"Father, is everything alright?" Thor rushed in Odin's private meeting area worriedly.
"I spoke with Heimdall."
"Yes."
"He tells me that Loki seems to truly care for this girl." Odin seemed startled that he was even saying those words.
"Yes Father, I told you that already." Thor sighed in relief that there was not a more serious issue. "I thought there was something more afoot when you called me so urgently, it is near midnight."
"Thor, I need you, to be honest, can this girl save him?"
"I believe she already has, in some ways," Thor responded. "She is all he cares for Father, he loves her, truly."
"And you are sure that it is not that he just wishes to bed her."
"He already has," Thor informed him. "There is no personal gain in this for him, other than her happiness."
Odin thought over what Thor was telling him. "I fear to trust him on this."
"If I had not witnessed the development of his feelings for her with my own eyes, so would I." Thor agreed. "Mother would want this."
"I know, but that is not the most compelling argument. She loved him to the point of great fault." Odin dismissed.
"Is the imprisonment really necessary, though, surely we could have him heavily guarded in his rooms?" Thor suggested.
"He is still a prisoner Thor." Odin bellowed. "He impersonated me and everything before that." Thor did not argue. "Besides, if he is adamant to help this girl, he can stay there as a manner of proving it."
"He will not bow away from this Father, I know it. I have seen the determination in his eyes."
"Good, if he has such conviction, then it will prove he is speaking the truth."
It took two days, but in the end, Thor finally found the book Loki required, there was just one simple issue, the spells power would have to be altered to take into account the lesser durability of a Midgardian.
Loki cursed that it was Thor that was the one to go to Eir and ask her expertise on the subject. But having never dealt with Midgardians, bar Jane and her incident with the Aether, the healer had never had any dealings with the Midgardian people; so instead, Thor was sent in search of answers elsewhere. Every hour spent away from you, however, made Loki antsier. He wished to return to Midgard to you, and deeply regretted not telling you what he was doing. He was worried that you think he had abandoned you just after you admitted you love for him and had expressed it; it did not look well that you would have awoken to an empty bed, he prayed to the Norn's you would not be angry at him for it, or fear that he had just been using you to get you to bed.
The Warrior's Three and Lady Sif were brought in to help Thor, but they were all highly sceptical as to Loki's motives.
"What do you propose I am doing looking for so particular a spell were I not to use it?" Loki demanded as they all stood outside his cell with Thor, trying to figure out what is was that he was planning. "It is a tad specific to be of great concern to anyone." He snarked.
"Can it be used to blind someone is the concern?" Sif queried.
Loki rolled his eyes dramatically before almost snarling his reply. "No, it cannot. Ask Eir if you do not believe me."
"We have little reason to." She countered.
"I put my life on the line for Thor and his pathetic mortal." He snapped. "I took on the Kursed of Svartálfheim and did better than you to defeat him I might add. I am owed some grace." He stared at Thor as he spoke.
"How is his mortal pathetic, but yours is not?" Hogun queried curiously.
"Forget that, what is it about Midgardian women that makes them so covetable is what I want to know?" Fandral grinned.
"Not being forced to endure your advances." Loki snarked, causing a few chuckles from the others. "I do not care if none of you, believe me, my only concern is that the spell works correctly." They looked at him silently for a few moments.
"Well then, I think we had best continue our research." Volstagg clapped his hands together before turning to leave. "The sooner we begin, the sooner we achieve our goal."
"Indeed," Hogun replied, he too, turning to leave before the others followed suit.
"Thor." The blonde man turned to face the cell once more. "Has a message been sent to Midgard of the delay?"
Thor looked at him sadly and shook his head. "I have spoken with Heimdall though, she is confused to the swiftness of our departure, but she awaits, as patiently as possible." Loki nodded gratefully at that, turning back to the book that contained the spell he wished to perform on you, wanting to ensure it was perfected as much as possible before he needed to concern himself with its potency.
When Thor, the Warrior's and Sif exited the dungeons, the four others looked at Thor in awe. "He really does care for her, doesn't he?" Volstagg questioned.
"When have any of us ever heard Loki declare a love of anything?" They shook their heads slightly as they thought through everything they had witnessed with the younger prince, and in truth, they had never witnessed such an event. "Well, he has declared it to her. He is willing to remain in that cell, and even blinded himself if he thought it would give her her sight back." He stated as he turned to continue their quest.
"I really want to meet this girl," Fandral commented.
