The next morning, Loki is up before Thor and he takes very little time to get ready. By the time Thor comes to his room to wake him up, Loki's already walking down the stairs, heading for the front door. "Hey, Thor," Loki greets absent-mindedly. His mind's currently occupied with the task of how he will steal extra food at the food hall today. They portion everything out pretty sparingly in their little village. Loki can't blame them, though. They would starve if they didn't keep rationing.

"Whoa, where are you going?" Thor asks, catching his arm and forcing him to a halt.

"Uh, to do my chores?" Loki's plan is to get his share of the clothes-washing done quickly so that he can slip into the food hall much earlier today.

Thor looks at him incredulously. "Okay, Loki, what's going on?"

Loki's breath catches. "Nothing's going on. Just… enjoying the morning."

His brother narrows his eyes in response. "You can't lie to me," he sighs and drops Loki's arm. "Whatever it is, make sure that no one finds out, okay? I have enough to worry about already." Thor's right. Thor is currently participating in midnight angel hunts, babysitting kids by day, and helping out in the kitchens in the evening. Sometimes Loki wonders how he even finds time to sleep.

He smiles warmly at Thor, sincerely grateful to have a brother like him. "Thanks," he says. "You're the best!"

Thor groans, pressing the heels of his hands into his tired eyes. "You drive me nuts sometimes. Just go before I get even more worried." He pulls his hands away just a little to glare at Loki.

In response, Loki waves to him with a big grin. "Well I better get out of your hair then. See you later!"

Thor says nothing in reply but Loki can feel his brother's eyes on him all the way out the door.

A pile of clothes can be cleaned surprisingly quick, Loki realizes, when he actually focuses on doing a good but efficient job. Even the ladies have nothing to complain about him today.

What does suck, though, is that Loki does get a good cut on the inside of his hand from scrubbing too hard. But that's kind of common with the rough, potent home-made soap that they had to use on their washing. Loki just rubs the blood off on the edge of his pants and wraps a strip of cloth around his small wound.

Because of his hard work, he is rewarded with leaving his chores early. Usually Loki likes to drag his way to the food hall. There's a lot of people he doesn't care for there and they are just as indifferent about him. So he usually likes to wait till he can go to first meal with Thor. That way he has at least one person to sit with…

However, today Loki has a mission and he walks with long strides towards the little public hall that smells deliciously of warm bread. Inside, the large room is already filling with people but lucky for Loki, it's still relatively quiet.

Keeping his head down, Loki makes his way into the line. He grabs his tray and stands obediently behind the few people in front of him.

Today's meal consists of a single roll, fresh green beans, and a boiled potato. Each is being dished out by someone on kitchen duty and Loki wonders how he will get anything extra… That is, until he sees Sif serving up the rolls.

When it gets to his turn, Loki leans into her and asks quietly, "Sif, can you give me an extra roll?"

"No," she says flatly. "Why would you even need an extra one? You eat like a bird."

Crap. "Uh, it's for Thor."

"Well, don't bother. He's already here," she says, gesturing to a table with her tongs.

Loki frowns. Of course today is the day that Thor chooses to come to the food hall before him. Loki turns back to her. "Whatever. Just give me mine then."

After Loki's all dished up, he sits down at a table by himself, taking some time to stare at his food contemplatively. Which of this should he bring to Tony? Of all the days, today has to be the most boring day for food, judging by the state of his plate. Sometimes the kitchen attendants come up with some great stuff with just using ingredients from their village garden and from the rare canned goods that were left over from before the angels.

Loki's hungry… and there's only two meals a day. Perhaps he can save Tony the roll and Loki can just eat the beans and the small potato. He is sure he can hold out until dinner to eat again.

He starts to wrap the roll into a cloth he had swiped from the laundry when Thor shows up next to him. "What are you doing?"

Freezing for a second, Loki considers his words carefully. "Just saving some food for later."

Thor scoots onto the bench next to him, invading his space. "You should really just eat it. You're so lanky and small. Some meat needs to grow on these bones." He squeezes Loki's arms affectionately.

Loki ignores him, finishing wrapping the roll and pocketing it into his sweatshirt. "I'm just not hungry right now," he says, shoving a forkful of beans into his mouth.

Thor laughs but dropped the subject. "What are you doing the rest of your day?"

Oh, just nothing until I get to a visit an angel after dinner… "I don't know," he says with a shrug.

"Well, what do you say about a fight?"

Excitement immediately lights up in Loki's fiery eyes at the prospect. "I accept."

