Night Terror

Chapter 2

It was not without struggle to get the trickster to the bed-and Tony only realized this when the demigod squirmed painfully in his arms as he dragged him over the flooring and to the white sheets.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, it's okay, you're going to be okay," Tony couldn't help but mutter softly to his fallen teammate, hoping internally that what he was saying was true and not just hopelessly bright sentiments.

When he was finally able to hoist his body onto the bed, Loki let out a rattling cough of blood that shook his body vehemently and of which he then choked on as it flung back into his throat viciously.

Tony immediately shoved the demigod's weight to the side so that he didn't continue to aspirate on his fluids, and Loki couldn't help but let out a pained whimper again.

"I'm really, really sorry, buddy," Tony apologized, feeling so utterly useless and helpless and afraid. "Jesus," he exhaled, waiting until Loki's breaths eased and his shoulders shook less, not completely, but less before sliding him again onto his back.

"Jarvis run a scan, will you?" Tony barked at the AI, his worry coming out into anger at all the wrong places.

Jarvis mentioned his ascension as a scan was quickly run over Loki's form.

The AI sounded grim as he reported, "Sir, Loki appears to be suffering from multiple stab wounds of an unknown weapon. His left lung is collapsed, his clavicle is broken and he appears to have significant head trauma. I also notice internal bleeding surrounding his abdomen, a knife plunged deep into his right kidney and hemorrhaging occurring in his spleen."

Tony couldn't help the pins and needles that broke out of his central nervous system then and the goosebumps that raised the hairs on the back of his neck and arms.

"Additionally, sir, it appears that Loki's heart rate is too high with his blood pressure bottoming out, likely requiring a blood transfusion as soon as possible."

Tony, frozen in further amounts of shock, blinked slowly.

"This is a dream," he said in a hollow tone. "This is just a dream." Tears welled up in his eyes as he looked blankly at Loki's shape, writhing and falling in and out of consciousness due to the hefty extent of his injuries.

"Sir," Jarvis prodded carefully. "I do insist that you act quickly if you wish to save him."

"It's just a dream. This isn't happening." Tony insisted in doubt, hand unbeknownst to him, already reaching out for one of Loki's hands, covered in blood and shaking.

The cold touch of his skin made Tony's crawl as perspiration gathered in his armpits and Tony bit back a heaving sob.

"Loki?" He questioned, fully expecting no response as his mind already saw the inevitable death of his partner flashing before his eyes in nearly a thousand different ways.

Would it be simpler to just let him go now? If Tony did nothing, would it-would it be more merciful?

More tears came to his eyes, knowing what Loki would want yet knowing that it wasn't in any ounce of the inventor to do it for him.

Besides, Loki had come to him, come to the tower, came for help. He must have known what Tony's decision would have been, even if they had been apart with no message of return or thanks for the last several weeks.

Surprisingly to the philanthropist, Loki's green eyes parted open just for the smallest of moments. His eyes danced in their sockets, pleadingly looking upon the mortal with so much pain and emotion that Tony felt his heart skip a beat.

Tony couldn't help but immediately whisper, "You're gonna be okay."

Loki's eyes shut again before he rasped, "Liar."

It was something in the pain of his voice and the crisis of the situation that woke Tony Stark back up to his core.

"Jarvis, get Bruce in here ASAP and get Cap to grab the medical supplies. We're gonna have to deal with this shit here."

Tony rolled up his sleeves and flicked on the nearby light, leaning over Loki with care before planting a small kiss on his bloodied cheek. If Tony wasn't continuing to imagine shit, he could have sworn that Loki's lips upturned mildly before he zoomed out of the picture again.

~**!**~

"What about the knife?" Tony stammered in confusion, leaning on the side of his mattress as Bruce was busy hooking up a blood bag of O negative and finding, with slight difficulty, a vein in Loki's arm.

The crew had arrived a few minutes after Tony was busy taking off Loki's clothing as delicately as possible. Their shock and somber facial features flew him for a loop before Bruce nodded to him in what he thought was hope and set to work. Cap stood by the bed to be Bruce's right man as Tony couldn't help but feel detached and broken in this situation.

