AN: Sorry for the long wait. I really have been trying to write faster. Thanks in advance for everyone who has been reviewing.

"Were you actually out shopping? I thought spending money went against your religion." Tony said, as soon as he saw Steve step through out of the elevator. "What was there a sale on denture cream that you just couldn't miss?"

Steve considered reminding Tony that he was actually significantly younger than him, but decided that it just wasn't worth it. "Do you two just lurk in hallways now or were you waiting for me?" Steve said, looking over at Bruce.

"Think it's all about you, don't you Rogers?" Tony said, stepping down the hall. "We were just going down to the lab. Now what's in the bag?" Tony asked, grabbing the plastic bag out of Steve's hand and digging through it.

"Give me that," Steve said, snatching the bag back. "It's just a new cell phone."

"What was wrong with your old one?" Bruce asked.

"Please tell me that you bought a new one just because you couldn't figure out how to change your ringtone," Tony said with, Steve noticed, about the same level of glee he'd had as when found out that someone was making an Avengers themed lingerie line.

"No, I didn't buy a new phone just because of the ring tone," Steve insisted. He tried to move past Tony but the man was determined.

"So what was wrong with the old one? You've only had it for a few months," Tony said.

"I…," Steve tried to think of an excuse but knew he was caught. Even if he tried to lie he knew that it was only a matter of time until Jarvis produced a video of the whole thing. "I smashed it with the shield, alright."

"You smashed it?" Bruce asked.

"That is beautiful. Jarvis, tell me you have video of that?" Tony asked.

"Of course, sir. I took the liberty of recording the incident from several different angles," Jarvis said.

Steve just groaned. He'd known that Jarvis would record him, that was inevitable, but did he really need multiple views of the whole thing?

"Okay, here's what I need," Tony said. "Jarvis, I want you to edit all the footage together and arrange it on an endless loop. I want to be able to project this on the walls of next year's Christmas party."

"Because that's what everyone needs to see during the holidays," Bruce said, leaning against a wall.

"It's a holiday for joy. And getting to watch Captain America throw a hissy fit and destroy his phone, will bring me endless joy," Tony said.

"I live to bring you joy, Tony," Steve said, stepping around his teammates and heading down the hall.

"Before you run off you should know that Pepper's been looking for you," Tony added.

"What's she need?" Steve asked.

"Probably wants to lecture you on your lack of involvement lately. Which is great because being annoyed with you has made her completely forget that she was annoyed with me," Tony said.

"Why would Pepper be mad at me?" Steve asked. He honestly had no idea. He'd barely even seen Pepper for more than a few minutes at a time in the past week.

"She didn't say. It's probably got something to do with the fact that you're the only one here who hasn't gotten on board with the puppy project," Tony said. Steve just looked at him and tried to figure out if he was talking about one of Pepper's charities.

"He's talking about Fenrir," Bruce clarified.

"What about Fenrir?" Steve asked, still feeling confused.

"Pepper asked everyone to help her cheer up our emo little houseguest, and you sir have been avoiding him like the plague," Tony said.

"I haven't been avoiding him. I'm just not sure if spending time with me is something he'd want to do," Steve said. Though, if he were being honest, he was sure that Fenrir didn't want to be around him. The last time that he and Fenrir had been alone Fenrir had confessed some pretty personal things to him. Ever since, Steve had noticed, that Fenrir would always quiet down when they were in a room together for too long. Then of course there was that other thing.

"Oh, you mean because you accused him and Clint of being lovers," Tony said.

"That is not what I said!" Steve insisted, unable to stop himself from turning bright red. God he was never going to live that one down. "That's not what I meant anyway."

"Fenrir doesn't have a problem with you," Bruce assured him. "He's a little embarrassed around you but he'll get over it. Just spend some time with him and help him get his mind off of things."

"What should I do?" Steve asked, embarrassed to admit that he couldn't think of anything. "You and Pepper already covered art and books."

"He's not exactly high maintenance. Tony basically gave him heat stroke and Fenrir still said he had an okay day," Bruce said.

"He was fine once we got him some ice," Tony interrupted. But it seemed that all the time Bruce had spent with Tony had paid off, and he'd learned how to completely tune the man out.

"Like I said, it doesn't need to be anything big. If you can't think of anything then just let him tag along while you do whatever you normally do," Bruce suggested.

"That'll be a fun day for him. He can watch while I spend hours on the internet trying to figure out what slang terms mean, and then we can go and hunt down some terrorists together," Steve said. He wasn't proud of it but he knew that he was pretty boring. Most of his time was spent doing work for the Avengers, and more and more lately for S.H.I.E.L.D. Aside from that he mostly just tried to catch up on all of the things that he'd missed during his hibernation. None of which were really group activities.

