Loki pinched the bridge of his nose, "Are you trying to get me fired?"

"Good morning, darling," Tony tried to salute the nurse but cringed from pain in his wrist. He reopened his most recent wound on his tumble to the floor in the middle of the night. His back hurt from spending a whole night on cold tiles and he swore he almost bled out because there was a small puddle of blood next to him. It was the worse. "Carry me to bed, will ya'?"

"We need to stop meeting like this. Can't you wait until you're out of my care to kill yourself?"

"Wow, thanks Angel," Tony rolled his eyes. "Caring, aren't you?"

"There's no need for me to sugarcoat this. If you're hell bent on dying, don't get me fired in the process. I was under the impression that you liked bluntness," Loki kneeled beside him and examined his wounds. He curled his lip slightly when he saw the reopened cut on Tony's wrist. "Don't you?"

"Rather have it straightforward than deal with unnecessary words and shit."

"I'm going to lift you up, okay?" Tony raised a brow as Loki slid his arms underneath his body and positioned himself to bring him up. The nurse was thin as hell...but yet he managed to pick Tony up without too much effort. Strength...Loki was definitely an angel. There was no doubt.

Loki settled him back into the bed and pulled the covers up to Tony's waist. He then hurriedly changed the gauze on Tony's wrist and brought him some water, this time in a plastic cup.

"Don't tell anyone I found you on the floor and I won't bring in security to watch you, okay?" Loki said with narrowed eyes. "I don't want to lose my damn job because you can't just go to sleep and recover. Bloody hell, I swear Stark - "

"I wasn't trying to kill myself that time, Lokes."

"Loki," the nurse corrected. "So you just decided to flop over the railing to sleep on the floor? Please, let's be honest."

"Seriously. I dropped Rhodey's kindle and tried to get it."

"You're shitting me," Loki stared at him seriously. "Where is it?"

"Under the bed."

Loki slowly lowered himself back to the floor and looked underneath the bed. Tony heard him sigh softly.

"So it is," and the nurse handed it back to him. Rhodey was going to kill him for cracking the screen, but Tony could easily replace it. Tony clicked it on, only for the screen to come to life for a couple of seconds before warping the contents of the medical journal he had studied and shutting off completely. He tapped the screen a couple of times and pressed the start button, but the device stayed off. "That's unfortunate."

"Rhodey is going to kick my ass," Tony said dramatically and slid it onto the bedside table. The teddy bear his friend left sat next to the broken kindle, almost as if it was guarding it. Tony cringed when he shifted back in place. His back was still sore and he tried to position himself so it wouldn't feel as bad. It got worse. "Thanks though. I was going to research more on that new business but I guess I have to talk to you now."

"I have a feeling you don't mind that," Loki quirked a brow. "Do you read any actual literature?"

"Medical journals are actual pieces of literature, thank you."

"They're dreadfully boring, dear, and only middle aged men who live in their basement laboratories read them for entertainment."

"I don't know if you realize this, cause' I look like an underwear model, but you just described me," Tony chuckled softly. "I do have a thing for classics though, none of the shit they've been publishing recently."

"I see," Loki smirked and Tony noticed that he had a slight dimple. "It's great that you said that actually, I happened to bring some classics with me today."

"Like what?"

Loki answered by ducking out the room to retrieve said books quickly. He returned with paperback copies of Twilight and an erotic romance novel with horses on the cover. The nurse openly laughed at Tony's expression and pulled up a chair to begin reading Twilight. Tony didn't find it too painful, not with Loki's accent and smooth voice, each word pronounced softly.

Loki left him before noon for a break but rushed back to deliver shitty news. Tony had just finished a series of examinations and was trying to get lost in the paperbacks the nurse left. He was trying his best to distract himself so that he wouldn't have to stew in darker thoughts.

"Stark, we're sending you in for some more surgery. Have you eaten already? Had any fluids?" Loki had a clipboard in hand and tapped a pen repeatedly against the wood.

"What?" Tony looked up from the erotic horse novel. "Why? What's wrong, doc'?"

