Sorry this update took longer. As always, thanks to all my awesome readers, and anyone who reviewed, favorited, or followed this story. In this chapter, we have some stuff from Loki's point of view. This chapter's the longest so far.
Loki's probably the happiest he's ever been in his life as he throws his arms around Tony.
He doesn't know where he is, but it's not Asgard. Though it's a city, like Asgard, but the buildings here aren't gold. He can see a pretty amazing view of it out the window. Wherever he is, it's a lot better than Asgard.
Or, rather, Tony and Pepper are a lot nicer than anyone on Asgard ever was to him. Neither of them have tormented him for being a frost giant or for his magic. He has no clue why, though. After all, being a frost giant and doing magic are both bad, which mean's he's bad. So why aren't they tormenting him like everyone else?
He's already slipped up once with his magic- he's still far from perfect at keeping it hidden, which has resulted in countless beatings- but it hadn't been more than just a little green smoke around his fingers when he flicked them.
Fortunately, Tony and Pepper didn't seem to notice. Maybe they don't know about it? He tells himself he has to try extra hard to hide his magic from them. Otherwise they might find out and then they won't like him. He hopes that doesn't happen, ever, but he knows it probably will. He never wants to lose this nice feeling he has right now. That someone might actually do more than barely tolerate his presence while belittling and tormenting him at every opportunity. That someone might actually care about him, unlike anyone in Asgard.
Pepper gives really good hugs, he thinks. He doesn't remember anyone ever comforting him like that in Asgard. Normally they'd just make fun of him more. Really, the only time anyone ever touched him was when they were hitting him or kicking him or throwing him to the ground or into walls... He freezes, and then shakes his head furiously, trying to get the memories out of his head. He almost hits Tony in the face with his long hair, but Tony leans far enough away that he misses. The man looks more amused than upset, which is really odd.
Tony isn't as good with hugs as Pepper, though. Right now, he's awkwardly hugging Loki back. But it doesn't matter if he's good with hugs or not- though maybe he's secretly good and just holding back, Loki thinks.
Tony had just welcomed Loki into his home, which meant maybe he could stay here. The thought is too good to be true, and Loki can't help but worry that maybe he'd misunderstood the man and he really isn't getting a new home.
"I can live here? You're not sending me back to Asgard?" He finally asks Tony, needing to know if it's true. He can hear the hopefulness in his own voice.
"I wouldn't send you back to that magic viking land if I could. And, yes, you can live here. As long as you don't blow the tower up with lightning or anything."
Loki smiles. He doesn't have to worry about that. What a ridiculous thought! He's not Thor; he can't control lightning.
Maybe he'll get to live with Tony forever! A joyful laugh leaves his throat at this thought, and he rolls his head back ecstatically without even thinking about it.
Suddenly, his hug with Tony is over. Tony has stepped out of it. The man's looking at him strangely, as if he's strange. Tony's given him that look a couple times but it makes sense. He is strange. He's been told that- and worse- his whole life.
He wonders if Tony already knows he's a Jotun. He stares at the man's face, trying to figure out his thoughts, absentmindedly fiddling with the... thing in his hands. Not the colorful twisty cube thing- what had Tony called that? A Roo bix cube?- but the thing with the handles and the crank. Turning the crank on that thing is fun, and it keeps his hands busy.
"How do you know Thor?' Loki asks, staring at Tony curiously. This wasn't Asgard, so it's not like Thor was their prince or anything. Though Thor was known outside of Asgard.
"He's a friend," Tony says, and Loki's mind suddenly panics. He dives back on the couch and fiddles with the thing in his hands anxiously. No. Friends of Thor's were sometimes worse than Thor himself. The Warriors Three delighted in tormenting Loki at every opportunity. Lady Sif did too, though to a slightly lesser extent.
But Tony and Pepper haven't been like that, he reminds himself, and he relaxes slightly.
His mind is mostly consumed with his own thoughts, but it vaguely registers that Tony is still talking, and he catches the word avengers.
"Avengers? What?" He sits up on the couch and tries to piece together what he missed, but it's impossible with just one word.
"The Avengers. You know, Earth's mightiest heroes." Tony is saying. Loki nods. He's heard Thor mention the Avengers- most of Asgard knows of them. Thor's apparently part of them and he's told loud, long winded tales during many dinners (for reasons unknown to many Asgardians and Loki himself, Loki was allowed to eat at a lot of celebratory dinners in Asgard, though he was mostly shoved off to a corner and ignored during them. Or he was picked on, which was even worse). Loki's not entirely sure what the Avengers do aside from beat people up. From what Thor's told his friends, the Avengers don't sound too different from Thor's friends who torment Loki all the time.
