Soooo... *coughs* Please do pardon the late update :3
Tony woke before Loki, momentarily forgetting the god was curled around him, and stretched out, yawning. A long hand grabbed his shoulder as Loki nearly slipped from the bed, grumbling incoherently as he too yawned and rubbed the sleep from his eyes with his other hand. Blinking at him blearily, the god narrowed his eyes as Tony smirked at him, then pushed him, hard, off the edge of the bed. Tony landed on his butt with a thump and a muttered, "Oof…" Loki snorted, before pulling the thin cover over himself and curling back up, closing his eyes. Tony harrumphed. Loki was definitely someone who hated being woken up in the mornings. He stood up and looked around, then noted the plate and smoothie on Loki's vacant bed. Fury must have come in earlier and dropped them off. He wandered over, stretching his legs as he did so, and examined the smoothie. It looked like strawberry, again. And the plate… Usually Fury brought Tony some buttered toast, but today it was piled high with strawberries. Big, red, perfectly ripe strawberries. He picked one of the top and sampled it. Sweet perfection. Fury had great taste in strawberries. He licked his lips and picked another strawberry off the pile – the biggest one. He crept up to Loki and waved it enticingly under his nose, before squashing the cut end of the strawberry onto the tip of his nose. Loki's hand shot up and grabbed Starks wrist, forcing him to drop the strawberry, before releasing him and fumbling around for the strawberry.
Loki opened his eyes as his fingers closed around it, and Tony cocked his head, grinning down at him. The god spared him a small glare before sniffing the strawberry, then taking a small nibble from it. Tony watched carefully, almost waiting for Loki to set the strawberry aside with a grimace. But instead, the poor strawberry was slowly devoured. "I love strawberries…" the god sighed. "There's more," Tony said, eyes sparkling with some sort of relief and an unnameable joy at seeing Loki eating properly for the first time in… Too long. The god hummed briefly then sat and looked around, before spotting the pile of strawberries. Tony grabbed two and handed one to Loki, watching him nibble gently at it for a while, before he ate his own in a few bites. Fury entered the room as Loki was beginning his third strawberry, and Tony saw his eyes were light as he noted Loki eating the strawberries. "how are you?" Fury asked them quietly. Tony looked inside himself, searching for an answer, and found it in the strange lightness that filled the pit of shame he'd felt inside himself, shame and guilt for succumbing to himself and taking those stupid pills. Because Loki wasn't blaming him for it, for any of it. Then he looked at Loki, who had a quiet light in his eyes as he paused his eating, and it was for both of them that he answered, "Better." Fury nodded, smiling slightly, then pursed his lips in thought. "You can move back to your own rooms, if you like," he told them. Tony's eyes brightened at the thought of his big double bed and lovely, warm covers. As well as the soft mattress. "but still with the non-negotiable bed rest," Fury added. "At least for Loki. Your throat is better?" he inquired softly. The god nodded. "Yes, Director. My thanks." Fury nodded. "And the knee?" he persisted. Loki stood up and walked around the room. His limp was there, and it wasn't subtle, but… "There is no pain. Sometimes, a little twinge, but otherwise, none," he announced. Fury sniffed then nodded. "You can move, then. I'll ask Nurse to give you the medication… Whenever it is you need it." Tony was pretty sure Fury had found out and committed to memory the exact times Loki was to be given tablets for his throat and knee, but Loki was nodding anyway, a slight smile upon his face as he sat down, putting his half-eaten strawberry back on the plate.
Fury left, telling them they could move whenever they wished. They sat together in silence for a while, feeling time tick by. Minutes passed and neither of them made a move, just sitting together for a while, a brief moment of peace, an oasis in the struggle of living. Tony stood after that and offered Loki a hand up. He took it, his scars scraping against Tony's own. A brief moment and then he pulled himself up, and another brief moment before he let go again. The nurse came in, shattering their calm. She was rather plump and motherly, and had no shortage of a brusque, brutal attitude. She gave Loki a slightly disapproving look and he blinked at her owlishly. "Fury spoke to me," she sniffed, and if there was any lack of disapproval in her gaze it was more than made up for by her tone. Loki offered her a brief, sheepish smile, before his eyes widened and his leg abruptly buckled underneath him. The nurse was immediately at his side, gripping his arm in what must have been a rather painful grip. She tutted and let go as Loki got his leg underneath himself again. She only let go when Loki brushed her off and limped a few steps towards Tony, glaring silently at nothing in particular before he turned around to face Nurse. Nurse shook her head. "Well. Less walking, more resting. I'd rather keep you here for a few days more, but…" she trailed off and turned around, no doubt muttering foul curses about Fury under her breath. Moments later she had a needle ready with Loki's painkiller. He narrowed his eyes and turned away as she injected it into his arm with a grip like a vice. Tony winced on Loki's behalf, understanding what was going on in his mind as he grimaced and shuddered - once Nurse's back was turned. Tony walked up to him and nodded to the door, a silent invitation to leave. Loki nodded, turning, and Nurse caught onto the movement, looking back at them. "Go! Shoo! Before I decide to lock the doors and ban Fury from the tower!" He and Loki nodded, slight smiles quirking up, and left rather hurriedly.
