"My head is killing me," Clint rasped, eyeing the unappealing greenish-gray mixture in his glass suspiciously. "This looks disgusting."
Natasha took a sip of her smoothie. "The quality is not limited to looks," she judged.
Tony scoffed, stuffed the rest of the kale and cherry tomatoes into the blender and turned it on. "It works like a charm! Trust me, I'm an expert!" he yelled over the noise.
"You brought it on yourselves," Bruce chirped cheerfully, blowing the steam off his teacup. He looked well-rested and refreshed, unlike her, or Clint or Tony… She wasn't sure at which point he became Tony and not Stark in her head, the details were rather blurry, but it happened somewhere between the third and the fourth bottle, that she was rather certain of.
"Have anyone seen Rogers?" Clint asked, took a gulp and made a face.
"He sneaked out at like six in the morning," Tony said. "At least so Jarvis says. I've barely fallen asleep by then."
A sudden realization smacked her across the face and terror gripped her heart and squeezed her throat. How could she even… "Where's Loki?"
Tony shrugged. "Jay?"
"Mr. Odinson is in his room."
She let out a relieved breath. So, she didn't lose the alien she'd been charged with watching over because she got shitfaced on some billionaire's awesome booze. That had to amount to something.
"Although, he appears to be in a need of assistance," Jarvis added, his voice as level as always and she wasn't sure if she should be alarmed or not. She settled on wariness for now.
Tony's brows furrowed. "Assistance how?
"My sensors detect he is running a mild fever. It's below the threshold that would require immediate medical attention, but he hasn't left the bed since early morning hours."
"Why didn't you call it in earlier?"
"According to the privacy protocols you set up for the guest rooms, calling you in requires an utmost emergency or an explicit request from the resident. Mr. Odinson refused when I suggested it. Quite profusely, if I might add."
Tony sighed and rubbed his chin. "So, in short, I now have an alien who might be coming down with some space plague in my guest room. I wonder how I'm going to explain that to Doctor Maxwell…"
"I could take a look," Bruce offered then blushed when every gaze dashed to him. "I mean, I worked as a physician for the last three years and I know a thing or two. I know he's an alien and all, but maybe it's truly nothing serious?"
"You're a life savior!" Tony exclaimed, then flustered. "I mean, it can't hurt, right?" He poured his cocktail into a glass, drained it in a couple of long gulps, groaned in displeasure and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "So, shall we?"
They stopped by Loki's door as Bruce went to retrieve his bag. Clint stayed downstairs, which was probably the best call, but Tony insisted he needed to be there as he was the host and he needed to know what's going on in his home. She suspected he was simply curious.
She knocked and listened for a reply, but none came.
"Besides, if it's really some deadly space virus we are all goners anyway," Tony added with a grin. He was keeping his tone low, as the doors were not soundproof. She wondered how much good it was doing. Thor's hearing was better than the human one and there's was no reason to suspect it wasn't the same for Loki.
Well, apparently not good enough to hear a knock. "It's me, Natasha!" she called and rapped her knuckles on the wood panel again, then turned to Tony. "We don't know that. Maybe it's something uniquely Asgardian?"
Tony shrugged, not noticing, or just ignoring the glaring mistake in her logic. Loki had been away from home for a while and if it really was some space illness, it already had jumped species once.
"I'm coming in!" she said and pushed the door open.
Loki was still in bed, just like Jarvis had said. He was lying curled on his side, the covers kicked aside. The hair that tumbled out from under the hood of the white bathing robe he was wearing obscured his face, but from the even tempo his chest rose and fell with it looked like he was sleeping.
She stepped closer and placed her hand on his shoulder.
He turned his head sharply and his eyes dashed around, wide, and disoriented and bleary, then he scrambled back and away from her, until the headboard stopped his retreat.
"Hey, it's just me," she said, quietly and sat down on the edge of the bed.
He looked up at her and his eyes focused, slowly. They looked pale green and she couldn't say if it was just a trick of light or if someone made a mistake by putting his eye color as 'blue' in his file before.
He did a second take of the room and let out a relieved sigh.
"That's right, you're safe here," she said then reached out to touch his knee.
