Loki's eyes blinked slowly as he became accustomed to the bright light of the room he had woke up in, the entire room seemed to be off white with no personal touches, similar to those Midgardian hospital rooms he believed. He felt a warm pressure on one of his hands and turned to see messy dark brown hair framing Tony's face as he slept. It appeared that he had refused to leave Loki's side and had fell asleep in his chair, his head resting near Loki's, seeking proximity. Tony started to wake up, seemingly disturbed by Loki's small movements on the bed, he started to rub his eyes chasing away the remnants of sleep before he froze and looked up at Loki.

"It wasn't a dream?" Tony's eyes glisten as a smile of happiness and sheer relief graces his lips. Loki shifts his hand that lies under Tony's so their fingers lace together, seeking comfort in simple touches.

"How did I end up here?" Loki's eyebrows knit together in confusion as he tries to remember how he ended up escaping and how he managed to travel as far as Midgard, to Tony.

"All I can tell you is that you turned up in the middle of a storm disguised as Dr Bruce Banner for some reason and you were badly injured, I carried you in here and tried to patch you up as best as I could. Honestly, once I had seen your wounds I thought it was a miracle you were even alive, they were extensive and very severe so I gave you some painkillers and let you rest." Loki raised his head and looked at one of his exposed arms; the skin was varying shades, from the darkest of purples mixed with blue to the yellowing of fading bruises, the bruising was further worsened by the cuts, welts and burns that were at various stages of healing. Tony stroked the side of Loki's hand with his thumb to offer a small comfort to both himself and Loki, as he started to speak; his voice was choked with emotion,

"I thought I would never see you again." He tightens his grip on Loki's hand as if he never wants to let go for fear of losing him again.

"Honestly, if it wasn't for you I doubt I would even be here now." Loki's voice is quiet and reserved as he speaks leaving the underlying connotation of the sentence hanging in the air. He turns and gave Tony a small smile before they settled back into a calm and comfortable silence. After a few minutes, soft even breaths let him know that Loki had went back to sleep, visibly exhausted from what had recently transpired. Tony made sure he was completely settled before he went up to the kitchen area, he was in desperate need of a coffee and perhaps he should eat something, an idea his growling stomach seemed to agree with. He was sitting in silence, after he had quickly ate, just watching the steam rise from his mug of coffee as he started to hear shouting. He realised what was happening just as the shouts were starting to morph into screams of terror, Tony stood up and practically sprinted to the room Loki was in and threw open the door. The sight that met him nearly broke his heart; Loki was screaming and trying to move up the bed away from whatever he was seeing in his awful nightmare. As soon as he heard Loki yell his name he rushed over and wrapped his arms tightly around his shoulders.

"Shh, I'm here. Listen, it's me Tony; I won't let anything else hurt you. I'm always going to be here." Tony didn't know if it was the contact or the soothing words but Loki started to quieten down, he moved him so he was lying on the bed properly, gently stroking Loki's hair every time he heard a sob or a whimper. As Tony settled onto the bed next to him Loki relaxed into his embrace, seemingly finding solace and protection before falling into an undisturbed sleep. Not long after Tony drifted off as well, however neither of them moved, wanting to stay close together for fear of waking to the other being gone. After an indeterminable amount of time Tony woke up and attempted to get off the bed without disturbing Loki. Tony looked down at the sleeping god and felt his chest swell with happiness just knowing he was there, he softly kissed his forehead before leaving the room as quietly as possible. Tony figured that Loki would more than likely be hungry so he went to see if there was anything half decent to eat, as he arrived in the kitchen he managed to find some half decent soup. Once the soup had been heated up, he was really not used to doing this, JARVIS decided to announce that Dr Banner was at Stark tower. Of course Tony didn't assume that it might actually be Banner this time and he immediately thought Loki was trying to leave, he grabbed to soup and half walked half ran to his room trying not to drop the food. As soon as he entered the room and saw Loki still lying in bed he let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. Loki slowly sat up and looked at him in uncertainty,

"Is everything alright Tony?"

"Oh yeah, just fine, I brought you some food and erm… perhaps you should just stay in here quietly, for a while."

"Is someone here?"

"Yeah, I will have to go and see them for a bit." Tony moved over to Loki and left a soft lingering kiss on his lips before he left. Loki smiled as he left, feeling a little better than he had in a long time. As Tony made his way down to meet Banner he spoke to JARVIS quietly

"JARVIS lock down the section in which Loki is staying and encrypt any files that mention him."

"Yes sir."

Tony met banner just as he was coming through the door and plastered on a smile,

"Hey, how have you been?" Banner smiled back, ignoring the forced cheeriness Tony was producing.

