The meeting with the military had ended on a particularly sour note. After about an hour of "Mr. Stark! The Ironman weapon is a liability and a danger to all of the citizens of the United States. It will always be, until you relinquish control of it and hand it over to the military." Which was met with a resounding, "first of all it's a suit. Get the name right. Second, a liability? Please. I have saved more lives in this suit then your entire army has. Finally, I made it, therefore it is mine, so if you try to remove my property from my possession, I will sue you for every penny you have" from Tony, every one was angry.
He left the meeting feeling angry and slightly more self destructive than usual. Pulling out his handheld, he began typing.
" Jarvis."
"Yes sir?"
"What is the world record for number of alcoholic beverages consumed?"
"Sir, The current record is 48, but it would be imprudent-"
"48? Well let's see if I can crush that one."
Three hours later, Bruce carried Tony back to his bedroom. He dropped him on the bed and stopped to shake his head in amazement before exiting the room.
" Christ, Tony. 49? How are you even alive?"
Tony tossed and turned violently in his bed, wrapping the covers around him. His body was covered in a sheen of sweat, which, when coupled with the room's freezing temperature made him shiver furiously.
The knife cut into the man's back as he writhed in agony. There was scream after horrendous scream. Loki looked so vulnerable, chained to the stone cell wall, but his beautiful face was a mask of uncaring beauty. The captive gods lips were a bloody red and swollen from biting back some of his pained cries. His brilliant green eyes were full of defiance and anger. He was not broken. The man with the black eyes kept cutting, making intricate and terrible patterns in streaks of crimson. There was blood, too much blood. He couldn't die.
Not like this.
Not like this.
A small hand gently shook him, and his eyes flew open only to be stared back at by six pairs of concerned ones. His fellow avengers and his faithful assistant stood around his bed in pajamas, but they all seemed to have the same shocked expressions. He closed his eyes again, as if he was tying to fall asleep again. Trying to forget everything.
"Tony?" came a soft, calm voice. " Tony… are you alright?" Natasha. " Tony. I need you to answer me. What's wrong?" He stared at her blankly, still recovering from the horror of the dream.
" Tony, we all got a message from Jarvis." Steve said, sounding worried. A small pause followed.
"It had video of you screaming your head off and thrashing in your sleep." It was a firmer sounding voice this time. Bruce.
"It was bad dude.. Like, really bad." Clint.
"Tony how long has this been going on?" Natasha again. This was only followed by another blank stare and complete silence in the room.
" I'm only asking you because you said 'again'. You were yelling, "No don't hurt him again. Not Again. He'll die." And then you started screaming."
Then it struck Tony. They meant his dreams. He had been yelling as he watched Loki tortured brutally over and over again by the man with black eyes. He took a deep breath before he began, pulling himself up into a sitting position.
" A month. Every single night for the past four weeks I've been having them."
Silence.
It was as if someone had pressed the pause button on a remote, and they were now frozen in time. No one moved. No one spoke or even breathed.
" Tony stark son… What happens in these dreams? In Asgard it is believed that dreams are windows to other worlds, Loki was always good at glimpsing things in his dreams that were of importance." At the mention of Loki, Tony flinched (it did not go unnoticed). The Thunder Gods voice was unusually low, and Tony saw that he looked tired, almost… strained. Interesting, Thor didn't call Loki his brother as he always used to; even while Loki was killing thousands Thor had still called him brother.
By now, He had collected himself and begun to plan out his next move. Thor knew something and Tony was damn well going to find out what it was.
He was about to speak when he heard another voice. Pepper had been standing at the edge of the group regarding him thoughtfully, but he could see the worry in her eyes. When she spoke he tone was calm but firm. Peppers using her CEO voice. I'm screwed.
"Tony. I want you to see a therapist. No no no. Don't look at me like that. S.H.E.I.L.D has already agreed to pay for the sessions; they actually suggested it after they saw the tape. Your first one will be at two this afternoon so-"
"But Pepper I-" he began but was quickly cut off.
"No buts' Tony. You need help. I know you, and I can't think of anytime I've seen you this bad except for when you were dying." She looked genuinely scared.
"OK! Fine. I'll do your stupid counseling thingy! Now get out of my room all of you. Except for you "lightning guy" I need to talk to you."
The others looked a little confused but left anyway. As they filed out he could hear whispered conversations coming from the hallway. Well it didn't matter now, so he let them talk. He didn't begin speaking until he was sure that the rest of the team was out of earshot.
"Thor." He started slowly before getting straight to the point. " What happened to your brother? I mean after you took him back home to Asgard."
The God of Thunder froze, staring at Tony, and something in his face seemed to harden.
"He deserved his fate. He brought it upon himself and so he will suffer it." His voice was flat and completely devoid of emotion.
" How could you say that… He's your brother Thor." Tony said voice raised, almost yelling at the God. He was angry.
Silence.
" He was given to Thanos. Loki never was my brother and he will never be. Now he is nothing more than a slave. Asgard is not his home, he no longer matters " With that Thor turned on his heel and left the room.
Tony just sat there unmoving, still in shock because of his teammate's words.
You disgust me Thor.
For the next five minutes he contented himself by throwing pillows at the door which the thunder god had just use to leave.
"Damn I need a drink."
A few hours later saw, Tony Stark lying down on a small leather couch being stared down at by a very old looking psychiatrist. Pepper had practically press ganged him into the car when the time came for him to leave for the session, Natasha and Clint had even stood there looking menacing in a very good attempt to stop him from running. Now he was in the minimally furnished oak paneled office, which someone had decided should contain no other colors but brown and forest green.
"Tell me Mr. Stark, why are you here?"
This statement was followed by a loud snort, from Tony.
"Cut the crap doc. You know why I'm here. S.H.E.I.L.D. gave you the forms; you know what to do, hopefully… So hurry up and fix me because I actually do have other things to do."
The doctor, who was wearing, what Tony thought to be the most ridiculous looking sweater in existence (seriously? It was cotton candy pink with giant cats sewn all over it), gave him a baleful look.
" No Mr. Stark, What I want to know is why are you here and not at a party or working on something new for your Iron man suit? What do you dream about? What could be so terrible that it has you falling apart at the seams? You have to tell me, because I can't just 'fix you'. It won't get better unless you want it to." He attempted to give her an uninterested look, but she stared him down.
With a theatrical sigh, Tony reached down into his bag and pulled out a bottle of Smirnoff (he suspected that he had Natasha to thank for that little bit of kindness), which he unscrewed and downed about half of before he began to speak. He offered the bottle to her, but she refused and shot him an irritated look.
"Well.." he began. "It all started with an insanely sexy, psychotic Norse god wearing allot of tight black leather."
A/N: Tony in counseling! Because I just couldn't help myself. I know I said that this would come out tomorrow. But I lied because this idea just wouldn't let me sleep! I'm debating weather or not I should have another tony chapter or go back to Loki. Decisions decisions. Anyway.. Comments are craved. Thanks you guys.