My War Is Over (Original Unfinished Version)

Chapter Seventeen

"Fuck," Tony groans out loud, running his hand through his half-wet hair. Wet? Why was it wet? He feels like he should remember that. He shakes himself, blinking slowly when the room seems to spin and briefly wondering when the last time he'd had a cup of coffee or some decent sleep was. Man, adrenaline's a bitch. 

He thought of his suit downstairs in his lab, charred and scratched and in desperate need of repairs before the inevitable next battle. They may have defeated the Chitauri, but the invasion of Earth was no doubt a message to everything else lurking out there that it was their chance to try next. Not to mention that whatever or whoever had been controlling Loki was still out there. But the lab was all the way down in the basement levels of the tower, and Loki was here, and...are those black spots dancing around the corners of his eyes?

Stumbling a few paces away from Loki's bed Tony spares the unconscious god one last glance before he slowly makes his way to his own bedroom, pausing only to ask JARVIS to wake him up if Loki needed him before whispering a teasing, "Catch me?" to empty air and collapsing into his bed, unconscious.

  -oOo-

Sleep does not come to Tony in peace. It never does. He wakes up with a start not even three hours later, shooting up into a sitting position with a hand clutching at the arc reactor in his chest and his throat sore, wispy images of the earth floating away from him and the mangled strips of Loki's veins swirling around his head like a fog. 

"Sir," JARVIS's calm voice, quieter than usual, cuts through the fog. "Mr. Laufreyson's condition has remained unchanged. I would highly suggest that you return to sleep in order to improve your own."

"I-I can't..I-I gotta-"

"Mr. Laufreyson is stable, Sir, and I will alert you if his condition changes. However, I must draw to your attention that if you continue to neglect your own health it will deteriorate to a point at which you will not be capable of caring for Mr. Laufreyson properly." There was a slight hesitation, before JARVIS adds, "Is that what you want, Sir?" No.

So Tony nods, and with his hand still pressed against his chest, he lets himself lay back down. 

"You'll...you'll let me know....you'll tell me if something happens to him?"

"Certainly, sir," JARVIS responds. 

"He's not...he's not gonna die."

"Of course not, sir."

"Okay." And Tony let the blackness still lingering at the edges of his vision take over once again. 

"Goodnight, sir."

-oOo-

"Brother! Brother, would you like to see what I've learned today?" It had been a long, long time since the halls of Asgard had looked so bright, so golden, so sparkling to Loki's eyes. They twisted and inverted in weird shapes that Loki knew wasn't right but the information was a mere hum in the back of his mind. He couldn't wait to show Thor the new spell he'd learned. 

"Loki." Thor greeted, "how do you fare, brother?" 

"I am well Thor!" Loki grinned, coming to a halt beside the older. "I learned a new spell today! Mother tells me it is exceptionally advanced for my age and skill. She says when I grow older," Loki dropped his voice to an excited whisper, eyes darting around to check that they were alone in the hall and leaning close, "that I might become more powerful than Father!"