Thanks to everyone who read, reviewed, followed and favorited this! I had a lot of homework and projects, so this update took longer :( Trust me, I would have rather been writing.
Earlier today, I ended up buying one of the Iron Man action figures I said I wouldn't buy a couple chapters ago. He talks, and two of his phrases are actually Jarvis, which I think is awesome. Neither the Jarvis app nor Siri understand him though, which I guess makes sense because they're only supposed to listen to humans. He's standing on my desk next to my "Capsicle" Buzz Lightyear (Buzz Lightyear with stars and stripes- I now think of Captain America whenever I see him. I have a normal-colored Buzz on my desk too).
Yeah. You all probably don't care. So on to the chapter! This chapter is kind of dialogue-heavy. I hope nobody minds.
At first, Tony doesn't even realize that Loki's shifted behind him. It's not obvious immediately. Loki moves around a lot, after all. But when Tony shifts to the side, Loki does too, so that he remains behind Tony. He turns around, but doesn't see Loki until he looks down.
For some reason, Loki is squatting down and prancing Simba around on the floor. His long hair falls down and obscures his face, but his body looks like it's faintly tensed up, and he's slightly rocking from side to side. Tony looks at the god quizzically. Loki suddenly seems a bit... worried? Nervous? Suspicious? Tony's not sure which word is the best descriptor. The god eventually raises his head enough for Tony to see his face and notice the worried look he casts at Bruce, like he might suddenly attack.
Tony frowns. What had brought this on? Loki had seemed perfectly happy talking with Bruce. Then, there had been what seemed to be a lightbulb moment, and Loki had started saying "You're the Hulk." before, to Tony's surprise, clamping a hand over his mouth. At least, that's what it seemed like the god was about to say
As soon as he thinks that, Tony realizes that's what it had to be. So Loki now knows Bruce is an Avenger, even though Tony had told him that under the bed on the first day. He remembers Loki had been worried the Avengers were going to hurt him.
Looking at the god now, he seems to be thinking along those lines. But Tony had told him that the Avengers weren't going to hurt him that time under the bed, and Loki had seemed to get that. Besides, Loki had seen that Bruce is a nice person- Bruce had certainly been nice when they were talking just moments ago, and he's still talking kindly to the god, who's currently answering him with clipped respnses in a nervous tone. Why is Loki acting like this again?
"Mind giving us a moment alone?" Tony asks Bruce. Bruce nods acceptingly, not questioning the reason for it, and moves some distance away, pulling up a hologram to keep himself occupied. Tony squats down next to the god.
"Is anything the matter?" Tony can't help noticing that Loki has relaxed slightly now that Bruce is further away. Going on a hunch, Tony asks in a quiet voice "Are you worried about the Other Guy coming out?"
"Other Guy?" Loki asks, loudly but innocently. Tony winces slightly, casting a quick look at Bruce, who's probably pretending he didn't hear it.
"The big, green rage machine." Tony clarifies, lowering his voice. He can tell Loki knows he's referring to the Hulk. He doesn't think Loki's the type of person who would stop liking Bruce just because he's the Hulk, but maybe he's wrong. Tony hopes Loki's not that type of person, though.
Loki shakes his head quickly in the negative, and Tony's glad that Loki apparently isn't prejudiced against the Hulk. The Hulk doesn't seem to be on Loki's mind at all. "What if he hates me like Thor?" Loki emphasizes the thunderer's name in a anxious voice as he bites his lower lip and points towards Bruce. Tony's pretty sure he's asking about Bruce and not the Hulk.
"Didn't we go over this already?" Tony asks "Trust me, Bruce is nice. He won't treat you like that."
"But..." Loki trails off, simultaneously sounding as if he's stopping himself from saying something and sounding slightly confused. Tony just quirks an eyebrow at him and gives a gesture to continue.
Instead, Loki asks "...So he's a nice friend of yours like Pepper?" Tony still hears the unspoken "Instead of a mean friend of yours like Thor?"
Somewhat exasperated, Tony replies "Yes. There's no reason for you to fear him." After a bit, he adds "Well, unless you make him mad, but I don't think that will happen."
Loki looks unsure, but he cautiously nods, looking down at Simba. His body relaxes slightly, but it still looks sort of tense.
"Tell you what. How about you go back up to the penthouse with Dum-E and take a break from talking to him and I'll stay here with him?" Tony suggests, trying to disguise the fact that he wants to talk to Bruce alone.
