"Yikes . . ." Tony frowned as he examined the collection of people hovering around outside his front door.
He'd pulled into his drive, planning on parking the car outside and just heading back into the building quickly. However, a large amount of reporters, journalists and other types of interested parties had congealed on his doorstep. He realized he'd have to go back through the garage, which wasn't a problem but it would still be boring and a waste of time. He parked the car up in its allocated space in the garage.
"Damn paps," Tony growled as he stopped the car.
Loki glanced over at Tony slowly, confusion on his face. "Paps?"
Tony gave a chuckle at Loki's confusion, in fact Tony was surprised he hadn't explained what paps were yet. He left Loki in his state of curiosity a while longer in order to climb out of the car.
"Paps, or paparazzi as they're usually called, are the people who provide news for the world. They're like a bunch of stalkers," Tony explained as he locked the car behind them.
"I can get rid of them for you, if you wish?" Loki asked, a small smirk creeping onto his face. The smirk was hidden behind Tony's back though.
"Really? How?" Tony was interested; he did want to have some peace and quiet for once.
"A few choice words," Loki replied as he followed Tony into the living room where Clint was lying asleep on the couch.
"Somehow I don't think speaking to them is going to work," Tony replied with a chuckle.
Loki didn't bother to reply. He disappeared into a back room and was in there for a few minutes. Tony could hear a lot of shuffling and banging, and at one point sounded a muffled 'owch', so he could safely assume that Loki was looking through a cupboard and had banged his head on it. Loki came back into the white and glassy living room, but in his hands he carried a couple of silvery, ornate throwing knives.
"A few choice words and a few threats," Loki added with a smirk on his lips.
"Jesus! Loki, where the hell were you hiding those!?" Tony rushed over to Loki, wrapping his hands around the blades of the sharp knives.
Loki let Tony pull them away from him, and then examine them afterwards.
"You can't just go around threatening people anymore, especially not the paps, you'll get arrested and thrown into prison within a few seconds. Never mind the fact that you'll completely screw up my reputation," Tony said sternly, a frown on his face as he tried to speak some sense into Loki.
Loki gave a sigh, "You did ask me to get rid of them."
"No, I asked you how you would get rid of them, and this is not an acceptable substitute for a restraining order," Tony said, rolling his eyes as he went to sit down in the armchair.
Now in silence, Tony studied the knives he held in his hands. He turned them over in his fingers, interested in the strange metal and just how they had been crafted. The knives were simple, a few holes to put your fingers in, but each side had a thin and very, very sharp blade to complete it. Tony could assume that they also contained magical properties. They were dangerous weapons, and Loki shouldn't have had them stored in the house anywhere. With these, he could have killed them all unsuspectingly in their sleep, which begged the question of 'why didn't he?' Surely Loki would take any chance he had to take over the world again, even if he was apparently trying to change.
"Did you make these?" Tony asked, glancing up at Loki who was currently distracted by a snoring birdy on the couch.
Loki turned back to Tony, "No, it's Dwarven metal," he replied, "the same Dwarves that forged Mjolnir."
"Oh . . . fancy," Tony looked back to the knives, "that will explain why I've never seen this metal before."
Loki gave a small nod in reply.
Tony realized something then, "Oh, I forgot the shopping, hang on." He climbed to his feet suddenly, placing the knives on the table since he—rather stupidly—trusted Loki not to touch them. He headed off down to the garage, leaving Loki and Clint alone in the living room together. Tony collected the bags from the boot of the car and a plan crossed his mind to spare the time. A wide smile appeared on his face as he headed back up to the living room with the bags on his arms.
"Hey, Icecube, why don't we have a competition?" Tony called as he came through into the living room again. (Thankfully Loki hadn't stabbed Clint in the face.)
"You're challenging me to a duel?" Loki asked, looking to him and raising an eyebrow.
"Not a duel, a competition," Tony corrected with a chuckle and pulled a packet of M&Ms from the plastic bags he'd dumped on the table.
"What kind of competition?" Loki questioned, walking over to him and sitting down on the floor across the table from Tony.
A large grin spread across Tony's face as he pulled out another bag of M&M's. He opened both, pouring one bag of sweets on the table in front of Loki, and the other one in front of him.
"An eating competition." Tony chuckled. "If I eat all of my M&Ms before you do, you give me your knives so I can do 'experiments' on them," the word experiments was complimented by a twitching of his fingers, "and if you win, I'll make the next meal, deal?"