"Thor's an Avenger?" When Loki says it, it comes out sounding like a question even though he knows it's true.
"Yeah. So am I. I'm Iron Man." Tony replies.
"You're the Man of Iron?" Loki's mind freezes for a second and he stands, wringing his hands anxiously. No. Tony can't be an Avenger. Avengers beat up bad guys and monsters. Loki's a frost giant, automatically labeling him as both. Plus he has magic, making things even worse.
Surely Tony, being both a friend of Thor and an Avenger, will hate him when he finds out what Loki is. And Loki knows all too well that being hated always leads to pain.
How have things gone from being wonderful to being horrible so quickly?
Panicking, he turns and flees the room.
Tony stands there, utterly confused. One minute, Loki had been hugging him like he was his favorite person in the world (which had been rather awkward) and the next, Loki had seemed terrified of him and ran out of the room.
Loki's reaction probably had something to do with their talk about Avengers, but what would make him react like that?
He looks over at Pepper, hoping she'll take care of this. But she just gives him a flat look and says "Anthony Stark, he's going to be living in your tower, so don't look at me. Go figure it out yourself."
She's right, but Tony's not going to admit that to anyone but himself. Sighing, Tony turns and follows the god. Where did he go now?
"Jarvis, where's Loki?" He asks for the second time that day.
"He's in your bedroom again, sir." Jarvis sounds even more amused than he did the first time. It's like deja vu from earlier today.
Letting out an annoyed huff, Tony enters his room, expecting to see Loki splayed out on his bed again. Only he doesn't see the god anywhere.
"Uh, Jarvis? Are you sure your cameras aren't malfunctioning or something?" He asks. Before Jarvis responds, he hears a shuffling sound. He's not entirely sure where it came from, and he pauses, hoping to hear it again.
"I'd check under the bed if I were you, sir." Jarvis says. Tony squats down and lifts the cloth covering the gap between his bed and the floor. Sure enough a figure is huddled there in the shadows. It's never even occurred to Tony that there's enough space for someone to hide under there until now.
"Hey, do you want to come out of there? Or are you going to try to scare me after I go to sleep?" Tony's surprised when Loki's only response to this is scooting so he's in the middle of the space under the bed. Now Tony can't see him without putting his head to the floor.
Well, that answers the question about wanting to come out from underneath the bed. Tony sighs. Why had he signed up for this again?
"I'm not a monster..." Loki says softly, though he sounds unconvinced as though he doesn't believe it himself. It takes Tony a second to realize this is actually a response to his statement instead of a random remark.
This conversation is already out of Tony's comfort zone, but he feels like he has to do something. He supposes he should start with actually being able to see the god properly, and Loki's obviously not going to come out and join him. He can't believe he's doing it, but he gets down and army crawls so his torso is under the bed. The blue-white light of his arc reactor acts as a flashlight once he props himself up on his elbows, making everything appear slightly blue.
"I've met my share of monsters, Loki. I've only known you for about an hour, and you don't seem like one to me." Tony tells the god.
Loki looks at his hands, and for a brief second a look of horror spreads on his face. But then he seems to realize the light from Tony's arc reactor and he relaxes. Still, Tony files that information away for later. Loki seems to have something against blue hands, though he can't fathom why.
"What's wrong?" Tony asks "One minute it seemed like you couldn't be happier and then you looked like you'd seen a ghost."
Loki looks at him for the first time since he joined the god under the bed and asks "Are you going to hurt me?"
"Wasn't planning on it." Tony replies, taken aback for a second. "Why would I hurt you? Sure, it's a little annoying that you keep going in my bedroom, but why would that mean I'd hurt you?"
"The Avengers beat up people they don't like." Loki says, and it suddenly clicks in Tony's mind that Loki thinks the Avengers are going to hurt him. Though he has no idea why Loki thinks that. He's pretty sure it's not about going into his bedroom though.
"Have you committed any crimes recently?" Tony asks teasingly "Have you gone on a killing spree or tried to take over the world?" Loki just looks at him seriously and shakes his head.
"Then you have nothing to worry about." After a bit, Tony asks "Does Thor talk about the Avengers fighting people a lot?" Loki nods, and Tony rolls his eyes. Figures Loki would think that's all the Avengers did if that's all Thor ever talked about.
