You were already in your lab working when Loki found you the next morning. "Did you eat?" he asked accusingly when he came into the lab. You had the giant pot of coffee next to where you were working, but no food that he could see.
"I've eaten," you replied. You could nearly hear him roll his eyes, he rolled them so hard.
"Have you eaten since dinner last night?" he clarified his question.
You laughed and finally looked away from your work. "Does coffee count?" you asked innocently.
"No, love. Coffee does not in fact count as a food. Come on, food, then I'll help you with the power supply problem," he tried to bribe you.
"Give me a sec to finish this so it doesn't blow up," you said, turning back to concentrate on the piece your were working on. He sighed heavily and pulled you in your rolly-chair away from the table.
"Now, darling," he told you firmly. You glared up at him. He laughed and threw you over his shoulder in one fluid motion.
"Loki!" you shrieked and smacked his back. He laughed and started swiftly from the room. "If that blows up, I'm going to be mad at you," you warned him.
"I expect nothing less," he replied with a smile in his voice. You huffed and grumped at him, but he didn't put you down until set you on your usual chair in the dining room. A plate of eggs and sausage appeared in front of you courtesy of Nat.
"You're just like your dad," she laughed. "Neither of you remember to eat or sleep until someone reminds you how long it's been since the last time you did either activity."
You laughed in reply. "I had to reprogram Jarvis to shut down all of his machines if he tried to go more than three days without doing those activities," you reminded her with a reminiscing smile. "He's gotten better,"
"You've gotten worse," Nat retorted. "Don't forget, it's girls' night, so you have to leave your lab this evening." You nodded in reply. "Sorry, Loki, you're not a girl. You'll have to entertain yourself," Nat teased the god.
"Are you certain of that?" Loki asked pleasantly. With a flash of green magic, Loki was female. Nat laughed and you giggled, though Loki was equally attractive as a female. You forgot that he was capable of shapeshifting. He didn't use the skill much around the tower.
"Fine, Lady Loki can come," Nat relented with a laugh.
"Yay!" Loki exclaimed, clapping her hands in glee, as she took a plate of breakfast from Nat and sat next to you. "Eat, Y/N," she reminded you. You'd forgotten about eating in the excitement. Loki shifted back to male and you two ate breakfast quickly. Loki helped you wash the dishes. He didn't enjoy the chore any more than you did, but you splashed him with soapy water and you were silly about it, which made it slightly more enjoyable. You'd explained how it was fair to clean up, since Nat had made you two breakfast, so he didn't complain too much about helping.
*
You spent the rest of the day with Loki in your lab. He knew a lot more about technology than he had let on and you both poured over your design schematics all afternoon. Between the two of you, you got the power-supply issue resolved, plus some. That led to you scrapping the original project and starting on about ten new ideas while Jarvis made quite a few of the power supplies for you. You'd asked Karen to ask Jarvis to make the power supplies. You'd found out that Tony kept a record of what you asked Jarvis to do, especially things in the lab, but he hadn't thought to keep track of what you had Karen ask Jarvis to do. You were exploiting that fact for as long as you could.
Loki sat quietly reading while you assembled the final pieces. He wasn't good at this part and decided staying out of the way was safer than getting burned or worse by attempting to help. You slipped the metal bangles on your wrists when they were assembled, a huge grin on your face. "Might want to stay back," you warned Loki when you moved away from your lab table and closer to Dum-dum (Dum-e's little brother) so you could test them out. Loki looked up, but stayed where he was, hopefully out of danger. You saw the change in his demeanor and knew he was prepared to protect himself and you if something went wrong.
