The Loco of Loki (MCU Fanfiction, Loki/Tony/Pepper)

4. What Happens Next?

His butt had just touched leather when the elevator doors opened, and Thor stormed into the room.

"Hold up, Death Metal," he said, lifting his hand in what he hoped was a placating gesture, "everything's going great here."

"Loki, what have you done?" was Thor's opening gambit, at which point Loki's expression lost all traces of humour.

"Whoa," Tony said, standing before Loki could do anything that would put everything back to square one, "you know all that wishing for your brother to not be insane you did, well it paid off. Just look at him, Buddy, before you say anything you are really going to regret."

Thor had Mjolnir in his hand and just stood there as if frozen before a battle.

"There's something I didn't mention about the last time Snow White here dropped in," Tony tried to explain. "When he bit me, we had a whole Vulcan mind meld thing going on. It was freaky, but..."

"The influence of Tony's mind on my own was significant," Loki finished for him, still looking annoyed, but on the sane side of pissed off, so Tony took that as a good sign.

"My crazy fixed his crazy and he came back to say thanks," Tony added, "so I asked him to stay."

That at least made Thor lower his hammer.

"You are well again?" Thor asked, looking at Loki.

"As well as can be expected," Loki replied in a very cool tone.

"Then we must return at once to Asgard so that Father may know and ..."

"Whoa there again, Blondie," Tony stepped in before an argument could start, "your dad managed to screw up, so he doesn't have any say in this now."

"Man of Iron, I do not believe you know of what you speak," Thor responded.

"Oh, but I do," he insisted, "and so do you. Loki is free and clear no matter what your Dad says, because of your own law. Harm of a permanent nature has been done and so the get-out clause is in effect; I know you know what that is. Your little brother here might have a huge blind spot when it comes to himself, but I'm betting you don't."

Thor thought about that and there was what Tony decided was doubt in the demi-god's expression.

"That must be judged by the AllF..." Thor started to tell Loki and that was the point Tony saw Loki lose his temper.

"Is this not permanent damage?"

Loki was suddenly right beside Thor and the trickster was showing long vicious fangs and those glittering eyes. Tony had only seen a blur and it was more than clear Thor had seen little more.

"Surely there is a way to reverse..."

"Do you think I have not tried?" Loki all but snarled. "This is no curse to be removed. This is magic older than time when creatures were created by the whim of the universe. This cannot be changed."

Tony just stood there watching as he saw the realisation that this was not a trick dawn in Thor's eyes. Several emotions filtered across Thor's face and finally settled on something Tony could not quite identify.

"Then I truly have my brother back," was what Thor said and Tony realised what he could see was hope.

From the looks of things Loki had absolutely no idea how to deal with that. When Thor reached out and hugged him, Loki just kind of froze. Tony would have laughed if he had been sure it wouldn't result in bloodshed. Loki may have been less crazy pants now, but that didn't mean the demi-god was stable by any means.