You guys, I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO SORRY.
I thought I uploaded this here, but I didn't, and I am so, so sorry. I'm terrible ;_;

On the bright side... at least you get two new chapters?
~ This will never happen again though. I promise!


Where am I? Tony thought as he looked around. There was nothing. Everywhere he looked was a bunch of black nothingness; the only light was from Tony's arc reactor illuminating through his armour, which outlawed any thoughts of being blind... or maybe he was just so used to seeing it, that the glow was engraved in his mind.
Suddenly, a small, dim light appeared in the distance, causing Tony to sigh in relief. Not blind, and not crazy.
He stepped out to walk towards it, but his foot never touched the ground. He tried looking down to see what was going on, but he couldn't see for the darkness. Why does this seem familiar?
All he could do was wait for the light as it came closer.
Eventually, it came close enough that he could make out what it was. That spaceship. That alien spaceship from Loki's army that he had seen when he went up through that wormhole with the nuke.
They were coming for him.
Suddenly, something was around his arm; tightly holding onto him. His free hand flew up to feel whatever it was that was on him, to figure out what it was.
The next second, there was a flash of green, and then everything was lit. He covered his eyes, feeling as though he were going to be blinded by the immense amount of light. Parting his fingers slightly, the first thing he saw was Loki, holding onto his arm. "Loki?"
"Take this," Loki growled to someone, harshly throwing Tony onto the ground, causing his head to hit the ground. "Figure out what that thing in his chest does. After I know, he's yours."
A sound... a dark, vile sound began screeching - only for a moment, then it stopped.
"After I know what it is, he's yours, that's what's in it for you. Get to work."
The sound returned.
Through his dizziness, Tony groaned and re-positioned himself so he could see what it was that Loki was talking to.
Those aliens. Loki's army.
"I think you'll find that I cannot leave. We are... conjoined, by a curse. He cannot be more than a few mere feet before he is forced to my side."
The aliens picked Tony up and threw him against the wall. Tony struggled to free himself, but to no avail; his arms and legs got locked in wall mounted handcuffs; then they spoke to him, in that horrid screeching sound that he didn't understand.
"This is going to hurt," Loki translated as the aliens left Tony, "but please do not scream, it is most unpleasant."
"What's happening?! What are you doing? What are they doing?!" he tried to pull his arms and legs out of their binds, but they were too tight.
The aliens returned, and began pulling on Tony's armour to get it off.
"That's not how you do it."
The aliens spoke to each other, and one left the room, returning a moment later with a strange device. They plugged it in, and turned it on, and Tony immediately understood what it was for.
They wrapped it around his arm, and began sawing through his armour.
"Let's talk about this," Tony suggested, as calmly as he could manage, trying not to resort to using his repulsors. He needed to get free -especially since he'd have to deal with Loki, as well - and he couldn't do that if he was stuck to a wall. "You don't need to break my armour, or do anything unnecessary."
The aliens continued to try to saw through Tony's armour, ignoring Tony's protests and attempts at talking his way out of it.
"Just ask me what you want to know, I'll tell you. You want to know what the glowing thing in my chest does? I'll tell you, if you put that down."
One alien turned to Loki and said something, then went back to work.
"They want you to shut up," Loki said simply. "Your voice brings a throbbing pain to their heads."
Tony stared at him, giving a dirty look. "Come on, we can ta-" Tony paused, then let out a scream, "that's my arm! Jesus Christ, that's my arm! You're going to saw off my arm!"
The aliens stopped, and removed the sawing device, then unlocked Tony's arm, and attempted to pull off the armour from his arm.
Tony let out a cry of pain, "that's not how it was designed to come off! You're going to break my arm, if you don't detach it from my body!"
As expected, the aliens ignored Tony, and continued to rip the armour down his arm.
Tony began to angle his unharmed arm towards the aliens, getting ready to blast them with his repulsors. Before he could shoot, an alien stuck a thin, sharp, long object through his hand, into the wall, breaking the repulsor, causing Tony to scream, again.
"Fucking, Jesus!"
"Ooh," Loki frowned, "that looked painful."
The aliens continued their work; sawing off the armour from Tony's other arm, then prying open his chest plate, then ungraciously ripped his shirt open, and began poking around at his arc reactor with more sharp objects.
"No, stop it!" he protested, squirming around. "We can talk this out - I can tell you what it does! Don't, don't - don't do that!"
One alien pulled the arc reactor right from his chest, and handed it to another, who left the room with it. The remaining aliens continued to poke around his chest.
Tony screamed in pain, giving one last attempt at pulling his hands out from their binds, before the remainder of his energy went to staying alive. His face began to turn pale, he felt weak, there was a tightness in his chest, breathing became difficult. The shrapnel was closing in on his heart. He was going into cardiac arrest.

