AN: thanks for all the feedback :D This is actually part one of a longer chapter but I didn't want to leave you guys hanging! Unbeta'd so any mistakes are my own :)

Thor is languishing in a jail cell wishing he could turn back time.

His mother is probably at home crying herself to sleep, his father is somewhere else in the station being interrogated for his brother's murder. His brother's murder. His brother is...Thor has no idea where his brother is.

Honestly Thor's half convinced this is some awful nightmare.

"Did you see your father kill him?"

He'd come home to hear his parents arguing, the front door hanging open. He'd run upstairs and Loki's room was empty. When they were kids Loki would sneak in to his room and clamber in to his bed when their parents argued.

"Did you help him dispose of the body?"

When they'd moved from England six years ago Loki had been ten and Thor had been twelve. He remembered how much Loki had hated it, how Loki had once tried to convince him to run away back to England with him. He remembered every kid he'd beaten up for bullying Loki too.

"We know you know where he is, Thor."

Thor came home that night and Loki was gone. He'd screamed at his parents, demanded to know where his brother had gone. His mother told him his brother had run off. Thor had spent all night driving around calling for Loki frantically. He'd called Steve and got him to help too; he'd called everyone he could think of.

They hadn't found him.

He'd told his story to the police officers a hundred times. He'd come home to find Loki gone, his car missing too. He'd looked everywhere.

His dad and Loki had always had a strained relationship (Odin was an old fashioned kind of dad and Loki didn't really fit in with that) but their father would never have killed him. Never.

When the cell door creaks open he jumps and glares at the officer who leans in. He's slightly older than any of the other officers that have interrogated him and Thor's surprised when the man smiles warmly at him.

"Hey there, Thor. I'm Detective Coulson, I'll be lead detective on your brother's case; I wanted to apologise for the way some of our younger officers have been treating you and I'm here to tell you that you're going to be released." The man says still smiling.

Thor blinks. "Just like that?"

"Well, to tell you the truth we didn't really think you were involved. We just needed to be sure." He steps further in to the cell and shuts the door gently behind him.

"I thought you were letting me go."

Coulson smiles again, "We will, I just need to ask you a few more questions. May I?"

"Was it you who killed your brother, Thor? Argument get a little heated?

"What kind of questions?"

"I need to know about your brother. What was he like? What was his relationship like with you and your parents, particularly your father."

Thor nods warily and the man smiles again. "I'm just trying to help you, Thor." He says and Thor's reminded of the silly cop shows his mother loves so much. Good cop, bad cop. But he's tired and his head is a mess of worry and anger and he sighs.

"What do you want me to tell you?"

Tony jerks awake from a dream of Loki screaming and Tony never being able to reach him in Bucky's bed.

The pale sunlight streaming through the net curtains tells him it's early morning and he sits up, rubbing his eyes. He needs to get back in to Tasha's room before any of them realise he's gone because Tasha finding out about this would probably be a bit not good. He slides off the bed quietly and glances briefly at the snoring boy behind him.

Bucky's curled up on his side, face all open and vulnerable. Tony likes to think that maybe what they have together could be real (but he knows it never can be because there's Loki and there's Steve). The thought of Loki makes his heart plummet because Loki's still missing and all he wantsneeds is to find him.

He can't do anything from here, he decides and right now, still groggy from nightmares, all he really wants is a few more hours in his own bed. He pauses in Tasha's room to gather up his things, thinks about leaving a note, decides against it and leaves. He doesn't check the time till he gets outside. Its 5am and an hour's walk to his house, Tony groans, thinks about going back in (which would involve knocking and waking everyone up) and resigns himself to his fate.

He pulls out his iPod before he starts to walk (skips over the playlist named Loki) and closes his eyes briefly. Tony always thinks better when he's alone; Loki's been gone five days, almost a week, a week. They'd already established that Loki had been normal the day he'd gone missing and Tony's pretty sure he'd been fairly happy the week leading up to it too.

He groans in frustration. The last time Loki had broken down, really broken down like into a shivering, nervous wreck had been months ago but Tony would never forget it. They'd been the only ones in the tree house at the time, Howard had been drinking again (it was the anniversary of the separation) and Loki had already been there in floods of tears.

(Please, Tony, please. I just want to go, I just want to die.)

