Eeeeeeyyy still here. I know it's been an insane amount of time since my last post but I've made it back finally! So, yes, Losteraable, there will be more chapters!
Funny story about this little oneshot. I actually wrote a whole different version of this world in which, at the end of Loki and Tony's first meeting, Jarvis calls Bruce up and Bruce knows the whole time that Tony and Loki are seeing each other. So this one will have hints that Bruce suspects there's something going on, but I think it still fits nicely in this arc.
Hypothetically, there should be more coming still. I'm hitting a major bump, I'm not gonna lie. But I'm going to try and push through since you are all so willing to stay with me!
As always, read, review, and enjoy!
Tony thought he was prepared for when this whole shit show went south, but when it did, he discovered he was poorly mistaken. He'd grown lax in light of their push to learn more about what the other knew—for Loki, that meant engineering and mechanics lessons and for Tony that meant learning the theory behind magic.
But then Loki shows up one night when Tony's already been pushed into a bad mood by Steve's patronizing lectures and Natasha's glares all because he wasn't gung-ho about team bonding time. What most of them tended to forget was that Tony actually had a full time job that didn't include the Avengers and he was woefully behind on work.
And then Loki shows up also clearly in a touchy mood. All it took was an idle comment about the worthlessness of humans paired with a particularly vicious look. Part of Tony warned him that Loki was getting restless, dangerous, but the other part of him was pissed off and called him out on it. That leads to a heated argument that almost comes to blows. Loki's hands are sparking with magic and Tony has the gloves on for the disassembled suit, the whirring of the repulsors charging up. Loki freezes before it can get any further, remembering his promise that would hold until midnight, ensuring Tony's safety. He vanishes, leaving Tony with the feeling of Loki's frenzied green eyes on him. He looks at the clock. Three hours until midnight.
He'd call the team if he could, but he can't possibly explain how he knows Loki's about to go out and rain destruction down on New York. The worst part is, Tony knows he's only doing it so he can lure Tony out into the public because when Loki's pissed—he means pissed—he's not going to make it some private little showdown in the tower where it's likely they can cover the whole thing up. No, he's going to do it out in the open, put innocent lives in danger, all so he can try and prove his superiority to Tony.
Tony waits the rest of the three hours up, then stays up another hour, waiting for the call. It doesn't come, and he somehow manages to fall asleep for a few hours.
At 7, Jarvis wakes him up.
"Sir, I'm picking up large spikes in Loki's energy. S.H.I.E.L.D has been alerted."
Tony's awake in seconds. "Find him."
He's already in the air when Fury calls. "Stark-"
"I know, I'm almost there. Bruce is waiting on stand-by."
"Try to contain him until the team gets there, Stark," Fury warns, but Tony can already tell he doesn't expect Tony to listen to him. "Do not engage."
"Got it," Tony says, and closes off the line. "Mute my side for now, Jarvis."
There's a pause, and Tony can tell it's a reproach, but Jarvis still responds with a, "Line muted, sir."
Loki's taking potshots at buildings when he arrives. Strange beasts are patrolling the streets, chasing screaming civilians away. They don't seem to be injuring anyone, but Tony doesn't have time to observe them as he darts to the side to narrowly avoid a shot from Loki's staff.
"Throwing another temper tantrum?" Tony asks as the visor on his mask lifts up. Loki snarls at him. "This is what you wanted, right? Draw me out into the open, make sure the whole world knows how angry you are?"
"And that's why you are here, correct?" Loki responds, his words as smooth as a piece of glass, as sharp as its point. "Remind the world that you are a hero, despite all of the, what did Miss. Romanov call it? Oh yes, all of the red in you ledger?"
"At least I can acknowledge the mistakes I've made," Tony says. The smirk Loki gives him is deadly, and Tony half expects him to go to town, tearing apart every little fault in Tony's character that he knows Tony refuses to acknowledge.
"As can I," Loki says brightly. His face darkens as the anger fills it again, deadlier than even when he attacked New York the first time. "It starts with sparing Thor's life and ends when I eliminate you."
