Ugh, this past week and a half or so was rough. I had two projects and three essays and felt really stressed because of them. It's sort of annoying how I can write really long chapters for this pretty quickly, and yet it takes me forever to write an essay, and trying to get it long enough is like pulling teeth. I don't even know how many hours I spent on an 8 page (double spaced) essay, but I probably spent more time on that than however long it took me to write two or three chapters for this story- though maybe some of the shorter 5k ones.
In addition to those sucking up a ton of time, I decided to rearrange some stuff in the future part of this story so I had to rewrite part of this chapter. It's the longest chapter at over 11k, but a lot happens in this one!
As always, thanks to all of you for your support. You all are the best!
Tony's pretty sure they don't have Lo Mein noodles in Asgard as he watches Loki struggle to use chopsticks- actually, they might not have any type of noodle there. He remembers Thor having, as Tony had quipped, some "technical difficulties" with something so simple, and now that he thinks about it, he remembers Thor saying they had"'no such food in the great realm of Asgard."
As always, they're eating takeout food for dinner since Tony hates cooking. Loki is still having no success with chopsticks, despite Tony spending over five minutes teaching him. Loki gives up with the chopsticks after minutes of frustration and, for some inexplicable reason, stuffs them into the drawstring bag hanging from his chair.
Tony had dug out said drawstring bag for Loki to put his Avengers toys in. It's a green one, which Loki had delighted in because it's his favorite color. The god had been fascinated with the way the elastic part at the top opens and closes. Currently, the Hulk toy- Hulk-y, according to Loki, though that's what he calls the real Hulk now- and "Toy Stark" are sticking out of the small zippered pocket on the front of the bag while the others are hidden in the main pocket.
Loki's now glaring at his dinner as if it's supposed to wind itself around his fork. Tony half wonders what would happen if it actually did just that, and it's really weird that he doesn't think he'd be particularly shocked if it happened. Loki's moved other stuff with his powers after all.
The noodles remain still, and Tony facepalms when Loki forgoes silverware entirely, dipping his head down to the plate end trying to eat using only his mouth. He doesn't seem to have a shred of self-consciousness as he starts eating like an animal. Tony's not particularly concerned with manners, but this is ridiculous. "Okay, I know I call you Snoopy, but you're not a dog."
"I know that." Loki replies matter-of-factly, as if Tony is being stupid for bringing it up. Tony pushes Loki's fork pointedly towards him, but Loki just scowls at it.
Loki has Chip and Mrs. Potts in front of him on the table and is using them as an actual teapot and teacup. Ignoring the fork, he sips chamomile tea from Chip with surprising poise for someone who'd just practically shoved his face into Lo Mein. "Just think," Tony says casually, "Instead of having Mrs. Potts and Chip, you could be using that boring plain teapot and teacup."
Loki looks startled, but he says, in a soft voice as if he expects to be rebuked "I like them." At least he seems to like the outcome of that incident using his powers.
"They're pretty neat," Tony agrees, mostly just to show Loki he doesn't hate his powers. "Just don't go turning everything I own into Disney stuff, okay?" As soon as that leaves his mouth, Tony realizes it could easily be interpreted as him telling Loki not to use his powers.
"Not that you can't change stuff." Tony adds hastily. "I think that's really cool. If you wanted to, could you, say, make your Iron Man toy look like me?" Tony asks, hoping Loki doesn't freak out. Maybe if he continues to like the result of his powers, he'll start to like the powers themselves more. He clearly likes Mrs. Potts and Chip, even if he doesn't like how he'd made them. Loki has been lamenting about the absence of Tony or Bruce action figures since he received the lot earlier today. Maybe he can convince Loki that it would be okay to use his powers to change them...
Loki's eyes are unfocused but darting around nervously and he's fidgeting around in his chair, rocking back and forth slightly and twisting his fingers together. He's humming something, and it seems like he's trying to calm himself down. Tony's not sure how well it's working. Maybe he'd totally shut down if he wasn't doing that, but he's certainly not the picture of calm right now. Eventually, Loki speaks.
"You can't take the metal away to show the him inside. Nope, nope, nope! You can't." Loki says, and, after working out what that's supposed to even mean, Tony rolls his eyes. Of course not, it's a plastic toy with no removable parts. That seemed like a slightly strange way to put it, although Loki's nervousness might be affecting that.
Loki continues to prattle nervously. "It's all one piece and you can't take it off! He's different from you and Simba, his suit's fake but yours are real and so's Simba's..." Loki pulls Simba- still clad in his Iron Man armor- off the table and hugs him before continuing to ramble on. Tony wonders if he's rambling to avoid answering the question. "The real suits have the glowy arc reactors and they're harder and colder, but cold's good. I like cold. Except from inside. It's not good inside!"
Tony puzzles over that for a couple seconds. Of course- Frost Giants are naturally cold, which is probably why Loki's body temperature has temporarily dropped numerous times. He's almost positive Loki's referring to being a Jotun. "There's nothing wrong with... 'cold inside.' It's not bad. Capiche?" Tony says firmly, surprised when Loki's gaze sharpens slightly but otherwise he doesn't respond.
Tony sighs before switching topics. "So could you make him look like me?"
Loki fidgets anxiously, and his eyes return to their usual far-away look. Half a minute passes, and he seems to calm down a tiny bit and asks "With paint?" Tony knows that Loki knows that he meant Loki's powers, and he gives Loki a look that says that's not what he meant. Besides, just painting over them wouldn't really work, since they'd be the wrong shapes and probably look hideous.
"With paint." Loki decides, and Tony's not sure if he's ignoring his that's-not-what-I-meant look or if he didn't notice it at all. Tony's not sure if he should stress that he meant using his powers or not, but Loki continues talking before he's decided.
"Well, I'd have to paint him so he had black hair and brown eyes and a black beard, but not a big thick one." Loki mimes drawing a goatee like Tony's over his own face with his fingers, and as he brings his hands back down to his lap, green energy starts forming around them. Loki's eyes are currently closed, as if he's imagining Tony's face despite it being right in front of him, so Tony doesn't think he's noticed the energy. "And he'd have a glowy arc reactor and clothes like what you're wearing now."
"You wouldn't want me without clothes?" Tony jokes, looking pointedly only at Loki to avoid seeing if this is becoming another transforming episode, but Loki just stares at him and repeats that Toy Stark isn't the same as him. Hoping he's being inconspicuous, Tony stops staring at Loki and glances at the drawstring bag.