Bruce had managed to re-inflate Loki's lung with a spindly tube and was continuing to assess the rest of his injuries per Jarvis's holograms and overall helpfulness.

"We leave it in for now until we can get his bleeding otherwise stabilized." Bruce said evenly, glancing over to Cap before instructing him, "We need more blood, anesthesia and surgical supplies. Think you can handle that?" It would have been a cruel retort if Bruce wasn't looking at Cap expectantly, knowing the super soldier was quick on his feet and even quicker with carrying supplies back and forth.

He turned immediately on his heel and hurried out of the room.

Tony couldn't stop a sniffle from operating out of his sinus cavities and Bruce's brown eyes easily found his.

"How are you holding up?" Bruce asked, tampering absentmindedly with the equipment that they did have already in Tony's bedroom.

"You know, shitty." Tony remarked, pausing for a moment. "Not as shitty as Loki but still not great, either."

He swallowed with uncertainty and anxiety pouring out of his bones.

"We're gonna do the best we can for him," Bruce worded carefully, looking through to Tony's soul.

The inventor hiccupped, shame overriding his system.

"You would think, after everything that happened, that I'd-I'd feel differently about him but the bastard just has this really snakelike ability to worm his way into your heart." He sobbed for a second, heart aching in his chest about what would happen if Loki didn't…didn't…

"We'll do everything we can," Bruce repeated, tone soft and eyes determined.

"I know," Tony breathed. "I just hope that that will be enough."

Tears shone in his eyes again but Bruce was already a step ahead of him.

"Go downstairs and we'll call you when we're done with the surgery."

It was Bruce's kindest way of kicking him out of the room so on the off-chance, or the real chance, that Loki flat-lined, Tony wouldn't have to be around to witness it. Bruce also had a sneaking suspicion that too much blood spilling out of his partner's body would cause Tony to vomit uncontrollably and they really couldn't risk the emotional trauma that would leave on the inventor and the very real possibility that it would contaminate the room.

Tony hesitated, as Bruce knew he would, but continued instead, "Wake up the assassins to keep you company. Try to relax and I know you won't, but keep busy anyways. We'll let you know when he's done."

The inventor nodded, almost agreeing, almost wanting to stay, but he leaned over Loki again and clasped his cold hand in his. Unashamed in front of his teammate, he breathed in the scent of Loki's blood (which was pretty ew, by the way) and the warmer air that came quickly out of his parted lips. He could just faintly make out the scent of vanilla that always emanated from Loki's form and he placed a soft, dry kiss upon the trickster's lips. Tony closed his eyes momentarily, imagining the last time they had been cuddling together, and wishing to the heavens that he'd get that chance again.

Having his eyes closed felt like none of this was really happening, like it was happening in an alternate universe, thousands of miles away, on another planet, somewhere far, far away. With his eyes closed it was like they were back together on that sandy beach, or the time they would cuddle in this very bed and Loki would listen to the hum of the arc reactor in Tony's chest and Tony would listen to the soothing beat of Loki's heart. Even with Loki's body being colder than Tony's he'd find it pleasing and comforting all the same. Loki would comb his fingers through Tony's hair and Tony would be eased into sleep, something he often struggled with when Loki wasn't there or he didn't have someone with him to get him through the night in general.

"Tony," Bruce urged, breaking Tony's reverie.

He sighed, before adding another kiss to Loki's flesh, eyes combing over every detail of the trickster so that he wouldn't forget what he looked like in the next several hours then dropped his hand from the demigod and headed towards the door.

Bruce, ever the news bearer uttered before Tony's back left the room, "Someone's going to need to inform Thor."

Tony paused, head turning to the side before saying in reply, "I'll handle it."

As he started down the hall with Cap bursting forth with nearly a hundred supplies, Tony admired to himself, "I needed a scotch anyways." He just hoped the alcohol would take away the jitteriness left in his mortal body and that Thor wouldn't crush him to a pulp.

