When Loki falls Tony's brain ceases all logical thought and proceeds to freak the fuck out. Allie's crying and Tony's frozen. Loki's hurt. Loki's hurt badly. And oh, he's going to have such explaining to do and how is he supposed to do that? And Fury's going to be, well, furious and Tony is going into melt down mode.

Bruce, however, is calm. He drops the book he's holding and knells down beside the fallen god. He looks him up and down and picks him up easily as he'd pick up Allie. "Tony we have to get him to the med lab, now." he says.

Tony's terrified by this point because Loki is a god. A god. He shouldn't be this badly injured; his magic should have healed him by now. He scoops Allie up and follows Bruce out of the room. Allie's shaking, her tiny fists gripping Tony's shirt front so hard he's worried she'll tear it.

"What's wrong with Loki, Daddy?"

"He'll be fine, Allie." Tony says distractedly.

"Promise," she's whispering. "Promise he'll be fine."

Tony doesn't reply because he's too busy trying to keep up with Bruce and trying not to drop Allie. He's also silently preying that they don't run in to any of the other Avengers so he doesn't have to-

They round a corner and Clint's just coming out of the TV room. "Whoa, what the hell?"

Tony stops and stammers and Bruce rolls his eyes, "Clint, get everyone here down to the med lab and don't fucking call Fury."

"How do you do that?" Tony asks as they reach the med lab and Bruce lays Loki carefully down on a bed. Allie's still clinging to him.

Bruce looks up at him briefly. "Do what?"

"Stay so fucking calm all the time?"

Bruce flashes him a grin and goes back to examining Loki's injuries.

"Daddy will he be okay?" Allie asks once again.

Tony splutters because fuck there's a lot of blood and Bruce saves the day once again. He looks up and smiles, "He'll be fine, Allie. He's a god, right? You know Gods can't die."

Allie's grip doesn't let up but she relaxes a bit and Tony doesn't have time to ask if Loki really will be okay because suddenly Thor's crashing through the room like a fucking freight train and Tony and Allie narrowly avoid being flattened.

"What happened!?" Thor demands and the fury in his voice makes even Bruce 'Mr Calm' Banner pale a little. "WHO DID THIS TO MY BROTHER?" he booms and Tony's pretty sure he just made the whole mansion shake.

Steve, Clint and Natasha are peering in to the room nervously, Tony's brain has malfunctioned and Bruce is trying to staunch Loki's bleed. So Allie answers, "Doctor Doom..."

It hits Tony then that Loki could very well be dying because he was trying to protect Allie. Loki, who's made it his life goal to destroy Earth and everything the Avengers stand for, Loki who wanted to enslave humanity and likes throwing them in to buildings, stood up to Doom to protect Allie. Tony's not stupid, he knew Loki cared about Allie just not that much. He looks down at Loki, pale and small on the bed with Bruce and Thor bent over him and wonders what would have happened if he hadn't told Loki to leave that night.

What if.

He's jerked out of his thoughts by Bruce saying, "You should probably wait outside," he looks pointedly at Allie and Tony nods, ignoring Allie's mumbled protests. Thor glances at him briefly as he leaves and...Well, Tony's never been scared of Thor; the guys basically a bigger, stronger, less-with-it Steve but the look he sees in Thor's eyes makes him pity Doom. Well, almost.

When he steps out of the room shakily Steve, Clint and Natasha are standing there expectantly. "So..." Clint says, arms crossed.

Tony's tired, too tired to deal with this right now so he says, "I let Loki babysit Allie sometimes, okay?"

Clint's jaw just about hits the floor, Steve's eyebrows vanish in to his hair and Natasha looks unfazed. "So why is he here, now?" she asks calmly.

Clint gapes at her, "How are you not freaking out?"

She gives him one of her 'ergh, you people' looks and says, "Allie lives with a super soldier, two world class assassins, a guy who turns green when he's mad and a Norse god, adding super villain to the mix isn't that much of a stretch, Clint. Besides, it's only Loki."

"Only Loki?" Clint repeats incredulously.

Natasha rolls her eyes, "Oh, come on, he's just a glorified kid with daddy issues. You can't tell me neither of you noticed anything?" She shakes her head and turns back to Tony. "So why is he here?"

Tony's still trying to work out how Natasha worked it out so Allie answers for him again, "Doom did it. Doom wanted to..." she squeaks and buries her face in Tony's shoulder and Tony's grip tightens on her.

"Doom wants to kidnap Allie. I think he tried to stop him or talk him out of it but he's hurt pretty bad," Tony says watching as Clint and Steve's eyes narrow in anger. Allie's their family too. "We can't tell Fury. I don't want him locked up again."

"Fury will find out eventually, Tony," Natasha says softly. Tony knows.

"Do you think Doom's still going to try and take her?" Clint asks quietly.

Allie doesn't say anything but she presses herself closer to Tony and Tony thinks about hitting Clint. He doesn't, Natasha does. "I don't know."

