Here it is...the moment you've all been waiting for. Tony and Loki's...second meeting. Okay, so you've probably wanted to actually know how it all started, and I promise, I'm getting to this, but right now I have their second meeting all ready for you. It's kinda an important part to this whole story line too. And someday, when I go back through and order these chronologically, it'll be back up at the beginning. Anywho, sorry for any typos and such! And thank you everyone for your reviews! They're always so nice to read :D
Read, review, and enjoy!
At the best of times, Tony's internal clock struggles to keep track of time, so he has no idea how long he's been down here. They want the world's "newest weapon" and decided that he was the best way to get it, despite the fact he's not in the weapons business anymore. They're too stupid to be in charge—they broke one of his arms after all, so he's working one handed—but they have brute strength on their side. He gets the feeling that they're waiting for something or someone. Just to test them, he slowly asks for everything he needs to build a dirty bomb. When they give it to him, he knows everyone here is just a glorified guard.
"Well, well, well," an oily familiar voice says. He rests his head on his good arm, even as he starts trying to come to terms with his very short future. People who want something are good—they're invested in keeping you alive, at least until they get what they want and Tony's great at stalling people. People who don't want anything from you? Not so good.
"Tong," Tony greets. "Still working for A.I.M then?"
"Actually, they're working for me," the other man says as he moves into the room. "You've looked much better Mr. Stark."
"I thought I pulled off the black eye look pretty nicely actually," Tony responds. The Mandarin's eyes pass over the room, eyeing all of Tony's little creations he made in his boredom. Each one serves a distinct purpose, and while he would bet that Tong can guess that, he doubts Tong can tell what each one actually does.
"I read over the supplies list my idiot workers gave you in my regrettable absence. I'm afraid I'm going to have to take the chemicals back."
Tony picks up a tool because he hates standing still. "Go ahead," he says, nodding to the corner of the room where the dirty bomb stands. It's rigged on a pressure switch, so the slightest twitch of the bomb and the thing goes. Of course, Tony couldn't just build a bomb that throws dangerous chemicals out into the air. He's also rigged it as an explosive, so it'll do some damage first. He wonders if Tong recognizes that. "Take it if you want."
The Mandarin's eyes darken as he looks at the bomb. Tony has a breather that he made hidden under the table, and the reinforced steel plating he added to the underside of the table should protect him from most of the explosive damage. If he's going to make a move, it would be best to do it soon.
"So now that we've gone through the pleasantries, mind telling me why I'm here? I highly doubt you actually want me to make you a weapon. You're smarter than that." Tony looks up to eye the other man critically. "I hope at least."
Tong lets the insult slide. "Mostly I need you out of the way," the Mandarin starts. "We're about to make some big moves and unfortunately, I need your company out of the way and a little bit of a distraction. But I also need some information about S.H.I.E.L.D before we get to that satisfying end."
"You're doing this all wrong!" Tony says, even as he's calculating the odds he gets out alive. They grow smaller by the second. "You're supposed to tell me that if I give you the information you want, you'll let me go!"
"Mr. Stark, I thought we stopped deluding ourselves long ago. We can-" He cuts off as the building around them rumbles. Tony is fully prepared to give another snarky comment but he forgets how fast Tong moves. Before Tony can even blink, there's a pinch at his neck and every muscle in his body goes slack. Tong lets him drop on his broken arm, the bastard, but Tony doesn't really feel anything because the guy has god damn paralyzed him. He drags Tony over to the wall where they so generously set up a bed for him and shackles him to the wall. "Please wait here," Tong says absently before moving to the door and sealing it behind him.
Tony's been here and done this before, so he knows it's going to take at least five minutes before he can move even the slightest bit again. Instead, he can only sit and hope to god that whatever the rumbling noise is, it's the team coming to get him. The next best scenario is it's a rival branch of A.I.M's, coming to start some territory war. Tony discovered long ago that there was no terrorist organization stupid enough to kill him. They'd probably take him with them and just about anybody was less competent than the Mandarin. He adds a slight rise to his odds of survival.
He hears a thud outside of his door, followed by a second thud and a groan. Another rumble shakes the building, this time farther away. Whoever's attacking (team, team, team) is clearly dividing their enemies. There's a third thud as the last guard that's constantly posted outside of his door probably falls. At this point, Tony is fully expecting to see the door open and Clint walk through the door with some sarcastic comment.
