I do not own any of the Marvel characters

This is the third installment of my continuing story from To the Ends and Darkness Descending, and while it is recommended that you read those first, it's not necessary.


The sound of music roused Tony, unwillingly, from his sleep. He lay there, groggily wondering why he was awake.

"Jarvis, what time is it?"

"It just turned five fifteen, sir."

Tony groaned and cursed under his breath.

"You absolute piece of shit."

Tony stood up and shambled his way towards Loki's room. He rapped tiredly on the door and it opened. Inside Tony glared at Loki, who stood, holding an instrument and looking at him.

"Oh, hello Tony."

"Why the hell are you playing a violin at five AM?!"

Loki appeared taken aback.

"First of all, Tony, it's not a violin, it's a viola. And I am playing because I could not sleep."

Tony glowered at him.

"I don't care what it is, it has been nearly a year, you know that people are asleep at five, me especially, and you shouldn't be making noise. And sense when have you known how to play an instrument?"

Loki sighed dramatically and set the viola down.

"I am a god, I have had quite a while to learn things. But fine, go back to sleep, I will find something less productive to do."

Tony gave Loki one last, half-hearted, glare and shuffled out of the room. Loki sighed and gazed around his room, he was so infuriatingly bored. It would be hours before any of the others woke up. He was already hungry, perhaps he would make himself breakfast and… A smile crept onto Loki's face and he set out for the kitchen.

00000

Steve shuffled into the main room, sniffing at the air.

"Who made breakfast?"

"I did."

Loki appeared beside him, startling Steve. He accidentally swung his arm out but his hand went through Loki, Steve stepped back. Loki's illusion frowned.

"I don't think that is the proper response, I assumed you would thank me."

Steve blinked, it was too early for this. He sat down at the dining table. Soon Natasha entered the room, sniffing at the air as well. She gave Steve a questioning look and sat next to him.

"Why does it-"

Loki entered from the kitchen, carrying two trays of pancakes. Steve and Natasha gave him incredulous looks. He returned them with a sly smile, set the trays down, and went back to the kitchen.

"Okay, what?"

Natasha stared at the pancakes, Steve shrugged.

"I have no idea."

Another of Loki's illusions appeared, startling them.

"They are not poisoned, you know. I would not have gone to all this trouble just to poison you."

The image disappeared and Steve sighed, reaching for a fork to spear one of the pancakes. He took a hesitant bite. After a moment he gave Natasha a thumbs up.

"They don't taste poisoned. Actually, they're not bad."

They sat there, eating, for a while, then Clint showed up. He eyed the food and sat down.

"Who-"

"Loki."

He raised an eyebrow, both Natasha and Steve shrugged. Clint gave a resigned sigh and reached for a pancake. Loki returned again, this time carrying biscuits. He sat down with the other three, grinning.

"Okay, what gives, why?"

Clint asked through a mouthful of food.

"I got bored."

"So you made breakfast, why do you even know how to cook?"

Loki rolled his eyes, exasperated.

"Why are people so shocked by my ability to do mundane tasks? Of course I can cook, Thor can too."

Clint grunted and reached for a biscuit.

"You learn new things every day, apparently gods can cook."

Loki grinned, then a buzzer went off in the kitchen and he leapt up.

"Oh, the eggs are ready."

By the time Loki returned, everyone but Tony had woken up. Thor entered, looking bleary, but his eyes landed on the foot and lit up. Natasha answered his question before he could ask.

"Apparently your brother got bored… or he's trying to kill us, could be both."

Thor grinned as Loki re-entered the room.

"Brother, you prepared food for us!"

"I had nothing better to do."

Loki and the team sat in silence, eating, for a few more minutes. Then Jarvis spoke.

"S.H.I.E.L.D. has requested your immediate assistance, there is a threat just outside the city, a large threat."

Everyone sat there for a moment, Steve was the first to speak.

"Alright everyone, suit up, we'll meet back here and fly out to where they need us. Someone needs to wake up Tony."

Everyone but Loki rushed towards the hallway.

"I will wake Tony up."

He called after them. Loki closed his eyes, after a few moments a thump, followed by loud cursing, sounded. He grinned and snapped his fingers, Loki's clothes morphed into his armor. Soon everyone was back in the main room, Tony shot Loki a dirty look.

"Next time, don't send Loki to wake me up."

He grumbled loudly. Everyone but Thor and Tony boarded the jet. They took off and before long the 'threat' could be seen. Tony radioed in.

"You guys seeing this?"

"It's a bit hard to miss, what is it?"

"Er…giant, four armed, rock monster, I think."

The jet landed a safe distance from the beast. Steve turned to address the others.

"Alright, we need to find some way of taking this thing down, make sure to keep out of its reach."

Natasha, Steve, and Clint stayed on the jet, in a fight like this they would be most useful with heavier fire power. Bruce transformed and Loki ran to get closer to the beast, up close it seemed to stand about two stories tall. Thor landed next to his brother and Tony flew around the beast's head, distracting it.

"Brother, it did not seem affected by my lightning."

Loki nodded, thinking of a spell to use. He grinned and stepped forward, raising his hands. Loki muttered a few words, crackling green energy raced up the monster's body, but nothing happened, it only succeeded in drawing the beast's attention. Loki was not expecting that and stood, without moving, for a moment. In that moment one of the monster's lower arms collided with him, sending the Trickster flying, crashing through the dirt and coming to a halt against a tree, which cracked on impact. Tony watched this from the air.

"Hey, woah! You do not hit my friends."