They sit outside the med lab in silence, it's only when Allie starts uni that Steve speaks up, "Maybe she should go to bed, Tony." He says gently.

Tony looks down at her and she blinks her big blue eyes and mumbles sleepily, "No, daddy I wanna stay up." Tony knows he should put her bed but his eyes wander to closed med room door.

"I'll take her," Steve says and before Tony can protest Steve's taking the sleepy child from his arms and for once Allie doesn't protest. Instead she balls a fist in Steve's top and presses herself close to him.

"Don't let Doom take me, Cap." She says in a tiny voice that breaks Tony's heart.

Steve swallows. "Of course not, Allie." He turns to Tony. "I'll stay with her until you're done here, okay?"

Tony nods and Clint pats him awkwardly on the shoulder and Tony thinks about how fucked up this is. They're acting like a family and it's taken this for Tony to realise it. It's taken this to realise Allie might be in danger.

"What the fuck am I doing?" he mumbles. He's half in love (did he just think that?) with a villain, a non-human villain, he's raising a daughter with a bunch of super hero misfits and he's not entirely sure how he got here.

"It'll be okay," Clint says awkwardly. Tony hadn't realised he was talking out loud and he looks up to see Natasha looking like she'd rather be happier fighting off a world domination attempt (which let's face it, she probably would be.)

They're saved from the awkwardness by Bruce coming out of the med lab. Tony stands up immediately, Bruce looks exhausted. "He'll be okay," he croaks and Tony tries to decide how much joy it's socially acceptable to show.

"Can I see him?" he asks immediately.

"Tony, this is the first time Thor's seen his brother properly for years." Bruce says quietly. Tony wants to protest, to say "But I'm-" then he stops. Because what is he to Loki? "What about Doom?" he mutters.

Bruce looks sympathetic but he says, "Tony, he's just woken up. Doom's not going to attack right this instant." He smiles wryly, "Loki says he'll have a hard time doing much of anything with all his minions and 'bots turned in to kittens. The spell won't last forever though."

Tony rubs his eyes tiredly. "So what now?"

"Now I suggest we all get some sleep," Natasha says. "We can worry about all this when we're actually functioning."

No one disagrees so Tony heads up to Allie's room; he knows Steve won't let anything happen to her but still. When he pushes the door open as quietly as possible he finds Steve snoring loudly in the dinosaur-shaped couch Pepper bought Allie. His daughter is curled around Rex, fast asleep. He presses a kiss to her forehead and settles down in the armchair beside her bed.

Sleep doesn't come easily and Tony thinks about heading down to the lab to try and double the security around the mansion but he doesn't want to leave Allie so instead he over analysis's every conversation he's ever had with Thor's little brother. He comes to the conclusion that he wishes he'd done everything differently.

The next day Fury sends Natasha and Clint to Europe to take out a few Hydra bases that have started popping up and Cap to DC to stop a small villain base from getting any bigger. Tony thinks he probably knows that Loki is currently in their med bay but if he does he doesn't mention it. Bruce is occupying himself trying to learn everything he can from Thor about Jotun/Asgardian physiology and Allie, for once, doesn't protest when Pepper arrives to look after her in case Tony needs to run off after Doom. She should be in school but Tony's not going to risk it.

"Don't let Loki die, okay?" she says to Tony as Pepper readies the movie. Tony promises not to and wonders if Allie actually knows what dying means and if Loki can really die. Pepper, to her credit, doesn't ask too many questions.

"My brother's healing capabilities are tied to his magic," he hears Thor say to Jane who arrived at the mansion earlier that day and made it her mission to remind Thor to eat. "If Doom has somehow compromised his powers-"

Jane cuts him off with a gentle touch, "He'll be okay, Thor. He's in good hands."

Thor doesn't look convinced and sends Tony down to the med bay while Jane makes him lunch. Bruce has fallen asleep slumped over his desk and Loki looks very small without his armour on. His body is a patchwork of bandages and angry black-purple bruises and he's surrounded by wires and beeping machines that Tony would recognise if he wasn't so focussed on trying not to panic.

Loki's green eyes flicker open, dull and unfocused. "Stark?" he rasps.

Tony's not sure what to say so he settles for, "Yeah, hey, Loki."

Loki blinks and looks around. "Where's-Where's my brother?" he asks, sounding very, very young.

Tony takes a deep breath as a wave of sympathy and rage washes over him. How dare Doom reduce Loki to this, his brain hisses. "He's just upstairs getting some food," he says putting a hand on Loki's arm because he's unsure what else to do.

Loki nods and swallows. "Is Allie okay?"

"She's fine," he says, sitting down in the chair Thor must have brought in.

Loki nods again and looks at Tony. "You-You should be with her," he says. "Just in case."

"Thor's up there, he won't let anything bad happen."