So when the door opens to reveal Loki—the god of mischief and lies and thrower of mortal men out of windows—Tony starts laughing. It hurts, because there's a little bit of feeling coming back and pins and needles suck, not to mention broken ribs and laughter don't mix, but it's totally worth it. Loki walks into the room, one part defiant, the other part disgruntled.
"You find something amusing, Stark?" Loki asks, stopping to stand by the work bench. God, why couldn't Tong have at least sat him up?
Tony doesn't know how to explain that he's a little sleep-deprived and he may or may not be just a little bit hysterical so he just keeps laughing, even if it is turning into more of barking laugh because he's trying to hold back coughs. Loki just rolls his eyes and helps him sit up, propping him against the wall.
Tony's still laughing when a knife sinks into his torso.
Loki growls as his magic flashes across the room, snapping the guard's neck in an instant before he turns back to prod the wound. Tony's still numb enough that it doesn't actually hurt, feels a bit like a paper cut actually, but he's suddenly short of breath and he can see blood steadily leaking out of the wound.
"I think there's a knife in my lung," Tony observes, his voice strained.
Loki frowns. "I know that some mortals have a high pain tolerance, but this is a little…ridiculous, I believe you would say."
"I'm still a little bit paralyzed. He hit a nerve point," Tony gasps. Seriously. He needs oxygen. Why can't he get any oxygen? "Not for long."
Loki's eyes widen slightly before his uninterested expression comes back down, but Tony can still see a furrowed brow. Kind of at least. There's black spots in his vision. "Hold on," Loki mutters, before taking his magic to the cuffs around Tony's arms. He spots the broken arm before Tony can say anything, but he doesn't have time to play nice with Tony's body. Tony himself is starting to slump forward, more feeling coming back while all the energy leaves his body. Loki catches him before he falls face first off the bed. "I require you to stay away Stark," Loki is saying, but his voice is fading into a buzz that is taking over his vision. Why aren't any of his senses working right? Tony tries to blink his eyes, to get rid of the black spots, but his eyelids are sluggish to obey. "Stark!" Loki growls as Tony's eyes close. "You must stay awake until after we teleport."
A sharp pain in his chest wakes him up slightly. Somehow, he's now being bridal carried by Loki and good thing the team isn't here, because he'd never live this down. You know, assuming the team didn't just kill Loki on spot. "Hold on," Loki mutters again. Tony can feel energy rising around him, making the hairs rise on his arms. He feels the air around him push against him, almost painfully, especially against his wound and Tony tries to move away, but the arms that are holding him tighten against him, forcing him to stay completely still. The feeling lasts only a minute before he feels relief from the pressure and a coolness on his skin. He tries his eyes again, but they remain decidedly shut and he falls into a pain filled haze.
Occasionally things make it through the fog of pain. He feels when someone pulls the knife from his abdomen, one arm—a strong arm, but with a hold that's surprisingly gentle—holding him down while the knife is removed. He thinks he passes out for a while and when he wakes, he isn't cold any longer, but his body is shaking like he is, even though there's heat and sweat pouring off of him. Fever, some part of him recognizes, but before he can do anything with that knowledge, he sinks back into unconsciousness. His mind is filled with a blurry mix of hallucinations and memories, ones that make sense for one minute and then turn completely ridiculous the next.
When he surfaces again, he hears strange words in a voice that is familiar. He tries to force his mind to connect something, make some sort realization, but as if in retaliation, it instead drags him back down, deep into sleep.
When Tony finally starts to awaken—this time with a little more coherency—it's the subtle things he notices first. The bed is too small to be his and too big to be the cot in the room he'd be held. There was a draft, with startling cool air, but Tony didn't feel the enclosing pressure of being underground. Sounds seemed to echo more, even the slightest one, like the sound of someone turning a page on a book. Speaking of someone reading…
Tony forced his eyes open. "Good god, what the hell happened," Tony says, trying to get an uncooperative body to move. His legs and arms feel like they're weighted down, and pain radiates from his torso. Right. Stab wound. Tony pulled his shirt up to check on the wound. It was a straight cut. It had been deep at one time, but now it was mostly healed up. As long as he didn't try to do any crazy stunts, it probably wouldn't start bleeding again. The skin around the wound, however, was an artistic mix of blues, yellows, greens, and blacks.
"I apologize," Loki says, unfolding himself from his seat across the room. He sets the book on the table next to him. "I attempted to heal your wounds, but I was only slightly successful. Something stopped my strongest healing spells."
Tony groans as he shifts his position to try and hide the reactor, despite how useless it probably was now. If Loki was messing with the wound, the reactor would be in plain view. "Hey, maybe I'm just magic resistant."