Some things were worse than others.

~**!**~

Thor, it turned out, was groggy when you tried to wake him up at two-thirty in the morning. Tony also narrowly missed a high strung swing that came barreling for his head by ducking at just the last second, much like Loki always told him to do, and slapped the demigod around a few times in the face before Thor's lids parted and his blue eyes gazed out in confusion at the inventor.

"It's Loki."

Thor, as it were, woke up quickly at the name.

"What's happened?" He asked immediately, swinging his legs off his mattress and pulling along the red dyed sheets with him.

Tony held up a hand to the thunder god's chest, his hands still cold and slimy with blood and sweat.

"Bruce is taking care of him and Cap too," Tony replied, throat suddenly feeling dry and closed off.

"What's happened to my brother, Stark?" Thor demanded, voice becoming hostile and Tony sighed.

"Okay, I really don't need this shit from you right now." He swept a hand through his hair when the thunder god didn't question him further, blue eyes gradually assessing the situation.

"Is that-?" Thor finally asked before Tony could get a word in otherwise.

Tony glanced at his hand, seeing the blood on it for the first time.

He grimaced accordingly.

"He's bad, Thor."

Thor didn't seem to get it or the gears in his head were turning too fast for him to catch what the inventor had said.

"Like, if this is bad," Tony gestured with his left hand in an arbitrary amount into the air, "then Loki's all the way over here in Shit Creek." Tony motioned as far as his right arm would extend, flapping his hand into the air.

"How bad?" Thor asked in such a hushed tone that Tony barely even heard him.

"You really don't want to know the answer to that." Tony shivered at the thought, again approaching Thor as he meant to barrel through the door.

"You can't see him," Tony emphasized. "He's in surgery right now. They're doing everything they can."

"Just like last time when you let him leave?" Thor asked pointedly, tone hardened and cold as he looked with malice at the inventor.

"You still don't like us together?" Tony asked in surprise, thinking Thor had been over this before with Loki enough times that he'd have loosened up by now.

"I have a certain distaste for you, Stark." Thor said evenly, blue eyes narrowed. "My brother has never been wise in making decisions before, I don't expect him to make better ones tomorrow."

"We're not a mistake," Tony said with an edge in his own voice.

Thor looked at him sideways, and then grinned. "Maybe not, but I don't believe you're enough for him."

Tony blinked in surprise, taking one step back.

"And why is that?" The inventor raised his chin in disdain, brown eyes challenging Thor's.

"Because you care; because you'll do everything in your power to save him when it's only up to him to save himself. You can't be there for everyone, and my brother is no exception. He will betray you, or try to, if he hasn't already." With that said, Thor brushed past him easily and into the hallway, disappearing down the long corridor.

Tony stood bristled and torn apart in his soul. Doubts lingered in his own mind as he thought to the last time he'd seen Loki, where the trickster was leaving him without a trace of an effort to contact him, just walking out the door-actually he vanished from an illusion-without another spoken word leaving his lips.

His lips that were now soiled in his own blood, dry air crackling through his lungs out of them and whose overall body was being excavated in surgery on a bed that they once shared together, that they were once intimate upon, that they were once one in.

Tony hadn't felt this alone in years, not since leaving Pepper and then deciding almost spontaneously to divulge into a romantic relationship with the trickster who once brought ruin and destruction onto New York. Their relationship hadn't been easy, not without scrutiny and blame, not without sacrifice and a lot of love.

Tony turned from Thor's room, feeling more depleted and like the air had been sucked out of his lungs with everything that once beat within him as he turned off the light and left.

~**!**~

"And he didn't say anything to you?" Barton asked from his perch on the couch's arm, nestling slightly into Natasha's shoulder.

Tony shook his head, eyes watching Thor from the corner of the room in which he resided.

"It wasn't like he had much he could say," Tony informed, lips turning down into a frown as he thought back to that moment.

"But you don't know where he was when he left?" Barton asked again, either oblivious that this wasn't the time or just unaware of how petty he sounded at that moment.

