On the big flat screen TV in the tower's penthouse's living room, an action movie was playing. Except for that it was unusually quiet, as the two in front of it had stopped snarking at each other. Tony hadn't noticed at first, it hadn't been an abrupt end, it had just slowly gotten less and less until it was no more. Now he was suspicious. Loki being quiet for this long couldn't be good. He turned to his 'guest' and what he saw wasn't what he'd expected. Loki wasn't staring into nothing and plotting their demise. He was lying on the couch, sleeping like anyone else would after an exhausting week.
Really, they'd all been lucky that repairing the tower had not taken more than a week. Had Loki stayed any longer in that SHIELD cell, who knows what ideas Fury would've come up with that could've made the god snap.
Asgard had some problems so they couldn't take Loki yet. No one else had the recourses that it took to actually keep the god for a longer period of time and they didn't want to ship him across the country as it would give him lots of opportunities to escape, so Stark Tower it was. Though even he wasn't sure if the magic blocking device and the Tower's security could keep him forever, that's why it was good that Asgard would come pick him up at some point in time. Hopefully. They didn't seem too eager to have him back, Tony had noticed. Except Thor, of course.
So, the god was sleeping on his couch. Or he looked like was, maybe he was only pretending to be sleeping and actually was planning an escape and a world conquering. Tony scooted closer, trying to make the least noise possible. When he was close enough that his leg almost touched Loki's head, he tapped his finger against the god's forehead. Nothing changed, so Tony was quite sure his 'guest' was asleep. He looked almost peaceful like this, and so much younger. Like he was a bit above twenty and not more than a thousand years old. He also looked less exhausted, and less traumatised. For some reason it made Tony smile. He understood somewhat, he'd been happy about any bit of nightmare free sleep after Afghanistan. He was again now, but those were slightly different circumstances. He turned so he sat sideways on the couch, his legs crossed infront of him, to get a better look a Loki. His shoulder long hair was quite disheveled. Without really knowing what he was doing, his finger began to carefully comb through it, between strokes sometimes lightly scratching the skull.
"You know, sometimes I'm almost sure, that you didn't actually want to conquer earth. That someone somehow made you do it. You didn't look like you'd had a good time wherever you were before you came. But then you say things like 'you ants deserve only to be destroyed! I am granting you mercy by ruling you and helping you achieve order' and I forget all of that and see you for what you seem to be and become angry. That's a mask though, isn't it? I don't quite understand why, but you're hiding who you really are." Tony was quiet for a while, just massaging the god's head. He'd realized by now what his hands were doing, but he saw no reason to stop. It felt nice and Loki was asleep anyway.
"There is something bigger out there, isn't there? I felt it when I was on the other side of that hole in the sky. It looked like I destroyed everything, but there's got to be more. How is it that you feel safe enough here to sleep peacefully, if what I think is true? And I know it is. I'm always right. It could be that you're just exhausted, but you'd still be having nightmares if you didn't feel safe."
Tony stopped talking. He'd said everything he wanted to say. No one had heard it, but that was fine. He'd just wanted to say it, and no one would have really listened anyway. Or, well, he wouldn't have said it infront of anyone because he didn't trust them. And he didn't trust them to take the whole thing seriously, people rarely did before it was to late. He let his thoughts wander. They were surprisingly slow paced, a contrast to when they raced through his head at lightning speed oftentimes multiple at the same time, so that it was hard to keep up with his hands to build. He was unusually relaxed, was the only explanation. It must have something to do with the slow breathing god.
Sometime later, when his legs were asleep and the movie was long over, Tony stopped his massaging and got up to get himself something to drink.
Loki had had a rough time after he'd fallen from the Bifröst. It must have been months without much sleep or food until he came to earth. He didn't know how long exactly as neither Thanos' ship nor that of the Chitauri really had night and day. When he first came to the Titan, it still seemed to be possible to get out unscathed. He'd negotiated, said he'd get Thanos the Tessarakt if Thanos gave him power. He would have gone to earth gotten the Tessarakt and with its help he would have escaped. To Asgard to get his thing, and then somewhere else, because Asgard was no longer home. That plan fell flat when Thanos researched his name and found out who he was. He'd been captured, stripped of his magic and shipped off to the Chitauri where he'd been placed under The Other's care. By him he'd been tortured, humiliated and his mind's defences had been broken down and crudely put back together to be exactly how the other wanted him. That had taken quite a while of course, he was very strong after all.
