"Yeah," Bruce said, "he does. More than he likes anyone else." And that was saying something, considering how the Hulk actually liked 'Tin Man' Tony and 'Birdy' Clint.

Kae smiled, extremely pleased with that, and cautiously leaned against Bruce's shoulder to make sure s/he was okay with that.

Bruce let her get comfortable, just relaxing there. Hey, if s/he had to spend the next however long as the wrong gender, there were worse ways of doing it.

After a few hours, Kae fell asleep there, cuddled against his side.

"I'll take her," Tony said quietly, moving over to the two to pick up his cousin. Because there was no way Bruce could get up or pick her up without waking her up, and he knew from experience that Kae would be grumpy if someone woke her up now.

Bruce hesitated, but nodded. S/he knew that Tony would be able to look after Kae well enough.

"Thanks."

Tony nodded and took Kae, heading to the guest rooms. Which, it took him a minute to realize, were all occupied. Well. That was a little pickle.

Oh well, she could stay with him for a night or two. At least she was a good little cousin.

That thought in mind, he carried her over to his bedroom to get them both settled in for the night.

Elaine wasn't feeling all that much better the next morning even as she zombied into the kitchen for some tea. Not even coffee, she didn't want to fight with making coffee while her head still hurt. She didn't even open a tin of good tea; she just plunked a generic tea bag into a mug of hot water and sat down at the table.

Tony and Kae came into the kitchen not long after, already bickering.

"This is what happens when I so graciously let you use my bed?"

"Oh, please, we could fit four more people comfortably on that bed."

"Depends how tiny they are and how close you want to get, which is totally not the point, because clearly you are an octopus."

"You're just as bad! You're a closet-clinger, you were totally clinging last night."

"I was not, I never cling! Now you're a liar as well as an octopus and a bed-hog." Tony jabbed a button on the coffee machine to get it going.

Elaine groaned when they came into the kitchen bickering.

"Both of you shut the hell up please," she grumbled, pillowing her head on her arms on the table and ignoring the tea in front of her.

They both paused before they had almost identical evil grins.

"Migraine," Kae said feelingly, going to start on breakfast.

"Better than a hangover," Tony quipped, barely waiting for the coffee to be finished before pouring himself a cup.

"Feels like there's an ice pick in my brain," Elaine mumbled, implants still turned off.

Kae shook her head and kept cooking, though she couldn't help but grin a little at her friend's plight. Really, it wasn't her fault she found it amusing.

Clint was the next one to come into the kitchen, in a much better mood than the day before.

"Ooh, coffee," he said brightly.

"Clint Barton, if you don't keep your voice down..." Elaine threatened. Clint raised an eyebrow and looked at the others.

"Migraine," Kae and Tony replied at the same time.

"Children," Phil snorted, moving over to steal a cup of coffee before Clint could get to it.

Elaine groaned again at all the voices and zombied her way out to the living room to curl up in a chair, ignoring the untouched mug of cheap tea.

Kae took pity on Elaine and brought her over a cup of coffee, a cup of tea, and a plate of food once it was ready.

"Here," she said quietly. "This might help."

"Maybe when my brain isn't beating on the inside of my skull," Elaine muttered.

"Might help with that too," Kae said quietly but left her alone after that. Hey, it could be worse. She grinned.

It only took Elaine another few days to completely break the spell, and everyone agreed that they wanted to go back to New York after that. Elaine had to agree.

By that time, Kae was getting rather good at making invisible mental-walls, which she tested on Clint and Tony all the time, snickering.

And then she decided it was time to try to learn to fly for herself, since Tony could (with the suit) and Thor could and she was fairly sure Loki could.

Except she kept failing miserably and falling into the nest of blankets she'd made so she wouldn't get rug burn.

Elaine couldn't help but enjoy watching the flying lessons. She hadn't tried on her own yet, though; she wasn't entirely sure she would even be able to fly.

Kae faceplanted. Again. For the third time in five minutes.

"Ow," she groaned, lifting herself up more slowly. She'd been going at this for almost an hour now and there had been no visible improvement, just lots of different methods of thinking about it.

"You okay?" Elaine asked, helping her friend up. "Maybe you should take a breather."

"Maybe," Kae said reluctantly. "I just, I don't get it. I can float everyone else around with no problem, I can make walls with my mind now, but I can't fly? Not equating."

"Well, doesn't flying have more complicated physics?" Elaine asked. "Maybe you should treat it like you treat floating other people? Or maybe like how Tony flies in the suit, doesn't it have things on the boots?"