Growing Closer

Steve couldn’t believe what he was seeing. A hole in the world, and through it, space. Schmidt was sucked in, and Steve didn’t stop it. Even if he’d wanted to, which he really didn’t, he couldn’t have. He thought he saw… something moving out in the dark void. And then Schmidt was gone. He saw something drop to the ground as the portal closed and he moved toward it. It looked like… some sort of octopus, sort of, except there was no body, just tentacles. It was black, about the size of Steve’s hand and it wiggled around. It had to be some sort of alien, holy shit. An alien. Steve reached out toward it and it moved toward his hand, and Steve cautiously scooped it up. It clung to his hand like it was cold. Maybe it was. Steve held it closer to his body and went to inspect the controls. Shit.

“I’m sorry little guy, I don’t think either of us is gonna make it. I’m sorry your trip to Earth is gonna be short,” Steve said, clutching it close to him. It wormed its’ way into a tear in his suit along his side and Steve tensed as it tickled him as it wormed along his belly. If it wanted his warmth it could have it, for as long as Steve had it. He felt a sharp pain and a sensation of intrusion in his belly. Then it was gone. He felt around and the creature was gone, too. Well. Shit. There was now an alien in him. Good thing Steve wouldn’t have long to worry about that.

“I think I’m gonna need a raincheck on that dance,” he told Peggy. And when the ice rushed toward him he wrapped his arms around his belly, in some vain hope that perhaps the alien would survive, even if he wouldn’t.

It was dark and he couldn’t feel his body. He was floating in the dark, but it was ok, he wasn’t afraid. It was peaceful here. He remembered what he saw through the portal, an endless void filled with stars. This was kind of like that, but with no stars. Nothing at all, just the black.

Hello? He heard. Or… heard? It wasn’t sound, more like a thought? But not his own, precisely.

Hello? He thought back.

Oh! It worked!

What did?

I tried to connect to your mind, and it worked, I’m pretty astonished.

Wait, I’m confused. There was… there was the plane. I went down. Am I dead?

Not as far as I’m aware. You’re asleep.

So, I’m dreaming?

Not exactly. You’re more like, uh, in a, what’s the word… coma? A coma.

What?!

Wait, wait, you’re fine, you’re fine, you’re just, uh, frozen. It’s very cold outside.

Frozen. How long before I die of hypothermia, I wonder?

I don’t know, how long does a human usually last frozen in ice?

Well, usually they’d be dead long before that, so I don’t know. But as for me… I’m not sure.

You’re different?

Yes, I am. I’m enhanced. But wait, who are you?

You don’t remember? I was with you when you crashed.

…the alien?

Yes, that’s me.

How do you speak English?

I don’t, I speak in concepts, mind-to-mind stuff. Your brain is just interpreting what I send into words, and pretty effectively I might add, I’m impressed. It’s pretty good for a species with no telepathic abilities whatsoever.

Thank you? Ok, so, you’re the alien. You went into my body right before the crash.

I did, yes. I’m still in there. I connected your mind with mine, but the connection is limited, just words, it looks like. Even that is pretty impressive.

Oh. Well, I’m glad I’m not alone, even if it is selfish, since you’re going to die, too, I guess. Or will you?

I don’t think either of us is going to die.

We’re at the bottom of a frozen ocean. I don’t know about you but I can’t live without breathing, or food.

Well, I don’t breathe at all, but that’s beside the point. You’re unconscious, but I’m not, I can feel your body around me. You’re not dying. You’re dormant, but not dying.

How can you tell?

I’m a creature that feeds on energy, I can sense it. There’s tons of energy in your body, chemical and electrical. It’s not diminishing, so I assume you’re not dying.

Oh. So… you’re feeding on my energy?

Not currently. I need it to grow, but I can go without for a while, so I won’t take yours when you’re dormant and can’t make more for yourself.

And if I wasn’t?

I’d ask your permission.

Well, you have it, I suppose. You can live in my body, not like I’m using it right now anyway.

Thank you.

So, you fell through the portal?

Yes.

The portal was into space. You can survive in space?

Yes, I’m pretty tough.

I have so many questions. Are there other alien races? What are your kind called? Wait, what are you called? Do you have a name?

Woah, one at a time. I’ll start with my name. I don’t have one.

Oh, sorry.

Don’t be. What’s your name?

Steve Rogers

Huh, so you have two names?

Yeah, well three actually, it’s Steven Grant Rogers, but I go by Steve. The first two parts my parents gave me and the last one is the name of people in my family, I got it from my father.

Interesting. You want to give me a name?

Uh. I dunno. James?

James what?

Uh. James… Buchannan. Wait why does that name sound familiar? Where did I pull that from?

Did you want an answer to that? The voice sounded sarcastic.

No, no, hold on… oh! James Buchannan was a president. I memorized all of them in order for a project. Don’t remember anything but his name, though.

What about the third name? I don’t have a family to give me a name.

I don’t know, really. I knew someone with the last name Barnes, how does that sound?

James Buchannan Barnes. I like it, it’s interesting. Buchannan. I like the Buchannan part.

Maybe I’ll call you Bucky for short then?

Bucky. I like that even more, yes.

Ok, Bucky, are there other aliens?

Yes. Many, many worlds full of life, some already exploring the stars.

Wow. Do you think we could join them?

I don’t know. Based on your mind, though, I have no doubt. You’re very bright.

Thanks. What are your kind called?

I don’t know, exactly.

You don’t?

Let me explain some stuff about my kind. We live in the Void, the vastness of space, drifting in the black. We feed on energy of many kinds and we can go long periods without it. We are a long lived race, thousands of years. And when we grow old enough, we do not simply die and fade. We split into around a hundred children, and our race goes on. Each child receives a small part of the parent’s memories, it is a random process. I was only recently created, which is why I am very small. I was the last child created, so I am tiny in comparison to my siblings, many of whom are about your size.

Oh, so you’re… a child?

In body. But I received many of my parent’s memories, so I am adult enough in mind.

I see. I think. Do you have a society? How do you find each other if you’re drifting out in space?

I’m not sure. I don’t even know if we have a homeworld. No one I spoke with remembered one. It’s possible we evolved in the Void, and we have no home at all.

Well, you can call Earth home, if you want.

Steve felt a surge of positive emotion, and it took him a second to realize it was coming from Bucky.

Thank you, Steve.

Tell me about your memories, what’s your favorite?

Oh, there’s no question there, the last one.

The last one?

As the last child, I received the memory of my parent’s final time, as they split.

Oh, shit.

No, no, it wasn’t bad, it was… awe inspiring. The memory is so clear. The feeling of the ends of their limbs detaching into new beings. Moving so to spread them as far as possible. Then, finally, the feeling of being so swollen with new life that they could no longer contain it, feeling the squirming pressure within until they released themself into the void.

It sounds scary.

Much less scary than what you felt when you thought you were going to die. My parent knew they would live on in a hundred different parts, they knew that they had succeeded in the first goal they were given, the primary goal of any organism: to propagate. And the feeling of it… it was ecstasy.

That’s… intense.

It was. It’s my favorite memory, and I hope one day I’ll get to experience it myself. Here, let me try to show you.

Steve felt some sort of strange tingling in his brain.

You getting it?

Uh, no, sorry.

Let me try one of mine.

Steve’s mind was filled with space, suddenly. He was floating in the Void, but it was filled with stars. There were feelings, tastes Steve didn’t even have names for. Great warm stars millions of miles away, frozen planets of ice, and comets made of diamond. The memories cut off, leaving Steve reeling.

Wow. It’s beautiful.

It is. But it is lonely, you’re right. I didn’t much care for my siblings, but I didn’t want to be alone.

Why didn’t you care for them?

Well, when the main group of us were born, we were given varying amounts of memories. Many got little to no memories, but we all have one single imperative: to seek energy and grow. Some of my siblings were, well, stupid. Few memories from our parent, just following the imperative. And what do you think was the nearest source of energy?

Oh no.

Yes. I think it’s common, actually. But I and a group of other not stupid siblings escaped the fray. Several of them went off to seek the nearest star to consume.

You can eat stars?

Some of us. It depends on how big we are.

How big do you get?

It varies greatly. Our size is pretty much ours to control. What we first consume is the type of energy we need to sustain ourselves for the rest of our lives. If we consume a whole star we can easily grow to the size of a planet.

Holy shit.

But then you need energy to keep that body going, and they have to go from star to star. The larger the body, the shorter the amount of time before we get hungry. And stars are far apart. There are probably many giant corpses of my kind floating in the Void. I also think that on some worlds we may be called something like ‘Star-eaters’ or some such. I don’t want that, but not all of my kind are like me. I have no interest in being a monster. Anyway, a group of us split off, but several of them were displeased at having one as small as me with them, they pushed me around, threatened to consume me. Then the portal opened and I slipped through while they were fighting over who would consume the red thing that came through.

So they…?

I would assume so.

Oh. Yeah I don’t really feel bad about that.

There was an awkward silence.

Do you think they’ll find us soon?

I don’t know. It could be a while. If you want I can let you go to sleep, and you’ll wake up if we’re rescued.

What about you?

I’ll go dormant, too.

What if I die, what happens to you?

I’ll leave your body and seek energy elsewhere. But you won’t die. But, if you do start to, should I wake you?

Yes. I’d like to face it with my eyes open. Metaphorically.

If you want I’ll pass messages on for you to another human.

Thanks Buck. Ok, sleep well, then.

And he was asleep. It wasn’t a dreamless sleep, though, not like just being unconscious. He had no nightmares, just dreams of the universe, the silent black expanse filled with stars gently floating by.

Steve, Bucky’s voice was in his head. Steve came, well, not awake, but conscious.

Am I dying?

No. You’re being rescued. They moved us, and now we’re thawing. You’re waking up.

Oh. Wow. Do you know how long we were asleep?

No, I was asleep, Bucky replied blithely.

Well I dunno what kinda fancy alien powers you have, Steve teased. Bucky huffed.

Then Steve woke up, for real. He could feel his body again, after what felt like hundreds of years floating in the Void in his dreams. It was so shocking that Steve immediately sat up straight. He felt some resistance and felt extremely cold and numb. He heard several muffled screams and he realized they were still defrosting him. They’d probably thought he was dead and then he sat up, he’d probably have screamed too. He heard a muffled voice talking, there must be ice in his ears. Steve shrugged and unstuck his right arm from his side, but his left was stubborn and he was worried he’d tear his skin since he couldn’t feel it. He felt a sensation of warmth on his hand and he reached out, there was some sort of thing there putting out heat, and also making noise?

He felt around it and came in contact with a hand, oh, it was a handheld thing, a hairdryer? It was a hairdryer, or something close. Steve gently closed his hand around the handle and the person holding it relinquished it. Steve pointed it at his face, particularly his eyes and ears. Soon enough there was water running out and he could hear clearly, he thought, but no one was speaking. He pointed it at his eyes until he could open them. He looked around as he pointed the hairdryer at the other ear. There was a slightly alarmed older man in a suit and several people in lab coats all holding hairdryers and looking awed. Well Steve guessed it wasn’t every day one saw a dead man bust out of a block of ice.

“Captain Rogers?” the man in the suit said.

“Thanks for the rescue,” he said with a smile. “How long was I under there?”

They all glanced nervously at each other and the smile dropped off his face.

“That long, huh?” he said quietly.

“It’s been… about seventy years, Captain,” the man in the suit said.

“Oh. Damn. That’s a long time,” Steve said. It was all he could think to say. He pointed the hairdryer at his left arm on autopilot. The labcoats took this as a signal to come closer and start melting the rest of him. Soon enough he was mostly free and he crunched his way off the table, leaning on it for support for a second. He shook himself like a dog.

“Is there somewhere I can get a hot shower around here?” he asked.

“Of course, right this way,” the suit said.

“What’s your name?”

“Agent Phil Coulson.”

“Agent of…?”

“SHIELD. It’s an organization founded by one Peggy Carter,” Coulson looked at him with a smile.

“Peggy. Is she…?”

“She’s alive, but she’s very old, Captain Rogers.”

“She’d be in her nineties.”

“She is. She’s still quite sharp some days, from what I’ve heard.”

“Some?”

“She’s got Alzheimers, she forgets things, when she is, who people are.”

“Oh. Shit.”

“She’s lived a long, full life.”

“A family?”

“Yes, a good one. A family and a career as one of the most feared and respected women in the world for almost forty years.”

“That’s Peggy. And this is her organization?”

“It is. Here’s the showers,” he said. Steve nodded and went into the shower room. He stood under cool water that felt boiling on his skin. He slowly turned up the temperature. He put a hand on his stomach.

Bucky?

I’m here.

Steve sighed in relief, he’d been worried that Bucky had been a dream.

Are you ok?

It’s harder to connect to your mind when you’re awake and focused on other things, but I got the gist of everything. I’m sorry it’s been so long.

Everyone I know is dead or they’ve lived their entire lives without me.

This Peggy was important to you?

I’d have married her, if things had gone differently.

Married?

Like, promised to stay with her forever, have kids together, all that.

Ah, yes, you have sexual reproduction right? I’ve got some memories of species like that, you need two of you.

Well not just any two, but yes.

I’m sorry you didn’t get to bear her children.

Steve snorted out loud and in his head.

I wouldn’t bear her children, other way around.

Ah. So it’s a set role then, only some people bear the children?

Yes, women, I’m a man.

From the couple memories I got impressions of I’d assumed you were the woman.

What? Why?

Because you seem more sensitive and nurturing, I suppose? And also traditionally the female is the more demure, right? Of the two of you, it just seemed like you.

Steve chuckled, Well, you’ve got me there, I guess, she definitely wore the pants in our relationship. You know she shot at me four times?

Did she hit you?

No, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t serious.

I see. I think you would have had wonderful children. They would have been insane.

Thanks, Buck, Steve thought with a small smile.

They got him ‘settled in the new century’ which apparently meant leaving him by himself in an apartment and sending him to talk to some woman who asked him about his feelings. She wasn’t very helpful.

Hey, Steve?

Yeah?

You’re pretty established, right, and you have easy access to food?

…yeah, they give me all I want, it’s pretty great, why?

Well, I wanted to know if that offer of your energy still stood.

Of course, I thought you’d already started. Actually, hold on.

Steve went into his bedroom and got under the covers, pulling them over his head. He was just sitting in his underwear anyway so he didn’t have to get undressed. As soon as he’d been introduced to the idea of security cameras that were tiny and able to be hidden anywhere, he’d known that there was something like that in his apartment. He didn’t know if it was to keep him from running or killing himself or what, but he knew they had to be there. He lay on his back, sitting up, and looked at his stomach.

Can you come out?

Why?

Just… look, don’t be offended, but there’s a small part of me that thinks that you’re not real, and seeing you would definitely alleviate that some.

I’m not offended. Sure, hold on.

Steve felt a sense of pressure in his bellybutton and Bucky emerged with only a little blood. Shit, Steve should have brought a towel. He tried to catch the blood in his hands, but then Bucky spread out a little and seemed to absorb it, leaving only stains on his skin.

Neat. Can you still hear me?

I’m still touching you aren’t I?

Yeah. You’re pretty adorable, you know? Steve said, petting Bucky’s main body and smiling at the tentacle wrapped around his hand.

Bucky wiggled indignantly, I am not, I’m a fearsome creature of the Void! I eat stars!

Ok then fearsome creature, is there a reason you want my energy over other stuff? You could take a little from a star, or even our sun, why do you need me?

For one, I’m not quite convinced the other humans won’t kill me if they found me, so hiding in you is a good bet. And two, the type of energy we take in is important, it shapes us and our abilities. I don’t want to be some distant creature of the Void, I want to meet people, and growing on your energy will help.

Help meet people or eat people?

Well, both, but I’m not going to be eating people. I don’t know what kind of abilities I’ll get, but I think it may benefit you too, somehow? The memories are fuzzy.

Well, I guess it’ll be a fun surprise.

So you’ll still let me?

Yes, but, I mean, I assume I won’t die, right?

No, no. Well. You shouldn’t.

Steve snorted quietly and scooped Bucky up in his hand, and Bucky scrunched up, clinging around his hand tightly. Steve felt a small burst of fear from Bucky, and it made his heart hurt. Bucky was so tiny, and Steve picking him up was the equivalent of him putting his hands around another person’s neck and them trusting him not to squeeze. Even if he trusted Steve, it was still a little scary. Steve petted him gently.

I used to be real small, too. Smaller than everyone else.

Oh. You were. I’m getting the impressions of you looking up at people all the time.

Yeah, I was pretty shrimpy. I hated being sick all the time, but I didn’t really mind being short and skinny, I just hated being weak. If the serum had done nothing to change my appearance but had made me strong, I would have been just fine with that. Really it would have been better tactically, being underestimated has its advantages.

Well, there’s small and then there’s tiny, and I’m not very useful at a tiny size.

He set Bucky back on his stomach and he burrowed back inside. It barely hurt at all. After a few moments Steve abruptly felt hungry. He went into the bathroom and took a shower to wash off the blood, then he went to the kitchen to eat.

Things went on like normal for a while. Eat, sleep, watch TV, read, repeat. Steve would have been bored and lonely, but it was impossible to be bored with Bucky in his head. They got along famously, each of them showing the other things and experiencing new things together.

Do you think it’s weird that they’re leaving you alone? Bucky asked.

What do you mean? Like they’re not following me?

No, I’m sure they are, but I mean alone socially. Like, they think you’re all alone in the future, so they just stick you in this apartment and leave you? That doesn’t sound like a good thing.

Shit, you’re right. That is pretty messed up, do they want me to kill myself? I thought they were trying to prevent that, isn’t that what the therapy is for?

Honestly, no, I don’t think so. Think about it like this: if you have nothing and no one in your life but SHIELD, you’re gonna be pretty motivated to do what they tell you. I think the therapist is part of it, remember how she was talking about finding a purpose and all that shit? What do you bet she wants you to pick for a purpose? Because I’m betting it’s ‘SHIELD puppet’.

Fuck. You might be right. But… I don’t want SHIELD to operate like that. Peggy started this organization, I don’t want to believe it’s that shady.

Steve, Peggy hasn’t been directly involved in SHIELD in twenty-five years. Things can change a lot in that time, you remember all the stuff that happened in that time period, from the book?

Yes. Fuck I think you’re right. That damn therapist never felt right. I knew she wasn’t trying to help me. Fuck therapy, I’ll just talk to the voice in my head like a normal person, Steve said sarcastically.

Exactly. Of course I, a voice in your head, know more about human psychology than trained therapists.

Bucky had really taken to sarcasm.

Then all hell broke loose, Fury himself came to visit Steve in the gym and gave him a mission to ‘save the world’.

This guy’s a little dramatic, don’t you think? Bucky commented, and Steve agreed.

Steve was impressed with the hellicarier, he’d give them that. Less so with the Asgardians.

The Asgardians know my kind. I don’t know anything else though, except that that Thor guy is a prince, and also he seems like a douche.

Agreed.

They defeated Loki much too easily and returned him to the hellicarier. Then they saw it.

Steve, that spear, it has a similar energy signature to the thing that made the portal I fell through.

The Tesseract? Is it like one of the weapons Hydra made with Tesseract energy?

No, this is different. A different power altogether, and just as strong. I don’t think you understand what you’re dealing with here, this is… this is the power of the universe, Steve. Untold power. More than a sun. More than a hundred suns. If I had that thing I could be the size of a planet and never want for energy as long as I had it, all my life, thousands of years, and when I died it would still have power.

Do you want that? Steve asked neutrally.

What would you do if I said yes?

I would get it for you. They’d never see it coming, I’m sure.

You would trust me with that kind of power?

Yes. You see into my mind but I can see yours, too. Not as much as you can see mine, of course, since I’m a ‘lesser mind,’ but I know that you’re good, that you don’t want to hurt anyone. If there was anyone who I’d trust with that kind of power it would be you. I think you’d make a great planet.

Thanks Stevie. I don’t want it, but I think you knew that.

I did.

Also I've already committed to taking in energy from organic life anyway so I wouldn't be able to use that even if I wanted it.

“Cap, you ok there? You’re staring at the spear kind of hard,” Tony said.

“I’m fine, I was just lost in thought.”

The others entered the room and Steve felt a strange sensation in his mind. He saw the others fighting.

The damn spear is influencing them! Bucky said. It’s not getting us because of me!

How do we stop them? There’s a lot of power in this room, Buck, if they all started fighting they’d level the carrier!

The spear serves Loki, grab it and we’ll see if we can get it to switch allegiances!

Steve jumped and grabbed the spear, and he shuddered as he felt it brush their minds. It had a mind, but not like theirs. It wasn’t primitive, it was ancient, and massive, unknowable.

Please, please don’t hurt them, Steve whispered in his mind. It was all he could do. He felt… acceptance, from the spear, and the field of influence stopped. Everyone abruptly looked confused. Steve quickly put down the spear, hoping they wouldn’t notice. No luck.

“Cap, what did you do?” Tony asked.

“I… the spear was influencing you all. Making you fight.”

“How did you know this?” Thor asked.

“Why weren’t you affected?” Fury asked.

“I… I think it was because I had prior contact with the cube. They’re connected, so maybe that’s why?” Steve said, shrugging. “Maybe my brain is on a different wavelength from all of yours because of the serum, who knows. It doesn’t matter now. We’ve got bigger problems.”

“I dunno, Cap, I think I’d like an expl-” Tony was cut off by an explosion. Steve moved to cover Banner, who was closest and in the most danger. They fell through a floor and landed relatively unharmed with Steve on all fours over Banner. Banner was panicking, breathing rapidly, and he looked up at Steve in fear, his eyes growing green. Shit.

“Dr. Banner, Bruce, look at me, you’re ok,” Steve said. He took one of the man’s hands and put it to his own chest, where he knew his heartbeat could be felt through this stupid thin costume SHIELD had given him. “Feel my breathing, my heartbeat, match me, you’re ok,” Steve said.

I’ll try to calm him down, subtly, Bucky said. He felt Bucky working through his touch. Huh, he didn’t know Bucky could do that. Slowly the green faded from the man’s eyes. He heaved a sigh of relief.

“Thank you. H-how were you so steady? Your heart wasn’t even racing… Weren’t you afraid?”

“I learned a long time ago how to control fear,” Steve said as he helped the man up. “All that stuff about me being fearless is bullshit, it’s just, well, you know about fight or flight, I assume?” he said with a small smile.

“Yes?” Bruce said, looking confused.

“Well, I think my switch is stuck on fight,” Steve said, grinning.

Bruce blinked up at him, then he smiled. “Oh, I see.”

“It’s probably best you find a nice quiet spot to hide for now. If we need you we’ll call.”

“Yeah, got it,” he said, hurrying off. Steve jumped up through the hole they’d fallen through. Then he raced off to help where he could.

They kept the carrier in the sky, but barely. Agent Romanov secured Agent Barton and they got there just in time to rescue Agent Coulson from Loki. Thor was unfortunately dropped out of the hellicarier but they figured he’d be ok. More importantly they knew where Loki was headed.

The portal opened and more aliens poured out.

Do you know who they are?

I’m not a damn encyclopedia of aliens, Steve! he huffed indignantly.

Worth a try.

The battle was fierce until Tony took the missile through and they all collapsed. But Tony survived. And before Steve knew it the man was offering him a place in his tower. They accepted, to get out from under SHIELD, even if they were turning one form of surveillance for another. Steve decided he wanted to take up painting again. He had time and resources, now. He painted space, as he’d seen in Bucky’s memories. His first work was a nebula seen from a distance, a thousand points of light in the scape of stars. Steve was pretty proud of it, and Bucky was impressed, too. He hung it up on the wall. He painted it all, the gas clouds, the marbled planets, the asteroid fields. They made them both happy.

Tony walked into Steve’s apartment, turned pale, and walked right back out, refusing to speak about it after.

Steve ate truly ridiculous amounts of food and after a while he could feel Bucky inside him. He sat with a hand on his stomach in his huge bathtub, luxuriating.

It’s so weird that I can feel you now. It’s like a weight deep in my belly.

I’m not very large, only like the size of a cat. I’m just really dense. Soon I’ll have to spread out into your limbs to keep from showing on the outside.

Do it, when you need to.

Steve trained constantly, making sure he always knew exactly how to move to compensate for the extra weight of Bucky. Soon enough Steve felt something like a growing pain in his thighs.

I can alter my shape how I wish, make as many or few limbs as I need, I can split them up until they’re as fine as hairs, and scrunch or lengthen them as needed. So that’s what I’m doing with my lower limbs, spreading downward in hundreds of thin strands woven through your muscles. I can alter my shape and shift my mass around pretty much as I please, but I can’t lessen how much mass I have, of course, I can only grow. It’s just a matter of finding a place to distribute my body. This should be the least visible and give me the most room, Bucky explained.

I see. That’s so nifty, Steve enthused. Steve took a lot of hot baths and it helped his aching muscles. Working out also helped, so he did that a lot, running on the treadmill and spacing out while talking to Bucky for hours, not really paying attention to what he was doing.

They went into battle and Steve kicked some giant bug thing. He was surprised when it flew much farther than he expected. It wasn’t that it was lighter, Steve could feel the weight of it when he punched, but his kick was simply much stronger than he’d anticipated. There was only one other explanation.

Hey, do you think you’re making me stronger?

Sort of, but not exactly. My tendrils, when I’m not actively moving them, are acting like a part of your body. They’re entwined with your muscles and anchored to your bones, so when your brain sends the electrical impulses to your muscles my tendrils respond as well. In essence you’ve just gained a bunch of new muscle.

