In the café Loki worked very quietly with Ellie. After he had collected himself on the Friday afternoon he had gone straight to bed, physically and emotionally drained enough to sleep over fourteen hours. When he had woken up there had only been a short amount of time left before he had needed to leave for work, which he had used to shower and eat a little. Now he sat in the mostly empty café while Ellie was counting stock out the back. Steve had come in for coffee again to check up on him and Loki had served him blankly, waiting for him to finish his coffee and crossword puzzle and leave. Steve had done soon enough and Loki was left alone with his thoughts for the first time since his breakdown. He actually wasn't as reflective as he thought he might have been, still feeling numb from the weight of emotion from the previous day. He let himself zone out blissfully. Ellie noticed how quiet he was and related it back to their last serious conversation.
She shuffled up to him timidly. "So how did it go? Talking to that guy you like?" She talked softly and Loki could see she was being cautious. Loki thought about lying but then lost the motivation to do so. What was the point?
"I didn't in the end. Yesterday I saw him with a girl with whom he'd obviously had sex. He was leading her out." Loki let his head fall forwards and hit the counter. Why, why was he confiding in a Midgardian adolescent? He tried to reason with himself that she was innocent enough that she would not have any reason to suspect his interest's true identity, even though he knew with each passing day and each clue he let slip that this was becoming less and less likely.
Ellie did not answer immediately, instead coming over and placing a hand on Loki's shoulder. With his head still down on the desk he stiffened in surprise, but relaxed somewhat when she started massaging across the top of his back lightly.
"I'm sorry." She said. Loki had assumed his anger at Tony was completely illogical, it certainly would have been treated as such on Asgard, but she seemed sympathetic. "I know it doesn't seem like the most appealing option but you could ask him if he has any intentions towards her. No matter what he says it could provide you with an opportunity to tell him how you feel."
Loki sat up and looked at her. "I know he does not have any serious intention towards anyone, she appeared to be just a one night stand. I still feel angry though." He admitted, shame burning through is veins at voicing it out loud.
Instead of being turned away she rubbed his back a little harder to show more sympathy. "I know what it's like to see someone you fancy enjoying themselves with someone else. No matter how little claim you have to them you always feel as though it should be you pulling them into bed."
"Jealously is repulsive." Loki spat, the look on his face black. In his head he was indeed now fantasising about pulling a certain inventor into bed and he didn't know whether he enjoyed it or it made him feel worse.
Ellie sighed. "Well, if you can find a way to just turn it off let me know. You'd be a billionaire." Her eyes glazed over and she looked away from him, and Loki remembered in a moment of clarity that she had felt attracted to him and most likely still did. She had probably felt the same spark of jealously he was currently feeling when he had admitted to having feelings for someone else, and he let his head fall forwards again at the self-loathing inspired by the thought that he was inflicting these feeling not only upon himself but upon another as well.
Ellie didn't see the reasoning behind this though and presumed it was still about his unknown interest. She gave him a supportive smile. "Come on, we can't let any customers see you like this, we have to be semi-professional." She disappeared and came back with a glass of water for him. When he had sat up and grudgingly drank it she looked him in the eye and spoke firmly.
"So. You know that he isn't going to go any further with this woman and therefore he is still available. When are you going to tell him?"
"I don't know." Loki sighed. "But I promise I will eventually. Even if just to stop you talking." He gave her a weak smile and she smiled back. He was struck quite suddenly by how open and friendly she was to him even though he had by rights been quite rude and dismissive of her at times. The Avengers that he had been living with in the tower all had dark histories but this completely innocent human girl stood out to him as the first truly good human he had met. She had her own petty little human problems and stresses but tried to be a good person simply for the purpose of being good, not for the purpose of making up for anything in her past, which he felt was a large part of the motivations behind those he was living with. He thought back to his conversation with Natasha on S.H.I.E.L.D's helicarrier during the invasion. Something that makes up for the horrors, but they are part of you, and they will never go away. Why did that feel like it applied even more to himself than to her at this moment?
Ellie spent the rest of the afternoon trying to keep conversation positive and upbeat. She asked him about his interests and Loki responded accordingly with topics he'd learnt about from his ongoing Earth Education. He had lost track of the number of Wikipedia pages he'd trawled through reading up about people and places and media enough to scrape by when questioned like this. It was actually quite refreshing to be challenged and he found it therapeutic to be asked. He left the café distracted from most of his negative feelings and made sure to thank Ellie sincerely for entertaining and trying to comfort him before he said goodbye.
