They sat on the couch for what felt like hours, not wanting to get up, both for their own reasons. In the end it was none of them who interrupted the silence, but another person entering the room. Loki turned his head to face his brother, who stood in the doorway in pyjamas with a glass of juice in his hand, and stared at him with wide eyes for a second before storming towards him and lifting him of the couch to pull him into a tight embrace.

Loki gasped in surprise and pain at the same time before he managed to protest in a strained voice: "Thor... you are crushing... my ribs." The grasp became less forceful immediately, although Thor kept holding on as if his brother were to run away. "Let me go", Loki demanded coldly.

"I shall not", Thor announced determined. "I have lost you for too long and I do not plan on..."

"Let me go, you stupid oaf!", the trickster god complained, sounding defiant, but not really offending, while he struggled in the firm grip of his brother.

"I still do not plan on abandoning you again. I..."

"No, you let me go, now, or I...

Tony grinned as he watched the brothers – ah, sorry, the definitely-not-brothers – arguing. The sight was just too enjoyable.

"Thor, just let go. I am serious", Loki groaned and finally, his brother obeyed with a kicked-puppy-expression in his baby blue eyes.

"Brother, I –" The thunderer was cut off as Loki's fist connected with his jaw, catching him off guard, and causing him to stumble backwards. He caught himself fast, though, and looked up utterly surprised just to see his brother rubbing his knuckles and wearing a very, very satisfied smile on his lips.

"I have been wanting to do this for a long time", he declared. "Now get here."

"You..."

"I said, get here." The younger god's order was given with a tone cold as ice. Thor followed reluctantly and was left bewildered when Loki stepped forward and buried his face in his neck, searching for a hold on his clothing and giving a low sigh as he said: "I missed you too, you dumb oaf." Slowly and very gentle Thor lifted his arms to wrap them around the smaller god, careful not to bruise any of his injuries.

Tony almost choked on his drink, but then only grinned wider and bit back a sarcastic comment à la 'happy family reunion' as he watched the two of them holding each other for the first time in what seemed to have been far too long. Again, the happiness of the moment was shadowed by the question why the hell Loki was acting like this all of sudden. Saving him was one thing, but hugging his brother unsolicited something entirely else.

"I am sorry", Loki whispered. His voice was weak and almost inaudible to the millionaire. "I am sorry for everything that happened." Thor looked completely caught by surprise and at a loss for words. His younger brother's grip on him tightened. "I thought I might never be able to tell you again." Now his voice was too faint for the engineer to catch, but he was fairly sure he heard "I love you" at least once.

Oh, this was just so sweet, but so fucked up at the same time. What the hell had happened to Loki that he acted as if he expected to die any second and told his so very hated brother that he loved him and whatever else. It scared Tony, it really did. Of course some part of him was happy for those two and their reunion, but mostly, he was worried.

It took them a few minutes until they finally parted again. Loki seemed to fight for his composure and kept his eyes lowered to the ground while he muttered something of going to bed and left for the elevator in a sudden hurry. Without another word, without even a glance to the millionaire. Why did he care?

"Well, that was just cute", Tony finally chuckled after the god had left. "You sure you wanna let him go alone? Because he didn't look really stable."

"Loki is no person who wishes for support in such a situation", Thor replied, settling himself on the couch. "He is far too proud to accept help unless he is in real danger, and even then he is very reluctant about it." He grabbed the glass with orange juice – oh, the irony – he had set aside before and sipped slowly.

"He looks like that kind of person, yeah", he mumbled. "But it seems you're one happy family again, huh?"

"I am really glad he has stopped rejecting me", the god answered, smiling. "I knew it would have been no good to give up on him. Anyway, it worries me what happened in the time he has been gone since it has changed him so much." Oh, so Thor could be empathic sometimes. Even he got that something magnificent must had happened to cause such a sudden change of behaviour.

"Me too. But I doubt we should ask him already. He still seems pretty troubled and all. Give him some time."

"Aye, we shall do that. I think I will be able to sleep better now. In the first place I came here to talk to you about my brother, but that seems to be settled now", Thor said while getting up again and putting his glass aside. "Have a good night, Anthony."

"Sure." Not gonna sleep anyway. "You too."

And alone again, he thought as the blonde left for his room. God, this is all just so fucked up. Sighing, he made himself comfortable on the couch, lying on his back; the hand still holding the scotch on his chest, the other arm dangling so it touched the floor and his legs outstretched.

He didn't close his eyes though. Now there was no one around his thoughts were painfully present and they would be even more if he blocked out the view of the ceiling as his only distraction.

"Yeah, distraction's the word", he mumbled. "JARVIS, hit me some music. Loud."

"As you wish, Sir", the AI said and followed his order. Tony didn't even bother to recognize the AC/DC track filling the room. He was just glad it was loud enough to drown his screaming mind.

Loki just saved your life.

Steve knows Loki is here.

Loki is here. Fuck. Loki is in your tower and you're doing nothing about it!

Fury is going to murder you.

Shit, shit, shit...

Suddenly the room went silent and Tony groaned.

"JARVIS, what the hell?"

"Tony, what are you doing there? Your bedroom is downstairs, y'know?", a voice came from the elevator. The millionaire tilted his head to get a look on Clint and Natasha stepping into the room.

"Oh, you're back", he greeted. "Hi. Why are you up here?"

"Because JARVIS told us you were here and we wanted to look after you", Natasha replied, "and since you're lying on your couch so drunk you can't even go to bed, I guess it was the right thing to do."

"I am not drunk!", the engineer defended himself and added a muttered "mum".

"No, you're definitely not", Clint grinned, crossing the room and sitting down on the edge of the couch. With one finger he pointed at the glasses on the table and the to the one in Tony's hand as he spoke. "You've only had... at least three shots."

"These are not mine", he responded sulking.

"Oh? So whose?", Natasha asked teasing.

"That one's Thor's and... um..." Oh shit. "...yeah, the second one belongs to me." Tony gave a nervous smile and somehow he knew this wasn't going to go well. He was too tired, too troubled to act right now and lying to those two was a challenge even when he was at his best state.

God, he'd had one confession this day, he couldn't stand two. But if they found Loki on their own, the god would probably be dead before there was time to explain anything. Nope, not a good option.

Shifting himself into an upright position, Tony prepared for the worst.