The treadmill would have been boring, but Steve had Bucky. He’d tried jogging outside but the paparazzi were merciless. They talked for hours while Steve jogged on autopilot. Well, he said jogged but his jogging was a normal person’s running, and his sprint could match a car over short distances. It felt good afterwards, he felt settled and his muscles felt happier and more accepting of Bucky’s tendrils. Steve guessed he was teaching them to work together or something. The jogging was so peaceful, so he ended up doing a lot of it. He just kind of ignored his body during, his mind turning inward toward Bucky.

He found it a lot easier to ignore his body these days, after spending so long disconnected from it. He’d been asleep under the ice, but he hadn’t been unaware, exactly. He’d dreamed, and he was pretty sure Bucky had the same dream. He dreamt of floating through the sea of stars. And every night since he and Bucky had shared dreams like that, but it wasn’t lonely like Bucky’s memories, there was always the sense of the other’s presence, comforting them.

Steve realized he’d been jogging for like five straight hours so he went back to his apartment to eat, he was starving. Then another soak in the tub was in order. Steve was pretty happy.

Eventually Bucky had to start expanding upward. He was already integrated into the entirety of his legs and his abdominal muscles and had filled up his whole abdominal cavity. He only ran a few tendrils into his chest cavity, since there obviously wasn’t room to spare in there. He mostly ran along the outside, wrapping around his ribs so tightly it was like they were spools of twine surrounded in tendrils. It strengthened his ribs substantially, reinforcing them heavily enough that he took a bullet directly to the rib and it didn’t even break. The Avengers were astonished and Steve just barely managed to escape an x-ray, which would have undoubtedly shown some very strange things. Steve was concerned about Bucky but he insisted he was fine, and he seemed to be.

Do you think I should tell the team? Steve asked that evening as he pulled off the bandage. There was a significant hole over the rib still, but it was healing.

Tell them what? ‘Hey guys, by the way there’s an alien inhabiting my body but don’t worry I promise it isn’t influencing my mind at all!’

Do you think they’ll think that?

Wouldn’t you be concerned if there was an unknown entity inhabiting one of your teammates body? Don’t you think mental influence may come up?

Probably, Steve thought with a sigh.

Can I try something? Bucky asked, changing the subject.

Sure, Steve agreed.

Tell me if this hurts.

Oh boy.

Steve braced himself but no pain was forthcoming. He didn’t feel anything and then suddenly he saw a thin black tendril emerge from his wound. Steve’s eyes widened in shock. He brought his hand up to the wound and the tendril wrapped around his finger.

Woah. I feel like this should hurt.

I’m experimenting with blocking pain. I’m wrapped around your spine, connected to your nerves, and I’ve figured out which signals are pain. So as long as you get hit in places that aren’t your face it shouldn’t hurt.

Huh, Steve said. He poked himself in the wound, but he didn’t feel anything.

Holy shit that’s useful, Steve said in astonishment.

I’m going to try to heal the wound, stand by.

Steve watched in astonishment as the wound filled with some sort of black goo. He poked it and it was like some sort of resin, there was a little give to it but not a lot.

Well that’s more visible than I’d hoped, Bucky said.

That seems like it’d be very useful for stopping internal bleeding, though.

It would take a lot to pierce you at this point, I’m woven through all your muscles and I’m super dense, it’s like you’re made of Kevlar at this point.

Well, that’s comforting. I guess I’ll try not to get hit with armor piercing rounds.

Please do.

Bucky spread slowly through his arms and Steve started hitting the bag to get his muscles used to Bucky like he had with the jogging. His wound closed like any other and left no noticeable difference on him.

So, Buck, I had an idea, Steve said while they were in the bath.

Why do I sense I may not like it?

You want to improve your healing technique, and it would obviously be good for me if you did, so what if I-

Steve, no.

But Bucky, what if I’m seriously hurt and you can’t heal me quick enough? Steve wheedled.

You’re evil for doing that. Fine, top of the thigh.

Steve grinned in victory and grabbed his straight razor. He made a single quick cut along the top of his thigh, and it didn’t hurt, because Bucky had pretty much mastered the numbing. After a moment the cut healed in black. They tried several more but with the same results. Bucky was disappointed but Steve shrugged and went to eat more, all the healing had left him famished.

Steve was eating some bacon and eggs he’d made in the common room a couple days after that when the rest of the team came in. He smiled at them,

“Hey, you want some breakfast? I made extra,” Steve said.

“Yeah, sure, thanks Steve,” Tony said. They all got some food and sat with him.

“So, Steve, do you want to do some team training today?” Tony asked lightly.

Steve smiled, “That sounds great, what did you have in mind?”

“Just, uh, maybe some sparring, see how that goes?” Tony said, looking a little uncertain. He glanced to Natasha and her face looked approving. What was going on? They went down to spar after digesting a little. Steve ended up facing down Clint, and Clint was fast but Steve was faster, Clint was strong but Steve was stronger. Clint knew that, though, so he played to his skills and techniques, where he had Steve beat. They’d sparred before and they both could win some of the time, but mostly Steve only won because all he had to do was get ahold of Clint and it was his victory, since he could crush Clint’s limbs with little effort if he wanted.

But this time was different, Steve realized it immediately. He matched Clint blow for blow, anticipating and dodging, like he knew what Clint was going to do. He realized with a start that he did, holy shit! Whenever he and Clint made skin-to-skin contact, Steve got a brief flash of what Clint was planning. Not thoughts, just an impression, his own openings, the feeling of the kick Clint was planning. Steve realized that he would have no explanation for suddenly being able to beat Clint easily, so he lost immediately, taking a kick to the neck and going down. Clint offered him a hand up and Steve took it, holding on as long as possible without it being weird. He didn’t get much, just a general sense of worry. Was he concerned about the blow to Steve’s throat? Steve had to let go of his hand but he smiled at him to show he was ok. Hopefully he wasn’t worried anymore. They all kept sparring for a while until they were tired, so they hit the showers and called it a day. Steve went back to his apartment to talk to Bucky. It was hard to talk with Bucky while he was focused on stuff outside his own mind, like other conversations.

So, it looks like I can get impressions now, too, Steve said.

Looks like it. Pretty cool, huh?

I don’t know how useful it’ll be in battle since I have to have contact, but it could still be useful.

Steve, I think I’m nearly out of room, Bucky said one night a few days later.

Ok, what now?

Well, I can start to very very slowly thicken the strands in your muscles. It’ll be visible, but you’ll look like you’re just getting more muscular.

Well I have been exercising a lot lately, maybe they’ll think I have actually gained muscle. Is there another option?

No others that would be as subtle. Or I can leave.

Let’s hold off on you leaving for as long as possible. If need be I’ll take a vacation.

Bucky started to thicken the strands running all over his body. Steve looked at himself in the mirror daily so Bucky could make sure he wasn’t making one side of Steve look thicker than the other or something. It was a very slow process, Bucky had brought down his growth rate to the absolute minimum it could go at without stopping.

Steve was fighting again, Doombots this time, and he was honestly having fun. There was no guilt involved in fighting robots, he could just rain down destruction. Honestly, he totally understood why the Hulk liked smashing so much, he looked like he was having fun too. Then he heard Hawkeye over the com,

“Fuck!” he exclaimed, his breathing going rapid over the line. “Fuck, I’m hit bad,” he gritted. Steve immediately started ploughing toward Clint’s nest, not bothering to hide how much stronger he’d gotten. He found him in under a minute, already unconscious. He was hit by a bullet from a turret bot in the gut, fuck.

Steve hold your wrist to his wound, Bucky said, and Steve did, pulling off his glove. Clint was unconscious so Steve got no impressions from him, but he felt Bucky’s tendrils in his arm moving as several of them emerged from his wrist and dove into Clint. He could sense what Bucky did, damage, heavy damage, but… not unfixable damage, thank fuck. Bucky got to work as quickly as he could, fixing leaks and repairing organs with the healing goo, learning how to do it on the fly, since he’d never done organs before. It seemed to be working.

He’s lost a lot of blood, Bucky said.

Can you give him mine? Wait shit we aren’t the same type.

I can make some fluid from his blood that I’ve absorbed to inject into his veins to keep his pressure up, stave off shock, it would have to mostly come from you though.

Do it.

Bucky filled Clint’s veins with whatever mixture he was cooking up and Steve heard a noise. He whipped his head toward the sound, readying his shield, but it was Natasha. Oh shit, why couldn’t it have been a robot?

Buy time! I’m not done! Bucky said frantically.

“Steve, what are you doing?” Natasha said, walking over rapidly.

“Uh, keeping pressure?” Steve said.

“With your wrist?” she asked, raising a brow.

“Yeah?”

“Look, I don’t care, you’re helping him, right?”

“Yes, of course,” Steve said fervently.

“Then you keep doing that and I’ll watch your back,” she said, her face determined and fire in her eyes. Woe be unto any robots who tried to get past Natasha Romanov when her partner was down behind her. Bucky worked as quickly and effectively as he could while Natasha fought off several robots. Finally Bucky was done sealing all the major wounds and bleeds. His tendrils retreated and Steve pretended to check the entrance wound. He sighed,

“It’s done, he’s ok,” Steve said. He got up and moved Clint to a safer spot, then he showed the robots no mercy.

They still took Clint to the medical center, and they checked him over and declared him fine. He remained unconscious and Steve and Natasha sat at his bedside.

“What did you do?” Natasha asked, sounding impressed.

Steve had had a bit of time to prepare a good lie.

“The serum repairs my cells, and if I do a direct transfer like that it takes it a few minutes to realize it’s not in my body anymore. It doesn’t last long, and it shouldn’t have any lasting effects.”

“I see. And how did you discover this?”

“Gabe was injured, in the war, and I made a last ditch effort to save him, I was hoping I could transfer the serum. I didn’t actually expect it to work, though,” Steve said with a smile.

She looked at Clint, face serious, “I’m glad it did. Thank you.”

“Anytime,” Steve replied back.

Not too long after that they were lying in bed, about to sleep.

Can I try something? Bucky asked.

Sure.

This time you should wait until I tell you what it is before you agree. I want to try to run a tendril up your spine into your skull so I can connect directly to your brain.

Oh. Well, you’ve been pretty gentle with the rest of me, so I guess you’re good to poke around in my brain, too.

Alright, hold still.

Steve felt the tendril snaking up the inside of his neck and connecting to his spine, moving upwards. It hurt a little, but not too bad. Then it hit his brain and he could feel the tendrils fanning out, sinking into every crevasse in his brain. He realized he was panting from the bizarre sensation, so he tried to even out his breathing. Soon enough it stopped and Steve lay there, blinking.

Well? Steve asked.

Wow, your brain is amazing, it’s so complex.

Thanks, I guess.

Let me try to share a memory with you, Bucky enthused. And Steve wasn’t Steve anymore, he was a great and vast being, ancient and at the end of his life. Deep in his body he felt the stirrings of many young ones. They strained against his bulging body as he moved through space. He felt the final press outward as his consciousness faded, and he was overwhelmed with joy and happiness, and a deep, deep satisfaction as his mind split apart in a hundred pieces, so that he would live on forever in some small part, just as his parent lived before in him, and his parent’s parent, and so on into infinity.

Steve was himself again, and he thought he was crying there in the space inside his mind.

Steve, Steve I’m sorry, I didn’t-I didn’t think it would be that intense.

No, no, it’s-it’s fine, it was beautiful. Do you have more?

They got lost in the memories, alien worlds and dying suns. Steve shared his memories right back, Bucky allowing them both to experience it like they were living it. Steve showed him his Brooklyn, showed him almost dying of illness, the war, Peggy, her kisses stolen in between tents.

Tony kept an eye on all his new teammates. He knew better than anyone else what self-destructive things people could get up to, that’s why JARVIS had what Tony called his Guardian protocols. If someone sat on the edge of the roof too long JARVIS called someone, if someone wasn’t eating or sleeping like they should JARVIS called someone or spoke to the person, at his discretion. Clint nearly set off that protocol until they realized he was squirrelling food in the vents and eating it in there like a complete weirdo. Not that Tony had any room to talk since he was the reason for most of these protocols. There was also a scale set into the floor of the doorway to the lab, and if Tony dropped too much weight from science binges and forgetting to eat the door wouldn’t open, Pepper, Rhodey, and JARVIS had all conspired against him to put that in.

About two weeks after everyone moved into the tower JARVIS spoke to him.

“Sir, a word?”

Tony furrowed his brow. “Yeah, what is it Jarv?”

“One of the members of the team is exhibiting… abnormal behavior, not anything that has tripped the Guardian protocols, but abnormal nonetheless.”

“Well, that is concerning. Enough to override the privacy protocol?” Tony asked. JARVIS was

programmed not to report anything about the movements or activities of anyone unless he felt it was necessary for their health.

“I think so.”

“Ok, lay it on me.”

“Captain Rogers has been spending excessive amounts of time jogging and staring into space.”

“That’s it?”

“This is from yesterday,” JARVIS said in lieu of answering. There was a video of Steve running on the treadmill, well it looked like running to Tony but according to Steve’s charts from SHIELD his jog was a normal person’s run. The video started to fast forward and switched to Steve’s face, which was weirdly blank, like he wasn’t even there.

“Captain Rogers kept this pace for five hours.”

There was another video of Steve laying in his bed, his hands folded over his stomach. His eyes were open but unfocused.

“Captain Rogers lay here motionless for an hour.”

“Ok, yeah, that’s weird. It could be, what, some kind of dissociation?”

“Perhaps. It’s hard to tell.”

“Keep watch, tell me if something changes.”

Steve kept dissociating or whatever but he seemed happy enough. He smiled and joked with the team, played around, etc. Tony concluded it must just be some sort of meditation thing. Then he noticed that Steve seemed to be hitting a lot harder than he had been. Not like he was more ruthless, just hitting harder, like he was stronger. Maybe all that damn jogging was doing something for him. Then JARVIS spoke again,

“Sir, Captain Rogers has just tripped the blood sensor in his bathtub,” JARVIS said.

“What? How much?” Tony asked, alarmed.

“Not enough to indicate he’s in danger, but enough to trip the sensor,” JARVIS said.

Anything more than about a shaving cut’s worth of blood would trip the sensor.

“You think he’s cutting?” Tony asked evenly.

“Captain Rogers is currently uninjured and there were several distinct blooms of blood detected in the bath. It seems likely.”

“Fuck. Call Clint and Natasha.”

Clint and Natasha showed in short order.

“I’m worried about Cap,” Tony said. He didn’t want to tip his hand about the blood sensors, but he showed them the running and staring into space.

“That is weird,” Clint agreed, his brow furrowing.

“I think we should try to hang out with him more,” Tony said. So, they set up a little play date and it seemed to go well, at least until they met after. Clint looked totally weirded out.

“Did you see that?” he asked.

“Yes,” Natasha replied, almost looking weirded out too.

“What?” Tony asked. Bruce looked equally confused. He hadn’t participated in the play date but he knew about Steve.

“When Steve and I sparred… he’s never fought like that before. He fought like a completely different person. He’s always been strong and fast, but he’s always been rough and untrained. He was still untrained, but today… it was like he could see what I was about to do, he was just right there to counter me, every blow, until he abruptly let me kick him in the throat.”

“Sir, I thought I should bring something to your attention,” JARVIS added.

“Lay it on me pal,” Tony said, somewhat apprehensive.

“Captain Rogers weight was approximately two hundred and sixty pounds when he first crossed the lab threshold shortly after entering the tower.”

“Oh no, has he dropped weight?” Bruce asked, concerned.

“Quite the opposite, Captain Rogers now weighs approximately three hundred and fifty pounds,” JARVIS said. They all blinked.

“When was that measurement taken?” Tony asked.

“When he came to the lab last week.”

“And you didn’t tell me then because?”

“I’m sorry sir, the Guardian protocol doesn’t cover sudden weight gain, only loss. I didn’t want to further violate Captain Rogers’ privacy when we were under the assumption that he was having dissociative episodes, however with this new strange behavior I thought it best to bring it up.”

“So, he’s gained almost ninety pounds since he got here?” Natasha said, baffled.

“It seems so.”

“Well… that makes no sense,” Clint declared. “He doesn’t look any different!”

“Maybe he just got denser?” Tony suggested.

“He has been doing a lot of exercising,” Natasha said.

“And he’s been eating like crazy, too,” Tony added.

“It’s not any weirder then him going from ninety-five to a hundred and sixty in the first place,” Bruce pointed out.

“Yeah, maybe the serum is… still evolving? Still changing him? Maybe he’s getting stronger in response to stronger enemies like he’s in a fucking anime, I don’t know. And it’s also… sped up his brain, maybe? Like made his reaction times so fast it seemed like he knew what you were going to do before you did it,” Tony said.

Clint blinked. “That… makes sense, actually.”

“So, it could just be that,” Tony agreed.

“It does fit,” Natasha agreed.

After the battle where Clint got hurt, Natasha relayed what she’d seen, and they reviewed Clint’s medical report. There were no major injuries, certainly not enough to explain the pool of blood on the roof. There was an entry and exit but no major internal damage, there were some punctures to his abdominal and back muscles of course, but his organs and major arteries were fine, according to the scans they took. Natasha wouldn't let them open Clint up again to physically look.

“Ok, this shit just keeps getting weirder and weirder. Bruce, could what he said be true?” Tony asked.

“Not in the slightest, the serum is genetically locked, there’s no way it would mistake Clint’s cells for Steve’s, unless they were related, then maybe,” Bruce said with a shrug.

They all looked from Bruce to Clint, who was looking at Bruce with wide eyes.

There was a delay as they checked Clint’s DNA against Steve’s, no match.

“Ok so he’s lying, or the serum has definitely evolved, but that doesn’t explain why he said it happened before,” Tony said, huffing a frustrated breath.

“But if it wasn’t the serum, what the fuck did he do to me?” Clint asked in alarm, his hands clenching over his previously injured stomach.

“No idea. Let us know if something weird happens,” Tony said with a shrug. Clint rolled his eyes.

Then something weird did happen, but not to Clint.

JARVIS spoke again, “Sir, I believe something has happened with Captain Rogers.”

“Fuck, what is it?” Tony said, concerned.

JARVIS played a video, “This is from last night.”

Steve was staring blankly at the ceiling again, then his breathing increased and he got a look on his face like he was shocked or like he couldn’t decide if he was in pain. Then his breathing evened out just as his eyes rolled back into his head and he appeared to pass out.

“Captain Rogers did not wake up at his usual time today, and is still unconscious.”

“Fuck,” Tony summarized. He went to Steve’s room and shook him, even slapping him lightly yielded nothing. Tony called the others and they moved Steve into the infirmary, not that they could do anything. They scanned him, and what they saw was nowhere near what they were expecting.

“What the fuck is all that?” Tony asked, baffled. He moved the scan from the tablet to the holoscreen, where a ghostly image of Steve and his insides hovered in the air. Clint and Natasha both squinted at the scan.

“What are all those lines? Are those his veins?” Clint asked.

“No, veins are not solid. JARVIS, highlight whatever all that is in red?”

With the highlighting it was much clearer. There was something in Steve, it was wound into every inch of his body, including his brain, they saw. The main mass seemed to be in his abdomen, but the thin tendrils were everywhere in his body.

“Holy fuck. It got into his brain, that’s what happened last night.”

“Does this explain the other stuff?”

“It’s possible that the parasite was making him stronger, and it could have been releasing chemicals that made him want to exercise or something,” Bruce theorized, looking worried.

“Call Thor, this could be alien,” Tony said. Clint went and got the thing that Thor said they could use to call him. It looked suspiciously like a horn.

“How does this thing work?” Clint said.

Tony sighed, “Blow into it, it’s a horn, I think. I assume it actually works and it’s not just Thor fucking with us.”

“Ok, should I go to the roof?” Clint asked.

“Can’t hurt,” Tony said.

Clint left, and a few minutes later they heard a noise that sounded like a whistle, seventeen cats all being stepped on at once, and a tuba. They looked up, baffled.

“We’re thirty floors from the roof, holy shit I guess they can hear that from Asgard!” Tony said.

“I hate it,” Natasha said. They looked outside and saw the sky darken.

“Woah, I think it worked,” Tony said, amazed. JARVIS reported that Thor had landed on the building and in short order he arrived outside the medbay, his face grim.

“The Hawkeye has told me of our Captain’s troubles. Let me see the image,” Thor said. They showed him and he became grimmer, a look that seemed strange on his usually jovial face.

“Friends, this is very grave indeed. I believe that the creature within our Captain is what is known as a Devourer.”

“Well that’s ominous,” Tony said, eyes wide.

“Indeed. They are eaters of energy of all kinds, chemical, heat, electrical. Some have been known to devour stars and grow to the size of planets.”

“Holy shit,” Tony said.

“They have been known to hide within the body of a person and slowly infest every aspect of their being, until they can take over the brain and control the host completely. After that they can take many people, hollowing them out until there is only skin left behind, creating an abominable suit. There are different varieties depending on what they choose to consume, the organic variety like what is in the Captain is the most insidious, though they cannot endanger a whole planet at once by devouring their sun.”

“Fucking hell. How do we stop it?” Tony said.

“We do not. There is nothing that can be done,” Thor said quietly.

“What? You mean we just leave him to die!?” Clint demanded.

“You see the image, not even the Captain would survive us trying to cut it out, and we have found no poison that did not kill the host, same with starving it.”

“There has to be something!” Tony said, desperate.

“There is nothing. All the scientists of Asgard have worked for a cure, to no avail.”

They moved Steve to a holding cell that they were pretty sure could contain him. Then they waited.

Steve had just finished showing Bucky the memory of the first time he tried peanut butter after the serum took his allergies, when he realized that he had no idea how long they’d been doing this and he might be hungry. He resurfaced back into awareness of his body and he was hungry, but when he sat up he wasn’t in his room. He was in the holding cell.

Oh fuck, he and Bucky thought at the same time.

The intercom came on, “Steve, if you can hear me, we’re not giving up on you,” Tony’s voice came through, sounding wrecked.

“What the hell is going on?” Steve asked, confused.

“You know damn well what’s going on, you took over Steve’s body!” Tony’s voice came hot over the line.

Steve blinked in confusion. “What? No one’s taken over anything, I’m Steve, last time I checked,” Steve said, his brow furrowing.

“We called Thor, and we’ve seen a scan of Steve’s body, we know you’ve taken over, we’ve seen your tentacles in his brain!” Tony spat.

“Oh fuck,” Steve said out loud this time.

“Yeah, that’s right, the game is up, so if you leave Steve right now we’ll let you live,” Tony said.

Maybe I should leave.

Buck, you know Tony like I do. You think he’s actually going to let you live?

Well, he may listen to you once you’re wholly you.

He may not. I don’t want to risk it if we don’t have to.

“Tony, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner, but I’ve had Bucky with me since before the ice. He’s my friend, and I was trying to avoid, well, this exact reaction.”

“Uh-huh. Thor says there’s no way to force you out, but there are different kinds of force. You have two options, Devourer. You leave Steve with him fully intact and we let you live, or you stay in and we starve you out and kill you slowly. Your choice.”

We have to get out of here, Steve thought.

Couldn’t agree more.

“Tony, Bucky isn’t ready to come out yet, he’s too small, give us a couple days?” Steve said.

“You have one.”

They were left alone. There was no way to tell who was watching. They reviewed their escape options. There weren’t many. They would have to rely on the fact that the Avengers had no idea how much stronger they were now. They knew the specs of this cell, they knew the building. They were ready. Speed was of the essence.

Without any warning Steve went from prone on the bed to running full tilt at the door. It crumpled like tin foil under his shoulder and he was out. He wasted no time barreling down the hall, when Clint stepped out at the end. He stood calmly, bow up. Steve didn’t stop. Clint fired and Steve caught the arrow, tossing it quickly behind him where it exploded. Clint fired once more and Steve barely dodged it. As he approached Clint stepped aside and let him pass, he knew he was no match for them. They were about twenty floors from the bottom, but they weren’t going to fight their way through twenty floors, oh no, that was suicide. They were taking a faster route.

They found their goal, the window. They hit it and went right on through. Steve spread his limbs as dozens of Bucky’s tentacles emerged from all over his body, flattening and making a makeshift glider. Steve hit a neighboring apartment building’s rooftop and the tentacles retracted. Steve went in and with a mental apology he stole some clothes and left the building. He kept running, subtly. He wove around, going through back alleys and through buildings. They almost caught him so many times but he was quicker and wilier than they expected. They thought they were going up against an alien, not an alien and Steve Rogers, master tactician.

Eventually they made it onto a bus leaving the city. They hitchhiked after that, ending up somewhere in the rural areas of New England. There they searched until they found their goal: an empty cabin. There was a good supply of food in it and the owners wouldn’t be back for several months, according to the mail. They promptly put a dent into the food.

Steve I’m still close to being out of room.

Well, we don’t have to worry about appearances anymore, doesn’t that give you some more freedom?

Well, yes. It would help if I could expand within your abdomen, there’s a good bit of room in here.

Go for it, why didn’t you before?

It would certainly be visible on the outside at this point, he said, sounding apologetic.

So, I’ll look like I have a gut, not the end of the world, Steve said with a shrug.

They ate and talked for several days and Bucky grew within Steve’s belly.

We’re running out of food, Steve said.

Well can’t we go find some?

What like go to another cabin or hunt down a deer or something?

We could probably catch a deer, Bucky said, considering.

There was a bit of a learning curve to hunting, but they got one, finally. It was a good size female. It was winter so they didn’t have to worry about her having a fawn. Steve humanely snapped her neck. They decided that making soup was the best way to get the most out of the meat, since even the toughest pieces could be boiled into submission. Steve googled how to prepare the deer on the cabin’s home computer, it didn’t seem too hard.

