Over the next few days Loki barely even saw Tony. He spent every moment in the laboratory, working on finding the cure. Loki often tried to make him come and eat but Tony wouldn't listen. It was the fourth day and Loki was getting concerned; Tony hadn't even come out of the lab last night and there was an alarming amount of breakfast bar wrappers piled up outside the door. Loki set out the bowls of cereal onto the table ("Cheerios are gross! Can I have coco pops?" Steve asked hopefully) when Tony burst in, looking happy.
Deciding not to mention the fact that his hair was a mess, Loki said, "Morning," before handing him a bowl of cereal which Tony ignored.
"I found out that the structure of . . . " Tony trailed off into such a complex speech filled with scientific language that Loki was left staring at him stupidly, trying to understand.
"Speak English, Tony!" Loki exclaimed at last, making Tony stop mid sentence.
Tony looked crestfallen before rolling his eyes and saying in a deliberately slow voice, "It'll help us find the cure."
Loki scowled at being spoken to like a child and was about to glare at Tony when he stopped. The other man was staring longingly at Bruce (who was too focused on his cereal to notice anything).
Loki felt a surge of pity as Tony mumbled, "You'd understand," then just poked his spoon into his soggy cereal moodily.
Loki ate his breakfast and, although Tony wasn't saying anything, Loki was glad for his company. The children had apparently missed Tony as well as they began to catch him up on every piece of drama and every joke that they had missed. After they'd finished breakfast Loki lead them into a private cinema with one wall replace with a giant screen.
"I'll put a movie on for them." Loki told Tony. This was more complicated than it looked.
"Nemo!" Steve cried. "I want to watch Finding Nemo!" He fingered the case desperately.
"Now, I'm not saying your suggestion is bad." Bruce started nervously. "But wouldn't you rather want to watch something more interesting? Maybe more advanced?" Bruce added carefully. He didn't want to upset Steve again.
"Yeah, we all know the story. Nemo gets lost, his dad goes to find him and with Dory's help, it all ends with happiness and fun!" Clint said pulling a face. "Let's watch something better."
They all starting rifling through a pile of DVDs.
"Aha!" They all said in unison.
Bruce held up The Martian. Clint held up the first Hunger Games. Steve held up Cars.
"Well." said Bruce awkwardly.
"What're we watching?" said Loki reentering the room. He saw them all clutching a different movie. This was only going to end in tears.
"Why don't you choose, Thor?" He couldn't help but favourite his brother. Thor nodded and held up and ancient copy of The Railway Children. Clint and Steve groaned.
"Too boring." Steve mumbled.
"Too old!" Clint said with a fake yawn.
Bruce nodded acceptingly. He didn't mind too much.Natasha just watched.
Loki ignored Steve and Clint, and played the movie, watching the kids slowly settle down and watch it.
Meanwhile, Tony sat, working hard. He was interrupted by Jarvis, "Nick Fury is calling, sir, shall I answer or decline?"
"Answer." He said vaguely, not focusing.
"Answering Nick Fury's call."
"Wait!" Tony cried. "Decline! Decline, Jarvis decline, shit, cancel it!"
It was too late.
"Good afternoon Tony." Fury's voice filled the room. "I wish to talk to Captain America. I have a new mission to interest him with."
Oh fuck.
"Well you can't. He's—" Tony scrabbled for an excuse. ". . . not here."
Tony held his breath.
"Tony, quit messing around and get Rogers. We know he's there."
Tony did the first thing that came to his mind.
"Hello, sir." Tony said in his best Steve impression.
"Tony." Fury warned. "I swear pass me on or I will personally have S.H.I.E.L.D search your tower until we find him!"
This. was getting serious. "Sorry? . . . Ksshhhh . . . I can't . . . Kshhhh . . . hear you . . . Kshhhh . . . must be breaking up . . ."
"Tony, you paid a goddamn fortune for your signal and connection, we are not breaking up."
"Tony?" Loki called. "Who's on the phone?"
"Tony?" Fury sounded so disbelieving yet so furious at the same time. "Is that who I think it is? I swear to god—"
Tony cut the call off.
"Who was it?" Loki asked in a bored tone, walking in with Thor in his arms.
"Fury." Tony replied, rolling his eyes. Loki stopped dead and stared at him looking afraid. Tony glanced at him and laughed slightly, "scared of the one eyed old man?"
"This isn't funny," Loki snapped, "if Fury finds out about me, he will kill me."
"What's not funny about that?" Tony replied with a shrug, pulling up a blueprint out of nowhere.
His uncaring attitude made Loki snap. Outraged, "You're so selfish Stark, it's no wonder Pepper Potts left you!" Tony stopped dead and dead silence filled the room for the longest five seconds of Loki's life.
Then Tony stood up so suddenly that he knocked over the coffee table, making Thor run out of the room.
Grabbing Loki by the collar, he slammed the taller man into the nearest wall. "Don't you dare say that—don't you dare." Tony threatened, his voice shaking and his eyes filling with tears which he was fighting back.
Loki sneered, "Does Tony miss the secretary that left his weak, selfish self?"
Tony dropped Loki's shirt like it had burned red hot, stepping away, eyes sparkling. Loki was immediately torn between regret and triumph as Tony ran from the room pushing past Thor who was out in the hallway. Loki ran after him but Tony opened the lift, slammed the button to the roof and left Loki with nothing but a glimpse of a tear stained face as the elevator doors closed.