Loki nods and calls out to Dum-E, who happily follows the god to the elevator.
Meanwhile, Tony stares at the drawing Loki had given him, which shows him with his arm around the god, smiling and standing under the sun. It's rather childishly drawn, but judging from the way Loki holds a pencil (or crayon or marker) in his fist most of the time, he probably hadn't drawn or written much in Asgard. But the two people in his drawing are instantly recognizable, even if they are rather simple renderings.
The silence is broken by Bruce. "He seems quite taken to you." As if that isn't a painfully obvious observation. "Though I wouldn't have guessed that you're the 'nicest person ever.'" Bruce says, smiling slightly. Tony puts the drawing down on the table and turns to face his Science Bro.
"You wound me!" Tony replies in a mock-insulted voice. Though, to be honest, he'd been rather surprised to hear that description of himself. It's certainly a new one, that's for sure. Most people wouldn't consider him particularly nice, even with the whole Iron Man gig. Heck, even Tony himself doesn't consider himself nice on the surface. But Loki had obviously meant what he said about Tony being the nicest person ever, and Tony has to admit that hearing that was, well, nice.
"Seriously, why wouldn't he like me? There are so many reasons to like me. I'm just that awesome!" He continues, and Bruce's lips quirk upwards again.
"You're different around him." Bruce observes. He doesn't sound at all judgmental though.
Yeah, Tony knew that, but having someone point it out is just... weird. He's pretty sure most people would be very surprised to see the way he acts around Loki. He's not even that sarcastic with him. Really, he actually is nice to Loki- on the surface, too. That's a weird thought. It certainly doesn't fit the paparazzi's view of him. Most people think of Tony Stark as a narcissistic playboy and alcoholic, but that isn't quite as accurate as it once was. He'd kicked the whole playboy gig when dating Pepper, and never really got back to it after breaking up. While he still drinks a lot, he's rarely completely inebriated these days.
Tony doesn't reply to that comment, instead saying "Well, there you go. You've met your second god. What do you think of him?"
"I like him." Bruce answers. "Though how did he end up living with you?"
"Oh, the usual way people find roommates. Or tower-mates in our case. He fell out of a portal, hard enough to make a crater in my roof, and his injuries healed in hours." Bruce looks at him skeptically, probably thinking he's joking. As proof, Tony has Jarvis pull up the footage from that first day and play it in fast-forward.
Bruce watches with interest. Giving Tony a level look, he says "Just making sure, you disn't edit this, right?" Tony confirms that he didn't, but really it was a pretty reasonable assumption.
"He came from Asgard, hence the portal." Tony explains, and Bruce nods, still apparently thinking about how the injuries could heal that quickly. Tony gives his two-cents worth (though in his case it should be worth a billion dollars) "My current theory for the insanely-fast healing is it's some sort of perk of being a god. Loki's said he wasn't born in Asgard, though- otherwise I would've said it's an Asgardian thing. But he heals even quicker than Point Break."
Bruce nods. "That would make sense. Though why would he heal quicker than Thor?"
"Maybe Thor's below average in that regard." Smirking, Tony adds "Sort of like how he is in terms of brains." It suddenly occurs to Tony that he hasn't been insulting Loki, whereas he makes jabs about everyone else. Though Loki might think he's being totally serious if he did jokingly insult him. Perhaps he'd realized that subconsciously.
"Though of the things Loki's done, that's fairly low on the freaky-shit-o'meter." He waits a bit, just for dramatic effect, and Bruce looks at him expectantly.
"He has these... powers." It briefly crosses Tony's mind that Loki's powers might be a private topic. But he needs to tell someone about them, just to stop feeling like he's going crazy. Besides, Bruce won't tell anyone. Maybe he can even help Loki to stop fearing them.
"What sort of powers?" Bruce asks, pushing his glasses up his nose.
"Whenever he's using them, there's some sort of green stuff around his hands. Sometimes it looks like smoke or fire, and sometimes it looks like some kind of energy. He claims it's magic, but people believe all sorts of weird stuff." Tony notices Bruce looks surprised about this, and to be honest, Tony doesn't really have any idea what it is. "I'd love to be able to run some tests on them, but I don't think he's ready for that. He's terrified of them."
Bruce folds his arms and asks "Are they dangerous?" Tony can get why Bruce would feel sympathetic towards the god if that were the case.