He makes sure to not react when he sees the Tony Stark action figure sticking out next to the Hulk toy. That's sort of what he'd been going for, and he'd been expecting it when seeing the green energy around the god's hands. Although it seems like Loki's diversion of talking about painting them hadn't really worked, since the shape of the toy had changed, just like Mrs. Potts and Chip.
"So what would it look like if Hulk turned into Bruce?" It seems when Loki's talking about the change, that's when it happens. At least, that's how it seemed to work with Mrs. Potts and Chip, and now Toy Stark.
"He shrinks and he's not green and he has brown hair and brown eyes and he wears more than just pants, but Hulk-y just wears purple pants." Loki nods and then says "You saw him do it." Loki's hands are under the table now, so Tony can't see if they have the green energy, but he suspects they do.
"Yeah, I've seen Bruce and Hulk transform," Tony says as he casts a surreptitious glance at Loki's backpack again. The Hulk toy remains unchanged, though. Tony frowns, wondering why that is, but not wanting to draw Loki's attention to the use of his powers before both toys are changed.
"So would that happen if your toy Hulk could morph into Bruce?" Loki doesn't answer, and Tony sighs and gets up to get another glass of beer. He glances at the bag again, and there's a Bruce toy now. Weird... Maybe it had just taken a bit to transform?
Tony leaves the kitchen and heads towards the bar to get his beer. A hand brushes his shoulder, and he glances back and sees that Loki's following him, though the god hadn't made a sound on his bare feet. Over his shoulder, Tony says "You don't need to follow me, Snoopy. I'm going to be right baAAH-!"
His sentence ends in an involuntary shout of surprise as his foot tilts and his ankle bends in a way that sends a flare of pain to his brain. His right foot had been half over the edge of one of the Hulk-induced holes in the floor, which still haven't been fully patched up. Hopefully the snapping sound he thinks he hears is just his imagination, but he's not sure it is.
Of course, he loses his balance, and he starts to let loose a very colorful string of obscenities. Time seems to slow down as he falls towards the gaping hole in the floor. He watches the glass he'd been holding fall through that hole and the hole in the floor below this one. It shatters when it hits the floor two stories down. Tony's no stranger to pain, but this is going to hurt like hell when he joins that glass down there, probably even landing on the broken pieces...
Suddenly, he's hit by an invisible force and he goes flying back a bit. Wait... he's not supposed to be moving horizontally. He's falling through a hole, falling down, right? He's very disoriented at the moment.
He doesn't really know what's going on or which way he's moving any more, but before he can figure out, his body hits something hard and rolls from the momentum, and another wave of pain comes from his ankle.
Once he stops, he lays there with his eyes closed, stunned, and for a bit he's unaware of his surroundings. The pain in his ankle is no longer taking up all of his attention.
He starts trying to assess the damage to his body. Something's happened to his right ankle, though he doesn't know if it's sprained or broken. Tony's no stranger to pain, and he's been through way worse than this, but it still hurts like heck. In addition to whatever's up with his ankle, he'd gotten bruised form his introduction to the ground, though he's surprised falling down two stories didn't make the rest of his body hurt more.
For a genius, he can be really stupid, Tony thinks. Why on earth hadn't he been looking at where he was going when there's still a freaking hole in the floor? Why isn't there some kind of barrier around the hole to prevent this?
Wow. His thoughts are starting to sound like Pepper. That can't be good. As for the barrier thing, they'd done a really good job of avoiding the hole up until now, and it's sort of too late since what a barrier would prevent has now already happened.
Two other sensations appear- a hand running through his hair and a voice singing softly.
"The silver stallion gallops away
His herd follows him, and they start to neigh..."
Tony frowns in confusion, and his frown deepens when hair starts brushing across his face. Opening his eyes, he sees a familiar, albeit upside-down pair of wide, slightly glazed green eyes staring at him from mere inches above his own. Tony is not startled, thank you very much, though he's very glad when Loki sits up and stops invading his personal bubble. Plus the hair brushing against his face was really irritating, Tony thinks as Loki continues singing.
"Their hoofs beat to the stars and moon above
Just follow them to find the one you love."
"Do you feel better?" Loki asks after a bit. He stares down at Tony and his eyes are actually slightly more focused than usual.
"Not really." Tony replies somewhat testily "Singing doesn't help."
"It helped me." Loki mutters, though Tony's not sure if Loki's actually speaking to him or not. It sort of sounds like he's talking to himself, or Simba- though those are the same thing, really. "When I was like that." Like what, Tony wonders. Hurt in general or hurt like this specifically?
Loki starts to reach towards Tony's ankle and Tony snaps "Don't touch me!" in a voice that's low and dangerous, a bit more so than he intended. Loki backs up with a frightened look on his face. Tony hears the elevator door open and a robotic beep. Jarvis had undoubtedly sent Dum-E up, and Loki grins in the robot's direction.
Tony props himself up on his elbows and looks around. He's still on the same floor. He hadn't fallen through the hole after all. That invisible force had knocked him away from the hole, to a sturdy (but really hard) patch of the floor. He sees Dum-E roll into the kitchen.
It was Loki who'd gotten him out of the way, he realizes. The invisible force was probably a stronger version of what had pushed the box across the floor earlier today. That's the most reasonable explanation he can think of, even though Loki being able to do that isn't exactly reasonable. Tony's almost positive it was Loki's powers that saved him from that fall, since what else could it have been?
He needs to watch the footage from Jarvis later. Tony hadn't noticed if Loki had that green energy around his hands, because he'd been a bit preoccupied with staring down the hole he'd been about to fall into.
Loki's not freaking out about using his powers, though. Are they actually making progress, or does Loki not know he did it because he was too distracted by the events?
"Good thing you were there to prevent me from falling down two stories." Tony says, watching Loki to gauge his reaction. That sort of counts as thanking him, Tony thinks, and that's probably as close as he's going to get. Tony's not too big on thanking people, or apologizing.
"You flew," Loki replies, frowning slightly. Tony can't tell if he really thinks that or if he's just trying to make it seem like he didn't use his powers. "You can do that. I've seen you." Loki sighs dreamily, gazing into the distance with eyes that are even glassier than normal, probably imagining what it would be like to fly.
Tony says that he can only fly with his Iron Man suits, but he doesn't think Loki hears him. Sighing, he moves to get up. He's somewhat surprised when Loki helps pull him to his feet. "Sir, you need to remain still. You shouldn't be putting weight on your ankle." Jarvis protests but Tony ignores him.