"She is of sound mind," Thor called over his shoulder.
"If she cares for him in return, there is no possible way that statement is in anyway based on truth," Sif added.
"There is no romance in you Sif." Volstagg placed a hand on her shoulder. "This being has not set eyes on him, so she has had to learn him in other manners, and as such, more than likely knows a side of Loki we have never witnessed."
"She is blinded, not without intelligence." Thor concurred.
"Why would the Midgardian's do that to their own kind for no good reason anyway. I mean, if she was of no threat, surely, she would not deserve such treatment?" Hogun asked.
"Yes, how do we not know that she is not in some manner, a danger herself?" Sif proposed.
Thor turned to face his friend, becoming somewhat angered. "Because then you are calling me unintelligent, for I too know her. I know what she was doing to warrant their interest and actions, and it was an act of selfless good that she was attempting to perform." Sif silenced immediately. "The Midgardians are not perfect, but there are those among them that rival many of the more intelligent beings of our realms, she is one such being."
"So too intelligent to be caught off guard by Fandral's charms then." Volstagg jested trying to break the tension, earning a few laughs from his friends.
X
"Is that is?" Tony stared at the formula in front of him.
"If what you are telling me is what is there, then yes. How long do you think it will take to get what we need?"
"Honestly, I am not sure, these are not easy to get Kiddo."
"We also have to ensure that we raise no flags getting them also," You added.
"Shit, I hadn't thought of that." Tony chucked a blueberry into his mouth. "We'll get it soon enough."
"Will you tell Dr Banner or shall I?"
"I think it is your news to give."
"But you will be talking to him first surely. I have not seen him around since Loki arrived, well I have not seen him since before that, but you know what I mean."
"Well." He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "There was a situation between him and Loki during the whole, 'take over New York' thing, and he smashed Loki into the floor."
"Wait, Dr Banner did, or the Hulk did?"
"The Hulk obviously, Banner is about as vicious as a kitten."
"Well, hopefully, that knocked some sense into him."
"You're not mad?" Tony looked at you.
"Well he sort of deserved it, and he seems not too injured by it all." You shrugged.
"How are you okay with all of this? I mean, I am no saint, but him?"
"He was tortured into it, he heals faster than we can ever imagine, same as Thor, and they don't scar as we do, but I have felt his scars, they are all over his body from that thing, Thanos he called him."
Tony spent a moment thinking about what you said. "Thor said he tried to annihilate another realm before this."
"That's the interesting thing, I got talking to Thor and Loki separately about that, and from what information I have gathered, I figured out that Loki stopped Thor's coronation because he thought he wasn't ready by getting the inhabitants of that ice realm to attack their realm, leading to Thor going to their realm wanting to destroy them in an epic temper tantrum, leading to Loki realising he was not Thor's actual brother, then Thor got sent to the naughty step, meaning here, and as that ice realm had declared war on Asgard, so technically, Loki was within his rights to attack as acting King, because the real realm king, Thor's father, went into some form of hibernation called Odinsleep," You explained.
Tony shook his head slightly and his eyes widened at all you had just told him. "But still…"
"Oh, Loki should have at least waited to see if they actually planned on attacking Asgard before trying to blow that realm to hell and back, but technically, he did not draw first blood, and it is a recognised retaliation, which leads me to wonder, who decides what is legitimate in war, I mean, murder is the willing act of killing another being, and war is mass murder, but it isn't as people killed are either declared legitimate targets or 'collateral damage' which makes no sense…"
"You're going off on a tangent, you know that, right?" Tony asked folding his arms.
"Sorry."
"As for who decides, I'm not sure."
"You think you would, what with you being in the business long enough."
"I wasn't interested in legalities, only getting the biggest, most powerful weapons to be ours."
"And turn a profit on it."
"That too."
"Do you ever regret it?"
"How I made my money?" You nodded. "Honestly, until it came landing beside me with literally, my name on it and blew shrapnel into my chest, no I didn't."
"Yeah, you were always a selfish ass, but yet it is endearing about you somehow."
"I'm telling you, you're in love with me, you just don't realise it." Tony joked, earning a scoff off you.
"Just call Dr Banner and see what he thinks of it all before I try and engineer something to get you to be forced to remain silent."
"There are a lot of people that would pay you an extortionate amount of money for such a thing."
"Yeah, and we both know Pepper and the rest of the Avengers would be right at the top of that queue." You grinned in return.
"Yep, you definitely love me."