Natasha gave Tony 24 hours after the giggle in the hallway before going to confront him about sleeping with someone while he was supposed to be avoiding strenuous activity. She had thought about leaving the subject but had found the video footage from the gym on the previous afternoon. Natasha had been watching the relationship between Tony and Loki rather carefully and held Tony personally responsible for Loki's breakdown, the former god having been fine until he had heard the giggle. She also understood well enough that it may only have been the tip of the iceberg for Loki's emotional state but it was not fair on Loki that Tony, his only real friend here, had managed to trigger the breakdown.
Natasha was proud of her honed ability to detect how people were feeling and to manipulate it, it was her occupation and she was an expert. She often felt frustrated at the inability of those around her to think about their own deeds and the consequences they would have. Watching the relationship between the tower's two self-loathing narcissists develop had been an interesting procedure, and she was well aware that neither of them were experts in the emotional field. Loki may have had manipulative abilities similar to hers back on Asgard but here he was clumsy and confused and things were easily let slip, while Tony had always been emotionally blind.
She walked down into Tony's lab and smirked when she punched in the right key to completely override the security system and let herself in. Tony saw the door slide open and swore, telling Jarvis to cut the loud music and mentally reminding himself to change the code later.
"Natasha, to what do I owe the pleasure?" He said, fake smile plastered across his face. Natasha's visits were never just friendly, there was always some ulterior motive behind them and he always left them feeling rather confused.
She gave him an equally sickly-sweet fake smile back. "Don't play dumb with me Tony how long did you think you'd get away with it? You're supposed to be avoiding strenuous activity."
"Oh come on please try and tell me you're not proud of me for lasting as long as I did." He threw his hands up in defeat. "So what are you going to do, take away my toys? Really the only person affected by this is me and my healing muscles."
"I'll let you continue to think that." She said plainly, still staring straight at him to both observe his actions and unnerve him slightly. Both were very effective on most people but Tony was getting rather good at shrugging off the second.
He met her gaze. "So how exactly do my sleeping habits affect life within my tower?"
"You're a clever man, I'm sure you'll work it out. Just think a little more about the emotional consequences of what you're doing to those around you."
Tony frowned at first but he put two and two together rather quickly. "You're saying someone here gets a little jealous when I go out? Natasha please I know I'm attractive but-"
"You know full well I have no interest in you; I refuse to stroke your overly-inflated ego. Just work it out; if I have to live with this tension any longer it's going to give me grey hairs." She shook her head a little then switched to a topic she knew would catch his attention. "Anyway, I have other things to discuss with you. Pepper is coming in tomorrow around midday and you need to see her to sort out company business."
Tony had been absentmindedly playing with the monitors but at this point his hands stopped and he paused for breath, closing his eyes momentarily to steady himself. After a beat he asked "Do I have to?" It sounded pained and Natasha felt sorry for him despite herself, Pepper was certainly formidable.
"Yes, you do have to speak to her. It'll be half an hour and then she'll be gone." Natasha stated firmly.
Tony's head hit the desk and he groaned somewhat like a melodramatic child. As much as Natasha found him ridiculous she did sympathise. Meeting with your ex was never easy, it must be incredibly difficult when they both run your company and are as powerful and intimidating as Miss Potts.
"I'll tell you what," Natasha said, coming up with an idea that would kill two birds with one stone, "Tomorrow night we'll all sit round and have drinks. Laugh, have fun, that thing that normal people do. It'll take your mind off it."
Tony was genuinely put out by this sudden apparent kindness. "Alright?" He said, sitting up again.
"Good." She said, and hopped off the bench and walked towards the exit.
Tony called out to her "Won't getting drunk also counteract my recovery schedule?"
Before she got to the door she turned back. "Actually no, I think it might do some good. And please do some work in here that I can tell Fury is Avengers related."
Once she'd gone Tony sat and thought about what she'd said. He was dreading seeing Pepper tomorrow, having not done so since they broke it off and she flew out to go settle company business. He tried to avoid thinking about it too closely or he knew he wouldn't sleep. Instead he tried to decipher her hint about someone in the tower being emotionally affected by his one night stands, and had the sense to link it to her proposed little drinking party the next night. One of his first thoughts was that he'd have to be careful how much he drank because he didn't want to upset Loki again, as Loki had been tense since their... he froze.
But no, surely not? The possibility of Loki being jealous ran through his head and Tony laughed, able to see how it was actually a rather plausible solution. He still doubted it though, mainly because he didn't think Loki would be shy about attraction. After all if sex wasn't covered under the title of "God of Mischief" then what was? Tony chewed over the issue in his head for a while and in the end came to a conclusion: either way when the alcohol was out he'd probably find his answer.