"You could always take him down to the gym and teach him a few punches," Tony suggested. This suggestion was met with cold silence so Tony decided to change his answer. "Or maybe you can just let him watch you punch things for an hour."

Steve wanted to point out why that was a bad idea, but stopped when he was forced to admit that he didn't have anything better. Steve pushed his hair back and groaned inwardly.

"I do nothing that would be even remotely interesting to do with another person," Steve said.

"Wow, no wonder you never seem to get past the second date," Tony says. Steve turned his head to glare at Tony but Bruce quickly spoke up.

"Like I said before, you don't need to wow him. He just needs something to get his mind off of things for a while," Bruce said with a smile. "Don't overthink it."

"Don't think on it too long either," Tony added, as Bruce began making his way down the hall. "You don't want to be the only Avenger who hasn't done anything with him."

"What about Natasha?" Steve asked.

"Oh, didn't you hear?" Tony said with a smile. "She sent a card."

"I take it this means that it's your turn to entertain me?" Fenrir said, standing stiffly in the doorway to his room.

"Is that a no?" Steve asked. He'd stayed up late trying to figure out something to do with Fenrir, but in the end the best he could come up with was to ask him to come along while he went for a run. He now had a strong feeling, if Fenrir's reaction was anything to go on, that he should have tried something else.

"You don't need to do this. I appreciate what you all have been doing. It is touching, but I don't want to be inconveniencing your lives." Fenrir said.

"It's not an inconvenience, I go jogging in Central park every morning when I have the time," Steve said.

"Yes, I know that," Fenrir said.

"So, do you want to come?" Steve repeated.

It took almost a minute for Fenrir to decide on an answer. "I'll go get dressed," he said.

Steve didn't usually think much about how he looked when he was exercising. He'd never seen the point in putting effort into an outfit that was going to be covered in sweat. So when he went running he usually didn't bother with anything more complicated than a t-shirt and some sweatpants.

Tony Stark, not surprisingly, did not feel the same way about this. And, since he had been responsible for Fenrir's entire wardrobe, when Fenrir had come to run with Steve he'd been wearing a gray, designer, jogging suit. Because apparently Gucci made tracksuits. Steve hadn't known that.

The massive difference in their wardrobes aside, the run in the park was actually going pretty well. Steve had to keep reminding himself to slow up, but that was fine. He never got much of a workout when he was running anyway. It was all about distance if he wanted to break a sweat, and running with someone else was relaxing. Steve looked over to Fenrir to make sure that he wasn't bored, and that was when he realized that something was off.

Every once and a while some S.H.I.E.L.D recruits would find out that he ran in the park, then show up and ask to join him. That was fine with him, but it never lasted very long. Even if he held back and didn't run too fast he'd only ever seem to get a few blocks before whoever he was running with would be slowing down or needing to stop. Meanwhile he and Fenrir had just gone halfway around the park, and Fenrir wasn't even out of breath. Steve stopped suddenly and Fenrir slid to a stop next to him.

"You're holding back," Steve said. He couldn't believe that he hadn't noticed this sooner.

"No I'm no," Fenrir said.

"You're not even out of breath," Steve said. Fenrir shifted slightly from foot to foot for a moment before he replied.

"You weren't running fast either," He said, staring at the ground.

"How fast can you go?" Steve asked. Fenrir just shrugged his shoulders and kept his eyes on the ground. "The path here is straight for a while." Steve offered. He had no idea what to expect but was dying to know what Fenrir was capable of. Thor was strong but when he was in a rush he just flew, so who even knew what Asgardians could do.

"I don't know if…" Fenrir said, trailing off as he eyed the empty path in front of them.

At first it didn't seem like Fenrir was going to go anywhere. He just kept looking back and forth between Steve and the path. Then, just as Steve was about to tell him to forget the whole thing, Fenrir bolted.

Steve stood stunned for a minute before he was able to run after him. He could barely believe what was happening. For the first time since the serum he had to push to keep up with someone. It was an incredible feeling.

After about a mile Fenrir stumbled over a rock and then veered off to the side of the path to collapse in the grass. Steve slowed down and went to stand over Fenrir.

"I haven't-" Fenrir began, breathing deeply. "I haven't been able to move like that since I was a child." Fenrir smiled up at the sky as he continued catching his breath.

"Impressive," Steve said, offering a hand to help Fenrir up.

"I used to be faster," Fenrir said, still smiling as he let Steve pull him up. "Used to be able to run for longer too."

"Really?" Steve said, raising an eyebrow. Fenrir looked over at him and, seeing the challenge for what it was, took off down the path.

"I've missed this," Fenrir said, when he was finally ready to stop.

"You should start coming out with me. Get back in shape," Steve offered.

"Come jogging with you?" Fenrir asked. "I thought this was just for today."