Tony snapped upright into a sitting position, gasping for air.
His chest felt tight as his heart quickened in pace. He was cold, sweating, and trembling; just as if he were being poisoned. After having so many anxiety attacks, he began to wonder if being poisoned would be easier.
Looking around, he took in his surroundings. He was in Asgard, with Loki, in his cell. He was safe. Nothing could get in the cell, Loki and him weren't leaving, and he couldn't get hurt. How much more safe could he get?
... He couldn't. There was no amount of safety that could protect him from his anxiety and fears. No matter how safe he was, he would always be afraid.
He pulled his blanket up over his head and rolled over onto his side, staring into the darkness as he attempted to get his body back to normal.
Slow, deep breaths, he told himself.
As time passed, he tossed and turned into countless different positions, alternating between staring at the ceiling, wall, and the darkness throughout the cell.
He couldn't sleep.
He didn't want to - he knew that if he slept, he'd have nightmares. However, even if he wanted to... he wouldn't be able to.
He didn't mind not being able to sleep. That wasn't the problem. The problem was what to do. Usually, he would go down and tinker in his workshop. He didn't have that in Asgard. He didn't have anything. His worst lost, was alcohol.
Alcohol kept him from caring about things; it was his ultimate distraction. Without it, getting himself back to normal was going to be a bit of a challenge.

When the hallway lights came on, signalizing that it was sometime in the morning, Tony got out of bed and sat in the corner with a book. He tore out page after page and began making useless toys, failed attempts at origami, and paper airplanes.
"What are you doing?" Loki's voice questioned in a groggy voice.
Tony remained silent.
"Stark, I am talking to you." Loki got up off of his chair, and walked over to Tony, picking up on one of his paper airplanes. "What is this? What are you doing?"
Silence.
Loki let out a frustrated sigh and crumpled the paper into a ball, throwing it at Tony's head. He wasn't in the mood to deal with him so early in the morning.

As the hours passed, Tony didn't leave his spot in the corner. Loki had taken away all of the books after yelling at him for abusing such things, so he no longer had anything to do. He didn't bother trying to get Loki to conjure up some form of entertainment; not after the nightmare he had just had about Loki handing Tony off to a bunch of aliens to get dissected alive. It wasn't as though Loki wouldn't actually do... or, maybe he would, but he couldn't... unless they did escape... which - No! Stop it, Tony demanded of himself, shaking his head.
Regardless of what Loki would or could do, Tony needed his space away from Loki. He had to convince himself that, even though he was with a psychopath who would gladly hand him over to face torture and death, he wouldn't. That was considerably difficult, especially seeing how Loki had wanted to know about Tony's arc reactor...

His anxiety wouldn't leave.
He stayed in the corner and mumbled things to himself, rocking himself slowly. The motion was soothing, and usually helped. This time, it hardly did anything.
During his worse attacks, he'd usually take about an hour to calm down and return to normal. That was as long as it ever took. This time, it was taking longer. A lot longer. That worried him, and only led to him having more anxiety.

When the time came to shower, Tony stood under the water, in his clothes, unmoving for the entire forty minutes.
When they got back to the cell, Loki used his magic to dry Tony off, so he wasn't sitting in the dark corner in soaking wet clothes.
Loki knew something wasn't quite right, and almost felt as though he should do something more... but he couldn't find it in himself to care enough to. He had finally gotten some silence. The books he had received from Midgard only came to his possession due to Tony's arrival; they were originally for Tony so he would have some way to pass the time, though Loki was more interested. Since he had gotten them, he hadn't yet been able to read them without Tony disrupting him with his noise, or distracting shananagins. He finally had some peace and quiet to read. He was going to take advantage of that.