Then he'd been given the mind stone, to control those he would need for his mission, they'd said, and it had enhanced his wish for revenge on his brother and canceled out anything else. Like his empathy, his critical thinking and common sense. He'd regained those little by little while on earth, because of the distance between him and The Other and because his mind wasn't easy to bend. So he'd lost on purpose, even though some of those humans had made that rather hard. If it weren't for Stark, and the green monster for freeing his mind, who knows what would've happened.
He couldn't really have rested in the SHIELD cell either, there had been a constant very bright, cold light shining on him and every half hour a SHIELD agent had stomped by. But his wounds had had a little time to heal and he'd had some food. Though it didn't really deserve it to be called that, from its looks and its taste.
He'd been somewhat relieved to find out he'd be held at Stark Tower. He'd been there before and Stark himself seemed tolerable to him, with his sarcastic remarks and snarky barbs. And he was pretty sure there wouldn't be any torture from what he heard of the man's history. The mortals wouldn't be able to truly damage him, but he would like some rest.
The two of them had snarked back and forth for sometime until the man decided they would watch a movie. Loki had gotten his drink and their 'conversation' had faded away as they were watching. When Loki noticed his tiredness again and saw that the human had his full attention to the screen, he'd laid down on the couch and closed his eyes to go to sleep.
It wasn't long before the mortal moved towards him and touched his forehead. Curious as to what he was going to do, he didn't react.
Playing with his hair wasn't what he expected Stark would do. It was too tender, too intimate, too vulnerable. He didn't think this mortal was one to be any of those infront of anyone. Then again, he probably believed no one would know.
Then the man began to talk. Of course he'd already figured out that Loki didn't want to conquer the planet. Of course he already knew Loki wasn't what he wanted everyone to believe. And of course he'd already concluded there was a bigger threat. He has to admit that this human at least uses his brains. And his hands. How could one be so good at scratching heads? It was unnatural.
Without Stark talking and with the slow head massage Loki soon was sleeping peacefully.
That didn't last long though and when he woke, it felt like something was missing. He sat up and looked around. Ah yes, the penthouse. And the mortal wasn't in sight. But why would that wake him? A hair tickled his chin and he pushed it back. Then he remembered. Head scratches. Stark not being there meant he had stopped scratching his head. Loki frowned, he shouldn't have enjoyed them, shouldn't have been so vulnerable infront someone else. And he shouldn't be this weak. Though he'd always been weak compared to Thor and the others without his magic. And he'd always been tiny for a frost giant. Right, would have been nicer not to remember that, it was still so fresh, he'd had no chance to heal from that disaster. He was a frost giant. At least he knew why he'd always been so different, why almost no one really liked him. His mother did, but even she had kept his true nature from him. He was a frost giant, a monster. He guessed that's why they'd been able to make him invade Midgard. Frost giants were violent. Had he not already had this violence in himself, had he not secretly had the desire to hurt, they wouldn't have been able to make him do it, he was sure of it. He must've wanted violence somewhere. He couldn't be capable of truly not wanting to hurt anyone. He deserved to die, like they did, when he destroyed their home. He was sure Thor would have been rewarded for vanquishing the enemy had he done it.
When Tony came back the god was sitting up and wearing a rather unhappy expression. His brows were furrowed and he was staring at nothing. His nose was pulled up and his lips turned downwards. "Well hello there Reindeer Games, what's got your knickers in a twist?" Loki turned to him and his scowl was now directed at him. He didn't reply though, so Tony just raised his eyebrows and went to sit back on the couch with his whiskey glass and his Stark tablet on wich he was designing a spaceship convertible to a car. With lots of extras where possible. Loki followed with his eyes but still said nothing, so Tony shrugged and sat down. "Jarvis, music. Bit more quiet than usual though." The music blasting through the speakers two seconds later still could've shattered eardrums. Tony took another look at Loki. "Same level as the movie, Jarvis." The god seemed okay after that.
For the next few minutes nothing really happened. Tony was working and Loki was probably thinking. But then the god lay down, his head only a few inches from the man's thigh, and closed his eyes. He slowly inched closer and closer to the engineer and Tony silently observed him. When the god put his head in the engineers lab, he snorted and put his hand in the dark hair. "Guess you were awake then. What did you hear, Reindeer Games?" "I believe I heard all of what you said. But I did fall asleep after. And do refrain from calling me those ridiculous nicknames." "You have an opinion on my thoughts then?" Tony raised his eyebrows expectantly, but Loki just looked away, not saying anything. The man snorted again, but he said nothing else, unusually content with the almost silence that was somewhat reduced by the music. He soon resumed what he'd been doing and the god relaxed completely, his body losing tension Tony hadn't even noticed was there.