One fairly gross butchering later the soup was boiling away. So that solved their food problem for the time being. Steve had also ceased to shave in an effort to be more difficult to recognize, should the need to interact with people arise. Steve sat on the couch and ate their deer soup, and it was pretty good. He ate until he was feeling full and then he ate some more. He sat back and sighed. He ran his hands over the mound of his tummy with a pleased smile.

How much more do you think you’re gonna grow?

I can emerge at any time, of course, but ideally I’d like to be about as large as you are? Any smaller and I'd still be pretty vulnerable. But I don’t know how that’ll work.

We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it, Steve said with a shrug.

They continued like that for a time, and it was peaceful. Now that they were alone, Bucky was growing as fast as he could without putting undue strain on Steve’s body, so by the end of their second week at the cabin Steve looked like he had a watermelon under his shirt. Bucky had also been thickening the strands in his muscles, so Steve now looked like some sort of ridiculously jacked bodybuilder with an enormous, firm belly, it was a strange effect, but with the beard Steve thought it kind of worked? He kind of had the lumberjack look going.

Steve sat back after another meal of deer soup, rubbing his belly. He could feel Bucky shifting around from the outside, it was very strange.

It’s odd that I can feel what I’m feeling and also what you’re feeling since I’m so connected to your nervous system.

Huh. That sounds really interesting, too bad I can’t feel what you’re feeling, too.

Hold on, let me see…

Steve gasped as a totally foreign sensation filled him. He felt warm and safe, spread out but also getting cramped. Steve ran a hand over his belly and smiled at the sensation, how nice it felt, how nice it made Bucky feel, cared for and protected. He felt Bucky’s tendrils all the way to his own toes, a strange doubled sensation. He felt his own heart beating through the tentacles, the soothing rumble of his stomach where Bucky was pressed tight to it. Then the sensations ended and Steve blinked.

Wow. That’s so cool, Steve enthused.

It is pretty cool.

They decided that they should have a location change since they’d run out of food again. They cleaned up and made note of the cabin’s location so they could send supplies there to make up for what they took. Then Steve walked to Canada. It was pleasant, not too far from where they were. They took up residence in another cabin whose owners were gone for the time being. The cabin was very well-stocked and Steve availed himself. He felt a bit bad but he contented himself in knowing that he’d replace what he’d taken twice over before they even knew anything had happened.

They were, however, super bored. They talked and read books but things were pretty dull.

Hey can I try something? Bucky asked, by now a familiar question.

Yeah, sure.

Steve waited and then he felt a jolt of pleasure shoot through him, and he gasped, his hips jerking upwards.

What the fuck did you do? Steve said, shocked.

I touched your prostate. I’m sorry, didn’t it feel good?

Well yeah, but uh. Ok first off how do you know what that is?

There was a commercial for that prostate cancer thing and I asked you what it was, remember?

Oh yeah.

And you said that touching it gave men sexual pleasure and that’s why gay sex works.

Yes.

So I thought you’d like it if I gave you pleasure. It certainly felt good from what I felt.

Yes, but, I mean. I’m not sure if I’m comfortable with that, I mean, you’re technically a child.

I’m not a child, I’m at least a couple decades old even before counting our time in the ice. And how would you measure maturity in my kind? Organisms here are considered mature when they can reproduce, but I don’t do that until the end of my life. Am I a child all my life? Or is it when I stop growing? I could stop my growth right here and now and only eat enough to maintain my size, so do I stop being a child then, in that instant?

Ok, you have a point. You’re not a child. I was just a little hesitant, seeing as six months ago you were the size of my hand.

I’m much bigger than that now, of course.

I know that, you’re very heavy. But also, I mean, doing sexual stuff usually has some, you know, connotation.

Well, what’s the social protocol for dating the alien parasite living in your body?

Uh. Would you… wanna date?

I feel like our relationship is a little deeper than dating at this point.

True. But, I mean, do you know if your kind have partners? I know you don’t have kids together, but like life partners?

No idea. But I like the thought. A life partner. For your lifetime, at least. But rest assured that I’ll never forget you, as long as I live I’ll tell everyone about you, for a thousand years, and then my children will carry your memories across the stars.

Steve sniffed and wiped at his eye.

Shit, Buck. I don’t know what you’d tell people about me.

How about how the first human I met was the kindest, bravest, and most reckless of them all?

Aww, come on, you’re exaggerating.

Steve, when I first met you you scooped me up off the floor of that plane and I was scared, I was disoriented, I didn’t know what was going on. I’d never experienced gravity or atmosphere, I was so confused. Then comes this enormous creature the likes of which I’d never experienced. I thought you were going to eat me or something, but you didn’t. I felt your mind when I touched your body. Your first instinct was to protect an alien whom you knew nothing about, and even after I invaded your body you were still concerned about me. You thought you were going to die and your last thoughts were hopes that I’d be ok. Up to that point in my life the only interactions I’d had were my siblings bullying me, and here comes along this giant who’s so incredibly kind and selfless. Tell me that’s not something to tell people about?

Steve sniffed again. Wow. I… I’m glad I made such a positive first impression.

You did. And I would be honored to be your life partner. But, uh, I can’t give you children, though.

I don’t need or want kids. I thought I did, but that was a long time ago. Besides if we decide we do later we can just adopt. I’d be honored to be your life partner too.

Excellent. Now can I pleasure you?

All that talk about kindness was just to get into my pants, huh?

Technically I’m already in your pants. Well, I’m in your legs, which are in your pants.

True. Ok, show me what you can do.

Bucky touched him again, slowly this time, and Steve groaned, arching his back. Bucky rubbed back and forth, gently fondling the incredibly sensitive gland. Steve undid his pants and stroked himself in time with Bucky. With his other hand he rubbed at his belly, so swollen and full inside. He came with a gasp and lay back.

Oh, fuck, that was good, Steve said.

I’m glad, it was pretty awesome for me as well.

Sorry it was so fast, but I haven’t touched myself this whole time, so.

But you can go again, right?

Oh yeah, a bunch.

They found a new way to occupy time. Then Bucky wound tendrils through his dick and balls and Steve experienced pleasures never before known to humans, so they definitely weren’t bored anymore.

As they occupied themselves with mind-blowing sex, Bucky continued to grow. Steve started to get uncomfortable, then Bucky had to keep him numb all the time, even as he slowed his growth rate to the absolute minimum.

Steve sat on the couch, groaning. His belly was huge and taunt in his lap and slowly moving as Bucky tried to reposition to get more room, but there wasn’t any. Angry stretch marks covered his poor tummy and his major muscle groups. Steve ran a soothing hand over his belly in an effort to get it to stretch, but his skin and muscles were so stretched out.

Buck, I think I’m out of room.

Fuck, I think you’re right.

Well, we’re at the bridge. What exactly do you need from me to keep growing?

I need to be connected to your blood, nervous, and digestive systems, to harvest chemical and electrical energy as well as material.

Do you have to be fully in my body to do that?

Bucky did the mental equivalent of blinking in surprise. Well. I guess not. Huh. As long as I can stay connected I can start growing outside your body.

Well, there you go.

I knew I kept you around for something, Bucky joked.

A single tentacle emerged from Steve’s bellybutton, snaking out until the pressure in his belly wasn’t so tight any longer. He didn’t emerge fully, and that was fine, Steve rather liked having a nice round belly, it was a very novel sensation, he’d always been either skinny or trim and muscular. Steve reached out and Bucky’s tentacle wrapped around his hand. Steve smiled at him. The tentacle angled down and snaked into Steve’s underwear, and Steve grinned as it wrapped around his dick.

You’re pretty one-track minded, Steve said.

I don’t see you complaining, Bucky commented back. He started to stroke Steve and Steve groaned. Then he started rubbing his prostate from inside and Steve’s breaths came in pants. When he started slowly twisting the tendrils in his genitals Steve keened at the overstimulation. He rubbed his belly with both hands, feeling Bucky wiggling and twitching with pleasure within. The tentacle coming out of his stomach split at the end to wrap around his dick more effectively and Steve came, his eyes rolling back into his head.

I think this is going to work pretty well, Steve said.

Bucky once again grew uninhibited until there were tentacles wrapped around most of Steve’s body. The tentacles, he found, were very convenient. Since he and Bucky were pretty much of one mind at this point it was easy for them to move together. Eventually so much of Bucky’s body was outside Steve he could move around independently for the first time in a while. He explored the house, picking up things, while he still had one tentacle connecting him to Steve.

Steve was sleeping when he heard the shout in his head,

Steve holy shit look!

Steve bolted upright, prepare to fight off the Avengers or something, and he saw a man standing in the room.

“Who the fuck-” Steve started, but then he stopped because there was a tendril connecting him and the man at their bellies. Steve blinked hard and turned on the light. It was Bucky, looking like a human. Kinda. His proportions were a little off, and his hair still looked distinctly tentacle-like, and his eyes were solid black with no whites, but he was pretty human looking.

Bucky, wh-how?

I’ve been working on this for a while, I discovered it on accident when I turned one of my tentacles into a hand a while back, I’ve been trying for a week to do this, and it worked!

Holy shit, I didn’t even know you could change colors.

Neither did I! Now I understand about us getting different abilities based on our food source.

That’s amazing, Buck, wow, come over here.

Bucky came closer and Steve touched his face. It was remarkably human, if a bit squishier, since Bucky didn’t have bones.

It’s not very close.

It’s amazingly close, if you put on sunglasses no one would be able to tell. At a distance, at least. Maybe a hat too.

Do you like it? I tried to make someone you’d like, someone worthy of being your life partner. Or would you prefer a woman? You’ve always called me ‘he’ but I don’t have a gender, I could be ‘she’.

Uh, shit, I’m sorry Buck, I shouldn’t have just decided what gender I thought you were because you seemed more masculine in my head. You can be whatever you want to be, I’m bi so it doesn’t matter to me.

It’s fine, I like being Bucky, I like being like you.

Then I like it, too. You’re very handsome, you did a very good job. I like the long hair.

I kinda do, too. Check this out, Bucky said. All his ‘hair’ stood straight out and wiggled, and it was a completely ludicrous effect on a human figure. He also flashed every color of the rainbow in rapid succession. Steve chuckled and Bucky grinned. His teeth were white but they were definitely weird looking. This was obviously because they were tentacles and not teeth, of course.

Wow, that’s some trick. You could scare the shit out of someone like that.

You think I’ll be meeting people?

Well, once you finish growing and I can talk to the Avengers again, yeah. You could probably even join the team, if you wanted.

Really?

Yeah, and now that you can shapeshift we don’t have to explain a much less human looking alien on the team until we want to. I mean, you don’t have to join the team of course, but you could.

I think I’d like that, I enjoyed fighting with you in your body so I’ll probably like it just as well out of it.

Is it difficult to maintain that form?

Not really, no.

Good. So, sleep?

Bucky’s human form unraveled before Steve’s eyes and Bucky flowed into the bed to cover Steve like a blanket.

Goodnight Buck, Steve thought happily.

Bucky started using the colors to express himself, he was still deciding what colors would mean what though. They seemed to shift with strong emotion automatically, though, which was interesting. It seemed to be blues and for concern, worry, sadness, reds and purples for sex and love, and white for alarm, which they’d discovered when lightning hit really close to the cabin.

Not too long after that Bucky declared that he was ready. He slowly retreated from Steve until only the tentacles in Steve’s belly remained, and then they too retreated. Bucky paused before disconnecting totally.

I’m excited to be my own person, but I’ll miss sharing your body.

Me too, Buck, but nothing lasts forever. We’ll have tons of adventures together now that you’re on the outside of me and I can acknowledge your existence without seeming crazy.

I’m sure we will. Here it goes, he said. He pulled the last of his tentacles out and Steve put his hand on his now flat belly. He realized he was alone in his head for the first time in this century, in seventy years, technically. He didn’t like it. He was so alone. It was like being covered in ice, but worse than when it had actually happened, it felt like people assumed it would feel. He reached out for Bucky immediately and Bucky wrapped himself around Steve, flashing blue and purple.

I didn’t like that at all, Steve said.

I’m not entirely sure, but I think we’ve changed each other’s brain structure. I literally developed connected to your brain, and even if you were asleep for most of it we were connected for seventy years. We’ve grown together.

Like two trees connected at the roots.

Wow, someone’s feeling poetic.

It feels like a poetic moment, shut up. It’s your birthday, kind of. What’s the date?

They looked, it was March 10th.

Happy birthday, Buck, Steve said, hugging the bundle of tentacles around his chest. Now I’ve got to go and convince our friends not to kill you.

They’re your friends, Steve.

You know them just as well as I do, you’ve been here the whole time, and you care about them like I do. Hell, you’ve been inside Clint, Steve said with a grin. But seriously, you healed him when you knew we were risking getting caught, what it could mean for you. You’re their friend, and once they get over wanting to kill you they’ll be your friends, too, I know it.

Ok, Stevie. I’ll see you when you get back. If the people come back for some reason I’ll meet you by that tree with the weird knot.

Ok, Buck, I’ll be back.

Steve walked back over the border and hitchhiked toward New York. He made it to the city and made his way to the tower. He entered without meeting any resistance and got in the elevator.

“JARVIS, take me to the medbay?” Steve asked politely.

JARVIS didn’t respond but the elevator moved. They probably assumed he was still possessed by a hostile alien, then. The doors opened to the medbay and Steve moved to lay in the scanner.

“Run the scan, please?” Steve asked.

The scan ran and came up in the hologram, and Steve could see that it showed a distinct lack of Bucky.

Clint and Tony, in the Iron Man suit, burst in at the same time. Steve sat up and smiled at them.

Clint looked cautious for a moment before visibly going ‘fuck it’ and launching himself to hug Steve.

“Holy shit, we were sure you would be a skin suit by now! How did you escape?” Clint said. Steve got flashes of concern and relief from him. Steve sighed.

“Guys, everything I said was true. Bucky and I are friends, he wasn’t possessing me or controlling my body. I didn’t escape him, he finished growing to the size he wanted to be and left on his own. He’s waiting for me to come back for him once I convince you guys not to kill him.”

Clint and Tony looked shocked. Clint stepped back from Steve’s hug.

“How do we know it’s not still controlling you?” Tony said cautiously.

Steve threw his hands up in exasperation, “What the hell do I have to do to convince you? You thought he’d suck me dry, he didn’t, so why do you have to think the worst of him? Clint, he saved your life!”

Clint looked perturbed, “We knew that serum thing didn’t make sense, but you’re saying that the alien… did something to me?”

“He healed you just like he healed me a couple times when I actually got hurt. You remember when I took a bullet to the rib and it didn’t break? That was Bucky protecting me. With him woven throughout my muscles and around my bones my whole body was basically made of Kevlar, he said.”

“Wow. Ok. So you’re saying the alien stuck his tentacles in me?” Clint said, screwing up his face.

“Well it was that or you died. You had major organ damage and blood loss.”

“Shit. Ok, where did he come from?”

“You remember how in my report about the Valkyrie I said that the Tesseract opened up a portal and Schmidt was sucked through? I left out the part where Bucky came through at the same time. He was about the size of my hand, then. He’s been with me this entire time, he kept me company under the ice.”

Their expressions morphed to shock and horror, “You were awake under the ice?” Tony asked.

“No, only for a little bit. He and I talked and he showed me some of his memories of floating through space. It was peaceful. Then we slept and we dreamed together of moving through the Void. But it wasn’t lonely because I knew I wasn’t alone.”

“Wow. Holy shit, that’s crazy,” Clint said.

“I’m guessing that’s the origin of all the space paintings,” Tony said.

“Yes, I’m sorry that they upset you, I didn’t even think about that, we just liked them.”

“It’s fine, I just wasn’t expecting it. Ok, so, I believe you. Let’s go get your alien friend,” Tony said. Steve looked at him, assessing. He seemed to mean it. Steve reached for his hand and Tony looked confused but handed it to him. Steve concentrated. Tony was cautious but didn’t seem malicious.

“What, can you read minds now?” Tony joked. Steve shrugged,

“It’s more like feelings and intentions?”

He looked up to see them looking surprised again.

“Holy shit I was kidding.”

“That’s why you suddenly got fucking undefeatable at sparring!” Clint said accusingly.

“I didn’t know I could do it before just then, and I don’t know how to turn it off, so, sorry,” Steve

said with a shrug and a smile.

“Well, do your new psychic powers say I’m lying?” Tony challenged.

“They say you’re not planning to hurt Bucky, so let’s go. Where’s Natasha?”

“Emergency mission, something about preventing a few countries from being destroyed, the usual,” Tony said, waving his hand.

They took the quinjet to Canada and Steve had them let him out near the cabin but not too close. He went up and knocked on the door, and Bucky opened it, flashing mottled shades of blue. He immediately wrapped tentacles around Steve and they both felt relief at being back in contact.

We’re good, they believed me, Steve said with a smile.

Really?

Yep, come on, quinjet’s this way.

Ok, Bucky said, flashing blue again. He twisted into his human form and they walked holding hands, Bucky just a little behind him, feeling cautious. They came into the clearing where Clint and Tony were waiting. Tony furrowed his brow,

“Is that him? He can look like a person?”

“He can. But you don’t have to worry about him impersonating people,” Steve said. They were pretty close at this point, and Bucky smiled at them with his black eyes and weird teeth.

“Ah, gotcha,” Tony said, looking a little weirded out. Steve admitted it was a strange effect.

Bucky waved awkwardly.

“He communicates telepathically, but it’s limited to physical contact,” Steve explained.

“Well, come on board then, more the merrier.”

“Thanks, guys,” Steve said sincerely.

They loaded up onto the quinjet.

“So, is Thor still around?” Steve asked.

“No, he flew off back to Asgard, said to call him again if you turned up.”

“And will you?”

“I think we can hold off for now.”

“Thank you. He may not be so understanding.”

“We’ll call him once we’re 100% sure nothing bad is going on,” Tony stated frankly.

“That’s all I can ask.”

They arrived back at the tower in short order and they went to the common room.

“Let us make you food,” Steve said. Clint and Tony nodded. Bucky unraveled and Tony and Clint sat back a little, looking cautious. Bucky really condensed to be a human size, he was actually a good bit bigger than that, taking up a lot of the kitchen. Bucky moved his grip from Steve’s hand to his waist so Steve could use both his hands. They decided to go for some simple lasagna, so Steve got the fridge stuff while Bucky got the dishes. They moved around each other effortlessly since they could sense the other’s body like it was their own. Steve prepared the lasagna as Bucky preheated the oven and handed him everything he needed, slapping it into his hands without Steve even having to look or say a word, mentally or out loud. They got it all done with incredible speed. Steve looked at Clint and Tony when they were done, smiling.

“Should be ready in a bit,” Steve said.

“Woah,” Clint said.

“What?” Steve asked.

“That was seriously freaky, it was like you were one being,” Tony said.

“Well, I mean, we sort of were for a while there,” Steve said with a shrug.

I’m sure they find that comforting, Bucky snarked.

Well what do you suggest I do, lie? Steve snarked back, gesturing with a fork.

“Are you talking to him in your head?” Tony asked.

“Oh, yeah, sorry, do you want me to respond out loud, or something?”

“Uh. I don’t know. I guess if it isn’t a private comment, yes?” Tony said.

“Got it.”

They plated the lasagna, it was quite good. Since they were done cooking Bucky had wound himself around Steve. While the others looked a little weirded out they didn’t say anything. They figured they’d just try immersion therapy.

I can probably speak through your mouth, if I tried, Bucky suggested. Steve swallowed his lasagna.

“Sure, go for it,” Steve said. “Bucky’s gonna try something,” Steve said to them. Steve felt one of the tentacles casually wrap around his neck. He saw both of their eyes widen and Tony made an aborted gesture to call the suit. Bucky attempted to send some electrical signals to Steve’s mouth and vocal cords to make it work. Steve’s mouth made a sort of zombie groaning noise and Steve couldn’t help but start laughing.

Shut up! It’s my first time attempting that, I never bothered before! Bucky said. Steve sniffed.

“I’m sorry Buck, I won’t laugh again,” he said, grinning. The others were looking at him very strangely.

“What the fuck was that?” Tony asked.

“Just hold on a sec, he’ll figure it out.”

Bucky tried again, making a low humming noise, then a slightly different tone.

“Hhheel-uh,” Bucky said hesitantly. Steve grinned,

“That was great!” he encouraged. The others did not look nearly as impressed, Clint and Tony both looked freaked out.

“What?” Steve asked.

“Watching the alien learning how to work you like a ventriloquist’s dummy is super freaky,” Tony said. Steve frowned and went to respond, but he felt that Bucky wanted to so he waited.

“Ah-ee am sroorry aye ssscar you. Aye don wan hurt an-ee-wan,” Bucky said.

Steve looked at them reproachfully when Bucky was done. Clint looked a little guilty, Tony still looked guarded. Clint got up and walked around the counter to stand on the same side as them. Bucky shrank from him, giving him plenty of room, until he was practically hiding behind Steve.

“I want to thank you for saving my life, Bucky,” Clint said. He held out his hand and waited. Bucky cautiously wrapped a tentacle around his hand and forearm. They both felt Clint’s mind and he felt them in return.

“Holy shit,” Clint said aloud.

Hello, Bucky said.

Hi. Is this working?

Yep, Steve said with a smile.

Your mind is so different from Steve’s, it’s fascinating, Bucky said.

Uh how much can you read?

I can just get impressions, like feelings, nothing more, and the general… shape, I guess, of your mind.

What shape is it?

Maybe shape isn’t right. Uh. More like… feel, I guess. Your mind is very sharp and focused, while Steve’s is more broad, he thinks about lots of stuff at a time. It makes sense since you’re a sniper.

This is so interesting, Clint remarked.

“Ok, now I feel left out, I want to join the mind train,” Tony declared. Bucky slipped a tentacle over the counter and Tony stuck his hand out without hesitation. Bucky took his hand and Tony’s mind blazed bright with theirs.

Holy shit Tony, how do you even function like that? Clint asked, aghast.

Like what? Tony asked.

Your mind is thinking so fast, it’s hard to keep up. It’s like a sun, Bucky said, astonished.

Thanks, it’s nice to have my genius recognized, Tony said, grinning.

They moved to the living room, settling on the couches, Bucky mostly on top of Steve, connected to the others. Soon enough Bruce came up from the lab, summoned by an eager Tony. He blinked at the large tentacle creature laying on the couch.

“Uh. I guess your mission to retrieve Bucky went well?”

“Bruce! Psychic alien! Come over here and experience the wonders of telepathy!”

Bruce looked hesitant but his inquiring mind couldn’t resist. He sat in a chair and Bucky held a tentacle near him, and Bruce hesitantly took it. Bruce’s mind was just a brilliant as Tony’s, but not as fast and manic, more deep.

Oh, goodness, Bruce said in wonder. Underneath, deep inside, they could all sense the Hulk stir, wondering if they were being attacked. Bucky sent assurances to him, wordless feelings of friendship. He settled, but didn’t sleep. He watched, silent. Bruce looked comically shocked.

You stopped him.

He’s not hard to understand. It’s nice to meet you officially, I’m Bucky.

Bruce. This is amazing.

Brucie bear, take my hand I wanna see something, Tony said from the chair next to him. They joined hands and both their eyes widened. They could all sense them sending information back and forth rapidly, but not more than that.

What’s going on Buck?

As long as you’re connected to me you can speak like my kind, through touch. They can talk to just each other. I can see what they’re saying but I can’t transmit it to you. Frankly I’m not even sure what they’re talking about, they’re sending numbers, half sentences, and pictures so rapidly that I honestly am baffled. They’ve taken to telepathy really well, to no one’s surprise.

Huh. You want to try with me, Clint? Steve sent. Clint was on the couch next to Steve, and he hesitantly reached a hand out. They held hands and Clint’s mind was much stronger in Steve’s.

So, you two don’t think I’m going to sprout tentacles because of that impromptu healing, do you? Clint joked.

Well, if I haven’t already then I doubt you will.

Damn. I wanted tentacles.

They have their benefits.

Oh? Have we been getting kinky with the alien?

Oh yeah. We did stuff that’s normally physically impossible and probably illegal, Bucky agreed.

Buck!

Holy shit! I was kidding! Clint looked shocked.

We weren’t, Bucky said.

Everyone had fun with the telepathy. Bucky was mostly accepted, there was still a bit of tension, but that would fade the more time went by without Bucky eating someone. That evening they both retired to Steve’s room, where they could be alone, without even JARVIS in the bedroom.

So how often are you going to want to connect to me to get food from me?

Ideally nightly, I want to get bigger if I can instead of just maintaining this size.

Do I get to know why or is it a surprise?

A surprise, Bucky sent back, smug.

With that he slipped his tentacle back into Steve’s bellybutton, and Steve sighed in contentment at the familiar feeling of Bucky’s tentacles connecting to his systems. Bucky wrapped himself all around Steve, covering him everywhere, and Steve sighed in contentment. Bucky was cool to the touch and felt great against Steve’s serum-hot skin, like always.

They separated before seeing the others the next day. They didn’t want to withhold things from the team, but they felt they were entitled to privacy, as well. Bucky continued to grow, but the rest of the team didn’t seem to notice. Steve supposed he was the only one who was really very aware of Bucky’s size since he seemed to expand and contract a lot.

“So Bucky, you can spread your mass out super thin right? Just how much surface area do you think you could cover?” Tony asked.

I don’t know. Probably this room, maybe more? Bucky said, indicating the spacious living room.

“Could you try?” Tony asked. Bucky gave a mental shrug and flattened out, splitting his tentacles up finer and finer until he looked like the most horrifying and awful pile of hair that covered the whole room. Then Bucky started to change colors, and after a few moments of adjusting he was mostly invisible. The edges of all the objects looked fuzzy and slightly wiggly, but if it were on a wall or a ceiling, it would be virtually unnoticeable.