"Not too bad, just keeping busy working with S.H.I.E.L.D. for a change. On that matter, I need to use your lab, the ones they have are nowhere near as good."

"Yeah sure just head on in, I'm going to get coffee, you want one?"

"Please."

They had been amicable since Loki had been took away, but there was still something unsaid hanging in the air that was never touched upon. Banner walked into the lab and headed straight for the main computer, S.H.E.I.L.D. may have some of the best software in the world but it couldn't hold a candle to Tony's personalised software. As Banner starting searching for files that contained the information he needed for his work he found files that had been encrypted, specifically encrypted by JARVIS, which was highly unusual. He keeps them in mind as he waits for Tony to get back; he has a nagging feeling that they contain something really important. Tony returned to the lab carrying two fresh steaming cups of coffee for both him and banner and placed them on the worktop. As Tony started working he seemed a bit off to Banner, like something was bothering him however this was an opportune moment to possibly find out what was in those files.

"Hey, I need to access some old files on engineering schematics but can't seem to open them." Banner held his breath as he hoped his little idea would work.

"What? Oh, yeah, sure. JARVIS give Dr Banner full access to the files."

"Access granted." Banner let out the breath he was holding and turned back to the computer,

"Thanks JARVIS." Banner sees if he can now open the encrypted files and to his slight surprise and relief the information comes up onto the screen, although what he finds is entirely not what he expected. The files appeared to be medical documents, although reading through the injuries Banner was positive the person should have died however they seemed to pull through. The coffee cup nearly fell from his hand as he read the name along the bottom of the page, patient: Loki Laufeyson, Banner started to read the rest of the information to find out where Loki actually was and conveniently he was here in Stark tower.

"Tony, would you do a favour and get some more coffee?"

"Yeah sure, I think I need more anyway." As soon as Tony had left the room and was out of sight Banner left and went in the opposite direction, the way to Loki's room. While Tony was waiting for the coffee machine to make fresh coffee JARVIS called for his attention.

"Sir?"

"Yes JARVIS?"

"Perhaps it is not a wise idea for Dr Banner to be in the same room as Mr Laufeyson." Tony stood for a moment, registering what JARVIS had just said and making sure he heard him right before he was flooded with panic. He darted to Loki's room at the same time chastising himself for being so stupid as to let this happen, what if Loki was hurt again!? He threw the door open to find Banner just standing staring at Loki who was still sleeping, shock and disgust was evident on Banners face.

"Listen, I can explai…"

"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING? YOU IDIOT!" The sudden increase in volume had Loki slowly waking up; he turned to the source of the noise whilst rubbing sleep from his eyes which widened comically at the sight of Banner. Once Loki realised he would more than likely be hurt (or took away from Tony) again his body started shaking in dread and despite his injuries he tries to move up the bed away from Banner causing recent wounds to reopen prompting blood to start seeping onto the nightshirt. Loki brought his knees up to his chest wrapping his arms around them trying to protect himself. All Banner could seem to do was watch as Loki started muttering to himself, the only discernible words being please and no, while his body was racked with sobs. Banner feelt a small pang of guilt at the sight but it was quickly dissipated as he turned to Tony; Loki starts to calm down realising that he is not likely to be hurt, at least not with Tony there. However the fear was soon replaced with ferocity when he heard Banner speak to Tony,

"I don't know what they did to him on Asgard, but he deserved every single moment of it." Banners eyes narrowed toward him as he said this but quickly shot open and he saw Loki lunge toward him; Loki grabbed Banner's head in a vice like grip and forced every single memory of everything that had happened to him into his head. Banner could feel every torture he had been through but worse was the psychological torment and the torrent of emotions pouring into him, making him feel. Loki's eyes were wet with tears and sobs still racked his body but he focused on Banner as he adjusted to what he had experienced.

"Why here?" was all Banner could seem to say. Loki replies to him in between sobs,

"I just wanted to look in the right place."

After Loki had let Tony give him a sedative to calm him down, both Banner and Tony made their way to the main living area of the tower to have a long delayed talk. Before they sat down Tony poured them both generous measures of alcohol to ease the way of the conversation.

"Well Banner, I think we definitely need to talk about this." Tony gave a weak smile at the sheer ridiculousness of the situation rubbing a hand over his tired looking face.

"You really love him don't you?" Tony stopped and realised just how much he really does love Loki but before he can grace Banner with a reply he is cut off by JARVIS.

"Sir, there is an incoming call from S.H.I.E.L.D."

"Right, just put it on speaker." Nick Fury's voice filled the large room,

"We have a situation. We need you all to come in right now. NO excuses."