Suddenly, Tony got up, and began pacing around the cell, fidgeting with his fingers and biting his nails.
Hours passed.
Loki had fallen asleep in bed, and by the time he woke, Tony was still pacing.
Breakfast came and went, and Tony hadn't so much as glanced towards it or Frigga.

"Would you stop that?!" Loki finally snapped after some time.
Tony slightly cringed at Loki's voice, but pulled himself together and snapped back defensively, "stop what?!"
"Pacing. It is annoying. It has been all day."
Tony stopped pacing and stood in front of Loki with his arms crossed, "well what else am I supposed to do? Please, if you have any suggestions aside from reading, I'm all ears."
"Go find your limit and put yourself out of your misery."
"As agonizing as it is being stuck with you, I think I'll stick with this misery a bit longer, just because it's so much fun bothering you," Tony growled, getting rather irritated with Loki.
Loki turned his attention down to his book, completely ignoring Tony, ending the argument. Tony wasn't acting normal, and Loki had no plans to take advantage of an ill man.
Tony slid down the wall, sitting on the ground with a groan. "How are you not dying of boredom without kids to steal from, or innocent people to murder?"
Loki looked up from the book he hadn't yet gotten to read since he picked it up, and glared at Tony.
"What's the look for? That's what you do, isn't it? Insanely cruel things that only insane, cruel people do?"
Loki jumped up from his chair, tossing his book somewhere behind him, and grabbed Tony's throat, bringing him up off his feet, to Loki's eye level. He was about to muster up a threat of sorts, but with the closeness, he noticed something different. Tony's eyes were dilated, he looked exhausted, pale, and he was sweating. He was much worse than Loki had thought. "I do not know what is wrong with you... but I suggest you get your brain working, again. You know what will happen otherwise."
"What, you'll threaten me?"
"It is not a threat, Stark. It is a promise."
"Is that supposed to mean something? You're a liar."
"Trust me, when I say that this promise I will keep."
"Prove it."
Loki narrowed his eyes, debating on exactly what to do. Oh, he would love to prove it to Tony, punching him and trying to knock him out... but Loki would never stoop so low as to kick a man when he was down.
"Come on, don't tell me you've gone soft," Tony snorted, knowing exactly what Loki hated, and therefore, how to enfuriate him. "For a 'mortal?' You're no better than Thor."
Loki slammed Tony against the wall as he threw a punch, sandwiching Tony's head in between the wall and his fist. "Do not ever speak those words again."
"What words? Oh... you mean that you're no better than Thor?"
Loki growled, throwing his fist into Tony's face, again.
"Come on now, is that supposed to hurt? You punch like a girl. A mortal, five year old, girl," he spoke slowly, grinning.
Loki grimaced, trying not to let Tony's words anger him so much. He knew Tony was trying to get him all riled up, and Loki refused to give him that satisfaction... even if all of his buttons were being pushed.
"What's the matter? Trying to be the better person or something? Don't try to kid yourself, Loki, you're hopele-" Tony was cut off by Loki throwing him across the room.
"Shut up!" he yelled, holding his head in his hands. "Just. Shut. Up. What is wrong with you?"
"You." Tony snapped as he got up off the floor and stood in front of Loki.
"If you do not wish to tell me," Loki glared at him, "you can crawl back in your corner and suffer for all I care."
"I don't need to be in the corner to suffer. No matter where I am, I'll be with you. I'm suffering, everywhere."
"Good. I'm glad. You deserve suffering."
"Not quite as much as you, Mr. Murder Everyone and Take Over the World."
"Oh," Loki laughed without humour, returning his hand to Tony's throat, "so we're back to that, are we?"
"Well, with all due respect... not sure how much that is... you did do that."
"Please, don't ever let me forget that," Loki snarked.
"As long as you don't let me forget that you're a God."
"So long as you do not forget you place, mortal."
"Oh, there we go again. Little mortal me. Hold on, it's been five seconds since you last said that I'm mortal, would you like to remind me again?"
Loki lifted Tony off of his feet, again, as his blood began boiling. He had never wanted to rip someone's throat out more.
"Come on. Give me some fun."
"Look at you!" Loki shouted. "You are exhausted. You are out of breath and sweating. You cannot possibly best me. You cannot possibly even challenge me; not in your condition. I refuse to fight with you while you are like this." Loki let go of Tony, and he ungracefully fell on his butt.
"God, I need a drink," Tony groaned, running his fingers through his hair.
Loki froze, staring at Tony. "Withdrawal..." he whispered.
"What are you going on about, now?"
"Yes, it must be. It makes the most sense..."
"Do you -"
"Shut up, Stark," Loki interrupted, pacing around the cell, trying to figure out what to do. He began counting with his fingers. "Get on the bed."
"You know, I'm really not into that kinda thing. Not with you, anyway."
Loki slowly turned his head to scowl at him. "Oh, get over yourself, and get on the bed. I would quite like to have you not die on me today."
"What?"
"It's nothing personal. I only prefer not have a body on my floor. That makes for a mess, a smell, questioning, blame, and further punishment... Besides, if you are here torturing me everyday, I only see it fit that I get to be the one to kill you."
Tony stared at him, then laughed. At least he knew he was safe from being handed off to aliens.
"Just get in bed and survive the night."
With a huff, Tony got up off the floor and crawled into bed. He laid on his back and stared at the ceiling, knowing he wouldn't get any sleep.