Loki's frown deepens, but he surprisingly, he doesn't push the subject. "You shouldn't be moving."
"See, I'm really hoping you can fill in some blanks here," Tony says. It seems to catch Loki's attention away from the wound, or the arc reactor. Tony can't tell which. He gives Tony a grim smile.
"And where, precisely, would you like me to start?"
"Uh, let's start with the fact that you knew where I was. Tong doesn't make mistakes like that."
"I thought it was you who never made mistakes," Loki says smoothly.
Tony grimaces. "It was a mistake that got me there in the first place." He forces the anger aside with a casual shrug that sends an unpleasant tugging sensation down his abdomen. "Oh well, it was one way to find out who you can trust."
"True enough," Loki says, who has a long track record of getting himself purposely captured in order to find out information. It worked notoriously well for him, far better than it had for Tony apparently. "I arrived at the Tower, seeking out your resources, when your computer-"
"Whoa, Jarvis is not a computer. He is a complex system that has no comparison. Think of him like a person without a body." Loki glared at Tony until he finally stopped talking. "Right, carry on."
"Jarvis, then, if I must-"
"You must."
"-informed me that you had been out of contact for two days, and that someone named Ms. Potts was beginning to worry."
Tony cursed. "You didn't meet Pepper last time you were…on this planet," he said carefully. He was in unknown territory and starting a fight really didn't seem like a great idea right now. Especially since he was pretty sure he wouldn't be able to put up a fight. "She runs my company."
"Ah yes, I remember reading about her now," Loki says. "I informed your Jarvis that I would locate you if he would find some way to soothe Ms. Potts' worries."
"That was incredibly well rounded of you," Tony says suspiciously. Loki had been extremely vague about the reasons he had shown up in the first place. And the fact that he not only sought out Tony, but put in the extra thought to make sure complete strangers—not to mention, mortals—were at ease was definitely not Loki's style. What, exactly, had he wanted from Tony?
Loki shrugs nonchalantly. "It was an easy enough thing to track you down," Loki answers. He held out his hand and a blue-green glow began to emanate around it. There was an itching feeling that flashed through Tony's body and then a small ball of light appeared in Loki's hand.
"I'm sorry, is that a tracking spell?" Tony asks. How had never noticed Loki put a spell on him?
"Perhaps you are not so magic resistant after all," he says. "You move frequently. It was easier than trying to seek you out by less exact means. If this Tong makes no mistakes, I am surprised he did not block anyone from tracking you by other means."
"Well Tong would never expect us to be in contact with a sorcerer. They aren't very common on Earth," Tony says, leaning back against the bed, trying to decide if he should be angry. He decides he's too tired for it and he came far too close to death to hold a grudge about it.
"I have heard of other sorcerers on this planet. Is there not one in S.H.I.E.L.D's employment?"
Tony is seconds from asking him how he knows before remembering he had basically downloaded all of S.H.I.E.L.D's files by hacking Clint's brain. "Doctor Strange? He's…hard to track down at the best of times. And I'm pretty sure that his magic works differently than yours does. It's entirely possible that he does have shields to keep out Doctor Strange."
"I would not know," Loki says. The ball of magic trails between his fingers almost idly. "I am unfamiliar with how magic works on Midgard, and Agent Barton had not the faintest idea either."
"What, exactly, was the resource you were tracking me down for anyway?" Tony asks, unable to contain his curiosity any longer. Pepper always said one day his curiosity would get him killed.
"These…'mechanics' that you work with. I am curious about them," Loki says. Tony recognizes the thirst for knowledge in Loki's eyes, but he's too dumbfounded to really process it.
"You tracked me halfway across the country, pulled me from a sociopath's hold, all to get a book on mechanics?"
"Above all else, I prize knowledge, Stark," Loki says seriously. "I've gone to far more trouble to retrieve a simple book."
Tony starts the process of forcing himself out of bed. Everything is sore and his legs are weak, but he's faced worse odds. "Well I hate to break it to you, but I don't actually have any books on engineering. I got rid of them years ago." Loki is starting to look decidedly less happy. "But," Tony continues before he can get himself killed. "I have something even better."
"And that is?" Loki asks when Tony doesn't continue right away, his voice very carefully controlled. Tony wonders what he's trying to hide.
"Myself!" Tony says, giving him one of his blinding media smiles. "Considering I wrote at least half of the books on engineering, I'd say you're getting a pretty good deal."