"No. Not that I've seen, anyways." Tony pauses and adds "Well, sometimes there's a really strong wind, but that's not really dangerous. A lamp broke, once, but that's the most that happened."
"Maybe he's scared of them because he doesn't understand them." Bruce suggests.
"No, I think it's something else." Tony mutters darkly. He has a very good idea of why Loki fears his powers. It hasn't slipped his notice that Loki's nightmares are apparently about Asgard, and that he acts like he's expecting to be punished whenever an incident occurs. It doesn't take a genius to put the two together (although a genius ended up doing it).
Bruce waits for him to elaborate, but Tony's not sure he should. It's very likely Bruce would hulk out when hearing about how the god had been treated.
"Asgard wasn't very nice to him." Tony says, while thinking that's a very mild way to put it. Fortunately, Bruce doesn't start turning green, although he does look like he's forcing himself to remain calm.
"...I see." Bruce replies extra quietly, and Tony's positive Bruce had figured out that it was more severe than that already. Maybe if he doesn't provide details, Bruce won't go all green on him.
After a bit of silence, Bruce asks "So is that all that he does with these... powers?" Tony's perfectly fine with changing the subject, because he's still slightly worried that Bruce would hulk out again if he dwelled on Loki's horrible treatment for too long, especially since he had needed to force himself to calm down.
"Let's see... other versions of him keep cropping up, but they're intangible. Those seem like some kind of advanced hologram, one that's not transparent, but I have no idea where they're coming from. Jarvis hasn't detected any new technological presence, though."
"That's interesting." Bruce replies. "Do they do anything?"
"Not really. They're just there. Sometimes they'll try to wake him up, but it never works. He seems to hate seeing them though, even though they haven't done anything to him. Well, not here, at least. Maybe they did something to him in Asgard."
Bruce changes the topic, so Tony doesn't have too long to think of what they could have done. "So what does he do all day?"
Tony shrugs and lists off some stuff. "Draws. Plays made up games with Dum-E and Jarvis. Hangs out down here. Reads Peanuts comics. Carries his toy Simba everywhere." The last one he says with a roll of his eyes, before he continues. "He's actually a lot smarter than he seems at first."
"I never said he wasn't." Bruce replies. For some reason, Tony doesn't like the idea of people thinking of Loki as an idiot, even though he himself had thought that in the very beginning. He'd learned he was wrong, though.
Tony's sure that Bruce is already on his side, even though he hasn't told him about what Thor did to Loki yet. Hopefully the other Avengers will accept Loki as easily as Bruce has.
Loki tries drawing some, but he's too distracted. He gets up and wanders around the penthouse, humming to himself, before eventually stopping and sitting on the counter-top. Tony's down in the lab, talking with Bruce. Although Loki feels safe with Tony, just being away from potential danger makes him feel safer. Right now, he's alone with his thoughts, since neither Jarvis or Dum-E are interrupting him.
Everything is just so confusing. He'd heard from Thor that Bruce hates monsters, so it would make sense that Bruce would hate him. But Bruce hadn't seemed to hate him, and Tony had said he wouldn't treat him like Asgard did.
He's not sure why Tony's been treating him so nicely, given he knows about his magic. Magic is bad enough to merit harsh punishments every time it's used, but Tony hasn't laid a hand on him or taunted him once. He actually comforts him after his nightmares and acts like the magic is no big deal. After every nightmare here so far, he'd woken up and thought he was on Asgard until he eventually noticed Tony. He still expects Tony to react like anybody else would, but Tony's reaction is so different. It's taken him by surprise every time. Because it just doesn't make sense that someone wouldn't despise magic.
His thoughts cycle back to the other Avenger he'd just met. He's not sure what to think of Bruce. He'd liked him at first, until he'd realized this was the monster-hating Bruce that Thor talked about. So Bruce hates him (or he would if he knew what he was), but Tony said he didn't. Loki shakes his head and flaps his hand angrily. This is so contradictory and confusing.
Is the Hulk a monster too? Loki's not sure about that. He sort of looks like one, but Tony had said the Hulk helped save the world, which was a good thing. Not something a monster would do, really. A monster would be the one trying to take it over. Or just anyone with blue skin and magic.
Maybe the Hulk's a nice monster, like that movie he'd watched with Tony a couple nights ago with Sulley and Mike and Boo. Before watching that, it had never occurred to him that there could be nice monsters. Loki wouldn't mind being a nice monster, but he's not sure he can. He is a Frost Giant, after all.