When morning came - or at least when the hallway lights came on - Tony shifted into a sitting position, with his back against the wall. He felt nauseous.
Moments later, Frigga arrived with food, as usual. Loki rose from his chair immediately, and walked over to her and began talking. Then, she disappeared after handing Loki one of the plates. He sat back down, and ate.
"Is this your plan?" Tony snapped.
Before anything more could be said, Frigga returned. "Tony... take this," she said, handing him a glass of something.
"What is it?"
"Mead. I am not supportive of this decision," Frigga stated as Tony took the glass, "but we do not know how to cure you. Loki insists that giving you this would be easiest, if not best."
"Just the slightest bit," Loki warned. "Ours is surely stronger than anything he has had on Midgard, and I do not want to deal with a drunken version of himself. Sober is quite bad enough."
Tony didn't pay attention to Loki's words. He merely sipped at the drink he was offered, and suddenly began to feel... buzzed. A mere sip of the alcohol was probably equivalent to a glass or two of his usual drink. It tasted better, too. "Damn, this is..." he trailed off, interrupted by whatever he ate last, resurfacing.
Loki quickly made a movement of his hand, he conjured up a bucket underneath Tony's mouth before he could make a mess.
"Well, that was unexpected..." Tony chuckled, feeling better.
Loki sighed, and leaned back in his chair.
Knowing he wouldn't be allowed anymore if he asked, Tony quickly took another sip of the Asgardian mead while he could, before Frigga took it away.
"That's enough," she said.
"Ugh, it's so good."
"Here," Frigga handed Tony a bag of almonds and a little sack of blueberries. "With the help of Thor, I have gathered some things that should be more familiar to you. These should help."
"I'm not hungry."
"Yes, that appears to be a symptom... please, eat them."
Tony sighed in defeat and grabbed a handful of blueberries, shoving them in his mouth.
"I have to go now," Frigga told Loki. "I'll be back later to check up on you two. Make sure he eats, and don't pick on him."
Loki rolled his eyes in response, not officially agreeing to anything.
When Frigga disappeared, Tony laughed, "mama's boy."
Loki glared at him, "I'm glad you're back to normal," he growled with heavy sarcasm.
"So tell me," Tony began, popping another blueberry in his mouth. "Why did you help me? Don't say it's because you want to kill me or you don't want a dead body laying around; I know you can easily fix any mess with your magic. I was really pushing you. There's no way you would just... not kill me."
"Frigga."
"Frigga?"
"When she came in and you were unresponsive, she began to worry, and made me agree to keep you well; in exchange for more books."
"Well that figures. What else is more important than your books?"
"Exactly," Loki muttered, agreeingly.
"That didn't stop you from hitting me, though," Tony grinned. He was strangely satisfied that he had gotten Loki so riled up; he considered it a win that Loki made an agreement, and Tony caused him to lose. At least now they'd both be bored to death.
Tony stood up, intending on doing something other than laying down, but the alcohol went to his head. He made a "whoo" noise as he felt just how much effect it had on him. He stumbled backwards, and fell back, sitting on the bed. Another sip and he'd probably be so drunk, he'd lose his mind. "So that was withdrawal, you say?"
"Yes, it seems that you get sick without your alcohol."
"Well, it is my best friend that I love dearly."
Loki said nothing, continuing to ignore him.
With a sigh, Tony fell backwards and stared at the ceiling. With his mind finally getting back to normal, he began to realize how much he depended on alcohol.
He had gone through withdrawal once before, and according to Jarvis, he had an odd selection of symptoms: shaking, anxiety, irritability, unable to think clearly, bad dreams, headache, sweating and rapid heart rate. This time, he seemed to have most of those, plus insomnia, loss of appetite and nausea.
The bad dreams and anxiety explained him having one of his worst nightmares to date, and being unable to think clearly explained how he couldn't overcome the dream for so long or rationalize with himself. He tried to reason with himself, but he ended up arguing with himself while he paced for who knows how many hours.