Tony shakes himself, he never had found out what Loki was so upset about that night, he wished he had. It had been the first time Tony had seen Loki so broken. Loki had always hidden it, Tony had known it was there, it was obvious, but he'd never pressed it, he figured if something had been bothering Loki so much he would have just told them.

God, he regrets not making Loki tell him. Maybe he could have helped.

Who is he kidding? He can barely deal with his own problems, let alone someone else's. He probably would have just made it worse; in fact he's sure he would have.

Tony sighs and turns his iPod on full.

When he gets home he falls in to bed fully clothed and ignores the photos on his walls, the one's of him and Loki.

His mother meets him at the prison gates, she holds her head high but Thor can see the unshed tears in her blue eyes. He barely stops himself from running to her (he's only been inside for one night but it's enough for a lifetime) when he reaches her though he can't resist throwing his arms around her.

Coulson had questioned him for what seemed like hours, asking about Loki's friends, Loki's favourite places, Loki's everything and at the end of it all the man had sighed, said he'd question Loki's friends. Thor had asked about his father and Coulson had frowned and muttered something about not discussing open cases, then he'd smiled and pushed Thor out of the door. Thor knew then that something had happened; it hadn't just been an ordinary argument.

"Mother..."

She runs a hand through his hair and does her best to smile for him. "Come on; let's get you out of here. Your friend's have been worried sick." Her voice trembles slightly. "Do you want to stop anywhere to eat first?"

Thor's about to shake his head, to say he'll eat when they get home when he remembers they won't be going home. His house is a crime scene; it's probably still taped off. "Where are we going?"

"A hotel," she says absently smoothing his hair back. "Did they say anything about your father?"

When Thor shakes his head his mother presses a hand to her mouth and sniffs. "I just can't believe this is happening..."

Thor puts an arm around her and they walk to the car in silence. When they get there Thor pauses, "Mother, I need to know, what were Dad and Loki arguing about?"

"Oh, Thor," she says, touching his arm gently. "Can we please not do this now? I've just been questioned by the police and-"

Thor's eyes narrow. "Mother, what were you arguing about?"

His mother sighs, "Can we talk about this in the car, sweetie?"

Tony wakes up to Jarvis the cat pawing him and his phone buzzing on the desk. The sun spilling through the windows was too bright for it to still be early morning. Fuck. He pushes Jarvis off him and leans over to check the caller I.D.

It's Bruce.

"What?"

"Where are you, Tone? You're like an hour late for school."

It's not like this is particularly unusual but given the circumstances, "Shit."

"Whatever, just get here fast. Principle Fury wants to see us all in his office."

"Double shit."

"Get here quick, Tone."

Tony rolls out of bed and pulls on some clothes that smell clean (there's a green hoodie on the spare bed- Loki's) and thunders down to pound on his father's workshop door. (His dad never works on Fridays) Howard answers the door with a face like thunder.

"I need a ride to school, Dad."

Howard narrows his eyes. "Fine. Get in the car, Tony."

They drive to school in silence and to Tony's surprise Mr Xavier is waiting for them at the gates (he thanks God it wasn't one of the other teachers, like Lensherr, or Fury himself). He's led through the school to Fury's office; Bruce, Clint and Tasha are sitting outside it.
When Tony comes in Bruce stands up. "You're here, finally."

"Yeah, yeah, I overslept. What's happening here?" he asks.

"Fury's got some detective in there, asking about Loki." Clint says. "They still think Odin killed him or something."

"They let Thor go this morning though," Bruce adds.

"Really? How's he doing?"

"Well his brother's missing and his dad's in jail so..."

"Shut up, Clint." Tasha snaps. "They've already questioned Peter, Steve, Bucky and the others. Steve wants us all to meet up afterwards."

Usually Tony would do anything to get out of spending time with Steve but this time... "What do you guys think?"

"I think the more info and eyes we have the better chance we have of finding Loki," Tasha says and Bruce nods in agreement.

Tony nods and says, "Okay, I'll be there," just as Fury's office door swings open and Steve strides out. He pauses and gives them all a small smile before hurrying out.

"Stark," Fury barks. "You're close to Loki, you get in here next."

"Good luck, Tone," Clint hisses as Tony passes him.

Fury pushes him in to a small room behind his office and snaps, "Behave," before slamming the door. The room is empty but for a table and two chairs, one of which is occupied by a smiling man.

"Hello Anthony, I'm Phil Coulson, I'm the lead detective on Loki's case and I need to ask you a few questions."