"And you-you'll stay here till h-he gets back, right?" Loki sounds very young, Loki sounds very scared. Tony closes his eyes because Gods, Loki sounds like Allie after she's had a nightmare, or last night when she told Steve not to let anyone take her.

"Yeah," Tony manages. "Yeah, I'll stay." And he takes Loki's hand. Loki grips it tightly and smiles again before he turns away and his eyes flutter shut.

In the end Loki tells them that Doom was planning to kidnap Allie to get Tony to destroy the other Avengers. It's laughable but then most all of Doom's plans are. Tony knows he wouldn't stand a chance against any of the other Avengers, except for maybe Bruce if he didn't hulk out. Steve and Thor were way too strong; Natasha and Clint were too fast, too clever. But still. He almost took Allie and Tony's not going to let him get away with that, none of them are.

Loki tells them where his base is and when Fury finds out they know he orders them to capture him, dead or alive. Tony likes to think that Fury hasn't said anything about Loki because he cares about Allie too but he knows it's only because by harbouring Loki he's breaking the council's rules.

Loki's recovered his strength enough that Tony knows it's safe to leave Allie with him and they head off for Doom's hideout. It's a messier fight then they'd anticipated and it ends with Steve breaking an ankle, Clint getting a concussion and Natasha getting shot in the arm but they manage to capture Doom and round up a few of his minions.

When they get back to the mansion Steve, Clint, Natasha and Bruce head to the med bay and Thor escorts Doom down to Fury and the holding cells bellow the mansion. Tony finds Allie and Loki sprawled across the couch in the TV room watching Ice Age. Tony still hasn't gotten used to Loki in normal clothes.

Allie's lying with her head on Loki's chest and Loki's running a hand through her dark hair absentmindedly. Neither of them have noticed him yet so he takes the opportunity to just watch them for a few minutes.

"Loki?" Allie says softly. "Are you a daddy?"

Loki's breath hitches and Tony can see his internal debate. "Yes," he says finally. "Yes, Alaya, I was."

Allie nods and then frowns, "How come you're not with them now?"

Loki's eyes go glassy and Tony's heart breaks a little. "They were taken from me." he says quietly. "I can't see them anymore, I'm not allowed."

"Oh," Allie says, oblivious to Loki's hurt. "Are they dead?"

"Some of them."

Allie scrunches her face up and looks at Loki, "That's sad, I'm sorry." Loki nods, tight lipped and Allie bits her lip, "You could be my daddy if you wanted. I mean I already have a daddy but most kids have two parents, you could be my other daddy."

She's watching him closely and Loki smiles weakly but his eyes are still shiny with tears. "I'd like that."

Allie grins and turns back to film. "I wish I had a mammoth." She says conversationally.

Loki swallows, "It'd be kind of hot here don't you think?" he says shakily and Allie nods, turns, spots Tony and grins.

"Daddy! Come watch with us!"

Tony sits down next to Loki and hesitantly puts his arm around the both of them. To his surprise Loki leans in to the touch. "Didja get the bad guy daddy?" Allie asks.

"Yep, he won't be bothering anyone for a while."

"Cool!" Allie crows and Tony laughs and pretends not to notice when Loki turns his head and buries his face in Tony's neck. He also pretends not to notice the god's shoulders shaking slightly or the dampness of Loki's tears. Instead he pulls the two closer and it feels right. It feels like it's always been that way.

"What happens now?" Loki asks. He's fully healed, Doom's been taken care of and they're standing in the 'mission room' with the other Avengers.

"You could come home with me, brother." Thor says hopefully.

Loki shakes his head, "You know what they'll do to me."

"Our father will not-"

"Your father, Thor. Yours, not mine," Loki snaps bitterly. "And even he won't be able to stop them."

"You know we can't let you go if you're just going to try and kill us all again?" Steve says. "I know you helped us this time but I'm not going to let you leave if you'll hurt more innocent people."

Loki swallows and Tony says, "You could stay here."

"And be an Avenger?" Loki scoffs.

"No," Tony says because fuck it, he's going to go for it and not just because of Loki's stupid perfect face and hands but because if Loki stays Allie will be happier.
"I mean that'd be great and all but you could stay for us. For Allie and your brother and I know you and Bruce like talking about chemistry and physics and you and Natasha would just get on swimmingly and Steve's got this hero complex that saving you would satisfy and hell, Clint could use the target practise and..." he trails off because everyone is staring him. Bruce has this smug knowing grin on his face and Thor and Cap just look torn between confusion and hope and Loki's staring at him expectantly.

He cocks his head to the side like Thor does when he can't work out how to use the microwave, "Yes, and...?"

Fuck it.

Tony strides across the room and yanks Loki in to a rough kiss.

When they pull apart Loki smiles and his green eyes meet Tony's. "Okay, Stark. I'll stay." he says softly. Then he laughs, "But you might want to go lock yourself in your lab or something."

Tony blinks. "What?"

Loki nods at his brother who is wearing the same look of rage he wore when Loki was injured.

"Oh, crap."