"You would, of course," Loki says lazily. He continues to watch Tony struggle to remain standing by himself. "Perhaps eventually, you might even concede to your body and realize that standing is only going to cause more pain."
"No gain without pain, Rudolph. Besides, the sooner we start the sooner you learn what you've been missing all your life." Tony takes a few steps, then stops and braces himself against the wall. "Coincidently, where are we?"
"One of my…hm, safe houses, is how I believe Agent Barton would describe it."
Tony freezes. "If you follow that up with 'in space' I'm probably going to get really pissed."
Loki shrugs. "I could refrain from it if you wished, but I doubt that would change anything."
Great. Tony had been doing a pretty fantastic job forgetting any memories he had of floating through space, small and insignificant, doomed to float in the deadening quiet for all-
Tony forced his mind away from the idea to see Loki watching him closely. Even better. Now, not only was he tracking Tony, he was figuring him out as well. This was so not going well.
"Well, I guess the only solution is to go back home. How, exactly, do we get back to Earth?"
"Teleportation of course," Loki says pleasantly. "How else did you think you got here?"
"I was trying not to remember. It wasn't exactly a pleasant memory."
"It should be much easier this time, as you will not be bleeding out while unable to draw a breath in."
"Thank you for putting it so eloquently," Tony says blandly. He weighs his options—be stuck in space forever or take the chance of teleportation. It wasn't really much of a choice. "When do we leave?"
"You really should not be moving while such injuries are still healing, but as you will clearly not listen to wisdom, now is better than never." Loki stands and moves beside Tony, holding out his hand. When Tony continues to stare at it, Loki sighs impatiently. "I must have skin contact, Stark. And when we return back to your tower, I will not be catching when you fall because of exhaustion."
"Should I be considering making you promise not to kill me?" Tony asks, still staring at the hand. Loki snarls and grabs Tony's arm before he can protest. Suddenly his vision is gone, and there is only silence with the air pressing in on him until he can hardly breathe. Tony's heart panics because holy shit he can't breathe-
And then there's a blinding light, solid ground beneath his feet, and air floods his lungs. His mind can't catch up with his surroundings, and the weight of gravity makes him stumble. Sure, Loki said that he wasn't going to catch him when he collapsed, but he did conveniently land right next to a chair that he could collapse into.
"Nope, still sucks," Tony says, trying to get the vertigo and nausea to pass.
"I suppose it takes some getting used to," Loki says innocently. Tony guesses he's too much in the god's debt to pick a fight about how much of a bastard he is.
"Even flying with Thor is easier than that," Tony protests instead.
"Please," Loki drawls. "Thor's flight is outdated and brutish. Teleportation is much more sophisticated way of travelling from one place to the next."
"Some of us like to feel the wind in our hair, Reindeer games," Tony says, forcing himself back on his feet again. He's mostly gotten over the whole teleportation deal, but the area where the knife had stabbed through him was still incredibly sore.
"Welcome home, sir." Jarvis' voice is like a little piece of heaven. There was a while there, only short but still long enough for Tony, where he didn't think he'd ever hear it again.
"Jarvis! I hope you kept the shop in good shape while I was gone."
"Of course, sir. You were not here to blow up anything."
"Does that happen often?" Loki asks.
"Only once or twice."
"Mr. Stark has an average of one explosion every nine days."
"I didn't even know you kept track of that, Jarvis. I think I feel honored," Tony says. "What did you tell Ms. Potts in reason of my absence?"
"I informed her that you were taking a short vacation and that you had no desire to be contacted."
"I hear a 'but' coming, Jarvis. Is there a 'but' coming?"
"I do not think she believed me, sir. Should I inform her that you have returned?"
Tony sighs and rubs his forehead against the oncoming headache. He'd have to tell her the truth. Of all of the people he's lied to, Pepper rarely makes that list. "No, it'll be better if I go in and tell her. Did the team believe it?"
"Agent Barton and Agent Romanov are both still on missions. Doctor Banner is skeptical, but trusts that you would tell him if something was wrong. Thor has been with Ms. Foster. However, I believe that the Captain took my word for it. As has S.H.I.E.L.D."
"Perfect. So we'll just have to deal with Pepper."
"I suggest sooner rather than later, sir."
"Perhaps I should come back at a later time," Loki says. Tony had completely forgotten he was still in the room.
"Super fun learning time will have to wait, unfortunately. Pepper holds my life in her hands. Almost literally. Come back tonight. I might still be alive."
Loki raises an eyebrow. "You mean to tell her the truth of what happened. Something you won't even trust to your teammates."