"There's still some shrapnel in you. They missed it but your fall must have moved it around. Your back hurts, right?"

"Yeah, a lil' bit," Tony mused. "Why the hell didn't you fish it out the first time?"

"I wasn't the one responsible for that," Loki said dismissively and clicked the pen to write. "Do you partake in marijuana?"

"What?!"

"Do you smoke weed?" Loki said slowly, his face serious. "I won't alert the authorities if you do. Everything is confidential."

"Are you...offering me a blunt?" Tony asked dumbly, not entirely sure why that was relevant. "Oh my gosh, are you trying to hit on me by offering me weed?"

"No," Loki pinched the bridge of his nose before explaining, "I need to know because you gained consciousness during your operation which is not good. Drugs and alcohol can have an effect on your response to anesthesia. You do read medical journals for fun, no?"

"Yeah, something I only did for about two hours before I dropped the kindle," Tony said. "But no, I don't smoke weed. I mean, on occasion if it's offered, but it's not my thing."

"Drinking is, correct?" Loki scribbled down more notes. It was common knowledge; there was always some story out where Tony made a complete mess of himself in public while intoxicated. Everyone knew he had a bad habit.

"Of course."

"Anything else? No other drugs?"

"Nah."

The nurse nodded.

"The team will be here in a few moments. I've alerted Ms. Potts and Mr. Rhodes. They should be here after your operation."

"Sounds about right." Tony said and started to mentally prepare himself. He absolutely hated going under the knife. He hated having to be put to sleep, having a team of people cut him open, and hands prodding at his insides.

Loki squeezed his hand and Tony realized all of that must have shown on his face. They both waited in silence.

"I got a new scar today," Tony slurred to Pepper as she took a seat beside him. She brought in another bunch of balloons and tied them to the other side of the bed, as if the first bundle wasn't enough. Tony trailed off to stare at the colorful balloons, each decorated with cartoon animals saying 'get well soon', and he scoffed. "Tell that tiger to fuck off."

"Shhh," Pepper shushed him softly and flashed a smile at Rhodey who was examining his dead kindle. "He's so delirious."

"Tony is going to be 'loopy' for a while, I'm afraid. We had to adjust his dosage so that he'd stay under," Loki said helpfully as he scribbled on his clipboard once again. Tony's friends stayed away from the medical monitors and equipment in order for the nurse to do his job. Loki was thankful for that.

"Loopy Tony," the patient said and chuckled.

"Yes, loopy Tony," Loki repeated with a soft smile and Pepper noticed his eyes lingered on him for a bit too long. "He'll be fine eventually."

"How long is eventually? I want to kick his ass for breaking my kindle." Rhodey piped up, tone not serious at all. Tony laughed.

"He did say you'd do that. If it's any consolation, he said he'd buy you a new one."

"I know," Rhodey smirked and it was obvious it was an inside joke between the two.

"You love me, Rhodes." Tony turned his head to look at Pepper. "How's my son doin'? He smoking dope or what? Did you know that nurse Laufeyson tried to ask me out with a blunt?"

Pepper didn't even answer because Tony kept blubbering about things that just didn't make sense. He went on for a minute about Loki before ranting about the shit novels the nurse brought, and then he stumbled over his words to complain about nothing at all. Rhodey simply took out his phone to record it all while Pepper laughed with each inflation of his voice. Loki watched on silently, and though he finished his duties for that point in time, he stayed in the room to watch on. Tony's speech was endearing in a way.

A/N: I updated this to my ao3 but forgot to add it over here too! Here it is. I did some actual quick research, but sadly things still aren't 100% accurate. That doesn't matter though. This is only a fanfiction afterall.

Waking up during surgery is actually called anesthetic awareness and occurs to 1 in every 1,000 patients roughly. After doing some digging around on this topic, I actually came to the realization that I have experienced anesthetic awareness when I was much younger. I remember waking up in the middle of a dental surgery for a short amount of time, and it was actually frightening but I kinda shrugged it off as normal. I didn't realize that you weren't supposed to wake up in the middle of surgery to the dentist cutting into your mouth while singing along to the radio!