Tony sighed bitterly, hand swirling his cup of scotch.

"No idea, it's not like he told me much before he left. I don't even know who or what did this to him, but it was cruel and a pointed attempt at ending his life, and that's enough for me to know that I want to wring their neck until they, too, bleed." Tony's gaze unfixed from his glass as he shuddered for the fourth time that day.

Barton nodded, having decided to shut his mouth with nothing further left to say.

"They're doing everything they can," Natasha mused to herself; red hair tussled as she gazed with almost trepidation and a hint of self-awareness at the inventor.

Tony nodded solemnly, "That's what they told me."

"That's what you need to believe," Natasha advised, eyes lacing up and down the inventor's form. "There's nothing we can do for him from here, don't pick yourself apart trying to save him when there's little that you can influence."

Tony shook his head before nodding, standing up to get another drink. He wobbled a little, but caught his balance, before sinking back into the fluffy chair.

"I just don't know what I'd do if-" he began hopelessly, thinking back again to the last conversation they had really had together.

"My brother is resilient," Thor mumbled from the far side of the room. "We know not where he went or who did this to him, but he will tell us in time because it's our best way of protecting him. He will survive this, Stark. Have faith in the universe."

"The universe is what caused this to happen in the first place," Tony replied scathingly.

Thor didn't miss a beat but remained silent instead.

With that, the team fell into awkward silence and then just ordinary silence. The assassins cuddled near each other, Thor paced the room and Tony couldn't quite fight back the sleepiness that shrouded his vision, despite how upset he was emotionally and how valiantly his brain fought to stay awake. Something in him was breaking and it felt okay to just fade away for a moment, so, he did.

~**!**~

"I can't stop the bleeding," Bruce huffed with anxiety, pulling out another bloodied rag from the work field.

"Is it slowing down?" Steve asked in worry, eyes combing over the situation.

"No," Bruce mumbled, gloves coated in blood as he continued his work. He paused briefly. "Well, maybe. I can't tell. There's so much free fluid here that it's hard to see."

He shone a grimace to Steve before ordering another bag of blood. Steve, in return, instructed Jarvis to increase the lights.

"How do we stop it?" Bruce asked aloud, wracking his brain for a moment, trying to figure out the last piece to the puzzle.

"Where's the majority of the bleeding coming from?" Steve asked helpfully, eyeing Bruce and his technique thus far. Bloodied rags lay scattered around them and the IV pole was on the other side of the bed, feeding in new blood to Loki's shocked system, with a tube stuck down his throat to help with his breathing and for the anesthesia to be running in him on the drip.

"The spleen," Bruce replied, sighing for a brief moment. "I was trying to save it but I think we're going to have to remove it. Quick, hand me the scalpel, the harmonic one!"

Steve bounced to do what he was told, quickly handing Bruce the item in question.

"We're gonna need to remove this as fast as we can. I'm not sure his body can take all the medications we're pumping into his system let alone the extensive blood loss." Bruce emptied another rag to the floor, slopping blood onto it with a wet noise. The knife that was once jammed into Loki's kidney sparkled in the light. "We have to pick and choose our battles carefully." Bruce added as an after-thought, quickly going back to work.

"And the head trauma?" Steve asked quietly.

"We'll reassess when we have more information and scans completed. If we're lucky it may just be a severe concussion."

"And if we're not?" Steve immediately questioned which Bruce ignored pointedly.

The hologram that Jarvis had up hovering along the wall said that Loki's blood pressure was beginning to stabilize and a glimmer of hope branched out from the center of Dr. Banner's chest.

As soon as that hope reflated and Bruce had half-removed the overpoweringly bleeding spleen, Loki's vitals dropped, his heart rate increasing to twice its normal rhythm.

"He's crashing!" Steve exclaimed, hurriedly moving over to the side of the bed where they had finally gotten Tony to keep a spare AED.

The shrill ring of a long note that pronounced a death filled the room as the hologram flickered with the image of Loki's heart no longer beating.

