AN: Well thank you guys for the lovely reviews on the story :D I do want to know TragicGuardian which error you were talking about? Grammar and punctuation unfortunately always kill me in any language (because seriously it's even worse in Dutch and that's my native language). Would you otherwise perhaps beta my story if you want? I seriously need one…Enough with the rambling, on with the story I suppose. I got more votes for the pepper scene so I will write that, but Thor will certainly appear someday in my story.

After finally removing the magnets from his suit, Tony decided that keeping Loki in his lab was dangerous to his health. Loki however had seemed on some sort of high and had not stopped smiling the entire time, which somehow made the whole situation bearable. His laughter really was contagious and Tony felt no need to bring the man down. The memories would do that soon enough he supposed. "Come on Reindeer games, let's get out of here." He said steering the man out of his lab.

"Seriously Stark, why do you keep such strong magnets in your laboratory?" He pulled away slightly from the touch on his shoulder, but not as harshly as he would have done yesterday. Stark had stayed with him without asking why or gaining anything from it yesterday and that was something Loki could not quite shake off. Why had he done it? He did feel indebted to the man somehow.

The man just looked at him like he was an idiot, not deigning the question with an answer. They had stayed down longer than Loki thought they had been. The sun was already setting in the sky, bathing the room in a beautiful orange glow.

"Right dinner then, Jarvis call Domino's and order the usual."

"Certainly sir." The computer answered. After a little over a week in Stark mansion he had gotten rather used to the British AI, but sometimes it still startled him.

"I do have to ask Stark, why a British accent?" he sank down on the couch, winching when he jarred a still sore muscle.

"Why not, Jarvis is like my butler and the cliché is for them to be British or he can pretend to be James Bond." Stark dropped down next to him, propping his feet on the small table in front of it.

"I'm sorry, he can pretend to be whom exactly?" Stark looked as if he pitied him.

"Please tell me that you know the brilliance that is James Bond." Tony groaned.

"Would I ask if I already knew the answ-" He got interrupted by the sound of the doorbell.

"Your pizza has arrived, sir and please do not call me a butler again…sir." The AI sounded way too smug for a computer. Tony grumbled something about disabling it and getting a different model which got him a mocking 'of course, sir' from Jarvis. The smell that returned with the mortal was mouthwatering.

"What is that, it smells like nothing we ever had on Asgard?" He questioned, not taking his eyes of the big box in Stark's hands, which seemed to amuse the smaller man.

"This is the best invention ever made by mankind and that includes Jarvis." He flipped open the box and took out a piece. It was both sickening and fascinating seeing the large amount of grease and cheese enter Tony's mouth. It took Loki a moment too late to realize he was staring, because when he finally looked away he heard the man chuckle next to him. "Just take a piece, it will not kill you…well perhaps it will give you coronary problems, but not for a few years though."

With trepidation Loki took the offered piece from the other man's hands, taking a small bite. It was definitely nothing he had ever tasted before, but he knew he had missed out on something in that regard. Tony was staring at him, trying to figure out if he liked the pizza and for a moment the god was tempted to spit it out just to annoy Stark. It would be a waste of good food though and Loki was truly hungry. He just raised an eyebrow at the staring and the mortal got the hint and continued eating his own piece.

"Jarvis, put on some James Bond. It's time our god here learned the true greatness that's earth." A big screen dropped down from the ceiling and the lights dimmed till the only light came from the light outside and the screen before them. Settling back against the couch Loki just decided to not ask a thing and just see what would happen.

"Loki, Loki! Rudolf!" Something, or rather someone, was straddling him. 'No not this!' in a moment of pure fright Loki threw off the offending person immediately taking up a defensive stance at the intruder who woke him. "JARVIS LIGHT!" someone called harshly.

"Stark?" the befuddled god questioned. What on earth had happened?

"Yes, hello sleeping beauty." The other man grumbled. He was clutching the back of his head and looking murderously at his coffee table.

"What in Odins name happened?" The dream which he had been woken from was fleeing from his mind as he focused his mind on the current problem.

"You were having a nightmare, again may I add. You know it isn't very polite to fall asleep during an epic movie marathon." The man finally stood up, his hands were clean so clearly he didn't split his head open on the corner of the table.

"Can we get to the point where you were straddling me?" He surveyed the room. The cushions that had once been on the couch were across the room and the coffee table had moved further away from said couch.

"You were screaming." Tony seemed rather upset about having seen that. "You were yelling for them to stop and when I tried to wake you you didn't respond to my voice so I grabbed your shoulder….and then you got all spastic and started thrashing around. You made my living room a war zone. Anyway you wouldn't stay still and would probably end up hurting yourself so I did the best I could keeping you still while trying to wake you up." Loki felt embarrassed and hurt that Stark had seen him in such a bad shape. He had been there the night before, but he hadn't been this violent yesterday. He tried to remember what it was that he had dreamt and soon wished he didn't.

"What on earth did you dream about, Loki? Really because that was some scary shit you pulled there?" Stark moved towards the bar, pouring them both a large glass of his favorite amber liquid. He took the glass with trembling hands. Should he tell the man? He decided against it, but then he saw Stark feel the back of his head again. He had hurt the man who had only tried to help.