“Holy shit that could be useful on missions,” Clint said, whistling lowly.

This naturally lead to Bucky hiding in various places and dropping on unsuspecting victims or snatching them upwards or sideways.

“When did our lives become a hentai!” Tony yelled as Bucky grabbed him, Tony having unwisely not checked the couch before sitting. Tony struggled until he was totally bound, a blush forming on his cheeks as he lay pressed flat into the couch.

It was no secret that Tony was into the tentacles and being held, and so was Clint. Bruce was wary of sex, but they knew that the idea of actually being able to have some without worrying about the Hulk was incredibly attractive to him. Natasha was a little warier but as more and more time passed with no discernable ill intent, her distrust lessened. Trust from Natasha was hard-earned, but they were hoping for friendly neutrality. But maybe, just maybe, she could also be amenable. Steve and Bucky had thought about it. At length. Bucky couldn’t exactly experience sex in the traditional sense, but he could feel the pleasure of it when he was connected to Steve’s nerves, and he understood in theory Steve’s attraction to the others, could see it in his mind. They just didn’t quite know how to breach the subject. It never seemed to be the right time.

No time like the present, Bucky purred in his mind. Tony was still struggling and blushing on the couch. Steve took a leap.

“You look good like that Tony,” he said lowly. Every head in the room swiveled to look at him, and tension filled the air.

I agree, I think it suits you, Bucky said suggestively, connected to all of them.

“Holy shit are we really doing this?” Tony asked, shocked.

“Please tell me we are,” Clint pleaded.

“Admittedly the sexual tension in the air has been stifling,” Natasha said, feigning disinterest and examining her nails.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Bruce asked. His nervousness rose but the Hulk didn’t stir, trusting Bucky and all of them.

“Do we want to find a bedroom or stay here, where there’s more room?” Steve asked.

“Bedroom, mine, I’ve got, uh, a… a room. For this,” Tony said.

“You have an orgy room?” Steve asked.

“Uh, well, kind of. The floor is all soft duvets and pillows that clean easy, it’s great.”

“Ok, to the orgy room!” Clint declared. They all moved to the elevator, Bucky still holding Tony.

“Hey I can walk!” Tony declared as Bucky crept along the floor in that octopus-like way of his, with Tony bound on top of his rolling mass.

You’re not going to though, Bucky declared, and Tony shuddered.

They arrived at the orgy room and it was as described, all the pillows and duvets were a variety of deep jewel tones, it was quite lovely.

“It’s really more of uh, a relaxing nap room, but it can have a duel purpose,” Tony confessed.

“Well, I vote we duel it up. We’re all adults, does anyone have any special concerns?”

“I think I’ll just watch for now, Bucky can keep me in on the conversation though,” Natasha said. Bucky’s tentacle wrapped around her ankle, his usual place for her, as discrete as he could be.

“Uh, slowly for me. Very slowly. I’m concerned it could be, ah, overwhelming,” Bruce said.

“I have no such concerns,” Clint said, grinning.

“I think you have a pretty good idea of what I want by now,” Tony said.

“Yes we got your emails of tentacle porn, thanks Tony,” Steve said, rolling his eyes.

“I’m assuming Bucky will be running the show?” Clint asked.

“Well, yes, but he’ll know immediately if you don’t like something or if you do, so it’s easy for him to respond exactly to your desires. And of course one of us may have an idea or two,” Steve said, grinning.

I promise, I will do my best to make this a truly amazing experience for everyone involved, no matter the degree of involvement.

Steve grinned and turned to Tony, removing his shirt. Bucky, until then holding Tony in a relatively chaste way, immediately started worming under his clothes and shoving them off his body until the man was naked before Steve had gotten his pants off. He was wrapped so tightly in tentacles that Steve could barely see more than his face and a few bands of pale flesh. Bucky notably avoided the ARC reactor so Steve did too, kneeling down once he was naked and petting Tony’s hair.

“Are you going to be good for us, Tony?” Steve asked quietly. Steve cupped his cheek, his thumb brushing Tony’s lips, and Tony’s mouth instinctively parted, oh that was nice.

“I think Tony needs something to suck on, don’t you think Steve?” Clint interjected. Bucky obligingly slid a tentacle into Tony’s mouth, not deep or anything, just making him suck on it. Tony groaned. Steve turned to Clint, pulling him into a kiss. Clint was a good kisser, and he was just a beautiful naked as Steve had pictured.

A tentacle stroked along the outside of his belly before slipping inside, causing Steve to groan. Bucky wasted no time pushing a fair amount of tentacles into his belly, making his belly poke out some. He ran his thin tendrils through Steve’s genitals, slowly pleasuring him from the inside. Steve moaned, panting and gasping into Clint’s mouth, clutching at his belly as Bucky pleasured him.

“Ok, what in the world is he doing to you Rogers?” Clint asked, pulling back.

“He’s, he’s in- ah!” Steve couldn’t speak so he gave himself a stroke instead. He could practically see Clint’s pupils darken.

“Hell yes, I want some of that Bucky.”

You sure?

“I’m sure, lay it on me.”

Steve beckoned Clint over and in short order Clint was on his cock. He saw Bruce hesitantly lining up with Tony, the tentacles encouraging him. Steve felt a stirring in his cock and he keened, and he felt-oh shit! A tentacle emerged from his dick, thin at the exit point but thickening further up to writhe inside Clint, who screamed in pleasure. The tentacle moved through Clint, filling him up. His lower belly was quickly bulging out as the tentacle filled him and Steve could see them moving inside, could feel them as Bucky shared what he felt with Steve.

Another tentacle penetrated Clint’s bellybutton at the same time more slipped into Clint’s hole from the outside, filling him up and stretching him out. Clint was panting, moaning and whining. He felt it as the tentacles wormed into Clint’s dick, and Clint screamed again. The tentacles worked them from different angles and they came again and again.

Meanwhile, Bruce and Tony appeared to be over there making very tender love. Bruce was slowly rolling his hips and Tony had his head thrown back and was moaning around the tentacle in his mouth with each thrust. As Steve watched a few questing tentacles lined up with where Bruce was fucking Tony, and sensing no apprehension, slowly twined around Bruce’s dick to press into Tony while pleasuring Bruce too. A tentacle pressed into Tony’s bellybutton at his mental behest, filling him and moving through him. More tentacles wrapped around his cock from the outside and Tony groaned. Tony was absolutely fellating the tentacle in his mouth, and it was something to see.

Natasha appeared, now naked, and everyone looked at her in awe. She slowly stepped over Tony to straddle him, and the tentacles along his dick moved out of the way as she knelt to settle on him. He slipped easily into her, she had clearly been excited by the proceedings. Bruce kept fucking Tony a bit hesitantly now, and Natasha brought one of his hands up to touch her breasts. Bruce apparently knew what to do with a pair of breasts, expertly rubbing and tweaking her nipples, and soon Natasha was biting her lip as she moved up and down, her muscular thighs in sharp relief. Bucky made no attempt to enter her, but his tentacles caressed her gently, some of them twining delicately around her nipples to pleasure her there.

Steve returned his attention to Clint, flipping them over so he was on top. He could feel Bucky’s tentacles like they were his own where they emerged from his dick, filling Clint up, fucking him, claiming him utterly. He was in awe of how good Clint looked beneath him, whining and gripping his upper arms as Steve fucked into him. He could feel in his mind how into it Clint was, how hot for it he was. He leaned down and kissed him, wanting to deepen the feeling. He wanted to dive into Clint, swim around, show him how much Steve cared for him. He cared for them all.

He opened up his mind and let the feeling flow out from where they were all connected through Bucky. And gradually they responded, opening up. Five rivers flowed together to form one swirling pool for a glorious moment. The knowing, the trust, was intoxicating.

Gradually exhaustion took them and their consciousness faded as they fell asleep or just passed out. Clint was first, Steve had really worked him over. Steve stayed there connected to him for a moment, looking at how peaceful he seemed. Tony and Bruce fell asleep adorably curled up together. Then it was just him and Natasha. Steve untwined from Clint and pulled out. He laid down, tilting his head up slightly like a wolf bearing its’ throat, showing her all the vulnerability he could. He had sensed Natasha’s curiosity from where their minds were still connected. She had dammed the flow of her river, leaving only a small stream leaking out, but even that was a generous gift from someone so cautious.

She straddled him, sinking down onto him in one motion. She moved, undulating in a mesmerizing way. Steve thrust up to meet her and moved his hands up her sides and down her thighs. She rubbed his belly where Bucky was in him, no doubt feeling him moving around inside.

“Did you never fear him?”

“Never. He never gave me a single reason to.”

She held out a hand and a tentacle gently rested itself in it, and she slowly brought it to her belly. Slowly the tentacle pressed in, and Steve could feel Bucky mapping out the unfamiliar systems. He kept the number of tentacles limited, barely visible from the outside. Eventually he found his goal, finding inside her that spot that would make her throw back her head and keen. Steve took that as a signal to increase his thrusting as more tentacles wound between them, not entering her but doing something complicated to her clit, making his dig her nails into Steve’s chest so hard he almost bled.

Eventually she pulled off suddenly, retreating to the other side of the soft room, apparently needing time alone for a moment. Bucky gave her space, making a hole where his tentacles had spread over the room. Steve looked at her and raised his brows, knowing he looked worried. She gave him a small smile and a thumbs-up before laying over, curled up, closing her eyes. Ok, she was fine, it just got a little much. She found a pillow and laid down, covering herself with a blanket.

Steve passed out himself after making sure everyone was still ok. Bucky was a benevolent blanket covering them and holding them.

Steve woke pleased, and he could see the others stirring.

“Holy shit,” Clint murmured.

“Tell me I didn’t dream that,” Tony said, his eyes closed. He opened them to see Bruce sleeping in front of them, drooling a little, and grinned. “Nope, I didn’t!”

“Was it everything you had been fantasizing about?” Steve asked.

“Hell yes,” Clint replied enthusiastically.

“That was pretty spectacular, gotta say. I’m assuming this wasn’t a one-off?” Tony asked lightly but he seemed worried he was overstepping.

“We’re quite happy to keep this up as long as you all are,” Steve said.

It was quite enjoyable.

“What do you get out of this, Bucky?” Tony asked.

Bucky explained how he could feel what they were feeling, his pleasure was their pleasure, etc.

“That is so fascinating, I would assume it’s some kind of electrical communication, reading the patterns of the nerves, maybe combined with the psychic stuff…” he continued talking, mostly to himself since Bruce was still unconscious.

They all got cleaned up and showered and retired to their own rooms or their labs, wherever they went to decompress after such an intense experience and bask in the afterglow.

They came together for breakfast, like they had been trying to do lately.

“So, I had fun last night,” Tony said.

“We did, too,” Steve said.

“Are you just going to keep referring to yourselves as a ‘we’ from now on? Is that what you’re doing there? Shit, are we all gonna start doing that? Are we getting absorbed into the collective here?” Tony asked, mostly joking.

Steve furrowed his brow in thought, “I don’t know when I started doing that, it is a bit odd. I just don’t really think about it, I know what Bucky wants so I just answer for us, saves time.”

“If it weren’t for the psychic thing then that would be pretty concerning. So you’re just talking all the time?”

“We talk a lot, most of the time it’s like a… a sense? Like, you don’t have to ask yourself what you think about things, right? You just know. As soon as someone asks a question or something I can feel Bucky’s response, if we’re touching, we don’t need to discuss it unless it’s more complicated than a simple yes or no answer.”

“The fact that you consider Bucky like yourself… does that worry you at all?”

“Well, I mean, we’re both quite happy like this. I know it’s weird but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it.”

“You aren’t worried about your individuality? Either of you?” Tony challenged.

“Individuality is all well and good, but we were both incredibly lonely for a long, long time. When Bucky was out in space he had his siblings but they weren’t much company, and when I was young after my ma died, I was alone for years until I went to war. And when I woke up here I had lost everything and everyone, and I had such a hard time relating to anyone before I met you guys because no one wanted to look past the legend, the shield and cowl. We clung to each other. And even if I wanted to, I don’t think the effects from all that can be undone.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, being with Bucky gave me those psychic powers, and Bucky thinks it changed my brain more than that. When I’m not with him I feel so alone it’s stifling and scary.”

“That doesn’t sound healthy.”

“No, it doesn’t sound normal,” Steve said, getting a little annoyed. “I’m fine, and Bucky’s fine. Wouldn’t you agree?”

“Well. I suppose so,” Tony said, scratching the back of his head like he was starting to regret this line of questioning.

“If we’re both fine, then why is it a problem? If we were both humans in a normal relationship, yes, I agree that it would probably be unhealthy to be together all the time. But Bucky’s not human, and honestly I’m not exactly a standard human either. We have been mentally connected for seventy years. We were asleep, but the connection was still active. That’s bound to affect something. But if I could go back I’d make the same choice again. It would have been so lonely, without Bucky. I don’t think I would have known how to reach out to the rest of you without him there.”

“Ok, Steve, Bucky, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have pressed. You’re fine, it’s your business. You two want to mind meld together, well you can just do that, or whatever,” Tony said.

“And it’s not like we never disagree, at any rate. Bucky thinks that modern music is good, for example.”

You just haven’t found your genre Steve! You can’t think it’s all bad!

“I gotta agree with Bucky there, Steve,” Tony said, grinning.

Steve groaned, “This is going to be another round of ‘shove modern stuff in Steve’s face’ isn’t it?”

Don’t listen to him he loves it.

“Bucky! Don’t betray my confidence like that!” Steve said, mock-offended.

A few days later they were hanging out in the common room together. Steve was sitting at their card table talking to Tony, Bruce was reading in the corner, Clint was on the sofa behind him playing video games, and Natasha was next to him teaching Bucky sign language. Bucky had formed a torso in front of Natasha and was signing along to her instructions. Bucky was occupying most of the floor space and wrapped around most of their waists, sitting on their laps. Steve was following along even as he spoke to Tony.

“That is whack,” Clint said, looking around at Steve.

“What?” Steve asked, signing ‘go to cover’.

“I know you’re like all psychically linked but it’s really disconcerting to see you signing in perfect synch with him when his weird torso is behind you and you can’t even see him.”

“Oh. Well, I mean, I can’t see him but I can feel him. And I can see what Natasha is doing and move with him. It’s a bit odd now that you mention it.”

“You see what he sees?” Tony asked.

“What?”

“You can’t see her behind you, so how are you seeing her?” Tony said.

Steve furrowed his brow. He closed his eyes but everything was still there in his mind. It wasn’t sight like he saw, Bucky’s photoreceptors were all over his body, and they were different from eyes. He didn’t see color at all, but he could perceive it through the minds he was connected to. He saw the whole room from every angle Bucky could see. He saw himself, too, he realized, which he hadn’t even realized he was picking up on. Certain sections were in color, too, but not everything. Then he realized what it was from the position of the others.

“I can see what he sees and he can see what you see,” Steve said, amazed.

“When did you start being able to do that?” Clint asked.

“I have no idea.”

“He can see what we see?” Tony asked.

“He can ‘see’ in every direction, but he can’t see color. When he’s connected to one of us he uses how our perception is different from his to fill in the things he can’t see in the map of our surroundings. So I can see myself in color because you’re looking at me, Tony. And I can see you in color because Bruce is looking at you.”

Bruce and Tony had the same idea at the same time and shut their eyes. Most of the room lost color.

“Wow, now I’m just seeing mostly Bucky-vision. It’s very detailed and… Bucky can you see through things?”

My perception of the world is a lot more… unified? Than yours? My senses aren’t as distinctly different, so you’re getting the entirety of what I’m perceiving at this moment, you just think it’s all visual because that’s how your brain is processing that. What you’re perceiving is what I can sense via my connections to them through touch. It’s not actually visual information. I know what they look like inside because I can ‘feel’ that so I can ‘see’ that when I’m touching them. See, watch.

Bucky stopped touching Tony at all and Steve could still see him but he couldn’t see his heart beating, his lungs working, his blood flowing, like he could still on the other Avengers.

“Wait, what exactly are you seeing, Steve? Did he say you can see inside us?” Tony asked. He’d opened his eyes again so Steve could see himself in color, and he could also feel their emotions, too. Tony was concerned and intrigued, Bruce was just intrigued (and low-key depressed but that’s just how Bruce was, they were all working to help where they could), Natasha was cautious as always and letting very little through, and Clint was curious.

“Yeah, I can, like you were saying about Bucky, uh, getting information from your nerves? I can sense what he’s getting, your internal processes, it’s crazy.”

“Gross,” Clint said, scrunching up his nose. And Steve knew he was even though he was facing away because Natasha could see him.

Steve opened his own eyes and looked at Tony, and Bucky’s ‘sight’ was overlaid with his own. But it didn’t seem overwhelming, it slotted right in with his own senses. If he concentrated he could hear a heartbeat at this range so when he could ‘see’ the actual muscle working in Tony’s chest it wasn’t wholly alarming.

“I have no idea how I didn’t notice I could see all this,” Steve remarked.

“Steve, buddy, you staring at my chest like that is giving me the willies.”

“Sorry,” Steve said, pointing his head away. But he didn’t stop looking.

“So, you can see what I’m seeing?” Clint asked.

“Yep. Your vision is crazy, almost better than mine without being enhanced at all.”

“Ok, full disclosure, I’m getting wigged out,” Tony said.

“Tony, we already knew that Bucky could see these things and that Steve was connected with Bucky. I had already assumed that Steve could see our lungs or whatever,” Natasha said.

“Your caution makes a little more sense now,” Tony conceded.

An awkward silence fell.

Bucky retreated from everyone but Steve. If you don’t want me to touch you I won’t, Bucky said.

“Uh. I mean you two can look at my organs if you want. I don’t really care,” Clint said, beckoning. Bucky draped his limbs over Clint’s lap and around him over the back of the couch like seatbelts. Steve felt Bucky’s happiness.

“Yeah, I don’t really mind I guess, I just. Got weirded out for a moment,” Tony said. Bruce nodded in agreement. They received a similar treatment from a grateful Bucky. Natasha shrugged and tapped a tentacle with her boot, and Bucky wrapped his customary singular tentacle around her ankle. They could all feel him practically purring with happiness at their acceptance.

Steve returned to his room to eat and then got in the bath. Bucky connected to him to absorb some energy and crammed as much of himself into Steve and the tub as he reasonably could. They basked in the heat.

“We should go hang out in the hot tub on the pool floor at some point, you could get your whole body into it and not overflow it.”

Well, you can’t be naked in the hot tub.

“I mean, I could, I just think the others would not be happy about it.”

I don’t get it, honestly, like there’s really not that much difference between you being naked and wearing swim trunks. And it’s not like they haven’t seen you naked, you even put your nakedness in two of them.

“Well. You have a point. But please don’t describe sex as me putting my nakedness in people, it just sounds off. I should propose a team skinny dipping session. Diffuse the tension.”

Yeah, we’ll just fuck them so good they don’t care if we can see their organs.

Steve snorted. “Sounds like a plan.”

They all came together for dinner, it was Tony’s turn to cook which meant he got delivery from some restaurant or another he wanted them to try, regardless if they usually did delivery they would for Tony Stark. Steve didn’t feel bad about putting them out because Tony tipped extremely well of course.

They had a little dining room table they all sat at for these team dinners. Bucky ended up mostly under the table, twined around everyone’s legs and waists according to their preference. Tony had gotten some sort of Thai food and it was delicious, with a lot of spices that Steve was enjoying.

“Hey, so we had an idea for after dinner,” Steve said.

“Oh yeah?”

“Well, we were thinking we could all go take a dip in the pool or the hot tub.”

Naked.

Tony and Clint immediately grinned. “Epic idea,” Clint said.

“I agree, I can’t believe I didn’t think of it myself, what’s the point of being orgy buddies if we can’t have fabulous naked pool parties?” Tony asked.

Plans set, they all lounged around for a little while after eating, the anticipation building. Then it was finally long enough they all thought they’d be good and they skittered to the pool excitedly. They emerged at the pool level and everyone shed their clothes and jumped in. Bucky was already connected to Steve, plugged into his systems in their usual way. Steve dove under the water and swam back and forth, occasionally swimming up to tickle feet, and luckily he was quick enough to avoid Natasha’s kick aimed right at his face. The water stung a little when he first opened his eyes, but Tony used salt rather than chlorine to clean his pools and he kept it very mild. Steve lay on his back at the bottom of the pool, looking up with his hands behind his head.

“Uh, Steve, you’ve been under there a while now, you ok?” Tony said, looking down at him. Huh. Had he come up to breathe since he went under? Surely he had. He didn’t remember doing so though.

Don’t worry, it’s easy for me to take over Steve’s oxygen exchange. He can stay under as long as he wants.

Huh. I didn’t know you could do that, Buck.

Well it’s not like you were trying to submerge yourself for ten minutes in the bathtub.

“Is there anything you can’t do, Bucky? I’m just curious.”

I mean. I can’t teleport, or fly. I could perhaps kind of glide at best. I could maybe spread myself thin enough to be carried by the wind but it wouldn’t be very efficient.

“Well, I know you can’t do that. Well, I had assumed, which I should probably stop doing. But I mean, could you do the things you do to Steve to any of us?”

I don’t think any of you could acquire the limited abilities Steve has, I think that was something special that he got because he carried me. But I could do most of the physical things I do for Steve for any of you. It’s easier, with him, since he’s got that serum, but most of what I do to him isn’t terribly complicated, not for me anyway. I’m still learning, of course.

“Is there anything you think you couldn’t do?” Tony questioned. He was treading water with Bucky’s tentacle wrapped around his waist, since his limbs were moving. The rest of Bucky’s limbs were spread over the pool, connecting to the others at the waist as well. Steve noticed the tentacle around Natasha was just a thick as the ones around everyone else, not hair-thin like Bucky could have made it. Steve knew that meant she was starting to trust them a little more, since Bucky would only make these decisions in response to Natasha’s own emotions.

I don’t know if I could gather energy from you like I do Steve. You don't have as much on hand to spare.

Tony and Bruce turned to each other, chattering excitedly about energy shakes or something.

Steve had a different goal in mind. He grabbed Clint by the ankle, making him yelp, and towed him over to a depth where Steve could stand and reach Clint but his head would still be over the water. He moved him to hook his knees over Steve’s shoulders and Clint sucked in a breath as he realized what Steve was about to do. Steve put his hands on Clint’s ass and lower back to hold him up and went to work, sucking his cock down in one swoop. It was a bit of an odd angle but sucking cock was way easier when one didn’t need to breathe. Clint was gasping and panting, hooking his ankles behind Steve’s head and shifting his weight to settle more onto Steve’s shoulders instead of floating semi-unsupported. He held onto Steve’s head, digging his blunt nails around Steve’s scalp.

“-and if he could regrow an organ why not- oh shit they’re already starting!” he heard Tony exclaim loudly.

“I don’t think we can do that, Tony,” Bruce said.

“Don’t be a quitter Bruce, come over here to the shallow end.”

“Tony you’re going to drown.”

Their little argument continued and Steve focused on Clint, who was close. He gave one final swallow around Clint and he was done, his back bowing as he came down Steve’s throat. Steve swallowed and let Clint go, and he contentedly floated on his back on the surface of the water. He looked over to find Natasha sitting on the stairs leading into the pool up to her waist. She parted her knees when he looked to her. Steve immediately darted to her.

Tony and Bruce had gotten totally distracted arguing about… it sounded like something involving blood oxygen saturation? Steve rolled his eyes. He crouched before Natasha and eagerly pressed his face to her. He hadn’t done this before, granted, but he understood the principal and he had felt what Bucky had done to her last time, knew what parts to concentrate on. He slowly licked and sucked on her. The water muted her taste but he could still detect it just fine and it was so interesting, so obviously erotic. He liked that he could tell he was pleasing her. She kept one hand on the rail as she locked her thighs around his head, twisting the other hand into his hair, and oh Steve liked that.

While he was attending to Natasha, Bucky wrapped a tentacle around Tony and Bruce, pushing them together and cutting their discussion short. Soon enough he had directed them to line up their cocks together and he was pleasuring them both as they kissed.

Steve continued to work on Natasha, bringing her to a climax not too long after Tony and Bruce had both finished. Clint continued to float blissfully in the deeper end.

You guys want to move to the hot tub? Steve said. There was general agreement around. They hot tub was right next to the pool with a little rock waterfall connecting them, the water of the hot tub flowing downward to help keep the pool warm enough, although there were more heating jets in the pool of course.

The hot tub was very spacious, but they all sat close together, arms and legs tangled and Bucky woven all between them. They all enjoyed the heat and the afterglow for a while, chatting lowly and casually.

“Well, I’ve enjoyed boning in the water like fish, but would you guys like to retire to my floor to continue this little party?” Tony asked.

“You just skipped right over the octopus joke, huh?” Clint teased.

“Shit, you’re right,” Tony lamented.

They got out and didn’t even bother getting dressed to get in the elevator, just drying off and wrapping themselves in towels, holding their clothes.

They left their clothes and towels in Tony’s living room, moving into his wonderful soft room.

“Tony, want to play with me this time?” Steve said. Tony swallowed and nodded. Both Clint and Natasha started working on Bruce, gently caressing him and kissing him. He looked wholly overwhelmed, in a good way.

