Hey everyone, still here! I got kind of distracted with a few other projects and, oh yeah, my new job. That's taken up quite a bit of time. But I have this little oneshot in which Tony is actually the one to help Loki, for once. Anywho, I'll keep picking at these. Unfortunately, I lost quite a bit of work when my computer failed to back up before it was wiped. But I will continue on!
As always, read, review, and enjoy!
Loki gets hit with a spell of insomnia. It's not a "Tony's been in the lab for two days on some kind of work binge" insomnia spell, it's an honest to god, crafted by a sorcerer, insomnia spell. At first, Loki thinks that it was merely just a botched spell and brushes it off before firing back. Twelve hours later, after everyone—even Tony—is asleep and Loki is still staring at the ceiling, he's beginning to suspect he was very wrong.
By hour fifteen, everyone else is agreeing with him.
Tony, of course, tries to help him sleep. They try sex, because if there's one thing that can wear out either of them, it's the battle of sex they are constantly playing. In the end, it does tire them both out, but Tony's the only one who ends up getting any sleep. He wakes up three hours later, refreshed and determined to solve this riddle.
In retrospect, Tony is probably not the best one to figure out how to get someone to fall asleep. So the team takes over, pushing a sulking Tony to the lab.
"How do mortal drugs work on you?" Natasha asks as she lays out several pills and shots. Loki looks at them in distaste.
"Not well." Natasha waits for him to elaborate. "The effects are…weakened, and they disperse quickly. They also react poorly with my magic."
"Hm," Natasha considers. "There's another way. I've used it on Tony before, but it assumes that your anatomy is like ours."
"I have seen no reason to believe otherwise. Your nerve system?"
"Nervous system," Natasha corrects. Loki nods his thanks.
"Your nervous system is similar to ours. I am assuming, of course, that you are referring to the nerve pinch that Tony so frequently complains to me about."
Natasha rolls her eyes. "I've used it on him twice, and he deserved it both times."
"Of that, I have no doubt." Loki considers telling her that the spell has to wear off eventually and he'll manage, thank you, but then he swallows his pride. "If you would be so kind to attempt," Loki says carefully. Natasha nods, and her movements are slow, which is probably a good idea, because if anyone other than Tony tried to put an arm around his shoulders and moved their hand that close to his face, they would most likely be dead in a second. There is a pinch at the side of his neck, just below his ear. After a few seconds, black spots blink in and out of his vision. By the time 8 seconds has passed, Natasha pulls back.
"It should only take a few seconds, when it's done right, to knock someone out that way," she explains. "I held longer, considering that you aren't really human, but I'm not comfortable holding it any longer. It could cause some serious damage."
Loki rolled his head around, and felt his magic spark up to repair the small amount of damage that had been done. "I thank you for trying," he says, trying hard not let the fatigue cloud his mind. "The spell has to wear off eventually. Even the best crafted spell has to have a power source to remain functioning."
"You could try Bruce's tea and meditation. It seems to work for him."
So, despite Bruce's nervousness around him—not for himself, but for fear of the brute he housed within himself—Loki attempted to drink the tea and meditate with the doctor. The tea was actually surprisingly good, and Bruce offered him the use of it at any time. The meditation was very similar to what he had learned on Asgard, and he picked it up quickly. It seemed a more fitting style for Earth, as Asgard's meditation led a magic-user to focus on the structured spells that anchored the entire city, while Earth's meditation allowed him to bask in the glory of the wild magic that ran rampant through the natural beauty of the planet.
It also had the unfortunate effect of further waking him up, invigorating him with the same wildness that spun the magic of this planet.
Which, of course, led to him distracting Tony enough to get him into the bedroom where they fought once again. And once again, Tony slipped into sleep soon after while Loki remained staring at the walls. Apparently Jarvis, taking pity on him, offered him the use of one of Tony's tablets so he could at least read while Tony slept.
After that disastrous attempt, Steve decided to take a turn. Loki shot down both of his ideas. He did not run for pleasure, especially not in New York City, and he could easily kill Steve in a sparring match, even without the use of his magic and with Steve's advanced healing factor. So, of course, Thor challenged him instead. Loki happily accepted and decimates his adopted brother in a matter of minutes. Steve has to agree that it was probably a good thing that they didn't spar. Loki felt the need to point out the fact that if sex didn't exhaust him, he doubted sparring would anyway. Steve only rolled his eyes and walked out of the room. Loki misses the days when they could get a rise out of Steve just by mentioning lying in bed together.
Everyone seems to expect that Clint has an idea next, but the archer only shrugged. "I've got some sleeping gas in some of my arrows, but you already told Tasha it wouldn't work on you." Instead, they go down to the archery range where Clint and Loki compete on accuracy, Clint with his bow and Loki with his knives. Loki wins, but Clint makes him fight for it.
After that, Loki gives up trying to lure himself to sleep, but sixty hours in and he is definitely dragging. Tony had valiantly pledged to stay up with him until he finally got to sleep, but after the first twenty hours, he spelled Tony to sleep because he hardly needed an insomniac Tony around.