It never occurred to him that he really needed alcohol to solve his problems... He just needed it in the sense that he really wanted it; it was his answer to everything.
"So, you're not going to kill me?" Tony asked for clarification.
Loki snorted, "just because I have helped you does not mean that I have chosen not to kill you. I would gladly do so, and I am very tempted to find a way to make it so."
"I meant, you wouldn't send me off to that army of yours for them to, you know... do whatever they want?"
"That is not my army," Loki mumbled.
"And what does that mean?"
Loki shook his head, regretting his choice of words, "nothing. Nothing, forget it."
"But-"
"Forget it, Stark. I fail to see how it is your concern."
Tony groaned, and decided to give up and change the subject, "can I have some more of that mead stuff?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"You are already affected by it by a mere two sips. I do not wish to have you drunk."
"You should have some, too. You could use it; you really need to lighten up."
"Your absence is what lightens me up."
"Ah, damn. I guess it's too bad that I'm stuck here, then. We should probably get you a substitute pick-me-up, huh?"
"If you do not let it go, I will have to kill you sooner than later."
"I'd like to see you try," Tony grinned, hoping to get a bit of fun out of Loki. He really didn't want to go through another day of pure boredom.
Loki glanced up at Tony, tempted, and raised an eyebrow. "I... cannot."
"Why?"
"You know why. I gave word to keep you well," he grumbled, staring down at his book.
"Oh, you'd really do anything for those books, huh? Even though I'm causing you so much trouble. Poor little villain, has to take care of the hero. That can't be good for the ego, especially with all of these people to watch you be my nurse."
Loki looked up and observed all of the people in other cells. What would they think? He was going to lose his image.
"But I understand," Tony continued. "Books are important. Even though you already attacked me and may not even get those books, now... I get it. Books bring you entertainment, and sometimes, knowledge. You may lose your reputation for changing from bad to good; the God that people should respect will turn into a joke... but at least you'll have books. It's not like taking care of a mortal will lower what people think of you..."
Loki frowned, debating on what was more important: the only thing he had left: his image, or his books. "You are well, now..."
"Oh, but you don't want to take any chances, huh? Even if I did rip apart your book."
Loki huffed and stood up, walking towards Tony, who mirrored his actions.
"Don't hold back," Tony grinned. "I want fun."
"Why would I ever do that?"
"Well, you are a bit of a mama's b-" before Tony could finish, Loki punched him square in the face.
"Do not go there, again."
Tony stepped slightly to the right and grabbed the vase that held a bouquet of flowers on the table, and smashed it against the side of Loki's head. "What about there?"
In turn, Loki grabbed the coffee table, and swung it at Tony, who went flying to the far wall from the impact. "Would you mind if I went there? Or rather, if you went over there?"
"Hey, there 'ya go. You're gettin' the hang of it!"
"Hang of what, Stark?"
"Hitting like a guy," he laughed. "'Bout time you get rid of that girly swing of yours."
Loki growled and lunged towards Tony. He held one hand around Tony's throat and with his free hand, he grabbed a pillow from the bed and shoved it on Tony's face to suffocate him - if that was possible.
Tony squirmed underneath him. When he couldn't escape, he wrapped his legs around Loki, and swung himself over on top of him. "Aha!" he yelled victoriously, before throwing his fist into Loki's face. "You can't suffocate me. And I mean, really? Of all things to do, you chose that?"
Loki brought his knees up into Tony's stomach and shoved him off of him, then fixed the table with his magic and brought it over to him, throwing it downwards on Tony, smothering him.
Tony kicked the table off of him and jumped up to his feet, then repeated Loki's actions; grabbing the table and hitting Loki with it. Or, trying to. Loki caught the table and swung it, sending Tony flying in the wall.