"Do you like him, Jarvis?" Loki asks.
"Who are you referring to, Mr. Loki?"
"Bruce. Tony said he's nice, but he doesn't like me."
"I have a favorable opinion of Dr. Banner." Jarvis replies, and then his voice becomes somewhat sharp "Why do you think he doesn't like you, Mr. Loki?" Then it get's calmer and more reassuring "I didn't detect any hostility in his actions, and as Mr. Stark said, Dr. Banner won't hurt you."
Loki relaxes a bit. Both Tony and Jarvis had said that Bruce won't hurt him, and they're always right, so even if it doesn't make sense, it's probably the truth. Besides, Tony wouldn't let anything bad happen to him here, right? So even if Bruce didn't like him, he wasn't going to get hurt.
"Tony said they're not gonna hurt me." Loki says.
"Are you referring to the other Avengers, Mr. Loki?" Jarvis asks, and Loki nods, barely whispering "Except Thor."
"Mr. Stark was once again correct. You do not need to worry about them hurting you, Mr. Loki. Besides, I have numerous weapons and security measures under my control that I could use should someone attempt to harm you. Anyone attempting to cause you harm would need to get through both myself and Mr. Stark."
Loki blinks. He didn't know that, but it feels nice, knowing Jarvis is looking out for him. It's still a new feeling for someone to actually care about him and what happens to him.
"Even Thor?" He asks quietly.
"I can assure you that Mr. Stark and I will do everything in our power to make sure that Mr. Odinson- or anyone else- will not harm you again." Jarvis actually seems to spit out Mr. Odinson in the same icy, disgusted tone someone would say Jotun or Frost Giant. It's weird, hearing someone talk about Thor in that tone and not him.
It still doesn't make any sense that Jarvis and Tony are being so nice to him, since they've seen that he's a magic-using freak by now, but he's not complaining. He certainly doesn't miss being punished for his magic.
Loki doesn't feel nearly as worried about Bruce now. Both Tony and Jarvis had said he's nice, and they'd both promised to protect him. Besides, Bruce really hadn't acted mean. Thor had said Bruce hates monsters, but he probably doesn't know he's a Frost Giant. Even Tony doesn't know that, and Loki hopes it stays that way forever. Because while, for some incomprehensible reason, Tony hasn't reacted to Loki's magic, surely even he would hate Loki upon finding out he's a monstrous Jotun. But as long as that doesn't happen, he should be fine.
Feeling better, he plays a chasing game with Dum-E, and they manage to not knock anything over.
Tony and Bruce ride the elevator up together. Tony's describing one of his more recent projects, both to fill the silence and because talking about science with Bruce is always amazing. Bruce inputs every now and then, but Tony does most of the talking.
Jarvis had told Tony a couple minutes ago that he'd had a talk with Loki, who is doing better and doesn't seem worried about Bruce now. So Tony figured they could try having Loki and Bruce in the same room again.
Tony's glad to hear that Loki doesn't seem as worried about Bruce, since one of the goals of having them meet was to show Loki firsthand that not all Avengers are like Thor.
The elevator doors open and he and Bruce step into the penthouse. At first, Loki is nowhere to be seen, but then he comes out of the kitchen. His eyes seem to be looking into thin air, as they often do, but then they focus on Tony and the god grins. "Tony!" He greets enthusiastically, clapping his hands with Simba hugged to his chest. "Did you bring my picture up?"
Tony shows him the paper and Loki hops up and down. "You said we're gonna hang it, right?"
Loki eagerly follows Tony to the kitchen where he hangs the drawing on the otherwise bare fridge with a magnet. "Hmm. You know what I think this fridge needs?" He asks the god, who just waits expectantly. "More drawings." Loki grins and does his happy, puppy-like wriggle.
Tony notices Bruce standing in the doorway. His Science Bro smiles and gives him a look that says "What did I tell you? You are different around him."
"Look Bruce! Tony hung my drawing!" Loki exclaims in an overexcited voice, pointing with one hand and holding one of Simba's legs in the other. It's he'd never been nervous around the man. Whatever talk Jarvis had had with him, it had apparently done the trick.
"I see." Bruce says, smiling at Loki's enthusiasm.
"Tony and Jarvis said you're not gonna hurt me." Loki says bluntly, before asking "Are you?"