"Well, our main goal is to save people, not to beat the crap out of them for no reason." Tony tells him. Loki's eyes are reflecting the arc reactor light, but they don't look quite as scared as they did a couple minutes ago, and he's uncurled himself slightly.
"What are they like?" Loki asks quietly, obviously referring to the other Avengers. Tony hesitates briefly, but what's the harm, really. Most of the world knows about the Avengers.
"Well, first there's the Capsicle. Though he's officially known as Steve Rogers, or Captain America..." Tony begins.
For the next fifteen minutes, he describes each of the Avengers to Loki- though only telling him what the general public knows about them- often going off to tell a random story. It feels sort of weird doing it under a bed by the glow of his arc reactor, though it's not really a bad weird.
Loki's almost completely relaxed by the end. He seems pretty happy actually, and he's asking questions instead of just listening silently like he had in the beginning. He seems quite taken with the idea of the Avengers now, but he keeps asking for clarification that they save people instead of hurt them.
"...And then there's Thor." Tony says, before he can stop himself. Great, he thinks as Loki stiffens at the name.
"I don't like Thor!" Loki exclaims. "He's mean and he hates me."
Tony frowns. There it is again. Something's clearly up between Thor and Loki. When Loki describes Thor, he makes the thunderer sound like a different person than the one Tony knows.
"Why does he hate you?" Tony asks.
"Because I'm a fr-" Loki clamps a hand over his mouth as if he was about to say something horrible and he looks at Tony with worried eyes. Tony stores this away in his mind with Loki's reaction the the blue tint on his hands.
Hoping they didn't just go back to square one, Tony doesn't say anything so he won't accidentally make it worse.
"Promise you won't hurt me?" Loki asks suddenly. Tony rolls his eyes and said "Loki, we've been over this. I'm not going to hurt you unless you try to take over the world or something. The other Avengers won't either."
"Thor will." Loki whispers so softly that Tony almost doesn't hear it. He's definitely going to be having a long talk with the God of Thunder the next time they meet.
"Thor's not here," is the first thing Tony thinks of. Then he adds "And I wouldn't let him if he was." Loki doesn't say anything, but he visibly relaxes. About three seconds of silence pass, and Tony says "Hey, it's getting late. Are you hungry?" Loki nods, and much to Tony's relief, slides out from under his bed. Finally.
Loki seems back to his usual self again, almost as if nothing had happened. Tony shakes his head, nonplussed. Honestly, Loki could easily be the god of mood swings or something. In an hour, he'd gone from normal (or as normal as he ever was) to crying to overexcited to terrified, and now seemed relatively calm.
Tony leaves his bedroom and starts to say something, only to realize that Pepper is nowhere to be seen. Maybe she's in the bathroom or something.
"Sir, I thought you'd like to know that Miss Potts left to pick up hamburgers for everyone while you were occupied." Jarvis tells Tony, who silently thanks Pepper for thinking of that. Again, Tony notices that Loki looks completely unfazed by the disembodied voice of the AI.
"Thanks, Jarvis." Tony says. Loki cocks his head to the side with a questioning look on his face. Before he can ask, Tony starts to answer.
"Jarvis is my AI creation." Tony says, though Loki just looks even more confused now. "AI means Artificial Intelligence" doesn't seem to help either, and when he explains Artificial Intelligence, Loki doesn't respond. Sighing, Tony ends up saying. "Never mind. He's Jarvis. You don't really need to know what he is."
"That introduction was truly heartwarming." Jarvis says sarcastically.
"Oh, shut up. You don't have a heart." Tony retorts, and Loki giggles. Tony continues "Anyways, Jarvis, this is Loki. Loki, meet Jarvis."
"It's a pleasure to meet you, sir." Jarvis tells Loki, back in his polite mode.
To Tony's surprise, Loki just turns to him and says "I thought you already knew each other." This is another time Loki's totally confused Tony. Tony's already lost count of how many times that's happened.
"He was talking to you." Tony tells Loki.
Loki looks confused but nods. "Why'd he call me that? It's what he calls you."
"Because I've been programmed to be polite." Jarvis inputs.
Loki shakes his head. "I don't like it. I don't know who you're talking to. Just call me by my name. Loki" There's a silence, and Tony knows Jarvis is looking at him, probably wondering if he should do as Loki says or stick to being polite. Jarvis never calls people by their first names. Tony shrugs. It's Loki's choice, really.