"Pepper…" Tony struggles to find the words to describe her. "She's…she's Pepper," Tony decides. She had been there before the team, she's been there during the team, and she would probably be there after the team, if Tony got so lucky to have such a time. There was no way to describe her.
Loki still seems to be analyzing him, but all he says is, "I shall return later tonight, then."
After Loki leaves, Tony realizes he still didn't know whether or not the god had taken the tracking spell off of him.
"Pepper dearest, love of my life!" Tony says, throwing open the double doors to her office, her secretary—some new girl—protesting heroically in the background.
"Oh, settle down Bethany. He'll always do this. Just let him be," Pepper says coolly without looking up from the papers she's signing. "Will you shut the doors behind you?"
Tony gives a grin to the glaring secretary before throwing himself into the chair across from Pepper and then remembering that, oh yeah, there had been a knife in there-crap. He had no idea how long Loki had him stashed away. He knew he had spent three days with Tong before Loki picked him up, but he didn't even know what day it was now. "How long was I gone this time?" Tony asks lightly, but Pepper, being Pepper, has already noticed the rigid way he held his body, the deep exhaustion lines under his eyes.
"Damn it, I knew Jarvis was lying to me," she says, standing up and hurrying around the desk. "Where have you been?"
"Pepper, I don't think you'd believe me if I told you." He winces when she manages to find the sore spot on his abdomen. Without pause, she lifts up the shirt.
"Tony," Pepper gasps. Her fingers dart over it, butterfly light touches. "This has to be from a wound months old. When did this happen?"
"I don't know, what day is it?"
"The 25th. Where have you been?" Pepper repeats.
Tony does the math in a second. He had spent three days in Tong's ever lovely care, then another three days in Loki's safe house. "Well, a little bit of everywhere."
"I swear Tony, if you don't give me a straight answer right this second."
Tony grabs Pepper's trembling hands in his. "Just…promise you won't be angry."
"Not helping, Tony."
It's not a promise, but he'll have to take what he can get. He hates upsetting Pepper. "I've been gone for six days. The first three days, I spent underground in one of Tong's bases."
Pepper's breath stutters, but she manages to keep control. "But, Jarvis-"
"Jarvis did what he thought was best, but he wasn't told to lie to you by me."
"Then-did Tong-"
"Uh, no, that would be Loki."
Pepper's face immediately drops into the scary calm look that Tony always tries really hard to avoid. She rips her hands from his. "Loki. Like Thor's brother Loki. The guy who tried to take over the world. The guy who opened a portal to some outer space hell from the roof of the tower. The guy who forced you to go up into that god forbidden abyss and-"
"Yes," Tony says dryly. "That would be him, thank you for all those lovely reminders."
"And he was in your tower. In control of Jarvis."
"Well, technically he wasn't in control of Jarvis. He was just trying to calm the whole situation."
"What do you mean trying to calm the whole situation?" Pepper pauses, really looks at Tony, and then turns and begins to do a furious pace back and forth in front of him. "You haven't Tony. Tell me you haven't."
"Haven't what?" Tony asks, wishing he had just told Jarvis to rely a message for him. He knows very well what she's asking.
"Oh my god! You've been talking with him! Letting him into the tower! Lowering your defenses around him!" Pepper yells. "What the hell are you thinking Tony?"
"It's not really all that bad," Tony tries.
"Oh please, tell me exactly how it's not that bad."
"He's only been the in tower once. Well, three times now. But he's different than that god we had beat," Tony protests. "He's…saner now. He doesn't look like he's about to go out and murder a shit ton of people."
"Oh, because we know how well judging appearances works!" Pepper says.
"Peps, he came to the tower to find me and ask about mechanics. How terrible can that be?"
"Great, so now you're going to teach him how to build death machines," she says, rolling her eyes. When Tony doesn't immediately respond, she throws her hands up in the air and starts her pacing up again. "You actually are!"
"Well, not the whole death machines thing. But yeah, I'll teach him how to build a car if he wants. I owe him Pepper."
"And what in the hell do you owe him?" Peppers says, stopping her pacing again. Tony liked it better when she wasn't looking directly at him.
"He saved my life," he says quietly. The anger seems to drain out of her almost immediately. "He told Jarvis to lie to you—and the team—so he could come find me without suspicion. While he was trying to move me from the base, a guard threw a knife into my lung." Tony shrugs and looks away from Pepper's face. "I was dying, Peps. He took me to a safe place and spent three days healing me. That wound you asked about, about how old it was? Three days."