"I won't, but I can't make any promises if the Other Guy decides to come out." Bruce answers. Loki accepts the answer surprisingly easily. He just nods and flicks his fingers a bit, while still staring into Bruce's eyes. Bruce is the one to break the prolonged eye contact.
They end up going back down to the lab, where Tony and Bruce work on a project. Loki watches them as he moves around, alternating between sitting on tables, sitting under them, and moving around on the floor. Tony often makes side comments to Loki. Tony always talks to Loki when he's got enough attention to spare on talking and the god's in the lab. He'd done the same thing to Dum-E and Jarvis before Loki got here; Tony just talks a lot. Even Tony himself can't deny it.
Bruce starts explaining what they're doing to the god, though it seems like he's really only listening half the time. He doesn't ask any questions, but Tony's pretty sure he doesn't understand most of it, if not all of it. They probably don't teach anything science related in Asgard. Even here on Earth, most people would be totally lost with this stuff. But Loki seems to appreciate Bruce talking to him, anyways. Sometimes he'll pipe up with an unrelated comment but mostly Loki remains quiet.
A couple hours later, they're back in the penthouse, seated around a tower of blocks.
Eventually they had decided to play a game, mostly for Loki's benefit, and Tony had dug around his rarely-used game closet until he'd found Jenga. Loki had suggested that Dum-E play too, and while Tony knew what would happen, he decided to just let Loki see for himself that Dum-E knocked the tower over as soon as he touched it. Loki had then agreed that maybe Dum-E shouldn't play. So the robot had gone back down to the lab.
They're playing the game on a glass coffee table, and Loki keeps sliding under it to stare up at the blocks and Tony and Bruce through the transparent tabletop.
Loki isn't actually holding Simba when he plays, but the toy lion is still right by his side. Really, Simba is probably one of the most-used things that Tony has ever bought and he'd only paid $10 for the toy. He's spent hundreds on stuff he barely uses.
Loki has a look of intense concentration as he carefully tries to wedge a block from the precariously stacked tower. Eventually he just yanks it out quickly. However, it's clear the tower's going to topple. His eyes shoot wide and they all wait for the crash and explosion of blocks.
But nothing happens.
Bruce and Tony stare at the tower. There is no way the thing should still be standing. Even a toddler would be able to see that it should be falling over. But it's not.
Tony looks over to see Loki in a fetal position on the floor, which is unfortunately a familiar sight after the other incidents. Sure enough, there's the green energy stuff around his hands, and Tony notices Bruce is looking at it with interest.
So Loki's powers apparently can make things defy the laws of physics. Loki had described it as magic, but it couldn't be that, right?
Then again, he had just done the impossible.
Tony goes over to comfort Loki, not even caring that Bruce is watching. Bruce is looking at the god with a rather sympathetic and pitying expression on his face. But there seems to be something a little bit darker under it. He gets up and leaves the room, and Tony, who has his attention on Loki at the moment, doesn't notice.
Bruce goes in the elevator and hits the lobby button as he tries to contain his emotions.
Seeing Loki huddled on the floor like that had brought forth some unwanted memories from his childhood, of doing the same thing whenever his father had gotten angry. Loki had clearly been abused, and the idea of abuse makes his insides boil with rage.
He pounds the emergency stop button. He's only managed to go down two floors, but staying in the elevator as the Other Guy would only break it.
He tries to fight it, but his skin is turning green and he knows the Other Guy is going to make an appearance very soon.
"Sir, you might want to get your suit on." Jarvis says, bringing it up in the circular frame that he uses to remove it or put it on. Tony is still focused on trying to calm Loki down.
"I highly recommend suiting up, sir." Jarvis urges him, and adds "Doctor Banner is going to transform soon."
Tony jumps his feet, and goes over to the circular frame. Shit shit shit shit! This is bad. His body is tense as the suit snaps into place around him. Bruce hulking out in his tower isn't something he'd want on any day, but now he has to worry about more than just damage to his tower. He was to worry about Loki, who is still curled up on the floor.
Once he's fully in the suit, he sprints towards the elevator, asking Jarvis which floor the Hulk is on. He slams the button for the floor two levels below them. A loud roar from below tells him that Bruce has already hulked out. Lovely.
