When he found him, he was tangled up in the power lines at least fifty feet from the ground. He was unmoving, and the crows had settled on his body for a feast. The sound of Tony's thrusters scared them away. They drifted into the sky easily, but didn't travel far. Tony watched them land on the pylon and stare at him with dark eyes.

He screamed at them, feeling a flash of rage at the creatures. It was unfair, he reminded himself, they were only doing what their nature called for them to do. They hunger, so they eat. There was no debate or second guessing, just pure and simple instant gratification. It was just that their food happened to be someone he knew. So he was angry, and he screamed until they flew away at last.

The wires were still live, so he had to be careful. Not that the suit couldn't handle it, but the power company had specifically asked for as little damage as possible. He was all for a 'fuck off, I do what I want,' but Steve had given him that look again. The look that had kept Tony in line since he nearly killed a man a few months back. That look that reminded both men of how Thor and Steve had to pull him off the dying man to get him to stop.

He had nearly killed him, and god did he want to. He still did, in fact. Nick Fury had a bullet with his name on it, and Tony was the one who was going to fire it.

Tony blinked away the angry tears that threatened to overflow from his eyes. He carefully pulled the body from the wires, ignoring the shocks and sparks that danced over his armor. He also ignored the blood, the smell, and the empty eyes looking up at him. Crows loved eyeballs. Tony felt bile rise in his throat at the thought of the birds pecking away those beautiful, green eyes.

"What did you do to end up here?" He asked the body as he placed it gently in the dry grass. It was in surprisingly good condition, considering the heat wave that had hung over New England for the past month. In fact, except for the eyes, one could say he looked as though he were sleeping. Maybe a little paler than usual, and certainly thinner. He actually looked a lot healthier than when he arrived on Earth after his little vacation with Thanos.

Tony scowled at those memories and steeled himself enough to lean closer to the body. With a sick fascination, Tony pulled off a gauntlet and brushed his fingers across the cracked lips. They felt cold. He traced the sharp lines of the jaw down to the neck to check for a pulse. Tony didn't know why he did it, but he just had to be sure. He had to feel it himself, to be able to believe it.

It was a few days after Tony's birthday when Loki left the tower to get something. It wasn't something grand, or even all that important. Tony wanted to make french toast, and they were out of brown sugar. They had just had a mild argument about using magic to steal things from places. So, of course, Loki walked to the nearest store just like Tony asked. Because Tony asked. Because both Loki and him had started listening to one another as their time together grew longer.

And because Loki walked to the store, of course something happened. Tony was quite capable of hacking the security cameras on nearly every street corner and store in the area to find out where his god went. He watched in a bizarre calm as SHEILD agents snuck up behind him and stabbed him in the neck with a needle. Then he saw red.

It didn't matter how filled with rage he was, nothing worked. He talked calmly to a few agents, tried to get ahold of Fury, blasted his way into the New York compound, and even succeeded in breaking into the helipad. No one confessed to kidnapping Loki, and he sure as hell wasn't anywhere in either of the SHEILD holding areas. What did happen, was Tony got kicked out of the Avengers and was placed under house arrest.

Tony didn't see Loki again until Fury came to his tower personally, and told him Loki Odinson was dead. Even then, it was just a small, black and white picture of the god laying on a metal table. His eyes were closed and a white sheet was pulled up to his pale neck. All Tony could do was stare at him and think, "I lost him. I lost the man I love for a bag of brown sugar."

Then, his brain clicked back into gear, and he launched himself over the table at Fury. If it had been any other day, the director would have won. But Tony had had a month for his rage and sorrow to build up, and Nick Fury didn't stand a chance.

His nails found flesh and eyes, his fists broke bones. Tony ripped the eyepatch off with a sickening sense of glee, finding a perverse sense of satisfaction at the scarred over hole that once held an eye. All he could think was how to get the other one to look like that.

Then Steve came and pulled him back.

"Leave him! Tony…" He froze when he saw that state Fury was in. "Jesus!"

In that small moment of distraction, Tony elbowed Steve in the eye and proceed to attack Fury again. He didn't stop until Thor came in and had to throw him half way across the room just to get him away from the director.

After that, everything changed. Tony no longer gave a shit what SHIELD ordered him to do. In the end, they were forced to lift the house arrest by the slew of lawyers Pepper brought along. He cut all ties to the origination, and thankfully his actions cost him nothing more than a few roommates. They all tried to stay in touch with him, of course. Well, mostly Natasha. The red-head seemed to be determined to sneak around SHIELD to visit Tony every once in a while.