As soon as he puts weight on his right ankle, he winces and immediately shifts his weight to his left foot, though he's already started to collapse. Okay, maybe he really shouldn't be putting weight on it. Jarvis probably won't let him hear the end of that.
Quick as lightning, Loki's hands shoot out and grab him before lowering him gently to the floor. Tony had been hoping to go to the sofa, but it looks like that's not happening. At least Loki had caught him, though.
"Your ankle is most likely broken, and if you'd equip me with an X-ray scanner, I could tell you for sure." Jarvis sounds a little sulky about that. "I've notified Dr. Banner to come over immediately, and Miss Potts was already on her way up here when you fell. She's due to arrive in a minute."
Loki looks confused, and his eyes are a bit more focused then they were a minute ago, though they're still sort of glazed. "But she's already here." Tony doesn't even bother trying to work that out, but Pepper's not here yet.
"That's Mrs. Potts. By Miss Potts, I meant Virginia 'Pepper' Potts." Jarvis apparently got it, and a picture of a certain Disney teapot on the table flashes through Tony's head. Jarvis continues talking, informing Loki that Mrs. is for women who are married, whereas Miss is for unmarried women, though Loki doesn't give any indication if he's listening.
Dum-E rolls back out of the kitchen, clutching an ice pack in his claw. Rolling up to Tony, he presses it against Tony's uninjured leg hopefully. Tony takes it and presses it into his ankle, which is starting to swell.
Tony speaks up, because even a broken ankle won't shut him up for long. "You remember Pepper, right, Snoopy?" That question is sort of rhetorical. It hasn't even been three weeks since they've seen Pepper, and Loki's mentioned her since then. "She's the hot blonde."
"I remember her!" Loki says, sounding vaguely offended. "She was here on the first day and she gives really good hugs!" Loki nods and wriggles his body slightly before quickly adding, in a placating way as if Tony's offended "Don't worry. You give really great hugs too. But I didn't know that back then. She's really nice, right?" Tony nods, because there's really no denying that Pepper is nice.
A look of worry suddenly crosses Loki's face, and he asks "Does she still like me?" Tony tells him that there's no reason for Pepper not to like him, and he knows Loki's thinking of all the things he's believes are reasons to hate him.
Tony hears the elevator door open and Jarvis greets Pepper. "Good evening, Miss Potts. I trust you are well?"
"I'm great, Jarvis, thanks for asking." Pepper says sincerely. There's a bit of a pause and then "What happened to you, Tony?" She gives a long-suffering sigh and says in an exasperated voice "You did something stupid again, didn't you?"
"Thanks for the vote of confidence." Tony grumbles from the floor. "I was bored and decided it would be fun to smash my ankle with a hammer." Loki visibly tenses at that, and Tony doesn't like what that indicates. He seriously hopes Loki's not thinking about Thor and Mjolnir right now. He gives Loki's arm a reassuring squeeze, hoping the god's not going to have a flashback or panic attack right now. Loki leans slightly into the touch and, fortunately for both of them, relaxes. Tony looks back at Pepper. "Seriously, what do you think happened?! I fell."
"Why is there even a hole in your floor? Did you go crazy with your repulsers again?" Pepper asks as she helps Tony hobble to the sofa.
Tony gestures to the damage and says "This wasn't actually my fault. Bruce Hulked-out twice in less than an hour. Anyways, I went in, all badass and took him on in just my Iron Man suit. I'm working a new suit to try to match his strength, and there really should be a Hulk-proof room somewhere in the tower for him to vent in. I don't know why I didn't have one built ages ago. I need to get started on that." Tony eventually stops rambling as he sits sideways on the sofa with his right leg propped up on the armrest, letting out a little sigh and relaxing a bit.
Pepper looks like she's going to start her usual lecture about how reckless, self-destructive and stupid he was. Tony's heard that talk way too many times. Although he'd agree with her this time. Not looking where he was going was just plain stupid. But she wasn't even here and she doesn't need to know about that.
Thankfully, Loki chooses this moment to speak up. Pepper's attention switches from Tony to Loki so at least as of right now she's not launching into her tirade. "Pepper!" Loki grins, and approaches her. "At first I though Jarvis meant Mrs. Potts, but Tony and Jarvis said it meant you. Are you related to her? 'Cause her surname's Potts and so's yours, so that means you're related, right?" As an afterthought, he adds "Have you ever been a teapot?"
Pepper looks very confused, not that Tony can really blame her. He's sort of tempted to not tell her what Loki's talking about just to see how far this goes, but that's ruined when Loki starts talking about Belle and the Beast, and she gets that he's referencing Beauty and the Beast. "No, it's just a coincidence that we're both named Potts. A lot of people share the same last names." She explains, and Loki looks rather disappointed "Wait... is that Simba in an Iron Man suit?"
Loki giggles and nods, bouncing on his toes and hugging Simba lovingly. "Yeah! I found him and made him a suit, just like Tony's! Jarvis and Dum-E helped and Tony made the arc reactor and I love it! Tony got him for me, and he said he was a gift, even if I found him. He's like Hobbes, 'xcept he's a lion, and he likes to play with Nala and Timon and Pumbaa- and me! Simba and Hobbes are both big cats, but Hobbes is a... tig-ger? Yeah, that's it."
Loki barely even stops to breathe as he continues rambling on, and Tony's hoping he doesn't look nearly as confused as Pepper currently does. "Tony says I'm like Calvin, but I dunno. I like Linus, but I'm really a Loki, not a Linus or a Calvin or a Lucas, like Dr. Car-something called me. Did you know Tony calls me Snoopy a lot? He does, but I'm not a dog. Tony said that, too, but I already knew that... Tony's hurt right now, you know, and he said singing doesn't help."
Loki finally stops rambling, and Tony's glad it's over. No, that is not hypocritical, Tony tells himself, because who doesn't want to hear everything Tony Stark has to say? Tony wonders why it had taken all of that just to get to the subject of him being hurt, though.
Pepper says that they should probably splint his ankle, and Tony suggests using the lower-leg armor to one of his Iron Man suits. Eventually, he convinces her to go get one of his suit-briefcases, and she heads off to the lab, which she still has clearance to get into.
"Seriously, it's a good thing there was that-" Tony actually stops himself before he mentions Loki's powers, because the last thing he needs is Loki freaking out right now. He'd already gotten close after that comment about smashing ankles with hammers. Loki doesn't react at all to the sentence being incomplete and instead just looks at Tony's swollen ankle. Tony fends him off with his left leg when he starts to get too close and has to keep telling him to stay away from it. Loki seems morbidly fascinated by his injury.