Loki sets his sweatshirt, which contains the precious roll inside, on the sidelines for safe-keeping with his other items. With his dagger in hand, Loki turns to grin viciously at his brother. Today he will beat Thor once and for all.

Spinning the blade expertly in his hands, Loki circles to look at the small crowd that's forming around them. Sif and several of Thor's other friends are gathered on one side and there are many other young Hunters congregating. They like to wager on Thor and him. Of course most bet in the favor of the all-mighty Thor.

"You ready?" Thor calls boisterously from his side of the dirt ring. He stretches his arms to show off his muscles to the girls. They love to watch these types of fights, since some of the guys, like Thor, like to go shirtless. Thor didn't like to get cuts and holes in his clothes.

"As I'll ever be," Loki says, raising his dagger at the ready.

"Then on the count of three," Thor starts.

Loki's grin grows. "Three."

"Two," Thor counters with a smile of his own.

"One!" Loki throws himself forward, going for the offense, stabbing his blade right for Thor's shoulder.

Thor counters, meeting his blade with his own with a loud clank. Loki jumps away, sliding across the dry dirt. Thor comes at him this time, running towards Loki's left side. Spinning, Loki avoids Thor's large, towering body and he ducks until Thor's arm, going to stab Thor in the back.

He manages to clip Thor with blade, feeling a little bad when it draws blood from the shallow cut. But the damage is done. The little distraction of the blood had left an opening for Thor and although he doesn't get his blade at Loki, he still manages to smash Loki with a heavy-handed punch to the gut.

The wind is knocked from Loki's lungs. It's hard to breathe and his vision is blurry but Loki still succeeds in kicking out his leg and he sends Thor down hard. A cloud of dust puffs up as Thor hits the earth.

Loki uses this time to catch his breath but he doesn't hesitate too long, because Thor is already rising up, roaring. "You're getting it now, Loki!"

"Not likely!" Loki says, throwing himself at Thor.

Instantly their blades meet and this time neither of them back down. They push the blades against each other, grinding out a steely screech of metal. This could be bad. If either of them slip, they could get a nasty gash in the hand. Loki grits his teeth, pushing harder.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, it's as if both knives are ripped from their grasp and flung to the ground, hurtling out of the circle. The crowd whoops, not noticing anything out of the ordinary, but Thor and Loki freeze, staring at each other. That didn't happen just naturally.

Instinctively, Loki snaps his eyes towards the trees. He just catches a brief glimpse of a black wing disappearing into the trees. Was that… Tony?

He looks back at Thor and cakes on a sheepish smile. "Well that was weird."

Thor is looking at him funny but it's an expression Loki can't read. "Yeah… I guess it's a draw." He says no more but Loki can feel that Thor knows what actually happened. Loki certainly can predict that there will be a serious talk about this later.

Fandral, another of Thor's friends, claps the two on the back and shouts, "We have a draw!"

The crowd cheers.

It's finally time. Odin and Thor are at a Hunter's meeting and then they're off to a hunt. The village is quiet and it's easy to slip away. Loki takes his usual route out to the woods, bringing the same supplies in his backpack as he did the night before, but he does have a strange sense of nervousness. It's not only because it feels weird to purposely seeking out an angel for company, but he's also kind of afraid that Tony will be in a worse condition than last night.

"Tony?" Loki whispers as he comes to the clearing that they had met in last night.

At first there is no reply. Loki knows better, however, and he lights a candle. He almost jumps out of his skin. Tony is sitting on a branch directly above him, glaring heavily down at him. This is the side of angels that scares the shit of him. He shrinks back a step.

"You came back," Tony says and he actually has the nerve to sound angry about it.

"Yeah, jerk. I had to bring you that food, didn't I?"

Tony's glare seems to waver but then he crosses his arms angrily, turning away. "I don't want it." The movement reveals the black diseased wing. It looks the same as yesterday and the blade is still wedged into his feathers.

Loki tears his eyes away and goes to his pack, pulling out the bread. "Are you sure you don't want to try this? You know, before you die?" He unwraps the bread carefully, moving it into Tony's view.

He almost wants to laugh at the way that Tony steals a curious glance at Loki's offering. "What is that?" Tony asks. His voice if filled with childish wonder and suddenly Loki feels uncomfortable.

"Well, it's just bread. I could have gotten something better… Maybe I should have snuck into the kitchen and gotten you-"

He cuts off when Tony appears right in front of him. He reaches out for the bread but stops short. "Can I have some?"