With that, Loki launches shots of magic at Tony. Every time he avoids one it hits a building, tearing apart the structure in a matter of seconds. Buildings are destroyed and begin to crumble. He reminds himself that all he needs to do is avoid getting close to Loki, because the god is much better at close range than distance fighting. He zips through the sky, constantly moving, trying to throw Loki's aim off. He makes the mistake of pulling up to a stop too close to a building. He feels Loki seconds before the god grabs his arm and launches him into the wall of the neighboring building. Below, the illusion of Loki fades away.
Tony tries to pick himself up, but Loki grabs him and throws him over the edge. He's lucky because it happens to only be a three story drop. He's less lucky because Loki put his full force behind it. Jarvis picks up a spike in energy two seconds before Loki appears beside him after he crashes, and this time Tony gets a shot in that Loki doesn't have time to deflect. It throws him off balance just long enough for Tony to pull himself up, feeling bones shift in ways they really shouldn't. Then Loki advances on him, burned and smoking flesh not slowing him down in the least.
"Can we take to the air, Jarv?" Tony asks as he keeps distance between himself and the god.
"Unlikely, sir," Jarvis says, just before another spike appears behind him. Tony manages to get himself positioned so that when Loki reaches out for him, he grabs the offending hand, and pays Loki back, sending him flying into a building. He sends a shot at him while Loki pulls himself out and by the time he sends the second one, he realizes Loki's already teleported somewhere else and left an illusion behind. Tony, despite Jarvis' warning, kicks off the ground to take to the protection of the air.
He doesn't realize he's not as protected as he thought until Loki's staff slams into him from above, the god himself materializing in the air above him. Tony plummets to the ground as electricity crackles over the suit, finding all the weak parts in the armor and worming their way in. Systems start to fail, including flight capabilities. Tony yells as the electricity works its way into his skin, sending lightning bolts of pain up and down his body. He manages to manipulate himself enough to get on top of Loki as they fall. If they hit the ground, they're going to hit it together.
Of course, once they do hit, the suit dies. No power at all. The arc reactor is badly depleted and won't be jump starting the suit up anytime soon, even if there weren't multiple catastrophic failures in the systems. Tony isn't even really sure he can move.
A forceful hand wrenches the mask off of him. Heated green eyes, flaring with barely concealed hate and rage meet his and Tony gives him a bloody grin. There's internal bleeding somewhere—no way there isn't—and there's blood leaking down from cuts on his head and face. Loki himself is a mess of bruises and cuts, and Tony sees one of his elbows snap back into place as his body heals at an accelerated rate.
"You gonna kill me, Liesmith? Prove daddy dearest right in everything he says about you?" Tony taunts. So, maybe not the best plan, but this is the tell-all moment, when Loki chooses which side of the line he's going to walk on. With a growl, Loki reaches down, his hands burning against Tony's skin and, with maybe only half his strength, casually snaps Tony's neck.
This is, of course, right when the team shows up.
Tony doesn't even have time to experience the whole "life flash before eyes, bright light" shtick before Loki's hands are glowing green and the bones knit themselves back together. The spell filters down through his body, fixing the worst of the damage. Loki steps back and, with a flash of his hands, sends Tony to sleep.
"Guys," Bruce says tiredly, as everyone stares with blank eyes at Tony's bed, where a heart monitor tracks Tony's heart rate, and Jarvis has a screen projecting the power of the arc reactor. He scrubs a hand down his face. "You need to go get something to eat," Bruce tells them. He had left for an hour to one of the labs so he could stare at the monitors there, remembering the bloody grin Tony had given Loki, the unnatural way Loki broke his neck, the casual ease Loki stood with, as if he hadn't just killed Tony, then brought him back to life.
And Bruce is still trying to wrap his head around the idea that Loki killed Tony and then saved him.
Bruce had returned to the room, showered and no less confused. He told the team he had eaten and showered, and if only half of it was true, well, Loki certainly wasn't here to call him out on it. If he was smart, he would be far away from this planet because Loki had kneeled over Tony on a destroyed street in front of the whole team and-
"No," Clint says, monotone. He doesn't even look at Bruce, doesn't even twitch. Beside him though, Steve does. It starts with blinking, then jerky movements as Steve forces a stiff body to move.