Pepper returns with the suit-briefcase, as well as a pair of crutches she must have gotten from one of the tower's medical floors. She glances at the briefcase and asks "Is this even going to work? Doesn't it put on all your armor?"
"It doesn't have to." Tony shrugs as he swings around so he's sitting forward instead of sideways on the couch. Slowly, the briefcase puts the armor over his leg, and Tony grits his teeth and breathes sharply when it snaps shut around his swollen ankle. Loki, meanwhile, is inspecting the crutches curiously, seemingly having no idea what they're for. He just starts poking things- thankfully not Tony or Pepper- with the ends of them.
Over the next twenty minutes or so, Loki keeps drifting towards Tony's swollen ankle in a way that makes Tony very uneasy, and he has to keep fending the god off. For the moment, he sort of wishes Loki were somewhere else until this thing is resolved.
Tony tries to distract Loki, but the god's attention keeps drifting towards his ankle and his hand keeps jumping out in it's direction, like he can't stop himself. Okay, Loki's definitely going to have to be somewhere else. Pepper also tries distracting him, but Loki's eyes still keep jumping back to Tony's injured leg.
Bruce arrives and clearly tries to ignore the hole in the floor that the Hulk had made. He raieses his eyebrows at Tony's armored leg and starts to lead Tony to the elevator to go down to one of the tower's medical floors. Loki tries to follow them, but Tony tells him to stay up here with Pepper. Loki pouts, but stops following them. It's a good thing they're going to be on separate floors, because he's still way too interested in Tony's armored- but still injured- leg.
Loki watches Bruce help Tony to the elevator, walking slowly as Tony tries to put no weight on his right leg. Tony's using those stick-like things to help walk, like they're two elongated arms that give him support. So that's what they're for.
Loki's not sure where Tony and Bruce are going, but both of them told him to stay with Pepper, and Jarvis assures them they're still in the tower. Loki relaxes considerably when he hears that.
He's not entirely sure what's going on. He knows something's up with Tony's ankle, and he'd heard Jarvis say something about it being broken. Loki has experience with broken bones of basically every type- limbs, ribs, hands, feet, even fingers and toes from when a guard had stepped on his bare feet and then stomped on his hands for good measure when he clutched his feet, but his broken bones weren't like Tony's.
Tony's was weird and swollen. In the twenty or thirty minutes it took for Bruce to get here, Tony's ankle had swelled up more and even discolored a bit, which is really strange. Sure, healing bones hurts, but it doesn't take very long, and they don't get worse like that. He hadn't been able to stop looking at it. Why wasn't it going away? What if something's wrong with Tony, and that's why he's not healing?
Loki wanders into the kitchen, singing A Whole New World to himself, and sees Dum-E trying to put the food from dinner away. Loki hadn't liked that food as much as some of the other things he's eaten here. He grins at his friend and goes to help, though he's not sure why they're putting it in that cold box thing. Pepper follows him in.
"What's wrong with Tony?" He asks worriedly.
"He just hurt his ankle." Pepper says. That doesn't really help, since Loki already knows that. "He's going to be fine." Pepper says, and when Loki asks Jarvis for confirmation, Jarvis doesn't guarantee it but he says it's very likely that 'Mr. Stark' will be fine. Loki's relieved, since that probably means he's going to be back to normal really soon. Because if he isn't, that's not 'fine' so he has to get better really soon.
Pepper comments on Mrs. Potts and Chip, which makes Loki a bit uneasy. Does she know he changed them? He hopes she doesn't and he obviously doesn't tell her he'd made them from a normal teapot and teacup.
Eventually she comments on the action figures sticking out of his bag.
"Tony gave them to me today, as a gift he picked out. He's really nice don't you think? Plus he got me this bag, and it's green! I love green. I have green eyes and Hulk-y's green and he has green eyes." Loki takes the bag off the chair and dumps the contents onto the countertop. He grins at the Avengers toys, picking up the Tony and Bruce ones, but then his expression falters "Where are Man of Iron and Hulk-y?" He asks Simba. They're gone, and these ones are here...
"Like last night...like Mrs. Potts and Chip..." Loki mutters to his lion. He feels a sinking feeling in his chest as he realizes he's done it again.
Loki's not entirely sure when the Hulk and Man of Iron toys had come to resemble Bruce and Tony, but now Pepper knows he's a freak, right? She has to hate him, and maybe she'll start hitting him, even though she gives really good hugs. But she won't hug him now that she knows about his magic. Tony still hugs him and he said he wouldn't hit him, but he hadn't said anything about Pepper. Tony not punishing him when he deserves it is weird enough, so Pepper undoubtedly will.
"No!" Loki shrieks, flinging the figures on the floor and grabbing Simba. He starts to panic and he grabs Toy Stark too, since that plastic Tony is the closest he can get to the real Tony right now. He puts the hand holding Toy Stark right up against the arc reactor in Simba's suit and tries to pretend it's Tony's arc reactor.
Tony's not here! Loki's mind repeats that horrible fact He's not here, he's not here, he's gone, gone, GONE!... Tony's not here to hug him and make him feel better, and Jormungand can't hug him because that's really Loki hugging himself and he's currently hugging Simba, and he can't hug Simba and himself at the same time. Plus that's not nearly as good as Tony hugging him, anyways...
Pepper starts to approach him, and Loki flinches away. He starts to crawl under the table, but remembers that Tony had said not to do that anymore. Tony said no going under beds, either, but he needs somewhere to hide! But there's nothing else to go under, and Pepper's blocking the exit to the kitchen. As he continues to kneel on the floor by the table, Loki screws his eyes shut, rocking back and forth and humming to try to calm himself down but it doesn't work.
The weight of being without Tony, of having to stay out in the open, and of Pepper now knowing he's a freak is way too much, and Loki screams at the top of his lungs.
Tony and Bruce take the elevator down to one of the medical floors. Bruce is carrying the Iron Man suit-briefcase. Tony hobbles along with his crutches. They eventually get to an examination table, which Tony reluctantly gets on to. He's never liked doctor visits, but at least this is in his own tower instead of him having to go somewhere. Bruce is one of the least-objectionable options for someone to be poking, prodding and examining him, anyways.
"Okay, we need to get that armor off your leg. I'm assuming this thing does it." Bruce says, setting the briefcase on the floor. Metallic arms emerge, groping towards the armor. Having the armor taken off jolts Tony's ankle and he inhales sharply but manages to comment anyways.
