A/N: Holy crap has it been a while. I have all of my stories in one place and I work on them all a little at a time, and I just wasn't sure how to end this chapter. But here we go! Another chapter! With hopefully more to follow in a shorter time span than last time.
I don't own Marvel, or the Avengers, or Loki, or any of that stuff. I own Naiden though, and anything that doesn't actually exist in the Marvel Universe.
Tony scrunched up his face a little, taking a breath through his nose as the fog slowly lifted from his tired brain. He hadn't slept, not really. Tony blinked open his eyes and saw the window on the far side of the room and judged that it was about early afternoon. He looked over and saw that Loki's eyes were closed, laying down next to him. Tony prayed that he was having a dreamless sleep.
There was a soft tapping and Tony saw Steve and Phil Coulson standing at the glass door. He moved gently, running a few fingers over Loki's forehead and stepping over Naiden on the mattress on the floor. He had refused to sleep far away from the two men that night.
When they were moved Tony was slightly impressed with the size of the room. It wasn't large, but it was ten times larger than the cells they were staying in. But it was just one room, no walls or door, except for the one that kept them locked in there, and the privacy of a bathroom with a shower. There was no kitchen so Tony assumed they were going to be served their meals by others.
The two men had stepped in by the time Tony reached the door. "There's a problem with this room," Tony said, trying not to be loud and wake up Naiden and Loki. "There was no scotch when we got here."
"Stark," Coulson rolled his eyes a little. "We need to ask the three of you a question about what happened in the Tower."
"You're not talking to them about that," Tony's eyes turned hard as he looked at the two men. "I don't think you understand just how important this time is for us right now."
"Tony-" Steve started, pausing when Tony turned his gaze to him. "It's delicate, we know-"
"I don't think you understand How delicate, Cap," Tony said. "I will judge when you can broach that topic with them." Tony's eyes narrowed at them, letting them know his decision was final. He waited until the two men had left and locked the door before turning back to the beds.
Steve and Coulson looked at Bruce as they entered the surveillance room. "Neither of them have been to sleep yet," he said gently, watching the screen that monitored heart rate, blood pressure, brain activity, and more. "Tony got the closest."
"What's stopping them?" Steve asked.
"Fear."
Tony slid in gently next to Loki again and the taller man turned to face Tony. "You look like hell," Tony said quietly to him. Loki snorted once, his foot touching Tony's calf. Tony had noticed that there was some part of Loki always touching him while they tried to sleep.
"This could turn out to be okay," Tony continued. "Not having to make our own meals, not having to worry about any meetings to go to. I mean, Pepper was talking about more press about the Tower, and now-"
"You'll just have to do all of that anyway," Naiden said from the ground.
"Not true, padawan," Tony argued. "I already get enough press, but after helping to save the world I'll get even more. Job done." He looked at Loki as he opened his eyes, clear green eyes meeting his. Tony reached over and pushed some of his hair off of his face. Loki looked at the sling that his arm was and Tony moved, blocking his view of it. "It's our first family vacation, the three of us together and just relaxing."
"Next time can we leave SHIELD at home," Naiden murmured as he rolled over, pulling the pillow over his head.
"Can we gas the room?" Clint asked sitting next to Bruce as they watched the room three days later. Tony still had not let anyone talk to them about the attack, and Fury was getting antsy, and angry. "Seriously, they need to sleep."
Bruce grunted as he grabbed some blueberries and popped one in his mouth. "I'm going to ignore that suggestion."
Loki had taken to sitting on the sill of the window, just looking out, captivated by the actual view that they had. Yes, it was of an empty field with some trees in the distance, but it was more than he had seen in some years. Tony and Naiden had taken apart the couch and were making their own respective forts. When Clint first saw this he requested that more furniture be delivered to the room. He wanted to see what they could make.
"I have a functioning second floor!" Naiden said, his voice muffled from inside the fort.
"I'll have a basement!" Tony challenged. Naiden peeked out from a corner, pushing a cushion out of the way slightly. He watched as Tony worked as well as he could with only one functioning arm. He never let any of the medics look at his arm, not even Bruce Banner. He wouldn't even let Loki or Naiden check on him.
After Tony failed to get the back of the couch into position, he stood up and stretched. "I'm gonna take a break, let the creative juices flowing again." He plastered on a smile and turned to head over towards Loki.
He sat on the other side of the window and looked outside, bringing his leg up to rest in front of him, knee propped up. "I bet this doesn't even compare to what you've seen on other worlds," Tony said to the god. Loki just shook his head a little. Loki hadn't said much since they'd been reunited, but Tony could feel that Loki was getting better. He only kept touching Tony at night when they laid in the bed instead of all the time.