He jerked away, pulling his legs to his chest. There were beads of sweat on his forehead, gluing his hair to his skin, and he looked even paler than before, however that was even possible.
"Jarvis says you're not feeling too well," she tied.
He stared at her for a moment and brushed hair away from his face. "I'm fine," he rasped and fought to suppress a shudder.
"Mhm, I can tell," she said with a smirk.
Bruce entered the room. Loki wrapped his robe closer around his torso and scrambled to get up. He got to the edge of the bed and swung his legs down but hesitated before he pushed himself up.
The marks on his legs looked like they had faded a bit, but the metal band of the ankle tracker looked just as wrong as yesterday.
"No, there's no need for that," Bruce said and carefully placed his bag on the bedside table. "It's better if you stay in bed for now, until we find out what's wrong."
"I'm fine," Loki said again, and it sounded even less convincing than before. "I have to…"
He tried getting up, but his legs gave way and he collapsed back onto the bed, panting.
"What you need is to let me examine you," Bruce said sternly. "Come on, lie down."
"I can't, I need to be ready to…" Loki tried, his voice slurry and brittle around the edges. His fingers furled and unfurled in his lap and his eyelids fell.
"It's okay," she said, her hand steadying his shoulder. He tensed under her touch, then slumped and let out a dejected huff. "It's not your fault you're sick."
"It is," he whispered, and at this point, he sounded barely lucid. "I was always weak."
Tony shifted from one foot to the other where he stood by the door but saved whatever witty comment he had for some other occasion.
Bruce grabbed Loki's arm and guided him down, back into a lying position, and Loki didn't fight him. He curled up, with his arms clutching his chest. Bruce reached for his bag, then froze halfway through the motion. His eyes fell to the vial that was left on the table. He picked it up and studied the label. "Is that yours?"
Loki's eyelids fluttered open, and he looked up at Bruce, half-surprised, half-annoyed and full-on scared. He opened his mouth to speak, then closed them, without saying anything.
"The doctor gave it to Loki, back on the Helicarrier," Natasha provided. "It's some sort of a painkiller, I think."
"Yeah, and a damn strong one." He rattled the vial and his brows furrowed. "How many did you take?"
Loki didn't answer, just turned his head and pressed his face to the pillow.
Bruce ran a hand through his hair. "Hmm."
"What's wrong?" she asked.
"I'm not sure. Loki, when did you take the last pill?"
"Yesterday," he murmured into the pillow and stifled a soft moan. "It works only for a while."
Bruce took in a careful breath, slowly taking in Loki's injuries, the marks around his ankles, the long gashes – that Natasha guessed were results of bloodletting torture as they were too deep and too irregular to be anything else – the bruises around his wrists and neck, the abrasions on his jaw. "You took it for the pain."
Loki turned his head just to glower at Bruce. It seemed to take a lot of effort. "Isn't it what it is for?"
"Some people would use opioids to…" Bruce shook his head. "Never mind that."
"I was told to take it," Loki added, "when I needed it."
"And you needed a whole bottle, just yesterday?"
Loki gritted his teeth and his nostrils flared. "Yes," he breathed, so quietly she got it more from the movement of his lips than from the sound.
"Is it all right if I examine you?"
Loki closed his eyes again and a shiver ran through his body that he didn't even try to suppress this time. "What for?" he mumbled.
"Uhm, so we might figure out what's wrong and try some treatment? If human painkillers work on you, there's a chance the antibiotics would too if this is some sort of infection. You can tell me more about your biology, and we will find something that will help make you better. Something less dangerous for pain relief, too. Okay?"
The wrinkle between Loki's eyebrows deepened and he pushed himself up on his elbow, just to fall flat back on the bed with an exasperated groan. "You want to know my secrets and my weaknesses to control me better," he said matter-of-factly, without looking at Bruce.
Bruce pinched the bridge of his nose. "No, Loki, I want to help you," he sighed.
Loki blinked, confused. "Why?"
"Uhm, because you need it?"
Loki's hands were trembling, so he laced his fingers and pressed his palms together. His lips pulled into a thin line and his eyes grew wide, as his gaze drifted between Bruce, Tony and Natasha.