"You seem to be getting more out of this than I am, since you're a terrible chef. Also, your idea of competition makes you sound like Volstagg," Loki retorted.
"Shut up," Tony protested, "at least you can do whatever you want when I'm cooking—EXCEPT KILLING PEOPLE, no murdering, maiming or injuring in my house, thank you."
Loki gave a sigh, but his lips twitched up into a small smirk, "Alright," he replied.
Tony discarded the bags to the side and looked at Loki determinedly, "I'll count us in, on three."
Loki gave a chuckle in response but waited for Tony to start.
"One . . . two . . ." without a three, Tony started eating his M&Ms, practically throwing them down his throat.
Loki watched on without movement, waiting for Tony to think he was winning before carefully reaching out and taking a single M&M from Tony's pile.
"Hey! That's cheating!" Tony cried loudly as Loki stood up from the table and ran off down the corridor.
"But it does mean you've lost!" Loki called back with a loud burst of laughter.
Tony got up to chase Loki, disregarding the table and jumping over it—knocking it over and spilling the M&Ms across the floor. That woke Clint, and he sat up quickly to see Tony running off down the corridor. He scratched the back of his neck in confusion, but eventually passed it off as an argument and went back to sleep again. You couldn't blame him for being tired; he'd been training all night.
Tony chased Loki down the corridor before cornering him at the end of it, to be honest Loki should have locked himself in the bathroom when he had the chance.
"Give it back!" Tony yelled, but he couldn't stop himself laughing a little at Loki's initiative.
Loki held the M&M up as high as it would go, with his tall arm and body, Tony would have to climb up him to reach it. "Work for it." he replied with an almost evil laugh.
Tony gave a moan and reached up to see if he could reclaim the M&M, with a few hops, he eventually decided it wasn't going to get any closer. He dropped his hand and looked at Loki, pouting.
Loki rose an eyebrow, "Given up, Anthony?" he questioned with a chuckle, he still did not lower his arm though.
"No, I'm just being patient," Tony replied, but didn't give Loki a chance to reply. He knew what would work. He knew Loki's weakness now.
Tony reached out and started tickling Loki again, which caused him to double over laughing. He brought his hands down to protect his stomach, which meant Tony could successfully pry the M&M free from Loki's hand. He popped the M&M in his mouth and ate it before Loki could try and do anything smart with his magic.
"Damn it," Loki was trying to regain his breath on the floor, while Tony stood triumphant.
"Does this mean I win?" Tony asked with a grin, looking back at the M&Ms all over the floor.
"No, you haven't eaten all of them," Loki protested, climbing to his feet.
"Nor have you, but I count this as a win," Tony replied with a gesture to his own stomach.
"I consider it a draw," Loki commented with a chuckle as he walked past Tony in order to return to the living room.
"Fine . . ." Tony grumbled, following him.
Tony gave a yawn, he was tired and not 100% sure why, but he decided he was going to get some rest. "Yo, I'm going to build a nest, you can join me if you like," he said to Loki before heading off down the corridor.
Loki followed, questioning Tony about the reasons he had to 'build a nest', and if he was some kind of Human-bird hybrid that needed to hibernate as a joke. Tony built himself a nest of pillows and blankets, it was large and there was enough space for three, maybe four people.
Tony was about to climb in when he thought of another great idea, he looked to Loki, "I'm going to cook you something, you'll love it—and it's one of the things I can actually cook."
Loki raised an eyebrow at Tony, especially when he demanded that Loki wait for him in the nest. Loki complied since he didn't see a reason why not to, and he sat waiting in the darkened fortified area. It got rather warm after a while, but he seemed not to notice it much.
Tony returned after about fifteen minutes, carrying a plate in each hand. You could even smell the sugar radiating from it. It was like somebody had just thrown warm caramel into a dish and served it like that.
"Knock knock, open up," Tony called with a grin. He couldn't get into the nest without at least one free hand.
Loki made enough space for Tony to get through, "What is this?" he asked as he took one of the plates from Tony.
"It's a crepe, and you are not to touch them, ever, unless I cook it for you," Tony replied sternly, "you're not ruining any of them."
Loki gave a nod, he wasn't planning on it, "Fine."
"Now taste it," Tony replied, handing Loki a fork with a large grin on his face. But he could hardly see his own hand in front of his eyes.