"You don't have to if you don't want to," Steve said, feeling confused. He'd thought Fenrir had been enjoying himself. Now all of a sudden he seemed nervous. "I just thought you might like the chance to go running more often."

"You run every day, don't you?" Fenrir asked.

"When I can," Steve replied.

"Are you sure you'd want me around that often?"

"Sure. It'll be nice to run with someone I don't have to stop and wait for," Steve said.

"You wouldn't be the one waiting," Fenrir muttered.

"You know that I can hear you when you whisper, right?" Steve asked. Fenrir smirked at him, and didn't that just say it all.

"You don't have to decide right now," Steve said, beginning his walk out of the park. "But think about coming out again."

"I'll consider-" Fenrir froze midsentence.

"What's wrong?" Steve asked. Hurrying back over to Fenrir.

"Do you hear that?" Fenrir said, looking around him.

Steve looked around him and tried to figure out what Fenrir was talking about. He couldn't hear anything that they hadn't heard all morning. Just cars, birds, occasional voices. Really the only thing that was even different was…

"Do you mean the barking?" Steve asked. Fenrir didn't say anything but continued looking around nervously. "Don't worry. It's just some people walking their dogs."

Fenrir spun to face Steve. "We should go,"

"You don't like dogs?" Steve said, taking Fenrir by the hand and leading them out of the park.

"No, I love them, I just," Fenrir continued looking around him nervously. The barking seemed to be getting closer and Fenrir was getting more and more anxious. "You have to understand that being a shape shifter, sometimes things slip through. Even if I'm not using magic."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Steve said.

"Sometim-yaah!" Fenrir yelped as a Saint Bernard ran out from behind a bush and dove onto Fenrir's chest. Steve was about to pull the dog off of him but before he had the chance he was knocked over by a wave of fur. Steve jumped back up and saw at least ten dogs were all piled onto Fenrir

"Oh, my God!" A man yelled. Running over he tried to grab a handful of leashes to pull the dogs off.

"Hold on Fenrir!" Steve called out, as he hurried to grab a Doberman from the pile and pull him to the side. Steve hurried to grab hold of another dog, and was finally able to see Fenrir again. It was at that point that it became clear that Fenrir was not being attacked.

Fenrir was laughing. Which was a pretty reasonable reaction, considering that the dogs on top of him were all trying to snuggle him at once. Steve had seen a lot of strange things since he'd become Captain America but, for some reason, seeing Fenrir at the bottom of a puppy pile had left him speechless. Probably, he had to admit, it had a lot to do with the fact that Fenrir was laughing. In all the time Fenrir had been on Earth Steve had never heard him laugh once.

"I am so sorry about this," The man next to Steve said, pulling more dogs off Fenrir, and snapping Steve back into focus. "I swear they've never done this before."

"It's alright," Fenrir said, now that he had enough space to sit up. He reached out and wrapped his arm around the closest dog. "Calm down." He said, once he had the dog at eye level.

Steve watched as one by one the dogs stopped barking and went to sit down.

"Okaaay," The man said, reaching down to grab the remaining leashes. "I'm just gonna take them and go now." The man took several steps back before turning and hurrying away with all of his dogs.

"I'm sorry for that," Fenrir said, looking up at Steve as the man and his dogs disappeared from view. "That has been known to happen when they're in groups like that."

"How did you get them to calm down?" Steve asked.

"I asked them to," Fenrir said.

"Okay," Steve said, holding out a hand to help Fenrir up. "How about I buy you lunch and you can explain what just happened."

"Alright," Fenrir said, grabbing his hand and pulling himself up. "Is Tony going to be paying for this?"

"No, why would he be?" Steve asked.

Fenrir shrugged his shoulders. "Tony seems to be paying for most of the things I do outside the Tower."

Twenty minutes later, after raiding a hotdog cart and finding a bench, Fenrir was ready to talk.

"So explain the dogs," Steve said.

"It's just part of being a shape shifter. All shape shifters have one form that is more natural than any others that they could take," Fenrir explained.

"And you're a wolf?" Steve asked, handing Fenrir a hot dog on top of a pile of napkins.

"Yes. My other form is the wolf," Fenrir said, shifting slightily to the side as he took the food. "But regardless of what your other form is, there will be some…presence, even when you're not using magic. For instance someone whose other form is a cat would be more naturally graceful, and have much better eyesight."

"How about you? What do you get from being a wolf?" Steve asked, opening one of the sodas they'd gotten from the hotdog cart.

"Why do you think I'm so fast?" Fenrir said, with a smile. "My senses are also stronger than average. Better hearing." Fenrir then got up from the bench and began digging through the bag of drinks Steve had bought. After finally deciding on one he moved to sit back on the bench. "I like this one." He explained, when he noticed Steve watching him.

