanted to spend the afternoon with Fenrir but he was not able to find him."
"He's not in his room?" Bruce asked.
"Nor the library," Thor said. "I had thought he might be with you."
"I haven't seen him all day," Bruce said.
"He's probably palling around with Pepper," Tony said. "You know it's a good thing that I don't do jealousy or I might worry about how much time he spends around my fiancé."
"Hey!" A voice called from the hall. They all looked up as Steve came into the room, fully dressed in his uniform.
"I want you all to suit up," Steve said, glancing around at the people in the room. "Is everyone feeling all right?"
"Well, I could be better," Tony said. Bruce ignored him and stood up to join Steve.
"What's going on?" Bruce asked.
"I just got a call from S.H.I.E.L.D. Apparently Puck has been flying around outside the Tower for the last hour." Steve said. "We need to be ready if he makes a move."
"You want us to go into battle for him?" Tony asked.
"We almost lost a battle last week because he took Clint out of action, and we still don't know what his motives are so yes," Steve said, looking around and noticing that not everyone was there. "Where's Clint?" Everyone looked at each other and realized that they had no idea where he was.
"You don't think…" Bruce started to say.
"He's probably just down in the range," Steve said. "Jarvis, where's Clint?"
"Mister Barton left the building about a half an hour ago," Jarvis said.
"Did he say where he was going?" Bruce asked.
"He did, but I have been sworn to secrecy on the subject," Jarvis said.
"You're not supposed to keep secrets for anyone but me!" Tony said, sounding outraged.
"Oh God," Steve said. "Jarvis, do you know if Clint was acting strange before he left?" The team waited in silence. All of them dreading the same thing.
"I did not notice anything greatly out of the ordinary," Jarvis said. They all began to breathe a sigh of relief, but it was short lived.
"Mister Lokison did seem a bit concerned for him though," Jarvis said.
"Fenrir talked to him?" Steve asked.
"Indeed," Jarvis said.
"Jarvis," Steve began, with a sinking feeling in his stomach. "Do you know where Fenrir is?"
"When Mister Barton left the Tower he made a point of taking Mister Lokison with him," Jarvis said.
AN: And that seems like a good place to leave things. See you all next chapter. Keep reviewing.