In his room, Tony heading of to his own. Loki shut the door quietly and looked around. A rather large bed, wooden. The mattress was too soft, but he'd put up with it the few times he'd slept here – too exhausted to care. There was an empty bookshelf next to it that he was fairly certain hadn't been there before. He'd have to look at asking Tony for a few books to fill them – Midgardian literature, from what he remembered, was quite exquisite. He would look forwards to reading more of it. He limped over to the bed and sat down, feeling the drug in his veins beginning to induce a strange drowsiness in him. He hated the feeling of it, hated the feeling of being forced to sleep. He rubbed his knee, cursing at the slight twinge. It had only buckled a few times, but it had been rather painful today, probably due to the amount of time yesterday he'd spent pacing around the small hospital room. The drowsiness threatened to take him over, and he shivered slightly. The room wavered around him and he squeezed his eyes shut, taking deep breaths. He felt as if he were balancing a fine wire strung in mid-air – one wrong move and the memories threatened to overtake him, or worse, he would fall asleep and the memories would be tangled in his dreams, and he'd be forced to endure them until the painkiller had run it's course. He swallowed dryly and kept on breathing, but a rising tidal wave of panic swept over him, trying to knock him off his wire. "JARVIS, could you ask for Tony, pl…" he trailed off, barely hearing his own voice anymore, but feeling rather stupid for asking for Tony at the first brush of memories. He kept his gaze fixed on the wall by the door, fighting his internal battle, and his cheeks heated somewhat as Tony poked his head into the room. "Loki?" he asked softly. "Sorry…" Loki murmured, "It's nothing…" even though he couldn't contain a small shiver as the world lurched around him. Tony walked towards him and Loki wanted to tell him it was fine, he could go, but his body betrayed him and struggled to stand, left leg bursting with bright fireworks of pain and buckling almost as soon as he stood. His eyes glimmered with confusion and fear as he realized he was losing, losing the battle deep within himself. Tony still smelled of almonds, he thought to himself, as the mortal wrapped strong arms around him, holding him tightly. He rested his head on Tony's shoulder and breathed in and out, letting go of the wire and holding instead to the faint scent of almonds and the feel of Tony's arms around him. Three breaths, four, and the sea of memories ebbed away, and he could relax, eddies of darkness sweeping in as the painkiller pushed him into sleep that his still-battered body was all too glad to descend into.
Tony lowered him onto the bed and sat next to him, scrubbing his face. Memories of his own flashed through his mind and he groaned softly, his breath catching as he grabbed at his wrist. Not just of his own pain, but of seeing Loki thrust into his cell broken and battered, bleeding and nearly dead just so that he didn't have to suffer. The times later on, where Tony had had to crawl, literally crawl, over to Loki because they were both unable to stand, bowing under the weight of the pain that had shot through their bodies. Returning to the cell after Oriax had finished with him, the first time Loki hadn't been there, and through a blurring vision, seeing the horror, the anguish, the guilt in Loki's face, seeing him struggle to lift himself so he might move closer to Tony, hearing his cry of pain as he collapsed, still reaching for Tony. He remembered it and oh, it was shooting through his skull, a lance of star heated iron pulsing through his mind, burning, destroying… He came back to himself in a sudden, disorienting rush as he heard the door open. Hastily, he stoof to greet Natasha as she walked in. Her quick glance probably told her all that had occurred, knowing Natasha. She blinked at him, ignoring his muttered and more than slightly awkward, "Hi…" Instead, she cocked her head and looked him over in a rather assessing manner. She extended a hand and waved him over, turning and leaving the room. He followed, curious, as she led him into the common room.
He had to stifle a laugh as he walked in, holding it back with a rather surprised cough. Steve was cleaning an extremely, unusually messy kitchen… While wearing pink, floral oven gloves. Natasha shrugged. "It was the only way he could get out of a boxing match with me." She smiled sweetly at Steve. "Am I right?" Steve cast a sidelong glance at her and muttered some incoherent threat. Her smile only widened. "What… Happened?" he asked of the mess, brow furrowed. Natasha sniffed. "Pancake competition." No elaboration. Tony narrowed his eyes. Steve was tidying the mess… Because Nat had threatened to beat him to a pulp… Which meant… "You lost!" he realized, a vicious grin spreading across his face. "Hah!" he laughed, as Nat's silence provided all the confirmation necessary. "Who was the judge?" he asked after a moment's thought. "Fury," muttered Nat. Tony almost choked at the idea o Fury judging a pancake contest – then again, he was one of the only people who might dare let Natasha lose. Nat just sniffed and turned away, settling down on the far end of the table. She jerked her head at him, beckoning him over. He went and sat next to her. She leaned in to him, and murmured quietly, "Some things, Tony, you can't just bottle up." He glanced at her. Nat had probably gone through some pretty rough stuff, and was the person, of all those he knew, that probably came closest to understanding what he and Loki had gone through. So he stayed quiet and looked at her, a little of the helplessness he felt unconsciously showing in his face. "You need to talk about it," she carried on. "To me, or Bruce…" Tony had already started shaking his head slightly. "Or," she hastily amended, "Just talk to Loki. And let him talk to you. I have…" A momentary pause and a shadow flitting across Nat's face before, "Some things are best kept to yourself, but not this. I know, trust me in this. I know." She nodded to him and stood. "I'll try," Tony whispered as she began to leave. She turned back and smiled gently at him. He smiled back. He would try, he told himself, vowed to himself. For Loki's sake, at least.