Loki gulps. This angel looks so amazed by something simple. It sends a strange tingle into his chest. "Have all of it."

Tony snatches it from his hand and he starts to inspect it like it is something spectacular. "What did you call this again? Bread?"

Loki nods, frowning. "Just bread."

"So its name is 'just bread?' Fascinating. What is its taste?" Loki doesn't have time to answer because Tony turns the bread in his hands and continues, "I guess I'll just have to try it, huh?" Tony takes a large bite of the hard roll and Loki waits. It's definitely one of the least tasty things on Loki's list and he just waits for Tony's disgust.

It never comes because Tony's face, despite of the sickly appearance, lights up with delight. "This 'just bread' is good! Really good!"

Loki gapes. He isn't sure how he should react. In fact, he's shocked because a dim but golden glow rises from Tony's one good wing. It's… mesmerizing. "Wow," Loki whispers.

Tony freezes mid-bite when he notices what Loki's looking at it. The light goes out immediately and Tony disappears up back into the tree. He tucks his good wing firmly behind him and picks absently at the rest of the roll. "You can go now, you know."

"What?" Loki blinks back his confusion. He just got here and Tony already wants him to go?

"You have no obligations to me. I don't even know why you came back. Unless you are waiting for me to die, which in that case, you're going to have to wait a while. I seriously am taking a long time to die." Even as he says it, Tony looks extremely exhausted and tired.

"Your wing just glowed," Loki finds himself saying. "Angels don't do that…"

"There you go making more assumptions," Tony says, popping another piece of the roll into his mouth.

"It's just… It's just weird," Loki says. He sits down in the grass next to his pack and the candle. He feels almost lied to. His whole life he had this single image of angels and within two separate nights, Tony had changed his image completely. It's frightening.

A brief silence settles between them, but only for a moment. Loki finally looks up at Tony and finds him already watching Loki, finishing off the roll. "Did you do something to my fight with Thor today?"

Tony's wings flare behind him and he goes stiff. Curious. Loki wonders if there was a correlation between Tony's wings and his discomfort. "No, I wouldn't do something like that," Tony says, looking away.

"You did!" Loki exclaims. "Why would you do that?"

"You were being stupid," Tony snaps, his glare now on Loki. "You creatures insist on being violent and I just don't understand it! Fighting with each other for no reason. As if you needed to cut at each other like that. You already hurt your hand on soap. On soap! You humans are so weak." His tones finishes in utter disgust.

Loki touches his fingers to his wrapped hand, surprised. "How did you know that?"

Tony goes still again. His eyes widen in shock.

Frowning, Loki tilts his head. "Have you been watching me?"

Tony disappears and doesn't reappear anywhere in sight this time. Loki flashes to his feet, spinning in a full circle, searching. "Tony?"

A second later, Loki spots his silhouette farther up in the tree he was already in but Loki can't make anything else out besides the outline of his wings. "Tony?" No reply. "What are you doing up there? Can you come down?"

"Thanks for the 'just bread' and all…" Tony says so quietly that Loki almost misses it. "But you shouldn't come back here anymore."

Loki strangely feels breathless and he really wants to give Tony a good punch. "Come on, don't be like that! I'll bring you more food. And I can—"

"No, just leave. It's too dangerous for you to be out here."

Loki huffs, grimacing at the shadow. He's speechless, really, not knowing how to respond to this sudden dismissal. He glares at the shadow until it disappears and Tony's suddenly standing in front of him again, causing Loki to jump in surprise.

Tony sighs. "Here, just let me…" he trails off, grabbing Loki by the wrist and forcing his injured hand in front of Tony. In a single swipe of his hand, Tony unravels the make-shift bandage and reveals the crusty little cut underneath. "You need to take care of yourself more," Tony says as if it physically pains him.

With a light hand, he trails his fingers along the length of Loki's wound and, behind his soft touch, the wound magically stitches itself back together flawlessly. Loki gasps, staring at his hand even after Tony lets go. There is still a fiery warmth from where Tony had touched his palm.

"You can heal any wound?" Loki asks. Tony nods shortly. "Then you can heal this scar." He gestures to the hideous raised scar across the center of his ugly face.

"I could, but I won't," Tony says. Loki's heart starts to sink. "Because it's part of who you are."

Then Tony's gone. Loki inhales sharply and again looks around the clearing with wild eyes. What did Tony just say? About his scar? Why?! This ugly would never be a part of Loki! It was a curse, a poison… "Bastard!"

In that moment, Loki never felt uglier.