"Hmm, it's a little dark in here . . ." Tony commented with a frown.
"I can do something about that," Loki replied, and he held out his hand. Immediately his fingers began to glow a faint green—lighting the place enough that they could see each other.
Tony was fascinated by the light, so much that he put his plate to one side and forcefully grabbed Loki's hand. He pulled it closer to him in order to examine it, without even asking. Loki gave a small grunt at this mistreatment, but didn't protest. He let Tony examine his hand.
"How does it work?" Tony questioned, intrigued.
"It's magic, my friend," Loki replied, a little agitated that Tony hadn't guessed that.
Tony gave a roll of his eyes, "I know that, I just want specifics," he replied and shrugged lightly, before letting him go. "Now, eat."
Loki took his hand back and looked down at the food on the plate. It was a thin strip of bread-like material, rolled into a cylinder and filled with ice cream. On top, it was seasoned with chocolate and toffee sauce, and sprinkled with sugar. With Tony watching on eagerly, Loki stabbed his fork through the sweet mixture of flavours, and lifted a section of it up to his mouth. He tasted it, testing it by rolling it around in his mouth a little, before deciding that he indeed found it to have a wondrous flavour.
"So?" Tony sat impatiently awaiting his verdict.
Loki looked up at Tony, "I like it," he replied, giving Tony a small smile.
Tony gave a victorious grin and started eating his own, it only took him about five minutes to finish it. So it wasn't surprising that he felt sick afterwards. Tony gave out a long groan and held his stomach.
"You shouldn't have eaten it so quickly," Loki stated, he was only three eighths the way through his.
"No joke," Tony said, pushing his plate away and curling up into a little ball, giving another groan at the pain in his stomach.
Loki followed Tony's movements with his eyes. "I could help you alleviate that pain if you wished?"
Tony mumbled something below his breath that Loki couldn't make out, "I'll take that as a yes," Loki stated, putting the food aside and crawling over to Tony.
Tony's ball had tightened, and he had his arms wrapped around his waist—holding onto it.
"You will have to let go if you wish me to assist you . . ." Loki stated quietly, sitting down beside Tony.
Tony eventually relaxed and pulled his arms away, the pain was excruciating, and he'd never felt anything like it before. If this was the food that caused it, there must have been something incredibly wrong with that crepe. Tony was able to feel Loki's icy touch through his top when his fingers pressed down upon Tony's stomach. Supported by a soft, green glow, Loki's healing magic did its work. Or well, that's what Tony had hoped for; unfortunately it didn't work like that.
"Anthony, are you sure it's you're stomach hurting?" Loki asked, raising an eyebrow at him.
"Help me out of the nest," Tony said harshly.
"I'm sorry?"
"Help me up," he said again, the pain was more than powerful, and it had moved from his stomach around to his side.
Loki assisted him, an arm around Tony's back in order to hoist him up and out of the nest. After Tony had asked to be walked, Loki guided him to the bathroom where Tony shrunk out of Loki's grasp and slammed the door in his face. Whatever it was hadn't just caused pain, but also rather acute sickness and he was having difficulty holding in his pancake.
He came out soon later with a call to Jarvis for a full body scan.
"I'm afraid you have appendicitis, sir. It is life threatening. Shall I call for an ambulance?" The AI asked.
Tony replied with a simple yes and looked to Loki, "Go and get a bag, put some clothes in it . . ." he said quietly. He knew that since Loki was trying to make a good impression, he would do as Tony asked. So in the meantime, Tony hobbled back to the nest, where he fell face first onto the pillows—completely drained of energy. He was overheating, sweat pricking up on his brow. He was grateful for the cold against his cheek when Loki returned. Loki had seen that Tony was warm by his slightly laboured breathing and had decided to assist him somewhat. Tony didn't know this though, at the point, he didn't really care.
"The ambulance has arrived, sir," a quiet voice called, Tony couldn't even seem to decipher it as being Jarvis.
Loki, seeing Tony's absence of mind, picked him up again. Over one shoulder was a bag containing the clothes for Tony, and his other arm was wrapped around Tony's back. Loki helped him stumble towards the lift—which Jarvis activated since Loki had no idea how to use it. Loki managed to get them to the door; the journalists had been cleared for the sake of privacy. Loki couldn't figure out how they managed to get that to work, but he was grateful for the absence of people. With the assistance of the paramedics, Tony was soon thrust into the back of the ambulance and they were on their way.