Bucky held Tony, binding him down tightly, and they knew he loved it. Bucky entered Steve and Tony at the same time, pressing slowly into them. He started narrow, slowly fucking into them. When Tony was sufficiently stretched Steve lined up with him and pressed in slowly. Tony gasped and Bucky chose that moment to press a sufficiently thick tentacle into his mouth. Steve fucked him slowly as Bucky pressed another tentacle into Tony’s abdomen. He spread inside him, quickly twisting into his most sensitive parts, just like he already was with Steve. Bucky started to make a game out of seeing how in synch he could get them to come, and soon enough Steve and Tony were both wrecked.

Clint, Natasha, and Bruce were over there making very tender love with minimal assistance from Bucky. Bucky wrung Steve and Tony out once more before they both flopped over like used dishrags. Steve pulled out of Tony and they just kind of lay there watching the other three. Eventually they tired themselves out as well. They all settled down for a rest.

The next day they were all hanging out in the common room. Tony was typing on a tablet but he seemed a little bored, Clint was failing to beat Bucky in video games, Bruce was doing some casual yoga with Natasha, and Steve was reading.

“Hey, Bucky,” Tony said.

Bucky sent back a sort of mental inquisitive noise.

“You think you could show me how you see?” he said.

I think so, let me finish beating Clint.

“Aww, Bucky, no- fuck!” Clint said, clicking the buttons furiously. He groaned and set the controller aside. Bucky turned his mental attention to Tony. Tony braced himself and Steve could feel him sharing his vision with Tony. Tony closed his eyes, and he looked startled, then his face creased in pain and he grabbed his head. Bucky stopped sharing with him before Tony had even finished groaning. It had only taken a couple seconds. Everyone jumped up to get near him, concerned.

“Tony, Tony are you ok?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. It was just- holy shit Steve you can see like that all the time?”

“I mean. Yeah?”

Tony took his hands off his face and looked up. “Shit, maybe you got used to it gradually or something but it was too much, even for me, and I think we can agree I’m not lacking in the brain department. I mean I could see in every direction at once, and inside everyone, their hearts and lungs, and their minds, too- I mean, I knew he got stuff from us, it was nothing detailed, but all of you at once, even just the five of you. And I was seeing through your eyes, like Steve said. It was so disorienting, I was looking at myself from the outside. And then it started to hurt, I don’t think the human brain is meant to do that.”

I’m sorry Tony, I shouldn’t have just dumped that on you all at once.

“Steve, holy shit, I don’t know how you can even process all that information.”

“I- I dunno, the serum? I guess? My senses have been very good since I got it, I can actually hear better than Bucky since, you know, no sound in space so he doesn’t actually have ears. He can just sense the vibrations and turn it into sound with reasonable accuracy.”

Tony looked flabbergasted, “That’s nuts.”

“I dunno, everything fades into the background after a while. I mean, you’re not constantly thinking about everything you see and hear, are you?”

“Well. Not usually, no,” Tony admitted.

“So, don’t go thinking I’ve got some sort of crazy superbrain. I mean, the serum did enhance it some but the difference isn’t that much, I don’t think.”

Your brain is about ten percent more efficient overall than Tony’s.

“Woah,” Tony said.

“Well, ten percent isn’t a lot.”

“Yeah, but that’s more than Tony, super genius. I bet there’s a much bigger gap between him and me, right?” Clint said.

I’m just talking in terms of efficiency, not necessarily how smart he is. His brain is faster and can process more information at a time, for sure. Steve's only maybe fifteen percent more efficient than you, Clint. But you’ve got a laser focus he doesn’t, and you make interesting mental leaps before anyone else does.

“You got all that from reading my mind?”

Not just reading your mind a little, I have been watching all of you through Steve’s eyes for as long as he’s known you, so I know you pretty well at this point, as well as you know each other. I just have insights you guys don’t, at times.

“He’s right, you know,” Tony said. “I’m pretty impressed at how quickly you can draw conclusions from some seemingly disparate data and do all that math you do for sniping in your head.”

“Oh, well, thanks,” Clint said, looking embarrassed.

“Do you think I could do it if you introduced it slowly?” Tony asked.

Maybe. But also keep in mind that Steve can process a lot more information, and also he’s been connected mentally with me for a long time. Like we said, it’s probable that it rewired his brain. You might not be able to do it.

“Well, I’d still like to try.”

“I’d like to as well,” Clint said.

Ok, I’ll go slow. Try closing your eyes.

Steve felt Bucky slowly connect to Tony and Clint.

“Ok, I see… you guys. I see the room and…” Tony narrated. They both grimaced, hunching over and clutching their heads. Bucky stopped.

“It might not be meant to be. That’s fine, I just wanted to try,” Tony said.

“Shit, that was bizarre,” Clint said.

Sorry.

“Thanks for trying,” Tony said, shrugging.

They lay in the bed that night after Steve had scarfed down his second dinner, Bucky connecting with him and absorbing those necessary nutrients.

“You ever gonna tell me what your idea is, Buck? Why you still want to keep growing?”

Hmm. Well, I think it’ll work now, let me see.

He pushed more of his tentacles into Steve, settling heavy in his belly before winding through the rest of his body very slowly. He could feel Bucky was deadening the ache of it, but he could feel Bucky spreading through him clearly. Steve rubbed a hand over his belly, rounded with the majority of Bucky’s weight, and then up to his chest. He felt Bucky painstakingly twining hair-thin tentacles around and around each rib, and then forming a lattice network in between, stretchy and not restricting, to protect his most vital parts. Bucky continued, carefully threading the hair-thin fibers between every muscle strand. He was even more careful than the first time around, more exacting and total in his integration, and Steve was confused but he waited patiently. Bucky would explain when he was done, Steve could feel him concentrating fiercely.

It took a very long time, hours, but Steve wasn’t bored or tired. He didn’t need sleep as much as a standard human, he and Bucky just enjoyed dreaming together. Bucky wove Steve an impenetrable armor beneath his skin, and Steve could feel the weight of him as he worked from Steve’s abdomen to his chest, then down his arms. Steve flexed his hands in wonder as Bucky wove between the ligaments there.

Then Bucky went down, moving through his ass muscles into his powerful thigh muscles. And Steve could tell that he wasn’t caring as much about Steve looking the same, Steve could see his thigh muscles subtly increase in size, not by much, as Bucky increased the overall weight and density contained within them. He continued down all the way into his toes.

After some subtle adjustments Bucky bid him to stand. Steve did, stretching and testing. It was like before, the fibers of Bucky’s tendrils were acting as his own muscles, strengthening him. But it felt even more total this time, more complete and wholly integrated. Steve did a couple jumping jacks, testing his weight, power, and balance.

“It’s good, Buck, real good. What’s it for?”

This, Bucky said, and pulled the single tentacle connecting them at Steve’s bellybutton out abruptly. Steve gasped, his hand coming up to where the connection was broken. Steve felt abruptly small, he could no longer feel Bucky’s body like it was his, see what he saw. But.

“Bucky?”

Steve?

“Oh. Oh, man, this- that didn’t hurt you did it? How much of your body did you just detach? I mean that’s what you did right?”

Yes, Steve, it’s a piece of my body, not a separate entity at all, don’t worry. It didn’t hurt. How much can you sense from me?

“I can just barely tell that you’re there, and I can hear your voice, not much of your mood. No sight or anything, it’s weird.”

Well, it’s to be expected. The connection could get stronger if I directly connect it to your brain, but I want to wait a bit before doing that, just to make sure this is sustainable.

“Ok but what is this?” Steve asked, holding out his hands. Bucky immediately twined him in tentacles again as Steve lay back down on the bed to talk.

I discovered I could sever bits of myself on accident, like I do most things. I, uh, I got a tentacle caught in a door and on instinct I just dropped it. Steve snorted at the image. Hush up. But it continued to wiggle around for quite a while and when I picked it back up I discovered that I could reintegrate it again seamlessly. I don’t know how long the deadline is on that or even if there is one, as long as the piece isn’t dead. So I had this thought since before I even totally left your body, so I admittedly grew larger than I had initially planned, and I’ve been working on growing to sufficient size since. Now, I’ve connected the piece to all your systems, so it can draw on you to stay alive. And I think, and I’m not sure, that this is an ability that only my kind that grew in a living being possess. I believe at least part of the function of this ability is to gather energy for me, so it will theoretically take what it needs and store the rest for me to collect.

“Oh, that’s convenient. This is amazing, Buck, it’s perfect.

I was hesitant to do this before we had won the trust of the team, too.

“Ah, yeah, wouldn’t really help with the whole mind takeover suspicions.”

This ability has some scary implications, Steve, and I doubt it’s ones that our friends will miss. I can give the part of me rudimentary commands when I connect with it. If I put one of these pieces into someone I could make it connect to their brain and make them do whatever I want. Control them like puppets. I know I can, I can feel it. It would be so easy to become what Thor said of me. I could make pieces hollow people out and then return to me. I could be a plague on this planet and it would be so hard to stop me, I could-

“But you won’t, Bucky!” Steve said, hugging the pile of tentacles to him. “You won’t. The others trust you, they’ll see that.”

Are you sure?

“That you won’t destroy the planet or that the others trust you? Because the answer is yes to both.”

If you say so.

“Come on, you’re connected to them all the time and I know you feel it just like I do. They trust you. You’ve acted in good faith many times over, and they have no reason not to trust you just because of your species. That’s prejudice, and they’re smart enough know that. I mean, just think if you judged all humans by the actions of a few. Even just what I’ve seen personally would be enough to condemn us.”

You’re right. I guess. But trust can be broken.

“Have faith, Buck.”

Steve woke the next day early and ate a hearty breakfast. Then he went down to the common room for second breakfast. The fact that he had been basically on a Hobbit eating schedule even before meeting Bucky was somewhat amusing to him. He walked in in his loose sleep pants and shirt and everyone immediately squinted at him almost in unison as he and Bucky walked/crawled out of the elevator.

“What?” Steve asked. Surely they hadn’t noticed-

“Did you get bigger?” Tony asked. Ok they noticed.

“Somewhat. Bucky tried a new thing and so far it’s working great. Watch this.”

Bucky moved into the kitchen, touching everyone so he could speak with them. Then he disconnected with Steve, causing the others to raise eyebrows.

Hi guys, Steve said. The others looked surprised.

“That’ll come in handy. What’s the range on that?” Tony asked, of course.

“Haven’t tested,” Steve said, moving over to eat some second breakfast.

“What exactly did he do?” Natasha asked.

“Basically he just integrated a piece of himself into my systems like he did before, and then he broke it off.”

“Huh. So you’re gonna be all super-Cap like you were before all the time? The bad guys won’t know what hit them,” Clint said.

“You said your muscles became like Kevlar, right? Just how hard to hurt are you, now?” Tony asked, a mad gleam in his eye.

“Try me,” Steve invited, putting a piece of bacon in his mouth. He put his arm down on the bar beside Tony’s plate, offering him the steak knife. Tony looked contemplative. He flipped the knife, holding it up and then stabbing it straight down on Steve’s arm. The tip broke the skin but didn’t go much further, and when Tony pulled it out it was bent slightly.

“Holy shit,” Clint said, spraying toast crumbs.

“Could you do this for the rest of us, Bucky?” Tony asked, looking astonished at the knife.

I couldn’t do that for you, no. The fibers run all through his muscles are thin but the weight adds up, he’s probably almost a hundred pounds heavier, I’m very dense. Your skeletons wouldn’t support the weight over time, especially not with how you move. They act like muscle fibers and contract like them, and the force generated could easily snap unenhanced joints, if not bones. Not to mention that it takes a certain amount of energy to sustain such a large piece, and Steve can spare that energy but you guys couldn’t, your metabolism isn’t high enough.

“Wait, Steve’s metabolism is already high from just maintaining his own body, how can he afford to support the piece, too?”

The serum wasn’t designed for peacetime and it seems like it certainly wasn’t perfect. I even suspect that Erskine may have intended to alter the supersoldiers he intended to make back to somewhere near normal after the war. Steve’s body almost obsessively craves energy for battle, making him restless in more peaceful times. When I wasn’t here, Steve told me about how in the war if he wasn’t in battle he still had to run and run for miles just to get his body to stop yelling at him. He’s got energy to spare, and by the piece taking that he can relax.

“It’s true, I was restless and miserable in the war. With Bucky taking my energy I can sit long enough to read a book or sleep longer than four hours at a time if I want.”

“What about all that obsessive running you were doing when he was growing in you?” Tony asked.

“Well, he was smaller then, and needed less energy. I didn’t say I don’t like running, I just like having the option to not have to do it all the time.”

So, the point is, I couldn’t give you a piece like Steve. I could give you a smaller piece, though. So you could still talk mentally without touching.

“I’m down,” Tony said, shrugging.

Wait, you should know what these pieces are for-

“We’re not dumb, Bucky. This is what Thor was talking about, the puppet-making, sucking-us-dry thing. Thanks for those nightmares by the way, Thor, the image of tentacle-filled skin suits walking around was something I really needed,” Tony groused.

Oh. And you still want one?

“Yeah, sounds like a blast. I’m assuming it’s not going to take over our brains?”

No, no, it won’t even be near it.

“And what I’m hearing is it’ll collect excess energy so I can eat what I want and not worry about my delicate figure?” Tony said, grinning.

“Were you really before?” Steve questioned, raising an eyebrow.

“Hey, I’m almost fifty, I do have to watch what I eat, look at this modest breakfast I’m having of an omelette with vegetables and shit!” he said, poking the omelette in question.

Yeah it should take care of that. You should still eat a balanced diet though.

“I do have a question about why Steve-o looks like he’s developing a gut over there,” Tony questioned. Steve scratched the somewhat rounded tummy in question, shrugging.

Well, I put some excess in him because I think it might be possible for him to move the tentacles himself.

“What? Really?” Steve asked.

Maybe. I didn’t get around to it last night.

Steve lifted up his shirt and concentrated on the tentacles within him. After a moment he felt a stir and he concentrated on it. He knew how it felt to Bucky to move his tentacles and it was easy to copy the feeling. A tentacle emerged from his bellybutton and waved.

“That’s weird as fuck,” Clint said. Steve was grinning though, uncaring.

“This is so cool.”

I figured it could come in handy. So that’s why I put extra, so he’d have plenty to use.

“And he could break off a piece of his piece and put it in someone,” Natasha said.

Yeah, he could, Bucky admitted, matter of fact.

She hummed and went back to her food.

“You think I could do that?”

I don’t think so. For one the issue of weight comes up again, I couldn’t put a piece in you large enough to be useful for most things. Also Steve has more experience, he knows how my body feels when it moves, his brain is more attuned. You can try but I’m not sure it’ll work for you.

“Ok, I definitely need tentacles, thank you,” Tony said, and they all knew what he was thinking about.

Ok, just stay away from Japanese schoolgirls please, Bucky joked. Tony snorted. Bucky pressed into Tony’s belly and settled his piece in there, connecting to all the systems necessary to sustain it. Then he disconnected it. They could see Tony concentrating to no immediate effect and after a minute they went back to eating and Tony did too in a distracted way.

“You have enough tentacles for me, Bucky?” Clint asked. Bucky repeated the process with him.

“I’m not sure how the Other Guy would take it,” Bruce said, shrugging.

“Pass for now,” Natasha said.

“You realize when Thor comes back he’s going to flip the fuck out, right?” Tony said.

“Cross that bridge when we get to it,” Steve said, shrugging.

Naturally on the next mission they went on things went pretty well until a building crumbled under Clint and he shattered his leg. He was otherwise fine but out of commission temporarily.

Clint was sitting grumpily on the couch in the common area eating cookies when Bucky and Steve came through. They hadn’t seen him in a week as he’d been sulking in his room, accepting only Natasha to see him in his convalescence.

“Hey, Clint, how’s it going?” Steve said.

“Leg is still broke. You’re sure Bucky can’t heal me faster?”

“He did what he could, putting his goo in the bone to hold it together like glue and make sure it heals perfectly. But he can’t make you heal faster.”

“He healed me when I got shot.”

“Well, that was just stopping the bleeding and gluing your organs and blood vessels back together. Bones can’t be glued back together and function, they have to heal fully or you could set your healing back. The glue won’t hold if you try to walk on it so don’t get any ideas,” Steve said.

Clint sighed. Steve flopped down beside him and took one of the cookies he was eating. Steve glanced over at Clint and snorted.

“What?” Clint asked defensively, but the way he was pulling down his shirt made it clear he already knew what Steve had noticed. Clint's belly had a distinct small curve to it.

“Been depression eating there Clint? I think the piece Bucky gave you has gotten a bit bigger.”

“Shut up,” Clint groused, eating another cookie.

Steve grinned and put his hand to Clint's belly, pushing up his shirt a little.

“Oh, I can see this piece is very well fed, you've been taking very good care of it.”

Clint blushed furiously. They could feel him getting riled up. Oh they'd definitely hit something here.

If you want we'll take you to our room to show our appreciation.

“Uh, just us?”

“Why not? You know Tony and Bruce have been fucking. Do you have to check in with Natasha or something?”

“No, please, take him, he's been insufferable as usual.”

They both jumped and looked to Natasha sitting at the bar in the kitchen, holding a book.

“I have not!” Clint replied.

“You have. You’ve been doing the thing you do every time you’re hurt, where you sulk and eat your feelings.”

“I don’t do that,” Clint replied weakly.

“You always have to work off like ten pounds every time you come back from a bad injury. It was fifteen last time you broke your leg.”

“It was only thirteen,” Clint muttered.

“Well, come on then Clint, Natasha signed your permission slip,” Steve said. He stood and swiftly picked Clint up bridal-style, careful of his leg.

“Ah! Put me down! I refuse to be carried!” Clint said, struggling as Steve carried him to the elevator. Steve paid him no mind because he knew it was all in fun. “Nat help! I’m being kidnapped!”

“Have fun,” Natasha replied, smiling.

They moved into the elevator and moved up a couple floors, Clint having given up fighting. Steve carried him right to their bed where he gently set Clint on an eager Bucky who had scooted ahead and was covering the bed like a quilt. Bucky wrapped Clint up and deftly shucked him like an ear of corn, tossing all his clothes in a pile. Steve took his time removing his clothes, grinning at a startled Clint. Bucky wrapped around his broken leg very thoroughly, making sure it wouldn’t get jostled at all.

Now that he was naked Clint’s indulgence was much more obvious. His belly rounded outwards low down on his thin, athletic frame, heavy with the sizable bundle of tentacles contained within.

“Look at you, you’ve gotten so big,” Steve said lowly, crawling over to Clint, who was already going red. He rubbed at Clint’s belly as Bucky did the same.

You did so good, making the little one we gave you big and strong.

Clint hitched a breath and started to leak pre-cum just from that. Steve grinned at him and he looked away, clearly embarrassed.

“Shut up, you don’t see me making fun of you, living your own personal hentai,” Clint muttered.

“Oh, we’re not making fun.”

Far from it, we think it’s cute. We’re into it, Clint, it’s great.

“What, really?” Clint said, skeptical.

“You think we don’t like seeing how our little piece is changing you, making you grow?” Steve said lowly, kissing Clint on the belly. Clint’s hips jerked up abortively and he whined.

“Oh my fucking- are you reading my mind right now?”

“I can tell what makes you hot, but I wouldn’t have to read your mind to do that, it’s all over your face,” Steve said.

Bucky started prepping Clint while Steve rubbed his belly some more. When he was ready Steve pressed into him. Clint’s breath came in little gasps and he held onto Steve’s arms. Steve was careful not to jostle his leg at all as he thrusted. He rubbed Clint’s belly some more and Clint liked that.

You know, Clint, I could connect with this little one here, reduce him in size a touch, absorb the nutrients you’ve collected for me, but I won’t. I’m not going to at all, in fact, until you’re healed. I want you to grow this piece for me, Clint, I want you to let your body nurture and nourish it. I want you to treasure it. Can you do that?

“Oh fuck. Yes. I c- I can, ah!” he panted.

“You’re gonna be so good Clint, I know you can do it, you’re gonna look so good all full and heavy.”

Bucky started to press into Clint too, pressing on his prostate in time with Steve’s thrusts. Clint whined and came hard, curling up around his belly. Steve gave a couple mores thrusts into him before coming himself. He pulled out of Clint and collapsed next to him. He heard the sink turn on and then Bucky tossed him a damp cloth that hit him expertly in the face. Steve grumbled and sat up to wipe them off before tossing the cloth somewhere.

They woke sometime later content. They got in the shower together and he helped Clint wash, and Bucky helped make sure the plastic wrapping of his cast didn’t fail and helped him stand while Steve washed his body for him.

“Steve, don’t, you don’t have to do that, I can bathe myself even with a broken leg-- I’ve done it before.”

“But I want to. You’re carrying precious cargo after all,” Steve said, kissing Clint’s belly where he was crouched to wash Clint’s food foot. Clint buried his face in his hands.

“Ugh, I can’t believe you found out about this ridiculous kink, please stop.”

“We will not stop, and it’s not ridiculous.”

“But-”

“Nope, no buts, your kinks are your kinks. There’s nothing ridiculous about them.”

They got Clint set up back on his floor and set a bag of chips and a bag of grapes next to him.

I’m serious about feeding your little one, Bucky said sternly. Clint dutifully opened the bag of grapes.

They visited him a few more times in the next couple of days, mostly to drop off some home cooking. He seemed to be not really sulking anymore but they got the impression he wanted to surprise them with his progress so they backed off.

Natasha appeared in their room.

“Hey Natasha,” Steve greeted.

“You guys did a great job knocking Clint out of his injury funk, nice one picking up on that particular kink of his. He’s eating like it’s a mission. You guys want a little insight on some more kinks he’s got?”

“Yes please.”

She told them. Steve grinned.

“You think you can make that happen?” she asked, smiling.

“I think we can, yes.”

“Good.”

At the end of the week they went to visit Clint in his place. He was passed out on his couch surrounded by food containers. They’d sent several Tupperwares of food via Natasha and they were all empty. They quietly cleaned up, dumping all the trash and putting the dishes in the sink. Bucky wrapped him in tentacles, checking how his leg was healing. He startled awake and Bucky made sure he didn’t jostle his leg.

“Hey, how are you doing?”

“I’m alright.”

“We came to check on you.”

Steve sat beside him on the couch and he started to try to sit up, so Bucky easily moved him into place, rotating him around gently. Clint shyly sat back, pulling up the loose sweatshirt that definitely used to be looser. His belly had certainly increased in size dramatically, mounding out from his torso. Steve grinned and rubbed his belly.

“Look at you! You’ve gotten huge, you’ve been busy!” Steve praised. Clint ducked his head.

“Thanks for all the food, it was delicious.”

“So Natasha told us about some more kinks you’ve got, Clint,” Steve said, tucking Clint into his

side and rubbing his belly with the arm he had wrapped around him.

“I can’t believe she would betray me like this,” he muttered.

“Well, Bucky and I could easily make that happen, too.”

Clint gaped at them. “What?”

“When harvest the passenger, Bucky can easily make something out of the material he gains. So look forward to that.”

“Oh shit. I really am.”

They left after snuggling with Clint for a while.

Almost a week later Steve and Bucky were lounging about when the Tower alarm went off.

“Floor 45! Floor 45!” the alarm sounded. That was Clint’s floor!

They rushed to the elevator and JARVIS took them up at faster than safe or legal speeds. They opened in time to see Thor advancing on a prone Clint, who was inching across the floor away from him.

“Thor, wait, come on buddy this isn’t what it looks like. Come on my leg is broken give me a chance to- don’t!” Clint gasped as Thor raised his hammer. Steve and Bucky were on him in an instant, and oh fuck he was strong. They both clung to him and Steve went for the hammer, and Thor smugly dropped it, only for Steve to grab it. He swung it around to hit Thor in the gut and he went down temporarily. Bucky wrapped him up completely, but he was writhing and straining, and Steve felt some of Bucky’s limbs popping off from the strain. He reattached them immediately but he was struggling.

“Thor, Thor please listen to us!”

“I will not, foul beast who has killed my friends!” Thor screamed, and oh shit he was crying. This would be touching if he wasn’t trying to viciously revenge-murder them. Tony and Nat arrived in the elevator, having taken the single minute to gather weapons and armor that Steve and Bucky hadn’t in their panic.

“Oh shit,” Tony said.

“He thinks Bucky killed us and he’s trying to kill us all,” Steve explained.

“Shit. C’mon, Point Break, let’s talk this-”

“Nay! Murderer!” Thor yelled, struggling more.

I can’t hold him much longer Steve, Bucky said just to him.

You don’t have to.

Are you sure?

Do it, he really will kill us, we need more time to convince him. Shit, hurry he’s pulling the hammer to him!

Steve was holding onto the hammer with both hands, feet planted, as it pulled from his grip. He was being scooted across the floor. It probably looked like he was performing a very convincing mime routine. Bucky pressed into the back of Thor’s skull and the Asgardian bellowed like a bull and thrashed like mad. Steve and Tony got down to help hold him steady with Steve holding his hammer out of his reach with one hand and laying on him with the rest of his body. Bucky penetrated his thick Asgardian skin and slipped into the base of his skull, spreading as quickly and carefully as he could through his brain. Abruptly Thor stilled.

I’ve got him, you can get up.

“Wait, did you-”

I did.

“Shit. Well that’s not going to endear him to us but also he was trying to kill us,” Tony said. He got up and stepped out of the suit. Bucky remained mostly on Thor as he directed him to stand. The man was glaring furiously at them.

“You will face the wrath of all of Asgard when they learn of this, I am crown prince, Devourer. We cannot extract you from a host but we are more than capable of killing your kind, I have done it myself a time or two.”

Steve sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

“This is going great,” Tony said cheerfully. Bruce emerged from the elevator, summoned by JARVIS after the threat was stopped. They had learned their lesson about calling him in for emergencies in the tower. There was a special alarm for Bruce. Tony gave Bruce the rundown.

