Chapter 2: Go Figure

Thor had been gone for three whole days. Three days of heroes waiting with baited breath to see if their friend and his brother would ever return. Tony had asked Jarvis to alert him of any peculiar signal in energy for the time being so they could all be aware if they were going to lose power again.

Of course Shield had been notified of Loki's absence, and they weren't exactly worried over it. Most of them were relieved when they heard the news three months ago that Loki was taken in to Asgard. It was a bit of a shock to them when they heard Thor was going there to bring him back.

Natasha had given Fury a run down of the most recent events, and all the director could do was sigh and nod, hoping for the best and expecting the worst. He did his part, and as long as he was on good terms with Odin and Loki was away from him, he could care less.

Needless to say, everyone outside the Shield headquarters was anxious to know what was going to be coming back to Earth from Asgard, if anything, that was.

xxx

It was a late afternoon at Stark tower and the avengers hadn't been assigned any missions as of late, causing a few lazy days filled with mostly T.V and recovery sleep from New Years Eve. Tony may or may not have had a drinking contest with Steve, and may or may not have passed out after his fifth shot of tequila, hitting the floor and injuring his back even further. He spent the next two days in bed again, and decided he would keep his newest injuries a secret from Pepper.

Though, In this particular afternoon, Tony was not in his bed, he was lounging out on one of his couches with Bruce sitting at his feet and Steve in a chair beside them.

Bruce was busy reading a book, and Tony had fallen asleep playing on his phone. This left Steve flipping through the T.V guide, something he rarely got to do in Tony's presence.

He was enjoying getting to use the remote for once, and taking his time reading over the names of shows he hadn't already gotten a talking to about from Tony.

As he was reading, the show "Jersey Shore" caught his eye, one of the shows Tony had absolutely forbidden him to watch. He took a sneaky glance at the sleeping Iron Man and decided to take his chances. He was an adult, and Tony didn't own him. How bad could this show be for his 'virgin eyes', as Tony had so nicely labelled anyways?

Without thinking it over any further, Steve clicked OK and was ready to see what the big deal about this show was. Although, instead of being bombarded with tans, 'dancing', and alcohol he was left with a blue screen that seemed to surge once, the words "LOSS OF CONNECTION" flashing on the screen, and then nothing.

Steve furrowed his brows, curious as to what happened. Tony wouldn't of put some sort of lock on it, would he? He glanced over to Tony who was still oblivious to the world around him and hummed in thought. He decided not to confront him about it, and tried pressing in another channel, although that didn't seem to work either. Worried that he had some how broken it, he coughed once to get Bruce's attention hoping he could help him out.

Bruce looked up at the sound, and raised his eyebrows to Steve.

"The television's not working." Steve said, motioning to the screen ahead of them.

Bruce shrugged, "Pass me the remote?"

Steve complied, and was ready to get embarrassed over how he broke the T.V from trying to watch Jersey Shore, when suddenly Jarvis's crisp voice came in and cut off his thoughts.

"Sirs, the energy levels in the room are beginning to fluctuate, we may lose power again in-."

The room went dark.

"Oh." Steve uttered, feeling a brief sense of relief knowing he didn't break anything.

Bruce sat up quickly, and began shaking Tony to wake up. "Tony, Tony!"

"Mm.. what?" Tony asked, frowning from being woken up so abruptly.

"Jarvis's alert about the energy just went off, and we've lost power again." he explained, getting to his feet.

Something seemed to click in his brain, making Tony suddenly very alert, and quickly jumped off the couch. He felt dizzy from getting up so fast, but that didn't stop him from making his way over to the balcony.

"Guys! Get over here!" he called out, before sliding open the door and stepping out. He could feel the electricity in the air, it made him feel on edge.

Steve and Bruce made their way over to Tony, walking outside and standing beside him in the cold winter air.

"Where did Thor leave from last time?" Tony asked, feeling the bite of the wind through his thin t-shirt but determined to watch Thor return, hopefully with his little brother too.

"Just over there." Bruce said, pointing to their right at a good amount of free space.

Without any warning a loud crack of thunder rang out, making the three men flinch.

"...Do you think he has Loki?" Tony couldn't help but ask, his stomach clenching on him as what could only be classified as a portal began materializing in the exact spot Bruce referenced.

Steve shrugged, "I really don't know."

"I think he just might." Bruce said nodding.

Tony wasn't sure to be excited over that or scared. What would he look like? All mangled and broken? Like he himself had been when he was found after his capture? Loki had binds on his magic when they last saw him, he wouldn't be able to heal himself like he'd done after his beating from the Hulk. This would be real.

Tony rocked back on his heels in anticipation, shaking his head as images of Thor holding a blood covered Loki kept popping up in his mind.

And that only trigged a flashback of nothing but blood, pain, and stitches for him.

Stiches.

Oh no, his lips. Tony had completely forgotten about the details of his punishment. What if he came back, with threads covering his mouth, unable to speak, without administering himself with a ridiculous amount of pain?

Tony suddenly felt sick to his stomach.

The portal nearly seemed complete, an angry looking amount of swirls, all crashing into one another looping into what suddenly became a circle.

A circle that was opening.

Tony bit his lip as he watched the opening slowly become larger, and larger, and finally open.

There was a pause, and finally a figure stepped out.

A figure that was quickly identifiable as Thor.

And to the side of that figure?

Loki.

A/U: AHHH HELLO! Is this update quick enough? I've had this absolutely horrible cough the past few days, and decided that it was a good time to get some writing in! So, what do you think? Please don't kill me for the bit of a cliffhanger here, I promise it will be worth it in the end! :)

Now, I need to take some more medicine and try not to cough out my lung!