"Still doesn't explain the dogs," Steve said.

"Dogs can usually sense that there is something canine about me. Since they can't figure out how, they often want to come and investigate for themselves. At which point they usually see me as a novelty and want to come and play.

"If their owner is there then the focus can be redirected, I can do that too if I know what is coming. You saw that today. It is just when they travel in packs that it can become a problem," Fenrir said.

"And they always just listen to you like that?" Steve asked, finishing up his lunch.

"If the animal's friendly, of course. It is one of the reasons I was lucky in my choice of animals," Fenrir said, looking pensive. Steve raised an eyebrow in question and Fenrir hurried to answer. "I once knew a man whose other form was a bear. They were significantly less cooperative."

Steve mentally cringed at the image that came to mind at that thought of a pack of bears. Looking back over to Fenrir, he decided to change the subject.

"So, how do you like the hotdogs?" Steve asked.

"They're good. They're like the one's Clint bought me at the carnival," Fenrir said, smiling briefly, before taking a drink of his soda.

"I forgot that you would have had these before," Steve said.

"He's been having me try a lot of foods lately," Fenrir said. "Tony says that we are bros now. I'm not quite sure what that means, but I had the impression that it was a positive thing."

Hearing Fenrir talk about bros with so much seriousness almost made Steve choke on his soda. He tried to hide his reaction, but had a feeling that Fenrir had noticed.

"It is, it's a good thing," Steve said, even though Fenrir was narrowing his eyes at Steve in suspicion. "It just means that you're friends."

"Indeed," Fenrir said, still not looking totally convinced.

"I mean it. It's a good thing. It's great that you and Clint have been getting along so well lately," Steve insisted.

"We have been getting along," Fenrir said.

Steve couldn't be entirely sure but, just before Fenrir began speaking again, he could have sworn he saw Fenrir smirk.

"And you'll be happy to know that, since your conversation with him, Clint has been very respectful," Fenrir said, downing the last of his soda.

No, Steve thought, he couldn't be talking about what it seemed. Clint had been embarrassed. He would never have gone back an told Fenrir. He had to be talking about something else.

"I believe that he has completely put aside any thoughts of pursuing me romantically," Fenri said.

Steve froze. Fenrir knew. Quickly he tried to figure out how much Fenrir could actually know. Clint wouldn't have told him everything. Maybe Fenrir didn't know how obscenely ridiculous Steve had been. Then he remembered; Fenrir had enhanced hearing. With a growing sense of dread Steve knew, Fenrir had heard everything.

"Look an ice cream cart," Steve said jumping up. "I bet you haven't had that yet. I'll go buy you some."

"It's nothing to be embarrassed about," Fenrir said to Steve's retreating form. "It was an easy mistake to make." Fenrir said.

Steve hurried over to buy some ice cream and tried to ignore what sounded like Fenrir snickering behind him. "Here," Steve said handing Fenrir a cup of vanilla before going to gather up the trash from their lunch.

"We should probably head back to the Tower soon," Steve said, still keeping his eyes off of Fenrir. "I told Thor we'd be back after the run. So we're late already."

Steve finally looked over at Fenrir and saw that he was completely frozen. His eyes were wide open and staring fixed at the cup Steve had just given him.

"Fenrir? Fenrir are you okay?" Steve asked.

"This is… perfect," Fenrir said, still staring transfixed at his ice cream.

It took another half hour, and several more servings of ice cream, before Steve was able to convince Fenrir that they should head back to the Tower. Luckily by then he seemed to have forgotten that Steve was an idiot. A fact that was making Steve incredibly grateful.

Although, despite finding out that Fenrir had heard his conversation with Clint, the trip to the park had been pretty nice. It had been a long time since Steve had been around anyone who could keep up with him. It was surprisingly relaxing to be able to run with someone else.

"The offer still stands," Steve said, as he dropped Fenrir off at his room. "If you're ever interested in coming running again, just let me know. I could use the company."

"I'll… consider it," Fenrir said, after a brief hesitation.

"Rogers!" Thor called, hurrying down the hall. "Banner has just received word that a man calling himself Tin Man is trying to rob a bank."

Steve groaned. The last thing they needed was another Iron man copycat.

"Banner and Barton are already on the roof, but Stark is away," Thor continued.

"Good," Steve said, heading down the hall to get his suit. "Make sure no one call him. Maybe if we get this done quick enough than Tony won't hear about it."

AN: See, Fenrir can leave the building without disaster striking. Hope you're all ready for the next chapter. Not to give spoilers or anything but... well, you're about to see what Loki's been up to.

Hope to hear what you all think of this chapter. My doctor says that positive and constructive reviews will make me write faster. Just saying. See you next chapter.