Steve and Thor both stayed in the tower with him, but the two spies and Bruce were forced to leave. Bruce wanted to avoid SHIELD as much as possible, and Tony never quite forgave him for leaving when he really needed a friend. He downright ignored Steve. He knew it was childish, but he couldn't ease that hatred for Steve not letting him kill Fury.

Thor became something of a best friend to him after everything. They had been effected the most by the loss of Loki. Once Tony explained to the god why he was attacking the director, Steve had to do the same song and dance as he did with Tony. About four floors were ruined in the process, and Tony didn't bother to try to stop either of them.

Time passed, and the heat wave began. Then the rumors began. It wasn't until someone took a blurry picture that Tony actually noticed. After that, he rushed through all the blogs, chats, and Instagram images to put the pieces together.

Loki. People had seen Loki, full armor, horns and all. They first spotted him a few days before the temperatures started to rise, and after a week there were no more sightings. All the accounts came from a single area further north in NY state. It wasn't until one girl captured a photo of a body, wearing a frighteningly familiar set of leathers, hanging from some telephone wires that Tony left to investigate.

Now, it was too late. Maybe if he had rushed off at the first few rumors, he would have caught his god. Tony was left with no explanation, no Loki, and no hope.

There was a movement under his fingers. So faint he almost missed it with the rush of blood through his body. He tensed and waited to feel it again, hoping that he hadn't finally lost his mind. After a minute, the tiny flame of hope had begun to sputter and go out.

There it was again.

"You've got a fucking heart beat…" Tony leaned right down to Loki's chest and listened. He had to be sure, he had to know. Now, pressed close to the body, he could feel how unnaturally cold it was. It had to be at least 100° out today, and Loki felt like an ice cube. After another long minute, Tony heard the sluggish thud of a heart beat.

"You son of a bitch, you're doing something to say alive while I'm sitting here thinking you're dead!"

It took him far longer than he wanted to get Loki situated in his arms before he took off back to NYC. Once there, he took Loki to the first and only person he could find and trusted.

"LOKI?" Thor shouted, rushing forward in a mix of panic and wild hope. "How is this possible?!"

"You'll have to ask him once we fix him up," Tony replied, allowing Thor to take Loki from his arms. He ignored the hollow feeling that formed immediately afterwards. He wasn't going to lose him, not this time. Never again.

"He is cold."

"Yeah, I noticed that. I think whatever Frost Giant voodoo is keeping him alive." Tony looked the god's body over and added, "there's no reason he should be that cold and look that good after being outside in this heat for at least a week."

Thor looked a little sick at the thought. "I believe that is true, but we still will need the aid of Midgardian medicine to heal him. His eyes…"

"I know, I can't… I just can't think about that right now," Tony said, turning away. "I'm going to call Banner, and my own private doctor."

"Where should I take him?"

"Might as well bring him to my bed, seeing as this whole this is gonna be pretty unorthodox."

Thor tipped his head in a small bow that Tony had grown accustomed to, and took off to bring Loki to his bedroom. Tony stared after them for a long minute, wondering when he was going to wake up from this dream. Or if he even wanted to.

The doctor was easy to contact, and easy to trust with secrets. He had never let Tony down before, and he knew the consequences if he let anything slip. Bruce, however, was harder to find. Tony started to doubt if he even wanted the man here for this. He had abandoned him, that wasn't very friendly of him. But in the end, he still trusted Bruce with his life and he needed someone with more experience with tracking unusual signatures. When he finally found him, the doctor had already come and gone.

Loki was plugged into machines and jabbed with needles. By the time Tony had hung up with Bruce, Thor had already settled into a comfy chair to take watch over his brother.

"What did the doc say? He didn't want to interrupt my call and snuck off."

Thor looked up, his face showing clear signs of an emotional outburst. With a shuddering sigh, another hint at previous tears, Thor spoke.

"Your doctor said he would not be alive, if not for what ever source of power was keeping his heart beating and his body cool. He claimed to not know of its origins, and therefor could not control what it was doing to his body."

"What is it doing to his body?" Tony asked as he sat down gingerly on the edge of the bed. He avoided looking at Loki for now, scared of all the tubes and wires coming from his body.

"It has slowed down his heart and frozen his body," Thor replied.

Tony had a snaking suspicion it was much more complicated than that, but that the doctor had dumbed down his words to explain to Thor. If what limited knowledge he had of medical science was correct, Loki had basically slowed his metabolism down.

"So, he's stuck like this until…?"

Thor shook his head and sighed. "I know not, Tony. The doctor believes that he will need a stimulus like the source of his power."

"I take it he means magic, then," Tony replied, finally turning to look at Loki. His skin had started to fade in places. Loki was changing into his Frost Giant form.
"Is that supposed to be happening?"

"As much knowledge that I possess of magic, I do not know enough of Loki's type of magic. I know even less of the sort of powers the Frost Giants hold."