At sixty-five hours, they get a call to go out and stop some team of mutant robbers. Only it turns out that they aren't all mutants—two are sorcerers. Tony makes a mental note to ask Loki if he just attracts them, because they were never a problem before Loki started making his appearances around the tower.
And, of course, because Tony is only slightly distracted and only a little sleepy, he manages to get cornered by one of them. It's well out of sight of everyone else, which is probably why Loki feels the need to show up. Which also, coincidently, leads to Loki and Tony fighting about the fact that Loki not only left the tower to get involved in an Avengers' fight, but that he came to a fight without having slept in sixty-five hours. This, needless to say, distracts them from the real threat, who, after staring at the pair in what could only be described as comic bewilderment, blasts them both through a wall before taking off.
Everyone agrees that even the bad guys are scared to get in the middle of Tony and Loki when they fight.
That night, the team, minus Thor who was off with Jane, found the pair in the living room. They ordered dinner and, for once, sat quietly in the living room. Natasha was sharpening knives while Clint inspected arrows. Bruce was reading, while Tony has his tablet braced against his legs and Steve lays out on the floor, his sketch book in front of him. Loki took up the majority of the couch, his arms and head seeming to melt over Tony's legs as he lies against the man, completely out of energy to even hold himself up.
Clint looks over at one point in time to see Loki staring at the wall without blinking. "What's up with you?" he asks into the quiet. Loki doesn't even seem to hear him. He actually does hear him, he just doesn't have the energy to answer.
"He's been up for over seventy hours, genius," Tony answers for him. "How do you feel after seventy hours without sleep?"
"I try to avoid doing it," Clint responds. "But you would know how it feels."
"I think we can all agree that Tony turns into a zombie after forty hours," Natasha puts in idly without looking up.
"At least after fifty hours, he pretty much responds to any command you give him," Steve puts in from the floor.
"Because that's what she said." Clint's comment is met with groans and eye rolls. Several hours later, each teammate makes their excuses and heads to their own bedrooms. Bruce and Steve first, just like always, and Natasha dragging Clint. After the spies leave, Loki collapses further against Tony and sighs. Tony looks up and meets Loki's exhausted green eyes. There are bruises under them, and a few bruises still litter his cheeks and neck from busting through a wall. Apparently, Loki's body doesn't work right in the face of extreme exhaustion and can barely heal at the pace of a human. Loki just assures Tony that he needs sleep, and sleep will come soon.
With his own sigh, Tony puts the tablet on the table. "C'mon Loks," Tony says, jostling his knees a bit to capture the wandering eyes of the god again. He looks at Tony, startled. So instead, Tony helps lift Loki off of him and guides the god to get him lying on his stomach on the couch. He pulls Loki's shirt off and the god only mumbles the barest of protests.
He is shocked awake when hands start to rub hard, up and down his back. "What're you doing?" Loki manages to ask from around a thick tongue. He didn't realize it had been so long since he'd last spoken. It's also a sign of his fatigue that he's using contractions.
"Relax, Loks. I know you're sore, even if you insist on pretending like everything is perfectly fine," Tony says from where he straddles Loki. His hands seem to find all of the most sensitive spots on Loki's back, rubbing away the tension and stress. Despite himself, Loki begins to relax. He allows his eyes to close.
"When'd you learn to do this?"
"A long time ago. I used to do it for Pepper. Still do, in fact. She works hard enough to earn it."
"Hm," is Loki's only response. Tony continues the massage for another five minutes, and when he checks again, he recognizes the easy breathing as Loki falling incredibly, deeply, asleep. Deciding against moving the finally—finally—sleeping god, Tony makes himself comfortable on the floor, with his tablet in hand. A few hours into Loki's first sleep in almost three days, the god shifts slightly, and the limp hand hanging off the couch moves to find Tony's shoulder, where it drapes over and hangs against his chest. Tony waits to see if Loki actually wakes up, but the god remains blissfully asleep.
Five hours in, Steve wakes up and comes downstairs, dressed for his daily run. The first thing he sees when he steps off the elevator is Tony leaning against the couch, still on his tablet, Loki's arm still over his shoulder. He opens his mouth to protest the fact that Tony stayed awake all night, but startled chocolate eyes turn angry and Tony makes a motion for Steve to zip his lips. Steve looks behind Tony and sees Loki, still sprawled out on the couch, still asleep, and seems to relax. He nods and disappears quickly and quietly.
Seven hours in, and Natasha and Bruce walk down together. Bruce is in the middle of a sentence, but abruptly cuts off when he finds himself the recipient of a pencil to his shoulder. Both pairs of eyes turn to Tony who glares at them until they, too, notice the sleeping god. Bruce actually smiles at the sight and Natasha just huffs. They disappear back into the elevator, and Tony sincerely hopes they intercept Clint before he comes down. He's running out of ways to get people to shut up.