"Shit!" Bruce cried out, immediately moving to begin chest compressions when Steve shoved his hands away.

"You work on the spleen, I've got compressions."

Steve's eyes met Bruce's and they both vacated their exhaustion to throw everything they had in being stubbornly determined.

"You don't die today, Loki," Steve murmured, hands interlocked as he pushed his body weight repeatedly into the trickster's chest.

Working together, they bought enough time for Bruce to remove the rebelling organ and gave Steve the chance to successfully restart Loki's heart.

"We're closing," Bruce affirmed, knowing that Steve wouldn't question it. "That's enough for now." He continued, more to himself than to the super soldier.

"We did everything we could," Steve suggested with saddened eyes and lips drawn into a thin line. "That has to be enough."

"The rest is up to him," Bruce confirmed, ripping off his gloves as soon as the last stitches were in.

"What now?" Steve asked, looking for a moment beyond Loki and instead at the rest of the room that he'd forgotten was even there.

"We clean up."

"And the others?"

Bruce sighed, biting his lip nervously. "Let's wait until he's more stable before we say anything."

"You sure that's a good idea?" Steve asked incredulously.

Bruce shrugged, "What other choice do we have?"

Bruce dragged his palms across his closed eyes. "I just want to give him the best chance possible. If that means Tony being left in the dark for an hour then so be it. I'd rather provide him with more hope than to have it snatched away prematurely."

"That's fair." Steve agreed.

"It's responsible." Bruce admitted with eyes downcast in unmasked guilt.

"It just doesn't feel like it," Steve supplied, patting Bruce on the shoulder as he began to clean up the room. "We'll need to transport him to the infirmary." Steve reminded, ever the helpful one.

"Yeah," Bruce muttered under his breath.

"You did well," Steve answered, tossing an empathetic glance to Bruce again.

"You too," Bruce met Steve's eyes again before exhaling loudly and turning to dispose of the rags in what would later be the biohazard bag. For now it was just a lone, wrinkled plastic bag.

The worst is over, Bruce thought, hoping within his soul that this were really true.

~**!**~

He awoke with an unfurled gasp that burst forth from his lungs like a tsunami.

"Where the hell am I?" he asked quickly, breath ragged as he took in the strange environment around him. Instead of Avengers Tower, he was resting on a white, sandy beach. He lifted a pile of sand and watched as the granules fell from between his fingers in such a soothing and relaxing way. The far off blue-green ocean crashed into the wet sand, retreating then returning once again. It was like a hum of whispers had been unleashed and Tony couldn't help but bat away the flies from buzzing around his ears.

"Stark."

He recognized that voice. He knew whose voice that was. With the blue light from his arc reactor in his chest, Tony swiveled around to face his partner.

"Loki," he breathed out all at once.

Immediately, without a second thought, he pulled the trickster to himself in a tight embrace.

Loki, for what it was worth, just rolled his eyes.

"We're not here for condolences." The demigod deadpanned, placing his hands over Tony's shoulders and pulling with force away from him.

"You didn't-?"

Loki sighed, "I'm alive but barely. Why do you think we're here?"

Tony blinked for a moment, staring at every inch of Loki's skin and uncontrolled tears came to his eyes.

"I almost lost you."

Loki heaved a sigh. "Please don't make this about you again." But his tone was soft and he caressed the side of Tony's neck with a cool hand. "If anything is to happen, please don't come after me."

Tony automatically began to protest.

"No, Loki, I-"

Loki raised a finger to Tony's lips.

"Shhh, mortal. You do not know what you're dealing with." Loki frowned, eyes becoming sad. "I do not need you perishing after me. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if anything were to happen to you. Granted, I wouldn't be living anyways, but…"

"What are you saying?" Tony asked dumbfounded.

"I'm saying that I'm trying to protect you."

"By leaving without a word or a trace on how to find you?" Tony asked, hurt coloring his vision.

"I did it so you wouldn't get hurt."

"Hurt by whom?"