"No, Bruce-Bruce is right," Steve gets out with some difficulty. They haven't spoken in hours, not since they'd sat down in Tony's medical room. Thor had stayed for about two seconds, his eyes stormy and he seemed to literally be throwing off sparks. He'd taken one look at Tony, growled some inarticulate words, and stormed out of the room. S.H.I.E.L.D was still trying to track him, a quiet Agent Hill had explained to the silent room, but they assumed he was out trying to find his brother. "We need to eat. Jarvis and Bruce will call us if there's any change."
Bruce nods vacantly, but Jarvis is more cooperative. "Of course, Captain Rogers."
He tries to find words of encouragement, but he just stares at Tony as Steve prods Clint until he stands, then drag Natasha to her feet too. The spies brush shoulders, their elbows still touching as they send last looks over their shoulders and Steve herds them out the door. It shuts and locks behind them.
Instantly, Bruce's muscles tense up. The Other Guy has already been out once today, working off steam and frustration at the fact that Tony died and Bruce hadn't even been able to catch the one who did it, but he rumbles deeply in his chest, ready to come back out.
"Did you come back to go for a second round?" Bruce asks the god who is suddenly across the room. He doubts even Loki would be stupid enough to take a single violent step towards him right now. The Other Guy is seconds from bursting forward. He just needs a reason.
"I would prefer if this did not turn messy," Loki says stiffly and Bruce has to convince himself not to laugh hysterically because he's sleep-deprived and his friend—the one person who really seemed to believe in him—was lying on a hospital bed, trying to recover from having his neck snapped by the god who was standing on the other side of the bed. God their lives were weird.
They fall into silence, Loki standing, his staff still in hand, at the end of Tony's bed, Bruce still sitting in his chair. His eyes flick to the readings. He'll need to change the arc reactor soon.
"What did you do to him?" Bruce asks finally. He doesn't ask why. He knows why. Loki has an unstable streak in him, where he's overcome with anger and hatred and wants only to see everything burn around him. Tony's warned the team about it before, and Bruce saw it too. They both know what it looks like. The only difference is, Loki lacks the control, the emotional bonds, to hold him back that the two of them have.
"I should have healed him," Loki murmurs. His eyes scan over Tony's bruised body restlessly. Bruce wonders if he regrets it. He wonders if he's brave enough to ask. "It's a simple thing, to bring one back from the dead before the soul has time to realize it has passed," Loki says, like he's saying the sky is blue, not talking about killing Bruce's best friend and bringing him back to life. The Other Guy rumbles unsteadily in his chest. "I merely sent him to sleep after that. There should have been no complications. He should have awakened shortly after I left."
Because of course, once he'd taken his anger out on Tony, Loki had retreated. He'd taken shots at the team, yes, but they were an act. Everyone knew it. They think he was just shocked that he'd actually managed to kill Tony, but his arrival in the hospital room makes Bruce think otherwise. Then, of course, they'd gotten down there and discovered that Tony was still alive, despite having seen Loki twist Tony's head. Steve had nearly thrown up during the debrief because he had been close enough to hear it. By the time the team had assured themselves of Tony's breaths, Loki was gone. Natasha had confirmed it, said she had seen Loki just disappear from in front of her, seconds before she was about to start firing on him. And the entire time the rest of the team wasn't paying attention to Loki, he hadn't taken a single shot. They'd been confused, and Steve was probably going to pursue it-
But then, an hour later, the arc reactor blinked out and they had to scramble to get another one in place before Tony went into cardiac arrest.
He wants to tell Loki about the arc reactor, make him fix it like he fixed Tony's neck, but he's also not going to give away that secret, especially not hours after Loki killed him. He knows Loki's seen it before, knows that he thinks it's a power source, and knows that Tony suspects that he knows more. "Well, you did something wrong then."
"Hm," Loki says, his head tilting slightly. He moves over to the other side of the bed, slow, deliberate movements, as if he's trying not to startle a terrified animal.
Which, in a way, he's trying very hard not to.
