It felt like an hour of relentless, excruciating pain. Loki was not to know it was only ten minutes. It was as if fires had been set on the surface of his brain, and spread across his body. Everything seemed compressed down to an absolute pinpoint of ache and laid over his skin and under his limbs. His bones shook. He longed to scream out; verbalise his pain. But he would never give mortals the satisfaction of hearing him suffer. Instead, he escaped inside his mind and waited.

When eventually the pain did subside Loki opened his eyes cautiously. Still in his little grey cell. Still alone.

Stark's plan had worked flawlessly. He had no clue where to begin exactly. Shame? Regret? Hatred? No. There was nothing left in him for all of that. Just a growing hollowness on his chest, and an odd, vague sense of relief. He didn't know what to attribute it to.

Such a fitful conclusion to his downfall; ensnared by a mortal dangling a carrot on a stick. And that stupid dream. As if his own mind were conspiring against him when he was at his lowest. He took a deep breath. Death was rather more slow to act than he'd expected.

He heard a noise and his eyes immediately snapped to it's origin. Bolts on a previously unnoticed door unlatched and a loud wail sounded as the metal separated. Loki had mere seconds to compose himself, but he came to disrepair just as quickly sensing his brother. He had such little time to pick a reaction that revealed nothing, and chose petulance because it was easy.

'Thor,' The voice of a female mortal rang out. 'You can't just... There are protocols for...' The mortal clearly gave up.

When Thor walked in he filled the cell. He stared at Loki for the longest time, seemingly caught between relief and sadness the depth of which Loki would never get used to seeing on his brother.

'Brother,' Thor whispered. His voice was strained; body tense. His arms were awkwardly outstretched, his body apparently still assumed that Loki meant hug. That was no longer true.

'Thor,' Loki hoped he sounded aloof.

'Loki.' Thor's body slumped a little. Then he made his way forward and Loki knew exactly what was coming. He tried to duck away but, given his restraints, it was impossible. Thor smothered him. And he was too shocked, for a moment, by the painful familiarity of being smothered against Thor's armor to move. When he did shake away from him, it was also in aid to his recovery. He was fighting the formation of a heavy lump in his throat. 'Brother,' Thor held Loki by his shoulders and made eye contact, Loki flinched. 'I am taking you with me to Asgard. Do not protest. It is an urgent matter.'

'I am not returning with you to Asgard. ' Loki spat venom.

But why the indignance? He was just about sure the trip would kill him, and that was what he wanted. What on Earth could the Aesirs do to him once he was dead? He was ready for the trip; the sooner the better.

Only... well, Stark. The mortal needed to know that Loki had been lying the whole time. It had been part of a plan of course. As if a God like him could ever fall in love with a weak, useless mortal. There was an intricate subplot there Stark would never know about, one that would come back to bite him in future. And his parting words would be accompanied with some grievous bodily harm. That would do it. Stark would live to regret the day his beautiful blue eyes ensnared Loki's fragile little heart. And played with it so callously as to shatter it completely.

Maybe then he'd be ready to die.

'I am not leaving this realm without you.' Thor frowned deeply. His eyes were tired. His entire body and soul sagged.

'Do you think your pets will allow me to go that easily.'

'They will listen to me brother,' he grimaced gravely. 'They trust me.'

'Do they? Then why did they have Stark lie to you about my presence on Midgard.'

'He did not know it was you, you deceived him.'

'I did no such thing.'

'Loki, I will not listen to your lies for-'

'I am not lying,' Loki hissed.

'It does not matter. You are coming with me to Asgard, if they do not allow me I do not care.'

'I'm not going to repeat myself Tony,' Fury repeated for maybe the sixth time.

'I heard you the first time.'

'Look,' Nick leaned forward. Exasperation clearly showing on the lines of his face. 'I'm being patient with you Tony. Anyone else and we'd have shipped you right through extraordinary rendition to little islands invisible to radar and left you at the hands of guys so skilled in torture, you wouldn't even realise it was torture till you started talking. But you know that, right Stark?'

'I know enough.'

'You also know that I'm obviously trusting you here. I don't believe you've turned. But I can't be sure of anything until you let us view the footage. We can't rule anything out until we know exactly what a wanted villain was doing in your tower for a period of two days. And you need to tell me why you hid the footage. Trust me Tony, if you keep refusing to cooperate this will go south. So far south your head will spin. You and Loki will get a whole lot more than you bargained for.'

That stopped Tony dead in his tracks. Just realising that Loki could stand to get hurt for this changed everything. Knowing S.H.I.E.L.D, Loki was probably in it far worse than he was. Maybe right now. Why had he just assumed they'd keep their civility with him? There was no chance of waiting anymore. He had only one way out now. After that he'd bust Loki out as soon as possible. Hopefully before shit hit the fan.

'Let's make a deal,' Tony exhaled hard. 'You tell me what happened to Coulson, and I'll give you audio.'

Fury raised an eyebrow. 'I could have sworn you had Jarvis hack his files. Audio? You've gotta be kidding.'

'Take it or leave it. Tell me what happened to Coulson.'

Fury ran his palm across his face. 'Coulson died, Tony. You were at his funeral remember? You hacked his files. You saw the casket go down.'

'Shit's not lining up, Nick. Why such a hasty funeral? No hospital stay. No bionic option. His file was perfect, Nick. I didn't even think about it, till I thought about it. No one fought to save him. No attempted CPR, even though his lungs had apparently been punctured. No trace of oxygen being administered. He just died. Of multiple organ fractures. How do you even sustain that kind of damage from a single stab wound.'

Nick leaned back on his chair, folded his arms on his chest and smiled a sort of suspicious little smile. 'His file never mentioned a single stab wound. It mentioned several.'

'I have a source that says otherwise.'

'If that source is known as The God of Lied, I advice you proceed with caution Stark.'

Tony smiled. 'Are you asking me to trust you more than I trust Loki?'

'So you trust Loki.'

'I guess I do.'

'You've never been known for your judgement.'

'Is that what you think? Coulson being alive is not a judgement call. It's logic.'

'If you're so convinced he's alive, why do you need me to tell you.'

'Not just me. All of them.'

'You want to destabilise your team, that's your big plan?'

'I don't have a plan. No clue how many times I have to say that. Do you,' Tony leaned in. 'Have any idea the kind of guilt the team has to deal with, thinking if they'd been faster; more aware, that they might have been there for him? You know how they deal with that? They stay with S.H.I.E.L.D.'

'So you want me to exchange the stability of the Earth's only solid protective force for a fucking audio tape? You think that sounds reasonable?'

'You want to know what happened between me and Loki right? You want to know if there'll be a Chitauri version 2.0.'

'All I have to do is tell the team Coulson's not dead.'

'So you admit he's not dead?'

'It's what you want me to say isn't it?'

'It's the truth.'

'Uh huh. I get it. Coulson's alive and kicking in the Bahamas somewhere. Do you need your phone?'

'For what?'

'To get Jarvis to retrieve the audio surveillance files. It's not my first time around the block with you Tony, I know the drill. Maria and Natasha will be with me to-'

'Maria yes. Nat, no.'

Fury stood. 'Fine, whatever. That audio better be worth it. Maria will be available to transcribe whatever's on that tape. As soon as we're done I'll arrange a meeting with all of the Avengers.'

And Fury left, the sound of the door bolting automatically behind him echoed in the little cell.

'Fuck.' Tony groaned. He dropped his head on the table. He hadn't been this woefully embarrassed since college, and even then it hadn't been this bad.

lol tony, dis gunna hurt.