Steve went to look at Clint, who was unhurt it seemed.

“How’s your leg?” Steve asked.

“I don’t think I agitated it.”

Steve gently picked him up and set him on the couch, and Bucky sat Thor in the loveseat. Thor looked at him in open disgust and Clint self-consciously covered himself with a blanket. Steve sighed.

“Thor. Bucky is my friend, my partner. He’s been with me since I went into the ice. He’s never hurt anyone, except a few enemies on missions he incapacitated. We’re not skin suits, look!” Steve said. He fished a knife out of the couch where he knew Natasha hid it and drew it quick up his arm, spreading the wound to show the muscle beneath. He let it go and it healed black.

“That was convincing, I really believe you’re not mind controlled now. What the fuck Steve?” Tony said sarcastically.

“Do you have a better idea? Asgard will seriously kill us all once they find out we’ve kidnapped their prince!”

“I mean is it kidnapping if he came here to attack us?”

“Captured, whatever!” Steve groaned in exasperation.

“As a matter of fact I do have a better idea. JARVIS, show some good surveillance footage of

these past few months.”

A screen appeared over the coffee table and scenes of them together played. Them lounging in the common area, Bucky dropping down on unsuspecting Avengers, them peacefully eating dinner. Steve and Bucky cleaning Clint’s apartment as he was sleeping, Steve and Bucky cooking for the team, Steve and Bucky snuggling at night. It was very cute and domestic.

“He doesn’t look very convinced,” Clint deadpanned. Thor definitely looked just as angry.

Yeah he’s not convinced.

“Shit,” Steve said.

“Wait, that’s part one of my plan, now for part two. Bucky take the passenger out of me.”

Bucky connected with him and drew out the passenger in his belly. Tony rubbed his stomach, a weirded-out look on his face.

“Thor, you must have some way of telling who does or doesn’t have an alien in them, some tech or spell. You must have been prepared if you came back and found he’d spread.”

He’s got something.

“Ok, what?”

Mind-reading is not an exact science and he’s not giving up answers willingly. I’m not sure.

“Thor, I want you to do the thing to me. Let it tell you I’m clean.”

Bucky moved Thor’s hand to his pocket, sensing an admission from him. He brought out a little ball thing. It glowed red in Thor’s hand and he looked resigned for a moment.

He handed the thing to Tony and it blinked to green. Tony handed it to Natasha and it was green for her as well, same for Bruce.

“Well, that’s pretty simple. Ok, look, we’re green. We’re not being mind-controlled. Now will you believe us?”

“My friends, I am heartened to see you alive, but you mustn’t be deceived by this creature! They only care about consuming as much as they can, and if it’s playing nice with you it is only to gain your trust.”

“What possible motive could he have for that?”

“He could wish to wait until all of you accept those pieces of himself. You would all be very valuable puppets.”

“Ok, well, I’ve had that piece in me for like a month now and it has not taken over my brain.”

“Probably gaining your trust.”

“Newsflash, asshole, he’s had it for a while! Why the hell else would I let him put one of his mind controlling limbs in me?” Tony said, exasperated.

“Thor,” Natasha started. She came to sit down on the coffee table in front of him. “I’ve been cautious about all this. I was worried that Bucky had warped Steve’s mind. I was worried that he had ill intent. I’ve been watching him cautiously all this time for signs of deceit. I believe he’s acting in good faith. All he wants is to live his life here with Steve. I believe that now.”

She stood and took a couple steps back. She held out a hand and Bucky rested a tentacle in it, and she brought it to her belly.

Are you sure?

“I’m sure.”

He pressed in and left a small passenger inside her, still functional like the rest.

Tony lifted up his shirt for Bucky to place his piece back in. Bruce was cautious, but only for a moment.

“Even the Other Guy trusts him, Thor. See?” he said, and he lifted his shirt too. He tensed up as Bucky pressed a tentacle into him but nothing happened. They passed the ball and it lit up red for them each and Thor looked horrified.

“Well, Buck, you can now potentially control the entirety of the Avengers, one of the most powerful forces on this planet. What do you want to do?” Steve asked.

I’m going to send Thor back to Asgard.

“How?” Tony asked.

I’ll leave a small passenger in his head, and I’ll give it instructions to make him go home and then leave him when he gets there.

“Won’t he just come right back to kill us?” Tony said.

We’re asking him to trust me an awful lot. I want to start by trusting him.

“Alright, sounds like a plan,” Steve said. They went to the common floor where the helipad was and Bucky withdrew from Thor, leaving a small piece in his head. Steve handed him his hammer and his parasite detecting thing. Thor was glaring at them all as he walked woodenly outside. He raised his hammer and shouted at the sky, and the Bifrost opened. They waited for him to return immediately but he didn’t.

“Well, hopefully that works and he’s not just gathering reinforcements.”

“It was the only option, we wouldn’t just mind-control him forever and we wouldn’t kill him, so we had to let him go,” Steve said, shrugging.

I can take the passengers back if you two would rather not keep them, Bucky said.

“I’m fine, I was just worried about the Other Guy’s reaction to something being left in me, but he seems fine.”

“I’m ok for now,” Natasha said. Clint was lying on the couch and heaved a great sigh.

“Well, that was traumatic,” he deadpanned.

I’m sorry Clint.

“You had to. I didn’t like seeing anyone getting their mind taken over, but really it was more his body. It wasn’t so bad because he was still there and talking to us, he just couldn’t move. It wasn’t much worse than seeing him tied up. Also I almost got hammered and not in the fun way.”

Steve sat down on the couch too, setting Clint’s legs in his lap. He reached up and patted Clint’s belly and Clint sighed.

“Let yourself go there Clint?” Tony joked.

“I’ve been bored,” Clint said, shrugging.

“Well, you’re at week five of the six-to-eight-week period, so hopefully you’ll be healed soon. But I think you just saw the tensest battle we’re going to have for a minute. Hopefully,” Tony said with a sigh.

Thor didn’t return for a week and they cautiously hoped their plan had worked.

“Are you sure it’s not healed yet?” Clint whined petulantly, flung dramatically over the couch.

I’m sure, it’s close though. I surrounded the break in more goo to keep it steady just in case. It’s really close, maybe another week, Bucky said as he pulled his tendrils from Clint’s leg, leaving several dots of healing goo.

“Well, it’s another week of feeding your very impressive passenger,” Steve said, rubbing Clint’s belly.

“Guess so.”

We’re pretty excited for afterwards, as well, say do you have any insight on what Natasha would like as a gift for telling us about your other kinks?

“Ugh, fucking Nat, meddling in my business. Honestly? She loves really awful kitschy tourist stuff, like the worse it is the more she loves it.”

“What, like those headbands that make you look like Lady Liberty with the crown?”

“Oh, that’s entry-level, I’m talking something really awful.”

“Noted, we’ll go shopping.”

Now, you’ve got to have something to feed the baby, don’t you Clint?

Clint’s eyes widened and he licked his lips. “Uh. You- you can’t really- can you?”

Oh, we can. Do you want that?

“Do I want you to fulfill my dirtiest and weirdest fantasies? No, of course not,” he said sarcastically. Steve smiled and put his hands on Clint’s face.

“I need a yes. I want you to ask for it.”

“Yes. I- I want it,” Clint said.

“What?”

Clint squirmed. “I- I want you to- you know.”

“No, I don’t know,” Steve said, smirking. Clint was beet red.

“Please give mr srmth...” he muttered, trailing off.

“What?”

“Please give me something to feed the baby,” he said quietly, obviously completely embarrassed. Steve gave an unholy grin.

They undressed, caressing Clint. Bucky inserted thin tendrils into Clint’s nipples, making him keen and pant. He mapped Clint’s undeveloped but still present breasts. The fact that men did actually have mammary glands that were just undeveloped was something they’d discovered while researching how to best give Clint this kinky experience. They started to fill him up, making him pant and whine. Steve slowly massaged his chest from the outside, gently kneading them as they started to grow softer and fuller. Steve leaned down to lick around his puckered and very sensitive nipples, and Clint gasped, scrabbling at his shoulders.

“You like that? Are your tits getting sensitive?”

“Oh- oh fuck.”

“You like it when I call them tits?”

Clint whined and covered his face. Steve chuckled and teased his nipples some more, rubbing at his belly. Bucky slowly prepped Clint, too, getting him all ready. His breasts were getting very plump and taunt, and his skin had about reached the limit of its stretchiness. Bucky withdrew and gave him a moment to relax. He took his hands off his face and felt of them, hitching a breath at how sensitive they were.

“Oh shit,” he said breathlessly.

Steve smiled and leaned down and gently sucked on his right breast, and he gasped. Steve slid into him, replacing Bucky’s tentacle. He slowly fucked into him, sucking on his breasts, drawing back out of him all of the liquid they’d just put in. He came hard, groaning, with Steve following soon after. Steve flopped over beside him, happy they’d satisfied him so well.

Bucky checked Clint’s leg at the end of the week and declared it fully healed. Clint immediately removed the cast with great joy. He wiggled his toes and itched his leg furiously while they chuckled at him. He stood up on somewhat unsteady feet, immediately cradling his distended belly.

“Woah, that feels strange when I’m standing on my own two feet.”

“More so than it did before?”

“Yeah, it seems. More real? I guess?” he walked around a bit, stretching out his ankle and groaning about recovery. He came and sat back on the couch. “So, when are you going to, uh, harvest the passenger?” Clint asked, not trying hard to hide his disappointment.

“Well, you’re not going to be mission-ready for a little bit, you’ve got to make sure your leg is in good condition. It can wait a few days, at least, while you do stretches and ride that fake bike,” Steve said, smiling at the image. Clint huffed,

“You just want to see me walking around looking ridiculous.”

“You don’t look ridiculous. You look great, you’re glowing,” Steve said. His face did start to glow red.

I want you to finish these last few days with a bang. I can help your leg recover mobility faster, so I want you to make a concerted effort for me to make your little one as strong and healthy as possible.

Steve got up and started heating up some leftover steaks from where he and Bucky had gotten excited watching cooking shows and had gone a little crazy trying recipes.

.

When Clint had almost finished that piece of meat Steve brought him some casserole, which he obligingly ate. He sat back with a groan.

“Still delicious,” he said. Steve handed him some ice cream from the fridge. Clint raised his eyebrows. “What, this too? I’m stuffed you guys.”

“We’re very serious about you finishing strong. Your little one is hungry, Clint, you need to feed it.”

“The hell it is, it’s huge!” he grumbled, but he started to eat the ice cream.

Steve sat beside him, rubbing his belly, while Bucky wormed under his house pants and pulled them off. Clint got the message and kept eating even as Bucky gently slid into him. Bucky slid into Steve’s belly and gave a command to the passenger, making it delicately worm into his genitals like they hadn’t been before and slowly pleasure him from the inside. Steve gasped and grasped at his cock, holding it as he felt the tendrils slowly twisting inside him. Bucky withdrew and focused back on Clint, leaving Steve’s passenger to do his work for him. Clint was groaning as Bucky fucked him slow and deep, the tentacle inside him having expanded to a considerable size. He got close to coming and Bucky stilled suddenly, making Clint moan with need. Steve tapped the forgotten ice cream tub that was resting atop Clint’s belly and Clint obligingly ate more. After he’d eaten a good amount Bucky started again slowly but stopped whenever Clint stopped eating.

“You’re doing so good Clint,” Steve murmured, gasping as the tendrils inside him continued to torture him. Bucky slipped a tentacle inside Steve’s pants and it teased the head of his cock, making Steve moan. Then a thin tentacle slipped into the head of his cock and Steve keened. It pressed into him, slowly fucking in and out of him, thickening just a little. He came but nothing could escape him. He was absolutely wrecked at this point. Clint slowly ate the last bite of ice cream and held it up in victory before setting it aside to clutch his belly.

“Oh fuck, please let me come, but be gentle I’m gonna pop,” he moaned.

You won’t.

“Feels like it.”

Bucky fucked him a little more quickly and Clint came hard, groaning and holding his belly. He flopped over on his side, looking exhausted and full. Bucky mercifully stilled the tentacles in Steve’s dick and he sat back as well, sighing.

The next day they harvested Clint’s passenger with little fanfare.

Now comes the fun part, Bucky said.

“Oh shit, you were serious about that?” Clint asked, eyes wide.

“Gotta get you cleaned out first, though,” Steve said. They took Clint to the bathroom and told him to sit on the toilet. Clint’s eyes widened.

“You can’t be serious. What are you- I can’t-”

“If you want I’ll leave when it’s time but you’ve got to get clean or it doesn’t work.”

“Fuck. Ok.”

Bucky pressed one tentacle up his ass, swelling until it was sealed tight. Then he pushed another down Clint’s throat, into his stomach, and past just a little. He turned on the bath and stuck a tentacle up the tap to absorb the water, passing it on through to Clint. The water slowly flowed into him and Clint held his belly, it felt strange, they could feel it too. The water bubbled and gurgled through his belly, rapidly blowing him up like a water balloon. Steve knelt next to him and rubbed his belly, even pressing on it a little, giving it a little shake, watching it ripple slightly like a water bed. Clint leaned back, spreading his legs, trying to get comfortable as his belly grew heavier and fuller. He whined as he tentacle in his ass started to press on his prostate, slowly massaging it.

I can’t hold any more!

You can, you’re not even halfway done, you can do it.

He groaned in response.

The water snaked lower and lower into him, until his belly was full, absolutely saturated. He sloshed back and forth with every movement. Finally the water reached the end but Bucky let it flow into him just a little longer, ratcheting up the pressure in his belly as he squirmed and held his tummy like he could hold in the pressure. Steve continued to tease and press on his belly while he begged to be allowed to release the water. But they made him hold it just a little longer, pressing and sloshing his belly around. Finally they pulled the plug and the water started to flow out of him, but Bucky kept the water flowing in, creating a river flowing through him. Eventually Bucky turned off the water and let the rest flow out of him. They pressed and squeezed him from the outside and in like a tube of toothpaste to make sure he was all clear.

They took him back to the bedroom.

“Now that you’re all clean we can get started. We already worked out a good formula and I tested it. I think you'll be pleased.”

Clint's eyes went a little crossed at that idea, interesting.

Ready?

“I'm ready, holy shit.”

Bucky connected to his passenger to monitor his condition and slipped another into his ass, slowly fucking in and out of him and gradually widening the tentacle to stretch him. Not too much though, they wanted him to feel this.

They dove deep into him once they were ready.

“Are you ready?” Steve asked. Clint nodded quickly.

The ‘eggs’ started to move down their tentacle. Really, they were essentially just semi-solid forms made of a similar substance to the healing glue they used. They made sure Clint could see them moving down the tentacle and he gasped in anticipation. His eyes widened when he saw the feature that had taken them a week of research and a very illegal late-night trip to an aquarium to touch some jellyfish to figure out: the eggs glowed rather brightly, shining through the skin of the tentacle they'd selected as their special ovipositor. Bucky pushed the first egg in and Clint’s breath hitched, his eyes wide. The eggs were about the size of golf balls but they were flexible and gelatinous. He deposited the first one deep in Clint and they felt his arousal, felt how he could feel it pressing deep inside. Bucky slowly pushed another in, pressing it deep.

Bucky moved the tentacle in and out just slightly, making Clint cry out, clutching at his lower belly. He already seemed on the verge of coming just from that. He deposited more and more of the eggs. Their mass was mostly water and Bucky had absorbed a lot of water into his tentacles before coming over in anticipation of this event. He deposited a dozen eggs and Clint's lower belly was already bulging outward. Steve rubbed his belly, murmuring to him.

“You're doing so good Clint,” he said.

Look at you taking all these for us, Bucky whispered in his mind.

Clint came a few eggs after that, and Steve grabbed his dick, stroking him through it. The tensing and loosening of his body as he came allowed Bucky to push more eggs into him. About then he pressed another tentacle into his mouth and kept going, pushing it down his throat. He gagged for a moment before relaxing to let the intrusion past. Bucky’s tentacle slid down into his stomach and his eyes widened as he saw the glowing eggs traveling towards him slowly and inexorably.

He realized quickly that he had to time his breathing as he couldn't get air past when an egg was traveling down his esophagus. They carefully kept an eye on his distress and oxygen levels, timing the eggs to keep him excited and aroused by the denial but not panicking. Steve reached up and gently petted his throat downward like he was encouraging a kitten to drink from a bottle. He could feel the eggs moving down his throat from the outside, which he found hotter than he expected. Bucky pumped the eggs into him until they could both feel the oppressive fullness inside him as their own. They had prevented any pain but Clint was starting to worry.

Don't worry Clint, we can feel what's happening in you. We're helping to shift our eggs further into you, making sure they don't put too much pressure on any one spot. We know what you can take. Will you trust us?

Yeah I trust you.

They pushed on, until Clint's belly was rounded and heavy. Steve rubbed him in slow circles, feeling everything stretching and straining from the eggs inside. Clint looked like he had a basketball under his skin, then he grew even bigger. His belly was firm and taunt with a little give to it, since their eggs were squishy. Clint was filled to capacity in his stomach so Bucky withdrew the tendril from his mouth. He still had room elsewhere though so he kept pushing the eggs further into him. The pressure in his belly built so much no more eggs would enter. The eggs piled up in the tube. They sat and rubbed his belly for a few moments.

“Clint, you have to relax, that’s it. Just relax.”

“I really can’t fit anymore,” he whined. They knew it was just for show, though, they could feel his arousal. He wanted more.

“We think you can,” Steve said. They stroked his cock, twining tentacles around it and a hand. Clint knew what they were doing and tried to hold off but he came anyway, and they pushed the built up eggs in small bursts in timing with the clenching and relaxing of his muscles, making him scream with it. He tried in vain to clench up but he was so loose that it was useless.

He was straining in every muscle and his belly was taunt and hard when they came to a stop.

“Clint, look,” Steve said. His belly was glowing from all the eggs contained in it. Bucky formed a seal up in him to hold the eggs in. Then he twisted his tentacles into Clint’s dick and got him off a couple more times until he was gasping and begging for respite. They gave it to him eventually.

“Oh fuck, that was crazy. How long are you going to leave them in me?” Clint asked.

“Oh, your body is capable of breaking them down, so we'll just collect them from your passenger.”

“Wh- so I'll be this huge for how long?”

“Dunno, a day?”

“Oh come on,” he griped, but they knew he wasn't really mad.

Bucky helped him stretch his leg some more and then covered him up and left him to sleep. They returned to their own bed to sleep.

What did you do to Clint? A curious Tony asked the next morning as they ate breakfast. They were in their apartment and he was a couple floors away.

What do you mean? Steve replied.

He's the size of a whale and glowing.

We fulfilled a little fantasy for him.

Well he told me that much. I'm curious about the composition of these nifty glowing ‘eggs’ you made especially for him. You never give the rest of us nice things like that.

Well, tell us a special kink you've got and we'll see what we can do.

I, uh. I’ll get back to you on that.

We’ll be here. We’ll come down to the lab later to talk eggs.

They returned to Clint’s place later that day to harvest his passenger again, which had reabsorbed all the eggs and was now very large and weighing Clint down. After they had finished they hung around to chat. Then they heard a thump on the roof. Steve and Bucky looked upwards, confused, but Clint gasped. Bucky immediately grabbed moved to grab Clint.

“No don’t take me somewhere grab my bow! My leg is fine! I can fight!” he yelled.

Some of Bucky’s tentacles shot toward Clint’s bedroom.

“JARVIS, alert,” Steve said, getting ready. He could hear Thor thumping down the stairs, there was no time to leave and get his shield. They heard the stairway door open outside of Clint’s door. Steve tipped over the coffee table to make a flimsy barrier as the elevator doors opened to let off the other three. Bruce was still Bruce for now and he immediately hustled to the bedroom, out of the immediate battle zone so they wouldn’t have a code green unless necessary.

They waited, breathless. There was a knock on the door. They were all confused.

“Avengers? I have come in peace,” Thor said.

“Well, I guess we should let him in, it’s not like he can’t break down the door,” Tony said.

Bucky hesitantly unlocked the door and then pulled his tentacles back, most of them covering Clint, who was posed in a firing crouch on the couch.

Thor stepped in, hands held up and empty.

“My friends, though I have no right to call you that. I have returned in hopes of making amends.”

“What the hell changed your mind? You still looked ready to kill us when you left,” Tony said.

“I had assumed the- Bucky, was lying to you and the limb which he left in my mind would force me to attack my loved ones until they had to kill me, or cause me to go and quietly kill myself.”

“But it didn’t,” Steve said, smiling.

“It didn’t. The limb vacated me as soon as I returned home and lay upon the floor, still and waiting for orders. I considered smashing it, but I did not. You probably don’t know this, Bucky, but you should be more cautious with your limbs. All of your memories are stored in each of your cells and people with the right technology can read them.”

“You looked at his memories?” Steve said.

“I wished to know what I was dealing with. And I saw. It was all as you tried to tell me. The machine enables the user to experience the memory as it happened, including the thoughts present. I, ah, skipped over the more personal ones, out of respect for your privacy.”

“And?” Tony said.

“My friends, I am truly sorry. I should have listened to you.” He pulled out a jar from a backpack he was wearing and it had the piece of Bucky in it. He held it out and Bucky cautiously took it from him. Bucky connected with the piece again, it was remarkably still alive. They all grimaced in unison as a flash of pain echoed through their connection.

“Your machine hurts what it's used on,” Steve said sternly.

“I apologize again. We didn't really know. We suspected but we had only used it on limbs, not conscious beings. And we had no intention of returning them.”

“We appreciate you bringing it back, at any rate.”

“I bring more gifts. I have a slain hogbess on the roof that I would prepare as a feast for us. Also I bring more knowledge of your kind. Most of it is unpleasant. In almost every other case we only discover the creature after it has already consumed others. Or it is attempting to consume an inhabited planet's star.”

“Well I guess there's exceptions to every rule,” Steve said, shrugging.

“What the hell is a hogbess?” Tony asked.

“They are large and most delicious.”

“Sold,” Clint said.

“Bring it to the communal kitchen, do you need any specialty cooking stuff?”

“Nay, I have all I need.”

What he needed turned out to be in the sizable backpack which contained a variety of cooking implements. Also the hogbess was a completely whole, suspiciously fresh looking huge boar-like thing almost the size of a cow.

“Thor did you kill this?” Tony asked.

“Of course! It is only right that one should kill their own feast for mending bonds.” He sounded offended that Tony would suggest he had not killed this thing himself.

“Right. Thor uh how are you intending to cook this thing?”

“Traditionally it is roasted on a spit.”

“Ok, change of plans, downstairs, the communal kitchen can't handle this.”

Thor shrugged and heaved the beast back over his shoulders with little effort.

Thor prepared the hogbess in the large commercial kitchen that luckily was only used when they hosted galas at the tower so there was no one to witness Thor butchering the beast right there with several large knives he pulled from the bag, one of which was basically a hand-ax, setting various bits aside that he claimed were good for soup or various Asgardian dishes they weren't familiar with. He only declared a couple pieces inedible and Tony put them in a cardboard box for the incinerator. There was something incredibly compelling about watching the Asgardian butcher. Thor was much more expert at the process than Steve had been with the deer. As he watched Steve realized how wasteful he’d been.

There was a stone brick oven in the kitchen and Thor declared it perfect. He had decided to dismember the animal since spit-roasting was no longer an option. He rather expertly removed a variety of cuts from the bones and set the bones aside. He paused when he had a significant pile of sorted organs and bones and hacked the long thigh bones into quarters, putting them in a large pot with some of the organs and starting to simmer them on a low heat with some herbs he pulled from the bag. When he had finally finished dismembering the animal he set about making a couple different dishes. He set out another pot and put the rest of the good marrow bones in it along with more organs, including the tongue of the beast, along with what he said were some particularly tough cuts of meat. He humbly requested to go into their fridge and he pulled out some onions, carrots, and potatoes, and a variety of other things, dicing them and adding them to the soup.

Does he even know what all of those are? Clint asked. They all shrugged.

“I hope this tastes good because we’re going to be eating it for a year,” Tony said.

He brought various herbs out of the bag he'd pulled the cleaver from and rubbed down the meat with some and tossed others in the soup. They'd offered to help but he insisted on doing it himself. While he cooked he told tales, so it was quite a show. They all sat or leaned on various surfaces, watching him work. He broiled and roasted all the meat in the stone-brick oven, filling the kitchen with a delicious smell.

When the meal was finished they went to a table in the adjacent gala hall to eat, which definitely lent a grand feeling to the meal. Asgardians also apparently didn’t believe in sides, or Thor hadn’t brought supplies for it, and so it was just Asgardian boar for dinner. Bucky settled in his traditional spot under the table but kept well clear of Thor. Going to kill them or not they suspected that he wouldn’t want to be touched. The meat was delicious, a bit gamey, but good. They all ate heartily and caroused like there had never been tension.

They all finished their meal thoroughly stuffed. They were all leaning back in their chairs, listening to Thor tell a story about the time he impersonated woman because of a problem Loki had created, of course.

I hope this meal wasn’t an elaborate plan to poison us, Tony said silently. He was mostly joking. The rest of them didn’t react, it would be rude to let on they were talking and excluding Thor.

I touched everything, it didn’t seem poisonous, Bucky said.

I tested it too, Natasha said.

I mean, I know he did just try to kill us, but I really can’t see him doing it like that, Clint said.

Yeah Thor can be subtle and strategic but he’s not going to go for something quite that subtle, Tony said.

He didn’t seem to hold any ill-intent when I touched him a few times in the elevator and when he was cooking. He was feeling genuine remorse, Steve said.

