A New Beginning Chapter One

Tony sat in the dank bar watching football on one of the small TVs' and enjoying the normality of the place and the fact that is wasn't as high class like most he visited. The bartender handed him his drink and looked behind him at something. The bartender's expression went from confused to pitiful in a matter of seconds, making Tony look behind him. There stood a very tired and beaten looking Loki.

Loki moves slowly into the bar, trying not to cause his body any more undue pain than it's already encountered. He shuffled over to the bar and sat down on the far corner, wincing visibly. He sighs heavily once he gets as comfortable one can get on a wooden stool after being…tortured in a form.

Tony got up and walked over to where Loki was sitting. As he got closer he noticed more details on Loki's face and arms. A lot of bruises, a few cuts, and other little imperfections on the god's once flawless skin. He plopped down in the chair across from Loki's and grimaced sarcastically. "Jesus, you look like utter shit." Tony commented. Loki shot him a half-hearted glare.

Loki snorted lightly, rolling his eyes. "You would look this way if the same happened to you." He didn't like this. This feeling weak, vulnerable. After being sentenced to live in Midguard, without his godly powers, he was scared and didn't know what to do. He lived quietly for a few weeks before he was soon found by someone he had never met before but soon became acquainted unwillingly. Loki winces just at the too fresh memory.

Tony looked Loki up and down. Something... was /off/ about him tonight. Other than the obvious fact that Loki had been beaten up. He was quieter and avoiding eye contact. Tony raised an eyebrow curiously and reached quickly across the table to grab nothing, just wanting to see what would happen. Loki flinched away violently and Tony furrowed his brow. "Loki, what happened?"

Loki sits back after his rather violent flinch; he tries to calm his heart. He looks over at the man beside him, not too fond of talking about what he just got out of. "I'm not comfortable with conversing about it. It's much too recent, and I would rather have a drink." He waves the bar tender over and requests a drink of the hardest liquor he has.

"You know, they say it helps to talk about it," Tony says and when Loki just shakes his head Tony frowns. "Aweeeeee, c'mooon," He whines. Then he thinks to himself, if you won't tell me then I'll get you good and drunk and work it out of you.

The bar tender comes back with Loki's drink and he nods a small thank you. Loki brings the rim of the glass to his lips and he takes a small sip of it, closing his eyes at the burn. He looks over at Tony and notices he brought his drink over to where he sits. He just rolls his eyes and continues to focus on his own drink.

"Not feeling very social...?" Tony says as Loki rolls his eyes. "I don't blame you; I wouldn't be very social if I was a sociopath either." He drains his glass with one last gulp then gets up. "I'll be right back; I need to powder my nose." Tony says and walks into the bathroom.

Loki snorts to himself. As if that Stark knows what is going on in his head. He watches Tony as he gets off the stool beside him and his eyes follow him as he walks into the bathroom. He shakes his head, not allowing himself to make eyes at Tony's back end.

The moment the door to the bathroom shut Tony pulled out his phone and tapped in the password. "Jarvis?" he asked the device. "Yes, sir?" "Where has Loki been this fine evening?" There was a pause then a few pictures popped up, back alleys. "It appears Mr. Laufeyson has been nowhere other than Stark Tower, a few alleys just ten minutes north from here, and where he is currently." The AI responded. Tony wondered what Loki had been doing in an ally of all places. Tony left the bathroom to join Loki

Loki looks up when he hears the bathroom door open, seeing Tony, and he looks back down at his now empty glass. "Excuse me, I need another." He holds up his hand to get the attention of the tender.

Tony sat down opposite Loki again and when the bartender came to collect Loki's glass, Tony gave him his too. He looked at Loki again and put his chin in his hand. "You finished that rather quick, wouldn't you say?" Tony comments

Loki shrugs and accepts his new drink. "I like the drink." He lifts the glass to his lips and takes a small swig. "And how many have you had before I came here…" He says with slight annoyance in his voice.

Tony thinks for a moment and then begins counting on his fingers. When he gets to ten he frowns and looks down at his toes with a serious expression. He glances back up at Loki with a grin, and starts laughing. "I'm just kidding, I've only had three. I wasn't here long before you showed up."