The elevator doors open and he flies towards the Hulk, who is already in the process of jumping through the freaking ceiling. A piece of rubble hits Tony and he falls to the floor. He blasts it to pieces, gets back up to his feet, and fires his repulsers, looking through the hole. There's another hole in the floor above this one.
Damn. That means the Hulk is heading right towards Loki.
Loki hears crashing and roaring below him and he curls into a tighter ball. It's probably Thor or some other Asgardian who's going to punish him.
But then a huge green thing jumps through the floor. Loki blinks. That's definitely not an Asgardian. "You're big." Loki blurts out, as it's the first thing on his mind.
He stares at the green creature in front of him. He knows he's seen it before. He bites his lip until he remembers. That's right. It was on that thing he and Tony watch sometimes. He'd seen it when Tony was gone on his first morning here.
It's the Hulk. He's angry, but that anger seems to be directed at the chair he's smashing to bits instead of Loki. The Hulk stops smashing the chair to look at him, and Loki just looks back at him curiously.
For some reason, he's really not scared. Somehow the Hulk just isn't very scary, even though he's huge and angry. Loki knows anger leads to pain, but the fear that usually materializes when someone's angry is mysteriously absent. Maybe it's because Tony and Jarvis said he wasn't going to get hurt? Or maybe it's because the Hulk is another monster, like him? He's never been hurt by someone who's huge and green before, which is reassuring.
"Hulk big." The Hulk agrees, and Loki nods.
"Yeah. You're really big. Like, bigger than Tony. Or Dum-E. Or the box in the kitchen that's cold on the inside that my drawing's on."
The Hulk just grunts, which isn't very helpful.
"You have really, really big hands." Loki says, still stuck on the fact that the Hulk is huge. "They're probably bigger than Simba!" He giggles and looks at his lion.
Loki gets up and walks towards the Hulk, who's just standing there, watching him and holding a bit of the smashed chair.
Loki just holds out his hand, and eventually the Hulk holds his out. Loki wraps his hand around one of the thick fingers and pulls the hand towards him. It's so thick, it feels more like grabbing an arm than a finger.
The Hulk makes another grunting sound, and Loki giggles again. Simba is a better conversationalist than the Hulk, and he can only have one conversation! He holds up the lion, and sure enough, Simba is dwarfed by the Hulk's massive hand. Letting go of the Hulk's finger, Loki holds up his own hand against the Hulk's. It's like a baby's hand next to an adult's.
"How come you jumped out of the floor?" Loki asks curiously, looking into the Hulk's green eyes, which remind him a lot of his own. That had certainly been a new sight.
"Hulk angry! Hulk smash!" is the reply, and Loki shakes his head.
"Don't smash." Loki admonishes "It's bad to break other people's stuff. You already broke Tony's floor." He looks at the hole in the middle of it. It's really ugly. He notices a familiar red and gold figure hovering above it and he grins and waves.
Tony stares in complete shock at the sight in front of him, which is literally the last thing he'd expected to see. Loki- who had been worried about the other Avengers hurting him- has just befriended the Hulk as if it's no big deal. He's laughing, even. Then again, he'd taken to Jarvis and Dum-E really quickly. Maybe it's only human Avengers he's unsure about, since Asgardians and humans look the same, really.
Even odder- the Hulk isn't going on a destructive rampage anymore. Admittedly, he had wrecked two of Tony's floors and a chair, but that was a lot less damage than there could have been.
Seriously, why is the Hulk suddenly so passive? It's not like it's mind control or anything. Tony just hovers there, gaping, as Loki leads the Hulk by one finger into the kitchen, where he show him his drawing. The Hulk doesn't comment, but Loki keeps chatting happily to him as he leads him back to the living room. Tony's eventually works out that Loki's talking about Philadelphia when he tells the Hulk "I saw you smash a bunch of metal things with Man of Iron- he's Tony."
"Hulk smash!" Hulk says again, sounding proud. It looks like he's about to give a demonstration.
Tony snaps out of his shock and carefully flies over to them.
"Okay, big guy. I think it's time to go now." He says to the Hulk in a calm voice.
Thankfully, the massive green form shrinks down to a rather confused-looking Bruce Banner.
Well, I hope you enjoyed this!
I hadn't really thought about Loki meeting the Hulk until fan girl 666 mentioned it in a review and then I couldn't get the idea out of my head. Who knows. If you review, maybe your idea will lodge itself in my brain :)
Hopefully it doesn't take me as long to write the next chapter.