"Are you sure that's where you want the stripping to end? I can go on." Tony wiggles his eyebrows and Bruce just gives a long-suffering sigh, as if some of Tony's jokes are torture.
"Tough crowd." Tony mutters, and then gives an involuntary yelp as Bruce prods his ankle. Geez, that hurt, although he's gone through worse. Bruce hands him some pain meds, which Tony swallows dry.
"I'm almost positive it's broken, but I need to get an X-ray to see where," Bruce explains. Then, out of the blue, he asks "Would you mind if I stayed here for a couple days?" Right after asking that, he looks like he's about to change his mind and starts to say something, probably about the Hulk. Tony's tried to tell him it doesn't matter that he turned into the green guy. Even with the Hulk making appearances, Bruce is always welcome in the tower.
Tony shrugs. "Of course not. You can have a whole floor to yourself and everything. Heck, you can have your own lab if you want. Take your pick." Bruce thanks him, but he still looks like he's having second thoughts. Tony's not going to hold the other guy's actions against Bruce, but Tony does hope the Hulk won't destroy too much of the tower. Not that he can't pay for repairs or anything, it's just sort of inconvenient.
He won't be able to fight off the Hulk, but he doesn't think the Hulk will hurt Loki, and he doesn't attack the other Avengers unless they confront him, like Tony had a couple weeks ago. Besides, the last time Bruce hulked-out, when all the other Avengers were here, he'd managed to isolate himself on another floor. Tony really should build that Hulk-proof room for him to vent in, though...
As Bruce waits for Tony to awkwardly make his way over to an X-ray machine with his crutches, Jarvis interrupts to tell Tony that Loki's having another panic attack, adding that he'd been unable to calm the god down. Once Tony's situated with his leg being X-rayed, Jarvis pulls up a video feed of the kitchen.
In the video, Loki's rocking back and forth and screaming on the floor, and Dum-E is prodding him nervously. Pepper's standing there, looking like she wants to help, but Loki screams louder when she approaches, so she backs off. Her lips are moving, but Tony can't hear what she's saying over the screams and he doubts Loki can either. The god's hugging Simba, of course, but there's something clutched in his hand. The Tony Stark action figure- Toy Stark.
Okay, so Loki's clearly noticed by now that he changed the appearance of the Iron Man and Hulk figures, which is probably the reason he's like this in the first place. But this is worse than even the Mrs. Potts and Chip episode last night. Tony suddenly realizes the significance of Loki clutching Toy Stark desperately- Loki wants him there, and that's about as close as he can get. Tony starts to get up, but Bruce's hand grabs his shoulder and shoves him back onto the bed part of the X-ray machine before he even fully sits up.
"Jarvis, put me on the intercom." Tony says as he casts a quick glance at Bruce. Thankfully, he's not turning green. Perhaps it's because there hasn't been a reference to Loki's treatment in Asgard this time, even though they're watching him scream on the floor. Although, watching stuff in videos is never as intense as in real life, even if it's happening right now. The fact Bruce focusing on Tony's leg probably doesn't hurt either. Still, Bruce is doing a remarkably good job staying calm enough keep the Hulk in.
Tony speaks directly to Loki over the intercom, not sure if this will work at all. "Loki, it's okay. You did nothing wrong. You're not in trouble. You wanted toys of me and Bruce, right? Well, look at it this way- now you have them." Loki looks around, probably wondering why Tony's voice is coming out of the walls, like Jarvis. Other than that, though, Tony's words get no reaction.
"Hey, Snoopy, Pepper's not going to hurt you. I promise- I pinky promise- she won't hurt you. She's like me, not them, got it? I repeat: She's. Not. Like. Them." He says the last part very slowly and firmly in a tone that says there's no room for doubt.
It dawns on Tony that Loki's pining for his hiding spot, since he's looking under the table longingly. Loki hadn't crawled under a table after that incident earlier today when he slid the box across the floor with his powers, and even now he seems to be taking what Tony said about not hiding under beds or tables very seriously.
He thinks back to when he'd said that last night. Loki had clearly interpreted it as a rule, even though Tony never actually said it was. To be honest, he'd said that because he's sort of tired of crawling under furniture to calm Loki down. Tony's been called narcissistic and selfish, but even he thinks that factoring in his own opinions when he said that might not have been the right thing to do, especially with Loki taking it like this.
It's obvious Loki wants to crawl under something, though, and Tony starts to think the reason Loki's following that unofficial rule is he's scared disobeying will make people angry. Being hidden under things seems to comfort Loki, perhaps because it's harder for someone to get him that way. Tony realizes he'd taken that comfort away just because it was slightly annoying to him.
Wow, now he feels like crap- and a lot of people probably wouldn't believe Tony Stark feeling bad about something was possible.
"You know what? I take back what I said about not hiding under stuff, okay?" For a bit, Tony's not even sure if Loki's heard him, so repeats himself, only this time he says in the most straightforward way he can think of that Loki can go under beds and tables again. Then the god scampers under the table, still clearly terrified.
Bruce looks like he's having a slightly harder time staying calm now, although he's still doing a really good job keeping the other guy in check. Hopefully it's not just a lucky coincidence. Tony has Jarvis shut off the intercom and stop showing the video feed, just in case, hoping that Jarvis, Dum-E and Pepper can take it from there. "You've got a really good lid on the green guy. Much better than the last two times you were here. Seriously, are you doing yoga? Or weed?"
Bruce gives him a very tight smile and says quietly "It's easier to keep control now that I know to expect being reminded of- that sort of stuff."
Tony nods. Now that he's come to expect it, hearing about Loki's abuse, while still horrible, isn't quite as bad as it was at first. Repeated exposure to stuff dulls the impact of it, or something psychological like that. "You know, I could pay to have this tower built, like, twenty times, so don't beat yourself up if the green giant wrecks some of it. I mean, if I turned into a green rage machine every time I got angry, I would have been raging with you those couple times recently- and a ton in between. Seriously, don't let the Hulk factor into your decision about staying here."
Bruce actually looks like he's actually considering staying here again. Tony grins triumphantly and adds, for good measure "Loki really likes him. You still have that picture of them hugging, right? Well, I got him these action figures of the Avengers, and he loves the Hulk one, although he changed it to look like you... Yeah, long story, I'll tell you later."
"I think the Other Guy likes Loki." Bruce says quietly.
