Chapter 4: Falling Slowly

This strange man, he pulled up a chair and sat down, "Hello" he said to the prince. "Fancy meeting you here, hm?" His smile had turned into a frown the more he looks at Loki.

"I-I'm sorry, do I know you?" Loki stuttered as he forced himself to look upon the strange man in front of him.

The scientist gave a dark chuckle as he shook his head not believing any of this. Tony grabbed Loki sharply up by his collar lifting him a few good inches off the ground, which was pretty good for their height differences, "Give up this fucking charade. Don't play stupid with me!" He gripped clenched harder. "You should know fucking well who I am!" Loki's eyes grew wide in fear.

The people in the restaurant all turned their heads as Tony had raised his voice all curious as to what was happening, he hadn't seem to notice their stares. Loki had though, and he didn't like the extra attention towards him, he gulped hard that you could hear it. The prince had a slight tremor as he brought his hand up to Tony's wrist to let him down. "P-please put m-me down…" He pleaded.

That was when Jane had to step in, "Excuse me, Mr. Stark, but I would like to have a talk with you before you do something you regret, alright?" She put on a sweet face, but her voice dripping with pure venom as she spoke, and well, Loki couldn't blame her.

After she said that Tony had thrown Loki to the ground with some great force, "Fine…" He said snarling down in the direction of the man on the floor. He stuck his hands into his pocket when he and Jane went and exited from the room and now into the hallway that contained the bathrooms.

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Tony took out his hand from his jean pockets and crossed them over his chest, one leg further in front of him as he glared at Thor's girlfriend, "Explain," he spat out at her.

He watched her shift from one foot to the other, when Jane finally opened her mouth she answered with, "Look, I don't understand your quarrel with him, but he doesn't even remember who or where he is," She looked extremely pissed off. "But, I'm not going to let you bully him for something he does not even recall doing to you, or whatever." She pointed her finger at Tony's face and he back up a bit with wide eyes. "If he was like a past whatever you do in your free time, now is the right time to forget about it because he isn't going to remember what he had done," Tony snorted at that, like he would sleep with that son of a bitch… not that he didn't have a nice body or anything. 'Stop thinking, Tony' He mentally slapped himself for saying that.

"Right now, he is Tom, no family, no memories that we know of, so he has a clean slate, and if you do something to corrupt him other than help retain his memories then you can leave this restaurant now and never see him again, got it?" Jane had scolded him.

He recoiled a bit and then dropped his hands to let the sag down at his side, now he understood why Point Break is dating her, not just for looks…

Tony sighed and nodded his head, she was right and he knew it. "Alright…" He let out a hateful huff of hot air. Then without warning Jane had pulled him back to the table and he noticed that Loki's shoulders where hunched and tense when he heard them coming back.

Tony scratched his head, he doesn't remember Loki being scared, in matter of fact he even saw the fear in his green eyes… that was when he caught himself, he doesn't remember Loki having green eyes in the first place. Didn't he have blue? Ah, fuck it, now wasn't the time to recall the wonderful date he had with the window and nearly cheating on it with the cement down below.

It doesn't matter, he just knew that Loki was just playing them and waiting for the right time to strike. Tony can just feel it in his gut, or maybe that was just the bad food he ate last night. He can't tell anymore.

Tony placed a rough hand onto Loki's shoulder, he made the boy jump from surprise and was expecting Tony to pull him up by his shirt again. "Look, I thought you were someone else, and well… this is as close to an apology as I'm used to give, because I don't do feelings," he once again scratched his head. He held out his hand towards Loki, 'why the hell am I being nice to him?'

He was playing close attention to Loki when he used his hand to wipe his eyes. What the hell? Wait… was he? Was he crying? This whole scene seemed very surreal, the younger prince took a hold of his hand with a shaky grip, "I-I'm Tom." He answered to Tony in his softest voice he could pull off. The scientist rolled his eyes pointed to himself and with a cocky smirk, "I'm Tony Fucking Stark Genius, Billionaire, Playboy, and Philanthropist at your service." He laughed at that having to use it again.

Loki tilted his head to the side, "I um… don't get it, what does that all mean?" Now, that took Tony by surprised seeing how colorful Thor's vocabulary is and while his last conversation with Loki was full of giant words.

"Um…" He was really stuck now, maybe he really did… No! That is what he wants everyone to think. Fuck. He was so conflicted on everything about this mysterious god, besides, right now is the time of day where he says things he knows he will defiantly regret soon after.

"Hey, I was wondering, you just came out of the hospital, right?" he awaited Loki to nod and continued on with his horrible decision, "You probably have no place to stay, at the moment I believe." He stated, "Would you like to stay at my Malibu mansion? It's not that far from here to be honest." Fuck, did he just seriously suggest that? What the hell was he thinking? Did he have a death wish? I hope he rejects me, or so help me god who I don't believe in… Then Jane sat down next to Loki, "He would love to live with you Mr. Stark," She answered with a big smile.

"Also, if you don't mind me coming along, I would enjoy borrowing your lab to do some research, and the whatnot." Tony swore in his head, after his offer, he can't reject one of his teammate's girlfriends… "I guess that is alright, just have to set up a couple of rooms for the both of you," he exclaimed very dryly. He let go of a sigh, "Well, I have a conference…" he looks to his watch and is about 10 minutes late already, "Right about now, but I'm sure they can wait longer, I am very busy right now," he motions to Loki, Jane, and the restaurant."This is more important than some stupid meeting of boring people who want to kiss my ass." He shrugs.

"I sure am not complaining, I do have a really nice, perky, tan ass." He looked back at the prince, was that a blush? No, it's a bit warm in here, yup that's it.