Tony looked back out the window and took a slow breath. After several moment he turned his head back when he felt a tug at his shoulder. He saw that Loki had grabbed his injured arm, but he hadn't felt it until Loki tugged on it. He locked eyes with the man and quickly leaned forward, taking his other hand. "Don't, don't do this to yourself."
"You're hurt," Loki said quietly, looking at his arm, lifting some of the bandages to see the dark color of his skin. "I hurt you."
"Loki-"
"You're going to lose the arm, and I did it to you." Tony quickly moved and pulled Loki forward, his forehead resting against Loki's. Naiden glanced over from his fort.
"I'd lose a hundred arms before I lost you again," Tony said quietly to him. His good hand lifted and cupped Loki's cheek, taking a couple of breaths. "I'd lose my legs before I was kept from you, or Naiden, again. I can't go through that again. I need you here." Tony closed his eyes when his voice cracked on his last words. "I can't keep doing this without you, Loki. Please, please don't leave me again." Tony pressed his face into Loki's neck, warm tears being pressed into his skin.
Loki had wrapped both of his arms around Tony, letting the man cry into his neck. Tony's hand reached up to tangle with Loki's hair. Naiden had crawled out of his stuffed building and flopped on his stomach on his mattress, watching them. He knew that things were different, one would have to be brain dead to not see it, but he also knew that they'd all been holding it in and Tony was finally letting go of 6 years of built up emotions.
Bruce leaned forward and tapped the side of a screen, letting it go blank. Even if he wasn't Loki's biggest fan he believed that Tony needed this private moment, away from prying SHIELD eyes. "I don't think that there is much of a reason to keep them here any longer," Banner said, side glancing to Natasha.
"I would tend to agree, but we still need to know where the tesseract is." She had crossed her arms in front of her. "I can make the recommendation to have them released as soon as we question them."
"You can't just go in there and question them like they're just some other target," Bruce turned in his chair to answer her. "Tony was part of this chaos of a team, and it's obvious that they're still battling their own mental demons that we have no idea about." He held up his hands to stop Natasha when she opened her mouth to protest. "Asking them about the tesseract has to be done with a gentle hand, a calm head."
"That's why we'd like to send you in, Doctor," Fury said as he walked in the door. "You're a friendly face to the Starks."
"I'm a friendly face to Tony," Bruce corrected them. "Naiden tended to stick close to where Loki was on the Hellicarier." He let out a little sigh when Natasha and Fury just looked at him. "I can't promise anything, all I can do it try."
Tony took a slow breath as he let Loki's hand continue running trails through his hair. Naiden was trying to connect the two pillow forts. "I'm thinking that a cool metal arm will be the way to go. I mean, it's not like there's too much to replace, but I can add a bunch of cool things to it."
"I still don't understand why you wouldn't let anyone look at it," Naiden said, voice muffled from inside of the fort. Tony raised an eyebrow when he saw a stick start to rise up from the top of the fort.
"It wouldn't have mattered," Loki said calmly. "It was an ice of strange origin that caused the damage. The healers in Asgard are able to heal the damage if it is treated within the house of it happening." Tony turned his head a little to nip at Loki's arm a little. He paid attention back to the fort when something started to climb up the stick.
"Did you steal my underwear to make a flag?" Tony was watching a pair of his boxers rise up, a magical, no doubt elven made, wind making it flutter. "I'm going to clip your ears."
"Impressive." Tony and Loki looked over as Bruce Banner started to circle the fort. "For what little you have available, this actually seems like a sound design."
Naiden's head popped out one of the windows. "I like to experiment. I only built half of it though, but I did improve upon it."
Tony snorted a little and Loki let him sit up a little straight, Loki's arm wrapping around his waist a little. "Hello Brucey," Tony greeted. "They send you in here to talk to us?" Bruce just nodded and Tony pat the chair that was across from him with his outstretched foot. "Take a seat and take a break. It has to be boring being in that room all the time watching us."
"It was until we had all the furniture brought in," Bruce admitted as he sat down. "I'm still interested in how you would managed to make a basement in response to Naiden's second floor."
"I was hoping that there was a secret floor panel that was built into the room, honestly," Tony shrugged, a small smile on his lips. "I'll tell you though, cause you're a good man Bruce, I have no idea where the Tesseract is."
"May I ask a question?" Loki interrupted before Tony could continue or Bruce could respond. "Where is Thor?"
Bruce opened his mouth the answer, then stopped to think about it. "I'm not actually sure, I haven't seen him in a couple of days." Loki nodded a little. "Do you know?" Loki nodded again.
"If you haven't seen him than he is likely completing the task I set him to." Tony turned his head back to gaze at Loki, frowning slightly in confusion. "I would hope that he is back on Asgard returning the Tesseract to it's proper location in the Vault of Asgard."
