Several minuets later Loki shuffled into the kitchen carrying his empty tray, the plates on it scraped clean. Tony glanced up at him from where he stood hunched over the coffee maker. He wasn't sure if the god was a coffee person but he figured that they could both use the caffeine. It was better than alcohol at least.
"You didn't have to bring those." He said, nodding at the empty dishes. "Dummy would have gotten them eventually."
"Dummy?" Loki asked, placing the tray on the counter.
"My robot." Tony explained. Loki stared at him blankly. "Um, it's made of metal and technology and stuff. Like a little metal man, well robots don't really have genders, so little metal creature. That help out and, you know what forget it. Coffee?" He thrust a steaming mug at the god. Gratefully, Loki raised it to his lips and took a long sip.
"Um," Tony said cautiously. "You might want to put some sugar in-." Before he could finish Loki placed the cup back on the counter his face twisted into truly amusing expression.
"'S very ice." He rasped, trying to smile against the bitter taste. Tony couldn't help but laugh at the image. God of lies his ass.
"No see, you can put milk and sugar in it." He explained, passing the items over to where Loki could reach them. "Most people don't drink it black. Well I do but, I somewhat atypical I guess."
"You like this?" Loki asked incredulously, adding a heaping spoonful of sugar to his cup.
"It wakes you up." Tony shrugged. "But you probably have some fancy spell for that back in magic fairyland right?"
"Thor snores like a bear." Loki said flatly. "It could be heard halfway across the castle. Waking up was never a problem for me." He took another sip of his coffee, humming in approval at the improved taste. For a minuet or so there was silence, the only sounds being the clinking of cups against the marble countertop.
"So," Tony said at last. "Wanna tell me why they turned you into ground beef up there?"
Nice going Tony, you should have been a therapist.
"No." Loki said shortly, stirring his drink with slightly more force then was strictly necessary.
"Come on pretty please?" Tony whined. "You do kind of owe me one for, you know, tossing me out a window and such."
"What exactly did you think happened in Asgard's prisons might I ask?" Loki asked, a definite edge to his voice. Tony shrugged.
"I don't know. I figured they'd throw you in a dungeon for a few centuries then let you go on your merry way." The words sounded stupid even to him. In truth he hadn't really considered what would happen to the trickster once he left, he was mostly just glad to have him gone.
"Well it appears you thought wrong." Loki said stiffly, clearly indicating that that was the end of the discussion.
"But aren't you a prince?" Tony pressed. "Don't they have to go easy on you?" Loki looked at Tony as though he would have liked to throw him through a window again.
"No." he said again.
Great. Tony thought. More one-word answers. Well this was productive.
"Okay." The genius said, rubbing his temples with the pads of his fingers. "Lets try this again. Do all prisoners up there get the shit kicked out of them or are you just special?"
"The guards feel more animosity towards me than the other prisoners." Loki admitted.
"Yeah, I figured." Tony said impatiently. "That was one hell of a tantrum you threw. But still, your dad's the king. Everyone sort of has to do what he says right? Couldn't he just give you a really long timeout or something?"
"Odin." Loki said, emphasizing the name. "Would just as soon see me dead. Were it not for my mo- for Frigga I would have been executed immediately."
"Okay." Tony said awkwardly. "So daddy issues huh? We should start a club." Loki didn't answer, staring down at the countertop as though it was the most interesting thing in the world.
"So what did they do to you exactly?" Tony asked, trying to sound casual. He noticed Loki's hands tighten ever so slightly around the mug, not looking up.
"We had a slumber party and braided each other's hair." He deadpanned, voice dripping with sarcasm. "Come on Stark, if you're truly the genius you claim to be you should be able to figure it out."
"Okay enough with the passive aggressive crap alright?" Tony said. "I'm trying to help you believe it or not. But you've gotta give me something here. I'm not really very good at this whole social…thing."
"Really?" Loki said and yep the famous snark was definitely back.
"So please." Tony continued. "You've got to give me something."
"Why?" Loki asked suddenly, meeting Tony's eyes for the first time. "Why would you help me? I do not-." He hesitated, biting his lip. "I do not deserve it."
Something in Tony softened at the quiet confession. He tried to disguise it by hurriedly collecting the now empty cups and putting them in the sink.
"You didn't deserve what they did to you either." He said, glad that his back was turned so Loki couldn't see his expressio.
