Thunder
Bruce
“FRIEND BANNER!” a voice boomed down the hallway.
I groaned and pulled my pillow over my head. Thor was great, he really was. But he had no sense of boundaries. How early was it?
The god in question stepped over the broken pieces of door into my room. “Stark has told me of your battles since we last met,” he announced. “Asgard celebrates your safe return.”
Giving up on sleep—clearly, Thor was unaffected by the pretense anyway—I rubbed my eyes and sat up blearily. “Hi Thor. How’s New Asgard?” To be fair, I had stayed up later than I should have talking with Nat in the hallway.
“We shall rebuild a nation even more glorious than before!” He tossed his half-eaten apple—breakfast?—in the air and caught it before taking another enthusiastic chomp.
“Great, that’s…great.” Being woken up early did not do wonders for my vocabulary.
“Good to see you too, brother.” I wondered how long Loki had been leaning casually against the doorframe before speaking.
“You could have told me you were in pursuit of our friend’s captors,” Thor admonished. “I would have joined you.”
“You had a country to rule, you big oaf.” Thor tossed the apple core at Loki, who caught it reflexively. “Thanks for that.” He dumped the core in the compost bin and wiped his hands on his black suit in distaste. “Besides, no offense, but this was a stealth mission. You’ve never been one for subtlety.”
“Look, guys,” I interjected before Thor could take offense. “I never meant to reemerge or have anybody spend time looking for me. I’m sorr—”
Thor looked indignant. “After the battles we have fought together, you thought the Revengers would be unconcerned by the loss of one of their own?”
“Nobody calls us that. But I agree with the spirit of what Thor is saying,” Loki added hastily when Thor turned towards him angrily. “Just… not a huge fan of the name.”
I sighed heavily, deflated by the weight of all the worry and searching I had inadvertently caused. “Look, I am so, so sorry. I never meant for any of this to happen.”
“The important thing is that you are alive and safe,” Thor pronounced, clapping me on the shoulders so hard I nearly fell off the edge of the bed. He missed the flinch of pain and following tension as I tried to keep the memories under control, but Loki was watching me intently from the door, face betraying nothing.
“Really, brother, must you always be so violent?” Loki murmured admonishingly.
“Sorry, friend Banner. I forget you are not as rugged as your counterpart.”
“S’fine,” I said through gritted teeth. “Glad to see you doing so well too, pal.” Thor was astonishingly chipper for a man who had lost his father, murderous secret sister, eye, home planet, and beloved hammer.
“Join us in the great hall for feasting and revelry!” Thor proclaimed.
“It seems Vision is making pancakes,” Loki noted with a hint of distaste. “I do believe the creature is fond of you, brother.”
Thor grinned. “My lightning flows through his veins as surely as the lifeblood of a man.”
“That sounds wrong,” I muttered, and quickly changed the subject. “Where’s everyone else?”
“Last I checked, Rhodes is trying to find where I’ve wandered off to, Stark is in his lab updating the security systems, Selvig is in his own lab as well, hopefully oblivious to our proceedings entirely, the Spider is asleep in his room, and I haven’t seen Romanoff since last night’s parley,” Loki recited without missing a beat. “I half-expected to find her in here with you.”
I blushed furiously. “No, nothing of the sort. Nat and I, we’re—we just—we’re not—”
Thor laughed. “Save it Banner, we all know you two have been pining after each other since before the Vision was birthed from my hammer.”
“That sounds so wrong,” I protested as I let myself be guided towards the gaping hole of a doorway. “Do you not hear how wrong that sounds?”
“Describe me as pining one more time and I’ll remove the other eye from your skull.”
A ghost of a smile touched Loki’s face as he nodded welcome to the assassin. “Good morning, Romanoff.”
Nat barely paused as she continued down the hallway. “I heard there were pancakes. If you want any, you have five minutes to get there before Spider-kid and I finish them.”
“Isn’t Peter still asleep?” I asked. There had been no sound from the near-adjacent room…but then again, the kid could climb on walls and spin webs.
Nat flashed a grin at me. “He was, until Thunder here woke the whole compound. Probably a good thing, though—Vision’s pancakes needed a human touch.”
“If by human touch, you mean chocolate chips, I’m all over that,” I said, falling into step with her. Nat’s hand found the curve of my elbow, and I relaxed into the reassuring warmth.
“I’m sure that could be arranged.”
Behind us, I heard Thor start to say something, only to have Loki cut him off by punching him in the arm. “Just let it happen, brother,” Loki murmured.
Peter
“I know that’s what the recipe says, but this is the right way to do it,” I insisted. “Butter first, then batter, then a handful of the chips—no, a bigger handful, and sprinkle them evenly—then wait to flip until you see the little air bubbles. When both sides are done there should be a brown crispy ridge around the edge.”