"See, everything's peachy." Tony says, and promptly changes the subject before Bruce can argue. "Why the sudden request to stay here a couple days? Aside from the fact that you can't really beat Stark Tower, I mean. Five-star hotels have nothing on this. So, you're going to be staying in our ten-star accommodations, right?"
Bruce contemplates it for a while as he examines the X-rays. Apparently, Tony has a medial malleolus fracture, and Jarvis agrees with Bruce's assessment after comparing Tony's X-rays to several pictures on the internet.
Bruce eventually says he'll stay for a couple days. Tony grins in triumph. Finally, they're making progress! If only Loki's progress was like this. "As to why I asked," Bruce says, the corners of his mouth twitching upwards "someone needs to make sure you follow the doctor's orders and stay off your injured foot." Seriously?! That's why he's staying over? Doesn't Bruce trust him? Actually, Tony knows trusting him to take it easy without supervision is a rather foolish. But Bruce clearly knows him too well.
"Yeah, sorry, I'm not one for following orders." Tony says unapologetically.
"Exactly. I trust Jarvis to watch you, but he can't physically force you off your feet, and you'd probably ignore him anyways. So I'm going to make sure you stay off that ankle. Besides, I'll need to make sure it's set right." Bruce replies
Tony suddenly finds himself sort of wishing that he hadn't offered up part of his tower to Bruce so quickly. At least Bruce hadn't faked the uncertainty about staying in order to trick Tony into convincing him to stay, though. That seems more like something Natasha would do.
He watches as Bruce wraps his ankle in cotton. "Can't we just use my armor as a cast? I can make it brace my leg and then everything will be normal."
"No way." Bruce says. "You're going to need to stay off your right foot. That means crutches or a wheelchair, or one of those knee scooters- and I will be making sure you don't add rockets or anything to them." Tony pouts at this. Bruce really does know him too well.
"I can fly in my armor. That's staying off my feet." Tony points out, but Bruce just says that landing in his armor would be bad for his ankle, and adds that if Tony used his armor as a cast, he'd end up doing things he shouldn't with a broken ankle. Tony mutters that he could just design some armor to fit around the cast and Bruce simply adds that to the list of reasons for why he needs to be there to watch Tony.
Bruce finishes wrapping Tony's ankle and goes to get some white plaster for the cast. Tony protests at the choice of color, because who wants a boring white cast? He demands a red and gold cast to resemble his armor, and Bruce rolls his eyes, muttering "What are you, five?"
Tony refuses to back down and grins in triumph as Bruce sighs and sorts through the different colors until he finds red and yellow, which is the closest thing to gold they have. Tony wonders if he could get Loki to change it later.
Tony crosses his arms and grumpily asks how long he needs to stay off that foot. "Four to six weeks, probably." Bruce replies. Tony blanches.
"Four to six weeks?!" That is way too long to be using crutches or a knee scooter, Tony thinks. He's not even sure he could do that for four to six hours... or minutes. While neither of the options sound very appealing, a knee scooter sounds like the better of the two options, since it's faster than crutches and he might be able to sneak on a modification or two without Bruce finding out.
Tony's still annoyed, though. He's freaking Iron Man, and he's going to be stuck in a cast because of a stupid broken ankle. "Do you know what will happen to the world if it goes without Iron Man for four to six weeks?! The sun's going to go out! The world will stop spinning! The-"
Bruce throws up his hands in exasperation. "Seriously, Tony. I'm sorry, but you're not that important." Tony lets out a scandalized sound of protest at that, but Bruce ignores him and continues talking. "What do you think us other Avengers are for? Besides, you've only done, what, three things as Iron Man over the past month? I don't think there's going to be a global catastrophe that needs every superhero in the next couple months."
Bruce takes a few deep breaths and goes on. "You need to take care of yourself, Tony. You shouldn't be putting any strain on that ankle. If you're not going to look after yourself, than someone else has to, and I guess that someone is me." As he starts looking over the bruises Tony had sustained from hitting the floor after that invisible force knocked him away from the hole, Bruce adds "Hey, Jarvis, notify me if Tony does anything he shouldn't when I'm not in his immediate vicinity."
"Of course, Dr. Banner." Jarvis replies smoothly, though he sounds far too supportive of the idea, in Tony's opinion.
"Traitor." Tony grumbles.
The terrified look Loki gives Pepper almost makes her heart break. Nobody should look that terrified, and his screaming just adds to the image. When she approaches him to try to calm him down, his scream reaches new heights in shrillness. The last time she'd seen him, which was also his first day here, he'd seemed rather panicked a couple times, but nothing like this.
Pepper's not sure what started this. It's something about the action figures, but what exactly that something is is a mystery to her.
Loki starts to crawl under the table, but something seems to stop him, which just upsets him more. She watches Dum-E try to hug him while Jarvis tries to calm him down. Loki grips Dum-E's claw with the hand not holding the Tony Stark action figure with the other and hugging Simba to his chest with his arms. Pepper starts telling him that everything's okay, but she doesn't think her words have much of an effect, if any. She's not even sure Loki hears them.
Eventually, Tony's voice comes on over the intercom, and he speaks to Loki in a surprisingly gentle tone. He tells Loki something about not doing anything wrong, and that he's not going to get hurt, that Pepper herself won't hurt him. Pepper has no idea if Loki's listening or not. Tony even gives a verbal pinky promise to testify, which is a little bizarre, though Pepper doesn't know whatever story is behind that.
Pepper remembers Loki mentioning getting hurt in Asgard from that first day, but it seems like it was a lot worse than she'd thought. It's abundantly clear that he was mistreated there, probably even abused, and Pepper hates whoever hurt someone as gentle as Loki.
Tony eventually says something about Loki being able to go under tables and beds again, so apparently some sort of rule had been holding him back. It's clear Loki's at least listening now, because he immediately darts under the table as soon as Tony says he can. Loki relaxes a tiny bit under the table but still seems very wound up.
Pepper hesitantly approaches him, not wanting to spook him even more. He eyes her warily but doesn't flinch away this time, which is definitely progress. Maybe he really had been listening to what Tony said the whole time. She hugs him like she did that first day, and after a bit, he leans into the hug.
For a while, she just sits there, hugging Loki and rubbing small circles over his back as she whispers soothing words. Very slowly, he starts to relax.
After a while, his body is no longer tense, and he seems back to normal. He looks at her, his eyes becoming slightly more focused. "Hi." Loki mumbles. "You give really good hugs, maybe even as good as Tony's."