They all laughed at Thor’s description of how him eating so much had almost blown their cover, complete with hilarious dramatic reenactments. Steve was happy that the tension that had been hanging over them for so long was gone, it seemed, and he could feel the others were too.

They cleaned up what they could, Tony obligingly making sure the organs that Thor insisted were good for eating but he hadn’t had the other things necessary to prepare them were put in the fridge. It was up in the air whether he would have his chefs have a go at them or just dispose of them. They really couldn’t do much about the excessive amounts of blood, and Tony insisted he had people for that. They boxed up the roasts and left the soup to simmer on low for a while longer. They all lounged up in the common room, getting caught up and rubbing their full bellies contentedly.

“Bucky,” Thor said eventually, and everyone grew wary. Thor held out his hand toward the couch where most of Bucky was draped over Clint and Steve. “I would converse with you.”

Bucky reached out a tentacle, sliding it into Thor’s hand and holding on lightly to his wrist.

Hello, Thor.

“Greetings, young one. I can tell you some on your kind.”

I do have questions.

“I’ll start with what I know. You come from the depths of space. My people first encountered your kind many, many years ago, in the time of my father’s father. He lost people to your kind then, and we have been enemies since. Your kind seem to be isolated, none we have analyzed the memories of seem to have met others since their own siblings. Each simply follows its’ own prerogatives, to eat and grow. And at the end of their life they divide into hundreds of children, sometimes thousands if they are large enough at that time. We have had a couple of isolated incidents where the Devourer was existing peacefully, orbiting a star, staying about the size of a small moon. But that is a lonely existence. We do not know more of the history of your kind, nothing of their culture, or if they have one. We do have record after record of them landing on inhabited planets and establishing themselves. We had record of one who grew to the size of a city within a lush jungle in a particularly lush planet with no sapient life, planting limbs in many different animals. It was living in relative harmony with the planet’s ecosystem.”

And what did your people do when they found those relatively peaceful members of my species?

“I regret to say they were killed. The logic was that even if they were peaceful themselves, they would split soon enough into hundreds of children, each one capable of great destruction. I do not try to justify, but understand that for every peaceful Devourer we found, we found another ten who had wrought destruction and death.”

“Out of how many cases?” Tony asked.

“There are a little over a hundred on record.”

“So, ten of those were peaceful? What happened with the other eight, you described two.”

“Ah, five more were existing on planets uninhabited by intelligent life, they were dispatched, two were found roaming in space and dispatched, and another was a group of recently spawned youngsters. Also dispatched.”

“You can say ‘dispatched’ to distance the act, but it’s murder. Killing children is murder,” Steve said evenly.

When did you kill the little ones?

“It was almost a hundred years ago, I believe. Near the site of an unauthorized portal.”

Everyone else present gasped simultaneously. Thor’s face was grim.

“I had drawn the same conclusion. It was not my doing, but I would not have hesitated had I been there.”

Bucky, I’m sorry, Steve spoke just to him.

Tell me about the others. Tell me about the destruction. Make me hate you less, Odinson, and make it good.

“I have personally encountered your kind a couple times. The first was the lonely planet. I did advise mercy, then, though I was overruled. I did not understand what the others did. The second was a Devourer who had set up upon an inhabited planet. The inhabitants were not over different from humans in appearance, although they were blue and had four arms. The Devourer on this planet was smart. It had been playing the long game, for years, quietly taking over people. They didn’t even know they were infected at first.

“The commands started simply, with the main body telling the limbs to wait until the host slept and direct them to quietly bring a piece of their limb to the others in their house. Soon enough the Devourer had taken nearly everyone in the town. Now this species wasn’t as advanced as you are quite yet. They had towns but most were isolated, there was no communication more advanced than letters. The Devourer cut off the town completely, knocked out the bridges leading to it. And then overnight it took the minds of everyone in the town. It rearranged them to serve it. It set itself up in a house in the center of town and all its’ limbs gathered food to it. It directed its’ limbs to consume entirely the more useless hosts, namely the elderly, the infirm. It kept the children alive to be the next generation of hosts, and it regularly made them breed more.

“And there it reigned for almost a hundred years. Those around it forgot that there was a town hidden deep in the mountains. Any who came upon them were infested or eaten. Mercifully, it seems that the hosts’ brains were consumed, they did not suffer the torment of being taken over. They had a productive little kingdom, much like a colony of ants. Soon the Devourer was large enough to cover most of the town, with all its’ limbs constantly bringing it the food they had collected. We came because we sensed this anomaly when we scanned the planet. When we arrived the Devourer sent the villagers to slow us while it retreated. Hundreds of formerly sentient beings, men and women all the way down to infants with their bellies rounded with a parasite rather than their mothers milk.” Thor’s eyes couldn’t help but find Clint, who hunched over awkwardly. Thor looked haunted. “We had no choice but to kill them all. We couldn’t save them. They were already dead. And when we caught it we made sure it was dead, too. The information was collected from one of its’ limbs in the memory machine, after. With the main body dead the limbs should die, as well, and all the people dropped to the ground. There were none left who hadn’t been consumed.”

They all sat in silence after that.

“Fuck,” Tony said.

I understand, Thor. And the others your people have encountered were the same?

“That was one of the smaller outbreaks. There were accounts of cases where more than half of planets were taken over in such a manner. We found those cases much quicker, of course.”

“Holy shit,” Clint said.

I really do seem to be the exception.

“Well, you don’t know, there could be other cases where they’ve formed a symbiotic sort of relationship with people and Asgard doesn’t know about them because they’re flying under the radar,” Clint said.

“It is possible,” Thor said, though he didn’t sound too convinced.

“Well, this got depressing,” Tony said.

“I agree,” Steve said, he hugged a fair portion of Bucky to him.

I didn’t know most of my siblings, and the ones I did weren’t very nice. But to think they’re all dead, Bucky spoke to him.

I’m sorry, Buck, Steve said.

They all eventually took their leave to their own rooms. Thor left the tower, going to go see Jane.

Steve and Bucky sat in their room and grieved those they didn’t know. They grieved Bucky’s siblings, young and mostly innocent. They grieved the peaceful members of his kind who coexisted with those jungles or forests, and the lonely moon. They grieved the victim and the perpetrator of the massacres on far away planets they’d never see. The others were doing what they were designed to do, to consume, as nature had made them. It was wrong for them to do it like that, but it was like faulting a man-eating tiger for doing what tigers do.

Why am I different? I could sense you were sapient when you first touched me, and I knew it would be wrong to take from you more than you had to give.

I don’t know Buck.

I hadn’t even thought anything on the subject before. I just knew. Maybe it was you.

Me?

You showed concern for me, in that very first moment, and I showed it back. Maybe that’s why.

So you’re saying if I had been mean to you that you would have taken over my body and attempted to conquer the world? That doesn’t sound likely.

I don’t know! Maybe?

I just can’t see you doing that, Buck.

It’s scary to think about.

I know. But it didn’t happen, and it won’t happen.

The team recovered. Thor returned home to report that all was well. They ate their leftover hogbess and they were ok. Tony’s cooks were really excited to work with alien offal, which kind of spoke to the type of people Tony hired for any given position. They all got some of the soup and meat too, and so did the poor people who had to clean the kitchen, along with bonuses of course.

Steve ended up eating most of the leftover meat because everyone else got sick of it after a while but he had grown up in the Depression, for one, and for two his appetite was absolutely prodigious and he craved the vast wealth of protein contained in the meat. His passenger was usually visibly larger by the end of the day than the beginning, and Steve was happy he was able to feed Bucky so well.

They decided to go shopping for Natasha’s present. It was getting cold, which was one of the reasons why they’d waited. Bucky wound into his human form and it was still kind of… approximate. Steve put a black beanie hat he’d gotten from somewhere on him, a long coat and gloves, a scarf wrapped around his ‘face’, pants, and sunglasses. He looked at Bucky critically and Bucky could see himself through Steve’s eyes.

“I think you look pretty good,” Steve said.

Maybe we should get a second opinion.

Steve nodded, and sent out to the others, Hey, anyone want to come tell us if Bucky looks enough like a human?

They all immediately responded yes with glee.

They arrived and looked at Bucky.

“He looks like the fucking Unibomber,” Tony said.

“I don’t know who that is but I’m assuming they’re human, which was the goal. It’s cold enough outside to dress like this, right?”

“If you’re from Australia maybe,” Clint said doubtfully.

“Bucky basically hasn’t left the tower since he left my body. I think he’ll pass just fine, in New York nobody looks at people unless they’re doing something really weird.”

“If someone recognizes you, though, he’s going to come under a lot of scrutiny.”

“He’s barely got any flesh showing, and he’s got human coloration and stuff.”

“Show us how you walk, Bucky,” Natasha said. Bucky moved with a sort of bizarre, ungainly walk. It was like he was balancing on his toes and also had some sort of abominable hip problems. He bent at places humans did not have joints. Also his ‘knees’ went backward a couple times as he tried to hold balance. Steve hadn’t really noticed how bad he was at that before. The only other time he’d really walked anywhere was from the cabin to the quinjet, and then Steve had been much more focused on the other Avengers.

“Ah, yeah,” Steve said, grimacing.

That bad?

“Real bad, Buck, sorry.”

It’s worse because I have to hold the clothes on. I can practice.

“Yeah, but for today we’ll have to hold off going out.”

“Hmm, maybe not,” Clint said.

“What are you thinking?” Steve asked.

“Bucky, how do you decide which part of you is your consciousness and which part is the passenger? Could you move your consciousness into Steve and break off the rest of your body?”

They both looked at him in surprise.

“Clint, have we mentioned lately that you’re a genius?”

“Aww, shucks, I’m just a hick from Iowa, you don’t have to flatter me,” Clint said, looking down in embarrassment.

Bucky connected with Steve and tried to shift his consciousness into that other part of him, which didn’t work.

Hmm, unsuccessful. Maybe if I…

Bucky increased the mass that was contained within Steve, and the others looked on with intrigued expressions as his muscles thickened and his stomach rounded outwards. Bucky tried again but was unsuccessful.

“Steve, how heavy is he right now?” Natasha asked. Steve shrugged.

“I dunno, about two hundred? Three hundred if you count my passenger.”

“Why don’t you just wear him?”

Steve raised his eyebrows.

“Like…?”

“Put on your loosest clothes and then have him cover you like a bizarre bodysuit. You can easily carry the weight.”

Steve blinked.

“Man, you guys are so smart, we’ll be right back.”

They went to Steve’s bedroom and found some very loose clothes, a pair of sweatpants, a shirt he’d ordered when he didn’t understand the sizing properly, and a loose windbreaker. Bucky slithered inside his clothes and conformed to his body, leaving a fair amount of himself inside Steve. It took several minutes to find a distribution of mass and weight that was feasible and also looked relatively ok.

They reemerged and Steve spread his arms.

“Well?”

“You won’t be winning any fashion awards, that’s for sure,” Tony said.

“With the belly and how thick you can still tell your body is you’re really rocking the dad bod,” Clint said.

There was a significant amount contained in Steve’s belly, that was for sure. It was like a beachball jutting in front of them. They considered, it for a second, Steve resting his hands on the large mound. He drummed his fingers on the swollen flesh. It looked unnatural. If ‘dad bod’ was how they were going to come off, then it only made sense to play into that. They decreased the mass in Steve’s belly, redistributing it. First they thickened the mass of the tentacles in his pectorals, then they tried something else, weaving a loose lattice under the skin there, over the muscle, and keeping the tentacles pliant and loose, to make a softer look. Steve squished the new, well, moobs, and was pleased with the result, it looked pretty natural.

“Holy shit,” Tony muttered. They kept going, doing something similar to his thighs, his ass, his sides, upper arms, and his belly, decreasing the amount of tentacles contained inside his abdominal wall in favor of more just under his skin, creating an overall softer look.

“Does this look natural?” Steve questioned. They were all looking at him with great interest.

“That could be an amazing tool for spy work,” Natasha said, but her eyes said she was thinking much more unprofessional thoughts.

“I think we’ll need to see it without the clothes to make that determination,” Tony said. Steve rolled his eyes. He disrobed and they all came closer, seemingly drawn in magnetically by Steve’s apparent increased mass.

“Where’s the rest of Bucky?” Tony asked. Bucky stopped blending, revealing himself to be distributed all over Steve in a loose cross-hatching of thin tentacles.

“Huh, that’s not a lot of mass, you’ve almost got him all in you,” Clint said.

“Yeah, but my skin was getting a little tight in some spots, so.”

“If you distributed that extra mass to the rest of us I bet you could do it,” Natasha said.

“Yes, do that,” Clint said immediately, with nods from the rest. They hadn’t planned to fit all of Bucky in him so they hadn’t bothered pushing it, but now that the possibility was there they could squeeze just a little more into Steve, slowly thickening areas around his body. There was a small amount left outside, not a lot. It could work. Bucky unwound from outside of Steve and connected to all of them. He slowly increased the mass of their passengers. Spread out like that there was hardly a noticeable change in any of them. Natasha’s passenger had been small to begin with, but they sensed no apprehension from her as the slight weight in her increased. Clint and Tony were perhaps a little less flat-stomached than before, and Bruce showed no change, since he had already carried a little extra weight himself.

Finally Bucky disconnected from them and retracted and Steve had the majority of Bucky inside him again. Natasha reached out to touch him and the others took their cue from her. Soon they were caressing him all over, pointing out places where he was a little firmer than he should be. Clint immediately zeroed in on his chest, squishing the soft tissue there. Tony went right for his ass, squishing it and saying they could stand to put a little more there, so they did. Natasha grabbed his love handles and Steve squeaked, ticklish. She shook them a little and nodded, apparently satisfied. They all touched his belly, marveling at how they had made it so soft and believable.

“Bucky, you think you could move into his face and change the structure, just a little? I know the skin on the face is thin so you can’t do much, but I want to see if you can.”

“Clint, be a mirror for us?”

Clint nodded and a tentacle emerged from Steve’s belly to touch him. Clint stared dutifully at Steve’s face as Bucky ran thin tendrils into his face, with Natasha making suggestions.

“Soften his cheeks a little-no, too much, we don’t want chipmunk, yes, good. Soften the jawline up- no, not there, underneath is what I mean, like- yes, like that,” she commanded, poking on his face.

She declared him done and Steve was amazed. He didn’t look totally different, but his face was softer, less angular. No one would recognize him, especially with this body.

“We can do whatever we want,” Steve said, amazed.

“Give me ten minutes and you’ll have a drivers license and a credit card. You have a name preference?” Tony said, typing on a StarkPad he’d pulled from nowhere.

“Uh.”

“And not ‘Roger Stevens’ please,” Tony lamented.

“James Buchannan Barnes,” Steve said. They all looked at him in confusion.

“It’s, uh, the full name I suggested for Bucky.”

“What, like the president?” Bruce asked.

“I had just crashed into the frozen ocean, it was the first name that came into my head, give me a break,” Steve said, huffing. He went to cross his arms and was taken aback for a moment at how the increased mass meant he had to adjust how he did that, crossing them just under his chest.

“Ok, got it. I think this persona will be James, just to prevent confusion. Also ‘Bucky’ is a distinctive name,” Tony said.

“This is absolutely wild,” Clint said. He opened his arms and Steve hugged him. Clint clung to him, squishing his whole body.

Clint stepped back and grinned. “It’s like hugging Santa,” he said gleefully.

“Clint, you hate Santa, you’re still banned from a mall for punching a mall Santa,” Natasha deadpanned.

“Ok, in practice Santa is creepy, but I meant like, the platonic ideal of Santa,” Clint said, rolling his eyes.

“Big words, Iowa,” Tony teased.

“Shut the fuck up Stark, I know where you sleep. I’ll put glitter in all your shoes.”

“Please don’t, not again,” Tony said, a pained expression crossing his face.

“What?” Clint said.

“Wait, that wasn’t you?” Tony asked.

Bruce gave a small smile and a burst of amusement that only Steve and Bucky caught. He looked to them and winked subtly.

“Ok, James, get dressed if you can get these guys to keep their hands of the new bod long enough, and your ID will be waiting for you downstairs,” Tony said, walking to the elevator. He paused after he pushed the button, turning. “We’re gonna have sex after you get back, right?” he asked.

“Definitely,” Steve said. Everyone was pleased with this, they sensed.

Steve dressed and headed downstairs.

I think I’ll maintain at this size, if I get bigger we won’t be able to do this without putting more mass in the others, and I don’t want to inconvenience them whenever we want to go out, Bucky said.

“I like the sound of that. You’ve still got plenty of mass to make a human form if you still want to practice that, too.”

I might but walking on just two limbs is very difficult.

“I noticed.”

Look, it’s not like humans get it right off the bat either, and they’re designed to be able to do it! I don’t have a good sense of balance, I don’t need one since there is no up or down in space, and you try going from hundreds of limbs to two, he huffed.

Steve took his new license and card from Tony and they hit the town.

First step, I think, is to find some more clothes for ‘James’, Steve said. They had some difficulty first in figuring out their new sizes and then finding them, but they managed to get several decent outfits. No one recognized them. No one asked for a selfie. No one asked him how he was doing in that weird, patronizing tone. He was invisible, just another New Yorker. A rather large New Yorker.

His new body was very interesting feeling. He wasn’t used to his thighs rubbing together like they did, how he kind of jiggled when he stepped hard. He was aware of his clothes pulled tight on his ass, his thighs, his pecs, his belly. He felt… oddly sexy. And he was getting some looks, too, he saw. You could still see his muscles under the layer of softness at certain angles, so the overall effect was kind of like, well, a bear, to be honest. A literal bear. Or a construction worker or something. He walked with confidence and strength and he saw a lot of people giving double takes, raking their eyes up and down. He was used to that, but it didn’t feel as invasive now. The body, the persona, was like a shield, protecting him.

I’m glad I can do this for you, Steve, Bucky said. Steve sent back wordless gratitude, more than he could express with a simple ‘thank you’.

They shopped for Natasha a present as well, a couple presents, for telling them about Clint and suggesting this absolutely amazing idea. They hoped she liked them. They went to see a movie in the theatre, they hung around in the park, they ate lunch at a nice little café. Steve hadn’t realized how much he had missed being able to exist in public anonymously. Then they topped it off with getting in a minor scuffle and being arrested. All and all a perfect day. Maybe not for those other five guys, but they were assholes, so.

“What the hell, S- James, it’s only been eight hours!” Tony said on the phone, exasperated.

“They were skinheads, Tony, was I supposed to just walk past and let them harass people?”

“I mean, that’s what most people do, yes. I’m posting your bail, come home,” Tony said, sighing.

“Thanks, Tones, you’re a doll,” Steve said sweetly. Tony hung up on them and they laughed.

They returned to the tower victorious and ready to make love to the team. They went straight to Tony’s floor, summoned there as soon as they entered the tower.

They were all waiting for him, already naked. Clint and Natasha were kissing sensually, putting on a little show for Bruce and Tony. Steve quickly dropped his bags and shed his clothes. They started kissing Tony while Clint came over, lube in hand. By unspoken agreement Bucky remained in Steve, just sitting back and enjoying the pleasure. They laid him back and Clint put a pillow under his ass and started to prep him. Steve didn’t take long to prep after all this time, and soon Clint was lining up with him and thrusting in in one move. Steve gasped, whining and gripping the soft mats. Natasha stepped over him and wasted no time sinking down onto him. She moved up and down slowly, and he couldn’t really thrust up to meet her because it would throw off Clint, so he was just there to be used by them, and it was great.

Clint made sure he came a couple times until he finished and pulled out, and Tony immediately replaced him. He also made sure Steve came and Natasha was still wearing him out. Tony came and was replaced by Bruce, who fucked him slow and hard, putting his strength behind it. Natasha was rubbing his belly and Steve found that unbelievably hot, somehow. Clint came over and started sucking on his nipples, which were impossibly more sensitive now that they were on his larger and rounder pecs. Bruce came and then Tony was back. He started fucking Steve with his fingers, adding four, and then a thumb, before slowly pushing in, making him scream and come again immediately. But Tony was just getting started. He made a fist and fucked into him, pumping it back and forth, pressing right on his prostate. Steve came hard until he was sobbing with being so overstimulated.

There were hands everywhere, rubbing and caressing his soft flesh, squeezing him. Finally Natasha got off and Tony removed his hand, leaving Steve a panting mess. After a cleanup they all came to lay on him. Natasha had her head on his chest, Clint and Tony both were laying on opposite sides of his belly, and Bruce’s head was pillowed on his thigh, already passed out. Steve and Bucky lay there in utter contentment. This was perfect.

They continued like that for most of the week, going out with Natasha, Clint, or Bruce, who were much harder to recognize than a rather put-out Tony. They made up for it by fucking Tony until he cried several times, so everyone was happy. Then naturally SHIELD had to rain on their parade by calling him in for some dumb meting with Fury. Bucky slowly and regretfully left his body and Steve sighed, feeling bereft.

Steve marched into SHIELD, Bucky regretfully left at the tower, to see what Fury wanted.

After he was kept waiting in an obvious power move, he was let in.

“Afternoon,” Fury said.

“Good afternoon,” Steve replied casually. He shook Fury’s hand, and a tiny tendril shot out from his finger up Fury’s sleeve past his glove to touch him briefly, get a read on him. He was a little nervous, and there was a low-key level of exasperation they imagined came with the job, but that was about all they could detect.

“You seem like you’ve been bonding well with your teammates very well. You haven’t been back to see your therapist, however.”

“Who? Her? Yeah she wasn’t very helpful,” Steve said, snorting.

“You haven’t been out of the tower in months.”

“I’ve got everything I need inside,” Steve said, shrugging.

“We’re a little concerned your group is becoming too… insular. None of you have left that place except on missions lately. I want to post you and Romanov to D.C., we could use your help down there.”

“Absolutely not,” Steve replied flatly.

“Captain-”

“Fury, I don’t care what reasoning you have to convince me. D.C. is like, an hour away in a quinjet, and there’s no reason we can’t launch any mission from the New York HQ. And what would you do with me in D.C.? Stick me in an apartment alone, like you did when I was first unfrozen? You want to tell me that’s better for my mental health? No, thank you, we’re not going to be splitting up the team. Sir,” Steve tacked on at the end as a clear afterthought.

“Rogers, I wasn’t asking. I am your superior-”

“No, you’re not.”

“Excuse me?”

“I signed a contract with the U.S. Army and the SSR. The SSR became SHIELD in spirit but in actual legal terms the SSR is defunct, Peggy left it to form SHIELD, it didn’t become SHIELD. And I was formally discharged from the Army, with highest honors, there was a big ceremony and everything, you may have seen it. I have never signed an employment contract with SHIELD, if you’ll recall. And if you’re thinking about trying to leverage the little fact that technically the SSR and the Army legally owned my body and the serum, I think you’ll find that Howard bought those rights a long time ago, so now they belong to Tony. I have been working for SHIELD of my own free will, out of gratitude for rescuing me and respect for Peggy Carter, but you do not own me and I don’t take orders from anyone anymore. If you want to give me missions, then that’s fine, but you’re not going to split up my team.”

Fury glared at him as he sat in the chair. Steve crossed his legs and sat back, making a show of being comfortable.

“You may not work for me, Rogers, but Barton and Romanov are my agents.”

Steve raised an eyebrow, “Are they? If I were you, Fury, I wouldn’t try to yank their leash. It might just snap.”

“They have signed contracts, unlike you.”

“I’m sure they have. But I can tell you this, the only thing worse than having them as enemies would having them as unwilling allies. Do you think either of them will tolerate that?”

“You’re playing a dangerous game, Rogers.”

“I don’t play, Fury. Just give us our missions and let us be in peace, and everyone will be happy. The team stays together, and if you try to break us apart again I can guarantee you won’t like what happens.” He stood. “Was that all?”

“Don’t go down this path, Rogers,” Fury said seriously.

“You’re the one who laid this path out, from the moment I woke up. We could have been allies, but instead you tried to psychologically manipulate me.” Steve turned to leave, “Oh, and stop having people watch us or I’ll have Clint start hitting them with paintballs, it’ll be very embarrassing for them.”

Steve walked out.

How’d I do? he asked.

I feel like I need a cigarette after that, watching you get commanding makes me all tingly, Bucky joked.

Steve reported the events at SHIELD.

“Well, we knew that he’d try it eventually. It was never in the plan for us to still be together, we were supposed to go our separate ways until he called us all in like his hunting dogs,” Natasha said.

“I guess he wasn’t counting on me being a clingy and lonely motherfucker,” Tony said.

“Oh, he was, he just wasn’t thinking we’d stay,” Natasha said.

“And why is that?”

She gave a little smile, “Because I told him so.”

Everyone looked at her, intrigued.

“He wanted to reassign Barton and I immediately, but I said that leaving you three here could be volatile. Steve and Tony were meant to fight, and that fighting was meant to remind Bruce of his childhood, sorry Bruce, and drive him off, and eventually Steve would leave as well. But that was a recipe for an unplanned code green and also a very public and embarrassing fight between Avengers, or Steve accidentally killing Tony. Fury agreed and let us stay. But it didn’t happen, like I knew it wouldn’t. I wanted to see what we could become, so I didn’t let Fury reassign us. But he was bound to get wise eventually when the team didn’t blow up on its’ own.”

“Wow.”

“I was right, we were created to be a time bomb,” Bruce said.

“Yep. There were some other potential candidates, but you three were chosen specifically to get on each other’s nerves and make sure you wouldn’t want to work together more than you had to.”

“They’re afraid of us,” Steve said.

“Can you blame them?” she asked, smiling wickedly.

“Natasha, you are scary and I love it,” Tony said.

“It would have happened like that without Bucky,” Steve said.

“You think?” Tony asked.