Loki just rolls his eyes at the man beside him and lifts his drink to his lips, deciding to keep quiet and maybe, just maybe, Stark will get bored and forget that he's there. That little prayer was slashed the minute he felt something bump against him, sending him off to flinch away violently.

Tony looks at Loki seriously after he had been bumped at put a hand on Loki's shoulder. "Loki, I know you don't want to talk about it, but maybe I can help." He tries to get Loki to look him directly, but Loki even as a mortal is pretty strong.

"Tsk…I don't see how you can help…" Loki glances over at him, more venom in his voice than he actually wanted. He wants to talk to someone about what happened, even Stark would do. But he can't show any more weakness. He takes another sip of his drink, closing his eyes at the burn in his throat.

Tony frowns and sets his drink down. "You really think imp that horrible a person...?" Tony asks putting on an offended face. He takes a hardy sip of his drink and looks down at the table.

Loki looks over to Tony, feeling something akin to what he felt when he was a kid and his joking went too far with Thor, causing him to be hurt. He sighs and looks down into his drink, "….No. It's just too soon to talk about it."

Tony looks up. "Okay." he taps his fingers on the table absent mindedly "But when you're ready, will you come to me first? Even before Thor?" Loki raises any eyebrow and Tony shrugged. "Knowing someone needs me gives a motive not to drink myself to death."

Loki just looks at him like he's a puzzle box. "Your world needs you. Is that not enough? And who said that I would go to him, of all people?" He raises his eyebrow further and cocks his head slightly.

Tony looks at Loki- who now reminds him of a cat because of the way he has his head cocked- and responds with, "The world doesn't necessarily need me. I mean, they have Steve, and Bruce, and the rest of the team. And I figured you would go to Thor because he's like, you're adopted brother?"

Loki wrinkles his nose at what he says about Thor. "I was adopted into his family. Not the vice versa." He lifts his drink and sips from it. "If it weren't for you, the Chitauri wouldn't have been fed that glorious nuclear device."

Tony smiles at the complement and takes a sip of his drink. "Well, I wouldn't have had to if you're crazy ass hadn't have gone completely psycho." he laughs lightly and looks at Loki, who is trying not to smile, his lips twitching.

"You would have too if you were treated half as bad as I." Loki tosses back his drink and waves for another. His plan was to get seriously inebriated before he dared to go back to his lodgings.

Tony looks at Loki out of the corner of his eye and asks, "Do you want to talk about that too...? Maybe...?" he turns his head to see Loki looking at him, as if gauging his honesty just a little bit.

When Loki gets his next drink, he downs about half of it before looking back to Tony. "Alright Stark." He looks down into his glass, sloshing the amber liquid lazily. "They beat me. Tortured me. Broke my mind, body, and spirit. They implanted new ideas…Twisted ideas. They made me feel emotions I myself didn't know I had." Loki stops for a moment to let it all sink into the silence between them.

Tony pauses with his glass raised halfway to his lips and furrows his eyebrows. His brilliant mind is taking longer than it should to process this. Tony looks a Loki and licks his lips cautiously, not knowing whether or not to prod anymore because it might make Loki angry. "What? Who beat you? How are you 'broken'? When did this happen?" and twenty other questions pour out of Tony's mouth and then he catches himself and closes his mouth with a "click".

Loki flinches away slightly from Tony's outburst. "The Chitauri…And my attacker. Though they tortured me in two different ways, it was torture nonetheless." He takes another gulp from his drink, looking down at the liquid as if it has the answers on how to fix his pain.

Tony just looks at Loki for a moment and then makes a quick decision. "C'mon, Loki." He says getting up quickly and grabbing Loki's wrist. Loki flinched away and wrung his wrist out of Tony's grip.

Loki holds his wrist in his other hand and holds them both to his chest like he's injured. "What in the hell has gotten into you, Stark? I let down my defenses for a moment and you respond by attacking me?"

Tony rolls his eyes and nods in the direction of the exit. "I didn't attack you, ya pansy, just follow me, please." He sets a tip on the bar and tilts his head toward the door.

Loki hesitantly nods a curt nod before slowly standing, wincing at the pain shooting up his spine. He sighs out and straightens up, trying to walk with as much dignity as he can muster.