The two continued fighting each other until the guards came in and separated them. Loki had been showing Tony just how much he annoyed Loki, and Tony was more focused on having some long overdue fun. There wasn't quite anything Tony would rather do than get a confidence boost by fighting and being unharmed by a God. Oh, it would take a long while before he stopped enjoying it.
The guards quickly chained Loki in his special cuffs, then threw on the simple handcuffs around Tony's wrists and led them out, towards the showers.
"Oh, it must be shower time," Tony laughed. "Why exactly am I in chains, anyways?"
"You are a prisoner."
"I'm human in a world of gods. What am I going to do?"
"You popped in here out of thin air and are in Thor's special team. You may be mortal, but you are certainly not the weakest of them."
Tony nodded, "I'm taking that as a compliment."
"Of course. You would," Loki's eyes rolled. "Though I am not quite sure why that is all they have put on you, with your current state. They must be trusting that you're weaker than you are."
"You don't think I'm that weak, huh?"
"I've seen stronger."
"Yeah, you're a God."
"I've seen stronger mortals."
As before, the guards unlocked Tony's cuffs and threw the pair in the room, locking it.
"Well, that was exhausting," Tony noted, referencing their fight. "I'm glad we decided to do that today, and not tomorrow."
Loki simply glared at him.
"It was fun. Most fun I've had since I've been here."
"Is fighting the only way you can have fun?"
"No, but, what else is there to do?"
"Undress me."
"I..." Tony blinked, confused. "Excu - I mean, what?!"
"You heard me."
"Yeah, I'm just not sure I heard correctly. Say again?"
"Undress me."
"... Are you kidding me?"
Loki shook his head.
"Um, why?"
"Look at where we are, Stark. Is clothing required?"
"Why do I have -"
Loki held his chained hands in the air, "does it look like I can do it myself?"
"How did you do it before I came?"
"Before... all of the prisoners were stripped. It was while we showered that our clothing got washed."
"Huh..."
"Well?"
"Well what?"
"Undress me, you dense déor!"
"Noo thank you. I only undress people in the shower if I'm going to -" he cut himself off, chuckling awkwardly. "Yeah, let's just, uh... You're a God. I'm pretty sure you can just poof your clothes off or something. You'll figure it out." With that being said, Tony disappeared behind one of the center walls and began stripping himself, starting a shower.
Loki, on the other side of the wall, struggled to get his clothes off. He got frustrated half way through and just tore his clothes off of his body. He'd have to fix that when he got back in his cell.
"Did you just rip your clothes?" Tony called from his side of the wall after hearing the sound of clothes being ripped.
"Yes," Loki growled.
"How exactly do you expect to get back to the cell, now?"
"I am not ashamed of my body as you mortals tend to be. I will walk."
"Damn. I thought I had a big ego."
"Stark, you are existing in two dimensions because one is not enough for your ego. You have no room to talk."
Changing the subject, Tony asked, "what happened to not wanting any showers?"
"I do not want your favours. This day, is my originally scheduled day when I shower."
"Whatever the difference is. A shower is a shower, stop trying to deny my help. You obviously need it."
"Silence yourself. This is not a place I'd wish to converse with you and your ignorant thoughts."
"Whatever," Tony muttered, continuing his shower.
When he was finished, he got dressed and laid on the bench that circled the perimeter of the room, making sure to keep hidden behind the wall.
When the forty minutes were up, Tony was cuffed by the guards again, and led out alongside Loki, who hadn't bothered with his clothes.
"Oh my god," Tony muttered when he noticed Loki's lack of clothes, "you're actually naked."