"Why is this sounding more and more like there's nothing we can do?"

Thor looked at him and his eyes flashed. "I will do everything within my power to heal my brother."

Tony just nodded and tried to smile. They both knew how far they would go, there was no reason to say more about it. So they sat in silence and watched Loki's heartbeat line pulse once every minute. Tony didn't know if gods prayed, but right now, Tony was praying to anyone for help.

"Technically, he should be dead."

"Bruce, we know this. It's this magical thing called, well, magic."

"And you expect me to somehow be able to 'magic' him better?" Bruce asked incredulously. "I'm a scientists, Tony, not a magician."

"Neither am I," Tony snapped in return, "but I'm trying every god damn thing I can until he's either better, or dead."

Bruce faltered at that and uncrossed his arms. Whatever tension he had been holding into slipped away. Tony had a feeling this was more about their relationship, than Loki's life right now.

"I didn't mean that I wasn't going to try," Bruce spoke again softly. His eyes were boring holes into the side of Tony's face.

He refused to look at him. Instead, turning away, he walked down the hall. "Follow me."

Once Bruce was introduced to all the wires and gadgets Tony had set up to monitor any sort of signature from Loki's body, he settled right in and started taking notes.

Tony phased in and out of focus for a while, drifting into half dreams of Loki. Half nightmares was more accurate. Loki would wake up and smile at him, only to start bleeding from every orifice. Loki, never waking up again, but slowly crumbling into nothing but dust. Loki, dying. That was all his brain gave him.

"He needs a shock."

Tony jerked himself back from another nightmare and blinked at Bruce. "Hmmgh?"

Bruce smiled ruefully and repeated, "He needs some sort of a shock. Preferably a magical one, or something jarring enough for his magic to react to."

"You mean, like a heart defibrillator?"

"Close, but that's probably going to do more harm than good," Bruce replied with a tired sigh. He took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose.

Tony smiled to himself, realizing at last that he had never lost his friend. Bruce would have come if he had called. He was the one who never picked up the phone.

"Wait…" Tony eyes widened, an idea slowly forming in his sleep deprived brain. "If he needs magical shock therapy, I know just the guy to call."

"Tony, I don't think Dr. Doom is going to—"

"I'm thinking a little closer to home, but good try."

Bruce frowned at looked at him thoughtfully. A moment later his eyebrows shot up.

"You can't mean… Thor?"

"I can mean Thor."

"That's crazy," Bruce began, running a frustrated hand through his hair before freezing again. "That actually might work!"

"I always said I was a genius."

"Now is really not the most important time to brag," Bruce reprimanded with a teasing smile. "Rub it in Loki's face when he's better."

Tony full out grinned for the first time in months, and lead the way to the thunderer's room.

It took a long couple of hours of slow explanations, a small shouting match, and a lot of hot tea to convince Thor to electrocute his brother.

Now, they were back in Tony's bedroom-turned-hospital room waiting for Thor to tell them what to do.

"We should move to the roof," the god said, still sounding doubtful.

"Yeah, I would rather not burn the tower down," Tony agreed, looking Thor straight in the eye and adding, "We do lighting outside."

Thor blushed and shuffled a little. "That was one mistake I shall never repeat, Tony Stark."

"The room smelled like burnt hair for a week."

Bruce looked at them both with a scowl. "Are you two really going to joke around about this while Loki might be dying?"

Tony gave him a sulky look and gestured for Thor to get on with it.

The rooftop felt muggy and bright. Not ideal thunderstorm weather to begin with, but it was also just past one in the afternoon. The roof had spent most of the day absorbing the heat from the sun, so the temperature was a little unbearable.

"Uh, guys?" Tony asked, fanning himself as Thor carried Loki past him. "I think we have a problem."

Bruce joined them a moment later and groaned at the heat. "This is not good."

Thor looked at them, obvious concern growing in his eyes.

"The heat," Tony continued, "it's going to basically melt Loki. We need to hurry this up, like now."

"I shall bring the storm to me. You should both stay inside the door."

Tony nodded and gave one final look at Loki before giving Thor a reassuring thumbs up and heading back inside. Bruce pressed up against the glass for a moment, watching the sky already begin to grow dark.

"This better work," he muttered more to himself than Tony.

"At this point, he's going to die one way or another," Tony replied more calmly then he felt. "I would rather have it be quick, than have him waste away in my bed slowly."

"Tony, things won't be the same. His eyes…"

"We deal with things as they come. Isn't that how we always do it?"

Bruce managed a small chuckle. "How you do it, maybe."

"Exactly."