"For loving me. If he knew about you, if anything were to happen to you because of me…" He trailed off, eyes shining in inner turmoil.

"So you left instead of opening up a dialogue about it and letting me know where you were going only to show up near death in my bedroom in the middle of the night?" Tony shook his head in disbelief. "So much for protecting me. How could you even think to protect me if you couldn't even protect yourself?"

"I could have handled it," Loki hissed lowly, eyes narrowing.

"And that's worked out so well for you, clearly." Tony replied sarcastically.

"Stark, this isn't the point!"

"Then what is the point? Because you're doing a terrible job at trying to protect me without having any regards for yourself which isn't a good way at trying to keep me safe. You know that I love you-"

"I don't know why." Loki interrupted but Tony continued.

"-and if this relationship is going to work we have to have open communication with each other. Where were you? Where did you go? Who did this to you?" Tony looked at him seriously, eyes watering again.

"I can't tell you that." Loki uttered softly. "If I do, you'll try to find him and he will kill you."

"Because keeping it to yourself worked wonders." Tony admonished, brow rising in question.

"Stark," Loki warned. "I need to do this by myself."

"Well, what exactly were you trying to do?" Tony stuck out a finger and poked Loki in the chest. "We're a team now; you don't have to walk this alone. When are you going to listen to me and believe in this?"

Loki tilted his head, eyes roaming around Tony's face. He leaned in, placing a soft kiss on his lips which Tony quickly reciprocated. Tony's eyelids fell shut as the kiss deepened and Loki only pulled away to breathe, forehead touching Tony's as he whispered.

"His name is Thanos. But promise me you won't try to find him on your own. Not until I am strong again. Not until I awaken." His hand rested on Tony's cheek, kissing him kindly once more.

"Why does he hate you?" Tony questioned, still trying to understand what was happening.

"He wanted the Tesseract. When I didn't bring it to him he wanted revenge. The Other told about me, he was the one who showed me the power and knowledge that came with wielding the cube. He wants those lessons back. I know too much. It endangers him."

"But you and Thor brought the Tesseract back to Asgard. Why would he choose now to dispose of you?"

"Because he knows where I really hid it and he will stop at nothing to get what he feels he deserves."

Loki coughed and sputtered for a moment, eyes becoming heavy, as blood began to seep again from the wounds that littered his body.

"Whoa, are you okay?" Tony grasped onto Loki's shoulders, keeping him upright as best as he can.

"I grow weary, Stark. The magic it takes to conjure you here is taxing on my physical body." He swallowed, mouth dry. "It will be a few days before I wake. When I do, I want to see you. I want to picture us here again. Nothing but the moon and sun on our backs." He smiled, pleased with his mind's imaginings.

"I love you, Tony Stark. Cherish that as no other being has ever won my love so easily before." He nestled into Tony's arms, coughing lightly and nearly fading into unconsciousness. Before he went, he heard Tony whisper:

"I'll be there when you wake up. Nothing will stop me from being there for you, Reindeer Games. Not even you."

And with that, Loki drifted off, becoming one with the waves and sliding into the warm cocoon of his inventor.

A/N: Heeeeeyyyy you guys! Look what I updated! You probably didn't think I'd be writing for this story again as it's been 2 years since Chapter 1 but over the weekend I was adding my stories from onto AO3 and I really enjoyed this one so I set to work on it and ta-da! Here it is. I made it especially long for you guys to really enjoy it and to make up a little for the long hiatus. The nice thing about new stories is that they're so spankin' new I have more freedom with it than usual.

That said, this story's plot isn't well defined yet, the medical stuff may not be super accurate, Thor's more of a jerk than usual (it surprised myself too, also, sorry Thor!) and there's a LOT more FrostIron really in your face but I love it all the same. :D

Hope your feels are still intact! This chapter was written with Sum 41's "Crash" in the background on 3/10 & 3/11/2019.

Thank you for reading and leave me your thoughts in a review! Take care. xxx

Also, I of course don't own these characters, just the plot! :] Let me know if anything was too OOC by the way. D: