"And now I'm bored with you all. Go, be free, make love, burn down a building. Except for you, Parker. You still amuse me."

"Joy of joys." Peter rolls his eyes, along with the rest of the class. Those who had made in this far into the semester were use to Tony's eccentricities by this point. "Did you get a chance to look at my proposal?" Peter asks, barely contained excitement in his voice. He reminds Tony of a puppy.

"Office. We'll talk while we walk," Tony commands, pointing to the door where the next class stares at them as they wait to file in. Peter follows him obediently as Tony heads off for his office. "Yeah, I did," he finally says. He glances over at Peter, who looks equal parts curious and nauseous. He smirks and decides to put the kid out of his misery. "It looks interesting kid. Ambitious, but I think you can pull it off."

Peter relaxes, his nerdy smile back in place. "So I have the go ahead?"

"Well, as flattered as I am that you asked me, I'm only able to advise on the equipment you'll need to make, not the main part. Why didn't you ask Banner or Connors to be your advisor for this?"

Peter shifts uncomfortably as they head into the liberal arts building. Tony has the joy of his class being on the opposite side of campus from his office. "There's, ah, history with Professor Connors, and I've never had a class with Professor Banner before."

"Really? You should, Bruce is great."

Peter doesn't answer. He suddenly freezes, his eyes staring forward in horror before they flick over to Tony.

Tony's brows furrow in confusion before looking over to see what has Peter going freaky. A second later he wishes he hadn't. Victor von Doom, Philosophy Professor, and the sight of him makes Tony's blood boil, stands outside his office talking to someone. His hand rests lightly on the other's wrist in a gesture that borders on intimacy. Doom takes a step to the side and Tony is able to see that someone is Loki. There's a smile on his estranged husband's face as he laughs at something Doom said. He looks so happy, and Tony feels a flash of jealousy that he is not responsible for it.

Doom walks backwards away from Loki, a smile on his face as well. "Dinner?" he calls back. It's an offer that has been given countless times, and denied each time.

But Loki catches sigh of Tony. Maybe that's why he says it, Tony doesn't know, but this time Loki accepts. "Pick me up a six. You're taking me to Aliena's," he demands.

Doom seems surprised for a moment before he gives an elegant bow. "As you wish." He walks off to his next class, ignoring Tony when he passes him.

Loki, on the other hand, holds Tony's gaze for a long minute, the glint of hate obvious in his eyes. Tony can't make himself look away. With a rather smug tilt of his head Loki turns away, answering pleasantly the summons of one of his students.

"Professor Stark?" Peter asks tentatively.

Tony shakes his head, again pointing the way to his office. "Let's go hash out the rest of these details. I'll give Bruce a call and rope him in on this as well."

/

"Tony, where are you going?"

"Dinner," Tony answers Bruce while straightening his tie.

"You seem to have forgotten that we were supposed to talk about the simulation tonight, even though I reminded you when you called me about Parker's project this afternoon."

"Seems I have." He doesn't stop dressing. In face he grabs his wallet and heads for the door. Bruce stands in the way looking less than pleased. "If you want to talk you'll just have to come with me."

Bruce sighs, but moves out of the way and follows Tony to his P.T. Cruiser. He knows there's no use in trying to stop him, not if he wants to get Tony to talk about the simulation tonight. "Why the sudden urge for dinner?"

Tony turns on the car before answering. "Loki's having dinner with Doom tonight."

"Oh my god, Tony! Are you seriously stalking you husband?"

"No, no, of course not…maybe a little bit. But you can't expect me to sit back and not do anything!"

"I expected you not to piss off Loki, not if you are serious about getting him back," Bruce counters.

"He's not going to be pissed if he doesn't see me."

"I think you've forgotten who you're dealing with," Bruce grumbles, obviously not having high hopes for tonight. He opens the glove compartment, stealing one of the ties Tony keeps there because he never seems to have one when he needs it. Luckily for Bruce he is one of those professors who wears a suit to work, otherwise he would never be allowed into Aliena's. "From your appearance I'm guessing suit and tie are required."

"Yep, Aliena's. Loki demanded it."

Bruce does not comment that it is the same restaurant Tony took Loki for their first date. It's not a coincidence that Loki demanded to be taken there tonight. Instead he asks, "You made a reservation?"

"Had to sweet talk Luke, but yeah, he got us in."

"'Us?'" Bruce rolls his eyes at Tony's grin. "I should have known you didn't forget after all. You knew I'd come with you."

"I like to think I'm clever."

"Manipulative," Bruce shoots back.

Tony just shrugs as he pulls up in front of the restaurant, handing his keys of to the valet before walking inside with Bruce. The maitre d bows and shows them to a table almost as soon as Tony and Bruce walk through the doors. The table is off to the side, Aliena's most hidden spot, which isn't usually desirable since people came to Aliena's to be seen. Tony acts completely natural, situating himself so that Loki cannot see his husband if he happens to glance up, no matter where he ends up sitting in the restaurant. Bruce has given up sighing, he would have been doing so all night otherwise, and sits across from Tony.

"This is not going to end well," Bruce remarks as he picks up his menu.

"Cheer up, Brucie. Look on the bright side."

"There's a bright side to me helping you stalk your husband?"

"Of course there is. No matter what happens at least you get a free meal out of it."

"Damn right I do," Bruce mutters, burying his nose in the pages of the menu.

At the same time their waiter finishes taking their order another is showing Loki and Victor to their own table. "They're here!" Tony hisses.

"Why do you sound so surprised?"

