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In the end, it was Dr. Strange who got the Avengers plus one back to their normal bodies. Tony had very pointedly not claimed him. There’d been a few minutes of disorientation before everyone seemed to get themselves sorted out mentally. It’d taken Loki all of a split second to disappear completely, much to Bucky’s relief and Fury’s… fury. The entire team reacted with varying degrees of embarrassment and amusement. Steve was horrified by how he’d acted but Bucky had still caught him asking Tony shyly if it would be alright to have a dog in the tower. Truthfully, Bucky was just glad to have his friends back to their rightful ages but that didn’t mean that they just got to go back to life as they’d previously known it.
Apparently knowing about Tony’s true heritage meant that the genius no longer felt compelled to hold back any of his more draconic tendencies. He’d snort smoke when he was irritated, grumble-purr when he was pleased, and felt absolutely no shame in throwing himself in the laps of his teammates when they sat on the couch and demanding head rubs. Well, alright, that last one wasn’t anything new but it had become much more frequent. Still, it all remained confined to the tower. Outside of it, Tony continued as he always had.
After a few weeks, no one on the team even thought of it as strange anymore. They just accepted it as the new normal. Bucky didn’t exactly forget that his boyfriend could turn into a giant, fire-breathing lizard at will but it had admittedly slipped to the back of his mind. That is, of course, until he entered the gym for his morning workout to find Tony in full-dragon form, Loki dancing merrily around him and stoking the fire under Tony’s belly.
“What is happening right now?”
To be fair, this isn’t the worst thing you’ve ever caught me doing.
“I don’t know. Loki is here and the gym is on fire. Both of those things rank pretty high.”
Loki glared and shot a bit more green flame at the logs along Tony’s side.
“This is why I said we should do this elsewhere, Anthony.”
Nope. The tower is my den. I’d much rather be doing this here than anywhere else.
“And what exactly is ‘this’?”
Nothing, Tony said, far too quickly to be believed.
Loki crossed his arms by Tony’s elbow but, next to the bulk of a dragon, he didn’t seem very intimidating.
“And this time the truth?”
Loki scoffed, but Tony lowered his chin to the floor of the gym.
Loki and I thought it would be interesting to see if I could manage to absorb the power of the fire without growing to match it. As far as I know it hasn’t been done before but then there’s never really been a reason for a dragon not to grow if given the opportunity.
Bucky rubbed a hand over his face.
“Ignoring all the ways that could go horribly wrong for a moment, have you forgotten that Loki is our enemy? Just because he turned little and you pseudo-adopted him, doesn’t mean he’s not still the bad guy.”
Tony huffed out a billow of smoke.
He’s mine.
Bucky was about to come back with an angry retort when Loki stepped forward, hands held up as if to show he meant no harm.
“Sergeant Barnes, I understand this is not an easy thing to accept but we beings of fire share a special bond. I could not remember all of myself when I was but a child, but as an adult, I have access once more to all of the knowledge I’ve gained over my many years. That knowledge tells me how foolhardy it would be to make myself an enemy of one such as Anthony but it also tells me how futile it would be to attempt to escape the claim of a dragon. I am no fool.”
Bucky eyed him suspiciously.
“Then why did you do such a spectacular job of making yourself an enemy before?”
“Because I did not know of Anthony’s great heritage then. Had I known, well,” his expression turned soft as he glanced at Tony again, very reminiscent of the looks he’d given Tony as his child-self, “the invasion might have gone quite differently.”
“You can’t honestly expect us to just brush off everything that you’ve done as if it never happened.”
Loki shrugged, but it was Tony who answered.
We have forgiven much when it comes to every one of us. If he helps us now, that is what should matter. I know his soul, Bucky-bear. That means quite a bit.
Bucky sighed and let his shoulders droop. He knew his boyfriend well enough to know when he was beaten. It didn’t mean he couldn’t still walk around armed and keep an eye on the green-eyed god.
“Fine, but you and I will be having a talk about this whole ‘knowing his soul’ thing later and you’re the one who has to tell Fury.”
It was pretty amusing to see a dragon flinch, but it was far less amusing to see Tony suddenly grow so much he smashed his head through the ceiling to the next floor. At least Loki chose to include Bucky in his little magic protective bubble thing. If there was one thing that Bucky was sure of, it was that his life was about to get a whole lot harder than it’d ever been with kids.