The two spend the majority of the day in Tony's lab. To his surprise, Loki had been very interested in his work and even helped him a little with the new house they were building together. A guard had come in at one point to ask why Tony was shirking his duties, but when Tony had replied to tell his father he was keeping his promise to Loki, he hadn't heard any more from him since. So that was good.
Tony was about halfway through building the house when he glanced up and noticed how late in the day it was.
"Damn, time flies huh..." He flipped up his goggles and raised an eyebrow questioningly at Loki. "So, you wanted a ride?"
"I'm not sure I could hold onto your suit very well."
"I'll hold onto you tight." Tony smiled reassuringly and placed down his tools.
Loki grinned his squirrely grin and stood. "I would like that very much."
Tony was hit with another wave of adoration as Loki did that, and turned away from him with a curse in his mind. All day he'd found that most things the creature did were adorable. He was afraid he was actually starting to like it, which was weird, seeing as when they'd first met he wanted nothing to do with him.
"C'mon then." He said as he walked up to a row of cased suits. The one named 'Mark V' was opened and Tony stepped inside it to put it on. Once completely encased, he walked back to Loki and held out his hand again. "Ready?"
"I think so." Loki said, sitting on Tony's hand, which circled around him tightly, but not so hard it hurt.
"Hang on then." Tony said before a secret pathway leading upwards opened behind them, and Tony flew straight up it- coming out into the open air above the castle moments later.
"Woah." Loki leaned further into Tony, absolutely mesmerised by the view. It was beginning to get dark and he could see the lights in the palace and in the far away cottages, and the reflection of the moon in the lake by his old tree. It really was breathtaking.
"Like it?" Tony called through the faceplate, his voice sounding slightly mechanical. He was glad it hid his expression- he was smiling as he watched the awe in the squirrels face, and that was very uncharacteristic of him.
"It's beautiful."
"It certainly it cu- I mean, cool." Tony blushed at his near slip up. Was he really about to use a chat up line on a damn squirrel? Well, he only thought it was cute for an animal- Tony wasn't into that kind of thing. Pervert he may be sometimes, but beastialist he wasn't. "Let's go higher." He said, before telling Jarvis to put power into the thrusters and climbing slightly higher. He moved forward as he ascended, flighty a course over the forest.
"Please don't drop me." Loki tried not to shut his eyes and found himself gripping the metal fingers tighter.
"Only if you piss on my suit." Tony joked.
"I am not scared." Loki snapped, holding on tighter still
"'Course not." Tony grinned, doing a barrel roll mid-air.
"Putmedownputmedownputmedownputmedown!"
Tony laughed, but then descended carefully until then came to a stop on the top of a large hill that overlooked most of the Kingdom.
"You fucking maniac!" Loki shouted, jumping off Tony and onto the grass. "I mean- it's alright for you, you're in a metal suit. You're not trusting your life to some adrenaline junkie maniac!" He flailed his arms around wildly, gesticulating his point.
The faceplate flipped up to reveal an amused Tony behind it. "C'mon, it wasn't like I was going to drop you, you were perfectly safe. And besides, you were the one who requested a flight in the first place.
"Not a fucking loop the loop joy ride. I was thinking a nice gentle ride, experiencing the freedom of flight not certain death!"
"Well you should've known by the way I crashed into your tree that I wasn't exactly known for being a safe guy." Tony placed a hand on his hip and raised an eyebrow down at him.
Loki sighed heavily, flopping down on the grass. "Yesterday I was just a squirrelly squirrel, living a quiet life in my tree, collecting acorns and burying things, and doing generally squirrelly things. And then you showed up."
"Well, sorry for putting a kink in your perfect squirrel life." Tony said, a little more spiteful that he'd aimed for and regretted it straight away.
"Oh?" Loki stood and glared at him. With the height difference it really had little effect, but had Tony cowering back anyway. "And you, in your pretty little palace and all the things you said to me last night. Pfff." He turned away. "I pity you."
"You pity me?" Tony answered incredulously, the barked a short laugh. "Oh that's priceless, I don't need pity from a woodland creature who doesn't understand anything that I have to go through on a daily basis!"
"Huh." Loki sat down again on the grass, still not facing Tony. "No, because that's got to be so much worse I mean, the warm beds, the hot baths, the horrible food they make you eat." He laughed loudly and humourlessly. "Do you know how many ways you can make nuts taste? One. Of nuts. And in the winter? We don't have maids to put hot water bottles in our beds or put the fire on. And what I said about not having to wear clothes? You think fur is enough to keep you warm at night? Oh no, I have to gorge myself on nuts and nuts and horrid nuts to get myself fat enough that the fat keeps me warm. Which it doesn't. And do you think lakes have heated water or soap? Or that I'm not woken every five minutes in the night to a bird shouting or an owl trying to eat me. And every time I need to use a bathroom, I have to stick my butt out the edge of the tree and just let it fall on the floor. And you think I have a family? A social life?" Loki was angry now, and on the verge of tears if he wasn't crying already.
Tony stared wide eyed as Loki ranted then looked down at the ground guiltily. Despite his father's hatred of him, his life wasn't bad at all. Like Loki had said the night before, it could be worse. Even though Tony guessed that Loki hadn't known any way of life differently before he'd come to his palace, Tony still felt sorry for him, after hearing him pour his heart out.
"I'm... I'm sorry." He said quietly, and then bent down to sit next to Loki on the grass.
"'S not your fault." He said, comparatively quietly to his rant before.
"Yes it is. I provoked you, deliberately pissed you off because it was going so well..." It was Tony's turn to avoid looking at him. "Like I always seem to do."
"It's fine. I don't really help. I just... Don't like spinning." He smiled again, looking up at Tony.
Tony looked down at him and smiled kindly. "Noted." He said, and then reached down to gently stroke Loki on the head. "Hey, have you ever tried peanut butter?"
"Peanut what?"
"Peanut butter. You never had it?" Tony raised an eyebrow.
"You can make peanuts into butter?" Loki actually turned to face him now, eyes still a little moist so it looked like they were sparkling a little.
"Yeah, and it tastes different to what you said- all nuts are the same? Nope. I'll get you some later if you'd like?"
Loki's eyes lit up. "Thank you. Y'know, you're not actually so bad."
Tony's eyebrow raised but he smiled and laughed a little. "You too, little guy."
"Can we just wait here a little just a little bit longer? I haven't been up here before."
"Sure." Tony said, and then lay on his back with his arms rested behind his head, and his face staring up at the sky. "Hey look, the stars are starting to come out."
"But the stars are the same wherever you look. Look at all the cottages with all the families gathered round the fire. That's what they're doing in every single house with a light in it. Look at all of them over there." Loki pointed to the centre of the town, where the houses were packed so closely together it looked like a swarm of fireflies. "The palace, it looks so cold." There were barely and lights in the palace windows; there weren't many windows at all. Without the sun to reflect off the stone, the moon cast harsh ethereal shadows over it and made it look more like something from a horror story than a fairy tale.
But Tony's gaze returned to the sky. He had sat up to see what Loki had pointed out, but now sat with one knee bends and his elbow rested upon it. "Another dream of mine is to go up there someday... My suits- they're not built for that kind of travel, but one day..." He trailed off as his eyes darted slowly from star to star.
Loki glanced up at him, watching as the stars seemed to reflect in his eyes as he looked up in awe at them. "Yeah... Just don't take me along too."
Tony chuckled, and then reached down to pat Loki's head again.
AN: One more chapter to go :O