"Tony hugs you?" Pepper asks, surprised. Tony's not exactly the hugging type. He had hugged Loki back that one time Loki had hugged him on the first day, but Tony had done it very awkwardly.
"He hugs me and I hug him, and we make each other feel better. Like friends." Loki nods and claps his hands, suddenly back to being energetic. He stares at Pepper in a way that somehow seems to not look at her at all, yet it's almost like he's rummaging through her insides or something.
"Are you really like Tony?" Loki asks after a bit in a voice with a slight tone of hope.
"What do you mean?"
"Tony said he doesn't hate me and he won't hit me, even though I'm bad. He says I'm not, but..." Loki stops and looks down at Simba, looking like he's trying not to cry.
"You're not bad." Pepper says, pulling Loki in for another hug. "Trust me on this. You are not bad."
"Are we still friends?" Loki asks hopefully. Pepper feels her heart break all over again.
"Of course we are." She tells him. "Don't ever think otherwise."
Tony really dislikes having to just sit there in bed with his broken leg propped up on pillows, but Bruce had very sternly told him not to move, and annoying him really isn't a good idea with a broken leg. Even though Bruce has left the room, Jarvis is currently being a traitor, ready to alert Bruce if he does anything. So Tony reluctantly stays in bed.
Tonight really hadn't gone as planned, Tony thinks with a sigh. Well, that's kind of obvious with the whole broken leg thing, but he had also been planning on showing Loki The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which has a similar message to Beauty and the Beast. He needs to get Loki to understand that even though people may think of someone as a monster because of their appearance, that doesn't mean they are a monster. Although that movie wouldn't help with the whole powers aspect.
Tony honestly doesn't know how much Loki's powers are capable of, and he's not entirely sure if Loki knows what they're capable of either. Before freaking out, the god had looked rather surprised that the teapot and teacup had changed into Mrs. Potts and Chip. Tony's seen Loki's powers do a wide range of things, from transforming things and making those intangible other-Loki's, to moving things telekinetically and having his hands covered in ice. Actually, the ice part might be due to being a Jotun.
He needs to find some movies to help Loki not hate his powers, too, he thinks. He's debated about showing Loki the Harry Potter movies, or at least the first one, except Loki always seems bored during live-action movies for some reason. Besides, he has a feeling Loki wouldn't get past the beginning with the Dursleys without freaking out. Maybe sometime far down the road he'll be able to show it to him, though.
That upcoming Disney movie Clint had mentioned, Frozen, looks like a good candidate, especially since that ice had formed on Loki's hands during some of his nightmares. After one such instance, Jarvis had shown Tony the trailer. It started out with a poem about Elsa living in fear of her icy powers, until one day she let it go and accidentally froze the whole kingdom. Elsa and Loki both have the whole ice thing going for them, and Elsa being scared of her powers seems a lot like Loki too.
It seems like it could be a really good movie for Loki, but some things make him a little worried Loki might react the wrong way. It might be too close for comfort, like Avatar had been. He has a feeling showing Loki that trailer would just make him freak out, especially when it shows some short old guy accusing Elsa of sorcery in a way that clearly says he doesn't like it as well as townspeople reacting in fear when she freezes a fountain. But it's probably one of those happy-ending movies, which would really help get the message of that stuff not being horrible across.
Tony's decided to book a private theater viewing for when it comes out in November, both for their own privacy and because most movie viewers don't like someone commenting on random parts, jumping up and down, and being loud in general.
It's also occurred to him that Bruce will probably object to him crawling under beds and tables, and now that Loki's going under them again, it's going to be hard to reach him to calm him down. It would be nice if he could get Bruce to do it, but shoving the topic of Loki's abuse on him like that would be rather stupid. Bruce seems to have pretty good control over the Hulk in general nowadays, and apparently might have pretty good control even regarding references to the abuse Loki suffered. He hadn't hulked-out this time, but Tony's not sure if that will continue. He sort of hopes so, but Bruce had hulked-out the three times before now, after all. So shoving him into that situation seems sort of risky.
So Tony's not sure how calming Loki down now will work, but it'll probably be interesting, to say the least.
Tony's pulled out of his thoughts when Pepper enters the room. Apparently, Bruce is in the penthouse with Loki now.
Pepper still doesn't give him that lecture, much to Tony's relief. Pepper clearly has a ton of other things on her mind right now.
"What was all of that stuff with Loki about? What was so wrong with the action figures, and what did you mean about him doing nothing wrong? He said something about being bad." Pepper pauses, and Tony sighs, not liking to hear that Loki had said that.
"He has these powers he's terrified of. I don't know how to describe them, but he says they're magic, and I'm starting to wonder if that's not as insane as it sounds. Maybe I'm just insane. Anyways, he does all sorts of stuff with these powers. For example, the toys of me and Bruce used to look like Iron Man and the Hulk, and he just totally changed them. If you noticed Mrs. Potts and Chip from Beauty and the Beast on the kitchen table, well, those used to look totally different. He just... transforms them into something else. That's the coolest and strangest thing he's done."
"Why can't it be magic?" Pepper asks, and Tony looks at her, surprised by her just accepting it. "Seriously, you fight crime with a guy who turns into a huge green guy. That would have been considered magic not too long ago. So maybe this is just something science doesn't understand yet. But if he actually transforms stuff like that, what other explanation could there be right now?"
Tony still hasn't found another explanation, so instead of responding directly to that he just goes on to describe some of the other things Loki's done with his powers, adding that Loki reacts pretty badly- though not quite that badly- every time he uses his powers. The screaming is fortunately a rarity, though.
Pepper sits on the side of the bed Tony's in. "It was horrible, the way he flinched away from me at first. How bad was Loki's life before here? It had to be pretty bad, right?" She looks somewhat pained as she says this. "I remember him saying on the first day that people in Asgard didn't want him and hurt him... it seems like an understatement."
Tony barks out a very unamused laugh. "Hell, yeah. It's way worse than he let on at first. They beat him for being a different race or species or something, and for any time he used his powers. From what I've heard, his whole life story is a couple thousand years of being bullied and abused. Because of them, he actually thinks he deserves all the crap they gave him! He thinks it's okay to beat him senseless just because he naturally has blue skin or when he does anything with his powers. He's had nightmares almost every night about his treatment there."
He realizes he's clenching the blankets in his fists and his voice has raised somewhat, but he doesn't care. "Not anymore. He's never going back there, and I can't wait until Thor shows his face here again..." Tony gives an almost sinister smirk. Avenging Loki is going to be so much fun.