He shot a barrage of missiles, most did nothing but a few hit where the monster's eyes would have been, it roared and stepped back.

"Go for the eyes!"

Tony called out to Thor and the Hulk, and radioed to the jet. Many bolts of lightning, punches, and missiles later, the monster fell to the ground. It attempted to get up, but with a final strike from Mjornir, the thing crumbled. They all cheered for a moment, then Tony, followed by Thor, went to see where Loki had landed.

"Hey Loki, don't be dead."

Tony flipped us his mask and looked at the small crater Loki had created. At its center the god stirred, sitting up and bringing a hand to his head.

"Oh good, you're not."

Tony jumped down and offered him a hand. After a moment Loki took it and he was pulled to a standing position.

"Thank you, Tony, I assume you killed the thing?"

"Yeah, you alright?"

"Nothing that won't heal."

Loki muttered as he dabbed at a cut on his forehead. They stepped out of the hole, where Thor waited.

"You are not badly injured, brother, wonderful."

"Of course not, Thor. I have been through worse than that on some of our misadventures as children."

Loki smirked at Thor's amused grin. The three of them walked over to where the rest of the team stood. They reached the rubble, Loki bent down to examine it. He picked up a few pieces and stowed them away. Tony gave him a questioning look.

"What are you doing?"

"I want to know why my magic did not work. Hopefully these pieces will provide an answer."

A noise behind them caught Tony's attention, S.H.I.E.L.D. helicopters were landing. He turned back to Loki.

"We should probably go over there. But, most likely, your magic didn't work because you had to hit the thing in its eye."

Loki frowned as they walked.

"I know there had to be a weak spot, the magic was meant to find it. But it had no affect, that's why I am confused."

They joined the rest of the team, who were talking with the agents. Tony spotted a man in a trench coat and sighed.

"Fury is here, try not to make a scene."

Loki gave him a skeptical look.

"It's not my fault he does not trust me…well actually, I suppose it is… But I will try."

Fury glanced up from talking with Steve, he glanced at Tony then scowled at Loki, before continuing to address Steve. Tony sauntered up to him while Loki stood back.

"Director, what brings you here? You don't usually come out for stuff like this."

Fury turned to Tony, Steve left, walking towards the jet.

"I was in the area, Stark, and this wasn't something normal."

Loki made a noise of amusement behind them. Fury and Tony both turned towards him, Fury scowled again.

"What do you find funny?"

Loki smirked.

"What do you consider normal?"

Fury eyed Loki's scratched face and roughed up armor.

"I don't recall the norm for the past year being you looking this beaten, although before then it was the norm, of course."

Loki narrowed his eyes and stepped forward, despite Tony frantically shaking his head behind Fury's back.

"It seems to be your job to point out how very much you dislike your decision to allow me to recover with the Avengers."

"No, it's my job to keep the world safe from people like you."

At that moment Tony stepped between the two, holding out his hands.

"Okay, enough. Umm…We're getting on the jet now, Loki. Talk to you later, Fury."

Tony grabbed Loki's arm and attempted to drag him away. He was jerked back when Loki didn't move.

"Loki."

Then Loki relented and stopped glaring at Fury, turning towards the jet. Tony walked alongside him.

"I swear, the number of times I've forgotten you're a god and either, way heavier than I expect, or way stronger than I expect, is ridiculous. Nice job, not making a scene, by the way."

Loki scowled and shook his head, but said nothing. The team boarded the jet, Tony and Thor included this time, and it took off. Loki was still in a stormy mood by the time the returned. While everyone else was changing, Tony was lounging on the couch and Loki was cleaning up the discarded breakfast, muttering under his breath as he did. A loud crash made Tony jump. He turned around, apparently Loki had attempted to carry too many things at once.

"You know what, just make someone else do it, someone with more patience, make Steve do it or something."

Loki hesitated, then set the plates down and came to sit on an adjacent couch. He pulled the stones out of his clothes and inspected them. After a moment, Loki threw them in the air and twisted his hand, the stones clattered to the floor.

"What was that trying to accomplish?"

Tony asked as Loki cursed under his breath and bent over to pick them up.

"They are not affected by any of my magic. This is incredibly aggravating."

Tony watched Loki continue to experiment with the rocks for the next few minutes, realizing that Loki was going to be stuck on this problem for a while. Then Tony had an idea and grinned.

"If I know you, then I know you'll be shut up here, trying to figure those things out, for the next few days. But how about, instead, you come with me to a gala I was invited to."

Loki glanced up at Tony and gave him a skeptical look.

"Sense when do you attend galas?"

"Oh come on, it'll be fun."

"Last time I attended a party with you, it was only to make sure you didn't get too drunk and get in trouble."

Loki smirked as Tony tried to remember that.

"Yeah, well at least it was a responsible decision on my part."

"A responsible decision? Sending the god of mischief to make sure you didn't get in trouble."

Tony chuckled.

"Alright, it wasn't responsible. But still, will you come?"

Loki though for a few moments.

"Fine, I will come. When is it, exactly?"

Tony grinned triumphantly.

"Two days."

Loki nodded and went back to experimenting with the stones.


AN: I'm going to be honest here, throughout pretty much all of writing this chapter, I didn't know what the main story was going to be, I just had amusing situations bouncing around my head. But I did eventually figure out what I wanted, so that's good. It's fun to be writing them again, really. How do you like it so far? Leave a review if you feel like it, they're always appreciated. I am going to be posting the next chapter quickly because not alot happens in this one.