It doesn't matter how slow he moves though, when his hand comes to rest on Tony's arc reactor. The touch is light, barely even there, not nearly strong enough to pull the reactor from Tony's chest, but Bruce suspects that Loki could suck up the power in a matter of seconds if he really wanted to. He tenses further, and shifts all of his weight so he can get up at a second's notice.
"Ah," Loki says, his eyes focused on his hand. "I made a mistake."
"Just one?" Bruce asks before he can stop himself. Loki ignores him.
"My sleeping spell has touched the casing of the arc reactor. It will continue to draw power from the device, until the power has run out and the sleep runs itself out."
"You accidently put him in a coma?" Bruce manages to get out around the anger that clogs his throat. A good majority of it is aimed at Loki, but there's a small part of him that feels guilty. By changing out the reactors, he was supplying the spell with more power, pulling Tony into a deeper and deeper sleep.
"I assure you, it is a simple matter to fix," Loki says quietly. His hand begins to glow slightly, and Bruce rises. He notices flashes of color dance over Tony's skin, his arms, his legs, his head. The flashes draw together, just under Loki's hand. He draws them away and when he stands back, there is a ball of greenish blue light in his hand. It ripples lazily a few times before it melts into Loki's skin. "He will wake soon," Loki says. The energy level of the arc reactor stabilizes on the screen in front of Bruce.
"Wait," Bruce says, forcing the words out around a thick ball of conflicting emotions. Loki pauses, looking at Bruce with little patience, but Bruce sees a flicker of fear in his eyes before he can conceal it fully. "Thank you. For bringing him back. Even if I don't know why" Loki nods hesitantly, as if looking for the trap or for Bruce to suddenly change and attack him. He swallows heavily. "I'd lay low for a while. Your brother is looking for you. He's causing storms all over the East Coast."
This time, when Loki goes to leave, Bruce doesn't stop him.
Tony wakes up 45 minutes later. He's groggy, unsure of where he is, and not exactly sure of what happened. It takes Bruce another ten minutes to talk a slightly panicking Tony back down. Once Tony gets control of himself, he starts to remember. He rubs his neck, right where there were bones sticking out almost 14 hours ago.
"Loki?" Tony asks hoarsely.
"Left as soon as he healed you. He was just here though. Apparently your arc reactor was tied to the sleeping spell and was on an infinite loop. He removed the spell and left again."
Tony nods, like he expects that answer. He knows that Tony's put a lot of time into researching magic and studied how other energy sources work with the reactor. Tony rubs his neck again.
"Does it hurt?" Bruce asks, indicating where his hand is. Tony, not even realizing what he was doing, removes it.
"No," he says, leaning back in the bed that Bruce propped up for him. "He always threatens about making us die in the slowest ways possible," Tony says idly. "Funny thing was, I didn't even feel it when he snapped my neck."
Bruce knows that's not how snapped necks work, because there's always at least a second of pain as the bones are pried apart, and so does Tony, but they don't say anything else.
Tony's in the living room, pretending like he's not drinking since Bruce has him taking some heavier pain killers when he sees Loki appear in the reflection of the TV. Tony makes eye contact, then turns deliberately back to his tablet. Loki moves towards the couch, taking his spot on his chair again. Tony looks up again when he sits down and sees Loki flinch at the bruises and cuts that Loki's spells didn't clear up. He got lucky that the spell covered as much as it did. He's relieved the burden of broken and sprained bones, but he still has a twisted knee that requires at least a week of bed rest—yeah, right—a shoulder that is highly unamused when he lifts things, and bone deep bruises.
"I could-" Loki starts.
"I'm good, thanks. I think I've had enough magic for a while," Tony interrupts without looking up from his tablet. Loki flinches again, and remains quiet.
"Got it out of your system?" Tony asks eventually. Loki doesn't say anything which, really, is telling in itself. Tony slides a book across the table to him. "Found this in one of Bruce's libraries, so you should probably make sure to return it."
There's a slight twitch to Loki's lips as he leans forward to pick up the book. "I thank you, but I have not yet finished the last book you gave to me." Still, he settles back into the chair and flips the book open.
After another few minutes of silence, Tony leans back against the couch and begins to relax. "Liar," Tony says. This time, Loki doesn't quite manage to hide the smile.