"Loki's lucky to have you as a friend." Pepper says suddenly. Tony really doesn't expect that hearing that sentence would feel so good, but wow, it really does.
For about fifteen minutes, Tony tells Pepper the story of the eighteen days or so Loki has been here. Pepper seems very surprised that Tony's taking Loki to therapy, and she seems very supportive of the idea too.
Eventually, Pepper shifts the conversation to talking about work, which had been one of the reasons she had come over in the first place. She gives Tony a rundown of what's been happening in Stark Industries and brings up that stupid multi-day conference. Tony says that one of the perks of not being CEO is not having to deal with stupid stuff like that anymore, but Pepper claims that, as the owner, he still has to go. She also points out that he can't use Iron Man as an excuse to get out of it. Another reason to hate this broken ankle, Tony thinks.
With both Jarvis and Pepper pestering him about this dumb conference, Tony doesn't think he'll manage to get out of it, although it won't be for a lack of trying.
He brings up Loki, asking what he'll do with the god. He's not sure if Loki could live with another Avenger for a couple days or not, but as of right now it doesn't seem too possible. Perhaps if Loki can get more comfortable with one of them, it might work... but Tony's not sure how likely that is.
Leaving him at Stark Tower with Jarvis and Dum-E would technically be a possibility, since Loki seems rather capable of looking after himself and Dum-E and Jarvis could help with the parts he can't do, like order food. Except they probably wouldn't be able to help with his nightmares, and even though Jarvis and Dum-E are great, leaving Loki without human company for a couple days just seems wrong. Technically, he could probably leave Loki alone with Jarvis in the Malibu Mansion for the majority of the days and be there with him during the nights, but he's not too thrilled with the idea.
He has some time to decide though, and he hasn't even asked Loki's opinion yet.
Eventually, Loki and Bruce come back in the room. Loki's clutching Simba and Toy Stark. He's apparently been drawing, because he hands Pepper a portrait he'd drawn of her in crayon. Pepper seems rather touched.
Loki thrusts a drawing at Tony but Tony doesn't take it, not liking being handed things. A lot of people find that quirk of Tony's really irritating, but Loki doesn't seem to care. Now that he's in Tony's presence, the god leaves Toy Stark laying on the bed but continues to hold Simba as he always does.
Loki sits sideways on Tony's bed and pokes his cast curiously. "What's that?"
Bruce starts explaining it, but Tony's not sure if Loki's taking it in or not, since he's currently running his fingers over the cast with glassy eyes. Eventually, Loki speaks "Bruce said I could draw you a picture, like a get well card, so I did." He lies down on the bed next to Tony, with his head near Tony's elbow and his legs hanging off the side of the bed.
"Hey, seriously, I'm glad you did that wind stuff earlier. This could have been a lot worse if I fell." Tony tells him, hoping he doesn't freak out. In the time between when Bruce and Pepper had been in the room, Jarvis had shown Tony the video footage of today's big incident and there had indeed been that green energy around Loki's hands when the invisible force knocked Tony away from the hole.
"You flew!" Loki says, though he doesn't sound quite as vehement about it as he had earlier.
Loki shows him his drawing, which is double-sided. One side shows Tony and Dum-E, and apparently Jarvis is the wispy thing in the corner. The other side shows Iron Man and Hulk fighting a bunch of gray things. "Like on the screen the first morning." Loki explains. Oh, the incident in Philadelphia with the Doom-bots, though Tony would never have guessed that's what they were in the drawing. "Did you know Bruce says you're not gonna be Man of Iron for a while? But you're better than Man of Iron anyways."
Tony once again is surprised at how good that makes him feel, like Pepper's earlier comment about Loki being lucky to have him as a friend.
"Can you tell Bruce not to be so scared of Hulk-y?" Loki asks suddenly in a voice that's a bit quieter than usual. "I did, but I dunno if I convinced him. He said he's gonna be here for a bit, but I don't think he wants Hulk-y to be here, so he doesn't know for sure if he should be here." That's surprisingly perceptive, Tony thinks as Loki goes on. "But I want Bruce to be here, and I like Hulk-y, even when he's angry and smashes stuff."
Tony replies that he had told Bruce that, and both he and Pepper glance at Bruce, but Loki keeps talking as if he hadn't said anything. "I think he thinks Hulk-y's gonna hurt us, but I don't think so. I think he was angry last time when you hit him with that shooting star thing, and that's why he tried to hit you. But if you don't hit him with shooting stars, maybe he won't try to hit you?"
Tony doesn't point out that the Hulk had been angry before Tony attacked hit him with a repulser blast (he's assuming that's the 'shooting stars' that Loki had mentioned). Tony's not sure if Loki's projecting his own worries about friends starting to dislike him onto the Hulk or if he really thinks the Hulk feels like that.
Loki flicks his fingers a bit and stares at Tony for a while before looking at Bruce. Bruce looks somewhat uncomfortable, but at the same time he seems to love hearing Loki talk about the Hulk with such unconditional acceptance- apparently, Loki's no longer mad at the Hulk for trying to hurt Tony. Tony can see why Bruce would enjoy hearing Loki talk about it.
"Maybe Hulk-y wouldn't smash so much if he had friends." Loki mumbles thoughtfully. "He has friends, actually. I'm his friend and you're his friend, so maybe he won't smash as much." Tony's not sure when he'd been signed up to be Hulk's friend. Yes, they're teammates and Tony doesn't have anything against the Hulk, but he wouldn't say they're friends. He's friends with Bruce, certainly, but not the Hulk.
"You're gonna be here, right?" Loki asks, looking at Bruce. Bruce nods and Loki grins, clapping his hands as he sits up and bounces on the bed slightly, before asking "Can Hulk-y come out sometime?"
I hope nobody was out of character, and that Bruce's part was realistic. I figure being shocked at Loki's treatment also contributed to the Hulk coming out before, and Bruce probably tried to work on suppressing the Hulk like he does in every other everyday situation that makes him angry. Hopefully that didn't seem too farfetched...
I actually went online and looked up stuff about broken ankles and picked one that needed you to stay off your feet. Hopefully I got it right but I know absolutely nothing about orthopedics and have never even broken a bone so I'm just going off a couple quick internet searches.
I have a couple movies planned that you guys haven't mentioned, though you guys hit a lot of the major ones I had planned.
Wow, this story is over 100,000 words already. Unless something goes horribly wrong, I should be able to update once more this month. I have finals next week, but then I'm free!