Loki teleported up to the roof and waited as the lift doors opened. Dragging a sleeve across his face Tony strode onto the roof, as if planning to ignore Loki altogether, but the God stood in front of him, blocking his path.
"Stark!" Loki exclaimed, trying to find Tony's eyes which were looking at anything but him, "Tony?" He said again, a hint of desperation in his voice. Tony pushed past him in response, walking over to a table and slipping on two metal bracelets. Loki had seen them before, it meant Tony's suit could be called to him. At last Tony turned towards the other. His voice would have been calm if it weren't for the fact it was shaking.
"I don't know why I forgave you. The things you did— the people you hurt— I know who you are Loki. And someone like you can never be good." With that, Tony stark stepped over the edge of the roof.
Loki stared after him, waiting long enough to see Tony's suit fly past him and off the edge of the roof, and to see Tony eventually rise back up from his dramatic dive, this time flying and made of Iron. Staring until Tony Stark was nothing more than a pinprick on the dismal grey horizon, Loki did his best to ignore every feeling except the one he thought he was supposed to be feeling. Triumph. But is wasn't supposed to be that hard.
Eventually, Loki walked back into Stark Towers and found the children. They had all returned to the cinema room and had somehow managed to agree on watching The Incredibles. Loki watched for a moment in the doorway before walking halfheartedly into the kitchen. It was ridiculous, the tower was huge, hundreds of room with hundreds of distractions, he wasn't even really alone, but the whole place felt empty to Loki without Tony's sarcastic voice filling the room at every opportunity. Loki made food, set the table, the whole thing feeling like a useless routine. After that, he couldn't stand it anymore and went up to the roof.
The wind was way stronger than any of the other nights Loki had been up here and he kept one hand on the balcony rail for a moment, making sure he had got his balance before walking over and sitting down. For what seemed like an age, Loki debated calling Tony. The phone was right there in front of him, but he was too proud. Too proud to admit that he was the one who needed to apologise. Too proud to admit that he couldn't go six hours without Tony.
Too proud to admit that he, Loki of Asgard, was missing Tony Stark. Too proud.
Proud but worried. Tony had been gone for almost seven hours and Loki hadn't heard a thing. What if he had got himself into a fight? What if he was out there with Thorn? What of Tony was never coming back? The more Loki thought, the more he began to panic as he realised how pathetically stupid it was just to let Tony fly off without the slightest clue of where he was. Loki rested his head against the table and kept it there, facing the cold black marble and sighing frustratedly. But, as he did so, he heard a metallic clunk behind him and sat up at once to see that Tony had landed on the roof again, far away from him.
'Talk about history repeating itself.' Loki thought as he watched from the far side of the roof as Tony walked forwards, machinery pulling off his suit as he walked. First his mask and then moving downwards until an unprotected Tony Stark stood at the end. Tony hesitated for a long moment before walking towards Loki, who waited. At last, they stood a few feet from each other. Loki didn't know whether to hug him or punch him in the face.
"Where have you been?" He asked after a while, sounding angrier than he had meant to. Tony looked unsurprised at the tone however. "Flying." He replied shortly, before feeling it was necessary to add, "I only came back because the suit was on one percent charge."
Loki felt a stab of hurt and was about to respond when the robotic voice of Jarvis spoke.
"Suit fully in order and replaced back into package mode. Current charge, forty-five percent."
The trace of a smile appeared on Loki's face and Tony rolled his eyes, "Thanks Jarvis." He said sarcastically.
"Suit on one percent?" Loki asked innocently, properly smiling now.
"Shut up Loki." Tony muttered which made Loki laugh slightly. Tony didn't join in which made Loki remember that they had just been in a huge fight. "Tony, about what I said, about Pepper—" Tony cut him off.
"Don't Loki. Don't even talk about her. Ever." Loki looked Tony in the eyes and upon seeing the, filled with nothing but pain and sadness, Loki realised; Pepper Potts had broken Tony Stark. And Loki wasn't sure why that made him so absolutely hate her.
Tony walked past Loki and into the building and after a few moments, Loki followed. Tony had sat himself in top of the bar and was drinking. Loki entered the room slowly, unsure of whether Tony wanted him there or not, but Tony didn't seem to mind so Loki sat down.
After a few minutes of surprisingly comfortable silence Tony said, "I didn't mean it."
Loki looked up.
"I know why I forgave you. Because I needed you. Because you saved my life. Because somewhere, I knew, that people like you are good. At least, better than me." He added the last part with a sad sort of laugh as he downed his drink.
All Loki could think of was, 'Because I needed you.' What did that mean? Did Tony mean to say that he forgave him because he was necessary? Or did he mean that he needed Loki, on a personal level. Well whether he meant it or not, it was pretty obvious to Loki that Tony needed someone. And Loki fought very hard to not hope that it was him.
—
"So what did they get up to while I was gone?" Tony asked, gesturing to the kids who were now drifting off to bed, yawning and waving goodnight.
"Sat on their asses and watched films." Loki replied, making Tony laugh. They were in the huge cinema room now, sat close enough so that if one of them was to lean forward, or in almost any direction, they would touch.
Tony didn't know why he felt oddly aware of that possibility.
"Okay, what did you do while I was gone?" Tony asked.
'Worry.' Loki thought, but instead replied with, "Not much."
"Nothing useful then." Tony replied with an eye roll.
"Hey! I did more than you were!" Loki accused, elbowing Tony slightly. The billionaire just rolled his eyes again in response and then put on a film. Neither of them were watching very much of it, since they were taking it in turns to look at each other.
A little too often, and for a little too long.