“Butter increases the fat content of the meal without adding much else in nutritional value. Why apply it between every set of pancakes?”
“Here’s the thing about fat, Vis. It’s delicious. Also, pancakes are pancakes. They aren’t supposed to be the world’s most nutritional food.” I reached around a maroon arm and flipped two pancakes at once. Enhanced agility had its perks in the kitchen, especially when trying to cook around an unusually sentient android.
A fire alarm started beeping overhead and Vision looked mildly concerned, which, as far as I could tell, was the most distress his features were capable of displaying.
“Don’t worry about that!” I said quickly. “It’s just the chocolate stuck to the pan. Here, fan the fire alarm.” I thrust a towel into his hands and he floated up to the ceiling and waved the rag awkwardly beneath the sensor.
“Can’t leave you alone for fifteen minutes before you try to burn the house down,” Mr. Stark joked, wandering in and snagging a pancake off the stack.
“Sorry Mr. Stark! Nothing is actually on fire, it’s just the—”
“Mmm, chocolate chips. You’re forgiven.” Mr. Stark swallowed the experimental bite and reached for the butter.
“The pancakes have already been cooked in large quantities of butter,” Vision informed him.
Mr. Stark rolled his eyes and continued slathering the pancake. “That’s how food works. Cook it in butter and add more butter after.”
“I told you so,” I mouthed in Vision’s direction, tossing a handful of chocolate in my mouth. That’s how we were when Thor, Black Widow, Dr. Banner, and Loki made their way to the kitchen—Mr. Stark with his mouth full, Vis still hovering in confusion by the fire alarm, me flipping pancakes while eating almost as many chips as I added. Thor’s face lit up and he reached for the plate where I had been piling all the finished pancakes, but Mr. Stark smacked his hand away.
“Hey now, share some with the rest of us.”
“You have chocolate on your face,” Thor pointed out.
Mr. Stark shrugged unapologetically. “He’s my intern. I get first crack at his experiments.” While the two were exchanging friendly banter, Dr. Banner slipped away from Black Widow and started poking around for plates and silverware. Loki hung back, seeming to be aware that he was not the most welcome figure in the Avengers’ kitchen.
“Hey FRIDAY, tell Rhodey to get his butt over here if he wants pancakes,” Mr. Stark added. “Oh, and give me a head’s up if Erik happens to come over this way. He might not be all that keen on running into Sneaky here.”
Bruce
Tensions seemed to relax somewhat over breakfast. Holding on to anger and wariness is difficult when enjoying delicious food together. I had learned as much from my stints in various out-of-the-way towns around the world. Breaking bread or drinking tea together fostered trust and had often been a first step in settling in and aiding the locals with whatever ailed them. The pancakes that Vision and Peter had made looked delicious, but they didn’t sit well in my stomach regardless. Maybe it was the tinge of a headache, or the dull throb of my body still trying to leave the lab behind, or maybe that I hadn’t had consistent, normal, “Midgardian” food in who knows how long.
“You’ve got chocolate on your face,” Nat teased, reaching to wipe it way with her thumb. The digit paused on my cheek and she frowned.
“What?”
“You’re warm.” She flipped her hand over and pressed it against my forehead. “Are you feeling sick?”
“What? No, that’s ridiculous. I don’t get sick.”
“Vision? What is Dr. Banner’s body temperature?” Tony interjected.
“102.2 degrees Fahrenheit, or 39 degrees Celsius.”
“I’m not sick,” I insisted. “I don’t get sick.”
“It would be wise for you to report to the medical wing for further examination and tests,” Vision advised.
Something inside me flipped at the suggestion. “No!” I pleaded, standing up unconsciously and backing away from the table, almost knocking over my chair in panic. “No, please, no more tests—” I felt a sharp sting by my neck, and then everything faded away.
Tony
“Huh,” I mused, breaking the awkward silence as I examined the neck of the unconscious man in Thor’s arms. “How long do you reckon that’ll hold?”
“Long enough,” Loki responded smoothly. “It’s enough to knock out Thor for two hours, so it should hold Banner for one.”
Thor looked indignant, but I didn’t give him a chance to respond. “This is your wizardry? Is that safe?” The second part was addressed to Thor.
“Perfectly safe!” Thor assured me. “I would not have administered anything of Loki’s to a friend without having the utmost confidence that it would not hurt them.” Loki shrugged, as if to say fair enough. “I have experienced it myself on several occasions with no ill effects.” There was a story I needed to hear sometime.
“It had become clear to me that Banner was in need of medical attention and would resist unless taken by surprise. I merely supplied my brother with the means, as I anticipated correctly that you would be wary of any action on my part.”
“Well then,” I said, somewhat uncomfortable that the trickster seemed so sincerely invested in my friend’s welfare. “Let’s get him to medical and taken care of before the other guy wakes up to stop us.”