Tony loses count of the hours after ten hours in, because he leans his head back against Loki's to rest his eyes from the screen for a minute, honestly, just a minute, and when he opens them again, the sun is shining brightly high in the sky. He blinks, dazed, and looks back at his screen. It's gone blank, and he has to wait for the tablet to start up again. The time reads 3:40, but he's pretty sure the last time he looked at the clock it was only 9:10.
He spares a glance back to assure himself that Loki is still sleeping. He's now almost seventeen hours into his sleeping spell.
A half hour later, Tony's starting to remember that he is human, and has needs to take care of. He wonders if he can slide out from under Loki's hand. He starts to, and Loki's arm tightens against him. Tony sighs and wonders how long he can hold out. He hasn't eaten in almost fifteen hours, and it's been way too long since he last used the bathroom. As if brought by some unknown prayer, Clint saunters into the room with a plate in hand and a glass of water. He grins at Tony as he sets them down beside him. Clint picks up the tablet and opens up a word app that Tony didn't even know was on the thing. He types out a message and hands it back to Tony.
How'd you do it?
Tony looks at Clint with raised eyebrows, but the archer just grins at him and gestures for a response. Tony rolls his eyes and types out the message and good lord, when was the last time he actually typed something instead of making Jarvis do it?
Massage therapy.
Instead of the suggestive leering Tony's expecting, Clint just nods.
Nat uses that on me sometimes. Works like a charm. How long has he been sleeping?
Tony decides that he's ready for company anyway, and humors the archer by typing another response. Seventeen hours.
Think he'll surface soon?
He better, Tony writes back, then refuses to accept the tablet back as he digs into the sandwich Clint brought in.
Steve turned his living room into the common room for now. How come he has a record player and I don't?
The stuff you listen to doesn't come on records, bird genius.
Clint rolls his eyes, but both of them are caught by the sudden shift in Loki's position. Tony shoos the archer out of the room and turns his attention back to the god.
When Loki first starts to surface, everything is murky. He recognizes the feeling—it happens every time he exhausts himself or—he tries to shy away from the memories, but they attach themselves viciously to his consciousness—when he begins to recover from another punishment from Odin. Loki freezes. He tries to believe this is not the recovery period of such a punishment, but he has no sense of time, and he knows Odin would be most displeased that he has attached himself to a mortal man. The only reason he accepts Thor's love for Jane is because he believes it is a passing fancy and Jane is female. His body does not feel as though it has been pushed to the edge time and time again, but it often does not until he is more awake.
There's a hand on his shoulder and he tenses. A voice is speaking quietly into his ear, and by this time he expects to hear Thor's voice easing him out of the healing trance his body goes into, but the voice is not deep enough, doesn't have the formal tone of Thor's voice. He tenses further, prepared to lash out at whatever stranger-
"Loks, c'mon, it's okay." Loki's mind snaps to the nickname. He's told Tony too many times to count that he hates the nickname, but the man insists on using it. The muscles under Tony's hand ease in a rush as Loki's mind catches up. The spell. He was spelled into insomnia and had finally fallen asleep. Loki forces his eyelids to open and close. When he finally convinces them to stay open, he's met with Tony's relieved face. "Finally. If you hadn't woken up soon, I was gonna have to wake you up when I moved. You're lucky I didn't eat and drink more before you fell asleep."
"How long?" Loki manages to get out. Tony handed him the water that Clint had brought in and he happily accepts it.
"Just over seventeen hours. I figured you'd need to get up and eat something soon, and we can relocate to the bedroom."
"Did you remain here awake the entire time?" Loki asks, bewildered.
"Nah, he totally fell asleep halfway through. Don't worry, we got pictures," Clint says, appearing from the kitchen again. "Also, Jarvis told Steve and Bruce you were awake and they made me bring down food. So when you two can remember how to function like normal people, it's in the kitchen. Does this mean it's safe to come down now?"
"Scram, little birdie, before I suddenly deicide to adopt a cat," Tony says. Clint throws his hands up in defeat and retreats to the elevator. Tony's pretty sure Natasha probably threatened to come get him if he wasn't back up there in a certain amount of time, because it's rare that Clint actually listens to him.
"I did not mean to make everyone avoid their common area," Loki says, pulling himself into a sitting position. The world spins around him for a second until his vision corrects itself. He allows himself a few more seconds before attempting to stand. He's still exhausted, and knows he will likely sleep the rest of the day.
"Ours, Loks. It's our common room. Actually, technically, it's my common room and I can do whatever the hell I want with it, but that's beside the point. The actual point is everyone's just glad that you actually got to sleep finally. Even the little spider and bird." Tony offers a hand to Loki, who accepts it and ends up having to lean against Tony as his body adjust to yet another elevation change. Once he's steady on his feet, he leads Loki to the kitchen and tells him to go crazy while he disappears to finally go to the bathroom.
Loki doesn't mind, as it spares him from having to respond to Tony's comment.
As predicted, Loki sleeps the rest of the day. This time they move to the bedroom, but if Tony hoped it would give him more freedom to move around, he's wrong.
This time Loki sleeps with his head on Tony's stomach.