Chapter Text
“Something about those powers he was sporting doesn't seem right…,” Bruce trailed off.
Tony shrugged. ”Could be related to the glowstick of destiny 2.0. “
“Maybe…”
Jarvis spoke up. “There are faint traces of magic ether lingering on his clothing. It may serve as a way to pinpoint his connection to Loki.”
“Or,” Tony glanced off to the side, “ and just hear me out on this one; we could just ask him.” Bruce gave a resolute no as Jarvis noted the very high percentage of chaos such a maneuver would invoke.
“I would advise against waking him. As is, his biological connection to his powers is latent and non-harmful. Waking him would possibly create a series of haphazard attacks and escape.” Jarvis’ tone was knowing, after having seen the number of shenanigans occur from the Avengers waking up anyone, each other included.
Bruce agreed with Jarvis, “So we keep him asleep.”
“Until… we can talk to him without the magic.” Tony mused, pulling up some holographic screens and testing the measurements they read.
“What?”
“You heard him, the connection to his powers is biological, quantifiable, even. Which means we can work on a buffer that doesn’t require him to roleplay as sleeping beauty.”
Bruce hummed to himself, lost in thought at the possibility. “We do have the rough schematics for Loki’s original inhibitors... it shouldn’t take to long to adjust the parameters…”
“And bing, bang, boom! We’re channel nine news, ready to investigate from the source.”
“I still don’t know, Tony, there’s a possibility that he could wake up during any of this.”
Tony smirked. “Then we send in someone else to handle him.
Steve looked up from his sketchbook in confusion. “Pardon?”
“We need you to go downstairs and hook these up to the masked mystery in the other guy’s room,” Tony explained a second time.
Bruce stepped forward and handed some sensors to Steve. “If we're gonna get a read on whoever this guy is, we'll have to hook him up to some sensors.”
“Um…"
Tony pulled up a holographic screen from his phone and gave it to Bruce. “We’re gonna need you to go downstairs and place these here, here, here, and here,” Bruce said as he pointed to various spots on a human silhouette. “We’ll also need the clothes he’s wearing.”
“Well, what are you waiting for, cap?” Tony clapped him on the shoulder.
“I just don't see why I have to—“
“Steven Grant Rogers, is that whining I hear?” Tony cut him off. At the look Steve directed to Tony, Bruce spoke up again.
“Someone’s got to do it. The armor isn’t delicate enough, to handle a task like this.”
“Not true! And even if it was, Bruce and I need to keep all eyes and ears on the glowstick of doom.”
“Especially now that Clint still has his sights on it.” Bruce looked up warily at the vents in the lab as he spoke, vivid flashbacks of Clint’s many drunken escapades trying to scare out the Hulk by appearing from above were all too prevalent in his memory.
“I know, I—... It’s just, well... speaking of Clint, can’t he handle this?” Steve looked up at the two of them from where he sat, knowing he was slowly fighting a losing battle.
“According to the schedule, it is Captain Rogers’ week to attend to any and all S.H.I.E.L.D.-related matters.” Jarvis’ reminder rang out.
“But I’m no scientist, I can’t—“
“Don’t even try to stall with your All-American apple pie innocence, I know you know how to use Google. Now go forth! For science!” Tony said valiantly as he and Bruce left for the elevator.
The elevator doors slid shut behind them, only to open a second later.
“And if you could bring down some of last nights leftovers for me and Bruicie-Bear, we’d really appreciate it. Ciao!”
Steve stood in front of the hallways to Hulk’s “time-out” chambers (as Tony liked to call them, much to Bruce and the other guy’s chagrin), a pair of casual joggers and a grey tee in his hands from his own wardrobe.
In and out. One quick change so Tony and Bruce could analyze the residue left on not-Loki’s clothes, and then he’d be done for the day.
He pressed his hand to a scanner on the side of the Hulk’s containment pod and stepped inside, warily eyeing not-Loki.
“Right. Sensors.” He looked down at them in his hand and then up at the man’s outfit, internally sighing. This was going to take a minute.
After struggling with the man’s tunic for what felt like an eternity, Steve was finally able to get it off of him. Not-Loki was well-built. Not that Steve was looking. Definitely not looking.
He placed two sensors on his temples, two on his pectorals, and two under his lungs before putting the man’s shirt back on. All that was left were the last two sensors, which Steve remembered he was directed to put on the man’s lower hips. Easy, if he wasn’t wearing such tight pants. He’d have to remove them in order to place anything, and wasn’t that just Steve’s luck?
He sighed, resigning himself to his task.
“I’m sorry about this.” Steve pulled down the man’s pants, only to pause at the sight.
Oh.
Oh.
Steve felt his face heat up and turned his head, hastily pressing the last two sensors down before pulling his hands back.
Holy shit, he was huge. Almost as big as Steve himself, and even he had to admit that
the serum did a little something to him. Steve stared, lost in thought for a moment until he remembered the task at hand—pants.
He pulled off the man’s pants and dressed him in the pair he’d brought down, making sure to be as clinical with the process as he could.
There, done. Now he could get out of there and back to his sketching. Hopefully, that would distract him from thinking about the man’s dick. Steve sighed and looked up at the ceiling, noticing a blinking red light on a surveillance camera.
A surveillance camera?!
That would show everything, including just how long Steve stood like an idiot pervert staring at some stranger’s dick! This was terrible. He’d probably have to ask Jarvis to delete the footage, or he’d never live it down if, no—when Tony and Bruce went back over it to make sure he did his task correctly.
…Unless they were watching him right now!
He babbled apologies to not-Loki and turned to leave before he embarrassed himself further.
Maybe he could make it back upstairs to his room without passing by anyone and leave the strange man’s garments outside the lab for Tony and Bruce. He’d just text Tony to say that he’d placed the sensors accurately and hope they didn’t need him for anything else today.
Anything to keep from running into anyone and risk having to explain why he was so flustered. Steve was not a good liar.