Pepper shakily makes her way back to her chair and sits down slowly. Her eyes are still wide with shock. "Why would he do that?" she whispers.
"He's curious, as best I can tell. I think he wants to learn and he sees me as the best method. Can't say I blame him. I am kinda a genius," Tony says with a half-assed smile. It does seem to wake Pepper up a little out of her shock.
"Tony, you can't keep seeing him. It's like…fighting fire with fire. You two will just spark off of each other."
"Did you know that fighting fire with fire is actually a valuable method for wildfires?" Tony asks.
"Tony, I'm serious-"
"So am I."
"-this is dangerous. It can only end terribly," Pepper finishes without blinking. She's used to Tony's diversion tactics.
"What if it didn't?" Tony asks. Pepper's head snaps up to meet his eyes. "What if…because I took some time to treat the guy like an actual person…it didn't end terribly?"
"Please tell me you aren't serious," Pepper pleads. Her eyes are desperate. She's watched Tony try to kill himself too many times to not know the outcomes of this.
"I just…I can't-"
"You're too curious," Pepper says with sad disappointment. She won't be able to change his mind. "You want to figure him out just as much as he wants to figure you out."
Tony gives her a helpless smile. "You've always known me better than myself, Pepper."
"Will you at least tell the team? No, I know, you won't tell the team, but what about Bruce? Will you tell him?"
"Pepper, they can't know. If I put Bruce in the middle of this and things go south, he'll get the blame too. I can't do that to him. He has enough on his plate."
Pepper sighs. She's not happy about this, not by a long run, and Tony can tell, but he already knows that Pepper will forgive him eventually because she's Pepper and she always understands. He's pretty sure the day she doesn't understand him is the day the world ends. "I can't even pretend to be okay with this."
"I don't need you to," Tony says, taking a hand that she's laid on her desk again. "Just-don't tell the team, okay? And I promise you, if I start getting in too deep, I'll tell you. Or the team."
Pepper gives him a weak smile. "I think the team would be a better choice. I don't think I could do much."
"Are you kidding me? You could save the whole world in a second." She laughs, but he wonders if she knows how true that statement is. Pepper's always been out to make the world better. She would have made a way better Iron Man—less violence, more peace. Actually, making a suit without weapons, built solely for humanitarian efforts…now that wasn't a bad idea...
"Go, Tony. Your mind is already down in the shop," she says gently, pulling her hand from his. "Just…promise to at least try and be careful, okay?"
"I'm always careful Peps!" Tony says with a wave as he leaves the office. The secretary is still glaring as he walks by.
Pepper grimaces and turns back to the window.
"Can I get you anything Ms. Potts?" Bethany asks quietly from the doorway.
Pepper turns and gives her a smile. "Will you bring me in the list of pending patents from R and D?"
"Of course, Ms. Potts. Can I-" Bethany starts, then cuts herself off. "Nevermind, ma'am. I'll get those reports."
"You want to know why I let him stay in my life," Pepper says before the girl can leave.
Bethany turns back, her face hesitant. "It just seems like…it seems like he hurts you, and-and makes you worry. A lot."
"Sometimes love hurts, Bethany. Even if we aren't in a relationship anymore. But it doesn't mean the relationship isn't worth it."
"Of course. I'll be right back, Ms. Potts."
Loki finds Tony in his lab, a schematic of a suit pulled up on one of the holograms. A glass of whiskey sits next to him.
"I take it the conversation didn't go well?" Loki asks casually, sliding into a seat nearby. Tony doesn't even glance over at him.
"Could've gone worse. I got out alive and she promised not to tell the team. I'd say that's a win right there."
"And you still have not rested at all," Loki observes. "The wound pains you."
"It's just a little sore. Shut it down Jarvis. I'll come back to it tomorrow."
"Of course Mr. Stark," Jarvis says.
"Promise not to kill me tonight?" Tony asks with a grim smile. "I can already see it—the team finds me in the lab with a metal pipe through me, all because Loki couldn't control his frustration while trying to learn basic mechanics."
"No harm will come to you tonight, Man of Iron," Loki says. "I have spent three Midgard days healing you. I have no desire to mess up such fine work so quickly. I'll give it at least a week."
"Sounds like a date. Shall we begin?"
Just a little technical note, because I didn't cover it well in the story. When Loki gets to the tower, Tony has been missing for two days. Loki spends the rest of that day doing some recon-just because he thinks (knows) he's better than mortals, he doesn't underestimate their ability for firepower. That's why Tony stays for three days with the Mandarin.