The both went quiet as thunder began to rumble across the city. The hairs on Tony's arm started to stand as the roof grew heavy with electricity in the air. The darkness grew until Tony was sure there was a damn cloud sitting on top of the tower. Their view was obscured for a second, and then it was all light.

"Fuck!" Tony shouted, pulling Bruce away from the window just before the glass shattered. They landed heavily and stayed down as bolt after bolt of lightning struck just outside the door. Then, silence.

"I can't see…" came Bruce's voice from his left. Tony reached out and
managed to find his friends arm to give it a squeeze.

"It will pass. I've been around enough explosives to know."

"That doesn't exactly encourage me," Bruce replied quietly, although he did sound a little more amused than before.

"I'm going out."

"Be careful."

"As always."

That earned him a bemused scoff before he pushed open the battered door and peered out. The rooftop was mostly undamaged, save for a little blackening around the center where Thor still stood. The blond god was gazing down at his brother with a strange expression on his face.

Tony crept closer and dared a whisper, "Thor?"

"I would have much rather woken up to your face, than this great buffoon."

Tony froze, his eyes finally sliding down from Thor's shocked face to Loki. Loki was looking at him with a rather annoyed expression.

Loki was looking at him.

"Lokes?" He managed to choke out, his knees going week.

"Anthony…"

Something, that had curled up somewhere deep inside his heart, unfurled at the sound of his own name from Loki's lips. He rushed forward and nearly fell into Thor's arms in desperate need of contact with his lover. Thor simply laughed and ended up holding them both in a tight hug.

"Loki…"

"Anthony?"

"Loki."

"Yes?"

"Loki…"

Loki pushed his face out from where he was nuzzling it into his chest and looked into his eyes.
"I am here."

"Where did you go?" Tony whispered, feeling the prick of tears at the back of his eyes.

Thor helped them both into a sitting possibility on the roof, and sat down himself to listen. Tony couldn't bring himself to lose contact with Loki, so they ended up in more of a pile, then anything else.

"SHIELD captured me, and asked me questions," Loki replied at last, his eyes glazed over as he remembered.

"What did they ask you, Brother?"

"They wanted to know about Thanos." He paused and glanced a Thor as if unsure he should continue. Thor frowned and waited, so Loki went on.
"They wanted to know what weapons Asgard has, and how our armies were organized."

"Did you tell them?" Tony asked, his hand squeezing Loki's fingers.

"I did not, which is undoubtably why they filled me with a befuddling serum and left me for dead."

Tony let out a harsh breath and stared at him. "You survived. You slowed down your body and you survived."

"I wasn't even aware of what I was doing at that point," Loki replied quietly. "I did not even know my name."

"How did you end up in the wires?"

"Wires?"

Tony pointed skyward and explained, "I found you tangled up in some telephone wires about fifty feet off the ground."

"I… I am not sure. I am only vaguely aware of what I did before I fell unconscious." The god paused and concentrated. "I believe I was attempting to fly home."

"Fly… home?"

Loki nodded and gave a little shrug. It was clear that was all he could remember, so Tony left it.

"Loki…"

"Can we not start this again?" Loki asked with an exasperated sigh. "I would really rather take a nap with you, of you don't mind? This rooftop is boiling."

"A nap." Tony let out a slightly hysterical laugh, earning himself a concerned look from both gods.
"Uh, sorry. I actually haven't slept in a really long time. So, a nap would probably be best."

They both managed to stand, albeit shakily, and wobbled their ways down stairs again. Thor ended up helping the still squinting Bruce down with them. Neither of them wanted to be in the room filled with medical equipment, so Thor offered his own bed for them to sleep in. Typically, neither would never in a million years agree to such a offer, but it was the closest room.

Once tucked in, after Tony demeaned the furs be removed, Loki nearly wrapped himself around him.

"You're going to smother me to death."

"I will not."

Tony smiled into the gods chest. "Alright, maybe you won't."

They were quite for a while, both too wound up to fall asleep. Tony had drank at lest fourteen coffees and he had a feeling Loki was literally shocked awake. Just as he finally felt himself drifting off, Tony tightened his arms around the god.

"Don't leave me again…" he muttered quietly, half hoping Loki wouldn't hear.

Loki nuzzled his face into his hair and replied in a sleepy whisper, "don't ask for brown sugar again."

Tony let out a huff of laughter and swatted Loki's butt weakly. "I can't even look at French toast now."

"Whatever shall we do for breakfast from now on?" The god asked. Tony could hear the smile in his voice.

"Whatever we want. Just not French toast."

"Agreed," Loki said, his voice growing fainter as he drifted off to sleep.

"Loki?" Tony whispered.

With his last dregs of energy, Loki managed a grunt.

Tony smiled to himself.

"Welcome back."