Loki tugs Bruce across the living room when he arrives to administer another checkup. Bruce follows along more willingly than Tony, saying something about Loki most likely testing his control over his surroundings. Tony figured that too, but he doesn't appreciate being dragged or pushed around. Loki is far stronger than his still-thin frame would lead one to believe.
Loki steals the stethoscope from Bruce and presses it to Tony's chest, intrigued by the metallic cling it makes against Tony's arc reactor. He repeats this action several times, and just as Tony's going to shoo him out of his personal bubble, Loki wanders back to Bruce. He still walks awkwardly, but it's getting slightly less awkward with each passing hour.
Leading Bruce over to the coffee table, Loki settles on the floor. He runs his fingers over a book's leather spine before leafing through the pages. Tony isn't sure if Loki's eyes can focus enough to read the words yet.
"He's making progress much quicker than a human would," Bruce remarks, and looks at Thor. "I guess that's expected where you're from."
Loki stops turning the pages to watch Bruce intently.
"Monster,"
"He doesn't mean you." Tony assures Bruce quickly. "At least, I don't think so. He's said it before."
It's the only word besides lies that has left Loki's lips since his arrival. This word is usually accompanied by Loki scratching his arms and face, as if he's tracing invisible designs etched on his skin, but monster was also uttered one morning as the sky turned blue.
"He wouldn't be wrong." Bruce mumbles.
"You can work on your self-loathing together," Tony says, because it's clear from the way Loki attacks himself that he's got a fair deal of it, too. "Now, who wants pizza?"
Bruce gestures to the other set of bags he'd brought, which contain vegetables and spices rather than medical supplies, and offers to make curry since he knew Tony would be asking him to stay. "Careful," Tony warns about the glass spice jars, though Loki, surprisingly, leaves them alone.
Loki finds another way to interfere with the meal prep. As Bruce is washing vegetables, Loki turns the tap off. As soon as Bruce turns it back on and resumes his work, it's off again. Loki uses both handles to mess with the temperature, switching between cold and hot as if to keep Bruce on his toes.
As Bruce is sauteing vegetables, another guest arrives.
"You didn't say you invited your mom." Tony accuses Thor, although, truth to be told, he hadn't.
Queen Frigga materializes just as unexpectedly as Thor and Loki had. She carries herself like Pepper does, full of confidence and competence, but she's probably thousands of years older and dressed like she's stepped out of a renaissance fair.
"You did not tell me about Loki," Frigga joins in accusing Thor, who suddenly looks more like a chastised child than an Avenger or prince. Loki huffs a breath that Tony swears is a laugh.
"I had to learn from Heimdall my own son was alive." Frigga's expression softens when she turns to Loki, but Loki does not seem any happier about his mother's arrival than Bruce's and turns back to his book.
Once Frigga touches him, something sparks in his eye and he looks at her as if knowing she's real. Even that doesn't last long, as Loki shuffles off to mess with the sink again.
"You will always be my son." Frigga promises, as Loki watches the water run over his pale, thin hand.
Bruce announces that dinner is ready.
Loki circles the table like a hawk but doesn't join the meal. He snatches food from people's plates and knocks away any bite Thor is about to take. Thor seems to be at war with himself, losing patience but not wanting to snap at his long-lost brother.
Even Frigga looks taken aback by Loki's behavior, mentioning he'd always had better manners than Thor, save when he was up to mischief.
When Loki pushes Thor's whole plate off the table, Thor sighs heavily. Loki walks away as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. He plucks a tomato from Tony's plate and crushes it so juice runs over the table.
"Can you help him, Mother?" Thor asks, tone clearly indicating that he believes she can fix everything.
Tony rolls his eyes as he bats Loki's hand away from his food. "You can't just snap your fingers and erase the effects of who knows how long in a void."
Tony quickly takes another bite before he blurts out or three months in a cave.
Someone asked where Frigga was, and since I was so used to not having her in my other fics, it hadn't occurred to me to have her show up here. But as this chapter probably made clear, she can't magically change everything, even if Loki did feel her magic.