Loki gave him a slightly confused look, "did you not shower like that, as well?"
"Yeah, but I got dressed again."
"Stark, how easy do you think it is to undress with chains on your hands, feet and neck?"
Tony shook his head, "alright, point taken. You could at least carry your clothes to hide yourself."
"Why? It is not a secret, what I have."
Tony stared straight ahead, staying silent.
When they got back in the cell, Tony kept his back to Loki as their cuffs were removed. As soon as Loki was freed, he used his magic to return clothes to his body and sat down in his chair.
"Why didn't you do that in the first place?"
The last guard, who was locking their cell door, chuckled before leaving. Tony looked at Loki and raised an eyebrow.
"It is none of your concern," Loki answered, staring at the guard.
"You didn't even poof your clothes off... Why?"
"Because I do not want to. Shall we leave it at that?"
"Nope," Tony denied, sitting on the floor in front of Loki. "C'mon. You gotta tell me."
Loki stared at him. "I will tell you... if you tell me what that does," he pointed to Tony's arc reactor.
"Uhh... No."
"You considered it."
"That was a sarcastic 'uhh.'"
"That was a thoughtful consid-"
"Would you just answer me?" Tony growled, interrupting him.
Loki groaned, "I can't."
"Yes, you can. You just won't."
"No. I can't. That is why."
"What do you mean?"
"If you are too dense to figure it out, then you do not need to know."
Tony frowned, thinking. "I don't understand."
Loki sighed deeply, knowing that he wasn't going to be able to leave Tony's questions unanswered. "The cuffs; the chains..." Loki began, contemplating on whether or not to actually tell the truth.
Tony slowly nodded, waiting for him to continue.
"They cut... They cut off my magic."
"Where's it go? If I had another pair and connected them somehow, could I take it?"
Loki's head fell back, hitting the back of the chair, "you are an idiot. My magic does not go anywhere. It is suppressed in my body, kept dormant; unuseable."
"Damn..."
"Go to bed, Stark."
Tony glanced over at the bed, "don't... you want it?"
"I have grown accustomed to the chair."
Tony shrugged as he stood up, "alright." He jumped on the bed and threw the blankets over his body. "Uh, hey, Loki?"
"What?"
"Shouldn't you magic the room back to normal?"
Loki glanced around the room at all of the broken furniture. With an eye roll and a swift movement of his hand, he fixed everything.
"We should do that again, tomorrow."
"Do what?"
"Fight. It's fun. Especially when you get that worked up."
"I have been told that I have a deranged meaning of fun... yet, you think getting knocked around with a table is fun."
"What's it matter what I get hit with? It won't hurt me. Y'know, since I built it, I've always depended on my suit to help me out... but now my defense is stronger than ever, and I don't even have it!" Tony grinned. "Though it would be nice if my strength had a boost..."
Loki merely snorted in response. "Get to sleep."
"'Ya care about me gettin' rest, huh?" he winked.
"Not in the slightest," Loki muttered as he opened a book, "you are just more silent when you are unconscious, and that makes it so much easier to read."
"Eh, whatever," Tony grumbled, turning to get more comfortable.
It took a long while... but eventually, he drifted off to sleep as Loki finally, silently read his book.


Just in case anyone isn't familiar with how withdrawal works, I thought I should clarify why Tony gets back to normal so fast;
Basically, (as I've heard) when one goes through withdrawal and they drink, it'll put off the effects of withdrawal, and they'll be 'normal' for a while. I figure, since Asgardian mead is more than likely stronger than Earth's alcohol, it'll effect Tony quicker, damn near instantly 'fixing' him.

-
"Undress me, you dense déor!"
'déor' translates as animal/beast.