"I was kind of hoping Loki would have laughed and slammed the door in his face."

"While I can definitely picture Loki doing that, you obviously didn't think that would happen considering you dragged me out here."

Tony slouches in his chair, going into a full pout. "Like I said, hoping."

The conversation takes a pause when the waiter returns with their drinks (nothing alcoholic, Tony is never doing that again). Bruce uses it to his advantage in order to change the subject. "You know we're still going to talk about the simulation, right? This doesn't get you out of it."

"That is why I brought you." But Tony's attention is not on Bruce. It is on the back of Loki's head, Loki who is saying something that is making Victor grin before laughing outright. Tony feels anger settle in the pit of his stomach.

"Tony, seriously talk to me. You're not going to do any good by charging over there and trying to break them up."

Tony forces his attention to shift back to Bruce. After a moment he relents. "What'd you want to know, Brucie?"

"The entire experiment was to connect memory and subconscious so a person could remember their dreams. The cure for cancer, solutions to the energy crisis, world hungry, all of it could be in our subconscious just out of reach."

"Bruce," Tony cuts him off, "you gave me this shpeal when you asked me to volunteer."

"Right, sorry." Bruce always has a hard time hiding his passion for an experiment once someone, especially Tony, gets him going about it. "What do you remember?"

The engineer takes a sip of water in order to stall, his eyes flickering back to Loki for a moment. "I lived a completely different life," he answers slowly, "forty years of being a different Tony Stark."

Bruce takes a sharp intake of breath. "Tony, that's-"

"Amazing? Insane? Shit Bruce, I don't know where any of those ideas came from. I mean okay, every little boy dreams of being a superhero, but I was a cooler version of Batman."

"I think you should start from the beginning."

Tony wastes time playing with his napkin, thanking the waiter when his food is placed in front of him, Bruce is patient. The great thing about Bruce is that the man knows just how much to push. Tony had never told anyone all of it when he was in the simulation, not Pepper, not Rhodey, not Loki. He had barely spoken about it since waking up. But it isn't real, so why does it take him so long to open his mouth? He has to, he needs to.

The story comes out slowly: his father, partying for decades, Afghanistan and Stane, Iron Man, Vanko, the Avengers, and Loki. Tony tells Bruce all of it. He even forgets why they had come out in the first place for awhile.

It all comes crashing back when he looks over Bruce's shoulder to see Victor nodding toward their table. Then Loki is turning, his face twisted by barely contained anger. His eyes lock onto Tony's. He has been caught and there is no denying it. So Tony lifts his glass in a mock toast to the two, not even flinching as Loki's eyes harden with hate.

/

When he wakes up this time it is Rhodey hovering over him. Tony knows he is back because this Rhodey is not in a wheelchair. "Hey, buddy, good to see you awake."

"Whooo," Tony cheers weakly, his voice hoarse from being unused for so long. "What'd I miss?"

"Pepper's been keeping your company afloat, although the stock has dropped since news of your hospitalization leaked out. Fury has, for the moment stolen, me to help out with the Avengers. Clint broke his arm a week ago, so he's out of commission for awhile."

Tony winces at that. The Avengers down by two is a very bad position to be in, but he's not so worried about them with Rhodey. The Colonel knows how to take care of himself and those he fights with, Tony wouldn't have given him the War Machine armor if he didn't believe that.

"Rhodey, I've got to tell you something."

Rhodey's brows furrow. "What is it?"

Tony reaches out, searching for the other man he knows is in the room. He knows he's been by his side this whole time, although if he calls Loki out on it the god will say he is protecting his interest, and not because Tony has made him sentimental. Loki's invisible hand gasps his, a look of concern on his face. "We can trust him, babe. Need him to know."

Rhodey looks completely confused. Tony is sure he is wondering if his friend has finally lost his marbles. Loki gives him a long stare. He's probably wondering the same thing as Rhodey. "I probably don't have a lot of time here." It is a low blow, and Tony feels his gut twist at the pain in Loki's eyes, but it gets the Trickster to nod. A green shimmer of magic and Rhodey is able to see the god as well.

Rhodey jumps out of his chair, eyes wide. "What is he doing here?"

"Rhodey, calm down. Please, just listen to me." That catches the Colonel's attention. Tony never says please. "I love him, Rhodey. If anything happens-"

Loki's hand tightens around his own. "That will not happen."

Tony lifts the god's hand, brushing his lips over the back of it. "Let's be real here, Dasher. This isn't the time to lie to ourselves."

"Tony," Rhodey interrupts, casting a side long look at Loki, "what is going on?"

"I-" No, no, no! The darkness is coming again. It swallows and chokes him, smothering him and dragging him down. But there is something he needs to tell Rhodey, to tell Loki. Goddammit, he cannot keep doing this to Loki. "I love you." He has no idea if he says the words out loud or not.

Tony wakes up on that horrible couch. Seriously, he needs to find an axe.

Bruce wanders into the living room from the kitchen, a cup of tea in hand. He hands it to Tony as he sits next to him. "I think there's something else we need to talk about."

Tony remains silent, staring down at the floor, the cup passing from hand to hand.

"Tony, I care about you. Let me help."

He sighs and downs the cup, the hot liquid scalding hot against his tongue and down his throat. "Tell you what, help me destroy this couch and I'll tell you."

Bruce is blank as he thinks it over for a moment, then nods. "You get the axe, I'll get the goggles. First rule of science is safety first after all."

/

I've figure out that there will be nine chapters in total. So that means we're almost half way through this fic already.