She gave him an encouraging nod.
He let out a wavery breath, then nodded, very slightly.
"Okay then. We will start with a quick interview, then I'll have to draw your blood for testing," Bruce said, pulling a stethoscope out of his bag. "You two, out," he added.
"But…" Tony started.
"Out," Bruce repeated, calmly but sternly, and urged him on with a glare.
Tony made a face, turned away and walked out. She stood up, just to stop a step away from the bed. "Hey, Loki?"
"Hmm?"
"Fury won't be mad at you for this. He can be hard on people, but he won't hold falling ill against you."
Loki's resentful glare chased after her when she was leaving the room.
Bruce returned to the lounge a couple of hours later. He'd been making rounds between Loki's room and Tony's lab for the good part of it. He sat down at the bar and rested his head on his palms.
"What's up?" Tony prompted.
Bruce shook his head in dejection. "I'm not sure I should be talking about this."
"Huh?"
"Doctor-patient confidentiality?"
"Oh, that old thing," Tony said rolling his eyes. "Should it even work? He's not human and that's a human rule, right?"
"Tony…"
"I'm joking!"
Bruce sighed. "I asked him if I can tell you and he agreed, but I don't think he knew that he could've said no."
"Come on, I can see it's something terrible just from the look in your eyes. Are we in danger? Should we call somebody in?"
"It's not like that…" Bruce closed his eyes, giving in. "Did you know Loki is not of the same species as Thor?"
Natasha blinked at him, surprised. "No. I mean Thor did tell us he was adopted, but nothing more. How did you find out?"
"I tried cross-referencing his blood results with what Tony liberated from SHIELD after New Mexico and it didn't make any sense, so I started asking questions and he yielded, in the end. He seemed pretty incoherent at that point. Apparently, Odin took him from some other planet when he was still a baby."
Tony whistled. "So, we made a contact not with one, but with two other alien races. All in one day!"
"That's not the only thing he said. Apparently, this is not how he truly looks like and it's some magic that changed his appearance. Which makes using the results we got from Thor moot twice over."
Tony's eyes were wide, and he was grinning. "Nice!"
Bruce shook his head. "He says his true skin is, and I quote, that of a mindless beast."
Tony clapped Bruce on the shoulder. "You'll have stuff to talk about over dinner then!"
She glowered at Tony. "It's not funny," she rebuked.
"It kinda is," Tony muttered under his breath. "So, did you find out what's wrong with him?"
Bruce shook his head again, this time with even more dejection. "The fever is much higher than we initially thought, because his natural body temperature is lower than ours, but it's not an infection I can identify, nor an injury. I mean, yes, he looks like he's been put through a chaffcutter, but he's healing and it's better than it was yesterday. It feels like… Like his body just gave up."
"Fuck," Tony summed up. "Something psychosomatic then?"
"That's my guess. I didn't drill for details, but from what we've heard before it was a few hard months for him. I'd assume that sort of ordeal causes an immense amount of stress. It might not be a coincidence that he felt sick only when he found himself in a safe place."
"Is there anything we can do?"
"I gave him some trazodone to help with the anxiety and sleeping and put him on a drip with some mild analgesics. Other than that? A regular diet and a lot of rest for the next few days and maybe he could fight off the worst of it on his own."
"That seems doable," Tony said with a smile, turned around and opened the fridge. "Well, I better tell Jarvis to order some groceries then."
Bruce turned to her. "You should talk with Fury. Loki seems convinced that SHIELD will lock him up if he couldn't prove his worth for them immediately. I don't know for sure if it would help but it definitely wouldn't hurt if Fury came over and talked to him. Or something."
She sighed. "That's not really Fury's style. And he might want Loki taken in to the SHIELD medical facilities. I'd wait with calling him in until we have no other choice, if it's really a stress-induced illness, it would be better if Loki stayed here."
Bruce hummed in agreement.
She ran her hand through her hair. "It isn't what I signed up for," she said.
"And what did you sign up for?" Bruce asked with a raise of an eyebrow.
"Not sure. But definitely not this."