“Yes. Tony, I care for you, but we butt heads. A lot. And without Bucky I would have been constantly feeling alone and scared in this big, bright future, and that would have made me mean and short. We would have fought, and not in the fun almost-flirting way we fight, it would have gotten hurtful, because of your past, and mine. But Bucky advised caution, empathy, calmed me down a lot. He could feel what you were feeling, a little, when we touched. We knew when we were getting too close to real pain.”

“Oh. Shit.”

“Shit,” Clint agreed.

“Well, now we’ll have to see if Fury yanks the leash.”

“I’ll be honest, I was always loyal to Coulson over SHIELD,” Clint said.

“But Coulson won’t leave SHIELD,” Tony said.

Natasha hummed noncommittally. “He’s always been loyal, but lately SHIELD has made a number of moves that Coulson hasn’t agreed with, especially since Pierce became Secretary. If SHIELD continues to get shadier then he’ll leave if he can’t convince Fury to pull back on the bad business.”

“Should we do something about that?” Steve asked.

“Do what? We can’t ‘do something’ about SHIELD, it’s a massive international organization,” Tony said.

“Even so, if SHIELD starts doing the sorts of things we take people down for, it becomes our duty, then, to take them down. Simple as that.”

“I don’t think it’s gotten to that point yet. But SHIELD it trending in an alarming direction,” Natasha said.

“We’ll keep an eye on things, Steve,” Clint said.

They waited for the yank but it didn’t come. Coulson came by and he was most displeased to hear Fury had tried to break up the team.

“To be fair, we’re a huge risk to, well, everything, if we went rogue. But trying to take us down because we could be dangerous in the future isn’t right. We’ve given him no cause, we’ve performed every mission given with low casualties and superb accuracy.”

“You are correct. Yes, you’re dangerous, but you also have an amazing stabilizing effect on each other. You’ve had no unscheduled code greens, Stark hasn’t blown up anything major, and you- well, you’ve improved,” he covered.

“I’m aware I have faults, Coulson, it’s ok. I agree with you, and that’s why I’ll make sure this team stays together, even if I have to really go against Fury. I hope that if that time comes I won’t have to go against you, too, because making a choice like that will really hurt Clint and Natasha. But also you’re someone I would like to have on our side.”

“I hope it doesn’t come to that, I really do,” Coulson said earnestly.

Steve? Can we talk for a second? Clint said from somewhere in the vents near their floor.

“Coulson, could you excuse me for a moment?” Steve asked. He went to the bathroom.

What is it?

Nat and I were talking and we’d like to read Coulson in about Bucky. I think it will give him the context he needs to make the decision we hope he’ll make, if push comes to shove with SHIELD. He’ll understand why we can’t be separated, why we’re so close.

And if he reacts like Thor?

I’ve known Coulson for ten years, Natasha’s known him for eight. I know him and he knows me, he’ll know that I’m not an alien parasite walking around in my skin, Clint sent, and they sensed nothing but confidence.

Come on in then.

Steve exited the bathroom and returned to his couch, where Coulson was looking at his phone, probably coordinating an op via text or something knowing him.

Clint and Nat both dropped out of the ceiling and Coulson wasn’t in the least surprised.

“Coulson, we gotta tell you something important,” Clint said.

“Alright,” Coulson said.

“So, uh, Steve picked up an alien when he was on the Valkyrie, and it lived inside him for a while, but he got big enough that he came out, and now we’re all friends. His name is Bucky. He’s a pile of tentacles,” Clint said. Coulson looked to Steve and Steve shrugged. Bucky stopped camouflaging himself, revealing that he was stuck motionless to the wall. Coulson’s eyes widened.

“Ah. I see. I had just thought you were all having relations.”

“Well, I mean, we did that too. And Bucky.”

“Oh, I see.”

“Also, uh, Bucky left a little piece in each of us so we can talk telepathically even when we’re not touching, so it’s crazy useful.”

“That would explain why mission coordination went up even when com chatter went down.”

“He can talk to you if you’ll let him touch you,” Steve said as Bucky flowed closer, wrapping around the three Avengers. Coulson obligingly held out his hand and Bucky wrapped a tentacle around it.

“It’s pleasure to meet you.”

We’ve met, even if you didn’t know it. I’ve seen you from when I was growing in Steve.

“I see. Does your species have a name?”

The Asgardians call us Devourers. There are many others of my kind who are not as nice as me, regrettably.

“I see. I assume you’ll want me to keep quiet about this?”

“If you would,” Steve said.

“I asked if we could tell you so you’d understand everything.”

Clint and Natasha held out their hands to Coulson and Coulson took them. Bucky let go of him, and they found that one of those with a passenger touching someone was enough to bring them into the psychic connection, they didn’t even have to touch Bucky. Steve could sense the three of them exchanging information but he wasn’t privy to it. Bucky wasn’t even privy to it, interestingly enough, since he’d let go of Clint and Natasha to give them privacy. Steve got out his phone and they looked at the news while the three of them talked.

“Ok,” Clint said aloud, and Steve looked up.

“I understand what Clint wanted me to get. You all have this psychic connection, and are connected with Bucky, and none of you wish to sever it, though you could if you wanted to. You’ve all been through a lot together. I get why you wouldn’t want to give it up, it is interesting.”

We would have no problem bringing you in, if you wanted it. We wouldn’t mind bringing you in on the sex, either.

Steve pinched the bridge of his nose. “Bucky.”

What? It’s true! You all find him at least amenable if not very attractive!

“Yes, but you don’t just- just proposition people you work with!”

We work with the team and we have sex with them regularly.

“Well. Yes.”

And he likes the idea too.

“Bucky! Privacy!”

Come on! We all want it, he wants it, what’s the problem?

“I’ll, uh, take your offer into consideration, thank you,” Coulson said stiffly. He left swiftly.

“Well, mission accomplished,” Clint declared happily.

“We ran him off,” Steve said.

“He’ll be back, he’s fine,” Clint said.

SHIELD ordered Clint and Nat to go on a couple of long solo missions, separately, in a clear power move from Fury which heartily displeased them all. They all decided they should go, for now, but that if SHIELD tried to send them on another right after that that was when they put their foot down. They also discovered the limit of the psychic connection was about a mile. They could still vaguely sense that the two of them were there, but they couldn’t talk.

They both came back eventually, exhausted and mildly injured. When the orders came again they both turned the missions down. According to them the missions were something that most upper level agents could do. They cited the fact that they both hadn’t taken a vacation since coming to SHIELD and had enough time built up to take off for like a full year of paid vacation, per SHIELD regulations and standard agent contracts. SHIELD pay wasn’t spectacular for most agents but their benefits were top-notch. The order came in that they would be given the time they wanted to rest.

The Stark Foundation gala was coming up fast. They had all been invited, and they were planning to go, minus Bruce, who had been assured that he did not have to and was very grateful not to come. No one particularly wanted to go, including Tony, but the gala was how they continued to convince all the rich who’s-who people to give their money up to all the people Tony used it to help. Steve was fitted for a new suit to work for his larger body with his passenger. Obviously he couldn’t bring Bucky, unfortunately. But Bucky would be nearby to talk to. They had discovered that Bucky could see through Steve’s eyes even when he wasn’t touching him, now that the passenger was connected to his brain. Steve couldn’t see what Bucky saw, but it was enough to still be connected to him. He didn’t feel stiflingly alone anymore.

The gala was, of course, awful. All these people wanted to talk to him, and touch him, and every impression he got from that contact was just- avarice, and lust. It was much, much better now that he could talk to the others as well as Bucky, though. Last time he’d come to one of these Bucky had still been living in his body, and now he was sulking in the ceiling somewhere.

I think that woman wants to take you home, Natasha teased, referring to the woman literally hanging off his arm that he was trying desperately to shake.

I’m begging you, please save me, I’m under attack.

Natasha sauntered over and asked Steve for a dance, and he took her hand with a quick apology to the other woman. Steve was not great at dancing, but with Natasha holding his hand he could at least sense her position and what she wanted well enough not to step on her.

Those mind reading skills are handy, aren’t they?

It’s really not mind reading, it’s more… physical? Than that? And I pick up more on emotions.

Like Bucky’s sense of what our bodies are doing.

Yes, not quite as detailed though.

It was time to eat, undoubtedly the best part, Tony knew how to provide good food. He was seated across from Tony, and he was struck with an idea. He pushed his leg out until his foot was near Tony’s, and then he extended a tentacle outward, up his pant leg. Tony stuttered in his speech he was giving to some important person next to him, his eyes cutting over to Steve for a second, but he didn’t say stop, when he knew he could. Steve sensed no denial, so he continued upward. The tentacle slowly made its way up Tony’s pants, moving up his thigh.

Tony kept right on talking with the other man with no outward sign. His tentacle reached its goal, slipping under Tony’s shirt and entering his belly to connect to his passenger. From there it began to slowly massage his prostate, nothing extreme, just gentle little nudges. He didn’t really want to embarrass Tony by making him loose it. The muscles in Tony’s legs were jumping occasionally and his hands were maybe twitchier, but no one would find that suspicious, Tony was naturally a little spastic. Tony’s face was perfectly impartial.

The others were feeling Tony’s pleasure, not as strongly as Steve of course, but they were. Clint and Natasha were seated a little ways away. Natasha was perfectly unruffled, and Clint was crossing his legs but was otherwise collected.

Steve upped the ante, making a split form in the tentacle running up Tony’s leg. The tentacle slipped into his underwear, wrapping around the base of his hard cock, then around the top of his balls, and spiraling around the shaft. The tentacle pulled his cock down, concealing his arousal but only heightening the arousal itself from the binding.

Can’t have you coming and ruining your nice suit, Steve said.

How far are you planning to take this? Tony asked evenly.

As far as you want me to, of course.

Tony seemed to take that as a challenge. He continued talking to the people around him, and Steve did too to a degree, even as Steve continued to slowly ramp up the sensations he was giving. The firm ties around his cock prevented him from coming even as Steve continued to gently press and touch his prostate from the inside. Tony’s cock was full and flush in its’ tentacle cage, and Steve made sure to caress him there. Then he started to tease Tony’s slit, and when he gently pressed into his cock he was gratified when Tony made a small choking sound, covering it up with a cough. The thin tendril started slowly fucking in and out of his cock, thickening a little. Tony’s face was getting a bit flushed, but he covered by talking more excitedly.

The dinner was over and Tony made eye contact with him, clearly challenging him. Would Steve retreat now that it was time to stand up and resume socializing? No, Steve would not. He gave instructions to the tentacles to hold pattern, and then he broke them off, pulling his tentacle from Tony’s pant leg and standing. Tony gingerly stood too, and subtly checked that nothing was visible, pretending to brush off his thighs. Steve’s tentacles were holding him in place, though, so he looked perfectly decent. He took a few calming breaths and the flush on his face faded. Steve was impressed, and so were the rest of them.

Steve stayed near him, socializing, just in case he needed a quick out. He kept going, and they could all feel he was painfully aching with arousal, which just seemed to create a feedback loop for him.

You like this, Steve said in his mind. You like that with one slip they’d be able to tell, they’d know that you’re a pervert who’s getting off while talking about funds and charity.

Tony had to cover up another noise with a cough.

Tony kept it going all the way through the actual speech he gave, where he looked perfectly calm and composed. After that, though, Steve could tell he was about to hit the wall and he swept him away for a quick exit, soon followed by the others. They returned to the quiet of their soft room with Bucky and Bruce waiting for them.

“Holy shit Steve, you know how to make one of those things interesting,” Clint said.

“It was very entertaining.”

“I think the bar tender saw my boner,” Clint said.

“Tony, you were amazing,” Steve said.

“Hah, you think that’s the first time I’ve done something like that? I own so many remote-controlled vibrating butt plugs, you don’t even know.”

“Let me see what you were doing to him,” Bruce said. They all quickly undressed and the setup of the tentacles was revealed, Tony’s cock trussed up like a stuffed turkey. He laid back, panting and moaning, bringing his hand down to touch himself. Bucky wrapped a tentacle around his wrist to stop him, making him whine. He quickly wrapped his tentacles around the rest of Tony, looking a bit like a black harness. Bucky connected to the tendril Steve had left and allowed Tony’s cock to spring into its’ natural position. Tony sighed in relief.

“You were doing that to him the whole time?” Bruce asked, gently circling Tony’s bellybutton with his index finger, the tentacle still connected to it.

“Yep.”

Bucky ratcheted up the intensity while prepping Tony. Then he proceeded to wrap some tentacles around the bar secured to the ceiling and hoisted Tony up to an optimal height. Tony gasped and Bucky stuck a tentacle in his mouth. He moaned in pleasure. They wrapped more tentacles around his eyes and his ears, cutting of his senses and supporting his head.

Good, Tony?

Hng, good.

Steve took first shot, fucking Tony brusquely and coming pretty quickly. Then it was Clint’s turn, then Bruce’s, and Natasha stepped up. Bucky had given her passenger a little command, and as she lined up with Tony a tentacle extended from her belly and started fucking him, pleasuring her in time.

“Oh fuck, that’s hot,” Clint said, enraptured. She came a couple times before pulling out of him. Tony was a mess at this point, begging to come but unable to, his cock still as securely bound as the rest of him. Steve fucked him again, and Bucky undid the binding suddenly. Tony came explosively, with Bucky squeezing him inside and out to milk his orgasm from him until he was sobbing with it.

Steve came along with him, and so did Clint with Nat fucking him with their new trick. They gently lowered Tony and unwrapped him, stilling the tentacles in him and returning his passenger to its’ normal condition.

“When’s the next gala?” he asked breathlessly.

Clint and Natasha came off their little vacation and not too long after that they both came to Steve and Bucky’s floor. Bucky and Steve were cohabitating once more, Steve lounging around in his sweatpants.

“Question,” Natasha said.

“Uh-huh?” Steve replied, drinking some coffee.

“Can you make Clint look like a woman?”

Steve choked a little, putting down the cup.

“Uh. Maybe. Why?”

“Mission. It requires female-looking operatives.”

Steve considered.

“He’d be heavier and slower.”

“It’s not a long mission, a single sting. But we’re going to be strippers so he’s got to be very convincing almost naked. He’ll still be able to shoot.”

“Uh. We don’t think we can do anything about his cock.”

“Oh, I know, that’s what tucking’s for,” Natasha said. Clint grimaced a little.

“We can try,” Steve said.

They stood in front of each other, Clint in just the panties he would be wearing. They connected and Bucky got to work pushing more of his tentacles into Clint. They were focused on minimizing weight so they left very little in his belly, moving most of it to other areas. They very carefully constructed a set of tits that they thought looked pretty good. Clint touched them in astonishment. They added some padding to his hips, ass, and thighs, making them all rounder and softer. They also softened his jawline and made his face fuller. They debated and added some very thin tendrils around his Adam’s apple to make it less noticeable, and it seemed to work.

“How’s that?” Steve asked.

Natasha inspected him critically.

“Add a little to the outside of his belly, hide his abs.”

They did so, adding a thin layer on his lower belly, and it did help to add to the feminine look.

“That’s pretty convincing, I mean he looks like a female bodybuilder, but definitely pretty female,” Steve said.

“The lights will be low and he’ll do a great job on his makeup, it’ll work. Come on Clint, stop playing with your tits!” she said.

“Can I keep these?” he asked as she drug him out, shoving his clothes at him.

They returned late the next day, Clint in a wig and messed up makeup with one fake eyelash and Natasha looking pretty bedraggled as well. They were uninjured, though.

“Sleep,” Clint droned when they got in. They both collapsed in Clint’s bed together.

The next day Clint was wearing one of Natasha’s sports bras and short workout shorts and he and Natasha were sparring. Tony was watching from the sidelines drooling.

Clint pulled Natasha’s thighs of death move pretty well until she bit him on the dick and he went down hard. Everyone else winced, clutching their genitals. Clint was laying on the mat, mouth open in silent agony. He weakly tapped the mat.

“Good hustle, Clint,” Nat said, grinning.

“Thanks,” he squeaked out.

He eventually recovered and walked it off, slowly.

They had a lovely time fucking Clint later and telling him how pretty he was and generally making him a blushing mess. The next day they decided to go shopping, and Natasha showed up with her chest bound, dressed like a Russian stereotype for no particular reason.

“This is too small,” Steve sighed.

“Oh, but they was so cute, let me see them,” Natasha said, in Russian. Steve didn’t speak Russian, but he could understand her because of their mental connection, somehow. Steve sighed and stepped out, shirtless and in a pair of shorts that wouldn’t even think about zipping. They both nodded at him.

“I mean, it’s a look,” Clint said.

“Yeah it’s called ‘public indecency’,” Steve griped.

“I’ll say,” Natasha said, looking him up and down. Steve rolled his eyes and returned to the dressing room. He got some jeans that fit and were comfy, a miracle. Natasha had blackmailed him into buying a croptop that fit for a definition of fitting that included not covering most of what a shirt was supposed to cover. Clint got a bra and a dress. Natasha didn’t try on anything, but she had a vast amount of clothes already, some for disguises and some for her own self, whatever she decided it was that day.

After that Clint decided he’d had enough of looking like a woman for the moment. Steve rearranged his passenger to settle back in his belly and took back the extra they’d given him. Natasha looked at him with an intrigued look.

“Can you fight like that, Rogers?” she challenged.

“I can,” he said, though five skinheads was hardly a fight.

They were down in the ring in no time, facing off. It was a bit of a stalemate. She could hit him all she wanted in most spots and it wouldn’t even damage them, and he was warily guarding his head, throat, and balls. He also couldn’t catch her. So, they decided to cheat. The next time he just barely missed her a tentacle shot out from his arm, wrapping around her leg and reeling her in so he could grab her, and that was the match.

“Hey, no tentacles!” Clint said.

“No tentacles is not an established rule,” Steve said, helping Natasha up.

“Fighting you like this is like trying to fight a tank with your bare hands,” she said, exasperated.

Steve shrugged, “I’ll take it.”

Coulson stopped by a couple days later and they didn’t really feel the need to separate.

He did a double take at Steve, taking in this man lounging around in Steve’s floor, drinking from his cups, and coming to a logical conclusion.

“Uh. Captain Rogers?”

“Yep. Bucky and I like to occupy the same body when we can, and like this I can go outside without the press hounding me.”

“Ah, that would explain why Fury’s spies never see you leave but Clint told me you went shopping.”

“I bet they didn’t see any of us leave.”

“Nope,” Coulson said. They went over some reports and other business before turning back to casual conversation.

“I have to admit, I’m curious about this… look,” he finally decided on.

“What do you want to know?”

“Do you like it or is it borne from necessity?”

“I like it, absolutely. Not only is it freeing to be anonymous, I just like it. I feel powerful, and I am, you wouldn’t believe how hard I can hit and how hard it is to hurt me like this. And I feel more… sensual, I guess? Everything feels… more.”

“Interesting,” Coulson said, but they could tell he wasn’t unaffected. He was definitely thinking some unprofessional thoughts.

“And I feel very… expansive,” Steve said, shifting to splay his legs open in the loveseat. He was wearing the jeans he bought and he knew they were absolutely clinging to his thighs. Coulson cleared his throat and shuffled some papers around, putting them back in his briefcase.

“I should be-”

“Is it because you think it’s unprofessional?” Steve asked. He paused. “We don’t really work for you. Is it because you’re a bit older than most of us? You’re about the same age as Tony. Are you worried about Bucky? Because he can stay in me, you won’t even know he’s there.”

Coulson sighed. “I think it’s a combination of all of those. The apprehension about Bucky is a tiny portion, though. And also… well. I can admit I’ve carried a small… to medium sized-torch for Barton and Romanoff for quite some time. But I always thought I couldn’t have them, it was too greedy, they had each other. And now, just out of the blue. I’m apprehensive, that I’ll disappoint them after all this time.”

“Coulson, do you think they like you for some shallow reason like mere sexual attraction? They think you’re sexy, for sure, but they want you for so much more than that. They should be the ones telling you the specifics, but you are very important to them. They trust you, and that is so much more important than anything else, for them. You know that.”

“I do. You’re right.”

Clint and Natasha came at his summons and swooped Coulson up with glee.

“You all can have a go later but we’ve been waiting a long time for this,” she said.

“Have fun,” Steve said.

Later, Steve asked Bucky something. They were laying in bed when Steve spoke to him.

Hey Buck, will you extend the passenger into my brain? I want the connection to be stronger when you have to leave again.

If that's what you want, Bucky replied, apprehensive. He connected to his passenger. The tentacles worked up his spine, and then entered his skull. Very, very delicately they wound into his brain, making more connections than just the ones that were necessary, diving deeply to touch every region. Finally they settled and Steve relaxed. The process hadn't been any less strange the second time.

We’ll see how the connection is when we have to separate.

They didn’t notice a big difference, really. They went down to the common area to cook lunch for the team, chatting amicably.

“You know, we used to have so many food allergies,” they mused as they ate the sautéed

shrimp they’d made.

“Oh yeah? To what?” Tony asked.

“Shellfish, peanuts, dairy, probably gluten.”

“Shit, what the hell is left?”

“Mostly just plain meat and vegetables.”

“I’m glad you’re not anymore,” Clint said.

“This is really good you two,” Natasha said. They were pleased.

“So, how is cohabitating treating you?” Tony asked.

“Oh, we’re great. We might not stay like this all the time, but for now it’s fun. We’ll have to separate for missions anyway.”

“Yeah, we could theoretically slap a wig and a domino mask on you and take you on missions, but the absence of Cap would raise red flags.”

“We know.”

Later on they were making love to their team. They were connected to each of their passengers, tentacles emerging from their belly, sides, and back. They had Clint underneath them, slowly fucking into him. It was a delicate balance of leaning some of their weight onto him so he could feel it and not crushing him too badly. They knew Clint liked how wide they forced his legs apart with their bulk, they knew he liked feeling the edges of their powerful muscles, how gently they held back. They leaned into him a little more, pushing their belly into his, making him moan. They were so gentle, though, they had to be. The others were quite literally about half their size, not to mention the increased strength.

Natasha came over to sit on Clint’s face, arranging herself so she was facing them. They leaned forward hesitantly and she leaned as well. They kissed. It was the first time they’d kissed her on the mouth. They stopped thrusting into Clint so he could hold steady for Natasha, just letting their dick rest in his body. They continued to pleasure him from the inside via his passenger, doing the same for themselves and Natasha. She hummed in appreciation, grinding down on Clint. They extended a couple more tentacles from their lower belly, pressing them into Clint alongside their cock. They twined them around their cock and slowly moved them up and down, pleasuring themselves and Clint. They thickened the tentacles slowly, stretching Clint further and increasing the tightness for them. Clint came, and they followed him, with Natasha close behind.

They had been keeping their mind open during their orgies in particular, letting their mind flow out from them. The impressions they gave weren’t their every thought in words, it was much more along the lines of physical and emotional feelings. The others were more closed off, generally, and that was fine. It was terrifying, to be known and open. But usually when they came their mind opened for that brief moment like a flower, releasing a burst of pure pleasure into their shared connection that usually set off a chain reaction if everyone was close. They felt Bruce and Tony both come very soon after the three of them had. They began to thrust into Clint again, slow and deep, so he wouldn’t accidentally bite Natasha or something.

Do you like us using you for our pleasure like this, Clint? they asked. Natasha gave them a look for a second but then looked away. She reached down to stroke Clint’s cock a couple times. Clint whined into Natasha.

They all came again not long after that and they pulled out of Clint, laying over to rest.

The others came to rest on them again, which they liked very much.

“How are you doing, Steve? Bucky?” Natasha asked.

“We’re great,” they said, content.

“Both of you?”

“Of course,” they said, confused.

“You’re, uh, you’re concerning us a little here,” Tony said.

“How so?”

“Well, for one, you’re both speaking at the exact same time, mentally and out loud, which is new. And when you spoke mentally it was both of your voices. We just want to know where your heads are at,” Tony said.

“Oh. We still know we’re different, our minds are our own, we know where the line is even if our thoughts usually run in the same veins. I think we’ve been cohabitating for a while so we’ve just started to think of every part of us as ours, rather than that we’re two very different beings occupying the same body. So this hand is ours, and these tentacles are ours, it’s not ‘Steve’s hand’ and ‘Bucky’s tentacle’. And we didn’t really notice we were speaking at the same time, we could probably stop that if it’s confusing.”

“It’s fine. So your minds are still individual your bodies… body? Just became a collective. Wait does that mean our passengers are yours as well?”

“We consider your individual passengers to belong to you and also us. We are capable of sharing, clearly.”

“If you can sense our bodies so well and see through our eyes, do you consider our bodies to be a part of you, too, to a degree?” Bruce asked.

“Shit this is getting philosophical,” Clint muttered.

“We… we hadn’t thought about it. Uh. You all carry your passengers, and we consider those to be a part of your body as well as ours, so. We can’t move your bodies, though.”

“You could, but you won’t,” Tony said.

“Yes that’s true. I guess we consider your bodies… like pieces of us that move individually. Not something to control, but of us, from us.”

“Like children?” Natasha said, ever sharp.

“Hmm. I guess that would be a good comparison. Obviously we don’t think of you as children or blood relations, that would be… gross, given our activities. But insofar as your passengers are pieces of us that we have let out into the world and that passenger is a part of you, yes.”

“Huh,” Tony said. He seemed a bit perturbed.

“If it makes you feel any better we think you legally own Steve’s body, so,” they said, shrugging.

“Wha- oh, right, my dad bought those. Rights. I can give that back to you, legally.”

“Eh, why bother. Could come in handy.”

“Alright, I feel better, good talk,” Clint said. He snuggled under their arm and sighed into their soft chest. They felt good, together and surrounded by their team.