"How about Mr. Loki?" Jarvis asks, and Loki nods, uncertainly at first but then enthusiastically, bouncing on his toes.
In order to keep Loki from wandering off while waiting for Pepper to return, Tony picks up the Rubik's Cube again. He twists it twenty times, hiding it from Loki's view.
When he turns back, Loki is lying down on the backrest of his sofa, like a certain beagle on his doghouse. Tony sighs. Why can't Loki use furniture normally, instead of perching on armrests and lying on backrests? "Hey, Snoopy, that's not how you use a sofa." Tony says, gently pulling him off and repositioning him. The nickname just rolls off his tounge because of the position Loki's in, but he likes it for the god. Both Snoopy and Loki are very unique.
Tony hands him the Rubik's Cube, asking if he can solve it in twenty moves. Loki nods, but then he stares off into the distance with a vacant look on his face. Just when Tony's about to say something, Loki nods to himself and twists the cube insanely fast. After twenty twists, he tries to hand the finished cube to Tony, but Tony doesn't take it. He doesn't like being handed things, and the only reason Loki had gotten away with it the first time is he'd taken Tony by surprise.
"Dang, you're good at this, Snoopy." Tony says, picking up the cube. Surprisingly, Loki doesn't object to Tony's nickname for him, and Tony's compliment puts a huge grin on his face. Tony guesses that, like him, Loki didn't receive many compliments from his family.
They keep doing this until Pepper comes back five minutes later. Tony leads Loki to the table and seats him in a chair. Pepper pulls out some hamburgers and hands one to Loki. Loki's apparently never had one before, and he looks at it skeptically. He watches Tony take a large bite out of his own cheeseburger. Loki giggles slightly and cautiously puts his own in his mouth. But judging from the happy sound and wriggle he makes during his first bite and the way he's devouring it without talking, it seems to be a hit with the god.
Tony pours himself a beer. He offers Loki one, which earns him a disapproving look from Pepper. But from what he's heard, they drink a lot in Asgard, and Loki's over a thousand years old, so he's almost certainly had it sometime. Admittedly, he often seems like a child, so maybe it's not a good idea.
Loki shrugs. "I've had that kind of stuff, but it's gross." Tony looks at him in mock horror. How could anyone say that about alcohol?
Oh well. That means there's more for him.
Loki ends up just drinking water, after Tony's attempt at introducing him to soda. he nearly spewed it out across the table with a disgusted look on his face.
Pepper leaves after dinner, and Tony asks Loki if he wants to watch a movie. It's what Tony does basically every night he doesn't hook up with someone. Loki looks at him blankly and asks "What's a movie?"
"Okay, we're having a movie night." Tony decides, interrupting Jarvis, who is providing the definition of a movie. "You can't go through live without movies." Tony says. Okay, well, he couldn't anyways. Loki had already gone thousands of years without them, but that's about to change.
Fifteen minutes into some random sci-fi action movie, it's clear that Loki's bored out of his mind. He's wandered off twice already. Action movies probably aren't his cup of tea, then.
Tony stops that and scans his humongous DVD collection. Finally, he spots something that could catch Loki's interest. He slips The Lion King into his DVD player.
Loki is transfixed from the beginning of the Circle of Life song. Compared to Loki's complete apathy about the first movie (after he'd gotten over his awe of the TV, that is) Loki's reactions to this movie seem almost over the top. He often laughs (and bounces in his seat) at things that aren't meant to be funny, such as a random shot of a giraffe, but he laughs at the humorous parts too. Tony wonders if Loki would like musicals in general, as he seems extra excited during all the songs.
Loki gets almost too involved in the movie. Tony has to try to stifle his laughter when Loki starts yelling at Scar about how terrible he is after he kills Mufasa.
"So, what did you think, Snoopy?" Tony asks once the credits roll, already knowing Loki loved it. He looks over to find the god, who had been awake during the end of the movie, curled in a ball next to him, asleep.
Well, I hope you enjoyed this. Hopefully the part in Loki's point of view turned out all right.
I figured Tony can't really call Loki "Reindeer Games" or "Rudolph" since he doesn't have that helmet (I'm assuming that's why he used those nicknames in Avengers, anyways). I like "Snoopy" for him. Hopefully I'm not the only one.
For some reason, I'd always been planning on having them watch The Lion King. I watched it a few days ago, though not because of anything to do with this story. I just love Disney movies.
By the way, stuff will happen in this story soon.
School starts soon so my updates may take even longer :(