Loud, blaring music woke Tony up suddenly. For a moment he panicked, thinking he'd overslept. Then he glanced at the clock.
Two forty-seven? Really?
He got up, found his favorite crimson robe draped over a chair, and went out to see who had broken into his penthouse and decided to watch MTV in the middle of the night.
Nothing was missing, he noticed as he glanced around the living room. No windows broken. Then he saw the dark-haired form reclining on his couch.
"Loki? What the hell are you doing?"
The fallen god turned and looked up at him with an expression of utter shame, like a child caught with his hand in the cookie jar. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "I'll turn it down."
Tony shoved Loki's legs down to the floor and then sat beside him. "Something wrong with your TV?"
"N-no." He pressed the volume button several times before continuing. "Thor is . . . away, Darcy is visiting her parents. Bruce is in Ecuador. I . . . I didn't want to be alone."
"One of those nights, huh?" Tony sighed. "I'll get the ice cream."
"I'll get the bowls."
"Screw the bowls. We'll eat the whole damn carton." He went and opened the freezer. "Peppermint Freeze, Extreme Chocolate, or Mint Cookie?"
"Chocolate, please." In that same small voice.
"Oohkay. Fine." He grabbed the chocolate and the peppermint and two spoons and brought them to the couch. "What is this garbage, anyway?"
"Teen Titans Go."
"Awfully loud, isn't it?"
"I did turn it down."
"I mean in general. Not what you usually watch."
"I wanted something . . . silly. To take my mind off things."
"Bad dreams, huh?"
Loki nodded wordlessly.
"Want to talk about it?"
This time he shook his head.
"Okay, fine." They sat and watched in silence. Tony was glad that Pepper was away on a factory tour in Japan; she frowned on this sort of thing, and she always knew. Always.
At least he wasn't working. This was relaxation, wasn't it? Kind of.
"My mother was dead," Loki said suddenly.
"What?" Tony looked at him.
"In the dream," he explained. "In the dream, she was dead. And they wouldn't let me see her. I . . . I got the impression that . . . that I was responsible."
He looked away and scooped ice cream into his mouth. Tony didn't know what to say.
As it turned out, he didn't have to say anything.
"Hellooo! I'm back!" Pepper put her suitcases down and looked around. "Tony? Your alarm's going off."
No reply. He must be down in his lab again, getting an early start. Working at the crack of dawn was nothing new for him, and sometimes she even woke up in the middle of the night to find him gone. Oh, well. She'd known what he was like when she married him.
"JARVIS," she called out, "please let Mr. Stark know that I'm home early."
"No need, ma'am," the AI intoned. "He's right behind you."
"What?" She turned around and saw him on the couch, snuggled up to, of all people, Loki. "Do I want to know what this is all about?"
"I'll let him tell you when he wakes up."
"Can't wait to hear this explanation." The TV was on, showing some infomercial; she picked up the remote off the floor and hit the POWER button. Then she saw the empty ice cream cartons sitting on the coffee table. "Oh, one of those nights. Okay, then." She went back for her bags and brought them into the bedroom to unpack. She could wait for the explanation.
Besides, they looked kind of cute snuggled up together.