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Loki had a slight blush on his face, did he actually find this strange man attractive? Nope, he did not. Not. At. All... He looked down at his hands playing with the hem of his shirt, once he noticed he had stopped and placed his thin alabaster fingers onto the table a started to drum roll them. He played a steady beat on the table and started to hum along.

He started to get a bit embarrassed at this silence, so he excused himself to go and use the bathroom. Loki had stood up from the table and he studded over to the restrooms and gladly he found it was a one person stall. The prince closed the door and then locked it, he placed his head against the cold wooden frame. "I don't even know the man, but now I'm going to be living with him… What the hell is a mansion anyways?" He punched the wall a couple of times, enough to make them sting and bleed a bit. He flexed his fingers, he creased his eyebrows at the pain, he underestimated his strength and hurt his hand a bit more than expecting.

Loki shook out his hand and ran them under the cold water. He felt a bit more relaxed now after that incident, beside the after sting of the cuts. But he does feels as if he could go back out there and talk to them once again.

Besides, other people might need to use the restroom as well. He leaves the room and makes his way back to the table and let out a big sigh before sitting down in his seat once more."I'm sorry about that," he apologized.

Jane gave him a warm smile, "You can't help needing to use the bathroom, besides we were just about to order anyways," Loki nodded in acceptance. He couldn't help, but gaze at Tony who was staring at his now badly bruised hand and quickly placed his it under the table and into his lap with his other one to cover the bruises and cuts and take it out of eyesight.

But of course, Loki didn't miss the raised eyebrow from the man sitting next to him, he swallowed hard and hoped to god he wouldn't say anything to Jane, or at least yet.

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After finish eating

"So, Tom," he hissed Loki looked up at the man, "What do you like to do for fun?" The boy gave a confused expression with a little tilt to his head, "I'm sorry, I don't quite understand your question…" he looked a bit embarrassed to not know what he was trying to ask. "Oh, erm… How about," he thought again. "What do you like to pass the time of day?" The prince mouthed an 'Ooo,' "I like to read, and Jane got me many books to read during my time in the hospital, they were splendid." He had told Tony, and nodded. 'Make sense, Thor did always say he like to obtain his knowledge, even if it was useless information.'

Loki gave a subtle smile, not of craziness, but of pure happiness. "Is your face ok?" is what Tony would have liked to say to the man, but he probably would get another lecture, or the smile would disappear. Not that he cared about Loki smiling or anything… Nope, he didn't look cute smiling. Never going to admit to it.

Well whatever, he paid for their meal and all was all. "To get to my house you will have to follow these directions," he had handed them a map to his house and his phone number. Loki gave him a nod and handed the map to Jane, because he does not know how to drive a car, nor read a map of any sorts.

When Loki was leaving, Tony couldn't help, but say to himself. "He may be evil, but Daaamn he has a nice ass…" The inventor face palmed, he actually would have rathered that he said it in his head, not out loud. He then, as well walked outside, took out his suit, activated and let it form to his body amazing the people who were watching him. He shook his head to get himself back into his game and took off in the direction of his conference which he is now… "Jarvis, the time?" He had asked his A.I.

'Sir, it is about 7:00' he had replied.

"Well, how 'bout that? I'm early." He laughed to himself and continued on to his destination. Tony once again took off his suit once making it to his conference room and having it fold up to a suitcase. "Let's get to business, Bitches." He had said before sitting down in his seat.

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In the car Loki had many, many questions to ask Tony, like: How did he know him? What was his real name? Where was he from? Does he have any family looking for him? And the big question, what did he do to make Tony attack him? Now that was what was really bothering him at the moment. The prince was pretty sure that people don't just go attacking people without a reason, or maybe he was just being as optimistic as a mere child.

The truth would only hurt right? Any truth hates to be revealed, but if it wasn't revealed, and found out in the worst possible way, it could hurt even more than it originally intended. He didn't want that, he wanted the truth, whatever it may be, to be as painless as he could make it. Please.

The ride was relatively silent other than the slight sound of the radio on in the background and the hum from the truck they were riding comfortably in. Loki slowly, but surely closed his eyes just to rest them a bit, he could hear the radio and maybe a little bit of talking from Jane, but ended up drifting completely off and sleeping all the way to the mansion.

There was a slight tap on the shoulder and in a hushed tone he had heard, "Tom, we're here, time to wake up," the young prince heard Jane's soft voice going into his ears, the boy's eyes fluttered open. The black hair man's eyes, the unnatural vibrant green, shown through his eyelids when he awoke. He had a tired haze in them and wanted to do anything to just sleep for a while longer.

Loki lifted up his head and looked at Jane, "Hmm…?" he had then yawned. He looked around the car and stretched his arms out and one long leg at a time when he got out, she smiled. "I had said that we are here.'

Jane brought him up the house, and he got a better look at the house, he was expecting smaller, but this… this was as big, or maybe even bigger than the hospital he was in, it was… it was impressive he had to say.

Loki walked up to the front door and opened it up very slowly, very cautiously, it made a slight creaking sound when he got it open to full capacity. He got one foot in the door before he was all the way inside of the living room.

He walked into the house with Jane in tow behind him. The prince walked slowly around the house and scouting around not knowing most of this stuff was or how they worked. Loki was about to touch a panel on the wall, it was bright and colorful and he really wanted to know what it did. The prince reached out his hand to touch it, he was almost there when a loud noise sounded and scared the shit out of him. He fell to his butt and heard a noise come from out of the air.

"I'm sorry sir, but you are not allowed in there, it's Sir's orders" said the disembodied voice.

Loki jumped up to his two feet and looked around the room in a sort of battle stance, where he learned that was beyond him, "Who goes there!" He yelled in frustration.