"You know the things I have suffered in the prisons in Asgard." He swallowed most of the liquid in one go, needing all the help he could get in keeping his emotions under control. "I was reliving the more unsavory things done to me, so you can understand when I found you above me…I panicked, forgive me."

"There is nothing to forgive. I probably would have done the same thing." For once there was none of the famous snark that the human possessed. While he hated the intrusion on his person with the file Jarvis had of him, he was glad that he did not have to spell everything out for Stark. "If you are so uncomfortable with people near you, why did you ask me to stay yesterday…or was it this morning?"

"I did no such thing!" Loki exclaimed. "It was you who climbed into my bed without asking."

Tony gave him a look that said 'please' "Well you didn't kick me out either or have a nightmare."

"It seems that your kind gestures have made my subconscious recognize you as safety. Do not worry Stark, the next time you come into my bed uninvited you will be just as soon on the floor next to it." He wanted to make sure that the man understood that Loki could take care of himself.

"What if I was invited?" Loki looked at him appalled, which made the man crack a small smile. "You didn't have a nightmare and if it means you sleep better, the faster you will heal…"

"I can take care of myself perfectly fine, Stark." Apparently he hadn't gotten the previous hint.

"I know you can, doesn't mean you always should. I know where you have been, to a certain extend. I would have gone insane if I didn't have someone else to fall back on." He was clearly reminiscing some old wound, because his face was tense.

"I…." maybe it wasn't so much about him helping just Loki to heal. The god got the idea that some time, long ago, the mortal had not been able to save someone. A wound that was clearly still festering. Perhaps they were both better off with this deal. He would sleep better and Stark would stop looking like a kicked puppy. It was not a good look on the man. "I sleep on the left side of the bed." He finished his sentence.

"Oh come on Reindeer games. That is my favorite spot on the bed." He was back to being a whiny brat. Somehow it was a relief. "It is about helping me is it not. I thought it was a Midgardian custom to always let the guest choose first." Loki shot back, heading off towards his room.

"Do I seriously look like I follow rules?" Stark snarked back at him.


"Tony, Jarvis told me you were here…" The voice of Pepper Potts alerted Tony that maybe he needed to open his eyes. He had been rather comfortable in the bed. Somehow during the night Loki had slung his arm around Tony's waist and while they were not lying very close on the bed it still felt rather good. The god clearly was a possessive type. The sight however of Pepper quickly leaving the room made him get out of bed.

He found her in the living room, pacing up and down. "Pepper, what the hell are you doing here?"

"Really Tony, I had the idea that maybe you were a little more torn up about us breaking up but here you are sleeping with another man!" She was distressed about something, and for all his genius he could not figure out what.

"Seriously Pepper, we broke up six months ago and I am not sleeping with that guy….well technically I am but…"

"God, I thought maybe we could give it another go because I was missing you, but you clearly seem to have found some other form of entertainment." He wasn't sure whether she was talking to him or to herself really.

"Pepper, you left me six months ago remember! Why the fuck did you think you could just come back here?" He was getting rather frustrated with her.

"Because I missed you Tony. Because I missed your jokes and finding you in your lab working on some project. I miss…"

"You miss me? Pepper we broke up because you couldn't stand me and now you are back saying that that was all a lie!" Did she really think she could just come back whenever she liked?

"I didn't leave you because I couldn't stand you, but because I couldn't stand that suit of yours and the dangers of it!" he was surprised Loki hadn't come looking with all the yelling they were doing. Probably was hiding somewhere around the corner, listening in on the conversation.

"Guess what Pepper that suit is part of me! It is powered by the same thing that is keeping me alive, remember! You cannot get one and get rid of the other. It doesn't work like that!"

"Don't think I don't know that! I hated you for going on all those dangerous missions, but no matter how much I begged you would never stay back with me. Never thought about how much you were making me worry! God Tony, you went up with a nuke in space, do you know how that made me feel?" He hated seeing her cry, but it didn't change the situation.

"Then why are you here Potts because I am still the man I was back then! I will never back off when people need me to help them!" That was the cowards way, let someone else go out there and save the day. Someone else who had family that worried just as much.

"You know they have the rest of the avengers! The ones with real powers. Without that suit you are crushed,"she took a deep breath "but I am willing to deal with that again because I miss you more than I hate the suit. I need you in my life Tony. We have been together for so long." She reached up to touch his face, but he grabbed her wrist before she could get close.

"You were a great friend to me Pepper and I loved you once, but I am both Tony and Iron Man and I will not go through the motions again of you looking at me with hatred whenever I go out there. You either love both parts of me or you do not love me at all." He dropped her hand and turned away from her. For a moment she stood there without really saying anything until anger overtook her. She was just feeling hurt and lashing out and he could not stop that from happening.

"I hope you are happy staying alone then, because no one will ever love both parts of you." The sound of steel on glass alerted him of her dropping the key she had of his house. When the door slammed shut behind her he sank down on the couch. How did his life ever get this messed up?

AN: Does anyone know someone or can they make an image for this story? Question for the next chapter: 1) another pool scene or 2) a trip to starbucks to relieve their stir craziness? Please review :D